Ander - Part 5: Subchapter 22
22
It all clicked into place just then, and Hezzi rounded on Wardo, angrier than he's been in months. "You filthy coward!"
Wardo looked left and right, a comically fake expression of confusion plastered all over his smug face. "Who? Me?"
"Yes, you! You knew you'd never be able to best me, so now you're having this puppet fight in your stead!"
Wardo shrugged. "I honestly have no idea what you're talking about, Chieftain. You already defeated me. It was fun while it lasted, but this has nothing to do with me anymore."
"You're a pathetic liar, and an even more pathetic excuse for a Wolf!"
"Do you really have the time to be saying such mean things, Chieftain? If I were you, I'd be focussing my attention elsewhere."
His eyes shifted to Dorin, standing tall with the ram's horn still curled around his fist, a lean Wolf with years of experience and hard, sinewy muscles running through his entire body. "Hezzi," he said. "Do you accept my challenge?"
Calm down. Nothing has changed except for your opponent. You came into this putting everything on the line. That is what you stand to lose, and that is what you stand to gain. Remember what Nilia taught you. You just need to focus, you need to fight, and you need to win. Nothing has changed.
Hezzi went to Renna and handed her the ceremonial necklace. "Keep this safe for me, okay?"
She looked down at the necklace in her hands with the utmost horror and revulsion, as if he had given her a giant, venomous spider, then up at Hezzi's face, her eyes swimming with tears. "It's because I said no, isn't it? That's why you're doing this."
"Renna..."
"Don't do this, Hezzi! Don't kill yourself because of me! I... I'll never forgive you! If you die, and it's my fault, then you turned me into a murderer! I can't handle that, Hezzi! So don't you do it!"
"I'm not gonna die, Renna."
"You can't know that!"
"No, but..." Hezzi thought about what he should say. He wanted to make her feel better, and he wanted to keep her safe, but the action required to do that was the very thing making her so unhappy. He knew how she felt, and he knew how he felt, but conveying those feelings with words was something else. In the end, he decided to keep it simple, because that's the kind of Wolf he was, and to keep it completely truthful, because Renna deserved no less. "I've learned that sometimes you get stuck with difficult decisions. You don't get to decide when they come, you just have to deal with them when they do. More often than not, it boils down to two things. You can either take the safe route and hope that things somehow fix themselves, or you can take a chance. You can put something on the line in exchange for the opportunity to make things better. Sometimes it doesn't seem worth the risk, and quite frankly, it probably isn't. But to not take that risk is the same thing as giving up." He wiped away her tears with his thumb, first one side, then the other. "Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"
She sniffed and look up at him with those big, shining eyes of hers. "Did you learn that from your brother?"
"Actually, I learned it from you."
"Me?"
Hezzi nodded. "Ander is alive because you decided to take a chance. You jumped in even though you knew you might end up paying the price for it. That's what I want to do for you, Renna. I've made my decision. I'm sorry it's causing you so much pain, but right now, I need you to have faith in me."
She looked down at the necklace in her hands, then at Dorin, waiting patiently with his arms crossed, then back at Hezzi. She opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again, unsure of what to say. It looked like she was being pulled two ways at once. It was a feeling he knew well.
Hezzi was about to tell her that it was okay, that she didn't have to say anything, or even watch the fight if she didn't want to, but then something happened he never could have predicted.
She stood up on the tips of her toes and kissed him on the mouth. It lasted only a second, but that second somehow bled into the next, and the next, making it seem like he could still feel her lips on his even after she had dropped back down, as if his sense of time was no longer in synch with the rest of the world.
He blinked in surprise, barely noticing the way the other Wolves were whooping and hollering, spinning their fists in the air.
Renna gave him a shy little smile, bright as the sun, and said, "Don't die, okay?"
Hezzi smiled back. "I won't."
"Excuse me, Chieftain," Dorin said, "but you still haven't given me an answer."
Hezzi turned to face his adversary, feeling remarkably calm. He stepped forward, squared his shoulders, and with a loud, clear voice he said: "I accept your challenge."
Hey guys. Easter holidays were kinda rough. I have so many great series in this place (Steins;Gate, Attack on Titan, Fullmetal Alchemist, just to name a few), but my family insisted on watching nothing but Cake Boss for 4 whole days. Urk. D:
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