hey! sorry, this story is going really fast...i just had a great idea for another story...and this is only a threeshot, so i'm tryna finish this as fast as i can so i can start the next story, which i'm so excited for! i hope y'all like this one anyway

thanks so much to silvie for reviewing!

—TADASHI—

My protective-big-brother brain goes into overdrive mode again, and I don't hesitate for even a second to jump into the river after Hiro.

The water isn't too cold—thank goodness it's summer—but we'll have to dry off as soon as possible after this, because hypothermia is still very possible at night, which isn't too far off.

I surface and look around for Hiro. He's several yards away, struggling to swim and clinging to his crutch, which I guess is smart, since it's wood and can float. But it's not enough—Hiro is flailing around too much.

"Dashi!" he wails, terrified. "Help!"

I swim as fast as I can, but Hiro is too far away. Just as I'm getting slightly closer, we hit a patch of rapids and the river sucks me under. The world turns green and blue and white, and I'm being tossed around as if I weigh nothing. I struggle furiously against the water's grip, trying to break free of the rapids.

A few moments later, the river does release me—but not in the way I wanted. Suddenly, I'm falling, and I know that the river has become a waterfall.

I let out a rather unmanly scream as I fall, which is cut off as I slam into the water below. I sink rapidly but swim back to the surface, spluttering and gasping for air. Where's Hiro?

I dive back under the water and am horrified to discover my baby brother sinking to the bottom, his eyes closed. I propel myself toward Hiro, grab his shirt, and yank him to the surface, swimming toward the edge of the pool.

Dragging Hiro onto the bank, I place my hands on his chest and start pumping, breathing into his mouth every thirty seconds or so. After about a minute, Hiro starts coughing violently, and I roll him onto his side so he can cough up the water. As he does, my body reminds me that I was in the river too, and I cough up some of my own, but it's not nearly as much as Hiro.

Hiro raises his head and rasps, "T-tadashi?"

I wrap my baby brother in a bear hug, stroking his wet dark hair. "Oh my gosh, Hiro—I—I was so scared—are you okay?"

"Yeah," Hiro mumbles into my shirt. "Just wet."

"Is your leg okay?"

Hiro flexes his leg slightly and lets out a soft hiss of pain. "It's not any worse, but we're gonna have to fix the splint. Do you still have your bag?"

I'm surprised to discover that we both still have our bags, as well as Hiro's crutch—somehow we managed to hold onto them. The clothes are all soaked, but my first aid kit is waterproof and Hiro's snacks are sealed in Ziploc bags, so no essential supplies are damaged. I fix Hiro's splint and check him over for further injury. Finding none, I check myself too. I'm pretty sure I'm okay, so I simply re-bandage all of our previous injuries and we lay out the clothes to dry. I carry Hiro over to a large tree and we sit with our backs against it, wanting to rest.

"Next time we're gonna build a boat," I tease, ruffling Hiro's hair.

"Yeah," Hiro mumbles sleepily. "Should've listened to you…for once, I guess…"

His eyes close, and his head droops onto my shoulder as he starts snoring softly. I smile and pull Hiro into my lap like I used to when he was little, planting our mother's goodnight kiss on his forehead.

We're gonna be okay.

At least, I hope we are.

We'd better be.

I stay up almost the whole rest of the night, keeping watch over Hiro. I fall asleep at around six in the morning, my eyes burning. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm exhausted.

After a few hours of rest on my part, Hiro and I continue walking, searching for any sign of civilization. I can look with both eyes now, since the swelling on my left eye has gone down somewhat. It still doesn't look great—it's a deep shade of purple—but it feels a lot better and I can see out of it. The goose egg on the back of Hiro's head is going down too, and all our little cuts and scrapes seem to be healing.

But Hiro's leg isn't getting any better—no worse, but no better either. The swelling hasn't changed at all, and I'm worried about him. You're not supposed to walk on a fractured tibia, although the crutch seems to be helping somewhat. As for me, I'm pretty sure my ankle has gotten worse. It's swelling up pretty bad and I'm still limping all over the place on it, despite knowing better. I probably need a crutch too, but we haven't come across any more forked sticks—or at least, none big enough for me to use.

Despite our injuries, we continue wandering through the highlands and following the river, eventually leaving the forest and coming out onto the plains. Hiro gets tired fast, and I eventually end up carrying him. Poor little guy—he's exhausted and hurt and too small to protect himself. But I have to keep stopping, since my headache is still pretty bad and the pain in my ankle keeps worsening to nearly unbearable.

During one of the rests, Hiro opens his eyes and yawns. "Hey, Dashi. Are we any closer to civilization?"

I shrug, then wince. "Not sure. Probably."

"I hope—Tadashi, what are those?"

My head snaps up and I see several dark gray shapes slinking toward us, padding silently across the plain.

Wolves.

"I don't understand," I say in a panicked whisper. "Those are supposed to be extinct in the Scottish Highlands."

"But what are they?" Hiro exclaims. "Are those—are those wolves, Tadashi?"

"Yeah," I whisper, my voice shaking. "Be quiet and don't move."

We get down and try not to make any noise, but the wolves keep stalking toward us, obviously having noticed that we're there. I stay pressed against the ground, but it's no use—the wolves stop about ten feet away from us, growling menacingly.

I get up and wave my arms around, trying to look as big as possible. "Hey—um—get back! You, uh, vermin! I'm big and scary and can very easily hurt you!"

The wolves do not look impressed, and they immediately attack.

I yelp in pain and terror as a wolf leaps at me, its claws scraping my skin. It knocks me right over and my face is slammed into the ground.

"Hiro, run!" I yell, trying desperately to throw the wolf off of me. "Get away from here! Go!"

"I can't run, Tadashi!" Hiro wails, holding up his crutch. "And I'm not leaving you h—"

A wolf jumps on top of Hiro, too, and he lets out a scream as the beast's claws tear into him. The sound gives me renewed strength—they hurt my baby brother—and I manage to hit the wolf hard enough in the snout that it whimpers and backs off. I scramble up, bleeding from my cheek and shoulder but not caring, and rush toward Hiro. His crutch lies abandoned on the grass, and I have a sudden burst of inspiration.

I heft the crutch over my shoulder, then swing it as hard as I can at the wolf attacking Hiro. I scream at it, furious, and smack it repeatedly in the snout. Finally, I hear a crack and the wolf backs away, whining.

I hurriedly count the rest of the wolves—two down, two to go. The crutch is my only weapon, and I'm already injured. This isn't looking good.

The wolves attack, and I swing the crutch furiously at them, yelling at them some more for good measure. I don't want to kill them, I just want to get them away from Hiro, but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to kill them—they don't want to back off. I somehow manage to knock one out, but the other is a lot bigger and still going strong. It slashes its claws across my side and I scream, though I can tell the wound isn't deep—it just really hurts. And so does everything else, so I'm not sure I'm gonna come out of this, because the wolf can obviously tell he's weakened his opponent and he's even more vicious due to it.

The huge wolf slams a paw against the side of my head, right next to my injured eye, and I stumble back, stars exploding in my vision. But I keep a firm grip on the crutch and keep swinging—until I hear another crack and the wolf goes limp.

My head is spinning and my whole body hurts and I'm so exhausted I can barely stand. So I don't. My knees buckle and I collapse to the ground, panting. But I have to get to Hiro—I have to know if he's okay. He has to be okay.

I drag myself over to my baby brother, my heart sinking. He's bleeding all over and he only appears half-conscious.

"Hiro?" I whisper, shaking his shoulder gently. "Hiro, wake up…"

"I'm awake," Hiro mumbles. "Just…just tired. It didn't claw me too badly—at least I don't think so…"

I run my hands over Hiro's body, checking for injuries. The cut under his eye has been reopened, and scratches run across his jaw and forehead. Hiro's arms are also bleeding in multiple places, but that appears to be the extent of the damage. My cheek, shoulder, and chin are all bleeding, too, but they don't seem like deep cuts.

I'm not worried about that, though. I'm worried about if the wolves had rabies or not, because that would not be good—rabies has a 99% mortality rate.

We'd better not have rabies. We have to get back to San Fransokyo, to Aunt Cass and Mochi and Honey Lemon.

Because what will they do if Hiro and I don't come back?

I patch up Hiro's cuts and scratches first, then get to work on mine. All I can do for now is rub bacitracin on them so they don't get infected, then hope we don't have any deadly diseases.

After I finish, I check on the two wolves I beat up—they're still out cold, so Hiro and I simply walk away very quietly, hoping they won't wake up. They don't, so we break into a half-limp, half-run once we're about five hundred feet away.

We keep walking across the highlands, following the river. My water-purifying tablets are running out, and I'm worried we won't last much longer. Our food supply is getting pretty low, too—Hiro really likes those gummy bears and can't restrain himself.

As we trek on, I keep checking Hiro and myself for signs of rabies. I don't see any, which is good, but I'm not sure how long the disease takes to manifest itself. All I know is that we'll almost certainly die if we have rabies.

By the end of the third day, neither of us feel any worse, so I'm taking that as a good sign. At the same time, though, our food supply runs out. There are no more gummy bears, chips, or candy for us to eat. Hiro laments the loss of his only sustenance and refuses to go on for several minutes. But I convince him to get up, and we keep walking.

As we curl up next to a bush on the riverbank to sleep, I do a quick check-in on our injuries. I don't see any signs of rabies in either of us, so that's a good sign. But Hiro's leg and my ankle are both swelling up worse than before, and I can barely walk. Hiro keeps offering me his crutch, but I keep declining it—I don't want him to be in pain and it's also not tall enough for me to use.

I massage the injured ankle as Hiro falls asleep with his head in my lap, thinking about how on earth we're going to get home.

I'm starting to think we never will.