"...Fine."
"S-Seriou-REALLY!?"
"Yeah, sure, fine, you win! Go into the woods alone. Just make sure not to go too far. And if you see any sign of danger, come home immediately."
"YES! YES! ABSOLUTELY! THANK YOU!"
The conversation endlessly repeated itself in Giroro's mind as he ran. He was tired. He was sore. His body felt as though it could collapse at any moment. But he had to keep running. He had never wanted to escape something so badly in his life. He couldn't look back. He knew that it wasn't that far behind him. He knew that if he were to slow down even slightly, he wouldn't make it very far before it eventually caught up to him. He may have been the quickest and most energetic frog in his class, but space huskies were considered one of the deadliest hunters on Keron for a reason.
As terrified as he was, he was ashamed of himself even more so. He had to put on a very convincing show to allow his brother to let him travel into the woods alone. He now regretted every second of begging he forced himself to do. He never expected something like this to happen, but now that it was, he wished he had considered the consequences a bit more. Maybe he could have stopped himself if he gave it just a bit more thought. But it was too late to change that now.
He pushed through every bush and mud pit in front of him. He was covered from head to toe in who knows how many of the woods' disgusting properties. He pushed his way through another small group of bushes. He could feel the icy coldness of every small wet leaf as it slapped against his skin. He reached the end, running directly into the stump of a thick tree, stopping him in his tracks. He would have allowed himself to instinctively stop and allow his body to breathe, but with his life still on the line, he quickly made his way around the tree and kept running, holding onto the soiled bark as he turned.
The blocks kept coming. The woods just wouldn't stop trying to slow him down. But still, he kept going. He knew there had to be a way out of this somewhere. He just had to keep running. The space husky was no doubt still on his trail. Garuru was right. He should have just listened to him the first time he said not to. He had been in these woods far more times than Giroro. He knew the dangers. He knew something like this could happen. And now, here HE was, someone who had spent days upon days thinking of new ways to beg his brother into let him go alone, paying the price.
He stopped running. He looked forward. Then he looked down. It was a cliff. A steep slide of rocks was all that was in front of him. The bottom was too far down to see. It looked as though there was an entirely separate woods standing at the bottom. All he could see was the top of the trees beneath him. The night sky kept almost everything else hidden in a pitch black shadow. The chase was over. He had nowhere to run.
He froze in place at the sight of the emptiness in front of him. He wanted to look back. He wanted to know if he was at least safe from the husky. He wanted to know if there was still hope of escaping. But his nerves would not allow it. He was too terrified to even think. He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't blink. He could only stare. Stare dead eyed at the dark land before him, his fearful mind telling itself that he wouldn't be coming home alive.
His heart rate continued to beat faster and faster. There had to be something he could do to escape. It couldn't end like this. He had a brother he had to come home to. A father. A friend. This couldn't be the way he'd die. But what could he do? He had no weapons, no protection, nothing. He went into the forest simply to explore and to play. He thought that he could handle himself this time. He could possibly find a log or something to defend himself, but that would only get him so far against a space husky.
Footsteps appeared behind him. Then a loud, furious bark. Giroro shook like his body was buried in a mountain of ice. He could no longer control his impulses and his body flinched backwards. He stared directly at the creature. Its grey, dirt covered scales covering its entire body. Its fangs front and center. Its dark red eyes piercing Giroro's soul, sending chills down his spine. He was paralyzed. He was too scared to run away. He was too scared to even contemplate what was happening. The creature he had been running from the entire evening was now staring him down the edge of a deadly cliff. It had him cornered, and it showed no sign of letting him go. There was no escape this time. This was how it would all end.
Tears poured down Giroro's eyes. His lip quivered. He let out painful choke after painful choke. The creature only got closer, its growls growing more and more threatening. Giroro's vision grew blurry. The water in his eyes was getting to him. The world was now almost completely unclear. He could only see the dark background and the grey blur that was his undoer. He didn't want it to end like this. He wanted to tell his brother he was sorry. That he should have listened to him. That he loved him and everything he ever did for him. He wanted to see his dad again. He wanted to see Keroro again. He wanted to do so many things with his life and see so much more. He was going to join the Keron military. He was going to become the best soldier in the army. He was going to be famous across the universe one day. But now, with his own demise now staring him down, he knew that none of that would ever happen. It hurt like nothing else to think about, but it was the truth.
He closed his eyes. It was over. He couldn't go on anymore. It was time to accept his fate. He heard the husky roar. It was a roar that should have scared Giroro to no end, but instead, it soothed him. He knew the creature was soon to attack. He knew that it was getting angrier. The sooner that the husky would put an end to his life, the sooner his painful feelings would end. He wanted the tears to stop. He wanted it all to be over. The rage of the husky's roar assured him that it would all be over very soon.
A shot was fired. Giroro's eyes sprung open. The creature was now in a different position. Its body was turned slightly to the left and its right paw was off the ground. Something had frightened the husky. Another shot was fired, only this time Giroro could see what had happened. A small, purple sparked bullet flew down from the sky and shot down at the creature's feet. The husky jumped back in fright. Two more shots were fired. The husky ran back into the woods, wheezing in fear as it scurried away. With the ruffling of a few bushes, the beast disappeared.
Giroro remained still. He had no idea what had just happened. His mind was too deep in shock to even think about what his situation had changed to. The sound of a landing hover board appeared above his head. A second later, a purple frog riding on such device landed in front of him. His eyes widened even more. Giroro was beyond speechless. Could it be him?
"B-BROTHER!" he screamed, running up to him without thinking. Then he forced himself to stop dead in his tracks after an important thought crossed his mind. He remembered how hard he had tried to convince his brother that he could look after himself once he entered the dangerous woods. Now he was being saved by the very frog he had succeeded to fool into letting him leave.
Giroro looked to the ground. He didn't want to look at the shamed expression that he knew Garuru had. He just stood there, keeping himself as quiet as possible. He sniffed occasionally as a few remaining tears rolled down his burning red cheeks. He wanted to say he was sorry. He needed to say he was sorry. But still, he couldn't bare himself to even say anything. He knew how deep he already was. He didn't want to make it worse.
Giroro followed his brother's shadow from the grass below him. He saw his brother leap off his hover board faster than he had ever seen him leap. He heard his running footsteps against the soggy grass, his pace incredibly quick as he ran towards him. Then, in a shocking act that Giroro had not expected, Garuru instantly wrapped his arms tightly around his brother.
He squeezed his brother tight. Tighter than he could have ever attempted in any other situation. He pressed the small red frog as close to his chest as he could. Giroro, still silent, gasped in surprise. There was no screaming. No furious growls. No anger of any kind. There was nothing like that at all. Garuru stayed quiet as his grip never lost even a hint of tightness. Giroro couldn't think of how to respond to what was happening. Until, after only a couple quiet seconds of hugging, Giroro followed his instincts and did the same.
He wrapped his arms around Garuru as best he could. He squeezed all the strength he had left into the hug. He held onto his brother as though he was hanging off a building and Garuru was the only thing keeping him from falling. He was tired beyond belief, but he didn't want to let go. He just wanted to stay there, his arms locked around Garuru and his brother's arms locked around him. After all that had happened that evening, he had never felt safer than he did right now in his life. He was glad to once again be locked safely in his older brother's arms. He was glad that it was all over.
UPDATE TIME: Okay, I think I have some explaining to do. I haven't been very active lately on any of my stories, but don't worry, there's a good reason for it. You see, after getting SOOOOO many requests by countless people on the review page, I've decided to finally finish the final two chapters of Tamama VS. Kululu: Place Your Bets. A story that I honestly lost interest in writing a long time ago. It's actually been at the bottom of my priority list since I last updated it. I have been VERY tempted to just delete the entire thing as to not have to worry about it anymore. But I respect you guys a lot more than that. I can see how many people want me to finish it, and there are only two chapters left to write anyways. So in the end, I just decided "Okay, let's just get this story over with so that I won't have to worry about it any longer."
So yeah, the reason I've been gone so long is because I've been dedicating all of my writing time to TVK. The only reason it's taking so long is because writing it has managed to become an absolute chore. I have found NO fun in writing lately and it's really been causing me to procrastinate a lot. Hence why I finally decided to write this story. I just needed something small and sweet to write in order to break the streak. Just to get back into the swing of things. Recharge my battery. ect, ect.
So for those of you who are still reading, I'd like you to vote in the review page. I've already got the first of the two chapters of Tamama VS. Kululu finished. All that's needed to do is begin writing the second and last chapter (oh, joy -_-). So I'd like to know if you guys would like me to just upload the second to last chapter now and then work on continuing a few other stories or would you rather wait and have me just upload both chapters at once? Because since the story only has two chapters left, I like to consider them both just one, REALLY long final chapter, which is exactly why I planned on uploading them both at once. However, if I were to just upload the one that's already finished and return to the story later, it would improve my situation quite a bit.
Let me know what you guys think! I'll check back in a few days to see the results. See you then ;)