Disclaimer! I do not own Fire Emblem!
Like Ike
By ICRMON
Once upon a time, there was a boy named Benjamin. He spent all of his life in a small town called Breyan, several miles outside of the borders of Crimea. Benjamin grew up with the ambition to model his childhood icon, Ike, whose legendary liberation of Crimea had spread throughout Tellius. However, Benjamin unfortunately would never be able to meet Ike, since he had died several hundred years ago. Benjamin was modeling himself after a legend rather than a real person, which could present significant difficulties later in his life since he will never escape his boyish ambitions.
However, one day fate struck Benjamin like a hammer on a blunt nail, since he saw a blue flash of lightning in the sky.
"What could that be?" he pondered.
Curious as to what the strange light was, he continued looking into the sky. Suddenly, the blue lightning appeared again, but this time, it crashed into the ground right in front of his house.
"YIKES!" Benjamin yelped, because he was quite a coward, much in contrast to his boyhood idol.
The sudden strike of the lightning caused smoke to fill the air. After the smoke cleared, Benjamin saw that something was stuck in the rock in his front yard. And also that all of his chickens were dead, which were going to be his food source for the winter. Upon the sight, Benjamin's heart swelled with excitement, completely ignoring his inevitable starvation.
"Could it be?" Benjamin wondered aloud.
And yes it was. The object in the rock was exactly what Benjamin thought it was. Consequently, Benjamin ran over to the rock, chucking any dead chickens that hindered his progress.
"It's what I always dreamed of . . ." Benjamin exclaimed as he reached the object. The reason for Benjamin's excitement was that the object in the stone was none other than Ragnell, the sword which Ike himself wielded during his liberation of Crimea.
"Now that I have this sword, I can truly be like Ike!" Benjamin said.
During all of this, Benjamin did not realize that all of his neighbors were staring at him, partially because some of them had gotten hit by the dead chickens that Benjamin had been throwing around. Upon noticing that everyone was looking at him, he addressed them in the following manner.
"Fellow neighbors, long have I dreamed to emulate the qualities of my icon, Ike, and now, I have the chance to! I have his sacred sword, Ragnell, and with it, I shall free Breyan from the oppression of the mayor!"
"The mayor hasn't oppressed us at all. Breyan is in a time of peace and prosperity." One of the neighbors remarked.
"No! He has an army!"
"Codswhallop! The mayor has a secretary! That's about it. And you do realize all of your chickens are dead, right?" another neighbor said, attempting to deter Benjamin from his sudden madness.
"I'm on my way now! The people of Breyan will be freed from oppression just like those of Crimea!" Benjamin pronounced as he ran off his yard and down the road that led to the mayor's office.
Several minutes later, Benjamin arrived at the mayor's office. It was located in the center of the farm village. There was a dog tied to a pole outside, lying on the ground, almost asleep. Upon this sight, Benjamin's heart was filled with fury at the "cruelty" of the mayor and ran over to the dog and cut the rope that was restraining him to the post.
"You are free now!" Benjamin exclaimed.
However, the dog didn't even notice.
"You stupid dog, you're free!" Benjamin exclaimed once more.
Yet, the dog merely stretched its legs. Realizing that the dog wasn't getting the point, Benjamin kicked the dog and pointed to the open gate through which he had entered.
"YOU ARE FREE! GO!" Benjamin yelled while looking like a raving lunatic. At this point, several townspeople, in addition to the ones whom he had previously encountered, had congregated around picket fence surrounding the mayor's office. They could hardly believe what they were seeing.
"Benjamin was always such a reserved boy," one townsperson remarked.
"I wonder what's gotten into him," responded another.
Suddenly, the dog awoke and realized he had been kicked. The dog was not to pleased and realized there was an intruder on his master's property. He began to bark at Benjamin. Benjamin was confused. He had just liberated a poor captive dog. But then it occurred to him that perhaps this dog could not think any longer.
"You are a feral one!" Benjamin exclaimed. "The evil mayor has been gathering dog laguz and has been performing experiments on them to keep them in their shifted state, just like Ashnard used to do! I will put an end to this!"
And after he this, Benjamin boldly walked up to the mayor's door. However, the dog cut in front of him.
"I do not want to hurt you, friend. But you give me no choice." Benjamin said.
And with this, Benjamin used Ragnell to destroy the dog. The townspeople gasped.
"This man is crazy!"
"He will ruin the town!"
"He will corrupt the children"
"He must die!"
And after this series of selected outrage quotes from the crowd, they picked up stones and began throwing them at him. Benjamin, not understanding why the townspeople were attacking him, began dodging the stones. However, it soon dawned on him.
"You're working for the mayor. You're on his side!" Benjamin stated, infuriated.
"The mayor has never done anything wrong to us! You are now."
And then all the townspeople crowded around him and seized him. The mayor then came out of his house and saw the commotion.
"What's going on?" he inquired.
"This man just killed your dog and he's been acting insane. He's a threat to society!" one townsperson explained.
"Yeah, your evil dictatorship! Open your eyes, citizens of Breyan! This man is enslaving you!" Benjamin exclaimed.
The mayor rubbed his chin, appearing to be deep in thought. Then he suddenly looked toward the crowd of people.
"Take him to the asylum."
Immediately, the townspeople dragged Benjamin away. A few hours later, he was admitted into the Breyan Insane Asylum, where he would spend the remainder of his lonely life attempting to explain to the other "patients" about the cruelty of the mayor and that Breyan was destined to fall due to his tyranny.
Such a tragedy, to think that one man's pursuit to imitate his boyhood idol, a pursuit honorable in it's own respect, would lead to his miserable fate. Such a tragedy, indeed. Besides this story that I have written, nobody would have known about the exploits of Benjamin, a misunderstood man who sacrificed his reputation to save the people of his land from a terrible perceived fate.
Ragnell was taken by the mayor and put on display in a stone outside his office. Would anyone ever wield Ragnell again? Would anyone ever truly be able to be . . . like Ike?