^Cover art by Azul-Gale .

1/16/16: Happy anniversary!!
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Chapter One

Lucina liked sleeping. Not because she was lazy or because she didn't like working, but because the realm of the unconscious was a heck of a lot better than reality. In her dreams, she could experience the world as it had been...before Grima had decided to sink its evil fangs into it.

But as with every dream, you have to wake up eventually.

On this particular morning, Lucina woke up on the cold, hard ground, curled into the fetal position for warmth. She was buried under a pile of leaves, and their earthen smell clogged her nostrils. Lucina listened first for the sound of footsteps, enemies, but when she heard none, Lucina slowly began to unfurl her body, accidentally poking Severa in the eye with her heel in the process. The girl was lying somewhere alongside Lucina's body.

"Eep!" Severa squeaked. She sat upright quickly, making her ponytails, coated in leaves, fly up with her. She covered her eye and glared at Lucina. "That was totally not necessary," she snapped. "Aren't you supposed to try to wake me up by yelling and pouring water on me before you start with the kicking?"

"I apologize," Lucina said, wincing as she rubbed her back. "I didn't mean to hit you, Severa."

"Ugh." The girl lowered her hand, and Lucina flinched-Severa's eye was already turning blue. This definitely wouldn't help the girl's inferiority complex. "Well," Severa said, "you're just lucky that there weren't any Risen nearby."

The two girls stood up and began dusting the sticky leaves off of their bodies. It was a cold morning. The forest that surrounded them on all sides allowed hardly a speck of sunlight to reach them. Not that the sun shined very much these days. Storms were more common now than sunny days. It had rained last night-the forest was heavy with the scent of rainwater, and the chill had invaded Lucina's bones, making them feel brittle. The freezing night under wet leaves had not helped either.

But according to Laurent, the Risen flocked to warm bodies like bees to honey. The cold leaves, apparently, would lower their body temperature enough for them to rest undetected.

As if on cue, Laurent's hand appeared from within the recesses of the gigantic pile of leaves. He scratched at the mud for a moment before managing to drag himself out from underneath. Leaves coated him from head to toe, even sticking to his spectacles.

"Well, that could have gone better," he said grumpily, slapping the leaves off of himself as he stood up. "I've got the worst backache right now."

"Blame yourself, genius," Severa said, just as grouchy. But Severa was always grouchy, for some reason or another. "You're the one who wanted to snooze in a haystack. We could have just slept up in the trees, but someone wouldn't listen to reason."

Laurent adjusted his wizard's hat, a momento from his mother. "Don't talk to me like that," he said. "I daresay that we'd all have broken spines instead of backaches if we'd taken to the trees. I'd like to see you try to lift a sword when you're quadriplegic, Severa."

They began arguing-a bit of a constant, where Severa's hardheadedness and Laurent's tongue were concerned-but Lucina quickly cut it off by saying, "Where's Gerome?"

As if on cue, the wyvern rider crawled out from under the leaves. He, too, was covered in leaves, but unlike the others, he didn't complain about it. He began plucking them from out of his blue, swept-back hair and adjusted his ever-present mask. He didn't say anything, just nodded good morning to Lucina and began to check his gear.

The kids broke off to find breakfast in the forest. Lucina headed north towards a stream and found a bush full of berries. Severa found some nuts, and Gerome some sour-tasting but edible plant. Laurent didn't find anything. The boy was better at burying his nose in books that finding food, they all knew.

Back at "camp", the four consumed their breakfast hungrily. The meal they'd scrounged together was actually a lot more than they were used to. Food shortages were at an all-time high in their country of Ylisse. Vicious thunderstorms and twisters had completely ravaged the crop fields. Mysterious poison made even the most reliable food sources inedible, including game.

The only people who had readily accessible, safe food now were the nobles and higher class, and they shut it up tight in their storage houses. That fact, in and of itself, caused crime rates to skyrocket-people were constantly trying to break into those locked warehouses, desperate for a loaf of bread or a head of lettuce.

Lucina was glad that she and her group had fled the cities-all of them could fight pretty well, but the streets were currently unfit to live on with all the crime, especially in Ylisstol. Since Lucina's father and aunt had died, there was no central authority over her home country-just petty nobles squabbling over power. The governmental fluctuations caused a hike in taxes and left many of the common citizens poor and bereft. Lucina grit her teeth. They'd take their chances in the forests with the Risen rather than with desperate humans-the latter, at times, was the greater of the two evils.

They finished their meager breakfast and prepared to move on. Since Grima's appearance, there had been more Risen around than usual, almost as if the Fell Dragon had birthed them shortly after it had resurrected. They could no longer spend more than one night in a single area-according to Laurent, their scent could cling to the scenery, and was almost as bad as body heat for attracting Risen.

"Where's Minerva?" Lucina asked as she strapped on her heavy cloak. Minerva was Gerome's wyvern, which had once belonged to his mother. To a stranger, the dragon was horror incarnated, the stuff of nightmares, but Lucina was coming to find that the beast was a gentle, if emotional creature. Gerome had once mentioned that his mother had pampered Minerva during her lifetime, which Lucina assumed had softened the beast up. But there wasn't much pampering these days-just a lot of running, recon, and flying.

"Scouting," Gerome said as he secured the straps on his bags. "She's going to see how much longer it will be until we reach the coast."

"Not much, I hope," Severa grumbled. "We practically walked until...today, yesterday! I'm going to be ticked if we aren't any closer than we were yesterday."

"Statistically speaking, that's imp-" Laurent started.

"We still have to cross the sea, even when we reach the coast," Gerome pointed out. "It'll be a miracle if we're able to find a boat to use, much less a functioning port."

During the initial uprising of the Risen and Grima's resurrection, most of the ports around the known world had been destroyed in the ensuing battles. They were not far from Port Ferox at the moment-Lucina prayed every spare moment that when they reached the coast of Regna Ferox, one or two boats would still be in relatively good condition.

Because if not, they would never reach their destination. And Grima would surely destroy the world.

"I keep saying that we should go south to Carrion Isle," Laurent grumbled as everyone hefted their rucksacks onto their backs-each bag contained a few scraps of emergency food, canteens of water, and some spare clothes.

"You'd best think again if you believe I'm going to step foot on that accursed island!" Severa snapped.

"They're separated from the rest of the continent," Laurent argued. "Perhaps the Risen insurrection wasn't as horrid there. Their ports may still be functioning." He looked over his shoulder. "Lucina? Back me up, here?"

Lucina was distracted looking around, trying to remember the direction they'd been heading. They'd been stumbling through the forest in fatigue the previous night, desperate to reach the coast, refusing to stop until they could hear the crash of waves in their ears. Lucina practically had to smack each of them with the flat of Falchion before they would stop and set up camp.

"Lucina," Laurent repeated.

She sighed. "Severa's right, we can't go down there," she said.

The mage stomped his foot. "Whyever not?"

"It would mean crossing into Plegia," Gerome said. "Grima's back is safer than that country. It's practically the Fell Dragon's home base, where he draws his power. They were basically the ones that summoned him, after all."

Laurent grumbled and Lucina added, "It's too far away anyway. We'd be wasting precious time and energy. Our best bet is to head for Port Ferox and see about a boat there.'

Laurent crossed his arms. "And if we don't find one?"

Lucina didn't answer. She didn't want to think about that.

The kids hiked through the woods, Lucina on point with Gerome with Severa bringing up the rear. Laurent was sandwiched in the middle, his nose buried in a fiery red tome, another momento of his mother. He'd once said that she'd been a great scientist with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and he'd managed to save some of her findings before the Risen coup had destroyed his home.

It made Lucina think of her own momento-the holy sword of Falchion, wielded by the Hero-King Marth himself, and her father, and her father's father. She'd known that she would inherit it one day, but she hadn't suspected that day to come so quickly, so unexpectedly. She felt that she didn't deserve its reassuring weight, it's enormous power-she felt too inexperienced to use it.

And yet, use it she must, if she wanted to keep her and her friends alive.

They walked for a couple of clicks through the chilly forest, the kids-save for Laurent-tense and uber alert, just waiting for the shuffle of the underbrush or the soft snarl of a predator to warn them that Risen were near. The cold forest was unexpectedly quiet-none of them liked it, especially since staying so alert hurt their sore muscles.

Half an hour later, Minerva returned from her scouting. Everyone tensed at the sound of thick leathery wings flapping high above them. They were currently in a little clearing, which was fortunate-Minerva's wings didn't snap any branches as she descended to the forest floor, which would have alerted any wandering Risen of their location.

The wyvern was huge, bigger than a normal riding dragon, coated head to tail with sleek, black scales-when they had time, Gerome could usually be found polishing them to pass the time. She was currently clothed in a riding saddle for two, along with a harness that was used for holding all of their gear. Her feet thudded dully against the forest floor as she landed, tucking in her wings and positioning them along her spine.

"Welcome back," Gerome said, his face brightening with the tiniest of smiles. Minerva was the only creature the wyvern rider graced with his smile. All other times, his face was either expressionless or contorted into a snarl when he attacked an enemy. "What did you find, Minerva?"

The black dragon extended her long neck towards Gerome until her snout was close to his ear. She grunted and snorted rapidly, blowing his hair around.

"You must teach me how to speak Wyvern one day," Laurent said. "My mother would be thrilled if I could accomplish such a feat."

Gerome ignored him, his face smooth as he absorbed Minerva's animalistic sounds. "She says that the coast is half a day's walk from here," he said.

Lucina exchanged glances with Severa and Laurent, mirroring their excitement. "Did she see if Port Ferox was still intact?" she asked. "Did she see any boats?"

Minerva growled low in her throat. "She says the entire coast is obscured by a strange fog," he said. "She couldn't see through it, but she heard the sounds of the waves."

Well, at least the coast was close. "Excellent," Lucina said. "Let's go off at once."

They loaded Minerva up with their rucksacks, but before they could move again, a horrible rumbling began to shake the earth, making Lucina's armor rattle on her shoulders and Severa's sword clack in its sheath. Lucina looked up in alarm, and saw that the canopy of the trees were swaying ominously as they were battered with the strange sound waves. Minerva's scales flared in fright.

"What is it?" Laurent asked.

"Oh no," Severa breathed.

"Get down!" Lucina hissed. "Quickly!"

The kids dropped to the earth, fleeing in opposite directions to get out of the tiny clearing. Gerome pulled Minvera within a cluster of birch trees and then ducked under the wyvern's extended wings. Laurent, on all fours, scrambled to follow him. Lucina ducked into the underbrush, and she pulled Severa behind her, shoving the girl down into the dewy undergrowth.

The earth continued to throb, the rumblings growing heavier and heavier until they seemed to rattle the very marrow of Lucina's bones. She felt Severa trembling underneath her and squeezed the girl's hand. Across the clearing, Gerome was gritting his teeth beneath Minerva's wings. Laurent was gazing upward, as if hoping to catch a glimpse of what was causing the rumbling.

Sticks and twigs and leaves rained down from the trees, coating Lucina's blue hair, as a huge shadow eclipsed the weak morning light. Severa's tremblings increased. Lucina looked up, just in time to catch something massive-bigger than anything she'd seen before in her life-passed over them, high in the sky. It was a horrendous creature, whose limbs resembled wings, and whose snout was connected to a head that had to be at least three clicks long, haloed with deathly looking horns and a snout lined with teeth longer than Lucina's own body. Its eyes were bright, frighteningly so, and its entire body was covered with scales, longer and thicker than the ones that coated any wyvern.

Lucina's stomach twisted and her face paled. She couldn't believe it was here, this far from Ylisstol. She'd hoped to never see it again, never to hear its slimy voice ring through her ears and destroy her confidence and motivation.

The beast moved silently over the forest, its journey continuing to make the earth rumble and the trees thrash. Lucina squeezed Severa's hand even harder as it continued to move, hoping that it would never stop, never notice her down on the ground, hiding in the grass.

It didn't. The monster went away. The sky cleared somewhat. The earth stopped shaking. The trees stopped moving. All of a sudden, all was still.

Lucina and the kids didn't move for ten whole minutes. She strained her ears, trying to sense how far away it was, but could honestly hear nothing but her own frantic hearbeat. Would it circle around? Come back, discover them?

But no, it seemed to be gone. For the moment.

Lucina nodded, and everyone got to their feet. Laurent was as pale as death.

"Was that..." For once, he couldn't seem to speak. "Wasn't that...?"

"Grima, the Fell Dragon," Lucina said gravely.

"What in the name of Naga is it doing all the way out here?" Severa choked. Her face rivaled Laurent's in pallor. "I didn't...I didn't think it moved around. I thought it stayed in Ylisstol!"

"So did I," Lucina said, trying to get her breathing under control. They were talking in low whispers, but even they felt too loud. Too exposing. She wondered if Grima, wherever it had gone, could hear them talking from far away.

"What should we do?" Laurent asked. "Should we hide? What if it comes back?"

"We can't afford it," Gerome said. His voice was calm, steady, but even his face was sheet white. "We're way too close to the coast. Maybe Grima will stay away for now."

"But what if we move and it sees us?" Laurent looked on the verge of hysterics. It was odd to see him so worked up-he was usually more calm and observant. Lucina put a soothing hand on his shoulder.

"Grima's sudden appearance frightened me too," she said to him. "But remember that we're on a mission to save the world. We can't delay. Think of all the people who are counting on us."

Laurent shook his head. "This is insanity," he mumbled. "I'd rather dig a hole and hide."

Severa scowled. "Well go ahead, Specs, no one's stopping you!" she snapped. "But the rest of us are brave enough to shoulder this responsibility, even if it means that there's a chance Grima will try to smite us off the face of the continent. If you're so freaked, then just let us handle it, craven."

Lucina was pleased when Laurent snapped out of it, marching up to Severa and glaring down at her. "Excuse me?" he snarled. "I am not a craven!"

She smirked. "Then prove it. Get yourself together and let's go."

Laurent's face fell a little, but he wrung the spine of his tome. "All right," he relented, casting Lucina a worried glance. "But we're going to have to be extra careful this time."

"No kidding," Gerome said. "Grima passing through isn't all that innocent-there's probably a lot more Risen around than before. We'll have to be more careful than usual."