Chapter 2

This story kiiinda found it's way to the back burner while I made progress with That Funny Way of His... So sorry! I did have a chapter written and near ready to be posted when, in my infinite wisdom, I accidentally deleted it-_-... So, I had to completely re-write the whole thing, which is just as well because I didn't like it anyways.:P

This chapter is Henry-centric, I need to practice writing him better.

:3

...

-Midday-

Gliding gently on the breeze, the mare touched down as lightly as a pegasus could, which was actually quite heavy. With a grunt, the animal dropped to the ground, legs stretching their full length to compensate for the speed of flight, galloping the rest of the way to her true mistress. Henry jumped to his feet anxiously when the pegasus and rider drew closer, swinging wide to circle around the dark mage so as to avoid an unwanted collision. Coming to a halt, the petite rider hopped down from the saddle and immediately bombarded her friend with excited chatter.

"OHMIGOSH! That was so awesome! I've never seen the world like that before! We went all the way to the other side of the forest and were like...WOOOO! Then we skimmed the water in the lake and were like...PSHAAAW! You should really teach this old girl how to do a barrel roll by the way, she just wouldn't budge for me. *Sigh*. Man, why can't guys be Pegasus Knights? Then I could do this all the time!"

"Um, Henry?..." said Henry nervously.

"WAIT! What if I promote to a Wyvern Rider? Holy horsefeathers, that would be INCREDIBLE! I would teach it to do barrel rolls and then I could swoop down on the enemy with my dark magic! It'd be just like something out of the Apocalypse!"

"That's...frightening alright...but Henry, listen-"

"That WOULD be frightening, ahahaha! I'm getting chills just thinking about it! I should go find Robin and ask her about it."

"Speaking of Robin..."

Sumia glanced over her shoulder at the tacticians name while she hummed happily to herself. She had taken to stroking the mares pearly mane. "Hmm? What about her?"

Funny, how he practically never seemed to be paying attention until the Shepherds tactician was mentioned.

Henry shuffled on the spot, not quite meeting her cheery gaze with his own, gloomy one. "Do you think...we could switch back? I kind of miss being in my own body..."

"Oh, right! Sure thing!" Sumia said, clapping her hands together. "KA-BLAMMO!"

In the blink of an eye and without much warning, Henry and Sumia stumbled backwards away from each other as they re-connected with their bodies. The force of re-entering her body wasn't terribly strong but the pull she felt was just enough to knock Sumia onto her backside. Henry swayed but remained on his feet.

"Whoa, are you alright? That was some impact, hahaha!" He laughed as he reached a hand out to her.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." She answered meekly, taking his offered hand and righting herself.

"That's good. So, what about Robin? I haven't seen her since this morning, she's okay, right?"

Sumia faltered for a moment. "Define okay..."

His mouth twitched at the corner, threatening to turn upside down should her news about his wife be ill. It was a minor signal, hardly noticeable at all but Sumia still caught it and quickly corrected herself.

"I-I mean yes! She's just fine! At least, she looked just fine..."

"Ahaha, that's good! You had me worried for a moment, almost sent me into a bloody rampage! You shouldn't do that to me, Sumia, because I totally will! Unleess...you WANT me to! Ahaha, I always knew you were a twisted one!" He chastised, waving a finger at her face in a disciplinary-like manner.

Sumia faltered a second time. "Wha-WHAT! Of course I don't want you to! And I am NOT twisted!"

Henry continued to stare at her with that annoying smile of his.

"If you would just LISTEN to me to for a moment, I've been trying to tell you that Robin was out here a while ago. She snuck up on me, thinking I was you. Well, I mean, of course she would think that, I was in your body..." Sumia shook her head, trying to get her story straight. "Anyways, she's too smart sometimes because she just knew that something was up. Soo, I sort of told her about the body-swapping curse... Aaand she didn't seem to like it one bit... She barely said a word before storming off. I didn't even get to explain why we used the curse."

"Oh..."

Sumia smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry to ruin your good mood, but I think she's really upset..."

Henry was quiet for a moment, resting his chin in his folded fingers before barking out another laugh. "Hahaha, it's okay, Sumia! I'll just find her and tell her what was really going on. She can't be THAT mad..."

"I don't know... You didn't see the way she looked at me..."

"You're probably just seeing things. She almost never gets mad at me. Weell, there was that one time... Bah! She got over it later that day. This is probably just another one of those times." He declared matter-of-factly.

"Riight..." Sumia took hold of the reigns to her pegasus and began to lead the animal away from her friend, intending to take her to the makeshift stables for a bath and rest. She stopped briefly in her tracks to call out to him over her shoulder. "I'd wish you good luck but then again, you could probably just curse yourself with luck."

"Ahahaha, I could! Too bad it'd be days before I started to feel any of the effects though."

Sumia gave him a blank expression before turning back to her pegasus and duty. "Good luck then..."

Henry watched Sumia's retreating back for a minute or two before deciding that she was weird(just like the girl had feared) and that he missed Robin. With a chuckle, he headed back to camp in search of his ladylove.

...

It was midday and that meant lunch was being served. Nothing good, obviously, but if Robin found out that he had skipped a meal then he really would be in trouble. Food wasn't scarce but it also wasn't something to be wasted and being a soldier meant keeping your strength up. She was constantly going off about how valuable he was to the Shepherds and if he was incapacitated because he refused to eat the awful rations, then who would train and lead the mage corps? It was nothing but beating a dead horse to him but if it was what Robin wanted, then he just didn't have it in him to deny her. Also, he was rather hungry. He figured he could put off his search for her for a little while longer.

Upon entering the mess tent, he was sort of surprised to find it almost empty. This time of day always saw the tables and benches packed with fellow Shepherds practically starving after a morning of hard work. Today, he could actually count the heads of Shepherds who were scattered about the premises. Three, to be exact. Then he suddenly remembered that most were unfortunate enough to have been called away to a rigorous training session with Frederick, one that was to take them far and away from camp for the day, and one that he had been summoned to as well, and subsequently 'forgot' about. Oh well, he'd just join the next one.

Since the lunch line was non-existent, he stepped up to the counter, accepted his bowl of what looked like dish water(for him, it very well might have been; he was rather unpopular among the kitchen crew), then wove his way to an empty table. He would have joined either of the three Shepherds already sitting down but none of them looked up to conversing with him: Olivia was too shy and immediately bolted when he approached, Miriel was too engrossed in an exceptionally thick encyclopedia and didn't even acknowledge him, and Libra had just finished his meal and was setting about to leave. So, he took a seat in the far corner where it was dark and cool. At least the darkness was always inviting.

"Good day, Henry." came a disembodied voice.

"YIKES!" shouted Henry, nearly throwing his bowl of dish water into the air.

"Oh jeez, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you!"

"Kellam?! When did you get here?"

"I've been here...you joined my table." The tall knight said a bit too sadly.

"I did? Huh, well, the more the merrier, am I right or am I right? Hahaha!"

"I like to think so." Kellam chuckled along.

Henry dipped his spoon into the off-color liquid before tentatively taking a sip. He sloshed it around his mouth, tasting it carefully, then spit the contents back into the bowl. They really did give him dish water! He gagged on the polluted aftertaste which prompted Kellam to reach across the table to thump him hard on the back, willing him to breathe properly again.

"Are you alright?"

"Gah! I think the kitchen is trying to kill me, ahaha!"

"Why would they do that?"

"Who knows! It's not my fault they suck at their job!"

"Maybe it's comments like that..."

Henry simply shrugged, shoving the bowl as far away from him as it would go without tipping off the edge of the table. No one could say that he didn't try to eat.

"If Robin asks, you'll tell her I ate, right? She's always so concerned over it. Says I'm too underweight and that I should bulk up a little. Pfft, why the hell would I want to look like Vaike?"

"I think she's just concerned is all. She was here some time ago. Actually, you just missed her. She even sat down here at my table just like you did..." Kellam trailed off, a far-off look taking over his previously happy one.

"Oh, yeah? Did she say anything? I was going to look for her when I thought I might grab a bite to eat. That turned out real well, ahaha!"

Kellam shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Actually, she did. Pretty much poured her heart out to me. She...even cried a little..."

Henry felt his stomach take a dive. His smile took a dive as well. She was crying? Because of him? Maybe Sumia was right, maybe Robin really was upset with him. "Really? Why?..."

The knight lifted a large hand to rub sheepishly at the back of his neck. "She was upset. Over something from this morning. Something about you and Sumia... Which lead to things about you and Nowi, and you and Lissa, you and Cordelia..." He nodded in Miriel and Olivia's direction. "You and them..."

Henry followed Kellams gaze, unsure of what any of the girls had to do with him, and why Robin would get so bent out of shape over it.

"I don't know if I understand..."

Kellam sighed, taking pity on his strange friend, remembering that he had just the basic concept of relationships and probably didn't fully get that marriage was sacred, and Hell definitely had no fury like a women scorned. He should probably know that he was venturing into dangerous territory.

"She said that you and Sumia had switched bodies? I'm going to level with you, that's a little weird. Especially since you're both married and not to each other."

A look of recognition crossed the dark mages features before the implications of his actions settled in. "Alright, maaybe that was a bad idea. But nothing happened! It was purely so that I could ride a pegasus and Sumia would be able to spin some dark magic. It was the only way since Sumia doesn't have a single magical bone in her body. I would know, I was in it, ahaha!"

Kellam dropped his face into one of his hands.

"Sumia said she didn't even get to explain that part of the deal to her before she stormed off. All I have to do is tell her what it was all about and things will be fine! She'll see that she's making a mountain out of a dung heap and move on, and I'll be her favorite again! Easy peasy!"

"Henry, please listen to me... Women are not quite so easy to dupe. Not that that's what you're doing but you also happen to be married to the smartest women in the army. Perhaps she'll see your reasoning and forgive and forget, but the way she was talking to me, the things she said, I don't know... Women are something different entirely when they let their emotions run away with them. I mean, if Panne ever found out that I spent too much time with other women, she'd eviscerate me and not feel a shred of remorse over it."

Henry thought about Kellams words for a moment. "She said I spend too much time with other women?"

Kellam nodded. "She said that she didn't mind you playing with Nowi since everyone plays with Nowi. She did not like you napping with Lissa, she did not like you taking Cordelia on a shopping spree, she doesn't like you taking emotional lessons from Olivia, and she really doesn't like you researching pregnancy with Miriel." Kellam raised an eyebrow at the last part of his speech. "But the body-swapping, that's just too much for her."

"What do you mean, 'it's too much for her'?" asked Henry, not liking the sick feeling that flowed into his stomach. It had been established that she was upset with him, VERY upset according to two eye-witnesses now. Did that mean she was upset enough to call it quits? Was she so angry and hurt by his childish antics that she was going to leave him? Would she really do that? She could have had any guy in the army and still could, but she chose him. And he didn't realize it until now that he was screwing it up.
Before Kellam could answer his question, before he could clarify just what he meant exactly, Henry jumped to his feet and ran from the mess tent, his dark cloak fanning out behind him.

...
He was breathing quite heavily at this point. He had been running all over camp in search of his wife but came up empty handed. She wasn't in their tent, she wasn't in the officers marquee, the women's bath was devoid of life(he had barged in without worrying about common courtesy or gender regulations), and the few Shepherds who had managed to avoid Frederick's Fanatical Fitness Hour claimed that they hadn't seen hide nor hair of her. She had vanished from camp and possibly, from his life.

He doubled over when a stitch in his side began to hurt. "What am I going to do?..." He asked himself quietly in between his ragged breathing. "What have I done? Sh-she can't leave me...I don't want to be alone again..." The thoughts whirled about his mind as he suddenly felt his heart beat faster and faster.

He reached out to grip the fabric of a nearby tent and tried to steady himself. His hands felt sweaty and he felt a dizzy-spell coming on. When his breathing became something more akin to hyperventilating, he dropped to the ground and threw his back against the canvas.

This was it, this was his beautiful wolf all over again except that Robin was more like a cat, a lioness who didn't really need him. And he had been so stupid! Thinking he could continue to act like nothing had changed and that he didn't need to constantly say "I love you" or to play with her, or nap with her, or take her shopping for her to know that he did. The body-swapping curse? A stupid-clever curse he came up with in the hopes that she would agree to it. He'd swap bodies with her in a heartbeat if it meant her being happy while having a little fun behind closed doors... She knew, right? She had to; she wouldn't have married him if she didn't! But here he was, panicking like he never had, scared to death that he had finally done enough damage to chase her away.

...

Poor baby...:(
It'll get better soon.