• Chapter Six: Up and at ‘em!

    As morning came around, Tera was still sitting in the chair next to the bed Koza was in. She hadn’t slept at all the entire night. She wanted to be awake if anything were to go wrong, so she could run to get a doctor. Luckily, nothing bad had happened during the night. Koza was still sleeping quietly as Tera watched over him. The doctor from the night before came into the room and noticed Tera still in the same spot.

    “Good morning,” he said. Tera mumbled something to the effect of, “..Morning..” The doctor asked her if she had spent the night like this. Tera nodded, never once taking her eyes off of Koza.

    “You know, we could’ve wheeled in an extra bed for you,” he said.

    “I wouldn’t have used it,” Tera replied quietly. The doctor smiled to himself, and left the two alone again. Tera almost nodded off a couple of minutes later, but snapped to when she heard Koza stir in his sleep. He mumbled something before quieting down again. Tera smiled; he was probably just dreaming.

    For the next hour or so, Tera’s gaze was focused on Koza. It was around ten o’clock or so when Koza finally started to wake up.

    His eyes opened slowly, adjusting to the lighting of the hospital room, and the light from the window his bed was next to. Half awake, he slowly sat up in bed and yawned. He then turned towards Tera. Seeing her in the same spot, he asked sleepily,

    “Did you spend the night there..?”

    She smiled and nodded.

    “Didn’t want anything to happen to you,” she said softly, causing Koza to smile. “Looks like you’re a fast healer huh? Yesterday you could barely move, and today you’re sitting up all on your own.”

    “Well what do you know? Guess I wasn’t hurt too badly after all…” he said almost to himself. He then turned and sat on the edge of the bed, facing Tera. “I feel even better knowing you were here with me the whole night.”

    At that, Tera blushed and looked off to the side nervously, causing Koza to laugh. He then tried to stand up on his own, with little success. Tera looked back over with a worried look on her face.

    “Koza, I wouldn’t try that just yet…” she cautioned.

    “I’ll be fine,” he assured her.

    Managing to make it up on his own, he took a step forward. A few awkward steps later, he found he was able to walk with little effort.

    “Finally… Now can we leave?” he asked impatiently.

    “If you think you’re up to it.” Tera replied.

    “I don’t care if I am or not, I’m getting the hell out of here,” he said.

    Tera giggled at the remark and got up from the chair. As they made their way towards the door, Tera made sure to keep close to Koza in case he tripped or started to fall. She stayed like that all the way down the hall, and out into the main room. The same doctor walked out to see them off.

    ”Well now, look who’s up and about,” he said to Koza.

    “Who are you?” Koza said turning around.

    “Oh, right. Koza, this is the man that took care of you when I brought you here.” Tera explained.

    “Really? Well then, thanks doc,” Koza said.

    “Don’t mention it. Its what I do,” he replied.

    “Well, we should probably get going,” Koza said as he turned to Tera. She nodded, thanked the doctor, and left alongside her friend.

    Outside, everybody stopped what they were doing to go up to Tera and Koza. All of them were asking if Koza was alright, while others were still thanking Tera for getting rid of the creature. They tried their best to wade through the crowd, but kept getting stopped. Eventually, they just let the commotion die down on its own. Just as soon as they thought they were in the clear, another person came running up to them.

    “Hey! You two! Wait a minute!” he shouted. Both of them sighed and stopped for a minute. The man came up to them with a worried look.

    “I’m not sure if this is of any importance, but while I was examining the creature yesterday, I found something strange…”

    “Strange? Like what?” Tera asked, confused.

    The man explained about what he had found attached to the skull of the creature, and how it looked like it might have been controlling it. When he got to the part about the label that said ARK, Koza and Tera twitched slightly. Had ARK sent that thing to attack them? This couldn’t be just about the swords any more… Something was up…




    Next Chapter: Battle on the Bridge