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We walk through this stupid forest we are walking through for a long time; this feels so useless! Why didn’t just the portal work and brought us back to the monastery! Why?! I finally have my parents back and now I am trapped in some realm with my parents out there, most likely alone and in danger if the portals are stuck. I am so worried about them….
‘Arin?’ I hear someone asking and look up to see Lloyd, his eyes are full of tiredness, but he tries to stay strong, I know. His suit has become torn from sleeping outside here, in the jungle and hunting on animals to get some food in this cursed forest. ‘Sorry, I was thinking about something’ I say a little ashamed and Lloyd leans against a tree and says:’ Thinking about your parents?’ I nod worried, and Lloyd walks to me and lays a hand on my shoulder:’ I’m sure Cole, Geo and Mr. Frohickey can take care of them in the monastery.’
(Author’s note: Are you sure about that Lloyd? ☹)
I sigh and say:’ I know but still, I finally have them back and now we are trapped in some realm where we still didn’t find a way out!’ He sighs too and then points towards a cave. ‘Should we sleep there for the night? It is already beginning to get dark, and we still need to get food’ I nod and so we lay our stuff in the cave and decide to go out to get food. We sneak through the forest and then see a little bunny; the best you can get in this forest we found out. We look at each other and nod; Lloyd leaves so I attack it from the front and he from the back.
When I see his green suit at the other side of the bunny, I nod and attack with my sword the bunny. The bunny gets scared and runs in the hands of Lloyd, who stabs it with his sword to end its life. Lloyd kneels next to the bunny and picks it up, seeing it is a small one. ‘I don’t think we have enough time for another hunt, lets get back to the cave’ We walk back, the bunny in Lloyd his hands, he didn’t hurt it that much, just a little stab through the heart. I don’t know how he learned this, but I know it is fine to have a professional at your side in this dire situation.
We arrive at the cave and sit down; Lloyd begins to make fire and make the bunny ready for cooking. He taught me how to do it, so I take the bunny and begin to cut all the fur off and the organs, so we only have meat left and it isn’t much. ‘That is not really much meat, but its fine’ Lloyd says and takes the bunny and begins to cook it. When it is done, he hands me a piece and when I look at his, it is much smaller than mine.
‘Uhm Lloyd’ He looks up, green eyes shining in the dark and says:’ What?’ I sigh and say:’ Nothing’ Somehow, he does this every time, giving himself a smaller piece just for me to stay strong, he doesn’t think about himself. And every time I try to say something about it, his eyes just make me stop, convincing me he is strong enough and has been through worse. Then we see a flash outside, we walk out of the cave and see in the sky, seven colours flying in the air. I hear Lloyd gasping like he knows something and then, I hear growling that I know very well. Ras. ‘Ras, he is doing something to the source dragons!’
So that is why I didn’t recognize it, those colours are the source dragons, but the colours seem to disappear, it is becoming black. The source of this comes not far away from us, so I scream:’ We need to go there!’ Lloyd nods, grabs his stuff and we eat the meat as fast as we can and then begins running towards the light. We run through the dark forest, plants sweeping in my face, almost hitting trees head on but still we decide to continue because we know, if Ras succeeds, reality will be lost.
‘What could he be doing to them?’ I scream while running to Lloyd and he says breathing heavily:’ I don’t know, it seems like he is corrupting them….’ Then he stops, I stop too and say:’ Lloyd we need to go!’ But he just stares at the sky, then looking at me. ‘Arin…. If the source dragons are being corrupted, what about the conduits of the source dragons?’ He looks down and rolls up his sleeve, seeing black veins starting to spread to his shoulder.
He looks at me, eyes becoming dull before collapsing in front of me. I catch him and put off his shirt to see the black veins starting to go up his neck, up his face. ‘Lloyd no….’ I want to scream but it comes out as a whisper. ‘Arin…. You need to….’ But then he coughs, the black veins reaching his neck real fast. He coughs up black stuff and pushing me away, saying:’ Arin, you need to kill me’
He looks at me, his eyes becoming black and the veins already at his brain, he is going to attack me if I don’t do something! ‘Please, kill me!’ I am crying without realizing that I am crying. ‘I can’t’ I whisper crying and not knowing what to do, I look to the ground with hopelessness in my eyes. Then I feel hand touching my arm, I look up to see Lloyd fighting the corruption and pushing to me, his sword.
‘Do it’ he says coughing black stuff once again, above us the source dragons are almost completely black, Ras is almost done with the corruption. I look at Lloyd, crying while I look at Lloyd his sword and then back at Lloyd. He is smiling at me, accepting his fate. Then I make the decision. ‘I’m sorry Lloyd’ I whisper and then stab Lloyd through his heart with his own sword. I stumble back, taking the sword with me, letting it fall on the ground, black, purple, golden and red blood on it. He smiles and then falls back, blood pooling beneath him.
I kneel and he says, blood flowing out of his mouth:’ You made cough the right choice cough Arin…. Now cough become the ninja cough I hold you back from…. Maybe you cough you deserved to be the cough green ninja cough all this time’ He smiles one last time before his eyes roll back and close for good.
His emerald, green eyes disappear forever, never will I see the kindness in those eyes or the tears or the proudness. Never will I see him looking at me while training, never will he walk next to me and never will the green ninja stand up again.
He is dead and I….
I killed him.