Leanne climbed higher and higher into the sky, ignoring the shouts of Nealuchi behind her. His feathers were ruffled because she stormed out of one of their lessons on how to speak in the beorc tongue, but even if she was being rude, even if she was being unfair, even if she was being rash, even still, she just needed to get away.

Get away from the stuffy castle in Melior, get away from those boring lessons, get away from the noisy city, get away from Nealuchi’s doting… ever since things had settled down after that coup she had helped foil, she had nothing important to do and had been bored out of her mind, so she wasn’t able to distract herself from how much life in the city just wasn’t for her.

Birds weren’t meant to be caged up all day long, and today was the day she finally flew the coop.

Nealuchi couldn’t keep up with her, not when she was actually trying to outpace him. The air was damp and it was more than a little cold, but she kept flying, higher and higher, further and further away from his shouts and closer and closer to the clouds above.

She knew he meant well, and she knew everyone meant well with how much concern they’d show her, but… it wasn’t what she wanted right now. Yes, she was one of the last of her species, and yes, she was one of the few surviving members of the Serenes Royal Family, and yes, that meant that she shouldn’t simply throw caution to the wind and be needlessly reckless, and yes, she had been unconscious for quite some time and woke up not that long ago, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know how to take care of herself! She might not be much of a fighter, but she could fly fast enough to get herself out of most any trouble, and she knew how to stay out of trouble in the first place, so why did they have to keep her on such a tight leash? Why couldn’t they all just let her be alone for once?

She let out a sigh as she entered the clouds.

It was dark. And wet. And cold.

She had been a bit too cold, really. It was a bit unfair of her to do this to Nealuchi. She didn’t really have a clear plan yet, but she should have at least told him that she was planning on coming back soon before she had left, right? He’d worry a lot and maybe even stay out all night looking for her, but… she couldn’t just head back and tell him that she wasn’t going to be gone for good, not after how she had treated him by leaving so abruptly. She’d need to wait for things to cool down — wait for herself to cool down before she could consider facing him again.

And even setting the awkwardness of seeing him so soon aside, if she stopped now and gave him the chance to catch up so she could explain herself, he’d never let her out of his sight for decades! Her little escape from all these stressors would end so quickly and take so long to come again that there wouldn’t have been much point in leaving in the first place!

And so, as guilty as it made her feel that she was doing it, that she was continuing to do it, that she wasn’t going to stop doing it, Leanne decided that she’d keep flying for a bit, going wherever her wings took her, and after she’d had the chance to rest, and after she’d had the chance to calm down, and after she’d had the chance to finally have some time to herself, then she’d head back to Melior and apologize to Nealuchi for making him worry.

Leanne emerged from the thick layer of clouds into the chilly, thin air above and flinched. The sun was bright as it neared the horizon, not setting quite yet, but not very high in the sky either, and as she averted her eyes to avoid staring directly into it, it reminded her of life in the city.

The sun cast an amber glow across the sky, and the sun illuminated the pillars of clouds that stretched further up in the sky, and the sun cast shadows that spread across the sea of clouds down below.

And most of all, the sun was blinding. Overwhelming.

And like how the sun granted the warmth that fueled life and created scenic vistas like nothing else could, Leanne found warmth in the relationships she forged in the city.

And like how the sun’s rays bore down on everything beneath the sky, unrelenting in its quest to scorch all, the hustle and bustle of the city wore down Leanne until she couldn’t take it anymore.

And like how Leanne ran from the city, she dipped back down into the clouds and ran from the sun.

 

---

 

Leanne continued to fly for quite some time, but eventually her wings grew tired, and the sky was beginning to darken, and so she exited the clouds and returned to the world beneath the sky.

As she lazily glided down to the land below, she beheld a sea of trees that stretched from horizon to horizon. There were some distant, dark shapes that seemed to be forts, but as far as Leanne could tell, this was as far away from other people as she could hope to get.

She found what looked like a nice clearing to rest in and transitioned into a downwards spiral, slowing her descent more and more until she landed gently on top of a large, mossy boulder in the center of a shallow pond.

It was nice, being back out in nature. It wasn’t as if the gardens in Melior weren’t beautiful, but no matter how much care went into the growth of the trees and the placement of the flowers and the trimming of the shrubs, it was still something that was handcrafted. There was a logic, a thought process behind everything in a garden, and no matter how hard someone tried, you couldn’t hide the fact that a garden was cultivated by and sculpted by hand, that it was shaped and had been something designed rather than something that just happened on its own.

The beauty of a garden, as radiant as it could be, couldn’t hope to compare to what you found in the great outdoors. She might not be familiar with most of the flowers that were in bloom on the banks of this little pond, but the way they sprouted without reason, throwing color coordination to the wind and standing where they were because they chose to be there and not because someone decided they’d be there...

Leanne’s musings slowed down, coming to a complete stop as she reassessed that earlier observation.

That wasn’t… good, was it? She really didn’t recognize a lot of the plants nearby, and she hadn’t exactly been heading in a particular direction when she left, nor was she really paying attention at any point on the journey here.

That meant one thing, didn’t it?

She was lost.

Okay, so she’s lost. Big deal. It’s a bit of a problem, sure, but nothing she couldn’t handle, right? She’s been lost plenty of times before, and she’s made it out in one piece every other time, so why would this be any different?

She clapped herself on the cheeks as she finished her little pep talk and pushed herself to her feet, ready to face whatever challenges this night brought her. Her best bet was to find someone and just ask for directions, so...

“There’s no time like the present!”

...Leanne took to the skies, climbing to a good vantage point where she’d be able to see… nothing.

It was too dark for her to make out the forts in the distance she had seen earlier, and bird laguz like her didn’t exactly have eyes made for seeing in the dark either. If there were any towns nearby that she had missed during the day, any lights were obscured by the trees, and it seemed like wanting to be alone for once in her goddess-forsaken life had come back to bite her, and it bit her hard.

The cloud cover wasn’t as dense as it had been before so there were plenty of places where the moonlight peeked through and Leanne could see the ground, but… that wasn’t much help to her now, with no idea where she was and with no landmarks to guide her. There were a million directions for her to head in but only one that was correct, so, not wanting to deal with the perils of flying totally blind at night, she returned to the ground.

“Aren’t birds supposed to have a good sense of direction? Ugh!” she grumbled, defeated.

It wouldn’t be the first time she had slept out in the wilderness —or slept outside all alone, for that matter— but…

It was still frustrating that she had gotten herself into this mess. She had earned all the scoldings and lectures Nealuchi would have for her when she got back, and she had earned having to go without dinner, and she had earned not being able to sleep in a bed tonight, but hosting a pity party wasn’t going to make things any better.

All she could do was wait and find something to pass the time until she fell asleep.

From the direction she had been flying in and the sea of trees she had found herself in, it seemed like she may have made it to the Gallia-Crimea border, and maybe even all the way into Gallia itself. Maybe in the morning she could swing by Zarzi, politely ask the king for a meal, and then head back home...

No, even if it was where she was staying, it still felt weird calling Crimea home. It felt weird calling anything home these days. Serenes was her home, but that had been taken away, burned down by a bunch of beorc that couldn’t be bothered to look before they leapt, and even if the trees grew back and the water ran clean again, it was never going to be the same Serenes that she had loved.

Even though she’d accepted that this world that she woke up in was the world she’d have to live in, she couldn’t help but long for those halcyon days.

 

---

 

Leanne’s stomach rumbled.

“Quiet, you,” she mumbled in response.

Being hungry wasn’t fun, and it was tempting to try to find some fruit nearby to eat, but food poisoning would be even less fun and—

“…”

Leanne’s train of thought came to a screeching halt as she went on full alert.

Had she imagined it? It sounded like someone saying something, but maybe it was just the wind…?

“…”

There it was again! She couldn’t tell what they were saying, but there was definitely someone nearby, and maybe, just maybe, they’d be her ticket back to Melior.

Leanne wasted no time taking to the skies once again so she could locate whoever they were. She keep her ears open, as vigilant as she could be for the next time they spoke, and the moment those muffled words hit her she headed towards them, full steam ahead.

As she drew closer, it became more and more apparent that it was a group of people she was approaching and —to her chagrin, but not surprise— they were speaking in the beorc tongue. Just in case they were an unsavory group she’d do a little scouting before swooping down to start a conversation, but she was confident she could at least say the words ‘Melior’ and ‘where’ in an inquisitive tone, and that would be more than enough to communicate her needs.

She eventually located the group as they were walking down a small road through the woods. Leading the group was a small beorc mage who looked vaguely familiar and a large dog of some kind, followed by a tiger laguz and a raven laguz around her age, and behind them was a tall beast laguz woman and—

BY THE GODDESS!

IT’S RAFIEL!

Leanne’s began feeling a million things at once; relief and joy that her brother was alive, surprise and confusion that this was how they were reunited, and, most of all, the rush of wind as she pulled her wings in and dived down to greet him, caring not for the speeds she was reaching as she plummeted towards her brother.

“Where were you?!” she shouted as she slammed into him, knocking him off his feet and back several paces.

Rafiel’s entourage scrambled to figure out who —or what— just fell out of the sky as Rafiel remained stunned by the impact, pinned to the ground by an incredibly exuberant Leanne.

“Are you okay?! Have you seen Reyson yet? How about Dad? Does—”

“Leanne… please...,” Reyson wheezed from beneath Leanne, and next thing she knew she was being lifted off her brother by the woman who had been walking beside him just moments before.

“Put me down!” Leanne flailed about, slapping her assistant with her wings and trying to wriggle out of her firm grip.

The woman chuckled as she set Leanne down on the ground and then took a step back so Leanne had some space.

“You’re quite the feisty sister-in-law, aren’t you?”

“Please don’t provoke her, Nailah.”

It took a moment for the implications of what Nailah had said to sink in, but once they did...

“YOU GOT MARRIED AND DIDN’T INVITE ME TO THE WEDDING?”

“Leanne, I—”

“He has a good reason, I promise, but before the two of you continue,” Nailah turned to Rafiel, “Would you be alright with stopping here for the night?”

Rafiel nodded, and Nailah turned back to Leanne.

“Would you like to join us for dinner, Leanne?”

Leanne was incensed by her brother’s betrayal, but…

“Sure…” she mumbled, trying to downplay how hungry she actually was in front of this handful of relative strangers.

“Great! I’ll leave you two to your catching up while we get everything ready.”

Nailah turned to the rest of the traveling party and said a few things in the beorc tongue and they all headed off in different directions, probably to find firewood or freshwater or something.

Rafiel took a deep breath in preparation for telling his tale.

“After… everything that happened, I had to flee into the desert past Daein, where Nailah found me. She brought me back to her homeland on the other side of the desert, where I was able to recover a bit of my strength. We eventually fell in love and were wed, and a few months ago we were finally able to make the journey back to Tellius.”

“Okay… she seems nice, so I guess I can forgive you,” Leanne said, pouting a little bit less, “But I’m going to make sure you have another ceremony once Dad wakes up, you understand!?”

“You haven’t changed a bit, have you?”

“Hey! I’ve grown taller!”

“That you have! Have you been keeping out of trouble?”

Leanne broke eye contact for a moment.

“...Maybe.”

With a soft, knowing smile, Rafiel let out a small laugh.

“And I suppose that’s why you’re here, in the middle of the forest, after dark, all alone?”

“I have my reasons, but let’s help get dinner going! I’m starving, and I can tell you everything as we eat!”

With a smile on her face, Leanne dragged Rafiel off the road and in the direction that Nailah had headed in, determined to find a way to make her first meal with Rafiel in a long, long time come a little sooner. There were just so many things to talk about and for the first time in a while, Leanne felt that she finally had something to look forward to.

 

---

 

Afterword

Wrote this for the second volume of Another Turn, a zine focusing on the various 'refreshers' in the Fire Emblem series.