"Promise me that you will just stay here." My heart pounded rapidly as I tremble while gathering bamboo leaves.
Out of nowhere, while were wandering around the forest, a person with a hood attacked us. We manage to get away from them but it doesn't seem like they will stop unless they kill us.
"Are you gonna leave me?! Anzai, are you gonna leave me?!"
Alya stared at me with his eyes tearing up. I never give her an answer and continued to cover her with the bamboo leaves.
Aaliyah has frail health, I'm aware that covering her with these might give her allergies but if she tagged along with me she'll just slow me down.
"No! No! Please don't leave me! I'm scared! I just want to be with you!"
She's trembling while her tears were dropping from her eyes.
She grips into my hands with no intentions of letting it go. I tried to sling it but it won't come off.
This is such a pain if she keeps this up I'm going to have a meaningless death. I'm an Escarra, the only heir of the family. I can't... I can't just die like that.
I use my full strength to get his hand off of mine.
"Anzai! Please don't leave me! You promised that you will protect me right."
The tears overflow her eyes being unable to stop me.
What's this I'm feeling, guilt? I'm the one who forced her to come along with me, she has fun, right? Even though it's my fault this is happening to us, at least...
... This would be treated as my farewell to her.
"Shut up! I want to save myself! If you are with me, there's no way I can do that! Just be thankful that I'm doing this to you!"
Her eyes widened after hearing what I said.
More tears drop from her eyes.
"Why?... You said that we will always be together..."
She said while tightening her grip in my hands.
But I just averted my eyes.
"We're friends. Right."
My body started trembling.
After hearing her words, I started to think. Whether my plan works or not, I'm not gonna be able to see her face again.
"It's alright." Then I continued on covering her even she was still crying.
Sorry, but this is the only way I know.
I force my shaking knees to run away from her.
My fear makes me lose my balance resulting in my body stumbling many times.
Every screeching of bushes startles me but this won't stop me from running.
After I make sure that I run far away from her. I muster all of the courage I have. Then scream as loud as I can.
My scream reverberated in the forest. Only a short while passed before an arrow pierce into my body.
It hurts! It really hurts! It's burning my wound! No, all of the flesh in that part of my body was getting hot!
It's not just an ordinary arrow, it's so hot.
"AAAAAH!"
I dropped my knees and attempted to pull the arrow but it's so hot. I can't touch it.
Is my body gonna explode? Am I gonna die without a trace of my body?
Those questions were all over my head. Until I heard someone's voice coming on my way.
"Seriously?... A child?..... Was fate really that cruel?" A voice of a man said that.
The way he said that have a trace of guilt.
I look at him. He's tall, in his 20's, and has dry-leaf brown hair. He carries a fancy bow and wears fiery red clothes.
With that look on his face, he feels sorry for me.
"Mister, please!... I want to live!"
I can't talk straight cause I'm enduring the pain of the arrow that pierced my body.
But my mouth unconsciously blurted out those words.
The man didn't answer me, instead, he just averted his eyes.
On his back, a person had just arrived. It was the one who attacked us earlier.
It was carrying a long sword on its waist.
"Finish him." That person said with a cold tone.
Her face was covered but I can tell that it was a girl from her voice feminine tone.
The man stretches his bow and fires it again to me.
But this time he misses.
Was it because he feel sorry for me? Or he's just playing with me?
In any case, I need to escape.
I tried my best to stand up. Then I use all of my remaining strength to run.
"Tch. Don't make it hard for me! My aim wasn't that good, you know!" The man said.
A few more steps before another arrow pierce from my back to my gut.
Once again, I fall.
It hurts! I wanted to scream the pain but I don't have any strength to do so.
It hurts!
Why do I have to experience hell at such a young age?
My eyes were closing by themselves and it was so hard to breathe.
Is this how my life will end?
No!... No way!
I grab on the tree trunk near me. It's hard just to even grip it and it's even harder to stand up.
I keep on pulling myself up. Before I know it, blood came out of my mouth and my nails were already bleeding.
"Why?... Why do you keep on struggling like that?!" The girl shouted.
I can feel sadness in her voice.
I can feel that they really feel guilty about what they have done.
'I'm scared. I don't want to die.' I wanted to say that to her but I need to save the little energy I have.
I can't fully stand yet. Yet I can hear footsteps approaching me.
"Sorry. But I need to do this for the sake of yours and our world." She said that.
I once again look at her. She was trembling while lifting the sword from her waist to the left side of her face.
Tears build up in my eyes, but I just look away and close my eyelids.
'I want to say sorry to my parents and to Alya. If only I wasn't a brat this wouldn't have happened. I don't want to die.'
"Captain wait!" the man on his back yelled.
But it's too late.
In my back, I can hear the sound of the sword cutting to the flesh. The blood drops into the dry leaves on my feet.
But instead of pain, I feel a warm embrace in my back. I slowly turned my head at my back only to see Alya.
"Alya..... Why?!"
The tears that I'm holding back until now finally fall. The moment I saw that the back that had been cut wasn't from me. But from the friend that I was trying to protect.
In her face theirs no trace of pain instead a warm smile that made my tears flow like a river, this pain.
The one that I want to protect was the one who ended up protecting me.
'Was our fate..... really this cruel?'
That was the last thought I had before the consciousness I have, vanished.