Meanwhile, Inn, Oblitesco
~Pax’s Perspective~
“Alright, what happened to you?” I say. “You literally started the fight. Maybe Will was being pushy, but you’re the one who was frustrating him. Spill it. Now.”
He glares at me.
“Not you too,” he says.
“Well, we need to fix things before tomorrow. If we don’t, Theos may delay us again. So can you please tell me at least a little bit about why you’re so quiet?”
He sighs.
Welp. Time for Plan B. Hope Will doesn’t kill me.
“You remind me of when I first met Will.”
Landon’s eyes flash with interest.
“He was trying to fight this guy who got corrupted by this staff, but he kept on failing. I offered to help him, but he didn’t want it. I literally had to show off to convince him, and I don’t like showing off.
“He’s spent his life trying to prove his dad wrong, and his whole family was killed by a madman while he was down at the island. By the time I met him, he had lost virtually all hope, and that was before he learned that his family was dead.
“Well, we beat the corrupted guy, beat up an undead king, and saved his home. Well, Theos wanted to meet us, so we sailed over here, and the rest is history.
“What I’m saying is that we want to help people in need, but we can’t help you unless you tell us what’s going on, ‘cause something is obviously up with you. So tell me what’s wrong so we can prevent what happened today from happening again.”
He looks at me, slightly stunned.
“L-let, let me think about it,” he replies.
He walks out the door. I hope it got through with him.
~Landon’s Perspective~
I walk out the room and put my back to the wall. I try to suppress my rising emotions. I didn’t know that William had gone through such tragic things. In a way, his situation is similar to mine.
I walk back into the room. Pax looks up.
“I want to tell you about my past,” I tell him.
He smiles.
“Get started. We don’t have all day.”
–
~Landon’s Perspective~
“I was born into a family of traders,” I begin. “My father and his grandfather before him had sailed the 2nd Sea, trading our goods to other islands for our people. It was a good life. Me, my mother, father, and little brother all lived together.
“Then came the Emerald Skull Pirates.
“My family, excluding my brother, who was sick at the time, were away when they attacked and took our home. Most people on the island were either killed, and many went missing.
“The traders who were off island during that time were hunted. For a month, we lived in fear, until a friend of my father’s gave us shelter.
“We thought we were safe. We weren’t.
“My father’s friend gave our location to the pirates in exchange for money. We barely escaped, but my father was killed in the process.
“We sailed away to a distant island, the pirates on our tail. We landed at the island, where my mother bought me time to run to the house. A man saved me, but it was too late to save my mom.
“He took me in, and trained me in a fighting style known as Arcane Manipulation. He was old, and he passed away of old age.
“I buried him and took his sailboat to the Borealis, where I met Pax, William, and Theos.
“That is my story.”
–
“Damn,” says Pax. “That must have been hard.”
“It was,” I respond, choking slightly.
“Well then,” he responds. “Let’s go talk to Will.”
“Yeah.”
End of Chapter XVI