A/N: Just a quick note, I went over the last chapter again, and the conversation with umbreon did sound a bit like narration, so I edited it some.

Aetas Infinitas

Chapter Eleven

Revival

This 'place' they spoke of was nothing more than a den dug into a thicket with a tiny stream trickling by. And the stream was small- her paw was wider than the little trough it ran in. The den was in a large bush covered in fluffy, green leaves and on the top were sprinkled tiny white and red flowers. Veri was a bit taken aback by their home overall- she had expected such an egotistical creature to have somewhat of a more sophisticated dwelling, although when she thought about what the alternative might have been, she went blank.

"We're here," The white freak said in a complimentary voice. "This is our home." He paced over alongside the stream and sat down.

"Why don't you go inside the den and rest? I'm sure my young won't mind," the female said.

Without question Veri stepped inside the den, and sure enough, she saw three little balls of fluff staring at her with large, auburn eyes. They mewed softly as she curled up next to them. As she tried to fall asleep she thought about how unusual it was for a brother and a sister to mate and have young of their own. But then, she supposed, that if their numbers were very low then the only way to reproduce would be to mate with a sibling.

The warmth of their bodies and the fluff of the fur put Veri to sleep quickly. It was night when she woke up and the three inside the den were still sleeping. She found the white and purple freaks sitting just outside neatly under a full moon. The white one's yellow rings had a slight glow to them.

"Good to see that you are feeling well again. Come over and sit with us." He said in his usual tone. Veri did so and looked up at them in a youthful curiosity that she hadn't felt in a long time.

"Why don't you talk with us for awhile? Maybe we can jog a bit of your memory." The female piped in.

Veri sighed in despair. "I'm sorry ma'am, but I have nothing to remember. Most of my life up to this point has been lonely and hostile." She was astounded at her sudden awareness of what she was; this lavender female seemed to have something almost arcane to her aura that allowed Veri to take a small look at what she had grown to be.

"Well what has happened to you that made you forget?"

"For…for a seemingly endless number of winters a man kept me locked in a dark room..." Veri sighed and looked solemnly to the ground, changing her response. "The maltreatment by a human…is what I suppose made me so," She pawed at the bare spot on her nose.

"How old are you miss?

Veri hesitated before giving her answer. She hadn't thought about it much at all. How old exactly was she? Well, whatever the number, she knew that the vast majority of it was spent with that man.

"I…I'm not exactly sure. Well, I counted my winters with that man, and that was about thirty-seven. And before that I…" She paused again. What was before that? Veri strained to remember and her expression showed it. The female saw this and stopped her.

"Don't worry, we'll get it eventually, and just relax. Now tell me, can you remember what you were doing before you were taken captive?"

Veri paused again before answering, and tried to remember. She thought in reverse, gradually working her way backwards through the years, hoping to recall what exactly she had been doing that first day. When she could recall nothing but images of the man, she slumped down onto her stomach and hung her ears.

Veri was surprised at how patient the female was being. Veri was surprised at how patient she was being. For as far back as she could remember at this moment, she had never had any patience with anyone. This was something new and strange that she could not explain.

"Now, dear. Can you remember your age again?" The female was certainly set on not revealing her purposes.

"Before I was taken, I, I, remember feeling alone for a time, but not more than a moon. After, or, before that, I was with a family that-"

"Your family?"

"No, no. One that I found, or rather, found me. I don't remember what they looked like or much anything else about them."

"And before that?" The female asked her politely.

Veri sat up from her slumping position. "Err…I'm not exactly sure."

"Was the family nice to you?"

"Oh yes, they were very kind and one of them healed me."

The female smiled in satisfaction. "What would you need to be healed from?"

"I was…attacked, by, something."

"Why were you alone?"

"Because, I did something horrible."

The female seemed to understand. "My brother tells me you did something you regret very recently. Is this part of what you just spoke of?"

Veri turned away. "No, its not. That was because I was made almost livid after all those years in the dark, and so I unwillingly took more lives than necessary. It's my fears of what happened years ago that I can't remember before. I just wish that I knew how to wring this anger out of me. It's not natural for me, I know that. I…I just feel the strangest things now; like, I can actually see all of this as opposed to before when I was not able to see… Just talking to you has helped me at least realize that I was not always this way. I see now that what that man did to me made me so angry and blinded me from everything that was important to me before it." Veri was panting heavily and had begun to sweat with wide, desperate eyes.

She smiled with an uncanny grin of satisfaction. "I see. Well, that's enough for one night I suppose. Why don't you come back and sleep in the den." She rose to her feet and curled up with her young. Veri noticed that all this time the white freak hadn't said a word and was still sitting quietly, watching her. Veri trotted up to him and sat down as they both stared up at the beautiful full moon. After a few minutes of not thinking about much anything, her frustrations began to fade away. When she felt a great deal better then she had earlier, she tried to strike up a conversation with the umbreon. The two talked without looking at each other, both just staring at the moon.

"So, umm, do you have a name? You never gave it to me."

"Yes, I do. All of us do. It's just not customary to share it with strangers. Just an old ritualistic thing anomalat relatives do. We don't want to lure in trouble."

"Pardon me, but, anomalat?"

"Yes, my sisters kits in there, they are the anomalat. Well, at least that's what we call them anyway. Man calls 'em eevee or something strange like that. That's one of the reasons that we don't give out names right away because if a stranger is in relation to a human, well, there's disaster spelled out."

"Oh, before I forget, my name is Veri. Are those your children?"

"Oh, no. Not in the least. Those guys are actually my niece and nephews. See, when Elsola birthed those three, her mate died of some mysterious illness so she sent a friend out to find me, and I've been helping her raise them."

"Oh I see. But why don't they look like their mother?"

He smiled and closed his eyes with a laugh. "Heh, it's funny you should ask. The reason is what I mentioned before, the anomalat. All creatures of the species are born looking like that, and different things cause them to change. None that I know of or perhaps none will ever know exactly what causes the different changes. All I know is that I started the same way, and because I loved my mother so much, I just randomly changed into this. Not too long after we left the nest my sister found and loved her mate so much, she changed into what she is now. The only difference was that she did so during sunlight hours, and myself during moonlight hours."

Veri wondered in the back of her mind if there were any other possibilities that the anomalat could turn in to, so she asked.

"I know of one other, but I'm not sure of how many more there are. There could be hundreds, although I doubt it. My mother's brother, Uncle Fons, was the one of strangest things I've ever seen. He was a bright blue with all kinds of fins and gills and stuff, like he was some fish or something. Grumpy old man, the heavens knows where he's at now, it's been so many moons."

Veri was silent for a moment, pondering all that she had just learned. She became strangely curious in wondering if she, too would ever change someday.

"So what ilk are you of?" The white umbreon asked.

These creatures sure had many strange words.

"Pardon me again but-"

"Heh, sorry about that again. I forgot you're not from around here. An ilk is a group of creatures that have specific abilities, which they, and only certain others can use. For instance, my Uncle Fons could shoot water farther than you could see but no matter how hard I tried I could never do it. Elsola, she can do incredible things with her thoughts. I just cant do that. Anomalats believe that all creatures have some type of ilk."

"What about you?"

"Me? Oh, I haven't quite found out myself yet. I have discovered that strangely enough, I can see in the dark much better than my sister, and at night these golden rings around me glow. Something else that's strange is that I have this odd but awesome ability to disappear for a few moments and reappear somewhere else. I've done a lot of thinking on it lately and I think that it's something exclusive to my ilk."

Veri was fascinated at all this new and intriguing information that she was taking in. After thinking on it some more, she shook her head out of her zoning state.

"So what type of ilk are you?"

Veri hesitated for a moment but showed him a tiny burst of flames that dissipated with a passing wind. "I think that is my special ability. I've only met a few who can do the same,"

His eyes became wide, but not with fear.

"You're one of the Pyre…" He got up abruptly. "Come with me, quickly."

Without asking she found herself following him swiftly through the forest. As they ran he addressed her.

"By the way, the name's Lunan."

Within a few minutes they stopped at a large stone cave. Grouped around the entrance were many anomalat, each one held an expression of worry. As she followed him quickly inside, they stared at her as if she were some alien. When they got inside, Veri was astonished at what she saw. In the center of the cave, lying on a bed of grasses, lie a large, fluffy creature of colors similar to that on Veri's tail and the rings around Lunan's body. It had long ears and was panting heavily.

There were also several anomalat sitting around it, and Lunan joined them, gesturing for Veri to sit as well.

"Veri, this is Ignitio. He's a Pyre like you. I didn't mention him before because at the time I though that he was the only one of his kind, like a one-time alteration. But now I realize that he is another of the anomalat changes. All of us have tried but we don't know how." All of the anomalat sitting around him gasped. "He is suffering Veri. We need you to heal him."

Veri's eyes became wide in fear and she slightly backed away. "Lunan I can't, I mean, I don't know how to- I don't know anything about healing!"

"Veri, you must! He'll die soon if something is not done!"

"But-" She looked around her as all of the anomalat stared with some foreign hopefulness. "I'll try," she said, disheartened. What if nothing could be done? It would be her fault and something else to burden her for the rest of her life. But her reclaimed kindness pushed her to strain and remember what the family she had stayed with had taught her about healing, something..."

She stepped forward with a deep breath and lowered herself down to his head. His eyes, she could tell that they were eyes once full of life but their luster was fading quickly. She put her ear to his chest and listened, and rose up again, speaking with a saddened tone and lowered ears.

"Everyone, I'm sorry to say that I think he is suffering from causes on the inside. They are beyond my control. Anything further that I could do would be putting his life in even further danger. What I do next is all up to you."

Lunan spoke up. "What's wrong with him?"

"I can hear the fires raging inside of him. It is growing out of control. Anymore and he'll be burned up on the inside."

Lunan got up. "Veri, come with me, we should talk something over quickly before you continue." She followed him outside the cave.

Once they were alone, Lunan began.

"Veri, I'm trying not to ask too much of you, but they all look to the changed anomalat for guidance. And since I can do nothing I thought that you might at least give us a little more information. My only question now is where you got those impressive medicinal skills."

Veri wondered this herself. "Well, I learned some from the family I stayed with, they were healers. Everything else I saw while living with that man. One of his dogs had something similar once, and I remember going to try and comfort him and he had very similar conditions. When the man shot him, I took a look later at its wound and saw that a strange, steaming gland inside the neck had broken open and had charred much of the dog's innards."

"You seem very wise for your age Veri. I have faith that you will be of much help to us."

She held a distant gaze and sighed. "I hope so too."

Once they were back inside the cave, Veri took another breath and approached the paining creature. She was not hopeful however, of what she could do for him. Just as in the man's dog before it had died, the hissing could be heard from the side of his neck, even underneath all of the thick fur. She took another deep breath and put her cheek to his chest. It was warmer than usual. She walked around him performing other specific checks and stopped again where she had lain near him. She gently pried open his jaws and inspected inside. Veri turned around with a downcast gaze.

"Well?" Lunan was curious.

"Everyone, I'm sorry but there is nothing I can do for your friend. He is beyond my help. I have seen this in a...'Pyre'...only once before, and that was, too, a dire situation. I fear that your friend has but a few days left."

A quiet, chaotic conversation arose among the anomalat as she left the cave. Lunan followed her.

"Lunan, I'm sorry. There's nothing else I could even try without causing him more pain. This is going to bother me for a long time, I can already tell."

"Why don't you go and talk to Elsola. She might be able to help you again."

They both left the cave and headed back to the den.

By the time Veri and Lunan arrived home again, the sky was beginning to show signs of rising. Elsola was just stirring, and got up excitedly as she saw her brother approaching. Lunan told her all that had happened, and she too, hung her head low. Ignicio must have been a dear friend of theirs. Lunan also told Elsola of Veri's need of help again. She nodded in agreement and paced over to where her brother and Veri had sat earlier. Veri told her of her new, feared burden and by the time the sun was fully visible over the horizon she had managed to convince Veri that there was nothing to feel bad for, and that in fact she should feel at least something positive because she had at least tried to help. His death would not have been in vain.

Veri told Elsola that she decided that she would not stay long, and would most likely be leaving during that day. She also told Lunan of her plan, who seemed a little disappointed but supportive nonetheless.

XXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

A/N: The eevee-evolutions that she's living with do have some weird words, I know. The reason I gave them an odd vocabulary is that I wanted the species to seem like a very scholarly bunch that wanted to learn about the world around them, without making them seem too human-like. I won't do this for any other characters, and I chose the eevee because they are special in a number of ways so I thought it would fit well. I'm not sure about how well I carried this out, so if they seemed too much like people, please let me know in a review.

Thanks a bunch again for all my reviews so far. :D