Rick stared at and through the blinding silver light that somehow wasn’t blinding. Rick blinked, not because he needed too, but by the sheer surprise of the situation, as if he suddenly had the ability to stare straight at the sun, as if suddenly capable of breathing underwater.

His body kept moving though, moving towards Benji who was hidden somewhere in the silver light, but his mind was stunned, dazed by the blinding-yet-not-blinding light. The warrior kept even pace behind him, not the slightest bit dazed by the bright light, the warrior even feeling oddly comforted by it, as if hugged by a long-lost friend, a mother on a particularly bad day. Rick felt the same, but had too many impressions, too much to think about that his mind was lost in the sea of thoughts, like a boat drifting aimlessly.

The light vanished almost as quickly as it had come, and Rick heard the gut wrenching scream of a monster, the same monster that had jumped to kill Benji. It clawed at its own face, screaming loudly and painfully, looking like a dog whimpering after hitting its head on a pole. The silver light had faded, and Rick stared directly at the monster, his body moving to stand between Benji and it, his mind not keeping up, being a step behind.

As Rick got to Benji, he pushed him behind himself, standing a mere meter in front of the monster, its clawed paws bigger than Rick's head, claws like big daggers. It could easily kill Rick with one swipe, one swipe of those paws. Rick stared at it, as if staring up a mountain you knew you had to climb, staring down a cliff you knew you had to jump.

Rick continued staring at the monster, too much going through his mind to think cohesively, his body having to do the work for him, jumping forward in a stabbing motion, pushing his trusty knife into the meaty, fluffy and weirdly stiff paw of the monster. The monster reeled back by the sudden stabbing pain, Rick flying with it, doing his best to keep a hold of the knife. Then the monster pushed out, out with the paw that had been stabbed, and Rick flew backwards, knife in hand, hitting the ground with enough force to make him breathless, pain erupting through his entire body. A jolt of pain like jumping into a freezing cold river without the ability to get out again, stuck in his own body as he let the pain wash through him.

But Rick wouldn’t just lay there, he couldn’t, he wouldn’t give up, he knew his meager stab wasn’t enough, that he needed to do more. Pushing himself up with surprising strength, mind no longer in control, not even comprehending what was happening.

Rick pushed himself standing, sight black and blurry from the fall, pain, and sudden acceleration to a standing position. Rick saw a small blurry figure just in front of him, Rick’s body moving to push it behind himself, standing unsteadily with his knife in front. Further away, Rick saw a big blob of a blur, his mind partially realizing that it had to be the monster. And next to it, was a smaller, yet big blur, leaner than the big blob. The leaner blob pushed something into the big blob, eliciting a screech that Rick assumed a banshee to sound like. Rick would have protected his ears if not for his already throbbing head, arms barely doing what they were told already.

Rick stared at the two blobs, sight gradually growing better. The leaner blob had taken a step back, bringing back what looked like a long stick and stabbing it forward again. But the big blob seemed to have anticipated it, pushing its arm up to intercept, a wet thump echoing out followed by a loud grunt, followed up by a blur of movement leading to the leaner blob flying back. A part of the lean blur whisking away from the rest of it, flying away like debris after a magical explosion.

Rick blinked, finally getting the blur out of his visions, seeing a monster bleeding heavily from one of its paws and a wound somewhere on its stomach. The monster glared somewhere on Rick’s right. Following its sight, Rick saw the warrior lying on the ground, missing part of its left arm and the entirety of its shield. The warrior was already doing his best to get back on his feet, struggling due to the missing limb. Rick then noticed the monster taking an unsteady step towards the warrior, avoiding the use of its heavily wounded paw, bleeding like a small fountain.

Rick felt panic, amongst many emotions, but panic was the strongest, welling up like lava in a volcano. Rick felt panic, for he knew that the warrior was their only chance at killing the monster. The warrior being strong were Rick was not. The monster took a step closer to the downed warrior, growling with a slight whimper in its voice, and Rick moved without thinking, sprinting straight for the monster's side.

The monster noticed Rick quickly, having been caught off guard twice already, it would not make the same mistake again. But it was too slow, its wounded paw eliciting a yelp of pain as it tried, failing to move around to meet Rick’s sprint. Rick closed the distance quickly, tackling the giant monster on the side, the weight too much for Rick, only managing to push the monster down on its side. But what did work, was Rick’s entire momentum forcing the knife deep within the monsters ribs, his hand partially submerging within its thick and fluffy fur, and into its weirdly squishy skin, feeling like when one was punching a water bag, a sandbag or a slime.

The monster roared, not as loud as it had done before, sounding like a man wheezing after a punch to the gut, as if gurgling oil. As the monster fell on its side, it was quick to pounce on Rick, its body twisting like a cat when one moved ones hand to close to their stomach, Rick feeling himself punched away by a hefty paw. Rick not realizing what was happening until he had rolled to a stop on his back. Rick stared up at the starry night for half a second, then attempted to move up, but was stopped by a tingling pain stemming from his stomach. Looking down on it, he regretted it immediately, seeing two big lines oozing with red liquid. Seeing it, he wondered how he couldn’t feel it, but counted his lucky stars that he didn’t.

Rick quickly looked away from the wound and up at the monster, seeing two glowing eyes that were affixed to Rick’s, looking like a cat when it stared at its prey. It limped forward, awfully close to Rick, bearing its giant fangs, whimpering with an almost soundless growl. Rick attempted to get up, up on his feet, slipping on what felt like wet dirt. Rick looked to his side, searching for help, searching for the warrior, seeing him getting up, attempting a stumbling sprint that only led to him falling forward on his singular arm. Rick stared at him, then back at the monster, and realized with sudden clarity that he would die.

It was strange, yet comforting to feel so level-headed at the face of death. His mind was calm, calmer than the sea without wind. Yet, his body struggled, panicking in the face of death. His body dragged him backwards, attempting to get himself up and away. But it was in vain, the monster prowled closer and closer, its prowl feeling endless even as only seconds had passed. The monster opened its mouth to bite, its paw to wounded to strike, and Rick pushed his hands up to protect his face.

Then he heard a scream, a child’s scream full of every kind of emotion. Terror, fear, panic, sadness. It was filled to the brim with emotion, emotions that screamed for this nightmare to stop. But that was not the reason for his scream. No, for the boy, the little boy, the little Benji, he screamed to attract the monster's attention. Bravery stemming from nowhere yet everywhere, his bravery taught by those he came to love within a very short time, bravery that called him to action, bravery not born but taught.

Little Benji ran towards the terrifying monster, holding his knight in front of him like a hero pointing his sword at a dragon. The monster saw him, altough it didn’t stop its momentum towards Rick, but it had reacted, reacted by stopping for just a single second. A second Benji needed to fill life into the lifeless toy, a toy being the knight, the knight having spent his energy to create the blindingly bright silver light. Benji unconsciously filled the knight with his life, filling him so fast, so hard that even the mightiest of mages would tremble at the speed. The boy’s scream growing dim, dimmer and dimmer until it stopped completely, his life leaving him and filling the knight. The knight immediately thrusting his shield out, screaming with the same vigor that Benji held, soundless but still louder than anything. The same silver light cascaded the surroundings, like a bursting dam, like sunrays from behind a cloud, like a knight defying faith.

The monster roared in renewed pain, garbled and screeching, loud but not loud enough. Rick stared wide eyed at where he heard the monster scream, but couldn’t see it. Instead, staring at a blanket of comforting silver light. If Rick hadn’t seen it before, he would have sat there and stared blankly, but his body, already used to the light, moved to stand, forcing the pain away as he stood up on shaky legs, feeling wet, something dripping down his stomach, as if he’d peed himself. Rick turned around, the silver light dimming just enough for him to see the boy face down in the earth, his knight in a tight embrace poking up from beneath Benji’s body, the knight’s shield exposing a slightly glowing uruz rune. Rick could only stare in horror, running up to Benji, falling down on his knees to hold the little boy.

Rick turned the boy over, looking down at his face, the boy looking like when one slept peacefully. Immediately, Rick pushed his hand towards the boy's throat, feeling for a pulse, not finding one, his own beating to quickly. Turning around with Benji in his hands, he saw the monster clawing at its eyes again, the pain in its eyes far worse than any of its other wounds.

Rick turned back down to Benji, then back to the monster, pushing himself up, noticing a trickle of blood dropping down on the innocent boy’s face. Rick stood up and took an unfirm step towards the monster, like walking on a taut rope, like walking on quicksand, his legs wobbly like spaghetti, like small planks. Emotions bubbling to surface, like a slow cooking stew. Rick pushed through it, through the pain and simmering anger, glancing to the side, seeing the warrior moving with determined steps around the flank of the monster. T

he screaming from the monster suddenly ebbed away, still whimpering but not screaming. Rick turned towards the monster, seeing it staring at Rick, slowly turning its head at where Rick was looking, towards where the warrior was. Rick turned to look at the warrior, seeing him stare back with his faceless eyes. The two sharing a moment, and Rick realised, Rick knew the warrior only had one strike within him, one powerful strike.

Rick turned back to the monster, opening his arms wide like a father coming back from war as he saw his son running towards him, opening his arms wide for a hug. Rick opened his mouth and screamed loudly, soundlessly, not even the air vibrating from the scream. But Rick didn’t falter, he moved with shaky steps, wobbling forwards with his arms wide. The monster had turned halfway towards the warrior- but stopped, as it had noticed Rick in the corner of its vision. It turned back to stare hatefully at Rick. All of its anger, all of its rage, all of its pain had stemmed from this one hateful human. It roared into the air, spittle of blood and saliva gushing out, and then it moved towards Rick.

The two staring at one another, thet two being in a different time, in a different space, in a different world than anyone else. The two stared into each-other’s eyes, one glowing, one determined. One saw pure hatred, rage and pain mixed in with grief. The other saw determination and acceptance. The two walking towards each other without a care for the world around them. Something that was perfect for Rick while at the same time, it was not. For in the monsters world where only the hateful human existed, the pain and suffering it had gone through, it had suffered through; It had washed away like flowers in the autumn wind. It was determined with all of its being, to kill the hateful human, to kill Rick with all of its might.

The monster raised its bloody paw for a mighty strike, Rick staring up at it in surprise, knowing he didn’t stand a chance at dodging it. And then the monster struck, Rick trying to jump back while bringing his arms down to protect his body. Struck by the paw, he was clawed and punched away. For a brief moment, Rick was flying, flying like the most gracious bird, like a fly in the sky. Then he fell to the ground with a loud thump and rolled around, mind bouncing around in his head.

Strangely, it didn’t hurt. Once he had stopped, he just stared up at the dark night sky, strangely beautiful with its many stars. But Rick’s body had other plans, it knew it to be in mortal danger, the monster could attack him again. So it tried to move, but found one of his arms unresponsive. Rick’s body forced his mind to investigate, seeing sparks of white meshed into an unrecognisable pulp of meat. Rick blinked at the sight twice, thrice. Feeling like one was looking at an abstract painting. He turned away from the sight, looking for the monster.

Rick stared with unnatural calm, seeing the warrior sneaking up on the monsters flank, pulling back with all of his might and struck forward with strength that made the very air vibrate, the air scream in defiance. The strike hitting so hard that the monster whole body flung a few centimeters to the side. The monster, both surprised by the sudden attack and pain, tried to scream, but it's already bloody lungs and now crushed heart made it unable. Within the span of a second, it collapsed dead. The monster had a flash of a thought, a memory, thinking back on the reason for its rage, its anger. It found itself happy, felt happy that it would no longer be alone anymore.

Rick blinked at the sight, and blinked again once a man suddenly came into view, screaming something towards the warrior. Rick blinked angrily, for he couldn’t hear what they were saying. But found himself a second later, not caring. Like when you wished someone you didn’t care about a happy birthday. Instead, Rick looked further down, down at the little boy Benji, lying faced upwards towards the sky. And Rick felt guilt well up, true and pure, like the worst hammer hitting his face. Rick felt something pushing against the back of his eyes, wanting nothing but the sweet relief, Rick not able to let it leave. Rick had failed again, he had failed to save those who trusted him, even worse this time.

Rick felt himself standing up, his right arm hanging limply on his side, his left doing its best to push him up, his body feeling drained and empty, emptying as he stood up, gushing out. Rick kept looking at Benji's body, seeing the unknown man running towards Benji, towards the body, falling down on his knees as he checked up on him. Rick continued looking for a bit, emotionless eyes staring as if watching a begger pass by.

And then Rick turned away, turned towards the forest and started walking. He walked without purpose, not really knowing where he walked. Just knowing, feeling that he had to get away. Rick had failed, he had done more than just fail, he had been saved by the same life he was supposed to save.

Rick walked through the forest, alone and numb, his body working on fumes. Rick knew so much, aware that he could die any second, numb to the feeling.

Then he collapsed backwards, painlessly, staring up at the night sky.

Staring at it, watched it, seeing the starry night move like a curtain on a stage. It looked fantastic. Beautiful even.

Beautiful stars.

His eyes growing heavy, heavier than anything Rick had ever felt before.

And then Rick smiled.