Vermilion Rain: An FE3H Story

Chapter 2: The First and the Greatest

"Hey!" a voice cut through the haze of waking unreality. "Hey! Wake up. Are you all right?"

I felt a hand on my shoulder as well, shaking me none too gently. I felt my head flop and an ear banged against the trunk of a tree. A piece of bark stabbed a bit into the cartilage. This as much as the voice and the hand managed to stir me from my stupor, and under the abuse that they leveled, I came to.

My eyes opened. Sunlight streamed into them, and I squeezed them tightly shut again. But now my muscles were moving. I felt my arms and legs; I was in a sitting position, my back leaning against a tree. I put up a hand and it impacted with someone's shoulder. The person backed up and the shaking stopped long enough for me to rub my eyes with a hand.

"Ugh," I said when I got the space. I tried to open my eyes again. This time, I had better luck, as I was able to take in the color of green grass around me.

"Hey," came the voice again. "Are you all right? You don't look so good, now that I'm getting a good look at you."

I squinted. The speaker was a girl, somewhat petite, with flaming orange hair cut short like a boy's. She knelt a few feet away from me, one hand, presumably the one she had been shaking me with, resting on one knee. She frowned, and orange eyes looked out from under sharp eyebrows, examining me for injuries. On her right hand, she wore a glove that covered two fingers, one that I recognized as an archery glove. She was dressed in rough-spun cloth that wove together purples and browns and greens in no particular pattern. There were streaks of mud on her face, though I couldn't tell if she had put them there on purpose.

"Uhh," I said, collecting myself. All my limbs seemed to be awakening from a sleep as deep as my own. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine. Thanks."

"You really shouldn't be sleeping out here," the girl said sternly, her features creased suddenly by a strict frown. "Even if there weren't bandits around, there would still be wild animals. What would you have done if a pack of wolves had found you before I did, huh?"

"Um..." I scratched the back of my neck. "Probably die, I guess."

"Exactly," the girl said, as if I had just put the pieces together to a mystery she had unraveled some time ago. "And without so much as a fire. Really, it's like you've never been out in the woods before."

Woods? I looked up, and indeed, there was a forest around us. Deciduous, I noted, and in full greenery; it must be spring or summer, or perhaps early fall. I scratched my head.

"Well... thank you," I said. "I guess I'm lucky that you happened to come along."

"No kidding," the girl said, and despite her brusque words, the apology seemed to satisfy her. At least a little. "What were you doing sleeping out here in the first place, anyway? I thought you were dead when I first saw you."

That was a good question. A very good question, since I didn't remember having gone to sleep in the first place. I pulled myself up into a fully sitting position, crossing my legs beneath me.

"I..." I started, hoping that the answer would come to me as I spoke. It didn't. My mouth flopped open, empty, a fish out of water, until I gave up. I smiled weakly.

"You know, I can't for the life of me remember," I replied.

The girl frowned. "Can't remember?" she parroted. "What, you can't remember why you just happened to fall asleep in front of a tree in the middle of the woods?"

I nodded. "Yup," I confirmed. "That's about the shape of it."

"Well..." the girl seemed to be reaching for something. "Okay... where were you traveling before you went to sleep?"