.sCO ym nwo ylno I ,sretcarahc melbmE eriF eht nwo t`nod I :remialcsiD


(Mar)

The time seemed to slow down. My body went numb and I accepted my fate. I fell into the lava and died... Not. Somehow I was still alive. I didn´t even burn nor felt I even heat. (Wait. Why am I still alive? I´m pretty sure that lava, as I´m a normal human, should burn me to ashes instantly.)

My lower body half was under lava. The whole situation was so confusing that I stopped thinking about it. Safe ground was too far away for me to reach so I shouted out for help: "Hey! Anybody out there? I might need help!"

Lucky for me, a few seconds after I called out, someone came to my aid. (That was faster than I expected.) He had tattered leather gloves, a blue long coat with a hoodie and a pair of black trousers, and you could see the confusion in his hazel colored eyes when he saw what I was doing. "What are you doing down there?"

"Can´t you see? I´m trying to get out of lava!"

"No, I mean, how are you still alive?"

"I don´t f***ing know! And now, would you be so kind and help me out of here?"

After a few minutes trying to pull me out, he finally succeeds.

"Thanks. I´m Marius, by the way."

"I´m Alex. Have you seen bandits or the like around here? I´m supposed to kill the ones that are supposed to have gone to Southtown."

"Yeah. I met them. The most of them are dead, but two-three might have escaped."

"Did you kill them all by yourself?"

"Nope, only two. The Shepherds and the royal army took care of them."

"The Shepherds, eh? A troop lead by the prince, am I right?"

"Exactly. I´m still searching for them, since we got separated."

"Are you part of the Shepherds? Or are you…

"Gentleman, I don´t want to interrupt your conversation, but there are other problems to take care of."

Without the two of us noticing, a young man around 18 years approached us from the shadows. He had curly blue hair and was wearing something that look like more covering dark mage suit under a white cloak.

"And who might you be?" Alex asked.

"Call me Pelleas." (Fitting name for a dark mage with curly blue hair.)

"Pelleas as in Pelleas, the supposed son of Daein´s Mad King Ashnard?" I asked.

"You´re right. But before we continue our little chat over my name, we should take care of these walking piles of evil."

I turned around and saw a few Risen approaching us. They were outnumbering us by far, but they were slow and uncoordinated. (One half of me was scared; the other, a new side I have never felt before, was excited.)

"What in Naga´s name are those things?"

"Risen, servants of Grima." Pelleas and I answered simultaneously.

(I think just saying things ain´t that of a good idea; Pelleas is staring at me with a look of suspicion in his face.)

He might have wanted to say something, but considering our situation, he kept his mouth shut. Alex charged at the Risen and cut open a Fighter and beheaded a Myrmidon with ease. Pelleas just opened his tome, mumbled an Incitation and turned seven into purple mist with one attack.

Attacking distracted Risen was easy. I just put my sword through his head and he´s gone. The moment they notice you, things get hard. And to make things worse I underestimated them. The fighter slowly approached me and simply swung his axe at me. I, overconfident in my abilities, mistakenly tried blocked his attacked. The moment the axe connected and my arms felt like they´re gonna burst. I immediately backed off, but that was my second mistake. A Myrmidon attacked me from my right and hit my hand, so I accidently let go off my sword. I tried to summon my magic, but every time I tried to concentrate the Risen interrupted me. I just kept dodging their attacks until they bumped into each other; they stumbled, and I took this small opening to launch a thunderbolt at them. They fell down and while they were unable to move, I sprinted past them and picked up my sword. The moment I did that, I started to realize that my stamina is lower than I expected. I was breathing hard and my legs didn´t respond to me anymore. I looked back and saw the Risen approaching again, so I went into my battle stance, but before they even reached me, I saw something fast going through them. They stopped to move and started to dissolve from their belly, as if someone has cut them in half. Looking around I saw Alex and Pelleas finish the last off.

(It is a little bit depressing that they finished off all of them while me only killed a distracted one.)

Alex waved at me to come over.

"You still haven´t answered my question. Are you a part of the Shepherds now?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, but only since today."

"We should me up with them, ´cause staying here doesn´t seem like an option to me."

"I was planning to do that anyway."


Pelleas just followed us, and when we reached Chrom and co. he joined Lucina and another girl. But I didn´t miss everything, Chrom just asked for "his" name.

…you may call me Marth."

"Marth after the Heroic king of old? You certainly fight like a hero. Where did you learn your way with the sword?"

"I´m not here to talk about me. This world teeters at the brink of a horrible calamity. What you saw tonight was but a prelude. You have been warned."

"And I´d like to talk with one of you. Alone." Pelleas pointed at me.

"Ok. If it´s just talking."

"Are you sure you´re gonna be okay?" Chrom asked.

"I wouldn´t agree if I´m not sure."

Pelleas, Lucina the stranger and me entered the forest.

"Tell me, how do you know about Risen?"

"I needed a name for those things, so I just thought of one."

"That doesn´t explain the fact that you know that they are servants of Grima."

"You´re right. To know this fact, you have to be either from another world or from the future. Or someone from the future/another world told you. You´re name, Pelleas, isn´t well known in Ylisse or neighboring countries, in fact no one except me should know about it."

"Pelleas, I like to test something out. Can I ask him a question?" the second girl asked.

"Do what you want." (´cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate. Sorry, whoever heard this thought.)

"Do the names Zelgius, Dheginsea or Altina seem familiar to you?"

"You mean Zelgius aka The Black Knight, Dheginsea: King of Dragons and Altina: founder of Begnion?" (I have a feeling I might know where Pelleas got his name from.)

"It´s him."

"No way. It can´t be him."

"I´m sure it´s him."

"If you´re sure, then everything is alright." Pelleas spoke up: "Forgive me my rudeness from before, sir. We shall meet again."

With that said, he summoned black magic and teleported them away.

(That was confusing. But I think him is me. Or something like that.)

While walking out of the Forest I saw Chrom talking with Alex.

"Are you sure you don´t want to join?"

"I might need the money, but I don´t want to leave my life in a pointless war that is about to start."

"Please, we really need a lending hand." Now Lissa started begging.

For a moment it seemed like Alex blushed, but I wasn´t sure.

"O-Ok, but only for now." (He really blushed, eh? I need to take advantage of his weakness.)

"Welcome to the Shepherds."


I never noticed, but after the fight the sun was already coming up. By the time we reached Ylisstol it was already noon. Compared to modern capitals, it was small. But somehow every time I looked at the Palace the city started to get bigger, well, it certainly seemed like it. The citizens were just like in the game, totally unscathed by the earthquake and such from last night.

I was passing an old guy, and in the moment, my ears were the nearest to his mouth, he shouted: "Thunderation! The Exalt has come to see us!"

(THANKS! I REALLY APPRECIATE THAT YOU TOLD ME! WITHOUT YOU I PROBABLY WOULD HAVE NEVER NOTICED THAT!)

After my mental rant, I took a look at Emmeryn. While I was staring at her, I felt the same feeling of peace I felt on the mountain. But it was a little bit different, this time it didn´t seemed forced. Spacing out, I missed Robin´s reacting to Chrom and Lissa being royalty, in fact we got separated in the crowd.

(Getting lost/ separated from my group is a specialty of mine, but seriously? It took me like three minutes to get separated! …But now, I´ll just do what I always do when I´m lost; I stop thinking and just start walking in a random direction. Using your brain never helps you.)


(I´ll take it back. Relying on your brain might help under special conditions. For example, if you want to enter a dark, smelly and thin alley with blood covering the walls, you should give it a second thought. … Oh, It´s been three minutes already, time to speak up again.)

"Let me go already! I´m a shepherd! And if you…!"

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut the f*** up! Gods, why do I have to guard this guy?!"

(I don´t even know why I´m here! IT might be true that I insulted their boss a little bit, but I was just saying the truth. He really is ugly.)

"You don´t have to guard me. I would be fine without you."

"As if I´m gonna do that."

"I´m boooored. How about we play hide and seek?"

"…"

"What´s wrong? Why don´t you answer?"

"IF YOU DON`T SHUT YOUR MOUTH RIGHT NOW, I`M SERIUOSLY GOING TO KILL YA!"

For a few minutes, it really was silent.

"Let me go! I never did anything to you!" a mysteriously familiar voice broke the silence.

"Struggling won´t help you, kid. Look at the bright side, you´re not alone in your cell. Here you go!" a small guy was thrown into my cell.

"And you, Bob, come with me. The Boss is asking for you." He spoke to the guard.

"Is it ok to leave them alone?"

"You´re barely ten minutes away. What could possibly happen?"

Both of them left, and I turned towards the new one.

"What did you do to get here?"

He looked up. (No way. Why is he here?)

"Marvin/Marius! What are you doing here?"

"You first." I let him go first.

"Only a few minutes ago, I woke up in this mud hole, wearing these weird clothes. When I walked around to take a look, they just caught me and brought me here, while saying something like `What are you doing in our territory? A cocky brat like you needs to cool his head.´ or so."

"He probably was referring to your thief outfit."

"What do you mean `Thief Outfit´? Do you know something?"

"Well, this is going to take some time. Are you ok with that?"

"It´s not like we could go anywhere else soon."

"Soooo… there is game called Fire Emblem…"

I told him about Fire Emblem and the issues in this world.

"That´s… too much. One moment you´re eating dinner with your family, and then the other moment you are in a medieval country at the verge of war. That´s just too much for me!"

"Calm down. Freaking out won´t do as any good."

"So, what do you propose we do?"

"Uh, just give me a moment or two."


[Somewhere else (Again)]

-+"It´s been long since we last saw each other. I´m happy to see you two again, Veyona, Belius."+-

-"Yeah, it´s been such a loooong, long time, Sapienta."- She seemed nervous.

++"It´s good to see you again, too. But let me ask; what are you here for? You barely ever leave your mountain."++

-+"I met someone, and he wasn´t from our world."+-

++"What did you say before Veyona? You brought six people into this world?"++

-"Well, regarding that… It might have been a few more then just six."-

++"YOU`RE TELLING ME THAT NOW?! FIRST YOU CAUSE PROBLEMS FOR THIS WORLD; AND THEN YOU DON`T EVEN TELL ME THE WHOLE TRUTH?!"++


How is this going to end for Veyona? Or Marius? Or Marvin? I might know!

But, whatever. And thanks to "the emblem of fire" for sending me your character(s).

And I deeply apologize for the delay, but my dropping grades and a few other private issues didn´t make it easy for me. But I´m never going to drop this story, I´ll write to the end, even if I die!

I´m Sol D. Mars and I hope to see you again!