I originally wasn't sure if I wanted to put something this short up, but it's nice and polished and my activity meters have been looking empty. So, in celebration of getting a very complete character list for the FE section, here is some... angst! Done in exchange for a picture of the same title by Serains at deviantart.


In the mountain pass of the northern lands, covered with silt formed from blood, the sounds of his muted steps seem loud and harsh against the near-silence. Only moments ago, a clamorous battle raged, sounds melded into a chaotic, quiet hum. But it is this, with its solemn clarity, that carries itself loudly.

Between broken arrows and pieces of corpses and globs of insides, he yet doesn't need to inspect the bodies to find the fallen general. Caring not if the rancid results of war seep further into his miserable garb -- miserable sun, miserable ground, all is miserable to him now -- he makes his way to the body facing upwards, unseeing of the sky.

Nothing is said; no longer is there a man to hear him. Sounds well up in his throat, unreleasable sounds with no form, and his breath shudders unevenly. His hands reach across this face, the eyes parted in slight slits, to touch the chilled cheeks of the dead, filled with cold and unbeating blood. Numbing fingertips brush the gathering frost aside, smearing across the sticky blood.

He lets himself fall, bringing his lips to touch the forehead in reassurance. Cold flesh meets him; he flinches as if unprepared for it.

The dam breaks. The strangled sound escapes. It comes again, louder. When the snow finds him, it cannot move him to shake any harder. Everything, was everything built to end with this? A tear catches a snowflake and they freeze together in blue hair. He holds onto whatever he can, though it is nothing.

Barren. He sees no loss in staying in the frozen pass until morning. The choice is hardly his. Here is where Ike passed; as the moon trails the world, so shall he follow.