He drank.
The sweet burning of alcohol filled his throat and tears started to swell in his eyes. Here he was, barely sixteen, downing enough alcohol to make a regular person drunker than a schoolboy who had just found the miracles of alcohol.
He drank.
He didn't drink because he was happy. He didn't drink because he wanted to drown his misery. He didn't drink because he was a shitty human whose only solace was in alcohol. He drank because it just felt he wanted to forget. Because he wanted to get so drunk, he couldn't remember what happened in the last 24 hours.
He drank.
They were just children. Couldn't have been older than himself. There was one that looked like he was eight. Barely large enough to hold a spear in their hands. Barely old enough to start working in the fields with their parents. And he killed them.
He drank.
They weren't even supposed to be there. The 5th Corps was supposed to move through a mountain range along the right flank of the defensive fortifications. Maybe, at most, there was supposed to be a small battalion patrolling. They weren't expecting an all out ambush.
There were thousands rolling down the mountain side, like a massive snowball picking up speed. Thousands of soldiers, with little boys in the front. Outnumbered, almost five to one.
He drank.
It didn't matter even if they were outnumbered. These were little children, forced into combat, against the Emperor's finest. The children were slaughtered.
He drank.
And for the first time in a long time, he cried.
Aedan found himself spacing out, staring out at the monotonous Ylissean countryside as he walked. The land itself was pretty, with grass as far as the eye could see. The wind carried a faint scent of flowers, and the smell wafted gently into his nose. Trees dotted the landscape and every so often a small village or cabin or granary passed by. A small breeze blew by as they walked, a gentle kiss on their skin. It was peaceful.
It had also been the first time Lissa had stopped pestering him. That fucking child needs to learn when to stop. You would think the monosyllabic grunts were enough to keep her away. She is way too happy.
They had decided to forgo stopping in Southtown. Chrom's original plan had them stopping in Southtown for some R and R before they continued on their way back to the capital. The original plan was obviously scrapped. The bandits, according to Frederick, were Plegian. Aedan didn't give a shit what nationality they were. Frederick, ever the paranoid, was convinced that it somehow meant that Plegia was preparing for a full scale invasion of Ylisse. Chrom, heeding the knight's word, decided they needed to book it back to Ylisstol.
Aedan was pretty sure that bandits really didn't give a shit about nationality and were only in Ylisse because it was richer.
But who was he to argue? He was a regular mercenary in a patrol of random militia men. He knew his place. His time as a general was over, and the life of a regular soldier was what awaited him now. He would take his damn orders and perform them to the best of his ability. That was his job.
Aedan shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. It happened every time he fought. The memories would come flooding back, as if someone decided that the levees containing all his memories were just to become lifted at that exact moment.
He took a deep breath. That memory, one of his first battlefield experiences, was probably one of the worst. It was the first time he had learned how utterly sucky the battlefield was.
He was a hero after that day. His men loved him for his quick thinking and his tactical decision making. He had gotten them out alive against a numerically superior force. Not just out alive, but out victorious. He was ruthless and devastating. A hammer against a tiny stick.
He didn't think so. He felt like a monster. Like the villain in a child's fairy tale. He had ordered his men to kill children. For what? Survival, he told himself. They attacked us. Us or them, he repeated in his head. Like a religious mantra, he chanted that in his head until it stuck and until he could justify his actions.
He sighed. Think happy thoughts. Think happy thoughts. Think happy thoughts. Puppies. Flowers. Robin's gratuitous cleavage. Robin's gratuitous cleavage. Robin's gratuitous cleavage…
It wasn't working. And so, he continued walking, not aware that someone's eyes were peering into the back of his skull.
Overall, Chrom was more than pleased. Sure, the thought of Plegian bandits assaulting towns in Ylisse made him anxious. The whole idea that Plegia would fund bandits, and even disguise soldiers as bandits, to harass bordering towns made him panic. He knew that relations between the two nations had always been frosty at best, but the past decade had been peaceful. War wasn't on anyone's mind. Besides, it wasn't as if Plegia were actually bankrolling bandits. They were probably just tired of raiding deserts and decided they wanted to raid things that were pretty and green for once.
That being said, he was pleased. He saved his people from bandits, Plegian or not, and he found not just one, but two new additions to his Shepherds.
He smiled slightly as he walked slightly behind his two new additions. The first, Robin, was an amnesiac who he found lying in the field. Amazingly competent with sword and tome, Chrom had made her an immediate offer to join the Shepherds. It was even better that she happened to be a tactical genius. Chrom's smile only grew bigger as he looked at the white haired woman. She was tall, with messy white hair that hung below her shoulders. She carried herself with dignity and grace, and Chrom could tell that it was an air of confidence that came from years of working with the nobility. Whoever Robin was, Chrom could tell that she was important.
It was also a pretty awesome bonus that she was very attractive too. Beautiful green eyes, long flowing hair, curves in all the right places…
Chrom shook his head. Yes, Chrom, think more sexually about the person you just met.
The second was a little less mysterious, but just slightly so. He was tall, almost as tall as Chrom, and he was a giant among men, with shaggy black hair that hung down towards his shoulders, and a beard the size of a small animal growing on his cheeks. There was something there, Chrom could tell, that hinted of… something. There was a strange twinge in his accent, the way he fought was foreign, and there was something about the way he walked that just screamed weird. Chrom noticed all of those things, but nothing in particular really stood out. Maybe, just maybe, he was just hallucinating.
Besides, if anything really fucked were to happen, Chrom knew Fredrick would be there to mop up the mess with his lance. Sometimes, he really did rely too much on that man.
Turning his attention back to Aedan, he noticed that, once again, Lissa was trying to get him to say something more than monosyllabic grunts.
"You don't talk much, do you?" she said, a pout appearing on her face. Chrom knew from the start that her pout was going to show up very very frequently when she talked to Aedan.
"No."
"C'mon! At least tell me something."
"No."
Lissa pouted. "Boo."
"Boo," Aedan repeated.
"Hey, I think that's the first time he didn't say 'no!'"
Chrom chuckled.
Yep, it was a good day in the Halidom.
It had been hours since they had left Southtown. Night had fallen and the hustle and bustle, what little there was of it, had quieted as the small patrol of Shepherds decided they would make camp. It was a small clearing in the middle of the forest, almost conveniently cleared of all branches and underbrush that would have been a pain to clear.
"Frederick, you wouldn't have anything to do with this, would you?" Chrom asked, smiling as if he already knew the answer.
"Not at all, milord," Frederick replied, his ever persistent smile on his face.
"By that, you mean, 'yes, I did clear this while scouting ahead'," Lissa added.
"I'm going to go ahead and assume this happens a lot," Robin commented. "Nice work, Freddy," she added with a grin.
Aedan didn't say anything, only sliding his pack off of his shoulder and dropping it unceremoniously onto the ground. Rest would be nice. The whole day had been nothing but bored drinking, fighting, more bored drinking, followed by marching, marching, and yet more marching. That just meant that he was tired and really wanted to go back to his schedule of bored drinking. Which he did.
He grabbed a small flask by his side and took a drink from it. Oh vodka, what lovely wonders you work.
Camp didn't take that long to set up. The camp was simple, just a ring of sleeping mats circling a fire pit. Not much in terms of protection against the elements, but Ylisse had mild nights and the chance of rain was practically none, what with the lack of clouds in the sky. The group had really just dropped their packs against Frederick's horse, grabbed what they needed and plopped down on the ground. Chrom and Robin went to go hunt, while Frederick and Lissa tended to the fire. Aedan, being an unproductive member of the group, went off to the side and started to scribble in his journal. He flicked his quill elegantly over the weather beaten pages of his journal, the squiggly looking Oslian script flowing quickly with each movement.
It didn't take long for Lissa to become bored of tending the fire. The fire was crackling quite nicely, providing the camp with heat and a warm golden glow. Noticing that Aedan was in the corner, or as much of a corner as he could considering he was in a circle, Lissa waltzed over to him and crept up over his shoulder.
"Whatcha writing?"
Aedan almost jumped, although he really should have been expecting it in the first place. Motherfucker, can you not leave me alone? "Naughty things involving carrots and anuses."
Lissa made a face of disgust, and decided she really didn't want to comment, but she didn't move away. Instead, she moved her head closer and leaned forward, bringing her face towards the journal. "That's not any language I've ever seen before," she said, her face scrunching up like some sort of sponge.
"Good."
Lissa pouted. "Come onnnnnnnnnn," she whined.
"No."
"Just a hint?"
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"Pretty please?"
"No."
"Pretty please with a cherry on top?"
"No."
"Agggggh!"
"Agggggh," Aedan repeated in a monotone.
Lissa just groaned. She flopped onto her back and laid there spread eagle.
"Hoorah, she has been slain," Aedan said, still in a monotone. He couldn't really tell if he were mocking the poor girl or not. Still, a part of him retained a sort of sick satisfaction from poking fun at the poor girl.
Lissa snorted and sat back up. "You're no fun," she said, sticking out her tongue.
"No. I'm not."
With a sigh, Lissa stood up, brushed off her dress and then set off into the forest. "I'm going to go look for more firewood," she said. Pointing at Aedan, she continued, "Because he's no fun."
Fredrick just smiled and took Lissa's old job of tending to the fire. He grabbed a stick, sat down and started poking at the fire, making sure everything was going alright.
Minutes passed, and neither of the two people at the campsite made a sound. After a few more seconds of violent scribbling, Aedan glanced away from his journal and toward Fredrick. He wasn't surprised when he saw that Fredrick was glaring daggers at him, as if Aedan were attempting to molest his daughter or something. Aedan put it off as nothing and continued scratching notes into his journal.
Note: Fredrick does not like me.
Another minute of scribbling passed and when Aedan looked up, Fredrick had not moved. The knight's eyes were still glued to Aedan, still judging, and planning on when and where the knight's lance should strike.
Aedan rolled his eyes. "Fredrick," he asked, "Do you have a problem with me?"
"I have a problem with a suspicious stranger that milord randomly picked up from a town."
Aedan snorted. "Right. Because we're not going to talk about the fact that you left Chrom alone with Robin, another random stranger you decided to pick up."
"I have a problem with her too."
"I would too. Your lord is too trusting. A foolish trait, it would get him killed one day."
Fredrick narrowed his eyes and Aedan could tell that his hand clenched into a fist. "Is that a threat?"
"From me? No. From someone else? Possibly. It wouldn't be hard, anyway."
Aedan didn't think a man's eyes could narrow any further, but lo and behold, Fredrick's did. He said, the frost from his voice seemingly solidifying the night air, "Oh, and pray tell, how you would manage to do such a thing."
Aedan sighed. This wouldn't be a fun conversation. He instantly regretted saying anything. "Do you really want me to run through the ways you could kill a noble? This isn't exactly the conversation I want to be having with one of his retainers, especially considering I just met the damn man this afternoon."
Aedan stood, and stretched, reaching his arms into the air in an effort to dispel the anxious feeling he had in his gut.
"But," he continued, "If you want me to tell you, there are quite a few ways. A hunting accident seems to be the easiest way. If I were Robin, and I wanted the prince dead, I could just skewer the man and blame it on a boar or a bear. Or earlier today, if I were in the crowd, it would have been simple to just stab the prince and disappear into the chaos again. And, gods forbid, if I were the cook for tonight's lovely meal, there are more than a few herbs out here with poisonous qualities."
Aedan paused. "Of course, those are assuming you wouldn't be there to stop the would be assassin," he said. "Although, even you couldn't be everywhere at one time. All I would need would be an accomplice. Do you think Robin could help me out? All the two of us need to do is isolate and eliminate, right?"
"Imagine," Aedan continued, "If your lord were, I don't know, taking a shit. You could stand outside the bathroom or something, but if I had an accomplice, I could get him or her to help me divert your attention. Get you to move out of the way and then run in and stab Chrom. It wouldn't be hard, we could just make a massive commotion and force you to attend to the situation. But of course, you're going to say that there are guards defending wherever you might be and that these two assassins would have to sneak by some of Ylisse's finest."
He started to pace, walking around in one large endless circle that looped over and over again. He was getting too into this, and well, it was the first time he had ever even thought of assassination in years. He missed the way it felt, to come up with plans to fool the best guards in the nation, to sneak by dozens of people and kill someone.
"Maybe I wouldn't strike while Chrom is shitting, after all, that seems to be a hard time, too exact. There would only be a few minutes to attack. No, rather, it would be easier to sneak into the castle grounds and become a cook or something. After all poisons are harder to detect. Sure, you might say, there are the taste testers who would drink or eat the man's food before he does, but did you know that there are some poisons that only work because they are a reaction of multiple poisons? Jimson weed makes a man abnormally thirsty, and adding Hyacinth and Oleander into the wine would just give the wine a little peaty taste. We could always say that the wine is an import, and no one would be any wiser. And did you know that there are poisons that only work when they have been cooked? Or poisons that work after a certain period of time has passed after they have been cooked? Castor Oil has killed many a king in Valm."
Aedan cleared his throat and looked over at Fredrick. The man's jaw was clenched so tight that Aedan was convinced he could bite through a bar of steel.
"Maybe poison wouldn't work. Maybe knives and swords and spears and arrows won't work. Maybe, just maybe, you've pissed off someone with the ability to fire lightning from their finger tips. Maybe I'm capable of shooting fire from my hands? Think about that for a second. Without notice, I could conjure a ball of flame and throw it at Chrom, from point blank. Even a child could hit him from there. Or maybe, Gods forbid, that I'm an Elder mage, and can control the power of the shadows? Do you know that there are some dark spells that can kill a man from miles away? I wouldn't even need to be close. All I would need is a face and his name, and I could kill him, literally suck the soul from his body."
"But why use magic? Spells are often hard to come by. Mercenary mages are usually ridiculously expensive to hire. Why not just use something easier? You'll be amazed at some of the things you could make in a man's kitchen. Have you ever made soap? Of course not, you're a retainer, why would you bother with soap making? Well, there's a layer at the top of the soap batter that you can scrape off. Mix that with some caliche and some sawdust, dig a small piece of string through that mix and light the string on fire. Once that fire hits your mix, you can cause more damage than a group of mages. Easily. You could destroy a castle wall with a few sticks of the stuff. Imagine placing those everywhere around the castle. Imagine one person setting them off sequentially, or even all at once. Where would your palace guard go when they have to deal with an explosion from several sides?"
"Or, perhaps, I wouldn't even need to kill him myself. I could act as the perfect gentlemen and all the while plot Chrom's inevitable demise. I could buy a contract with an assassin guild and hire their best man to sneak into his bedchamber in the middle of the night and slit his throat. I could hire a company of bandits and have them ambush him on a mountain pass. Or better yet, maybe I could-"
Something about his total nonchalance about the situation stirred something within Fredrick. The knight felt an animalistic rage almost take over him as he crossed the distance between the two in a flash. With a furious lunge, he grabbed ahold of Aedan's leather jerkin and pulled him closer.
"Enough!" the knight hissed. "If you were to lay a finger on my lord, you would find a lance inside of your gut!"
"Would I, Fredrick? Or would you find a knife in your stomach before any of that happened?" Aedan replied coolly.
Fredrick glanced downward, and found a knife placed almost frighteningly close to his stomach. The steel blade had already slid itself into the crease where his armor parted, and just an inch, a careless flick of the wrist, would send the weapon plunging into his gut. Slowly, Fredrick let his fingers relax and let go of Aedan's jerkin.
"Thought so."
"Just know I have my eyes on you, and the minute you slip, that will be the minute you die."
"Sure, just try it."
A testy silence descended upon the camp as the two men glared at each other. The two just stood there, glaring, as if locked in an intense battle of wills. A soft rustling of bushes finally broke the silence, and Lissa came back to the campsite with a bundle of sticks in her arms.
"Hey guys I found some—Oh, bad time?"
Fredrick recovered first. "Not at all. Although, I thought you said something about 'enough character was built today?'"
Lissa stuck her tongue out again. "Yeah, but that was before Aedan was all 'I have emotional problems and refuse to talk to the awesome Lissa!'"
Aedan snorted.
"Ha! I finally got a reaction!"
Time passed.
Camp wasn't the same. While Aedan and Fredrick didn't talk to each other in the first place, after their little spat, the air in the camp was just cold. Awkward silence descended upon the camp, interrupted only by the crackling of the fire. Lissa had tried to break the silence, but those attempts fell on uncaring ears. Aedan was too busy ignoring the blonde haired girl, and Fredrick was too busy imagining the ways he could destroy Aedan if he were to do anything to Chrom.
Lissa sighed. "You guys…" came the inevitable whine.
She never finished her sentence though, as she was interrupted by the rustling of leaves. Aedan grabbed his sword and narrowed his eyes at the rustling bushes. In the corner of his eye, he saw Fredrick had grabbed his lance and had already settled into a fighting position.
Lo and behold Robin popped out, looking tired, with her hair ruffled and dirty, matted to her face with sweat. Her coat was covered in dirt, and there were a few splotches of blood staining the sleeves. A small cut ran down her face and she winced as a bead of sweat dripped into the still open wound, but for all the shit that ailed her, she had a look of supreme victory on her face.
Lissa reacted first. "Robin! You're hurt! Get over here so I can heal you!"
Robin just chuckled a little before she plodded over toward Lissa and planted herself onto the ground.
"Robin," Fredrick said curtly, "Where is milord Chrom?"
"Right behind me. He might be a little late considering what he's dragging."
Fredrick cocked an eyebrow. "What he's dragging?"
"We found dinner," she replied with a grin.
The rustling continued, this time with added grunts of exertion. A few seconds later, Chrom appeared in the clearing with… something.
Across Chrom's back was the bloodied and blackened form of what Aedan thought to be a giant turd. It was massive, that much Aedan could tell. He managed to make out that it had fur, and what wasn't blacked or burnt had previously been brown. There were massive claws on its paws and hanging out of its limp jaws were rows of sharp teeth. Aedan could only think of one thing that looked anywhere even remotely similar to what the blue haired man was somehow carrying. Aedan opened and closed his mouth almost rhythmically, trying to find the proper words.
"… is that a bear…?" he asked, pointing to the massive bastard across Chrom's back.
"Yep," Chrom managed, before flinging it over his head and onto the ground. "We're going to have to cut it up so we can cook it."
"How are you carrying it by yourself?"
Chrom winced a little as he rotated his shoulder and started to massage his neck. "Carefully."
"…Isn't it already cooked? It looks like you threw a fireball at it."
"Well. More or less."
"How…?"
Robin grinned before answering. "It turns out that lightning is really really useful when it comes to hunting."
Aedan blinked a few times. What type of person hunts with a lightning bolt? In fact, why didn't he think about hunting with magic? That probably would have made a few situations much easier to manage.
That wasn't what was eating him though. What person goes and hunts a giant, 1000 pound death machine?
"And so instead of hunting maybe a boar or some rabbits, you decided that you would electrocute the most dangerous animal you could find?"
"Well… yeah."
Aedan blinked a few times. Then, he sighed, and pulled out his knife. "At least we have food. Might as well start skinning."
Skinning an animal was never fun. Blood always squelched between his fingertips, the knife would slip from the slickness of the pelt, and especially considering this was a bear, the skin itself was always tough and was always extremely difficult to cut off. Add the smell on to all of it, and skinning an animal was definitely one of the worst campsite chores on Aedan's list.
Wiping a bead of sweat from his brow, Aedan paused to examine his handiwork. He had already made good headway on the bear with Chrom's help. The bear's massive pelt was mostly charred, making the task slightly easier as the skin was nice and crisp. He had made good progress, skinning the bulk of an arm and the belly area. What they had already skinned was being cooked over the fire. They would still need to cook plenty more, in order to smoke the bear and keep it preserved and at least relatively fresh for the duration of the trip.
"Come onnnnnnnn," Lissa moaned. "Why can't you have hunted for a normal animal once? You're messing with the food chain! Besides, who even eats bear?"
Aedan grunted. "Considered a delicacy in Valm." Also considered a sacred animal. Thought to get the powers of a god when someone eats a bear. Not true, of course, but always nice to think.
"See, Lissa? I told you people eat bear," Chrom said with a grin, throwing another chunk of bear onto a stake and setting it by the fire.
"Yeah, but we're not in Valm, are we?" Lissa retorted with a cross of her arms.
"Meat is meat, Lissa. Just eat it," Chrom replied. He grabbed a stick and started waving it in front of Lissa's face. "See, meat."
"Ah milady, but all experiences make us stronger people, especially the ones that you do not enjoy," Fredrick said with a small grin.
"Suuuure," Lissa said with a roll of her eyes. "What about you, Fredrick? I see you haven't even touched your bear."
"Oh, well, er," Fredrick stuttered. It was the first time Aedan had ever seen Fredrick stutter or really even lose the cool knight visage that he carried all the time. "Large lunch, yes. I had a large lunch."
Aedan snorted. "Sure," he whispered. Louder, he said, "I understand, Fredrick. Bear is tough. Tastes like a shoe."
Chrom continued waving the skewered bear at Lissa, chuckling a little as she backed away, waving her arms futilely in an attempt to keep the roasted animal away.
"It smells like an old, fried, boot," she said, pretending to gag.
"How would you know what an old, fried boot smells like?" Chrom asked.
Aedan dropped the knife, finally deciding that he was, indeed hungry and wanted food. Grabbing a skewer, he shoved a large chunk of bear into his mouth and started to chew. He chewed the meat for what felt like five minutes before swallowing. It was tough, and dry, and reminded him way too much old Oslian Army trail rations. He licked his lips. Then, "…it tastes like an old, fried, boot."
Chrom blinked, briefly turning away from tormenting his little sister. "Which begs the question, how do you know what an old, fried, boot tastes like?"
Lissa just continued gagging, but she managed to form a few words. "C'mon Robin! Back me up! It's two to two right now! Be the tie breaker! Tell them that it tastes like an old fried boot!"
She didn't respond. Not because she was an ass or something, but because she was too busy stuffing her face with bear. Like ravenous wolves ripping into their prey, she ate with a ferocity that Aedan had only seen matched by massive berserkers ripping into a freshly roasted pig. A small part of him was impressed, and another part of him was shitting itself from fear.
"Think she's a little busy," he managed.
"I guess that's what happens when you don't eat for a few days," Chrom commented.
"It's alright, Robin. As long as you admit it tastes like an old fried boot," Lissa chirped.
The rest of the night was filled with laughter and fun, or at least, as much as Aedan could manage of laughter and fun. It was too bad that in a few hours, all hell would break loose.
So this chapter was originally about twice as long. Then I decided that half of it wasn't necessary and I scrapped it. Which explains why this is like the first update in like two months.
In other news, the next chapter is already about partly written, because the original idea was to have the entire chapter in the game written as this single chapter. It didn't work. The flow was weird and the battle is currently nine chapters and not even halfway done. So yeah.
Anyway, read, have fun, whatever.