“Ya know, that was kinda epic how you defeated that plant thing.” I said to Victor as we continued our journey.

“I couldn’t have done it without your help.”

“Oh please, I just gave it a little scritch. You’re the one who did all the work.”

“Well, whatever the case. I would’ve run away if I didn’t have you to protect.” He smirked.

“So lame!” I punched his shoulder, “I know you’re much more brave than that! You’re a boy after all.”

“That doesn’t mean anything.”

“Does too! I wouldn’t go to a girl for protection… That’s why I chose you to protect me in school. And you were brave then, how come you’re only brave when I’m in danger?”

“Well, now that you say that, I don’t know. Instinct, I guess.”

“Hm.” I thought for a moment, “I think it’s deeper than that.” I closed my eyes and walked in front of him, “How about this? If I let you touch mine, then I can touch yours?”

“Would you give up the tail thing already!” He shouted.

I tucked my tail and lowered my ears, “Okay… don’t have to get so defensive over it. I don’t see what the big deal is!”

“It’s just a weird thing to ask a person. Can’t you ask something else first?”

The gears in my head turned until they clicked, “Oh! Can I hold your hand?”

“As long as you don’t ‘scritch’ me.” He giggled.

“Come on, you know I didn’t mean to.” I pouted.

“Fine, fine.” He wrapped his big, strong hand around my petite, fragile hand.

I blushed, and my mind went crazy. As I felt the warmth of his hand slowly and gently start to warm my hand. Suddenly, my hands started to sweat, and I quickly pulled away.

“What’s wrong?” He asked.

“Oh, nothing~.” My stomach rumbled, “My tummy’s hungry and I forgot to pack a lunch.” My eyes teared up.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find something to eat.”

“I don’t wanna kill an innocent deer!” My tears started to fall, “Can’t we eat some berries or something?”

“I didn’t say anything like that. Where’d you get that idea?”

“Oh, because I saw that deer over there.” I pointed to a deer scampering through the trees. It laid eyes on us and made a weird mechanical sound as if it were trying to warn us about something.

My heart skipped a beat as I heard the sound of the deer, but then I heard a more terrifying sound. The ground around us shook and the trees swayed. The deer scampered off and Victor and I ran off the trail. Again, my heart gave a sharp pain as I ran off the trail. We ran through the overgrowth ignoring the pain of the sharp thorns tearing up our legs.

I tripped and got entangled by a large pokey bush, “Victor, help me!” I shouted as I squirmed around trying to free myself from the bush. Victor stopped and tried pulling me out of the bush.

It was too late, a large creature pushed its way through the trees knocking them over as if they were blades of grass. It reached out its thorny tentacles and wrapped one around me. Victor tried to fend off the other tentacle with his stick but it was unphased by his powerful blows. As the tentacles wrapped around us, I felt it start to crush my body like an empty soda can. I tried to gasp for air but its grip around my chest was too tight. I felt my face turn blue and the world around me started to turn black. The only thing I could see was the face of the creature and its pretty blue eyes as it lowered me to its mouth and let out a deafening roar.

My ears started to ring, I couldn’t hear anything anymore. I felt the creature’s grip tightening the longer I sat there. I tried to scream in pain but nothing came out, I tried to struggle and squirm but my body couldn’t move an inch, “I don’t wanna die!” I thought to myself, “I don’t wanna die this way, everything hurts!”

The world around me turned completely black, yet I was still conscious, I could freely think and still feel the crushing pain around my chest. I accepted my fate and gave up struggling. Then suddenly, the pressure around my body ceased, “Am I dead?” I thought, “Is it really just an empty void where I’m free to think forever? No, no that doesn’t really make sense.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

My vision returned slowly. I saw a knight leaning over me, holding a pink flower against my nose. I saw the flower turn gray but I still couldn’t speak or move yet. The knight reached over me where I saw Victor lying. The knight held a pink flower up to his nose.

I felt my blood flow through my body again (which is a super weird feeling.) and I gasped for a breath. I started sobbing and gasping for air, “Thank you!” I cried out, “Thank you!”

The knight said nothing and laid my head back on the ground while giving it a little pet. I felt blood enter and reactivate each one of my muscles and organs. After a minute or two, I felt completely healed, but still hungry.

I lifted my body and saw the lifeless body of the giant creature. It had been sliced completely in half, “Did you do that?” I asked the knight.

It looked where I pointed and nodded.

“You’re so cool!” I wrapped my arms around the knight’s beautiful silver armor that had been stained with the creature’s blood. The knight wrapped its arms around me and stroked my hair and my back. My tail wagged and the large wings of the knight flapped as if it were happy too.

Finally, Victor woke up and stretched. He saw us and hugged me too, “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you!” He started to sob as well.

“It’s okay, you tried your best! We would’ve been okay if I hadn’t been so clumsy and tripped.”

“Who’s that?” He asked while pointing toward the beautiful silver knight with majestic wings.

“I thought you’d never ask.” A feminine voice came from underneath the helmet. She slowly lifted the helmet from her head. Beautiful, golden locks fell over her shoulder and her beautifully pale skin glowed as the bottom of her face showed. Her lips were a sweet pink and she bore a unique curly, mischievous smile. My tail began to wag faster and faster as her eyes were revealed. They were a beautiful forest green that sent a bolt of electricity to my heart.

I quickly jumped on her giving her the biggest hug I’ve ever given and for some reason licked her cheek instead of kissing her cheek, “Oh, Val! I never thought I would see you again. And you’re so beautiful! Look at your wings, they’re gorgeous!” I kissed her on her cheek, “Sorry about that lick, I don’t know what was up with that.”

She held my legs, lifted me off the ground, and kissed me in return, “You finally went on a hike again! I was worried you’d be in your room, depressed forever! And you made a friend, I knew you could do it without me!” She said in her familiar happy voice that always brought me comfort.

“Well, I’d say he’s more than a friend.” I giggled.

She gasped and dropped me on my butt. She covered her mouth with her hands and started blushing, “No way!” she giggled and bounced, “Absolutely no freaking way! You didn’t!”

I smiled, got back up to my feet, and brushed the dust off my tail, “It’s true!”

“If it’s true then kiss.” She smirked, “On. The. Lips!” She clapped her hands after each word.

“H-Hold on now!” I became flustered, “S-Shouldn’t you explain what happened before we do anything else.”

“We have plenty of time, don’t worry! You two lovebirds can love on each other as much as you want.”

I looked at Victor and saw him flustered just as much as I was, “Well, I know you shouldn’t kiss on the first date.” I said stubbornly.

“You two are no fun!” She pouted, “But~ you two do look cute together! I wish I had my phone to take a picture of your guys’ red faces!”

My belly gurgled again and I pressed my hands against it, “Is there anything to eat around here?”

“Of course! It’s not the best though.” She pulled a pouch from her satchel.

She handed it to me, and I dug my hand inside, pulling out nuts and berries and maybe some jerky? I stuffed my mouth with the mix and ate like an animal. I drooled and said, “This is amazing! I skipped breakfast and maybe lunch, and I don’t even know how long we’ve been walking for!” I shoveled more of it into my mouth. I looked around seeing their concerned disgusted faces while they watched me eat, “Sorry… Want some?” I held out a handful to Victor.

“Sure, I’m super hungry too.” He took the mix from my hand wiping off some of the drool I had left on it.

“So, you went hiking on your first date?”

“Well, yeah! Well, really my main objective was to find you, but I knew it was dangerous to go alone.”

“Well, I’m happy you finally came. I missed you!” She gave me another hug.

“Why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve been there for you, I would at least understand why you were gone. Everyone thought you had killed yourself and it made me sick for months!”

“I’m sorry.” She said in a serious tone, “I didn’t want that to happen at all, if it were up to me I would’ve been back the next day like always. To be honest, I didn’t know I was gonna be here for as long as I have. I thought that I’d come, fight The Blight, and return home. I’ve been doing it for years, that’s how it’s always been. Recently it’s been so out of control that this entire sector of the forest has been sealed. This section was a beautiful place with flowers everywhere! Flowers that heal you, flowers that energize you, flowers- well, that could do anything! Unfortunately, some curse or virus took control of the great powers of the flowers and used them to make evil monsters. We call them Weeds or Stranglers. Once you kill one, the flowers are replanted and restore life to the forest.” She grabbed my hands and wiped away the tears that started to build up, “I didn’t want to show you this place because I didn’t want you hurt. I wanted to take you when everything was better but, clearly, it’s taking longer than expected. So during my long stay, I sent you an invitation so that next time you went hiking, you’d find this place.”

“You’re such a jerk!” I punched her armor, “You could’ve died without me knowing how!”

“I really am.” She sat down, “Out of everyone in the world I should’ve told you, Ivy.”

“But… you never left me.” I said happily.

“I didn’t?”

“Nope! You were always there talking me through everything, I heard you in my mind every time I got sad and we had conversations like we always did.”

“Now that you say that; I heard you too Ivy! I wonder if we have a connection.”

“Of course we do! That’s why we’re best friends!” I hugged her again.

“Sorry to interrupt but, I think we’re long overdue for a rest. We’ve been walking for hours, plus we almost died and I think I could use a nap.” Victor said while finishing his nuts.

“Oh yeah! I gotta take you guys to camp. That’s kinda why I’m here, to pick up some new soldiers.”

My eyes sparkled, “Camp? Yippie! I could use a cat nap meow!”

Vallory’s eyes widened at the sound of my cheerful meow, “That is so dang precious!”