"Pinocchio!"

The young boy was swept up onto the sea shore, blinking his sore eyes tiredly as he lay there, waves passing over him as the tide came in and out gently.

Pinocchio...? The boy thought as he heard that name being cried away from him, Pinocchio? The boy, Candlewick lay there silently, thinking over the desperate crying voice that was away in the distance.

He lay there for a minute more, his arms outstretched on the shore, and once another salty wave washed over him, he began to cough up the water in his lungs and slowly opened up his brown eyes.

He could see an old man a distance away cradling a wooden puppet. The puppet missing most of its limbs and still with lifelessness.

Candlewick slowly got to his feet and began to walk towards the two, limping on his left foot half the way. The bloody foot was swollen and filled with pain, but the young boy didn't care.

The father and puppet son didn't seem to notice his approach, and Candlewick stayed still for a moment when he saw an amazing blue creature suddenly appear before the two.

He could hear the cricket Sebastian beg for the puppet to be brought to life, the blue 'fairy' about to reply when Candlewick yelled at her.

"WAIT!"

Everything and everyone went silent when the boy yelled this, and he quickly hobbled over to the crowd.

Sebastian and Sprezzatura the monkey looked between one another for a second before back at the young adolescent and Candlewick fell on his knees before the blue wood sprite, the fairy.

"Please d-don't let him die!"

The mystic creature looked over him silently, watching the devastated destroyed boy with her ever-stoic face, "Please! Let him live! Give him life! Heck! Give him MY LIFE if that will save the boy!"

"Boy...?" She whispered back, her word sounding slightly confused, but understanding the stress Candlewick was in, "Is that how you see him?"

"Because he is a boy! A child JUST like me!"

She stayed even more quiet and still, before gliding over to Geppetto and the old man hugged Pinocchio close before letting him rest on the sand, the tide washing over Pinocchio gently before the blue sprite waved Candlewick to come closer.

The boy gulped afraid, but nodded and came to the grieving father and dead son.

"Do you really want this boy to live?"

Candlewick was trembling in fear. Her voice was so calm... yet so very scary to the ear.

"Y-yes..."

"Even if it means YOU losing your own life?"

Candlewick was frozen now. He shook there for a good three seconds before he stepped bravely forward and answered.

"Yes."

Geppetto's eyes widened when he heard this answer and he came to the boy, hobbling on his knees to grab Candlewick's hand and plead with him desperately, "No, Candlewick... you, you can't!"

"How about..." The blue fairy continued quietly, waving her glittering hand over to the dead puppet, "Just half your life...?"

Geppetto and Candlewick glanced between one another then, before the young boy stepped bravely forward and asked just as confused.

"Half... my life?"

"Your time on earth will be cut in half... he will have the other half... and when you die... he will too."

Geppetto gasped in horror, but Candlewick stayed very still. He thought of this silently in his head and heart.

His heart was beating so very quietly in his core, but the emotion he got from it was solid in what it knew was right AND not just right... but the only right thing to do.

"Yes," He whimpered and the blue fairy looked at him closely, asking again.

"Yes?"

"I will... I will share my life with him,"

She would've smiled if she had an emotive face, but the wood sprite only gave a bare nod before coming over to Pinnochio and placing her hand softly on his wooden chest.

She slowly waved Candlewick over to her and he nodded quickly, coming to the wooden boy. She slowly reached out her other hand and placed the tip of her finger on Candlewick's wet chest as well.

That moment, her fingers glowed blue and Candlewick felt so very weak, almost dropping to his knees, but he forced himself to stand strong.

He watched as his life energy came out of him, going through the wood sprite and entering Pinocchio's core.

Geppetto watched scared from the side. Sebastian the cricket and Sprezzatura the monkey also watched in amazed silence as finally with no more strength or energy in him, Candlewick landed on his knees, panting from pain.

"There is but one more thing you should know."

The blue fairy slowly floated away from the two, saying as she began to disappear from this moment with these creatures.

"Every day he will grow more human... and when the time comes that he is completely man... well... you and he will have come to the end,"

"What?" The boy whispered weakly back to her, not remembering this part of the agreement.

"It will be the end."

At that, she began to disappear and Sebastian looked at Candlewick astounded at the sacrifice the child had made.

"Why?" He asked him then, hopping over to the boy, landing on Pinocchio's chest and looking up at Candlewick so very confused, "Why...?"

"Because..." He said quietly back and closed his eyes in tears, the teardrops slipping down his cheeks, "HE saved me..."

The night before with the bombs colliding into the military camp, all Candlewick could see in his dark eyes... watching his father be killed right before him... only Pinocchio there to help.

"He saved me..."

Suddenly some coughing could be heard from beside them, and Sebastian quickly hopped off of Pinocchio as the puppet began to wake from his death slumber.

Geppetto gasped in joy, rushing over to his son and hugging him so tightly.

"Pinocchio!" He cried in happy tears and the puppet looked at all who was here with him on this beach.

"What's going on?" He asked innocently, squeezing his father back before looking at the audience he had before him, "Why are you all so upset?"

"It doesn't matter now, Pinocchio!" Geppetto said, trying to comfort and cheer up his son, "Just know Candlewick did an amazing thing for you!"

"Candlewick?" Pinocchio peeped, and quickly turned his sight to the happy boy who was kneeling by his side, "What did you do?"

"I... I gave you my l-life..." He stuttered back, almost not believing it himself.

"Your life?!" Pinocchio suddenly yelped, completely shocked at this news.

"Just HALF!" Candlewick quickly added, not to scare the wooden puppet any more than possible.

"Just half..." Pinocchio whispered to himself amazed. He then began to grow a big happy smile as he let go of his father and hugged Candlewick in thanksgiving.

"THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!"

"It's o-okay," Candlewick only sobbed back happily and when Pinocchio let go of him, he watched in amazement as his limbs began to grow back magically as he knew then, he was getting his second chance.

He was getting a life.

Well, at least half of one anyway.

Bum bum.

The puppet froze up then, completely taken aback when he felt something from within him.

Bum bum.

"What is that?" He asked, totally lost in what was within him now.

Sebastian hopped into the hole in Pinocchio's chest, and when he reached the inner room... he saw something horrifying... but also FASCINATING.

What it was...?

"A HEART!" Sebastian cried from within, hopping out of Pinocchio and drawing everyone's eyes to the beating heart within, "This puppet has a working heart!"

"But what does that mean, Sebastian?!" Pinocchio asked, completely puzzled as he pressed his hands to his chest, feeling it beat just the littlest bit.

"It means," Geppetto finally interjected as he held up his old finger and guided it to Pinocchio's chest, "You, my dear boy, are no longer immortal."

"Not immortal any more?" Pinocchio squeaked back and stumbled to his feet, Geppetto and Candlewick also getting up as well, "Does that mean I can't be shot out of a canon-?"

"Or shot in the face!" Candlewick only laughed and Pinocchio also laughed, oblivious to the joke but finding what the other boy said quite amusing.

"I guess so," Sebastian told him honestly and the group all saw in the distance, boats coming in their direction.

It wasn't long after that Gepetto and the two boys waved them down, the boats coming over and taking them aboard.

Pinocchio and Candlewick stood at the edge of one boat, looking into the deep ocean and all the fish that swam in it, next to the boat as well.

"Y'know," Pinocchio said to Candlewick as they looked into the clear water of the sea and the other boy nodded to indicate he was listening, "I was eating by a SEA MONSTER!"

"No way!" Candlewick mused and Pinocchio didn't get him correctly as he protested back.

"I really was!"

Candlewick only laughed, saying back now actually amused, "I know you did! I was just using an expression!"

"Oh...!" Pinocchio mumbled to himself and then said back, thinking he was getting it now, "NO WAY!"

"WAY!" The boy responded and the two of them laughed at this conversation. As the boat they were on neared port, Candlewick felt his heart start to speed up.

And with that... so did Pinocchio's new heart as well.

"W-what's wrong...?" The puppet asked the boy quickly, not understanding his sudden panic.

"I will be going home to my mother..." Candlewick said softly but in pain, "Without my father..."

Pinocchio remained silent then, as he looked slowly over at Candlewick's empty eyes.

"But she will be so happy YOU made it!"

Candlewick didn't say anything back to that. He just sat on the bench at the edge of the boat, closing his eyes and letting the tears run down his cheeks.

"Candlewick...?" Pinocchio whispered to him then, sitting beside the boy. The puppet just dangled his wooden arms down between his wooden legs and asked back weakly, "Why did you save me..?"

Candlewick slowly opened his reddened veined eyes and uttered to the puppet.

"Because you're my friend..." He gulped then, and Pinocchio felt his own heart speed up at the sound of those words, "You're... you're my only friend, really..."

The puppet didn't know what to exactly say. He did the only gesture that came naturally to his head at that moment. He placed his wooden hand on the living boy's shoulder and whispered back to him.

"And you're my friend,"

And how in the days and months and years to come would such a gift mean so much to this puppet.

To have a friend... a real friend that would give up their life for you.

He had a friend now... and because of that friend, the puppet now had a beating heart.

"There she is!" The captain called to the crew and their new passengers, "The harbour!"

Pinocchio and Candlewick quickly got back to their feet, rushing over to the other side of the boat to see fresh green land and people at the pier.

The two hopped onto the wooden dock, Gepetto, Sebastian and Sprezzatura following from just behind.

As they continued on their travels home, Candlewick was eventually greeted with happy tears from his despairing mother.

"They told me no one survived the bombing!" She cried as she hugged her son so close, and he shut his own eyes, letting the tears come, "But God has saved you, my son! He has saved you!"

He knew he had to tell her the truth, that his life was no longer completely his own.

But not tonight... he would not let his mother weep in sorrow.

"I k-know, Mama..." He whispered back in her arms, "I know..."

But there was only one person he wanted to be with at this moment... a friend he needed comfort from because he and Pinocchio's lives were now entangled.

What this would mean in the time to come...? Life for one... and life half gone...for the other one.