A/N- My fe_contest entry for the theme "vision." Spoilers for FE11 and FE12. I hope that you enjoy it! Also, this is somewhat AU now in reference to FE12 in light of some new information.
Disclaimer- I don't own Fire Emblem.
Frey could feel his horse strain beneath him as he urged his mount to run faster, his own breathing coming in gasps as he attempted to stay ahead of his pursuers. The knight was well aware that his poor horse would not be able to keep up this pace much longer and that if he did not find a way to escape the knights that were after him then he would die this day. The King of Gra had revealed himself to be a cruel, untrustworthy man and Frey knew that he could expect no mercy from him if caught.
Even with the situation as desperate as it was, Frey couldn't stop a small, weary smile from spreading across his face as a triumphant thought ran through his mind. The traitor that sat on Gra's throne would not get his dirty hands on Altea's prince this day and, as long as the prince lived, hope remained. As he ran from certain death, the knight clung to this knowledge with all of his heart and redoubled his efforts to flee, so that he might be around to aid his lord when the prince finally returned to Altea.
A sudden jerk threw Frey forward on his horse's neck as his loyal mare tripped, her exhaustion finally getting the better of her. The knight quickly hopped off the horse and helped her climb back onto her feet, a wave of sadness running through him. It was unfair to ask any animal to bear this burden and his horse had already given far more then he had any right to ask of her. He quickly slipped his tack off of her and patted her neck one last time as a good bye. She was spent anyway and there was no reason that she had to be caught with him. Frey also removed what remained of his armor, knowing that it would do him no good if he was caught anyway and that it was only a hindrance in his flight right at this moment. He had long since shed the clothes that he had used to disguise himself as the prince. The knights that followed him no longer sought to catch him because they believed that he was Prince Marth, but because Jiol had ordered his death.
With that, he took off on foot, carrying only his light-weight bridle with him, in case he found another horse that he could ride. The bridle was all he would truly need a ride a horse and it did not weigh him down much, so it was worth keeping with him. There were, fortunately, a number of horse farms spread across Altea as well as a number of individuals who might own a horse or two as well, so it there was a chance that he might find another horse to ride, although he was so turned around by this point that he was not sure in which direction he should run. He didn't dare linger another moment though as he'd already lost too much ground.
On foot, the injuries that he'd taken during his earlier escape from Jiol's knights started to hurt much more then they had while on horseback and his vision began to blur, but he forced himself on anyway.
As he ran, the knight's eyes search desperately for a place that he might be able to hide himself. He could not keep going like this. As it was, he could barely see through the mixture of pain and exhaustion that clouded his vision.
Frey almost cried out in joy as he finally came upon what appeared to be a small village. Stumbling to the entrance gate, the knight let out a short prayer that he might find shelter here. Although the villagers were hesitant at first to help the bedraggled stranger, who no longer really looked the part of one of the prince's personal guard, compassion overcame a few and the rest of the townspeople agreed to barricade the village gate's shut just in case the stranger's dire predications of invaders came true.
Frey passed out as he was being led to the village healer, but he was later told that knights of Gra did indeed come in search of him, but they had found it extremely difficult to breach the strong gates and walls that protected the village. With the added discouragement from the villagers' denials that they had seen anyone matching Frey's description, the enemy knights had finally moved on when they concluded that the knight they sought had already fled from this area.
The knight woke with a soft groan, his wounds still bothering him despite the healing. The village healer was nowhere near as skilled as those who had served at the palace, but that was to be expected. He was fortunate that this village had a healer at all as many did without one.
Frey's vision was still a blur when he opened his eyes for the first time upon waking, but after blinking a few times, his vision began to clear. Closing his eyes again for a moment, the knight's thoughts turned back to his young lord and his companions. Even if he had been fully healed at this moment, which he wasn't, he still had no idea how to catch up with them. For now, all he could do was pray for their safety and success.
Stay safe and good luck, sire. I will rejoin you as soon as I am able.
A/N- So, there are a couple things that I need to go over quickly that might help with understanding this some. FE12 has introduced something new to canon that has thrown me for more of a loop then it really should have. In the FE11 scene where you are forced to choose a decoy, the decoy clearly must survive the experience because all possibilities for this decoy show up in FE12. Even before FE12 came out, there was speculation that the decoy hadn't died because the Aum staff was incapable of bringing this character back and FE12 appears to hold up this line of thought, so I'm exploring this a bit here.
Why doesn't Frey rejoin Marth if he survives? I'm going with the excuse that he simply doesn't know to where the prince has fled. The only one we see being told that they're off to Talys is Marth and it would make sense to me that the knights wouldn't necessarily know where they were going. Marth does wonder how the person who plays the decoy role will find them again. And once Marth starts on his quest, he doesn't seem to spend terribly much time in any one place and it's kind of hard to know how quickly news might travel (although my guess is probably not terribly quickly), so Frey would likely simply not be able to catch up with Marth in time. It's not even like he can wait for Marth in Altea's castle. He's a knight of Altea and he'd probably need to keep his head down if he didn't want to end up very dead.
My speculation on the prevalence of horses in Altea is based on how heavily cavalry based the army appears to be (Seriously, including FE12, there are a lot of horse riding knights). Not to mention the fact that the land seems the type where it would be easy to raise horses, with a lot of healthy grass and plenty of water.
Yes, Frey flees on his horse. He dresses like Marth and he takes his horse with him. My reasoning? Unless Marth is completely incapable of riding, which I kind of doubt, he wouldn't flee on foot if there was a horse available and most of his knights have horses, so they're around. So, Frey takes his horse with him while fleeing. Am I stretching things a bit? Possibly, but this makes so much more sense to me particularly since the decoy does escape and canon doesn't mention that he leaves his horse behind so... I'm going with it.
The villagers really didn't yet know about the invasion. They were enough out of the way that they hadn't yet heard about what had been happening. This part factors back into the whole communication thing.
And I think that's it. I've definitely babbled too much by this point, so I'll be quite now.
Thanks for reading! I hope that it was enjoyable.