So. It's time for another chapter. I bet you guys really want to get back to the main storyline right now. But we gotta keep going sadly. I promise that by the end of these years of journeying that we will go back to kicking real ass. I bet you guys really hate me for ruining canon, especially Anna. You can yell at me via pm or reviews if you want to. But I should shut up now so you guys can read the chapter. So, enjoy.

Chapter Eighteen: Raid

For the last three months, I wondered how Anna did it. She managed to convince the guy who designed the teleportation staff to sell it to her for a 75% discount and he only receives a 10% revenue from any and all sells of the staff. I mean Anna made me stay in another room while she talked with the guy so I wouldn't really know if you wanted to know. I guess she just did something Anna can only do. "Something Anna" can be an amazing thing at times. Also it can be a bit of trouble at times. Like traveling to Plegia to buy and sell stuff.

Yep, Anna has dragged me to Plegia after staying in Ylisse. No idea why she would want to go to a recently defeated nation full of bandits, Risen, and other things that can kill me. Speaking of Risen; I really haven't seen much of them while in Ylisse. I guess seeing how Plegia's military is basically in shambles, the Risen have decided to basically pillage and burn with nothing impeding them. Which scares me to be honest because the Risen can actually think! Well, logically that is. But still scares me all the same. Who can say if a horde of Risen finds a little weak spot in the Ylisse military and attacks. But I'm getting off track now. I best get back to the current situation.

Me and Anna were simply walking down a rather ill looking stone road in the middle of the Plegia countryside. We are heading towards Jungisan, a pretty big trade city near the Plegian capital. Apparently it was only scrapped by the war so it should still be prosperous enough for Anna to have a field day there. Not so much me because I'm not really the business guy. I'm more of the mercenary type of life. But I also plan on being a writer when I hang up the sword, still alive from all the adventures. But still, I'm a bit on edge while we travel the Plegian countryside. The only buildings I see while we travel Plegia are ruined farmhouses, burned down villages, abandoned forts, or mass graves of soldiers. Plegia did suffer the most out of everyone in the war. Especially since they lost the war after all and the Khans drained their entire treasury for reparations for the war.

"Hey Aiden," Anna says, her finger on her chin while she looks up into the sky.

"Yeah? What is it Anna?" I say, looking at her.

"We have only a few good hours until it's night. I was wondering if there is a village near here that we can stay in. Apparently most of the Risen come out at night so I don't want us to be alone when it is nighttime." She is right. Apparently one pattern I found out about the Risen is that they love the night. But they will attack during daytime if it means fresh prey for them. Anyways, I open my pack up and dig out a map of Plegia. I scan the map, Anna's chin resting on my shoulder, while I look for our current location.

I point to our location and say, "Well seeing how we are here and the closest town is right here." I slide my finger onto a little dot on the map called Fungina while glancing at Anna. "It will take a good two hours to get there. If the town isn't ruin though. If that is the case then it's going to be a seventeen hour walk to the next village." Anna sighs in frustration at the possibilities. I can't really blame her though. Ever since Plegia lost the war, it's just become a wasteland of death and misery. I feel like I keep hitting everyone over the head with that statement. Sorry if I do; it's just very relevant right now seeing how I am in the middle of the country I am talking about.

"Well; let's just keep going. We'll just keep going if night falls. Maybe a bit faster than usual." Can't really argue with that. I pocket the map and we go back to walking on the road in silence. It took the next two and a half hours before we made it to Fungina. Thankfully the village is still standing but it looks very depressed. The houses are in ill repair, there are makeshift walls and barricades surrounding the village, and watchtowers with Archers in them. Thankfully they are human archers so the village is still inhabited.

"Halt!" Me and Anna stop as we approached the village's gate. We look to find the noise and see a Villager holding a rusty bronze spear. "What is your business here strangers?" He says, his grip on his weapon tightening.

I step forward and say, "We just want to stay the night before we head to Jungisan. Can we do that? We can pay." I glance back at Anna and see her giving me a little dirty look. I guess I shouldn't have told them we could pay.

"Well; we don't have that much food but if you are willing to pay then you are welcome here. But be warned! Try anything funny and you will be filled with arrows!" The village's gates opened rather quickly and we rushed inside as the sun began to set behind us. As we make it inside, the doors behind us close. I guess we are stuck in this village for the rest of the day. I look around and see villagers running around, finishing their last minute chores. I turn my gaze to their crops and almost cringe. Their crops are really pitiful. I bet that at least one-third of the village is going to die from starvation by the end of the year.

Anyways, me and Anna head over to what looks to be the local inn. We enter the inn and see a few travelers eating so scraps or drinking a really watered down drink, to the point the water is visible. Me and Anna walk up to the counter and the tender looks at us.

"We would like a room please handsome," Anna says, smiling at the tender. When Anna called the tender handsome, I felt this weird feeling spike in the lower part of my stomach. Must be because I'm hungry and I also hate how Anna called him handsome.

"Standard one bed bedroom is twenty gold. Fancy two bed bedroom is one hundred gold." The tender says, looking at Anna with a cool stare like he has done this before. Anna goes behind me and rummages through my pack before taking something out. She appears back in front of me and places a small cloth bag on the counter. The tender opens the bag and pours twenty gold coins on the table. What?

"Room on the far left. Enjoy your stay." What a second; Anna rented a one bed bedroom. That means I'm going to sleep on the floor. I'm glad I packed spare blankets. At least I'll have some cushioning while I sleep! Me and Anna walk to our room and true to the man's word, there is only one bed. The other furniture is what you expect in a rundown inn; two old wooden chairs resting besides a… crate… with a tub for bathing in the corner besides a bucket. It's better than outside at least. I unshoulder the supply pack and place it on one of the chairs. I also take my father's sword and place it on the table. Anna does the same thing with the other chair and places her weapon next to mine. I open my pack and get out some of the spare sheets I talked about. I toss them on the floor and proceed to strip myself of all of my armor I am wearing. I place the armor into my pack and rub my shoulder. Wearing only one shoulder plate does take a lot out of that shoulder.

I wait a bit while Anna also undresses into something comfortable, staring at the wall while she does her business. What? I have manners unlike some other people! And don't make me fucking second guess myself on this one! Anyways, after Anna gets dressed; we go back into the main area for some dinner. Anna pays for two bowls of hot meat stew and a loaf of bread and we head back to our room. On a side note, I'm thankful that Anna bought the food this time because all other times she had made me buy it. I push our stuff into the floor and we start to eat in silence.

"Hey Aiden. Make a joke," Anna says; dipping a slice of bread into her stew to eat it. That's a pretty weird thing to ask someone.

"Um, why do you want me to make a joke?" I say, swallowing a spoonful of stew.

"I just feel like that things have been too serious lately. Girls just want to have fun sometimes after all. So, make a joke for me."

"I guess so with us killing a bunch of bandits, meeting this weird Thief, and watching a Dark Mage do… magic! I guess we do deserve some fun."

"Then tell the joke already!"

"Ok, ok! How did the barber win the race?" This joke has been a staple in my family ever since I was young.

"How did he win the race?"

"He knew a shortcut." I cover my mouth, muffling my laugh at the joke. I stop laughing and look at Anna. Her eye is twitching. Is that bad?"

"Wow. That… is a really bad joke. It really makes me 'shave's in fear of how bad it is!" She starts to giggle at that little play on words and I join her. That was pretty good. But my sense of humor is pretty bad so I guess my standards for humor are pretty low.

I stop laughing enough to say, "At least you aren't getting attacked by a 'mo'hawk!" I'm going to hell for making all these puns aren't I? I don't even know what the fuck a mohawk is! Fucking hell. Anyway, Anna starts to giggle even harder, her cheeks flushing from how much she is giggling. I laugh alongside her and crack a few more jokes that I am not going to list out. I want to save you enough pain then I already gave you. After a while, Anna and I stop laughing and go back to eating our now lukewarm food. While I eat, I wonder about something. Was this intentional? Ah who cares? I needed some laughs.

Also some food because I did not eat lunch.


"What is going on? I just woke up in the middle of the night for some reason. Why is that? Let me check the- What the fuck! There is a hole in our room's door! Why-"

Suddenly, an arm reaches through the hole in the door and grasps the doorknob. It opens the door and the arms slips out of the hole. After the door opened, a Fighter Risen walks into our room; looking all around for something. Do you think that maybe… Yeah, I think the Risen overran the guards pretty stealthy like because I didn't hear any screams. I slowly inch my hand under my pillow and grasp my emergency knife's handle. The Risen stops and looks to where I am resting and starts to lumber over to me. Looks like I need to punish someone for disturbing my beauty sleep.

The Fighter nears me and I lunge forward and slam the knife into the Risen's face. It drops its axe while it tries to claw my knife out of its face. I dash to the table and grab my sword. I unsheath it and whirl around with a wild swing, hoping to kill the Risen in one hit. My sword sinks into the Risen's shoulder, black mist pouring out of the wound. Anna quickly sits up, awake from all of the noise, and leaps out of bed to grab her sword. The Risen punches me in the face, making me stumble back while taking my sword with me. Anna grabs her blade and stabs the Risen through the chest, finally killing it.

"Aiden! What is going on?" Anna asks, still half asleep.

"No idea but I think Risen are overrunning the entire village. We need to get out before we join the body count." I say, scrambling to pack up our stuff.

"Son of a silver standard why can't we not have to worry about fighting every other day?"

"No idea. But I think that'll stop once we reach Jungisan. We could and can rest easy behind its giant walls and huge milita."

Anna sighs and says, "Gods; I have to escape a horde of Risen without any small clothes on and in my sleep dress." Ok what?

"What?"

"Nothing, Let's just hurry up and go." Me and Anna finish packing, strap on any armor we can strap on that won't take too much time, and rush out of our room. We arrive into the main room of the inn to see the tender dead, an axe in his back while a Barbarian Risen examines some gold coins. Anna smiles a bit and rushes the Risen, expertly decapitating it so no blood will land on the gold. She pockets the gold and we head outside. Outside; dozens of Risen, at least one third of them are Berserkers at the very least, are roaming between houses. Their weapons dripping in blood, the blood gleaming in the moonlight. I kneel down and sneak my way behind an overturned cart, pulling Anna with me so she is kneeling besides me.

"We have to sneak out of here. There is no way we can defeat all of these Risen by ourselves." I say, sneaking glances at the Risen patrolling the village. Anna nods and looks around for an exit while I keep an eye out for any Risen coming near us. After what seemed like hours, Anna taps my shoulder and points to a slim hole in the village's wall. I think we got our exit. I lean my head out of cover and look around for any nearby Risen. I see none and sneak out towards the hole, beckoning Anna to join me. We stop and hide under a stall when a patrol of five Soldier Risen walk by. While I wait for them to pass, I grip my sword's handle tighter.

Why does shit like this happen? I mean I get the concept of raiding but what are these Risen raiding for? They do nothing but kill! They don't even take any valuables other than better weapons for them to kill people with. Why do they do this? I could understand if it was an enemy army or maybe even bandits; not a horde of genocidal, undead freaks!

The patrol finally passes by and we continue on our way to the hole in the wall. We manage to make it halfway there before we are forced to hide again, this time in a pile of hay. One Berserker and two Mercenaries walk by us before they suddenly stop. The turn and face this one pile of hay that is opposite of where me and Anna are hiding. They rush the hay and pull out three villagers; a man, a woman, and a little boy with red hair. A little family that tried to hide from the Risen but failed.

One of the Mercenaries grab the woman and slits her throat. The Risen the snaps her neck and throws her to the ground, curb stomping her head in for one last measure. The man tries to punch the Mercenary but the other one stabs the man in the back, severing his spin and killing him instantly. The Mercenary who killed the man seems a bit… disappointed at how fast the man died. The little boy crawls backward, bawling in absolute terror and anguish. The Berserker advances toward the child, probably going to kill him with one swing. I… I can't take this anymore!

I rush out of the hay pile and throw my sword into the air. I shout out, "I will break you!" before I jump up and grab my sword. I then come whirling down and slice the Berserker in half. I jump back a bit and watch as the Berserker disappears in black smoke. I ready my sword and rush towards one of the Mercenaries. I clash blades with the Mercenary but the other one suddenly tilts his up to the sky and lets out this horrible scream. My ears began to ring from the scream but I can't cover them up because I am fighting. Anna rushes out of the hay pile and slams her blade through the screaming Risen's throat, killing him. I disarm the last Risen with a quick turn of my wrist and cut its head off.

I pick the boy up and say, "Hang on kid! We're getting out of here!" I gasp as an arrow slams into my side. I turn to where the arrow came from and see a mass of Risen rushing towards us. Me, while carrying the kid, and Anna started to sprint towards the hole. While we run, arrows whistle and fly past us. Luckily they miss and the arrows slam into buildings, the ground, or anywhere that is not us. I let out a yelp, ducking under a Fighter's axe as the Risen surprise us with an ambush. We outrun the ambush and make it to the hole in the wall. I pass Anna the kid, pick up a barrel's lid top, and cover them from the back while Anna and the kid squeeze through the hole.

I stumble back into the hole as arrows slam into my makeshift shield before breaking it entirely. I squeeze through the hole and Anna covers the hole with a barrel. I guess that's how the Risen got in the first place. I grab the kid again and we start to run again. While we run, the village starts to burn. I guess the Risen killed everyone and are now doing there next favorite thing besides killing and horses, burning stuff. While we run, I cover the kid's eyes so he doesn't have to see anymore destruction.

And to think I used to be a part of this destruction before I joined the Shepherds.

So. Sorry for the wait on this one. I helped my Dad throughout the week because he's a veteran. I'm proud of him but I really hope he doesn't read this stuff because he is going to laugh at me. He likes to point out the weird things in my writing and that just makes him laugh at how weird it can be. Parents. Anyway, I'll start to work on the next one. Bye.