Author's notes
Hello again. Yes, I am doing another long-winded author's note. Just kidding, I'll try to keep it short. I just wanted to thank all the people who have read and reviewed this story. I honestly did not expect to get any hits in the first few weeks, let alone 3 reviews and 1 PM within 24 hours of posting the story. You guys have made my day. So if you read, reviewed, subscribed or messaged me I send hugs. Bro-hugs. Don't make it weird.
Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem or its characters, settings and plots. Nor do I own anything that I may make reference to over the course of the story. Honestly, I'm a college student, I own almost nothing. There, I think that covers it.
Chapter 2
The Obligatory Chapter in Which They Try to Train Me
"C'mon, wake up! You've been sleeping for hours," a voice called, bringing me out of my slumber. Asshole.
"Mfghm shuddup five more minutes..." I groaned. I don't even have class today, there's no hurry. Or perhaps there was, I found out as a bucket of cold water was dumped over my head. "WHAT THE HELL MAN? FUCK OFF!" I screamed. God, it's cold. I opened my eyes to see which of my parents I could thank for the rude awakening, only to see some guy with black hair holding a bucket. And I was in the main hall of Castle Gebal. Oh shit, right, I'm in Tellius. There was a battle. I fainted. Gorramit I hate mornings.
"Wakey wakey princess," Soren said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. More seriously, he added "The Commander wants to speak with you."
"Yeah, sure, whatever... wait you guys are ALIVE?" I had thought everyone had been killed... that's why I fainted in the first place. Only they're alive now, so I kinda feel like an idiot.
"Evidently. Now go speak with Ike already." Sarcastic jerk. With no further comments, he pointed to the other side of the room where Ike sat talking with two people I did not recognize. As I headed over, I realized that my chest no longer hurt. Rhys must have healed me. I really should thank him when I get the chance.
"I take it we won after all," I said as I approached.
"Yeah we did, thanks to some Gallian reinforcements," Ike explained, indicating the other two people with him. One was a large man, and the other was a short woman who was wearing - oh great - a really short skirt. Seriously? It. Makes. Me. Nervous! Why can't the girls around here just wear pants? Fortunately, Ike had finished his conversation and dismissed the two laguz. "Now, I wanted to talk with you about... did you really need to do that Soren?"
"You said you wanted to speak with him when he was concious. It seemed the most efficient way to wake him up."
Ike just shook his head, trying (and failing) to surpress a look of amusement. "Don't worry, we'll get you some new clothes. I believe Soren has volunteered to get those for you now," he said with a pointed look at the mage. Soren stalked off, grumbling. "Don't mind him. We've been through a lot here, so we're all kind of on edge. Now, I wanted to ask you some questions. Who are you and what do you intend to do now that the battle is over?"
Haha, talk about being direct and to the point. I like this guy. "I really have nowhere else to go, so if you guys would let me stay with you for now, that would be great." Now, what do I tell him about myself? The truth would just make everyone think I'm crazy. Amnesia, perhaps? That could work, but I'd have to very careful about what I say to keep the lie going...
Seeing my hesitation, Ike added "We are protecting someone very important to Crimea. If you want to stay with us, then I need to know that I can trust you. So give me the truth."
"...Alright, but you're gonna think I'm crazy. Y'see, I'm not from Tellius. You've probably never even heard of the place I'm from."
"Try me."
"You ever heard of Canada?" Ike shook his head. "That's 'cause it's on a completely different world." I proceeded to explain what had happened the night before. Ike seemed particularily interested in the runes that had appeared around me, but I could not tell why. I left out the fact that there was a game based on Tellius and that I had a rough idea of how the war would go; That little revelation could wait. "So basically, I have no idea how I got here or how to get home." Here it comes. He's gonna think I'm completely nuts and kick me out.
"That's a pretty strange story, but I believe you. It certainly explains why you're dressed so strangely." That's a relief. "You're in luck, too. We recently lost several members of the company..." Ike's expression darkened at this. Right, I had forgotten; Greil had probably just died a few days ago and Shinon and Gatrie left immediatley after Ike took command. "...so we need some new recruits. If you're willing to join, we would be glad to have you. You are welcome to stay with us, at least until we reach Castle Gallia. From there, you can decide what you want to do."
"Sounds good. I will warn you, though, that I'm not much use in a fight."
"It's already taken care of. Deputy Commander Titania is out in the courtyard now. I told her I might be sending you out for training earlier. And even if you aren't good with a sword, Mist said you might have potential as a healer."
"But, I wasn't... you already... What?" So I sat through all that questionning and he had already decided to recruit me?
Ike laughed a bit at this. "Ilyana and Mist both already vouched for you. I was going to let you travel with us if you wanted, I just had to be sure that I could trust you." At this moment, Soren finally showed up with a change of clothes for me. "Ah, good. There's a room over there where you can change, then just head out to the courtyard and Titania will take care of you. Welcome to the Greil Mercenaries."
"Th-thank you," WHAAAT? I'm an official member of the mercenaries. Temporarily, anyway. That was easy. And awesome.
As I headed off to change, I overheard Soren grumbling to Ike. "Great, we're taking in strays now. Perhaps next, I could ask the merchants to set up an orphanage in one of the wagons." Okay, maybe not so awesome if I'm stuck in a company with that asshole.
I changed quickly into my new clothes. They were nothing special, just a plain pair of pants, a belt, and a dark, long-sleeved shirt, but at least they were dry. I headed out into the courtyard. Outside, it had finally stopped raining. I could see Titania supervising Boyd while he did his practice swings, as Mist and Mia sat in the shade of the wall and watched. They were obviously quite amused by the lecture Boyd was getting for his laziness. Noticing me, Titania stopped berating him and turned to me with a scary expression on her face. Really scary.
"Ah, good. Ike told me you would be out to train. Since Boyd can't seem to focus without a sparring partner, how about you two spar and we'll see if you have any potential as a soldier."
Oh bugger. We may be the same height, but Boyd has at least twenty or thirty pounds on me. I am so boned. I headed for a weapon rack standing against the wall near Mist and grabbed a practice sword. Fortunately it was fairly light, meaning I would have little trouble swinging it. I moved back to the sparring area and squared off against Boyd. Here goes. I have a sword so that means I have an advantage against axes, right? Increased hit chance and damage. Oh, how I wish game statistics worked in real life. Heck, while I'm wishing, I wish there weren't so many people here to watch. And I wish I had some food, like eggs with bacon and potatoes mmmm... Ugh FOCUS ADAM!
WHACK! Taking advantage of my distraction, Boyd came in and smacked the flat of his axe into my stomach, blasting the air from my lungs and dropping me unceremoniously to the ground. A chorus of laughter from Mist and Mia only added to my embarrasment.
"Adam, focus!" Titania called out. "If that were a real weapon you would be dead."
"Owww. Yep, lesson learned," I grunted. We squared off again. This time when Boyd charged I was ready, bringing my blade up to block his vicious strike. The weapons clashed and I just barely held onto my sword, the impact sending vibrations all the way up my arm. I backpedaled, barely deflecting the next two strikes. Boyd brought his axe across in a two-handed sweep, sending my sword flying out of my weakened grip. He then reversed his momentum and smashed the axe into my gut. Again. Ow.
"Better. Again!" Titania ordered. Fuck.
The sparring continued for at least a half hour, with me always ending up disarmed or smacked. Unfortunately, I was showing absolutely no signs of improvement; In fact, the more tired I got the worse I fought. Often Boyd would disarm me with a single blow, and I could see the girls by the wall literaly facepalming as they watched.
"Give up yet?" Boyd asked, obviously tired of the one-sided fight. Part of me certainly wanted to. My bruises had bruises, and my self-esteem was pretty much non-existant at this point, but I wasn't going to give up. Not until I landed a hit.
"One more," I grunted. Gotta land a hit. Boyd charged, his axe coming down in a two-handed overhead strike that would surely blast the sword out of my hands when I blocked. Trying a different tactic, I countered with a two handed swing of my own, swinging left to right while stepping to my left instead of blocking. My strike did what I had intended, deflecting the axe down and to the right, leaving Boyd wide open as his momentum brought him right beside me. Unfortunately, my blade was also down and to right, meaning I couldn't hit him with it. Determined to redeem myself at least a bit, I struck out with my elbow, smashing Boyd in the face. He recoiled instantly, one hand going to his nose. Yes, victory is MINE! I thought, until I realized that his axe was no longer tangled with my sword. Dammit.
SMACK.
"Oh man, Boyd, he got you good!" Mist called out tauntingly. Mia was nearly dying of laughter. It was only then that I realized Boyd's nose was flat against his cheek.
"Thuddup, Mitht! I thtill won," Boyd grumbled, holding his broken nose. Sadly for him, this only made the two girls laugh louder.
"Oh shit, sorry! I didn't mean to- you alright?" I stammered. I didn't want to hurt him, I just wanted to hit him. I had only good inten- okay, I had mostly not-evil intentions. I never wanted to break his nose. Ooooh I'm a terrible person.
"I'b okay, I'b okay."
Titania ordered Mist to take Boyd into the keep and heal his nose. After they were gone, I approached her, dreading her evaluation of my skills (or lack thereof).
"So, how'd I do?"
"Honestly? You need a lot more training if you're ever going to survive a real battle." Yeah, that's pretty much what I expected. I must have looked pretty glum, because she added "But if that move you pulled at the end is any indication, you might have some potential. Now get yourself back inside. There's warm food on the fire and I imagine you're pretty hungry after that training." She patted me on the shoulder, then headed into the keep after Boyd. Yay, I have potential, even though I kinda suck right now. And Titania may be scary, but she really does act like the mother of the company.
I returned to the keep as Titania had suggested. She was right; I hadn't eaten anything since lunch the day before and after all that fighting and training, I was starving. Luckily for me, there was a large pot filled with soup over the fire at the end of the hall, near the tables where the wounded had been treated just few hours before. Ilyana was at a table next to the pot, a massive bowl in front of her. The food must have been good, considering the rate at which she was eating it. I grabbed a bowl and took a seat at the table next to her. Much as I didn't relish the thought of eating next to her, the only other table still had blood on it. My germaphobia always beats my fear of girls. Besides, she was kind of my patient, so I felt obligated to check on her.
"H-hey, umm how's your shoulder doin?"
"Oh, hi. Yes, my shoulder is just fine now. Thank you, ummm... Phil? Jim?"
"Close enough. I, uh, I guess I owe you thanks too. You kinda saved my life in that battle."
"Oh, that was no problem. I always make a point of protecting people who like to give me food. Speaking of which, since you aren't eating that bowl of soup yet..."
"No. Mine!" She may be cute, but I'm hungry. I dug into the food and instantly regreted it. Dear God it's vile. I guess with Oscar wounded, the food here is going to be sub-par for a while.
"Actually, I was just going to warn you about that..."
Just as I prepared to spit the putrid concotion back into my bowl, Mist came and sat down at the table with us. "So how do you guys like the soup I made?" I swallowed quickly, forcing myself not to gag.
"It's good, it just might need some seasoning or something." Oh darn, she looks like she's going to cry. I quickly added "But it's still a lovely... soup-thing."
Mist beamed. "That's good. Normally the others just complain about my cooking." I can't imagine why. She stood up and turned away as if to leave. Seeing this, I started to empty my bowl onto the floor. Mist turned back suddenly, though, and sat down again. Not wanting to offend her, I ate another spoonful. "Before I go, is it true that you aren't from Tellius?"
I see Ike wasted no time telling everyone. "Yes, it's true." I explained how I was from a different world and how the mysterious lights had transported me here. When I was done, they were both staring at me in disbelief. "I know it sounds crazy, but it's true."
"Well, it doesn't sound like you're lying, so I guess I believe you," Ilyana said. Mist nodded her agreement.
"So, what did you do in your world?" Mist asked.
"I was still just a student. I was trying to get into health care."
"Oh, so you were going to be a priest, kinda like Rhys," Mist said.
I chuckled a bit at that. "No, I am definitely not a priest."
"But you still used magic, right?"
"No, there is no magic where I'm from."
Mist seemed genuinely puzzeled by this statement. "Then... how do you heal people?"
"We use more... physical means. Like surgery." Mist still looked confused. I guess they don't really need surgery when they have staves. "In extreme cases, we cut people open, fix them, and then close them up." Oh, she looks like she's going to puke. I would feel bad if she hadn't made me eat that soup. Payback's a bitch.
"That's... horrible."
"While we're on the topic of healing, where's Rhys? I've been meaning to thank him for fixing my ribs."
"Oh, he's still with Oscar. He wanted to keep an eye on him while he recovered," Mist explained. "But if you want to thank the person who healed you, that would be me. You're welcome!"
"Well, thanks kiddo. I guess I owe you one."
At that moment, Rhys and Ike emerged from one of the side rooms. Taking a position at one end of the hall, Ike turned to address the mercenaries, who were by now all here (minus Oscar of course).
"Everyone, Rhys has just informed me that Oscar is stable and can be moved safely." An audible sigh of relief passed through those gathered. "Which means we can continue with our mission. Pack your things, we leave for Castle Gallia in ten minutes."
Well, here goes. Castle Gallia, here I come.
Author's Note - So I know I said that I would have this posted last week, but it turns out I lied. It was a good thing though, trust me. Much as I don't think this was as good as the first chapter, it is much better than the shit that I had ready for Friday. I would have had more time to write but I was watching the Euro and working and I just got Dragon Age 2 and I had gardening to do and the spring festival was on LOTRO, so I was a little distracted.
I know that this was kind of a fluff chapter, but I thought it was necessary. I tried to make it interesting but I won't know if I succeeded until I hear your opinions, so please review and let me know what you think, good or bad. Again, I am new so while I apologize to anyone who does not like the chapter, please bear with me while I get the hang of this whole writing thing. Seeya!