Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or anything else owned by Eoin Colfer, I don't own anything I didn't create, but I own everything that I made up/created/thought of.

(A/N: I don't really have much to say, so on with the story.)

Chapter Four: Fight or Flight

Trouble's POV

The bear was rearing up on its hind legs – ready for a fight. We both drew large breaths and broke branches off from the tree behind us.

'Can we run?' whispered Holly in my ear.

'He's ready for a fight. You can see it. He will chase us. Without wings or transport we won't outrun him.'

'Then let's fight.'

Another large breath then Holly found her footing and jumped towards the bear, swinging her branch at its head. I spent a brief second marvelling at how fast she could move, then I snuck round behind the bear to join the fray.

I swung my branch at the back of the bear's head. This served the purpose of distracting him so he would turn around and fight me. Unfortunately he swung his arms as he turned, he hit Holly.

'Holly!' I screamed. But that was all I could do for her at that point in time, I had to worry about the bear getting me. If I was too badly injured I couldn't help Holly once the bear was incapacitated. I swung my branch with a new vengeance, stepping back slightly every time I hit the bear. I didn't realise that I was doing this, but I was cornering myself. I gave my branch a particularly strong swing, and it cracked across the all the more enraged bear, who was showing no signs of tiring. Panicking I looked around for another branch to break off to continue my desperate fight.

Then I saw what I had been doing to myself. I had backed into a solid rock face. Therefore nothing to fight with but my fists, and nowhere to run.

I sprang forwards. Even if I only had my fists I would die fighting. The bear brushed me aside and I fell. I felt my head crack against a rock, and I felt blood running down the side of my face. Yet amazingly I could still think straight. I scrambled up and again began punching the bear. I saw an annoyed look of triumph in his eyes as he raised his paw.

Holly's POV

Pain. Utter pain. That was all I could feel. My leg was obviously broken – it was sticking out at a strange angle and was covered in blood. I groaned as I lifted it off the large rock it was on and saw two large gashes with blood oozing for them. I had a blinder of a headache coming on too. And as I lifted a hand to feel my head I saw multiple cuts on that too. I knew there was a chunk taken out of my head. But these injuries were the least of my worries. I looked over at Trouble. He had just scrambled up and was raining multiple punches down on the bear. He had blood oozing out from under his hair, but it didn't seem to be affecting him.

I gasped when I realised that Trouble had managed to get himself cornered – then I saw the broken branch lying beside him.

The bear was raising his paw – I saw the fear in Trouble's eyes, and the malevolence in the eyes of the bear. I knew that unless I intervened that Trouble would be taking his last breath in the next few seconds.

Without stopping to think I grabbed the branch lying on the ground beside me and stumbled as fast as possible towards where the bear and Trouble were using anything I could for support. All the while my leg threatened to buckle beneath me. When I reached the pair I raised the branch behind me and swung it at the back of the bear's head. I heard an almighty crack and the branch split in two. For a moment I thought I had failed. Then the bear's legs buckled and he fell backwards on top of me.

Trouble's POV

I couldn't believe it. I was going to die. And I wouldn't be able to help Holly. This entire thing was my fault. I was the one who chose where we would camp.

Then I saw a shadowy figure stumble up behind the bear. I continued to punch the bear to distract it from this. The figure raised something and brought it crashing down on the bear's head. It broke in two, it was another branch. The bear went cross-eyed, then its legs bucked and it fell backwards onto its assailant.

I drew a breath then ran around the bear to make sure the unknown helper was alright. Then I saw it was Holly, albeit a blood covered Holly who was trying to maintain consciousness.

I knelt down beside her.

'Trouble – c…can't breathe…' she mumbled before passing out.

Then I saw that the bear was lying with its paw over her throat, stopping her from breathing. I quickly removed this paw from her throat and set about finding a branch that I could use to leaver the bear off her.

Five minutes later I had done this and was doing some serious thinking. Holly was extremely pale, unconscious, and had lost a lot of blood. I needed to get her out of there, and fast, before the bear woke up. I would have to ford the rivers as there was no point trying to swing while holding onto her. It would be hours before we could leave to forest so I would have to keep her warm. I ran across to where our fire was still burning and quickly put it out. I then grabbed the blanket and ran back to Holly.

Once Holly was wrapped in the blanket I picked her up and began a careful trudge through the forest. It would take me hours carrying Holly, but that was least of my worries – Holly's life was at the top of my priority list.

Four hours later I had forded one large river and stepped over a couple of streams. I came to a third small stream, which was considerably warmer than the others. I lay Holly down beside it and proceeded to drip a little water into her mouth and clean off her many cuts. I left the golf ball sized lump on her head but carefully put a bit of water on the large bruise across her forehead. Then I curled up around her to keep her warm, and fell asleep.

I woke another five hours later, at dawn. I had carefully trained myself to do this as I had never had an alarm clock when I was young. Holly was still unconscious and had a slightly irregular pulse, but she was breathing. I dripped a little more water into her mouth. Then I carefully wrapped her in the blanket, hoisted her off the ground and began to walk back towards the edge of the forest.

I had forded what I knew was the last river I would have to ford before we got back to the perimeter about fifteen minutes before the horn sounded, I knew it would take me about half an hour to get back to the perimeter at this pace. I breathed a sigh of relief, we would make it. Then I remembered the flag.

As I had hoped the horn sounding had brought Holly back to consciousness. Of course I was still prepared to carry her back. But it was nice to know she was alive.

'Trouble, what happened?' she whispered.

'It's ok, the bear's gone.'

'Flag is in my pocket,' gasped Holly (I breathed a sigh of relief), 'was that the horn?'

'Good. Yes. I'm going to carry you back. OK?'

'Not OK, I can walk.'

'Your leg is broken.'

'Then splint it and I will walk.'

I knew there was no use in arguing, Holly would walk if she wanted to walk. I set about searching for a suitable piece of wood and within five minutes had torn a strip off of the blanket and used it to splint Holly's leg.

She gingerly stood and put weight on the leg; she wobbled a bit but stayed upright with a grim look of determination on her face.

'As long as I can use you for support I will be fine.'

'Feel free, but you will stay wrapped in the blanket.'

'Fine. But you are still bleeding, are you OK?'

'I'll live. Come on Hols, we should get going.'

I put my arm around the back and she leant on it. Then we proceeded to walk very slowly and carefully towards the perimeter. Holly let my lift her down the few meters of rock we had had to climb to get into the forest. Then she insisted on walking again. Forty-five minutes later we saw the perimeter, relief spread through me and we both sped up.

With ten minutes to spare we stumbled out of the forest - right into Commander Root.

'About time…' but Commander Root stopped as we both collapsed in front of him, 'What the hell happened to you two?'

'Indian Bear,' I spluttered.

I saw Holly lift the flag out of her pocket, then I lost consciousness.

Commander Root's POV

Cadet Kelp and Cadet Short stumbled out of the forest; Cadet Kelp had a trickle of blood running from a nasty looking cut on his forehead and looked to be supporting Cadet Short. Cadet Short appeared to have a splint on her leg. But there was no way they could have gotten that badly injured.

'About time…' I stated to say, but I stopped when they both collapsed in front of me. They were definitely badly injured.

'What the hell happened to you two?'

'Indian Bear,' spluttered Kelp, right before he lost consciousness. Holly drew the flag out of her pocket, then joined her partner in a state on unconsciousness.

'Get me medics over here, NOW!' I shouted, 'and get me whoever is in charge of this forest.'

Instantly Holly and Trouble were surrounded by paramedics. 'They need to go to hospital,' I was told by one of the paramedics, 'but they will both live.'

'Good. Now who is in charge of this place?'

'That would be me sir, I'm Mr. Teryl. I believe you know my brother, Commandant Teryl, he works at the shuttle port.'

'Yes I know your brother, and I hope you are not a bit like him. Now I want to know why there was an Indian Bear running around in that forest when we were told that while there were some wild animals there was nothing that could hurt them badly?'

'I'm sorry I can't answer that question sir. If you would like to make a complaint you must use the public complaint box – over there.'

I looked around and saw a small box with a line of civilians (half a mile long – literally) placing complaints written on brightly coloured paper into a box marked 'COMPLAINTS'. There was an even longer line by the place on the wall with a container marked, 'Complaint forms here'.

I sighed, and then grabbed Mr. Teryl by the scruff of the neck, 'Now you listen to me and you listen good. I am NOT the public, I am the LEP, and I expect you to be rid of that Bear by the time the LEP next come here. Or we will take our business elsewhere, and shut you down.'

'Yes, sir. I will pass it on to my superiors,' said Mr. Teryl, he then scurried away. (As soon as he was out of earshot he flipped open his mobile phone. 'Bob – sell my shares in the forest, I have a hunch the price is about to take a big dive.')

I breathed a sigh of relief, instructed Wing Commander Vinyaya to take the Cadet's back to camp, then got into my car and followed the magma strip to the hospital to check on my god-daughter and Trouble.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

'No – you don't understand,' I bellowed, 'I am Commander Root of the LEP and I want to see my god-daughter.'

'I thought you just said she was under your command, not that she was your god-daughter?'

'She is under my command and she is my god-daughter, now let me in or at least tell me what is happening.'

'We cannot do that sir – she has no living blood relatives and being a god-father does not give you an rights, only blood family members or spouse can be given information while patients are in a critical condition.'

'Just tell me.'

'Sir – all we can tell you is that we are having severe complications with the treatment of Holly Short. She may not live.'

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(A/N: There. The end of the fourth chapter and the second time I have updated in two days. Please review. I will try to update soon.)