A Dragon Called Halfie

Part 4/ lonely

It had been two years since Kirishima's parents had died, and he was ten years old now. He had learned how to get along pretty well all by himself in the woods.

He had started a little garden behind his house, and he went out hunting every few days for fresh meat, so was never really short on food, or clothing, until the winter. But even then, he had dried food hidden away in the cellar. Just like his mom had taught him.

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It was around the mid spring, when something out of the ordinary finally happened.

Kirishima was delighted when hunting day finally rolled around. He was tired of doing the chores, and just wanted to get outside the house, and go hunting.

He exhaled happily, as he walked out of the front door, with his knife strapped to his belt. He glanced around the clearing, and realized the sun wasn't quite up yet. The first rays of sun light barely peeking over the mountains, painting the skies with pastel blues, pinks, and purples.

'I guess I got a little too excited!' he thought to himself as he made his way into the woods, following his normal hunting trails. He had walked them so many time by now, that there was a visible path he could follow with his eyes closed.

He was headed to his favorite spot, an old tree, with big branches that leaned out over a creek where lots of animals came to drink. He would usually sit and wait to ambush the animals from above.

He was about two minutes away from the tree, when he heard something scream out, like it was in pain.

He didn't recognize the animal call, so he immediately went to search for whatever had made that noise, deciding he could hunt later.

He could tell that it was screaming something that sounded almost like words, but he couldn't understand what it was trying to say.was it a human?

Maybe it was a different language, or someone's name? He wasn't sure, but the screaming gave off their location, so it was really easy to find them.

Kirishima found them sitting underneath a ten foot cliff. It wasn't very high, but a person could easily stand underneath. He knew this particular cliff though. It was well concealed, and that made it very difficult to tell where the edge was. Many animals fell over the edge, and it seemed like the same thing had happened to this....person?

When he got closer, he was able to see the them easier. It was a girl, with blond hair loose around her shoulders. She had sharp teeth, and golden eyes, her leg was bent painfully to the side, and had obviously been broken.

Once he realized what was wrong, he felt safer. She probably couldn't kill him if her leg was broken.

He inched over to help, going verry slowly. Kirishima racked his brain, trying to figure out the correct words to say. He wanted her to know he was going to help, her not hurt her, but the words simply were not there. He couldn't remember them.

Since his parents had died years ago, he had a very restricted vocabulary, and the fact that he had hardly used any words in the past two years, hadn't helped much.

He reached his hand out to her like you would a dog to show he was friendly. Unfortunately she didn't understand, and pulled away. Bearing her teeth that reminded Eijiro of his own.

"Me...fix" He said, pointing to himself, and then to her leg. He reached out for her once more, and this time she didn't pull away. Although she kept an eye on his knife.

He helped pull her into a standing position, and she leaned on him like a crutch, and they slowly but surely limped back to his house.

It had only taken Eijiro a few minutes, running to get to her in the beginning, but it took them closer to half an hour to get back.

His shoulder was beginning to ach. Yes, he was strong for his age, because he had to carry dead deer, and buckets full of water (which he complains are heavier than the deer) But carrying the weight of another person his size for this long, was very difficult for the 10 year-old boy.

When they were finally inside his cabin, he gently laid her on the bed.

By this time, her face was contorted in pain, and covered in sweat, with an almost green tint.

"At this point there's no hiding it." she said through gritted teeth. "I obviously broke my leg. Shiggy is going to kill me!"

Eijiro looked at her questioningly. He kind of understood what she was saying, but he didn't understand why someone would be mad that her leg broke. Shouldn't they try to fix her? Like he did?

Normal people are confusing.

"Why?" He asked. Using one of the few words he was sure what meant. He used to go all day just asking his parents why this, why that? It used to drive his mom up the wall.

He smiled at the memory, but then she spoke again.

"Its all Kurogiris fault for putting me in the wrong place! But that's not important right now. What's your name? Mine's Toga, Himiko Toga. Thank you for saving me!"

For the second time that day, he was at a loss for words, not sure what to say. Then one of the last happy memories of his parents played in his head.

Father looked at him with tears of joy in his eyes. " I'm so proud of you Eijiro! "

With obvious hesitation in his voice, he said " Ei-Eijiro"

A strange looking smile made its way on to her face "Oh really? Eijiro, that sounds a lot like Ajilo, are you a Kirishima by any chance?"

He nodded, smiling back at her. Trying to thank her silently, because he wasn't able to remember his last name. But as soon as he heard Kirishima, he knew it was the name he used to be so familiar with.

She smiled even wider, "Oh! Nevermind what I said earlier, Boss is gonna love me!"

Words: 1045

Leaf out!