Going Back Home

We packed everything and headed out of the cave. With Aria on our side, each step she took scared off any monsters trying to come towards us.

"Why didn't you bring her with us if she could have scared away all the monsters this whole time?" Luke said, eyeing me and Ari.

"Well it would be bad if I exposed her identity, no?" I raised my eyebrow at him.

He shook his head and sighed in defeat. I silently laughed to myself inside my head, shaking off the laughter, I continued to focus on the road ahead of me.

'I can sense that we're almost there papa.' Ari said, a hint of excitement in her voice.

'Alright.' I was feeling relieved that we're almost out of this dreadful cave. It felt as if it was easier to go out then into the tunnel, it might be because it was linked to the Elderwood, or it wasn't as complicated and that it was just because Ari was in her dragon form right now.

I shrugged off the unnecessary ideas and questions forming inside my head since the only objective right now is to get back to Krentis.

As we slowly arrived at the exit, light started to peek its way into the small cracks of the old rusty door.

I pushed open the door using some force since the door wouldn't budge. Squinting from the bright light cast down on us by the bright morning sun.

'Feels good to be back outside.' I took a deep breath in and felt grateful that I could be alive to smell the smell of nature once again.

"Finally! We're free from the darkness!" Luke looked around the surroundings as if he had been trapped away in darkness for a decade.

"Let's head back as quick as we can. I bet that our families have been worried since we were trapped in the cave for about a week now." I said looking out into the distance.

"Uh...I don't think I can go back…" Luke said, a bit of a concerned expression on his face.

"What do you mean by that?" I'm guessing that there is some conflict in his family but I was wrong.

He explained that he was from the dwarven kingdom but was adopted by his father. His father trained him to use his powers and at the age of 8 his father told him to leave and adventure out to find a friend or two that can help him with his powers.

"Hmmm…" I thought that maybe I can take him home with us since I do owe him my life. I did want to learn more about him and train with him since he does have some awesome abilities.

He looked at me confused, trying to figure out what I was thinking. His eyebrows were scrunched up together which made him look 100 times more ugly. I tried to hold in my laughter but I couldn't hold in my smile.

He looked at me suspiciously trying to figure out why I was smiling. I shook my head and took my chances on asking him about my offer.

"Why don't you come home with me? I bet you'll have a great time." I said, smirking.

I knew he was hesitant on the idea, he scrunched his eyebrows together again and started pondering on the offer. After a few minutes he looked back up at me, his eyes gleamed with excitement and curiosity.

"Are you sure? Can I really come with you? I mean I was just someone you met for a couple of days." He said, starting to ponder on my offer again.

"I am one hundred percent confident that you are a good guy, I also feel bad that you don't have anywhere to go so why not join me? I won't also be the only guy in the household; not including my uncle and father that is." I turned towards him and reached my hand out to him.

He hesitated for a second but reached his hand out and shook it. "Alright then, I will come with you so you won't be lonely." He smirked mischievously.

"Then let's go back home." I gripped his hand firmly and shook it one last time. We both got onto Aria's back and she rode off towards Krentis.

As she was soaring off my hair blew back from the speed we were flying. By now my hair has grown to my shoulder and I can confidently say that I can finally tie my hair up.

I had to grab Oliver's unconscious body that was slipping off of Ari the whole ride to Krentis, it was pretty hard to keep a heavy unconscious dude's body from falling. Sometimes I almost fell off myself.

----

Once we arrived at Krentis we headed to the adventurers guild first to report to them the incident that happened. I also wanted to heal my wounds since the healing gems only healed little cuts and bruises.

We stepped inside and everyone's head turned towards us, everyone gasped when they saw us.

A few days ago someone declared that we were dead and died in the cave. I wouldn't say I was shocked about this because I had an idea of who could have spread this false news about us dying.

The receptionist quickly hurried to our side and carried Oliver to the infirmary. We followed from behind and we were quickly healed and got new bandages for our bigger wounds that needed more time to heal.

I felt more relieved when I got properly healed and bandaged up. As we finished getting treated I could feel my tiredness fill up inside me. I layed in the bed of my own chamber and slowly drifted off to sleep.

I think that I sleep for a pretty long time since once I woke up it was late in the afternoon.

Sitting up I looked at the mirror next to me, my hair was messy and my bags under my eyes had disappeared.

'Damn...I should really cut my hair' I liked my hair being long because I could tie it up but sometimes I just think it's too hard.

As I changed my clothes to a simple button up shirt and black trousers and a belt to finish everything off. I slicked my hair back and half of it into a bun, leaving the other half resting on my back and shoulder.

While I was finishing grabbing everything Ari came in my chamber and jumped on my shoulder. Luke followed from behind peeking into my room.

"Are you ready to go?" Luke said looking at me up and down.

"Yep, but first we need to talk to Uncle Andrew about the incident. I feel like I can only trust him with my information I have right now." I said, stepping out of my chamber and started walking off.

"Alright, but dude…" Luke pauses for dramatic effects.

"Hmm?" I said turning my head towards him, still walking forward.

"You look amazing...I feel jealous of how cool you look right now." He said sighing, trying to shake off the disbelief of his own jealousy right now.

"You should be praising yourself, you look quite good to me too. There is nothing to be jealous about." I said smiling. It was true that he looked quite handsome, his facial features were quite sharp, his black messy bangs were just about his eyes, he had black deep set eyes that made his features pop out.

"Are you sure about that?" He said, eyeing me with suspicion.

"I'm totally sure, don't you look at yourself in the mirror?" I said jokingly.

"Well of course I do!" He demanded. I started to laugh so hard that tears came out of my eyes.

He scrunched his eyebrows together and looked at me with absolute hate. I looked at him and started to compose myself, wiping the tears away from my cheeks and straightened myself up.

"Well if I look handsome then you look extremely handsome since your features are much better and you catch more people's attention." He said pouting a bit. I swear to god that he looks like a chubby chipmunk right now.

"Thank you for praising me so much." I said grinning.

"Sheesh, whatever." He said as he shook his head in defeat.

LUKE POV:

I swear the god that August gets me sometimes, it is true that he is more good looking than me, it's not just his god-like facial features but also his amazing athletic body and the way he carries himself. August always carries himself in confidence, his face is always calm and composed even in bad situations. He takes big and careful steps that make you feel protected and safe around him.

August is good at everything he does, sometimes I think he is too perfect. It makes me suspicious of how mature he is but I know that there are weird people out there. I guessed that he's just one of those people who are born talented and well mannered.

August is a mysterious guy but in a good way, he makes you want to know more about him. Aug's aura is like no others, it's powerful and demanding but warm at the sametime. If you get him irritated or mad it will turn as cold as being in antarctica.

I've learned myself to not mess with him from first hand experience in the cave where he fought the S class beast.

As we arrived near the exit August went to the counter and said something to the receptionist.

"What did you say?" I asked, a bit of curiosity flickered inside me.

"Nothing important, I just told them that we're meeting uncle Andrew." He shrugged.

I nodded my head and we continued to walk towards the mansion where Aug and his family lived.

AUGUST POV:

As we walked towards the front counter I told the receptionist that we were going to meet uncle Andrew, I wanted her to keep it a secret since having connections isn't always good for other people to know, especially those irrigant nobles.

----

We had to walk all the way to the mansion since I wanted to surprise Eliza for her 4th birthday party.

"Wait! But I don't have a gift to give her." Luke said a little bit nervous now. '

"It's going to be fine; I'm bringing another handsome dude into the household anyways." I said, smirking.

"Ahhhhh, you're so irritating sometimes." He said glaring at me.

"But it was a compliment." I said acting hurt.

"Aye yai yai." He said shaking his head while rubbing his temples.

"Ah, we're here." I said looking at the mansion.

"Woah, I never knew you're this rich." He looked like a little kid getting his dream toy.

"I'm not rich; this is not the money I've made. My parents made this and I'm just living here because I'm part of the family." I said, correcting his mistake.

He glared at me and then started to walk towards the door. I jogged to catch up towards him and opened the door.

Everyone's head turned towards us, "Brother!" Eliza yelled out, squeezing out of the crowd.

"Hello, It looks like I'm late." I said hugging her tightly.

"Nope, the party just started." She said looking up from my chest. I smiled and saw that my parents were coming from the crowd.

"My son!" My mom hugged me and my dad watched from beside her.

"How long are you going to be staying for?" My dad asked.

"Well after the accident me and Luke thought that we could stay here and train more; I want to take a break from adventuring, also since school will start in 2 years." I said while Luke was nodding to my explanation.

"Alright then, I could bring you to the military training ground for you to train with your friend over there." He said looking at Luke.

"Oh sorry sir, my name is Luke Hekkar. I'm Aug- August's fri- party member during his adventures." Luke stuttered.

"Hahaha, good to see a friend of Aug's. You know that Aug isn't the type to have a lot of friends, he studies and trains all the time and has no time to socialize with other kids his age. I'm thankful for you being his friend." My mom said with a pleased expression on her face.

"Alright then, boys go change and take a shower into some clothes we prepared for you." My mother said.

"Okay, let's go Luke." I said looking at him, he nodded back and we headed upstairs.