Disclaimer: Tragedy peeks out from behind a tree, "Jedd doesn't own Pokemon."
Notice: Sorry about how long this took, things have been a bit weird over here. Working on getting everything back on track. Here's hoping. Anyhow, here's the next chapter. This Notice has been brought to you by Zombie's Incorporated, where the employees eat you. Should you feel you have reached this Notice an error, please sit down and read this chapter. And please be sure to review!
Star of Tragedy.
By Jedd Shual-Iyiste.
Chapter 4.
Fall of Fire.
If Tragedy hadn't been sick, escaping this situation be so much easier. But with her reflexes sluggish, she wasn't would be able to jump high enough to a branch that was a safe distance away from the Arcanine... Was there a safe distance from a fire Pokemon? Perhaps in this forest, in what was probably the middle of the Arcanine's territory, the answer was yes.
As Tragedy ran for it, the Arcanine matching his pace with hers, she realized that the large fire pokemon hadn't used any fire attacks. The answer was fairly obvious. The trees. The Arcanine didn't want to risk burning his territory down to the ground. But that didn't mean she was in any less dangerous a position.
Arcanine were notorious for being long distance runners, and with his size and stride advantage, he'd be able to match her speed and easily outlast her. She needed to shake this guy off her tail fast, before she tired. Unfortunately, Arcanine were also gifted with very keen noses. Escape would not be easy. Her best bet would to go for the river. Being a fire pokemon, he might not follow her in it. She wasn't looking forward to another swim, but given the alternative behind her... she pushed her legs harder, trying to go faster and away from the Arcanine.
Even though he was trying to kill her, she didn't blame him. She really couldn't. She had been following the trail of his child, a Growlithe, for the purpose of food. Only now, she was the prey in turn.
She jumped to the left, darting between two trees and over a bush. Being a larger pokemon, the Arcanine would have to move around the trees. She had to keep dodging and weaving through small openings like that, less the Arcanine catch her.
She heard the Arcanine growl and curse at her, swearing to... to... Tragedy put on another burst of speed, putting her head down and running now for all she was worth. She was tiring, but she'd rather die running than let the Arcanine catch her. It'd be less painful. Cold or no cold, she wasn't stopping.
In front of her, she saw what looked like salvation. Another pair of trees together, with several berry bushes around them. She dodged down through the pair of trees and skidded to a stop in the bushes. She could hear the Arcanine running to the left to move around the trees, so she turned and began running back the other way. Glancing over her shoulder she was rewarded with the sight of the Arcanine running off the way she had been going, not noticing she had turned to a new direction.
Picking up speed, she ran. Making as many large leaps as she could, trying to make it hard for the Arcanine to follow her scent. She had escaped his view, now she had to get escape his powerful nose. She heard a loud roar of anger and knew that the Arcanine had realized what she had done.
Glancing around, she knew that it would be only a matter of time before she was caught. Then she had an idea. Stopping at a large tree, she looked up and flexed her claws. They may not have been as versatile as a feline pokemon's, but they would still work for climbing. Readying herself, she pushed off and jumped high, almost making the branch she wanted.
Claws digging in, she pulled herself up the last several feet and onto the branch. Turning her gaze, she saw another large branch on another tree. Again she leaped, praying she made it. She felt that sense of weightlessness as her body hurled itself through the air, then she was on the second branch.
She then moved onto a third branch and stopped there, this one having a cover of leaves below it. Laying down on the branch and looking carefully, she could see down to the ground. She tried to relax, not daring to move to another branch. The Arcanine wouldn't be that far behind her, and she was lucky enough to have gotten this far. She sneezed.
Damn that cold. She hadn't sneezed once during her run, and now that she was trying to hide it had naturally come back.
Seconds passed, then the Arcanine came into view. The large pokemon moved swiftly, his nose working as he moved to the tree she had first gone to and paused, glaring at it. Here she had the advantage. Large and powerful though he might be, she doubted that the fire pokemon could knock down a tree. And she wasn't even in the tree he was looking at.
He growled and snarled, circling the tree, trying to find her. She gave a small smirk, but didn't move. She was still in trouble. She was trapped up there in her tree, even if he didn't know which tree she was in. She was all ready hungry, and she wouldn't last long up here if the Aracinine didn't give up his hunt. And even if he left, how could she be sure he wasn't just out of view, waiting for her to come out of hiding?
"Well well, aren't you a foolish looking creature?" came a taunting voice from out of her view.
The Arcanine's head snapped towards the speaker, ears laid back. Tragedy felt cold. She knew that voice. It was a voice she wished she'd never hear again.
Slowly, as if out of her darkest nightmare, came an Absol. Unlike her, his fur was a light red, his eyes blue, and his claws, tail, face and horn were a crimson color. He was what the humans would have called a 'shiny' pokemon. She called him a monster.
Everything the humans feared in an Absol, that was what he was. He strutted forwards towards the Arcanine that glared at him, growling in warning. The new Absol sneered at him and gave a small chuckle. The Arcanine had had enough and charged. It was the last thing that he would ever do.
The red Absol jumped. Jumped right up to the tree that she had climbed, twisted in midair and landed against the side of the tree, facing down to the ground. Immediately he pushed off again, and as the Arcanine turned to face him, the Absol's curved horn slice right through the fire pokemon's neck as he landed.
Tragedy shivered in terror as she watched the large pokemon fall to the side, a pool of blood forming from his neck. The red Absol smirked then began walking off, muttering about pathetic pokemon.
Tragedy didn't move even after the red Absol long since leave her view.
She didn't move as the Growlithe child she had seen came into view and cried.
She didn't move, not daring to until finally hunger and thirst drove her from her hiding spot. The moon was out and the Growlithe child had fled. She had to hunt, had to drink. As she dropped to the ground, she waited, expecting the red Absol to make himself known... but he didn't. He was gone.
Running from the corpse of the fire pokemon, she came to the river. Drinking away her thirst, she began to run again, following the river. Anywhere was better than here. Anywhere was better than where Dualsol was.
