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Paralogue One: Spilled Ink

Chrom tightly wrapped his woolen scarf snugly around his neck and mouth as the chilly mountain air began to seep into his collar. Behind him, Mark looked to be absolutely comfortable with his thick coat—that was until he sneezed and began to shiver for a brief moment.

Chrom looked over his shoulder. "How fare you, Mark?" He asked.

"Perfectly f-f-fine!" He shouted back, teeth chattering. Chrom bit the wool near his mouth and fidgeted inside his coat; he was glad to have brought a set of warm clothes on their journey. With the frigid mountain air around them, sometimes the prince wondered why the shortest path to the Feroxi Longfort had to be through one of the coldest mountain regions in the entire continent.

Khvasse Trail, an ancient road better known as the "Northroad" by cartographers and locals, was not carved by the works of eons upon eons of meltwater flow but rather by the of footsteps that slowly created a clear path through the mountain forests. For hundreds of years—even the time before the Great Schism— both peasants and royalty eroded the topsoil whenever they traversed this path on their way to Regna Ferox. Ylissean Monks once used this trail to meditate and hone their spiritual energy at an ancient shrine of the dragon deity, Naga, located high within its snowy peaks. Sadly, after the war with Plegia fifteen years ago, the monks reluctantly did not resume their pilgrimage up this path as they aided in the reconstruction of small towns and cantons of both Plegia and Ylisse.

To put the Feroxi gate before this natural defense was nothing short of genius. Despite being traversed for so long, the denseness and the spiritual nature of the forest prevented any attempt to widen some parts of the road. Armies who never scouted the path often traveled through the narrowest paths that forced large wagons to teeter to one side and marching columns to walk in single-file lines. Thus, this historic yet naturally defensible path prevented armies from marching en masse towards the Great Wall and it put Feroxi border guards at an advantage.

As the sky slowly turned darker and darker, Chrom and Frederick were able to find a tight, yet manageable clearing by the roadside set up camp for the night. It allowed enough room to pitch their tents up and keep their horses nearby. The forest floor was riddled with dry pine needles that acted as a natural carpet while the densely packed trees not only gave a sense of safety, but also one of uncertain danger. As Chrom and the others began carrying their tents and tools from the supply wagon, they kept a wary eye open for their newest enemy.

Despite the skill that the Shepherds had with fighting brigands and outlaws, they were still incompetent against the mysterious "Risen". While they were able to rout all of the undead from their last encounter, some members of the Shepherds were not left unscathed. Chrom sustained a hard hit on his head that left him unconscious for several days, Vaike earned a deep gash and a broken rib from a Risen axe fighter, while Sully suffered a broken collar bone from falling off her horse. Despite the fortunate lack of lives lost, their latest skirmish against the mysterious Risen was definite proof that they were ill-prepared against their tenacious and seemingly tireless enemy.

Although the Risen have not arrived in any significant number, fact that they began popping up from as far north as the base of the Northroad, Chrom and Frederick had begun to take extreme precaution whenever they camped for the night.

Mark took this time to prepare their small encampment for any unforeseen contingencies. Coordinating with Sully and Stahl, they were able to prepare their perimeter as well as their primary and secondary exit points. He proposed that night watch had two members looking out in case the stray Risen or wild animal would come near the camp. Shortly after, Mark immediately assigned the night rounds. He and Chrom would take the first shift followed by Miriel and Stahl later that evening. All of them hoped they would be safe through the night where neither bear nor undead would dare cross their camp.

As another precaution, everyone always had their sword, axe, or tome next to them at all times. Even Princess Lissa would have her staff next to her as both healing aid and bludgeon.

With their exit and defense strategy settled, the Shepherds began their chores to make their temporary camp a little bit homier for the night. For the first time during his month's stay with the Shepherds, Mark was able to finally order Frederick around, much to the latter's chagrin. Just to make sure Frederick knows he could trust him, the two set off to hunt for their dinner—fresh brown bear. Meanwhile, Chrom went towards their supply cart— which also functioned as their medical tent. He brushed the leather tarp aside and climbed in.

"How's he doing?" He asked. On the wagon's floor lay Vaike with the lower part of his torso heavily bandaged. The warrior looked up and shot a grin towards his longtime rival.

"He's been talking a lot, so that's a sign of improvement." Lissa huffed after setting her staff aside, drained from healing him. Vaike's injury was something the princess never expected to work on as a newly christened Cleric. It was not due to the lack of knowledge, but rather the lack of practice on expending a large amount of energy towards healing an injury of that magnitude.

"Improvement? You mean: 'The Vaike is ready to fight again'!" He quickly sat up and boasted his impressive muscular physique, beating his chest with a closed fist. "I'm not gonna be stopped by somethin' like this! C'mon Chrom, let's have a spar tonight, eh? Get the rust out of my system, ya know?"

"Vaike, I don't think 'rust' occurs after five days of not doing anything." Chrom sighed and persuaded his friend to cool down. "You need to let your body rest before you can challenge me again."

"Oho? Was that your chin up too high there? Or are you tryna—" On the other hand, Lissa took a different approach and struck him on his bandaged ribs—not too hard or too lightly—with the head of her staff. And it hit him hard enough to force Vaike to retract that statement. "OW."

"Oh no, you are totally not sparring tonight." Lissa said snarkily. "I just spent hours on this rickety cart healing your backside! Don't ruin my hard work."

"Eesh." He said rubbing the bandages. Finally setting aside his bravado, he acknowledged that he was still not one-hundred percent. The Vaike slowly sat up and wrapped his fur coat around his naked upper body. "Fine, I'll help with some stuff around camp. I'll catch ya later, Chrom. Oh, and thanks Nurse Shrimp."

"Oh don't mention—Nurse Shrimp?! Why I oughta—" Lissa was about to pounce on Vaike but her brother immediately caught her mid-jump and prevented any attempted violence. Meanwhile, Vaike stuck out his tongue and walked away. "Augh! I can't believe that guy. The nerve."

"He's kind of right you know." Chrom teased and began chuckling at her new nickname. "Heh, Shrimp. Heh-Heh."

Lissa puffed her cheeks and punched his arm repeatedly. "Chrom! You meanie!"

"I'm just joking, Lissa." He smiled until her boot hit his hips and forced him out of the cart. "Child! What kind of beast do you hide behind those kicks?!"

Lissa peeked her head in between the tarps and blew raspberries at her brother. "You could say it's one of my amazing traits." After earning a sour look from him, she leaned by the edge of the wagon and asked, "Anyway, have you seen Mark?"

Chrom stood up and rubbed his backside. "I think he's helping with something around the camp. Why?"

"Oh, nothing really…" Lissa smirked. But Chrom quickly caught on. "I might as well do something around here after watching Vaike snore through the entire day." After putting on a thick coat, Lissa hopped off the wagon. Before she began heading towards the tents, Chrom tapped her shoulder.

"Lissa, behave yourself." He said sternly.

"Don't worry, my sweet brother." She said with a curtsy, earning even more suspicion from him. "I'll act like a well-behaved lady of the court!"

Her hum as she skipped towards the returning Mark and Frederick did not help settle the slight unease Chrom felt in his stomach.

Thankfully, morning came without incident. With daylight upon them, the next round of watchers came in the form of Frederick and Sully. The fires were restarted and, not surprisingly, Vaike was the first person up. Rather than practice his axeplay, he began to prepare the bear meat caught from last evening's hunt, preserved by the mountain's frigid air. After all, he needed rest and some light labor should warm his body up. The smell of raw meat attracted some wolves but were quickly shooed away with sparks coming from Miriel's spell traps. Chrom returned from the field with Mark by his side and saw that everyone (except for the recent night watch) was helping out around camp—except for one girl.

Being high up in the northern mountains, the air around them remained frigid and everyone kept their cold weather wear on through night and day. Lissa stirred from her bedroll and curled into a ball, feeling the cold air seep into her body. She began to wrap herself like a cocoon with her blanket to stop her shivering. But it was all for naught, the uncomfortable cold stopped her return to a deep sleep and she sat up groggy and eyes heavy, but nonetheless fully awake.

"Oh, crabapples…" She moaned, wrapping the blankets around her like a large robe. "I ran out of that heating spell…this makes Plegia look like a tropical paradise…"

But the cold wasn't the biggest thing in the Princess' mind, rather it was the book that was next to her bedroll. She lazily leaned over and picked up the large tome and set it on the small desk she had in her tent. Not bothering to look at the spine or cover of the book, she opened it to a random page. Upon seeing the first words of the dark brown parchment, she began to read.

"Hmm…" Lissa was always curious about Mark and his hobbies and hopefully, borrowing his book would at least give her some ideas about who Mark really is.

She knew at the barracks, he always went into his room, reading his books. Eventually, Chrom was kind enough to give him access to tomes from the royal archives and they saw more of him then. Though he loved joining the Shepherds during their daily routines and exercises, he always seemed to prefer his books over interacting with the rest of them.

"Okay." She laid her head on the tome. "This is the most boring book ever."

With the text failing to hook Lissa in, she instead thought of doing something to it as a favor for Mark. She did feel guilty bringing someone like him to her country's problems.

And maybe he'd open up to someone else than Chrom. She then reached for a little brown satchel on the floor and took out a quill and a small bottle of ink. She flipped the book to the very first page and she began to draw a portrait of Mark—a childish attempt at a proof-of-ownership.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the Shepherds, Lissa's ability to draw people was ahead of theirs despite the fact she often relegated her drawings to mere "doodles". She was good, but not great—merely above average. But what makes the princess stand out from her peers was her ability remembering people's faces because of her continual exposure to the Ylissean townsfolk. Like her brother, she took it upon herself to know each and every citizen in her country in order to better understand them. Unlike the people from the same social and royal standing, she refused to utilize this natural skill of hers because of her spontaneous and energetic personality.

Each ink stroke was thought beforehand and with a steady wrist, she drew his chin, his head and his narrow eyes. She worked on the detail of his short brown hair, his dimples and light shading showed the shadow of his neck and the fine details of his robe and undershirt.

It's totally the least I could do. With a few words added onto the portrait, it was done and hopefully, nothing could ruin her art piece.

"Lissa, get up. It's noon." Chrom peeked his head from the tent, making her jump. Her knee struck the edge of the table, forcing the ink bottle to teeter. Lissa did her best to catch it but it only made it worse—the ink fell right on top of her drawing and seeped into the fibers of every page in the book. "Come, you need to help with the mid-day rations."

"In a second, Chrom!" She looked at the book and went into a mild panic. She knew that the portrait was ruined, nothing could be done about that but as she flipped to every page, it soaked up most of the spilled ink, rendering its contents unreadable and its words forever lost.

Oh no…Mark's going to be soo mad…Nice move, Lissa. There goes your good deed for the day. She groaned as she looked at her ink-stained fingertips. At that moment, she immediately planned that she would immediately tell Mark about the book the moment she saw him. Covering it with a piece of dark colored cloth, she dressed up, put on her coat and left her tent.

"Hey, Lissa." But she never expected him to appear all so suddenly. She began acting rigid nd immediately hid her fingers inside her pockets, hoping to avoid drawing any suspicion from him.

"Oh! H-hey Mark!" She stuttered.

"Are you okay?" Goosebumps then ran through the back of her neck and arms. Oh no! Did he see?, she thought. "You were sleeping the whole time."

"I…uh…I'm still kind of worn down from healing Vaike and travelling on the supply wagon." She mentally sighed in relief, considering the close call. She feigned stretching her back and shortly after, they began their walk to the fire pit. "Chrom just peeked his head in the tent and just said 'Oh, you need to help with the rations' and that ruined my sleep."

Mark was wide eyed with the way she spoke. "Wow that was a good imitation of your brother. I mean, really good."

"Why thank you!" She smiled. Lissa then began to relax more, her back slouching slightly and her cheeks softening up. "So I guess we're both on ration duty, huh?"

"I believe so, milady."

"Mark," Lissa tapped his shoulder and shook her head. "We've gone over this a lot; it's just 'Lissa'. You don't really need to add the whole 'milady' part."

"Alright, Lissa." He stressed on her name while the princess let of a soft chuckle. "Do you know how to prepare the bear?"

"Oh?" The moment she took her eyes off of Mark and looked ahead of her, she saw a large amount of meat hanging from the curing pit and she groaned. "We're doing this?! I hate rationing meat!"

Mark raised a brow. "Do you not like handling raw meat?"

She sighed and went to one of the water bins and began cleaning her inked fingertips. "Slimy things make me all pukey."

Their work was tedious, but not too labor intensive. It was merely separating the meat for various meals and others for drying out as a snack. Mark would bring the meat from the curing pit and Lissa sliced it into jerky-length strips and left to dry in the fire pit. In between their work, Lissa often began conversations with Mark and the latter was happy to oblige. They shared their laughs and groans, mostly because of Frederick and his overly wary nature.

Lissa wiped the sweat from her brow. "You know, the reason why Frederick acts all so stern and orderly was because of Captain Phila."

"Oh? Really?" He chuckled. "What did he do?"

She motioned Mark for the last set of meat. "I don't remember it well since I was small, but all I know is that something happened during training and he did some really bad thing."

"So even the great Frederick made mistakes…"

"Ask my big brother about it, he should remember it since he was there." And soon, they were complete preparing one bear for their entire journey to Regna Ferox. That was until Chrom and Stahl brought in fresh venison to camp.

Then tactician and the princess both groaned in unison.

It was not until late afternoon that they finished preparing all the meat and leaving some to dry. With their chores complete, Mark took this opportunity to take a short nap and left Lissa to her own devices. With the rest of the camp rested and with their food supply replenished, Frederick announced that they were set to leave by late morning. Miriel began setting bright spark traps around the camp in order to force wild beasts from entering the camp as well as alerting the Shepherds from Risen intruders.

Sundown came and Stahl shouted the dinner calls. Since her tent was next to Mark's, Lissa took it upon herself to wake him up.

"Maark? C'moon, dinner's ready!" She cooed as she slipped into his tent. His lamp was still aflame and he was hunched over to his desk over another book and some map. Writing utensils were scattered on top of the table. She approached him to nudge his shoulder. "There you are! I was just—oh!"

Mark grumbled with his head comfortably nestled on his arms. His gentle breathing was enough of a giveaway that he was still sound asleep. She quietly walked to his desk and knelt down at one of its ends from the lack of chairs. Lissa couldn't help but smile.

You must really be wiped out. Not that I blame you, getting wrapped up in all this. She saw the faint circles that formed under his eyes from the lack of sleep since their encounter with the Risen.

As she nestled her head on the desk by his side, she finally understood the hard work that Mark put for their strategies to keep them all alive. Maybe was it because he was indebted to them when they first met at the fields of Southtown? Nevertheless, she felt thankful for all his effort with helping her brother. Unfortunately for her, her gift of gratitude was ruined.

C'mon Mr. Tactician, it's time to wake up! She gingerly leaned over, avoiding to shake the table, and gently pinched his nose. Mark's brow began to squeeze tight and then he began to fidget wildly in a very overly-dramatic way.

"Mmnh... nnrrrgh...! BWARGH!" His eyes shot open and quickly sat up, flailing his arms around wildly. The outburst sent Lissa falling onto the pine-needle flooring, with her fist pounding the floor. She held her abdomen, holding back all her laughter. "Wha—?! Risen? Wolves! Risen riding wolves! They're all—Wait a moment..."

With Mark finishing his outburst, he looked around and onto the floor. The panicked look on his face sent Lissa laughing the hardest she'd ever done. It was so loud that it drew the attention of all the Shepherds by the fire pit. Some laughed and some curled their lips up into an almost pure smile. Chrom on the other hand rubbed his temples and took several deep breaths.

I knew I had a gut feeling about this.

"Heeh-eheh….AAAAH-ha-ha-ha-ha!" She laughed and rubbed her eyes with tears forming around their corners. Lissa looked at Mark again who was surely not amused by her antics. She then began imitating his entire reaction, including his yell the moment he woke up, with a big smile. "'BWARGH'?! Oh gods, that was hilarious! What on earth was that, Mark?"

"Lissa!" He scratched his head in frustration. "By Naga, I was fast asleep!"

"And dreaming of Risen riding wolves, apparently?" She giggled at the absolute absurdity of it all. Finally getting herself together, she stood up and brushed the pine needles that stuck to her dress. "I-I'm sorry, I tried to resist—I really did. But it was just too perfect!"

Mark rubbed his eyes. "Couldn't you have just nudged my shoulders instead to wake me?"

Lissa sighed and lightly jabbed his forearm. "I mean, it was a heck of a lot more fun that way."

"Not for me!" Unfortunately, Mark failed to see the humor in his rude awakening and sternly replied, "You should have been more courteous about this."

"Oh come on, Mark. Don't be such a fuddy-duddy." She said. "It's all for a good laugh, you know."

"Who does such juvenile pranks?" Mark raised his voice. "Is that how your parents raised you?" Without realizing it, he said something that upset his liege. Lissa her lead lowered and her eyes looking away from him, a look of sadness and despair seemed to overshadow her normally bright features. Unfortunately, it was too late when Mark realized the things that escaped his lips. "Oh…Oh, right. That was…uh..."

She sighed and, despite the outburst, smiled. "Oh, don't worry about it. I know you didn't mean anything by it."

"I am so sorry Lissa. It was not my place to say something like that."

"Mark." She said, calming down the tense atmosphere around them. "It's honestly okay. I mean, it was pretty rude of me to wake you up like that, and well, Old Nan would probably go on a tirade if she caught me doing that."

A short silence grew between them. Mark, unable to proceed with the conversation, instead asked the simplest question:

"Well, uh…why did you wake me?"

"Dinner time." She said flatly.

"Oh. Right." And the pair left the tent without saying a word.

Strangely enough, only when they stepped out of their tent and began eating dinner with the rest of their friends did the silence between them wean and fade. Soon, with merry laughter, the serenades Virion sang, a kick from Sully, and old stories warmed their little camp in the coldest region of Ylisse. At first, Chrom felt that Lissa would drive Mark to his wits end with her childish pranks, but the moment he saw them laughing together by the fire assured him that they would get along just fine.

And it wasn't until later that he would realize that his assumption was completely off the mark.

Once sunrise came, the Shepherds began cleaning up their campsite and continued on their way to the Feroxi Longfort. As Mark fiddled through his satchel, he realized it was surprisingly light. He soon remembered about the book and walked towards the supply wagon where Lissa was resting, having her tent and all her things completely packed. He hopped on the cart and brushed the tarp aside.

"Lissa, have you seen my book?" He asked.

"Oh, Mark!" Lissa averted her gaze and had a very awkward smile on her face. "Actually, there's something else that I should be apologizing for other than me pinching your nose…"

Mark, still feeling guilty over what he said, decided to let whatever Lissa did pass. "Whatever it is, I'm sure I can forget it after last night's outburst."

"Really? That's great!" Lissa immediately stood up and gave him a short embrace, making the young man blush. "I was soooo sure you were going to be soooo angry..." She opened up her satchel, and pulled out a book wrapped in a blue cloth. Mark began to unwrap the book and his face immediately became pale.

"See, I was kinda doodling a pic of you in your big, new book of battle strategies..." As Lissa explained what had happened, Mark flipped through all the pages with the ink completely obscuring the upper right corner of the book, spreading top to bottom in every page. "...Aaand then I…uh…spilled the ink and kinda... ruined the book, kinda... completely."

"WHAT?!" He shouted, alerting not only the Shepherds, but also scaring the sparrows that nested up the trees. Like a child in trouble with their mother, Lissa fiddled with her fingers and lightly swayed side to side.

"Ireallyreallyreallydidn'tmeanto!"

"But that was a rare text! I had just borrowed it from —Er—" Mark quickly caught himself from saying something inappropriate and cleared his throat. "I mean... It's—It's fine. Accidents... happen."

"Oooh pheeew!" Lissa sat back down and looked at him, who was still clearly distraught as he attempted to find at least one salvageable page. His cheeks puffed like a balloon and his brows acted incredibly elastic, and his brow twitched. Like a rubbery thing, she thought. "So we're even now, right?"

"But I thought—" Mark hesitated once more and bottled his frustrations away with one deep breath. "Yeah…we're even."

Finally discovering his book and thanking his patience, he said his goodbyes and hopped off the supply wagon. Soon after, the Shepherds packed up their tents and small furniture onto the wagons and resumed their travel towards the Longfort. Before snapping the horse's reins, he opened the book again to see if the ink truly did seep into the fabrics, rendering it ruined.

Well, there goes this book. As he looked at the front page, he noticed quill lines that went against the flow of ink. It was incredibly faint but shining it through an angle from the sun's rays, he was able to discern it. This must be her doodle—wait is that me? "Mark's Strategy Book"...huh...

Meanwhile, with the load off her chest, Lissa got off the supply wagon and hiked the rest of the way with the others. Shortly after, she remembered the look on Mark's face as he panicked from his book. She felt heat rise to her cheeks and she touched it with the tips of her fingers, noticing the mild blush on her cheeks.

He's kind of cute when he does that…I wonder how I could see it again...

A/N:

I was hoping to write 2500 words. Eh, I guess I became a bit too passionate and wrote 4k instead.

So I added, removed, and moved around some things from the original support conversation a little bit to suit the prior plot given and the atmosphere I was conveying. Nevertheless, I pumped this one out because it was the easiest one to do (I lied, it was a challenge to play with the pieces of that original support script around and make it as true-to-game and as original-ish as possible.) as well as my compensation for missing out on Lissa's birthday and making a Mother's Day chapter for her. I'll make the C/B/A-Support levels in the meantime and once the first Elibe Trip chapter is finished, I'll post the S-Support chapter, to suit the mood of their second honeymoon.

Make sure you guys review and tell me anything I need to improve on. Any review is enough fuel for me to keep on writing!

Thanks for reading!