In our last chapter, Lilith became an Umbreon and went through the ShadowLands to be named. Her name is Walks-the-Umbra, and she is now recognised by the Umbreon pack.

Walks-the-Umbra

Chapter 3

Lilith opened her eyes slowly, and was surprised at how dull the world around her seemed. Her senses were not as sharp as she remembered them, and the world was now so very bright. She sat up slowly, vaguely surprised that her head did not spin. As her eyes focused, she discovered that she lay curled up on top of a rock in the woods, the last rock she remembered seeing. her body was stiff and cramped from the chill morning air and from sleeping in such a position.

She uncurled herself and jumped down from the rock, surveying the area around her. Yes, it all seemed familiar. She remembered walking here. She remembered being hit by the bright beam of moonlight, then collapsing. The rest . . . the rest seemed like a fading dream. Bits of it kept coming forward, then slipping away again just as she tried to remember them in detail.

She sighed in frustration, and glanced down at her now-wrinkled school uniform. "Might as well go home and change," she muttered to no one in particular. "Can't go to school like this." Now that her vision was clear, she glanced at the position of the sun in the sky and estimated that it was early morning, though a little too early for school to have started. Just enough time to do what she needed to do.

With her time limit in mind, she began walking home.

"Hey! Hey, Lilith!"

Lilith groaned and turned around from her locker at the sound of Edith's chirpy voice, ready to put on her usual expression of non-caring. In truth, she had just barely made it through the day until school's end, and she was as tired as she'd ever been. If she could have, she'd have curled up in a corner of some classroom and slept the day away. Sadly, her classes had interfered with those plans.

Edith dashed up to her and smiled her trademark smile. "You didn't call back last night? Was something up? I stayed off the Internet just in case you felt like calling, and --" She paused and truly looked at Lilith for the first time, peering into the other girl's eyes. "My God, you look like a wreck! Bad night sleeping?"

"Something like that," Lilith admitted. What was she supposed to say? Sorry I look like hell, but I dreamed that I was an Umbreon in a pack, and then I woke up on a rock in the middle of the woods this morning. Yes, that would go over well. Second day of school and already she was having hallucinations. She chuckled inwardly.

Edith must have caught the tiny wry smile that appeared on Lilith's face, because her expression changed from concern to curiosity. "Oh, was it a guy?" she asked, keeping her voice low as teachers passed by. Apparently, this school had some strict rules about sexual relations being discussed in the hallways.

"No, nothing like that," answered Lilith, sounding amused. "Just . . . some animals kept me up all night." It wasn't entirely a lie. Her dream had been plaguing her all day, and she felt as if she didn't get any sleep the previous night.

Edith scowled. "Oh, I'll bet it was those stupid Umbreon again. I could hear them howling all the way across the city. They live in the woods close to your house, you know? You might see them a bit more than normal. Best to stay away from then. They don't do us any good, Dark Pokemon."

There was a flash of memory of the pack howling at her arrival at the meeting grounds, and when she had left the ShadowLands and received a name. The Eevee kits crowding around her. ShadowBranch snarling at her. Howls-at-Night pushing her into the Shadowlands . . .

"You okay?" Edith's voice cut through her thoughts and brought her back to reality. "Maybe you should go home and take a nap or something. If the Umbreon keep you up with their howling, then get some sleep in the day while you can. Maybe we can get town council to try driving them out again --"

"NO!" exclaimed Lilith loudly. People who were still in the hallway turned to look at her, and she flushed a deep red. "No," she said more quietly. "I mean, there's no need to do that just because they kept me up for a night. Let them be. They've done nothing wrong besides act how wild Pokemon act."

Edith shrugged. "Suit yourself, I guess. Still, if they keep being this loud, more than one person's going to complain, and then town council will drive them out again."

"Again?"

Edith nodded. "Yeah, again. I don't know how many times they've been driven out of the woods here, but they always keep coming back. I guess we're stuck with them. Still," she said in a cheerier voice, "can't have everything.

Lilith put on a smile for Edith's sake. "Guess not." She yawned. "Listen, I'm going to head home and get some much-needed sleep. If I'm not here tomorrow, you'll let the teachers know why, right?"

Edith nodded again. "Sure. No problem." She paused, then hugged Lilith briefly. "Get some rest, okay? You really do look like hell." With that, she walked off down the hall and went out of sight.

Lilith sighed and shook her head, closing her locker door and walking down the opposite end of the hall. If only she knew, Lilith thought wryly. Dreams -(was it really a dream?)- didn't usually affect her like that. And if it had been a dream -(why couldn't it have been real?)- then why did she wake up on a rock in the woods, exactly where she'd stopped walking and her 'dream' began?

Edith's words about the Umbreon worried her regardless. Drive them out again? What did the pack do that would drive people to try and push wild Pokemon out of their homes, the woods where no one lived anyway? A little noise at night was to be expected in any place where wild Pokemon live nearby anyway, anyone knew that by now.

She thought back to the words that the man on the street had given her only the previous day. The fact that they were Dark Pokemon could make anyone cautious, she thought, given their mysterious nature and abilities. But to drive them out simply because of their presence . . . the idea made her stomach turn. Howls-at-Night had given no indication that they attack humansd or made trouble for them, but didn't seem to approve of them much. Given what she just heard, she couldn't blame him.

Pushing the door open to the outside world, she blinked as the light assaulted her eyes, and began the walk home.

The second she entered the house, she dropped her bookbag by the door and kicked off her shoes without untying them, the fatigue upon her at full-force. Seeking the nearest couch, she collapsed on it, closing her eyes and falling asleep instantly, ignoring a somewhat growling stomach on top of it all. She didn't even wake up to hear the phone ring as Edith called to see how Lilith was doing . . .

The faint howl in the distance was what brought her out of her slumber. That faint familiar howl from the woods behind her, calling her, urging her to follow it to the source. She sat up, all traces of sleep gone from her eyes, and looked out the window. No light save for the streetlights came through the filmy curtains, meaning that the sun had set long ago, and it was time for the Umbreon to come out to play, she thought, a wry smile turning her lips upward slightly.

The howl sounded again, a long and resonant one, a howl of calling. An urge to follow that call arose within her, and rather than fight it, she gave into it. Time to see if her dream was really a dream. She threw on her jacket and left the house, not bothering to lock the door behind her. No point to it, as usual, and even less of a point when she was driven to an alternate life in the wild.

It didn't take her long to find the point where she had awoken that morning, even with no light to guide her. As it had the night before, moonlight shone down through the leaves in rays, lighting the top of the stone and making it seem like an impossible image that from a legend. Taking a deep breath, she climbed up on top of the rock, and stood there.

At first, nothing happened, and that split second of hope was replaced by a feeling of emptiness and disappointment. Then, a second later, the moonlight grew brighter, and she felt herself begin to change. It was an odd feeling, the pain-pleasure meld of her limbs shortening, her bones twisting and fur growing, and the knowledge that she was becoming something else, that she wasn't crazy for believing that what she remembered was actually real.

It ended all too soon, and she jumped down to the ground, landing softly on all four paws, her senses adjusting as they became more acute, more attuned to the night. Soon she could see as well as if the sun was shining bright, and her hearing was sharp enough to hear noises from the city that she normally would have missed. There was something refreshing about being in this new form.

More refreshing when she could at least remember the experience, anyway.

What she certainly did notice was the feeling of almost having two minds. On one hand, there was Lilith, the human who was fascinated by her new ability, the mind that thought rationally. Then there was the Umbreon mind, the one that relied on smell and sound and instinct rather than coherent thought patterns. Bother were struggling for domination, and it was all that the girl - no, the Umbreon now - could do to keep a balance between them.

I have to start thinking of myself as Walks-the-Umbra now, she thought as she fully adjusted to the form. Now, to find out where the rest of the pack is. She lifted her nose to the air and sought out their scent, hoping she'd be able to find it and recognise it with all the other smells in the air.

No luck. A few minutes of sniffing around and her nose was cold and dry, and she couldn't make heads or tails of any of the strange new scents on the night air. She slumped to the ground and rested her head on her front paws. How was she going to find them?

Why did she have to find them?

Walks' head snapped up as that thought entered her mind. Why indeed? She struggled to find the reason, and it finally came to her. Humans . . . driving out the Umbreon . . . That's right; she had to warn them that it may happen again. But how to get to them . . .

Of course! She stood and walked to a place where the trees grew thickly and looked at the shadows, a remarkably human grin flashing across her Umbreon face. The ShadowLands. Concentrating on how she'd felt when she'd been pushed in by Howls-at-Night, she touched her paw to the darkness at the base of the trees and was pleasantly surprised when she felt the shadows grow solid and bend beneath the pressure. Taking a deep breath, she held that feeling and leapt forward into the shadow . . .

. . . and felt her feet hit solid ground, everything around her fading to black as she entered the ShadowLands. But things were different this time. Instead of the total darkness she remembered from last time, she could still see faint images of the world outside, the plane she had just come from. Pale and faded images of trees and plants and rocks met her eyes, so hard to see even with her sharper vision that if she looked at them too long, they'd vanish. So very different from the shadows and emptiness she remembered.

She began to walk, once again forming the image of the place where she had seen the Umbreon gather last night in her mind. The image came so clearly to her now, and she almost thought she could see it wavering weakly in the semi-darkness of the ShadowLands. No, wait, she could see it. There, just ahead, was the gathering, a pack of Umbreon and Eevee together, some playing, some resting. All there.

Maybe it gets easier the more I do it, she thought as she walked towards the image, once again tentatively touching the shadows with her front paw. Feeling it yeild beneath her, she walked confidently forward, feeling what felt remarkably akin to soft material pass over her body as she slipped out of the ShadowLands and back into mere shadows just a short distance away from the Umbreon gathering, the cool breeze rippling her fur softly.

Then that breeze was promptly replaced with a hard cuff to the head.

She sprawled facedown in the dirt, the back of her head aching from the blow. Before she could rise and face her attacker, another blow came, harder than the first, right in the same spot. Bright flashes danced in front of her eyes, but she blinked them back. Out of instinct rather than knowledge, she leapt into a shadow, crossing behind the attacker, then jumping out again, springing up and landing hard on its back. It fell to the ground with an angry growl.

Walks would recognize that growl after last night. ShadowBranch threw her off his back and stood before her, fur bristling on his back and fangs bared. Walks did the same, shaking her head to clear it fully after that blow. ShadowBranch's mouth moved it what would have been a feral smile on a human. On an Umbreon, it just looked unnatural, and both parts of Walks' mind recognized that. Unconsciously, she moved backwards a step, away from the unnatural thing.

ShadowBranch took his chance and pounced again, paw outstretched to deliver another blow. Walks ducked, but not enough to escape the sharp claws that raked down her left shoulder. She caught the scent of blood in the air and winced more at the smell than the pain. As ShadowBranch twisted to get another shot at the young Umbreon, Walks snapped at his side. Her jaws only caught air as the stronger one moved aside and delivered another blow to the head which sent Walks sprawling.

She sensed rather than saw the shadow of the bigger Umbreon loom over her, and she closed her eyes and tensed, ready for the fresh bout of pain that was sure to come. She was no match for this one, one who had such experience in fighting when she did not. As loudly as she dared, she asked, "Why?"

"Because you are an outsider!" came the angry reply. "You take the affections of the pack leader as easily as if you were a new kit, and you come among us as if you were one of us, and you're not!" He all but spat out those last words, and Walks again felt that curious double feeling of both belonging and not belonging to this place. It was hers and yet it wasn't.

She must have whimpered, because ShadowBranch's next words were, "A coward on top of it all! Stand up and fight me, coward, if you are an Umbreon!"

Walks raised her head slowly, cautiously, and instantly regretted it when she felt ShadowBranch's paw land solidly on the back of her neck, the sharp claws biting into her flesh. "Rise now, kit!"

She didn't move, and the paw pressed harder, the claws digging in deeper. "Rise!"

Having no other choice but to try, Walks pushed herself upwards, trying her hardest to ignore the blood now running fron her neck and back as well as from her shoulder. Her left leg buckled and gave, and she fell back to the ground with a soft thud. ShadowBranch gave a barking laugh. The paw lifted from her back, and Walks felt momentary relief until she felt his hot breath replace it, teeth above her flesh.

"Enough!"

Now relief flooded through Walks at the sound of that cry. ShadowBranch backed away, and Walks dared to look up to see Howls-at-Night standing a short distance away, eyes narrowed and teeth bared at ShadowBranch. ShadowBranch still looked defiant, his own teeth glinting in the dim light of the night, but Walks could see that he was slinking lower and lower to the ground with each passing second. Before long, he had given up. He turned and dashed into the nearest shadow, slipping into the ShadowLands and away from Howls-at-Night and Walks.

Walks let out a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Howls-at-Night approached her and looked her over, taking note of the damage done. He bent down and started licking carefully at the wound on her shoulder, cleaning and soothing the deep gashes until Walks could tolerate the pain that had been shooting out from them only moments ago.

"Are you well enough to walk?" Howls-at-Night asked. "That scratch went deep."

Walks stood and gingerly put her weight on her left leg. The pain was still there, but it was tolerable now, and her leg wasn't about to fail her if she walked carefully enough. "I'm fine," she replied as they began to walk towards the meeting grounds, hoping that Howls-at-Night would not notice the other wound by her neck. The smell of blood was still in the air, but perhaps it wasn't enough to warrant paying much attention to.

They were silent for a while as they walked, taking their time so as not to hurt Walks-the-Umbra's shoulder more. After a while, Howls-at-Night spoke again. "What did you do to cause that trouble?"

Something clicked in Walks' mind, and she stopped suddenly. "Trouble! That's right, I have to tell you something!"

Howls-at-Night stopped walking and looked over his shoulder at her. "About ShadowBranch," he said patiently.

"No, about the humans," she replied, and Howls-at-Night's eyes narrowed again. Knowing she had his attention now, she continued. "They're coming again. Coming and they'll drive you -- us -- away again, or kill everyone!"

A silence, and then . . . barking laughs from Howls-at-Night. Walks stepped back for a moment, half afraid of the strange noise, and half because she thought he was laughing at her. Once the leader had calmed down, he looked at her, kindness and patience in his eyes. "Young one, they will not come. They are afraid of us, yes, and they did try to dispose of us more than once, but we are still here, are we not?" He took a few steps towards her. "Do not fear, young one," he said as he rubbed his muzzle behind her ear. "If they come, we will fight them off as we always do, and we will still be here when night falls."

He continued walking, and Walks followed, lost in her thoughts. Had she overreacted to the threat she'd learned of? Maybe so, but wasn't every threat something to take even a little bit seriously, not to laugh at? Humans certainly had the power and the means with which to drive the Umbreon away, and even Howls-at-Night was aware of that fact even if he was trying to hide it.

The gathering was lively, as it seemed it often was. Eevee kits jumped and played, Umbreon talked or played more agressively than the younger ones. Nothing was out of the ordinary here, and yet, Walks noted as she stepped through the thick bushes to enter the grounds, the fact that it all seemed right seemed suddenly so wrong.

There. Part 3 is done. Not very much happened, but amazingly, it's as long as the second part. :D A weakish ending, I'll admit, but there was nothing else of note that needed to happen, and I figured I might as well end it with a corny phrase. :p