Hatch

by QuinKylar

Cubone, the Lonely Pokemon. It's not by their choice, its ancient tradition that a Cubone Hatchling lives the first years of their life in solitude, proving their worth to their Tribe. However, for two Hatchlings, events are in motion that will have both risking their skulls by breaking the Trial rules. For one, it's a Dewott with a warning. For the other, a murder.

14. Ingrained Notions

fourteen

Ingrained Notions

"Hatch. Wake up, Hatchling. …we are not alone."

Cubone jolted awake to find utter darkness, a hand kept her to the floor, muzzle clamped shut. She instinctively flailed but to no avail.

"Shh… …calm down," Joshua whispered into her ear as he pinned her still. She thrashed, trying to throw him off. His grip tightened, and the only thing she could do is growl faintly. "Hatchling. It is just me, Joshua. Shh…." With a huff, she fell silent and still. "Good… there is more than one. How many, I'm not sure. But listen…."

The air was cold and damp, slowly taking on the icy bite of the late night air; the fire had been out for a long while. The silence of the chamber was drowned by the echoes of the rain crashing down against the rock outside. Thunder murmured in the distance. But there was nothing underneath it all other than her faint breathing, the nervous sliding if her claws on the small scalchop that she still held at her heart.

Leaves rustled.

"There," Joshua muttered, sitting back and allowing Cubone to sit up. "Those are Sawsbuck leaves—their antlers. Why they are taking shelter here, I don't know, but there must be a few Deerling with it. They probably know we're here, but they can't see anything in the darkness either. I'm pretty sure they're wild, but they might attack if I call out."

"What are we going to do?"

Joshua moved away for a second. Cubone took the moment to stand, facing the sound and the faint shape it came from. The Dewott spoke after another second, "Deerling are not much of a threat, and I can take down a single Sawsbuck. Though two, there might be trouble. Any more, it would be best if we let them be. All that said, this is your den, Hatchling. What do you want to do?"

She slid the seashell into her Buizel gloves, reassuringly safe against her forearm, "I want them out of here."

"And I have no qualms with that," Joshua sighed. "We're going to need that fire relit, if only to wave in their faces."

"It burned itself out," Cubone sighed, casting a frustrated glare at the fire pit for all it mattered in the dark. "I'll need more firewood."

"That's fine, where do you keep it?"

"In my Spirit Chamber, it's the driest place."

"Alright, go and build the fire across the entrance to the Chamber's hall—if push comes shove, we can hide behind it. A Sawsbuck has only one ranged attack and I can deflect it with enough space." He pulled her back as she started off, "Don't forget the flint. Be quick, and be quiet. When the fire is lit, wait until I engage the Sawsbuck, then distract the Deerling if they become an issue. Do not kill them. We're just chasing them out, not creating a mess. Alright, go." She quietly scampered away.

Now alone in the darkness, Joshua stood. He slowly traced the hinge of his scalchops as he took a breath to steel himself, then mentally took a step away from what lied in the darkness beyond to the darkness within.

"Sawsbuck, with some Deerling," He said silently, "Grass/Normal. Immune to Ghost, weak to a lot, resists almost as much. Including us." Off to the left came the faint sound of wood clinking softly against the rock. Something snorted from over near the cubby-holes. He frowned, rolling his shoulders as he pushed the sounds away, "Not a lot of room to charge in here, Josh, so it's best I be up in its face. All it has to do is tag me with its horns... Aqua jet?Aqua jet, aqua jet, aqua jet…. Aaah… that might work. That might work so long as I don't splash her with the burst. Or the fire. But Deerling know Leech Seed, don't they…?" He scowled at himself. "That is incredibly helpful."

He snapped aware as a small hand pulled at the darker fur of his leg, the sensations of the cave rushing back into him. A small voice called up to him, "I'm going to light the kindling in the Chamber and bring it out to the firewood. It's going to be small, so it doesn't spook them, but I can build it up fast."

"Good thinking," Joshua nodded to the darkness. "A Samurott's glare can instill pure fear into anyone who looks into his eyes. …hopefully, I can have the same effect by now and I can force the lot out without fighting. But… listen, if things do go south I don't want you…."

A floating skull rushed down the cavern after a glow, a cupped flame floating in front of it. The Hatchling herself ghostly illuminated as she kneeled to shove the kindling into the wood, coaxing the flame to the wood. She had left her Buizel gloves in the Chamber to handle the flame.

Or she could just ignore what he has to say and hop directly to it. Sure, that works too.

Scoffing, he turned and watched the light slowly reveal the chamber before them, holding a breath until it crept to the far wall.

One lone Sawsbuck lifted its head and met Joshua's eye with a bleary golden one. It lay against the far back-left corner of the cubby holes, two little Deerling huddling as close together and to the Sawsbuck as they could. All three drenched to the bone, the water still settling out of their fur into a puddle around them. They had only arrived recently, an hour ago at most.

It was clear that the Sawsbuck had just evolved, the week before least, a month, maybe three ago at most depending on how the weather had been. It actually wasn't all that much larger than its younger kin, having only little sprouts of its autumn antlers and a small bush between them on its head. Its fur was patchy, telling of several injuries, some healing, some scarred over, and one at its shoulder that was still fresh.

The Sawsbuck shook its head and met Joshua's again. The deer's eyes were glassed over in fear and defocused and bloodshot from fatigue, but somehow maintained a deathly calm. Still, there didn't seem to be a higher intelligence behind them. The little Deerling shifted, burrowing closer together for warmth. There were a few healed scratches around their necks and sides with tuffs of fur missing around them and a little weak from the lack of sun over the last several days. Scuffed, but otherwise uninjured.

Joshua sighed and stood down. Running a hand through the tuff of his mane over his temple, he glanced to Cubone as she settled the last piece of wood on the fire and looked up to see their guests. Her eyes darted between the three of them. She squinted, like in a half-confusion before she flinched with recognition. Snorting, she narrowed her eyes in familiarized annoyance.

"They're wilds," Joshua announced. "Just wilds, hiding from the storm like us. Tired, fatigued. They mean us no harm."

"I don't care; I want them out of here!" Cubone grumbled, hopping around the small fire and marching over to the group. The Sawsbuck blinked, refocusing its eyes and watched her carefully. She glanced to Joshua, "Giving shelter to you is one thing, keeping wilds in here is another! If we let them stay in here, then more and more of their friends show up and they'll be the ones throwing us out! So come on! Move it!" Standing far too close, she lightly tapped the Sawsbuck on the shoulder with her club and pointed to the exit, "Go on! Shoo! Get out of here!"

Joshua darted forward to grab her arm, pulling her back, "Easy, easy! Mind the antlers! Undeveloped as they are, they're still a threat to us."

"Tch," Cubone rolled her eyes, trying to shake him off. "It's obvious when a wild is going to attack, you can see it in their eyes. That Sawsbuck looks like it just lost a fight and clearly doesn't want another—some other wild probably kicked it out of where it was hiding before. Like I said, we let one stay, more and more will show up—listen…!" She glanced away, meeting the Sawsbuck's eye for a moment then instantly looking away, all the while biting her lip as she tried to phrase her words without sounding too harsh, "…sure, yeah they look pathetic, but I'm still expecting a Maro to bring me to the Final Trials!" She turned, glaring to Joshua, "I don't know when he's going to show up, but you're one thing—they're expecting you, you got stuck out here. But if he sees this, he'll have my skull again!"

"You… let wilds stay in your den be—?"

"What—n-no! What kind of Cubone just loans their den out?! I'm stuck with that stupid Delibird, but at least it lays eggs like no tomorrow! These? They smell. Ugh…." Cubone scowled, stomping away. "You just said you were fine with throwing them out!"

Joshua sighed, shaking his head, "I thought we were in severe danger, and now I see that we are not. All we need to do is just let them sit there. They won't bother us."

"I! Don't! Care!" She shouted, "This is my den! This is my home! If someone randomly barges into your house of wood and stone and sits down in your bedding, would you just let them?"

Joshua swallowed his words, shaking his head to buy time as he looked for others. "These… are wilds. They don't know any better."

Cubone rolled her eyes, "Pfff! This is the Res! I don't know how wilds act anywhere else, but… but thisisthe Res! There are a duo of Squirtle upriver who make traps! They're wild." Joshua silently sighed, raising a hand to rub his eyes and braced for another tantrum. True, it wasn't going to be the worst one he weathered but… "There's across the plains there's a herd of Donphan and Phampy. They sing through their noses. In tune to make this… weird sound that sounds nice—but they're wild. Over towards the swamp, there's at least three Skorupi that only live there because they like the sound they make on the decaying trees. So they dance on them." She snorted, stopping at arm's length away from the Deerling. "They're wild. You have no idea how the wilds act here, so I'm sure that three stupid deer can find some other—MMFFF!?"

Joshua snapped upright—Cubone fought a vine coiled around her muzzle, clamping her mouth shut as it circled down and around neck. The vine stretched taut from the Sawsbuck—Sawsbuck don't have vines, 'wott!

"Not important right now!" Joshua seethed, surging forward in a jet of water, slashing the vine with a glowing scalchop. It recoiled a moment too late, giving him enough time to kick off the wall and make his move.

Grabbing the Hatch by the shoulders, he pulled her away from the deer, spinning her to put himself between them and deflecting a second vine into the wall with his tail. He danced her back towards the fire, holding her close and weaving her away as the vines speared into the rock around them.

His foot found the shaft of the bladed bone she had left in the open last night—he stumbled as it slipped out from underfoot, pushing her away into the far wall as he fell to the ground. He rolled, hands snapping up to catch the vine as it stabbed.

The Dewott's claws dug into the tendril; bark and sap peeling away before it finally stopped mere inches from his eye. For a quick moment, he pushed it away, gaining precious few inches as the vine quickly wrapped around his leg. With newfound leverage, it returned the effort in the reverse tug-of-war, driving Joshua's back into the rocks while his own efforts to push the vine, in turn, threated to pull his leg apart.

Joshua's arms shook and his eyes slowly went cross as he lost the space that he earned and then more. A strained growl filled the chamber; he wasn't going to last much longer and his situation was only going to worsen.

In an instant, he pulled on the vine and snapped his head right— the tendril speared straight into the ground to his left and the rest of the vine flew forward faster than its owner could react, coiling in the air and freeing his foot. Reaching as far up the vine as he could, Joshua pulled himself to his feet, grabbing a scalchop and slashing as far down the vine as he could reach, severing several yards worth of vine and what was left snapped back beyond the Sawsbuck.

Joshua allowed himself two quick pants before spinning, "Hatch!"

It had only taken only ten seconds, but already the life was going out of her eyes through a shocked panic. The coils around her tightened, fighting Joshua as he pulled it off of her muzzle.

He knelt down in front of her, wrestling with the vine as it wrapped itself around his arm and squeezed. It was choking her, but she could still breathe, "I'm here. I'm—"

Her arms were at her throat, pulling at the coils but it was like she couldn't find the right one to pull, "It's—it's—it's—it's—!" She choked, "It hurts—"

"Okay-okay-okay, hold still!" Pulling what he had taut, he cut it with another slash of the scalchop and threw it and the coil on his arm into the fire behind her. The coils around her neck tightened again—but the end wasn't moving—

She was bleeding; the vine was impaling her at the neck at the clavicle and it was still moving. It wasn't just choking her; it was digging into her body.

A sudden jolt of dread shot through the Dewott, locking his arms and freezing his mind until a faint whimper from the Hatchling snapped him to.

"Arceus, not this—okay!" He took two quick breaths to calm himself—a quick glance behind caught another vine hovering above the Sawsbuck. The deer's eyes had blanked over—that emptiness earlier was a glaze of death. Death! Not of fatigue, not of calm! Joshua shook his head and met her eyes, flicks of suppressed fear in his. "Be calm. This isn't going to hurt."

Before she could protest, he pulled her arms down and slashed once with his scalchop. The coil around her neck fell away, he lifted and spun her away from the flopping tendrils, setting her down next to the original fire pit and quickly grabbing the flailing end of the vine. He had left about three inches of it and by the time he grabbed it, there was only two. He could feel it squirm.

"Alright, almost done. Are you okay so far?" Joshua asked, forcing calm into his voice. Cubone was hyperventilating, writhing as she felt the vine squirm under her skin; her claws digging at her neck, scratching at the edges of the wound, trying to get it out, trying to find the bottom. "…no, you're not." He took a quick breath, steeling himself. "…I'm so sorry. I lied."

With one hard pull, he ripped out the vine. Cubone jolted rigid, locked in a silent scream, Joshua wincing as he felt her pain. Panting, he looking over tip of the bloody vine. Three inches. It had burrowed three inches into her shoulder, but it was a clean wound.

A least it was a clean wound. It wasn't sucking, it didn't pierce a lung. It was deep though. But it was clean.

"No shoots, no roots, no spouts." He sighed. "At least we're blessed with that." He shook his head and tossed the vine in the fire behind him. He turned to catch her falling, taking her in his arms for a moment to lay her against the tunnel wall on the tunnel side of the fire before assessing her wound. He had to fight her blood-covered hands to check it.

She was bleeding. No, hemorrhaging—Joshua vaulted the fire, skidding to his bag and turned back before he had even had a hold on the strap.

He caught movement out of the corner of his eye—a long, multicolored form slinked around the neck of the Sawsbuck. Red eyes at the front followed by a fringe of gold at the shoulders and a split, leafy tail on the end. Two vines stemming from the leafy spines on its back, flowing out behind it, poised defensively.

"Servine," He seethed, edging as fast as he could back to the fire. It slithered over the Deerling, coming to an aggressive stand with a rabid look in its eyes. Joshua scowled at it, "I do not have the time to deal with you right now!" He turned—a flurry of glowing leaves sunk into the wall in front of his nose, vanishing into an ethereal purple mist a moment after they struck. "…Servine with magical leaf."

Cubone shuddered, gasping for breaths and holding them to force herself from hyperventilating, trying to keep the pressure on the wound.

Joshua spoke plainly to the Servine out of the corner of his eye, a cold, righteous fury igniting within him. "No wild has the power to ingrain a Pokemon, so I know you understand me. Therefore, I am giving you one. Single. Warning. Leave now. I may be a storyteller, taking the torch from the one who last told the tale. But with the story come the duties and honors that come from knowing it. Words are merely my dullest blade; to the monster goes the sharpest sword."

A third vine sprouted from the Servine's back, the remnants of a one he had slashed before. It stretched down and wrapped itself around the Sawsbuck's head. The large deer didn't react to it as it bored into a healing wound, right at the clavicle at the base of the neck; its eyes simply flitted open, empty of soul but shelled with little tendrils of green already growing through them. Joshua bit his lip, it was lost long before it even came here.

Then what of the Deerling?

Joshua fumed, letting out a ragged sigh of rage. He closed his eyes for a moment as he slung his bag towards the fire. In a practiced thought, he quickly stepped away from the scene in front of him, forging his energies and tempering his fury.

"Very well."

When he met the Servine's glare again, he met it with eyes of pure malice and the half-passive stance of the Dewott stepped into a threatening hunter. His fangs gleamed through a hissing snarl as he took his weapons in hand, the shells already starting to shimmer.

A blast of water and the Dewott was across the room, arms screaming trails of glowing blue into the Servine's gut before it could even blink.

The snake bounced away and slammed into the wall—he tossed a scalchop to his right hand and snapped his left forward and grabbed it by its skull, driving it into the rock. His claws sunk deep into the flesh behind the square of its jaw, grabbing it by the bone while the thumb speared into its eye, finding the little ridge where the eyeball sat in. Blood running down his hand, he pinned it, pressing claws deeper and deeper into the Servine's face as he shoved his own up to its remaining eye.

The air spiked cold around them as he glared pure death into what little soul the snake had. And when he spoke, it rumbled deep and low, reverberating in the Servine's skull, "Death is too kind to you, so I spare you no mercy."

The Servine wilted.

Josh ripped it off its feet, dragging it through the air by his hold on the Servine's skull until he let it rip out from under his grip, claws gouging deep lines of green and amber sap down the snake's face as he threw it towards the wall at the entrance. He grabbed for the Sawsbuck's leash but a vine caught his foot, dragging him down and across the floor, his weight stopping the Servine just before it hit the floor.

The sudden jerk snapped the Servine of its shock, landing on its feet but sunk into a more stable slither. The sole eye darkened in fury and little tendrils of green grew across the wounds, already sewing them shut as sap quickly hardened overtop. The snake pulled on all of its vines, pulling the Sawsbuck to its feet and bouncing Josh off the uneven stony floor.

A small white orb flew from Josh's hand, bouncing off the Servine's nose. For an instant, the snake found it looking at itself.

The snake flinched and Josh burst forward again, tackling it into the wall and again taking a scalchop in both hands.

The third vine snapped out of its back at its attacker on instinct—he leaned to the side and slashed it as it went past. He planted his bound foot on the neck of the Servine and quickly wrapped a vine around each arm before pulling with his full weight against the Servine, its tail pinned against the wall.

Expending the last of its air in a seething, rattling hiss, the plant-snake found itself in another tug-of-war with the Dewott, but this time with the tables turned. The Servine thrashed, flailing its feet and little arms in the air for naught.

It kept the Sawsbuck leash vine away from him, but what little vines it had left were wrapped around Josh's arms, and the only they could do is fight his pull. And it was losing, Josh looping the slack he'd pulled from the snake around his arms before pulling again. The vines quickly tinted red, the start of the very root of the vine and the last of what the Servine had.

With a flick of his wrists, the scalchops sliced the vines. The coils around his arms fell limp and the reddish roots snapped back into the snake's back. And the look on its face was similar to the one the Hatchling wore: overwhelming agony with the scream unable to cry out.

Josh smirked as he shook off the coils on his arms before they took on a mind of their own. He glanced away only for a moment—the Servine snapped its head down and sunk its fangs into his ankle.

Josh's energy immediately left him, the sheer jolt locking his entire body and giving the snake enough room to push off with its tail. The snake throwing his ankle from its maw, Josh fell over and landed before his arms could move to catch itself, head bouncing to a stop before he could feel it. And when he did, the pain came all at once in a single, agonizing crash.

With the Dewott fighting stars, the sole eye of the Servine glowed, its fury rekindled with air as its tail started to shine a venomous green. It jumped into the air with a screeching war cry—Josh snapped his head at it to meet its eye with his glowing ones as he took two quick breaths. The air spiked cold and Josh roared a beam of ice directly into the neck of the Servine at point-blank range.

The force of the beam plastered the Servine against the wall before it froze over, the ice imprisoning all of it but the sole vine that connecting it to the Sawsbuck.

Josh ended the ice beam with a relived scoff, shooting one last glare at the still-smirking Servine before taking a moment finally acknowledge the pain in his head before shoving it aside to take stock of his ankle. It was oozing blood. Just an access wound for the giga drain.

He glanced around, squinting through dazed eyes, "…why does it smell like flowahz?"

The Sawsbuck rammed into him, glowing antlers digging into his side as it plowed him along the uneven rock into the wall, where it tossed him up into the ceiling before he finally came crashing down onto the ground behind it.

Right. That—

The front hooves of the Sawsbuck crashed onto his chest along with all its weight and air was the least of Josh's worries as several cracks shocked newfound agony into his system. The deer stepped away, leaving Josh to curl in on himself, fighting to regain his senses through all the numb feelings and tastes and smells and blackened vision.

His quick breaths stoking an ever growing fire in his chest, Josh forced his head up, the forms coming clearing enough for him to follow the vine from the iced Servine to find the Sawsbuck at the other end of the chamber, dangerously close to the Hatchling but the deer ignored her for now.

The Sawsbuck's eyes were a webwork of pulsating blueish-green tendrils with no pupil while the antlers resembled more of a jungle tree than a temperate one. Even its own vines starting to sprout, hanging and draping down from the leaves to loop over its eyes where small little roots attached themselves to the Sawsbuck's nose. The entire rack glowed a sick, deathly green as the Sawsbuck clawed at the ground, snorting an unnatural, warbling pneumonia-esque wheeze.

Even with the state of its eyes, it sensed that its prey was still conscious and saw its fate in front of him. It charged, the air spiking the suffocating smell of lilies.

Josh threw himself upwards, grabbing the vine-leash and cut it with a slash of a scalchop.

The Sawsbuck half-stumbled but kept its course, antlers still charged with a deathly touch. And yet it didn't correct itself as Josh rolled out of the way. It continued on into the wall, colliding with a loud thud, and the smell of flowers died away.

It stood stock-still for a long second before merely lying down clumsily, dropping its head to the floor fast enough for it to bounce slightly. Its eyes were blank and lifeless other than the pulsating green vines, the rest of it an overgrown plant in an unknown body. The Servine had to leash it again to command it, and the snake wasn't going anywhere for a while.

Or at least long enough.

The Dewott sighed, shaking the rush of battle away giving himself one last second to cringe and check for broken ribs before pushing himself up. Nothing was broken, but Arceus did it hurt.

The Hatchling.

The scalchop fell from his hand as he stumbled over to his bag. Not having the strength to lift it, nevermind how his ankle complained at the entire journey, Joshua pulled it around the dying fire and collapsed in front of the Cubone.

With stuttered, hyperventilated gasps to steel herself, she was using all her strength she had left to keep pressure on the wound. It had only been one or two minutes—three at most, yet but several thick flows of blood still trickled down her side and her eyes had taken on a deathly sheen behind tears of pain. She had stopped shaking.

That wasn't good.

Facing down the hall, he quickly blasted the blood and sap off his hands with a jet of water. He fought with a large glob of sap that had hardened for a second on the palm of his thumb, ultimately settling for cutting the small patch of fur off with his scalchop.

"Hey-hey-hey, I'm here. It's going to be okay," He whispered to her, grabbing her shoulders reassuringly and searched her wide, glazed over eyes for life. Her pupils dilated, but couldn't keep their focus. Joshua bit his lip, fighting his own pain as he reached behind him, blindly unzipped a side pocket of his bag, and reached into it. "You are going to be alright. I'm not going to let you die on me, Hatch. Hatchling? Can you hear me? Nod if you can hear me. Hatchling? Hatchling! Give me a sign you're still there!"

With the smallest of motions, she did. A nod more shudder than motion, but her eyes focused for just an instant.

"Good. Good. You're doing good. You're doing great," He grinned weakly through a surge of relief, walking his claws over the contents of the pocket. "Ah!" He pulled out a large yellow-orange, pear-shaped berry. "This is a Sitrus berry." He explained quickly as he cut it into strips with his scalchop, letting the juice fall onto the wound. She winced as the juice touched the cut, eyes quivering as they looked through him.

"It'll help with the pain and the bleeding and the juice will help clean the wound, but you need to eat it. Here, can you swallow this down?" He held out a small slice, the flesh like an apple but less congealed, and carefully fed it to her. It took a moment for her to respond, another to swallow. "Good. You're doing good. Here, here's another. Good… good… we'll make it through this just… one more for now. There you go."

She coughed, a little bit more alert than before as she finally recognized the shapes she was looking at. She blinked to full awareness and started to shudder again. Her eyes twisted in a pain she tried to ignore, entire body rocking as it assaulted her again.

Joshua sighed, grinning softly as he patted her uninjured shoulder, "Hello. It is nice to have you back."

She forced her eyes open, pupils flinching every which way until she regained her composure and focused on a form of red in front of her. It took far more strength than it should have for her to make any sound, "…y-you're b-b-bleeding…."

"Hmm?" He glanced down at himself, his chest bled in two hoof-shaped areas, the matted fur a dark crimson and a stark contrast from the blue around it. "Oh, don't worry about me—no-no, shhh…. It's just a cracked rib." Several, actually. Borderline broken, but she didn't need to know.

"…does i-it h-hurt?"

He lied through a soft smile and caring eyes, "It doesn't hold a candle to what the pain you are in right now. But shhhh… don't talk, save your strength. I'll have a bit of the Sitrus myself, just not now. Okay? Here, one more piece," he held up a slightly larger chunk of the berry. "Bite down, suck on the juices, and I'll take care of the wound. Good girl, good girl. You're doing great. You'll be fine." Her body jumped as he patted her shoulder again, like a coiled spring on a hair-trigger. Her eyes weren't exactly dry, but... "…it's okay to cry, Hatch. It hurts, I know. Oh, I know…. But it hurts even more if you don't let it out, it becomes bottled up inside and you'll just hurt more and more. It's okay. See? I'm crying too." He motioned to the wet fur at the corners of his eyes, "But you are more important right now than I am. Okay? It's okay. You have nothing to prove to me. This wasn't your fault. So if you need to, just cry."

Biting her lip, she nodded, letting out one stifled sob of pain as a line of tears streaked out from under her skull. Joshua softly rubbed her shoulder, hoping she recognized the motion.

...what exactly did she do when she got seriously injured beforehand, anyway? If the Marowak truly don't…."

"It's okay," Joshua said with a soft burst of empathy in his voice. Cubone met his eyes again, deeply afraid and desperate, "I'm going to help you. You're strong, Hatch. You are very, very strong. You are going to be all right. Everything… everything is going to be all right, I promise. I'll make sure of it. Here. Another big piece of Sitrus. Chew on this while I find my bandages."

He turned fully to his bag, giving a cautionary glance to the frozen Servine and fallen Sawsbuck. The ice was holding, good; the Sawsbuck wasn't breathing, expected.

The Deerling! …no, they haven't moved. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing he didn't know. The Hatch was his priority.

Deep into the berry pocket he delved, pulling out four more Sitrus, seven blue Orans (the first two he eyed zealously and the third he greedily bit into as it went by, letting out a shallow sigh of relief moments later), four pink teardrop-shaped Pechas, and a small bushel of Cheri berries still on the vine.

He glanced to the Hatch, smirking at the muted look of stupefied surprise she had. He laughed slightly, wincing under the sound as he forced his mask of grins on his face.

"I have enough supplies for a Rescue Team of four, and the one time I don't pack it myself, the bandages are all the way at the… bottom…?" he blinked in surprise and pulled out an apple. It was so big—bigger than her head!— that even on its own it should have filled up the pouch. The flabbergasted look on Joshua's face was possibly exaggerated, but she still sobbed a laugh at how much he frowned, his entire face and pose emphasizing his stupefied look in such a silly way.

"Either Sonja worked her packing magic again or I swear this bag gets deeper the longer I carry it." He shook his head and set it aside, flashing a humored smile to her again. "Breakfast for us, when I pick up Shell's story again. Speaking of which, where did I leave off?" He faltered, this time more serious than for comedic effect.

"The vul-vulpix."

His eyes sparkled, face breaking into his storytelling look of wonder and mystery despite the pain under it all. She shifted slightly, eyes becoming clearer as she looked into his words. "Ah, yes! The Vulpix. Friendly little girl, that one—"

Ice broke upon the floor—he darted to the Hatch, snatching a torch from the shrinking fire along the way and shielding her from the—

He sighed. Just a loose piece of ice from the ceiling falling off. The Servine's prison was still holding but at the same time, there wasn't sign of how long it would hold. He shot a cautionary glance at the Hatch's blood flow: still oozing in beads down her side and arms. A large improvement from the large globs but still serious. …the Sitrus wasn't having that much of an effect—did it really nick a major vein or artery?

…then if he was even a fraction of a second later… …and so much time spent fighting that Servine….

But still. It should be healing far faster than it is. That certainly was a Sitrus he gave her so… maybe she just needs more of the berry…?

He tossed the torch back into the fire and cut off another slice for her before he pulled himself back to his bag, resuming his search with a renewed vigor, the sparkle going out of his eyes and a slow, serious frown sobering from his grin.

"L-l-lots of-ff s-s-st-tuff?" She was forcing it; her voice was cracking as the syllables ushered newfound pangs of pain. So she did know that he was doing, distracting her from everything. …maybe she even realized how futile his effort was….

"…it is a long trek to the Caverns," Joshua answered quietly with a solemn nod, "One has to be prepared. I had not your hospitality, these were to last me the entire trip. I'd rather eat an Oran when I have a chance to let it fully work—of course, at the very bottom." He pulled out a coiled bundle of cloth, wrapped tightly in a see-through, waxy paper followed shortly by several large squares covered in the same paper. "Oran Cloth bandages. Basically a bandage seeped in Oran berry juice. And Sitrus Cloth dressings; the same but with Sitrus."

He scooted back over to her, taking a steady breath. "Alright, let me see if the Sitrus stopped the bleeding…." Slowly, she took her hands away, feathering the pressure until Joshua gently peeled them away from the wound.

The Sitrus' healing effects was trying their hardest to close the wound, but it was just too much and too deep. It had quickly healed over her scratchings, the tannish skin under her scales a bright contrast to her darker scales. Those would regrow later. The entire area was inflamed and swollen; the puncture wound itself had shrunken to a fraction of what it was when the vine was first pulled. But the Sitrus just couldn't close the wound with the amount blood oozing out of it.

It needed time. But that was okay. The Hatch wasn't going to die.

"It's very deep… but it's healing," Joshua sighed, his relief spreading to her with another of his warm grins. He tore apart the paper covering the dressings, "This will sting, Sitrus ferments into a powerful… let me try it this way, it cleans the wound very well." He gave Cubone a moment to brace herself and pressed the bandage onto the wound. She winced, then started to shiver again. "You're going to make yourself sick if you don't let it out, Hatchling. You do not need to try to impress me with how much pain you can tolerate." She nodded, finally letting out a whine.

But if he showed any of his own agony, she'd lose heart. For however stubborn and independent and proud she made herself be, she was still a little child on the inside.

Once again, Joshua put a reassuring hand on her other shoulder, "You will be fine. It'll close soon, but won't heal fully for a few days." He tore open another dressing and pressed it on. He noted her pained face and how fast her breathing was, "It is just until it stops bleeding. Then I'll wrap it in the bandages and we'll let it heal. Then all you need to do is rest and lose yourself in the story."

"You're a-a-a..."

"Shh… don't talk. Wait a little while longer, okay? But, a healer, me?" Joshua laughed once, but shook his head, his warm smile constant throughout. He shouldn't have laughed. "Oh, no. I just… Maro has many roles, and of all the Maro looking after the Hatchlings, he was the greatest healer of all. Maybe of the entire tribe." He glanced away for a quick moment in thought. "Yes, he had the title of Mender from his Bone Warrior days. There is no better Maro to be given the duty of healing the Hatchlings. Which… if I… if I may ask… does a Healer come to help you when you're hurt?"

"Th-they used t-to—my-my first two years. I-I learnnned some-some healing…. If it'ssssss… if it's really bad… then may-maybe. They… just c-come l-like t… they know. B-but I… don't…. I-I try n-not to get hurt."

She said a lot and she suffered from it. But Joshua had to know. At least they do come….

"Mmm," Joshua nodded. "…well. I am here now to help you. I will worry about the healing, you don't need to do anything but recover. But… really, what am I doing? I've gone and ruined a bit of the story for you! Oh dear, what kind of storyteller am I?" He scoffed at himself, "Well, I might as well just tell you that this is just something Maro does later on; all of this are just things I pick up from the various tales I've—" He flinched rigid, the caring look in his eyes shattering away into pure terror. "I… I forgot—Arceus how can I forget?! H-here! Keep pressing!" He grabbed her hands and pressed them against the wound before diving to his bag. "I need—! I need—! Oh, where is it?!"

His panic was infectious, a deep horror lumping in Cubone's stomach. "W-w-w—"

Both arms darted through the side-pocket, sifting through the contents at a frenzied rate. "I am an idiot—how can I forget the very reason you're hurt!? WHERE IS IT?! Arceus—if you're going to pack the bag, Sonja, you should at least put the Grain Poison in the—it's in the—" He pulled open the main section of the rutsack, not even unzipping it halfway before diving an arm in. "You even told me—baahh. I have it. I have it!" He spun, holding out a glass vial sealed tightly by a bright orange cap. "I have it."

His eyes darted up to hers and another panic of realization surged through him and it took all his willpower to hide it. Does she drink it, or does it go directly into the wound? Drink it like a potion or apply it like an ointment?

"P-Poi-son?!"

"Not to you, not to me!" He said quickly. But what does he do with it?! "It kills plantlife. Specifically—you know how some Grass Pokemon—err, like Sunflora or-or-or Tangela! They can ingrain themselves and recover from nutrients in the ground?"

Does she drink it or does it go directly into the wound? Four types of antidotes must be drunk; eight are applied to the wound. But this is a poison not an antidote! Either way, it kills what it's supposed to; but it only saves someone when given correctly. What was it what was it what was it!

"That's what the Servine has done, but to the Sawsbuck—what it was trying to do to you! It was trying to ingrain you—the vine would have grown and robbed your control over your body."

Does she drink it or does it go directly into the wound?! Every single thing flying through his mind was the wrong bit of knowledge, the wrong story, the wrong tale. Putting it on the wound would stop it at the source, but won't it spread throughout the body slowly due to the bleeding forcing it out? Drinking it get it to the bloodstream, but is it fast enough? It's such a stupid poison! One saves her, one condemns her. Which one was it!?

"It could command you like it did the Sawsbuck—its dead, Hatch. Long, long dead. Maybe the Deerling as well, I need to check them, but… but… you need to…" He faltered as Cubone shuddered in disbelief at what he had just said.

"T-th-they're dead…?" Her voice was horrified and filled with denial. She wanted to say more, she was paling under her skull but not from the wound. She tried to talk again but her voice failed her.

"…you need to drink this." He decided and uncapped the vial and held it up to her. "You need to drink this, I need to make sure you're safe because that ice isn't going to hold it for long and… and there are just so many things you do not understand! I need you to trust me. Drink this. Please. It will save your life. Just a sip is all you need… there. Swallow it down."

She coughed; face twisting from the taste and then flinching in pain from aggravating the wound, "It's…."

"It's bitter," Joshua sighed, looking down into the vial. "It's terrible, I know. I know. I've had my fair share of this." If it settles her mind, if it stops her panic, if it eases her heart; any lie is worth telling now. "But you're safe now. For certain this time. Grain Poison kills plantlife in your body; it'll stop any remnants of the vine from taking root. I thought I was fast enough in pulling the vine out, but I must be sure." He sighed again, capping the vial tightly. Tired eyes looked to the amber liquid inside as he held it up between them. "…but it is such a terrible weapon we have against such terrible monsters." He slowly set it aside, save on the top of the bag.

"C-can you use i-i-i-it on…?" She looked to the Deerling, quite a fair amount of concern in her voice for two little wild Deerling, enough to push aside the pain. "C-c-can you help them? Sa-save them?"

"No," Joshua shook his head as he tore open the bandages and set about wrapping them around her neck and under her arm. Cubone didn't look away from the Deerling, shuddering with swallowed sobs. Joshua frowned at the dressings and applied another before continuing, "I need to wrap this tightly, else the wound will open again. …Grain Poison was created for one reason: kill Ingrained Pokemon. But we soon found it could rescue a Pokemon in the process of being Ingrained, as they became just like the Sawsbuck. However… we also found that it would destroy the inner plant of any Grass-type. …and we discovered it the hard way.

"It instantly kills Pokemon like Bulbasaur or Roselia or even Tropius, Pokemon who rely so heavily on their inner plant that they are almost indistinguishable from it. Others, like Treeko or Snivy or Lotad… it condemns them a slow, agonizing death. Even the Deerling, though their plant is far less a part of them, they cannot sustain themselves without it. They'll starve to death without being able to use the sun."

"…s-so you can just-just kill that thing?"

"The Servine? While it evolves from Snivy, its reliance on its plant enough that it would die quite quickly. But why didn't I?" He scoffed. "For the mere fact that it is a Servine. They cannot learn how to ingrain themselves into the ground, and that skill is needed to ingrain other Pokemon. That said," He looked back, "The Servine itself is ingrained, its inner plant taken over by the one from another, rewired and repurposed. It's just a pawn. I need to know where the king is, and burn it. …there," He let out a tired sigh as cut the excess off and finished the knot on the bandages.

"Let me see your paws for a moment," He asked, holding his out palms up. It took a moment, but she mimicked him, looking down and shivering at the sight of her forearms covered in her own blood and ever so glad she had left her precious Buizel gloves in the other chamber. Joshua took the remainder of the bandages and, turning away, dampened them with a quick scoff of water. Taking her hand in his, he cleaned the blood off.

Biting her lip, Cubone looked away awkwardly, eyes slowly drifting to the Deerling where they stayed for a minute. Whatever emotion she was wearing under that skull, her quivering eyes were too confused and too overwhelmed to show it.

Joshua sighed softly, "I am sorry. None of this should have happened. I saw three wilds, all pathetic looking and washed up in the storm, and I let my guard down. If I had even gone to examine them, and I should have, I would have seen the Servine hiding behind the Sawsbuck. Instead, I looked away as you rightly tried to urge me to… I am so sorry." Joshua sighed again, leaning closer to mop up the blood on her side.

The little Cubone didn't say anything, just another line of tears rolled from under her skull.

Joshua looked away himself, nodding solemnly as he set the bandages aside, they had done as much as they were going to do. Looking down the corridor again, he cleaned off his own arms with another blast of water before turning back to her. "Arms again, please. Here," He set the largest chunk of the Sitrus berry in them. "Eat this."

"N-n-you have this half—"

"I am fine," Joshua lied sternly, biting down on his quarter and finishing it quickly. Cubone weakly pointed to his bloody chest. "I have fought with far, far worse." At least that was a truth. He sighed quietly, turning away back to his bag. He rummaged around the berry pouch for a second before pulling out two small, canteen-like metal canisters and setting them on the top of the bag. With them retrieved, the Dewott quickly set about stuffing the berries back into the pouch with renewed urgency, devouring the final part of the Oran he had started when he had taken them out and another for good measure.

"Hatchling, there are many things left to be done before the Servine breaks out of the ice. I must set a trap for it, ensure I have the upper hand in our final fight, ensure I can get what I need out of it. But even before then, I must make sure the Deerling are still alive, and, if they are not, destroy them along with the Sawsbuck."

Cubone recoiled, eyes wider than they were before as her body locked in horrified shock, "D-destroy?!"

The Dewott closed the pouch, taking a moment to drum his claws on the smaller of the two canisters. She couldn't make out the symbols on that one, but the other read Blast Seed Oil in Unown Script. He turned, kneeling down to her to grab her shoulders sternly, looking through her eyes into her very soul.

"Yes, Hatchling. I need to destroy them. Even without the Servine, they are a danger. If they are Ingrained, then they are just corpses, being fed upon by a briar patch and puppeted by a monster. A monster that the cruelest Pokemon would aid the noblest in destroying, and the noble will gladly allow the evil ones to walk away in return for their aid. This is how terrible such a monster is.

"But even without the one who seeded it, this briar patch has an instinct, it can learn. And if it learns to control and maintain the corpse, it can grow. Grow and learn and lie in wait for prey, and Ingrain them and grow and grow. Unstopped, it could spread and Ingrain the entire Reservation. It would become one living, carnivorous, sentient forest, the largest Tangrowth Arcia can ever see and far more dangerous than any Mystery Dungeon ever heard of. This is why we made the Grain Poison. This is why I must destroy anything that gets Ingrained. Now. Before it become too large to burn."

"I will check the Deerling. If they can be saved, I will bring them and you into your Spirit Chamber, my apologies as I must break my promise. But, Hatchling, the only thing more important right now than destroying the Deerling, destroying the Servine, is you. You are safe through no easy effort. You are to stay safe no matter what the consequences are. If I fall, if the Tangrowth follows its pawn in, if the chamber floods, if the ground opens up and swallows this chamber, if the Umbreon returns to torment me, you are to stay safe in the Spirit Chamber. Do you understand me? Do you understand me?"

The look in Joshua's eyes wasn't one Cubone had seen before. Not from him, not from any Marowak. Unwavering and stern; infuriated and overbearing—but not at her. Instead, it rallied her strength and own resolve to where the pain faded, pushed aside by Joshua's words spoken directly to her soul.

And it scared her. It scared her far more than her first encounter with a Sawsbuck or even what had just happened to her moments ago. It scared her because she didn't know why or understood exactly what she felt or why. His rage became her own, a flame pure and righteous and unknown to her.

Choking on the words, she nodded.

"You are to barricade yourself into the Chamber with fire. You use up the entirety of the wood if you must. Do not venture out until I get you. Do not let anyone in or even let me in unless they answer the question I am about to tell you. The question is, what skull does Luxia wear. Not the Luxio. The other one. Do you remember?

The Hatch didn't try for words, she just nodded.

"Good. Only let someone in if they answer that question. Or if you hear a five note song of low, high, low, middle-middle. It's a signal the Exile used to signal his allies and, if I do not return, then one of them will come and sing that five note song. He trusted them, I trust them, you can trust them. Okay? Good." He took a hand away for only a moment to put the Sitrus berry back in her arms, "You sit there. You do not move. You do not move unless the ice shatters, then and only then do you run as fast as you can to the Chamber. I will be quick." He tapped her shoulders reassuringly and started to move away. Then he stopped.

"One… one last thing," He said quietly. Joshua didn't meet her eyes this time, instead suddenly being very interested in making sure the fire was properly fed into a blaze again. "If the Servine does break out, and if you cannot make it back to the Chamber. If the Servine manages to get its vines on you again… …the Grain Poison should keep you immune to Ingrain… but not the injury. I will do whatever I must to prevent that from happening but… when I do fight, I beg of you, do not get in my way." He finally looked back to her, the strange look dimming off of his face, "I am kind to you. I am not kind to my foes. And when it comes to monsters, there are no morals. This said, I need to kill the Sawsbuck before it grows to where I need to use all the Poison if have—whatever questions you have can wait until this is over. Please. Sit, and be vigilant."

He bowed to her. Then, he promptly took the vial and the two canisters in and arm and took a moment to rekindle his fury. Nodding to himself, Joshua hopped up and pushed off the wall, vaulting him over the fire and landed where his scalchop had fallen. He grabbed it and somersaulted twice before finally skidding to a stop at the flank of the Sawsbuck.

Sticking the scalchop back where it belongs, he slid the two canisters towards the Delibird's sealed cubbyhole before uncapping the vial. Then Joshua gave the icy prison of the Servine a quick look over. It had started to melt, the water starting to trickle down onto the floor where several roots webbed over the puddles. The roots led back to the other side of the Sawsbuck, disappearing into the hide between the ribs.

The deer's skin crawled in the most literal sense, roots and stalks and vines growing and shifting underneath it. Its entire back had broken out in a small crop of twigs, the ones towards the fire towards its tail growing a shrub of leaves while the ones closer to the head were more of a wreath of thorn and bristle around its neck.

"It's harvesting. That means Stage Three. That means two caps. …I can remember that fine, thank you." Joshua mumbled with some frustration towards himself, but he nodded in acknowledgement as he edging away and around the Ingrained Sawsbuck. He carefully poured the amber poison into the vial's cap. Such a little amount, just about a sip's worth of the liquid.

He drank it, holding it in his mouth as he quickly poured another cap's worth and sipped that as well. Then, summoning a bit of water, he sputtered it out in a mist over the Sawsbuck, giving the roots a little extra. He immediately stepped away, coughing several clouds of mist and immediately doubling over, a hand over his side as he coughed more and more violently into his other arm.

From where she sat, Cubone could only see Joshua over the flames, watching as he sunk down to one knee to fight against the coughing fit. She looked down at the Sitrus in her arms.

"J-J-Josh…" She whispered, too quiet to be heard under his coughing. "J-Josh!" If he heard her, he didn't respond. The Dewott shook his head as he finally stopped, his arm having a spot of red on it and he slumped, face twisted in pain. "Josh!" he glanced he way. She held out the Sitrius berry, lip bit.

He nodded, licking blood off his nose, "When I'm done here. The Sawsbuck should be feeling the effects… now. There."

She had to stand in order to see clearly through, and that was an ordeal in itself but the wall certainly helped. And when she did see it, the berry fell through her arms and she immediately sat back down; eyes clamped shut and whined, hugging herself as she fought to keep her stomach in line.

"It isn't pretty, no," Joshua grimaced, taking several steps towards the fire, still half doubled over and holding his side. When the wall came into reach, he leaned on it for support, "The plant is trying to sever its poisoned sections and find some sort of ground it can take root in. But it has nowhere to go except out of its host, vines and roots spreading everywhere out of the hide that it can, splitting it open. But to do so, it consumes all the nutrients the corpse has to offer to grow as fast as possible—Hatchling, I will take some of the Sitrus now."

She cracked an eye open to see the Dewott leaning against the wall on the other side of the fire. He couldn't hide the agony he was in any longer and he nodded for the Sitrus. She nodded back, forcing herself out of the ball to rock the berry back and forth in her arms, gaining momentum for her to toss it over the fire, its juices sputtering in the flame.

He bit half of it away, nodding his thanks as he gently tossed what was left to her. He turned away before he saw her holding it back up for him, urging him to…

Nevermind…. She settled back down, again curing in on herself, half of her wanting to block out the words but the other relying on them to push the pain out of her mind.

After a long minute, Joshua gently eased himself to stand straight. He continued, "But the poison spreads too quickly for it; they'll die soon, and crumble later. …and then we're left with the torn hide of a Sawsbuck, with nothing but the crushed bones inside it, its soul long consumed with the rest of it. But now. The Deerling. I pray they don't share a similar fate…."

The Hatchling cracked an eye as Joshua slowly limped over to the two little ones, still huddled next to each other this entire time despite everything, locked in a nightmare neither could find shelter from.

Joshua knelt down next to the smaller of the two, and opened its eye. There wasn't a pupil for all the roots.

"This one is lost," Joshua said simply, bowing his head for a moment as he reached for a scalchop.

Cubone snapped straight, voice but a whisper but still voicing her sudden tears, "A-are you sure? C-can't she be saved?!"

"No."

"B-but! But!" Her voice was pained, but not from her shoulder. Joshua looked up, pain-clouded eyes studying her carefully. "What about the other one?! What about Reed!?" The Dewott frowned, confusion on his face. "Josh! What about Reed!"

"…Ahhh," Joshua sighed. "Now… now I understand. These are the Deerling you mentioned you ran into."

"Yes! Okay, yes!" She confessed, crying, "I know them! I've talked to them! They talked to me! They wanted me to help them with something but I didn't want to because the Marowak would know if I did so we had a fight and I didn't want to see them again but is Reed okay!? …Joshua, please tell me he's okay…. he has to be okay…."

Joshua blinked, stunned for a second before he sighed into a more grim face, "Allow me to see." He stepped over them, kneeling again and checking the eyes of the other. "…he put up a fight. Yes… he put up a quite fight. The eye is much clearer, but the fact that there are vines in it means…" He looked away, "I'm sorry."

"NO!"She bolted to her feet and managed to take two steps before she collapsed, "They can't—they can't! …they can't be dead…. Spirits… why…?"

It took Joshua a long moment, but he eventually nodded slowly, letting out a very long, fatigued sigh as he settled himself down next to the Deerling, waiting for the Hatchling to calm down.

"…allow me to tell you another tale. It is one I have a large part in myself, yet only now do I see how critical of a role I truly did play. But still, in my travels, I keep hearing rumors. Bits and pieces here and there about three Deerling. And now I have as many parts of the puzzle I could ever have, enough to guess the tale. It isn't entirely short, and it has no happy ending, but…." He looked over to her, "I doubt they've told you why they were, in fact, here. Hmm?" The Hatchling lay still on her stomach, sobbing silently with her eyes again lost in the fire.

"…the Sawsbuck… he before he evolved, before he came to the Reservation…. he was a known thief to the Guilds of Arcia, one with a sizable bounty on his head by the name of Twigs. I do not know his real name, I didn't ask nor did anyone ever bother…"

"Teak," the Hatchling sobbed. "His name was Teak."

"Teak," Joshua nodded. "Teak was a thief. No one expects a little Deerling to be a thief, but that's how he was so effective. You see, Teak's parents passed from the very same fate he himself had met but the cause hidden from him and his siblings. Arcia… does not… understand the Ingrained, let us put it that way.

"But… he was forced to provide for his family by supplying the Black Market. Why? Simply because there was nowhere else to go. No one wished to take in the children of the two Cursed Sawsbuck. And no one told them how their parents died either, because such a fate simply could not be brought about by natural fate. And such fate would spread, the Pokemon thought. Yes, that is the best way to put it.

"So he became a petty thief that traveled from town to town, stealing small shiny things and selling important things he had overheard until he was eventually arrested… in a town best not named. As the crimes of Teak were brought to their attention, the authorities soon learned of his parent's fate, and again the towns-Pokemon called for him and his siblings to be burned.

"And then, three… or was it five years? …no, my story begins after the Exile and… he died four years ago… or was it five? It couldn't have been six. Three? Three. Definitely three. Three years ago, the chief of Police of that town, an old and powerful Gallade, he was Ingrained. I don't know how, I never found the Tangrowth. But he was Ingrained, so I came to be there. I murdered him, right there in the police building.

"But he was still himself and fought me until our blood pooled together on the floor. He didn't want to die, but then I poured Grain Poison into his heart and he died much like the Sawsbuck did. Except he screamed. Out of all the Ingrained I've killed since—out of any monster I've killed since. He was the only one who died himself. And he died screaming, screaming until he had no lungs to scream with.

"But I was a hero to the town. I left immediately, smuggling the three little Deerling who watched it all out in my bag, and left them to their own fates. If I knew we would meet again like this, I might not have…."

Joshua sunk his head into his hands, fist balling in his mane.

"But… Teak was blamed for Ingraining the Police chief, accused of using the fiasco to escape. But even with the fault on him, many Grass-types were lynched because Arcia doesn't understand and because they are just so afraid of one another…!" He stopped himself and dropped his hands, looking at the little pinpricks of red on his palms and claws he left. He sighed, frustrations fading. "But that's a story neither here nor there. I digress.

"Now hunted, Twig shepherded his little siblings town to town, hiding in the closets of murderers and kidnappers and thieves who feared they too would become ingrained if they turned them away. Heh, I heard rumors they feasted the finest apples and berries at the mansion of an Archenine crime lord, bathed in the private hot springs of the a dreaded Armaldo pirate, had a Dragonite outlaw famous for never being caught fly them across an ocean. And none of the Deerling knew why. Or, maybe they did…. Yes, Teak had to have learned the reason, and hid it from his siblings. He didn't wish to abuse the power, or maybe he did. Maybe everything I heard is but a lie and everything I speculate forth is false. Maybe my entire memory is a lie. Such may be the case of a story. Such is life.

"In any case, they ran.

"They ran and ran and ran until Teak heard of a place where the braves crusaders were too afraid to invade. A place shrouded in myth and horror but he didn't believe any of it because he was so tired of running and his little brother was ill and little sister becoming the same. He heard of a place where the wilds were said to be possessed by Giratina to protect a treasure beyond dreams. A legendary place, a mythical place.

"So, using the Black Market contacts and favors he had and his power over the most evil and immoral criminals imaginable, he smuggled himself, his little brother, and his little sister to a strange place known only as the Reservation. And there, they were free. They were safe. They were happy. Teak evolved into a Sawsbuck and, maybe, he thought with his evolution could come an honest living. No more did he have to hide away, no more could he be recognized by the scar on his neck—well, that wasn't exactly true, but my point stands. He could have his life back, for the first time in seven years.

"And, most importantly, somewhere along the line… they met a little Cubone," he looked over to her. She had turned away from him, huddling away from the three. "A little Hatchling, who, curious of what they were, attacked them at first sight because that is the only thing she knew.

"She was quickly defeated, but the three little Deerling had good hearts. And the little Hatchling had a good heart as well so they became friends. Now, what follows I can only guess blindly at but maybe…. Maybe the Deerling helped her understand the world a bit better. Maybe they helped her become more civilized; speak better, act better, be the proper teachers her elders never were. Maybe she helped them find food and possible shared what she had, gave them shelter during harsh weather behind her elders' backs. Maybe they were the only friends the other ever could have in such a place.

"This… cursed place known only as the Reservation.

"But… getting into the Reservation isn't as easy as once was. It now takes a serious effort to enter it, as some mysterious force now stands guard around its perimeter, driving those who try to traverse it mad with voices and whispers and corruptions to the soul. It isn't something a little Deerling can just make on its own. Nevermind if his ill little siblings could suffer through the event either. So, Teak struck a deal. A deal with the Strange Ones who migrated through the Spirit Wall with ease.

"And now, we see that the Strange Ones have come for Teak's end of the deal. Maybe he refused, maybe he failed, but either way they Ingrained his little brother and little sister. And then, if he had not figured it out already, Teak had to at that very moment. What happened to his parents, what every single Pokemon he had met along the way except for one little Cubone thought the three of them could do.

"And then, right as he looked at them, Teak heard the scream of the Gallade Police chief. I know, because that is what I used to hear when I fight the Ingrained, when I look at the vines and the roots and the Grain Poison. That scream of death as the body is torn apart from the inside and fed upon until there no longer is a voice to scream and no longer a soul to take.

"Teak couldn't let that happen to his siblings, because he knew the fate of the Ingrained. So he jumped at the new deal, the deal where they promised to release them once he had fulfilled his part. He didn't know that it was impossible, but his love for his little siblings was one of the few things he had left, so he could only try and try and try until the Strange Ones grew tired with him… and offered him one last ultimatum. Teak would submit himself and try one last time with the power it gave him. If he succeeds, his little brother and sister would go free. If he failed, they would all perish. But they were doomed either way.

"But the storm halted their efforts, whatever they were. Then, for whatever reason, be it shelter or by the orders of the Servine, or maybe, just maybe, because they believed you can help them. They came here.

"Is this truly what had happened to them? I don't know. Was I right in speculation how Teak was, his… good nature and good heart? I don't know. But, in the end, it is the best way to form the story. And now, here we are." Joshua stood, motioning to the room around them. "Where Teak is dust in the wind... and his little siblings soon to follow. All by the Dewott that set them free to begin with. The End."

The room filled with a sudden silence with the rain and thunder as distant observers. Joshua paced, looking around at his audience. The Cubone Hatchling, trying to block out the words; the fire, slowly dying; the two little Deerling, who he met so long ago yet… they were still so small; the crumbling brown dust of their older brother; and the frozen Servine that brought them all together. And a Dewott in the middle of it all.

Joshua sighed, raising a paw to scratch as his nose as he fumed. Three years. Three years since then.

…or was it five? It couldn't have been seven. Three? Three. Definitely three.

He spoke with rising tone as he started to pace, "Is there a moral to the story? No. Just sadness. Just death. Just irony! Why? I don't understand. Just the little Cubone who has lost her only friends in a world that now punishes her for having them. Why? I don't understand. Just a Dewott, with Death in step at his side, leading him here and there to fill the Umbreon's quota. Why? Why me? Oh, that…. that I do have an answer to.

"It is because I've come to see that I am the one who writes the final words on the page. Two simple little words… that bring the strongest god powerless, that makes the genius' calculations irrelevant, that tears the mightiest wizard's magic away, and seals the greatest monsters and kills the greatest heroes. The elderly's days end, and the children never see the tomorrow. You see, none have the power that the simplest of storytellers has over them.

"Life is but a story, all told at the same time from our own many viewpoints… if we're lucky, we fill our pages to the very end to where we are writing in the margins before we pass on. But for some, for those we hold so close to us, it all stops far too soon…"

Joshua sighed, shoulders slumping. A ragged sigh of defeat and utter, utter sadness, one that caused her to look up and. As he met her eyes again, she saw his final mask drop from his face. Gone was the fury, gone was the rallying cry of resolve and justice, gone was the…? …gone was the warm smile and the eyes that didn't care who they saw but showed kindness and stories…. There was just a deep, dark void of overwhelming sadness, emptiness, and then, in the heart of it all, a tired nothing.

And his voice was hollow, "And after those two final words are spoken, it is from those many, many blank pages I tear out to write my own story down from. And now," from the sadness sparked rage. He stormed up to the frozen Servine, screaming at its frozen sneer, "After so many months and so much hope and life and happiness and laughter, I am to do it again! How many times do we have to stop your kind! We have three years still until you lot can even think to return! But here you are! HERE YOU ARE!"

His fist slammed into the ice. Then again and again and again… "A LOOSE! PAGE! FROM A STORY! LONG OVER! A LOSE PAGE WHO'S SOLE! PURPOSE! IS DESTROY! AND BURN! SUCH HAPPY! JOYEOUS! LIVES!"

Joshua panted, taking a step away to look down at his bleeding fist, rage falling away into a fuming calm, but still boiled clearly in his tear-filled eyes. And, through them, he looked on in pity through the cracked ice to the Servine, "And how the Spirits damn me to this fate of finding so many of you, because it means no one listens."

He huffed, pacing back to the Deerling, rage dimming into flowing tears as he shook his head. "But I hold the story. And with it, comes the atrocities and horrors that come from knowing it. Words are but the kindest blade, yet no smile or phrase can save a babe from becoming a monster, even through no fault of their own. So, to the monster, goes the sharpest sword. To… to another child… I say these words…."

"N-no," Cubone cried softly, fighting to stand but her legs couldn't support her. "Orchid! Reed… Wake—wake up! P-please… please wake up. I'm… sorry… I didn't mean any… any…"

He almost said something, but he paused, stuck with his mouth open almost spouting another lie, another grin… but they wouldn't mean anything to her. There was just so many things she just didn't understand and not enough words to say them.

So the Storyteller turned back to the Deerling, kneeling down to the two of them, putting a hand on each of their heads, rubbing them almost reassuringly. Softly, he whispered to them, his voice breaking twice before he found he couldn't say anything.

So he whispered the only other thing he could ask of them, "Please don't scream."

From behind him came the cooing voice of a harpy, "Aw, you're just adorable, Joshie."

And the ice shattered behind him before he could even panic.