I stood in an open field and scanned my surroundings, the place was beautiful, flowers of vibrant colours painted the field with reds, golds, violets, and blues. I set down my duffle bag and opened it, inside was a large easel and several different paint brushes, I had brought as many colours as I had, but even so I would need to do blending to capture such an image. I started to set up my easel as the flowers began to blow in the wind, I watched the beauty of the scene and stopped putting my easel in place, someone of my skill could never do this place justice. I collapsed my easel and put it back into the duffle bag.
I sat down under the shade of a tree at the edge of the field and admired the beauty of the flowers as they swayed in the wind. My name was Kiran, I was an aspiring artist and a somewhat good musician, though nothing that I had done in my life prepared me for what was about to happen, except for this small piece of advice: 'expect the unexpected.'
I swung my duffle bag over my shoulder and turned around to make my way home as the sun was past it's highest point. It would be a long walk home even though my house was in the middle of no-man's-land, except in was someone's land, it was Kiran's land. So I was about to make my way home when as I stood up a glitter caught my eye, it was out further in the field among some interesting looking flowers. Against everything anyone is taught from watching movies or reading books I decided to go and pick it up. I examined it and turned it over in my hands, it appeared to be a hairpin of some type, shaped a little like a sideways eye with three points at one end and only one at the other, thick gold lines ran along it, tracing the shape of the eye, though the two other points were traced above the eye shape. It was a very interesting trinket and as I looked up from it I must have jumped at least a foot in the air, because I landed in a heap on the floor under my duffle bag. I moved the bag off me and sat up, brushing my bangs out of my eyes as I looked around. I was no longer in the beautiful field with all those many flowers, instead I was on a cobblestone floor in an open field of green grass, behind me there was a strange glowing stone and in front of me there was a young woman walking away with her head hanging and something that looked like a hand gun in her hand.
"Excuse my bluntness, ma'am, but where are we?" I asked the woman.
"Oh? Oh! It's you, it worked, I did it, it really worked this time! Ahem, pardon me, O great hero from another world, I beseech thee to aid our-" I looked at her with a confused expression. "Hm, you don't really look like you need the whole thee and thou thing. Well then Hero of Legend, here is the Legendary Relic, Breidablik, and now,... we need to get you a weapon to fight with... do you have any combat experience at all?"
"No, I have never fought in a battle before at all." I told the woman.
"Okay, what do you have in that bag there?" She asked.
"As far as I know, just my easel and paints." I answered, heading over to retrieve my bag and make sure everything that was in it was still there. I opened the bag and, much to my surprise there was a sword lying on top my easel and painting tools. I lifted the sword out of the bag and swung it a few times, it was surprisingly light, for it appeared to be a broadsword. I fastened the scabbard to my belt and sheathed my sword.
"It seems I was mistaken as to the contents of my bag, though when I packed it all I put in was my easel, painting tools and flute." I told the woman. "Might I ask your name, ma'am?"
"Oh, pardon my lack of manners, I am Anna, Commander of the Askran Order of Heroes." Anna told me, obviously proud of her position.
"I am Kiran, The Legendary Hero." I told Anna, taking on what ever role this strange world would have me. It then just occurred to me that my name meant 'Ray of Light', intriguing that I would be a Legendary Hero.
"Alright, Kiran let's go back to the Order's Castle and regroup with Prince Alfonse." Anna said cheerfully before someone yelled:
"There she is, we won't let her get away this time! Men, CHARGE!"
Several men with nasty looking axes charged our way as I drew my sword and Anna brought her axe into a combat position, where it came from, I don't even want to know. One of the men ran at me and I gracefully stepped aside as though it was a practiced dance. He turned back to face me and raised his axe above his head. He brought the axe down and I again stepped aside, the guy was really clumsy and was getting pretty angry, he decided to swing his axe at my side so I stepped back and thrust my sword at his hand, cutting through it easily. The man cried out in pain as he dropped his axe. I thought about leaving him for a fraction of a second before my dance continued and I thwacked him across the head with the hilt of my sword. I spun around and parried another man's axe before it would have split my head in two. I pushed his axe back and kicked him in the shin, he grunted and stumbled back a little at my sword came and cut his hands from his wrists, causing him to drop his axe on someone else's foot. I swiftly knocked the handless man from consciousness before ducking under the axe that was wielded by the man whose foot had been cut into by the handless man's axe. Anna chopped the axe footed man's head clean off his shoulders and ended her swing with her axe in another man's gut. That left us with only the leader left to dispatch, he came toward us slowly because of his heavy armour.
"I applaud your abilities in combat, though you'll never defeat me." He said haughtily. I thought it was interesting that he thought he could win when we obviously had the advantage. He swung his axe toward me and I began my dance of combat once again, stepping out of his range and then thrusting at his hands. Though my attack was unsuccessful it gave Anna an opening to attack. She swung her axe in an arc and smashed his armoured helmet. He stumbled back because of the blow to his head. I thrust my sword in-between the plates of his armour and felt it pierce his flesh. He grunted in pain as I dug my sword deeper into his abdomen. He seemed to muster all the strength he could to swing his axe at me, and I dodged below it, rendering his attempt futile. He thrust his axe at me and I was just too slow and fell over backwards, he pulled his axe above his head and the blade of the axe hit the ground below him.
"What? How is this possible?" He asked no one in specific after swinging his headless axe down at me. He had hit me with it, though it was likely only going to bruise. It would have been the end of me had his axe head stayed on his axe.
"Yoo-hoo, over here!" Anna cooed at the man, I then understood what had happened to his axe, Anna had cut the head of to save me from the blow. The man growled and threw his axe handle away, drawing a sword in its place. He rushed Anna but stopped short as an arrow pierced his broken helmet.
Anna leaned on her axe as I hoisted myself up on my sword. I walked over to where I left my bag and picked it up and threw it over my shoulder. I looked back at Anna, who was now wiping some sweat from her brow and asked her:
"Where did that arrow come from, do you know?"
"Wait, they'll be here any second now." She told me, holding the A in any for a while.
"Guess who! OH MY GOODNESS ANNA YOU DID IT. YOU SUMMONED THE LEGENDARY HERO!" A younger woman with longish brown hair who was holding a bow said as she approached us.
"Yep, I sure did, Reytia this is Kiran, Kiran this is Reytia, she's an archer in the Order of Heroes." Anna said, starting proud but ending in a neutral tone as she introduced us.
"Hi, Kiran, I'm Reytia, I'm Princess Sharena's best friend, I'm sure she'd like to meet you, c'mon let's go!" Reytia said excitedly as she grabbed my hand and started to drag me off. I looked back at Anna, only to see her laughing at my predicament. I decided to let this girl dictate my fate for the moment as she dragged me away, I thought about what had just happened in the last few minutes. I'd help kill someone, knocked two other men out after removing one's hands. I was never going to be the same man again.
A/N: Welcome, I hope you enjoyed this first chapter, now some information about this re-imagination of Askr. First off, there is no Summoning, for now. Unless for some reason Kiran needs to summon someone to continue the story, there will be no summoning. Second the Order of Heroes is still called the Order of Heroes because it still liberates Heroes from Embla, the opening and closing of Gates is still functional. Third, the Order of Heroes is populated with Askran citizens and knights who want to fight for the freedom of Heroes, so I will be adding new Original Characters along the way. Finally, if this information makes you wish to discontinue reading, I do not take offence. Thank you for reading, leave a review if you have the time, and no, unfortunately, I do not claim ownership of Fire Emblem or any of it's characters.