Yes, I know it's been sixever since my last update. I've just been doing other things. But I said I'm not going to abandon this story, so I wont. I kind of forgot where I was going in the story though, so there might be some major OCCness going on, especially with Sane. So, I apologize if everything seems a little off in the story, I'm sure I'll get back into my grove somehow. Also, hidden within this chapter is a reference to an Xbox game I played a little bit of, think you'll be able to find it? I'll give you a couple hints: It was a puzzle game, had fully animated cutscenes, and you could get drunk!

The road to meet Gangrel's troops was by far the most arduous yet. No matter how many times I tried to come up with another plan, it seemed like the only possible outcome of today would be the death of Gangrel.

'But why is that a bad thing again?'

According to the laws of Ylisse, Gangrel's crimes were punishable by death.

'Haah... Forget it, what am I but a stray sheep?'

If the others were battling similar thoughts, they hid it well. Even Oliva, whose thoughts were an open book, seemed almost at ease.

'Although, that just might be because she's coddled up with Lon'qu.'

One thing that almost distracted me was watching the others. Already romance was blooming. Sully and Donnel were spending time together, as were Chrom and Sumia, Lissa and Gregor and of course Olivia and Lon'qu.

'Meanwhile I'm just sitting here practicing being a bachelorette.'

I tried to see what Kellam was up to, but my awesome observation skills must have been kicking in.

"Sane? You look constipated."

I jumped slightly at the sound of Kellam's voice beside me.

"Jeez Kellam, stop sneaking around."

He smiled awkwardly.

"Sorry, I thought you could see me."

I sighed. "What's up?"

"You've had an uncomfortable face since we left Regna Ferox. Is everything alright?"

'Should I tell him the truth?'

Kellam was the kind of person you could say just about anything to, but I didn't think he'd be cool with the fact I was ready to commit treason.

"I... Can't say."

Kellam frowned.

"Are you alright? You were captive in Plegia for a while... Did anything happen?"

'Oh I want to talk about that even less!'

"Nothing, gosh, I was just kept away from food for a few days."

I felt uncomfortable, thankfully Kellam noticed and changed the topic. Rather, tried to.

"Are you ready for the fight against Gangrel?"

I bit my lip.

'Yeah, sure.'

"Our upcoming battle is why I've got the constipated face."

He looked down. "Oh."

We were quiet for a while. When we stopped for lunch I ate quickly so I could practice with my sword. I noticed Lon'qu was practicing as well and did my best to ignore him. However, I had the suspicion that Lon'qu was watching me and it proved distracting. I was trying to look more impressive than I really was, childish as it was. My attempt at looking impressive ended up causing me to lose my balance at the most awkward time and I managed to fall flat on my rear. I saw Lon'qu smirk when I fell, and couldn't stop an embarrassed blush from creeping onto my face.

'Smooth Sane, smooth as your sandpaper romance skills.'

I heard laughter beside me and saw Cordelia and Sully walking over to me.

"You've got such a big brain, yet you don't know how to handle a sword. I don't know how you've managed to stay alive this long." Sully said jokingly.

I stuck my tongue out at her and climbed to my feet.

"I'm learning."

Cordelia shook her head. "Why do you copy Chrom's stance? Hasn't it occurred to you that Chrom's built differently than you?"

The wisdom of Cordelia's words caught me off guard.

'Oh...'

"Um... It... Might have."

Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Translation: No."

Cordelia took my sword and adopted a fighting stance. I knew Cordelia wasn't a sword user, so I had no idea why she was trying to teach me how to use one.

"Each person has a unique build, weight, and center of mass. In order to properly harness the potential of any weapon you have to make sure you realize these."

Cordelia adjusted her grip on the sword, shifted back and forth a moment, then began doing practice sword moves.

"Why don't we go a few rounds Sane?"

Sully passed her sword to me and pushed me towards Cordelia.

"Go on Sane, let's see if you can learn as well as you give orders."

I frowned.

'Are you kidding me?'

Sighing, I tried to find some stance that felt right. Left foot forward, right foot forward, tilt my left shoulder inwards. Nothing really seemed to work.

"I don't know about this... Maybe I'm just not meant to use swords."

Cordelia raised the sword in her hands.

"Well then let's find out."

She swung the sword. I barely managed to get my sword up to defend myself.

"Cordelia, these aren't practice swords, one of us could get hurt!"

Cordelia didn't listen.

"If you defend yourself, then neither of us are going to get hurt."

Cordelia didn't have the brute strength of some of the foes I'd gone toe to toe with in the past, and she was certainly out of her element. Because of this I was able to defend myself, but I couldn't find an opening to disarm her.

"Stop it Cordelia!" I yelled.

'*Bugger!* I need to stop her before she manages to hit me.'

'Why don't you let me take over for a moment? I can make her stop attacking... Hard to fight without arms yes?'

My body seized up and I dropped my sword. Cordelia paused and looked at me uncertainly.

"Sane? Don't tell me you're giving up?"

My head was pounding and felt heavy. I was almost certain that it was going to explode.

"Sane?"

Suddenly, my eyes were level with the ground and all I could see was colour and blurry shapes. From far away underwater I could hear worried voices shouting at each other. Someone tried to drag me to me to my feet and carry me away.

'This is how you use a sword!'

My hand reached without me telling it to my sword. Before I could grab it however, someone wrapped their hand around mine and another person was placing their hand against my cheek. The hand was icy cold.

"She's burning up, is she sick?"

'Damn you all! Get out of my way!'

I wasn't sure what was happening. I knew that my feet were no longer touching the ground. In fact, I don't think any part of me was touching the ground. So many people were suddenly crowded around me, I was sure if I was in control I could crowd surf from where I was to my tent.

'Put me down you insufferable whelps! I'll burn you all!'

Between the voice screaming in my head, the sensation of being off the ground, and the throbbing pain, I felt it would be easier on me to just close my eyes and try to fade into unconsciousness.

"Urngh..."

After what seemed like an eternity I felt myself lowered onto something soft and a mess of blonde hair hover above me.

"Sane? Can you hear me? Swear if you're alright."

"Uuurrr..."

I tried to focus my eyes on the person speaking to me. I knew it was Lissa, the hair was a dead giveaway, but for some reason my brain couldn't really make sense of what of what my eyes were seeing.

"She's burning up, what happened?"

Everyone was trying to talk at once and it was impossible for me to discern all the voices. I knew at some point someone tried to feed me some sort of medicine, which of course I refused. Because of me, everyone stopped what they were doing. Suddenly me being ill was a big deal.

'What's the matter, I thought you liked being the center of attention?'

'Shut up... Shut up...'

"Shut up..."

The pounding in my head was getting worse. My throat felt like it was collapsing in on itself and even though my eyes were wide open I couldn't see anything.

"Sane?"

'Now now Sane, don't go talking to yourself. Someone might think you're going crazy.'

I don't know how much time passed before the pounding in my head stopped and I could see normally again. The sky had grown dark and stars were shyly peeking from the darkness. Around the camp was an uncomfortable silence. I was laying in my tent with a blanket covering me. Whoever covered me with the blanket had taken off some of my clothing, leaving me in just a thin undershirt.

'There better have had been drink buying involved...'

I took a deep, almost pained breath before sitting up. The covers fell off my torso with a soft rustle as I groggily looked around my tent. Seeing no one in my immediate vicinity I decided to stagger to my feet.

'Easy Sane... One step at a time.'

I successfully stood up and lifted my foot before a wave of nausea washed over me and I lurched forward and fell onto my knees. I then proceeded to empty the well-digested contents of my stomach onto the ground a few feet away from my bed. The acidic bile burned my throat and nose and brought tears to my eyes.

'It never gets better, does it?'

I heaved a couple more times before finally getting whatever was in my system, out. I then focused on getting something more covering on besides the undershirt. It took a while, but I managed to dress without any more episodes of nausea.

'*Bugger* me...'

I crawled over to the exit flap of my tent and left. I slowly stood up and stood outside in the hot night air. The dry air strangely calmed me and I felt my stomach settle. Knowing how the camp would be set up, I made my way to the center to see what was going on. When I reached the center, I was regarded with cold stares from my fellow Shepherds. The stares that seemed particularly cold belonged to Lissa, Cordelia and Chrom.

"Sane, you're awake." Chrom said coolly.

I nodded.

"Why don't you come take a walk with me?"

Everyone was staring at me with apprehension.

"Are you sure that's wise Milord?" Frederick asked.

Chrom waved his hand dismissively.

"Don't worry."

Chrom walked away from the group, towards his tent. I followed, my unease growing with every step I took.

'What did I do that pissed them off so much?'

When I reached Chrom's tent, I was instantly aware that Chrom was tense and his hand was clutching the hilt of Falchion.

'Why do I get the feeling this isn't a social call?'

Chrom being so obviously on edge made me leery to approach him, but I didn't have any other choice.

"What's wrong? You seem tense."

He looked at me cautiously.

"You were saying some interesting things earlier. After you were done trying to claw Cordelia's eyes out that is."

My eyes widened.

"I did no such thing!"

I took a step towards Chrom, and his sword was pointing at me faster than I thought possible.

"Really? Tell that to Lissa, she was the one patching Cordelia up."

"I wouldn't dare hurt one of the Shepherds! You were the ones who took me in when you found me in that field!"

"It wasn't just Cordelia you attacked, anyone who dared to approach you was attacked. It not even Miriel hitting you with a spell stopped you, you just shrugged it off like it was nothing."

Chrom moved closer to me. If he got much closer, he'd be able to take my head off my shoulders.

"And the whole time you would clutch your head and scream. You said, 'I'm not going to be you, you can't turn me into a monster!' What is going on?"

I stared at the sword in Chrom's hand.

'What do I tell him? If I tell him I'm supposed to be the vessel of Grima he'll either kill me here, or won't believe me. But if I lie, I'm sure he'd know.'

"I..."

I was interrupted from a commotion back at the camp.

"What the hell..?"

Chrom forgot about me and rushed back to camp. I tried to follow him, but he turned his sword on me.

"No Sane, I can't trust you now. Not until I get answers."

I didn't have my sword or tome with me, so all I could do was let Chrom run off. When I was sure he was far enough ahead I wouldn't be seen, I tailed him and tried to make it back to my tent. Several Risen corpses were scattered around the camp.

'So that's what's going on.'

When I reached my tent it had been knocked down and finding my stuff was harder than I planned.

'Dammit! I can find stuff that's been lost in the Magic Candy Mountain, but heaven forbid a tent falls on it and I can't find a book and a sword?'

My hand fell on something I thought was my sword, however it turned out to be one of the Risen. It was missing its' legs, but that didn't stop it from climbing on top of me and trying to maul me. Its' breath was horrible, and the weight was enough to constrict my breathing.

"Ugh, die you bastard!"

I shouted. I struggled to get my food under the Risen in hopes of kicking it off. Suddenly, another Risen, this one upright and carrying an axe, appeared and advanced towards me. Between the Risen already on top of me, and the fallen tent, I was essentially trapped. All my struggles succeeded in doing was tangling my legs.

'So this is it, this is how I die.'

The axe bearing Risen was upon me and raised its' axe high. I vainly tried to scoot away from the imposing weapon but it was no use. The creature brought its' axe down with enough force to break stone. I moved my head aside at the last second and the axe struck the ground beside me. When the Risen tried to wrench its' axe out of the ground, it couldn't because it was too firmly imbedded in the earth. The axe had also caught my hair, making moving my head impossible. The Risen raised a large boot above my face and looked at me, its' face contorted in an almost twisted glee.

'It's over... I'm over... Goodbye.'

So... I totally forgot how I was formatting Sane and her dark sides thoughts. (Like, italics, underline etc.)... Murr, darn me and my lack of consistency! Also, the magic candy mountain is a real place. It's that magical place under my bed where my stuff vanishes, never to be seen again.