Queens and Pawns: Iketo
Chapter the Second
By Akivara

AN: Second chapter! #trumpet music# Yeah.... Just read. Or hit the back button. Your choice. I have a very short chapter today.... Basically only two important things happen.

#cringes# I've had a few grammar errors in the last chapter, the most noticable one (at least to me) being a clause pining for its verb. Luckily, it's not the "makes-the-story-hard-to-understand" kind of grammar error, so I'm not correcting it just yet, just pointing it out.

The following work is fiction. Any resemblance to real events or people, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

True to the signs, rain had come, fast and hard. Luckily for Levana and Wyvling, they had been passing a small, wooden picnic pavilion when it started, and it passed quickly.

Now the two were approaching Setting-Ruby Forest on the west side of the highway, though far from it, and closer to the side of the Silver Mountains.

"Hey, Wyvling, remember when we had picnics here, about a year ago?" Levana mused as the clouds overhead, finally spent, rolled slowly away.

"Ling, wyv," Wyvling shrugged from his perch on a tall rock.

"There were a bunch of Poochyena around, and they were real scavengers. Likely to eat the food right out of your hand if you turned your head the other way."

"Wyv," Wyvling suddenly growled, remembering the presumptious thieves.

"Do you think we might be able to trick one into revealing itself with food?" Wyvling stared at her, then flashed her a silvery-white toothy grin.

"It's settled, then. I've got an idea...."

A few minutes later, the trap was in place. A few pieces of jerky were scattered below Wyvling's tall rock, which Levana hid behind. Wyvling himself looked sound asleep, but Levana knew he was watching the bait through a clear spot in his lower eyelid.

The pair didn't have to wait long. Perhaps a quarter of an hour later, there was rustling in a patch of tall grass near the jerky; moments later, a gray and black Poochyena popped out, diving after the jerky as though its tail were on fire.

"WYV!" Wyvling cried, jumping to the ready.

"Now, Wyvling! Poison Sting!" Levana cried, swinging herself around the rock. Wyvling obediently opened his mouth wide, and shot dozens of thin, white needles at the baffled Poochyena. Reflexively, the Poochyena leapt back, though a few needles had popped it in the nose.

"Poochy! Poochyena!" Poochyena cried, enraged, at Wyvling.

"Again, Wyvling! Don't let him dodge this time!" Levana commanded, accented by a jab of her arm. Wyvling opened his mouth once again, but Poochyena, showing a bout of athleticism and speed, leapt out of the way; then it leapt against the rock to change direction, colliding with Wyvling in an airborne Tackle attack.

"Quite the gymnast, this one.... Okay, Wyvling, go in for a Scratch!" Wyvling, who had been knocked into some shorter grass, nodded and rushed after Poochyena, slashing at it with his wing-claws.

Poochyena moved with a grace and speed Levana had never before seen in the species, dodging almost every one of Wyvling's attacks. Then, Poochyena turned sharply, knocking the broad side of its body into Wyvling. Wyvling was knocked back, but recovered, flapping his wings furiously.

"Okay, we won't win in a melee arena, Wyvling! Go airborne, and Poison Sting again!" Wyvling flapped his wings a few more times, so that Poochyena couldn't reach him even by jumping, then flew over the panicking Pokemon, shooting poison needles at it. Poochyena ran every which way, trying to escape, but wherever it went, there was a fence of Poison Sting needles blocking the way.

Eventually, Poochyena found itself trapped in a tiny circle of Poison Sting needles; one more attack from Wyvling turned it into a veritable pincushion.

"That's enough, Wyvling!" Wyvling snorted and perched again on the rock. Levana lightly tossed a Pokeball at Poochyena, praying to whoever was listening that it would work.... The ball wiggled a bit as Poochyena struggled, on its last legs, but eventually it gave in, and the ball was still.

Before Levana or Wyvling had a chance to jump or cheer or even to let the capture sink in, the entire ball flashed purple.

"I think it's poisoned!" Levana cried, rushing over to pick it up; it flashed purple again in her hand. "Okay, Poochyena, go!" Poochyena appeared again, its red-and-yellow eyes barely open, and an ugly purple blush on its face. There were small, papercut sized scratches all over Poochyena's body, a few with tiny bits of Poison Sting needles still stuck in them.

Levana set to work, digging out the needles with her bare hands; she didn't mind it when she accidentally pricked or poked herself, for she had found out six years ago, when she was ten, that she was oddly immune to her Wyvling's venom. She had always thought it just a funny genetic quirk; the way some people had more pronounced psychic abilities, or some could stand extreme heat and fire, Levana was immune, or at least had pronounced defenses, to the needles she was now handling.

When Levana had removed all the Poison Stings she could, she brought an antidote and potion out from her backpack. She sprayed about half of both the bottles on Poochyena's wounds, then detached the spraying mechanisms and tipped the rest down Poochyena's throat.

"POOCHY!" Poochyena growled, springing to life and jumping away from Levana's arms.

"Hold it right there, Poochyena. You misbehave, and it's right back into the Pokeball you go." Levana said threateningly, holding up Poochyena's Pokeball. Poochyena sent a frightened look at the ball, then suddenly sat down on its rump and whined.

"That's more like it. You and I are going to have a little chat, Poochyena, and you are going to be civil."

"Poochy."

"Good Pokemon. First, do you know what it means when I capture you in the Pokeball?"

"Poochyena."

"I'll take that as a 'no'." Levana sighed. "It means you become my Pokemon. I can put you in the Pokeball whenever I want, and carry you around. I don't have to let you out for years, if I don't want to, and you'll still survive."

Poochyena audibly gulped.

"But," Levana added hastily, "I'm not that cruel. You're no use to anyone inside a Pokeball, and you wouldn't like to be in there for too long, anyway. So, let's make a deal."

"Yena?"

"First of all, your end. You travel around with me, and go in the Pokeball when I tell you to. You do what I tell you, especially in a battle against another Pokemon. As for my end – I'll feed you, and take care of you, and keep you safe from predators. I won't trade you to another trainer if you don't want me to, and I won't battle you too hard. If you stick with me, you'll become stronger than you would here, and see new places, and make new friends. What do you say?"

"Wyvling wyv, ling ling wyv, wyvling," Wyvling added.

"Poochy," Poochyena said at once, nodding.

"That's it? You don't want anything specific from this deal?"

"Poochy...." Poochyena trailed off hesitantly.

"Name it," Levana said at once. Poochyena nodded and tapped the Pokeball with its paw, then the ground.

"Pokeball.... Out of the Pokeball? That's a given, how often?" Poochyena pointedly tapped the ground once. "Once? Once every what? Every hour? Every eight hours?" Poochyena swepts its head in an arc, as if it were watching the sun go across the sky in super fast-motion.

"Let you out of your Pokeball at least once a day? Is that what you're saying?" Poochyena nodded, apparently delighted that Levana had understood it.

"Poochy!" Poochyena barked happily.

"One final question...." Levana abruptly picked Poochyena up, checking between its hind legs. "You're a girl? Wow, I thought you were a boy. Anyway, I've got to return you to your Pokeball, so you don't try to run away. All I've got is your word, after all, and I don't know you that well. You can eat first, though."

Levana offered Poochyena the jerky she had used as bait; Poochyena gobbled it down in about three seconds. Afterwards, Levana returned an apprehensive Poochyena to her Pokeball.

"That's that, I guess," Levana said, putting the Pokeball in place on her trainer's belt.

"Wyvling, wyv," Wyvling agreed.

"We'd better press on. It's a while 'til lunchtime yet." Wyvling nodded as Levana stood up; together they resumed their way to Setting-Ruby Forest.

A short while later, the two were entering the shade of many evergreen trees. Wyvling flew ahead to scout out the land before Levana; now effectively alone, Levana whistled to both keep herself company and to tell Wyvling where she was. She had already captured one Pokemon today, and she didn't think it was fair that she surprise any more, anyway. Perhaps because of her whistling, Levana didn't see any Pokemon, but she heard plenty: Pidgey chirping in the trees, Nidoran cooing, Caterpie squealing....

Levana and Wyvling had been in the forest for about an hour, the former starting to look for a good lunch spot, when she bumped into Wyvling. Looking around, Levana could see why he had stopped.

"Jeez, did the storm hit this place badly, or what?" Levana wondered aloud, spotting the trees that had been ripped apart, presumably by high-speed winds.

"Wyyyyyvvv," Wyvling said shakily, leaving Levana's side to fly up, looking into half-destroyed nests.

As Levana looked about the eerily silent destruction herself, a thorny berry bush caught the sleeve of her permanently borrowed Iketo League jacket. She glanced down, trying to pull her sleeve away from the bush, but the branches simply wrapped around tighter.

"Get off, you stupid bush! Let go, I say!" Levana raised her voice, carefully unwinding the bush's branches by hand; as she did so, a great many blue-green berries popped off their stems, rolling about on the ground. When this happened, Levana heard the fluttering of wings and the scampering of tiny feet.

She slowly turned around, finding herself face-to-face with a horde of wild, angry Pokemon; there were Pidgey and Rattata, Nidoran and Taillow, all of the Pokemon she had heard earlier were there.

"Er, hello," Levana said nervously. "Is this your berry bush? I'm sorry, I didn't do it on purp–" The horde did not listen, opting instead to try and swoop down on her. "Hey, now! That's completely uncalled for – Oop!" Levana abandoned all attempts at diplomacy as the angry Pokemon began to peck at her hair and scrabble at her shoes; instead, she turned tail and ran, Wyvling at her shoulders.

"Dammit, why do you keep chasing us!?" Levana called over her shoulder. "We mean you no harm.... Oof!" Not looking where she was going, Levana's foot caught an upraised tree root, leaving Levana sprawled across the ground. Wyvling flew ahead with barely a second glance at Levana, flitting away through the trees.

"Wyvling!" Levana called futilely after him, appalled by his apparent cowardice. "You traitor!"

Wasting no further breath on her Pokemon, Levana leapt to her feet, immediately wincing when she put her weight on her left foot. Guessing by the pain shooting through her ankle, she had injured it when she tripped.

"PIDGEY!" One of the Pokemon behind her called; Levana put her ankle out of her mind for now and began to flee once more, this time limping noticably.

With Levana's new, though thankfully light, injury, the Pokemon caught up to her faster than ever. When she managed to glance behind her once more, one of the Taillow's beaks was inches from her sleeve.

Sparing no time to think, Levana dove for the ground and held her backpack above her head, expecting the claws and talons of the enraged Pokemon to fall upon her. No such blow came. Levana was confused for a moment, at least until she registered the voices filtering through the trees.

"Wyvling wyv!" Her Wyvling monstravit.... No, pointed out, she had to think in English!

"Skitty, go!" A boy's voice, unknown to Levana.

The final voice was a Skitty's, musical and haunting.

"Skitty, skit skit, skitty skit, skitty ski, skitty tyyyyyyy!" The voice of the singing Pokemon was the last thing Levana heard before she dozed off into a peaceful slumber.

AN: So yeah, I'm very happy that that came out to be more than 2000 words. I thought it wouldn't make it. What's weird about "monstravit" is that even though I was copying this from its longhand form in my notebook, and it said "Wyvling said, sounding as if it were showing someone something" or something like that, I still thought "monstravit". It's one of those funny last-minute changes, but it works.
Before anybody corrects me, most trip-caused ankle-related injuries ARE superficial. They hurt like the dickens, and they slow you down when you're, say, running for your life, but they heal very quickly if you get off your feet. I've done this to my ankle when I've been running around, and pain and limping are really the only effects.
Of course, I could be unusually tough, or something, because I've slid into a door at top speed and was perfectly fine a few minutes later, but I digress.

As usual, if I have spelling or grammar errors, tell me, please!

Keleri: ! The goddess of original trainer Pokefiction reviews me! #bows deeply# Heh. I'll keep that in mind next time I describe a Pokemon, thanks. It was mainly a "I want to get this description over with" type of thing. #ceases to make poor excuses#

As for your questions: First of all, Levana considers Wyvling to be part of the family; this becomes important in later chapters. I do the same; if someone asks me, "Who's in your family?" I'll rattle off my parents, the names of my brothers, and Trixie and Isis (as much as I hate that darn cat). Wyvling's been in the family for more than just a few years, unlike my dog and cat, and I think Pokemon are generally smarter than animals, so Levana's going to be even closer to him.
Wyvling: Wyvern, a poisonous dragon-like animal supplies Wyv, and Ling is from hatchling.
Koubine: I forget exactly where Koub comes from, but it's from a Japanese word for "plant". Ine is from porcupine.
Fisagy: Fi comes from fire, Sag comes from usagi, the Japanese word for "rabbit", and Y comes from bunny.
Kooripup: Koori is Japanese, I think it means "ice", and pup should be obvious, right?
For your final question, Cornelia is 20, college-age, the triplets (Severus, Lucius and Aurelius) are 18, Levana's age is mentioned in this chapter with a little arithmetic, and Marcus is 12. Hopefully I gave some clues to at least Cornelia's and Marcus's ages last chapter – Cornelia is obviously college-age, and Marcus's voice hasn't changed yet.
Unfortunately, I can't answer your questions about the league-sponsored trainers and why Levana is so old just yet, as they'll be addressed in a later chapter.

Claimer: I own all my original characters, places, Pokemon, etc. If you didn't see it somewhere else, it's mine. If you want to use it, either ask my permission and give me credit, or just give me credit. If you plan to make money off of it, we'll talk about how big of a cut I get.

Disclaimer: Everything else, however, does not belong to me. It belongs to Nintendo, Game Freak, Kids WB, etc. I'm not making any money off of it and I don't plan to, it's really like free advertisement for you guys, so please don't sue me?

This story was brought to you by reviewers like you. Thank you.