"Burning Shrubs and Riverside Conversations"

Written for yet another LJ fic challenge (how many of these do I have? LOL), 16candlesfic.


It was another ordinary day for Eliwood's army, and Serra was brushing her hair and admiring her reflection in the stream.

"Ah, those poor men will hardly be able to keep their eyes off me today," she snickered to herself as she tied her hair into its usual bouncy pigtails. She loved to imagine being surrounded by admirers, blushing like a schoolgirl as she tried to pick the person she loved the most. They'd shower her with gifts, make her head spin with compliments, fight each other over who loved her the most...

A sudden snap broke Serra's train of thought just then, and she turned around to see a nearby shrub on fire.

"Aiiee!" she yelped. "Bandits! I must warn the others, they'll be so grateful and Lord Hector will-"

"Serra?!"

Recognizing the voice, Serra turned to her right. Priscilla stood next to the burning shrub, Fire tome in her hand and a sheepish look on her face.

"Of all people! I never expected someone like you to be a pyromaniac!" Serra gasped, half-kidding. Priscilla laughed nervously.

"I'm not. I was practicing casting anima spells and..." She shuffled her feet. "I went a little overboard."

"A little?! You're lucky it was only a shrub!" Serra grabbed a nearby bucket, dipped it into the stream, and flung the contents at the blaze. "There. Next time, maybe you should practice casting fire spells while it's raining," she grumbled.

"I'm really sorry," Priscilla said. "Did I frighten you?"

"If by frighten you mean scared half to death, then yes," Serra said. "I thought you were a bandit! I was about to tell the others we were under attack!"

"Then it's a good thing I spoke up when I did." Priscilla smiled wryly. "Once again, I'm very sorry I scared you."

You should be, Serra wanted to retort, but Priscilla's smile made her forget about being annoyed. "It's okay. I'm sorry I almost got the entire army over there to fight without realizing it was you," she said, half-kidding. Priscilla paled.

"Would you really have done that?" she asked nervously. Serra didn't know whether to laugh at the troubadour's inability to detect humor, or feel bad for sounding so serious.

"Oh, of course not!" she said. "Well, no more than Lord Eliwood...since he would've told me whether or not there was a need to fight, of course!" she added quickly. Priscilla smiled, relieved.

"Good." Her gaze drifted to the Lightning tome at Serra's side. "I see you're just learning to use magic, too?"

"Yeah, Lucius has been helping me out for a while," Serra said.

"Erk's been helping me, but I'm thinking of giving him the day off so he can relax. He does tend to overwork himself," Priscilla said. Serra almost went off on a rant about her own experiences with Erk's obsessive study habits, but thought better of it. Weird, I've never had any qualms about that before...

"Hey, maybe we can practice together tonight," Priscilla suggested. Serra blinked.

"Eh?"

"Well, I overheard Raven and Lucius planning to spend some time together tonight," Priscilla said, trying to fight back a pang of jealousy at the thought. "And since I'm giving Erk the night off, I thought we could work together and show each other what we learned."

To her horror, Serra found herself blushing at the offer. She'd always treated Priscilla as a rival for Erk's attentions and the army's "main" healer, but this was the first time they'd ever actually talked despite having shared a tent for several months. And Priscilla was hardly the tempestuous redheaded Jezebel Serra's mind often made her out to be.

I've had it wrong all this time, she thought, both relieved that Priscilla wasn't truly a threat, and horrified that...well, she'd been wrong.

"Sure, why not?" she finally said.

"Great! Meet me at our tent after dinner tonight," Priscilla said. "Thank you, Serra. You know, I'm glad we talked. I've been sharing a tent with you for so long and I feel like we hardly know each other. Maybe tonight we can work on that, as well."

"Yeah...that'd be great!" Serra laughed nervously. "See you then!"

Priscilla went back to camp, and Serra ran back to the river to splash her face with cold water. What had just come over her?! "The last thing I need is another crush, and on a girl no less," she muttered.

As soon as the words left her mouth, her stomach tied in a knot.

"Wait a minute! I'm not...I've never even entertained the thought of...!"

She buried her head in her hands.

Great. Just what I needed.

This was going to be a long day.