Authors Note: For the few who have played Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team recently, try to imagine the music that was playing in the short movie scene between Frosty Forest and Mt. Freeze. That sad music that makes it seem like the cold and sadness will never end, ever.

-This Chapter takes place two weeks after Scars.-

THE CHRONICLES OF

LEGENDARY EEVEE

Chapter Fourteen: Winter Storm

The cold just won't quit, will it ever end. I have survived it so far, but how much longer can I last? Will my journey ever end, am I to forever chase some feeble hope of happiness?

At some point, something broke in me, and I no longer cared about the cold. I just accepted that I could suddenly drop and freeze without warning. I couldn't feel anything anymore. I didn't care where I was going, I just kept on walking, the promise of revenge always luring me on in this frigid land. I wandered, lost in a world of snow, alone. Maybe the cold had begun to numb my mind too.

That strange entity I named Shadow still existed in me. I could sometimes feel him shifting under my skin. It was strange, in that spot in me where he resided, I could feel the powerful emotion of sorrow always emitting from him. Sorrow deeper than I knew, sorrow that promised no lifting, sorrow that brought the promise of no hope, ever.

This confused me, why was he so impossibly sad? Did he know something I did not? Sometimes I felt like trying to talk to him, but I never did. Why should I, it is his fault I am the Trinity, he was an outsider in my mind. What did I have to talk to him about?

The wind picked up, scattering the loose snow and whipping it around in a flurry. A storm was building and I had to find shelter before I was caught in the full force of the approaching blizzard.

"Why did I ever come up this mountain in the first place?" I sarcastically asked myself. It seemed like my life these days was one big quest for shelter each day. I could only stay in one spot for a few days at most. I continued my search for Sparky, even in this deadly season. I wondered if I could survive long enough to see spring come at last. If the seasons were this intense in this world, spring must be truly beautiful.

Icicles were beginning to form on my fur, and I was getting steadily weaker. Soon, I had to stop running altogether and take a slow walking pace trying to beat the storm. I was closer to freezing to death than I had ever in my life. My tail and ears were instinctively pressed tight against me in an instinctive response against the cold, but they did little to help. I always knew one day I would die, but not like this.

I stopped to rest for a moment and looked around hopefully for food, but found none. It had been a whole day since I had least eaten anything, and that had hardly been enough to keep me going. This was bad, I couldn't find anymore of those bushes with cold resistant fruit. What was I going to do for food?

That was when I noticed the tracks in the snow. At first, I thought they were my own until I realized they belonged to another Eevee.

"What's an eevee doing way up here?" I wondered. Then again, the same could be said about me, but I stood a better chance than most at withstanding the cold due to my unusual build.

I started following the trail, excited at the idea of meeting another of my species. Maybe they had a warm den they could share. There were several impressions in the snow were the Pokemon must have fallen, and it looked like whoever made it had been in a hurry.

The trail came to a sudden halt at a misshapen mound of snow. Upon closer examination, there was a female eevee partially buried in the cold snow. The freshly fallen snow made her brown coat appear white, if it was not for the trail I would have missed her.

I nudged her, and she did not even stir. I lifted my ears and leaned in, listening for a heartbeat….

It was faint, but present. She must have passed out from hypothermia. I needed to get her out of this weather for her to have any chance of surviving. I would soon share her fate if I couldn't find shelter before the storm hit.

I bent down and grabbed her scruff with my mouth, lifting her as much as I could off the ground. I was glad then for my unusual size as this would have been far more difficult if I was smaller. She was so cold, I don't think she was going to make it even if I did find shelter.

I dragged her through the snow, praying to all I knew for shelter of any kind. I was feeling lightheaded, and my strength was almost gone. I was on the verge of shutting down in the same way she did from the cold. It was strange, I no longer felt anything at all, even inside me.

"Not yet, please…..I don't want to die this way"

Maybe fate had decided to answer my prayers for once, a ray of hope appeared in my desperate hour when I spotted a knothole partially hidden by branches in a massive tree. Gathering what strength I had left I jumped on the branch and entered the small haven.

The entrance was not large enough for both of us to enter at once, I had to set her down and then climb in, nearly getting stuck in the small doorway. I felt the grateful rise in temperature from the absence of the wind and snow.

I considered going back outside in search of food, but the howling winds made me rethink that. The storm was in full force now, I could easily get list in the blizzard and not be able to find my way back here and die. Going outside right now is suicide.

Instead, I turned my attention back to the freezing eevee beneath me. She was still weakly shivering, and her wet fur wouldn't be able to hold any warmth. Even without the wind and snow, it was still cold and she would freeze soon, and I was not faring much better. Only my fur was somewhat dry and I stood a chance.

I curled myself around her, using my tail to cover her like a blanket. Her fur was wet and she was as cold as ice, but there was a faint warmth still struggling in her. I wasn't that much bigger than her, but it would suffice, I hope. This was the only way both of us would survive the night.

"This is going to be so awkward when she wakes up"

Yet strangely, it did not feel that awkward, maybe it was just my human instinct that bothered me, Pokemon did this often. Some part of me was hoping she would live, despite the odds. Exhaustion finally caught up to me and I fell asleep amidst the raging blizzard outside.

Θ ? POV third person limited Θ

"She went up into the mountains." I observed the huge fire type lifting his nose off the ground. She was there, somewhere.

"Forget her then, why go through all this trouble for her, she's basically useless," Argued the Mightyena standing beside his partner. Despite his long black fur, the cold was starting to get to him; he didn't have his comrade's fire.

"I need to set an example for the others. If I let one escape then they all will start trying to escape. Besides, I am tired of going after her on her little escapees. When I find her, I'm going to kill her." He said without even turning toward his partner.

"Why not go searching for that one Mystery Pokemon we are supposed to find. I'd rather bite his face off" muttered the Mightyena.

"No one knows where he is, Vibrava lost his trail when it started to snow. We can't waste too many resources looking for him at once. We will find him, eventually. He can't run forever," Said the huge, dog like fire type.

"We would already have him if it weren't for those damn trainers, losing to a bunch of kids and a Pikachu of all things," Said the Mightyena.

"That's why I am better than you" Said the fire type arrogantly.

"You sure you can defeat him on your own, he took down a fully grown Tyranitar."

That earned a rough cuff across the nose from his partner and the Mightyena yelped. After shooting him a quick glare, the fire type said,

"I could easily kill a little fox like him, but we need him alive. In a fight, I cannot promise that."

Despite the loyalty the fire type showed to his master, deep down he wanted nothing more than to see that Eevee writhe in pain as he burned him alive. Yet, his master's word was the law, he had to be alive when they got him at last. Alive, not unharmed.

"I'm heading back, you have fun when you find her" said the Mightyena as he turned tail and began the trip back home.

Being a powerful fire type like he was, he could not feel the cold, the snow evaporated the instant it touched him. Flexing his huge muscles hidden under his blood red fur, he began trudging up the mountain, following the trail in the snow that she had carelessly left.

A Swinub crossed his path and he shot a intense blast of flame that incinerated the poor Pokemon. These weaklings were pathetic, he craved a good fight like food and water. Only a good fight was rare these days. Just one more motivator to find that accursed Eevee his master wanted. He didn't even bother to walk around his handiwork that blotted the white landscape.

Wherever he went, he left a trail of ashes as he tirelessly tracked his target through the blizzard.

Authors note: Yes, the Mightyena and Vibrava mentioned earlier are the same ones from Chapter 10 when those agents attacked Michael. Also, Human/Pokemon hybrids are called Mystery Pokemon. The description of the fire type was left vague on purpose, but you will easily guess who it is as the story progresses. If you must have a hint, it is not ninetails and does not have wings, nor is it one of the starters.