"The local villagers tell me that Bazba's Bandits keep their lair nearby, and a few of them saw a boy matching the description of our bracelet thief. It's a fair assumption that the boy is one of the bandits."

Eirika and I nod. Everyone else is in the village, restocking food, water, and other important supplies, while we waited on a forest path just outside of town.

Note to self: Ask Colm why he stole the bracelet. The game's writers probably just put that in as an excuse to give an archer and a thief to the player, but since this obviously isn't the game, I'm kinda curious.

"Bandits." Eirika whispers, hair hiding her face, her grip on her rapier tightening. "Here in Renais, our homeland... I had no idea." She looks up and DEAR GOD that woman is pissed. "Burning our villages, stealing from our people, all with no fear of retribution?"

I swear, she looks like she's ready to kill something. "It wasn't always like this." I say quickly. "I've been through here a few times on my travels. Typically, Renais' knights do a splendid job of working with the townspeople to keep the bandits in check. But with Renais' military in tatters..." I shake my head. "I had hoped that Grado would be more interested in keeping the peace. If they continue to neglect Renais' people, then this country is doomed."

Eirika goes deadly silent. I know what that means, and it terrifies me. Before coming here, I was one of the silent ones, a fly on the wall, a wallflower. Not a lot bothered me, and I'd overreact a lot to the little things. But when someone pressed one of my berserk buttons, like hurting someone I love, or making fun of mentally challenged people, I didn't overreact. I didn't react at all. I went dead silent. In that silence, I'd plan out exactly how I'd make them pay for what they did. I know that Eirika was doing he same, and I knew one other thing: I would really hate to be Bazba after she was through with him.

There was a soft rustle of leaves to the side, and I drew my weapon quickly. It was Neimi. She was short, with purple hair and matching eyes that currently looked like they'd done a good deal of crying recently. There was a quiver hanging at her hip, and a bow was strung across her chest. I put my weapon away and really Seth? You're on guard against that poor little thing?

"Excuse me, but... are you guys... mercenaries?" Seriously, the game should have made that font different. I can barely hear the girl talking, and she's literally ten feet away.

"I am." I say. "How can I- OOF!"

The grunt comes when a fourteen-year old girl takes the opportunity to ram into me at a full sprint. Damn, she's fast. Screw the Ranger class, she doesn't need a horse to keep up with the cavalry if she can go that fast from standing.

"Pleaseyouhavetohelpcolmitoldhimitwasdangerousbuthejustdidntlisten-" The vocal contrast this girl has is truly remarkable.

I wriggle my arms out of her bear hug and put them on her shoulders. "Whoa, slow down. Let me go, take a step back, breath in and out, then start again, slower this time." Seriously, I did high-school debate, and that meant talking fast enough to cut five minutes off of a twenty-minute speech. I only barely understood what she just said.

She nods, takes a step back, and starts over. "I'm Neimi. I'm from... I used to be from a village called Lark. Except the village isn't there anymore."

Eirika frowns. "Gone. You mean-"

Neimi nods. "Bazba's Bandits burned it down. Colm and I... we're the only ones left." She teared up. "The other villagers... Bazba's Bandits surrounded them and..."

Ladies and gentlemen, Neimi Fal- whoa, what? Surrounded? As in, herded like sheep and slaughtered? I look over to Eirika, and wonder if she'd mind if we coordinated our plans to torture the man. When we finally finished with that bastard, he'd be wishing I'd ended up in another Awakening self-insert.

Thankfully, Seth manages to keep a level head in all of this. "Neimi, what are you doing here?"

"Bazba's Bandits have a hideout here in these mountains. Colm went... Colm's my... we've known each other for... he's my best friend, the only one I have left. I had to leave something back in Lark, but when we looked for it, it wasn't there, so he's trying to steal it back."

That snaps Eirika out of her thoughts. "He went alone? That's incredibly stupid and dangerous!"

Neimi nods. "That's exactly what I told him, but he wouldn't listen. If I lose Colm too, I... I..." Tears started streaking down her face and she started sniffling. I wonder how she deals with a stuffy nose?

Eirika goes over to Neimi, and gives her a hug. "Don't worry." She tells her softly. "We'll find your friend and make sure he's not hurt. I promise."

I smile. "Well, she promised, so there's no backing out now."

Neimi looks up at me, then back to Eirika, and gives her a tight hug. "Thank you!" She releases Eirika, and looks up to her. "I don't have much money, but I'll do whatever I can to pay you."

Seth pulls Eirika to the side, and they start talking. I look at Neimi. "Do you know the way to their hideout?" I ask.

She nods. "Before they took it over, Colm and I would go there all the time. It was a place we could be alone together and just talk."

Eirika and Seth finish talking, and rejoin us. "Andrew," Seth says, "head into town and get the others. We're going to take out the bandit lair."

We enter into a courtyard in front of a small fortress. To the right, walking in, is a wall that looks like it has seen way better days. Looking at it, I'm not surprised it's possible for a bow and arrow are able to clear it away. It looks like a game of Jenga, played with bricks instead of blocks. There are some bricks which are sticking out, and others which have been pushed to the other side.

"Is there anything else I can do?" Neimi asks. "I feel like I haven't done enough."

Before anyone else can speak up, I act. "You any good with that bow?"

She nods. "When he was still alive, I would go hunting with my grandfather."

I nod, and turn to Seth, who is giving me a look that says "I'm not getting a child involved."

"She can stay behind our lines." I say. "Better than just leaving her out of this and having Eirika worry."

He considers this, then sighs and nods, and rides to inform Eirika of the situation. Then, he rides back.

"See the walls there?" I ask him. He looks over to them, and he processes what I mean very quickly.

"Garcia or Gilliam?" He asks me. I feel like he knows the answer already, like he's testing me, trying to figure out whether or not I'm as experienced as I claim to be.

"Garcia, definitely." I answer. "From what I've seen, these bandits prefer axes. Putting Gilliam in there would put him at a disadvantage. Close quarters like that make a spear hard to wield anyways, and they're meant to keep an enemy at bay, not fight when he's right in front of you. Factor in that an axe, by design, is a fairly short weapon, and that it's pretty easy for an axe to bat a lance out of the way, and you've got a disaster waiting to happen." Hooray for having mental debates with myself over how it works while I write FE fanfiction!

Seth nods, and calls for Garcia, Ross, and Franz to approach the battered wall furthest from the entrance, while the rest of us head for the main entrance.

Steps start echoing through the room, and my eyes immediately find the staircase.

"I've got what I came here for." A voice says from the stairs. "Now I just need to find Bazba and put a knife between his ribs." A tuft of blue hair pops up, followed by a head. Then lean shoulders and a cloaked body. Colm turns around, presumably to pick the door, when he sees us. "Shit."

"Colm!" Neimi yelps, running forward. His eyes widen.

"N-Neimi? What are you-" He looks back up at us, and notices that we're armed. He grabs Neimi's arm and pulls her behind him, drawing his knife in a defiant gesture. "Who are you?"

"Colm!" Neimi yelps. "They're here to help!"

Colm looks from Neimi to our group, then back to Neimi. He slowly puts the knife away. "Why did you drag her into this?" Colm said. "I had her stay behind for a reason! This is dangerous!"

"So your solution is to go alone, and get yourself killed?" I ask pointedly. "You're a kid, these are bandits. I don't care if you've got a personal vendetta against these guys for massacring an entire village, trying to take on entire group alone like that is going to accomplish nothing more than an early death, and making Neimi the only sign that Lark even existed."

Colm stands there, angry, but also stunned. Guess he never thought about that. "D-don't talk to me like you know my life!" He retorts.

"I don't need to know your life." I counter. "All I need to know is there's a girl behind you who cares about you, and needs you now more than she ever has. And if you respond to that by rushing ahead on a suicidal mission like this, then you're a bigger idiot than I thought."

He doesn't retort this time. He stands there, considering what I've said.

"You want to get these people for what they've done." I say. "I get that. But this isn't something that you can do alone."

I've never seen someone actually pick a lock before. Colm makes it look surprisingly easy. He pulls out his knife and lockpick, sticks them both in, and fiddles around a bit until the lock clicks and he swings the door open. We all rush ahead into what looks like a treasure room. There's a bandit sta- COLM WHAT DID I JUST GET THROUGH SAYING? Colm pulls his knife, and cuts the bandit's arm. The bandit grunts, and cups his wound, then strikes out. Colm dodges NO HE DOESN'T! The axe hits him in the side as he jumps to the side, and sends him spinning. The bandit turns to face us and WHAT WAS THAT! I jump to the side as an arrow sticks into the bandit's right eye socket, and he falls backwards to the floor. I turn to see Neimi breathing heavily, eyes burning with a mix of fear and fury.

Note to self: Neimi will not hesitate to put an arrow in an eye if Colm is in danger.

After Colm finished picking the chests in the treasure room, we meet up with the other group, and we prepare to go through another wall. I know what's on the other side of this wall. Usually, I'd have Ross and Neimi exploit the fact that Fire Emblem physics allow arrows and axes to go through feet of solid stone and get a couple of kills here for the EXP, with Moulder healing, but that's not an option now.

"Hang on." I say. Everyone looks at me. "There's got to be a bunch of bandits in there. There's no way we've killed more than half of them so far. We'll have surprise for a bit, then they'll rally. I have a plan."

Five minutes later, the wall blows down from a well-placed spear hit. Gilliam moves aside, and Eirika, Colm and I charge forwards. Seth, Franz, and Vanessa throw some javelins, Garcia and Ross throw some hand axes, and they follow close behind. Neimi stays behind Gilliam, providing ranged support in the melee. I immediately find myself glad to have planned like that. The opening barrage only managed to take out about half of the bandits in here. I scan for- Shit! Block! I throw my sword up to block the incoming knife. Looks like I caught the thief. Easy enou- OW SHIT! My hand opens as my sword clangs to the floor, complements of a well-placed pommel strike to my wrist. I look up, and the thief is grinning widely, the offending knife in his right hand. Big mistake in not cutting with the knife.

He charges. Bigger mistake. Knife comes down. Side-step, hand on the knife-hand's wrist, other on his forearm. Keep its momentum going, bring it around, slide with the push. Windmill the arm back to the top, then push it inwards. He screams as the arm pops out of its joint, and I get the knife, which goes around to the front, and is shoved between his second and third ribs and into his heart and a lung. That's where it stays as I let him drop and scoop up my sword. I look around, and see a bandit with his bare back turned to me as he swings his axe at Garcia. Check the approach's flanks, see nothing, FOR NARNIA! Swing! Sword comes down at an angle onto his neck, and gets stuck in his cervical vertebrae. He falls, and I slide my sword ou- OH GOD THAT SOUND! Metal grates against bone and the grip of my sword vibrates as I pull and stomach, don't you dare. Now is not the time to puke... Thank you.

I look back up. The battle has moved on. I keep moving. More bodies as I go. Everyone's in the throne room. Neimi and Colm are at the front of the group, Eirika right behind. Bazba's standing near his throne, flanked by fallen bodies. One has a knife in his forehead, the other is still gurgling with an arrow in his throat. I look at Colm and N- Oh wow. Neimi's face is blank. That's actually really fucking scary.

She slowly raises her bow, an arrow already resting on the string. Bazba hisses. I see the hand axes in Gilliam's shield. Suddenly, Bazba bolts forwards.

The first arrow pierces his foot as he runs, anchoring him to the ground, and collapsing him. He slides forwards a bit, the arrow ripping flesh before snapping. The second arrow pins his bicep to the floor as he tries to throw his steel axe. He's screaming now, stuff like "You bitch!" and "I'm going to kill you!" His other arm goes to remove the arrow pinning him, only to have another arrow go through his hand and pin both uselessly. There's fear in his eyes now, mixed with the rage and pain.

"That was for Lark." Neimi says. Then Ross charges forwards, hatchet in hand, and slams its blade down onto Bazba's head, splitting his skull and ending his life. Ross wipes some of the spatter off of his face.

"That was for Ide." He says.

Then, Neimi drops to her knees, and starts bawling. Colm moves to comfort her. "Come on, you dummy." He says, hugging her tight. "Let's get out of here."

Colm picks her up, and they start walking out. "I'm sorry." He says.

"No more." Neimi says once we're back in the courtyard. "No more of this," She sniffs, "this dangerous stuff. Not by yourself."

Colm nods. "Alright, but you have to try to stop crying all the time."

She nods. "Okay."

He stops, and pulls the mirror out of his pocket. "I got it back, Neimi." He says. "I got your mother's mirror back."

Neimi takes the mirror carefully, like, if she touched it, it would simply disappear. She holds it gingerly, then throws her arms around Colm. "Oh, thank you Colm!" She says, tears cascading down her cheeks.

"I hate to break up such a touching moment," Seth says, "but you really should return Princess Eirika's bracelet to her now."

Colm looks at Seth in surprise. "Princess Eirika?" He looks over to Eirika. "I... I'm sorry." He says, pulling the bracelet out. "I didn't realize that it was you, your highness. Your father did so much for our village... Is he..."

Eirika nods, and takes the bracelet. "Yes. He is."

We all fall silent for a moment before Colm breaks it. "Umm, so where do we go from here?" He asks. "Neimi and I... we don't have a home or family any more. We're all that's left. I-"

"You could come with us." I say. Oh, everyone's staring at me. "I saw both of you fight today, and do more besides. I personally believe that we could use someone with your skill sets."

Seth clears his throat. "While I do understand the appeal of an archer, are you sure that a thief-"

"Seth, this is a war now." I interrupt. "Grado has blatantly invaded Renais, and their not doing anything to protect her people. As we go closer and closer to Grado's borders, there will be more soldiers, and fewer people sympathetic to our cause. We'll need all of the weapons and supplies that we can get, and if we can't get them from sympathizers, the next best thing is to take them from our enemies."

Seth blinks, then nods and turns to Colm and Neimi. "If you two are up for the task, we'd be glad to have you two with us."

Colm nods. "Thank you. You won't regret your decision, I promise."