E/N: This is a pokemon hybrid fic. If you don't like hybrid fics, don't read this.

Jaru looked around, almost guiltily, to check that his mum wasn't coming. The toaster wasn't working again, so he took out the bread and, after another glance, blew a quick Dragonbreath on it.

The bread responded by catching fire. Jaru swore and tried to smother it out on the kitchen work surface, his hands cutting off the fire's oxygen. Finally the burning stopped, but there was a massive black mark on the surface. Jaru gulped. His mum would kill him.

"Jar, what have I told you about using attacks on food?" Lilla asked, arms folded.

Jaru dropped the toast, petrified, and looked up. His mother was standing behind him, her red eyes boring into his own.

"The toaster wasn't working," he said lamely.

Lilla leaned over and pushed the toaster plug into its socket, flicking it on. "Try now," she said.

Jaru, head down, picked up a fresh piece of bread and slid it into the toaster, while his mum picked up the charred piece. "I've told you before, Jaru, never use anything like that-"

Jaru was saved from a lecture by his dad arriving in the kitchen. "Hey, Jar," he said, and Jaru escaped by slipping away, where his dad gave him a quick hug. Everyone hugged everyone in Olsaw. It showed a friendly community.

"Greth, I'm trying to drill your son."

"Oh, right." Greth scratched his neck awkwardly. "Er.. what'd he do?"

"Set fire to his breakfast," Lilla answered.

"Yeah, well. Don't," Greth said haltingly, and before he could say anything else, Jaru's older sister appeared to join them. Jaru couldn't bear Estelle. She'd just evolved on her sixteenth birthday, last week, and was always showing off with those wings of hers. She was bad before, but now she was even worse. Lilla's tone softened at once. Jaru rather thought that she preferred her to him.

"Sorry, mum, I've got to fly. Ranon says he'll get me this job if I get there fast enough."

Lilla walked across and gave her daughter a hug. "You're such a good girl," she told her. Jaru rolled his eyes.

"And what are you doing today, Grunt?" Estelle asked Jaru.

He scowled. "Like you care."

"Getting with that loser group of yours again?"

"We're not-" Jaru started, but Estelle had already left. Lilla seemed to have forgotten the earlier incident, so he grabbed his breakfast from the toaster and slipped out the front door.

To his surprise, Tuftee was waiting at the gate for him. Tuftee wasn't his real name. It was Turk originally, but everyone changed it because he was always so soft. Either that or Turkish Delight. His mother was an espeon hybrid, and his father a jolteon, but Tuftee hadn't decided what he wanted to evolve into yet.

Tuftee himself had pale brown hair, with two typical eevee ears poking through. His skin was covered in the same tan fur, and he had a tail to match. Usually, fur this pale classified the runt of the litter, but since it was only noticeable when he was standing with his three older brothers and sister, nobody payed much attention.

Jaru was a trapinch hybrid, and was always hoping for his mum to praise him in some way, to be proud of him. He thought that prehaps he was his dad's favourite, but he always felt a bit left out when his mum admired Estelle so much. He could barely wait until he could evolve into a vibrava hybrid like Estelle, and could show her how good he was.

But for now he even looked boring, withthick brown skin. The only thing he found remotely interesting about him were the two spikes hanging down from his upper lip like canines on dogs.

Olsaw was quite a large town, north some way from Olivine in Johto. It was the only town completely inhabited by pokehybrids, and very few humans knew about it. It did not appear on any maps, and that was how the Olsaw residents preferred it- to be left alone.

For today, Jaru, Tuftee and possibly Kret would be wandering round together. They might meet Kret in the park, or he would be at one of those fighting classes of his. His parents insited on taking him and his brothers to these classes, where they learnt to harness the full potential of their fighting skills in times of need. Jaru had never been to a class, but didn't mind; he was was happy to be born with the move Dragonbreath- he could blow a flame up to ten feet high when in a competition. Second in the school; to Estelle, of course. Even though she didn't have time for 'games' like that any more, her record stood strong. Fifteen feet.

Jaru waved at Tuftee, grabbed his bike and shoved his toast into his mouth, before riding off after him. Both boys were thirteen, as well at Kret, who was a houndour hybrid. Kret was a good friend and was stereotypically loyal, but he had a really bad temper, and lost it easily. He was suspended from school a few years ago for breaking the leg of a hybrid two years above him. Apparently, the pidgeotto-hybrid had told him that he was "puny".

Kret had calmed down since then, and when he wasn't fighting, he was pretty good fun and could make anyone laugh if he was in the mood. Jaru was the oldest, but looking at all of them together, you wouldn't think that. Tuftee was tallest, but had a smile that made him look around seven.

The two boys halted at the park, Jaru digging his heels in so that gravel flew up on both sides. One of Tuftee's ears pricked up as he listened, and dismounted.

"Can you hear that?" he asked.

"No," Jaru replied, unworried. "It's probably just-"

A black and silver blur shot out of the nearby rhododendron bush and jumped on Tuftee. He yelled and fought back, scratching and hissing at it.

"-Kret," he finished.

Kret stood up and laughed, shaking imaginary dust of his hands. He had black hair that matched his face, arms and legs. On his muzzle, neck and chest the fur was blood-red, and under his chin could be seen his pack tattoo. He enjoyed showing it off, even though every dog-hybrid family had their own tattoo given to the pups when they were ten days old. The males recieved another at twenty-one, and the females at eighteen.

Tuftee stood up, slightly agitated , flattening his hair that always stuck out anyway. "Don't do that."

If anyone else had said that, Kret probably would have hit them, but he knew that Tuftee was joking, so just laughed, showing teeth. "Make me."

The eevee-hybrid shook his head. "You'll flatten me."

Kret laughed again, probably because it was true. Jaru got off his bike. "What do you want to do today?" he asked.

"Dunno. Just mess around. I've got the day off."

Tuftee stared at him. "You make it sound like you're in the army or something."

Hybrids were, as a rule, peace-loving beings most of the time, but there were some exceptions, like with Kret and the pidgeotto-hybrid. When the hybrids had first been free to live alone from humans, they were quiet and respectful to each other. However, this generation of hybrids and some before it had not live through the phase of violence, so had no respect for peace. For them, this comfortable life came easily and without bother.

"You never know," Kret said. "Anything might happen."

Kret seemed to be living in a worl where any moment, war would be upon them. He seemed to think that it would be hybrids against humans, so they'd have to be prepared. Oslaw's entrance was hidden by a large cave, and the city itself was in a canyon. Few hybrids had reason to leave. Kret, like many hybrids of this generation, had never seem a human- many stories had been spreading around, such as ones that claimed humans were ten feet tall, could breathe and spit blood, or could kill a hybrid by looking at them.

Jaru rolled his eyes. "You want to go to the lake?"

Kret nodded. "I've nothing better to do." He looked around. "You both on bikes?"

Tuftee nodded. "You going to run there again?"

Another nod. "Bet I can beat you this time."

"You only win because you use Agility."

"So? You're just pedalling. On your marks..."

"Go," Jaru said, having jumped on his bike. He pushed off and flicked up a few gears. Kret was already in front, but Jaru knew there was a hill in front of them. Behind them, he could hear Tuftee's bike screech into action.

Jaru won smoothly to his surprise, with Kret finishing a close second. He was always boasting about how fast he could run, and never bothered to hide it. As they waited for Tuftee, he sat down heavily, panting.

Tuftee suddenly squealed to a halt next to them. "Bike of a draih," he cursed, dismounting. "The stupid thing's chain had fallen off."

"Maybe you need a new one," Jaru suggested.

He shrugged. "It's all right for you, but since I've got four brothers and a sister, my parents can't really afford to buy us new stuff all the time."

Jaru couldn't think of an answer. It was natural instinct for hybrids whose pokemon counterpieces had large amounts of offspring to do the same. Dragon families like his usually only had a maximum of two children. Kret had a large family too, but he never said anything about it.

"So what are we going to do here?" he asked, standing up and stretching his arms.

"Don't know. Not much to do here."

"Not much to do anywhere," Kret corrected him. "Draih's sake, I want to leave here."

Tuftee spoke up. "What would you find out there?"

He shrugged. "What would I find here?"

"Aren't you scared of the humans?"

He snorted. "I can take them on. Those stories, they're not true."

Jaru had tied his bike to the nearest tree while they were talking, and now gazed out over the water. It was a big lake, taking up around a quarter of Oslaw canyon. The council were talking on building houses over it, since the hybrid numbers were increasing, but Jaru hoped they didn't. He liked coming here; it was peaceful and made a change from bricks and concrete.

Kret and Tuftee seemed to have finished their debate, and joined their friend. "What're you looking at?" Tuftee asked.

Kret threw a stone at the water, watching it skim twice before sinking. "It's nice here, but too cramped."

"You can leave if you want," Jaru said. "I love it here."

"Typical," Kret sighed, shaking his head. "You'll be grounded all your life, stuck here." He looked at Jaru in an odd but hard way. "Don't tell me you've never wanted to know what's out there."

Jaru shook his head. "Once I can fly, I can go anywhere."

Tuftee said nothing, but gazing over the water himself, ear twitching. "Can you see something?"

"What?" Kret turned back to the water. "No."

"Not on the water," Tuftee said. "There, over the other side."

"Well, I haven't got your famous eyesight," Jaru said, looking away.

Kret, however, seemed to have found the offending distraction. "I see something. So what? It's probably just someone mucking about."

Tuftee shook his head. "The wind blew this way, and I caught a whiff of something that wasn't hybrid."

"What then?" Jaru asked. Tuftee shook his head.

"I don't know. But I've never smelt anything like it before."

"Let's go," Kret said, slipping into the trees that borded the lake. After some hesitation, the other two followed. The trees were quite thick, although most of the outside were borded by rock or buildings.

When Jaru and Tuftee broke through into the clearing they'd seen from the other side, the first thing they saw was a man. Not just any man though. A human man. He had his back to them, but Jaru was terrified anyway. The second thing they saw was Kret, crouched down behind a shrub, motioning furiously for them to get down.

Tuftee immediatly dived down beside the houndour hybrid, but Jaru was still frozen, afraid that the man would turn around at any moment. "Get down, you draih!" Kret was hissing.

Suddenly, Jaru came back to his senses and made towards the hiding-place, but the man had turned around, staring his terror off all over again.

The man didn't seem worried at Jaru being there. In fact, he seemed overly pleased; he was smiling anyway. Jaru had a gut feeling that this man wasn't a friendly one. If he got here, he wouldn't be. No humans were allowed here- legally. But how did he get here? There was a van in this clearing, too, so he couldn't have flown. Whatever he was doing, it was bad, and Jaru felt he suddenly knew why this man was so happy.

He had a sawn-off shotgun, and was pointing it at Jaru's chest.

E/N: A bit dramatic, I know. Still, there will be quite a bit of violence in this fanfiction. Anyway, two more things: if anyone wants to know why Tuftee's number of siblings has changed, it's because one of them has evolved, so doesn't count as an eevee. Unimportant, I know.

I use draih as a swearword, in case you haven't guessed. It's slang for a trained pokemon, and used as an insult, back when trained pokemon were thought to be slaves by the wild ones.

Another note: I corrected the whole "toast" issue Dannichu pointed out XD