Chapter 4: The calm at the Jungle and the storm at the Beach
While we were walking through the Jungle, we noticed Moose and Jaguar arguing about something while Asian Small-Clawed Otter was happily playing in the river.
I would rather avoid their discussion, but before I could even notice, Balto was already joining their discussion, so I didn't have another choice but to also join it.
"You also seem strong, let's compete!" Moose says with her natural intimidating way.
"As I was telling you...What kind of competition you want to have?" Jaguar asks Moose.
"Hm...good question..." Moose think a little and then say "Since you're good at swimming... How about a swimming competition?"
"Oh, I'm in!" Balto answer without a second thought.
"Eh!? Well, if you guys are okay with that..." Jaguar says with a surprised look.
"You there" Moose says while looking at me " You'll be the judge of our competition."
The first to enter the river is Moose and to everybody's surprise, she doesn't know how to swim and Jaguar needed to rescue her.
"Why...did you...asked for this challenge if you don't know how to swim?" Jaguar asked after taking Moose out of the river.
"Because I wanted to show you that I can win against you even at what you're good at..." Moose answered and did her traditional pose.
"Just go back to the Plains already..." Jaguar insisted to her.
And I bet I also heard Jaguar saying "I don't know how Lion can tolerate you...", but it must have been my imagination since no one else seemed to have heard it.
And since it seemed that they wouldn't be competing anytime soon, we said our goodbyes and kept going through the Jungle.
I mustered up my courage and asked Balto.
"C-can we hold hands?"
"Sure.", she says as she grabs my hand without a second thought, which makes me feel a little relieved and makes me blush and smile a little.
While we were walking holding hands, all I could think about was what Beaver told me yesterday and keep questioning if love is like this and because of that, I wasn't paying attention to what Balto was saying until there was a sudden explosion sound and the ground shaken a little.
Balto went ahead to where the sound came from and when I was about to take the first step to follow her, Ezo Red Fox grabbed my arm and told me.
"Silver...I have a bad feeling about this...We should go back home..."
But since I was more worried at Balto than anything else at the moment, I simply ignored what Ezo said and rushed towards where I last saw Balto going to.
When I arrived at the beach, the location where the explosion happened apparently, and there was smoke everywhere, which made it harder to find Balto in this mess. So while I was searching for her, I noticed what apparently resembled the silhouette of Serval, that from the last time that I remember seeing her was during the day that she left the island alongside Arai, Fennec and Kaban, so as a natural reaction I called up to her but in a split second she disappeared and before I could even react Balto appeared right in front of me while holding Serval's right arm and if she hadn't done that, Serval would have probably sliced me up.
A couple of seconds later, all the smoke had disappeared and I was able to take a better look around and notice that Lion, Moose and Brown Bear were all in the ground defeated, while Balto was still trying to hold actually the right arm of a Cerulean that was shaped like Serval, Gray Wolf was doing her best to hold up a Cerulean shaped like a Common Raccoon and Jaguar just received a punch right in her stomach by a Cerulean shaped like a Fennec Fox.
While I feared for the worst, Balto suddenly started to glow and transform, and to my surprise, the professor and her assistant approached from the sky while the professor said.
"I never thought that those legends about a new form that a Friend could obtain were true..."
"if they really are, then this is a great opportunity to learn about it's abilities and appearance.", the assistance added.
And while they kept observing and commenting about it, I simply found it to be the most awesome thing I ever saw, she slowly transformed into a half husky, half human and as her transformation ended, it seemed like she had disappeared, but it was because her speed was so fast that my eyes couldn't keep up according to professor, and it seemed like she could defeat all of them easily, but apparently her speed and strength were decreasing quite fast even though there were only the Fennec-like Cerulean to be defeated, it was already very apparent that it was a one-sided fight and that Balto could end up being defeated any second.
Then I remembered that the Ceruleans are weak against water, so I ran to the ocean and tried my best to throw water at it from afar, but it noticed my plan so it jumped towards me with it's arm ready to pierce me and when I thought I would be dead, Balto jumped right in front of me and while she slowly transformed back to her normal Friend form, and right in the middle of her stomach was where the Cerulean's arm were coming out and Sandstars were coming out of it, I just couldn't believe what just happened right in front of me and while I was still trying so hard to believe that this was all just a dream and that I would wake up at Beaver's house, Balto said her last word.
"Goodbye"
After that all I could do was cry and hope that it was just a really bad nightmare, that I would wake up and hug Balto so I could rest assured that I would be able to ask her out on a date, that I would live happily with her at the Bath house, but I weren't waking up, I was still at the beach, with my clothes wet with this salty water, with this nasty creature right in front of me- wait, if this is real, then I should run, but I couldn't move an inch, I didn't have any strength left, my body seems just so heavy, but it's approaching me and as it lifted it's arm, I remembered about Balto and thougth to myself that maybe this way I could have the slightest chance of being able to see her again, so I gave the best smile that I could and accepted my fate.
But then I got pushed by someone else and the Cerulean's claws didn't hit me, as I turned my head I saw who it hit, it was Lion's right arm, after it sliced it off, a few sandstar came off from the very little left of her right arm and then I blacked out.
