A loud inhuman screech pierced Inigo's ears as he cut down yet another Risen. He winced and grabbed his shoulder as a resounding pain rang like a bell up through his arm. A small cloud of mist formed from his ragged breath. He looked down at his blood-soaked hand. His fingers looked like sausages with how swollen and red they were. He couldn't tell what hurt more, his wounds or the frostbite. He moved his attention towards the bloody mess of chaos before him. A massive horde of risen was scattered across the blanket of red snow. Soldiers limping and carrying each other with a whole assortment of stray limbs buried in the snow. Arms, legs, torsos, even heads, and full corpses were only a few of the things you'd find amidst the chaos-ridden wasteland.

Inigo grit his teeth. Everyone was nearing their limit and the risen's numbers were only growing. The few healers they did have already had their hands full on the villagers, and even then all they could really do is provide first aid. They certainly were relentless. There had to be a way out of this situation. He gripped the hilt of his sword. What would his father do?

A low growl tugged at his ear. Inigo spun around as his blade clashed with the risen's blade behind him. He pivoted his foot and with a short mid-air twirl glided past another one of the risen's slashes. Gripping the hilt of his sword, he slashed at the risen. The masked monster screeched in pain as the blade tore through its rotten flesh. It then quickly spun around and slashed at the raven-haired boy. Inigo raised his sword to block only to grunt in pain as he was sent tumbling through the snow.

Inigo gasped for air as he ripped himself from the thick snow layered ground. His body shivered and his mouth filled with the taste of liquid iron. The whole world around him became shrouded in fog as he looked up to see the blurry mess of red and purple charging towards him.

"DAWN'S EDGE SLASH!" A familiar voice exploded into the air.

At that moment, a young blonde boy in a yellow myrmidon uniform charged at the risen. A monstrous roar of pain exploded into the air as the risen dissolved into a purple mist.

"Haha! Stand down foul missionaries of hell for you are no match for the great Owain Dark!" The blonde boy shouted as he struck a weirdly over-dramatic pose.

He never changes, Inigo smiled at the sight of his friend's theatrics.

Inigo rose to his feet and walked over to Owain.

"Ah if it isn't my dear old rival! Inigo of the Indigo Skies!" Owain said with another dramatic pose.

"Thanks, Owain, You really helped me out there," Inigo said with his signature smile.

"Your gratitude is unnecessary my dear rival for I only did it so that we may clash swords once again! I am the only one who should have the privilege to take you down!"

"Never change, do you Owain?" Inigo grinned, "But enough with the theatrics, alright? This is serious"

"R-Right sorry about that" Owain said as he dropped his pose, "So what are we gonna do about this then?"

For a moment, Inigo froze. He didn't know how to answer. What should they do? What could they do? He glanced back at the scene of carnage behind him. There didn't seem to be many soldiers left and the few that did remain didn't look too far off from walking corpses themselves. He had to calm down and think things through.

Inigo took a deep breath and looked back at Owain, "First of all, we should regroup and make sure all the injured are accounted for and after that, we should head for the border gate where we can rest and call for reinforcements"

"Right" Owain nodded, "It's definitely not gonna be easy though especially with that many risen on our tail"

"I'm sure we'll manage, we have the great and powerful 'Owain Dark' on our side after all" Inigo said with a smirk.

"Inigo! I thought you said this wasn't the time to be fooling around!"

"You're right, I'm sorry," He said as he turned to face the horde of risen, "Anyway let's not waste any more time, there are people that need our help"

"Yeah, let's go!"

And with that, both boys ran into the horde of risen before them.

"And there we go," Inigo said as he tossed another limp corpse into the massive rotting pile of flesh, blood, and bones.

He took a moment to look at his blood-drenched hands and gazed up at the top of the pile. How many did that make now? 30? 40? He lost count a while ago. All these people he failed to save. Friends, acquaintances, family, people he never met. All with their own hopes, dreams, and lives of their own. Now they were nothing more than faceless blobs of rotten flesh piled on top of each other as rivers of blood flowed endlessly to the floor.

Inigo sighed and looked back to a female soldier holding a torch, "All right that's the last of them"

"Right..." The soldier nodded as she threw the torch and the pile of corpses was set ablaze and quickly tore away the darkness around them.

His heart sank at the sight. He knew it had to be done but even so, this was no proper burial. He gripped the cloth around his abdomen as his stomach twisted at the smell of burning human flesh spiraling into the air. So many innocent lives lost because he wasn't strong enough.

"Damnit," He cursed under his breath.

"Lord Inigo, are you alright?" He heard a voice ask.

Inigo looked back to see a young pegasus knight with short white hair standing beside him. Her wide eyes were rife with concern.

He smirked, "Never better actually, what about you? Your leg feeling any better?"

"It's feeling fine now, thanks," She said with a soft smile.

"Well, that's good to hear," Inigo said with his trademarked smile, "You took quite a fall back there so I was a little worried but all's well that ends well right?"

"Yeah…" He saw her eyes drop to the floor.

For a moment, neither of them said a word as the crackling flames continued to peck into the cold air.

"Come on, Vanessa," Inigo spoke up, "why the long face? It's such a shame to see such a cute face like yours all mopey like that, you should be smiling instead"

This caused her to blush, "I'm s-sorry, I…." She hesitated for a moment, "It's just that so much has happened. Ferox has fallen, my family and everyone I knew is dead and turned into those things. I…" Her body started to shake as she wrapped her arms around herself, "I just...My own sister attacked me in the battle earlier! I recognized her instantly even with that mask...I'm sure it was her" Her voice started to become raspy and unhinged. Her eyes shot wide as she took a step back.

"Vanessa, calm down" Inigo placed both hands on her shoulders. "Just take a deep breath, alright"

For a moment, Vanessa stood still. The cold puffs of mist exiting her mouth began to slow down. The shaking stopped and she took a deep breath.

"Sorry about that," She said as she recomposed herself, "that was unprofessional of me to do in front of the current khan"

"No need to apologize," Inigo said with a soft smile, "A lot has happened recently, I of all people should be able to understand that"

"Lord Inigo, tell me, how can you remain so calm during all of this?" She looked him in the eye, "How can you still be smiling at a time like this?"

Now it was his turn to hesitate. In truth, he was just as distraught as she was but he couldn't tell her that. No, he had to remain strong and composed for her sake, for everyone's sake. He was their leader, after all.

Inigo quickly flashed his trademarked smile, "I simply just look at the bright side of things. For as bad as things are now, you just have to keep smiling and things will get better eventually, so smile for me"

A small smile curved along her face, "Thank you, Lord Inigo. I feel a bit better now"

"See? Was that so hard? You're much cuter when you smile you know"

Vanessa giggled, "Oh stop it, you insatiable flirt"

"But I got you to laugh, didn't I? I'd call that a victory at least"

She smiled again, "Fine, you win this one"

"That's what I like to hear, now maybe when this is all over you and I could go out for some tea, perhaps?"

"I'll think about it," Vanessa said as she started to walk off, "but for now I have a pegasus to take care of"

"Well I'll see you around" Inigo continued to smile as he watched her disappear into the darkness.

Inigo let out a heavy sigh as he finished up the last move in his routine. It was still far from perfect. He still needed to learn to better stick the landing after that first twirl, and his form in that last part was just so sloppy. Though he could feel himself improve if only a little, his movements were starting to flow better during the climax of the dance at least.

"So mom, what did you think?" he asked a small golden chain on a nearby tree stump.

For a moment, he closed his eyes as his mother's voice flooded into his ears.

"You should probably position your foot a little more firmly when you land. Also, your center was off on that last move. Move your arms out a little more so you can balance yourself"

He remembered those days. The days were always so warm and bright back then. Her bright smile, whenever they practiced, was always so gentle like that of the sun's rays that once caressed his face. Inigo opened his eyes to see nothing but darkness in front of him. But those days were over now. He wrapped his arms around himself to try and keep warm. Inigo heaved out a large sigh and flopped back onto the snow-covered ground. How long could he keep this up? Eventually, somebody would see through it. 'Looking at the bright side of things', how funny. How could he look at the bright side of anything in this unending darkness?

He heaved another sigh and looked up at the pitch-black sky. How could he ever know things will get better? It all just seemed so hopeless. They barely got out with their lives in that last battle and things were only gonna get worse from here. How could he just keep smiling through all of this? Inigo didn't quite know himself. His parents were dead, his home was destroyed, and countless innocent lives were lost. All because he was too weak to prevent it. It was pathetic. He was too weak to protect anyone. Not his mother or his country. His father would be disappointed not that he wasn't already. He was no warrior. Inigo closed his eyes again

"So this is where my rival has slinked off to!" Inigo shot up and turned back to see Owain walk into view of the glittering red moonlight. "What a pitiful sight to see you in"

"Owain?! What the hell are you doing out so late?!" Inigo jumped to his feet and brushed off the snow from his clothes.

Owain grinned and put his hand over his face in what Inigo could only guess was supposed to be an intimidating pose. "The deathly hollows of the night yet lurk but my power has been diminished so I must ask yet another grand warrior to fend off these hellish ghouls until my power is restored"

Inigo smiled at his friend's theatrical antics, "my turn already, huh? Alright just give me a moment then" Inigo said as he went to grab the golden chains from the nearby stump.

For a moment, he looked at the small golden chain in his hand as it sparkled in the light of the blood-red moon.

Mother, what should I do?

Hey, everyone I know it's been a while. I've just been battling with some writer's block recently. This whole quarantine has certainly given me some time to write and catch so that's nice despite everything else. Also thank you, everyone, for over 3300 views. It makes me happy to know people enjoy reading this. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed Inigo and Owain's little debut. Honestly, I feel I could've done more with this chapter but y'know what no need to rush into things, right? Inigo's father in this fic is Lon'qu if I didn't imply that heavily enough anyway. As for Owain's dad, I'll leave you guys guessing for now. Though, I think we'll be following these two for a little bit so look forward to that. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and take care.