Here is the next chapter. Due to my procrastination, I am trying too post larger chapters to make up for it. Still looking for a beta reader. I also now cover art for my character now.
DISCLAIMER: I OWN ONLY MY OC.
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. -Abraham Lincoln
James POV
The first thing I noticed was the pungent odor of fire and death as I ran through the halls of the Emmeryns castle, while not in control of my body. I knew somehow this was a vision of my alternate future. I turned a corner just dodging some falling rubble to see two breached doors that had apparently been blown inwards with some kind of explosive. My breath hitched as I ran forward unsheathing an iron sword as I burst through the opening in the doors. What I saw would never leave my memory.
Validar had impaled the exalt cleanly through the chest with a Rapier. I looked on in horror. And so the chapter of Exalt Emmeryn ends Validar says with a sadistic joy kicking the corpse of the deceased exalt, making me see red.
"VALIDAR!" I heard as my blood ran cold clearing my rage, as an enraged Chrom charged Validar. What caught my eye though was the bleeding gash on Chroms right side, and a limp that he was giving off despite the power he was still able to be outputting. My eyes trailed back to the Exalt, so I wasn't prepared for what happened next.
I yelled in surprise when I felt Validar's arm wrap around my neck and restrain me as a magically infused hand gripped the right side of my face. I tried not to cry out in pain as some of the skin on my face was peeled from the intense heat of whatever magic this man was giving off. "This is how it's going to work, you are going to hand me the Fire Emblem." "Then I will leave this castle unheeded or this mans head will soon decorate your interior walls alongside your precious Exalt." Validar said as I hissed in pain as sparks of black flame licked my face. This was what I get for letting my guard down.
Charging as much magical energy into my elbow as I could(which honestly wasn't much)I slammed my elbow into Validars side making him let go of me. "You little shit." he roared as I instinctively jumped to the side, wincing as I felt the shock wave of several explosion's as several spells flew by me just nearly missing by inches. I could feel my bones rattle from the concussive shockwave.
I stood up to face Validar only for both me and him to freeze as a sudden feeling of dread enveloped me. I turned to see Chrom glaring at Validar, with pure hatred. Even though Chroms ire wasn't towards me, I still felt his rage. Gulping I slowly backed up before falling back as Chrom engaged Validar, who began trying in vain to escape the enraged Prince.
A light cough got my attention as I turned wide eyed to see Emmeryn struggling for breath. She shouldn't even be physically able to gasp for breath, but then again this wasn't my world. Rushing over to her I leaned down and looked into her pain filled eyes.
"Why am I so useless." I thought grimly. I then noticed a backup stave, that had been left by Lissa shortly before the siege. Turning to Emmeryn then the stave, I went to get it to see it as while I wasn't proficient in Magic, I knew enough to try and channel it through the stave towards her general direction.
Before I could begin the process Emmeryn put her hand on my arm as I slowly looked at her wide eyed. "Why?" I asked voice cracking but she didn't answer. She looked up and smiled at something only she could see before she slowly went limp. My hands shook as the stave fell from my hands. I felt a sense of Failure. If I only knew how much more I would lose in the times to come...
….
(End of Vision)
I groaned slowly as I awoke to what could only be described as the mother of all hangovers. Looking around despite the throbbing migraine I had coming on, I saw that I was on the floor of the tavern I had been working at surrounded by several bottles of booze.I slowly pulled myself up to the counter as I tried to ignore the pain in my head and everything else around me.
I leaned my head against the wood of the table as the memories of the previous night came to mind. I had been coming back from one of Lucinas training's that could only be described as hell on earth, in fact the pain in my body from the training couldn't even compare to the hangover, but it didn't make it any less painful.
Stopping at the tavern the previous night, and I had found out that apparently alcoholic drinks were given to trainees free, but water had to be paid for(bullshit logic). Despite not liking the beverages, I was thirsty and in pain from in a training so I gulped down a drink and after that everything was hazy. I couldn't hold alcohol well apparently.
All of a sudden the wooden door to the tavern opened and I hissed when the light flooded into the tavern. Donnel walked in and proceeded to open every curtain and window letting light flood in as I closed my eyes and resisted the urge to vomit the contents of my stomach. "Damn it Donnel." I mumbled.
Donnel then walked over to me only to look at me disappointingly. "Boss said not t' get drunk right before work." Donnel said in his southern accent as I winced in pain at the loud volume of his voice.
"I thought work wasn't till Friday?" I grumbled massaging my temples as Donnal looked at me weirdly. "It is Friday." Donnel said as I froze. I realized I had screwed up. Again. It isn't easy to keep track of the days without a calendar after all. "God damn it!" I yelled only to clutch my head in pain. Apparently trainees didn't have a very good source of income, and I had to find a job on short notice.
The bar owner was the only one too accept me in, and even then it was mainly due to no one wanting to put up with the Guards when they got drunk and rowdy. Leaving a tiny sack of gold coin on the counter, I began getting some water as Donnel cleaned up. Even then that little bit of gold, was not something I could easily replace.
Within several hours, I was back on my feet, and while I had a splitting headache, I was at least able too function and by Mid-Afternoon I had been dealing with my fair share of assholes. Still felt like I needed to empty my gut though.
"The Alcohol tastes like piss!" I heard a mountain of a man, at seven feet tall yell slamming the mug onto the counter and wincing as I got some spit on me from the degenerate. I bit back a remark. It wasn't like I made the alcohol, I just serve the damn stuff.
I am sorry sir I said though I must have put a bit of bite into my words, as he glared at me for several minutes. I tensed and prepared for a fight in case he got angry.
I sighed as the man eventually huffed and left slamming the door and nearly bringing it off it's hinges. "What else could go wrong?" I said basically dooming myself.
I jumped in surprise when the door was nearly torn down as a man with tattered clothes, long dark brown hair, and surprisingly animal ears rushed into the building. It took me a second to recognize the man as Yarne, or Panne's kid. One of the last two Taguel showing up was not what I expected.
I covered my face with my hands and sighed. Been doing a lot of sighing lately, and would have surprised me in the past was becoming common. For some reason in a short amount of time, I was meeting all of these important characters. It was like the universe wanted too fuck with me. "You have to hide me!" the panicked Taguel said hiding behind the bartender counter as I prepared for whatever idiot was chasing the poor ting.
Despite it being very much against the rules to have a non-worker back here, I didn't have the heart to turn the man away(that and I didn't want Panne to maim me if she found out I turned her son away).
I did my best to keep a cool face when a bunch of generic mercenaries came barging in as they walked up to me. How may I help you?" I asked being able to see Yarne trembling behind the counter, out of the corner of my eye. I tried to hide my disdain for the mercs. They were generic but armed, and could still cause me much problems.
"We are looking for a beast disguised as a man." the lead one said loudly slamming his fist on the counter, making me frown slightly as I didn't like where this was going one bit. "Why?" I simply asked. "To hunt the beast down of course, and have his head as a trophy." the man said making Yarne shiver and rattle the counter slightly as I kicked him slightly in the side to calm him down before he gave both of us away.
"I am sorry, but we have not seen any beasts come through here, just guards wanting their alcohol." I told him with a bite in my tone as he frowned and sniffed the air. "I can smell him on you." he said growling and withdrawing a Great Sword, making me tense and silently place my hand under the counter gripping my knife. If I had to place this knife in his jugular to keep that boy safe, then I would do it no matter how much I didn't want to fight. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING!" I heard a voice yell as I snapped to attention in slightly panic. "Boss!" I said at attention looking at the owner of the bar.
He was around my height, but much more heavy set. He had a Cross Bow for a weapon with some barbed bolts. I ducked behind the counter for cover he began firing shots out across the bar making the Thugs yell curses at him as they took cover. After a while the mercenaries retreated as a couple Trainees and guards came in and escorted them out, rather roughly too.
No one that worked as a guard or trainee, wanted some degenerates to trash their main source of booze and I snickered as one of the female guards half their size proceeded to verbally rip them a new one. "You can come out." my boss said as Yarne slowly emerged from behind the table along with me as my bosses eye widened.
I wasn't surprised as many thought of Taguels as extinct. "You protected him." my boss said and looked at me as if looking for any chance of me lying. I took slight offense as I took pride in my honesty. "Wasn't exactly going to throw the poor kid to the wolves, and I don't like Mercs anyway." I said.
Main reason I didn't like the Mercenaries in this world was due to their high tendency to rape and pillage. Border Town was just big enough that said Mercenaries didn't fuck with the guard. My boss smiled again and gave me a rather nice bonus of some coin. Use that to buy some Water, you reek of the crap we feed the trainee's he said as I laughed nervously.
Water was apparently hard to come by in these parts due to Plegian bandits harassing supply lines. Also most of the water sources surrounding this fortress of a village had been purposefully contaminated by Plegia, so most of our water came from The Haildom of Ylisse.
My boss then looked back to Yarne.
Boss looked at Yarne who proceeded to freeze. "My grandparents owe their lives to the Taguel, and if it wasn't for them they wouldn't have been able to make it to Border Town to start this Tavern" my Boss said making Yarne look up in surprise.
"Your welcome here any time." he said surprising Yarne who proceeded to cry a bit as I smiled at the happy scene as my boss went back to patrolling around the Tavern. I sighed only to look up when Yarne sat down in front of the stand examining me. "Your James from the past." he said lowly as my lips formed a thin line.
This confirmed that at the very least I was associated with the Shepherds in the past timeline. My sense of self preservation had hoped the dreams were just dreams, while the eager side of me was thrilled at said fact. "Yes." I said lowly not knowing how to respond to someone who knew me, without me knowing them.
Yarnes tightened his fists as I frowned. "Why did only you survive, why couldn't my parents come back as well." Yarne whispered as I cringed. It wasn't like I lived through the event either I thought thinking back to that vision of me being impaled by Robin. I could feel phantom pains. Also while I could no longer see my parents, I at least know they lived, Yarne didn't have that luxury. Even if his parents were alive in this time, it wouldn't be the same for him.
Yarne honestly needed therapy most likely, all of the past children most likely did, as I got the poor lad a drink.
"Think about the good times you had, they wouldn't want you to be sad." I said as the man sniffled and I winced when he downed the entire cup of booze. I then took his cup and put it away while keeping the rest of the drinks from him, as I didn't need him getting drunk and going beast form on me.
The day began to wind down as less patrons began coming in, and the ones that stayed too long would be removed my either me or Donnel, sometimes with a fight according to the black eye I now sported.
I grumbled rubbing my eyes as I fought the urge to yawn. The sun had set as the Tavern was now truly silent, as the only light in the tavern came from the lamps hanging on the wall. Despite many taverns staying up throughout the night, the lack of staff had us only being open during the day. Our amount of patrons, made it so we could survive, being only open during the day.
I could hear crickets and other insects which I could not identify, making their presence known as I sat in a chair and leaned back as Donnel made sure the windows were locked.
Yarne was huddled up in the corner on a makeshift bed sleeping on the floor, while Donnel had retired to one of his relatives houses as they had an extra room for him there. I then locked up the doors tight so no one would be breaking in, before taking a seat in one of the empty wooden chairs.
By an agreement I made with the boss, I was allowed to sleep at the bar as long as I helped clean up the place watch after it. My thoughts begin to drift as I thought of everything that had happened.
So much had changed. I had gone from living a rather comfortable life, to living in a life where living to see the next day was not assured. I glanced at Yarne. Was it possible I had a Kid waiting out there in the world, afraid and cold? The thought alone made me worry, and assume the worst.
"Can I be anymore depressing." I chuckled darkly. I always assumed the worst, and always worried over everything. It stressed me at times but there was little else I could do. Those visions of an alternate future filled my head as I rubbed a hand over my face as I sighed.
Yeah I wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight. Whatever happened in the times to come, I would try and make sure history didn't repeat itself. I knew I could hide myself away and wait for the future to come while distancing myself from the shepherds later on, but either way Grima would come. I would rather be near people who could defend themselves when that happen. I closed my eyes and leaned back. Slowly I drifted off to sleep as visions of war and failure came to haunt me.
Not great at creating characters so I am slowly trickling in some different canon characters so it isn't just my OC.