A/N: Hey, guess what, guys? I actually updated in a timely fashion! :D I'll apologize in advance for the chapter being so short, though. I kind of needed a transition chapter, and I wanted to end it on a cliffhanger (dun dun dun...). However, to make up for it, the next chapter will (probably) come out sooner than normal! ;) Anyway, on to review replies.

Loonyboy - Thanks! I got the font from Messletters, which can easily be found by Googling. ;) I got the idea from a forums, where people used it all the time to make their threads stand out. I'm fairly certain I'm the first on FFN to use it in their story titles.

SpyroAgain - Aww, thank you very much! And I like your story a lot. In fact, it's given me a few ideas for the next Pokemon story I plan to write after Chasing Dreams. (That'll be a long time, but still.)

PhantoMNiGHT321 - Yes, I thought the seasons were rather clever. ;D Spring is bloom-time, by the way. And no, Dark-type pokemon aren't particularly trusted, because come on. They're DARK. And bonus... negative... points if you're a Dark-type with big creepy red eyes. :O

Darkluvumbreon - Yay! Good to see you reviewing again! "My favorite depressing Umbreon is back", lol. That made my day. And thanks for your praise. Yes, I have gotten a LOT better since the end of Friend Ball 10 months ago, and CERTAINLY a whole lot better since it started way back in 2010. (Wow, was it really 2 years ago? 0_o)

Tamara the Hybridian - Ooh, I get over-writing too. I'll have ideas for like 8 different stories, but I'll only ever get the prologue/chapter 1 written on any of them. But I think writers' block is worse. You can't write at thing and when you do, it sounds like crap. Once I had writers' block when I was trying to write a short story for Language Arts 2 days before it was due. But everything I wrote sounded horrible. So I finally gave up and the next day my writers' block was gone, luckily, and I spent like 2 hours writing it, editing it, and revising it, and managed to get it finished the day before I had to turn it in. :D And about Je being a predator, yeah. Umbreon seem to be based off something like dogs/cats/foxes, all of which are carnivores (though I prefer to think of them as omnivores with carnivorous tendencies).

Last Warrior 7 - Oh, I'm not offended at all. I like concrit. In fact, I'd probably prefer a review with concrit than just one saying "you're so good zomg!", as long as it's not rudely worded, that is. Anyway, the jumping-off-a-cliff-to-avoid-enemies thing probably IS overused. Though he wasn't really doing it to escape the spearow; he didn't see it before and there was no time to turn around. Though, it's basically the same thing, I suppose.

And the thing about him dying, well. This clearly isn't a oneshot, so the reader has to assume that he lives. And about your sentence: "You see, there is nothing plot wise that is driving either the protagonist or the reader onward", well, I'm not sure how to respond to that. It's fine if you feel that way. However, I think there's enough going on to be interesting. He's trying to find his sister, whom he may have killed, in a quest to know the truth. Anyways, anyone reading Chasing Dreams should have read Friend Ball first and if they have, they're probably rather invested in Je and his character. (Unless, of course, they hated Friend Ball, but I digress.)

The whole searching aimlessly thing can be boring, I agree. However, as you see in this chapter, that's not all that's going to be going on in this story. ;D

...Wow, 6 reviews for one chapter. That's a lot. It may be a new record. :D Anyway, enjoy, beloved fans!~


Pain.

Darkness.

Silence.

No, not silence... Quiet voices, faraway... too distant... to make... out...


Floating in a void. Quiet. Nothing. Black. Quiet. Pain. Pain, pain, pain. Being moved. Moving. Being touched...? Can't hold on. Fading... fading... pain...


Sometimes there is nothing, nothing and no one, and I am blissfully aware of not a thing, only a dull aching thump behind the curtain of the sky...

Other times there is something, something small, one thing or many, and I can almost think, almost pierce the unending night and darkness, but almost is not enough...

Sometimes the pain is a roaring fire, scorching my fur and trying to force my tongue to scream... Or a dull wheedling ache, poking on me just beyond the edge of reality... Or persistent, ember-like pains, burning dimly, uncomfortably...

Sometimes something cool and wet touches my lips, or I am dimly aware of a paw pressed to my body, of sticky... things plastered to my fur... Or I'll hear voices, dim, a thousand mils away, tones barely there, words without meaning...

Then I slip back into the void, and there is nothing.


"...up soon..." "...know...survive." "Wander...from?" "...never...unless...up." "...wish...would..."

I stirred. The voices stopped; a dull ache thumped beneath my fur. I struggled, swimming up through the endless darkness, fighting my way to the light. Wake... up... The light grew around me, enveloping me, as I clawed my way to the top, until finally

my heavy eyelids fluttered open, hazy vision dancing before my eyes. I let out a low moan, blinking furiously as the two forms above me swam into focus. A leafeon and an espeon. The former gasped, shooting a low hiss to the latter, "I think he's waking up!"

I was lying on my side; I shifted, struggling to my stomach, sending little shooting glances of pain up my body. "Whe' am I?" I managed to mumble; my words were slurred, and even through the fog that encroached my mind, I felt a stirring of distaste. Wariness and nervousness crept into me as my red eyes narrowed, demanding, "Who are you?" I struggled to a standing position, but pain exploded in my hind leg and I stumbled and fell like a helpless newborn eevee.

"Don't!" the espeon cried, racing up to me. Her muzzle was a few inches from mine as she went on, almost scoldingly, "Your left hind leg is broken. You're not going anywhere."

I bristled. "Is that a threat?"

"No, no," the espeon denied hastily. "It's just that you need more time to heal."

"You probably would've died if Lilac hadn't helped you," the leafeon asserted, speaking up for the first time.

The espeon - Lilac - nodded gravely, and said in a lesson-y sort of voice, "Ivy - that's her - " flicking her tail to the leafeon - "and Glimmer found you passed out and splashed with blood by the Purine River. You're lucky they brought you here right away." She nodded sagely, and began to list, "You had a broken leg, several cracked ribs, not to mention dozens of tiny punctures and cuts. I was worried you were going to develop hypothermia, but luckily we avoided that obstacle."

My had was spinning. What was going on here? I'd already heard of three names - Lilac, Ivy, and Glimmer - and I'd evidently been here for a while. "Who'd Glimmer?" I finally asked.

"A glaceon," Ivy went on, and at my questioning look, she went on with a smile, "We're a group of eeveelutions. All of us."

My eyes widened. Eeveelutions? Where was I? What was with this - society - of pokemon? "How many of there are you?" I managed to get out.

Ivy cocked her head to one side, seeming to consider this. "Oh," she replied, "Probably twenty or so."

My mind spun like a hurricane, trying to process all of this startling new information. Take it one step at a time, Je. One step at a time. I'd fallen into the river. I'd blacked out. A leafeon, Ivy, and her friend, Glimmer, found me and brought me here. Where is here? I shook my head in confusion. Well, I never knew where I was in the first place, really.

I was startled out of my reverie when Ivy broke the tense silence. "I'll go get Feri. He wanted to be notified when you woke up," she informed me, and dashed quickly out of - well, where I was.

For the first time, I truly examined my surroundings. I was lying on a bed of moss, set out over loose, slightly damp brown soil. Solid rock curved around me and over my head, smooth, gray, and unchanging. Another bed of moss was prepared at the back of the small cave; Lilac's? Lined up against the wall opposite mine were neatly sorted piles of numerous berries, leaves, swathes of cobwebs, and other assorted items.

"Interesting, isn't it?" Lilac said softly, causing my eyes to dart, startled, to hers.

"Some espeon are known to have empathic powers," she remarked. "That's why we make good healers."

My gaze dropped to my paws, a familiar pain wracking my heart. Kiera... But no. I pushed it away. I would leave here as soon as I could, after seeking directions from the locals. I would find Kiera. Find her, someone who knew her, and finally, finally I would know the truth. I would be at peace. No more nightmares, no more doubts, and maybe... maybe I would finally be reunited with my sister.

Pawsteps made my long black ears twitch. Ivy walked back into the cave, followed by whom I assumed was Feri. He was a large, regal-looking flareon, the long yellow ruff around his neck making him look much larger than I presumed he really was. So, a flareon - like my father, Ember.

I couldn't think about that now. I stared silently up at Feri, red eyes slightly narrowed. Those large crimson eyes unnerved most pokemon, but Feri didn't seem to be affected like a lot of others were. He stared back down at me sidelong, eyes angled down toward me. He held a strong air of distaste around him, and something else I couldn't quite place a paw on - foreboding?

Well, I was an umbreon. A dark-type. I'd think most eeveelutions would be more understanding toward one of their own kind; but, admittedly, I hadn't had much contact with other eeveelutions in my lifetime, besides my own family. Still, Lilac and Ivy seemed pretty accepting of me.

Finally, Feri spoke. "So. You've woken." Well, clearly. "What's your name, umbreon?"

I responded low and quiet, carefully neutral. I could sense the tension in the air and did not want to break it. "Je."

"Hm." He half-snorted, seeming to consider this. "Lilac." She straightened attentive. This flareon clearly had a lot of power around here; the group's leader, perhaps? "How long will it take until he's healed?"

"Weeks, perhaps a month and a half. He has several breaks," she replied calmly.

"By then it'll be the middle of cold-time!" Ivy burst out.

I wondered why she cared. In my opinion, caring about others led to nothing but heartache. And besides, I wasn't staying here a minute longer than I had to.

"We'll talk about that then," Feri said shortly. Good. We understand each other, then. With a curt nod to me, he strode out of the cave.

Instantly, the tension created by his presence lifted. I could almost see the muscles relax beneath Ivy and Lilac's pelts. "So," Ivy said briskly. "Want me to show you around?" Lilac gave her a pointed glance, probably meaning, He has a broken leg, idiot.

"Ivy!" a male voice called from somewhere outside the little cave.

"That's Crackle!" Ivy exclaimed. Dipping her head apologetically, she scurried out of the den, presumably to answer his call.

"Crackle is a jolteon," Lilac explained after an awkward pause. "Feri's right-paw pokemon, second-in-command, really."

I didn't reply, only laid my head on my paws. Pain still throbbed from every tiny nick and scratch, thumped consistently under my fur in my ribs and hind legs. I bit my tongue, staring quietly out at the entrance of the cave.

This was going to be a loooonnnng month.