Well, I've finally gotten around to updating! I hope this chapter is up to par!
Disclaimer: I do NOT own fire emblem, or any of the game's characters.
Behind the entrance gate to Castle Caelin, Kent sat patiently on his horse, waiting for the bandits to swarm the castle courtyard. The closer they got, the more the ground shook underneath his horse's feet.
Tightning his grip on his lance, Kent took a quick survey of the guards and troops that had gathered in the courtyard. Various guards who had been off duty at the time, had quickly thrown on armor and grabbed weapons. Most of them were now nerviously staring at the gate.
Kent couldn't deny the fact that he wasn't perfectly calm himself. When the ground shook because of a horde of bandits, the result couldn't be good. Finally, after minutes of watching anxiously, a large object (presumably a battering ram of some sort) began crashing into the gate.
Only minutes now.
The entire scene before him seemed in slow motion. The wooden gate had begun to shatter, sending splinters in all directions. With one resounding crack, the gate split into two, and bandits began flooding into the courtyard.
Guards ran through the courtyard against the oncoming wave of bandits, dodging and parrying axe blows. Kent stood near the end of the lines, waiting for the guards to come to him. It would be foolish to rush into anything at this point. With the enemy's number being as large as it was, if he were to head into the front lines, Kent knew that he would probably become surrounded.
Above the sound of the pouring rain, still coming down in heavy torrents as it had the night before, the sounds of heavy battle were heard. Blade met blade, and arrows could be heard snapping off their bow strings. The bandits had begun to infiltrate there way through the Caelin's defense, and now, the whole courtyard had become a battle.
Ducking his head down from an oncoming arrow, Kent's horse moved to his right, allowing him to get a shot at a bandit that had been harassing the nearby horses. His eyes watched the javelin has it hit its mark, and then he continued to move around the courtyard, helping out various people who had been double teamed.
An unusually tall bandit came running at Kent from behind, swinging his axe back and forth, which knocked some of the bandit's own allies onto the ground. When the bandit reached Kent, his horse reared up, knocking Kent off. His horse ran into the battle, leaving Kent on the hard stone of the courtyard. Towering above him was the tall bandit, axe held high above his head, ready to make a killing blow.
Just as the axe was about to drop down upon him, the bandit's grip loosened on his axe, and his eyes clouded over. Slowly, the bandit dropped onto his knees, and then to the ground. Deciding it was not the best idea to be on the ground in the middle of combat, Kent stood up, and picked up a sword several feet away.
Almost an entire day had passed since the battle had started, and Kent and the rest of the Caelin guards were still defending the raging attack from the merciless bandits. Weary from battle, but not letting his guard slipping, Kent moved into a position where he hoped he would be able to take a moment's rest.
Taking a survey of the battlefield, he noticed Lyn running down from the battlements into the courtyard. She must have ran out of arrows. Kent decided right then and there that he was ready to get back fighting. Wasting no time, Kent ran into battle with renewed energy, fighting his way to where he had last seen Lyn.
"To your right!" Sain yelled as he plowed through on his horse right beside Kent. "There doesn't seem to be an end of them!"
"That's stating the obvious, Sain."
"I've realized." He said, as he gave the courtyard a quick glance from his horse. "Well, I'd better be off." Sain paused, than added, "Wonderful weather we're having today."
At that moment, an arrow shot right passed Kent's head, just barely grazing his red hair. "It's not really your lucky day, is it?" Sain exclaimed before he rode into the battle. Kent knew that Sain probably had said that to put him in a lighter mood, but Kent knew the words more true than anything else he had said all day.
Lyn grimaced as an axe struck her in the side. It hadn't been a heavy hit, but it was a wound none the less. Carefully watching the bandit in hopes that his body would give away his attack before it came, she easily parried a blow from a neighboring bandit. Fatigue stretched through out her whole body. How much longer could they defend the castle before they all collapsed from exhaustion?
She wondered what the scene would look like from the battlements. Did their chance of victory seem as miniscule as it did from the ground? Maybe the bandits had over run the courtyard, and there were only a few Caelin knights left to defend? If that were the case, where were they, and did they feel as weary as she did?
Out of the corner of her eye, Lyn saw Kent charge into a bandit, knocking the bandit onto the ground. He abruptly span around, lance swinging into another bandit that had come after him. Suddenly, she felt a heavy piece of metal slam into her back.
Amidst all of his fighting, Kent was the first to see Lyn fall. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as he tried to disable the bandit who had knocked her to the cobblestone pavement of the courtyard. After a split second of running towards her, he realized that there was no way he could make it in time before the bandit would have already preformed the finishing blow.
He couldn't stand the thought of losing her, even more so the fact that he would never have the chance to tell her how he felt. If we both get out of this alive, I'll tell her the moment I see her next that I love her.
Grabbing a spear that had been discarded earlier on the ground, Kent threw it with all the strength he could muster. The spear struck it's mark, and the bandit fell to the ground besides Lyn. When he had finally reached her, his heart was racing. Was it possible she was already dead?
Kent lifted her up and carried her up to the top of the battlements. At least up there, bandits wouldn't be able to strike her down if she was still alive, he thought to himself. The scene below had instantly changed when he reached the top, though, and at that point Kent knew that the battle would be ending in several minutes, Caelin being victorious.
The remainder of the bandits had scattered, and even now, Kent could see some of them running down the hills that led up to the castle. Maybe they hadn't been expecting so much resistance when they had attacked. He would probably never know. All that mattered at that moment was getting Lyn to safety.
Lyn's eyes flickered open for a minute, and Kent looked down into them and kneeled down so that he would be able to talk to her if she had the energy too.
"Did we win?" She said softly, making her voice hard to hear above the clatter of swords and axes down below.
He seacrched his mind, trying to come up with a decent answer. "It seems that the remainder of the bandits have fled." He then added, "So yes, Caelin proved victorious."
At that, Lyn shifted her weight, intaking a sharp breath. "It would be wiser to stay in one position until help arrives."
"I trust you Kent... I've never had a reason not to." She said, a faint smile on her face. Lyn's eye's dropped shut, and for a second, Kent thought that she might have passed away. He soon heard her calm breathing which sent a wave of relief through his body. Tomorrow.
All through the last few hours of the day and late into the night, Kent sat in a chair located in the corner of the infermery. After he had carried Lyn up the long and twisting steps, he had no later walked into the large room when he nearly collapsed from exhaustion. Two nurses had immediatly come to his aide, and with their help he was able to get her to a bed nearby. He had told them to treat her first, but only after he said that did an old woman with light gray hair come up to him with a cup of steaming tea.
"It should relax your nerves." The woman said, handing him the cup, she then added, "You look pretty shooken up. Why don't you go lay down for awhile?"
Kent had kindly declined her offer, and then he had stumbled over to the chair. Since then, he had been sitting in the dark corner of the room, watching the various activities around the room and seeing who out of Caelin's guards had been wounded. Eventually, when the entire room had become dark, the nurses lit small pale candles that had been placed on various tables around the room. Again, the old woman approached him.
"It's not healthy for a young man such as you to not get any sleep, especially after the day you've had today." The nurse left for a minute to pull a chair over from another spot along the wall. Placing the chair in front of him, she sat down.
"I appreciate the company," Kent began, "but I'm wondering why you brought a chair over. Surely you want to get back to your room and get several hours of sleep."
"With all of the rain, we've been a little, short of people. Apparently people suddenly get sick when it starts to rain. I'm going to be here all night anyway." She took a glance in the direction Kent was looking in. With a small smile she said, "She'll be fine." Kent gave her a quizzical look, and the lady chuckled.
"You should learn to trust people more often. I've worked in this dull stone room for over twenty years, and I've never said that if I didn't mean it. Now why don't you go get some sleep yourself, otherwise your going to be the one in bed sick."
"That's okay ma'am. I'd rather stay up, and I really don't care if I'm ill in bed for the next week." Kent flashed her a faint smile, but the nurse wasn't convinced.
"Oh pish posh! If this young lady wakes up, and you're off in another room because your so sick you can't walk, you're going to be very upset with yourself. And don't call me ma'am, it makes me sound younger than I am. Just call me Edna."
"Well, Edna then, if I were that sick, I would no doubt be in the infermary." She nodded her head, and then he continued."And if that happens, I still get to see her every day until she leaves."
His tone must have sounded harsh, judging by the look on her face. It softened seconds later, just as quickly as the look had come. "It seems like I can't convice you." Edna started to stand up. "I really do think that you should get some sleep, but taking a wild guess from the last few minutes, I'm going to assume that you're going to be up all night."
Safe assumption. Kent knew that Edna was just trying her best to help, and he knew that she had his best interest in mind. He was so wracked with worry and fatigue though, that he had become a bit irratible.
"Lady Lyndis is very lucky to have a young man like you. Why, in my day, all the young men were so busy going from tavern to tavern, they didn't give a damn about how we felt!" And with that, Edna took her leave, walking around the corner, leaving Kent to himself and finally giving him some time to think.
Silverwolf099: So yeah, that's the chap. Thanks to everyone who reviewed!
Reviewer's Corner:
bakaschalanekochan: Yeah, I love the pairing too. And in my opinion, there's definatly not enough Kent/Lyn fics out there.
The Squeaky Wheel: I try to keep ppl in character, it doesn't always work, lol. I'm glad I did a good job with it last chap.
azn pride always: No, this isn't a one shot, obviously, since I added a chapter. Thanx for the review.
Demonslayer14: Hurricane Ivan, huh? that's gotta suck. Well, anyway, I'm gonna contiinue the story for a couple chapters, so yeah.
Wandering Cat: Yes, relativly generic bandits do bring the world together, that's why I just had toadd them into my fic! They also work well for long fight scenes. Who would've known?
Once again, thanks to you five! Please, everyone review! It only takes two minutes at the max, and I like to know if people liked my chapter or not! I'll try to update soon!