Sorry this chapter's a day late, I didn't have time to write it this week and wound up doing the whole thing on Saturday.

Negrek – Well, Elliot won't have the golduck for too long, so he'll get Sono back in a couple of chapters (but that does mean she'll be pretty much sitting out the end of the story. Poor Sono. But it wouldn't have been fair to turn in Discord again, and Elliot likes having Howler around). And you're so suspicious of the Nurse Joys! They've never given back a 'dead' pokemon – Michael threw a fit when his pokemon was reported as 'critically injured' and this time the Nurse Joy was only saying it needed to be put down. (Whether or not that Nurse Joy is now regretting not lying and saying it was already dead…I'll leave you to guess)

Sunlight – I'm glad to hear you like the mystery. As to Elliot winning his badges easily…they are always pretty close, and could often have gone either way. But then, perhaps that's suspiciously easy. Michael did tell him to fight certain gym leaders first for whatever reason. Explanations are forthcoming…but not quite yet! :)

Chapter Thirtyone: Disagreements, Anxieties, Oddness

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In a jumble of underbrush, in a quiet forest, a Greatball suddenly began to twitch, then broke open. Caw materialized.

Caw had been kept in that ball for a long time, and he'd become so used to it he'd learned to sense the passing of time, even sometimes a vague idea of what was outside. He had also learned to open it himself, although he did so rarely, only at times like this when he sensed something was wrong.

Elliot was lying awkwardly on the ground. The blood on his head had dried into a mass only somewhat darker than his brown hair. His eyes were closed and his skin was pasty with red scrapes, but he was breathing.

Caw looked around. They were at the bottom of a ravine, and looking up, he could see exposed ground right by the top where Elliot had stepped, slipped, and removed the leaf cover when his feet had been. He'd no doubt rolled through the starved, dwarfish bushes on his way down, slowing his fall, and the plants at the bottom had cushioned him somewhat. The ground under the murkrow's feet was somewhat wet and spongy, but as a flying type, he didn't think anything of it.

Flapping his wings enough to reach the top of the ravine, Caw was rewarded by seeing more of the same. Forest in all directions, without so much as a thin dirt path. It would take him a while to get to the nearest town, and longer still for anyone to return. And as a murkrow, he'd had a lot of trouble attracting anyone's attention, at least positively. He considered bringing Elliot's pokedex or another item, but that would just be written off as something he'd stolen. The murkrow wished suddenly that the people of Kanto had made at least one trainer gadget that was not bright and shiny. And even in Kanto, people wouldn't be very tolerant of a murkrow, especially not trainers who saw him carrying something that looked like he'd stolen from another trainer. They tended to be annoyed by that. No, going to a town would just result in him being captured and – if he was lucky – being given to someone new.

Sono's pokeball was missing. Caw doubted the spearow would have been able to fly the distance anyway, and certainly couldn't have carried anything to show she was trained. Elliot's other pokemon walked, so it was certain they'd take far too long – if they got there at all. There was one pokeball Caw didn't recognize, but he didn't want to try opening it. It might only make things worse.

No other choice, than. He pecked one of the balls around Elliot's waist, an Ultraball, twice, and was smacked through the bushes a second later.

Prowler glanced around to orient herself, and her eyes immediately caught on Elliot. Her head whipped back towards the murkrow.

((I did nothing,)) Caw said from a treebranch. He was perching close to the trunk where the branch was thickest, uncomfortably aware that he might not be able to get airborne if she tried to climb. ((Look around. He slipped down, into this gully.))

Prowler looked around again, then back to the boy. She didn't relax. She also noticed the cold wetness of the ground, and unlike Caw, she found it significant.

((Can you carry him?)) Caw asked.

((No,)) Prowler said flatly. She lifted one paw as if considering walking, then set it down again. She looked at him again. ((Bird. Look for a flat place with two hills meeting. Where the ground is higher up than this.))

((What? No, we don't have time for tat. We need to get him back to the town he came from. He needs help.))

((I am help,)) Prowler said. ((Bird. Go and find a flat place with two hills meeting. A place with three sides and dry ground.)) He didn't move. ((Go!))

Caw considered. There was nothing he could do. He wasn't a trainer, the other pokemon wouldn't listen to him, and besides, they weren't big enough to move him. He doubted Prowler's idea would do anything for Elliot, but arguing here wasn't doing anything either. After a moment, he beat his wings and flew off.

He returned shortly, finding Elliot had been moved somewhat, up slightly onto the side rather than remaining in the center. From the way the plants were crushed, it was clear Prowler had dragged him up. He was annoyed she had moved him so pointlessly. He knew it was bad to move the injured, although he accepted it as necessary if they were to get him back to a town. But moving Elliot just so she didn't have to stand in the water was selfish. He considered saying as much but realized that until Elliot woke, there wasn't anything he could do.

((I found a place,)) Caw said.

((Show me,)) Prowler said. She forced her head under Elliot, undulating her neck to slide him backward until she managed to get him balanced on her back.

((So you can carry him,)) Caw said, annoyed. ((What were you waiting for, then? Bring him up the slope and see if you can smell the way back to the road.))

((Stupid Bird. Where is the place?))

((No! You can carry him, bring him to the town! He needs-))

((To fall off my back until his neck breaks? Or would you rather I dragged him until his flesh sloughed off his bones? I can't bring him where you want, he'll have to walk it himself. Now. Show me or I'll find it myself.))

Caw did.

-

-

The place he brought her to was not the best – flying types rarely thought much about the subtleties of terrain – but it would work well enough. The ground was sandy and dry, the thinner plants allowing more light in, and, if Elliot was lucky, the unknown time he'd spent already lying in the cold, wet, shaded gully wouldn't kill him. The hills were larger than she had meant – trust a flying type human-wishing Bird to take her too literally and look for something big enough for the humans to give a name, she thought blackly. But they met and formed a space that was deeper than wide, a three-sided, narrow, v-shaped wall of dirt. A human, like Prowler, who was experienced in the matter would consider it halfway done for the construction of a temporary place to live. But they would think immediately towards trying to put something over the top. Human adaptations were often geared towards adding to existing things, building more onto what they started with.

Prowler, instead, nosed the Premierball still around Elliot's waist, then directed Din to help her carve out a hole in the hill. Prowler was not practiced at this, and she had never attempted to dig out a hole rather than enlarge an existing one. Still, she was competent enough and did know how to do it. Din had never dug anything but was still better than nothing.

Before it was dark they had excavated a hollow in the sandy soil of the hill, and Prowler stuffed Elliot into this, snarling at Howler, whose pokeball Caw had opened earlier and who had been lying by Elliot's side while the other two worked.

((A fire,)) Caw said. He'd been complaining about that for well over an hour, Prowler thought, irritated. ((We need a fire.))

((No fire.)) Prowler's voice was flat and uncompromising.

((The boy is injured. It will be night soon.))

((No fire,)) Prowler said again. She snarled at Howler again as he tried to get past her to approach Elliot, and the growlithe whimpered and backed away, tail tucked between his legs.

The disrespect toward the growlithe infuriated Caw, but there was still nothing he could do. A fight with Prowler would help nothing, and might well end with him dead. He wondered distractedly if the persian would eat him or if she would only leave him to rot. Not the sort of question he should ask, he knew. And he couldn't afford to get into another argument. He had to convince her of this.

((Scared, persian?))

((Fire brings things,)) Prowler said through a mouthful of hair. She was trying to lick the blood off of Elliot.

This was not the answer he had been expecting. Nor was it one that made sense. ((You've never minded leaving him before,)) Caw said, an accusing tone creeping into his voice.

((He is asleep and smells like blood. There is only her and a little spearow and a puffball and a malformed thing and a damned bird here. Things come.)) She looked out into the forest.

Caw did not correct her about Sono. It wouldn't help his case. ((There's nothing out there,)) he said.

((This is not your place, Bird. This is not your cities or your strange false forests and mountains and there are not your humans here. There are things. No fire.))

((What do you think is here?)) Caw demanded, his voice rising louder. ((You've gone out nightly, you know there's nothing there that could beat either of us and it wouldn't attack a human even if it did! You've going to kill him over your own insane fears!))

((If there had been a fire…)) Prowler trailed off. ((I was here. I know. I wasn't the only thing here. There are worse things. And we, we wouldn't have left him if we smelled him. We knew of humans, knew at least enough that we would kill them had we met any.))

Caw digested this. He had heard – the sort of trainers who hid here wouldn't tolerate intruders. But they were close to a town. ((Trainers like that wouldn't be this close to people,)) Caw told her.

((What trainers?))

((Ones like yours. Gen trainers, fallers.))

Prowler hissed angrily. ((I had no trainer.))

((Don't be stupid, persian! Don't you get it? There are no groups of persian! None! There never have and there never will be! There have never been persian and there have never been wilds who hunted humans and the only thing we had to fear are the fallers who live away from the cities!))

Prowler turned away from him and returned to her licking.

((Don't you understand?)) the murkrow screamed at her. ((It's not true! There are no wild persian packs and dangerous things you won't name! There is no place there aren't trainers and there never has been, do you understand? The fallers are the only danger there has ever been and they would never be this close to a town!))

Prowler ignored him.

-

-

When Elliot woke up he found himself somewhere gritty and dark. As his eyes focused he discovered he was in a shallow dirt cave, with Howler lying at his side between him and the outside air. Almost as soon as he realized this Howler realized he was awake and began happily licking his face.

He pushed past the growlithe and crawled out. His head ached, and touching it gingerly he felt a hard scab and a big, sore lump. His back hurt as well, probably because he'd been lying with his backpack on. Outside was Prowler, facing away from him into the forest, and after a few seconds he managed to pick out Caw's form on a tree branch a bit of a ways off. Din ran into his line of sight a moment later, her tail wagging when she saw him.

((You shouldn't have come here,)) Prowler said. Her neck turned and she regarded him over her shoulder.

Caw flapped down to land on the ground near him. ((I agree,)) he said. ((Why did you do this? Don't you understand how dangerous it is here?))

"I-I didn't know there would be rockets here," Elliot said.

((Rockets?)) Caw repeated. Pieces clicked together in his head. ((That was how you came to be injured, and off the path,)) he said, figuring it out. ((For them to be here…no matter, it doesn't change things. You need to go back to the town you left.))

"Why? Are – will they come back?"

Caw considered for a moment. ((They have not appeared yet, so, it is likely they have left. You don't need to worry about that. Rockets aren't a danger to you.))

"What do you mean? They attacked me!"

((You wouldn't have been hurt,)) Caw said. ((Rockets don't hurt trainers. I've never heard of them doing that. It's what's in the mountains you need to worry about.))

"What?"

((That isn't important.)) Caw pointed one wing awkwardly, an unnatural posture for him. ((We brought you from over there. If you go back in that way, you should be able to find the path you were on. You need to follow that back the way you came.))

"But what if the rockets-"

((You don't need to worry about rockets!)) Caw snapped, interrupting him. ((You have to go back. If you go any further, there's no telling what will happen.))

"I don't want to go back that way," Elliot said softly.

Caw opened his beak as if to speak, then shut it with an inaudible clack and remained silent.

"It's not too far," Elliot said, feeling like a little kid trying to justify himself to a suddenly frigid parent. He shrugged his backpack off his shoulders and unzipped it, pulling out the map.

((Out of date,)) Caw said without looking at it.

"If I start on another path, it'll be okay."

Prowler walked over and stared at the paper. Elliot traced his finger along a line of the map. "I think I'm here," he said. "So there should be another path around here…and I can take that."

Prowler didn't comment. What a bunch of flat lines had to do with paths was beyond her, nor did she care. She had no opinion on the forward-backward argument. She just knew they had to move.

"Is this where you lived, Prowler?" Elliot asked.

((No. That was – further away, I think. North.))

"So there aren't any persian here?"

((I don't know.))

((There aren't any persian,)) Caw said firmly. ((Because there never were any wild persian in the mountains to begin with.))

Prowler paid no attention to the murkrow, and his comment went unchallenged.

-

-

Prowler and Caw were both firm they should remain out. Caw refused to explain, while Prowler's answer was a vague comment that the mountains were dangerous. Both seemed on edge, and their anxiety transferred to Elliot, who became more and more nervous as time went on, his fear changing from that of rockets to a hazy unknown something.

Going was slow. On the third day, a few hours past noon, Prowler paused, sniffing the air. Wordlessly she jumped off the path and disappeared. Elliot yelled after her and got an answering promise she'd return 'soon'.

((She's probably just going off to stuff her face,)) Caw said. He sounded somewhat jealous as he stared off in the direction she'd gone, as if he wished he could do the same.

Prowler caught up with them less than an hour later, her fur wet as if she'd been soaked and had only just started drying on the way back.

Caw chastised her. ((You shouldn't go off like that,)) he said. ((You know that. Leaving your trainer for a meal. And here, it's completely irresponsible too.))

((A meal,)) Prowler repeated, her voice inscrutable. ((A meal. I'm not like you, carrion eater.))

((Why are you lying about it? I can smell it on you, even if you did try to wash it off.))

((He was in the water,)) Prowler said. ((That's why I'm wet.))

((You fished it out? A lot of trouble for a meal.))

((Thrice-damned Bird,)) Prowler hissed. ((How can a thing like you understand? Kin-eater.)) She looked at Elliot. ((Why have you stopped walking? You're slow enough, you can't afford to take longer.))

Elliot started walking again without thinking. "Where did you go?" he asked her.

((A river. It was nearby.))

River…stuffing her face…in the water…she had killed a…"You – you ate a po-"

((Do I look like a cursed murkrow?)) she snarled at him. He took a step back, not understanding her sudden anger. ((Would you – would you eat the body of your sister you found rotted so far you could barely even tell what he had been!)) She was shaking furiously.

Caw made a derisive cackle. ((Then what were you doing?))

((He wouldn't have wanted – the body was in the water. I – I just – he had to be moved.)) Prowler's voice had become oddly subdued. ((He had to be moved.))

-

-

It was well into the fourth day when Elliot saw the odd pokemon. He was walking along without paying much attention, focusing on not tripping over the rocks and tree roots that littered – or, by this point, made up – the path. Prowler was trailing behind, her ears pricked as if listening to something. Elliot had no idea what that might be, even the birds were often quiet now.

Elliot saw motion and looked toward it. For a moment he didn't see anything besides a shadow under a rock overhang, but then his eyes picked out two others, each a dull golden color, and then a bit of dark tail lying exposed, then a tiny bit of one leg on the other side. The thing was hiding in the shadow, but it didn't quite fit. Suddenly, it moved at an eerie slither, looking more like a fish darting through the water than any land pokemon. It seemed not to move at all but to just glide somehow out, and at a disturbingly fast speed. It stopped atop the rock and lay there unmovingly again.

It was flat against the stone, looking bizarrely like it had been crushed, with its legs sticking out at its sides rather than underneath it. Its tail was easily half its total length, a long, whip-like thing that thickened into a muscular base thicker than Elliot's thumb. The pokemon's body couldn't have been larger than Elliot's palm, just a few inches in size.

Elliot pulled out his pokedex and opened it, but the screen only fuzzed slightly and then went black. He stared at it for a moment in surprise – was it broken? He started to pull out a pokeball, intending to catch the strange pokemon, but it cocked its head at him, like it was considering him, then raced off the rock and disappeared into the leaf-litter with a rustling sound.

"Oh…" Elliot said, disappointed. He put the pokeball back. Caw fluttered down to see what had happened, and Elliot explained.

Caw volunteered no information on what the name of the pokemon might have been. Instead he said enigmatically it was probably for the best.

-

-

After the experience with the pokedex, Elliot checked other things of his and found them equally unfunctioning. Only the pokeballs seemed to be working.

Was there some kind of interference or something? Elliot thought he'd heard about places that had magnetic or electrical fields that prevented machinery from working. He thought he'd heard certain pokemon could cause that too. Maybe that black pokemon was one of those, or maybe there was some other pokemon around that could do it.

Two days later, when he checked, they were working again, but had a tendency to cut out suddenly in the middle of doing something. By the end of the day, they were fine. Elliot guessed he must have left the interference range of whatever it was.

The day after that, the forest started to look normal again, and then finally ended. Elliot hurried along and came to a city.

He had wound up in Cerulean.

Two more chapters to go!

Next chapter: Elliot finds himself in a somewhat uneasy Cerulean City, and heads out to see Bill.