Hey what's up everyone! Whats it been like almost a whole year? Ya sorry but 2016 like some of you as been somewhat of bumpy ride and I needed to take some time before I was able to continue. Luckily and hopefully now is the time for a triumphant return. Anyway I put some mending into this and did some prrof reading so hopefully its good, but don't be afraid to correct me and i'll get right to it. Enjoy!
"Mmm… Then perhaps we should settle this the Feroxi way!"
Crap! This is not going to end well if Frederick doesn't let Chrom's pride get in the way of his own judgement.
The Shepherds were outnumbered and completely overwhelmed by the sheer force and assertiveness the border guards of Regna Ferox that held the position were showing since their arrival.
"I s-still don't understand how they d-don't know their neighboring nation's royalty by l-looks." Robin whispered over to Chrom, both men shivering from the negative degree weather.
"Well, you didn't know what I looked like either when we first found you." Chrom countered back.
"To be f-fair I was never into p-politics." Robin spoke through his chattering teeth.
"You claim to be the prince of Ylisse? Then prove it on the battlefield!" Raimi, the one operating the debacle, yelled from atop the wall with her units ready to strike.
"It seems we don't have much of a choice milord, we have to strike." Frederick decided it was only a matter of time before Raimi grew impatient.
"I hate to say this to your fearsome demeanor, but doing this with the limited soldiers we have is not the best plan of action." Robin tossed in his two sense about how to approach this. It was true, after Sumia opted to stay behind to tend to the new mount they encountered after battling the risen on the Northroad, Robin and Chrom, mostly Robin, suggested that Stahl and Vaike stay behind in case more of the undead decided to plan any sneak attacks on a lone soldier. That would only leave a handful of shivering Shepherds to fight off the Feroxian border guards. Chrom was frustrated to say the least Robin was right, but so was Frederick they had no other choice, perhaps a final bargaining plea could help.
"E-emmeryn won't like this at all…" Chrom whispered under his breath before turning towards Raimi and her army.
"Please, good lady! If you'd just listen…"
"I've heard quite enough! Attack!"
With the simple swipe of her arm, Raimi order her archers and knights to fire and begin the rain of arrows and javelins towards the shepherds. Without a second thought Robin pushed Chrom out of the way to take the heavy blows the projectiles would inflict on the prince.
This is going to hurt.
With his eyes closed he held his arms across his face expecting to feel some sharp pain to be inflicted upon him, but it never came. Instead he felt the Feroxi winds pick up and it felt as if someone had grasped his leg and he was dangling.
He opened his eyes only to see both the Feroxi guards and Shepherds sized like ants and the snow covered floor a lot farther away from himself.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
"Phew, that was close. One more minute and you could've seriously gotten hurt capt…R-robin?!" Sumia had arrived in the nick of time, however her damsel in distress was not the one she was expecting. She managed to grab Robin's ankle before they completed annihilated him and tried to hoist him up to her Pegasus, but was unsuccessful since he kept squirming around and screaming.
"S-sumia Down! Sumia Down! Sumia!" It was the only phrase Robin had muttered in his short time in the air. After some violet dangling and tears pouring down Robin's face, she was finally able to get him onto her Pegasus. He immediately clung onto her waist as tight as he could to ensure he could stay secure.
Sumia let out a gasp a bit surprised how tight he was holding on. She was honestly losing the ability to breathe just a little. When the two successfully got down after some flight maneuvers Sumia had to make to avoid any more attacks, Sumia's Pegasus threw Robin off herself and he began to pat the floor and embrace it as if he hadn't seen it in years and it was love at first sight.
"Oh thank the gods! I never thought it would be over." He said to himself very loudly as the other shepherds began to snicker.
"You okay there, Robin?" Chrom offered his hand out to the tactician with a slight giggle in his voice. Robin took his hand and began to get his bindings and mind to clear up. He was a bit embarrassed on how he handled his "little" fear of heights. He cleared his throat and dusted the snow off his coat before approaching the Pegasus knight who saved his life.
"Sumia… I want to thank you for the save… and for your upper body strength" Robin tried his best to keep his composure as if the last few minutes never happened.
"Oh it was nothing. I'm just relieved I made it in time!" Sumia brushed off his thanks.
"That goes for me as well, Sumia." Chrom was also thankful she could save the latest member of the shepherds before he was "discharged' early.
"Is this the same ornery Pegasus we met on the road?!" Chrom overlooked the stead she had used for the rescue.
"Oh, she's a sweetheart, isn't she? Well, once you get to know her."
"Well many thanks to both of you."
I'm just going to keep my mouth shut before Naga decides I go on another hell ride again.
"If I could be so bold milord, I think we had all best focus on the situation at hand!" Without a missing beat, Frederick decided to put an end to Chrom and Sumia's conversation to focus on the bigger problem at hand.
"Frederick is right we still have these Feroxians to deal with before we can continue this." Robin readied his iron swords and Elthunder (he splurged a bit on some weapon upgrades before the decent into Regna Ferox.)
"If they want to do this the Feroxian way, then so be it. Robin lead the battle." Chrom simply stated as him and the rest of the Shepherds prepared for battle.
*After some swords slashes, javelin throws, axes brought down, and arrows avoided*
Vaike was finally lucky enough to land a hit with the hammer he had "borrowed" from one of the injured soldiers they defeated and Raimi went down like a stone in a river. Both the Shepherds and border guards were exhausted and were thankfully being taken care of by Lissa and Sumia.
"Geez these Feroxians really mean business on the battlefield." Robin rubbed his shoulder that was pierced by an arrow earlier, but was still recovering even after being healed by a staff.
"We were lucky enough that your strategies were able to get us through yet another battle and with no casualties on both ends." Chrom praised the tactician as he does after every skirmish now.
"I suppose it's my thing now, haha." Robin was a little red from the compliment but took it with pride. Raimi had decided to join the two in their conversation.
"A thousand apologies, Prince Chrom. I truly took you for brigand imposters, but no frauds could ever wage a battle as you just have!" Raimi had knelt to apologize to the prince. Robin wanted so badly to say something to her, but opted out to avoid embarrassing himself any further.
"I will send word of your arrival to the capital and escort you there personally."
"That would be most appreciated, thank you." Chrom accepted the proposal and Raimi took her leave to rally the troops for another long march to the capital.
"Her whole demeanor changed at the flip of a coin. I had forgotten how much strength speaks louder than words here." Robin commented to the small group composed of him, Chrom, Lissa, and Frederick the wary.
"Indeed I should have known better than to overestimate the value of diplomacy here." Frederick was a bit ashamed to admit that his emotions got the best of him earlier.
"Do you remember the last time you visited Ferox?" Chrom was a bit curious.
"Faintly to be honest. I only ventured into this nation when it was a high paying job. I had an old friend who would come along too, although we never had to deal with the border guards since we easily smuggled ourselves in." Robin went on about his past life as Frederick was upset at the previous criminal record he had garnered.
It seems confessing my crimes to Frederick is also a thing I tend to do now also.
"As interesting as this sounds, can we continue this maybe somewhere where it's not zero degrees outside!" Lissa had chimed in as she was huddling next to Frederick's horse for warmth.
"Ha, I suppose it's not getting any warmer." Chrom giggled as his little sister complained and prompted the other three to follow him towards the direction Raimi had left earlier.
Raimi had appointed everyone a safe space to stay the night before their decent to the capital at dawn. Robin had decided to brush up some more strategies before bed so he could plan anymore surprise attacks on their march. Unfortunately, Virion and Stahl had to share the room with Robin and were unable to sleep with the candles lit.
"Perhaps only one candle could do, sir Robin?" Virion rubbing the tiredness from his eyes tried to bargain with the tactician.
"Oh was I keeping you two up? My apologies." Robin rubbed the back of his neck a little embarrassed that he was keeping the two up.
"Uh just a little. In all honesty, my stomach is the killing me that battle made me famished and skipping breakfast early didn't help either." Stahl complained as his stomach roared loudly.
"I'll step outside for a bit to catch some air and return to sleep as well. We do have an early morning after all." Robin informed his bunkmates as he exited the door.
"Try to bring back some snacks!" Stahl could be heard from the other side of the door.
The Shepherds sure are an interesting bunch huh Robin. Although I can't imagine living without them now, especially without…
"Sumia?" Robin whispered to himself as he exited the room in the smaller barracks to find someone leading a Pegasus into said barracks. The figure was indeed Sumia and was a bit startled that someone caught her doing…whatever it was she was doing.
"Wait who is that? Robin?" Sumia had whisperd as well as Robin waved to confirm it was him.
"Sumia, what on earth or you doing with your mount…"
"Caeda." Sumia corrected him.
"Uh right sorry. What I meant was what on earth are you doing with Caeda roaming around the barracks? I thought she was perfectly fine in the stables with the other Pegasus…pegasi? I never did figure out what the plural for Pegasus was." Robin was a bit confused and frankly concerned as to why the large animal was roaming around the halls.
"Well… before I was going to retire for the night I went into the stables to say goodnight, but she didn't want me to leave and kept trying to break free, so I thought maybe she could you know…spend the night with me." Sumia whispered her explanation to him hoping he would understand. As much as he wanted to see the look on Chrom's face to finding a fully-grown animal in their sleeping quarters, he had to keep his head straight before the rest of the shepherds asked for crazier requests.
"Did you even get the permission of Sully before bringing her in your room?" Robin asked hoping she would see why this could not work.
"Of course! She's the one who suggested that we bring our mounts together!" Sumia exclaimed with an embarrassed smile.
Okay I think 2 horse like beings is cutting it just a tad.
"Sumia you can see why this is wrong right? I hate to do this, but I have to call this whole thing off." Robin put his foot down and ordered her to take her mount back to the stables with the others. Upon hearing this news, Robin could see her face fall and sadly began to stroke Caeda.
Oh no the face she's making is hurting me on the inside, almost to the point of making want to grab my chest in pain.
He gave out a loud sigh and stepped closer to Sumia and Caeda.
"Look I know I'm normally not supposed to do this, but I see how distraught both you and Caeda are so…I'll allow her to stay in your quarters."
Sumia immediately got giddy and had to cover her mouth to avoid squealing in delight and waking the other soldiers.
"But only Caeda is allowed in there and you have to wake up earlier than the others as well to sneak her back out." Robin had to at least sound as though he wasn't pulling any strings or playing favorites. Sumia almost tackled Robin in excitement almost making him almost lose his footing and topple over.
"Thank you, Robin. I promise not to ask you for anything again." She continued to lock him in a tight hug before breaking it off leaving Robin flustered.
Nice going you old softie, well at least she's the only one here to witness it and seeing her smile is a nice way to end this day. Geez that was cheesy.
"Um well yes. Just hurry and get to your room. I wouldn't want you to lose any more sleep."
"Ai Ai!" She saluted him goodnight and took off quietly to her quarters.
Once she was gone, Robin let out a small laugh and decide to call it a night before more shepherds asked for too much of him.
"Oh ho it appears that our Dear Sumia has captured the attention of our tactician." Robin could hear what sounded like giggling behind him. He turned around to see Virion and Stahl giggling like school girls as they watched the whole thing from a distance.
"What are two doing here!?" Robin asked as red as a tomatoe and annoyed as Frederick usually is.
"Well I got hungry and couldn't wait any longer so I took off and Virion followed behind and we just happened to see what was going on." Stahl explained which only flustered Robin even more.
"Alright well off to bed both of you." Robin figured maybe some sleep will make them forget about this and tried to get all of them back into their room.
"But my snack?" Stahl asked.
"NO. Eating before bed is a horrible idea. It'll prevent you from getting any sleep." Robin shooed them back to the room.
That concludes this chapter. I hoped you didn't mind I decided to skip over the fight as I wasn't sure how I could write it without being too short or being too long winded. Anyway I'm back on the grind for the next chapter and also working on another story that some of you would be interested in. Oh and Happy New Years everyone!