Of Wyverns and Brands

Chapter 26

She's not here.

She's not here!

SHE'S NOT HERE!

Boyd gives me a look as he passes by, but I ignore him and continue applying my forehead to the wall repeatedly.

Something's gone wrong. Really wrong. We fell into the trap. We fought the ravens. We even met Kurthnaga. But she still didn't show up.

Jill is missing.

I don't know how it slipped my mind earlier, but after we had been sailing for a hour, I suddenly realized why I felt uneasy. Jill had not shown up in the fight at all. Meaning, we didn't recruit her. Which is bad. Either she somehow died or is injured somewhere, or she's not joining us, which means we'll be fighting against her later.

Not good. Not good at all.

"We're going to start taking on water if you keep doing that," Soren remarks, stopping next to me. "I bet I'll regret asking this, but what is going on now?"

I stop banging my head on the wall and take a deep breath. "Something went wrong. Remember what I told you about the fight?"

Soren frowns and recites my words back to me. "After sailing into a trap, several pirate ravens would attack the ship from the air. During the fight, a wyvern rider from Daein would fly in and offer us help.

"Unlike what you said, though, no wyvern rider ever joined the fight on either side." Soren eyes narrow as he begins to connect the dots. "Are you saying your vision was wrong?"

I nod. "I don't know how. Something must have changed what would have happened."

Soren thinks for a moment. "Maybe we were too prepared during the fight. By warning us, we might have gotten stuck at the wrong point or finished up faster than normal. It is not a good sign if your visions are starting to become wrong."

"Yeah," I mutter. It probably wasn't just a timing issue, though. I could only think of two events that might have changed it. Greil's death or my involvement. I didn't see Greil stop the Black Knight, but it might have changed her actions at Port Toha. That, or my presence and parting speech might have steered her away from following us altogether.

As Soren leaves, I ponder the next battle. That would happen right before we land, since it was still a month out. But would it change? Astrid should still be on the ship, but what about Gatrie? Shoot. He left the mercenaries later than usual, and farther from Begnion than before. Would he still have time to become her bodyguard before we got there?

I hadn't thought of that before. But I need to be thinking of things just like this. I was the one who started messing with the story, so I needed to be able to sort out the consequences. I can't let another event like Greil's happen.

"Mordecai not understand why Drake attack wall with head." I jump at the voice, but it's only Mordecai looking at me worriedly. "Drake is troubled."

"I just have some stuff on my mind," I say, waving his concern off.

Mordecai gave a rumbling sound, which I've assumed is the sound he makes as he thinks. "Little beorc no need to worry for future. Future always comes. Think on now." He's only a foot or two taller than me. I'm not that little to him.

I smile, though, believing that that's his way of trying to encourage me. "Thanks, Mordecai. I'll try not to dwell on it."

Mordecai nods, seeming satisfied. "Laguz have saying. It goes…change today to change tomorrow."

"That makes sense," I reply, trying to think on it. If I wanted to do something about the future, I needed to do something in the present, I guess.

Mordecai tries to continue, though he seems to be reaching his limit of speaking right now. "Mordecai hear Drake speak in old tongue. Drake learn to talk to Mordecai?"

"Uh, not actually. I was trying to learn to use magic, but I found out I can't."

Mordecai growls, and this time I'm sure it's a growl growl, and not a think growl. "Magic bad. Fire burn laguz."

I raise my hands to placate him. "It's alright. I can't even use it if I wanted to. Apparently, I'm not talented enough."

Another growl, this one different. I think I might start to understand him better if I learn the meaning behind his growls. "Mordecai apologize. Fire bring bad memory to mind. Not fault of Drake."

"A bad memory?" I question.

Mordecai nods with a -affirmative?- growl. "When Mordecai young, Mordecai face beorc magic. Fire burn back bad."

So he was attacked by a mage before? That's something new. Yet he is still trying to bridge the gap of the races? "It's great that you're trying to understand the beorc, then, with a memory like that."

"Mordecai learn all laguz not same. Then Mordecai think all beorc not be same. Mordecai is glad that he think that now." With a smile, Mordecai rubs my head, almost if I'm a little kid. Then again, I probably am compared to most laguz. I think I remember one of the bird tribe mentioning they were over a hundred years old. And Goldoa's King is older than Begnion itself.

With my thoughts off of the changing future, I decide to return to my routine. I had seen a little of the results, but I wouldn't be satisfied if I stopped now. Magic was now out the window, so I guess I would just focus solely on the lance and sword.

"Drake~!"

I freeze, but am unable to escape the ball of energy that launches out of nowhere straight into my midsection. I stumble back a few steps from the sudden attack.

"Train with me!" Emma orders, looking frustrated. Where did she get all this energy, and why is it being directed right at me?

I go to refuse, but stop. Emma was a flyer, right? I haven't had anyone teaching me how to fight in the air since Daren, and it seems I won't be getting help from Jill anytime soon, either. This could also make up the free time I now had since I wasn't becoming a mage.

"Alright, then. Let's go," I finally say.

Emma drops to the ground and stares at me, stunned. "You said yes!" I had been dodging her barrage for a few months now. My sudden change of heart must have been surprising.

"Yep, so let's go before I change my mind," I state.

And so I began to add flight training to my routine. Once I convinced Emma each day that she wasn't riding Midnight, we would fly out and take turns hitting targets that we held below us on a string. Marcia would join us from time to time, as well. Anna offered to teach us for a price. We declined.

Occasionally, Emma would try to give me advice, but either her advice was wrong or was just pegasus specific, since it contradicted what Daren said. I did learn more about pegasi, though. They were faster than wyvern, but had less combat potential in dogfights. The real threat was therefore the riders.

I did learn more about Emma during our lessons. She was from Nephenee's village and had left for the capital to get a chance to ride a pegasus. Apparently, her dream was to ride every mount out there…which now included ravens. After the last fight, Emma was now dreaming of finding a raven that would let her ride on their back. I really want to be there when she asks the raven king for a ride. Her other goal was to learn to perform the triangle attack…solo. No matter what I said changed her mind about it, so I gave up.

I continued to train as the final month of our journey went by. I didn't know how long our stay in Begnion would be, but I needed to use all the time I had.

The month passed quickly, and Jill never showed. I did warn Soren about the coming battle between the ships at least, but I left out Gatrie and Astrid. I couldn't be sure either would be there.

And then came the morning we were to land.

"So today we'll finally reach land again," Zihark comments offhandedly while focusing on his work. The shoulder guards of my armor are in his lap as he delicately fixes the few tears I've gotten in them. Mainly the large one I got while protecting Mist. He's surprisingly good with a needle.

"I'm ready to be on land again. Sleeping in a hammock doesn't suit me," I reply, curiously watching his work.

"And the hard ground each night does?" Zihark asks, chuckling.

I grimace. "I'll take a bed, thank you. Hopefully we'll have some in Sienne."

"I can't wait to get there," Mist adds in, excited. "I've heard that there are towers that reach up into the clouds." The Boss Tower, as I call it. Don't care to see that too often.

"I've never been to Sienne, either, so it will be a new experience for me as well," Zihark states, finishing up my shoulder guard. "Here you go. It should be fine now."

"Thanks, I reply, looking it over. I can't even see where the cut used to be anymore.

"Wow," Mist murmurs, checking it over as well. "That's really good. Where did you learn to do that?"

Zihark shrugs, putting away his patch up kit. "Getting armor repaired professional costs a lot of money. Being a mercenary, I decided to learn how to do it myself, since I didn't have the money to waste. That wyvern armor isn't too different from the leather I wear, so it wasn't that hard."

"Oh! Could you teach me? I already know how to sew," Mist asks.

Zihark laughs. "I'm to be your mentor for everything now, huh? Maybe if we get some more free time later."

I have just got my shoulder pieces back on when our attention is caught by a pegasus suddenly arriving. That would mean it was almost time to fight.

"I wonder what's going on," Mist quietly says, as we watch Ike and the others approach the rider.

"Pegasus knights are a standard for Begnion, so it's probably a welcome or inspection or something," I explain.

In less than a minute, another pegasus rider flies over in a flurry, looking a bit panicked. After Tanith speaks to her privately, she sends the pegasus rider off while shaking her head.

After a few more words to the mercenaries, the conversation ends and she flies off. Titania hurries over with a shooing motion. Yep. It's time to-

"The Apostle of Begnion is almost here. We'll want everyone down in the hull for a while during her visit. Quickly now," Titania orders as she passes by, moving on to the three brothers.

…

I look out toward the horizon and see another, much, much grander ship making its way toward us. No other ship was nearby.

…

I quickly scan the skies. A few seagulls, a couple clouds. And…no ravens.

"This…isn't good," I mutter, getting confused looks from Mist and Zihark. Without explaining, I follow orders and head down into the hull and await the outcome.

From the quick tally I do, I'm pretty sure the only ones up there were Ike, Titania, Soren, Elincia, and Nasir. Even his crew was down here with us. We could hear the sounds of thumps from above when the pegasi land, as well as several people coming over from the other ship.

This is not good. Well…technically, it's good that we're not in another fight. It's bad that a whole fight is being missed, right now. Are we off course, somehow? Were we so early/late that we missed Jill and this fight altogether? I don't understand this at all. Gatrie and Astrid were possibly going to be missed with Gatrie's late departure. I accounted for that. But what in blue blazes is going on here!?

"Um, Drake? You look like you're panicking," Mist points out. Yes, Mist. I am panicking here.

I take a deep breath, though, and shake my head. "Just…thinking about something."

"You do a lot of thinking. More than Soren, even. What are you thinking about right now?"

I shrug, feeling a little calmer as I speak. "Pirates. I just felt like we're going to be attacked for a moment. Don't mind me."

Mist's eyes grew wide. "Was it a vision?" she whispered, despite everyone being crowded in down here anyway. How does she know…?

"It's…not going like I thought it would," I admit. "We'll see what happens."

Getting a determined look suddenly, Mist squeezed her way elsewhere and returned quickly. "Ready." She had grabbed her sword and staff. Guess she believes me then.

The sound of thumping returns, and soon, Titania comes back and waves us back onto the deck. The announcement is soon made that the Apostle had invited us to the capital as guests. Everyone seemed quite happy at the sound of beds, baths, and more.

I'm not. Nothing's going right anymore, and it seems that the one advantage I had in this world is no longer working. In fact, relying on it might even become a disadvantage now.

What do I do?

-o-

AN: Reviews! Reviews! Yay!

Ahem.

Anyway, this chapter reveals a consequence Drake doesn't think of: Elincia flying to the ship. The Daein ship that follows them does it because some townsfolk see Elincia board the ship. Without that incentive, the Daein commander doesn't end up following them this time around. Not that Drake is thinking about that. Too bad for Drake.

And Begnion is about to begin! Huzzah!

Update: A few corrections, etc.