Fire Emblem (Fat)es Pt. 06

Stables, Castle Chirasagi, Hoshido, 5 days prior

The pegasi have always been an associated in the country of Hoshido as freedom. In history, they represented the ability of the people to, no matter who were to rule over them, they were always free to leave and change their systems, that nothing but the limits of the sky were within their reach. Unlike Wyverns, said to be descendants of true dragons as their arms of power to take the skies as their own, pegasi were always a part of these very skies, a dance of unity seldom matched. But to see them so bloated they could hardly move was a first for Hinoka, scratching the back of her vibrate red, short bob of hair. The sight of them bloated to the point of a few having their very bellies still touching the ground as they scoot across their stables, none flying around in the open grounds, as they did eagerly back not even a week ago form this evening.

"Guess flying out of the question," Hinoka ponders to herself, letting out an exasperated sigh, she turns to her nearest officer, "soldier, send word to the emperor that our flying forces have been grounded."

With a swift salute, the leather clad man salutes and makes swiftly to the main castle to give Hinoka's report. The princess turns to the rest of her party to address, "Soldiers, I want you all to scour these grounds and find what has caused our air forces to be grounded! Every inch of this place is to be swept over and investigated!"

With a resounding affirmation of, "Hai!" Her brigade starts to scour the area, all except for her personal retainers; A wild-haired absurdist Great Master of great physical statue, and an absent-minded blue-haired Sniper. Though their quicks would have many overlook them, their service during the Nohr-Hoshido war was not misplaced, and are far more capable than they seem.

"Ah, wanted us to stay behind and dote on the frivolous idea of saving these equine hens?" The monk warmly states with a big grin on his face, never loosening his biting retorts that sent him to the edges of Hoshino after the war. But with the strange happenings occurring even in the far reaches of Hoshido and his new 'religion' has caused a surprising amount of concern to goad him into assisting Hoshido with investigating the issue at hand. As some sick joke, Takumi assigned this volunteer back with his old master, where he felt she could 'take the reigns' of such a quicky individual.

"You know as well as I do that is NOT what I wanted you to be here for!"

"Shame, I was just wondering if you just needed another hand in the kitchen and wondered why Setsuna was not able to fill that void."

The thousand-yard stare of the bowman snaps to attention, "Why would I be in charge of cooking? We're no longer in the lines of war, we have professionals to cook for us Azama."

The fiery princess drags her hands across her face in frustration at hearing the frivolous commentary of these two; one too smart for his own good, and the other that plays off of this absurd dialog with her forgetful deflection of his obvious sarcasm.

"Quiet, both of you! I NEED the two of you to come with me, I want to check the Pegasi feed and need your magic and eyes to see if something is wrong with it."

"Wow, checking the food, wondered how long that took you to deduct that food is causing the animals to get fatter?" The Cheshire smile of the massive monk punctuates his irritable rebuttal sends a chill down Hinoka's spine, as though trapped in a corner with a predator. She shakes it off, knowing it is how this strange person can come off as a creep, he means well and cares, though his view of things and the way he presents it has Hinoka question this greatly. But all the wounds he has healed over the years more than proved his devotion to their country's cause.

"But Azama, you know it's been a curse that's been going around, how do you know food is causing the growth?"

Hinoka and Azama turn to the blue-haired retainer, cock-eyed at the astute observation, let alone coming from Setsuna of all people.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" She starts feeling her face for spots or scrapes of breakfast, trying to pin down a more tactile reason the party has her center and focus.

"Despite HInoka being... Hinoka, how did you connect that already?" Hinoka questioned.

"Oh, I already spotted the magical growth from the intake grains when we first approached the stables." The smile stil;l ever present, unfazed by his ability to waste time.

"Yet you failed to inform me WHY?" The creases of her forehead seep deeply inrto her brow, cocked and angry.

"Oh, I imagined you wanted to deduct the conclusion yourself, so I kept it to myself."

Twenty yards inside the pen the monk comes crashing down from Hinoka tossing the sack of mysticism into the yard. A strained pegasi starts to nibble on the frantic brown hair of the monk, who resides into the fields to being picked on by the flying horses.

*rip*

A small tear begins to form around the waistband of the monk's attire, though he seems unfazed by the change in density and size. Thoughts of laying around and doing nothing, while being expected to do less, seems to be a pleasant thought for the monk. He resides himself to indulge in growth, continuing to allow the pegasi to fiddle around with his hair and face. Now he knows the curse can spread transspecies.

"Setsuna!" Hinoka commands, causing the Sniper to stand at full attention,

"Find the commander of the stables and issue a command to isolate the food the pegasi had and where we can find its source. I'll need to corral the pegasi away and have them graze elsewhere while we track down some food unspoiled."

"But princess, how can you do that without touching them? Isn't your pegasi effected as well?" Azama inquires, still standing in salute, unsure whether to release the formalities or not.

Hinoka pauses a moment, before turning to the field, eyeing her retainer,

"Perhaps it will not be me that guide them away..."

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Library, Castle Krakenburg, Norh

"Azura, how did you uncover this?" The usual calm and collected of lord Leo are null and void, staring in awe of an ancient scroll presented before him.

"I-I just followed as Nyx suggested, your grace," she bows her head, her plush hands covering the small bulge of a stomach pressing out the tight fitted dress, now snug against her shapelier form.

"What do you mean, elaborate on her instructions," taking a seat opposite of Azura to face her. Her hunches and leans forward in his seat, hands clasped together, with index fingers pointed upward, bisecting Leo's stern face, fixated on the potential information to be gleamed.

"As you wish," the suet songstress bows, then taking a seat on one of the tall plush chairs of the library. One of the few chairs to not grown under her newly developed adipose,

"Nyx felt that the strange nature of this curse could be connected to Valla, and with how close Corrin is too the border, would make sense to explore some of the Bottomless Canyon. Near one of the southern bridges, we found what you hold."

"So, it has left you like... This after handling it?"

"Indeed, your grace. I wished no other soldier to have to handle the burden of a potential curse, and it seemed I was right," Taking a moment to gesture to her newly found folds and pounds. While doing as such, Leo leans over to a notebook her has created and noted some observations and thoughts,

"Of note, it seems the curse from the scroll take taken less of a toll on her than it has her fellow warriors, hinting to the less ill-intended nature of the scroll compared to the magic that was compounded into the other victims. Azura is still shy of the two-hundred-pound range, maybe only hitting one-hundred-and-eighty at most. Perhaps the scroll has potential that the attackers built upon," Accompanying the notes is a slight sketch of Azura's figure before and after the scroll, comparing what his thoughts of Azura was when he met with her before receiving word from the border camp and sending Azura to investigate. Though far from sparse, Azura had seemed to inherit more of her Vallanian lineage than expected, as her hourglass figure has not only been maintained, but further distinguished after the war. Growing roughly another three inches in height the last five years, her chest and hips once hit a delicate thirty-one inches, edging past the thirty-five for each. The dancing she has performed across the countries has maintained a healthy figure. But now? Her band size went from twenty-nine inches to thirty-five, her cup size increased from a C to a D. Her hips now match her plumper chest, reaching a matching thirty-eight inches to her cup. But the curse seemed to have changed some of the rate of flow for this hourglass, going from a twenty-four-inch waist to thirty-six inches. At least, what Leo could calculate when taking into perspective of her tightened dress attempting to hide the newly gained pounds.

As he scribbles away, he asks while still focusing on the notes, "If you were the only one to handle it, were you able to transcribe the contents of it to another parchment or scroll? What were you able to make from it?"

Her gaze narrows and stares of to the side, looking a little aloof at Leo's cold response, "Unfortunately, your highness, I was not able to glean much. In fact, I made a return trip here and cared not to glance at the contents without your assistance."

Leo pinches the bridge of his nose while closing his eyes, all in a futile attempt to fight off the impending headache, "So you knew you would be the only one to hold it, yet didn't even take a glance at its contents?

"I-Im sorry, I thought-

"No, no, no, no, sorry, I.." Leo cuts himself off, carefully picking his next words while trying to reign in his frustrations at the circumstance, "you were right in bringing it here, but there is not much that is known about this, and I cannot risk touching the scroll in attempts to better understand the curse without getting myself cursed. As painful as it is to admit, we are working with a magic where we will not understand what the effects might be, immediate or

Long term effects to being studied."

"Long term?"

"Why yes, we don't know the ramifications of this. If this was found by the entrance to Valla, we can only assume having some connections to it. Corrin your yourself being near the Dragon Veins across the continent has had dire effects on those locales, enough to even change the land itself. If a curse were made from the contents of magic such as this, we don't know what the long-term effects could even entail. The reports I've been reading from Nyx's observation reports have, so far, informed me of greater energy is being formed inside those affected by the curse, but how about you, Azura? How do you feel? I want as much detail as you care to elaborate, then we will move forward as carefully as needed." Accenting his point was the final stroke of his notes, ready to fill in more details that Azura would, hopefully, provide.

But the dire dancer instead is sitting atop her seat, head facing her large lap, her hands gripped at her leggings. Sniffles can be heard quietly from her when Leo finally stopped his barrage of questions and writing, drops of tears staining her stretched clothing,

"I-I'm sorry m'lord, it's just... We lost good men and women in that canyon. I thought you would be happier to hear the return of those that did come back for this scroll. We risked our lives for this and all you can think is to look at us, at me as... a project? A riddle to solve?

Taken back, Leo barks back as his pride takes over his logic, "That is why I'm taking this as seriously as I can Azura, I just need you to work with me."

"Am I not doing that? Have I not done everything I could to get you what you needed?

"Please, Azura, calm yourself, I'm trying to-"

Azura stands to her feat, her face red and stained with tears as she barks back, "What do you mean calm down! Maybe it is you who need to calm down and look at how you are treating us!" With this surge of emotional energy, a surge of purple energy escapes her mouth, hitting the hand outstretched Leo and sending him flying across the room into one of the bookshelves.

Azura stops herself, noting what she just did as bits of the library's shelf fillings drop from being suspended in midair. She was so focused on herself, she failed to see the whirlwind of magic that started to swirl around her and what it was doing, revolting around the room. She turns to her friend and notes he is still conscious. She notes that Leo has slowly picked himself up, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth as his hand is still outstretched, with his darker violet energy reaching out from his hand. She follows it with her eyes until noting what is was holding, a bookcase from falling atop of herself! She noted the looming case, turns back to Leo, and rushes away. But as she willed the energy to move, she found herself flying across the room, embracing Leo. The tears began falling once more between sobs of apologies, taking the prince aback as he drops his hold of the bookcase, shocked at the blur of movement. No tome, no incantations, just pure will and she practically teleported to him. Her loving embrace he found soft, softer than expected. He does note that Aruza arms are whiter than her usual pale complexion, more of a pearl white missing any pink pigmentation from it. Indeed, he notes more of a scaled complexion has taken over her arms.