Chapter 21: The Tempest
"Just think, Bone. This could be a marvelous opportunity." Slash leaned back against a tree, his arms crossed in a relaxed position across his chest but his unblinking eyes thoroughly scrutinizing the Houndoom before him.
Bone snorted, small flames erupting from his nostrils, warm light fading quickly in the velvet of the night around them. "An opportunity to embarrass myself in front of the humans - in their own habitat! - because I haven't a shred of a prisoner to my name? I think I'll pass." Bone kneaded the ground with his paws, scratching at the dirt beneath his feet in anxious anger.
Slash shook his head slowly from side to side, the ghost of a smirk on his lips. "I believe you have misunderstood me." The pale silver light cast on his face from the rising moon twisted the shadows on his dark form, melting into him so he became a creature of shadow. Bone shivered, shuddering at the crispness of the air and feeling the shadows press coldly, tightly around him. The clearing had an eerie silence about it, the only sound being Bone's shuddering breaths and the only stirring the clouds of his breath that escaped his lips.
"Spit it out, already. I'm freezing my tail off, and you're wasting my time." Bone growled, not prepared to admit that his skin never got cold; he wanted to hide the fact that the darkness around him was tugging at his fur, giving him goosebumps.
Slash chuckled. "The humans' Full Moon Festival is taking place tonight in the village's square, and this could be the chance you've been looking for to impress them with your prisoners."
Bone, who had begun to pace, stopped and gave Slash a suspicious, questioning look. "What prisoners? Farlo and those traitors abandoned us days ago." Bone sheathed and unsheathed his claws, baring his teeth in frustration.
Slash smiled. "Don't worry about those fools, Bone." He paused, making Bone tense. "These prisoners will be worth ten times the amount of glory you would receive if you only retrieved Farlo."
Bone smirked, more to himself than to Slash. "I'm listening." He said slowly, analyzing the Zoroark carefully.
Seeing that Bone had grabbed on to his bait, Slash got prepared to reel him in. "The true grand prize lies inside a distant rebel camp, far from here and full of Pokemon just waiting to be captured and sacrificed. The grapevine says these same rebels will be invading the very town where we could be waiting for them, ready to spring. You'd not only satisfy your Masters," Slash's eyes sparkled with mischief, "You'd be dampening an entire rebellion."
Bone felt his heart swell with pride at the thought. This feat could finally prove to the Masters that he was able to be just as strong and skillful as Farlo had been in the fights; this could finally clear his name and allow him to rise to the top.
Bone carefully analyzed the situation, knowing full well by now that Slash would only make a deal that he himself could benefit from as well. "Sounds promising." Bone said slowly. "...But what would be in it for you?"
"So kind, you are, Bone, to think of me over yourself for once." Slash's tone was of innocent graciousness, practically dripping in sarcasm. Slash held up his hands, making sure to hide the smirk on his face. "I receive nothing except the shadow of your glory."
Bone paused, contemplating. "All right. I'll do it." He looked up at the moon, shining cold and distant from the anticipated chaos waiting below. "Assemble all of the fighters. We leave in five minutes, heading east toward Mayonaka Village."
"Yes, sir." Slash saluted Bone, smiling smugly as he strolled into the darkness of the trees. "I'm glad you decided to see it my way." His voice echoed off of the boughs of the treetops, and Bone shivered as the clearing seemed to brighten considerably once Slash was gone.
Snow crouched deep in the darkness of the bushes, watching the flour mill in front of her tentatively. Three men stood around the back entrance, another dozing in a chair beside the door with one hand on his cheek and the other holding a dark green bottle.
"Wake up, Jack. Shift's over." One of the standing men nudged the dozing man in the leg, causing him to start and rapidly blink his eyes.
"Wha? Oh." The man stood, stretching his arms out to his sides and grunting slightly. He scratched his stubble, glancing at his wrist. "What time is it?"
"Time to get your lazy ass to the square. The ceremony's about to start." A blond man walked up to the four, placing a large sack of flour at his feet. He rubbed his hands together, puffs of white dust bursting from them. Snow twitched her ears as all five men chatted some more, and she shifted impatiently.
"When're they gonna leave?" Lovell murmured beside her, his voice scarcely above a whisper. Snow shrugged, craning her neck to see James's signal for them to sneak into the mill. She spotted his star-tipped tail a few feet away from her in a similar patch of bushes, but he turned to her and shook his head.
"Can't go yet." Snow whispered to Lovell. She sighed inwardly, impatient to be leaving. The men laughed and chatted a bit more before the blond man locked the door and all five turned to leave.
Once Snow could no longer hear their footsteps on the cobblestones, James's tail twitched, giving the signal to pad forward. Snow silently crept out of her hiding place, taking a place to hide behind a stray sack of flour near the door. She watched as Lovell, Dott, and Blaze crept beside her, their ears perked for any sound.
Snow watched as James leaped forward and gracefully pushed the door open as if it were never locked, and watched as James gently silenced the creaking of the hinges with a midnight paw. James disappeared inside the mill for a moment, returning to nod his head at them that it was all clear.
These Hunters are truly skilled in their craft. Snow thought as she nodded to James and crept slowly inside.
As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, Snow saw that the mill was nearly full to the brim with bundles of un-ground wheat and bags of soft white flour already packaged neatly into sacks. Despite herself, her stomach growled, and she winced as James gave her a dirty look.
"Come on. We don't have much time." James flicked his tail at Snow's group. "You all go up the ladder and get the bags up there. Group 6 and I will work down here."
Snow nodded, signaling to Dott, Lovell, and Blaze that they should all go. Blaze rolled his eyes at her, and she glared at him silently before locating the ladder and gracefully bounding up it in a few leaps.
Up there was much darker than downstairs, as this alcove wasn't illuminated by the strong moonlight filtering in from the windows downstairs. Snow stepped lightly onto the wooden landing, her eyes adjusting once more to see numerous bags of flour slouching in front of her. Snow grabbed a bag top with her teeth and pulled, hearing the bag slide across the floor with a thump.
Snow froze, hardly daring to breathe as all movement downstairs stopped and the mill grew silent. Blaze looked downstairs and nodded to some unseen Pokemon, and the noises downstairs were brought up again.
Blaze gave Snow a pointed look, then grabbed his own bag in his teeth and pulled. Instead of letting the bag thump to the floor, Blaze picked the bag up from underneath it with his paws and pushed against it so it would stay up. He then went behind the bag and pushed it all the way to the ladder, making sure the top part of it was leaning on his head instead of on the ground. Snow watched as the bag near the ladder glowed softly pink as it floated to the ground, no doubt being manipulated by the Shuppet's Psychic.
Snow nodded at Blaze, grabbed her bag again, and heaved. The bag almost dropped to the ground, but she caught it beneath her paws just as Blaze had done before the bag could make a sound. She pushed against the bag from behind, the top of the sack pressing limply against her forehead as she slid it forward toward the ladder.
In the darkness, she could just make out the Shuppet below, gazing upward at them with glowing pink eyes. Snow's sack began to glow, and it drifted down just as Blaze's had and landed beside the Shuppet in a growing pile of at least eight flour sacks.
James looked up at her and nodded. Snow signaled to her comrades that it was time to go with a flick of her tail, and she leaped down the seven feet from the landing to the ground. She landed neatly on her paws, her tail allowing her to keep her balance.
Up on the landing, Dott gaped at her, turning around to quickly climb down the ladder. Lovell leaped after him, with Blaze jumping and landing beside Snow as she had done. His warm pelt radiated heat in her direction, and she tried not to flinch back.
James, once seeing that his groups were secure, picked up two sacks in his teeth and bounded toward the door, disappearing outside. Snow took a deep breath, grabbed her own sack, and painfully picked it up with her teeth to follow. She took a few labored steps before dropping the bag silently on the hay.
Blaze hovered over her, picking up her bag in his mouth along with his own and bounding forward as James had done. Snow blinked at him in surprise, but he was expressionless as he leaped out the door and into the night.
Feeling guilty, Snow watched as the other group struggled with their burden, and Snow watched as the Shuppet lifted his partner Whismer's bag up with another psychic. The Whismer gave him a grateful look, and both of them headed outside.
Snow bounded outside after them, the cool night air welcoming from the stuffiness of the mill. She spotted James, Blaze, Lovell, and Dott in the bushes where they had been hiding before, completely surrounded by shadow yet their eyes seeming to glow in the moonlight. Snow raced toward them across the brief stretch of open area between the woods and the mill, breathing a sigh of relief as she was once again engulfed in the safety of shadow.
"Well done, everyone." James murmured as both groups assembled before him. There were at least a dozen bags now between them, and Snow felt a rush of pride; no humans had jumped out to surprise them, and for some reason she felt almost shaky with relief that they hadn't.
James looked to Snow's group, yellow eyes glowing eerily. He looked at Blaze. "You all go to the bakery that's right across from here. Go as quickly and quietly as you can. The humans who run the shop live right above it, so be careful." James sounded aloof, but he had a certain solemness to his tone that made Snow believe they had to be extra careful.
Blaze nodded, signaling to his group to follow him as he bounded silently through the brush toward a murky store in the distance. Snow's heart thumped in her chest as she followed, adrenaline coursing through her veins as the excitement of the raid filled her. They were succeeding! She no longer felt as if the rebel camp were not a home she could live in; if every raid worked as peacefully as this, what was the problem?
Ahead of her, Blaze slowed to a stop, and Snow peered over his shoulder at the sight before them. A dark, cold house stood stationary within the swirls of white that spun about them in flurries, and Snow caught sight of some brightly colored Bluk and Sitrus berry bushes inside what looked to be a small greenhouse near the back door. Snow's mouth watered at the sight of food, but she pushed down her hunger as Blaze stepped out into the open.
Behind her, Snow heard Dott and Lovell take a sharp breath almost simultaneously as Blaze cautiously sniffed the bottom of the door. He nodded to them, and Dott and Lovell sighed in unison. They padded out in front of Snow, their paws crunching softly on the ice as they joined Blaze by the door. Snow followed them, her pelt blending with the flurries of snow around her and making it seem as if she had turned invisible.
Snow returned to Blaze's side, nodding to him. Lovell's paws sparked briefly on the door handle before the lock clicked, and Lovell carefully eased the door open a crack and slipped inside; Dott and Blaze followed, nothing more than shadows.
When Snow turned to follow them, Blaze poked his head back outside and shook it quickly.
"Stay here." He hissed. "This is different than the mill. We need you to keep sentry outside to alert us of any humans."
"Why do I have to do it?" Snow asked, annoyed. Though she wouldn't dare challenge the authority of James, she found it hard to accept one of her own comrade's orders.
"Just...just stay. You're still a rookie, so..." Blaze shrugged, rolled his eyes, and disappeared back inside. Snow quietly shut the door behind them, letting out an irritated huff as she turned her back on the door to face the way they had come.
She was in what seemed to be an alley between the forest and a few other rows of houses, all neatly lined up and as dark as the one they were raiding. Snow expected that the houses' lights would be on, signifying that people inhabited such a place, but she was surprised to find that all the houses looked forlorn and empty.
Just as she was beginning to contemplate this strange phenomenon, a faint horn sounded in the distance, followed by the sounds of singing voices and the beating of drums. Curious, Snow craned her neck around the edge of the house to see what the racket could be, only to find the sight of colorful lights of blues, reds, and greens and what seemed to be people carrying floats of some sort.
One group of people was carrying a large, green and black snakelike Pokemon whose yellow eyes glowed fiercely like the glow of the sun. Next came a dark blue and red Pokemon with large, finlike hands and a mouth full of paper teeth; finally, a large, red form with spikes along the sides of its body and eyes that glowed like hot flames made its procession, shedding light in front of it's path and bathing everything before it in a harsh red glow. This Pokemon seemed to have the most people tending to it, with people dancing and singing around the Pokemon and carrying large, mountain-shaped signs and beautiful rocks of gemstones and rubies.
Fascinated, Snow found that she had slowly been edging away from the door and into the fray of the festival, mesmerized by the bright colors and the rhythmic songs the people sang.
"Maybe...just a quick peek." Snow murmured to herself. She looked back at the door of the gloomy house she had left her comrades in, then checked the alley for any humans. Once confirming the coast was clear, Snow crept silently to the edge of the procession, blending in with the blue float and heading for the center of town.
Farlo crouched behind a darkened building, peering around the corner of it cautiously. He turned back to Charlie and Jet, who were standing behind him with serious expressions on their faces.
"Okay. There seems to be some sort of commotion happening in the square, so we should be able to grab a few things from the stores before anyone notices us." Farlo reported, feeling a pang of unease at the thought of what they were doing. He hadn't ventured into human territory for nearly a month now, and his skin was crawling at the prospect of seeing humans again.
Charlie cracked his knuckles, smirking at his friends. "Let me go. I'm the most agile. I can climb along the roofs and enter through the chimneys."
Farlo nodded. "Sounds great. Jet and I will scout ahead of you for trouble."
"I'll signal you with a squirt of water to tell you the coast is clear." Jet added; Farlo detected a hint of desperation in his friend's tone, and he figured that the sooner they were in and out the better everyone would be.
Farlo peered around the building again, squinting as the bright lights from the center of the square blinded him. He saw three ginormous floats come into view from one of the side streets, and he heard the people in the square roar with excitement. He shuddered, being reminded of the spectators in the coliseum he had fought in for so long.
It seems as if that were years ago. Farlo thought, slightly awed. It feels like years since I've seen Snow, too...
Farlo shook his head, blinking. He turned back to Jet and Charlie. "All right. It's all clear. The humans are preoccupied with some Pokemon floats at the square. Now's our chance."
Charlie nodded, hopped a bit on the ground, then got on all fours and sprang upward at the side of the house. He grabbed onto the windowsill of a second floor window for support before crawling onto the roof and disappearing from sight.
Farlo nodded to Jet, and together they began tentatively toward the square.
Bone watched as Slash passed a sign reading "Mayonaka Village"in Unown letters ahead of him, and he heard the beating of drums and the clink of tambourines as they neared the Village square.
"Almost there. I can already taste the rewards." Darkness muttered behind him; Bone heard a shove, then Moonlight's voice: "Shut up, Caterpie-brain. We don't have anything to give to the humans."
"Not yet." Bone threw the words over his shoulder at the two Absol, and he heard them snicker. Bone himself smirked with the thoughts of coming pride and redemption he would receive if Slash's plan succeeded.
Bone looked back at the string of fighters trailing behind him, their steps sluggish from slogging in the snow but their expressions full of hope and hunger.
"Soon enough, Bone." Bone jumped at Slash's voice behind him, and he turned around to see the Zoroark smiling at him maliciously. "Everything is going according to plan."
Bone chuckled, then let out a small howl to his fighters to push onward. Slash lagged behind until every last fighter had passed before him, then strolled along the path as if it were a lovely spring day and not a cold, winter night.
Slash caught sight of a small movement just on the edge of town; a small, green and cream blur along with two orange blurs were moving rapidly toward the center of town; a slow smile grew on Slash's face, his eyes gleaming.
As one of the orange blurs took to the rooftops, he saw Bone bark with excitement. Slash tensed, then relaxed as he realized Bone had only noticed the floats heading toward the village. Slash chuckled to himself, hardly believing the Houndoom was so naive.
Slash was hoping Bone hadn't seen the green blur inside the village; Slash had counted on it.
Sorry for such the long wait! This chapter took a while for many reasons, but to bottom line it for you I've been busy with school; we have exams and quizzes and homework and classwork and notes...oh, my! Anyway, enough with my sob stories; hope you enjoyed the chapter, and please review!
And to those who celebrate it out there, Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah (hope I spelled that right...O_O")!