Prompt: Begin with "I thought I saw…"
I've been looking at a list of writing prompts, and this one just started this in my head, so I went with it. Hope you like it :)
"I thought I saw…" my eyes scanned the clefts and rocks on the mountain to my left looking for any sign of movement. Nothing. "Be careful, there may be others here," I told the people with me. I could have sworn I saw movement and a flash of red in gap between some rocks to our left, but it didn't look like there was anything there now. "Let's just keep moving. Be prepared for anything," I ordered. My comrades nodded their heads and continued their forward march.
"What do you think it was? Can I go kill it?" a white haired youth questioned me, an eager look in his eyes. I shook my head.
"No Henry, we can't split up right now. If there are others out there they would take advantage of it. Just stay here for now. If there is an attack, go nuts on them," I told him. He nodded and fell a few steps back to where he was before.
Another red flash, this time to our right. I held out my arm, signaling everybody to stop. I gave everyone a silent command to draw their weapons, which they obeyed. There were now glowing red eyes flashing from the sides of the mountains in all directions. It was only a matter of time before they attacked. I bit my lip, there had to be at least fifty pairs of eyes, if not more. They seemed to glow in the darkness of night. We were in for a fight.
I turned slightly and nodded at the archer towards the middle of our group. Using my fingers, I counted down from five. Everybody watched. As soon as I hit zero, the man launched the arrow into one of the clefts in the mountain, straight in between one of the pairs of eyes. Then they attacked.
There were rotting bodies everywhere, some with axes, some with swords, even some chanting magic. With sweaty palms I charged the one closest to me and sliced through its torso. Experience has taught me however, that isn't enough to kill these things. One more clean slash down the center of its head did the trick though, and it faded into nothing. It seemed we were dealing with the risen yet again.
The sounds of battle rose all around me. Grunts and yells, risen howls, steel meeting steel or dead flesh. It was not a pleasant sound, according to me at least. Henry seemed to be enjoying himself a little too much from what I saw. He was practically dancing as he flung magic left and right at the enemy. At least he didn't need any help.
I turned to look in the other direction. My eyes widened and I immediately reached for my Elthunder tome. There were so many risen on somebody that I couldn't even tell who it was, and I wouldn't get there in time with the sword. I launched the magic and fried three of the risen, giving me vision on who it was. Cordelia. She was unused to fighting off of her Pegasus.
I charged up and slashed through the remaining risen with my sword before making sure she was okay. She was able to stand up, so that was a good sign.
"Go over to Henry and help him out, you shouldn't have to move around too much with his magic covering you," I told her, pointing in his direction. She nodded and raced off with her lance in hand. The sounds of battle seemed to be dying down a bit. It was a fairly quick skirmish for once and after looking around, I determined that everyone seemed to be okay. I saw Sully slam a lance into the last risen and it disappeared into smoke. Seems that was the last of them.
"Is everyone alright?" I asked as I walked around the group. There seemed to be a few scratches here and there, but nothing serious. I got a series of "yes" "yup" and "no problems" as replies as they nodded their heads. "If anyone would like any wounds treated, do so now. We'll take a short break before we move on," I commanded. I saw a familiar blue haired man walking towards me.
"I thought I was supposed to be the leader?" he laughed and patted me on the shoulder, "It's all good, you're better at this stuff than me anyway," he told me.
"Thanks Chrom, but you are the leader. I just wanted to make sure people had some rest before we moved on," I answered with a grin, "Don't want our lovely leader working everyone to death just because he still has energy". Chrom laughed at that.
"That's a good point. If anything I just have more energy after that battle. It was fairly easy don't you think? There weren't as many as usual this time," he stated.
"Heh, maybe we're finally making a dent in them?" I joked, knowing that probably wasn't the case.
"I wish. No we're probably just so in the middle of nowhere that they don't even bother coming here. Now is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Chrom contemplated. I shrugged and looked around. I noticed Panne limping towards Lissa, Gaius helping her along. Something must have gotten her in the leg. Lissa seemed to have it covered though, because in no time Panne was walking fine again.
"We're lucky your sister is such a good healer," I commented, watching her heal Lon'qu's arm, which had a deep cut. Chrom nodded.
"Maribelle and Libra too," he added, nodding at the other two healers also doing a good job. "We've got a good bunch of people here. Let's not go losing anybody okay?"
"Yeah. I will do my best to make sure none of my strategies will leave someone behind," I assured him. He nodded and walked off towards his sister, no doubt to make sure everybody is alright. I definitely didn't want to lose any of them either. They're all great people. There was one person who lingered in my mind a little more than the others, however.
With her beautiful blue hair and "never give up" personality, why wouldn't she? This is a war, and I know I shouldn't be letting personal feelings get in the way, but whenever I have to plan for a fight or prepare to defend, I never want to send her to the thick of the battle. She's one of our most able fighters though, so to not send her would be a bad idea. It's always tough on me to send her off to what could be her final battle. She's strong and determined though, so I know she will pull though every time. I just can't help but worry.
I was pulled from my thoughts by a light tap on my right shoulder. My eyes widened slightly in surprise upon seeing who was doing the tapping. Speak of the devil.
"Robin? I think everybody is prepared to move on now. Are you okay?" Her lovely eyes showed a small hint of concern for me. I nodded and smiled. She could always make me smile, no matter the situation. Even when she was threatening to kill me for the good of the future, I couldn't help but smile at her. Her eyes had this unique look about them, with the mark of the Exalt in her left eye.
"Yes I'm fine, not a scratch," I assured her, "How about you? I doubt those horrific things could have gotten you right?" She grinned at me.
"Of course not. I was so used to fighting them in my own time. Fighting them here is no different. In fact, it's a little easier since there aren't as many," she commented. The future she came from must have been terrible. Undead everywhere, killing everything, a giant dragon larger than the whole city of Ylisstol bent on destroying everything. I could hardly imagine it. In her future… most of us were dead. That could not come to pass. I will do my absolute best to ensure it doesn't.
"That's good," I told her, "I worry about you. Well, I worry about everyone here I suppose, but that's beside the point. Please make sure you always survive, I don't know what I would do without you," I told her honestly. It's something I'd been thinking about a lot recently, and it was starting to worry me that she may die fighting for her future. While that would be a noble thing to do, I just couldn't accept it.
"That was sort of out of nowhere Robin. Are you sure you're alright? Of course I will do my best to survive! I have to see this through to the end, with you by my side. I know that now. We can and will overcome this, I promise you," she reassured me. I breathed a sigh of relief and pulled her towards me.
"Thank you, I just needed some reassurance I guess," I admitted as I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her close. Her warmth was comforting, and combined with her words, had me feeling better about everything already. She returned my embrace and we stood there for a moment, just feeling the sense of comfort we get from each other. It's a nice thing after a battle, even a short one.
We pulled back from each other and smiled. She was so beautiful… I wanted to kiss her right there, but it was not the time for that. I reached for her hand and entwined our fingers, preparing to march once again. Chrom was gathering everyone else up and preparing to leave. Lucina loosened her grip in preparation to head to where she was assigned before, but I didn't want to let her go quite yet. I squeezed her hand a little tighter.
"I would prefer it if you stayed here with me for now," I told her with a smile. Sully and Stahl could handle that area just fine if there was an attack. Lucina being moved over here would be no problem whatsoever. She nodded and fell back into step with me as we marched, not letting go of one another's hand.
We were on our way to the Dragon's Table. We were on our way to finally confront Validar and prevent him from reviving Grima. We were on our way to save the future.
I can't decide if I want to keep this going or leave it as is. I'm going to post it by itself for now, but if I decide not to continue it I may move it to my Picnic fic and turn that into the oneshot collection I was planning. Let me know how I did :)
~Chika