Oz: Crossroad of Legends

Lana

"Mom please don't cry I just wish I could have done more to help you guys out,". "I am a part of the kingdom to and I should have done more to help you and Cia,". "Instead of whining not to do it," Lana tells Glinda wiping her eyes.

"Mom is there a way I can speak to her please if there is can I," Lana pleads with Glinda.

Location Yuliean Throne Room

Sonic was chilling in a corner taking in the conversation between June and Irving.

Bowser was impatiently tapping his feet wondering why they still were talking about who is a leader.

Sophie then stepped forwards to introduce herself and explain herself. Sophie did hesitate for a moment upon hearing the name of the young lady.

"June, June, June that name I heard that name before,". "But where have I heard it before,". "Memory is a little hazy maybe bedside I am tired from the ritual,". "Or that crazy battle," Sophie thought.

"Hurry up birdie if you don't go I will," Bowser said to Sophie.

Sophie shots Bowser a mean glare then turns to Sonic, June, and Irving.

"Hello Ms. June and Mr Irvin, my name is Sophie,". "Hmm where should I begin, there is so much to talk about,". "Well first thing I should mention is that this isn't my first time in a new world,". "About a few years ago my wife, witnessed her adopted sister doing something she shouldn't have,". "So her adopted sister went to silence her and by extension me because my wife told me what happened,". "Long story short her sister caught us and tossed us into the Outrealm Gates, basically a portal that connects two different worlds,". "That's how I met a lot of people including that guy over there," Sophie said pointing to Bowser.

"Oh and right let me just get this out of the way,". "I am what they call a bird laguz,". "Ms. June and Mr. Irvin a Laguz is more or less a person who also has animal traits,". "I am obviously a bird laguz and by using whats known as a Bird Stone I can transform into a number of different birds,". "There is one special form I can take and I used it earlier,". "A special stone known as a Phoenix stone which allows me to harness the powers of a Phoenix,". "But it takes a huge strain to maintain that form and the longer I use it the greater the chance that I can keep control," Sophie told them.

"Anyways currently I am a captain in the royal Yulesia army,". "I serve under the current Exalt Lord Chrom,". "My speciality lies in bows and range combat,". "My trusty bow here is the Fuji Yumi,". "I had this bow for a while now,". "It may seem like its broken but when I go to draw it a line of light forms and I can shot arrow shaped light energy,". "I am also fairly competent with most magic but not as good as my wife is,". "Also I can launch arrows which are embedded with magic,". "When they make contact it unleashes fire, ice, lighting, etc depending on what's fused into the arrow," Sophie said showing the arrows to June and Irvin.

"I have lead before and I continue to lead so I am willing to do it if no one else is,". "Even though I wouldn't mind working with someone to help lead,". "Oh right I mentioned my wife,". "Her name is Ann and she is a red headed merchant,". "Umm if anyone finds her let her know I am looking for her," Sophie said.

"Before loudmouth takes over June, or Irving do you have any questions?" Sophie asked.

Dalish Plains

Sterling knew he probably couldn't take Mason in a straightforward duel to the death, so he and his Angelo compatriot had to collaborate and improvise. As soon as Mason's scythe came down upon him, the Angelo grabbed Sterling by the shoulder and teleported above, to the skies. Sterling flipped over midair to take potshots at the Ephesian general with his guns while Gary (that was his name, right?) threw spears of light into the crowd of soldiers charging past them, detonating them in pillars of light before grabbing Sterling by the ankle and teleporting again, this time to the ground to the right of Mason. Sterling shot another easily-blocked bullet at Mason's torso when two of the Ephesian soldiers broke formation to try to attack the Yuleians, with one of them taking a swipe at Sterling's head with a poleaxe. Sterling bent over backwards to dodge, his hat blowing off his head above the swing. The cowboy then reached for his hat and threw it directly at the soldier's face, and during the brief instant the soldier was blinded and staggered, fired his gun from the hip, the bullet zipping straight through a hole in the hat, striking the soldier between the eyes before Sterling snatched his hat back and nestled it into it's rightful place. He glanced up to see Mason falling from a high jump and bringing his scythe down to cleave the cowboy in two. Harry kicked the soldier that attacked him away, reached out, and teleported Sterling a short distance away again. This went on numerous times; teleporting to mix up Mason and evade retaliation, occasionally directing their attacks to the army around them to disrupt them, and fighting off any other soldiers that tried to take advantage of openings; hindering, harassing, and distracting the Ephesian general through any means necessary.

Sterling wasn't particularly worried about the army's advance, nor his lack of damage to Mason; the other Angelos he contacted were probably able to arrive to delay the army from swarming the town by now, Mason couldn't decisively strike them without risking the safety of the soldiers around them, and he had plenty of ammo to keep dancing. The real concern was whether the Angelos dispatched to the village could locate and rescue the hapless stranger from another world before they became the chimera's first taste for foreign cuisine, and how cooperative they would be.

Sterling and the Angelo teleported away back to their sniper positions. Sterling wiped a bead of sweat from his brow.

Startin' to get tired of this.

Making sure his guns were full and his cohort attentive, Sterling teleported back into the fray, seeing Mason swing a wide swatch of empty air behind him in an attempt to preemptively strike the cowboy. The two of them froze when a loud, monstrous, somewhat pained cry roared out from a distance. Sterling winced. A few of the Ephesian soldiers paused.

Uh-oh.

Sterling saw the unbridled rage welling up in Mason's eyes. With no time to teleport, the only thing Sterling could do as the general brought his weapon up was bring his arms up defensively and hold onto his hat.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHH!"

Mason swung his scythe horizontally, unleashing a huge wave of gravitational force, blowing Sterling, Karry, and a large handful of his own forces backward off their feet. Rage blinding his judgement, Mason leapt high into the air, toward the direction of the Dalish village.

---

Grant tried to lean on his arm to stand back up. The shards of glass piercing his flesh turned that into a terrible idea. Focusing his weight on his legs instead, he looked at his Pokemon to see how they fared. Ymir was bleeding from a scraped leg, but it didn't seem like anything that required immediate attention. Morrigan, however, fared less well, as she was screaming, jumping in circles, and flailing her wings in a desperate, panicked attempt at putting out a fire on her right wing. Looking around, Grant saw a couple of tables -- some with empty glass mugs on them -- and a long counter with a rack of drinks behind it. A bar, it looked like.

Which gave Gawain an idea.

"Let me take over!"

Against his better judgement, Grant gave his body up. Gawain sprinted and leapt over the counter, reaching for a wooden barrel with a valve at its side. Pulling it upright, he fiddled with it until he figured out how to pop open the lid, then ran around the counter, dashed to Morrigan, and dunked the entire contents of the barrel over the poor Murkrow, extinguishing the fire.

The crow shook herself and flapped its wings to dry itself of the beer she almost drowned in. She glared at Gawain with murderous intent and began yelling loudly at him. He merely shrugged and grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry!"

You're lucky it wasn't something flammable!

"Oh please, beer is mostly water anyway. This place probably added even more water on top of that!"

Their bickering was interrupted by a distant roar. Taking control again, Grant ran to the nearest unbroken window to look outside. His Pokemon followed soon afterward. Ymir had to tug on Grant's ankle to be hoisted up.

The good news is that the beast didn't seem to be interested in pursuing him. Instead, it's attention turned to a group of soldiers in yellow that appear to have materialized from Arceus-knows-where. The soldiers dispersed, save for two who floated up and wrapped chains of lights around one of the beast's necks. The chimera pulled against them, and breathed fire off into the air, the flying soldiers swerving to avoid the flames.

"Did we fall into one of your comic books, Grant?"

Grant simply continued watching, mouth agape, too busy trying to process what was going on to respond. A couple of the soldiers that dispersed brandished large blades that almost looked to be made of light and hovered around the thrashing beast, periodically advancing and retreating as they searched for an opening. One of them -- the shorter one of slimmer stature -- found one, diving at the beast's right side and cleaving into where it's ribcage should be. The beast roared an unholy roar and began thrashing more violently. The two soldiers holding the chains were unprepared and were harshly pulled by the chimera, getting hurled into the ground and the side of a building, respectively. The soldier that inflicted the wound tried a retreat, but the Ekans-esque head managed to just barely grab them by the ankle and throw them away to a ruined brick wall a short distance to the right of Grant, their sword dropping away somewhere else. One of the other heads breathed fire on the other soldier left airborne. From what Grant could tell, they had a shield to tank the brunt of the attack, but it was still enough to bring them down to the ground.

The chimera snarled and darted around, looking for a new target. It found one in the soldier that slammed down near Grant. He could see them try to stand back up, only to collapse in pain as they tried putting their weight on the foot that was bitten. With no weapon in sight, all they could do is try to scramble away as the beast approached them.

We have to do something!

"Would those weirdos in the gaudy armor take our side, though?"

Better than the thing that already tried to kill us!

"Ymir! Morrigan! Energy Ball and Dark Pulse!"

Morrigan stopped trying to groom itself despite the smell of beer. With a shout, the two did as ordered; the Murkrow fired a dark wave of energy from her maw that shattered the window, while the Turtwig followed with his own ball of energy. The attacks hit their mark at the side of the beast, directly in its fresh, open wound. The beast roared out again and turned it's direction back towards Grant and company, while the soldier successfully scrambled off to cover.

"Good news: we have it's full attention."

The beast charged.

"Aww crap."
Aww crap.

Grabbing Ymir, Grant and Morrigan were able to jump out of the way of the chimera's initial charge as it effortlessly slammed through the wooden building. Whatever breathing room Grant and company could have received from this was short lived, as the Gogoat head immediately turned at him.

"Protect!!"

The Turtwig was able to create a barrier just as the flames reached the party, keeping them from harm. The floor was less lucky, and the group yelped as the wooden boards beneath them gave way and sent them crashing down below. Groaning, Grant looked up, and saw the chimera lumbering over him.

"Oh great. Now we're the ones in deep shit."

Grant's breathed heavily as the chimera lumbered up over them, eyes staring at it like a Deerling in headlights.

The beast bared its various fangs at him.

...Then fell over on it's side.

...Huh?

The beast groaned. It was still breathing, and yet it's strength appeared to be completely depleted. All it seemed able to do was move their heads and appear to make an effort to pull itself up, to no success. Grant stared in confusion, when his eyes drew over to Ymir. Wasn't his leg supposed to be bleeding? He looked unharmed, now.

Then, it hit him.

The Leech Seed!

A weary Grant forced himself to stand back up.

"...I think we won. Good work, you two," he said to his two Pokemon. Ymir looked shaken, but proud of himself. Morrigan was more concerned about her damp plumage. Grant recalled them back into their Pokeballs. "Take a rest."

Clipping his Pokeballs to his belt, his next action was to walk out of the building and see if any of the other soldiers from earlier were willing to talk, when a loud stomp from outside gave him pause.

"For the love of Yancy, now what?!?"

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY MOUNT?!"

Grant's heart almost skipped a beat.

"Who was that? And when did a human learn how to--"

Whatever smartass remark Gawain had to make was interrupted by a large gravitational force being unleashed away from the source of the voice, destroying the remnants of the building and launching Grant far off his feet.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

He was airborne for what felt like minutes, though it was probably far less than that. He felt somebody or something slam into him from midair and wrap around him before his vision blinded by a light. Whatever it was, it stopped mattering when he hit the ground hard, rolling and skidding on dirt ground until he finally came to a halt.

Laying face down in the dirt, Grant looked up. In his distorted, dazed vision, he saw somebody kneel down next to him.

"Pardner, you look like you could use a whiskey."

Choking out a strange, confused sound, Grant fainted.

Sophie

Sophie looks a little annoyed at the question by Irvin.

"I don't know do humans usually hatch from an egg," Sophie says with a bit of sarcasm in her voice.

Her tone softens a bit afterwards and she replies in a more usual matter.

"No I didn't hatch from an egg,". "Despite my appearance and the wings,". "Us Laguzs still well we umm well we are born like any human," Sophie replies.

Sophie then looks towards Jasper with a more gentler approach and tone.

"I wish why I could tell you why we were summoned,". "Maybe you begin by telling us where your from?". "Or what you do in your home world?". "What can you do that's special?". "I am sure you have some special talent,". "Would you mind sharing it with us Mr. Jasper?" Sophie asks.

St. Elne -- Queendom of Yuleia -- Palace -- Glinda's Sleeping Quarters

After making sure the Outlanders had been guided to their new living quarters, and either personally tending to or having the best person available tend to the other important businesses around the capitol, Glinda entered her personal quarters, thinking to herself about the fact that her royal guards will likely begin following her almost everywhere beginning tomorrow; partly because of the possibly unpredictable nature of the outsiders, mostly because of The Witch being able to attack the capitol with such force without anyone noticing the presence of her forces prior.

After locking the door behind her and a moment's hesitation, Glinda raised her staff to open a rift and stepped through.

---

St. Elne -- Queendom of Yuleia -- Royal Tomb

The amethyst pillar behind Glinda dimmed as she closed the rift behind her. Vowing not to take too long, Glinda tread into the chamber where royalty and high-standing military generals and mages were laid to rest after their passing. The air was chilled, and erect glowing stones would be all that lit the area were Glinda not using her staff as a light.

She entered a large circular chamber with a lone stone coffin against the wall. The plaque at the coffin's base read the name of the corpse resting inside, as well as a short biography of his personal life, deeds, and accomplishments. A portrait drawn of him at his prime -- which in this case was not too far from his time of death -- was placed on the wall above the coffin. The coffin itself was painted with many symbols and insignias. The flowers from Glinda's last visit laid on top have already wilted.

Glinda placed her free hand on the stone and slowly slid her fingers over her husband's casket.

"...Vance, my love", she said. Her tone of voice was neither formal nor strong, as she had no cause to withhold her true emotions. "The ritual was performed... But there was an attack by The Witch... No one saw it coming until it was too late. The ritual was interrupted... scattered the outsiders across the realm. Cia... has gone comatose; though a spring beneath Yggdrasil's branches may hold the cure for her ails. Lana is... devastated, of course, but perhaps she will be able to speak with her for a few moments, at the very least."

Her fingers continued tracing the adornments on the coffin, not caring about the dust they were collecting. "...Ephesus continues attempting to advance their borders and the amount of skirmishes with them increase with each passing day... Cia's intervention was the only thing preventing The Witch from irreparably crippling the capitol... And yet, I still ask myself whether I have done the right thing summoning these outsiders here. The morality behind it is up to question, but is this truly the best chance to protect our people from extinction? Will it be enough? Shall we soon no longer spend every passing day fearing for ourselves and our loved ones?"

She clenched her fists as she continued speaking. Tears were beginning to form in her eyes, as much as she tried to fight it.

"Forgive me, it's just... I do not know what to fear most: the possibility that I am not putting forth my best effort, or the possibility that my best effort is simply not enough to protect this realm... Your realm. Every report of a casualty; every camp, outpost, or village destroyed -- every death, every failure... They tear at me so much."

She fell to her knees beside the coffin, this time openly weeping. "I... I'm sorry! I'm just a weakling compared to you! I don't belong in this position! I'm an insult to your legacy! I'm..."

Useless without you.

Suddenly halting her weeping, she turned her glance to her shaky, dust-filled hand. She then turned her gaze toward the casket beside her, then outward, as if looking through the stone walls to see the other coffins laid around the chambers.

Realizing what she was considering, she fearfully stood up, opened a rift, and returned back to the palace.

June wakes up to a knocking at her door. She quickly rolls over and tumbles out of bed, scrambling to get back to her feet. She reaches under her pillow, fingers wrapping around a dagger's hilt before she regains her bearings. "Right, this is... the other castle."

A brief discussion with a maid later, and June is preparing herself to go to the throne room. She brushes her hair, makes sure her armored dress is smoothed out, and checks her hatchet. Sharp as ever. She briefly debates whether to go to the stables first to check on Marth, then decides it would be best to head straight to the throne room. She still doesn't know what kind of person Glinda is - she may not be the most patient. For now it's best to play along with things, at least until getting a better idea of the situation. If this world really is as desperate as it seems, maybe sticking around for a while would be OK, but...

She takes careful notes about the castle's layout and possible escape routes, guard positions and numbers, watching for anything out of the ordinary (and trying to figure out what exactly ordinary is here) as she makes her way to the throne room. She's been betrayed once, and the memory is still fresh in her mind. It wouldn't do to make the same mistake again.

"The resting room?  In my world we just call it a bedroom," June says.  "This place is so strange.  I'm getting used to staying in a castle, but... it's like everything here is similar to my world, but just a bit different.  The beds are too fluffy, those weird candles on the ceiling are hard to reach and impossible to blow out - I had to use my axe - the baths look strange... and it's rather odd to fill a chamber pot with clean water, isn't it?"