"I can't believe you boys are making me spend my own money to pay for dinner after you all crashed at my house," I complained, hip-bumping Travis out of the way as he tried to grab a piece of sausage from over my shoulder.
Garroth laughed from the kitchen island, and I threw him a look over my shoulder. "Well maybe you should try and cook more instead of just buying every meal from the market." Laurance barked out a laugh, and I whirled around, hands on my hips in mock anger.
"Just because you were sent on an official mission for the Alliance doesn't mean that you can start barging in here whenever you want to. And," I poked a finger in Laurance's direction, "it doesn't mean that you can make fun of me when I am the one feeding you. I have half a mind to let you three starve." That statement was met by complaints from the three men gathered in my kitchen.
"But Katelyn!" Travis whined, draping his arms over my shoulders and hanging on for dear life. I tried to push him away, but he simply clung on tighter. "You wouldn't make me starve too!"
"I'm debating it," I shot back, trying to wriggle away. Laurance groaned, letting his head fall against the island.
"Please stop being cute and just feed us..." I shook my head at the group of them, finally managing to peel Travis off of me. Pulling bowls down from the cabinets, I started serving the meal of rice and sausage I had bought early that afternoon.
"You can buy the food yourselves next time." The next twenty minutes were full of jokes and stories, laughter in this time of darkness. This was the most I had seen of Garroth and Laurance since they had departed almost two months ago, and they seemed more subdued than before. Garroth had mentioned briefly that Laurance had come very close to losing control during their battle with the Tulian soldiers, and that he was still blaming himself for the turn of events. And I knew Garroth had his head full of Alice and what his brief vision of her had meant. Of course, I didn't want to bring up these topics and spoil the mood.
"Oh, we started construction on the guard academy about a month ago," I said, remembering belatedly that the two of them hadn't been around when the guard academy had been started. There were soft exclamations, muffled by the mouths full of food they both had. Travis laughed, setting his fork down on his empty plate. "We've got the ground floor done, and work on the second floor is starting in full swing after the weekend."
"Wow, you got a lot done in a month," Garroth wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Reminds me of how much we did all those years ago."
"Didn't Dale and Brendan build the wall around Phoenix Drop in a span of just a few weeks?" Laurance asked, leaning back in his chair and placing his hands happily over his stomach.
"I'm going to have to take your word for it." Travis threw me a smile, both of us having joined this village after many of the adventures Garroth, Laurance, Dante, and Aphmau loved to reminisce about.
"If everyone's done with dinner, Travis and I could show you the progress," I offered, pushing away from the table and rising to my feet. Travis joined me, clearing the table and bringing them to the sink in the kitchen.
"I don't know, you might force us into working for you and cutting down more trees." Laurance and Garroth laughed at Travis's warning, and he turned to face them with a serious face. "I'm not joking. She will force you into manual labor."
I bumped Travis's shoulders, rolling my eyes. "Oh come now. If I make them work now, they'll never come back and we'll be short two workers. But really. Let us show you. After all, you two are planning on helping us when the academy is in full swing, right?" I shot them a glare, and they hurried to agree with me. I laughed, wiping my hands on a towel before tossing it in Travis's direction. "Alright boys, let's get our shoes on."
XXX
The walk through the village was quiet. The people of Phoenix Drop were winding down for the night, and it was only us and a few others wandering the streets. Of course, we had stopped by Nana and Dante's house to pick up the later, as he had yet to see the guard academy either, and now Dante was walking side by side with Travis, the pair laughing as only good friends could do.
Laurance and Garroth were on either side of me, and barely any words were spoken between the three of us in the fifteen minutes it took to get to the path Brendan and Dale had so expertly made a few days ago. We were all tired, and while this academy would help out not just Phoenix Drop, but most of eastern Ru'aun, it was the cause for the hurry that stilled our tongues. The academy may have been built years from now, simply out of a necessity to train new guards for villages across the region. But instead of years of peace preceding the construction, it was a time of anxiety and fear, first from Zane Ro'Meave and now from Tu'la. Dale's team was working as quickly as possible, but I feared that the academy would not be ready in time to fully train the guards we needed to defend our homes.
"Once this academy is finished, where do you plan on beginning?" Laurance's mild tone cut through the sounds of the night, and my gaze flickered over to him for a moment. "I mean, how are you going to start training new guards if we don't even know where we might find those willing to train?"
"We'll start with Nekoette and Dmitri. Maybe some of Donna's children would also like to become guards, I'm not sure. But I plan on sending messengers to all the villages on this side of the Sacred Forest, telling them that we have an academy with dozens of talented guards willing to teach the next generation how to defend their home villages. If all goes as planned, the lords will see the benefits to having well-trained guards in their villages."
"When you say talented guards, do you mean the five of us?" Now it was Garroth's turn to bring up a question, and I shot him a small smile.
"Well of course. The five of us, along with Richard, Evelyn, Dale, Kyle, Alexis, anyone who's willing to teach. Maybe we could get guards from nearby villages such as Bright Port of New Meteli to come and teach as well. We would take shifts that would still leave us with enough time to guard the Island and Phoenix Drop so that the villages aren't low on guards, but after the first class is trained, we could dedicate ourselves to the academy, or just come in for a lesson or two a week. I want this academy to work, but not just to prepare us for Tu'la or any similar threat. I want this academy to last for centuries, teaching generations of guards in order to protect those they care about. Fighting just to fight never leads to peace. And is that why we guard our home? So that one day our children can live in peace?" I ducked my head, suddenly self-conscious. Laurance whistled, clapping my shoulder like I was Garroth or Dante.
"Well it sounds like you have the future plenty planned out." Garroth chuckled, shaking his head and raising his eyes to the treetops. I heard his breath catch, and I raised my gaze as well. Visible through the trees was the base of our academy; the first floor wall rose up proudly from the forest floor, scaffolding in the corners as we prepared to start the towers in a few days. In the center of the academy, there was an open square, meant for training and group lessons. Surrounding the square would be two floors, the towers containing dorms and lookouts. It was a sight to behold, and already I could hear the sounds of life, the young souls that would grow into the most powerful guards this region has ever seen.
YOU ARE READING
Love Can Save {An Aphmau Fanfiction}
Fanfiction"I held on tightly to Garroth, knowing that although there was nothing to fear in the forest around us, it was the demons running loose in my head that scared me." It has been a year since everything happened. A year since Zane Ro'Meave died. A year...
