Hawk looked at the scene and he couldn’t grasp what was happening. Eto had fallen into the river while he was shot, Veronica jumped into the river while screaming his name. Vanessa stood next to him, as shocked as he was while the Ricu warriors ran past them to fight the tree creatures. Those creatures who started running towards them. Before Hawk could have an idea what was happening, shots could be heard and soon he saw blaster bolts coming from a different direction.
The Ricu warriors jumped over the river, like some of the tree creatures. They collided in midair and the battle started. Some fell in the river while fighting, some rushed through the river to fight.
Veronica walked into the water, ignoring the fights in front of her and also the power of the river.
‘Eto! Eto, where are you?’ she yelled. Hawk saw it all happen and while he was still processing it, he made sure he checked the water where Eto fell in. Soon he saw something that looked like him drifting in the water. It looked like his back and Hawk didn’t want to take chances.
‘Veronica! Here!’ he yelled and he quickly ran towards the river.
He clicked a button in his belt and he quickly switched to one of his forearms hanging on it. It was shaped like a gun but instead of bullets, it could shoot a rope.
He ran into the river until his knees reached the water and he shot towards what he thought was Eto. A rope launched from his arm and spun towards the body in the river. Hawk kept shooting until he thought he had a grab on him. When he locked the rope, he could feel the weight hanging on his arm.
‘Veronica! Quickly!’ he yelled. Veronica already was making her way through the river to the end of the rope, ignoring all the battles happening around her.
She reached the end and grabbed the body.
‘It’s Eto!’ she yelled back at Hawk. It looked like she was overjoyed from knowing it was actually him.
Hawk started to bring in the rope as Veronica moved Eto through the water.
His body was heavy and even though the water level wasn’t high, the force of the river was heavy.
When they reached the edge and Hawk started to help her take him out of the water, they noticed something clinging on him.
It was one of the tree creatures Hawk saw before. The girl who had grabbed Eto when he jumped over the river.
Together, they moved both Eto and the creature away from the riverside to be away from the battles.
‘Is he dead?’ Veronica asked with fear, noticing how Eto was not responding to them.
‘What now?’ she asked and looked at Hawk, terrified. He knew what to do.
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He grabbed Eto’s clothes and ripped them apart, trying to find the wound. He pulled the scarf off of him and threw it to Veronica.
He examined Eto’s naked upper body and saw a hole in his chest where he was shot.
‘Dammit,’ Hawk yelled angrily and he tried to wake Eto.
While he didn’t wake him up, the creature next to him started to open her eyes.
While she just woke up, she immediately started to hang over Eto.
‘No, Eto!´ she yelled, almost pushing Hawk away.
He wanted to yell at her and push her aside but Veronica stepped in. She held Hawk back as she pointed to what the creature was doing. When Hawk noticed it, he looked at it with a fascinated look.
The creature started to put her elegant wood hands over the wound of Eto. It looked like some light erupted from underneath and the creature started to shake from the pressure.
Veronica and Hawk looked at the creature as it seemed she was doing something that required much power.
The light soon started to fade and the creature let out a big moan before falling aside. In a reaction, Hawk jumped in to catch her but not before he saw what happened. The wound was gone and Eto slowly started to open his eyes.
‘What? Where am I?’ he asked with much trouble. Slowly he started to sit straight and Veronica jumped in to support him.
‘Eto!’ she yelled and it didn’t take long before she hugged him.
‘I thought we lost you,’ she said with tears in her eyes. Eto still looked like he didn’t understand what happened. Al he could do was look at the battles in front of him.
‘What is going on?’ he asked as he saw both the Ricu and the Kojo fight.
Princess Morinojo jumped in to hug him, pushing Veronica a bit aside.
‘I don’t know Eto. I’m scared,’ she said with fear, searching for protection with him.
Hawk looked to the fights, not wanting to accept that all of this was happening right now.
‘The Kojo attacked us,’ he said and Princess Morinojo looked at him with an angry face.
‘We? It was the Ricu who started to attack us!’ she said and Hawk looked at her.
‘You sure about that?’ he asked her, questioning her words because she was the one to fall into the river.
‘I don’t know what is happening because I fell in the river but I do know that this is not the solution,’ Eto said and he slowly got up. The princess still hung onto him while he was trying to get up.
‘You got shot and fell down,’ Veronica mumbled and she stared in front of her. Soon she had an idea.
Neither the Kojo or the Ricu attacked first,’ Veronica slowly said and everyone looked at her.
‘What do you mean?’ Hawk asked her.
Veronica pointed to the soldiers who ran up next to the river and started to join the fight.
‘The first shot came from afar and I bet they have something to do with it.’
They looked at the soldiers and the princess let go of Eto.
‘The soldiers! They promised to help us preserve our lands,’ she said. Hawk growled something.
‘Something similar was promised to Lowe,’ he said as he remembered Lowe’s words and the princess looked at him with a surprised face.
‘I bet they started this,’ Eto said as he walked to the front of the group. He touched his chest and his neck and started to panic.
‘Wait! Where is,’ but Veronica stepped in to hand him his wet scarf.
‘Right here,’ she said as Eto put it on, even though it was cold and wet.
Hawk’s mechanic arm started to make sounds and they looked at him, wondering what it was.
He looked at his arm and a tiny smile appeared on his face.
‘TYO is coming in,’ he said as he turned to look at the jungle.