Fire Emblem: Rebirth of Legends
Cassandra was nearly blinded by the sun that poured through her bedroom window. She grumbled and pulled her covers up over her head then tried to go back to sleep.
"Cassandra! Now's not the time to be sleeping in! There's work to be done!" the girl's adopted father, Drake, called up the stairs. He wasn't a bad looking man, still youthful in appearance, though he still held quite a few years of experience under his belt. His slightly bearded face frowned ever so lightly as he waited for his daughter to come down. He sighed to himself. Honestly, that girl. Sometimes he didn't know what to do with her.
"Alright, dad, I'm getting up!" Cassandra shouted back. She threw off her covers and sat up slowly, yawned then pulled her dark grey hair back and scratched one of the silver-furred wolf ears on the top of her head. Not wanting to provoke another angry shout from her father she got up out of bed and moved to grab her navy blue work tunic from where she hung it on the wall the previous night. Once that was on she pulled on her overalls, as usual she took a minute to pull her silver wolf-tail through the hole that had been cut into the seat of the overalls and swished it back and forth a couple times to make sure the circulation hadn't been cut off. Finally she pulled her boots on, pulled her hair back into a short ponytail to keep it out of her eyes and grabbed the hatchet hanging by the door.
"I'm up, let's get to work," Cassandra said as she exited her room and tromped down the stairs.
Her father nodded approvingly to her, giving a light grin. "Summer time feels like the best time to get lazy, but we can't afford that!" he teased. His dark brown hair was cut rather short, almost like a military cut, though it did help stay out of his eyes while he worked. "There's wood to chop, stuff to make, things to do...you know the deal." As the local lumberjacks, the town counted on them to help craft a lot of the things they used in daily life. Furniture, framing, firewood, all of it came from them. It was a simple life but a taxing one. He didn't have any problems with that, though; it took a lot to make him tired. "But first, breakfast! Can't exactly work on an empty stomach." he remarked.
"Got that right." Cassandra grinned, "What have we got?"
"I made pancakes this morning with some maple syrup and, of course, bacon." Drake replied with a grin. He knew just how much she loved bacon. Perhaps it was because she was part wolf? It made sense. She had such a large appetite, especially for a girl, but he was more than used to it by now.
As expected, Cassandra practically pounced on her food and began to wolf it down only slowing down to chew enough so she wouldn't choke. "Thanks dad, it's good!" she thanked Drake after she swallowed a mouthful then went right on to the next one.
Drake gave a hearty laugh. "Just remember to chew!" he reminded her. Cassandra was almost like an animal on the prowl when it came to food. It often meant that he had to clean things up afterword, but ah well it was the life he chose to live.
Cassandra sighed contentedly and sat back after she finished her breakfast, the area around her plate cleaner than usual, as she waited for her father to finish his food. It didn't take long for Drake to finish his own meal and he stood up, stretching a bit.
"Alright then! Now that there's fuel in the tank, it's time to get to work." he stated.
The father-daughter lumberjack duo certainly turned heads around here, mostly because no one knew what Cassandra was. Drake had found her twenty years ago when she was just an infant and he had raised her since then. She didn't quite look like a twenty year old girl, but she was.
"Do they ever get sick of staring at my ears and tail?" she asked rather loudly, which made several of those that were staring turn back to their actual jobs. "You'd think after twenty years they'd be used to these." She twitched her ears and tail as she spoke.
"People are enamored with a good mystery," her father spoke. "But at the same time, there's a fear of the unknown as well. So while people want to know what you are, they're almost afraid of what they'd find out. Personally I don't care either way; you've always been my girl and nothing changes that. Just try not to let their curious or fearful stares get to you too much."
Cassandra sighed, "I'll try," she said begrudgingly.
It didn't take long for them to pass to the woodcutting shack. Drake had lived there once, before he adopted Cassandra, but it was no place to raise a child so he and several of the other villagers had built him their current home closer to the center of the village once he decided to raise her alone. As a result the shack had been refitted to include tools for woodcrafting.
"Alright, Cassie, let's get to work!" Drake remarked, cracking his knuckles. Yep, today was gonna be just like every other day in their quiet little town. Nothing out the ordinary today, so he was sure things would be fine. There was no reason to expect that today would be the day everything would be flipped onto its head...
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Prologue: The Girl with the Wolf Ears
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"98...99...100!" Cassandra split her 100th piece of wood and looked up as she wiped the sweat from her brow. "Not bad so far," she commented as she grabbed a drink from the water skin at her side.
Drake chuckled a bit. "Doin' good so far, eh? Well good! If we manage to finish this all quickly enough, we might be able to call it an early day." he stated. Of course the chances of that were slim, mostly because they would have some wood crafting to do after words.
Cassandra laughed, knowing full well it was little more than a pipe dream, "That would be great." She hung her water skin back on her belt and set another log to be chopped on her cutting stump. She raised her hatchet up, "One-oh..." she stopped and turned her head, sniffing at something.
The older man noticed his daughter's lack of action and frowned, noticing her distant gaze. "...Cassie? Do you smell something?" he asked her. He had long known that her sense of smell and hearing were much higher than a normal human's. She was highly acute to her surroundings, like most people of her race, he assumed.
"Someone..." Cassandra's ears twitched, "is being attacked!" without another word she took off at full tilt, hatchet still in hand.
"Wait, Cassie! Gah, that girl...always running off..." Drake muttered. He took up his own axe and followed suit, not about ready to let his daughter get into trouble all by herself.
Six brigands were gathered in a cleared area of the forest around a large brown wolf that was bleeding from several deep axe wounds, their leader clutched a heavy axe made of steel and prodded the creature with foot, causing it to growl but not move. "Still alive, amazing. And when he turns back he'll be worth a fortune."
"But Alrik, he got Merv, and Lewy and..." one of the last of the brigands tried to protest
"So? I think twelve men is a worthwhile price to pay considering how rich we'll be when we sell him," Alrik shot back. "Now help me tie him up before he starts moving again."
"Bandits!" Cassandra's shout alerted them to her presence, "What are you doing here?!" She demanded, hefting her hatchet in both hands while keeping her distance.
"Eh? Looks like there's another wolf there, boss!" one of the bandits remarked. "Just imagine the price we'd get for two of 'em!" At this some of the remaining bandits prepared their axes.
"You bastards aren't getting away with -my- daughter!" Drake remarked, coming onto the scene.
"Or that wolf, especially if he's like me!" Cassandra tensed and threw her hatchet at the nearest of the bandits, which sliced through his side and flew right back to her hand. Before he could counter Drake acted and cut down at him killing him.
Alrik gritted his teeth, "Alright boys, don't let this payday slip away. Kill the man but don't hurt the girl too bad. She'd be worth even more to the right buyer with an exotic look like that!" he ordered as his remaining four subordinates spread out to keep out of Cassandra's throwing distance.
"Hmph. You small-time crooks couldn't hope to hold a candle to me." Drake remarked, brandishing his axe rather easily. These thugs just never learned until they were six feet under. That was fine with him, though. "Cassie, don't go out of my sight. You're a good fighter, but they mean business. One false move and you're a goner." he advised his daughter.
"I can handle myself!" Cassandra retorted but was forced to dodge as one of the brigands came a bit too close. She spun her hatchet once and threw it right through the attacking brigand's body, slicing him in half before it flew back to her.
Seeing that his daughter would be mostly fine, Drake decided simply to concentrate on the battle itself. Swinging his axe in a swift arc, he easily cut through one of the bandit's torso. The single blow was enough to be fatal, but to prevent any suffering Drake quickly brought his axe down, finishing off the man with a quick death.
Cassandra threw her hatchet at another bandit, hitting him in his free hand before he could get too close. He charged right as she caught the hatchet and she managed to block his swing then spun around and chopped his head off.
It didn't take Drake long to finish off the last of Alrik's men, jumping up and bringing down a powerful vertical slash which cut the man's body down the middle with a wide open bloody gash. "Tch, what a mess..." he muttered under his breath. However, he looked up at Alrik. "Looks like you're out of body guards. Ready to die like the dog you are?"
"Hah, says the man who raised a dog. Did you scratch her behind the ears when she was growing up!" he taunted Drake as he swung, scoring a painful but non-lethal hit across Drake's chest.
"Tch..." Drake scowled deeply, preparing his axe in counter-attack. "My girl may be part wolf...but she's more human than you'll ever be!" he retorted. He lifted his axe and swung it downwards hard, aiming a powerful blow at the bandit leader's skull.
Alrik pulled back just enough that Drake's Axe only cut his chest, not his head and he gritted his teeth at the pain. He backed out of Drake's reach and turned to face Cassandra, who threw her axe at him, hitting him in the side.
"Why do you care about him so much? Is he your brother?" Alrik demanded.
"He might be. If that wolf is like me then he might know what I am," Cassandra shot back.
"I can tell you what you are: my meal ticket. Or maybe I'll sell him and keep you for myself," Alrik licked his lips.
Cassandra grimaced, "You're sick! Now die!"
While Alrik was distracted by his daughter, Drake came up behind the man, intent on finishing what he started. With another mighty heave, he brought his weapon down into the evil man's back to end him once and for all.
Alrik cried out in pain as the axe carved through his back. "Blast... I was to be rich..." he managed to groan out as he collapsed in a growing pool of his own blood.
Cassandra sighed in relief as she wiped the blood from her hatchet. Seeing her father wasn't interested in the fallen bandit leader's still intact steel axe she retrieved it. "He had money at some point. This axe is in good shape." She commented before she slung it into a loop on her work pants. A groan from the wolf reminded her why she had been fighting so hard and she moved to crouch by the overly large wolf's side.
"Can you talk?" she asked the wolf.
"Chances are he'll need some sort of medical attention," Drake mused with a frown. Of course he wasn't sure what healers in town would want to see some kind of wolf, but perhaps he could convince someone to come out to help. "Though there's no promise he understands us."
The wolf uttered three strange words, definitely not a growl, before his body glowed and the fur seemed to evaporate. The wolf's body shrank until a man lay in his place. Cassandra started and stepped back, as he looked almost exactly like her, except he was male, only wearing a fur tunic and white pants around his lower body and his hair, wolf ears and tail were dark brown. His eyes were closed.
The older warrior was surprised when the wolf shifted into a human form, his frown of curiosity only deepening. "So there -are- more like Cassie..." he muttered to himself. He had thought that his daughter was one of a kind or that she was cursed as an infant or something. To think there were other people like her in the world. "Alright, I'll run to town to get a healer. You stay right here, Cassie, and take care of him." he instructed his daughter.
"How can I do that?" she called as Drake took off back to the village. "I guess I could try to use the last of this," she said as she sat down and pulled a mostly spent healing herb out of one of her pockets, which she always kept just in case she hurt herself on the job. She pressed it to one of the wolf-man's wounds. The herb dissolved as the wound closed up.
The wolf-man stirred and opened his brown eyes part way then said, "I f...found you," before he fell unconscious again.
"Found me?" Cassandra's eyes widened in surprise. Unfortunately she couldn't wake him again and was forced to just wait.
