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Trinity
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When we got back to Leon's house, the food that he had asked to be made was ready for us. I hadn't realized until that moment just how hungry I really was. The moment that we walked through the front door though, I could smell the food. And at that smell my stomach rumbled loudly.
My stomach wasn't the only one that started to growl though. There was a chorus of growls around me. Reece, Talia, and every single guard that was there with us had their stomachs growl as well. It was funny, but it also showed how much we had been neglecting ourselves lately. We had all been working, and that was a good thing, but we were also not taking care of ourselves in the process. We needed to be better about this. If we weren't, then we were going to start losing energy way too soon.
“I think we should rest before we go over the evidence. None of us have eaten in several hours. And we haven't slept either. Once we are back to full strength, we will tackle this again. Let's have lunch and then go to our rooms.” There were nods and grunted sounds of agreement from the others.
“Hmm.”
.....
“Yup.”
“Mmhmm.”
“K.”
I turned to look at Leon, who had paused when I started to talk to the group. I could see that he was feeling slightly relieved about this too. He was so unprepared for my visit that he was already looking ragged.
“Allow me to show you to the dining room, Queen Trinity. You and your entourage can eat there and then rest until you are ready. I will be here working, but I am at your disposal.” He was smiling as he spoke, but it was clear that he was telling me 'thank you for this time to prepare for the next time that I need to work with you'. Oddly enough, this man was still nervous around me even though he had been to the castle dozens of times over the years.
“Take the time to prepare yourself, Leon. We will see you in the afternoon.” I nodded at him and then followed him to the dining room. He bowed to me and said his goodbyes, but that was the last that I saw of him before he practically fled the room. He was nervous around me. Maybe it was my power, or maybe it was something else. All I knew was that I was hungry and didn't care about him at the moment. In fact, as I went to sit at the table, my stomach growled once again.
“Alright. Someone get Trinity some food before that beast inside of her decides to eat one of us.” Reece was laughing as he helped to put my seat in at the table.
“Oh, come on Reece, you know that my beast only has an appetite for you.” I gave him a mischievous smile in response, and while almost everyone in the room laughed, there was one that didn't like the joke all that much.
“Eww. Come on Mom, that is gross. Please do not talk about your sex life with dad while I am around. That is just disgusting.” She pretended to shudder at the thought.
“Well, Talia, I am sorry, but I can't help it if it's true. And if your dad and I weren't the way we are, then you wouldn't be here to enjoy this life.” I just had to give her a hard time. I mean, that was my number one job as her mom. Now that she was a teenager anyway.
“Eww! I am not listening to this.” She was laughing and playing along with me. While doing that, she stuck her fingers in her ears and started to make noise to drown out what we were saying. “LA LA LA LA!”
“Oh, come on, Talia. It isn't that bad, I only made a joke. You're the one with a dirty mind that took what I said in that direction. I simply meant that I love your father with all of my heart.” I batted my eyes at her and pretended to be innocent.
“Uh huh. Yup. Sure. I believe that. Just like I believe that the sky is made of cheese and that the fish swim in grape juice.”
“Well, at least grape juice is a liquid, where the hell did you get the cheese for the sky? You do know that it is the moon, right? The moon is made of cheese. The sky is made of cotton candy.” I kept the joke going, pushing it right back at her.
“Yummy, that sounds good. Teach me to fly then, I want to eat some cotton candy.” I saw that she was serious about the flying, but that was the only part of it.
“Teach yourself to fly. Everyone has to do it on their own.”
“And by everyone, you mean you.” She glared at me.
“Yup. I wasn't taught to do it, I just learned. That is how you will do it too. You need to make your magic your own.” I remembered back to the first time that I walked in the air and the first time that I flew. I had been so scared, but I had done my best to not show it to anyone, even myself.
“Hahh. You are so mean.” She was laughing, despite her fake sigh.
“Hey, I love that you two are bonding and all that, but can we get to eating.” Reece finally sat down next to me, opposite of where Talia was sitting on my right. “I am hungry, and so is everyone else.”
“Yeah. Let's eat.” I nodded, turning to face the others.
“Yup. I am hungry too.”
The food was good. Telyn was the one that served us and said that she made sure that there was nothing bad that happened to the food while she was preparing things for us.
“I have also prepared rooms for all of you, Queen Trinity. There are not enough rooms for everyone to have their own, since this place is quite full with others living here, but I have the guards doubled up. Do they know who will be pairing up with each other? There is a private room for Princess Talia and a room for you to share with King Reece. All of your luggage has been brought to the rooms, Queen Trinity, but the guards' luggage is waiting for them to decide on their rooms. The only guards that I assigned to a room already are the ones for Princess Talia. Their room is right beside hers.” She was explaining things as she spoke very fast. I think she wanted to get it all out before I dismissed her or something. She was also still very nervous around me.
“Thank you, Telyn. I appreciate all the work that you are doing for us. The guards will divide on their own. For future reference though, Shawn and Dietrich will always be bunked together since they are married.”
“Oh!?” She looked at the men in shock before smiling. “I was not aware. I will move their belongings to their room while you eat. Does anyone else have a preference?” She was looking at the remaining guards.
“I will bunk with Gabriel.” Vincent spoke first. “That will leave Shane and David to be paired together.”
“Why me?” David whispered next to him.
“Hey! I am not that bad.” Shane looked hurt but there was still laughter at the corner of his eyes, he was about to make a joke about this. “I know that I am super awesome, so much so that my awesomeness is overwhelming, but you don't need to be intimidated by me, Davey boy! I won't hurt you too badly.”
“And this is exactly why I felt like saying 'why me'.” He groaned and lowered his head. We all laughed since we knew that they actually got along really well.
I could tell that everyone was feeling stressed and worried about the case. They were all eating a little stiffly and they were doing their absolute best to not mention anything that had been happening. The only conversations were about our lives back home.
We had only been gone for a few days, very little time in truth, but it felt like we had been gone for weeks. That was how busy things had been, and how many things had happened while we were gone. From bringing Talia here to investigating so many bodies. All of it was so different from what I had been expecting of this whole trip.
As the food was starting to disappear from the table, and everyone was reaching their point of being overly full of food, I noticed that several people were getting tired. None were as tired as Talia though. I saw that her eyes were starting to droop and that her head was swaying a little bit.
“Alexio.” I called out to him, causing him to rush over to me.
“Yes, Queen Trinity.” He was sort of trying to make up for letting Talia see the scene in the woods against my orders. Or that was what it seemed like.
“Talia is falling asleep, please take her to her room.” He looked at her then and we both watched as her head flopped against her shoulder. She almost swayed off of her seat at the same time, but Alexio caught her and kept her from crashing to the floor.
“Right away, Queen Trinity.” He nodded in agreement as he swung her up into his arms. I couldn't help but notice just how small she looked next to him. He made her look like she was still a toddler. I really missed those times.
