Pierce sighed as he looked out the gates.
It had gotten colder, and he was thinking about Arlo's idea of uniting the two kingdoms as he watched his breath fog up the air.
He chuckled to himself.
Yeah, right. Like that could ever happen. I must be out of my mind.
Even if it did, there would still be tension between the Vaequilians and Zealorians.
"What's wrong?" Claire asked.
"Oh, it's nothing."
"You guys ready?" A girl was walking towards them, guiding a pegasus.
"Oh, Alice! Yeah, we're ready."
Claire had asked him to meet her at the gate early in the morning.
"So why are we here?" Pierce asked.
"We'll be visiting Faegris again today to try and find the people who hired us to be thieves."
"What? Why are we going?"
"We want to try and get them to join us so they can help plan the Endeavor's next move."
"I see. So why am I coming?"
"I don't know, I just thought you were getting bored of doing nothing all day."
That's true. I can't argue with that.
"So, how are we getting there?" He eyed the pegasus. "We don't need to... I don't need to get on that, right?"
The girl named Alice laughed.
"Sorry, but we're gonna have to fly. Are you scared of heights?"
"No, no. I just... I'm not sure if riding a pegasus is secure..."
"Sure."
"Wait, no, really!"
In complete honesty, Pierce had a great fear of heights.
Back when Claire was explaining how they would escape Vaequiles, Pierce was just glad that he wouldn't have to climb the ladder.
"You'll be going with one of my soldiers." Alice pointed behind her to another pegasus.
"Oh, alright."
He walked back and greeted the soldier and hopped on his pegasus, strapping on his belt.
"You ready?" He asked.
"Yeah." Pierce gulped.
Pierce woke up to Claire shaking him.
"Huh? What happened?"
The soldier in front of him sighed.
"You passed out the moment we took off. We had to strap you down."
Pierce felt his face getting hot as he fixed his hair.
"Ah... okay."
They had strapped it to his back and arms.
"Woah."
"Let me help you with that."
Claire helped him get out of the safety straps.
"Okay, let's go find them! Their 'base' is located underneath a broken-down shack."
"Yeah, like that one right over there." Pierce pointed to it they had landed practically right next to it."
Claire ran into the shelter and pulled up the trapdoor in the floor.
"Hey! It's me, Claire!"
"Claire?" A voice yelled, and Khai climbed out of the entrance. He looked back down and called for his friends, who quickly came out as well. Everyone but Cole.
"You're back?" Caitlyn asked.
Chelsea stood beside her, and he noticed that she had bandages covering her arm and legs.
"Well..." Claire began.
"We want you to come to join the Endeavors. We're having trouble coming up with a strategy to fight against Vaequiles." Alice spoke for Claire.
Suddenly, Chelsea's head drooped. She turned around and climbed back down into their base.
"What?" Claire asked.
Pierce had noticed that the rest of the group had a less enthusiastic air, almost muted.
"What happened, don't you want to help us? You guys helped steal from them before..." Pierce asked.
"Sorry, I'll be with Chelsea." Caitlyn showed a smile.
Quickly after she left, Khai spoke.
"We no longer involve ourselves with Vaequiles. Find someone else to do the job."
"What? But you guys were stealing from them just a few weeks ago!"
"We had an incident with Vaequilians... that was quite... devastating to us."
"I-" Claire tried to talk.
Khai's brows furrowed.
"We were having our own heist in Vaequiles and... we got caught. Cole wasn't so fortunate to escape." Khai continued.
What? The Vaequilians... they really took him?
Dammit, that can't be true. He must've gotten lost or something! Separated from Chelsea by mistake!
"He...
was...
killed."