Vermilion Rain: An FE3H Story

Chapter 4: The Road to Garreg Mach

"So," I said to Leonie as we walked, "You going to say which of those boys had a crush on you?"

Leonie frowned at me. It probably wasn't a great idea to antagonize her, but by this time, after several rounds of questioning on both sides, it had quickly become apparent that she wasn't very interested in talking about anything but her excitement to follow in Captain Jeralt's footsteps, and none of her questions were jogging any of my memories, so I decided to troll a bit.

"Neither of them," Leonie said indignantly. "Don't be ridiculous."

"If you say so," I said knowingly. Leonie turned an annoyed eye on me.

"What do you mean?" she demanded.

"Both of them were looking at you like betrayed dogs," I pointed out. "They're heartbroken that they'll never see you again."

Leonie frowned. "No they aren't," she said. "We've been friends since we were too young to hunt. They don't look at me that way."

"Oh," I sighed. "Oh, my sweet summer chicken. You may be a good hunter, but you're blind."

"You couldn't possibly know what they were thinking just by seeing them there!" Leonie protested. I snorted.

"Uh-huh. They were looking at you like 'Leonie... I will never love again. How could you leave me?'"

"Don't be ridiculous," she scoffed. "That's silly. We're friends. They're both skilled hunters. I'm sure they would be leaving too if they had the money. They'd make good mercenaries."

I chuckled. She turned on me, her annoyance now channeled into a counter-offensive. "I wouldn't laugh," she said. "Who knows if you have a wife and children somewhere that you can't be bothered to remember. How are they going to take care of themselves with you gone? If you were a breadwinner."

This stopped my laughter. Not the insult; Leonie had a sharp tongue and applied it liberally, that much was already plain. No; the idea that I might have a wife somewhere hadn't yet occurred to me. Could that be true? It didn't seem likely, but that was an impression. What if there was a wife and child somewhere waiting for me to return? What would they be doing without me? Which way would I even have to go to get back to them? Had I left them for help or something?

"Gosh," I said, subdued, "I hadn't thought of that."

"Exactly," Leonie huffed, indifferent to my abrupt emotional shift. "Clean up your own house before trying to clean others. That's what I always..."

A twig snapped. Both of us twisted and all at once, and there, not ten paces behind us, was a man, large, and wearing a shirt of thick hide. An axe jumped up and down in his hand as he let it drop into his palm. He smiled, a big, unfriendly expression.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he sneered. "Are we interrupting?"

We? A moment later, he was flanked by two other men, each wielding axes of their own. A fourth man with a spear appeared to their left (my right), and together, they leaned against the trees that we had yet to exit ourselves. I twisted and checked our flanks; clear. Good. We could escape at least.

"And who the hell are you supposed to be?" Leonie said. She had already drawn her bow, and an arrow was fit to the string. That was good, or it could be, but to back it up, all I had was a walking stick that I had cut myself the previous day off of a low hanging tree, green and supple, but not too heavy or great for fighting, at least in my estimation. I gripped it tightly as I growled inside; Leonie was playing a dangerous game.

"Well," the bandit said, sauntering a bit closer. "We're what you might call the keepers of this forest. And we're interested in, ah, keeping this forest clear of loiterers and squatters. So, we're going to be asking a bit of a toll from you to get along."