This did end up getting a bit closer than I was expecting, and is certainly going to be an exercise in how fast I can write stuff, but welcome to Marileth Week 2021 my friends. These themes are going to be interesting. And, something I will remark on, I actually did suggest a theme and they did like it. Happy about that.

Anyway, today's theme is about animals. I'll admit that this ended up taking a bit to settle on, but I got something I'm happy with. May be short, but it'll work out.

Disclaimers: Fire Emblem belongs to Nintendo, Intelligent Systems, Koei Techmo, etc.

It was a somewhat rainy evening outside of the monastery and most of the students and faculty were asleep or making preparations to go to sleep. Marianne was doing the last rounds of making sure the animals that were living within the area were asleep. She was about to head inside, when a bird gave her a small chirp.

"What is it…?"

The bird chirped a little more and then gave her a motion to follow. Marianne gave a confused look, but ended up following it…

"Professor!"

Byleth let out an annoyed groan as he sat up, hearing somebody was knocking at the door of his room. He rubbed his eyes a little before he walked over to open the door. As his view came into focus, he could see Marianne was at his door and was carrying some sort of an egg that looked fairly large…

The next morning, Byleth and Marianne ended up showing the egg to Rhea and Hanneman. The egg itself was on the large side, roughly about the size of a person's head if maybe a bit smaller, was a smooth white all around, and had a few spots of color that were shades of red.

"Where did you say this egg came from?" Rhea questioned.

"I… found it outside…" Marianne informed, somewhat nervously. She looked towards the egg, trying to avoid Rhea's gaze.

"And you've no idea what's in it?" Rhea followed up.

Marianne simply shook her head 'no' in response, while Byleth simply looked it over a little. Hanneman was also looking over the egg, somewhat adjusting his monocle as he did so, while Byleth walked over to it.

"I… think I've seen something like this before in my travels. ...I think…" Byleth admitted, "I believe it's a type of bird…"

"A bird, you say?" Hanneman questioned as he looked over to the teacher, "What sort of bird lays an egg of that size?!"

Byleth held his hand up to his chin as he tried to think about it, the answer being close to the tip of his tongue as he stared at the egg, only for him to eventually let out a heavy sigh as his posture eased off.

"It's quite alright if you don't recall," Rhea assured him as she walked over, "Though, I suppose the better question is what are we going to do with this egg now?"

Silence fell over the room as the three faculty members simply began to think about the various possibilities of the egg.

"We… we could… t-take care of it…" Marianne nervously suggested.

Rhea opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it to consider the suggestion for a little bit.

"If I may make a comment… Marianne is really great with animals. Assuming it does hatch into something we don't know a lot about, she would be the best bet to be a caretaker," Byleth chimed in.

Marianne had a faint blush appear on her face, though nobody seemed to notice it...

Marianne gently polished the egg in a calm and happy manner. She then put it into a cloth and wrapped the egg up to try to make sure it would stay warm. She just gave the egg a gentle and kind smile…

"HEY MARI~!" Hilda loudly proclaimed as she opened the door, causing Marianne to shriek in surprise, which ended up making the egg slip from her hands. Marianne quickly caught it and then turned to Hilda with an annoyed look, "...oh, right. Professor mentioned you were looking after an egg of some sort."

"Yes… I am…" Marianne responded.

"Alright then. I hope that you have fun… Mama-anne!" Hilda joked before she scampered out of the room.

A few weeks had passed and Marianne had continued to watch over the egg like a mother hawk. Byleth occasionally kept an eye on the egg if she happened to be busy, but it was otherwise mostly her work.

"Hello," Byleth greeted one day.

"Good morning, professor," Marianne smiled as she walked over with the egg.

Before the two could talk any further, they both heard a cracking sound. They both quickly looked down to the egg in concern… only to see a small bird-like head poking out. Both gawked a bit as they watched the egg hatch into a small creature that fit in Marianne's hands, but it wasn't a bird that Marianne seemed to recognize.

"Wait… I think I know what it is. I read about it in a book I saw once… I think it's called a kinshi."

"Kinshi?"

"They're supposedly birds that grow to be about the size of a wyvern and are capable of being ridden on…" Byleth explained, "But… they were never proven to exist."

Marianne looked to the small kinshi as it turned towards her and the baby bird gave a small coo at her. Marianne ended up cuddling up to it a little bit with a small smile…

"Aw… it's not a quail? I was hoping to train a quail and make our rallying cry 'hail the quail'..." Claude complained.

The other members of the Golden Deer had been informed of the hatching of the egg a few days later, with Marianne having brought the kinshi into class with her.

"Mama-anne and Dada-leth are that bird's parents," Hilda joked.

Both Byleth and Marianne blushed a fair bit at the joke as the rest of the class laughed a little.

That evening, Byleth and Marianne were side-by-side in trying to get the kinshi to go to sleep. Byleth had quickly made a small bed for the creature to sleep in, while Marianne was lulling it to sleep. The kinshi proved a little fussy, which made Marianne sigh a little.

"Let me try," Byleth offered.

Marianne simply nodded and passed it over to him, and he gently rocked the kinshi a little. The bird slowly started to close its eyes before finally dozing off. Byleth and Marianne gently tucked it in and Marianne soon left the room with a quiet smile on her face.

The idea of it being a kinshi they raised ended up coming from a scrapped element for this chapter where Marianne was going to raise a bird as a kind of attack dog, except a bird, then I went and asked if that was a class in any game and was told about the kinshi.

I'll admit that, owing to time, there was a post-time skip scene that ended up needing to get axed. It would've had them meet with the kinshi post-skip and have it cuddle with Byleth like it was the dad.

Not quite sure what my favorite part is. There were some cute moments, but can't pick a favorite.

Hope you guys enjoyed this and are looking forward to more Marileth content.

Just Live More.