Beginning Commentary: Now this might be the part of the story where you'll definitely realize, "Hey wait, that wasn't in the original game!" And you're right, unfortunately. It's not because I disrespect the original source material, but I thought that other characters should get the spotlight aside from the top 3. (Chrom, the Avatar, and Marth). However, Marth will make an appearance much later in the story, so no need to get angry at me! …Right?
Chapter 4: Two Blades
At last, we entered the fortress and OH MY GOODNESS, IT'S SO WARM! This was such a relief after enduring the hell of snow. After throwing my pelt off and apologizing frequently for accidentally hitting Kellam (though you can't blame me because I couldn't see where he was), I decided to take a gander at the interior of this stark fortress.
It was definitely something a warrior would find lively, that's for sure. The walls were completely made out of stone to ensure the toughness, torches were scattered nearly everywhere to make sure people didn't wander in the dark, paintings of only the mightiest of men (and women) were hung up on the walls, pelts of bears and I think desert coyotes (no, these animals had bigger and fluffier pelts) were either on the floor as small carpets or worn around some warriors' backs for warmth (as far as I could tell from the paintings), and I could even hear echoed-yet-somehow-still-muffled, burly voices yell triumphantly. Maybe it was about food or something.
"This place certainly gives off a strong aura," Frederick stated.
"More like a strong smell! Blech!" complained Lissa as she plugged her nose. "And here I thought Vaike smelled bad!"
"Hey, the Vaike takes insult to that remark!" Vaike yelled as if he were a ten-year-old.
"Will you quiet down?" Chrom said rather seriously. Everyone remained quiet.
"So Raimi, when can we meet him? The khan, I mean," I asked aloud.
"You're looking right at her," a burly female voice laughed.
The person who followed said voice was a dark-skinned woman with her blonde hair in a ponytail and navy blue eyes. She was wearing a red & white chest piece of armor alongside her arm gauntlets and steel boots that had the same color. (Relax, she was also wearing a black skirt).
"I'm Flavia, East Khan of Regna Ferox."
My eyes felt like they could burst; mainly due to the fact that I found this rather hilarious. Now don't get me wrong, I didn't find her anything close to weak, but wearing clothes like hers in the middle of the snow would be a death sentence.
(Also, a small race thing: Tharja, Henry, and I are as white as the snow outside, yet we lived in the desert for gods know how long while this dark skinned woman lived in a place where the sun probably didn't shine. How does that work?)
"Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Khan Flavia," Chrom said as he bowed like how a gentleman should. "I am Chrom of House Ylisse, brother to the exalt Emmeryn."
"Ha! No need to be so formal with us," Flavia chuckled. She then looked behind him to see the rest of us. "And you certainly didn't need to bring this much of your army."
"Forgive me, it was a case of paranoia."
"Nothing like that exists in these realms. It's either be confident and fight or die trying."
As the two continued to blather on about politics or something, I let my mind wander off. Huh, Flavia sure does sound like a much more confident Miriel voice wise. (Not in the way she speaks, but how she sounds. She sounds pretty intelligent, though). I wonder if there's more to food than just meat…
"So, what do you think? Will Regna Ferox be willing to make an alliance with Ylisse so that Plegia can be no more?" Chrom said as I focused once more.
"I'd personally love to, but I have no power nor say in that," Flavia sighed. "The oaf West Khan Basillio is in charge of those kinds of affairs now. And he can be as stubborn as a mule most of the time."
"Pardon me, now? Do you switch off every now and then?" Frederick asked.
"No, we fight for power in our annual Feroxi tournament."
"That sounds dangerous," I said. "What if you go too far and make a fatal blow?"
"Relax, we don't do the actual fighting. We each pick a champion to represent us. And we Feroxi always know when to stop fighting."
"Oh…" Wow, who knew warriors could have that kind of diplomacy?
"I always try to send in my best fighters, but they're always bested by Basillio's champion, Lon'qu."
"May I volunteer to be this year's champion, Flavia?" Chrom asked.
Flavia looked, well, surprised. And honestly, I can't blame her. That was certainly out of the blue. (If Henry could see Chrom's blue hair, I think he'd be proud of my pun).
"Why, that's rather flattering. But might I ask for your reasoning?"
"Yes, please explain," Raimi spat. Oh dear, something tells me she planned on being this year's champion.
"I think it'd be a nice way to start off our alliance," Chrom replied with a lighthearted chuckle. "I can also show you how the Ylisseans truly fight."
There was a pause and the atmosphere suddenly made my skin crawl from the anticipation.
"Milord, I believe I would be the better choice," I heard Frederick whisper. "After all, I was the one who taught you everything you know."
"It'll be fine, Frederick," Chrom replied quietly.
Flavia gave out a hearty laugh, "Alright, let's see what you're made of."
"B-but, Khan Flavia!" Raimi exclaimed.
"Don't worry, Raimi. I'll make sure he learns the Feroxi way of fighting, as well."
…Oh gods, that means we might be stuck here for a while so that Chrom can get "proper" training. Which means I'll be trapped in the middle of this frozen desert and I might die. …HELP.
Chrom and Flavia separated from us all as Raimi showed us around the fortress. It didn't seem quite as organized as the castle back in Ylisse, that's for sure. And they didn't really have books aside from training manuals.
Well, at least Regna Ferox also didn't have a gender barrier. Yes, there were also female fighters amongst the crowd of burlesque axe-wielding and scrawny sword-wielding men. They were mainly Mercenaries who decided to serve for their country instead of their wallets, but I saw a few women Mymidons (agile swordfighters) amongst them. And no matter what, it looked like everyone wanted to beat the living essence out of one another. It would be just like home, but these fine folk didn't pull dirty tricks like the scavengers of Plegia would. (Or they were at least mightier than the scavengers of Plegia).
"Forgive me for sounding rude," I asked Raimi. "But why aren't there any Healers around?"
"Or mages for that matter," Miriel added.
Raimi stopped dead in her tracks, which caused some of us to bump into the person in front of us. She then turned around slowly and gave us a glare similar to Frederick's.
"Whenever we find mages, we try to give them a proper home in East Ferox. However, they decide to either flee to West Ferox or Ylisse due to the fact that they cannot handle the weather or drills we give them when they join our army," she coldly explained. She looked towards me. "The same goes for our Healers, so we've adapted to using herbal medicines we receive in trade."
She then faced forward once more and then led us to our chambers. Yes, not our rooms. Chambers. Like the ones the locals would gather in to praise Grima back at home and I'd be forced to sit through it all while trying to silence my heavy breathing and keeping an eye on Tharja or Henry to make sure they're not pulling off some hex that would later get us into trouble.
"Maybe I should write to those two," I said aloud to calm myself.
With that, I began my not-so-epic quest for a quill, ink, and paper down the hallways. Unfortunately, pretty much every door was closed and I didn't want to interrupt anyone or stumble into something completely awkward. (Not to mention I'd completely forgotten whose chamber was whose).
After squirming out of that section of the fortress, I decided to at least grab a bite to eat first.
…Wait, where was the mess hall again? Damn…
Luckily, I managed to spot a frail girl with long, light pink hair and rather extravagant (in the sense that it was rather showy) clothing underneath her black hood.
"Um, excuse me?" I echoed across the hall.
I heard somewhat of a squeak in response and she began to run off.
"HEY WAIT! I JUST WANT HELP!"
I decided to chase after her because, well, standing in the middle of nowhere was going to help me, now was it?
Unfortunately, she ran outside and knowing that would be a death sentence, I stayed behind.
I did manage to get my proper supplies from Raimi, though. So, she escorted me back to my room with some mutton. Wow, that was…surprisingly nice.
Dear Henry and Tharja,
Hope you two are doing well without me and aren't getting into much trouble. Unfortunately, we'll be coming back later than expected due to the fact that Chrom has to participate in a little contest that the Feroxi put up each year to see who becomes champion. These guys are a lot like the orcs we used to read in those fairy tales, but are still somewhat civilized for some odd reason.
And before you wonder, yes, I'm doing fine in this frozen wasteland. Henry accidentally gave me his Dying Blaze tome instead of his regular Fire one, but I much prefer this one; it kept going on for a whole night!
Continue to make sure my father doesn't track us!
-Anne
Boy, did that mutton make me sleepy. With that, I fell backwards on my cot and pulled the provided blanket over my shoulders.
Again, no Grima disturbances in my slumber. How…peculiar.
The next few days, while Chrom was busy training with Khan Flavia, everyone else either trained or socialized. Sully and Vaike were the ones who trained the most, but you could tell from one glance that Sully was taking it too seriously and Vaike was joking around too much. Frederick supervised them along with other fights to make sure there was no foul play. Part of me felt like telling him or Raimi about the pink haired girl I saw the night prior, but I don't think they'd react very well to that…
OH, Stahl kept his promise and made sure that he could help me train with my Bronze Sword. He made sure that I didn't just fling the sword around or used it to stab like I would with a dagger or one of those fancy swords called a Rapier. During one of our sessions, Virion decided to spectate.
I sadly wasn't at the point of Sully and Vaike where I could fight a living being, but I still managed to make a nice clean cut every now and then on the practice dummy.
"Bravo, Anne! You're learning magnificently!" Virion applauded.
"Yeah, you're quite the fast learner," Stahl added.
"D'aw shucks…" I blushed. (Not in the cutesy way, mind you).
"Now, might I ask for you to get some tactician training as well?"
"…How so? There aren't any books here and I don't think Khan Flavia would be too pleased with me commanding her soldiers."
"Simple; we play chess."
…Chess?
He then pulled out a flat checkered board and put it on the ground. Afterward, he started placing black and tan pieces on separate tiles.
"The objective of the game is to make sure that you don't lose the King." Virion then held up the piece with the tiny plus on it.
"Well, good luck with that," Stahl sighed.
"Wait, you're not gonna watch?" I asked.
"Nah, I always get confused when watching and always lose when I play. Not my kind of thing."
With that, Stahl left and Virion explained some of the rules. The King can only move once space, the Queen (the tall one with the little knob on it) could go anywhere as long as there aren't any of her pieces in front of her, the Bishop (the one that looked like it had a rain drop on top) could only move diagonally while the Rooks (the ones that looked like, well, a fortress) couldn't, Knights (the horses) could go up two spaces anyway they want and then turn in an L-direction while also going over other pieces, and Pawns (the basic circular ones) could move up two times in the first turn while going forward once and capturing an enemy diagonally.
Our match began with Virion's white (I still think they're tan) army and my black one. It started off simply, but soon my brain began to hurt. What was the best way to capture his King without losing too many pieces…? And more importantly, why can't the Queen be the one captured to lose the game? You'd think a much more important piece would be worth a lot more.
Miriel and Lissa eventually watched over our little match and while Lissa didn't really seem all that invested, Miriel was observing every single breath we took.
"I don't mean to sound rude, but must you breathe so heavily on my shoulders?" I asked the two of them.
"Ah, forgive me," Miriel said in an "I don't really care" tone. She then just moved to the side where she could watch both sides fairly.
"Alright, I'll go see how Chrom's doing," said Lissa in a non-offended way.
The intensity flowed back into the match and while it looked like Miriel wanted to speak up at some points, Virion told her to remain silent; this was my skill alone.
…Although I wish I listened to her because I ended up losing.
"Do not regret it so deeply, Anne; this was your first time playing this, no?" Miriel told me.
"Actually, I think you did win," Virion brought up.
"Wait, what?" I asked.
"You might have lost your king, but look at how many pieces you still have left compared to mine."
It was true; my Pawns actually did a pretty nifty job at capturing his Bishop, three of his Knights, four of his Pawns, and even a Rook! (Okay, not all my Pawns did that, but still).
"What does that have to do with it?"
"In war, there are times where quantity overruns quality. It can be both good and bad depending on the situation."
…Oh wow.
The following days, not much aside from socializing and more training happened…until I got a letter back from Tharja.
Anne,
I don't care what you say; it's still hell trying to deal with these people without you. That little twerp Ricken kept pestering me to teach him dark magic when he clearly knows bad it can get. And to top it all off, Maribelle's been making us go through some of her etiquette classes and either hits us with her parasol or makes us clean up after the Pegasi. I swear if I see another one of those winged rats I might lose what's left of my sanity. It's times like these where I'm actually glad Henry's here so I can beat my frustrations out of him.
Speaking of Henry, I made sure to give him a good whack on the head for switching the tomes on you. You might've been lucky this time, but imagine what would happen if ice spells somehow returned.
Make sure the tournament ends soon; I don't think I can take much more of this.
-Tharja
I felt a shiver of regret for leaving her behind, but I could tell from idle conversations I overheard that Feroxi really don't like Plegians one bit. (I'm surprised nobody even caught a glimpse of my robes or right hand yet!)
A week or two later, it was time for the tournament. We marched westward (and surprisingly, the snow wasn't as bad as the first time I entered it. Maybe I had grown used to it, or maybe that it wasn't as drastic as said first time).
While getting to East Ferox took us at least a night, getting to West Ferox took us three days and two nights. (Mainly due to border patrols where I was never caught. WOO for that, but BOO for taking so damn long). We were greeted by a very big (both in height and muscle) man with even darker skin than Flavia. He was bald, but he also wore a small beard on his chin. Again, like Vaike and the other soldiers, the idiot decided to show off his pecks rather than protect himself from sneak attacks with armor. (Also like Vaike, he wore an unchained collar, but this one was more broad and golden; it even had feathers around it!) And to top it all off, he wore an eyepatch across his left eye.
"WHOA! An actual pirate!" I exclaimed with child-like wonder. "I thought they only existed in storybooks, but a real, living pirate!? This is too great!"
"Ha! I enjoy your enthusiasm, lass!" The pirate bellowed in hardy deep voice I would expect a pirate to have. Oh my gosh, this is completely awesome! "The name's Basillio, West Khan of Regna Ferox!"
"WHOA, a pirate KING?!"
"You okay, Anne? This seems kinda out of character of you," Lissa said with concern.
"How are you not excited, Lissa?! This guy's a legitimate pirate king! Now all he needs is a bird sidekick and a ship!"
Basillio's big grin then turned into an angry snarl as he pushed me aside to confront Flavia.
"Ready to get your ass kicked again this year, Flavia? Lon'qu's been in top form for months now!"
"Well, I hope you're ready to see your ass getting handed to you by Prince Blue over there," Flavia laughed as she pointed to Chrom.
"Foreign aid now? And here I thought you were going to continue being clever with sending in Raimi."
"Laugh all you want, oaf, but Chrom has not only had my training, but also years and years of exalt methods."
You could almost see the lightning strike between them, so Chrom decided to interfere.
"Now now, let's make sure to keep this in good taste," he stated.
"Alright, pretty boy," Basillio began. "But don't expect too much mercy from Lon'qu." He then headed into the large circular building and had us follow behind.
"We didn't even get to fully introduce ourselves," Frederick scoffed.
"To be fair, there's way too many of us to count," I replied. What, how could I not try to support the Pirate King?!
Everyone just gave me awkward and silent gazes and walked inside.
"Gosh, you guys had no childhood," I sighed.
I eventually entered the Arena, too, and was greeted by a bunch of loud cheering. No, it wasn't for me, but rather the two fighters in the center. People sat in what were called "booths", I think where they would watch from afar, which made me wonder if this Arena was apparently set up so that everyone would look down at whatever was in said center. Was it because they were inferior or something, or is it better to get a bird's eye view?
Two Knights (similar to Kellam, but a lot more noticeable) escorted us to our seats and Chrom away to his Champion match. As I took a closer look, I noticed that there were gates set up in certain places (in fact, we walked right through one as we entered); probably to hold back vicious skeleton pirates that only the Pirate King could defeat if he had the power.
I also spotted two sets of blue hair from a distance, which got me curious if they knew Chrom or not. Maybe they were his distant cousins or it was merely coincidence… I decided to track them down.
"You're not gonna sit with us, Anne?" Lissa asked.
"Well, I'm kinda more curious about those two up there," I began. I then pointed her toward said beings. "You can come join me if you want."
"N-no, thank you, though. I don't want to take the risk of being pummeled by those fine gentlemen nearby them."
True, there were two rowdy, buff soldiers sitting right in front of them and they looked like they hadn't bathed in weeks. BUT I HAVE THE DETERMINATION OF A WHIMSICALLY-MINDED CHILD! In said whimsical mind, I leapt over peoples' heads with the gracefulness of a thief running away from soldiers. …But in reality, I just said "Pardon me" a lot as I pushed through tons of said burly men. I would say it stinks, but I've grown used to this kind of smell.
Eventually, I was able to sit right next to the folks with blue hair. For some strange reason, they wore masks.
The short one wore a silver and gold mask, similar to a bird's beak (and even had the feathers around her ears). Her blue hair was in pigtails and she wore a silver and blue version of the Pegasus Knight armor. She seemed far more ecstatic at this match than the tall one did.
The tall one wore a blue mask with some gold around its tips that was similar to the shape of a butterfly. I couldn't really tell the gender, but they seemed reaaaaaally familiar…
…Wait, MARTH?!
I immediately ran over and sat next to the short one. The tall one looked over a bit and YEAH, IT WAS MARTH IN A MASK!
"Y-your Highness, what are you doing here?!" I stuttered; trying to hold my enthusiasm.
"Pardon?" The short one asked me. Marth quickly put their hand over the short one's mouth.
"You'll have to forgive Sheeda here," Marth said with no emotion. (Though strangely, his voice sounded much more feminine than I thought it would be). "Time travel can make one delusional."
"Wait, THE princess Sheeda?!" I paused for a bit. "…Time travel?"
Sheeda immediately removed Marth's hand from her mouth.
"It's kinda a long story," Sheeda began. "But just take our word that we come from the past!"
…Oooookay then…This was starting to make my brain hurt. I mean, how does time travel work?! Did they have that powerful a magician on their team to get this to work?! And why are they even here in the first place?!
"WELCOME, EVERYONE!" The Pirate King yelled. I stopped paying attention to my questions and looked to find said Pirate King in the center of the arena along with Flavia. "I, the three-time champion in a row, Basillio of West Khan…"
"…and Flavia of East Khan," Flavia added.
"…are ready to get this year's Champion fight started! Are you?!"
There was a somewhat loud bellow from the audience.
"WHAT WAS THAT?"
Everyone went ballistic and yelled at the top of their lungs; Sheeda included.
"GO GET 'EM, CHROM!" She shrieked.
So they DO know Chrom…BUT HOW!?
"ALL RIGHT! Representing West Ferox is the badass you know and hate! The cold and deadly warrior of the blade! The Myrmidon you don't want to see in battle or your nightmares! THE ONE AND ONLY…LON'QU!"
The cheers continued as a tall, pale Myrmidon entered. He had spiky, black (or dark brown, I couldn't really tell) hair from what I could tell and his outfit was mainly blueish-green with something red over his stomach. Gods, it was hard to see from this place. He then pulled out his weapon and held it near his head in a sort of pose. Well, that's a bit dumb; what if it hits him there? He might suffer a concussion!
"Uh oh, looks like Lon'qu's got his trusty Killing Edge!" The Pirate King taunted. It looked like Flavia just ignored this.
"And now, representing East Ferox comes a new challenger!" She paused to hear the audience murmur around themselves. "From the land of Ylisse comes the exalt-in-waiting! The man who'll sooner silence you than deal with your oxshit! The ever vigilant descendant of the Hero King himself…GIVE IT UP FOR PRINCE CHROM!"
There entered Chrom, and a majority of the audience booed. Some even tried throwing mead at him, but he didn't even flinch. (From what I could tell, at least).
Both Khans exited the center, but not before the Pirate King yelled,
"LET'S FIGHT!"
With that, Chrom immediately pulled out the Falchion and began charging toward Lon'qu as fast as he could. Lon'qu just…stood there. What was he-
OH GOSH, LON'QU'S TWICE AS FAST AS CHROM!
With little to no trouble at all, Lon'qu rushed right in front of Chrom and immediately swung his blade toward Chrom's stomach. Chrom ducked underneath at just the right moment, but you could almost feel how close the edge was to his nose just by how low he had gone. He tried to get Falchion to cut's Lon'qu's legs at that point, but the speedy Myrmidon managed to jump and tried to directly stab Chrom with the tip of the Killing Edge. Chrom had to quickly get off his legs and rolled away from the what-would-be-stab directly in the head.
Judging by Lon'qu's speed, I could tell that Chrom would have to defend himself more and then wait for an opening to attack.
Lon'qu lunged at Chrom and Chrom lunged at Lon'qu. The clangs the two blades made were almost ear-piercing and even at this distance, you could almost feel the sparks flying off.
There might've been background noise (such as the bellowing of the audience again or Sheeda rooting for Chrom), but I was far too busy looking at this fighting. At least until Marth spoke up once again.
"Something's not right," he said.
"What do you mean?" Sheeda asked after she finally stopped yelling.
"Lon'qu usually wouldn't dodge these many attacks. It also looks like he knows exactly what Chrom's going to do next."
"How do you know?" I asked.
"I've fought with him once before and while my methods are somewhat similar to Chrom's, he would never just continue blocking."
"You're right," said Sheeda with the tone of concern.
I observed more closely and the Hero King was right; Lon'qu either dodged or blocked Chrom's attacks perfectly.
For whatever reason, this reminded me of the girl I spotted on my first night in East Ferox. And how she ran away from me flawlessly…
I looked around, and I saw the long, pink hair near the center. What could this mean…?
Eventually, though, I paid attention to the fight once more and saw Chrom get pushed back a bit. He looked exhausted from his stance, but then…something happened.
Lon'qu's blade began to gleam a light green and he once again lunged at Chrom. Chrom couldn't get away, and Lon'qu struck.
The slashes of the Killing Edge could be missed if one blinked and while they were minor, they were multiple. After looking at them for a bit, they seemed to be in the shape of a star. Finally, Lon'qu kicked Chrom right in the stomach and Chrom flew right into the wall back-first. A huge dust cloud followed.
"No way, I didn't know Lon'qu knew Astra!" Sheeda shrieked. "GET BACK UP, CHROM! YOU GOTTA!"
Astra…? What's that? Some kind of spell?
The dust cloud parted and Chrom didn't look like he was in good shape. He struggled to get Falchion from a distance (which I'm surprised Lon'qu let him do) since he had to crawl, and struggled even further to stand up with the heroic blade. He took heavy breaths (you could tell because how far his shoulders dipped) and it looked like a small conversation was held between the two.
Lon'qu readied his blade once again and once began to charge once more, but Chrom did the unthinkable; he climbed briefly on the wall and, I kid you not, summersaulted with his blade above his head to strike at Lon'qu from above. Lon'qu used his blade to block, but it definitely had some knockback. Lon'qu skidded across the ground, which gave Chrom the perfect opportunity to attack.
The Falchion gleamed of red, gold, and blue as Chrom finally sliced at Lon'qu with these words being clearly heard,
"AETHER!"
It only took two slashes. The first one somehow made Chrom look somewhat revitalized while the second made a complete slash and cut at Lon'qu's torso. These two were strong enough for Lon'qu to go completely down.
The audience was in utter shock for what was a brief moment before they suddenly started cheering for Chrom.
I turned around and noticed both Marth and Sheeda had left, but immediately began jumping down the aisles to congratulate Chrom.
Flavia ran out, too, and put Chrom's arm around her shoulders.
"WE HAVE A NEW CHAMPION!" She announced with pride. The Pirate King stumbled out and began yelling at Lon'qu.
Now that Lon'qu was closer in my vision, I could actually get a full understanding of how he looked. His eyes were permanently stuck in intimidation mode and he had a black collar that stood up alongside a small part of an undershirt with big, golden circles. The top part of his tunic (I don't really know what else to call it aside from the usual Myrmidon outfit) was short-sleeved and he wore two black rectangles on both shoulders. The red thing was a two-layered belt with the Regna Ferox symbol holding the two together and he wore fluffy white pants alongside his brownish-black boots. I still couldn't tell if his spiky hair was black or dark brown, though. (Oh yeah, he also had these fuzzy things at the end of his sleeves and pants; I think those are just adorable).
"How in the gods' name could you lose?! You had Astra and Olivia to support you!" The Pirate King yelled at the slouching Lon'qu.
"Olivia?" I asked.
"Yes?" A feminine voice from behind squeaked. I turned around and there was the girl with light pink hair. However, she didn't have her cloak, so her clothes were fully revealed to be, well, revealing (pant-wise). She wore a white headband above her head and had a long-flowing ponytail following behind it. Her top was white and both shoulderless and sleeveless. She had golden bands around her elbows that soon had poofy black covers that covered her forearms. Meanwhile, her pants were hardly pants at all; she was covering her privates with more of her top (sort of like a unitard, at least something in that name structure) while the rest was the same material on her forearms. Now take note that both don't exactly leave much imagination to a person. And to finish her description, she was wearing knee-high stockings and sandals.
"Wait, I recognize you," I said. "You were snooping around East Ferox a while back!"
"What?" Flavia barked. She then grabbed the Pirate King by his golden collar while Olivia hid behind me. "You sent a spy on us?!"
Instead of letting him give out an answer, Flavia then proceeded to yell at him. I don't really want to quote exactly what she said, but just know that there were a LOT of curse words that shouldn't be directed at a human being.
Chrom weakly laughed. OH CRAP, CHROM! I got him off Flavia's shoulders and put him down gently.
"You okay there?" I panted. Olivia then joined me; she seemed pretty concerned.
"Yeah, I should be fine with a Mend or two…" he coughed. He then smiled a bit. "So what'd you think of the fight?"
"Well, it was certainly intense. But what was that move you did?"
"An ability usually those of noble blood can only possess. This never worked until now…"
"CHROM!" I heard Lissa exclaim.
Eventually, everyone came running toward Chrom's aid. So, I instead decided to focus on Lon'qu.
"Hey, you had a great match there," I said to lighten up his spirits. I also gave him a smile and held my hand out to him.
He gave me the look of the pissed-off Frederick and spit on the ground.
"I don't need your help," he sneered with that surprisingly-deep voice of his. (It definitely wasn't as deep as the Pirate King's, mind you, but it still was deep enough to give off the intimidation). With that, he put one hand on his stomach and slowly got up. He then limped away toward the two Khans.
"Um, I'm sorry," Olivia said silently as she got my attention. "For everything, really. I didn't have a choice…" She was as red as a tomato.
I stood there silent for a bit, and then put my hand on her shoulder for reassurance.
"As long as you didn't harm anyone in the process," I cheered. Olivia smiled a bit, but then Virion came rushing over and pretty much pushed me away.
"My, what a lovely mademoiselle you are," he cooed toward Olivia. Olivia shrieked and once again hid behind me. "Wait, I mean you no harm!"
Sully was the Tharja to Virion's Henry and punched the back of his head.
"I was not attacking her!" He shouted. "I was simply intrigued! That's all!"
"I still felt like doing it," Sully laughed crudely.
Finally, I heard a thud and the Pirate King was on the ground with Flavia's boot right on his back.
"All right, all right! I surrender! Just let me speak!" He pleaded. Flavia sighed, and then did such. The Pirate King slowly got up. "Look, how about I have Lon'qu and Olivia join Chrom's army; that oughta be worth something, right?"
"Why not hand them over to me?" Flavia asked. Her arms were folded, so this was serious business.
"Because I don't trust you to make sure they're well and I don't trust myself to not try to steal them back." He then looked to me and Virion. "And I think those two know how to really make 'em shine in battle without the dirty tricks."
"How'd you know we were tacticians?" I asked.
"You just told me!" He laughed. …What?
"Khan Basillio," Olivia began as she walked away from me. "Are you sure you want me with these people? You almost never let me have this kind of freedom."
The Pirate King put his hands on her shoulders (kinda like how I did before).
"Olivia, I think I've been sheltering you for far too long. And while having you fight for the Feroxi would be one of the greatest honors, I just don't think the other soldiers will regard you as highly as I do."
He then glared at Virion.
"It's not like I asked her to marry me!" He shouted to defend himself.
The Pirate King returned his attention to Olivia.
"I want you to start living by your own decisions, alright?"
Olivia nodded with a small smile.
"Alright."
The Pirate King let go of her and she walked over to Virion.
"I'm sorry; everyone seems to be overprotective of me," she chuckled.
"Really, I couldn't tell," Virion sighed with sarcasm. "Well, I am the archest of archers known as Virion." He held out his hand.
"I'm Olivia." She shook his. She then helped him up.
"Wait, what just happened?" Stahl asked. "I'm all confused."
"Well, it looks like we have two new Shepherds on board," Lissa said. I noticed she was busy healing Chrom's wounds with her staff. "But it is okay with us?"
A majority of the Shepherds agreed with small murmurs, but we waited for Chrom to speak up.
"Yep, welcome aboard," he cheered. He then started looking healthy again and got up on his own. "Thank you for healing me, Lissa."
"You're welcome, but don't try to do anything that stupid again!" Lissa pouted. "I still need my big brother!"
"But you need your big sister, too, so let's get back home as soon as we can."
"Hang on, you're really not going to leave without a celebration feast, are you?" Basillio asked.
Well, who were we to turn down such hospitality? So, we decided to stay for just one more night before heading back home.
Ending Commentary: THANK GOD I WAS SICK SO I COULD FINISH THIS! (Granted, I neglected my French homework, but I currently have an A- in that class). Ugh, I hate school for making me lose inspiration…