Well, no one reviewed for two days, so I'll post up the next chapter anyway.
Show some gratitude, I gave up homework time for this. I knew I could've waited, but I was sick of dividing mixed fractions. Don't point out anything about the length, it wasn't meant to be a novel. To me, the chapter is gigantic. To some of you, it's a shrimp. If I don't satisfy you, tell me why.
Oh, and don't thank me for PMs. That's what I supposed to do if you're a on the list. That means you, Chareon! ^^
Now onward!
.:~*Chapter Two*~:.
I was well enough aware that I had no destination, food, or water with an entire army on my tail. Why did they have to go after me? I was innocent, and I was just the daughter of their enemy. What did I have that they want?
And I really hated the wild. Loads of pests like mosquitoes and Rattatas, one even tore my dress, lots of mud, long hot days, and long chilly nights. The rough terrain left gashes in my feet and there was not one comfortable spot not taken by a Pokemon, so I slept on hard ground and woke up groggy. Why did they have to go after me? What do they want from me?
I glared at my wiggly reflection in the rushing river. The mirror told me, but I knew already, I just had to realize it. Maybe it had to do with my birthmark. But if my mark was something special, like it gave me powers, I would've known in the last fourteen years of my life.
If it was the birthmark that forced me to flee and suffer, I couldn't do anything about it. What could I do, carve it out of my head?
I cupped my hands and splashed water onto my face. So it wasn't a stain. That was obvious anyway, because I had it since birth. They don't call it a birthmark for nothing.
-One Mile Away-
-Enter Vaporeon's POV-
There was no other better place for a home than near a lake under the mountains, with plenty of prey and soft grass to rest in, wide open spaces without a dirty human disturbing us.
This was my home, my place to be.
Recently some cute Jolteon wandered near our group, and he was injured. We let him rest and heal, and he became a family member. I felt the empty gap inside me melt together and fold up. This newcomer closed up the hole that represented my lack of family. I was a loner and outsider.
I took a closer look at him from behind a patch of long grass that reached to the sun in thin, wavy fibers.
His fur lashed out in sharp spikes, like the rays of the sun on a summer day in the desert. His chin was sharp and his cheeks made his face look almost like the shape of a heart. His eyes were big and shiny. If you saw the sun reflected in it, you would be blinded. His paws weren't very big and his legs not too short. They were thin and long. His ear was torn, but to the older Pokemon they thought it meant toughness and strength. To me it meant ragged flesh.
When he first staggered into our territory, his fur drooped and he limped slowly. His ear was torn. Now he ran like lightning, darting here and there is less than a blink of an eye.
Weirdly enough, he was very quiet and often very cold. He did not seem to like to socialize, and when anyone tries to make friendly and casual everyday conversation with him, his eyes would give a steely glint and he would shrug them off. I haven't tried yet; no one has interest in speaking to a juvenile Vaporeon.
-Back to Tsuki's POV-
Where would I go now? I needed to hide somewhere until I could regain power. Or at least get a life. I couldn't run from a bunch of men forever. The sun was setting near the mountains. Should I head west, hoping to stumble upon a civilization? Or should I flee north until I reach the village Mura? Mura was a safe, peaceful village that wasn't under my father's rule. They couldn't care less about his daughter.
But I knew nothing of the west. Heading south or east would get me easily caught by the soldiers.
The sun had disappeared from the horizon, and the stars shone at their full glory with the full moon. The field exploded with cream-colored flowers.
I had never seen anything as marvelous as this, having been cooped up in the castle my whole life. The flowers were so beautiful, that they even looked...appetizing.
I knew that I was famished, but what I didn't know was that...
Are these flowers...edible?
I didn't necessarily think that people would eat flowers, I never heard of such nonsense, but with an empty stomach, no food, and a field of flowers that made your mouth water, what was the harm in eating a flower?
I plucked a couple of flowers from their stems. The petals were cool and soft on my hands, almost as if they were magical. I opened my mouth and the wind blew a petal in. I didn't want to taste it, so I tried swallowing it immediately. My tongue sensed its awful bitterness, forcing it out of my throat. Was it possibly poisonous?
Too late. I could feel it tickling my insides as it was squeezed down. My head went dizzy. I didn't want to die! The world around me became blurry and then sharper and brighter than before, but at the same time, I felt myself shrinking. I felt my body slip to the ground into sleep. The last thing I saw was the moon. I tried to reach up to it for help.
-Enter Vaporeon's POV-
"Mizu!" My friend, Pinku, an Espeon, said to me. "You wanna hunt together?"
I nodded happily. I couldn't wait to fill my stomach! What would I catch today? An easy Rattata, or a ferocious Spearow? I grinned at Pinku. She was faster and stronger than me, but she always let me have a bit of her latest prey, no matter how hard it was to catch. The harder the prey, the better tasting they are. Last time I had a few nibbles of Swablu. Swablu were slow, but they were very hard to find. You probably had to shimmy up a tree to catch one, but by the time you did, they were gone with the morning breeze.
Swablu was soft and tender, and sweet juice leaked out when you bit into it. Pinku said it tasted like canned tuna to her, but I didn't know what candy toe-na was, so I shrugged.
Pinku and I talked on our way to the Field of Night Flowers, which by day, was a great spot for prey. The grass provided a place for us to hide so we could sneak on our prey and it hid us from poachers. We were forbidden to enter the area at night. My mother told my sisters and I that there drifted a curse. That was enough for my little Eevee sisters. But not for me. I still avoided it after sundown, because I loved to be known as the Vaporeon who never disobeyed a rule. I had a reputation to uphold.
"Did you hear about the new fellow?" I asked, although I knew Pinku must have.
"Oh, yes I did. He's such a hot Jolteon! You can't find, like, Jolteon hotter than him in these areas? He's got, like, that fur, and like, those eyes! All my friends went ga-ga for him, including me!" She snorted.
"Well, does he have a name?" I said. I didn't think he was hot. Maybe because my hormones didn't take over yet. I was the shrimp of the pack. And the only one not into males.
"His name is Ryu!" she squealed. I rolled my eyes. That was what I expected of Pinku. If she saw a Pidgey she would squeal and exclaim and examine all over it. I could picture the surprised expression on the poor bird's face.
She ran laughing in front of me and then I saw her large ears sway as she suddenly stopped. I ran to her. "Pinku, is something wrong?"
My eyes met the answer before I even asked the question.
There was an Umbreon lying on the ground. Her chest rose and fell as she breathed and the pained look on her silent face told me that whatever she went through wasn't pleasant. However, the ring on her forehead was in the shape of a crescent moon. She must be unusual. Pinku nervously nudged her. No sign of consciousness.
"She must be a loner," Pinku said. I nodded in agreement. Her smell was unfamiliar. I realized that her smell was...blank. It didn't tell me her history or what she had encountered recently. It merely told me she was female, and about Ryu's age.
"Should we take her back?"
I shrugged.
Pinku narrowed her eyes. I followed the purple mystery of it and at the same time, we noticed a gash in her leg. Pinku jumped and sniffed around the area. "Hm, it's a Rattata bite. It'll get infected if we don't bring her back."
"But we came here for hunting!" I whined.
"Never mind, Mizu, we have to get her back!"
I shrunk, ashamed of my selfishness. I helped to drag her over the hill and into our territory. The sun was jagged behind the bumpy silhouette of the horizon. I was relieved that we made it home before the night sky shown at full glory. My stomach rumbled as we pushed and pulled her back to camp.
The pack leader, Takibi, glared at us as we appeared on the top of the hill. She was a radiant and fierce Flareon who many respected. When darkness passed over the sky like a wave, her fire shown like a bonfire, raging and glowing with lashing, hot tongues, yet the grass never burned.
"Why are you late, children?" she asked.
"Your Majesty," Pinku and I said simultaneously as we lowered ourselves to the ground.
Takibi snorted. "Please don't do that, it scares me."
We bolted upright and tried casually, "We won't."
I didn't know until now that Takibi was no older than Pinku. She was merely the niece of our former and deceased leader: Hoshi.
Hoshi didn't evolve because of her pride of being a discolored Eevee. Her coat was pure silver and white, and she took a lot of care to see to that she was strong for a leader yet that she never evolved. Enemies often tried to thwart her by chucking evolution stones at her, but they always missed and were punished.
"What was it that delayed you?" she questioned.
"We found an injured outsider. An Umbreon with an unusual ring on the forehead and a moderately deep bite from a Rattata," Pinku reported like a soldier.
Takibi's eyes scanned the body and screeched for Sada, the one in charge of medicine.
Unlike everyone else, Sada was a young yet experienced wild Blissey who was in charge of health and healing. She was undersized for her species, but underestimated much too often. She had master health-replenishing powers that made defeating her very hard, and her power was unusual. A quick jab with the foot in the side from her could send a Steelix rolling down a hill.
Her tiny feet practically flew her to the top of the field. Her speech came in either short bursts or quick speaking. "Yes m'am, yes m'am, coming righ' now, m'am," she gasped.
"Sada, could you please bring this outsider Umbreon to the Mother Sycamore?" Takibi requested. Her face seemed to strain to stay straight.
It seemed as if one was calling for another, and then another calling for others, for Sada curtsied, said a ,"right away, m'am," and screeched for the emergency team.
My ears twitched, and I grimaced. I could feel all three of them quiver. Must they keep yelling for each other? I glanced at Pinku. She didn't seem comfortable at all either. The same look was on Takibi. No one could screech louder than Sada.
A bunch of neighborly Butterfree and Beedrill carried a silken net woven by a Spinarak. They looked prepared every second of it. Humph, well they didn't really have acute hearing, to my tiny understanding of insects.
Sada was quite powerful for her size. She dragged the Umbreon onto the net. The bugs seemed to dip and rise with the new and sudden weight. They became minute dots in the distance as they approached the Mother Sycamore.
The Mother Sycamore was enormous. It towered over the other trees, yet never has a single danger come near it, providing protection for us and the other trees. It was almost as if there was a protective barrier or wall around our home.
The Mother Sycamore was also hollow, providing shelter as a hospital for the injured and ill. Inside it smelled of honey, and Volbeat and Illumise take shifts to provide light for the inside at night, when the sun couldn't glow through the windows. There was a lobby with no real solid ceiling. Their were stairs on the sides let spiraled up as they led to the hospital rooms. Because railing for the stairs didn't exist, spider Pokemon spent weeks weaving a net on every floor that was strong, not sticky, and could catch a Caterpie without it slipping through. They were built to prevent any falls from the stairs. The ceiling was a bunch of leaves, so when it rained, it was suggested you bring an extra large leaf-rain-shader. Pinku said humans called their strange leaf-rain-shaders "umbrellas." I never heard of more ridiculous names.
"Mizu," Pinku said softly. "We should go back to the den now. We'll see her tomorrow."
I nodded. The moon hid behind the clouds tonight. I prayed that tomorrow, the Umbreon would be up and about.
.:~*End of Chapter Two*~:.
Six pages! That almost made my record.
