Chapter 24: Mila Tree Trouble
Olivia was the happiest she had been since she had to leave her babies back in Ylisse. Inigo was kind, and caring but also really shy when it came to his dancing. He also got a lot of his tendencies from his father. Jordan and Inigo both messed with their hair when they were nervous or frustrated. They both had the same smirk. Their eyes both light up the same way when excited. It was really amazing to see so many tendencies that resembled her husband. But he would also shrink up when embarrassed like she did. He stuttered some times and he had her eyes, or pretty close to her eyes. Jordan said that there was too much blue in them to be considered a carbon copy of hers, whatever that means.
Evelyn was a lot like her father in many ways. They would have verbal sparring which was really fun to listen to. They were both competitive but Evelyn took it to the extreme some times. Inigo beat her in a spar once, and she didn't talk to him for an hour. Evelyn took after herself in many ways too. Playing with her braid when she was bored, Olivia did that. Evelyn also twiddled her fingers in front of her chest when nervous. According to Inigo, Evelyn had an amazing singing voice but Olivia hadn't heard it yet. Evelyn loved to sketch as well but like singing hasn't shown her or her husband any sketches yet. She always says that she will but that's it.
"Olivia?" A voice rang through her thinking as she turned to see Jordan walking towards her. "Are you alright?" She smiled.
"I'm fine. Just thinking." She told him. Her husband smiled and nodded.
"Alright, can you find Evelyn and tell her that dinner in the mess hall is ready?" He asked her. She stood up and brushed off her backside as she was sitting under a tree. "Let me help you." He said mischievously and reached around to 'Offer' his help. She squeaked and swatted his hand away.
"Stop that!" She exclaimed as he just laughed, withdrawing his hand. She tries to hide a smirk as she scolds him. "You can't do that in public! It's not appropriate and it's embarrassing."
"I like the public part." He said with a smirk. She blinked before squeaking and pulling a hand up to her mouth. He just let out another set of chuckles.
"My parents are twenty. My parents are twenty." A voice from behind them said. She looked over his shoulder to see Inigo walking up to them rubbing his temples. She blushed some more.
"What? Don't like that your parents flirt with each other?" Her husband asks.
"It's just weird okay." He stated with a small blush. Jordan smirked.
"Yet it's perfectly okay for you to flirt?" Jordan asks. Inigo blushes some more.
"W-well I n-ne… I'll be in the Mess Hall" Inigo said before marching off in a blushing mess. Jordan snickered.
"Anyway, can you get her?" He asks turning to Olivia who was watching her son march away worriedly.
"Ye-yes I can, but you should talk to him." She told her husband. He gave a nervous laugh before running a hand through his hair.
"Was that too much?" He asks.
"I think so… but there is one way to find out." She said. He nodded before leaning down to give her a kiss.
"I love you." He said once they separated and even though it has been almost two years it still sent goosebumps up her arms when she heard it. She smiled at him.
"I love you too. See you soon?"
"See you in a bit." He said winking at her before jogging down the path their son went down. She smiled after him before setting out to find her daughter. She went to the girl's tents that the children were staying in but no luck there. She then started looking around places that she might be, like a shaded tree or the sparring field. No such luck. She was beginning to get worried when she heard some quiet humming from behind some tall cat's tail and grass. She moved her way through the plants and stumbled upon her daughter. She was in what Jordan calls a picturesque place, a small pond with a small dock stretching out over the water. Evelyn was sitting there with a pencil in hand and notebook on her lap. She was looking up at the two mountains with the setting sun going down in between the mountains. Her boots were on the grass at the start of the dock and she hung her left foot over the edge, just barely touching the water. Her right leg pulled up so her cheek was resting on her knee. She was humming softly as she looked back up at the mountains before her eyes down to the page. Olivia smiled at the scene and was about to walk up to her until she started singing.
"Now the night is coming to an end…" Her daughter had an amazing voice, soft but emotional with power behind it. She hummed another section before singing the next line. "…The sun will rise and we will try again…" Olivia softly walked up to her daughter and Evelyn looked up. She blushed a little.
"Hi sweetheart." Olivia said softly. Evelyn's blush died down.
"Hi mom."
"May I sit?" Olivia asks. Evelyn snorted.
"I ain't stopping you." She said before turning back to the mountains. Olivia sat beside her daughter and looked down at her drawing. It was incredibly detailed and beautiful with the mountain's having little snowcaps and small trees in the fields before the peak.
"Oh that's lovely Evelyn! May I see it?" Olivia exclaimed. Evelyn blushed again before nodding and handing her mother her sketch book. Olivia gently grabbed it and looked the current drawing.
"It's not that good. I haven't done the finer details and shading yet." Evelyn said while playing with her braid. Olivia scoffed at that.
"Do not belittle your talent sweetheart. You are amazing. Who taught you?" Olivia asked resting the sketchpad on her lap. Evelyn smiled and blushed at the compliment.
"No one did. I either drew or messed around with dad's deck of cards when we were younger and on the run. It was quiet enough so no risen or anyone else would notice." Evelyn said. Olivia lost her smile. "Don't apologize mom. I… I don't want it."
"Wh-what do you mean?" Olivia asks confused. Evelyn looked at the pond and smiled faintly.
"You and dad were always protecting us and keeping us safe so I should be thanking you." Evelyn stated.
"But that doesn't mean I can't apologize." Olivia said. Evelyn's head shot up and she looked at her mother. Olivia had her eyes closed as she faced the mountains. "As a parent you never want your children to go through anything like you and the other children did. It's our sign that we failed." She opened her eyes and looked at Evelyn straight in the eyes. "So, I am sorry. But I will make up for my failure. I promise you that." Evelyn stared at her mother. She knew her mother was not the most confident person in the world but when she spoke about this… it wasn't what she expected. Evelyn felt a tear trail down her cheek and Olivia started panicking.
"Oh my goodness I didn't mean to make you cry. I'm so sorry Evelyn, I just thought that y-" Olivia was cut off by Evelyn pulling her into a hug.
"Thank you." Was all Evelyn said. Olivia slowly wrapped her arms around Evelyn and kissed her temple.
"You're welcome sweetheart." She said into her hair. After a couple seconds they let go and Olivia stood up. "Your father sent me to come and get you. Dinner is ready." Evelyn nodded and stood up. She stretched and walked over to her boots. Olivia looked down to the sketchbook. She flipped over to the last drawing and saw that it was of her and Jordan. He was smirking at her, but it was light and cheerful. She was blushing and her hands were in front of her chest, nervously looking up at him. He had one hand in his pocket and the other rested gently on her waist. Olivia couldn't help but smile at it. It was well done and it captured their personalities really well. She flipped the page over and the smile grew. It was Inigo and Severa standing like they were when they first saw each other. Under it was the words 'So Close'. She snorted at that. She started flipping the next page over.
"Mom? Ready to go?" Evelyn asks. Olivia nodded and turned around.
"Do you mind if I look through this with you? I want to know why you drew these?" Olivia asks. Evelyn quirks her mouth to the side.
"S…sure." She said. Olivia smiled and caught up with her daughter as she held the book out showing her the one of Inigo and Severa. Evelyn laughed and they started on their way back to camp.
"That is a giant ass tree." I mumble to myself looking up at the Mila Tree. It was large, super large. I can't describe how big it was. 'You can but you have no sense of scale to put it up against.' It was thicker and taller than a Redwood. 'Oh… I guess you do.' I stared up at the tree, if you can even call this thing a tree. I run a hand through my hair and walk towards it. I motion for Gaius to follow me as we were doing some quick recon on this before attacking. I just hope that Chrom and the others have made it. We scale are way down a root and drop onto another one.
"So, what now Blazer?" Gaius whispered as we hide behind another larger root.
"We do surveillance… unless Chrom and company are here then we do a surprise attack from the east." I whisper back. I look up and over the root to see the Valmese army there with big bushy stached general Cervantes. It looks like they were talking about something as the soldier points out to the rest of the branches. I look that way and see nothing. I was going to ask Gaius what he's pointing too but the General interrupted our conversation.
"Did you not hear what I was JUST saying?!" He shouted at the soldier. We both quickly ducked our heads behind the root. They would not be freaking out unless something was happening. I remember the words that he said when you invade in the game, or the summery. Something about his beard and mustache and how he hasn't shaved in the years since becoming a solider and hasn't lost since. So, I think Chrom and co. are here. 'They are, I checked." It's weird, you being helpful. 'You're not against me.' Alrighty then.
"Chrom and company are here." I whisper to Gaius. He raises an eyebrow before nodding.
"Ok, now what?" he asks. I think it over as we start running back to the others.
"We need to get back to the rest of our posy. I'll talk to Morgan and Lucina and see what they want to do. If they are here we have the advantage because they either don't know we are here or aren't focused on us. Two legions of Ylissian Shepherds should not be expected." I tell him. We run back as fast as we can and reach the little camp we were at. I saw the children hanging out, laughing and talking, what normal children should be doing. It hurt to think that they didn't have the chance to do what they were doing now. Olivia sitting by them talking with Cordelia and Maribelle while all three women watched their children laugh and talk.
"Get ready!" I shout running in. Everyone turns towards me and Gaius.
"The others are here and Jordan has a plan." Gaius says. We skid to a stop in front of Morgan and Lucina who ordered the others to grab their things.
"What's the plan?" Morgan asks. I scratch the back of my head.
"It was more like a part of a plan." I say. Morgan raised an eyebrow.
"What part of a plan?"
"Like around fifteen percent." I mutter and Gaius starts laughing, a fake laugh. "Dude that's a fake laugh." I chastise him.
"Ha ha ha it's real!" He shouted after finishing his fake ass laugh.
"I just realized that we quoted Guardians of the Galaxy." I mumble to myself.
"You quoted what?" Inigo asks besides me. We were huddled behind a root of the tree. Morgan was going to make a diversion and each group was going to attack from our left… or that's what I thought at least. 'Dumbass… my precious little demon is going to cause a tactical diversion in order to attract all the attention. Your group, Gaius' group, and Stahl's group will flank him from the opposite side and win the battle.' Thanks. '…Shut up.' Rude.
"Don't worry about it." I tell my son as I peek over the root and look out to the others. Gaius was with his wife, daughter and Maribelle's family. Stahl was with his family and Lucina. I was with my family. We hear the sounds of battle going on from beyond the roots.
"What did you tell Morgan to do?" Evelyn asks me.
"I told him to attract as much attention as possible." I tell her looking behind me to see if Morgan was ready. He hadn't shown up yet.
"T-this won't end well." Olivia said.
"I agree." Evelyn agreed with her. 'Nice word choice there.' What? 'What?'
"Why not?" I ask them. Olivia looked worried while Evelyn raised an eyebrow at me.
"He's going to do something stupid." Inigo said from my other side. I turn back to my girls and they both nodded. I sigh.
"What could he possibly do…" I state expecting that thing to happen.
"Were you expecting it to happen?" Evelyn asks. 'Nice timing dipshit.'
"Yep. He kind of ruined th-"
"Hey! You Valmese peasants! You ever see a prince fly?" Said person shouted and all heads whipped around to see him holding a wind tome in his left hand with a large ball of wind in his right hand.
"Oh, don't do it." I voice everyone's opinion on this. Obviously, he didn't listen because he blasted the ball of wind under himself and flew over the battlefield.
"Morgan!? What the Hell do you think you- " Robin shouted at him. From my side I see Evelyn stiffen a little before untensing herself. Morgan pocketed the tome as soon as he took off and pulled out a lighting one. He cast an arcthunder bolt, that interrupted Robin, at the battle field making a crater in the root and knocking over a couple people.
"Now." I say while pulling out my bow. I vault over the root and aim down the nearest mercenary. "You had no chance!" I shout and my arrow imbedded itself into his chest. Inigo and Evelyn jumped over the root and ran together with Ridley at their heels. I forgot to mention that the kids cried tears of joy to see their old family dog again. Olivia was about to join them but I held my arm out to stop her.
"Stay…" She gave me a weird look "…they have it handled." She sheathed her sword and look out at the battle field with me. Nah had caught Morgan and dropped him off where his parents were. The newest purple haired member, Owain, ran right up to him and started gushing over what her did before Robin smacked the both of them on the back of the head. She started reprimanding him before he pointed to me. "That sellout." I mutter seeing Robin look in my direction. I ignore them and look back out at the battle. Inigo and Evelyn were dueling a couple of cavilers, Gaius and Stahl were back to back against a general and a knight. Cordelia and Severa were pulling a pissed off Sully from the battlefield to Brady who was already healing Kjelle. Lucina was blazing a trail through the Valmese army moving towards that idiot brother of hers. 'Watch out.' Huh? A bolt of lightning hits me in the back as I tumble down the root.
"Jordan!" Olivia screams jumping down next to me. I pull myself up, albeit a little shakily. "Are you alright?" She asks in a worried tone as she dotes on me. I forgot about the reinforcements.
"I'll be fine." I tell her. That didn't shake her concern as she stared at me with a worried look. As I am staring at the ground a shadow appears over us and I look up. Two falcon knights and one dark flyer were preparing an attack on us. I pull Olivia to my chest and turn around prepared to take the blunt of the spears and thunder. She screams my name but I ignore it. I'm going to be in some deep shit. 'Nah you'll be fine.' Even if I am fine I'll… wait why would I be fine?
"No hard feelings!"
"All of the hard feelings!" My two children shout at the same time and two bodies fall to the ground around us. I look up and see the last falcon rider fly and turn around to face us. I look behind to see Evelyn holding a bow and arrow while staring at the falcon knight with anger. Inigo was pointing his sword out to the falcon knight and smirked. Ridley was in between the two growling. As the falcon knight approached she didn't notice the wyvern and its rider with silvery white hair come blazing in from the side. She didn't turn her head until it was too late.
"Embrace your fate!" He shouts as he cleaves his axe into the middle of the rider's stomach which knocks her off the Pegasus. He turns and lands on the same branch that my twins are but farther away from us than them. Inigo and Evelyn hopped down and rushed to our side. I unwrap Olivia from my arms and look into her eyes. 'Oh you so fu-' Thank you captain obvious I tell her as I look into the eyes of a very pissed off wife.
"We'll prepare your grave." Evelyn says with a small smirk. Inigo chuckles before adding on.
"It was nice to see you again."
"I might just kill you." Robin said meeting my gaze.
"Get in line." I mutter as Lissa held a healing staff over my back to heal the lighting burn I got. It would scar.
"I'm not talking about your marriage problem, I meant that you let my son do that." She half screamed.
"I said attract as much attention as possible, not fly and shoot lighting and be saved by a dragon. Granted that attracted much attention to him." I said justifying it while trying not to get blamed. Lissa finishes and walks away with a skip in her step. Robin sighs as I stand up and throw my white shirt on.
"That it did, I'll kill my son later." She then gently and lightly hugged me. "It's good to see you again." I wrap my arms around her.
"You too sis." We stand there for a couple seconds before separating. She had a smile on.
"So… where are my niece and nephew?" She asks with a giddy voice. I turn to look and see them with Gerome, Owain, Morgan, and Lucina. Inigo was laughing and threw an arm around the boy along with another arm around Owain as Evelyn rubbed under Minerva's neck with Morgan asking questions and Lucina slowly matching Evelyn's hand.
"There." I tell her before starting to walk away. "Go say hi, I need to go fix this situation…" She nods before walking over to the group of teens. I look back to see Inigo giving her a hug and lifting her of the ground. Evelyn however was standing back with a hand on a knife, watching her aunt cautiously. I sigh, realizing that I am stalling. 'I wanna see how this turns out.' Get lost Grima. 'I can't really.' I ignore her as I walk through people preparing to scale the tall ass tree. I scan for any signs of pink hair that's not hot pink and with a wyvern. I sigh not seeing anything and keep moving forward. I see Chrom talking to Say'ri who both turn to look out. She notices me and scowls. I roll my eyes and walk past them. 'I think she is by the base of the tree to your northeast.' Thanks. I turn northeast and start jogging in that direction.
After a minute or two I see her. She is standing with a hand on the large trunk looking out on the river that runs by. Snowcapped mountains dot the horizon and a light breeze is blowing. As soon as I walk up to her I feel the tension. I open my mouth but close it as I want to react to whatever she says or does. We stand in silence for a minute before she speaks.
"You could have died today." She says quietly. I pause before speaking.
"It would be worth it if you and the kids are alright." I say. She turned on a heel and faced me with teary, angry eyes.
"It would not! You wouldn't know the pain that your death would bring because you would be dead!" She shouted. I open my mouth but she cuts me off. "It would only be worth it to you! You would have died knowing that we would be safe but for how long?! How long would we be safe when we are in a damn war?!"
"…You and the kids are strong. You would have survived."
"Physically yes, mentally hell no! With you gone we would have felt like we were missing a piece! And you know all about that don't you?!"
"…p-please don't bring that up."
"Why not?! You said that you don't want your children to grow up without a father like you did, yet your willing to throw away your life for one wound to me or you just to keep us safe?! That's bullshit!"
"Well you just might have to get used to me being gone!" I shout then cover my mouth. Her anger became a silent one.
"What does that mean?" She asks with hidden rage underneath it. I let the hand drop from my mouth and I drop her gaze.
"The night I got here, there was a letter that explained everything to me… It told me that I was in a coma and how that happened. It told me what opportunities I had here and that I should use this to my advantage. At… shit… at the end of the letter it told me that when the adventure ended I would be sent back."
"…Back where?" She asked quietly. I gulp and look in her eyes, now filled with tears as mine started to do the same.
"Earth… back to earth." We stood still for a minute before she moved towards me. She raised her hand and I closed my eyes. I felt nothing. I open them again as I see Olivia staring at me with her hand floating over my left cheek.
"And why didn't you tell me?" She asks quietly. Honestly… it never came up. But it was a secret I should have shared a while ago.
"I should have, a long time ago. I am so sorry Olivia." I say through my tears. She drops her hand to her side and clench's it.
"Yes. You should have." She turns and walks away from me. I watch her walk away before I fall on my ass and stare at my hands. 'You done fucked up now.' Thank you, captain obvious. A pop and some shuffling besides me indicate that Grima is sitting next to me.
"I want to ask my question now." She says. I look up to meet her gaze. She looks exactly like Grima did when I met her.
"Sure, go ahead."
"Why do you continue to hide secrets, even when they are the things that hurt you the most in this world?" She asks. I… I have no answer. I wish I knew, I really wish I knew. "Figured. It's subconscious then. You are still open with them but not as much as you would like because of something… I think I know what that something is."
"Cause you know me so well." I mutter picking at the grass.
"I think I do." She says before standing up and stretching. "You still know that you have to leave, correct?" I nod. "So you continue to hide things because to still think this is not your real world." And with that she disappears.
AN: This turned into something different. But also hello, sorry for being late. Spontaneous family trip over the weekend. Anyway, I'm not that proud of this chapter but it will help me with somethings that will be happening in the story. Also school is starting soon so maybe that'll help me git back in the groove of things. Now next chapter, I'll try to make it longer and there might not be much action. We got talking to Tiki, marriage troubles, kid stuff, and maybe some Fort Steiger. Anyway see you guys next time. -3008
Reviews
Haro654(Ch.23): Thanks man. There will be more InigoxSevera coming up along with Evelynx? (Guess). It'll feel good to be back when i get into the full swing of things. See you next time.
A fan(Ch.23): Never played it but it might be fun. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
