Love Can Save {An Aphmau Fanfiction}

Garroth

"By the Six! How giant is this forest?" Laurance was complaining yet again, dragging his heels as we trudged through the forest. After a month and a half spent wandering the Sacred Forest, all four of us were exhausted. Lucinda had explained that since we didn't have a set destination, she couldn't find a straight path through the ever-shifting forest. At least the way home should be much shorter, she had told us around the fire last week. I could only pray that she was right about that.

Dante groaned, obviously done with all of Laurance's whining. "The longer it takes us to find them-"

"The longer it'll take them to reach Phoenix Drop." Laurance, Lucinda, and I finished, sharing a tired smile between the three of us. Dante chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I guess you've heard that before?" We all laughed, and I shifted my chestplate, hating the feel of the armor against my neck for the past six weeks.

"You've only said it like seven times each day," Lucinda added, causing Dante to roll his eyes.

"I wouldn't have to say it so much if someone would just, oh, I don't know, stop complaining?" Laurance stuck his tongue out, leading to even more laughter from our group.

"You're telling me that you're perfectly fine with wandering around for another six weeks?"

"You know I'm willing to do it if it means that Nana and the kids are safe," Dante retorted, very obviously done with the day. I shot Laurance a glance to not push him, but my friend was already backing down. We all had our breaking points, and after spending so much time with each other, we all knew the others'. We usually just spent the better part of the afternoon in silence, not having the energy to waste on useless noise and potential arguments. It was a lot easier to be quiet than to dance around each other for hours on end.

"Next time we find a good spot, we should stop for the night," Lucinda spoke up a few minutes later, cutting through the empty thoughts in my head. I nodded my agreement, turning my attention to the surrounding forest, wanting to find a place to sleep as soon as possible.

Perhaps it was a good thing I turned my attention to our surroundings. Otherwise, I may have never seen the flash of movement far ahead.

I stopped abruptly, grabbing Lucinda and Dante's bags from behind and dragging them to a halt as well. Looking back, Lucinda opened her mouth to retort, but the look I gave her must have been enough to convince her to stay quiet. Walking behind me, Laurance knew to stop as well, coming up to stand beside me as we observed the woods.

Locking eyes with Dante over his shoulder, I nodded towards the direction in which I saw the movement. His attention immediately followed, scanning the trees for a glimpse of what I had seen. Laurance's fingers were already locked tightly around the hilt of his sword, and Lucinda's knuckles were white on her staff. Slowly, we all sank to the ground, trying to be inconspicuous as possible. I saw Dante's head moving slightly, and knew that he had seen the motion as well. Together we moved for the cover of the nearest trees, staying low the whole while, only standing once the giant tree trunks blocked us from whoever else was out there.

"Do you think it's Tula?" Dante whispered, his back against the same tree as mine. Laurance and Lucinda were beside us at the next tree over, yet Dante kept his voice barely loud enough for them to hear. The four of us exchanged a glance, knowing that it had to be Tula. After all, who else would be so far out into this accursed forest?

"It has to be an advance guard," Laurance noted, a frown deepening on his brow. "There's no way that an army could be so silent that we would barely notice them."

"And I only saw one person, maybe two," I added, daring a quick glance around the tree to try and get more information. Unfortunately, I could no longer see anyone else out there.

"I'm guessing it's a group of maybe ten soldiers. Enough to move inconspicuously through the woods, but also enough to take on any trouble they meet." Dante took a deep breath, trying to calm any nerves that may have arisen. "However, I'm sure they've never met anyone like us."

"Are you suggesting that we go and fight them?" Lucinda hissed, tearing the large hat off of her head and shoving it unceremoniously into her pack. "The point of the mission was to find out how far away Tula was, not to go and fight them with just the four of us!"

"But if we can fight off this advance guard, then perhaps we can buy a little more time. Scare them into being more cautious, you know?" Laurance seemed to be agreeing with Dante, and his addition to the point Dante was making was starting to agree with me.

"I'm not saying that isn't a good plan," Lucinda conceded, continuing to try and force her hat into the already over-stuffed satchel. "But why can't we just ask Hyria to make the trek awful for them? Make it so bad that they think twice about trying to cross the forest? Why do we have to risk our lives fighting against an unknown enemy?"

"Because we need to show that Phoenix Drop is strong." I finally joined the conversation, squaring my shoulders and staring Lucinda down. "If we beat them, they will know that the people they are trying to subdue won't be as easy to defeat as O'khasis. Or maybe this is our chance to find out more about their plans. Lucinda, the pros of attacking this group greatly outweigh the cons."

She sighed, rolling her neck and cracking her knuckles. "Alright, but if we end up with our butts handed to us, just know that I'll be waiting with a 'I told you so.'" I snorted, unsheathing my sword slowly and, hopefully, quietly.

"We can pray to the Six that there will be no need for that." Exhaling, I caught the eyes of all my friends. This trip had taught me much about the three of them, and perhaps more about myself. I knew that I would rather die than lose one of them. But unfortunately, I knew they all felt the same way. So I prayed to the Six that they would not give up their lives in order to protect me. Enough people had already died on my account.