A New Generation

The Death of Me

I kneeled over Kai cautiously. She looked horrible. Simon had caught on after seeing her and rushed over. There was a consistent throb in my heart and a sick feeling in my stomach. Kai could be seriously hurt. No, don't think like that, I scolded myself. I checked her pulse and asked Simon for something to wipe up the blood. She was alive. Simon tore off a bit of his already ripped shirt and placed it in my hand. I held the white fabric to the scratches and watched worriedly as the deep red seeped into it. Kai hadn't gotten lucky as Simon had. The claw marks were deeper, and there were some shallower ones on her neck and sides. I asked Simon to get some water and he sprinted off to the nearest store. Thankfully were were hidden by the start of a forest, so no passerby saw us. Holding Kai close, a tear rolled down my cheek. I hadn't realized how hard this quest was going to be. I was going to be scared half to death like this more than once. And to think that this was what just a manticore could do. Simon came back with three large water bottles. I held one to Kai's head. Seeing a flicker of movement behind her eyelids, I paused. Then her eyes fluttered open and I let out a huge sigh of relief. Quickly, I grabbed the water bottle and gave it to her. She weakly took it and chugged a good half of it. After that, she seemed slightly stronger, enough to talk. "Wh-what happened?" Then she bolted upright. "Don't worry about me! Get the effing monster!" She said louder. "Hey, calm down. Anna here killed it. Chopped its head off." Simon pointed out. I blushed and wiped away the remaining tears from my face. "I-I...yeah," I stammered, still in shock. Touching the wounds on her face, Kai said, "Well congrats. Your first monster." I smiled and helped her to her feet. "Where can we get some food around here? I'm starving." She said. "You're forgetting a little something. You have three inch cuts down your face, on your neck, and on your sides. You're bleeding in many places." Simon replied. "Well then, fix me up, Doctor boy." Kai mocked. Simon walked up to her and put his fingers to her temples. He muttered a short incantation, and like that, her cuts had clotted and closed. "A bit of ambrosia should make them into nothing more than scars." Simon said, digging around in his backpack. He pulled out a plastic bag with the food of the gods in it and handed it to Kai. She took it and put a small portion into her mouth. "Mmm, homemade brownies," she sighed with her eyes closed. With that, she handed the bag back to Simon and dragged us to the nearest fast food restaurant. I was just glad it was three of us, not two.