"Alright, listen up everyone," Chrom orders. "First thing in the morning, we're heading out to Regna Ferox."
"Regna Ferox?" Robin asks, unsure as to the meaning of the words.
"It's a unified kingdom to the north which is inhabited by barbarians, or so it's said." Sumia clears him up.
"Warriors are what they are, and we have no choice but to ask for their aid in dealing with the threats around us. Normally, Emmeryn would be accompanying us in person, but, given the circumstances, we feared that the disapearance of the exalt would cause an uproar within the commonfolk. As such, we'll be travelling to Regna Ferox by ourselves," Chrom states. "However, this mission is entirely voluntary, and I understand should anyone-" he begins.
"I volunteer!" Lissa chirps happily, not seeming to care about what Chrom was about to say.
"Me too!" Vaike agrees. "You'll be needing ol' Teach with you for such a delicate mission!" he exclaims confidently.
"I'll go as well." a new voice suddenly says.
Robin spins his head around, trying to identify the person the voice belongs to, but doesn't notice anyone the voice would match with. Dismissing it to simply being his imagination playing pranks on him, he turns back to his initial position and rejoins the conversation.
"I suppose I should be going with you, seeing as I'm the new tactician of this group," he says, earning him a thankful smile and nod from Chrom.
"What about you Sumia?" the blue-haired noble asks, causing Sumia to return to being a stuttering, clumsy mess.
"I- I, uh.." she tries beginning a sentence.
"Yes, Sumia?" Chrom asks again.
"It's just that.. I'd love to accompany you all, I really do, but I'm not sure if I'm ready for a real mission already," she explains quietly, obviously fearing she would only be a nuisance to the others.
"You shouldn't force yourself to do something you're not comfortable with," Chrom reassures her. "If you really feel you're not ready for this, you can just stay a bit behind of the main group and if we should need to battle, you can just watch and learn. It's your decision, but there are some lessons you can only learn at a battlefield."
'Wow, he can actually be really understanding when he wants to. That's new.' Robin thinks to himself with a light smile.
"We- well, if you think that would be a good idea captain who am I to say no?" Sumia agrees.
"It'll be fine. I'm sure Robin will find a way to keep us all out of harms way as best as possible in the unlikely scenario we have to battle," he says, giving the tactician a firm pat to the back. "And should it really come down to it, just stick with me. I'll make sure nothing happens to you!" he adds, a gentle smile on his lips.
Exhilerated at Chroms suggestion, Sumia too begins smiling and hastily accepts, "Oh yes! I mean- uhh, of course, Sir!"
"Right. Then, you should all go get some sleep, we'll be heading out pretty soon tomorrow and we wouldn't want anybody sleeping in," Chrom says. "Robin, you can use the room on the far right of the hallway up the stairs there," he offers, pointing to said staircase.
"Thanks, I'll gladly take you up on that offer," Robin acccepts gratefully before excusing himself for the evening, "Well then, everyone, I'll be seeing you all tomorrow."
"Good night, Robin! Sleep well!" Lissa sees him off with a broad grin, causing Robin to smile as well.
"Right back at you," the tactician replies, turning to the staircase to seek out his new room. After heading up the stairs, he ends up in a hallway with three doors on each side. Remembering what Chrom told him earlier, he goes to the third door on the right and opens it. What meets him is a simple and quite little room, containing only a bed, a wardrobe and a small table with a matching chair. On the table lies a key, presumably to lock the room's door.
He picks the key up and locks the room before taking off his coat and hanging it over the back of the chair and lays his tome and sword on the table. Only after laying down in the bed, Robin realizes just how tired he is from the day of marching.
Just before drifting off to sleep, he thinks, 'I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with all those guys..'
-The next morning in the fields in front of the capital-
The Shepherds are standing around in the fields, casually talking with one another while preparing their weapons, armor and supplies for the march ahead of them.
"Is everybody ready?" asks Chrom "We have a long march ahead of us." Receiving nods and confirming words from everyone, they begin to set out only to be stopped by someone calling out to them.
"Wait! W-wait for me, guys!" a figure atop a horse cries as it exit's the city gates and heads towards them.
Squinting his eyes to try and recognize the person, Chrom asks, "Is that.. Stahl?"
"It would appear so, milord," Frederick answers.
"Oh, thank god I managed to catch up with you," the man exclaims.
Now being able to see him up close, Robin could make out more of his features. He wears a green suit of armor which matches his olive-green ruffled hair. He is of average height and isn't too muscular but not exactly scrawny either.
"Stahl? Calm down, what happened?" Chrom enquires, slightly worried something bad might have happened.
"Why am I the last to hear of this expedition to Ferox?" he simply asks.
"Huh?" Lissa wonders. "Wasn't Vaike supposed to tell you.." she begins. "Vaike. You did NOT forget to fill Stahl in on everything, did you?" she demands, already suspecting the answer.
"What? The Teach never forgets. He just.. doesn't remember sometimes. That's it!", he refuses flatly.
"Ughhh.." Lissa moans. "I swear, if you didn't repeat your name every five seconds you'd forget it. Speaking of forgetting, did you remember your axe this time?", she asks.
"Wait a minute. Did you just say 'this time'?" Robin repeats in disbelief. "You mean he's forgotten his axe in combat before?"
"Hey hey! That was only one time, okay?" Vaike counters. "Okay, twice, but training sessions and stuff like that don't count. And, besides, I DO have it right here!" he says showing off his iron axe. "Teach is loaded and ready for action! Good to have you along with us, Stahl old buddy!"
"That makes one of us at least.." Stahl moans. "You have no idea what I didn't get to do because I was in such a hurry! I missed the second through fifth breakfasts! There were muffins, pancakes and all kinds of other baked goods!" he sobbed, stomache growling from thinking of all the food. "Well, I guess I can tell you all about it on the way."
"You said your name was Stahl, right?" Robins asks.
"Oh, I haven't introduced you yet, right?", Chrom remembers. "This is Stahl, one of the finest Shepherds. We should really get going now, but you can talk during the march if you want more information about him if you need it for your tactics." Chrom explains, getting to the front of the group before leading them on their way, leaving Robin and Stahl to talk.
"Well, hello, Robin," Stahl says. "Miriel mentioned we had someone join the Shepherds, so I'm guessing you're the tactician you were talking about?" Noticing Robins confused look, he quickly adds, "Erm, Miriel is a mage and one of us Shepherds as well. She should catch up with us in a while."
"That so?" Robin asks.
"Yeah, she was actually the one who told me about this whole mission. I was happily eating these tasty pancakes when she enters the canteen and informs me of our mission. You see, she is very.. diligent, to say the least, when it comes to making sure everything goes according to plan.", Stahl answers.
"I see. You said she was a mage right?" Robins continues his questioning. "Is she some type of scholar?"
"You could say that I guess." Stahl admit's. "But I'd say she's more of a scientist. She doesn't really focus on any specific field of research. Her universal knowledge is extremely big, but if you ask me, that stuff is all boring as hell, especially because she answers literally every question you ask, even if you don't expect an answer," he says.
"This one time, when we had sheep for lunch, I jokingly asked how something could taste so awesome. She responded by explaining how the heat of the flame it's cooked over influences the firmness of the meat and how it becomes more juicy or something if you roast it over a long period of time with a low temperature," he adds.
"That's.. unique, I guess," Robin says. "She seems like quite the character."
"You can say that again," Stahl agrees with a smile. "But honestly, you could say that about all of us."
"I suppose you're right with that one," Robin answers, not voicing his thoughts though.
'He seems pretty normal.. I was expecting someone more.. peculiar, but so far he hasn't shown any signs of being and odd personality, his above-average love for food excluded.'
"By the way, you mentioned Miriel was one of your mages. Does that mean there are others?" Robin asks, hoping to be able to count on more long range unit's to use in battle.
"Yeah, she is one of our mages," Stahl confirms, raising Robins hopes even further. "Thing is though, we have only one other mage," he continues, causing the tactician to sadden slightly. "His name is Ricken. Technically, he's a Shepherd, but he hasn't been on any missions yet because of his age. He's the youngest of our group and spends most of his time studying for mage academy," Stahl finishes, leaving Robin close to devastated.
"So no more ranged unit's for us.." he mutters quietly.
"You say something?" Stahl asks curiously.
"Oh, no, nothing important," he lies. "Chrom mentioned you were one of the finest Shepherds. Do you have any special combat abilities or something of the like?" he asks, genuinely interested in the reason for Chroms praise.
"You'd think so, right? Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I don't have anything like that," he says. "I suppose he thinks highly of me because I somehow managed to survive being trained by Frederick as a recruit. I still think I only did that because I always eat so much," he admit's while scratching the back of his head with a smile on his face and his eyes closed.
"Wow, from what I've heard about Fredericks practice routines, that might just be more impressive than any special ability," Robin muses.
"Heh, I wish so. Like I already said, I was just lucky to make it. I'm painfully average really. I'm not exceptional at anything, but at the same time I'm at least ok at most things," he denies.
"Well, who knows? It can never hurt to have someone who's at least alright at doing everything. You might not exceed at them, but you'll still be able to help other with it," Robin thinks aloud.
"I've never thought about it like that.." Stahl admit's. "Maybe you're right! I'll continue doing my best at helping others out as much as I can with my averageness!"
Smiling at being able to help someone, Robin continues his conversation with the knight for a while, the topic eventually drifting from the previous missions of the shepherds to Stahls favorite foods. Apparently, he likes every kind of food, but he prefers baked goods in the morning, meat for lunch and bread with various topping and fillings in the evening. However, he has no preference when it comes to a 'quick little snack every now and then', of which he has about 20 or so per day.
After a while of casual, friendly conversation conversing with Stahl, Robin remembers wanting to talk to someone else when he gets the opportunity, so he decides to end their talk for now.
"It's been a pleasure talking to you, it really has, but there's someone I need to speak with," he says apolegetically, not wanting to make Stahl feel as if he wanted to get away from him.
"That's fine, don't worry," he waves off. "If you need anything from me, you know where to find me," he adds with a smile.
"I will," Robin promises before speeding up his step a bit to catch up with his target, that was walking a bit ahead of him.
"Hey Sumia!" he calls, causing said woman to turn towards him.
"Oh, hello. You're Robin correct?" she greets politely.
"Yeah, that's me," he confirms. "I just wanted to talk to you real quick about something."
"Really? What would you need from a klutz like me?" Sumia questions, frowning slightly.
"It's nothing too serious, don't worry," he soothes. "It's just that I heard your conversation with Chrom yesterday before I went to bed. You said this was you first mission, correct?"
"Well.. yes.." she answers him unsurely.
"Why's that? Did you just never have an opportunity to participate in one or have you joined only recently?"
"Oh, no, I've been a shepherd for a while now. It's just that.. I'm such a clumsy person, you know?" she explains, embarrassed at the reason for her lacking experience. "I always feared that I would just get in the way of everybody if I were to come along. So, instead, I just stayed behind, wondering how I could better myself. The only reason I came along this time is because the captain himself encouraged me.."
"I see.." he mutters, thinking about a possible solution. "You know, I think you should just try not to worry as much."
"Huh?"
"Well, it seems to be more of a psychological problem, if you ask me. You're scared of being a liability, so you've avoided it until now. The biggest problem with this is that you'll find it harder and harder to actually join in the longer you wait," he shares his thoughts with her.
"Personally, I'd suggest to not think too much about all this. Just try to keep out of harms way for the moment, get to know how real combat is. After a while, I'm sure you'll be just fine," he proposes with a gentle smile.
"He's right you know," Chrom says from in front of them.
Surprised at Chroms sudden appearance, Sumia blurts out "Oh C-Captain! I didn't see you there!"
"It's fine," he assures her. "But again, I think what Robin said makes perfect sense. All you need is some firsthand experience. You have a lot of potential, otherwise I wouldn't have recruited you," he finishes with an encouraging smile of his own on his face.
Blushing slightly from the reassurance of the two men, especially the blue-haired noble's, she nods and says "Thank you for believing in me! I'll try my hardest to live up to your expectations!"
Still smiling from being able to cheer someone up, Robin fixes his gaze upon the road in front of them. A good way ahead of them, he sees a bridge crossing a small river with 2 watchtowers on either side of it. More importantly however, he sees a rather large group of figures on the other side of the river.
"Are those?" he asks.
"Risen.." Chrom answers grimly, eyebrows furrowed in worry.
"Risen?" Robin repeats.
"The council thought it necessary to name our new threat and so it did," Frederick informs. But it is very worrisome that they have appeared even here. If they can show up on the main road of Ylisse.." he begins.
"Then they could be everywhere," his liege finishes. "And it means we should hurry even more to get reinforcements as soon as possible. Get ready for battle everyone!" he shouts. Turning to Robin, he adds "Sorry to have to ask for this so soon, but do you have a plan?"
"Working on it," Robin answers bluntly, the gears in his head already rotating, trying to gather any and all information he can before piecing it together to a strategy that minimizes the risk of casualties.
'Two watchtowers, but we don't know if there're any more of them in there. A wooden bridge over a river and around 20.. no, 25 of those things. Counting Sumia out, we're outnumbered three to one, roughly.. No mages or archers, tons of axmen, some swordsmen and some lancers..' he sums up the general information presenting it'self in front of it.
"I think I have something that might work," he decides eventually.
"Already?" asks a shocked Lissa, who now joins in on the discussion.
"Well, I have an idea, to say the least. I'm not sure how well it'll work though. It depends on how much time I actually get for it.." he mutters, continuing to calculate possibilities and risks. "One things for sure though, we definitely need to take those watchtowers. They are going to be of vital importance for this to work."
"I'm willing to take the risk," Chrom reassures him. "And so are all the others. Isn't that right?" he adds, turning around to regard the now battle-ready Shepherds.
Receiving only nods and determined facial expressions, with the exception of Sumia, who looks significantly more nervous than the rest, he proceeds to share his plan with them.
"Right. We'll be splitting into three groups for this plan. Two of them will make sure their assigned watchtower is free of enemies and will use them to attack the Risen from a distance. As such, the few of us with ranged attacks will be taking a tower each. Virion, you take the right tower with Chrom." Robin begins.
Earning a nod from the two respectively, he continues "I'll be taking the other tower, together with Stahl. As for the rest of you-" he says, turning around "Your job will be defending our side of the bridge. I want you to make sure not a single one breaks through. However, I expect you all to fight defensively only for the time being. We are vastly outnumbered and while these things aren't the smartest or the quickest, they're still deadly, especially in large groups. So, don't rush in whatever you do, just keep your ground. Lissa will be going with you to make sure you stay healthy. When the tower teams are done with clearing them, Chrom and Stahl will join up with you. Then, and ONLY then will we go on the offensive, with Virion and me providing cover."
"Alright! Let the Teach show 'em who's the boss!" Vaike shouts bringing his weapon hand up to stretch his axe towards the sky, pumped about the coming battle.
"Uuuuhm.. Vaike?" Lissa asks carefully. "Where is your axe?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" he replies confused. "It's right-" he begins, pointing to his stretched arm with his other one only to stop when he actually looks at it.
"Not there," Lissa finishes for him. "Vaike. Please tell me you didn't forget your axe again," she demands, tone becoming increasingly icy.
"I- uhh.." he stammers.
Letting out an annoyed sigh, Robin says "Whatever. What's done is done." Turning to the rest of the middle team, he adds "That does mean you all will have to do more fighting, meaning you have to be that much more careful. We should stop wasting time though. Let's get this over with."
The group let's out a war cry and the teams head to their designated fighting locations. The middle team, consisting of Frederick, Sully and Lissa, arrive first, attracting the attention of most of the Risen, who begin charging towards them. Sully and Frederick manage to fend them off for the time being, stabbing through hearts and necks with their lances and smashing skulls with it's blunt side.
Stahl and Robin arrive at the left tower earlier than Chrom and Virion at theirs, as they ride Stahl's horse towards it.
"Sorry to take you out of your comfort zone, but I needed someone I could rely on with me," Robin apoligizes.
"Eh, it's fine. I did lots of foot soldier training under Frederick, so I'm pretty used to it by now. But we can talk about that later, we have something to do, right?" he shrugs it off.
Nodding, Robin enters the tower and is instantly met with the horrifying groans of multiple Risen. "Damn it, so there are some in here.." he curses as three Risen come stumbling down the staircase leading to the open top of the tower.
Not wanting to waste any time, he unsheathes his sword and lunges at the one in front, slicing it's head clean off. Following his example, Stahl rushes in afterwards, blocking a swordslash directed at Robin's legs and cutting open the torso of a second Risen in one fluid swing of his own sword. Using this opportunity, Robin drives his blade through the remaining monster's throat, ending it instantly.
"Good job," Robin says. " Judging from the height of this tower, there shouldn't be any more floors above us. You should go help out Sully and Frederick."
"You too. Be careful though, you don't know if there're any more up there," he advises with his trademark lop-sided grin before turning around to assist the others.
Now alone, Robin continues up the stairs leading to top. As suspected, there was no more floors above the ground-floor save fo the top of the tower. Luckily, there are no more Risen in his way, so he reaches the end of the stairs without a problem.
Arriving at the top, he examines the situation of his comrades. Lissa had her hands full keeping Sully on her feet, as the red-haired knight and Frederick now faced eight or so Risen at once. Letting his gaze wander over the entire battlefield, he sees about 6 other Risen a bit further away. What really gets his attention, however, is the Risen standing around the furthest from them. For whatever reason, it seemed more dangerous than the others.
At this moment, he hears an emphatic war-cry, pulling him from his thougts and his gaze towards the source of the sound. He sees Vaike charge towards the bridge with an iron axe raised over his head.
'How did he?' He thinks, looking back to where they had left Vaike standing, where a new figure now stood in his stead, walking after him slowly. Said person is clad in black mage robes and wears a large black witch-like hat on her head. In her hand is a tome, but Robin isn't able to make out it's type or other details of the new figure.
Deciding to head back down to inspect this new occurence, he rushes down the stairs, his sword in his hand. He arrives at the ground-floor and is about to leave when he hears someon call out to him "Watch out! Behind you!"
He spins around instantly and is met with a Risen whose axe is about to sink into his head. Reflexively he raises his sword just in time to block the blade of the axe, but in turn is forced into a croaching position in order to not be overpowered by the beast. "Damn it, where did this thing come from?" he curses under his breath.
He takes as good of a look around the room again as he can given the situation and notices a door standing open in a dark corner, presumably leading to a cellar of some sorts. 'How could I miss that,' he scolds himself mentally.
Suddenly, the iron tip of a lance passes by him and strikes the Risen in it's side, causing the force behinds it's axe to lower. Using this, Robin pushes his blade upwards with both hands, prying the axe form the Risen's grip entirely before slashing it from the right shoulder down to it's hip. Panting, he turns around to regard his saviour.
"Are you alright, Robin?" asks a worried and slightly shaking Sumia with a nervous look on her face.
"I'm fine thanks to you.." he huffs. "If it weren't for you, I'd probably be dead now."
"Oh I didn't do much, you took care of it after all," she assures modestly.
Not having any of this, Robin takes a step closer to her to put a hand on her shoulder "Sumia, I mean it. I would have been done for without you," he furthers his point. "Besides, that wasn't too bad a stab, if you ask me," he adds with a joking smile.
"Oh, if you say so," Sumia giggles, happy that nothing had happened to the tactician.
"Why are you here though? Not that there's a problem with it," Robin asks carefully.
"Oh, uh, you didn't give me any orders, so when Stahl left the tower again, I thought there weren't any more enemies inside it and decided that maybe I could observe the other's fighting better from the top of the tower.." she replies, head turning to the side in embarassment.
"I see," Robin says bluntly, the tone in his voice causing Sumia to wince. "That's actually not a bad idea. Why don't you go up there right now then? I have to take care of something else, but you should have a good view of the battle up there."
Anticipating critiscism not praise, Sumia raises her head confused "What? I didn't do anything wrong?" she asks, half expecting to be yelled at for just acting on her own ideas without consulting anyone else.
"What would you have done wrong? If anything I made a mistake, not giving you anything to do. You showed initiative by yourself, an important property for fighters," he praises. "Don't worry, you did fine. This just shows you've already become a bit more comfortable with a battlefield."
"You really think so?" Sumia asks incredulously. "Thank you," she adds with a soft tone and a gentle smile on her face.
"Any time," Robin answers with a smile of his own. "You should get going now though, I have something to do."
Receving a nod from Sumia, he heads to the door of the tower and exit's it. A bit to his left are Stahl, Sully, Frederick and Vaike, who finally reaches them with a weapon, are fending off the horde of Risen. Every once in a while, when one steps to far forth, it instantly gets impaled by a lance or it's head chopped off by an axe. Looking behind them a bit, he spots the mage-like figure and heads towards it.
"Hey, you!" he yells, getting it's attention. Now standing directly in front of it, he finds out it is a woman with deep red hair and glasses, holding a fire tome in front of her chest.
"Yes?" she asks bluntly.
"You're Miriel, right?" Robin guesses.
"You assumption is correct," she answers swiftly. "And I suspect you are Robin, new tactician of the Shepherds?"
"That's.. right. How did you know?" he asks, surprised that she already knows his name.
"I was informed of your joining our group beforehand by Captain Chrom. Besides that, your coat bears similarities with tactician's robes of multiple countries. Furthermore-" she begins explaining.
"Okay, I understand, but we don't have too much time to talk. You use fire magic, do you not?" he asks, pointing to her tome.
"Indeed. It is the most combat proficient type of magic, at least against non-heavily armored unit's," she clarifies.
"Whatever. Listen, here's what I'll need you to do," he says, ,explaining his plan to her.
"I see. While this plan invokes problems in the direct future, it is a reasonable approach for solving this situation," she concurs.
"Good. Let's get going then," Robin orders, heading to the group of fighters. Looking to the tower at their right, he notices Virion standing atop it, letting loose arrow after arrow with deadly precision, and Chrom heading to the battle.
"Virion!" he shouts, to get the archers attention.
When he turns his head towards him, Robin continues "Can you shoot the Risen furthest from us? Get his attention, force him to come towards us!"
Nodding at him, Virion turns towards said Risen and takes aim. His first shot hit's it square in the chest, but doesn't appear to injure it at all. He shoots again, this time nailing it in the shoulder, aggravating it further. After the fourth or so arrow, it begins charging towards the bridge.
"Guys!" Robin exclaims to get the attention of his comrades fighting at the edge of the bridge. "As soon as that last Risen gets here, push as many of them back before retreating!"
"What? Are you mad?" Frederick asks with an accusing tone.
"Just trust me on this!" Robin shouts back, unwavering. "You guys aren't in the condition to fight against so many of them! This is our only chance!"
"You heard the man!" Chrom shouts. "If he says this is the only way, then follow his orders!"
"Thanks," Robin expresses his gratitude with a small smile.
"Think nothing of it. I trust you," he reassures him.
And so the others continue fending of the Risen, while the leader comes ever closer. As soon as he is within a few feet of the bridge, Robin shouts "Now!" and the Shepherds push the Risen at the front backwards, causing them to collide with those behind them, stopping the onslaught for a brief moment. The Shepherds get off the bridge and run to the side, leaving only Miriel and Robin, who are standing a few feet away form the bridge.
The strong Risen now setting foot on the bridge and leaping past the rest, the two spellcasters unleash their magic flames with a shout of "Fire!", setting the wooden bridge and everything atop it ablaze. While most Risen evaporate into purple smoke immediately upon making contact with the magic flames, the leader stands on the bridge bellowing in pain for about a minute, before the wood beneath it gives in and falls into the river below. Still not dead, the Risen struggles in the water until it is hit by the rest of the bridge falling onto it, piling up and creating a sort of dam, burrying the last of the group underneath it.
While everyone but Miriel and Robin stare incredulously at the pile of wood in the river, Chrom turns to his tactician. Robin squeezes his eyes shut to prepare for the impending lecture and for being yelled at.
Instead, Chrom has an unsteady smile on his face. "That was.. unexpected," he brings out.
"Listen Chrom, I know this is an important trade route and all, but-" Robin begins in an attempt to explain his motives.
"I know," Chrom says, facial expression now calm again.
"You.. know?" Robin asks, not quite understanding.
"I know you only did it to ensure victory. And yes, this IS a very important trade route, but it's even more important for us to get to Regna Ferox as soon as possible. A bridge can be rebuilt, but if everything else is destroyed because didn't arrive with reinforcements soon enough, it hardly matters," Chrom explains. "Your salary will be cut for a few months though," he adds nonchalantly.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Robin calms down again. "I'm fine with that. As long as everyone is alright, I'll gladly take punishment of any form," he says.
"We can talk about that later. If there were Risen here, then the situation is even more dire than we initially assumed. Get your things together and then let's go!" Chroms orders.
"Umm.. excuse me captain?" Sumia asks carefully.
"What's wrong?" he enquires, turning to her with an eyebrow raised.
"What should we do with THAT?" she says, pointing to the other side of the river.
Looking over, they see a white horse of sorts standing by a tree.
"Frederick, make sure all supplies are alright and get everyone ready to resume the march. We'll go check out what that is," Chrom orders. He motions for Robin and Sumia to follow him and the three cross the river and head to the creature.
As soon as it sees them approaching, the horse, who they now notice has wings, takes a few steps back, visibly limping.
"That's a pegasus.." Chrom says, surprised at seeing the normally rare animal before him.
"It's hurt.." Sumia says, pained by seeing an animal in discomfort.
The closer Chrom gets to it, the more it becomes restless, up to the point where, as he attempts to pat it's muzzle, it gets on it's back legs, extends it's wings and thrashes around with it's front legs, hitting Chrom in the shoulder.
"Gah!" he grunts, stumbling backwards from both the shock and the sudden force.
Before the pegasus can inflict any further harm, Sumia steps between it and her captain, spreading her arms out. Surprisingly, the pegasus calms down considerably, allowing her to approach it with short, careful steps as to not scare it again. Cautiously, she brings her hand up to it's head and rests it on it's muzzle. Seeing as the pegasus seemingly takes pleasure in this action, she begins stroking it, causing it to come closer to her.
"Sumia? How exactly did you get it to calm down?", Robin asks, helping Chrom up at the same time.
"Well, pegasi aren't exactly comfortable around men and I guess I've just been good with animals my whole life," she answers softly, a content sigh on her lips.
"That's great and all, but what are we going to do with it?" Chrom asks.
"I'll stay here and tend to it's wounds," Sumia suggests. "I'll just join up with you again when it has recovered. I'd be faster on the back of a pegasus anyway."
Seeing Chrom about to protest, Robin decides to help Sumia get her way. "If you ask me, that's a great idea," he admit's, much to the surprise of his two companions. "She clearly gets along well with it and we can't just leave it here, injured and all. Who knows what would happen."
After thinking for a minute with furrowed eyebrows, he finally gives in. "Fine. If you both think that's the way to go, who am I to stop you," he says with a smile. "Just be sure to stay safe, will you?" he adds with a concerned expression.
"Oh really? Thank you!" Sumia exclaims, giving Chrom a tackling hug.
Initially surprised, he decides to go with it for a few moments. "Alright, alright, that's enough," he finally says with a chuckle.
Realising just what she is doing, Sumia lets go and takes a step back, furiously blushing in embarassment. "Oh- uhm, I'm sorry captain," she apoligizes, diverting her gaze from Chrom.
"It's fine, it's fine," he assures.
"Milord," they are suddenly interrupted by Frederick. "The supplies are undamaged and have been brought over the river. Any remaining injuries have been healed, so everybody is ready to go. We are awaiting your orders," he informs.
"Good," he answers, going serious again. "We leave at once, we have no time to waste. On to Regna Ferox!" he orders and the group of Shepherds leave Sumia and the pegasus behind to resume their march to the kingdom in the north.
And that does it for this week!
Gallian Squad 7: Glad to hear I was able to improve! I hope I've been able to do that again this time around, let me know if (or rather what) something is still bothering you, be it grammar, spelling or anything else!
Blooperfiction: Happy my style and all that have been satisfactory! I do hope it'll stay that way for you until I reach the point where I can take some more liberties! As for your suggestion, I'll be sure to keep it in mind, like always. Truth be told though, I haven't really thought of what do with the future Shepherds yet, at least not on the relationship level. Also, I'm not too confident I'd be able to portray that specific relationship too well, but we'll see.
Prescribed-Madness: Ah yes, the Virion dialogue. I spent waaay too much time on that to be honest. I legitimately sat there for nearly an hour after finished the framework for that part just thinking about how I could make it as cheesy as possible. Also, I think I had way too much fun doing it... ._. As for the pace, I honestly don't actively concern myself with it that much, I really just write how I see it fit. Good to hear it's to your liking, but it'll still be a while for the bigger things I have planned. As for the new Shepherds, I really have no idea how I did. Especially with Stahl, I just find it really hard to write him for some reason. Let me know if I did anything wrong, I'll be sure to work on that should that be the case (especially Stahl, I know how much you love the guy.)
pkmn2112: Again, good to hear I was able to improve a little. This chapter and the next few will have a few more of those creative liberties you mentioned, but nothing to large. I hope you'll enjoy those as well. As for your suggestions, Lon'quxCherche really is one of the better ships. I remember using the two on my first playthrough of Awakening, so I guess you could say I'm somewhat attached to the two. Who knows, maybe I'll pair the two up in this story. It's still a long time ahead of us though, so I won't decide on it just yet.
Now that we're done with that, shoutout to all the new followers: BlooperFiction, ColdRaza, Darth Hamburglar (nice name bro), Domea, , NiwaTG, Speedy-Fox-IV, Socail and last but not least, ttoj. Also, thanks to pkmn2112, levi8aot8 and all the others for leaving a favorite, it means a lot!
So, now that we're done, I want to express my gratitude to any and all who took the time to read this story, I really appreciate it. I'll do my best to get something readable done by next Sunday, I just don't know how much it'll be.
This has been D4v3Hunter, and I hope I'll see you all next week!
