The Real Ram

Chapter 18

 Right away Beast turns into a wolf. He growls showing his impressive teeth and claws. Petalbelle smirks and raises her hands. Plants come from the ground and the walls. Vines with purple flowers and thorns. Beast readies himself and starts running to meet Petalbelle. She sees this, and moves her vines in his way. He tries his best to dodge them, but the thorns cut his skin underneath his fur, and I can see tiny red streaks forming. 

I look to Petalbelle and see that she's hiding a little nervousness. She didn't expect Beast to be so unfazed by the thorns. She rushes a vine to her feet and she climbs on it. She motions for more vines to attack Beast as she rises in the air. More grow out and attack him. His right paw is grabbed onto, and this trips him. More latch onto him and soon Beast is covered. People cheer for Petalbelle and she looks to Mr. X. 

"I finished him," she gestures to the pile of vines, "Declare me the winner!"

I look to X and see he looks to the pile. The worry on his face changes into a smirk. Petalbelle notices this and looks back the pile. The struggling of Beast has stopped. She moves the vines away and there's nothing but a little blood underneath. "What the—" she starts but she cuts herself off with a scream.

Suddenly a hawk soars up from the ground and shifts into a slimy green frog and flops into her hair. Petalbelle fanatically tries to brush Beast off. Everyone starts laughing, and Beast shifts into a Capuchin monkey. He sits himself on her shoulders and hollers as he tugs lightly at her hair messing it up. 

People start laughing even more but stop once Petalbelle slips off her vines. She's so distracted by Beast that she can't catch herself from the nearly two story drop. Some people start screaming, but I watch carefully as Beast starts to shift into a bigger animal, and moves so he takes the fall impact for Petalbelle. She lands in his giant bear arms, cushioned and safe. Everyone cheers and she rolls off Beast in a daze.

The crowd goes silent once Beast shifts back into himself, and he's not moving. Flame gets up and I follow him out the exit and through some doors to the entrances of the ring. Mr. X, Trish, Shawn, and a few other trainers and already there. Flame and I sprint to Beast and Trish spots us. 

Flame pushes through some trainers that are already in the arena and kneels beside Beast, "Hey, Beast. Beast, can you hear me?" he lightly taps Beast's cheeks but gets no response. "We need a medic!"

"Oh my gosh," Trish turns around, already crying. Shawn moves to comfort her. I look to Petalbelle and see even she's concerned. 

A healer runs in through the crowd and does a small evaluation, "He hit his back hard. He might have hit his head as well." He puts a hand on Beast's chest, "A few cracked ribs, but they don't impair his breathing. A concussion might be possible, but I can't tell right now."

"Should we move him out?" Flame asks. He runs his fingers through his red hair and I can see he's worried.

"He needs to gain consciousness first. That was a hard fall, he may have a fracture in his neck. In that case the last thing he would need is a couple of people man handling him."

I quietly move to Beast and kneel beside Flame. "Zoe, go wait with Trish and Shawn."

"Flame," I say quietly and even in his panicked state he freezes. He looks to me and I see fear in his eyes, "I can try and wake him."

He backs up and moves to Beast's side. I feel my father's ability start to run through me and I close my eyes. I need this to work, Beast needs to wake up. He needs to respond to me. "Beast, wake up." Nothing. How did I say it last time that brought him back from his episode? "Beast," I say firmly. 

"Come on kid, it's not working," one of the trainers say. "We aren't holding up the matches, we'll just wait for him to wake himself up."

"We need to disperse the crowd though," one of the trainers says behind me. "With all that's been going on behind the scenes, we shouldn't have everyone crowded in one place."