The darkness slowly became illuminated as Xander opened his eyes, his hands feeling the ground around him as he was now somewhere completely unfamiliar to him. He began sitting up, feeling for the nearest object he could lean on in order to examine his surroundings. The experience of traveling here was much like entering Valla from the Bottomless Canyon, the difference this was his first time in this place. Upon further examination Xander found himself at the base of the unnaturally large tree that the man who sent them here spoke of, after looking around and seeing the rest of his group here, albeit unconscious, it was clear that everything went as it should have. The five of them were now in Selena, Laslow, and Odin's homeland.
Once everyone had awoken, they all began to get their bearings together and plan their next move. "Does everyone have everything, everything was transported properly?" Xander asked, the rest of the group nodded. "The man said east correct? I suppose we should get going."
"Hold on a moment Big Brother," Leo said. "I understand that you're looking forward to finally finding Selena, but we can't just go out into this world just like that."
"What do you mean?" Corrin asked.
"Think about it, Selena and the others arrived to Nohr with no past, no story, and no records, they were incredibly suspicious when they first showed up, frankly it's a miracle they managed to become retainers with such little status. Now we're all in the same boat, before we go anywhere we have to get our stories straight," Leo explained.
Xander let out a disappointed sigh. "I'm sorry Leo, you are right. I let my desire to find them cloud my better judgment, normally I wouldn't put that much faith and trust in a stranger, that was naïve of me," Xander apologized.
"Nobody's perfect Big Brother, I can't imagine hard it must be to concentrate on much with all that's going through your head, but now that we've established it we should take this time to figure it all out," Leo replied.
"Well can't we just tell people we're traveling merchants? They are everywhere, it's the perfect disguise," Peri suggested.
"We are all heavily armored, carry some of the most powerful weapons from our world, and one of us rides a wyvern. I highly doubt any random onlooker would believe we're merchants," Beruka said.
"We could always just say we're nomads, traveling from place to place, no real home, no real backstory, and we do our best to keep a low profile and not talk about it until we reach Ylisse, once we find the three of them we should be able to explain ourselves," Corrin suggests.
"That sounds like a fair plan, anyone have something else?" Xander asks the group, no one said a thing. "That settles it, as long as we don't draw to much attention to ourselves everything should go smoothly. Unfortunately the man didn't exactly state what kind of conditions these lands were like, hopefully we shouldn't run into to any kind of conflict while we are traveling."
"Well it isn't like we can't handle ourselves, I'm sure there are bad people in this world too who could use some good old fashioned…" Peri stopped talking as all four of them glared directly at her, "Oh fine! Low profile it is."
After Xander, Leo, and Peri mount their horses to prepare to travel, Beruka and Corrin go to mount her Wyvern when her beast suddenly began screeching.
"Ugh not this again," Leo muttered.
"Easy girl, what's the matter," Beruka whispered.
"What's wrong? Is she hurt?" Corrin asked.
"I'm not sure, she seemed just fine a minute ago, I'm thinking maybe being transported is having some side effects on her?" Beruka speculated.
"That doesn't make sense, our horses aren't reacting any differently," Xander added.
Beruka and Corrin managed to properly mount her wyvern, only to be suddenly hoisted in the air and began flying off against Beruka's orders. "Easy now!" Corrin shouted which the wyvern gleefully ignored.
"Ugh we don't have time for this!" Leo said as the three of them began following them.
Xander, Leo, and Peri tried their best to keep up with Beruka's wyvern as it soared through the Valmese skies against Beruka's control. They gave chase for what felt like an eternity until finally the wyvern landed in an open field.
"What is going on with that thing!?" Leo said as they finally caught up.
"Do not ever refer to her as a thing," Beruka stated with a glare as she and Corrin got off of the wyvern.
"Beruka has she ever gone out of control like that?" Peri asked.
"Never, she was expertly trained before I became a rider, she's never disobeyed a single command. I don't see why-" Beruka muttered before looking deeper into the open field. She and others all saw many other wyverns roaming free, and Beruka's wyvern going to join them.
"Does that answer our question?" Corrin asked.
"I suppose she doesn't spend too much time with her own kind, being cooped up with me around the castle for so long. I imagine this might be therapeutic," Beruka pondered.
"Well now that we have a set destination, we can afford to spend some time resting and let her spend some time with other wyverns," Xander said.
"Where are we? Who would let so many wyvern's just roam freely like this?" Leo asked.
"That would be me," A voice rang out from behind the group, what stood before them was a young man with blonde hair wearing a black mask over his face, beside him was a woman with long dark blue hair. "You're in Wyvern Valley, these are sacred grounds."
"Sacred grounds? This is just a plot of land so wild beasts can roam?" Leo uttered.
"Brother think. Different land, different cultures, we need to watch what we say," Corrin interjected.
"If you're going to continue disrespecting these lands them I'm going to have to force you out," The Masked Man said, arming himself with an axe.
"Oh is that righ-!" Leo muttered before Xander raised his arm in front of his younger brother.
"We don't mean any harm to your land, our companion's wyvern flew this way on her own, seemingly to interact with all the others. Once she is done we will take our leave," Xander explained.
The Masked Man and the woman began examining Xander and the others, "Who are you, I don't recognize any of the symbols on any of your gear."
"We're nomads, nothing more," Xander responded.
"With weaponry like that?" The Masked Man replied.
"For protection of course, you never know what kind of brigands we could meet," Xander said.
"Or people who hide their face behind a mask swinging axes around," Leo uttered.
"Leo!" Corrin blurted.
The Masked Man grunted and almost began walking towards them, until the blue haired woman stopped him. "Gerome calm down," She said, holding him back.
Xander sighed, "I apologize for my brother's words, I promise we will be gone as soon as our wyvern settles down. We have somewhere else to be actually, we are traveling to a place known as Ylisse."
"Ylisse?" The woman said, "That's actually my homeland."
"Really? That's great could you tell us how we could get there? We were told to travel to the east coast of here to reach it," Xander said.
"What business do you have in Ylisse?" Gerome asked.
"We are just meeting with some friends of ours, but it's our first time visiting the land," Xander explained.
Peri leaned over and looked towards the blue haired woman, "You said you're from there? You wouldn't happen to know someone by the name of Laslow would you?"
The woman took a moment to think, "Sorry, that name doesn't ring any bells."
"What about Selena or Odin? Names sound familiar?" Xander asked.
"I'm sorry, I don't know anyone by those names," The woman answered.
Both Xander and Peri let out a sigh, "Well thank you anyway, could you please direct us in the right direction? The wyvern flying off somewhat through off our sense of direction," Xander asked.
"Certainly," The woman said, pointing towards some roads heading out of Wyvern Valley. "Follow those trails in that direction, it will take a while but it will lead you to the coast."
The group thanked the woman for her directions as soon enough Beruka's wyvern had finally returned to her and was back under her control. They all said their goodbyes and made their way out of Wyvern Valley.
"We should visit Ylisse soon, I haven't seen Father or Mother since our wedding," The blue haired woman said.
"We'll see Lucina, there's still work to do here, but who knows maybe your brother is finally back," Gerome said.
The group then began heading east of Valm, planning to catch a ferry ride once they reach the coast. While somewhat following the roads in order to not get lost, they mostly traveled through the forests and had Beruka take to the skies, limiting their amount of communication with others as much as possible. Eventually they reached the coast of Valm, with no other choice they all went to the nearest populated area in hopes of finding a way across the water.
The closest place appeared to be a small country within Valm known as Rosanne. The group spread out to search for someone who could direct them to a way over the sea, but despite everything they couldn't find a single person who was able to help them. Xander had reunited with Leo as they waited for the rest of the group to meet back up with them.
"You didn't send Peri off by herself did you?" Leo asked.
"Of course not, Beruka is with her to keep her in check, the last thing we can afford is someone rubbing her the wrong way and we all end up on the run," Xander replied.
"Right, thankfully her missing Laslow has seemed to have kept her at bay as far as unnecessary bloodshed is concerned," Leo said.
"I just don't understand how there isn't a single place here that doesn't have access to a ferry, do none of these citizens travel to the other country? I sure hope both lands aren't in some sort of conflict. The man didn't really give us much background on these places before sending us here," Xander said.
"Well what are we to do? It isn't like we saw a port anywhere when we were walking along the coast," Leo continued.
"Hm, this certainly doesn't seem like a poor place, surely there must be some nobles or other upper-class people around here, if we pay I'm sure one of them would be willing to give us a lift to Ylisse," Xander suggested.
Once Peri, Beruka, and Corrin rejoined them and they all approached the largest building they could find, outside of it was a sign that read, "House Virion." They all assumed some important people must live here, or at least someone who could give them a boat ride. Xander knocked on the large doors, after a few minutes of nothing eventually a young man with a scar on his face opened the door.
"Heh? What do you want?" He said.
Xander was a bit taken back by his behavior, not quite what he was expecting from any nobles, "May I speak with the head of the household?"
"You're looking at him, what do you need?" He said.
"Really? You seem quite young to be running things here," Xander responded.
"And you seem to be quite suspicious for asking so many questions, when my Ma and Pop ain't here I'm in charge of this place," He continued.
"Please we aren't looking for trouble, we're just looking for some help," Xander explained.
"Yeah help with what?" He asked.
"You see my friends and I need a boat ride, we need to go to Ylisse," Xander explained.
"Ylisse?" This seemed to have gotten his attention, "What do you all need to go to Ylisse for?"
"We are just looking for some friends of ours," Xander answered.
"Hm, I gotta admit, I've been meaning to go back to Ylisse, I got someone I need to see myself," He said. "Tell you lot what, if you can pay me for using our ferry, I'll escort you their personally."
"Yes of course! That'd be perfect!" Xander said, much to the delight of the rest of the group.
"The name's Brady, meet me here tomorrow morning and we'll set sail," Brady said.
"Wonderful, my name is Xander, thank you," Xander responded as he and Brady shook hands.