Disclaimer: Pokemon still belongs to Satoshi, Nofriendo- I mean Nintendo, and whatever else. I just have stories based in my little version of it. Now may I have my kitty back? Please?
Thanks for bearing with me here. Things begin to get a bit more serious now, and I apologize in advance: it's finally started to happen. The story's writing itself.
Now to see where it takes us...
A/N: I am used to using tildes for the pokemon speech, but as they don't show UP here, I have reverted to the double dashes. The previous versions were weird, not allowing the dashes to be right, the spacing is bizarre, et cetera. I hope this one works the way it's supposed to.
Words: 2320
Total: 8576
In-jokes in this
chapter: 1
- - -
3: The Hunt Begins
"In the magical universe there are no coincidences and there are no accidents. Nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen."
--William S. Burrough
Under Nasa's helpful direction, Annie had finally finished packing away her supplies. "What do you want to bet that we'll only have to take this all out again?" she quipped, though the nidorina merely snorted. --Skyva's waiting for us, chal. I would not keep her waiting.--
"I suppose you're right…" Annie could never find peace within herself when in the company of creatures that could snap her in two with a single click of their beaks, and Skyva was not known for her patience. Annie could only hope that the pidgeot had hunted lately… she was with them singly by volunteering. No pokeball was latched onto her signature, and if one was, she doubted it would do much good. The pidgeot worked with them, true, but she was as free and wild as Nightfix, beholden to no one but herself.
--If you are finished, shall we?-- Nasa seemed much more at ease with the pidgeot than Annie was; an ironic fact, seeing as Annie was thrice her size.
Annie could see no way out of it. With a sigh, she rose, accidentally placing her weight on her injured hand and giving a small cry of pain. At her partner's churr of concern, Annie shook her head. "It's just sore, is all. I'm fine…"
Nasa snorted, Annie had to jog to catch up with the trot she set out at.
- - -
"Are you certain?"
Nightfix's elegant crest rose indignantly. --Do you imply that I tell you falsely? What interest is it to me? A nuisance, the both of them; that's all they are to me. If they have further meaning to you, I'm glad that you will now leave me be.--
He was seriously beginning to think today was Kahaar's way of punishing him. Twice in one day he was confronted, though this time he was in considerably greater peril. The ocerot who held him beneath her claws snarled in silent warning, her patterned coat rippling.
"Mahe, patience. He's no good to us dead."
The feline's green eyes gleamed. –To you. He's as good as a meal to me, and I have not hunted. My condolences if you do not find what you sought.--
The woman in camouflage exposed her teeth in a snarl of her own, pulling viciously on the collar that held the cat hostage. "I say what is and what is not of use to us, fleaball."
The collar tightened, causing Mahe to gasp and jerk backwards. Nightfix took the opportunity to attempt flight, to which he felt a heavy paw knock him down again. The ocerot's claws dug into the flesh of his wing, causing him to cry out hoarsely in pain. He held still; he was not some nestling fresh from egg. If he struggled now, she would rip his wing beyond repair. Instead, he tried reasoning with the forest cat, switching to a dialect the Twolegger would not understand.
-Why do you listen to her? What does she do for you? You're a huntress, a mistress of the forest. You're the Lone Child, the Cat that Walks by Himself. I did not think that you would take orders from a Twolegger!-
Mahe's eyes widened as she hissed, her dark lips drawn back over gleaming fangs. Her voice was a wildcat's scream. --Silence!--
Unfortunately for Nightfix, the fearow knew little respect, and his flippant nature could not be quelled even within the grasp of a hama's claws. Though he knew it would cost him, he could not resist adding softly, -Or is it out of cowardice?-
He screamed as his wing was ripped apart, pain blinding his vision. Blindly he struck out with his beak, trying in a desperate attempt to free himself, and the cat's head caught his neck faster than he could pull back. The last thing he felt before darkness claimed him was the sharp crack of bones.
The woman kicked Mahe savagely, eliciting a pained snarl from the cat as she spat out the severed portion of the fearow's neck. "What possessed you to take him? Have you lost your mind?"
Mahe struggled to her feet, the tightening collar about her throat making her breathing pained. –He... he spoke ill of you,-- she lied, willing to say anything to breathe once more. --We heard enough, now. It shouldn't ... be hard to track them. Children of the horn are unheard of here. He wouldn't have been the only witness.--
She felt the collar release its grip suddenly, gasping for air. Her captor looked about them, suddenly uninterested in the fearow. As Mahe moved to pick up the avian in her jaws, though, the leash was pulled. "Leave it, Mahe!"
--But I have not eat- --
"Leave it! We hunt greater prey tonight!"
- - -
They raced through the forest blindly, a sudden branch adding another slash across the boy's dirt-caked, bloodied face. On the saddlehorn Pohi cried a warning; Falahir darted to the side as a vine shot out. William clutched at the reigns fearfully, causing the ponyta to whinny in protest at having her head pulled up. Still they ran on, terror adding speed to Fala's hoofbeats.
As they cleared a bush, Fala suddenly tried to turn mid-leap, but found that the laws of physics still applied to her. The girl leapt to the side, her nidorina companion darting the other way as the ponyta plowed through where they had been, skidding into a tree. William was thrown from Fala's back, landing painfully in a bush, and Pohi landed somewhere in the vicinity. With grunts and nickers, the ponyta struggled to her feet lest the tangled reigns caught in the tree's branches choke her.
"Are you okay?"
It was the girl, kneeling over him, concern knitting her brows. Will merely gasped, trying to regain his breath. Weakly he nodded, gritting his teeth in pain. He didn't think anything was broken, but he wasn't about to get up and find out until he could breathe again.
"Be… more careful next time!" he told her accusatorily, spitting out a piece of leaf.
"What?" Annie screeched, standing up. "Well, if you're fine, then, well… fine. Nasa, we're going."
Nasa glanced to her human counterpart, then cast her gaze skyward as if she were asking the gods for patience. Annie's quick temper was going to get one or the both of them in trouble someday.
"Whatever," William answered, rising to his feet painfully. "Pohi? Pohi!"
He was answered by a snort as the nidorino made his unsteady way into view. --A fine strategist YOU are,-- he grumbled, shaking a piece of bark off of his horn disdainfully. --Let's have an adventure, he says. Go explore ancient ruins, he says. Did you HAVE to- --
"Ruins?" Annie turned around, her interest sparked. "Where?"
"Back that way, a bit. It was your idea," he retorted, walking stiffly over to free his friend's reigns from the tree where she stood captured.
--I was not the one who took it!--
"Took what?" Annie interjected, perplexed. "What's going on here?" She had returned to where she had been earlier and was now glancing from one to the other. "
--This numbskull decided to walk into runes.--
"It was an accident! If it was that important then couldn't they have lit a candle or something?"
--He broke a Circle, that's what he did. He went looking for the shrine, FOUND the shrine, went INTO the shrine, and broke the circle. Then, he takes it and runs off, and now we've got hunters on our trail. And we're leaving as soon as he untangles her.--
"He takes… what?" Annie glanced to Nasa, who was glaring at her and looking off toward the west. Annie got the feeling that the nidorina was quite ready to leave well enough alone and go home, before something else happened. Unlike Nasa, Annie had an unhealthy sense of adventure, and was perfectly ready to ditch her appointment with her ride home to get involved. Fortunately, there was her partner to give her yet another reality check.
--Annie, Skyva will hunt us down and hang us for the birds if we do not leave, and soon,-- Nasa reminded her sharply. At that moment Will had finished removing tree from reigns, and Fala shook her head in a brilliant dazzle of colour, whinnying anxiously. As Will recalled Pohi and swung onto his mount, the ponyta reared and leapt off, and whatever Will called after him was lost in in the flurry of hoofbeats.
--Now, can we PLEASE go home?-- Nasa begged Annie, who did not even notice that Nasa had spoken. She was too busy staring in shock after where the boy and his companions had been just moments ago.
- - -
"What do you mean, you lost their trail?" The woman glanced accusatorily at Mahe. "Are you sure? I thought you said we could find them!"
The pair was by a riverbank, having paused for a moment as Mahe examined the ground in confusion. There were signs of a campsite having been here, until quite recently, from the looks of it, and for a while the woman was as puzzled as the ocerot at her side. Who was this, that awakens rifts and finds time to stop? Here was the lingering scent of a human and a nidine, and from the looks of things they had been here up until recently. Were they truly so naïve? She hadn't counted on such an easy hunt, and frankly it disappointed her. But...
She retrieved from her pocket half of a metallic circle, dull and lusterless. Gently she ran her hand over it, marveling at the smoothness of it, at how her hand slid past it. From what she could see of the symbol on either side, it could mean one of two things. Which was it? The whole of it was hard to grip: it slipped through her hands like water, and she was quick to return it to her inner pocket. Since the circle had been broken, she no longer felt a pulse from it; she could no longer use it as a sort of odd compass.
For all of her research and for all of her knowledge, there was still this one things that perplexed her. Why did she no longer feel the call of the other half?
--This way,-- Mahe said at last, pulling the woman from her reverie. She nodded, and the two set off at an easy run, the large feline leading the way.
- - -
The broad-backed pidgeot clicked her beak, the grating noise in the back of her throat growing as her patience rapidly seeped away. She fanned her great wings, sweeping them back and forth for a moment before resettling them, her head jerking sharply in the direction of a sudden noise. A ratree spiraled up a tree, pausing to chitter at the avian before vanishing from view. Skyva's breath came heavily in a sigh as she snapped a branch in two with her beak.
She'd just about left when Annie and Nasa came panting, both of them with their own version of a sheepish grin. Skyva ignored them both, preening her feathers.
"Sorry I'm late..." Annie panted, letting Nasa finish her sentence. --We were delayed...--
--Delayed, were you?-- Skyva asked, her distinctive voice sending a shiver down Annie's spine. She set her predator's gaze upon Annie, never wavering for a moment. --And I suppose you are to 'delay' us further? I warn you now, Annie: I have not hunted in a good four days. Don't tempt my talon.-- She raised a hind foot in emphasis.
Although Annie knew her brusque manner well, Skyva always had scared her deep down. Involuntarily, she backed up, causing Nasa to glance at her sharply. "R-right, sorry... um..."
Skyva waited as Annie recalled Nasa in a blaze of light and set about to attempting to figure out how on earth she was to climb on. She lunged for the pidgeot, clutching at feathers and trying to pull herself up when Skyva shifted and she ended up on her rump.
--Is it truly necessary to pull out my feathers in the process?-- Skyva snapped, scritching at where Annie had dislodged some of her feathers. Annie looked at the fistfuls in her hand, dropping them and stammering apologies as she rose.
As she looked around for something to help her as a mounting block, Annie began to hate the forest all over again. "You'd think there'd be something," she muttered, turning and searching around through the small clearing. Still, nothing. She launched herself at a tree, feeling her shoes scrape against it. She scrabbled frantically for a moment before she had slid to the ground, the only reward for her efforts being painful scratches on her arms.
--Perhaps we could attempt my way,-- Skyva suggested, her head reappearing from behind a lifted wing. --What of my talons?--
"No thanks," Annie replied, when several things happened at once.
With a wildcat cry an ocerot charged forward, headed for Annie. Skyva's screeching battlecry rose as the pidgeot launched forward, her feathers fluffed as she halfway extended her wings, hissing. At that moment a bullet shot forward, striking Skyva in the shoulder. The next shot found its mark in the pidgeot's eye, piercing straight into the brain. She leapt out of her vantage point as the pokemon fell limply to the ground in front of a horrified Annie.
The girl backed into a tree as Mahe stalked forward, flanked by the human huntress. "Hand it over," she ordered, "and your death will be a quick one."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dex entry: Ocerot
Rather like a ocelot in appearance, this is one of the forest varieties of the feline strain. Evolves into jagular
Dex entry: Ratree
A small, brown grey or reddish brown rodent with a long bushy tail. Evolves into skitree.
A note on trainers and pokeballs:
The ability to convert and store something into energy is a very useful one, especially when it comes to something such as keeping large creatures closely and allowing aqueous pokemon to travel on land, via a carrier. Also, it can pull you back out of death's jaws: a pidgey literally can be rescued from a position it could never escape. The pokeball will lock onto your genetic sequence, thus allowing you to be recalled at will. Of course, it is possible to break out, and within the energy form is the strange sense of what is going on outside coupled with a lack of time. It's conscious suspended animation.
The term 'trainer' is a misnomer. A better term would be a strategist.
There are advantages to both sides. For the pokemon, there is always ready food, shelter, company, and safety. The trainer gains protection, the pokemon gains someone who can see the battlefield from a distance, and hopefully can plan ahead. That is the true reason for such a partnership- to have a general. As to who is the strategist, it is often a matter of intellect and strengths. Nasa, for example, could withstand attacks from this realm much better than a human, such as Annie, could.
Besides, it's nice to have a handy heal or some other trinket that humans seem to insist on carrying. These actually do come in handy.
It's a partnership, not a master/slave relationship. Unlike the obedience chips inserted into the Kanto/Hoenn balls shudder, this is a matter of respect. Even in the games, you must earn the respect of your partners. Treat them wrong, and eventually things'll get out of hand. I'm, personally, waiting for Mahe to snap.
