In the midst of a chaotic battle, I quickly counter an attack, twist my lance around, and kill the offender. Using the spare time, I glance over to my separated allies, only to see a blue haired man with a lightning bolt impaled in his chest. A man's dark cackles echoes in the temple.
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Near a bandit holdout, I scan my surroundings and spot the three taguels who are waiting as planned. I'm interrupted when a sudden pain shoots through my shoulder, and my eyes began to darken as I hear shouting in the distance.
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I'm standing watch for the night, even with my aches and pains, and the protests of the others, I refuse to be weak in this situation. It matters not, since all it takes to take out an aging man is a quiet approach, which is exactly what happens as I feel the sharp pain of a dagger enter my back, and slowly fade away.
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I'm in the middle of a heated battle, slashing and hacking away without a care. I'm visibly injured, and my body by means should've stopped ages ago, but I'm too enraged to give a shit. In that blind rage, I fail to see a hand axe flying my way towards my skull.
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Several arrows fly into various soldiers from a lone woman covering fire from afar but is quickly getting swarmed by her foes. She fires a few more arrows before being forced into using her knife. From a distance you would spot a least a dozen surrounding the lone archer.
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A young man starts fighting several people in an attempt to help someone in the middle of the chaos. Already hurt and bruised, he figures he has nothing to lose, and charges ahead with reckless abandon.
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?'s P.O.V
The first thing I notice when I wake up is the fact that I am clearly not in my bedroom, or even in my house for that matter. The second is that I'm in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of people, I recognize most of them, but the last I don't. The third is that I don't remember how the hell I even got here to begin with.
So I'm sitting here like a dumbass just looking around until I hear someone stirring next to me. I take a look at which one it was the guy with slicked back brown hair, one of my friends, Sebastian. He looks around at everybody here, notices me and decides to speak.
"The hell are we doing here Blake?"
Real nice Sebastian, always helpful.
"I don't know, was hoping you or anyone else here knew."
He rolls his eyes and starts shaking the black haired Hispanic next to him. "Miguel get your ass up now's not the time to be sleeping."
Miguel opens his eyes, and points at the bearded old man nearby. "You're really gonna ignore your grandpa over there?"
Sebastian replies, "He's fifty-seven he'll get up when he wants to."
"I heard that boy." the old man, Sebastian's grandfather responded not bothering to get up.
"Jesus you boys are loud." the orange haired girl by the twins says, getting on her feet.
"We can't all be quiet as hell like you Gayle." Sebastian says while helping Miguel up.
"Can't you be quiet for two fucking seconds?" the blonde-haired twin with the brown jacket says sitting up. The other one getting help from Gayle looks at him and frowns.
"You know, you don't have be rude to everyone James."
James looks over at his brother. "Eric he's being loud at shit. I'm surprised the white-haired cosplayer over there hasn't woken up yet." he says pointing towards the second girl here, and the only one not awake yet.
We each study her for few minutes. She has long white hair in twin ponytails across her shoulders, a black and purple coat that goes down to her knees, tan pants and brown boots and a gray shirt. She has what looks like a bronze sword, and a yellow book of sorts. Now that I'm looking at her, she looks like Robin from Fire Emblem Awakening. Taking this situation in mind and it looks like we're going to be in for some mindfuckery here in a few minutes.
"Is it me, or does she look like Robin?" Eric says after a while.
Good, I'm not the only one who noticed. "Who?" the old man asks. I notice that everyone seems confused, save for me and Eric.
"A character from Awakening, she or he depending on your choice is the avatar of the game." I explain.
"Blake you're not fixing to say we got transported into a fucking video game, are you?" James says already looking done with life.
"Honestly I think we did, we woke up in a field in the country when we all live in the city, not to mention said field is by Ylisse which is a country in fucking Fire Emblem, no one knows how we got here, we can't say we were drugged because none of us feel sleepy, and I don't know what else to tell you." Eric said gesturing around himself.
We stand here think to ourselves for a few minutes before Gayle speaks up.
"Hey guys... I don't think we're in Utah anymore."
James looks at her and says "Yeah, no shit."
"So, what do we do now?" Miguel asks.
I fix my short black ponytail before answering. "Well, if we are in a game, then we should be-"
"I hear voices over here Chrom. I think we should check it out."
"I would exercise caution milady, we do not know whom it could be."
We all snap our heads over to the voices, and Miguel pulls out a switchblade.
"Is that trouble? Are we going to have to fight?" he says. James pulls out a butterfly knife while the old man pulls Sebastian behind him.
"Don't really want to find out, I think we should get going." James said, Eric looked at him and said, "If that's who I think it is we don't have to worry about fighting yet."
Gayle does a double take and says "Yet? What do you mean yet?"
"You'll see in a minute." I said looking into the woods waiting for the group of the hour.
After a while three people walk into the clearing. Exactly the three I was expecting, Chrom, the exalt to be if the story follows as the game tells it, Lissa, the princess who never got her brand for some reason if I remember correctly, and Frederick, Chrom and Lissa's retainer and extremely paranoid around newcomers if the way he's looking at out group is of any indication.
"Hey, what are you all doing out here?" Chrom asks.
Miguel thinks for a split second before saying "We all woke up here. We don't know where we are, and we've been trying to wake this woman up for a few minutes but haven't had much luck."
"You mean to tell us that all seven of you woke up here, have no idea where you are, and are now attempting to wake this woman up?" Frederick says suspicion clear on his face. It's times like this when I wish Miguel wasn't as blunt as could be.
"Yeah, we don't really know what to do right now." Gayle says going along with Miguel's plan of just winging it.
"That James boy has been trying for a few minutes now, shaking her, some light slaps, taps, he gave up after a while because then he'd just be hitting her." the old man says, looking at the girl.
"And she has yet to wake up?" Chrom says. Then I notice the girl starting to stir awake, and Sebastian notices too. How convenient.
"Chrom, we have to do something." Lissa says wanting to help.
"Well, what do you propose we do?" Chrom replies. "Uh...I don't know!" Lissa says before noticing that the woman woke up.
"Hey there, you're finally awake." Eric says, probably making a reference that James elbows his side for.
"There are better places to take a nap than on the ground, you know. Give me your hand." Chrom says holding his hand out. The woman takes it and gets up. "You all right?"
The woman smiles, still shaky on her feet and says "Y-yes... Thank you, Chrom." Frederick frowns even more upon hearing this, and I resist the urge to facepalm. Robin you sweet summer child.
Chrom was slightly taken aback by this and said "Ah, then you know who I am?".
Robin grimaces and says "No, actually. I... It's strange... your name, it just came to me."
The old man can't hold back his curiosity and asks, "Hey lass, what's your name?"
"My name, it's... hmm?" she frowns suddenly, and I remember now that Robin has amnesia.
"I'm not sure... I'm sorry, but where am I exactly?" she asks around looking at everybody.
"Wait you don't remember your own name?" Gayle said surprised. Sebastian looks over said responds "It seems like it."
"Hey, I've heard of this! It's called amnesia!" Lissa exclaims.
"It's called a load of pegasus dung." Frederick says clearly not believing any of us. "We're to believe that you remember milord's name, but not your own? Not to mention we're to also believe that this group woke up here with you but didn't know who you were?"
I can't blame him for holding suspicions against an amnesiac, and several people from a different world in different clothes and customs, but it's still annoying.
"...What if it IS true, Frederick? We can't just leave her here, alone and confused. What kind of Shepherds would we be then?" Chrom says while looking between each of us.
"Just the same milord. I must exercise caution. 'Twould not do to let a wolf into our flock." Frederick says without missing a beat. I can respect someone who already has a response ready though it's annoying when it seems unfounded.
"Right then, we'll take them all back to town and sort this out there." Chrom said, getting ready to leave. Miguel looks at them a little pensive and says "Wait do we not get a say and this? Any of us?"
Chrom looks back and says "Peace my friends. I promise we will hear what you have to say in town. Now come."
James looks at them distrustfully and mutters "I can't believe this is happening." I catch this and mutter back "You and me both."
We spend some time walking, it was probably only a few minutes before the silence was broken again, this time by Robin.
"What are you going to do with us? Are we to be your prisoners?" Robin said, which only served to make James more nervous than he was earlier.
Chrom laughed and said, "You'll be free to go once we establish that you all are not enemies to Ylisse." So, Eric was right. Shit.
Robin furrowed her brow and said "Is that where we are? Ylisse?", Miguel who was walking in front of her turned around and said "Well they seem to be honest, at least so far, so it might be best to assume that Ylisse is where we are. Robin looked at him and nodded, agreeing with that assessment.
Frederick however looked between the two of them and said, "You all have never heard of the halidom?" to which Miguel, Robin, James, and Sebastian either shook their heads or stayed silent. Frederick forced a laugh and said "Someone pay these actors, they play convincing fools! Especially with their furrowed brows.". James looked like he was getting upset before the old man put his hand on his shoulder. Luckily Chrom spoke up and defused the situation before it started.
"Frederick, please." he started before he began speaking to all of us. "This land is known as the Halidom of Ylisse. Our ruler, Emmeryn, is called the exalt. I suppose proper introductions are in order... My name is Chrom but then, you already knew that. The delicate one here is my sister Lissa." he was then interrupted by said sister.
"I am NOT delicate! ...Hmph." Lissa pouted towards Chrom, then turned to us "Ignore my brother, please. He can be a bit thick sometimes."
Eric sighed before saying "I know how that feels..." James deadpanned and said, "The hell does that mean?"
Miguel tapped James and said, "He means you can be very stubborn yourself."
James simply sighed "You're both dickheads."
Eric chuckled "Case and point, dude."
Lissa smiled and said, "You're a pretty funny group you know? But going back to what I was saying, you're lucky the Shepherds found you. Brigands would've been a rude awakening!"
Robin paused and said, "Shepherds? You tend sheep? ...In full armor?"
The old man crossed his arms and said, "It might be a dangerous job."
Chrom smiled, gestured to Frederick and said, "Indeed it is. Just ask Frederick the Wary here."
Frederick just looked at him and said, "A title I shall wear with pride. Gods forbid one of us keeps an appropriate level of caution." he then turned his attention towards us and said, "I have every wish to trust you, strangers, but my station mandates otherwise."
"I guess I'll go next. My name is Blake. I have no real clue how I got here, and I know I'm not from here." I said while slicking my hair back into a ponytail, a habit I picked up when I was nervous, even with mom's constant nagging and threats to shave my head if I didn't stop, even though she never did.
"You're a foreigner?" Chrom asked.
"I feel like our clothes enough would be proof of that." I said while pinching my jeans. I was also wearing a black winter coat and tan boots, stuff people don't normally wear in Fire Emblem. I looked at the others and saw that they were in normal clothes too. Gayle was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with buttons at the top and pink and black trainers, Miguel was wearing a black pullover hoodie and white and black sneakers, James was wearing a brown jacket with a white shirt underneath and white sneakers, Eric was wearing a gray zip-up hoodie with an ACDC shirt under it and grey running shoes, Sebastian was wearing a white t-shirt with a black skull in it, blue and black trainers, and was wearing his blue hoodie tied around his waist, and his grandfather had black work boots, wore a big gray coat with a brown turtleneck and probably had something under that, and had on a brown beanie over his head. Everyone was also wearing some kind of jeans. Truly a group to stand out. At least in Fire Emblem.
"Your clothing is rather odd. Where are you from? I can tell you're not Ylissean. Are you from Plegia?" Frederick interrogates us. I want to respond but...
"We really don't have to tell you where we're from. We probably should get going so we can find our way home." James said not wanting to be near the three anymore.
"Damnit James, we didn't even know where we were until a few moments ago. Do you really think we would fare better by ourselves?" Gayle said, actually using her head. James leaned in and whispered to her, "I don't trust them. They could kill us at any moment, do you not see those weapons?". Gayle whispered back "And what's the alternative? Get eaten by some animal? Starve to death? Get killed in our sleep? We don't know anything about this world you moron! I'm pretty sure this group isn't that bad compared to that now is it?" James huffed and stepped away. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. What a knobhead.
Gayle sighed and turned back to Chrom. "Sorry about that, James isn't very trusting to strangers, or people in general. I'm Gayle."
"It's quite all right. What about the rest of you?" Chrom said.
The old man spoke next. "You can call me Andy. Andrew if you're fancy. This here's my grandson Sebastian" Huh. I finally know his name. Sebastian didn't talk about him a lot or his family, we all figured it was personal, we just saw him a few times when were at his house.
"I can introduce myself, pops" Sebastian deadpanned to Andy, who just chuckled. Eric cleared his throat, which got Chrom's attention.
"My name's Eric, you already know my twin, James."
Miguel closed his switchblade, which got Frederick's eyes on him. "Name's Miguel."
Frederick gestured toward Miguel and James, who still had his butterfly knife out, and said "Were you planning on fighting us?"
"If you turned out to be hostile, then yes." Miguel stated. Miguel it's okay to bite your tongue sometimes.
A cough interrupts the conversation, everyone turns to Robin who says, "I just remembered. My name is Robin. I suppose that's one mystery solved."
Chrom stirs with thought and says, "Those names... are they foreign?" No shit. Frederick already pointed this out. "Ah, well. We can discuss it later."
Lissa suddenly looks panicked as she points something out in the distance. "Chrom, look! The town!"
Everyone quickly the burning town that's nearby.
"What the hell happened there?!" Sebastian exclaims.
"Damn it! The town is ablaze! Those blasted brigands no doubt. Frederick, Lissa quickly!" Chrom shouted.
Frederick waved his hand towards us and said, "What about them?"
Without hesitation, Chrom said, "Unless they're on fire as well, it can wait!"
"Aptly put, milord." Frederick said. Lissa got impatient and said "Come on, let's go already!" before they all ran to the town.
"What should we do?" Robin said, surprisingly including us in her thoughts.
"I vote we leave them. We need to find out how to get home, not play hero in a place we don't need to be." James said, surprising no one, save for Robin.
"But helping Chrom will probably get us those answers, and we're more likely to be prepared for the trials ahead." I stated, hoping to end this argument quickly. Thankfully Eric wasn't in the mood for James' shit.
"We're helping James, end of discussion. What about the rest of you?" Eric was ready to go ahead.
"I'm old, not senile. We shouldn't explore a new world without help. We should get going." Andy said, accepting the situation faster than I expected for an old guy like him. Miguel reopened his switchblade, James tightened his grip on his butterfly knife, and all of us followed after Chrom's group.
When we arrive, Chrom, Lissa, and Frederick are already preparing for the fight, when we see a man, probably the leader, holding a woman hostage.
"Get to it, lads! Grab anything shiny, and put the rest to the torch! We gots an example to set for these Ylissean types! Ain't that right, lass?"
The panicking woman couldn't help but to scream out "S-stay away from me! Please! Someone! HEEEEEELP!"
Gayle mutters in anger from behind me "Worthless shitheads."
Lissa calls out from ahead "Chrom, we have to stop them!"
Chrom said while looking at the chaos, "Don't worry, after today these bandits won't be bothering anyone ever again."
"Damn straight!" Sebastian called out which caused them to look back at us in surprise.
Chrom spoke up "You all followed us! Why?"
Robin stepped forward "I'm not certain why most of us came, but some of us are armed, and I know my way around a fight if you'll have me."
Chrom nodded "Okay. What about the rest of you?"
I spoke next "I can't just stand by while others get hurt. That's not who I am." I took a look at my friends, and recalled who they were. "That's not who any of us are." Even James, though I do think he'd leave if he was by himself. He'd likely regret it though.
Chrom turned towards the impending battle "Alright then, strength in numbers, just stay close!" Right before the battle started, Frederick addressed all of us, "Remember, we face practiced thieves and murderers. They will grant us no quarter. It's kill or be killed."
That phrase. Kill or be killed. I've always wondered if myself, or anyone in this group would ever need to keep that in mind. I've also wondered how we would feel during and after. I suppose we're all about to find out.
We engage and Chrom and Frederick immediately make work of two brigands, while Robin takes out a brigand that had targeted Lissa with what the group just found out was a thunder tomb. Another had tried to sneak behind her but had his throat slit by James. Meanwhile Miguel was dodging axe swings from a brigand who was rather slow, while giving him deep cuts with his blade, before finally just stabbing him in the chest after the sixth swing. Sebastian was getting a few good strikes on sloppy thief before taking his bronze sword and stabbing him with it, while Andy just shoved two brigands into the river. Gayle had managed to swipe a bronze axe from a brigand who was dumb enough to leave his weapon unattended, then killed said brigand. Before long most of them besides the leader were dead, and they regrouped in the square.
Chrom took a look around and said, "Is anyone hurt? It would be foolish leave a wound unattended."
"Indeed. Timely use of a staff or vulnerary should prevent the worst." Robin agreed.
"Pops has some cuts on his leg." Sebastian said with worry. Andy simply smiled.
"Relax, boy. I'm not fragile." Andy said before wincing as he put too much pressure on said leg. "Well, not THAT fragile." he amended.
Lissa began using her staff and said "Don't be stubborn. You wouldn't want to worry Sebastian too much do you?"
We watched as the magic from her staff went into Andy's injured leg and closed the wound. It's one thing to see it from the game's perspective. It's another to actually see it in person.
"Heh. Suppose I wouldn't. That power is amazing." Andy said with slight awe in his voice. Lissa looked confused.
"Have you never seen magic before? You also looked shocked when Robin used her thunder tome earlier." she said. Andy pauses, realizes what he said, and what everyone did, and continued "That's something we'll have to explain later. Preferably when we aren't fighting."
Chrom decided to end the conversation himself. "That it will. But you've all lent your strength, and that makes you all friends. Having allies by my side gives me courage.
Robin, who was lost in thought decided to speak up "I think there's more to it than that, there is a tactical advantage to fighting side by side...It's fuzzy...Wait. Yes, fighting side by side improves strength, defense, speed...Yes, yes, I'm sure of it!" she finished looking pleased with herself.
"Huh. Quite the motormouth aren't you?" James said sarcastically.
"I think we need to wrap this up. That man's not going wait forever, you know." I cut in, ready to get this over with. I really just want to take this guy on myself, but I don't have a weapon of my own.
"Well put Blake. Miguel, I want you to have my back against the leader. The rest of you, take out any stragglers." Chrom said ready to end the fighting. We went to pick off any stragglers, while Chrom and Miguel took out the leader.
Miguel's P.O.V
"Here sheepy, sheepy! Come to the slaughter!" the leader yelled out to us.
"Alright, let's do this." I said before popping my knuckles and charging at him with my switchblade, while Chrom dashed beside me. The brigand tried to swing at me because I was closer, which was his first mistake, because Chrom took a deep stab at his side, and while he swung again, he only focused on Chrom, which was mistake number two, because I rushed him and stabbed him in the back. His last mistake was that he couldn't decide on which of us to target, so we rushed him and I stabbed his stomach, and Chrom slashed his head and decapitated him.
I took a minute to calm down, while Chrom looked at me and smiled.
"That's quite the skill, being able to fight so effectively with such a small blade." he praised.
I just looked at him "Not really, I was just winging most of the fight."
"Even so I can tell the difference between someone new, and someone with experience. Such as your friend, James. He wields a small blade too, but had no experience, even if you two have never fought before, James was just swinging a blade, you were trained before." Chrom explained.
"You're perspective." I said before looking over his shoulder. "Our friends are back. Let's go make our report." I said walking towards the group.
Robin was the first to talk and simply said, "Well, that's the end of that."
"Luckily for the town we were close by." Lissa started before turning to Robin in excitement. "But holy wow, Robin! You were incredible! Swords, sorcery, and tactics! Is there anything you can't do?"
Blake chuckled and said, "Definitely beats being some helpless victim, doesn't it?"
Frederick looked at Robin and said, "Indeed. Perhaps you might even be able to provide an explanation for how you came here?" Why is this man always so suspicious?
Robin grimaced, "I understand your skepticism, Sir Frederick. I cannot explain why only some knowledge has returned to me. But please, believe me. I have shared all that I know."
James was growing irritable and said, "Okay look if somebody is claiming to have amnesia, constantly fucking hounding them about who they were, where they came from, how they got here or anything else for that matter if fucking pointless because they won't be able to, especially if they actually have amnesia." by this point James had gotten in front of Frederick, and the two were glaring at each other, and Eric and Lissa were ready to intervene.
Before things could get worse, Chrom decided to defuse the situation. "You all fought to save Ylissean lives. My heart says that's enough. This enough to get Frederick to look at him. "And your mind, milord? Will you not heed its council as well?
Chrom gestured to the group and said, "Frederick, the Shepherds could use people with this groups talents. We've brigands and unruly neighbors, all looking to bloody our soil. Would you really lose us an able tactician and able soldiers?" he paused for a moment before continuing. "Besides, I believe their stories, as odd as they may be."
Robin smiled while Blake seemed surprised, as did some of the others, namely James, Gayle, and Eric.
Blake spoke up after a little bit. "Thanks, Chrom."
Chrom smiled and said, "So how about it? Will all of you joins us?"
Blake's P.O.V
After around 5 hours or so, if the sun is any indication, all of the fire had been extinguished, the bodies moved out of the town, and we had reconvened at the bridge. Frederick decides bring up the brigands from earlier.
"Did you notice, milord? The brigands spoke with a Plegian accent." Me and Eric looked at each other. It was starting, next should be the Risen, but only we know this. For now.
"Plegian? What's that mean?" Gayle asked.
Chrom looked back to answer her. "Plegia is Ylisse's westerly neighbor. They send small bands into our territory, hoping to instigate a war."
Gayle looked disgusted at this, which was understandable. Lissa added on to Chrom's statement.
"And it's the poor townsfolk that suffer! Innocent and helpless..."
Frederick turned to her and said, "They do have us milady: Shepherds to protect the sheep. Do not be swept up in your anger. It will cloud your judgement.
Lissa sighed, "I know, I know... I'll get used to all of this."
A villager, most likely the mayor of sorts, had gotten Chrom's attention and said, "Milord, please! You must stay the night! We are simple folk of simple means, but we would gladly toast your valor with a feast!" That honestly sounded good, however the risen are about show up and...
"A most generous offer, sir, and no doubt your hospitality would be grand, but I'm afraid we must hurry back to Ylisstol." Frederick refused the offer already.
Lissa, however didn't hear that. "Dark meat only for me, medium well, and no salt in the soup. I simply... Wait, what?!" Nevermind she caught up. "We're not staying?! But, Frederick, it's nearly dark!"
Frederick replied, "When night falls, we'll camp. Eat off the land, make our bad of twigs and the like... I believe you mentioned that you would be 'getting used to this'?"
Lissa grumbled out "Frederick, sometimes I hate you."
Andy chuckled and said, "Quite the stern lieutenant you are boy."
Sebastian huffed and said, "Pops, stern is one word, I've got a few more. Strict, uncompromising, imposing..." Lissa started giggling at this.
Chrom joined in on the banter. "Frederick only smiles when he's about to bring down the axe."
"Duly noted." Robin sweatdropped. Miguel spoke up and said "I'd hate to be on the other side of his lance..."
Frederick meanwhile was very unamused. "You do realize I am still present?"
Chrom stared at him and said, "Oh, we realize."
Andy chuckled some more, and Robin started to, and was still unamused.
"Milord remains as amusing as ever. Now then shall we be going?"
"All right, all right. Ready to go everyone? The capital isn't far." Chrom said.
...We're being asked to join them to Ylisstol, which basically guarantees several potentially deadly challenges headed our way if we join. But what other choice do we have? Just sit on ass and wait to go home? No, there's a good chance that nothing good will come out of that. I look at everyone here. Gayle, Sebastian, and Miguel appear determined, for what? I don't know, I'm not a physic. But if I had a guess, they want to make something of themselves, they wouldn't want to sit around and be useless. Andy looks concerned, mostly because of Sebastian. He has a tendency to throw caution to the wind, especially when emotional, he wants to look out for him. Eric and James however are worried, even if James isn't as obvious about it. They're worried about what's happening to our world while we're gone. To our families. I'm surprised nobody else seems to have thought about it. I'm worried, of course. But I'm determined to get out this alive, and the Shepherds are the best way of doing this, as counter productive as it sounds. They can make us stronger. Which is exactly what we need to be.
"We're ready. Let's get going." I stated.
We began to march towards what would most likely be an unwelcome change.