Whew, I almost thought that I couldn't update this Monday because I thought I had misplaced my flash drive (thank goodness I didn't)! That would've been real bad because I have all the work I've written so far in that tiny little thing (I write in advance and then re-write anything that needs to be changed before I update).

I've taken a step into this story being into a slight original Fic since this is in a village that I made up, and inside are people who I made up as well. I hope people don't mind. Fire Emblem is a big world to tread upon to make your own stuff.

Whelp, here's the next chapter!

----------

Chapter 14: Five Year Difference

The tactician awoke from her well comforting nap, slowly opening her eyes. She looked around in her field of view, "Wait, where am I again? Oh yeah, I'm back home... back in Keinkurt." Caden sat up and stretched as she felt her body stiff from sleeping. She looked out her window that was near the foot of her bed. By the looks of how the sunrays were shining against the window sill, she estimated that it was… morning? That didn't make any sense to her. She remembered that the sun was at its highest point when she arrived in Keinkurt. The other option that came in her head was… that she has been asleep for almost a whole day. (1)

She suddenly sat up and double checked to see if it was actually morning. Her eyes weren't deceiving her, it was morning. She opened the door quietly and made her way downstairs. Before she reached the last step, she held onto the rail to see what was happening on the floor. In front of her, in the living room, she saw Matthew asleep on the couch. It was the perfect time for her to see this, on the count of that Matthew was always awake before her. She smiled, finally being able to see this, and then she took one last step to reach the first floor.

She sat on the chair that was across the room from where Matthew was sleeping. By the looks of how Matthew was sleeping, with just a blanket on, he instantly fell asleep, just how Caden did. Have they really been traveling for that long of a time to fall right asleep when they're comfortable? She figured that she didn't want to wake him. He needed his rest… or… maybe she didn't want to wake him up because of the fact that she liked seeing a sleeping Matthew.

As she was looking around, she stood up and went into the kitchen. Before she stepped into the room, she heard another door open from the second floor. Hearing the door open, she looked over at Matthew, and because Matthew's a light sleeper, he opened his eyes. She looked back at the stairs, it was her brother. He rubbed his eyes while looking at Caden.

"Err… Morning?" Caden said.

"Why the hell are you saying it like that?" Gregory asked in his waking tone.

"Well… I think I was asleep for almost a day. I'm not sure if it's morning or not."

"Sure is. Once we got back home, I looked into your room, and saw that you were still sleeping. I wanted to wake you up, but then I thought that you've been traveling for a while since Matthew said you came all the way from Ostia, and you needed your rest. Tough luck for me though, I wanted to wake you up the way I always did when you were like that. Oh, morning, Matthew."

"Well, that would be rude of you!"

"But don't you miss those days?" he said a little childly.

"I can't deny… but, yeah, I sort of do."

"Great… prepare for a rude awakening tomorrow morning."

"Eh, damn you, Greg."

"I love you, too. Haha."

Greg has a different personality when he just wakes up. His usual playful personality is slightly subtle until he fully wakes up. Like his reply for Caden, he would never say that during the afternoon… unless he actually meant it. There are times when he seems dead in the morning, where he wouldn't function at all until a while after. Caden was a little envious of that he would have a slightly different personality like that. (2)

The tactician looked over at Matthew. He was sitting up and stretching.

"So um… how long was it that I was actually asleep? And when did you two go to bed?"

"You've been asleep for as long as you said you were. As for me and Matt, we got home a couple of hours after we finished the errands I had to run. That's when I found out that Mom and Dad needed to do a quick mission out of the village for a couple of days. And um… for your second question, me and Matt hung out in the village until nightfall, and when we got home, we talked a little, then went to sleep."

"I see. I want to know what they talked about. But I guess that would be a little impossible for me to do that since… they are males."

As much as she understands that Gregory likes to abbreviate names, she is somewhat annoyed that how (in a sense) lazy he was to say their full names. If the name was more than one syllable, he would make up a one syllable nickname for them. (3)

"Well, I've been in bed for more than I needed to, and now I want to check out what's been happening. Matthew, I know that you have already seen the village, but would you like to accompany me?"

"Actually, I need to run some… err… errands around Etruia."

"But… why do you need to do that? Lord Hecter said… H-Hey, Matthew! Matth-!"

Before he could answer her question, he disappeared like he does when he's sneaking around in Ostia. "Geez… always going around by himself. I can't blame him though. He is still under oath of Castle Ostia. But running errand around Etruia? He's working for Lycia's nation though. Huh, this won't make much sense to me. I heard Lord Hector saying to him that he doesn't have to do anything, but I guess since it is Matthew, he feels like he does. Well… maybe he really did get some secret missions from him or something. Matthew can't say anything to me about those, that's why he has to make excuses!" After Caden was going through her thoughts and pointing out some of the obvious, she became suspicious of him. She put those thoughts of Matthew aside and focused on Keinkurt. "I guess… I'll go around myself. It would be nice on the count of meeting old friends and such."

She walked out of the house after she got ready to go outside. Walking down the village was like walking down memory lane for her. Even though she's been gone for five years, it felt like she's been gone longer than that. Caden continued her walk, looking to see if anything has changed. She looked at the house right next to theirs, and then she remembered something. Her flashback looked like she was about nine or ten at the time, and she knocked on the door next to her house. A boy about the same age opened the door, and they started playing after he came out. The young boy was Alair, her closest friend she had in the village.

They ran out of Keinkurt not too far away, and started to play around with their training weapons. The boy that she was playing with had a training bow and arrow, and Caden had a book of fire with her. She hardly used the tome in her hand, although she mumbled some chants to herself to see if they would actually work, which, not to her surprise, didn't work at all, although she would get surprised and happy if some sort of fire came from her chants. The other boy, though, had blunt arrows with a bow that was small for him to be comfortable with using because of his size. Caden had two weapons up her sleeve because of the fact that everyone in the village knew that he was "magic conjuring deprived".

When they were in class, the teacher sorted them into what type of magic the children were comfortable at using. Therefore, that sorted them into the type that they would be exceptional at. Caden was asked what type of magic that she was comfortable using, and when she replied that she couldn't excel in either anima or light, her classmates made fun of her when they found that out. Caden was actually sort of a cry baby when she was made fun of, so when that happened to her, she wanted to run out of the school and go to her house. Alair raised his hand when they were being sorted. He said that he wanted to train how to become an archer. The teacher tried to disagree and said that he would make a great mage, but he was certain that he wanted to learn how to use a bow and arrow. When the teacher reluctantly agreed to his decision, the boy looked at Caden, smiled, and said, "There, now you're not alone." (4)

Alair asked Caden to make a target on a tree. After she did that, Alair attempted to hit it right on the mark. He steadied his bow, and let go of his arrow, and he hit the bullseye.

"Wow, Alair, you're one of the only people I know who knows how to use a bow. How come you're not learning magic like the other people?"

"I can ask you a similar question, Caden. Why are you so bad with magic?"

"Hey! That was mean to say!"

"It's true though, isn't it?"

Caden shot a glare to Alair, "Fine. I'll say that it is, but you haven't answered my question. How come you're using a bow and arrow?"

"I just felt like it. I didn't want to be like the others and learn how to use magic. Sometimes weapons like these are stronger than magical weapons."

"You're smart. I can see that you might be famous."

"And I can see that you might be famous too, by being a person from Etruia who's horrible at using magic."

"Stop that!!!" she said kicking him on the leg.

"Ow! That hurts!"

"Well it should! You deserve to be hit harder though by all the mean things that you've said to me in the past too!"

"I mean that as a compliment though! You didn't let me finish!"

"Well then… what do you have to say?"

"So, the second part was…"

----------

Caden chuckled.

"Alair's house. After that time, he became one of my closest friends.. Actually, him and his parents have been our 'family friends' ever since I was born. But after that time when he switched from studying anima to using a bow and arrow, I think I started to like him more."

She looked over at the house, again, and walked up to the door and knocked. No one answered. She looked around and saw her brother pass by.

"Hey, Greg, do you remember Alair?"

"How can I forget him? He was talking a lot about you after you left. He really liked you."

"Greg, that's rather rude for you to say since he's not here. How come you're telling me right now? Don't you think he told you because he wanted to keep it a secret?"

"Well, not anymore. Al left the village about two years after you did. Hasn't come back yet."

"… I… I know what happened to him."

"And…?"

"I passed by him one day. But when I saw him, he was dead."

"He died?!"

She nodded her head.

"How? He couldn't have died in battle. We've sparred so many times before, trying to prepare him to depart."

"Ironically, the last scars that he received were magic wounds; mainly anima magic and elder magic."

"Dammit, how could this have happened?"

"As I've heard from someone who was last with him, Alair was defending someone." Caden was at a blank as well thinking of what to say afterwards. Of all the fighters in the village, Alair was a hard worker since he used a bow and arrow instead of relying on nature. He was actually proud of the choice he made. There was actually one argument that the class had when they were older about what type of magic was the best tome and weapon to use: anima, light, or dark. People asked Alair what he thought, and his confident response was, "I can't really decide on that since I'm not a magic user. If I had a choice, I would say that archery is better." With his reply followed a swift smile. "Isn't that right, Caden? Magic isn't the best way to fight, right?"

Now that she thought of how Alair was, she's figured that Alair has liked Caden for a very long time. Caden tried to remember another time when he seemed like Alair liked her. She was remembering the time when she was about to depart. Only hers and Alair's family knew that Caden was going to leave the village for a long absence. She remembered that when Alair was saying good-bye, he embraced her for a while, and she felt overjoyed and sad that she won't be seeing him for a long time that she started to cry. Thinking about sad memories wanted to make her cry, so she tried to not think about it at the moment. She felt ashamed that she hasn't figured that out until now that Alair liked her knowing that she's a tactician and all. She wanted to beat herself up because of that.

"How can you be sure that it was Al when you saw him?"

"I didn't know who it was when I actually saw the body, but he did look familiar. But as I went on, I just remembered who he was. It had been five years since I last saw him, so his appearance changed a little. He became very handsome. So, why did he leave the village?"

"Same as you, he said that he wanted to become famous. He didn't want to stay in one place, so he felt like traveling."

"And now I know that he didn't reach that dream…" Caden said in a sort of gloomy tone. "Probably his reason for leaving could've been more than just trying to become famous. Alair wouldn't leave for that just reason. He would think stuff like this thoroughly. What motivated him to do this? Where are his parents?"

"On a mission. They left a week ago."

"We're going to have to break the news to them sooner or later about their son."

"I knew you would say that. I think that it would be best if you told them, since you were the one who last saw him."

"I didn't see him alive."

"But still, you were the last who saw him."

"Ugh… it will be hard to do this… but I have no other choice. Do you know when they're coming back?"

"It's kind of unknown at the moment, but I'm thinking that they might be here… almost the same time when Mom and Dad come back. Maybe a couple of days after they come back."

"Right… well, I'll be staying here for a while, so I know that I'll be here to deliver the news to them. Boy, just thinking about telling him is hard. Just wait until I have to actually tell them, that'll be twice or even three times as hard."

----------

It was the morning before Caden's and Matthew's departure. Matthew, of course not sleeping as much as the others, was walking around the halls of Castle Ostia, almost as if he was on night patrol. Just as he was about to turn in, he ran into the future Ostian Marquess.

"Good evening to you, young master. How fare you in this time of night?"

"Ah, Matthew, just the person I was looking for."

"You were in need of my presence, young master?"

"Matthew, you knew that I was lying in front of Caden saying that I didn't have any missions for you."

"Of course I did. You would know me better than that. So what kind of mission do you want me to venture on during my travels with Caden?"

"Well, Matthew, I still feel uneasy about defeating Nergal. Remember what Athos said?"

"You know it better than I do."

"Please do some snooping around the towns and villages to see if anything has been out of the ordinary. If you find anything interesting, send a message to me, you got that?"

"Understood, young master."

"Alright, now I wish you have a good time going to Etruia."

"Thank you, young master."

----------

End of Chapter 14: Five Year Difference

Author's Note:

1) I've had that feeling before when I sleep somewhere else, and then sometimes I forgot that I was sleeping somewhere else other than my room, haha. Like one time when I was sleeping on my brother's bed because I was playing too much video games T-T (He half the time sleeps in the living room because the couch in there is comfortable), but the next morning I wake up, I see stuff that I don't put in my room, and then with my delayed reactions, I figure out that I'm in my brother's room, haha.

2) I'm kind of like that when I wake up, having a slightly different personality. Usually I'll have to wake up and wait 15 minutes before I'm fully awake, then I can actually get up from my bed at a good start. If I get up before 15 minutes or when someone wakes me up rudely, I'm usually grumpy for another half an hour. I found that out myself because of my siblings, haha.

3) I actually have a teacher currently who does that. He abbreviates my name Vic and other people like Steph, Britt, Kat, Syd, etc.

4) I can't really say that that's how the magic users get the ability to use their magic, but I guess that learning a type of magic is something that you need to study and practice if you want to excel at it. You know, it's like how when mages become sages, they learn how to use staves, and when clerics become bishops, they learn how to use light magic.