Red Riding Hood MANXMAN

Red Riding Hood: Chapter 9

That night... 

Kinro's POV... 

I sat next to father and mother in the stands while looking down at Red in the arena. He was waiting for the lion to be released from the gate while we went over some tactics. 

'Remember it'll swipe at your legs with it's paws,' 

'And it will try to knock me down, yeah, I remember,' 

'I read a book about lions today, they usually hunt in groups, like wolves. They also are really big so they'll be slower,' 

A horn was blown as the gate in the arena was raised. 

'Good luck, Red,' 

'I don't need it,' He smirked. 

The large golden beast walked out of the gate and Red looked it up and down; as if sizing it up. The lion spotted Red and roared so loud that it hurt my ears. Red winced but didn't cover his ears, he gripped his blades tighter in his hands and howled menacingly at the beast, challenging it. 

They advanced on each other slowly, raising the tension as my muscles tensed in anticipation. 

'Red, it is going to try to circle around you. What are you going to do to counter-attack?' 

'Circle around me? Pfft! And I thought wolves were dumb!' 

Red was about to launch himself at the lion when a second beast, a lioness, came charging from another gate towards Red. 

'Red!' 

'I know, I'm going to throw it towards the far wall, or maybe the other lion,' 

As the lioness neared at a fast sprint towards my twin he turned to face her, but out of the corner of his eye I could tell that he was watching the lion warily. 

I watched in a still, silent panic, but one question continued to gnaw at my brain. 

"Father, why is he fighting two lions?" I asked. 

"He's fighting one for himself and one for you," 

The lion thought Red was distracted and pounced at him, but Red was all to ready to tear something in half and just as the lioness came within reaching distance Red swiveled and plunged the sword in his right hand into the lion's chest and tore the blade through its shoulder before sticking the second one into the beast's throat. Red had to push it off of himself; it's claws were imbedded into his chest. 

It let out a small strangled noise before falling silent and limp. The lioness had come screeching to a halt as soon as Red had stabbed its mate, rage pouring through it's veins. It snarled at my twin and as Red was yanking one of his blades from the lion's corpse the lioness leapt at him, pushing him down, his back facing up and the widowed lioness on his shoulders, it's claws sinking into his flesh. 

I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry out for someone to save him. But I couldn't. I was frozen. I could barely breathe. I could barely think. 

And just as I thought the lioness would take the life from my other half, a blur of white and brown leapt from the stands and darted towards the lioness and my brother, spearing through the lioness's chest and ripping out its heart before tearing open it's stomach. As it slowed I could see that it was a person, or at least it looked like a person; a pale, brown-haired, red-eyed boy with cat ears and a tail. 

Red groaned and the strange looking boy pushed the dead lioness off of him, as the boy helped my twin up the arena erupted with applause and cheers. Red looked over at the boy and shock and recognition formed on his face. 

"Fay?!" Red nearly screamed, not that anyone could hear him over the screams of the people. The only reason I knew what he'd said was because of our link. 

"We should get you to a doctor right away," Fay said in a soft, purring voice, concern on his features. 

I went to help Fay and Red, but out of the corner of my eye I say mother glaring and father smiling approvingly. 

After getting Red to a doctor named Scirete (pronounced: Sigh-r-eh-t), I relayed the fight to Red, how Father had set two lions on him because of me, and how Fay had swooped in and saved the day. 

"I knew you were my guardian the moment I met you," Red praised, petting Fay behind his ears. 

"I was so worried it would kill you!" Fay sobbed, tears streaming down his face, "Don't scare me like that!" 

"Shh, I'm okay, it's okay, everything's fine, don't worry..." Red cooed, holding the crying cat-boy closer.

        And it was, everything was okay for now.