"Grrrhh! Urrghh! Arrrgghhh!"
Jojo jolted awake at the sound of his father’s pained grunts. He scrambled out of Kael’s embrace and hurried to his check on him.
"Grrrghh—!!"
Kael was still trapped in his nightmare. His body convulsed as if hundreds of sharp needles were stabbing him over and over again. But no matter how painful it was, he still couldn’t wake up from that nightmare.
"D-Daddy, are you okay?" Jojo asked as he tried to shake his father awake.
At first, he thought his father was simply angry. But when he realized Kael’s eyes were still tightly shut, panic flooded his chest.
Even a boy his age could tell that his father was trapped in a terrible nightmare.
"D-Daddy, wake up! Wake uppp!!"
Jojo shook him, shouted, even scread directly into Kael’s wolf ear.
But his father stayed asleep, as if he would never wake up even if Jojo scread at the top of his lung.
Jojo quickly shifted into his beastman form. He knew he had to wake his father up, no matter what.
He looked around frantically, searching for sothing that could cause enough pain, then he spotted his toy rock. It was smooth like a ball, so Jojo grabbed it without hesitation.
He wasn’t afraid of hurting his father. Daddy had a tough skull, and even more so after his eyes had turned crimson.
So he threw the rock to Kael’s face, hoping it would jolt him awake.
"Daddy! Wake up! Wake up now!!"
He did it again and again, and each ti he struck he increased his strength. His father’s face seed to be made out of an even harder rock, because it didn’t bother him at all.
And no matter how many tis he struck, his father didn’t wake.
In fact, his nightmare seed to worsen as ti went on.
On top of the grunting and thrashing, tears began to spill from Kael’s tightly shut eyes, soaking into his fur.
Jojo froze as this was the first ti he witnessed his father’s tears.
His father never cried before. Not against terrifying enemies. Not when wounded. Not ever.
The boy was already scared of his father’s condition, but his father’s tears put him on high alert.
"Daddy... stop crying. You’re scaring Jojo..."
He tried to hug him, but Kael flailed violently, throwing Jojo aside.
"Ow... owie..."
Jojo hit the cave wall and rubbed his aching back. If his father could thrash around even when being hugged by him, that ant he was truly not conscious.
He stared at his father, helpless, on the verge of tears himself.
Then—
The sun began to rise.
Golden light spilled into the cave, signaling dawn.
Jojo turned toward the entrance, staring at the warm glow. He wiped his eyes and rembered sothing.
When he lived with Sisi, she would often wake him to watch the sunrise.
She said it made people feel better and stronger, so they were ready to start the day with all the tasks they needed to do.
Usually, he would sit in her lap at the cave entrance as they waited for the sunrise together.
"Sisi..."
Jojo’s eyes widened.
"SISI!"
He had a solution, and that solution was... Sisi!
He believed no matter what happened, Sisi would always find a way to make things better!
Thus, he rushed toward the cave entrance, but then froze when he realized the summit was terrifyingly high.
"I—I can’t... it’s too scary..." he whispered. "M-maybe I should just wait for Daddy to wake up..."
"URRGHH! ARRRGHH!"
Kael’s scream echoed through the cave, sharp and anguished.
Jojo turned back, his heart pounding as he witnessed his father’s condition.
"Daddy is hurting..." Jojo muttered. "And I... I can’t let him down. He needs my help!"
His father had fought monsters and braved death to protect him, and hunted scary beasts just to give him good food.
Now it was Jojo’s turn to save his father!
"W-wait here, Daddy!" Jojo cried. "I’ll go find Sisi! She’s very smart! She must know what to do!"
He stepped toward the descent. His legs trembled as he looked down.
Indeed, it was so high, even more so from the eyes of a four-year-old boy. When he was with his father, he actually closed his eyes as he didn’t dare to look down.
Then—slap!—he smacked his own cheeks.
"J-Jojo is Daddy’s assistant!" he told himself. "I can do it!"
As he climbed down the perilous slope, where one wrong step ant death, he chanted bravely as he tried to give himself shouts of courage:
"Jojo is Daddy’s little warrior!"
"Sisi said I’m very strong!"
"I’m a big boy today.""I can do it!"
"Jojo will conquer the sum—WHA!"
The rock beneath his foot shifted and sent Jojo tumbling down the slope until his body slamd into a large boulder.
"Ow... ouch... wuu..."
The boy was grimacing in pain when his body was aching everywhere, and he was sure that he got bruised here and there.
He wanted to stop and cry as loud as possible, waiting for Sisi to save him.
Then he rembered what Uncle Marik once told him:
"You’re no longer a baby. You’re a big boy now. That ans you can’t just run back to Sisi and cry whenever you get upset."
Jojo clenched his fists as he wiped his tears.
"I-I can’t cry now," he whispered. "Daddy needs ..."
He forced himself to stand, ignoring the bruises and aching, he continued downward.
When he finally reached the palace grounds, he looked around in confusion. The palace was huge, and he didn’t know where Sisi was.
"Sisi! Sisi!" he shouted as he walked around the palace. "It’s Jojo! I—I need help!"
At last, a young maid hurried over and crouched before him.
"L-Little Prince? What are you doing here?"
Jojo turned and recognized her, it was the big coconut sister from yesterday.
She wasn’t wearing that strange open dress anymore. Now she was dressed properly, so Jojo couldn’t see the two big coconuts on her chest.
Jojo wiped his eyes quickly as he didn’t want anyone but Sisi and his father to see his tears.
"Big sister, can you show where Sisi is?" he asked urgently, "Daddy needs help."
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