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By now it was midday, the sun was reaching its highest point and the day was already sweltering enough as is. Sunlight reflecting off the white sands made the desert a blinding nightmare to be on for any longer and the dry heat was oppressive on everyone, well everyone but Robin who had been taking things in stride since they started moving through the sandy wasteland.

He wasn't sure if his training with Frederick was finally starting to pay off or if this maybe had something to do with his probable, supposed, Plegian heritage, a heavily discussed topic among some higher-ranking soldiers and nobles back in Ylisse.

In any case, compared to the others who were restocking and resting at a nearby village, he feels hardly winded while he stands atop a dune, surveying the landscape of what was a battlefield just an hour earlier.

The Shepherds had been traveling southbound from Ferox and had since reached Plegian borders when they had a run in with a young girl followed closely by an imposing mercenary who were in turn tailed by a Plegian regiment. Despite some confusing introductions the two helped deal with the Plegian forces and were now resting with the rest of the Shepherds in the meantime. Since there was little time to spare it was decided Nowi and the newly employed Gregor would join as they were still deep in Plegian borders and the task of finding Nowi's parents would have to wait.

Though it's a bit odd not to see any stationed troops this deep into Plegian territory, if not for the group chasing after Nowi than they might all still be at the Capital, and that bodes poorly for the coming battle.

In the end despite the dire times and even a difficult upcoming battle, Robin lets out a content sigh, trying to make the most of this calm before the storm.

"Is there something troubling you?" asks Chrom from behind him, Robin having almost forgotten he was there.

"Hm? Oh, quite the opposite in fact" he replies vaguely, turning towards him as he takes in the view of his friend who isn't quite as pleased as he is, not with his entire face and right arm sunburned as it is... "... Are you sure you're going to be alright?" he asks, making a note to prepare more for these desert travels and engagements in the future.

"You can laugh this time but one of these days your cloak will be the crux of your problems" Chrom jokes, though it sounds malevolent in a way. Chrom crosses his arms and quickly regrets it as he tries to keep his spirits up, at least in front of Robin whom he's already placing too much pressure on with this upcoming battle.

"I warned you, I said a bit more clothing and heat is worth it to prevent burns" he states. "It could be worse though, have you seen Vaike?" he adds remembering the nonstop complaints coming from the man only an hour into the desert.

Whilst conversing a new voice appears just barely audible over Chrom's laughter. "ᶠᵃᵗʰᵉʳ"

"Hmm? What was that?" he asks no one in particular as he looks over Chrom's shoulder at the town the Shepherds were resupplying in. It sounded like a little girl...could Nowi have found her parents already?

From the nearby town he spots a pegasus take off into the air...Sumia, maybe Cordelia, must be up to something Robin supposed, though after all they did in the last battle, he would have assumed the two would be exhausted.

"Faaatherr" the voice again, louder now.

"Oh, now that you mention it..." Chrom replies obscuring the girls voice slightly causing Robin to try to shush him.

Again, from the town Robin spots a man atop a horse. He seems to look around for a moment before spotting the two and heading over as quickly as his steed can take him on the sandy terrain. It's Frederick and something about all this sudden commotion tells him this isn't a friendly reminder about being ready to march on soon.

"We may have a problem Chrom..." he states, looking around and wondering if enemies are approaching. Frederick must have sent a pegasus to scout and survey any movements coming to and from the capital, or maybe a scout was seen...

But before he can relay any of that to Chrom, a gust of wind takes the two of them by surprise and a blinding amount of sand is kicked up obscuring everything as the voice now sounds on top of them. "Father!"

Before Robin can even blink the sand from his eyes, he feels the air knocked from his lungs as two arms quickly wrap around his waist "E-eh N-nowi?" he yelps in surprise as the kicked-up sand blurs his vision "As... flattering as that sounds I'm not your..." the words die on his tongue as the girl begins taking hold of the conversation.

"There you are, Father! I was so worried when we got separated." the girl says earnestly as she pulls her head away from his chest.

Whilst all Robin can reply with is "... I'm sorry, what?" as he stands dumbfounded between her arms as sand starts to clear.

"Well, no harm done. At least we can head home now. ... Goodness, the air here agrees with you! You look a decade younger, at least."

"T-the air?..." he mumbles out, his mind still trying to piece things together. He does prefer it to the lung freezing winds of Feroxi he thinks to himself for a moment before quickly shaking his head, trying to reevaluate all of this.

A few things quickly begin to order themselves through his mind at this point.

First off, this isn't Nowi, her hugs are just as crushing though. Second, this new girl's hair is an almost impossible color of white, almost like his, and she seems to be wearing the exact same cloak as him. Finally, and most importantly someone just claimed some relation with him, which means she knows who he is.

It's then the skeptical side of his brain quickly takes hold again as he nearly shouts out "N-now hold on! I can't be your father, at least not to someone as old as you!"

Frederick who has joined the group has been speaking out loud but has been promptly ignored as Chrom and Robins eyes are trained on the younger girl, not sure either is believing what they are hearing, and soon his voice dies down as well.

"... Why are you looking at me like that? Hello? It's me! Morgan! ... Your daughter? Love of your life and Daddy's little girl and all that?" the girl says in a giddy tone as she places her hands, palm down underneath her chin as she bats her eyelashes.

Not getting the desired reaction she drops the pose and continues in a more concerned tone "Wow, you're really acting strange, what happened after you got lost? Let's go home and get you to bed" before grabbing his hands, treating him like he's senile.

"To think you would even have your daughter wear a matching cloak" Frederick states, shaking his head, clearly not approving. A strange thing to have a stance on, though the others are thinking it as well.

Robin flashes Chrom a look, one clearly stating, 'Help me' before turning towards the girl again and putting on his polite and logical tone on "You said I looked younger but look again. Closely. Do I look like I'm of an age where I could have a child as old as you? "

"Y-you do look younger, but..." she says hesitantly as Robin nods her on "but Mother always said you aged gracefully" she adds without skipping a beat, causing Robins eyes to widen, a bit annoyed as he can hear Chrom laughing from the side.

Robin places a hand to his forehead as the girl stares at him oddly. He wasn't sure what to think now, he had assumed he was age 17 to 22 somewhere close to Chrom...but in his thirties? That seemed...highly unlikely?... but that age could explain some things, why he liked the library, reading books, relaxing...and while he thought lots of the women in the Shepherds were pretty he had never had thoughts about them the same way the other men in the army had...wait no! He wasn't going to let his brain make these odd logical bridges to justify this, its fine for someone to prefer the comfort of books to outside rowdiness and...and of course he liked girls, all young men do!

"I... I like girls!" he states out loud as if having something to prove. His face quickly flushes as four pairs of eyes stare directly at him, confused and worried...when did Lissa get here? He thinks to himself as his teeth bite into his lower lip painfully.

"Wow...uh huh" Lissa stammers a bit, acting like that comment was some stake out on her life.

Chrom trying his best to ignore all this tries to steer the conversation back on topic "You...'ll have to forgive Robin...he lost his memories recently." he says turning to the girl.

Despite what might seem like serious news the girl instead starts glowing, looking eager to talk "Wait...you mea-" she starts just as Lissa cuts her off.

"But this is great! Now he has someone that can help him remember stuff" she smiles before adding in "annnd there's another girl around my age here." The others stare at Lissa, a bit astonished that she managed to make finding Robin's daughter into a plus for her.

Robin sighs out, this time in frustration as he stares at Chrom and Lissa talk about the girl right in front of her face, whilst Frederick looks like he's about to pop if he has to hold in his speculations and suspicions any longer. The girl, Morgan, seems fine with it, taking it all in stride with a confused smile plastered on her face. Suspicious and curious as he might be, he sets the questions aside for now, after all there's an upcoming battle he should really get to preparing for soon...

I had an idea and wrote this on my phone as a spur of the moment thing so i'm sure the tenses are all over the place and it's probably not as polished as it could be, so be sure to tell me everything that's wrong with it. It's the first thing i've written in years.

Semi-revised