| Rescued? |

It took its leisurely time, its jaws getting closer and closer to my throat. I closed my eyes waiting for my fate.

A blast echoed through the jungle making my ears ring.

Substance sprayed on my face before a massive weight crushed me.

I wheezed, my eyes snapping open.

"Ahhhh! Ew! Gross!" I screeched. The Perithon's body laid on top of me, crushing me. I looked at it in distaste, it was apparent that it was dead, hence the blown-off head that made me queasy.

I struggled to get it off me, wiggling from under it. This cat had to weigh a couple of hundred pounds, for it was making me flat as a pancake.

I could hear someone ticking by me, my head snapped towards the sound to see no one. Who fired the shot?

"Nate, you should know that exploring isn't for children." The voice made me freeze.

Could he just die already? Or at least forget about me?

Ace stood above me, holding a blaster in his hand, a smirk on his face.

��I think I might be suffocating, can you do something actually useful?" I shot at him, waiting for him to take off the crushing weight.

"I don't know, I am not the happiest with you at the moment." He mumbled a sweet smile on his face as he sat down beside me.

"How did you find me?"

"From the girlish screams of course." He replied, while I scoffed, I didn't scream like a girl.

"No really." He looked down at me amused. The Perithon's blood was still on my face, hence the blue on my face.

"Your tracker has a mechanism, when your tracker is taken out of your body, it releases mini nanobots. It just doesn't take effect until it activates after a day or so."

Did I cut my wrist up just to be tracked again? What a waste of time and pain.

"Can you get this off me now?"

"I guess." Ace shrugged before standing up, the moon lighting up his figure before me. He grabbed the Perithon's tail before slowly pulling its corpse off me.

I took a deep breath, finally able to breathe normally again.

"You know, I wouldn't be surprised if you died of an overdose in The Changing from the anesthesiologist, you guys aren't on good terms." Ace said in a light voice.

I cringed, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised either, I thought while replaying the images of the doctor on the floor unconscious.

"Yeah wouldn't be surprised either," I mumbled.

Ace held his hand out for me, and I knocked it away, wiping my face as I got up to my feet.

"So what are you going to do now? Haul me away again? Because I'll just keep running." Ace's eyebrows shot up as he looked at me.

"Uh-huh, well, your right, that is exactly what I'm supposed to do, thanks for reminding me." Ace said sarcastically, reaching towards me.

"Do you have water?"

"Yes."

"Can I have some?" Ace reached down to his belt grabbing a flask.

"Here." I took the flask greedily, opening it quickly before gulping down water.

"Woah there! Don't drink it all, just too throw it back up." Ace said snatching the flask. I grumbled trying to reach for again just for Ace to maneuver away from my hand, clipping the flask back to his belt.

"We better get going."

"I'm not going back," I said my eyebrows scrunched up.

"Yes, you are."

"Make me."

"I could," He said, contemplating for a moment, "But I didn't think you wanted to be dragged back."

"Like you could." I puffed.

"Yeah, I could." Ace said, stepping towards me, while I backed up.

"Well, you're doing a crappy job then." I sneered, while Ace's eyebrows shut up in surprise.

"Are you trying to get me mad? I think you are." Ace started looking at me curiously.

Trying, I was trying to make him mad. My dad said to me a reckless man is easier to beat than a calm collected one.

I shrugged in response.

"That's not going to work, or at least not for me." Ace replied to my shrug.

"Now, unless you want to die of starvation, and animal life, come here."

"Hm, I'm going to say no." Ace glared at me.

"It's not your choice."

"Well, if it's my choice or not, I'd rather die than be a part of the Ringther Army."

"Oh shut up! I'm done with your pettiness," Ace in lighting speed clenched my arm, wrenching them behind my back, discounting my struggles and yells. Leading me through the forest, Ace discarded my efforts like I was a toddler whacking their father.

"Can you stop moving!" Ace gritted out of his teeth.

"Fine!" I said smugly, not moving at all, making him carry my dead weight.

"Don't test me!"Ace growled.

"I think I already did." I sneered, letting him drag me.

"Fine then!" He yelled out purposely dragging me where the rocks were.

"Wait! I've had a change of heart!" I yelped, getting to my feet before the rocks started to rip the skin off my back.

"Good now start walking before I throw you over my shoulder."

After about an hour of walking, I was exhausted.

"Can we have a break?"

"It's probably 5 in the morning, we'll stop when we get back."

"Hey! I haven't had food for three days and I am dehydrated, I'm going to pass out soon." I grumbled stumbling in front of him.

"Fine, fifteen minutes, and then we move on." Ace said, bringing my hands behind my back.

"What are you doing?" Cold metal developed my wrist before I heard a click.

"I wouldn't want you running away, it's harder too anyways when your hands are behind your back." Ace taunted me before pushing me to the ground.

"Rest." He said his fingers bending in quotation marks. I honestly did try to roll my eyes but I was too exhausted and I could finally feel my parents' death catching up with me, grief eager with its claws to dig into my heart.

The morning went on just like that, me being stubborn and Ace being a nasty piece of arrogant work he is, I can only take so much of his pride and arrogance before my head explodes.

"Shh.." Ace said, stopping me. He was looking around the forest, his eyes alerted, his body tense.

"What?"

"I said can it." I clamped my mouth shut, looking around. The animals and critters still made a noise like usual, I couldn't see anything different, but Ace was stiff and unmoving as I tugged away from him, my hands still chained together, for what reason I was still handcuffed? I have no idea, I think Ace just likes to torture me.

"Okay, this is getting old," I grumbled, ripping my bicep away from his hand, striding in the direction we were walking towards.

"Kid! Stop!!" Ace yelled irritation filtered in his voice.

"Whatever," I yelled back.

My feet crunched on the forest floor, as I heard Ace's heavy footsteps behind me.

"Nate! Stop--"

WHOOSH!!

Electric light flashed around me, while I jumped back in surprise just to hit electrical bars behind me.

I yelped in pain before jumping to the center of the cage, like a cat trying to escape a watery death. I landed on my butt, my tailbone hitting painfully onto the floor.

"Ow." I groaned, rubbing my aching back.

I looked up.

Oh god.

An electric small cage held me, made out of electricity. My luck. These cages were specifically for trapping animals, although some aliens use them for other needs. The cages keep the victim stuck in the electric cage, unable to get out until the owner comes back.

Ace looked at me through the bars, his eyebrows scrunched up. He whistled.

"I told you to stop." Heat crept up my neck.

"I didn't hear you."

"Of course you didn't." Ace said angrily, kicking at the ground. "How are we supposed to get back to the academy now if you're stuck?" Ace said not really talking to me, but himself.

I shrugged looking down at the floor taking a sudden interest in it.

"One second let me figure it out, maybe I can get you out. He walked towards the cage looking around for something that might help him.

Ace pulled out a communicator, my jaw dropped.

"You had that the whole time!" I accused.

"It's not having a high enough signal, one second I'm going to go look for a place with a signal."

"Wait, come ba--" I tried but he was already far away from me, communicator in hand. I huffed my shoulders sagging. I am starting to think that I have undying bad luck, or the universe hates me, I can't seem to know which one.

The sound of a footstep made me tense, "Ace?" I asked questioningly into the open air.

No answer, I shifted on my butt nervously. "Ace? Ace, stop messing around." I yelled out hesitatingly. More footsteps were heard, but not just one, more, I could begin to see people coming out of the brush.

I scrambled to my feet, wiping my sweaty hands on my pants.

A mixture of Lumpkontons and aliens stepped towards the cage, their fierceness radiating off them.

My eyes wide, my mouth agape as I walked backward.

ZAP!

"Ow!" The shock made me bounce forward again. A chuckle went through the group while I rubbed my back, pain ripping through it.

"Oh good! Uh... You can let me out now... You guys are the owners right?" I said awkwardly.

"Who said we were going to let you go? Little one?" A deep voice spoke from the crowd before walking towards the cage that held me.

Well, then. A huge alien stepped out of the crowd. I remember reading about these species but I can't seem to remember their name. It was tall and buff, it's scaly skin glittering in the sunlight, it's beady eyes staring me down.

"How much do you think this guy is worth?" The alien said, turning to a person in a group of people.

"I reckon a couple of hundred Mencarn." Mencarn was the currency of Zenagon, I had a bad feeling about these people, and the way they are discussing my worth doesn't seem like they are just having a Sunday brunch conversation about church.

"I guess that can be worth the trouble, although we usually just sell exotic animals." The beady-eyed mumbled while I froze in place. Oh no, that doesn't sound promising.

My jaw tightened, Zenagon is famous for its slave trade, I gulped mentally, just when I think things get any worst.

I took a step back, the situation making me nervous.

"Okay well, boys get him out of here, he's our last cargo." One of the aliens smiled menacingly at me.

"Sure boss." The last thing I remember is a blaster gun in his hand before lifting it up to my chest. The sound went off, and blackness.