Chapter 1: Arrival from Beyond the Trees

"Sun is shining in the sky,

There ain't a cloud in sight…"

"Mmm?"

He stirred, the sound of the music signalling the morning. He opened his eyes slowly, sitting up and yawning. "Ugh… just a few more minutes, Mr. Blue Sky." He groggily picked up the little device next to him and tapped the screen with his red clawed finger, snoozing his alarm. "Thank you…" he said, falling back onto his back and the huge amount of red hair underneath him. He was already beginning to peacefully doze off again, laying on his side.

But not for long.

"NIYARI, WAKE UP!" a small creature who had barged in shouted.

"Ah, geez!" the boy jumped, flopping over onto his back and jumping to his feet. When he noticed the little fox-like Pokémon at the open door he growled at him, looking rather cross. "Yami, what gives? I just needed five more minutes."

Yami, a young Zorua, took a defiant stance. "We don't have time for that, bro! Someone in the village needs our help!"

"Nine in the morning and it's already hero time?" Niyari groaned, stretching out and yawning again. He felt his stomach rumbling, making him put a hand to his hairless lower torso. "Couldn't people wait until after breakfast to get into trouble?"

"Very funny," Yami said, rolling his eyes. "I'm sure mom will give you breakfast right after this job is done."

"I hope so…" Niyari said. He went to the corner of the room and grabbed a leather knapsack full of various adventuring supplies. He tossed it to Yami, who snapped it out of the air and flung it over his back. "So, who's in trouble today?"

"Lola's son got lost in the woods again. Ran off following this weird light according to Watcher," Yami explained, leading Niyari out of the bedroom and into the main room of the small hut they lived in.

A Zoroark sat a table in the corner. She looked at both the tall Zoroark-human hybrid and the small Zorua and tilted her head. "You both heading out?" she said over the mental link that she had with them.

This was no surprise to the brothers. They knew that it was difficult for their mother to naturally speak. "Yeah mom," Yami said. "Duty calls after all."

"I'm seriously starving though," Niyari complained, his stomach following suit and quite loudly.

The female Zoroark giggled. "I'll have something ready for you when you get back, don't you worry Niyari."

"Sweet!" Niyari cheered, bounding out the door with new energy. This prompted a facepaw from Yami and another laugh from their mother. "Come on Yami, what are you waiting for?"

Yami sighed and followed, leaving the small house and closing the door behind him. Their mother smiled, knowing they'd be able to pull of the job.

"Niyari… how thankful we are to have someone like you right here in this village," the middle-aged Zoroark said to herself. She closed her eyes, remembering the night when that amazing thing happened. It was a little more than a year ago…

One Year Ago...

The rain beat down on her back as she ran through the woods, the Zoroark trying desperately to escape the people she knew were behind her. "Even though I'm not really who they are after…" she thought, her paws pounding against the mud.

She made a turn up ahead down a familiar path. She could hear the very distant yelling of humans, probably searching for the escapees of that huge building from must have been hours ago that she witnessed the building go up in flames. She had been running ever since. "Almost there…"

She knew her choice was correct when she saw the pathway leading to an abandoned looking mobile trailer. The small clearing ahead looked like a dead end, but something didn't look right. There was a strange distortion in the dead end ahead, making the Zoroark panic. "No… someone found us!?" With a swipe of her claw the illusion dissipated, leaving a much bigger clearing in the place of the dead end. That was when she saw it. "What in the world...?"

There, at the source of the distortion in the illusion, was a human boy laying in the mud. "Oh my… is this…" She cautiously approached the boy, looking him over. He was unconscious but he seemed to be breathing despite how unhealthy and malnourished he looked. He had long red hair that sort of resembled a Zoroark's signature look.

Given his size and his body type, the Zoroark guessed he was a teenager. There was a mangled piece of metal right next to his head that sort of looked like a collar. The Zoroark remembered seeing other human looking shapes running away from the building earlier that night.

"You must have been one of them…" She looked over her shoulder, the voices still audible. She didn't know exactly what she was going to do, but she knew that she couldn't let this child be captured by those people.

She picked up the human or at least tried to, dragging him into the large clearing by hoisting his torso onto her back. So many questions were running through her head. "But you're just a human… how were you able to disrupt the illusion?" she asked, not expecting to get an answer. Strangely enough an answer did come, just not from a direct reply.

She began to feel a change, the familiar sensation of fur brushing against fur. "What's happening?" She didn't have to time stop and look; she had to get to her destination before she could even think about dealing with this boy. She struggled against the weight of the boy and her own fatigue, the final stretch of the path visible in the open clearing. She made sure to reapply the illusion over the area just in case the men from before stumbled upon the clearing.

Step by step she stumbled down the trail, grunting and groaning but never stopping her advance. Finally she saw a gate at the end of the path making her sigh in relief.

A Skarmory sitting atop a post next to the gate looked down at the Zoroark with wide eyes. "Ah! You've returned!" he said in a low, deep voice, gliding down to her. He looked her with growing concern after he landed. "What happened? And… who is this?" The Skarmory focused on the boy and took a step back. He was spooked, something the Zoroark noticed and was disturbed by.

"It's a boy... I found him near the secret entrance…" the Zoroark said, lowering the boy to the ground carefully. "Watcher, he looked really…" It was then that she noticed how strange the boy looked. He had changed in just a matter of moments. He had grey and black hair covering certain parts of his body, but skin was still showing in some places. His hair was super long and he had sharp claws.

She blinked. "He's… part Zoroark?"

The day was warm and beautiful, the sun showing through the trees covering the tiny village full of Pokémon and only Pokémon, the Lostlorn Village. Niyari scanned over the small huts made of dirt, wood, and other scavenged parts until he saw the worried looking Lopunny in front of one of them. Yami had already made it over to her.

The young Zorua turned his head to Niyari and raised a paw, waving to him. Niyari sighed. "Cheater… how the hell does he know where everyone lives?" He jogged over to her, grumbling under his breath. "All the houses look the same…"

The Lopunny was shaking slightly, trying and failing to keep her composure. "Niyari, Yami! Thank goodness you're both here! My son wandered off in the woods and now I can't find and I'm so worried and- Eeep!" Lola suddenly stopped babbling when she got a pat on the back of her leg.

"Lola, calm down," Yami said, stepping back in front of her and next to his brother. "We'll handle this."

Niyari nodded in agreement. "You bet. We'll rescue him faster than a Pokémon Ranger!" He smiled, having been waiting to use that line. "Totally worth stealing all of those comic books."

Lola smiled back at the brothers. "Thank you… I'll be sure to reward you for this…"

Niyari looked at Lola with a big dopey grin on his face. "Oooo! How about one of your awesome pies?" Yami could only facepaw at that.

"Show's what you're really doing this for, bro," Yami said, rolling his eyes. Niyari didn't seem shameful at all for his statement, so Yami continued. "Alright Lola, we'll be going now. Be back soon!" He padded toward the edge of the forest, Niyari following close behind.

The trees in the forest became thicker, the shade from the sun increasing the deeper they went. As soon as they were far enough that no one from the village would be able to hear, Yami scoffed at Niyari. "It always has to be about food with you, doesn't it?"

Niyari looked down at the Zorua indignantly. "Hey, that's not fair! I know for a fact that you aren't as starving as me right now." A grumble came from Niyari's stomach, making him huff in confirmation. "See?"

"I feel just fine," Yami said, turning his head back to the path to watch for clues.

Niyari put his hands behind his head as he walked. "When all you need is ten Orans, I completely understand that. But I'm not a tiny Zorua!" he complained. "I'm… uh…"

"Mom calls you a hybrid," Yami said, finishing his brother's sentence. "A cross between a human and a Zoroark? What else would you call that?"

"Good point, I suppose," Niyari conceded. "I just wish… I wish I knew how I ended up this way. Everything before I arrived in Lostlorn Village is just… nothing."

Yami didn't say anything for a moment, but looked up to Niyari with a warm smile. "It doesn't what you are or where you came from to me. Because… well, I've always wanted a brother."

Niyari laughed, scooping up Yami in his arms and rubbing behind his ears. "This past year has been incredible. Even though I would love to find out what I am… I'll never ever forget about the memories I've created here." With that, Yami nuzzled into his brother's chest.

"And back there I was thinking you thought I was annoying," Niyari laughed, giving Yami a playful noogie.

Yami smirked. "Oh, you are. But that's part of what makes you you, bro."

Niyari could only snicker in response. "Good to know."

They continued down the path for about ten minutes, Yami eventually jumping back onto the ground after the sappy nuzzle fest. The Lostlorn Forest didn't extend out too far… the brothers both hoped that Lola's son within the boundaries. Anywhere outside that and he would be under threat from far more than just wild Pokémon.

"How horrible would it be if one of those Pokémon trainers capture him?" Niyari mused to himself. "We're getting close to the edge…"

Niyari and Yami reached the edge of the woods, the thick canopy above casting a heavy shadow. Yami kept his head low, sniffing. "Oh, oh! I got something!"

There was a shifting in the trees, making Niyari turn to look. "Oh no, the spooky stuff is already setting in."

"Quiet! I'm tracking this scent…" Yami snapped, keeping his head down. He walked slowly off to the right of the path into the thick trees. Niyari reluctantly followed behind, checking over his shoulder at every sound he heard.

"Bro…" Niyari said with a twinge of fear in his voice. "Something seems really wrong here…"

Yami frowned, approaching a pile of leafs that was stacked up ahead. "We made a promise to find Lola's son. Don't you remember that you want pie?"

The hybrid was even more freaked out by the strange circle of trees surrounding this pile of leaves. "Fine, bu-"

"Ah, here he is!" Yami called out, sniffing the pile of leaves. "Underneath these leaves!" The ground moved a little bit, some of the earth caving in underneath the small Zorua.

Niyari gasped. "Yami, no!" It was too late for Niyari to act. The ground under Yami fell through, making him tumble into a newly revealed pit.

"GAAAAAH!"

"No!" Niyari rushed to the edge of the pit and peered over the edge. Yami was being suspended in… a web? It was definitely sticky. The way it caught Yami's fur was enough to tell Niyari that. "Eh?"

"Ew, ew, ew! Bro, you need to get me out of here!" Yami pleaded, eyes wide with panic.

"And me too!" an unfamiliar voice said from below. A glance down from both Yami and Niyari revealed another creature trapped in the web, a young Buneary. He looked up at the both of them with hope in his eyes.

"Niyari! Yami! You came!" It was Lola's son, no doubt.

"Hey…" Yami groaned, struggling against the sticky webbing and failing. "We're here to help…"

"It looks like you won't be doing much helping," Niyari said with a smirk. Yami "Hey kid, who got you trapped in here?"

The Buneary's ears lowered. "Uh… she did?" He pointed directly up past Niyari's head. Niyari suddenly felt a pit in his stomach when he heard the trees rustling once again directly above his head.

When he turned, Niyari instantly regretted it. "Shit."

A giant group of Spinarak were hanging above, grinning widely as they lowered themselves down from string webs. They seemed to be led by a large and very imposing Ariados was nearly face to face with Niyari. "Hello, child. What a pleasure for you to… drop in," the Ariados said in a chilling and decidedly feminine voice. Her giant fangs raised up in an evil grin. "You're just in time for breakfast. Fresh Buneary!"

A Spinarak lowered down near the pit. "Oooo, and a side of Zorua too!" it said with glee.

Niyari's stomach growled loudly, making him glare right in the Ariados' face. "Great… you had to go and mention breakfast."