Fire Emblem Tropera

Gertrude finally caught up with Sir Tygra, and the girl with dragon wings was there too. That girl looked young, she couldn't be older than Malia, and wearing clothes befit a noblewoman. What is a fancy girl doing here?

Gertrude pointed at the girl and looked at Heath and then Grendan "...yours?..."

"I see...its rare but it does happen. Dragons sometimes find themselves so enamored with humans that they end up marrying. ....Its probably a little hypocritical of me to talk like, I could be in danger of doing the same." *she chuckled at her own joke then turned to Gertrude.

"Hello there, my name's Kiri. I'll be joining you all from now on."she said giving grin to swordswoman. "...Maybe you should find a place to rest, you look exhausted."

"...Yeah..." Gertrude stuttered. She just realized just how much of a mess she looked. She went looking for Malia to ask if she could somehow have a bath and a change of clothes.

Zeera eventually wandered into the building where everyone else had gathered, examining the vast yet somewhat empty interior, though that seemed to change once Sir Tigra had found all the other people.

Zeera couldn't help but wonder why more of this building hadn't been set on fire, but then again it looked like it was made of stone.

There was also the strange girl with dragon-wings, though they weren't on her right now.

Who is she?

Zeera turned and watched as Gramps handed the doll back to the young girl.

Something about it reminded her of something from a long time ago.

There was a face, obscured by darkness. And a voice, whose message she could no longer comprehend.

A pair of hands reached out, granting her the tome.

Zeera couldn't remember much beyond that, but it was best if she forgot about these things.

Zeera returned to the world around her, and once more she listened to the conversations around her.

Kiri... Corvith...

A Manakete...

She wasn't sure if she had heard such a name before. Now that she thought about it, the girl was kinda well dressed.

"My name is Zeera," she said as the others began to introduce themselves to the newcomer. "Where are you from exactly?"

"Grendan, if I recall correctly, you've variously claimed to be descended from dragons, hill giants, the sun god, and on one occasion where we needed to ford a river at night, merfolk," Tigra said with a laugh, raising a finger for each mythical creature she listed.

"Where am I from?" she said, a sly grin creeping across her face. "That's an interesting question, with several answers, depending on what you mean. If you mean the place I call home, currently that would be this Kingdom of Frael. Though the same can be said of Crealach, and Arenfreal before it. And honestly those are only the recent ones." she was obviously boasting right now and it showed the way she held her head high and puffed out her chest. This was one dragon that definitely liked having her ego stroked.

"As for my place of origin...honestly I can't remember. There is a place that all Dragons might call home. Its the Isle of Draco though I image a human could circle this entire world and never find it. But its likely I was born on one of the human continents" *she gave a shrug as if dismissing the notion.

"It's all in the tone, you know. I wasn't being serious at all about any of those ridiculous claims about my own heritage. I mean, I don't even believe in merfolk!" Grendan shook his head. "But anyway, I was being completely, one-hundred-percent honest with you just now- there really is a manakete who married into my family way back when." He shrugged, adding, "Of course, the fact that I actually went into specifics about HOW I was related to the dragon should make it more credible than some of my jokes."

"Aye," Gramps said. "The merfolk put a lot of effort into making sure we mortals are unaware of their ways...."

"Draco..." Zeera murmured to herself. It did sound familiar enough, like something she had read from somewhere, but she couldn't remember where it was supposed to have been.

She also remembered hearing something about merfolk, though she hadn't seen one for herself.

Zeera then remembered something and turned to Sir Tigra, "Where is Bassairus, by the way?"

After Lorgos was struck down, Michel released the breath he had been holding in. Truth be told, he had expected the bandit leader to rush him in retribution, and while he felt bad for the swordswoman he went after instead, he also harbored a sense of guilty relief that it hadn't been him. With nothing else to really do (other than try to apologize to the townspeople), Michel wandered over to the main building where everyone seemed to be gathering, trying not to let himself be bothered by the several dirty looks that were thrown his way.

On Michel's arrival, he recognized most of the members of his party (though he still felt it strange to consider them such) gathered around a young girl. After a moment of pondering where he had seen the (actually quite pretty) girl before, Michel realized with a start that she had been the person he had seen flying about during the fight! He moved towards the group and tapped Kiri on the shoulder, hoping to find out more. "Er, pardon me madam, but I believe I saw you flying just a few minutes past...?"

Kiri looked up at Michel, and for a moment recognized him as one of the bandits, giving him an uncharacteristically scary glare, before allowing her face to relax. "And you're the one who turned from that pack of dogs aren't you? Well, congratulations on that. As I explained to your friends I am a Manakete, manifesting wings is an ability of mine." she said somewhat wishing she could inform all of them at once.

Eridan had spent most of his time after the battle surveying the civilians for more information, and now made his way back with a frown. Most of what they had told him was of little value, although there was a budding rumor that left a bad taste in his mouth.

"So the bandits have their own king now? Great, why don't we just redraw Frael's borders and give them their own sovereign nation? Not like the king's using the land." He muttered to himself as he walked toward the building where most of his comrades have gathered.

When he noticed that the group was clustered around a small girl, he gave a confused frown. "What's with the kid? Did she lose her parents or something?"

"She's a manakete, Eridan. You know, dragonkin? She's a lot older than she looks- in fact I'm willing to bet she's the oldest person here, Gramps included," Grendan answered, sounding displeased at how often that fact had to be reiterated. "Anyway, she's volunteering to join us. Honestly, I think she looks a bit soft, but that's nothing a bit of training won't fix."

edited 8th Dec '16 3:59:02 AM by Suttungr

"Hmph. This flesh my be soft but I assure you my mind is not, Grendan." she objected, but sighed having to admit to herself that she was rather weak right now, even if she woudln't do it verbally.

"At any rate, I'm glad you all are doing this but agree with the king on this matter. For the last century or so those Vissan vermin have been infesting every speck of land they can reach. Its only a matter of time before they come after Frael, especially considering their past with this country." she noted to the others.

"On the other hand, if Frael dedicates everything to fighting Vissan while ignoring the bandits, it'll collapse entirely. Either way, it'd mean the end of Frael- even I can see that much." Grendan shook his head at the obtuseness he saw in others. "I mean, a country is defined by laws. If the laws are no longer enforced, then the country's nothing but a figurehead. Thus the existence of mercenary bands like ourselves, right Sir?"

"Oh you think so?" she said looking back up at Grendan. "Look at it from the king's perspective for a moment. He must decide between showing weakness to an old enemy, or allowing brigands to run around the countryside for a while. Quite a hard decision don't you think? We should do our best to make it easy on him."

Eridan took Grendan's statement with a healthy dose of skepticism, giving him a deadpan stare before letting out a sarcastic chuckle.

"But seriously, who is she? Some noble's daughter?"

Grendan raised an eyebrow at how this manakete STILL didn't see his point. "What, you mean bandits running rampant isn't a sign of weakness in itself?" He shook his head. "I don't have any objections to strengthening the border, but when it's at the expense of stability... well, all Vissan has to do is wait for Frael to self-destruct and then move in to mop up the mess left over."

A quick glance at Eridan to see his skepticism later, he turned back to Kiri to add, "Convincing him is on you, incidentally."

"What I'm saying is, the king has a hard decision to make so I don't grieve him for it. But my opinion matters little. I can't order the knights from the border,but I can swing a sword."

She is shrugged at Grendan. "He can think what he wants. Just know that my name is Kiri."

edited 8th Dec '16 8:45:01 AM by Azure

"A hard decision, yes. But I can't help feeling that he's fallen for some form of trap." Grendan shook his head in exasperation, turning to leave in order to remove the temptation to use his sword on the new recruit whose refusal to see the king's mistake had so aggravated him.

Gertrude was finally back to the group, now wearing a wool shirt but still carrying her sword. She saw Grendan and Kiri in a heated argument. "Hey... What's... the... commotion?..."

edited 8th Dec '16 9:17:05 AM by RAlexa21th

"Perhaps he has, perhaps these bandits are more than opportunists." she implied to the wyvern rider, before looking at Gertrude. "We're discussing politics."

"Those bandits... they are... desperate... just like... everyone else..." Gertrude chimed in, looking down.

"The king's... war efforts... took their land.... and those... discharged... have nowhere... to go... so with... no skill... they steal... to survive... I know... I was almost..." Gertrude was gasping now. That sentence was taxing on her speech impediment.

edited 8th Dec '16 9:35:24 AM by RAlexa21th

"You were?" Kiri's expression softened a little, as she posed her question to Gertrude, stepping a little closer to her.

"...Um... after... House Kingsley... fell... I went... across Frael... to look... for work... No one... would accept... such a... failure... I was... starving... thought I was... going to die... was planning... attacking... some merchants... but Sir Tygra... came along..." Gertrude gave a guilty look at sir Tygra.