“Now, where can I get rid of this?” Ricken walked through the camp, carrying a bottle of potion in his stead. It was created in order to hasten an organism’s growth, but was meant to be used by plants; not exactly fit for human consumption. Ricken had originally intended to use the potion on himself in order to give himself more height, and therefore more respect in the army, but was talked out of it after a quick pep talk from Sully; in hindsight, it was a good idea to opt out, he could’ve accidentally poisoned himself with all the different chemicals he mixed into the solution. Now, he looked for a safe spot to dispose of the potion without causing any trouble in the camp, Ricken didn’t want anyone in the army getting poisoned, nor did he want an overgrowth of plants preventing the march forward or giving brigands and Risen vantage for an ambush. “Ugh, this is so hard!” he cried, “I can’t throw it in the woods because of all the plants, I can’t chuck it in the river without poisoning the water supply, this is starting to seem like it was an awful decision the more I think about it…” Exhausted, Ricken sat down on bench and set the potion to his side, wiping down his forehead with his hat as the young mage thought of how to dispose of his solution proper.
“Hey, nerd.” Ricken turned to see who called him and came face-to-face with Severa, brandishing a bow and face slightly sweaty. The light blue-haired daughter of Virion and Cordelia had a reputation in the army of being a crude, sarcastic jerk, and while her parents and comrades of the future insisted it was because of her rough life in the destroyed future, many of the other Shepherds agreed that genetically, she was a spoiled, stuck-up brat, being the daughter of a Duke, and though she fought valiantly with honor, she flaunted her title of “Lady” around far too much and was a huge money sink, spending a lot of the army’s wealth on expensive dresses and jewelry. Ricken sighed and shook his head, he did not want to deal with this right now.
“Hello, ‘Lady’ Severa.” Ricken responded sarcastically. “And what graces me with your pleasure today?”
“Wow, and people say I’m the rude one.” Severa responded with a smirk, clearly taking pleasure in how she riled up the young mage with her presence. “Anyways, Chrom’s called for a meeting of the troops, and guess who’s needed to discuss the magic training regiments?” Ricken sighed, why on earth was it that he was being called on now when Chrom rarely called him for meetings before? There were clearly other mages in the Shepherds, ones that Chrom didn’t consider too young for war either.
“Can you tell Chrom to wait?” Ricken replied, “I’m in the middle of something a little important right now.”
“Nu-uh, not happening, direct order from the Exalt himself.” Severa responded, shaking her head. “Besides, I didn’t really like your tone, so why should I be inclined to throw you a bone?”
“Perfect.” Ricken thought, “Me and my big mouth, think before you speak next time, Ricken.” The mage decided he was already in hot water, why not protest a little and see where it gets him? “And why don’t you need to go to the meeting? Aren’t you part of the army too, or are you thinking of going back to Rosanne and taking Daddy’s throne while he’s gone?”
“I’m just the messenger, no need to give me that smart-ass mouth of yours, little boy.” Ricken fumed inwardly, he hated being called a child by anyone, more fuel for him to dislike Severa. “And if you must know,” continued the icy-haired Lady, “I’m training for the oncoming march. See the bow in my hand? I’m practicing on my range for the battle, Daddy didn’t really give me his keen eyesight, and bows surprisingly aren’t one of the things Mom’s good at.”
“You’re training? Without your horse? And in that dress?” Ricken pointed out the Bow Knight’s attire, a fancy white and blue dress more meant for a princess or a cleric than a war, and Severa merely scoffed at his answer.
“If you must know, Chrom thinks I need a little more foot training in my life, and he also thinks that if I bought the dress, then I should wear it in our marches too; he treats it like our armor we buy.” Severa giggled and spun around, showing the full radiance of her attire off to Ricken. “Not like I’m complaining; just look how darling I look in this! It really goes with my radiant hair too, you could almost say I’m the face of beauty in this army!”
“Alright, number one: In terms of children, Lucina trumps you in terms of beauty. Second: I’m totally busy right now, so unless you don’t want the army to be healthy, then you’ll leave me alone.” Severa pondered it for a moment before responding.
“Alright, then how about this?” Severa drew her bow and readied an arrow, pointing it at Ricken. “I’ll give you a 5 second head-start before my finger slips, I’d recommend you run to Chrom to tell him I’m threatening you like this.” Ricken flipped, thinking the young Lady lost her marbles.
“Are you crazy?!” he cried, “You can’t just shoot me like an animal!” Severa looked undeterred, closing her left eye for a better aim.
“5…4…3…”
“Alright! Alright! I’m going!” Ricken bolted, leaving behind his bottle of potion, while Severa flipped one of her pigtails in victory.
“That kid’s so easy to intimidate!” she spoke in praise of herself, “’I’m an adult!’ my big toe!” Severa laughed before getting back to other matters. “Now, what was he talking about? ‘Don’t want the army to be healthy’ or something?” Severa looked around where Ricken sat and spotted the bottle of potion, she placed down her bow and bought the concoction to her face. “Is this what he was talking about?”
Severa sniffed the mixture from the mouth of the bottle, smelling a strong scent of lemon and citrus from the potion, a somewhat appealing aroma. “What is this? An energy drink for the army?” Severa thought it over for a moment. “He’s always making up those crazy chemicals in the lab, is he now working in brewery? Should I take a swig of this without any idea of what’s in here?” Severa batted the idea around in her head for roughly 7 seconds before shaking off the thought. “Nah, he can always make more, kid keeps a ream of notes on him!” Severa held the bottle up high, expecting it to help her out on her workout. “Well, bottom’s up!” In one fell swoop, she chugged the entirety of the liquid, completely unaware of its real purpose, before throwing the bottle behind her and listening to it shatter with an audible “CRACK!” from behind her. “That hit the spot!” she cried, satisfied by the drink, “Gotta hand it to Ricken; not half bad!” On that, Severa continued on her training exercise, breaking into a small run before heading off into the woods, looking for wildlife and targets to aim at.
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“Who does she think she is?!” Ricken continued onwards in the camp in frustration over Severa’s antics. “’I’m a proper Lady! Listen to me! I’m considered royalty!’ I swear to gods, Virion’s going to get an earful as soon as I get rid of that poti-“ Ricken stopped, the color drained from his face considerably once he realized his mistake. “HOLY CRAP! The potion!” Ricken turned around immediately and broke into a run, hoping for the love of gods that Severa didn’t mess with it, even he didn’t want to see the girl get poisoned, as much as she might’ve deserved it.
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Severa wandered through the woods, run now slowing to a small jog as she tired herself out, firing at various targets as she ran.
“This is so tiring!” she huffed, trying to keep a steady pace as she trained in seclusion. “I thought that energy drinks were supposed to revitalize you, not do nothing!” Severa kept a light jog up as best as she could, before stopping suddenly when she felt something in her shoulder. Severa ran her fingers across the fabric of her dress and tried flexing her arm a little. “That’s odd,” she said to herself, “I could’ve sworn I bought this thing in my size when I tried it on…” As she flexed her muscles more, the fabric tore around her shoulder, exposing some skin to the open air. “Dammit!” she cried, “I just bought this one too!”   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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