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The moon had long risen over The Rings. Wagyu was sulking to himself, still angry at his "friends" for leaving him out in the open, ready to be attacked by one of those, mutant creatures, that had been taking over the area in the past few weeks. He was in the right, he could have helped everyone get more out of the day. They were in the wrong, right?
"I miss my mom and dad." Wagyu mumbles to himself, on the verge of tears.
"Are you, okay?" A concerned voice reaches Wagyu's presence, scaring him.
"Wh-who are you and what do you want?" Wagyu shouts while looking around, trying to find the unknown voice.
Slowly, a palm tree walks out from the shadows. "Oh, sorry for scaring you, kid."
"What do you want from me?" Wagyu asks the tall stranger again, shaking in fear.
"Calm down, I just want to help you." Palm Tree tells Wagyu, trying to calm him down. "I heard you talking to yourself and felt bad, so I want to try and help you."
Hesitantly, Wagyu asks Palm Tree "Why should I trust you?"
"I lost everything too." Palm Tree responds bluntly.
"Oh, okay." Wagyu yawns, too tired to take in what Palm Tree just said.
"Tired?" Palm Tree asks the small slab of meat.
"Mhm." Wagyu barely manages to speak, lying down on his pile of newspapers, his eyes fluttering shut.
"Well, good night, kid." Palm Tree tells Wagyu.
That is the last thing he hears before falling asleep with a smile.
Wagyu slowly gets up from a peaceful night of sleep. He quickly looks around and checks his surroundings. Quiet besides Palm Tree sorting through their food. He stands up and realizes he isn't hurt. He can trust Palm Tree.
"Good morning, kid." Palm Tree says to Wagyu, a smile on their face.
"Good morning, uh, Palm Tree?" Wagyu replies.
"So, uh, what happened to you?" Palm Tree asks Wagyu.
"I, kinda got ahead of myself." Wagyu rubs his arm, looking away. "I got annoyed at my group because we didn't get much done yesterday. They went inside somewhere and put me in charge to 'guard' them."
"Why would they think that's okay? You're literally a child!" Palm Tree says somewhat angrily.
"I was acting like I'm better than them, and I did snap at them, so I did kinda deserve it." Wagyu says, trying to shift the blame to himself.
"No kid, you didn't. You were running off instincts." Palm Tree puts one of their arms on Wagyu's shoulder. "You were doing things that you're used to because it gave you comfort. We all need comfort now, everyone is scared."
"..yeah." Wagyu mumbles to himself. "I wish my mom and dad were still here."
Palm Tree raises an eyebrow. "What, happened to them, if you don't mind me asking? You were talking about them last night if I recall correctly."
"They," Wagyu pauses for a second, tearing up slightly. "they were killed when the disease started. Everyone was raiding everything. My family's mansion and everything inside it was destroyed."
"Then how are you still here?" Palm Tree asks, genuinely wondering how Wagyu made it out safe.
"When everyone was running towards my home, I ran away to the city. It felt safer, all my neighbors were also destroyed."
The two walk for a bit in silence.
"Hey, where are you from?" Wagyu asks.
"Oh, I came from-" Palm Tree begins before being interrupted by a deafening screech.
"RUN!" Wagyu screams as he and Palm Tree begin to run away from a mutant that started chasing the two of them.
After a few minutes of running, Wagyu's pace slows down. Palm Tree notices this and picks the kid up and continues running, their legs not giving up in the foreseeable future.
"Woah, how are you not tired? You've been running for like, 10 minutes." Wagyu asks.
"I pace myself." Palm Tree responds, their breathing being heavy. "I don't know how long I'll do this, so I'm saving my energy."
"Ah." Wagyu says. "Hey, the monster stopped chasing us!"
Palm Tree comes to a stop, still breathing heavily. They put Wagyu back onto the ground.
"Thanks so much for saving me there." Wagyu hugs Palm Tree's leg.
"No, thank you son for pointing out the monster." Palm Tree replies, putting their arm on Wagyu's shoulder.
Son. He hasn't been called that in weeks. He felt a feeling he never felt before, pure joy. Things were finally getting better.