The Chronicles of Empiyra
Chapter 1
The night was warm and dry under a cloudless sky, stars glittering in a vast array in the blackness above the canopy of the trees of Sundae forest, nestled in the distance. All was dark and shadows flitted in the breeze. There was no other obvious movement. Rays of white light shone brightly through the open window and the fresh air was welcome, the room hungering for it.
It was on the second floor. Small and cluttered, all manner of objects were scattered across the floor, a thin trail of clear carpet weaving its way from the closed door to the bed, the wardrobe, the dresser. Everything was as normal, even the lump under the covers that looked like a person curled up in the foetal position, head tucked away from view.
Ayana was not in fact asleep, neither was she even in her own bed. She was rechecking her wallet, flicking through the fifty dollar notes feeling two things at once. It was way beyond her expectations, but it still wasn't enough. She didn't know how long it would last, depending on where she went. It also depended on her strength of will, which she had been quietly building up over the past few months, working on conserving her money earned from working in the fruit and veg department of Woolworths. Any good unsold fruit thrown out that day had consequently wound up in her backpack, exchanged with her resignation form.
She pushed the window up a bit higher and thrust her torso out into the open. The thick branch of the tall, sturdy tree was an arm's length away, and she took in the situation again with a few quick flicks of the head, hair pulled back to reduce hindrance to her peripheral vision, considering its curling, frizzy dark mass. She hated it.
The height didn't seem so bad now, the ground was cast into shadow and she couldn't see much. It was an illusion. If she fell she could break something, just when she was little and tried to jump from the branch into her room, resulting in a broken arm and a fractured wrist. Now she pulled her head back in and prepared to leave. One last glance around her room, her eyes resting on the lump in her bed. She smirked at the sheer ridiculousness of bundling up clothes to make it look like she was there. She was skeptical of the idea but it was all she had to work with. All that needed to be done, down to the almost half-hour she had spent standing leaning against the doorframe to her sister's room watching her sleep. Little Latty who was almost as tall as Ayana was going to be missed. She hoped her escapade wouldn't interfere in her school, but she was only fourteen, in year nine, so it wasn't too important yet.
She stretched out the plank of wood she had found in the woodpile in the backyard out the window and toward the branch. It trembling in her hands, shaking in midair from the strain. Wood touched wood, and she lowered it the slight distance to sit comfortably on the branch and the windowsill, one end on either respectively. She adjusted it to sit still and grounded, then carefully began to bring her body out the window, in a crawling position. She allowed herself a moment to look down at the ground, then stubbornly pushed down the slow trickle of fear that threatened in the background of her mind. She stretched out on the plank now, relieved at the stillness of the night, and slowly sat up on the plank, letting her legs hang down either side, putting her faith entirely in the wood taking her weight. She had practiced this maneuver a few nights before, but this time it was the real thing. She reached backwards to where she had placed her bag on a chair just before the window on the inside, and her grip hardened on a strap. She painstakingly drew it to her and after jerking it loose of the windowsill slipped one arm through, then the other. Now she lifted her legs up to sit her boots on the wood as close to her body as she could, then, gripping the rim of the window behind her, slowly easing up to a standing position, stealing herself against the weight on her back pulling her down. She tried to remain as steady as possible, but flailed shortly, as she was in a crouch position, before regaining her balance. Arms stretched out to either side, she stood up almost straight and took in a deep breath to calm herself. It wasn't that she was afraid of the height; she was afraid of falling. She hated the sensation – she didn't like to be out of control.
Now she adjusted her footing so she was standing sideways. She reached up and pushed the window down to be almost closed. Not only was the plank in the way but she would have to take it out afterwards anyway. She inched her way along the plank sideways; it gave her more sturdiness. She reached the end of the plank and stood on the base of the thick, wide branch firmly, glad that part was over. Now she crouched down and seized the plank, shaking it from side to side to free it from the window's pincer grip, and she paused to sight the landing spot, a lower tree that was far bushier, somewhere things could land without much sound. This was where she threw the plank, about a mere metre and a half from where she was. Now it was easy.
Every knob and burl was familiar to her even in the moonlight. She knew exactly where every branch was, which were safe, which would snap with the adequate weight. She had scaled this tree all her life to the point where it was like a friend to her, the green lichen, the thick cracked bark. She easily made her way down in no time at all and the instant her feet touched the dirt ground she breathed in deep again, unable to relax just yet. She stood and listened, watched, her eyes swivelled out to the street. There was no movement. Her parents' bedroom was on the other side of the house.
She ran low down the side of the house, carefully undid the latch on the gate and opened it. She went through, closed it with a bit too much urgency, and scoped out the street, dimly lit by the streetlamps. Ayana made an effort to walk down the road as calmly as possible, just in case, down towards the end of the street, where the forest began. Then she broke into a jog. She needed to put as much distance between her and her house as possible. She didn't dare call it a home – it wasn't home to her.
Her eyes adjusted to the night, she tried to focus on her steps along the thin dirt track of her childhood that met up with the well-used official trainer route that ran all the way through the forest, a culmination of a number of different paths. She wanted to get out her torch but there was somewhat of a paranoia biting at the edge of her mind. Stubbornly she stopped and took the thin torch out of one of the side pockets of her bag, refusing to let the paranoia take over her, much less the overshadowing fear that she refused to acknowledge.
The yellow beam flicked into life, casting patches of light across trees where it pointed. It seemed to distort the pristine night, and a breeze drifted through the forest to play across the hairs on her arms. She felt cold on the outside but inside she was warming from the exercise in her nice new strong-gripping boots. It made her feel empowered, so she walked.
While she walked she thought about what she was doing. She was heading to Colacity, the biggest city in Sherwood, and the capital. The perfect place to not be found, because everyone minds their own business and there were hordes of people to disappear in. Ayana had a friend there, that's why she was going. A place to stay, someone to confide in. Her name was Kyra, and she was eighteen, two years older than Ayana. Kyra lived in a two-person apartment, and her flatmate had been planning to move to a different part of the city – it would all work. Ayana would pay for her lodging by finding a cash-in-hand job, harder to find but it would deal with the problem of having to tell employers her details, as she wasn't prepared to do anything wildly illegal and she didn't have the means to anyway.
Half an hour later and she was deep into the forest, breathing in the fresh night air and allowing herself a small smile in the dark. She felt free, truly free. There was something good about being endorphinised in the early hours of the morning and walking away from somewhere she didn't want to be, somewhere she didn't want to ever have to live at again. She was walking out into the world to be independent, and she liked the feeling. She didn't even think about what her parents would do when they found her gone at around lunchtime if all went well – it was the weekend and she was prone to sleeping in late – she simply didn't care. Except for the wondering about to what means they would go to find and get her back.
A sigh of wellbeing escaped her lips like a ghostly whisper, and she absentmindedly began to hum to herself. She liked humming. She liked singing; it was one of the only things she was going to miss, being in the City of Shakup Choir. Everyone there was so nice, they were like family to her. There weren't many younger people in the choir, mostly old people, but she liked it. A sadness passed into her mind, and she tried to push the emotion away. She had to put that behind her. Maybe she could join a choir once she got to Colacity. Maybe she could even audition for a part in a theatre production if there was any running – she had been in a theatre production, in the choral group the year before, and it had been the greatest fun.
Ayana wondered how far it was to her first primary destination for the night. She took a glance at her watch, the digits glowing brightly in the dark. 12:47 pm. It shouldn't be far now. She picked up the pace a bit, jogging lightly for a few minutes, then her ears faintly picked up the sounds of the rushing water. She hurried onwards, and not long after came to the bridge that crossed over the Sundae River. The river at this point was about five or six metres wide, and Ayana knew from experience that in summer the depth could reach up to above her knees, but in the winter when it rained long and heavy the waters could rise to her chest. That was why the bridge was built high, with quite a bit of space between it and the clear water beneath it. At the moment it didn't look too deep, which was as it should be, as it was only nearing autumn.
The bridge was made of wood, great thick planks and railing that resembled a shape with multiple sides, but cut in half, with the planks settled on vertical poles at diagonal and horizontal angles, depending on where they were positioned on the construct. The bridge was arch-shaped. She pointed her torch away from the bridge and followed the placidly flowing river along the left side of the path. It flowed straight for some way, then meandered a bit to the left again. It was here that she rolled up her jeans and knelt down on the riverbank, slick with wet leaves and river debris, and put down her torch where it shone at a desirable angle. She unzipped her heavy bag in the light, a foreign sound in the quiet peace of the night, and took out the cheap white latex gloves, the small mirror and the dye – all placed strategically on the top of everything else for easy access. She balanced the mirror on top of all the stuff in her bag, adjusted the position of the torch, and pulled the lackey out of her hair. The dye came out, she checked the time again, parted her hair and began to put the colour through. The smell was abominable and Ayana tried not to breathe, muttering things along the lines of rank and choking under her breath, feeling strangely high.
She was a bit clumsy, lethargy making her hands unsure, and drops splattered down her shoulder and on her black short-sleeve shirt. She moaned and put the little bottle down, carefully eased off the gloves in one long minute without turning them inside out and laid them down on the leaves. The shirt came off with a quick swipe of arms in the air and she grimaced as she looked at it in the light, hoping there wasn't too much dye gone on it. She might have to wash it. As she restarted her colouring, she contemplated having a full-body dip, seeing as there was no way she wasn't going to get dye all over her considering the length of her hair. It was long, thick and frizzy, reaching down to the small of her back. Furthermore as part of her disguise she planned to straighten it often, meaning it would be even longer. She liked having long hair – there were all sorts of things she could do with it. Except she had never really bothered to do much. And she hated the frizziness.
Finally she managed to finish putting all the dye through her hair half an hour later, and she was pretty sure she had missed quite a percentage, but that was okay. Her hair could be two different colours for all she cared, because she liked the dark brown. She wasn't sure if she wanted it all a light brown colour, which was why she didn't go for blond. She finished pinning it all up with extra big bobby pins into a huge, slick, limp, smelly mass and peeled off the gloves, letting them drop distastefully to the ground. Now she had to wait around for another half-hour or so before washing her hair out. She was getting tired though, and the fumes were stinging her eyes. She could barely keep them open without pain, resulting in constant small growls escaping her in frustration. She was getting cold now. It didn't matter that it was late summer, it was still nighttime. She couldn't stop yawning as she sat there checking her watch literally every minute, time going slowly. Her hair was falling out its restraints and clumps were sliming their way down her back and shoulders, leaving great brown stains on her pale skin and she shivered.
Finally she got sick of waiting and at 25 minutes found the small towel in her bag, put it on top of everything, unlaced the boots and peeled of socks, peeled her jeans off, pulled out the bobby pins and slowly edged her feet into the water. It was cold and she cringed, but knew it had to be done. Taking her courage in both hands, she sat down in the water, then crab-walked deeper until she could sit there in the cold with only her head above the surface. The water slithered past her and she faced the flow, letting her hair flow out behind her, reaching to rinse it out, the brown dye immediately diluting, though she couldn't actually see it. It suddenly struck her that pokemon could be living in this river. In fact there was no chance of them not. She wondered with a start if the hair dye would poison the environment, but she reassured herself that it would be carried away with the current. A bigger problem was the idea of crabs or the like pinching her, and it made her slightly paranoid once more. She tried to ignore it, made easier by her sleepy state – it was hard to think of much clearly, and most of what she was thinking about was sleep. She tried not to let her thoughts wander onto the memory of a certain nice, warm, soft bed in the second storey room with a tree outside of it back in Shakup. In the effort to not think about it the need became greater, and she frustratingly plunged her face underwater. A moment later she surfaced with a gasp of air, now completely wet and cold. She had no doubt that when she got out she'd be numb. There was a breeze picking up.
Above, clouds could be seen. They had a faint orange tint to them, there was orange on the horizon through the trees. Strange, Ayana didn't think she was close enough to Shakup to see the city glow. But she wasn't concerned, it was too late, or early, for worrying. She just wanted to get out, get warm and go to sleep. After finishing with her hair. The rinsing was almost done, she looked at it in the torchlight and blankly fingered through her hair, looking at the colour. It was definitely lighter. She smiled tiredly, thinking the water should be waking her up but it didn't matter that she was shivering in all her underwear and clutching at her arms, muscles contracting in order to preserve heat, her eyes just felt so heavy.
She squinted as she yawned again, then as she opened her eyes there was a quick flicker of movement in the shadows, and a creature burst out of the bushes, giving her a huge fright that sent her heart leaping in her ribcage. It came to a quick stop at the sight of her things sitting on the riverbank, standing perfectly still. Ayana didn't move, just stared so as not to startle it, heart still pounding from the surprise. It took her a moment to realise what it was, the spiky brown and cream coat that it sported was an obvious indicator of its Zigzagoon nature. They were common rodents in around Shakup, and often seen as a pest. Ayana's opinion didn't differ from that. Especially when it began to sniff and climb on her bag and towel, sending the mirror toppling to the ground.
"Hey!" She yelled from the middle of the river, standing up quickly when it began to claw things, "Get off, get away!" Water splashed in all directions as she waved her arms to try and scare it off. It stared at her for a fraction of a moment before wildly spinning around and taking off in its tracks, something about a near-naked human emerging with a shout and noise from a river, not their normal habitat, probably intimidating it, just a bit. Ayana almost laughed at the thought and dragged herself out of the water, the wind rushing over her and chilling her body to the bone. As she purposefully made her way to her things and bent down to pick up her towel. The torch had been sent flying from the Zigzagoon colliding with it in its race to escape, and Ayana let it lie a metre or so away while she dried herself, shivering, eyeing the brush warily but with some amusement about the paranoia of certain pesky pokemon watching her.
After she rubbed her hair somewhat less dripping wet she flung her head back to catch the long curls in her hands and attack it with the hair lackey she had to rummage around on the ground for, the smell came to her before she saw it. The recognition of the scent was instantaneous: smoke. The first thing Ayana associated it with was a fireplace, smoke coming from a chimney. That's what she thought until her sluggish brain reasoned that people weren't allowed to just have houses randomly built in Sundae Forest. She made the connection with the smell and the orange glow on the horizon, and wondered which way the wind was blowing. In her momentary pausing she became aware of the direction of the breeze. It was blowing her way. How close was it? There was no way of telling. Except one thing that she could think of.
She pulled up her jeans, clambered into the black shirt and looked up and around. Selecting a thick tree a little away from the bank, with a large burl that could get her up to the first branches, barefoot she began to climb. She was in her forte now, climbing trees. She had scaled tall, inanimate objects since she was little, at night, day and in all sorts of weather, and the forest had never been far away. She thought idly that this must be what rock climbing was like. One hand up, find something she could grip, other hand does the same thing, one foot up to a foothold, put down your weight and push yourself up, find a foothold for the other foot, repeat the process. Once you got to the branches it was possible to just reach, hold tight and then swing yourself higher, but that could be dangerous when up high at night. Ayana just climbed, making sure she was definitely safe before putting her trust quite literally out on a limb.
She was getting higher and higher, on the way getting a fright from a disturbed Hoothoot that flew off into the night. She also woke up a couple of Pidgey nestled in a bough, they had squawked and flown quickly to get away from her, but now she was high enough to see. The fire was bad, climbing high in trees high up in the canopy, and it was leaning in her direction. It was closer than she thought. And it was travelling fast. She felt the first touch of fear on the fringes of her mind. She made her way down as fast as she could without being unsafe in her opinion, trying to keep calm. As a point she slipped a bit and found herself clutching to a branch, nails feeling like they were ripping out before her feet, standing on air, found some holds and she could relax her hands slightly. She breathed quickly, trying to calm the intake of air and her racing heart. She was a bit more careful after that, but hurried all the same.
By the time her feet touched the earth she was much more thoroughly awake, and she picked her way over sticks and roots and sat on a convenient rock to pull on her socks and shoes. Her sore fingers fumbled over the laces but pulled them tight, and she quickly repacked her bag, almost leaving the empty hair dye packet discarded on the ground, but conscience grabbed her. She went to put it in her bag but remnants of the dye got all over her hand and she wasn't happy. She reasoned that the fire would burn it up anyway, she could smell the smoke a lot stronger now. The night was suddenly warmer. She gave her hand a quick dip in the river to wash it and seized her torch, still lying bright where she had left it after the zigzagoon's interference, and ran along the riverbank towards the bridge. There was no way she was desperate enough to wade through the river in all her clothes to get to safety.
Obviously pokemon didn't have to worry about that problem. Ayana didn't think she'd been so close to so many at one time. Now creatures of all sorts were racing away from the fire, whipping past, great splashes taking place as pokemon large and small took the plunge. Birds took to the air; a mass of leathery zubats glimmered red in the smoke-filled sky. Orange flames flickered through the trees. She could hear shouts, wild pokemon cries breaking through the air. She shrieked as a stantler seemed to sail through the air in front of her, landing in the river and proceeding to push toward the other side. Something crashed right into her legs, almost knocking her off her feet as a scream of surprise was cut short. She looked down at a stunned male nidoran, it sort of shaking its head and starting at the sight of her, then it took off in the direction of the bridge, where a number of other pokemon were headed by the looks of it. She recovered from the surprise and kept running, the adrenaline pumping through her veins. She felt like a kind of animal instinct was taking over her, but that didn't mean her head didn't respond when she heard the screams for help somewhere in the forest nearby.
Legs came to a swift stop, and Ayana stood for a moment, comprehending the cries of distress from what sounded like a girl. It took a moment for the situation to kick in, she paused to shove the torch into its side pocket, then she was running toward the shouts. She was getting closer and it was getting hot, so hot. She could hear crashing, a great cracking sound. She knew it was the sound of a tree coming down. It drowned out the screams for just a moment, then they were back, and very near. It was a teenage girl lying on the ground on her back, her face stained with grit and tears, left arm trapped underneath a fallen tree. She was stretching her body out, crying and reaching for something out of her reach.
Ayana was there in a moment, eyeing the sheets of flame that served as a deadly backdrop and looking at the arm crushed beneath the heavy trunk, knowing the situation was hopeless. "I can't get you out!" She said, voice almost breaking. Ash swirled about them, coals gleamed, flames leapt. The girl's eyes, red, watering and terror-filled, swivelled to Ayana's face, and she coughed haggardly.
"My rhyhorn, get him, he's there…" She choked on ash and broke into another bout of dry coughs into the air, filled with thick smoke. Ayana caught the same whiff and felt her lungs burning, drawing in a hot breath to cough, and she caught sight of the pokeball the other girl was trying to get at. It lay about a metre away from the reaching fingertips, spots of ash and fingerprints on it. She crawled on hands and knees to it and fumbled for a moment, pushed the button and gave it a light toss away from her. She had never done it but she knew how. White light seemed to blast out from the small spherical contraption in a flash melded with the orange light, and what emerged what a large grey creature covered with bony plates that stood on four legs, had a snout complete with sharp teeth and a horn on the end of the nose. Rhyhorn. Ayana's mind went into an instant state of awe at the great creature. "Rhy, help me!" the girl cried, relaxing a fraction at the sight of her pokemon. The rock pokemon took one look at its trainer and the situation and roared in seeming anger, walking in an almost stomp over to the trunk that laid the girl on the ground. She reached her free hand up and stroked her pokemon's solid face, tears a sheen in her red, lolling eyes. "Please…" Her eyes laid on Ayana, who was by their side in a moment. She quickly assessed the way the tree lay across the girl's arm, feeling giddy at the closeness of the huge beast beside her.
"Okay, you need to slide your horn under if possible here…" She indicated to a space next to where the arm was lodged, "and you need to ease it off and that way, slowly, okay?" Sweat was flooding slick across her body, and not just from the heat. This girl's life was in her hands. The fire was at least a mere metre away. It was like a furnace. The rhyhorn proved it's intelligence, one small eye rolling to settle on her for a second before it slid the horn in the small hollow beneath the trunk she had shown it, and slowly began to ease the tree up and away, in a rolling motion. It's entire body strained and shook on short, fortunately sturdy legs, large claws digging into the ground beneath it with the effort to keep the tree from putting full weight down again before its owner was completely free.
In the meantime the girl screamed. The pain must have been abominable as the massive, crushing pressure was gradually being taken off the bloody limb. She was writhing in agony. It was almost done now, and the rhyhorn roared with determination and triumph as the tree rolled off from her fingers, issuing a final scream. Ayana helped her up quickly, careful not to touch the wrecked arm, likely broken in several places. The girl was moaning and holding her arm close to her body, shaking, shivering. Ayana realised that she was hyperventilating, and found herself putting the girl's unbroken arm across her shoulders. "Come on, let's go. Lean on me, this way." Somewhere a tree crashed down, and she thought she heard a high-pitched scream, a horse-like sound. It only took a few steps to realise they weren't getting anywhere, and Ayana cast a wary eye over her shoulder. Was there time? Her body ached with adrenaline. "Okay, can you get on rhyhorn?" She coughed and the girl nodded, shaking, the great pokemon standing obediently. Long bare legs clamped firmly over the hard rocky back – she was wearing short shorts. She'd feel the pain later.
"Now go, not too slow, not fast either, don't let her fall. There's a river, follow it right, there's a bridge not far." Ayana's voice was commanding, she felt aflame inside. She was hearing something not far away, up ahead somewhere, to the left. Ayana thought quickly, then remembered the girl's pokeball and gave it to her. The girl barely registered it as she clipped it onto her trainer belt, graced with five others. Ayana stared at it a moment. It struck her that this girl looked younger than herself, yet had more independence than she had ever achieved herself.
The rhyhorn took off with a wallowing gait, and the girl held on. Ayana ran to where she could hear it, her ears straining. She was letting in all the sounds, and she could hear some she didn't particularly want to hear. The cries of weak agony tore at her heart, but she could only do one thing at a time. She heard that whiny again, but she tried to focus on the cries that she couldn't quite recognise. Up in the air somewhere. In a tree, maybe? The fire was an ordinary backdrop now, but the burning heat she could feel at her back was very real.
She was close now, and it was definitely up in a tree somewhere. Everything had an orange and red flickering glow cast upon it; entire trees were in shadow while others were literally lit up like beacons. She was looking up, desperately trying to catch a glimpse of what she was looking for. Then it moved, up high in a tree. It gave its little cry again, and Ayana took a look at the fast approaching forest fire. In a split second she contemplated yelling at it to just jump and she'll catch it, but she thought against it. Like it would understand her anyway. After that she didn't hesitate - her mind was made up. Then she was whipping up the tree, hoping the branches wouldn't break under her weight, this one was smaller than the last one she climbed. She now associated those cries with a bear, and she knew that meant it was a Teddiursa. Where was the mother Ursaring, why hadn't she taken her young to safety? She dimly recalled watching a nature program about them; something about Ursaring putting their Teddiursa high up in trees when there was danger. In her state of mind, Ayana inwardly ridiculed their stupidity.
Everything was automatic; she reached the branch where the Teddiursa was clinging to the trunk of the tree and she opened her mouth to yell at it when she realised how big it was. It had to reach at least her knee. She hadn't ever realised they were so big! "Okay, hey mate, here, get on…" The trunk had a small enough diameter here for her to wrap her legs around it to free her arms and seize the bear pokemon around its middle without putting herself in danger of falling backwards with the momentum when she freed it from its powerful grasp to the bark. It didn't seem to be hostile, and its fur was soft and smooth. It wrapped its little arms around her neck instinctively, and claws dug into her bag straps. She was almost struck dumb for a moment by a wild pokemon clinging to her like a child. "Okay, good thing, let's get out of here…" She clung to the branch as she slowly and carefully put her legs down one by one to rest on the branch beneath her, and her attention momentarily swayed from the thing on her chest she looked out and stared across the forest from her viewpoint. The fire was immense, the orange flames flickering in their entirety over a huge portion of forest. Then something made her turn to chance a glance over her shoulder, and what she saw made her gasp in horror. There was another small area of forest burning out beyond the other side of the river, and far, far off in the distance at the edge of the horizon there was another separate fire, completing the triangle in the midst of Sundae Forest. This could be no accident – it was arson.
Climbing down, Ayana's head reeled with the possibilities. Who would do this, and why? The notorious Team Rocket entered her mind, and she gritted her teeth in anger. How many pokemon would be destroyed in this disaster, how much habitat wiped away in the matter of a few hours? The Teddiursa was a dead weight hanging from her neck and her muscles strained. It hadn't looked that heavy initially. But now her body was beyond listening to her head – everything was acting on its own accord.
Red sparks flew around her in the updrafts of air as her boots touched the ground, her legs feeling weak from all the exertion. But she couldn't stop yet, the fire was travelling toward her. She was surprised it hadn't already reached the base of the tree she now ran from. She wrapped her arms around the bear clinging to her. It was making bellowing noises, and she was thoroughly choking on smoke. Her throat was seething and her eyes stung like a plague. She coughed, hacked, staggered and then her toes wedged under something and then she was falling. In a split moment she turned her body to the right and she slammed into the ground on her left shoulder, left leg straggled underneath her and arms tight around the pokemon that was bellowing louder now, and it was scrambling up from the ground where Ayana groaned and pushed herself up, it taking her a few seconds to free her foot, caught beneath an inconveniently placed root. She coughed again, opened her eyes slammed them shut again with a cry against the flying ash. She felt like her skin was burning, and she knew that she had to get out of there. She had to get to the river. She stood, shielding her eyes, then went to pick up the fallen pokemon again when her eyes caught sight of something else. Uncovered, a pokemon nest. It was large, she could tell that in the night, and in it was settled two eggs. One had been crushed by something, maybe a large, heavy foot. Embryonic fluids slicked the leaves, and the thing that resembled a foetus made Ayana almost throw up. She gagged, then swivelled her gaze to the egg that was intact. Again the question arose in her mind – where was the mother? Where in the hell was the mother?
She was angry. She slipped her bag off her shoulders and picked up the egg. It was about a ruler's length tall, and wide. It would fit. She unzipped her bag and carefully placed the egg on top, hoping desperately that she wouldn't fall like that again. The Teddiursa was crying loudly at her, and she snapped. "Just shut up for a minute! Just-" A massive roar erupted from behind her. She froze and her parched throat closed up in instant terror. She slowly turned around, gradually working her bag over a shoulder. She was incapable of making a sound. The huge Ursaring standing a mere four metres away up on hind legs looked down at her with an expression akin to sheer unforgiving. Every muscle seized up in Ayana's body and she thought she could feel the trickle of hormones releasing themselves into her bloodstream. She hoped the fight-or-flee mechanism was enough to outrun an enraged mother bear, because she had never tried it out in such a scenario. Through her heart pounding in her ears she was dimly aware of the flames licking at a tree so close she felt like she was in a massive kiln, and the Teddiursa gave an overjoyed cry and ran to its mother. Her heart leapt. She had saved the life of a pokemon at the expense of her own. This thing was going to rip her throat out.
Then a huge streak of flames erupted out from above her, from the fire, to land between her and her doom. It took her a moment to realise it was in fact not some great fiery monster come to kill her anyway but a prancing, shrieking, battle-fueled Rapidash with a guy upon its back. The flaming horse reared up to dance on its hind legs and sent a stream of flame to the feet of the mother bear, who retreated with her cub a few steps, then with one final steely look at Ayana turned and began to run in the direction of the river, offspring clinging to her back. The guy with the reins turned the rapidash around in a swift movement to face Ayana. "Get on, now!" He commanded, reaching an arm down. She eyed the horse pokemon warily. What she now recognised as a mare was prancing, red eyes reeling. Her body was slick with sweat, and so was the large outstretched hand. She took it anyway and clambered up onto the large pokemon on the second try, sitting behind the guy in the red shirt and black pants. "Hold on tight, don't let go, it's gonna be a bumpy ride." She wrapped her arms around his waist and not a moment too soon. Flames licked at her legs that she clenched tight around her transport, and the rapidash bolted. An instant later she heard the sound of a great fiery explosion somewhere behind them. She looked over her shoulder while she tried to hold on, loose hair streaming and obscuring her view, but not enough to stop her from seeing the great snake-like creature that was shrieking and heading for them fast.
"What the hell is that!" She yelled, turned back to scream in his ear. He didn't reply, but she felt his back tense more than it already was. She glanced back again, not so much this time. All she could make out about it before they left it in the dust was that it was jet black and burnt wings protruded from its back. She turned back ahead, it frightened her. It had a shrieking cry that struck terror into her. Her heart pounded in her head from the sight and sound of the pursuing creature and the speed they were travelling at. The trees whipped past in a blur, they were leaving the fire behind. Ayana couldn't see anything in front of them, and then a voice cracked out like a whip in the night, short, deep and sharp – "Hold on!" She clamped down hard and all of a sudden the wind was pulling her hair back at a different angle and they were airborne. Her heart was now caught in her throat with surprise, the river swirled beneath them. They were clearing the entire width of the river!
The ground rushed up to meet them and Ayana didn't think fast enough. The moment their mount's hooves hit the ground they slammed forward so hard Ayana thought her brains must have been knocked about as her head collided with his back, but there was a worse thud as his head crashed into the back of his pokemon's skull, drawing out a loud snuff as the rapidash forced herself into a trot, then a slow walk before coming to a complete stop. She tossed her head, flaming mane whooshing in the wind, and turned her head at an angle to survey her trainer. He was slumped down against the back of her neck. Ayana slipped the bag from her back and dropped it carefully next to a shrub. She wasn't going to risk getting down with the egg in her bag like that, if she fell she'd be in trouble. But she let out a small scream as she fell sideways, gripping onto the red shirt in front of her and almost taking him with her. She managed to catch her balance just in time to prevent herself from slipping off the back of the horse pokemon, but then the Rapidash seemed to get aggravated and suddenly reared back, tearing a scream from Ayana's lips as she went backwards. She was on her back in an instant and her saviour landed on top of her. She gasped and coughed beneath his weight, things stabbing through her shirt, and she knew the horse was dancing around irately before them, whinnies echoing in the night.
"Get… off…" Ayana managed to get out in a strangled gasp, realising he was unconscious. She heaved, and managed to turn him over and off of her. She collapsed back down again to regain herself, then lifted her head to stare at her bag, perfectly fine. She let out a long breath in relief and flopped back down again, closing her eyes for a moment, breathing heavily and heart pounding. She opened her eyelids again and the great fiery horse was above her, red eyes bright and angry on her, then thankfully she lowered her cream head and consequently the long horn protruding from her forehead, and nudged her long snout against the back of her owner's head, into his thick, curly brown hair. Ayana lay there a moment longer, then gave a groan as she forced herself up, her stomach muscles complaining, and she turned to the unconscious guy. The rapidash pulled her head back up and snorted disdainfully as Ayana reached across his back to seize the shoulder opposite her and pull him towards her, rolling him over back onto his back. A great red mark was eminent on his forehead. She touched it; it was soft and tender and there was an indent. She might have held pity for him if she wasn't so irritable at the moment. The horse's behaviour was only adding to her mood. She began slapping his face on both sides, both hands, steadily hitting harder. "Hey! Oi, wake up!" He moaned and shifted a bit, and she paused to place a hand on her forehead, only just realising that she had a headache. Of course it wouldn't be as bad as his, her head hadn't gotten so deep into his back as to reach his spine and the bone, luckily. She coughed, and so did he. She crawled over to her bag as the rapidash whickered and dropped her head to nuzzle his face, calmer now, but sending Ayana glares after her little attempt at waking him up. Ayana ignored it and pulled her water bottle out from the mesh holder on the side of her bag, downing half the bottle in one go. The water was so cool down her parched throat, like a stream into her stomach. She thought she could almost hear it gushing down.
He was coughing hard, it sounded like it would hurt to be coughing now like he was. Ayana crawled over, found herself wavering a hand over his forehead. "You alright?" His eyes flickered open and he gave a groan, rested a hand on his forehead as Ayana retrieved her own.
"Ouch…" His eyes rolled around, then stopped on her. "Haley?"
Ayana blinked. "What?" He continued to stare at her, squinted then he rubbed his eyes, shook his head a bit.
"I'm sorry… I thought you were someone else for a second there." He said hoarsely, groaned again and pushed himself up into a sitting position, broke into another bout of coughs.
"Here." Ayana passed her water bottle to him and he grunted in thanks, drinking long and hard. When he was done he glanced at her with brown eyes, glanced away, looked again.
"I left you some, thanks." He passed it back to her, clearing his throat. In the brief silence that followed Ayana could hear the fire crackling away, distant shouts, and a roaring noise. She felt that her ears should be pricking up to the calls, and she listened. It was familiar, possibly the same sound as a rhyhorn... her eyes widened. She stood suddenly, stepping to pick up her bag and swing it onto her back, shoving the bottle into the side pocket where it belonged.
"A girl, there was a girl who got trapped under a tree, I sent her off on her rhyhorn, that sounds like them." She pointed in the direction of the pokemon cries, looking wildly at the guy and his horse. "We have to go help her, she was in really bad shape." He scrambled up, brushing himself down quickly.
"Alright Dance, go in front of us, find the rhyhorn, okay?" The rapidash neighed and with a toss of her regal horned head took off in a trot, lighting the way. He answered Ayana's puzzled glance easily. "She needs a break from having a load on her back." Ayana nodded, and began to jog after her. "Wait!" He stopped her and she wheeled around, irritated that he was slowing their travel. "What's your name?"
Anger was replaced by sudden steel, slamming down between her and him in her head. Her mind raced but she calmly replied, putting into practice all her times of saying it in the mirror to herself, trying to keep her eyes straight ahead, no change at all in her body language or expression. "Cindy." He nodded, glancing off after the retreating pokemon.
"I'm Macario." She nodded in imitation and they went on. "That's Springdance." He indicated the rapidash. Ayana didn't reply, she couldn't be bothered. They had to find the girl.
A minute or two went by, the roars got closer, then they were there. She was on the ground unconscious and her pokemon stood nearby, roaring to the sky, probably for help. He looked up the moment they were in view, Ayana now assumed it was male, and held a protective stance until he recognised her. Springdance eyed the other large pokemon warily with some degree of hostility in her eyes as Macario darted forward to the girl, dropping to the ground to inspect her arm. He swore under his breath, rounding on Ayana with a sudden rage that struck her dumb. "Why didn't you do anything about her arm? She's probably lost a lot of blood, you could have bound it, anything!" He was practically yelling, and shame, then fury lodged itself firm in Ayana's throat.
"We were right near the fire, she had to get away from-"
"Just forget it. Have you got bandages?" He cut her off sharply, turning away to inspect the girl's arm. Ayana gritted her teeth, so angry her automatic reaction was to give him a good boot, but she swallowed her pride and pulled her bag off, opening the zip onto wide enough for her to slip her hand in and snake it through all her clothes and things to feel around for the texture of the bandages. She knew exactly where she had put everything and it showed as she seized and eased out the thick wad of white bandages from the very bottom and passed them to Macario, careful not to get too close. He barely looked at her, only deftly unraveled and wound the bandages around the deepest wounds, the most broken places. "Got a shirt you're willing to give up?" It took a moment for Ayana to comprehend his request. "For a sling, so it won't jolt around so much while we ride." He seemed to soften a little at her expression of remorse and semi-shame. "Come on, quick now." His voice wasn't so harsh this time.
Ayana nodded and unzipped her bag fully, the first thing she saw being the egg, like a hit in the face. She paused, then quickly grabbed and settled it on her lap, just as Macario decided to turn to look over his shoulder. His expression barely changed. "Nice egg. Yours?" Ayana looked up at him from the pale brown hue of the shell, coarse under her fingertips, mind racing.
"Yeah." She answered without thinking. She had been struck dumb and her racing head hadn't done her a scrap of good except send her heart racing just as fast.
"But you're not a trainer, at least not yet?"
She laughed a little as she rummaged through her bag, a certain article of clothing in mind that wouldn't involve her losing any of the few shirts she had packed. "Nope."
"Okay." She knew he was still curious, but they didn't have time to talk now. It was good, it would give her time to think up a story. She could still barely believe she had claimed the egg as her own.
"Will this do?" She pulled out the long, wide scarf that she had never really liked but had packed for when it started getting cold, in the belief that it would save her buying a new one with her precious money. It was blue and made from feather wool. Ayana didn't like wearing blue much. Macario nodded and held out a hand. She gave it to him without a thought, glad to get rid of it. She sat and watched him tie the ends together and put it around the girl's shoulder and over her arm, supporting it. A bit of adjustment and it was done.
"Dance, I'll need you to get down low, I'm sorry." He looked at his pokemon apologetically and she snorted and threw her head, but complied after a moment, going down on her creamy knees and raising her head high, the expression in her eyes declaring the plain truth that she wasn't enjoying this. Macario lifted the girl around the waist from behind and set her down on Springdance's back, just in front of the black saddle that he sat down in himself. The rhyhorn watched his every move, and stepped a bit closer. "Okay, I'm gonna get your trainer to safety, okay?" He looked over the unconscious girl's shoulder and leaned back a bit, taking her with him so he could get a clear view of her brown leather trainer belt.
"It's the one on the end – yeah, that one." Ayana guided him to the right pokeball and he unclipped it, pressed the button, recalled the grey rock pokemon without any trouble and placed the ball back in its rightful place.
"Okay, up." Springdance rose from her position on the ground of sticks, roots and leaves, first one end then the other, and shifted with the unaccustomed distribution of weight on her back. Macario, with his arms beneath his cargo's and with reins wrapped around his hands, turned his horse to face Ayana. "I'd go back that way if I were you –" He indicated the direction of the river, "– find the bridge, wait there and I'll come back for you and I'll take you to the pokemon centre, okay? That's where I'm staying and where I'll take her." He nodded to the girl in front of him, leaning back on his chest. Ayana nodded stiffly, rising from the ground. With that, he turned Springdance around and they trotted away into the night.
She sat back down again and took her flashlight from her bag, turned it on and repacked, carefully wrapping the egg in clothes this time. She hefted the weight onto her tired back and wearily started off back the way she had come, to the river.