Well, laddies and lassies, here's the long-awaited Chapter Eight. First off, it's crap. I'm sorry. My Muse wanted me to go in certain direction, but it didn't work out so well; especially two months ago when I finished all of these. Whatever. Thanks for sticking with me this long. The next chapters will be better.

Oh, and bonus points as who who can guess who this Rhyperior belongs to.

Or maybe a cookie..? Idk. :)

I don't own. No sue me, plzkthx?


Eight: Tough

Rhyperior, the Drill Pokémon.

It's been a while since I've seen any other humans up this far on my mountain. I can't say exactly how long.... just long. Long enough for me to feel the aches of resentment fade.

I never was very social, even when I still had contact with anyone, human or not.

My kind aren't very prone to frivolous socialization anyway. We come together long enough to mate, then we resume our lifestyles. Our solitary lifestyles.

I was carefully carving out space for a new nest when I saw him.

Actually, he fell on me.

I suppose the rocks on the ledge above had been weakened by the recent passage of that migrating band of Rhydon yesterday, but he had barely made any headway before I heard the distinctive clatter of falling rocks and limbs. And then he was on my horn, staring me in the face.

Skinny toothpick of a lad. Poor boy never eats anything, despite my best efforts.

I think he was so surprised he promptly let go and fell to the ground, falling in an ungraceful heap. I could barely do much more than shuffle my feet backwards a bit so I wouldn't crush him and then I kept scooping out rocks for my nest.

He stayed there for a pretty long time, actually. I think he might have been scared of me.

Not that I blame him. I mean, I'm pretty small for my kind, at least, from what I can tell from what the Boy has told me. I'm proud of my slim stature, thank you very much. But I'm still large enough to crush him with one tail beat, or a single shot from my hand-cannon.

It was a very long time before he realized that I wouldn't harm him. The Boy is smart in that regard. I only harm those who have harmed me.

He had not. I continued building my nest.

After a while, though, it became apparent that he was concocting some sort of plan. He had scrambled away, out of my sight, although I could still hear him. I think he might have been injured; but there was naught I was going to do about that. I'm not a killer, for Drillbit's sake. I wasn't going to eat him, that's sick.

But I wasn't going to help him either.

Humans…

…I don't like them.

Oh, well, I've grown fond of the Boy, but I don't like him.

I don't think I'll ever like him, or anything more. It's just not my nature.

He sat there again, just behind the rock, for the longest time. I heard him muttering to himself, talking something over. Humans have that annoying habit. They've always got to be making noise. So much noise. That's why I was ultimately glad to be left alone on this mountain.

I sighed as the Boy whispered frantically and made a lot of noise talking to himself. That's an annoying habit of his. He shouted dramatically and one of his Human-Balls released a blue creature that smelled of mud and slime. It groaned frantically and looked around, before it caught sight of me and waddled forward, head spinning.

"I have no intention of going with you." I told him.

"He thinks you'd be good with us." The blue creature replied. His speech was different; I didn't know it at the time, but the Boy came from a region lost beyond my shores. "It's not that bad, really."

"I…I just don't think I'd like to." I replied. "Humans have never been very good to me. My last Boy left me here."

The blue guy shifted, placing one of his front paws on the ground. "He's not like that."

We regarded each other for a long moment; wisely, the Boy had been quiet. I didn't want to have to scare him into silence. And I didn't.

"Water," I asked the blue creature, "I don't feel like this is my purpose. Haven't you ever seen that? Can you not see that I'm much better suited to stay here, on this mountain? I don't like Humans, and I could only care for those who leave me alone."

"Rock," he replied simply, "I won't leave you."

And so I joined the boy and my mate Thurston on the Boy's journey. He and I have had several offspring, and I'm quite content. By Drillbit, they're all a feisty lot; one of my boys has grown up to be a warrior even tougher than the Boy's hopes.

Thurston and I, the Boy, and the rest of the Boy's team…powerful.

But I'm no longer alone.

And that's the best feeling in the world.

Rhyperior, the Drill Pokémon. It puts rocks in its palms and uses its muscles to shoot them. Geodude are shot at rare times.