Chapter Text
On a dreary cold morning in the midst of spring, Ike sat under a small wooden eave outside an inn, watching the rain pitter-patter down onto the road before him. A horse-drawn carriage made its way past him noisily, wheels and hooves clacking against the cobblestones as he sighed and looked up at the sky. Like a hail of silver arrows the rain came down, gliding over roofs and across the blue-green grass, softly tickling the ground below, leaving a thin sheen of shining water on everything. It’d been raining since Ike arrived at The Bear’s Arms yesterday and it looked as though the weather had no intention of letting up. Other patrons of the inn would only collect at the windows rather than leave the warmth of the common area and sitting rooms, but Ike wanted to be by himself for a time.
The whole point in his leaving Tellius was just that: after having played a large role in saving the world, and no doubt downplaying it to himself the entire time, Ike escaped the hustle and bustle of his home continent for the want of new lands. He wanted to matter much less in the grand scheme of things since so much of his life had already been devoted to wars and being some kind of hero who he really didn’t think of himself as in private. Ike was just an ordinary guy at heart, and the more he was lauded and got titles and land thrown at him, the more he just wanted to leave, and he finally did when the continent entered a new era of great peace. He’d written a letter to his sister to be sent whenever the postman came by the inn, and it was safely in the hands of the staff, so he could put Tellius out of his head once more as he merely sat and enjoyed the calm, rainy day.
Correspondence with Mist was just about the maximum Ike could take of home these days, and although it was good to hear Soren and Titania and the others were doing well, he didn’t want for their presence any longer. He was good friends with many people on Tellius, but the political drama, racial issues, and general amount of world-ending nonsense had his head spinning constantly whenever he was there. Besides, there were new lands to seek, and new friends to be made, not to mention ones who probably wouldn’t bring up his being the savior of Tellius every five seconds. Sometimes Ike felt a strange, unspoken agreement between people when he was back home, as though they were subservient to him in some kind of nonsensical, loyalist blindness. Ike was as flawed as anyone else, and wasn’t the whole point of killing Ashera and ending her tyranny that nobody, not even the gods, deserved absolute loyalty and respect?
Trying to put the old days out of his mind, Ike leaned against the wall of the inn and sighed. He could probably fall asleep in that position if he tried, and soon enough he found himself nodding off in his own little corner of the new world. His cape swaddled around him like a newborn baby, Ike reveled in its warmth which broke the cool winds of spring and the serene rain from above. Feeling his mouth slowly drop open, Ike fell asleep..
When Ike awoke, he had the sense he was in a different place entirely. Although war veterans often remember their most intense battles to the point they mistake themselves for being in those battles again, Ike was rather different in that his experience in the various wars he’d fought made him able to take in his surroundings much quicker than the average person. He had a sense of warmth and coolness at the same time, and while he did think for a moment it was because of his cape swaddled around him while a rainy wind blew against him, he quickly realized it was the exact opposite; Ike had no cape which subsequently meant he was cooling off, and he was warm because of the hot air surrounding him. He thought immediately he must’ve dozed off and been brought inside the inn.
However, when his eyes opened from his slumber, Ike put it together that he was in an entirely different location, yet he was so groggy he could barely move. He was laying down on his back, and the sound of the waves pounding against a rocky shoreline reached his ears. A lemon-colored sun shone down from a pure blue, magical sky, with creamy clouds like fluffy marble palaces in air drifting overhead. Each hit of the waves against the hot sand beneath Ike brought him closer and closer back to reality, the rainbow-colored sunbeams showering his body in heat that drew him into a sitting position. Face-to-face with the seafoam pouring at him off the water, Ike looked down at his legs, spotting a pair of sandals on his feet. Confused and dazed, he looked down at himself and realized that, besides those sandals, he was completely nude.
Ike hurried to his feet, a mixture of bewilderment and anxiety filling his mind while a cold sensation crept up into his stomach. A little woozy, Ike immediately fell back down to the ground, although he landed on his hands and knees as he breathed slowly, trying not to vomit. The nausea passed relatively quickly, although the next time he was a lot slower standing up. Carefully getting to his knees and then his feet, Ike managed to stand with no issue now, his head merely aching a little while he stood straight. He had the distinct feeling of something on his brow and he felt his forehead, noticing his usual green headband was still intact. Besides that and the newfound sandals though, Ike wasn’t wearing anything. In the blazing heat of wherever he was, Ike’s lightly tanned skin reflected the sun, musculature proudly on display while rays of light descended from above, blasting him with warmth.
He must’ve been kidnapped; it was the only explanation Ike had for how he’d gotten where he was. Granted, he fell asleep practically in the middle of town, right outside an inn where no doubt plenty of people had been staring out the windows to see if the rain would give in anytime soon, so it would’ve been hard for someone to steal him away. On top of that, he was a patron of that same inn, although no kidnapper would have any way of knowing as much if they simply spotted him sleeping outside. Yet the more he reasoned out his sudden relocation as a kidnapping, the more it made sense to Ike. He might’ve appeared as someone who couldn’t afford a room in the inn to the untrained eye, and was sleeping outside it in exchange to compensate for not having any money. Along that line of logic, it would’ve been possible for someone, or a group of people, to mistake him for a poor adventurer trying to get by on scraps, and that nobody would miss his sudden disappearance. However, as he began to think this way, Ike felt his stomach drop as indeed nobody would notice if he randomly vanished. The only people he knew were back in Tellius, not the new land he had traveled to after leaving behind his home, and if he did just walk off in a random direction and not turn back, the only person who would have any sense that he was ever there would be the innkeeper renting out his room. Ike had been well and truly snatched up—his things were stolen from him, and yet instead of killing him, his abductors had been kind enough to merely dump him on the beach and let him be, although it was a very minute kindness amidst a veritable number of evil deeds.
How had nobody noticed him being taken? Or drugged? They must’ve drugged him; how else would he have not woken up during his own abduction? Even now he was nauseous and his head hurt—a sure sign that he had been administered some kind of foul potion or poison which rendered him asleep until it wore off. Unsure of what exactly had happened but trying to reason out some explanation, Ike looked out over the beachfront before him with defeat, his hands wrapped tightly into fists, his biceps flexing as he bit his lower lip angrily. Someone would pay for this. They’d stolen his clothes which had been mended and cared for innumerable times by Mist and Soren, not to mention his poor cape—the thing was like a security blanket for him, and with it gone, he felt so out of place. At least his headband remained, and it did have some sentimental value. It still barely smelled of the perfume Soren had given Ike before he left Tellius behind. They must’ve taken that perfume too—Ike kept it on his person at all times, and it was a small bottle anyways. Maybe the robbers hadn’t even noticed it in Ike’s pockets, although if they didn’t turn them all out after stripping him then they wouldn’t have been very good robbers. Still, in spite of the anger and the streak of vengeance within Ike, he was still befuddled. Why the sandals? What a weird thing to do to him; after all, no robber would care what happened to their victim after stealing their entire wardrobe off them. Also, why the beach? Why this beach in particular?
Ike was a little too wrapped up in his own line of logic, and quickly sought to clear his head as he trudged towards the edge of the water. There was a small, rocky outcropping which he carefully got onto, and when he reached the water proper, he got on his knees. Leaning down and grabbing handfuls of water, Ike shut his eyes tight and splashed his face with it. He tasted a little and salt tickled his tongue, confirming he was indeed at the edge of an ocean. He wiped his face with the backs of his hands, getting the salty residue off of himself. Luckily, he’d been rather well-prepared for situations like these. That is to say, the lack of clothing was something he’d never exactly been trained for, but survival situations were something Ike could do. The number of times he’d made camp in the strangest of locations across Tellius was probably the same as the number of stars in the night sky. Ike could find a way to make just about anywhere a home, although his current lack of attire did make the task seem a little more daunting.
Pressing away from the wet stone beneath him with a hand, Ike pushed himself back up to his feet and sighed with determination. He slapped his own face a little, still trying to shake the last of the grogginess while he thought about his next move. For now, he’d walk along the beach. Exploration was his best bet, and really the only bet, to get out of the survival situation at hand. If he found fishing nets or shellfish cages or even some semblance of civilization washing up on the beach, Ike would know he wasn’t alone wherever he was. If he could find people, he would be okay, regardless of how mortified he’d be to have to greet them in the nude. It really was an unfair situation, but Ike tried to put that past him as he dropped off the small stone outcropping and chose a direction. He walked along the beach, his sandals keeping the blazing sand off his soles and toes as he made calm strides, simply moving in the general direction he had picked between the options available. Ike knew from experience that running would be a major mistake, most of all in a place as warm as he was in. If he lost his breath and started sweating, no doubt he’d be in a worse position than before with no way to cool off in the humidity.
Yet that was another thing entirely; the weather of wherever he was had absolutely no correlation to where he’d been before being snatched up. The Bear’s Arms was situated in the midst of grassy highlands on a cold continent fairly far removed from Tellius. Furthermore, not even the coastlines of Tellius like those of Begnion, Crimea, or Gallia were like this beach. Ike felt like he was on the absolute other side of the world, where upside down was right side up, and spring was fall, and winter no doubt summer. Still, that wouldn’t make any sense, because it was spring where he had been before. Where was spring so warm like this beach? Phoenicis maybe? Ike looked to his side, out over the water again, into the dreamlike horizon. It was as though he was in a different plane of reality entirely, if those even existed. What was more is he couldn’t hear a single sound besides the gentle lull of the waves and the sound of the breeze blowing against his nude body. Looking closer at the water, Ike did see some plump-looking fish darting around, but they were definitely not anything near to what Ike would consider animal companionship. Where were the birds? The insects? Of course Ike dreaded to think that he might be left on a mosquito-covered beach with not a stitch of clothing on, but what unsettled him most was the missing-yet-otherwise-ordinary elements of such places. Wildly obnoxious seagulls and small seafaring birds were normal at beaches. He could see trees further inland where the sand turned to dirt and grass, yet not a single songbird’s song came from there either, not to mention the distinct lack of flies buzzing or cicadas chirping. Yes, it was spring, but in a place so hot, surely the cicadas didn’t care what season it was.
Before long, Ike had walked along the coast for several minutes and found no signs of civilization. Small shells and sand dollars were about the extent of notable features on the beach itself, with the occasional stone outcropping and some extraneous dunes or tide pools making themselves known. There were no fishing nets, no shellfish cages, no docks of any kind, and not even a shred of driftwood. While he was indeed looking for civilization, Ike had to stop and admit to himself that the beach was utterly breathtaking, but that was a part of why the situation felt so uncanny. Ike had the sense he was on a tropical island where little else mattered besides being comfortable, and yet it seemed completely untouched, not to mention without basic shoreline animals. Each time he looked out over the water, he was almost transfixed by the technicolor blue sky and the vast, sparkling ocean, with sunlight reflecting off the surface in waves of glorious color. Even the foam caught that shine, shimmering with bubbling glee as it poured over the hot, bleached sand, crashing against cockle shells and washed-up sea urchins which were themselves a wondrous mixture of pastel rainbows. It was like being in a dream, and as he looked back ahead at the beach in front of him, Ike pinched himself to no avail. Though he was in a fantasy beachscape, it was real. Every color and every sound that he drank up was very much there and not some mistake of his sleeping mind.
Eventually, the beach began to grow larger as he walked. The grassy land Ike had caught a glimpse of before retreated, and even began to rise up, with the blue-haired hero finding before him a rocky cove. Instead of a simple shoreline backed up by ordinary grass and dirt only a stone’s throw away, the beach was much, much wider, with sand covering a large area. Huge stone pillars split from the ground, rising into the air where they stopped several yards up from sea level. It was as though a cliff-faced coastline had been barreled into by the ocean, leaving only the occasional remnant that this place had once been much higher, and a bed of sand had replaced most of that cliff. Some of the rocky surface had been barreled into much lower, creating small archways and paths underneath the rocks. Ike had to assume that it was low tide because the whole place would no doubt flood if the ocean came in any closer. He took a few steps down to enter the cove and it was a place he much preferred to the open-faced shore from before given his state of undress. Crouching under one of the archways, Ike explored the cove and found further near the back wall an opening in the rock off the ground, no doubt above even where the water would reach during high tide. He looked back out behind him at the now-distant water for a moment. Shaking his head, Ike scaled a few feet of rocks to see what was inside the opening. Peering into that cave, Ike found it was rather roomier than he expected and surprisingly well-lit by a number of natural skylights from above. The cave had a few rooms he could see from the entrance and each were tall enough for even him to stand in without issue, so he squeezed through.
Throughout the sea cave an echo of ocean water beating against the shore could be heard, and there was even the sound of water dripping, no doubt from either the ceiling or somewhere else entirely. Sniffing cautiously, Ike couldn’t discern the scent of bat dung in the entryway, and presumed the cave was without any animals just as the beach had been besides fish. Squeezing under the rocks at the entrance, Ike entered into the first room of the cave where he could finally stand up, seeing a number of outcroppings along the wall, as well as that the ground was sand rather than stone. Looking ahead, he assumed the cave opened back up to the beach somewhere further along, and that this was the level in which the coastline at that particular point rested. Ike walked through the room and ducked under a natural arch, entering a much larger room which was also lit by a number of openings along the cave’s ceiling. However, unlike the previous room, and unlike anything he’d seen thus far, this cave housed signs of life. That is to say, there were no structures or items or even ideas that there might’ve been people around, but instead a real-life, flesh and blood person.
That person was a man with blue hair which was cut neatly into bangs, although those bangs were getting a little long and threatened to fall into his face. He had on a golden tiara with a tiny red gem in the middle of it like a ruby or a garnet. The man was also nude aside from a pair of sandals, as well as apparently unconscious. Holding his breath, Ike looked over the man’s body quickly, not wanting his gaze to linger inappropriately, though nobody was around to judge him for such an action. In short, the man on the ground looked decently athletic, with a body like that of a dancer—strong, but lithe, and while his biceps were decently built, his abs were more of a suggestion at the idea of abs. He had lean legs too, and was clean-shaven aside from a small nest of pubes which was well-trimmed. Ike looked around the room next, noticing it was totally empty, although it did have the same outcroppings as the room prior, many of which looked like one could sit on or place objects on, though they weren’t nearly so neat as to be man made. The caves were whirlpool caves, built by currents that had bored into the stone-faced cliffs and got caught in a spiral which made the oddly smooth, circular rooms. Ike glanced down at the sleeping man before him and steeled himself to get down on his knees. Grabbing the man’s shoulders lightly but firmly, Ike shook him awake.
Marth awoke slowly, his eyes unfocused and his vision blurry while he awoke from his slumber. Instinctively grabbing his head to nurture a pounding migraine, Marth used one of his elbows to get into an upright position, bending his opposite leg to put a foot on the ground. Unaware of exactly where he was besides the fact he could hear the sound of the ocean of all things in the distance, Marth rubbed his eyes and shook his head. The pounding in his head subsided swiftly and he managed to survey his surroundings finally when he managed to focus his eyes in spite of a groggy sensation pervading his mind. He was in a strange cave under a natural skylight, and the sand beneath him was slightly cool, not to mention soft. That was a strange revelation though because as Marth came to his senses, he felt a draft, and soon realized he wasn’t wearing anything besides a pair of sandals. Confused and horrified, his eyes soon came across another figure in the cave. A large, naked man wearing a headband was standing over him.
“W-What in… what’s going on?” Marth asked loudly, scooting away from Ike quickly. Ike blushed and looked away from Marth, crossing his arms. Marth covered his groin with his hands.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Ike muttered, Marth looking at him, confused.
“What do you mean? Where am I?!” Marth asked, now a little angry.
“Don’t mistake me as your captor—I woke up just like you did maybe half an hour ago. I’ve been wandering the beach ever since and found you here like this,” Ike said.
“But… but why am I naked?” Marth asked.
“Like I said, I don’t know. I don’t know why I’m naked either,” Ike clarified. Marth blushed a little and looked down at his body again, confirming that he wasn’t wearing anything. He then let his eyes wander up to the man before him and blushed much brighter. The man was muscular, large, tall, and like one of those chiseled statues dedicated to Anri and other legendary heroes from Archanea’s past, but there were parts of him which exceeded even those reliefs of old heroes. Not even Ogma had arms like this man’s and even Draug would struggle to compare to those legs, yet what had Marth most embarrassed was the unnecessarily long piece between said legs. The man was built like a gladiator, and his body was totally without hair besides that on his head and a patch of blue pubes; for a moment Marth wondered whether he was dreaming. Pinching his arm, Marth only felt a sharp pain course through him when he did, and he looked up at the man before him.
“This is real?” Marth asked.
“As far as I can tell,” Ike said.
“I… will choose to trust you,” Marth said rather hurriedly, Ike looking at him with a sense of audacity, though it did not show on his face in any way whatsoever.
“Oh, well thanks,” Ike said, unsure of what to think of the other so quickly laying his cards on the table, although they were clearly in the same difficult situation so he didn’t mind it. Then again, Ike could survive for a decently long time in the wild if he had to, and he didn’t want to give the other the impression he was afraid for their lives, least of all because that might frighten the man enough to make him not trust him any longer.
“I am Marth,” Marth said, getting to his feet, using the wall he’d scooted up to in order to help himself get off the ground. He let his hands leave his crotch shakily, but he still felt strange about being naked.
“I’m Ike,” Ike said, some warmth showing through his cool exterior as he walked up to Marth and extended a hand to shake. Marth grasped it and shook it firmly, feeling the weight of Ike’s grip clutching at his fingers like a vice. The man was really quite strong, and when Ike let go, Marth saw his knuckles had whitened.
“You say you woke up here?” Marth asked, probing for information.
“Well, not in here. I woke up on the beach outside,” Ike said.
“So you are not from here?” Marth asked.
“No.”
“...Well, what do you know?”
“Nothing. I woke up here randomly. I think I was kidnapped.”
“Kidnapped?”
“The last thing I remember is falling asleep outside an inn. I think I was probably drugged and robbed and that I was dumped here after being stripped,” Ike said, shortly explaining his idea to Marth.
“An inn? What was it called?” Marth asked.
“It was called ‘The Bear’s Arms’ and it was… well, in the highlands,” Ike said.
“I’ve never heard of that inn before. The last thing I remember was falling asleep in my bedchambers for a quick rest before dinner,” Marth said.
Ike already assumed when he saw the tiara that Marth was a nobleman, but the way in which Marth spoke and the words he used conveyed this idea even further. Although Ike had no idea who Marth was, he had to assume Marth wasn’t from Tellius, otherwise he’d have heard of Ike before considering Ike had dealings with just about every noble on the face of the continent and even some from beyond. Marth must’ve been from the new continents that emerged after Ashera was defeated, and Ike wondered if the man was aware of the flood as most people Ike spoke to in the lands that appeared were completely blind to the matter.
“Do you know of Tellius?” Ike asked, Marth looking at him oddly.
“No. What is that?” Marth asked.
“I want to know where you’re from I guess,” Ike said.
“Oh. What does… well, I’m from Altea. It’s a small country on an island not far off the coast of Archanea,” Marth said.
“I’m not from around here. I’m from a far away land basically,” Ike said.
“Oh no. It’s one thing to be whisked away from one’s home, but in a foreign place and in such a predicament now is truly upsetting,” Marth said, “so we must find civilization and find out where we are. I realize that, being as we are, there may be a sense of embarrassment, but we must overcome that to survive. Let’s leave this cave. Perhaps on the beach I can get a better lay of the land, and maybe I might recognize this… place, whatever it is. Come along, Ike.” Marth walked past Ike and saw the pair of archways he could choose to go through, one leading further in to the cave and the other leading out, though he had no way of telling one from the other.
Ike realized this and walked over to the low archway on the left, ducking back under it. Marth followed and the pair made their way into the entryway of the cave where they each in turn popped out of the opening that led Ike in to begin with. Marth dropped down onto the beach, his sandals landing him flat-footed on the sand where he saw the ocean shore from afar.
“Incredible,” Marth remarked, walking past Ike and towards the shore. It was yards away, but Marth still saw the shore was unbelievably gorgeous, even from a distance. When he arrived at the water’s edge, Marth looked out over it with awe. Ike’d seen it earlier, but to Marth, the practical fairyland before him was unlike anything he’d ever seen before, and he’d certainly been no place like this particular beach. Sea caves and ocean skies had his heart singing, and when he looked down to the ground beneath him, Marth spotted a small crab nestled in the sand.
“I haven’t seen anything but fish until now,” Ike said.
“Do you come from an inland country?” Marth asked.
“I mean on this beach,” Ike clarified.
“Oh! Yes, that is a crab. Strange. Well, no matter,” Marth said, “and I don’t recognize this place at all besides. This is totally foreign to me, like the… I suppose like the shores of Valentia. So few ships sail the great distance between Archanea and Valentia, and though there is an island between them, it’s not a done thing necessarily. It’s like being somewhere I’ve only ever heard of.”
“Yeah, it is pretty,” Ike admitted. He looked back at the pillars of bedrock rising from the ground out of the low, sandy shore, following their stone contours up to the cliffs above. Staring up where the sky met the barely-visible tufts of grass atop the rock face, Ike spotted something red. It moved slowly, and bobbed up and down, as though it might be an animal. Turning now to look at it head-on instead of over his shoulder, Ike peered, wondering whether he was making out the texture of hair or fur. Suddenly, the red thing stopped, and it seemed to approach the cliff, revealing itself to be a person; another man, naked aside from a blue and gold headband, his pale skin almost pink against the sunlight. He was followed by another man with blue hair who did not approach the cliff nearly so close, and they looked down at the beach before them. Ike heard a shout.
“Hey! Up here!” The man with red hair yelled down the cliff, his voice echoing down between the pillars of bedrock, against the sea breeze streaming in from the ocean. Marth turned on a dime and Ike pointed up at the pair atop the cliff.
“Come down here!” Ike yelled back, the two figures disappearing as they quickly moved from the cliff’s edge.
“Were those other people?” Marth asked, Ike nodding.
“The redhead wasn’t wearing a shirt,” Ike said.
“Maybe they too woke up here like us. How many of us are there?” Marth asked, holding his chin and thinking. He was searching for answers in his head, although nobody he’d ever met had been in a similar situation, or at least most of the people he met who had come from afar knew how they got to Archanea, and if they didn’t it was usually because they had amnesia. Now the possibility existed for not just one or two people having been brought to this strange coastline on a whim or perhaps out of pocket, but now many people. Marth looked up and made to walk along the coast more, wanting to meet up with the pair who were atop the cliff, but Ike grabbed his hand quickly, stopping him.
“They’ll come to us. Don’t go anywhere, that’ll confuse them,” Ike said.
“You’re right, I’m sorry, I’m just worried now,” Marth admitted.
“Me too, but we should at least keep our heads on straight,” Ike said.
Eventually, the pair of men arrived down at the shore where Ike and Marth were. They crouched under an archway and the red-headed man dashed up while the blue-haired one took his time. As that man with blue hair made his way through the arch, Ike and Marth realized just how tall he truly was. That man had to be well over six feet tall, presumably somewhere around six foot six or seven, with a lean yet muscular body to show for it, much like that of an athlete. Marth got the impression once more that he was looking at a statue of a hero, although this man fit that bill much more than Ike with a rather dignified look about him—his hair was fluffy, but not spiky, and his demeanor was almost serene. Marth was practically looking through a funhouse mirror at the kind of person he wanted to be: taller, stronger, more calm, and distinctly charismatic in the way the best rulers are.
However, Ike was more transfixed by the red-haired man who was slightly shorter than Marth, yet decidedly more muscular to show for that lack of height. He had nice, cut pecs and stacked abs with good biceps and even strong legs. His shoulders were broad for his height, and he had a thin dusting of scarlet hair across his chest which mirrored his hair color. Unlike the three other men, this man had blemishes and body hair and even freckles, his figure taken care of for certain, but he had a distinctly masculine energy which was separate from Ike’s stoicism. He had the impression of being a fireball, and even slightly outgoing compared to the rest of them. Ike felt his cock twitch and he swallowed, trying not to stare at the redhead’s body while he ran towards them, his cock flopping about while he dashed over and the tails of his headband blew in the wind. Ike was chubbing up a bit at the sight of the redhead.
“I’m glad there’s more people here, I was worried we were the only two,” the redhead said quickly, looking happy.
“Well in spite of the situation, the more the merrier I suppose, although I am sorry it’s more than just us, right?” Marth said, looking to Ike.
“Oh, uh, yeah,” Ike said, “I’m Ike.”
“My name is Marth. Who are you two?” Marth asked.
“I’m Roy and this is Sigurd,” the redhead said, gesturing at the tall, blue-haired man by his side.
“We awoke here without our possessions like you see us now,” Sigurd said smoothly, giving off a kind of calm-yet-radiant vibe, as though he perfectly belonged in the fairyland the group had found themselves in. He was no doubt wise and kind, and truly at peace with what was happening in spite of the setbacks and misfortune. Generally, the group was calmed by his presence.
“Us too I’m afraid. We were just talking about what we remember before we woke up here,” Marth said.
“I’m not from around these parts,” Ike said.
“I don’t think any of us are,” Roy cut in.
“No, I mean… uh, Archanea, I think Marth said,” Ike said.
“Archanea?” Roy asked, looking between Marth and Ike with confusion. Every time Roy said anything, it was as though the emotion behind his words was intrinsically painted on his face. Unlike Ike who was stoic or Sigurd who was serene, Roy’s face changed rapidly as he spoke, his personality shining through; Marth was amused by it.
“Well, yes, I am… I’m from Altea, not exactly Archanea, but Ike is a traveler,” Marth said swiftly.
“What’s Altea?” Roy asked, Marth blinking slowly.
“Are you a traveler as well?” Marth asked.
“No. I’m the Marquess of Pherae, and I have been for years now,” Roy said.
“Oh. I’ve never heard of that place,” Marth said.
“Neither have I,” Ike admitted.
“Or I,” Sigurd mentioned, “which is precisely why I sought to explain to the Lord Roy that I don’t believe that any of us are from the same place.”
Sigurd’s words sank in slowly, and Marth looked around between Ike, Roy, and Sigurd, confused. He understood the kind of thing Sigurd was implying, but the idea that they’d each been plucked from so far away and all brought to the same location was jarring and felt definitively impossible. It defied common sense, and yet Marth did realize he’d seen many things indeed that defied common sense in his lifetime. It was not chiefly acceptable, but it did have an underpinning of logic.
“It’s plausible that we are from different places, but… Lord Roy, was it? Where were you last before you woke up here?” Marth asked.
“I just took a nap in my castle. I spent the day out at the nearby village alongside a few friends and went back for a short rest before dinner,” Roy said.
“In your castle? As in, the castle you own?” Marth clarified.
“Yes, Castle Pherae,” Roy said, “and do you not happen to be nobility?”
“No, no, you see, I’m the King of Altea,” Marth said, Roy’s eyes going wide.
“King?! What is Altea then?!” He insisted.
“It’s… it’s a, a small island nation off the coast, nothing—” Marth waved Roy off and shook his head, downplaying himself before Roy cut him off.
“You’re a king?!” Roy yelled, “What are they gonna do without you?! Without me?! Wait, what are you?!” Roy pointed at Sigurd.
“I am the heir of House Chalphy. Only a prince, I assure you,” Sigurd said.
“A prince?! A prince!” Roy said, his eyes still wide as he looked at Ike. Everyone’s eyes trained on the spiky-haired man who was still trying to get his libido in check at the sight of Roy.
“I’m a wanderer, I already said,” Ike said, though he would have to be utterly brainless to not feel suspicions arising from the others.
“A wanderer?” Roy asked, “No… secret royal heritage? What if the whole point of this is to depose rulers or something? Oh by the legends… what is happening in Pherae?!” Roy sighed with anger, Marth looking to him.
“Look, we’ll get out of this one way or another, I promise you. For now, we need to stick together and try to trust each other. We’re all in this together, aren’t we?” Marth asked.
“We are, I agree, it’s just I feel so… my poor Pherae, and what of Lycia? Etruria? The whole of Elibe?” Roy moaned, looking sourly over the water, feeling the glittering sky itself was totally against him. No amount of natural beauty or fantastical ocean shores could stop him from thinking of home and his friends. Lilina, Elffin, Klein, and more… all of them could be in danger and he had no way to warn them. He felt his heart drop into his stomach further when he imagined that they were somewhere on their own, robbed and naked against the elements like he was.
“We’ll be okay,” Marth insisted, laying a supportive hand on Roy’s shoulder.
“Alright, but we must find who else is in this predicament,” Roy said with newfound determination.
“Who else?” Marth asked, echoing Roy.
“Exactly. Look, when you woke up, did you think for a moment that anyone else was in your same situation? That you might be totally by yourself here?” Roy asked, Marth shaking his head.
“I’m not the person to talk to. Ike here woke me up,” Marth said, turning to Ike. Ike thought about how he’d felt before he found Marth, the anger coming back to him, but now that they’d been joined by so many others, the sensation was replaced with a kind of light at the end of the tunnel. It was cruel to think that other people being in his same, shitty situation was a good thing, but companions often made a journey worth embarking on, and the more he spent time with Marth and Roy and Sigurd, the more he felt they weren’t exactly in any danger, least of all given that he was apparently surrounded by some very important people. People like that had to have connections, and if they were kidnapped from their own castles, surely their absence would be noticed. Someone would seek them out no matter how far away they’d been stolen away to, and when those people did finally find their lords, Ike would surely be saved from this predicament alongside them.
“I guess we should look for other people,” Ike said. He’d hate to imagine anyone else in the situation of being so wholly alone out there, and if some of them truly were kings and princes and marquesses and what not, no doubt they’d have terrible outdoor survival skills. Ike crossed his arms and looked around, if only out of the purpose get a better lay of the land.
“Ike found me in the sea caves over there,” Marth said, pointing at the entrance to the caves at the base of the cliff face.
“I woke up on the beach a bit ago and found him. I was looking for civilization, but I didn’t find anything. No fishing nets, no boats, and no people. I also noticed there aren’t many animals,” Ike said, looking out over the water again.
“I noticed this as well. I woke up at the base of a tree, and one would imagine a tree of such size would house birds, but I could not hear the sound of any birds and no insects were in the grass beneath me,” Sigurd added.
“No gulls on the beach, and no animals in the water besides fish and crabs so far,” Ike said, looking down where the water lapped up onto the sand. He saw his own sandals again and looked down at the other men’s feet, noticing they too were wearing sandals.
“Yes, it is odd, isn’t it?” Sigurd asked, watching Ike’s eyes. Roy and Marth looked where Ike was looking in response.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Ike said.
“Little sense or no, I will not turn away a blessing, however small. I’d rather us be as we are now, however suspicious, then walk barefoot down the length of this beach,” Marth admitted.
“Me too, but we need to find other people,” Roy said again, “because if we find other people, that’s the way out, isn’t it? If we find more people in our same situation then we’re stronger together, and if we find people who aren’t in our situation, then that’s still good! That means we can escape this mess!”
“That is a good idea,” Sigurd said, smiling at Roy.
“Yeah, I like it,” Ike added.
“You said you woke up under a tree?” Marth asked Sigurd, the man nodding.
“It was up past that cliff,” Sigurd said, pointing where he and Roy appeared from, “and I met with the Lord Roy as I sought out civilization. We spoke shortly and realized our predicament.”
“Yeah, I woke up in some flowers on a hill,” Roy said.
“Flowers? Ike, did you perhaps wake up somewhere notable?” Marth asked, Ike looking at him.
“No. It was the beach,” Ike said.
“So there were no obvious landmarks or special things about? I mean to say I woke up in that cave, Prince Sigurd under a large tree, and now Lord Roy in a bed of flowers on a hill. It seems like we all woke up in some place of geographical significance. Isn’t, for example, a hilltop flower patch special in some way? Pretty at least?” Marth asked.
“I guess so,” Ike said, “but I just woke up on the beach. It wasn’t anything special.”
“Let’s go back there,” Marth said.
“Seems like a waste,” Ike mentioned, “especially considering it could take us back the opposite direction from the closest town. I walked for about ten minutes before I got here, and there was nothing I could see near where I woke up.”
“By that same logic, there’s no rhyme or reason to your choice of picking this direction to wander. Perhaps you chose wrong from the start and this leads further into the wilderness instead, and there was a town just beyond the horizon in the opposite direction,” Marth hazarded.
“Maybe,” Ike said.
“Still, I am glad you picked this direction. However shocking my arousal was, I am glad that I’m not alone,” Marth admitted, smiling at Ike, the spiky-haired hero nodding awkwardly.
With that, the party turned back the way Ike had come from and began walking towards the ordinary beach where there were no cliff faces or sea caves. Because they had all turned right around, Sigurd was leading their charge, so to speak, and Roy was at his side, the difference in height between the two almost slightly comical, although Ike was focused on much more now that he got a view of their backsides. Roy in particular had a rather plump bottom, because even if he was short he was still toned, and his cheeks even had a few freckles on them, each bouncing lightly as he walked, the jiggling of those light curves making Ike chub up again. He thought about grasping onto them, feeling the redhead’s cheeks pooling in his hands, the man’s back arching as Ike… shook his head and tried to put it out of his mind.
Now flying dangerously close to half-mast, Ike bit his lower lip a little and looked dead ahead as the party walked along the beach. Marth didn’t seem to notice below Ike’s metaphorical belt, but Ike slowed down a bit anyways, trying to stay slightly behind Marth so he wasn’t as visible to the man. Ike had to remind himself these were lords he was dealing with, and although that didn’t actually mean anything as he knew many lords who were much more sexual than the average man, it still didn’t mean they couldn’t play at being prudes, not to mention being offended. Ike found those with power often found ways to appear as victims when they were anything but, and he didn’t quite know what the others would take him for if he was caught with an erection out of the blue.
The naked thing made everything so much more difficult for Ike, and if there was ever a time he wished he weren’t gay, this would be the time. Still, in spite of the strange and dangerous scenario, there was still that part of Ike which was almost appeased by the nudity, and this was perhaps the same part of him which was fantasizing about Roy’s bottom. That rump was just undeniably perky and plump, like an apple or a peach, with nice curves that would fit so perfectly in Ike’s hands, not to mention the hips and skinny waist Ike could almost see himself clutching while he leaned in and kissed the man so gently. The redhead’s pink lips would be so soft and so sweet as they wrapped around Ike’s cock, and with every bob of that head, Ike would get to watch those bright blue eyes stare up at him.
“So, tell me more about Altea,” Roy said, slowing down to walk next to Marth. Coming back down to reality, Ike noticed his throbbing erection and blushed brightly, covering it with his hands to no avail. The thing was massive, evidently a curse on him his whole life as he only managed to hide perhaps half of his cock with his hands while the drooling head still stuck out past his wrists, between his forearms as it dribbled a dollop of clear precum. Ike slowed down even more, really bringing up the rear as he hid himself from the others, nursing his fat erection and trying to get himself to stop thinking of Roy’s backside. The heat of the day made it difficult though and Ike began to grow heated as his horniness and the warm air combined, a drip of sweat pouring down his temple which he ignored as he stared, almost frozen at Marth and Roy, hoping against all hope they’d get so enamored with their own conversation that they’d forget Ike was even there.
“It’s an island nation, first founded by the hero Anri in times of old. We are loyal to Archanea, where Princess Artemis hailed from. She took refuge with Anri when Archanea was attacked by the Shadow Dragon, Medeus, and when Anri defeated him with the help of the blade Falchion, Artemis made Anri the first King of Altea. I am his descendant, and I too, if you can believe it, slew the Shadow Dragon when his surviving followers made to resurrect him,” Marth explained.
“Really? That sounds intense. I’ve fought a similar battle to be honest. When I was fifteen I became the Marquess of Pherae during a time of extreme strife in Elibe. The Dragon’s Gate had been opened by the King of Bern who sought the power of dragons for himself, and I was forced to take up arms to stop him,” Roy said.
“Well now, I suppose we’re in good hands with a pair of dragon slayers on our team then, aren’t we?” Marth asked brightly, smiling as he gestured back at Ike with his head, not wanting to forget the other. Marth didn’t truly look at Ike, but he played at including him in the conversation, to which Ike quickly ignored him, still trying to stay out of the way. His erection was fading now, but with Roy still ahead of him, he had to struggle to look in any which way besides the redheaded man’s plump posterior.
Still, Ike wasn’t alone in his problem. Roy himself had been rather transfixed with Ike the instant they met face-to-face on the beach, although he did a good job of hiding it. Though Roy did indeed show much expression on his face and act with extroversion, he was a little shy for himself, as he did find Ike attractive. Unlike Ike, he did not dwell on it, and tried to move past, although Ike’s junk certainly had him distracted. He was happy now that Ike had taken the metaphorical back seat and wasn’t flashing it in their faces any longer as Roy wasn’t entirely sure whether he could handle the sight of that thing in his eyeline for much longer without showing how he felt about it thanks to his own libido. In actuality, Roy was making conversation with Marth to take his mind off the mixture of his arousal towards Ike and his sadness at the situation they were in. At least if there were others around, Roy could at least partially soften the blow that the whole screwed-up scenario was.
“Have you fought any hard battles, Prince Sigurd?” Marth asked.
“Please, call me Sigurd. I had fought some, but none which would be of any interest to you, I imagine, being a dragonslayer. I was a simple prince, and you would not want to hear another story about the foolhardy choices of kings and nobles vying for land and power. I tried to stay above it, but violent action sent me forth from my home. I made to right the wrongs, or at least figure out what was going on, much like we are doing now. My sister was so upset with me, and so very worried when I left. It brings me back, if I can be plain, to times long since passed,” Sigurd admitted.
“How long ago was that?” Marth asked, Sigurd going quiet.
“It is no longer important,” Sigurd said simply, the conversation dying slightly as he shut Marth down with that.
“Well, what about you, Ike?” Marth asked, turning to look over his shoulder. Ike had calmed himself enough to the point he was no longer fully erect, or even half mast, but his cock was still slightly engorged—at least an inch longer than it would otherwise be, and he tried to ignore it as he made to rejoin Marth’s side.
“I don’t like to talk about the past,” Ike said.
“It’s funny, I almost expected you to say that,” Marth admitted.
“No, it’s not that—” Ike was cut off.
“Please, tell us something at least,” Roy insisted, Ike feeling his cheeks burn a little as he saw Roy’s bright blue eyes bore into him, colored the same as the deep blue sky above his head, that flouncy, technicolor red hair burning scarlet in the sunlight.
“Well I guess I can. I… my father: he owned a mercenary company,” Ike said, tumbling all over his words, “and one day I had to take up the reins. I had no choice. At the same time, this… king sought out the land we lived on. It was home back then but the more I learn about myself, the less and less of a connection I feel to that place anymore. Still, I hope you can imagine what it was like for me, a leader out of the blue, and fleeing from an invading army. Life was hard for me and my friends, but I knew they needed to be protected, and I was willing to fight and die for their safety.”
“That’s sweet,” Marth said, Ike going silent and looking along the coast. They were nearing where he had woken up. He could see the stone outcropping he had stood on earlier several yards away now, and although they weren’t exactly obvious, he could still see his faint footprints from before in the sand.
“Did you protect them?” Roy asked suddenly.
“I had no other choice. After my father… gave me the mercenary company, it was my duty. Everyone I grew up with depended on me,” Ike admitted.
“Did your father not think of what a burden the company would be on you? And in such a tough time?” Marth asked, trying a diplomatic tone, Ike looking away.
“I’ve already said too much,” Ike said, feeling an old wound aching within him as Marth nodded and looked back to Roy.
“You say you’re from Pherae, right? What is that place like?” Marth asked.
“It’s normal, I guess. We’re a part of this alliance of smaller states which make up a larger federation called Lycia, or at least we were until really quite recently. In the past year my friend Lilina ascended to Marchioness of Ostia, which essentially made her the most powerful person in the Lycian Alliance—House Ostia is the direct lineage of the founder of Lycia itself, and Lilina decided, when the war with Bern ended, that she should be Queen of Lycia. I know it sounds absurd and like power mongering, but truly, every Marquess and Marchioness in the Lycian Alliance agreed to this change and it makes all of our lives as rulers exceptionally easier. If I’d married her, to be quite honest with you, I don’t think I could’ve been King of all Lycia. I was already the general of Etruria once and that was far too much responsibility for me,” Roy said, laughing a bit.
“I understand what you mean completely. When the Shadow Dragon was going to be resurrected, much of Archanea and the surrounding area fell to utter chaos—chaos which fell upon me to remove and absolve. I didn’t exactly want to put so much responsibility on myself, but I can’t turn a blind eye to suffering, least of all in a world where my own home was taken from me and everything I knew laid to waste besides the few friends I had. In many ways, I relate with you, Ike,” Marth said, turning to Ike who nodded quietly.
“This is where I woke up, by the way,” Ike said quietly, the group stopping in its tracks and turning to convene properly. Ike recognized the stone outcropping nearby, as well as the indentation in the sand where he’d been laying. He rubbed his foot on the ground at the indentation, and the others looked at the sand where it dipped.
“Were you on your back?” Roy asked.
“Yeah,” Ike said, Roy noting the indentation of where Ike’s ass had been. Taking a sneaky glance at the man’s posterior, Roy noticed just how big the man’s backside was and almost went wide-eyed, though he managed to contain himself. Ike was working with some serious junk in his trunk, thick globes of mostly muscle and a little fat to give it a nice bounce which more than mirrored his fat pecs, not to mention the fact they were stacked up on top of some smooth, deliciously wet-with-sweat hamstrings and quads. Ike wasn’t all muscle either, so his legs were delightfully plump with enough fat they practically jiggled with every step he took and every move he made. Roy started to feel a stirring in his crotch and tried to move on from it, not wanting to be indecent, least of all in front of Ike whom he enjoyed the sight of so much for fear of scaring him away, though Roy had a sneaking suspicion Ike wasn’t able to be scared by much at all.
“It doesn’t look very special though, does it?” Roy asked openly, Marth shaking his head.
“I could be wrong. Still, it is curious. I guess we’re still all wondering why we’re here in the first place, but why were we placed in these specific places? If Ike’s theory is true—that we were kidnapped and robbed—why would we be so far from one another? Surely they’d just dump us all in the same place,” Marth said.
“I guess they might’ve placed us far apart in hopes we wouldn’t find one another and couldn’t corroborate our stories?” Roy asked.
“The possibility of reasoning out our captor’s purpose in these actions, if it exists at all, is negligible given what we have to work with. All we know is we woke up here, naked aside from these things,” Sigurd spoke, wiggling a sandal-covered foot, “and without any knowledge of how we arrived.”
“Why did they leave us with these personal affects?” Marth asked, tracing his tiara with a finger before running his hand through his bangs and flipping them out of his face.
“I guess they weren’t of any value,” Ike said.
“And our clothes were?” Roy asked, Ike shrugging.
“Marth wears a crown—surely that is of some value,” Sigurd noted.
“I can’t understand why they left my tiara,” Marth said.
“Tiara?” Roy asked.
“It actually belonged to my sister, Elice. Before I fled Altea with what few loyal friends and retainers I had, she gave this to me as a keepsake to remember her. It was her wish that she would stay in Altea and watch over it in spite of the coup taking place; with her tiara I would always know she was out there waiting for me to return and reclaim the throne in our family’s honor,” Marth explained.
“What kind of gemstone is that?” Sigurd asked.
“It’s a red emerald,” Marth admitted, “and it is quite rare. Extremely rare, in fact, to the point I’m not sure even a common cutthroat would know what to do with it if he got his hands on it.”
“Still, I think we can rule out money, right? That they didn’t kidnap us for money? Otherwise why would they leave your tiara untouched?” Roy asked.
“Anyone who could do this would probably take it, even if they thought it was worthless,” Ike said.
“This whole setup seems utterly full of effort, and for what?” Marth asked.
“It must be political,” Roy cautioned, “because who else would put so much effort into taking us from our homes and the world in general just to dump us on a beach in the middle of nowhere? It has to be to displace us from wherever we were before.”
“Perhaps that is true,” Sigurd said.
“Ike, I know you don’t really want to tell us who you are or where you’re from, but I have to ask… is there truly nothing else you want to tell us? You aren’t royalty, you aren’t important politically, and you aren’t even from ‘around here,’ whatever that means. Is all of this true?” Marth asked, Ike looking down at the ground and sighing.
“If I have to, I guess I can say—” Ike was cut off by the sound of a man’s loud yell. It was like booming thunder across the beach, and it immediately grabbed the attention of the group. Totally still, they slowly turned in the direction of the yell which came from beyond the dunes inland. In the distance, along a rolling hill which was so far it was almost dyed the same blue as the sky, there was a tree, partially lost in the horizon. However, from that tree, another yell rolled down to the beach, at the men standing there. Looking back at the others for only a moment, they understood one another instantly, and the conversation faded. Ike turned away, towards the sound’s source, the rest of the group following behind him.