Chapter 11
Finally the day came to make a decision. Mage was still pondering whether he should join in the war or not. As the day went by and the time until he had to meet with the soldiers ticked away, he became more and more nervous about what he would choose.
Soon he came to Becp to talk through the situation one more time. "Should I go?" Mage asked. "Well, it isn't my choice. You need to make the decision, not me." Becp replied. Mage nodded and swallowed hard. Before he went to walk away, the thought of the adoption paper entered his mind. Should he show Becp and Kat? He decided that if he did end up joining the war, then he would show them before he would leave.
He went back up to his room and got prepared. Soon after another hour, it was finally time to go meet with Stealth at his house and they would go to the woods to make a decision.
Mage said a quick goodbye to Becp and Kat as he jogged to Stealth's house, still having that nervous feeling welling up inside of him. As he approached the house, he noticed that something was not right. An imperial soldier was standing on the front porch, right in front of the opened front door. In the threshold stood Lexi, who seemed to be arguing with the soldier over something.
"I asked you a question, where is your son going?!" The soldier asked as Mage got closer. "He's going with his friend to the woods! Why would you want to know?!" Lexi shouted back at the soldier. "Do not use that tone!" The soldier spat back, then slapping Lexi across the face.
Lexi held her stinging check as tears started to appear in her eyes. "You son of a bitch!" She yelled as the soldier grabbed her by the arm. All of the sudden Stealth appeared behind Lexi. "Don't touch my mother!" Stealth yelled as he tried to pull Lexi away from the soldier. "Come here, boy!" The soldier yelled as he reached to grab Stealth. Stealth soon spotted Mage and ducked under the soldiers hand, running as fast as he could towards Mage.
"We have to help my mom!" Stealth exclaimed as the anger started to show in Stealth's face. "No, run Stealth!" Lexi screamed as the soldier violently covered her mouth. "Come on, we have to go!" Mage yelled as he pulled Stealth by the arm. Stealth soon followed with some hesitation as the soldier yelled "You get back here!" After he shouted this, a few more soldiers ran to catch the two young men as they ran into the woods.
Mage and Stealth ran as fast as he could, although Stealth was still worrying about what was happening to his mother. "Where do we go?!" Stealth asked quickly as they kept running. "We should still get to the meeting spot!" Mage exclaimed. Soon they cut off the soldiers chasing them. The soldiers started to search hard for them. Soon Mage and Stealth made it to the area where they were supposed to meet the Rebel men, but nobody was there.
"Crap" Mage said under his breath as he looked around. All of the sudden a whisper came from the side of him. "Come down here!" It said as he saw it was Manny, the soldier that had held the flag and said Mage looked like some sort of statue of someone.
Mage and Stealth both came down under the rock. Under the rock they saw Manny, Lauto, and another guy about the same age as them that they didn't notice. Soon the soldiers that had chased Stealth and Mage came into the area, looking for them. "Doesn't look like anyone's here." One soldier said.
"Damn, Charlie's going to be pissed." Another soldier said as the third one took out a walkie-talkie. "Sir, we lost them." He said into it. Over the microphone Charlie, the land/town dictator's, angry voice over the radio said "Damn! We could get in a lot of trouble! With all of this suspicion with the Rebel recruiting, the town could be taken down if the rumors were true. He sighed over the microphone. "Fine, report back to town." He said as soldiers retreated. Mage let out a sigh of relief as he and the others got out from under the big rock.
He saw some other people get out from different hiding places. Soon they all formed in a line, with the squad of six Rebel soldiers standing in the front. Including Mage and Stealth, there were ten potential recruits, two from each of the five towns in the area. Mage and Stealth were in position to decide last. As time went by, more and more people said yes and no to joining the war.
One girl who seemed to be acting crazy said yes, another girl said yes, and the two boys from superior town said yes. Mage always didn't like people from superior town, they were so full of themselves. They all came from very rich families, although one of the two of them seemed to be more serious and intelligent than the other one, who was more obnoxious and childish.
Soon the time had come to make a decision. First Stealth was asked. Stealth ahd a very grim and sad face as he said yes. Mage was surprised and immediately exploded inside. He had though that Stealth wasn't going to go.
"And now you, Mage." Zach said as all eyes were directed on him. Mage couldn't believe that the time had finally come. But he wanted to make a difference in the world, and he didn't want his family and friends to be controlled by this bloody empire anymore.
"Yes, I will join." Mage said before he could think about what he was saying any longer. Zach smiled. "Good. We managed to get six recruits. Return here tomorrow night with all of your things." Zach said as he dismissed them and walked off with his five other soldiers.
"You ok?" Mage asked. Stealth nodded. "My mom is probably into prison right now, I can free her and many other people if I do this." He explained. Mage nodded as he and Stealth walked back to town. The four other recruits that had said yes did the same.
Mage and Stealth both came to Mage's house, as Stealth's house was being watched for Stealth. "How did it go, guys? The soldiers are looked for you and some others, I heard." Becp said as they walked in.
"Y-yeah, um, we'll tell you later." Mage said as him and Stealth walked upstairs. Becp was confused as he went back to doing what he was doing.
Stealth sat on Mage bed as Mage pulled out the adoption paper out of his drawer. "Whoa! You where adopted even before Becp and Kat?" Stealth asked.
"Yeah, should I tell them?" Mage asked his friend. "Well considering your leaving tomorrow night, you really should." Stealth answered. Mage nodded in response and swallowed hard. His palms were sweaty as he gripped the paper, ready to walk downstairs and show the paper to Becp and Kat.
