This was written as an entry for a competition in the FESS forums. Basically, you had to write up a fic about a FE character that you hated or at least never wrote about. When I started this, I loathed Dorothy. But when I finished, I found that I had grown rather fond of her, as well as the DorothyxSaul pairing.

This is my first romance fic too. Funny it should be with her.

Writing whilst listening to Hack/Sign music is fun and good for the imagination

An Arrow to Thy Heart

A One-Shot Fire Emblem Fanfic by Kiri-Ryu

The bowstring was slowly pulled back until it was taut and the yew trembled faintly with the tension. She sighted down the notched arrow at the makeshift target: a tree knot with a dash of red in the centre. Her breathing slowed down and she listened to the soft beating of her heart. She focused her sights on the knot and let loose the arrow. It streaked forward: a lightning bolt made of wood arcing towards its target. The loud "thunk" of an arrow hitting wood echoed around the valley. The archer lowered her bow, her eyes focused on the quivering arrow in the tree.

Dorothy sighed forlornly and trudged over to the tree branch that the arrow had landed in, which was at least 7 feet away from the knot she had been aiming at. She was normally quite good with her bow, missing the target rarely and even then only by a small distance. But her aim had recently begun to deteriorate to the point that she was in more danger of hitting her friends and team-mates than the enemy. It had gotten so bad that Roy had asked her to sit the previous two skirmishes out. She felt disheartened and useless. Not to mention that a certain blue haired priest never appreciated her work. She was always there, protecting him. But as soon as the danger was over, he was chasing the skirt of another woman in the army. Tears of anger and hopelessness welled up in Dorothy's eyes, but she blinked them away. There was no use for tears of any sort in a war.

She reached the arrow that she had shot. She winced: it had lodged itself fairly deep in the wood of the tree. It would be hard to get out. She flexed her fingers before she wrapped them around the arrow shaft. She took a deep breath, placed her feet firmly on the ground and pulled.

Nothing.

She gritted her teeth, tightened her grip and pulled harder. The arrow would still not budge. Finally, she placed her feet on the trunk of the tree and used her legs as extra leverage to try to wrench the arrow free. Her hands suddenly slipped, running along the length of the arrow shaft and over the fletching. She fell backwards, landing painfully on one of the tree roots sticking out of the ground. Her hands throbbed as angry red welts appeared where her hands had run over the fletching. Tears once again welled in her eyes, more at the unfairness of life than of the pain. She tried so hard and all life did was scorn her. Where was the mercy of St. Emiline?

'Here.'

A hand was thrust before her, fingers outstretched. She stared at in bewilderment before accepting it. She was pulled up off the ground and found herself standing before the normally stoic Sacaen: Shin. He looked at her with sympathy in his green eyes, she flushed red with embarrassment. It was bad enough that she had fallen trying to retrieve her arrow, but to know that someone had been watching her? And that someone was one of the best archers in the army. Her earlier depression welled up on her. It would have been better if she had just remained at the monastery. It was all Saul's fault that she was here. If he hadn't been chasing after the Princess, they would still be there…

Dorothy was brought back to reality when pain once again flared in her hands. She winced and instinctively pulled her hand back. She looked at it to see that it had been half bandaged. She looked up to see Shin looking calmly at her, the rest of the bandage in his hands. Embarrassed, she gave him her hand again. Wordlessly, he continued to wrap up her hand.

'Err,' she murmured shyly, looking away from him. 'Thank you.'

The Sacaen man said nothing in return. Dorothy thought it incredibly rude of him to do so, but said nothing. She did not want to make him angry at her, so she kept her opinions to herself.

'Done.' Shin moved away from her. Dorothy looked at her bandaged hands. They still throbbed underneath the cloth wrappings, but it was much better than the flat pain that had been there before. She moved her fingers and found that she still had quite a bit of movement in them, easily enough to allow her to still use her bow.

She was disturbed from her musings when she heard a soft grunt. She looked up from her hands to see Shin pulling at her stuck arrow with one hand. After a few seconds the tree finally relinquished its grip. Shin walked over to her and handed her the arrow, which she looked at in amazement. What she couldn't do using all her strength, the Sacaen had done with only one hand.

'I can't thank you enough.' Dorothy started to say. 'You've bandaged my hand, retrieved my arrow…' She stopped, unable to find the words to thank him properly. He may be anti-social, but at least Shin was kind to her. Unlike Saul, who was too social for his own good and paid no attention to her whatsoever.

'If you want to aim better, try imagining the face of someone you hate on the target.' Shin told her.

She looked at his face, trying to read past its emotionless exterior. Nothing. The Sacaen moved off, not giving her a second thought. Dorothy watched him leave and then turned once again to her bow.

Although her hands still throbbed painfully, she was determined to get it right. She once again notched the arrow and drew back the bowstring. She looked along the arrow shaft towards the tree knot target. She then imagined the face of a certain blue haired priest where the knot was. She let go of the string and watched the arrow streak forward. It made a sharp whistling sound as it cut through the air, moving quickly towards its target. There was a loud, satisfying "thunk" as the arrow hit the tree. Dorothy smiled for the first time that day. She carefully placed her bow on the ground and went to pull out the arrow from the centre of the knot.

­--

Chaos raged around her and the sound of steel hitting steel rang in her ears. This was the first battle Dorothy had been in for two weeks and she was a little disorientated by all the action around her. She had her bow notched by her side and she glanced around the battlefield, looking for a target to shoot at. A lone mage caught her eye, his hands splayed wide in the midst of his spellcasting. She set her sighs on the robed man and drew back the bowstring. She loosed the arrow which arced towards its target. The mage stopped his casting as an arrow lodged itself in his upper arm. He was then finished off by one of the melee fighters up ahead. Dorothy sighed and notched another arrow. Would it never end?

'Oi, Freckles!' Dorothy turned around to see Garret, a reformed bandit and a member of the army, shouting at her.

'W-what?' She answered a little nervously. She didn't like the former bandit much. He made her feel nervous and uncomfortable.

'Grab yer bow and back me up!' Garret snapped impatiently, clutching his axe and wading fourth into battle. Dorothy raised her bow and followed the bald man's movements. Every time a person got too near him, Dorothy would fire an arrow. Each one struck true, either killing the soldier outright or wounding him enough so that he was discouraged from attacking the axe-fighter.

A shadow flickered overhead. Dorothy looked up, scanning the skies. But she saw nothing so she returned to backing up Garret. She was about to fire another arrow when she was suddenly buffered by powerful winds. She looked up once again, only to find her view blocked by a rather large wyvern. The creature roared loudly, deafening Dorothy and anyone around her. Screaming her fear, Dorothy raised her bow and fired at the beast. The arrow flew up a short distance before it was knocked back by the buffering winds. The wyvern arched its neck and then plummeted towards Dorothy, forelegs outstretched. She reached into her quiver and pulled out another arrow, firing it once again towards the colossal beast approaching her. No effect.

A single person screamed out her name: a scream of worry and horror. She would have turned to see who it was if she was not focused on the pair of razor sharp talons that were moving rapidly towards her instead. She tried to move away, but the wyvern was too close and she really had nowhere to run. The talons of the wyvern slashed through her soft leather clothes and into her flesh. Pain flooded through her body, and she stared in shock at the huge creature looming in front of her. Darkness crept around the edges of her vision, eventually engulfing her.

'DOROTHY!' The voice screamed again. She hung on to the words, wondering whose they were, before she slipped into blissful, painless darkness.

--

Dorothy slowly opened her eyes, then closed them quickly to shut away the bright, blinding light. She sat up, resting her back against the back of the bed. Bed? She tried to remember what had happened to her. Ah, the wyvern. She immediately raised her hand to fell where the wyvern's talons had slashed through her body. The area was sore, but whole. Strange, that had been a fatal wound. Normally, healing magic wouldn't be able to heal something of that magnitude. Not that she was ungrateful to be alive, it just technically she shouldn't be. She swung her legs off the bed and stood up. But a wave of dizziness flowed over, forcing her to fall back once again on the bed. Her injuries ached and nausea washed over her. She closed her eyes, took in beep breaths and tried to will it to go away. She heard footsteps, followed by a surprised gasp.

'Dorothy! You're awake!'

Dorothy opened one eye to see Elen at the entrance of the tent; her eyes wide open in surprise. The priestess rushed into the tent and moved to the side of Dorothy's bed.

'How are you feeling?' Elen asked

'Sore.' Dorothy responded hoarsely. 'What… what happened?'

'When the wyvern attacked you, we all thought that you where going to die.' Elen looked away, as if ashamed to admit it. 'I had tried everything in my arts, but nothing seemed to work. But then…' She trailed off.

'What?' Dorothy pressed the priestess, wanting to know why she was still alive.

'Saul. He nearly killed himself healing that wound. He used all the charges on the staff he had been using, and when that ran out… Well, I think he used his own life force.'

Dorothy couldn't believe what she was hearing. Saul? The uncaring, insensitive priest? Saving her life by using up his own? She sat silently, contemplating this information.

'…How long have I been unconscious for?' She finally asked, looking up to Elen. The priestess fidgeted with the staff in her hands nervously.

'About two weeks now.' She eventually answered. 'Saul's visited you every day. He's even stopped flirting with all the other women in the army. It's so unlike him.' Elen shook her head. 'Now, I know you probably want to go and see him, but I'd like to check your injury first.'

Dorothy nodded, lifting up part of the loose shirt she was wearing to reveal the still-healing wound. She felt a dull pain as Elen prodded it lightly, testing to see how well it had healed. But Dorothy barely noticed; her mind was on other things.

--

Dorothy searched around the camp, walking slowly in case the barely healed wound broke open. The people she passed watched her with surprise and worry on their faces. She was asked if it was a good idea to be moving around just after she had woken up, she responded by telling them she was fine. She looked around, searching for him. She saw Rei and Sophia sitting together, talking softly with one another. She noticed Klein teaching Tate how to shoot a bow properly, his hands over hers as he showed her the correct way to aim. And she glimpsed Fir duelling Noah, their blades dancing and large smiles on their faces.

But she did not see Saul.

She asked the nearest person, Zeis, if he had seen him. The wyvern knight told her that he had noticed him a few minutes ago on the west side of the camp by a tree stump. She thanked him and moved in that direction.

Saul was still there, sitting silently with the sunset light dancing on his face. He seemed melancholy, an emotion that Dorothy had rarely seen on him. His eyes had large, black rings around them and he looked fatigued. Dorothy walked slowly up to him, he turned around and saw her. His eyes opened wide in surprise and shock. He opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out.

'Why did you do it?' Dorothy asked, looking away and grasping her left arm with her right hand. 'You had no reason to save me. I… I'm just a burden. It's not as if you care about me anyway.'

She felt tears well up in her eyes and spill down her cheeks, but she ignored them. 'I'm always by our side, protecting you from anything that tries to attack. But as soon as the battle is over, you run off to seduce the other women in the army! I'm nothing to you, so why did you save my life?

'All I am is dead weight that everyone else has to carry around. There are better archers here than me and certainly better people. I'm shy, I can't speak my mind, my limbs are too long and my hair always knots when it's long, so I have to cut it short and that makes me look like a boy. I can't even do what I want to do in life. Did you know that for as long as I can remember I've wanted to be a healing cleric of St. Emiline? No, you didn't because no-one cares about-'

Saul stood there listening to her sorrowful words with a calm expression. The priest stood up, walked calmly up to his crying protector and placed his lips on hers.

Dorothy was thoroughly surprised; out of all the things she had expected Saul to do this was near the bottom of her list. All complains and sorrows were drawn from her mind, drained away by Sauls kiss. She slumped slightly, but was caught by the priest's arms. After what seemed to be an eternity, Saul finally separated from her.

'Dorothy,' He said, looking into her eyes, a smile playing on his features. 'The longings of the flesh and the passions of the heart may share the same name, but they are quite different.'

'I-I…' Dorothy stuttered, trying to find words but failing.

'It is fate… no… divine intervention from St. Emiline that has brought us together. You cannot use healing staves because if you could, we would never have met, see?' He smiled that lopsided, confident smile of his. 'You would have remained at your church and healed people like the other priestesses, and you would never have been assigned to protect me.'

He carefully let go of her, wiped the remnants of her earlier tears away from her cheeks and kissed her lightly on the forehead. He then turned away and began to slowly walk towards the camp. Dorothy simply stood there, trying to comprehend what had just happened. She couldn't decide if she was angry at Saul for kissing her or if she was pleased because he did. She was full of mixed emotions. Was he lying? What if she accused him when he wasn't? Was he just trying to seduce her to his bed or was this something… more? She could still taste his lips on hers.

She eventually came to a decision. What was life without risk? Saul did have a point, there had to be a reason why she had never been able to use the healing staves. And his excuse was as plausible as anything else. It made sense too. She realised that she did care about the wayward priest, perhaps even loved him. Did she dare loose this by suspecting him of misleading her?

'Saul! Wait!' She called, running forward to catch up with him. Whatever proved to be true, she was still his protector, his guardian. She would remain by his side until this war was over, perhaps even longer. Her arrows would pierce the hearts of any who tried to come near them.

But this time it was Saul's arrow that had pierced her heart. She found that she didn't really mind that at all.

I had a lot of fun writing this. It was an interesting challenge and gave me an excuse to take a break from my exams.

Please, tell me what you think and how I can improve this. As stated before, it's my first time writing romance and I'd love some feedback and tips. And the more feedback I can get, the better I can make it.