"I told you—it's getting dark already!" Lissa complained as the group of seven trudged on down the path. "...Ech! And now the bugs are out! Noisy, disgusting bugs that buzz around and crawl all over and bite you when—"She suddenly started to spit and hack. "Agh! Won goph in mah mouph! Blech! Ptooey!"

"Aw, come on now, Lissa. Hardship builds character." Chrom replied while Rock seemed to be amused by the young girl's antics. "Want to help me gather firewood?"

"Tpht! Tpht! Yeeeeeuck! ...I think I swallowed it... I'll pass on finding firewood, thanks. I think I've built QUITE enough character for one day!"

Suddenly a low growl was heard from two stomachs simultaneously.

"We should probably think about food. I don't know about you all, but I'm starving." Ren said while Stella clutched her stomach and nodded in agreement.

"Yes, I should think a little hunting and gathering is in order." Frederick replied. "Now, who wants to clear a campsite?"

A little while later…

Chrom, Frederick, and Rock came back with a lucky quarry of bear just as Lissa, Miku, Ren, and Stella finished preparing the campsite for the night. Before long, everyone was digging in.

"Mmm... It's been too long since I last had bear meat." Chrom said after taking a bite. "Delicious!" As he continued eating, he noticed his sister wasn't eating at all. "...What's wrong, Lissa? Dig in."

"Pass! ...Gods, couldn't you spear us an animal normal people eat for once? I mean, come on! Who eats bear?! You're meddling with the food chain. Right, Stella?" She waited for an answer but didn't get one. "...Uh, Stella?" She looked over to Stella and saw that she was devouring her share of bear at a voracious pace alongside Ren, who, although not eating quite as fast as her, was still eating fast enough to signify that he was famished.

Lissa sighed at the sight. "I suppose a person would enjoy just about anything after not eating for days..." She said quietly as both teens put their plates down near the campfire and simultaneously said, "More please!"

Chrom smiled and nodded at the two, and without hesitation they stripped off more bear to eat. "Just eat it, Lissa. Meat is meat."

"Since when does meat smell like old boots?! Wait, I take that back—boots smell better!"

"Every experience makes us stronger, milady. Even those we don't enjoy." Frederick chimed in.

Lissa eyed him suspiciously. "Oh really? Then why don't I see YOU eating, Frederick?"

"Me? Oh, well... I'm not hungry. I...I had a large lunch! Yes, quite."

"Yeah right, Frederick!"

Miku quietly giggled to herself as she mentally prayed to Naga, thanking her for the food her company and her were eating while Rock silently chewed her food, overall amused by her travelling companions.

After packing the remains of the bear into containers to be eaten later, the group cleared the campsite and turned in for the night. AS Ren was getting ready though, he noticed Stella had disappeared from the group. He looked back to the others. He didn't want to burden them in searching for his counterpart. She probably just took a walk around cam. "That's what I'd do. He thought to himself. Without a word, he left Chrom and his friends alone for a while and looked for Stella. Sure enough, she was sitting in a part of the woods where the sky could be clearly seen, the light of the full moon shining down on her dark hair and her peculiar sky blue eyes.

"Stella?"

She snapped out of her trance and looked to him. "Oh, Ren! I'm sorry, I didn't see you there."

He walked up to her. "…Mind if I sit with you?"

"No, not at all." She patted the ground next to her, and he took a seat cross legged beside her.

"So, how come you're out here all alone? It's dangerous to go out all by one's self, especially if there are bandits somewhere nearby."

She sighed and gazed back up at the stars. "I don't know…I guess I needed time alone to myself."

"To think about things?" He asked.

"Mhmm. I guess we're not so different in the way we think huh?" She closed her eyes. "I've been thinking about a lot of things since after we stopped those bandits and came here. Who I am, who you are, where we are, and I guess how we got here are some of the things I ponder…you've been thinking about all this too right?"

He nodded. "Yeah. It's hard not to think about all that. But, if we keep pressing forward, we'll get the answers we seek. Who knows? Maybe there will be someone who knows who we are if we look around the capital. Chrom tells me it's a big place, so there has to be at least one person who does."

Stella's expression brightened. "Right!"

Ren smiled. "So don't worry, no matter what happens, we'll get through it together!"

"I couldn't agree more…" Stella said as she took Ren's hand in her's. And for a while they sat there watching the moon and the stars together.

"…..?" Chrom's eyes shot awake as a dark and foreboding feeling washed over him in his sleep. He sat up and looked at the others. Frederick sat cross legged yet was managing to find some rest, Ren and Stella were laying down across from each other, Lissa was tucked into a little ball to his left, and Rock was sleeping while sit leaning on a tree, with Miku resting her head in her lap. Everyone was where they were when he had gone to sleep, but something else, this dreaded feeling tugged at him in his dreams. He got up and searched the area from where he was standing. It didn't look like there were any threats nearby in the immediate vicinity, but he still didn't feel at ease. He heard someone yawn behind him, and he knew it belonged to Lissa.

"Yaaaaawn…What's wrong Big Brother?" she asked him with her eyes half open.

"Ah, Lissa. Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you but…I feel something is amiss here…"

"Define something."

"I don't know…I'm going to have a look around."

Lissa sprung up. "Not without me you aren't!"

Chrom smiled. "Heh, thanks Lissa."

She nodded as the two of them walked around the perimeter of the camp. They circled the edge of camp for thirty minutes, and all the while…not a sound could be heard.

"It sure is dark…" Lissa said as she looked around nervously. "…and quiet. Where did all the birds and animals go?"

Chrom could feel her uneasiness too. All while they walked, not a bird was singing, a mouse squeaking, or even a cricket chirping. "Something is very wrong here…"

Meanwhile in a campsite not so far away, another traveler awoke to the eerie quiet. He was usually used to the sounds of nature lulling him and his companion into a restful sleep, but this night was unnaturally quiet…almost ominous. Rubbing his differently colored eyes, he too looked around his campsite and found absolutely nothing.

"I don't like this." He mumbled as he went back inside the tent. "Lily." He whispered as he gently shook the blonde haired woman sleeping across from him. She groaned and stretched. "…What's the matter Ruko?"

"Get your tomes ready. We may have a fight on our hands." Ruko replied.

Lily rubbed her eyes quickly. "Come again? Who's stupid enough to attack us?"

Ruko nervously looked outside as he grabbed his bow and slung a quiver of arrows around his back. "…I don't know….and that's what bothers me. Listen."

Lily strained to hear something. "…Way too quiet, even for nighttime." She said as she took a yellow book with a jagged symbol on it and put on her mage hat.

"Exactly." Ruko glanced outside quickly. "It looks clear…but be ready for anything…" He said as he went back outside the tent while nocking an arrow. Lily followed right behind him, ready to open the book and cast a spell at the drop of a pin. After they had walked a ways away from their tent, Ruko stopped. The ground underneath them suddenly began to shake as a terrible quake rocked the foundations of the area.

"Ahhhh! Ruko!" Lily screamed.

"Gah! What in the seven hells is going on!?" Ruko yelled as the ground shook even more. The two struggled to remain on their feet as a huge fault line appeared and filled the forest with roaring hot magma, setting trees and ground aflame with earthen blood.

"Lily! We need to get out of here right now!" Ruko called over the cascade of noise and death.

"Agreed! I'll get to the tent and pack as much things as we-"

Ruko grabbed Lily's arm and pulled her back. "No! None of what we possess now is worth gambling our lives away! Leave it and let's run!"

"But Ruko-!"

"Don't argue! Just RUN!" Ruko managed to scream out as a huge chunk of molten rock exploded a few feet away from him, sending a heat wave splashing over his body and knocking his hearing for a loop.

"D-Damn it all!" Lily cried as she and Ruko began to run away from the fiery death and destruction. The forest was ablaze with thick fire and smoke that stung their eyes as they ran, hopping over logs and cutting through thick brushes.

"Hey! This way, Hurry!" Came a voice right beside them. Ruko turned and saw a blue haired young man along with a blonde girl running to their left, the young man beckoning them to come along.

Lily coughed a fit as she struggled to breathe through the smoke. "R-Ruko…cough cough!"

"Come on Lily!" Ruko picked her up princess style and started to carry Lily in the direction of the blue haired youth. "Just a little more and we'll be out of here…!"

Suddenly a pillar of flames shot up between the young lord and the archer and effectively separated them.

"Ugh! Just my luck!" Ruko cursed.

"Are you alright over there?!" Chrom called through the flames.

Ruko strained to see through the fire, tears streaming down his face mixing in with the sweat of intense heat. "Agh…we're stuck! We can't get through!"

"Hold on! We'll find a way to come to you!" Chrom looked frantically for a way to get to the two young women, his eyes darting from all across the flaming barrier. It was an intense flame that burned forth from the ground. To jump through it would mean burning to death before he even made it through to the other side. There were no gaps in between. They were perfectly encased in a ring of fire.

"Gods!" Chrom exclaimed as Lissa looked on in horror. "What can I do!?"

"CAPTIAN CHROM!"

Chrom heard a voice call from behind him and tuned to see who it belonged to, but he was met with a flash of white with a slight tinge of green. "Wha…?"

The blur swooped over the fire and landed inside of it. Squinting through the inferno, he could make out that the white blur that rushed past him was a Pegasus, and a green haired girl was helping the two women onto it. After she got on, the Pegasus took flight once more. And not a moment too soon, as the ground soon collapsed into a sea of magma.

As the Pegasus landed, the two women slid off the saddle dazed and weak from heat exhaustion, but otherwise safe. "Are you two alright?" Lissa asked them with her Heal staff in her hands ready for the worst.

"Ugh…*cough cough*…thank you. We'll be alright." Ruko wheezed as he got fresh air into his lungs. Lily heavily coughed up a storm.

"Ru…ko….I…can't…br…" She struggled.

"Hang on miss! You're suffering from smoke inhalation, but I can fix this! Just hold on okay!?" Lissa tapped Lily's chest with her staff and a green aura poured out of it and into Lily's mouth.

"Will she be alright?" Chrom asked his sister with the green haired Pegasus rider standing by his side with her mount behind her.

"She'll be ok, she just inhaled a little too much smoke. I can fix this, but it's going to take some time." She said as she concentrated and mumbled something that was uninterpretable. As she did, the green light from her staff became brighter. Ruko held Lily's hand as the procedure began.

"Um, Princess Lissa?" The Pegasus rider said with a shaking hand pointed to the sky. A strange portal opened up in the twilight and several figures fell from it and into the brush, only to stand back up and leer at the group with red lifeless eyes and making sounds that contradicted their humanoid appearances and supporting a more monstrous entity. "I think we're running out time."

Chrom gritted his teeth as he faced down the abominations. "Gumi." He said to the Pegasus rider. "Listen to me."

"Y-yes Captain Chrom?"

"Not far from here is a campsite, the very same one were using. Frederick and a few friends of mine as well as two new Shepherds are there. I need you to go to them and bring them here." He reached for Falchion, one of Ylisse's most valuable treasures and his birthright, and drew it. The reds and oranges of the fires reflected off of the blade as he took a battle ready stance. "I'll hold them here as long as I can."

The Pegasus rider named Gumi nodded and slid a pair of red goggles over her eyes. "Yes sir!" She hopped onto her mount. "Gods watch over you!" She called as she took off towards the skies again.

"And Gods give you speed." Chrom whispered silently as the first foe charged towards him. He ran to meet it and with a mighty yell, ducked underneath the foe's axe strike and sliced perfectly through its side. The enemy didn't even flinch, instead rotating its head a perfect 180 degrees and spun struck at him. Chrom barely managed to block the blow and struggled to get some leverage, its strength overmatching his own. Using that to his advantage, he gave way and stepped out of the way of his foe and leapt up into the air before impaling Falchion straight through the abomination's heart. It groaned a raspy groan as it disintegrated into a purple mist. Chrom tried to catch his breath a little, but soon after his sister screamed. "Lissa!"

One of the creatures had strolled up to the three women while he was fighting the other. Lissa had stopped healing Lily and was frozen in fear, using her staff to shield herself. Ruko laid on the ground, a small blood puddle was piddling from a deep cut in his shoulder as he went into shock. The foe lifted his axe as Chrom rushed for all he was worth to save them, but too late, as the axe began to come down. "NOOOO!" He yelled.

*CLANG!*

Chrom stopped in his tracks at the sound. There, in between Lissa and the foe was a young man with blue hair and a mask covering his face blocking the blow from progressing with his sword. Lissa opened her eyes and gasped as the lad grunted under the weight of pressure. Small sparks could be seen flying off the sword as the foe attempted to overpower this interloper. He snapped to Chrom and yelled. "HELP!"

"Right!" Chrom acknowledged as he rushed again at the foe. He yelled and the beast turned its head torwards him, allowing the lad to wind up for a finishing slash. The two sliced through the demon, and it faded away with a howl of pain.

"Chrom!" Ren's voice rang out as Chrom and the mystery boy both sheathed their swords. Ren, Stella, Frederick, Rock, Miku, and Gumi all ran up to the young Lord as Lissa breathed a sigh of relief. She then set to work finishing up curing Lily and then began healing Ruko.

"Chrom! Are you okay? What happened?" Ren asked.

Chrom sighed. "It's a long story. Just know that this person here saved Lissa from…?" He turned to show the group who had saved her, but he had vanished. "Wh-where did he go? Hmm…in any case, all is well for now." He looked to Gumi and smiled. "Thanks Gumi. You did great, I knew I could count on you."

"Millord." She replied while bowing her head.

"Gumi!" Miku glomp-tackled the young girl off her Pegasus and started hugging her tightly. "I'm so happy to see you again!"

"Oof! Hi Miku! I'm glad to see you too! Aren't you supposed to be on your pilgrimage?"

"We completed it." Rock replied with a hand on her hip. "We were on our way back when all hell broke loose. What happened here?"

Frederick took his lance in hand and glared. "We may just find out soon enough. Look!"

Everyone looked over to where Frederick was looking and saw dozens more of the creatures Chrom had slain getting ready to assault their position.

"Everyone spread out!" Stella called out. The group did as they were told and spread out across the field as she took her Fire tome in her hand. Ren unsheathed his Bronze sword and stood poised next to Chrom and Rock. Miku, Gumi and Frederick stood ready near Stella.

"Listen everyone!" Lissa shouted. "It's going to take some time to heal this girl, so cover me as best as you can okay?" As she said this, she thought she could hear Ruko say something under her breath, but didn't press her for it.

"Got it." Ren replied. "Me, Chrom, and Rock will slow them down as much as we can from the front. Stella, you and your team pick off any stragglers we miss. Protect Lissa!"

The monsters howled, and they charged the front.