It had been 4 days since I entered the cave, the entire time of which I spent training vigorously. I had bonded with Zevoa tremendously, although Jerry still didn't quite trust me yet, but he was still making great progress.
I was growing more and more anxious by the day. This anxiety made me eventually start making my pokemon taking shifts during the night. Or what I thought was night. The cave was dark 24/7, so I couldn't tell whether it was am or pm.
Many nights I couldn't sleep, for fear of being ambushed during my slumber. One of the main reasons I wanted to do shifts was because I couldn't sleep, so watching over the camp every night kept me occupied in my restlessness.
"Ice fang!" I commanded whilst pointing at the opposing pokemon's head. Zevoa was battling a geodude. They looked like frogs, except instead of lean and powerful back legs it was the other way around. They were still almost indistinguishable from rocks, and I unknowingly tripped over a few.
She implanted her fangs into the rocky frog's head and froze it's brain. I had tried to eat one of them before, but they tasted like dirt, even without their epidermis attached. Something would definitely come along and eat it in my place.
It seemed like the density of pokemon heightened as I traversed deeper into the caverns. I encountered one small pokemon which I believed was a graveler. It was about up to my waist, and if I had to guess was about 200 pounds or so. It looked like a bipedal, four-armed turtle.
Jerry and Zevoa double-teamed the beast. It would've been able to take either of them on one-on-one, but with their combined efforts, it didn't stand a chance.
I managed to teach Jerry four commands in a week, he learned much quicker than Zevoa did. He could employ the moves scratch, poison sting, fury cutter and magnitude in battle. Although I didn't use magnitude very often, the power of the move fluctuated too often for me to be able to effectively utilize it in combat. Sometimes it would be little more than a slight tremor, other times it would be an earthquake that would shake the whole cave and cause rocks to fall from the ceiling. I didn't want to risk being crushed to death; so I stopped using it.
The sandshrew was noticeably bigger than he was 2 weeks ago when I had first caught him, he had grown at least a tenth of an inch. His tail was also a bit longer, his claws too, his body was also riddled with scars from previous battles.
Jerry improved mentally, whilst Zevoa improved physically. I was convinced that she could crush my skull in one bite if she wanted to. Her ice fang attack wasn't as strong as her regular bites, but it offered more diversity in her moveset. It also had a strategic edge to it. If it didn't knock out whatever she was fighting, it would sometimes freeze whatever area she bit it at.
On a bad note, that horrendous scent had came back. I took a piece of cotton and put it in my nose so I wouldn't smell it. I returned Zevoa and Jerry to save their olfactory senses from any more punishment. Right before she was absorbed into the orb, I noticed that Zevoa looked more intrigued by the scent than annoyed by it.
This scent was different than the last one. This one was reminiscent of a corpse. It took me a second to realize it, but once I did; I became even more anxious at the thought of it being human remains lying somewhere in the cave.
The ground was turning into a more rocky-terrain the further in I walked. The earth looked like it had been shifted by miners or something. Bones were littered everywhere, and I couldn't see any pokemon on the walls or floors crawling around.
Even if whatever lived there wasn't strong enough to beat me in a battle; I didn't want to take that chance. I turned tail and ran away.
I sprinted far, until I was out of the obvious pokemon nest. I decided to take a different turn. Rather than going the exact way I came from, there was a second, bigger corridor to the right.
The corridor was larger around than the last one. I stuck to the wall just to make sure I wouldn't lose my way in the sizable passageway. I figured that maybe the other corridor would lead me around the large nest so that I could keep going deeper into the cave. I looked at my map a few days before, and saw that was 30 miles long and had multiple caverns leading to different exits. The main one lead to Cerulean City, but I didn't want to go there just yet. I wanted my badge from Pewter first.
I released Zevoa, then immediately regretted it after remembering that she would probably hate it. But to my puzzlement, she was actually content with the scent. She stuck her nose in the air and attempted to locate where the foul scent was coming from. At least, it was foul to me.
She sprinted down the passage, I chased after her, but my speed paled in comparison to hers. "Zevoa, get back here!" I yelled, digging out her pokeball. I aimed the ball at her, but it buzzed and screeched an ear-piercing sound. She was out of range.
Just as I started to lose my stamina, she slowed down to a halt and looked behind herself at me. Once I caught up to her, I sunk to my knees and attempted to catch my breath. I looked around for my flashlight, which I had dropped while trying to catch Zevoa. I found it and picked it up from the ground.
"Don't do that*pant*again,*pant* Zevoa," I wheezed with every breath. My lungs ached, that damned overgrown dog was gonna kill me one of these days.
I shined my flashlight in front of where she was standing. A body laid there, it was missing it's leg, like something had torn the appendage off. It looked like it had suffered from blunt-force trauma. It looked like it had been there for awhile. It was bloated to the point that it was leaking fluid from it's orifices, which was producing the pungent odor.
I shined the flashlight over it's face and observed it for a little while, and finally recognized it. He was the boy I had battled a 4 days prior. The boy with the charmander. I gasped and fell back from shock, scared and disturbed out of my mind.
I made a move to return Zevoa, when I saw something in the corner of my eye. It wasn't just one of the cave-dwelling creatures I'd seen before, this was something else. I turned to face it, but nothing was there; only rocks. I got up and ran away, Zevoa trotted not-too-far behind me.
I periodically looked behind me as I sprinted, but I saw nothing but darkness. The screech of bats filled my ears, as I was swarmed by zubat. I felt a few nips on my elbow, and started swatting the pests away. Zevoa barked and howled a few times; grabbing one of the creatures from the air and swallowing it whole. The cloud of flying-rodents faded, I heard a bellowing beast behind us roar angrily.
I ran for about another minute or so, before succumbing to fatigue when my adrenaline dissipated. I was far enough away from whatever was back there, it wasn't like I could run forever. I released Jerry and he stood guard as I fished around in my backpack for my knife. I ordered Zevoa to go find some food, seeing as I had ran out of my reserves a few days earlier.
Within 5 minutes, Zevoa returned with a blue mouse in her mouth. It was a marill. I tried to eat those things before, they stayed moist no matter how burnt they were. They tasted kind of like a fishy-rabbit. They were actually a lot better than the rattata that I had grown accustomed to.
I zoned out while I skinned the creature and made my fire. The boy was killed and eaten by a monster. I didn't know his name, nor anything else about him; but he was just a child, I knew that much.
Whatever killed him was dangerous. It would probably do it again if given the chance. But not to me, goddamnit, I swore. I bowed my head in respect for the boy. I needed to get out of the cave before I ended up just like him though, because I didn't quite fancy a fight with an experienced man-eater.
The next time I see Raymond, I'll have to tell him about this, I thought. That kid's parents must've thought he was just prancing around somewhere, eating rice paddies or some shit with his pokemon. Why do they let little kids do this? I wondered. I knew the answer though; it was because life was boring, and pokemon were just about the most exciting thing in the world. Maybe they let kids do it as a means of protection? Like if a gyarados started rampaging in a town, you'd need someone to contain it, and trainers were probably the most qualified to do it.
I skewered the marill and sat it in my fire. Jerry curled up next to the flames, keeping himself cozy and warm. Zevoa was still anxious, and staring into the darkness towards where we heard the roar. She sat in silence, uttering a series of deep and intimidating growls into the blackness, but with no response.
I got up and walked over to her, placing a hand on her head. She didn't react. She just kept gazed, like she was challenging whatever it was out there. Or pleading for it to stay away. Hopefully the latter.
I enjoyed my meal, maybe enjoyed wasn't the right word to use. I forced the wet mouse down my throat for sustenance would be more appropriate. I then commanded Jerry to kick up some sand onto our fire. I packed up and left the area, rested and nourished, now I needed to get out of that cave. It did nothing for me except for make me paranoid. I was about a week into the cave, if I hurried I could get out of there in two or three days time.
XxXxXxXx
I walked for about 3 hours straight, only resting for a few minutes before getting back up and walking some more. I had to return Jerry partway into it-he didn't have very good stamina. It was nice for Zevoa, though, it strengthened her leg muscles which made her faster, because science.
For some reason I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being followed by something. I would sometimes feel the ground quake ever-so-slightly, and Zevoa would start barking at something behind us, but nothing would be there. It was really creeping me out.
"Zev, get it!" I pointed to a particularly large paras. It had one two big mushrooms on it's back that were nearly conjoined. It was probably about to evolve. It would put up a decent fight for her.
Her fangs froze over, and she pounced on it. Her attempt was met with a flurry of spores shot from the mushroom directly into her face. I had seen that attack before, it was slightly-purplish in color, it was poison powder. She would pass out within a few minutes if I let her stay out. I returned her and sent out Jerry.
It had a type disadvantage, but he also had a rock type move in the form of rollout. "Jerry, poison sting!" His claws began to drip with a deep purple toxic secreting at the tip. He dashed at the insect and swiped at of it's mushrooms, leaving a shallow gash that was just deep enough to inject the poison into the pokemon's body.
The paras slashed at Jerry, and caught him in the chest. He hissed and retaliated with a wild but effective slash of his own. They dueled for a few seconds, trading blows before they broke up. "Roll up!" I yelled to him. He coiled up and sat for a second. The paras swiped at him, but couldn't damage his hard epidermis.
"Roll out!" Jerry shot forward like a cannonball and nailed the paras in the face. He kept going and made a wide turn around then blasted the paras again, this time in the mushroom, causing pieces of it to crumble. The paras screeched before it got knocked out by the third rollout.
Jerry uncoiled himself and looked up at me. I patted his little head, congratulated him before then returning him.
I decided to let Zevoa rest in her ball, hoping the poison would wear off if she would refrain from battle. I could handle myself for a while whilst in the cave, at least for a little while.
XxXxXxXx
I trekked for another few hours, only stopping twice for food and water. Zevoa had gotten over the poison mostly, but she still looked dizzy and queasy. To occupy myself I took to trying to teach Zevoa how to sit and shake. Sitting was pretty easy for her to learn, but shaking was another story. For some reason she thought I was trying to hit her, so she bit me in the arm, tearing a chunk of flesh off of it. I made a note to buy bandages next time I went to Pewter.
Sometimes I would hear a something that sounded like the dirt and rocks were shifting. I dismissed it the first time, but as paranoid as I was, I started thinking of a million explanations to the sound; each one was scarier than the last.
More than once I would nearly fall into a sinkhole, like something had dug a trap. Or, at least I thought so. Maybe it was naturally occurring, maybe not; all I knew was that I was lucky not to fall into it.
I started to recognize some of the things in the cave, they were little reminders that I was going the right way out. Like that human shaped rock that managed to scare me again as I passed it once more. I ordered Jerry to destroy it with a rollout.
I found a group of old purplish needles. They were the needles from that boy's pokemon. From his nidoran. I laughed at the memory of me picking them from Zevoa's face. If that boy died, I wondered what may have happened to his pokemon? Did they put up a fight, or did that beast just kill them like it did their trainer? Or maybe they were still in their pokeballs, were they could have very well remained for eternity.
There were scorch marks on the floor too, from his charmander. I knew that meant I was close, because I was about a little under a day into the cave. I was very tired though, and decided to go to sleep. Of course, leaving Zevoa out to guard the campsite, which didn't bother her seeing as she was nocturnal.
Zevoa barked at something in the middle of my slumber. I shot up, shined my flashlight in the direction she was looking. Part of me wanted to just curl up in a corner and await my fate, thinking that I was sure to die. I knew what had killed that boy, and I knew what would kill me.
Sorry I couldn't post a chapter last week, the reason I was able to post every week before was because I had'em stacked up, edited and ready to go, but I just wrote this one. Please review, follow and favorite this story if you enjoyed.