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“Arthur… what if this goes bad?”
Aristotle asked timidly, looking over their partner’s shoulder, who was trying to get ready for something. Well… not just something. More or less what could be a defining moment in their history. “Ari, we’ll be alright.” Arthur replied, looking into the broken mirror he had propped up against a random tree. At the moment, they were in the middle of the woods. Aristotle had followed their partner, who seemed hellbent on completing this task, no matter how dangerous it could be.
They had recently gotten word of a travesty occurring in the next town over; a dragon had been terrorizing a small village! It destroyed just about everything of value and left multiple people without homes or without their families. Arthur, being the reckless goat that he was, would try to put a stop to everything. He wanted Aristotle to join him, as he knew they were better as a pair, but the axolotl seemed to have other plans.
“Don’t you realize that this is a suicide mission?!” They asked with a glare, crossing their arms over their chest. They really didn’t want the shorter male to leave; they didn’t want to be approached with the news of their partner being killed in a horrific accident. So, they would follow along, albeit begrudgingly. That was their plan all along. They couldn’t let their partner kill himself; not without them, at least.
“I do. But at the same time, Aristotle, can you blame me for wanting to go in? I can’t just let something like this happen. Not when we’ve been able to stop things like this before.” The goat replied, checking the innards of his coat to make sure that everything he had was securely in place. He had cut multiple holes in his coat just to make “inside pockets”, which worked surprisingly well. Though, he had basically mangled it in the process of giving himself extra pockets.
Aristotle sighed exasperatedly. “Arthur, that’s different. That time was with a whelp… THIS?! This is a REAL dragon, damn it! Not a baby, a fully grown dragon!” They retorted. “Don’t you understand how much more DANGEROUS this is?!” Their tail lashed behind them, thumping on the ground in annoyance and fear. They didn’t want to lose their partner. Not if they could prevent it.
“I do, but I don’t find it in me to care.” Arthur replied, turning to his partner and placing a hand on their shoulder in an attempt to calm them down. “Listen, Ari, we’ve done this kind of thing before! I mean, how many things have we conquered together? Don’t you remember it all? All of the past adventures—“
“I do, but Arthur, don’t you SEE THAT THIS COULD KILL YOU?!” Aristotle interrupted, the thumping of their tail against the ground only becoming more and more insistent. “I’m not going to let you kill yourself— kill US! You’re not going out there! Not without me, and I’M staying put!” They spoke with a harsh tone, trying to get their point across. Though, Arthur had always been a hardheaded man…
“I’m going out there, Ari. I’m going to help these people, no matter what it takes. I’m putting my hoof down. If you don’t want to come, you don’t have to, but I’m going. Period.” The goat spoke with the same tone as his partner, gently stamping his hoof against the ground to further emphasize his point. Aristotle had enough.
“Arthur, what if we die?! We’ll never live to see the day we grow old together, we get married, adopt kids—“
“If we survive to tell the tale, we’ll be heroes. If we die, we’ll be legends.” Arthur replied with a soft grin. In reality, he was scared too. Absolutely petrified. He didn’t want to die; but at the same time, he didn’t want to be the reason why a catastrophe could’ve been stopped earlier.
Silence fell between the two lovers.
A tense, eerie silence.
“…Arthur, you’re a madman, y’know that?…” Aristotle replied in an attempt to break the silence. He didn’t want this to be their last interaction. “I love you, goddamn idiot.”
“I love you too.” The shorter male replied, turning on his heel and beginning to walk the opposite direction. He didn’t know where he was going, but he was sure he’d find a way. “You coming?” He asked.
“…yeah. You bet your ass I’m coming, I’m not letting you die alone out there.”