Love Through War

C h a p t e r T w e n t y o n e

Keefe's POV.

If his plan was going to work, Keefe would need Leroy and Zadie's full trust.

First, he had to sneak around Exillium at night and find his friends's tent.

Second, he had to convince them to trust him and that he could get them out of there.

Then, Zadie would distract the guards at Exillium's entrance with her cute little girl adorableness, if the guards caught them, Keefe hoped Zadie could throw a good punch.

After the first three steps were completed successfully, Keefe, Leroy, and Zadie would run until they reached the clans.

It took a days worth of traveling to get to Exillium by carriage, so Keefe hoped that with a stroke of good luck, they're be an old man with a large carriage, who'd take pity of two teenagers and eight year old, and let them travel with him back to the clans.

However unrealistic that sounded, a guy could still hope.

His plan seemed straight forward, and Keefe tried to fight back all the thoughts of things that could go terribly wrong.

He grabbed his satchel and hurried out of the tent, wondering where Leroy and Zadie's tent might be.

The night was chilly and the only thing Keefe had to keep warm was a thin jacket.

His tent was lined up next to nine others, he'd never really paid attention to the inhabitants of them until now.

Should he just open each tent and see if it was Leroy and Zadie's?
No. He needed to go through the facts.

Earlier that evening, Keefe noticed them entering a tent a little ways left of his.
So I'll start with the left tents, he thought, then cringed. Gosh, I sound like such a stalker.

He started toward the tents one by one, maybe his friends would still be awake?
Doubtful.

There was no light coming from the tents as far as Keefe could tell, so that meant everyone was either asleep or hiding from him.

After a few minutes of bad luck, Keefe was starting to lose hope.

That was, until he reached the second to last tent left of his.

He circled the large tent, feeling incredibly guilty if he had to wake Leroy and Zadie up.

But they were escaping so wouldn't didn't matter, right?

Fortunately, as Keefe reached the back of tent, following a faint glow of light, he found Leroy seated next to a warm fire.

Leroy didn't notice him at first, and Keefe didn't know if he should say hi or what.

Keefe cleared his throat awkwardly. "Uh, hi."

Leroy jumped to his feet, and stared at Keefe in horror once he noticed him.
"What the heck, dude?!" He said in a loud whisper.

"Sorry," Keefe apologized, though he was also trying not to laugh. "Didn't mean to sneak up on you like that."

Leroy gave him a long look before asking, "So what are you doing here?" He sat back down sat at the fire, gesturing for Keefe to join him. "Couldn't bare to wait until tomorrow to see me?"

"Ha-ha," Keefe said and sat next to him. "I actually came here to tell you I have a way to escape. And I want you and Zadie to come with me."

Leroy froze, the teasing expression gone from his face.

He held a variety emotions.
Disbelief, excitement, doubt.

"That impossible," Leroy said at last, looking down at the flames. "Trust me, we've tried."

He said that last part bitterly, and it only made Keefe more determined.

"It's not impossible when you have the Keefster!" Keefe announced. "Like I said, I have a plan. You guys can finally get out of here if you come with me."

Leroy whipped his head up from staring at fire, his eyes intense. "I don't know anything about you! Do you think I'll leave the place I've lived with my sister for four years with a guy who got here a week ago? We got caught after we tried to escape, you have no idea what they did to us, what they did to Zadie."
His voice cracked and something flashed behind his eyes.

Keefe knew he was right, he didn't know what they did to waywards to tried to escape, but he knew one thing, it wasn't happening to Leroy and Zadie again.

"Then ask me anything," Keefe said calmly. "I need you to trust me that I can get us out of here, so ask me anything you want to know."

Leroy studied him intently.
His confident, cool-guy demeanor from the day before was gone, replaced by someone else.
Someone who'd seen things and who'd fought to protect.

"Alright," Leroy said, in an almost challenging tone. "What clan are you from, Keefe? And what's your last name? Mine is Leroy Flair."

Keefe was happy they were getting somewhere.
"Keefe Sencen," he answered. "Neverseen's heir."

Leroy's eyes widened for a spit second. "The Neverseen's heir, eh?" He said casually. "Doesn't matter, we're all the same at Exillium."

Hopefully we won't be at Exillium much longer, Keefe wanted to say, starting to lose some patience.

Instead he said, "Yep, hopefully this war will be over soon, but until then I hope we can set clans aside. Though no one's ever been really good at that."

Leroy cracked a smile and stood from the ground.
"Well then, Keefe Sencen," he said. "Better tell me that plan of your if we're going to get out of here at a decent hour. And I need to wake up Zadie."

"Let's do this!" Keefe cheered and followed his friend to the front of the tent.

Leroy went inside and Keefe waited.

"Wake up, little sister," He heard Leroy say. "We're getting out of here."

~

Hello everyone!
When your starting to ship Keroy but this is a Sokeefe story.
What did you guys think of this chapter? Likes? Dislikes?
Thanks for reading!
Bye!
~T