Video: Love at War

Chapter II - A Friend to the Rescue

The little animal looked like a mix of monkey, rabbit, and wolf with its long ears, hand-like paws, and furry tail. It had blue fur, brown irises in the middle of the yellow eyeballs and pink skin on its paws. It was actually wearing clothes: it wore a blue and purple uniform with a brown belt and a plated armor on its right shoulder. It also had some bandages tied on its wrists and ankles, and it had a brown backpack on its back. The little guy was certainly the boy's longtime partner, she could see it was very loyal to its friend and it was backing him up eagerly.

The talons dizzily sat up and looked at the boy. The red-haired young guy smiled arrogantly.

"Shame on you for ganging up on an unarmed girl. Why don't you fight a Sky Knight instead?" - he said confidently, the little animal nodding in agreement.

The three talons stood up and ran away in fear since a boy had just knocked them off their rides single-handedly, imagine what he'd do with the help of that animal! The boy placed his blades in his back as he looked at the girl and approached her.

"Are you okay?" - he asked as his little partner sat by his side, near the girl.

The girl stared at them speechless for a brief instant. Who were that mysterious knight in shining armor and his loyal animal companion that had arrived just in time to the rescue? She felt really lucky at that moment, there couldn't have been a better miracle than that. Or so she thought.

Soon all her luck suddenly felt drained again, for she heard the sounds of the engines of the huge battleship coming closer. She looked at the sky to see the red ship appearing from among the clouds. Her face was a frown, she didn't even have enough time to catch her breath and say something to her savior before the ship was within firing range. The boy seemed to have noticed that as well since he looked around hastily.

"Okay, that's quite the big fleet coming after you..." - he commented - "New plan: we'll go into hiding."

"Hiding? In this flat empty terra?" - the girl said in disbelief.

"Trust me, I know the perfect hiding place." - he offered her a hand to pull her to her feet.

She sighed a little unsure but shrugged it off.

"Well, you seem to know what you're doing." - she said.

The boy sprinted off, the girl and the animal running right behind him.

"Follow me, there's a cave nearby that'll take us underground!" - he shouted.

Without wasting any time, the three ran as fast as they could, vanishing into the cave. After walking by a short corridor, the boy pressed a button on the wall near him that sealed the entrance, concealing it from the Cyclonians.

"That's actually very clever!" - the girl commented.

"We should be safe in here for quite a while." - the boy said as he walked - "I don't think the talons will figure out where's the secret passage so soon, much less how to open it."

He and his animal companion took a few steps until they realized the girl wasn't moving from her standing position near the button on the wall. They noticed she stared at them unsure, so they figured she was probably uncomfortable being around a completely random guy and his animal partner inside an underground cave. Yeah... That was definitely an awkward situation, it was understandable.

"So... Are you alright?" - he asked since now they could talk without being interrupted.

"I'm fine." - she told him - "Thanks to you guys those Cyclonians didn't get to hurt me." - she humbly thanked them for saving her.