Chapter 25

"I'm not sure about doing this…" Chrom muttered warily.

"Oh, don't be such a spoil sport! I have all the lines, you just have to stand and pretend you're a hardened criminal, or something like that. It's not like you would've been any help in the kitchen right now." Nathan replied to the Exalt.

The tactician had grabbed Chrom and Donnel from the tent to play his 'thugs' in Owain's play. Nathan himself was playing the evil 'bandit leader', who was holding the young maiden in distress (Played by Lissa), hostage. Owain was extremely excited to perform his play, although Nathan had stressed they do the 'abridged' version, as Owain had an extremely detailed and lengthy plot for his production, which Nathan had quickly cut into a quick and concise play for them to pull off.

"Well, I'm excited!" Donnel declared. "It ain't every day that ya get to be in a play! Maybe, after the war, I'll go be an acter!"

Nathan turned to Chrom, giving him a mocking disapproving look. "See, this is why on the cast list, Donny would be Thug number One, and you'd just be thug number two. The man has big dreams, and passion for the art!"

Chrom rolled his eyes as the three shared a laugh. However, they were quickly called to attention though by a loud yell from Lissa.

"They're almost here! Everyone, get ready!"

Nathan, Chrom, and Donnel quickly ran off to hide behind the tent as Frederick and Cherche rounded the corner, being guided by Lucina.

"Please, take a seat." The future princess told Frederick and Cherche with a warm smile.

"After you, milady," Frederick smoothly offered, pulling out Cherche's chair at the table. The woman smiled, taking a seat at the table. Once both were seated, Lissa took control of things.

"For the entertainment portion of this evening, we've come up with a quick play to present before your food is served. We hope you like it!" She told them. The couple clapped as Lissa ran off to join Nathan and the others hiding behind the tent, and Owain and Cynthia took her place. Lucina stood nearby, having been elected to be the narrator for the play.

She spoke up first. "Our story is about…" The girl paused and let out a disappointed sigh, reading off the paper she was given by Owain, "The Scion of Legend, Owain Dark, and his fearless crew in the Justice Cabal. This chapter in the age-old tale begins with our hero and his friends celebrating a recent victory over the forces of evil."

Owain, Cynthia, and Lissa took over things from there. The group had been able to rummage up some props for the play beforehand, doing the best to make their 'stage' area look somewhat professional. They had a table and a few chairs set out, and Morgan had come up with the brilliant idea of drawing a door on the part of the tent they were standing in front of, to try and make it look as though they were inside some sort of castle or fort.

"Ah, another victory for justice!" Owain bellowed. "My blood boils after such a fierce fight!"

Cynthia smiled, nodding in agreement. "You sure were great out there, Owain! Those guys didn't stand a chance against your 'Galeforce winds' technique!"

The myrmidon smirked, smacking his chest proudly. "There are none out there who can best my techniques, Lady Cynthia, the Pegasus whisperer!"

From the side of the tent, Chrom gave Nathan an angry look. "What is this? It's just some sort of self-promotion for Owain!" He hissed.

The tactician gave Chrom a mischievous smile. "Don't worry, we'll make it better. I have something in mind…"

They turned back to see Morgan running onto the set. "Owain, Cynthia! Lady Lissa has been kidnapped!" She yelled to them. The two gasped loudly in shock, with Cynthia even pretending to faint as Owain caught her.

"Quickly! Where did these marauders take her? I shall make them pay in blood for laying a hand on my mother!" The swordsman cried out.

"They have her in the forest nearby. Let's hurry, Owain Dark, master swordsman of legend!"

Nathan turned back to Chrom, scratching his head sheepishly. "Yeah, this really is pretty much a play about how great Owain is…" He admitted. Chrom laughed quietly, nodding in agreement.

"Freddy looks like he's enjoying this, though, so that's a good sign…"

The tactician looked to Frederick, who was sitting on the edge of his seat, watching with eyes wide, mesmerized. Cherche looked to be enjoying herself as well, if only for the satire of the play being solely focused on talking about Owain. Nathan laughed quietly at their polar opposite reactions to the presentation.

The scene quickly 'transitioned' with Morgan and Owain carrying away the tables and chairs.

"Owain Dark, legendary hero, accompanied by Morgan, his amnesiac magical companion, quickly rushed off into the nearby forest to rescue Princess Lissa." Lucina read in a dull voice, clearly uninterested in what was going on.

Morgan and Owain ran back into the fray pretending to be looking around frantically.

"Mother!" Morgan called out. Owain quickly hushed her, closing his eyes.

"I can sense her, with my ethereal powers…she is…over there!" He cried, dramatically pointing to where Nathan and the others were hidden.

"Our time to shine…" Nathan muttered, grabbing Lissa by the hand, and pulling her with them as he, Donnel, and Chrom stepped out.

"Heh heh, looks like ya found us little runt…" Nathan sneered.

"Hands off my mother, evildoer!" Owain cried out. "For I am Owain, defender of justice!"

"You think that will stop us? Try to take your mother back, see if you stand a chance against us!" Nathan spat.

Owain, confused, frantically whispered to his father, "What are you doing? That isn't part of the script!"

The tactician rolled his eyes. "Your script has us running away in panic when you show up. I'm just trying to make this more realistic. Don't worry, we'll let you win." He whispered back.

Owain thought for a moment, before drawing Mistletainn from it's hilt. "Very well evil doers! If you won't run, I'll make you!"

Morgan stepped up next to him, pulling out her tome from her cloak. "That's right! See if you guys can take us on!"

Chrom, Donnel and Lissa all stood in mass confusion as Nathan 'fought' against Morgan and Owain, ending up being fairly well choreographed. Chrom held Lissa's arm, as she was still their prisoner.

"Should we, uh…do something?" Chrom asked Donnel.

"What do you mean? Our big boss man has things under control! He's gonna mop the floor with these puny whelps!" Donnel responded boastfully, adding a perfect evil laugh. It was so convincing, that Frederick nearly got out of his seat, angrily shaking his fist at Donnel. The villager stepped back in surprise, and Chrom and Lissa laughed slightly at how into the play Frederick had gotten. Cherche was clearly enjoying watching her lover enjoy himself, bearing a warm smile as she watched him.

Back in the play, Nathan was handily fending off Morgan and Owain, though the two together were quite a challenge for him to deal with. Although he knew they had no intention of hurting him, the tactician was having quite a hard time dodging all their attacks, even with them slowing things down to give him extra time to do so.

The tactician figured it had gone on for long enough, and finally allowed Owain to smack him with his sword (Luckily, the myrmidon noticed the opening and struck with the flat side of his blade) and he did his best to cry out in pain, letting out one last loud gasp before collapsing to the ground.

At this point, Frederick had gotten out of his seat, rushing to the tactician's side. "MILORD! SPEAK TO ME! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" He frantically yelled in Nathan's ear. The tactician groaned loudly, rolling over.

"Ugh, I think you just made me go deaf in that ear…it's a play, Freddy, no one's dead…nice to know my acting is convincing, though…"

The group shared a laugh as Frederick helped Nathan up. "My apologies, good sir…you just made it look so real…" The great knight confessed, with a flustered look on his face. Nathan shook it off.

"Don't worry about it, big guy. I think that'll wrap up our play though…we'll head back into the kitchen, and come back out here once we have your appetizers, prepared by Lon'qu! You two keep yourselves entertained for a while!"

Nathan and the others waved to Frederick and Cherche, with all of them except Lucina, Owain, Cynthia and Morgan heading into the cooking tent. The future children ran off, as their part in the night was done.

"Thanks for the help guys!" Nathan called to them, waving as they left. He then turned back to Lon'qu, who had cut up his batch of potatoes. Sumia was still hard at work on her pie as well.

"How much longer until your dish is ready?" The tactician anxiously prodded.

Lon'qu exasperatedly rolled his eyes. "As I was trying to tell you earlier, I don't cook. I just peel and cut up the potatoes around here, I don't do anything else…"

Nathan coughed loudly in surprise, nearly choking on air. "Wh-what? But you're…so good…with the potatoes…"

Lissa rolled her eyes, standing next to Nathan. "Just because he knows how to peel potatoes never meant he could cook them…" She told the man. Nathan glared at her, before turning back to Lon'qu's neatly chopped plate of potatoes.

"So what can we do with these, then? Uncooked potatoes are edible, but certainly don't taste very good…"

The group thought for a moment, before Lon'qu muttered, "Crumpets."

Nathan turned to the assassin. "What?"

"Crumpets. Maribelle has a stash of them she keeps in our tent. Perhaps if we could get some of those…"

Nathan snapped his fingers, breathing a sigh of relief. "You're a genius, Lon'qu."

"Hold up," Lissa interjected. "Unless you have a death wish, you're going to need some sort of plan to get those crumpets without Maribelle noticing. I can distract her, hopefully for long enough for the two of you to sneak in there and steal some."

The tactician grinned at his wife. "Sounds like a plan!"

"We'll serve up this pie while you guys go get that food. Good luck!" Chrom told them.

As Nathan and Lon'qu went to leave the tent, they peeked in on Cherche and Frederick. They were particularly surprised to see Frederick down on one knee in front of Cherche, and leaned around the tent trying to eavesdrop.

"My dearest Cherche, when we first came to know each other, it was as fellow knights and comrades." Frederick began. "But as we fought alongside of each other, our bonds of friendship drew us closer together…and I now find myself thinking about you every night and day. Milady…would you do me the honour of accepting this?"

The dragon rider gasped in surprise. "Frederick…that's an engagement ring!"

The great knight nodded, a radiant smile on his face. "It is my vow of love and loyalty, until death takes me from you."

"This is so gallant! And what an occasion, too! I accept, with all my heart!"

Back behind the tent, Nathan looked to Lon'qu, grinning. "Well, I think we're all done here…let's go round up the others, and tell them the good news!"

Merry Christmas, everyone!