Hello, everybody. Here's me with what hopes to be my longest work on this site. True, it doesn't seem large, but it's only one book in an epic that hopes to be at least five books long. I'm not kidding.

Anyways, you know the rest. Disclaimers? Here ya go:

Fire Emblem does not belong to me; it belongs to the folks at Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. Some story elements are taken from various other things, but I'm nt going to produce a long list of which ones are which until I get there. Unless otherwise stated, all original characters are mine.

So here you have it. Here's the first chapter. I hope you enjoy it, and if you read it, please leave a review.

Chapter 1: Beginnings

The first thing he felt upon regaining consciousness was the incredible pain flying up the side of his body.

He shuffled around a little, the pain becoming worse due to the very light ministrations. His eyes were still closed, but he could just imagine what was buried in his side right then.

After a few seconds of moving around, he realized that he had to stop moving just to keep the pain at bay. He immediately eased and found that the pain was much less.

He was not sure what had happened. But all he had remembered before he had been knocked out was the raging storm that had been surrounding him at the beginning. And after that, he was not sure what had happened.

Oh well. It could have been much worse than that. For all he knew, he could be dead; the only thing that was telling him otherwise was the pain in the side of his body. He was sure that he was not dead just from the fact that he still had that one sensation. It was not a very pleasant one, to be sure, but he was still grateful that it was there anyways.

He laid still, his own raspy breath and the apparent advance of the tide being his only companions.

Ever so slowly, he blacked out completely again, just as the pain had begun fading away from his memory.

"Hey, Maria! Catch!"

A cat laguz turned to face the direction of the call, almost panicking when a rather large ball was sent flying at her. She screeched suddenly, transforming into her beast form almost immediately and darting off to the side as the projectile rolled by the spot she had once stood on.

Upon dodging the projectile, the cat laguz transformed back into her human state, her lavender eyes scanning the area nervously only to find a raven laguz on the other side of the beach.

"Ugh, Gaston!" yelled the young woman, lavender hair flying around her face to accentuate her annoyance. "You know I hate it when you throw things at me!"

"Hey, you know you like what I threw at you, Maria!" shouted the raven from farther up on the beach, his feet being partially submerged in the low tide. "It's your favorite!"

The cat looked to her left to find that the rather large ball was really nothing more than a coconut. It was true that she did like them very much, but to have them tossed at her person was another thing entirely.

Shaking her head and rolling her eyes towards the sky, the cat laguz went over to the coconut and picked it up.

"Thanks!" she yelled towards the raven. "But don't throw it at me next time, will you?"

"Course I will!" shouted the raven, amber eyes looking at his companion before he burst into a hearty laughter.

"Oh, Gaston…" replied the cat under her breath, pretending to pout while walking up to her companion.

Maria and Gaston had both managed to sneak out into the beach that day. Usually, the village seer was against such behavior as the ones that the two of them would stir when they were on the beach alone. But this time, the two of them were surprised that the seer let them go to the beach. So they decided to take full advantage of it, stirring up all of the pranks and all of the practical jokes that came along with their visits.

When the cat laguz walked up to her companion, the two of them nodded to each other with smiles on their faces and began walking along the sand, their feet barely touching the light mask of bubbles left behind by the waves that washed onto the sand every so often. As they walked, Maria faced the raven.

"You know, I wanted to ask you something," said Maria.

"Sure," replied Gaston. "What's up?"

"Whatever happened with that dragon girl that you met the other day?" asked the cat, scratching the fur behind one of her ears upon finding an itch in there.

"Oh, her?" said the raven somewhat droopily, his gaze averting to the vast oceans that were just to his right. "She left the village yesterday."

"Oh, really?" asked Maria. "What happened?"

"She had to leave," replied the raven, a hand running through his jet-black hair as he walked. "You know. The typical, 'my daddy is oppressive and won't let me do anything' type, you know?"

"I'm sure," replied Maria, fighting back the urge to laugh at how Gaston had worded his reply. "Did she say she would write to you?"

"That depends," said Gaston, his gaze going back to what was in front of him. "If her father is really bad, I will never hear anything from her again."

"Ooh…" sighed Maria, hand going up to her bottom lip almost instinctively at how bad that sounded. "I'm sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it," said the raven. "It's not your fault."

"I know," said the cat, bringing her hands to the level of her breasts and clasping them together. "But still, I hope things are better for you in the future. After all, you'll eventually find your special someone, right?"

"I hope so…" said the raven, eyes gazing at the sea once again such that his peripheral vision could pick up the beach in front of him.

They walked in silence for a few seconds, nothing being said between the two of them as they walked forwards.

Maria suddenly went stiff, and when Gaston stopped shortly afterwards, he looked at her, hazelnut eyes completely showing concern as he looked at his companion.

"Maria?" asked the raven.

"Do you smell that?" asked Maria.

"Smell—?" the raven began, before the smell of wood washed up on the shore came into his nostrils.

And with this smell of broken wood, the steely smell of blood followed in its wake.

"Oh, dear," said Gaston, looking back at the stretch of beach in front of him. "No wonder Kuranga let us out today."

Maria simply nodded before transforming, and almost instantly she was of, becoming nothing but a lavender blur running along the beach towards the source of the scent. Gaston also transformed, and a giant raven was then seen chasing his companion after the scent.

The two of them were barely surprised when they came upon the broken ship that lay at the shore, Maria and Gaston both transforming into their human states as they approached the remains of the ship.

"Dang, look at all that wood!" said Maria, shocked at the fact that there was wood everywhere. "I wonder how many ships have this much wood in them, you know?"

"Yeah," replied Gaston, already searching the various planks checking for survivors. "Just help me find some survivors, okay?"

"Sure, sure!" said Maria, instantly bending down and rummaging along the wood that lay discarded around the sands.

The two of them searched for a while, neither of them really having any success at searching through the ruins of the boat. They did have their smell to guide them to the source of the blood, but apparently the wood was literally burying him. After all, how was it possible that they still could not find the survivor after going through so many layers of wood?

Some progress was finally made when Maria lifted a plank that was close to the ship's hull, however. When she did, she caught sight of a peach hand poking out from under the wreckage.

"Gaston, I think I found something!" shouted the cat laguz, bending down and inspecting the hand. Thankfully, signs of life were still in the hand. "I think that this one's alive!"

"Gotcha!" shouted the raven, dropping the plank he had just picked up and running by Maria's side.

When they removed the planks, they slowly uncovered a man laying down among the hull, a small plank embedded in his side as he lay in almost peaceful sleep. The steady rise and fall of his chest showed that he was still alive, however, but in desperate need of medical attention.

"Well, here we are," said Gaston. "Did you find anybody else?"

"I don't think so…" said Maria.

"Then we get this one back to the village," said the raven, taking the figure's shoulders in his arms. "And don't forget that we don't move the plank in his side until we get him to the village, okay? We don't want to worsen the bleeding, if you know what I mean."

"Should we get his stuff later?" asked the cat, having just noticed a light gleam from beneath one of the planks.

"Yes," replied Gaston. "For now, let's get him out of here. Take his legs, will you?"

"Sure, sure," said Maria, taking a hold of the stranger's legs and hoisting him out of the boat and onto the sand. Afterwards, they made a mad rush for the nearby village, being careful not to dislodge the plank in the man's side as they went.

When he came to again, he found himself in a warm bed.

Puzzled by this strange development, he moved around to find that the object that was once embedded in his side was no longer there. After shifting around some more, he found that a bandage had been wrapped around his torso, and that was all the confirmation he needed to know that somebody had found him.

Realizing this, the man sat up against the back of the bed, groaning lightly as he did so and rubbing his head with his hand, his fingers just intruding the cobalt hairs that rested on his head. He finally opened his eyes again to find himself in a simple hut, its walls made of bamboo poles that jutted out from the ground. Another look around revealed a window to the outside world.

The pain in his side still lingered, but it was not bad enough that the man was not able to stand up to walk over to the window and see where he was.

Just as he had stood up, however, the door that he had failed to notice opened slowly, followed by a somewhat uneasy silence. The man turned his head towards the door to find a cat laguz standing in the doorway, her lavender eyes scanning over the man's figure.

"Oh!" she exclaimed suddenly. "You're awake! Thank goodness. I was beginning to worry about whether you would wake up or not."

The man turned to face the woman so that his body faced her as well.

"So you must be the one who found me," replied the stranger. "Thanks. For saving my life."

"Oh, there's nothing to it, you know?" asked the woman, walking over to him as she waved her hand dismissively. It was then that he noticed the woman was holding a sword in her hands. "Is this yours?"

Asking this, she raised the sword to the level of his eyes, and indeed the man was able to tell it was his sword; it had the familiar orange hue on the blade that he had gotten used to over the years.

"Ah, yes it is," said the man, taking the sword from the woman. "Thank you. Did you find anybody else in the wreckage?"

The woman opened her mouth, but then hesitated, bringing her finger to her lips.

"Er…" she said. "I'm sorry. You're the only man we found in there."

"Are you certain?" asked the man.

"Yes," said Maria. "I would have smelled him otherwise, I'm sure."

"I see…" he said, sitting back down on the bed and looking down at the floor.

The cat laguz felt bad, and so he sat down on the bed next to the man she had rescued earlier.

"Was there a friend of yours on that boat?" asked the woman.

"Yes," replied the man. "I hope he is all right…"

"I'm sure he'll be fine," said Maria. "Hey, you never know what people can go through before finally meeting each other, yes?"

"That is true," he said. "I think you're right. Thanks."

"Nothing to it," said the woman, standing up and walking towards the door. "I need to go talk to some people now; quite a few people want to know who you are. My name's Maria, by the way."

"All right, Maria," replied the man. "I'm Ike."

"Okay, Ike," said Maria, opening the door to the hut. "If there's anything else you need, you know who to talk to, right?"

Ike nodded his head in response.

"Great!" said the cat laguz. "I'll see you later!"

"Goodbye," said Ike, nodding his head in appreciation.

After this, Maria waved a goodbye for two seconds before she left the hut, closing the door behind her as she went.

"Are you ready to look around?"

"Whenever you are!"

"Then come out! We're ready for you!"

Ike stepped outside of the hut that he had been sitting in for two days, finding Gaston and Maria waiting outside. He had wanted to tour Maria's village, and finally he had a chance to do so.

"So, where do we begin?" asked Ike.

"Well, we live by the sea, as you can tell," said Gaston, showing Ike the sand that served as the ground. "We're all fine here."

"I can imagine," replied the mercenary. "It really is quite beautiful here."

"Thanks," said Maria, walking from beneath the shade of the hut. "Anyways, let's show you around, shall we?"

Ike nodded, and then the three of them walked out from under the hut, coming to stop at the circle of huts and tents surrounding a rather prominent coconut tree. The scene that greeted him was rather friendly; some little laguz children were seen playing around the coconut tree

"Well, as you can see here, this is pretty much the village," said Maria. "We have it in a circle for religious reasons."

"Yeah," said Gaston. "Sharotal asks for circular arrangements in our living spaces."

"Sharotal?" asked Ike. "Your goddess, I suppose?"

"Yes, actually," replied the cat laguz. "How haven't you heard of her?"

"How can you tell I haven't heard of her?" asked the mercenary.

"Okay, we can banter about that later," said the raven laguz, walking forwards. "Anyways, we all know who we are. Would you want to know?"

"Not really," said Ike. "Except that I'm curious about the lady who's been chattering madly a little as of late; I haven't gotten much sleep from her chattering in the middle of the night."

"Oh, Marisol?" asked Gaston. "Don't worry about her. Some stuff happened…"

"Her baby got kidnapped, to be precise," said Maria plaintively.

"Maria!" scolded Gaston, turning on her with anger flaring in his amber orbs. "Why do you have to blurt out everything?"

"Gaston, please, it's all right," said Ike soothingly. "I'm sorry that happened to her."

"I'll tell her you said that," said Maria. "It's so nice that you care about strangers."

"According to me, we all deserve the same respect," replied Ike. "We're all just people here."

"I think the same thing," said Gaston. "Anyways, we ought to get moving then. You've already seen the beach, I take it."

"Yes," said Ike.

"Well, there's really not much else to show after that…" replied Maria, her expression dropping a little in dismay.

"Hey, don't worry about it," said Ike. "We've only known each other for a few days, and yet I enjoy your company quite a bit."

"Thanks," said Gaston. "We're just trying to make you feel welcome."

"Which you are," said Maria. "Anyways, the village seer wants to see you soon."

"All right," said the mercenary. "Tell him I will see him whenever he wants to."

"All right," said Maria. "Are you going back to the hut?"

"Yes," said Ike. "I hope to see more of you two tomorrow."

"You certainly will," replied Gaston. "Goodbye!"

"Goodbye," replied Ike simply.

The mercenary then walked back to his tent on his own, a smile on his face over the fact that he had friends in a strange land that he could depend upon.

It was the sixth day after Ike had washed ashore that he found himself sitting in the tent of the seer.

In front of him was the rather imposing frame of the village seer, who was a dragon laguz by the name of Kuranga. Long jet black hair tumbled around his face in curls, his scarlet eyes adding a somewhat unsettling effect to the seer's face that the black streaks were already giving. He sat in a somewhat primitive stance in front of the mercenary, long grey robes coming to rest on the sand beneath them. Ike just looked at Kuranga as he knelt on the sand, not knowing what to expect.

For a while, neither of them spoke, lending itself to the tense atmosphere that Ike was not really able to handle for a short period of time.

Finally, though, the seer cleared his throat.

"So you are the man that Maria and Gaston found in the wreckage the other day," began Kuranga plainly.

"Yes," replied Ike in kind. "They said you wanted to see me."

"I did," said the dragon. "I can see a lot in your aura right now, you know."

"Aura?" asked the mercenary, his brow furrowing in confusion. "What is that?"

"An aura is that which allows me to know everything and nothing about you at the same time," replied Kuranga. "I can see a very noble character emanating from you, sir."

"Well, some things happened, if you must know," said Ike. "But before I say anything else, tell me something; where the hell am I?"

If Kuranga was shocked by Ike's language, he certainly did not show it. Instead, he simply shifted slightly in his position and looked back at the mercenary, concentrating on the space around him for a few seconds.

"So I take it you are not from Greljedo, then," said Kuranga. "Well, you are on an entirely different continent, sir. I will try to tell you more about the land as we go."

"I see…" said Ike. "Also, nobody seems to mind I'm a beorc. Where I come from, people would go crazy if they saw you. I would like an explanation for this."

"It is not so uncommon for us to treat a stranger as we would a friend here," replied the dragon, his eyes betraying some slight confusion. "And we especially do not care about race most of the time. I take it race was a big problem where you come from?"

"You have no idea," replied the mercenary, chuckling as he finished saying it. "We've been fighting race wars for seven hundred years."

"Pity," replied Kuranga. "We here have never had to worry about a race war. Anyways, from you I also detect an aura that you will go on to do some incredible deeds."

"As in…?" asked Ike, sapphire orbs shining a little in confusion.

"The tides of war draw ever closer," said Kuranga. "So much is going on. And yet in you, I find the solution to this war. You have great things to get done."

"So I have to go on a quest?" asked Ike.

"Yes," replied the seer. "Do you have a problem with this?"

"Not at all," said the mercenary. "But who am I going with?"

"Being that I am the one who can read your aura, I will be going with you," stated Kuranga. "If you wish, you may bring somebody else from here that you have met."

Ike stared at the canvas of the tent, thinking who in the village would want to come with him. After a few seconds, he figured out who he wanted to bring along as well.

"I do wish to do so, actually," said Ike. "Should I tell them now?"

"Of course," said Kuranga. "You are dismissed until tomorrow. I do not have anything else to talk about with you for the moment."

"Thank you, sir," said the mercenary, bowing his head respectfully and standing up. He then walked out of the tent and into the village, walking towards the hut that he had been staying in for so long a time.

Ike stood at the edge of the village, Maria and Gaston standing by his side with Kuranga slinging all of the necessary supplies over his shoulders.

The group had decided to set out very early in the morning as to avoid any eyes on them. They had of course informed the village beforehand that they would be leaving that very day, but they also knew they had to avoid as many delays as they possibly could to meet their destiny. They had paused at the point of the village where the circle broke to the north-west to get one last look at their beloved village.

The four of them stood there for a while, taking in the sight of the village being bathed in the light of the stars in silence. Maria was fighting back the urge to shed some tears, as was evident with her lithe body quivering the way it was. Gaston looked back, with only a marginal regret that he did not leave the village sooner. Kuranga simply looked forward, crimson eyes staring at the village blankly.

Finally, Ike turned to walk away from the village.

"Are you ready?" he asked them, still facing Maria.

The three of them turned to him and nodded.

"Then let's go," said the mercenary.

All heads turned away from the village, and thus the group set off towards the unknown, wondering what destiny had in store for them as they walked.