FE: Realm of Chaos

Chapter 9

!Fire Emblem disclaimer!

Again and again, thankies so much to Tesso_Messo, Lucathia Rykatu and Sargent Snarky for your reviews. This chapter is dedicated to you all, and the rest of the nice readers! I apologize for this being so late. College is a hassle and money is hard to come by, especially when you have to pay about everything out of pocket. Also Fairy Tail and Ubel Blatt have been really taking my reading attention lately. Heh heh... Anyway, its the reviews that really touch my heart and get me to write. So if you really like this story, please keep leaving reviews. Whether its criticism, you like how your favorite character did something or just how the there is a new chapter, LET ME KNOW! I really want to know, you guys!

And also, so sorry this was so ubeta'd but I dun have anyone yet. ^^' Enjoy!

Their quick venture though the city of Nox, Daein was both quick and could not have been less than a faint memory. Under their guises as normal travelers, Ike led them at near break neck speed to the mountains in order to make the pass that Tyna mentioned before it snowed in for the winter. The purple haired mage had recovered enough to guide them, but she still seemed uneasy about the whole ordeal with Syris. Both Ike and Soren and taken the time to question her but she insisted that the transformation shocked her enough to make her faint. Considering her condition she was recovering from earlier, it just seemed too much for her body to take.

Ike was convinced by her reply, but Soren was not. The mage was convinced that his charge did not give the whole truth. She was hiding something, he could just sense it. She originally was from Daein, and despite having been in Queen Elincia's service for who knows how long, he had to keep an eye on her. Despite his suspicions, he just glad Syris was unharmed.

Lately, he noticed the young Gallian would not leave his side. It might have been because of the incident with Tyna or that she could sense the Laguz in him, he was still not sure yet. But he was sure that she acted more defensive when Tyna was near. When he asked why, she would not answer but snuggle closer into his side with her eyes on the woman.

It seemed he was cursed to be surrounded by strange females.

After several grueling but quick practice sessions with her brother, Mist had returned to the temporary camp they had set up after a week of leaving Nox. Sweat was covering her like a second skin and her throat felt dry from the lack of water and cold air. Reaching for one of the water canteens gathered near the fire that Boyd had set up to be refilled, she poured herself a mug and sat back to rest.

She was gulping down her third cup when Boyd walked by with his arms full of leathers and iron. He glanced her way but did not pause on his way over to the horses. The cup paused to her mouth as she glared at her friend's back. Seriously, what was his problem?! She was getting tired of it. It was one thing to be used to large male cats ignoring her, but men? It just was not right!

Jumping to her feet, Mist headed through the packed snow from all their footprints to where their horses were tethered. Placing her curled fists on the flesh over her hips when she was close enough, she waited for her presence to be acknowledge but no such luck. Enough was enough.

"Oi!" she barked, watching the man's body jump slightly. He turned to look over his fur covered shoulder to raise his eyebrows in response, only for them to slant in a scowl of annoyance seconds later.

"Seriously Boyd, are you not over what I said in Begnion? Because I'm getting tired of this attitude you keep giving me. Ike is not tearing into you like he probably wants to by letting you deal with it yourself, but I have had enough. If you want me to say I'm sorry, well I'm sorry!"

The stacked saddles he had been working with near his feet seemed forgotten as he turned fully towards her. His bright green eyes stared down at her with a blank face. Mist stared right back, not wanting to back down when all she wanted was to understand his reasons for the way he was treating her.

"That wasn't why...I'm acting like this, Mist. I'm a guy, alright? We like brooding in our moments of angst."

She blinked in confusion at his words. "What does that even mean? Just give me a straight answer. What is bothering you, then?"

Boyd gave a heavy sigh then looked heavenward, "Its nothing. I'll get over it here soon. Don't worry about it."

"You're making a mistake by saying that to me, Boyd. Please just talk to me? We haven't really seen each other in three years! The least you could do is-"

He shook his head, giving her a half smirk as he turned back to the saddles to recheck the straps, "Please don't. The last thing I want to do is talk. Just give me one of your cute smiles and let me be?"

Silence met his words and he knew she had not left. His grip on the straps tightened, knowing that despite their years apart, that this was going to end in a conflict. They always argued and teased each other since they were little but now they were adults, he wasn't sure he wanted to imagine how this would end. If he even let his self control slip-

Splish!

The broken and melting snow slid down the back of his head and into the folds of his cloak. Boyd whirled around, a confronting yell on his lips when another snowball hit him square in the face.

The laughter of his brother, Titania and Soren met his ears as he wiped the cold water from his eyes. Narrowed green eyes zeroed on the smirking figure of his best friend's little sister. She was triumphantly holding another snowball, poised to throw as she met his eyes with laughing orbs.

"I told you it was a mistake saying such things. Ready to talk now?" Mist asked while bouncing the snowball in her hand.

In her eyes, he could clearly see it. She was challenging him! Fine, he'd nip at the bait she dangled. However, she would soon find out that he wasn't the goofy and overconfident brat he was before.

So Mist relaxed when she saw the wide smirk that she now realized she missed seeing, but she wasn't expecting a whole different goob of gibberish to come tumbling out of his mouth.

"Lieblichnebel, verlassen reizen mich(1)," Boyd said, his eyes glinting playfully as he put one large hand, palm down, into the snow in front of him. "Ihr bereit(2)?"

"What are you saying? I don't understand that language!" the young woman huffed as she tossed the snowball up one more time, then grabbed it suddenly from its descent and hurled it towards Boyd. However, the green haired guy was already moving underneath the snowball's path and heading towards her.

'He's really fast!' she thought as she backed up with light gasp in surprise. He kept low to the ground though, the wide wolfy grin never leaving his face. Giggling, she snatched up a handful of snow and kept backing up, despite the shrinking distance between them both.

"Holen du(3)!" was all Mist heard as she suddenly was near nose to nose with Boyd's face. Then she felt her pant legs near her thighs be given a mighty tug upwards. Knowing she was going down, she threw the loose snow near her knees where she figured his face would be.

Poof! Mist suddenly fell into the mound of unbroken snow that Boyd had backed her into. Sitting back on his haunches, the axe wielder laughed low as he wiped the little bit of snow on his face. It was all short lived when Ike's voice cracked through the hair like a barbed whip.

"What's going on here? We're to be leaving in twenty minutes and the horses aren't even saddled or brushed down yet! Move!" barked the group's leader and with a few more laughs, the mages and mercenaries jogged off to do their duties.

"Ha ha!" exclaimed Mist gleefully as she sat up. Taking the hand that Boyd offered, she was pulled up and out of the snow. "Boyd, that was a neat trick! What would you call that?"

The berserker shrugged as he smiled down at her. "Its just a tackle move. Very effective when surprising someone."

"Really? Could you teach me? What about those weird-"

Her brother appeared by them, frowning. "Now isn't the time to be playing around. Boyd, if you would please. The horses are still not saddled."

Chuckling, the axe wielder nodded at his friend then winked down at Mist. "Good to know you're still you, kid."

Reaching up to brush some snow from her hair, she winked back. "Same here, Boyd."

Once he left, Ike turned to his sister. "Do I want to know why just as I got here, I saw him grab at your legs and nearly jerk them to your head?"

"I was just getting him to talk, ina," she replied, using the Ancient word for older brother. Brushing the remaining snow off her cloak and clothes, Mist rubbed his shoulder and gave her brother a smile.

"Iasadukoemad, nasina," she murmured, her eyes reluctantly pleading, "I missed him too." (Please don't, big brother.)

He looked away as she continued to walk past him towards where two mages were helping each other repack Oscar's cooking pot. Mist called him on being overprotective, even with his own friend. Folding his arms across his chest, Ike watched in silence as the small camp was packed up. He felt the presence of Soren at his side and glanced over to notice he was holding Syris in her cat form. He reached over to scratch gently at one ear and she purred in kind.

"You alright?"

The commander nodded. "Yeah, I just wonder if I'm doing the right thing by trying to keep them apart."

Soren nodded, shifting his hold on the large cat in his arms as she mewed, "I know but Mist is just happy most of our original group is back together. I saw the whole thing mind you, and I could tell he was holding back. Both of them would never use their full strength on the other."

"What were they doing anyway?" Ike asked as he nodded to Titania as she walked past them towards some trees on the other side of their supply wagon.

"Heh, it was interesting to watch. Mist was getting impatient with his behavior and confronted him about it."

"Haa, and how is Miss Tyna?"

A low growl was heard from Soren as he set Syris down since she hissed at the mention of the woman's name.

"Improving both from the incident and in her training. Had she been in the war, she would of learned things much faster than the pace I've set now. Yet I think these two are now avoiding each other and we both know what that speaks for."

"You still think she's lying?"

"Yes, Ike I do. I could sense her uneasiness. She doesn't like laguz for a reason and I want to know why."

Pinching at the bridge of his nose from the slightly pressure he felt there, Ike sighed. "Alright, we'll go with your instincts. Just remember to respect her. We are not in Gallia anymore and our mannerisms in that country just might seem a little barbaric here."

Snorting, the sage walked on over to some of his mage students. "I know we're not in Gallia. The cold reminds me of that every minute of the day."

"Syris! Be careful!" the voices of both Soren and Mist rang out together. The little laguz kitten was crawling closer to the edge of the frozen Blagia river that separated the lands of Nox and Talrega. She was then scooped up into the arms of the black haired mage and carried back to the horses.

Tyna and Titania were sitting astride their mounts and was watching the whole scene, both with looks of quiet astonishment.

"He really cares for that laguz, doesn't he?" the purple and blue haired mage asked, watching her teacher as he nipped lightly at the kitten's ear, making her squirm in his arms and lick his chin.

"I'm about as surprised as you are, Miss Tyna. This may be a little shocking, but during the early part of the war when we first encountered Gallia laguz, Soren could not stand them. He held a prejudice of them that was stronger than most I had seen in Begnion. He was at odds with almost all our laguz allies, but supported them due to Ike's constant actions of aiding them."

The younger woman was staring at the beautiful paladin with wide eyes. Their mounts snorted into the cool air, their breath making puffy clouds of white.

"He hated them? How? How did he get go from hatred to caring for them so much? What could of made Master Soren forgive them and treat them like equals?"

Titania shook her head and adjusted her long, thick plaid of hair. "I do not have the answer to that, Miss Tyna. I just know that he is different from back then. Gallia or something during these last few years changed him, and I would say for the better. He was just as insufferable in his attitude as he is now, but he seems more determined than before. We can guess all year as to why."

Tyna frowns slightly then stares over at her teacher with Syris, his head bent down to the kitten so far that his lengthy bangs fall from the hood his cloak, hiding his face from view.

"He is the most out of everyone here that I do not understand."

Looking away to face the paladin and change the subject, Tyna never noticed the sage glance at her from the corner of his eye. Facing the purring kitten in his arms, Soren adjusted the wide hood over his head. Sometimes having hybrid hearing had its advantages.

"Titaniauirugusanah, een?" he asked the little Gallian as she stared up at him as he spoke. (That Titania talks too much, yeah?)

Yawning, Syris pressed her muzzle into the cloth of his lower arm and mewed again.

"Its improved since we've been here last. There are more homes then before," Ike mused as he observed the town of Talrega. The mercenary group was standing atop a hill above the town, staring downwards into the small valley. He could still see the water flooding the homes, the anger in the eyes of those who blamed them for their misfortune...

"The people do look happy. Kids are running around and the flood system has been repaired and renewed, from the look of the design."

Oscar was sitting to his commander's right, looking over at the floodgates that were reinforced with steel.

Titania nodded as she adjusted her armor and pushed her lance further behind her thigh where the weapon was sheathed on her horse. "Talrega was one of the places I regretted passing through to the castle. That general didn't care for the people of her own country, and we only took the blame for their soldiers' actions."

A sandy haired mage named Uma patted Oscar's horse gently as he stepped closer to the three.

"Queen Elincia always gets a sad look when she is reminded of Talrega. She only mentioned vaguely of the flood and not of the whole ordeal."

Ike stared quietly down at the town, his black hair pulled back into a ponytail. "Yeah, she did have a sad face that day. However, we couldn't help every town we came across since at the time we were enemies. Pity was something Daein would cut us for instead of accept."

Turning his mount around, he led the others back to the road where the rest of the company was waiting.

"Mist? You, Miss Tyna and Oscar will go and re-supply what we need. The rest of us will head on through and meet you at the exit near the gates."

Nodding, his sister tugged gently on the female mage's sleeve and the two ladies trotted over to join Oscar and his horse. The three galloped down the road towards the town ahead of them.

His journey to the city of Salmo, Begnion was as long as he had expected. Nasir had traveled as a dragon by night, and ran through the woods and roads as a human. He could have flown the whole way but then he would look like a laguz with a destination, and he didn't want to be tracked. Also, he hadn't changed forms so repeatedly in a few centuries so the pace was a relief if anything. Staying in human form for months at a time in a largely populated beorc city was stuffy for him, yet he endured it. It wasn't as free as sailing the seas though.

From what his old contacts had said in the bars of the city, summoners and spirit charmers were getting noticeably stronger lately. Shadows and creatures of the other side were stirring as if they were being awakened or something. No one had any definite information but he knew what it meant, and it wasn't good. He would have to investigate both summoners and spirit charmers to see if they had the same aura as the Apostle did, and if so then he knew who was pulling the strings.

He didn't want it to lead to something larger since he wasn't strong enough for such forces.

The Apostle was deeply asleep when the see-through outline of a figure appeared by her bed. Glowing white eyes glared down at her boneless form as it reached forward to her head. A spectral finger pressed forcibly against the skin of her forehead and she flinched visibly. The digit then passed through her skin and the hand began to glow, the lips of the figure moving mutely.

Small fingers fisted the sheets as she grimaced from the cold presence washing over her. Her teeth clenched together as the feeling passed and finally subsided. Her form became limp again as sleep came once more, her lips parted in sleepy relief. She never gained consciousness throughout the whole ordeal.

The figure snorted but no sound was heard as he disappeared from the room only to open his eyes. The shadowy ceiling of the lone shack met his eyes and he knew he had fully returned back to his physical body. The kneeling figure of his servant raised his head once the glowing circle on the floor surrounding the bed ceased glowing.

"Master, is it done?"

"Yes," the breathy voice replied. Sitting up, the translucent strands of long, white hair fell across his broad shoulders.

Turning sharply to the kneeling servant, the man sneered and balled a fist against his upper thigh. "Tell the others to get ready. He is getting closer and must not survive the attack. We do not want any witnesses or survivors once they get into those mountains."

Bowing completely to the floor, the man leaped to his feet and rushed out of the room.

Looking down at his pale hands, silvery white eyes narrowed angrily at the palms and clenched the fingers tightly over them. He greatly abhorred this stupid human body which he was stuck in. If the idiots he summoned with his call and promises did as they were instructed, he wouldn't have to waste being in this form for much longer. He could finally be restored to his former body since he was cursed.

His mother and father would pay dearly with their lives and he would definitely make sure their world drowned in darkness.

!Tsuzuku! To be continued....dun dun dun!

Has anyone figured out that the Ancient Language is really Japanese backwards? I read that at serenesforest(dot)net. An awesome site with tons of information and spoilers for all you fans! It also helps that I know how to speak Japanese, set up the sentences and have a handy dictionary handy.

And I know that Berserkers, the class Boyd attains in the game, are really from Norse literature and mythology but when I looked up the words I wanted for these lines, it sounded and looked really weird in Old Norse. So I used one of the easier and better sounding Slavic languages...GERMAN! Thanks to Nicky, Rammstein and Ubel Blatt for getting me into the language! Sorry for all your German speakers as I have probably put these in the wrong order or even worse---butchered your language! A thousand pardons!

And the reason why Boyd actually switches to German will be explained later~!

Translation time!

1."Lieblichnebel, verlassen reizen mich": roughtly to "Lovely mist, quit teasing me."

2. "Irh bereit?": You ready?

3. "Holen du!": roughly to Gotcha!

OH YEAH! ART ART FANART! Please go to my profile page to see a pic of Tyna! She looks so cute!

A cookie goes to all who noticed the language notes! Yay!!!

Please review and add this story to the Story Alert for future postings! Thanks so much for your support and see ya next time!