A/N

Someone asked what time these chapters get updated. It is always on a Sunday, but the frequency depends on how much spare time I have. Until I hit summer break, I would estimate that these chapters will be posted about every other Sunday.

Also, if anyone ever has any questions about the story then feel free to review or PM me with the details. I should get back to you within 24 hours, but I cannot reply to guest reviews.

...

By the time Morgan finally woke up after her long fishing expedition, it was already time for lunch. After yawning and rubbing her eyes she was harassed by her father. But soon enough, Morgan was rewarded for her troubles with a nice juicy steak that Lucina cooked for her over the fire pit. The second that steak touched Morgan's plate, Morgan chowed down on it as fast as she could in ravenous hunger.

*munch* *munch*

"So wats da plan for todey?" Morgan asked with her mouth full.

Lucina looked over to Morgan and said, "I was thinking that I could teach you how to make a bow since you have shown an interest in archery."

"Really? Dat would be cool!"

"Great." Lucina smiled. "We will start after lunch."

Already eager with anticipation, Morgan let her imagination run wild as she pictured the perfect bow and its features until a thought struck her head. "Wait, what is dad going to do?"

"I was thinking about taking a hike in the forest. The area where 'Marth' and the Risen first appeared is not far from here, and it would be nice to revisit the area."

The trio continued to eat their meal while Morgan learned more about the bow from Lucina. While Lucina was not a skilled archer, she spent many days hunting for food when she was traveling alone. So she explained to Morgan the importance of a bracer to protect her forearm and how to make a sturdy piece of string using the plants around her. Lucina also told Morgan that she could make the bow herself which made the young tactician ecstatic.

While Lucina explained the basics of the bow, Robin rose up from his chair and searched around the camp for something. It took a couple of minutes of trudging through the bushes before he finally found what he was looking for, but when he found it, he smiled and bent down to pick it up.

"Hey Morgan!" Robin called out as he grasped the object on the ground.

"Yes dad?" She turned around to see her dad hunched over.

"Do you know what this is?" Robin rose up from the ground with a wooden branch in his hand that went up to about his shoulders.

Morgan took a good look and the reddish colored object and said, "It looks like part of a red tree to me." She said not understanding what was so important about it.

"Well, more specifically it is red oak. It is a great material to craft a bow from."

"Really?" Morgan asked and looked back at Lucina to get her opinion.

Lucina nodded and said, "Yes, that will work perfectly."

"That's great!" Morgan said excitedly.

Robin laughed at how easy it was to excite his daughter and wondered where she got it from. "Well, I better get going, I want to get back before its gets dark." Robin said and began walking away from the campsite. "I'll see you two later."

"Hey wait!" Morgan called back seeing her father walk away. "What about that stick. I thought I needed to it to make a bow." She said confused

"What this?" Robin raised the wooden pole in the air and laughed. "This is my walking stick for the hike. You will have to find your own red wood."

"What?! Morgan froze speechless as her dad strolled away with a giant smile plastered on his face.

...

After her father left, Morgan grumbled and searched around the area for another piece of red oak. It was a very humid day and Morgan was already sweating despite the forest's shady trees. To make matters worse, every time she stumbled upon a branch of red oak, it was not big enough or too warped to make a bow out of.

It would take Morgan over fifteen minutes to find another specimen that would suffice for crafting a bow. To which, she spent complaining about her dad and sulking about the heat while Lucina silently laughed behind her.

"Will this one work?" Morgan handed Lucina a sturdy branch she found in a small ditch

Lucina carefully inspected it to make sure the wood was not warped or rotted and said, "Yes this will make a fine bow."

Morgan sighed in relief and wiped away the sweat from her face. "Finally. ...So what do we do now?"

Lucina did not reply, but instead went over to her tent and grabbed an old gray bag. She looked inside to verify its contents and then walked back out to her curious daughter.

"What's in the bag?" Morgan asked

"Tools to carve a bow." Lucina replied and stuck her hand into the bag to grab a tool with a large wooden handle and a very sharp metal blade. Then she grabbed the tree branch and moved over to sit next to Morgan. Lucina lowered her voice and looked at her daughter like a teacher would look at a student and said "When you cut, always make sure your other hand is away from the knife or else you will cut yourself."

Morgan nodded and watched as Lucina positioned the knife over the wood. "To start with, you will want to cut the wood into the shape of a C and make sure it is about three inches thick." Lucina said and slashed through the edge of the branch to cut off the excess wood. "Also, be careful not to over cut or else you will have to start from scratch again. So just be patient and take you time. The more you put into this, the better it will look."

"Ung, no one mentioned anything about being patient." Morgan muttered under her breath.

Lucina laughed and said "The time will fly before you know it."

Morgan shrugged, but ignored her despair and set to work. She clumsily and indecisively cut into the middle of the wood with her knife, and went to tug the blade back out. However, the blade would not leave its newly found home and stayed there no matter how hard Morgan pulled. She tried wiggling it free but to no avail, and threatening the blade to come out did not help either. No matter what she tried, she could not get out, but just before Lucina was about to lean over and grip the handle to help, Morgan finally managed to remove it. However, she was using so much force to pull it out that when the blade gave up, it sent her reeling backwards into the ground.

The next few attempts provided no better luck as she got the cutting edge stuck each time, but eventually she learned to make smaller cuts and use less force. Slowly but surely, small wooden triangles and shavings were falling to ground at her feet.

...

"So, did you really stalk dad?" Morgan muttered as she cut a small piece off the edge of the branch

"What?" Lucina asked surprised at the odd question

"Well, dad was mentioning how he agreed to let you follow him around, and I was wondering if you took him up on the offer.

Lucina blushed a little bit and said, "No."

"No?"

Lucina shook her head and said "I didn't have time. The news of Virion's return changed any plans I had made. "

"So what did you do?"

"Oh, well that is a long story."

"We have time." Morgan replied while shaving off a very small rut in the wood.

"Yes, but you should keep your focus on making the bow."

"I can multitask." Morgan said in her energetic tone.

"I dunno." Lucina said hesitantly. "Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

"Well, okay, but feel free to stop me at anytime if you need to focus on what you are doing."

Morgan smiled and nodded, while Lucina tried to remember that day.

The news of Virion's return was an unwelcome sight. I knew his exact reasons for coming back and it was not long before an audience was scheduled. After that, Chrom, the shepherds, and a hastily formed garrison of men were marched to aid Regna Ferox from an imminent attack.

Their destination was a small fishing village. A town of 50 hat held one small port and it was surrounded by sand and crystal clear water. The beach itself extended out 100 feet long until it changed into a series of hills with only one path leading to the village.

But as I stood behind a ridge and secretly listened to Chrom, Robin, and the khans decide what to do below, a terrible thought edged its way into my mind. Over the past few months all of my leads had run cold. Any hope in finding the gemstones, my friends, or Chrom's traitor were unsuccessful, and I felt hopeless as I watched 19 months go by without any results. No matter what I tried, everything always failed despite my efforts. Though I still refused to believe it at the time, I was beginning to realize that in order to stop my world from happening again, I needed ... help.

...

"I hate to admit it, but I'll give the Valmese credit for picking this spot. This is the perfect place for a secret landing." Flavia said in a low tone. "We would have never found out about this without knowing their schemes."

Virion smiled in great pride and was about to speak but he was cut off my the noise of barbaric laughter. "Har Har, I can't wait to see the look on the commander's face when he sees us charging down, axes at the ready."

Flavia punched Basilio in the arm and said, "My scouts report that there is eight enemy ships with each armed with 50 men, and they are less than six hours from reaching our shores." Flavia said troubled "That is more than we anticipated for a Vanguard."

Cherche frowned, "There whole fleet not far behind. Thousands of ships loaded with veterans from the Valmese wars. "

Basilio grunted in disgust "What?! Even our proud warriors don't have enough strength to put a dent in those kind of numbers.

"We will have to worry about that later." Robin said while keeping his attention back on the landscape. "Cherche, what type of troops can we expect?"

"Battle hardened Cavaliers and heavily armored pikemen. They say that their armor is so thick that it can withstand nearly any blow."

Virion cut in and said, "Not to mention that they are evil and soulless. Only a cruel and heartless beast would force a Duke out of his house." He proclaimed, but everyone rolled their eyes and ignored him.

...

"Well heavy armor eliminates using archers. Our wooden arrows wouldn't be able to pierce that kind of armor. " Robin replied disappointed and looked out to the ocean. "But we do have an advantage."

"Oh? And just how do you figure that?" Basilio scoffed. "Incase you forgot, Regna Ferox's axemen will be ripped to shreds by a strong cavalry charge, and we just lost the effectiveness of all our archers."

Robin smirked and looked over to the blue headed leader. "Chrom, I have an idea."

Chrom's melancholy mood instantly changed and a new wave of hope eradicated over his face. "Heh, It took you long enough. What's the plan?"

Robin bent down on his knees and let his fingers glaze against the ground beneath him. "We make sure they can't charge."

"By using our bodies to trip their horses?" Basilio remarked

Robin laughed and glanced up to the bald-headed khan. "While that could work, I think my plan will work better." He said confidently. He rose up from the ground, and and turned his attention back to Chrom "Shall we discuss it in the war tent?"

Chrom nodded and the five of them slowly walked away from me. Soon they were out of earshot and I was left to noise of the ocean's violent wind.

...

"They are about to face a battle and they laugh at the situation?" I whispered mystified in horror. "Do they not realize that war is upon them?"

I felt a need to charge down the hill and warn Chrom that this was not a game, but I had to keep telling myself that I could not get involved. Still, I could not fathom how 400 enemy soldiers were about to land on the shore and they could laugh at it.

For the next hour I struggled with deciding whether to get involved or not until I noticed that most of the army was gathered around Robin and Chrom. I moved in closer so I could hear what they were saying and hid behind a bush near the edge of the hill. From what I could gather, Robin appeared to be debriefing them on their orders, and for once he seemed to be taking the situations seriously.

He explained that he would split the army into eight sections. The shepherds would separate into two different groups, and the khans would lead another two divisions while the other four battalions were to be commanded by high ranking officers. Each group was given the task to handle a ship.

Chrom's group was also tasked with destroying the dock to prevent any ships from landing there. The supports for the pier were either cut down or blown away by magic and it soon fell into the water. Any excess wood or materials were stacked on top of the remains of the dock so no horses or foot soldiers could maneuver there. Meanwhile the rest of the division dug with shovels, axes or any tool that they could find and dug small unconnected trenches in the ground.

They barely had time to finish when they heard the dreaded call of "enemy ships sighted." Though oddly enough, when the time came, most of our cavalry including Stahl and Sully dismounted their horses and chose to fight on foot instead.

Meanwhile the eight menacing ships slowly inched their way closer to the shore. But without a dock to land on, the ships had to set anchor about 500 feet from shore and started loading men and horse onto large boarding boats instead.

Taking the only opportunity they had, the Feroxi and Yllisean archers fired a volley of flaming arrows at the 32 landing craft.

The arrows arched up in the air and came soaring on the boats below. Some ricocheted off of the knights sturdy armor without leaving a dent in them while the rest dug into the wooden hulls. Four of the small landing crafts caught fire and the men inside scrambled to put the fires out . However, in the panic, one of the ships capsized and sent its men hurling into the ocean below with over a hundred pounds of armor acting as their anchor to the bottom. The other three ships managed to put out the fire, but were once again met with a rain of fire from our mages.

However, that could only keep them at bay until they reached the shore.

Soon, men flooded unto the beaches in eight different areas just like Robin had predicted. But as the men fumbled their way out of their boats and unto the beach, the shepherds just stood and watched. They patiently waited for the men to come attack them, and the enemy did so without a second thought.

Heavily armed pikemen and cavaliers ran furiously at Chrom and his men while their armor loudly clanked together. But within ten steps of the charge, the pikemen were already having trouble keeping their balance. The soft sand combined with the trenches in the beach made it difficult for the men to even walk let alone attack in their heavy armor.

Meanwhile, the agile and lightly armored shepherds attacked their stumbling enemies without trouble. They fought viciously and cut through the weak spots of the Valmese armor with their steel. Any Valmese men who were able to steady themselves and fight past this line were then left to face an angry Frederick and an invisible Kellam who stood on solid ground ready to fight anyone who dared get in their way.

One by one, the heavily armored garrison fell to its knees of the less experienced and equipped shepherds.

...

"Look like you were right" Chrom smiled and patted the tactician on the back. "Fighting on the sand saved us a lot of trouble."

"Well, that's what you pay me for." Robin snickered

"Yes, nice job." Flavia said in a harsh tone. "But if what Cherche says is true, than my country can not hope to withstand an army of this caliber. Their knights will sweep across our nation in less than a week!"

"And I'm afraid Ylisse is in no better shape to withstand this kind of threat." Chrom said somberly

"Well, not on the land anyways." Robin muttered absent mindedly.

Everyone immediately turned their attention to Robin as he placed his hand on his chin. Basilio let out a hearty laugh and smacked him on the back."I think the lad has another idea boiling in that skull of his."

"Oof." Robin let out a small gasp as he leaned forward from the impact of Basilio's hand. "Well...Their greatest strength is their cavalry and heavy infantry, which puts us at a disadvantage...on land. But if we were to catch them at sea..."

"Catch them at sea with what?" Flavia asked harshly. "Most of our ships are fishing vessels, and your fleet is on the other side of the continent. It would take weeks if not months to have them circle around."

"Which is why we need to seek help from a mercantile country who specializes in trading their cargo across water."

...

"Plegia." Chrom whispered.

Robbed nodded, "I believe it would be in their best interests to help us."

The two khans nodded to each other. "That seem to be best."

"It does appear to be the only option." Chrom muttered indecisively and glanced back at the ocean. "Lets just hope their king is more hospitable this time."

...

Naturally, I followed behind the shepherds the entire way to Plegia. However, the security was too tight to sneak my way into the palace so I had to watch from the outside. It was surprisingly a short visit since the Shepherds return less that twenty minutes later.

Even more bizarre, the shepherd's spirits appeared to be extremely high, except for Robin who looked very pale and severely flustered. It was almost as if he had seen a ghost. His body was shaking and he was constantly shifting his head back and forth to make sure no one was following him.

It wasn't until till later that night that I managed to overhear him speak about what had bothered him in the palace.

"I-it, It was like looking in a mirror." Robin said distraught. "Even worse, now I have reason to believe that he could be a twin brother, and that Valider is my father!

"I will admit that there was a strong resemblance, but I could easily tell the two of you apart." Chrom smiled to try and cheer him up and rested his hand on Robin's shoulder.

"Strong resemblance? Chrom, if I did not know better I would say that he IS me!"

"You're over exaggerating." Chrom insisted "Just his voice alone is a dead give away."

"But what if he could mimic mine?! How could you tell us apart?"

"Its very simple. His eyes speak for themselves."

"His eyes? You mean the ones that were the exact same color as mine?! He even has the same robe as me!"

"Robin." Chrom paused and let him calm down for a moment. "A long time ago my sister said that you could tell a lot about someone from their eyes, and you know what? She was right. The man I saw in there may have looked like you, but his eyes and personality told a different story. Even if he tried to fool me, he could never be mistaken as you."

Robin sighed and shrugged his shoulders as he stared at the desert sand below him. "...But what if..."

"Milord!" Frederick came running at full speed. "We are under attack!"

Both Robin's and Chrom's eyes instantly lit up in urgency. "What?! Plegia is attacking us?!

"No milord, it is the Risen!

"Risen?!" The two said simultaneously. "Here?!"

"Yes they have taken to the hills. They made a stealthy approach and fooled our sentries.

Chrom and Robin looked back at each other in shock. "What, but how?!

"I do not know. They appear to be more organized and tactical this time around."

"Can you see how many?" Robin barely managed to mutter as he scrambled for his sword.

"No, it is too dark but there is at least 30 of them."

"Damn it, where the hell did they come from?" Chrom said in frustration. "... Quick! Make sure everyone is awake and ready to fight.

"Right away sir! But there is another matter."

"What?!"

"There is a mage surrounded by crows who just entered the battlefield."

"Is he attacking us?"

"No but-"

"Then we will deal with him later!"

...

After fighting a well organized group of battle harden foes. The Risen were child's play. Even though the Risen appeared to be more organized than before, even their vast numbers could not hope to deal with the shepherd's strength.

Chrom led the charge himself as he slowly fought his way through the line. However, there were five Risen heading towards him with no one to back him up. So I immediately ran out of my hiding spot and made my way over to him just in case.

I had to cut my way through a couple of Risen who were in my path, but at the same time I had to stay out of sight.

Luckily, my fears were proven to be wrong as Sumia sweeped down to thrust her spear into two of the Risen at once. Meanwhile Chrom and his legendary blade effortlessly cut through two more as they tried to attack him.

Meanwhile, The last Risen fled away from Chrom and ran over to Stahl instead knowing that it could not fight Chrom and live.

"I'll take care of that one honey." Sumia called out as she soared through air.

"Thanks love." Chrom shouted back. He watched as Sumia dived down and sent her spear flying into the Risen's head. It instantly vanished into dust, and Chrom smiled seeing her take care of it. He searched around him to see how the rest of the battle was going and was surprised to see that everyone else had stopped fighting. The other shepherds had also dealt with their ambushers and ended their despicable existence.

...

"That's the last of them." Chrom said relieved and lowered his guard. "But why would they appear now? Could it be that the hierophant and Valdier-"

"Chrom, look out!" Robin yelled and sprinted over to him, but he was too far away.

"Huh?! Ah!" Chrom reeled back as he saw an assassin charge straight at him.

"Father, no!" I cried and moved forward to block the blow with my sword. With a surge of rage and fear, I struck back at the monster and cut him half.

...

I glanced back to see Chrom still alive and unhurt. My rage instantly cooled down to relief and I remembered to breathe again. "Thank the gods you're safe!"

Chrom stood their in complete bewilderment while Robin stopped dead in his tracks and stared with his mouth wide open. "...You ...You called me 'Father.'"

"Did I?" I grimaced and inwardly cursed at myself for it. With those two words my charade as 'Marth' was over. "Er well you see I... What I meant to say was-" I shrugged and sighed knowing my charade was over. "Perhaps we might speak privately?

"Perhaps we should, yes."

...

I let out a large sigh as we reached a secluded area. A thousand things were going through my mind, but none of them were able to escape my lips. "... ...I-I don't even know where to begin."

"I already know you're not "Marth," though I've nothing better to call you... But I'll ask nothing of you that you don't wish to reveal. Whoever you are, Ylisse owes you a debt beyond repaying."

I paused and looked at the man in front of me. My hands and legs were trembling as I saw the him up close. Even in this situation he was always kind and considerate...Just like I remembered him. "T-Thank you, but... I think I would prefer you know the truth."

"As you wish."

"... A long time ago, my father once said that you could tell a lot about someone from their eyes" I sighed and hesitantly moved directly in front of him. "Here... Look closely, and all will be made clear." I moved directly in front of him and looked straight at him trying to keep myself composed, but with little luck.

"That's ...That's the Brand of the Exalt... Lu- ...Lucina?!..."

In that moment, looking into his eyes and hearing Chrom call my name broke down every wall and barrier that kept me together. Everything I had bottled up for the last 8 years, the pain, the sorrow, the fear and anguish. The memories of my father's smile and the last time he looked at me. They all came whirling back as tears flooded down my face. There was so much I wanted to say, but my voice was drowned out as I cried. All I could do was grab him and hold on tight while the tears fell down to the ground.