The Hundred First Generation: The Ancient Power Returns

Chapter Thirteen

We ended up eating food at a nearby cafe. I hadn't ever had any food outside of the stuff that one would find in China, so it was a rather unique experience. I actually liked it a lot. I couldn't figure out how to say the name for the life of me, no matter how many times Viveca repeated it in her mother language. I figured that was probably for the best, as I didn't want to end up botching it and feeling bad over it. 

Celina ended up leaving the cafe earlier after sliding a little bit of money over. She was so tired, or in a rush (I couldn't tell), that she seemed to forget the fact that the money she had couldn't be used in a country besides her own. 

I knew where Celina was going. She was probably heading off to go and talk to Finley. I figured that she was trying to determine what int he world that boy was planning. I had to say that something about him felt a little bit off to me. When I looked at him, I would always end up shivering gently. In fact, when I even thought about him, I ended up shuddering. 

I didn't really understand why that was the case, though. I hadn't ever had a crush on a boy, so the chance that I had a crush seemed out instantly. I had never found boys all that attractive to begin with, which meant that it was off the table for sure. 

Something about Finley just seemed a little bit off to me, if that at all makes sense. It was as if there was more to him than met the eye, and deep down, I knew it. I didn't really know what was going on, at least not in specific detail. I wished that for once my emotions would be easy to understand. 

Celina walked back to the table and took a seat. There was a quiet aura of anger about her, so I knew instantly what had happened when she went to go and talk to Finley. Finley didn't end up telling her anything good that could be used against our villain, which left her a tad bit bitter. I hadn't known Celina long, but I knew that messing with her when she was like this was a bad idea. Everybody else seemed to be able to sense it as well. Corinne looked like she was ready to speak a few times, but she ended up shutting her mouth in the end. 

"What's going on?" Corinne eventually asked. "Like... What are we going to do now?"

"I don't know," Celina admitted. "We can figure something out, though. It won't be all that hard to think up." I could tell that she was a little bit angry still, no matter how hard she tried to hide it behind her words. 

"Let's go and figure out which team member we're going to find next," I suggested. "I don't think that we need to stay around here any longer." I gestured to the food before us. We had practically eaten through it all. The only remains of the meal were scraps that were scattered about on top of a few plates. 

"Yeah. I agree," Viveca said with a small nod. She pushed backwards out of her seat and rose to her feet. She helped Arianna to her feet as well before pushing in her own chair. 

"We should stay together while we're looking for teammates from now on. We can't take the chance that a Trelosa soldier will end up doing something to us while we're off guard and split up," Celina said. 

"We're also going to need something else," Arianna said. 

"Like what?" I asked, tilting my head to the side slightly. "I don't think we need much of anything else besides teammates at this point."

"We need a base," Arianna told me. "If we're going to keep traveling through rifts, then we're going to need somewhere to meet up. We can't keep hiding out in Viveca's room all the time while we're looking for the rest of our future friends. This place will also need to be a place for us to retreat to after we fight a battle in the near future."

"Arianna has a point," Grace said with a nod. "Does anybody have anything in mind?"

"We could use that prison that we're keeping Finley in," I suggested. "That place seems pretty secure."

"If he finds a way to alert his master as to where we are, then it means that we're going to end up in trouble. We should stay away from the prison where we're keeping him," Celina said. "There's a place in my hometown that we could use if the rest of you are out of ideas."

We all glanced between each other, waiting for somebody to say something. About thirty seconds passed, and since nobody had said a thing, Celina clapped twice. "Okay. I guess that settles it. We're going to do things in my hometown," she said. "The place isn't all that heavily populated. It's pretty just me and about ten other families. Most of the families are rather large, though. This means that our base is going to be pretty large as well."

"What exactly is this base?" I asked as we walked out of the restaurant. "And how do large families mean that our base is going to end up large?"

"We're using an old house," Celina explained. We walked into an alley and watched as she cut a rift through the air with her dagger. "It's pretty big since it's meant for twenty or so people, so it should be more than sufficient for all of us as well as the mages to come."

We stepped through the rift and ended up inside of a house. It was in rather nice condition, I had to admit. I didn't ask why nobody lived there. It was probably a mistake to ask questions in this situation. 

I shrugged it off and looked to Celina. "So... What's next?"

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it's like 11:30 for me now so I should probably sleep oops

-Digital