Arriana's Return

Arriana's Return - Chapter 61

 Chapter 61

The training sessions increased once Caleb was back on his feet which did not take long. Arriana, Zoe, Deacon, Henry, Caleb, Barwick, Marc, and Aroman were up before dawn. The ever-growing army was shortly after daybreak. The addition of the southern tiger tribe as well as the hippogryph herd helped the morale of the troops.

Everyone was becoming more and more nervous about the pending battle which seemed to be approaching faster than anyone had anticipated. Arriana knew that the harder they trained was just as hard as Lucas was training. There was no doubt about that. She had sent shapeshifters into the castle to spy on him and his army at various times and with each return came the news of a growing, powerful army. They had no idea where he was recruiting more people from. More of the men from the raid had decided to join Arriana.

Her weeks of kindness to them, even while they were imprisoned, had swayed them over. They were not used to such compassion that once they realized that was how she really was, they turned against Lucas. Despite the fact that more and more people were turning against him, Arriana was still nervous. She trained daily from before the sun rose till well after it went down. With the increase in her training, she began to notice the days passing by more quickly. Eventually, the day came for Drake and his clan to arrive and start training with the troops. There were only six dragons that arrived with him, but six were more than they had before. Drake worked with Arriana and the rest at perfecting the battle plan.

Arriana was surprised when John approached her one day out of the blue. "Arriana?"

"Yes, John?" Arriana didn't even look up from the map.

"I was wondering if you still needed people for the army."

This caught her attention. She looked at him curiously, not sure if he was being serious or not.

"Why do you ask?"

"I want to help. I know I've been a real jerk and I'm sorry. If you'll have me, I would like to be an archer." He glanced down at the paper in front of them, trying to avoid Arriana's gaze.

"Are you sure? You won't have much time to learn and train," she told him.

"I know how to shoot a bow. I was a boy scout when I was a kid. We did archery at the camps."

Staring at him, she examined his face. Still unsure if he was serious.

"Go see Adia and Xander. Meet with Zoe and Marc, they'll get you started on hard training. Have you talked to Danni about this?" Arriana questioned him.

"Yes, I have. She's not happy with me but she understands."

"Thank you, John."

"No need to thank me Arriana. If this is going to be my new home I might as well help out, right?"

She just smiled at her brother in law as he turned and headed to the makeshift blacksmith shop.

They worked on training for three more weeks until the day came for Rajtan and his family as well as Lemantius and his herd to arrive. Introductions were made all around and everybody got back to work immediately. Xander and Adia were working in overdrive finishing the armor for the Coresovan army. Mary and Scott were becoming anxious as well. They feared for their daughter but wanted the unrest in the land to be over. If this was to be their new home, their families new home they wanted it to be peaceful for all.

Everything Arriana had thought so important in her old life was washing away. She was responsible for ruling an entire world now. She was to be officially crowned Queen Arriana Bawors of Coresova after the battle, as long as she was still alive.