"Well, I must say that I'm rather impressed, Miss..."

"Tiamo."

"Ah yes, Cordelia Tiamo."

The grey-haired woman flipped through some papers at her desk. "Top of your class in almost every category at the age of seventeen; very impressive. Hand to hand combat, control, agility, accuracy... "

Cordelia glanced up as she continued to talk. The sun shone through the open windows above, glinting off the numerous war medals and portraits of past commanders mounted on the tall stone walls. They went all the way back to an ancient oil painting of Caeda, wife to the Hero King. The woman's Falcoknight armour, recently polished, gleamed in the sunlight. She knew that this was no small job; she was to be part of a legacy. "Well, I want to try my best for the good of the Halidom, of course." She cracked a slight smile in an attempt to look somewhat confident, but obviously not too cocky.

"Haha. Well, of course." Cordelia felt that she didn't quite buy it. The woman set the papers aside in a pile on her desk. She folded her hands on the mahogany surface. "Why do you want to join the Ylissean Pegasus Knight squadron, Cordelia?"

"Well, because I'm a terrible runner, of course," she joked.

The woman chuckled. "I could see that playing a part." Her face turned serious again.

"But, well, as I told you before, I want to protect the country where I live, right?"

"Cordelia, why do you really want to join the squadron?"

She hesitated.

Damn, her suspicions were correct.

"Is that not a good reason? Ylisse is my home, after all," she said, in an attempt to defend herself.

"I'd say that it is indeed a very noble reason. What you still have not answered is why." The woman looked up at her. Her face was calm, but her stark red eyes pierced like beams of Arcfire. "What makes Ylisse your home? Is it the rolling grass? The mountains? Your family?"

"A special person?" Cordelia asked.

Wait, shit.

Now she knew. It was all just a stunt to impress some stupid man. Now what was she supposed to think of her?

The woman dipped her white quill into a small pot of ink. "Well, my dear, I'm very pleased to hear that." She said drearily, as if this were nothing but routine to her. She wrote something on the paper in front of her in an elegant, illegible cursive. "Love can be a very powerful driving force of motivation, Miss Tiamo. I'm sure he would do the same for you."

"Oh, er, yes. Absolutely. Positively. Right. Yes. Absolutely."

The grey-haired woman smiled. Cordelia knew by this point that the commander could see right through her flimsy confident façade, if one could even call it such. The silence was deafening. She felt as though a javelin had punctured her heart for the third time this week.

She changed the topic. "I mean, my mother was a soldier, too, of course. I feel that it's incredibly important to keep those family ties strong, so I decided to follow in her footsteps." She wasn't lying at all, although she still did feel guilty that her late mother wasn't the first thing to come to mind when it came to such matters.

The woman nodded. "Well, either way, I'm sure that once we're finished and you're a fully-fledged pegasus knight, he'll have no choice but to fall head over heels for you." It was obvious that this woman wasn't going to take any crap. She was going to whip her into shape over the next few months, both physically and psychologically.

But Cordelia was ready. This was her new life.

The captain stood up to shake the new recruit's hand. "Welcome to the Ylissean Pegasus Knight squadron, Cordelia."

"It will be an honour working with you, Commander Phila."

Author's Notes

Hi! I am glad that this little story has piqued your interest for long enough that you've decided to click on it and read through the prologue. It tells the grand tale of a cool pegasus knight named Cordelia and all her various adventures. I ship her with Robin. He's here too.

I try to update as often as I can, but of course, university is hell, so I find that I tend to update once every month at the very least. I'll warn that the first two or so chapters may seem a little slow compared to the rest of the plot, but the place where people start to actually like it seems to be chapter 3. The first couple of chapters do exist for a reason, though, so by all means read through em, just know that it does get better later on, at least from my point of view.

Also, leave reviews if you can! I really like to read whatever you have to say or suggest, and even if it isn't particularly useful, it's fun to hear from people! Stay classy, my dudes.