On the Wings of Council

by TopazSoarhire

Ok, Topaz thought it would be easy, until she meets her Cyndaquil, Fury, things start going on a different track, next thing you know she's jumping off buildings, outrunning forest fires, and that's the least of it!

13. WoC13

G'day my fiendish fans! I'm going to tell you a little story, whether you care or not remains to be seen as the beginnings of this chapter were inspired by the landscapes around me. I went on a geography excursion with my class, five days camping out at Giraween National Park to see rock formation and erosion. Riveting.

But so I hooked up with my mate Tasha and it was five days worth of hiking up granite. For those who can't recognise granite, its hard, grainy and very graspable, we walked practically vertically 800 meters to the tops of the two towering mountains, along with many other ones. By the second day of this, I found out my class were taking bets whether I would make it to the top of that days challenge. Now I know I'm short, I'm 17 in October and yet people are still surprised when I tell them in high school. So not only did I make it to the top of every days challenge, on time, in that annoying little front group that always sets the pace for everyone else, I made it up the last mountain, jumping from boulder to boulder where only I and three other boys did!! Hahaha! Deprived them of their money out of pure spite!!!!! So it just goes to prove people, pain is fleeting, but glory is forever!!!!

Everyone's so supportive of me and my fiction! I look back and I really can't believe it's been 13 chapters and three years of fun. Oh boy, the other day I thought what the heck, I'll reread. Within seconds I thought, Ok, time to rewrite. Yes, I blanched at my old stuff and I wondered why on earth did you people begin to read! So soon, you shall see the new and improved WoC, maybe on my new website!!! Yes! The idiot girl, with the immense help of the masterful AC has picked up her act and tried her hand at it. Also, all of Cooee's actions here are pretty much based on my own little quarrion/weira/cockatiel, Cooee. Yes she can be that irritating but at least I don't have to hear her ruin my comebacks.

Now, my thanks go out to most importantly The Elite. These people invited me into their ranks and believe me, do I feel out of place. THEY'RE AMAZING! Read them! They have a combined fiction on here, and I can take no recognition for that although it has my name on it, my final Grade 12 exams were on.

WaterViper has recently posted her fiction on here, and I'm addicted to it! I love it! Great fight scenes, and I'm made about actual human martial art scenes that I couldn't really make Topaz, the clumsy girl she is, do. And I like to think I'm rather good at them for anyone who's sat down and read my Tekken fic.

Also, Obsidian Blade, another brilliant author I introduced to the Library, and she is as at home as I am. In fact she was voted into the Readers choice awards within 3 days of joining, which proves her brilliance. She's also my proof-reader, being a fast reader and a touch typer I'm lousy at it as you probably know. Go to her Janera site, I order you!

Then there's Anonymous 2003, with a brilliant take on a gymleader fiction and actually got me to read a General fiction,

Kenta Macauttum, whose persistence was finally recognised and I admire his ability to shoot out a great adventure once a fortnight and lastlyAsh Junior with his cool fiction for those looking for something other then the journey genre but still want OT stuff. Many others have kept pushing me on through all my laziness so mega thanks there to!

I guess that's that, onto another chapter of…

On the Wings of Council

Through the Looking Glass

I think I have cracked the single greatest mystery I have encountered so far, since I've traversed the Pokèmon world, the hard way. I mean I cannot be considered a rookie I've been on the road for at least three and a half months now. I've had more cuts, bruises and concussions than I have in most my short time on earth and the fact that haven't given up just proves how bloody good I am! I've met people of kindness and people who turn your stomach. I've met trainers, the good, the bad, and Renee; you don't get much worse than that. I've met the best and the better but it is these that have been most confusing.

Why every trainer so perfect, appearance wise at least?

Why is everyone a teenager aside from the obvious age restrictions of the littlelies? Why are all the blokes tall, dark and handsome, aside from the obvious Marc? Why are all the girls, aside my obvious self, managed to keep their hair clean, acne to a minimum and to me the most baffling, not an overweight person in sight?

I'll tell you why, a) they were smart and got themselves dune buggies, although not likely but of course the answer is b) ALL THE FREAK'N WALKING!!!

"Air, please, I beg you! I need oxygen!" I gasped struggling at the back of the group. Back. Way back. Halfway down the hill, back. And it was a big hill; in fact we had chosen to climb over huge, bare granite mountains.

As always Suma marched religiously at the head of the line so far away I needed binoculars to find her at the crown of the huge granite mountain, flicking her long green rat tail braid over her shoulder as Maverick skittered behind, leaping into the air and trying to nab it like an insect buzzing overhead. He weaved in and out of her feet in that blithe and irrepressible Totodile way.

Further back was Marc, till trumping at her heels like a terrier. My only consolation was that he was sweating buckets because he refused to wipe it off on his leather jacket. Vain little boy that he was, I was surprised he still kept his giggling Pichu clinging to it and scrambling across him like a playground. And then, dutifully keeping our sprawled little gang linked was Cal, out of pity for the out of shape, sweat soaked midget who had only the day before urged a cracking pace with desperation. He kept massaging his scalp where his daggy sky blue hair had been, now cropped neatly above his shoulders, looking like he'd lost his best mate.

"Stop wasting your air, human," rebuked Cooee from my shoulder. "You're flabby, that's your problem."

"And stop jostling, something in here keeps jabbing my-"

"I don't- want- to know," I choked out, cutting Fury off abruptly before I got a visual in my head. Dropping to one knee to grip a rock jutting out to keep me from rolling to the bottom. "And stop- complaining until- you carry- me!"

Trying to catch my breath and ignoring their the whining and insults abusing each ear, I screwed it all shut, trying to wish it all away, that I had never heard that phone call and I was instead winning the famous Goldenrod Bug Catching Contest I had missed out on in my haste to get out of town.

Take the scenic route, she sez! It's the same distance as the dirt road, she sez! Of course she doesn't mention anything about it being- "Bloody vertical!" I yelled aloud, running my hand through my hair and disregarding the dust particles wafting through the miserably bright sun that sifted through the western clouds. Believe me, people, a trainer –a normal trainer- is never happy about the weather. Allow me to recount the first few days of my journey with Sumalee.

"What a gorgeous day, not a cloud in the sky!"

"Pfft, that means it's gonna be blistering."

"Today we have cloud cover, should be pleasant walking with that nice breeze."

"What are you babbling about? That breeze will pick up, and it'll blow my hair in my face."

"Okay, no breeze, no sun, looks like rain- can you complain about that?!"

"Rain? Need I say more except we're gonna be soaked through before our tents are up!"

Needless to say she had lost part of her enthusiasm for travelling with me very shortly.

"What was that, Tez?" From behind another granite crag ahead Cal's lopsided smile poked out. His cheeks puffed a rosy red as he shifted his pack. I lifted my hand in a shaky thumbs up but let it drop quickly in exhaustion. His expression turned worried and began a shuffling descent down towards me. "Is it your headache, do you want me to take Fury?"

"Stop- being such a door-mat," I grunted as I stood up and pushed myself on determined. My legs burned with their constant pumping, my single purpose so gravity wouldn't vindictively dump me at the bottom again and laugh.

In a rush I lumbered past Cal to keep the momentum running but he took it as a challenge and buzzed to the front again. Oh this was way too much!

"So this is what it's like being caught," sniffed Cooee unimpressed. He stretched his prettily coloured wings and beat them rapidly with a whuh-whuh-whuh sound as the primary feathers repeatedly clipped my ear. To be more irritating he tight-roped across my shoulders and yawned.

"Keep it up and your- on your own!" I swatted at his head and he snapped back with beak wide and a menacing hiss. "I can make you fly on your own! In fact-" I flapped my arm setting my suspenders and chain jangling, but Cooee stayed stubbornly put, and glared with his beady red eye.

"Shove off," I grumbled breathlessly. Luckily the bare stone was levelling out. With effort I tore my gaze from my stiff new sneakers, causing me hell might I add, to tilt my head towards the summit of the laccolith. Suma's silhouette perched on a balancing ball boulder drinking thirstily from her canteen with the dull orange disk of the sun sinking lower at about 4 O'clock. The top looked safe and inviting, flat with a pair of umbrella trees wedged in the boulders, sheltering some of the wind that would lash tonight. How they had managed to bury their roots into it was beyond me but there they were thriving.

I moaned hopelessly at the impossible task I had set myself. As soon as the sun vanished it meant I had three days left to reach my grandmother's property for an event that terrorised and traumatised me every four years, the Soarhire family reunion.

Eventually I collapsed at the top, panting like a locomotive. I lifted Fury carefully from my pack, mindful of her burns and bald patches, one in particular on her neck that looked remarkably like a paw print. Dragging myself to the sunny side of the boulder I gulped almost half my canteen in one sitting before offering to Fury as she lapped from my hand just as eagerly.

"Hot huh?"

"You could say that," she sad languidly, stretching her body over my knees and sparking a pale flame on the nape of her neck. I laughed and smoothed my still wet hand over her muzzle playfully. She nipped at it lazily but before long she was napping in the midafternoon sun. I smiled; a Journey really wasn't so bad. Three months had flown by before I had realised. It felt like only a week ago I had first laid eyes on the cowering Cyndaquil. After seeing her in action so many times it was hard to believe they were the same Pokèmon.

Peeling myself from beneath the drowsing Quilava, I grabbed my canteen and stumbled, still a little wobbly from the death march, to lounge over the lower branch Cooee had chosen to roost. When I offered some water he scooped it gratefully from the lid, and I flecked some across his feathers. He shot me an irksome glance and once again began his meticulous preening, mumbling, "Useless trainer!"

Stretching my arms above my head, I surveyed the wilderness around me. Rugged mountains clothed at their bases in oak and conifer trees before reaching their bare pinnacles to the sky, with cracks and crevices and balancing boulders everywhere. To the west was the sandy scar of the main road to Ecruteak.

The thought of Nana restarted my time fuse and I quickly rebundled my pack shifting things around so that my bike, Fury's culprit, was flattened at the bottom. I looked at it disdainfully wondering if I could sell it to some rookie trainer as I didn't have enough money to buy a private storage unit in the PC.

"Okay Snorlax, get in."

"What?" she slurred. "I just got out. I have to stretch."

"Like you were planning to anyway. I'll give you a few minutes."

I hoisted my bag up, the shoulder straps straining, and teetered to the opposite side of the plateau, preparing for the long downward trek. I craned my neck peering over the edge.

"My dear-What the-Oh my- AHHHHH!" I screamed brokenly and tripping over my tongue as I almost swallowed it. If that side was vertical, this one was upside down. It was like a giant deluge had carved itself a smooth cresting wave into the side of the escarpment, almost glassy. I whirled to face Suma who knelt next to Fireline doing her usual routine, amateur check up on her front paw. In fact, all three had spared me curious glances.

"How are we meant to get down here?" I demanded feeling sick. That tiny pinprick of heat perched between my eyes, spreading its wings from temple to temple and making it extremely dangerous to be this close to an 800 metre drop.

Sumalee looked up innocently, running her hand over the feline's rusty red and yellow coat. "We don't. I told you this was a scenic route that curves back around to the Ecruteak Road."

"Oh my gawd," I smothered into my hand. That nausea was growing more intense. I sucked in a slow breath and said softly with my teeth gritted into a ridiculous stretched grin, puncturing each word I said with a sharp saluting like gesture. "What part of deadline don't you understand?"

"Look, Tez," Marc stood up from where he crouched under the shadow of the boulder, striding over. His use of my nickname piqued me even more. "It's not like it's a life and death situation."

"That's what you don't get- IT IS!!!" I shouted grabbing him by the collar and yanking me down to my height. "If I'm not there in three days, my nana will have a heart attack. And I mean literally give herself a heart attack. This sweet old lady can take guilt to a whole new level you never dreamed!!! Sooo-" I let go and dropped my bag, ushering Fury inside and held my forearm up for Cooee to take the hint, landing with a whir of wings. "I'm buggering off. Do what you want, I'll meet you on the main road."

"No way! The main trainer track to you grandmothers is 20 k's away. You'll never make it to the Trainer Landing my dark," Sumalee objected strongly.

"So, I'll camp out."

"In the forest?"

"I'm not afraid."

"Damn right!" Cal chipped in hotly. "You're stupid!"

I ignored their protests, unclipping a Pokèball and hurling it as far from the escarpments smooth face as possible. In the twinkling red beam formed a majestic Pidgeot, invoking more clamouring voices. Her empty Pokèball returned to my hand as Talorn tilted her tail and curved in to land on the plateau beside me. I ran my hand through her crest, issuing commands. "Talorn, carry my pack into that, is that a clearing? Yeah, clearing. Careful, Fury is inside. Than come back for me. Cooee, follow them and make sure nothing goes for Fury while Talorn is at it."

Talorn analysed the angle and the wind speed, looking at me critically. "I won't be able to carry your weight-" Marc gave a burst of laughter.

"- straight from this table. The wind would carry me straight into the rock face, child."

I paused thoughtfully. "Than we'll do what we practiced."

"Than not a problem, darling," she cooed, her beak managing a devilish grin. She cast a cool glance at the pinched and tense faces, clutching my grubby red bag in her talons and launched into the air. Fury's terrified head poked out of the swinging pack, ears slicked against her head with a flare of harmless fire each time Talorn 'lost' her grip on a strap as Cooee darted in dizzying circles around her. I clucked my tongue, telling myself to reprimand both Pokèmon later, but it was pretty bloody funny.

The trio vanished into the shadows of the clearing and after a moment or two Talorn floated up on a thermal in slow leisurely circles.

I called out across the valley, spreading my arms in the imitation of wings with hands raised like stop signs. Her keen eyes caught the signal and loosed a shrill "Pi-eohhhh!" in reply, speeding towards me. I let my arms drop and instead of moving closer to the rim, I padded away from it, breathing in and out with my eyes closed. I could feel the others staring curiously as I shook myself. Talorn voice carried on a zephyr of wind and I steadied myself against the boulder centrepiece, and met my travelling companion's eyes, letting a slow, sly grin spread over my face.

"What's she doing-"

"I don't like that look, she has it every time-"

"-she has something up her sleeves!"

Without warning I loosed a trilling "Ki-ah!" and lunged my body forward. I dashed headlong across the flat, grainy surface, trying to pick up every bit of speed I could. The drop off loomed before me but I forced myself to keep going. The alternative was the momentum would carry me over too close to the smooth curling wave for Talorn to do anything. Gasps of realisation and astonishment swayed my concentration for an instant but I angrily focused. I stretched my stride, curling my toes over the edge and pushed off into the air with all my strength.

The ferocious winds of the altitude buffeted my body so hard it was like being crushed on either side by football players in a scrum. My lungs were squeezed empty, stunning me for a second and almost blacking out which had never been anticipated during our test flights. It left my body flapping like a rag doll. I sucked in a successful breath and as the ground's detail grew by the moment I frantically stretched my body spread-eagled. My hair lashed my face as it whipped like Medusa's tresses, clouding my face and almost swallowing it.

"Pidgeot-ot-ot-ot-ot!"

Whooosh!

A thick mass of feathers cushioned my fall with such relief that my arms automatically formed a tight noose around Talorn's neck. She uttered a hoarse squawk as she bucked at my landing and pulled out of the dive on a swift rising thermal.

With a sheepish chuckle wrenched from my mouth by the wind, I relaxed my grip and ran one hand through my hair and fixed the shoulders of my uniform for modesty's sake. I twisted my head to look up and three chalky faces poked out over the edge.

Serves 'em right! I thought wickedly and motioned for Talorn to make for the drop off. She cawed and sheered left, adjusting to the descent.

My stomach returned to its rightful place as we landed, cutting a little to close to the upper branches for my liking but what did I know? Talorn crowed confidently, allowing me to slide off her neck and strut to where she had deposited Fury. Even I had to laugh.

The bag swung precariously on a branch tilting almost to the point where its contents were going to spill. Fury herself was on its lip gathering the courage to spring to the ground. When she saw me she woofed, snuggling back in comfortably and expectantly.

"I thought she'd be safer up there," Talorn said innocently.

"My arse!" Fury declared, leaning out. The Pidgeot grinned craftily. Perching on my tiptoes I brought her down and pulled it onto my back, trying to fit the contours into my back despite Fury's ooh's and ahh's as the equipment shuffled under her. Ready to go, I thanked Talorn and recalled her, even as she and Fury argued and insulted each other playfully.

"Stuffed doduo!" she shot back as she vanished.

Ready to push off I suddenly noticed I was one abrasive voice less. Hell, I thought looking around nervously, I no longer had the Shirasharmi's Pokèball so he could have very easily flew for the clear blue yonder without a care in the world.

"Cooee?" I asked the clearing uncertainly. No answer. I frowned, firming myself and called more sternly. "Cooee!"

Still no answer. Why?

He'll come back I reasoned. That's what being a trainer was all about. When I caught him I proved that my team and I had out trained, out witted and that he could learn something when under my care. That working together could ultimately give him experience he couldn't gain in the wild. I had proved myself worth of being his trainer.

I stopped, what I had stumbled on dawning on me. Is that what I had done wrong with Chilun? My mind trailed back to the Route 32 bushfire. Fury and I had saved the trapped herd and that had earned the dominant Articolt's gratitude. He allowed me to choose from his herd and I had chosen Chilun. I had simply plucked him out with no challenge, no chance to battle for supremacy. In my head I went over our battle together. Sure, he had won battles, but there was never a time he had been the out and out winner with no other Pokèmon to contend with. No, wait. There was the time I had battled Moon in Azalea, but did that count? He hadn't listened to a word I said and maybe that had triggered his feelings of my inadequacy. In fact, I had accentuated these feelings every time I released him with contempt, even mild fear and hostility.

"My gawd, what have I done?" I mumbled aloud, feeling useless and inept at everything I had thought I had accomplished. I thought I was empathetic with my team, but what did I know?

"What are you talking about?" I was aroused from my pitiful state of mind by a harsh squawk. Skimming across the clearing came Cooee, swooping up and digging his talon into my shoulder. I realised the day I had retrieved him I would have permanent scabs where they perched.

"Coo!" I exclaimed brightly, glad to be yanked from that wallowing and heart delving business, too wussy for me to dwell on for any length of time. "Jeeze, ya had me worried!"

"I did?" he said, pleased. "Saw the stunt ya pulled! Never thought I'd see the day, a flying human! Flew like a stone ya did!"

"Thanks, I guess," I said dryly.

"Anyhows, I wassa scout'n I think that instead of going East, why not cut South East. You'll meet the road later but it means you won't haveta sidetrack ta find the bridge cross'n Reed River that passes between here and the mountains."

"Ahh, bit of a geographer, are we?" I asked hopefully. Face it, I couldn't find my way around my sock draw at home.

"Pah!! I know this place for yonks around, better than those maps!" he scoffed, eyeing my PokèGear with scorn. He grinned cockily pointing with an outstretched wing. "Onward steed!"

"Yada yada."

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Twilight came to the forest much earlier than the rest of the world. Long blue shadows stalked either side with eerie rattles, crackles and low moaning. I kept trying to convince myself it was simply the Furrets and the Spearow settling in for the night but it didn't stop the nervous chatter of my teeth, which I covered up with remarks of how chilly it was. Luckily my trainer uniform lent credibility to the alibi. Draughts breathed in and around the upper branches, shaking and loosing leaves and twigs that would catch more on the way down. Almost twice already the minor avalanches had dislodged a larger dead skeletal limb that had given all of us a hell of a scare as they crashed.

As a child I had loved forests and any prospect of climbing trees but now that they were becoming a part of everyday life they were incredibly spooky and suffocating. I could have sworn they were reaching for me.

"Nup," Cooee, answered eventually after peering all around with his beady red eyes.

"Wha?!" I halted and turned a scalding eye on him. "I thought you knew this place!"

"Hey, I mean a birds eye view, it's a whole new world beneath the canopy, but I think you've been veering in towards north, I can't be sure though."

I groaned, massaging my temples. "Okay, okay, why don't you go up and see where you are."

"Why me?" he countered defensively.

"Fine!" I snapped. I eased my bag against a trunk, making sure I didn't wake Fury curled inside. She only twitched and went back to her snorting slumber. I glided from tree to tree, checking each until I found one with sturdy, well spaced upper branches. The only dilemma was my first branch was a bit of a stretch. With a running jump I wrapped my arms around it, my legs hanging like a sloth. With a bit of effort I hauled myself right way up and from there it was no worries, weaving in and out like I was made of elastic until I poked through the thick blanket of leaves.

"ARG! My eyes!" The sun was obviously still out in all her glory, and I only just stopped myself from shielding my eyes with both hands. I slowly eased one lid, adjusting to the glare on the western horizon and then the other. The spots frisking around the sun faded and I gazed up at the deepening sky. Long wisps of cloud like combed cotton balls journeyed east. I thought sulkily to myself how I wished I could amble along that slowly, but if wishes were horses then beggars would ride, as they say, and a forest was no place for Chilun.

I surveyed the land in all directions, fixing on the escarpment and orientated myself from there.

"Okay, if the cliff is there, and the sun is there, west. I'm my oath I'm dead south! No, wait, yeah I am! I think?"

This wasn't getting me anywhere. I contemplated how I really should have taken those pre-journey orienteering classes but I figured my Pokegear would do all the work for me. How wrong I was. Setting into a skinny and not particularly stable fork, I chewed my lip and tapped the buttons on my 'Gear to activate the GPS signal and maybe work from there. Instead it only blipped in distress. "Out of range! No signal found!"

I slapped the lid down in frustration but the polite click gave me no satisfaction at all. So not fair. Grumbling I tried to make my brain work manually but I was just not made for directions. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a pale blotch against the indigo sky. I shifted carefully on the wobbly branch focusing and gave a yip of excitement.

"I got smoke!" I called down to Cooee. "Must be trainers! They'll get us on the right track!"

The bird called back cynically. "As far out as they are, how do you know they aren't lost too?"

I shrivelled my nose in annoyance. Scepticism was my job. "Ahh shuddup! Them or nothing!"

Keeping an eye on the puffs curling upward I riveted my minds eye on which way it was and shimmied down with little difficulty.

"Okay, that way!" I beamed. Fury's head nosed out drowsily as I eased it back onto my shoulders.

"Are we making camp soon? You sure look stuffed," she asked with groggy concern.

"I am and we will. There's some trainers camping out that way and we'll see if we can hook up with them. Even someone as legendary as myself isn't keen on being alone in the dark in Sleepy Hollow. Who knows what axe-murderers are hanging around?!"

"What?" Cooee smirked. "I reckon me and the cripple can take on one pathetic axe-murderer!"

"Who are you calling cripple!" Fury goaded, sitting upright in the back and unbalancing me just enough to stumble over a buttressing root. Recovering with wind-milling arms so I didn't hit the leaf litter I trekked on.

"Haha! I could take you down! Right here, right now!"

"Bring it on, Fluffy!"

"Yeah, well, you're a duel type! Flying and whatever! I'm pure fire so I have half the weaknesses!" Fury gloated loudly.

"But also half the strengths!" Cooee contradicted from my shoulder, digging his talons in every time he made a point, no matter how many times I threatened him to be stop or be plucked of every feather he held dear. It was an empty threat of course. I hadn't forgotten what happened to Professor Oak's lab after he did precisely that.

I stopped suddenly making Cooee flare his wings for balance. "Shhh guys."

They hushed, Fury brightening her guiding flame curiously. I cocked my head, trying to hear above the night noises, which was no picnic. Not one Hoothoot had shut up and the wild Girafarig brayed long and loud and as far as I knew they weren't even nocturnal. Then I caught it. Faint human laughter.

"Bonza! Now be quiet or we'll scare 'em half to death before we even get into the light." Both obliged and Fury dimmed her flames just enough to step forward. Edging carefully through the dark I could make out the golden firelight melting through the almost perfect dark.

I rubbed my bare arms. "Eee! Warmth!"

Creeping right up to the grove the trainers had made I ducked beneath a bush to organise what I was gonna say. I didn't want to look like a beggar or a wimpy girl afraid of the dark, or a braggart demanding they share. Trainers are very touchy that way, I knew. Marc himself had waltzed into our camp from outside the ring of luminance and made me screech and lunge for a stick before I knew what was happening. Then he had perched on my seat in my place. Not good.

After a minute I had my greeting prepared, the words ringing confident yet humble to my ears and I stood up with a warm expression. Almost instantly I threw myself down again, grabbing Fury's and Cooee's mouth shut muffling their greeting. Tight lipped I let the flickering reflection of the fires in my eyes pleading them to keep deadly silent. Thanking heavens they did.

In the nanosecond I had been visible I glimpsed the trainers.

Tobias.

Angel.

Desperately I tied to calm my shaking hands from rattling the thorn bush I hid behind. Fortunately both backs had been towards me and both sported new Rocket uniforms so I almost didn't believe it was them. Tobias's was a black Chinese mandarin shirt missing the sleeves with red piping, red sash around his waist and red trews tucked into black shin high boots. Angel a little more intelligent, a dark burgundy dress shirt and black cuffs beneath an identical mandarin shirt and burgundy trews over his own black boots. Neither was emblazoned with the glaring red R normally adorning their uniforms.

The first was a tall boy with a thick red hair framing his face and three jagged scars scoring his cheek, a parting gift from Fury's claws in one of our first encounters, and smouldering green eyes. The second was only a notch shorter, with a shock of soft white hair just below his ears, veiling one eye like a chip of ice. Together they laughed, chewing on stewed meat and crowing about their exploits.

I swallowed thickly, biting down on my knuckle and forcing myself to keep calm. The excitement, aggravation and exhaustion of the day bowled me over. My eyes flickered over the forest around me and from their voices I tried to guess which way they were looking. On all fours, I backed away out of the light and into the shadows, my eyes not leaving the crowns of their heads that jutted above the bush. The weight of my pack like an alchemist's trick had magically transformed into lead pressed me deeper into the leaf litter, crackling like fireworks in my ears. I couldn't understand why both hadn't shot up with Pokèballs poised and faces full of malice, bathed in the before warm now harsh glow of the flames. Tobias's voice rose in glee above the crunching foliage, cutting through my chest with a strangled gasp.

Be calm, be calm. Calm! Calm! Calm! I chanted inside my head almost musically. Finally after yonks I pulled my bony knee, imbedded with twigs, to my chest, hugging them behind a tree and safe from sight.

A noise broke me from my shallow breaths, growing. Almost panicking I looked for its source and gasped. It came from Fury who had shrugged herself out of the bag and lumbered towards them, slouching heavily to one side, her maw pulled back into a growling snarl of teeth, flames igniting in showering sparks. I mouthed frantic curses, rocking back on my heels and heedless to her burns and scooped both arms around her stomach, reeling her in. Her stomach muscles pulled taunt with a pained yelp as I cushioned her back inside.

Then, behind me, the conversation froze as Tobias rose to his feet.

"Wait, man, I hear something." My throat knotted, pressing against the tree trunk with a hand on Fury's muzzle. She struggled half-heartedly until I bopped her over the nose warningly. Tobias squinted into the shadows; I could practically see his ears twitch. In desperation I used an old trick reserved for when I used to play spotlight with the Jess, Jazz and Matt. Who'da guessed it'd be so vital!!!

Blindly I groped through the leaf litter, deathly aware of each snapping twig and crackling leaf. Digging in my hand finally brushed a loose stone, caked with dirt. Grasping it my right hand, I twisted peeking around the trunk.

Tobias! He was staring right at me!

No, wait, He wasn't, his gaze saw through, sweeping the tree line, back and forth and if I so much as twitched the movement would catch his eye. With my arm still hidden behind the tree, I flung it haphazardly into the forest away from me. It bounced off with a wooden crack and Tobias followed it like a homing beacon, stalking to the other side, kicking up the fiery embers in his path.

"Sucker!" I snickered under my breath. With both boys distracted, Angel scorning and sneering to his hearts content, I eased backwards, winking at Fury. Fury looked away sourly. Meh, I didn't have time for her little tantrum. A glance into the higher branches reassured me Cooee was tucked away safely, hopping above the canopy with his bright ruby eyes glaring down at them with such malice it turned my heart.

Swallowing hard I rubbed away my palms' nervous sweat on my shorts legs, wondering what the hell we could do. Then I realised there was only one thing we could do. I pissbolted. Skittering away and stooped low like Quasimodo the hunchback. To my horror my glove chains jangled softly, and there was now way the metallic clicks could be considered natural.

"Scream Fury!" I hissed, rounded the girth of a tree trunk with her scrambling in beside me. Behind Tobias flared at Angel for doubting him and his heavy footfalls pounded the leaves as he bounded over the log being used as a seat.

Fury hesitated quizzically but sucked in a gulp of air, she shrieked, numbing my ears even though my hands were cupped over the top. It yowled and whined like a woman being strangled, punctured with burst of guttural barks and moans. Her performance peaked with a high pitched scream and it severed abruptly. After the godless sound evaporated in the chilly night air, only the silence remained.

Tobias had ceased to follow.

Smiling in the dark with such intense relief, I pictured them both. Tobias frozen halfway trading alarmed looks with Angel, standing with his back to the fire searching the tree line for an easy to reach weapon, the jeering expression melting away. Stifling the euphoric laughter threatening to burst out, I plonked down on the ground with my hands stuffed in my mouth as if physically trying to cram it back in. When I finally had the fit under control still grinning like an Electrode I lifted Fury out and tugged my sleeping bag, unfurling it with a flap and laying it flat.

"Don't you think we're too close for comfort?" she asked cautiously, watching the way we came as she weaved in and out of my legs like a cat.

"I don't think either of those thugs will want to investigate too closely," I giggled, hunching over the stores pocket. "Beside, I'm wiped. I wouldn't have had the energy to cook something even if I wasn't safe. How do you feel about those left over snags?" I plucked out a container packed tightly with Sumalee's sausages from the night before.

"Yeah, well, I consider it a blessing in disguise," she smirked, with one paw over the lip inspecting them.

"Hey!" I protested, swatting her ears.

"Grrrrrrr."

I looked quizzically down at my bare paunch, leaning the bag against the tree. "Jeeze! Hungrier than I thought! What da, ya think Coo'll want?"

I laughed, digging deeper to find something more filling in the flickering of Fury's flame, which really wasn't doing any good. I guess the problem of having your life in a backpack is that the things you want are always at the bottom. Suddenly Fury's crest loosed a flurry of hot white sparks coupled with a low and menacing growl. I squeaked sharply, batting out the tiny embers stinging my skin.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Fury! Waszat for?"

"Turn around slowly Topaz," she growled warningly. Oh boy, that tone was never good. With baby steps I twisted the other way to ….

"Apollo! How did you get out of your Pokèball?" I ruffled his ears and neck, running my fingers over the fine, sandpaper textured skull mounting his head, the dark hollows of the eye sockets were chipped and deep. I waited for his stumpy tail to wag deliriously. A thick rumble resonated from his throat and his eyes narrowed into thin steel grey sickles. Ever so gradually I withdrew my hand and strayed for my compressed Pokèballs clipped to the back of my belt. My fingers alighted on Aria's perfectly smooth Pokèball, but the impostor Apollo's hackles rose, his legs shifting weight and sinking lower to the ground and his head tilted. I ran my tongue along my teeth, venturing closer to the release button but the second my pointer twitched the devil canine snarled, hellish crimson embers blossoming within his throat.

"I can take him." Fury slide protectively between us, her right shoulder drooping heavily but she tensed for battle.

"What was that slave?" I flinched as my earring translated the gruff words. "Your master beat you? Serves you right for such vassalage!" he scorned, his chops grinning revealing a set of gleaming yellowed teeth. From the shrubs behind the Houndour emerged a fully matured Houndoom. Silver skull, horns and ribs glowed faintly through the brindled shadows and moonlight that made it through the canopy. Sinewy muscles were pulled taunt over its peppered grey fur. Its dirty mangy fur was curled and cowlicked with clods of dirt and patches missing revealing leathery skin.

"Bugger that Fury, and bugger you!" I retorted, defiantly. "There's six of my Pokèmon verse you two. Do the maths if it gets through those thick skulls!"

The Houndoom smirked dryly, if a little disturbed that I could understand. "Is that what you think human? What if I lunged now? What if my jaws crushed your neck before you could so much as whimper? What if I leapt and snapped every rib in your chest as I pinned you to the ground? What……if?"

"Don't you say that!" Fury shrieked, belting out spiralling comets of flame illuminating the night in red and gold. The Houndoom and Houndour sprawled themselves over the ground, letting the whining meteors pass over head and explode in cinders against the trunk of a tree leaving a smouldering curlicue of smoke and singed bark.

"D-ooom!" He was livid! His teeth gnashed and his tail thrashed its arrow head as it a bright finger of flame blazed like a candle wick. The Houndour that had listened in silence darted to his aid, pawing through the dead leaves until he had gouged a bowl of moist soil. He uttered a sharp bark and the elder; eyes wide in pain and panic thrust the end in and suffocated the fire with a hiss. Without hesitation he whirled to face us, and sprang at Fury.

Joy's orders flitted through my head. I didn't falter, I threw my body over the top of my huddled Pokèmon and with all my weight, a mere 40 kg's as compared to the Houndoom's baulk of 55 kg', my shoulder rammed his flank, wrapping my arms around his belly and my face pressed into his grey bristling fur, practically blind in the flash of the attack. Multicoloured spots etched into my pupils zipped across my vision. Our bodies twined and crashed, rolling over the forest floor in yelps and yells.

Through the corner of my eye the young Houndour whined and barked, "What- uhrur- what do I do?" His hind legs looked like they wanted to break and run, twisting hither and thither but his front legs dug in firmly grinding his silver nails into the leaves.

Houndoom ignored the pup; he was intent on the girl clinging around his waist. Every muscle rippled as he writhed beneath me, my hands continually clenched fistfuls of fur muscle to keep a hold.

He who takes the Raikou by the tail dare not let go, I though feverishly with grating laughter.

"Run Fury!" I choked out. She shook her head violently, her voice stuck but just like the Houndour had no idea what to do. She couldn't attack for fear of hitting me but didn't, wouldn't, flee.

All of a sudden Houndoom bucked ferociously beneath my body and my grip weakened. He wheeled with jaws bared, sheering the meat above my knee. I squealed in pain and my hands, which hand clasped each other in a monkey grip around his neck lost each other and I was flung wide, crashing and rolling with damp leaves sticking to my bared skin. In an instant he pounced, landing with his hind paws driving the air from my stomach. In reflex I tried to curl into the foetal position but his rubbery paws propelled my shoulders into the leaves, sharp claws burying in.

"YOU'RE MINE HUMAN!" he sneered, his hot pungent breath blowing on my neck.

I sobbed breathlessly like a trapped Nidoran, jerking my knees through his splayed hindquarters and kicked.

With a strangled yelp I lifted him off the ground and catapulted him into a trunk whistling for air. It was our chance! I scrambled on to all fours for Fury, gathering her up and spun in a dizzy circle. There! The only tree I could reach was a spindly pine, bending from side to side in the wind. Even before I left Kyeema I hated pine trees, skinny little branches that tricked you how much weight they could actually support and much too close together. I had no choice, to go for a stronger jacaranda tree decked in violet trumpet flowers would mean having to jump up and down like a jack in the box for ten minutes for me to reach the first branch, and I doubt the Houndoom would be the gentleman and help me up.

The Houndour bounded in front to block my path but with a savage kick in his direction he kept his distance, just enough time for me to swing into the bottom branch and claw out of reach, weaving between the too close branches made even more difficult with a little lump hugging my chest. Her neck nestled in close to mine with little whimpering noises. Jeeze, she was as scared as I was and I was still trying to suck in gasps of air.

"NO!" howled the 'Doom in a rage. He lashed with silvery claws across the tree carving huge gashes into the slender trunk, oozing sap from the X mark. He circled round and round screaming threats.

"Sorry mate, looks like you're barking up the wrong tree!" I taunted with shrill laughter. Fury only curled deeper into my lap as I wedged between two flimsy branches. The laughter suddenly choked in my throat as the Houndoom threw his head back and spewed thick red flames around the base. Well, that killed the laughter. "Oh, hell."

Turning my head all around the plumes of heat billowed around us bringing with them the thick and sickening fumes. I hacked and coughed, trying to sift out the smoke through the neck of my shirt but my body still wracked itself stupid. Fury, undeterred from the flames sank her claws in and wound her way into her own fork just above my head.

"Stay there!" I rasped, blinking away the tears swimming in my eyes. The flames reached higher, and if I didn't do what I had in mind in seconds, it would be too late and we'd have to take the more dangerous route of escape. With the straps of my shirt stuck behind my ears to free my hands, I wriggled my way through the slim branches until I would I was practically engulfed in red and gold. The heat was unbearable but bear it I had to. The Hounds circled closer, gnashing their teeth so close I could see the spittle dripping from their yellowed fangs.

"One, two, three," tucking my hair into the back of my shirt I counted quickly to myself, building myself up and on three with my knees wrapped around a branch and one hand digging into the rough bark, I swung down. I groped blindly through the branches, the flames searing my skin and sweat dribbling in runnels down my face my open palm wrapped around three of the lower branches already smoking curling in the heat and snapped them away, tossing them into the fire below. Pulling myself up I repeated the act on the other side and worked my way up so that there wasn't a single low branch to catch alight and assist the tongues upward climb. Fury and I were stranded in the uppermost branches, and I hoped to hell that my harebrained scheme worked.

When camping my dad always instructed me to find gum and silky oak for the campfire, because pine always ate straight through and fizzled out because of the resins in the bark. And, because it smoked something terrible. Now I hacked and wheezed, folding double layers of my shirt and stretching it to my face. I could practically hear my flesh roasting, and the disturbing thing was that to a hungry stomach, I didn't smell all that bad.

But it was working!

Around and around the flames swirled, scaling no further up the tree and simply gnawing the same chunk of wood. The pine rocked and groaned as its base was eaten away and its crown cracking under the shuddering body coughing like mad.

A sudden fracturing sound travelled through the trunk.

Now or never.

I lifted Fury's body close and prepared to jump, the only problem was trying to judge which way the tree would fall. No time, the high pitched whine of the wood giving in rose above the sizzling flames. Clambering out to the edge of our branch, it snapped and dumped up both as the pine toppled beneath us.

I shrieked! Although we weren't far up it felt so, my ankles crumpling as the shockwave of landing travelled up my calved like a bolt of lightning and fell onto one knee panting heavily and wiping away the sweat.

"WAH-ROOOW!"

I sobbed into my chest for air but gathered Fury into my arms, scrambling on all fours before staggering to my feet and pissbolted. Trees sprung up into my vision inches from my face with only split seconds to dodge them. My ankles rocked in and out over the buttressing root as if ablaze themselves, leaving the dying fire behind us and even with our lives in peril the lesson's drilled into me over and over as a kid about bushfires made me want to turn and stamp them out. I felt them falter, I felt my knees grind and I felt the blood slick down my shins.

"WAH-ROO-OW-ROW!" I skidded over the leaves as the baleful howl set the silent woods in flight. My translator crackled in my ears as it relayed in broken bursts, "Get her!… Human girl!… Kill!"

They can't be talking about me! My crazy head tried to reason, but faintly over the stale air more canine voices replied angrily.

As more and more voices joined the choir of malevolence, Fury tried to wretch from my arms, but I bundled her tighter.

"We can't out run them!" she argued obstinately as I pushed myself off the ground after falling into an exhausted heap. I couldn't stop. They were getting closer but my harsh breathing roared him my ears, begging for a moment's rest.

"Well we can't bloody fight 'em, you 'specially," I panted looking mistrustfully at the shadows. My head ran through my team and not one of them had full advantage over the Fire/Dark types. Talorn, Miasma, Target, Aria and… Cooee! Where was that bird?!!!

Over the beating of my heart and ragged breath I heard nothing. I ummed and ahhed over what I could possibly do, when abruptly I no longer had a choice. A sharp clenching of teeth and Fury screamed from my arms. A thick barrage of golden stars spurted from her mouth, pummelling a leaping Houndour in midair, fainting before it hit the ground. Behind him from the darkness, glowing red eyes approached more cautiously.

"RUN!" Fury bleated, her head crest leaping up and scathing my ear.

"Well duh!" I automatically retorted. Great, I rapped out as I belted off again, pushing off a tree trunk and jumping a fallen branch. Sarcasm part of your brain is in full throttle and everything else just freezes on you! To which another voice snapped back, shut up and run!

My legs burned, my arms ached and my lungs screamed. I was so not a long distance runner, and I was just so tired! I swallowed thickly, a tear trickling over my cheek as my sobbing breath jerked in and out. I strained to hear anything over it. My peripheral vision scoured everything left and right but only just avoiding the thick branches that stuck out in front of me.

There!

On my right side was the noiseless orange bobbing blob, the chest markings of the pack. Then on my left I spied another in tandem. They were herding me! As if I was some sort of stupid cow! Fear stabbed my heart and instinctively adrenaline gave me a burst of energy.

"Oh gawd!" I moaned breathlessly allowed. The fire! The flicking flames of Tobias and Angel. Wait, maybe they won't go near it!

But then you'll be out of the frying pan and into the fire you dumb kid!

Fine then, take your pick. Torn apart by blood thirsty animals or die by Hounds, I don't care!!!

The voices yelled back and forth as the number of blotches grew to five, each growling and yowling and howling such bloodcurdling sounds, they were almost certainly meant to terrifying me into panicking, and they were doing a damn good job of it too! I hitched Fury closer, sparing a sidelong look to my right. A brutish Houndoom had broken from the main pack, bounding easily beside me darting looks between the fire and us and as one we gasped. My feet took the opportunity to stumble.

The glowing silhouette of Tobias stood stricken to the spot. We must have been a horrifying sight, a bipedal creature with four stumpy blue arms sticking out and a long hair tail fanned behind it uttering hoarse squawks each time her ankle twisted too far. And snarling beside her the demon dog.

"GE-OW-OH-THEWAY! LETMETHRULETMETHRULETMETHRULETME THROUGH!" I squealed and Tobias baulked, tumbling backwards tripping over the log behind him onto his arse. "It's Topaz!"

"More humans!" roared the brute, lunging at my calf with the silver claws gleaming and teeth bared in a malicious parody of a grin. With desperation I kicked out my right foot, hammering it down and swerved sideways, the claws swiping and just missing me, instead tearing apart the rubber soles of my new shoes, but I kept running. I hopped over the fallen log used as a bench, staggering for balance.

"Holy hell!" wailed Angel, hands floundering and releasing his Ivysaur. My pupils exploded with colour, unable to readjust quickly enough as I lurched around the clearing. Around me the Hounds clamoured, scrambling over the logs. One blurry creature made a pass at Angel but thin ropey vines coiled around it and threw it into the ground.

A Houndour appeared in front of me blinking furiously, growling and licking its chops as it tried to push me towards the edge of the clearing. With just enough sight and wits to make it seem logical, I jumped onto the crooked tree stump and hurled my body over the bonfire with tongues leaping up on high like a fountain. I gasped in pain as the heat pricked my skin but Fury's own flames flared around us forming a protective shield.

Landing in a crouch I scampered away, the Hounds bellowing in outrage, leaving the boys alone. Tobias stared agape but Angel still kept his head. "Sora, vinewhip her!"

"Her?" I yelped as two lithe green tendrils shot by my ear, bonking a 'Dour across the nose, the other slapping my shoulder leaving a stinging red mark. Stumbling faster my fingers reached around Fury, bunching over the hurt. With the howls at my heels regrouping, me running on empty and Fury yelling 'to give her a go!' I was left without too many options. At least the trees were thinning out on either side so my drained body whose clumsy evasions of outstretched braches were becoming much too close for comfort.

"Gawd no!"

I wobbled to stop. Before me lay a clear space, moonlight illuminating my way as I came face to face with the granite rock face. As if barricading it were thick boxthorn bushes lined its base, their long woody needles waving to and fro as gust of winds swelled up from the surface of the river beside it. Flowing with a dull roar over the eroded granite from above cascaded the Reed River, surging on like a ribbon of silver in foam and fury, swift and icy deep.

Carefully I set down the burdensome Quilava inside the boxthorns. She was small enough to remain unharmed and was guarded if worst came to worst, and it most certainly would. Still tossing anxious looks over my shoulder I levelled her with a stern stare that said all to clearly, 'Move and you're in the Pokèball.'

She whined softly, but shrank back into the barrier, the hedging from hell. Swinging left and right my eyes puckered back into the tumultuous gloom. Even the trees seemed to quake and shudder at the cries, sometimes close, sometimes distant but always drawing closer. They bounced off the walls behind me giving the illusion of the hellhounds circling in from behind.

My irregular breaths cinched tight my ribs around my lungs as I doubled over with my hands on my knees, peering out beneath my scruffy fringe, I wiped my dripping nose with my forearm, blinking away my watering eyes.

"Coooooooo-WEE!" I called with one hand cupping my mouth, first low and then drawing off with the sharp pitched 'wee'. I waited despairingly for less than a second when the undergrowth crashed. Bursting through from my right the brute wasted no time. Back paws kicked up the earth with gleeful glittering eyes, bearing down like the headlights of a roadtrain.

My heart jumped!

I hurled myself backwards, thrusting my arm into the boxthorns and enduring the woody spines gouging out my arms and face to grasp a branching base. With a watery crack the tap came loose of the earth with unexpected ease, flinging clods and tearing up half the other bushes around it. I swiped at him across his tender pink nose.

"EAT THORNS MATE!" I screamed hoarsely through my gasping breath, driving him back as he reeled at the defence which was more than he had bargained for. He whined, slinking loathingly back bit by bit, still trying to fight through the huge spiny barricade with snapping jaws.

Almost to the forest's edge, with Fury's furious barracking filling the air, I moved in for the kill. The brute's back half sank as he met the base of a tree and I wound my shoulders for a vengeful golfers swing with teeth gritted.

Suddenly my companion's adulation turned to dismay and just as I glanced over my shoulder four leathery paws landed in the square of my back, hooking into the dips of my shoulders and twisting. My back wretched as I toppled, contorting like a corkscrew. Still clutching my double-ended weapon, my palms punched with dripping red.

My head throbbed in agony as I lay vulnerable, my vision now crowded with leering grins. I tried to speak but all I managed was a thick garbled sound clogging my throat. Their moist noses snuffled over my body, nudging my legs curiously but never losing their menacing snarls.

A sharp bark sounded to my left, a command to back off but for no compassionate intentions. As the seven or so lesser Pokèmon of the pack withdrew, in their place towered the first Houndoom, the Alpha. His head wagged up and down my sensibly still body. I knew that by what miracle I had escaped before wasn't likely to repeat itself.

Very slowly, I croaked. "Fury, as your trainer, I order you to stay there."

"Top-"

"Shut up." The Alpha said calmly, severing her hysterical please. He perched lightly on his haunch, gazing down with disgust. "Whatever god put such revolting creatures whose only purpose is to fit every other firmly under its yoke should be cursed! And now, there will be, one, LESS!" he roared through his teeth. On cue the pack surged forward and-

Out of nowhere the clearing was ablaze in burning white monotones. The shadows evaporated in its wake and my eyeballs shrieked behind closed lids, shielding as much as I could by turning flat against the ground and forearm pressed against them. The electric light still etched into my corneas. About me howls of pathetic moans rose and fell like ocean waves.

And above the toneless baying was harsh laughter.

As the colour slowly melted into my vision I saw the dim figures of the Hounds writhing in pain. As nocturnal creatures with finely tuned eyesight it must have been excruciating, but at that moment pity was not high on my emotional list.

Crawling to his feet the Alpha blinked still stubbornly guarding me from the phantom menace. Realising my chance I shuffled to my right, towards the trees, which appeared to be marching away before my aching eyes. Catching on to the idea he wobbled, homing in with his acute hearing. A massive paw landed in front of my nose.

"Move and I'll torch everything within 20 paws," he hissed. "And if you're thinking that if your rodent friend survives it'll be worth it, she won't survive this forest for long, especially if I have a mind to make it that way!"

"Yes," I whispered shakily. I pushed on to my elbows, searching for the source of the attack in the trees.

"Prepare for trouble," purred a voice. My head jerked looking up and I spied two shadows leaning back to back balancing on a branching hanging over the splashing river, the rainbow mist of the waterfall wrapping both in a shimmering aura of colour.

The one who spoke first fanned his fingers as if catching it in the palm of his hand.

"And make it double," breath the other huskily, crouching and tucking a curtain of silky red hair behind one ear.

"SHUT UP AND SAVE ME!" I bawled. My face pulled into an expression of, "My dear gawd,' and 'you stupid idiots!' At the outburst the Alpha belched a ball of fire, lashing his arrow headed tail at my legs. I yelped, my hands flying to the back of my head and rolling aside. The ball scorched past my ear and exploded in a spray of sparks on the sandy grass.

"Ow-wow-ow!" I wailed, rubbing my ear furiously. The lesser pack howled, some dashing around crazily jaws agape, others at the muddled Team Rocket, thrown into disarray by my interruption. Tobias was the first to act, ordering his Noctowl, the obvious source of the Flash, into the fray of gnashing teeth at the base of the trunk. He landed heavily among them, lobbing his heavy soled shin high boots into the chest of one, leaving imbedded a pattern of its ridges like a cattle brand.

Angel yelled and a scraggly bush on the outskirts materialised into Ivysaur, firing a volley of pellets. They scattered among the lunging Houndour and sprouted into snaking vines, meshing some to the ground. Needled spins lodged in their skin, pulsing with an eerie green light. Their struggles against their tethers dwindled until they lay with exhausted whimpering. With energy sapped the vines shrivelled and disintegrated into dust.

With the remaining 'Dour trying to help their fallen comrades, I realised I was all but forgotten. I skittered to my feet, stumbling over the flopping sole of my shoe.

"Move!" Angel alerted as I glimpsed it over my shoulder. The brute! He kicked aside a sprawled 'Dour, pouncing at my heels. I squealed, feeling the fiery pain of his last graze burning above my knee and danced out of reach. Suddenly Angel leapt from the safety of the branches, landing wrongly, buckling his ankle and double over for balance, providing me with an escape.

As the brute clumsily rounded for a second charge, I broke for him.

Like gymnast on a springboard, I bounced, my foot landing square in Angel's bent back.

He grunted in surprise as I thrust my body for the branch. My sweat-slicked palms grasped its smooth mottled bark and with left over momentum I managed to swing one leg over the top. As I struggled onto it, the Brute barrelled into the upright Angel, poised for the impact. His hands quivered as he strained against him

He was saved as a flurry of serrated leaves ripped across the Houndoom's back, coupled with a hurtling green blur. He howled breathlessly as he landed on his side, winded. Forcing himself up he made ready to loose a flamethrower to toast the grass type but it was quenched in a deluge when in a scarlet flash Tobias's Wartortle was released, anxious for a shot. Its feathered ears flapped smugly as the bully fled into the trees with the rest of the pack on his heels.

As the last vanished into the shadows, Angel turned his single furious eye on me.

"You little cow!" he hissed, pointing at the branches above.

I barely heard, uttering a panting gasp of horror. "Fury!" I breathed. My feet scrambled onto my branch and I shot unsteadily upright, the only thing keeping me from toppling and snapping my neck was my single-minded desire to get to the end.

Snarling threats Fury submerged herself amongst the briar needles, lunging out momentarily and snapping at the nose tearing through the curling branches to get her. The Alpha stretched and slashed with his paws, unaware he had been deserted with blood seeping from the long scratches running off his paws, chest and face. It was contorted into a hideous mask of vengeance

"I gotcha Fury! I gotch-aahhhh!" I wailed hysterically as my balancing act fell through. My arms flailed as if trying to ward of the eminent impact. My eyes screwed shut and I tucked my head into my shoulder.

Maybe I can escape with partial brain function, part of me thought giddily, waiting for the crash.

My body somersaulted, and bounced. Okay, wrong word, more as if I sunk into layers of doonas, only much more spiky. Woody pins pricked and snapped, pitting my skin like a golf ball. The coiled branches absorbed the weight and slowly recoiled, rolling my body off with a thump. I groaned, turning onto my back and opening my eyes to salivating jaws.

"Eep."

"Bloody legendary rescue, Topaz!" Before the black chasm could close around my jugular, the voice rang out and the brown blur of Noctowl swooped in, ramming the 'Doom's shoulder and he teetered on two paws. Seizing the moment, from the other side the full brunt of Angel's shoulder met with deafening force, a fracture renting down the length of Houndoom's ivory horn as it was sandwiched through the briars and into the rock face with a howl.

"Dirty, dirty humans!" he cursed, his head rolling from side to side, his bloodshot eyes trained on the Rocket boys with hateful malice. They glittered with a ghostly memory. Suddenly he laughed, a cold humourless sound. "This forest stretches from here to the City of Tin. You won't make it out alive!"

He chuckled again, turning and limping fearlessly into the murk.

Nobody moved, only eyes roving the beaten and bloody faces of the others.

I gave a painful groan, breaking the silence, still lying on my back wheezing with relief. Out of the bushes crawled Fury, tenderly nudging my arm with her nose. I grunted and her ears perked up, laying down with her head on my stomach in the grey gloom.

"We really don't catch a break, huh?" she said with a tired grin.

"I know," I replied, a matter-of-factly. "This Journey thing is rapidly becoming a pain in the arse." With tremendous effort I sat up, feeling the shallow scratches across my cheeks. A sharp pinch reminded me of the nip across my knee flare up. "And everywhere else," I added, listening to the roar of the waterfall in the background.

"Uhuh," she agreed, turning and licking a nasty puncture on her whither.

I swore at myself, leaning back on my elbows and watching with concern. Most were just crimson lines criss-crossing the surface, seeping over the yellow fur to be lost amongst the violet. I cringed as I noticed a red jag run over her recovering burn bald spot. So much for no stress, there wasn't a worse way I could have taken care of her. I was not looking forward to meeting a Nurse Joy for her next check up, she would almost certainly call her cousin, slash, sister, slash, aunt or whatever and I would be in for the lecture of a lifetime. Not that I didn't deserve it.

Fury saw my pained look and put a paw on my chest. "Don't sweat it."

I smiled back, ruffling her ears.

"Here." I jerked, shrinking back and putting myself in front of Fury as Angel, picking himself up from beside me and dusting off his slacks, offered a hand up. I glared suspiciously at it, like he might have had a hidden shock buzzer hidden somewhere, not budging an inch. Team Rocket was as much a threat as any Houndoom pack.

Holding his ice chip eyes steadily, I scooped my Pokèmon up with difficulty but my wince as I put weight on my bitten leg betrayed my weakness. I stiffened stubbornly, lifting my head up and shoved his hand away from me as his hand went out to balance me.

"Oh, sorry Princess!" Tobias sneered from the background, kneeling and feeling over Wartortle's scalp for injuries. "Don't forget, we just saved your life!"

"As opposed to the half a dozen times you've tried to kill me!" I retorted venomously, not believing my ears.

Tobias was about to snap back but Angel shot a cold commanding glance, cutting off any arguments between either of us. "You can go if you want, or you can spend the night at our camp. We have food, fire and security."

"No-"

"Take it!" Fury hissed suddenly into my ear.

My eyes bulged and I quickly turned my back on them. "What are you, nuts?" I blurted in a stage whisper.

"Hell no, it's the most intelligent option. If it's us two by ourselves we can't fend off those crazy dogs a second time. Your muscles are cooling down and they are gonna kill come morning. I can't fight, and it's too dark to fight effectively with your other Pokèmon in this tight forest without a Pokèmon that knows flash."

"Where's Cooee anyway?" I said aggressively, tossing a glace over my shoulder. Both boys watched with amusement at our furious whisperings.

"Cool it, he's just over the other side of the river- No, don't call him a coward- I think he saw you'd be safer from the Rockets without him."

"And now you're suggesting I join their happy little slumber party?!"

"Do it."

I wanted to be obstinate, but my adrenaline rush had worn thin.

"Fine," I said to the Rocket boys tiredly with the heel of my palm to my forehead.

"Hallelujah! The girl has seen the light!" shouted Tobias sarcastically in the voice of an evangelist preacher, throwing his arms into the air in mock praise, already beginning the trek back to the trees. Angel snorted, tensing as he monitored the skirts of the clearing and when no screams of agony came forth, he moved to help me again.

"You are hurt," he said emphatically.

"But not dead," I shot back.

I hurried on, wobbling from tree to tree and watching Tobias's red head bobbing up and down in the gloom ahead. Fury grouched and grumbled loudly about the rough ride, her fidgeting distracting me from my feet as they navigated their way through the buttressing roots, complaining equally as noisome. Suddenly the blisters I complained about on the first day I set out from Goldenrod in my new shoes didn't seem so bad.

"Ow!" I grunted through gritted teeth for the fourth time, fumbling Fury.

"Here, let me take her," he volunteered again, already reaching through my arms from behind. I shivered as I felt the brush of my enemy's hair over my shoulder, shielding his face from view. Angry at his aloofness and his indifference at my hostility, I shoved back, butting him into the tree trunk hard as I could and ducking away. His flinty eyes flashed at me, rubbing his side where my suspender buckles jabbed him. He lashed out, grabbing me fiercely by the shoulder and digging his fingers under my shoulder. "You know, a simple thank you could go a long way!" he hissed, the veil of hair swished briefly revealing both eyes glinting with frustration.

I wouldn't cower, I wouldn't quail, as his hands tightened like a vice. Gawd, I was dead and I deserved it for being so trusting!

"Quiiiiiil!" The soft rumble from far back in Fury's throat made him flinch, blinking as if he awakened from a dream, yanking his hand away and rubbing it furiously on his pant leg.

"Sorry," he stuttered, with head down and pressed on hurriedly.

"Freak'n hell, Fury," I gulped, letting my pent up air escape in a long whoosh. "I told you Fury! I told you, I told you!"

"Stop whining, you were asking it for being such a snot." My mouth sagged at her bluntness, but her glittering red eyes bored into me. "You're being totally immature about this. If they wanted you dead they'da let the Houndoom finish the job. I'm your Pokèmon and I'm your friend so I'm doing this in the best interest of both of us. I'm not asking you to pledge you're undying loyalty to them, I'm asking you to think this through and spend the night in the protection of a group…… And say you're sorry."

I opened my mouth to argue but a level glance made me sigh in resignation. As usual she was the voice of reason. Pushing my hair out of my eyes I hobbled faster and eventually caught up. Veering wide around the icy haired boy dappled in the shadows of the canopy I mumbled a barely audible "Sorry."

Obviously it was heard as I was answered with one visible eyebrow arched quizzically, but gave no other sign. Swallowing hard, I moved a little closer to Tobias ironically enough, who at least released his temper in healthier doses. He cast a sidelong glance and a fleeting toothy grin, but continued on. Trying to ignore the pain of my aches and stiffening muscles I concentrated on the three pairs of footsteps crunching over the dead leaves. One heavy and determined, the second awkward and uncertain, and the last soft and nonchalant.

Oh, I hurt, I ached! My eyes were little more than weary slits as my almost catatonic brain dwelt on each separate pain. Hugging Fury tight, I rested my head on her shoulder, soft where it was whole but otherwise prickly. Her deep breaths in and out calmed me down.

That warm and fuzzy feeling deflated when Tobias's boots halted suddenly. Reactions sluggish, my own footfall pinched his heel. Looking up with a dopey expression, I said stupidly, "huh?"

Tobias whipped around, the tendrils framing his face swaying and his lower lip stuck out in irritation. The amber light of the flames dancing over his face signalled we'd reached home base. I sank down onto the felled trees with a noise of disapproval, never mind these barriers had given me precious moment of time little more than 15 minutes ago, resting my elbows on my knees and my face in my hands, massaging temples sticky with dry sweat. I felt so dirty that I was desperate for a quick dip in the river to scrub it off.

Through my fingers I caught the pitying looks shared between the boys, piqued. I wasn't a damn charity case! Oblivious to my observations they exchanged silent instructions. Tobias was not pleased with his assigned task; adopting a harried look and hands spread in appeal. Unsympathetic, Angel folded his arms until Tobias trudged back into the darkness grouching, following the cones of light provided by Noctowl on his shoulder.

Angel raked back his pale hair, regarding my tired form quietly, mostly centred on my leg. Without a word he fetched a tin billy and suspended it from a tripod above flames and filled it full from his canteen. We peered across the fire, the watery glub-glub-glub sound covered the uncomfortable lull.

Licking my lips I reached down and stroked Fury's back, more to reassure myself than her. Her chest rose and fell in slow rhythms and from her nose came something like a pug dogs breathing. She was asleep! Although I was tempted to nudge her awake with my toe, I steadied my courage. I could last without her for a while.

Relaxed by her odd snuffling sound my muscles snapped tense again as Tobias's gruff voice, somewhat muffled, come into hearing again. As his shadowy from reappeared, my eyes laid on the large inky blot he lugged with him in one hand, tossing it haphazardly aside. It rolled until it lay by the tree trunk ruffling and rattling. In his hand he was sharing a muesli bar with Noctowl. My mouth curved upwards slightly. Whatever else had happened, she was still scoffing down her fair share. She looked happy.

That half smile vanished when I realized whose snack it was, with its bright blue and orange wrapper and the Kablaam! logo hidden under his grubby fingers.

"Thief!" I accused in a voice thick with sleep, attempting to rise. The shallow gashes made my sheering teeth kindled suddenly before fading to a barely discernable throb. I had definitely had worse, but this was no picnic. It was enough to make me flinch. Pretending there was no momentary lapse into weakness, I still stalked with lips pressed into a thin angry line. His own burly grin rankled even more.

"Call it a toll for being your pack horse," he chewed thoughtfully, like a dull grazing Miltank. Looking down on me I could tell he was gauging just how long it would take for me to pop a blood vessel. Even as I stood with my rigid arms glued to my side with flexing fingers and chin stuck out like a petulant child, I perceived that something had happened. Something big, and it had forced him to stand back and take stock of himself. A raging temper that had me defend myself in Violet still lay behind those roving emerald eyes, but it had at least been tempered. Without looking I wondered if Angel had anything to do with it, but I knew he would reveal nothing.

"Keep it then," I finally told him grudgingly, stepping down and squatting I front of my back. Unbuckling the side clasp grumpily, I caught a bulge in the red head's pant pockets. "No! Not my chocolate bars!" I moaned, clutching at them. The boy was too quick and only offered another teasing smile. Breaking in half the last of his snack, one between his thumb and forefinger for Noctowl who gobbled it down looking greedily for more, the other popped into his own gob with an exaggerated smack of his lips.

"Hmm, firewood's low. I ain't gonna spend the night with the fire nothing by embers," he said to Angel, swallowing.

Angel looked up from the bubbling billy, stoking the coals into gentle flames with eyes narrowed. "Is that prudent?"

Tobias shrugged, he and I sharing the same wondering face where this kid got his vocabulary. He rolled two full Pokèballs in his palm for him to see. Without changing expression, Angel stared fixedly at the fire. Shaking his head, he dissipated again under the trees like a shadow himself.

I suppressed a shudder. The kid had guts, if no commonsense. With a dejected sigh from me, he took my chocolate with him, and now there would be none to keep me sane until I reached Nanna's.

"Well, there's a warm and cheery friendship," I commented sarcastically, leaning into my pack to see just how much Tobias had pawed through.

"Friendship has nothing to do with it in this career," Angel answered evenly, sprinkling some sort of aromatic herb with a sharp minty tang.

"Career? Is that what you call it?"

"Don't be so quick to criticise, Miss High and Mighty. As great a surprise as it is too you, even you can't see all ends," he barked harshly. Behind me I heard the wooden spoon chink as he let it drop inside the can, dusting his hands together. My ears pricked up in interest, listening to the agitated scuff of his boots.

Know thy enemy, I thought with a secretive smile hidden by my long thatch of blue black hair. "And why is that?" I goaded, but was met with a sullen silence. He nestled beside the billy again, the wood scraping its sides as the water swirled.

Meditating on a way to get him to talk, my eye laid on an offending collar poking through the teeth of a hastily zipped zipper. Distrustful, I unfurled it and saw everything in crumpled disarray.

"You!" I flared angry and incredulous. "You boys are perverts!"

Angel smiled slyly, as only a teenage boy can smile.

Stuffing them back in flushing furiously, I ground my knee into the leaves, twisting around aggressively when a sharp pain, like someone jabbing raw nerves with a knitting needle. Biting back a cry, limiting it to a muted squeak. Rocking back onto my butt, I dragged myself into the pool of light for a closer examination. Two furrows filled with gooey congealed blood and caked scales that had soaked through my ruffled leg warmers. Pushing it and the blue band emblazoned with the Earth symbol around my ankle, my fingers hovered over the hypersensitive bared tissue. Wedged in a gluggy gash was little more than a twig, like a kid balancing a toothpick between thin grimacing lips. Scowling, I lifted my pinkie, the only finger that had a half decent nail, not broken, worn or chewed that could be considered worthy for such a task. My muscles bunched for it and a swift flick it was dislodged, not without the anticipated pain.

"Waroo," whined dismally, wanting to rub the source furiously like a stubbed toe.

"Come here, it's almost done." Angel's no nonsense voice cut through my tantrum. He lifted the billy almost ceremoniously from the tripod with a hook, sloshing seething water into the ash and coals with a liquidly hiss. He set it down on the flat stump conveniently near the fire carefully.

"There," he pointed at the log.

Although I didn't like the idea, both suspicious of him and reluctant to shift my knee, already dribbling bright red beads, but it wasn't a request.

In my usual, 'cut off the nose to spite the face' way, I stood up in one quick movement, stifling the pain and keeping an easy going smile as if it was nothing more than a stroll down the beach. Sauntering over and standing over him as he tended the bubbling concoction he had brewed he reached into his pocket and plucked out a little packet, palming the label out of sight as soon as he tipped its white crystals in. I knew exactly what he planned to do!

"SALT?!!!" I yelped bouncing back with my fist raised and teeth gritted if that's what it took to fend him off.

He shook his head ever so slightly, lip curled in contempt. "One, fists don't solve everything. Two, even if they did what makes you think you could beat someone older, stronger and smarter-" he ignored my disgruntled expression and finished "And three, you're a wuss."

Angel stressed the 'whuh' sound tauntingly. He watched my feathers ruffle and fluff up, patiently waiting for them to resettle and gestured again at the seat. I scrunched my fist. The underhanded rodent had me trapped with my own pride.

Dumping my butt heavily on top, I stuck my knee stolidly in his face. He recoiled from the mess, and I could see that childish was also right on the tip of his tongue. Instead, he snatched the red hot cloth soaking and pressed it ruthlessly to the cuts before I could react. I bawled, lifting my fist and thumping down over his knuckles. This backfired, sending knives up my leg. With both jabbered unmindful of the other. I glared beneath my fringe while his white hair belled, flexing his fingers and shaking them vigorously.

"Truce!" he cried with equal angry looks. Fury gave a piggish snort and rolled on to her back but didn't bat an eyelid.

Great, I thought clenching the back of the log, gritting my teeth and waiting for the pain to subside. What a bodyguard!

"It's fine!" I snapped standing up. Angel pushed my shoulder back down, leaving me with the urge to wipe the invisible marks away. Kneeling down again, he began in the same frigid tone. He hated me. Good. It was mutual.

"No it is not, nor will be fine!" said Mr Know-it-all. "You were bitten by a Houndoom-"

"It was barely a scrape!"

"- and that phantom pain will probably stick around forever. This thing eats meat, carrion if things get desperate and you want the bacteria forming their own primordial civilization in there?"

"Yes!" I shot back.

"You are such a child!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are to- this is idiotic! Sit back! Stay down! Don't move! And I mean it or I'll get Sora to paralyse you!"

My eyes stormed indecisively. I could leave right then and leave the arrogant so and so but one look a Fury's slumbering form, honking noises and all, I knew I wouldn't wake her. My shoulders slumped, I felt browbeaten and miserable to have to rely on these thieves for protection. With head turned away I suffered to have him tentatively dab the pungent minty water over the bite. I won't deny that it didn't kill each time he resoaked it, the salt stinging worse than the bite itself. Cleaning away the gunk and dry blood caked on my leg, the water was dyed a murky red.

"Done," he announced, grasping the billy's handle. He moved ghost-like to the edge of the circle and hurled it out, with a dull splash. "Don't move, we still have to bind it."

"I can do it myself!" I told him coldly as he went away to wash it out. Bending over and grasping the roll of bandage in one hand, and a near by stick in the other. I set about doing as we had always been told.

Metone held the most poisonous Pokèmon in the world, flocking there it seemed. I had even heard somewhere that even their venom was more potent than their northern cousins so every kid from four and up knew how to apply a pressure bandage. Even I had needed it once or twice while trumping through the long grass of our back paddocks.

Positioning the stick beside it to keep it straight I wound the material around so tight my toes tingled. Doing so restricted the flow of blood, thus slowing the poison.

Angel returned swinging the billy lazily at his side, heavy droplets catching the thin sliver of moon casting the slanting shadows around us. Placing it next to the pack and picking out more items, all clearly organised and catalogued, he turned to watch me curiously. To me it looked like scepticism but either way he waited loftily with arms crossed until I rolled the last bit to meet my shin.

"What are you doing?" he ventured, looking pointedly at the red stain blooming on the crisp white material.

"Duh." I said briskly, tucking one end under the other with a sharp tug. I peered beneath my fringe before blowing it out of the way, sitting up straight and crossing my arms to admire my handiwork. Sure, the area around it was a pallid white from poor circulation, but it was perfect!

"Look, kid, I don't know where you went to med school but that doesn't work." Angel knelt down oblivious as I tried to slap his hands away from my hard work. He just butted through them and unravelled it until his hands met the first smudges of blood. With vague disgust on his face he picked around them, and wound it back into a little ball in his other hand, touching the splotches as little as possible.

"Have to wash it now," he muttered to himself under his breath, setting it aside and reaching for an unlabelled brown tinted bottle and some cotton buds. He held the bottle to his eye, shaking it up and watching the large bubbles roll around inside. I swallowed hard, I knew an antibacterial wash when I saw it. Salt was a prissy toy poodle compared to the Arcanine this was. Like every little kid, scraped knees came naturally to me and when my mother tried to apply it she always needed dad to hold me down. I struggled like a rabbit in a trap.

"Neat freak," I muttered somewhat offended at the way he treated the bloody bandage, still eyeing the bottle anxiously.

"Well its better than being a grubby little girl," Angel countered sweetly, unscrewing the lid. He pressed a cotton ball over the lip and tipped it upside down. A gluggy amber ooze soaked through. "I mean, look at you." Angel's eyes strayed across the scratches on my cheek, the scabs on my elbows and finally landing on the faded bruises and puckered sores from the Beedrill attack. A larger one below my floating rib looked especially nasty in a corona of yellow and green with threads of purple. "You should cover them up?"

He looked with soft concern.

Biting my bottom lip I looked up at the sky as if in silent prayer. The stars flickered behind faintly behind the lace of clouds still voyaging from west to east like lumbering cattle. The three quarter moon shone through with long silvery fingers.

"Nurse Joy said it needed to air."

"I always knew you weren't good enough for a human doctor."

My face screwed up angrily ready to show him who wasn't good enough for a human doctor when he uttered a low, musical chuckle. I started in surprise at the warm smile and smiled foolishly back.

"Ready?" The cotton ball came out with a dull pop, the dangling droplets hung on viscous threads and he carefully pressed it against the gashes. I let out a pained hiss that ended gasp. As he wiped down each time it burned like ice cream on a sensitive tooth. I gritted my teeth tightly, squeezing Angel's offered hand as if it was my only lifeline.

Unmoved by my curses but grimacing under the strength of my grip, he staunched the rest and took some first aid gauze from his back pocket. "Hold that."

Dubiously I did so freeing his bright red hand and steadying it over the top, feeling the sticky ooze dribble down my leg as he dapped it down with what looked like enough adhesive stripe to batten down a house for Hurricane Tracy. I cringed. I was not looking forward to tearing it off.

"I don't think you'll need the bandage. They were deep but clean and you won't need it for more than a day or too judging from how fast you seem to heal," he speculated with a furtive, marvelling glance. He gathered his things and stood up, once again slipping back into his taciturn self. I rose too, testing the manoeuvrability of the knee. A fairly good job, not that I'd admit it aloud.

My snowy haired nemesis pottered around the campfire, making sure the circle of rocks around the fire were free of dry grass, a set of trip lines established in case our canine friends decided to pay us a visit during the night and even a cursory check that that everything in his bag was methodically arranged for a quick get away in the morning. Even so, throughout I caught the stealthy glances my way. I unnerved him as I followed him with round blue eyes.

Angel sighed softly looking into the darkness the way Tobias had gone, holding his elbows as he paced. His face turned away with the warm glow of the fire at his back, crackling as a log popped.

His return not forthcoming he strode slowly back to his bag, conjuring a compressed blue bundle from inside. I watched with masked interest if he'd pull anything else out. It was like watching Mary Poppin's carpetbag and sooner or later a napping Snorlax would present itself.

However he was content with what he had, peeling back the satchel and stretched a faded sleeping bag just out of reach of the fire as he lay down with his hands behind his head. His body didn't relax, its breathing still suppressed and movement restricted as if out of rigid habit.

While I noticed these things with self-contemptuous fascination I followed suit, unfurling my own bag on the other side of the fire and smoothly transferred Fury beneath the covers. He little legs kicked as she chased some dream phantom.

"Mewthree," she muttered thickly, rolling over. I pondered the snatch of her subconscious, to playing to my desperate need for the rest my body begged for. I was in the heart of enemies on all sides, I reminded myself hardheartedly, concentrating on the swirls of red and gold that licked up from the charred branches as the dirt that lodged in his rough bark popped like fizzle lollies. One of the faggots gnawed insistently by the fire snapped and fell in, the others crackling and sliding into places accordingly. The glowing coals kicked up bright orange embers that floated away on the eddying breezed that shifted in and out of the swaying silhouettes outlined against the star spangled sky.

My mind rewound and replayed scenes from B.J, Before Journey. The hundreds of bonfires Scotty, Jess, Jazz, Matt and I shared every summer in our back paddocks beneath such a celestial mural, arguing over the most idiotic things. Song lyrics, whether the night sky was dark blue or dark purple, how many cans of soft drink we could finish before needing to pee. Singing loud and out of tune campfire shanties with the Noctowl howling in protest from the shadowy splash of trees behind us. In particular, our last one, a few days before the final big shindig, it was a kid's only affair.

Practically raw snags cooked under the coals in alfoil, someone with the bright idea to make eucalyptus tea and especially Scott and Jazz. They had selected long, staff like branches made of hardwood and set them amongst the fire, rolling them over and pulling them out near the end with their glowing pebble surfaces. Going out past the reach of the firelight they enacted the classic light sabre scene from the first Star Wars trilogy, lost hand and all. The sabres exploded in a shower of hot white sparks when they clashed, until they slowly dimmed and died.

I grinned broadly in the dark, aware how goulash I mush have looked as I saw Jarrod's top half snap off in my minds eye and caught the dray summer brush alight. We squawked in panic until Jazz, as responsible as ever grabbed the bucket of water reserved for extinguishing the campfire and drowned the growing flames in a steaming deluge. With all the clarity as if they were right here, I saw them, their Cheshire cat grins bobbing in the shadows around me, with twinkling eyes and weak, breathless chuckles.

Before I could contain myself a heavy, melancholy sigh escaped my lips.

On the other side of the fire Angel's shadow sat up, startling me from my reverie. Even I didn't realise how sad I sounded until he spoke up.

"Are you ok?" he asked with unexpected concern.

"Yeah," I answered steadily, forcing myself not to let my voice crack. I moaned softly but smothered it into my hands.

"You only left about the same time as Tobias, didn't you?"

"Mmhmm, same batch, 'bout months ago." I contemplated how scornfully I had gloated the fact that very morning.

"Don't worry," he soothed. "You don't really get over homesickness, but it fades and you accept it." His voice dropped, falling into his own ocean of memories. His lean face hovering like a disembodied ghost over the fire brooded on poor choices of the past.

Swallowing, I murmured hesitantly, "So you began your journey…."

"Six years ago," he supplied. He smiled wanly at the small 'O' that formed on my lips. "Yes Topaz, even I was a ten year old boy once, setting out on a Pokèmon Journey filled with hope and promise and infinite possibilities. Without a Pokèmon, yet-"

"But your Ivysaur?"

"Sora? She was my first, but that was after…" Angel's voice fell away with hitching sound, turning way so his hair, soaking up the orange glow hid his face. His patience for conversation finally wore thin and he closed it quickly, clearing his throat and advised in his old, cold husky voice, "Go to sleep kid. You're tired and you don't need to worry."

His hypnotic suggestion was effective almost immediately. My lids fluttered, suddenly filled with wet cement as I laboured to keep my vigilance up. My arms propping me up as I leaned back on them wobbled like jelly until I relented and lay down with one under my head and the other lying gently over Fury's back. She wriggled a moment under the extra weight but settled down with a guttural grunt.

Through the drowsy sickles I saw him still sitting up and mulling over whatever memories I had woken up but finally the struggle against sleep was lost and I slipped into a muted slumber. I woke briefly a little after to see Tobias's tall frame drop his pile with a clatter, crisscrossing the larger ones over the fire muttering disgustedly at Angel, "Bunch a slackers."

I drifted back into hazy dreams of my childhood; vaguely knowing the boys wouldn't be there when I arose the next morning. And that was strange, because I knew that it would be hard to see them the same way again.

/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\

Well, that's it people, another chapter over.

To the people who like action, I'm sorry. Wings of Council seems to be getting very repetitive and I'm sorry.

To the people who were looking for romance, I'm sorry. From the survey a lot of people were looking forward to it, but I couldn't. I don't believe in love at the age of 14, I don't believe in love at the age of 17, so I went for the next best thing, empathy.

To the people who like emotional stuff, I have a feeling a managed to screw that up to. Darn, although I think some of my best writing for WoC went into that little part.
To my friends at FF.net Thank and I'd like to apologies to you. You see, I write specifically for one of the most amazing Pokemon fanfiction sites on the net, the Pokemon Tower Library. My suggestion GO THERE! SUBMIT!!! But although I thank the people there I neglect to thank all of your imput. Its you who I get my most insightful reviews There are so many I would like to thank individually but I'm so lazy, and your probably so sick of me already.

Most importantly, my work is undergoing a magnificent rewrite. I would like to post hear but I'm not sure I can withough deleted the old copy. Can someone tell me about that?

Drop a line anytime as I love talking to you. I'm on MSN, Shirasharmi@hotmail.com but please, when I ask how you know me, please don't say, I don't know! It drives me nuts having heaps of people I don't know who I'm talking to. Till next time! Topaz