Cinders and Steel
Chapter 2: Bittersweet
By: Nevermore Raven
In spite of all I had heard of about the Goldflame tribe, I had little idea concerning their appearance considering I'd never actually seen one. Upon the following morning after the storm, tree leaves dripped with moisture, the forest floor of decaying litter damp from last night's rain. The softened leaves felt pleasant as they tickled my toes while my feet traveled back to Laura's tent.
Several days had passed since the invitation to dine in Laura's company. Over that time, I'd grown to admire her for her wisdom and also for her gentle nature. Over several afternoons we had spent together, I had found a passion for nature more so than anyone else I knew, save for Laurel herself.
We would take walks down to the lake or along the hillside, venturing to find a lush green plant that I'd never encountered before. Laura oftentimes followed my exited flurry of steps, reminding me to slow down and providing explanations for a given plant that had caught my eye.
Up in the mountain meadows, I approached a plant with deeply lobed leaves and spikes of blue flowers, captivated by its beauty. Before I reached out to grab it, I heard a gentle voice carry an unusual note of urgency as Laura chided me.
"Don't go near that plant! Don't even touch it!" Startled by her earnest shout, I whipped my head back to her gentle blue eyes, filled with unnatural tension.
"Fluff. that plant is beautiful, but its beauty is deceiving." I repeated her statement in my head, before pondering just what exactly she had said. A black, fuzzy head tilted in confusion while a little ear twitched.
"Deceiving means that something is not what it appears to be. It is misleading. That plant is aconite. It is a very strong medicine that can easily kill. One of the strongest of all plants." I swallowed upon hearing her last statement.
"Strange how something so beautiful can be so deadly." I turned from Laura's wizened blue eyes back to the plant in awe, admiring its blue blooms. Each bloom had five blue petals, and the petal on top was domed, like a hood. Laura gingerly gestured to the blossom. In spite of her venerable life, she was remarkably healthy. She could walk a great distance, although she couldn't keep pace with my youthful paws.
"This flower has a sepal that looks like a hood, and so some call it monkshood. It is one of the strongest plants you will ever encounter. A single bite of its root can kill a bull Tauros.""
"" "Wait. A Tauros? Do you mean those big, hairy, horned pokemon that run around in the lower grasslands?" My small mouth gaped as the sage affirmed my suspicions, briefly revealing a pair of small white fangs in disbelief. To think that such a beautiful plant with these exotic flowers held such power!
"My precious child, it is more important to know what to avoid than it is to know what all the plants are. There are black sheep in the plant world, just like there are with pokemon and humans. Become familiar with them so that you may avoid disaster," the brown lucario explained before stroking one of my ears, causing me to purr. Laura reacted with a gentle chuckle.
One other little blessing the Cloud had over other lucario was that we possessed dexterity in our forepaws, granting us greater ability and resourcefulness all around. In due time, I'd learn how many things we cannot do without this gift by convincing Fuzzy to tie my fists in mittens. It is remarkable that so few lucario have this blessing! It is due to this reason, as well as others, that I find the Whitecloud to be better off than its neighboring Lucario tribes. Among other things, we are more cuddly than our neighbors-and I love hugs!
"I believe it is time to turn for home, Fluff." Upon hearing that remark, my tail wagged as I yipped in reply, causing Laura to laugh a second time before embracing me. In that moment, I relished the minty scent of her fur and the warmth of her arms. "Aww... You're so cute!"
Side by side we turned towards camp while Laurel continued to tickle me sporadically, forcing laughter from my lungs. She excused herself in the name of my soft belly and small giggles. That evening is without a doubt my fondest memory of the Tribe Mother. The bond between us would only deepen with time. With the seasons going by a tree's roots plow deeper into the earth, and likewise Laurel's roots reached deeper into my heart.
"Mrs. Laurel?"
"Yes, Fluff?"
"How did you learn so much about plants?"
"From my parents, from experience, and partly from reading human books."
I stopped mid-step upon hearing that word. "Humans!"
"Yes, my sweet puppy. Libraries are great sources of knowledge. At the library, you can find books of every kind, about nearly anything."
My eyes widened as I heard about the library. I found that hard to believe, as if I were being told a fairy-tale.
"In the presence of humans, you must always be alert. Always. Many of them will leave you alone if you behave, but some of them will attack you, or even try to capture you. If you get caught, you may never see your home again. Not your parents, not your friends, no one. Getting caught can be worse than death, Fluff."
My heart nearly stopped as I heard Laurel's stern warning.
"But it is possible to escape. You see, once you are caught, you will be assigned to a pokeball."
"A pokeball?"
"Yes. A pokeball is a hand-held object that is used to capture wild pokemon, or pokemon that have no human trainer. The pokeball can take even the biggest pokemon and fit them inside of it."
"But it's hand-held! That isn't possible!"
"That's what I thought, too, Fluff. But it is true. I am not sure how it works. You will have two choices with the trainer. You may be happy with the trainer and find new friends. You can find a new life. It is wonderful when that happens! Most captures are like this happy one. But it may not happen. If you don't want to stay and aren't happy, you have two choices. In order to escape, you need to be quick and capture the pokeball from your trainer, and run away, fast as you can. The trainer will definitely try to find you, and the trainer may have other pokemon to help capture you. Once you have escaped with enough time, you can destroy the pokeball. That is the direct way to free yourself. Flee like the wind, and never look back. Return home, even. But be sure your mind is made up before you choose to escape."
My mouth was agape at her shocking revelation. I was appalled by the stern lesson, shaken, violently unsettled, like a kicked hornet's nest.
"Is there another way to escape?"
"Yes, my perceptive pup. But the indirect way of escape is hard to do. It would be miserable to attempt it."
"Why?"
"Because it puts your life at risk." Laura looked me in the eye with the solemn answer.
"That's terrible! Why would anyone try it then? How could they?" Our camp wasn't yet in view, but the smell of a campfire drifted on the summer breeze to our noses. Laura took a pause before answering me, yet her silence prompted me to repeat my question.
"Because capture can be worse than death, Fluff. It depends on the pokemon that was caught. It depends on what they have lost. If they are so sad and lonely enough, they would rather die than live, knowing they will never be home again. They can attempt to kill themselves. But if they don't kill themselves, they can become depressed and go on a hunger strike. Whichever method they try, they will either end up free or dead."
"Depressed?"
"Depression is to be sad. Depression can last a long time. Being sad, the pokemon will lose heart and stop eating. They will starve themselves and be miserable. The trainer will then have only two choices to pick from."
"So what are the two choices the trainer has, then?"
"The first choice, and the best choice, is to release you. The second choice is to let you die. You will either end up free or dead, with nothing to lose."
"This is so sad, Laura," I admitted as my ruby eyes locked with her blue crystals. Laurel noticed a tear dropping from my cheek, and gently, lovingly, wiped it away.
"I know it's sad, Fluff. That's the reason I'm telling you about it, so that it will never happen to you. I am scaring you because I love you. Just like earlier with the aconite you found." I lunged at Laura and startled her with my embrace. But after a second had passed, she smiled and wrapped me in her arms. We held one another for a minute or two, and then Laura set me down to continue, or rather end, our walk. Honey is sweetest when received after something bitter...
It was during an unusually slow day in the early summer that I decided to venture out of the campgrounds and turn towards the skyward peaks, the highest ascent jabbing into the atmosphere like a rugged hound's tooth. At the time I decided to climb it I had been admiring its great height from afar for as long as I remember. The morning cool felt pleasant as it entered my stubby snout, my nostrils flaring to capture scents adrift on the breeze. A faint whiff of damp earth and algae reached out from the bottomland, tickling my sinuses before I exhaled.
A dozen meters before me, the familiar sight of three pups wrestling in the grass caused a small grin to grace my lips. It had been two summers earlier that I was the same age as the middle-aged of the siblings, a charcoal-grey pup named Fuzzy. Fuzzy squeaked as his little sister, a growling fawn puppy named Lucy, tugged on one of the two black tassels on his face with her teeth, leading him to fall on his furry bottom in the grass with a hushed plop, cushioned by the blades of bright green. Fuzzy was my closest friend; the only other who approached the bond of Fuzzy was my own twin, Shade. Although I loved my parents dearly, they were still my parents and thought of as such, whereas Shade and Fuzzy were my playmates.
Lucario parents for the most part kept a passive eye on children, lest they sensed danger nearby or the kids were about to do something regretful-dangerous, as all kids do. The camp youth often entertained itself with play fighting and racing, activities for which I had little interest, even more so since befriending Laura recently. An interest in nature brought with it an interest in its manifestation for which lucario hold renown. By my own initiative, I'd started studying Aura under the guidance of Laurel herself. Little did I know it would prove quite useful in the future...
Next Chapter: Blue Flames
An exotic environment in contrast to the moist forests of the valley and lower slopes, it was up in these crags and peaks that my life would make a drastic change. Without warning my unplanned visit to the peaks would produce a chance meeting with an unlikely stranger.
