XXV

Winter Bonding

———

For four years after the search of the six teams, Ellen was able to make the Portland Goldens safer, resulting to more missions of portal soldiers within the kingdom. With all the time they used in waiting for the six teams to come back for news, they had peace within the kingdom. By nine in the morning of winter, the Deinte Café along the Candid Street became a meeting place for the Juniors. The townspeople walk in the streets with various types of fleece jackets.

"Hello, how are you now?" William started the conversation and uneasily moved while on the unbalanced chair of the café.

"I'm fine," Lance said and raised both of his eyebrows. "How about the others?"

"Just the same," Amy nodded and cautiously held the cup of her espresso.

"Same."

It was a long period of silence. No one talks about anything like they used to do before.

"So . . . what's our plan today?" Amy asked and tilted her head weakly.

"What if we ride a sleigh?" Sally suggested quickly with a funny smile.

"That will be great," Tom agreed while raising his right hand. With the four years added to his age, he is still the most childish and youngest in the team. He had ordered milk since he doesn't really like coffee. He waited for his friends to finish drinking their coffees.

"How are your lives now?" Lance still asked although his question is nearly identical to William's.

"Still the same," Elise said. "Wait, why do we ask these things? It's just one day since we last saw each other."

All of them froze to think about it. We had a mission where we just checked every street of the towns under the kingdom's leadership, Amy thought.

"You know, guys, I missed using our weapons on some serious purpose," Amy randomly observed.

"Me too," Lance said.

When the five spotted their coffees were getting cold, they quickly gulped their drinks.

"Are we going to ride the sleigh now?" Tom asked while everyone of them were making way out of their seats.

"Yes, Tom," Amy smiled. They exited the café while forming a crooked line. Lance was at the rear of the line when she held Amy's hand. He gently pulled Amy towards him.

"What?" Amy asked and tried to sound colorless.

"Can I go to my mom?" Lance plainly said and tried to hold back any emotion. "I've told her I will only stay here for a short period of time. It's been four years or more. I've actually planned to say this to you one week before."

"When are you trying to go?" Amy asked.

"If you will let me," Lance looked away then looked at Amy again. "Today."

Amy looked directly to his eyes. Amy involuntarily blinked when she heard his words. Lance stepped back and exhaled.

"Are you coming back?" Amy asked concisely.

Lance looked down and said, "I need your permission to leave the Portland Goldens."

Amy froze and looked away.

"We're a team, Lance, and as my first thought, all of us should never be apart," Amy started. "But as a future leader, I need to do what is the best for whatever waits to be in my hands."

Amy wept slightly and furtively, then resumed speaking.

"Also, I need to consider the happiness and betterment of my friends' life," she forced to close her eyes while looking down. "I allow you to leave the Portland Goldens and Juniors. I'll just tell our teammates and General Phillip about it."

Lance nodded and turned his back.

"Goodbye, your Majesty," Lance smiled bitterly, not caring about how Amy feels behind his back. He turned to Amy again. "And please don't make anything that will make me miss the Juniors and Portland Goldens." He turned his back again and walked away – away from any of them.

While leaving, Lance thought, I want to stay here and almost every citizen of Portland Goldens wanted to replace me in my bedroom inside the palace but I have a family. I don't even know what kind of accident harmed me in their minds. I want to be a portal soldier and it really hurts me to stay away from what I've been. I promised my mom not to leave them, yet I did. I chose to stay here for my own purposes and it's a sin to my family I feel I have to be guilty about.

He stopped walking and looked over his shoulder. His eyes with a mixture of blue and gray landed on Amy as he wanted to say, I'm sorry, Amy. I know that you want me to stay in your kingdom but this isn't my home. I'm not even a portal soldier and staying here longer makes me feel envy of what you can do. I am so sorry and goodbye.

The eyes of Lance let go of Amy's sight. The sight of Amy looks like she was about to tell the goodbye thing of Lance.

"Amy, where is he going?" Tom stepped near Amy and locked his eyes on Lance, who walks farther. "Why didn't you stop him?"

"Amy?" Elise mumbled.

"He will leave the Portland Goldens," Amy said in melancholy. Amy sought for Lance on the road where he'd gone. Albeit the street is long enough to take someone who walks on it a long time to complete the path, Lance is out of sight in no time. That is when Amy realized something.

"Wait," Amy mumbled then said in her normal voice, "he's not a real portal soldier. He can't make a portal to Garing-free!"

The four looked at Amy with a what-are-you-talking-about expression. After not caring about what her teammates think, Amy ran to the direction of the road where Lance headed. There was no other place Lance could go to since this little shop is the dead-end of this road, she thought while eyeing at the pottery shop at the end of the road. When I get near to that store, I will enter it and find Lance. If that is really the dead-end, he must be in any of the stores around that place.

Amy reached the front of the pottery house named Rundlet Pottery. Something made her eyes look at the right and see a gap between the pottery shop and the structure next to its right. The gap is forming an alley and there stood an adolescent who walks away sluggishly, his back facing Amy. Assuming the boy was Lance, Amy clenched a weighty amount of snow from the ground and rolled it into an imperfect sphere. She aimed and threw it at the nape of the boy and when the snowball came flying towards him, she gasped at the thought the snowball will hurt him much since it's heavy.

Fortunately, the slightly hefty snowball was pulled down by gravity and it only hit his upper back.

"Ouch!" the boy exclaimed and stopped walking. He turned around to see who's behind it, literally. His hair is like the messy hair of Lance but he never had the bluish gray pair of eyes that Lance has. And he had a fierce gaze.

It's not Lance, Amy thought guiltily. Oh, my.

"I am so sor—" she said but someone had cut her statement.

"I apologize for what she unintentionally did." The voice came from behind. Like how the boy turned around a while ago, Amy turned around to see who talked. Lance.

"Your Majesty, it's alright." When she heard the boy she thought was Lance, Amy changed her eyes' view from Lance to the unknown boy. "It's nice to see you, your Majesty, but I have to go and it's a real rush," the stranger said before Amy could say a reply. The boy ran away and left.

"That situation is peculiar," Amy commented then frowned. "The way I thought somebody else was you is like a cliché."

"Your Majesty, I told you not to make a deed or reason that will make me miss the Juniors," Lance coldly said but he failed to sound harsh. "Why did you chase after me?"

Amy walked to him slowly and on purpose.

"You can't make a portal to Garing-free," Amy spelled out. "You're not a portal soldier. You need one portal soldier who has been in Garing-free in order to go back there. Mom is a busy queen and I can help you go there."

Lance stared at her but she doesn't return the stare. Amy's eyes were on the rest of their four teammates, who were few meters away and were totally confused of what they are talking about.

"Why does he need someone who's been in that place if he will go back to that place?" Elise asked keenly. "It means he's been there and he can go back using any kind of portal."

"Can't Lance make a portal?" William grilled.

Lance had his eyes wide enough to make him forget how to blink. With fear, Lance turned paler than he had ever been.

---