Author’s note: Hi! Sorry it’s been a bit, I’ve been really busy with college starting back up and I’ve also been really unsatisfied with my prose work as of late, which is why I’m trying something different for this chapter, to see how if feels for me to write and you to read. 

This chapter will be written in the third person past. Let me know if you like that or not, it’ll decide how I write the rest of the series and if I go back and rewrite the older chapters into third. 

 

It was turning twilight by the time they reached the outside of the restaurant, by the time they got back it would be dark, and the goal to get home before Lila gets mad would definitely not be met. 

“3 of you?” The server asked as they walked inside. Eutychus silently nodded at her in response, and she led them to a wooden table. Aria silently lamented the lack of modern seating. Guess otherworlders couldn’t modernize everything. When they sat down, the server asked if they needed a few minutes to decide what to order, they said yes, and she walked off. 

“This place is pretty nice!” Aria said, looking at all the bits of memorabilia on the wall and the seating, while old, was clean and made the place feel like somewhere in between the home of restaurants on Earth and the allure of fantasy that her new home of Pentadeus constantly offered. 

“It’s pretty standard as far as places go in this town, but it won’t look quite as nice in a few hours, when people come to drink.” Eutychus replied to his daughter. 

“Going to place to drink is has it’s own niceties though, old man.” Juniper said, giving of a signature smirk of theirs. 

“I prefer to drink in the calm atmosphere of my own home, along with my wife. And hey! I’m not that old!” 

“We had this conversation earlier old man. You’ve got Aria! That means you’re an old man. I don’t make the rules.” 

“I swear I am going to sock you when we get home…”

Aria latched onto that comment. “Wait, when we get home?”

“Goddess Euty, you didn’t tell her?” Juniper said, “I’m going back with you two so that I can help out with training you until you head to school.” 

“Really?! Yay! I’d love to learn from someone who’s more recently traveled. Especially if you’re as good with a mace as dad makes you seem.”

“Oh I am kiddo, I am.” Juniper said and smiled at her. They hadn’t known Aria for long, but already she felt like family to them. And Aria felt the same way about them. 

Eventually the server returned, and they all ordered different variants of grilled chicken. Or it least is said chicken. Aria was still not completely sure if all the animals in this world were exactly the same as on Earth. But hey, it said chicken, so she’s gonna call it chicken. She’d get too annoyed having to constantly compare things down to food between Pentadeus and Earth. She gets enough of that in the rest of her life. 

They kept talking about the kinds of training they would get up to, Aria being interested in learning about the mace, if only just for an extra weapon in her spellsword arsenal. Juniper didn’t know as much about history as the books or Lila knew, but they’d be invaluable when it came to teaching Aria about current affairs of the world in their travels, and learning the elven language. Though they did mention that most elves speak Common, Aria wanted to learn the elven language anyway. After all, why not learn a new language? Never know when you might need it. That was her reasoning, anyway.

The food was good, very good. And definitely like the chicken she knew on Earth. Though the sauce was something she’d never tasted before, slathered on top of the piece of chicken and on top of the baked potato that came with it, as if it were gravy. But it definitely wasn’t gravy. It was sweet, and just a little spicy. The consistency of it was like barbecue sauce, but colored a few shades brighter red, almost a burnt reddish-orange. Whatever it was, Aria liked it. 

“Is it good?” Her dad asked. She nodded with her mouth full and made a hard swallow so she could speak.

“Really good! I love the sauce. Do you know what it’s called?”

“Not off the top of my head. Your dad isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer…”

“Nah, don’t say that Euty, it’s an in house sauce, they make it in the restaurant. I’ve eaten here a few times in the past.” Juniper added. 

“Thanks June!” Aria said. “That’s too bad though, it means we’d have to find out the recipe and make it ourselves.” And I’m no cook… she thought.

“June?” Juniper said.

“Nickname. You don’t like it?”

“No, no I do, you just surprised me a little. The only other person who’s given me a nickname out of nowhere like that is your mom.”

“That’s Lila for you, if your nickname has more than two syllables she’ll come up with a nickname for it,” Eutychus said.

“Speaking of mom, we should probably finish up and head back.” Her father and Juniper agreed and they started wolfing down the rest of their food. The bill came soon after and they headed out. 

 

***

 

“Well hi there Blaze, been a while buddy! Have you gained a few pounds?” Juniper asked the steed, who gave an annoyed neigh in reply, then nuzzled into Juniper’s hand. “Yeah, I missed you too buddy.”

“Come on Juniper, we gotta go.” 

“Sorry Euty.” They hopped on board the back of the cart and climbed into the front seat alongside Aria and Eutychus. Aria gave a long yawn. “Been a long day kid?”

“A little,” she yawned, “I think I’m gonna hop in the back and try to sleep. You two have fun.”

“Sleep well, Little Song.” Eutychus said, and she laid down in the back, falling quickly into a deep sleep.

“Guess we should go then, right?” Juniper asked.

“Yeah. Wanna take the reins for a bit?” Eutychus said.

“Sure.” They replied and grabbed the reigns. They started to leave the town as shops started to close up and families headed home, as others began to head for the bars. Aria’s quiet sleeping breaths could just barely be heard over the clopping of Blaze’s hooves and the turning of the cart’s wheels.

“You know Juniper, I keep thinking about this calamity that Aria’s supposed to stop. It feels so far away, yet at the same time it terrifies me. Not for my own life or for Pentadeus as a whole, but for Aria. What might she have to go through? What things will she have to do? I’m scared for her.”

Juniper looked to the stars for a long moment in contemplation. “I don’t think there’s much you can do. She might have to go through hell, but I don’t think it’ll break her. She’s already been through another kind of hell, living as someone she’s not. And trust me, that hell is just as bad as any other. She’ll be ok. All we can do is give her the tools to survive on her own, and trust in her. Just like the Goddess is trusting in her.” 

“Sometimes I forget that the Goddess is directly involved in all this. To think that a Goddess trusts this much in my daughter. It’s hard not to feel a little proud of that.” 

“You should feel proud! She seems like she’s an extraordinary young lady.”

“Wait till you see her in combat. She has some amazing instincts, and she wields spellsword magic like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

“Sounds like she takes after both her parents.”

“And then some. She’s something else.”

Juniper looked back into the cart, at the face of the softly sleeping girl. “I can’t wait to see it.” 

***

The three of them slowly stepped inside the house, trying their best to arrive inside without alerting the deadly demon that awaited them.

“Daaaaaarling… Why are you back so late exactly.” Lila asked, with a terrifying glare in her purple eyes.

“Oh uh- hi honey! We were- uhm, held up…” Eutychus shoved Juniper in front of him and whispered, “Take it from here bud, I owe you.”

“Heeeyyy Lila, how’ve you been?”

“Junebug!” She pulls them into a warm hug. “I missed you so much! How’ve you been?”

“Good! Lot’s of traveling. It’s not the same without the old crew, but what can you do? Sorry we got back so late, Euty had his errands to run and in the meantime I got to know Aria. We could’ve gotten back earlier but we felt like getting some dinner.”

“Well… I can’t exactly blame you for staying late then, and since there were two adults there to protect Aria, I guess that’s ok. Just be careful next time, alright?” Juniper and Eutychus nodded. “Are you staying for awhile Junebug?”

“If you’re ok with me being here.”

“Nonsense! You’re part of the family too, stay as long as you want.”

“Thanks Lila, you’re too good to me.”

“No such thing. You can take the spare bedroom, do you remember where it is?”

“Yup! I'll put my things away.” Juniper headed off to their new room.

“Hey mom!” 

“Hello my Little Song, how was your trip?”

“It was really fun, I loved the town and Juniper is awesome. They’re going to help train me!”

“That’ll be great! I haven’t ever seen anyone better with a mace than our Junebug.”

Juniper walked back into the room, now only in their night shirt and some loose black pants. “Did I hear someone talking about how awesome I am?”

Lila rolled her eyes. “Always, Junebug.”

“In all seriousness, thank you again for letting me stay a while. I’m more than happy to help train Aria, and this lets me rest up before I go traveling again.”

“You can stay as long as you like Juniper, anytime. Though if you have an extra extended stay I may want some help on the farm.” Eutychus said.

“Why not? I don’t mind some physical labor every now and then.”

“Really?! Hell yeah!” 

“Oh, yeah. Hey Aria?”

“What’s up June?”

“How old are you now?”

“5. Why do you ask?”

“Just checking. You go to school when you’re 8, right?”

“Yep.”

“3 years… sounds like you’ll be more than prepared for school by the time you get there.”

“That’s true, but we kinda have to think past school when it comes to my training. Going to school is more for meeting people and learning about the world.”

“I suppose that’s true. I’m not sure I can stay for 3 whole years, but hopefully we can do a lot with the time we have.”

“I hope so too. Who knows what’s coming.”

“Only fate."