Okay, here's the next chapter! I can't tell if it took me long or not to update… I lost track of the time.

Guy: You mean you were too busy with your new fic in the ToS section!!!

Matthew: Don't you dare abandon us, or I'll tie you to your chair!

FireEdge: I'm not going to! I'm just lazy and I had to think of how to try and get more romance in this chapter.

Guy: I'm sure.

Reviews:

Legolasgirl15I: They will… eventually… just stay tuned.

Ed, the Master Tactician: You can give me the URL for the RPG thing if you want it doesn't matter to me either way. Anyway, thanks for the compliment… and the Aureola tome. Shame I have no idea how to use it… But… it is as thick as a dictionary!

-=BAM! Drops it on Guy's head=-

Guy: Ow… X.x

Squallsgurl: Thank you!

Lord Cynic: Wow, that's a long time… and Uhai, to me, is only annoying if he has a Killing Edge equipped, other than that, he's pretty much a pushover. :)

Ragnarok-legend: Nice to see that you got an account! Have a nice holiday… it wouldn't really matter saying that would it? You'd probably be back by the time you read this, so…

TheOneAndOnlyT: I'm sorry if I'm bugging you with the lack of romance. Hopefully it will be romancy enough this chapter…

ErkTheSlayer: Actually I have no clue.

Duelist of Middle Earth: Guy tends to have more speed, skill and luck than Karel. Though Karel's strength and defence/resistance is better. But I still use Guy. And yeah, I get mad at him too. Like when Wyvern riders come swooping down on him in hordes and he gets killed because of his measly defence… Anyway, thanks for the review! Oh and your muse, he can have fun with Guy later… when he comes out of recovery…

Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem.

Stray Arrow

Chapter 11

Oh wow, it's really hot in this desert. Florina thought as she flew along with the rest of the troops. They were apparently looking for a "living legend." Who or what that was, no one was sure. Everything had passed so fast these past days, no one was sure of anything anymore. They had battled the Marquess of Laus, Darin. Then found out that Nergal was trying to bring dragons back to the world. After Marquess Pherae died, Lord Eliwood sunk in depression, and Lord Hector then took charge over the army. Following their return to Badon, they met with Marquess Ostia. That's when they were told to come here, to Nabata Desert.

Soon the group stopped for another break. All the troops were having a hard time in the hot weather. Especially those with armour and those with horses. The horses' hooves sunk into the sand and caused them to move at a slower rate then usual. Of course, the winged units like herself, her sister and one of their newest recruits, Heath a wyvern rider, had no trouble. The magic users too, seemed to be having an easy time. The desert seemed to spur their magic and they stepped quick and lightly upon the shimmering sands. As they all took whisks from their canteens, the lords and tactician, as usual, went to scout ahead. Before she knew it, Elfaiya came running back yelling out orders to move out and prepare for battle.

"All right, all calvary, stay back! You are not needed in this battle! Winged units, and magic users: front lines! Foot troops, support from the back. Our mission is to defeat the enemy and protect that man!" They all followed the tactician's finger to a lone sage in the distance. Many enemy units were clustered around him and more seemed to be coming. Upon receiving their orders, the army charged forward and started their assault.

Florina thanked her high resistance as she took down mage after mage. There seemed to be an endless amount of them. Thunder strikes flew down at her from every angle. If she dodged one, another would come and hit her. She was lost in the heat of battle, and a sea of red cloaks. The pegasus knight was barely aware of anything else going on, other than the enemy in front of her. Even the sensation of healing magic coursing through her were only minor tingles. Eventually the mages were all gone. Most of the enemies were being driven back and the man they were protecting was safe. She also spotted a new ally. He was a big man with a large axe. She wasn't too sure who he was, but saw that he was killing the enemies, and not them.

The young girl then proceeded to fly ahead and help fight another group of wyvern riders clustered around Canas, Serra and a couple of foot troops that she could not quite make out yet. Arriving on the scene Florina threw her javelin and skewered a wyvern rider, much to the relief of her comrades. Now she realized that the other two foot units were Matthew, apparently under the orders to find hidden treasure. And the last was Wil.

"Thanks for coming, Florina! I didn't think we could hold on any longer!" Serra exclaimed dramatically. Florina blushed.

"Um… I-I only killed one enemy…"

"Oh… does it really matter? Now we can get rid of these annoying pests faster!" Serra shrugged, dodging the thrust of a lance.

"Yes, the more the merrier!" Piped in Matthew.

"You aren't even doing anything!" Serra retorted.

"I'm digging up treasure!" He leaned down and dug around in the sand, suddenly his hands closed on something. "Hey! I found something!" Lifting it up, they saw that it was a black book.

"Ah! It's a Luna tome. Mind if I borrow that?" Canas smiled. The thief shrugged.

"You're the only one who can use it."

"Shouldn't we be focusing on the enemy?" Wil spoke for the first time as he shot another enemy that was approaching them. He turned to face the others. When he did, his eyes met Florina's. As she stared into those brown eyes, memories sparked in her mind. Of them standing together, in a dark corridor. Of a starlit night, with the moon shining up above them. Suddenly a sharp pain tugged at her heart. One of sorrow, sorrow of losing the one you loved. She could see that pain in Wil's eyes. Is… is this what Wil is feeling…? But how can I know what he is feeling?

"Oh, yes! Of course!" Canas replied absentmindedly as he started reading from the new magic tome. As he said that Florina was snapped from her thoughts and she looked away from Wil with a slight blush on her face. She hoped that no one saw them staring at each other. Especially Serra, though she knew that the cleric was a good person, rumours around the camp usually started from her.

"Um… yeah…" She nodded in agreement to try and distract them from her reddened face. Of course that didn't work so well.

"Florina! Your face is all flushed!" Serra stated. This caused Florina to redden further.

"Um… I-I think the heat… um, is… uh, getting to… me…" She replied in a quiet voice. Turning, she quickly busied herself with an enemy.

"Hmm…" Serra frowned. "You should be careful then… we don't want you to collapse from the heat, I suppose…"

"Yes, Serra's right." Wil added slowly. "The heat can be dangerous… Be careful." Florina nodded fervently, hoping that her face wasn't even more flushed than before. Luckily for the young pegasus knight, Matthew stepped on something and yelled.

"Ack! My foot's caught on something!" That drew everyone's attention, including the enemies. Lifting his foot up, he pulled out a strange ring like object.

"Hmm, a body ring…"

"Great going, Matthew! You just attracted a whole new gang of enemies!" Serra shrieked.

"Ehehe, whoops… I'll just be… leaving now!" The thief then took off into the distance, laughing. They would have probably continued to stare in disbelief all day if Canas had not brought them back to reality with the fact that the horde of enemies were, once again, headed their way.

"Ah, ahem! The enemy seems to be approaching…"

"We know that!" Snapped Serra. "But how many are there?!" Wil squinted as he scanned the distant dunes.

"Hmm about 10-15 of them I'd say… This should be fun."

"Uh… maybe we should try and find other people… maybe we'd, um… have an easier time fighting?" Florina asked quietly.

"That's a good idea. Strength in numbers." Nodded Canas. "I think I see some people of in that direction." The others quickly agreed and started off in the area Canas had pointed to.

As they slowly trudged along, they didn't seem to find anyone, despite Canas's objections. Not wanting another argument, Florina spoke up.

"Um… I-I could fly ahead and see if there's, um… anyone else up there…"

"Okay, you do that then Florina." Replied Serra. "It's much easier if we just scout ahead instead of wandering aimlessly."

"O-okay. I'm off then…" With that, Florina slowly lifted off from the ground and started flying north. Wil frowned.

"Do you think it's really okay to let her go by herself? There are archers here… I don't want her to get shot or anything." He asked, keeping his voice as casual as possible.

"That is a good point." Canas replied. "Why don't you go after her, Wil? Serra and I will wait for your return." Giving a quick nod, Wil ran as fast as he could to catch up to the pegasus knight. Keeping up a steady pace, he soon caught sight of Florina in the distance. Taking in a deep breath he quickened his steps and ran faster. Soon he was almost underneath her. He saw that her head was turning this way and that, trying to locate the others for some reinforcement. She wasn't really paying much attention to the enemies on the ground, therefor she didn't spot an archer hiding underneath a small cliff face, and arrow aimed at her.

"Florina!" Wil yelled, seeing the glint of the arrow-tip.

"Huh?" The pegasus knight's head whipped around at the call of her name, and let out a cry as she saw the arrow flying towards her.

"No, watch out!" But it was too late, the arrow was going too fast for her to evade. Her pegasus let out a loud whinny of pain as the shaft sunk into the tender flesh underneath its wing. One wing injured, the pegasus along with his rider fell from the sky.

"Florina!" He started to run up to her when he let out another gasp. Apparently he was not the only one who had spotted the girl falling from the sky. A big warrior was running up to her, his axe glinted dangerously and it was clear that he was about to kill her. "NO!" Wil unslung a longbow from his back and aimed at the man. The warrior, which was known as Paul directed his gaze to Wil. Paul then started towards Wil, hefting his silver axe. Wil switched to his newly acquired killer bow and with a twirl of an arrow shot the warrior with a powerful hit.

"Ugh…" Florina groaned as she weakly sat up. "Oh no, are you okay Huey?" She stroked her pegasus. Turning around she saw the huge warrior. Then she was that he was heading directly towards…

"Wil!" She yelled. It was obvious that the warrior had originally been after her. But the cheery archer must have distracted him. Florina tried to stand up but fell back down again. "I-I have to help him!" She attempted once more to stand but to no avail. He's going to be killed if that axe hits him!

In seconds, Paul was right in front of the archer. He lifted up his axe, Wil tried to back up, but tripped over a pile of bones.

"Arg." He landed with a thump onto the sand. His eyes widened as the axe started descending on him.

"NO!!" A voice screamed, the yell echoed in his head and a blaring light blinded him. Florina… He didn't know what the light was, but he braced himself for the blow that was sure to come, but heard the sound of the axe hit what sounded like steel. Opening his eyes, he let out a gasp. What he saw was the silver axe connected to what seemed like a green sheet of light. The light then slowly dimmed and the barrier disappeared.

"What…" Both he and Paul muttered. Wil then felt a heat upon his chest, looking down he saw that the elusive charm was glowing faintly. The charm… But before he could ponder anything any further, a different voice called out.

"Hey, ugly, try picking on someone your own size!" What had come was exactly what they needed, a small group of their army. Raven was standing in the lead, he was the one who had called out. Charging down, he finished Paul off with two slashes of his steel sword.

"You both okay?" He walked over and extended his hand to Wil.

"Se-senior Raven!" Wil exclaimed. He thought he saw the mercenary's eye twitch, but he said nothing. Accepting the hand, he thanked Raven and turned towards Florina.

"Florina! Are you okay?" He ran over and knelt beside her. Florina looked up at Wil, her face pale.

"W-Wil… What was that light…?"

"Hmm… I don't know… But we're both alive."

"Yes, you're both well, but we should get you both to Serra." Came Erk's response.

"Yeah. She's off that way." Wil pointed to the direction they had come from.

"I'll get her. You two stay put. It looks like Florina's pegasus can't move anyway." Erk nodded. That was close…But this little charm never ceases to amaze me… What is this thing? Wil thought to himself.

"Wil?" Florina asked meekly.

"Hm? Yes?"

"I-I'm glad you're safe…" Wil blinked in surprise, but smiled.

"Thank you, Florina." He replied, using his thumb he wiped away a tear that had started to fall down her face. "Don't cry, we're all okay now. And your pegasus will be fine too."

FireEdge: AHHHHH! My hand! Cramp, cramp, cramp!

Guy: Shut up!

FireEdge: Right. There's a long long long chapter. It doesn't have as much romance as I thought it would have…

Matthew: Seems more actiony to me… Wait! I sound so… bad in there!

Guy: Hehehe, loser. -=Gets blasted by Flux=-

Canas: Oops.

Matthew: Hehehe. Who's the loser now? Thanks Duelist of Middle Earth, your muse is quite helpful. See! He's in this chapter too!

Canas: Okay, bye! -=Poof. Goes back to wherever he came from=-

FireEdge: -=Sigh=- Not really romantic, but it's starting to build up again, so hopefully next chapter there will be a lot of it… But it was long, so I hope that made up for it. Right, next chapter might once again be awhile, for I have to keep up with my other fics, which I have half neglected… Until next time, please review!

--FireEdge--