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tanakavox · 1 year

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Branching paths: Chapter 2

A few hours earlier.

Amber blankly looks up into the sky as the cart bumps around bored out of her mind. Three hours of nonstop travel not even stopping for supplies in Southtown due to the prices there being, as her twin brother Laslow put it, "A fucking rip-off." Though the inflated pricing probably had more to do with their small group being Plegian than anything. They weren't exactly well-liked throughout the land, and it was made more apparent the further they traveled into central Yillese. The relationship between the two nations wasn't exactly good(the understatement of the century as Laslow would have put it), and interactions between their group and the common folk ranged from carefully neutral suspicion to outright hostility though the latter was fairly few and far in-between. Amber understood their attitude of course, but it pissed her off to no end when they had to deal with all of the petty pegasus dung. Price gouging basic supplies? Taverns suddenly dried up of ale and no food to serve? Inn's suddenly all booked when there was plenty of room and board earlier? And for what, all because she and her family were Plegian? Her family hadn't been in Plegia for years, yet they associated them with the war all the same. As her thoughts turned dark, Amber growled in annoyance causing her to get the attention of her twin.

"You okay Amber?" Laslow asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. His calming grip made Amber relax a little, before exhaling a tired sigh.

"Yeah, I'm just annoyed at…"

"The prices in the village?"

She nods her head in affirmation, to which Laslow could only shrug in response, "Well, what can we do? Isn't like we can change their minds about us sis. Sometimes you just gotta deal with what life gives you, even if it's out of your control."

As much as she hated admitting it, her twin was right, and sulking over it won't change anything and had decided to change the subject, "Whatever man, I don't wanna keep talking about it. Mind waking up Sparrow so I can get his map? Jack might need it."

Laslow leans back and lets out an exaggerated yawn, "I'm kinda sleepy sis, why don't you wake him up?"

"Because he's sleeping right next to you," she stated in a dry tone.

"Yeah, but you're closer so…"

"He's literally sleeping right next to you, Laslow."

But Laslow had already fallen asleep, a loud snore echoing from his mouth marking the end of their conversation. Annoyed at her twin's antics Amber forced herself up and began moving to where her youngest brother was laying, but not before purposely aiming a kick toward Laslow's head. At the last moment before it connected Laslow had miraculously rolled out of the way, leaving Amber's foot to connect with nothing but solid air. "Typical…" she muttered under her breath, her mood now officially foul and ready to take it out on someone else. And who better to do so than scaring the living daylights of her baby brother? Carefully approaching as to not wake Sparrow, Amber approached the blanket that he was wrapped up in and gently grabbed onto it… only to yank it off forcefully ready to see the look of shock on Sparrow's face. Unfortunately for Amber, she was not greeted by the frightened look of her brother, but instead by nothing but empty space. To make matters worse she saw that the trunk latch on their traveler's wagon had come undone again. In mere seconds, Amber's face went through three stages of raw emotion: blank confusion, startling realization, and finally, pure frustration. "Godsdamnit," she growled out, which in turn caused Laslow to wake up with a groggy yawn as he went to ask what was wrong. Only for him to stop short when he saw the empty space where Sparrow was, and let out a snort of amusement.

"He fell out again?" Laslow asked, though he already knew the answer.

"He fell out again!" She all but shouted in an exasperated tone, palming her face as she muttered dark words into her hand.

"Well… now what?" Laslow asked.

Finishing her mutterings, Amber huffed out a sigh of annoyance as she went to grab her bow, quiver, short sword, and her small satchel of supplies. She approached the back of the wagon, before turning to her twin "What one of us always has to do: go back and drag his ass back from whatever predicament he's gotten himself in. Tell Jack and Amelia we'll regroup with you in the capital, and that we should only be a day or two out."

Laslow yawned and lay back on the floor. "Sure thing sis, I'll get right on that."

Amber walked up to her twin and gave him a hard dope slap behind his head, before grabbing onto his collar and dragging him till they were face to face.

"I'm being serious you arse! I don't want to be out in the middle of nowhere with just Sparrow and I having to be worried about-"

"Okay, okay!" Laslow shouted out, his hands raised up in surrender as he withered under Amber's scornful look, "I said I'll do it, alright?"

Amber stared him down a little longer, before letting out a gruff "Good" and hopping out of the cart and booking it back towards Southtown.

The first sign that Amber knew that something was wrong was the thick cloud of white smoke hanging ominously over the horizon. Amber swore to herself, picking up her pace as a lingering feeling of dread filled her. The second sign was the sounds of terrified screams echoing in the air, followed by rough and cruel cackling that Amber and her family had become all too familiar with in their travels. By the time Amber had gotten close enough to put eyes on the Southtown, she was met with the visage of the town set ablaze and the townsfolk fleeing in terror as bandits sacked the town.

The sight of the burning town shocked Amber for a moment, before her usual calm set in and she began accessing the situation. This was not the first, nor would it be the last time Amber had seen a horrid sight and she didn't need to be a genius to decipher who was behind the burning town. Brigands, how typical. Take everything that wasn't nailed down, and destroy everything else they couldn't. Scanning around the first thing she saw was the town guard seemed mostly focused on helping to evacuate people than trying to fight the brigands. Some would call that cowardice, but it made sense in Amber's eyes. Southtown was smaller than most, more of a stopping point for rest and resupply so the guard was probably made more of volunteers than properly trained guardsmen. Their job was to keep the peace, not to fight brigands and they were better suited to helping to keep the people calm and organized than dying trying to fight an unpredictable enemy.

The second thing she noted was a portly, but strong-looking man vying for people's attention as he attempted to get them settled. He was an older gentleman, fairly well-dressed, and was flanked by two well-armed men. The Mayor of Southtown Amber concluded, or at least someone of importance trying to keep his people under control. It seemed like the Mayor and his guard had things mostly under control from the outskirts, but that wasn't really Amber's concern. If she had to guess, Sparrow was no doubt already caught up in this somehow, and finding him was her top priority.

With most of the townsfolk in disarray, Amber used it as an opportunity to move forward to the town without issue. Moments later, Amber found herself entering Southtown proper, before quickly taking to the alleyways to keep herself obscured and out of sight of any nearby bandits. Fighting them wasn't a priority, and the less likely she was to be discovered the better.

"Just gotta find Sparrow and get the hell out of here." She mumbled to herself as she kept moving, doing her best to ignore the wanton destruction left behind in the Brigand's path. Despite this, Amber couldn't help but sneer in distaste at the needless cruelty at the hands of the brigand invaders. Uncivilized brutes are the unwanted parasites of humanity that would rather cut down their fellow men and take from others' hard work than even consider working an honest day's work. Amber and her siblings may have been mercenaries, but they at the very least worked hard to earn their coin and bread and she could say that they never had to resort to living such a dishonorable life. Jack and Amber had made sure that their younger siblings never fell to such vile acts. Gritting her teeth in anger, Amber knots an arrow and fires, ready to kill these scumbags.

Later

Amber wiped the sweat off her forehead as she look around if any more enemies were coming at her. She remembers her brother Jack's words: "To always pay attention to her surroundings even when you thought you were safe." Jack was always a wee bit paranoid in her opinion but that paranoia had saved their lives many times. Once she made sure the coast was clear she made a note to gather any arrows or such from the bodies after she found Sparrow. She set off to find him pauses as she only had to take a single turn before catching a glimpse of him, not even having time to think about how she would scold him. Her birdbrain younger brother was apparently in midst of a battle himself with some new friends. She took note of these new people, hoping to see if they were threats. A blonde girl with pigtails had seemingly separated from the group undetected to help heal the injured townsfolk as they dealt with the remaining few. She decided to watch the rest of the battle pan out. It didn't take long for Sparrow and his new companions to take out their leader. She took notice of the blue-haired man who cut the leader's head off. He was skilled and very clearly experienced. She noticed that his style was similar to some noble used. She shook it off as it didn't really matter, she was here for Sparrow. As Amber got closer she heard her little brother running his mouth like always, the blue hair man giving the order to take care of the rest.

"None of that will be necessary." She stated calmly. She did hold back a smirk when she saw birdbrain's brother pale at the sight of her. She, however, turn to the blue-haired man and the armored giant who she couldn't help but noticed was trying to glare a hole in her. "While you all were dealing with the bulk of their force and dealing with the headless dunce over there, I had snuck into the city during the chaos and started cleaning up the rest of the brigands. As far as gathering the wounded and sending them out for help? Your sister went ahead and took some initiative and started gathering up the wounded with the locals, and the local lord had already sent out a messenger raven to get aid." She didn't know wherever that last part was true but eh.

"And why should we trust a word out of your mouth, Plegian?" The armored man said which irritated Amber. As if she was untrustworthy. He worked with her little brother, whole ass plegian! She sighed rolling her eyes a bit.

"One, because if you take a look behind me you can take note of my handy work of the rest of the Brigands."

At this, the men all peaked behind Amber to see several brigands cooling corpses scattered around. They were either riddled with arrows or stabbed in various vital areas.

"Two, because if you would have bothered to look behind you, you can see your sister scrambling around and trying her best to heal the civilians."

At this, they all looked behind them, and sure enough Lissa was currently busy healing several people at a time while the local doctors and apothecaries did their best to help.

"Is that enough for you to trust a Plegian? Or do you need me to bend over on my hands and knees and grovel on the ground in front of Ylisse finest?" She stared the armored man down, daring him to say more.

The armored man went to growl out a response before he was interrupted by Sparrow.

"I trust her."

The Brunette and Blue-haired man both turned to Sparrow with questioning gazes.

"I trust her because, uh, well-"

"He trusts me," Amber began as she started walking over to the sheepish-looking Sparrow with an intimidating stride, "Because I'm this birdbrain's sister Amber. And Sparrow? You have got a lot of explaining to do right now." Sparrow looked up at his sister with an awkward smile.

"I fell out of that cart again…." Amber growled and grabbed his ear, yanking it a bit.

"No shit! That's why you're not allowed to fall asleep in the cart moron!" The blue-haired man coughed a bit, catching the bickering sibling's attention.

"Um, I don't believe I've introduced myself. Chrom said rather sheepishly. "I am Chrom. And that is Sir Fredrick." He pointed toward the knight who still had his guard up. "Your Sparrow's sister? It's good to meet you, your brother really helped out here."

Amber let go of Sparrow's ear causing him to start rubbing, glaring at his older sister muttering something under his breath, she swore she hear him call her a bitch which earned him a quick punch in on his arm, so now he was rubbing his arm. "Yes, I am Amber. Thank you for looking after my little brother."

"I looked after them," Sparrow muttered.

"Sure you did. Anyways. As lovely as it was meeting the two of you we must take out leave. Sparrow." Amber sighs for them to leave but was stopped by Chrom putting his hand on her shoulder.

"Wait! Before you leave I wish to ask you something." Amber stops and turns to him with a raised eyebrow. "If you will follow us to Ylisse, our Exalt would gladly reward you and your brother for helping this town out. Amber couldn't help but snort and Sparrow let out a quick but loud chuckle. Chrom couldn't help but look confused. "Did I say something funny?"

Amber gently removed Chrom's hand from her shoulder smiling at him wryly. "Please. Look at us. We're pleglain. Do you really think that your Exalt would want anythi-"

"It matters to neither her nor I where you hail from Amber." Chrom interrupted her, shaking his head a bit. All that matters is that you defend these people's lives with no boon for ourselves. You have my word. You will be rewarded for your heroics." Chrom holds out his hand for a handshake. Amber hesitate a bit before slowly grasping it.

"Very well then." She said slowly. "But we will need to gather our family and talk to them first. They will be in the capital.

Chrom nodded his head in agreement. "Understood. I look forward to meeting both of them

#fire emblem chrom #fire emblem awakening #fire emblem 12 #fire emblem lissa #fire emblem #fire emblem fanfiction #fire emblem Fredrick #fire emblem avatar

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