With his plans ruined, Ian lay in the hammock in front of his house. Lucky slept on top of him as he stared at the sky, thinking. Most of what he planned to do was to go hunting and train for the tournament. Now, all he could do was his training.

  After moping for a while, Ian sat up, pushing Lucky off to the side. If he wasn’t going to be able to hunt, then he was going to keep himself busy with one of his favorite hobbies.

  It's only the second day since he returned home, so he hasn’t had time to visit everyone yet. With nothing to do, he made his way to Zoey’s.

  By now, it was a little past afternoon, which meant Zoey’s was going to be busy. Ian entered the restaurant, seeing that it was full. Zoey was serving plates, alongside a new face.

  He was a younger kid with brown hair who looked to be in his early teens, running around, taking orders, and serving food. He looked like he was on the verge of stressing out from moving around so much.

  “Chip, is that you?” Ian asked in surprise.

  The young boy stopped what he was doing and turned around to look at who called him.

  “Ian? It is you.” Chip quickly placed down the orders he was serving before running up to Ian.

  “I heard you came back yesterday? Was your trip fun?” Chip asked.

  “It was uneventful.” Ian paused to look at Chip. “Wow, you’ve grown. Last time I saw you, you barely reached my stomach. Now you’re up to my chest. Must’ve had a growth spurt while I was gone.”

  “Yup. I grew taller. Not much longer and I’ll be just as tall as you, if not taller.”

  “Keep dreaming, little man.” Ian ruffled Chip’s hair.

  Chip smacked Ian’s hand away before asking, “So, are you dining in or carrying out?”

  “Oh, I’m not here to eat. I wanted to talk to Dave.”

  “I see. He might be a bit busy, but you can go ahead into the kitchen. Just try not to get hit by a flying pan.”

  “You don’t have to worry about me. I worked with him for a long time. I know how to handle myself.” Ian made his way behind the counter, walking slowly into the kitchen.

  The moment he stepped in, an iron pan came flying at his head. Luckily, he reacted in time and caught it.

  The lack of a dong sound surprised Dave, making him stop cooking and turn his head.

  “Ian? What are you doing here?”

  “How’s it goin’, Mr. D? Didn’t mean to surprise, I was just wondering if I could come back and work for you?” Ian placed the pan off to the side.

  “Permanently? Of course you can stay forever…”

  “No… Just for the time I’ll be visiting.”

  “Damn. I could’ve really used the extra help. The village has grown since y'all left. Our population has grown by like 50 people. Apparently, there have been talks of a potential conflict with a neighbouring nation, and some people are fleeing to the far edges of the kingdom. It’s nice to have more customers, but without you and Zoey, I had to hire Chip.”

  “And this is a problem, how?” Ian began to wash some dishes.

  “The kid’s enthusiastic to learn how to cook, but…”

  “But what?”

  *sigh* “He’s horrendous at cooking. I’ve tried teaching him the basics, but he always messes up.” Dave stopped cooking for a moment as he turned to Ian in desperation.

  “Oh, come on. He can’t be that ba-”

  “He set a salad on fire. He was never near a hot source.” Dave grabbed Ian’s shirt by the collar.

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  “Oh…Ooohhh. Then why don’t you fire him?” Ian removed Dave’s hand from his shirt.

  “The kid may be awful at cooking, but he’s a great server. Thanks to him, I could allow people to sit and dine instead of grabbing and going.” Dave sighed before returning to the dish he was making.

  “I see. So are you going to give up on teaching him?” Ian asked as he placed the clean plate off to the side in a nice stack.

  “I can’t do that. The boy has a heart for cooking, but he was never taught any skills growing up. I basically have to build him up from nothing. And I don’t think my budget can handle his mistakes.”

  Ian patted Dave on the shoulder and said, “I’m sure you’ll manage. Now, about working for you again?”

  “Ah, right. Sure, I could use a helping hand in the kitchen again. Do you want your old schedule again?”

  “That’d be nice. However, do you mind if I work from opening to closing?”

  “That’s unusual. Did something happen?”

  “I’ve been grounded by Liam.”

  “Grounded? What do you mean?”

  Ian took a moment to explain his situation to Dave, going into his growth over the past year and gauntlets not keeping up. Once Ian was finished talking, Dave burst out laughing.

  “HA HA HA! To think you would outpace yourself and end up like this. Heh heh heh…okay then, I’ll take you up on it. You can start tomorrow. Sounds good?”

  Ian nodded his head, “Yup, that works perfectly.”

  “Great, then I’ll see you tomorrow morn-”

  “WHERE IS HE!? Where’s Ian!?”

  “Oh, shit! I know that voice. It’s Ellie, and she doesn’t sound happy.” Ian took a step back from the kitchen entrance.

  Zoey soon walked in, looking calm as can be. “Ian, Ellie is looking for you.”

  “Yeah, I heard.” Ian reluctantly walked out into the dining area.

  There, he saw Ellie tapping her foot in irritation, surrounded by other patrons just trying to eat. Her face was one of pure anger. It was the same face their mother would give when someone else pissed her off.

  “Ellie, why the hostility?” Ian tried sounding calm, not wanting to show fear.

  “I’ve been looking for you all day. When I woke up this morning, you were already gone, so I had to search for you. When I reached the training grounds, everyone was already done, and you were nowhere to be seen. Sending me on a wild goose chase just to find you.” Ellie got more irritated as she spoke.

  “Okay…so what did you need that you had to go looking for me?” Ian sounded a bit more worried now.

  Without any warning, Ellie stepped forward and grabbed Ian by the collar of his shirt, pulling him close to her angry face. “You're going to help me train.”

  “Wh-what?” Ian’s voice trembled.

  “You heard me. We have less than a month before the tournament, and I want to be ready. So you’re going to help me train.” Ellie gripped Ian’s shirt tighter.

  “Why do I have to train you? Couldn’t you ask Dad or Emmett? Maybe Kevi-”

  “If you say that name, I will bury you.” Ellie’s face became angrier.

  “Okay, okay. But why not the other two? I’m sure Dad would be happy to train you.” Ian gulped, hoping not to make her angrier.

  “I don’t want lessons from dad, I want proper combat training. If I’m going to be facing actual opponents instead of sparring partners, then I need experience fighting someone. You’re my best option.” Ellie finally loosened her grip on Ian’s shirt.

  “I guess I could help you out on my days off.”

  “Days off? What do you mean?” Ellie looked confused but still mad.

  “Well, I decided to help out Dave for the duration of our time here.”

  “That’s fine. We can just train in the evenings when you get off from work.” Ellie loosened her grip even more.

  “That’s just it, I’ll be working with him from morning till close.” Ian hesitated to say the last few words.

  “What…WHAT!? That’s not happening. You’re going to train with me every day or else!” Ellie gripped Ian’s shirt tighter, lifting him up against a wall.

  For most of this interaction, the patrons eating were just ignoring it or just listening in. Now, they all backed away a bit, feeling bad for Ian. Dave, who was still in the kitchen, whispered under his breath something about feeling bad for the person who ends up with Ellie.

  As if she had heard him, Ellie snapped her head towards Dave and said, “Sorry, Dave, but you can have him for so much.”

  “Go ahead, take him. I don’t need the help; you need him more. I’ll just have him three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.” Dave tried to hide deeper in the kitchen, away from the service window.

  “Then it’s settled. Ian, come along, we have some training to do.” Ellie started walking while pulling Ian by his collar.

  “Now, wait just a moment. Even if I wanted to, I still can’t train with you.” Ian finally set himself free from Ellie’s grip.

  Ellie turned around quickly and said, “And why not?”

  “I’m not allowed to use my gauntlets to fight anymore. For now.”

  “Are you talking about how Liam said you’ve grown too fast for the gauntlets to keep up?”

  “Yes, that’s exactly…Wait, how do you know about that?”

  “I stopped by Liam’s workshop before coming here when I was looking for you. He gave me a rundown of your whole situation.” Ellie crossed her arms.

  “Then you understand why I can’t train with you. I can’t use my gauntlets. It wouldn’t be fair.”

  “You idiot. Liam said you can’t grow stronger, but you can still use your gauntlets. He actually wants you to use them so they can adjust to your strength. I swear, you guys only hear half of everything sometimes.” Ellie pinched the bridge of her nose.

  “Oh. I must’ve misheard that then. Or maybe I processed it wrong.” Ian felt embarrassed by himself.

  “You don’t say… Anyways, let’s get going. I want to get some serious training done.” Ellie began to walk out of Zoey’s

  “Did you ask Dad for permission to use the training grounds?”

  “He actually wants to watch us train. He said he wanted to be the judge.”

  “Sounds about right.” *sigh* “Okay, let’s go.” Ian reluctantly followed Ellie.