█ ❀ Don't Trip!!

Of course he liked it. It seemed such an odd question to him, he almost forgot to answer as he moved towards her to give her a small hug in thanks. “I love it. You didn’t have to do all this for me, but I appreciate it none the less.”

“Though it wouldn’t truly be fair of me to read them all on my own at once. Why don’t I use this opportunity to stop working for a little while, and we can hangout here and read some together? Maybe I can learn a few new tricks to use in battle, or discover history I never knew. Maybe we’ll find a nice fantasy tale for you!”

Robin was already excited for the prospect of having some down time. The tactician may have had a mind for war, but he didn’t feel he had the constant want to have that mind. Despite his long hours of work, it wasn’t the war itself that drove him forward; it was his need to protect those dear to him, like Sumia.

Slipping around her side, he plucked a book carefully from the pile, whichever was easiest to grab. Ah, a tome on strategies employed in the famous wars of Elibe. Those were his favorite strategy treatises. Looking around the tent, he could’t help but wonder where he should sit. “Is anywhere fine? We could always move to my tent if you’d prefer; reading at the desk might be easiest and you can read on the bed, or at the small table I use for late night dinner.”

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         With his joy, Sumia smiled widely at him. He was so excited about the books, which in turn made her excited about it too. She liked books, but not to this extent. What really made her happy was seeing him have such an emotion. The knight shook her head at his words. ❝ I did have to do this, if it makes people happy then I will do this over and over again! ❞

         Her confidence was quite obviously coming back to her, but it was in little bits. She was fine with such a thing, however, as long as she wasn’t a stuttering idiot. And she thought he would be fine without her stuttering as well. Deep down she knew he hated that about her, or was that just her mind tricking her again? Oh, who knew anymore. Certainly not her, since she quite obviously thought everybody was annoyed with her over one thing she did, or another.

More replies to come sometime soon! I just really wanted to do that one to prove I totally wasn’t being a lazy ass. Stuff should come quickly, maybe after 3? I get to see Star Wars for the third time again, so when the movie ends and I get home I’ll try to be on this blog uwu

Unfortunately, not much got by Robin in this camp. After hearing about the recent haul, Robin had to come look. Tough luck since Sumia was apparently planning to surprise him with it. Its too bad he didn’t know. He would’ve liked that.

However his smile never once faltered, and he only stepped further into the room. “Sorry to ruin such a nice surprise then. It would’ve been quite something.” He stuffed his hands into his cloak’s pockets, nodding his head towards her. “However the amount you have will be a bit hard to hide behind your body, Sumia.”

“So what kind of stories do we have now? Anything interesting? Or old? Or Interestingly old? Oh, what about books on princesses being rescued by knights? Or female knights rescuing men? Those are always good.” And there he went, Mr. Twenty-One Questions when one would’ve sufficed. His curiousity of things always got the best of him, and he never saw a reason not to ask a question he had. 

Besides, he was incredibly excited about all this.

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         Tanned fingers pressed together as Sumia watched him nervously, awaiting the ever present yelling about how she shouldn’t be wasting her money over such trivial matters. Her money was her own, and she shouldn’t waste it on other people like someone stupid would. But such ridicule never came, much to her relief. He seemed more intrigued by everything than annoyed she wasted her time trying to make him happy.

         Her eyes went over to the books at his question, temporarily forgetting what exactly it was she bought. In truth, the answer was a little bit of everything, old to interestingly old as he put it. Some history, and some tactic books as well. If she remembered correctly, there was also something about chess in there, since she heard about him going up against Virion in the game. Her fingers broke away from pressing against each other to tap her plump lips.

@mxndus liked for a starter!

Robin blinked a few times as he peeked his head into Sumia’s tent. Word around the camp was she’d managed to find even more books this time, so he’d come to see what sort of goodies he may be allowed to borrow for his little bit of downtime he got. “Sumia? You in here?”

He stepped in finally, a soft smile on his face. The tactician and the pegasus knight had a few things in common when it came to books, and he enjoyed her suggestions when she gave them.

“I heard you found another discarded collection of literature. Figured I’d come help you sort through it. Is that alright?”

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         The books were supposed to be a surprise. The flier had spent a long time collecting them, as well as the gold she required to buy them. Robin always seemed to be interested in books, and she figured old history books seemed like something that could help as well. As her teacher once told her, man learns from history.

         She wanted to sort them out first, rather than just give him the whole pile in her tent. Maybe sort them in a way that Miriel would sort them but a little differently. From the latest history to the newest. That seemed like it would be fun, but also take forever. Someday, though.

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{❀♙❀} Virion trotted slowly along the way towards the archery yard, bow in hand. He hoped, only a little that he would get some training in today. lately his aim had been off and one cannot very well be the Archest of Archers when one’s aim is off, now can they. Still, he dreaded training, feeling sore and getting sweaty was not befitting of a noble. But alas, what was one to do.

 When Sumia had made her way towards him, Virion breathed a sigh of relief. He was glad when she came up to speak to him, and the fact that it was the alluring pegasus knight only made it all the better. Perhaps training could wait.

❝ Of course I have a moment for my dear lady, ❞ He said, smiling and inviting her to walk with him. He glanced her way, if only with the slightest bit of concern in his eyes. Curious, she had never seemed all that interested in talking to him before.. 

❝ Tell me what troubles you, oh lovely Sumia, for i will do what i can to help,❞  

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         To be quite honest, the flier had prepared herself for him to turn her down like everyone always did. It was a common thing, so she rarely ever expected anybody to give her the light of day. But she was thankful he did, even if he was being overly friendly. That wasn’t anything new, at the very least.

         A bright and warm smile came onto her tan features at his words, and her cheeks flared just the lightest pink. It wasn’t like he was flirting (though it also wouldn’t be a surprise if he was,) she just always flushed when she was called something other than Sumia. She hated that part about her, but there was really nothing she could do to change it.

         ❝ Th-thank you, ❞ Her voice got smaller and smaller with each passing word, and her muted green eyes darted to look anywhere that wasn’t where the archer was. For some odd reason, she just couldn’t look at him. ❝ I was wondering if you could maybe. . . Help me be more romantic? You seem to have the whole thing mastered, so I thought maybe you could help me out. Only if you want to, though! ❞

She didn’t know why she was here facing everyone’s parents again. They came back to save them, sure, but was it really right? Brady, Gerome, and Kjelle’s words rang in her mind. They left everyone behind, for what? To be with some kind of look alike of their dead parents? Shaking that thought out of her head, she sighed. 

She vowed to protect Lucina. That was the last wish she promised herself and her mother before jumping into the Outrealms. “I’ll protect her… unlike how you protected your lord, Mother…”

Severa jumped when she heard someone calling for her name and sighed when she saw Cynthia’s mother. Her mother’s best friend. “I…”

She looked away from her, looking off into the distance. “I prefer to be away from those idiots.” Who’s the real idiot though? Her who kept running away from people when they got close to her heart, or everyone else pretending that everything was alright?

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         The harsh words that came from the younger’s mouth were powerful enough to make Sumia wince. She hadn’t heard such things in quite some time, not since she was a child at least. Perhaps it was just Severa’s youth talking, but it did make the flier furrow her brows and pout some.

         ❝ I don’t think they’re idiots, ❞ Even with her angry features, her voice still remained calm and gentle. As though she wasn’t scolding a teenager, but someone younger and more frail. Which is just what she thought the other was. ❝ They’re just relaxing, honestly. There’s rarely ever days to have to yourselves, so when it finally comes, you should take it. ❞

         That is what her father taught her when she was younger and allowed her to be in his bakery. He was always so busy, caring for her sickly mother and Sumia herself. When he had breaks, he made the most of them. And his breaks were normally the happiest memories she had of both her parents.

[   ♮   ]  There was a delicious thrill to working in public, on a clear day like this, with people around.  The small market had plenty of things just sitting out, nearly begging to be taken and sold to the nearest fence.  There’d even be a fence or two present – what better way of blending in than be so audacious?  Only the guilty had something to hide, after all.

[   ♮   ]  So Seth couldn’t have been guilty when he swiped the tiara and hid it away.  Only some one who bought something so expensive and garish would even dare touch it.  As long as the shopkeeper didn’t see it, no one saw it.

[   ♮   ]  It was a smooth get away.  He knew the fence that would be buying on the opposite side.  They usually worked in arranging dead drops, instead of usual work.  Seeing an assumed customer pass over a good in exchange for gold wasn’t good for business, and that was something only guilty people would do in a marketplace.

[   ♮   ]  Seth, again, was not guilty.

[   ♮   ]  The thief made his way there, dodging other shoppers easily, when he heard some one calling into the crowd.  A woman’s voice, seemed urgent.  Some one probably dropped their wallet, and she was returning it.  Lucky for her, but Seth had already made bank today.  He slipped into an alleyway to avoid the crowd.  It was something a guilty man might have done, but at that point he was already in the clear.  

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         It seemed extremely dangerous to go follow a strange man who was potentially a thief, and also potentially armed into an alleyway, but Sumia wasn’t thinking of her self in the moment. The shop keep was far more important than her own safety. He had a family he probably needed to take care of, and who knew how expensive that thing the other stole was.

         She didn’t even know if he stole it, but it was quite important for her to find out. As she mused about before, she wouldn’t live with herself if she allowed a thief to get away with it. Her father had things stolen before, so she knew the feeling of pain when it happened. Which was why she felt the desperate need to stop it.

         After a moment of hesitation standing in front of the dark path, the flier quietly took a gentle step forward, her muted green eyes dashing from side to side looking for any sign of the ginger haired potential thief. The next step was finding him, wherever he went. Oh goodness, this place was certainly not somewhere she wanted to be. Maybe she should just go back. . .

         No, that was what the old Sumia would say! She wasn’t afraid anymore, she couldn’t afford to be. Her father wasn’t going to come and make things better, and neither was her captain. She wasn’t a trainee anymore, but an adult that could deal with her own problems!

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         It was no SECRET that Sumia had no IDEA how to be ROMANTIC in the slightest. Mostly, she thought it was FINE. She would never be in a relationship EVER, so she didn’t need skills such as FLIRTING or ANYTHING like that. But she got to THINKING one night, maybe that was WHY people looked at her funny. She had no romantic bone in HER body, so obviously it meant she would be a TERRIBLE lover. But she didn’t WANT to be ALONE forever.

         That had to END quickly, and there was ONE person in the camp that she thought could HELP with her predicament. He was KNOWN to be romantic, and she actually DID like his ways. He could help her with SOME things out, surely. There was NO WAY he could turn her away, hopefully.

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         For sure, Sumia thought she was SLEEPING when she saw what she saw. She just couldn’t BELIEVE someone would WILLINGLY steal in front of such a LARGE crowd, especially since there were so MANY people that could POTENTIALLY see it. But at the same time, he had to have PAID for it. A couple people walked in front of her between the time of him LOOKING at whatever was on the stand on GRABBING it. Another reason she was weary was because she didn’t KNOW if he did grab anything.

         In a moment of BRAVERY, she decided to stray AWAY from her group to go and see what had ACTUALLY happened. Yes, it was weird that she was so DESPERATE to know what had happened, but it would bother her all day if she just LET a thief walk away. Or would it actually? She wasn’t quite sure, it depended on WHAT he stole.

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         Though the FORMER Plegian king had been ACCEPTED into the camp by her own captain, Sumia was still not sure HOW to feel about it. She believed in second chances for EVERYBODY, and he was no EXCEPTION. But there was a PART of her that felt that he didn’t DESERVE such mercy. After all, he showed NO MERCY for her or her country.

         She HATED those kinds of thoughts, though. At the very least he SEEMED to dislike what he did. But she had to WONDER if that was because he had a chance to LEAVE where he was, or because he was ACTUALLY sorry.