“So you’re just going to give up? Pathetic.”

“S-spike?”

Standing in front of you is the last person you expected to see. Spike the dragon. It doesn’t make sense. It shouldn’t be possible. But for some reason, you don’t question it. You simply focus in on your friend and nothing else.

“After everything I risked to give you a second chance, you’re just going to lay down and die?” He crosses his arms giving you a stern, judgmental look.

“I…I gave it my best try. But look at me!” you gesture to yourself. “What am I supposed to do now? What CAN I do?”

“You can keep fighting.”

“Keep fighting?!” you ask incredulously. “There is no fight! I can’t…I can’t do anything to them! I can’t run from them! I don’t have magic, I can’t fly, I can’t do anything!”

“You got this far didn’t you?” he asks with a raised brow.

“And look what it cost me,” you reply, gesturing to your ankle.

“Alright fine, give up and die,” Spike snaps back turning and walking away. “I only just gave up everything to help you escape. The least you could do to repay me is make it worth it!”

“Repay you? You were awfully damn complicit in the whole thing for quite a while!” you yell back.

“Because I was afraid!” he screams back. He turns to face you and your eyes widen at what you see. His face is now marred and bruised. Welts and cuts decorate his face, his left eye was swollen shut, and blood was dripping from his nose and mouth. “I’m just a BABY dragon, I don’t know how to handle this sort of thing! It didn’t make sense!” he’s started crying now. “The-the Twilight that did those things to you, isn’t the one I grew up with!” He collapses to his knees now, tears flowing freely. “I don’t…understand….”

Guilt weighs on your shoulders. You position yourself to crawl towards him. You lean in to make eye contact with the young drake.

“I don’t either,” you tell him. “But…all that time I spent as a prisoner…you were the only person, the only thing that made those days bearable. Lending me your comic books, playing chess and checkers with me. I’ll never not appreciate what you did for me. I’m…I’m sorry for what I said. I just feel like…like it’s never going to be over. That I’m never going to reach that finish line where I can finally just…relax. And be at peace.” The dragon sniffs and wipes his face.
“You definitely won’t if you stop here.” You contemplate this. After a few moments, you nod as you feel a new sense of resolve.

“You’re right.” The dragon in front of you smiles before he begins to dissolve away into the air. “Wait! Spike come back!” You reach out to stop him, but your hands grab at empty air. You look at the spot where he disappeared in confusion.

“Come back…." You sit there staring at the ground. You just stare at that spot, for how long, you do not know. Eventually you blink and look up to the surrounding forest. You see a long and thick branch on the ground just ahead of you. You crawl forward and wrap your fingers around it. You use it to hoist yourself up, and then as a cane to keep the pressure off your injured ankle.

“Spike?” you call out but there’s no answer. “You’re right,” you say softly. You weren’t going to just throw away this chance you’ve been given. You were going to do right by your friend.

‘But which way do I go?’ You look around and see nothing but forest. The sound of a wolves howl rings through the air. Your grip tightens on the branch, and you start walking away from the direction of the sound.

Hours have passed, and it’s starting to get dark. You are thirsty and hungry. You shouldn’t have rejected the food Spike gave you back in your cell. Your limbs are starting to get heavy and you feel weak. But you have to keep going. You don’t have any real destination in mind, but you just know you can’t stop moving.

But you do stop moving. Your body gives out from under you and you collapse to the ground once more. You catch yourself with your arms and let out a grunt. Your breaths are hard and ragged. You see a large oak tree just ahead of you. You crawl over to it and sit up against it, taking in your surroundings. It’s just more trees and shrubs. Your stomach growls and you place a hand against it.

“God…I’m hungry….” Aside from the few obscure berries you’d passed, that you had no way of knowing were safe or poisonous, you hadn’t found anything proper to eat. Of course there were small animals darting around but you had no reliable means of catching them.

“I’m not done…I’m not stopping!”

In response to your statement of defiance, you hear the howls of more wolves in the distance. Only, they sound closer this time. Your heart rate increases. You struggle to stand back up and hobble away as fast as you can. You hear the howling get closer.

“Fuck!” you yell. The wolves howl again, much closer. You realize you aren’t going to outrun them. Your only option is to fight. You stumble against a large tree and place your back against it. You hold your walking stick in front of you defensively. You were a sitting duck but at least your back was protected.

You wait in tense silence, covered in sweat, blood and dirt. You grip your stick tightly, eyes scanning every which way for any sign of the predators that were pursing you.
And then you spot them. The glowing yellow eyes in the dark. Timber wolves. You see four of them stalking towards you. You grit your teeth, a wash of anger overcoming you. You let out a loud growl, and the wolves to their credit appear to cautiously reconsider their approach. But they quickly regain their confidence as they close in on you.

“You want me! Come on, I’m ready! You want to kill me? I’m already dead mother fuckers, but I swear to God I’m taking one of you down with me!” As the wolves get closer, you swing your stick out at one of them. It connects with its face. You rear back to swing again when one of the wolves pounces on the opening, slamming you to the ground. Your grip on your weapon is lost and the stick falls out of your reach.

As you hit the ground you let out a scream. But it’s not a scream of pain. Not entirely. It’s fueled by rage more than anything. You swing your right hand at its face with an open palm and claw at its face, trying to wrench its eyes from the sockets. You feel wooden teeth bite down on your left arm. You scream out, but you don’t stop fighting.

You rear back your right arm and back fist the wolf that is on top of you. It yelps and falls to the side allowing you to attack the one biting your other arm. You wrestle on top of it and slam your fist down on its head. Pieces of the wooden structure fall loose and you yank your arm free. You see the other two wolves are approaching, ready to join in the fight. You quickly crawl over to your stick and swing it at the nearest wooden monstrosity. All reason has left you as you are now focused on one thing only: Killing. You needed to kill these things, or you yourself would be killed. Painfully.

You don’t even notice the figure approaching from behind the wooden wolves. You don’t notice how it is hooded and appears to be much smaller than them. ‘If it moves, it’s an enemy!’

You hear something smash like glass. A gaseous red vapor begins filling the air, and it smells foul. The wolves seem to hate it even more than you, as the four of them quickly regroup flee. Through the vapor, you can see an approaching figure. The only distinguishing feature you can discern is that it is four legged. Which means it’s an enemy! You swing your stick as it approaches.

“Stay back!” you scream like an animal, spit flying from your mouth. The figure stays just out of your reach as you try to scramble away. You crawl out of vapor into fresh air and take a deep breath. You try to get up and run, but before you can, you hear another breaking sound. You look down to see a broken glass bottle with a pink liquid seeping out that quickly turns into more mist. Before you can react, a sweet berry smell fills your nostrils. Your head begins to swim, and your eyes feel heavy. Old memories of childhood dentist visits resurface as you find yourself lying on the forest floor, fighting to stay awake. But try as you might, you aren’t able to flee from unconsciousness. The last thing you hear is an echoey voice.

“Sleep my friend. Your troubles are at an end.”

Author's Note

Hoping I didn't drop the ball with the whole Spike thing. MC has clearly lost it to a degree and isn't in a position to approach things logically anymore. But hopefully you liked it regardless, and if not...you just watch your mouth, I know where you live!

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