(A/N: The "…" line in this chapter, when in its own paragraph, signifies a change of view from Morgan to Malin.)

They got to the village they were supposed to really late at night, so Morgan was pretty sure all of the Mini Shepherds took their time waking up the next morning. The annoying part for him was that he still woke up early, so he knew he'd be tired later. But…at least no one was hurt? That was a good thing—even if they were just really tired instead.

When Morgan got up, he got breakfast and checked in with the merchant to make sure the villagers got what they needed. On his way there, he ran into the mercenaries that helped them the night before—Malin and Marth. Neither of them wore cloaks anymore, but the latter had a mask that covered the eyes; given that they almost looked like they were having a passive aggressive argument, Morgan was going to walk away again—then Malin noticed him and Marth stopped muttering immediately.

"Hey, kid," Malin said warmly. "You're up early."

"Trust me, I'd still be asleep if I was at home," Morgan replied simply. A bit hesitant, he continued, "Would you be willing to chat? I was curious about a few things."

Malin glanced at Marth, who sighed and nodded. Quietly murmuring a thanks, Malin looked back at Morgan and smiled. "What'cha wanna ask? I can probably answer most of them."

Morgan nodded, and as they talked they generally walked around the village until they found a nice place to sit. "Well, first things first—were you really just…there?"

"We were nearby, yeah. We heard fighting and decided to come down to help."

"Thanks for that, by the way. That was our first time getting ambushed."

"I'd say you handled it fairly well! Nothing was done that couldn't be patched up. That's a plus."

"True! You seem optimistic."

"I get that a lot. I'd rather be glad for what didn't happen than be angry at what could happen—that's Marth's job."

"Pessimist?"

"Half the time, yeah. Grew on her."

"Learned pessimism, got it."

At that point they got to a nice place where they just watched as villagers and the Mini Shepherds walked around. Morgan was tempted to fall back asleep as he sat under a tree, and Malin looked down at him with a friendly smile. "For a kid that I don't hear too much about, you're pretty chatty."

"Lucina's the more asocial one, somehow," Morgan replied with a little shrug. "I've always been more friendly, but she's the one with like…a dozen friends. Some of them aren't even in Ylisse! One of them's in Valm, and a few of them travel…" He looked back up at Malin. "And this is going to sound weird, but for some reason you remind me of my mother? When you were frowning at Marth earlier, I swear you looked exactly like her."

Malin paused for a moment before laughing. "We were friends, once—me and Robin. I fought in the second war."

Morgan just stared back at him for a second. "You're that old? Here I was thinking you were younger!"

"Oh, wow—never thought I'd hear that from the kid of the woman who literally no one alive knows how old she is."

"In my defense, we basically know old she is. More-or-less, not exactly."

Malin chuckled a bit more, and Morgan looked back ahead of him. "That aside, though," Morgan said, "You actually fought with her?"

"Like I'd lie to the kid that could verify information. Name a person and I'll say if I fought next to them or not."

"The original Shepherds?"

"Yup."

"The extended Shepherds?"

"Yup."

"The Feroxi khans?"

"Yup."

"The… Huh. I can't actually think of anyone else without getting really specific and rattling off all of my parents' friends. Did Marth fight with them too?"

"She did. Longer than I did, actually."

There was silence for a little bit as Morgan ran out of questions, and he noticed Lucina talking with the other Mini Shepherds a little ways away. "Oh, Lucina's up. I should go see if she wants us to do anything while we're here." Morgan stood up, only taking one or two steps before looking back at Malin with a smile. "One last question," he said. "Do you ever look at a word so much, it doesn't look like it's a word?"

Malin laughed. "All the time, kid."

…

Morgan offered him a wave and went to talk with the other kids. Almost as soon as Malin turned around, Marth was there, looking at him.

"What do you think the chances are that Robin makes an adult come with them on their next trip?" Malin asked, intending a joke.

Marth maintained her frown. "I would almost follow them, if they wouldn't notice," she muttered. "For a group with very little combat experience, this area is dangerous—to the point where actually getting a message to Ylisstol may be difficult. I'm a bit concerned that whoever's in charge of them—Chrom or Robin, possibly Frederick or some other instructor—thought they could manage that, if they were aware."

"You could always ask," Malin pointed out kindly. "It won't kill you, you know." She simply stared back at him—he always imagined her rolling her eyes at him, since the mask she wore was made in such a way that you couldn't see her eyes at all—before he glanced back at the kids. "Either way, though, mind if I chat with them more later? I want to know how Robin's been doing."

Although she sighed, Marth looked at the kids too. "…Ask after the whole family," she said quietly, "And tell me what they say. I'm not… I don't want to be there with them, but with any luck we'll be gone by the end of the year. It would be good to know that they'll be all right."

"I'll see what I can get out of 'em," Malin promised, looking back at her with a smile. "I won't say anything that'll give them hints, either, but I can't promise that they won't ask their parents."

"I would just prefer not to be the first to tell them," Marth replied. Turning away, she added a bit louder, "I'll see if I can get us a job to work on while we head up to Ferox. You can do what you want, just…don't say anything that would give us away."

"You know I never would, Sis," Malin promised. "Not intentionally, at least."

She cast him a small, thankful smile, then walked off. Malin opted to walk over to the Mini Shepherds and asked to join their conversation, happily invited to a cheerful conversation that Malin hadn't been apart of for years.