What Would You Give Up?
A young boy that appeared on my doorstep was a strange one. He was…different from us. Well, first, he ate as if ever meal was his last. He was also, what do you call it? Ah, yes, very optimistic. Yes, very optimistic. But these traits are what I like about him. However, I never knew he would do this much for me.
"Franny!" my older brother call from upstairs.
"Yes, Rem?" I asked, climbing up the ladder and poking my head through his room door.
"Can you make breakfast today? This statue is giving me hell-sorry," he apologized for cussing in front of his little sister.
"Yeah, but I think we are out of firewood to run the stove." I replied, glancing down at the kitchen.
"Oh really? Then you should probably go get some from the shed-"
"But Rem, it's freezing outside."
"Put a jacket on," he replied turning back to his work.
"…ok Rem," I sighed, going to my room and grabbing a jacket. For fun, I jumped of the stairs when there was three stairs left. It took me a while to put my jacket on because I put my arm in the wrong sleeve and the hood covered my eyes. So once that was done, I started my snowy trek to the lumber shed.
"Help…" a weak voice whispered into the chilly air.
"Huh?" I said, turning my head towards the voice. "Who's there?"
"Help m-me," it whispered again. "It's cold…"
I scurried towards the voice's origin and looked down. At my booted feet was a boy, probably a little older than me, shoulder deep in the snow.
He looked up with shacking eyes and a runny nose. "Help…its cold…"
I nodded and pulled him out of the snow. "Are you ok?" I glanced at his clothing and saw that they were slightly skimpy. None of which, could provide much warmth.
"Yeah," he said with a wavering voice. He tried to stand but fell over on the snow.
"Ah!" I exclaimed. "Here, my house isn't that far, come with me," I said, helping him up again and supporting him on my shoulder.
"Thank you," he whispered in my ear as we slowly made our way to our house.
::~~::~~::~~::
"Brother!" I yelled as I came in with the brown-headed boy.
"Huh?" Rem came down stairs quickly, "what is it? Why is there a boy around your shoulder?"
"He fell into the snow and I brought him back here. I couldn't leave him outside in the snow," I explained to my big brother. I grabbed a nearby blanket and wrapped it around him.
He turned to the boy, who was now on the floor, shivering. "Who are you?"
"m-my name's Cooro," he said, his voice sounding slightly stronger than before.
"Hello Cooro, my name is Franny. This is my older brother Rem."
"I could introduce myself, Franny," Rem said, not so serious.
"Hi!" Cooro said, becoming chipper with every passing minute. "I own you one, Franny, you saved my life.
"No problem," I blushed.
"By the way, can I stay for the night? I'm scared that might happen again."
"Sure. Hey, why were you in the snow?" Rem asked giving some bread to the newcomer.
"Oh," he bit a large chunk out of the bread. "I was looking around for a place to get out of the cold and I saw that shed and I thought I could stay in it a while. So I went down there and 'pop' into the snow."
"Like you fell?" Rem inquired, cocking his head.
"Yeah," he smiled, taking another bite out of the bread, leaving him with crumbs.
"I'll go get that wood in the shack for you, Franny." Rem said, picking up his jacket.
"But I thought you had to work on your statue?" I asked, concerned.
"I'm not gonna' get that much progress today if we have a guest." Rem shrugged, slipping his jacket on and leaving the house.
Silence enveloped the house.
But Cooro broke it: "so, Franny, what's this statue that your brother is working on?"
"Oh," I said, surprised, "well, a lord wants an angel statue so he hired Rem, but he hasn't been doing that well…"
"He's not bad at carving stuff, right?" Cooro asked, pulling the blankets closer.
"He's really good at it, but…I don't know, Rem says that he can't seem to get an angel picture in his mind."
"Oh," he said, looking down. "No angels…"
"Ah! But it's ok! Rem is doing good." I exclaimed.
Cooro looked at me and smiled, "that's good for him. Can I see it?"
"Can you walk?" I asked.
"Mm…" he slowly stood and smiled. "Yeah, I think I can."
I nodded. "Then follow me." I let him hold on to my hand as I led him to Rem's room. "Here it is."
"Oh wow!" Cooro exclaimed, pressing his fingers against the wings. "It's an angel!"
Uh, yeah, we told you that several times, I thought jokingly in my mind. "Mmhm." I smiled. "Rem is very good."
"It doesn't look like it's finished…" Cooro said scrutinizing the wooden sculpture.
"Uh-huh," I shook my head and frowned. "It isn't. But he will finish it soon!" I said hopefully.
"Yeah!" he said, matching my hopefulness with sureness. "And I bet he would make it just like an angel!"
I came up to feel the wooden wings when a yell came from outside. "Rem?!" I yelled, bursting from his room and running down the stairs and out the doors, into the snow that had quickened into a snowstorm. "Rem?!"
Cooro followed me out. "What's happening?"
"Rem screamed and he might be hurt!" I said, worried. "I need to find him!" I started to run, but I was stopped.
"No!" Cooro said and he sidestepped in front of me. "Go back inside and I'll find him."
"But Cooro I-watch out!" I changed my words as a silhouette lurked towards him.
"Huh?" he turned around and was hit in the face with some sort of weapon.
"come 'ere girly, yur' don't need ta' struggle," a man with a scruffy bread, a round body, and a raspy voice cooed, stepping closer holding a wooden bat. He whistled to me like a dog.
I stared wide-eyes at him and at Cooro, then to my house.
"nuh-huh, lil' girly. Yur' cunt' be going ta' tat house tere." He smiled, patting the club in his hand. A man stepped behind me with a long rod, smiling.
I turned towards the other man. He had a long nose and sharp eyes-like a falcon. He was thin and had messy, brown hair.
"Hello, milady. Care to join us?" he sneered with an accent.
"I'd rather not. What did you guys do with my brother?" I demanded, stepping slowly back on the snow-laden ground.
"All we did, milady, is punish the oaf." The eagle-like man stepped closer.
"Yea', we punished 'im real good," the other one said, grinning.
"Why? He didn't do anything to you people!" I frantically yelled, glancing at Cooro who passed out.
"On the contrary, milady, he had disobeyed our master, who had greatly needed something from the boy," the eagle-like man explained, calmly.
"D-do you mean the angel statue?!" I asked. "'cause if you do, he has it in his ro-
"lil' girly, if we needed ta' statue, we've gottnit long tim' ago," his raspy voice made me shudder.
"But if you didn't want the statue…"
"Milady, your brother is a lying, rotten thief," he said with slight hints of malice. "He promised our master an angel for a nice, long life with his little sister."
"How is he a thief?" I asked shaking, no longer from the cold blizzard surrounding us, but for the safety of my brother and Cooro, who I could no longer see, due to the raspy voiced man stepping in front of him.
"He took our master's long life." The eagle-like man frowned. "Yet he did not pay him back. All our master wished for was an angel."
"d-did you kill Rem?!" I screamed, my voice cracking, with tears streaming from my eyes.
"naw' lil' girly, why would we do tat'?" the raspy voiced one smiled. "We gave 'im a punishment. Tats' all."
"Yes, why would we do that to the oaf's little sister?" the man with the rod poked me in the stomach. "It would put so much grief in milady."
"Yea'," the man chimed in, prodding me with his bat.
"Why'd you hurt Cooro then?!" I asked, loudly.
"Will you stop shouting, it hurt my ears." He tapped her on her head with his rod.
"Yea'," he proceeded to tap her on the head with his bat, but stopped because of the apparent reason.
"Tell me why you hurt Cooro!" I yelled louder.
"Fine, milady," he said almost sarcastic. "The boy was no use to us. We need him not."
"Urr," the one with the raspy voice said, "te' boy ain't 'ere."
"Huh?" both the eagle-like man and I exclaimed.
"tere ain't no footmarks anywhere! He just 'poof' gone!"
"Cooro?!" I yelled. "Cooro, can you hear me?!"
"Hark." He looked into the air and back down at the ground. "Come, milady." He seized my hand and pulled me away from my house, unwillingly.
I looked to my right and saw a small patch of red. I cried even more.
"Where we goin'?"
"That boy was apparently awake, I will see to it he does not spill anything." The eagle-man said, pulling me into a forest, with the other man following.
"What are you going to do to Cooro?!" I yelled at him, driving my heels into the snow.
The eagle-man looked back at me, still walking forward, but did not say anything.
::~~::~~::~~::
We emerged from the forest at a cliff; there lay a single apple tree, covered with specks of snow. The snowstorm had ended a while back, somewhere deep in the forest. Apple cores lay at the tree's roots.
"Come out, come out, were ever you are," the eagle-man sung.
A lone person swung his body down from a branch with his knees wrapped around the branch he was sitting on. "You may like to play your clever games but I'm too quick for you too catch, Big Nose."
The eagle-like man scoffed, covering his nose with his right hand and slashing his rod with the other. He let go of my hand.
"Too slow!" Cooro, I could see his face now, jumped out of the tree and kicked the one with the club in the face. "Catch me!"
The man with the bat grabbed Cooro's foot and held him upside down. "gottcha', lil' boy."
"I didn't mean it literally!" Cooro said, kicking with his other leg and hitting the man's arm, causing him to let go.
But before Cooro hit the ground, he burst pitch-black wings and flew into the tree.
"Get him!" the eagle-like man yelled, pointing.
"hup!" Cooro grunted as he dive-bombed the two.
I gasped and stood away from the tree, watching Cooro fighting with wings of a bird. I didn't want to leave because I was worried for him. He was taking a beating; bruises lay on his cheeks and arms.
That was probably the wrong choice because the eagle-like man accidentally hit me with his rod and I nearly fell off the cliff. "HEELLPP!"
Cooro gasped and flew towards me, kicking the men out of his way, and grabbing my hands with his. "You ok?" he asked with a shaky voice.
I was too scared to speak. I just held onto Cooro.
He was about to bring me up when the man with the bat rushed for Cooro and swung at him.
Rather with fast thinking or on impulse, Cooro flew into the sky, me still desperately holing on to his feathery arms. The eagle-man stood up and threw his rod at Cooro, hitting him on the back of his skull. Cooro dropped and we fell.
"COOORROO!" I yelled, shaking him. The ground has approaching fast. 'Help!' I shouted in my mind.
Cooro's wings disappeared into a feathery blur, and I shut my eyes tight, prepared for the crash landing.
All I heard were gasps. I slowly opened my eyes and saw that I was no longer falling to my death, but gracefully and slowly dropping to the ground. Cooro was now under me, I holding onto his hands. He was limp with his eyes closed.
A black feather drifted into my view and I looked up; I saw the ends of black wings.
Hello peoples. Sorry for the cliffhanger of doom. And yes, I will not continue this. I'm leaving it like that.
Well, unless you guys want me to continue and tell you what happened to all the characters.
This was really hard to do. This in all took me three days. Usually it only takes me a few hours to complete this kind of stuff.
Wow I is violent. That is maybe the longest fight scene I have ever done. O.o
Criticism is always fun. It'd be nice if you didn't flame. This is my first +Anima oneshot with a clear pairing. Be nice.