Hey everyone! Mind back again with another chapter. As always I hope you enjoy ^-^


Chapter 6: Return Trip

-A week before the Shepherds were due to arrive in Regna Ferox-

She was floating in an abyss of darkness, her ears being assaulted by the countless screams of her comrades as they fell one by one. Then it stopped.

'Where am I?' she asked herself as she continued to fall farther into the void.

'Wait, that's right. We were defeated. Betrayed.'

The event started to play back in her mind, their leader Sigurd being consumed in the fires of Valflame, all of them trying to fight back in retaliation, and then a rain of hellfire falling upon them, herself included.

'Then I'm dead then?'

But the answer to that question became obvious as she began to feel the racking pain all throughout her body. Slowly she started to open her eyes, her vision blurry either from having her eyes closed for far longer than normal or the harsh light assaulting her making it difficult to make anything out. She blinked several times to help focus her sight and when it finally did the first thing she saw was what looked to be a ceiling. She then tilted her head down and saw she was under some kind of fur cover; lifting the cover slightly she saw that her body was wrapped in bandages.

"Eep!"

She heard a shirk come from the other side of the room and the sound of something hitting the floor. Turning her head she saw a women sitting on a chair in the corner of the room and a book that she probably dropped just now on the ground near her feet. This women had long pink hair, was wearing some sort of dancing outfit, and looked extremely nervous.

"Umm…"

"B-B-Basilio! She's up!" she screamed as she ran out of the room.

A little confused as to what just happened she decided to turn her attention to the rest of the room. It was a decent sized room with a desk and fire place inside and it was decorating with animal pelts that made up the rug, wall décor, and as mentioned before the cover that she was currently under. She looked over to the fireplace, which was lit, before averting her eyes from the flames, then she took a look out the window beside her and saw the snow covered streets of some kind of market place.

'Wherever I am, I'm clearly not in Belhalla any more' she thought to herself.

Her thoughts came to a halt as a large muscular dark skinned man walked into the room, he was bold and wore golden armor that covered much of his body save for his chest that was bare and fur that cover around his shoulders and neck attached to the large neck guard of the armor; he also wore an eye patch over his left eye. Accompanying the man was the same dancer that ran out of the room moments prior.

"So you're finally up" the man said to her.

"Were am I? And-ouch" she tried to pick herself off the bed, but the soreness in her body made it difficult.

"Careful there lass, you were in pretty bad shape when we found you; cover in cuts, burns, and ashes. Like someone had put you through hell itself"

'You can't even begin to image' she thought.

"We found you three nights ago in the arena and have been lookin after you since"

"I see, thank you for that umm…"

"Basilio, the current ruling khan of Regna Ferox" he told her.

"Regna Ferox? I've never heard of it" she told him.

"Well that's not good, you don't even know where you are, do you at least have a clue as to how you got so beaten up?"

She took another look towards the flames in the fireplace "I rather not talk about that right now"

Basilio nodded in response to that "Well is there anything you are willing to tell? Your name perhaps?"

"That depends, you guys patched me up so I at least know you don't want me dead…yet, however am I to stay in this room my entire time here?"

"Not at all, you can leave as soon as you feel up to it or stay and figure a few things out while in Ferox, the choice is yours to make. We even fixed up your equipment for you and packed some extra supplies in case you decided to go"

"I see…" she took some time to think about the man's words "My name is Ayra and if you don't mind could you tell me exactly where Ferox is located and what today's date is?"

After Robin had finished his launch he made his way to his room in the castle to grab what he left there.

"Such a nice room, shame I didn't get to use it last night" he thought to himself.

He gather the few supplies he left there before Chrom showed him to library, but when he got ready to leave he noticed his mother's diary on the table in the room.

"Linnet must of left it here for me to hold onto again" Robin sighed before picking up the old leather journal, taking out his tome and storing it back insides it's pages with his magic.

Robin was about to make is way out when a certain princess busted into his room and got a hold of his arm.

"There you are! Come on let's get a move on" Lissa said as she began to drag the man.

"Hey! Hold up, you don't have to drag me we still have plenty of time"

"That won't do" she said with a smirk "we can't have the new tactician show up later than the rest of the members of our party on his first mission, what kind of example would you be showing if you did that?"

Something told Robin that there was more to this then just being an example for the rest of the Shepherds, but what that could possibly be he had no clue, so he just complied and allowed the blonde royal to drag him to the meeting place.

...

Waiting for the two of them as they arrived was Chrom and Frederick, the latter of whom was checking the supplies that they would be taking with them from what Robin could see. Chrom on the other hand was tending to some light injuries, most likely obtained when Robin saw Chrom and Linnet earlier.

"Nursing some bruises there Chrom?"

"And finding more as I do" he replied with a sigh.

"Jeez what happened to you?" Lissa asked her brother.

"From the looks of it my sister happened" Robin smirked.

"Ha ha, I have to be honest though, I wasn't expecting to be so out classed"

"From what I saw of you back at Southtown and during our fight at the abandoned Fort I wouldn't say that you're that far behind her in terms of skill"

"Really? Even still in terms of speed and strength she's got me beat"

"She's stronger then you? Chrom you put holes in the barrack walls on a monthly basis, how is that even possible?" Lissa asked.

"You do what now? How do you manage that?" was Robin's response.

"That's not really all that important" he said with a nervous chuckle "Anyway Robin, what of Lilina and Nephenee? Will they be joining us?"

"I'm not really sure, when we last spoke they didn't really seem up to it"

"I see, perhaps they will reconsider before we depart"

"Perhaps"

After Frederick was done going over the carriages he turned his attention to the trio and spoke.

"We're all set milord" he told Chrom.

"Good, all we have to do now is wait for everyone else"

Then they all heard the sound of a horse approaching them.

"I'm here captain" Said Stahl now dressed in green armor

"Ah Stahl, I see Vaike managed to inform you of today" Chrom said

At this Stahl just gave him a blank Look.

"….He forgot to tell you didn't he?"

*nod*

Lissa begins giggling in the background.

*sigh* "How did you find out?"

He then points to Robin.

*giggling intensifies*

*longer sigh* "Did he at least tell Miriel?"

"Nope, I had to tell her myself. Speaking of which she said that she was going to catch up, she seemed very busy with whatever it was she was doing"

Chrom took a few steps away from everyone else then he shouted "Damn it Vaike you had one job!" and at that the young princess lost it and found herself on the ground in a fit of laughter.

While that was going on Robin saw another person join them. It was a man Robin noticed yesterday but didn't say anything to because it seemed like everyone else was ignoring him. He wore heavy looking armor, had a pretty plain looking face, and for some reason had a strong amount of magic? No a curse hanging off of him. Robin walked up to him.

"Hello there, you ready for this mission" he asked.

The man looked around him to make sure there was no one else around before turning back and giving Robin a wide eyed look.

"Wait you can see me!?" he asked

"Yeah? Why wouldn't I be, I mean you're kind of hard to miss"

At that the man grew a large smile on his face "I wish I could hear that more often, but why didn't say anything to me yesterday?"

"Well everyone else acted like you weren't there so I thought it was some kind of punishment or something, sorry about that"

"No it's quite alright" he put out his hand "My names Kellam by the way"

Robin shook his hand "good to know"

Then two more joined in. coming first was Sumia who managed to trip over her own feet on the way there, which Robin could now definitely say was "normal" for the poor girl, and coming behind her was to his surprise Lilina, who ending up help Sumia up.

"Reporting in captain" Sumia announced as she approached Chrom.

"Glad you could make it" He said back to her before he turned to Lilina "You as well, Robin told me you might not be feeling up for it"

"Uncl-I mean Robin was just over exaggerating I'm sure, I was feeling a little under the weather earlier but I'm much better now" she told him with a smile.

"Good to hear"

She nodded to him and then turned to Robin and gave him a look that most likely meant that they should talk later before turning her attention to Sumia, who he could only assume she became friends with.

After that Nephenee and Sully where the next to show up. The two seemed to be having a good conversation with one another, as they were both smiling and laughing as they made their approach. They gave the group their greetings then continued to go on with what they were taking about before.

'It's good to see that they both seem to be doing alright' Robin noted.

"Looks like I'm ones of the last to arrive"

Robin saw his sister Linnet make her way to them. Attached to her belt was four pouches, each of which Robin knew carried a tome inside.

'If I were to guess, she probably prepared Lightning, Elight, Nosferatu, and Aura to take with her' he thought.

She look at the few bandages Chrom had on him.

"Again I'm very sorry about what happened earlier" she told him.

"It fine, no harm done" she pointed to one of the bruises he missed "well not much at least"

"That's good" she replied.

"Good evening my friends, the archest of archers has arrived" said Virion walking up.

"More like flirtiest of flirts, but good evening to you as well Virion" Linnet said back.

"Sharped tongued as ever, I like it" he replied in earnest.

"Worry not everyone for the teach has just arrived!"

Everyone turned their attention to the blonde as he shouted and made his way to the group with ax in hand.

"I see you at least remembered one thing for today Vaike" Chrom said looking at the weapon in the man's hand.

'He's forgotten his weapon before?' Robin thought.

"Hey what's that supposed to mean?"

"You forgot to tell Stahl and Miriel about today, duh" Lissa chimed in.

Vaike looked around and saw Stahl in the group.

"But Stahl's here ain't he?"

"That's because Robin told me about it" the Cavalier responded.

"Oh"

"Just admit it, you totally forgot didn't Vaike?" the princess asked

"Hey the Vaike never forgets….he just doesn't always remember, alright" he replied with a rub to the back of his head.

"Well since we're all here, are we ready to depart everyone?" Chrom addressed everyone there.

"Yes sir!" Was mostly everyone's response, minus Lilina and Nephenee.

It was a long march to Ferox, one filled with complaints from Lissa about being cold, Virion hitting on the women of the group, and Vaike bragging about his many feets. It was refreshing for the twins and something that they had not had in a very long time. Being by their selves and avoiding getting involved with larger groups such as this made them forget how fun it could be to travel with more people and since everyone in the Shepherd seemed to have their own little quirks, they made for a very colorful group of individuals that never got boring through the long travel. It was only the fourth day of traveling but with no inconveniences and with the group moving at a good pace, from what Robin and Linnet could tell they would be at Longfort by sun down. Along the way the group encountered a group risen in their path.

"How many do you see Robin?" Chrom asked him.

"We have about 20…make that 23 in our way" he replied back while using Fell eye to gauge the amount of foes they would face.

"So what are we doing? Linnet asked her brother.

"hmmm" he thought "despite their numbers, the risen-"

"Zombies" Linnet said flatly

Robin ignored her interruption and kept going "should be easy to take out if we take into account our weapon diversity and their poor coordination. Since she can't really fight quite yet we'll have Sumia hang back. Sully and Nephenee, I want you to handle the ones on the left side, while Frederick and Vaike will take the ones on the right. Virion, Lilina and I will provide covering fire and pick of any ranged attackers if any, if not take out whoever gets to close. Chrom and Linnet will protect the center and cut down anything that comes near the carriages. Last but not least Kellam I want you to protect Lissa and Sumia if anything gets past us."

"Wait Kellam is here?" Chrom asked

"Umm captain I'm right next to you" Kellam spoke

Chrom and a few others jumped at the voice and then they noticed him "Sorry Kellam, I guess I didn't see you"

"Alright let's get in here and-huh!?"

"What is it Vaike?" Robin asked

"Where did my ax go?"

"Please don't say you dropped it" Lissa said

"There's no way that happened"

"Where is it then?"

The man had no response.

Robin sighed "change of plans, Vaike you'll hang back with Sumia, Kellam, and Lissa; and I'll take your spot with my ax"

"I don't see an ax on you" the blonde replied.

Robin brought out his tome and called fourth Urvan from its pages, leaving everyone except Linnet, Lilina, Nephenee, and Virion in surprise.

"Any questions?"

No one said anything.

"Good, then let's get a move on"

Everyone got into position after that.

"So that's what you meant by you always carry one" Frederick said.

"Told you, you'd get to see it sooner or later" Robin replied

"Though when you said that, I wasn't expected it to be well-"

"3/4 my height?"

"Yeah I was thinking more of a throwing ax"

"Well I hope this didn't disappoint"

He chuckled "Not at all"

"Shall we then?"

"I'll lead the way" and with that Frederick charged in and started impaling risen on his lance.

The fight didn't last very long with this group of risen, for the shepherds had the weapons, range and mobility advantage against them. At some point in all the fighting a mage wearing a very large hat carrying what seemed to be Vaike's ax came which allowed him to join the fight and end things much quicker. Chrom later introduced the new addition as Miriel and after that the Shepherds continued forward towards Regna Ferox. Along the way they came across what looked to be an injured Pegasus that Chrom almost lost his hand to when attempting to approach it. Sumia reassured him that the creature was just hurt and scared and decided to stay with it and take care of it, while the rest of the group went ahead towards Longfort a short distance away.

"So this is Longfort huh?" Chrom asked

"Yep" Robin answered

"Milord let's go ahead and talk to the guard of the fort" Frederick told him

"Right"

"Hold it right there you two, you should let us handle this" Linnet stopped them.

"Huh? How come?"

"She's right, we should be the ones to go, Plegia has been sending bandits masquerading as Ylissian soldiers to attack the Feroxi border, so if you go saying you're from Ylisse then you're going to get attacked and most of the guards at least know our faces" Robin said.

"Those Plegia dastards, but if you think this is for the best then I'll go with it"

The both of them nodded and then walked forward.

"HALT! State your name and purpose or I'll have my-Wait, Robin, Linnet is that you?" I women called out from atop the gate.

"It looks like you're as busy as always Raimi and as eager to get into a fight" Linnet spoke back.

"Well you're hell of lucky I know who you are, I was about to have my men rain javelins upon you"

"That sounds about right" Linnet said under her breath

"Raimi, can we get an audience with Flavia or Basilio?" Robin asked

"For you two sure thing, but if you don't mind me askin who's the group behind you?"

"That is the Prince of Ylisse and his militia"

"Wow, going from hanging with the Khans to meeting the Ylissian royal family in just three weeks or so, you two really get around"

She turned to her men.

"Go ahead and open the gate"

"Yes ma'am" one of them said.

"Wait right there and I'll be down to escort you to Arena Ferox" she told them.

The gate to Ferox opened and Linnet motioned for everyone to come on ahead.

Chrom, Frederick, Lissa, Robin, and Linnet were currently being led down the halls of Arena Ferox by Raimi.

"It's good to be back here again, Flavia throw any parties recently Raimi?" Linnet asked.

She smiled "Hardly, she's been too busy trying to prepare for the coming battle of the khans"

"Battle of the khans? What's that?" Lissa spoke up.

"It's a tournament that happens every few years between the east and west khan to see who get the final say on decisions that involve the whole of Regna Ferox or so we were told a couple of weeks back" Robin answered.

"Still can't believe you two refused to participate in it, it's an honor to be asked you know"

"We know, but at the time we had other things we needed to do" Linnet told her

"Like join Ylisse in their fight?"

"That kind of just happened"

"So which khan are we going to meet?" Chrom asked.

"I'm taking you to Flavia the eastern khan"

Just then the group heard someone running to them

"Is that Lon'qu?" Robin asked

Lon'qu stopped in front of them.

"Lon'qu, what brings you all the way over here?"

He turned to her and spoke.

"A soldier informed Basilio of a group's arrival to Ferox and he requested I check it out"

"What for?"

He looked at Robin "Robin, he told me I was to retrieve you"

"Me?"

"Follow" he simply said as he started walking off.

"Um…okay? I guess I'll meet up with you guys later" he began to walk after him.

"Any clue of what that was about?" Chrom asked.

"I have no idea" Linnet said a little confused.

Lon'qu brought Robin to a large room with a big table in the center of it. Sitting to the left of the table was a dancer that Robin had seen many time during his year in Ferox, Olivia. Lon'qu who was showing Robin here took a seat for himself at the right of the table. And at the far end of the table was Khan Basilio who sat there and looked at Robin with a smile.

"Robin it's nice to see you again, go ahead and take a seat" Basilio gestured towards the empty chair that was opposite his own.

Robin sat down "What's this about Basilio? You're not going to ask me to be one of your champions again are you?"

The bold man laughed "Don't worry I'm not going to bother you with something you've already refused once, besides I already have my champions set for the battle of the khans" he told him.

"Then what did you call me for?"

He smirked "Well you see me and Flavia wanted to get people more hyped for the coming battle that'll take place in the next 5 days. Now typically we hold normal arena battles, smaller matches that we let go on first before we have our main event, but this year we wanted to try something different"

"Like what exactly?"

"We're calling it the tournament of the King"

"Tournament of the king? So how will this event work?"

"Over the course of the next few days leading up to the battle of the khan this event will be going on. Fighters from all over Ferox will be split up into 4 brackets label A-D. These fighters will all go through their respective Brackets on each day leading to the main event until there is only one fighter from each Bracket left, then on the day of the battle of the Khans, those 4 fighters will compete in quarter finals and semi-final matches to see who will be facing against the king"

"Wow that sounds really cool, so are you asking me to participate?"

"In a way yes" his grin grew wider.

Lon'qu then spoke up "I'll be fighting in this tournament as well, if fact I was assigned to bracket C, so I look forward to having a chance at battling you again"

"Huh? But I haven't even said whether or not I'll be fighting in this yet, speaking of which who is acting as the king in this tournament?"

"The title of "king" in this event goes to the person he has racked up the most arena victories over the course of the past year" Basilio started.

"Wait your telling me that…"

"It was close between you and your sister, but the extra days you spent here while she was away from Ferox before she came back and you both decided to leave pulled the tides in your favor. Robin with over 3000 fights won in the arena over the course of the past year, I khan Basilio name you king.


Yay Ayra made it in! you have no idea How conflicted I was in deciding whether or not to involve her in this story, but at the end of the day I think I made the right choice. I also thought this whole "Tournament of the king" idea would be a fun little thing to write and a good way to introduce her since I'm thinking about pairing her up with Robin in this story. As always leave a review if you want and give me your thoughts and I'll be back with another chapter soon. seeya :p