Title: Girl Talk
Characters: Lyndis, Nino, Serra, Priscilla, and Lucius
Word Count: 1089 (darn, back to over 1000 words. :( )
Timeline: This is anytime after Chapter 27 (I think). Or whenever the heck Nino joins.
Summary: Nino reaches an important stage in her life and the other women try to explain it to her without much success.
Warning: This fic deals with a woman's monthly. So if you're uncomfortable with the subject, please skip it. But it's not graphic or anything.
Spoilers: Nothing too major.
Disclaimer: Intelligent Systems and Nintendo own the Fire Emblem series.
A/N: Good gosh, even I don't know where in heck this came from. My mind is just too weird. :P But I haven't updated in a while (I am sooooo sorry!) and this is all my retarded mind could come up with. And as soon as it did it wouldn't leave me alone. Go figure. :(

With a tired sigh Lyndis idly played with a worn but still serviceable quill. As the journey wore on it was getting more and more difficult to defeat Nergal's forces. Though Eliwood's Elite had overcome insurmountable odds it felt like they'd only done so by the skin of their teeth. To her it seemed that as soon as one challenge was conquered another would immediately pop up.

Currently Lyn was waiting for the tactician to return with her fellow Lords. They'd waited for Eliwood and Hector for an hour, and when they hadn't shown up, the tactician had volunteered to route them out.

Glad for this unlooked for quiet time Lyndis rested her head on the tactician's makeshift table. If she could only relax her eyes for a moment …

"Waaaaaah!"

Someone's crying soon became audible and it steadily grew louder. Lyndis immediately perked up and looked at the tent's entrance. It was roughly opened and, to her surprise and concern, Nino barged in.

The kind-hearted girl was weeping openly with tears streaming down her face. Her cheeks were red and she had her hands alternately covering and wiping her eyes.

"Nino! What's wrong?" Lyndis immediately rose from her seat and hurried over to the girl. She rested her hands on Nino's shoulders in a comforting gesture.

For several moments all the mage could do was cry and wail. It was a miracle that half the camp hadn't come over already to see what was the matter. Lyndis thanked Mother Earth that Jaffar hadn't heard Nino's distress either; there was no telling what the assassin would do.

"I-I'm bleeding!" the green-haired youth finally managed to say.

"What! Where? How?" Lyndis said, feeling panic blossoming in her chest. They had recently defeated another one of Nergal's Morph armies, but Lyndis hadn't heard of anyone getting seriously injured.

"W-when I went, hiccup, t-to the lat-latrines, I-I saw blood on my dress!" she managed to choke out despite hiccups, tears, and a tight throat. Nino parted her cloak and showed Lyn her dress. Indeed there was some blood there in one particular spot.

"Did you get hurt during the battle this afternoon?" Lyndis probed further.

Nino just shook her head no.

"I see," Lyndis said getting a suspicion on what Nino's affliction was. "Do you hurt anywhere else?"

"Um hmm," Nino sniffed loudly. She felt terrible, all achy and weak. Everything seemed to be sore, especially her stomach, hips, and abdomen. She knew she was making Lady Lyndis anxious, but Nino was really afraid she was going to die. And she had no idea why.

"I think I know what's the matter," Lyndis smiled in relief. "Don't worry Nino, it's completely natural. But I'll see if I can find a healer anyway. Wait right here."

Hastily exiting the tent Lyndis looked around for Serra or Priscilla. As luck would have it she spotted the two healers walking together not far from the tactician's tent. Serra was talking loudly as usual while Priscilla was politely nodding her head every so often.

"Serra! Priscilla!" Lyndis shouted and waved her arm vigorously. "Can you come here for a moment?"

"Of course!" Serra exclaimed and marched towards Lyndis. Priscilla followed behind her resignedly.

"What can we help you with, Lady Lyndis?" the red-haired noble inquired courteously.

"I need one of you to check on Nino," Lyndis said while turning around to return to the tactician's tent. "It seems she's had her first … flows."

Though Lyndis had hers for a few years now the topic still made her blush. An older tribeswoman had explained it to her when she first had hers; her own mother hadn't felt comfortable explaining it. The conversation had been quick, very hush-hush. They hadn't spoken of it afterwards, and Lyndis felt embarrassed talking about it with Nino.

She was glad Serra and Priscilla were there with her. Surely they would know how to handle this; they were women and healers after all.

They entered the tent to find Nino miserably sniffing and whimpering in distress.

"Dear Nino, what's the matter?" Priscilla asked kindly as the trio surrounded the youngest female in the army.

"Uh, she has her first flows," Lyndis repeated, her cheeks tinged pink.

"Her what?" Serra asked with a frown.

"That is the Sacaen word for her … condition," Lyndis winced. "I think Lycian women call it a woman's courses?"

"Oh!" Serra said with widened eyes. Priscilla just turned a brilliant shade of red.

"Well!" Serra began, getting into the topic. She'd been fortunate enough to have this explained to her by one of the older girls in the orphanage. They had talked about this topic with gusto, seeing as how it marked their entrance into womanhood, and so now could begin looking for husbands in order to get out of that hellhole.

Without warning the pink haired cleric launched into a speech about Nino's condition in a voice so loud and excited that it made Lyndis wince. She desperately prayed that the men of the camp were somewhere else, and Priscilla had turned even redder at Serra's vocabulary.

Seeing Lyndis and Priscilla's stunned and distressed faces, Nino's earlier terror increased tenfold.

'So I was right!' she thought in abject horror. 'I am going to die!'

She immediately began to wail again, this time in a volume and pitch that surely carried over to the other side of camp.

Upon hearing her Serra stopped her 'explanation' while Lyndis and Priscilla frantically tried to sooth the young girl.

"Now, now, what's this?" a gentle voice broke into the ruckus. The older females looked up and saw Lucius standing at the open tent entrance.

"I'm going to bleed to death!" Nino moaned in between her tears.

"No! No!" Lyndis broke in. "She's got it all wrong! She's just having her first flows."

"Ah," the blond smiled. Entering into the tent he walked up to Nino and took her wet hands in his. "It's nothing to be afraid of, my dear. And you won't die."

"I won't?" Nino asked weakly.

"No, of course not," Lucius said. He took one look at the baffled/panicked faces around him and (wisely) decided to step in.

The monk calmly began to explain to Nino just what was happening to her body. In time the girl stopped crying, and even Serra and Priscilla were raptly listening to him.

Lyndis sighed in relief. She was so glad that Lucius was with them. He surely knew how to handle this, even though he was a man and a monk.