(A/N: It is very likely that this chapter will seem…underwhelming. It's an important chapter, but it was so hard to write. The quality might be a bit lacking as a result—sorry about that.)
About two weeks after they came home, the Mini Shepherds were off again for their next mission. Coming with them was a red-haired merchant—one Lucina could've sworn she met whenever she would travel with Chrom, who refused it with a smile—who actually had what they needed to bring, sharing stories about what she remembered from the war. It was a nice way to pass time as they traveled, at least.
"There were these two guys who thought they could take out a village, and they'd been pillaging a lot so I started to fight 'em and that guy showed up! Chrom! In Regna Ferox!"
"Were you that merchant that came with them to fight in the war?"
"Hmm..? Oh, nope! That wasn't me. That was another merchant who can kick thief butt."
Similar conversations were held throughout the trip, and by the end of the week they were fairly close to the village they needed to be in. Opting to rest that night and arrive in the village about midday tomorrow, they set up camp. Lucina elected Morgan to stay up with her for first guard, and the merchant happily offered to stay up as well.
Going a little farther away from the tents so they wouldn't bother anyone trying to sleep, Lucina tried to help Morgan with sword practice to…mixed results. She was harsher than both of her parents in the sense that she very rarely allowed mistakes; she corrected him if he did anything wrong, and it was for that reason that Morgan admitted that he didn't even like training with her (that and she could very easily knock him down if she didn't hold back; if they were training with iron and steel like they were now, she could draw blood if she wasn't careful).
They stopped fairly regularly by Morgan's insistence, and they had just finished their agreed final round when the merchant looked back at them. "You kids aren't moving a lot, are you? I hear people walking around and talking."
They paused, and after a little bit the merchant reached for her sword and frown. "Miiiiiight want to wake up the other kids. Just an idea, but there might be some thieves around here."
Lucina got up to wake up the other girls and Morgan started getting the boys up; by Lucina's direction, a few of them started packing up camp so they could move away from the thieves. While most of the Mini Shepherds packed up what they could, the merchant noted the arrival of thieves and started to fend them off–Lucina helped the merchant, as did Kjelle and Owain when they could.
The thieves seemed to be a bit stronger than most of the Mini Shepherds could handle, but still weak enough that the merchant could defeat them. They weren't killed—as far as Lucina could tell, at least, and if they were it wasn't by any of the Mini Shepherds' hands—but where pushed far enough along that they didn't make much noise or movement once pushed down. The teenaged group wasn't trained for much more than that.
There were about five initial enemies with more joining once they realized there was a fight. With most things packed up at this point, the group started taking a defensive stand against the opponents, Lucina was close to calling a retreat. Two people came from the opposite direction of the thieves, however—both were cloaked, but she couldn't determine much else than that—and most of them assumed they were more thieves.
With a little sound, the merchant noticed them. "Oh, wow, thanks for showing up! Where were you when I was getting paid to make sure you got where you were supposed to!"
"Who knew we're good enough that someone's getting paid to make sure we're getting paid?" One of the people asked, their voice cheerful.
"Uh, I'm all for any extra help," Morgan said, backing away from the thieves some as Lucina came to assist him, "But can you wait to exchange witty barbs until after there aren't thieves? We have a job to do!"
The person chuckled. "Right, right. Start moving towards the next town; we can handle it from here."
Lucina and Morgan both nodded, leading the others away while the stronger ones protected the weaker. When there was a chance to glance back, suffice to say it was fascinating; one of the strangers used a tome, while the other used a lance, both of which were about as strong as they came. With the merchant helping, the strangers were able to clear out most of the thieves.
The one who spoke before walked over to the Mini Shepherds. "You're probably tired, but it would be best if we made the rest of the trip to the nearest village. We can exchange introductions while we walk, all right?"
There weren't any protests, and Lucina allowed them to lead—if they strayed too far off their designated path, she knew that someone would correct them. Given that the strangers helped fend off the thieves and that the merchant knew them, they were unlikely to turn around and harm them.
The stranger who talked before looked back at the others. "You can call me Malin, and my friend here is Marth—we're mercenaries, and we've been helping the village west of here. I take it you're here to do that instead?"
"That's the plan," Morgan replied. He glanced at the other person curiously. "I take it 'Marth' is an alias?"
"Both of our names now are aliases," the one who spoke—Malin—said. "But you won't get much conversation out of her—she doesn't talk much. Anna can attest."
"She barely talks to me and I'm an old friend!" The merchant agreed.
Malin looked ahead again for a moment. "So I take it this little group is that teen militia group I hear a lot about?"
"How can you tell?" Laurent asked, sounding a bit skeptical.
"For one, the only adult here is Anna," Malin said with a chuckle. He glanced back at Lucina, took down his hood, and tapped the skin underneath his left eye. "Secondly, the Brand. You can't really tell from a distance, but we heard that the exalt was sending someone over so I was looking out for it. That would make you"—he pointed at her—"Lucina, and that means that that one"—he pointed at Morgan—"is the prince, Morgan. Not that hard to figure out if you look closely."
"I'm almost impressed," Lucina admitted as Malin faced forward again. "Some of my friends couldn't even deduce it that quickly."
"It helps that whenever I hear about teenage militia, I hear about the kids leading it," Malin replied. "But that being said? The farther away you get from Ylisstol, the more likely there'll be thieves while you're traveling—brigands like to sneak up on people around here. Around this area there are Ylisseans and Plegians alike, so you really need to be careful if you head out this way—especially since people around Ylisstol already know about you."
"Noted," Morgan said, nodding. "And I am definitely going to sleep in tomorrow."
Not a single person disagreed.