It was a cold day and the wind was howling through the mountains, making the young dark haired girl shiver every time the frigid wind his against her, her two hair ties blowing behind her. Her teeth chattered a little as she walked along the mountain path, following the Shepherds' trail. She had a look of pure misery and frustration on her face. "This was a great idea Severa, you idiot! Why couldn't you just stay in Ylisse and wait for them!?" Severa said out loud to herself as she wrapped her arms around her torso, trying to warm up. Soon Severa had arrived at a small mountain village. She quickly started to question the villagers, asking if they had seen the Shepherds for they were supposed to be passing through this area. Severa found out that the Shepherds had already left that morning. Severa let out a heavy sigh and started back on her way; she was starting regret not becoming a pegasus knight back when she had the chance.

Elsewhere the Shepherds were moving at a steady pace as they made their way through the kingdom, keeping up regular patrols just in case there were problems with bandits or Risen in one of the isolated villages. The group had stopped at a nearby river well in to the midday to give the horses and other animals a chance to get water and a small rest. Sumia was brushing her pegasus' mane when Cordelia walked up to her and said, "Here you are Sumia…umm you could have warned me about this book beforehand."

Sumia saw the novel in Cordelia's hands and giggled a little, "I'm sorry, I thought you knew what it was. But…you're returning it to me after one night. You must have found it to be a quite a page turner, hm?"

"It was definitely….surprising. But I really want to return it now." Cordelia said and handed off the book, happy to get rid of it. That book had made her feel dirty to say the least.

"I'll take that as you got your enjoyment out of it." Sumia commented with a smile that was far too innocent.

A blush came across Cordelia's cheeks that was the same shade as her hair. "Please don't insinuate things. You're embarrassing me!" she exclaimed.

"Hehe, I was only joking. Now, would you like to borrow another of my books? Oh! I have a really interesting one that takes place..." Sumia began but was then briefly cut off.

"No! That's alright, I think I've had more than enough of those kinds of stories for a long long time." Cordelia quickly said and then walked off.

"Huh, she sure is acting weird today." Sumia said but then brushed it off and put the book away.

It didn't take long for Robin to walk in to Sumia's tent as well to return the book he had borrowed the day before. "Here you go, Sumia. Thank you for letting me borrow it." Robin said.

"Oh wow, you read the whole thing last night? This is a long one too. You must read really fast, Robin. I guess I shouldn't expect anything less from our genius tactician." Sumia said with a small smile then asked, "So, did you like the book?"

"To be honest, a lot of it went over my head. I'm not used to reading these kinds of books." Robin told her and then said goodbye, walking out of her tent.

"Hm, seems like a lot of people are getting bitten by the love bug. Hehe, I wonder if anyone will start asking me for love fortunes." Sumia pondered out loud happily.

Robin set about to his usual daily routine with the Shepherds, all the while he thought over the romance book he had studied the night before. Unlike Cordelia, he had merely skimmed through the most of the book, trying to get the main points to figure out how exactly people 'fell in love'. It didn't seem too hard. From what Robin could tell, people tended to fall in love if they were able to spend a lot of time together, especially if they were alone. But therein laid Robin's main problem with trying to get Chrom to notice Cordelia, they were always with the other Shepheds. There was rarely a time when Chrom wasn't accompanied by Frederick, Lissa, or even Robin. Robin was starting to think that he may have bitten off a tad more than he could chew when he agreed to help Coredlia out. He knew he couldn't think like that though. Cordelia was his friend and he promised to help her out. He didn't like seeing her so sad.

Robin was pulled out of his thoughts when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder from behind. Coredlia had walked up behind Robin. The two of them started to walk side by side as Coredlia asked in a low voice, "So umm, how was it? Have you come up with any ideas?"

"Well, I may have learned a few things but it's still pretty foggy. The only thing that I can think of is to try to get you and Chrom to spend more time together to bond. But unfortunately I think that will prove to be rather difficult. The other Shepherds are always around, and Chrom is usually busy whenever we're at camp." Robin said and then followed up by asking, "What about you Cordelia? Did you learn very much from your book? I was hoping that you would understand a bit more since you're a girl after all."

"What did I learn? Uh…" Coredlia blushed and quickly looked away in embarrassment. "N-nothing! I didn't learn anything."

"Oh, well that's unfortunate. Hmm, perhaps I could look at the book you borrowed from Sumia and see if I could come up with some ideas from it." Robin suggested.

"No! Please don't do that no matter what!" Cordelia exclaimed.

"Oh..well alright. Hmm…" Robin paused, thinking to himself. Robin looked over when he noticed Sully and Stahl sitting together nearby. The two of them had recently become a couple after Stahl proposed to Sully. They seemed like a perfectly happy couple to Robin. After all, they spent a lot of time together since they were the Shepherds' cavalry divison. The two of them often fought side by side. It was then that a light went off inside Robin's head and said, "That's it!"

"What's it?" Cordelia asked, curious to know what had caused the young tactician's sudden burst of enthusiasm.

"I've figured it out Cordelia. The best way to get you and Chrom together is to have the two of you fight together on the battlefield. Think about it Cordelia, Stahl and Sully spent a lot of time together when we fight and now they're getting married. They formed a bond as they fought together. It's almost as if the more the Shepherds fight together, the more the supportive they become of each other." Robin explained.

Cordelia thought about it for a moment, a little hesitant to the idea. It seemed almost a little too simple. Cordelia looked over at Stahl and Sully. They had spent a lot of time together during their battles and were indeed now engaged even though they seemed to have completely opposite personalities. She supposed it was at least worth a try. Cordelia looked to Robin and asked, "So then, I guess you're thinking of having me and Chrom work together more during our battles? It sounds like a good idea but are you sure it will work with Chrom and me? What if we're unable to make a bond together in the same way Stahl and Sully were?"

"Oh come on! I'm sure it will work." Robin said positively and added, "I mean, why would you not be able to make a bond with Chrom when others can?"

"Well alright then, I guess we can give it a try." Cordelia said with a nod.

"Yeah, and with me as the Shepherd's tactician, I can use our strategies to make sure it happens." Robin said with a small smile on his face.

Unknown to Robin and Cordelia, they were being watched. Sumia and Chrom had noticed the two spending a rather lot of time together. "What do you suppose they're talking about?" Chrom asked Sumia curiously.

"I don't know, maybe they're discussing the two romance books they borrowed last night." Sumia suggested.

"Romance books? Huh, that sounds unusual for Robin. Hehe, I suppose is trying to learn a few things for Cordelia's sake." Chrom said with a small grin on his face.

"Huh? What do mean?" Sumia asked.

"You haven't noticed? Our little Robin has himself a huge crush on Cordelia." Chrom explained, still under the false impression that their conversation the other night about Cordelia had been about Robin's feelings.

"Oh really? That's great because it's obvious that Cordelia feels the same way. I think she's been lonely since she joined the Shepherds." Sumia mentioned.

"Lonely? There are so many of us around all the time. How can she be lonely?" Chrom asked.

"Hehe, not lonely that way. Lonely as in…well the book she borrowed last night was." Sumia paused and leaned in to Chrom and whispered in to his ear. The young prince's eyes went wide and he blushed a deep red.

"Oh uh…I see…" Chrom stuttered.

"Yep, and that's why we should try to set those two crazy kids up together." Sumia said with happily.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Chrom agreed.

The Shepherds were moving ever closer to their destination. They were prepared to find the bandits who had been ambushing travelers on the road as well as causing problems for the local villages. It didn't take long for the marching Shepherds start to notice shadowy figures sneaking around about the nearby rock formations. Soon there were arrows being shot at them by archers and the battle had begun. Robin quickly started to call out strategic commands to the various different Shepherds. They sent their Cavaliers out to make a preemptive strike while the armored division marched forward being led by Frederick and took the brunt of the arrow attacks that simply bounced off their heavy armor for the most part.

Throughout the entire battle, Robin had Chrom and Cordelia paired up together. Once the archers were taken out, he suggested that Chrom and Cordelia do sweeping runs against the enemy from high above. Robin thought things were going incredibly well. Chrom and Cordelia were having a nice romantic fly through the air on a Pegasus while killing bandits. If that wasn't a bonding moment, Robin didn't know what was.

Meanwhile Severa was panting as she ran up to the top of a nearby hill. She had been following after the Shepherds all day and felt like she was about to die of exhaustion. They could have at least slowed down a little and waited for her after she went through all the trouble to come back in time with Lucina and the others to help them save the future. Severa reached the top of the hill and then stopped for a breath; she was crouched over with the palms of her hands braced against her knee caps. She took several moments to try to catch her breath, coughing every now and then. Severa took a final few deep breaths before standing up straight and looking out at the battlefield before her. "I…I finally caught up to them…" Severa said happily between huffs.

Severa looked over the battlefield, trying to pick out her parents amidst all the chaos. Severa looked up in the air to see her mother along with a passenger. Severa smiled a little, figuring that it was obviously her father riding along as they worked together like a good couple. But Severa's smile soon turned sour once she saw the tuff of blue hair on the main, realizing that it was Chrom. Severa let out a small huff; of course it'd be her precious Chrom. Severa chose to ignore that for the moment however and quickly made her way in to the heart of the battle, cutting down several bandits along her way.

Severa gasped when she saw a bandit sneaking up behind Robin with a sword. "Look out!" she exclaimed as she rushed forward, vaulting over a few fallen enemies before striking down the bandit just as he was about to run his blade in to Robin's back.

Robin was stunned by the sudden entrance of this unknown girl. "What the…who are you? You're not with the bandits?" He asked her.

Severa looked over at her father in surprise and replied, "Who me? Of course not! D-don't be stupid. I'd never be some lousy bandit, and I just saved your life. You're the Shepherds, right? I want to join you."

"Serena? Nice to meet you." Robin replied, mishearing her as he grabbed his tone and fired a magic attack at a charging bandit on a horse.

"No! It's Severa." She replied quickly, feeling annoyed that her own father would get her name wrong.

'Severa? Hm, that's a strange name. What were her parents thinking?' Robin thought quietly to himself, fighting off more bandits with the rest of the Shepherds. Robin replied to the girl, "Oh, Severa. Well, we're kind of busy at the moment, but you seem experienced with a sword so I'm sure Chrom would love to have you join us."

After the battle, Severa introduced herself to the rest of the Shepherds but didn't mention anything about her being from the future. She hadn't seen any of the other children who had come to the past so she figured it would be for the best if she didn't say anything about it for the time being. Now that the bandits had been taken care of, the Shepherds decided to rest for the night and then set out back to the capital the following morning. Once things had died down a little, Severa searched out her mother. When she found her, she quickly struck up a conversation with her. Her mother started by welcoming her to the Shepherds.

Cordelia tried her best to be polite and kind to the girl who was obviously a couple of years younger than herself and was quickly surprised that the girl seemed to somehow know Cordelia. When Cordelia asked Severa about it, the young girl from the future quickly waved it off by saying that she had heard a lot about Cordelia from her exploits. About how she was such a great warrior and how she had heard about everyone thought she was so perfect. There was a tinge of bitterness in Severa's voice and Cordelia was a little put off the new girl's rather tense and apprehensive attitude towards her. Cordelia was wondering if she had said or done something already to earn herself ill favor with this new addition to the forces. Cordelia quickly thought of something to say in an attempt to get on a better foot. She said, "So, I heard that you helped save Robin, our tactician, from a bandit who snuck up behind him during the battle today. He's a truly dear friend of mine so I wanted to thank you so much for looking out for him."

"A friend huh? Is that all?" Severa asked curiously as her eyes darted down to Cordelia's left hand, where she noticed that there was a certain piece of jewelry that was mysteriously missing from the young Pegasus Knight's finger.

Cordelia noticed Severa looking down a little and asked, "Is something wrong?"

"I just noticed that you didn't have a ring on your finger. I would have imagined that the perfect Cordelia would have already caught the eye of some man by now." Severa said, lying through her teeth.

Cordelia blushed a little at this rather forward comment and said, "Well umm…no, not exactly. Athough…there is someone that I do rather like."

"Oh really?" Severa asked, her tone showing a piqued sense of curiosity as she said, "Tell me about him." What followed only worked to upset Severa as her mother started to describe, not her father, but Chrom. Severa's eyes narrowed and she bit her lip out of frustration and abruptly broke off the conversation.


Sorry folks. I know it's been a long time since my last update but I've been busy with a lot of professional related stuff going on as well as a bad string of writer's block and other projects going on at once. Normally I would reply to every review one by one but unfortunately I am short of time at the moment. I know that one person asked about when this taking place within the context of the story. It's taking place between the time skip after Gangrel is killed but before when the game itself picks back up. That way I could focus on the fanfic without having to weave in the game's timeline. Anyways I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. I've been working on it off and on for a while now. As always leave a review or comment if you'd like and I'll update again as soon as possible. Thanks again for reading and I apologize for there being such a gap in time between the updates.