"What's wrong?" Chasm asked the other two. "Why aren't you moving? Where is the child?" She wondered if something had happened to them or Nero, which revealed that, despite her cold exterior, Chasm could care about others.
Erin turned around to face the umbreon. "Abadon can't figure out where he went."
Chasm was disgusted. "Can't you even catch a scent? Are you that incompetent?"
Abadon whipped his head around to look Chasm angrily in the eye. "Despite what you believe about me, Chasm, I am extremely competent. I thought you would have realized that during our battle. I defeated you as a charmeleon, what do you think I could accomplish now that I have evolved? There is a fire burning inside of me that is simply waiting to be unleashed, and I highly doubt you would like to be on the receiving end." He was breathing deeply as he stopped speaking, and an internal rage flickered within the Char's eyes, which Chasm was unable to miss. She said nothing in reply.
Erin hadn't known Abadon able to lash out like that, and was slightly unnerved. She fingered the bottom of her shirt uneasily.
"Now, about the Squirt's scent…" the charizard began again, gazing at the trees above them as if nothing had happened. "It is here, that's certain. But then, it just stops." Abadon closed his eyes and sniffed the air, just to be sure. Then he opened one eye and peeked at Chasm. "Give the air a whiff if you don't believe me."
Chasm never liked to admit to defeat, but she seemed to be doing that more often since she met these two. Still, if there was a chance that Abadon had missed something, she wanted to be assured. Closing her eyes as well, the dark pokemon slowly inhaled, as if she were savoring every scent that passed her nostrils. She picked up her delicate paws and walked forward a few steps. Sure enough, the mew's scent went no further. He had come to this particular spot and then…vanished.
Chasm opened her large yellow eyes and glared into Abadon's deep blue ones. "You are right. Or so it appears." She circled around and made her way in the direction of the path.
"Where are you going?" Erin asked.
Chasm halted her step and turned her head. "I had assumed that we would keep to the path to reach the next town. I understood that your kind preferred that to trekking blindly through the forest."
"What about Nero?" asked Abadon.
Chasm glanced toward him before turning around again and continuing her walk. "What about him?" she asked. "He has left us by some unnatural means and it doesn't appear to be returning, that he doesn't. There is nothing left for us here."
"It did seem like there was something here that he recognized, though," added Erin. "Remember? He was saying something about a kite."
"No," said the charizard thoughtfully. "I think he said Khyt, like a name. There was someone here, and he knew who it was."
"But there is no scent of anyone else. It would have to have been a grass type; they smell the same as the earth."
"Or a ghost type. They don't have any kind of scent at all."
"Possibly. It gives us something to think about anyway." Once more, Chasm made her way back to the trail.
"But we can't just leave!" Erin protested suddenly. "What if Nero comes back and there's no one here? What if he almost dies again; there won't be anybody here to help him next time…"
Chasm listened calmly to her argument that sounded close to hysteria, and then glanced around the forest. "I highly doubt that he will, that I do." Then she looked back at Erin and studied her closely. "And I believe you feel this as well."
Erin didn't reply, for she realized that she had felt this, she simply didn't want to admit it to herself. She had helped to rescue the mew child, and she felt responsible for him because of this, but now she could do nothing.
Chasm turned once more to the path. This time the others followed.
"I hope the squirt's okay…" mumbled Abadon softly to himself. No one answered.
The three walked in silence for a few minutes, each caught in their own thoughts. Abadon had become worried that something dangerous had befallen Nero. Chasm was doing her best to decipher what she had seen in the Char's eyes when he had become enraged. Erin thoughts were more sporadic, ranging from the coming war to the weather to how they were going to pay for supplies once they got to the next town. Finally she said, "I wonder how far away the closest city is. I think I overheard a few people talking in the town we left, and they said that it was a ways off. I hope it's not too far, because we're running low on food, and I prefer not to have to hunt to survive. No offence you two."
"None taken," replied Abadon. Chasm remained silent. Suddenly, Abadon's face brightened as a smile spread across it's front. "Hey! I have an idea. Why don't you two get on my back and I can fly you to the next town? It would be much faster than even taking a car."
At the mention of flying, two things happened. Erin became excited at the thought of soaring through the air, and Chasm became horrified that she would even consider it. She refused to go. The umbreon insisted that she simply didn't want to be that close to anyone and she wasn't sure the large dolt (meaning Abadon) was strong enough to carry both of them so far. Abadon insisted heartily that he was perfectly able to do so. Erin thought that Chasm might be afraid of heights, but wouldn't damage the dark pokemon's pride by saying so.
Erin took Chasm over to the side and explained to her that if she didn't look down then she wouldn't be able to tell the difference from riding in a car over rough terrain. Chasm said that, being a wild pokemon, she had never ridden in a car and at the moment couldn't think of a reason that would ever bring her to do so. This was posing a problem.
"Please, Chasm," pleaded Erin. "Just give it a try. If you don't like it, then we can stop. I'll make Abadon land and we'll walk the rest of the way, but please just attempt it before refusing."
"I never gave the implication that I was afraid to go up that high," Chasm retorted weakly. Then she looked up at Erin and saw to great desire to ride on the Char, and finally relented. Chasm knew however, that once she got up in the air, that she would not tell them to land, for no matter how great her fear of heights was, her pride was greater. They mounted Abadon's back.
"Hold on!" hollered Abadon happily. Before any reply could be made, he gave one mighty thrust of his wings and lifted his legs off the ground. Another thrust gave him more leeway, and with two more, the Char had cleared the trees. Soon, all three were soaring through the clouds. Abadon glanced back at his passengers and saw where their differences truly lie. He had never seen a wider grin spread across Erin's face, and her eyes were full of amazement. Chasm, on the other hand, had her eyes shut tight and sat rigid with Erin's arms around her. This time he made no smart-aleck comment toward the umbreon, but turned his head back to the flight path and concentrated on keeping as steady as possible.
In the near past, scientists had discovered a few charizard skeletons that were only around a hundred years old. They had human skeletons nearby that were assumed to be their riders. The neck portion of the Chars' vertebral column had been broken. And so, to solve the puzzle and answer the question as to why this had occurred, the scientists said that it must have been because the riders had been sitting wrong when they rode on their charizard's back. A lifetime of sitting at the base of their necks had weakened them and they eventually couldn't take the pressure any longer. The Char trainers of the time naturally changed their posture when flying and now rode lying down across their backs in a specially made harness.
Now, while the scientists' conclusion had some merit to it, they really didn't understand what was happening, and so couldn't have drawn conclusions that were completely correct. The scientists didn't understand that their world was dying. They didn't understand that wild pokemon were becoming more and more scarce, and that their cloned pokemon were becoming slightly weaker and weaker each time their genetic information was reused. The world of pokemon they had known up until this point was fading right before their eyes, and the scientists were blind to it.
Since the charizard were not as strong as they once were, they naturally could not hold as much weight as they once could. Their bones were becoming more brittle, and so they could no longer support the full weight of a rider on their neck over a lifetime, as they once were able. Their necks broke from the strain in mid-flight, killing the Char almost instantly, and killing the rider once they made impact with the ground. And so the race of the Chars began to die out. But the world would not have it this way. No, the Chars along with the other depleting pokemon of the land fought within their selves for survival and began to multiply once more, this time slightly different than before. Soon however, there were no Chars left in captivity to take DNA from, and they, as well as the ridiculous way of riding, died out from the sight of common man. But there were those that survived.
That brings us back to Erin, who knew nothing of this, and was riding Abadon as trainers did in the old days, before genetic cloning was a possibly and the Chars of the land were strong and able. She couldn't remember a time when she had felt freer in her life. Her mind glimpsed for a brief moment back to the Academy, and realized that now, she had finally broken the bonds in which they had held her. Erin realized that their way of teaching pokemon training had worked, and was most likely necessary, for an age, but would soon no longer be needed. Like the gods and Warriors of Old, everything died out and was replaced by something else at some point in time; nothing could last forever.
After a time, Chasm calmed down. She was no longer quite as tense and even opened her eyes. She did not, however, look down, but focused her attention strait ahead, firm and unmoving. It seemed that once again, Abadon was correct in stating that he was perfectly able to carry the both of them for a long period of time. The excitement of soaring above the land, or fear in Chasm's case, had made the group forget about all else, including hunger, and so they flew on through lunch, only realizing this when Erin's stomach growled, nearly deafening the umbreon. Naturally, this gave Chasm an ideal excuse to request a landing.
The trio landed a few miles off from a city, which in turn, was only a few miles from the ocean. Night was creeping up on them as well, so Erin said that they had better keep going if they were to find shelter for the night. Storm clouds looked to be heading their way, and she did not want to be camping outside in the rain. She ate on the way. Despite the coming storm and the loss of a friend, things seemed to be looking bright in Erin's point of view.