Chapter 3

Poor Sothe was starting to run out of steam. While he managed to escape the clutches of Evil Queen Serra and gained quite a distance ahead of her, he had just made his way through a swarm of generic lance-wielding soldiers, and more of them are still on his tail, not to mention Queen Serra himself. Luckily, he spotted relief in the form a health-restoring gate. He then made a run for it. Unfortunately for him, a squad of wyvern riders just happened to be close enough to intercept him. The malicious group, let by a disturbingly grim prescence, "conveniently" parked right infront of the gate.

"Poor, poor little man. Thought you could escape our new order so easily, huh? Well, that is impossible, for you see, you never stood a chance with Valter the Moonstone on your tail!" The greenish, messy long-haired commander grinned.

"Valter! I thought you were killed off in the Sacred Stones! Oh, crap! Did Serra bring you back to life? Does that mean she could sick Ashnard on me, too?" Sothe panicked.

"Relax, boy. You need only to contend with me to face your end. Besides, would someone as psychotically awesome as me actually go out with the lameass death quote I was given in FE8? Not a chance," he insisted.

Sothe gulped. There was just no way could a thief with a simple knife stand up against about a dozen of Wyvern riders all by himself.

"Crap! If only I was allowed to wield one of those Killing Edge thingies, then at least I'd have a CHANCE at getting out alive! So much for that!" he cried in his head.

Not wanting to go out like a whimp, Sothe whipped out his knife like the badass everyone knew he was and charged straight at Valter the Moonstone.

Happy to oblige, Valter raised his mighty lance and was about to turn the green thief into part of a shish kabob until...

BOOM!

An exploding Elffire spell forced Valter's Wyvern to leap back, and the others to scatter.

One by one, the Wyverns were being eliminated by well-aimed Elffire attacks until only Valter himself remained.

Sothe quickly looked behind him to see two figures on a beautiful stallion.

"Erk! Priscilla! Oh, I'm GLAD to see someone friendly USEFUL for a change!" he cried.

Priscilla's trusted steed rushed to Sothe's aid, while Erk extended his hand.

"Quick, hop on!" Erk cried.

"But... but isn't the "rescue" option only allow two-at-a-time for a horse?" Sothe asked.

"Just get on!" the slightly agitated mage shouted again

Sothe shrugged, then took his hand mounted the horse. The three of them were carried off to safety, away from the mad Wyvern Knight.

"So you decided to go against Queen Serra's too, huh? What a relief! Considering the pair ending possibility you had with her, I almost thought for sure you'd be on HER side" Sothe admited.

Erk sighed. "I don't know WHAT the heck creators were thinking when they intended to pair me up with... with that crazy girl. But as you can see, Priscilla and I are the couple here."

Priscilla smiled. "And I'm glad, too! Erk's been nothing but a gentleman to me since we've been on the run together!"

Sothe observed the happy couple together. "Well, if Erk can actually tolerate Priscilla's without getting all angsty on her, I GUESS they're a good couple," he thought to himself. "At least Erk isn't a basket case of cynicism like Soren is. Oh crap... if the Soren fangirls are reading this, they'll be coming after me too! Just what I need... more enemies"

Frustrated by his recent loss, yet thrilled by the new challenge presented to him, Valter chased after his prey at top speed.

"Priscilla, go on ahead, I'll take care of this!" Erk cried as he leapt out of the horse's back.

"But Erk!"

"Just go! I'll be fine! Make sure the thief is okay! If Serra's forces get to him, then our efforts here will just be in vain!" Erk shouted.

"O-okay..." Prsicilla reluctantly agreed.

The mounted pair then went on ahead while a bloodthirsty Valter charged straight at the purple-haired sage.

"Foolish Mage. My lance thirsts for your blood!" Valter cried manically.

"Foolish, yourself. If you hadn't noticed from your char-broiled friends, Wyverns are weak against magic. Guess I'll have to teach you that lesson the had waym then." Erk grinned.

Swiftly, Erk whipped out an Excalibur Spellbook and quickly gathered magical power. He sent forth the deadly green magical blades of death that is the infamous Excalibur spell itself, which nearly smote the life out of Valter's Wyvern.

Knowing how desperate the situation turned for him, the blood quickly rushed to Valter's brain in panic. Despite all of his gloating, he knew he was about to die. For REAL this time. He knew very well that his was no time for him to freeze in his final hour.

"Curses! I can't just go out without saying something memorable! Let's... let's see... uhhh... okay... Don't bother thinking that your precious thoughts of "justice" will ever win in the end! I may be gone... but the might of madness will ALWAYS---"

Another round of magical green blades sliced through Valter and his wyvern, shutting up the mad Moonstone for good.

"Man, his dying words were lame" Erk groaned. He then turned to signal to the fleeing horse before him.

"Oh, thank goodness! Erk is safe" Priscilla said as she let out a sigh of relief.

"Of course he is. Against Magic, Valter's a wuss. You probably could've taken him, too, you know" Sothe wisely pointed out.

Priscilla then turned the horse around to pick up Erk. "Perhaps you're right, but I guess we'll never know now, will we?"

"Just trust me on this one" Sothe insisted.

After Erk jumped onto the horse like an action hero, Priscilla steered it into a U-torn to make it into the gate.

"So then, guys... what do you think of the new name for the Nintendo Console, anyway?" Sothe asked out of curiosity.

The horseback couple gave their new companion funny glares.

"I think the new name is embarrassing" Erk groaned.

"Yeah, I was personally looking forward to seeing the name "Revolution" come out to retailers" Priscilla confessed.

"See, I don't understand Serra's way of thinking, demanding that people praise the "Wii" and everything with her dark powers" Sothe huffed.

"I never understood that girl, period." Erk remarked with a regretful look on his face.