Chapter 3

Morgan yawned, wincing at the soreness in his body, walking as the sun descended.

"Ow," he hissed, holding a hand to where a new scar was already present. "Geez... I didn't expect that Pegasus Knight to rush through that Thunder spell and through me with that..."

Morgan let out a sigh, shaking his hand. There was now a long, ugly scar, reaching from his right shoulder down to his wrist.

"And this...that was just great." Morgan kept his arm by his side, which hid the scar. "Man... how'd that swordsman go before me, anyway?" he mused. "He was almost dead, so I thought his wounds would slow him down, but then he..."

"Does it hurt anywhere, Morgan?"

He looked up, sure that she would call him out on the surprise in his eyes. "Oh... hello, Nah." He smiled at her. "Nah, I'm fine. Er, I mean... um..."

A slight smile of her own came out. "It's alright."

"Phew! Thanks." He grinned. "Sorry, it's just..."

"Anyway... do you hurt anywhere?" She peered closer. "Hm..."

"No. I'm fine." Morgan looked away.

"Alright." Nah came forward until she walked beside him.

The two of them sat, on a small cliff overlooking the camp after the long battle.

"Too bad I couldn't come," commented Nah, and Morgan was reminded of the long, harsh line she would forever be forced to carry on her body. A stab of guilt washed over him. "Lucina told me it was a long, terrible battle."

"It was," replied Morgan. He lay down, folding his arms behind his head with a groan. A flick of pain poked him before fading.

"Tired?" offered the dragon beside him, who sat upright. Her green eyes came to the tactician's own brown ones.

"I'm exhausted," he mumbled, closing his eyes. "And using twenty Thunder spells in the span of five minutes, I have found, is a terrible idea."

Nah gave a soft chuckle. "Well... everything seems to have come out alright, regardless."

"Yeah." Morgan breathed out, opening his eyes again to stare upwards.

Two birds were letting a simple, quiet song flow out, in perfect unison with one another, bringing a smile to his face as he let himself relax.

Morgan let his eyes close, and fell asleep before he knew it.

A low groan came out of him as Morgan opened his eyes.

He sat upright to see the young girl beside him kneeled over.

"Nah?!" he gasped, rising to his knees. "Are you alright?!"

"Hm...? Oh..." She opened her eyes to look at him, sitting upright. "Ah. Morgan, you've awakened." A slight frown came to her face. "Should I not be alright?"

"It's just... I woke up, and you were hunched over and..." Morgan let out a long breath. "It worried me. Are you sick?"

"I am not. I was just praying, actually."

"Wait... praying?" Morgan felt a row come to his face. "What's that?"

"Well... how to describe it..." she murmured for a moment. "Hm... perhaps it'd be easier for me to just show you."

"I'm watching," responded Morgan, folding his arms to give her an intent stare.

"Alright..." As Nah continued he saw a slight flush on her face. "Like this... you close your eyes, see?" She hunched over, closing her eyes.

"Well, um... keep yours open so you can watch."

"Oh!" Morgan opened his eyes again. "Um..."

A soft laugh came from her. "Ah..." She composed her face and took in a deep breath. "Great and wise Naga, heed my prayer!"

Nah paused, before turning towards Morgan with her eyes open. "Then you offer up your prayer. Naga is an incredibly important deity to the manaketes," she continued. "It's said that if you pray to her... she will guide you to happiness."

"Wow!" grinned Morgan. "That sounds impressive!" He narrowed his eyes. "Naga must be awfully busy all the time."

"Yes!" replied Nah. "Though she does take a moment every now and then to speak with my kind."

"Wow... that's amazing," spoke the tactician. "Hm..."

Looking up, he finally noticed that any traces of the sun were gone, and the moon shone in its place. It was a glowing present Morgan felt he could almost just reach up and touch.

He looked back at Nah. "Were you praying the whole time I was asleep?"

"Well... yes. She spoke to me just before you woke up, actually."

"What'd she say?" wondered Morgan.

""Kids your age shouldn't stay up so late."" Nah had an almost wry smile on her face.

"Heh..." Morgan felt a smile come to his face as well. "Your god's a real mother hen, huh?" He swallowed, feeling an odd nervousness within himself before he next spoke. "Uh... so... can I ask what you were praying for?"

Nah was oblivious to his hesitation. "I wished for peace and happiness in the world," she spoke.

"What did Naga say?" asked Morgan.

"Well... she didn't respond," spoke Nah. "She never does... never has... when I ask for something like that."

To him, Nah seemed downcast with the words. "Uh... well... maybe it's her way of saying that we shouldn't rely on divine intervention!" he tried. I don't want to see you sad, Nah. "That we... um... need to... build happiness and peace with our own two hands."

Her face became thoughtful with the words. "Hm... maybe so," responded Nah. "That certainly is a very Morgan-like interpretation, I must say." She looked away from the distance and at him. "You're always so gung ho and optimistic."

"Well... I always say it's better to have more hope then less," he grinned.

"You won't hear any arguments from me," replied Nah, giving a soft laugh.

"Well, maybe we ought to listen to Naga and go back to camp," spoke Morgan, stretching as he stood.

"Yes, we probably should," she agreed, taking his offered hand.

"Well, then..." Morgan peered over the side of the cliff. "Hm... alright."

"Are you going to jump off?"

He paused. "Uh..." Morgan looked back at Nah. "How... did you know..."

"You always were taking risks like that in the future," answered Nah. "Well... not that you would know."

"Well... Nah, could we talk about... how I was in the future?" he asked.

"Sure, I'd be glad to."

"Oh, probably we should do that in camp," mused Morgan. "It's already late and stuff, so..."

"Yes. That sounds great. Oh, but there's a safer way then jumping off a cliff." Nah transformed into a dragon. "Want a ride?"

"I didn't think of this," admitted Morgan, as he sat atop of his friend.

She spread her wings and transformed back within moments, when they were on the ground.

"Thanks, Nah!" he grinned.

"No problem," she smiled back. "So... where should we talk?"

"Well... how about in front of your tent?" spoke Morgan. "Then when it's time to sleep, it's easy on you, and my own tent isn't that far away."

"Aren't you a gentleman," spoke Nah, as they started to move. They took a seat in front of her tent, and she paused. "What do you want to know?" she asked, looking at him with the aid of the nearby campfire.

"What kind of person was I?"

Nah glanced away with the words. "Well... almost exactly like you are now. Though back then you were always stressed with all the strategies and survival of everybody," she spoke, looking at the moon now.

"You would be at your seek every single night, trying to make a strategy for any possible situation. As a result, I would usually bring you food in the morning, when you had fallen unconscious due to exhaustion. And during the evening, when you made excuses that you weren't hungry, I would creep to your room after eating to see you muttering to yourself, hair messy from how much frustration you vented at yourself. All because you thought your strategy wouldn't work for whatever reason." She looked at him then. "You always tried so much to make it so there were no casualties during battle, and were always crushed at every single inevitable death that occurred. At that point you'd stay holed up in your room and look terrible the next day, though still brushing off anyone's worry." A quiet sigh came out.

"I think the worse part of it all was that it would constantly repeat. You must've spent more time in that room then actual battle, honestly."

Morgan sighed. "I worried you a lot, didn't I."

"Yes," she answered. "I could see your bones, and on seldom occasions when you would agree to go outside and relax just to fall asleep, I could see some white hairs."

"Wow," replied Morgan, feeling his hair.

"Oh, there's none there now," spoke Nah. "But I remember this one time... you'd been in there without food for well past 24 hours, trying to put together a new strategy to prevent what happened from happening ever again."

"Wait... what happened?" frowned Morgan.

"The death of one of our friends, who died trying to cover... no, died protecting you," spoke Nah, looking down. "Laurent... the son of Miriel and Kellam."

Morgan swallowed, not wanting to ask.

But he had to. For this Laurent's memory, he had to know.

"How did he die?"

Nah closed her eyes and a small hitch came from her. "I... I don't... I'm sorry, but please ask someone else that question." She stood.

"Nah?" spoke Morgan, starting to stand. "Hey, Nah-"

"Good night, Morgan." She entered the tent and was silent.

Morgan took a step back, not wanting to intrude.

Why did she react that way?

Morgan shook his head as he walked to his own tent, grunting as he lay on the bedroll inside

Maybe I should ask Lucina about it...

Because I don't think Nah will like it if I ask her again about it.