Alejandra was halfway through her shift at McDonald’s when Annie walked over to her. “You’ve got a guy here to see you. He says he needs to talk to you about something important.”

Alejandra frowned, then her heart quickened. Was Nick here?

She used a moment of time to make sure she didn’t look like she’d been flipping hamburgers for the past two hours before walking up to the counter. Her smile dropped a fraction of an inch when she noticed it was Tyler. It made sense, of course. It wouldn’t be Nick coming to visit her. He was a prisoner in his own home.

“Oh. Hey, I didn’t expect you,” Alejandra said.

Tyler gave a pathetic smile. “Yeah. I’m heading back to Tucson soon. I need to update you on the situation.”

That caused her to drop her smile completely. “Is everyone alright?”

“Yes. Well…” Alejandra’s eyes widened, causing him to wince. “I better explain.”

She listened as Tyler told the story of what had happened. Her mouth was falling open the longer Tyler’s story went. Her head was spinning when he finished.

“I’ve already visited Rafael. He was the one who told me you were here at work. It seems… Hraktar took it pretty hard,” Tyler said.

Alejandra nodded, even if she didn’t really understand. Hraktar always had a hard time with orcs.

“Thanks, Tyler,” she said, distracted.

Tyler didn’t respond. Instead, he looked as though the weight of the world settled on his shoulder. “Hey, I have to ask. When the hell hound attacked you, did you… did you see any marks on your body?”

Alejandra frowned as she tried to remember. She, of course, remembered the hell hound attack. “It’s hard to say. I had… my eyes closed the whole time, so I wasn’t sure where it got me.”

Tyler was rubbing his chin. “My guess is everywhere. If you didn’t see anything, then this is a recent development.” The heaviness was still there in his eyes. “Thanks, Alejandra. Keep me posted on anything you find.”

Her mind fluttered to the drake egg she had been hiding down a hill near her house. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, I will.”

Tyler smiled before leaving. Because he doesn’t expect her to hide anything. No one really expected much trickery from Alejandra. Mostly because she was such a horrible liar.

The three hours after Tyler left were some of the hardest she had at work. She was completely distracted, worried about her friends and Hraktar. She didn’t need to focus too hard on her job, since it was a matter of making food as quickly as possible. But her mind was squarely on her friends. She knew Hraktar well, and that was part of the problem. Her character was most likely sulking, in a dangerous spiral of remembering far too much of what happened in his past. His thoughts clouded and confused. The only comfort she had was that Ezekiel was with him. The cleric always knew how to cheer him up.

Once she was in her car, she took off her hat and ran her hand through her hair, feeling soaked in grease. She didn’t have to close tonight, but it was still almost ten thirty at night by the time she pulled into the driveway. She walked in, glancing around to see her home was empty. Mariana was most likely at work. Rafael was probably asleep. It was a school day tomorrow, after all.

She took a few more steps inside when a flicker of light came from the backyard. Frowning, she walked over and saw Ezekiel and Hraktar surrounding it, having a conversation. She backed away before seeing light under Rafael’s bedroom door. He would join them Saturday. It both excited and caused her more exhaustion. Ezekiel wasn’t ready.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

She walked down the short hall and knocked quietly on the door. There was a shuffle inside before Rafael opened the door.

“Oh, hey Alejandra,” Rafael said.

“Hey, um… were you planning on training at all with Ezekiel this week?”

Rafael looked like he was holding in a sigh as he took out his phone. He scrolled through something, his eyes hardening. “Look, I just… I don’t have the time.”

Alejandra shook her head. “You’re going to get Ezekiel killed.” His answer was a disbelieving frown as he slipped his phone back in his pocket. “Everyone is at level three now. The monsters Ezekiel will be up against might be at least level three as well. I know he’s a cleric, but it’s…” She trailed off, her hands in her hair. “Please train him. At least get him to level two.”

All he did was give a shrug. “It’ll be fine.”

She pointed to the hallway leading to the small living room where there was still the flickering of the fire. “Ezekiel has ten hit points. Hraktar has thirty-four. How does that not scare you?”

He didn’t look at her, and instead folded his arms. He motioned with his thumb behind his shoulder. “I’ve got a mountain of homework I still need to do. Scholarship applications aren’t going to write themselves.”

Alejandra couldn’t possibly stay around him for another moment. She didn’t want to fight with him, but every conversation recently was them always on the border of an enormous blow up. Despite wanting to have that blow up conversation, she instead spun around and headed into the backyard. She planted herself on the ground next to Ezekiel and gathered her legs up, hugging them tightly as she looked at the fire. It was so hot outside still. Why were they around a fire? Why was she?

It took a few more seconds before she glanced up, seeing Hraktar and Ezekiel staring at her as though they weren’t sure what to do with her sudden appearance. Alejandra sighed. “Sorry. I… needed a minute.”

Ezekiel and Hraktar exchanged glances. She looked at their hit points above their heads, once again reminded of how different the numbers were. She was terrified Ezekiel would die Saturday.

The cleric turned his attention back to Hraktar. “So anyway, that’s how Bilbo gets the ring from Gollum.” He brought a mug up, sipping from it. It was one of the chipped Elmwood High football mugs with a wolf on it. Ezekiel smacked his lips, then frowned. “Sorry, I went off on a tangent there. What was your question?”

Hraktar gave the smallest of smiles. “Doesn’t matter.”

Alejandra looked at Ezekiel, at her brother’s character. She was reminded of a more tumultuous time living with Jack. How did her brother make up such a fumbling, lovable character who became the leader of their little group?

“I actually have a question for you, Alejandra.” Ezekiel placed his mug on the ground, focusing on her. “When are we going to the library again? That is an absolutely delightful place.”

“Oh.” Alejandra rubbed her arms even though she was not cold. “Yeah, um…” Her mind cycled through her own schedule. “I don’t know… Akshi is in Elmwood now. I don’t know if we should travel anywhere close to the high school in case…” she trailed off, seeing the obvious hurt in Ezekiel’s face.

“Yeah. Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”

She gave him another look before pulling out her phone and opened her e-reader app. “I feel like you’ve been here long enough that you could understand this technology.” She got up before kneeling next to him. “See this? This is my library e-reader app. It’s linked to my library card, so as long as the ebook is available, I can check it out. There are also a ton of books so old you can check them out without waiting. I feel like you’d dig Sherlock Holmes.”

Alejandra placed her phone in Ezekiel’s hands. She began scrolling through all the book options. “See here? Here’s a Study in Scarlet. It’s always available. So, I click here, then I click here. It takes a second to load, and then boom. There’s the entire book. You can scroll through the pages like this.” She showed him with his finger how to swipe to turn the pages.

Ezekiel stared at the phone. Alejandra wondered if she had gone too fast. Ezekiel blinked, swiping with his thumb through some pages, then back again. He looked up at Alejandra, a childlike wonder filling his eyes. “You have… thousands of books… on this… magical box?”

“Um… more like millions. Possibly billions.”

Ezekiel still stared at her, then his gaze tore from hers to look back at the phone. “This is…” he started giggling. “This is absolutely…” he started laughing. “How are you not glued to this all day?”

Alejandra gave a shrug. “Well, I mean…” She made a mental note not to show him her game folder.

Ezekiel laughed, leaping to his feet. “This is the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen! I… I’ve got to go! I will see you two later!”

He bolted into the house, his laughter turning manic. Alejandra chuckled as Ezekiel settled himself on the couch, diving into the book. She was happy Ezekiel found something that brought him so much joy. Turning toward her fighter, she wished there was something as easy to do to help him. Somehow, she knew it wouldn’t be easy, but she prepared herself to have the conversation.