6
"What?" Leo says, grabbing my shoulders and pushing me behind him.
"Commander Nottle is furious. All his troops turned on him and he thinks the war ended prematurely and unfairly. So he wants to fight again." Whitley crosses his arms.
"No," I say. "I never want to go back there, ever again."
"So you'd rather they took over Apolline?" Whitley retorts.
"No," I say. "But-"
"I won't let you take her away from me," Leo growls. "Not again."
"Leo, you can come too," Whitley says. "We'd be outnumbered without you anyway."
"What then? Take us both, but we're going to the same place. So the odds are one of us will die fighting, therefore taking us away from each other," Leo says.
"So what do you suggest we do? Because we're outnumbered without you," Whitley crosses his arms.
"Train Brodie and Bobbi," I say, still behind Leo's back.
"Who?" Whitley asks.
"Brosdon and Bobbi, the people who came here with me," I say. "They left Dippreta because they felt out of place, and thought they'd be more suited living here. So, make that a condition. Train to be a soldier, or go home."
"Good point," Whitley raises his bushy eyebrows. "You've still got it in you."
"Got what?" I ask, confused.
"You're persuasiveness," he says.
"Whatever," I say. "Your compliments can't and won't change my mind. I'm not going. They bombed us while we were fighting last time, so who wants to say they won't do it again? Wouldn't the most plausible idea be to bomb them first, anyway?"
"How do you come up with these ideas?" Jay speaks up.
"They're always in my mind," I tell him. "I just keep them there until they're needed."
"Right," Jay says.
"So, what you're saying is just bomb them before they have a chance to bomb us, or train the couple to become soldiers?" Whitley scratches his head.
