Fire Emblem: Valiant Dawn

Author's note- Hi so thanks for reading my fanfic. This is a Fire Emblem POR self-insert (original I know). I have read several recently after discovering the wonderful collection of fanfiction on the internet, and was inspired to write one of my own. This is my first attempt at writing fiction since elementary school, so there will no doubt be lots of errors. Please be understanding for the first few chapters. As for the content of the story, rated M for some language, a fair amount of (not too gory) violence, and possibly mild innuendo. Oh yeah and there will be some nerdy references. Oh and if you have not completed the games set in Tellius yet be warned there will be spoilers for POR and RD.

For the record, I am avoiding making my character a Larry Stu, Gary Stu, Mary Sue etc. While I would tend to agree with the rather common opinion that self-inserts are often Mary Sues, the Fire Emblem universe seems to be one place where the self-insert genre can actually work very well without any need for making one's character ridiculously powerful. The character that is me is based on me so I will be in decent physical condition and somewhat athletic, but don't worry I've got loads of flaws. And no, I do not have any intention of pairing myself with other characters. Anyway, without further ado, I present to you my first chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem or its characters, settings and plots, nor do I own any of the series that I may make references to.

Fire Emblem: Valiant Dawn

By BrowncoatJedi

Chapter 1

An Extended Vacation

"Ah, so peaceful," I said to myself as I sat next to the lake, watching the sun go down. I smiled to myself, letting the the cool breeze and the gentle sound of the waves rolling over the stones soothe me. It had been a long and stressful first year in an extremely competitive college program. I had spent months studying anatomy, writting essays and even a medical paper, and working on difficult physics, chemistry and biology problems, all to make sure that my grades were a fraction of a grade point higher than the rest of the class. It paid off too; I got into my program of choice, Medical Radiation, but it took a ton of work and caused a massive increase in my blood pressure. So when it was all done I came here - Mazinaw Lake, a long and incredibly deep lake overlooked by an majestic cliff, surrounded by nothing but peaceful forest for miles and miles, and possibly my favourite place in the world to simply kick back and relax. I was on my own; no familly, no friends, just me and some much needed rest.

Rest that would be over the following morning. I sighed a bit at this realization; The week had certainly flown by. "Oh well," I thought. "Better get some sleep. I got a long drive ahead of me tomorrow."

I got up from the rock I had been sitting on as the last rays of light disappeared below the horizon and began the hike back to my campsite. "Good thing there's still enough light for me to see the path," I thought. "Wait a sec, LIGHT? The sun went down..." At this point I finally noticed the glowing ring of runic symbols that had appeared on the ground around me. With a rather undignified cry of fear I leapt to the side, only to be blocked by a wall of light. I tried running another direction, but it was no use - I was trapped. Trapped in a ring of light out in the middle of nowhere, I could only think of one possible explanation - alien abduction!

The world around me abruptly disappeared and I felt as if I were moving very fast - they must be transporting me to the mothership to be eaten or... probed. I felt as though I were spinning as well. Uughh nausea. Definitely regretting that hot dog earlier. Suddenly, it was over. I was back on solid ground, quite dizzy and disoriented, and seeing only indistinct blurs around me. Looking up, I saw something large and green looming over me. Terrified, I screamed "Oh god don't eat me!" In my panic, I lost my balance and fell on something hard. Everything went dark.

When I woke, it was morning. A bitterly cold rain was falling, but at least I wasn't being digested by dome extraterestrial green thing, and I could see clearly again. Speaking of which, that green thing was still looming over me. And it's a tree, not an alien bent on devouring me... I was scared shitless by a tree. If I ever retell this story, I'm definitely leaving that part out.

Back to my current predicament. I did a quick self-inspection to make sure I was okay. All my limbs were attached, my vision seemed fine, and I was moderately certain that I had not been, uh, probed. In fact, aside from a throbbing lump on the back of my head from my fall the previous night, I was fine. Looking around, I realized that I was in a forest. A forest, not an alien mothership, so it was unlikely that aliens were responsible for my... displacement? Teleportation? Time travel?

Well, now that I know I'm okay, time to figure out where the hell I am. The forest is deciduous, which means I am not even close to Mazinaw Lake. Through the trees to my left, I could see what looked like a large stone fort. With the cold rain rapidly soaking me and no better option, I headed for the building.

As, I drew closer to the building, I saw a lone girl shivering in the rain. She looked to be around my age and was about average height, but that was where the normal stuff ended. She had purple hair and she was wearing a cape, a tunic and a REALLY short skirt. Like, ridiculously short. Distractingly short. Not a good idea given the weather. And her hair was PURPLE! So wierd. Oh, and she was pretty, which is just great because I can't talk to good looking girls even under normal circumstances. Also, she looked strangely familliar, but I couldn't quite remember where I'd seen her before.

"Ummm... hi?" I called out. Hey, I managed one entire word. Not bad.

She jumped at the sound of my voice. "AHH! You sc-scared me! A-are you a D-daein soldier?" she asked, shivering.

"What? No, I'm just lost... kind of..." I trailed off as what she said fully sank in. Daein? Isn't that from Fire Emblem? And come to think of it, this girl looks an awfull lot like Ilyana. But that would mean I'm in Tellius, which would be crazy, right? I can't be in Tellius - it's a fictional world. Then again, I was just teleported... by magic, which is also not supposed to be real. No, definitely not possible. It'd be awesome, but impossible. There is sure to be some perfectly reasonable explanation for all this.

"Helllooo? Y-You there? I-I said we sh-should get out of the rain," the girl said between chattering teeth, disrupting my chain of thought. Oh right, I'd forgotten she was there. And now that she's mentionned it, it's freaking COLD out here.

"Yes, g-good idea," I replied as we scrambled for the shelter of an old stable just inside the rear gate of the fort. It wasn't much warmer inside, but it was enough to stop my shivering.

"So... if you're not a Daein soldier, who are you?"

"I-I'm, uh, Adam... w-what's your name?" Aw yeah, mad talking skills. I can't even manage a full sentence without stammering, and I can't use the cold as an excuse now. Curse you attractive girl for messing with my speech!

"It's Ilyana... umm do you have any food?" Wow, her name is Ilyana. And she's hungry. And her hair is purple. Probably just a coincidence.

"Yeah, sure I think I have something..." Luckily, I had a granola bar in my coat pocket. She snatched it out of my hand as soon I held it out, and in an instant it was gone.

"Y'know there was a wrapper on that..."

"Pardon?" she asked, oblivious to the foreign object in her esophagus.

"Uhhhh, d-don't worry about it," Wow she must have been really hungry. "Sooo, I find myself in a bit of a..." c'mon Adam say something intelligent, like conundrum or dilemma. "...pickle." Wow, I just said pickle. Oh great, now Ilyana's looking hungry again too. Good job, me. "Can you tell me what country we're in?"

"Gallia, although I'm not quite sure where. I was somewhere near the Crimean border when I was separated from the merchant caravan I was with..." She continued talking about her merchant friends, but I heard none of it. Gallia and Crimea. I was indeed in Tellius. I must be dreaming, I thought to myself. Hoping to wake myself up, I pinched a nerve on my hand. Owwww, definitely not dreaming, that pinch hurt and I was still in Tellius. Holy shit. I am really and truly in Path of Radiance. I don't know whether I should be happy or worried for my sanity. I tried to remember what happened at this point in the game. Ilyana had just recently been separated from the merchants, so that meant sometime soon she would be found by Daein soldiers and forced to fight against the Greil Mercenaries at Gebal Castle. Come to think of it, this castle looked like Gebal Castle... oh shit.

"Over here! I've found some of the Crimeans!" a voice called out from behind me. I quickly turned around, and promptly froze when I saw a group of black-clad soldiers - Daein, no doubt - emerge from the forest. There were at least a dozen of them, including several heavily armored knights. Damn, there was no way I could escape from that many, even if I wasn't paralyzed with fear. Next to me, Ilyana seemed to be similarly frozen.

"These two weren't seen with the mercenaries in any of the battles at the border," one of the knights, obviously the leader, said. "Still, they must be with the Crimean scum if they are in this castle. They're Crimean soldiers, probably. Spies sent to warn the mercenary dogs of our daring attack, I'll wager."

"W-we're not from Crimea," I said, trying my hardest to stay calm. Surrounded by bloodthirsty Daein soldiers, panicking would only get us killed.

"You're not Crimean, you say? Prove it," he sneered, tossing a sword at my feet. "Help us storm this castle and kill the Crimean princess, and I will believe you." Haha, the fool doesn't even realize that at this point in the game, Elincia is safely at Castle Gallia. Still, I'm not going to fight the Greil Mercenaries; That's suicide.

"Yeah y'know I'd rather n-"

"That's all? Sure, we'll do it," Ilyana said loudly, stepping in front of me. Quietly, she added "What are you trying to do, get us both killed?"

"Yeah, that was pretty stupid..." I conceded under my breath.

"Good! You two will be in the first wave. You can soften them up for us," the enemy commander said, grinning evily as I reluctantly picked up the sword. With a final sneer in our direction he went off to direct the preparations for the attack, leaving a group of eight soldiers with us to attack through the rear gate of the castle. Once he was gone, Ilyana and I turned to each other.

"I hope you have a plan to get us outta this mess," I said. Fortunately, the soldiers were too busy readying their weapons to notice our conversation.

"...No, not really. I thought we'd just find some way to slip away while they weren't looking, but there's too many soldiers here for that," she admitted.

"Alright, well...' I looked around for inspiration. All those hours spent playing strategy games back home had better pay off quick. All there was in the stable was a rusted pitchfork, some old riding equipment and some hay, none of which looked very useful. We had no armor, and our only weapons were my sword and a yellow tome that Ilyana retrieved from her pack. Seeing Ilyana's thunder tome, I had an idea. "How many guys could you hit with one of those spells?"

"I could hit about five or six, especially if they were bunched up. But even then it would probably only kill a few. The others would just be stunned..."

"That's alright, it doesn't need to kill," I said, the beginnigs of a plan starting to form in my mind. "Just follow my lead, and be prepared to blast the soldiers behind us when I tell you too. Then, we'll switch sides to the Crimeans." Any further explanation of my plan was interrupted as one of the armored knights came over and ordered everyone to form up at the gate. Moments later, a horn call from the other side of the castle signaled the charge.

Two knights lead the charge with Ilyana and I just behind them. The other soldiers brought up the rear, no doubt hoping to let Ilyana and I serve as fodder to tire the mercenaries. As our group drew near to the central keep, the lead units ran into a lone, blue-haired swordsman - obviously Ike. The first knight simply charged ahead, thinking to bowl his smaller foe over with his sheer weight. Ike easily sidestepped the foolish charge and buried his sword up to its hilt in the man's side as he passed. Unfortunately, this left Ike open to a thrust from the second knight, and he had to dive wildly to the side to avoid the deadly spear. Seeing Ike's disadvantage, I decided it was time to to launch my own attack.

"Ilyana now!" I shouted as I charged toward the back of the knight in front of me. I swung my sword at the first unarmored area I saw - the back of his knee. Whether by luck or by terror-inspired skill I hit what I was aiming at, my blade cutting through the muscle and tendons and toppling the poor knight onto his back. Seeing the opening, Ike leapt in and finished the knight with a well-placed strike. Behind me, Ilyana completed her spellcasting, launching a bolt of lightning through the other Daein soldiers, dropping the first ranks and stopping those behind in their tracks. A second bolt shattered their ranks, leaving a few more dead and the rest too stunned to fight. Those who were able turned and ran. The others soon fell victim to Ike's blade. Surprisingly, my half-assed plan actually worked. With no immediate threat, Ike turned to us.

"Thanks for the help. You guys obviously aren't with Daein, so who are you?" he asked.

"My name's Ilyana, and this is... Adam, right?" I nodded, unable to speak. Holy buckets of shit, I just met COMMANDER IKE! How nerd-tacularly awesome is this moment? "I'm just a traveling mage. I got separated from the merchants I was with, and I ran into Adam here. We tried to take shelter from the rain in this castle, but those soldiers found us. They would have put us to the sword if we had not agreed to fight for them," Ilyana explained.

"Well, there's no need to worry now. I'm Ike of the Greil Mercenaries. Oh, and I think I may have seen those merchants you mentioned. Their names were Muston and Aimee..."

"Oh thank the Goddess, they're alright!" Ilyana exclaimed, a relieved expression on her face.

"They're in the castle right now. You could take shelter with them if you like," Ike offered.

"No. That was just the first wave. There are more soldiers waiting in the forest. You'll need us," she said. As if to emphasize her point, a second horn call sounded, signaling the second wave.

"Looks like you're right. Ilyana, you stay here and support me. Adam, go reinforce the other side of the courtyard. Boyd will find a way to make use of you."

"Uhhh, sure..." Shit, now I'm in trouble. I got lucky in that first fight, but I have absolutely no idea how to use a sword. Oh well, as they say in Game of Thrones, stick them with the pointy end. I reached the other side of the courtyard and found that they did indeed need backup. Only two people, Boyd and Mia from the looks of it, were defending this side, and while they were still standing they both had several minor wounds. A priest was tending to the worst of these, but I could clearly hear more enemies approaching.

"Hey, Ike sent me to help out over here. Where do you need me?" I asked Boyd. Boyd cast a confused look my way, but did not question Ike's orders.

"You know how to use that?" he asked, indicating my sword.

"No, not really."

"Great, a newbie. Just stay back and protect Rhys. We can handle the fight here a lot better if we don't have to worry about our healer getting killed," Boyd ordered. Sweet, now I don't have to show them how woefully inept I am in a fight, and I should be relatively safe since I'm next to a healer. I headed for Rhys, who was now back closer to the entrance of the inner keep. Boyd and Mia took positions flanking their entrance to the courtyard, and I could see Ike and Ilyana guarding the entrance on the other side. Two mounted knights (Titania and Oscar) were stationed at the front gate, while a mage in a dark robe (that must be Soren) stood in the center of the courtyard, ready to send spells wherever help was needed most.

Surprisingly, the first to attack were Oscar and Titania. Rather than waiting for Daein to reach the fort, they charged out the front gate to meet a force of cavalry at least three times their number. A glorious but foolhardy move, I thought. I cringed, anticipating a complete slaughter. Much to my surprise, however, the initial clash left several Daeins dead and the rest in disorder. The two horsmen routed the enemy cavalry in mere seconds, sending the lone survivor running back to the woods. In fact, all around me the battle seemed to be going well. Boyd and Mia had stricken down the first few soldiers to enter the courtyard and were, with the assistance of Soren, easily holding off the rest of the Daeins on that side. Ilyana's thunder spells were being put to desvastating effect on the Daeins charging Ike, killing several and jolting the others making them easy pickings for the mercenary leader. Oscar and Titania were a good distance away from the gate by now, scattering the few soldiers that remained to oppose them and making a beeline for the enemy general. He blew on his horn again, calling yet more troops from the woods to renew the assault, but he was cut short as Titania's axe clove his helm in two. Wow, the Greil Mercenaries were awesome in the game, but seeing them now I understood that the game didn't even come close to doing them justice. Despite this, however, the Daeins just kept coming, swarming the fort from all sides.

I was so distracted by the battle that I failed to notice a lone Daein soldier slip throught the now undefended front gate. Recognizing me he gave an enraged shout, something along the lines of "Traitorous dog!" and charged. With the keep at my back I had nowhere to run, so I readied my sword as best I could. I swung as he neared, deflecting his spear harmlessly to the left. Undeterred, he continued on, slamming me up against the wall with his shield. Ouch, I definitely felt at least one rib crack with the impact, although adrenaline kept the worst of the pain at bay. The impact left us tangled with both of our weapons out to the side. I desperately tried to free up my sword arm while he struggled to bring his lance in line for the kill.

There was a sudden crack of thunder, and the soldier was launched off the the side. I looked toward the source of the bolt to see Ilyana had turned away from her own battle momentarily to save me. The distraction cost her, though; Even as I nodded my thanks, she cried out in pain and fell, an arrow in her back. Forgetting my own injury for the moment, I ran over. When I reached her, she was struggling to get to her feet.

"Get her into the keep. She can't do any more good here," Ike ordered. Putting her good arm over my shoulder, I helped her to the safety of the keep. Soren came over to back Ike up.

All around me now, I could see the battle starting to turn in Daein's favor as more and more soldiers joined the fray. Titania was riding back though the front gate with Oscar draped over the back of her horse and enemies swarming through the gate behind her. Without Soren's assistance, Boyd and Mia were slowly being driven back by the press of Daein troops, and Ike and Soren were being similarly beaten back on the other side of the courtyard. I pushed through the doors of the keep, with Titania and Rhys carrying Oscar in behind me. Ike, Soren, Boyd and Mia formed up around the door to hold off the enemies.

Inside, a boy and a girl who looked to be in their mid teens had already cleared off a table for the wounded. Titania laid Oscar down on it, and then rushed back out to rejoin the battle. Rhys immediately began to heal him wth his staff. I glanced at his wounds as I steered Ilyana towards a chair. I couldn't see where he'd been hit, but there was a lot of blood on his lower abdomen, and his leg was sitting at an strange angle. Knowing there was little I could do to help there, I focused on Ilyana's wound. The arrow had hit her in the left shoulder, just above the shoulder blade, which was good, but it may still have lodged itself in her clavicle, which would make extracting it difficult. There was no visible exit wound on the front of her shoulder, but when I moved the sleeve of her shirt aside I could just see the tip of the arrow poking through the skin.

"H-how bad is it?" she asked.

"It doesn't look too bad." Actually, It was better than not too bad; The arrow had gone right between the shoulderblade and the clavicle, and while the wound would make moving the arm painful, it had completely missed the subclavian artery and its associated vein. This meant she was more or less safe... well as safe as one can be when wounded and surrounded by a horde of bloodthirsty Daein soldiers. Putting on my best 'I know what I'm doing' voice, I continued. "I'm going to have to push the arrow through so I can remove the arrowhead, alright? This is gonna hurt. A lot."

She gritted her teeth and nodded her agreement. Wow, brave. Strange how I'm not nervous talking to a girl in a crisis, and yet I know that if I survive this I'll be right back to blushing and stammering. Ugh, focus Adam. Returning my attention to the arrow, I gave it a tentative push, eliciting a grunt of pain but little movement. Damn, I'm really gonna have to push this thing hard.

"Alright I'm gonna push it through. On three, you ready?" she nodded. Gosh it feels bad to lie, but it's for the best. Anticipaton would only make the pain worse. "One..." and I pushed. She screamed for a second, and promptly passed out from the pain. Good. The arrowhead was now completely out. It was barbed, as I had feared, which means it would have caused a ton of damage if I had tried to pull it out. I removed the arrowhead, and then pulled the shaft from the wound. The young girl came over with a clean cloth and some bandages, and began to help me clean the wound. Wow, she looks way too young to be wearing a skirt that short. I mean, it's one thing when someone Ilyana's age wears that, but she looks to be only about fourteen or fifteen. I wonder if her parents know she's dressing like that. Then again, kids that age dress way worse in highschool... Ugh FOCUS ADAM!

"You must be the new people Rhys mentionned," she said in an inexplicably cheerful tone. "I'm Mist."

"I'm Adam." I tried to say more, to thank her for the her help, but I suddenly found I was having difficulty drawing breath. Damn broken ribs.

"Hey, you don't look so good. Why don't you go take a seat and rest for a bit," Mist suggested.

"Yeah, thanks," I said as I headed for a chair by the door. As I neared it however, there came the sound of a particularily nasty clash in the courtyard. Amidst the chorus of screams and growls, I made out one yell clearly.

"We're being overrun! Retrea- argh!"

Ohgod they lost. Ike and the others must've been killed, I thought. In front of me, the door began to open. Faced with certain death, I did the only thing I could think of; I fainted dead away.

Author's note

So that's the end of chapter one. Love it? Hate it? Let me know in the reviews. I realized as I was reading through this that the tone kinda changes a lot throughout the chapter, and I'm not sure that everyone is perfectly in character, but it's my first attempt at writing fiction so I'm sure things will get better with time. Oh, and don't worry, the Greil Mercenaries are not dead. I'm sure any fans of the game know what actually happened at the end, so that was more for those who may not know the plot of the game. I am already working on chapter two, but I don't know when it will be ready. It will not have any battles, but there may be another fight in chapter three.

The title is not very good, I know. It was the best I could come up with after two weeks of being done the first chapter but not knowing what to call the story. I may leave it as is, or I may change it later if I think of something better.

I know that one of the main concerns with new writers, aside from bad writing, Mary Sues, and ooc characters, is that they tend to abandon stories. I can assure you right now that this will not happen with me, barring death irl. Even should I decide to end the story early (and I have no intention of doing so), I would write an ending for you guys. 'Cause I love you :D.