"Everyone alright?" asked Chrom, addressing our small group that had formed up on the bridge.

Everyone replied with a yes.

"Thank god we were around. Otherwise, we might've lost this village." Chrom said.

"Indeed sire. I would like to point out that the bandits seemed to have Plegians accents. Can't leave this unaccounted for." the knight said.

"I know. I noticed too. We need to get back to Ylisstol and tell Emmeryn. Hopefully then she'll come to reason."

Chrom turned to me and Robin.

"I'd like to thank you both for helping us out. Robin for the heads up when we first arrived, and David for keeping my sister safe. And as a result, I'd like to ask-"

"Sire, do you really think it's appropriate to invite these two when we know nothing about them?" the knight suddenly interrupted.

"Frederick, please. Not only did they save our lives, but they also helped us defeat these bandits. Please. Loosen up." Chrom said, seemingly exasperated at the knight's warning.

The knight, Frederick, went silent.

"Like I was saying, I'd like to invite both of you to join the Shephards. We'd love to have both of you join us, especially now with war looming over our heads," Chrom said.

"Shepards?" I asked. "I'm afraid I don't know much about farming or sheep."

Lissa and Chrom gave a small laugh at that, Frederick simply shaking his head.

"No. The Shephards is a small military group that I lead. Think of the royal guard, but filled with idiots who mean well."

"Oh. And you're inviting me? Why me?" I asked, genuinely confused at what I had done to get an invitation.

"You saved my sister and helped us kill the Plegians who were pillaging the village. If that doesn't warrant an invitation, then everyone else already in the Shephards needs serious reevaluation."

I didn't really know what to say. On one hand, I don't really have any military experience, and given that I only know magic, would I really be that much of a benefit? On the other, I have nothing to do here, no idea of what is happening around me or where I am, and no income to even feed myself.

"Might I add that we pay well?" Chrom added.

Well, that settled it.

"I'd be happy to join," I said.

Chrom grew a wide smile, coming up and shaking my hand furiously as Lissa gave me a thumbs up, and an equal if not larger smile on her face.

"How about you Robin? Willing to join us?"

Robin stood staring at us silently for a couple of moments before she said anything.

"No."

As she was turning to leave, Chrom reached out and stopped her.

"Can I ask why? Did we make you uncomfortable?"

Robin looked over her shoulder at Chrom.

"No. You didn't. We just have different goals. I didn't come to Ylisse to join a boy's group and have fun. I came to do something important. I appreciate the offer, but this is where I say goodbye."

And just like that, Robin turned and left through the streets of the burning village, leaving all of us looking at each other in confusion.


Soon after Robin left, the villagers started approaching us in mass, thanking us for saving them and offering to give us a grand meal as thanks. However, due to the fact that half of their village was in cinders and that we were in a rush to go back to Ylisstol, which Lissa told me was their capital, we denied them and immediately went onto the road, to the dismay of Lissa.

That was a couple of hours ago, and we were now preparing to go to bed to start our brisk walk in the morning. Chrom was able to get some food for us, bear, that Lissa and Frederick were now trying to stomach; Lissa was livid.

"Bear Chrom?! You couldn't get deer? Or rabbit?" she complained, putting the meat down and glaring at her brother.

"It was the only thing that I found. You'd rather eat nothing and just starve tonight?" he said, midway through gulping down his second helping of bear.

"Honestly, yes. This is terrible. It doesn't even taste like meat."

"I'd recommend you eat it, Princess. We need to be up early tomorrow and make way for Ylisstol, and an empty stomach won't make the journey any easier." Frederick said.

"Oh really? Then why aren't you touching any of your food?!" Lissa accused, looking triumphantly at Frederick who still had his bear next to him untouched.

"I… I had a big breakfast. I have no appetite." he stuttered. For the first time that day, I saw the knight lose his composure.

"Yeah right! You hate it just as much as me! Admit it!" Lissa jokingly yelled, putting the meat right underneath Frederick's nose. Frederick reeled back, jumping up from where he was seated and moving away from Lissa. Lissa started chasing him, leading to Frederick jogging away from the girl.

"Welcome to our little group David. We don't have that many people, but I think we're pretty close," Chrom said, as we watched the bodyguard and the princess run around.

"I hope that I can become as close to all of you as those two clearly are," I replied.

Chrom chuckled. "Yea, well I think we all deserve at least some distance from Lissa. She has enough energy for our entire group."

He patted me on the back as he placed the plate down next to the fire.

"Let's get some sleep. I want to get going tomorrow as quickly as possible. Not only to talk to Emmeryn but to show you around and get you equipped," he said.

I nodded as he went over to his side and laid down on a small blanket Frederick carried around.

I looked over at the duo that was still chasing each other, Frederick with a look of worry and Lissa a look of pure mirth. I couldn't help smile at them, wondering to myself how I got myself into this predicament. Just a day ago, I was sulking through classes, wondering why I couldn't be part of the friend groups that did this exact thing with each other. Now I was watching one of my desires unfold. I felt so warm inside that I didn't think I'd ever have a sweeter moment than the one I was currently having.

I rolled over on the ground and lay on my back, staring up at the stars and wondering if this was all a dream and I'd go back to the normal world when I woke up.


Well, when I woke up I wasn't back in New York. I was still in Ylisse, next to the burned-out campfire. Except the sky wasn't black or filled with stars. Instead, it was purple. And I mean a very violent purple, edging towards violet. And I could hear screams.

When I woke up, the only other person in the camp was Frederick, who was up and prepping his horse. He noticed me get up and instantly came over to me.

"David. My liege and the princess is missing. Come. We must find them."

Disgruntled and confused, I just nodded and followed him over to his horse. Given the fact that I'm a city boy, I had no idea how to get on, so Frederick quite literally picked me up and plopped me down on the horse. He got on behind me and instantly went off in a sprint towards the screaming, which had since died down since I woke up.

Frederick did not slow down at all, even when we entered the forest and branches started smacking me all over, some knicking me and drawing slight amounts of blood. After half a minute of a full gallop, we finally found the origins of the screaming, Lissa, and the predicament she and Chrom found themselves in.

In a small clearing, Chrom and Lissa were trying, and failing, to fend off huge humanoid purple creatures. They were the size of Frederick easily and twice the girth, every swing Chrom would send their way proving lacking; they'd shrug off the blow and keep going.

As soon as we saw the purple creatures, Frederick pushed me off the horse and galloped at the nearest creature, removing his lance and attempting to spear it through. Thankfully, Frederick was able to still kill them in one go around, just like the bandits, but he was going at a significantly slower pace after the blow, probably a testament to the defense of these creatures.

Realizing I was just staring, I quickly joined the fight with the creatures, launching a fireball at the one Chrom was currently facing. Fortunately for me, the magic seemed to work better than the weapons Chrom was using, taking out a chunk of the creature. Unfortunately for me, the creature turned and started going towards me despite his left side completely gone.

That's when Chrom came in and slashed at its legs, able to unbalance it enough where I was able to use a wind spell to easily tumble it. As soon as it fell, Chrom slashed straight down onto where its heart should be, using his momentum and gravity to slice straight through. This proved too much even for the creature as it turned into purple dust.

We couldn't celebrate a single moment, however, as three more started moving towards us.

"There's too many of them. We can't take them on by ourselves!" Chrom said, forming up next to me, keeping his blade angled towards the creatures.

"We need to get out of here Chrom," I heard Lissa say behind me. The girl had left her staff back near the campfire and was simply hiding behind us.

"No! I can't allow these things to get out of the forest. There's a village around here, and I refuse to let these things massacre them. If we're having issues with them, imagine how they'd fare!"

"Well we can barely take on one of them. How do you plan on taking all three?!" I asked, exasperated at Chroms thinking. I get being a prince and stuff, but we might die out here.

"What about Frederick? Can he help?" questioned Lissa.

I looked over to find Frederick caught up in his own fight, taking on three at the same time. I noticed his normally pristine armor was scratched up, his horse showing some small wounds. Despite all that, they stood strong, not giving up any ground.

"We can't depend on him. We need to find a way to at least slow these three down." I said.

"Any ideas?"

Our little group started backing up as the creatures kept approaching. They were slow, but at this rate, they'd be able to catch up. We were reentering the forest when I suddenly heard Lissa yelp behind me. Me and Chrom immediately turned to fear the worst when we noticed Lissa had fallen into a small river, her clothes completely drenched. That's when I got an idea.

"Both of you, cross the river. We need to make these things cross it. I have an idea."

The siblings looked at each other before nodding, Chrom helping her sister up and wading across, waiting for me on the other side. I waited for the creatures to be only a couple feet away from me, needing to make sure that they wouldn't lose interest and go onto Frederick, and crossed the river myself. Just as I had hoped, the creatures went into the river, their speed not decreasing by any means as they made their way towards us.

As soon as the last one had gotten a quarter into the river, I aimed a thunder spell straight into the river. The creatures suddenly stopped, and after half a minute, the first one exploded, soon followed by the second and third one. I felt an overflowing amount of joy that my plan had actually worked.

"What in the world. How did you do that?" Chrom asked, coming up next to me.

"Simple science. Water conducts electricity, so I figured that I could electrocute them in the water."

"But, I thought your thunder spell wouldn't be strong enough to kill them?" Lissa questioned.

"It wouldn't in one go. But maybe a continuous flow of electricity might do the trick. And it did. I just needed help in keeping the spell alive. I don't really know how to keep my magic flowing, so this was the next best thing."

"Damn. When I recruited you, I didn't expect to have both a mage and a tactician. Good stuff David." Chrom said, patting me on the back.

"Thanks. But I suggest we go back and help Frederick before we celebrate."

"Good point. Let's g-"

I pulled Chrom back before he could step onto the electrified water.

"Don't. You'll end up fried."

"Then how do we get across."

I looked around before noticing a small tree that had collapsed across the river.

"Over there. We use the tree to cross and can make our way back to the clearing."

We quickly ran over to the tree, and with some careful steps and two close calls with Lissa, we crossed the tree and went back out into the clearing… Only to find Frederick and three other people already moving towards us.

One of the people was a red-headed woman, on a horse like Frederick, but unlike Frederick, wielding a small sword instead of a lance. She had lighter armor as well, leather instead of iron, and was on top of a smaller horse, but she still held an aura of danger around her.

Behind her was an archer, given by the fact he had a bow. He had gray hair and extremely expensive, yet dirty-looking clothes on. He seemed to keep on trying to talk to the girl, who was completely ignoring him. Given his looks, I pegged him as a noble, something like what Chrom and Lissa are.

And finally, a blue-haired person was lagging a bit behind the rest of them, a mask hiding their face from us. Other than the fact that they were smaller than most of us and was really pale and skinny, they weren't revealing very much I couldn't even tell if it was a guy or girl. If I had to crack a guess though, it'd probably be a woman; they had a very unique figure and their mask looked as if it was holding back a portion of their hair.

"Frederick, I'm glad to see you ok. And Sully." Chrom turned to the red-haired girl. "What in the world are you doing here?"

"I heard about a village getting lit on fire. So I raced to see if I could help. Next thing you know, the sky is ripping apart and I hear fighting going around here. That's when I found Frederick fighting those things and joined in," the female, Sully, said.

"Don't forget about me, my crimson-haired angel of Naga." the noble commented from behind her.

"And I found this idiot on the road," Sully said, reaching behind her and pushing the noble in front of her.

"My name is Virion." the noble said, bowing deeply as he addressed Chrom. "I am the noblest of archers, seeking the loveliest ladies to accompany in my adventure of a lifetime."

Chrom just stood there, mouth slightly agape, as Virion finished his speech.

"Right… And who's this?" Chrom asked, pointing at the masked person.

"You may call me Marth."

Yup, definitely a girl. She sounds like a girl attempting to lower her octave in her voice to make it deeper, but really just fails completely. My sister used to love doing that, trying to imitate me.

"Well Marth, thank you for helping us. As you Virion, even if Sully doesn't show it.

"No problem at all, good prince. In fact, let m-"

"Ok. No time for that" Chrom said, cutting him off completely. "We need to get back to Ylisstol as soon as humanely possible, not only for the Plegian problem but now for these creatures that we just fought. We have a camp right outside this forest, I'd suggest you newcomers come along and head with us back to Ylisstol at dawn.."

With that Chrom quickly left the forest, the rest of the group slowly following along save for the girl in the mask. I noticed her start heading in the opposite direction before quickly disappearing into the forest. I questioned what she was doing before losing interest and simply following the group.

"Anyway." Sully suddenly appeared next to me. "Who are you?"