Every day I would go back to Paw, and every day he'd tell me i'm not ready enough for more training. Then i'd just scour every inch of the forest I could until I got tired, and i'd run back home to lick my emotional wounds. It took a little less each time, I was getting the muscle I had lost back after all. This went on for four days.
Today he finally caved and let me at least try.
"Faster, Pepper! Use your size against me!" He instructed, swiping at me without his claws. I sidestepped the attack, lunging forward inbetween his front legs. I nipped his belly thrice before he got onto his hind legs, intending to squash me. I scrammed, making it out if the way by the hairs on the tip of my tail before he came back down to earth with a resounding THUD, dust flying up from his paws. I twisted myself around, just trying to get him back into my peripheral vision. I did it too fast though, and my bad side twinged uncomfortably as the delicate tissue went just a little beyond it's limits.
"Gah!" I shouted, stumbling. I righted myself, favoring the opposite leg to try and alleviate the sudden pain. It was gone as fast as it came, but Paw had already stopped his charge and was curtly lumbering towards me.
"That's enough for today now, Pup." He growled.
"What?" I sniffled, "I can keep going I swear! That was just one little cramp!" I protested as the old bear sat down to rest.
"You won't get any further like that. You still need time to heal." He grunted. I huffed, partially from exasperation, but mostly from exhaustion.
"Time's the one thing I don't got right now..." I mumbled as I slunk beside him, feeling heavier with each step. I leaned against him as I slumped into the dirt. "The cats are at least ten steps ahead of me now. I'll be playing catch up for weeks unless I step up my game!" Paw nosed my head gently.
"You still haven't told me just what your rush is." He chided. My ears flattened and I hid my eyes.
"It's a lot to unpack." I said, trying to sway the conversation elsewhere. Paw wasn't having it.
"Just because i'm old and my hearing's goin' doesn't mean i'm a bad listener." He goaded. Shit.
"I don't really have the vocabulary to try and word this right now." I tried deflecting again.
"Try anyway." Fuck fuck fuuuuuck. I only had one last shot to try and escape. I scootched away slowly.
"I'm not in the right headspace to divulge this information?" Paw snorted and stamped at the ground.
"Pepper if I have to ask you again i'm not sparring against you any longer." He threatened. I let out a squeak. Given the situation, it's fair to say that's a worse fate than him fighting me for real, right? I stumbled over my words a bit before taking a deep breath.
"Do..." My voice cracked. I paused, swallowing my spit. "Do you... Believe in second chances?" I asked, not waiting for him to answer. "I'm... Afraid, Paw.." I started shaking. Or maybe I already had been. "I'm afraid of losing mine." The grizzly moved in closer to me, practically cradling me in his forelegs.
"I believe in a lot of things, pup. But what makes this your second chance? You didn't do nothing wrong now did you?" He cautiously probed. I shuddered holding back tears.
"I've been havin' dreams, Paw..." Dreams of abulance sirens. Dreams of nothing but sirens, sirens, sirens. They haven't stopped even after I got better from Petite's attack. "You know... How I don't got any memories from before I got here, right?" Paw nodded, urging me forward. "I think... I think..." I sniffled, unable to hold back the waterworks. I was so fucking scared damn it. "I think that... I died." I gasped for air, full on sobbing. "I think I died, and, and... And then I wound up on this island. And now..." Paw moved me in close, and I leaned in. "I don't wanna die again, Paw." I whispered.
"This..." He trailed off, unsure of how to respond. Who can blame him? How else do you comfort a girl who probably has already died. "You really think you've died already?" I nodded into his leg. He sighed. "Pepper, look at me." I barely lifted my head, focusing on the bridge of his snout instead of his eyes. "Do you know how it happened?"
"No..." I sniffled, voice already hoarse.
"Then there's no use worrying about it none." He stated.
"But!-" Paw cut me off before I could even think about justifying myself.
"You won't die. I'll keep teachin' you how to fight. Just not like this I won't." He nuzzled me reassuringly.
"I don't know if I had things to live for before Paw... I just wanna keep what I do have now safe." I whined, half buried in his fur.
"I know, kid. You will. By taking care of yourself first." He reassured. "You can keep coming back here and i'll keep training you, but we're takin' it easy and we're stopping as soon as you start feeling your injuries again, got it?" I curled up and nodded.
"Thank you..." I muttered, feeling less heavy by the second.
"You don't need to thank me, pup." Paw chuffed, laying his head down next to mine.
"I want to though." I yawned, rollercoaster of panic and fear coming to a stop. I'd used up pretty much all of my energy over this, and I felt it. Paw nosed me up without getting up himself, to my displeasure.
"Run along home and get some rest. I expect you back tomorrow morning." He mumbled, half-asleep himself. I smushed my face up against him.
"Yes sir." I began my sprint home, but I had slowed down to a fast trot by the time I had even reached the village.
It was a total panic.
Dragons of all kinds were flying wildly, screaming 'Monster!' and 'Get away!'. A nearby nightmare even shouted 'Everybody panic!'. Classy.
I needed to find one of the riders. Their dragon would be with them.
"Hey! Oi! SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!" I howled as loudly as I could over the pandemonium. A leader of a flock of terrors heard me and swept in to hover anxiously as they struggled to mantain order.
"You there! Little hairy thing!" It squawked at me. I ignored the rude name and focused on it. It was blue and yellow, green flecks smattered where the colors met. "It isn't safe out here, get back to where you're supposed to be!" It- He- ordered.
"Not 'till somebody tells me why everyone's panicking!" I barked.
"It's horrible! A huge sea serpent beast from the ocean is terrorising the west shore!" He cried out, whipping around to get back to his flock. "Save yourself!" He shouted one last time before leading the rest in the direction I came from. Oh shit, I completely fucking forgot about North.
I completely fucking forgot about North!
I was back to a sprint, bad side twitching horribly. I ignored it and pushed forward, praying to whoever was listening that I got there in time. Just my luck however that as the beach grew ever closer I could already see the swinging form of the big blue dumbass and the dragons trying to stay graceful around his wild movements, kids mounted and trying to figure out how to get him to stop.
"What the fuck." I said. In my defence, what the fuck indeed.
"Have-" I heard North grunt, "At-" he gasped, clearly having been out of the water too long. "Thee!"
"North, get back in the ocean you fucking moron!" I shouted, running down the beach. He didn't hear me, but the dragons did.
"Pepper, get away!" Hookfang called out to me, barely getting Snotlout out of the way of Norths tail.
"It's too dangrous!" Meatlug added, firing a magma blast that just slid right off into the sand. I growled.
"B.B.! WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU TELL THEM ABOUT HIM?!" I reprimanded the zippleback.
"I thought you were going to!" He replied using both heads at once. It echoed weirdly, but it was so not the time for that.
"When would I have had the time to- oh, fucking never mind! Stop fighting him and let me talk to him!"
"We've been trying! He just-" Stormfly paused to dodge, "Keeps trying to take us down" I huffed, having to stay too far away from North to not get flattened for him to hear me. I started pacing in place, trying to come up with a plan.
"Fuck, fuck, shit, god damn it, think, Pepper-" Then it hit me. Quite literally. As North kept drying out in the midday sun, scales flaked off with every move he made and each attack he took. I say literally hit me because said midday sun caught a particularly shiny and reflective scale and hit me with a beam of light directly in my eye. "Gah- motherfuck-" I began cursing, but halted myself. The metaphorical gears clicked and the lightbulb went off over my head. "The fucking scale he gave me." As my genius began showing, I heard splashing and saw North had temporarily retreated, only to pop his head back out and start hurling huge blasts of water at the dragons and riders.
Well, huge in comparison to the rest of us, the serpent was already giant. The blasts were only really about as big as his head but his head was the size of three party buses smushed next to eachother, so, you know. Perspective. All the more reason to hurry.
"Keep distracting him i'll be right back 'kay thanks!" I shouted, making another mad dash for home. Humans and dragons alike were freaking out and trying to calm eachother down. If anyone noticed me, I was too fast for them and ran past. The backyard back home at the Thorstons' was muddy from rain, but that didn't stop me. It took me four tries to dig it up, slick mud making my paws slide out from under me, but I eventually found it right where I buried it underneath the tree. Still as blue and unwieldy as ever.
I cursed my short stature, as I accidentally lodged it in the dirt trying to walk. I yanked it out and settled for dragging it behind me, leaving a very noticeable line behind me. I turned my eyes skyward. It was quickly becoming evening, I clearly wouldn't make it in time before something happens everyone would regret later.
Until I saw her, staring at me with an unreadable look from atop the house. I dropped the scale.
"Petite."
Author's Note:
"Who me? Write a cliffhanger? Never." Lied the author, writing a cliffhanger. Don't you fret your darling little heads a hair, i'm already working on February's installment right after I finish writing this note.
Happy three year anniversary, fans of my work! And to the people that read this far on a whim, It took me three years to write this much, appreciate me dammit.
I'm joking! I kid. Mostly.
This has been a wild wild three year trip and hoo baby we are nowhere near being done. I know at one point, oh I dunno, maybe exactly a year ago, I mentioned how I wanted to wrap this up before hitting too many chapters, but about that? Yeah that ain't happn'in chief. Oh poor, silly, naive, past Carly. Why would such a little fool believe she could stop the crazy train before it even started? It only really got started a few chapters ago. The really real shit only just started here. Past Carly can add 'moron' to her list of titles.
Current Carly has had that title for a longass while.
Speakin' of current Carly, hi! It's me, the moron and author of the fanfiction you're reading. Nice to either see you again or meet you.
If you've been reading these notes, you'd know that I fucking love and appreciate the people that read my work! If you've just read this now...
I fucking love and appreciate the people that read my work. This includes you now too bucko.
That being said, lifes unfortunate habit of happening to me in the worst way possible likes to keep me from writing, so if you could let me know how i'm doing, what you're curious about, what you'd like to see, or even just keysmashing to the tune of Bohemian Rhapsody in the reviews, that would be mighty appreciated!
I haven't got anything big to celebrate the anniversary once again, whoopsies. It just don't work out like that sometimes. Both times. All the times.
Yikers. I've become boring. While we're on the boring topic lets review the year in chapters ey? It was most certainly not the most productive, and i've had quite a few emotional setbacks, but all progress is good progress yeah? We've gone from sixteen chapters to twenty seven. That's just eleven more, so compared to 2018 my ass was verily handed to me in a jar. But i'm not gonna let it get me down! I've reread my work and can say i've definetely improved in writing quality, so really it's quality over quantity! That's it!
That being said we really are getting to the thick of it now. And seeing as i'm not going to get that free period back ever, it seems, chapters may slow even more. I'll try my best to not let that happen, but you've seen my relationship with Lady Luck by this point. She ain't kind to me. So in the event of an emergency please locate the exits to the front, back, and sides of the threater and remember to please be kind to me. Ah, that got depressing. Best wrap this up then, before I start crying.
Here's to one more year, let's hope we all keep a good clear 2020 vision, and never forget the sacrifices we made to reach this MLK Jr. day! -Carly
P.S. I got Pokemon Sword for the holidays, if anyone wants to link trade me some shield exclusives hmu~