Author's Notes:

The timing in the game made things seem to go extremely quickly. It never made sense to me how they are able to travel from Regna Ferox to Plegia in a single day. This will, of course, be fixed to be a little bit more reasonable in my story.

That being said, I'm at home now for Spring break. You can expect a few more chapters in the coming week. In the meantime, enjoy chapter 12.

North of Breakneck Pass

Chrom and the shepherds continued to march north, towards Plegia. As evening drew near, they found their way to a small Ylissean village, where the shepherds were welcomed with open arms.

They decided to lodge at a nearby inn. Even though the innkeeper told Chrom they could stay for free, the Ylissean prince insisted on paying. The innkeeper reluctantly accepted, but under the condition that they eat at the tavern for free.

Since it was not yet time for dinner, the shepherds scattered around town for some sightseeing. Some, like Sumia and Lissa, decided to go window shopping. Others, like Robin and Miriel, looked around town for a bookstore. Others still, like Vaike and Sully, decided to stay at the tavern and have a couple of drinks before dinner.

Robin was pretty satisfied. He had searched through the entire bookstore, and found a couple of rare texts. Or rather, rare in the sense that they were of significant use to him, and the shepherd's library didn't have them. He had to spend a pretty large amount of gold in order to buy them, but he felt it would be worth it. Soon, an hour had passed, and Robin started to make his way to the tavern.

On the way there, he ran into Ricken. "Hey Robin!" The young mage greeted. "Did you hear about what happened to Chrom?"

Robin frowned. "No, what did I miss?" Ricken grinned. "Oh, you won't believe this one. Someone tried to jump Chrom!" Robin blinked twice. "What?" "Yeah! Yeah! Here's what happened…"

By the time Ricken had finished his retelling of what happened, the two had made it back to the tavern. Robin found Chrom sitting at one of the tables, and made his way towards him.

A server came around and took Robin's order. When they left, the tactician turned to Chrom.

"So… uh, Chrom?" Robin awkwardly began. "Yes?" came the reply.

"I heard you got attacked today… what was that about?"

"Oh." Chrom laughed. "Some local thug approached me with a dagger. It was dark… the poor guy probably thought he was mugging a merchant!"

"And you challenged him alone?" Robin questioned. Chom's lips moved to the side. "Well, I wouldn't say 'challenged', more like 'shooed away'."

Robin shook his head. "I know you're capable, but please don't take any foolish risks. What if he hadn't been alone? You should've called someone for help."

Chrom laughed. "You know we're at war, right? Stepping onto the battlefield itself is a risk."

"I don't fear someone besting you head on," Robin retorted. "I fear you getting stabbed in the back. Many enemies do not share your sense of honor."

Chrom snorted. "You think any normal cutpurse could get the better of me?"

"History is a good indicator. There have been many leaders like you that have been betrayed or assassinated. You're our commander, Chrom. You are no longer your own man. You stand for all of us."

"Enough." Chrom conceded. "You are right… as you always are. I will be more careful in the future."

At this, the waitress came with Chrom and Robin's food. Many of the other shepherds were also eating by this point. Some of them brought their food over and sat next to the two. They ate and drank and laughed. There was no more serious talk for the rest of the evening.

A couple hours later…

Robin was in his room, reading under the light of a lamp. The rest of the shepherds had already gone to sleep. This meant he was not expecting the quiet knock on his door.

"Who is it?" he called out quietly. "It's me." A feminine voice replied. "Lissa."

Robin raised an eyebrow. He got up and opened the door. "Did you need something?

"Well…" Lissa murmured. "I couldn't sleep right now. I'm too worried about Emm. I got up to take a walk, and I saw some light coming from the crack under your room's door. I thought I'd come check if you were still awake."

Robin smiled. "I was just reading. I find that I can never fall asleep at the time when everyone normally sleeps, so I always end up staying up really late."

"Are you reading that same book? The one you read to me at the Farfort?" Lissa asked.

"No…." Robin began, "But I have that one with me, I can read to you again, if you want." he offered.

"Yes please! It'll be a great distraction for me." the princess chirped.

"Alright then." The tactician gestured towards the interior of his room. "Make yourself comfortable." Lissa gladly took the invitation, and sat on the edge of Robin's bed.

Robin retrieved the book from his satchel, and sat next to her. He began to read.

A while later…

"... Zhang'Fei was against the idea. 'Why should we go see him in person? All we need to do is send a messenger ordering him to come to us.' Liu'Bei shook his head. 'Dear brother, mister ZhuGe'Liang is truly a talented man. We are going to invite him in person, in order to show our sincerity. Even if we have to traverse the snow…." At this point, Robin realised that Lissa had fallen asleep on his shoulder.

"Hmm, you didn't think this one through, did you?" he asked himself. He temporarily lowered Lissa's head onto his own pillow, and got up to walk outside. He made his way to Lissa's room, and found that, to his relief, the door was unlocked. He made his way back to his own room.

Robin picked up the sleeping princess, and carried her back to her own room. He placed her on the bed and tucked her in. "Sweet dreams…" he murmured, before heading back to his own room. At this point, he began to feel tired, and resolved to go to bed.

The next morning…

Robin woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. Even though he slept far fewer than many of the other shepherds, he was more chipper than most of them.

He met up with the rest of the shepherds downstairs. They were about to leave, but the innkeeper insisted they at least stay for breakfast. "You can't save the halidom on an empty stomach." he reasoned. Chrom agreed, and everyone filed into the tavern, once again.

After they ate, the shepherds hit the road again. As they marched, they could feel the temperature begin to drop. Soon, they began to see snow on the ground, which was a good sign that they were traveling in the right direction.

As they continued to march, the snow became more prevalent, until it covered the entire ground. The shepherds left a deep trench in the road with the sheer number of people marching in a single line.

Suddenly, Chrom noticed some people up ahead. "I wonder what they're doing?" he asked Frederick as he pointed them out.

"I don't know, milord, but perhaps we can ask them for some directions. Better safe than sorry." The knight replied.

The shepherds approached them. Chrom realized that it was a merchant desperately trying to save the life of an injured soldier.

"Hold fast!" the merchant pleaded. "I'll treat your wounds!" "Ngh… it's too late…" The soldier got out.

"Lissa! quick! " Chrom called. The princess rushed over and began to heal the soldier. Maribelle also gave a helping hand.

"What happened here?" Chrom asked the merchant. The merchant shook his head. "Nothing but death ahead, milord. Bandits have blocked the road ahead. They're demanding a king's ransom in illicit tolls for all who wish to pass."

"They think to profiteer on refugees?" Chrom mused. "Despicable."

"Our caravan's livelihood is at stake, milord." The merchant continued. "We'll do no business here anymore."

"The flow of good must be secured, milord." Frederick chimed in. "Otherwise, the people could starve."

"But," Robin interjected. "We really are pressed for time. Are we really able to take this detour?"

Chrom thought for a moment. "We are fighting this war to secure peace and prosperity for the citizens of Ylisse. We can't give them that if they're dead." Chrom began. "That being said, I am still worried for Emmeryn. We'll have to do this as quickly as possible."

Frederick nodded in agreement. "Aptly put milord, let's make haste towards the bandits."

Chrom turned to the merchant. "Where are they?" "Last I saw, they were to the east of us, they plan to pillage a village to the northeast. At least, that's what I assume they'll be doing."

Chrom turned to the shepherds. "C'mon, lets go beat some bandits. Follow me!" With that, the shepherds marched towards the northeast.

The shepherds marched until they saw some silhouettes moving about in the woods up ahead. Chrom turned to Robin. "So, what's the plan?" In response, Robin brought out his Hekseer. He scanned the surroundings.

"Alright, there are some bandits in the woods directly to the north of us." Robin began. "Their main force seems to be located to the East, across a small bridge. The village that we're trying to protect is to our northeast. It seems like there is a lone trickster defending it…"

"So what does it mean for us?" Chrom asked. "Well, we need to get reinforcements to the village as soon as possible. It will take too long to get their on foot, and the woods will make it difficult to get there on horseback..." Robin replied. "Sumia and Cordelia, you will ferry Chrom and Gaius over to the village to lend the village a hand. Most of the bandits approaching the village wield axes, so try to let Chrom and Gaius do most of the fighting. Go!"

The four immediately set off, flying over the woods and avoiding any archers they saw.

"The rest of us will fight as one group." Robin turned to the rest of the shepherds. "Due to the heavy woods around us, we need to move slowly, and move together. Our first objective is to clear the woods to the north of us of any bandits. Then, we move eastward and take on their main force."

By this point, the shepherds were fairly familiar with where they should position themselves in a front to back fight. The ranged units and healers filed towards the back. The squishier fighters stayed in the middle, and the armored units stayed in front.

{Sully and Stahl, I need you to ride east, and take control of the bridge. Don't let anyone cross it.} The cavalier pair rode off. Since the bandits around the bridge all used axes, Stahl took point, and was supported by Sully. The pair proved to be more than a match for a few random brigands, and handily took over the narrow bridge. They stood at one end, taking out any axe man that attempted to cross it.

Meanwhile, arrows flew at the shepherds from the woods up ahead. Kellam and Frederick did a great job of blocking them, while the rest of the shepherds hid behind their armored bodies. Ricken, Miriel, and Virion fired back. Both sides were firing fairly blindly, with neither side finding any hits.

{Lon'qu, Donnel, and Panne, I need you to sneak around the archers and take them out.} Robin instructed. {Try to focus your ranged attacks towards the middle of where we think they are, that way, it will be much less likely for us to hit them while they flank from the sides.} As he finished his assignments, Robin tumbled out to the side of Frederick's warhorse, and quickly fired a bolt of thunder at an enemy archer that brought his head out. "Checkmate!" he shouted as the spell hit the archer across the face, instantly killing him.

The two sides continued to fire ranged attacks at each other, the clearing in front of them quickly becoming no man's land. Suddenly, there were a few shouts of surprise from the bandit's side. The arrows stopped flying at the shepherds.

"Everyone, charge!" Robin ordered. The shepherds rushed out from their position and into the other set of woods.

By the time they got there, most of the bandits were taken out by Donnel, Panne and Lon'qu. Vaike managed to find a brigand trying to flee, and quickly cut him down.

When the shepherds regrouped with their three allies, Robin took notice of their injuries. Lon'qu had an arrow sticking out of his shoulder, while Donnel had a shallow cut on his cheek.

"Can you help them out, Lissa? Maribelle?" The healers immediately set to work. Lon'qu clenched his teeth and pulled out the arrow from his shoulder so Lissa could heal it, while Maribelle worked on Donnel's cut.

{Alright, let's head over to Sully and Stahl.} Robin said. As the shepherds began to move out of the woods towards the east, Robin took some time to check the Hekseer.

Meanwhile…

Sumia and Cordelia flew steadily towards the northeast. They ignored the bandits moving around in the woods below. Chrom and Gaius helped them look out for any potential archers.

When they reached the trickster, Gaius and Chrom dismounted, and the two Pegasus Knights flew back up into the air to support them from a higher altitude.

The trickster was busy fighting a brigand with her killing edge. Gaius rushed in and slashed the axeman across the back of his neck, while Chrom ran at another approaching bandit, killing the man with a single slash. Meanwhile, Sumia threw a javelin at an archer that was aiming at a diving Cordelia. The throwing spear scraped by the arrow that the archer was knocking, causing it to fly crooked when the archer let go. This bought Cordelia the time she needed to drive her steel lance into the man's chest, killing him.

Chrom turned to the redhead trickster. "Milady, are you hurt?" he gave her a once over. "It looks like you're fine. I guess I worried for nothing."

The trickster smiled and winked. "Yes, but it's still sweet of you, handsome."

"I hope you don't mind some help, we'll assist you in taking down these bandits." Chrom offered. "In exchange for some sweets." Gaius added. This earned the thief a disapproving look from the prince. "Kidding, I was only kidding." Gaius immediately clarified.

As Robin had told them, the bandits attacking the village were mostly axemen, so the combination of Chrom, Gaius, and the trickster, who introduced herself as Anna, were more than enough to hold them back.

Back with Robin…

The shepherds made their way to Stahl and Sully, who had been guarding the eastern bridge. They crossed, one by one, and set up to engage the brigands on an area to their south. Fortunately, there was only one small bridge that leads to the bandits. Robin's instructions were clear. {Frederick and Kellam, hold the bridge. They don't have as many people with ranged attacks, we can wear them down from a distance.}

The shepherds did just that. Miriel, Ricken, Virion and Robin hurled ranged attacks at the group of bandits across the river, while the bandits couldn't do much in response. Their one mage was taken out by a combination of Virion and Robin's deadly accuracy.

The bandits quickly became impatient. Some of them ran at the shepherds and attempted to cross the bridge, but they were quickly cut down by Frederick and his lance.

When it became clear that they were not going to win, many of the bandits opted to flee instead of being harassed from a distance. Their leader, a Berserker, grew tired as well. He picked up his axe, and charged the bridge himself.

"Give up now!" he taunted. "I am a perfect representation of my birth name, a Victor!"

Being inherently stronger than his henchmen, the Berserker actually did fairly well against the Great Knight. He dodged the initial lunge of the lance, and smashed his axe into the side of Frederick. While he did not do meaningful damage to the Great Knight, Victor was able to knock him out of the way.

He rushed past the sluggish Armored Knight in Kellam, and charged straight for his weakest nearby target: Lissa.

Frederick recovered and was about to go help the princess, but Robin had other things in mind. {We can handle him, but if more people slip by, we'll be in trouble. Hold the bridge!} he commanded. The Great Knight obliged, albeit reluctantly.

The bad news was, Virion, Miriel and Ricken couldn't attack the Berserker for fear of friendly fire. Fortunately for the shepherds, Donnel, Lon'qu, Vaike and Robin were able to keep him off their friends.

Donnel and Lon'qu swiftly moved out of the way of the Berserker's swings, and Robin, seeing an opening, ran in and swiped his scythe across the unwary Victor's right calf. The Berserker howled in pain and turned towards Robin, snarling in anger.

However, the damage was done. The cut from Naglrath began to sap Victor of his strength. He tried one last desperate swing at Vaike, but the axeman was able to block the Berserker's weakened strike. Panne took the opportunity to run in and kick Victor in the back, snapping his spine and killing the Berserker.

Once Victor was defeated, the rest of the bandits began to scatter. Even the ones originally sent to pillage the village heard of their leaders defeat and became reluctant to continue their assault.

Moments later, Chrom and his group rejoined Robin and his, and returned to the merchant that had initially given them the tip.

"A thousand thanks, good sir." The merchant said to Chrom. "I feared our goods would spoil before reaching a market. I'm certain the townsfolk would appreciate the fresh food as well."

Anna nodded. "It seems you've done a favor for my fellow merchants. As I introduced before, my name is Anna. Some call me the Secret Seller. Next time we meet, I'll be sure to cut you all an extra special deal. Until next time!"

Chrom nodded. "We're glad we were able to help. Unfortunately, we're also in a hurry as well. We need to head over to Regna Ferox, so we'll be on our way."

With that, the shepherds left, with the merchants waving goodbye to them until they marched out of sight.

The weather didn't get any warmer, but eventually, the shepherds made their way back to Ferox. Fortunately for them, they didn't experience anything close to what they had to go through the last time they came.

They took refuge in the Farfort once more. The night was fairly uneventful, as everyone was extremely tired from the fight earlier as well as the long day's march. Even Robin, who usually slept a lot later than most of the shepherds, found himself unable to keep his eyes open for much longer past the regular shepherds' bedtimes.

In the morning, the shepherds awoke, and after eating a quick breakfast passed out by the Feroxi soldiers, continued their march to the Feroxi capital.

They were given an audience with the Khans, and merely had to wait for them to arrive.

Lissa, however, was growing increasingly impatient. "Chrom?" She began. "Emmeryn will be fine right? She'll be safe inside the castle? Phila and the others will protect her, and once the khans assemble their troops, we can head back to the capital in time, right?"

The prince, however, was equally deep in thought, and missed his sister's question entirely.

"Chrom?" Lissa asked once again, waving her arms in front of his face. "Say something! Say, 'Yes, of course we will!'"

Chrom finally took notice of her. "...I'm sorry Lissa, were you saying something?"

"Ugh, fine!" Lissa pouted. "Let me know once you get out of your own head for a second."

Sumia decided to approach Chrom. "Snap out of it, Captain!" With that, she punched Chrom across his face.

"Ow!" Chrom complained. "What was that for?"

"Oh no!" Sumia responded. "Did I do it wrong? Captain Phila once said, a good slap will break someone out of their doldrums…"

Robin deadpanned. "Sumia, when you slap someone, you do it with an open palm. You just punched Chrom across the face."

"Ehrm…" Sumia murmured nervously. "It's the thought that counts?"

"Naga, that seriously hurt." Chrom muttered. Suddenly, there was laughter from the other side of the hall. "What's wrong, my dear prince? Sometimes love hurts!" Flavia said as she walked in. "You're lucky to have strong women in your army, and not just dainty flowers."

She waved her hand dismissively. "In any case, I bring good news. The Feroxi army has been mobilized. Every last man is itching to fight. I must say, I'm looking forward to a skirmish or two myself.

"Wait," Robin interjected. "You're coming along?"

Flavia scoffed at the question. "Of course! A khan must have her fun. I'm even bringing my insignificant other!"

"You're what?" Chrom asked.

"Basilio." Flavia clarified. "The oaf isn't good for much, but he can stop a few stray arrows."

Suddenly, the man in question ran in, panting. "Chrom! I've been looking for you everywhere!"

"Is something wrong?" Chrom asked.

"Our scouts have reported back." The west khan explained. "Dark news, I'm afraid. Ylisstol… has fallen."

"What?!" Chrom exclaimed in disbelief. "Are you sure?"

Basilio nodded. "The Plegians captured your Exalt and retreated across their border. Gangrel declared that she'll be publicly executed in three days.

"E-executed?" Chrom asked, dumbfounded.

"Oooh…." Lissa muttered, before fainting into Lon'qu's waiting arms. The myrmidon temporarily got over his distaste for women in order to make sure Lissa doesn't fall and hurt herself.

"Lissa?" Robin asked worryingly. "Lissa!"

"The dastard isn't trying to be subtle anymore." Flavia declared. Robin nodded. "I agree. It's an obvious trap."

"The Mad King knew our scouts would relay this information back." Basilio continued. "It's an obvious provocation. A hot brand to the buttocks! We should consider our options carefully before jumping to any-"

"Shepherds! We march to Plegia!" Chrom interrupted.

"Now hold on!" Basilio protested. "Sure, that's ONE option, but perhaps we've seen enough royalty waltzing into obvious traps already, right?"

Chrom grit his teeth. "I don't care if it's a trap, Basilio. He's going to murder my sister!"

"Peace, Chrom." Flavia tried to calm him. "No one's suggesting we don't act. We're simply saying that we should act WISELY. We'll need both guts AND wits in order to save your sister."

"The khans are right." Robin agreed. "I'm trying to work out a plan, Chrom."

"...All right, Robin." Chrom conceded. "I'll let you formulate a strategy for us."

"Are you certain you're up to the challenge?" Flavia asked skeptically. "You balance the Exalt's life in one hand, and all of ours in another. It won't be easy."

"It's a responsibility I don't take lightly." Robin said with resolve. "But I'm equal to the challenge."

Flavia laughed. "Well, at least you've got the stones. I like that!"

Basilio nodded in agreement. "No mincing words… no hesitation. He's either a genius or a fool! I suppose we'll find out when we march. Hold onto your tassets, Ylisseans! We've got an Exalt to save!"

With that, the shepherds prepared for the long march back to Ylisstol, with the Feroxi army in tow.