A/N: Uh…wow. I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting this much of a reaction. So, I just wanna say "Thanks" to everyone who favorited/followed this. It really does mean a lot that people enjoyed my work. Sorry for the long wait, it's been…four-ish months, but this is really just a hobby for me even if I'm always looking to improve my writing skills. Plus I redid the start of this one, like three times.
Probably going to scare some people off with this one, but whatever. Have to address some of this stuff in here eventually.
As for the next chapter, it'll come eventually. Probably. I do have other stuff I do in my free time, and this one sat on my computer ready to go for close to two weeks. That being said, hope you enjoy!
The following is a fan work based on the video game Fire Emblem Awakening. I do not claim ownership of the game, its characters, world, premise or anything else contained within. Fire Emblem Awakening is owned by Intelligent Systems, and published by Nintendo. Please support the official release.
It was dark. Too dark. The edges of my vision blurred and darkened, suffocating my already limited sight. I was walking. I didn't know why. I just was. One foot in front of the other, as if I was a machine. I couldn't stop, I couldn't turn. I just walked.
Then I found the blood.
There was so much. Too much. It flowed like a river, and it led me onward. It led me to a hunched figure, their features indiscernible. They were hunched over a handful of others, they were familiar to me. Important. But I couldn't remember who they were. Their eyes met mine, empty, lifeless. I still couldn't recognize them.
Then I stopped, the hunched figure turned to me. Long, lanky limbs, its fingers too long, morphing into claws. It's face covered by a torn, ragged hood. Beady red eyes, and teeth. So many teeth. Rows, and rows of razor sharp teeth, some as long as a finger. It tilted its head at me, as if it was confused by my presence. I knew what this was.
My body told me to run, yet at the same time, it refused. I remained locked in place, as the Risen decided it didn't like me being there. It closed the distance in an instant, its face twisting, its mouth gaping unnaturally. It screamed.
My eyes snapped open, my tense against the cold floor of the temple. It had just been a nightmare. I let out a sigh, as I sat up, my muscles slowly beginning to relax, as my body caught up with my brain. I was safe. Morgan snored quietly across from my, blissfully ignorant to the world around her. It had all just been a bad dream. I went to lay back down, maybe get a bit more sleep. I closed my eyes, prepared to let sleep take me. Then my eyes shot open again as realization hit me.
It had been a dream.
Meaning what I was experiencing was in fact my life now. My old life was gone. My mom, my dad, my little sister, my dogs and cats. The only two people in the entire world I could truly call my friends.
All gone.
The sob forced its way up my throat. A pit settled in my stomach. I would likely never see any of them again. The tears started to flow, my nose started to run, the sobs started coming I greater force. I forced myself to my feet, and dragged myself further into the temple so I didn't disturb Morgan. Eventually, I found a nice corner to myself and sat down, facing into the chamber I found myself in.
Now, I wasn't one to cry very often. A lot of guys don't cry. It's been drilled into us that we need to be strong, rigid, like stone. Fuck that. Again, I didn't cry very often, but I still did. Now, it had been a few years since my last one. The year I graduated high school, if I was remembering correctly. The year both my Grandmother, and my aunt died. Five whole years. So I guess it had been a little longer than a while.
But I let it all out now, hunching over as I was wracked by my own misery. It was hard enough losing someone close to you. But to lose so much all at once? Well I wouldn't blame someone for breaking. So I cried. Cried like a baby, I'm not ashamed to admit it.
I heard footsteps, slowly approaching, but I didn't bother looking up. If I was lucky it would be a stray Risen, and it would finish me off. But they stopped right in front of me. I looked up and was met by a pair of boots. I sat up straight, looking up at the owner of the boots, snot and tears still streaking down my face.
"Hey." Morgan greeted sheepishly. "You doing ok?"
I tried to choke out a response, but all I could manage was a few strangled sobs, so I just shook my head. Morgan sat down next to me. She remained silent, just letting me cry it out until I could speak coherently.
"I'm not going to abandon you, if that's what this is about." Morgan tried, turning to face me.
"No. That's not it." I managed, not meeting her face.
"Then what's the matter?" She asked.
"I'll never see my family again." I replied.
"Why not?"
I shook my head.
"Why did it come up now?"
"It was very recent. It just hit me now." I sniffed.
"I'm sorry." Morgan said, pulling me into an awkward hug.
"It's not your fault." I sighed. "Just give me a few minutes."
"Ok."
We sat like that a little longer, until the sobs died out, and I ran out of tears to cry. "Sorry for waking you up." I finally managed.
"Don't worry about it." Morgan said, pulling away. "You good now?"
"Yeah. I think I'll be alright." I nodded, rising to my feet. I wiped my face on my sleeve, it was gross, but better there than on my face. "Thanks, Morgan." My eyes hurt, and my nose was still kind of runny, and I was still feeling the loss, a terribly empty feeling. I would be feeling that for a long time. But I would be alright. I'd get over it. I always did.
Despite being born and raised in Canada, I did not do well with the cold. Shocking, I know. But I lived my entire life in southern Canada, a few hours north of the border with the U.S. So the coldest it had ever gotten was the low minus thirties. My bus stop when I was in high school was on a lake so while the wind chills were murder, it wasn't nearly as bad as say, living in Nunavut. I still believed that winter was infinitely better than summer though, and I'd die on that hill. My comfort zone was somewhere between fifteen and twenty degrees though.
Why am I bringing it up? Because despite how it had been fairly warm, the temperature had dropped considerably. And the wind had picked up. And, as I had become very much aware, I did not have gloves.
So I was fucking freezing.
"Why the hell do I not have gloves?" I grumbled, attempting to stave off frostbite by shoving my hands into my pits. It was working, I think. I couldn't feel the stinging bite of the cold on my hands anymore. But then again, I couldn't feel my hands at all at this point. "How did I survive this long without gloves?"
Morgan spun to face me, walking backwards through the snow. With a mischievous grin she flexed her fingers at me, protected against the biting wind by elbow length gloves. "No idea! But you know, it sure is nice having these!" She teased.
"I'll remember this next time you want food." I frowned, if we still had food anyway. Turns out we both sucked at rationing and had eaten all of our food that morning. "And watch where you're going, you're going to trip."
She opened her mouth to retort only for her foot to catch on a particularly deep patch of snow and she fell backwards. "Woops!" She landed on her back with a muffled thud and the crunch of compressing snow.
I stopped in my tracks as she looked back up at me trying to hold in her laughter. "Told you." I deadpanned.
She burst into laughter, laying herself back out into the snow. "What timing!"
"Yeah, yeah, it's hilarious. Come on, before you get frostbite." I offered one of my hands, a bright pink from exposure to the cold. I could still move the fingers at least, so I was still alright for now.
"Aw, you're no fun." She relented, accepting my help to her feet. She shook off a few clumps of snow sticking to her coat before we continued marching.
"So I've been told." I drawled. "How are you not freezing?"
"Enchanted coat!" She proclaimed, spinning to face me again. "My dad gave it to me, it's enchanted to resist wear and tear, and regulate the wearer's temperature!"
"Well isn't that convenient." I muttered. "How much did that set him back?"
"Not sure." She said, nearly tripping again. She turned back to the path ahead and grinned sheepishly over her shoulder. "But I think it was pretty expensive? It was a while ago."
"So what's he like? Your father?" I asked, already vaguely knowing the answer.
"Well for one, he's a master tactician! An unbeatable strategist!" she exclaimed.
"Now are you saying that because it's true? Or because you've never beaten him at your strategy games?"
"Well obviously it's true!" she beamed. "Both things, actually."
"Oof."
"But I really look up to him." She said, slowing to walk beside me. "I want to beat him one day, and make him proud."
"I'm sure he's already proud of you, Morgan." I said, giving her a sidelong smile.
"Aw, thanks!" she beamed, hiding her hands behind her as we walked. We continued to walk in silence for a while, the only sound being the crunching of snow underfoot. This was nice, as much as I was freezing. The previous night's snow covered the numerous evergreens and cedars, no other living creature in sight.
I had been on the lookout for them. I had never encountered one in the wild before, but I figured wolves would likely make this forest their home. While they might be a threat, there was plenty of other things to be on the lookout for. You shouldn't need to worry about bears at this time of year, obviously, but moose don't hibernate. And you did not want to mess with a moose.
Had meatballs made from moose once though, those were pretty good.
"So where are we going anyway?"
"Honestly, I have no idea. That temple isn't on my map."
"So you weren't sure after all." She quipped.
I shrugged. "I had a general idea. We're heading east towards the capital, then we'll head south." At least, I hoped we were going east. If we weren't, we'd probably die out here, either from hunger, or the cold.
With that morbid thought in mind, I picked up the pace, Morgan suddenly having to hurry to keep up with me because of her shorter legs. "Hey, wait up!"
"Right, sorry." I slowed again. "You know, you can walk behind me, use my tracks."
"Oh yeah." She said. "That would make things a bit easier."
We fell back into silence again, and I felt obligated to try and keep the conversation going. But what should I ask next? Why does talking to people have to be such a chore? My hand brushed against my sword as we walked, and I got a flash of inspiration.
"So how does magic work?" I asked.
"You plant both feet firmly on the ground, focus your mana into the book and then where you want it to go! Then boom!" she explained.
"That might be just vague enough to work!" I joked.
"Why do you ask?"
"Can I give it a try?"
"Here!" She handed me her spell book over my shoulder "You need the spell tome, obviously. It's a catalyst." I cracked it open and was immediately met with a page long diagram of…something? It looked like somebody had mashed together a bunch of shapes and called it a day. The page contained what I think was Latin. It was using the alphabet I knew at least.
"So how does this whole focus thing work?"
"It's kind of hard to explain, you're better off just giving it a shot."
With a shrug, I gave it a shot, half expecting to mispronounce the words and summon a demon or something. The first attempt, nothing happened. The second time I felt a chill run up my spine, which might have just been the cold, but still nothing. And the third…
I looked up at the sky as I was laid out in the snow. The ringing in my ears drowning out the sound of Morgan keeled over next to me, laughing hysterically. I reached up to wipe the soot from my face and scowled. "I'm never using magic again." I said, the sound of my own voice muffled, but audible to me.
I sat up, the world spinning as the ringing in my ears finally began to clear up. A scorch mark marred the ground a few feet in front of me, the snow around it melted and vaporized or thrown about haphazardly. The grass beneath vulnerable to the winter air.
The spell had worked. But it had immediately detonated directly in front of me. Morgan, probably thinking I wouldn't be able to make it work, had collapsed next to me and was currently laughing herself to death as she rolled in the snow.
Never again.
We managed to drag ourselves into a settlement just before sunset, cold, hungry, and tired. Even Morgan's coat hadn't completely protected her and she had begun to shiver alongside me a couple hours ago. But we made it to civilization, so mission accomplished, I guess.
The village was made up of a handful of log houses laid out seemingly at random around a larger, two-story building, smoke billowing out of its chimney. Separated from the village was a saw mill, and judging from the noise, or lack thereof, they were done with work for the day.
Guessing that the larger building was some kind of inn, we trudged through the snow, the locals having elected to leave it be for the time being instead of clearing it. The front of the building was a covered porch, a man stood on the porch, lighting a lantern next to a sign bearing the image of a tankard carved into it. "I take it this is an inn?" I asked as we approached.
"Aye, you've got the right place." The man replied. He looked to be in his later years, tanned skin heavily wrinkled around his eyes, short blond hair beginning to grey, and as he made for the door, I noticed a heavy limp favouring his right side. "Come in, I just put the soup on, assuming you've got coin, at least."
"Yeah, we've got some." I grunted. I made sure to stomp my boots free of snow on the porch before following him inside. It's common courtesy, after all. Morgan mimicked me, though she hurriedly pushed past me to get into the heated interior.
She made a beeline for a stool at one of the tables and dragged it over so she could sit in front of the fireplace, huddling up under her coat. I followed the man, who I assumed to be the innkeeper, over to the counter opposite the door. He stepped behind and began pouring soup into a pair of wooden bowls. "So how much would for food and a room?" I asked, taking a seat at the counter and offloading my pack onto the counter.
"For the two of you? I'll take a silver coin." The man replied.
"A silver huh…" I trailed off as I dug into my pack for my coin purse. Opening it revealed a single gold coin, five silver ones, and fifteen copper ones. "Here." I tossed a silver coin onto the counter.
"One room, dinner, and I'll throw in breakfast." The man said, placing the two bowls, along with a pair of wooden spoons onto the counter. He quickly snatched the coin up and stuck it in his pocket. "Foods on, Miss."
"Smells good." She said dragging herself away from the fire. She took a spoon and bowl for herself. It looked and smelled like a stew, a brown broth, and some chunks of meat, carrots and potatoes. Simple, but sometimes that's all you need.
"Thanks Miss," the innkeeper said, reappearing with a handful of copper coins which he handed back to me before I dumped them back into my coin purse. "Most people just grunt and inhale the stuff."
"Only one room. It has two beds though, right?" I asked, scooping up a chunk of meat.
"Only one bed." He stated. "That a problem?"
"No, it's fine." I sighed. "I'll just sleep on the floor." Morgan shot me a sideways glance, but didn't say anything, continuing to shovel food into her mouth.
"What's the matter? You two get into a fight or something?" the man asked.
"No, we just met yesterday." I corrected.
"Ah, sorry for assuming." The man said.
"Assuming what?"
"Tell you what, I'll throw in another room, forty-five copper." He said.
"One room is fine." Morgan cut in. I just raised a brow at her and returned to my dinner, she was probably right. Money was tight right now, I'd take sleeping on the floor one night over one in the cold.
"One room it is." The man grunted, tossing an old key onto the counter.
"Cheers." I said around a mouth of food as I pocketed the key. We continued in silence as we finished our food. Townsfolk filtered in as we ate. Sometimes individuals would take a seat at the counter, the occasional small family or couple would take a table. At some point a girl, who I assumed was the owner's daughter had come along and started serving bowls of soup to the other patrons.
Morgan and I remained to enjoy the heat from the fire until it started to quiet down and we headed up to our room. It was a square room, of roughly twelve feet in length and width, a single window opposite the door, a single, small bed greeted us as we entered, and the smell indicated it was made with hay. A wooden barrel full of water sat in one corner. We kicked off our boots at the door, Morgan practically throwing herself onto the bed. She slowed only to hang her sword, tome, and coat on the bed post before she buried herself under the white covers.
I let out a grunt as I slid to the floor and took off my pack and setting it on the floor. "What are you doing?" Morgan asked, peeking out from under the covers.
"What does it look like?" I grunted as I laid down, using my pack as a pillow, getting ready for another uncomfortable night. "I'm letting you have the bed."
"That's not fair, why should I be the only one getting to sleep in a bed?"
"Because a man and a women sharing a bed is for couples, and we met literally yesterday." I replied.
"That's what you're worried about? Get in here." Morgan laughed, lifting the covers. "I trust you. Besides, it's still kinda cold."
"You sure?" I asked, rising to my feet. "I'm not gonna say know if you're offering."
"Yes! Now hurry up! I'm getting cold here!"
"Alright, alright." I relented, taking my gambeson off, and resting my sword against the bedframe before climbing in with her. Morgan shimmied over to give me as much room as she could without hitting the wall. "There, happy?"
"Turn around."
"Fine, fine." I did as requested, flipping myself over and facing the room. "Now can I go to sleep?"
Without a word, Morgan shimmied closer, wrapping her arms around me in a hug. "You're so warm!" she hummed, pulling herself against me, shoving her face into my back. "Why didn't you tell em you were so warm?"
"Um…" I stammered at a loss for words. What can I say? This was a new experience. Ignoring my stammered protests, Morgan was asleep in minutes, quietly snoring. Leaving me with the simultaneously comfortable, and uncomfortable situation. Not only was I sharing a bed with an attractive young women who didn't understand the concept of boundaries, but I was wearing significantly more clothes than I was used to sleeping in. And I was sharing a bed with another living creature.
I sometimes let my dogs sleep on my bed, but I could never get comfortable and I always worried about disturbing them by moving. With a sigh, I closed my eyes, and prepared myself for a long, uncomfortable night. Once more reminded that this was my life now.
Wait. When did I become the little spoon here?