So…here it is. The fourth chapter. Rejoice…cry…whatever.
Pent: w00t.
Yeah, whatever lol so, here's to all my reviewers:
Cool-Chan: uh oh…you didn't get in trouble with your mom, did you? O.o lol I'm glad I'm keeping my genres straight c(-:
Paladin2007: blehhhh…XP no offence to anyone else, of course, but I don't think Serra is worthy of my Erky's love…I would pick Erk X Nino over Erk X Serra…and if you know me at all, you'd know that that's pretty bad…but I'm glad you like it XD
BeautyofReglay: thank you for reminding me how to spell 'Reglay' XD I was spelling it 'Reglae'…anyway, I thank you for your compliments :3
Serra's evil twin: ohhh, so now I've got you stumped again? Hee hee it's probably just as well :) thank you!
I really appreciate that all of you enjoy my work…it makes me feel so happy inside hee hee
Pent: w00t!
Yeah…what he's trying to say is that Fire Emblem doesn't belong to me. It belongs to…well, you know who it belongs to…Nintendo…Intelligent Systems…
Pent: w00t.
All right, all right! I know none of you want to hear all this. So, without any further efforts to waste your time, here's chapter four.
Chapter Four: Wrong Turn
"What are we going to do? They're…everywhere…" Priscilla whispered to Erk, trying to keep calm as she looked around to see more and more bandits surrounding them.
"I don't know…I didn't bring anything with me…did you?" Erk replied in an undertone, holding her close as he quickly summed up the situation. The odds were definitely against them.
"Not a thing…" Priscilla said softly, sounding worried at this point.
"…Maybe we can run…"
"I wouldn't recommend that," a different voice commented beside them. Both of them turned, startled, to see the very same woman that had saved Erk before, Raven's mockingbird. She smiled at their shaken appearances, looking the opposite of how they felt: completely calm. She winked at Erk as she drew her sword from her scabbard at her side slowly. "You two make such a cute couple…you just need to stop trying to get yourselves killed. Don't run any faster than your guardian angel can fly, remember." She grinned at their dumbstruck faces and immediately set to work. "Anyone else want to die today?" she said sweetly after at least a dozen of them lay slain. The remainder took the hint and raced off, screaming for their mothers. "That's what I thought," she snarled, then turned back to Erk and Priscilla, looking very cheerful. "Well…have a nice day, you two."
"Wait!" Erk cried as she took off in an instant. "Who are—you…" he trailed off, disappointed, as she had completely vanished. "Er…are…are you all right, Priscilla?"
"Hm? Me? Oh, I'm fine, don't worry," Priscilla replied distractedly. "…How does she do that?"
"I have no idea," Erk said, shaking his head in disbelief. "Come on…we'd better head back…I think I've had enough life-threatening experiences for one week."
"Hey! Where've you lovebirds been?" Pent called to them when they got back to camp. "You missed breakfast!"
"And don't expect me to make you any," Lowen said crossly, not at all eager to expose any of his cookware to the aforementioned wyvern again.
"That's okay," Priscilla replied as Erk's stomach growled obnoxiously. "We're not that hungry."
"O…kay, then," Pent said, quirking an eyebrow. " 'Not that hungry', eh, Erk?"
"I guess not," Erk shrugged.
"Oh, but—" Louise started concernedly, but was interrupted.
"They'll be fine, Louise," Pent informed her. "It's not the first time someone's missed a meal, and no one's passed out yet."
"Yet," Louise murmured.
"There's no time to chat, you people!" Hector, showing up out of nowhere, barked at them. "Come on, I want to be in Badon by sunset!"
"That's…er…another five days' walk," Pent reminded him.
"You think I care?" Hector spat before walking off. Pent rolled his eyes.
"He's a slave driver, that one," he remarked.
By sunset, they were nowhere near the destination Hector had in mind. In fact, they were further from it than where they started out.
"This place looks rather familiar…" Louise commented to Pent.
"Yeah, it does," Pent agreed, then glanced at a sign that said 'REGLAY—5 MILES'. "Uhh…Hector?" Hector looked in the direction Pent pointed and jumped.
"What the—?" he spluttered. "How the hell did we get in Etruria? Lyn, have you been reading that map right?"
"Of course I have!" Lyn said indignantly, pulling out a large, folded sheet of parchment from her bag. "Yeah, see, it says right here that we should be in Epjom…or something like that." Eliwood looked over her shoulder.
"Uh…Lyn?" he said tentatively, fearful of her wrath after he said this. "You're holding it…er…upside-down…" he turned it over so the city they were 'supposed to be in' read 'Worde'. "We were supposed to turn right instead of left at Albuquerque, anyway…"
"Ugh! I knew it!" Hector shouted in aggravation. "I never should have let a woman have the map! They can't read them, apparently!"
"Well, if you would've let us stop and ask for directions—" Lyn started to reply angrily before she was interrupted.
"You mean if we'd have turned right at freaking Albuquerque—" Hector snapped back. "Wherever the freaking hell that is—"
"So…um…do you want to stop and rest at my castle before we continue tomorrow?" Pent suggested.
"Gahhhhh, this sucks!" Hector said, officially annoyed. That would set them back quite a few days, and they didn't have that kind of time to kill.
"That sounds like a good idea," Eliwood told Pent timidly as Hector proceeded to whack his head repeatedly on a rock.
"That kills brain cells, you know," Matthew informed him. "And you don't have many to waste."
"…" Jaffar laughed at this remark.
"Well, tomorrow, we can go from Reglay and take a shortcut through the ruins of Kuivanen—" Pent mused, but Eliwood interrupted.
"Ruins?" he echoed. "What happened?"
"It's a long story," Pent replied. "It happened about…oh…eleven years ago now. Do you remember Kuivanen, Erk?"
"Yeah, I remember it…" Erk said softly.
"Wouldn't you have been four when the city fell?"
"Er…yeah…four."
"Well, basically what happened was bandits invaded the city, burned down the castle, and murdered everyone they could find…no one survived; in fact, they found everyone's bodies except for the marquess' two children, but most people are pretty sure that they were killed, too." Pent explained to Eliwood. "How old were they, Erk? Six and four?"
"Er…yeah…four…and six."
"They were little, then?" Eliwood clarified.
"Yeah, they sort of were. Everyone was really upset about the whole thing." Pent replied. "I met the family when the four-year-old was just a baby, but I can't seem to remember what their names were…I was a teenager, so I didn't really pay much attention. You know how it is. Are you okay over there, Erk?"
"Um…yeah, I'm fine…I'm just a little…hungry."
"Oh. Well, anyway," Pent continued, talking to Eliwood again. "They built this lovely little cathedral near the ruins to honor all of those people who had died and the family…people searched in the ruins for something to use as a memorial, but the only thing that looked even remotely like it was supposed to was a portrait of the family. It had a huge wooden beam over it that fell over it, and, strangely, it protected it from the fire. It was only a little scorched at the edges, so they hung it in there…maybe Hector would let us take a look tomorrow—" Hector was still banging his head on the rock, extremely frustrated. "—Just to check it out. I don't really remember the story that well, but someone there might be able to tell you more about it."
"You know what? I can't remember their names, either. That's sort of pathetic, considering I was almost betrothed to the little boy," Priscilla mused.
"Really?" Erk said, surprised.
"Yes, but then people started to protest against arranged marriages, so it didn't work out that well…I don't know if he's alive or not, anyway, so that relationship is pretty much dead, wouldn't you say?"
"I guess so," Pent remarked with raised eyebrows. "I think it'd be rather boring to be married to a dead person."
"Oh my goodness, we are so off course, it's not even funny…" Hector, who had a terrible headache, was saying when they arrived at Castle Reglay.
"That's all right…just be sure you don't sleep in too long," Eliwood quipped.
"Gah…we could go to Ostia from here. It's on our way now."
"Well, that's good. We could use some more supplies, anyway."
"…I knew we should've turned right at Albuquerque…"
"Oh, get over it," Lyn said, slapping him upside the head. "So, how far away is Kuivanen from here, Pent?"
"Not that far, actually. About a half hour's walk southwest…it's right on our way, Hector, don't worry," he added to Hector, who looked like he was about to object, before going on. "A lot of people thought that the bandits that destroyed Kuivanen were actually after my family but found the wrong city. It was lucky for us, of course, but not so lucky for them... Bandits are pretty stupid, so it's very possible."
"They were going to do that to Reglay?" Lyn gasped. "That would have been…disastrous! The entire country—no, the continent—"
"I know," Pent agreed grimly. "And you wouldn't have me. That's even worse."
About an hour later, nearly everyone was asleep. The only exceptions were Pent and Louise, who were talking to random people of Reglay that had missed them, and Erk, who was having some trouble getting to sleep. Not only did he feel weird sleeping alone in his own room, which he hadn't had the opportunity to experience in a very long while, but old memories—not very cheerful ones, mind you, as they were also the ones causing his nightmares—were bouncing around, coming out of their hiding places in his mind. After a while, feeling troubled, he got up, got dressed, and attempted to sneak out of the castle. He was almost to the door when someone's voice called his name.
"Erk?" Pent said quizzically, noticing him from the next room. "Where are you going?"
"Uh…I…" Erk quickly made something up that was partly true. "I'm going for a walk."
"Oh." Pent accepted this answer.
"Don't stay out too long, darling," Louise piped up as he opened the door. "We have to leave earlier than we usually do tomorrow."
"All right…" Erk replied, then walked outside, closing the door behind him. It was a very nice summer night outside; the temperature was perfect, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky to douse the light of the full moon as Erk wandered around, trying to look like he didn't have any particular destination in mind just in case Louise was babying him again and trying to make sure he was safe. Keeping a wary eye out for danger, he took the path leading roughly southwest…to Kuivanen.
He didn't know what he'd find there. He didn't even believe it to be completely safe. But he was going, anyway. He didn't want anyone to worry if he was gone a long time, though, so he picked up his pace a little bit and made it there in twenty minutes. A short distance away, the church stood on a hill, its stained glass windows shining brightly through the darkness and casting faintly colored shadows upon the ground.
It would really suck if I came all this way and the door was locked, Erk thought to himself, walking up to the ornate wooden doors. Reaching for the carved iron handle, he tested this theory and found that the doors were unlocked. After a tiny peek inside, Erk stepped quietly inside and eased the heavy door shut behind him. Taking care not to call any attention to himself, he looked around, noticing the many silver columns lining the walls with miniscule angels carved into their bases, the high, domed ceiling—
"Beautiful, isn't it?" a familiar voice said beside him. He wheeled around to face the source. He didn't realize anyone else was in there and was therefore very surprised. "Hello, little brother…"
Ha ha you're all going to hate me for stopping there, aren't you?
Pent: w00t…
Well, I think the suspense is hilarious, myself. See if you can solve anything from that and tell me what you think…chapter five will be along sometime…hopefully within the week…
Pent: w00t!
Oh, and just to clear things up for all you people who looked at the word 'Kuivanen' and freaked out, it's pronounced quee-vuh-nen; 'quee' as in queen, 'vuh' as in Vanessa, and 'nen' as in...er...nentist...quee-vuh-nen. XD
