Quest For Adventure: Attack of The Beast

Chapter 4.4: Motivation

"Ha!" Abbott yelled, a large smile painted across his face. "How about that, Leon?! Where's your 'force'  now?!" 

Everyone circled around Leon and Rose, except for A, who quickly looked over to the impending clash occurring to his right. Theodore's reinforcements had just crossed a bridge, and were now quite close to Leon's army. Time seemed to slow, and a few seconds felt like hours. But finally, they reached each other, and a rather messy battle ensued.

Although he couldn't make sense of it, A couldn't take his eyes off of it. He only looked at it, transfixed. Something about the desperate clawing of both sides hypnotized him, and planted his feet to the ground. Eventually, he heard a panicked shouts, and saw an arrow, flying towards him with dangerous speed. 

A turned, but found that it had already landed in his shoulder. It felt numb for a couple seconds, but suddenly, it shrieked with pain, and A collapsed, unable to support himself. He lay on the floor, gripping his shoulder writhing. He couldn't tell if he was crying, screaming, or just suppressing it, the pain was too distracting.

A desperately clawed at his shoulder, and felt a hole, and saw the arrow behind him, stuck into the dirt. 

-Get up.-  A cold voice rang in his head. A tried to obey it, but a wave of piercing tiredness slapped his head, forcing him back down. He could only slowly close his eyes. 

                                                                 *      *      *

"Zane?" I asked, confusion choking me.

He turned around, and jumped, slightly. "Woah, Moon? What are you doing in here? Go on, get ready, will you?"

"Why don't you? You don't get to take Christmas off, either."

"Because I leave tonight, duh."

"What?! B-But I thought that was tomorrow!"

I pulled myself onto his bed, and looked at him. "You don't have to go, you know. The military has tons of guys, right? Maybe one of them could do whatever you're gonna do."

"Don't be like that, will you? The answer is no." He closed the backpack, and strapped it to himself.

"Don't worry, dude. I'll visit in a couple months."

"No, please!" I jumped after him, but landed on the floor, face-first. I jumped up, and continued; "You can't leave me alone with Mom and Dad! I need you, please!"

He sighed, put his backpack on the ground, knelt down, and dug through it. "You're right, I didn't think about that, did I?"

"No, you didn't."

He pulled out a long red ribbon, beautiful and sharp.

"A ribbon? What am I, a girl?" I asked, appalled. "Did I start subconsciously dotting my eyes with hearts, or something?"

"No genius. Here, uh... tie it around your arm, okay? It's a special ribbon, that'll always give you the strength to keep going, to face anything, Got it?" 

I was suspicious. "Even Mom and Dad?"

"I said anything, didn't I?"

"Without you?"

Zane paused. "...Yeah, definitely."

"Well... Okay." I said, tying it in a square knot around my forearm. "You'd better not be lying."

"I'm in too much of a hurry. Now, is that all?"

I hugged him briefly. "I'll miss you."

"Yeah, whatever." He turned around, and quickly walked out the door.-

I looked down at my forearm. "I'm strong. I've got this. And because of that, I'll never have to cry again."

                                                              End of Part 4, Chapter 4