Author's Note: Well, first off, big thank you to those of you that reviewed the story. Thanks for all the praise! I was a bit nervous about getting back into writing, but I feel a bit more confident now. Also, I want to keep the update schedule fast, but I'm staying up way too late on this, and I might be getting more obligations. I'm definitely not going to let things get below a week per update without warning, but things might happen.

I don't own Fire Emblem or it's characters. If I did, I'd be pushing for Chrom and Lucina in 3DS/WII U Smash Bros.

"You shouldn't have done that, lass..." Maggot mutters despondently. He knew Zanth, and what he knew told him that he wouldn't take his men getting attacked easily at all. As it was, he'd hardly gone out of the ship for twenty minutes, and he was already about to get whipped. Then again, he felt Zanth had it out for him especially, so maybe she'd get off with some lesser punishment.

He didn't put much stock in that idea, though.

The pirates didn't take well to it at all, and they made no attempts at hiding that fact. "Looks like we have a traitor, men!" "Let's get 'er!" "I'm gonna to sink my ax in yer throat!"

Zanth, however, didn't speak up, and his silence made Kris very uneasy...would he let the crew themselves sort out what to do? Or was he just making her sweat? It's a good ten seconds before he starts to speak, and when he does, it's with a huge guffaw."

"Gya-har! Looks like you got more stones in ye then Maggot here ever will! I dunno why you put yerself on the spot like that fer a spineless worm like him, but I can appreciate gumption when I see it."

Kris relaxes slightly, though she's still very wary. One misstep and she could be on the whipping post herself, or worse. She's not out of the fire yet, nowhere close.

Zanth paces slightly, stroking the stubble on his chin as he considers. "Still, ye've assaulted me men, and that carries consequences. Crew or no, I'm not the kind of man that'll take that one lying down. GRAB HER, MEN!"

With a whooping cry, the men descend on her. There wasn't much of anything she could do, she tries to jump overboard, but the men, grab hold of her arms, clothes, and hair, and drag her back in front of the captain, restrained. She didn't even try to use the tome again, there were way too many people for that to work, escape was her priority, and as she'd try and blast one person, another would have gotten her for sure. Looking up at Zanth, she waits to hear what he has to say.

Now that she's restrained, Zanth continues talking in an easy tone. "Now then, I told ye already. Maggot's gonna get his no matter what ye'd do. The only thing left to consider is what I'm gonna do with you, for acting like a blamed fool."

Kris struggles slightly against her captors, but they don't let her budge. It's a futile gesture, but it's one she intends to make regardless. She's not going to take this lying down.

"Hmm...I think I know just the thing!" Zanth says, missing teeth glinting in the night as he grins. "Old Hobson here..." Zanth begins, poking the unconscious man with a boot. "He was going to be headin' up the vanguard on our next raid. Poor chap, he was, pulled the lowest straw, you see. Way I see it, that means you're gonna be taking his place."

Kris stops struggling, and looks up with a hint of incredulity. That's it? That's all that's going to happen to her? The pirates, on the other hand, are giving a cheer, and Maggot just lets out a grunt. What was she missing here?

Reaching down to Hobson's unconscious form, Zanth grabs the whip that still lay in his hand. "Now be a good girl, and watch closely. This here is how heroism is rewarded on my ship.

"So first you have me take five additional lashes, and now you're going to prevent me from sleeping it off by pestering me. I'm so thrilled I pulled you out of the brine."

Once the punishment session had concluded, the men dragged the two of them to the camp. She'd been given the tools to make her own tent, and had already done so. But now, she had Maggot laying down on the lice-ridden rag she refused to dignify with the title "blanket". His shirt was off, revealing the horrible welts that marked his skin. A fire was lit a few feet away, with a pot set on it.

Reaching down to a pot of saltwater that lay on her lap, Kris petulantly splashes his back with it, eliciting a snarl of pain.

"Gah! That stings, damn you. What possessed you to go and do something like that?"

Glaring at him, Kris reaches over and pokes him on the arm. "Because you're moving when you should be staying still. I need to wash the wound and try to bandage them."

Maggot snorts derisively at that. "With what water? We're miles from the nearest stream. Are you really going to waste our drinking water ration on something like that? Just leave it to rot."

Kris splashes him again. "Does that feel like freshwater to you? Now, stay still. We can't let you open up any of those welts."

"You're going to wash my wounds with saltwater? Are you a madwoman?" Maggot tries to get up, but Kris pushes him down on the cot.

"I'd do that if we have no other choice, but fortunately, we do." Getting up from beside Maggot's blanket, Kris walks over to the boiling pot. Instead of a lid, it's covered by an old shirt. Taking the pot over, Kris replaces it with the other saltwater pot. Taking the now very damp shirt, she gingerly washes the wound.

"I'm making my own freshwater. The salt doesn't travel with the water when it turns to steam, and the shirt catches it before it can release into the air."

Kris does the best she can with what she has, but she knows that it's not going to be the best work possible. She'd kill for some soap, but that was in very short supply in the pirate camp. She saw some back on the ship, in that cleaning shed...she'd try to take some with her the next chance she could.

Maggot, on the other hand, is happy with things as they are now. Letting out a sigh of relief, he relaxes on the blanket. "Ahhh, that's better. Rather clever of you, I wouldn't have thought of it. Pity you'll be dead within the week, or I could see what other clever things you might think up." A mirthless laugh follows his words, and Kris' eyes widen in surprise.

"D-Dead?"

Eyes narrowing, Maggot turns slightly to look at her. "You didn't honestly think that you were left off with only some new assignment, did you?"

Kris rubs the back of her neck sheepishly. "Well, he also hit you more..."

"Don't remind me." Maggot snaps at her, before explaining further. "In any case, Hobson was treated as a dead man walking among the pirates for a while now. Being assigned to vanguard in a hit-and-run raid on a large Plegian harbor will do that to you." Cackling, Maggot finishes "Getting knocked out on his rear end by you was the best thing that happened to him in weeks!"

Kris takes a deep breath to try and steady her nerves. If Maggot was trying to unnerve her with his laughter...he was succeeding. When she feels calm enough to think about this, she tries to organize her thoughts. "Have you ever been there? Any information on what we're dealing with would be invaluable." She begins to dress Maggot's wounds with bandages made from old rags. Keeping her hands busy helps her think.

Maggot is silent for a moment, before nodding. "Yes, I have. It's been...quite a long time, but I don't see any reason for it to have changed overmuch. I take it you're trying to come up with some sort of plan to stave off your punishment?" Not even trying to mask the condescension in his voice, he breaks into another fit of mirth. "It could work, you're a smart girl. Maybe you'll think of something, never know until you try...and get a sword in your gut for your trouble."

Glaring at him, Kris reaches down to the saltwater again. Realizing that in addition to the stinging salt, this one was cooling down from a roiling boil, Maggot shuts his trap. "Well, the town we're going to sack is called Rubiripe. It's a terraced harbor, built into a rather steep slope. The fort is built up near the top, so Zanth thinks we'll have time to get in and loot before the main host arrives. However, they also tend to have a smaller fortification near the beach, so the vanguard," Maggot pokes Kris. "That's you, by the way, will still face a rather nasty set of teeth."

A light begins to blink in Kris' head. An idea is forming, and she can't afford to lose the trail. "Terraces, you say? How are they designed? And what is the garrison force's composition going to look like."

Maggot smirks. "Have an idea, do you? Well, the town is designed with multiple layers. Each terrace is a good twenty feet above the other, with the ways up kept to a minimum to keep raiders like us from reaching too high. Zanth is counting on that also delaying reinforcements from coming down, allowing us to loot the ships by the lowest level. The troops will mostly consist of axemen and swordsmen, with a few pikemen thrown into the mix.

As he'd been talking, Kris pulls on the bandages one last time, tying them securely. "Really...no archers or magi?"

Maggot nods. "Plegia is a desert country by the vast majority, so places lush enough to have forests are usually cut down and turned into farms. Without trees, pike handles and bows and arrows are rather difficult to make, and pike handles are far more efficient. We have archers in the army, but that's usually done with bone, either enchanted or splintered from the Fell Dragon. As for the lack of magi...most of them live in Castle Plegia, where they hold services on the Dragon's Table. After the war with Ylisse, the populations of both were rather decimated, so they're far too valuable to waste on mere garrison duty."

Kris can't keep the look of surprise off her face. She hadn't expected nearly that much information from him. And there was that place she'd brought up earlier, that provoked a hostile reaction from him. Ylisse...did he fight against them? "You...speak as if from experience. You wouldn't have happened to be part of the Plegian army at some point...fighting against the Ylisseans...were you?"

Maggot goes deathly silent for several seconds, and when he speaks, his words are icy. "I thought we were trying to find out how you're going to survive the week, not prying into my affairs. How's about we keep things to the former, hmm?"

Raising her hands in surrender, Kris lets out a sigh. "It was worth a try. Sorry."

Maggot gives a derisive snort, but eventually nods. "Whatever. Any plans brewing up in that nosy little head of yours? Or are you just going to try and dig into me while you have me tied down here?"

Ignoring his verbal jabs, Kris nods. "I think I do, yes. It'll be risky...and I'm going to need to count on your help, but I think I can do it. That is...if you're willing, of course."

Kris takes out a pungent-smelling clay pot from the folds of her cloak, capped with a lid to keep it's contents from spilling.. "Here. Drink this. Now that I got the wounds dressed, this should stave off infection and speed the healing process."

Maggot tries sitting up several times, before finally working up enough momentum to get himself up without breaking down in pain. "I know what a vulnerary is, thank you very much. Gods if you don't get insufferable sometimes." Taking the pot, he removes the lid, and downs it in one gulp, distaste showing once it's done. "You know, I'd have been willing to pay a king's ransom for someone to find a way to make those damn things taste better."

Maggot's plight didn't rate high on Kris' lists of concerns at the moment, however. "Can...can I count on you for this? I could try to do it on my own, but I'm not sure I could manage it. And I know for sure that no one else on this ship is willing to tag along for this..."

"Meh. I suppose so." Maggot says, shrugging. "I mean, it is win-win for me. If your crazy scheme works, we should be in better standing with Zanth. And if it fails, well...death is getting more and more welcoming to me by the day."

"Well, that's the spirit." Kris mutters. She doesn't want either of them to die...and if her plan works, then neither of them will have to.