Chapter Seven: Praeclara

Panic and chaos. The instant Lubyanka shouted the order to kill them all, the tranquil early-morning atmosphere of the refugee camp was gone. A dozen pokémon emerged over the small hillock Larissa had just walked over herself, and the refugees ran and screamed, instantly waking up those who weren't awake yet. They outnumbered the attackers, but were weak and surprised; they wouldn't stand a chance in a fight.

Larissa's first thought as she saw the enemy come over the hillock was of Sofia. She had left the Kirlia only minutes before on the other side, still asleep at the lightly smouldering remains of their fire. She let out a small gasp of horror as she imagined Lubyanka and her thugs reaching her sleeping friend in silence and... She couldn't finish the thought; she sprinted towards the enemy, her only concern to save Sofia.

"'Rissa!" Triton squeaked, and she was frozen for a second by the dilemma. She knew she was responsible for her brothers, that they were only children while Sofia was an adult, that Bellefleur was slower and older than her and that she had neglected her brothers far too much already... But the image of Lubyanka finding a sleeping Sofia entered her mind again, and there was only one thing she could do.

"I'm sorry," she said, "run for your lives! Don't wait for Bellefleur or anyone; I'll find you later!" It hurt to have to leave them behind, but at least Lubyanka's troops might hesitate to kill children again. Sofia had no such protection. If she's still alive in the first place, a dark little voice in her head said. Larissa ran as fast as her three working legs could carry her, barely noticing herself dodge a heavy rock thrown at her.

As Larissa ran, she noticed something startling: on a nearby, taller hill, a floating black, shadow-like creature was watching over the whole situation with smug satisfaction. She realised with disbelief it was a Darkrai... And had to be the Shadow himself. Legendary pokémon or not, she would have attacked it right there and then, had she not heard a soft, agonised whimper.

Lubyanka stood only a dozen metres away, a mad grin disfiguring her beautiful face. She stood right on top of a whimpering and crying Sofia, who was lying face-down on the smouldering remnants of their fire, pressed down into it by the Luxray's weight on her back. Larissa ignited in rage, both figuratively and literally as her head- and backflames burnt brightly. She charged at Lubyanka, gathering fire around her, and tackled her, knocking her off Sofia. Larissa slashed furiously with claws and fire at the surprised Luxray, her mind ablaze with rage and hate. "You- Will- Never- Touch- Her- Again!" she roared, punctuating each word with a strike while Sofia crawled off the glowing charcoals.

A powerful impact combined with a charge of electricity blew her off Lubyanka. But she rolled to dodge the shock the Luxray tried to follow up with. "So!" said Lubyanka, a few cuts in her face and chest and some scorched fur all Larissa had accomplished. "It's the brat again! And this time you've got a little girlfriend. Aww, isn't that sweet? I hope I didn't burn her too badly."

Larissa breathed a great flame, but Lubyanka effortlessly sidestepped.

Larissa didn't manage to dodge the web of electricity that came at her next, but it gave her only a light, but painful, shock. "What's the matter? Lost your tongue, brat?"

"I've got nothing to say to a mass murderer!" Larissa tried a feint this time, but her enemy saw through it and dodged anyway.

"Shame," Lubyanka said. "Then I guess I'll have to try another way to get some entertainment..." She hopped one way and Larissa was sure she was going to send a spark there, so she dodged, but that was a mistake: the Luxray turned the way Larissa dodged, and the next thing she knew was an overwhelming pain and her every muscle spasming uncontrollably, nearly tearing her bones apart with their force. Bright lights danced in her eyes, and a low "Ooowwwooomooowwwooomm" noise buzzed in her ears.

She was vaguely aware of Sofia getting to her feet. "I-I-If you do a-a-anything to her, I will-"

The Luxray's dark shape pounced and pinned Sofia to the ground. There was a bright flash, and Sofia screeched in pain. "No..." Larissa croaked, trying her best to move her paralysed body. "Leave her alone, you-"

Lubyanka grinned derangedly. "Aww, you really care for this one, don't you, brat?"

"She can't even fight back!" Larissa yelled, beginning to get control over her voice at least. "Let her go!"

"Or what? You'll ineffectively scratch me again? Here, this is how it's done:" Lubyanka dragged a sharp claw over Sofia's cheek, opening a gash and making her scream again.

Larissa yelled every insult she had ever heard at Lubyanka, and Sofia begged for mercy.

"Tsk, tsk," Lubyanka chuckled. "Stupid Lubyanka, messing up such a pretty face with a cut like that. Your girlfriend looks all asymmetric now, brat." She brandished another sharp claw. "Well, only one thing for it: I messed up her right side, now I mess up her left. I wonder if she'll still be pretty if I poke one of those big eyes out?"

"Stop it!" Larissa yelled. "What do you want?! I'll do anything!"

Lubyanka laughed coldly. "This. I want this. What can I say? I'm a girl who values the simple things in life. And now..." She held up her claw with an insane grin. "Say goodbye to your eyes, pretty!"

With a titanic outpouring of will, Larissa somehow managed to move her paralysed body, get up, and jump right at Lubyanka as her claw came down, knocking her away again. Her fangs went straight for the throat, blinded by hate and wanting nothing more than to kill the evil monster. But in the chaos she missed and bit down on an ear instead. That didn't matter: she chomped so hard her teeth felt sore and about to fall out and ripped with all her might. Lubyanka screamed, the salty taste of blood filled Larissa's mouth, and she spit out a furry slab of flesh.

There was a shock even heavier than she had felt before, making her fur and skin smoke, and her next conscious moment she was pinned down by a furious Luxray that was bleeding badly from her left ear. "It was just fun and games so far," Lubyanka hissed. "But for that, I'm going to show both of you the true meaning of pain!"

"Attack now! Kill them all!" Boreas shot awake in an instant and jumped to his feet. The first thing he noticed was that Aqua was nowhere to be seen, and that twelve unsavoury pokémon were running down the hillock. He began to radiate cold and whip up the winds on the plateau to a great storm while telling the refugees to flee.

He still didn't see Aqua, and he caught a quick glimpse of Larissa running across the hillock behind the enemies. So it was all down to him, then. He walked toward the enemy, making the storm as large and snowy as possible to prevent them going around or through it. "You won't pass me!" he said over the howling winds. "Go back right now if you want to live!"

Boreas was answered only by a bunch of attacks that flew into his storm. He only barely managed to dodge using his snow cloak technique, gathering snow around him so he blended in so well he seemed to his enemies to teleport through the storm. "Aren't you even going to talk to me before I turn you all into frozen corpses?"

"Lubyanka ordered us not to talk to you," said the Noctowl as it swooped into the blizzard.

"And of course, you are obedient little monkeys and do everything she says."

Boreas waved a paw, unleashing a pulse of cold that froze and thawed the air, parrying the fire the Magmar breathed at him. The Hitmonchan sprinted through the blizzard, its fists burning, but when it threw a lightning-quick punch it found Boreas disappeared; instead it punched right into a dense, powerful eddy of extreme cold. Boreas pressed himself flat against the ground to dodge a rock that could've brained him, and rolled out of the way of a jet of water.

He had to keep these twelve busy as long as possible to let the refugees escape, even if he was all on his own. And where was Aqua? If he was going to die, he'd rather do it in her company... He looked around again as he jumped over a beam, and then he spotted it: a Darkrai on a nearby hilltop, watching the proceedings smugly. The Shadow!

His moment of distraction cost him dearly: a searing heat blew him over, his flank on fire. As he fell, he rolled on to extinguish the flames, and was scraped by a blast of sharp leaves that cut into his skin. Busy as he was, he had let go of the blizzard and was becoming a lot more visible. The Hitmonchan landed right next to him and gave him a dizzying punch that nearly blacked him out. His vision was unfocussed, but he saw several shapes approach him rapidly...

And then they were distracted by something else. There were startled cries and noises of fighting, and when Boreas came to fully he could see the last enemies get knocked out. Thirty-odd pokémon had appeared while he was busy fighting and had joined the fight, defeating the Shadow's troops quite easily.

A Bisharp stepped towards him. "Is your name Boreas?"

"Uhhh... Yes?"

"I'm brigadier Stewart of the Praeclara constabulary. Your wife arrived in the capital a few hours ago to warn us of your coming."

"Did she now?" Boreas grumbled. "She might've told me."

"You were asleep when I got the idea, love." Boreas noticed Aqua only now. "I didn't want to wake you up."

"Yeah, well, you should still have told me."

"If I had, and we'd arrived even a second later, you'd be dead now."

"Well, never mind that now, we have to catch the Shadow!" He pointed to the hill, but the Darkrai was nowhere to be seen. Boreas cursed, but then realised the fight wasn't over yet: he'd heard Lubyanka but not seen her yet. "This way, maybe we can still catch Lubyanka!"

Boreas ran over the hillock. A little below, Lubyanka was pinning Larissa down, while Sofia lay a little away, apparently paralysed and her hair standing upright, making her look like a big, green feather duster. "It was just fun and games so far," Lubyanka hissed. "But for that, I'm going to show both of you the true meaning of pain!"

Boreas fired an ice beam at the back of the Luxray's head, knocking her out in an instant by cooling her brain down. He pulled the unconscious cat off Larissa. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Larissa gasped, "I'm fine, but we have to catch the Shadow too! I saw him, he's a-"

"A Darkrai, yes. He already disappeared... Oh, this is Stewart-"

"Brigadier Stewart, please," the Bisharp interjected.

"Well, brigadier Stewart, go round up the other refugees,we can't have them running away for no reason. I'll see if I can't find the Shadow after all... Oh, and keep a few pokémon guarding Lubyanka and the other prisoners."

Boreas sprinted up to the hill he'd seen the Darkrai on. But he couldn't see the creature itself anywhere. He heard several footsteps following him.

"Anything?" asked Larissa.

Boreas sighed. "Nothing, I'm afraid... I didn't expect to catch him, but still, it would've been nice for this to be easy."

"That's a legendary pokémon, though," Larissa said. "No wonder it can disappear like that..."

"I'm not sure it is a legendary," Aqua said. "I don't think Darkrais leave footprints."

"A footprint? Where?!" Boreas said.

"Over here, love. It's very faint, but it looks fairly large."

"Where? I don't see it."

"Here, next to the little round spot."

"Ah, you're right, it does look like a footprint. Very interesting."

"Could be old, I suppose," Aqua said. "It's very faint."

Boreas tried pressing his own foot into the ground at the same spot, but the soil was dry and hard. "Maybe. Though the faintness could just be because of the hard ground. Maybe our friend the Shadow is only pretending to be a Darkrai."

"What does that mean?" Larissa asked.

"I wonder..."

They spent the next hour catching up to all the refugees and gathering them back together again. Larissa was pleased to see her brothers had come the farthest of everyone, though she couldn't help but feel guilty for not coming with them. After everyone was reunited they waited another hour or so to let everyone rest a little and regain some strength. With their new escort, there was no reason to hurry too much.

Larissa mainly hung about a little by a small brook running nearby, reflecting how lucky they were to have made it without losing anyone else. But after a while she realised Sofia hadn't said a word since they had been rescued from Lubyanka. This by itself was extremely unusual, but now that Larissa looked at her, she noticed Sofia's face was even paler than usual and her eyes looked about to pop out of her head. She was still partially covered in coal dust, and the hot charcoal had burnt through her jumpsuit and blistered the skin underneath in a few spots. "Hey," Larissa walked to her friend, concerned. "Are you okay, Sofe?"

Sofia looked at her with a start, then suddenly pounced, knocking Larissa off her feet and hugging her tightly. "You saved me!" she squeaked.

Larissa awkwardly patted her on the back, a little sore from being just about tackled. I wonder if Sofia's ever heard of personal space? "Um, well, Aqua really saved both of us, and everyone else too."

Sofia hugged even tighter. "B-b-but you saved me when I was in the fire! And then when she was going to poke my eyes out! Thank you! Thank you! Th-thank you, I thought I was going to die..."

"Hey," Larissa said, rubbing her friend's back, "Hey, don't cry, Sofe. It's alright. She hurt you, but you're, um, alright. And you'll be home soon."

"You actually fought her," Sofia squeaked. "You fought her to save me! You're so great! You're a hero! You're..." Sofia slowly let go of Larissa. Her eyes were still wet, but she wasn't crying any more. She was blushing brightly, however, and so was Larissa after the compliments. "W-well, thank you. I say, that Lubyanka is not very nice, is she?"

"You caught on fast," Larissa said.

"Good thing we caught her... Oh, you've got a bit of blood at your mouth, by the way."

"Well, um, I think I bit just about half her ear off." Larissa dipped her paw in the water of the brook and rubbed it on her face a bit. "That better?"

"Here, let me." Sofia wetted her hands in the brook and gently began cleaning the fur around Larissa's mouth, her face close by and looking focussed. Larissa felt a little awkward at first, but then slowly became more comfortable, her eyes drawn towards Sofia's pleasant canopy-green ones.

She felt oddly disappointed the moment ended when Sofia finished and said: "Done! That's much better; can't have you walking into Praeclara looking like a vampire, can we?"

"You should talk," Larissa teased. "Face as white as that, it's probably only your cute, innocent looks that keep people from warding you off with garlic."

Sofia chuckled and blushed.

"Oh, and the blushing helps you look less like a vampire too."

"Shush," she laughed, "all Kirlias have white faces."

"Ah, so your whole species are vampires?"

"If I was a vampire, I would have used my tongue to clean your face, not my hands." As both girls pictured that, they blushed a bright scarlet and looked away from each other. Sofia chuckled nervously. "Hihi, er, n-not what I meant."

"I know," said Larissa. An awkward silence descended on them. "Um," Larissa tried to break the silence. "Anyway, you should ask Aqua to heal those burns and that cut for you, it'll be easy enough for her."

"Good idea, good idea," Sofia said, a little too quickly. "I'll go ask her right now!"

The final day of the journey to the capital was easy and pleasant. With their escort, they were safe from attacks and could take it easy. The journey was mostly a gentle downhill slope towards the city and the coast it lay on. Most of the refugees were light-hearted, but Boreas wondered how their welcome in the city would really be like. It would be a good test of how benevolent Fournaria really was, he supposed. He wouldn't be surprised at all if their generosity would dry up quickly when it came to taking care of a bunch of pokémon without anything to their name...

The only disturbance in the journey came after a few hours, when someone noticed the prisoners and the constables escorting them had disappeared. They had been walking in the back, and no-one had noticed what had happened. They tracked back a little and found the corpses of all the prisoners except Lubyanka, and all their guards except one. Most of the dead had had their necks broken, and when the brigadier tallied his men, he found none were missing, other than the ones they had found dead. But the riddle would have to be solved another time. There was no trace of Lubyanka, and they wanted to reach the capital before nightfall. They travelled the rest of the way in a grim silence, their escort mournful to have lost their friends.

It was evening by the time they reached Praeclara, and Boreas had never seen a city like it. It was gigantic, gorgeous, and unique. It sprawled through several deep valleys and tall, coastal hills, some parts of it overlooking the endless ocean from mighty cliffs while others were almost at sea-height, drooping off into rocky beaches. In some ways, it was a lot like the large human cities Boreas had seen. Half a million pokémon lived in more buildings than there were trees in a forest, and there were shops for everything everywhere. Bridges crossed the valleys, letting inhabitants walk from hill to hill, and tunnels did the same for those in the valleys, connecting the different parts of the great metropolis easily.

But even greater than the similarities to human cities were the differences. The building styles and sizes differed enormously, each of them tailored to the inhabitants. Tall towers that were mostly open to the elements, few walls and no windows, housed hundreds of flying pokémon. Low, burrow-like earthy homes in the valleys were inhabited by ground types. There was far more nature than in any city, with parks and ponds everywhere, but even these often housed pokémon. There were tiny doll houses barely more than a metre tall for the smaller species and vast halls for the large ones. The city even continued a bit into the sea, the upper parts of the homes of water types breaching the surface.

Even the doors came in vastly different styles. A bipedal pokémon's front door would look a lot like a human door, while homes for quadrupeds were recognisable by their square doors that opened from the ground up. The towers that housed flying types didn't even have doors at all.

There were no vehicles and most roads were unpaved, but to give enough room to the trees everywhere, they were still broad. It was easily the most messy, yet beautiful city Boreas had ever seen. Yet he overheard a somewhat annoyed Aqua question Larissa about its existence:

"But why do you live in cities? Why build buildings, you're all pokémon! You could live in the wild, in nature."

"Do you think we're barbarians?" Larissa replied sharply. "Live in holes in the ground, what kind of place do you think Fournaria is?"

"I wasn't saying anything like that; I was born in a burrow myself. But why would pokémon need cities?"

"Oh. Um, sorry, I didn't realise you were a barbarian. You don't seem like one."

Boreas could barely stop himself erupting in a fit of laughter, and decided to walk out of earshot of his wife for a little while.

Larissa too marvelled at Praeclara as they reached its centre. She had never seen the capital before, and its diversity and beauty were incredible. They were led through busy streets to a large square surrounded by fancy buildings with many columns. There was quite a crowd about, but Larissa's eye was caught by an elegant old Arcanine in the middle of the square. "Hold on... Is that the bleeding Prime Minister?!"

"Looks like her," said Sofia. Suddenly she made a little jump. "Look over there, it's grandfather!"

Sofia pulled Larissa along as she enthusiastically ran towards an old Weavile in the crowd. He had a stern face and the feathers on his head were grey and elegantly bent back. "Grandfather!" Sofia ran at the old Weavile and hugged him.

"Child, what are you doing back already?" he asked, his voice slightly high-pitched. "And with these pokémon? Hmm?"

Sofia explained rapidly, rattling on while the Prime Minister welcomed them all to the capital and apologised for what happened to them. "Grandfather, I was attacked by Larissa here in the forest – she's my new best friend, she's the greatest! - And then I gave her and the other refugees my food and we went to Capinha and I built a flame thrower and a steam cannon and the steam cannon worked really well but Larissa still had to save me a few times and then we were in danger again so we travelled over the plateau and we almost starved and I tried to make food from grass but it didn't work and this morning we were attacked but Larissa saved me again and also Aqua had come here to get an escort and we captured the baddies but they escaped and-" Sofia took a deep breath.

"What?! You were attacked? And what are these holes in your clothes, child? They look burnt through!"

"That's because they were, grandfather, Lubyanka threw me into the remains of our campfire and stood on me to stop me crawling out and it was really hot and smokey and painful and horrible but then Larissa was really brave and cool and she saved me but then Lubyanka tried to poke out my eyes and again she-"

"Quite, quite," the old Weavile said darkly. "Thank you, child, I've heard enough... Come with me."

He strutted over into the square, towards Boreas and Aqua. "I don't think you explained it that well, Sofe..." said Larissa.

"What do you mean?" Sofia piped. "I told him everything that happened, well, most of it, and how amazing it was, and how cool you were."

"Yeah, but-"

The old Weavile had reached his goal and tapped his walking stick on the ground to attract Boreas' attention, which was currently on the Prime Minister, who was in the middle of talking. "Are you the leader of this group, young man?!"

"Excuse you," Boreas said, "I'm talking to your Prime Minister."

"Sir," said the Arcanine, annoyed to be interrupted, "if you will please-"

"This is more important. Have you been dragging Sofia into danger, hmm?!"

"Grandfather, I-"

"She's your granddaughter?" Boreas asked.

"My great-granddaughter, actually. Now answer my question, sir!"

"Not really," Boreas said, "she decided to join us herself. Personally, I was against-"

"As the leader of this group, you are responsible; she's just a child!"

"Grandfather, I'm an adult."

"Only barely, child. Now, as for you, sir, how dare you drag my granddaughter into danger?!"

"I joined them of my own accord, grandfather. And I'm old enough to make my own decisions. They needed my help, and I gave it."

"It's true, sir-"

"Doctor."

Boreas rolled his eyes. "It's true, doctor. Sofia offered her supplies to help us when she heard of our predicament."

"Not to mention her knowledge as a scientist!" Larissa added.

"A scientist?" The old Weavile's eyes twinkled with a small smile, his anger apparently blown over suddenly. "Now, what have you been telling these pokémon, child?"

Sofia blushed. "I am a scientist, grandfather."

He lightly tapped her nose in an affectionate gesture. "You are a student, and you shouldn't brag like that."

Sofia blushed even more. "Grandfather, being a scientist isn't about having a degree... It's about a curious mindset, and a dedication to learning and knowledge and scepticism, and reason and logic, and..."

Sofia's grandfather chuckled. "Naturally. Nevertheless, it's quite misleading to introduce yourself as a scientist, hmm?"

"Ahem," the Prime Minister said with a glower at Sofia's grandfather. "As I was saying, temporary lodging in the capital will be provided for all of you until more permanent homes can be found. Your temporary homes will likely not be very comfortable, but you'll have a roof above your heads and your needs will be taken care of. Adoptive families will be found for the children."

"What does that mean, 'Rissa?" squeaked Neso.

"It means," Larissa whispered, hiding her somewhat conflicted feelings from her brother, "that they'll find a nice family to take care of you."

"Of all of us? You too?"

Larissa shook her head. "I'm old enough to take care of myself. But I'll still be your sister, and I'll come by a lot."

As the Prime Minister talked on, Sofia's grandfather began to walk away. "Come along, child."

"Alright, grandfather. See you soon, 'Rissa." Sofia followed him, but then she suddenly froze, made a little jump, and turned around with a big grin on her face. "Actually, why don't you come with us, 'Rissa? We've got enough room for you to stay with us for a while!"

"Um," Larissa said, liking the idea but a little unsure. "Well, shouldn't you ask your grandfather first?"

"Don't worry, grandfather won't mind. Well, if you promise not to burn the house down." She stuck out her tongue. "What do you say? It'll be like a sleepover!"

"It sounds fun, Sofe, but I can't neglect my brothers."

"You don't have to! Just because you sleep somewhere else doesn't mean you can't be with them at day. And besides, I know it won't be for that long: I know you'll probably want to go after Lubyanka and the Shadow soon."

"Yes, you're right," Larissa nodded. "As soon as possible, really."

"So why not stay at my place for a few days? You're more than welcome!"

Larissa couldn't help but smile at her friend's enthusiasm. "Sure, it sounds fun."

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Praeclara being a city located in several valleys and on hills connected with bridges over the city was inspired by Luxembourg, which is a very lovely city that I highly recommend anyone to visit. Anyway, let me know what you think of the story so far in a comment; if you like it I'll enjoy the compliment and be more motivated to write, and if you don't like it it'll help me improve things in the future.