Meetings
Heath looked up. The door had opened, and Hector was standing in it.
"The battle's over," he said. "Good thing you surrendered, or you'd be dead by now."
Heath got up. "Thank you, Hector." Hector started to lead Heath out, but Heath asked, "Er, do you have a place for Hyperion?"
"Who's Hyperion?" Hector asked, before he heard a growl from the wyvern. "Oh. Yeah, we should. We've got a few horses and pegasi, so I assume another animal won't kill us. Just...what does that thing eat, anyway?"
"Um...any meat will do, as long as it is uncooked. He likes it that way."
Hector gave the wyvern a slightly disgusted look before continuing. "All right, that should be fine. Come on, I'll introduce you to everyone."
"Do you think I could bring Hyperion to wherever he's supposed to go first? I don't think you want a wyvern running around this fortress..."
Hector sighed. "Fine." He led Heath and Hyperion to the stables; Hector couldn't think of another place to put the wyvern. After Heath had properly harnessed him, promising the wyvern he would be back later, he and Hector went off to meet the rest of the army.
Hector led him to the throne room, where four other people were standing. The first was a brown-haired man dressed in plain green traveler's robes. The second was a young man with fiery red hair and blue eyes, wearing a blue shirt and brown pants. A rapier was strapped to his side. The third was a woman (again Heath wondered what the women were doing fighting) with long green hair tied back in a ponytail. She wore a blue shirt and long skirt, cut so her legs were bare. The last man, sitting on the throne, looked like an older Hector, except his face was much paler and had a variety of scars on it.
He pointed at the brown-haired man, "This is Mark, our tactician," he pointed at the red-haired man, "This is Lord Eliwood of Pherae," he pointed at the woman, "This is Lady Lyndis of Caelin," finally he pointed at the man sitting on the throne, "and this is my brother, Lord Uther of Ostia.
"Everyone, this is Heath of Bern."
They all said hello, while Heath, who had never been in the presence of nobility before, quickly dropped to one knee.
Hector laughed at him. "I told you before, drop the formalities. You don't have to worry about those with us."
Unsure, Heath slowly got up. "May I ask," he said, "why so many nobles from different lands are gathered at this fortress?"
"It's a long story," Eliwood said. He told Heath about The Scouring, the war between men and dragons a millenium ago; how dragons had been banished from the world. He told him about Nergal, an evil man who desired to bring dragons back for his own purposes. He told him how their army had already fought Nergal once, and gravely wounded him, and how now they had to stop Nergal before his power was restored.
Heath didn't know whether to believe Eliwood or not.
"I know it sounds crazy," Eliwood said, "but it is all true. We will have your aid in the battles ahead, I gather?"
"Yes, my lo—er, Eliwood," he replied. Hector laughed at him again.
"Very well then," Eliwood said. "You may take your leave. Hector will show you around after we are don't talking."
"Wait, I have one question," he said, looking at Lyndis. "Why do you have women fight in your army? I have sworn to myself never to attack any women or children."
Lyndis gave him a small smile. "Women can fight just as well as men can," she said. "Eliwood and Hector both know that the women here can fight just as well as them, if not better."
Hector muttered something that sounded like "I could beat you any day" under his breath. Heath suppressed a laugh. "All right," he said, "I'll wait for you outside, Hector." He walked out of the room, leaving the lords to discuss other matters.
After several minutes, the lords filed out of the room. Hector went over to Heath and started leading him around the fortress.
"I heard what you said there about Lyndis," Heath said. "Is that actually true? Have you sparred with her at all?"
"Yeah, once," Hector replied. "I won," he added hastily, "but that doesn't mean she can't fight. I might be a bit stronger than her, but she is extremely fast. She doesn't even wear armor—she never needs it. She can just dodge anything that an enemy throws at her."
Heath's eyes widened a bit as he looked at Lyndis walking away, speaking with Eliwood. "So," he said, looking at Hector again, "you, uh, do have a place I can stay, right?"
"As long as you don't mind sharing a room with a woman," Hector said, smirking.
Heath smirked back. "Why would I mind that?"
Hector laughed. "Haha! I like your attitude, Heath. It's a good thing you decided to come with us."
Heath smiled. "Just...why do the men and women share rooms? They aren't separated here?"
"It's another one of Lyndis's 'women-are-equal-to-men' ideas. She thinks that the women shouldn't be separated from the men when they are just as good as them. Of course," he added, smirking again, "all the men agreed to that wholeheartedly. Sain almost passed out from joy."
"Who's Sain?" Heath asked.
"You'll see in a second."
Surely enough, as they passed into the soldier's rooms, Heath saw a dark brown-haired man wearing green armor attempting to flirt with a short young woman with pink hair in pigtails, wearing a long purple robe.
"Oh, beauteous vision of delight! Serra, please grace me with your presence!" the man said.
Serra just rolled her eyes and walked away.
"That was Sain," Hector said after they were a good distance away. "He says that sort of stuff to every girl he meets. I'm surprised he hasn't given up yet."
Heath laughed.
"And the pink-haired girl is Serra. She's a cleric, although you wouldn't know that if you talked to her. She usually never shuts up. The worst part of that is that she's one of the people healing us, so you have to cope with her every time you're injured. It makes getting hurt ten times worse."
The only other person Heath met as they were walking down the hall was a man with purple hair and eyes, wearing a long black robe. He was carrying a large stack of books, and as the man said hello, the stack of books shook precariously. The man ran off to wherever he was going before the books could fall.
"Who was that?" Heath asked.
"That's Canas," Hector replied. "He's one of our mages. He uses dark magic, but never call it that in front of him. He'll just start ranting how 'it's not dark magic, it's just an elder magic our ancestors used.' I don't think so though. Once you see what he does, you'll definitely think it's dark magic."
They finally came to the room where Heath was supposed to stay. Hector knocked on the door. "Priscilla? Are you in there?" he asked.
"Yes, I am, Lord Hector," came the muffled voice from inside the room. "You may come in."
Hector sighed as he opened the door. "How many times have I told you not to call me Lord Hector? It's just Hector, all right?"
Heath looked at the woman in front of him. She was a bit shorter than he was, with short auburn hair and deep green eyes. She wore a green and white dress, and she carried a golden staff with a small spherical sapphire on the end. Heath also noticed that she had tucked what looked like small white feathers behind her ears. "I apologize, Hector," she said. "Does someone need to be heal—oh," she looked at Heath, "and who might you be?"
"I found you a roommate," Hector explained. "This is Heath. Heath, this is Priscilla, another one of our healers. You won't mind, will you, Priscilla?"
"Of course not," she replied. She turned to Heath, smiling shyly. "Hello, Heath," she said. "Pleased to meet you."
"Pleased to meet you as well, Priscilla," he replied, also smiling.
"Well, I have to go talk with Eliwood and Lyndis, so I'll leave you two alone now," Hector said, and he left.
"So, I guess we're staying together," Heath said. "You're one of our medics, I gather?"
"Yes, I am," she replied. "I am trained in the use of healing staves like this," she pointed at the staff she was holding, "but I am also trying to learn to use anima magic, so that I can help out the army and don't have to stay in the back."
"I don't think you need to help the army any more than you do now," Heath said. "Medics are vital—what would we do if you went into battle and got hurt?"
"That is true," she said. Looking away, she continued, "But still—I don't want to be seen as a defenseless girl who needs constant protection...I want to help out."
"Well then, I wish you luck in learning magic," Heath said. She looked at him and smiled. "I personally don't really care for magic though," he continued. "My lance and Hyperion are all I need."
"Hyperion?" she asked.
"Oh—my wyvern. I'm a wyvern knight, you see."
"Really? I've never met a wyvern rider before."
"Well, now you have," he said, smiling. "I trust you'll be there to heal me if I get hurt? Hector already told me about Serra."
Priscilla laughed. "I see. Then yes, I will be there if you need me."
Heath smiled. "Right, thanks." Removing his boots and armor, he lay down on his new bed. "Well, I'm gonna get some rest," he said. "Wake me up if someone needs me, all right?"
"I will," she replied. "Sweet dreams, Heath."
Heath closed his eyes and smiled. She certainly is a nice girl, he thought as he fell asleep.
What do you guys think of this chapter? I spent awhile working out the dialogue of each of the characters. Did I portray them right?
Please review!
-TheOneAndOnlyT
