Chapter 25
Blake
The three of us glide through the tunnels of Skyborne as a pack. We're all exhausted, but excited at the same time. We spent all night discussing our plan. How to get supplies, how to pack, how to sneak out, how to get to Mt. Coronet, everything. The more we talked about it, the harder it was to stop! After everything has been discussed, we couldn't fall asleep in anticipation for our journey. I grin to myself imagining a journey all to ourselves.
We're approaching step one of our game plan, stock up on food. We'll have to get crafty, but we think we'll be able to make off with some leftovers from the mess hall. The journey should require about a day's worth of food. We'll leave after breakfast and be back home by dinner-time tomorrow. So, we'll need dinner for tonight and breakfast for tomorrow. Two meals for three pokemon. That's how much we'll have to steal. Won't be easy, but won't be impossible either.
The three of us enter the mess hall to the crowd of pokemon chowing down on the grub. We float\hover\perch at the entrance. Dawn, who's in the middle of me and April, nods. The signal to split up. We fly up to the scattered perches above. First, we'll get our own food and have breakfast, but staying together could cause suspicion. So, we get our military-issued food and find a place to sit, far apart from each other, of course. I start scarfing down my food, making a pretty big mess on my stone plate and woven silk placemat, but clean up afterwards when I lick the juices of the pecha berry off the plate. I've got to finish early. After all, I'm the one who'll make off with the food first.
Rushing my plate to the pile of dirty plates and flying back to my perch, I linger casually on an empty branch. Pokemon from the surviving Raptor squadron perch in silence around me. They all give off a depressed vibe to them. I feel bad for myself, but I also feel bad for them. They watched their comrades die in front of them. It must have been hard. I'm not surprised when many of them fly away and back to their rooms without touching their food. They don't even touch the stone plate. They simply leave it there. I jump at the chance. When I don't see anyone looking, I snatch up the pecha and oran berries and hide them under my wing. No one seems to notice. I do it again with another empty spot and filled plate.
As soon as I hold two servings under my wings and one in my belly, I hop from branch to branch, keeping my wings tucked in tight as to not let my stolen food spill along with my secret. Usually, everyone would look at me weird for not just flying down. However, I'm part of the Raptor squadron, back from a bloody battle. My wing could be severely injured. Which it was, but that's not the problem, now.
My talons hit the ground and I've made it to the exit of the mess hall. I grin, knowing I'm home free. But that grin turns into a frown and fear shoots through me when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I don't turn around yet. I tell myself to stay calm. One sign that I've got something to hide, and I've trashed the entire operation. I take a deep breath and turn, a look of innocence in my eyes that I picked up from April. Before me stands a Honchkrow, proud and tall. His chest puffs out and he looks down on me with a touch of menace in his eyes. I tell myself to take deep breaths. This isn't over, yet. But, it's all I can do not to scramble out of there as fast as I can.
The Honchkrow bends down to my level. Then, he holds something out to me with his wing. My eyes study it in fear. A pecha berry rests on his feathers. "You dropped this." I blink. He grins and winks to me. I give him an uneasy smile as he places the pecha berry under my wing, careful as not to disturb the other berries. I nod to him in thanks and scurry away before anyone else notices me.
I reach my room unnoticed. As soon as I'm next to my straw bed, I drop the berries and let them bounce around on the straw. Holding berries like that is exhausting, not to mention the extra work it takes to walk on talons instead of fly around. All I can do now is wait for the others. I settle on the ground, but it's seconds after that when April bounds into the room. She's hidden the berries under her wings as well. She dumps them on the ground and flutters over to me. "So, how'd it go? I saw that Honchkrow talking to you and I was worried, but I was so relieved when you got out of there just fine. I don't think anyone else saw you and no one saw me." She beams at me with so much energy. It must have been easier for her to walk. She's had no wings for most of her life. I've been flying forever. All I can do is smile back. That's when Dawn enters the room.
Dawn was the creative one among us in this mission. She enters the room with her tail in a coil. April and I get a closer look to see that she fashioned her tail into the shape of a bowl, the tail wrapped in a tight circle and curved inwards. I have no idea how she managed to hide it and get out without notice, but she did it.
We all pile up our food in the center of the room. Sitting in a circle around the large pile of berries, we brainstorm how we're gonna carry this thing. I suggest that we use Dawn's tail-bowl to carry it. "No, that won't work. Too inefficient." She replies. Dawn looks around the room for something, then finds it. April and I watch her cross the room to the exit. The silk curtain ripples softly as Dawn moves in front of it. We stare expectantly as Dawn bites down on the side of the curtain. In one swift motion, she rips the curtain from the wooden stick that acts as a pole. The ripping sound echoes slightly in our room. The stick tumbles down along with the curtain, landing soundlessly in a heap of white silk on the floor. The corner of the curtain still clenched in her mouth, Dawn drags her supplies back over to us. Through her clenched teeth, she calls us over. "We can make a bag out of this." The practicalness and cleverness of Dawn's idea seals it. We go along with her orders as she says them and start piling the berries onto the silk, laid out in a square.
Once the cargo is loaded onto the silk, April ties the corners together at the top. She ties several more knots around the stick to secure the two together. It secures all of our food stock safely inside and can be easily carried. April stands back to examine her work. "That should do it."
"Alright." Dawn turns to both of us. "Let's move out."