Chapter 2
"What the hell are you doing Nowi? Dear Naga!" Robin shouted in surprise.
Robin was rather confused as he had brought back the orange for Nowi, who proceeded to eat it whole. She took a bite out of it like it was an apple.
"Isn't that really bitter?" he said.
Nowi shrugged and took another bite. At that moment Stahl chose to run into their tent.
"What happened? Robin why were you shou-" he cut himself off after seeing Nowi, "Dear Naga my eyes are bleeding."
He ran out crying, and covering his face with his hands.
Robin sighed. He looked at the manakete. She looked young and innocent but she was old enough to know why what she was doing was weird. To humans at least. Putting that aside, he was interested in her clothing.
They were in the middle of Plegia, and as the sun rose in the sky so did the temperature. She was wearing a heavy looking long-sleeved shirt which was tightened at the wrists so it wouldn't ride up.
"Aren't you going to to be really hot in such a thick piece of clothing?" he asked.
Nowi countered, pointing her orange at Robin, "Aren't you wearing a heavy cloak? It looks like it weighs just as much as me."
Robin took a quick step outside and looked around for a minute. Seeing nobody nearby he popped back into the tent to answer the confused Nowi.
He leaned in and whispered, "to tell you the truth, its climate controlled. It is quite cool under the cloak. It has a powerful magic laced into the fibers of it. Don't tell anyone else they might get mad."
Nowi seemed to understand as she nodded and finished downing her orange. Then she reached out and took his mug of tea and finished that off too. He stood there speechless as she walked out of the tent.
"Well I'm gonna go find someone to play with," Nowi dismissed.
Robin called after her, "Hey you should at least help me clean up the tent, you slept here you know."
But she was gone.
Robin sighed, and set about packing his tent up for the day. His high position in the army allotted him a knave who would come and pack his things into the carts, but he still organized everything and packed the contents of his desk away for safety.
After his things were all packed away he set himself to the task of finding Cordelia. She was the only one in the army who would be able to tell him whether or not there were any available tents from memory. She was a genius but he wouldn't say it to her face. It was a rather sensitive topic for her.
Fortunately he was in a great deal of luck. He found her in the first place he looked. She was finishing her breakfast in the mess tent, along with Sumia and Miriel. Unfortunately for him though, in the night one of the soldiers had accidentally set fire to his tent and burned a whole mess of them down. It seemed that not only would Nowi not be getting her tent, but that several soldiers would be looking for people to share with them.
Robin walked out of the tent sighing. He was going to supervise the take down of the tents. It would be more than an hour before the army was on the move again, and he had to make sure that they got ready properly. The heat was beginning to make them all sluggish, so it would probably take even longer than he estimated. They wouldn't be able to procure more tents or even any kind of shelter until the next city in their path, which was at least a week away and a midpoint in the journey before they reached the capital.
They were moving faster than any army normally should when out on the march but they did have a good cause. Because of Emmeryn's captivity and looming execution they were pushing their soldiers to march for more hours everyday. They started as close to sunrise as they could and didn't end until nearly sundown. The army regularly ended up pitching their tents in the dark by fire light. The shepherds had it easy in the fact that Miriel had invented a light spell that would glow brighter than a fire and could light their whole section of the campsite.
Robin took his list out and began checking off squads and platoons as they completed their routine packing for the morning. Marks were given to especially slow units, and merits to those who completed their task in record time. When drills were run once a week the slower units were tasked with more work. More laps and and more push-ups. Crunches were a must, as well as many more repetitions of weapon drills.
Soon enough, or rather, not soon enough, they were off on the march. Their destination was a line as straight as possible to reach the capitol of Plegia the quickest. Their rapid approach was leaving every member of the arm absolutely exhausted, but the moral was high. If Robin had to be a little tired and grumpy for the army to be in a generally good mood he would take that as a fair trade off. They all felt safe with him pulling the strings, and there was little dissent among the troops.
Robin had great confidence in their success in bringing Emmeryn home to Ylisstol. Though his plan for what to do once they actually get to the Plegian capitol were constantly changing as he thought of new scenarios and possible mistakes.
For the time being though, all he could do was prepare. There wasn't going to be any reaction to situations until they actually entered the battlefield.
The march that day had felt to be extremely long and arduous. Even Robin, with his special secret cloak, was beginning to over heat and feel the powerful effects of the desert sun. however night had not set in and he was now beginning to get rather cold. That was something about the desert that truly fascinated him. It was so horrendously and unbearably hot during the day, yet it was as cold at night as it was hot, or it at least seemed like it.
The cold was easily chased out by a good fire, so that was where Robin was. Nowi seemed to have attached herself to him, as even though there was plenty of space around the fire and only a few other people, she had chosen to sit next to him. Not just by his side, but to the point were as she swayed back and forth to some invisible song she would brush against his shoulder.
He didn't miss the odd glances that everyone around the fire tossed to him occasionally as the petite girl next to him quietly hummed to herself. The only one who didn't seem to care was Panne, but that was perhaps just the way those of her species acted, or maybe the fact that she didn't like Nowi for whatever reason. He didn't like that there was some rift in the shepherds.
Suddenly Nowi stood up and dusted herself off.
"This is all boring and stuff. I'm going to go to bed," she said.
Nowi stomped off towards his tent. He wouldn't think of it as hers to until she helped him clean it up in the morning. Robin sighed.
He looked back at the fire for a moment but was interrupted by a loud shout coming from his tent. It was Nowi and she was yelling at someone. Everyone at the fire stood alert and Robin set off at a quick pace towards his quarters.
He ripped the flaps of his tent to find Nowi wrestling with a stranger on the dirt floor of his tent. Immediately he set himself into action. He wrestled the man away from Nowi to avoid harming her. Then he pinned the man down with his arms behind his back and his wrists twisted into a painful position.
"Go grab some people Nowi. We have to restrain him for questioning," Robin said.
Nowi immediately ran out of the tent, and not soon after Vaike and Sully were in there with rope to help Robin tie the offender up. Afterwards they transported him to a different location to be put under watch and prepared for questioning. Interrogation was not his forte nor something he particularly wanted to get a good view of, so instead of assisting in that he left to go clean up his tent.
Inside the tent Nowi was sitting cross legged in her cot, covered in her blanket, though she wasn't relaxed. She was sitting and staring at the entrance, and then him once he entered. He could see that the assailant had hit her pretty hard in the mouth. A welt was beginning to form and there was a bit of dried blood.
"Why didn't you go get that checked out by Lissa or Maribelle?" Robin said, pointing to her injured cheek.
Nowi shrugged, "nah I'm too sleepy. I was just getting to bed."
With that she spread herself out on her own cot and let the blanket cover her. She turned to face the other direction.
Robin did his best to not disturb her as he cleaned up his tent. It seemed that the assailant had been rifling through his paperwork as they were all out of order, not to mention strewn about the room. He spent a good hour finding all the papers and reorganizing them all into proper order. Once that was finally done he took his cloak and trousers off and lay in bed in his long undergarments.
He lay in his cot, yet he could not fall asleep. His thoughts drifted to the attacker. He wondered how the spy had managed to enter his tent without anyone seeing him. He wondered how the spy knew to enter his tent. It made him question whether or not the man was from the Ylissian-Feroxi coalition. He would have to bring that matter to attention in the morning, if someone hadn't already thought of it.
Needless to say. Robin's thoughts kept him up well into the night, far past what he even usually stayed awake to study tactics. He did eventually sleep though.
More than a week later and they had still not managed to procure any kind of tent or canopy in order to give Nowi a room, and him his space back. The manakete girl had flooded his tent with her collectible things she picked up around the campsite and on the trail. She would pack them all up every day,- thank Naga- but have them all splayed out again by the time he was in his cot for sleep. They were all small little trinkets and baubles.
Mostly she gathered shiny rocks and pebbles, but if he looked hard enough at her piles of things he would be able to make out other little bits. Gold coins, wooden carvings someone had more than likely thrown out, small pieces of colorful cloth. She didn't seem to have a limit to what exactly she would gather. He had even approached her to make sure that she wasn't stealing any of it.
He asked her, and when he did she pouted, stomped her foot, and crossed her arms before giving him a response.
"What do you take me for? Some kind of sneak thief? No way would I do that to people's things. All my stuff is gathered fair and square," she had said.
Robin's only response was to take a deep breath. He gave up with it.
While they couldn't find any tents in the last major city they occupied, Robin did manage to procure a book on manakete of all things. It covered the general statistics, anatomy, and history of the species. Once he had the book he added it to his rotation of reading, and began studying the textbook. It was a book he only broke out when tactics began to give him a serious headache.
Robin hadn't gotten around to borrowing another book from Sumia, so he used the manakete book as a replacement. It was, overall, beneficial to him, considering he had a manakete imposing on his space. Among other things he had come to understand why she began hoarding things, and decided that he couldn't do anything about it.
He wouldn't have forced her to stop anyway. Intrusive as her habits were, she was sharing the space with him, and did deserve some bit of freedom in how the place looked. Well he thought like that anyway. Robin was almost certain that if he had consulted Vaike, for example, on the matter, he would have received some advice about taking control of his own life because he was his own man.
Over the past few days since they had occupied the recent city and moved on, he could say that he learned quite a bit about his new roommate. It appeared that he would have to share a space with her for the rest of the campaign after all.
It appeared that the campaign would soon be over however, as they were just two days time away from the Plegian capitol and saving Emmeryn. His strategy was nearing it's finishing touches, and he planned for their arrival to be at an exact time. The day that they arrived was scheduled for the Exalt's execution. It was a strategy that Gangrel would surely not think of.
His strategist might have thought that they would wait until the last minute to do the rescue, but there was no way that they would think of how he would carry out the operation. It was completely insane. An ingenious plan. It was a plan putting absolute trust in his army. It was something that a man like Gangrel could never think of in his own selfishness and hatred of others. He wasn't know as "The Mad King" for nothing.
Ever since they had moved within a week's range of the Plegian capitol Robin had been running his own scenario over and over in his head. The moves of the pieces repeated over and over in his head. All he could think of was the upcoming battle. It was quickly encroaching on his very soul until he had to ride with the caravan in order to avoid injuring him self by walking into a ditch or letting himself get run over by a horse. Courtesy of Chrom's orders he was confined into a covered wagon for many hours on end.
It was the most infuriating thing to him. He couldn't see the progress of the army from within the wagon. He couldn't see the landscape. He couldn't prepare for a surprise attack beyond just considering army sizes and types without some idea of the general terrain.
Robin couldn't assess the condition of soldiers, he wouldn't know which units to send where. What platoon needed to be where. He couldn't assess their physical preparedness to be in the front lines. What if he sent a unit forward in battle when they were far too tired too-
"Hey what'cha thinkin about Robin?"
The surprise question and presence of the manakete in the wagon made Robin literally jump skywards, or rather, wagon-wards, and he smashed into the ceiling of the covered wagon. He could feel the warmth of the heavy cloth on the back of his head.
Nowi fell over in a laughing fit.
"Dear gods. Hehehe! Oh-haahha! I scared you!" she cried.
Nowi was sobbing and hiccuping while trying to contain herself. Her hard, wheezing laughter had some effect on it. Robin began to let out his own laugh, though a bit more subdued, at the sheer amazement of her laughter. Quickly it escalated to dangerous levels of hysteria, and both Robin and Nowi were holding themselves by the sides. They calmed down for a moment, but one look at each other sent them both back into hysteria. Neither of them stopped until Robin started gagging and retching as his body tried to gain control.
"Gods. Robin control yourself," Nowi giggled, before quickly descending back into her fit.
Robin looked on in sheer amazement as to how she could keep going. He was busy choking on nothing trying to recover after such a long time of being unable to breath. He was also in some deal of pain, and nearly sure that he had bruised his ribs. He could only attribute it to her tough manakete body.
After some time she finally stopped. While he waited he had rested his head up against one of the small wooden support columns of the wagon and waited. He took a couple of deep breaths and calmed himself down after that completely senseless bit of laughter.
When Nowi was finally finished and had enough energy to calmly move herself onto the bench, she place herself next to him.
"Phew that was good, eh?" Nowi nudged his side with her elbows, causing him to flinch away.
"Ow. Careful Nowi I think I bruised my ribs," Robin said.
"Oh? What? You can do that to yourself?" Nowi question, as she brought her hand up and rubbed her ear.
"Yeah well, I was holding myself pretty hard in order to avoid literally having my sides split apart." Robin responded, "anyway. Why are you even in the wagon? It was cleared out of other soldiers so I could rest alone."
Nowi thought for a moment before answering.
"Well I'm still pretty sleepy after so long of dealing with those Grimy bozos for such a long time you know. Sometimes I get really sleepy around mid-day. Well not sometimes. I think pretty much everyday I've had to go ride the wagons. Thanks though, for clearing out the wagon. With all those soldier guys in here it makes it weird you know? They kinda scoot away from me whenever I jump on the wagon. Its weird, but I can't help being this intimidating lil' ol' thing," Nowi said, and winked at Robin.
Just like that, their conversation hit it off for the day. They talked the day away. Their chat ranged all over. As they sat and talked the sun steadily, and quickly, it seemed, fell into near obscurity beyond the horizon.
The wagon slowly creaked to a stop as the steam of the army crashed to a halt. The movement of the entire congregation was always a wave of sorts at stopping time. The center of the massive blocks of men would stop, and it would spread out from the commander in the middle like the ripples of water on a pond. It was as if the centurions themselves were the drops of water as they took up the call to cease for the day.
Tents were pitched in the near dark, and barricades were ignored in place of haste. While the army would normally set up some kind of barricade around the perimeter of the camp, the general speed of their current campaign could only allow for a night's watch to be put into place. In the matter of two hours the camp city was set up yet again and for the final time before going home.
Sometime the next day, a short while after noon they expected to arrive at the capitol. If things went as predicted, they would arrive prepared for battle as the Exalt was being ferried to her place of execution. Just as she would be ferried to her death, so would they ferry her into the safe arms of her nation.
That was for tomorrow. While he was unable to do anything else about the future other than prepare, that didn't let the nagging nauseated feeling leave him. For now though, he was to have one last chance to rest and relax before the battle on the morrow took his energy.
In celebration of the last night, Robin sat outside of his tent, and at a fire surrounded by other shepherds. He took part in swapping stories around the fire. Everyone was attempting to cheer themselves up in preparation for the grim reminder of what reality really was the next day. While he had limited memory, and thus, a limited supply of stories to tell, he did enjoy hearing others' stories.
In particular, the time when Sully actually got Frederick to arm wrestle her. It apparently took quite a bit of convincing from her side, and a little bit of nudging and hinting from Chrom. When the match began it had already ended. Sully gave great detail of how floppy and useless her broken arm was afterwards. Needless to say, nobody ever challenged Frederick to a game of strength again.
It was those such stories that they shared around the campfire. Silly stories. Embarrassing stories. Weird stories. There was no shortage of tales to tell around the fire. After some time though, Robin grew weary and decided to step out of camp for a short while.
As he passed by a patrol of watchmen they stopped and saluted him. As his position dictated, he stopped and gave them all the same courtesy. Then, he went on his way.
Some ways away from camp he stopped and found an excellent spot on a rocky ledge overlooking an incredibly short drop. Really it was just high enough off the ground for him to let his legs hang over the side without brushing the ground below. The clean breeze away from the army was something else.
He sat for a moment to just enjoy the clean air. There was no smell of unwashed men. There was no smell of camp smoke. Not even a whiff of the thousands of horses they transported with them. It was a completely refreshing experience, and he made note to step away from the main group a little more often to let his nose clear. That was when it happened.
"Robin hey watch out!" a voice said in alarm.
What? Robin turned to look at the source of the voice. At the same time, some blunt object smashed directly into his face. Having still being seated by the small cliff, he fell the short distance to the bottom and landed on his back facing skywards,
At the ledge a figure leaned over the edge to get a better look on her hands and knees. Yeah Nowi was looking down at him.
"What are you doing Nowi? Trying to kill me? What did you throw at me?" Robin grumbled.
Above him he could see the manakete's silhouette shift slightly. He couldn't make out her actual features as his position did not allow for direct moonlight to show itself. Normally the desert moon would give him an excellent view of his surroundings, though he was sure that she could see him nearly perfectly.
"Sorry Robin, I saw a snake, or I guess I was hunting it. I wanted to try to nail it with a rock," she said.
She held up a vaguely round object, which gave off a faint glowing shine.
"Nowi you threw your dragonstone at me?" Robin questioned from his prone position.
"Nu-uh its not my dragonstone. Its not even close to cool enough or precious enough for it to be my dragon stone," Nowi exclaimed.
She then proceeded to produce something else from who knew where, probably actual thin air. He was becoming convinced that she could just store objects with magic or something similar.
The object she was presenting to him was indeed a great deal more magnificent than the rock she had thrown at him. It gave off an actual glow. It wasn't just somewhat shiny and reflective like the other rock. He could tell that it was definitely the aforementioned dragonstone.
"It may not be as impressive as a dragonstone, but it still looks quite valuable, and you were tossing it around at some snake. Why are you hunting game with a rock again?" he questioned.
"Idoknow. I just saw the snake and it just kinda... happened...?" Nowi trailed off as she pouted, "Anyways it's kind of an important stone. It was hard to find you know?"
"Then why are you throwing it around?" Robin questioned.
"The snake. Remember silly billy? You know? Those really slithery, slimy things," Nowi was exasperated.
Robin looked up at her, "Uh-huh."
He stood up and made his way up and around the cliff. He then held his hand out at her.
"Here let me see the rock I'm going to see if I can't hit it when it comes back out of hiding. It can't be much different than casting magic. Its all about the focus and control. It takes a truly steady mind in order to do it well." He said.
"Oooh," Nowi exclaimed, as she handed him the shiny rock.
She seemed a bit nervous, though about what, he didn't know. She stood next to him and waited patiently for the snake to appear yet again. Luckily after only a short while waiting, the little creature snuck its head out of a crack in the rock. Beside him Nowi let out a heavy breath.
Taking in his own breath, Robin prepared himself. He narrowed his focus and gripped the rock. Then, he launched it striking the snake directly in the skull, knocking it unconscious.
"Wowwie Robin! That was amazing! You have to show me how to do it. Just like that. I want to be able to throw stuff like that," Nowi said, as she mimed a throwing motion.
"Well, alright then. I guess we have some time, and it is bright enough with this desert moon. Okay," Robin affirmed.
Next, Robin handed the shiny rock to Nowi and moved behind her. He reached out and grabbed her wrists in order to help her mime the motions better. It was his experience that experiencing something was the best experience. He felt that her getting to feel the motions was far better than him just showing her how to do it.
Therefore, he was standing close behind her, nearly pressing himself against her body in order to better teach her. He could feel that she flinched and froze as he gripped her wrists. She was still wearing the long shirt, though out in the desert night it was necessary. He had given up on asking what she was doing wearing such a thick outfit. He could understand a thinner shirt being used for protection against burns from the harsh sun, but not some winter thick shirt. It would be far to stifling for him.
She relaxed quickly into his grip, her surprise at such an action having been calmed down. Now Robin was guiding her upper body through the motion of properly throwing something for accuracy. It was all in the wrist, so to say, as he spent a great deal of time explaining the motion of the wrist to her so she could know how to actually catapult the rock at things.
He would start her all the way from a tilted position and fluidly move her to the point were she would allow the rock to fly from her hand at the target.
"I'd tell you it was all in the wrist, but you should also remember the other parts of your body that have to move in order to give the throw more power. I guess you could say it's all in the wrist, but it starts with the legs," Robin instructed, as he took her through the motion again one last time, "Alright now you can try it. See that little notch in the stone right there?" he pointed, and she nodded, "you're going to hit that spot."
"Okidoky Robiyoki. Let's give this a try," she said.
Robin sighed at the name.
Aversa left the luxurious bed of the mad king and left him to his childish sleep. She dressed herself and left the room. Then she proceeded through a number of winding pathways and halls, making sure her path was far too confusing to follow. She couldn't have any of that. A killing in the castle would rouse suspicion after all. After a brief check to insure that no one was coming she quietly cast the spell and stepped through the dark tunnel that opened up in front of her. Afterwards she closed the passageway entrance and proceeded into the depths of the castle's secrets.
After a long series of tunnels she came upon a large circular room, lit by candlelight. The large circle of candles cast an eerie glow, and a snake like man sat in the middle of this circle.
"How are things going with the king, Aversa?" the man questioned.
"Excellent my lord. Everything is according the plan. All goes as you deign it. Even the very waters of the world would be at your beck and call," Aversa chuckled.
"We are tracking the Ylissians as we speak. That spell of yours is doing wonders for intelligence, my darling," the man said.
"Hehe. Eexcellent," she said, long and sultry.