Parallel
Author's Note: This fic has experimental formatting. Unfortunately, fanfiction dot net doesn't allow for two-column input, but treat everything left of the double vertical pipe (parallel symbol) as one column, and everything to the right as another. Because fanfiction dot net also tends not to like unusual characters, if there aren't double vertical pipes in the middle of each line, please notify me, and I'll try to find some other delimiter. Hopefully, the lines are short enough to fit across on most screens, but on particularly small screens (e.g. smartphones), lines may wrap, which might ruin the two-column effect.
Milord
Blazing Sword || Awakening
Eliwood wasn't quite sure how || Chrom was not quite sure how
it happened, but he found himself || it happened, but he found himself
facedown on the path on which || facedown on the path on which
his army was marching into battle. || his army was marching into battle.
Hearing frantic hoofbeats || Hearing frantic hoofbeats
behind him, he turned to see || behind him, he turned to see
Lowen, Marcus's squire in training. || Frederick, a loyal knight of Ylisse.
"Milord!" Lowen called out. || "Milord!" Frederick yelled.
"Are you all right?" || "Are you all right?"
Eliwood nodded back towards Lowen || Chrom just nodded toward Frederick.
"I'm fine," he said. "I just || "I'm fine," he said. "I just
got lightheaded for a moment." || tripped on a stray rock, I think."
That alarmed Lowen immensely. || That alarmed Frederick greatly.
"Milord! I deeply apologize! || "Milord! I deeply apologize!
I must have forgotten || I somehow neglected
to bring you breakfast today! || to clear your path of pebbles!
Please forgive me!" || Please forgive me!"
"Umm… What?" || "Uh… Sure…?"
Eliwood stammered out. || Chrom stammered out.
"Breakfast? What do you mean?" || "But you don't have to do that."
"Yes! The most important meal! || "You don't understand, milord.
You mustn't succumb to || Milord must not trip and
an empty stomach! || embarrass himself!
I've taken it upon myself to || I've taken it upon myself to
prepare breakfast for you everyday. || clear the path wherever you walk.
But I was negligent today. || But I was negligent today.
I'll bring something to you || I shall clear the remainder
to eat right away, milord!" || of the path immediately."
Before the lord could react, || Before the lord could react,
the knight rode off. || the knight rode off.
Eliwood sighed. || Chrom sighed.
"I don't think I'll ever understand || "I don't think I'll ever understand
his strange enthusiasm for food." || his odd obsession with pebbles."
Author's Note: Fire Emblem, with its generally-unrelated plots, has a lot of parallels between games. I wanted to highlight these similarities, aside from the obvious character archetypes (the red and green knights, for example), and this two-column layout was the best way I could think of to do so. Please tell me how understandable this was, though, as I do have to struggle a little bit with fanfiction dot net's limiting formatting.
I do plan on writing a few more such stories periodically - indeed, this should be posted with a second story already - but since I don't have a particular end in mind, I'm going to go ahead and mark this story as complete.
Published July 13, 2015
