Author's Notes: Once again, thank you for all of the reviews, especially for the explanation of Sue-ism. I'll try to avoid that! Also, I did notice that you had added me to your favorite authors/stories list, Midnight Phoenix. Thanks a bunch for that!
Finally, I have noticed that there are a lot of "staring off into space" chapter endings that seem to be cropping up, so I'm going to really try to limit those from now on.
Chatper Six: The Warning
Jeremy sighed and looked up at Katherine with a solemn expression. "It's a long story. Why don't I tell you on the way?"
"On the way where? I have plenty of time. Why don't we just sit here for a bit while you explain this whole mess to me?" Katherine asked in a slightly menacing tone. She was tired of the creature's quiet evasions. She wanted answers, not more stalling.
"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure that you have all that much time," Jeremy told her. "You don't honestly expect my Mistress to let my escape go unpunished, do you?"
"That's a good place to start," Katherine replied, ignoring the question. "How about you tell me just who this mysterious "Mistress" is and why exactly you're so important to her."
"My Mistress..." the Ratatta's eyes slid out of focus as they looked inward rather than up at Katherine. Jeremy blinked, shook his head, then looked away from Katherine. He spoke without turning back to her. "She is the one who cursed me. She is the Mistress, the ruler of the forest. No one knows her true name; we simply call her our Mistress. She is a Ninetales, one of great power and hatred."
"So you're saying that some Ninetales cursed you and forced you to stay in that little forest?" Katherine asked, skeptical. "Why would she do that?"
"She hates humans. I stumbled upon that little island much as did you, but I had not your luck. I set foot inside the forest, and then she knew I was there. She is determined that her island never be brought to the attention of the outside world, and so she traps all humans who enter the forest there. There seems to be some other dimension to it as well, something that has to do with her past, but no one ever explained it to me," Jeremy turned and looked back into Katherine's face once again. "My Mistress' curse does not extend across the entire island; she has no need of that. It merely encircles most of the forest. She controls all those within its boundaries, and she can feel whenever any human enters it. Had I not distracted you, you surely would have entered and been lost. None who have entered have ever escaped, save myself. You would have been cursed as well, as I have been."
"So you're saying you were a trainer like me..." Katherine began, but Jeremy cut her off.
"I wasn't joking when I said that I would tell you on the way, you know," he said pointedly. "My Mistress will do anything to recover me, you see. She can't risk my finding out how to break the curse that she laid upon myself and the other trainers who trespassed in her forest. She will find it difficult to find me, but be assured that she will find away."
"And why should that concern me?" Katherine asked angrily. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don't want any part in this whole curse business? That maybe I have my own safety, and that of my Pokemon, to think of?"
"I am afraid that you have no choice in the matter," Jeremy said softly, his large eyes staring earnestly into Katherine. "You know my secret now. My Mistress cannot allow you to remain free to spread the word of her actions. She does not fear humans, but she knows that her own people would not stand to hear of her terrible deeds. She will come for you as she comes for me, and time is of the essence."
Jeremy's words chilled Katherine's blood. How could it be that just this morning she had been just another trainer off in search of adventure, and now she found herself caught up in a dangerous plot? What could she do?
Several moments of silence passed as Katherine quietly thought through the problem, trying to find a way out. In the end she found none. "It looks like I have no choice," she sighed. "Where is it that you think we should go, then?"
Jeremy shrugged. "Why, to the only ones who would know how to break my Mistress' curse, save herself: other Ninetales." His gaze suddenly went to the Pokeballs at on her belt, his eyes lighting up eagerly. "You're a trainer. Do you have a Ninetales?"
"Actually, I used to have a Vulpix, but I traded it to one of my friends for a Growlithe. That's how I got my Arcanine," Katherine explained. She turned to look fondly at Arcanine, one of her most loyal Pokemon. The powerfully built red wolf-like Pokemon had finished his lunch and was now running his large tongue around the inside of his bowl, hopefully checking for any morsels that he might possibly have missed.
"What about your friend, then? Do you think that maybe they might be able to let us have a talk with their Vulpix, or Ninetales if they evolved it?" Jeremy pressed.
Katherine's brow furrowed as she thought. "Well...I don't know where he is at the moment, but I'm sure his mother knows. She lives in Goldenrod, which isn't far from here. Maybe we could head over there and ask her about it."
Jeremy nodded. "That sounds like a wise idea. How soon can we leave?"
Katherine assessed the situation. All of her Pokemon were done eating, save for her Donphan, who was slowly but steadily crunching through the last bit of his food. Pidgeot was preening himself carefully and Arcanine had given up trying to find any more food in his bowl and was now rolling in the grass, an activity that seemed incongruous with his normal powerful dignity. Heracross had challenged Electabuzz to an arm wrestling match. It looked as though Electabuzz was winning again this time. Muk could be expected back at any time. All in all, it wouldn't be too long before she could have camp packed up and be ready to move out.
"It won't be too long. I need to wash out my Pokemons' food bowls and pack stuff up, but other than that there's nothing to worry about. I'd say that we could get moving in oh, say, half an hour."
Jeremy nodded with satisfaction. "That would be fine, I think."
Katherine set about packing up her camp. She returned the various items that she had been carrying in her cargo pants to their respective areas of her pack and rolled up her sleeping bag. She crumpled up the paper bag that had previously held her lunch and stowed it to be thrown away later. Slinging her canteen over her shoulder and pulling a rag and a bar of soap out of her pack, she set out to retrieve her Pokemon's bowls from them.
She didn't encounter any resistance until she attempted to retrieve Donphan's bowl. The stocky ground Pokemon was still not completely finished. "Don" he grunted irritably as he saw Katherine approaching. He scooped the remaining food out of his bowl with his thick, armored trunk and shoved it into his mouth all at once. His cheeks bulging, he chewed noisily and glared at Katherine as she took his bowl away. He hated being rushed.
Katherine took the stack of dirty bowls down to a nearby stream. The water ran swift and clear along the forest floor. A pair of Poliwags that had been frolicking in the rushing current started and disappeared beneath the surface at Katherine's approach. She set the stack of bowls down at the water's edge and kneeled before the stream. Her canteen was nearly empty, so she carefully refilled it, slinging it back over her shoulder. She then turned her attention to the task of doing the dishes. She rinsed each bowl in the rushing stream, scrubbing them with the soap and finally drying them with her rag. When the pile of dirty bowls had been transformed into a stack of clean, neatly stacked dishes, she gathered them up and set off back to camp. An unpleasant stench that assaulted her nose told her that Muk had returned while she had been away. As she neared the clearing, she heard a commotion drifting from it to her from between the trees. She sighed and shook her head. She had a pretty good idea what was happening.
Indeed, when Katherine returned to her campsite, she found Jeremy to be standing on the stump where she had left him, only now he was in a battle position. His purple fur bristled and he had slightly arched his back. He was chattering away in the language of Rattatas and showing his incisors. Muk was slowly oozing in his direction, his huge hand extended toward the small Pokemon.
The rest of Katherine's Pokemon were watching with interest and some degree of amusement, with the exception of Pidgeot. He had been too preoccupied with lunch to notice Jeremy's presence, but now that the Rattata was in plain view he had begun to become uneasy. He apparently recognized the rodent and was standing rigid, staring at him uncertainly.
For his part, Muk was just pleased to see a new friend of his trainer's. He loved friends. He was fully intending to welcome Jeremy onto Katherine's Pokemon team with a warm, if rather squishy and unpleasant, handshake. It was a tradition of his to welcome each and every new Pokemon that Katherine caught in this manner, as he assumed that this was what Jeremy was. Jeremy was clearly not pleased with this idea. Katherine hurried between the two and tried to prevent the situation from escalating.
"It's okay, Jeremy, it's just my Muk. He's very friendly, as you can see."
"Muuuuuk! Mukmuk muuuuk!" Muk agreed happily.
Katherine decided that now might be a good time to formally introduce Jeremy to her Pokemon and called out to the rest of her team, "Come on guys, I want you to meet our new friend!"
Her Pokemon approached the tree stump curiously, with the exception of Pidgeot, who hung back reluctantly and who was burbling to himself uncertainly. "This is Jeremy, guys," Katherine told them. "I didn't actually capture him, but he's going to be sticking with us for a bit, okay? And Muk, I don't really think that he needs a handshake. Your hand is almost bigger than his entire body, you see?"
Muk drew back sadly, though he did realize that that was the case. The rest of Katherine's team came closer. Arcanine sniffed Jeremy interestedly, but then seemed uncertain about him. He looked up at Katherine with a worried expression. The rest of her Pokemon also seemed uneasy around the Rattata. "Don't worry, he won't hurt you or anything. He's a friend," Katherine said to them. As she said this, however, Katherine wondered if it was really true. Sure, there wasn't much that a Rattata could do to her Pokemon team, but what if he really was something else? He even claimed that he wasn't a Rattata, after all. Could he be some sort of spy from the island that was trying to lead Katherine deeper into whatever sort of mystery lingered over that horrible place?
Katherine tried to push those fears to the back of her mind. There really wasn't any way to find out if Jeremy was a spy without stepping right into one of his traps, or at least getting to know him a little better. She went back to talking to her Pokemon. "We're going to take a little vacation from the Gym Circuit for a while. I want to see if I can meet up with Mark. You remember Mark, don't you?"
Her Pokemon nodded eagerly. They liked Mark a lot. Arcanine howled excitedly. "Caniiiiiine!" Mark had been his first trainer.
"All right, then. We'll get moving." Katherine unclipped her Pokemon's Pokeballs from her belt and recalled all of them, with the exception of Arcanine.
"Ready for a little run, Arcanine?" she asked him.
"Arrrr! Arcanine!" he roared exuberantly.
Kathirine smiled and slung her pack over her back. She then looked uncertainly down at Jeremy. "You, uh, want to ride on my shoulder or something?" she asked him.
"Sure," he replied gamely, making an impressive leap from the tree stump and onto her arm, where he clung with his small claws before pulling himself up to her shoulder.
Katherine hoisted herself up onto Arcanine's broad back. He set off at an easy pace, weaving through the underbrush. Once they reached one of Ilex Forest's more well-kept paths, he broke out into a flat-out run. Arcanine ran so gracefully that he seemed almost to be floating over the ground, or flying, as Katherine's Pokedex put it. The wind howled in her face nearly as badly as it had while she had been flying on Pidgeot, but she was used to this and was determined to get some answers out of Jeremy. She couldn't think of what to start with, though. Suddenly, an odd question popped into her head.
"When Pidgeot and I first landed on that island of yours, we saw a weird creamy Pokemon that ran away into the forest. Do you know what it was?"
Jeremy bared his teeth. "That was Nishivma, one of the guardians of the forest. She's a Persian."
"So what was she supposed to do? Keep me from coming into the forest? She wasn't doing a very good job of it."
Jeremy chuckled. "No, she's not supposed to keep people out. My Mistress wants trainers to enter the forest. The guardians are intended to keep the Cursed Pokemon, like myself, from leaving the forest. She should have stopped me from running out to you, but she could tell that you were a good trainer and didn't want to risk her fine pelt."
"The guardians watch you all of the time? Doesn't that get a little tedious for them?"
Jeremy shook his head. "Not at all. The only reason that Nishivma was skulking around was because I had already tried to escape once today, earlier in the morning. She thought I might try it again if I assumed that she wasn't watching."
"Escape to where? You were on an island, after all. You could never have made it all the way to shore if you tried to swim yourself, and if the island really is cursed, then there wouldn't be any water Pokemon who would want to go near it and would help you, either."
Jeremy's eyes acquired a strange, faraway look. "I wasn't running to the water," he said in a strange tone. "There is one spot of forest on the island where my Mistress has no power. The curse does not extend to it. The most beautiful flowers grow there..." He trailed off, staring off into the distance.
"What's so special about a bunch of flowers?" Katherine asked irritably. All of this symbolic stuff was starting to get on her nerves.
If Jeremy heard her, he didn't reply.