Chapter 2 Unwelcome Change

"How much further till we get back home Chrom?" Complained Lissa who was starting to slow down due to all the walking the group has done in the past few hours. "My feet hurt, it's getting dark out, and the bugs are starting to come out! The gross and icky bugs that bite you and- Agh! Won goph in mah mouph!" Muffled Lissa as she tried to get the bug out of her mouth by spitting. But her efforts was to no avail as she had already swallowed the bug. "Eww I think I swallowed it. I'm definitely gonna have to brush my teeth after this!"

"Come on now Lissa, bugs are a good source of protein and they will make you very strong. And besides like Frederick says 'Hardships build character.'" Chrom replied teasingly. Lissa crossed her arms went Hmph and turned her head away from Chrom. "But do you want to help me find firewood though cause it is starting to get pretty dark." Chrom said as he looked up to the sky noticing that the moon was starting to come out.

"No thanks Chrom I've built enough character for one day!" Lissa said clearly starting to get annoyed at her older brother's antics.

Then suddenly a low grumble could be heard and it caused the two siblings to stop their bickering and look at the source of the sound. Robin, who was currently on Chrom's shoulder stood in silence as the three looked at him. He let out a nervous laugh and said. "I guess we should start thinking about some food. I'm pretty sure my tummy isn't the only one growling."

Frederick nodded at Robin and said. "Right I think some hunting and gathering is in order. Who wants to help me clear out a campsite?"

"Sigh I suppose I will." Replied Lissa with a hint of bitterness as she raised her hand.

"Ok and I will go get the food. Wish me luck guys." Said Chrom as he took out his Falchion and went inside of the woods to look for something to eat.

Robin flew off of Chrom's shoulders and moved to a nearby tree branch and perched there. "And what about you Robin what are you going to do? Perhaps you will go with milord Chrom and sabotage him while he's hunting. Then you will fly back saying that there was an accident that killed my lord?" Asked Frederick skeptically. Robin was starting to get annoyed at Fredericks skepticism and how he assumes everything he wants to do involves killing "his lord".

Robin let out a sigh and said. "Frederick I respect you for your skepticism but I have no intent on killing Chrom and nor will I ever kill him. Besides I'm going to go look for some berries or bugs to eat. After all I am a bird now." After saying this Robin flew off of the branch and flew the opposite direction to where Chrom was going to find something to eat.

After a few hours have passed a makeshift campsite has been set up in the middle of the woods with a campfire in the center. On the fire, a big piece of meat was set over the fire and was slowly cooking. Surrounding the fire were Chrom, Lissa, Frederick, and Robin who were all sitting down enjoying the warmth from the fire. Chrom was currently chowing down a huge piece of meat, while Robin was pecking at it and taking tiny slithers of meat. Lissa and Frederick didn't even touch their meat. "Man it's been too long since I last had bear meat." Chrom said in delight as he took another bite out of the meat. "Mmm Delicious!" He muffled out with his mouth still full of the bear meat. He swallowed the meat that was in his mouth with a gulp, looked at Lissa and asked. "What's wrong Lissa? Dig in!"

Lissa looked at the meat with a disgusted look and replied grossly "Thanks but no thanks. I think I'll stick to bugs. What normal human being eats bear meat?! It's like messing with the food chain! Right Robin?" Lissa looked over towards Robin who was completely unaware of the conversation going on between the two who was starting to make quick work of his little piece of meat.

Robin then looked up with a tiny strand of meat hanging from his beak and asked. "Huh What? What are you complaining about Lissa?"

Lissa just stared at Robin with a dumbfounded look on her face as she threw up her arms and said. "Forget I said anything. And Frederick why aren't you eating any?" Lissa asked the knight in blue.

Frederick sat there for a moment and answered. "Because I had a… large lunch! Yes a large lunch so I'm not that hungry." 'Smooth Frederick. They will never suspect anything' Frederick thought, proud that he was able to make a believable excuse.

Lissa just stared at Frederick. "Yeah right." She sarcastically replied. "Well I don't know about you but I think I'm going to sleep."

Chrom nodded and said. "Good idea. We should be getting some sleep for the rest of our journey tomorrow."

"I will take first watch." Frederick said as he stood up, stomped out the fire and grabbed his lance.

"No Frederick we'll be fine. You need to be all rested up so you can protect us tomorrow. Besides as long as the fire is out, bandits won't be able to find us."

"Very well milord. I will get some rest." Frederick replied as he layed down with his lance close to him.

Very soon the three started to fall asleep leaving Robin awake with his own thoughts. 'Why am I here? Why don't I remember anything? And why am I a bird? I suppose I will know the answers to these questions sooner or later. As long as I stick with these 'Shepherds' I think I will be fine. After all it seems like they need me as much as I need them' Robin let out a small yawn as he curled up into a small little ball. 'But I should get some sleep before these questions start plaguing me. Maybe I will remember some more things tomorrow. But who knows' After thinking about these final thoughts Robin closed his eyes and went to sleep.

A few hours into the night there was complete silence in the circle. Everyone was sleeping soundly and had content smiles on their faces. But one of the figures started to stir in their sleep. Chrom quietly sat up trying not to wake up the others in the camp. He scratched the back of his head and let out a small yawn. He looked around his surroundings, while gripping Falchion. "Hmmm." Chrom pondered. Chrom then heard the rustling of fabric on metal and looked over to see his sister starting to wake up.

"What's wrong Big Bro?" Lissa yawned as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

"Sorry Lissa, I didn't mean to wake you, but… Something doesn't feel right." Chrom replied. He got up from the ground and stretched his arms and legs.

Lissa started to get up as well and asked. "Define "something"."

"I don't know. I'm going to take a look around. I'll be back soon."

"You're not going alone mister! I'm coming too." Lissa declared worried about the safety of her older brother.

Chrom let out a small smile and said "Thanks Lissa. I'll be needing the company."

The brother and sister started their trek into the woods to find out what was wrong. After a few minutes of walking Lissa made an observation about their surrounding environment. "It's pretty quiet right now. Too quiet. Where are all the crickets and birds?" She asked. "Well besides Robin who's at camp."

"I don't know. Something is very wrong here. I think…" Were all the words Chrom could get out before the ground started shaking violently. Birds were flying away from the trees as their homes started to fall down due to the earthquake that was occurring. "Gods! What is this madness!" Chrom shouted as he pulled Lissa close to him and drew his Falchion.

"Chrom! I'm scared!" Screamed Lissa as she hugged her brother terrified at what's going on.

"We need to get back to camp! Lissa! Stay close!" Chrom yelled as he started running in the opposite direction to where they were going. As the two were running a huge piece of the earth erupted from the ground with flames spewing out! "Lissa this way!" Chrom shouted as they had to replan their course. There was a huge gap in the earth as the piece of ground they were standing on started to lift into the air. Chrom then took a running leap and landed on the piece of earth. "Lissa! Jump! I will catch you!" Chrom shouted to his sister. He held his arms out ready to catch his little sister.

Lissa turned back around to see the flames moving closer to her. She took a few steps back and made a running jump. As she jumped she let out a scream of terror thinking that she didn't make it. But Chrom caught her right before she landed. Chrom put her on the ground and they continued running. They didn't know where the camp was now. All that was on their mind was to run away from the impending cataclysm.

Meanwhile back at the camp Frederick held Robin in a tight grip squeezing the air out of him. "What do you mean you didn't do this?! I know you led milord and milady somewhere secluded so you can kill them! Then you conjured up this cataclysm to get rid of their bodies!"

Robin let out a few wheezes as he tried to say. "If I really did kill Chrom and Lissa and set the forest ablaze like this! Wouldn't you think I would have high tailed it out of here instead of going back to sleep to risk killing myself!" Robin was really getting annoyed at Frederick's wariness.

Frederick loosened his grip on Robin, allowing him to get some air to breath. The knight then said. "I suppose you do make a good point. Come help me find milord and milady, and perhaps then I will forgive you." Frederick hopped on to his horse and grabbed his lance. Robin flew onto Frederick's shoulder as the great knight's horse started to run into the forest.

"I see a clearing ahead Lissa! It seems to be pretty safe!" Chrom yelled as he continued running. Lissa was starting to slow done but still did her best to keep up with Chrom. Eventually the two landed in the middle of the clearing. There were a few forts in the clearing that they can use for shelter if needed.

But suddenly everything went grey except for Chrom and Lissa. "Chrom! What is that?!" Lissa exclaimed as she pointed towards the sky. Chrom looked to where Lissa was pointing and saw mysterious ruins appear in a ring. The ruins were very similar to that when someone is using a tome. As the ruins were going around in a circular pattern a row of what appeared to be crystals showed up. Then the crystals opened up like an eyeball and took shape of some kind of portal. Within the portal two figures started to come out. The two figures came out of the portal and landed on the ground with a 'thump'. They stood up and took a look at the surrounding area.

The two figures seemed to have been in garb that was similar to what a Fighter would wear. They had some kind of mask on their face with glowing red eyes. From their mouth was a purple like smoke that would come out every time they moaned. The figures then saw Chrom and Lissa. They pulled out steel axes and just looked at them menacingly waiting for one of them to make some kind of move. Chrom got his Falchion in a ready position and said. "Stay back Lissa." After saying that Lissa fell back a bit towards a nearby rock. The two fighters started shambling towards Chrom. Suddenly one of them charged at Chrom. He lept into the air to swipe him with his axe. Chrom was quick enough to tell what the fighter was doing and slashed through his stomach expecting the fighter to fall. But the fighter just turned his head in a 180 degree angle and threw his axe at Chrom who blocked it with his sword. The two stayed in the locked battle for while until Chrom took a chance and pushed the fighter down on the ground. He then leapt into the air and stabbed the fighter in the vertebrae causing the fighter to disappear in a puff of purple smoke.

After pulling his blade from the ground he looked around to find the other fighter. "AHHHHHH! HELP!" He heard a scream. He looked to find the source of the scream and found his little sister with her back against a rock as the fighter slowly approached her. Lissa took out her staff to defend herself. The fighter raised his axe and for a minute time seemed to have slowed as another figure jumped out of the portal. Drawing his sword the figure was able to block the axe from hitting Lissa. The figure was dressed in a blue garb all over. He was wearing a mask over his face and a dark blue hood over his head. Lissa could see small blue bangs above the hero's mask that seemed to match that of her brother's hair.

The masked man was holding back the axe with the most of his might. "Help!" He shouted towards Chrom who was dumbfounded at the figure who saved his sister. He shook his head and nodded towards the man and started running towards the fighter. The fighter looked towards Chrom and lifted his axe from the man's sword. Seeing the opportunity he and Chrom both slashed at the Fighter as he was distracted.

The fighter then puffed into a cloud of purple smoke just like the previous one. The man then put his sword back into its sheath, adjusted his hood to cover up more of his head, and stood tall. "Quite an entrance." The man looked towards the voice of the sound to find that it belonged to Chrom. "What's your name?" He asked.

"My name is of no importance right now. What's important is that there are more coming. I'll take care of the ones that got into the woods." And with that the masked man disappeared into the woods before Chrom got a chance to say anything.

When Chrom tried chasing after the man, a myrmidon that looked very similar to the fighters jumped out of a bush near to him in an attempt to kill him. Chrom was able to parry the blow in time and stab the myrmidon killing him quickly. After killing the myrmidon, a small horde of those purple warriors started to emerge from the forest. An archer knocked an arrow into its bow and took aim at Chrom. "CHROM LOOK OUT!" Yelled Lissa as she ran towards the archer ready to hit him with her staff. Chrom looked towards the archer and froze for a bit until he saw a spear pierced through the archer's chest. He puffed into purple smoke like the others have.

When the smoke disappeared, Frederick rode up to retrieve his spear. He closed up the spear and put it in a pocket of armor on his horse. On Frederick's shoulder was Robin who had his tome and sword at the ready. "Milord! Milady! Are you hurt?" Frederick asked with serious concern in his voice.

"No we're just fine Frederick thanks to that masked man who saved us. If it wasn't for him we'd both be dead!" Lissa said as she tried catching her breath yet again.

"Are such horrific creatures native to Ylisse? If they are I can understand why you wear armor then." Asked Robin who was very intrigued into these weird and horrifying creatures.

"They're not from Ylisse, I promise you that." Chrom replied.

"If we can take cover in these abandoned forts, it will give us an advantage against these monsters." Robin pondered looking at the three forts, his little tactical mind going to work already forming strategies on how to take out these things. Robin then noticed a huge monster that seemed to be barking some kind of orders at the monsters. "I think that big one over there is their leader. We're going have to make our way to him taking out any monsters in the way." Robin planned as he flew off of Frederick's shoulder and got ready to attack.

"I see, well in that case let's send these things back to the hell where they came from!" Chrom shouted as he got into a ready position. Frederick took out his Silver Lance, while Lissa hopped on to Frederick's horse, staff at the ready to heal anyone that needs healing.

A fighter ran towards Chrom swinging his axe upwards, Chrom dodged the attack and sliced the fighter in half as he the fighter turned into purple dust. A mage fired a few bolts of lighting at Chrom, but Chrom dodged out of the way. Robin flew up towards the mage and slashed him a few times with his sword to distract him while Chrom rushed forwards and destroyed the mage while he was off guard turning him into dust.

Robin fired a few bolts of thunder at another enemy mage effectively killing him but not before he sent out a burst of wind. The wind launched Robin back into a tree with a small poof of feathers as he hit the tree. Robin flew away from the tree with a slight wobble in his flight as he flew to Lissa. "Don't worry little buddy I'll patch you right up." Lissa said with a smile as she channeled her magic to the staff and healed Robin.

Robin took a deep breath and exhaled. "Thank you Lissa." Robin thanked as he flew back into action.

Frederick guided his horse towards an archer that was aiming at Chrom who was hacking down more monsters. Frederick stabbed the archer in his chest and it turned into purple dust.

"How many of them are there?! It feels like for every monster we take down two more takes it's place!" Chrom yelled as he took down yet another monster.

"I think we have to take down the leader first!" Robin observed.

Suddenly a group of fighters jumped up from behind the group and was just about to kill Chrom if it wasn't for an arrow that whizzed by killing the monster before it got a chance to attack Chrom. Chrom turned around only to see purple dust and an iron arrow.

"An amazing kill such as the one I just made is sure to win you over milady!" A regal voice said. Chrom turned to the source of the sound seeing an archer with light blue hair, royal blue garb and a white frilly tie. Alongside him was a person that Chrom already knew, Sully. She was a cavalier with crimson armor and short red hair. Sully looked to be really annoyed at the archer beside her.

"Yeah yeah that's cool Ruffles. But right now we have to take care of these damn things. Cap I'm here and ready to shove my lance up these dastards arses!" Sully shouted towards Chrom as she spun her lance around ready to attack any of the strange beast.

"Wait milady at least tell me your name." "Ruffles" begged.

Sully just rolled her eyes and said. "The names Sully."

"Ah a starkly beautiful name, as befits its owner, truly. I am myth and legend! I am he who strides across history's greatest stage! The man who puts "arch" in "archer"! My name my dear Sully is Virion! Will you marry me, my dearest Sully?" Virion passionately said as he got down to one knee. Sully looked absolutely confused at what's going on as were Chrom, Robin, Lissa, and Frederick.

"I think I know what this is! It's a joke! And when I put my boot through your face-that's the punchline!" Sully said amused at the archer's poor attempt to court her, as she kicked Virion in the stomach. Virion let out a big "OOF" as he kneeled over in pain while Sully was laughing. "Man you certainly are funny aren't you Ruffles! Let's go kick some monster arse!" Sully said as she rode towards a group of monsters ready to take them on, with Virion dragging behind still in pain from the kick.

The battle started leaning towards Chrom and the Shepherds with the help of Sully and Virion. Chrom went out to attack the Chief. The chief let out an angry moan and charged towards Chrom, who jumped back from it's slash and countered with a vertical slice. The chief stumbled back from the blow and tried to charge at Chrom again only to be stopped by an arrow piercing its skull causing it to turn into purple dust. Chrom said thank you to Virion and the group killed the rest of the monsters.

After all the monsters were defeated, the group got packed up ready to finish their journey back to the capital, until suddenly the same masked swordsman that saved Lissa from the monster appeared to Chrom, Frederick, Lissa, and Robin.

"I… um, I never got the chance to thank you… for before. So… thank you. You were very brave." Lissa nervously said with a slight blush on her face. She found herself attracted to this mysterious man but tried not to show it.

Chrom put his arm around his sister in a brotherly embrace. "You saved my sister's life. My name is Chrom. Might I ask yours?" He asked.

"You may call me Marth." Marth told Chrom.

Chrom looked amazed yet confused as to the name he just heard. "Marth? After the heroic king of old? You certainly fight like a hero. Where did you learn your way with a sword?" He asked pondering if this could really be the ancient king of legend.

"I'm not talking about me. This world teeters at the brink of a horrible calamity. What you saw tonight was but a prelude. You have been warned." Marth warned them as he swiftly exited the forest before anyone could say anything.

"Not much for conversation now is he?" Robin acknowledged while perching on Chrom's shoulder.

"It appears his skills lie elsewhere. I wager we'll see his name again… but for now let us make haste back to the capital. After what happened here I am worried about what happened to Ylisstol." Frederick said as he got on his horse ready to head back home.

"I agree. We should start heading back now. Let's move out." Chrom calmly said as the small group started to exit the forest.

Deep within the forest, Marth was resting on a stump. He had plans to go to Regna Ferox to participate in the upcoming tournament. Marth took the time he had to think about some things. "It's so good to see father again after such a long time. It was good to see all of them again. Although I do wonder what was up with the bird on father's shoulder. If I recall correctly father never had a pet bird, especially one that was able to fight. Which leads me to my next question. Where's the tactician? Father always said that he found him in a field near Southtown. Maybe they haven't met him yet. I should not let these questions plague me. I need to get going to Ferox."

Marth then stood up, adjusted his mask, pulled his hood over his head more, and started walking making his way to Regna Ferox.