Last time On Ashes:
Stables, secrets, fencing practice and a bulbasaur.
Quote: "My father gave me a wild bulbasaur?"
Chapter Four: Bulbasaur
Just because everything's changing
Doesn't mean it's never
Been this way before
-Reginia
Hiroshi threw open yet another door with a wide proud smile on his face, "Now this has to be the kitchen!"
But a quick glance around the room of lush furnishings, dabbled window treatments, and old dusty piano spoke otherwise. Hiroshi's smile transformed back into a small pinching frown that he tried to keep Satoshi from seeing as he closed the door.
Ash followed behind his gentleman in waiting wordlessly. He walked with a rope at his side which he tugged occasionally to keep the green dinosaur in tow.
Bulbasaur was certainly not tame and it made sure they knew it, should they have any doubts. It took the two a few close calls, avoiding the snapping jaw, to get the thin rope around its neck. And even though Bulbasaur was a herbivore, it didn't make its teeth any less painful when its crushed down on your finger.
It was quite ridiculous, thought the crown prince. To be tugging along the small pokemon through the castle on a leash when it was supposed to be his body guard.
Satoshi could tell it was a baby. Its diminutive size could mean nothing else. At least luck there was on their side. There might still be time to win its obedience if not loyalty. But it was still the most stubborn creature that Satoshi ever had the displeasure in dealing with.
Even now, Satoshi had to make sure the Bulbasaur didn't chomp down on the rope or stop completely- holding up in the search. Honestly, Kyo could have at least left some food that they could give the horrible beast instead of leaving them to scour the whole castle for some.
"Now this is it!" said Hiroshi opening up another door that once again did not lead to the kitchen.
"Hiroshi?" asked Satoshi, yanking bulbasaur away from sniffing at the foot of a suit of armor. "How long have you been my gentleman in waiting?"
Hiroshi didn't meet his eye. Instead he continued walking keeping a pace ahead the prince. "Oh, uh. Since about birth, I suppose."
"Then why can't you find one- look! Even I know we've been down this hall already. We're walking in circles."
The prince caught Hiroshi by his sleeve, instantly drawing their aimless wandering to a halt. For a moment, neither said a word. Satoshi glared at the back of his friend's head. He knew his servant was searching his mind for excuses. None would be the truth- no one told him the truth.
"You don't think you've only ever lived in one castle, do you?" said Hiroshi with a wry smile.
Satoshi frowned. Hiroshi continued undaunted, "I'm just not quite used to this one. After all, before the accident I spent most of the time at the summer castle."
"Summer castle. Really, Hiroshi?" spat Satoshi bitterly. "You know just because I have amnesia doesn't mean I'm a gullible idiot."
Satoshi pushed pass his cousin angrily, dragging the unwilling bulbasaur behind him. Stomping down the hallway, he threw open doors and slammed them just as quickly when they proved the wrong location. He made his way briskly with Hiroshi following a safe distance behind.
"I'm sick of all these damn lies!" Satoshi shouted slamming another door shut. He stepped back, sending the wooden barrier a look that might have suggested the thing had fallen on him.
Bravely, Hiroshi risked a response, "Lies, crown prince?"
Satoshi rounded on him, his face livid. Hiroshi backed himself into a wall. He flinched when Satoshi slammed his palm down on the wall next to his face. Satoshi noticed.
"Why don't you know your way around here, Hiroshi? And why can't you tell me the truth?"
"I- I uh… Cro-"
"Stop calling me that! I thought we were friends now!" Satoshi shouted. He searched Hiroshi's face but the young man avoided Satoshi's eye.
"Look at me, Hiroshi!" Hiroshi reluctantly complied, but his face was anxious, almost fearful. Satoshi swallowed one question only to have hundreds more rise like bile in his throat.
"Why can't you keep a straight face when you look at me?"
Hiroshi's eyes trailed down to the prince's shoulder. His face was clouded. Oh, if only he could read minds!
"Does… does my illness… upset you?"
Hiroshi met Satoshi's inquiring stare. A flicker of understanding passed between them. Satoshi found his eyes stinging with tears. Who was he before? What had he lost…?
Satoshi drew back, his arms folding back to his side. His heart felt heavy in his chest. To think that these past several years, he had been lost- so lost in self absorption. A fail safe to his own sanity. Wrapped up in his own problems, he hadn't possibly conceived the possibility… that he may have forgotten a friend.
The crown prince lost himself the reflection of himself in his cousin's face. Who was he to Hiroshi? A companion? A friend? A brother? Satoshi didn't know. Satoshi didn't think he would ever know.
"Do you remember when you were fourteen, right after the accident?" said Hiroshi breaking the silence between them. "You asked me if I knew you?
"When you said that to me… oh god. I thought I was going to die," He laughed a hallow laugh.
Satoshi regarded the laugh cautiously. The heaviness in his chest only seemed to be increasing. "You didn't answer me."
"You're right. I didn't, did I? Crown Prince."
Satoshi felt his face go hot again. "God damn it, Hiroshi. Don't call me that! Call me Sato!"
Hiroshi was given a start. His wide eyes on Satoshi's lips incredulously, Hiroshi sputtered, "Call you…"
"Sato. Isn't…" Satoshi paused, deterred by Hiroshi's bewilderment. "Isn't that what you used to call me?"
"N-no," said Hiroshi. "I didn't."
Satoshi couldn't help but notice the servant's face looked flushed of color. Then suddenly Hiroshi moved forward grabbing the prince by his shoulders. Uncomfortable by the sudden closeness, Satoshi had to resist the urge to pull away. Something in Hiroshi's grip relayed a sort of urgency that Satoshi felt he needed to know.
"What else do you remember, Satoshi?"
Satoshi stared. "N- nothing."
"Nothing at all?"
"Nothing!"
"Are you sure? It's absolutely important… if you remember anything you need to tell-" He faltered.
Satoshi thought for sure he was finally getting something out of his gentleman in waiting at last. Hiroshi pause grew great agitation inside the impatient prince. Thinking that Hiroshi had suddenly gotten a hold of his tongue and now intended to keep hold of it, Satoshi spurred him onward, "If I remember… tell who?"
"What's this now?"
Satoshi spun about towards the interceding voice. It was only Kanna, the male attired advisor of Satoshi's father. Her rivalry with Kyo had often saved Satoshi when Kyo's fury with his pupil had grown too intense. This was not to say the woman was kind. Often Satoshi felt like an item under Kanna's sharp gaze. And yet, at the same time, Satoshi had the sneaky suspicion the woman was afraid of him.
Her objectifying stare went from each boy in turn before falling upon the bulbasaur in the corner, chewing on his restraints. Kanna turned back to Satoshi with a cold smile, "Am I interrupting something?"
"Yes," shot Satoshi bitterly.
"No," said Hiroshi just as quickly. Satoshi sent Hiroshi a bewildered expression that the servant ignored. Instead he continued on his point by adding, "We were simply trying to find the kitchen so that we could feed the crown prince's bulbasaur."
"Ah yes," Kanna bent over, examining the pokemon with her eyes. Even bulbasaur seemed unnerved by her icy stare, pausing in his chewing to leer at the blue haired individual. "I had heard you were given a hatchling. So this is it, huh?"
She sent the prince a sympathetic look, "You know, fetching food for this creature is hardly a chore for a crown prince. You could have simply sent for a serving maid."
Satoshi scowled in response. "I prefer to do it myself."
"To each their own," shrugged Kanna upon straightening. "If you're looking for the kitchen, I'm afraid you're on the wrong side of the castle. The kitchens are in the east wing."
"Then I guess that's where we're headed."
Satoshi made to move pass her with his gentleman in waiting in tow but she grabbed Hiroshi by the crook of his arm.
"Not so fast," Kanna said. "I have some business with young Hiroshi here."
Hiroshi flinched, as if scalded by her touch. She twisted his hand back, causing Hiroshi some undue pain. Satoshi saw and was quick to action. He stepped between the two, his grip tight over Kanna's own wrist.
"You have no right to handle my servant. Let go of him."
"I'm afraid the business is very pressing-"
"I said let go of him," said Satoshi, warning creeping into the edges of his voice. "Now."
Satoshi had never been a mellow prince. He attempted to play the passive card most days. But his temper often got the best of him. Today, what with this unpleasant discovery of the hatchling, he was already in a testy mood. With a temper like his father, Satoshi was equally not one to cross. And Kanna could see that in his eyes. She released Hiroshi's wrist. But her expression remained set.
"You are the Crown Prince. But until you are King, my authority as advisor reigns over your own. Give me permission to speak to your gentleman in waiting."
"Speak then."
"In private."
"What can't you say in front of your own prince?"
"Regrettably, many things. You are but a child still. Your ears must not hear certain things. Please step aside."
"Hiroshi is my age. I can hear what he hears."
"But he is not the Crown Prince."
Satoshi was willing to continue to contest her but Hiroshi hushed him with a gentle squeeze of his shoulder.
"It's alright. I will go with her."
The set look on Hiroshi's face was almost daunting. Satoshi flushed with both a feeling of abandonment and frustration. Right when he was so close to... something. Even Hiroshi wasn't willing to break the rules. There were just too many damn secrets.
Satoshi grudgingly stepped aside, allowing Hiroshi to be briskly marched out of ear and eyeshot. He watched them turned the corner, and had half the mind to follow them. But Satoshi hadn't gotten more than a few steps before a voice behind him sounded, "You shouldn't try to follow, Crown Prince."
Satoshi turned, weakly smiling up at the tall evenly toned general. It was hard to imagine that someone so large could sneak up on people, but Shiba was man with many unlikely skills. One being his easy presence. Satoshi didn't suppose there was anyone in the whole castle that disliked Shiba aside from Kyo who hated everyone.
"They were going to talk about me though."
"Does not mean that gives you the justification to eavesdrop."
Shiba paused to pick up the discarded rope leash. Bulbasaur, forgotten in the tense argument before, had managed to pull away from his makeshift master and chew on the nearby tapestry. Half the tassels had already been eaten away.
"Looks like your monster is hungry," said Shiba. "I think it would be a far better use of our time to feed the poor thing before it takes a liking to other inanimate objects along this corridor."
Bulbasaur made something almost like a grin. But his small round teeth had pieces of dark thread spider webbed across them. Repulsed, Satoshi knew he would have to be the one to clean the creature's teeth. After all, nobody else would willing stick their hand into a hatchling's mouth.
Shiba laughed at the young prince's scowl. "Come. I'll show you to the kitchens."
He took the front, gently leading the bulbasaur behind him. Distracted by the thread tangling its teeth, it did not struggle nearly as much as it had for Hiroshi or Satoshi. When Satoshi fell into pace behind the large man, he sought for a glimpse of trust in the back of the man's head. But Satoshi knew even without looking that everyone in the palace was keeping things from him. If Hiroshi wouldn't tell him, there was no way that one of his father's trusted council would tell him any more.
"If I were to remember what I've forgotten," said Satoshi to himself, "how would it compare to what I've been told?"
"Not well."
Satoshi looked in surprise. Shiba's face was still full of his usual humor.
"What do you mean?"
Shiba disregarded the question, "But then again, this palace is cemented together in its secrets. If you do regain your memory, crown prince, you'll remember that fact as well."
His expression darkened, Satoshi looked down at the cold marble floors that clicked beneath his heels. Sometimes the corridors had aisle runners in a small attempt to make the halls warmer, especially in the winter months. But as the hot sticky summer weather was fast approaching, Satoshi was thankful for the cool floor and walls for the time being.
Bulbasaur was starting to realize that he was being dragged to another location. He locked his legs on the carpet but only managed to kick it up and ripple it as he was dragged. Shiba didn't even stop to give Bulbasaur a chance to protest. Eventually the hatching realized that it could not win against this human, and grudgingly set a slow pace between the general and crown prince.
At long last, they reached the kitchens. It wasn't much to look at. At this time of day, they were empty. The servants were busy working in the courtyard across the way, where the other ends of the large kitchen grounds lay. But the lazy smell of smoke, cooked meat and bread was still soaked deep into the walls over many years. For some reason the smell was an odd comfort, more comfortable than even his own room.
When he was younger and the ache of having no memory was not yet familiar, he had yearned for less complicated life of a palace servant. To sleep by a hearth, dress in bright colored tunics and shirts, and to enjoy the closeness and community that such a life offered. For such a life he would have traded all the gold threads, rich velvets and silks he could have gotten his hands on. He had no taste for such finery anyhow.
Shiba dropped the hatchling's rope into Satoshi's unexpecting hands, and got quickly to work. He snatched one of the discarded wooden bowls, and began piling a mixture of ingredients into it. Satoshi watched silently. He was adding a combination of dried berries and various herbs that hung over the counters like holly and mistletoe decoration at Christmas.
"This is good for about any monster," said Shiba as he began crushing the concoction together with a smooth and shaped bone. "Herbivore or carnivore and all those in between. Except for, of course..."
"Charmander," said Satoshi absentmindedly.
Shiba looked to him with wide eyes. "Well yes. I was going to say dragon types but... yes."
"It's too tart. They like spices in crushed meat."
"Very good, Crown Prince. I can see Kyo's done well by you."
"Huh? Oh well, I guess." The prince was distracted by his jumbled thoughts. He did not know where that knowledge had surfaced from. But he had been strong and confident in relaying it at the time of its request. Now he was unsure and somewhat scared of where it had come from. Why did he know about a charmander of all monsters? There were no fire pokemon save for the occasional growithe held by the palace guards here in Tokiwa. Where had he learned such a thing?
Shiba frowned at Satoshi's troubled expression. He quickly finished mashing the salad and pushed it into Satoshi's hands. It broke the prince out of his daze.
"Go ahead and lay it down for him."
Satoshi nodded numbly and knelt down beside the hatchling. He scooted the bowl before the monster. Bulbasaur practically lunged for the bowl, like a ravished predator on its prey. He quickly scarfed up the entire meal, eagerly licking the bowl clean.
"Well, we'll leave the bowl on the ground. I'll let the servants know that that shall be your hatchling's feed dish."
"Eh. Thanks."
They watched as the little bulbasaur circled and curled itself beside the dish. It gently closed its red eyes, worn out from the afternoon spent pushing, pulling, and stubbornly refusing to be the prince's chosen monster. Shiba caught the prince's hard gaze softening when watching the slumbering monster.
"I know you didn't chose this monster, Crown Prince... but perhaps..."
"It didn't chose me either," said Satoshi softly.
Shiba sighed, and looked over to the monster again. Its bulb was wilted to one side and a dryer green than it should be. That wasn't a good sign.
"Ah," Shiba frowned. "Premature wilting. I was afraid of that."
At Satoshi's questioning stare, the general continued. "It's common in bulb poison types. Causes many to hatch and die young. Its poison is too toxic for its own body to counter, so its flower is blooming and decaying all at once."
"Can't something be done?"
"Well left untreated, I'm afraid it will be fatal," said Shiba glancing up at the dusty rafters of the kitchen were the assorted herbs, grasses, and flowers dried upside down. "But... with some tinsel root... ah yes."
He carefully pulled down the thin white grasses a few threads at a time, rolling them about his fingers. He handed the spools of grass over to Satoshi. The boy looked at the bundles as if they were as unfamiliar as a stranger's strands of hair.
"Feed those to your hatchling. Three strands, daily. For two weeks. They should counteract its own poison."
Satoshi glanced over at his monster that begun to twitch in its sleep before turning back to Shiba. His face was shifting between pleading and helplessness. "Why can't you..."
"I can't keep your hatchling for you, Crown Prince. I will be here to guide you this time but not the others. You need to know how to do this yourself."
"He seemed fine when he was trying to head butt me and Hiroshi," grumbled Satoshi.
"The poison is slow but deadly."
Satoshi knelt beside his sleeping monster, careful not to wake him as he scooted closer with the threads of tinsel root in hand. He unwound three blades and held them pinched between his thumb and forefinger. With his other hand he carefully attempted to lift the monster's thick lip.
Bulbasaur woke with a start and snapped angrily at Satoshi's fingers. Startled, the prince rocked back on his heels and fell smartly on his bottom. Shiba laughed whole heartedly at the sight and didn't stop even at Satoshi's sharp glare.
"You can't be sneaky with this one, Crown Prince. And he's letting you know it."
"Then how?" exasperated Satoshi, trying once again to hold out the grass. But Bulbasaur, now suspicious of the greens, still tried to bite him. "It'll die if it doesn't eat it. How can I help it if it tries to hurt me when I do?"
"Should had hidden it in the creature's food dish... I suppose it wouldn't hurt to-"
But before Shiba could finish, Satoshi acted. He wrapped the tinsel root tightly around his index and middle fingers and had deliberately thrust the fingers forward into the Bulbasaur's sights.
"Crown Prince!"
Shiba wasn't as fast as Bulbasaur's jaws. They bit down hard onto Satoshi's hand. Shiba winced despite himself. But Satoshi kept his expression set. Fingers bleeding, he loosened the tinsel root from them and into the monster's mouth.
With his free hand trembling, Satoshi stroked Bulbasaur's head hoping to coax it into loosening its grip on his trapped hand. The sharp mint of the tinsel stinging at the monster's taste buds and Satoshi's finger tips, Bulbasaur began to relax. It's red eyes dulled at the lull of the medicine. Satoshi was finally able to get his fingers free from Bulbasaur's mouth. He gripped his bleeding fingers tightly as if suddenly realizing how easily he might have lost them had his monster been anything other than a herbivore.
"Good lord," said Shiba, rushing to Satoshi's aid with a wet strip of cloth. He spoke in a hushed voice but there was a sense of awe spoken in his tone. "There were far easier ways to go about that, Crown Prince."
Shiba wrapped the cold cloth tightly about Satoshi's fingers. The cuts bled through staining it a sickly blackened color. Satoshi fought back the sting the wet brought through the gritted teeth. He said nothing. Instead, Satoshi was beginning to taste something starting in the back of his throat. It was the hint of memory that brought a sensation of raindrops slick on his skin and a crowd of shadows to his vision. Before him arched a tower of a thing, looming down at him with gleaming red eyes and fangs.
And there was a shrieked whisper of the name Sato in his ears.
Then, without warning, the Crown Prince collapsed to the hard cobblestone floor.
To Be Continued...
Please Read and Review!
So sorry for the long wait for this continuation. It's been almost exactly a year since I last updated. I'm hoping the next one won't take so long. I was having a difficult time with certain parts of this. I apologize for not continuing it sooner.
Next time, Satoshi and Bulbasaur recover and start the hunt for Satoshi's own Pikachu.
GLOSSARY:
Satoshi- Ash
Hiroshi- Richie
Kyo- Koga
Kanna- Lorelei
Shiba-Bruno
Tokiwa- Viridian
Thanks for the feedback from those of you who reviewed last time: Epiphany's Apocalypse, LehCar702, Dreamlight, lord Martiya, and YumeTakato.
But if you do read, please review. I always appreciate knowing what you think.