Chapter Text
It felt like only a few short months had passed since his opportunities suddenly took a turn. One minute, he was barely surviving his princehood back home. The next, he was crossing the borders he always dreamed about as a kid, setting foot into Fodlan with new goals. Walking into his grandfather’s manor for the first time felt like the first step towards his ambitions--like in the stories he had read growing up, the stories of questing and valiant heroes saving the day.
Now, Claude didn’t particularly see himself fitting that role, but it didn’t quite matter. It was something to believe in as a child, and now, here, he had begun to grow. Where he once dreamed of escaping to far away places, he now felt a desire to make his home safer. Better. One step at a time.
And so, he did just that. Trudging in the forest, following the Prince of Faerghus and the Princess of Adrestia.
Yeah, it had been a weird chain of events.
“Honestly,” Edelgard shook her head, her voice dripping with annoyance. “I don’t know why you two thought wandering outside the monastery was a good idea. Especially at this hour. You’re hardly setting a good example for the rest of the year, you know.”
“I merely wanted to make sure Claude didn’t go alone,” Dimitri responded back, his earnest tone hinting at the vaguest taste of coolness. “Would you rest easy knowing that our fellow classmate could be in danger? I hear that there are bandits in these woods.”
Before Claude could open his mouth to defend himself, Edelgard snapped back. “I would rest easy knowing that the future leaders of Fodlan weren’t so childish --”
“Hey now,” Claude interrupted. “Let’s not start unnecessary conflict, alright? I’m sorry for dragging you guys out here. I just wanted to get to know the area a bit better. Call it… preparations for emergency strategy.”
“Call it what you want,” Edelgard walked a bit faster, going ahead of the other two. “It’s still foolish. Let’s be off, the Knights are surely looking for us.”
Dimitri glanced at Claude, giving him an unsure look. Claude shrugged it off, walking behind Edelgard. He quietly glanced around the forest, surveying the area. It was dark, the sun had long since set. Still, the forest was quieter than it should have been, even despite the sounds of the three students wandering together.
Truthfully, Claude didn’t intend for any of this to work out the way it did. What was supposed to be a brief surveillance of the territory outside the monastery, ended up becoming an inter-house field trip. He preferred to be alone, but the opportunity to observe the other lords was a welcome one. Then again, the others likely felt the same, and Claude wasn’t a fan of his own schemes used against him.
They wandered for a while longer, Edelgard leading the way, while Claude began to slow down and fall to a casual walk behind Dimitri. He could argue that he wanted to observe the others all he wanted, but his legs had begun to ache from all the walking, and he longed for a nice warm bed. He was just a bit sleepy.
As he started to fall behind, the forest fell quieter. Claude craned his ear, trying to hear something, anything. Yet there was still that strange silence that hung around them, almost making everything muffled.
“Hey,” Claude started, starting to jog to catch up to them. “I think--”
Snap!
Claude glanced to his right, just as an arrow went whistling by his ear. Heart pounding in his chest, Claude started to run as fast as he could, pushing past the two lords. “I think we should run! Go!”
Claude didn’t look back, just running wherever the forest took him as quickly as he could manage. Blood rushed in his ears, adrenaline driving the sore muscles in his thighs to push past exhaustion and bring him to safety. It was an all too familiar feeling; however, he didn’t expect to feel it in Garreg Mach of all places.
In a perfect world, the other two would have gone in separate directions. Yet, much to his chagrin, he could hear the pounding of their footsteps just behind him, as well as the sound of bandits shouting farther back. So much for an easy escape.
Claude just had to keep running. It was what he did best, after all.
As trees and shrubs whipped around them, tugging at their cloaks and roots pulling at their boots, the three eventually stumbled on a small village--if they could even call it that. The clearing was small, mostly surrounded by brush and wood, with only a few small houses. At the hour, there was only one place with the lights still on: the local inn. And, just as the house leaders stumbled past the makeshift wooden fence, the door to the inn opened, and a small group of well armored men and women stepped out.
“Mercenaries?” Dimitri panted as he slowed to a jog, catching his breath. “They bear no crests or distinguished symbols. And they’re dressed fairly well.”
Claude was winded, more so than the other two. Even though Edelgard held herself tall with her chin raised and her chest puffed out, Claude could still notice the quick rise and fall of her chest, and the flare of her nostrils taking in deep breaths. Dimitri was the most athletic of the bunch, thus the only one able to speak.
After a split second of rest, Dimitri started to walk towards the group, talking to them with a sense of urgency. Edelgard started to follow, leaving Claude to drag his feet to trail after them. When he approached, two of the mercenaries stepped up. One was broad shouldered, older, with years of experience written in wrinkles and scars on his face. Beside him was someone younger, with a strange sort of gaze. They looked over the three students with an unreadable expression. For a moment, Claude wondered if they even had a thought behind their eyes at all.
Dimitri was doing most of the talking, supplied by Edelgard here and there.
“What could you kids possibly be doing, messing with bandits at this hour?” The man questioned, his voice gruff with mild annoyance.
Dimitri opened his mouth to reply, likely about to give him the whole, unnecessary story. Claude cleared his throat, shaking his head, interrupting Dimitri before he could even spit out a word.
“Training exercises. We got split up with the rest of our group, and now those guys are after us,” Claude clicked his tongue, ignoring the burning glare coming from Edelgard’s direction. So what if he let slip a little white lie? It’s not like these people would even care. “And our gold, likely.”
The man just shrugged, turning to nod at his group, then quietly exchanged a couple words with his younger partner. They simply nodded, drawing a sword, and marched out the village. The mercenaries followed them close behind, a surprising sight to see someone so young leading the group. Claude glanced at Edelgard and Dimitri, shrugging his shoulders as he wandered to catch up. Watching the fight would be interesting enough, hopefully he wouldn’t have to participate much.
Claude was busy being patched up by one of the mercenaries while Dimitri gushed to the young mercenary. His expectations for battle hadn’t gone exactly to plan, landing him with a nasty wound to his forearm. Still, he could understand why Dimitri was so excited; seeing the way the mercenaries had taken those bandits over was impressive in its own right. Tactics, strategy, it made sense that the group was as good as it was.
As they began to walk back to the monastery, Claude listened carefully to the few words the stranger uttered. Byleth, he had heard the older gentleman, Jeralt, call them. A strange duo, those two. But downright fascinating, nonetheless. Apparently the two were rather well known to Fodlan, especially Jeralt, but Claude didn’t know any better.
Even as the two other leaders argued for the right to offer Byleth a place within their respective homelands, Byleth remained unbothered. Or maybe they had simply stopped listening. Claude watched their expression, focusing on the faraway gaze in their eyes. Like they were somewhere else entirely.
Claude walked along in relative silence, occasionally making quips to poke at the other lords. He longed to be in his dorm room, sinking into the comfort of his bed after being out so late. He’d definitely be sleeping in the next day, that was a well determined fact. He was just lucky classes hadn’t officially started.
He yawned as they walked along, glancing up at the sky above. In the distance, Garreg Mach blocked out the stars with its shadowy silhouette. If he had any comfort at all, it was that the stars here were the same stars as back home.