Twin Tacticians

"RUN! You must flee from here, before your father finds you! Take your sister and run!" Faen heard his mother scream at him as she braced herself against the door, barring his father from entering the room, subsequently buying Faen and his twin sister, Neomi time to flee.

"But we were supposed to make this escape together! It's not a vert tactical retreat if one of the escapees fail to make it-" Faen started.

"Please Faen, run. Take your sister and get as far away from your father as you can-!"

Before she could say anymore, a resounding boom could be heard as the door Faen's mother was bracing against exploded, launching the woman onto the floor.

"You shall pay for your transgressions against Grima, you wench!" Faen heard his father say before everything became darkness.

"Chrom, we have to do SOMETHING…"

'Who's voice is that?' Faen thought to himself as consciousness returned to him and he creaked his eyes open, seeing the faint images of a man and woman roughly around his age standing above him.

"What do you propose we do?" He heard the man say to the woman.

"I…I dunno…" The woman hesitated, looking worriedly at Faen and then back to the man.

'Now might be the best time to let them know I don't mean them harm….' Faen thought to himself as he fully opened his eyes, speaking to the pair standing above him.

"If it's all the same to you two I'd rather not be run through…" Faen started as the two gasped at his sudden chime into their conversation.

"I see you're awake now," the man said as he smiled in both amusement of Faen's remark and some sort of relief, but Faen couldn't really tell.

"Hey there…" the woman said, offering forth a charming, warm smile, she was obviously relieved that Faen was alright.

"There are better places to sleep than on the ground you know! Here, give me your hand," The man said as he offered Faen his hand.

Faen grinned a bit and said, "Really? Don't know many places better, myself!" as he grabbed the man's outstretched hand, pulling himself up to a standing position, albeit rather close to the man who helped him up. Faen noticed that their foreheads were nearly touching, so he took a few startled steps back, trying to play it off coolly. As he did so, he caught the glimmer of armor of the man standing to the Blue-haired Male's right. The man seemed to be staring intently at something on the ground. Following his gaze, he saw the sleeping figure of his Twin Sister, Neomi. He sighed in relief as he saw the steady rising and falling of her stomach, meaning that she was indeed still breathing. From where he was standing, he saw no tears in her robe, whose likeness was the same of the robe Faen was wearing, purple with gold trimming and buttons.

Faen's attention was brought back to the man who had helped him as he spoke out.

"You all right?" The man said, concern once again plain on his face.

Faen smiled, "Yes… Thank you for your concern, Chrom!"

Chrom's expression grew a bit more serious, "Ah, then you know who I am?" Not at all sounding surprised.

"No, actually, I… It's strange… Your name, it just came out without me really knowing…" Faen tried to explain, rubbing his head as he stole another look towards his sister. Past knowing that she and he were indeed twins, Faen hadn't any real recollection of how they had gotten to this field.

"…Hmm, How curious." Chrom said as he furrowed his brow. "Tell me, what's your name? What brings you here? And what do you know of this woman beside you?"

Faen thought for a bit before speaking. "My name it's…. ah…it's… hmm?" Faen said, mumbling something unintelligible to himself afterwards. Had he truly forgotten his name, as well? How could he have forgotten his own name, yet remembered his sister's?

Chrom's face showed signs of disbelief of the current situation as he said "…You don't know your own name?

Faen's head starting ringing with pain, causing him to wince as he said, "I'm not sure if…. I'm sorry, but where are we, exactly?"

The woman was visibly taken aback before she spoke up. "Hey, I've heard of this! It's called amnesia!"

The man in the bulky blue armor spoke in a tone of wariness and unwillingness to trust the two strangers. "It's called a load of Pegasus dung." He said, not looking away from his sister who was still sound asleep on the ground. "We're to believe you remember milord's name, but not your own? You also haven't answered milord's question on who this woman is…as of yet…"

Faen, went to his sister's side, as if to shield her from the man in armor's gaze. He knelt down and shook her shoulder slightly, as he called to her. "Neomi, you need to wake up!" Neomi grumbled as she responded with a bunch of mumbles as she stirred from her sleep. As she was doing so, Faen turned back to the knight and said, "Her name is Neomi, and she's my twin sister, as of the moment, that's all I can tell you!" Faen eyes were almost pleading with the man, whose stern visage did not waiver.

"I'm also to believe that you knew your sister's name as well, but not your own, you grow more suspicious by the second…" the knight spoke forebodingly.

"Faen, who is that? And where are we?" Faen heard the voice of his sister as she was roused from slumber, not entirely aware of their situation.

"I'm… I'm not all too sure myself, but is my name really Faen? Wait… yes, yes it is! It's come back to me now!" Faen said as he helped his sister to her feet. She had pieces of grass stuck in her light green hair, which flowed past her shoulders. He got them out as he quietly apprised her of the situation, she merely nodded to what he said, her eyes already trying to make sense of her surroundings. As he finished clearing her hair of any debris left, he turned to the trio who were looking at them expectedly.

"So, there you have it, My name is Faen, and my twin sister here is named Neomi, neither of us are too sure of what we're doing here or why we ended up in this field, but you must believe us, we're telling the truth!" Faen explained, Neomi nodding in agreement with what he was saying.

Chrom looked at the twins, troubled by something. He then looked to the man in armor, "What if it IS true, Frederick? We can't just leave the two of them here, alone and confused. What sort of Shepherds would we be then?"

The man named Frederick remained as stoic as ever as he replied, "Just the same milord, I must emphasize caution…" warily looking between the two. " 'Twould not do to let a pair of wolves into our flock…"

Chrom nodded slightly, "Right then- we'll take them back to town and sort this out there."

Faen furrowed his brow as he exchanged a look of concerned with Neomi. He then directed his comment at Chrom when he said, "Wait just one moment. Do neither I nor Neomi have a say in this?!"

Chrom put his hands out in front of him in a soothing gesture as he said, "Peace friend- I promise we'll hear all you have to say back in town, Now come." He said offering his hand in escort to Neomi and him.

After trekking a bit of ways down the road, Neomi finally spoke up, bringing the trek to halt. "What are you going to do with us? Are we to be taken prisoner?

To this, Chrom let out a bit of a chuckle before saying "Hah! You'll be free to go once we establish you're no enemy of Ylisse."

Neomi pressed further, "Is that where we are? Ylisse?" Faen nodded as she asked, also wondering if that is where they are.

Frederick spoke up at this, "The two of you have never heard of the halidom? Ha. Someone pay these actors, they make very convincing fools!" He said in a tone that suggested that he derived no humor from it. "The furrowed brows are especially convincing…" he added sardonically.

Chrom sighed slightly as he said "Frederick, please. This land is known as the Halidom of Ylisse. Our ruler, Emmeryn, is called the exalt. I suppose proper introductions are in order…" He started as he gestured to himself. "My name is Chrom- but then, already knew that. The delicate one here is my little sister, Lissa…" He began, but the woman is the yellow dress chimed in here.

"I am NOT delicate! …Hmph!" Ignore my brother, please. He can be a bit thick, sometimes. But boy, are you two lucky the Shepherds found you. Brigands would have been a rude awakening!

"Faen's brow furrowed further as he heard the tern she mentioned. "Shepherds? You tend… sheep?"

"In full armor?" Neomi finished up the thought for him.

Chrom snickered a little bit as he said, "Heh, it's a dangerous job. Just ask Frederick the Wary here."

Frederick bowed slightly as Chrom introduced him, "A title I shall wear with pride. Gods forbid ONE of us keeps and appropriate level of caution when we stumble upon two unknown people." He says brashly. After thinking a moment, he turned to the siblins and added "I have every wish to trust you, strangers, but my station mandates otherwise."

Slightly taken aback by the thoughtful remark from someone he thought was a major stick in the mud, Faen stammered out "I-I understand, sir. I would do no less myself, were I in your boots. Since we are doing proper introductions, allow me to introduce myself properly…" Faen said as the two of them stood at attention. "My name is Faen…" He said as he bowed.

"And I am his Twin Sister, Neomi," Neomi said as she curtsied to the trio alongside Faen.

Chrom spoke up as they finished, "Faen? Neomi? Is that foreign? ..Ah, well. We can discuss it later. We're almost to town. Once we-"

"Chrom, look! The town!" Lissa interrupted as she adopted a look of horror and pointed down the road towards the town. There was plumed of black smoke rising high from the town, like several black streams flowing towards the heavens.

Chrom cursed under his breath, "Damn it! The town in ablaze! Those blasted brigands, no doubt... Frederick, Lissa! Quickly!" Chrom said, urging them to start moving towards the town.

"What about them?" Frederick asked, gesturing to the two siblings.

"Unless they're on fire as well, it can wait!" Chrom said as she started running towards the town.

"Frederick saddled up on his horse as he said "Aptly put, milord."

Lissa started to chase after Chrom, "Let's go already!"

"But what about-"Faen started, but they were already out of earshot. "Hmm…" He said, thinking on the proper action to take in this situation.

Neomi tugged on the sleeve of Faen's robe as she spoke, "We have what appears to be a tome of magic and a sword made of bronze between the two of us, if I remember. What shall we do, Faen? Shall we give chase and aid them, or no?" As she spoke, she proffered forth the tome and Faen remembered the sword at his side.

"Try as I might to think of any better actions, I see none better than to follow them and provide what aid we can! As far as I can remember, setting towns ablaze is something no rightful person would do!"

With weapons ready, Faen and Neomi give chase to the three who had gone on ahead.