Vulpix4Life, The Cougar, and Kindly Kold, thanks for your reviews, and sorry for the lateness of this chapter.
Chapter 5
"Got ya!" Umbreon exclaimed happily as he finally pinned Fern to the ground. She let out a pitiful mew that caught him off guard for a few seconds, in which she whipped out from under Umbreon and tackled him, causing him to fall over sideways.
Noric jumped in at this point, mewing loudly and charging at Fern. She was alerted to him quickly, and easily dodged his attack before jumping and landing on his back. The young Eevee gave a shrill cry as Fern clamped down on the scruff of his neck.
"Very good Fern!" Finally got her to stop as Takula purred praise at her. Fireburst had asked the Vaporeon to watch over Noric for the day, seeing as she had 'important deputy business' to attend to. Secretly, they all knew that Fireburst's new job had gotten to her head.
Fern held her head in an 'I'm better then you' pose as she stepped off of a very fluffed-up Noric and padded back over to her favorite spot in the clearing in which most tyros have their training. Umbreon gave Noric's ear a reassuring lick as Takula yowled out the order for Umbreon and Noric to try each other in a play battle.
Noric danced out of the way of the paw swipe that Umbreon aimed at him before slipping on the leaf litter and falling on his nose. Umbreon, taking advantage of this momentary weakness, tackled into Noric as fast as he could. The Eevee when sprawling onto a newcomer, the Vulpix from yesterday. "Hey! Watch it buddy!" The Vulpix exclaimed as both he and Noric hit a tree and caused the last leaf on it to fall onto the ground.
"Sorry." Both Umbreon and Noric blurt at the same moment as Fern snorted at the newcomer's scent.
"Eaglefire," She growled, "You're friendly with us?"
"Yeah, yeah!" The Vulpix barked in reply, leering at the Eevee, "Even a tyro should know that by now."
The Vulpix and Fern glared at each other for a long moment before Takula interrupted them with a bright exclamation. "So! What brings you to the Whitefang Pack, little Vulpix?" Vulpix suddenly froze as his eyes turned to Takula, giving her a death glare and growling at her.
"I am not little!" The Vulpix roared instead, causing Umbreon to shuffle nervously, "I have news for your leader, and that Umbreon and Eevee need to hunt with me."
"Right…" Takula responded, sounding unsure about the last part, "Pack grounds are this way, you'll find our leader sitting under a big oak tree in the far left corner. Umbreon, Noric, go with him to see that he finds it. And Fern, you go hunt and find us the plumpest Spearow you can get!"
Umbreon and Noric fell into step with the Vulpix just as Fern started to complain about the size of prey these days. Both of them were purring with laughter as the Vulpix started to talk, "Why in the world did you have to say her name yesterday?"
"Whose name?" Noric asked meekly.
"That… that… Vaporeon's name. It caused the queens to be upset for hours!"
Noric adverted his gaze away from the Vulpix's as he responded in a quiet voice, "What's wrong with Ta- err, the Vaporeon's name?"
"It's bad! That's why!" Was the only response he got, "Well, there is good news to all of this; Flamedance has had her litter last night."
Umbreon and Noric let out mews of jubilation before Umbreon realized something that would ruin it all. "But… those pups won't have the fur to withstand the cold moons! They won't survive, none of your pups will…"
"Umbreon," The Vulpix responded with a huff, "You've thinking too much, and have missed an important point. Eaglefire is made of all the same fire type Pokemon, Vulpix and Ninetales. We have a very high body heat, which all of the queens give off every single day. Now that you know that, you can see that all of our pups shall be kept very warm throughout the cold moons. You're thinking of your own pack, right?"
Umbreon nodded quietly, feeling embarrassed that that had to be explained to him. The Vulpix continued, "Well, your pack doesn't have pups because you all aren't warm enough. Ha, is this the place?"
Both Umbreon and Noric nodded in reply as they had reached the heart of Whitefang Pack grounds. Vulpix didn't need instructions on how to Blazewind, as she had come to him. "What's the problem?" She asked curtly.
"My pack greets you with sincere friendship, leader Blazewind." The Vulpix greeted the pack leader with a bowed head, "We are in need of your help, for there is a big rumor flying around that the Houndour have gotten a new leader again."
"Ah, again." Blazewind repeated, like it was no big deal that the Houndour had gotten yet another leader, "And this is the extent of your important news?"
"No, no ma'am!" The Vulpix stammered quickly, "We now know the pack's new name, Blackfire Pack. This is because the rumor includes the thought that Blackfire has joined forces with Staticstrike Pack to drive us out of the forest for good."
Blazewind was starting to take this information seriously, "And after they are done with Eaglefire, they will want the blood of the Whitefang Pack next. I understand now."
"Our pack beseeches you Blazewind; will your pack join ours in the battle against Staticstrike and finish them off for good?"
Other pack members had begun to gather around Blazewind and the Vulpix, and they let out cries, mostly supporting joining in on the battles. After the noise died down some, Blazewind boomed at the top of her voice, "My pack will always fight for the good, to help the ones that are in need! So our answer to you is yes! We shall always fight for the side of Eaglefire!"
Umbreon and Noric added their cheers to the noise that followed as Takula and Fern came bounding into pack grounds, many other Whitefang Pack members following them. "A battle has started!" Fern exclaimed tiredly, "And the Houndour are fighting for Staticstrike!"
"Then we must take arms and join in!" One of the watching Vaporeon roared, to more cheers.
"Yes," Blazewind responded, "Fireburst! Get us an army of thirty able-bodied warriors! Tyros, big and small, you all shall stay here with the rest to defend our grounds if worst comes to worst."
Fern and two other Eevee let out angry cries at that, they all were the ones that were so close to becoming warriors themselves. Another Eevee joined Noric and Umbreon, she was the smallest of the tyros, and the quietest as well. "This is my sister." Noric whispered to Umbreon when he saw that he was looking at the Eevee cuddled to his friend's side.
"I've been made a tyro a couple of days after him." She said quietly, poking a paw at Noric, "The name's Flora."
"I guess I'm not needed here anymore." Vulpix mumbled dryly as he watched Fireburst as she had already gathered the said amount of warriors and they were marching out of the pack grounds, Blazewind in the lead. He sat down on Umbreon's other side, and Umbreon noticed that the Vulpix had been right, he was very warm.
"So why are you staying?" Fern asked pointedly as she padded over to the group of tyros and stood in front of Umbreon, giving him a nice look at her dusty paws. The other two tyros joined them, but sat down and got comfortable to the side of the group.
"It's not fair." One of them was saying, a male Eevee with a very muscular build, "We both were supposed to be warriors in the next moon!"
"Huh." The other, probably his sister, responded. Her build was only slightly less muscular, "It figures. Now we're all stuck here with the warriors that didn't quite pay attention to their mentors or just are too lazy to care about Eaglefire."
"We should go out and help them anyway, not just sit here like bumps on a log." Noric added loudly. All of the tyros nodded at that, even Vulpix.
"Then let's go!" The Vulpix exclaimed, getting up and starting for the direction that the Whitefang Pack warriors had gone, until the muscular male Eevee jumped into his way.
"Who are you anyway?" He asked suspiciously. It was then that it occurred to Umbreon that he had never gotten the Vulpix's name.
"My name is Riken, a tyro like you from Eaglefire, now if you could get out of my way-"
Outraged cries told the tyros that the Whitefang warriors had jumped into the battle. Fern wasn't the only one who shifted anxiously, wanting to get over there.
"Alright," The muscular male Eevee finally said with a huff. "Let's go then."
He, along with his sister, Fern, and Riken bounded away. After exchanging glances, Umbreon, Noric, and Flora followed quickly. The scent of the warriors that had already left for the battle was easy to follow. It led them past the lake, into a part of the more dense forest, and finally into Eaglefire grounds. Riken came to a skidding halt, which caused all the rest to halt, as they all had been out pawed by the Vulpix. He was growling lowly, and wasn't the only one as Umbreon soon heard.
They had reached the battlefield, but none of the warriors were fighting each other. There was plenty of growling, but not at each other, they were aiming their angry emotions at one Pokemon in particular. That one Pokemon was in the arms of a man, one that was dressed in the black clothes with a red 'R' that only could belong to a member of Team Rocket. He was grinning at the catch of the century, all the fighters of the forest that had come today, all but one.
A net that was very large and sturdy held down Vaporeon, Flareon, Ninetales, Jolteon, Houndour with their black pelts, one very angry looking Houndoom, and electrified Manectric. There was little room to do more then growl at each other in a net that looked not to be able to hold them all. The single Houndoom let out a spurt of flames at the net, which had no effect at all on it. "Give it up," Said the single Pokemon that was being petted by the Rocket, her voice as smooth as silk. Umbreon's heart missed a beat when he heard the voice, but had the sense to keep quiet. "You can't get out of there."
Many other Rockets came from a truck parked a bit away, and their eyes were wider then saucers, "I'm going to get a promotion for this for sure!" One of them whooped as he stretched the rope he was holding and tied it around the net, causing louder growls and some attacks being aimed at them, but they were useless inside of the net. "A little help there, Smith?" The Rocket asked as he began to uselessly tug on the rope. The other two Rockets came over and together they pulled the net a couple of feet before stopping.
"This is harder then it looks." The Rocket holding the traitorous Pokemon said as he panted. She licked his hand once, a sign that she wanted to be stroked again.
As the Rockets began hauling the heavy net again, Umbreon and the rest of the tyros began to plan. They were free, and it would not make sense to go out and show themselves to the Rockets at this point. As they talked, Umbreon looked at the traitor once more, to see if she was really there. The Vaporeon that had first welcomed him to the Whitefang Pack, the one who took him under her wing and believed in his loyalty to the pack when she in turn had none for it. The Vaporeon that he once had said would have his respect forever, and here he was, hating her. Takula, traitor of the forest.