courage and cowardice

i. in the beginning

It was 1994, a brisk winter morning. In the cool of the northern Washington, two little kids stood at the edge of a forest. One, a lanky, small child, and the other, a more child-like chubby, peered into the depths of the woods, looking purely for the thrill and adrenaline of hidden adventure. The lanky one took a step forward, seeming to be the more courageous out of the pair, and slowly creeped into the mass of trees. The other followed cautiously behind, all too aware of the potential risks or dangers in their midst. Still, he followed behind, into the sprawling green.

The chubby one knew he was right as soon as he heard the noise.

He couldn't help but quake in terror as he slowly raised his head and faced with a monster. Not an actual monster, but something he had never seen before, that his brain told him was a being of pure monstrosity. 

The creature flexed its paws, talon-like nails retracting in and out, waiting to make a move upon the  prey. It slowly blinked its brick red eyes, as if examining the situation at hand. It picked up its tail and walked closer to the boys, watching their every move. Its huge muscles rippled as it approached, covered with beige fur and the occasional scar. Its huge teeth and claws were prominent, as they were used the most often with prey. The creature turned its head to  grin at the easy meal.

The lanky boy, stood in the front, knees wobbling, was faced with a terrible decision. To flee, and hope to preserve his own life. To run and distract the beast, and save his friend at the expense of his own life. Or, to cling to his friend with all he had, and try to protect them both. He could only pick one, as his instincts led him.

In a split second, the decision was made. 

The lanky boy swiftly ran away, leaving the cat-like creature to attack his friend. 

The chubby boy screamed in terror as the creature focused in on its prey, hoping for a quick kill. The beast decisively slashed and snarled, aiming for the important organs, but the boy quickly wrapped up behind his knees, making him hardly accessible.

But, before the creature could completely consume the other boy, the lanky boy threw a massive stone into the deeper part of the woods with everything he had, hoping to steal the creature's attention away from the boy. He curled up, with baited breath, as the beast paced by where he was hidden in the bushes, trailing the source of the noise. The beast passed him by, pausing for a moment to sniff the air dramatically, then continued onto where the noise was from curiously.

The lanky boy, soon after the cat-creature had galloped away to follow more the promising noise, dashed to help the other boy. He was badly bleeding, with a large gash in his right calf, spanning from the bottom of the knee to the top of his ankle, cut through to the bone. The lanky boy could see many more substantial injuries on the boy's chest and arms, but none on his neck. He quickly attempted to check for the cat again, panicking, while wondering what to do for the injured, nearly-unconcious boy sitting behind him. After scanty time to think, he decided to try to move the boy to a safer spot, then cry for help, help from just about anyone. He could only hope his friend would not awake and scream in pain.

He put his shirt on the ground, praying it would hold up against the stony and rough ground, and tried to scoot the other boy onto it. Moving quickly, the lanky boy dragged him through the greenery and to the edge of the woods, where they had been many minutes earlier. The other boy, softly crying in pain and in shock, could not bear to open his eyes. He didn't want to see the source of the terrible agony he felt on the inside. The lanky boy proceeded to cry for help, for anybody to help. 

He ran to the nearest house, banging on the door in desperation.

"Please! Open the door, anyone at all! My-my friend needs help RIGHT NOW! PLEASE!"

A figure jerked the door open, staring at the crying little boy at the front door. They veered their glance to the left, where a little boy sat, torn up from his torso down. 

The figure, paying no mind to the lanky boy, jogged over to the injured boy. They grabbed the boy bridal-style, not caring about his clothes, and quickly got into a car, calling for the lanky boy to get in, and hurry.

The figure drove rapidly past the city and lights to the nearest emergency room and hospital, where ER technicians swarmed at the entrance around the boy, trying to keep him living. They immediately put him on an IV and oxygen mask, to try to recover his breathing during shock. Blood was seeping through the boy's clothes, through the sheet, and onto the bed, as they rolled him off to emergency surgery.

He was losing too much blood, and the technicians knew it.

They did their best behind closed doors.

After hours of surgery, waiting, and blood transfusions, they managed to save the boy, but just barely.

The figure and lanky boy sat in the waiting room, dreading any news, but contrastingly desiring as many updates as possible.

The figure finally turned to the lanky boy. They stuck out their hand while saying, 

"Well, I suppose I should introduce myself," they sighed while continuing, "I'm Sam. Before you make any quick assumptions, yes, I am a girl, despite how I look." She pointed to her loose gym shorts and baggy sweatshirt, unfortunately now covered with a stranger's blood. "And I'm 22."

"H-hi, Sam. I-I'm R-River. I'm 8... and he's 8 too." The lanky boy spoke up for the first time, albeit with a lot of hesitation.

"He your friend, or brother, or...?"

"F-friend. Thank you so much for taking him here, I wasn't sure he was going to make it and I was so stupid to leave him but I had to and I tried to help but I couldn't and," He sharply inhaled, losing more hope each and every time he rambled off.

"Hey, kid, calm down. Slow your roll." She placed a hand on his in an attempt to soothe him. "What happened?"

"Well, w-we were going to explore the woods and he was behind me and then this huge cat-thing came up and I decided to run away and then I threw a rock to distract it then it ran off even though it had already attacked him and I tried to help and," Thankfully for his lungs, he was interrupted by a man in a lab coat who walked up to the people in the waiting room.

"Your friend is going to be okay for now, if he pulls through the calf reconstruction and the post-op. I suggest you wait here a little while longer, and definitely get in touch with the family."

Sam nodded, the turned back to River to speak to him, placing her hand on his shoulder.

"I think that was the smartest thing to do there kiddo. If you would've stayed, the both of you would've been goners." After a pause, she continued. "Don't get too down, I'm gonna go try to find his parents. Do you know their numbers?" She reached into her bag and rustled around to find her phone and contact her friends, to find the parents, listening to River's shaky listing of several numbers he knew his friend's mom would respond to.

River turned around, sitting with his back slouched on the chair and his eyes glazed over. He thought about his decision, what he could've done any better, what he could've done to get him out unscathed.

He didn't realize that

Sometimes, courage means running away.