"Get in the van," the man said calmly.
The language he used was typical Human. Still, it was a language that almost every hybrid knew- for some reasons it was taught at schools. Jaru's Human was understandable, but a bit shaky- he kept mixing up grammar for some reason. He found Kerain easier. It was more often used on the streets or at home; the mother tongue to most.
Jaru didn't move. He'd never actually seen a human, before, and wondered what he could do. He didn't seem very intent or anything except pointing the gun, though, but that was lethal enough.
"I said, get in the van."
Something leapt up on him from behind, and it looked and fought like Kret. Tuftee was there too, but he seemed to be hanging back, unsure of how to fight him.
"Give me some help here!" Kret yelled, before sinking his teeth into the human's neck.
Tuftee hesitated. "We might kill him."
"He'll kill us!"
The man howled at the next attack, but kept a firm hold on the shotgun. Twisting it behind him, he pressed it against Kret's skin and fired. Jaru was there, headbutting the man, but at the gunshot he retreated, while Tuftee anxiously examined Kret, who was managing to sit up.
"Get in the van, or I'll shoot you two as well," the man continued. He moved the barrel slowly over the three's chests. He'd only hit Kret in the leg, but it was bleeding a lot. Himself, his neck was bleeding where he'd been bitten, but only lightly.
Tuftee reluctantly climbed into the van. Jaru stared but Kret seemed to be trying to pull himself up too. The gun settled back on Jaru, with the man giving a questioning look to him. Glaring, he followed suit, pulling Kret into the back.
"Why did you..." he hissed, but they were interrupted.
"I don't want to hear any of that tongue. If you must talk, you speak in my language, understand?" He stared in the cabin.
Hit him, Jaru willed himself. Fire a Dragonbreath at him. But something made him stay back, the same thing he suspected had stopped Tuftee from attacking. He couldn't hurt him, and they couldn't run off- what about Kret?
"Help..." Jaru said, pointing at Kret. It was vital that this man understood; he wished he's payed more attention at school. "He need help."
In reply, the man slammed the doors shut, leaving them in darkness. Quickly, the van started moving. They were driving off somewhere. Jaru would have liked to have known how they were escaping, but there were no windows in this section of the van, and they were seperated from the front.
"Where do you think we're going?" Kret's voice said. He sounded calm and normal, if not quiet.
"I don't know. Among humans, I think," Tuftee relied. "Is your leg all right, Kret?"
"I've just been shot by a gun, but other than that, I should be OK."
"Is it still bleeding?"
"Yes. I think." The other two could hear fabric ripping.
Jaru turned back to him, though he couldn't see a thing. "What're you doing?"
"Don't worry, I just need to bind my leg with something. I'm using my shirt, OK?"
"Is the bullet still in there?"
Kret sighed. "I think it went through. It won't stop bleeding, I don't know what happened."
Jaru suddenly turned and banged on the metal seperating them from the man. "Help!" he shouted.
"He won't."
Kret was moaning again. "Why didn't I blast him with fire?"
"It might have missed and set fire to the trees or this van," Tuftee pointed out.
Kret growled. "I know, but I might have avoided him. If only he'd dropped the gun."
"You two can't use fire attacks now, that's for certain. This place stinks of petrol fumes," Tuftee said.
"I know," Kret replied, sighing.
Jaru had gone back to banging. "Help us!" he yelled. "His leg... it is bleeding!"
The man's voice sounded. "Be quiet!"
"But he can... die! He loses blood!"
The van went on moving. Jaru turned back to the others. "He won't listen."
"I'll live, it's not that bad," Kret said. "Hybrids are tough- I'll heal quickly."
"Then that must have been some shot to make you bleed like that."
The van suddenly stopped. The three boys barely dared to breathe as they heard a door slam, before sunlight flooded onto them as the doors opened. The man was standing there, holding what looked like a mass of straps. Jaru and Tuftee didn't recognise it, but Kret did.
"What is it?" Jaru asked.
"It's something they use to stop pokemon biting," Kret replied, glaring at the man.
"I said, don't speak that uncivilized language!" the man said.
Kret didn't bother to reply in words. He growled, something that the man could easily understand.
Gun in one hand, muzzle in the other, the man leant forward and pulled the straps tight over Kret's nose. He couldn't stop it without the man firing again, so let himself be dragged out of the van.
"Are you injured?" the man demanded the other two.
Jaru and Tuftee both shook their heads. They couldn't bear to see Kret, the one who always fought to get his own way, bound and captured like a prisoner or common pokemon.
The man nodded and kicked Kret to the ground, where he lay silent. Then he drew a length of rope from around his waist, and roughly pulled Jaru towards him, before tying his hands behind him and his feet together quickly. Then, after a glance to make sure Kret wasn't escaping, he did the same with Tuftee, before slamming the doors shut.
Silence and blackness pushed around them from all sides. Jaru could hear the man's angry voice and wondered where they were going and who would hear them. From what he'd seen, it was an isolated area with a large building to one side.
"What are they going to do to us?" Tuftee asked, worried.
"I don't know." Then: "Do you think he's going to help Kret?"
"No. He was treating him badly."
"But if one of us died after all the trouble he went to get us..."
A pause, before Tuftee said: "This isn't happening."
"It is, but it shouldn't be."
"Do you know where we are?"
"Definatly not Oslaw. I think near Olivine."
"They were treating Kret like a slave."
"Maybe we're going to be slaves."
Tuftee nodded in the darkness. "Olivine's got a port, right? We could be shipped out to other places like cargo."
"Mmm."
Jaru didn't want to talk any more. He wanted to think about what had happened, and wonder how they'd let it happen. Why hadn't they just gone ahead and attacked him outright? What was going to happen? His binds were cutting into his thick skin, uncomfortable but not painful.
Footsteps. Doors opening and more sunlight. Jaru looked up to see three people- the man and two of his friends. He cowered slightly, before trying to make himself look brave. The humans didn't seem to notice- they reached in and grabbed Tuftee, letting him fall on the floor.
Jaru tried to fight at first, but remembered how useless it was, and let himself be pulled out too. Turning back to the van, he saw the third man pull out what looked like a body bag. Jaru shuddered. Then, looking around, he suddenly saw that none of them had guns, so he started to struggle.
The next thing he knew, there was a pain in his neck, and everything faded into black.
Jaru woke up what felt like some hours later in a very cramped place. Metal pressed against his skin, leaving a criss-cross pattern when he moved his arm or leg away. His neck was still hurting and he felt as though he were very tired, possibly because it was quite dark. He was so uncomfortable and tired that he immediatly made to fall asleep again.
"Jaru!" hissed a voice.
He tried to look around, but there was no space; instead, he shifted his neck ever so sightly and saw Tuftee out of the corner of his vision, very close beside him.
Tuftee looked even more cramped- he was lying curled up on his side with the wiring biting into his knees, and their cages seemed to be touching.
"Do you know where we are?" Jaru whispered.
"No." Tuftee coughed. "But we're not the only ones."
Jaru's eyes quickly scanned what he could see. There was only a little light, enough to see in greyed vision, and the whole place semlt musty. He could see what looked like another hybrids in cage. He wondered if it was Kret.
"What happened?"
"They injected something into your neck when you started fighting, and it knocked you out," Tuftee said quickly, "Then they dragged us and this other hybrid who was in that bag thing in here and crammed us into cages. That was about an hour ago."
"There was someone in the van with us?" he asked.
"Uh-huh. I couldn't see who they were exactly, but they were unconcious. I think they're in the other cage."
"So where's Kret?"
"I don't know."
Jaru shivered. "You think we should sleep?"
"I don't think there's anything else we could do," Tuftee said. "I don't know if they're going ot feed us or anything. I almost wish I hadn't seen that ruddy human."
"Almost?"
"Well, he could have gone for someone else if he didn't find us."
"He'll go back to Oslaw," Jaru whispered.
Before Tuftee could reply, there were footsteps echoing around the small room, and the door opened wider. "Someone forgot to lock the door," said an unfamiliar voice. Then it pushed open wider and a light flicked on, making the boys squint. The human this time looked to be a boy no older than them, and he knelt down beside Jaru's cave and stared.
"Hey, cool," said the boy.
Jaru resisted the urge to spit in the boy's face, and instead remained silent, glaring at him.
The boy didn't look away. In fact, he stared back. "Can... you... understand... me?" he said, slowly.
Jaru said nothing, but Tuftee gave a whimper and closed his eyes, which drew the boy's attention.
"You OK?" he said, actually sounding alarmed. Maybe he's grasped the fact that we feel things as much as you do, Jaru thought.
Tuftee just whimpered again and said nothing. Another, female, voice made Jaru almost jump out of his skin.
"You've taken him from his home, beaten him and locked him in a cage barely big enough to hold him. What do you think?"
The human boy jumped too, and Jaru's eyes focused on the speaker. She appeared to be a spearow hybrid, and slightly older than them. She was glaring at the boy, and was in a small a cage as them, although her wings made it look smaller.
"You actually talk?"
The spearow had spoken in perfect Human, but now said nothing. Jaru spoke up. "Yes."
Startled, the boy stepped back, before turning back to them. "I- I didn't know."
"So."
"Is this how you treat pokemon then?" asked the girl. "Or do we get special treatment now we talk?"
"I could get you food," the boy said.
"You listen," Jaru croaked. "Our friend, he is called Kret. He was shot in leg and is hurt. Do you know him?"
"Do I know where he is?" the boy asked.
"Yes."
"Sorry, I don't. But I know where the hospital is."
"What they do to us?" Jaru asked quickly.
The boy's face clouded over. "I don't know." He looked at the other, two, then at Tuftee. "Can I help him?"
"You could let us out."
The boy frowned at the girl. "I can't. They'd kill me."
While the girl suddenly started insulting the boy with a volley of unknown human words, Jaru sat and thought. Humans must be more violent than we realised. Would they put a gun to one of their young?
As soon as the swearing subsided, the boy spoke again. "Listen. I can get you food. What're your names?"
Silence. Jaru did not want to answer that question- there were some things you kept quiet to strangers.
"Look, please. My name's Jason." He wasn't lying.
Jaru sighed. "Jaru."
"Fine. I am Rehtaef. You will call me Taef," the spearow girl said. "But I am only telling you that because I could do a hundred things with your name, and human lies don't fool me."
Tuftee remained silent, but his hand gripped through the metal on Jaru's cage. He understood. "He is Turk."
Jason nodded. "I'll be back soon. And I'll look for your friend. What species is he?"
"Species?"
"He means species, type," Taef said in Kerain.
"He is houndour," Jaru said. "Badly hurt."
Jason said nothing more, and left the room, leaving silence behind.
E/N: Yes, Kerain is the language of pokemon. That I use, anyway. I use it as a hybrid's first language. Oh, and I got Taef's name from "feather" backwards. I was running out of ideas.