Inner-Selves, No. 9, Part B
The reason Fidget was ok was because Cody had jumped in between him and the spirit eater. Most of the tendrils were blocked by Cody’s rattle, but a few had impaled him from front to back. Fidget was shocked and scared; he wet his diaper without knowing it. “Why, why did you save me? You don’t even know me” Fidget said struggling to get the words out. Cody spit up a little blood and then spoke. “You really don’t know anything do you? Youth sprites don’t have to know furs to save them; we protect the innocent and look out for one another. We don’t just stand by and watch others get hurt when we’re able to do something about it” he said. Fidget thought back to the night he first met Kat, and how she saved him, he felt like he had a better understanding of Kat’s actions that night. “Cody, thank you for helping” Kat said softly as a tear ran down her cheek.
“So you wish to die as well? Fine then, I’ll make you suffer” the deceiver snarled. It dug its tendrils deeper into Cody’s body, making him wince with pain. Fidget couldn’t bear it anymore; he stood up and charged at the deceiver, ready to strike it in the face. “Leave him alone, I’m the one you want!” Fidget shouted. The spirit eater immediately removed its tendrils from Cody’s body in order to defend itself from Fidget’s attack. “Those things of yours are getting annoying!” Fidget shouted. His spirit energy once again rose tremendously, as he prepared to swing his rattle at one of the tendrils. “Fidget, that won’t work, the rattle isn’t strong enough to do damage to anything other than the face” Kat thought to herself. Cody was lying on the ground, barely able to raise his head up to see what was going on. With a huge amount of spirit power behind it, the rattle made contact with the tendril, it slowly began to disintegrate. Cody’s eyes widened as Kat’s jaw dropped a bit. “Impossible, by channeling his spirit energy into the rattle, he made its swing powerful enough to hurt him on another part of his body” Kat thought in amazement.
The deceiver was shocked and in pain, it quickly used one of its other tendrils to cut off the damaged one. The severed tendril then continued to rot away. “I’m not done!” Fidget declared. He jumped up and swung his rattle once again, damaging another tendril. The deceiver was in horrible pain, he swatted Fidget away quickly with a third tendril while cutting off the newly damaged one with a fourth. As the second damaged tendril rotted away, the deceiver glared at Fidget with a look of contempt. “I can’t keep this up much longer, I never suspected he’d be this strong” it thought to itself. Fidget got up quickly, realizing again that his diaper was wet, but he remembered from one of his previous battles that he’d get scolded by Kat if he got rid of it. “This kid is stupid, but he’s got guts; and one heck of a swing” Cody thought to himself.
“Grrrrr, you’re the first youth sprite to actually injure me, I see that my abilities won’t hinder you in battle, we’ll call this one a draw…” the deceiver muttered. A dark portal opened up behind him and he slowly backed away towards it. “Where do you think you’re going?! Are you chickening out?!” Fidget snapped. “Do not misunderstand me small fry; take this opportunity to savor your life while you still have it. The next time we meet, I’ll kill you” it said as it entered the portal. “Come back!” Fidget yelled as he ran after it. The portal closed before Fidget got to it, and the spirit eater was gone. “Get back here you coward! I’m gonna make you pay for everything you’ve done!” Fidget shouted. Fidget dropped to his knees and banged his fist on the ground, angry that the murderer of his little sister got away from him. “Curse you, I swear you’ll pay!” Fidget growled.
Kat ran over to Fidget, trying to console him. “Fidget, I’m sorry for all of this, I couldn’t be of any help” Kat said lowering her head in shame. “Don’t worry about it, how’s that other guy doing?” Fidget replied calming down a bit. “He looked pretty bad off to me, let’s go see” Kat said. “I hope he’s ok, I owe him for saving me” Fidget thought. They walked over to Cody, he was curled up in the fetal position with his eyes closed, his bleeding had slowed down, but that wasn’t what caught Fidget’s attention. Upon closer examination, he noticed that Cody was sucking his thumb, and smiling a bit. “Hey! He’s not unconscious, he’s just sleeping!” Fidget snapped. “So what, a lot of youth sprites take a nap after a tough fight” Kat groaned at Fidget.
Some time later after a diaper change and getting back into his body, Fidget finally went over to the gravestone of his sister. He kneeled down and stared intently at the information written on the stone. “I’m so sorry you died sis, but I promise you, I’ll set things right” Fidget thought to himself. Tears ran down his face as he stood up. Fidget’s parents came up to him and saw him crying. “We all miss her son, but I don’t think your sister would want to see her big brother cry” his dad said. “Well it’s easier for Twitch, he wasn’t born yet when she died” Fidget said back. “It’s been a long time now Fidget, what’s done is done, don’t you think it’s better to dwell on the good times you had with her instead?” his mom asked. “It’s just so hard…” Fidget sighed as he lowered his head. “Fidget, life’s too short for you to sit around feeling sad all the time, as long as you draw breath, there’s still fun and experiences to be had” his dad chimed in. “Just think about it son, your sister would want you to be happy, no matter what situation you find yourself in” his mom said. His parents patted him on the back and walked away, leaving Fidget to himself. Fidget smiled weakly and looked at the gravestone again. “Mom and Dad are right, I’m sorry for crying so much in front of you Kristie, I’m sure you hate seeing me unhappy. Well, see you next year sis” Fidget thought to himself. He walked off to go find Kat.
“Hey Kat, where is that guy? I didn’t get a chance to thank him or anything” he said as he walked up to her. “He’s right over…Huh?! He was just here a moment ago” Kat said looking at the spot where Cody was laying down at. “Aww man, where could he have got to?” Fidget said. Unknown to them, Cody had woken up from his nap and walked into a wooded area away from the two of them, it was time for him to head back to the ECC. “Kat, that’s a really special kid you got hanging around with you, with your guidance he’ll go far. I don’t know what happened when you two first met, but I trust you had a good reason for giving him your power. Nonetheless, once the higher-ups hear my report, I don’t think they’ll feel the same way. You know what fate awaits you Kat, just don’t let that kid get involved in any of it, for both of your sakes” he said to himself. He then made a hand sign and opened a portal back to the ECC; he entered it and returned home, with the portal closing behind him.
After a while longer Fidget and his family returned home, with Kat having followed close behind. That evening Kat was in Fidget’s room with him, for a while they said nothing. Fidget broke the silence soon after. “Hey Kat, if it’s alright with you, I’d like to keep my youth sprite powers a little while longer, I wanna kill the deceiver, and make sure no one else has to endure what I did back then” he said. Kat didn’t know what to say, she knew that she couldn’t guarantee that Fidget would have his power much longer, but she knew how he felt about the things that happened today. “Sure, no problem” she said softly.