Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons [COMPLETED]

Chapter 14

The sun was setting, painting everything in a red glow. The Orchard and Vineyard group had arrived at the Maya Farm a few hours ago to find the place already abandoned, the owners having found out about the invasion and taken the safest road south. The troop had settled down for a rest and a light dinner. With one arm, Ria hugged her sister on a log that was part of a circle surrounding a fire. The troop had encountered a cougar that had come down from the mountain. While neither of the girls had been hurt in the resulting skirmish, it still shook Ria to see the beast up close. She glanced up when Jon brought over more wood for the fire. 

Sandra cradled her special lantern close to her pink corset. "I miss Momma," Sandra confessed quietly.

"I do, too," Ria replied just as quietly. Their mother spent most of her time on the island as the castle doctor. On the lost princess's birthday, the whole staff was given the day off, and Mrs. Faison spent almost every moment of it with her family. She had bought the lantern for Sandra, promising to return home that evening and release it with her children . . . only she hadn't made it off the island in time. As far as her family knew, she was still trapped there.

Jon roughly shoved a log into the fire. "There's nothing we can do about it now," he growled.

"Shut up, Jon!" Ria hissed through gritted teeth at her brother. Sandra whimpered a little.

"You shut up!" Jon snapped back.

"Jonathan," their father scolded across the way, where he supervised a worker receiving a bandage, "don't tell your sister to shut up!"

Jon raised his hands in defeat and stalked away. Ria sighed and closed her eyes, remembering her talk with Merida about listening. "I'm sorry, Jon," she reluctantly called after him.

Her brother halted and pivoted on his feet. "Did you just . . . apologize to me?"

"Yeah," she growled not making eye contact. "Don't make such a big deal of it." She made a big show of picking off some invisible thing from her pale purple skirt.

Jon chuckled and shook his blond head. "Ria apologizing. This has truly been a big day." He walked off to find some food. Ria watched him go and couldn't help smiling a little.

"Brothers," she rolled her eyes at Sandra. "What are we gonna do with them?"

Sandra giggled and leaned closer to her sister. Their father walked by the fire on his way to find food. "Dadda?" He stopped and looked at Ria. "Do you miss Momma?"

Mr. Faison's tanned features saddened. "Yes, I do. Very much."

"Then," Sandra's tiny voice piped up, "why did you leave her?"

He sat heavily down next to his daughters. "I had to think of my girls." He looked lovingly at them.

Jon joined the group, carrying a sandwich. Sitting down on the next log, he cleared his throat meaningfully. Mr. Faison smiled at his son. "And my boy."

"We should go back," Ria declared.

Mr. Faison locked gazes with Ria over Sandra's brown head. "We can't do that, Ria; you three have to stay safe."

"But we can fight!"

"We're farmers, not fighters."

Ria got to her feet. "What about all those weapons you were pulling out of the shed?" Workers passing the little family stopped and listened in on this conversation.

"They were from a long time ago," Mr. Faison explained, "when we were first settling here."

"It can be that way again." Ria focused on talking to her father; everything else faded away. "I saw the way yourworkers fought that mountain lion even at the cost of injury." She gestured tothe worker being bandaged. "Why won't you do the same for your country?"