AN: Hello all again! And thank you if you're still reading. With not much to say, the third chapter embarks!
"Let's spar!" I say after I hand my finished dish to Tharja, who uses a hex to clean it. Miriel watches closely nearby, interested in the hex while writing down notes. She also takes Lon'qu's dish after and cleans it as well, while Lon'qu seems to be uneasy around the dark mage. I've also seen Chrom and especially Robin still look creeped-out by Tharja's intimidating demeanor when near her, though she was a Shepherd like any one of them. I've heard that she threatened to turn Kellam into a newt once.
"That's fine with me," Lon'qu says after we walk away to a spacey clearing. He hands me a wooden practice sword, taking out his own as well. The practice sword is still quite hefty, as heavy as my steel sword, despite it being made of just wood.
"Thanks! Don't go easy on me, remember!" I remind him, putting myself into my fighting stance, while Lon'qu does the same. I'm the first to make a move, lunging. He easily counters, and I use magic to win the deadlock.
Lon'qu has a look of surprise, but his expression returns to normal. "I forgot you had magic, Ke'ri."
"Maybe I'll have an edge against you now! You keep winning more than half of the times we battled."
"True."
Each attack we throw at each other we counter with ease. None of us seem to give up, until I jab him in the shoulder and the elbow. The numbing sensation from the hit nearly makes him drop his sword, so I knock it out of his grip with a sideways slash. So now, Lon'qu is forced to keep dodging while I fight with both blades, one in each hand.
He does manage to trip me with his foot as I sprint up to him. Landing on my stomach, I am partially winded, and he is able to take his sword back. Meanwhile, I rolled out of the way and we continued to fight with no signs of tiring.
The match seems to go on and on, and I realize it's almost time to get to sleep for tomorrow's march.
"Wow... we fought for more than an hour, I think. It's certainly been a while." I exclaim, panting slightly. The adrenaline still runs like fire through me, fueling me with strength for this intense sparring match.
"But this is the first sparring match we had in a long while, y'know," he responds.
"Well, I know, but we can't really fight too long. We need rest for tomorrow's march and battle."
"We'll fight on our way back to camp." We had went a distance away from camp to spar so the fight wouldn't bother anyone with wooden swords clashing and causing a big annoyance and all.
"That might scare the people, Lon'qu! But I guess we can do that... We have to finish the battle. But we can race back as well. Ready, go!"
So as we head to the camp, we continue to slash with our practice blades, gaining a few people's attention as we fought and raced each other back to the main clearing of the camp.
"How long have you two been fighting for? You two don't look tired at all." Ricken decides to walk to us, yet give us some space so we don't accidentally hurt him.
"I don't know... Um... More than an hour, I think!" I quickly say. "I don't really know how long exactly."
"Whoa, really?" the mage boy replies. "I wanna watch to see who wins!"
"Have we had longer sparring matches before?" I wonder, sidestepping.
"Not really, I don't think so," Lon'qu says while ducking to the ground. I almost landed a slash at his head. As soon as he stands back up, I whack him on the head with the wooden sword. He only glares. "... Dang it..."
"Who are you rootin' for?" Sully yelled, also spectating the watch. "Think Lon'qu's gonna win."
"Don't really know for sure," Vaike also approached us, curious about what was happening. "But I think Ke'ri's gonna kick Lon'qu's butt in this battle."
Donnel had just arrived as well. "What's goin' on?"
"Are you goin' to root for Ke'ri or Lon'qu in this match?" I heard Sully ask.
"Don't know! Maybe Ke'ri. Doesn' she 'ave magic?"
"A bit," Miriel said. "An intriguing and powerful way of combat. I think Ke'ri may claim victory with these unique skills."
"How do they not break a sweat on this?" Ricken asked. "But I'm rooting for Ke'ri if you wanted to know."
I couldn't really hear too much of what our audience was saying, as Lon'qu and I were way too focused on the battle.
"Go go go!" Lissa shouted at me, joining in the apparent excitement revolving around our match. "I'm rooting for you, Ke'ri!"
"Thanks!" I shout while dodging and twirling again. We reach another deadlock, and I use wind magic to counter. "Hiyah!"
Lon'qu still overpowers the magic and wins the deadlock, jabbing me in the arm. I dodged most of the attack and we keep slashing. It kind of looked like Lon'qu hadn't had this much fun for ages, it seemed. There was a faint smile on his face he glanced at me.
The man named Gregor had joined in on the chant, and it was making a loud racket of shouting as the loudest cheerers were him, Sully, Donnel, Lissa, Vaike, and sometimes Ricken.
"I think we've gotten every Shepherd to watch." I say, nearly tripping. I roll instead instead of falling, so I trip Lon'qu. Jumping back up, I leap away a little before Lon'qu can lunge and stab at me.
Since this match didn't seem as if it would end any longer, I reach for the sheath of the wooden sword I had with me and chuck it at Lon'qu's face (I wouldn't do this in a real battle, though). Lon'qu hits it out of the way, but that went all along to my plan. I then chuck my sword at Lon'qu, which then hits him in the face because his sword isn't there to block his face. I kick Lon'qu in the chest while he's distracted, which knocks him down. Catching my sword, which had started to fall, I point my sword at his chest, and he mutters defeat.
"Nice battle, though," I say, and help him up after I extend a hand and help him up.
"The Vaike won the bet!"
"We didn't bet for anything, you arse-head."
Lissa and Ricken cheer, high-fiving each other. "Ke'ri won!"
Lon'qu only scrathes the back of his head. "Hadn't had a good match in ages. Thank you."
I only smile at him as I retrieve the wooden sword's sheath. "Not a problem." The group around us disperse to do their own things, leaving the two of us alone. The people more enthusiastic about the match were still excited from the match.
Robin walks up to me. "If you wouldn't mind, I would like to practice sword fighting with both of you. My magic is pretty good, but I'm nowhere as good as you two with the sword."
"I would be glad to!" I say. "No problem."
The tactician then nods and heads off to deal with any last matters of the day and preparing for the battle tomorrow. That just left the swordsman and I. We sat around the dying fire, silent.
"I honestly wouldn't have won if I didn't throw anything at you," I tell him eventually. "Is your face okay? I threw that wooden sword kind of hard."
"It didn't hurt much," he simply says. "It was a good idea, though."
The small conversation dies off as we just stare at the remaining fire in front of us. I turn to look at him eventually. He seems to be lost in thought.
"Were you always this quiet before?"
He nods, but still remains silent.
After a few more minutes of complete silence, I stand up. "I'm gonna get some sleep for tomorrow. You should soon. Goodnight, Lon'qu."
"'Night, Ke'ri," he stands up as I turn around and leave, walking under the now-blackened sky. I feel Lon'qu's eyes watching me as I head towards my tent. Lying down, I close my eyes and fall into a dreamless sleep.
Walking in a grassy field on a sunny day, I see the back of a person, younger than me by only a few years. He has dark brown hair, almost like mine.
"Um, hey... who are you?" I ask. "What are you doing here?"
The person doesn't respond at first. A gentle breeze runs through the plain, making the grasses rustle softly. I don't feel any impatience at all, though he doesn't say a thing at all.
He sighs and turns around. What I see is shocking. He looks a lot like me. Is he my brother?
I don't have a brother... I only have a sister. So that's out of the question. He can't be a sibling at all.
The boy has eyes that are nearly black in color. He has a sword at his side, with a black and silver myrmidon robe. One look at him and I would guess that he would be Lon'qu. But the boy only a little taller than me. Lon'qu is a head taller than me. And the boy looks different from my childhood friend, on a closer look.
Is this Lon'qu's little brother, then? I think Lon'qu had a brother. If he did, he wasn't around often. I don't remember any siblings from him.
"Oh... I was waiting for you. My name is-" the boy starts to say, but then he's cut off by a rumble in the ground. I almost fall to the ground, but I stagger before regaining balance. I look around for what may have caused the quake in the ground, but there's nothing in sight. Nothing had changed at all, but things were strangely silent. It was... eerie.
"We have to get back to the Shepherds. Um... Come with me, then." I say suddenly. The boy pauses as I turn to run, and he follows me as we get back to the camp.
Back at camp, the Shepherds are all wary and alarmed at the small earthquake.
"Something's coming," Chrom shouted. "Gather your weapons and prepare for anything!"
I run up to Lon'qu.
"Ke'ri, are you alright? Why does he look familiar to me?" Lon'qu first asks. He saw the boy following behind me. The boy's eyes widened as he saw both of us. However, he seems to refuse to say a thing. I see the blue-haired girl next to Chrom widen her eyes, staring at the boy, as well as a few other Shepherds I didn't know. I tilt my head in confusion.
Does she know about him?
"I'm alright. But I don't know why he looks so familiar to you."
"Prepare for battle! There are Risen up ahead, with some Grimleal! Battle positions now!" Robin shouts, and all conversation dies off as we rush to face the battle.
The boy stays with us, looking worried. He stares at me with a look of pain.
He seems to know something... What does he possibly know? Is it something about me?
Soon enough, we leap into battle. A multitude of enemies surround all of us. The boy seems to be just as skilled in the sword as Lon'qu and I are. We defend ourselves perfectly well, making a circle so no enemy can attack our backs.
But even through our best efforts, there are just too many Risen. Their red eyes seem brighter than usual, glaring intimidatingly at me. At some point, we had gotten separated, so we were forced to fight by ourselves. I found myself backing to a corner, my energy draining from the battle. A Grimleal had his hand raised, a Thoron tome about to finish me off. I see Lon'qu through the crowd, but he wouldn't reach me in time. I want to shout for help, but nobody's close enough to help me deal with the Risen around me and the mage who was about to finish me off. The swordmaster's eyes widen as he shouts my eyes.
The only thing I can do is hold my sword out to try to block the hit, though it wouldn't work at all-
"NO!" someone shouts, stabbing the Grimleal suddenly. It was the boy who I had met some time ago. He glances at me worriedly. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"Um... yeah... Thank you." I nod gratefully, able to stab the two Risen that were on both sides of me, previously preventing my escape from the Grimleal.
We continue to fight for what seemed like an eternity. The boy stays at my side, still shaken at my near-death. He also seems somewhat relieved, as if he knew what was going to happen, and how he was going to stop it.
Well, how was that even possible? There's just so many confusing things about this boy... I have to ask him a lot of questions about who he is after this battle.
The boy and I fight side by side as easily as if we had known each other for years, fighting perfectly in sync. We had cleared out the Risen in no time, and the battle was soon over.
"Thank the gods that you lived..." the boy says, the worry in his face fading away.
"Thank you for saving me back there," I smile at the boy, who smiles back. "But might I ask who you are?"
The boy stops breathing for a moment in nervousness, and he looks away. When he seems to gain the courage to speak, he looks right at me, his dark brown eyes shining with courage.
AN: And there you go! I think you might know what will happen from Ke'ri's dream. It's probably not that hard to guess, I think.
And if you do know what I did have in mind from what I wrote, please suggest me a Chron'sin name (for a boy). We need to name that boy soon.
Have a good day, and I'll be updating soon!