The Reward

It appears that a search team was about to get dispatched for us when I got there. Forgetting everything, I ran towards Private Bones. To my surprise, as much as to everyone seeing me there together with them, Private Bones gripped me by the shoulders and shook me.

"Thank God you're alive!" he exclaimed, then his face suddenly looked grim. "Where are the others?"

"I don't know," I said. "But they told me not to let you dispatch search parties. Oliver doesn't want to be pursued."

"He told you that?" he sounded questioning, but I knew there was something he understood more than anyone did.

I nodded and bit my lip. "They'll come back. He said everyone's going to die trying."

He landed a hand on my shoulder and smiled at me. "Oliver mustn't have mentioned, but that order is just for you. They stayed to give you enough time."

The weight of what he said started pinning me down, and slowly my eyes widened with mixed emotions. That can't be. They assigned me my first mission.

"You mean…" I trailed off. I didn't know what to say.

"Make a detailed report, little girl," Bones said. "The lieutenant requires it."

I wanted to cry or scream, but why couldn't I? Emotions were overwhelming me, and I couldn't think straight. I wanted the tears to come so bad, yet they were nowhere. How I wish I could cry. But I've never cried for years. Being close to death is not new to me. But hearing that others may have died for me was something I'd never imagined happening to me. The weight of the matter...

Soon, it was a wonder how breathing suddenly became harder than ever.

I watched as they shoved a bag to my face. It did wonders with slowing down my breathing, and soon, so slowly, I calmed down. "But sir, we haven't found them yet," I said. "The others."

"The mission is a failure," he pressed his lips together. "The soldiers shall stay for any more of your team returning, but the kids should all return to the base." He said this of the other soldiers. "Nomel, take your team and accompany the kids back to the base."

Private Bones was staring at me, concerned, but after seeing me calm down, he smiled and put a hand on top of my head. "Go to your friends. I will arrange an escort team for the kids."

I waited for any more instructions, and when Private Bones dismissed us all, I turned to find Minnie. I hadn't searched for long when I found her sitting on a fallen trunk. When she saw me, she staggered and almost tripped. It appears that her will to run fast wasn't reciprocated by her speed.

"Meow!" she shouted so loud, I thought she was angry. When she finally got to me, she hugged me, and I felt her sigh in relief. "You're back!"

"I can't breathe," I told her, and she released me. I told her everything that had transpired in the past five days of my life. She was horrified when I told her about the rebels. When she got over it, she paused with that speculating expression on her face, then she stared at the ground thinking.

"You must've been really close to the rebel hideout to experience something like that," she said, and I looked at her a bit surprised.

Damn, why can't I be brainy?

I sighed. Ace jumped off the tree and landed behind me, Minnie jumped in surprise, but I wasn't. I knew he was there, listening, ever since I approached Minnie.

"Huddle up," he said. "We're going back to the base."

Most of the kids got back to the base, and the rest stayed. The soldiers wanted them to do the cooking. Well, they were all glad to be of help, even if it was just to cook.

I didn't know then that I forgot something fundamental, for, from that day onward, I'd be warranted to take care of something bleak.

The sooner we stepped inside the base, the lieutenant summoned me to her office. I hadn't even changed clothes yet. I wanted to take a shower real bad, for we've traveled for a day plus my two days straights traveling from the encounter back to the lake. In short, I am both filthy and famished.

I saluted, and she did the same. Then she asked me to sit down, but I declined. It was customary to keep standing while talking to someone of higher position, such as Lieutenant Margaery.

"I've heard of what happened," she said. "But I wanted to hear it straight from you."

Then I told her the same way I said to Minnie. I was about to finish my report when something moved inside my gear. I cleared my throat, I was lost for a second, and then I gasped as the realization dawned on me.

"What's that inside your gear, Meow?" asked the lieutenant. Before I could put my gear down and take the creature out, its head popped out of the bag, which caused the woman's narrowing gaze.

"Uh," I started and cleared the lump in my throat. "I forgot all about it. I found this cat being hunted by a wolf. I saved it and healed it. But I promise I wasn't smuggling the cat or something. I promise I don't!"

"Well?" she asked. "Why didn't you just let it die?"

"I don't know," I said and sighed. "It looked really hopeless, and I don't like it when something's being bullied."

"That is the law of the jungle. Their game is always about survival of the fittest."

I put my gear down and trotted the kitty out. "I'm so sorry," I told the kitty and trot out a knife.

"So you're going to kill it?" she asked, eyeing the cat ardently. "Here in my office."

"I… I'm sorry. I better go then," I answered and grabbed the kitty by the back of its neck. I took a deep breath and stared at the bandaged cat.

The lieutenant leaned back on her seat and sighed. "You can keep it. Take the cat as your reward for saving a fellow soldier and getting back alive."

Silence.

I sheathed my knife and saluted, holding the cat. "I'd be off to the infirmary, ma'am." She nodded curtly, and I left. I wasn't really happy or anything, but one thing's for sure. I felt relieved. I walked toward the infirmary cradling a wounded cat. Some noticed me since I am practically in my field gear, so it wasn't a surprise when they started to wonder what I was holding on my chest.

I entered the infirmary, and the nurse in the lobby quickly went to my aid, looking out for any injury. But I pushed the cat on her arms, she shrieked, surprised. "The cat is wounded. Can you help me?" I asked.

"Now, this isn't what you see every day," she told me and nodded. "We're not really into animals, but we can heal it. Are you staying or--- "

"Actually, I was planning to leave the cat here and come back tomorrow."

"That's good," she answered, and I watched her carry the bandaged little thing in her arms.

"You can't do that," someone spoke from behind me, and like always, it was Ace. "You were attacked by a panther. Your shoulder hasn't healed yet."

The nurse looked at me, horrified. Then she left looking for aides.

"Why do you care?" I asked, pissed off. "You've been hovering around like a fly. I don't get it."

"If you're not being such a klutz, I wouldn't be watching you," he said.

"So you're some sort of sentry? You're concerned about me?" I asked. I haven't given up on Ace's friendship yet. And he's the first friend I got, well, I thought he was.

He was silent for a while, then snorted. "I just hate to suffer from someone else's stupidity. That's all."

"I thought we were friends!" I said, scowling. "Darn. You're so stubborn!"

"No, I am not!" he argued and growled.

"Yes, you are. You're a boor and a conceited fickle-minded brat!" I snapped at him.

"Then you're an idiot, brainless, airhead, stupid, idiot---"

"Ha! Idiot! You've said it twice!" I yelled, and we fell into an exchange of unintelligible banter. Before I knew it, we were throwing fists at each other, shouting and hitting each other like animals. It was a children's fight composed of jumbled words trying to insult and strikes trying to silence each other. I didn't know how long we had been fighting when someone pulled Ace away from me, and another pulled my arm.

"Stop!" Sergeant Paris yelled. "Stop damn it!"

"It was her!"

"It was him!"

"You called me a boor and a brat!"

"At least you agree to be conceited and fickle-minded!" I yelled back, and he tried freeing himself to hit me.

"Stupid! Idiot! Brainless!" he yelled.

I snarled at him, and he growled back.

"Enough!" the sergeant stepped in between us when both of us freed ourselves from our warder. I found myself pouting when the sergeant held me by the jaws. When I looked at Ace, he was being had the same way. And he looked like a duck.

"Pfft!" I stifled the laughter. But then I couldn't help it. I started chuckling, then I quacked like a duck.

Ace snickered, and when the sergeant released us, we laughed. And then laughed some more. I probably looked the same way.

"Damn it," the sergeant shooed the soldiers who detained us away. "Not again."

He left us there, and when he's gone, Ace grinned at me. "Well, Selena."

"The next time we quarrel, we'll always let the steam out by beating each other down."

"And throwing insults," he added. I grinned at him then.

"Deal," I said, and we shook hands.

"Better get that shoulder of yours healed, or I'll inflict a wound graver than that so you could be forced to get admitted here."

"Man, you're friendship is hard," I told him and patted his arm. "I'll be going with them then."

"You better," he said and watched me go with the incoming aides.

---

"Will you please finish that now?!" Minnie Mouse asked, pissed. "I can smell it, and if you don't do as I say, I'm going to try my best and steal it from you."

I laughed. "I'd like to see you try."

The two of us were running away from Ace's pals, it had been like this for weeks, yet Minnie hadn't saved her cakes once. I ate more slowly after that. We were crossing the lawn to the Apex building when we stopped on our tracks. Ace was heading our way and looked pissed off like always.

"There they are!" someone shouted from behind. I turned and saw his friends approaching. When Ace saw me, he stopped walking. He looked at me smugly.

Impulsively, I hurried and finished eating the strawberry cake.

"We're surrounded," Minnie said and cussed.

"I don't think Ace is with them---"

"Are you kidding me? He's their boss! Of course, he's with them."

Ace folded his arms and smiled at us. "What do we have here?"

"Oh, shut up," I told him and rolled my eyes. "Just get out of the way."

Ace's grin went wider.

"Meow and friend!" someone called from above. We turned to see who it was. "You can do it! Good luck!"

Loki's cheering for us.

"Remind me to tell him my name later," Minnie elbowed me, and just like that, we're now standing, our backs against each other.

I faced Ace. "You're not joining in, are you?"

"Of course, I'm joining in," he said. "I'd actually wanted to fight you since day one."

"Is that so?" I asked nervously. I don't like to fight Ace. He's just too strong for me. No one in the entirety of the five hundred kids' population has beaten him with anything.

Well, there's Bee. She's the number one sniper. And there's Minnie, the Psychologist.

The four boys are one thing, and Ace is another. We're not going to get away unscathed, that's for sure.

"I think the infirmary is our next stop, am I right?" I asked Minnie.

"I don't think I can fight off Ace," she said." And four boys are just too much."

"Ace or them?" I asked.

"Ace is stronger than four of them combined," she said and growled. "I'd choose them. But I don't think I can actually defeat them at all."

"Let's try," I told her, and I braced myself when I saw Ace dash straight at me.

He actually jumped and spun, kicking me on the head with a spinning kick. It was fast but knowing exactly where his leg was going to land, I raised both my hands and caught it. I felt my knees buckle.

I tightened my grip and threw him away. He landed on the ground smoothly. I jumped when he tried to kick my knees. Obviously, he definitely knows where to land attacks.

He stood up, and I raised my fist unto the air. I watched him form a knife hand, and I knew he was either going to strike my neck or palm heel strike me on the face or the plexus.

I braced myself with a defensive stance.

He ran, and I took a step back, barely dodging the palm strike targeting my chin. I frowned when Ace bombarded me with consecutive punches combined with a series of kicks. I parried some of the punches and dodged most of the kicks. I received some of the attacks head-on and ignored the pain.

I noticed a flying plate heading towards me from my right. I raised a palm a centimeter away from Ace's face and caught the plate using the other.

Silence.

Ace cocked a brow, impressed.

Both of us turned to the source of the plate.

"Don't interfere," Ace growled at his friend. One of them threw the plate I set aside before the brawl began. And I froze when I saw Minnie being lifted up in the air by the same guy who threw the kid on our table back at the canteen.

Her face is bruised, and her lip's bleeding. She's being held by the neck. And she's not moving anymore. I noticed two kids lying unconscious on the grass bed and ignored them.

I stared at Minnie and the state she was in.

Let go of her.

I heard a whistle from nearby, and the sound released me from my reverie. I looked at Ace, and he took a step back for some odd reason.

Is he scared? Of me? What for?

I ran towards him and grabbed his neck. Swiftly, I dug my fist into his stomach. He spits out, and I throw him away.

Get your filthy hands off her.

The one who threw the plate blocked my path, and I found it quite amusing to watch him approach so willingly into my personal bubble.

I grabbed his hand and savored the snapping sound it produced when I twisted it down. I kicked him the moment his knees touched the ground. He fell, writhing and actually crying in pain.

Can you believe that? He's crying!

The last guy was looking at me, visibly horrified. I watched him drop my friend on the ground as he screamed. But he didn't run.

Sweet.

The whistle resonated again nearer this time. I ignored it.

I punched him on the chest, and he gasped. He fell backward, and I sat on top of him. I punched him in the face. I punched him again. I heard something break. It must've been his nose. I realized I liked the sound of it. I punched him again. And again. And again.

I laughed at his mangled face. How could I not? He looked ridiculous.

"S-stop..." he murmured, and I found out that one of his teeth was missing. Something clicked, and I stopped.

I stood up and grabbed him by the neck. I raised him up. My grip tightened the longer I held him.

I watched him writhe and tremble on my hand. It felt divine.

Then I felt a sharp, searing pain behind my neck and everything went black.