A/N: Achievement unlocked: THE BLOCK Oh man, did I have trouble with this chapter. As my little achievement suggests, I was stuck with the bane of creativity. Well I chiseled away at that over the course of these weeks. 3 hours every day, and this is all I could come up with. :( I still want to know how you think this chapter turned out. Enjoy. Word Count (1,030)

Chapter 5

"Are you paying attention?"

The young cobalt-haired princess had her head buried in her arms on the table. It was another history lesson. As usual, she would just sleep through the parts of the lesson that it seemed she had already heard a million times before. She studied all of this on her own before. Sitting through these lessons seemed pointless to her. She just hoped she didn't get another lecture.

"Lucina!" The tutor slammed his book close.

The girl jolted up in alarm from the sound. She sank down into her chair when meeting the eyes of her tutor. "I'm sorry." She squeaked out.

The man let out a sigh. "Lucina, one day you will be expected to lead the Ylissean people. Learning the history of our country and others, it's important. We must understand the past in order to prevent certain things from happening in the future and…" He looked down at the girl as she sank down as far as she could on the chair without falling off. "Maybe that's enough of the history lesson for today. Your parents would have more insight into this than I do. Maybe they can tell you of its importance."

"So… you're saying the lesson is over for the day?" She asked, eager to leave.

"Yes…" Lucina bolted off after hearing that. The tutor added in a quick "Don't forget your readings!" before the girl was out of earshot.

Lucina raced down the halls of the palace. The young princess made her way to the courtyard, noticing her mother trying to teach her little brother how to cast magic. She stopped a ways back and decided to observe them. All she could remember was her own experience trying to cast magic. She was using a wind tome to start with, when she read out the incantation, she barely managed to produce a measly puff of air. Naturally, she was curious as to whether her brother would be successful or not.

Robin knelt down next to her son, handing him the wind tome they would use for practice. "Alright, Morgan, we've been practicing for a while now, and I think you're ready for this step." The boy gave a nod to his mother. "Do you see that tree, and the branch that looks like a Pegasus?" She pointed over to where she wanted her son to focus.

Morgan looked, but didn't know what his mother was talking about. "No, I don't…" He was repositioned to get a better look at where Robin was pointing. "Oh! Now I see it!"

"I want you to aim for that branch." She said, backing away from her son. "Now, remember what we talked about."

Morgan got into his stance. The little boy would easily be knocked back by his own spell if not for those lessons. He opened his tome, muttered the incantation, and successfully fired a blast of wind at the tree branch. "I got it!" He cheered, as Robin walked over and congratulated him.

Lucina couldn't believe that her brother was able to do such a thing. She still had yet to successfully use any sort of magic. He always had such natural talent for everything. It was unfair.

She had failed. The rebels had somehow seen the attack coming, and prepared. 'Plan for every possibility' she remembered her mother used to say. Well, someone sure let her own ego get in the way of that. She underestimated her opponent, and now she was the one on the run instead. Keep summoning Risen, well that worked out perfectly. She could have said that she felt sorry for her lieutenant, but that would have been a lie. She did seem to go through them rather quickly. She learned early on that attachments in this world were costly, and so, avoided making them.

Lucina's thoughts now drifted elsewhere. Grima. What would she have to endure when the Fell Dragon found out about her failure? Lucina knew that she had it easier than the other Grimleal. If only, for the fact that she was the child of Grima's Avatar, and therefore would have to continue the Fellblood line. It never provided her any comfort though. Grima was cruel and she could have to endure any punishment the dragon saw fit. The thought was unsettling.

Lucina finally stopped after travelling quite a distance. Whether this was Ylisse or the border again, she could not tell. Everything looked the same by this point. The same grey, ash-covered earth with the same dried trees and shrubs, the only color, being from the sky, ever stained crimson from fires beyond. Some days, she doubted Grima's promise of a new world rising from the ashes of the old one on this campaign. She would not let that show though, lest she be counted as a traitor to the Grimleal.

Lucina could hear what sounded like running water in the distance. The inside of her mouth felt like the deserts of Plegia itself, and whatever she was hearing only reminded her of just how parched she seemed to be. Approaching the source, she had appeared to be correct in her assumption. A fast flowing stream snaked its way through the valley. Lucina rushed over, kneeling down by the edge of its waters. By this point, she didn't care what was upstream or how clean the water was, all she cared for was satiating her thirst. She dipped her hands in and brought the water up to her mouth, letting the cool liquid make its way down her throat.

Her stomach growled, Lucina remembered the bear jerky she would always keep on the road when food was hard to come by. Her love for bear meat was something she inherited from her parents. Her parents… Lucina looked at the stream, remembering that Brand that she and her father shared. She turned her back on Naga long ago and nothing her brother, who so fought in the divine dragon's name, could do would change her faith now. He had sure grown in the years she'd been gone, then again, so had she. Maybe it was time for another visit to her old home.

A/N: So how did I do? For the first part, I kinda wanted to explore the idea that Morgan's siblings would be jealous of him/her, b/c let's face it, Morgan is such a broken unit. As far as the second part, I really surprised myself. I wouldn't know what you all think of how I did though.

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