Chapter 2

7 YEARS LATER

Nimue the Gardevoir, beautiful and intelligent Princess of the kingdom of Pokélantis, ran for her life through the dark jungle. She could hear the growls of the monster echoing behind her, louder and closer by the second. She had to reach the Great Tree; there she would be safe.

Nimue broke through the dense foliage into a clearing. A great, gnarled oak tree stood in the center, a rope ladder hanging from one of its thick branches.

"Just a bit more..." thought Nimue, panting and blinking the sweat out of her eyes.

SLAM!

Nimue felt something tackle her legs and immediately landed on the ground, hard. She looked up to see the leering monster crouching above her, claws glinting in the moonlight, its merciless yellow eyes staring crazed with bloodlust. Her time had come. As the monster raised its claws to deliver the killing blow, a bolt of blue energy slammed into the creature, blasting it away from Nimue and slamming it into the base of the tree. Nimue gasped and looked up to see a dashing Lucario stride into the clearing, his arms glowing with energy.

"My Princess!" he said, hurrying over to her fallen form. He gracefully took her hand and stared into her eyes, his shining like purple gems in the faraway caverns of the Old Mountains.

"Oh, Lucas! My hero," she swooned, taking in how handsome and brave he was, when suddenly-

"The monster!" cried out Lucas, moving in front of Nimue. The beast was stirring from its daze, it's teeth gnashing with savagery. It rose to its full height, taller than the mightiest Rhydon, and let out a roar of outrage.

"Princess! You must flee!" begged Lucas, standing between her and the monster. Nimue shook her head and held on to Lucas.

"No! I will not leave you!" she pleaded, eyes glinting with tears. "Through life and death, I am bound to you!"

The couple stared into each other's' eyes, lost in time and space. As their faces got closer and closer, lips almost touching, they were interrupted by a shriek of frustration.

"Seriously?! More mushy gushy romance? You said we'd fight to the death!" roared the monster, stomping its feet.

Nimue sighed and stepped away from Lucas' embrace. "I said we might. Might. Besides, we didn't pinky promise on it."

"You know fully well I don't have pinkies!" whined the monster, lifting up its claws. "And why is Lusca always the hero? She's not a boy!"

Lucas strode forward defiantly. "How dare you! I am a handsome and dashing knight of Pokélantis!"

Nimue hugged Lucas and shot a smirk at the monster. "My handsome and dashing knight of Pokélantis," she crooned.

"No!" screeched the beast, holding its head with its arms. "Girls can't like-like girls, that's...that's weird!"

"Why," Nimue teased. "Are you jealous?"

"You guys are so weird," muttered Lucas. "It always ends up like this."

Nimue put her hands on her hips and shot a look at the monster.

"For your information, I can like whoever I want, and it's not up to you, Saido."

A gust of warm wind picked up in the sunny clearing, and three young Pokémon stood in the place of the monster, the dashing warrior, and the beautiful princess in need.

Saido the Pawniard trembled with barely contained rage and confusion as he took in Nimue's smirk. The sneaky Kirlia found fun and delight making him boil over the top like this. She always found a way to outsmart him or place the blame on him whenever one of her many schemes went awry. He was the scapegoat for everything.

"Well," Nimue shrugged. "I guess you don't want to play anymore."

"Leave him alone, Nimue," chided Lusca, a Riolu. She shot a concerned look at Saido, who was still shaking and making deep rents in the grass with his bladed feet. This was the most furious she'd ever seen him, even more than the time Nimue ground up a bunch of Blast Seeds into his berry juice.

"Why? That pretty blue armour of his might turn red like a boiled Clauncher," she jabbed, tossing her green pigtails haughtily. That was the last straw. Saido launched himself at Nimue, blades fully extended. Nimue screamed, and covered her face with her arms.

"Stop!" cried Lusca, shielding Nimue with a blue force field. Saido bounced harmlessly off the field and landed in the mud, the muck staining his polished blue armor. Lusca gasped in instant regret and horror, covering her mouth with both paws. Nimue looked out from behind her hands and saw Saido's predicament. She burst out into laughter, her angelic voice filled with a cruel glee only a child could have.

Saido looked down, his anger gone. Tears began to well up in his yellow eyes and he ran off into the tall grass sobbing.

Lusca wheeled around to Nimue, her normally calm face filled with indignation.

"Look what happened!" she sighed, gazing off sadly into the tall grass swaying around them. "He doesn't like people making fun of his armour."

Nimue picked herself up from the ground and dusted off her white skirt. "Well maybe if he wasn't such a baby, this wouldn't have-"

"He's not a baby!" Lusca growled. "He's the strongest and bravest boy I know and he only lets you make fun of him because-" Lusca stopped herself short. She took a look at Nimue's expression: it was ignorant and disbelieving. Lusca shook her head.

"It's not worth it. I'm going to look for him. You play by yourself." With that, Lusca ran into the tall grass calling Saido's name.

Nimue was now alone, and the full force of shame and realization of what she did to her friends hit her. She began to cry, this time, for real. And there was no one around to pay attention to it.

"Where could he have gone?" Lusca frantically thought, racing through the swaying grass. The sun was beginning to set, and Lusca was tired, hungry, and scared. She didn't know where Saido had run off to, and she was lost herself. She looked all around, but the tufts of grass all looked the same, and she was too short to peek over the top.

"Saido!" she yelled, desperately pleading for an answer. Like many times before, her call was met with silence. Lusca gritted her teeth and kept running, brushing the thick grass out of her face. As she ran, she failed to notice a root jutting out of the ground, and she tumbled over, rolling down a sudden incline. Rocks and gravel hit her body, and when she landed, she felt her foot twist the wrong way.

Lusca yelled in pain, blinking burning tears from her eyes. She had landed in a gravelly ravine on the edge of the forest. Her foot was most certainly sprained, but not broken. All Lusca could think of, however, was surprisingly not the pain, but Saido. She had failed to find him, and now he could be wandering lost and alone in the forest, where dangerous Pokémon lurked...and she wouldn't be by his side.

It was all too much for Lusca to handle, and she passed out into merciful, dreamless sleep.

Saido cut through the grass, exhausted and sniffling. He had run as far as his short legs could carry him until his endurance gave out. He wandered aimlessly through the plain, lost in thought.

Goma had always told him to never act in anger or rage, but it was so hard for him to listen. Sometimes, he felt that everything would be easier if he just gave in to the dark instincts that would bubble up whenever he was frightened or angry. And today was another failure in his book; he had almost hurt Nimue.

"Nimue," he growled. He didn't know what to think of that Kirlia. He didn't understand why he felt so confused or awkward around her, or why she could get under his armour so easily. Saido slowly came to a halt and collapsed to the ground, panting at the orange sky.

The emotions he kept locked away now manifested in a sudden uncontrollable rage, and with a scream he leapt and slashed indiscriminately around him, picturing Nimue's smirking face. Stalks of grass were instantly shredded, and when Saido calmed down, he saw that he had cut down over several metres of grass, leaving a scar in the verdant plain.

Saido looked down on where his hands should have been and saw the two sword-like blades winking back at him in the twilight. He stood like this for a long time.

A sound pierced the silence of the moment. Saido perked up his head and his eyes widened in fear. Lusca's voice he had heard, and she sounded like she was in pain.

He turned his head this way and that, trying to pinpoint Lusca's location. He closed his eyes and concentrated hard, just like Goma taught him to, and focused his sense of hearing. He could hear it: the pained sounds of breathing coming from somewhere to his right.

He took off in that direction, a newfound energy coursing through his body. He ran and ran, until he skidded to a stop by the edge of a deep, rocky ravine. He looked over the edge to see the crumpled, but thankfully breathing form of Lusca. She was unconscious, and it looked like she had hurt her foot. There was no way she could climb out by herself.

Saido wasting no time thinking. His friend was hurt and in need of help. He slowly lowered himself down the incline, sliding over the gravelly soil. He reached the bottom and crawled over the rocks and boulders to Lusca.

"Lusca!" he whispered. "Wake up!"

Saido shook Lusca's shoulders but succeeded in getting nothing out of her other than a quiet groan. Saido started trembling in panic.

"Lusca , please, say something!" he begged. He received no answer. Saido knew he couldn't linger here any longer; a new danger could present itself at any moment.

"Well well well, lookie what we have here," a voice sneered.

Saido wheeled around to see several Geodude gathered in a semicircle around him. They were all smirking with an evil glint in their eyes. A couple of them were licking their lips. The largest Geodude of the bunch hopped forward, balancing itself on its muscular arms.

Saido held Lusca close and pointed a blade at the Geodude leader.

"W-what do you want?" he stammered, trying to sound confident.

"Haw haw haw!" the Geodude laughed. "Take a look at this kid! He's the wrong colour! Blue like my mama's Oran berries! 'W-what do you want?" snivelled the Geodude leader mockingly. The gang of gathered Rock Pokémon began to laugh, and Saido wished he could disappear into the earth, never to be seen again.

"Heh heh heh," the leader snickered, calming down and wiping some scum out of his eye with a rocky hand.

"What we want," said the leader, "Is a bite out of that little furball, amirite boys?!"

"Yeah!" the gathered Geodude cheered, stomping their fists onto the ground, creating a small tremor. Saido shook with fear and shock.

"Y-you're going to eat her?!" he yelled, blocking Lusca out of harm's way. The Geodude leader shrugged and shot a nasty look at Saido.

"It's a dog-eat-dog world, kid, and we haven't eaten anything fresh in a while," said the leader, licking his lips.

"But you guys are rocks." shot Saido. "Rocks don't eat anything."

The gathered Geodude closed in menacingly around Saido, cracking their knuckles. Their good mood had worn off.

"Oh, so you got jokes now, huh?" sneered the leader. 'Tell you what kid, you can go, since you don't look like you got much meat on ya," he gestured.

"But the pup stays."

"No!" shouted Saido, extending his blades out of his arms. The Geodude hopped back in fright at the sudden sight of steel, but regained their confidence when they saw how small the blades were. Saido was just a juvenile Pawniard; only a fully grown Steel Pokémon could ever hope to be truly effective against Rock Pokémon.

"I won't let you," growled Saido. He could feel blood pumping in his ears, and the all-too-familiar rush of anger bubbling up inside him. He would leave with Lusca, or die trying.

"You asked for it kid!" roared the Geodude leader. He slammed the earth with his palms and launched himself at Saido headfirst.

Saido barely had a second to react and pull Lusca and himself out of the way before the Geodude crashed into the boulder behind him, reducing it to pebbles. The other Geodude began pounding the ground, sending more tremors throughout the ravine, dislodging rocks and sand.

"Get over here!" seethed the Geodude, picking himself up from the pile of rubble. Saido hoisted Lusca onto his back and looked back and forth for an opening: there was none. He would have to fight.

Setting Lusca down gently, he stood in a defensive posture, pointing both blades at the Geodude. The leader's eye twitched and he laughed defiantly.

"Put those twigs away kid, you're gonna end up poking yourself," mocked the Geodude, flexing his arms.

Saido trembled at the taunt and struggled to remain focused. Goma had promised to teach him how to fight when he got older, but now would have been a really good time to have some moves up his sleeve. The important thing was, he was smaller, but much, much quicker than this brute. He would have to use this to his advantage if he wanted to come out alive with Lusca.

The Geodude slapped his palms down on the ground and launched himself at Saido again, but this time, Saido saw it coming. He had backed up against the ravine wall while the Geodude was mocking him, and as he jumped out of the way, the Geodude crashed into the side of the ravine, causing a small flurry of rock and dust to rain down on them.

Shielding his eyes with one arm, Saido was struck with an idea.

The other Geodude growled and chanted gutturally, moving in threateningly onto Saido. The Geodude leader shook his head in a daze and raised an outstretched hand.

"No! This runt's mine!" he growled. His eyes were red in rage. He began a woozy hop towards Sido, then charged with full force, winding up a clenched fist.

"You're dead, brat!' screamed the Geodude. He launched his fist at Saido, only to find that he was a split second late. He instead shattered the other side of the ravine. Looking up, he took in the sight of a wave of boulders and rubble raining down towards them.

"Frack!" he swore, turning around to the rest of his gang. "Let's get out of he-"

The Geodude leader was cut off as a boulder landed on his body, splitting his rocky body apart. The rest of the Geodude gang scattered in fear and panic: it was every monster for himself.

Saido stared in shock at the pile of quivering rock that was once the Geodude leader. He wanted to vomit, but now was not the time for weakness.

He turned back to Lusca's huddled form and picked her up in his arms: carefully so that he wouldn't accidently stab her. He saw that a path had cleared after the small avalanche happened, and with shaking legs he began the slow journey out of the ravine, and back to the village.

It was now night, and the moon hung like a great eye in the heavens above them. The grass swayed and swirled like the weeds Saido saw growing in the river, and all was quiet except for the whistling of the wind.

He heard a small groan, and turned his head back to see Lusca shifting uncomfortably on his back. Her eyes fluttered open and those big violet eyes stared into his, widening in shock and wonder.

"Saido," she tearfully whispered. "I found you!"

Saido couldn't help smiling at the statement, his steps lightening. Lusca looked around them, shaking her head.

"I...I fell...and my foot," she said, looking down. It was bandaged with lengths of grass. She looked back at Saido, who said nothing. He looked straight ahead, his face unreadable. Lusca was struck by Saido's kindness, and she stammered out a nervous "thank you". Saido merely nodded in return and continued his trek. Lusca examined Saido's shoulders and found fresh scratches in his otherwise spotless navy armor.

"What happened," she gasped, touching one of the gashes with her paw. Saido said nothing for a long time.

"I found you in the rock hole," he began, looking forward. "I went down to get you, but some Geodude tried to stop me." Lusca held her breath, waiting for Saido to continue.

"...We got away," said Saito slowly, looking down.

He didn't want to tell Lusca that he was indirectly responsible for killing the Geodude leader. If Lusca sensed any dishonesty or fear, she didn't show it or voice her concerns. She could feel the fear, pain, and guilt radiating off his soul. She merely rested her head on Saido's neck.

"Thank you," she whispered.

The moonlight illuminated the way for the two young Pokémon as they headed home.