Ballista's Bedtime Terror
It was late that night as an exhausted Ballista and Shaiden walked to their rooms for a well deserved rest. Halfway down the corridor, Ballista had to talk to Shaiden about something, something that had been bothering her for a while.
"Shaiden, can I tell you something?" Ballista asked.
"Why, is something bothering you?"
"It's just something that I've been thinking about recently. Do you think that Gildar ever thinks about anyone else than himself?"
"When you say "anyone" do you mean girls?"
"Yeah, do you think that he'd ever want to date someone?"
"Are you telling me that you've got a crush on Gildar?"
Ballista went silent, as her cheeks started to burn with embarrassment.
"It's okay Ballista, everyone gets a crush every now and again, I'm sure that if you talk to Gildar about it, he'll be fine with it."
"I suppose so. Thanks Shaiden."
"Your welcome."
"See you tomorrow."
"Good night."
As Ballista got ready for bed, she was still thinking about Shaiden's advice, what would Gildar say or probably do when she tells him her secret, and how could she tell him, she can't just go barging in there, she continued to think about it until she fell into a deep sleep.
When Ballista woke up, the sun was shining through a small gap in her curtains, she slowly stumbled out of her bed and got ready for the day ahead. As she walked down the corridor, every one else was gathered in the hall waiting for her, when Ballista saw Gildar, she automatically started to walk towards him, she had to tell him.
"Morning Gildar." she said.
"Morning." Gildar replied.
"It doesn't matter if he doesn't feel the same way Ballista, there's other guys out there." she thought. "Gildar, can I talk to you about something?"
"Yeah, sure."
Ballista took a deep breath and was about to share her thoughts, when the sound of the attack alarm thundered through the corridors, Kook had spotted attackers approaching, and it had to be now, the worst timing possible.
"Dang!" Ballista thought.
Everyone dashed down to the castle walls, Ballista was armed with her Splatbow ready to defend, she was shocked to see that this wasn't just a small bunch of attackers like they have in the past, this was a whole army and they were approaching fast. Everyone started to fire, a number of the attackers went down, but more of them were getting closer and closer to the castle gates, they couldn't hold them off any longer.
"Everyone to the gates!" Knightriss commanded.
Ballista didn't give it a second thought, she'd do anything to defend the kingdom from harm, this was her home and all of her friends are here, no one should dare take it away from her.
Attackers were flooding through the gates, there was a whirlwind of steel as swords went crashing, arrows were flying and people were falling, Ballista knew that death was facing her, but with the fate of the kingdom resting on her shoulders, she couldn't let that stop her.
"Vane, look out!" Faetal shrieked.
Ballista turned to see Vane sinking to the ground, he had his left hand clutching his right shoulder, Ballista jumped past people to get to him.
"Vane! Are you okay?" Ballista asked, as she helped him up onto his feet, that was when she noticed the arrow sticking out of his shoulder.
"Yeah, I'll be okay, I may have to sit this one out now. Just defend the castle."
Ballista left Vane out of anymore harms way, and got back to the task in hand, things were starting to get a bit better, they were finally starting to get an advantage over the attackers. Everything was going perfectly until Ballista noticed something that made her freeze, Kook was aiming his Sling Splatter at an attacker sneaking up behind Shaiden.
"Kook, what are you doing?" Ballista screamed.
Kook didn't answer, he released the Sling Splatter, the ammunition flew towards this attacker striking them on the back of the head, they turned towards Kook, at that point Ballista didn't see much else, she was too busy in a fight of her own. When she turned back to Kook, her heart skipped, Kook was hunched over in pain, as if he'd been punched in the guts, the position of the attacker made it seem like that too, but when Ballista saw the blood, she knew it was serious, Kook was fatally wounded.
"KOOK!" she shrieked as Kook sank to the ground, the attacker backed away and disappeared into the crowd. Ballista ran over to Kook, blood covered his hands and was running down his arms, Ballista lifted up Kook's head and put her left hand firmly on the wound to stop most of the bleeding. "Kook, what were you thinking?" she asked.
"I...I couldn't have let him hurt Sh...Shaiden." Kook stammered.
"I'm sure that you're going to be alright, if we get you some help."
Kook's eyes were now only half open. "No, it's too late for that Ballista, every defender has their time to hand over the weapons, and I guess it's my turn."
"Don't say that."
"I guess that I was a bit stupid."
Ballista's eyes started to sting with the tears. "You're not stupid, you're a great defender."
Kook smiled and coughed. "Tell Gildar that I'm sorry for...for all those j-jokes and pranks that I...I played on him."
"Okay."
"And can you do one more thing for me?" A small tear fell from Kook's eye. "Can you tell Shaiden that...that I love her?"
"I will."
Kook smiled. "Thank you."
His eyes slowly started to close as he passed away, his breathing stopped and his body went still.
"Kook? Kook!" Ballista slowly lowered Kook's head back down and stood back up. "That's it. It ends now." she thought.
The enemy were starting to drop like flies, and Ballista was starting to get her confidence back, they were still outnumbered, they'd already lost two defenders, one injured and one lost for good, Ballista was convinced that she wasn't going to let anyone else go.
As Shaiden screamed Ballista jumped into action once again.
"Shaiden, are you alright?" she asked.
Shaiden was in obvious trouble, she was in pain, both Ballista and Thorne ran over to her. As Ballista got closer to Shaiden, she noticed a deep cut that she had on her right side.
"Are you alright sis?" Thorne asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure that I'll be fine."
"Get yourself somewhere safe."
Suddenly there was an agonizing scream from Thorne, Ballista looked at his left shoulder, and was shocked to see an arrow embedded within it, Ballista saw the archer that had fired the arrow, she aimed her Splatbow at their chest, as they turned to run away, Ballista fired, the ammunition striking them in the back, they sank to the ground instantly.
"Both of you get out of here." said Ballista. "And Shaiden."
"Yeah?"
"Kook wanted me to tell you that...that he loves you."
"Where is Kook?"
"He's...he's dead."
Shaiden's eyes filled up with tears, and she buried her face into Thorne's shoulder.
"I'm sorry." said Ballista.
"It's okay, it wasn't your fault."
When Shaiden and Thorne were out of the way, Ballista was instantly back to fighting, now four of them were out, Ballista looked over to where Gildar was fighting, Gildar noticed Ballista's gaze, as their eyes met, Gildar smiled, Ballista could feel her cheeks burning again. When she saw someone creeping up behind Gildar, and someone also aiming an arrow at Gildar, she went into panic.
"Gildar, look out!" she screamed.
Before Gildar could react, both people stuck, Gildar was brought to the ground from a stab in the back, and an arrow in the arm. Ballista forgot about everything else and dashed to Gildar's aid. She held his head up like she'd done before with Kook.
"No, no not you Gildar." she sobbed.
"What do you mean?"
"Because I wanted to tell you something, but now it's not going to mean anything."
"Well, say it now while you still have the chance."
Tears were streaming from Ballista's eyes, she lowered her head in embarrassment, before looking back into Gildar's eyes. "I like you Gildar." she whispered.
"I can see why."
Ballista smiled, she'd finally confessed, but it didn't make her feel better, knowing that she was about to lose him.
"Talk about being stabbed in the back, eh?" Gildar chuckled, before his eyes closed and his body went limp.
"No, no!" Ballista sobbed, holding Gildar's body close to hers.
"Ballista, look behind you!" Crocness shouted.
Ballista turned to look behind her, someone was dashing over to her brandishing they're sword, Ballista knew that death was coming her way, as they plunged forward with the sword...she woke up, safe and sound in her room.
"What the..." Ballista said before sighing with relief. "Thank heavens, it was just a dream."
As she walked out of her room, when she was ready for the day, the first person she saw was Shaiden, walking towards her.
"Morning Ballista." she said.
Ballista was so relieved to see her, she couldn't help herself, she ran towards Shaiden and flung her arms around her.
"What's wrong now?" Shaiden asked.
"Sorry, I just had a bad dream." Ballista explained. "And I'm glad that it was, what happened there I seriously couldn't live with, not without my friends."
