Chapter 56

The Eye of the Storm

"Duke Lennart, I welcome you into my humble home," Countess Claive greeted warmly a few days later. "Please, come in out of this atrocious blizzard. Your companions are welcome as well."

"Thank you," Walter said gratefully as he followed the young Countess into her relatively modest manor and out of the raging storm outside. Countess Tara Claive, ruler of Pinebrook County and one of Walter's new vassals, was a woman of an age with the average Shepherd, with pale blonde hair, green eyes, and porcelain skin. Walter thought she was quite beautiful, truth be told, and resolved to keep Virion far, far away from her.

"Oh, Lord Virion!" she exclaimed, flushing deeply. Apparently I'm too late, Walter sighed as the "archest of archers" strode into the manner at the tail end of the group, grinning widely. "It is so wonderful to see you again!"

"Ze sentiment is quite mutual my dear, I assure you," Virion said suavely, "and I would love to catch up on all on your affairs, but alas, I am here on business with ze Shepherds."

"Yes, that business," Claive said thunderously, before turning to Walter. "Milord, I cannot thank you enough for coming. I have dearly wished for these damnable smugglers to be evicted from my county, but Duke Vyland allowed them free reign as long as they paid 'fees'," she explained with disgust.

"They will not be here for much longer, I assure you," Walter said with conviction.

"Countess," Robin spoke up, "I'm Robin, the-"

Countess Claive cut him off with a gasp. "King Chrom has dispatched the famous tactician Robin himself to dispose of these ruffians? I am truly blessed."

"I'm…famous?" Robin wondered in bewilderment as the others laughed at his expression. "Okay then…anyway, I'm the tactician for the Shepherds, as you apparently already know, so I'm going to need a map of the county, and anything you have on the smugglers."

"But of course," Claive said enthusiastically. "Please, come this way. Milord, I would ask that you come as well, I am well aware that you are quite the capable strategist yourself. The rest of you, please wait here, servants will be along momentarily to collect your coats and lead you to the sitting room to dry off." With one last trailing look at Virion, she led the pair away from the others.

"So, what kind of situation are we looking at, Countess?" Robin asked as she led them into what was obviously her study.

"Unfortunately, I have had quite a good amount of time to gather information on them," Claive muttered sourly as she reached into a drawer of her desk and dropped a rather large sheaf of parchment onto the table. "The short version is that there are a few dozen of them, they are holed up in a warehouse on the east side of town, and they're a bunch of ruffians who threaten the townsfolk. Were it not for Duke Vyland's corruption, I'd have ordered the guard to drive them out over a year ago."

"Vyland let this go on for that long?" Walter muttered as he skimmed through the reports.

"Yes, he told me he 'required additional income' and did not wish to overtax the citizenry, and so allowing the smugglers to run amok was acceptable," Claive explained hotly. "It's likely he used his ill-gotten gains to fund his ill-conceived rebellion. I am truly thankful that you stopped that rebellion before it spilled over into Nordenheim, milord, our people would not have deserved to suffer for his idiocy." She then gasped, and put a hand over her mouth. "Forgive me, milord," she said abashedly. "That was improper, I went beyond myself."

"You will find very quickly that I will not punish my vassals for speaking out of turn," Walter replied, looking the woman in the eyes. "Not if they have the right of it. Vyland was a fool and a traitor, and deserves any scorn he receives."

Claive's face shifted to relief. "Thank you, milord," she sighed. "Duke Vyland became quite unpopular over the past few years for allowing corruption to go unfettered. I am pleased to see his successor doesn't share that failing."

"This looks simple enough," Robin stated as he burned through the reports at a speed Walter could only envy. "They're numerous, but by all indications aren't really prepared for combat. They're run-of-the-mill smugglers, not brigands. They don't even appear to have patrols around their warehouse…I'll have Gaius scout it out to be safe, but this mission should be as simple as charging in from the front and capturing or killing their leader."

"I'll have the Guard mobilized immediately," Claive said.

"We'll probably hold them in reserve," Robin stated as he set the reports down. "The buildings form a lot of natural chokepoints in the area of the warehouse; it will get too congested if we have dozens of guards trying to maneuver in there as well. We'll be tripping over each other more than anything else. Have them form a perimeter around the district and stay on standby; they can secure the warehouse and sweep for stragglers after we've dealt with the majority of the smugglers."

"Sir Robin," Claive said uneasily, "there are well over four dozen of them, and less than a dozen of you. Those odds are…not favorable."

Robin just grinned. "I know," he replied smugly, "they won't know what hit them."

000

"Damn it all," Robin cursed quietly as he ducked back behind the corner of the building they were hiding behind. "I think they know we're coming. They've got patrols out now."

"Our march into town wasn't exactly subtle," Walter reminded him just as quietly, absently cursing the fact that he wasn't wearing a cloak to fend off the blizzard raging around them.

"Unfortunately, this complicates our plans," Robin said. "We need to at least reach the warehouse before we're detected, but they've got sentries everywhere. I don't even think Phila and Cordelia would be able to slip past them in the air."

The warehouse in question, a suitably run-down old building, was at the center of a large, wide open area which was undoubtedly used to ferry cargo back when the warehouse was used for legitimate business. The square was surrounded on all sides by other buildings, which the other Shepherds were currently hiding behind for cover. Unfortunately, there were at least two guards for each of the Shepherds patrolling the open space, all carrying torches and looking quite alert, despite the late hour. Gaius might be able to slip past them without raising an alarm, but the others were ill-prepared for stealth on that level.

"Maybe we had a way to obscure their vision…" Robin said contemplatively, cupping his chin in thought.

Walter thought about it himself, before looking at the snow on the ground gave him an idea. "Stand back," he warned, before stepping out into the open as the guards passed by. Robin quietly tried to get him to come back, but Walter was already in the middle of casting a spell. He channeled his mana and shot a burst of it into the sky, praying that none of the guards saw the spell go off. Within seconds, the already howling winds began raging in intensity, picking the already thick layer of snow off of the ground and tossing it about. The guards exclaimed in surprise at the sudden surge in the severity of the storm. A few seconds later, only the guards' torches were barely visible through the roiling sheets of white.

"Kill them, now!" Walter said as quietly as he could while still being able to be heard over the wind. Without waiting for Robin, he dashed into the storm. The frigid wind bit at the exposed skin of his face, and the plates of his armor quickly chilled to unbearable levels. He pressed on, however, coming up behind the first of the guards silently, the man too preoccupied with sheltering himself from the sudden cold to be watching his back. The man dropped wordlessly, the only sound of his passing a dull thud from Walter's mace, inaudible over the howling blizzard. A second later, Walter heard a dull snap, a short cry of pain, and the sound of steel tearing flesh; Robin had taken care of the other guard. There was a brief cry of pain in the distance, and the sound of a single clash of steel, but otherwise all Walter could hear was the raging winds.

Walter quickly found Robin, grabbed his arm, and pulled him out of the storm back to their hiding space. It took a couple of minutes, but eventually the winds died down from cataclysmic proportions to a "regular" blizzard. His vision cleared just in time to see the last of the guards fall to the ground, an arrow piercing his forehead.

"Well, that was effective," Robin said through chattering teeth, igniting a fire spell in his hand and quickly huddling himself over it to regain what little warmth he'd managed to preserve before the blizzard kicked up. "Next time, though, I'm not running into it."

"The guards are taken care of," Walter stated. "Let's regroup and launch the assault proper." Reluctantly, Robin dispelled his flame, and followed Walter out into the square, where the rest of the Shepherds were now regrouping.

"More Bersian magic?" Stahl asked dryly as he brushed some ice off of his breastplate.

"Yes, that was the highest level ice spell known in Bersia," Walter supplied. "I cast it with as little mana as possible; it is normally strong enough to freeze enemies solid on a summer day."

"Can we just get on with it?" Tharja snapped as she shook some snow loose from her cloak. "As interesting as your displays of magical prowess are, I'm freezing to death."

"Yeah, let's get in out of the cold," Robin agreed, shivering violently as they approached the warehouse. "Walter, Donny, breach the doors, charge forward. Phila, Cordelia, dismount and go right. Sully, Stahl you dismount too, go left. Tharja, follow behind Walter and Donny, support them. Virion, do the same for Phila and Cordelia, and remember that you're in Walter's duchy and there's plenty of woods to hide your body in before you start flirting with his betrothed." The others laughed quietly at that, and Virion shot a nervous look to a cruelly grinning Walter. "I'll tag behind Sully and Stahl. Libra, Olivia, hold the exit. Some of them might try to slip by us, so be alert. Gaius, slip past the smugglers, try to find any documents you can about where they got the creatures or where they were supposed to go before they can destroy the evidence." Robin received a chorus of affirmatives in response, and Gaius scampered off, scaling the warehouse walls using a pair of knives, before disappearing from sight. "Alright, whenever you're ready, General," Robin stated with a grin.

The doors to the warehouse burst open with a thunderous explosion, burning debris being thrown inward. Not a half second behind the ruined remains of the door were Walter and Donnel, charging headlong into the room. Walter quickly gave the room a once-over as he charged toward the group of stunned smugglers ahead of them. There were dozens of cages in the dimly lit room, stacked in layers of two, in neat little rows across the interior of the warehouse. Walter noted wyverns, pegasi, some strange creature that looked to be an odd mix between a large cat and a bird of prey, a Storm Rider, more wyverns-

"What!?" Walter roared in rage as he did a double take. Surely enough, a Storm Rider, the great eagles of northern Bersia, sat in a cage entirely too small for it. It was a bit larger than the wyverns it was stored next to, and it gazed at the new intruders in alarm, before its expression unmistakably became infuriated at the presence of even more humans. He was not given time to question the presence of a Storm Rider, however; Donnel had charged ahead and engaged the smugglers, who were still reeling from the explosion. Upon seeing the humans attack each other, the captive creatures began roaring in excitement.

Walter turned to the smugglers as they finally began to marshal some form of defense, snarling in rage. "Face the Lord's judgment!" he roared furiously, sending a trio of lightning bolts into the back of the smugglers' ranks. All three of his targets died immediately. Without further delay he crashed into the press, swinging his weapon furiously at anything that wasn't Donnel. The smugglers, more accustomed to dealing with irate beasts than irate humans, stood no chance. Between Walter's mace, Donnel's sword, and Tharja's devastating spellcraft, the smugglers were quickly ground under heel. The last of the smugglers in their section of the warehouse fell to Walter, who put the injured man out of his misery with an armored boot to his throat. He heard several explosions in the distance, and the sound of a wyvern roaring in triumph, but paid little attention to it for now.

Without even checking on the others, he strode over to the Storm Rider's cage, gazing at it stoically. The Storm Rider glared right back at him, before letting out an ear-splitting screech. As Walter rubbed his ears to get some hearing back, his mind turned over on itself for an explanation. He had thought that maybe there would be smugglers from Bersia to Ylisse, sure. That was a given with any trade route. But Duchess Grant had been quite concerned about animal trading from Bersia after reading his report, and had been almost excessively overzealous about ensuring it didn't happen, even giving her customs officers the power to arrest traders immediately without warrant if any animal larger than a horse was brought through the Outrealm Gate, and to outright execute anyone who didn't allow them to search their cargo. He was confident that a Storm Rider, of all things, would never have made it past her diligence. So how did this one get here?

"Right side is clear, General," Phila said behind him. He did not turn around, however; in fact he hardly even heard her. "Gaius said he's found…gods above, what is that?" She said in shock as she beheld what Walter was staring at.

"A Storm Rider," Walter growled angrily. "A large bird of prey native to the Pineth Mountains in Bersia."

"'Large is an understatement," Phila said nervously, "this creature is larger than a wyvern!"

"Yes, it is," Walter ground out, "which is why I would very much like to know how it managed to get snuck past Duchess Grant's customs officers."

"Cause it didn't come through Port Grant, Old Timer," Gaius said from his right. Walter finally tore his gaze from the Storm Rider, which was now eyeing the three of them critically, and handed him a sheaf of parchment. "These amateurs didn't burn their shipping manifests. The load this bird came in on was from Valm."

"Valm?" Walter asked as he read through the documents. Surely enough, Gaius' summary was right. "Isn't that the continent across the Long Sea to the west?"

"Yes, it is," Phila answered. "But how did this creature find its way to Valm? And then to Ylisse?"

"I don't know," Walter said quietly as he turned back to the Storm Rider. It had seemingly grown bored of them now, and was gazing with only mild interest at the other Shepherds as they regrouped. The fighting had come to a close. Walter turned around, to ask Robin's opinion of the matter, but was alarmed when Sully and Stahl returned without him.

"Where's Robin?" Walter asked worriedly, stepping away from the Storm Rider's cage.

"Oh, he's fine," Sully said, rolling her eyes. "He's with his new best friend out back."

"He's…what?" Walter asked, completely nonplussed.

"It's easier to see for yourself," Stahl sighed, jerking his thumb over his shoulder, back the way they'd came. "He's fine, though. Well, maybe a bit mental, but he's physically unharmed."

Walter shot the pair a sideways glance, but walked down the designated lane. When he drew closer to one of the alleys in between the cages, he heard some quiet mumbling. Figuring that that's where Robin was, he turned down the aisle, and was utterly dumbstruck by the sight in front of him.

Robin was currently latched onto a wyvern's head, giving it a loving hug, and quite obviously baby-talking to it. The sight was so ridiculous that Walter almost didn't react fast enough to stop the wyvern's flame breath from roasting him alive.

"No boy!" Robin cried, trying futilely to pull the wyvern's head away from Walter as the paladin dove to the side. "He's a friend!" The wyvern growled a bit, but did not shoot anymore fire at Walter, and the paladin hesitantly approached.

"Robin…what are you doing?" Walter asked quietly.

"I accidentally shot the lock off this wyvern's cage during the fighting while I was aiming for the smugglers' leader," Robin explained. "He repaid the favor by…well, you don't want to know what he did to the guy when he was about to kill me, but suffice it to say that it settled the debt. Isn't he just the greatest?" Robin asked cheerfully, stroking the wyvern's long, scaled snout affectionately.

"You didn't take a blow to the head, did you?" Walter deadpanned as the tactician went back to baby-talking a giant, fire breathing lizard.

"Nope," Robin responded cheerily, scratching a spot behind the wyvern's jaw. Its tail began thumping the ground, almost like a dog's leg when scratched, and Walter tried to restrain his laughter at the sheer ludicrousness of it. "I've always thought wyverns were awesome. Then this one goes and saves me, the champion," he said affectionately, and the wyvern gave a sound that Walter could only describe as "cooing", though it sounded more like a high pitched growl than anything. "I think I'm gonna keep him."

Walter did a double take. "You're going to…Robin, this isn't a stray dog!" Walter barked. "This is a giant, fire breathing, man-eating wyvern!"

"Hey, he's only eaten one man, and it was in self-defense!" Robin protested, and the wyvern shot him a glare of utmost loathing. "Don't let him get you down, big guy, he's always been grumpy." He turned back to Walter. "Come on, I can't take him without your permission, he's technically evidence in a criminal investigation. Pleeeeeeease?" he asked, doing his best attempt at puppy dog eyes.

"Oh, for the love of…" Walter groaned, rolling his eyes. "Fine. You can have him. But you get to be the one to explain to the Prince how you left to deal with criminals and came back with a pet wyvern. He's your problem now. Don't let him destroy anything or eat anyone in my duchy."

"Sweet!" Robin shouted, and the wyvern gave an eardrum-shattering roar of happiness. "Ow," Robin said loudly, shaking his head, and the wyvern snorted in amusement. "I'll have to see Miriel about getting something to dampen the sound of these roars…but yeah, we're best friends now!" he told the wyvern, "You're gonna need a name…how about Dean?" he asked. The wyvern looked at him quizzically. "He's a famous warrior from across the sea," Robin clarified. "He rode a wyvern into battle. I think it's a great name!" The wyvern, "Dean" now, apparently, roared in agreement. "Ach! Maybe no roaring right next to my head!" Robin moaned piteously.

Walter shook his head and turned away as Robin continued coddling a beast that could easily eat him alive. He regrouped with the others, and gave them a brief overview of the…situation.

"He's…adopting a wyvern?" Phila asked incredulously. "The lad is out of his mind!"

"That's a common trend with Ylisseans, I've noticed," Walter responded cheekily, causing Phila to shove him playfully.

"Another bloody wyvern," Virion sighed dejectedly, all of his normal bearing and poise forgotten. "I'd dearly hoped to escape ze nasty creatures when I left home."

"You knew another wyvern rider?" Walter asked.

"Yes, but zat is a story for another time," Virion said in a tone that made it clear he was unwilling to discuss the matter at all, let alone at another time.

"Well, our aerial forces are still rather depleted," Cordelia stated thoughtfully. "We've never worked with wyverns before, but I'm sure Robin will be able to come up with some way to work them into our formations. I'll have a talk with him later about it, and teach him how to fly while I'm at it."

"Can we get out of this foul smelling warehouse already?" Tharja spoke up in annoyance, clutching her cloak tightly to herself. "We can deal with the lizard later, I'm freezing to death!"

"Agreed," Walter stated. "We can discuss this somewhere warmer. Somebody go retrieve Robin and…Dean. Stahl, inform the town guard that the warehouse is ready to be secured. The rest of us are returning to Claive Manor."

AN:

Wyvern Lords are my favorite unit in the entire series. Why? Because they're riding fucking wyverns, and I need no other reason. But it gives me those reasons, by making them a faster General with higher Mov. Like Archers can do fuck all to them with their high defense, and if you're putting your Wyvern Lords near mages at all, you're a dumbass, so the wind vulnerability doesn't bother me. I always reclass Robin to Wyvern Lord during the Valm Arc. But since this is MY butchery of the game's story, I'm going to make him a Malig Knight that uses lances and swords, and you can do fuck all to stop me. BWAHAHAHAHAAA!