Fire Emblem Fan Fiction / Fire Emblem Fan Fiction ❯ Epiloguery ❯ The Strongest ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Fire Emblem and stuff © Nintendo

And now the chapter that finishes this Jill and Lethe mini-saga.

The Strongest
by Radish Anarcane

The sun was low in the sky when they finished harnessing the horses to the now loaded moving cart. Under better circumstances they would have spent the night and left the next morning, but with Lethe’s identity revealed they thought it best to get moving as soon as possible.

It was while Jill was in the stables busy with the effort of waking up her wyvern that Lethe heard movement from the woods on the west end of the manor. Three creatures. Humanoid. Incompetent at stealth. Evidently thinking to hide the sight of their approach using the forest, they succeeded only in making the sound of their approach all the more apparent, as they stepped on every twig, tripped on every root, and gave poorly muted shouts with every fumble their feet made.

And so Lethe was not too surprised when the scent that came on the wind was that of three beorc children.

-

A sub-human at the lord’s manor! It had the village in an uproar. Everywhere were women speaking in panicked voices about how to protect their children and stop their men from going on some fool hunt. And everywhere else were men speaking in disgruntled voices about how to hunt sub-humans and stop their women from all this fool blubbering. One man in particular had almost everyone’s ear as he spouted anti-sub-human rhetoric in the center of the village. The only ones not taking part in the madness were the children and a single girl just shy of being a child herself.

The girl only watched the goings on in stupefied awe and, occasionally, guilt. She’d been the one to bring back the news. She caused this madness. And she agreed it was madness. Almost the moment she finished the word “sub-human” panic took hold and kept anyone from hearing another word she said, despite how much more there was to say. Or maybe she shouldn’t have said anything at all.

As for the children, most of them were locked in their homes by their hysterical mothers, bored completely out of their minds and, if they were of school age, wondering what the big deal was. Sub-humans might be uncivilized savages, but the teacher says they’re not monsters. As long as you don’t do something stupid like call them names or poke them with a stick, they’ll leave you alone.

This is how most of the children fared. We say most because there were exceptions, and among these exceptions three were particularly exceptional. Steve, Mike, and Jake were different from other children. At an age when most of their friends were still boys, Steve, Mike, and Jake were real full-grown men. They took great pride in this fact, and made sure everybody knew about it, sometimes reminding people several times a day.

And as real full-grown men they wouldn’t be confined at home while there was a sub-human on the loose, no matter how many locks or angry mothers stood in their way. Though that there was only one of each did make things easier. And they didn’t so much face the angry mothers as they did sneak around them. But this does not stop them from being real full-grown men, which they were.

Once free from their imprisonment, they met at their usual spot to discuss what they should do as real full-grown men. Steve led them to an agreement that they would sneak into the manor and see this sub-human for themselves. They would find out once and for who was right about sub-humans, the school or their parents, and then do whatever was necessary to protect the village.

They set out without delay, as hesitation was for little boys, and they were real full-grown men. If pressed to realize this also led them to neglect weapons or provisions, they would simply conclude such things were also for little boys.

-

The children were at the edge of the forest when Jill came from the stables dragging a still-groggy wyvern. “Something wrong?” she asked, noticing Lethe’s distracted look.

“There are three beorc hiding in the woods.” At Jill’s look of alarm Lethe recalled another important detail. “Children.”

This replaced Jill’s alarm with concern. After a moment she said, “I think we can ignore them, then.”

Lethe gave a feminine growl. “Easy for you to say. You can’t hear what they’re saying.”

-

“Is that it?” asked Mike.

“A dragon laguz!” Jake said in awe.

Mike and Steve looked back and forth between Jake and the scene before them several times before Mike said, “That’s Lady Jill’s wyvern, stupid!”

“Oh,” said Jake. “Then what?”

Mike pointed. “That!”

“The girl with the tail,” Steve added.

Jake considered her for a moment. “She doesn’t look like a monster.”

“She has a tail,” Steve said.

“And ears!” Mike enthused.

“Yeah, but she’s mostly a person,” Jake insisted.

“Yeah, but we can’t see her face. With those ears I bet it’s all hairy and ugly like a cat,” Mike said.

“Cats aren’t ugly,” Steve said absentmindedly, but neither of them heard.

-

“What are they saying?” Jill asked.

“They’re speculating on how ugly my face is,” Lethe scowled.

Jill responded with an amused smile. When Lethe only continued to pout for several moments the smile changed to a look clearly meant to question Lethe’s intelligence. Then with a roll of her eyes Jill grabbed Lethe’s shoulders and turned her around to face the forest.

-

The children were stunned into silence. Her face was not hairy, ugly, or cat-like. It was quite human. Quite human. Very quite human.

Jake was the first to find words and, if compared to what the others would have said, best put in words what they were feeling.

“She’s pretty…”

-

Lethe’s ears did a mad dance as here eyes threatened to fall out of her head. She could not have heard that right…

-

Though somewhat bashful, Mike and Steve readily agreed with Jake, both thinking that part of being a real full-grown man was knowing and talking about which girls were pretty and which girls weren’t.

Consensus reached, they went so far as to do their secret committee handshake and make it official decree that Lady Jill’s sub-human friend is pretty.

-

“They…they think I’m pretty,” Lethe said, stunned. As silence stretched on she turned to see that Jill, too, was surprised. It occurred to part of her that she should at least pretend to be upset at that, but the thought failed to take hold in her present state of mind.

Besides, the part of her that had that thought was pacified when Jill’s surprise abated and she said with a smile, “Well, they’re right.”

-

Having set a precedent for official declarations of prettiness, the three real full-grown men briefly began to discuss what other girls were pretty. With the benefit of proximity Lady Jill was the first mentioned, then a few girls from their village followed. As Mike was trying desperately to remember the name of the pegasus knight that was in the village once, Steve remembered what brought them there in the first place.

He stood up and began to speak to his comrades of the danger their pretty cat-girl – for he had decided the word sub-human did not properly convey her beauty – was in. At that very moment that big jerk Beck was rallying the village to hunt down and probably kill her. Everyone knew being pretty was no protection from Beck, and anyone who would follow Beck had probably given up his wits, too.

They were all in agreement. Pretty cat-girl needed protection. And as real full-grown men it was their duty to protect pretty girls, and maybe get kisses from them after. They would fight off her attackers to the death if need-be, and be not just real full-grown men, but heroes! Besides, they probably wouldn’t have to really fight, anyway. Surely not even Beck would attack children.

Not that they were children.

-

Lethe was only half-focused as they finished their last-minute preparations to leave, her concentration degrading with time as her ears were locked on the forest behind her. Eventually none was left, and she only stood there, listening.

She should be offended. She should be really offended. Children thinking she needed protection. Children thinking she needed protection from beorc. Beorc children thinking she needed their protection from beorc. It was absolutely insulting.

But they were children. And not just beorc children. To say laguz children would never do anything like this would be a ridiculous lie. Children were children, it seemed. And the antics of children no less innocent between one race and another.

It should be insulting. But instead it was adorable. And really, really funny.

Jill’s look of utter confusion at Lethe’s sudden laughter only made Lethe laugh harder. “Th…they’re coming over,” Lethe managed to gasp out, and Jill’s confusion increased.

Lethe had most of her laughter under control by the time the children stopped in front of them, but it became a fight when she heard one of the children whisper to another that “she’s prettier when she’s smiling.”

The boys fidgeted, the two on the side looking to the one in the middle. The one in the middle eventually kneeled, fist to the ground like a knight, and spoke. “M-my lady, we fear that you are in danger. Many men in our village w-want to kill you. We offer you our protection.”

Lethe schooled her features as best she could, as Jill was in no state to respond. As cute as this was, these children needed to be as far from any confrontation as possible. She had little faith in the benevolence of a mob towards children that get in their way. “I thank you for your offer but it won’t be necessary. We will be leaving soon and me and Jill can take care of ourselves.”

The boys looked very disheartened as the one in the middle stood up. “But…” The one in the middle’s mouth worked as he searched for something to say. “Oh! I didn’t give you our names.” The other boys looked somewhat disappointed in what their leader came up with. “I am Steve. This is Mike and Jake,” he said, pointing.

Lethe nodded at each of their names before responding, “I am Lethe.”

“And I am Jill,” Jill said, finally coming out of her stupor. “You boys had best head home now.”

Something Jill said seemed to relight the fire in the children’s eyes. “We’re not boys, Miss Jill. We’re men,” Steve proclaimed.

“And we already knew your name, Lady Jill,” Jake added with a bow.

“Our honor won’t let us let such fine ladies go unprotected,” Steve said proudly.

“Well, we both appreciate what honorable men you all are, but I’m afraid you can’t protect us if we’re not here, and we’re leaving very soon,” Jill explained.

The boys looked disheartened once again before Jake blurted out, “We could go with you!” The other two boys stared at Jake, all three looking panicked. “We could…escort you…until you’ve left Daein, uh, Talrega. I mean, Daein,” he said as though he wished he could take back every word as it came out of his mouth.

All three boys began to look sick as they turned back to their wards, awaiting a response. Before they could get one Mike’s stomach growled. “I’m hungry,” he said without realizing it.

“You want to protect us but you haven’t even the wits to feed yourselves?” Jill asked harshly. Though she realized it was for their own good, the hurt look on the boys’ faces caused a small pang in Lethe’s heart. “Go home. We have no need of inept protectors.” With that, Jill turned back to the cart.

The three boys shuffled their feet self-consciously, Jake fighting the urge to cry. They all looked to Lethe hopefully, waiting for anything to assuage their bruised egos. When nothing came, Steve looked at Jill before coming closer to Lethe and whispering, “She’s mean,” then he turned to leave. Lethe had another small fight with laughter, struck with how backward the situation was, a beorc child confiding in kind and understanding Lethe about mean ole’ Jill.

As they walked away Jake lost the battle with his tears, and Mike turned to his friend and repeated, “I’m hungry,” this time deliberately.

This was a little too much for Lethe. Leaving three good kids to walk home in the dark crying and hungry. She turned to Jill. “We could feed them,” she suggested.

Jill paused in surprise for a moment before she sighed and said, “We don’t have time.”

“There’s plenty of that soup left.” Of course there was. There was no meat in it. But that didn’t stop beorc from liking it, and these children were beorc. “They’re old enough to use a stove without hurting themselves, right?”

“They should be, with all that bravado,” Jill muttered.

“So we just show them the kitchen and leave.”

Jill sighed again. “Alright. Alright.” Then she grinned. “You big softie,” she said, poking Lethe gently in the stomach.

Lethe scowled and very nearly said to forget the whole thing. Very nearly.

-

They’d been on the road for ten minutes, Lethe grumbling frequently about how slow they were going, when she smelled the approach of many beorc men, the growing rumble of their footsteps following in her ears.

They might have been able to escape on Haar, Jill’s wyvern, if it still weren’t half-asleep. Lethe had to disagree with Jill’s name for it. Captain Haar’s constant napping somehow never stopped him from doing what needed to be done. The wyvern Haar would likely send them hurtling into the ground from seventy feet up if they tried to ride him now.

But even were that not the case, Jill would rather not leave this cart behind, and Lethe would rather she didn’t have to. Owning little herself, Lethe did not completely understand the attachment to material possessions, but she had great faith in Jill, and was not of a mind to dismiss anything Jill cared about. She had faith that Jill would know if and when the danger demanded they leave her things behind.

Presently the danger was not great to Lethe’s thinking. It used to be that the Daein military would get involved in laguz hunts. But now the Daein military was Begnion, and Begnion military would have no part of hunting laguz. The men they would be facing were all villagers. And villagers were much more easily frightened than military. Lethe expected she’d only have to jump around and growl a few times in her animal form before they would all scatter like leaves.

The leader of the mob was easily spotted as they came into view, standing at the fore with spear in hand, a picture of self-importance. He appeared to regard leading madmen as his calling, for he carried himself with all the arrogance of a king. He was easily smelled, as well, stinking of alcohol and opium and just plain stink.

Lethe sat on the cart in plain view, her face unhidden. A hooded figure sitting next to Jill Fizzart on a cart coming from the manor where a laguz was sighted would hardly avoid suspicion. She would not waste the effort to hide from these fools.

“Three of our children have gone missing since you arrived, sub-human. What have you done with them?” the leader asked.

“Steve, Jake, and Mike are still at the manor if they’re not already on their way home,” Jill answered.

“I was talking to the sub-human, Lady Fizzart.” Lethe could not stop herself from hissing as he used the slur a second time. “Or can it only hiss like an animal and needs you to speak for it?”

“I need no one to speak for me, human.” She bit her tongue on the last word. Human was a hate-filled word and she should be above using it, even if beorc did not find it offensive.

“Oh. Then speak. What have you done with the children?”

“We left them at the manor as she said. They came to see the sss…,” she hadn’t the will to call herself sub-human, even indirectly. “…the cat-girl for themselves,” she finished. “When they said they were hungry we showed them to what was left of our dinner and then we left. That was about twenty minutes ago.” She gave the whole story rather than let him lead it to the conclusions he wished.

He stared at her hatefully for a moment before sharply bursting into laughter. “The benevolent sub-human, huh? You expect me to believe that? You’d have had better luck saying you never saw them at all!”

“You need only go to the manor to find them,” Jill said.

“Oh, and I suppose we’d leave you here alone to escape while we’re at it? First you feed on our children and then you insult our intelligence with these blatant deceptions! We know we’ll find the children at the manor. The parts of them you didn’t eat!” He spat in Jill’s direction. “What about you, Lady Fizzart? Did you share a taste with your beast here? Did it taste better knowing their names first?”

“I’d rather eat refuse than have beorc flesh anywhere near my mouth!” Lethe snarled. A naughty part of her mind began to think of the many exceptions Jill made to that rule, but she silenced it as well as she could. Now was not the time.

“I’ll not listen to any more of your lies, monster!” he said as he readied his spear. “Prepare to…” His battle cry faded as he saw Lethe clearly no longer paying attention.

A new scent came as the wind changed direction. One far more pleasant than the hate-filled men before her and the foul stench of their leader. One she would have rather not smelled right now.

“The children are not at the manor,” she said, only half-looking at the mob’s leader.

“What? Are you confessing? Do you think that will bring—”

“They are on their way home,” she said into the forest, interrupting him. “They will not be found here. They will be found at home. Or I will be very upset.” They almost certainly wouldn’t listen, but it was worth a try.

“What is this madness?” the leader asked. “Have you forgotten how to speak, animal? No matter. I will soon put you out of your misery!” he yelled, charging forward.

The men behind him were preparing to charge as well when three boys shouted, “Stop!” Lethe cursed.

From behind the cart ran Steve, Jake, and Mike. Lethe jumped from the cart and stood in front of them, Jill following her. “Get out of here!” she commanded.

“No!” Steve answered. “We’re here to protect you!” As he said this the three of them moved to stand between her and Jill and the mob.

“Steven?” came a voice from the mob as a man stepped out of the crowd.

“Dad?” Steve said.

“Steven! Get away from that creature, now!” his father called.

“No! We’re protecting her from you!” Steve shouted.

“Do what your father says, Steven,” Lethe ordered.

“No! And don’t call me Steven! I’m Steve!” he answered.

“What treachery is this? What have you done to these children?!” the leader demanded, obviously frustrated with the halt of his charge.

“You already asked that. And we already answered,” Jill answered wearily.

“She didn’t do nothin’ to us, Beck! They just fed us! The cat-girl’s nice!” Steve proclaimed.

“It was just a sub-human trick, she’s a monster, now get out of the way children!” Beck demanded.

“Trick? What trick? A trick to make us eat soup? That’s just dumb, Beck!” Steve said.

“That soup didn’t have any meat. Maybe that was the trick,” Mike mocked.

Beck was clearly growing angrier by the moment. “It doesn’t matter if you can see the trick, everything a sub-human does is lies and trickery! Never trust them! Now get out of the way!!”

“Get out of the way, all of you,” Lethe agreed, and Steve’s father echoed a similar cry.

Steve was only listening to Beck. “That’s horse-manure! The only person that’s true of is you, Beck!” Steve gave his father a pointed look before continuing, “My dad always says stay away from Beck and never listen to a thing he says! Course he don’t need to tell me that, most anyone can figure it out on their own.”

Beck was very very angry now. “You’re just a bunch of stupid kids and this is grown-up stuff you wouldn’t understand! Now GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!”

“We’re not kids and you’re the stupid one you big jerk!” And with that Steve kicked Beck in the shin.

“YOU LITTLE BRAT!!!” Beck roared, lifting his spear, ignoring the cries of the men behind him as he thrust it at Steve’s chest.

There was a blur of movement before Beck’s spear was stopped mid-thrust, shaft firmly held by Lethe, Steve standing safely behind her. Beck shouted in frustration as he made a futile attempt to wrench it from her grasp. “How weak must a man be to strike at a child?” Lethe asked, her eyes looking into Beck’s coldly.

He regained some semblance of control before responding. “You monsters think humans are all so weak, don’t you?”

“I was speaking only of you, weakling,” Lethe responded sharply. “I have met many of your kind who are strong. Jill. Queen Elincia. These children. They are among the strongest I’ve seen.” Steve, Jake, and Mike would remember for the rest of their days the time when the pretty cat-girl said they were some of the strongest men she’d ever seen. “If not the brightest.” And they would conveniently forget what she said after.

“They are far stronger than you,” Lethe continued. Beck yanked on the spear again as his anger was rekindled. “Just how weak are you, weakling? Are you so physically weak that a kick to the shin might have killed you, so you made a lethal attack in response?” She smiled as his anger grew even further. “Or are you also weak of mind? Weak of spirit? So weak with self-loathing that the words of a child can bring you to a killing-rage?” He yanked the spear again. “Yes, I could see it. I could smell it. The disgusting pleasure you took from leading their hatred. You live on the suffering of others. It sustains you. The only way you can stand yourself is when others are worse off than you.”

“You BITCH!!!” he screamed, yanking the spear as hard as he could, nearly falling backward as Lethe simply let go. With another scream he lunged at her, and she easily lept well away as Jill stepped in, grabbing the extended spear and twisting, pulling it from his grasp. Crouching as she continued her spin, she struck him behind the knees with the staff, then put a foot on his chest and the blade to his neck as he landed on his back.

Beck screamed in pure frustration, a primal scream that every sentient being present was ashamed to hear coming from another sentient being. When the scream ended his chest continued to heave in rage, spittle framing his lips.

Jill looked up at the would-be mob and posed them a question. “Who is the monster here?” None answered, and she continued. “Who is the animal? Who is the roaring and slobbering beast?” Still no answers. “Who was it that attacked your children? And who was it that saved them?”

Silence continued to reign, and Jill looked back down at the monster under her foot, looking no more human than when she had last seen him. “I remember this man. I remember him very well. But it seems that somehow you do not,” she said as she looked back up at the village men. “He is Beck. The biggest scoundrel in all of Talrega. A drunk. A cheat. A womanizer. And worse. If I recall he would try to work his limited charm on merchant women and other outsiders, as all the girls around here knew better. But on one drunken night after a particularly bad rejection he turned to a local girl, and didn’t take no for an answer.”

“I never touched that bitch!! She’ll tell you, I didn’t-!!” His words were interrupted as Jill’s foot left his chest to kick him in the jaw. Hard. Though he didn’t let a mouth full of blood stop him from uttering his favorite word for women in response.

“Of course, he scared her so bad she won’t say a word against him,” Jill continued. As she scanned the crowd she saw one face stick out, covered in anger and shame. “Was it your daughter, mister?” He looked up for the briefest second before slamming his head right back down. “Did you forget?” She looked over the rest of them. “Did you all forget? When the time came for hateful words and hateful actions, did you all forget yourselves and make your greatest scoundrel into a hero?”

Silence stretched on for several moments before Jill lifted her foot, tossed the spear to one of the village men, and walked back to the cart. “Lethe and I are leaving, now. If you would please move out of the way?”

“Like hell we will!” Beck shouted as he got up, oblivious to the men stepping off the road behind him.

“Who’s we?” Lethe asked. Beck looked utterly confused for a moment before turning around.

“Y-you can’t be serious! It’s a sub-human, a monster! You can’t let it get away!!” he shouted. He got only withering glares in response, and with another primal scream he began to stomp off. Though he didn’t get very far.

“Hey! What are you doing, bitch?! Let go!”

“I’m not letting the monster get away,” Lethe responded, and proceeded to drag him by the hair towards the men gathered on the side of the road.

“Help! Help! She’s going to kill me! You can’t let her kill me!” Beck screamed, all of his bravado gone without a mob of men behind him.

“W-w-what do you want…m-miss?” one of the men spoke, voice shaken by fears that did not include any concern for Beck’s safety.

“I didn’t think you wanted this man running loose,” she said, Beck shouting as she gave his head a jerk. When she got a wall of blank stares, she continued. “You all witnessed him attack one of your children. Surely you have laws against that? And punishments?”

Light slowly dawned in the eyes of the man who first spoke to her, and though he was still visibly nervous, his tone was almost friendly as he answered, “Why yes we do, miss. Yes we do.”

“Good. He’s all yours,” she said, Beck yelping once again as she threw him into the crowd of waiting men, nearly knocking some over. As she walked away she took a sadistic satisfaction from Beck’s gradually growing pleas for mercy as he was placed in restraints probably meant for her. Beorc had a word for that last part. Irony, she thought it was.

She tousled Steve’s hair as she walked by him to climb back into the cart. It wasn't a kiss, but it would have to do.

-

They were at the border of Daein at last. Many more days remained until they reached Gallia and Lethe’s home near the capital, but that seemed trivial somehow. Jill stood on the edge and looked back the way she had come.

“What are you thinking?” Lethe asked.

Jill closed her eyes and leaned her head on Lethe’s shoulder. “I hate this country.”

She felt Lethe start. “I thought we had both learned not to hate.”

“I know. I’m not proud of it, but…it’s hard.” She looked Lethe in the eye. “I never had anything personal against the laguz, it was just what I was taught. But…” She looked at her feet. “Daein killed my father. And made a fool of me for so long.”

“Would you condemn its people for that?” Lethe asked.

“No. No, it’s the government I hate. And the lies and ignorance the people have been swallowing for years. But that’s not entirely the people’s fault.” She tried to smile as she looked back at Lethe. “And even that’s changing. So maybe there’s hope.”

Indeed, maybe there was. If their three little Daein protectors were any indication, maybe there was.