Beginning Commentary: Today's sponsor for character likenesses is Dragon Age 2! Guess what character is like whom and you win nothing! HOORAY!
Chapter Eight: The Beasts
We didn't have any major celebration like the one we had back when Chrom became victorious against Lon'qu, as we just had food to eat and no special dances. Damn.
Of course, odd glances were exchanged here and there when I started eating.
"Gregor has not seen one eat that much since starving man beg Gregor for food!" Gregor bellowed.
Nyeh, I feel so awkward and ashamed of eating now…
"Come now, Gregor, more food for her means more money for the business!" Anna cheerfully scolded.
Wow, she defended me. Maybe I should repay the favor by engaging in polite conversation.
"So how did you and Gregor meet?" I asked.
"Oh, it's such a cute story. Greggy-poo was acting as Khan Basilio's bodyguard and one day walked up to the store I was working in. Some bandits were trying to rob me, and I could've handled them, but Gregor offered to do so free of charge!"
"Gregor knew Anna had deep appreciation for money like him," Gregor added in.
"We struck up a nice conversation afterwards and it was love at first price change!"
"But then Gregor had to go through rigorous test to prove self to family! As little Plegian might not know, there are many Annas. Gregor's test was to remember which Anna Gregor fell in love with!"
"He knew right on the spot!"
Wow, the Pirate King actually needed a bodyguard at one point? And wait, he knows I'm Plegian?! …Granted, my robes might give it away and maybe he heard about me from one of Anna's sisters, but holy crap! I gestured myself to the Pirate King.
"Did Gregor really act as your bodyguard?" I yelled to him, as people were starting to talk louder.
"Champion, actually!" The Pirate King responded. "He even taught Lon'qu here a couple of tricks." Lon'qu only sighed in response.
"It has been long while since Gregor has been here, has it not?" Gregor chuckled.
"Yeah, we're both getting old here!" Basilio bellowed.
The feast concluded, rest was slightly obtained, and dawn approached. Optimism became slim as anxiety grew. I could feel it, even by just looking at people's faces. Some didn't get enough sleep, others might've cried, thinking about the negative outcomes of this rescue. But what really caught me off guard was the fact that the horses had to stay in Ferox.
"But…what if they get lonely?" Henry solemnly asked.
"Or cold?" Ricken added.
"They'll be fine," Flavia sighed.
"We can't risk them getting dehydrated in the desert," Chrom explained.
"The Pegasi can go!" Ricken whined.
"They're more capable to traverse the desert."
"But-!"
"Let's hurry!" Lissa interrupted.
Like how I had to wear the dreaded bear coat in the cold, everyone aside from the Plegians had to wear hooded cloaks. Not only for protection against the sun, but also for disguise. I mean, being the prince of Ylisse can kinda draw attention to yourself, you know? Especially in the middle of a war when Ylisse and Plegia are fighting!
…I gotta hand it to these guys, though, they look pretty awesome in their cloaks. Like…a creed of Assassins or something. Wait…
At first, I thought the march would just tire me out once more and I'd have to ask Stahl for a ride, but then I remembered his steed was left back in West Ferox and I was a bit reluctant to ask him for a piggy-back ride. Luckily, though, I didn't have to wear the bear coat to keep me warm. Hooray for West Ferox not being a frozen hell! Surprisingly, too, I didn't feel as much exhaustion as I did with other marches. Was it because of the environment, the stakes at hand? Maybe I actually managed to get a good night's sleep… Who knows?
Miriel walked up to me at one point to have a somewhat important discussion.
"How will you manage to stay warm in the night without the pelt Frederick gave you?" She questioned.
CRAP, SHE WAS RIGHT! It becomes unbearably cold in the night! I only managed to survive with either Henry or Tharja teleporting me back home or with a Fire spell!
"Um, Henry might have his Dying Blaze…" I responded.
"I see… On an unrelated note, Laurent seems to have grown quite fond of you."
"I just told him a bedtime story and all of a sudden, he wants to nap with me…"
"I, for one, do not mind as long as pedophilia is not involved."
"Wha-EW!" Seeing as how I was penetrated by a man much older than me back when I was young, I REALLY have a thing against that kind of crap.
"And Frederick…well…"
"I get it, he hates me."
"Not necessarily…" She started sounding more sincere. "Firstly, he dislikes the fact that you've stolen the young prince's heart, mainly due to him realizing how much of an adult Chrom is becoming."
"That was unintentional and no need to worry, I don't like Chrom in that way."
"Secondly, well…"
"He's racist, I know."
Miriel paused.
"Do you recall what it was like to live during the first Ylissean-Plegian war all those years ago? How innocent civilians were suddenly accused of being cold-blooded murderers, just to defend themselves? How food nearly became scarce, and that those who lived from combat instantly perished from starvation?"
Oh boy, did that bring back gruesome memories… "Death collectors" always came by every week to see if there were new corpses lined up on the streets. A lot of people tried to hide them because they feared what happened after they were collected. I thought that was just a Plegian thing, though…
"Humans became savages…" I said aloud.
"Indeed they did," Miriel agreed.
"What does Frederick have to do with this?"
Another pause.
"Frederick stepped right out of Knight training into the war, defending the Ylissean land as well as he could. He still remembers all the shrieks women gave out as they were met with Axes. It still haunts him to this every day… 'Every building was stained either red from blood or black from the bustling fires. You were lucky if you didn't step on a corpse, and the stench of dead bodies could never be disappear," as he put it. 'When looking at the Plegians, you could hardly tell they were once human. They were driven mad by war, to the point where they no longer fought fairly or for their own country.'" She paused. "He still has night terrors about them to this very day…"
So…he's scared of us?
"That still doesn't excuse his behavior, though," I put bluntly. "If he truly followed Emmeryn, he'd know that there were good Plegians as well as bad ones…"
"He wants to believe that. Honestly and truly. But…he's just not ready to accept that just yet…"
Miriel soon left to be by Frederick's side, leaving me to my thoughts.
To think, the cold, intimidating Lieutenant I once thought of Frederick as was nothing more than a man using racism to hide his fear from post-traumatic stress! All those insults he tossed at me seemed hollow now…
But…in a strange way, I felt sympathetic for this. I've been terrified multiple times, and the fear just escalated when I ran away from home… In all honesty, he handles it better than I do.
No, no, this is crazy talk. He's only doing this to me… Right? He must have religious bias, too. I mean, my hand…
"Gregor has located runaways!" Gregor shouted.
He pointed to two figures, one tall and one short. The short one looked like it was clinging on to the taller one, and the tall one was struggling to move forward. They paused for a minute, presumably to look at us.
"We mean you no harm," Chrom shouted out to them.
It was vague, but I swear I could hear one of them yell back, "LIES!" Here, the tall one collapsed on the ground. We rushed over to provide assistance.
The tall one on the ground was similar to Ymir from the failed assassination a few nights ago, but was female. Her hair was wavier and nowhere near as scruffy, and she had no white tuft on top of her head or anywhere. However, the "armor" she wore was Ymir's with the only difference having it be magenta instead of blue. She had long rabbit ears droop from her sides (tan compared to her brown hair, but white compared to her skin). The strange thing about her, aside from the broken cuffs she wore around her wrists and ankles, were the markings on her face. They certainly weren't wrinkles… Were they whiskers?
The short one had her very light green hair in a ponytail and a strange little silver crown on her forehead. Her ears were pointed, like Lady Tiki's, and… Oh Gods, what kind of outfit was she wearing?! She's only a child and she's already wearing clothes a prostitute would don! No really, the only things covered by the white, pink, and occasional purple clothing were her privates and her legs! Honestly! …Well, she does have a purple cloak to at least help cover her up… Like the collapsed stranger, she wore broken cuffs. However, unlike said stranger, she also had a locket near her chest with a light blue heart-shaped gem inside…
"Please don't die!" The young girl cried. "We just got out of that awful place!
"Do not cry, manakete," Gregor began to comfort her.
"Don't touch me!" She yelped as she jumped away.
"Manakete?" I said aloud. "Aren't those the shape-shifters who can transform into dragons?"
The girl stared at me, and…began sniffing me.
"You smell familiar. Have we met?" She asked me.
"Don't get near…" the collapsed rabbit woman wheezed.
Henry immediately disobeyed her wishes and sat near her. Within seconds, she bit his arm. Her canine teeth were much sharper than any humans I've seen. I heard some gasp, but Henry stayed calm and "looked" right into her eyes. The bite lingered, but it began to grow weaker. Many wanted to intervene and help, but I stopped them. Henry was good at understanding animals, after all.
Eventually, the woman released him, but still did not want our help.
"Humans have been nothing but cruel to my kind…" She muttered, turning herself away from Henry.
"I know how bad they can be…" Henry sighed. "Can you at least let us help you get out of here? You can't walk another step."
The rabbit woman attempted to get up, but immediately fell back to her original position. The manakete cried once more.
"Hey, it'll be alright," Ricken said.
"No, it won't! Those mean people are after us and they might've used you to get to us!"
…Wait, mean people?
"How very rude for a slave to speak crudely of potential masters," an old voice hissed. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by Dark Mages. (And unfortunately, they weren't friendly).
That voice was familiar…
A short old man appeared in front of us, wearing a gray cap with an alternative Mark of Grima on it. (Instead of the infamous six eyes like my mark, it was a sideways eye with ivy surrounding it). It had purple veils coming out from behind it… His purple cloak (not like the manakete's) shrouded his entire body, but he had a thick nose to cover most of his snide face.
NOW I REMEMBER! He was a preacher that my father used to hire for private studies! What was it… Chalard! That's it!
"Stay away!" The manakete girl yelled.
In the blink of an eye, the girl held onto her locket and a flash of light blinded us. When we were able to see again, a mighty dragon of gold and green replaced the little girl's position. It didn't seem as intimidating as dragons I've seen in story books, though… Granted, it was still a dragon and had the fangs to prove it, but its scales were not as prominent. Also, it had strange veils coming off of its arms…
It let out one of its mighty breath attacks at one of the Dark Mages, but it seemed to be like a blue ball of crystal instead of scorching red flames.
"We don't have time for this," Tharja sighed.
"Hold it…" Chalard commanded. All the Dark Mages immediately put down their tomes. "They have the Fellblood amongst them…"
"Uh, hi, Mr. Chalard…" I squeaked.
"What are you doing here, child? Shouldn't you be at home with your father?"
"It's complicated."
He sneered at this response. "Young lady, I will not tolerate half-minded answers. I've taught you better than that."
I became silent, fearing he might pull the cane beatings again.
"Now tell me, why are you here?"
Please don't beat me, please don't beat me!
"I…"
Before I could even begin explaining, the manakete girl attacked more frequently. This tempted Ricken and Henry to start attacking as well, and the ripple effect just pursued in all the Ylisseans.
"Shepherds, let's deal with them before we can continue forward!" Chrom announced.
"Chrom, no!" I exclaimed. "He'll-!"
"Focus on getting the Taguel to safety with Henry and Tharja, we'll deal with things here."
Taguel? Was that the name of the rabbit woman? No, he used THE Taguel… That might be the species name.
The unholy trinity followed Chrom's command and dragged her to the closest shelter we could find: an ox skeleton.
"She's dehydrated," Henry explained.
"What about your arm?" I asked.
"I'll be fine. We'll just need to get her water soon."
"Fellblood…" The Taguel grunted. "I've heard that name before from the slave traders… Along with Grima…"
"I'm the vessel for the Fell Dragon," I explained.
"So that is why you smell of dragon like her." She must've meant the manakete.
"My name is Anne. The boy you bit is Henry, and this one is Tharja. What's your name?"
"I do not have one. Neither does the manakete."
…I couldn't tell if she was being serious or if she was just being coy due to us being human.
"Oh boy, can I name you? Ted can help me out with coming up with a good one," Henry gasped. He then let Ted out of his cloak and the bird landed on his finger.
"Don't."
Lissa and Maribelle soon walked over to us, carrying with them bandages for Henry's arm and a canteen.
"We got some water for the Taguel," Lissa said. "Poor thing…"
"Do not mock me," the Taguel grunted.
"Here, let me do this," Henry told Maribelle. She handed him the canteen and placed it near the mouth.
Although reluctant, the Taguel slowly drank out of the canteen.
"Thatta girl…"
Eventually, we were told to come back to where everyone had started fighting. As was expected, corpses were scattered around the desert sands. Luckily, though, they belonged to the Dark Mages. I eventually saw Chrom with Falchion in hand right near Chalardl's neck. Lon'qu and Frederick added their weapons as well.
The old man laughed.
"What's so funny?" Lon'qu asked.
"Now I understand…" Chalard gasped. "You're on a cute little rescue mission for the Exalt. I can tell by that sword you're wielding, Your Highness."
Chrom inched Falchion closer.
"Milord, we must be cautious," Frederick warned. "He may provide necessary information."
"Ah, like how your poor ruler will be executed by afternoon?"
…WHAT.
"What do you mean?!" Chrom yelled. "ANSWER!"
"Lord Gangrel grew tired of not obtaining the Fire Emblem, so he's sending a message. Give it to him now and she shall be spared! Refuse, and she dies."
At that last word, Chrom overreacted. He yelled, and swung Falchion right through the old man's neck.
"Milord, we needed the location!" Frederick exclaimed.
"She might be where the castle is," I explained. "Gangrel's been known for throwing people off its cliffside whenever they disagreed with him."
"Let's not waste any more time, then," Chrom sighed as he sheathed Falchion. He began running toward the cliff where the biggest animal skull lay underneath.
Before I decided to leave, I stared at Chalard. Finally, the burden of his teachings was gone forever. But I wanted to make him pay for everything. I stomped viciously on both head and body, blood splattering all over my face.
"A-Anne?" Donny whimpered.
"Just a personal grudge," I said bluntly. "Let's move."