#06: Hero
Game: FE11
Characters: Marth
Warnings/Notes: Also done as a drabble challenge for Jayden und Verwelkt.
"Someday, I'm going to be a hero."
It was a normal ambition for a boy who'd been raised on tales of the ancient hero whose bloodline he shared, and whose father's voice won the hearts of his kingdom time and time again. It was no surprise to anyone when Marth of Altea insisted on emulating both of them and taking up the sword. He had no talent for magic or taste for learning it, not like his sister or mother. No, the prince's true passion showed as he slid his fingers under the basket of his rapier and fought duel after duel in the castle yards, when he pored over heavy tomes telling of Anri's deeds and the history thereafter.
Heroes, he learned, face trials with courage and pain with strength. They didn't stand by as their allies sacrificed themselves, or run away from those who needed them. A hero wouldn't be standing at the side of a foreign ship, staring across the ocean at the land he'd failed to protect.
"Someday, I'm going to be a hero," he murmured to himself again, as he at last turned his back on the only land he'd ever known. He swore he'd make it happen, no matter what it cost him.