So, right now I'm writing this in Notepad, because this computer
doesn't have Microsoft Word. This is going to need a lot of getting
Used to; after all, now I have to press 'enter' after every row I
type; if I don't, the paragraph will run off the window and it'll be
hell trying to read. Arrgh . . . do I need a beta now, to proofread
everything in case I made spelling or grammar mistakes?

Okay. Well, I am still on vacation, but I'm writing this anyway. Just
because you're all such wonderful people. (hugs reviewers) I don't
have internet access right now, so I'm going to miss reading your
reviews (over and over again . . .) or reading your stories (over and
over again . . .)

Oh heck. I need to start the story now. So, it's the usual; I don't
own Fire Emblem, though I do share a shrine with RianneHime that is
still developing. Argh, I don't even own that by myself. Not that I
really care; RianneHime even listens to my Wil-ish rants! (like the
one I'm making right now!) Okay! On with the story!

----------------

Chapter Seven

----------------

Nino sat and waited, former plans of matchmaking currently forgotten.
She was still angry at Scourge for strangling her, even if she was
still alive and in better condition than a lot of the other people in
the group. She traced circles on the rough ground underneath her. One
of the circles, she noticed, was shaped a little like Scourge's head.
In fury, the young mage lit the circle with a bright blue flame.

Everybody else ignored her as best as they could, for most had their
own problems. Heath, for instance, had finally gotten over being tied
to someone he had just barely become friends with, but was now
frustrated over how he was going to eat.

"Legault," Heath stated almost lazily. The thief craned his neck at
him. "Why is it that I have to starve to keep you from picking the
lock?"

Legault shrugged. "You know what, we're prisoners. We're not exactly
resting first class here. You have to starve, I have to starve too."

"I guess." Heath shivered. "Lucius is lucky; his cell is warm. I think
the breeze blows into ours." He glanced out at the single window at
the end of the room, its purpose unknown for the lack of light it
provided; it was also much too high up for any human being to see out
of. The breeze did indeed blow into Heath and Legault's cell. Heath
shivered again, and Legault finally took pity on the wyvern rider.

"Heath, if you're cold, you could lean a little back," The thief offered.

Heath raised an eyebrow. "I doubt this will do anything," he said, but,
desperate to achieve warmth in any way possible, obliged.

"Okay..." Legault looked at Heath, and a few gears turned. "Turn to the
side a little."

"Like this?" The green-white head rolled to his side, and Legault had
to lean slightly back himself to help the other man with his actions.

"Yes," Legault grunted slightly, as he scooted a little closer to the
binds to make things easier. "Okay, now... if I step on you, I'm-"

"Ow!" Heath winced as Legault accidentally sat on his hands.

Legault's eyes widened slightly. "Sorry!" More gently this time, he
continued to loop his arms through his legs, and with much sliding and
many 'Ouch!'s from Heath, Legault managed to slip his tied up hands
from his back to his front. "You can sit up now."

He glanced at Heath's back, and for a moment, his lips formed a
Matthew smile. "Heath? Sit still and don't panic, okay? Bear in mind
I'm doing this to warm you up."

The green-white head bobbed up and down, though it's owner was having
some second thoughts. "Wait, what is that tone of voice implying?"

Legault stood up slowly and walked until he was standing in front of
Heath. The wyvern rider looked away; if he looked straight at Legault,
he would have a good view of . . . well, ahem.

Legault sat down, bringing his tied-up arms around Heath's body, and
his smile broadened. "Here, almost done." The thief slowly rested his
chin against the other man's left shoulder, pressing himself against
him in the process. "Mmmm . . . warm enough for you . . .?" he asked.

Heath could have sworn his heart skipped a hundred beats. He sweated a
little at the close contact and gulped a little, perfectly aware that
he was helpless in this situation. He hated being helpless, even with
allies, but . . . without really knowing why, he leaned closer to the
thief. "Meh . . . too warm for me . . . but . . ." He paused to take a
few deep breaths; for some reason, he was having trouble breathing,
"But . . . I don't . . . mind . . ."

"Mmmmm . . ." Legault closed his eyes in satisfaction, momentarily
forgetting everything but the other's heat against him.

From across the room, Wil and Serra were looking over at the certain
cell that contained the two. "Um . . . Heath? Legault?" Wil leaned a
little more, trying to see into the darkness of the cage. "What ARE
you two doing in there?"

Heath jerked back in embarassment, and let out an equally embarassing
yelp as an equally surprised Legault fell on top of him.

Of course, Nino had heard Wil's comment, and had decided to check on
those two. She squeezed through the gap in the bars for the second
time that evening and lit a small fire in her palm, which she held up
to light the cell. She almost extinguished the flame with her laughter,
and listened as Wil and Serra gasped in surprise and horror. And, she
had to admit, it was a rather odd sight.

Heath was lying on his back, hands tied behind him and face hot enough
to boil a pot of ice. Legault was lying on top of him, with his arms
wrapped around his cellmate and the side of his head planted into
Heath's chestplate.

"C . . . c . . ." Serra stuttered, showing a rare sight of being lost
for words. "C . . . could you do that . . . some other time? L- like,
when nobody else is around?"

Legault sat up quickly, dragging Heath up with him. "We weren't . . .
it wasn't what it looked like!" He sputtered, therefore being very
un-Legault-like. "Oof!" he added when Heath landed on him and they fell
over all over again, this time in reversed roles.

Nino crawled back into her own cell and giggled again, although this
time the other two joined her.

Luckily, Heath was able to slip his own arms through his legs, as
Legault had done, and pulled this friend up with as little strength as
he could, in case they toppled over again. The purple haired man locked
eyes with him and sighed. "It's going to be hell trying to sleep."

The door opened and the awake people glanced at it again, but a
different person walked in, and this time it was Priscilla who tensed
up and sent a glare.

"Good evening, poor victims!" The young man cried, genuinely cheerful
at the glum looks and groans from his salutation. "I'm Cylt, and I'll
be your host today for . . . you'll never guess what . . . DINNER!"
He thew a loaf of bread into every cell with precise aim and placed
the pitcher of water at the closest cell, which happened to be Serra's.
"You can pass the water from cell to cell," he intructed. "And if you
victims run out of water before the pitcher reaches the last person,
well," He threw back his head and laughed. "That's too bad for you!"
He walked out of the room, still laughing. "Have a nice dinner!" he
cracked, and shut the door rather loudly. Everybody moaned, and several
of them inspected their bread.

"Ungh. This horrible bread is worse than the mushrooms I had to eat
prior to meeting Matthew," a male voice called out. "And while I'm
complaining, Why am I wearing this red-white tunic, and why does my
head hurt like hell?"

Wil looked over to his left and squinted. "Guy?" He watched as the
Sacaen bit into his bread, chewed resentfully, swallowed, paled by
many shades, and fainted over. He stared at his own piece. "Is
anyone sure this stuff is safe to eat? He just took a bite, and
fainted over."

Everyone held their bread at arm's length upon hearing this news.
Luckily, the door opened once more, and Scourge's familiar head poked
in. "Hey!" the assassin panted, scurrying inside and closing the door
softly behind him. He carried so many items in his arms that the
people close by (Serra, Nino, Lucius) began to wonder how he had
managed to walk. He dumped the items gently on the ground and sorted
them out. Nino watched in disbelief as he handed dish upon dish of
delicious quality food and several bottles of beer to different cells.

Serra even licked her lips and said, "Now, this is food worthy of an
elegant beauty like me!" and dug in as soon as Scourge handed her a
fork.

"Great!" Heath grunted. "Now the question returns; how are Legault and
I expected to eat if we can't use our hands?!?"

Scourge walked over to their cell and took out a ring of keys. He
inserted one of them in and unlocked the cell, then untied the bonds
holding the two together. Heath and Legault both rubbed their wrists,
and Heath finally smiled for the first time all day. "Finally! I can-"

He was inturrupted by a snapping sound, as Legault's hands were chained
to the back wall and locked. Legault's eyes flashed with anger. "So I
have to starve?" He demanded.

Scourge looked guilty, and glanced over at Heath. "Green-head," he
addressed. "What's your name?"

"Heath."

"Okay," Scourge pointed at Heath, then pointed at Legault. "Heath, you
can feed him." He walked out of the cell and locked it again, ignoring
the look of disbelief on Heath and Legault's faces.

"Wait," Lucius said, interrupting the other people's lunches. "What do
we do with the bread? I mean, if they come back and see that we haven't
eaten the bread, won't they get a little suspicious?"

Scourge froze for a few moments, during which time the silence was
filled with a sneezing fit (courtesy to Wil). Then, a little
reluctantly, held out his hands. "Give the bread to me. I'll eat it."

"What?!" Every person (awake) yelled, disbelieving.
"I saw what happened when Guy ate the bread!" Wil warned. "He only took
a bite and fainted over!"

"That was expected," Scourge stated plainly. "He is to be treated
gently during his waking moments; any overflow of emotion will cause
him to tip over. The bread is spoiled, but it won't kill me."

After hearing the explaination, everyone hesitantly handed their bread
to Scourge. They all watched as he held a piece of bread to his mouth
and took a bite. His face scrunched up as if he had just eaten a
lemon, but he swallowed the mouthful and took another bite. After he
finished the bread, everybody was convinced he wasn't going to topple
over anytime soon and went back their own food (or, in Heath's case,
back to both his and Legault's food).

"This is good."

"Mmm, hmmm."

"Finally! A meal worthy of my beauty, as I must say again!"

"Achoo!"

"It's good, I guess . . ."

"Why do I have to feed Legault?"

"You think you have it bad, Heath? At least you can eat by yourself,
and not have to suffer through this humiliation."

"You think this isn't humiliating? Huh? Huh?"

Scourge choked on the piece of bread he had been eating and looked over
at Heath and Legault's cell. " Will you two shut up? If you're too
loud, the others will find me here!" He paused, and as an afterthought,
added, "And I know it sounds very dumb, but you two argue like a
married couple."

It was the thief and wyvern rider's turn to cough, and cough they did.

----------------

The next morning, Lyn, Eliwood, and Hector woke everybody up early.
Some of the late sleepers weren't too happy, but they didn't complain,
for it might have cost them several things. Hector paced around the
army and glared at certain people who still looked tired; Eliwood was
giving a pep talk to some of the people from Pharae; Lyn was sitting
on the rug and looked as if she were planning some strategy. It was
not a happy morning. There were also some shocks; for instance, when
Matthew walked into the room wearing a black cut top, or when Rath
started practicing sword techniques in a far-off corner. Merlinus
complained about the Hero Crest and Guiding Ring that had gone missing
over the night. The scariest part was that the girls finally noticed
that Sain had left them alone for an entire day.

After a long time, Eliwood finally cleared his throat, and everyone
looked at him. He looked to Hector, who stopped pacing and went to
stand to his right, and to Lyn, who got up and stood to his left.
Eliwood faced his audience again and spoke. "Okay. So far, we don't
know how to get to the 'Hidden Fort' that the abductors talked about.
So, does anybody have ideas as to how we could find our way there?"

Several murmurs were heard as different members of the army discussed
tactics of tracking or searching. But as the talking stopped, nobody
seemed to have been able to come up with a plan. Eliwood looked from
person to person, hoping that someone had an idea, but his hope
evaporated when nobody seemed to know what to do. He sighed. "Alright.
So maybe we could just search the land for them. A fortress shouldn't
be that hard to find."

The army groaned, as the task sounded long and tiring.

-----------------

". . . Of all the people, why did I get stuck with you?" Matthew
complained as he watched Karel jump from one patch of grass to another.
". . . You could at least help search."

Karel glanced at his searchmate as he rubbed a blade of blood-
splattered grass. The former theif looked very spooky now. Not only did
he dress in a tight cut-top and wore his cape on the back instead of to
the side like before, but there was a sort of haunted look in his eyes-
it made the once-cheery man look creepily like Jaffar. The way he spoke
was also similar; quiet and calm, with only a hint of the old Matthew.

". . . Well?" Matthew walked to where Karel was. ". . . No matter how
many times you rub it, it's still going to be a blade of grass . . ."

Well. Some of the old Matthew was back. "It has blood on it." Karel
continued to rub the blade of grass. "By the smell, the same blood as
from the tapestry yesterday."

". . . What did you say?" The assassin behind him asked. ". . . Say
that again. . ." He was now kneeling next to Karel, staring blankly at the
grass as if it would help him find the Hidden Fort.

"I said it has blood on it."

". . ." Matthew whapped him on the head. ". . . After that. . . about
the tapestry? Is it . . . from the tapestry. . .?"

"Yes," Karel stated bluntly, as if it were obvious. "Would it come from
a different source, with this smell?"

With amazing speed and strength the Sword Demon didn't even know
Matthew possessed, the other man lifted him clean off the ground and
shook him. "Is there any more of that smell here. . .?"

"How did you know?" Karel clearly was shocked. "There is a long string
of this smell, trailing across the grass, almost like a path."

Matthew almost dropped him. The assassin stared, wide-eyed, into
Karel's face, then put him down and ran toward the castle. ". . .Stay
there. . .!"

-----------------

"Any luck?" Hector asked as he met up with Lyn and Eliwood. "Did
anybody have any clues that might help us find the Hidden Fort?"

"Not yet," Eliwood replied worriedly. "I'm starting to think we'll
never find them. . ."

Lyn shook her head and placed a hand on the redhead's back. "Don't say
that. It may be too early to give up just yet. I'm sure we'll find
something."

Just after she said that, Matthew appeared. Hector's eyebrows went up.
"What is it, Matthew?"

". . ." The assassin looked to the direction he had run from. ". . .
Karel says he smells a trail of blood, Sir Hector. . ."

"Yes, yes, what else is new? Stop wasting time and go search- "

"You don't understand, sir. . ." Matthew interruped. ". . . Karel says
it's Guy's blood. If. . . if he was indeed bleeding, he would have left
a trail of blood as he was taken to the Hidden Fort. . ."

Matthew watched as this information sunk in. Hector's expression
changed from frustrated and angry to happy and hopeful. "Man, am I glad
I hired you two," he stated, and turned to Lyn and Eliwood. "Tell
everyone to move to. . . where were you two searching, anyway,
Matthew?"

Matthew pointed silently at the training fields. Hector nodded. "To the
training fields, and to meet us there!" He ran after Matthew back to
the training fields to meet the army.

-----------------

Gaaaaargh, so there. (sweatdrop) Some action. . . sort of. Don't worry,
I'll bring the real Matthew back later. This Matthew creeps me out.
(shudder) I'm sorry I took this long.

And, I want to say again to get off my back on spelling or grammar
mistakes, okay? (glares suspiciously at Auriyu) If anyone corrects my
grammar or spelling, I'm sending them an email with 'prat' written all
over it. (growls) And I think Karel might have been out of character. Oh well.

And hopefully, this is going to be the only chapter done on Notepad. I
am almost positive that the next chapters will be on Microsoft Word.
(Or that new program my mother's computer has.)

Review! Review! (sings a song) RianneHime, Amethyst Bubble, post--!!