The Sixth Paladin

Chapter 49

The majority of us were gathered outside the lions. Hunk was slightly away,staring up at his lion and Romelle stands behind him. Pidge was in the green lion,trying once again,to contact Earth. I stand close to Keith,subtly trying to get the physical attention that I've missed. Pidge exits her lion and walks over,sitting on the stack of boxes next to Shiro.

"Where you able to contact Earth?" He asks.

"No luck. The low power are probably affecting our broadcasting range. I'll keep trying as we head for Earth." She answers. Hunk walks back over. I couldn't help but let my shoulders sag.

"I can't believe we're finally going home." Lance says as he smiles at the ground.

"I'm going to hug my parents and never let go." Hunk said,wrapping his arms around himself.

"Oh,I can't wait to see my parents and little sister." I also say,bringing my hands to my chest. Keith softly smiles.

"I can't wait to see how dad integrated Altean and Earth technologies together. I bet he came up with something amazing. And my mom..." Pidge trailed off,a scared look formed on her face. "Oh,she's going to be so mad at me for running away. I hope I'm not grounded." I gasped.

"Oh no,I forgot about my mom. Oh,she is so going to kill me." I stress,already imagining my mother running at me with a wooden spoon and yelling angrily in Japanese.

"How long do you think it'll take us to bet back?" Keith asks Coran,after giving me a strange look. Coran is looking up as he thinks,counting on his fingers.

"I was just calculating that now. Without the luxury of wormholes and with diminishing power cores,let me see,carry the one...oh it's going to take us approximately 150,000 Earth years." We all let out loud gasps,I clutch my chest,Lance looks like his soul left his body.

"150,000 years?" Keith repeats,sounding as shocked as the rest of us.

"Coran,I think your finger counting is a little off. It's going to be 1.5 years." Pidge speaks up,making everyone sigh in relief. 

"Oh,right. I didn't carry the three." He says with a sheepish smile.

"It's going to be a very long ad difficult voyage,but it's our only chance to replace the Castle of Lions." Allura says.

"There are times when I thought I'd never see Earth again." Shiro speaks up,looking up from the ground. "To be able to go back-"

"Well,what are we waiting for? Let's hit the space road." Lance suddenly interrupts him.

"I suppose we need to figure out who's flying with whom." Krolia said.

"And what about the animals?" Coran adds.

"What about them?" I ask,tilting my head.

"Well the Wolf can't go with Kaltenecker,wolfs eat cows. Cow can't be in the same area as mice because aren't cows scared of mice?"

"No,elephants are afraid of mice." Lance corrected.

"Elephants?" The Alteans looked confused.

"Yeah,they're giant grey animals with long noses to grab things." Lance replied,putting his arms up,pretending its a trunk. 

"Earth seems so strange." Allura muttered.

"Look,I don't care where they go,but Fluffy stays with me." I announced.

"You named it Fluffy?"  I put my hands on my hips and glare at Lance.

"Yeah,and?" We stare for a moment before he shrugs and looks away.