Laughter echoes through the house. Hoffstein went to the mountains of Vergas. Apparently, he also learned that I wouldn't try to avoid Wander and Nia, since he left the house unlocked so we could get back early. Which is good, because Nia threw me into a tornado of water and then exploded me in the sand. I was not injured, of course, but my clothes were destroyed, and I tied a sheet around my waist to avoid embarrassment.

  The wooden structure isolates their voices well, but I can still hear the jokes. Which is total hypocrisy, because Nia slapped me when I left her naked!

  “…”

  I'd rather not remember that. As a group, we quietly agreed to do the same.

  Anyway, my bath is over, and another round of ridicule is about to begin. I dress in black and red clothes, the usual elven and striped robe, with leather boots and a bag for the gifts.

  When I arrive in the living room, Wander smiles.

  “It took a long time. Were you doing something?”

  “Thinking of your sister, what about you?”

  And the whole deal is gone. Wander laughs and Nia slams her foot on the ground. The girl stands up, her cheek inflated in pink and contrasted with the blue of her skin.

  “SHUT UP!” She screams.

  I dry my hair with a towel. “It was you who exploded me.”

  “It wasn't on purpose! You threw me in a bush! You know how much I paid for that outfit?!”

  “Nothing, you chose It the time you lifted an elephant.”

  “But it was important!”

  “You won another five. So what? Nobody even saw you.”

  Wander expires. “As heartening as I find the two lovebirds, the joke loses its fun after a while. Don't you want to argue about something else?”

  “And you.” Nia turns to Wander, sitting at a desk while wiping her glasses. “You could have helped me a lot more in the duo battles if you weren't so discouraged. What bug bit you?”

  “None. I'm just preparing for something bad to happen.”

  Quiet.

  “The invasion...” Wander says.

  “Ah.” Nia and I agree. At least in one thing.

  “You should train, Nia, your emission is terrible. And you, Sieghart, need to lift more weight. Your noodle arms won't help you.”

  I scratch my head. “Yes, yes.”

  Nia crosses her arms. “I don't need anything, my music already does everything! I could be a commander!”

  “And you're still a soldier. Who would tell?” He scratches his chin. “No, we're civilians now, I guess?”

  “What do you want to do now?”

  “Die.” A voice echoes behind us.

  Cloud walks up to the group, his gaze meeting our faces one by one until it collides with mine. “You.”

  “Me.” I say.

  He grinds his teeth. “You knew.”

  “I knew?”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “You knew Hoffstein was going to leave the city to face something, that he was going to leave us to defeat the invasion on our own.”

  Wander and Nia look at each other.

  “I knew. So what?”

  “So what? SO WHAT?! What guarantee we have?! How are we going to survive the invasion?! Who will protect us if a hundred Ents appear on the horizon?!”

  “I'm here.”

  Cloud laughs. He turns around and presses his own face, then inhales and turns around again. “Sure. It's clear. You will protect us, just as you protected-”

  “Yes. I will. I will let the city burn down and laugh while thousands of people die. Is that what you want to hear?”

  “How dare you say that?!”

  “No, how YOU DARE?!”

  Wood burns. Chaos freezes. Roots crack and explode when the scream escapes from my throat. The group hesitates and walks away. Behind furniture, they stare at me. Dozens of hours of effort thrown away.

  I breathe in and out. The magic pulses and resists before disappearing, but yields to my command. I face Cloud.

  “What are you doing here?” I say.

  “… The guards want to kill you.”

  “I know that, retard. Why are you here?”

  Cloud frowns. “There is a conspiracy that plans to attack us in Hoffstein's absence, and he has just left. If you're a poor thing as you think you are, and you know they want to kill you, then why did you waste time playing like a child?!”

  Wander approaches. “Calm down, you two.” He nods to the table in the center of the room, and we sit around it. Me on the opposite side, Nia and Wander on the left and right respectively.

  “Why will Hoffstein leave town?” Wander says.

  “He will stop Grendel.” I say.

  “Grendel…? The demon…?” Nia widens her eyes. “Oh, no…”

  “Serdin admitted that the army makes official exchanges of resources to appease their situation.” Cloud says. “But there is something else. There are Hilda's informants within the city, and they manage to communicate freely between the barriers. Soldiers of the Queen march among us and prepare a plan against Sieghart, and the most obvious option is during the upcoming siege.”

  “… How did you learn all this?” I say.

  “I heard it while I was peeking, while I was training in camp. Again, I was working while you guys were doing nothing. We all need to escape. We can't stand here and let them destroy us for nothing.”

  “I don't know. It sounds strange.” I say.

  “Why would I lie about it? Did you forget I'm trying to save my own ass too?”

  “If you were, you wouldn't have risked stalking guards, especially with a matter you don't care about. An attack on the city is problematic for me, but you are civilians. You don't have to fight.”

  “But we're going to.” Wander says. “It's our home.”

  Nia nods. “But they may try to capture us to get to you…”

  “Yes!” Cloud says. “Exactly! If there is any conspiracy prepared for the moment of invasion, we will not be able to warn the people in any way. We'll be arrested.”

  “And what do you suggest?” Wander says. “I will not abandon Vanusia.”

  “Neither do I.” Nia says. “They welcomed us. We can't turn our backs on them now.”

  Eyes stare at Cloud. The young man whispers something to himself, but stops himself from answering out loud.

  “What?” I say.

  “… I need to go back to Dufae.” He says.

  I frown. “Then run away.”

  “Elron entrusted me with the city. I can't die here.”

  I spit out a laugh. “Of course. You would run away at the first opportunity. That's what you do, isn't it? Get into trouble and then save your skin?”

  Cloud rises. “Don't you dare. I won't hear that from you, freak.”

  “You'd sell us a thousand times over if you were going to save yourself. What happened to you, for you to come with your tail between his legs to us, so angry? Did they refuse your offer?”

  “I refused their offer!”

  Nia expires. “May the heavens pour fire on you if you start screaming again. Amen.”

  The young man widens his eyes and I spit out a laugh. Dufae is still a religious village. Not that Cloud was devout, but even bandits did not like to deal with the divine. The kid sits down again.

  I straighten up in the chair. “Have you tried to negotiate?”

  Wander and Nia face Cloud.

  “I never said that. They offered me something and I refused. That's what someone responsible does. You're all going to die. And you, Sieghart, will too. How I'd like to sell you and let you pay for what you've done. But Hoffstein for some reason still believes in you, and I'm not going to meddle in his work. So I suggest you use your head once in your life and don't just die.”

  He sharpens his gaze. “Or maybe you want us to stay, just like you knew about Grendel and didn't tell us.”

  Quiet.

  “I didn't tell them what they didn't need to know.” I say.

  “Is it really? How can you know what we need or not? Did you also know what Dufae needed?” He says. “There's a reason Hoffstein trusted you. Remember, though, that Elron entrusted Fliori to me.”

  “When I wasn't there. But I don't think it would matter, I wouldn't be a good leader. What about you? What did you do?” I say. “Did you run away again?”

  Cloud grabs the handle of his blade. Before he could remove it, however, the ground trembles.

  The tremor spreads through the wood and causes furniture to shake and collapse. We ran to the windows, and for a moment I thought that Nia's prayer had been answered and that fire rained down from heaven.

  However, the skies were not orange and full of divine power, but yellow, surrounded by the putrid toxic cloud.

  On the horizon, something rises. Something green.

  “It's him…” Cloud says, watching the human tree take shape.

  “Who?” I say.

  The Invasion began.

  “The Ent of Vanusia.”