Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem or anything associated with it.
A/N: After all this time…..I'm finally back. Considering it's been a looong time (couple years) I wouldn't even know where to start. Honestly, I would come back to this story many times, just thinking about what it could've been, but never having the drive to finish it.
Last time on Blazing Light….
Natalie gave a dejected sigh as none of them knew the whereabouts of her husband. "Please, if you can, help me look for my husband? He left to get me medicine for my sickness, but that was days ago!" she explained, starting to get a good deal more frantic than calm.
"Don't worry, we'll look for your husband, okay?" Lyn soothed, calming the woman down, for the most part.
All of a sudden, Sain busted through to the back of the fort, clearly in distress.
"We're being attacked! We're surrounded by bandits!"
"WHAT!" everyone else yelled, tired from just finishing the trip.
"It seems to be the bandits from earlier," Kent jumped in. "They've come back to take revenge for earlier."
"We have to go fight them!" Wil said.
"Someone needs to stay behind to protect Natalie," Aracho mentioned. "She can't be moved without her getting in danger."
"We can let them come to us," Lyn continued. "Then we can defend the fort until they leave. I'll take the eastern entrance."
"I-I'll go with Lyn," Florina added.
"Aracho and I will take the southern entrance," Kent said, leading the former to raise a quick eyebrow, though he didn't say anything in the spur of the moment.
"That leaves me and you," Wil said to Sain. The green-armored knight nodded before everyone went to their assigned post in wait for the incoming Ganelon bandits.
The group did not have to wait long as the bandits quickly rushed up to the base entrance, looking ugly, angry, and ready to get revenge. Foregoing his daggers for the moment, Aracho pulled out his Enfire tome, chanting a fire spell. Before the first wave could arrive, he unleashed it, killing a bandit in an exploding pillar of fire. Again, he killed three more bandits before they started to close in. Putting away the tome, he took out his daggers in preparation for close-ranged combat.
"You're going down, punks!" a brigand yelled as three of them hunkered towards Aracho and Kent. Without a word, the former rushed first, quickly finishing the first with well-placed slashes to the arm and throat. Meanwhile, Kent handled the other bandits just as quickly.
"Are any more coming?" Kent asked.
"I'll go check," Aracho said before moving to slip out.
"Hold on!" the red-clad knight called. "I'll go with you." Aracho nearly rolled his eyes at the clear suspicion Kent held of him.
"You have to hold the line here. I'll be fine by myself," the teen said before heading off. He seriously had to do something about Kent's suspiciousness, because it quickly became an irritation.
Not long after leaving the base, Aracho stopped when an arrow hit the ground inches away from where he stood. Following the direction of the arrow, he saw a bowman with a mean-looking brigand. From the way he stood back, it seemed he was the leader of the bandit group sent to attack them. Narrowing his eyes, Aracho rushed to the archer, preparing a spell in advance. Before the bandit could shoot another arrow, Aracho quickly defeated him with a thunder spell.
With the archer out of the way, the only ones left were him and the assault leader. Brandishing his daggers, Aracho rushed to give the first blow. Clashing with the heavy axe, the blue-haired boy slid under the brigand before slicing his throat. The leader fell on the ground gurgling for a moment before his movements ceased. Taking a deep breath, Aracho steadied himself before heading back to the base.
"Pull back! Retreat!" he heard a bandit yell. Quickly hiding in a thicket, he saw tattered remains of the bandits leaving in the opposite direction of where they decided to set camp. He waited until sure the last of them had went a good distance, then returned to the abandoned fort. Curiously enough, an unfamiliar red-haired man had been with the rest of the group.
"Did I miss something?" Aracho asked, tilting his head to the side.
"This is Dorcas," Lyn explained. "Natalie's husband."
"Nice to meet you," the blue-head said, Dorcas returning the gesture. "Are you two going home now?"
"Actually, I plan to join you all….if you will let me," Dorcas revealed.
"If it's fine with everyone else, I have no complaints." As there were none, the husband and wife said goodbye before heading back to the village.
"Well….things are finally coming down to and end," Lyn commented, personally glad that the long day was coming to an end.
"We'll probably need to keep watches, just in case," Aracho mentioned. "If you want, I'll start first."
"I'll join you!" Sain added exuberantly, making Aracho want to smack his head on the wall.
"Are you sure? Sain?" Lyn questioned, curious if he was taking this seriously enough. "If a bandit sneaks up on you, they'll cut you down without mercy….You do understand that, right?"
"Am I not a knight?" he boasted, making Aracho roll his eyes. "If anything is amiss, trust that I'll take care of it!"
"I'll make sure to do my best, Lyn," Aracho said, hoping to ease the Sacaean's misgivings more than Sain could. Relaxing her shoulders a bit, she gave the boy a nod, a small smile forming on her face.
"Alright, then. See you tomorrow," she said, before leaving Aracho and the two Caelin knights alone outside the fort.
"I'll take the east side," Aracho said, before setting out. Thankfully, the calm breeze under the moonlit sky gave him a sign that everything would come out fine.
XXXXX
The next day…
Lyndis' Legion, as Wil proclaimed it, left the abandoned fort where bandits attacked them as soon as Dorcas returned at daybreak. With a new member in tow, they set a fast course for Lycia. Although they were still most likely being chased by the Ganelon bandits, Aracho still tried taking time to appreciate his surroundings. He made a mental note to come back here for a vacation, or at least just a quick trip to take in the surroundings.
"We've almost reached the Lycian border," Kent noted after the group stopped for a moment for a small break and a map check. "We should be there tomorrow providing we make good time."
"Once we cross, we'll be safe from the bandits, right?" Lyn asked.
"Yeah, they should be. I doubt they'd chase us across the border," Wil said. Aracho nodded to that; most small-time bandit groups only operated in certain areas. The Black Fang was one of the few groups that didn't follow that self-imposed rule, though Aracho really didn't consider it a bandit group. They did good work after all, getting rid of corrupt people who had no place being where they were.
Moving off that train of thought, he saw the group start to move again. However, Lyn caught all of their attention with a frustrated grunt. "They're a persistent bunch, I'll give them that…."
"An irritating bunch, more like," Aracho growled, pulling out his magic tome as the small group of leftover bandits neared them.
"Hah! Found 'em!" the apparent leader said, sounding as if they didn't fight back against the Ganelon bandits twice and beat them away. "Boys, get 'em!"
"They're still after us!?" Wil shouted incredulously.
"Unfortunately, yes," Aracho answered. Without missing a beat, he began the skirmish by throwing two quick thunder spells at a bandit hiding between thickets for an ambush. Needless to say, his charred corpse wouldn't be attacking anyone anytime soon. Irritated by these third-rate bandits that kept chasing them, he decided to chase them down and finish this as fast as possible, consequences be damned. Running through the thick green undergrowth, the blue-haired teen quickly found a bandit archer waiting to ambush them.
Wanting to get the drop on them, he took out his daggers and snuck up on the archer, leaving no chance for him to get caught. Without a second thought, he jumped out of hiding and decapitated the archer, not even sparing another look as he continued his trek towards the rest of the bandits. Quickly reaching his target, he stared down the leader as he gained an ugly grin on his smeared and unkempt face.
"You're gonna learn why people fear the Ganelon bandits!" he said, brandishing his axe.
"Let's see," Aracho challenged, swirling his daggers. Charging forward, the blue-haired boy allowed the brigand to take the first swing, a very sloppy attack that he easily avoided. Using his window of opportunity, he gave a debilitating strike to the arm before finishing the bandit with a strike to the throat. Aracho suppressed a shudder as the bandit gurgled before finally lying still on the grass. Breathing deeply, he trekked back to regroup with everyone else. Curiously, some pink-haired lady with a staff and a very irritated-looking teen with a robe had been talking to Lyn.
"You helped us tremendously," Lyn warmly said before her eyes saw Aracho enter the vicinity. "Well, it's time for us to go."
"Take care. Goodbye, Lyn!" the cleric said in a bubbly voice.
"Farewell. You too, Erk."
"Goodbye." With that, the two set off in another direction as Aracho met with Lyn.
"Who were those two?" he asked, tipping his head to the side.
"That was Serra and Erk," Lyn answered. "They were in the area when the bandits attacked and happened to get caught in the crossfire."
"Well, the more the merrier, I guess," Aracho sighed. "Say, where's Sai-"
"Lady Lyndis!" said knight almost yowled as he trampled over the green grasses. "Would you be ever so merciful as to allow one measly request of this humble knight?" Not knowing exactly what was going on, Lyn simply raised her eyebrow slowly.
"And that would be…" she drawled out, confused and somewhat disturbed.
"Allowing Serra and Erk into our company," he revealed. "Besides being a clean maiden of purity, Lady Serra possesses the ever-so-useful ability of healing, and-"
"Yes, they can join," Lyn cut off, doing her best not to laugh or run away scared to death. Sain's face lit up as soon as the Sacaean gave her approval.
"I shall inform them right away!" he announced before bounding off in the direction the two left from.
"Well….that was something I'm not forgetting anytime soon."
"Yes, Archy...I concur."
XXXXX
A/N: That's the end of that….I feel rather happy finishing this back up. It's been a real struggle since before I began this story, and even if those struggles are still going on, doing this gives me joy. It took a hellamuch of comments and How to Train Your Dragon 3 to realize that (great movie, go check it out). But I digress, this time I'm not going to toss this story to the waistside because there is TOO much to do with it. With that, I hope you can forgive my very long absence and I look forward to continuing this journey with all y'all…..together. (had to be corny)
Blizzard….returning.