Chapter 5
Time - Early evening, 4 days after the Harvest Festival
Place - Deep woods, east of the Northroad
I flip this coin. It'll either land on heads, or tails. Right? Now...what if the wind had caught it just ever so slightly to cause one extra rotation, and it landed tails? What if we had based an important decision on the coin flip? Heads you turn left, tails you turn right. That one gust of wind could end up changing your life forever. In this world, the coin landed heads, you turned left, you walked into a village, met the love of your life, and lived happily ever after. In another world, the coin landed tails, you turned right, walked into a forest, and were mauled by a bear.
That's what Anna had said.
Shit.
That had been Nah's response.
At the time it had seemed like such a silly, hypothetical situation. But now Nah was staring straight ahead at a critical point of divergence not just for her, but for all of Ylisse. Her parents had died, then died again. Lucina had survived, only to die later. But there was still a chance to keep the younger version safe. To keep this world from plummeting into the same hopeless future as the one they had come from.
Also, there were probably literal bears in these woods.
"Nowi, I'm still cold," Lucina whimpered. She had her hands wrapped around Nah's waist as they rode at a gentle pace. Lucina was garbed in as many extra layers of clothing as Nah could spare. The cold was unnatural. Yes, it was nearing winter, and yes, the climate was harsher up north near Regna Ferox, but the wind was so cold it felt like a dagger stabbing straight through you.
And they still had a way to go yet.
"I know, Lucina," Nah said, as gently and reassuringly as she could. "We'll set up camp for the night soon. Just a bit farther."
Progress was going slower than Nah would have liked. Lucina would try her best, but after a few hours of riding, the young princess would get irritably sore and tired and begin crying for a break. Emergency food and water supplies that Nah had been carrying had been rationed as well as she could between herself, the princess, and the horse, but now they were going to have to resort to hunting for food. Even the horse was starting to look worse for wear.
Nah shivered. She was down to her smallclothes, a thin overshirt, and dress leggings. The rest she had draped over Lucina.
"And I'm tired. And hungry. And I miss my mom. How long until we get there?"
Nah took a few deep breaths. She did not get along well with kids, but Lucina needed her to be calm and in control right now.
"Just a few more days," she lied. Under ideal circumstances that would be accurate, but at their current pace they were looking at at least a week before they hit the border of Regna Ferox. The weather was only getting worse as they moved further north, too. That would slow things down even further.
"I'm bored. Did you bring any games?"
Nah gritted her teeth. You can do this. You're not going to kill a child.
"Nowi. Nowi! Nowi. Nowi!"
"I have an idea!" Nah finally shouted. "I'll teach you how to hunt. We need the food, and it is a task that will require us to be very, very, very silent."
"Okay!" Lucina said, bouncing with excitement.
Nah scanned the area for a good spot to tether the horse. After dismounting and helping Lucina to the ground, she realized a flaw in her plan.
"We don't have a bow. Okay, that's okay." She recalled a scene she had once witnessed between her mother and Morgan's father. The two had been competing to see who could knock out a wild animal by throwing a rock at the beast's head. At the time it had seemed idiotic and juvenile, but right now it seemed like the best course of action. She wasn't about to go using her magic or dragonstone in front of Lucina. Her powers were too volatile, and, well, she had to admit that she'd frightened children before.
"Find a rock," she said. "A big, round one. Light enough to carry around but heavy enough to hurt. And be careful with it!"
"Okay," Lucina said.
Nah went walking around the area of the forest they were in, inspecting the ground. She found a likely looking stone, picked it up and waved it back and forth, testing the weight. Seemed like a keeper.
There were also clear animal tracks in the underbrush. A deer, if they were lucky. A wolf if they were less so. And if they happened across a bear, well, Nah would have no choice but to transform, though the tracks were much too small for that to be likely.
"Got one!" Lucina shouted. Without turning around, Nah held up a hand.
"Shh!" she hissed. "Get close to me, and follow me lead, but be as quiet as you can!"
She felt Lucina rush over to her, completely unable to move with anything approaching grace or stealth. The young girl crouched near her, her face set in grim determination.
"I'm ready!" she whispered. "I've never killed anything before...I hope it's not too cute."
Nah hadn't thought of that. She'd hate to have to make young Lucina kill something like a rabbit or doe, but if this was a matter of survival…
"Just come on. And no talking!"
She crept forward, Lucina following in her footsteps. She was no master tracker, but she knew enough. All of her friends from the future did. They had grown up in dire circumstances, no parents to coddle them, no fancy dinner parties. It had been kill or be killed from the start.
Nah had arguably had it the worst. Her parents had died early, when she was almost too young to remember them. She had been bounced around from various caretakers, many of whom had no interest in watching a child, especially one who was half dragon, half deranged Plegian sorcerer. She was a freak, and many people were quick to remind her.
All of her friends had their own problems, of course. They had all grown up fast. None of them would ever really know what it was like to be a child, in the way the versions of themselves from this timeline hopefully could.
Despite being lost in thought, a primal instinct told her to stop. She obeyed, holding out a hand to steady Lucina. The beast they were tracking was close.
Looking ahead, Nah saw a deer grazing in a small, open field. It was cute, unfortunately, but it would be good eating, damn better than the dry rations they'd been feasting on for days.
"Okay," Nah whispered. "Are you ready?"
"Yes!" Lucina responded.
Telling the young princess to follow her lead, Nah slowly brought back her arm to ready a throw, steadied her aim, and let loose the rock, sending it soaring through the air to gracefully smack the deer right between the eyes…
...Is what she liked to think would have happened, if Lucina hadn't immediately thrown her rock, loudly and clumsily, missing by several feet, and sending the deer scurrying off in a panic.
"Oops," Lucina said, downcast.
"It's okay!" Nah quickly said, desperate to cut off any crying before it could start. "We'll just find another rock for you and go try again. And next time wait until my say so, okay?"
"I want to find my first rock again," Lucina said meekly. "It was the pretty one I got from your bag."
Nah's stomach dropped, but in retrospect she really should have seen that coming.
"My dragonsto- I mean, my pretty rock?" She fought to keep her voice steady. She didn't want to start shrieking at the poor kid. Well, okay, she did, but knew she shouldn't.
"I'm sorry! I'll find it really quickly, I promise."
Lucina quickly set to work scurrying through the area where the deer had been grazing, looking for the dragonstone amidst the overgrowth. Nah rubbed her temples. When this was all over, she was never stepping foot in a forest again.
"Okay. You look for it. I'll see if I can pick up the deer's track." In truth, she just needed a moment to clear her head. She knew it wasn't Lucina's fault; she didn't ask to be in this situation either. But it was all starting to be a bit much for her fraught nerves.
The path that the deer had gone crashing through was fairly easy to pick up. Nah only walked a few steps along it, knowing she couldn't leave Lucina alone for long. She stood on her toes to look as far around as she could, but there was no sign of the deer, or of any other wildlife.
Her stomach gurgled. She had been looking forward to an actual meal…
Her stomach growled. Gosh, that was embarrassingly loud, Nah thought to herself, before she felt a gust of hot air hit her.
That wasn't my stomach, was it.
She turned around very slowly. A bear was standing behind her, watching her. It was huge, larger than any bear she had ever seen, and it's fur seemed to crackle as if alive with magical energy. And it didn't move, simply sat there, breathing out, studying her.
Nah stared right back, slowly inching backwards. Right now it didn't seem to feel like attacking, but that could change at a moment's notice. She had to get to Lucina. She had to keep Lucina safe, no matter what. She wouldn't let the last Lucina die.
What was this beast, though? The more she stared at it - and the more it stared back, clearly intelligent, clearly contemplative - the more she became convinced it wasn't a regular beast. Something about it WAS magical. But what was it? And why was it taking such a keen interest in her?
"Lucina?" she called out, quietly. "Have you found my pretty stone?"
"N-no," Lucina called back, clearly nervous. Nah was unwilling to turn her head to look at the girl.
"It's okay. Do you know how to climb trees?"
"Y-yeah! Owain and I sometimes-"
"Find a tall tree and climb it, Lucina. And don't come down until I say so."
Could bears climb trees? If any bear could, it would be this one. Shit.
Nah kept inching back until she was in the clearing where her dragonstone presumably lay. She could hear Lucina grunting as she scaled her way up one of the denser trees.
The bear got up and began slowly moving forwards, clearly in no hurry, but the fact that it was following at all just increased Nah's worry.
She scanned the ground, her heart pounding faster and faster. If she could just find her dragonstone, she'd at least have a way to fight back, if it came to it.
Something caught her eye. There!
But the bear noticed, and began to growl. Hair stood up on it's back, and that strange magical energy began to crackle again.
It was now or never. Nah dove for it.
"Run, Nowi, run!" Lucina screamed.
She snatched the dragonstone up just as the bear lunged for her. It slapped a massive paw into her and she went flying, tumbling through the air. The dragonstone zipped out of her hands, away from the foliage, landing along the shore of a small lake, the surface of which had frozen over with a thin layer of ice.
Nah picked herself up, grateful that the bear's sharp claws hadn't raked across her. She was disoriented, but not grievously wounded. The bear was charging after her again, however; she picked up the pace and ran for her dragonstone.
When she reached it, she bent down to pick it up without stopping. She ran out onto the frozen lake and spun around.
The bear had stopped, sitting on the shore to watch her. It still looked angry, as if she had personally offended it somehow.
"What the hell are you!?" Nah screamed at it. "Who sent you!?"
The wind began to pick up, painfully cold, biting through her. Snow began to fall.
Suddenly it dawned on her. The freak snow storm cutting off Regna Ferox from Ylisstol! Magical beasts patrolling the land!
This was no accident. Mort must have been behind this somehow! If he could summon Risen, he - or someone working with him - could do this!
"Mort!" she screamed. "You're not stopping us! We're bringing Chrom home, and we're kicking your ass! I promise you! It'll take more than a little-"
And then the ice broke.
Lucina watched from amidst the branches of her tree. One moment Nowi was standing there, shouting challenges at the bear or the wind or something, and the next she was gone. Cracks in the ice spread out like spiderwebs from the place where she had been standing. The ice cold water underneath splashed for a moment as she thrashed beneath the surface, and then it went still.
Bubbles stopped coming up. Lucina closed her eyes and hugged the base of the tree as hard as she could.
Then she opened her eyes back up. No way! She wasn't some crybaby about to let her friend drown! She had to save her!
Slowly and carefully, she began to slide back down the tree. Some of the tiny, dry branches scraped against her, but it didn't really hurt. Mostly it was just the sticky sap that was annoying.
She hit the snow and rushed for the water as fast as her tiny legs could carry her-
-And was knocked backwards by the overwhelming physical force of a roar from the bear, looming over her.
"Go away!" Lucina screamed, grabbing a nearby stick and throwing it in the bear's face. The creature hardly flinched, continuing to approach, slowly, teeth bared, saliva dripping…
"Help!" she screamed, continuing to crawl backwards. "Nowi! Nowi!"
The lake exploded. Lucina had heard of hot springs and geysers but had never seen one in person. Water, no longer icy cold but now as warm as bathwater, cascaded down around her and the bear.
And in another moment a massive beast, of a breed Lucina had only ever seen in picture books, swooped down through the sky, picked up the bear, and flew off again.
Lucina looked up into the sky, the clouds rolling in, snow falling harder. She shivered. What had just happened?
I mean, it was AWESOME. But what was it?
From far off, she heard a yelp, and a thud - as if a large, magical bear had been dropped from a significant height. Then the other beast, large pink wings extended, circled overhead, and slowly descended…
"Nowi! Nowi, help!" Lucina screamed again, as the dragon approached her. She had narrowly escaped death from one beast, only to find it at the claws of another!
Lucina dove into the snow, covering her head with her hands. The dragon landed on her.
Slowly, carefully, Lucina unfolded herself, and peeked around. She was in a protective, warm cave, and it took her a moment to realize the dragon had wrapped its wings over her.
"Nowi..?" she called out again. "Nowi, I'm in here! Under the dragon…"
"It's okay," came a voice from nearby.
"Nowi?"
"I'm here," the dragon said.
"Oh no! The dragon ate you!" Lucina gasped.
"I am the dragon, Lucina," Nah explained. "Stay there, okay? I'm going to keep you warm until the storm passes."
Lucina sat down in the snow and looked at the makeshift home around her. It was, in an odd way, rather cozy.
"But what about you? Will you be okay?" she asked.
"I'll be fine," Nah said, though there was a weariness in her voice. Staying in dragon form all night in the snow would take a lot out of her, but it was okay. She was tough.
"I'm not going to let anything hurt you, Lucina. I promise."