Burning Shrubs and Riverside Conversations
It was another ordinary day for Eliwood's army, and Serra was brushing her
hair and admiring her reflection in the stream.
"Ah, those poor men will hardly be able to keep their eyes off me today," she
snickered to herself as she tied her hair into its usual bouncy pigtails. She
loved to imagine being surrounded by admirers, blushing like a schoolgirl as
she tried to pick the person she loved the most. They'd shower her with gifts,
make her head spin with compliments, fight each other over who loved her the
most...
A sudden snap broke Serra's train of thought just then, and she turned around
to see a nearby shrub on fire.
"Aiiee!" she yelped. "Bandits! I must warn the others, they'll be so grateful
and Lord Hector will-"
"Serra?!"
Recognizing the voice, Serra turned to her right. Priscilla stood next to the
burning shrub, Fire tome in her hand and a sheepish look on her face.
"Of all people! I never expected someone like you to be a pyromaniac!" Serra
gasped, half-kidding. Priscilla laughed nervously.
"I'm not. I was practicing casting anima spells and..." She shuffled her
feet. "I went a little overboard."
"A little?! You're lucky it was only a shrub!" Serra grabbed a nearby bucket,
dipped it into the stream, and flung the contents at the blaze. "There. Next
time, maybe you should practice casting fire spells while it's raining," she
grumbled.
"I'm really sorry," Priscilla said. "Did I frighten you?"
"If by frighten you mean scared half to death, then yes," Serra said. "I
thought you were a bandit! I was about to tell the others we were under attack!"
"Then it's a good thing I spoke up when I did." Priscilla smiled wryly. "Once
again, I'm very sorry I scared you."
You should be, Serra wanted to retort, but Priscilla's smile made her forget
about being annoyed. "It's okay. I'm sorry I almost got the entire army over
there to fight without realizing it was you," she said, half-kidding. Priscilla
paled.
"Would you really have done that?" she asked nervously. Serra didn't know
whether to laugh at the troubadour's inability to detect humor, or feel bad for
sounding so serious.
"Oh, of course not!" she said. "Well, no more than Lord Eliwood...since he
would've told me whether or not there was a need to fight, of course!" she added
quickly. Priscilla smiled, relieved.
"Good." Her gaze drifted to the Lightning tome at Serra's side. "I see you're
just learning to use magic, too?"
"Yeah, Lucius has been helping me out for a while," Serra said.
"Erk's been helping me, but I'm thinking of giving him the day off so he can
relax. He does tend to overwork himself," Priscilla said. Serra almost went
off on a rant about her own experiences with Erk's obsessive study habits, but
thought better of it. Weird, I've never had any qualms about that before...
"Hey, maybe we can practice together tonight," Priscilla suggested. Serra
blinked.
"Eh?"
"Well, I overheard Raven and Lucius planning to spend some time together
tonight," Priscilla said, trying to fight back a pang of jealousy at the thought.
"And since I'm giving Erk the night off, I thought we could work together and
show each other what we learned."
To her horror, Serra found herself blushing at the offer. She'd always
treated Priscilla as a rival for Erk's attentions and the army's "main" healer, but
this was the first time they'd ever actually talked despite having shared a
tent for several months. And Priscilla was hardly the tempestuous redheaded
Jezebel Serra's mind often made her out to be.
I've had it wrong all this time, she thought, both relieved that Priscilla
wasn't truly a threat, and horrified that...well, she'd been wrong.
"Sure, why not?" she finally said.
"Great! Meet me at our tent after dinner tonight," Priscilla said. "Thank
you, Serra. You know, I'm glad we talked. I've been sharing a tent with you for
so long and I feel like we hardly know each other. Maybe tonight we can work on
that, as well."
"Yeah...that'd be great!" Serra laughed nervously. "See you then!"
Priscilla went back to camp, and Serra ran back to the river to splash her
face with cold water. What had just come over her?! "The last thing I need is
another crush, and on a girl no less," she muttered.
As soon as the words left her mouth, her stomach tied in a knot.
"Wait a minute! I'm not...I've never even entertained the thought of...!"
She buried her head in her hands.
Great. Just what I needed.
This was going to be a long day.
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