Chapter 18x) Men and Monsters

Kris POV

I wished I could say it was all awesome and amazing after taking Grust, but while some people's moods do get a much needed boost, others… well, not so much. Most of the Archaneans remember well that their former king, and their home, fell to Camus. Some remember that Camus and his Sable Order assisted Gra in conquering Altea. Lorenz isn't associated with quite so many 'famous' falls, but he was an enemy general, and one that had put down many would-be rebellions. It makes for some awkwardness.

Minerva, surprisingly, is a big defender of theirs, though, reminding everyone that she, once, was our enemy and pointing out that Jubelo and Yuliya had been held hostage, much like Maria. Others point out that recruiting enemies isn't that unusual. Roger, Navarre, Jake, Beck, Castor, Darros, Matthis… they had all been enemies too. This war did have some very clear cut sides and morals, but not all.

Besides, it is absolutely adorable watching Lorenz dote on the children, including technically-way-older-than-him Tiki, and watching Camus and Nyna take walks through the gardens and smile shyly at each other. So, screw the haters.

"You're doing great, Tiki," I praised, grinning at her. She grinned back, practically vibrating with excitement. "Okay, so try to place your foot like this…" I demonstrated and she attempted to mimic me, but fell a bit short. "No, no, more on the front of your foot…" She fixed her footing and my grin grew. "There you go. Perfect."

"Hee~" Tiki giggled. She covered her mouth, though, when I mimed for quiet. "Hide and seek."

"Hide and seek." I looked out from our hiding place, an alcove in the hall, and looked both ways. "Okay, follow me."

"Right!" She grinned and clung to my shirt as we continued sneaking our way through the halls and into the courtyard. We were having 'very important' hide and seek lessons, namely me teaching Tiki how to sneak around, in the name of one thing: some nice, playful spying.

We made it to the courtyard easily and peered hunted around, Tiki muffling giggles the whole while. I didn't mind, since this was just a playful thing, and it wasn't like the people involved were paying much attention. Well, Camus might have, but he never let his attention waver from Nyna as the two walked and talked, both smiling softly. As for the other couple… yeah, nothing was distracted my pretty boy prince from the even prettier princess. Marth and Caeda were on a 'date', really a 'GO TAKE A WALK, DAMN IT, YOU ARE WORKING TOO MUCH' that was disguised as a date. I'd arranged it, mostly because I knew Caeda and Marth hadn't been able to spend too much time together. So, I wanted to make sure everything was going well. Then I wanted to make sure Camus and Nyna were doing okay. Diana wasn't around to do it; she was helping out Jubelo and Yuliya with some political nonsense.

After watching the two couples for a while, Tiki's giggling was getting a little too loud, so we retreated back inside the palace, the 'lesson' over.

"That was so much fun, Tina!" Tiki laughed, holding onto my hand. I smiled back, a little relieved she enjoyed herself so much. She was only really with me because, somehow, I'd got assigned as her babysitter for the morning. Mostly because everyone else who normally did was busy, and I had like… no experience with children who weren't 'rivals' in the business. "Thank you~!"

"Those are the basics," I teased, leading her down the halls. I had no idea what to do next with her. "You have to practice them to really be good."

"Practice. Right." She nodded determinedly, before grinning again. "Can we have sweets? Caeda makes the best sweets."

"She does, but I think you ate all of her last batch." In fact, I was fairly certain that Caeda had intended the last batch to be for 'the army', but she'd made the mistake of letting Tiki 'eat her fill' first. Manakete children ate a lot, apparently. "So, you'll have to wait."

"Aw…" She sulked a bit and then groaned. "Ugh, Xaney." She ducked behind me as Xane stepped out from around a corner way up ahead, looking around for a moment before striding towards us. "I hate him."

"Really? I thought you liked him."

"He pulled a prank on me."

"Really, now?" I was a bit torn. On the one hand, I could understand not wanting to be around someone who had pranked you. On the other hand, Xane was a better babysitter than me. I was out of ideas of what to do with her. "Say, I've an idea."

"Yes?"

"If he pulls another prank, you let me know, and I'll make him regret it." I winked at her, and she became thoughtful. "You can even make sure he knows it."

"Mmm… I suppose." She sighed gustily and still sulked when Xane caught up. "Xaney, be nice, or Kris is gonna get you."

"Well, that's a threat," Xane deadpanned. He shot me a look and I shrugged slightly. "Fine, fine. Threat heard. Now, come on, little princess. Bantu has lessons for you."

"Ugh…" Tiki groaned. But she took Xane's hand, using her free arm to hug me. "I had fun, Tina! See you later!"

Making sure to keep up my smile, I waved her goodbye, until she and Xane were out of sight. Then I sighed and rolled my shoulders, a bit relieved. I felt bad, but damn, I couldn't handle kids well. Maybe that would change when I got more used to this sort of life, or maybe when I was just around kids more. I was more or less certain Tiki was going to live with us in Altea when all this was over, after all. I knew Marth wouldn't mind, and she looked happy at the idea.

Then again, maybe I just didn't handle kids well. There were people like that.

Stretching my arms above my head, I picked a random direction to walk, just to stretch my legs. We were taking a short, or not so short, break here in Grust, and it was probably the best thing ever for us. It gave us time to relax, to gather supplies, to repair weapons and armor or replace me, to settle some tempers… it was nice, even if I was sometimes bored because there was nothing for me to really do around here.

So, I simply wandered, getting a bit of exercise, eventually ending up near the stables. To my somewhat surprise, I saw Abel and Est hanging out, laughing happily over something as they tended to their mounts. I almost stepped out to tease them, but then I noticed something a little… well, Palla was also in the stables, brushing down her pegasus. But she seemed to be doing her best to hide, even as she shot longing looks over at the couple and… yeah, that looked awkward. Very awkward. So, I chose instead to escape the stables, and head to the practice yard.

That turned out to be not a great idea, though, because Cain was there. Shirtless. Exercising. So, I miiiiight've stayed there and stared for longer than appropriate. Worse, he finished up and turned to grab a towel or something, and saw me.

"Um… hi?" I greeted, smiling and hoping to everything it wasn't awkward. Desperately to do something, I grabbed the towel for him and passed it over. "So, uh… why no shirt?"

"I was overheating," Cain answered. He took the towel from me calmly, damn him, and wiped the sweat off. My eyes were drawn, as usual, to the scars covering his chest and back, wounds from the battle with Gra. "It's humid, you know."

"Oh, right." I shrugged, not quite looking at him and bent down to snatch up his shirt for him, and his water. "Here."

"Thanks." He took both from me, slipping the shirt back on before sipping the water. I just stood there awkwardly, cursing myself for how tongue-tied I was. During spars and lessons, the two of us were fine, but as soon as we tried interacting in any other way… well, it was like this. "What are you up to?"

"I'm just walking around, really. Exercising. I was watching Tiki, but Xane has her now." I shrugged, clasping my hands behind my back. I wished I could just go back to joking with him. That would be much better. But I wanted to ask about why he kissed my forehead. But I couldn't get the words out, mostly because the logical direction for the conversation there was 'why did I kiss his cheek?'. And I didn't want to answer that question. There was too much going on. "So... uh… Abel and Est? I saw them. There was a nice atmosphere."

"He's crushing. It's hilarious." He grinned and I managed a smile in return. "I think the two were talking about formerly courting after the war, and maybe opening a shop in Altea."

"Altea? They won't, say, go to Macedonia?"

"Est apparently really liked Altea." He shrugged. "I don't know much. They're still chatting about it. I normally try to give them their space."

"I see." I nodded, but then thought of Palla, watching them longingly. That had to be… really awkward. "Um… So…"

A messenger appeared then, thanks to everything holy, sparing me from having to make more awkward conversation. However, the message they had was… well… borderline unbelievable and definitely a 'what the hell' inducer.

Despite the king surrendering, despite the crown prince and princess being here, despite both Lorenz and Camus vowing to fight alongside us… some Grustian knights were trying to take a village hostage to force us into leaving them be.

What in all the actual hells?

I had so many questions. Why were the soldiers stupid enough to do this? Why was this place hotter than the desert? Why did the villagers hide here of all places? How were people not freaking dying from the heat?

"This is the most annoying fight ever," I grumbled, walking past another corpse and pushed my hair out of my sweaty fac. These soldiers were pathetic, really. I was more aggravated by the heat than them. "Argh, I should've worn my hair in a bun or something." My ponytail was all but attached to my neck due to the sweat. "I wonder how much trouble I'd get in if I pushed them off the edge into whatever is glowing below." It probably wouldn't be much. Everyone else was annoyed too.

As soon as we heard what had happened, we of course mobilized. Due to the need for speed, it was mostly cavalry with some 'supporting' units, like me. This meant Altea knights, Hardin and his group, and Camus with the Sable Order. It was an impressive sight, so impressive that most of the enemy dropped their weapons and surrendered. Some idiots, however, continued to fight, and no one knew where the villagers were besides 'somewhere in this too hot mountain', so cavalry went a'fighting and I was one of those hunting for villagers.

Sighing, and thoroughly tempted to just chuck my clothes because of how sweaty they were, I continued down the path, walking carefully since the ground was a bit unstable, especially around the edges. Before long, I made it to a very large section of ground, and came across two people. One looked like Camus, but dressed in casual clothing, so I guessed it was Sirius. The other was… well… uh… I… I didn't know people grew that big, actually.

"Um… hello?" I called. The giant whirled towards me, axe raised, but Sirius stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "Archanean army here to assist, or… whatever our official title is. I can't remember. It's too damned hot. I think my brain is cooking."

"It's cooler in the hiding place, but not by much," Sirius joked. He smiled and saluted at me. "Hello again, young thief-mage. Though I see a sword."

"Yeah, I just have to be all special and everything." I shrugged, and nodded towards the giant. "Um… hi. I'm Kris. I'm…"

"She's the right hand of Prince Marth, meaning she is most definitely not with the idiots who thought trying to punch you was a good idea."

"Is that so?" the man muttered. He brought his axe down slowly and nodded. "Not sure I trust her, but you've been all right, Sirius." He focused on me again. "The name is Ymir. We've been guarding the villagers."

"This is an interesting choice of hideout?" I replied, feeling awkward. It was too damned hot. "So… oh, hey, Marth." I waved as Marth walked up then. He'd discarded his cape at some point, and rolled up his sleeves. "Villagers are guarded by these people."

"Oh, I'm glad they're safe," Marth replied with a bright smile. It was also relieved, and I knew some part of it was because we now could leave this horrible place. "Ah, hello, you two. I am Prince Marth of Altea. Are the villagers injured?"

Leaving Marth to make small talk with Ymir, I jumped over to Sirius with a smile on my face. "Soooo, we got Camus!" I informed him. He grinned in return. "He's actually here with us."

"I heard," Sirius revealed, bringing his lance to his side. "Well, not that he was here. That he surrendered. I was on my way back home to snag a few things before coming across what was going on here and assisting."

"That's kind of you."

"Well, it's not like these guys are hard." Sirius nodded to something behind me and waved. "Looks like you all are done, Camus!"

"Sirius, what are you doing here?" Camus asked, walking up. Hardin followed him, and joined in the conversation with Marth and Ymir. I assumed the fighting, what little there had been, was over. "I thought…"

"Couldn't leave the big guy to fight alone." Sirius shrugged. "Anyway, though, I am planning on running. Was going to leave a note at our house, but this is so much better."

"I see." Camus looked down and gripped Gradivus tightly. "Sirius, I…"

"Yeah, no." Sirius lightly bopped Camus on the head and made a face. "Wow, your hair is sweaty."

"None of us are much better. Why did you have to hide in the fire cave?"

"Don't look at me. I followed." He shrugged again. "Regardless, no apologizing. If I'd been faster, I would've been off anyway. I'll head back to pay my respects to the prince and princess, I suppose, and then I'll be off sailing." Sirius grinned, leaning forward slightly. "And when I get back, you better be married! Though, I'd like to properly meet her, I suppose. I don't think I ever got to. I'm sure Lorenz is sharing stories from your training, but I have the ridiculous stories from when we were little."

"I'm tempted to push you off now." Still, Camus smiled. "I'm sorry."

"You've always been an idiot. I'm used to it. Just like you're used to dealing with me." He looked to me and pointed to Camus. "That said, he's a big idiot sometimes."

"Diana knows," I retorted. Sirius laughed and Camus facepalmed. "Anyway, can we get the villagers out now?"

Slowly, we got the villagers out and began escorting them out of the area and into a plus much, much cooler. I was one of the last ones out, mostly in case I needed to zap some people. I didn't, of course. It was a rather pathetic battle all things told, more annoying than anything, and when the last villager started down the path, I breathed a sigh of relief and made to follow.

A low, very low, rumble, however, stopped me cold. Slowly, I turned, wondering what the hell, and saw a shadow looming in the distance. It was humongous and reptilian in nature, but with large wings. It was hunched down, watched us with glowing gold eyes, and flames licked about its mouth. I stared in horror, realizing just what it was, but it lumbered off, apparently uninterested in us. But even after it disappeared, I continued to stare, and did so until someone came and got me. And the whole way back, I only had one question in my mind.

What the hell was a dragon doing here?

"A dragon in the volcano there?" Xane actually looked a bit troubled when I finished telling him about what I had seen. "Strange," he murmured, frowning. We were sitting on a windowsill in a random hallway, visible enough for people to find us, if need be, but hidden enough for people to know to not disturb. "Most of the degenerated fire dragons I know of are much further north, past the desert and the Thabes Labryinth…"

"And what is that?" I asked, feeling a bit unnerved. I actually wasn't sure if I needed to ask about the 'degenerated fire dragon', which did sound vaguely familiar, or this Thabes thing that I knew nothing about.

"Nothing you need to be concerned about. Hopefully." Xane closed his eyes, the most serious as I'd ever seen. "Tiki should be asleep by now."

"We should be asleep by now." It was really late in the evening. Most were actually asleep. But I'd wanted to tell Xane or Bantu before I forgot.

"Regardless, I'll talk to Bantu about this. It's likely something we'll have to look into, but ultimately not something to worry about. It's just… odd, and unexpected." Xane shrugged and, while he didn't smile, he did relax. "Let Bantu and me handle this. If it becomes a bigger problem, we'll let you know. If worst comes to worse, though, we can just have Tiki take care of it."

"She's a child."

"She's a divine dragon child, whose power is designed to rip dragons to shreds. You could, in fact, throw her at Medeus, though I wouldn't recommend it. Her power might bite into his scales, but Medeus retains his intellect. Much better to go with the Falchion, if you can retrieve it."

"That's…" I fell silent, not sure how to explain how uncomfortable I felt. I mean; I was no stranger to danger, even as a child, but I'd been with this group long enough to know…

"You got to take what you can get, and that's just the worst case scenario. It's not all that likely. So, likely, she'll just be able to play and Bantu and I will take care of everything." Awkwardly, he reached out and patted my head. "I'll give you more information in the coming days. Try to wrangle those days?"

"It shouldn't be hard." Marth, Hardin, Camus, and Lorenz had already arranged to basically check in on the entire country, to make sure we didn't have more knights attempting to use villages as hostages. "We have to get Ymir acclimated to our strange army." Ymir, surprisingly, had decided to join up with us as thanks for coming to help the villagers. Sirius had been asked, but he'd refused, citing he was no soldier, and he could be a good decoy out in the port. He did, however, decide to stay the night to tell Nyna childhood stories and spoil the Grustian twins.

"Hello? You in there?" Xane grinned when I jumped. "Head to bed, Kris. You're exhausted."

"It's been a long day." I sighed, but nodded and hopped to my feet. "I'll go tell Marth what you and Bantu need to do, and then go to bed."

"That is a very good decision." Xane's form shimmered and suddenly, he looked like Jagan. "Now, get to bed, whippersnapper!"

"Jagan doesn't say 'whippersnapper'." Still, I had to laugh, and his form shimmered again before returning to his 'normal'. "Say, Xane? Is that form… uh… wait… hang on…" I had no idea how to word this, actually.

"It's the form I had when I was born, yes. I gained my ability to shapeshift as I do much later in life, so this is by far the most comfortable. But a little discomfort is always worth an advantage in battle." He winked, grinning. "Or, you know, a good prank. Sadly, my idea of a 'good' prank seems so different. Oh well."

"Yeah, yeah." I rolled my eyes and waved as I began walking. "Night, Xane."

"Pleasant dreams." He waved back before walking the other direction, muttering in some language I didn't understand.

I was half-tempted to ask him about it, but instead, I just kept on walking, all the way to the room that Marth used as a study. I opened it without knocking and, to my not-surprise, Marth was there. Working. "You know how late it is, right?" I pointed out to him dryly. He glanced up briefly and smiled before returning to his work. "Xane and Bantu want to look into something, so we'll need to stay a few days."

"That works out well, since we're staying for a few days anyway," Marth replied. He finished writing whatever he was writing and straightened, rolling his neck to try and loosen it. "The patrols around Grust will take some time, as will securing the ships we need to sail to Macedonia." He shrugged. "Besides, I think we need a bit of a break. It's been non-stop battles for a while."

"We do, truthfully. We'll need all of our strength." We were reaching the end of this. It was the last stretch. If we failed, everything would have been for naught. "We still don't have Falchion, huh?"

"Gotoh is in Macedonia. We have the orbs he asked for." Marth sighed. "It will be enough. If I don't believe that, then how can I inspire anyone else?"

"How about 'inspiring' Caeda?" I grinned at his yelp. "Sorry, but with the message delivered, I am on break. We're on break." I stole his papers and laughed as he tried to reach for them without standing. "So, I'm going to tease you."

"You always tease me!"

"Of course! But now I'm going to do it extra. It's what cousins do, right?"

"Ugh…!" He glowered. "Fine, but I'm going to tease you back!"

"I'd love to see you try!"

It ended up almost like a game, where we tried to see who could get the other to blush the most. I won, of course. Marth didn't know, yet, about my crush on Cain, so I had a distinct and totally unfair advantage. It was fun, though, and fun was something both of us needed.

Notes on Ymir:

A giant of a man, easily the tallest in the army, who had no real home due to his sheer size leading people to dubbing him a 'monster'. The village he was defending were the first to treat him with kindness in a long while.

He's self-taught and it shows. Badly. However, he is very strong and he has the ability to take a lot of damage, so he's good at defending. If only he wore more armor.

He hunts and makes his own clothes from animal furs and hide. Surprisingly, he and Diana actually found some common ground on sewing. I don't even freaking know.

Author's notes: Okay, so resuming the author's note from last chapter. Full disclosure: when I first started this fic, I hadn't intended on writing an FE2 novelization. So, when I made my original plans and set up this fic (including having the multiple POVs to better justify the deviation), I wasn't taking FE2's plot into account, save for a couple of nods. Then Echoes happened, and I had to scramble to figure out a way to work in Zeke who, in canon, is an amnesiac Camus. Enter Sirius, Camus's very convenient twin brother who has mentioned sailing fairly frequently in his few appearances. So, Camus is sticking around with Nyna, and Sirius is going to go off to become Zeke for Echoes.

This Gaiden chapter is the second to last one Shadow Dragon has, and it's the last one that requires your army to have a certain number of units or less. There's really not a lot to it, plot wise or unit wise (it is a very easy map), though it does have a manakete unit for unexplained reasons. I used that as an excuse to bring in something from FE3/12. And a reference to Echoes.

Next Chapter – Interlude, Grust