Chapter 25
In the evening, Rollan sat in the dining room with an uninspired look on his face eating salad. Along at the table, the cubs had finished the dinner and had their eyes set on the boy noticing he wasn't in a good mood, then exchanged looks with the other. Leticia, which was almost done looked toward her son, which was distracted with his food.
„Hijo. Que pasa?" Leticia asked. „You haven't eaten anything,"
„I'm thinking about something. Someone…..gave me two choices to pick and no matter what I choose, none of them are…..good," Rollan commented.
„Is it about whether you work around Madrid at the kingdom or outside on any town?" Questioned the mother making Rollan shrug his shoulders.
„No, it's…...I never told you or anyone else here about what happened back in the troll-kingdom, when I went to look for the wishing stone. I also never did, because I was afraid and now someone began to blackmail me with this issue my forcing me to quit the academy,"
„Who wants you to leave the academy?" Questioned Leticia. „Is it Enrico and Ernesto, the ones you talked about to be mean towards you when you were younger?"
„Mainly Enrico, but I'm afraid, that if I still quit he'll find other ways to use me,"
„How is he going to tell anyone, what you did without proofs?" Questioned the mother.
„There's a book explaining, what happened on that day. My name is described there, my looks are quite similar and it happened during the time I was absent. I don't know, who wrote that but it exists and if Enrico shows this to Roberto or any other guard I may just lose the position there at the academy and eventually get arrested," Rollan commented. „I've lost my memory about what happened there. Gerda and her friends are the only ones, which witnessed my deeds and it's the exact same thing as written in the book. I know for sure I will have to pay for what I did as well as soon as someone else figures it out,"
„Ay hijo, que hicicste?" The mother asked placing her hand in front of her forehead. „You shouldn't have gone on this trip all by your own,"
„But I did and this is all my fault. If I didn't lie to Gerda in order to follow me to the tomb, nothing of this would have happened," Rollan commented getting up and lean on the arc at the corridor. „She forgave me for all my mistakes, but I could have been a better person back there when I arrived,"
Leticia looked at the troll cubs, then Luta, which was lying under the table got up on the lap of Ivan and got down on the ground, and jumped up on the arms of Rollan to gaze at him.
„I need to think very well about this. If I don't, they'll reveal it on the other hand, they may keep it for them, but eventually reveal it another time," Rollan counted making the mother nod.
„Have you thought about speaking to the Lieutenant about it?" Leticia asked making Rollan shrug his shoulders.
„No, but I'll think about it," Rollan said walking stairs up to enter into his room and glanced out of the window to look at the buildings in front of him and Luta got off his arms to sit on the ledge to look at the surroundings. Rollan got up on the ledge, then Luta watched him climb up shutters, then hold himself on the engraved wall decorations, then pushed the shutter back with his leg, placing his foot on the edge of the wall, and came with his other leg on top of the small platform. Afterward, he placed his hands on the diagonally built roof and got on top of it and crawled on it up to the top, and gazed at the ocean to see the large ocean in front of him. Luta showed up, then got on top of Rollan's lap to watch him observe the ocean. Luta lied her head on Rollan's leg, then he began to pet her on the back making her smile, while he gazed neutrally at the water.
Along the road beside the harbor, Gerda walked along with Alfida and Kai looking at the houses beside the road. Above them in the air flew their Swift Branch which was showing the teens their way to Rollan's home address.
„Is it just me or are we passing by the same harbor again?" Kai asked making Alfida shake her head.
„It just looks similar because of the many boats. If this was our harbor we would have seen our ship again," Explained Alfida.
„Leaf will find Rollan without any problem. We just need to follow him," Gerda pointed out earning a nod from her brother.
„Have you any idea, where he lives actually?" Kai asked looking at his sister. „Like do you know how his house could look like and all?"
„I remember he said once his room was in the attic and the house was next to a road like this," Gerda commented. „I think it's smaller than ours,"
„Okay," Kai commented following along with the girls the common swift, which at a road junction stopped, then Alfida and Gerda turned around to look at the road leading through the quarter of the town, then the trio looked around to see if they could find the house.
„Okay and now?" Alfida asked looking at the bird, which flew up at the window, and got into the bedroom to look for Rollan.
„I feel like this isn't his house," Kai commented, then Gerda walked toward the house next to the one they have found and looked up at the roof see Rollan sitting on top of the building patting the weasel Luta on the back.
„Shall we knock?" Alfida asked taking a step on the stairs looking back at the boyfriend which shrugged his shoulders.
„Gerda, what do you say?" Kai asked watching Gerda disappear behind the edge of the neighboring house making him tilt his head in confusion, then she flew above the other house in her dragon form to get onto the roof of Rollan's house. Kai shrugged his shoulders and leaned his back on the wall to wait for the sister.
Gerda landed on a cylindrical-formed rooftop and held herself on the point of the roof looking at her boyfriend, which was looking distracted at the ocean. Gerda smiled and leaped at the roof to land behind his back, then wrapped her arms around the boy, leaning her chin over his shoulder making him widen his eyes in surprise.
„Buenas Tardes, ca…...riño," Gerda greeted the raven-haired boy, then Rollan turned his head around surprised to see her on the roof.
„You're already here," Rollan asked earning a nod from Gerda, then Luta climbed on Rollan's arm to get to Gerda.
„Luta, how are you doing?" Gerda asked letting the weasel sniff her on the face, then get licked by the pet. „What are you two doing on the roof?" Questioned the girl looking at Rollan, which frowned sad giving Gerda a worried look. Gerda left her hands off the boyfriend, then sat down next to him. „You're not happy to see me?" Gerda asked making Rollan wide his eyes at her comment, then he shook his head.
„No, no, no. I'm happy to see you, it's just…..today it got kind of bad for me and I don't know, what to do," Rollan commented, then Gerda got on the leg of him and placed her hands over Rollan's shoulders.
„Did your training go wrong?" Gerda asked making Rollan shake his head.
„No, it's something else. This one guy, who keeps messing with me found out, what I did to you and the others back in the troll kingdom when I was under the control of the fire demon," Rollan stated. „Someone wrote that legend down as a book and I found it, worse part…..he threatened me to spill the information of that book out to our teacher and there is no way I can get out of this issue,"
„Why does he want to do that to you?" Gerda questioned. „Just because you can't stand each other?"
„He has family issues and he acts towards me like a douche. Even his best friends gets treated like trash sometimes when he tries to help him,"
„And what are you going to do about that?" Questioned the girlfriend making Rollan shrug his shoulders.
„That's the problem. I don't know what to do," Responded the Spaniard. „He said I should quit the academy or he would share this book with any of the guards at the academy to make sure I'm screwed. But as long as he's got that book he could reveal this any time to anyone. I won't have many chances to get out of this situation,"
„What if you said this was something like a….play, where you played the villain and it got written as a book?"
„Not going to work. I confessed it by accident and no matter if I mention the loss of my memory or not, he's not going to give this up,"
„Now this is messed up," Gerda commented earning a nod from the boy.
„I know. I messed it up all on my own. If I had picked up a normal job like the others I wouldn't have had this problem,"
„We're going to solve this together, don't worry," Gerda commented making Rollan nod, then she pecked him on the forehead and moved his bangs aside to gaze into his eyes.
„How?"
„Leave it to me. I'll figure out a plan," Gerda commented, then someone whistled calling Gerda and Rollan's attention, then Gerda moved along the roof to see Alfida look up at the roof.
„Have you found Rollan up there?" Alfida asked earning a nod from the blonde. „Then get him down here and let us in," Ordered Alfida making Gerda chuckle and Rollan went to the edge of the roof, to try to get down onto the shutter of his window and Gerda floated behind him and helped him climb back into the room. „Transform back and knock on the door. I'll be down," Rollan announced leaving Gerda back, which flew down landing on the ground and transform back into a civilian, then she got up to the door and knocked on it waiting along with Kai and Alfida for the door to get opened.
The door was opened up and Rollan stood there with Luta on his shoulder, which jumped at Kai's arms to lick his face.
„Kai, Alfida, how are you doing?" Rollan asked reaching his hand out for the raven-haired teens to shake it.
„We're good, actually," Kai responded, then from the kitchen, the troll cubs looked up at the entrance to encounter all four teenagers, then all trolls got excited and ran toward Gerda to hug her.
„Gerda!" The cubs shouted happily, then Gerda got down to embrace the boy tight.
„Why did you three follow Rollan?" Gerda asked. „Orm and your parents are worried sick about you?" Gerda warned, then the cubs sank their head down. „What if Rollan wasn't there for you and you were all alone by yourself? Anyone could harm you and do something bad to you,"
„They were this entire time save with me and my mama. That's a good aspect for now," Rollan told getting down on his knees to pat Ivan's head. „There were days I really enjoyed having them around. They helped me process stress….most of the time," Rollan commented making Gerda chuckle.
Leticia walked out of the kitchen to spot the friends of Rollan, then recognized Gerda's face and smiled.
„Buenas tardes…..you're Gerda, right?" The woman asked making Gerda nod.
„Si…..I'm Rollan's girlfriend," Gerda introduced herself getting closer to the woman.
„I'm Leticia," Rollan's mother introduced herself to the blonde. „Mi Niño told me a lot about you," The mother commented making Rollan grin embarrassed and Gerda smile simper at the comment. „She really looks in nature prettier than I thought," Leticia said looking at Rollan, which scratched the back of his neck.
„Así," Rollan agreed. „You'll get the time to get to know her better and I can assure you, you'll love her," Rollan announced giving Gerda his arm, which she took. „Oh…..uh this is Gerda's brother Kai and that's Alfida, Gerda's best friend and Kai's girlfriend,"
„Nice to meet you," Kai said.
„Sup," Alfida added at the same moment Kai spoke.
„When exactly did you all land here in Alicante?"Rollan asked making Alfida shrug her shoulders.
„I'd say around 10 to 15 minutes after the 5," Alfida responded. „We stood back for brunch,"
„You all must be hungry now, right?" Leticia asked. „We just finished a while ago dinner, but I can arrange you some soft white cookies and either give you coffee or tea,"
„We don't want to bother you, Miss," Kai mentioned, then Rollan placed his arm behind his girlfriend's brother to pat him.
„Come stay with us for a while. I'd be happy to have you all here," Rollan asked, then Kai shrugged his shoulders.
„Okay we stay then," Kai responded, then Leticia walked the group into the living room and Rollan took on his arms Leonid, while Gerda took the red-brownish cub on her arms and looked down at Ivan.
„I take Ivan if you want," Rollan offered getting down to pick the last cub up and Gerda helped Rollan to lift the cub up.
„You remember their names," Gerda commented making Rollan shrug.
„More or less. I tried to guess their names with an alphabet book and only found out Leonid and Ivan are two of them…..if they're right,"
„Yep, Leonid is the light one. Ivan the dark-brown one and the one with the reddish fur is Igor," Gerda explained watching Rollan facepalm.
„Such an easy name and I'm so stupid," Rollan commented, then Igor slapped him with his hand on the forehead and began to giggle. „I'm sorry boy,"
„You made it to find out their names without understanding troll language or them have the capacity to talk. That's a good thing for you,"
„There I have to give you right," Agreed the Spaniard. „Come, follow me in the living room. I will bring you something to eat," Rollan pointed out, then accompanied his girlfriend into the living room and sat down on the couch along with the troll cubs.
„When will we take the cubs to the ship?" Asked Kai, then Alfida shook her head.
„We'll talk later about it. We could do it tomorrow or the next day," Suggested Alfida.
„Rollan told me about an issue before and I also want to be able to help him out, before we leave in the next few days. I just need to talk with him, on what we should do,"
„Take your time, we also want to take a look around here together, before leaving. We got plenty of time,"
„What is your plan? We don't know, where the book is," Rollan questioned.
„Are you going to the academy tomorrow?" Gerda asked making Rollan nod, „If this is possible, I'll ask Luta to look for the book around everyone's bags and if she finds it, she takes it away. If not, we'll look for a plan B,"
„It's worth a try," Rollan answered. „I'll be right back, I'm going to take the cookies here to us all," Rollan warned earning a nod from Gerda, then he pecked the girl on the cheek and walked into the kitchen to prepare snacks along with his mother for the friends.