I've never liked caves. The thought that in any direction is thousands, if not millions of tons of stone and earth sets my teeth on edge; and now with the world the way it is, I have another reason to hate them. Enemies could come from any direction and if I'm not careful my sword will strike the cave walls as I use it.
I heave a sigh as I look around at the moss covered walls and smell the damp air. Our newest traveling companion glances my way and half opens his mouth, probably to once again try and spark some sort of conversation but a rumbling growl from Bic dissuades that.
For some reason Bic was even less taken with the man than I am. Something about him just feels off. Lu as ever is inscrutable. His head turning this way and that constantly searching for threats, I think more out of habit than an actual need to move his head.
"Can we stop for a while? My feet are killing me." I groan, pursing my lips not used to being as impatient or irritable as I have been since escaping lavender town, taking a deep breath through my nose I turn my head towards Andrew searching for the right words.
"There's a long way to go still." I finally decide to say, and keep walking.
"I've got some bag meals if you want, you look like you could use one." Without stopping he pulls his bag around and begins rifling through it, and with an "Aha!" he thrusts a bag almost into the side of my face and I jerk scowling at the man, taking my hand from the hilt of my sword it slides the few inches I'd drawn it back into its sheath.
"Sorry," he says sheepishly, the hand not holding the bag rubbing at the back of his neck. I grunt an acknowledgement and take the meal, it claims to be beef tips in gravy, the image on the cover is a hiker sitting under a starry sky eating, as Geodude and Graveler play around him.
"Dehydrated, just add water," I mumble to myself, Uncle Jack's brand. Never heard of it, not surprising. I rarely spent time afield, most of my journey had been spent near settlements, I did camp out almost exclusively to save money, but it was rare for me to spend money on anything other than my pokemon. Everything else I sent home to my mom.
"Here," I'm snapped from my reverie by Andrew offering me a bottle of water, a friendly smile on his face I take it and sigh, eyeing the prep time on this package.
"Ten minutes," I rasp, coming to a stop. I remain standing as I put the meal together, stomach grumbling at me. Yeah, yeah, I know. Bic and Lu group up near me as the fisherman practically throws himself to the ground, it was going to be a long journey if this was the edge of his stamina.
It isn't long before the food is done and I use the provided plastic spork to eat. I realize with a start that this is the first meal I've eaten since this all began, oh, I've eaten scraps here and there, bits of various pokemon and so on but this is the first actual food since all this madness began. I clench my eyes shut as I well up, taking deep breaths to calm down and keep eating barely tasting it, not even knowing if it was good or bad.
"Here," I say giving half of it to Lu', I'd offer it to Bic if I thought he'd eat it, Andrew is oddly quiet throughout everything, well oddly to my knowledge at least. He sits off to the side eating his own meal watching us, an inscrutable look in his eye until he notices me looking at him and smiles that same disarming smile he'd been shooting me since we met. Something about it set my teeth on edge. I shake my head, get a grip, Cameron has me looking at everyone sideways. When have I ever been this suspicious of anyone?
Bic huffs in annoyance at the hold up, laying down, then getting impatient he stands and begins pacing, his eyes are bloodshot and there's a slight twitch beneath his left eye, symptoms of psychic abuse and exposure, I look to Lu still eating and Andrew lazing about and sigh.
"Maybe we should rest for a while," I say tiredly, Lu' gives me a sharp nod and a thumbs up as I pull my sword from my belt and slide down the cave wall into a seated position laying the sheathed blade across my lap, I hadn't realized just how exhausted I was until I let myself relax, my muscles seize up almost immediately and a bone weariness settles in that convinces me this was definitely the right choice.
Bic grunts in annoyance, but I can tell he's relieved from the lack of any other fuss, he curls up in front of me near my feet, and is almost immediately asleep. I notice Andrew eyeing my sword again, the look in his eyes not something I can easily place, but ignore it in favor of leaning back and settling into the cave wall staring into Bic's tail flame and entering a state of half awareness, it's some time later that Lu comes to settle next to me, laying his head against my shoulder, I relax further finally entering the realm of sleep.
I wake up many times throughout the night, or what I assume is night,, by nightmares of varying intensity, once I even dream that this is all fake. A fabrication of reality put in place by Cameron to keep me docile, Lu wakes with me every time. His hand turning soothing circles on my back, the same way I often did for him when he was still a baby Riolu.
"Rest, nothing can harm you. We are here." He croons, gently lolling me back to sleep, Bic wakes as well I think but the only proof I have is that the next time I wake up his head is laying across my knee, the weight and warmth familiar enough to make me smile. Thinking back on simpler days when all I worried about was paying my family's bills, and keeping us fed.
The next time I wake, it's to see Andrew watching me sleep as he eats, he jerks and looks embarrassed when my eyes snap open meeting his, Bic and Lu are up as well, the latter stretching and going through his forms slowly, and in reverse if my eyes don't betray me. Bic sniffs at the wall and chews away at some of the moss that hangs down. I stand slowly making small noises of discomfort as my abused muscles stretch and feel like they're tearing, they're as stiff as I can ever remember them being, sleeping against stone had done me no favors. I ignore the various pops of my abused joints and begin doing my own stretches; falling in next to Lu for a second and following along with the forms until my muscles warm up, finally loose enough I feel like being alive.
"You think I could learn that?" The voice startles me, having forgotten Andrew was there for a moment. Before I can respond Bic does it for me.
"Doubtful," His voice is tired, but oddly cheerful as he shovels more of the cave moss in his mouth, the stuff igniting as it goes down his throat, the smoke curling from the corners of his mouth to catch at the ceiling of the cave in a cloud. Andrew ignores him and keeps looking at me hopefully until I shake my head to the negative.
"Probably not," disappointment writ clear across his face he shrugs and I add an addendum, "If we ever get somewhere safe, and I'm not busy. Maybe." I grunt as he slaps my arm and claps me on the shoulder, quickly backing away from me as Bic crowds his personal space, but even that doesn't ruin his good mood as he packs up and we're underway again.
"So," He starts for the umpteenth time since we'd resumed walking, the incessant string of questions beginning to grate on my nerves.
"So, what?" Bic snaps, literally, his teeth snapping sharply closed the sound like a steel trap slamming shut, sparks falling to the ground in a shower, he'd been practicing turning different parts of his body to metal, it seems that since this all started it was no longer restricted to just his claws
"Do you have a signal on that." He gestures towards my wrist where my pokegear is strapped on, I double tap the screen to bring the display up and tilt it in his direction.
"Actuating Systems 35%..." The same message as always, the progress bar an endless loop of multicolored light as it continues to do, whatever it is that it's doing.
"Hasn't worked for a while." I say, Lu craning his head to stare into the display that winks out right as I drop it low enough for him to look. He nods as if expecting it, I cock my head and give him a look, not entirely sure what to make of that.
We continue walking, I'm not sure how far we go, or for how long we walk. Putting one foot in front of the other mechanically. The crunch of hard packed earth beneath our feet the only thing to break the monotony, Andrew's hard breathing behind me the only thing I can use to decide when to stop. He asks a lot of questions, most of them not amounting to much, but occasionally he asks something I'm not sure what to think of.
"So," he begins again making Bic twitch, his tail slapping against the floor spreading embers that live for only a moment before winking from existence. The sinuous length of muscle taking on the sheen of steel for a moment before it fades and Bic let's loose a frustrated huff, Lu looking at him passively, a silent byplay going between them Lu waiting for Bic to ask for help, and Bic too proud to do so. It makes me smile.
"How fast can you draw that thing?" I eye him sideways, rattling the blade in its sheath, as if to ask; this?
"Yeah, say you were attacked right n-" He stops, I can see his throat move as he swallows hard, sweat beading on his forehead and slowly pull the sword away from his neck.
"Does that answer your question?" I ask sharply. A bad taste in my mouth I couldn't place, bringing to mind secrets and bitter anger. A brittle smile forms on the fishermans face as we keep going, we'd been walking for a long time, a couple days at least. Judging solely by how many times we'd slept.
By my reckoning an hour passes, before he speaks up again. I'd never been particularly chatty, and I find myself becoming less and less so as the days go on. People often joked with my parents about it. They were such bright people. Bright like the sun, my mother loved to talk. I remember inumerable lazy afternoons back home, I can still almost smell the food cooking as I lay on the couch and her just talking, talking about anything that entered her mind, the weather, the neighbors, a book she was reading, what Ash, Gary, Marina were up to. She liked that a lot, I think she did it to try and get me to relax, stop worrying about the money and just go on an adventure, like any of the other trainers who picked a starter on the same day I did, they're probably all dead now, just like her. I realize I've been staring into space eyes unfocused seeing something only i could see, completely having missed what was said, the feeling is disorienting. Eyes snapping back into focus, narrowing with effort for a moment I glance at Andrew.
"What did you say?" He deflates when he realizes I hadn't heard, or perhaps hadn't been listening.
"I said, I'm sorry about before." I grunt, not having been expecting an apology. He certainly looks contrite, but still something just… I shake my head, and turn to look at him with a sigh.
"Don't worry about it." I may have overreacted, I wasn't sure yet. Still, I'm glad we could clear the air. Or do, whatever it is that we just did.
Something catches my attention as we're turning a bend in the cave, something I can't quite place and I actually life my nose and bring in air slowly, dragging it across my tongue. Bic does the same, grinning.
"Fresh air," He laughs shooting ahead a few steps, before turning and gesturing for us to hurry up. "Sunlight, clear skies and fresh meat ahead!" Bic had always hated caves, when we first started our journey and he was still a Charmander, it was like pulling teeth to get him to enter one.
Lu seems more cheerful as well as we finally, finally exit the cave. The sun beats down on us and spread my arms letting the light soak into my bones for a moment, just relaxing. Andrew throws his pack down at the mouth of the cave laughing and Bic runs a bit ahead, clawing his way up a boulder so he can lay in the sunlight and see everything around him, while Lu seems to breath in everything, staying near me as he soaks in the sun.
"Father, there are fifty six living creatures within two hundred yards of us, none of which are a threat." I stare wide eyed at Lu's statement, said as if he was reading particularly uninteresting news.
"I," Don't know how to respond to that, I think. Looking at Bic for help as he scents the air.
"There was a fire south of us recently, I can still smell the embers smoldering." He's no help either, leaping down from his place on the stone as Andrew busies himself rearranging his pack, hanging a bag of food from a clip on his belt to cook as we walk.
We pick our way down the mountainside slowly, mainly due to the addition of our new, friend? Not sure what to call him yet. Heading in the direction Bic says he can smell burning coals from, hopefully a campfire and not the burned out husk of some building. Time will tell I suppose.
"Can we take a break," I catch myself breathing in a sharp retort as Andrew asks to stop for the third time in an hour, shaking the irritation out and practicing breathing techniques for calm I turn with a tight smile on my face, He's smiling in that disarming way I've begun to associate with the former? FIsherman, already beginning to sit down.
"Bic, How much farther?" I ask without breaking eye contact with the older man, Bic grunts off to my side taking several long, slow breaths before he spits and replies.
"Not far, half a mile." I nod, thanking him and smile at Andrew.
"You heard him, not far now." I jerk my head telling him to come on, for a moment I think I catch an ugly look in his eyes as I turn away, but it must have been a trick of the light as he slaps me jovially on the arm, actually moving ahead of the rest of us for a second.
"No rest for the wicked, is it?" he says with a deep belly laugh, heading further along the way we were already going. I share a look with Bic and Lu the depth of which conveys exasperation and a sense of, what in the hell have we gotten ourselves into?
As we draw near to where Bic says the fire was, the wind shifts and I begin to be able to smell the smoke as well, Lu is on high alert as we near the location in question and as we break through the tree line into a clearing it's clear that this was a campsite.
Trampled earth and grass are the obvious first sign as I walk around the clearing, Bic off to the side tilling the earth with his claws to get at a buried campfire and start shoving still smoking charcoal down his gullet. Lu walks away from me for a moment to leap high and grab something from a tree, he comes back holding his hand out a kunai sitting on his open palm. A relieved smile parts my lips for a second as I take the knife from him, spinning it through my fingers to check the balance and rub away a bit of rust on the blade. Andrew sits on the ground eating something from his pack, looking disinterested as he watches Lu and I.
"Find what you were looking for?" Why does that sound vaguely accusatory? My brow furrows as I scowl.
"It's definitely a step in the right direction." I say absently as I try and count the footprints. I give up, looking to Lu who shrugs.
"The aura is too confused, too many bodies in too tight a space. I'm sorry father." I smile fondly as I scratch between his ears, telling him he did really good. Bic has unearthed three different fire in the meantime, making a surprised but pleased sound as he drags a charred Raticate carcass from one of the fires, crunching the bones in delight, all of the meat having already either burned away or been eaten by whoever was here.
"We're close, let's see if we can close the gap." I tuck the kunai away in my belt, and gesture for the others to come on, Bic slinging his meal over his shoulder a pleased look on his face as he cracks the skull open to get at the brains. Lu curls his nose up in disgust, and Andrew actually gags a little, but something about the smell makes my stomach roil in hunger.
Ignoring that for now, I motion for Lu to lead the way. I have suspicions about where they were headed as we begin going farther south, the landscape getting less mountainous as we go, giving way to thick brush and forest that Lu shreds with quick bursts of strength, the rough terrain and muggy weather is doing Andrew no favors as he sweats and pants, gradually falling farther and farther behind as we go. I'm too excited to slow down though and after a couple hours we reach a drop off where the forest gives way to a cliff face and down below I can make out a ruined complex, stone walls surrounding a large number of interconnected houses, each building topped with green tile, the architecture not too dissimilar to that of Ecruteak city. The damage is obvious even from here but I was hopeful I could find a clue in the ruins of Koga's home/Gym that would lead us back to the enclave and maybe, just maybe the group we are tracking is down there.
"Not much farther now," I say. More to myself than anything, but Andrew takes that moment to chime in.
"Oh, thank Arceus!" Collapsing on the ground he's a pitiful sight, red faced and sweating, I can't help but laugh, somewhat impressed he'd kept up at all. Looking out across the treetops the sun is dipping low on the horizon. I nod decisively.
"We'll camp here for now," I declare. No point trying to go down this cliff face in the dark, the fact that nothing has attacked us in a few days has me on edge. No need to tempt fate.
Fatigue hits me as soon as I decide we're done traveling, as if something had held it back until I was ready for it. I slide bonelessly down the side of a tree, pulling my sword out as I go, giving it a quick once over, I definitely need to clean it as soon as I'm able, but with no way to do that in the woods I lay it sheathed across my lap, ignoring everything around me as I pass from the waking world to that of sleep.