Chapter 7
Nurse Joy was outside sifting through papers when suddenly a screech made her look up. Lairen's Staravia was circling around above her head. When it noticed Nurse Joy staring at it, it came down and started screeching crazily to Nurse Joy.
"Lairen's Staravia?" Nurse Joy asked. "What are you doing here?"
Staravia spoke in a hurried garbled and Nurse Joy couldn't really understand him, but she got that something was wrong. She rose to her feet swiftly and called for Audino. The pokemon was there in the next heartbeat.
"Come on, Audino." Nurse Joy told her pokemon softly yet firmly. "Someone needs our help."
Lairen waited by Rose's side for the longest while, watching her chest rise and fall. Her auburn locks were splayed out, and even though it was full of twigs, her hair crowned her like a halo. It was suiting, Lairen decided.
He finally sat back on his knees, still watching her. She hadn't moved at all since she'd fallen and it both soothed and bothered him. She looked so peaceful, and yet...
And yet...
His gaze flicked to her hat, which sat on her chest. The blue fabric with a pokeball on it. Her idol's scrawled signature on the side. The small tears from the fall. He took all of this in for a few moments.
Then he rose to his feet. It was becoming unnerving to watch her sleep.
"I'll be back in a bit..." Lairen whispered to the unconcious girl before slowly walking off.
Lairen placed his hands in his pockets and started whistling some tune as he waited for Staravia to return.
Staravia raced on, wings open to catch the wind as it ruffled his feathers. Every so often, he'd look back, just to make sure that Nurse Joy was following. Each time he was satisfied that she was, he'd focus on ahead again. In his mind, he retraced the route back to his trainer, Lairen. By the looks of things, the trainer he had recently battled did not look too good.
As soon as he had felt the strong wave of fear and alarm sweeping from Lairen, Staravia had known what to do. And as soon as his trainer had willed it, Staravia had flown into action. Now he was trying to get back to Lairen. Not too hard a mission, unless Lairen had moved since.
Staravia suddenly swore in his head. This might be harder than originally thought.
"Staravia!" Nurse Joy called up. "I think I see someone! Come down here!"
The sweet and melodic voice flew up to Staravia and he wheeled down to come to the nurse's side.
"Staravia!" he chirped confidently and walked ahead. He cast out his sense and grinned broadly... Well, as big as he could with a beak and no lips.
"Staravia!" Stravia calle dout again, though this time not to Nurse Joy. This time he knew who he was talking to. He jumped into the air and flew straight at his target. He then swooped up and stared down at Lairen from above.
"Staravia!" Lairen called up. "Where's Nurse Joy?"
"Right here." Nurse Joy stepped delicately through the bracken until she stood face-to-face with Lairen. She tilted her head to the side and smiled widely.
"Hi Lairen!" she scanned him up and down. "...You look fine." she remarked.
"I know." Lairen replied. "It's not me." he started back-tracking, keeping an eye on Nurse Joy as he did.
"Then who is it? Is it one of your pokemon?" Nurse Joy asked, slowly following.
"No. It's Rose."
"Well what could have happened?"
Lairen turned so Nurse Joy wouldn't be able to see his face as he relayed the rest. They started walking.
"She fell out of a tree."
"Out-out of a TREE?" Nurse Joy exclaimed. "Are you serious?" she asked, mouth slacked into a perfect O.
Lairen shook his head. "Sadly, no."
"Is she even alive?"
"Uh-huh. And breathing. But badly beat up." Lairen added as Nurse Joy was about to add more.
"I see... Well we better hurry."
"Can you run anymore?" Lairen asked slowly. She looked slightly tired, sweat sprinkling her forehead and arms and her chest heaving slightly as she fought to gain her breath back.
Nurse Joy shot him and incredulous look. "Of course I can!" she snapped. "Now take me to her. Quickly!"
Lairen nodded. "Of course."
Rose blinked her eyes slowly, then took a breath. It hurt her insanely, but it was vital that she did so. She inhaled again.
"Lairen?" she croaked out.
No response.
She sat up slowly, wincing as she did so. "Lairen?" she called out again. "Lairen!"
Nothing.
Shakily, Rose got to her feet, even though she knew it was a bad idea. Every part of her stung like crazy and she resisted the urge to scratch the slowly-healing scars. The hat tumbled to the ground, tattered and dusty. She looked down at it before she looked around. She was alone.
"That dang... that little..." Rose hissed under her breath. "I can't believe this!" suddenly she heard rustling and Absol leaped through the bushes and onto Rose, sending her sprawling to the ground.
"Oomph!" Rose exclaimed as she hit the ground.
"Absol! Absol Ab sol sol!" Absol cried happily and started licking Rose's face, causing Rose to wimper in pain.
"Absol! Get off!" she laughed through the pain and stared up at her pokemon. "I'm happy to see you, though." she assured Absol when Absol climbed off her.
"Absol!" Absol replied happily and nuzzled Rose.
"I know." Rose replied. "I'm happy to see you, too." she looked around. "Do you know where Lairen is?"
Absol started babbling crazily and Rose couldn't keep up. She just shrugged and smiled. "Okay." she said, even though she didn't understand a word being said.
"Ab sol sol." Absol accentuated happily.
From far off, Lairen and Nurse Joy were approaching.
"She's nearby." Lairen assured Nurse Joy as they walked on.
"Why are you guys so far away?" Nurse Joy asked and picked some leaves off the hem of her dress.
"We didn't know where the nearest city was."
"And so how did Rose get hurt again?"
"She climbed a tree to look for civilization and fell down." Lairen replied. "Simple."
"I see..."
Rose could hear could voices. So could Absol.
"Absol, can you hear that?" Rose hissed between her teeth.
"Absol?" Absol replied and took a step forward.
A rustle from a nearby patch of bushes sent Absol into a frenzy. Her back arched and she started hissing.
"Absol, come back!" Rose urged, fear rising inside her. "Please!"
An even closer bunch of bushes rustled. Absol went crazy with anger.
"Absol, come back here!" Rose pressed desperately, crawling backwards until her back hit a tree trunk.
The ring of bushes surrounding Rose and Absol all rustled at the same time and then parted. Absol sprang at the closest one and Rose parted her jaws and screamed.
