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   “you really wanna know?” she chirps. with a snicker, she reaches behind herself and reveals…! a stuffed teddy bear! made with love and sprinkles and parchment paper, only one of those things is true. “he’s my friend now ever since he made this for me. isn’t ve cute?”

   again with her terrible teddy bear voice, “how’s about you fucking fight me? i’ll give you a thousand cuts then drown your ass in lemons. that’s how you make real lemonade, bitch!”

she throws her head back with a laugh and starts skipping in any ol’ direction.

     “I think I know a few of those types.”

There was a moment he considered letting the girl run off on her own. Maybe she’d run into trouble and he’d be rid of the nuisance he somehow ended up associating with. But he couldn’t foresaw how that might backfire on him… Obviously Lord Leo was found of her enough to make her a stuffed toy. Looks like this girl was his problem now.

So surely enough, he followed.

The prince shifts on his perch, allowing some room for Niles to sit as well, should he need. It isn’t the most comfortable of seating areas, but it did provide a nice view, and relief from the dew that kisses the grass.

Leo leans forward, resting his chin on his knee. “Not Odin,” he says, softly. His nose wrinkles. “The third from our timeline is Prince Takumi of Hoshido…or rather, what’s left of him.” His brow furrows and, for the first time, he feels a flicker of pity for the archer.

It’s gone as soon as it comes and Leo is on the next topic. “As for the gentleman from the different - or perhaps future - timeline…It’d be mre accurate to say that he found me.” He goes silent, contemplating how best to phrase it.

“He mistook me for his uncle…the uncle that he’s familiar with, at any rate. His name is Siegbert, Xander’s future son. One of two children, evidently, or so it is in the reality from whence he hails.”

Leo tilts his head back, casting a curious look at the heavens and the stars which splay themselves across the sky, in all of their twinkling splendor. Diamonds against velvet.

     “But how fun would I be if I didn’t give you my        opinion every now and then? You’re the one paying        my salary but you’re also the one who hired me in the        first place.”

He duly notes Leo making space for him. The archer inches further onto the boulder in acceptance but he keeps his back against the surface and an eye closed. It was far better in this dream’s forest than any other swamp-like woods Nohr had to offer. He didn’t even need to compare it to the hallways of the castle either. It was always so stifling everywhere he went. It was nice to have some fresh air for the first time in a long while.

Niles had to admit hearing the news that Leo had yet to see Odin disappointed him. Annoying Leo was a two-man operation and he could only do it alone for so long. Normally the two were able to switch off in their antics but now Niles would have to only give Leo a hard time half as much. How disappointing.

      “Prince Takumi, huh?”

Wasn’t he supposed to be dead…? What was he doing here? Even more confusion was the prospect of Xander’s future son. And then came the question of his own future. Since joining the Nohrian force as Leo’s retainers, Niles had a fairly brightly outlook on the future ahead of him. But as for any true thoughts about it? He had no clue what he’d get himself into over the coming years.

     “Not really. Now that I know I won’t wind up dead        in a gutter some day, the future seems a lot more        promising. Good for future Lord Xander, I guess. I        don’t think I could ever have a child.”

“   i   haven’t anything for you to steal, brigand,   ”   she retorts loudly, eyes narrowed in a fierce gaze;   she has met many men like him, pilferers who would fulfill their own selfish needs before assisting others.   it’s deplorable, she thinks, that anyone could leave such a cruel life;   times of war always signify desperation, so it isn’t as if lucina doesn’t understand the need to steal.   but nonetheless, she won’t relinquish any of her own belongings;   her items are of sentimental value, heirlooms to a family she has since lost.   he is undeserving of them.   “   i simply wish to pass through.  ”

     “Oh, come now... I’m not that shady, am I? I’m hurt you       would assume me to be a criminal. I’ll have you know I’m       a man of the highest honor; a retainer for the Nohrian       royal family.”

Niles crossed his arms and approached the girl with his hands raised for a few moments as he took the steps forward. The same smug grin he always had was stuck on his face as he tilted his head to the side and looked at her.

in an attempt to smooth over the bumps she created for herself, she clasps the stranger’s hands between her own and does a little bounce.

   “let’s look for leo together!”

     “What does someone like you have to do with Lord Leo?       Give me a good enough reason to let you come with me.       For all I know, you’re looking for the right person to lead        you to him. Maybe you’re the one with impure intentions.”

    “And I don’t mean myself when I say shady, of course...      But you have a destination? Hell of a lot more than       I’ve got. You’re going there alone? Like I said- shady      men find unarmed women to be the best targets.”

There was the slightest grin to his face as he spoke. He figured that with every word her spoke, this woman would only be more and more wary of him. Although, Niles had gotten used to that. He was lucky Lady Elise felt alright with him in the room. Maybe if he hadn’t been a retainer for Lord Leo, he might’ve done something deplorable by now. But he was a ‘changed man’ or so he’d tell his Lord from time to time. Regardless, this time, Niles had no foul intentions.

No need to encourage him further.

“Three people, Niles,” he says, with an admirable level of patience. “Three people from our world to have come here. Four if you count others from…different timelines,” he says, with a light furrow of his brow. Siegbert. His brother’s future child.

Or rather, potential future child, if things unfold in his timeline the way that they did in Siegbert’s.

     “A strategic move, huh? Lord Leo, I assure you, that tactic       would work even on someone with only a single eye like me.       I think you might want to work on your strategies.”

Niles let out a yawn- not out of exhaustion, but of boredom- and leaned back on his hands. Now that he was with Leo, he could take a load off and simply take a break from looking around for so long. Rubbing at his remaining eye, Niles laid back on the rock in a position that almost looked uncomfortable as he thought about the people he had seen since arriving here... Nothing but some girl who insisted on accompanying him.

The retained wondered if he should even be on the lookout for anything that might harm his Lord. He didn’t really need to worry about Leo in the first place since he could manage himself quite well, but it was still Niles’ job to be a second set of eyes... Well, just a third eye, in Niles’ case.

A yelp escapes his lips and, somehow, he manages to grab for Brynhildr even as he lands in a heap of arms and legs behind the boulder. De-tangling himself he pops to his feet. He catches sight of the arrow first (Nohrian-make, his mind supplies). He traces it’s presumed aim back to it’s source and…

Oh. Of course.

“Tch,” he snaps his tome shut, tucking it back into it’s usual spot at his belt as he (with as much prim dignity as he can summon, after his tumble) sits back down on his chosen spot on the boulder.

“Arrows are not a fair substitute for a ‘hello’, Niles. We’ve discussed this,” he chides, trying to direct the conversation elsewhere before Niles can comment on his brilliant display of clumsiness (or the singing, for that matter). He doubts that he’ll have much luck with either but he attempts anyway.

“As for the matter of 'being found’, it wouldn’t have been nearly so difficult had you been more prompt.” He tucks an arm around his leg again, turning his head to give his retainer a baleful look.

Translation: 'I’m happy to see you here.’

     “More prompt? I assure you I tried my very best to find       you, Lord Leo.”

There was a dry tone to his words that insinuated he was lying. Of course he had been wondering where Leo was and even tried his hand at finding him. But Niles would be lying if he said that he didn’t allow himself to get distracted from time to time by his own adventures through the forests around them. So that’s exactly what he did- he lied.

Sitting himself on a smaller rock beside Leo, Niles stretched his legs forward and smirked.

     “Three what? There times that I’ve startled you with        the same exact trick? I have to say, falling off the rock        was an added treat this time.”

It’s dark. It’s finally, blissfully, pleasantly, comfortingly dark. Every other time Leo had found himself in the Evergreens it had been ‘daytime’, or some interpretation of it, complete with the blazingly-bright sun that didn’t fail to give him a headache if he spent too much time under its unerring gaze.

Sure, it was interesting to see what the world looked like when it was lit with sunlight and not subdued moonlight. The colours were different. The textures seemed brighter, bolder. All the same, he was still Nohrian, and still more accustomed to the dark than he ever would be the light.

Leo tilts his head back, looking up at the sky. It’s dotted with stars, constellations that seem at once familiar and foreign. The air is cool, the breeze is sweet, ruffling his hair and the edges of his cape.

It’s…pleasant, actually.

He’s currently perched upon a large rock sitting in the middle of a field of tall grass. One leg is drawn close to his chest while the other hangs down, the toe of his boot nearly touching the ground.

He directs his gaze to the forests around him, cautious, hesitant.

Confident that he is, for the moment, alone, he looks back up at the sky.

It starts off as a low hum, tuneless, directionless. It’s soft, but grows in strength, gains melody, gains purpose and words.

And then, Leo is singing.

“I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream I know you, that look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam And I know it’s true that visions are seldom all they seem But if I know you, I know what you’ll do You’ll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream….”

So he walked the woods, content with his surroundings. His eyesight had gotten exceptionally strong with the handicap of having only a single eye. That sole eye adjusted quickly to the darkness as he moved forward. A distant voice reached him.

The singing wasn’t something he recognized. But the pitch and voice itself? It was unmistakable. He hadn’t expected this dreamscape to finally bring him the one person he was looking for. But lo and behold, his Lord’s voice carried through the forest. His feet brough him to stand at the edge of a darkened forest. Above them, the night sky provided a cover for him as he could see Leo sitting at the top of a boulder. Niles would’ve come out to make himself known, but an idea crossed his darkened mind. Smirking, he ducked behind a tree and reach over his shoulder into his quiver.

He set the arrow in place with the string on his bow and stepped back out. The retainer pulled back on the bowstring with the arrow between his fingers before letting it fly to lodge itself in the ground just inches from his Lord’s foot.

     “Did you finally decide to stay in one place so I could find you,       Lord Leo? One might’ve thought you didn’t want to be found       at all.”

quick to draw and even quicker to anger. a dreamy look floats in her eyes as she watches the way his nostrils flare. she understands that emotion. it’s such a lovely thing to feel.

   “if i don’t tell you, are you going to kill me? if you kill me, i can’t tell you. sounds like someone’s got a catch-22 on his hands.”

she clicks her tongue as if chiding a child.

     “Like I don’t already see that... I’m Lord Leo’s retainer. Look, you       have nothing to gain from me. Just tell me where he went so I don’t       have to keep wasting my time with you.”

   “awww, you actually replied. between you and that leo kid i met, i might actually make a new friend.” a snort follows a chain of laughter. truth be told, she can’t stand him. (then again, she may have to re-evaluate her opinion of someone who creates a teddy bear just for her.) “have you met him? he’s about yey tall and acts like he has a stick up his ass. always has his nose in a book, doesn’t have any friends?”

This girl was only getting more and more aggravating by the second. First she points and asks about his missing eye and now she’s insulting Leo? Sure, he left his criminals ways behind when he was taken as Leo’s retainer but... Slander could be considered a crime punishable by death, right? Or at least serious injury. It took worlds of restraint for Niles to not pull out a single arrow and let it fly right into this girl’s head. Although she knew about Leo... The charge he was tasted with protecting and had yet to find.