This is a tragedy for all

With another battle having gone by successfully, the Shepherds had all returned to camp to rest. Chrom had said that they would continue their march in the morning -- likely due to how exhausting their last skirmish was -- and Inigo certainly wasn't going to complain. He welcomed any breaks they received with open arms, and this one was no different.

With his sleep schedule, it would be a while before he could fall asleep himself, so that didn't leave him with very many options. His fellow children from the future all seemed to head straight to bed ( With the exception of Gerome, but Inigo doubted he would get a conversation out of him no matter how hard he tried ), so the only solution he could come up with was to see if his parents were still awake and spend time with them. At the very least, he knew that since most of the army went to sleep immediately after setting up camp, no one was on cooking duty. They were close enough to town that the soldiers who couldn't sleep could eat out, so he thought to invite his parents to dinner if they were still awake.

He asked the few remaining Shepherds whether or not they knew if his parents were still awake, and while most of them told him that they saw Olivia return to her tent, none of them had heard anything of Gaius. Part of him wondered if Gaius already left for dinner, and after a visit to his father's ( Empty ) tent, he shrugged and figured that was the case. Regardless, he thought to wait a few minutes to see if Gaius just had yet to return to his tent just in case, but even Inigo couldn't ignore the hunger pains in his stomach. Minutes felt like hours to him, and after mindlessly glancing around his father's tent, his eyes landed on a few satchels bunched together.

      ” REALLY? MINE ACTUALLY found his way to me ! i was just resting somewhere, and found him nipping at my backpack ! he decided to follow him, so i couldn’t resit ! “

      in sinnoh, it was perfect normal for trainers among them to have their ( commonly, cute ) pokemon out by their side, often accompanied by small children themselves, at the loving thought of their children growing up with pokemon. ( though, results may vary. just because a child turned out loving and gentle growing up with pokemon, doesn’t mean they’ll able to become sociable on the spot. )

      “ of course — in fact, here he is ! “ a tone of excitement brimmed in her voice as she was finally able to find her leafeon’s pokeball, clicking on the middle button to open it, a flash of white coming between that formed her favorite green companion ! in an instant, the grass type leaped into his trainers arms, nuzzling in her arms.

      “ he’s really playful —- but he has a bit of a naive nature, so i gotta watch out for him ! “

      INIGO WAS A little surprised to hear that a Pokémon approached the girl while she was napping, and even more so that it willingly followed her and wanted to tag along with her on her journey. He had always been taught that wild Pokémon were dangerous ( And it was why Trainers needed a Pokémon of their own-- to protect themselves whenever they entered tall grass ), and Inigo himself had to battle all of the Pokémon he came across if he wanted them to join him. In the end, he supposed that it mostly came down to how a Pokémon perceived a Trainer. Inigo could tell the girl was a sweetheart just from her demeanor and the way she approached him, so her Leafeon likely trusted her from the start.

      A smile graced his lips when the girl found her Leafeon's Pokéball, and when she released him, his smile widened when Leafeon immediately crawled into his Trainer's arms. His own Leafeon stood on his hind two legs, using his front paws to try and climb the girl so he could reach her Leafeon. Noticing that, Inigo scooped him into his arms and stood back up so the two Pokémon could say hello to each other.

After their last battle, Robin and Chrom both decided that it would be for the best to set up camp and rest for the remainder of the day due to how fierce it had been. While it thankfully didn't cause any casualties, a lot of the Shepherds had gotten injured-- some worse than others-- and everyone agreed that they needed a lengthy break so they would be ready to cover more ground the next day. With that in mind, the Shepherds who didn't suffer from wounds were tasked with setting up the tents for everyone else.

Inigo was one such Shepherd-- his wounds from the last fight were minor and had already been taken care of by Brady-- and once everything had been prepared, he examined their surroundings, noticing a small forest not too far from when they set up. With most of the group wanting to rest, he doubted many people would want to follow him, and he'd definitely be able to get a lot of practice in considering how early they had to stop their march. He made sure to tell one of the other children where he was going in case something happened or he was needed, and after making absolutely sure his mother was distracted-- turned away from him, speaking to someone else, definitely not noticing him-- he slipped out of camp and made his way to the woods.

Once he was inside, he searched for the biggest tree he could to make sure ( That if someone did come ), they wouldn't be able to spot him easily, and he could stop and approach them before they saw anything. Satisfied with one he had come across ( It wasn't too far in in case something happened to the camp, and he would be able to leave fairly quickly if Risen decided to ambush him ), he removed his sword and shield from his person, then started stretching to prepare himself to dance.

Just as he was about to start, he narrowed his eyes at the ground, hesitating for a few more moments before calling out.

“... Mother, how in the world did you manage to spot me leaving camp?” he asked, not even turning around to confirm that his mother was most likely hiding behind one of the other trees surrounding them. “You were speaking with someone, weren't you? And you were turned away!” After a slight pause and some consideration, he finally turned around, crossing his arms. “... Please don't tell me that someone told you. Is that how you've been finding me all this time?” His mind flashed back to the person he had informed he was leaving for a bit, and if it turned out that they've been telling Olivia...

While it obviously wasn't uncommon for dancers to be amongst their ranks-- his mother is one, and their abilities helped considerably regardless of whether they were fighting Risen or brigands-- there were only a select few children that made the decision to stray from the way their parents fought. Inigo's reason was simple; he was way too embarrassed to dance in front of everyone, and even though it would be a valuable asset during skirmishes, there was absolutely positively no way he was risking a misstep and having the rest of the Shepherds laugh at him for his mistake.

From what he remembered in the past ( Or, rather, the future, he supposed; he still wasn't entirely sure where to place the events that occurred when he was a child in this timeline ), Clover was extremely attached to her father. To that end, Inigo figured she would have taken after him and became a Dark Mage. He supposed there was always the chance of her not having the skill for it ( He never actually figured out how magic worked-- let alone dark magic-- but he assumed it was something you needed an innate ability for, otherwise everyone would be throwing around spells all willy-nilly ), but then it begged the question of why she decided to become a dancer when there were so many other professions to choose from.

She may be a little distant ( Alright, very distant, but he needed to keep a positive attitude about this somehow ), but Inigo thought there were things he could learn from her that he was too embarrassed to ask his mother about. It... was just honestly a matter of convincing her, but it wasn't as though he had a plan for that. All he could really do was approach her and hope for the best ( And beg if he had to, but no one needed to know that much ), so once the Shepherds decided to set up camp for the night, he sprinted over to Clover before she could leave.