Chapter 1: On the run

The sun was rising, cresting over the mountain range and casting a vibrant fiery splash of orange against the dull grey sky. The densely packed trees formed a sea of lush, deep emerald green in the slowly shrinking shadow of the trio of mountains. The soft, steady beat of wings broke through the morning silence. An orange and black shape flew along the air currents, the thick valley forest coming closer and closer with every passing second until the avian cut sharply to the side along the treeline searching for the campsite.

The canopy thinned out, just enough for the compact Fletchinder to dive in and weave between the branches, haste driving his movements, his sharp black gaze frantically searched the forest floor for the familiar clearing. His hurriedness paid off after a few minutes. He curved under the thick bough of the ancient trees and spotted the loosely formed path his fellow refuge had made through the brush.

"Rye!" the bird hissed aloud as he turned down the path, right into the small clearing that had become him and his friend's home for the past couple of hours. A small camp had been constructed there. The embers of the fire still smoldering when his Riolu companion had finally settled down to snatch some sleep while the Ember pokemon had been out trying to hunt some berries to replenishing their dwindling reserves.

"Rye! Get up! They're near here!" he shouted, his wings fluttering as he landed next to the passed out canine. The firebird glanced around quickly and saw that the Riolu wasn't stirring. He was happily sprawled out on the dirt oblivious to the world around him.

"Come on!" The Fletchinder shouted in exasperation. He looked around the clearing, at their meager campsite, in their haste, the duo had missed grabbing most of their supplies, only a rucksack with minimal supplies that the Riolu had been able to grab. He eyed the dozing jackal before inhaling. His beak opening as a dull orange glow formed within his mouth.

Rye's red gaze shot open, a brief but searing pain splashed against his chest, causing the fighting type to yelp. He scrambled to stand, wide bleary-eyed and confused as he frantically looked around for the source. He settled his gaze onto the Fletchinder, his triangular beak still parted with the orange glow emanating from within. Another Ember was prepared in case the first hadn't awakened his fellow fugitive.

"Ryker! Why!?" Rye squeaked while rubbing at his singed fur before pausing. He waved his paw in front of his face trying to dispel the smell. "Why do you keep doing that?" he grunted glanced around the clearing, nothing had changed since he had fallen asleep.

"We gotta move now! They're closing in on us," Ryker said, his wings beating frantically against the air as he settled onto the dirt.

"You sure?" Rye asked tiredly, a low groaning escaping as he sighed. He grabbed the backpack and slung the single shoulder strap of the canvas bag over his shoulder before shaking his head slowly "You wouldn't say anything if you weren't, where at?"

"North of here, maybe an hour if they cut through the thicker foliage, two or three if they follow the trails." He said, raising a yellow wing tip in the general direction. "Saw them when I was searching for food."

Rye sighed, nodding as he kicked dirt onto the smoldering embers of the old fire, he paused realizing he couldn't have closed his eyes for more than half an hour "And we just got settled too. Do you think they're gonna keep chasing us?"

"I don't know, maybe? Who knows how these criminals think?" The bird replied,"Maybe they'll give up if we head deeper into Grassillia, toward the capitol."

"We're getting further from the border with Helios though, Any smart one would have turned back by now, slavery's illegal in this country," Rye said while he shifted the bag, pushing the exposed bit of the map hanging out back inside.

"It is, and we've been running for awhile, maybe they're trying to wipe out any witnesses to the caravan attack?" Ryker speculated before he gave his head a shake. "We've wasted enough time standing around though," He looked over his shoulder before hopping over to stand next to the Riolu "How far is the nearest settlement? Maybe a structured town will scare them off."

"Let me look," Rye said, pulling the map out he gently unrolled it and holding it was a stray beam of sunlight that broke through the treetops. he held it up to the shaft of light and illuminated the sheet of paper. The map was simple, hand-drawn and old, revealing the surrounding areas between the mountains, the vast valley rested on the western edge of the Kingdom of Grassillia, bordered with Pyros to the west and Helios to the south-west. The canine pointed toward a few splotches of ink on the page and grimacing.

"Well?" Ryker's voice cuts into his thought.

"Someone spilled ink ont-" Rye started to complain, but the Fletchinder's beady eye twitched at his words, cutting him off.

"Focus! You can fix the damn thing when we don't have psychos at our backs." The bird said, the irritation in his tone showed. Rye shook his head and nodded "Right, sorry, looks like it's a small village called Tree Peaks."

"Tree Peaks?" Ryker asked in slight confusion, the name rung no bells to the flying type "Ya sure that's it?"

Rye gave the map a second peek, shaking his head "Three Peaks, sorry."

Ryker's head bobbed quickly as he nodded "We've gotta go then, following the trails, we've got maybe three hours before they get here, assuming they follow the same route we did."

"We head off the beaten path then?" Rye asked, looking around, he realized it would be hard to cross through the heavy undergrowth without leaving distinctive evidence of their passing. His companion shook his head, gesturing with his beak toward the south. The trail picked up there, cutting behind a large boulder and out of view.

"We follow the path, as long as we can keep moving we'll keep ahead of them," Ryker responded, flexing his wings before fluttering into the air "But, we have to go now to maintain the lead."

"Right," Rye said, He briefly looked around the clearing, realizing that they had everything they needed already packed into the bag thanks to Ryker's prudence. They'd be able to leave as quickly as they had settled, turning toward the trail, he gave a small nod. "Lead the way."

Ryker nodded, turning toward the trail, he sighed softly, expelling a few embers as he warmed himself up and with one final beat, he took off, his friend starting to jog in order to keep up as they tried to maintain their lead over the attackers.

-000-

Meanwhile, in another part of the same forest, a second group was paused, two pokemon stood on the trail. A third one, a Sandshrew, knelt down examining what looked like a cluster of pawprints that settled in the dust of the path.

"Looks like it could be hers." The Ground-type commented, pulling himself up and turning to be face to face with the large, vibrant rainbow colored beak of the scowling Toucannon. His eyes widened as he felt the heat radiating from the flying-type's beak pulsating mere inches from his muzzle.

"You're not sure?" The Toucannon said quietly, the third figure, a Hawlucha placed his hand on his companion's shoulder, pulling him away from the terrified Sandshrew's face.

"Give him a chance to explain Gen, you know this thief is skilled, she did make off with the Aerial Flute after all, which," He paused, bringing a hand up and clenching his fist tightly, a scowl forming "Is the whole reason we're out."

Gen glowered at his partner's actions, before sucking in a breath and shooting their tracker another glare, his tone dripping with sarcasm "Yes Velo, Which is exactly why the impeccable talent shown by our highly skilled tracker is exasperating."

"Just gimme a second aight? These evolutions got some similar pawprints Could be her, or a passing Leafeon for all I know," The ground type grunted, rubbing his chin as he crouched down, to get a better look.

"It's ok Dale, we'll deal with that if it's the case, but can you lead us to the source of these tracks?" Valos questioned while glancing around, his avian companion shot silent daggers at their choice in a top-notch tracker.

"Looks like whoever it was headed along the trail," Dale said with a self-satisfied grin, Gen's beak opening, the soft glow of embers heating up visible before the mouse pokemon wisely added "North, maybe north-west, in a haste like they were in a hurry."

The Toucannon's beak closed with an audible snap and grunt as he turned in the direction indicated "Good, then we can catch this thief and get back into Avios in a matter of days."

"I'm still getting paid for this, right?" Dale asked after a few moments, he had been hastily recruited to lead the recovery team after the fugitive once the bold theft of one of their country's most treasured relics had been discovered days earlier. Though, if his personal opinion had been asked, the thief had done them all a favor. The flute in question had sat on a pedestal gathering dust for only Arceus knew how long in the museum. It wasn't his place though, bringing up questions like that also brought up attention, attention Dale had long discovered best left diverted onto those who cared about the limelight, not a simple bookshop keeper like himself.

"When we catch her, yes." Valos replied, nodding toward his partner and then gesturing toward the path "Lead the way Dale, we'll handle any trouble that crops up."

"What about Exploration teams?" Dale said, pausing to grab his bag of supplies off of the forest floor.

"What about them?" Gen grunted, his dark blue eyes narrowing.

"Well, what if we bump into any of erm Grassillian ones?" the Sandshrew asked while adjusting the strap of his bag.

"We'll talk to them and explain why we're here," Valos said with a shrug.

"So their guilds don't even know a rival country's team is in their borders?" Dale commented, rubbing his chin and shaking his head before sighing softly.

"No, and if our exceptionally skilled tracker could lead us to the thief any quicker, I'm sure the local teams will never even notice our presence."

"Fine, fine, no need ta be as prickly as a Cacturne bout it," Dale said quietly, crossing his arms before beckoning them along, he could feel the uptight bird's glare burrowing into the back of his shell as they started off. He muttered, "I didn't ask ta be dragged outta my warm bed and flown halfway across the country anyways."

"I didn't hear you complaining when the Guildmaster offered thrice your usual rate either." Gen countered as he hopped along behind the Sandshrew. The Hawlucha brought his hand up to his face, rubbing his beak, giving up on trying to keep the two from bickering.

"I didn't even know what ta word meant till he explained it either."

"Means thrice the headache for a third of the work." The Cannon Pokemon grumbled, his eyes shifting toward the ground. The paw print trail they were following was occasionally flanked on either side by small, random pairs of marks. "What's this?" he said, gesturing toward the marks, causing Dale to raise an eyebrow in utter confusion.

The armadillo knelt down, he poked at the faint marks, they vaguely resemble a Y bit with a third prong in the center. Rubbing his chin, the tracker was utterly baffled by the oddity. "No clue, Don't think it's important though, her prints are getting heavier, she gotta be tiring out soon, we shouldn't be too much farther from your quarry."

"Good, I want out of this damn forest and back under open skies," Gen said while looking up toward the thick tightly woven canopy of the forest, longing to see the vast expanse of blue surrendering him instead of this...unnatural closeness to the soil under his talons.

-000-

"You think the others from the caravan got away?"

Ryker froze when the question came out of nowhere. The duo had been traveling further south and south-east for the past hour, Rye's panting revealing the canine pokemon's exhaustion was starting to take its toll. He looked over his shoulder to the Riolu, before glancing around them. He spotted a break in the dense undergrowth and hopped toward it, before brushing the ferns aside with his wing "Come on, let's rest here."

Rye didn't argue with the Fletchinder, he followed through the ferns and dropped down onto the soft grass, he kept the bag on, in case they ended up having to leave quickly once more. After Ryker settled down he repeated his question.

Ryker looked toward the nearby trees and then the grass, before turning toward Rye, A grimace formed on his face as he gave his head a shake "I don't know Rye, I wanna say yes, but you saw how overwhelming their forces were, it's like they were waiting for us."

"Yea…..you don't think one of the other guards...betrayed us do you?" Rye asked, swallowing nervously, he didn't want to believe it but it seemed likely. The pay that had been offered had been pretty good, and the caravan owner, a Simisage merchant had given each group that accepted half of their promised payment up front. Which for him and Ryker had been two hundred and fifty gold coins, more than they would have made in months of doing any similar work?

"Considering it's mostly a lawless country where backstabbing is done for profit is far more often than an honest day's work, it's likely," Ryker responded his head turning toward the ferns. He saw the look on his friend's face, he wanted to say something, anything that could give the Riolu some peace of mind, but it had been a rather grim situation.

"If anything, I'm sure that Blastoise and Grovyle survived, they seemed like seasoned veterans," Rye said after a few moments.

Ryker bobbed his head in silent agreement, out of all the guards, those two did seem to have the most experience. There was a small twinge of regret, he had done little to socialize with the other guards during the three-day trip. The two's focus had been solely on completing the job and getting the coin so that they'd have some funds when they did eventually enter Grassillia. Entering like this, on the run with what seemed like an entire score of murders and cutthroats breathing down their necks hadn't been foreseen by either of them.

"You hungry? We've got some berries left." The fighting type said, digging through the bag before sighing, he pulled out two apples that were fairly bruised, battered and starting to brown. "We'll need to get more soon," he commented, doing a quick check on the rest of their dwindling food supply. Only a couple of wrinkling Oran berries and a single Pecha berry remained in their stash.

"Yea might as well enjoy them while we can," Ryker commented, hopping the short distance between the two of them and grasping the offered fruit with his talons. He pecked at it to tear a chunk off. The moment the bitter fruit touched his tongue, the bird's eyes screwed up. The taste was bitter and sour, it spread across his taste buds like a wildfire, causing him to gag and spit it out.

"Er…..guess it looked better than it tasted?' Rye said hesitantly looking down at his own apple, before sitting it to the side "Maybe after we find fresher."

"Yea," Ryker said hoarsely after shaking his head vigorously, trying to get rid of the taste. Once it was gone, he scowled, eying the jackal pokemon "We're gonna get out of this Rye, They won't find us this deep in."

Rye nodded, grinning in turn before biting into the bitter tasting apple and pausing to shudder. "Blah, it's bad but...oh well," he said, bracing himself before going to finish his brief meal. Once he was done, he leaned back, pressing his paws into the dirt behind him and reclining "Where are we going to go after we get away from these slavers?"

"I was thinking the capital, Kios, the Exploration Guild is based there, A good line of work for us," Ryker replied. Glancing back toward the path that sat mere feet away, behind a veil of ferns, their only real cover. "We should head on, Don't want to give them any more time to catch up then we have to."

Rye nodded, reluctant to leave the soft grass but he knew Ryker was right. The longer they stayed in place, the more they risked being found. Unfortunately, they hadn't realized that it was already too late. Once he stepped onto the trail, Rye ducked frantically, his split-second reaction to the towering column of fire that spewed overhead, Ryker's startled squawk filling the air.

Rye turned quickly, watching as Ryker fell to the floor, more out of shock than anything else. He landed with a soft thump on the grass. The Riolu grabbed his friend's leg unceremoniously and dragged him behind a nearby rock before closing his eyes, trying to listen and feel. He could sense the aura of at least two attackers nearby

"We know you're in there thief!" A voice shouted, gruff, impatient and irritable.

"Just come out and give up and things will go easy on you," The second said the tone sounded far more reasonable than the first.

He didn't get it, thieves? How in Arceus's name did being accused of theft come into the mix? Had one of the other guards decided to accuse them in order to get their share of the payment. It seemed likely and smelled exactly like Heliosian politics.

Ryker groaned softly. His head shaking as he came out of his daze. "What's going on?" he hissed, pulling himself to his feet, crouching down next to Rye, catching some of the rather bizarre sounding dialogue.

"Wait, I don't think that's an Umbreon's track…." A third voice cuts into the mix. A very audible angry squeak was heard, followed by a resounding smack and squeak.

"Thick headed incompetent imbecile!"

There was another loud smack followed by protests.

"Hey now! No need ta get violent!"

"Enough you two!" the second voice cut in, Slowly Ryker peered around the rock's edge. The sight before him would have caused him to laugh had he not been so confused. A Hawlucha stood between a very irate Toucannon, his beak was drawn back, and a cowering Sandshrew who carried a look of absolute terror on his face. It started to become evident that this trio wasn't slavers.

"Er….." Rye said, speechless as he slowly rose up to watch the spectacle as well. "Should we leave?" he asked, baffled.

As soon as the words left his lips, the trio happened to look their way, each making eye contact and straightening themselves up. The Hawlucha stepped forward, A grimace twisting the corners of his beak.

"Apologies for attacking you two, we had you mixed up with someone else." He said, before getting cut off by Gen.

"One of us is sadly unable to determine the difference between Arceus's own footprint and a Diglett's." the tropical bird grunts, shooting the mouse pokemon a steady glare.

"Hey now!" Dale said in his own defense "Digletts don't got footprints."

"Exactly." Gen grunts, Velos groaned softly, bringing his hand up to his face.

"Enough you two." He said, turning his attention back to the duo, both of whom's eyebrows were raised in disbelief at what they were hearing. "Again, I'm sorry that we attacked you, have either of you seen an Umbreon fleeing past her? She's a dangerous fugitive that we've been dispatched to catch."

"No," Rye said, giving his head a shake, adjusting the strap on the backpack, so they were explorers then, that was a relief, at least with that team around, as strange as they were, they stood a better chance should they encounter the slavers.

"Unfortunately no, but we were actually hoping to bump into one of your teams, there are slavers in the area." Ryker said, glancing around wearily "We were hoping to seek refuge in Kios."

"Kios, this country's capital?" The Hawlucha said, unsure, he had done little to learn about the countries surrounding his own. "We're Aviosian, I'm Velos, the glaring one is Gen and our tracker here is Dale."

"Yep," Dale said, grinning as he gave a small wave, Gen glared, as usual.

"Avios? That's on the ot-" Ryker got cut off as a massive ball of fire spewed from between the nearby trees.

"Oh come on!" Rye yelled as the five turned around. The heavy rhythmic beating of wings filled the air. Looking up, the Riolu spotted a gap in the trees, quickly filled by the dull glimmer of orange scales. The Charizard, battle-scarred and scowling landed with a heavy thud. A Bisharp and Grovyle quickly appeared from between the flying type's wings.

"That's the last of them." The grass type said, gesturing toward Rye and Ryker "They were with the other caravan guards."

"It was you!" Rye said, pointing an accusing digit at the former guard "You caused all of this."

"Yea." The Grovyle said, giving a shrug of indifference "Coin's too good to let urchins like you get it, and far too easy picking to pass up on."

"Catch them and kill the ground type." The Charizard said, he opened his mouth, smoke rising from his curled lips as the group took a step back.

"Come on now, there's no need for that." The Sandshrew said, taking an extra step back before pausing. There was heat licking at his back, creaking and crackling as the ancient tree that was in the field of fire from the first blast had hit ignited. He looked over his shoulder, the moss-laden tree had ignited with ease, the deadly crimson and orange flames were starting to spread from tree to tree.

"RUN!" Someone shouted, the Sandshrew wasn't sure what was going on now, a paw grabbed his shoulder, shoving him into the nearby brush. Someone screamed, there were flames everywhere, the heat and smoke rising as the sound of combat started.

It was the Riolu, he realized, getting a good look at the blue fur before being forced to blink the stinging smoke away. "Come on!" the canine said, waving a paw toward him. The ground type didn't need any more prompting. He nodded, following after the Riolu, catching sight of the Fletchinder's black and white tipped tail feathers as he disappeared into the smoke.

Hey guys! Dark Bloodclaw here, I'm slowly but surely getting back into the swing of things on here please feel free to leave a review, I'm looking to sharpen my writing skills and the feedback from those that read the chapters are always appreciated.