"Uncle Giiim!"

"Mmmmm…"

"Rise and shine! Breakfast is ready."

"Bhmhfffhmmmmh…"

"… Uncle, you stayed up late again?"

"Mhmh…"

"Ah… I know that writing is one of your hobby, but you should learn to stop at an adequate time."

"Mmm… but I was on a roll…"

"Pathetic! Do you really think that you're on a vacation? IT'S MORNING PRACTICE TIME, DUMMY!"

"Wait! Severa! Not the bucket of water!"

"The bucket of whaa-AAAAAH!"

"AAAH! SEVERA STOP!"

OW!
The sudden movements are painful…
And... I'm not wet.
But I'm hurt pretty much everywhere.
Huh? Bandages?

Where are Nah and Severa?
Not around…

Where am I?
Not in the cave…

WHERE am I?
In some sort of old rustic room…

Okay. My mind HAS rebooted.

The brigands attacked.
I stopped them.
With the help of Donnel.
More came.
And then Charles arrived.

And I passed out.

And then… CHARLES, one of my BEST BUDDY, from REALITY, and NOT THE FIRE EMBLEM GAME, came just RIGHT OUT OF NOWHERE, and RAMPAGED HIS WAY THROUGH A BUNCH OF BRIGANDS and SAVED OUR LIVES.

"Charles?"

I look at my surroundings and no one's around.

Beside my head, there's a piece of bread, a jar and an empty cup.

… I am famished.

I reach for the piece of brea- ow ow ow!

… I slowly reach for the piece of bread and bite it.
Aaah… food.

While munching, I slowly sit up and stand on my feet.

I pick up the jar and smell its content.
Water.

I stare at the cup sitting on the table…

Screw the cup.

Gulp gulp gulp…

Phew! I'm alive!
I emptied the jar, but I'm still thirsty.
And, that loaf of bread won't be enough to lay down my appetite.

Okay… if I move slowly, walking shouldn't be a problem.

… good.

Once outside, I can see the starry night sky.
I'm in the village.
It's been a while since the last time I was here.
Not good memories…

I can hear some music and people cheering.

There seems to be a huge campfire in the middle of the village.
… well, if that's where the party's at…

Making my way between the houses, I reach the middle of the village.

They seem to be having a feast.
Just like at the end of each Asterix comic books.
Men, women and children are all eating, dancing and singing.
Eh… this all look really nice.

"LOOK! HE'S HERE!"

Oh jeez.

One of the men just noticed my presence.

Now they're all looking at me…

"THE DRAGON MAN!"

Everyone is cheering.

Which is very different from what occurred last time.

Most of them are rising from their seats to applaud me.
Some other villagers are running toward me with joyous expressions.

Two men lifts me up on their shoulder.

The sudden gesture hurts, but there's way too much enthusiasm in the air for me to show it.

"Dragon man!"
"All hail the Dragon Man!"

I participated in many shows before.
Have been praised for my theatrical performances.

But this… is a bit too much.

Embarrassing, even?

… no.

It's not embarrassing.
I fought for those people.

And this is their way of showing their gratitude.
… I'm speechless.

The two men drop me on a chair alongside the whole table.
As I look around me, I can see Donnel's father and the elder on the opposite side of the table.

A hand is grasping my shoulder.

I look up.

"'Sup!"

It's Charles!

"Oh mon est-" (Son of a b-)

I stand up again, grab his hand and pass my arm around his neck for a bro-hug.

"The hell are you doing here!?" I ask him.

"Right back at you!... but not now."

We break our embrace.

He nods at me with a smile and I nod back.
The "out-of-this-world" subject should be tackled in privacy only.

I look past Charles' shoulder and see other familiar faces.
Virion and Sully are standing behind him.

"O-Oh. Hell- Hello!"

I mustn't forget to pretend that I don't know who they are.

"Greetings, my good lad and friend of Cirus!" says Virion in his usual theatrical manner of speaking. "It is good to finally meet you up on your feet."

"A pleasure to meet you, too." I answer. "The name is Gim."

"And I am Virion. Lord Virion. Archer extraordinaire and commander of this jolly group-"
"Hey there! 'name's Sully. Nice to see that you didn't kicked the bucket out there."
"Um… m-miss Sully, I wasn't done with my introduction…"
"Then quit strolling around and get to the point! Gods!"

I chuckle at the interaction.
I am unable to hide my joy at meeting more Fire Emblem characters.

"Ahem."

Charles subtly coughs at me while making a head gesture behind me.
As I turn around, I jump off my seat.
Kellam waves at me.

"Hi… It's good to see you awake… and… you finally noticed me."
"I-I'm sorry!" I say with embarrassment. "I didn't noticed you, it m-must be the fatigue."
"Oh, don't worry. I'm used to being forgotten."

Ouch.
I turn toward my friend, Charles.

"How do you do that!?" I whisper.

And by "do that", I mean "don't forget his presence all the time".

He answers with a chuckle and turn its attention at the village elder, who just stood up with a cup in his hand.

"My friends. Tonight, we celebrate the valour of our heroes. A raid of bandits stormed the beach this morning. If it hadn't been for the intervention of our good Dragon Man and the Shepards, I can scarcely imagine what our village would have become."

I do.
Charles's stare is telling me that he does too.

"May The Lady Naga ever smile to you all. Please, eat and drink to your heart's content! This is the least we can do. Hail!"

"HAIIIL!"

And the feast takes back from where it left off.
A plate filled with all sorts of meats is dropped before my eyes.
Holy crap…
That's a lot of fat!
I turn toward Charles, who's already armed with a chicken drumstick in one hand and a beer stain in the other.
He sure seems used to the medieval table manners.

Ah and screw it.

I grab a piece of ham and chomp through it with my teeth.


It's exquisite.
I think I never ate such delicious juicy meat in my whole life.

The night went on.
While the townsfolks were celebrating, Charles and I eventually walked away from the festivities.

Virion and Sully nodded to us as we left our seats.

… I wonder how much Charles told them about me.
Or… about anything in general.

Well, now is the perfect time to ask.
But he's the first to break the silence.

"I was really surprised when I read the letter you sent to the Shepards."

I chuckle.

"And I would have never believed that you would receive it."

"Mh-mm!"

"So… how did you get here?"

He pauses for a second and lets out a long sigh.

"I woke up in a lake while wearing a full-plated armor."

"… Woah. That's inconvenient."

"You bet! I thought I was going to drown! Thankfully, Virion saw me when I reached the surface."

"Virion saved your life?"

"Something like that. I mean, after getting me out of the water, he brought me to his mansion. I became one of his personal guards and then we… had to leave."

Oh yeah. Virion did flee his homeland for… "political" reasons.

"We arrived at Ylisstol two months ago, we joined the ranks of the Shepards, and now, here we are!"

Charles stares at me with a smile as I chuckle again.
I mean, not at his story.
I'm still flabbergasted at the fact that he is here, with me, in the world of Fire Emblem Awakening.

"So, how about you?"

Me?
Ouh boy.
Where do I start?

"I heard that you stole a couple of apples three months ago."

Bulls-eye.

"Ha ha! Yeah. I messed up my reputation pretty much from day one… I was branded a thief… and a monster…"

Ouuuh. Edgy.
Charles put his serious face on.

"They told me that you escaped… with the help of another manakete."

… Oh crap! Yeah, Nah!
But…

"Uuum… I… don't know if I should tell you…"

My friend stares at me with "That" smile.

Charles does "That" smile when he's analysing someone.

Pretty useful to see into other people's bullshit.
Or, in my case, to figure out what I'm not telling.

"It was Nah, huh?"

Crap!

"Shhhh!"

I'm putting my finger on my mouth and scan my surrounding to make sure that nobody is around.

… The coast is clear.

"No spoilers."

"… Right."

And then it hit me.

Nah and Severa didn't showed up in the battle.
Where were they?...

… Are they?...

"Guillaume?"

I stare at Charles with a terrified expression.

"The girls!..."

"The… girls?"

I turn toward the forest and start runni-

Grass.

Ow!

"What the hell, Guillaume!?"

I forgot for a moment that I was hurt mostly everywhere on my body.

But… I have to get back to the cave!

"Charles. Help me!"

"… Help you what?"

"The cave… I must go to the hidden cave."

It took us a while to get there.

You know… with me being twenty-five percent disabled.

It was even harder to squeeze in the passage to access the cave.

But we both got inside.

And to my horror…

"Girls?"

There was nothing left.

The camp site had been dismantled.

All that was left was the campfire.
As I pass the back of my hand over the ashes, I could notice the lack of warmth from it.

The girls left this morning.

Probably while I was fighting Roddick's men…

They probably knew that the Shepards were coming today…

So they left…

Me…

I feel Charles' hand on my shoulder.

"You okay, man?"

Aw crap.

I'm crying.

"They left… They left… already…"

"Nah AND Severa?..."

I nod at my friend.

I'm sitting on the edge of the cave opening.

The starry sky and the ocean is a view that I never got tired of watching.

Even after three months.

"They trained me to become a better manakete. Because apparently, in the future they came from, I didn't learned early enough to use my full draconic capacities."

Charles was silent as he studied the inside of the cave.

"So. Where are they now?"

Good question.

Wait. Didn't Severa metionned-

"The base?"

"… 'The base'?"

"Severa mentioned that they had a base somewhere."

"You mean… where the future children are gathering?"

"Something like that, yes."

"But… how would they know that?"

"Know what?"

"How would they know WHERE to find a safe and secret place to stay? Here in the present? And, actually, how the hell would THEY know that they were about to get sent in the past!?"

"Lord Black Knight."

Charles stares at me, confused.

"'Lord Black Knight'? From Radiant Dawn?"

I cross my arms like an "X".

"I was told that it wasn't the case… The girls didn't told me anything about him, but I could come to some deductions…"

"… Like what?"

"… Lord Black Knight knows about the future… He knows about the spoilers… and he knows about the… 'Shipping'."

Charles is confused again.

"The shipping?"

"You know… the supports between characters. Just like… in the video game."

My friend's eyes widened.

"So you mean… the Black Knight is… someone from reality?"

The cave goes into silence.
Only the waves crashing on the rocks below are heard.

"Someone from reality… that lived the bad ending… and came back in the present…"

Man…

I've been through a lot lately…
And yet, this is only the beginning.

I turn toward my friend with a grin.

"Let's get back to the village."

And he grins back while lending me his hand to help me up.

"Yeah. The others will worry."

The Base

"You are back."

Laurent is standing in the middle of the corridor, greeting Nah and Severa.

"I assume that your quest has been fruitful?"

"Yeah…" answered the raven-hair girl.

The young mage stares at both girls while adjusting his glasses.

"You claim success and yet, you both wear distressed figures."

"Oh shut it, Laurent!"

Severa shoves Laurent out of her way with a hit of her shoulder. She does everything she can to hold her tears in before entering her room and slamming the door shut.

Laurent adjusts his glasses once again.

"… How discomposing."

"It's okay", answers Nah with tears dripping from her eyes. "We left Uncle… Gim… the morning the Shepards arrived on the island. I'm sure that the brigand weren't a big deal to them."

"Mm. Aptly put, then. I shall inform our Lord right away of the consequences of your triumph. You may rest in your chamber in the immediate time."
"Thanks, Laurent."

The young mage turns on himself and starts heading toward the opposite side of the corridor.

"Oh wait!" exclaims Nah. "Where is 'Big Sis'? I… have so much to tell her."

Laurent turns toward Nah.

"She left for a most imperative assignment, just before your coming."
"Wha-? Already? What for?"

Laurent adjusts his glasses once more.

"To bring back Lucina."