Key To My Heart || Slugterra

46| New Finding

6 days before war...

Junjie was right. I need to stop focusing on the hate from the people. Now that I came back to my senses, those that were hating on me was merely a small portion of the whole human population in Slugterra, not to mention that their comments were unreasonable.

I was foolish to allow them to bring me down.

Your biggest enemy can really be your own self sometimes, feeding and believing lies to stop you from accomplishing your goals in life.

Today is the day where I get myself together. I have to be more realistic and not allow my emotions to affect my decisions in leading the people. As Junjie said, they need me, and I can't afford to screw up.

I was visiting each department's hideout again, and everyone was so nice and welcoming. It gave me a little more confidence to believe in myself once more. But still, when I reached the Slinging hideout, I hesitated to go in. Looking up at the mountainous doors of the hideout, I pulled Dalinda to a halt, the crate of bottles of mineral water stopped behind us.

They tend to be the ones saying all the mean stuff, given that their trainings was physically very demanding and most of them were arrogant slingers to begin with. I didn't want to hear their mean comments, especially those that brought up Eli.

I still have to go in there eventually.

Oh well. Here goes nothing.

I pulled on Dalinda's handles, allowing her to proceed forward.

"That's enough!"

Dalinda froze, her head shot up when we heard someone yelling from the other side of the door.

It was Junjie.

"You can yell at me however you want, but if it's Alessia? You better watch your back because I will hunt you down. You kept telling her that she wasn't suitable to be our leader, yet you couldn't even protect your own family when Doctor Blakk comes to your door. You told her that she was only a seventeen-year-old girl, yet you don't even have the balls to challenge her in a duel! Man up! Stop this nonsense! In times like this we should be encouraging each other, not tearing each other down! Next time I hear another comment about her, I will lock you out on the surface and let the eels take you. Have I made myself clear?"

I couldn't help but smile at what I have just heard. Junjie was defending me, and I couldn't help but felt so touched. It was like he had took away all my worries with just one argument.

Dalinda's head slowly turned back to me. Her eyelids reached the centre of her pupils as she smirked widely at me. I smiled at her, before playfully pushing her head so that she was facing forward.

I looked up, my gaze landed back on the doors. They were not as intimidating as they were before. A smile unknowingly pasted on my lips as I entered the room, and greeted the slingers.

I knew that only a small group of them were not happy with me, but I still treated everyone equally.

Well, at least I tried.

Burpy and Phoenix blew small waves of fire at them whenever I tried to talk to them.

I could hear soft footsteps walking up to me and the familiar Infurnus chirping on his shoulder. I turned around and there he was, Junjie smiling down at me. He opened his mouth to say something, but I quickly gave him a hug before he could say a word. He lifted his arms, his body stiffened up. He was definitely taken back by the embrace.

"Thank you, Junjie."

His confused expression subsided and was replaced by another genuine smile, and he returned the hug.