Hello! I've been drawing such a blank with my other projects, I decided to do some one-shots as an exercise! I hope you guys like it even though it's short. Please, keep reading and reviewing. I like feedback.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem
Sum: One day you're shoveling cow poop, the next, you're burying dead bodies.
To Be a Knight
When he was young, his mother used to tell him glamorous stories about knights in shining armor rescuing beautiful damsel princesses, and living happily ever after, praised forever as a hero. Now Donnel knows the truth. Lies, all of them. He wears armor, but instead of it being spotless and glimmering under the bright sun, it is scratched up, covered in dirt, and drenched with his sweat and sometimes blood. Everyone else in the Shepherds wears armor too, and theirs usually look very similar to his. There aren't even many princesses to rescue either. Lissa is beautiful, of course, but can swing an axe around as well as Frederick. She doesn't need any protection. The Exalt was someone to protect, but now she's dead and therefore can't be guarded.
The lie that stung the most was the part about glory. War wasn't glorious, and didn't bring much of it either. The way his mother described them was that roses were thrown at their feet by the grateful people they saved, and handed treasure chests filled to the brim with gold as a reward. He was handed a shovel to bury the volunteers and villagers that were killed during the last battle.
"How are you holding up?"
Donnel looked at Stahl. He is smiling, as usual, but his eyes look dark and empty. "I'm doin' fine, I s'pose," he grunted, slamming his shovel into the earth again. "I'm used to this kinda work."
"Since you lived on a farm?"
"Yup." He puffed out his chest a little. He was proud of his upbringing. His mother and father taught him well; he knew the meaning of hard work. "I used to shovel cow manure, y'know. This is noth'in." The cavalier laughed. "Wish I was the same way. I find this work tiring." They shared a humorless smile and Stahl walked away to finish his own hole.
Shoveling cow manure was Donnel's least favorite chore back on the farm. The smell was nauseating and stuck on his clothes hours after. He remembered how he would jump into the pond to get it off in the summer. It was a harder in the winter, when the pond would freeze solid. In those times, he would just have to endure it until his next bath. He felt silly now about being so repulsed by it. If only he knew how much worse it was to dig around rotting flesh and fresh, sticky blood. He wondered how his mother was. Since he was gone, she would have to shovel the manure all by herself. He wished he was there with her to help her with the farm work.
The last corpse he pushed into the hole was a boy around his age. He was a simple farm boy too, judging from his clothes. He had tangled dark blonde hair, matted with ash from the fire spell he was hit by. His big blue eyes were wide with shock and were still moist on the corners from his tears. His mouth was wide open in a permanent scream. Some of his teeth were lying in pools of blood around his torso. Donnel felt fluid travel up from his stomach back to his throat. He thrusted his shovel at the boy's side, forcing him to pummel into the hole. He looked away, trying not to think about if he had a mother, or father, or sisters or brothers.
"Shepherds!" Chrom bellowed from a distance. "Time to move out!" Donnel carried his shovel and his lance to the line forming behind the prince. He stood next to Sully, another cavalier, who was apparently part of a long family line of military servicemen. "Gods, kid," she cursed when she saw him. "You look like you've been to hell and back." He didn't say anything back. When they started marching, he whispered to no one in particular, "Is this really how a knight lives?"