Chapter 14
Alfida and Rollan stood at the outside of the house of Gerda's family. Kai had embraced his girlfriend to tell her goodbye and returned to the house leaving his sister by the door looking down at her friends.
"Thanks for staying with us for dinner. It was amusing to have all sit around the table," Commented Gerda making the duo nod. "Will you pass by tomorrow, so we can hang out or do anything else together?"
"I'm free," Said Alfida while Rollan nodded.
"I'm obviously free too…..By the way, if anyone of you doesn't mind. Can anyone show me, where the post office is? I want to send my mother a letter to say I have arrived," Questioned the Spaniard making Gerda nod.
"I will," Promised Gerda making Rollan smile, then Alfida placed her hand on the Spaniard's shoulder.
"Very good. Come on, Rollan. We got a long way back to the ship," Alfida said making Rollan nod and exchange looks with Gerda.
"See you tomorrow," Said Rollan, then Gerda got downstairs to embrace the Spaniard tightly.
"See you tomorrow," Gerda said, then gave him a peck on his cheek. "Be careful you two,"
"We will. If she plans anything towards us, it might take her a few days to have a plan," Commented Alfida making Gerda nod, then Rollan pecked Gerda's forehead and grabbed her hands.
"We will be good. I promise," Announced the Spaniard making Gerda smile poking her nose on his nose, afterward Alfida shove her hand between the two to prevent them from going into a kiss.
"Hey, hey, hey. Keep that for the other days," Said Alfida making Gerda chuckle. "See you tomorrow," Alfida said moving Rollan away from the blonde, which looked back at the blonde and waved back at the woman, which sent Rollan an air kiss. Luta appeared by the door to observe the friends leave, then the weasel placed her front paws on Gerda's leg to earn her attention. Gerda smiled, then picked the weasel up to snuggle with her.
"The day was amazing, Luta," Commented Gerda enamored, while Luta enjoyed the fondle. Gerda looked at Luta, which smiled at Gerda and licked her nose, making her giggle. Both looked at the duo reaching the end of the road, making Gerda look neutral at seeing both go alone. "Luta, can you do me a favor and see, if both make it home without any issues?" Questioned Gerda watching Luta nod and hop down from her arms to follow the two friends.
Rollan and Alfida walked together out of the village going over a path made of dirt only, which led through a small part of a forest. Rollan walked with a large smile plastered on his face, which Alfida happened to notice with a smirk.
"Not even five minutes have passed and you're already thinking about Gerda," Complained Alfida earning Rollan's attention.
"I'm sorry. I'm just very happy, that Gerda's parents have accepted me after this odd encounter with Mars's family," Commented Rollan making Alfida nod. "I had expected it could have turned out differently,"
"Well, Mars' mom didn't want to accept it. You have heard Una at the table today. His mother wasn't treating Gerda the way she should be treated,"
"Gerda mentioned me that during our ride," Commented Rollan making Alfida nod.
"She told me that," Added Alfida. "She told me a lot of things from your common trip…..erm every little thing,"
"Why did she tell you, she made love with me?" Questioned Rollan making Alfida shrug her shoulders.
"She mainly wanted to know, what she should do, when she returns home. After that night she was self-assured to believe you and her are right for each other,"
"Oh that, okay…...did she say something about….the performance?" Questioned Rollan a little embarrassed making Alfida chuckle.
"You really asking me that?" Questioned Alfida watching Rollan scratch his neck.
"Okay, that's an odd question. Perdona-me,"
"From what I heard she enjoyed it. She told me you had let her do her thing, nothing much," Mentioned Alfida making Rollan groan relieved.
"I adored seeing her above me doing….." Rollan began, then Alfida covered his mouth immediately.
"I don't want to listen to that for a second time," Warned Alfida making Rollan nod and both got out of the forest to see a long route heading above fields to the harbor, where Alfida had her ship.
"When we got to the village, I felt like the way was shorter," Commented Rollan making Alfida nod.
"Perhaps it's because we were all talking and not paying attention to the surroundings." Guessed Alfida making Rollan nod, then the woman noticed far away on the road a carriage come in their direction in a slow tempo. "You know from seeing that carriage over there without a horse…..this kind of makes me miss the old rides on the carriages,"
"We still use horses. We haven't gotten any modern down in Alicante…..by the way, in the first year of when I start my job as a guard, I will have to look at the farms there for my own horse. He will then be working with me together for almost half of my lifetime,"
"That's really long," Commented Alfida making Rollan nod. "Are you familiar with horses?"
"Well in the academy I had to learn to bond with both horses and dogs. Depending on our taste and our way of living, we would pick either a horse or a dog as a partner. I ended up going with a horse, cause it could stay at the stable, while the dog I would have to bring back home. At the stable, I had also everything I needed to look well for the pet,"
"A horse would serve as well as a chick magnet," Joked Alfida. "Never had anyone glimpse at you attracted because of it?"
"Uh no, we only rode at the academy. We didn't have many women at the academy. Maybe three or four. I think they all went with a dog as far as I know,"
"Alright, asked out of curiosity. Have you already thought about how you're going to move on now with your life? You have your job and mother in Spain. Gerda and you are now tied up to each other in a how do I say…..advanced romance….."
"Oh I don't know," Answered Rollan. "It's something I and Gerda will need to talk about,"
"We can help you out with that!" Said a voice earning Rollan and Alfida's attention, which saw from the carriage Mars' mother step out looking angry at the duo.
"Eh…...no," Responded Rollan watching the woman come towards him, afterward Mars jumped out to follow his mother and grab her by her blouse.
"Mom, let them go. There's nothing we can do," Warned Mars watching the mother stop and grab her son by his shoulder.
"When will you learn to fight for what's for your own good?" Questioned Merri, then shove her son forward that fell on his knees afterward. She glared at Alfida, which shoved her hand quickly into her cloak and Merri had as well stretched her hand further to activate a flame appear on the ground building itself up passing between Rollan and Alfida, which both jumped away from the flame ending up separated from each other. Alfida got up to see Rollan on the ground looking at her, then she used her gun to give out a warning shot in the air.
By the forest end, Luta had stopped as she heard the noise and spotted the flame on the ground seeing Rollan and Alfida were split aside by it. By the carriage, she noticed the Lee clan near Rollan and the weasel ran back into the forest to return home.
Rollan got up, then began to walk backward as Mars' mother followed him angrily watching Rollan try to calm her down.
"I understand you're angry, that your son isn't going to marry Gerda anymore, because of me. Well…..Actually, I don't, but there's no reason to be angry…," Rollan explained watching the woman again send a fire wave towards the Spaniard, which jumped aside at the small hill beside the road.
"Run, Rollan, run!" Yelled Alfida running in the opposite direction with her gun, then shot a bullet at the ground beside the woman making her frown and throw another flame path towards the pirate woman, which jumped aside falling down on the ground. Merri looked at Rollan running up on the small hill to go across the earth of ungrown goods making Mars' mother frown.
"Run after him!" Ordered Merri shoving Mars towards the hill, so he would run after the Spaniard. Merri watched May look out of the carriage to see, what was going on and gasped.
"Mom! Let's just go home. This is not going to make things better," May warned watching her mother shake her head.
"The girl needs to learn, that no one makes a fool out of me,"
"Mama! Just forget about it!" Yelled May watching her mother shush her.
"Quiet!" Yelled Merri. "Give me your sticks, immediately!" Ordered the mother making May gulp and slowly seek in her jacket for them. "Right now!"
May threw her sticks to her mother, then watched her run behind the two young men. Alfida passed above the fire, that had put itself down and approached May, upon seeing the woman run off with the sticks.
"What are those sticks? Light sticks?" Questioned Alfida making May shake her head.
"Those sticks are like a whip made of lighting. You can whip someone with that and it's terribly painful," Explained May. "This is one of dad's inventions. It has the DNA of Mars in it as he's power is to create lighting. He's also able to control any sort of lighting he doesn't build by himself. That stick works similarly, besides you can't control any other lighting besides the one from the stick,"
"Woah,"
"Your friend there needs help. I'm not sure how far she's thinking about going, but one thing I know is, that she's willing to do anything in order to get what she wants," Said May as Alfida watched the trio ran along the earth. Alfida frowned and looked at the half-Australian woman.
"Quick, have you got any weapons, that could help us?" Questioned Alfida and May pointed at the back of the carriage.
"The box on the back has a couple of swords my dad needed for an invention. I'm sure that's somewhat helpful," Answered May watching Alfida get back to seek through the box for any useful sword.
Rollan during the run shrieked as he made a wrong step and fell down on his knees, then tried to get up fast and watched Mars jump against Rollan grabbing him tight, and look back at the mother, which came along and threw her sticks down at the earth making him look confused.
"I'm holding him, mom," Warned Mars, then Rollan managed to free himself and run off again, making the woman frown and use both hands to create a large flame going across the area, while she yelled loud making Rollan stop looking back at the woman's powers and wide his eyes seeing the flames pass far away from him creating a type of field to block the two young adults from the outside world.
"Madre mia," Rollan gasped as he was locked up with the double-nationality man, which was surprised about his mother's deed.
"Mom, what are you doing?" Asked Mars, then she pointed at Rollan, which looked at the two fearing, what was going to happen next.
"Take him down! Be a man! You're not weak, prove it," Ordered the woman making Mars gulp, then pick up the staff and look at Rollan.
"I understand you're angry if Gerda didn't have the same affection she had for me. But do we really have to do this?" Questioned Rollan watching Mars shake his head.
"I don't want to. I'm also not angry at you. You were first here, you two have a crazy story together and it even continued through these years you two were far away from each other. Killing you wouldn't change a thing, in fact, things would get worse,"
"Mars! Take this mutt down!" Ordered Merri making Mars frown and look back at his mother.
"No, I won't!" Announced Mars crossing his arms shrieking the mother at his comment. "Killing is a crime!"
Merri growled angrily and used her hands to bend the fire and make it grow higher to leave the two men no chance to flee, afterward she did another wave to strengthen the flames around the two men, making them swallow hard.
"You have to choices, you either fight him or you die along with him in there," Merri warned making Mars gulp and look at Rollan sad, making Rollan copy his face seeing how easily the man let himself get manipulated by the mother.
"She's bluffing Mars. She would never kill her own son," Rollan said, then heard a whistle and saw Alfida stand on the outside throwing through the fire two swords, one of the handles had picked a small flame, which Rollan put it out by kicking earth onto it. Rollan looked at Alfida, which jumped away from the fire as another wave of fire rose from the ground, caused by Mars's mom.
"Alfida!" Called Rollan watching the woman sit up and give a thumb up.
"Hold on Rollan, I'm going to call help," Warned Alfida making Rollan nod watching the woman run away, afterward Rollan watched Mars activate his staff to show a long, blue shining rope, which sizzled sounding nearly like torrent making Rollan gulp, and pick up his swords he had received to defend himself.
"Do you really think your mother really would rather kill you as well?" Questioned Rollan taking a step back as Mars was slowly approaching the Spaniard.
"I know my mother would do anything in order to get, what she wants. This sounds ridiculous, but I have never seen her so stern about anything. I'm certain she's really serious about it. I can't just give up, I'm still young and got many things to do in life," Said Mars afraid making Rollan sink his head down saddened about the man's state. Rollan held both of his swords up, while Mars held the sticks firmly between his hands sending a shock wave from his hands down at the whip making it pop at the end of it making Rollan swallow hard. Rollan took a deep breath, then raced towards the raven-haired man, which waited for Rollan's arrival and swung his whip in a circle to deflect Rollan's attack, sending him a few meters away on the ground.
Gerda sat beside her father on the horse carriage racing across the village to look for the trouble. Kai stood behind the father looking above the forest at a large fire circle, they could see from the near outside of their village.
"Have you two seen that large fire on the other side of the forest? The way it's burning, it can only be magic craft," Stated Kai making Gerda nod, which held Luta in her arms.
"I'm glad, I send Luta after them. I just had a bad feeling, that something would happen,"
"Greed sometimes can lead people to do incredible things, no one would expect," Stated Una placing her hand on Gerda's shoulder. "I'm glad we won't have anything to do with them anymore,"
"Will you all stick back and I go further?" Asked Gerda. "I'm the only one capable of flying,"
"You can transform on command?" Questioned Kai watching Gerda shrug her shoulders.
"I gotta try. I know I can do it," Commented the blonde making Kai nod, then gaze around as they had gotten into the dark forest.
"It would be nice to have a few light poles here in this area," Commented Kai watching Gerda place her hand over her forehead to look out of the forest hoping to see anything.
"We're almost there," Stated Vegard getting out of the forest and their horse stopped to neigh in shock. "Okay, I gotta calm our horse down," Warned Vegard watching Gerda jump down to run along the road towards the other carriage, where Bodhi and May stood watching the scene.
"Shall I go after Gerda?" Asked Kai watching Una shrug her shoulders, then Kai followed his sister seeing, where she was going.
During the run, Gerda growled forcing herself to transform into her dragon form, which didn't seem to be happening as she expected.
"Ugh come on!" Complained Gerda arriving by the duo, that looked at the woman standing by the fire watching the two men fight. "Argh come on!" Shouted Gerda stopping before passing by the ex-fiancè's family members, which looked back at Gerda seeing her behave oddly, and watched the woman grow a tail from under the skirt making Gerda drop her mouth.
"Why isn't it working?" Questioned Gerda herself, then watched May and Bodhi go around her grabbing her arms with pleading faces.
"My wife went crazy. She locked Mars up with your friend in there and wants them to kill each other," Warned Bodhi while May nodded. "She doesn't even let Mars out, despite him being against the fight. She would rather have both die than leave this without her so-called revenge,"
"Yes, and your friend only has the swords to fight back. Mars has my sticks and he can't defend himself for so long against the shocks," Pointed May out, then watched Gerda run up on the hill to spot Merri staying by the firewall watching Rollan defend himself with the swords from the whip. Mars moved away from the staffs, then spun one of the whip around watching Rollan raise up both his swords watching when the man would make his hit, afterward Mars used the other whip to grab both swords of Rollan and hurt him with the other whip on his chest making him yelp.
"Rollan!" Called Gerda watching Rollan look up in her direction to see her gaze at him in shock.
Mars used the whip to wrap it around Rollan's arm, making him cry as it burnt an injury on his arm. Rollan dropped one sword to place his hand on the injured arm, groaning as he felt an intense pain on the arm and looked at Mars, which pulled away the sword with the stick, then eyed Rollan, which had Mars in sight as well.
"Hold on, Rollan!" Warned Gerda running around the wall trying to put herself together to transform on command. Rollan observed with a hurt expression his love interest run around the fire forcing herself to transform. Mars hit Rollan on his back making him cry, then saw him fall down on his knees, breathing heavily.
"Take that chance! One or two more hits," Ordered Merri while Mars looked down at Rollan neutrally about seeing him hurt. Mars widened his eyes beginning to feel bad about it and dropped the sticks on the ground beside Rollan.
"I've done enough, mother," Warned Mars turning around to look at her. "He suffered enough. Let us out of here, please,"
Merri shook her head making Mars do a sad facial expression and got up to approach Rollan to pick up the staff slowly.
Gerda on the outside watched Mars planning to aim another hit on the Spaniard making her begin to boil with anger and try again to activate her powers, which she now managed to do, then she admired herself making sure she was complete. She smiled amused and took off heading to the top of the flames, then went in a nosedive towards the duo alarming them with a yell shrieking Mars, which watched the woman fall in their direction. Gerda landed between Rollan and Mars, watching Merri's son fall down on the ground in shock as the dragon lady glared at him.
"You've done enough," Gerda said neutrally, then looked down at Rollan and got down on her knees shoving her arms under his, placing her chin over his head. "Are you…"
"Arrgh!" Groaned the Spaniard making Gerda gasp, then backed off to see a tear on his vest and she carefully placed her hand to analyze the wound seeing the burnt line of the lighting.
"Don't worry, we're going to fix this," Gerda promised picking Rollan up from under the legs and holding him bridal style. "Hold your arms around my head," Noticed Gerda watching the Spaniard wrap them around her, flinching as he sensed the pain in his arm.
"Where are we going?" Asked Rollan looking up into Gerda's red eyes.
"Far away from here. Everything will be fine," Gerda said, then watched Mars look up at her, then pass his hand behind his head.
"About the fight…..I didn't want to kill him. I had no chance to get out of here without harming him. She would have rather see me dead as well, if I would do, what she wants," Mentioned Mars while Gerda frowned at him.
"Of course. What could I have expected from someone, who doesn't even take the time to think about others," Commented Gerda making Mars frown.
"I'm serious right now! If I had an alternative way, that didn't consist him or me dying, I would have taken it, but there wasn't!" Warned Mars, then watched beside him over the earth his mother build another flame making him jump aside, followed by Gerda, that went to the opposite side. Gerda watched Merri glare at the trio angrily, then she looked at Mars, which focused on her mother gulping hard. Gerda approached Mars, then whistled earning his attention.
"Grab my legs," Ordered Gerda. "You're coming with me," Warned the blonde making Mars nod, then get down to embrace the woman's legs, watching her place her tail around him and took off in the air carrying the two men. Merri watched them annoyed take off, then ran to follow the lady dragon trying to carry both men away from the place. Gerda looked down to see Merri race towards May and Bodhi, then watched May jump in front of the mother to build a wall out of the ground watching her crash into it. Afterward, she used both hands to lock her up, by growing two more walls building a triangle around her.
"Move on you three, we will keep her back," Announced Bodhi watching the trio move closer to the ground due to Gerda being unable to carry both men, and Gerda took her tail away letting Mars land on his feet.
"Follow me into the carriage," Asked Gerda taking off to fly Rollan back to her parents and Mars looked back so see Merri use fire trying to escape out of the hole with May building a couple of stones to prevent her mother to escape. Mars looked at the carriage of Gerda's family and headed towards them to stay safe.