Chapter 2:
Ryder was awoken at 6:30AM, by the annoying buzzing of his alarm clock, that sat on the end table, which was next to his bed.
He reached out, attempting to hit the snooze button, while keeping warm under his blankets, and his pokeball went toppling off of his chest, rolling onto the wooden floor, and under the bed.
"UGH!" He rolled himself out of bed and onto the floor, bending down, reaching under the bed, and pulling back the now shrunken and compacted pokeball.
Ryder stood up and stretched, clipping the pokeball onto the silver chain that he wore around his neck.
The chain and the pokemon were a gift from his grandfather, who was a researcher, and disappeared when Ryder was only six, while on an expedition north, to find evidence of a Mamoswine, which was supposed to have become extinct after the last ice age. He had left Ryder the chain and the pokemon inside, right before he left, but the pokeball, Ryder had gotten it for his birthday last may.
"This pokemon will be yours forever and you must take care of him and raise him as your own now", Ryder's grandfather told him.
Ryder, tears streaming down his face tried to protest, and hold his grandfather back as best as he could, but in the end, his grandfather left with his team anyway.
Ryder had never forgotten that day, and swore that no matter what, he would find his grandfather, and the legendary pokemon that he hunted.
Ryder walked to his closet, and grabbed a black pair of thick Mareep wool pants, and a thick sweater, before heading to the washroom to shower.
He stripped down quickly, turned the hot water on, jumped in the shower and scrubbed himself down, before hopping back out and dressing.
Ryder walked out into the hallway, down the wooden stairs and into the kitchen, where his mother was making breakfast.
She was a short fair skinned woman, in her late forties, with blonde hair, and blue eyes.
"Morning mom," Ryder said, as he sat down at the dark, cherry wood table.
"Good morning Ryder", she replied, turning and smiling at him, before quickly returning to her cooking.
"Where's dad?" He asked.
"He just went down to the barn to check on the Piloswine, they seemed nervous".
Ryder nodded.
His mother turned around and carried a plate of bacon and toast over to Ryder, along with a glass of Moomoo milk, which Ryder, extremely hungry, scarfed it down eagerly.
Suddenly the door burst open and a little voice shouted, "Ryder! Come quick! Flareon's eggs are hatching!"
Ryder jumped up from the table, and ran to the door, where his little sister Amanda, was jumping up and down excitedly. She was tiny, only eight years old, and looked just like her mother. She was dressed in a puffy Swanna down jacket to keep her warm from the freezing winds.
Ryder grabbed his white jacket from the coat rack next to the door, threw it on quickly, and ran out after Amanda.
The wind was calm, but the cold was still biting Ryder's cheeks and nose as he stepped out into the wakening world.
The sun was beginning to rise over the forest to the east, and Ryder was able to see the ranch around him.
The sky was clear at the moment, but that tended to change quickly in Glacia, and Ryder could see the wooden fences, that held the pokemon, and beyond that, the dark masses of sleeping Piloswine and Swinub.
Directly in front of that was a large black barn, with the door open, and Ryder could see light flickering from inside.
They jogged through the inch of snow that was on the ground, to the barn, and crept inside, where Ryder saw his father, kneeling over his Flareon, his prized pokemon, that he used to defend the ranch from rogue ice pokemon.
"Come on in guys", Ryder's father said, without having to turn around, "The show is about to begin".
Ryder and Amanda walked quietly up behind their father, and kneeled down, watching the Flareon and her clutch of seven, wiggling eggs, beneath her.
Ryder's father wasn't quite sure how his Flareon became pregnant, but guessed that she had spent some time among one of the many packs of Glaceon that roamed around during the winter months. They were mostly calm, and rarely came to the ranch, unless food was extremely scarce, in which they would try to take a young Swinub.
Ryder's father was a tall, but wide man, with a bald head, that was always covered with a tuque like Ryder's and he had all of the same features that Ryder had inherited.
Suddenly, the first egg cracked, and Ryder could see the fur ball writhing its way out of the egg, then a second, and soon all the newborn Eevees were free, and crawling to their mother for warmth and protection.
Ryder smiled, and Amanda began to giggle as the tiny brown and white Eevee pups began to suckle from their mother.
"They're so cute!" Amanda squealed, "I want one!"
Their father laughed loudly, "In time sweet heart", he said. "You can each choose an Eevee for your own".
Ryder's eyes lit up, and he grinned. A new pokemon for my own, he thought, at this rate, I might have my chance to become a real pokemon trainer!
Ryder's father stood up, and turned towards them, "Well I'm going to go and check on the Piloswine, the Johnsons from down the street said he saw two Cubchoos wandering around their yard last night".
Ryder nodded, where there's Cubchoo, there are bound to be the parents around somewhere.
"You guys stay here and keep an eye on Flareon and the pups, and if you'd like you can start to choose one", their father said, smiling.
He walked out, and Amanda squealed again and clapped quickly, then jumped closer to Flareon, looking over every Eevee, with a big smile on her face.
Ryder sat back, silently choosing his own new Eevee, while rolling the pokeball around his neck between his fingers.
Soon Ryder could feel the lack of sleep from the night before, and his eyes began to feel heavy. He laid back on a hay bale and closed his eyes.
It was no time before Ryder had fallen asleep.
He was awoken by a fuzzy and warm sensation, rubbing against his face. He tried to brush it away, but it only would come back and brush against him again. He opened his eyes and was staring face to face with one of the Eevee pups, who had wandered across the barn, and away from its mother. This one was strange. While most Eevees had green, or brown eyes, this Eevee had bright blue eyes, almost white.
Ryder smiled, sat up, and looked around. Amanda was gone, probably back inside doing her chores, or helping mom in the kitchen, Ryder thought. He bent over,and scooped up the little fur ball, carrying it back to where Flareon was busy tending to the other six pups.
Ryder gently placed the Eevee next to Flareon, and she sniffed it twice before, nudging it back down toward her stomach to feed with the rest.
Ryder noticed that it was much smaller than the other Eevees.
He must be the runt of the litter, Ryder thought to himself.
Suddenly Flareon stiffened, and all of her raised up. She raised her head, sniffed the air and let out a low, menacing growl.
"What's wrong girl?" Ryder asked, "Do you smell something?"
That's when he heard the roar.
It was a deep, terrifying roar, that made him jump, and spin around. A moment later he heard a scream of pain. It was his father.
Ryder sprinted out of the barn, and turned toward the Piloswine pens, where he heard the roar and the scream, but he could barely see three feet in front of him.
The wind was whipping madly, and a massive snowstorm had appeared from seemingly nowhere.
He heard his father shouting, and the sound of panicking Piloswine from the pens about one hundred feet in front of him.
Ryder turned back to the barn, "Flareon, come on!" he yelled.
But she was standing, in front of her pups, ready to defend them at the slightest sense of danger, and Ryder knew she wouldn't abandon them, even to protect her trainer.
Ryder began to run towards the pens, and heard Amanda and their mother screaming from the direction of the house.
"Daddy!" Amanda screamed.
"John!" their mother yelled.
"Mom!" Ryder shouted, "Get Amanda inside!"
Ryder kept running until he reached the chest high, wooden fence, in which his jumped over with ease, before he finally saw what was happening.
A massive Beartic was standing over Ryder's collapsed father snarling, with teeth bared, about to strike, while her two Cubchoo babies were standing behind her, growling and squeaking, while the Piloswine were huddle on the far side of the pen, the males, with their sharp protruding tusk, surrounded the females and the Swinub, creating a barrier around them.
The world suddenly became very still.
Ryder could see every snowflake individually, he could see the blood on the snow, and count the bloody teeth in the Beartic's mouth. Without even thinking, he tore the Glacier ball from around his neck, hit the centre button to expand it, and before he knew what was going on, the ball was in the air, and opened.
Ryder's Swinub appeared from the white light of the pokeball, ready to battle.
This Swinub may have seemed like nothing special to anyone, but Ryder's grandfather told him that it was found as an egg, frozen in the ice deep in the far north, beyond where any sane person would dare venture, deep in the Frozen Spire, a cavernous mountain, in which almost anyone who set out to research it, either came back exhausted, not even making it to the mountain, or not at all. It was also where Ryder's grandfather had set out to find Mamoswine ten years ago.
This Swinub, was snow white, with dark brown stripes running down its back, as opposed to the light brown fur of the normal.
"Swinub, tackle!" Ryder shouted.
Swinub leapt forward, slamming its body into the Beartic, knocking it off balance, and sending them clashing to the ground.
Swinub leapt back, barely dodging the Beartic's slashing claws, as it rose up to its feet, and they squared up to battle.
"Use Powder Snow!" Ryder shouted.
The wind picked up speed, and barraged the Beartic with needle like ice, but the Beartic simply shrugged it off.
Ryder ran to help his father, who was desperately trying to crawl backwards away from the clashing pokemon. He had a deep bite mark in his left leg, and blood poured from it.
Swinub continued to hold off Beartic, charging it and using its body weight to tackle it, trying to scare it away, but the Beartic was simply too large and too angry to back down.
The Beartic opened its jaws wide, and Ryder could see a blue beam of light beginning to appear from between its jaws.
"Swinub, dodge it!" He yelled, but it was too late.
The ice beam shot with lightning speed from the Beartic's mouth, slamming hard into Swinub, and sending it sailing through the air, slamming it into a fence post.
"Swinub!"
The Beartic turned, and began to advance towards Ryder and his father, snarling in anger, while the Cubchoos seemed to growl in delight at the view of their next meal.
Ryder stood up, blocking the Beartic's path between it, and his father, ready to sacrifice himself to give his father a chance to escape.
The Beartic raised a paw to tear into Ryder, when suddenly, from the wall of falling snow, a ball of burning fire, shot from out of view, striking the Beartic, which roared in pain, and spiraled backwards, off balance, before crashing to the ground.
There was a flash of orange and black, and like a blur, a massive Arcanine, now stood between Ryder and the Beartic, growling threateningly its new opponent.
The Beartic rose to its feet, and Ryder could once again make out the whitish blue beam of light building in its mouth, when from out of view Ryder could hear a voice.
"Arcanine! Use flamethrower!" The mystery man shouted.
In the blink of an eye, the Arcanine opened its jaw wide, and a jet of fire was released, engulfing the Beartic, before it could even react.
From the veil of snow, two figures emerged.
Brandon Saunders, who owned the salt, and ice stone mines in the town, and easily was the richest man in the north. He was tall, thin and well dressed, with sleek silver hair, and light skin.
Next to him, was his son, Xander, Ryder's least favourite person in Glacia. He was a stuck up, snobby, jerk, who thought that because his family had money, he could get away with whatever he wanted. He was a spitting image of his father, with the sleek silver hair, fair skinned, and had the tall features that ran in the family.
Two Growlithes, leapt from behind them and stood next to the Arcanine, heads low and teeth bared.
"Growlithes, ember!" Xander shouted.
The two Growlithes opened their mouths, and a small jet of flames shot at the Beartic, which stood itself back up, injured. It roared once, as a last ditch effort to scare the opponents away, but in the end, it turned and fled back into the snow, with its two Cubchoos tailing quickly behind it.
Ryder, completely ignoring his saviours, turned and ran back to his father, who was now white as a ghost, and losing consciousness.
"Dad!" he shouted, "Hang in there, you're going to be alright!"
Ryder looked at the wound in his father's leg. It was still bleeding immensely, and Ryder could almost see right down to the bone.
Brandon knelt down beside Ryder, and put a hand on Ryder's father's shoulder.
"John?" he yelled, "its Brandon, help is on the way".
As if on cue, a sled, being drawn by two Rapidash, pulled into the pen, ready to take John to the hospital. The brands on the Rapidash's necks, was the Saunders family chest. A rearing Arcanine, with cross swords behind it.
Must be nice to have that much money, Ryder thought.
The driver of the sled hopped off, and he and Brandon carefully picked up John, and carried him to the sled.
As Ryder watch he suddenly remembered, Swinub!, he thought, and quickly turned and raced to where his Swinub was laying in the snow, snorting lightly.
"You're alright buddy, let's get you some rest".
Ryder took the pokeball, and pointed it to Swinub, and it returned to the pokeball's safety.
Brandon and his driver finished loading John into the sled, and Brandon returned his Arcanine and one of the Growlithes to their pokeballs, before hopping on the sled, and transporting John to the nearest hospital.
Ryder stood up, shaken from the events that had just passed, and noticed that Xander, along with his own Growlithe were still standing there watching him.
"Maybe your family should invest in some decent pokemon, instead of these stupid pigs." Xander said with a smirk, "then my father and I wouldn't have to get a call from your mother to come and save your sorry hides".
Ryder mind filled with rage, and he stepped towards Xander to strike at him, but his path was barred by Xander's Growlithe, ready to defend its trainer.
"Nice try there buddy", Xander said, "Growlithe lets take care of this weakling, I doubt anyone will even notice, he's gone".
Ryder tensed, as the Growlithe couched, ready to pounce.
Suddenly the ground began to shake beneath them, and the Growlithe drove away from Ryder, and he spun around to see twelve massive male Piloswine standing ready to charge, behind him.
Xander went wide eyed. "Uh... Growlithe come back", and he flashed the pokeball at Growlithe who eagerly returned.
Ryder gave a little bit of a dark smile.
"I don't think they appreciated you calling them a pig", he said.
Xander turned and ran as the Piloswine charged, chasing him all the way back to the fence line, where they stood, watching him as he disappeared into the snow, before becoming bored, and dispersing, going back to grazing once again.
Ryder stood there for a second watching the Piloswine, before running back to the house.