Trek For Survival

"You knew I was going to ask?" she asked with a smile.

"I know you Gia. We"ve been together since we were little kids. You always ask me about everything."

"Obviously not enough," she pouted, crossing her arms and looking away from him.

"Oh, don"t be like that. I said I would tell you about it," he said, with a sigh.

"But why haven"t you told me before? It"s not like you haven"t had the time," she said, turning to look at him again.

"I know, but I was afraid you wouldn"t like the answer," he said after a moment.

"Vonn, we"ve been together for a long time. I"ve agreed to be your wife. How bad could it be?" she asked.

"Well," he said, "I kind of worked for the army that was invading."

"What?!" exclaimed Gia and both her parents, who had gotten closer to listen in.

Vonn glanced back at her parents and then sighed as he turned back ahead of them. They had left the orcs long behind, having bid farewell to Sudar and the lions as well. They had all been so grateful for leaving without any more drama, they hadn"t bothered to look through all of the things in the cart yet. When they stopped to camp that evening, they would go through it more carefully.

"Every time I went out to cut wood, I was supposed to meet with the scouts from the other army, to tell them about the guard movements and if there were any signs of preparing for the invasion."

"So, you sold out the city?!" cried Tom.

"Why would you do that?" exclaimed Carla.

"I don"t understand," said Gia. "We had a good life there. Mom had just gotten a good job and dad was making money selling the carvings he did…"

"Gia, we did not have a good life there," said Vonn, ignoring her parents. "You lived in the worse part of the city, and ate rats if Mikey could catch them. There is nothing good about that."

"We had a roof over our heads and something in our bellies when we went to sleep at night," she argued.

"Your clothes were rags that you spent countless hours st.i.tching together. Mikey couldn"t go to the academy because you couldn"t afford to send him. Your mom got a new job, but it all but killed her legs. Gia, I did it so we could have a future together!" Vonn said, trying to make her understand.

"I didn"t go to the academy, either," she said softly. "And neither did you."

"And that"s why I had to resort to cutting wood to survive," he said, pulling on the cart when it got stuck in a crack of the hard ground. "You refused to marry me, so I could take you away from that hard life, so I tried to find another way to make enough money to support you and all of your family."

"Whatever they offered you wasn"t worth the lives of all those people out there!" Gia cried. "We almost didn"t get out ourselves!"

"They gave me a warning of only a short time, expecting me to run for it by myself," Vonn admitted, looking off into the horizon. "I knew that I would be cutting it close running all the way back to you, and when you insisted on taking your family, I knew that it was possible we would be caught. But, Gia, I wasn"t going to leave you. Everything I did, I would do again. Those people back there that died, were going to die anyway. If I didn"t help those scouts, then they would have found someone else to do it. I was trying to make a future for us."

"That doesn"t explain how you knew how to fight," she said softly after several minutes had pa.s.sed. She wanted to believe he had done it for the good of their relationship, but it was too much for her to process all at once.

"After the people approached me to spy for them, they tried to convince me to join the town guards. I figured I would be getting paid by both sides, and then I could make a run for it with you before any of the fighting actually started."

"What happened?" she asked, curious despite herself.

"The king had declared that all of the woodcutters were to remain woodcutters. Because of the monsters that sometimes popped up in the forest, there weren"t a lot of people willing to cut wood to support the needs of the city. When the recruiter found out I was trying to quit cutting wood, he refused to protect his b.u.t.t. He told me I earned just as much cutting wood as I would in the town guards."

"Do you think the king knew something was up?" asked Tom.

"Maybe, he was the king after all, but if so, I never heard anything. I told the scouts that I couldn"t spend the money they were trying to pay me in case I was caught. The war was just starting out on the fringes and if I showed up with some of it, it would tip people off. They agreed to teach me to fight instead. I never had to use it until now, and honestly wasn"t sure how good I would do."

Gia watched him pull the cart, deep in thought. He had been trying to earn extra money so they would have a better future, and it didn"t matter in the end. The army came and killed everyone in the city, probably razing it to the ground.

"Then, I"m grateful you were the spy," she said softly, feeling a warmth in her heart.

"What?" he said, almost dropping the cart.

Both her parents were gaping at her in shock, and Mikey gazed at her in confusion.

"Despite everything that has happened, you claim you did it all for our future. I would probably have taken the enemies money and gotten caught. Plus, there"s no telling what they would have done to you if you had refused. We"re healthier now than we"ve ever been in my lifetime, and we"re not living in that tiny hut in the slums anymore," she said thoughtfully. "Dad has his sight back, and mom"s legs are better. Mikey is growing really well and not having to catch rats. I was always afraid we would get some disease eating them, but our hunger was stronger than my fear. And I finally agreed to marry you," she said with a soft smile.

"Of which I am incredibly grateful," he said stopping the cart and pulling her in for a kiss.

"Does this mean that I get to go to an academy?" asked Mikey, looking up at Tom and Carla.

"I have no idea if there will even be an academy where we end up," said Carla.

"What even is an academy?" he asked.

"It"s a place where children go when they are old enough, to learn how to read and write and do math," said Tom.

"Did you go to the academy?" asked Mikey.

"No, neither did your mom. We grew up in a small village outside of the city. It was our plans to send both of you to the academy when we moved to the city, but that ended up not happening," said Tom sadly.

"Because you lost your sight," clarified Mikey.

"Partly," said Carla. "When he lost his sight, he couldn"t work and earn money for us anymore. We had worked so hard to get to the city, we didn"t want to run back to the village we grew up in, so we stayed."

"And Vonn saved us from the enemy army," said Mikey, nodding in understanding.

"Pretty much," agreed Tom.

"Is there anything else I need to know before it slips out?" asked Gia, pulling back from the kiss with a deep blush on her cheeks.

"I"ve never bedded a woman before, so there"s that. You know that both my parents are dead, so no surprises there. I had a brother, but he disappeared right after mom and dad died. I doubt he will pop back up ever, and I hope we don"t name the kids anything exotic. I"ve had enough exotic to last a life time!"

Gia laughed. "I don"t know, I kind of like the name, Luan."

"Alright, I can see that one. If we ever have a daughter, she can be named Luan," Vonn conceded with a grin. "Just don"t tell the elves, because they might get upset."

"I don"t know, I may need to get that promise from you. You are the one who has a history of being a spy," laughed Gia.

"Oh, you!" he groaned as everyone broke out laughing. "I"m never going to live this down, am I?"

"Nope, and I plan to ask you who you"ve talked to every time you return from cutting wood," said Gia, pulling away from him so he could start pulling the cart again.