Well, this is my new fanfiction! As said in the description, a few Renais warriors are transported into our modern world, and are forced to live in the rural midwest until they can find their way home. May turn into M-rated for later chapters, but for now T! All characters are from FE: Sacred Stones
The majority of this chapter was written a year ago, so bear with me!
…oooooooooooooooooooo….
Like a manipulated game of chess, all of the pieces were falling into place. The druid's plan was playing out perfectly-there were seven warriors of various calibers surrounding him, starting to close in for an attack. It was their move.
To an unassuming viewer, the odds were against him. He was supposedly weakening, and weakening quickly at that, and there was an archer aiming straight for his heart. The determination paved into her eyes was almost enough to make him panic, but not quite. For he, unlike her, had quite the trick up his sleeve. A magic trick, to be precise.
The arrow shot faster than you could hold your breath-a sure bullseye. Or at least that's what it looked like. A few of the other six had already started turning their heads, looking for the next enemy. Not that they could have been prepared for the fate-altering event that proceeded...
...A nearly blinding purple shine burst from the druid's robes. The archer, along with most of her comrades, all began covering their eyes. An excruciating, fluxuating pitch came screeching from the druid's direction-making the witnesses feel torn about whether they should cover their ears, or their eyes. Renais warriors began dropping to their knees, their senses being overloaded with agonizing pain. A verse of laughter ripped from the druid's lungs, ending the spell with chilling punctuation.
…oooooooooooooooooooo….
Franz awoke to the light tickling of a blowing blade of wheat against his face. His soft eyelashes feathered open, and seemed to signal the upper half of his body to sit up. He mentally winced at his most recent memory-a painfully blinding light warping his vision. Just the thought of it triggered a shiver down his spine, and a delicate tear slid down his cheek.
His eyes very suddenly starting darting around his surroundings. There were six others laying in the field nearby. But it wasn't the same battlefield...in fact, there was a-
VROOOOOM
Franz yelped out of surprise, making a sort of crackling sound that seemed to imply his voice hadn't been used in a while. He stared in frightened awe at the machine that just flew past them. He had never seen anything like it before. The shiny piece of metal disappeared into the distance.
Very cautiously standing up, he positioned himself in a crouching pose. Like a fox he briskly navigated through the field, wheat crunching around his articulate steps as he made his way to where he had seen the machine.
He pressed his hands to the worn down dirt on the side of the road. The ground feels normal...His eyes drifted to the intimidating gray land in front of him. It looks like a normal road, only black...His feet experimentally teased the new substance, trying to be as safe as possible. Hmm, if feels like a wall. Like someone put a gray wall on the ground...
His sensitive ears picked up a smooth rumbling sound, and his head twitched up from inspecting the new material beneath him. Two bright lights were coming towards him, traveling on the suspiciously gray road. He immediately darted back into the field, dropping his body into the security of the wheat. He swallowed and closed his eyes, trying to fight back the trembling. He heard the VROOSH zoom past. After a few seconds of laying there without breathing, Franz sprang up. He jogged a bit in the direction of the road, so he could have an easier view of watching the machine disappear down the dark path, just like the one before it had...
The blonde knight ran back to the others who were still sleeping in the autumnal field. His eyes scanned the bodies that were laying there, trying to identify the people while remaining calm. Catching the glint of familiar red hair in the sunlight, he shook Seth's frame.
"General Seth, wake up! Please, I-" Franz swallowed his own sentence with a gasp of relief when he saw the older paladin's eyes lift open.
"..Franz, is that you? Where are-" Seth's voice grogily began asking, only to be interrupted by Franz's much more awake one.
"I have no idea where we are! I woke up and there was this loud sound and I looked and there was this machine and it looked like it was made of entirely out of metal-"
"Franz, calm down!" Seth spoke in a calm voice, trying to make his levelheaded vibe contagious . "Franz, just slow down. What happened?"
But the emotional stress of being in such an unfamiliar setting got the best of Franz, and the smaller knight started crying. Seth pushed him into an embrace, letting the younger man cry into his chest. While looking over Franz's shoulder, he too became aware of the strange setting.
His voice was hushed, trying to make the question as non-threatening as possible. "Franz, why is everyone asleep?"
Franz's tears slowed down, accompanied by a loud sniffle. "I-I don't know, they've been like that the whole time." There was a small gap in the conversation as both knights seemed to be thinking to themselves, the only noise being the soft swaying of wheat against the October wind...
Seth reassuringly patted Franz's shoulder, and gently stood up. His defined features stood firmly against the wind, silent eyes glancing over the field. He too experienced a blink of confusion when his gaze met the road. He didn't approach it, but rather stood his ground and continued to analyze their surroundings. He noticed a barn a bit down the field to their right. At least I know what that is, he thought to himself.
Glancing back down at Franz, he was relieved to see that the knight had stopped crying. "Look Franz," he said in a comforting, even tone, "there's a barn over there. Maybe they can help us, hm?"
Franz's eyes followed the direction of Seth's words, and stared at the shabby old building. He stood up, now both men concentrating on the area.
"Wake up the others, I'll start investigating." The bigger male ordered, and began making his way through the field.
Approaching the barn with caution, Seth slowly placed his ear to one of the walls. Hmm, I don't hear anybody...He noticed a broken window out of reach, resting above him. Most of the walls were overgrown with weeds and ivy, making the building look as if it were just an extension of the earth. There were a few old crates sitting next to the worn down wall, flakes of chipped red paint worn off on the sides. Seth kicked one of the bigger ones, testing out the stability of the fragile looking wood. The crate shook, and wood cracked from the invading boot. "Not a promising sign..." Seth muttered, starting to look for another way to lift himself towards the window.
He decided to continue circling the barn, until he made it to the back. There he found a cracked open door, squeaking in the wind. It was white with some tan stains, and the screen was ripped. Some spider webs had nested in the corners of the doorway, creating a decaying atmosphere.
Though Seth had seen worse. His strong hand started leaning on the door, creating a creaking noise as it pushed open. He could hear some shuffling and scurrying, probably the sound of a rodent living-
"AHHHHHHH!"
A high-pitched, loud squeal made Seth jump. He whipped his head out of the doorway, and looked over back towards the others. A sigh of relief left his tense body when he saw who screamed-Neimi. Of course. She must have seen one of those strange machines...Honestly, he wasn't surprised at her dramatic reaction-not only was it Neimi, the most fragile girl he knew, but even hewas afraid of this new land. Or at least startled by it.
He struggled to watch the others from his angle behind the barn. One by one Franz was trying to wake them up and calm them down, all in one motion. Seth breathed another sigh, and redirected his attention back to the eerie door. He put his right leg in first. Dust puffed up and swirled around his firm foot, almost as if the old shelter was wheezing. His ears picked up the faint sound of scurrying again; rodents fleeing from his intruding limbs, accompanied with the sharp sunlight seeping through the door. Seth pressed on though-it took much more than a few barn rats to intimidate the experienced paladin.
He took a few steps into the building, and stopped close to the middle of the floor to adjust to his new settings. The room was lit only by the filtering rays of sun, light shifting in and out of different holes through the weathered roof. The floor was simply dirt with some rocks and various small pieces of nature scattered across it. His eyes wandered over to one of the darker corners where the sun did not hit-nothing unexpected, just some piles of hay next to what could be made out as old saddles-
Wait a minute...Seth's eyebrows narrowed in concentration. There was notably a deep crease between his eyes when he squinted, most definitely formed by years of serious contemplation. Where there are saddles, there are...
With new determination he briskly made his way over to the saddles. A light layer of dust coated each one, implying how long it had been since they had gotten some use. Seth frowned, and slowly looked at the rest of the corner. He couldn't really see any other items that would suggest the presence of people, let alone horses. He looked back over to where he had be previously standing, getting a wider view of the barn.
His eyes continued their mandatory scan of the eerily quiet building, and drew to a stop when he located a wooden staircase. It was large, and not all that hard to miss-standing in front of it, one could see that the second floor had no walls, other than the outer ones. The paladin very naturally began walking up the stairs(he was not known for his superstition), but stopped about halfway up. A piercing, squeamish noise seemed to screech out of each of the step's planks, getting increasingly louder the more stairs he climbed. Not only did the stairs appear to be old and he being a heavy, grown man made him nervous, but all of the armor probably wasn't helping out the weight distribution. He took a deep breath and began slowly continuing his journey up the staircase, treating each step with an equal amount of care.
He exhaled a relieved sigh once he reached the top. One could even debate that he had a small smile tugging at his hard features, characteristically finding triumph in even the smallest of occasions.
The room was even lighter than the one below it, natural light filling through the window. There were dried leaves scattered quietly across the floor, and he could hear faded wind hallowing softly against the old structure. The only notable decorations were the spider webs very territorially strung across each wall, but even those looked abandoned. He started walking over towards the lonely window, but stopped when he heard a chorus of familiar voices stumble into the barn, echoing off of the hollow walls. It didn't seem right to Seth to hear such uncontrolled, raw panic interrupt the established silence of the building.
"I know, Neimi, but I just don't see why we should talk to him!" A harsh voice hissed.
Colm was the first to enter, or at least the most obvious. Neimi was of course right behind him.
Franz followed after, quietly looking up at the barn's ceiling. Once he snapped out of his curiosity, his hand automatically reached for his sword, resting on the top. A good knight should always be on guard, especially in such an unfamiliar place.
Standing behind him, a nervous cleric frowned when she saw that he was ready to draw his sword. She was about to say something, but her attention was brought elsewhere by the call of her name.
"Natasha...would you mind?" Knoll's voice was weak and soft. He was holding a part of his abdomen, crouched over and leaning against the barn entrance.
"O-oh, of course Knoll..."
A moment later, all of a sudden several birds flew from the roof away from the building, their wings creating a fluttering echo throughout the room. Everyone looked up, wondering silently to themselves.
"Is everyone alright?" General Seth was at the top step, looking down at all of them.
No one answered, so Colm took the liberty of breaking the silence.
"Where in the world are we?"
Seth let out a deep breath. He wasn't used to having absolutely no answers for his group. He was relieved to see that Natasha and Knoll were doing something, so he could avoid Colm's question entirely.
"Natasha, is Knoll alright?" he asked.
"Mm...yes, General Seth. He's healing up fine."
"Good." Seth paused a moment. "Now, I-"
"Although, something strange is happening.." Natasha interrupted. "My magic...it's working, but very slowly..."
Seth frowned. Once again, he had no explanation for them.
"Look, everyone. I'm going to be very honest with you all. I don't know why we're here, and-"
"Well, I know why we're here!" Colm shouted impatiently up at him. "It was that damn druid!"
Everyone was quiet.
"Well, that isthe last thing I remember.." Franz murmured.
Seth sighed. "Alright everyone, for now we'll stay in this barn. It seems quite...abandoned."
"What? Why stay here?" Colm glared.
"Where else would we stay?" Seth's patience was waning. "This will be good for the night."
Seth started turning back towards the upstairs floor, but stopped. With his back to them, he said;
"And everyone...be on your guard."