AN: I WILL NOT LET THIS FIC DIE! NEVER! It will continue! I have seen too many fictions with so much potential stop, and I won't be one of those.
I'll just take forever to update...
Ahem, well, that's all I have to say for now, more at the end of the chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem, if I did —which I don't— it wouldn't have had nearly as much success as it does now. So I'm glad I don't.
Donnel had always thought that good things happen to good people.
He usually helped out around the village; doing tasks and errands that he was asked to do without complaint. He loved both his family and home and cared for them very much.
So why was this happening to him?
The young boy stared up in silent horror as his father challenged the leader of the bandit gang all by himself. All around him his fellow villagers were doing the same, with a few of the younger ones openly crying in the arms of their parents. It was all surreal to him. If it wasn't for the rocks laying on the ground digging into his knees Donnel might've thought this was all a nightmare. And soon he would've woken up and thanked Naga that it was only just.
But alas, it wasn't.
The Other Way - Chapter Thirteen
Options. Options which led to different choices. Those of which would lead to different events, which could change everything you know about something, or nothing at all.
In other words, Darren had no idea what to do.
He wanted to change what was happening right then and there. Who wouldn't, right? This, didn't have to happen, right? Just thinking about it was driving him mad.
'This is just so, so…'
'Stupid? Annoying? Aggravating?'
'—frustrating!' Darren finally shouted through his link, throwing his arms up in anger at the injustice of it all.
However, it appeared as if the universe had just decided that he had run out of time and decided to make the choice for him.
A bandit had turned around after hearing the rustling of cloth Darren made in his moment of frustration and spotted him immediately.
"Oi boys," the bandit called to his comrades, pointing his finger at the solitary figure. "There's still one left! Let's get 'im!"
The news caught the attention of all the bandits in the area, which conveniently included Roddick for the shortest of moments as his eyes went to the source of the commotion. That moment was just enough for the brave —or foolish— villager to close the distance between him and the bandit leader and lunge with his lance.
Reacting almost immediately to the attack, Roddick hastily brought his axe up to try and block it, but it wasn't fast staggering away from the armed villager with one hand covering his wounded abdomen, Roddick grimaced in pain.
The villagers, now seeing that their guards were currently distracted by the newcomer and with no other threats nearby, scrambled to their feet and ran to safety. Anywhere but there would have been perfectly fine for any of them.
Meanwhile Darren found himself in a familiar situation he was really starting to hate: he was outnumbered. Again.
'This is happening way too often!' He growled in annoyance as he parried a strike heading for his neck, and danced out of the way of an incoming axe. Taking a quick breather Darren took stock of situation. At that moment there were four bandits fully intent on killing him,and the bandit leader, Ro-something if he could remember correctly, was backing away from the villager duo. That was good. It meant that there was one less enemy to worry about at the moment. It sucked that he didn't know how many bandits were rampaging in the village at that moment, but he wasn't about to complain about his current odds.
'Let's see if this works.'
'What're going to do?'
Taking a step back he grinned cheekily at the slowly approaching bandits. "Was that all? I know girls braver than you chickens!" he taunted. Well, he didn't actually know Sully personally, but hey, they didn't have to know that.
"Chickens?" One of them seethed, taking the bait. "We'll show you, little piglet!"
Now absolutely positive that he was going to have them chasing him now, Darren fully turned around and began running. The bandits saw this and gave chase without a second thought.
'Well, you have them chasing you now,' Grima stated dryly. 'Now what?'
Taking care to run in the view of the bandits, Darren smiled. 'Now that part one of my plan is done, we can begin part two.'
'And that would be…?'
'Well first off, you should quickly tell Donnel and his dad to get the heck out of here, then you should meet back up with me so we could find a good place to set up an ambush. Any other questions? I kinda have six people on my back now.'
'No. Just remember to stay safe Darren.'
'Always will.'
Feeling the sensation of their link dull further into the background Grima turned around to find Roddick now I'm being flanked by two bandits that definitely weren't there before. Now with backup the bandit leader was prepared to end the life of the one who defied him.
Donnel's eyes widened in shock as the bandits holding his fellow villagers captive suddenly took off after a stranger he didn't recognize. While everyone else decided they weren't going to look a gift horse in the mouth and took off, his father used the time bought by the distraction and tried to finish of Roddick. But that plan had ended the moment said bandit leader was suddenly flanked by two of his men.
"Donnel," his father calmly told him, lance brandished threateningly and never taking his eyes off the trio.
"Y-yes Pa?"
"I want you to find your mother and run as far from here as you can.
Suddenly Donnel found the lance his father was just wielding thrust into his hands. His father's face was showing signs of old age, Donnel noticed. But that didn't take away the look of determination that he was giving his son.
"H-huh? Pa? W-what are you doing?" The young villager asked in alarm.
If anything the father seemed to grow calmer as the other grew more panicked.
"Tell your Ma I love her. Now," he turned around to face the three that sought to terrorize his village, his home, his family. The soft gaze he held for his son hardened immediately under those thoughts.
"Run along now."
Eyes flickering from the approaching trio to his father, Donnel took a single step backwards. Followed by another. And then another. Until he grit his teeth and turned around completely and began running.
As the sounds of the footsteps quieted Roddick sneered through his grimace of pain. "How noble. Now he won't have to see you get gutted like the pig you are."
But the man stayed silent, his face betraying no emotion.
Growing frustrated at the lack response he was getting Roddick barked out his next orders. "Just kill him and get over with it!"With no further prompting needed, the bandits charged forward with their axes held menacingly, intent on ending it quickly.
But it appeared that the older villager wasn't going to go down without a fight, and showed that he got into his fair share of fights in his earlier days by skimming around the falling axe and scoring a solid right hook onto the bandit's face. Dazed by the blow the bandit staggered backwards. Now with only one opponent to worry about for the time being, the bucket-wearing villager quickly tackled the other bandit and began wrestling over the axe.
Placing a kick in exchange for a punch earned a grunt of pain from the villager, but it was worth it as he got what he was aiming for. Armed with an axe the villager tried to finish off his still grounded opponent. Unfortunately his age was beginning to point out that he was not as young as he used to be, and wasn't able to bring the axe down quick enough before the person underneath rolled out of the way. He then gasped at how taxing it was hefting the axe around. Sweat was rolling down his aged face and his breath was coming in ragged pants.
That was when he was forcefully reminded that there weren't two enemies he had to face, but three. All it took was the sound of metal tearing through the air and the searing pain coming from his back to tell him so. A silent scream of pain racked through him as his legs gave out, sending him to the ground.
Dropping a used vulnerary Roddick smiled gleefully at his downed prey. "Well lookie here, I never woulda thought you still had some kick in you." He raised his axe high up into the air and continued. "But now it's time to move onto other things, like killing you." With that he brought his axe down at full force…
"I'll just stop you right there."
Or at least he would have, if his axe hadn't decided that it was now a sentient being and refused to fall any further than it already did. Finally registering the voice Roddick turned his head around to view the one who stopped him.
Now normally a Grima the size of your hand would hardly seem like a threat to anyone —unless you knew him of course— and would probably be considered as some sort of Grimleal toy made in the image of their god. But ever since one of the seals placed on his partner was undone the earth dragon was allowed a larger reserve for his energy, thus allowing him to take on a much larger form. Now, being the length of his partner's legs as opposed to a hand was hardly a fraction of his original size (before he was forced to flee into the depths of his mind) —or even his current size (in-game size)—, but it was still an improvement nonetheless.
Details aside, Grima stared into Roddick's widening eyes with unblinking red orbs as he kept the axe suspended in mid-air with his teeth.
"Boo."
Roddick lost the grip of his axe and fell to the ground with a startled yelp, his mind trying to come to terms with just what was in front of him. This had the same effect on the two bandits accompanying him, their mouths agape and weapons close to falling to the ground in their loosened grips.
The sound of splintering wood was accompanied by a dull thud alerted Riddick to the current state of his weapon as it lay uselessly on the ground, Grima having bit through the wooden handle with ease. Spitting out a small piece of wood to the side Grima returned his gaze to the bandits.
"You seem to enjoy slaughtering helpless victims don't you?" The dragon questioned, even if it sounded more like a statement.
Receiving no answer from the unfortunate trio Grima let an obviously fake —if you knew him anyway, but it was toothy nonetheless— grin spread through his face.
"Let's see how you like being on the opposite end of the spectrum."
They didn't even have enough time to blink before the dragon was upon them.
Grima looked down at the villager that was Donnel's father and sighed in relief when he saw the slow rise and fall of his chest. He would live. He just hoped that Donnel runs into the Shepherds soon and brings back Lissa to heal the poor guy. The dragon turned to begin looking for Darren. Sure, he felt guilty for just leaving the father all alone, but he couldn't do anything else for him. He even felt guilty for not stepping in when the villager was being ganged up on, but needed Donnel to be out of the picture believing that his father would stand until the very end. That way there would be a better chance that events would play out normally, than they would if he stepped in earlier.
That was when he the heard words he wasn't expecting.
Neither were quite sure how the words were spoken, being from entirely different worlds altogether, but seeing the morning sunlight bounce off the six pure white wings and their owner, the almost unconscious villager muttered the first thing that came in his dazed mind.
"An… angel… thank you."
It was loud enough for Grima to hear, making the dragon stop and blink in surprise. He mulled over the words for a short moment, before he let out a short chuckle and continued on his way.
"No, I'm most likely on the other side of that belief."
After Donnel explained what was happening in his village, Robin was more willing to forgive Frederick for waking everyone up before the sun rose than he was a few hours ago. Being chased by a bandit, the bucket wearing villager had been trying his best to stay ahead of his would-be killer. Luckily the bandit was scared off by the approaching Shepherds before the boy's legs gave out.
Despite the fact that he had come close to being killed a few minutes ago, Donnel nearly forgot about his village once he saw Chrom. After saying a few titles that Robin was confident weren't real, the prince managed to get the nervous boy to explain the situation.
A brigand. Bandits were attacking the village and rounding up the inhabitants. Likely to transport them to a bandit camp.
"Please Your Lordliness," Donnel begged Chrom. "My Ma an' Pa are back there. An' I just can't lose 'em."
The blue haired prince grimaced at the thoughts of the boy losing both parents, an experience he was all too familiar with, and gave Donnel a determined look.
"Alright, we'll go."
His eyes widening, Donnel stared at the prince for a full second before looking away and wiped at his eyes with his arm, but a tear still managed to sneak past.
"Thank you." He finally said, trying to keep his voice as steady as he could.
Robin and a few other Shepherds smiled at the scene, but unfortunately there were other things he had to do now, like getting everyone ready for a .
Now, were did he put Vaike's axe again? He swore the next time the blonde forgets it he'd chain the weapon to his arm. Permanently. And why is he getting the feeling he's forgetting someone?
Darren pushed away a bandit he'd been forced to lock blades with, sending the swordsman to the ground, and continued running.
'Damnit Grima, where are you!' He fumed to himself.
It had already been minutes since he last talked to the dragon.
Minutes!
He wouldn't mind fighting these bandits under normal circumstances; that being out in the open, and even though the amount of them would prove difficult, they were uncoordinated. That would make things easier.
But in the village where he had considerably less movement space? With the enemy using weapons with longer reach than his own? He didn't want to kill himself!
Already he could feel himself slowing down, and found himself grudgingly giving an extremely small amount of respect to the bandits chasing him for their persistence. Even so, it was odd how the ones not pursuing him suddenly stopped what they were doing and began to chase him. They weren't that single-minded were they?
His questioning thoughts on bandit coordination were stopped by a thrown axe burying itself into a wall a few centimetres from his face. Screeching to a halt, Darren went cross-eyed from looking at the axe. Quickly ducking under the thrown weapon, he continued running, albeit much more worried now.
'Hey, I'm finished up here.' Grima said through their link.
'Finally! Now come and help me deal with this! I found a good spot where they'll have no chance to fight us during my second lap around this village.' With some effort, Darren managed to lead the bandits still chasing him to the ambush point. Unknowing of their fate the bandits followed the fleeing teen without an ounce of doubt. Even when they were lead into an alley that ended in a dead end, they merely grinned at the thought of their chase ending and their prey having no where else to run.
"We've —hahh— got ya now —hahh— punk." One of them taunted, but because of the heavy breathing from all the running he did earlier, it came across more as a wheezing sound than anything else. This was accompanied by a few other taunting comments from the bandits.
More than a little winded himself, Darren brought his breathing under control as best he could. Standing straight from his previous hunched over position, the teen then made a point of looking past the recovering bandits before grinning in a not at all friendly manner.
"Whose got who now?" He asked no one in particular.
The gathered bandits fought against sudden the feeling of impending doom gathering in their stomachs. The few of them close enough to spot the direction Darren was looking at slowly turned their heads to look at what was behind them.
Grima waited for those few to spot him before announcing his presence in a casual manner.
"'Sup."
To the bandits the fact that their companions —the ones who turned to look— paled at what they saw, caused the rest of them to whirl around to the one who talked.
Some of them were expecting some prince to show up. Others were expecting a knight in shining armor. One or two of them even imagined a mage in an oversized cloak for some reason.
None of them expected a dragon, of all things, to show up.
Sure, it wasn't exactly a big dragon. But to the bandits, a dragon was a dragon, no matter how small.
"Now," Darren said almost conversationally, causing them to look back at him. "Like I said earlier…" A metal hiss sounded from his arm, and with it two blades slid out of the metal sheath attached to his forearm.
"Whose got who now?"
"Huh," one of them said nervously, glancing repeatedly at both the dragon and teen as sweat ran down his face. "H-how about we t-talk this over?"
The dragon blocking the only exit to the alley grinned.
"No."
"Well, that kinda sucks, I was hoping that we could— OH GODS NOT THE FACE!"
Darren slumped against a wall in exhaustion. Despite their unorganized state, and their exhaustion, among other things, the bandits still managed to put up a fight. Grima fared better than he did in the fight; unscathed and simply slightly winded. Meanwhile Darren gained himself a few new cuts in the chaos that would definitely need to be looked at sometime in the future.
Looking over at the results of said chaos, the teen sighed and looked away.
"I should be horrified right now, shouldn't I Grima?" He asked.
The dragon grimaced at the cold emotionless tone that was used.
"That's what the normal human response would be like, yes." He answered after hesitating. "But I guess your response —or lack thereof— is tied to the fact that you were reborn here as a Risen with your memories intact."
Seeing his partner show no signs of cheering up, the dragon quickly added, "At least the thought counts Darren. The fact that you know what should be happening proves that you're still human."
The human only nodded once before he suddenly stood up and began stretching. "Speaking of knowing what's supposed to be happening," he started with a light voice, all signs of his previous mood gone. "How many bandits did we fight?"
Startled by the sudden turn in attitude, Grima had to think for a moment for the answer.
"I think there were about nine… plus the other three I dealt with back there with Donnel's dad." He finally said. "But what does that have to do with… ah."
"If you're thinking the same thing as me, then yes, there are either still a few more bandits running around, or there will be reinforcements on their way." Darren concluded.
"Great," Grima quipped jokingly. "Now I can see you running around again when you get outnumbered."
Glaring at the dragon, Darren turned away and was about to retort when the sounds of combat interrupted him. The pair turned their heads to the sound and slowly began to edge forward to it.
"They got here faster than I thought." Darren muttered, peering around the corner to watch Frederick charge at an archer.
"It's time we took our leave then." Grima stated. In a second darkness obscured the dragon from view, and emerged another second later in his original —smaller— form. Wasting no time he flew into the familiar pouch that was Darren's hood.
Darren didn't want to meet the Shepherds again. Especially after leaving unexpectedly. And with no convincing excuse. No, it was probably best to slip away unnoticed.
"Alright, let's go."
Chrom watched as Lissa went to work on the villager Donnel said was his father. The man was found unconscious near three dead bodies. The method two of the bandits were killed by left the impression that they were mauled by something not human, and he shuddered at what caused it. The third, the leader as Donnel confirmed, had probably died from bleeding out from a large slash across his torso. Yet the older villager had shown no signs of committing the acts.
It appeared as if the villager had a saviour arrive while he was unconscious. Donnel had mentioned someone showing up to lure away most of the bandits, but from what they were told, the chances of that person being able to make it back and save his father were very slim.
"We should help the others now," Chrom stated. With the exception of himself, Robin, Donnel, Lissa and her appointed guardian Lon'qu, all the Shepherds were exploring the village, searching for hostiles and innocents alike.
Robin nodded wordlessly in agreement, and began moving further into the village. Chrom watched the tactician leave with a raised eyebrow. It seemed like Robin had been thinking deeply about something ever since the scene they saw earlier. 'Oh well,' the prince thought. 'He'll talk when he figures it out.' He turned to face his sister and Donnel. "You two stay here, Lon'qu will keep you safe."
Lon'qu grunted, but didn't object.
Lissa, on the other hand, huffed and crossed her arms, pouting up at her brother. "I'm not delicate Chrom, I can go with the rest of you too."
Chrom smiled at her, and reached over to mess up her hair, before quickly removing his hand as Lissa tried to bat it away. "I know, but it would be better to stay here just in case Donnel's father wakes up." Seeing her begrudgingly accept the fact, he turned to begin heading into the village.
"I wanna go too Sir."
Chrom turned to find Donnel with his lance at his side and staring straight at him resolutely. "You should stay Donnel," he tried to convince the boy. "Your father would want to to know if you were alright when he wakes up."
"I'm sorry your Lordliness," he said with complete seriousness. "But my Pa was willing ta risk his life ta save me. An' so is all of the Shepherds. So I want ta help you deal with the dastards that are trying ta attack my home, even if I haven't stuck a pig yet."
Prince and villager locked eyes for a moment, the former looking studying the latter curiously. Chrom saw that Donnel was shaking slightly, but one look into his eyes showed the same determination that he'd seen in all of his Shepherds at one point. Sighing, the prince gave up on trying to convince Donnel to stay.
"Come on then," he finally said, ignoring Lissa's indignant cry of "Hey!" as he turned once again.
Donnel blinked once, as if he expected that he'd have to argue with a prince of all people. That moment of confusion quickly passed when he saw Chrom getting further away, and rushed to catch up.
"Hey! Wait a sec!
Lissa saw all of this and sighed, before plopping down in a very unladylike manner, clearly showing that she didn't like being left behind, even if she had to take care of someone. She glanced over at Lon'qu, who was suddenly further away than she remembered, but was still in the same leaning position he was before.
How does he keep doing that?
Robin hadn't gone far from where Chrom was, and was currently wandering while deep in thought. He knew that it would be very unwise to be in such a situation while there were enemies around... but there was something nagging at the back of his mind. Back where Lissa healed Donnels father he felt something, indescribable. The only thing he came up with was when his subconscious began telling him that it was familiar.
But how could that be?
It definitely wasn't the gruesome scene, that much he could tell right away. He couldn't hear anything that would trigger the feeling — or else the attack on Southtown would have announced the presence back then. That left out sound... Smell? A quick sniff made the tactician wrinkle his nose. The smell of death and things burning certainly was memorable... but like with hearing. smell didn't trigger the familiar feeling. It was definitely somewhere in the air though, at least back there, that much he could tell. Robin rubbed his nose and sighed in frustration.
'It's most likely just another thing I don't remember about my past.' He thought darkly, not for the first time angry at his amnesiac state.
It took him a few seconds to realize someone was trying to talk to him before he broke out of his thoughts.
"-obin? Oi, I'm tryna talk to you." Sully was leaning down on her horse waving a hand in his face in an attempt to get his attention.
"Hm? Oh, uh, what is it Sully?" He asked.
The cavalier frowned as she delivered the news. "Ruffles spotted some more bandits on their way to the village, not a lot of them, but from what he said they were archers and armored ones."
"Well, that doesn't sound too bad," Robin murmured to himself. "Did you guys already take out all the bandits in the village?"
"Frederick and Stahl found one or two roamin' the streets, but that was all." The redhead scowled suddenly. "Unless they already hightailed it oughta here."
"Unlikely." Said a new voice, causing the pair to look in the direction it came from.
Miriel calmly walked toward the tactician and cavalier with Vaike in tow, a slightly put-off look on her usually expressionless face. Even Vaike didn't look like his normal boasting and confident self, which raised alarms that weren't already blaring in Robin's mind. "During my exploratory rounds within the vicinity, my partner and I happened upon something... unsettling."
Sully and Robin blinked, not exactly understanding everything Miriel just said. "Er..."
"We found some dead bodies a few minutes ago," Vaike clarified bluntly. "Bandits."
"Bandits?" Robin asked. "What happened to them?"
Miriel opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off when Vaike interrupted. "It'd be easier to explain if you saw." The blonde then began to walk in the direction he came from... before being yanked in a different direction by Miriel.
"I do believe that it was this in this direction."
"Er, uh, hehe..."
Robin wisely chose to ignore when Vaike somehow began to steer off path again and turned back to Sully, who seemed to have chosen to do the same thing. "You should probably get everyone to come see this as well. Anything that can make both of them act like that is probably important."
"Right." After receiving a quick nod from the cavalier, Robin began walking in the direction Miriel and Vaike went, leaving her alone.
It wasn't until a few seconds after Robin was out of sight that she remembered her earlier news. "Hold on a sec, what about the incoming bandits!"
Sumia glanced at a dust trail suddenly leaving the village, clearly confused at how fast it was moving and at a loss for what was creating it. Another glance more to her side showed a small group of people approaching the village... at a very slow pace. Well, compared to the mysterious dust trail that was currently going over a hill, anything moving at a walking pace would look like they were barely moving at this altitude. She shook her head. She was getting distracted. Manoeuvring her pegasus to start descending, the pegasus knight thought it would be best to tell the others about what she found.
Still, taking a quick glance at the disappearing trail of dust, she wondered at just what was causing it.
Down at ground level, Darren was running as fast as he could away from the village as he possibly could, thankful that he managed to get out undetected. After the minor heart attack he had when he heard footsteps nearing his location in the alley, he was also thankful that the Shepherds were most likely searching another part of the village for bandits, since he didn't have any more close calls after that.
After reaching the bottom of a small hill, the teen took a moment to catch his breath.
"Alright, we made it out."
Grima took that moment to pop out of Darren's hood to sigh in relief. "I thought you were caught back there. That wouldn't have been good."
Letting out a nervous chuckle Darren wordlessly agreed. "So, now what?"
"We go west." Grima answered, pointing out the direction with a wing. "The nearest Grimleal church is only about half a day's run from the border at the usual pace you can run. That way we can take it out and start heading back to Ylisse." The dragon frowned in thought for a moment before continuing. "Now I'm not sure how far apart events happen here compared to the game, but I'd like to make it there before Emmeryn's assassination attempt if we could."
Now fully recovered, Darren began jogging in the direction Grima pointed out, picking up speed with every step. Soon he was racing across a field. Smiling he reassured the sombre dragon through their mental link, his voice would otherwise be thrown into the wind.
'We'll get there in time Grima, I'll make sure of it. Validar won't even know what hit him.'
AN: 5.1k words! Damn... Not gonna joke, this chapter was the one I had the most fun with so far, even if it was the hardest to write. I'm not the best writer, so I struggle when putting my ideas to text. But... I know it definitely isn't perfect, but I'm definitely proud of this chapter.
On another note, I don't know how to write Donnel dialogue —or D.D. as I just came up with— so any recommendations or advice on how to make it better would be appreciated. And Miriel makes me feel inferior. And she barely even had dialogue!
Sorry if things are moving along slowly, but I'm serious when I say that things are gonna pick up speed in the next few chapters. I've got plans and I want them to happen.