Crimson Flower

Skirmish At Dawn

Byleth and Jeralt walked outside to see three young adults, who didn't seem much younger than Byleth. On the left, stood a bronze boy with a dark braid shorter than his head, while the rest of his hair messily stood upright. He nodded toward us with a hand on his hip, signaling to the others. In the middle, there was a handsome young man with well kept blond hair, his eyes like an azure moon. To his right was a girl even paler than him, with unnatural white hair and purple eyes, a strange combination that Byleth hadn't seen before. They each had matching uniforms with small capes of different colors over their left shoulders.

The blond boy in blue bowed and said, "Please forgive our intrusion, we wouldn't bother you were the situation not dire."

"What do a bunch of kids like you want at this hour?" Byleth's father said, quite rudely to add.

He responded, "We're being pursued by a group of bandits," Byleth could barely keep herself awake, and now she had to fight bandits for these students? "I can only hope that you would be so kind as to lend your support."

"Bandits? Here?"

The white-haired girl replied, "It's true, they attacked us while we rested at our camp."

This time, the bronze boy spoke, "We've been separated from our companions, and we're outnumbered to boot," he has a sly way of speaking, Byleth could tell he was a slick person. "They're after our lives, not to mention our gold."

Jeralt didn't have time for an attack like this, but seeing as these kids were here it was likely a matter of time before the bandits showed up to the village, "I'm impressed at how calm you all are in this situation- wait, that uniform.."

Before he could finish his thought, another mercenary approached the group, "Bandits were just spotted outside the village! Damn, there's a lot of them."

Jeralt was growing angrier, their job in the Kingdom would have to wait, "Assuming they followed you all the way here, we can't abandon this village now," he turned to his daughter and nodded, "Hope you're ready."

Byleth pushed down yet another yawn as they awaited the bandits' approach, she was going to have to wake up to be reliable in the coming struggle. Their enemy finally came into view, there seemed to be about ten of them, with a bearded man with long hair directing them. Jeralt, Byleth, and the three strangers lined up to strike; the other mercenaries had already begun to attack. The pale girl, axe in hand, charged towards a bandit and cut him down, almost effortlessly. Following her, the blond-haired boy went to attack a bandit with his lance. He just barely missed, and the bandit dashed to his side, poised to strike back. The boy swiftly turned with a smirk, and jabbed the lance right into the man's chest. Byleth searched for the dark haired man, who she found was far from the battle, attempting to shoot down enemies with his bow. His aim was impressive, she noticed his strategic prowess. She did her part by taking down a few enemies; she saw Jeralt, mounted on a horse, charge towards the man she assumed was their leader.

"Just our luck, we didn't expect mercenaries in this village," the bearded man growled, noticing Jeralts charge towards him. He managed to avoid the horse, and made his way towards Byleth, who didn't notice how close she was. "Hey, you with the blank stare! Outta my way!" Byleth raised her sword to defend herself, pushing the man's axe away. This wasn't the first time someone called her expressionless, Jeralt always told her it was a boon to be able to hide your feelings with ease. Thing is, she wasn't trying to hide anything on purpose.

As she continued to fight the bandit, he backed away when he noticed she was much more skilled than he. The man turned towards the white-haired girl, who'd lost her axe. He roared and charged towards her. She instinctively pulled out a small dagger with a blue hilt, and braced for impact.

That thing is no match for his axe, I need to assist her. She turned to the girl and sprinted towards her, who then looked at her surprisingly when she got close. Byleth pushed her out of the way; she had messed up, her back facing the man. The axe dove straight into her as she waited for the pain to settle in. She didn't even have time to accept her end.