Chapter 50
The sun's rays lit the earth as they shined in Yuko's face. He opened his eyes, which were still a bit red and wet from crying last night. He looked around, and he was alone. He let out a shaky sigh while trying to prevent tears from escaping his eyes.
"What do I do now?" he said, his voice cracking.
The tears fell down his face. Yuko sat up on his knees, placed his hands over his eyes, and began sobbing.
"Hey kid!" a voice shouted.
Yuko raised his head and looked to where the voice came from. He couldn't see very well because his eyes were blurred by tears, but he saw the shadow of a thirty-five year old man standing far from him. Yuko didn't move.
The person walked toward him and looked down.
"What's a young fellow like you doing in a place like this, huh?" he asked.
Yuko lowered his head and didn't answer. The man bent down beside Yuko.
"Are you ok, lad?" he asked him, placing his hand on Yuko's back.
Yuko raised his head and wiped his eyes. He sighed.
"No I'm not…." he said sadly.
"You look like you got banged up." The man said, "What happened, I ask you?"
"I don't want to talk about it." Yuko replied, closing his eyes and turning away, "Leave me alone!"
The man sighed and then left. Yuko got up. The wind started to blow, blowing his long, brown hair back and out of his face. He let out a sigh.
He walked towards the edge of a cliff and looked around. There were mountains everywhere, some covered with snow.
When he took a step back, he lost his footing and fell down the cliff. He grabbed onto a large twig, but it broke and he fell once more.
He slammed his back into a rock, and then fell on a ledge. Yuko groaned as he got up. He was a bit dizzy, but tried to focus. When he took a step, he let out a yelp. He seemed to have twisted his ankle.
Yuko growled and tried to walk again, but the loose dirt fell from beneath him and took him with it. He screamed as he fell.
Then he crashed on another ledge. Yuko groaned and raised his head. He moved his hair out of his face and tried to stand again, but fell back down due to his ankle.
"Bad day, warrior?" a voice asked.
Yuko looked up, and saw his enemy.
"You!"
Tarragon laughed, "I'd never thought I'd find you here!"
Yuko took out his sword. He gave a cold hard stare at Tarragon.
"What are you doing here?" Yuko asked.
"That's none of you're business, kid!" Tarragon replied.
"I'm not letting you live!" he said, "Not after what you did to my friend!"
"You'll join him soon enough!"
Tarragon leaped at Yuko with the blade of his sword down. Yuko used his sword and blocked Tarragon's attack. He swung his sword at his neck, but Tarragon slashed his sword at Yuko's sword, missing his opponent.
Yuko got up, ignoring the pain in his ankle. He jumped back, and his hair got in his face. He quickly brushed it back, and saw Tarragon come after him. Yuko backed away, but then he saw that he was at the edge of a cliff. He gasped.
"This ends now!" Tarragon shouted.
Tarragon charged at Yuko, but he dodged him. Tarragon was falling off the cliff.
"Well then, If I go down, I'm taking you with me!" he shouted.
Tarragon stabbed his sword through Yuko's arm. He screamed.
Then Tarragon fell from the cliff, along with Yuko. Tarragon's body slammed into a few jagged rocks, and then in a river.
Yuko knew that he was going to die if he didn't do anything, but what could he do?
He used his sword to try to stab the wall, hoping that he would stop. However, it didn't quite work.
Yuko shut his eyes tightly, waiting for the impact to strike. His sword was the first to hit the ground. Just when he opened his eyes, Yuko slammed onto the ground. His sword stabbed through his back.
Luckily, it didn't kill him. Yuko sat up and took the sword out from his chest. He let out a cry as he did. He spit the blood from his mouth and wiped it away with his sleeve.
"That went better than I expected…." he thought.
Just when he was about to get up, he saw a boulder falling toward him. Yuko started to sweat from fear.
"Oh crud!" he said.
He got up and tried to run, but fell back down due to his twisted ankle. Yuko fell on his back.
He looked up and saw the boulder coming toward him. His heart began to pound hard.
Yuko shut his eyes tightly, sat up, kneeled down on his knees as low as he could, and wrapped his arms tightly around his head, awaiting the impact. It didn't come. The boulder actually missed him and slammed into a lake. The ledge that Yuko was laying on suddenly gave way. It fell, taking him with it, and it slammed into the large, cold lake. He left a red trail of blood as he was sinking due to his back.
Yuko couldn't kick to the surface because of his ankle, and because of his heavy armor, he was sinking fast. However, he tried to take his armor off, but he couldn't. As he continued trying, he felt as though his lungs would burst. Yuko clinched his teeth together as he tried to get rid of his armor.
Yuko suddenly quit sinking. Now, he was floating in the middle of the lake. However, Yuko gave up. Despite his fear of death, he knew that he would not survive this time. He looked at the surface, which was glimmering with light.
Then, he saw something, or someone, plunge at the surface and it was coming down at him fast. Yuko blinked. He didn't know what it was that was heading for him. However, he rather hoped that whatever it was, it wanted to help him.
Yuko's eyes widened as the thing drew closer. He let out his last breath as it became bubbles and they rose to the surface. He let out a choked cough, and then he suddenly quit moving. His body was real still. Yuko landed at the bottom of the lake. The sand underneath him stirred as soon as he hit it and got into his face. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and closed. He was as still as a rock. The person reached the bottom of the lake, grabbed Yuko's arm, and swam directly to the surface.
As soon as he got into the air, he gasped. He grabbed Yuko and swam to shore. He dragged him onto a grassy area and laid him there. The boy was able to get Yuko's armor off him. As soon as he laid it under a tree, he ran back to Yuko and started pumping his chest. Yuko didn't respond.
"Chikushou boy!" he said, "You better not be dead! I didn't swim all the way to the bottom of the lake just to bring out a dead body!"
The boy continued pumping Yuko's chest, hoping for a response. He never received it. He opened one of Yuko's eyes, which was half way rolled back. The boy slammed his fist on the ground and turned away angrily.
Yuko opened his eyes and fixed them to where he was able to see. He let out a sudden cough as he tried to move. As he coughed, water and blood shot from his mouth. He was still very wet from the lake.
He looked around. He was in a field somewhere. He sat up and he felt something on his arm. It turned out to be a white patch, but the blood was showing through it.
Yuko was starting to have a real bad headache. He placed his right hand on it, and groaned.
"You're alive?" someone said, which made Yuko jump, "From the way you're eyes and body looked, I thought you were dead. I even gave you CPR, chest wise mind you! I was just about to burn your body and dump it back in the lake, but you woke up right before I was about to do that. You're lucky I stopped!"
Yuko didn't respond, but he felt dizzy. He laid back down and wanted to sleep, but couldn't. He turned to the person, who turned out to be a boy two years older than he is. He wore a torn up shirt and baggy pants, which were a bit torn as well. His armor was lying under a tree, along with a sheathed sword. He had short, blonde hair, brown eyes, and a scar on the left of his face.
"Here!" the teen said.
He handed Yuko a fresh, red apple. He took it, but didn't eat it right away.
"You look as though you haven't eaten in many days." he said, "But that will probably last you for about two days."
It was true. Yuko wasn't able to eat for at least five days because he was always busy. He looked at the apple, and then at the other teenager, who smiled. Yuko ate the apple slowly, despite being very hungry. The boy smiled.
"I can only supply you with one until I can find more."
After Yuko was done, he threw the core out of the way and wiped his mouth with his damp, yet dirty sleeve.
"Man, you're awfully filthy!" the boy said, "There's a hot spring near here; I think you should go wash up. To add to it, you smell like smoke, yet you're sweaty body odour is mixed with it! It's unbearable, really! That lake wasn't enough to get you clean, now was it?"
Yuko just stared at the ground and didn't respond.
"Helloooo!" the other boy said.
Yuko turned to him.
"Are you ok?"
Yuko wasn't sure whether to give a yes or a no. He sighed, got up, and went to go search for a spring.
A few moments later, Yuko felt something hot in the air. He turned to his left, and he saw steam rising from behind several boulders.
Yuko walked over to the clear, steaming water and touched it. It seemed hot enough. Yuko took his cloths off slowly due to his wounds sticking to them, and jumped in the spring. He let out some short gasps as he started to groan. He had forgotten that hot water was no way to treat cuts and such. He clinched his teeth as he tried to endure the pain and stinging.
"Chikushou!" he cursed, "I'd rather sit in an ice cold lake while I'm in this fricken condition!"
As soon as the pain went away, Yuko finally relaxed.
He tried not to move much, just in case his wounds would hurt again. He closed his eyes and then opened them back up. He slowly moved his head into the water, and then got to the surface. He could see the blood turning the water red.
"Great!" he said, rolling his eyes.
Yuko was about to get out, but he soon realized that he didn't have any clean cloths with him, which made him even angrier.
However, when he looked to his left, he saw another pair of cloths laying on a rock. Yuko shrugged and got out of the spring. He put the fresh pair of cloths on, but on his boots, and squeezed the water out from his long hair. Then he ran off.
As soon as Yuko got back to the area, he quickly grabbed his armor and put it back on. He also grabbed his sword sheath and latched it on his waist.
"Back so soon?" the boy asked who was sitting under a tree.
Yuko gasped and turned around, and saw him.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." he said, smiling.
The boy got up and walked over to Yuko.
"You look much better now!" he said, "You haven't spoken to me yet. What's wrong?"
Yuko didn't answer.
"Well, I never did catch you're name."
Yuko really didn't feel like talking to anyone, not after what has happened to him the past few days, but he couldn't let the boy wait. He sighed.
"Yuko." he answered, not knowing what to think.
"My name's Taka!"
Yuko didn't answer him.
"I have a question."
Yuko only blinked.
"How come you're all by yourself?"
"...Why are you?"
"I've been that way most of my life." Taka answered, "Ever since my house burned down and my family died, I've been on my own for about six years now."
"Sorry to hear that…"
"Teh! My family wasn't much to like! They treated me like an outcast, so I don't miss them at all!"
Yuko sighed, "I've been alone more than that, but….."
"Yeah?"
"I wasn't the other day, I was with a friend."
"Oh? And how did you guys separate?"
Yuko felt anguish in him, but he tried not to show it.
"Someone murdered him…."
Taka didn't say anything. After he said that, Yuko lowered his head as he felt tears in his eyes. His long hair hung over and covered the sides of his face. For once, Yuko was glad he had real long and thick hair.
"Sorry I asked." Taka said.
Yuko used his arm to dry his face, "That's ok."
"But just remember, you're not the only one who has it bad." he said, lying down. He fell asleep a few minutes later.
Yuko laid down on his side.
"I never should've left him like that." he thought, "Then again; I never should've left my village. Too bad its thousands of miles from here. Unchi! What have I done?"
Yuko closed his eyes and fell into a dreamless sleep.
A/N: This is the last month for the monthly updates! Now I'm going to update depending on how much I get done. In the next chapter, if I'm not planning on adding an extra thing for Yuko, you'll find out his true fate and you'll also find out if Falco will pull through or not. If you're wondering when the death or near-death scenes will finally come to an end, you'd better find a hobby! Read the catagory and the rating for this fic. I probably won't do much updating during the Summer due to the limit of chapters I have created since January. The reason for the limit is because of the lack of ideas again! If you're wondering when this story will finally end, well, if this site allows more than a hundered chapters, I'll continue it from there. Yeah, I'm pretty addicted on creating this story! Later!
