Trust Me

"Probably. Though I have to say, our alliance is more out of strategy than protection. I'm not sure where you fit in to our plan." Adri said, and I realized that he was right. I was the bait, Adri was the striker. Even if Parq helped Adri to strike down whoever attacked me, having two people hiding around me would be too much. The chance of them being discovered would be too high to justify the added protection.

Parq shifted slightly, taking on a more aggressive stance. "So you want to tell me that all that work I did was for nothing?"

I saw Adri's hand start to slowly and subtly draw closer to the handle of his machete. He'd picked up on Parq's mood swing as well, evidently. "I didn't say that. It might take a bit of re-planning, but I have no problem with letting another person in an alliance. I just want some proof that we can trust you. You'd be a great addition to the alliance if we knew you wouldn't slice us to bits the minute we turned our back."

Parq stayed in his aggressive stance for a moment longer before returning to normal. "How did you know Winnie wouldn't kill you when you took her? I'll submit to whatever test she went through."

"It wasn't a test. Her arms were bound twice and she was always tied either to a tree or to me. She was only untied and given her knives back because she saved my life multiple times. Plus, she's had multiple perfect opportunities to kill me, and she hasn't even tried yet." He paused and turned to me. "And she'd better keep it that way," He added with a growl.

I raised my hands surrender-style. "I’m not the one on trial, here!" I pointed out, a little offended that he had taken the opportunity to scold me for something I hadn't even done when there were much more pressing matters to attend to.

His eyes widened and he turned to Parq again, and I figured he'd realized that I was right. "Basically, unless you're willing to be tied to a tree, give up all your weapons and have your arms bound, then I can't give you the same treatment as Winnie."

Parq furrowed his brow and turned to me. "You let him do that to you?" He said with a grimace, as though he thought I was better than that.

"I was unconscious!" I hissed.

"Still..." He murmured, shaking his head slightly. "I refuse to let you treat me like a dog on a leash. If there's no other way for you to trust me, then I guess we've reached an impasse."

Adri chuckled softly, which seemed to only make Parq angrier. I had gotten used to Adri's habit of laughing when he should have been aggressive, but evidently Parq was more offended. "Are you planning on killing us, then?"

Parq turned to me. "Winnie, do you have any objections to being in an alliance with me?"

An idea sparked in my head. "No, not at all. We were supposed to be in an alliance originally, so it wouldn't change much." I said with an indifferent shrug.

Adri turned to me, a hurt look on his face. I felt bad to hurt him like this -- I hadn't known it would make him so upset. "Winnie..." He said softly, as if pleading me to change my answer.

"You heard her. She doesn’t care which one of us she’s in an alliance with. So, why don't you and I fight to the death? Whoever wins keeps an alliance with her." He jerked his head towards me.

"Why am I so valuable?" I asked, stunned and a little flattered that I was such a valuable ally.

"Because your knife skills are incredible, and evidently so are your abilities with other weapons. You got a score of 11." Parq said.

"So did Adri." I pointed out.

Parq smirked. "Yeah, but he's being an uncooperative ass, so you're the best bet right now."

Adri pulled out his machete. "Shut up. Let's just get this over with." He growled. His jaw was clenched, and something told me he wasn't angry at what Parq had said, but rather at the fact that I'd stabbed him in the back and sided with Parq instead.

Parq smirked. "Fine by me." He drew his sword and took a few running steps toward Adri, who instantly lunged out of the way, realizing that Parq had a huge advantage. A machete versus a sword wasn't exactly a fair fight. Parq could strike from farther away, meaning Adri would have to get right next to Parq in order to kill him, and if he got that close then Parq would kill him anyway.

"What's the matter? Are you scared?" Parq said with a laugh, turning to face Adri.

Adri glowered up at him, his lip twisted in a grimace, but he didn't say anything. Parq's back was to me now, and Adri glared at me over Parq's shoulder. I ignored it and slowly pulled my knives out from their sheaths, trying to silence any sound the blades might make as they scraped out of the sheath. I took a few slow steps toward Parq, muffling my footsteps in the grass.

Parq chuckled. "Look at you. You think you can protect Winnie better than I can? You can't even protect yourself."

Adri noticed the knives in my hand and a small smile spread across his face. "As you'll soon discover, she doesn't need someone else to protect her."

Before Parq had a chance to turn around, I hurled the knives forward, planting one in the back of his head and one in the area near his left kidney. The knife to the brain killed him instantly, and he collapsed forward, impaling himself on his own sword. A cannon blast sounded immediately, and I grimaced at the blood and gore spreading from his body.