Ok everyone, as i promised, here is the next part of the 2nd chapter. There's only one more part left of this chapter, and we go right into the action!! Next part it's gonna be Eliwood's turn to tell about his life, and after that... well, you'll have to wait. XD.

A/N: By the way, english is not my first language, spanish is, I'm from latin america. I have a beta now, ThorHammer17, so I hope there's nothing wrong.

Chapter two: Part two.

"Getting To know you better."

Previously…

Eliwood just nodded.

There was a comfortable silence between them, where they were watching the fire. Neither wanting to break that moment. Lyndis turned to look at Eliwood and found him looking at her, she turned away trying to hide her blush. And not being familiar with what she was feeling, she decided to break the silence.

ºººº

"Well, uhh… In the next few years, my father corrected me in a couple of things during our sparring sessions, but it wasn't too much. Thanks to his criticism, I was able to perfect the basics… We kept sparring until I was twelve years old…"- she said.

Today was her birthday and Lyndis couldn't be happier. Everything had gone good for her today, from the moment she woke up to her birthday party. And now, she was waiting for her parents presents, her friends had given her their presents at the party. It was only she and her parents now. Lyndis saw her mother came down with her present, her father came down after her.

"Well, Lyndis, here's my present."- Madelyn said, handing the present to her daughter.

"Thanks, mom."- Lyndis said, taking the present. Then, she opened it and saw a beautiful Sacaean dress. It was a short-sleeved blue-green dress, with cuts from the hips to the hem, trimmed with gold at the hems. It allowed for freedom of movement and yet still looked striking. "It's beautiful… I will cherish this forever."- she said, holding the dress in front of her.

"I made sure to leave some room for you to grow, Lyndis. This should fit you for a very long time."

"Thank you…"

"Well…"- said Hassar, catching his daughter attention. "Here's my present."

Lyndis put her dress beside her and took the package from her father. She opened it and saw something unexpected; she took it between her hands, looking at the object, not understanding why it was there. "It's… a bow."- she finally said, looking at her father. "Uhh… Thanks…"

Hassar started to laugh, stopping after a while. "You don't know why I gave you that, do you?"- he said.

Lyndis shook her head.

"Well, princess, you have already mastered the basics with the sword and you only have to find your own style; and you will find it eventually as you grow older, but I think it's time for you to learn how to use the bow."

"But I don't know anything about bows or how to use them, and I don't like them."- Lyndis said.

"Well, I'm sorry, darling, because, as a nomad, you have to learn how to use bows, like it or not. It's a rule among our people."

Lyndis looked at her father feeling a little upset, he knew she didn't like bows, so why was he doing that? And what made it worse, she didn't have anybody to support her statement, since her mother had gone to clean up the house a little, saying she didn't want to leave the work for the next day.

"But, daddy, I really don't like it…"- she said, trying to change his mind, but to no avail.

"I'm sorry, Lyndis, but as my daughter, you must know how to use the bow."- he said, standing up. "Your training starts tomorrow."- and he left, not wanting to start a discussion.

Lyndis sat there for a few more minutes before sighing in defeat. "Fine…"- she murmured.

And as her father said, the next day began her training, right after school.

If before her birthday, she trained three hours with the sword, now she only trained one hour. That, of course, was not fair to her, but as her father said: It was necessary.

So, there she was, feeling frustrated, after an hour of trying to hit her target, because she had failed every single attempt, and what upset her the most was that her target wasn't even moving and was no more than twenty meters away from her; pathetic, if you considered who was her father. But it wasn't her fault that she hated bows so much!!

And why was that? Well, it was simple, she had had an accident when she was a child, with one of her father's old bows.

That day she was looking for something to play with, and she saw the old bow, it was under a box in the backyard, it was probably trash to her parents, but she thought she could use it.

She took it into her little hands and tried to take it off from under the box.

Big mistake.

She pulled the bow with too much strength (as much strength as a child could have) and the string tied to the bow snapped, hitting the girl's arm quite brutally. That accident left a scar in her arm. The scar was still there, as well as her fear. And from that day on, every time she saw her father practice with his bow, she thought than at any moment the string would snap as it did that day.

That's why she hated bows so much. And could anybody really blame her? Of course not, the accident wasn't her fault, nor was her fear.

The rest of the year was pretty much like the first day, except for the fact that every time she hit the target at a certain distance without effort, her father lengthened that distance. The green-haired girl spent that year struggling against her fear and she finally could get over it; she still preferred swords though. At the beginning of the next year, Lyndis could hit an unmoving target at a distance of one hundred meters without effort. So, she was ready to the next step: A moving target.

Hassar told her that the best way to approve that step was hunting and since there was a forest nearby their house, she would spend two hours hunting, but not any animal, it had to be an inoffensive one, and a rabbit was the best option. So, she began to hunt rabbits, failing miserably at first, since those little beasts were too fast, and that was another reason for her to dislike bows. That was until her father told her the real reason of why he decided she had to hunt to approve the second step.

"Speed."- Hassar said.

"Speed?"- the girl asked.

"Yes, speed."- the man paused for a moment. "Since you're a girl, you don't have a good defense, so you need a good speed, to be faster than your enemies. That's why a asked you to go hunting, because that way, you'll get faster. I suppose that you already know how hard is to catch a rabbit, right?"

Lyndis nodded.

"Have you concluded something?"

Lyndis nodded again. "I have to aim a little forward to hit the rabbit, I don't know how much yet, but I think I'm close to hit it."

"Good. So, do you understand the meaning of this training?"

"I think so."

It was rather easy to know the meaning of her training when she was hunting. She needed to be good analyzing the situation, so she could decide which was the best moment to hit that stupid rabbit (or any target that she might have in the future), and that moment was when the animal was looking for food. She didn't like the idea of killing the poor (and stupid) animal, so her father said that if she could bring the beast home alive, she could released later.

"I was useless with a bow when the target was moving, I still am. A total failure."- Lyndis said, cutting her little tale.

"Well, I don't think that's a bad thing. I mean, we can't be good at everything, right?"- Eliwood said, smiling charmingly.

Lyndis blushed slightly.

"Say, Lyndis, when did you meet Florina?"

"If I remember well, it was that same year, during one of my hunting sessions; I had just turned thirteen…"

Lyndis was walking through the woods, looking for any sign that there would be a rabbit nearby. She had been walking for an hour and she was starting to get upset, even so, she kept walking, murmuring things like 'Stupid rabbits'. Finally, she saw a rabbit and the animal was eating, which was great, because that meant she would be back in her home sooner than she expected. She got closer to the little beast, carefully, and stopped when she thought she was at a good distance. She aimed the arrow at the animal and, narrowing her eyes, hearing only the wind, she prepared to let go of it, when…

"AHHHHH!!"

… Someone let out a frightening scream.

Lyndis lost her balance and fell back, letting go of the arrow, which hit a tree. Her heart was beating faster than ever, that had been a hell of a scare. She looked at the rabbit, but the animal was far away from her. She stood up and started to walk in the direction where that scream had come from.

It had definitely been a girl, she was sure of that.

She arrived to the right place in a few minutes and all she could see was something white, as she got closer she realized that the white thing was a Pegasus. Lyndis looked up from the Pegasus and kept moving up her eyes, until she saw the origin of the scream.There, before her eyes, was an orchid-haired girl, who was probably no more than twelve years old; she noted, too, that the girl needed some help, since she was in a very… complicated… situation…

"Florina?"- the red-haired young man asked.

The Lady of Caelin could only nod with a little smile.

"What had happened to her?"

Lyndis smiled a little ashamed. "Sorry, but I can't tell you that, I promised to her I wouldn't tell a soul."

Eliwood smiled too. "It's okay, go on."

"All right…"

Lyndis helped the girl with her problem and stayed with her for a few minutes, because she could see that the girl was way too afraid to be left on her own at the moment. They sat under a tree for a while, not saying a word. Until the girl broke the silence.

"Thank you for your help… I really don't know what I'd had done without it…"- she whispered.

Lyndis smiled. "Oh, don't worry, it was nothing."- she said, then she extended her hand to the girl. "I'm Lyn, nice to meet you."

The girl smiled too. "I'm Florina, nice to meet you too."- she replied.

"Well… I suppose that I should keep on with my hunting, but… I really don't feel like going after a stupid rabbit anymore…"

It was then that Florina saw the bow and became nervous. "I-I d-didn't k-know y-you w-were a-an a-archer…"- she murmured.

Lyndis didn't heard, though she did notice the frighten look on her face. "Hey, are you all right? You look pale…"- she said, noticing were the girl was looking, then she understood. "Oh! No, no, don't worry, I'm not an archer."

"Really…?"

Lyndis smiled. "Yes, actually, I'm pretty useless with bows. I couldn't shot down anybody with this even if my life depended on it. I do fencing."

They stayed there the rest of the afternoon, talking about themselves or anything else that came to their mind. They became friends that same day. Florina told her she was a Pegasus Knight in training, even though she was only ten, and made her promise that she wouldn't tell anyone about the… accident. Lyndis found out about Florina's fear of men at the end of the conversation, though, the orchid-haired girl didn't tell her why.

"I never thought there were girls that were afraid of men."- Lyndis commented.

Florina blushed a little embarrassed. "It's difficult to explain…"

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me."

"Thank you…"

Lyndis stood up suddenly. "Hey, I have an idea!"- she said, looking at the girl next to her. "Since you are training to become a Pegasus Knight, why don't you stay with me and my family in the Lorca? It'll be nice. We can help each other with our training and maybe it could help you to overcome to fear of men. What do you say?"

Florina smiled. "I'd like to. Thank you for being so kind."

"No problem. We're friends now."

Florina stood up and went over to her Pegasus, she took the reins and began to walk with Lyndis towards the Lorca tribe.

Florina stayed with Lyndis and her family for the next four years. During those years, the girls became best friends, almost like sisters. They helped each other with their training, sparring every day. Florina sent letters to her family every week. Then came the day Florina had to return to Ilia. Neither Lyndis, nor Florina wanted to say goodbye, knowing they would meet again, besides they stayed in touch through letters.

Lyndis finished school the same year Florina left.

During the next six months, she spent most of her day training with her sword or helping her mother with the duties of their home. Until that terrible night came…

"The last six months with my parents were very peaceful…"

The room became quiet all of a sudden.

The last six months with her parents…, Eliwood thought. He knew she didn't feel comfortable talking about that and he wasn't going to push her to do it. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." He said, putting an arm around her shoulders.

Lyndis considered his words, but she also found herself wanting to tell him everything; she smiled slightly. "I… I want to… I need to, but…"

But. There was always that but when it came to the attack to her tribe. She still couldn't talk about it without breaking down. And she wasn't going to break down in front of Eliwood… Not again, anyway.

Eliwood saw the doubt in her eyes and, giving her a reassuring smile, decided to talk. "It's okay. You don't have to tell me anything if you're not ready."

Lyndis smiled weakly at him.

"Well, since I know what happened to you after you met Mark, I could tell you something about me, then."- he said.

"I believe it's only fair."- she smiled and waited patiently for him to star to talk about himself.

To be continued…

So, that's it. I hope you liked it! Till next time!

Please review!!

Edit: 08.04.2008