* IX: Waterways *
For the first day in over a week, the sun was nowhere to be found amidst the thick clouds that had drifted from the Atlantic. The sky was gray and dull. A few drops of water landed on the sand here and there. The waves tumbled gently over the beach, producing their usual peacefully nautical sounds.
The luxray, the absol, and the croagunk rested on the beach. They were starving; it had been two days since they had eaten a full meal, and they were growing weaker and weaker. They had been situated in the same area in Virginia since the ordeal with the umbreon's gang running away. They sat on a dune and watched the ocean. They jumped simultaneously when a loud roar erupted in their ears. They averted their glance to the sky as a large red and teal dragon burst through the clouds and made its way to the shore. It landed, sending sand flying in all directions. It grunted, flapping its red wings and eyeing the three.
The annoyed luxray got up and stumbled towards the beast. "We waited two days," she said weakly. "Why would you make us wait this long?" She was angry, but her lack of energy masked this.
"I'm terribly sorry, Aimy," the dragon's voice was loud and deep. "I live in Tennessee, dear. I left as soon as I got your call. You should be thankful that my trainer didn't suppress me from coming here."
Aimant shuddered angrily, remembering the horribly frustrating time she had trying to dial his house's number into a Warwick Town pay phone, let alone trying to find a quarter for it. "It still shouldn't have taken you two days. Two days!"
"Just get on my back and stop complaining."
The three obeyed and climbed on top of the salamence's back, exerting a great deal of their energy. Once they were on, the salamence leapt from the ground, causing another sand explosion, and soared up the beach. Tenebris and Jay were not too keen on the flight. However, Aimant had flown on her friend's back ever since they first met. Therefore, she was used to it, and she quite enjoyed it.
"So, you're looking for an umbreon?" The dragon tilted its head to the side so that it could see its passengers.
"Yes," replied Aimant.
"I'm not sure me flying you three around is going to help you find them."
"Maybe if you got here sooner, we would have probably already found them by now," replied Aimant feebly.
The dragon sighed and straighten his head out. "There's no chance we could find the umbreon. Although, there are animals who are very useful when it comes to tracking down other animals. I had known ahead of time that we would never be able to find a certain animal in such a big world."
"So?" The luxray interrupted. "Are you talking about psychic animals?"
"Indeed. I tried looking for them along the way, but with no luck. They're fairly rare along the east coast. Keep an eye out for any, because if we can't find your – er – source of food, you three will have to come home with me."
"And live with a trainer?" Aimant gasped. "Never will I ever live... with... uhnunnhn..."
The dragon frowned, a hint of sadness in its eyes. "We never see each other any more, Aimy. I've missed you so much."
"It's because your trainer separated us. Your trainer is fowl, just like the rest. I'm sorry, honey, but I'm not about to throw my life away. When you finally decide to leave your trainer, we can hang out like we always used to."
"I can't leave her," the dragon grimaced. "I can't leave my master. No."
The luxray rolled her eyes and curled up on its back, searching for a psychic aide. Ten minutes later, the salamence gasped and landed on the sand, accidentally throwing its three passengers from its back and onto the ground. It stared off up the beach, looking at something. Something white and green was heading south towards them.
"Could it be?" The salamence squinted its eyes. "Already?"
The three animals got up from the sand and glared at the dragon, who didn't notice them. It kept its glance on the green and white humanoid creature. The three shifted their glance from the dragon and onto the creature as well. It held its arm and hovered slightly above the sand.
Aimant gaped at it. She couldn't believe their luck. They had found a psychic animal already! A gardevoir. The four stood still as the gadevoir approached them. She looked up at them, then continued hovering on, her face expressionless. Aimant walked to her. "Excuse me, are you alright?" She had noticed the animal clutching her arm tightly.
"I'm fine," she replied, not slowing down at all. Her voice was faint, as if she hadn't eaten in two days as well.
Aimant walked in front of the gardevoir, who stopped and stared blankly at her. "We need your help, please. We're not doing too good, and we need to find an animal. Can you help us, please?"
The gardevoir frowned, assessing the luxray. "You want to find an umbreon?"
Aimant gawked at her.
"Ironic. I bumped into someone the other day who wanted to find the same umbreon. What's the big deal with this animal, huh?"
Aimant nodded. "How did you know?"
The white and green humanoid shook her head, sighing. "You want to steal from the umbreon. Shame on you. I would never help delinquents like you."
"B-but we're not," the luxray pleaded. "We steal from them because we have to or else we'd starve! We all grew up with different, poverty-stricken families, and that's the only thing we can do to stay alive!"
The gardevoir could feel that what the luxray was saying was true. She could see her mind and her memories: Memories of her horrible life back when she was a little shinx. When she was with her temporary trainer, she had discerned his ambitions, ambitions of which were to kill the umbreon's friend and harvest its liver. Regardless of how these animals were stealing from the umbreon, at least they weren't killing anyone. She sighed and accepted. "I'll help you find the umbreon. But I want the large, winged one to fly me back to North Carolina when we're done."
"I guess I could do that," said the salamence.
"Oh thank you!" Aimant said, elated. "You don't know how much we appreciate this."
"Let's just find the stupid thing so I can get back home." The gardevoir's attitude suggested that she had been through a lot recently.
The four animals struggled back onto the dragon's back. The dragon then leapt into the air and flew along the beach.
They flew for another ten minutes before the gardevoir called to the salamence. "Go left! Into the forest!"
The salamence increased its distance from the ground and changed direction. It flew above the treetops, letting the gardevoir guide it.
Meanwhile, Anubis pushed Delta and Acadia around in a shopping cart throughout the aisles of a supermarket. Acadia laughed excitedly. She had never ridden in a cart before, unlike Delta who had had Anubis push him almost every time they went to a market. Normally, she would walk beside the lucario and mock the black cat's immaturity. But nothing's wrong with being immature once in a while.
The ninetales turned to Delta and smiled. She then turned to Anubis. "You know, I've been following you two for a while now, yet I don't even know where you're going."
"We're on a quest to find the Tower of Learning," Delta said as he scratched his neck with his hind leg. Acadia glanced briefly at Delta's groin before looking away, embarrassed.
"We're not looking for that," Anubis groaned. "We're actually on our way to Maine."
"I knew that, already. What're you gonna do when you get there?"
'Sheesh,' thought the lucario. 'If I tell her, is she going to try and come with us?' He decided to direct his telepathy at Delta. 'Delta, can you hear me?'
Delta stopped scratching himself and looked at Anubis. 'His voice was... really echoey just then. What the heck?'
'Yes, it is. I'm using telepathy. Should we tell Acadia about the plane tickets? Just think like you normally would. I can understand it.'
'Wow, you are full of surprises, Anubis.'
Acadia waited for Anubis to answer her question, but he just kept pushing the cart. He looked as though he was concentrating really hard on something. "Anubis? Is something wrong?"
'I've only collected about 200 dollars since we started. I don't know how we're even going to afford a plane ticket for one of us at this rate.'
'You've stolen 100 dollars since this morning? If you keep that up, we can afford our plane tickets, surely.'
'Actually, I stole that all last night. I can't steal when it's light out, what are you nuts?'
'I'm going to tell her we're going to Egypt, but that she can't come. Okay?'
'No! I want her to come! I can do this. I can steal enough.'
Acadia was growing impatient, waiting for Anubis to respond. "Hey, hey!"
Anubis cleared his throat and spoke. "Delta and I are going to Maine, and from there we are getting on a plane to Egypt."
Acadia was somewhat heartbroken. So that was why Delta was collecting money. Why didn't they tell her about this sooner? They obviously didn't want her to come with them. 'Whatever. I couldn't go with them anyway.' The ninetales bowed her head and watched the shelves pass by as Anubis pushed her.
Anubis, for once, felt an emotion other than happiness emanate from Acadia: Depression.
Delta didn't need aura senses to notice the fox was glum. "Don't worry, NT, I can get enough money to afford you a plane ride, too! I can get enough money..."
Anubis shook his head. "Delta—"
"I can get enough money!"
Acadia looked into Delta's warm, scarlet eyes. 'This is someone who cares about me,' she thought to herself. 'This is someone who would spend his time getting money... money to spend on me. He cares about me... and I've been stealing from him..." She tore her gaze from Delta and bowed again, disgusted in herself. 'Why do I steal from them when they sustain me at no cost?' She raised her head and examined her surroundings: The supermarket. 'Well... because I need money for when they leave. There's no way I can go with them to Egypt. My plan was to steal from them until I had made enough money to afford my own small shelter in the north. But... Delta...'
The ninetales had been silent for what seemed like an eternity.
Anubis scratched his muzzle, wondering what she was thinking about. He focused on her and tried to listen to her thoughts, but he was too late; her mind had gone blank. 'How does she do that?' Reading Acadia's emotions was like reading a Shakespearian novel. No one had ever been able to simply hide their mind from Anubis. He shook his head, sighing, and proceeded to the checkout. After he had payed the cashier (with the right amount of money this time), he left the supermarket and parked the cart outside with the others. Delta and Acadia hopped out, both carrying plastic bags in their mouth.
On the brick wall of the market, something caught Anubis' eye. Paste onto the bricks was a poster of an upcoming event; the Maryland Corphish Catching Contest. "Huh. Looks like we're in Maryland."
"What?" Delta uttered in disbelief. "Already? Then that means Delaware is most likely just around the corner! How have we come this far already?"
"I don't know," replied Anubis. "You need to go on a stealing spree tonight."
"Maybe I should rob a bank," Delta teased. Anubis crossed his arms, annoyed.
Sure enough, not much later, after they had eaten, did they cross the border and into Delaware. About seven hours later, they crossed another border and were now stationed for the night in a New Jersey forest.
Delta left the others alone in their forest to find a town to devastate. Once he had managed to swipe two purses, he left the town to return to his friends, carrying them in his mouth. Before he got to their temporary quarters, though, he heard a rustling in some shrubbery nearby. He turned to see Acadia walk from the bushes towards him. He placed the bags onto the fallen leaves of the woods and looked at the ninetales, confused. "Acadia? Hey..."
"Hey," she greeted him with a warm smile and sat in front of him. "I'm sorry," she sighed. "I don't think I'll be going with you or Anubis to Egypt. I've been planning on living by myself, once I traveled far enough north."
Delta's ears lowered upon hearing this. He sat down on the leaves, feeling rather dejected. "Oh," was all he could say.
It was obvious to Acadia that her response depressed him. This made her feel depressed as well, but at the same time she was somewhat happy to know Delta felt troubled because of their limited time together.
Delta cared for her, and she's been betraying him in return.
The fox shifted closer to Delta and wrapped her tails around him. Delta blushed slightly. Their body size contrast was actually quite large. Delta looked up and gazed into the fox's ruby eyes. The fox gazed back into Delta's scarlet eyes. "Delta, let's just enjoy the time we have together."
The umbreon nodded and leaned against Acadia, letting her tails warm his body like a blanket. The forest surrounded them, its canopy serving as a barrier to keep what little light the moon produced from behind the clouds away from the forest floor. Delta's golden rings light the area enough for the both of them to see without having to strain their eyes. The forest, in this light, was eerie, yet peaceful and oddly... romantic. The animals sat there in the midst of it all, letting the nature absorb into and soothe their minds.
"Delta?"
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry if this topic is really personal to you, and you don't have to answer me, but... what happened to you back in Florida?"
Delta watched the landscape, wondering whether or not he should tell her. He might as well; they had known each other for a week now. That may seem like little, but they had literally spent the entire week together. Delta finally sighed and gave in. "...When I hatched from my shell, little did I realize I was born into an extremely wealthy family, and for this, I was extremely lucky. My father, a glaceon, and my mother, a leafeon, both cared for me and loved me very much. I was so grateful to be this lucky; other animals around my – our hometown grew up with poor families and lived their lives of poverty while I spent every day eating food to my heart's content.
"Obviously, when I hatched I was an eevee. My parents named me Delta because they wanted me to evolve into a vaporeon. They got the idea from when they first met on St. Vincent Island, the Apalachicola River Delta. One day they took me there and told me of how they met. As enthralled as I was with their story, I was more focused on the ocean. Hah – the ocean was, and is, heaven to me! I could only imagine what It'd be like to be a vaporeon and be one with the sea, being able to breathe the water and swim in it forever. But... nothing gold can stay...
"Several years later, my mother died of hypothermia. My father had... unintentionally killed his wife. Just when I had lost all hope in this world, I met a female glaceon and, soon enough, I fell for her. It was the only love I had ever experienced, and I was happy once again. She was kind and caring... but her acts of kindness were all feigned! I impregnated her and, although I was happy with this, she was furious. I found out later that she had been using me for my money. She didn't love me, she loved my wealth, and she certainly did not want my child. She left me and no longer took my money, and not only had my heart been smashed, but I never actually got a chance to meet my child.
"As for my father, he went through a state of severe depression and guilt for a long time, until he grew weak and dull. Before he knew it, he was an empty shell who never expressed his emotions. Eventually, without prior notice, he left me and I never saw him again. He took most of the money, but left me with just enough to make a living. I no longer wanted to stay in the house, or in Florida, so I left and became a nomad. I thought to myself that one day, I would return to Florida as a vaporeon, and I would live on St. Vincent Island. Alas, things didn't work out as I had wanted.
"One day I was nearing the border of Georgia, and was ambushed by dark type hoodlums. I had been doing fine with the money I was provided, but after the attack, I was left with nothing. Weakened from their brutal beatings, I found shelter in a nearby cave. Unfortunately for me, the inside of the cave was coated in Moon Stone crystals, and before I knew it, my fate had changed and I was an umbreon. Luckily, though, the evolution healed my shattered bones. I may have died if I hadn't evolved.
"Afterwards, I decided to teach myself how to steal. It was an act of revenge towards the muggers who stole my money. Even though I never saw them again, I still took out my anger on humans by stealing their money. One week later, I rescued Anubis, and a week after that – well, here I am." Delta looked up towards Acadia.
She was crying. "Oh, Delta," she breathed. "I'm so sorry..." She leaned over and buried her face in Delta's neck, sobbing.
The umbreon, surprised by Acadia's sympathy, nuzzled his head against hers affectionately. The story was awfully depressing for Acadia, but the part that got her the most was the part with the glaceon. She was that glaceon. They resembled each other. She wept on Delta's shoulder, disgusted by her own ways and disgusted with herself. She didn't need to steal from him, especially when he was currently supplying her with everything she needed! She had made a mistake.
Acadia mentally vowed to never steal money from Delta again. At that moment, she let herself become infatuated with Delta, despite their size and species difference. She would have fallen in love with him a lot sooner, but her mission restrained that. "Delta," she sniffed, her face still in his shoulder. "I want you to know that I care about you and that you won't suffer through any more hard times from now on."
Delta smiled and let Acadia cry until she couldn't anymore.
