Written 20090613

Revised 20100624

Not my best work, but I want to continue this. (It's probably full of typos and repeated adjectives and obvious lack of sleep.)

Also, not that I /don't/ like it, this story contains no BL, despite shoving two very male characters into the same blanket. Without any clothes on.

An experiment in character interaction, if you must, is all that this is.

That, and a very sorry excuse to indulge myself with some Wolt/Sue WAFF.

Now that /that/ is out of the way, I must inform any readers that this first part is intensely boring and is merely a setup for the next four chapters, which encompass the actual body of the story. There are two sides to the 'fic: one follows Roy and Alen (A), and the other follows Wolt and Sue (B). The four chapters will alternate in an ABAB pattern, with each individual side wrapping itself up by the end of the second chapter focusing on it. If that makes any sense at all. Basically, if you want to skip over one half of the story because you don't like the characters or what have you, you won't miss anything important plot-wise. Or, if you want to read one side through to its end before reading the other, you can easily do that... after I manage to get the whole thing up. Simply, this is a mesh of two standalone stories. Shutting up now.

"Master Roy, we've prepared to cross the river."

"Very well. We must make haste, but do not let many people onto that bridge at one time. It doesn't look like it could support more than five horses..."

"I agree... Then, five cavalry units would weigh around as much as twenty-five to thirty ground units... Shall we alternate them in case of an attack?"

"Yes. That would be best." Roy looked over his shoulder at the mass of people waiting along the riverbank and sighed. "You and Wolt lead the way, and I'll stay back with Alen until everyone else is accounted for."

Lance didn't seem to like this idea. "Master Roy, would it not be best for you to join in one of the groups in the middle? If Bern hit us from behind-"

"I will not be alone. I'll be fine."

"As you wish, my lord."

"You may go."

Roy watched, slightly amused, as Lance led his finicky horse off towards the group. The Pheraen horses weren't well-accustomed to the snow, and it had caused some problems with mobility since they reached the border of Ilia; as long as they pressed on, though, he figured they would arrive at their target with time to spare. Until they were back in a warmer region, he got to see his "most skilled knights" curse under their breath and try to keep their normally well-behaved mounts in line. It felt good to smile, at least.

The sky above had been clear all day, and they hadn't hit a single obstacle until they came to this wide river. Its current was much faster than what Roy had expected to see; Thany had explained to him that the mountains just north of that area had an abundance of snow and ice that melted on clear days when the sun shone as it had, therefore feeding the many streams and rivers. Were the waters not so rapidly moving, he would have sent everyone across the bridge with haste. Unfortunately, were that bridge to collapse, anyone on it would fall into the water down so far as Castle Pherae was tall and, if they managed to survive the fifty-foot waterfall not far downstream, die of hypothermia. Ahh, what a lovely notion.

Thus, Roy's trepidation about the whole situation was quite justified. He gazed at the sky for just a while longer; there was a cloud there now, shaped like a horse, maybe...

He shook his head and turned back towards where his army waited. It appeared that Lance had managed to get everything set up well enough, for they were slowly moving across the bridge in small groups; and, here came Alen, probably wanting to tell him to-

"Would you like to wait closer to the group, Master Roy?"

Ahh, yes. "I'd rather stay over here. See, you can see the trail we left coming up the rise..." Roy gestured downward. He stood near the edge of a large drop-off just above a level area of ground; from there, tall cliffs wrapped around the area, and the only way up was the way they had come- a slow incline around a mile to the east. The path one had to take to reach that incline wrapped around the area in which the army stood waiting, so any enemies who approached from the back would have to come the same way they had- and in plain view. "It would be easy for Bern to trace our exact movements here."

"It doesn't look like it will be for much longer," said Alen. He pointed to the northern sky, where the horse-shaped cloud had drifted from. A huge, black wall was growing across the darkening blue, and that certainly didn't mean travel was going to be easier from this point onward. Roy sighed again.

"That's not good at all," he commented in an offhand sort of voice. He was, in short, exhausted.

"Master Roy?"

"Alen, get up there and tell them to pick up the pace. We need to make camp as soon as possible. If we're here by the river, we can still see if anyone is trying to follow us, right? And we'll guard the bridge on that side, so the enemy will be an easy target."

"Yes sir. I'll be back soon."

As surely as Roy had planned it out, they soon found that the enemy's ground force was on the move, coming right up the trail that their own army had left. Roy was distraught; he had two options. An ambush would be too dishonorable, he thought, and when he asked Marcus about it, the elderly man agreed and bestowed upon him words of pride for his choice. The second choice would be to guard the bridge from the opposite side; to destroy it would mean cutting off the only supply road for miles, which could potentially harm the people of the barren mountains. And so, the army finished crossing the bridge and set up a barricade of sorts, guarded by the Ostian knights. Their team of archers would line up along the cliff, wait for any wyvern-riding knights, and shoot them down as soon as they got too close. Though dusk was settling, they clearly had the advantage of immense defensive power. Roy was calm for the first time in months about the outcome of this battle.

"No casualties," he told Alen as the red-haired knight followed him around, helping with giving out various orders and gathering the archers and mages. "I think we can pull this one off. They should give up come nightfall."

"But," Alen said, "what if they hit us from behind?"

"That's where your team comes in." Roy faced away from the river, waving a hand at the road that continued onward through a forest of evergreens. "I want you and Lance to watch this road. It's the easiest way for them to break our line. Defense is our best option, but if it comes down to it, you all have my permission to improvise. Try not to kill too many of their soldiers, just make it so that they can't reach our archers; they're our best bet right now."

"But the sky gets so black at night, and with those clouds... Master Roy, we could already be surrounded by wyvern knights." As if to agree, his mare let out a loud snort.

Roy sighed. Again. "I know."

"...Do you have a plan?"

"Our magic users will be patrolling throughout to heal and help fend off the wyverns. If that's not enough, well, there's always the pegasus knights. They can distract them long enough for us to relocate some of the archery division."

"I see."

Roy stopped walking to stare up at the sky. A fine, powdery snow had started to fall, not enough to cover anything but distracting nonetheless. "Alen...?"

"Yes, Master Roy?"

"Tell everyone to go just a little faster. We don't need to fight the weather on top of this."

"At once, m'lord. But if I may ask...?"

"What is it?"

"Where will you be positioned?"

Roy looked off in the distance, purposely averting his gaze. "I... will be over with the Ostian knights. If our defense is breached, I'll lead the offensive team... We'll have to secure the bridge again. That's why I'm counting on you and Lance to watch our backs."

"But Master Roy! If you-"

"Alen! Just go relay my orders, if you would please!"

Roy pretended not to see the expression of utter rejection on Alen's face. "M'lord." And with that, Alen took his reins properly in hand and left. Roy really couldn't help it- he could only take so much pampering and worrying from his knights.

As the bone-chilling night air fell across the Etrurian Alliance Army, so did a horrific turn of events. Roy had feared an attack from all sides from the Bernese Wyvern Knights, and it was exactly what he got; there were no signs of the enemy until several of his watch had been slaughtered, and the shriek of one of the flying beasts split the night's tranquility. That was it – the start of the battle. Each division hurried into place, but try as they might, their speed in the heavy snowfall rendered them unable to mount a good defense – and the bodies splayed across the ground were more than enough evidence for the young red-haired general who had just suffered his first losses of the war.

Trying to keep his own morale intact, Roy barked out orders to his subcommanders, fending off his enemies' lances with a broadsword that now looked as if it were ready to split. He was sweating despite the cold, changing his strategy on the spot. They weren't in the forest, no, no, they were all marching right up the mountain path. Against the black sky and behind the dull grey of the falling snow, the savage flying dragons were nigh invisible; his archers could not mount a counterattack, and his mages had halted their futile assault in favor of tending to the dozens of wounded. The snow was painted red; the same could be said for Roy's line of vision as he tried and failed over and over and over again to land an attack on one of the enemy soldiers. They were going to be trounced through and through. As he swung his sword and pushed his way through the slushy snow on the single bridge above the river far below, struggling to protect those who served him, Roy of Pherae came to the realization that this battle had already been lost. There would be no sounding a retreat. Bern would kill them all, one by one, until the bodies were stacked as high as the forlorn mountains in which they battled.

Roy sent a messenger to his rearguard, to his faithful knights who had served him well all this time – what, had it been over a year since he'd last seen his home? But now was no time to think about that. He beckoned the squad leaders to change the orders he'd given them; "Flank our entire force outright with the Ostian knights; ignore the forest. We've got no other choice than to wait this out until morning comes and this damned snow clears. Remember, we're sitting ducks as we are now. Don't let any more of my men fall at Bern's hand!"

"M'lord!" It was a salute, and the men dispersed to reposition their teams.

"You two! Alen, Lance? Come with me. We're taking over the defense of that bridge."

The two men looked quite relieved to be at their lord's side once more. From here, they could protect him; he wouldn't be off on his own, entrusted to strangers who couldn't save themselves, let alone the commander of the army. They led their horses behind the small young man before them and traded posts with the heavily-armored men who had been standing guard, holding off the barrage of knights that had caught up to the flying division of their enemy's forces. Roy stood there with two of his strongest men, staring upon the endless wave of iron and steel that stretched across the bridge and the land beyond, to where the frozen mist hid the soldiers in its icy veil, and for the first time in a long while, he felt absolutely terrified. He had failed in his first rule as a leader; he had let one of those men who had trusted him, one of those men he was supposed to protect with his knowledge and command – had let not just one, but perhaps twenty or more of those faithful persons fall to the enemy.

"We're going to charge them and take back this God-damned bridge." He said it with conviction, with such certainty that even Lance couldn't bring himself to argue. One by one, they sent bodies over the rails, slipping on the ice and missing half the time, but too cold and too determined to care about such trivial things. They were fighting for their lives now, and as wonderful as it would have been to say that they were doing this for the world, for their homeland, for peace, each one of them knew that this was purely primal instinct. They would live.

Roy let his knights advance for a moment as he steeled himself on the side of the bridge, dizzy from exhaustion and from a sharp pain in his abdomen. The head of a spear was lodged just below his diaphragm, luckily low enough that he could still breathe, so lucky that his armor had prevented a deeper wound, but the fact remained that it was bleeding and damn it he hadn't been eating enough lately and oh, it was getting foggier outside already wasn't it and-

"Roy! We've got it!"

The redhead wheezed and turned to stare bleakly at another one of his retainers. Wolt was racing towards him, followed by a Sacaen girl on horseback; the sight was, perhaps, as funny as the sight of his knights' horses earlier in the afternoon, as the green-haired archer slid through shin-deep wet snow to get to his master, and the girl yelled at him to be careful should he fall right through the side of the rickety old bridge. Roy would have chuckled if he didn't know better – if he weren't resting while his knights were still fighting so valiantly, so-

"Roy! The arrows!" Wolt grabbed his lord's shoulders as soon as he had reached his old friend's position, his breath coming in short white puffs that disappeared as fast as they came. "We've set up barriers. If... If we shoot straight up, they can't get close enough to attack! All we need... are shields! We've completely halted their offense on the west side of the plain! We've spread the word, and Miss Sue and I are here to help you guys!"

Roy felt a sudden surge of warmth and hugged his milk brother tightly, clapping his back as he laughed, ignoring the pain in his stomach. "So... wonderful. Really. Keep watch... okay?"

Wolt paled behind the pink mask the cold had painted on his face. "You've been hurt? Come on, let Miss Sue take you to get healed! That doesn't look good at all!"

It happened just then. A scream erupted from behind Wolt, and he whipped around as Roy looked over his shoulder to see-

Her horse bucked.

It couldn't regain its footing in the ice; it fell sideways, and then-

"Oh, God! Miss Sue!" But Wolt's hand didn't reach hers in time. Holding her stomach tightly and staring upward with the most terrified eyes Roy had ever seen, she plummeted down towards the inky waters below; her bow made a soft splash as it fell into the slush upon the wooden walkway.

They'd allowed themselves to get distracted. From the corner of his eye, Roy saw it – could see, there, something flashed – but then it hurt so bad, so bad, and he couldn't see anymore as a horrendous pain took over his head, and then another – there, his stomach again. He was pinned against the shallow wall, gasping and choking and – there wasn't anything much after that, only the most bizarre empty feeling as he watched the blurry shadow of his best friend rise up, upward until the mist obscured everything and oh God he was so cold and then-

He hit it, the wall of ice. Everything was so white and black at the same time, and then it was just black, and Roy couldn't even struggle to breathe.

This was what nothing felt like.