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nyxflheim · 7 years

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Swapping Scales- Chapter 2

You know, roleswapping is harder than I thought it’d be.

Other chapters: Prologue Chapter 1

Rating: T (May go up in the future)

"Gods, you're scorched! We ordered a tactician, not a lobster!"Aversa said as she put this strange substance on my arm. It burned more than my skin had before. If it was supposed to help, why on Earth did it hurt so much? I channeled my inner dragon and began hissing in utter agony. I tried to move my arm away from Aversa, but she had a vice grip. "Oh stop moving and hissing! It's just aloe!"

"I think our tactician might be rabid! Nyahahaha-oof!" Henry looked down at my tome on his lap. When Aversa giggled, I figured that this was okay. Yes, this was good.

"Come on, stop picking on him, he might throw a tome at you," Robin laughed. I mean, she wasn't wrong. Tome-throwing feels very nice. After you do it, people shut up, and it doesn't use any charges. It's a win-win situation. I went over to collect my tome, and Henry, gave it back, the ever present grin on his face. I swear, there has to be a way to get that smile off his face. It was creepy. I didn't need memories to figure that one out.

We continued walking for what seemed like forever through the ever shifting evil sands, even after the sun set until Henry stopped. "I think that's far enough, what do ya think, Robin?" He then turned to Robin. I tried to will Robin to agree to stop, and if the look on Aversa's face was anything to go by, so was she.

"We're close enough, and I'm sure if we continue, Chrom and Aversa will mutiny." The two of us heaved a sigh of relief. Any longer of walking in this sand, and Robin might've been right.

As we set up our camps, a breeze passed through. It got in my cloak and I shivered. For a place so wickedly hot, it cooled down very fast. Did they give us anything to survive the cold? I hope so. How else are we supposed to survive the cold? Maybe I should've listened to Aversa when she had said it got cold in the desert .

Henry pulled stick after stick out of his robe, making a rudimentary pile. Suddenly, everyone looked to me. "What?" I looked around at all their expecting eyes. What could they want from me?

"You have a Fire tome. Light the fire." Aversa beckoned to the pile. The warm runes appeared around my hand again. The pile burst into flames. Everyone got close to the fire. Clearly this fire was safe even though I had used this tome to kill people earlier. As I inched closer, the fire popped. Why was everyone so calm? Wasn't this magical fire? Wasn't that dangerous?

I sat by the fire, and the first thing I noticed, was the simple burning sensation on my skin. It hurt much like the aloe had, but in a different way. I stuck my hand at the flame to understand more of how they were different in their pain. Before I could touch the flames, Robin motioned her hand by my face. "Hey Chrom, you want some jerky?" At that moment, I realized my stomach had been making some strange sounds. I guess I was hungry. The second she offered some of that jerky, I quickly grabbed it and scarfed it down. "Maybe Henry was on to something." So grabbing things like that wasn't socially acceptable.

"Sorry," I mumbled under my breath. The look of relief that washed over the three of their faces was priceless. This was what you do when you take something. You say sorry.

I kept my head down as I continued to scarf down the food. It felt good, if not a bit dry. But everything in the desert was dry, so some part of me was learning to expect that. Still food was food. The fire was nice and warm, if it didn't burn against my skin, just a little. Yet I had grown used to the burning. The taste of the food was new. It was nice, and I couldn't help but love it. Maybe in another life, this would have been my favorite food.

I could almost see it. Robin was there, but she was the tactician. There was a delicate-looking blonde girl, but something told me that she wouldn't react well to being told that. There was also a knight, a huge man, that looked guarded, as if he didn't trust Robin. How could you not trust Robin? She is literally the most genuine I have ever met. I can just tell by her eyes. Those are eyes that just don't lie. We were laughing about how the delicate one didn't like jerky. "Hey Chrom! Hey, lobster-face!" I was pulled from that silly daydream by Aversa. As I looked over, she pointed up.

As I looked at the stars, I didn't notice much of anything. "Yeah? They're stars. What about it?" Was there something I was just missing? She sighed and shook her head.

“Constellations, Chrom. The stars, they form pictures of legends. I figured you might want to hear about them, since you have no memory and all?" That was extremely considerate of her. I nodded my head and moved closer. She pointed up at the sky again. "See that one over there? That's Cadmus sealing away the deceitful Naga. The lance he used is the same one my sister uses." I saw Robin puff out a bit in pride at that. Must be a big deal. I had no idea why a Goatherd would have such an important weapon, but maybe that was normal. Aversa pointed to another group of stars. "That one is Prince Innes and his sister Princess Tana sealing the Demon King Formetiis. You know I always wondered why they sealed them away instead of killing them. Only one legend did that, the constellation is over there. It's Princess Azura destroying the Silent God, Anankos. You know, we met some strangers right before stumbling onto you. One of them claimed to be Princess Azura in the flesh. Robin and I believed her, but the killjoy over there didn't. She actually reminded me a lot of you. Blue hair, got lost in thought a lot, pretty good at tactics. I hope she's doing okay." She looked up at the sky. Was she upset? I put my hand on her shoulder, in a manner that I hope meant comfort. She smiled back. "Thanks. Anyways, there's a lot of other legends. Like Lady Lyn, and her quest to find her grandfather after he went missing! With her best friend Lady Florina at her side, and the nomadic Lord Eliwood, they put a stop to Nergal's plans and slayed the dragons! That one's my favorite."

"Personally I prefer the one about Prince Innes and Princess Tana." Robin chimed in.

"I like the one about Princess Azura! That one's really weird, because there's three versions! No one can agree on which version is the right one! I like the one where she she sides against the family that raised her!" I looked at Henry in abject horror. How could you side against the ones who raised and loved you? Then again, I wouldn't know anything about it. I couldn't even remember if I had a family.

"Can I hear more about the one with Cadmus?" That was the one that drew me the most.

The other three looked amongst themselves. "How about we get a book on legends when we get back to the capital? I'd love to tell you, but it's gotten rather late, and we'll need our rest if we intend to get back to the capital by midday tomorrow." I couldn't argue with such sound logic, that and now the day's excitement was catching up to me. The four of us quickly extinguished our fire as we all set up the two tents for the night. Henry insisted I stay with him, and I couldn't find it in me to argue. It had never crossed my mind to spend the night with the sisters, because they're sisters. I headed to my shared tent, and laid down. I expected to have issues sleeping with all that had happened, but instead, sleep came easy.

As my vision focused, I saw I was in a very bright place. It looked different from the church I had seen earlier in the village. Robin rushed to engage a blonde woman. Robin's lance was pushed away by what seemed to be tendrils of light. The blonde woman threw a blast of pure light at Robin, who only ducked and rolled. The woman vanished in the dust as the spell hit the ground where Robin had been. All I could do was charge up a powerful Fire spell. "Up there!" Robin yelled as the spell I had been charging flew up to where the woman was.

Out of the blue, Robin was hit by the light tendril spell, sending her flying into a pillar. She used her lance to prop herself up. As she did that, the blonde woman began to charge the light blast spell again. I began to charge my Fire spell again. As the woman threw the spell at Robin, I charged out and countered with my Fire spell. The two thankfully canceled each other out. The woman glared at me, the ice in her eyes would have been enough to stop me if I had not been furious that she attacked my friend. Thankfully, she was far enough away that she couldn't pull such a feat again.

"This is it! Let's show destiny what's what, and prove that you're one of us!" Robin stated with confidence. It was rousing, truly no wonder she was a General. General? Wait what? I had no time to focus on that detail as we ran forward to defeat the blonde woman. As she turned to face us, Robin pulled me behind a pillar. Cover, what a good idea. We had no idea how far her range was. When nothing happened, I decided to poke my head out. The woman was just staring in our direction and smiling. It was unnerving.

This whole situation had a sense of foreboding, like something was about to go horribly wrong. I nodded at Robin, who dashed ahead, while I watched her back. "Oh? What silly lambs, thinking you can change fate." Fury boiled in my blood. How could she just talk like that? We were going to win, and the world was going to be all right again. Robin threw her lance at the woman. It hit her square in the shoulder. Have fun trying to cast spells now. I then cast one of my Fire spells at her, causing her to slouch over. She looked pissed. Robin ran up, grabbed her lance and jammed it in the woman's abdomen. She yanked it back out, almost slicing the woman in half. Brutal, in the most satisfying way.

The woman took two steps back before falling on her knees, as she began to fade in a mass of blue. Robin looked back, both of us brimming with joy over our victory, until I noticed something. The woman was charging up one final spell. "This will never be over! ROT IN HELL!" Without even thinking, I pushed Robin out of the way, and took the full force of the spell. I flew back from the impact, rolling a few times. When I opened my eyes, Robin was already by my side, helping me up.

"Chrom? Are you all right?" I nodded slowly, my head pounding. She smiled. "Well, that's a wrap. I couldn't have done it without you, you know." She looked over to the quickly vanishing mass of blue. "It's over. We can finally get some peace. I can't wait..." Suddenly, the pounding in my head turned my vision red. I lurched forward, causing Robin to look back to me. "Hey! What's wrong?" Robin said, concern clearly written on every feature. "Give me a second and I'll get someone to- UGH!" A look of agony crossed her face. She took a step back, and I could see a flash of fire in her chest. That was impossible! We had defeated the woman! I then looked down at my own hand, the last licks of flames fading. It was me who had done that.

"This... This wasn't you who did this. Please... go while you still can. Run." At that, Robin fell to the ground, dead. I should be horrified. This is my friend! But instead, I let out the most wicked laugh that I ever heard. It all faded to black after that.

I awoke with a start, right into a hand with runes surrounding it. I looked up and there was Henry, all righteous fury and no smile to be seen. So you could get rid of the smile. I just wished I had never found that out.

"Where are they?" He basically growled at me. A sinking feeling settled in my gut. It didn't take a genius to know how "they" meant. My nightmare flooded back into my memories. What if something happened to either of them? I got up, careful to avoid the hand that was pointed at me.

He kept the hand level with me, poised to strike if I so much as said the wrong thing.I raised my hands in front of me. "Let's just calm down and look for them. I don't think they could have gotten that far." I took a few steps towards the entrance of the tent. At that moment, as if by fate, the ground began shaking. I ran out to see a vivid purple hole in the sky and some of the desert frozen over. "Like maybe over there?" I looked over at Henry. He just nodded and we ran over to the frozen wasteland. Please let Robin and Aversa be okay.

#my writings #swapping scales #medeus au

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