Inside the building, it was easy enough for everyone to make it through. The metal walls definitely helped made the snapping seem like distant trouble.

“I’m glad you didn’t die,” Rista said to Hector. “Would’ve sucked to have someone go out like that.”

“Yeah, well, it wouldn’t have mattered. As long as you guys-”

Rista stopped moving and punched Hector in the arm, not being dissuaded by the golden armor.

“How can you talk about yourself like that!” Rista asked.

“...My life ain’t all that it’s sucked up to be,” Hector answered. “Outside of this I-”

Rista hit Hector hard in the arm again.

“Now, sir, you probably don’t know it yet, but by showing up at my doorstep, you saved more people and seen more action than any farmer has seen in their whole life. So, now you gonna stop talking like life ain’t worth living for, ya hear!”

“...Sure…” For the first time since knowing Hector, Jon saw him blush with embarrassment, looking away.

“It’s my job…” he said quietly. Still, he had stopped complaining at the moment.

Farmer Carol still had his key from proctoring the blunderbuss part of the test, so he opened up the large supply closet with all of the blunderbusses and ammo stored inside.

“...You could overthrow a small kingdom with this…” Hector said as he looked around with wonder.

“You just always thinking about fightin’ are you…” Rista shook her head.

“Hah! Ain’t nothin’, to overthrow but some overzealous council people,” Carol responded. “And besides, they’d probably talk us to death before we get a chance.”

He reached up to a blunderbuss and handed it to Hector. “Want one?”

“I’ll stick to my sword,” Hector said. “I appreciate the offer but-”

“Here you go.” Carol slammed the side of the blunderbuss hard enough into Hector’s chest so that Hector had no choice to grab it.

“When a farmer offers you a gift, you take it. That’s the law of the land.” Rista commented.

“You guys do an awful lot of talking for a crisis,” Ms. Eveligene said. She had already started collecting clumps of guns. “Let’s get a move on.”

Jon agreed that they did a lot of talking in a crisis. He thought everyone did a lot of talking in general.

The stables were deeper into the center of the school, so the number of caimans that had made it thought were minimal at best.

There were three wagons left and some horses who were frantic enough to have to be calmed down by Ms. Evengeline.

“Jon, can you go with Rista to her house, and bring the other farmers back?” Hector asked.

Jon nodded. “Okay.”

“I was hoping you could come with me, no offense, Jon,” Rista mentioned.

Jon didn’t take any offense.

“I have to get back to my friend,” Hector said.

“Don’t worry, they’ll be more time for making out after the caimans are gone,” Farmer Carol remarked as he tied the reins to the horses.

“That’s not on my mind!” Now Hector was really embarrassed.

“Why you acting like it’s a bad thing?” Rista asked, climbing onto her horse.

“It’s not!” There’s just…”

“I’m teasing, boy! Jon, let’s go!” Rista pulled Jon onto the front of the wagon. She motioned with the reins and the horses started to move forward.

“Be careful!” Hector yelled. He jogged aside the wagon towards the entrance.

He opened the large door and started sweeping the chair aside.

Jon shot at what he could and Rista made sure the wagon left at full speed.

They went towards Farmer Taron’s house, Jon making sure to shoot any caiman too close to the wheels.

As soon as they made it to the house, Jon began to help Rista load her father into the back of the wagon.

“Give me my gun!” He cheered as they carried him up to the wagon. “I’ll give those suckers a one-two!”

Rista shrugged and took her blunderbuss off of her back, giving it to her dad. She went back to get a bucket of ammo as the other families took their place next to him.

Jon went back to the front and waited for Rista to return. He could see the giant orb of light that Mallory had projected. It was like a beacon to return home.

Suddenly, it began to dim until it disappeared into a puff of smoke.

“Aw, shit,” Rista said, climbing back into the seat. “That doesn't seem very good.”

Jon was worried about Mallory. Thankfully, another orb of light soon appeared.

“Yah!!!” Rista slammed the reins and the horses charged to their next destination.

When they got to the house, it was crawling even more with the caiman.

Most of the outside farmers were now shooting from the porch. Mercy and a few others were still out in front.

Jon made sure to make room for the horses on the ground as the wagon approached. He swept away the entire field in front of the house as he jumped off the wagon.

He turned to the other farmers and saw that they had large gasps on their faces.

“Jon, that was awesome!” Mercy said.

“Yeah, be sure to get me one of those guns,” Lou mentioned.

Jon looked at his dad.

“Uhh…" Jassiter was at a loss for words. “Uh… where’s the ammo?”

“Golden boy didn’t come back yet?” Rista asked.

Jassiter shook his head. “Not yet. Is that bad?”

“Yeah, that’s bad, they should have been here before us!” Rista wiped her sweating brow.

“I can help!” Jerry waved from the window. “Give me a horse!”

“Son! There’s too many to just take the horse!” Larry said from the porch.

“...Then take my son,” Jassiter offered. He gave a knowing look to Jon.

Jon nodded.

Jon tried to hold on for dear life behind Jerry as their horse galloped on the field.

For some reason, it was rare for Jon to actually see a farmer riding a horse. He had never tried it, especially because horses seemed scary.

Now, he had to face his fears as the ground bobbed up and down beneath him. He definitely felt closer to it than when he sat in the wooden wagon.

Still, he made sure to clear the way as they went back towards the school.

Hector was fending off the majority of caimans that had made it into the building. One of the wagons had toppled over from being chewed through the wheels.

The wagon Hector protected had both Ms. Evengeline and Farmer Carol shooting from the top.

Jon cleared the way as they got forward.

“Jon!” As soon as Jon approached him, Hector fell into another slump.

Jon tried to catch him, but Hector held his hand up in protest.

“It’s fine…” he said. “It’s fine… Just… excessive mana usage…”

Hector stood up. “It’s fine. Let’s go!”

Jon, accompanying Jerry like before, escorted the wagon of weapons and ammo out of the school. Along with the blunderbusses were several pitchforks from the stables.

“We are stuck, so I decided we might as well bring some along,” Carol mentioned when he saw Jerry and Jon’s confused faces.

When they made it back to Jon’s house, there were lanterns littered around the outside. The ball had disappeared.

Most of the farmers were just waiting with their blunderbuss in hand, and jumped and waved when they saw the approaching wagon.

The first thing Hector after leaping out of the wagon was to look around for Mallory.

When Jon got out he received a nice hug from Mercy, which he thought was nice. It was hard to hug her back holding the blunderbuss.

Larry cheered for Jerry while he was still on his horse.

“Ya done good, my son!” He yelled. “Ya’ can ride a stickin’ horse!”

“He’s in Susan’s room,” Jassiter said when he saw Hector’s frantic swivels. “Jon can show you.”

Jon nodded furiously.

He, Hector, and Mercy had gone to Susan’s room, which was on the bottom floor. When Jon was younger, Susan used to sleep on the top bunk in his room. When they got older, she had switched with Ben, so Jon was used to thinking of it still as Ben’s room.

Still, they entered. Vel was sitting next to Mallory, who was on the bed.

Vel gasped as they entered.

“Jon!” Vel ran up and hugged her son.

Jon tried his best to return the hug with one arm. He found it nearly impossible to put the blunderbuss away.

“Hey, Mrs. Vel, how is-” He was interrupted when Vel also gave him a hug.

“You’re safe!” she said. “I’m glad you came back!”

Hector blushed. “Yeah, yeah, I did…”

It was weird to see Vel hug someone who wasn't Dan or related to Jon.

She gave Hector space. “He’s okay. He went overboard on the mana.”

Mallory was silently asleep. He had a damp folded rag on his head.

Hector sniffed the air. “Is that-”

“Manaroot, yep!” Vel said assuredly. “We got our own supply here on the farm. Well, mostly between me and Dan. Not many other farmers have a need for it, since we don’t have very many mana users.”

“You can grow manaroot here?” Mercy asked. “That’s incredible…”

Vel held a representation of a pinch in her hand. “It’s still very hard. And you can kill a man with the wrong dose, but it seems I still got my old ways…”

She patted Hector’s head. “It seems like you might need some too. You’re turning red.”

“No… it’s fine,” Hector looked away ashamed.

“Come on! I’ll get you some now!” she walked out of the room.

“You don’t need any?” Hector grumbled to Mercy.

“Unlike you, I don’t waste away my precious mana when I don’t need it,” Mercy said. “I see how you swing that sword around.”

“I…” Hector sighed. Jon expected Hector to tell Mercy about how he had cleared a path to the school and was excessively using attacks to keep people safe, but instead, he just hung his head low and took a seat at the wall.

“Hector?” Mercy seemed concerned.

Hector hadn’t moved.

Vel entered the room with a bowl and a rag.

“...He must be asleep,” she said. “Help me get him on the bed."

Jon and Mercy moved Mallory over and pulled Hector onto the bed. Jon was expecting the armor to make Hector heavier, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

“Honey?” Jassiter had stepped in the door. “Jon?”

Jon looked up to his Dad.

“We have more than enough people and ammo,” Jassiter explained, “And it’s near morning. You should get some rest.”

Rest? Jon wasn’t tired.

“We’re gonna need to switch out people,” Jassiter said, so be ready for that."

He held out a mat to Jon.

“I think you guys are going to have to share,” Jassiter said. “If that’s fine. I mean, if you want to share-”

“Jassiter! It’s fine!” Vel patted her husband hard on the arm. “Don’t embarrass him!”

Jon felt embarrassed by his mother telling his father not to embarrass him.

Velvet’s eyes suddenly got a look of concern as she looked at Jon’s face.

She walked up to him and felt his forehead. “Is that… did you use mana?”

“We’ll talk outside,” Jassiter said, grabbing onto Vel’s arm gently, “let’s give them time to rest.”

Vel traced a finger on Jon’s face as she was led away by Jassiter. They closed the door behind them.

Jon was confused, but he saw that Mercy had already laid the mat out in front of them. Jassiter was also nice enough to provide pillows.

“...You can sleep, I don’t need to,” Mercy said. “I haven’t done as much.”

Jon didn’t want to force her to sleep. So, he laid down on the mat but made sure that there was enough room for her.

That was the last thing Jon remembered before he had woken up again.

The sun was shining brightly through the window. He felt something warm on his back.

He turned and saw that it was Mercy’s own back. She had fallen asleep as well.

Jon looked to the bed and saw that Hector and Mallory were missing.

He stepped out of the room and saw everyone turn to him.

They all clapped.

“We made it through the night!” Lou yelled.

“Are they gone?” Jon asked.

“Nope. We’ll probably get eaten the next night, but at least they calmed down.” Lou shrugged.

Jon sighed.

“Jon!” Hector’s voice caught his attention, making him turn.

“You’re awake! That’s good! Come on!”

Hector led Jon back to Susan’s room.

Once they were inside, Hector pulled out his gem from his bag, which he had probably put back on when Jon was asleep.

The gem glowed, and from the top projected a transparent image of a person.

“This is my sister, Lana,” Hector explained.

Lana didn’t look tall, but she certainly looked bigger than Hector. Jon couldn’t explain it. Maybe it was her face, which looked even more harsh and tired than Hector’s did whenever he showed disapproval, which Jon learned was a lot, maybe even more than his father.

Her hair was red as his, and she wore armor, but it was a much more common silver armor than Hector's bright gold one.

Also, looking at her made Jon shiver in his gun strap.

“Hi Jon,” Lana said, “My brother’s told me about you. I’m sorry that everything’s come down to what’s happened.”

Jon shrugged. He didn’t think it was her fault.

“There’s been a string of incidents recently in my area of the land,” she said. “And although we are separated by a great deal of travel, I’m afraid that what’s been happening here has been spread across to the other side of the land.”

Jon nodded.

She continued. “The King’s Guard is a mercenary force designed in a particular way to ease the political tensions of all nations by providing a neutral militaristic force to take care of situations while monarchs and governments are still… working out their territorial disputes. As such, I think it’s important that we-”

“Get to the point,” Hector said.

Lana gave Hector a glare from the jewel. Hector quickly avoided her face by looking up at the ceiling.

“...As I was saying… there’s been efforts to undermine several power structures in recent times, and I’m afraid that the same group who have been a bane in our side are also the same ones causing havoc in your part of the land. As such, I decided it was in our best interest to work together.”

Jon nodded quickly.

“You already have my brother, Hector, who I’ve heard has had his life saved by you several times already, for which I am incredibly grateful and in your debt…”

Hector rolled his eyes without comment.

“...On their way are some of our finest warriors, meant to aid you in solving this predicament,” Lana explained. “They’re en route as we speak and should be there very shortly.

Hector started to grumble. “I think you mean our only-”

“You’re out of turn, Hector!” The words made Jon shake again.

Hector tried not to seem bothered, but Jon could see the sweat brewing on his face.

Lana cleared her throat. “They’ve been split between your farm and the nearby town, where apparently a farmer is helping them there as well.”

Graves… Jon thought.

“...and he’s recommended asking you to help in our cause,” Lana said.

“What?” Hector looked down at the jewel. “Jon’s not a-”

Lana ignored him. “I know that you may be a civilian now, Jon, formed into the current militia that guards your farm, but this is where I may ask for you to step up and do more.”

“...What?” Jon asked.

“You may need to go to the source of whatever is causing the crisis on the farm,” she explained. ‘You, Hector, Mallory, even the Highlander… if you want to make it out alive.”

To the source? Jon didn’t like the sound of that. Was it a really big caiman?

“What I’m asking is for you to help my brother help your farm survive,” Lana said. “Will that be okay?”

“Yeah.” Jon nodded. He could do that.

“I’m sorry… and thank you…”

Her attention was turned away from Jon for a moment. She then finished speaking.

“Also, Jon, in the state of the Highlander… I don’t think that she directly is the cause of this… but it might be related. So, be careful with her, alright?”

Mercy...

Jon nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay. Hector?" Lana turned to her brother. "Can we speak… privately?”

“Whatever you can say to me you can say in front of-”

“Privately,” she commanded.

“Privately out of the goddamn window,” Hector muttered, looking towards the outside.

Jon wondered if Hector really considered throwing the jewel out of the window, but he held on to it.

“It was an honor to meet you, Jon,” Lana said from the gem, bowing.

Jon waived at the projection.

Hector walked out of the room before Jon could catch more of Lana’s curious glance.

Hector closed the door behind him.

Jon sighed. Lana had mentioned that they were protecting the farm. Right now, they were only protecting his home. None of the other homes on the farm was accounted for. What about Farmer Dan. Was he okay?

There was a sound of a mattress being sat on. Jon turned and saw Mercy sitting up on the bed.

Now that it was light, Jon could fully see her without the cloak, which she must have removed during the fighting. As Jon could tell before, she wore all black. Even if it was just thick black clothing. Jon felt just as intimidated when looking at Hector's armor.

She wore thick black pants that were flared at the bottom, reminding him of his blunderbuss, and a black top that exposed her midriff and also didn't seem very warm.

Maybe that's why she always wore the cloak.

Jon’s eyes then caught a small black object strapped onto her hip. It was a small pole, probably not much bigger than Jon’s hand.

“So, I’m something to be careful of, huh?” Mercy’s matter-of-factly tone brought Jon’s attention to her face instead of her clothes.

“...Sure,” Jon said. “Be careful.”

Mercy gave Jon a perplexed stare before she finally relaxed into a smile. “You're a goofball, you know that?”

Jon didn’t know why he was a goofball. He just took Mercy’s word for it.