"Look, here they come!"
Sumia's pegasus was just off in the distant sky, and behind her, the rest of the Ylissean Shepherds. Florina was on the tips of her toes, watching as her friends strode up to Ferox once more. Lon'qu stood beside her, watching instead the excited look in her eye. There was a beauty about her, a beauty he had been too stubborn to notice before. When she noticed him staring her cheeks colored and she turned away, right back to Chrom and his crew. Finally, the day had come for Florina to be reunited with those who had found her, and later, with those whom she loved.
Lissa was the first to greet them. She ran before her brother with a worried look in her eye. "Florina!" she called when she could finally touch the girl. "You're not hurt, are you, Florina? Vaike is such an idiot! I'm so sorry!"
Chrom was quick to follow his sister, and soon everyone was surrounding them. All of them seemed to have some form of an apology. What were they sorry about? Had Basilio or Flavia told them all what had happened? But when Lon'qu tried to ask, Robin was the one that stepped in. "We'll explain over the banquet," he told them.
"Another banquet?" Lissa chimed in. "Good. I'm starving! What are we having?"
"I believe Frederick caught a lovely bear for us earlier," Maribelle told her.
Lissa turned sharply to Maribelle. "That's not funny!" she pouted, but the rest of the Shepherds started laughing.
At the large dining table, Lon'qu was seated next to Florina, causing a few whispers around the table. Food had been served, and much to Lissa's delight, bear was not on the menu. Robin had prevented anyone from beginning their delicious-looking meals until his plan was explained. It was silent in the dining hall and all eyes were turned to the famous tactician, eagerly waiting for him to begin. "I bet you're wondering how you guys wound up in Mountain Village, on an island far from here," he started. Florina nodded shyly, Lon'qu did not break eye contact. Robin cleared his throat and went on.
"Like everyone else here, I had noticed how you two weren't getting along. There was definitely something off between you two, and I could tell it was causing both of you a lot of distress. That got me thinking. What if you guys were forced to work together? I can certainly say that working together, especially in possibly life-threatening conditions, forms bonds stronger than... Well, stronger than a god! We know that really well, don't we Chrom?" Chrom chuckled lightly and nodded his agreement. "So I devised a plan," Robin went on, looking back to Lon'qu and Florina. "I decided to send you both to an unknown place, with possible threats to keep you both on your toes. This brought me to our library, and I looked through our almanacs. Miriel helped me pick a place, and we both decided Mountain Village was a perfect location."
"Its distance from Regna Ferox is most advantageous and its living requisites are just discomposing enough as to provide an adequate challenge for two to navigate and sustain themselves," Miriel cut in.
Robin nodded along with her. He seemed to be the only one who knew what she had just said. When she finished, he spoke again. "So we all got a plan together. We set a day aside. Tharja, at nighttime, would work a hex to put both of you into a deep sleep. While you were knocked out, Chrom and I would carry you to Port Ferox, and carry you both onto a ship. We did have to tie you up, in case you woke early to two guys in black carrying you off. Sorry about that. We'd set sail for Mountain Village, and when we got there we would put you two on the island. Then, Chrom would sail back to Port Ferox. I would stay to watch over you two and make sure everything went well and nothing bad happened. But... As you know, things didn't exactly work out that way."
All eyes turned to Vaike, who looked away sheepishly. "Vaike here," Robin continued, "threw a wrench into our plans. Due to a little misunderstanding, he thought we were going to move you guys the day before we intended to do anything. When he realized Chrom and I were still asleep in our tents instead of getting the ship ready or moving you, he decided, instead of waking us, that he would go along and move you to the ship himself. As he was getting ready to set sail, he realized he'd forgotten something. He wasn't going to be good to anybody if he couldn't fight, and he'd forgotten his axe. He went back to go get it, but by the time he returned to the port he realized the ship was already well on its way across the ocean, too far for him to catch up."
"Honest mistake," Vaike reasoned with a shrug. "I didn't wanna bother you guys while you were sleeping. Besides. Whatever ol' Teach did, it worked! Look at ya!"
All eyes turned to the pair, who were sitting side-by-side and both hating the attention.
Robin cleared his throat. "Well, Vaike's interference changed everything. When Chrom and I did wake and Vaike told us what he'd done, we realized we had to do something. You two were headed across the ocean without a captain, tied up, heading to an island with a relatively high crime rate; that wasn't how things were supposed to go. However, after much consideration, I decided to go through with the plan anyway. I knew you two were strong enough to fend for yourselves, despite it all. So we sent Virion on his wyvern to retrieve the ship, leaving you two alone and with no way home, until you reached the port. We just... hadn't anticipated you taking so long."
"And we were so worried!" Lissa suddenly spoke. "I thought the meanies who took Emm from us were after you, too. I was so mad at Vaike for messing things up. You're still a big dummy!" She looked to the blonde barbarian and stuck her tongue out at him.
Vaike tried to apologize, but Basilio spoke before he could. "But they're back now!" he said happily. "So I say we cut the dilly-dallying and start eating!" Everyone cheered their agreement.
During their meal, Lon'qu and Florina were able to tell everyone just what they had run into while on the island. They explained, in detail, the brutes they had run into, the exhaustion they felt, the sense of hopelessness. Florina delighted in telling everyone of the pegasus she had found, and giggled when she told who its owner had been. Lon'qu described the way Florina had struck him with the handle of her spear, making him go unconscious, and how he had deserved that. The Shepherds all laughed at their accounts. Lissa was mortified that they run into so many baddies, while Vaike was impressed by how they had handled themselves. Already Lon'qu and Florina were able to finish each other's sentences, causing more giggles to rise around the table.
"It was really scary," Florina recalled. "But we were able to get through it together. He's really good with a sword. I felt a lot better to have someone so strong with me."
Lon'qu easily deflected the praise. "She was able to keep going, even after I had already given up. If not for Florina's skill with handling that pegasus, we would have never gotten back."
Throughout their lunch they continued to recall their story, each intense detail, and laughed about how scared they had been. It all seemed so far-off now, almost unreal. While Florina was describing Lon'qu's first flight she was stopped by a sound from the entrance of the mess hall. Sumia was there, on the ground, her face in some sort of foil container. She looked up, frantic, then looked down at what she had just tripped into. "I'm so sorry!" she said, quickly getting up and wiping cream off of her face. "I baked a pie with the Feroxi chefs, but now I've gone and tripped into it again. I'm sorry!"
The Shepherds all started laughing again, and Sumia joined them. Sumia took to baking another pie, and after Cynthia almost repeated her mother's mistake with this second pie, the friends all enjoyed their dessert. Finally, it had come for the Shepherds to return to Ylisse.
The sun was high above them as they stood at the entrance of Arena Ferox. Chrom approached Florina with a smile. "Will you be staying in Regna Ferox?" he asked Florina. The rest of his army was already on their way home behind him.
Florina gave a shy nod and turned to Lon'qu. She smiled warmly. "Th-thank you, Prince Chrom, for taking me in," she said quietly. "I'll never forget your kindness."
With that, the Shepherds headed home once more. Basilio and Flavia were still off quarreling about some matter over a few pints. Only Florina and Lon'qu remained to spend the rest of Florina's last afternoon together. She turned to the dark swordmaster and hesitated. "Um," she murmured, "what do we do now?"
