Fire Emblem: Last of the Manakete

"Screw you guys, I'm going home!"
- Cartkith's dragon-self in the manakete children's story Marikara's Friend


Gently, you settle yourself next to Artemis. "Let's just go to Agrithe," you say softly. Artemis turns to look at you, but doesn't speak. "We've both had a really bad week, but we can still make it."

The human doesn't say anything for a few seconds before letting out a long-suffering sigh. "You're right," she says. "Not only is that the safest option, but it's also the smartest one. I know that, but…" she sniffles. "I… I still feel like I'm failing them. Axton. Lancel. Kelton. Spirits, I even feel like I'm failing Sypha, no matter how furious I am at her mother right now." She hugs herself, turning back to stare at the sky. "They're all in this mess because of me. It's all my fault-"

You gently start running a hand through Artemis's hair, just like Mother did for you when you were sad. "It's not your fault, Artemis," you say softly. "You didn't ask Robert or Mantrae to betray you. You didn't ask the bandits to hurt your friends or take Sypha away. Nothing that's happened is your fault."

Artemis lets out a weak laugh. "If convincing people of that were so easy, Ryza, survivor's guilt would not exist," she says. "But… thank you, for trying. For being so sweet." She reaches out and pulls you into a hug. "However bad things have gotten… I'm glad I met you, Ryza."

You nod, allowing the bigger girl to cuddle you. "I'm glad I met you too, Artemis," you say. "I'm glad I met you too."

The pair of you lay in silence for a few minutes before Artemis finally lets you go. "I'm sorry, I'm not usually this clingy," she says, sitting up. "It's just been a bad week, like you said."

"I'm fine with it," you say. "Father and Mother cuddled me all the time; it shows that you care."

Artemis smiles slightly before looking out over the horizon, her frown taking on a thoughtful air. "Now what do we do?" she asks, seemingly talking to herself as much as you. "It was dangerous enough on foot with just the bandits after us; with a full county's resources arrayed against us it'll never work. Even if not all of Countess Mantrae's people understand exactly what's going on; if she gives the order to bring us in her people will obey. We're also in more open ground, fewer forests around…"

You point up. "I can fly us there," you say. "I would have offered when we were at my home, but then we met Axton and Lancel and I couldn't carry all of you. Also, I still thought humans didn't like it when people bragged about having wings, so I didn't show them off."

Artemis grimaces. "I was worried about that," she says. "I… Ryza, please don't take this the wrong way, but your dragon-self seemed a bit…" She stops talking, but you nod.

"I understand," you say. "Dragons are emotional by their very nature. But I think I remember Father mentioning that there was a way around that; I'll have to take a look." You pat her head. "You should get some rest; you've had a long day."

"So have you, Ryza," Artemis says. "If this works out, I'm just going to be riding you all the way back to Agrithe after this: you need sleep far more than me. You can look up how to do it in the morning; but it'll be better for both of us if you're fully rested." She grimaces. "Besides, I was drugged and spent at least half the day sleeping; I'm not in the mood to sleep more today."

You're pretty sure that's not how the biology of sleep works, but as a yawn pulls itself from your throat, you nod. "Okay," you say, pulling your cloak out and wrapping yourself it in. "But if you get tired, feel free to wake me up and take a nap, I can use the time to read."

"I will, Ryza," Artemis says softly, reaching out and stroking your hair as you lay down, using your backpack as a pillow. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," you yawn again before closing your eyes and doing your best to drift off.

---

Despite your assurance to Artemis, you're a touch grouchy when she shakes you awake in what you hope is a few hours. "What?" you grouse, poking just enough of your head out from the relative warmth of your cloak for your eyes to be visible so you can glare at her.

"It'll be morning soon," Artemis says, rubbing slightly at her eyes as she does. "We probably won't be able to move safely during the day, but it will be warmer. Hopefully it won't take more than a day to figure out how to stabilize your transformation so we can get out of here."

You nod, reminding yourself that, however much you like to sleep, there are important things to be doing. "Alright," you say. "Close your eyes, get some rest. I'll see what I can figure out."

Artemis nods back, yawning herself. "Okay," she says. "May I use your backpack?"

"Sure, sure," you say, digging through it to pull out The Dragon Within before passing it over to her, along with your cloak. "Sleep well," you say.

Despite your words, it clearly takes Artemis a while to settle, especially as the sun starts peeking up over the horizon. Finally, however, you're able to get her down with a bit of humming of her mother's song. With a final gentle pat of her head; a reminder that no matter how much older she looks than you she's still only seventeen (Seventeen! Really, why had her parents let her go wandering?!), you carefully open the scroll to look for a solution to the current problem.

It takes a while to find it. You were sure you'd seen something when you were in Miau, but before you could look at it Artemis had gone out and started shooting the tree and you'd gotten distracted by talking to Axton about nobility and why humans did such weird things around each other. You frown, you hope Axton and Lancel and Kelton are okay. Mantrae… surely she wouldn't hurt them: she hadn't seemed like an evil person, even if she had lied to you and wanted to give Artemis to the bad men. She'd just been doing that to try and get her daughter back.

You'd do a lot of bad things to get Artemis back. You'd do even worse to get Father or Mother back.

Shaking yourself out of these thoughts, you refocus on the scroll: you need to get Artemis home, and to do that you need to get your dragon-self to work with you. Mother had just been starting to teach you about how to properly interact with that aspect of yourself when everything had gone wrong.

Finally, however, you find a section that looks promising. With one last glance at Artemis to make sure she's okay, you happily sink into the words.


Even for older, more experienced manakete, there are times when a properly awakened and partnered dragon-self will be too much of a risk to unleash. After all, our dragons are our emotions given form and will, and thus will react immediately to any new situation, and not always in ways that our steadier hearts can predict or plan for. If you have been following the steps of the path, you will know that your heart can force a de-transformation if necessary, but doing so will leave you in your more vulnerable form, something that could also be disastrous. So what is to be done when you need your dragon's power but cannot risk their emotional outbursts?

As with all things, there is a solution to this conundrum. Through a special ritual, it is possible to induce what is known as a half-shift transformation. While your body will assume the shape of the dragon, your dragon-self's mind will remain in its usual state; be it torpor for a young manakete or passive for a manakete that has awakened. You will gain some of the benefits of your dragon form while still maintaining your heart's ability to plan and give measured responses to unexpected occurrences.

There are, of course, drawbacks to this ritual, or every manakete would use it continuously. The first and most obvious drawback is that your dragon-self will not appreciate your use of this ritual without good cause. They are you and you are them, and as such will accept that there are times when their emotional reactions will be to the detriment of your shared self. However, by their nature dragons wish to be allowed to fly free, to not be constrained or restrained. This is why young manakete's dragons are in torpor until their heart grows mature enough to awaken them; or they would too easily overwhelm their young heart and put everyone around them at risk. For awakened dragons, overuse of half-shifting will chafe and damage the trust between your twin selves, and thus should be used only when truly needed.

The second obvious drawback is the time and focus it takes to cast the ritual. Truly shifting into dragon form is an act of will that most manakete can do in an instant, as easy as breathing with even rudimentary training and emotional control. This careful, minimal transformation, however, can take tens of minutes if not hours of careful concentration and arcane focus, something that is ill-suited for an emergency.

The third drawback, less obvious than the others but still important to consider, is that half-shifting will severely weaken your draconic strength while in effect, both magical and physical. While you will still be superior to your heart-form's power, it will not be nearly as wide a gap as when you allow your dragon take the fore. After all, it is from emotions that dragons draw the power to carry out their wondrous and terrible acts. With a more tranquil transformation, that drive and energy will be lost, leaving a weaker dragon behind. Your magic, especially, will be as a trickling spring compared to a raging river, as much of your power will be tied up maintaining your half-shifted form.

With all these serious drawbacks in mind, a reader might ask why any manakete would ever take this path. However, there are several benefits to consider. First, of course, is the greater ability to remain calm in tense and unexpected situations. Where a dragon-form might instinctively lash out against an unpleasant surprise or threat, a half-shifted form would be able to take the time to assess the situation and determine the wisest course of action. After all, remember, dragons do not plan: they act. Careless action can and has led to terrible tragedy in the past. A steady heart, however, can avert trouble with a calm, reasoned response backed by the relative strength of their partial draconic form.

Another boon of half-shifting is the ability to maintain a semi-draconic form for a longer period of time. While true dragon-forms are tied to emotional upheaval and will fade as soon as the emotion is spent, a half-shifted form can go on for hours. There have even been recorded cases of half-shifts that have lasted for days, though those were exceptional circumstances that should not be undertaken except in the most-dire of emergencies. This is especially true of younger manakete: those who have not awakened their dragon-self. Not only have their powers not fully developed, but their dragon will not be able to advise them as to the limits of their form, potentially leading to overexertion.


You nod along as you read through the steps of the ritual. It'll be hard: even with all the practice you've had with Father and your natural magical talent you think it'll take an hour or so for you to actually carry it out. However, it sounds perfect for what you need! You won't be fighting anyone, and the warning about not using half-shift for too long can easily be rendered moot by simply flying in short bursts of two or three hours, stopping to rest, then re-shifting to keep going. You'll still make a lot more progress than if you were walking, and it'll be safer than letting your dragon take control and do whatever she wants to do.

Twisting the scroll back to the proper place, you kneel and pull your stone out: no sense in waiting. After all, taking into account re-reading the steps of the ritual, doing a few safe test-runs, then finally casting it in full, it will probably be nearly nightfall by the time you're ready.

As your wings extend and your ears lengthen, you can't help but feel a giddy smile splitting your face. Artemis will be so pleased with you!

---

"AAAAHHHHH!"

You flinch back as Artemis screams and scrambles to get out from under your cloak. "It's okay, it's okay, it's just me!" you say quickly, your muzzle twisting oddly as you speak. You're not quite sure how dragon-you does it so easily.

The human peeks out from behind her arm, her mouth opening and closing. "Is… is that heart-Ryza, or dragon-Ryza," she asks finally, pressing a hand to her rapidly-beating heart.

"Both! I'm half-shifted. I figured out how to make it so we can safely fly to Agrithe," you say proudly, turning in place so she can look at all of you. "Do you like it?"

From what you'd been able to puzzle out, you wouldn't look that much different from if you truly shifted. You still have your big wings, your shiny yellow-gold scales, sharp claws, and teeth. More than that, you feel strong. You'd been able to lift a rock that you didn't think you'd even have been able to budge in your heart-form, and that had felt good. You'd be able to pick up Artemis easily! Who cares if fully-shifted you could probably have lifted triple that.

Then you'd heard Artemis shifting, and you'd decided to go show her what you'd accomplished. In hindsight, maybe doing so by nudging her face with your muzzle so that you were the first thing she saw when she woke might have been a bit much.

Clearly still trying to catch her breath, Artemis shifts to sit up against your bag. "Ryza, I'm not sure where dr… manakete culture stands on the issue," she says, "but for humans, waking someone up by staring directly into their faces from an inch away is considered rude. Doing so when you look like you could eat me in a single bite is… unnerving."

… yeah, definitely a bit much.

"Sorry," you say sadly, laying down and lowering your head in contrition. "I just thought you'd like to see what I'd accomplished."

Artemis takes a few more deep breaths before looking you over. "I will admit, you do look quite beautiful," she says.

"Thank you!" you say, unable to stop yourself from preening a bit. "You look really pretty too!"

Artemis laughs. "Ryza, you don't need to lie for my sake," she says, gesturing to her tangled hair and the bags under her eyes. "We both know I'm far from my best." Her face takes on a more serious expression. "So, will this 'half-shift' work for flying?"

"Yep," you say. "You look pretty light, so I should be able to carry you for a few hours at least. I can't spend too long in this form; according to Smagishi it's not safe, but we'll still be able to go for quite a while."

Artemis nods, glancing up at the sky. "Well, it's getting dark, so if you're willing we can get started," she says. "But there is one last thing we should think about: flying during the day." She gestures at you. "You stick out, Ryza. A lot. While from the ground it would probably be hard to tell you apart from a wyvern, especially if you tuck your front legs in-"

"I do not look like a wyvern!" you say. "My tail isn't as long, my torso's wider, my-"

Artemis raises a placating hand. "My apologies, Ryza, I did not mean to offend you," she says.

You shake your head. "I'm not offended," you say. "Wyverns look really elegant, but they look more like Green manakete than Yellow manakete."

"Really?" Artemis says. "I would have thought they'd be more like Red…" she shakes her head. "Never mind; I don't want to waste your transformation's time, but it is important to talk about this." She leans back. "The safest thing to do would be to fly only at night, resting during the day. That would make it harder to track us, and it would certainly make you nearly invisible." She grimaces. "However… it will be slower. If we fly during the day, then we'll go a lot faster. We'll almost certainly be seen, but if you tuck your front legs in, almost nobody would be able to tell the difference between you and a wyvern. While wyverns are rare, they're not unheard of, so it might not be catastrophic if you were seen flying overhead."

You cock your head. "Do you want to go faster?"

Artemis takes a breath before reaching out and running a hand along your muzzle, causing you to lean instinctively into her pat. "Ryza, this should be your decision. It's your life, your nature, that would be at risk. There are benefits and risks to both sides, and whichever you decide I will support it fully, but it should be your choice."

What do you decide to do?

[] Travel only at night. You will be less likely to be spotted, and in general you'll be better rested. However, it will take noticeably longer to get back to Agrithe. You will have time to do some fun things while you're resting (Choose one activity).
-[] Read a scroll (What scroll will you read?)
-[] Begin practicing White magic
-[] Talk to Artemis about what the world is like.

[] Travel as fast as you can, resting only when needed. This will make your journey far shorter; it will also be nearly impossible for Countess Mantrae's people to catch up. However, you're almost certain to be spotted, and may even have a notable encounter (Choose one encounter).
-[] A wing of curious Pegasus Knights intercept you.
-[] You get the drop on a group of bandits.
-[] A mysterious stranger runs into you while you rest.