AN: thank you Gunlord for reviewing, you have no idea how long I was grinning to myself when I saw the review. Now, onto the chapter, we'll be going more into how Darren will adapt to living in this new world.

—

It was early in the morning when something shifted in the sands of the desert. The sun was just beginning to rise, and sand began to heat up quickly.

Darren was wondering why his room was getting extremely hot all of a sudden, openings his eyes but only seeing the light of the sun, he attempted to kick off his blanket. His foot went through the sand and landed on top of the now scorching surface of the desert, only protected from the heat reaching his feet by the shoes he was currently wearing. But that didn't stop multiple grains of sand from finding their way into them.

His eyes snapped open as he felt like his feet had just caught on fire. Yelping, he leapt up, but only succeeded in launching more sand into the air, which he might've accidentally breathed in.

Now, he was close to coughing up his lungs in an attempt to get the offending grains out of his system.

Breathing heavily, Darren dropped to his knees, hands out and resting on the floor in front of him, ignoring the burning sensation in his hands.

He was momentarily confused as he looked all around in attempt to find something familiar.

A chuckle from behind him was all that was needed to remind him who was responsible for his sudden nap in the middle of nowhere.

"Grima…" he growled out, surprising himself at how easily the name came out. Scanning the area, frowning that he wasn't able to find any sign of the fell-dragon he supposed was his partner. It was odd since he could sense him nearby.

'Down here.' Came the voice Darren acquainted with his draconian partner. Lowering his gaze, his eyes widened at the unexpected sight. Before he broke into a grin.

"Pftt hahaha!"

The Other Way – Chapter One

Grima, an ancient earth dragon, capable of destroying the world, was currently just a bit bigger than the size of his hand. He looked like a stuffed toy made for children!

Grinning, he turned away from the sight. His shoulders were shaking uncontrollably as he tried to hide his laughter.

Noticing this, Grima growled at his partner, intending to intimidate the teen. Unfortunately, all that came out was something akin to a high pitched whirring noise.

Hearing the noise, Darren turned his head to look sidelong at what was causing it. He could see a dangerous aura growing around the fell-dragon, but paid it no mind as his eyes were focused on the tiny being glaring at him. Needless to say, he couldn't take the new look seriously at all, as shown by how quickly he began to howl with laughter at how non-menacing Grima seemed at the moment. Only calming down after a minute or two.

'I'm glad at how amusing you find find this,' he muttered dryly.

Wiping a few tears from his eyes, Darren began to grow curious about his partners' sudden shrink in size.

"What's up with the new look?" He asked in between breaths.

'I don't have enough power to maintain my actual form,' Grima explained. 'Most of it is being used to seal your own. When more of your seals are broken I'll be able to go back to my regular body. So for the moment, I'll just use this mobile form.'

Walking towards a sand dune to get some shade, he asked more questions.

"So how will I be able to break these seals?"

Grima, who was currently flying above his right shoulder, answered.

'When you become powerful enough they will unlock. I think you would call it, levelling up? Yes, I'm sure you do. You will unlock more of your powers as you 'level up'.'

Sitting down in the shade of the dune, Darren contemplated the answer. 'So it's kinda like pokemon huh? Train to unlock more moves as time goes on. Neat, I wonder what I'll be able to do by the end of this.' He grinned at the thought, before another asking again.

"How exactly will I be training? Or more importantly, how?" He was slightly nervous, not knowing how to use any of the weapons in this world worried him. He didn't know what his class he'd be able to do, or if he'd be any good at it. The fact that he might be fighting extremely powerful people later on scared him immensely.

Grima allowed himself a small grin of satisfaction, missing the worried look his partner had. In a tone of what could be interpreted as smugness he said. 'Taking a look into your memories, I found something… interesting.' A toothy grin ran across his features as he continued. 'So, I decided to make you your own class! Think of it as a 'welcome' gift into the Fire Emblem world.'

Another sound broke Darren out of his thoughts. Snapping his head up, the teenager saw a black window pop into existence.

"Huh?" Not hearing the earlier words spoken to him, he was surprised by the sudden appearance. Standing up, he walked towards the strange object. His hand began reaching for it unconsciously, and before he could react, his entire forearm was inside of it.

"Ow! Why's it hurting me?" He yelled out. His arm felt like something was clamping onto it, and was frantically trying to get it away from the dark window. Slowly it began to widen and cover the rest of his arm in a few more seconds.

'Don't worry, it's just a way of getting you into your wear.' Grima hastily assured him, watching the scene unfold with interested eyes.

After about a minute later the pane of darkness had completely covered the nervous teen. Darren felt shadows race across his body. His clothes getting heavier than they were previously. The most constant feeling he had though, was still that odd pressure on his right arm.

Once the darkness receded from him he immediately looked down at himself to find see what happened.

"Nice." He grinned.

Sensing an oddly familiar power nearby, Robin stopped walking. He wondered briefly if the Grimleal cult and his father had managed to find him after all these years. Dismissing the thought, he shook his head. 'It would be best to keep moving,' the white-haired tactician thought. 'Ylisse should be a safe place to stay at the moment.' Putting on his hood, he quickened his pace in efforts to reach his destination.

"No way…"

'It's a nice touch, don't you think?'

"Are you kidding me? This looks so awesome!"

'Well I'm glad you like the new look.'

"Of course, I mean this, right here just makes it all the better!"

Darren was looking at his new clothing with the same enthusiasm a four year old would have when acquiring a new toy. While having quite a few parts of the thief garb, there were still differences between the two. The hood seemed to resemble his original more; being grey in colour and was of the same material. The same could be said for most of the other parts as well.

'The weapon seems to be a nice touch eh?'

Looking at his right arm Darren could only agree. Latched onto the top of his forearm by several leather latches, was a metal case. The case had two wide slits at the front where it began to slope downward. In his hand was a small pull mechanism that lead into two small holes on the bottom of the case. Curious to what was in there, he decided to give it a pull. With the sound of sliding metal the weapon revealed itself.

"Oh yeah… definitely."

Reaching out from both of the slits at the front were two blades about half the length of his forearm. Both curved upwards before falling at multiple lengths, ending at a sharp point that angled towards the ground. Smaller blades ran across the top where curves formed and ended. It would probably be best to mention that it looked extremely close to the weapons a certain species of aliens that hunt down another species of aliens.

'You are now a unique class. I decided to call it the Hunter class, given its' origins I think it fits rather well.' The fell-dragon who had been observing from the shade said, his voice one of amusement and pride.

Chuckling to himself in a low voice that could be considered mad, he watched as the blades slid back and forth as he tightened or loosened his grip on the small metal piece leading into the case. After a minute of repeating the actions, Darren addressed the small dragon behind him, a large smile on his face.

"Thanks Grima."

Said dragon looked at the teenager, his expression unchanging. But was glad to be thanked for something after years and years of loneliness.

'No problem Darren.' He said.

They spent a moment together in companionable silence before Grima added. 'You're going to have to train with that you know? Your current skill with it would be at an E level right now.'

Nodding quickly, the teenager thought about where he was on the weapon triangle. Sure it was a blade, but it wasn't as long as a sword, but it held more balance as he swung it than an axe probably did. It worried and interested him at the same time to see how it would fare against them.

"So, how am I supposed to begin training without getting killed by anyone?" He asked curiously. While normally you levelled up by battling enemies, he wasn't sure he would last long against any bandits they came across. And since he knew he wasn't exactly strong, he doubted that he'd even be capable enough to injure the weakest of units.

'Well obviously, you begin with training your body. Then we can find a way to get you into fighting with your new weapon.' Grima told him. 'Maybe Ferox would have someone who'd be able to give you a few pointers.'

Agreeing with a nod, Darren began to stare up at the sky, trying to see if he could find out the directions of North, South, East, and West. Before he realized that he was in a different world and that there might be a big difference between sun rotations. With a sheepish chuckle, he asked the dragon to lead the way.

'Alright then, this way.' And so the tiny dragon began leading the newly classed Hunter in the direction of Ferox.

'While on the way there you might as well begin your training.' Grima mused.

"In this heat? No way, I'm surprised nothing's happened to me yet." Darren strongly denied, small beads of sweat had already began rolling down his brow from the heat of the sun. And he was not in the mood for exercising in the middle of the desert with no water or food. 'As if I'd risk killing myself doing something like that.'

'Hmm?' The dragon hummed, 'Don't worry, a little exhaustion isn't that bad. Just a bit of running and that's it.'

"Nuh-uh. Nope. Not gonna–AHH!" He was cut short by his own yelp of pain as a small bolt of energy struck him from behind his head. Said bolt was fired from the mouth of an irritated Grima.

'Run. Now.' He commanded, his voice low and menacing. Already, there was another small ball of dark energy generating between his jaws.

Nodding quickly, the Hunter began running. Getting shot at by the fell-dragon whenever he began slowing down. The pace was set so that he was in a near constant sprint, which kept on going faster and faster. This kept on going until he could barely make out the scenery that flew past him, though the fact that he was in a desert just made everything look like a giant ocean of yellow and white. It was needless to say that was beginning to get exhausted, but he couldn't help but be surprised at how fast he was moving.

'Damnit Grima!–OW!–I'll get you for this! OW!'

The desert was quiet, unbroken silence as the wind blew across the sands. Or at least, that's how it's supposed to be. If one was to listen hard enough, you can occasionally hear the faint sounds of someone yelping in pain, usually followed by a few curses. Soon a figure could be seen running across the desert at a speed that there was dust trail behind it, and you could only see a slight blur. Trailing just behind it was something smaller, occasionally shooting a small purple ball at the larger figure. Triggering another cry of pain followed by a chain of obscenities. Soon the two left the scene, leaving a very confused merchant in its wake. Scratching the back of his head, the merchant decided that he was more dehydrated than he thought he was.

AN: And tadaa! New class for Darren and the beginning of the story. Just in case you didn't figure this out, the time Darren entered in is probably a few days before the beginning events of Fire Emblem Awakening. If you enjoyed this so far please leave a review and watch out for more updates. Sorry for the shorter chapter, will try to write more often.