(And now for a chapter on Kojau's puppyhood! Make of it what you will, a dream or a vision...it doesn't matter.)

Chapter Eleven-How Long?

The sun shone down on the slightly forested hills. Fall was here, and the leaves seemed to spark and catch fire in the sunlight streaming down on the land. Shades of yellow and gold and red flashed gaudily from the many trees scattered about, merging with the green, green fields and the great, endless blue sky above.

Kojau panted as she ran, paws pounding lightly on the turf beneath them, eyes sparkling with joy and life. The poochyena could feel something special about the day, something that tingled pleasantly in her bones. She was the only one out so early, as her brothers and sisters were too young to be out on their own without a guardian; Kojau was the oldest, and had proven that she could be allowed to run about the hills unsupervised.

She slowed a bit and came to a stop underneath a great, low set tree. Brilliant yellow leaves flashed in the branches and made pleasant wet sounds under her paws as she stepped in them. The earth here smelled dank and wild, and new bursts of scent came up to the poochyena every time she put a paw down or picked it up again. She loved the smell.

A minute later, unable to contain herself, she was rolling in the wet leaves, a look of intense pleasure on her face. Standing up once more, she was pleased to find she now had her own perfume befitting the season. She smelled of dew kissed leaves and morning grass and the rich soil that was only found underneath great trees.

Giving herself a small shake, Kojau trotted out from under the tree. The slight hill she was on provided an excellent view of her family's territory, and she savored the sight. The rolling hills stretched for miles and miles, and the many trees growing on them each flaunted their own unique fall colors. A crisp breeze blew from below, and the pokemon leaned into it, sharp eyes coming to rest upon a distant tree she knew well. There was a hole under this tree, and a tunnel that led to the den where her family slept. She fancied her parents were getting their five pups ready to go outside.

Kojau gave a somewhat superior smirk. She didn't have to attend the morning grooming; she was old enough to groom herself, which she had demonstrated early in life. Though mightyena were normally not the cleanest of creatures, their pups often had a penchant for becoming filthy; this couldn't be tolerated, as it often led to sickness, which could be lethal to young poochyena. Thus, the pups were groomed carefully each morning. When they were old enough, they were made to groom themselves.

Kojau did enjoy a good roll in the soil now and then, but she never let her fur become unduly dirty. That was something she had always prided herself in, especially when she compared herself to her younger siblings, her younger brother Kaid in particular, who had a fondness for rolling in mud when he could get away with it.

A small smile lit up the young pokemon's face as she saw a slight movement beneath the home tree. After a few seconds, a sleek, muscled shape emerged, and she recognized her father, lithe and subtle looking in the late morning's light. Next came her mother, slim and wily, sharp eyes taking in her surroundings, missing nothing. The mates stood there for a few moments, scanning for any sign of danger. Finally, the female turned her head and uttered a soft bark.

Kojau laughed a bit as her siblings seemed to explode from the den, scattering in all directions at once like the cotton spores of a dandelion thrown to the wind. The little gray poochyena were full to the bursting point with energy and vigor, and they bounced about everywhere. Kojau though they looked a bit like hyperactive rabbits, though she herself was often given to these moods; why else go on long runs about the hills each morning?

Feeling her father's gaze one her, she gave a short little 'all's well' howl and trotted just a bit closer to her distant family. Not too close, though…she wasn't exactly in the mood for being stampeded by hyper poochyena pups. Kaid in particular had a liking for bowling his siblings over. He was the oldest after her, but that didn't mean he was as reserved; on the contrary, he loved to make good use of his superior strength, as he was probably the biggest and hardiest pup of the bunch.

Kojau lay down as she let her gaze rove over her family. Her brothers and sisters would find her soon, no doubt, for, even on her distant hill, she was still susceptible to their attacks. The poochyena were generally allowed a large range, as long as they kept the den in sight and their parents were able to keep them in sight. Though Kojau was the eldest, she wasn't allowed any more range than her siblings…at least, not until she evolved.

Evolution was a scary idea, she though. Scary and exciting at the same time. She had heard it didn't hurt…well, not unless you were going through some great trauma when it happened. But usually, especially when it was almost done, it was the best feeling in the world. At least, that's what Kojau's parents had told her and her brothers and sisters. Whether they just wanted to reassure them or not, the poochyena did not know…what she did know what that she was quite close to evolving herself, and she had to keep a tight hold on her mind to keep it from constantly straying to nervous thoughts of evolution.

Her brothers and sisters were ranging ever further now. Kaid was playing with Arriad, who more than made up for what she lacked in strength with energetic zeal. Svet, Laria, and Murro were ranging about a ways from their parents, sniffing about in the fall leaves and the lush grass.

Kojau considered joining them for a moment, and nearly got to her feet. However, she decided immediately not to as a wrathful squeal from Arriad split the air. Kaid had apparently gone a little too far in the rough play, and Kojau watched in amusement as he wisely turned tail and ran. He may have been the strongest pup, but no one wanted to mess with Arriad when she was angry; she turned into a miniature ball of fury that seemed to consist only of pricking claws and a mean bite. However, she had a rather short memory, and soon, with Kaid far away, forgot why she had been angry in the first place and calmed down again.

Kojau slowly shut her eyes, drowsing in the slight sunlight that beamed down on her gray fur. Though watchers would think she was rather stupid not to be on alert for predators so far from her family, she was not worried. Her parents had a reputation as mightyena you didn't want to mess with, as they had once tracked down a young arcanine who had killed a pup from an earlier litter and taken a rather messy revenge on it; Kojau did not have all the details, nor did she want them. The point was that her parents rarely allowed any other predators into their territory, especially not when they had pups to look after. Thus, there wasn't any danger from land predators; air predators were a bit of a different matter, though. Fearow and pidgeot were a big danger, but Kojau's parents were adept at spotting them from a distance and grouping the pups back together until they passed on.

Kojau suddenly raised her head from her paws, struck by a feeling of disharmony. She blinked, shaking her head, bemused. The feeling was very subtle, and she couldn't tell if she was the one projecting it or not, nor could she sense any other presences besides her family and herself. The faint feeling of discord remained, however, and the poochyena glanced down to see if her family had noticed anything out of the ordinary.

Everything seemed normal enough down there. Her parents looked at ease and were chatting between themselves, keeping an eye on their sons and daughters. Kojau squinted at her siblings, feeling something was amiss. Only four…that was it! There were only four poochyena down there now…where was Kaid?

Kojau only had a faint warning as she leaped to her paws, attempting to get out of the way in time. However, her efforts were in vain, and she let out a sharp yelp as she felt her large brother slam right into her. Knocked off her paws, she found herself rolling uncontrollably down the hill. Her forepaws shot out as she dug her claws into the grassy earth, finally succeeding in bringing herself to a stop, body smarting slightly. She was going to have a few bruises, no doubt about it…

Kaid's barking laughter reached her faintly from the top of the hill as she picked herself up, snorting in faint disgust as she felt bits of leaf litter and dead grass clinging to her dense gray coat. She should have been ready for that, she thought. She was used to Kaid's antics by now.

"You fell!" Kaid pranced about her as she clambered once more to the top of the hill, shaking herself off. "You fell down hill! I tackled you! I tackle you!" And he backed up a ways, going into a clumsy hunting crouch, bottom wiggling back and forth as he prepared to pounce.

Kojau whirled and ran at him. He had not been expecting her to attack him while he prepared to pounce, and he reared up out of his crouching position. Kojau, who had been aiming to leap over him, instead knocked heads with him and reeled backwards, dazed.

Kaid staggered toward her, eyes slightly out of focus. "Get you for that…going to tackle you again…for that…" His voice was still eager as ever, but he was a little too slow in his lunges, and Kojau was by far the quicker of the two. Snapping out of her daze sooner than her brother, she danced about him, laughing and having quite a good time indeed.

Kaid finally sat back on his haunches, looking frustrated. "Not fair!" He cried plaintively, shifting on his haunches in an irritated fashion. "You too fast! Why you never fight? Why you always run?" He cocked an ear, sniffing a bit.

Kojau stepped forward and poked him with a paw, grinning and leaping back before he could retaliate. "Because you're too slooooooow," she teased, fluffing her gray tail as she sauntered cockily in front of him, yellow eyes glinting brightly. Pausing for a moment, she said the words she knew would rile him the most. "And because I am older than you are." She said the word 'older' in a deep, grating voice that she hoped would serve to infuriate her brother even more.

It worked. Kaid, hating to be reminded of his age, gave a furious growl and lunged for her. She dodged him, but then he did something that she would have originally thought him incapable of. He actually used a strategy of a sort and feinted in his lunge, rushing in the direction he knew she would dodge in and ploughing into her.

"OW!" Kojau yelped, staggering backward and trying to get away from the victorious Kaid. He battered her mercilessly about the head with his large paws, making her dizzy all over again and unable to regain her earlier speed and dexterity. She could only keep backing away from him, ears flat back against her head, snarling and growling and trying to keep from closing with him directly; he would pin her if she let him get closer than he was already, and that could be rather painful, as she knew from experience. So she simply continued to back up, head ringing, snapping at his paws as he hit her again and again, his eyes sparkling. She probably deserved it for egging him on, she thought…but this had to stop soon; she didn't think she could stand this sort of treatment much longer.

Kojau realized dimly that she had come to the edge of a rather sheer hill; she must have been backing up for quite a while now to get here…this was the boundary, beyond which the pups weren't allowed to venture. Any further and they would loose sight of the den and their parents. Kojau, not wishing to be reprimanded by her parents for straying too far, made a sort of 'all or nothing' move, latching onto one of Kaid's large paws with her forelegs as he made to hit her again, then lunging forward, large jaws gleaming in the light. She hoped to intimidate him, perhaps to knock him off balance. She could probably get away if she could pull that off.

However, her plan backfired. She pulled backward on Kaid's leg as she lunged toward him, and, unprepared for this, he fell forward. With a startled yelp, Kojau found herself squashed momentarily under his weight. Then, they were both falling, crying out in panic and fear as, unable to stop themselves, they flew down the hill with great momentum.

Kojau went crashing to the bottom first, rolling a few times before stopping. Her sides heaved harshly as she lay there, faintly hearing Kaid slam to the ground some ways behind her. She was quite certain she had broken every bone in her body, as she could not seem to draw in her breath properly. In reality, she had only battered herself up a bit and knocked the breath out of herself; being young, her mind tended to over exaggerate things.

Eventually, she surprised herself by climbing to her paws, one ear cocked over her eyes, fur messed up quite badly. Kaid was sitting a ways from her, looking spaced and dazed. The two simply stared at one another for a few moments, as though confirming that they were both indeed all right.

"Dad gonna be mad, yes…?" Kaid spoke raspily, glancing around himself. The rolling hills stretched off into the distance, and the large hill they had just rolled down loomed over the two small pokemon, seeming to engulf them in its ominous shadow. The den was nowhere to be seen. Indeed, it seemed that the two pups had fallen into a different world, one in which they had to take care of themselves.

It was a scary feeling, and Kojau's voice quavered a bit in trepidation as she spoke, though, as the eldest, she felt it was her duty to at least try to sound brave in front of her younger brother. "Yes. They will be angry at us. Probably come over the hill any minute now."

The two lapsed into a gloomy silence after this small exchange. It was generally understood between them that they were waiting for their parents to come get them, as neither really wanted to climb the hill again…or walk around, for that matter. The fall down the hill had shaken them up more than a bit.

Kojau felt the first faint stirrings of fear as nothing happened, and she began to listen very carefully, eyes wide. They were too far away to hear anything from their family even if something was going on over there, and the female poochyena shot a glance toward the top of the hill, looking worried. Kaid followed her gaze, and, sensing her distress, began to whimper quietly to himself.

"Be quiet," Kojau whispered harshly, putting as much urgency into those words as she could manage. "We don't want anything to hear us…" With that, she began to move very slowly and quietly toward the top of the hill, belly brushing the green grass.

"Don't leave me," Kaid whispered behind her. His eyes were impossibly wide, though he had stopped whimpering, which was very good. "Don't want to be alone out here…"

Turning her head slightly, Kojau glanced back at her younger brother and took pity on him. "Come along, then," she said softly. "Just be very, very quiet…"

Kaid nodded, shuddering slightly before following his sister, shadowing her movements. He wanted to cry out in distress, to be comforted…but, as he saw how brave his big sister was being, he felt himself gain a small measure of courage. Shadowing her movements, he followed her up the hill.

Kojau continued up the hill, feeling somewhat comforted by her brother's presence. Her golden eyes glinted as she neared the top of the hill, pausing just before she came to it to take in her surroundings. She couldn't smell anything threatening on the wind…but then, it wasn't blowing toward her at the moment. Anything could be happening over the hill, and she wouldn't know it. She was so fearful that she could sense danger practically everywhere, which made it hard to discern anything out of the muddle.

Finally, Kojau made her way to the top of the hill, eyes peering over and scanning the hills before them, glancing fearfully toward the den area. At first, she couldn't see anything at all…not even her parents, or her siblings. However, there was movement down by the den. Kojau was so focused on trying to discern what it was that she failed to pay attention to her more immediate surroundings. All the warning she had was a tiny noise of distress from Kaid as he began to say something about a smell on the wind. Turning back, she glanced down at him to ask what he was sensing.

A sudden movement behind her…a foul smell. A look of pure horror crossed Kaid's face.

DANGER!

Everything happened so quickly from that point. Kojau felt a presence rush toward her. She turned and made a wild leap into space as something brushed by her back, and found herself tumbling helter-skelter down the hill for the second time that day. Only, now she was glad of her momentum, as she knew she was tumbling away from whatever it was that had tried to attack her.

Kaid was already rushing down the hill as Kojau launched herself down it, tail between his legs, crying out for his parents in terror. There was a purple monster up there with a very large horn and odd eyes and huge spikes. Plus, it was much bigger than him, and he didn't think he would stand any chance whatsoever against it. He raced after the tumbling form of his sister, but he just wasn't quick enough.

Kojau somehow managed to pull herself out of her tumble down the hill in time to get to her feet and made a wild leap to the bottom, paws smarting as they hit the ground. Whirling, her eyes widened in horror at the sight she beheld. Kaid was racing frantically down the hill toward her, a large purple monster behind him. The nidorino was gaining, and Kaid knew it, and the look in his eyes rent Kojau to the very heard of her being. And she could do nothing, as she felt she was rooted in place by her terror.

The nidorino, catching up with the fleeing poochyena, slammed his side with the side of its horn, sending him tumbling to the ground at the bottom of the hill, not too far from Kojau. Its eyes were cold as it moved toward Kaid, who struggled desperately to get to his feet.

And it wasn't just coldness, Kojau realized in horror. Its eyes were dead, purposeless. It couldn't feel anything about what it was doing, and its emotionless state chilled the poochyena to the bone.

Bu, despite her fear, she couldn't just do nothing. Heart pounding painfully in her chest, she gave a bubbling growl and rushed toward her brother, intending to help him. She reached him just as the nidorino did, and it paused in front of them both, staring down at the small darkness pokemon with its dead eyes.

Kojau menaced it, snarling and growling in equal fear and ferocity. She stood over Kaid, who still lay prone on the earth, whimpering painfully and coughing a bit.

The calm moment didn't last. The nidorino slowly swung back its head in an almost disinterested motion, then brought its long horn bearing down toward Kojau, who simply stood their dumbly…that it, until that sharp point came into contact with her head, just above her left eye. She gave a cry despair as she felt her skull seemed to explode with the pain, and tore herself backwards, waves of dizziness and agony washing over her alternately.

Staggering back, she barely managed to keep her feet, whimpering in pain. However, the pain was replaced almost instantly with an odd numbness, though the slight, almost intoxicating dizziness remained. Blood seeped into her left eye and spattered onto the ground at her paws as she watched the nidorino grasp Kaid in its jaws, lifting him completely off the ground. He shouted in panic and fear and cried out to Kojau for help, but she only watched, suddenly finding that she was not interested in anything anymore…she was simply a shell of a pokemon, a shell that could feel nothing. Kaid didn't matter anymore.

The male poochyena shouted for help and made loud noises of distress as the nidorino bore him away up the hill, its pace slow and deliberate. It paused for a moment as he continued to cry out and shook him, smashing his head against the ground. Something gave a sharp, wet sounding crack, and then he was still, small gray body going limp in the nidorino's grasp.

Kojau wasn't affected by this, though, not even by the last baleful, accusing look Kaid had shot at her as she had simply stood there and watched him be carried off. I trusted you, his look had seemed to say. I trusted you, and you let me down

The nidorino reached the top of the hill and disappeared from sight. Kojau remained where she was a while longer, then she fell. Another time, her dying mind seemed to say. An ending...and a beginning…Kojau, barely alive, managed to lift her head slightly, blood leaking slowly down from her ruptured skull. There was something there…it seemed as though a presence was shimmering all around her, in the air. Blinking, she realized the air had indeed taken on a golden color, a sort of hazy film. And she wasn't dying any longer. But why…?

A long, long time… The wind seemed to sigh out those words, and then the golden air ignited. Kojau could faintly hear herself crying out, though her voice seemed distant, as if it belonged to another body. Indeed, it might have, as she could no longer feel her own body. She was shifting, warping, taking on a new form. Eventually, the golden light became so intense that she shut her eyes to it, and chose to fall into darkness instead. How long…? Her last though echoed dismally inside her darkening mind.

Later in the day, two bloodied and battered mightyena made their way out of their den, where they had been forced to stand at bay to protect their four pups. The pokemon keeping them prisoners had finally left, and now they were free to look frantically for their two lost pups.

They followed the scent trail to a large hill. The smell of blood wafted to their noses, and they frantically raced to the top of the hill, peering downward. Their eyes widened as they saw the sure signs of some sort of scuffle. In the middle of the battleground lay a frail looking mightyena, a mightyena who carried their daughter's scent. Dried blood pooled on the ground around her head, but she was breathing and had no physical wounds. And, as the poor parents tried to figure out what had happened, there was a sense of something ending and something…beginning…

((Thanks for sticking with me, everyone! I'll try to update more.))