Chapter Two: Meeting the group

As the metal door flew open, a loud yell of panic sounded with momentum passed the doorway, and to both Lissa and Ricken's surprise, they watched as a man was flung to the ground, face first, and skidded slowly to a halt.

"You're still not giving it your all Stahl!," A woman in red armor was staring agitatingly at the crippled pile she was addressing. Her hair was cut short, a bit brighter shade of the same red that her armor was. Ricken stared at her with awe. Considering her smaller frame and height, he would have never thought in his life that she would have been able to launch a man in a full set of armor off of his feet.

She slowly looked over at the door, noticing it now being open, and flashed a somewhat welcoming grin at Lissa and Ricken.

"Well then, he's the new guy huh?" She locked eyes with Ricken, who found himself heavily flustered. He wanted to make a good first impression for everyone here.

"That's right! Ricken, this is Sully. She's one of our best. Oh-," She turned and pointed at the man Sully had thrown across the room moments before, who was currently trying to pull himself up off of the ground. "That's Stahl. He's….well, average. And I mean like, everything about him. He's pretty bland."

"Hey! You know I heard you,right?" Stahl turned, once he finally managed to stand back up, and looked at Lissa with a playfully feigned look of shock. Lissa let out a soft giggle, and rolled her eyes at him. Clearly everyone here seemed to get along well.

Ricken's attention was brought back to Sully, who had walked closer to them and was now hovering over him. He felt his face flush a little, and his arms clutched tightly to his tome. He wasn't very comfortable for having this attention.

"A bit small, isn't he?"

Ricken felt his heart sink at hearing this. He wasn't going to go yelling at her over it, after seeing what she was able to do to someone twice his size, but it still stung being reminded of his height. He tried to hide any sign of offense he took from Sully's words, but he realized he must not have done a very good job of it, after hearing her speak up again.

"Doesn't matter though, what matters is that you pack a tough punch. I'm sure you got a lot of talent with that magic junk if you managed to save Maribelle." Ricken let a small smile cross his face, and he let himself relax a lot more. She was friendly at the very least, if maybe a bit blunt.

"T-thank you." Sully gave him a courteous node before looking back at Stahl. Her expression had completely changed, her voice was rougher and a lot more commanding as she addressed her comrade.

"Alright you little wimp, we're gonna keep at this until you finally land a blow on me." Stahl appeared to be a little out of it, his head half down as he slowly sighed deeply.

"Alright, alright. I hear you."

The two of them both rearmed themselves with training weaponry, and took their stances for sparing. Lissa gently nudged Ricken's shoulder and huffed. "Sully gives Stahl a real hard time, but I think it's secretly because she thinks he doesn't put a lot of effort into his training." Ricken nodded his head a bit in understanding. It sure did seem like Sully cared a lot about strength.

"Well, as you can probably tell, this area is the sparring room. That door to the right, on the other side away from those two, is where we keep all the weapons and dummies that are used for practice."

"Do most of the shepherds live in the barracks?"

Lissa nodded her head at him, slowly walking forward, Ricken hurrying after her. "There are living quarters downstairs, the stairs down are in the dining hall." She began leading him down a small hallway, the noise from Sully and Stahl faded behind him as they walked.

They passed several doors, each one pecking at Ricken's curiosity. "What're in all the rooms we're passing?" Lissa looked back at him, her eyes sparkling with a wee bit of mischief. "Well nothing really. The first one we passed was the Kitchen, and I think one of the others was the Library. Miriel is probably got herself stuffed away in there."

Ricken felt a little disappointed they weren't going to take a peek into the library. He was very study oriented himself, and he often enjoyed reading. He remembered meeting Meriel on occasion in the castle's library.

"Where is everyone else?" Ricken was curious as to wear the Shepherds tactician was, as well as that amazing swordsmen he had seen during the mission to rescue Meribelle.

"Well Vaike is probably wondering about the city, I think he said he was looking for a replacement for his axe. His old one broke...somehow." Ricken couldn't have been for sure, but he swore Lissa appeared to have a small smile on her face when she said that. "Maribelle is at home right now, her family was absolutely worried over her after what happened. Frederick and Chrom are making some preparations for tomorrow's travel. Virion is around here somewhere I'm sure. Robin's probably in the back field, practicing or what not."

Ricken blinked his eyes, slightly overwhelmed by all the names. Of course he already knew Frederick, you couldn't go a day where you'd see Chrom without Frederick hanging around somewhere close by. But besides that, most of those names were all fresh and new to him, overlooking Robin, who he'd only ever met once before.

"Ah- and I can't forget ol grump. Lon'qu, he's amazing with swords. But yeesh, he's got a bad temper." Lissa shrugged her shoulders a bit, still smiling as she lead Ricken to the end of the hall to another metal door, very much resembling the entrance door.

"Wait here for a little bit, okay?" Ricken blinked in confusion at Lissa, and she let out a sigh of discomfort. "I gotta speak with Robin really fast. After that I'll show you down to where you'll be sleeping."

"Alright, I'll...wait here then." Lissa gave him another passive grin before pushing her way outside, leaving the door hanging open. Ricken watched from the open doorway as Lissa ran her way across the open patch of land, and his eyes wandered to her destination. Robin was standing silently at the very edge of the field, her back was to the barracks, so Ricken couldn't get a really good look at her from where he was standing.

However as Lissa approached, she called at to her, and Robin turned to face her. She appeared a little dazed, as if she was startled by Lissa's sudden presence. The two were a little too far away for him to be able to make out what it was they were talking about, though from the way Robin glared at Lissa, he could only imagine Lissa was apologizing for something. It ended shortly, with Robin letting out a sigh and Lissa smiling a little at her, then softly chirping something loudly. She grabbed Robin's arm and started to pull her towards the barracks, Robin's face showing a sign of confusion until she sees Ricken in the doorway.

Once they were close, Lissa let go and did several weird motions with her arms. "Robin, this is Ricken. He's our new member! You guys met once before, right?" Ricken was a little flustered at how forcingly Lissa was in this introduction, but he quickly cleared his throat and politely smiled at Robin.

"Yes. It's good to see you again, ah...we never had a proper introduction." Robin smiled back at him, her only seeing eye gleaming with intrigue and something almost mysterious.

"Heheh, yes I'm glad we might actually have a chance to speak. It would be nice to sit down and get to know one another some time. Comrades work best when their well acquainted after all." She held out one her hands to him, and Ricken shook it shyly. Something about her very much interested him. She seemed very wise in some way, and at the same time he could only imagine she was a powerful combatant.

"Y-yes, that would be good." Robin pulled her hand back, tilting her head a bit as she seemed to study him. It made him very uncomfortable, and he could feel the flush that had spread across his face.

"Well...I should get going, I'm sure Chrom will want to speak a little before we depart in the morning." Ricken blinked, realizing he had been staring back at her the whole time. Robin looked back at Lissa and softly nudged her as she passed by Ricken. "Make sure you're back by nightfall,"

Ricken starred after for a few moments, watching her walk down the hallway and away from him. He was brought back to his sinces as Lissa nudged him a bit, chuckling under her breath as if she had just heard a joke he had missed. "Come on, I'll show you to your bunk."