Shorter one today. This is a buildup to the end of this flashback. I don't have the attention span to mash this into one chapter. I have Aspergers so I have the attention spam of a gold fish. Not much I can do about that.

Once I had regained my senses and stop panicking, I began to search for the source of the crying sound. I weaved around a few of the trees as I followed the sound with my vulpine ears. I parted some brush with my good, unbroken arm, and revealed a Purrloin. Female from what I could smell. She was facing the base of a cliff and was... is the word mewling? Whatever it is that cats do when they're sad. The first thing that came to mind was food. This would be an easy kill. I was down an arm for at least a month or so, and I had just burned a lot of energy running for that long. Yet my sense of mercy managed to override that train of thought.

"You really shouldn't make so much noise. You never know what kinds of predators you may attract the attention of." The cat had jumped and stood on all fours to face me the moment she heard my voice. "Relax. I'm not gonna hurt ya. Just curious what you're doing here all alone. Where are your parents?" She seemed young. She was definitely not old enough to be on her own. Something was wrong, but I couldn't piece it together. Then again, I had very little of the information. It was like trying to finish a puzzle without the box to use as a guide. What you think I'd waste my time doing a puzzle the normal way? Do you know anything about me at all?

"I-I was out p-playing and a pack of H-Houndooms p-pushed me off this c-cliff a-and my parents are up thereandI'msoscaredthatImayneverseethemagain!" Yep, she was in a near catatonic state. No that wasn't an intentional pun but you can take it that way if you want. I wondered for a moment how she survived when I looked up. That cliff was at least 200 feet. Then again, the evergreen trees would help slow her fall, and she was a feline. They could fall from some extremely dizzying heights without getting hurt.

I debated what to say next for a bit. I definitely had my own problems to deal with. I had a broken arm, I'd just gotten chased out of my territory, and I had no idea where I was. I was scared. With the pain that my arm was causing, it would be some time, at least three weeks, before I could use my illusions again. Zoroarks can't use illusions when they're in pain. So survival should've been the first thing on my mind. However, Zoroarks are kind creatures, and that won with the thought that maybe the parents would give me a place to rest and recover for returning their daughter to them. "I'll take you home." She looked up at me with a sliver of hope in her teary eyes. "Do you know where I could get to your parents' territory from here?"

She sniffed. "Y-Yes, but it's a ways. At least a day." Normally I could just run that distance in maybe ten hours, but with my arm the way it was, running would be impossible because of how much it would hurt my arm with all the jostling.

"Ok then. Climb onto my head. We'll make better time if you ride on me." I knelt down and she hoped up onto my laps before springing onto my neck, and then walking onto my mane and kneading the fluff to make it comfortable for herself.

"Your arm... are you sure you're ok for this?" The fellow Dark Type was understandably concerned for my safety. If I fell, she wouldn't be far behind.

"I am absolutely not ok, but there's nothing I can do about it besides make a splint. I'll make that as I walk."

The feline told me which direction to start going, and I did. As I walked, I began collecting leaves from some of the stubborn berry bushes that refused to die in the cold. These usually produced berries Ice Types preferred. I did munch on some of those to regain my energy. Though the Oran and Sitrus Berries that would accelerate my recovery were all dead and gone this time of year. I'd have to wait out the full recovery time. Eventually I found a stick long, thick, and straight enough to hold my arm steady. I told her I was gonna stop for a minute to dress my wound. I held my thigh in a way the stick would lay flat and not move. Using my good dominant arm, as well as some tricky maneuvering, I managed to tie the leaves together enough to fashion a small makeshift rope. I wrapped it around the stick, made sure the bones were lined up, took a breath, and yanked it tight around the broken arm. I groaned loudly in pain, but this would keep the bones in place and allow them to heal better.

With the bad arm handled as well as I could, I resumed walking. Again I grabbed berries off of whatever bushes I walked by that had them. I gave a couple to her as well when I hear her stomach growl. She was being surprisingly strong about this. She wasn't complaining, and she had stopped crying. I asked her for her name. "It's Lavender. Yours?"

"It's Logan." We began to share stories, being much older I had many more, but I was able to gain a decent amount of information about her. She was an adventurous soul. The kind of child who, if you told them not to do something, all it did was guarantee that they would do it. Like all Purrloin's she had a bit of a thieving streak, but all she did was take a berry here or there when she was hungry. Usually by charming her way in. She told me stories of some of the Pokémon she had suckered into unknowingly letting her steal from them, and I found myself laughing at her antics. She reminded me of myself when I was a Zorua before I went to school. We were pranksters and often relied on cuteness to get away with it even when caught. I felt a sort of kinship with her despite not sharing any blood with her.

We had reached the foot of the trail that would eventually allow us to reach her home after the sun had gone down. I had just stopped to find a secluded spot to sleep. "No, keep going a little more. There's a really cool spot I wanna show you!" I was gonna ask what she kind of spot this was, but knowing what children were like, she'd just say it was really cool again. So I continued to follow her directions. Eventually I heard running water. A lot of it. I stepped out of the forest and emerged onto a lake that was nearly as large as the one in my now former territory. Across the lake I could see a small 20 foot waterfall. Also, the water seemed to be steaming slightly.

"Welcome to the hot springs! This is my favorite place for my parents to take me when we leave our territory!" I was curious as to why they would ever leave their territory, but she probably bugged them enough that they would take her out every now and then to explore while keeping an eye on her. The pain in my arm was momentarily forgotten, not gone, but forgotten, as I looked over this little slice of heaven. "Wait until morning when we have time to enjoy it! For now though-" She yawned audibly, "we should get some sleep. There's a small cave behind the waterfall that should be empty. I've never seen anything go in or out of it. I don't know if anything else has seen it."

I walked around the lake, enjoying the warm air radiating off of it, and came up to the waterfall. Indeed, just behind it, I saw a cave opening. It wasn't very big, or very deep, but it would comfortably hold me and Lavender for the night. I didn't need to use any furs to soften my sleep this time. I had had one hell of a day and wanted nothing more than sleep. I curled up, and Lavender did the same on my mane. Cats could be very small when they curled up, and she was able to hold herself on my head comfortably again. "Night Lavender."

"Goodnight Logan."