INSaNiTY

Chapter Two: Intruders

Nightmare's POV:

By the time we arrived at camp, the sun was just due to set in an hour, and it was already painting a pretty mix of silver-orange light and shadows over the trees, branches and landscape.

I wearily walked through the bushes, and stopped to catch my breath. I blamed Midnight for this, her odd sleeping habits weren't doing us any good, but there wasn't much I could do to solve the problem. After all, the night was the only time she was usually willing to be active.

Today had been a surprise to me. She had been a lot more cheerful despite the incident at the lake.

It was a nice sight to see Midnight being up and about during the day. Still she had refused to interact with anyone other than myself and that slightly damped my joy.

Midnight had been like that for a good amount of time… She wasn't exactly the most sociable eon, which was odd for an umbreon. Being a love-based evolution, we thrived and fed off being social and the feelings of acceptance and happiness it brought.

Midnight had been cut off from everyone long before I had been created, that I knew, if not, I wouldn't exist. I was sure that my purpose was to keep her company, to keep her from dying of loneliness. It was rather saddening.. if I thought about it too much.

You're so alone that you talk to yourself to forget about your loneliness.

Why she was like that, I didn't know. I knew Caleo and Midnight's birth pack of Silvta had had some influence on the current state of things but that was it. I couldn't see Midnight's memories of before I was created unless she told me about them. I didn't see through her eyes back then. I was nothing more than subconscious loyalty and care.

My limited knowledge was frustrating at times. Midnight refused to open up about her past and without knowing what was wrong, I couldn't figure out what the problem was and of how I could help her.

I didn't even know how she became an umbreon in the first was a natural evolution, so that meant there had been a point in time when Midnight had been happy enough, sociable enough. But when and what happened to change that Midnight into the one I knew now?

I didn't know and I hated it.

I sighed and looked around the camp. It was quite a far cry from the lively environment that I had 'grown' in. The camp was consumed by suffocating loneliness. There was no chatter, no activity. Really it was just a place for everyone to sleep and, perhaps, eat in.

I wondered why I had even bothered to bring myself to camp. I had nothing to do here.

Raiden and Ariada would most likely arrive much later but even if they already were here, I wouldn't have talked to them. I didn't really feel like talking to them at the moment.

Link was out of camp for now …. He was an interesting fellow, to say the least. That was the only thing I could say from our limited interactions.

I really didn't know him...

I groomed for a while in the company of nobody, before deciding to leave camp all together.

I made myself a small nest in the roots of a tree, a nest of moss and leaves. I curled up and shut my eyes...

I opened my eyes to the familiarity of the Mindscape, the realm made of subconsciousness.

Yawning, I glanced around. Midnight was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps had she taken over our body again… I sighed in partial annoyance because I knew Midnight was probably just going to wander around aimlessly, maybe edge herself to the border of our territory in an attempt of defiance but nothing more. Social interactions be damned.

Another glance at my surroundings and I began to simply walk, deeper into the mass of silver clouds.

I had no idea of where I was going. The mist all looked the same to me. My stroll turned into a speed walk as I felt the ever changing gravity of this world beginning to press down on my back.

Growling, I trudged out of the gravitational pocket, and sent a silent thanks to Palkia or Giratina or whoever was the designated deity of gravity for not crippling me.

Walking,walking ...walking. There was nothing more than walking. There was no noise, no sun, no moon,no sky, nobody and nothing else than me at the moment.

It was pure loneliness.

My short ears twitched nervously as I stopped to look around. Having 'grown' in a very busy pack that never seemed to fully rest, the silence was unnerving. t was something I had never really gotten accustomed to. And if one added the well known knowledge of how silence meant danger, at least in the forest….I had a few reasons to feel so uneasy at the moment. My eyes scanned the clouds, searching for some deformity or any oddity that hinted at a hidden enemy.

There was nothing but I refused to let my guard down. I had learned that not following my gut instinct usually led to trouble. I had seen too many deaths and pain in this short life of mine, and to think that we still had twenty or so years ahead of us… give or take a few.

I shook my head and gritted my teeth. I was a dark-type I was supposed to cause fear, not to be a victim of it!

I was the one who, with a mere bite to the neck, caused death swiftly. The one who gave out heart-attacks with just the glow of her rings. I was a creature that ate rotting corpses and spat venom!

Yet the fear still persisted, pooling coldly in my guts.

I opened my jaws slightly to take in the life-less,scent-less cold air of the Mindscape. There was nothing out of the ordinary but my fear only grew.

Glancing around once more, I created some dark energy in my mouth, keeping my muzzle slightly parted so that I could quickly shoot the shadow ball.

Click,click,click..

The sudden clicking sound made me jump and I spun around pushing my ball of dark-energy out of my jaw and into the clouds in a wide arc. While the shadow ball didn't seem to make contact with anything, it still burst into a mass of purplish black energy that seemed to crackle before completely dissipating.

The clicking sound persisted, seeming to be coming from all directions at once. I began to sweat feeling unable to stop the fear from rising to the surface, my gaze bolted from one spot to the other as I tried to find the source of the noise.

Why was this sound making me so nervous? It didn't make was a sound and nothing more. And, yet I was scared.

Taking a deep breath I forced myself to focus. It was just a sound… Nothing more… Perhaps some other Pokemon who had access to this realm.. No. This world was of Midnight's making... Perhaps it was just an error in the subconscious?... That was possible right?

Whatever the reason, the clicking was just a sound and nothing more.

If something did happen, I could defend myself just fine. I was an umbreon and I had a good array of abilities at my disposal, hard to injure or damage and made for the sole reason of the kill. Umbreons were made for murder. It came naturally to us. We were hunters, predators and sometimes just plain killers.

I took a few steps forward, head held high, venom forming in my saliva just clicking sound had faded now but I still was warry. It could be an ambush after all… And I didn't want to be ambushed again … I had barely escaped from the first idiot who had ambushed is. And even then, we were probably slightly scared for the rest of our life.

Another pawful of steps and I decided to relax my shoulders a bit, slightly… I was still expecting some kind of attack… I sighed and relaxed further, feeling more at ease. It was probably just my imagination, nothing more…

Nothing more…

Eventually ,after much searching in the Mindscape, I found her. I found my counterpart.

.

"Midnight," I purred, nuzzling her slightly. The other umbreon licked my shoulder in greeting.

"Did you hear the clicking?" She asked, seeming anxious.

I blinked, realizing where my fear had steamed from and nodded.

"I heard it clearly, it was there… Next to me, in the mist. It caused no harm and didn't show itself. Whatever it is has no desire to interact."

Midnight relaxed a bit, allowing her fur to fall flat.

"I hope that it remains like that."

"It will." I stated "it will."

I had a feeling that Midnight's emotions had bled out into me, her fear and paranoia leaking into what I felt and perceived.

The clicking was mostly likely her imagination. We had both heard it, even if we were what felt miles apart.

"You just need to calm down."

"It's all going to be ok…"

I started licking the umbreon's small rounded ears as she settled down, legs and paws tucked neatly under her body.

I started purring, hoping to ease her of whatever was troubling her.

"You're ok, your safe now."

Ariada's Pov:

I stood at the edge of the den's entrance, staring up at the cloudy night sky. The clouds clearly hinted that there would be a change in weather - probably a subtle one, considering the current season.

With Green-leaf nearly upon us, I found myself growing more and more worried. The season of the sun tended to be blistering hot and very dry. The only source of water would be the lake and the rivers that flowed/fed it.

Glancing up at the clouds once more, I shook my head. Who knew?

Maybe this Greenleaf wouldn't be as bad as last year's.

Perhaps there would be no drought this time around.

Stepping outside, I breathed the slightly colder air, feeling the small amounts of carbon-dioxide absorbed by my leaves, ready to become oxygen and energy once daylight broke.

I looked around and stumbled through the shadow filled clearing, squinting as I tried to make out the small shape in front of me. With an irritated sigh I gave up on my sense of sight and extended one paw to touch the hazy form. I felt the stiff rough surface of a tree bark and passed my tiny claws over it, feeling how some of the drier, looser wood scales chipped off and fell to the grass with soft almost inaudible rustles.

I swished my tail around and climbed onto the up at these hours was rare for me but tonight, I just simply couldn't sleep. It wasn't because of Raiden and her spiky fur, or because of Caleo and the heat waves she occasionally created. It was just simply that I didn't feel sleepy.

I considered going on a walk, but instinct advised me not to . While the forest was relatively predator free and my speed and powerful draining attacks were a good defense, my blindness could lead me to fall into a river or the lake like some idiot. And I didn't want to end up drowning.

So I stayed on my stump, ripping off the wood scales and humming a little tune that my mother had taught me so many moons ago.

It was camp should have been filled with life, even at this hour Umbreons coming back from hunting and a few leafeons helping others deal with insomnia or some nightly aliment. And then there were the times that something happened over at the lake…

All the blood that was seeping into the mud and spilling into the lake, the various eeveelutions, some dead, some dying, some barely clutching onto life. I shook my head and cleared the images away.

In a way, that was a con of being a leafeon, constantly being asked to heal wounds, having the life of the other eeveelutions in their paws, seeing death over and over because not everyone could be saved... But, then again, everybody had to deal with death eventually. It was a natural part of life. You lived, you died. And maybe got remembered for generations if you had done something important. Or stupid. Or both.

It was how things were, are and will be.

I hung my front paws off the edge of the stump and continued to chip away the wood scales. I liked the sound of the wood separating from each other and the feeling of taking something apart with my tiny claws. My long tail hung off the other side of the stump, slowly swishing back and forth.

My ears twitched as I heard pawsteps behind me, and the air filled with the faint scent of ozone.

"What are you doing at such an hour?"

"I'd like to ask you the same question."

"I noticed that you were gone."

"Yeah, right." I scoffed "You sleep like a rock Raiden."

The jolteon moved, grass swishing as she did so. I watched her out of the corner of my eye as she sat down beside my stump.

"Seriously, why are you awake?" Raiden asked. "You usually don't stir until morning."

I simply shrugged and sat up, lifting one paw to nibble a leaf that was growing between my toes.

The jolteon huffed, and twitched her ears as the crackling sound of her breathing broke the silence.

I began to lick a few misplaced leaves into place,and enjoyed the silence of the night, This was rarely seen back in Relta. Somewhere, a noctowl cried as it swooped down to catch its prey.

Done with grooming, I curled my tail around my legs and remained completely still on the stump.

"Why are you awake?" Raiden asked me again.

"Just because."

"Just because?" I met Raiden's skeptical sideways glance.

I nodded and dug my claws into the wood. The fur on my shoulder bristled slightly at the jolteon's gaze, my ears flattened slightly in annoyance while the tip of my tail twitched.

I loved Raiden to no end but sometimes she could be too clingy. I understood her reasoning, she was lonely after all. Everyone had either left the territory when the murders at the lake had started to get out of paw or had gotten killed by said murderer. Midnight was the only one who remained from those days in Relta, other than Raiden and I.

But still, her overprotectiveness bothered me. She knew well enough how fierce and resistant leafeons could be. Yet she kept on treating me like some delicate daisy.

"So… Are you ready for the Equinox?"

I shrugged. The Equinox, while important in the past, now seemed pointless, with a pack of five that was so disarranged.

"Still bitter over the fact that our pack is small and that there are no other leafeons?"

"Pretty much." I muttered. "I miss the crowds, the activity, sunbathing with Emeril, Nymphia, Ginger and the others…"

"Don't worry. I'm sure that the Green-leaf Equinox will have a few kits."

"You've been saying that ever since Link arrived here. Just because Midnight and Link are both single doesn't mean that they'll become mates."

"Come on, Ari… Why can't you see the love between them?"

"There is no love Raiden! They barely interact with one another. There's nothing to really fuel a potential relationship."

"It's there. In the background. There is potential with them. They're in love behind our turned backs!"

"Raiden, you've been pairing them without evidence. And no, breathing the same air is not evidence!"

Raiden didn't say anything for a while. She was deep in thought, I guessed.

"There's interest at least. That's something, isn't it?"

"Do you really think there's interest?"

"Maybe…"

"Does it even matter to us? If there's something going on, then it's their thing, not ours."

"I guess…Would be nice if they said something about it."

"Raiden, just let it die already. Just let them be. Whether they're in love or not, it's their situation to figure out. We can't make claims about any 'relationship' when all you have is some loose 'evidence."

"Fine…"

I smiled to myself, content that silly discussion was over. Raiden was too quick to find 'evidence' and while it was amusing at times, it could also be incredibly annoying and somewhat inconsiderate of her. Raiden was, in a way, constantly forcing others to be in love. Misty and Krystal, Ignis and Ren...And, to make it worse, none of the parties mentioned had any romantic feelings for each other. Sometimes a close friendship was just that, a close friendship and nothing more.

I yawned feeling slightly exhausted. I didn't want to go back to the den but the grass-type side of me won over. Plants thrived in the sunlight, they produced their own energy in the daylight, my energy reserves were falling here, in the dark.

I got off my stump and stumbled a bit, knowing that I was probably looking like an idiot.

"Let me fix that." Raiden laughed. There was a distinct crackling sound as her fur rose and turned into electric quills. The smell of ozone increased and I shut my eyes as electricity rippled through her fur, illuminating the area with a pulsing purplish-white light.

I moved away from the electric Pokemon, and blinked a few times. My eyes were hurting from the rapid change between light and dark, and the smell of ozone, which always reminded of the sweet clean scent that the earth gave off after a thunderstorm, was becoming unbearable, no longer pleasant.

My throat and lungs began to burn as I breathed the ozone filled air, eyesight distorted, quickly speckling with black as I wobbled farther away from the jolteon.

The sound of electricity stopped and I was vaguely aware of Raiden rushing to my side. I continued forward away from her on legs that felt bloated and more useless than a vaporeon on land.

"Ariada, you feeling alright?" Raiden fussed, pressing herself against my flank so I could use her as a support.

I would have spat that I was on the verge of collapsing but a simple 'Neh' was all I could muster.

Once the numbness faded from my body, I winced, realizing with a pang of annoyance that Raiden was going to be even more protective towards me.

Wonderful.

Thanks to the sweet scent of the grass and earth that had returned, the tightness of my throat subdued and I purred, feeling rather content.

"Sorry about that." Raiden said sheepishly.

"Don't fret about it,-" I coughed and the jolteon stared at me worried.

"I'm fine,I'm fine!" I cried getting to my paws as the crackling filled the air again. My mate remained skeptical, pelt slightly spiked up and ears flat.

I licked my paw frowning at how the leaf between my toes had become limp and lifeless. My ears, foreleaf and tail were going to be completely ruined!

In fact, I couldn't even feel them!

I growled slightly and yawned, glancing quickly at the sky. It remained cloudy and useless for time-telling.

"Tired?"

I nodded and allowed Raiden to lead the way back to the den.

Once we were curled up soundly in our nest, I made a mental note to go out before the sun rose in the horizon. Raiden wasn't going to leave me alone otherwise.

I had actually managed to complete my task of leaving camp before sunrise and now I stood dumbfounded in the twilight. The tip of my tail twitched as I tried to make out the shapes of the forest from the silvery orange glow that seemed to illuminate and overshadow everything.

"Crap."

I sighed and decided to wait for my eyes to adjust to the slowly growing clarity. My ears twitched, sensing the light and immediately began the photosynthetic process. Whatever exhaustion I had faded away as I was filled with energy. I sunbathed between a tiny pair of sapling trees until the sun had risen over the mountains that loomed over our territory.

Yawning, I proceeded to get up from my resting place. I stretched, groomed my slightly ruffled cream coat and made my way to…Somewhere…

In the end, the area I had gotten myself into wasn't the kind of area that I didn't like/ liked (? not sure of what you want to say here) to be in. An area with small trees, with too much space between them, grass that had been trampled and trimmed down so much that it was dry and thin.

Raiden wasn't going to find me!

The trimmed down state of the area bothered me. This was recent. My eyes caught an odd track and I went near it, cautiously sniffing it despite the fact that I had no sense of smell at the moment.

There were two long trails, composed of a series of raised bumpy lines sandwiched between flattened earth. Whatever had caused the print was heavy and had moved recklessly through the forest, plowing through the undergrowth without a care.

The tranquility of the area was now unquestioned. Humans had passed in this area with their vans and cars.

I canted my head to the left confused by the humans had already come earlier this year, they had checked our population, the state of the forest and left after two weeks without causing much disruption to the forest life.

It was odd …

My eyes followed the trail and I pondered whether or not to follow it. In the end, I walked alongside the tire tracks. Raiden was probably already looking for me and so I needed to keep moving. If the humans tried to catch me, I could fight just fine.

My fur prickled and I glanced up at the trees, seeing no pidgeys or spearows above my head. The ground had been undisturbed since the car or van had rushed though and everything was filled with an unnatural silence.

My nerves buzzed as I followed the trail farther and farther away from camp. My ears twitched as I heard something move among the undergrowth. I glanced over my shoulder as I heard light paw steps.

The undergrowth rustled again, and I froze seeing a flash of black and white between the leaves.

"Why are you following the tire tracks?"

I yelped in surprise and scrambled hastily to face the chuckling sylveon that was standing behind me.

"Don't do that! You nearly gave me a frigging heart-attack!"

A feeler immediately covered my mouth. "Shhh… Swearing is a terrible sin."

I tried to speak through the furry ribbon but the only thing that could be heard was 'Mmmph!' Link lifted his other feelers and looked around cautiously, his long rabbit-like ears twitched as he sensed something.

"Let's go." He whispered guiding me back in the direction that I came from. I growled and another feeler pushed me forward.

"Shhh…." He mewed looking concerned as he placed a feeler over his mouth. "We have to leave."

I flattened my ears and allowed myself to be escorted back to where I had first seen the tire trail.

"What were you doing there?!" Link asked me, waving his feelers frantically. "Those were tire tracks!"

"I know," I growled in annoyance.

"Wh-what are you even doing so far from camp? Raiden was frantic when she saw you were gone!"

"I wanted to go on my own!" I snapped. "I don't need Raiden to constantly care for me. I'm sick of it!" My foreleaf quivered and toppled swinging uselessly in front of my face. "I can defend myself, I'm not some daisy."

"I wouldn't blame Raiden for being a tad over-protective considering the amount of graves in this forest."

I winced at Link's comment, but still didn't allow the bitterness to leave my voice.

"I guess she has a point. But I still don't like over-protected. Being. A. Leafeon. Doesn't. Make. Me. Weak."

"Suit yourself,-"Link mewed licking his small pink paw, before looking back at where we came from. I followed his gaze.

"What was in there?" I asked.

"I'm not sure … But I felt a very bad vibe."

"A dark-type?"

"No. The aura didn't carry such negativity."

"So?"

"It's not the Pokemon itself that worries me. Its what was up ahead…."

Link shook his head as if to clear it. "We should tell the others about this."

"And then what? Caleo won't care or do anything. She'll probably shrug it off. Midnight will most likely not be at camp and Raiden won't let me leave her sight."

Link was silent for a good amount of seconds.

"Let's just get back to camp."

I nodded and reluctantly followed the dainty fairy-type back to camp.