I was out in the forest again, pretending to be from the Weaponised Animal Regiment as usual. I fought imaginary enemies with twigs and rocks. I longed to be amongst their ranks. However, as far as I knew, the Regiment wasn't a place for girls like myself.

I had come to a clearing where a fight had clearly taken place. The earth was littered with corpses of members of the Tiger Army. Their general as nowhere to be seen. I figured he'd fled, since he was well known for his cowardice. He always watched his soldiers take care of any Regiment fighters and hid in a bush. However, the Tigers didn't seem to have won this battle, so perhaps he'd returned to his base in the jungle.

I continued to scour the battlefield for anything of interest. What I found worth noting were a few parts of an animal that clearly wasn't a tiger. The ears were attached to the head, and they looked to belong to a mouse or rat. There was also a mangled mush on the floor that didn't resemble anything; it was likely a decoy to distract the tigers.

What stood out the most, however, was that lying near a tree was a pair of hands. They were a sort of greenish colour, so they didn't belong to a tiger. They were next to each other as well, making it look like they'd been left to pick up later. "Huh." I said, and picked them up. Perhaps they'd be of use if anyone back in Tree Town lost theirs. Of course, there was Handy, but he was born without them. It was then I realised that there was a cliff on the other side of the clearing. Maybe some tigers had fallen off trying to flee. The soldiers from the Regiment that fought here must've been brilliant. I wished I might've been able to meet them some day.

Before I decided to wander down the cliff (I had a rope packed with me) I noticed there was only one example of weaponry. It was a small knife. I didn't know the type, but the blade was soaked with blood. There weren't any bodies near the knife, so following logic, the tigers or Regiment soldiers who had fought here were still alive now.

When I reached the bottom of the cliff, I noticed a few splinters of wood which must've come from a log that had fallen from the cliff. There were also questionable items, like a sandwich and part of someone's intestine. Again, there were no bodies, so someone was alive right now without part of their own intestine.

I continued walking before spotting something that looked an awful lot like a dead body in the distance. I decided to see who it was, since it was far away from the others. It looked sort of brownish-red, two earthy colours I could've easily missed. It seemed to be curled up in a ball, which was unusual for someone dead. Unless... it wasn't dead. For its sake, I hoped it was. As I got closer I noticed it was twitching. I knew dead bodies did twitch occasionally, but this one was more violent. A green beret was lying next to it.

This is a soldier from the Weaponised Animal Regiment! I could barely contain my excitement. I started running.

It was obviously alive due to the way it twitched, and obviously in pain. As I neared it, I noticed that the fur was actually green. The red was blood. Whether the blood belonged to him or not I didn't know. When I was about five feet away from it, it curled up smaller as if to deter me, and let out small whimpering noises. I slowly knelt down next to it.

"Hello?" I asked. "Are you alright?"

No reply.

"I'm not going to hurt you."

This time, there was a quiet reply.

"C-can you b-be sure?" His voice was shaky, and he kept coughing.

"Are you hurt?" I asked for the sake of it. The answer was clearly yes, I just wanted to know his condition.

He slowly nodded.

"Where are you hurt?" I asked.

His hands were pinned underneath his weight and he lay on his front. I couldn't see any noticeable injury.

At least, that was until he rolled over.

His uniform was practically torn in half, and so was he. He was almost vertically split, a deep and wide gash reaching from his chest to his stomach. It was clearly inflicted with a knife, by someone without a steady hand. Why wasn't he holding it together?

"Did someone do this to you?"

He nodded again, his hands strangely pinned behind his back. More blood was spreading up the back of his uniform, which was already soaked through. Perhaps there was an injury to the hands?

"Are your hands alright?" I sounded like a nurse. Granted, I had no idea how to do first aid, but I felt really good about helping this guy nonetheless.

He shook his head, coughing again. A little bit of blood sprayed onto the floor, widening the area that was now stained red.

Sighing, he took one arm from behind his back and presented it to my face. He shut his dark brown eyes and looked away.

"I can't bear them." he whispered.

To my horror, the hand itself was completely gone. However, the sharp bone at the end of his lower arm stuck out from where the flesh ended. They would have made excellent weapons...

Then it hit me. I had his hands in my backpack! I removed them and showed them to him.

His face lit up. "Where did you find those?"

"Up the cliff." I said.

"Oh my gosh! I don't know how I'm going to reattach them, but thanks so much!" He smiled at me. He had the two signature buckteeth of Tree Town. I was from Tree Town!

I noticed silver dog tags hanging from his neck, and was able to catch a glimpse of his name... or names.

One of them said "Flippy".

Flippy? I'd known him for years until he joined the W.A.R!

"Flippy?" I asked.

"H-how do you know my name?" he asked, attempting to back away.

"I'm Giggles." I said. "One of Flaky's friends!"

"You know Flaky?"

"Course I do. We're such a small town, it's hard not to know who's who!"

Flippy smiled, and adjusted the dog tags so that I couldn't see his name.

"I know where the base is, so let's get you there." I grinned, gently picking him up. He was really light.

Maybe my dreams of joining the Regiment weren't as far-fetched as I thought.