The fog grew, to the point of covering everything... At the same time, the fear in SMG3, SMG4, Eggdog and Beeg grew... Especially in the red-eyed... For the first time in 4 years, he had experienced that again. such a horrifying fear of not wanting to lose someone... As he continued driving around the place, trying not to crash, he began to remember the last time he had experienced that unpleasant feeling...

It had been that time at the Showgrounds, just at the moment when 4 had just been knocked out... At that moment, he tried to fight with all his strength to free himself from the grip of the "Abyss Soldiers" to go help his friend, but it was all in vain... After that, they took him to the and there for the first time, he saw the Lord of Shadows face to face... At first, he was scared to death... But at the end, remembering what he had done to the blue-eyed, began to feel an inexplicable fury... To the point that he suddenly stood up and hit the Lord of Shadows with all his strength... That was the last time he dared to do anything to him...

-¿SMG3...? -.

3 opened his eyes quickly, as he felt the cold wind hit his face again... He blinked a couple of times, before stopping the motorcycle and turning to look at SMG4...

- What's wrong, 4...? - said.

- I think we should look for a hiding place and rest - he said with a worried voice - This is the second time you've fallen asleep while driving... -.

The red-eyed man sighed somewhat annoyed, but he knew it was true... Since they had left the village protected by the Suns, he had not rested at all, he had spent his time making sure that SMG4 did not convulse again, so he did not sleep at all... .

They began to go deeper and deeper into that small forest, with the hope that within it, there was a hidden place where they could rest for a while... The further they entered, the more fog began to appear, at the same time that they both began to feel how the cold began to go down... Just when they were beginning to lose hope of finding a place to rest, they saw a small house between some trees... Immediately afterwards, they headed to where the house was...

- We can leave the motorcycle near one of the trees - said SMG4 pointing to some trees next to the house.

The red-eyed man listened to the advice of 4, so they left the motorcycle hidden in some bushes near the little house... The red-eyed man went down first, however, when he got down, he discovered that there was too much water under his feet (The motorcycle was in Anti-gravity mode, so they never knew there was water beneath them)...

- What the hell...? - 3 said, feeling the water on his feet.

- SMG3, I know where we are - said the blue-eyed man as he got off the motorcycle - This is the "Aoki Forest", the largest mangrove forest in the Mushroom Kingdom -.

- Wow... I thought that by now, we should be closer to the Wooded Kingdom... -.

- Well, the truth is that Aoki is on the outskirts of the Kingdom, so if we rest, we will get there tomorrow... -.

3 just yawned and entered the house, then within the blue-eyed man... They began to explore the first floor of that place, there was a half-destroyed kitchen, the cupboard had some cans thrown from its broken shelves, the living room had holes in the floor, where some water entere, the stairs were missing pieces, the hallway was full of dust... In short, the house was old, so time and war had made the place in very bad condition... But it looked like a safe place to spend a night and then continue with the trip...

- I'll go up to the second floor, to see if there is somewhere with enough roof to rest there... - said the red-eyed man as he went up the stairs.

- Yes, I'll look to see if anything here serves for the night... - answered 4.

Once upstairs, SMG3 began to inspect the second floor of that old house, although it did not change much from how the floor below was... There were 4 rooms, but they were all in a terrible state, since all the furniture was destroyed or There was simply no furniture left, the windows were broken, so you had to move carefully to avoid stepping on any glass on the floor, the curtains were somewhat torn, in addition to being on the floor and full of dust, there were holes in the floor, one of the walls was totally destroyed... But at least they would serve to be able to sleep peacefully...

- I guess we'll sleep here... - he said yawning again - I'll go tell SMG4... -.

He left that small corner of the room heading towards the hallway to meet his companion again... Meanwhile, the blue-eyed boy was going up the stairs, since he had found some things that could be useful to them on their trip... Until suddenly, he saw that a shadow came out of one of the rooms... When he saw it, he was very startled, since it was not SMG3...

- Eggdog, Beeg, come here... - he whispered, taking the little ones to one of the rooms near

The shadow escaped again, while 4, Eggdog and Beeg were still hiding in the room... SMG3 was leaving through the hallway, when that evil shadow began to approach the red-eye in silence... Before he could react, the shadow shadow ambushed 3, who fell to the ground due to a very strong blow to the back of his head... After SMG3 was completely unconscious on the ground, shadow took off what seemed to be a cloak, with what was being covered, thus revealing that he was actually a villain... But he wasn't just any villain, he was the villain who had been with Jason, the villain who had tried to end Eggdog's life...

- One less, the other one is missing... - he said with an evil smile.

The villain hid again in one of the rooms, while SMG4 came out of his hiding place only to find his partner on the floor completely unconscious, with a wound on the back of his head...

- SMG3...? - he said with a trembling voice.

He didn't respond, so very carefully, 4 carried him and took him into one of the rooms... Once inside, he examined SMG3's wound, noticing that although it was superficial, it was bleeding a lot... So he had to cover it with something, to prevent bleeding and it from spreading. It was going to seriously infect him... But what was he going to do it with?... They didn't have bandages big enough to cover the wound completely, plus the villain had taken the other backpack with the normal bandages... .So they didn't have sales...

- ¿Good heavens...What am I going to do...!? - he said between his teeth, clenching his fists - Think SMG4, think!! -.

Suddenly, he remembered that he had a large bandage covering his wound in his abdomen... He knew that it was not yet one hundred percent healed, but he could at least last a while without being covered... He quickly took off his jacket and his shirt. Suns uniform shirt to start removing the blindfold... Then, he heard how Mike (The Villain) quickly went down the stairs and began to break the doors on the floor below...

- GET OUT NOW FROM WHERE YOU ARE, YOU DISGRACED COWARDLY SUN!! - shout.

While the villain was still at the bottom, 4's adrenaline increased... He was trembling, while he removed the bandage from his abdomen and carefully put it on SMG3's head... He was afraid that the man would climb up, again, he would come to them and do something worse to them, so he made a decision that he knew was too dangerous... But he would do everything possible to protect those he cared about... He finished healing his companion's wounds, and he covered him with some old curtains to avoid getting cold and put on his Soles uniform again...

- Stay here... - he said to Eggdog and Beeg, while giving them a hug.

He left them near the red-eyed man... He quickly went down the stairs, trying not to let Michael see him, and stood in front of the door of that house... Once he saw how the villain was leaving the room, he took a little pause. air (Trying to calm his fear) and put on a serious face...

- CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!! - SMG4 shouted, while looking at the villain with an expression of hatred.

Seeing him, the villain's blood began to boil, so he pounced on him...

- YOU! - he responded very upset.

SMG4 ran away while he felt his heart beating at a thousand per hour... He knew that SMG3 was very injured, Eggdog and Beeg were taking care of him, so now he couldn't get close to where they were hiding...

- COME BACK HERE, UNFORTUNATE SUN!! - shouted the villain.

The blue-eyed boy continued running, while trying to find a place to hide from the villain... He did not want to face him, since his abdominal wound was exposed and he had not yet fully recovered, so any movement that was too sudden, was going to make the wound open again ...

Just when he thought he had lost track of the villain, a sword suddenly appeared and crashed next to 4's head... Immediately afterwards, the villain fell in front of him, quickly recovered his sword and began to attack... SMG4 (Like the skilled swordsman he was), took his sword, as he began to defend himself...

- THE LORD OF SHADOWS WAS RIGHT, THE SUNS ARE DAMN KILLERS!! - shouted the villain.

The villain continued attacking 4 with incredible speed, while he tried to dodge all the attacks, at the same time trying to escape... Suddenly, in a carelessness, Michael managed to cut the blue-eyed man on the shoulder, who upon feeling it, he was only distracted for a few seconds, which the villain took advantage of to hit him, causing him to lose his sword and quickly fall to the ground...

- BECAUSE OF YOU, JASON IS DEAD!! - said Michael - YOU SUNS ARE DAMN SCUM THAT JUST BECAUSE WE FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS YOU THINK WE ARE EVIL!! -.

The villain grabbed SMG4 by the neck, while he tried to reach for his sword again...

- BUT THAT'S OVER!! -.

Suddenly, the edge of the cliff began to break... But the villain did not see it because he was trying to suffocate the blue-eyed boy, trying to get revenge... The stones began to break, so the villain was distracted... There SMG4 hit him with a kick on the chest, and he managed to get the villain to release him, but unfortunately the strong and abrupt movement he had made to free himself caused the wound in his abdomen to open again... He managed to crawl to recover his sword and put it away, to treat to escape, but the villain, upon getting up and seeing him, began to step on his abdomen while the blue-eyed boy felt a horrible pain throughout his body... The sound of the cracks of the falling stones made the villain react and raised his head. foot of the blue-eyed abdomen... The rocks began to fall, so the villain tried to run, while SMG4 grabbed a vine that was close to his hands, but unfortunately it was too late for the villain...

The villain fell into the waterfall at full speed, while the blue-eyed boy simply watched, hoping that the vine he was holding on to wouldn't break due to the speed of the enormous crystalline waterfall... He couldn't believe what had just happened... .
Another life had been lost...
And all because of him...

Suddenly, a sound made his hopes shattered... It was the sound of the vine breaking...

- No... No... - he said almost breathlessly - This can't be happening... -.

Many tears appeared in his eyes... The pain of his wound was unbearable, just as the fear he felt consumed him inside, as if a fire was killing him inside... He didn't want to die... Not in that place... He remembered Eggdog and Beeg once again... He couldn't abandon them like that... He thought about SMG3... He knew that he was still injured... He couldn't leave him in such a critical situation...

Another creak of the vine was present... Now it was more than obvious that if he didn't think something quickly, he was going to fall into the waterfall... He began to look in all directions, hoping to see something that could help him.. But unfortunately there was nothing but a huge rock wall... Just when he thought everything was lost, he saw General Rainstore's sword... There was only one solution that occurred to him... He squeezed his eyes as he took the sword. ..

Once he had it in his hands, he left it tied to the vine... It was to gain time... He saw that next to him, the enormous stone wall had a small vine... It didn't reach the top of The wall, however, it looked strong enough to withstand his weight...

He released one of his hands from the vine and put it on the tip of the sword... He knew it was going to hurt... But it was only for a few seconds... And he was willing to do it in order not to die...
I take a deep breath...
He closed his eyes...
And he moved the sword towards his hand...

...

SMG3 woke up... He didn't remember very well what had happened... He only remembered that a villain had attacked him and left him somewhat injured in the back of his head... He tried to stand up, but his entire body hurt too much... He didn't understand what was happening... He turned to look around him, he was in one of the rooms of that abandoned house... He quickly noticed that it was already night, because everything was already dark... Looking up, I could see a little of the hallway that led to the stairs. broken... When he turned around, he saw Eggdog and Beeg were asleep next to him... Everything seemed to be normal, but he knew something was wrong... Something was missing... Or someone... Hang on a minute...

WHERE WAS SMG4!?...

He got up quickly, while feeling a terrible pain in his head, so he leaned against one of the walls of the room... He was too confused and in pain to do anything else... Suddenly, he heard a very loud sound, as if something or someone had just opened the door of the house... Then slow footsteps began to be heard down the hallway below, then how the same tired steps were going up the stairs and finally how they were advancing along the hallway on the second floor. up to get to the room where they were hiding... volume 3 quickly swung his sword, as the door swung open...

-Who is there!? - He asked a little scared.

- ¿¡SMG3...You're better now...!? -.

It was SMG4's voice, although it sounded very agitated and tired, as if he had been running for a long time... Thanks to the moonlight, the red-eyed man could see his companion... He was leaning against the door of the room, while his other hand was on his abdomen...

- Are you okay, why do you look so tired!? - he asked - Is the villain still here!? -.

- He... He is no longer here... -.

Hearing this, 3 calmed him down a little, but he remembered that originally he had fallen in the hallway and was now in one of the rooms, he remembered his head wound that was now healed... He also remembered that they had run out of such large bandages, at the same time He was left wondering how it was possible that his companion had cured him, if he looked so tired... The red-eyed man simply continued touching his head very carefully...

- But then how come I'm cured...? -.

- I-I c-cur-cure you... - he said as his voice began to be cut off by his breathing.

The answer left 3 somewhat confused, since it was somewhat obvious that his partner had cured him... But with what? ...Since they did not have sales this big... He was still confused as he watched the sale... Until he saw that many drops of blood were falling from the blue-eyed man's abdomen, at the same time that it seemed that there was a path of blood right behind him...

- ¿SMG4... Are you okay? -.

Suddenly, 4 collapsed... SMG3 reacted quickly and managed to reach him before his head hit the ground...

- SMG4!? - I asked, worried.

SMG4's breathing was too heavy, while many tears came out of his eyes...

- E-everything m-it-hurts m-very much... - he said in a voice cut off by crying.

The wound on 4's abdomen had reopened, so under his uniform there was a huge stain of crimson liquid... Plus his left hand had a hole in the palm, which you could tell had been made. with a sword... In addition to the fact that it seemed that he had had a vine inside the wound, because there was a trail of leaves like a vine... The red-eyed man was paralyzed for a few seconds when he saw his companion like that... But he quickly reacted when he heard the moans of SMG4 and began to look around and saw the curtains on the floor... He knew it wasn't very comfortable, but at least it was enough to leave 4 lying there while he tried to heal him...

- I'm going to lift you up... Okay...? - he said in a calm voice, to try to calm the blue-eyed boy - Tell me if it hurts a lot... -.

4 nodded his head, while SMG3 lifted him up, bridal style, very carefully and laid him down on those curtains...

- Eggdog, Beeg, I need you to hand me the backpack that's on the motorcycle, please -.

The children complied with 3's request and brought the backpack very quickly... While the red-eyed one had tied his and SMG4's hair with some small pieces of fabric from what seemed to have been a shirt... Then, with the same remnants of that shirt, he had made a kind of cloth and quickly went down to some bowl to put water in it so he could rinse 4's wound... Once he had it, return where the blue-eyed...

- You're going to be fine, just keep breathing and try not to get agitated... - he told him.

With trembling hands, SMG3 untied 4's bloody clothes... The cloth clung to the open wounds, and every movement elicited a groan of pain... Patiently and gently, he cleaned the wounds with a damp cloth and disinfected them with a little bit of water... Once he finished, he took his cloak and again put it in the form of a bandage on 4's abdomen... Then, he took a curtain and rinsed it carefully...

- Try to rest a little, so it won't hurt too much... - he began to say, while putting the piece of curtain in the form of a bandage on the blue-eyed man's hand - Tomorrow we will go to a place where we can get resources to cure you.. -.

- You also have to rest... - he responded.

SMG3 simply sighed, as he got up to close the door to the room...

- I'm not going to leave you like this, you're hurt and I'm not going to neglect you, besides... What happens if another villain or the same one comes for us...? -.

- The villain is not going to return... - 4 responded in a sad tone.

3 Seeing his friend's sadness, he decided not to say more about that topic and better change it to another... He sat next to him, while he placed Eggdog and Beeg close to where they were, since they had already fallen asleep...

- Well, and assuming he's not coming back for whatever reason, you're hurt... What if something happens to you while you're sleeping... ? -.

When he said that, the blue-eyed boy got upset and crossed his arms...

- Then I refuse to sleep, unless you also sleep for a while... -.

The red-eyed man sighed, he knew that his friend was very stubborn, so he decided to accept 4's offer...

- Okay, but only because I want you to rest, recover, so we can get to a safe place and where we can take supplies to continue the trip - he said.

- It's ok -.

The blue-eyed boy was happy to hear that... Although, 3's plan was to wait for SMG4 to fall asleep and then, he would stay awake watching that no one came close... He lay down near the blue-eyed boy, while giving him a warm hug, because I didn't want to hurt him more than he already had...

- Good night, SMG4 - he said in a calm tone.

4 turned to look him in the eyes and gave him one last smile, before he settled back down...

- Good night SMG3 - he responded calmly.

After he lay down, he tried to stay awake as long as possible, while believing that his companion had already fallen asleep... But the tiredness and pain were stronger, so little by little he fell asleep... As soon as 3 fell asleep, the blue-eyed boy opened his eyes again and simply stared at the ceiling, because the pain in his abdomen wouldn't let him sleep... Every time he tried and managed to sleep a little, he ended up dreaming horrible nightmares about the cliff and the villain... He felt very bad, but he couldn't do anything but close his eyes and wait for the pain to subside, to try to rest his body a little...

...

The sun passed through the old and broken windows of that house in the middle of the mangrove forest... Because of the light, the red-eyed man woke up quickly... He ran his hands over his face and became worried, since he realized that He had fallen asleep, while thinking that something terrible could have happened because of his irresponsibility... After that, 3 saw the time, it was 4:36pmAt first it seemed normal, since the day before they had fallen asleep at around 8:30pm, so it was logical that they were very tired... But when they saw the day, they were very surprised to see that it had actually happened. a whole day...

He got up, stretched and began to carefully check his friend's wounds, who although he had fallen asleep, had very large circles under his eyes...

- I guess I don't rest well at all because of the pain... - SMG3 thought.

The compress he had made with his cloak seemed to have served very well, since there was no trace of blood in the wound, but in his hand wound it was the opposite, the wound was not infected, but it was seen that It still wasn't healed and even when I tried to move it, 4 it let out a moan of pain...

- We have to go there for bandages and medicine, there is no other option... - he thought as he finished putting on the improvised bandage with curtains.

He finished putting away all the supplies they had and took off his jacket from his uniform to put it on SMG4, so that he wouldn't get cold outside... Once he finished putting it on carefully so that it wouldn't hurt, he put the backpack on him. with provisions (Because it was the backpack that didn't weigh much) and he put on the backpack in which he had put Eggdog and Beeg... Then he carried him in a bridal manner and they both went down to the lower floor of the house, and then left towards the motorcycle...

- Just hold on a little longer... - he said in his head, while he looked at his partner.

He very carefully climbed into that totally lonely vehicle in the middle of the mangroves, so as not to wake up 4 (who was still completely asleep in his arms)... And he started the motorcycle, to try to get to the next stop on his long road. ...