28"Cryssa," said Grandpa Po. "It's time to start your training again. Three weeks is a long enough break."
Sitting on the beach, Cryssa stared across the lagoon at the big gate in the rock wall. When Seek returned from wherever he had disappeared to, he would have to pass through that gate to reenter the lagoon.
If Seek returned. It had already been three months since he had vanished during a knight patrol of the open ocean beyond the wall...a knight patrol that he had joined right after his talk with Cryssa in the cove.
"I'm not ready," said Cryssa, brushing windblown strands of red hair from her face.
Standing beside her, leaning heavily on his cane, Po sighed with frustration. "You have a responsibility to your people," he said. "You cannot put it off forever."
"Then force me
