Ariaeris is a very, very happy little chef. Why, you ask? Because almost all of my school textbooks have been bought and I am ready for the most fun year of high school ever. With courses like Forensic Science, Psychology, Government, and Precalculus honors (…that last one was a joke), Senior year will be a blast. Well, except for the college applications/acceptances/rejections and other not-fun stuff.

But that is beside the point! The true point is that I have this chapter ready for all you wonderful readers out here on fanfiction dot net! I can almost hear your ecstatic cheers and wondrous applause!

Let’s here if for Ariaeris, master of slipped schedules and crappy updates!

…Whoo. The excitement in here is stifling.

In any case, enjoy the chapter, which I promise has sixty percent less sarcasm in it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem, nor do I own anything in conjunction with Fire Emblem. I am most certainly not making a profit off of this work, save that for knowing that somewhere out there, someone might find this fic a little bit enjoyable.

Warnings: Some mature material, a little bit of OOC-ness (explained at least), some sad feelings, but no bashing whatsoever - no one is going to be intentionally bashed in this fic. Also, more café puns are on the way. They’re too much fun to stop (though I am running out...)!

Pairings: Hector/Ninian (main), Lloyd/Eliwood (side), Ninian/Eliwood (one-sided), Hector/Eliwood (one-sided), and some peeks at some others.

Stand and Walk

Chapter 3: A Resolution

The dance is a poem of which each movement is a word.

- Mata Hari

It was a long walk back to camp. A cold, harsh, unforgiving walk, and Ninian laughed the entire way back, carelessly, brazenly mocking the universe which seemed to take pleasure in her pain. Constantly throwing happiness in her face, only to drag it away as soon as she reached for it.

She would not give the world the satisfaction it craved. She, frail, weak, fragile Ninian, unable to fight, always needing to be protected, would take a stand against everyone who beat her down.

Many would have called her weak; physically weak, emotionally weak…she was not a fighter like Lyn, ambitious like Farina, loyal like Florina, persevering like Louise. She just…was.

Ninian. Dancer; dragon. That was her identity, her existence.

And she was fine with that. Fine with who she was, even if she couldn’t wield a mortal weapon, even if she refused to fight as one of the dreaded dragons. Even if she felt such…pitifully human emotions, she was fine with that.

Because she chose to. Chose to dance, chose to feel, chose to live. She was still choosing to live. Everywhere around her lay the temptation for surrender. Back when she learned what Nergal had done, what he had was continuing to do. When she had been captured, with Nils and Lord Elbert (such a strong, compassionate man. When she had reunited with Eliwood she had though she had seen a flicker of Elbert in him. She had been wrong; Eliwood was just as amazing of a man as Elbert was, even then). When she had lost her memory and her brother…

She had lived. Lived through it all, the wounds on her heart scabbing and scarring over, only making her stronger in the end.

She would do the same now; even this heartbreak would only aid her in the end. Even if now she could only feel her heart being torn in two with every moment and every step, she would eventually heal. She would become stronger, colder, a little more jaded, but she would live in the end.

That was what she did; she lived.

Cold and tired as she was, Ninian barely noticed when she stumbled past the first few tents of the army. She could hear, faintly, the soft sounds of snoring echoing from the tents, and she stopped by each and every one to check on its inhabitants.

They were all like her; struggling, fighting, surviving for another unsure day. Through wounds of both the body and heart they fought on, all for a tomorrow that might be worse than today.

But that was what they were fighting against, was it not? They were fighting for a better tomorrow, a tomorrow undaunted by the shadow of its would-be destroyer. Still…

That ability to fight, the tenacity to never give in even when defeat seemed inevitable; that was a very human trait. Ninian could not exactly say she could understand it. That fearsome drive towards victory had been what sent the dragons of old fleeing. After all, even the great legends state that humbled, dragons vanished from the realm.

“Ninian?”

The dragons had been defeated, not destroyed. They could have continued the Scouring, fought the humans to their very last breath, and maybe victory would have been theirs and they could have celebrated on a burning world soaked with the blood of the fallen human race.

In the face of human will though, even the mighty dragons fled in fear, fled to a realm where they would not have to face their once peaceful co-inhabitants ever again.

“Ninian!”

Maybe, just maybe, she knew a bit about will…after all, she was, even now, fighting ever onward. Onward to a future where, once more, humans would seal away the once-mighty dragons from Elibe.

“What’s wrong with her?! She won’t -”

What was wrong with her? Why was she fighting for that future? Had she been tamed, somehow, without her knowing of it? The alternate seemed so odd; that she could have decided on her own to hand over the rich land of Elibe to humans.

And yet, the latter option must be true. She had no desire for warfare, for bloodshed like so many other dragons did. Following the Scouring, they had always held at least some enmity towards humans, some less than others, but who would not despise those who had forced them to leave their home?

“She so cold! Quick, get -”

As odd as it seemed, here in Elibe, the land once ravaged by her defeated ancestor’s war, she felt most at peace. Peace in a place constantly divided by conflict and war, where power-hungry nobles trampled over the beat-down poor. Peace where lawlessness was normative; she could empathize with Lyn there, with her disgust for bandits and those who would take advantage of the weak and powerless.

Yet, even still, she felt at peace. Not that she hadn’t felt at peace in her home; she had, but this was a different sort of peace. No more desirable than the other and yet…

“Come on, Ninian; we were worried about you. Lucius and Serra will be here soon, and Priscilla has already started healing you. You have a nasty case of frostbite, but they are sure you’ll be alright. You just have to stay awake, okay? Ninian, did you hear me?”

Who? Ninian tilted her head, hissing in pain all the while (everything was starting to hurt, almost like the time she had been hit by a fimbulvetr spell), to look at who had spoken. The voice sounded familiar, and yet there was a worried current through the speech that seemed out of place.

Blue eyes were all she could make out, but she smiled weakly anyway.

Eliwood, then. Brave, loyal Eliwood, and her foolish heart skipped a beat instinctively. Of course he would be here, the love of her life; wasn’t the prince always supposed to be there for the princess in pain? Even if he didn’t love her, those eyes still shone in concern and blazing, all too human will.

Those eyes held a promise in them, a promise she felt compelled to accept. It spoke of life and love and happiness, all for her, if only she would…

“You have to stay with me, Ninian. Do you understand?”

That was it? That was all that was needed for her to find the happiness that so long eluded her? To accept those words…

She nodded silently. She would trust in him once more.

“Good,” he said, sounding relieved. “Ah! Eliwood! Do you have Lucius?”

“I do,” another voice said, also sounding worried, and Ninian’s rapidly slowing mind registered confusion. She needed to hibernate, her body automatically reacting to the cold surrounding her. “As soon as he heard Ninian’s condition, he rushed off to grab a recover staff. He will be here in a second."

“That’s a relief,” the first-Eliwood said. “Did you hear that – Ninian! Ninian, don’t fall asleep! You have to stay awake or we might not be able to wake you up again!”

The man who was shouting to her leaned over her, and Ninian’s dimming eyesight was consumed by short blue hair, thin pink lips begging her to return to consciousness, and loving, frightened blue eyes.

Ah. Hector.

What a…

Slumber.

Ninian...why do I keep hurting you?

This chapter was a bit shorter than the others, mainly because I decided to cut a scene between Eliwood and Hector right after Ninian fell asleep. It both seemed a little out of place in a Ninian focused chapter and it would have pushed the release date back even farther, so I decided to nix it. After all, it has been a month since the last chapter (sorry!), so I decided to kick myself into high gear to get this chapter out there.

As for A Moment of Mercy, chapter six should be up before the end of the week (tomorrow hopefully), with a shiny Rath/Wil omake ready for all your reading pleasures. Considering that you all seem to be huge Rath/Wil fans, I am expecting it to go over well.

One more thing before I go back to the drawing board. A close friend of mine and a huge source of inspiration for AMoM, Sol Hiryu, recently posted a three chaptered Zelgius/Ike fic here on this website. And it is glorious. I would like any of you who want to read a quality work of art filled with emotion, intelligence, and hot sex to check it out - you won't be disappointed.

That's all folks; I could spend an entire paragraph's worth of time advertising the new Naruto fic I posted or the Tibarn/Ike oneshot I churned out, or I could spend time on saying how awesome Platerair Queen's and Kai the Tiger Princess' fics are, and maybe even if I had the time, I could throw out a few plugs to anyone interested in the Harry Potter fandom to check out vairetwilight's and Mariel Nightstalker's works, but I won't. I mean, that would just be a waste of time, and I wouldn't want to bother you all with such random advertisements.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!

Ariaeris~