Author's Note: I Completely and utterly apologize for the absence of a chapter these past few weeks, as college keeps me writing essays every so often. But now no time for excuses! I now bring you the next installment of Seven Stars. Enjoy...

Chapter 4: Pals and Pranks

"So let me get this straight here: we all arrived in some kind of alternate world that's pretty much that game Niko and Tristan used to play," said Walt, trying to process the situation and keep in line with everyone.

After the fight against the legion of magically reanimated corpses, the Shepherds had made their way farther north towards the land of Regna Ferox, minus Sumia, who stayed behind to take care of an injured pegasus we had come across. The landscape had started to become more and more snow-covered the further we pressed on.

"I don't really believe it either," says Karl, our newest addition to the Shepherds.

"Says the guy riding a freaking wyvern!" I snap back at him. Out of all of us on this expedition, the person the guys and I are completely envious of right now is not one of the knights on horseback, nor is it one of the nobles riding in the infinitely warmer carriages. No, who all of us are really jealous of is the one that is flying through the air on a giant lizard.

"Seriously dude," Zaine started, "How in the frostbitten blazes of Hell did you find that thing?"

"Well, actually," Karl began, "Clank found me."

Great, he named it after that robot from that thing he likes. Real usage of creativity there, buddy.

"So I wake up wet, freezing my ass off on a beach at night," he continued. "And by beach, I don't mean bright and sunny, I'm talking freaking rocks and snow. Cold as Hell, you know?"

" You know, I have no idea what you're talking about," Cole yells sarcastically, arms outstretched to indicate the white stuff everywhere.

"Anyway," Karl started again, ignoring Cole. "I go up to this cave and get inside. I then realize that there's this backpack I'm carrying, so I look inside and find some flint, a whole lot of bandages, a metric ton of meat, and a large saddle. I made a fire using the flint and some random sticks I could find, then fell asleep. When I wake up, I see this big guy here roaring and writhing on the ground near me. I see an axe dug into him. So acting on my knowledge of Surgeon Simulator, removed the axe, patched him up with the bandages, all the while feeding him the meat so he wouldn't bite my head off. And after all that, well, I fell asleep."

"Not surprising," I commented.

Leave it Karl to sleep in the face of dangerous things that could probably kill him but don't. Stupid lucky narcoleptic.

"So when I wake up, I find a roasted bear Clank apparently brought in. Needless to say, it tasted delicious. Then we decided to team up when those zombie guys attacked, I fell asleep again, then woke up to you guys."

"Nice," goes Walt.

"Only to a guy like you," responds Zaine.

"Dammit, guys," I yell furiously. "Am I the only one here that doesn't like bear meat?"

Cole just nods while Tristan, as always, is laughing like a lunatic. I can only groan at this.

The caravan comes to a halt, with messages relayed to us, saying that we'll make camp before we reach the Feroxi border. This means we set up tents and campfires. Thank whatever god exists in this place for the ability to feel my face again. The Shepherds spent this resting period eating, drinking, and storytelling around the fire. Most of it was Virion recounting his adventures as the "Archest of Archers," so a lot of people, my friends included, decide to head back to their tents. I stand up to join them, when all of a sudden something catches my ear.

"Ummmm, Niko?"

I turn around to see Lissa, wearing an unbelievable amount of insulated clothing: fur coat, hat, blue scarf, all wrapped up by a large cloak. I can't help but stifle a chuckle while saying hi.

Unfortunately, she notices me doing this.

"Hey, don't laugh," she said pouting. "My brother made me wear this. Didn't want his sister catching a fever or something."

"Well, at least you're not cold." I start rubbing my arms to accentuate my point.

"Here, take this," she says while unwrapping the scarf from her neck and bringing it to me.

"No you don't have to. I'm fine, really."

"Please, it's the least I can do to thank you for saving my life." She now wraps the scarf around my neck.

Now the cold is making her cheeks flushed red. She's got to really find a way to regulate her body temperature or something.

"Thanks for that then," realizing I can't reason with her. I forgot how stubborn she was in the story, and how she also was...

Wait, I know what I can do.

"Hey Lissa, I've got a favor to ask."

"What's that?" she asks turning back to me.

"You see, the other guys, namely Zaine, Walt, Cole, and Karl, are idiots that play pranks on me. And I want to get back at them, but I can't really come up with anything."

Lissa's mouth begins to curl into a smile. "Say no more, I know exactly what to do."

When morning comes, I get up quickly and make my way outside to the other guys' tents. From there, it begins.

"Hey guys!" I start yelling, "We're getting ready to move on!"

I see tent flaps moving and start hearing it.

"What the hell?"

"Dude, really?"

"You asshole!"

"Heh...nice"

"Now I really will kill you."

After highfiving Lissa, digging them out, and getting hit on the head by the guys, I realized that the teamup prank was the best one I really ever done. It was completely worth it.

The walk to the border was actually fairly short. And fairly noticeable, due to it being a really big wall that would make China's look a tennis net.

We quickly get stopped by the woman that's in charge of the wall, I forget her name, who thinks that were bandits pretending to be the Shepherds. To be fair though, she probably did not like getting hit on by Walt or the joke Tristan gave as a response to her saying she's the queen of Valm.

So we have to fight to prove Chrom's identity as the prince of Ylisse. Makes sense to me.

As we're not even halfway through Robin's strategy of how to overcome the Feroxi guards, they all start lining up with javelins and they let them fly. It's a wild scramble to evade them, but we all manage to miraculously. But not as much as Chrom who gets saved by the girl we all know he'll marry sometime down the road, Sumia. Remember how she stayed behind for half a day taking care of a pegasus? Well, during that time she also learned how to ride one and how to fight on one. That seems a bit contrived, but who am I to judge, it saved our leader's life.

And so, the fight begins: Chrom continues riding with Sumia, the cavalry takes care of the archers trying to shoot them out of the sky, Robin, Miriel, and I attack the armoured knights with our tome magic, and Karl rides on Clank into the fort to wipe out the javelin throwers. We get to the gates, only to find out we couldn't find the keys to them. Zaine then reveals that as a thief, he has a lockpick, so he cracks the lock while Tristan guards him.

So in the end, we take the day, and proving our worth and access to see the khan of Ferox. So the Shepherds and I get on our way.

Zaine calls my attention with a wave. "Niko, what can we expect from this place?"

"Feroxian democracy," I reply. "Which pretty much means a fighting tournament."

Karl interjects with "Dude, when did this become DBZ? I'm so ready!"

"Karl, Come on!" everyone interjects.

A/N: So there we go! We start to see Niko get revenge on his prankster friends. How much farther will his teamup with Lissa take him? Will Tristan and the other retaliate with even more brutal pranks? And less importantly, what will happen when the Shepherds get into Ferox? Find out next time on Fire Emblem: Seven Stars!

P.S.: Really sorry it took so long!