2. Going Off Script

Well, I had managed to upgrade one of my spell classes tonight. Using Negate, I had practically shot up a tree and once at the top had fired Wind into the air in ten sets of ten. However, when I didn't seem to get a notification on my HUD about taking a level in the class I found out that you actually need to hit a target for it to count. Disappointed but not surprised that I couldn't just level up my offensive classes so quickly, I went back down to the base of the tree and used a wind blade to carve a bull's eye target into the tree trunk. A quick shot at the target from twenty feet away showed that the counter had gone up one and I started blasting at it, keeping my distance in order to avoid the flying wood chips. I would have repeated my actions with Elwind but after the first one blasted the tree hard enough to actually cause it to bend hard enough the roots lifted up a couple inches I figured that would have to wait until I could train by myself on boulders, if not a cliff side for the higher levels.

Speaking of Elwind, the two secondary spells for D level Wind Class spells were Breeze and Wind Lance. Breeze as the name suggested was a breeze of moving air that moved between one and ten miles around the user, with a starting range of five feet around the user that could easily be expanded with practice. Wind Lance was essentially a double-sided Wind Blade that you held in your hand like an actual lance rather than it being attached to your fingertips making it better for techniques that required more flexibility than just stabbing a knife hand into your opponent or sweeping said knife hand across the front of them.

I would have gone for upgrading another spell class if the others hadn't showed signs of bedding down, and without being able to speak the language I did NOT want to annoy Frederick any more than absolutely necessary. No telling what a man capable of wrestling with a bear and killing it that way could do to me after all. As soon as I was sure that the other four were asleep, I tagged them all with markers before I pulled out my 3DS and headphones and began looking through the Phrasebook program, one ear jacked in and one ear kept free and constantly listening around me. I didn't have high hopes of being able to actually hold a conversation with the Shepherds anytime soon but repetition would make it easier so I might as well get started now. Two hours in, I heard Chrom begin to get up shortly followed by Lissa and I closed the 3DS with a quiet snap. The sound gained both of their attention and Chrom frowned when I stood up and walked over to him. I took an exaggerated look around before giving him a raised eyebrow. His frown grew more as he looked around in confusion before he sighed and made a follow me gesture and began walking, Lissa and me following.

There was silence for the first thirty minutes, our path lit up by a dimly shining Light Orb that hung overhead as we walked. It surprised me how long we were walking since I would have thought Chrom's danger sense would have been tripped much closer to the temporal portal's activation. That thought was put on the back hold when I felt a tremor through my tennis shoes just subtle enough that the two with me didn't feel it through their thicker boots.

"Ah hell." I muttered catching the other two's attention as I looked back. When I heard the first tree fall I cursed again and shouted "Run!" I took off like a shot but Chrom and Lissa still easily shot past me. Two steps later I remembered my new Negate spell and I was taking leaping bounds to keep up. I considered using Wind Jet as well but dismissed it. I needed to keep up with the two, not over take them. And I couldn't Negate them since I couldn't communicate with them well enough to explain the concept of weight removal.

Eventually after outrunning a magma eruption we came to a stop and as Lissa leaned on her knees to catch her breath I turned my head upwards and said "Chrom." The prince jerked at me saying his name before he and Lissa followed my gaze and I heard her gasp as the portal began to form. We watched as the two Risen dropped out and I aimed a pair of Spot Lights at them. They blinked in surprise for about ten seconds at the bright lights that were blinding them but gave a roar each before running towards us. Of course, I hadn't been idle, forming a Wind Lance in my left hand while holding my right towards them and Chrom had followed my actions by drawing Falchion. As the two Risen closed with us I began chanting Elwind under my breath repeatedly sending blasts of wind magic downrange. The first few shots went wide but as the Risen got close I tagged the one on the right and it went down with a roar before disappearing in purple smoke. Chrom shot forward and slashed the one on the left only to receive a shock when it was still around and tried to kill him. He quickly dispatched it in time for us to see Lucina make her entrance. I didn't pay any attention to her though since my Spot Lights revealed movement in the woods in front of us. I sent my Light Orb higher up into the air before cranking its Lux Factor up to eleven turning night into day. Once my eyes adjusted to the brightness, it was clear that like Southtown there were a hell lot of more enemies here than in the game. As in a whole freaking platoon of thirty of the bastards rather than the two fire teams of six to eight I remembered.

Scowling at the sight of the Risen running towards us, I discarded my Wind Lance and leapt in front of the others and held both hands held out at a right angle to each other before I began bringing them inwards as I called out as fast as I could "Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind-" I crossed my hands one over the other to form two full lines of the spells sending a barrage of the large wind blasts down range. The rapid barrage slammed into trees and risen alike, greatly reducing their numbers down to ten of them. It was at this point that Frederick and Robin made their presences known as Robin cut loose with a Thunder and Frederick went charging past me on his horse. With Frederick making it ill advised to do another Gatling style barrage, I shot forward for better accuracy and tore through the Risen at close range. Sully and Virion joined up with our group right as the last two Risen were dealt with, the last one taking an arrow to the head from the Archest of Archers (Whatever the hell that meant) and the last one got split in half courtesy of Chrom's Falchion.

I let out a sigh as the dialogue of the chapter played through, using heal again on my eft hip and ankle, the hip not having liked all of the moving I had did while the ankle was simply out of principle. Letting out another sigh, this time of relief, I looked up just in time to see Lucina already slipping away from the others. I was just barely quick enough to tag her with a marker before she slipped behind a tree and out of my false daylight. I frowned briefly considering whether I would be better off with her before I gave a sharp "Nah!" and went to join the others as they began making their way to the capital, dropping my Spot Lights as I did and dimming my Light Orb back to its previous level as it dropped down to hover over my head.

We marched throughout the night, arriving to the capital in the grey light of predawn. As we walked through the large settlement I matched IFF markers with the log I had been given.

"Civilian, Civilian, Reserve, Palace Guard, Pegasus Knight, Civilian, Shepherd, Civi- wait, what?" I suddenly stopped and snapped my head around when I saw the logo. A few steps later, Sully noticed I wasn't following and called out to me drawing the attention of the others. I ignored her though as I tried to figure out why there was a Shepherd IFF tag just floating in the air for a moment before I face palmed and took purposeful steps towards it. Once right in front of it, I knocked my hand three times on open air only to hear flesh meet metal and suddenly I was grinning at Kellam's shocked face. Giving a nod to myself and then a two-fingered salute to the one of invisibility, I quickly trotted over to the other Shepherds, Kellam's heavy armored steps following. The other Shepherds seemed surprised at Kellam's presence and my ability to detect him but seemed to want to get to the palace more than trying to break the language barrier to question me and we were soon back on our way, Lissa appearing to explain to Kellam about me if the hand gestures were anything to go by. I tagged Kellam with a marker as we walked before going back to identifying IFF tags, this was one Shepherd I would definitely want to know the location of at all times. The guy was a freaking ninja with his stealth training, and yes, he did train to be that 'invisible' according to the support conversations he had with Cordelia.

Eventually we reached the palace where our group split apart, Chrom Lissa and Frederick leading me, Robin, and Virion into the massive building while Sully and Kellam headed in another direction, most likely to the Shepherd barracks. We newbies followed the original three through the palace before we came into a rather wide corridor/audience hall. I wasn't sure what to call it as I looked around. It had balconies on either side of its length showing hallways that overlooked it though there weren't obvious stairs to them, a few doorways going off said walls and what looked like a rather large conference table further down the corridor. However, the most important detail was the fact that the Exalt and her Second in Command was in the room and talking with Chrom and the others.

I hung in the back watching as first Robin then Virion were introduced and asked questions before Chrom turned to me and gestured me over. Giving the Exalt a wary look, I stepped forward and gave a bow before I gave Chrom an uncertain look. It wasn't like I could answer interview questions after all, for all I knew they had been discussing the recipe in Reese's Puff cereal this whole time. Chrom pointed at the palm of his left hand with his right pointer finger and I let out a soft "Ah" in understanding. It wasn't answers they wanted, it was a demonstration. I walked to the right of the group for ten steps before I turned around and for theatrics' sake brought my right hand up to my left shoulder before slashing it down, a Wind Blade forming on the down stroke. I did the same with my left hand immediately after and let the blades hum to themselves for a few seconds before I dismissed them and formed a Wind Lance in my right hand and began spinning it around a few times before I dismissed it and used Breeze, taking a few moments to figure out how to extend the range so that the watchers also felt the air moving before I dismissed it and began running through a few of my other secondary spells, staying away from the Earth and Lightning ones since I didn't want to ruin the floor or shock the watchers. I finished my little demonstration by firing a Wind from my position near the ceiling down the rather long corridor, the relatively intangible attack magic dissipating harmlessly against the far-off wall after having lost most of its energy traveling so far. With the last spell done, I kicked off the ceiling and drifted down to the floor, flipping around on the way and canceling my Negate so that way I was at my full weight again, dropping the last foot with slightly bent knees.

There were more unrecognizable words shared between Chrom and his older sister before Chrom said something to Lissa who nodded and said something to Virion and Robin before she pointed at me and made the universal follow me gesture. I gave a nod and we all followed Lissa out of the room, the other occupants already back into deep discussion. We went down a new set of corridors to come out of the 'side' of the palace where what looked to be a slightly fancier then usual barracks sat between two others, the middle one not only twice as big with two stories but twice as wide as well. It didn't take much to realize that this place was made for the Elite of Ylisse's military personnel. A minute later we were in the common room of the barrack and I took in the sight of Maribelle talking with Sumia with Stahl and Vaike watching nearby. A quick glance around showed Kellam's marker but no Kellam and I grinned as I purposefully strode over to him and gave what I was sure was going to become the customary three knocks against his armor.

After I had given a yet again surprised Kellam a two-fingered salute, I made my way back to the others and stood beside Maribelle, giving her a small but respectful bow of my head, and it was a bow, not a nod, and Maribelle blinked once before she did some abbreviated curtsey gesture with only her hands before both of us turned our attention back to the conversation Lissa was having with Robin and Virion. When Vaike suddenly let loose with a belch that would have had him being given disapproving looks at pretty much every single restaurant on the planet back home, I cut him off partway through, my Gibbs slap to the back of his head causing him to stumble forward a step. When he spun around to glare at me, I gave him a glare of my own before I said "The next time you insist on acting like an ogre, consider the station of those around you, we have a princess in Lissa, a high noble in Maribelle, and two other women in Sumia and Robin. Not to mention it's disgusting for the rest of us." I pointed at the ladies as I said their names hoping it would get at least part of what I was saying across the language barrier.

Fortunately for me, Maribelle seemed more than willing to get my message across as she verbally tore into Vaike. I didn't need to know the language to know it was much worse than what I could come up with, just the facts she went for a full five minutes and Vaike was cringing more and more as it went on was enough evidence. Maribelle ended her tirade with the huff of a high society person having to deal with those well below their station who didn't even try to use the 'common' manners that everyone should be taught before she turned towards me and asked a question. I only had time to raise an eyebrow in confusion before Lissa seemed to be YET AGAIN explaining my language problem.

Maribelle apparently found my lack of communication skills slightly horrifying but before anything more could come from that particular revelation, Chrom and Frederick entered the barracks and orders were soon visibly given as most of the group quickly left the room. I was left looking around the room in confusion while Chrom gestured Maribelle over and began talking with her in a low voice. "Like I could even understand you guys if you talked normally." I huffed to myself as I watched them before Maribelle nodded and turned back to me with a considering look. Having an idea what that meant, I gave Chrom a raised eyebrow before I pointed first to myself, then the noble before putting my pointer finger on the flat palm of my other hand in a fairly common gesture for 'stay'. Chrom raised an eyebrow of his own but nodded with a smile, apparently glad that I had figured it out myself without them having to pantomime what they wanted.

As Chrom said one last thing to Maribelle which had her giving a more formal if just as short curtsy to her lord, I cocked my head and thought 'Looks like I'm not going to get to see the fight between Chrom and Lucina after all. At least I can keep Maribelle safe though.' Maribelle watched Chrom leave the room before she sighed and turned back to me and gave me a thorough once over. I could tell she didn't know what to think of my 'modern' clothes, not that I could blame her. They were obviously 'common' clothes, but made better than anything else she had probably seen short of in a ball held for nobility. I probably didn't help matters when I brought out my 3DS and selected an army camouflage hat that I had gotten at a yard sale and my 'Zelretch' had provided with a few other things from home and put it on, giving as crisp a military salute as I could manage to her. I was validated though when she gave a roll of her eyes and a definitely amused sounding huff before she made a follow gesture and began making her way out of the commons.

We made a quick stop at what was obviously her room, the two parasols set in a rack that matched the one attached to the belt simile of her outfit were a big clue. Maribelle grabbed a piece of paper and a quill and drew something on it before she turned and gestured me over. When I reached her desk, I looked down to see a pretty good drawing of a small horse with a rider before I looked at her in surprise as she grabbed my left hand and intently studied the Spell Sigil there. A moment later, she had copied it on the paper next to the horse along with wings before drawing a question mark below the drawings. I took just a moment to thank Primus and a few other now supposedly fictional gods that at least the grammar marks of the language were most likely going to be same if she was using that mark before she tapped the page while looking at me expectedly. I cocked my head in confusion before I let out a soft "Oh" in understanding. She was asking if I could ride a horse or would use my Spell Sigil to travel. Clearly Chrom had mentioned my earlier demonstration. I cocked my head in thought before I tapped the horse. I did know how to ride since I had a friend who loved them. Sure, there'd be sore legs but that's what the Heal spell was for. I got a nod of approval from Maribelle for my choice and she quickly shooed me out of her room while she packed a bag.

We made a quick stop in the kitchens, Maribelle abusing my Inventory with glee to grab a few perishables along with the standard 'traveling food' of the era when she found out about it. After that it was straight to the stables and Maribelle had one of the servants there ready a horse for me even as she cooed over her own personal mount, giving it a quick carrot along with a brief but detailed brushing before putting her saddle on it. Clearly, she had been taught that it was better for her to do her own 'maintenance' of her horse than just let the servants do it for her. She led her horse out of its stable and once the stable hand had given me the reigns for my own mount I followed her. Once outside of the stable we mounted up and after ensuring that I actually seemed to know what I was doing Maribelle led the way out of a small palace entrance and we began making our way for Themis, and unknowingly in Maribelle's case, trouble.

END

Author's Notes: Check out the poll I put on my profile dealing with the three one shots I'm currently working on. Poll will be closed in one week.