Chapter Six: Trek

My feet ached, my legs were stiff, and sweat was getting in my eyes.

It was my sixth day of walking, and I was weak with hunger. It was a sensation not unfamiliar to me, but that made it no more pleasant.

I had always had a huge appetite, that was no secret. It was the reason my still healing body kept adding layers of fat to my stomach.

Honestly, it was foolish of me to not have predicted this outcome. I had encountered a few wild animals – rabbits and birds, and even an antlerless deer at one point – but to me, they weren't food.

For others, sure. Odin and the others would likely have hunted animals to keep themselves going, but I had been raised a vegetarian. I refused to take an innocent animal's life, even if it killed me.

At this rate, it very well may kill me, I thought grimly. How were vegetarians supposed to survive on the road without food?

Ah, of course, they would take food with them. Fruits and vegetables from farms or markets, or bread fresh from the bakers...

A heavy rumble forced me to stop, doubling in pain. My hands clutched at my stomach. I needed to keep going, but I couldn't take another step until this hunger pang had faded.

I had found a stream headed south, and was following it, knowing that I needed water. I had stopped each night when the sun had gone down, stripping to my undergarments and dipping the clothes in the water to clean off the sweat. The damp clothes then became my bedding, uncomfortable at first, but they kept me cool in the Hoshidan heat. I would awaken in the morning, too weak to move at first, but finally gathering the strength to move.

The map on the tactical guide had told me that the stream led to a river – River Sareni – which flowed into the southern ocean. At the mouth of the river, a port town stood, where I could likely get food and passage to the capital of Hoshido.

My hunger pang ended, and I could move again. Instead though, I reached to my pocket for the device.

I pinched the map like a touchscreen phone, pulling apart my thumb and forefinger on the display to zoom into my position.

There was another reason I had chosen to follow this stream. Apparently, a small wheat farm stood on the shore further south, an apple orchard nearby.

It should have been visible to the naked eye by now, judging from the map, but then again the map was huge. According to the map, I had barely left the Bottomless Canyon, and wasn't even an eighth of the way into Hoshidan lands. If I continued at this pace straight to Castle Shirasagi, it would likely take over a month.

The sun was starting to set again. I set myself down on the bank of the river to prepare for another night of uneasy sleep.

I cupped my hands into the water, drinking the water desperately and uncaring of the cleanliness of it. Then, I took my clothes in, letting that same water wash away sweat and dirt. They were a simple peasant garb, borrowed from the Vallite survivors, beige and brown – easy to clean materials that were used to dirty work.

I wished I had brought a weapon with me when I had gone to see Anankos. He could at least have provided me with one. Even just one of those rusty bronze axes or dented brass clubs I had briefly tried training with.

Training... There was a thought. I got back to the shore and removed the thankfully waterproof tactical device from somewhere in the bundle of rags. I scanned myself with it this time, the days having taught me a little of how to use it.

"Derek Gruff. Born Sheffield, 1995 AD."

That was information I already knew. Next were my stats.

"Class: Fighter, Level: One."

That gave me pause. Fighters were an axe wielding class, so perhaps my choosing to use axes and clubs in practice against the Vallites had been what decided that?

Still, my actual statistics were odd. In game, Fighters were known and feared for their high Health and Strength. They often had decent Skill, Speed and Defence but...

"HP: 19/19

Strength: 5

Magic: 8

Skill: 6

Speed: 1

Luck: 2

Defence: 9

Resistance: 11

Movement: 5

Weapon Ranks: Axes-E, Clubs-E"

That... Single point in Speed caught my attention, but I had to admit that I knew the reason.

I was not fast. I hated running, and in every sports day and Physical Education class at school I had come last in the races or marathons.

The high Defence and higher Resistance were welcome surprises. But that HP on a Fighter... I scrolled down and recognised the icon for the skill "HP +5" even without the little number on it.

HP +5 was a straightforward skill, boosting its owner's health by 5 points. It meant that essentially, my HP was only 14, a very low number for a Fighter.

I recognised that skill, yes, but there was another icon too. It was earlier, coming right after the word "Skills" so I tapped on it.

Just like in Fire Emblem Fates itself, tapping on things caused a little window to appear, providing more information.

"Broken: This unit cannot be healed by Rods/Staves, but regenerates rapidly."

That... Wasn't a skill I recognised. It could have been one unique to myself, I supposed. A personal skill, like characters were given in Fire Emblem Fates.

It was a black circle, broken by a white book, opened to some page unseen from the book's horizontal position. A white star, four pointed, floated above the book as though it had emerged.

Broken? What was that supposed to mean?

I slept that night no easier than any other, drifting off to thoughts of zombie stories.

The next day, the farm came into view. The apple trees promised by the map lined a country lane, a winding dirt path leading from the apple woods to the river. The path turned to follow the river, until it faded into the shore.

I stopped to look at the path, then dashed at the trees. I gathered armfuls of the red apples, all of them fresh and free of bruises.

Finally, I had found food. River Sareni gained a pile of disposed apple cores on its shore, the juices sucked dry.

...

Rather than follow my initial plan of following the river towards the port town, I instead had decided to visit the farm. Hopefully, I could borrow or purchase a bag, or some way of taking food with me.

The dirt path was uneven, but thin lines traced it – tracks from the wheels of a wooden cart. Even I, ever cynical of nature, had to admit that Hoshido was a beautiful place.

In the skies above, the sun shone brightly. It was warm, but not to the point where I was covered in sweat. Light filtered through gaps in the leaves, though the road itself was mostly already out of the shade. A light aroma was in the air, filling my every breath with the pleasant odours of fruit and grass.

It was like the woods back home, I decided, though I knew that those woods had been old, littered and...

I stopped, running a hand over my face. I needed to stop thinking of that house as my home. The home of my youth, a childhood lost to time... I couldn't go back. That small bedroom with the bed built into the walls, a loose wire outside which tapped on the window sometimes, the box of my Lego in its rightful place – the only available floor space...

Tears were in my eyes. When had they started? I didn't know, but I realised it wasn't just my childhood home I missed.

There was so much to miss about Earth, I realised, but most of all I missed my mother.

Whenever I had been at my lowest before, be it when I received father's letter or when I had been struggling with bullying at school, she had been there for me. Even at university, no food, friends or confidence in my work, I had known she was just a phone call away. Here, even that was not an option.

The sun was nearing midday by now. I lifted my face to it, eyes closed, letting the light drop through the thin canopy to dance on my face. It wasn't unpleasant, but the summer breeze was unfamiliar. It brought me back to the present, to the farm road.

It was only a few minutes more of walking that I arrived at the farm. A sheep looked at me lazily nearby, its white wool glistening in the open sunlight. It turned and loped off slowly, across a long field to some other sheep laid on the far side.

I was almost walking beside it, on the other side of the fence, but it was heading away from me, diagonally. It was smaller than the others, I noticed, a younger sheep. There were no lambs there, or none that I could see.

The other side of the road was an empty field, with only a single, grand apple tree to break the grass expanse. The road ended with the fenced fields, opening to a court of dirt and hay. There was a wheat field further to the left, but the right was blocked by a wooden stable, painted red-brown. Of the six stalls, only one was empty. The other horses stood or laid, one brown packhorse nuzzling at its hooves, a white pegasus tending to their feathered wings, a great black beast staring me down and hoofing the ground, and the last two lazy palomino fillies reclining.

I stared at them all, admiring their beauty. I loved horses, and most animals. But the pegasus in particular caught my eye. Winged horses! That was something only dreamt of on Earth, but here they were real!

Unbidden, my hand was out, reaching for the curious pegasus's snout. I was almost there...

"I wouldn't do that," a voice said suddenly, making me jump.

I turned, looking at the woman. She was young, perhaps only 17 or 18, but bore herself with such grace that she seemed more mature than I. Her hair was red, short and tussled, and her clothes were whites and reds. They weren't particularly fancy, but still spoke of wealth and nobility. A sensible outfit for both banquets and battle, though the woman was clearly more suited to the latter.

A naginata was in her hands, a long wooden pole with a fierce blade attached to one end. The entire pole was concealed behind a long shield of cloth or wood. The shield was adorned with a stylised sun image.

She peered at me suspiciously, then simply smiled, lowering her naginata, "I was just leaving."

She stepped to move around me, reaching for the gate to her pegasus's stall, before I found my words.

"Y-you're Princess Hinoka," I croaked out.

She merely looked at me and nodded, "Surprised to see the Princess so far from the castle?" she scoffed. "A life of sitting about isn't for me. Especially not with the retainers I have."

She sighed at that, looking around as though her retainers might show up. "You haven't seen a blue haired archer, have you?"

"Y-you..." I stuttered, then shook my head to her question. "N-no, sorry..."

Hinoka grimaced, now leading her pegasus from the stable and saddling it up, "Hopefully Azama will have fared better and actually brought her back home by now."

I stared at her, processing this information as she mounted her pegasus.

"I-I hope you find her," I managed to stutter.

Princess Hinoka, the second of four Hoshidan siblings, smiled at me, then led her pegasus away. It trotted, then sped to a gallop, and just before it would have reached the end of the field, the white horse leapt into the air, its wings unfurling to flap upwards. She flew, up and away, then the pegasus spiralled in midair, turning back the other way and simply soaring overhead.

It was an astonishing sight, the mythical beast speeding away, and suddenly I felt my breath catch in my throat.

I had been trying not to think of getting home. I didn't know if it was possible, and I had been both curious and excited enough to continue my journey for now. I wanted to see this through. I needed to help the people of Valla and Anankos, who were counting on me to get help from the nobility of Hoshido and Nohr.

But would I ever get home? Anankos had said I had died in my sleep back home... What would my mother think? Would she see an empty bed, or was there a corpse there?

I was panicking, I realised. The tears from before I had seen the pegasus were back, and the farm was a watery blur now.

Not just a blur... It span, and I felt much too exposed, too unsafe in the outdoors. I took a step, stumbled, and fell.

...

Author's Note:

I'm going through editing chapters, and some of the Author's Notes are no longer relevant. I'll leave the relevant parts here:

Thank you to anybody who has read this story so far, and especially thanks to the people who have reviewed. I do try to take everything on board, so if you do have any issues, please let me know. Although this story was originally intended to be a sort of mental catharsis to myself, I do want other people to enjoy it too!

I also took the time to address some areas of confusion at the time of this chapter:

First, there is a prophecy, but my character is not part of it. He knows the song from playing the game, and the song itself is the prophecy - about Corrin.

Second, panic will be shown throughout the story, to varying levels. I have seen some stories where the characters panic and panic and never get anything done because of it. While that can be an interesting story in its own right, it's not the one I want to tell. This version of Derek I'm writing does have some differences from myself. I have no idea how I'd actually react were I thrust into a fictional world, but I also don't want him to go around acting like he has always lived in that world and never thinks about Earth again. That would make the title rather redundant.