Leo

I was abruptly woken up by a hand on my shoulder. I opened my eyes and saw Ryoma looking at me.

"Get up, we're going to practice your swordplay once again, before we head out. Not only will it help your blade works, it'll also help your leg."

I agreed and got up. I placed a hand on his shoulder as I walked, but soon he pulled my hand off, and walked a distance away, and looked back at me.

"Come on, this is just more practice." He assured me, and he crossed his arms.

I looked at myself, my leg was already feeling weak. Slowly but surely I took a step forward. I looked back up and noticed Saizo beside Ryoma. The two seemed to be speaking, though I could not hear what they said. Soon enough Saizo walked over to Kagero and Kaze, and the three of them took off, soon enough disappearing into the growing dawn. I assumed they were scouting for us, and I kept my focus on my footsteps, slowly and steadily making it over to Ryoma. He didn't seem quite pleased. He walked away once again, before stopping away from me.

"You can move faster than that." He calls out to me.

"I don't feel quite comfortable moving at a pace faster than this."

"If you ever just kept going until you felt you weren't in a comfortable state, you wouldn't improve. Tell me, would that fly with your magic practice?"

"No, but-"

"Then it won't fly here." Ryoma responded. "Now come over here, at a faster pace."

I nodded and I tried to move at a brisk pace. My leg agonized as I moved, but I did not trip.

Ryoma nodded as I made it to him, and he started to walk away again and I inwardly groaned. He stopped away a short distance away and spoke, "Sprint to me."

I nodded and took a deep breath, stepping out and picking up my pace. My movements were decently fluid, but as I neared Ryoma I tripped, but he caught me as I fell. Juniper galloped over to us and sniffed me.

"You did well." Ryoma states, helping me back up.

"Not really," I respond.

"You did. You moved faster than you were comfortable with, and you didn't trip. Well, not until right at the end." He drew the Raijinto, looking me in the eyes. "Draw your sword."

I did so, and he looked me over. "Do you know why you couldn't land a blow on me?"

I thought for some time, before he spoke again. "You have the purpose to swing your blade, yet you lack the confidence." He reaches his hand out to me, "Hand me your blade."

I reached it out to him, and he grabbed it, raising it into the air. "It's definitely quite heavy." He swung it, and the blade sliced the air. He walked toward the convoy and pulled a katana out.

"Try this blade." He handed it to me, and I held it. He smiled slightly. "Much better. You no longer seem to be struggling to keep the blade steady." He shuddered. "It's quite frigid, isn't it?"

I looked back at him and shrugged. "Not really."

"You're used to the brisk winds, aren't you?"

I blinked, being reminded of the conversation I had with Felicia and Flora. "Yeah, I am."

Ryoma raised the Raijinto, and looked at me once again. "Now how about we spar? You do have an advantage here."

I held the katana in my hands with uncertainty, and he shook his head. "Be confident. The first thing a samurai learns is that uncertainty will get them killed. Hold that blade with the burning purpose you had last night. Show me that look in your eyes."

I took a deep breath, and closed my eyes. What was my purpose here? What do I want to accomplish?

I slowly opened my eyes. I want to bring my home back to its glory, I want to save my siblings, my father, if I can. I want to repair relations between us and Hoshido. I will work through this and get this done.

Ryoma smiled. "There we go. Whatever purpose you found, think of it when you go into battle. It will give you the confidence, the power, to fight even the most difficult of enemies." He readied his stance. "Now come at me with that purpose. Let me feel that motivation!"

I thrusted my blade forward, and Ryoma moved to the defensive, blocking my blade.

"You do not thrust with a katana, as only one side is sharp. Instead, use your body and approach your enemy quickly, swinging in one direction your opponent will struggle to block." Ryoma backed off, holding his blade defensively.

I took a step back, and sprinted forward, leaping off my good leg and swung down onto Ryoma's blade.

"There you go." He praised slightly, pulling back. "Your swing is strong, but you put too much energy into the attack. You'll weaken fast, and your opponent will be able to overtake you just as fast."

I nodded, and readied my blade once again. Ryoma's eyes widened, and he ran for me, pushing me to the side. I looked up from the snow and saw that Ryoma's shoulder plate was chipped. He raised his blade and lightning crashed down, and I heard a scream. I noticed Camilla came over to me and helped me up, as Ryoma walked over to the dead man. He crouched down, looking him over and then he looked back at me. "A Nohrian scout."

"Scouts?" Takumi hurried over, holding the Fujin Yumi.

"We tried to get back to give warning, but they moved faster than us." I looked to the side as Kaze, Saizo and Kagero showed up once again.

"It's looking like we'll have to liberate the tribe from Nohr." Saizo states, crossing his arms.

"Niles," I looked at him. "Are there-"

"Not any I can see." He responds, "Just that one."

"We need to head out as soon as possible, before more scouts come." I called Juniper over, and climbed on his back. We quickly packed our supplies and headed out, with even more urgency than before.

Sakura

Elise taught me some of the magic she had started to learn, and I now brandished a fire tome, and rode on the back of Elise's horse, Rose. I looked around, seeing my brother sitting on Juniper's back. I noticed that we grouped up, to try to increase our pace. Selena rode with Beruka, Azama was with Hinoka, Camilla had Setsuna with her, and Niles had Mozu with him.

I noticed that Takumi started to lean on Leo, and that Leo glanced back at him, then to me. The expression he wore was obvious. Concern. I nudged Elise and pointed to Leo, and she had Rose catch up to them. Leo seemed to be prodding Takumi, telling him to wake up.

He grunted and stayed where he was, his eyes started to close.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

He mumbled something about feeling nauseous, and really cold, and he closed his eyes.

I looked at Leo, who gestured to me. I got closer to examine Takumi and looked him over, noticing his neck. His neck had red dots and a few raised bumps, symptoms I was familiar with. It was one of the first illnesses I was taught to diagnose, the Scavenger's Bite.

"It's-" I stopped, and Rose backed away.

"What is it?"

"It's the Scavenger's Bite." I looked at Leo, whose eyes widened.

"Scavenger's Bite?" I heard someone ask behind me. I turned and noticed Hayato there, riding on Kaden's back. "I think I have the herbs to treat that, but we need a stable environment to work in. I can't treat it on the road."

"H-how long does he have?"

"With the fact that the symptoms just showed up-" We were interrupted by a relatively violent cough from Takumi, "I'd say he's lucky to last more than a week."

"S-so we have some time."

"If you want to think of it that way, then yeah."

We neared the glistening town, and Leo carefully took Takumi off Juniper, and put him under the care of Elise, Hayato, and I.

"Wait." The group stopped, and we turned to Leo.

"Kaze, you said that you tried to stop the scouts, how big is the squadron that was sent here?"

"Not massive," Kaze responds, "But larger than our unit. We'll have to be careful."

"Group up, then. I'm not about to lose any of you, not now."

Hinoka

I felt urgency knot in my stomach, and I held my naginata close, as my pegasus raised into the sky. I noticed Camilla come up beside me, holding her fire tome in hand once again. Her eyes held pity, which aggravated me further.

"It's unfortunate," She starts, "Your brother caught something at the wrong time."

"There isn't much we can do about it," I quietly responded, noticing that some Nohrian outlaws noticed us. Something was handed to me, and I noticed Camilla holding a javelin.
"Now you can fight back." She smiled, and another javelin crashed down onto an unsuspecting outlaw, as Scarlet joined us in the sky. She drew her axe and flew at the ground and sliced into another outlaw while retrieving her javelin.

"Let's get rid of those outlaws first!"

Camilla agreed and we both took off into the brewing battle.

Leo

As the three of them took out the outlaws, we entered the battlefield, and I realized how vacant the tribe was. There were soldiers barricading the entrances to the buildings, and I saw some more familiar faces. I noticed Jakob, who gave me a cold look, but I could see the reluctant nature in his eyes. I cautiously drew the katana, and gestured to him, attempting to communicate that I didn't want to fight him. A dagger flew past me, ripping through my collar, and slicing across my cheek, drawing some blood. I looked to the source, inhaling in pain. Felicia and Flora stepped in. Felicia bowed to me, and looked back up with sorrow in her eyes.

"Hello milord." She greets me, drawing another dagger, "I'm sorry it came to this."

"Felicia, Jakob, Flora, you don't need to do this." I speak up, looking each of them in the eye. "Who issued this order?"

Jakob glanced away, not responding at first. Eventually he spoke up, saying with a slight snide and basic annoyance, "That's none of your-"

"Iago did." Flora interrupted, looking over at Jakob. "Seems Garon's given Iago a considerable amount of army to make do with as he pleases."

"So he forced you three to come here." I closed my eyes. "I don't wish to fight you."

"Yet we have to." Jakob responded, drawing his own dagger. "Do you understand how much grief you've caused your brother?"

"I-" I took a step back. "I didn't want to cause Xander grief! I couldn't handle home any longer, I-" I felt myself tear up, as Jakob started to walk toward me. He stopped and let out a sigh.

"Life was never easy in Nohr, was it?" He looked me in the eyes. "That doesn't mean you should have gave up here."

"I didn't!" I exclaimed, "I haven't given up on Nohr, I just, Nohr isn't acting mature through this."

Jakob raised his dagger, and I moved to defend myself with my katana, but Jakob was stopped by Felicia.

"J-jakob, maybe we shouldn't-" She started, but he pulled her arm away. "What will we do then, Felicia? We're tasked to take out any people desiring to liberate the Ice Tribe, if we don't," He was quiet, "We'll be tried for insubordination and killed. King Garon no longer takes failure lightly."

I was taken aback by the revelation, but kept my composure. "You don't need to be afraid of that, we're just trying to change things in Nohr, and I'm not about to leave Xander there to suffer. We'd gladly take you onto our side, just-"

"I won't do anything of the sort, especially on an empty promise!" He lunged at me, and I blocked with my katana, the blades creating a resonating cling. I backed off, and dismounted from Juniper, taking an aggressive stance. In truth, I remained defensive, attempting to out-endure him. Felicia and Flora watched, unwilling and unable to stop the conflict between us.

Jakob threw one of his daggers straight at me, and it, designed specifically to pierce armor, and it sunk in right below my right side's breastplate, between two ribs. I exclaimed loudly, but held my footing, switching to Brynhildr.

"Lord Leo!" Niles calls out, and attempted to come to my aid. He was stopped by a general, who forced him back with their lance. Jakob drew another shuriken, and while I was overcoming the initial shock of the first strike, he threw another.

I had no time to react, but the impact never came. Instead I heard a sickening piercing sound, and felt someone leaning on me. To my horror, it was Odin. The dagger had pierced his chest, just below his breast and on his left side. He looked at me, with a weak smile on his face.

The general was taken down by the combined effort of two fire spells, as Elise and Sakura stood on the other side, and their faces dropped.

I was frozen, though I looked at Felicia and Flora, who both seemed in shock. I saw someone land from a safe height behind Jakob, and they held an axe to his throat. Oboro landed as well, pointing her lance at Flora, and Niles stepped through with his bow aimed at Flora.

I laid Odin on the floor, and tore the thick-cloth collar from my neck, ignoring the pain in my side, and I removed the dagger from the region, and pressed the collar on the wound. My eyes filled with tears and I turned to Sakura and Elise, and I exclaimed, "Elise, Sakura, pl-please!" They ran over and started to attempt to mend Odin's deep wound. He looked at me, and sighed weakly.

"Odin, keep yourself together, it won't take too long to fix you up, please, just don't go!"

"Lord Leo," he managed out, his eyes started to close slightly, "I'm glad I was able to protect you. At least one last time." He wheezed. "I hope you'll," He coughed. His eyes closed and his neck relaxed as he tilted his head back. "I hope you're proud of me, milord."

"Yes, I am." I managed out, blinking back tears. "I am, and I'm sorry for not trusting you back then."

"No, it was only right that you remained skeptical. I am quite," He paused. "Eccentric, as my friends say." As he said that he seemed to realize something.

"Milord, I need to tell you something."

"What is it?"

"My name, it's Owain, not Odin."

He let out one final breath before he fell silent. I gripped the cloth tight, blood seeping onto my hands.

"No!" I exclaimed, tears starting to fall down my cheeks. Elise and Sakura continued to mend the injury, apprehension was heavy in the air. The battle had ended, as Camilla and the others came into our immediate area, and my sister came beside me, pulling me away from my fallen retainer, and cradled me in her arms.

I couldn't stop. Everything I held back before this, the betrayal I felt, the pain I was in, it all poured out. She put her hand to my head, and didn't speak a word.

Ice Tribe clerics came from the once-guarded buildings and gladly came to our aid, one of them helping Hayato bring Takumi into one of the buildings, as Odin was taken to another.

Needless to say, that night, after I was healed, I didn't sleep.