"Oh, come on. Hey!" a woman's voice shouted sternly.
"Hey!" a young girl's voice cried out. "You shouldn't be so mean!"
"Well, he shouldn't be asleep in the middle of the dirt. Get up or I'll gut you like a fish!" she demanded.
Grunting unpleasantly, I opened my eyes to find two people standing over me. One of them was a young, mid tall looking woman with short black hair, put into a spiky tight afro. Her eyes were almond shaped with those partially thick eyebrows over those chocolate iris eyes. She had a rather petite nose above those thick lips of hers. Her skin was a light shade of tan, and she held in her hands an iron forged axe and a bag of seeds—possibly food for livestock or crops. She wore the standard type of clothing for villiagers and commoners, pale rags that were naught but a brown color at best.
The other one was much finer dressed, and much younger all the same. She looked to be fairly short, while wearing a fine black and pink dress. She had red hair, a rich auburn with her hair in a tail on the back of her head with stray bangs over her forehead. Her eyes were full of innocence and kindness, a lighter brown, copper color to the foxlike eyes she beheld. I made small sounds as I rose to my feet and stood over them. Closing my eyes and yawning, I rubbed the back of my head to relieve myself of the feeling of hair distortion. "I'm awake, I'm awake." I told them.
The little girl brightened up with such innocent affection in those twinkling eyes of hers. "Oniichan!" she cheered as she clung to my leg, the tightness reflecting that same affection and that same innocence.
The girl was about three feet tall, which made a lot of sense for her to be hugging my leg, but if not her, I'd be freaking out about such an area being clung to. Seeing this little girl, I smiled to myself, but I kept a still expression. Looking up from her, I saw the woman with the axe. "I must have interrupted you before I woke up." I told her as I slightly bowed my head. "I'm sorry. We needed a place to rest our heads once the moon hit rooftop last night."
She closed her eyes and breathed out an exasperated sigh, with a smile pressed onto her lips. "No, it's fine, it's fine. That girl was actually very pleasant and helped me out around the place. You wouldn't know it unless you've had her cooking, but she's quite good." she dismissed and complimented.
I looked down to her, my face now flavored with surprise with my eyes widened a tiny bit and my brows both raised. "Since when could you cook?" I asked her.
She gave me a screamy, serious and yet cheeky angry face. Not fiery or full of hatred, more like irritated at a fact I didn't know. "I've always known how to cook!" she squeaked out.
"I don't believe you." I flattened her argument.
She was pounding softly away at me with her tiny little fists, closing her eyes tightly and srunching her lips irriatedly. "I know how! I know how! I know how! I know how!" she kept repeating.
I turned to the other woman. "I hope you don't mind if I ask for some food." I requested.
The woman smiled at me, squinting her eyes. "Yeah, uh huh." she said as she pulled out a wooden square lid flask that was steaming from the top and offered me the flask. "I hope you like soup."
I took the flask and poured into my mouth gently, so that nothing would overfall onto me and burn me. The thick and warm liquid flowed easily into my mouth, and I instantly remembered this taste. It was cheesy, tangy, full of kick and flavor, it was amazing to me. "Mmm... I guess you can cook, Hikari." I complimented her flatly.
She looked up at me with that big cutesy smile, her eyes twinkling and glistening with those rosy cheeks. "I'm so glad you like it, Oniichan!" she bubbled out.
"I never said that I liked it." I pointed out.
Her smile, her radiance, immediately morphed into gloom and tears. She looked mortified by this, in a comic display of sadness. Fat and heavy tears globbed out of her eyes as she looked up at me like a mewling kitten. "You don't like it?!" she cried out. "Y-you're s-s-sooo meee-eee-eean!"
"I love it. You should make it again sometime." I turned her around once more.
She beamed out in joy once more, giggling as the tears practically evaporated. "Yay!" she cheered as she hugged me tighter.
"Yeah, your sister's a very good cook, stranger." she complimented. "Maybe you two should come back here."
I looked to this smiling common woman, my expression now blended with seriousness in my eyes as I maintained my plain face. "How did you know she was my sister?" I asked.
She stammered back half a step from the sudden punch of intimidation, her expression was broken into submissive fear to the intensity of my words and my voice. "Well, I assumed, since you both have red hair—I didn't mean to—." she studdered.
"—I appreciate you looking after my sister and allowing her to help you." I thanked, cutting her off. "Nevertheless, we're leaving."
I began to walk as Hikari clutched onto my arm and tugged on my hand, causing me to stanch in my movement. "Oniichan, come on! We just woke up! We could at least show appreciation!" she whined.
As I had my tongue ready to lash out my deafeating argument, I heard something that didn't sit well with me. The infinitesimal crackling of a faraway torch. The pounding of feet, swiftly making way closer and closer to us. I heard breathing, grunting, panting and laughing of gruff men growing louder as the distance closed in. My eyes flickered with anger as I grunted and turned my head back in the opposite direction of which I desired to walk. "Hikari." I signalled to her as I turned my gaze back down upon the girl, allowing her to discern my message from my eyes alone.
She absorbed the information from my eyes, and she gasped inwards, the breath catching in her throat. "Oniichan, are you sure?"
"What, you leaving already?" the woman chided. "Worthless, shameless piece of—."
Hikari let go of my hand and I took my hand to my hip to find the sturdy hilt made of sandalwood with a bandage grip. The material was old, and yet fresh, like well preserved lefotvers from a separate project of construction or medicine. "Go inside of your house." I ordrered her.
Feeling the grip in my hand, I swiftly unsheathed my blade. The sword was long, sharp, strong and ebon in material. The shape of the blade was like that of a menacing unholy thorn branch or a crab's bone claw that was broken and refitted with metal with three prongs not dissimilar to fangs. The sword barely reflected the sunlight with a silvery clouded glare, the metal weapon feeling heavy and yet light in my hand. It simply felt like the perfect balance for me, as my glove gripped perfectly with the papery material coating the hilt. "Hikari,you make sure that everyone closes and locks their doors before coming to my aid." I ordered her in perfect sequency.
"Or, what?" the woman argued. "Why should I listen to—?"
"Oniichan says that bandits are coming here!" she answered the woman.
Ignoring anything else, I strode forward, holding my blade in my hand before I realized a simple truth. "You are to stay hidden." an old, sturdy man's voice ordered me. "Nobody must know."
Remembering these words in my ears, I grunted as I sheathed my sword and grabbed another hilt, taking out an ironforged large sword with an equally heavy wide blade. The sword was not going to be as favorable with me, but it was all I needed nonetheless. Grumbling in displeasure, I walked down the main road until I found that I was in the center of town. The town itself was mostly a simple place, wooden architecture for the buildings of commerce and houses, grassy fields and dirt roads all around, and quite an amount of farming patches for vegetable and animal farming. All the while, it was a good environment to live in and peaceful way to go about your needs. The problem is, though, these places are the constant targets for hunting and feasting for bandits. Going over this fact with my surroundings, I clenched my teeth in my closed mouth, looking ever forward at the incoming threat. This is going to be trouble, I grumbled to myself as I swung my sword back and forth twice to loosen up my wrists. But, you've gotta get some quick cash somehow.
I stood there stoically, looking dead onward upon my enemy. Upon their entry into the town, they came immediately to me, the only person who was not cowering or hiding from them. Their leader was a bulky man, hunched over in his posture and wearing hide rags and iron as armor. He held a big bronzed axe over his shoulder, and he had such a bulky shaped and damaged looking face with these giant white bugged teeth with long flimsy black hair. He looked like an ass that you'd keep only for carrying your heavy items. "You the protector o' this here town, lad?" the leader spat as he asked me, stepping forward ever so slightly.
"You here to raid folks who've done nothing but work for an honest day's payment?" I asked in response.
He snorted in humor at my response. "You think you can just say stuff like that to me freely? Yer funny lad." he downput me with a repulsive smile.
Keeping my disgust hidden, I shook my wrist free of any potential weaknesses to strain one last time. And we stood there in stalemate. That was when I took the opportunity to look upon his men. Six of his men were holding iron swords, two of them were myrmidons—I could tell by the robes that they wore, two of them were holding them backhandedly—which made me convinced that they were thieves, and two of them had iron plating on their tunics by the shoulders and they were dressed more like well prepared commoners. These last two were the standard mercenary class, the slower of the fighting swordsmen types. The thieves were fast enough, but frail and weak. The myrmidons that I saw were my only peers, even though I could tell by their stance, posture and expressions that they were rookies, only used to dealing out against the defenseless. Aside from the donkey and his swordfighters, there were two mages. One of them held a green book in his hands, while the other held a purple book in his. One of them was in the standard animage apprentice's garbs with that old and unappealing look to the strange palette of black, red and brown with violet mixed in the wrong way. The other one was wearing dark black and purple robes that were partially tattered and torn just a little amount, he also wore a skull piece that looked to be the standard helm for a dark magic user, charmed for partial control of the arcane power.
I stood there unintimidated by these thugs, staring down their leader. He nudged his head forth and snorted. One of the myrmidons and one of the mercenaries ran towards me, both of them preparing to team up their two swords to slash at me in one single combined swoop. The mercenary was the stronger one but the clower one, so he came a little bit behind the leading myrmidon. The bandit boss smiled victoriously as they both came in for the kill. I scoffed through my nostrils as I grabbed my sword with both hands and swung in an upwards arc with all of the speed and force that my muscles would allow me. With a sound of meat ripping and metal klanging loudly, a slim sword and a broad sword of iron making for the stronger and faster fighters flew through the air, and landed upon the ground, stabbing into the earth. The myrmidon and the mercenary were on their knees, missing hands on their arms. The wound bled with such an ameteur gush of weakness before they looked up at me in a pitiable fashion, and with one single handed slash, I lopped off their heads and let them roll over to the halfway point between them and I.
Without a second's notice, I heard the crinkle of a moving pebble behind me. I flipped my sword to be backhanded as I used my left hand to punch at an unsuspecting thief's neck, causing him to yipe and gag from choking on the sheer force of my punch. Then with my right hand I drew upwards with a backhanded sword to slash his throat nearly off as blood sprayed from his neck. Pencil turning 180 degrees, I flipped my sword to forehand as I slashed down with the broad iron sword, tearing through meat, sinew and bone as I cleaved the last thief in complete halves, as he was only allowed a loud boiling and bubbling cry of fear and pain before it all became gurgles and phlegm mixed with blood clogging his throat. "Hmph, piece of filth." I insulted as he fell to death in front of me.
I took my sword to backhand as I used two hands to shove the blade back and to my left just a hair in order to brush past my body. My sword made its way deep into the entrails of the other mercenary, piercing all the way through his torso and out his back by the tip's edge. He grunted and gurgled, sputtering out in crushing defeat as I forcefully tore the sword out through the sides of his body and swung my blade in a full moon circle; soon after, a myrmidon's body slid into a building's wall and his head tumbled a good distance away in the opposite direction. I felt little to no satisfaction in murdering these bandits, because they left no resistence to their death as I struch them down. They didn't provide a challenge. They were meager, at best. But this wasn't their best day, was it?
"Kill him!" the bandit ass brayed at the two mages.
I was closest to the one with the green tome in his hands, so I simply rushed at him first. "Yeah." I repeated as I swiftly sliced and cleaved him in half, watching his blood pour all over the ground at their feet and I looked to the bandit chief and his last mage. "Kill me."
Just as the mage was going to cast his hand at me and chant a spell's words, I noticed something that I didn't truly expect to come into play. A threefold small bolt of golden lightning struck upon the dark mage, and his body fell to electrified cinders and char next to the last bandit. He stood there before he began backing up in his steps, shuddering and soiling himself while he tried to bray out his ugly voice once more. I looked at him with deathy seriousness hidden by my plain expression. "Light out while you can. Hie on with you, ass of the bandits." I commanded.
He flamed up at this as he drew up his axe. "You know not who you be speakin' to boy!" he brayed as he leapt back a few steps and took the the air in order to swing down upon me. "I am the chief! I am—!"
"Dead." I finished as I took a singular step forward and I shoved my blade upward with only my right arm's force.
The blade pierced in so deep it went all the way down to the hilt of my sword, before I took up his fat lard body and threw it against the ground. After that spout with a bunch of amateurs, I was splashed in fresh blood and my right glove was absolutely soaked in blood. I spat at the ground before I put the iron blade away. "Oniichan!" Hikari's voice called out to me as I looked up to see her running to me.
She ran to me with such speed, like she could be her own horse, and she leapt into my arms, holding something in her hands and smiling up at me. "Oniichan! Did you see me? I zapped that stupid magic bad man and saved you!" she bubbled at me.
I furrowed a brow at her. "That was you?"
She put on her super angry face, cutesy style, but still flustered. "Yes it was me! you know I'm good at magic, Oniichan!" she shouted piercingly loud, making echoes across the town and even the outer valley.
"You know magic?" I asked.
She growled as she flicked her wrist a few times and cast her hand forth, yelling at me as I stepped backwards to evade the strike ofbitter lightning on a clear day. "See?! I can use magic Oniicha—!"
"Calm down, I was just joking." I said in utter monotone.
She crossed her arms and looked away from me. "You have no emotional differences, Oniichan! You're so hopeless! You're gonna end up—!" she kept yammering away.
By that point, I was halfway to the other side of town, just walking and ignoring her while she stood there. "Keep talking, Hikari! Keeeeeeeep talking!" I called out to her.
Gods, I seriously hope that someone out there has so much money that even she'll shut up.
XXXXXXXXXXX
Neither Hikari or Ladon knows that somewhere in the fields of Ylisse's provinces, Chrom sneezes.