Prologue - Verge of History
Darkness. That's all I see. Where am I? I can feel a gentle breeze around me, grass tickling my face and the suns rays shining down onto me. Was I in a field? How did I get here? Those are questions I hope get answered soon enough. What felt like hours passed until I finally heard a voice. Young and most likely feminine from the sound of it. "- Chrom -" Chrom? Was that my name? No. There was another person present. The tone of their voice confirmed it for me. "What do you propose we do?" It sounded more mature and much more masculine. Maybe this was the Chrom the female was referring to. As I slowly opened my eyes I got blinded by the sunlight glaring down onto me. The duo appeared to notice as they backed off a little looking somewhat relieved that I was awake. I was right in my assumptions. There was a blue-haired swordsman standing over me alongside a blonde-haired girl wearing a yellow dress I surmised to have some relation to him. Little Sister? Probably. "H-Help" I'm able to quietly say. I was still feeling really weak and couldn't stand up on my own. Nonetheless the one called Chrom appeared to have heard me. "Finally awake now are we? That's a relief. There are better places to take a nap than on the ground you know. Give me your hand" He said as a friendly jibe whilst helping me off the ground. It's then that I notice two other things. The first being a strange purple mark on my hand. What did it symbolise? Does it have anything to do with me being on the ground? The other was a brown-haired Horseman in heavy, blue armour dismounting and coming over with a serious look on him. "Thank you, Chrom"
"Ah so you know who I am then. Would you mind telling me your name?" However I don't remember much at all. Including what my name was. I racked my brain trying to remember but it wasn't coming to me. "So you mean to say you know my Lord's name but not your own?" said the Knight bluntly. "Oh I know what this is! It's amnesia!" exclaimed the Girl.
"I think you mean a load of Pegasus droppings my lady" said the Knight.
"Well actually to be fair I did overhear the young lady say Chrom's name and seeing as he was the first male I saw I guessed it was him" I pointed out defensively.
"He has a point. Anyway this is Frederick. He's a fairly stern knight and acts as a protector for us but more specifically my delicate little sister, Lissa"
"I am NOT Delicate!" shouted Lissa with a hint of annoyance. "Hmph. Chrom can be rather thick at times."
"Heh. Well my name's Thomas. Came back to me just now" I replied.
"Thomas huh? Don't know many people called that. Anyway that's besides the point, do you have anywhere to stay? If not then you can come with us."
"I don't think I do have a place to stay plus I don't know where I am"
"You don't know what Ylisse is? Hah! Some pay this actor. He plays the fool rather well!"
"Frederick." Chrom said whilst giving the Knight a death glare of sorts "I forgot to mention he can be a little too over-protective. Anyway you're in the Halidom of Ylisse. Our leader, Emmeryn is known as the Exalt."
"You were lucky the Shepards found you!" Exclaimed Lissa. "Bandits would be quite a rude awakening."
"Shepards? You tend sheep... in full armour? All right then"
"Heh. You could say that" Answered Chrom.
"But there wasn't much time for more questions as Lissa suddenly shouted. "Chrom look! The village is on fire!" She was pointing in the direction of the Village and there was indeed smoke billowing from it. "Brigands!" Exclaimed Chrom. "C'mon let's go!"
"What about me?"
"You've got a sword and a... tome? You do know how to use it right?"
"I believe so?" I answered with some uncertainty.
"Then come with us. The more help we get the better. But I'll keep pace or two behind you with your magic"
A few minutes later we arrived at the village to find that bandits were swarming the place and what looked like the Leader of the group grabbing a woman and leering at her.
"Gwahaha! C'mon lads! Grab whatever you find and burn everythin' else to the ground! We gots to show these Ylisseans! Ain't that right poppet?"
"Let go of me you unruly brute! Someone help!"
"Chrom we have to help immediately!" Exclaimed Lissa.
"After today these Bandits won't be troubling anyone any more. Shepards, to arms!" He shouted. This gained the attention of the Bandits who started to come at us. They could hardly be called organised at all. "Chrom, Frederick you deal with the bulk of the force! Me and Lissa can take the small fry!" I said.
"Right!" Chrom responded.
Now there were only a handful of bandits for me to deal with. I noticed one rushing straight for Lissa who had only a stave in hand. Hardly a use for fighting so I read the bandit's movement and slashed through his stomach, blood splattering the ground and the sword, saving Lissa.
"You all right Lissa?" I asked.
"No thanks to you! Behind you, there's more of 'em!"
She was right. I was beset by two bandit whilst Chrom and Frederick were busy dealing with the others. Great. I had to protect myself and Lissa with little help. The first bandit rushed with his axe, narrowly missing as it whisked past my arm and I responded with a blast of thunder magic to the chest. His pal however caught me off guard and managed to land a hit on my left arm which was exposed due to the thunder magic just used. He thought he had me pinned to the floor and raised his axe to deliver a finishing blow but he made a rookie mistake. My right arm was free so I managed to swipe at his arms cutting them off at the elbow which caused the axe to fall behind him as I lept up off the floor and delivered a fatal strike to the heart. My arm still hurt like hell as Lissa rushed over.
"Let me sort it out." She said as she raised her stave and I felt a tingling where the axe had hit my arm. I no longer felt the pain. "There, much better!"
"So that's your debt repaid" I joked.
"C'mon! my brother and Frederick need some help." Replied Lissa. Indeed they were dealing with the much larger number and the leader was slowly walking into combat.
"Stay back Lissa." I said as I blasted some thunder into the crowd and took out a few bandits that had surrounded Chrom and Frederick.
"Thanks! We have this lot! You deal with their Leader!" Chrom replied as he deflected an axe blow on his sword and slashed at his attacker.
"Lissa, stick with me. We're going to deal with their Leader." I told her.
"Right. Chrom and Frederick are more than experienced so don't worry about them!" She responded.
There was only one bandit between us and their Leader and he posed little threat as he recklessly charged straight onto my Sword.
"Aww. What's this! A young couple come to challenge me!" The leader said. I took one look at Lissa and saw that she was blushing with embarrassment and quickly looked away blushing myself.
"Uh no. I don't think I'm all too interested in finding a woman at the moment!" I responded with some anger.
"A little bit of sass eh? The name's Garrick. You'd do best to remember it because it's the last name you'll ever know!" said the madman as he lunged forward at a surprising speed for someone of his body type.
"I'd! Rather! Not! Grace you! With my name! Brigand!" I said as I deflected each of his axe blows with my sword and followed up with a slash across the belly. This clearly hurt him as howled in pain and threw his axe. It sailed right over my head as I rushed forwards to land the killing blow. "But since you told me your name" I followed up with the sword plunged deep in his chest. "I'll tell you mine. The names Thomas." I said as I slashed the sword upwards through his head causing a fountain of blood to burst onto me. I got that tingling feeling again as Lissa came over to heal me.
"Wow you don't mess about! But look at all that mess you made." She exclaimed in awe (and disgust) at what I had done.
"Yeah yeah. Let's check on Chrom and Frederick then eh? That's a more pressing matter" I responded in a rather tired manner. The fighting had drained me and as I plodded over to where Chrom and Frederick were I saw Chrom finishing off the last bandit whilst Frederick piled the remaining bodies and inspected them.
"Well that's that. Did you find anything Frederick?" Chrom asked not noticing us as we approached.
"Plegians from the looks of them." He responded as he piled the last corpse in the area onto the pile. "And Thomas and Lissa appear to have survived" he added noticing us approaching.
"Plegia? What's that?" I asked Lissa but Chrom was in earshot and answered with a hint of hatred.
"Ylisse's... unruly neighbours shall we say. There's some bad history between the two and their current King, Gangrel is trying to provoke another war"
" the leader's dead as you've probably guessed. First time fighting and I have to say I got quite a good rhythm going."
"That's nice to hear. By the way you don't have anywhere to stay do you? Why not come with us?" Chrom asked. Now that he mentioned it I realised that I actually didn't have a place to stay.
"You're right. I guess I'll tag along then"
"Milord are you sure about this? T'wouldn't do to let the wolf amongst the flock" Frederick asked warily.
"I understand your concerns Frederick. I'd do the same if our roles were reversed today."
"Frederick, Thomas helped us deal with these Bandits. Without his help we'd probably still be fighting and he saved Lissa. That's all the proof I need to know he's a good guy." Chrom responded, ignoring my response.
"Chrom, thanks" I said with a sigh of relief.
"Why not stay?" Asked one of the villagers. "It's the least we can do to repay you for helping"
"Hearing your thanks is reward enough I think" said Chrom much to Lissa's dismay.
"Aww. Now we have to camp out at night."
"I thought you wanted to help make yourself get stronger. Camping out and eating off of the land is one of those ways Lissa." Said Frederick.
"Let's set off then!" said Chrom and we followed with the villagers cheering for us as we left. "It felt nice to be doing a good deed for some people and I'd found some new friends. Not a bad day" I thought to myself.
"Good job today Thomas." Chrom said as we left the town and approached a wooded area.
"It was nothing special really. Just some teamwork with Lissa helping out a lot. I'd say the experience was really good for the both of us." I answered modestly.
"You're right. You both look stronger now that I think about it" Chrom said as we came to the mouth of the woods.
To be continued in Chapter 01: Marth.