⛭ Chapter 5 ⛭

With Styra and Chelbie creating an intense air of competitiveness between one another, Cherry stood next to Kade, taking out her phone to time them.

“Ready… Set… Go!”

Both sides rapidly started to consume their food in excessive quantities, forcing it down their throats as best as they could.

Whereas Chelbie was aggressively wiping each part of the plate clean and strategically taking in each bite with a few chews and one large swallow, Styra was a completely different story.

Kade and Cherry couldn’t tell what was going on from how fast she was moving across her plate in quick succession. It came to a point where afterimages of her started to appear in different positions.

By the time Chelbie was about to get to her spicy banana fries and infinity chili pepper dip in under 25 seconds, Styra had finished her entire meal in under 3 seconds without her even noticing.

“Uhhh, Chelbie… It’s over already,” said Cherry.

Kade shook his head out of disappointment because he told her this was going to happen.

However, even with the contest already over the three of them began to notice Chelbie shaking a lot more erratically than usual and getting dizzier.

“Still an incompetent loser. What a pathetic waste of nothing,” said this mysterious echoing voice that sounded like Lucila to Chelbie’s ears.

No one else could hear it but her as everything began to get blurry.

The stress of a traumatizing past that conflicted with being somehow weighed down by her friends who didn’t seem to believe in what she was capable of made it all too much for her to stomach.

Into this thought, she fell unconscious as her head hit against the table uncontrollably.

Darkness seeped into her vision until she felt herself suspended in the air upside down and unable to move. Her arms flailed helplessly until her sight revealed a surreal place. This looked like she was in a vehicle of some kind.

Wait…

It was becoming all the more familiar to her…

She was inside of the toppled-over Flamethrottle Fury from the last time she was dreaming.

Attempting to scream for help wasn’t working, but Chelbie could move her eyes and see where she was.

A junkyard perhaps?

She could hear the stomping of footsteps far into the distance with a surrounding firestorm cackling around her truck in the background. The steps got closer and closer until two big black muddy boots stopped in front of her cracked windshield.

Unable to see who it could possibly be, her vision began to fade into an obscure dull walls as she could now make out the sound of raindrops pattering around.

Her eyes opened, only to find that she was staring at the ceiling in Cherry’s room.

“Oh hey, you’re awake. Are you feeling okay, or do you need more rest?” said Styra calmly while sitting in a chair next to the bed Chelbie was laying in.

Chelbie, on the other hand, was caught off-guard by seeing Styra this way upon remembering how fierce she was during their first match against each other.

“Why are you treatin’ me nice all of the sudden? You acted different back at the restaurant. Didn’t even say fair game before we started. What changed?”

A hard pause held Styra’s words back at first before continuing to explain her side of the story.

“I guess at that time, I took everything you said seriously. That’s how I treat every showdown I’ve ever had to face as far as I’ve known. In any case though, me winning never mattered more than our friendship. I don’t like seeing you get hurt.”

Feeling worse off than before, Chelbie began to get more emotionally bitter from the negativity her mind was chugging down at to use it against herself.

“When you said you treated me like every showdown you faced, you’re basically saying you thought I was a threat, weren’t you?!” she yelled out of frustration.

“You are my forever friend Chelbie. Not every challenge I’ve experienced was an immediate threat. The Tripedyra may have been my family, but they needed me to face training obstacles so I could fulfill my responsibilities as The Guardian Of Perenorbius. Sometimes, those training obstacles were my siblings who would spar with me on occasion. I still loved them like they showed me how to. You see what I am saying, right?”

“Uhhh… So how you were raised is your real reason why you think it was okay to treat me like that?”

“No… Alright, a better example. You know Sapphirion?”

“Oh, that big crusty hermit crab lookin’ ass?”

“Maybe… In all seriousness, the first time I faced him, things got pretty tense. I will admit that he was the toughest guardian I have fought against, but even he learned not to belittle everyone he came across.”

“Okay... Your point?”

“I know how you feel. You want to express what you want to do the most. That inner desire that’s obsessing over it however, is starting to hurt you because it has taken the form of someone you’ve been comparing yourself with. Cherry told me about Lucila. Whatever happened to sharing that with me? I’ve kept the secret hidden about your name for a long time and I would have heard you out on it too.”

A look of shame began to show on Chelbie’s face while Styra was still speaking to her because she realized this was true.

“Another thing… You’re right. I have changed. Adapting to live life right, even when it seems like time has stopped caring, is called maturing. You have to adapt to your struggles if you want to succeed. Sometimes, that means sacrificing a certain mindset.”

The stillness of the room became more evident from how the rain was no longer pouring outside. In these words of wisdom, Chelbie humbled the attitude she had toward her friend.

“I shouldn’t have come down on you like that. It’s been rough tryin’ to make sense of the past recently and I thought I could handle it myself. Then along comes Hisa and everyone else telling me that it’ll have to wait because I’m not ready yet apparently. Maybe they’re right…”

Chelbie stared downwards at the sheet covering her, reflecting on how she might have to sacrifice her vengeful intentions.

That was until a piece of paper was placed in front of her gaze.

It was a filled-out Blazethon registration form…

With her name on it?