Chapter 7
AN:Hello peoples of the internet! I feel like the lengths of my chapters are going down. Oh wait, they are. I am sorry for this, I have stuff to do all day, and I am mostly typing this in the middle of the night. The google Docs on my phone has been a lifesaver, because I can now type on the go. EVEN IF IT LAGS, SO HARD! Anyway, For disclaimers read the first chapter's AN.
As always, enjoy.
When we got back to Ylisse, and we heard the news of Maribelle's capture, my first thought was: Do we have to? My very next thought was: Yes, shut up self. You are an idiot. We are on the march, yet again, except this time with Exalt in tow, trying to prevent a war that will inevitably happen because Gangerel is an enormous dickface, and wants to war with Ylisse at all costs. When Robin requested me to come into his tent though, I was not sure what to expect. Robin was sitting in front of a map, drawing a bunch of angry red lines all over it.
"Is this a bad time or…"
"I did send for you, come in." He told me.
"What did you need?" I asked him.
"You do realize," He broached. "That it is almost a guarantee that these negotiations will fall through, right?"
"Yes." I told him.
"I realized this as well." Robin appeared way more businesslike than he normally did, even doing that thing with his hands in his face. "I have begun running strategies like I always do, when I came to the conclusion of we have no idea how big the army they are bringing is." He claimed. "And therefore is almost impossible to plan against."
"I come in how?" I asked him.
"I want you to do recon." He said. "Simple enough, take two or three other shepards with you, pretend you are mercenaries, and tell us what is going on." He started a checklist. "How many troops they have, what kinds, what is the status on Maribelle, and anything else noteable you may find."
"Why don't you just get Kellam to do it? Nobody notices him anyway." I rationalized.
"Well we did try, last time he did recon, he was unable to turn in the report until after the battle was over." Robin said sheepishly. "No one noticed him."
"Oh." I said simply.
"Pick the most motley crew of soldiers you can. The more believable the story, the more likely you will be to infiltrate." He said to me. "Have them ready to leave in an hour."
I walked out, and breathed deeply. With the whole mercenary thing, it would probably do to have the most fitting go. I would pick Sumia, but they are pretty far in their relationship, so Chrom may or may not emasculate me. Vaike looks the most like a mercenary, but… No. Frederick is too well known as the head of the king's guard. Who does that leave?
"Heya!" Donnel said to me. "Whatcha thinkin' bout Noah?"
Donnel picked up some new toys. Instead of his old clothes, he was decked out in some sweet chain mail, over which he wore a steel breast plate. He wore some boiled leather pants, which protected his legs. He also found some javelins which he had put in some sort of container at his waist. He also had his killer lance strapped over his back. He looked every inch the motley mercenary. Well, except for…
"Did you have to keep the pot Donny?" I asked him.
"It reminds me of home." He claimed defensively.
"Can you lose it for a couple of days? Where we are going it may be a little incriminating." I asked him.
"Sure." He claimed. "As long as it stays here. Where are we going?"
"We are going to pretend to be mercenaries, and spy on Pelagia." I told him.
"I reckon that would be enjoyable." He claimed. "Who else is coming?"
"I think I have an idea."
"You want me to do what?" Lon'qu asked me.
"Help us spy on Pelagia."
"... How will we get in?"
"Just let me do the talking." I told him. "Once we are in, all we have to do is get a rough troop amount for Robin, so that he won't be going in blind tomorrow."
"Fair enough." Lon'qu said.
"Alright, lets head out." I told them.
We got on our horses, and rode a bit towards the Pelagian encampment. Then we saw someone I forgot about.
"Oh, no." I said as I saw Ricken riding across the plain.
"...Is that boy even thinking?"
"I reckon he aint."
"Wait." I stopped them. "Maybe he can help." I then rode to catch up with him.
"Hey." I called when I had drawn even to him. "Idiot. You know that there are Pelagians this way right?"
"I have to rescue someone. For the glory of my house." He told me.
"Well I have a plan." I claimed. "And I need your help."
"What is the plan?" He asked.
After I explained the plan, the boy just shook his head.
"This is the worst plan ever."
"Look, you save the girl, you get all of the glory, and we just get mission accomplished." I reminded him. "What part of that deal is unfavorable for you?"
"What if they move me to a separate holding area? What if they recognize one of you? What if you are unable to contact Robin in time?" Ricken listed. "These are just a few problems with your plan."
"It is better than going in there half-cocked and no plan. Isn't it Ricken?" I asked him. He just groaned for a bit.
"Ok. Fine." He finally said.
By the time we got to the encampment, we had Ricken tied and gagged, and a knife strategically placed in his pocket. He looked at me, his eyes just saying:
I hate you.
"Great." I told him. "Just keep that look. You will be fine. You two." I said gesturing at Lon'qu and Donnel. "Let me do the talking."
"Halt." One of the vanguard shouted. "State your business."
"We are just a couple of mercenaries." I told him mentally scanning the Vanguard. There were about 250 of them. "We are looking for a job in the Pelagian army."
"Who's the kid?" One of them asked suspiciously.
"Some highborn lout who fancied himself a hero." I replied. "We captured him on the way here." I did a gracious gesture. "Take him as a symbol of our good will."
"I think he checks out." The leader claimed. "Let the man in."
The curtain of warriors opened, and we entered the camp.
After two hours of counting, I finally brought Lon'qu a number.
"Around 2,000 wyvern knights, anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 axemen and Myrmidons. Around 20,000 archers..." Meanwhile, Lon'qu was just writing all of this down. It was kinda disconcerting how little this guy talked. Makes me wonder how he ever does… anything at all. Hope he gets this to Robin though. The Pelagian army was about twice the size of ours (replacing Wyvern Knights with Pegasus knights of course.) Robin was going to need something really brilliant to get us out of this mess. After I finished, Lon'qu nodded to me, and said:
"If you don't survive this, I will tell Olivia that you didn't end up killing yourself after all...from a safe distance." Oh haha. He finally speaks up, and it is something like that. Oh. He ran off before he could hear what I thought of well. Godspeed to him and all that. I turned to Donnel.
"Lets head back to Ricken and Maribelle's area." I told him.
"Yessir." Was all he said before he followed me.
About two hours later, we realised the good part of having the high good thing about being on high ground, was that we got a lofty place to witness the rest of the action. Gangrel is being a dick, Emm is trying to be nice, Gangrel being a dick again, Chrom kills a soldier, WAR STARTED! Donnel and I quickly dispatch the other two guards, and help Ricken and Maribelle out of their tent. I toss Ricken his wind tome, and he mutters a sullen thank you. Then shit happened. You see, fighting in a small skirmish with some bandits was one thing, then there was fighting in a full fledged battle. There was such a flurry of enemies, that I was acting purely on instinct. Apparently we were drawing a lot of attention away from the Ylissian force, because before I knew it, I saw the blue soldiers of Ylisse fighting beside us. Then we continued to fight. On and on the fighting went for about three hours, until finally the Pelagian forces sounded the retreat.
Our forces cheered, and I did too, until I saw the carnage. I knew that there was no glory in war as I had read the Game of Thrones, but I didn't realize the extent of the horrors of war. Pelagian Red and Ylissian blue were piled in indiscriminate mass funeral pyres around the battlefield. The worst wasn't the sight of the dead, or the sounds of the wounded, but the smell of so many dead being burned at once. The smell was an overpoweringly sickly sweet stench that was distinctive to itself. I knew immediately that this was not going to be the last time that I smelled this. Robin approached me and said:
"Thanks to you, Donnel, Ricken, Marribelle, and Lon'qu the Ylissian cause prevailed." He told me.
"I am not quite sure what you are talking about." I stated cynically. "There are only ever two sides in war, the living, and the dead."
"We caused much more of their army to die than ours," He told me.
"I could tell from the many more red bodies then blue." I told Robin.
"Hmph." Frederick said as he approached. "We should probably head back to Ylisse and regroup."
"I couldn't agree more Frederick." Robin said.
Except next chapter is where…
Shit.
AN: Holy Shit. Next chapter I have big things planned, so don't you be going somewhere else on me now. Thank you again X-ray99 for specifying which fanfiction the guest meant. I will be sure to read it, and possibly give you my thoughts on it next time if you guys even read these stupid things. I don't know if you do. How bout this? Review, and tell me which chapter is your favorite so far! I really appreciate your feedback, and would like to hear more from my viewers. THANK YOU! I hope you follow and review. I would really appreciate it!
