//------------------------------//
// Ch.1- A New Voyage 
// Story: Fire Emblem X MLP: The Sigil Princess 
// by CatrosCreativeCorner 
//------------------------------//

 Lucina sighed as the warm salty air rammed into her pale face and through her long, dark-blue hair, making it fly freely. As the ship moved forward, she leaned against the dark brown wooden railing, the old wood splintering and piercing through her sleeves and gently pricking her skin. The sounds of the waves crashed against the hull of the boat, the giant white sails flapped as the wind pushed against the sheet, and the seagulls let out  high-pitched squak as they floated beside the ship. She smiled at the beautiful scenery as the summer sun enveloped her in its warmth. Past a couple of small, wispy clouds, the blue sky was clear for the sun to glare down at the world.
“It’s hard to believe that a week ago, the world almost ended.” The blue-haired girl sighed to herself, running her sleeve across her face to wipe away a few specks of salty cold water that sprang up and hit her.
“Ey,” A deep voice called out from behind the teenager, making her stand up straight and turn to see who addressed her. The sun was quickly eclipsed by the massive figure that now towered over her. If she didn't know better, she could have sworn that it was nighttime. ‘“Holy mother of Naga–” she quietly said to herself not being able to believe that something could grow into that size. The man-thing that had approached her gave a warm smile as though it had heard her comment. Turning his gaze outwards to sea, the colossus held onto the railing of the ship covering it completely with a massive hand.  
“Captain Koda” Lucina said, turning to the leader of the ship and giving him a nod of acknowledgement. Captain Koda was a towering specimen of a man with dark hair sprouting off every inch of his body. At a distance one could have mistaken him for a bear. His choice of clothing did not also alleviate his bear-like qualities since he only wore a pair of brown leather shoes and tan shorts that didn’t even go down to his knees. It was a good thing that Lucina had met the captain during the day rather than at night prior to the voyage, cause she feared she would attack the poor hairy man in self-defense. She’d hate for her warrior instincts to kick in and  end up having to explain to the crew why their captain was cleaved in two if he was able to surprise her at night. She was also glad that she had gone alone in this voyage because if her father’s expert hunter had come along, Captain Kodas head would have been adorned above a fireplace. 
“Thank you again for taking me on the voyage with you,” She said, her hand falling to the hilt of her sword. It was a habit she had gotten into early in her life: squeezing the soft leather grip that covered the handle. It had always brought her a sense of comfort no matter the situation.
“Anything for a member of royalty, not to mention one who helped save the world,” he said, crossing his arms, smirking down at the teen. “For the proper price, of course.” before leaning his head back and barking out a laugh, while Lucina let out a shy chuckle and her hand went up to her left eye to cover it. The girl was indeed royalty, a fact that she had hoped to keep secret for as long as she could. But when the mark of her royal lineage, the Mark of the Exalt, was branded in her eye, it rendered her secret harder to keep hidden. She was sure the five thousand gold she had been charged to ride on the ship would have been much cheaper if the captain had thought she was a normal lady just wanting to go on an adventure. 
“Though, the crew and I have been wondering: why is a member of royalty wanting to sail away from her kingdom?” he asked her as he leaned against the railing  making it creak under his immense form. The railing seemingly ready to snap at any moment but holding on.
“You are a nosey group, then, aren’t you?” she shot back, leaning her back against the railing of the ship like him, only for a moment, and crossed her arms as a small smile grew on her face. “You know, captain, curiosity killed the cat?” She chaffingly said.
“True, oh so true!” He laughed, reaching over and clapping the princess on the back, making her grunt as she staggered forward. “But satisfaction brought him back. But, don’t worry lass, if you don’t want to say, we won’t bug ya. We’ve had all manner of man and creature on this ship, and their stories were a mystery we didn’t bother solving,” he assured her, barking out a loud laugh that hit her like a cannonball. “Anyways, I wanted to come and warn you about what's coming up...” 
“Pirates?” Lucian asked, her hand instinctively falling back to her sword as she started to look around nervously as if they were about to be boarded at any moment, though the ocean was clear. But looking around she noticed that in front of them, the clouds were looking a lot less friendly and dark with flashes of lightning in them.
“Nay” he sighed. His smile wavering for a moment as he scratched the back of his head and looked at the clouds wearily. “I wish…pirates would be so much easier to explain. But alas what we’re going into is something unnatural. We sea lovers call it the Glacier Fangs.” He started to explain, his smile disappearing. “That bit of the sea over yonder is caught in an endless winter. No man knows why it’d be like that, but tis the truth. Been that way since I was a lad, me father was a wee lad, and granddad was a young man taking his first ship out.”
“Why don’t we just go around it?” Lucina asked him, her eyebrows knitting at the mention of an endless winter. Despite her tunic and pants covering her from head to toe, her clothes offered little to no protection from the cold. She wasn’t equipped to go through a winter storm, and from the captain's lack of clothes, he looked less prepared for it unless his black body hair counted as a winter coat. Sure she did have thick warrior boots, fingerless gloves and her cape banner for extra warmth but it would not be much.
“Normally we would,” He sighed, his hand reaching up and petting his beard like it was some sort of pet attached to his face. “But we’ve been tasked and paid to take the fallen bodies of soldiers to the next continent and those corpses wouldn’t last the extra three days trip going around the storm. Brave souls who wanted to try and make a difference in the world, just to meet a hero's end.”
“You know captain, gold is good and all, but you need to be alive to spend it.” The girl pointed out, sighing as she shook her head. But before anything else could be said the warm sun suddenly disappeared as a cold breeze chilled the air around them making the princess shiver. 
“I’ll tell me crew that, see if they agree!” He said before laughing again, clapping the girl on the back once more. “Anyways, it will take us a day's journey to get through the Glacier Fangs. Feel free to wait in your quarters downstairs to stay warm.” He advised her. “I gotta find me shirt if I’m gonna try and survive this!” He announced with a grin before turning and leaving the girl alone. 
“Unbelievable,” Lucina mumbled to herself, a puff of white fog coming out of her mouth like a ghost had just been pulled out of her. She had just needed a ride to the next continent to hopefully try and start a new life. In a place that hopefully didn’t recognize the Mark of the Exalt. Sure she could have stayed home with her parents in the castle after the fall of Grima. She would have been accepted and treated like the princess she was, never having to pick up a weapon ever again, and never having to worry about anything for as long as she breathed. But that wouldn’t have felt like the right thing to do. She wasn’t from this world afterall or this timeline to be more precise. She had come back from her own timeline in which she had failed to save the world from an evil dragon called Grima. 
Now that this timeline’s world was safe from the great evil, it no longer needed her and it was time for her to find her own destiny. It was comforting to know that this world’s version of her, who was no more than a baby barely able to crawl, had a bright future ahead of her. But she would need to live through this trip for that new chapter in her life to begin. She began negotiating whether or not this little frozen death trap could help get some sort of discount.
But as snowflakes started to drizzle over the princess and decorate her hair in icy glitter, she sighed and began making her off the deck. She did not at all want to have to deal with the cold and the possibility of frostbite. She had just survived a war against a  demonic dragon that wanted to destroy the entire planet and dying in a little snowstorm didn’t sound too heroic. That would also be embarrassing to have that carved into a tombstone:

***

“Here Lies Lucina, Hero Of The War Against Grima. Died In A Random Snow Storm At Sea”.

***

Throwing open the door leading to the lower decks, she made her way down the dimly lit stairwells. A high-pitched squeak echoed through the empty space as she made her way to the first lower deck, the sound of crew members talking and laughing could be heard as they drank alcohol and sang sea shanty songs.. The princess decided not to go and chat with them, figuring they had better things to do than be bothered by their “royal” passenger. Besides, she was sure their captain was going to call for them shortly to get to the main deck to help navigate through the Glacier Fangs. So she pressed forward to go to her room, only pausing as she got to an open door and sadly sighed seeing a dozen or so coffins in the room. These poor souls were the whole reason they were forced to go through a frozen sea death trap. 
But the princess wasn’t cold and callous despite the current inconvenience. She knew that the families of these fallen souls wanted to get their sons and daughters, husbands and wives, and friends back home sooner so they could have a proper funeral for them. Plus how many of them perished because of the Fell Dragon, maybe not directly from his claws but due to him being there? 
The undead, known as Risen, could have attacked these people and killed them or maybe their deaths had nothing to do with the war but something like sickness. It was unknown how each of them had passed away and it wasn’t like she had the luxury of knocking on the boxes they laid in and asking them about their life stories. But the princess did walk in and gently placed a hand on the first wooden box. Unlike the boat they rode in, the coffins were smooth and didn’t attack her with a thousand splints. She closed her eyes in a moment of silence and began to speak. 
 	“Mother Naga, please see these souls safely to their next destination.” She prayed silently, though as a buzzing sound replied to her, making Lucina lift her hand off the coffin in shock. ‘If bugs had already gotten into the coffins then their families probably weren’t going to have an open-casket funeral…that's a shame’ she thought mournfully. But as she turned around to walk away she felt a shiver run down her spine as though something was crawling on her moving her hand to swipe at it. Lucina couldn’t stand bugs and she could have sworn she felt something crawling on her neck. But as she moved her hand back to her face she didn’t see any crushed remains of a creepy crawly. 
“Ok, it's time to leave.” She said, shuttering as she hugged herself and left the room using her foot to shut the door.  As the door vibrated shut the girl winced from the loud noise. Feeling a tinge of regret not having meant to slam the door so hard and disturb the souls of the dead.  t tBut knowing that there was some sort of unknown bug munching on the corpses didn’t sit well with her and tied her stomach into a knot. So she continued her journey back to her room not stopping for anything else.  Periodically slapping at a random spot on her body that felt like something might be crawling there. But soon she got back to her quarters and shut the door behind her before sighing in relief.
The room wasn’t anything to write home about, she had a wooden bed that had a grey blanket on it that attacked her skin like the railing on the main deck did, causing her entire body to itch whenever she used it, and a small desk that had a half-burnt candle on it. It was a rough time to be going through a magical snow storm with only an itchy blanket to cover herself in and a small candle for warmth, but had been through worse with less. Thankfully some of the remaining light outside poured in through a small round window that was beside her bed. However, a bit of the cold frosty air was also managing to seep through the window, making the blanket situation far worse than it had to be.  At least it was a lot warmer in her room than it was going to be outside.
Reaching down the princess unstrapped her sheath from around her waist before propping it against the wall beside her bed. The dim light from the window enveloped the sword's tear-shaped gap, in gleaming splendor, resembling the Mark of the Exalt. She wasn’t expecting to need her sword, but she never wanted the blade to be out of her reach in case something happened and she needed to defend herself. If things were tense she would have slept with her sword in the bed with her, but past being a tad annoyed with the ship's captain, she didn’t feel like she was in any danger that her sword could protect her from. Plus the sword was worthless in anyone else's hands, as it became too dull to cut anything if wielded by anyone but her; so she didn’t fear anyone taking it.Well anyone in her bloodline could use it, but the chance of finding someone she was directly related to out in the middle of the ocean was slim to none.  The blade, which was named the Falchion, was her birthright and had been inherited by her from her fallen father in her own timeline.
With the blade in sight Lucina sighed as she sat on her bed and stretched her arms up, her back popping satisfyingly, before laying down on the bed and closing her eyes. Not that she had a taxing day or anything, her main activity had been watching the ocean waves. But what else was there to do? Besides taking a nap and hoping that when she woke up, they would be out of this accursed everlasting stretch of sea, the Glacier Fangs.

***

Though sleep didn’t want to stay with the princess at first, she was swiftly able to fall asleep in a matter of minutes. A useful skill she had picked up while being on her own and running for her life. Being able to sleep just about anywhere had really come in handy despite the uncomfortable situations.
However, her slumber was short lived when a chill ran down her spine causing her to sit up. She wasn’t sure how long she had been asleep. Iit could’ve been for a few seconds or maybe an hour. But light still shone through her now frosted window, so she hadn’t been asleep for too long. She began to wonder what that uneasy feeling was that had woke her up when she was startled by a noise. The clear distinct sound of swords clashing and panic reverberated throughout the cabin.  
“Pirates!” She hissed out, but as she reached for her sword she heard a loud crash  coming from her door making her shoot her eyes over to see the head of an axe sticking through the door.
“Excuse me, lady’s quarters!” Lucina hissed out as she grabbed her sword, flinging the blade out of its sheath as the grey rusty axe was dislodged out of the door. Just when Lucina was about to leap into action to confront her attacker, her courage turned to ashes as she was hit with a sound that she would never forget.  
“Weraaaa!” A high-pitched demonic shriek came from the other side of her door, causing goosebumps to run up and down the girl's body as she pinned herself against the wall. Her hands immediately began to tremble with adrenaline as she held her sword towards the door in a form of defiance. Her eyes widened in terror as the same axe came crashing through the door again, shattering the cheap thin wooden door and revealing something that the princess had hoped she’d never see again.
 A corpse began to slowly shamble its way past the shattered door. Its decomposing pale body showed no signs of life as it gripped its axe. Its body twitched and jerked with each movement in such an unnatural way as though it were a puppet on strings. Bits and pieces of its flesh slumped off its body with every step it took as though it were melting. Lucina could only watch in trembling horror as the glowing red eyes of the creature fixated on her with overwhelming hunger and malice. 
“Risen, here?” She asked as she shook her head, not wanting to believe that the monster was here in front of her. She prayed that this was just some nightmare and that she would soon wake up from. But she knew that this wasn’t the case here, she had gone through too much in life for her to lie to herself. With a deep breath she narrowed her eyes as she lunged forward with all the bravery she could muster, slicing the monster across the chest.
“Raaaaaaa!” The Risen howled as it stumbled back and crashed hard onto the wooden floor.. Giving it no chance to retaliate, Lucina raised her Falchion above her head and planted it down into the heart of the creature. Impaled by the holy blade, the monster began to spasm violently as the red glow from its eyes faded away. 
“Whew,” Lucina shakily sighed in relief as she removed her blade from the monster's chest looking up at the ceiling above her. She could still hear the sounds of battle coming from the main deck causing her to fear the worst. Maybe the crew wasn’t fighting pirates, but something that shouldn’t even exist. Kneeling down to inspect the corpse closer, she noticed that it had once been the body of a skinny man with brown hair. It was dressed in a brown tunic and pants reminiscent of the clothing that common folk would wear. ‘How could such a thing come aboard in the middle of the sea and why did it seem so familiar?’ she thought. ‘We are nowhere near any villages and the only ones that had such similar clothes were the deceased inside…of the…cof–’.
 “Ah!” Lucina cried as a BZZZZZZ went by her ear . She quickly turned to see that it was a fat-looking gray beetle about the size of her thumb with tiny glowing red eyes hovering inches from her face. “AAAGH!” She squealed in a high-pitched and very unwarrior-like way as she swung her blade wildly as though it were a fly swatter.. With an audible tink, the beetle flew into the wall after being hit by the princess’ sword and crashed onto the ground. Unfortunately for Lucina it was still alive wiggling its many legs in the air with its back on the ground trying to get its small plump body back upright. “And I thought all of this undead, Grima nonsense would be over with!” She yelled in disgust as she looked between the corpse and the beetle.  “So you things were what I heard earlier.” She hissed to the beetle before lifting her foot and slamming it down on the plump beetle, shuttering at the juicy squish sound that came from the flattened bug. “Well, time to tie up some loose ends before I start my new life.” She said with a sigh before rushing to the main deck.