I have to admit, last chapter had what I believed to be the best fighting scene I've ever written thus far. Maybe later fights will be more impressive, though. Maybe they need to be more intense?
Sorry that the update was a bit late; college started up again.
Though, thanks to everyone who reviews and who continue to review. Moving right along!
14. Treat With Tenderness
"SLY...!" Wilfre gasped out in a panic, "SLY IS HERE AND HE'S GOING TO-!" He was cut off when Mari noticed him trying to sit up, her paw resting firmly on his shoulder to push him back against the bed.
"Don't worry Wilfre," she interrupted him as calmly as she could, "He's gone; you're safe! Now take it easy... You were hurt pretty bad out there, so you need to rest, okay?" By her words, Wilfre hissed a little as pain shot up his spine and arms from trying to force himself upright, sinking back in a laying position under her paw's guidance. Afterwards he trembled a bit from the pain even when most of it subsided, gritting his teeth a bit now.
"But... He... Was right about one thing," he muttered, a bit angry at himself for needing to be saved so badly, "I used to be much stronger than this... Why was I so embarrassingly weak?"
"You're not weak," said not Mari, but Jowee. He padded up to the bed Wilfre was laying in, looking upon him rather guiltily. "You did all you could to defend yourself bare-pawed against Sly. If anyone is weak, it's me." Jowee paused a little with a gulp, before seeing that neither of the two was responding to him. So he continued on, "I-I mean... I got so mad and I lost sight of everything! It made me not trust you anymore and even made me blow up on Mari! And then it made me actually BELIEVE Sly instead..."
While Wilfre seemed to be listening, Mari on the other paw crossed her arms, looking away from Jowee; as if she was ignoring him. This made Jowee begin to panic from Mari's lack of response, beginning to suspect that Mari wouldn't forgive him. "So I'm sorry, okay?" he added hastily, getting down on his knees and putting his paws together as if in a plea. "I'm sorry, Mari...! I'm sorry I yelled at you... You weren't defending Wilfre just because of the past; you were because I was being stupid and throwing accusations like you said! And... And Mari, I... I l-"
Mari had turned to face him when he apologized, putting her paws over his, before pulling him into a hug. Jowee cut off his words from this, now blushing a bit from the affection and a bit in shock. "I forgive you, you big goofball," she whispered to him, which made Jowee smile in relief and holding her in return. Meanwhile in all this, Wilfre had watched them with a small smirk on his face, unable to look away from what he saw.
They're going to make quite the couple one day, he thought to himself. Hopefully it'll be by the time this is all over...
"And Wilfre," Jowee started again once they had pulled away from the embrace, nervously looking at him, "I'm sorry for what I did to you. Being rude, calling you names, pulling on your hair, accusing your honesty, threatening you, then finally baiting you for Sly... I'm sorry for all of it. And like I said... You're not weak. You're one of the strongest Raposa I know..." While Jowee trailed off, Wilfre thought about what had happened earlier that day, when Jowee had be so angry and suspicious of him. Truth be told, it did make Wilfre miffed to think Jowee could easily go back to not trusting him even after trying to make things right, one pawstep at a time.
He even began to wonder the true origins of this, before he mentally smacked himself when he realized it was most likely due to when Mari used to be on his side, and THEN now knowing Jowee's feelings for her. Could it be fear? Jealousy? Or nothing more than simply being protective of her? he thought a bit about this, before having to sigh to himself. I'll have to tell him soon and put this to rest once and for all...
Wilfre tried instinctively to sit up again, due to feeling uncomfortable with the way he was laying, before the pain in his body harshly reminding him not to. Still laying back now, he finally looked to Jowee, carefully reaching a paw out for him instead. "I accept your apology," he finally said, unable to help smiling a bit when Jowee had beamed; his own paw holding onto Wilfre's. This warm feeling of forgiveness made Jowee feel like a weight was lifted from his shoulders, or maybe two from Mari's as well.
After their paws separated, Wilfre seemed to remember a bit of something. "Does anyone know how Zsasha is on Turtlerock with us?"
"I was wondering that too," Mari replied before smiling a bit to herself, "Samuel said he stowed away. Though not even Zsasha himself will admit for how long."
"Well, at least so far he hasn't tried stealing anything," Jowee added, much more like his old self this time, "Ever since Sly left earlier, he's been hanging around with Samuel. Something about 'showing him how to do that cool trick'."
"Cool trick..." Wilfre repeated, thinking it over before he snapped his paw as he remembered. "When Samuel first saved me from Sly, he was making a large bag of stones float in the air."
Jowee's eyes widened in amazement. "Whoa... So you mean that Samuel can make things levitate? That sounds so... So cool!"
Mari rolled her eyes knowingly before she heard the pawsteps of Samuel and Zsasha. The three Raposa turned their attention to them as they walked in the room.
"Oh, thank goodness," Samuel spoke first, not taking long before he neared the bed. "He's concious again. I was beginning to get worried that something worse happened."
"Hello," Wilfre greeted, wanting to sit up but quickly remembering why not and waved a little instead, "And no. Aside from feeling like my body was hit by a giant Baki every time I try to sit up, I believe I'm alright. But err... What do you mean 'again'?"
Zsasha came up close to the bed as well, nearby Samuel. "The moment you walked into the house, you fainted." he said, though with a bit of unease. "And... Something tells me it wasn't from the pain..."
"Really?" Samuel responded, though still levelly. "Hm... Actually, you may be onto something. It was too dark to see what it was exactly, but Sly was about to do something that made Wilfre react in such a stressed matter. Seems to me it could've been something tramuatic..."
Wilfre began to wonder a little himself, trying to remember what had happened at first before his face paled from the memory. Slowly he sunk deep into the covers, so it now covered his lower face. He would've looked away from all of them but couldn't since they surrounded the bed in each angle. He shut his eyes instead, almost hoping to pass out again just to avoid this topic. He felt pretty private about the matter and it seemed embarrassing to even say.
Though he was listening to the explaination, Jowee saw Wilfre trying to hide himself in the bed. He hastily added "That's terrible... But either way, I don't think we should worry too much. All that matters now is that he's okay, right?" Wilfre's ears seemed to perk from those words, and his face recovered some blood when he opened his eyes to find Samuel nodding in agreement.
"That's true," Samuel replied, seeming to catch on the hint Jowee was trying to get across. Meanwhile, Wilfre sighed quietly to himself in relief, rising up carefully in the bed again. After a bit, Samuel decided to introduce a different topic entirely. "I'm curious... Is our course for Lavasteam still correct? I wouldn't be surprised if Sly had tried to get us off course." Jowee's face became shocked and he ran out of the room in a hurry.
"I'll go check!" he said before he was out the door. Once he was outside, he headed straight to where the sail was. To his surprise, it was exactly the same as he had left it a few hours before. He tilted his head in a bit of confusion, but shrugged afterward. Then he blinked as an excited smile came onto his face.
Oh yeah, he thought to himself in his excitement, We were heading to Lavasteam...! I really should've cared about that a little more... All those cool Robosas...
He giggled a bit from the thoughts before turning away from the sail. Looking upon the clearing and the buildings, Jowee decided he could be outside for a bit longer to investigate just a little. If he was lucky, he figured, he'd find out some things that went on...
He began by walking toward the clearing, but not really finding anything amiss. However, soon he felt his back paw nudge against something cold and metally. "What...?" he asked himself quietly, bending down and picking the object up. Feeling it over a little in his paws, it was a pair of scissors. From the way it felt, it obviously wasn't Mari's or even his own. Plus he was sure Samuel didn't even own a pair of scissors and Zsasha probably had no reason to steal a pair...
On top of this, he also realized Wilfre's hair was shorter in length now than it was; but this was even before Sly attacked earlier. So it couldn't be Wilfre's either, though Jowee huffed a bit in laughter at the thought; as he knew Wilfre probably wouldn't even dream of trimming his own hair for anything.
So who's pair of scissors was this?
Sighing from all the thinking, Jowee made sure the scissors were snipped shut before placing it into his shirt pocket for later. He put a paw on his chin in thought now, remembering even earlier how Wilfre was shocked by something in Turtlerock's Creation Hall.
I was just checking for something. Due to a dream I had last night... He recalled Wilfre saying, starting toward the Creation Hall now. Opening the door, he stepped inside, flicking on the lightswitch so he could see. The sudden brightness made his eyes tightly shut at first, before squinting them back open to adjust.
What kind of dream would he have to make him come in here? Jowee thought to himself as his eyes adjusted to the light. A memory? Someone told him to? Or it just made him curious? Soon, he could see the inside fully now, stepping into the building more and looking around. Just as they had remembered it, it was a lot like the one in the village - books on shelves, a stool in the center of the room, a mannequin-
That wasn't there. Jowee's eyes widened and he padded to where the mannequin was supposed to have been, to find it wasn't there anymore. This was strange; even after an adventure the Hero would pop up again but as he was before, in the spot he used to rest...
But for one reason or another, it wasn't there anymore. With that, Jowee turned tail, shutting off the light and closing the door behind him before finally fleeing back to the house. In his hurry, he didn't take long; and before he knew it, he was already at the doorway to Wilfre's bedroom. The others looked at him in surprise, mostly from seeing Jowee panting from shock about something. He wanted to tell them right away, but words failed him due to his pants.
"Jowee?" Mari asked him in concern, coming up and putting her paw on his shoulder, "You alright?"
"Are we off course?" Samuel added, to which Jowee only shook his head.
"Sly didn't return, did he?" Wilfre then asked, though a bit worried. He relaxed when Jowee shook his head again.
"You saw what happened to my bag?" Zsasha exclaimed, which made Jowee shake his head once more, this time in irritation.
"Then what IS it?" Mari asked him again, though still calmly. Finally, Jowee straightened up.
"Two things..." he said at first, before wondering which would be more important to say first. At last, he decided on one of them, continuing on, "The mannequin in the Creation Hall is gone." Wilfre was the only one out of them that didn't react with surprise and shock.
"Impossible," Samuel replied at first, remembering a bit of something. "I looked in there myself a few days ago; it was there!"
"I never saw one when I stowed away..." Zsasha added, though a bit embarrassedly, then even moreso when they stared at him, "I didn't steal it, I swear!"
"I checked too, when we first left the village," Mari spoke afterwards, putting her paw on her chin in thought, "I saw it... But it was gone by the time Zsasha stowed away, and still is now..."
After a bit more thought, Jowee finally approached the bed Wilfre was laying in. "And I know you checked too, Wilfre. You said it was because you had a dream?" Wilfre blinked a bit before nodding.
"Yes, I had a dream..." he replied, not just to Jowee but the others as well, "It made me want to check the Creation Hall as soon as possible; as well as the one in our village. From the dream, it gave me an odd feeling that the mannequin wouldn't be there. Sure enough, the feeling became truth." Wilfre paused immediately after those last words, a sensation of deja vu overcoming him. Hastily, he added afterward, "The mannequin was indeed missing."
The others thought about this for a bit, before Samuel asked to Wilfre, "Do you think your dream gave you any clues about where the mannequin disappeared to?"
"None that I know of," Wilfre sighed, having no choice but to tell about the dream itself, "But ironically enough, in the dream I was speaking to the Hero. At the end, I asked him if we would meet again... He replied that we would, 'Soon, actually'. Then I asked when and all he said was 'I'm sorry, Wilfre. But that's a secret'."
"No wonder you went to check the Creation Hall," Mari replied after another few moments of thought, "You wanted to know how true the dream was. So 'soon' wasn't when you chose to check..."
Jowee however was very confused. It wasn't from what was said, but rather the underlying reason why. Wilfre was supposed to be the one to destroy Sly and his empire, and they all knew this now. So why would a Hero ever be needed for something like this? The missing mannequin must mean that this Hero is out and about somewhere, but Jowee couldn't be sure. He almost didn't want to believe it.
Maybe we were wrong? Jowee thought to himself, Maybe Wilfre isn't meant to save us? Or maybe the Creator thought we would need some extra help? Or maybe even... Sly stowed away on Turtlerock as well, and took the mannequin to... To use against us? A false Hero? Wait, no. Jowee, don't jump to conclusions.
"It must be fate when you meet him again," Samuel had replied, a little curtly, "When you don't expect it to occur. However, even then it begs the question; why?"
"Either way, we'll need to discuss this later," Mari replied, beginning to leave the room now, and adding a bit sternly, "We need to let Wilfre rest for a while..."
While the others nodded in understanding and beginning to leave as well, Wilfre tried once more to sit up, but still being unable to without pain searing through his body. However, he managed to reply stubbornly, "I do not! It's not like I am near death or anything!" Mari couldn't help but giggle from the response, looking back at him with a small, teasing smile on her face.
"Get well soon, Wilfre!" she said singsongly before leaving entirely, along with all but Jowee. He was going to be the last to leave, but he paused at the doorway before coming back toward the bed. Meanwhile, Wilfre pouted with crossed arms, but soon let it go when he saw Jowee come near again, almost confused. It became complete bewilderment when Jowee had laid a paw softly on his head, patting it a little.
"It won't be so bad..." he tried to say with a straight face, "It'll be like caring for a baby Rapo! We could feed you and bathe you and read you bedtime stories...!" Right afterwards, Jowee lost it and bursted out laughing at the thoughts; though pulled his paw away from Wilfre's head. Wilfre looked upon him unamused, but even then it was more of a teasing matter.
"You realize I'm older than both of you, do you not?" he said simply with a sigh, before lightly gasping from Jowee instead gingerly tugging on one of his ears.
"I was just kidding..." Jowee replied before letting his ear go, then smirking a little, "Why so serious all the time?" And no matter how hard Wilfre tried, that line alone caused him to lose all seriousness in the matter, not taking long at all to wallow in laughter.
"You Rapoing goofball...!"