"What? They put up soldiers across the border?" Arlo asked, infuriated.
"It was expected."
They were at the command post again.
"Damn it, they could attack at any point now." Hound put a hand to his chin.
"We don't have enough soldiers to cover the border," Alice frowned.
Gale sighed and sat forward in his seat.
"I think this is where we get serious."
"What?" Alice asked.
"We need to do whatever we can to take down the queen."
"What? What about the soldiers they set to counter us?"
"We have to form a plan to get around that."
"There is no way to skip the soldiers. They're there to block us from getting any further." Eunice crossed her arms.
"I'll have you dismissed for now, but try to think of a way we can get past them."
"Right."
Arlo was now outside taking a stroll, thinking.
What could we possibly do? There's nothing.
He glanced at the entrance to the command post to see several people greeting and offering water to new people. He decided he would go greet them himself.
"Excuse me," he asked as he slowly made his way through the crowd to get to the front.
Woah, this is a lot of people.
"Excuse me."
Why there are so many people here?
He finally reached them and found four people.
Two of which were...
"Sara? Troy?"
They turned to face him, and their faces lit up.
"What? Arlo!" Troy smiled and hugged him.
"Oh my goodness!" Sara joined.
Arlo suddenly broke out in tears.
Happy tears.
Thank you...
Arlo fell to his knees, holding his face in his hands.
"Woah there!" Sara and Troy crouched down to hug him.
"Where have you been?" Arlo asked. He was wiping his eyes but the tears were blurring his vision regardless.
"No, where have you been? We thought you..." Sara paused.
"Oh... my apologies." Arlo sat up, "I'll... tell you another time... haha... who are they?" he signaled to the two others behind them.
"Oh, this is Pierce." Troy held out a hand to Pierce.
Arlo smiled as he shook his hand.
"Hey, I'm Arlo!" Arlo shook his hand, then turned his attention to the last person, "Who's... she?"
"You idiot, you know who she is!"
Arlo felt his heart stop for a moment.
"C...Claire?"
"It's me... haha." she spread out her arms and shrugged. Her eyes were also forming tears.
Arlo lunged at her to give her a hug.
"Oh-!"
"I missed you so much!"
"Me too... we have so, so much to catch up on."
He quickly asked the crowd to make way for them and guided his friends towards the meeting room.
He knocked on the door.
Knock,
Knock,
Knock,
Keith swung the door open.
"Wha-" he tripped as he stepped back and fell on the ground, and his hood came off.
"Keith?" Claire asked.
Gale was behind him.
"Sara, Troy, you're alright? And you know who he is?" Gale sighed.
"Yeah!" Claire responded.
"I'm Gale, the general of this army. Nice to meet you."
"Oh! Nice to meet you, too! I'm Claire."
Arlo smiled and turned to Pierce.
"How did you meet Claire?"
Pierce looked to Claire, who nodded in response.
"I just helped her get here."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!" Arlo spoke warmly.
After all this time,
After eight long years,
I've finally found her again.
