Disclaimer: I don't own FE and its peeps, only my characters
I'm gonna focus this chapter mostly on my own characters, because I don't know much about Dorcas and don't use him that much. I prefer using Dart and Bartre as my axe users.
THE TACTICIANS' WISH
Lyn's Tale Chapter 4: In Occupation's Shadow
It was late at night. Mitsuna just finished taking a shower, and went to her room to write a letter to her friends at the guild. When she closed the door to her room, however, a hand from behind her clasped her mouth. She struggled free of it and turned around, drawing out her sword to fight off the attacker.
"Long time no see, Mitsuna, was it?" asked the assassin, walking out of the shadows. His clothes were colored dark blue and black, and his face had a nasty scar on it. His blue eyes gave the girl a long piercing gaze.
"What do you want, Villa?" asked Mitsuna.
"Well, first to apologize for what happened at the guild. We didn't recognize you when my friends were going to rape you," was the assassin's reply. "But, I think you should apologize, too. Your friend apparently got 2 very valuable members caught. It's a shame really, Shiba and Pouten were very good soldiers."
"What else are you here for?" asked the girl in a cold tone.
"Well...I want you to drop your new identity, and embrace your old one and finish the job you were set out to do," was Villa's reply. "With the new laws of the Black Fang in place, we can't have our pretty little myrmidon act too late and fail, you know?" Mitsuna looked down at the ground, avoiding Villa's long gaze. "LOOK AT ME WHEN I'M SPEAKING TO YOU, WENCH!" shouted Villa, getting mad that the lower ranking Black Fang was not looking at him. He slapped her, and 2 lenses fell off Mitsuna's face. Mitsuna looked at him, but not with blue eyes, but with a piercing purple gaze that filled with hatred, rage, and sorrow. Villa panted from his outburst. "I suggest that you continue your mission now, if you want to keep your parents and yourself alive, Karla." He paused for a few seconds. "We also have a new mission for you. You are to kill this tactician; Lady Sonia thinks that he will be a threat to her plans. I've met him before, too, and he's a pretty good swordsman, almost matching my skill." He gave the girl a portrait of someone she knew too well. "You better not fail this one as well, wench" said Villa as he teleported away. Karla, no longer the lord Mitsuna with her disguise discarded by her superiors, cried.
'Father, Mother, I'm sorry...I'll keep looking for brother so he can help us get out of this mess alive,' cried Karla. She wondered why she even wanted to help her father at all. He was the one that sold the family to the assassin group. He was the one that kicked Karel out of the house at such a young age so he wouldn't have to spend money on the boy, and spend that money on booze. 'Things just keep getting worse. And now I have to kill...Hiro?' She sobbed hysterically on her bed. 'Hiro, why'd you have to be so STUPID to get in their way?'
After about an hour of crying, she finally recovered. She walked up, and changed into her myrmidon's clothes. She put on a silk white shirt, and put on a blue and purple Sacaean battle robe, with yellow threads lining the sides. The robe showed the slits of her finely shaped thighs, just like Lyn's. She then put on brown battle boots, and took out a rope from her satchel. She moved 2 locks of her hair so that they rested on the front side of her soldier rather than her back. She tied it to the windowsill, and slid down.
Hilda, who was still awake, looked out the window to catch a breath of fresh air. To her surprise, she saw a figure going down a rope from Mitsuna's room, which was right beside her's. It certainly looked like Mitsuna was going down the rope. Hilda then rushed out of her room to find her friend missing. She looked out the window, to see the figure run off into the distance.
Kyo finally woke up. He was worried about his adoptive sister. He thought back to the time when he was 11, 14 years ago when she was given to his family by a person cloaked in black. Kyo didn't think about it at the time, but after seeing that 2 people wearing the exact same cloak attacked him recently, he couldn't help but worry about Mitsuna. After all, what if they came back for her?
"So, yeah, I've figured out how to do it a few years back during training. All you have to do is focus all your magical energies into the sword, and figure out the command to make it work," said Odin, talking to Hiro. "This shouldn't be a problem for you since you're an accomplished mage."
"Ok, here goes nothing," said Hiro as he focused his magic onto his Muramasa. He could see spirits of fire and sparks come out from the blade, and gather around in a small tornado of energy around the blade. He then dashed towards his target, a tree, and disappeared. A slashing sound could be heard during that instant. He reappeared behind the tree. "Backdraft," he whispered, and the tree instantly burst into flames and exploded.
"Oh $h!T! Run for cover!" yelled Odin, as the 2 friends ran away from the place to avoid the debris falling down.
"Ok, so you've mastered close range attacks. Can you do ranged attacks, though?"
"I'll try," said Hiro, focusing his energy on the Muramasa again. He then swung his sword towards the ground and let it strike, and when it struck, he yelled, "ETHER FLARE!" and 4 giant sparks flew out of the ground where the sword struck it, and turned into fire darts, and headed towards another tree, and exploding on contact.
"Wow. Your magic is really powerful," commented Odin.
"Ok, so we've made it this far. I'm just hoping we don't run into any more of those Ganelon bandits," commented Wil. The group walked to an old fortress. "Hmm, great! This shall serve as tonight's bed."
"Great idea, I for one, wouldn't mind sleeping under a roof after yesterday's mosquito fiasco," commented Odin.
"This old abandoned fort? You're just kidding, right? Wil?" asked Sain.
"THERE'S NO ROOF!" exclaimed Odin as he walked inside, and slumped down. "The mosquitoes will have a party tonight!"
"Well, they wouldn't if SOMEONE didn't throw and rub most of the mosquito repellent all over their body last night, SAIN," said Hiro, giving the cavalier a death glare, "You know how hard it is to find the materials in a forest?"
"Oh, it'll be fine, boys. Who wants to be stuck inside anyways; I like to sleep where I could feel the wind blow," commented Lyn.
"That's because you took a third of the mosquito repellent," commented Hiro.
"I'll be fine as long I'm by Lyn's side," said Florina.
"And for your protection, your man-at-arms Sain will be right here by your side, ladies," said Sain. However, Kent told him that they would both be doing guard duty for the night. "Ah, alas..."
A woman in her early thirties walked towards the group. "Um, excuse me..." she called towards the group. "Who's there?" asked Lyn towards the voice.
"Um... forgive my intrusion, and I'm from a village not far from here..." she walked towards the group, limping, but then kneeled and clutched her leg. "Ah...ow..." she exclaimed in pain.
Lyn ran towards her. "Are you all right? Your leg..."
"I'm fine milady; it's a childhood sickness. I can't travel far on it, but it doesn't trouble me much," replied the woman.
"What are you doing here all by yourself?" Lyn asked the woman.
"I'm looking for my husband," she replied, "I heard he was in this area. He said he was going to raise money to have my leg mended. He left the village and hasn't returned. He's a kindhearted man, but I think he might be involved in something dangerous. I got so worried... Here's a sketch of him. It's a poor likeness at best, but... His name is Dorcas. Do you know of him?" The woman showed Lyn a portrait of Dorcas.
Lyn shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I've never seen or heard of him."
"Well, if you do see him tell him that Natalie is looking for him," asked Natalie.
Lyn nodded as her response, "I promise."
A group of bandits gathered around the fortress. "Hmm...So this is the group that defeated Migal..."said one of them.
"So they decided to spend the night here. Perfect. We wait for nightfall, then..."said his companion, but he was interrupted by the other.
"Fool! There are only a few of them, and some are women! If we attacked them at night, I'd be a laughingstock! Besides, we might hurt the women by mistake! I will not be so wasteful!" said the first bandit as he smacked his companion on the head.
"You're right, Carjiga! You're brilliant, boss!" praised the other bandit.
"We'll avenge Migal and get some pretty souvenirs to boot. Who knows, maybe I'll be a leader after all. Let's go! Spread out and encircle the place, you rogues! Let's finish this before it gets too dark to see!" called Carjiga to the rest of his goons.
"You! Your name's Dorcas, right?" asked Carjiga as he walked towards a large redhead, in a loose yellow shirt, wielding a Hand axe. Dorcas nodded in response. "You haven't done much since you joined us. If those weapons aren't just for show, today's the day to prove it. There's supposed to be women inside; I want you to capture them. Do that, and I'll increase your share of the take. If you want gold, you'll get the job done," instructed Carjiga.
Dorcas looked down sadly towards the ground, and thought, 'Women, huh? It would break Natalie's sweet heart to see me sink so low.'
"Lady Lyndis! Bandits have surrounded the fortress!" exclaimed Kent, running back inside.
"Persistent bunch, aren't they?" commented Sain.
"So what do we do, Hiro, do we get out there and finish them all off?" asked Odin.
"No. As you know, Natalie can't move, so we need to stay here to protect her. This puts us at a disadvantage. However, we know that these bandits won't hurt women unless necessary. I think they would want to capture Lyn, Florina, and Natalie, without being too rough with them. Therefore, I think they will leave at nightfall so they won't hurt the women by mistake. However, to protect Natalie, we'll have to cover all the holes in the fortress' defenses. The main entrance will be protected by the cavaliers. Florina and Wil, I want you to go to that place where the wall is cracked. Wil, I want you to fly up with Florina and snipe any enemy coming from there. Lyn and I will cover the eastern entrance. Everybody got it?" asked Hiro as he finished up his strategy.
Hiro and Lyn ran up to the eastern wall. As they reached it, an incoming Hand Axe was flying towards them. Hiro batted it away with his sword, but staggered backwards a little bit as the weapon was thrown at them really hard. It looked like the thrower was a large red headed man. "Say...doesn't that man look like Natalie's husband, Dorcas?" Hiro asked Lyn.
"You're right, it IS him! I'll go talk to him!" replied Lyn.
"You there, is your name Dorcas?" Lyn asked the man. Dorcas was shocked that this girl would know his name.
He nodded in response, and asked her, "...How do you know my name?"
Lyn replied, "Natalie told me. What are you doing with these rogues?"
"I need money," Dorcas replied, "to fix Natalie's leg."
"But to join up with these bandits?" asked Lyn.
"It's the only way to earn money in these parts. I'll do anything...even this," replied Dorcas sadly.
"For gold? Anything? Would you hurt your wife? Natalie is here! We're protecting her within this fortress!" exclaimed Lyn.
"What? Natalie...she's here?" asked Dorcas.
"She was so worried about you, she came looking for you here! Think Dorcas, would your actions please your wife?" asked Lyn.
"...You're right. I'm done with these bandits. I can't do this. I'm quitting, right here, right now," replied Dorcas. "And...I want to thank your kindness towards Natalie. Allow me to fight for you."
Hiro finally spoke, "Well then, now that that's all cleared up, I'll head for the leader. If I can kill him, they'll most likely leave. Dorcas, I want you to guard this entrance. Lyn and I will go get the leader."
Odin, Kent and Sain, are doing pretty well, but are having some trouble fighting in such a cramped space. It's hard to swing your weapons when your allies are right beside you, in your swinging range.
"Sain! Odin! Duck!" yelled Kent, as he twirled his lance around and swung it in a wide arc, gutting 3 bandits.
"SPIRIT BREAK!" yelled Odin, releasing a giant ball of electricity from his sword, but at an upwards angle. Gravity pulled it down to explode in the middle of the bandit group, killing about a dozen of them. Sain just impaled 2 more with his lance. However, very slowly, they were being pushed back towards the wall behind them due to overwhelming numbers.
Florina flew high with Wil sitting behind her. She noticed that he was a good shot; he scored mostly headshots at the bandits coming from the west. None of them have managed to reach the wall yet. She was impressed, but even more scared of Wil than before. She was just glad that they were on the same side. She found herself looking at his handsome face, determined to protect Natalie as he shot arrow after arrow like a madman. Wil noticed that she was staring at him after there was a little break in the bandits. "Florina? Is something wrong?" he asked her, looking concerned for his companion.
"...Oh? sorry...um...no...I'm fine..." replied Florina, blushing that Wil realized that she was staring at him.
"Okay then," said Wil as he resumed sniping bandits.
"There's the leader!" exclaimed Lyn.
"Hold on, there's something I would like to test out," said Hiro, as he focused his magic on his sword. "ETHER FLARE!" he yelled, and he struck the ground with his sword, and four vipers of flame homed in on 4 unlucky bandits, barbequing them. Then the vipers proceeded to home in on other bandits, until only a small band was left. "Let's go get them!" and the two ran towards the group.
"Damn, this isn't looking good!" yelled Odin.
Florina noticed that the cavaliers were having some trouble. "Wil, we need to help them!" she exclaimed. She then flew towards the cavaliers, Wil shooting arrows on the way. However, with the west wall unguarded, the bandits finally reached it and started breaking it down, slowly but steadily.
Lyn and Hiro sliced through the bandits on their way to the leader. "Lyn, I'll cover you. You take him down," said Hiro. Then he proceeded to kill more bandits. All was going well until someone kicked him in the groin from behind.
"OOF!" he grunted, and rolled away before getting struck by an Iron Axe. "Damn you..." he said as he got up, clutching his crotch with one hand and his sword in the other, with a rather pained look on his face.
Lyn finally reached the leader. 'Damn it,' thought Carjiga, 'they've already breached through our main force? Well, well, well. What have we here? A woman warrior. She'll looks feisty, but I'll bet she'll fetch a good price in the market.' Lyn charged at him, Mani Katti raised. Carjiga threw a hand axe at her. Carjiga wasn't as strong as Dorcas, but Lyn didn't have Hiro's constitution, so when she blocked it, she staggered backwards a bit, stunned. Carjiga took this time to rush up at her and ram into her.
'Damn,' Lyn thought, 'he's not weak.'
Hiro, very angry, shot another Ether Flare at the bandits. However, he didn't notice one coming up behind him. Only when he heard the slight woosh the axe makes when it swings did he start rolling forward, but he was struck on his back by the axe. 'Damn,' he thought. He was then rammed by another bandit to the ground. He grunted in pain. A bandit jumped up, planning to smash Hiro's head with his axe. Hiro kicked his legs up and hit the man in the gut, then tossed him away. However, when Hiro used his sword's attack, he failed to notice something. The color of his ruby grew a shade darker, but the change in shade was so slight it was almost unnoticeable.
Lyn kept dodging the frustrated bandit's blows. "You guys are persistent, I'll give you that," commented Lyn as she back dashed from another one of Carjiga's blows.
"Grr...stop moving!" He then ran towards Lyn, and kicked her in the gut, sending her flying hard.
"Ouch..." said Lyn as she choked out blood. "I've had enough. LEAVE US ALONE! DELTA EAGLE!" Lyn focused her energy into her Mani Katti. Carjiga took this chance to run up to Lyn. He then swung his axe, but when it was swung, Lyn completely disappeared. She reappeared behind Carjiga, with 2 copies of her dashing towards the bandit with her. She and her copies then disappeared. Carjiga looked around only to hear the wind. A split second later, Lyn and her copies reappeared around Carjiga, who screamed in fright, and was slashed to ribbons by Lyn and her copies.
The bandit group heard their leader scream. "Oh no, Carjiga's fallen! Retreat!" commanded the second in command.
However, one of the bandits stayed behind. They had just broken the wall, so why waste it? At least get the women, right? So he snuck inside towards the room Natalie is in, and spotted her. "Well, what do we have here? Looks like I'll be taking you now, pretty lady," said the bandit.
Natalie looked at him in fear, and stammered, "please...don't..." Then a hand axe flew over her head and struck the bandit in his chest.
"You...traitor..." said the bandit, and he fell down, dead. Natalie turned around to see her savior, and smiled.
"Flawless victory," commented Odin.
Hiro frowned. "My crotch would like to say otherwise," he complained, still clutching it in pain. "That was a really hard kick, I tell you." The friends laughed at this comment.
"Natalie, I'm sorry," apologized Dorcas.
"Hey, all's well that ends well, right?" asked Lyn.
"Okay. Our village is close. I'll drop Natalie off there, and return tomorrow," said Dorcas.
"Why can't we say our farewells today?" asked a puzzled Lyn.
"I talked with Hiro. I want to go with you," replied the big man
. "But...we're going to Lycia..." said Lyn.
"As you know, I need to earn money to heal Natalie's leg. If you think I'll be of use, I'd like to fight for you. It's the least I can do to repay your kindness towards Natalie," said the big man.
Lyn smiled. "Welcome to Lyndis' Legion, then."
"Well, it looks like things have finally calmed down," commented Hiro.
"Indeed," replied Kent. "Well, we'll be taking our turns keeping watch. Please rest easily."
Lyn looked at them, a bit concerned, "Are you sure? Don't you at least need to rest first? Sain?"
"Oh! Er, we're fine, milady!" replied Sain.
"Let me warn you... If bandits sneak up on you, they'll cut you down without mercy. Do you understand that?" asked Lyn, not reassured by his reply.
"What, do you doubt my bravery? Am I not a knight? There's no need to worry! Right, Kent?" replied Sain, sounding a bit hurt.
"If there's anything suspicious, we'll take care of it," Kent assured Lyn.
"Really? Thank you then." Then she walked off to sleep.
"Ha! No one ever trusts me!" commented Sain.
Kyo thought back to that day the cloaked men arrived. There was a pretty little girl with purple eyes and black hair. They told Master Yamato that she needed to be given special lenses to keep her eyes from going bad. Karla, however, knew that nothing was wrong with her eye and that this is all part of a large scale plan. Of course, none of the Yamatos knew about this. Kyo found out that she was really good with a foreign fighting style, and his father hired a master to train her. He also taught her his fighting style over the years. He missed his sister dearly, that's for sure, although she was adopted.
Florina found a nearby river and wanted to take a bath there. The area was somewhat misty, and the water is very clear. She took off her clothes and dived in.
Wil was tired. He was sweating a lot, too. Shooting all those arrows in overdrive really tired him out, and his sweat was making him reek. 'I need to take a bath...' and walked off to find a nearby river. He found one just behind the fortress. However, upon finding it, he didn't notice Florina's clothes, which were hidden beside a big rock to his left. He took off his clothes and went in for a swim.
'Ahh...this feels so refreshing,' thought Florina. She dived deep and swam towards a large rock in the middle, and rested her back on it. Wil waded towards the other side of the large rock, to tired to notice a naked Florina swimming underwater to his left. He rested his back on the rock and sighed. Florina heard the sigh and wondered what it was. She waded quietly and slowly to see. She found Wil, half asleep, arms crossed, looking into the distance, without clothes. She blushed, and went back to her side, but made a little, almost inaudible splash as a drop of water fell from her hair back into the river.
Wil, although not in full concentration, had heard the drop of water. He noticed a small trail of waves to his left. He was interested. 'What could that have been?' he waded around the rock slowly and quietly to find Florina...without clothing. Wil turned deep red and yelped. "GAH!" then immediately covered his mouth. And he felt something of his growing in size. 'uh oh, this isn't good...'
Florina looked towards the source of the sound, and spotted Wil, who realized that she spotted him.
A shriek and yell were heard from the castle. Birds flew away from the river.
"...What was that?" said Hiro as he heard it. He picked up his Muramasa and left to check on it, accompanied by Lyn and Odin.
"CALM DOWN, FLORINA! GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF!" shouted Wil as he grabbed Florina's shoulders to calm her down. Florina finally calmed herself down.
"...I'm sorry...I was just ...surprised..." she apologized.
"Okay. Let's go back to each of our sides of the rock, and pretend that this never happened," suggested Wil, who was thinking as he was holding Florina's shoulder, 'don't look down, don't look down and you'll be okay...' but he did look down to see 2 large round things on Florina's chest. 'Oh...crap, control yourself man, don't do it...' However, as he did, Florina felt something...hard and pointy touch her...there. And shrieked again.
"FLORINA!" yelled Lyn, worried about her friend as she arrived on the scene. She was shocked at what she saw, then immediately drew her Mani Katti, the look of a raging demon in her eyes. Wil looked towards Lyn, and shuddered in fear.
"RAAAAHH!" Lyn yelled a battle cry, and jumped at Wil. It took Hiro and Odin all they had to restrain the enraged lord.
"RUN YOU FOOL RUNNNNN!" yelled Hiro, as Lyn threw him off of her. Wil got the hint and swam towards his clothes, then took them, and ran like hell.
"OH DEAR ELIMINE MY EYES!" yelled Sain as Wil ran into his room in the fortress, still naked. "I'm going to have nightmares tonight..." said Kent.
So here's chapter 4. I was going to use Karla elsewhere, but I thought she deserved better than Bartre. Don't flame me if you like that pairing; this is my fic so I did it to add a little bit more drama for Karel later on, and as a major plot point. Sorry if the Wil and Florina scene was a bit perverted.
R&R ppl!