I would like to say that I entered this world in a dramatically heroic way, waving a sword around and maybe bashing a couple of baddies around. Sorry to say that I didn't. It was rather lame and lackluster considering the fact that I'm here in account of a glitch.

Yeah, a glitch is the reason I'm stuck here in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. Correction, sandy bumfuck nowhere.

"Argh! How much sand does this stupid desert have?" My boot was upturned and a waterfall of the sandy menace poured out. "Why couldn't I have been set in a cozy little town?"

Honestly, I was a bit annoyed. I've been traveling this desert for Naga knows how long and I haven't seemed to make any leeway at all. More pressing matters on top of that, I know nothing about survival in the desert except that it's very hot in the day and very cold at night. And maybe something in there that says to stay put during the day and travel at night, or maybe it was the other way around?

"Either way," I scowled under the brim of my hat as it barely kept the sun from scorching my skin to oblivion. "I'm screwed unless I find civilization. Wait, hold on."

I stopped in my tracks while I graciously ignored the sand creeping in my boots again as I spotted a shimmering in the distance. Sparkling and wavering in the midday heat, I swore I heard sounds, maybe even voices?

Hope bloomed in my chest and my feet went shuffling once again as I neared. At a closer glance, it seemed like the sparkling was almost pixelated and with nary a rational thought in my head, I punched my hand through it. The illusion seemed to shatter almost instantly and a village stood in my midst with my person being right outside my holy grail.

"Bless you," my hands clasped together as I sent a brief prayer up at the blindingly bright sky because, hey, you may never know who may be listening. Especially considering my predicament.

Needless to say, I rushed my weary bones into the village where said villagers were quite shocked to see my being. Surprisingly enough, they were quite welcoming for a group of people that rarely saw travelers. I guess the mirages around this place made it so that any form of contact from the "outside world" more than welcomed; weird, but I wasn't going to deny their hospitality when I'm one heatstroke away from death.

"Here you are, a spare room for the weary traveler!" The village elder chuckled heartily. His wooden cane tapped against the crude mud floor as he gestured to the rather bare bones room. "It's not glamorous but it's enough to keep us simple common folk cool in the day and warm at night."

"Thank ya, this'll be loads better than trudging through those cursed sand dunes any day." A relieved sigh escaped me when my butt came into contact with the straw bed. It wasn't no pillowtop, but it was like heaven in these circumstances. Regardless of the bliss, I didn't miss the look the elder gave me.

"I'd say, what is an unexperienced traveler such as yourself doing in these deserts with no guide?"

"Aw, you can tell? I thought I came off rather skillful myself." A simple raise of his eyebrows told me he didn't buy it, so I dropped the cheeky grin while I shrugged off my dirt encrusted coat. "Trust me when I say this, it wasn't my choice to be dropped off here. If I had my choice, I'd be somewhere that didn't put me at risk of drying up like a raisin."

"Sounds like a journey gone awry." He took my words as they were and in response shuffled closer to the door before sending me one last look. "If you need anything, then let Jarika know. Provided you earn your keep, you're welcomed to stay as long as you'd like, Ma- er… Sir?"

Pausing in stowing my boots under the bed, I gave the slowly reddening older man a wry smile.

"Sir is fine. Thank you, Elder Ibram."

"Yes, a good day to you, then." He gave an embarrassed cough before quickly shuffling as fast as his aging bones could away from the room, leaving me to sigh in silence and fatigue.

"Who knew this would be such a drag." I muttered to myself as I rubbed my face, not caring in the slightest at the grit that met my flesh. "I knew this appearance would cause confusion."

To be honest, none of this was to be expected, nor was it asked for. One day I was living a normal, modern life and the next I was here in what I gathered to be the world of Fire Emblem Awakening with nothing more than some fancy digs and a piece of paper to my name.

And let me tell you, that wasn't much to work on when all you know is that you're somewhere in Plegia with no survival knowledge and no idea what period of time you were dropped in. Pillowing my head with my arms, I thought back to the beginning of all of this, where all my troubles began.

The world was shimmering, floating around me in soft neons as a solitary screen of light floated in front of me. The words 'character creation' stood there fizzling in and out of view, glitching every few seconds, and any attempts to interact with it yielded no results. Pacing around, being sure not to stray to far from the screen, I tried to see if there were any others options around. Nada, ziltch, absolutely nothing.

"My god, this is my hell, isn't it? A glitched out game that you can't play. It's absolutely the worst!" My voice echoed back to me and my smile melted off my face. "Okay, jokes are not as funny when there's no one around. So, what? Do I just stand here twiddling my thumbs for all of eternity? Geezus!"

I jumped in fright as a fizzling radio crackled in my ears and suddenly the floating screen was replaced with another message.

User time limit expired. Character set to default. Points and appearances will be averaged out to provide the player with optimal results.

All further options will be locked due to inactivity: location of revival, inventory, healing potions, status

Continue?

"Well now, given my options, I suppose that is what I'm going to do. Yes." I sarcastically grouched at the screen. Even if it can't respond, I can at least pretend to be sane in this pit of darkness and bending reality. I mean, how is any sane person going to cope with suddenly being taken from your world and put into a malfunctioning game?

Once the option was confirmed, it became apparent that I would be different in this world. A figure manifested in front of me with a face shaped by androgyny that made it hard to distinguish their gender, only their slender frame clued me to leaning more towards the male prounoun. He, or rather I, stood at a decent height with dark brown hair and eyes and as opposed to my freckled and spotted self, my new body seemed to lack any spots. It was only a new prompt popping up in my field of vision that made me finally tear my eyes away from the body.

Gifted:

The player is given the ability to choose one gift to aid them throughout their journey. (God-like abilities and time-space bending barred from choices)

Lifting a brow at the condition, I shrugged as I flicked through the options. If I was gonna be as average as I can be, then I might as well get something cool out of it. My glazed eyes suddenly sharpened and the wheel quickly stopped spinning as I back up a few options, pressing the option I wanted as it opened a new set of brackets.

"Ah man, really?" I grinned as a new set of duds adorned my character, a cowboy hat sat on top of his head with matching boots on his feet, and finally a cloak on his shoulders hovering around his ultra large belt buckle. More importantly, a set of wicked looking pistols glinted in their holsters.

"I can be a cowboy in Fire Emblem? Ha!" I couldn't help but let out a giddy laugh. This must have been a joke right? "Let's see. Class: Outlaw. Uses magic wielding pistols that fires out elemental bullets through the use of runes engraved throughout the metal. Has the capability to reach master class after level 10. Disadvantages…. Hm."

I paused at the garbled words, frowning as they seemed to be effected by the same glitch that timed me out earlier in the process. My mind was made up as I quickly accepted the option. Better to not dally or else I might lose this freebee to the dreaded glitch.

The Outlaw class has been selected. Once a gift has been chosen, it cannot be changed.

Do you accept?

Yes/No

Punching the 'yes' option, the world around me seemed to lighten up and scrolls of glitching graphics moved past me before eventually fading into the brightening background. There was a brief feeling of anxiety that pressed me as a feeling of falling seemed to take ahold of me. Through my panic were the ever-clear words of the game screen with a female voice reading the words to my failing ears.

Welcome to the world of Fire Emblem Awakening

May the odds favor your prosperity.

And then the world went black.

Sourly, I scowled at the memory. I honestly didn't think this through, who knew what else those glitches screwed up. When I woke up with a mouth full of sand in the Plegian desert, I tried to consult the piece of paper that was on my person but all it listed was my class and my less than stellar stats that I honestly couldn't make head or tails of. I was never good at stat building so it was quickly discarded before I found it back in my pocket two hours later.

"Honestly, I want a redo." My words came out muffled through the pillow, but I didn't have enough energy to roll myself over at this point so I dealt with the suffocation as best as I could. "I was totally shafted. Duped. Tricked, I say. I mean, come one. Not only was my chosen location a random dried out well in the desert, but I was also given not a single helpful thing in my inventory so that I wouldn't die out here. I mean, I was set up for failure!"

Anger burst through my veins and I soon found myself sitting up, huffing and puffing at my seemingly murderous fate. Like seriously, I had one single vulnerary on my person other than my pistols and that was it, and as great as the weapons were, I couldn't exactly eat bullets.

"Ah well," I said as I let the anger go in a huff. No point in complaining about it now. What's done is done and there's admittedly not much I can do but hope I make my way out to Ylisse in one piece.

As the sun fell and darkness enveloped my form, I stared at the ceiling in silence before glancing at the pistols resting innocently in their holsters across the room. A faint glow seemed to come from them that rivaled the light of those little plastic glow-in-the-dark stickers you'd get as a kid. My eyes slid closed as the fatigue and uncertainty finally settled on me, letting my arm rest over them to block out the faint light.

"Welcome to Fire Emblem, indeed."

AN:

So I haven't posted a story in a long time. It's honestly been years and I cringe thinking back on some of the stuff I've said and written.

I was inspired by some great FEA fanfic (namely "Birth and Re-Death" by ThreeDollarBratwurst and "Earthborne" by Mixed Valence) to start writing again and just wanted to do something more creative and fun for once since that part of my life has been lacking since I started my first year in pharmacy school (and it honestly is not great for my mental health). So in that vein, please keep comments fine and cool and chill (like that reference?) since this was written just for fun.

Hopefully I can get some creative juices flowing and de-rust my writing ability since I felt this beginning was kinda awkward. Maybe I can even find time to write more/not give up on this like all of my other projects. Who knows?

Anyway, thought are appreciated. Thanks for reading!