Writing Sample - Happy Birthday, L'Arachel!

[siraranisamused]

Series: Fire Emblem, Magvel

Characters: Eirika, Seth, Innes, L'Arachel

Word Count: 2051

Rating: G

Summary: Seth and Innes attempt to escort a young Eirika and L'Arachel back to the latter's birthday party. Attempt.

Prompt: “Eirika, Seth, Innes and L'Arachel get separated from the group but L'Arachel gets them back” + “any pre-game stuff”

Written for Alli as part of Nagamas 2013

L'Arachel adjusted the crown of daisies on Eirika’s head, and smiled proudly. “There. It looks so good on you.”

The young princess of Renais hummed happily, a touched smile on her lips. “But it’s your birthday, L'Arachel. You shouldn’t be the one giving presents!”

The two young girls laughed as they sat in a forest clearing, the sunlight of Spring shining down on them. A rustling in the branches around the perimeter caught their attention, interrupting their revelry and replacing it with intrigue.

Prince Innes of Frelia stepped into the clearing, quickly brushing the dirt off his fancy, if child-sized, doublet in the presence of the two princesses. He turned back towards the brush. “I found them!” he called out.

Seth pushed some more branches aside “Princess Eirika! Thank goodness you’re alright,” the teenaged squire sighed in relief, stepping into the clearing.

As the boys approached, L'Arachel huffed and planted her fists on her hips, already anticipating it when Innes asked, “What are you doing out here?”

“It’s my birthday, I get to do what I want,” L'Arachel argued, “and what I wanted to do was show Eirika my special spot in the forest. And we were having a nice time.”

“Still, your uncle is very worried,” Seth pointed out. “When we found out you two were missing, Innes immediately volunteered to go find you. Being older, I felt it was right for me to come with to help.”

Innes huffed, and looked aside. “I found them just fine without your help,” he grumped. He spared a glance to Eirika, before looking away again.

Eirika rose to her feet, and brushed off her little bell dress. “We should get back to the party, L'Arachel,” she agreed.

L'Arachel rolled her eyes, and nodded. “Fine. Boys, take me home.”

Seth bowed dutifully at the waist. “At once, your highness.” He turned back towards the edge of the clearing, and stepped past the perimeter, before stopping. “Oh, um…we came from this…no, it was…ah…”

“Is something the matter, Seth?” Eirika asked.

The teenaged squire turned back with a nervous twinge at one corner of his mouth. “I…I don’t recall from which direction we came…” he confessed.

“What? Move aside, let me have a look.” Innes pushed his way past Seth, and into the brush. Things were quiet for a minute, apart from the rustling of branches and bush as Innes searched.

He came back another minute later. “Yeah, we’re lost…”

L'Arachel sighed, flopping back down to the ground, resting her chin in her hands. Eirika looked amongst the group with a diplomatic smile. “Now, now,” the princess of Renais insisted, “father told me that if I were to become lost, the best thing to do would be to just stay where I was, and wait for someone to come find me.”

“We already tried that,” L'Arachel pointed out, gesturing towards Innes and Seth.

Innes folded his arms, looking at the green haired birthday girl. “Well, what about you, then? You found your way here and got back before, shouldn’t you know the way out?”

L'Arachel shook her head. “Nope. Last time I was out here, I was with uncle. I loved this place so much, I made sure to remember how to get here.”

“And you didn’t make note of how to get back?”

“It didn’t seem important.”

Innes made a noise of exasperated pain, as L'Arachel got up and walked past him.

“Still, I can at least give it a shot. Come along, everyone.”

*********

“Hal-lo?” Seth called out into the forest, leading their little expedition to find their way back to the palace. He cupped both hands around his mouth. “Hal-loooooo!”

Innes scoffed, and shook his head. “No one’s hearing us,” he noted. “Hold here. I want to try something.” The group came to a halt as Innes approached one of the older trees. Looking towards the canopy, he decided this tree should be tall enough to break through. With a leap, he clung onto the tree…and scrambled to get a better hold as he slid back down.

“Thank you…” he muttered a moment later, as Seth stood up as tall as he could, Innes standing on his shoulders, allowing the prince to find the first branch, and begin climbing. Seth, Eirika, and L'Arachel kept circling around the tree, watching as Innes crawled up its face should he fall. The prince of Frelia, however, seemed to be in the zone, and, despite the slow pace and slipping once or twice, he slowly made his way up the tree.

He broke through the canopy at the top, resting on a heavy branch to catch his breath. As he looked out across the afternoon sky, he eventually spotted the royal palace of Rausten. He smirked in triumph, and reached behind his back. His smirk faded when he found only his doublet, sticking to his back with sweat.

“Where’s my bow?” he called back down to the others.

“I believe you left it with the horses when we hit the edge of the forest!” Seth called back up.

“Of course I did,” Innes muttered to himself, before climbing back down. Once he reached the bottom, he marched off towards the direction of the palace. “Still, I saw where it was; if we just go this way a while, we should reach the outskirts of the forest and be back on the palace grounds.”

The others looked between themselves. L'Arachel and Eirika exchanged shrugs, before they followed Seth and Innes.

For another ten minutes they walked, Innes leading them, more sure of this than anything before in his young life. “Yes, it shouldn’t be far now,” he insisted, his confident smile wide up one side of his lips. Once again, it soon faded, this time at the presence of a steep, sheer cliff face ahead of him.

Seth and Innes looked down both ends of the cliff. “I can’t see where my side ends!” Seth called out.

“And mine leads to a ravine,” Innes called back, before letting out a pained sound of exasperation. The two soon returned to the girls.

“So…?” Eirika asked.

“We’ll keep looking!” Innes insisted.

*********

“Everyone!” Eirika cried out in cheer. “I found a trail!”

The others soon reached the teal haired princess, who stood proudly next to her discovery. Sure enough, it was an old forest trail, well worn into the ground by feet throughout the years, a contrast to the forest floor around it.

“Excellent work, Princess!” Seth congratulated.

“Only…which way do we go, now?” L'Arachel asked.

The four stood there a while, thinking, before Seth stepped onto the path, crouching down next to a small boulder on the other side. His face brightened with a smile, as he pointed down one way of the trail. “Moss always points towards civilization,” he explained. “So we should go down this way.”

With a new sense of confidence from the older, more experienced Seth now guiding them, the four proceeded down the path. At every fork or turn, Seth would search for another landmark, whether it was moss, or glossier faces to rocks, or certain man-made blemishes in the plant life.

Another half hour passed, before they finally reached a wall of branches and brambles. Seth nodded confidently, taking a large knife from his hip, and cutting at the wall. “Once we pass through this, we’ll be back in the grounds behind the castle! Then we can find our horses and return to the palace!”

L'Arachel and Eirika looked at each other with grins on their faces. “Hooray!” The birthday girl looked to Seth. “I’m sure uncle will forgive you cutting a hole in the forest wall to let us out,” she insisted.

After hacking at the branches for a few more swings, Seth managed to push an opening in. The royal children jumped through.

They found themselves in a large clearing in the forest, the Spring sun shining down into the centre of it, where flowers, petals, and strings were discarded around two depressions in the grass. Eirika felt at the flower crown around her head. “We’re back where we started, aren’t we?” she asked.

“Looks that way,” Seth admitted with defeat.

Innes let out a pained sigh of exasperation, resting his face in his palm.

L'Arachel huffed, and folded her arms over her chest. “Alright, enough of this. I know exactly how we’re getting out of here.” She immediately dropped onto her butt. She rested her hands at her sides. She took in several sharp, shallow breaths, as she willed tears to the corners of her eyes. Her lips quibbled. And then….

“BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

L'Arachel wailed and cried, tears flowing down her face, turned up to the sky.

Seth covered his ears, wincing away. “Ah! P…Princess, I admire your idea, but we already tried calling for help after we had gone out a ways…” he explained, trying to make himself heard over L'Arachel’s crying.

“You tried that!” Innes countered.

“Hold on, everyone!” Eirika interrupted. “Listen!”

“What, over the sound of her screaming?” Innes scoffed.

“Just listen!”

As L'Arachel continued to wail, the others looked past the hole in the perimeter of the clearing. They could feel a slight tremor in the ground. In the distance was the thundering of heavy steps, and a harsh rustling of leaves and branches. Birds screeched and pierced through the tree tops, flying off in flocks to escape the source of the thunder, now getting closer and closer to the clearing.

There was crashing and creaking as dead trees were pushed aside to make room for the oncoming storm of chaos. The ground really began to shake. Unable to contain themselves, everyone dodged out of the way of the opening to the clearing, leaving a straight path to the crying L'Arachel, before, finally, two giant hands burst through the perimeter, ripping open a wider hole to the clearing.

Standing there, a short, stout, sweaty mess, was Dozla, eyes wide, teeth clenched in panic. “Princess!” The dwarf of a man ran to L'Arachel’s side, and scooped up the sobbing girl into his arms. “Oh, there, there, Princess, I got ya, don’t cry…”

Seth and Innes stared in disbelief. “How did…” Seth muttered.

“I guess their bond is just stronger than any we could’ve anticipated…” Eirika theorized, as L'Arachel stopped crying, and now happily bounced in Dozla’s arms.

Innes huffed, and looked to Eirika. “But now he’s just lost with us; how did that help us get out of this forest?” To which Eirika pointed to the large path of destruction Dozla created in getting to them. “…Oh.”

*********

The company eventually found themselves back on the palace grounds, as the afternoon sun began to set. “Ah, look at that, just in time for dinner!” L'Arachel noted.

Dozla beamed, letting go of the princess’s hand. “I’ll go let your uncle know y’re back,” he assured, before dashing off.

Innes looked to L'Arachel with a tiny glare. “You are going to be in so much trouble.”

L'Arachel giggled, and waved her hand dismissively. “Not until after my birthday. Or at least after dinner.”

A rumbling from his stomach caused Innes to blush and look away.

“Ah, you did climb that tree to find a way to get us out of that forest,” Eirika noted.

“Yes, you boys were wonderful, coming to get us, even if getting us out was a bit of a mess,” L'Arachel noted.

Seth stammered out a few nonsense words about it being all part of his knightly training, before Eirika stood on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek, while L'Arachel, at that same moment, kissed Innes on his. “Thank you!” L'Arachel said happily, before skipping off towards the palace.

Eirika then kissed Innes on the same spot L'Arachel did. “Both of you.” She then ran off until she caught up with L'Arachel, the two princesses walking and talking and laughing their way back to the castle.

The two boys looked at the two girls, before awkwardly following. Innes looked to Seth after a few moments of silence. “They both kissed me,” he boasted.

Seth smiled nervously, looking to the sky. “Princess Eirika kissed me first…”