Basically, the reason I wrote this is because I think Sodia is a really great character that gets treated pretty poorly by the fandom at large. So, I wanted to give her a chance to shine. Just so you know, there are no pairings and this story will update once a day unless unforeseen circumstances get in the way. Here we go!

Chapter One: Vacation Interrupted

"That was a waste of time." This pointless trip to the Egothor Forest put Flynn in a sour mood. It was hot, too, which further exacerbated him. It was still early enough in spring that he'd worn his long-sleeved uniform jacket this morning, but as the day wore on it got unexpectedly warm and now he was roasting. Sweat trickled down his back and he longed to at least take his armour off, since the metal plates absorbed heat.

"At least we can confirm that nothing is wrong," Sodia said.

Flynn wasn't interested in her optimistic reasoning. He didn't want to think positively; he wanted to complain about how hot and stuffy his armour was. He was supposed to be on vacation, dammit. It was the first vacation he'd taken since becoming commandant about six months ago, and he had to admit he was due for one. The entire autumn and winter blurred together in a haze of meetings, paperwork, troop inspections, and naps snatched at his desk. It had been Estelle's idea that he take a vacation before he burned out, and though he hesitated at first, the closer he got to finishing his preparations and leaving the castle, the more enthusiastic he got. It would be such a nice relief to take two weeks off and recharge.

He had been only minutes from leaving his office when a knight arrived with an urgent report. Despite his better judgement, he'd reluctantly sat down to glance it over and sighed. Someone had reported suspicious activity around the abandoned blastia cannons in Egothor Forest. Blastia were gone and the cannons didn't function any longer, but if suspicious characters were nosing around and possibly trying to find a way to use them again, it needed to be checked out. Since Flynn had already arranged to spend the first half of his vacation in Aurnion with Yuri, he'd reluctantly decided to check it out while he was in Hypionia. After hiking all the way into the forest to investigate the cannons, though, he'd found no evidence of anyone being up here, let alone tampering with the old cannons. What a colossal waste of time.

He was grateful that Sodia had come along, at least. This wasn't an official Knight mission but she'd volunteered to investigate the forest with him, and to provide backup in case he ran into any monsters. He appreciated having someone to talk to, even if he couldn't stop thinking that he ought to be in Aurnion hanging out with Yuri right now. "I'd be willing to bet there was never any sighting. The report came from Mimula Cumore - I'd bet five hundred gald she just wanted to waste my time." Mimula was Cumore's equally-awful sister, and she'd spent the past five months in jail for trying to blow up the capital. Flynn really needed to have a serious talk with the Council about letting nobles get absurdly short prison sentences for serious crimes. She had still come close to murdering thousands of people, even if she did have loads of money and titles and she cried about how it was all her butler's fault and he put her up to it.

"That's what I was thinking, sir."

Now, if only there was a way to prove she'd been full of shit and he could fine her for wasting Knight resources. Except this wasn't an official Knight mission. Dammit. They were still at least several hours from leaving the forest, too. They walked along a narrow ridge with a cliff wall to their left and dense forest stretching out below to the right. About fifty feet down was a creek winding along the edge of the steep slope. The trickling of water and the rustle of wind through the sea of trees were the only sounds, and despite his aggravation, Flynn had to admit he'd missed the quiet. It was never truly quiet in Zaphias, where you grew accustomed to carts trundling by at two in the morning and learned to sleep through it.

"Well, when you get back to Zaphias, file a report saying there's nothing out here," he told her. "We'll be out of the forest by this evening and then it will only take a couple of days to cross to Aurnion. You can get transport back to Zaphias from there."

"I know, sir. I'm not concerned about-"

The ambush was on them before she could finish her sentence.

Flynn's sword was out and swinging before he even consciously thought about what was happening. Two men had sprung around the turn on the path, taking them by surprise. It was only Flynn's instinct that kept the first one's sword from hitting Flynn's throat. Sodia was just as quick with her sword, and Flynn trusted her to hold her own. Blades flashed in the burning sunlight, and as the enemy's sword scraped his arm he was suddenly very glad he hadn't taken off his armour. They'd been expecting to run into monsters, not assassins.

Too skilled to just be bandits, he thought with a grunt as the one he fought forced him to stagger backward. He glanced warily to edge of the path and the steep fall. These fighters meant business, and they seemed to have been expecting them. Flynn had a pretty good idea that Mimula had wanted more than just to waste his day.

They might be more than your average thug, but Flynn was far from your average victim. He pressed forward, forcing the assassin to back up and defend against a torrent of sword strikes. Flynn locked eyes with the man, his own face a mask of fury. He was having a bad enough day without half-assed assassination attempts. This was hardly the first time a noble had tried to get rid of him, and hardly the best thought-out. Two assassins against him and Sodia? Please.

The assassin bled from several wounds by now, Flynn noted with satisfaction. He was already slowing down and Flynn didn't see this fight lasting too much longer. From the sounds behind him, Sodia was winning too, although he wasn't about to take his eyes off his opponent to check. With a grunt and a final great slash, he knocked the sword out of the assassin's hand. The blade tumbled down the slope while the assassin pinwheeled his arms to maintain his balance.

Flynn paused, not sure if he wanted to kill the guy so comically flailing on the edge of the cliff. They hardly seemed like trained assassins, and it would be better to arrest them so they could testify against Mimula. How could they take them prisoner, though? They still had a long walk across Hypionia to get to Aurnion. While Flynn considered this, the would-be-assassin lunged at him. This took Flynn by surprise, giving the assassin a chance to grab the front of Flynn's jacket and jerk him forward. Flynn brought his sword around, but it was an awkward angle. With one hand gripping Flynn's shirt in a vice grip, the other tried to grab Flynn's right hand and steal his sword.

The pair grappled, Flynn more pissed off than worried. What was this idiot even trying to accomplish? He tried to shove him off, but the man pulled him forward, and then stuck out his own foot and tried to trip Flynn.

"Stop!" Flynn commanded. "You've already lost, you idiot, just surrender!"

The assassin tried to throw Flynn to the ground. He did this by taking a big step back to gain momentum, but then his foot came down on the edge of the path. Flynn tried to shake him off in frustration, shoving him further backward. The assassin's eyes went wide as his balance gave out, and he toppled over the side. Unfortunately, he still maintained that vice grip on Flynn's jacket.

They tumbled down the slope as the world turned upside down, flipping over and over. The assassin lost his grip, and Flynn toppled in a mash of limbs and clanging armour. He could barely breathe as the world flipped around and he couldn't tell which way was up. Rocks and small boulders dislodged by the activity rained down the slope with him. At one point he caught a glimpse of a large boulder in his path but there was nothing he could do to avoid it. His leg smashed against it, creating a clang almost loud enough to drown out the accompanying crack!

The fall itself couldn't have taken more than a few seconds. When he finally came to a stop, he lay on his back and stared at the sky in shock. The circle of tree tops around the edge of his vision continued to spin and it took almost a minute for his head to clear.

I'm alive… he thought dimly, honestly surprised. He could easily have snapped his neck on the way down. Mud oozed under his hair, which he was thankful for because it meant his skull had landed on something soft and not a rock. As he came to his senses, he gradually became aware of a dull ache settling over his entire body. A flurry of alarm bells rang in his head, ever part of his body trying to send a distress signal. It was so overwhelming he couldn't figure out any details beyond a blur of pain, wet, sore, bleeding, pain.

The first thing he needed to do was take stock of his injuries. He was alive and conscious, which was a good sign. The first thing he noticed was that breathing was painful; his ribs were probably either broken or at least bruised. He raised his arms to examine them, and when he twisted his right wrist, pain shot through his arm. Ow, ok, that was a problem. His gauntlet felt uncomfortably tight, likely because his wrist was already swelling. He couldn't tell if it was broken or sprained, but for now the important thing was that he couldn't lift his sword if he needed it. Moving his arms also pointed out that the spaulder on his left shoulder had dented from the fall and the metal dug painful into his back, though it didn't seem to have broken skin. All of his armour was dented, actually. As much as he'd griped about how hot and heavy it was earlier, he was thankful he was wearing it now. He certainly had a lot of bruises underneath, but few open wounds.

All things considered, he seemed to have gotten off lightly. It could definitely have been worse. Then he looked to his legs, to see if he could figure out what was causing the intense pain in his right leg. When he looked, his chest sank.

His right leg below the knee bent inward. The armour itself had bent, and he thought back to that crack he'd heard when he hit the boulder. The greave was tight like his gauntlet, and he imagined inflamed skin swelling around a broken leg, pressing against the tight metal.

The next thing he noticed was that half of him was freezing. He slowly turned his head, hair squelching in the mud, and realized he'd landed half in the creek. Freezing water soaked his left leg, which was already going numb. On his hip, his coat was torn and blood mingled with the slow moving water. It was still early enough in spring that this creek was fed by melted snow. He couldn't lie here getting soaked until he got hypothermia. Gotta get out of the creek…

He moved his right leg, but then immediately stopped with agony rocketed through his limb. Ok, definitely couldn't move that leg. There wasn't room on the bank to pull his left leg out of the water without moving the right out of the way. Maybe he could used his arms to drag himself up. As soon as he planted his hands in the mud, he was viciously reminded of the sprained wrist and his arm collapsed. Pushing with only his left arm just led to slipping in the mud and pulling on the not-quite-numb wound on his hip.

Screw it. He lay still and tried to take shallow breaths to avoid exacerbating his ribs. He resigned himself to the fact that he wasn't moving by himself any time soon. He closed his eyes against the bright sun and tried to relax. Freaking out wouldn't help, and he trusted that Sodia would be here soon to help. Boy was he ever glad he hadn't come out here alone.

A splash caused his eyes to flash open. Staggering toward him was the assassin, wavering and clutching his sword with one arm while the other hung limp at his side. Flynn craned his neck and spotted his sword lying on the creek bank a few feet away, the blade half-submerged. He reached for it with his left hand, the armour digging deeper into his back. It was still out of reach, so he pushed against a rock in the creek with his left foot and tried to push himself further along the bank. His right leg dragged through the mud, sending shots of pain through him, but he ignored that and struggled to reach the sword. His fingers clawed at it, but it was still too far away.

The assassin was getting closer. He was clearly badly injured, but determined to finish his job. Flynn wasn't about to lie down and let himself get stabbed so he took a deep breath and twisted onto his side. Every muscle throbbed and protested the movement, but he told those muscles to shut up because they'd be a lot more unhappy with getting stabbed. There was no time to worry about bruised ribs when his sword was only a foot out of reach. He pulled his left knee up and pushed, half-dragging and half-crawling along the bank. He felt nothing from his right leg but white-hot pain, and his racing heart throbbed in his shin.

With a final, adrenaline-fuelled lunge he grabbed his sword in his right hand and then swung it around in an arc. He slashed across the assassin's chest and then passed his sword to his left hand as his wrist nearly gave out. The assassin stumbled and clutched his bloodied chest, and Flynn thrust his sword forward to finish him off. He didn't have the luxury of considering whether it would be better to try to arrest this man when he couldn't even stand. The assassin's corpse fell into the creek and Flynn let his sword drop to the ground, wondering if it had always been that heavy.

Swinging a sword had definitely not done wonders for his wrist. While lying still and trying to relax again, he absently squeezed his wrist and tried to think about anything other than how messed up his leg was. He'd broken bones before, but never his leg and never so severely that the limb was actually distorted. He didn't like looking at it, because there was something viscerally horrifying about his body being in the wrong position.

A rustle of dirt cascading down the slope caught his attention and he raised his head quickly to see if it was the other assassin. With relief he saw Sodia, who had carefully climbed down the slope. She was uninjured, but her eyes narrowed with concern when she saw him. "Sir, are you alright?"

Flynn lowered his wrist and propped himself up on his elbows. It hurt, but he could do it and he didn't want Sodia to think he was completely helpless. "There's nothing life threatening. The worst seems to be my leg. Where's the other assassin?"

"Dead," she said quickly. She crouched next to him and glanced up the slope. "Sir, do you think you can make it back to the path?"

The path seemed miles away from his place on the ground and his leg throbbed just thinking about trying to walk on it. "I'm… not sure. Definitely not without assistance. I don't think I can walk." Saying it aloud hammered in the reality of his situation. Even if they got back to the path, they were still deep in the forest and several days away from Aurnion. They were cut-off from any form of help, and he couldn't walk. How the hell were they going to get to Aurnion?

"I'll splint it," Sodia said, taking control of the situation. "You're also bleeding. Once I've treated your injuries we can figure out how to get back to the path."

He nodded. The longer he lay still, the more adrenaline he lost and the more pain he became aware of. "Right. I need to get this armour off."

She didn't even say anything before setting to work on the buckles holding his greave in place. Flynn let her work, trying to distract himself from the pain by concentrating on the way the trees seemed to glitter as the swaying leaves alternated specks of sunlight. He flinched when the armour finally came off and air hit his exposed leg. She had to lift his leg to pull the back piece out from under him, and his fingers clenched in the mud at the movement.

"It's definitely broken, sir," she said while surveying it, "but it looks like a clean break. It's lucky you were wearing armour - there isn't any blood. It looks like it snapped instead of shattering."

"Oh. Great. Do we have any apple gels?" He started undoing the buckles on his gauntlet before his ever-expanding wrist burst out the seams.

"You were carrying them, sir. Where's your pack?"

His heart skipped a beat. Where was his pack? He looked to the creek and his heart sank when he saw it spilled open, the contents drenched. The water wasn't moving fast enough to wash them away, but the gels were already over half-dissolved in the water. "Uh-oh. They're in the creek." He instinctively started to move to get them himself, which was of course a stupid idea. Sodia leapt up and ran for the creek, leaving Flynn to cast aside his gauntlet and expose his throbbing wrist to fresh air.

Sodia hurried to the water and salvaged the gels she could. She also grabbed the water canteen, the first aid kit, and a soaked pair of socks. She left the bread, though, which was soaked and now inedible. "This is all we have," she said, holding out three partially dissolved apple gels. "I don't think this will be enough."

Flynn wearily shook his head. Apple gels couldn't fix broken bones in the first place.

"In addition… sir, I don't think you can eat these, anyway." She frowned and looked down at them. "They're soaked-through with creek water now. They might make you sick."

Flynn groaned in frustration. "Is there anyway to make them safe to eat?"

"We could boil them," she suggested. "Boiling will kill any bacteria. It would completely dissolve them, though."

Flynn thought this over, though it was hard to think straight when he hurt all over and desperately wanted to eat an apple gel, contaminated though it may be. Calm down and think rationally, he told himself. Getting himself sick would hardly help in the long run. He wasn't currently bleeding to death so it wasn't like he needed the gel to survive. "Boil them," he said. "It'll mix with the water and dilute their power, but better than getting ill. Pour it into my canteen and I'll drink them." At the very least, it should work for moderate pain relief.

"Yes, sir. I'll do that after I tend to the rest of your wounds." She set the gooey gels in a tin pot pulled from the pack and then pulled out both his first aid kit and her own. "I'm going to cover the gash on your hip first. Sir, I need to pull up your shirt to get to it."

"Right." He reached for his belt, but Sodia got there first.

"Sir, please just lie still and let me do this. I'm going to pull you out of the water."

He lowered his arms and leaned his head back. She slipped her arms beneath his torso and carefully pulled him up the bank until he was out of the creek. He tried to move his leg as little as possible, but couldn't avoid stabbing pain. That done, Sodia undid his belt and set it aside. She opened the front of his jacket and pushed his shirt up to his chest.

"How bad is it?" In the time that had passed, the dull throbbing has turned into a stinging ache.

"It doesn't look too serious," she said, wiping away the blood with a cloth found in the first aid kit. "You probably scraped it on a broken root or a sharp rock or something like that." She gently laid folded cotton dressing on the wound and then wrapped bandages around his waist to hold it in place. "Now, your leg…" She pursed her lips. "I'm going to need something to splint it. Give me a minute; I'll get some tree branches."

He nodded and let her run off, splashing across the stream. With Sodia gone, his mind was left to wander. He eyed the path high above them and wondered how the hell he was going to get back up there. Sodia might be able to carry him a short distance, but not up a slope that steep and not for an extended time. She could hardly drag him all the way to Aurnion. The only thing he could think of was that perhaps with his leg splinted he'd be able to hobble along with a walking stick or leaning on Sodia. He didn't have enough experience with broken legs to know if that was feasible, but it was the only thing he could think of.

Sodia returned with two long, solid branches that she'd stripped of leaves and twigs with her knife. She then took the knife and cut the cloth of his pants at the knee and then gently slid the tube of fabric down his leg. Flynn winced when she nudged the swollen leg, but didn't comment. With the skin fully exposed now, he grimaced when he saw the angry red and purple swelling around the misshapen shin.

"Alright, sir, straighten your leg as much as you can."

Flynn gritted his teeth and pushed his leg out, trying to get it straight. It was still bent a few degrees inward, but that was as much as he could do. He shuddered to think what state it would be in if it hadn't been armoured. Sodia cut her blanket in half and then wrapped each branch in fabric so they wouldn't be so rough and then positioned them along either side of his leg.

"Almost done, sir." She wrapped strips of bandages around his ankle, right below his knee, and above and below the fracture. She tied them snuggly and then sat back nervously. "There. I… think that should do it."

Flynn sat up on his elbows and surveyed his leg. He had no medical knowledge beyond casting First Aid, and without his blastia he couldn't even do that. "I guess so. I wouldn't know any more than you. Are there bandages left? I want to wrap my wrist."

"Yes, here." She scooted closer to his arm. "I'll get that for you."

Flynn held up his arm and Sodia carefully wrapped bandages around it, circling his wrist and wrapping around his palm. When she was done, she looked down and said, "Is there anything else?"

"I don't think so." He was covered in bruises but there wasn't much he could do about that. "Help me up. I want to see if I can walk."

He draped his arm around Sodia's shoulders, steeled himself, and let her slowly lift him. Muscles ached and his left leg scrambled to find the ground but he managed to get himself upright. He wobbled and clung to Sodia, balancing on one leg. She took a slow step forward, and Flynn hopped along with her. For a few seconds, he really thought this was going to work. Then Sodia experimentally tried stepping uphill, but when Flynn tried to hop after her he didn't jump high enough. He stumbled, pain tugging at the cut on his hip. His broken leg swung forward and kicked the ground. Every muscle clenched and he hissed, "Shit," before he could stop himself. His flailing threw off Sodia's balance, and on the steep slope this caused her to fall to her knees, bringing Flynn down with her. His leg smashed into the ground and he let go of Sodia with a shout.

They both sat still and panted for nearly a minute. Flynn's leg throbbed with agony and tears welled up in his eyes. "Sodia… this isn't going to work."

"No," she said softly, sitting upright. She looked over her shoulder to the path with a frown. "I could try to carry you."

"I'm too heavy for you." He pictured his bruised ribs pressed against her back in an awkward carry, and then imagined Sodia stumbling on the steep slope and falling backward while trying to hold his weight. The absolute last thing he needed was to fall down that cliff a second time. Sodia couldn't carry him up, and he could hardly make it up on his own. He had to face reality: he was not getting back to the path. He could only think of one solution, even though it filled him with dread. "Sodia, you're going to have to leave me here."

"What?!" Her head shot to him in alarm.

"Get out of here and make your way to Aurnion. Find Yuri and tell him what happened. He can fly here with Ba'ul and carry me out."

"I cannot leave you here by yourself."

"I don't like it either, but it's the only option. I'm stuck here," he had to keep his voice from wavering. Being immobile in a dangerous forest was a frightening position to find oneself in. "But there's no reason for you to sit here too. You have to go and get help. No one in Aurnion even knows we're here, and they won't realize we're missing for days."

"I understand, sir, but I can't leave you here. The blood from the dead assassin is going to attract monsters looking for a quick meal. What will you do? You can't even stand, let alone wield a sword."

"Don't remind me. We still have some basic barriers to ward off monsters."

"Not enough. And what if more assassins arrive to finish you off?"

"I know it isn't an ideal situation, but we don't have any other choice. There's no point in both of us sitting around and waiting for monsters to show up. Go to Aurnion; at least one of us needs to get out of here to report what happened, even if it's too late for me by the time you get back." His voice took on an angry edge, which was mostly to hide how nervous he was. There were few things Flynn found more frightening than being trapped and unable to defend himself, and he didn't want Sodia to see how scared he was.

"No, sir," she said firmly. "I will not leave you here alone."

"Dammit, Sodia, that is an order!"

"One that I cannot follow!"

They glared at each other, each as stubborn as the other. Flynn let anger hide his fear, because getting mad at her for disobeying was better than letting the panic of being crippled and unable to hold a sword in the middle of nowhere take over. He was too sore to beat Sodia in a battle of wills, though, so he let his head fall back and stared at the sky. "Why do I let you get away with ignoring my orders?"

Sodia managed a tiny smile. "Because you know I'm right, sir."

"What do you propose we do?"

Sodia turned her eyes to the creek. "There's a river near the entrance to the forest. We'll follow the creek and take the long way around to rejoin the path away from the cliffs."

"Alright, but I still can't walk."

"I can construct a stretcher with a blanket and some tree branches. I'll drag you out."

"And then what? Drag me all the way to Aurnion?"

"If I have to."

Flynn couldn't help but chuckle at the fiery determination on her face. "You're even more stubborn than Yuri."

She scowled and looked away. "Please don't compare me to him, sir."

Flynn frowned, but wasn't in the mood to argue this. "Alright. Help me across the creek and we can get moving."

It turned out there was a lot to do before they could get moving. Sodia helped Flynn out of his armour, which they cast aside and decided to leave behind. It was too heavy for Sodia to carry and he had more armour at home. He pulled his jacket off because it was much too hot for it, and Sodia soaked it in the creek since the back was now covered in mud. As it lay out to dry, he wished he could do the same for his muddy pants. He had no way to get his pants off around the splint without completely cutting them off, and he did need to put them back on again when they were clean. He also couldn't get the mud out of his hair, which dried and made the back of his head chunky and dirty. It bothered him, but he still preferred it to landing on something harder.

Sodia said there wasn't a point in wasting their matches to start a fire now, so the apple gels remains un-boiled and inedible. Flynn found himself staring longingly at the pot they sat in, tantalizing thoughts of pain relief dancing in his head. He needed to do something to distract himself from his leg. Helping Sodia would be ideal, but there wasn't much he could do when he was stuck lying on his back. Damn, this was annoying. While Sodia busied herself with constructing a stretcher, his mind was left to daydream about what would happen if his leg didn't heal properly. It was still crooked, after all. Would he be crippled for life? He imagined limping along with a cane while trying to direct troops in a battle and his stomach flipped with worry.

"It's done, sir," Sodia said, pulling her masterpiece over to him. She'd taken two strong saplings and stripped them of branches to make smooth wooden poles, and rolled the edges of Flynn's blanket tightly around each pole. Pins pulled from his abandoned armour had been hammered into place with the hilt of her dagger to serve as nails, holding the blanket firmly to the frame. A third, smaller branch sat perpendicular to the poles at one end, held in place by notches carved into the wood and rope wound around each end. It would hold the frame in position, so the poles wouldn't cross together while dragging it.

"Nice work. You're good with your hands."

"Thank you, sir. I'm going to pull you onto it now. Ready?"

"Go for it."

She grabbed him under the arms and dragged him over the edge, dried mud scraping off his thighs as they rubbed the wooden base. He winced as it bumped his leg, and sighed in relief when he was in position. Sodia stood and surveyed the scene. "I've put all our supplies into my backpack," she said, running through a mental checklist. "There's no point bringing yours - you can't carry it and one of the straps broke on the fall anyway. I've already searched the assassins for any useful supplies. There's nothing else for us here, so we should start moving. Do you think we should leave a note or some sign of which way we went in case rescue does come?"

Flynn had thought this over since Sodia started working. "No. The first person to realize we're missing will be whoever sent the assassins - likely Mimula Cumore - when they don't report back. It's more likely for more assassins to show up to finish the job than for any rescue party, and I'd rather they don't know where we're going."

"Good thinking, sir. Well, if there's nothing else we need to do here, let's get moving." She grabbed the ends of the posts and hefted him up. Without further notice she started to walk, the stretcher dragging behind her.

Flynn watched the path grow farther away. There wasn't much else to do while lying uselessly on a stretcher. This trip had certainly taken a sudden turn for the worst. His whole body had settled into a dull ache with a few bright points of strong pain, such as his wrist, hip, and especially his leg. He had to wonder if this was some divine punishment for daring to take a vacation, and decided it would take a mountain of convincing in a joint attack from Estelle and Yuri to ever talk him into trying this again.