Nightwatchers

I know all hope is lost, the nightmare happened two nights in a row, Bunny has me in a corner… But at least that dragon is dead, so Hiro won't be able to research it.

I roam around the forest since now I have nothing better to do, but I can't stop thinking about the things me and Ta'Kakekth talked about... But also about the things we didn't talk about. My thoughts are cut short by the screams of an excited crowd, and the faint roars of a dragon.

"Maybe some fun?" I follow along.

I think my eyes are trying to fool me as what seemed like the same species of the dragon I lost. I carefully and stealthily approach. To see what was going on.

"Okay, now, who wants to watch the dragon make barbecue?"  Hiro says mounted on top of the very dragon.

The crowd loses it's mind.

"Are you SERIOUSLY rocking the ancient dragon around like that?" I scream, walking in front of the dragon, giving up on not attracting attention.

The entire crowd stays silent at. She stare's at me like she wished I was someone else.

"So, acid, water, ice, poison, tranquilizer or--"

"FIRE!!" The crowd answer's Hiro at the same time.

"Fire it is!"

I watch confused as she takes one of her bombs and throws it up in the air. The dragon jumps to catch it in his mouth, then swallows it.

"There." She says pointing at me with a smirk.

"Oh."

The dragon blows gigantic flames straight at my direction, toasting my entire body. I stay still, staring at Hiro as she and the entire crowd laughs. I didn't think it could get worse when they begin to clap.

She jumps out of the dragon and whispers.

"Go home, I'll deal with him."

The dragon shoves it's head onto the floor and starts digging a tunnel. You don't need to make me look twice for me to be sure that is a zombie. I'm furious. Not only did they lie about the dragon to me, but also, it is rightfully mine.

"I didn't know you hanged with zombies. A little out of character." I say as we slowly start to walk in circles, staring at each other, defensive.

"A little more respect. The dragon is perfectly healthy. It has a heartbeat, the only problem is the thing you did to him." She says cracking the knuckles of her hand.

"I don't know what you did to the dragon or how much you want to fool yourself, but that dragon is a zombie, and not any zombie. Mine." I start walking in the direction of the tunnel he dug. "He shouldn't be too far, huh? You think if I do the call he will come?" I smile a lot with my eyes wide open staring at her, lifting the sword as if threatening shoving it on the ground.

"Stay away from the tunnel, and stay away from the dragon." Hiro says on her last nerve.

"Or?" I stare inside her eyes, curious. "You just burned me alive and I'm still here pissing you off. That barely tickled, but there's nothing like wasting your time." I smile.

She cracks her neck.

"Hero..." She says my name. My mouth opens in shock as she approaches me to talk. "...We both want the same thing. We're both here trying to do our job and having people say it's not enough."

I lower the blade, suspicious, but craving to hear the rest. She notices I want to listen.

"...Don't touch the dragon. Please. It's the only hope this research has and we can't afford to lose it."

I blink, not believing that from all she could have said, these are the words she chose.

"You can't afford to lose it. He is your only hope." I lift the sword again. But trembling, I put it down.

"...You really thought I was trying to hurt that dragon?" I say. Somehow, I can't believe this is how I'm seen. I think of just walking away, but I look back, and the entire crowd is attentively staring at us, waiting for something to happen.

I look into her eyes, lucky we're still not fighting. The sigh is followed by a smile.

"I'm not here to hurt the dragon you idiot..." I slowly walk in her direction, holding the sword with only one hand, pretending it was easy. "I'm here for you."

She looks irritated as talking kindly to me as if I was an imbecile didn't work.

"What's the reason this time?"

"I don't know, I thought the way you said hello today was a little dry. Are you mad at me?" I smile as I swing the sword at her with one hand behind my back, she blocks it with her left arm, still staring at me as I tried to force the blade more inside the metal. Her face red as if I'm really not entertaining.

"When... Will you stop talking in catch phrases...?" She says mentally and physically exhausted, pushing the sword away.

"Over my dead bo--"

"Please, no." She points her robotic arm at my head, her hand splits in half and a lazer bean shoots on my face and drops me too the ground.

"That's new." I say impressed.

"You like it?" She giggles.

"WOOOHOOOO! YEAH! RIGHT IN THE FACE! HE LOVES IT!" We hear from amongst the crowd, the highest pitched scream.

Both me and Hiro look at where it came from in disgust. A little Bunny was crouching in the first row, staring at us and waving. I sweat coldly as remember our last encounter, hoping she won't bring it up.

"You trying to be next?" Hiro says instantly pointing the cannon arm at Bunny's face, charging as it glows white. I start trembling in fear of how Bunny will take it.

"No, please! Don't mind me. I just got here, not for you, just here to watch the show!" She answers smiling and sitting down, she's not going anywhere.

"...Ok." Hiro says. Then points the loaded cannon at me and shoots. I quickly roll just in time to avoid it, leaving the sword behind as I held myself on the ground,

"It really isn't that funny." I scream trembling for my life.

"Oh, but it is." She starts shooting again and again, aiming at my feet, I keep jumping and running until she suddenly stops to laugh.

"IT REALLY IS FUNNY." Bunny says laughing along. Having her watch it is torture.

I take my chance to take the sword again. As she notices, she loads the arm again, I hold the sword in front of me as a shield, but she looks worriedly at her arm like something went wrong.

"This is unfair, first a dragon, then the cannon... You're heavily armed." I chuckle.

"Dragon?" Bunny asks.

"STOP IT." She shoots at me one more time, the blade blocks it. I laugh as it seems I've found the easiest way into her metal nerves.

She stares at her arm like she just made a mistake. It goes back to it's normal form. I take the chance to slowly walk to the hole.

"Look! It's my chance!" I raise the blade, right next to the hole, about to invoke every single dead creature around, hoping the dragon comes along for his master. Hiro looks in dispair, begging for me not to do it in her eyes, unable to stop me for the distance.

"Oh yeah, I was gonna ask, where did that hole come from?" Bunny says.

"NOTHING." Me and Hiro bluster at the same time. I hide the sword on my back.

"...Okay. I doubt you two would agree on something, even if it's against me. So it should be true." She goes back to smiling.

I slowly approach Hiro, she stared at her like this was too close for comfort, then looked at me still in shock, but surprisingly looking for some reassurance in my eyes.

"...So, just the usual?" I mumble very lowly so that Bunny wouldn't hear it.

"Yeah." Hiro nods, and then instantly gets down on the floor to kick my legs.

"HEY!" I grab her leg with my own hands, struggling but swinging her against a three.

"Oooooooh it is getting interesting." Bunny watches obsessively, staring so hard it's uncomfortable.

 In between pushing her face against my knee and getting kicked in my throat, we barely pay mind to the public sounds. We stare into our face more than usual, not exchanging a single word, not trying to piss each other off, not trying to cheat, and not resorting to anything extreme. We we're so focused the eyes of the people around us shined. Amongst the talking, I hear Bunny's very distinguished voice.

"IMAGINE when the actual show begins." She says suddenly sharing a pocket of popcorn amongst the strangers.

"...What show?" I say as I try to block with the sword every hit Hiro tries to consecutively land on me.

"The one the other council members that aren't you two or Miori planned. Wait, you don't know?!" She looks too excited with this information. Hiro looks too busy to care, I look to confused to respond. Bunny turns even more excited.

"Ohohohoho… You really have no idea what they did!" It's so funny Bunny can barely speak. "This is getting better and better."

I stop Hiro by holding her arm.

"...Are your clothes new? They seem very… Comfortable." I say looking at Bunny.

"...NO… They're not… But thank you for noticing!!!" She blusters, confused and in shock.

"So… What did they do again?" I smile, sweating.

"They hired the most mysterious and overpowered hero of the hemisphere to kill you guys."

I drop the sword. Hiro's jaw could hit the floor.

"A… A hero? How exactly, my sweet dear little Bunny?" The shaking would only get worse.

"A rogue!" She says smiling a lot. "He only pops up for the absolute most legendary quests! No monster or demon or beasts survives, no matter the size. And there's not a single alive witness to tell what he truly is capable of! Can you imagine?"

We hear heavy steps in the distance.

A terrifyingly large shadow approaches, loudly bringing down trees from the forest it comes from. It looked like a demonic warrior with a tail and a sword, coming straight for us.

"I-Is it a dragon?" Hiro steps back.

"A knight?!" I bluster.

"Ooohhh. Armor chicken." Bunny points.

The gigantic shadow gets smaller and smaller until the tiny rogue lizard steps out the trees. The loud steps are nowhere to be heard anymore.

"a lizard…? A kobold. Definitely a kobold." I think to myself. staring at him, wearing tiny armor, holding a tiny sword, and hopping his way to us.

Bunny looks excited, Hiro looks confused.

"Oh it's just some guy passing…" Hiro chuckles.

"That's him! I'm sure!" I shout desperately, entering guard stance, ready to fight.

The entire crowd goes into absolute silence. He slowly gets closer, still silent. Even smaller than he seemed, and even shorter than Bunny.

"...I'm not insane, we should run while we can! Move!" I shout ready to leave, but the two girls won't move.

I reluctantly and terrifiedly stay, not taking my eyes off him.

He reaches us, staring at me and Hiro at a safe distance, while everybody waits for him to do something. He blinks his unproportionally goofy eyes and starts trembling uncontrollably.

"...Are you sure that's him?" I say looking at Bunny.

She won't take his eye out of him or even say a word, she stays crouching on the ground staring at the guy. The crowd stays silent, but uninterested, staring at me and Hiro, waiting for us to do something.

The kobold slowly turns his head at Bunny, she doesn't look away, doesn't even blink.

"...Hurry up, do your thing. This is taking too long." Hiro breaks the silence while staring down at him.

He's still deeply disturbed by Bunny's constant stare.

I look at Hiro, Hiro looks at me. I nod.

We simultaneously lean in and punch the lizard's face before he could even spit a single sound. He's so light he's sent flying beyond what the eye can see, disappearing into the sky.

"You fucking killed him!" Bunny says in shock, trembling, and instantly standing up.

The crowd goes insane.

They start cheering our names again and again, more than I've seen they ever cheer. I look at Hiro as we both laugh relieved. Being in silence with so many people around was already making me uncomfortable.

"Do you have… ANY idea of what you just did?" Bunny stands up furious. I can barely hear what she screamed because the people just don't care.

"WHAT?" I say under the cheers.

She storms into our direction with closed fists and an indescribably disappointed look on her face. Hiro immediately draws her pots, I'm terrified, barely holding the sword straight.

"Booooooooooooooooh!!!" One person screams as she sees Bunny pulling her fist back.

Bunny immediately stops. It doesn't take a second for the entire place to boo her too. Me and Hiro stay still, confused as we watch her face break.

"WHAT NOW?? He can try to kill them but I can't??" She throws a tantrum, roaring to the angry people.

"Hero! Hiro! Hero! Hiro! Hero! Hiro!" They cheer our names together. Or at least I can't tell which of the names they're cheering for. We can't help but to chuckle.

Bunny lowers her arms, taking a deep breath and looking at us.

"We're not done here." She sprints out and in a second is nowhere to be seen.

"Thank the gods she's gone… We didn't even have to do a thing…" I smile at Hiro.

"Good job." She chuckles a lot, I join her effortlessly. I offer her my hand so she can get up and then, she does, then the crowd goes immediately silent again. I quickly turn to them in worry, but gladly, they're just staring right behind me.

I see Hiro was staring behind in fear as well... Oh my.

 I turn trembling in fear at Miori, standing right behind us.

I quickly step away from Hiro. The earthquakes we feel are just the hundreds of people who were watching us running terrified.

"Busy?" Miori stares down at us.

"No, not at all!" Hiro nervously answers.

"For you? I'm free the entire day." I say to Miori leaning on my sword.

"Good. I need you two on the night watch right now. Follow me."

"...Wait, on the what? What happened there" I say following her.

"Nothing happened there, I want you two to work together for the night with the boys, two of them got sick. Think of it as... Community service."

Hiro's eyes were shining, she clearly struggled to contain her excitement to be in anything related to a guard again. But it all breaks and fades just as quickly when she realizes Miori wants us both.

"H-hum, your excellency, I do think I am enough for this mission, my men are highly trained and skilled. I don't think there is a need for us both to go, haha… ha..." Hiro gulps in anxiety.

"Us? Working together?" I hold my laughter. "You almost fooled me, ahahaha. No offense, but I was sure for a moment you were stupid enough to actually be serious about…"

She stares back at me and her silence makes me swallow my words.

"You can't actually be serious." I murmur. My eyelids twitch.

"My team! Exquisitely trained, fantastically perfect in jobs OUT of their comfort zone!" Hiro seems to be going insane too.

"A NIGHTWATCH? You have the most powerful knight on the continent and you want him for nightwatching?

"You two are coming with me if you still want to be in the council."

We shut our mouths. I let out an audible sigh.

"...You really had nothing better than that?"