Chapter 4
Her energy reserves are running dangerously low, and berries just aren't cutting it…
Digging through a berry bush, our Trapinch is desperately looking for even the smallest ounce of food she can find. It's been a full 48 hours since leaving the stream, leaving the Joltiks, and she has yet to capture any prey. Strangely, her stomach hasn't been complaining as much as usual, and although that's a relief, it can't help but worry her. Hunger means her stomach is working; is it beginning to give up on her?
She's also noticed that she's been feeling so tired lately. But every time she took a nap, she found it increasingly difficult to rouse and drag herself from her temporary burrow. This also worries her, and she wonders how much longer she can go before she falls asleep, and finds herself completely unable to move upon waking. She wonders how much longer she can go before she doesn't wake up at all…
Shaking those horrible thoughts from her head, she tries to reassure herself that she'll find food before it gets to that point… somehow…
Well, one thing's for sure, she wasn't finding any food here. Abandoning the fruitless bush, she sighs and continues limping along. Her injured leg seems in slightly better shape, now that it's bandaged and she's been allowing it to rest. Sure, it's not healing as fast as it should be, given that her body's more focused on staying alive on reserves rather than healing, but a little is certainly better than nothing. As long as it's strong enough to carry her through this cool night, she's satisfied.
She shivers slightly, noticing that she's getting cold more easily. Possibly has something to do with her dwindling fat layer, not as much insulation. Thankfully, she still has her Electroweb blanket draped over her body, and it helps in keeping the heat in. The sparks erupting from her blanket also casts a soft blue light around her; it was actually quite helpful in letting her see the darker corners of the forest…
She catches sight of movement from one of these said corners, near the small hollow of a tree. Freezing, our Trapinch can hear a soft rustling sound coming from the hollow and she slowly inches closer to it. The sound stops, and she freezes. She doesn't know what's in there, but her predatory instincts have kicked in and she's intent on devouring this… thing, whatever it is.
The rustling sound resumes, unaware of her presence, and she tenses, shifting her weight a bit, positioning herself. Her eyes are locked on the hollow's opening and when the rustling stops again, she makes her move.
Lunging forward, her hunger and weariness shows when she miscalculates the size of the hollow and her jaws lodge half-way into the tree. A panicked screaming sound comes from the tree, as well as a distinct crackling of a Thundershock. Of course, our Trapinch is unaffected, although she still doesn't like how she can't snap at her prey. Pulling and tugging, she has a bit of a hard time getting free of the tree and she has to brace her forelegs on the trunk to gain enough leverage to pull herself from the hollow.
Stumbling, her eyes catch a small round figure fleeing from the hollow and she snaps for it. The little critter, a Dedenne, jumps away and scrambles into a nearby burrow. Our Trapinch feels a soft smirk tug at the edges of her mouth; perhaps she'll finally get her meal. Confidence rising, she hurries over to the burrow as fast as her injured leg will let her and turns her head to allow an eye to peek inside. She can see the Dedenne's whiskered face and panicked expression and she grunts before pulling her head away to dig at the burrow entrance.
The Dedenne immediately starts screaming again, realizing that her underground haven is of no real obstacle to the Ground-type. Turning away from the Trapinch, she hurries towards one of the emergency exits. She'll have a better chance of escaping by running away…
The Trapinch keeps digging, following the burrow's path before more movement catches her eye. Glancing over, she sees the Dedenne pulling her round body from a nearby exit. Gathering her strength, she lunges at the dormouse, intent on snatching her before she manages to pull free entirely. But this is foiled when another Pokémon swoops in and grabs the Dedenne in its talons, impaling the little thing and killing her pretty much instantly. It takes off just as our Trapinch's jaws snap mere centimeters from it.
Feeling her teeth meet air rather than flesh, the Trapinch looks up to see a Noctowl flying off with HER prey! How…? Where…? Why…? Her patience pretty much snaps at that point…
"YOU KILL-STEALING MOTHERFUCKER!"
Growling explosively, she snaps her jaws at the leaf litter beneath her feet, shaking her head savagely as if to kill some imaginary target before throwing the leaves back to the ground. Her growls intensify into a full-on shriek of rage and frustration, her forelegs stomping violently before she bites off a chunk of the ground. Shivering, she forces herself to calm down and sits back on her haunches. Her mouth's still full of dirt as she sits in silence for a long while.
The forest around her has fallen silent as well, as if not wanting to reignite her anger. Finally, she opens her jaws to allow the dirt to fall free before taking a few deep breaths. The night isn't over yet and she still has the chance of finding something of substance to consume before she heads to sleep come dawn.
Forcing herself back to her feet, she scans her surroundings before picking a random direction and heading off once again.
They say desperate times call for desperate measures. She believes she understands that statement now…
Tucked hidden in the bushes, staring hungrily at the screaming and bleeding Pichu, our Trapinch doesn't know what to do. This Pichu is the first thing she's found edible since losing that Dedenne to that stupidass, piece-of-shit Noctowl the night before, and her instincts yell at her to go get it. The only problem? A Galvantula is the one eating this poor soul…
Throughout her entire life, she's been utterly terrified of these arachnids, but she notices that her fear isn't as strong as it used to be. Granted, she's still well aware that these monsters can and will kill her, but she's so desperate for food that this particular Galvantula doesn't seem so intimidating anymore. Her state of starvation is driving her to take bigger and bigger risks, knowing that this is pretty much do-or-die; if she heads to sleep on an empty stomach tonight, she's next to certain that she won't be waking up again…
The Galvantula is a young spider, and she knows that means this one will be easier to intimidate. Perhaps, she can… 'convince' this bug to give up her prize, or at least share a piece. Her sense of self-preservation pretty much gone, our starving and desperate Trapinch emerges from the bushes and opens her jaws with a loud hiss.
The Galvantula looks up from her meal, her eyes narrowing at the Ground-type's approach. It's a strange sight, seeing a Trapinch in the forest with an Electroweb blanket draped over her, and this brings a brief moment of confusion on the young Galvantula's part. But seeing the Trapinch advance with eyes locked directly on her food, the greedy instincts, notorious in her species, overcome her confusion and she hisses right back. Stepping forward to stand over the Pichu protectively, she bristles her fur and sparks in her own show of intimidation.
Our Trapinch is undeterred, her eyes glancing back and forth between the spider and her intended target. Opening her jaws wider, her hisses increase in volume and she rears up on her hind legs, careful not to put too much weight on her injured limb.
This display gets a falter from the Galvantula, the young one not too certain in her ability to take on a Trapinch. She has yet to learn what to do when facing one and she never expected this encounter to happen. But she stands firm regardless, bowing forward and raising her abdomen to make herself look even bigger to the intruding Trapinch.
It doesn't work.
With neither of them giving ground in this bluffing competition, our Trapinch makes the first move and drops back to all-fours to charge with her jaws wide. The Galvantula jerks away to avoid getting bitten, leaving the Pichu unguarded for just a second. That mere second is all the Trapinch needs as she stops short of the Galvantula and instead snaps up the screaming mouse. At once, the spider's greediness kicks into overdrive and she lunges forward, her own jaws clamping onto the Pichu's ears.
The rodent's screams grow even louder as he finds himself in the position of the rope in this tug-of-war match. The two predators are relentless in their grip, pulling and yanking and trying to get the other to let go. His pain is unbearable, but it's soon to come to an end…
Knowing her rival will not relinquish the Pichu, our Trapinch tightens her jaw muscles and neatly cleaves the young mouse in half. Blood spills over the scene, the Pichu's screams snagging on a sickening gurgling sound. With her prize, our Trapinch hurriedly begins to back away towards the bushes, hoping to retreat safely to finally enjoy her long-awaited meal.
But she's not to escape so easily, as the Galvantula's instincts to defend every little bit of her resources causes the spider to give chase and jump onto the retreating Ground-type, jaws fastening onto her nape. The Trapinch screams, letting go of her half of the Pichu and snapping the air in an attempt to catch the spider. She struggles, but the spider does nothing to release her hold and instead pulls our Trapinch to the ground.
However, the spider's inexperience shows as she makes the mistake of placing one of her legs within biting distance. The Trapinch takes advantage of this and clamps her jaws onto the limb, her teeth pushing passed the thick fur and exoskeleton and into flesh. The Galvantula screams in pain, trying to pull her leg away, but the Trapinch keeps her grip stubbornly. The arachnid lashes out, clawing and biting at the antlion's face and back, frantically trying to get free.
After a few seconds, the pain from the Galvantula's panicked struggles proves too much and our Trapinch releases her captive. Said captive wastes no time in backing off, snatching both halves of the Pichu and retreating towards the trunk of a tree. The Trapinch pursues her and although the spider's limp is more pronounced than her own, the tarantula still easily outspeeds her and climbs out of reach. The Trapinch watches as the spider pulls herself, and the Pichu remains, up onto a thick branch and glares down at her, growling. The Ground-type growls back as she moves to the trunk, leaning up and placing her forelegs onto the bark. But there's no way she can climb and after a few half-hearted attempts, the antlion abandons her efforts and backs off the trunk.
Shaking her head to rid some of the pain, she walks off, pausing only to pick her fallen blanket up in her jaws. There's a noticeable slump in her posture as she moves off into the bushes.
Her efforts, wasted once more…
She doesn't know where she's going, nor does she particularly care. She doesn't care whether she should try to head back to the beach, hoping the sand is now dry enough to allow her residence; hell, she doesn't even remember how to get back in the first place! Being on an island, she needs only to go in a straight line and she'll come across a shoreline, but she doesn't even make efforts to do this.
She gives up…
The sun will soon rise, marking yet another full 24 hours without a meal. She doesn't prepare by digging out a new burrow to nap in, though; she's too tired and defeated to do that either. What would be the point? She doesn't care about living to see the end of the week; she doesn't care about living to even see her much-anticipated evolution.
She just wants it all to stop… She wants the world to stop taunting her with prey that'll always escape her no matter how close they come to her jaws. She wants the world to stop hurting her body, hurting her spirit. She just wants the pain, the hunger, the failure to stop…
Wandering aimlessly through the forest, amidst a tangle of Electrowebs, she thinks solemnly about her life, trying to remember what things were like before this nightmare began...
She hatched under the warm, golden sand with her brothers and sisters. She's never seen her mother's face, and she only had the company of her siblings for a mere moment as they dug upwards from their nest, towards the surface. From there, they scattered from each other, to make their very first hunting pit.
Her life was a simple one: chill at the bottom of a pit for a few days, eating whatever falls in there. Repair the pit of the damage her prey caused. Build a new one every so often when the pit is simply too damaged, or when it needs improvement from the last design. Make it bigger when she's starving, make it small when she's not all that hungry. Occasionally, some Pokémon would fall into her trap when she wasn't hungry at all, and she would kindly throw their asses out of the pit, shaken but alive…
How she'd give everything to have that luxury once more, to decide that she's too stuffed from her previous victim to bother killing the next.
Sometimes, her daily routine would be interrupted by a special event around a certain time of year. She would see massive shapes homing in from the sky towards her island, landing gracefully onto the sandbank. She remembers the awe she would always feel when she sees the bright green creatures with eyes hidden under red goggles. She knew by instinct that she's destined to be one of them someday…
Now look where she is. Starving, tired, weak, agonized, and utterly alone in the middle of the forest. For the very first time in her life, she wonders what her mother might think of her, if she saw her now…
She knows what she thinks of herself. Pathetic and feeble. Quite a contrast to how she felt about herself just a few weeks ago, safe and confident in her underground home back on the beach. She went from being a strong, fearsome predator to being utterly unable to even scavenge a living, struggling every hour of the day just to stay alive…
It's simply not worth it anymore.
And so she keeps walking aimlessly, unaware and uncaring of whatever dangers she might bump into. Whether she ends up walking into the ocean and drowning, or falling off a cliff to her death, or wandering into a Galvantula's nest to get eaten alive, she doesn't give a shit…
Hell, she can't even get herself to cry anymore…
Yet, crying is still what breaks through her somber thoughts. A loud cry, echoing just ahead of her. But she doesn't look up from the ground, nor does she even acknowledge it. She's tired of being taunted, and she won't fall for Fate's cruel tricks again.
Trudging onwards, she eventually finds the source of the distress calls: a Zigzagoon caught in the Electrowebs. Upon seeing her, the small critter cries even louder, trying desperately to get his paralyzed body to move. But strangely, the Trapinch just keeps walking, showing no interest in him. Let him go, she doubts it'll help anyway. Death is better…
No.
She comes to a stop. She's still alive, she's still breathing, she's still moving! Sure, at best the trapped Pokémon would only give her some extra time, but that time could very well mean the difference between dying as a pitiful, self-loathing soul or living to accomplish her dreams. She used to be such a strong-willed bug, and it's that strong will that got her this far to begin with.
She's not dead yet, so she should stop acting like she is.
Glancing back to the tangled tanuki, she forces her weary body to change course, to turn around. Hobbling over to the Zigzagoon, she stares at him, into his dark brown eyes. She sees the fear, the tears, but also the life, the vitality. It shall be hers soon, and she will not waste it…
"Thank you…" she whispers softly, both to the Zigzagoon and to the powers that be that's allowed her this mercy.
Lifting her head, she bites into the Electroweb holding the raccoon-like creature. Electricity surges harmlessly through her body as her powerful jaws severs each thread with ease until her prey falls limp and paralyzed to her feet. She doesn't allow the Zigzagoon to suffer, taking his head into her jaws and slicing right through his neck in flawless decapitation. Blood pours onto the ground, onto her, warm against the cool night air.
Her stomach finally breaks its silent treatment and practically screams at her to eat. She can't hold in her elation, purring loudly as she takes a huge chunk from the body. She pauses for only a second, as if expecting something to interfere, - it wouldn't surprise her if that asshat Noctowl made a return and snapped up the body-, but there is nothing and she swallows her mouthful whole. It is such a wonderful sensation, one she's almost forgotten, as the slab of meat and bone slides down her gullet into her grateful stomach.
She devours everything on the body. Fur, bone, teeth, and claws, all of it is consumed indiscriminately, until there's nothing left but a bloody patch on the ground…
She eats that bloodied patch of ground too! Nothing is to be wasted, even if it tasted disgusting.
Sniffing and nudging the leaves on the ground, just to make sure she isn't missing anything, she licks her chops, sits on her rump, and grooms the blood off of her as best she could. She's careful of her new injuries on her face; they're shallow and not dangerous, but they still hurt like hell.
Then, getting back up to her feet after allowing her meal to settle for a few minutes, she starts digging out her new temporary burrow, purring softly as she does so. When the den is large enough for her, she wanders to the Electroweb that previously held her meal. She proceeds to take the web apart and use it to line her burrow with nice soft bedding. Then, taking her blanket on her back in her forepaws, she folds it snugly around herself and delicately lays herself down.
Careful not to settle directly on her now-full tummy, she takes a moment to relish that warm feeling of digestion before she drifts off into the best nap she's had since this whole mess started.