The Encounters Of Fate | Fire Emblem: Awakening

Chapter 8 - Among The Forest

ʟᴜᴄɪɴᴀ's ᴍɪɴᴅsᴇᴛ sᴄʀᴇᴀᴍᴇᴅ for her to run, but she couldn't even move an inch.
"Father!" She cried out instead, heart shattering to the view of her father on the ground.
Tears streamed down her face as Lucina buried her face in her hands- Chrom, who was now lifeless, was murdered by his best friend.
"How could you?!" Lucina found herself screaming at the former Ylissean tactician, "Out of all the things you could do?"
Robin, Ylisse's betrayer, only laughed in reply.
"What I did was correct, princess." He said in a voice that didn't belong to his. A smile coiled on his lips, raising up a bloodied hand- purple liquid pouring down it.
"No..." Lucina stammered, holding up both of hers helplessly, "Please... no..."
Robin looked satisfied at Lucina's fear. "Bonds do not shape our fate," He began, a spell warming up between his fingers, "What man-kind believes is not what gods believe. For I am Grima, the destroyer of humans."
Lucina couldn't stop the sentence echoing in her mind. The fell dragon was to destroy the world again- she had never believed in the legend, but now the scene was unraveling out before her, terrifying every nerve in her body.

"Y-you... are not... a god..."
"And what makes you think so, princess? You never seem so reasonable."
Lucina decided not to reply to the question. She was terrified and alone. Lucina looked down at her side, seeing Falchion attached to her belt.
"Run... Lucina... go... please..."
Her fathers last request to her sprang into her mind- Chrom had sacrificed himself to save Lucina from death.
She loved her father. Lucina needed to listen to him- to make him proud, wherever he was- and help the world, like he tried to do. The job was now Lucina's, and she needed to finish it- for the sake of her father, and for the sake of the Ylissean party.
I will avenge you someday. Please forgive me.
     It seemed like a sin to run away from her father, although he was now dead. Lucina had honestly never fought alone before-which scared her even more- but she had to, in order to accomplish what she needed to do. Save the world from such a tragedy.
    The princess looked at Robin again. As Lucina hid a smirk rising from her cheeks, she turned towards an opening in the temple, readying her feet,
And ran.

* * *

    "Lucina!"
"Nngh..."
Lucina's eyes slowly opened, only to be welcomed by Gerome, kneeling beside her. She let out a pained groan- the surface she was lying on was rather uncomfortable- stone, to be exact- and the needles of sunlight seemed to be blinding her. Weakly, Lucina brought a hand up to her forehead.
    Gerome suddenly grabbed Lucina's hand and gripped it tightly.
"It's alright, Lucina. You can rest now." He whispered in the most welcoming voice he could. By the looks of it, Lucina wasn't feeling very good.
     The fort they were in was large- the walls were made of polished but crumbled stone, both cold but warmer than the outdoors at the very moment, the building was lightened by torches, and there were zero to few bugs crawling around the floor. Nevertheless, it was the only place they could stay safe in.
For now.

    Gerome stared at Lucina for a while. She looked almost like an angel asleep. The wyvern rider couldn't help but smile- her eyes were closed shut, her cheeks tinted red-
"Gerome! We're under attack!"
He suddenly stood up and peeked through the crack in the fort, spotting several packs of purple figures making their way to their very shelter.
    "Gods... Owain! Severa! Laurent! Wake up!"
"But... how about Lucina?" Inigo questioned, eyes flying over to the sleeping princess.
"I'll take care of her, now hurry! We need to flee, those risens are out-numbered!"
    The group followed his command. Quickly but quietly, they crept through the opening in the wall.
    Gerome slowly grabbed Lucina gently and followed.

    The human-zombies didn't seem to notice them, although they all froze- hidden behind a tree- motionless.
"Stay quiet, understood?" Gerome explained. They all nodded in reply.
    Minutes passed and the risens seemed to be going nowhere. The group remained at their spot, using Gerome's words as an excuse. Even more moments passed and patience was suddenly broken.
    Gerome glanced behind him to see an opening to a forest.
"Let's go. We can't wait any longer."
   The group carefully made their way towards the trees. They were soon to reach the safety of the woods until they were stopped by a girlish scream. Noire, noticing the scream, immediately reached for her bow and knelt behind a bush.
    Her eyes were steady and her hands were calm as she readied an arrow, scanning the horizon. "I-it's a... it's a human, Gerome!" She half screamed, half whispered.
    Gerome took a glimpse beside Noire, spotting an oddly familiar girl pinned to the ground by risens. Noire quickly aimed her arrow at the young woman.
"Hold." He said, gesturing a halt with his left hand. "We need to help her."
"But... that means we have to kill the risens, Gerome!" Inigo whimpered, although he already reached for his silver sword.
   Gerome stopped to think. "Noire, shoot that arrow at one of the risens to distract them- quickly- and we'll help the girl. Hurry now, she won't be alive for long."
The archer nodded, loading another arrow on the string of her weapon. Gerome silently put Lucina down, grabbing Owains arm lightly.
"Stay behind with her."
Lucina's cousin could not disagree, and only nodded in reply. He was eager to help.
   "Steady..." Gerome guided as Noire aimed, her hands stopping at the perfect shooting point, "Now!"
The arrow fired right into the target of the risens chest.
"That's it! We don't have much time!"

    A third of the group followed Gerome with weapons in hand and charged. The rest stayed back to protect Lucina, still sound asleep.
    And so the battle began- metal clashing, screams replaying, and blood pouring. The girl was surrounded by the beasts, most likely to fall to her death. Gerome closed his eyes, waiting for her death-scream, But something surprised the group.
    She suddenly brought her hand up to her lips performing a whistle. The sound was followed by a creature circling around her, landing between the risens and the girl. Gerome stopped fighting for a moment to stare.
    The creature was covered in black scales, with welcoming and frightened eyes locked on the zombies. Wonderstruck, Gerome suddenly had an unlikely but possible inference.
Minerva.

    It couldn't be anything else. The wyvern looked like his mothers'. It was a little aged, but looked young at heart, and he saw that the small dragon looked a little frightened- as it usually was when flying.
But why in gods name was Minerva with the girl?
    He couldn't answer the question. Gerome needed to save the woman. She was weapon less, but armed- which, in Gerome's opinion, was bad- and Minerva couldn't hold off the risens for long, as he predicted. Gerome then thrust his axe forward and raced towards the girl.
     Using fast reflexes, he knocked the risen clean as he elbowed it in the chest. As it fell with a growl, Gerome finished it off with a giant slice from the silver axe.

    The girl was too astonished, she couldn't find any words to say.
"Are you alright?" Gerome asked, helping the young woman up. She smoothed out a piece of her dreamy light-red hair, nodding hysterically.
    "Y-yes... t-thank you..." She replied, looking up at Gerome. Her smile then faded as she looked away from him fairly quickly.
"Is... there something bothering you?"
"N-no... its just..."
"Yes? I'm listening."
The woman gulped. "I-it's Gerome, right?"
"Um... I suppose... how... do you know? What's your name?"
    "I-I..."
"Gerome?"
Inigo kept his hand on the hilt of his sword as he approached the girl.
"Whoa, peace, Inigo." Gerome said, putting a  hand on his shoulder. Inigo looked quite nervous to see a woman- he flirted with girls but failed most of the time- as his eyes were only focused on her, and to be more exact, her face.
    "My name... it's Komura."
Gerome was shocked. "Komura... quite surprising... I had... a sister named Komura."
Komura's eyes widened at the thought of Gerome remembering. Sadly, he didn't seem to know that it was his sister. His twin sister.

     "No," She said, "Gerome, it is me. I am your sister."
Silence.

-*-

(A/N) - There we are. ^-^ So, decided I'd add a character that I made up, named Komura, if you haven't noticed. Yes, she's the sister of Gerome- twin sister. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
First Line: Lucina's mindset screamed
In the next update...

-enchantedfangirl // Kamui the dragon warrior 💝