You guys are amazing! This story is blowing up right now, and I'm having a great time writing it. I've enjoyed all the chapters thus far, and this one was no exception. My birthday was great; I got two Survivor buffs and a delicious yellow cake, my favorite kind.

Here's Chapter 4. It's not the longest one yet (that honor belongs to Chapter 3), but I still think it's a decent length. Enjoy, and please review.

BRADLEY CLARION

The first thing I did was hang my water bottle around my right pinky finger. If I needed a quick drink once the thirty minutes were up, it would come in very handy.

"You must be really hot here" I told Jacob when I arrived back at his side. He'd hidden back in the bush, presumably from any predators that might come out of the jungle at any moment.

I hadn't realized it at first, but it was true. An Alolan Vulpix was an Ice type Pokemon, and this meant that it wouldn't exactly thrive in areas as hot as this. The middle of the jungle was no place for Jacob.

The Vulpix in front of me nodded. "I was heading back home, and we got separated, me and my mama".

I considered asking for more details, but I elected not to. Hopefully Jacob would tell me more information as I needed it, but I wasn't going to pry. That was his information to tell me, not mine to take from him.

"Okay, let's get you home".

There was just one problem, one that should have been completely and totally obvious the instant I laid eyes on Jacob again. Sometimes, though, things aren't as they should be. I was certainly pretty short-sighted not to realize it right away.

I have no idea where Jacob lives!

"Jacob", I said eventually, "do you know the general direction you live in? Because I only have thirty minutes".

He nodded. "It's up that hill, roughly that way". He raised his paw and pointed in a direction that led off the side of the trail, and I had to suppress a groan.

I didn't know how long it would take the two of us to get up there and me to get back, but it was going to be a lot more than half an hour.

Maybe they'll be okay with that. I really hope that Matt was bluffing...a guy can hope, right?

"Do you want to lead the way?" I asked the Vulpix. "Or do you want me to?"

"I'll lead," Jacob replied. "There's often not enough space to go side by side; you have to go single file".

"Single file it is, then". I looked up at the hill and saw that it would be an exhausting climb. It would have been hard even for myself at full strength, right before beginning the trek. For Jacob, it was probably going to be a Herculean task.

It was then that I looked down at the Vulpix and saw that he was visibly panting. His white tongue was hanging out of his mouth, and he looked positively exhausted. There was no longer any question in my mind.

This realization served as another data point that Jacob wouldn't be able to make it up the hill on his own power.

"Jacob?" I asked him.

"Yes?" He perked up slightly, but it was clear that even that small task was tiring. When you were severely dehydrated, any movement could completely exhaust you.

"I'll carry you. You're not making it up there on your own steam".

Before Jacob could protest, I continued with the following:
"Look, Jacob, the choice is yours. You can either let me carry you up the hill, or stay here and die of dehydration. Which way will you go?"

The Alolan Vulpix, for better or for worse, didn't seem to have much fight in him. He certainly wasn't going to challenge me on this, that much was clear. Perhaps I didn't have to be as extreme as that in terms of what I said, but that's what was really at stake for him.

Jacob nodded tiredly. "Pick me up," he said.

I recalled my father giving me piggyback rides when I'd been a small child, but hadn't had one in quite some time for obvious reasons. I mention this because I didn't know how I was going to carry Jacob on my back; if the duffel bag was stressful, imagine carrying a living Alolan Vulpix on your back.

I wish I had a harness or something to carry him in. Oh well, this will have to make do.

I reached down, grateful not to have a pack on, and scooped Jacob into my arms. He did not resist, and I carried him like a baby up the hill.

It was awkward for the first few minutes; the Alolan Vulpix was an unwieldy load to carry for sure. It was much like trying to carry a backpack that's not on your back. It didn't help that I was also balancing my water bottle around my right pinky finger.

After a while, though, I got used to it, and I was able to pick up speed. Jacob wasn't particularly heavy, just hard to carry.

It was soon clear, however, that Jacob wasn't the only one getting dehydrated. The humidity of the jungle seemed to literally sap fluids from your body, and it wasn't long before my throat was rather parched.

Under normal circumstances, I'd be unable to wait for the thirty minutes to be up. Then I could drink the water that I had purified with the iodine. However, thirty minutes was also my deadline, and I must have used up at least half of it by the time I reached the top of the hill.

"Wow", I panted, "that's quite a view from here".

We had arrived on a hilltop overlooking the jungle canopy. From this vantage point, I could see the Phoenix River winding its way through the forest floor some three hundred vertical feet below. What was more, there were other hilltops visible as well.

"Yeah. We're going the right way. I'm starting to recognize this place" Jacob replied. "That palm tree right there...we're halfway up the trail!"

Halfway?

I didn't have a watch on me, so I couldn't be quite sure, but, as stated above, it had been at least fifteen or twenty minutes by this time. Even assuming it was only another fifteen up the next hill (for I could now see that another hill awaited me), that was still over thirty minutes total.

And that was just one way.

I'm not going to leave Jacob here. He'll die if I do that.

This simply wasn't an option. If I was ever going to live with myself afterwards, I had to do everything possible to bring this cute, cuddly Alolan Vulpix to safety.

"Let's keep going," I said. "We're only burning more time the longer I stand here".

Jacob didn't respond. Perhaps he was trying to conserve his energy, and that worried me to no small degree. If he was so exhausted that merely saying a single word would be too much for him to handle, he must be really bad off.

It wasn't much longer before the path began sloping upwards once more. Carrying Jacob before the break had been hard enough, but now it was so draining that I felt almost as though I were making no progress at all, even though I could see the top of the hill getting closer.

My next step gave off a large squelching sound.

Did I just step in…

I looked down to find that I had stepped in a large mud puddle. It had not been produced by any kind of Pokemon, it was just a large amount of mud.

The mud was so thick that it could just as easily have been used as clay. Instead of being brown like the mud I was used to on rainy days back at home, it was a burnt orange color.

It wasn't quicksand, so it wouldn't swallow us up, but I knew that the going would be very slow from here on out. The ground was very slippery, and I couldn't afford to move quickly, not least because if I tripped and fell, I wouldn't be the only one who fell.

It would really help to have arms available right now.

With every step, my boots sank about two inches into the clay-like substance, and stepping out of it took at least twice as much effort as did a step on solid ground. I held Jacob in my arms the whole time, being very careful not to drop him.

Speaking of Jacob, I looked down and saw that he was no longer responsive.

"Jacob? Jacob! JACOB!" I yelled at a volume loud enough to raise the dead, and yet he didn't stir at all.

Did he already die? Is it too late?

I stood as still as a statue in the ankle-deep mud, and as I did so, I felt the slow rise and fall of the Alolan Vulpix's chest as his heart was beating.

Okay, so he's not dead. GOOD. But he might not be far off from it.

Eventually, I reached the top of the hill, Jacob still unconscious in my arms. I looked around for any signs of an Alolan Ninetales, since that's the species that Jacob's mother would be.

The top of the hill held a clearing with several bushes and a few large rocks that overlooked the rest of the dense tropical foliage. I saw that the bushes were practically bursting with fruit, mangoes and pineapples and berries of several different colors; red, yellow, blue, purple.

If I force-feed Jacob some fruit, will he wake up then? That's pretty cruel to do to someone, but it might save his life.

I shook my head. The most ethical thing to do would be whatever it took to keep this Vulpix alive. If that was something that would be otherwise morally reprehensible, then that's just what needed to be done.

Looking at the nearest bush, I saw that it held ripe red mangoes, ready to be eaten, probably very juicy. Useful for rehydration purposes, I should think.

I plucked one off the branch and then realized that I didn't have anything to peel the skin off with. In the midst of this pristine jungle, there were no knives, no tools other than hands and sticks.

So I did the only thing I could think to do, which was to pry the mango apart using the brute force of my hands. It took some degree of strength, and it did hurt a small amount, but it went better than expected.

I opened Jacob's mouth, and, holding him up to the mango, squirted a small amount of juice into it.

For a terrifying moment, nothing happened. And then he started choking on the mango juice, practically causing my heart to stop.

Fortunately, that only happened for a moment as well. His eyes then opened wide as though he'd been injected with caffeine, and his tail began wagging.

"Thank you so much!" he exclaimed.

Oh wow. The mango juice seems to be his life force or something like that. Is it?

"A...are you okay?" I stammered. I could hardly believe what had just happened before my very eyes. Just by force-feeding him mango juice, I had revived him.

"I'm better than okay. I'm fantastic. So please put me down now".

"Are you sure?" I was still a bit skeptical; after all, I didn't know how much longer he could stand being in the sun before he would melt. Because the greenery was far less dense up here, the sun would be more powerful.

"Yeah!" Jacob exclaimed enthusiastically.

I let the Alolan Vulpix to the ground, feet first. He jumped out of my arms, took a few steps...and then collapsed to the ground like a marionette whose strings had been cut. His legs splayed out far enough from his body that it looked rather painful. It was certainly painful to watch, and I wasn't even the one it happened to.

"Maybe not, I guess" he chuckled. "Mama should be somewhere around here".

Taking a sweeping view of the clearing, I saw no sign of an Alolan Ninetales anywhere. Perhaps she was hiding somewhere...but why would she be hiding from her own son?

Leaving Jacob lying unceremoniously on the ground, I began walking around the clearing once more to see the view from more angles. Dense palm trees, as well as other types of trees one typically sees in tropical climates and fruit bushes, went on for almost as far as the eye could see.

What I couldn't see was Jacob's mother. I was beginning to think that we were in the wrong clearing when I heard the noise.

There was an audible chirp that clearly sounded irritated as I stepped through a bush, nearly hitting my head on a low-hanging tree branch.

I stood stock-still, waiting for more chirps. They came a few seconds later, except these were quieter and at a higher pitch. If the first chirp had come from a mother Pokemon, then the second series of chirps might have come from her children.

It didn't take more than a few seconds to realize that this is exactly what happened.

I looked up to see a mother Rowlet standing in a defensive pose in front of her three children. Even though I had normally seen this particular Pokemon species as docile and benevolent, I also knew that they could be absolutely vicious when provoked.

I had just disturbed the nest, and I was going to pay the price.

Well, fuck. I've just spun quite the web for myself, haven't I?

My first instinct was to run away, but I still had Jacob the Vulpix to worry about. I might be able to run away from the Rowlet on my own (the keyword being might), but there was no way in hell I was going to leave this cute kid to the owls.

As I sprinted back into the clearing, which, by the way, was about half the size of a football field, I saw Jacob still lying facedown on the ground, completely exposed and vulnerable. He wouldn't be able to protect himself.

So it was up to me to protect him.

I ran through what I knew about Rowlet in my mind. It attacked its opponents (of which I had just become one) by swinging down from the air and clawing the victim. Their feathers were also as sharp as knives.

Point being, I was in a lot of trouble.

The mother Rowlet, hovering above me, used a Razor Leaf attack. I backed away quickly and just barely dodged it.

Jacob picked himself up off the ground and ran to join me in the fight. It was two against one, which would normally seem like pretty good odds. Of course, "normally" doesn't necessarily encompass situations where the side with two has one human and one very weak Alolan Vulpix in the middle of a steaming rainforest.

On most occasions, I wouldn't have been scared around a Rowlet, but this time I knew that the mother was going to defend her nest against all aggressors, foreign and domestic. She would be merciless.

And I was an aggressor. At least, she saw me that way.

When she fired up her next Razor Leaf attack, I was not so lucky as I had been the first time.

I staggered over to the side, but one of the leaf blades managed to make a pretty decent gash in my left arm, which almost immediately started bleeding.

Grinding my teeth to avoid crying out in pain, I held my bad arm to my chest and staggered out of range of the Rowlet's attacks. Of course, I wasn't quite sure that I was really out of her range, since they could attack from quite some distance away.

Suddenly, I felt the air grow colder. I would usually find this refreshing, since we were in the middle of a very hot day, much like a tall glass of lemonade. However, right now it made me feel uneasy. This wasn't supposed to happen in Alola.

The Rowlet chirped loudly, flapping her wings to climb higher into the air. She was twenty feet, thirty feet, forty feet up now, and I wondered if she were retreating.

Why would she retreat? You would think that she'd go in for the kill.

I looked over at Jacob and saw that he had used an Icy Wind attack, which had spooked the Rowlet enough to start flying back to her nest.

"Thanks, Jacob," I told the Alolan Vulpix. He'd probably saved my life right then and there, and I should have said something more than "thanks", but I was still in shock at what had just happened.

Clutching my bleeding arm to my chest, I watched Jacob as he took a few more steps. He seemed to be very shaky on his paws, and I had a feeling I knew what was going to happen now.

Sure enough, after the fourth step, the Vulpix's eyes rolled over and he collapsed to the ground.

"JACOB!"

That wasn't me yelling; that was a majestic, powerful female voice that bellowed out the kid's name.

I scanned the clearing, searching for the source of the voice. I could now see that it had come from the opposite direction as the sun, which was still climbing higher into the sky. And as it climbed higher, the day grew hotter.

A tall, clearly female Alolan Ninetales scampered into the clearing over to the unconscious Jacob. She looked very concerned, just like any mother should be if they witness something like that happening to their child.

The Ninetales bent over the Vulpix and nuzzled him with her nose, clearly trying to revive him.

"Are you Jacob's mother?" I asked the Ninetales.

In between nuzzles, the majestic Pokemon nodded, sobbing. "I just want him to wake up".

"He's pretty drained right now, just helped me fight off a Rowlet". Really, helped is the wrong word, since I was pretty useless during that fight.

The Ninetales nodded. "Thank you so much for bringing him back to me. You had no idea how worried I was. A guy like him alone in the jungle...I shudder to think of what could have happened".

What is there to think about? He would have died of heat exhaustion or dehydration, and then his corpse would rot next to the trail to the temple. I didn't say that out loud, for obvious reasons.

"What's your name, by the way?" she asked me.

"Bradley" I replied. There was no risk to telling her my name. Even if she somehow figured out that my father was Brendan Clarion, I saw no way for her to use that knowledge against me, not that she would want to after I saved her son's life.

"Don't see a lot of humans around these parts," the Ninetales said. "I'm Laurie, by the way. I'll have to get Jacob into the shade and get some fluids into him; you know how important those are to Ice types like us".

"Yeah". I didn't tell her about the expedition I was on, or about how I was risking my spot in the group by saving her son.

"I'll pay you back sometime, Bradley" she told me. "I promise".

At the time, I didn't think too much of this promise. All I was focused on, now that I had succeeded in bringing Jacob to safety, was getting back to my group. I'd blown through my allotted thirty minutes, as well as a good chunk of time after that.

"Thanks" I replied, taking a bow with my hands clasped together the way my father did. "I'll have to get going now".

"I'm in your debt, Bradley".

Even though I'd taken care of one problem (not that it was appropriate to refer to Jacob simply as a problem that had needed to be solved), I still had plenty more.

First of all, I had no doubt that I was well outside of my deadline. The silver lining of this was that I could finally drink some of the water that I had purified down by the Phoenix River.

It was heaven on my parched throat, but as I lowered my bottle after taking a drink, I caught a glimpse of my injured arm.

Let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. The laceration created by the Razor Leaf attack wasn't particularly deep, but it was bleeding slowly, and would continue bleeding slowly unless I kept pressure on it.

I did not have anything to bandage it with, not unless leaves counted. And the problem with using leaves to bandage a wound is that if they're dirty, you could be getting a lot more than you bargained for.

Not wanting to risk getting dirt in the wound, I instead pressed it to my light blue T-shirt and kept going down the hill.

It wasn't long until I reached the muddy section of the climb. This time, it seemed, if anything, even more slippery than it had been on the way up here.

I was no longer holding an Alolan Vulpix, so at least I had one of my arms free. However, I had to hold my other arm to my chest in order to stop the bleeding. It might not have been bleeding very quickly, but it was still a possible route for infection to enter my body.

For Arceus' sake, I didn't even think of that!

I recalled what Mike had told me during the gear check last night. It was hard to believe that it had only been one sleep before we'd done the gear check; so much had happened today so far, and it wasn't even high noon yet.

In the tropical, humid environment, infection can run rampant. A little thing blows up into a huge deal if you're not careful. If you get any cuts, you need to tell us immediately.

At that point, I was lost in my thoughts. The problem with being lost in your thoughts is that you're not focused on reality, and in reality I was on a muddy, slippery hillside in the middle of the jungle.

My next step ended in me slipping forwards. I instinctively reached out my arms to break my fall, but this was a big mistake.

Ow!

My wrist banged against a root. I didn't think I had broken anything, but that didn't mean it wasn't still very painful. I lay on the ground for a few moments, and then I realized something.

Mud had gotten on my left arm. It had only been a few seconds that I'd been lying there, but I wouldn't have been surprised if some of it had already seeped into my wound.

I might have just gotten an infection. I need to get back immediately.

Bracing myself against a palm tree, I stood up slowly. Fortunately, I wasn't wearing my duffel bag, so none of my stuff got dirty, but my shirt, which had previously been blue, was now mostly red and brown, soaked in mud from the ground and blood from my arm.

After that, I held out both of my hands. Even though I was still bleeding, it was slow enough that I had more than enough time to get back.

Even so, I was constantly on guard against anything that might trip me up. My goal was to get back as soon as possible, preferably with as much dignity intact as I could.

I needed good news, and I got it. I reached the clearing that I'd been in with Jacob earlier, on the way up, the one with the recognizable palm tree, and realized that I was halfway down. From here, the going would be a lot easier.

My canteen, which had fortunately not gotten nearly as dirty as my shirt and pants, was still with me. I took a swig of water and kept hiking downwards.

The rest of the trip back was uneventful. I continued to hold both of my arms in front of me, just in case I tripped again. Fortunately, this did not happen, and within ten minutes I could see the group of men I'd left behind.

Okay, so they didn't leave without me. Yay!

My jubilation at not having been abandoned in the middle of the dense tropical forest was, however, short-lived. I saw that Matt was scowling at me, occasionally glancing back at his watch, presumably to see just how much time had passed since I'd been gone.

"You're back" he said, which sounded to be more in disbelief than in anger.

"Yeah, I'm back" I replied, laughing a slight amount. It was really more of a relieved laugh than a humorous one, because I wasn't happy about anything else. After all, I still had a wound on my left arm, and...

"You're covered in mud!" my father exclaimed. "And blood!"

Thanks, Dad, way to add insult to injury right there.

Mike turned to me. "Get in the river and wash off before we continue. And then I'll have to stitch up your wound".

"Wait...get in the river? Fully clothed?" I didn't think this was a good idea, somehow.

"Yes, keep your clothes on. You're going to leave them on for the rest of the day as punishment for taking roughly thrice the allotted time for your little jaunt up the hill".

I was about to protest at this abuse of power, but I looked over at my father, and saw that he was scowling as well.

He did have a point. By agreeing to go on Expedition 33B, I had agreed to put myself at the mercy of Matthew and Michael Chelan. It wouldn't be wise to cross them right now.

Reluctantly, I walked over to the river's edge as though I were walking the plank. They were certainly treating me as though I were going to do that, but at the same time I was counting on them to keep me alive.

What a messed-up situation.

I lowered myself into the river. Even though we were in a tropical climate, the river water was still very cold, at most fifty-five degrees. I waded towards the middle of the river; fortunately the current wasn't strong enough to sweep me off my feet.

I was soon up to my knees, and my whole body started shivering.

"Well?" I heard one of the twins shout at me from a distance. "Wash your shirt off! Either dunk it in the water or lie on your back! Are you a man or a schnitzel?"

I'm a man. I'm a man.

I took a deep breath and lunged backwards into the water. I gasped from the sudden shock of cold, but if it cleaned off my shirt and my wound, that was all that really mattered. Like either Matt or Mike had said, or at least implied, it was important for me to be brave.

After a few seconds of lying there, I stood back up, shivering. I was very cold and soaked to the skin, but at least I was clean, and that's what mattered.

Making my way back to the riverbank, I saw that the other seven men were all looking at me with dirty expressions. This included Mike, which I didn't understand; I'd done exactly what he had told me to do!

"Okay, then. Let's get your wound stitched up and then we'll be on our way".

Much like with the river, I didn't see any reason not to submit to these instructions. I stood around for directions.

Everything happened pretty quickly after that. Matt directed Dr. Saint Lawrence to lay down a very thin blanket on the ground, much like the paper you sit on at the doctor's office when he checks your pulse at your annual check-up.

I recalled that Patrick Saint Lawrence was the designated field medic on this trip, and, since he was not currently incapacitated, he would be the one to stitch me up. With a stern expression, he directed me to sit down and then cleaned my left arm.

"Yeah, it looks like some dirt may have gotten into the cut already...that's not good at all".

Looking down at my left arm, I saw that he was right. None of it seemed to be in very deep, but even just a little bit of dirt could cause a problem.

"It's a dirty environment. Out here, small cuts turn nasty very quickly. The last thing we want is for you to get an infection".

I nodded, looking up at Dr. Saint Lawrence as he rubbed my arm with an antiseptic. I'd never gotten stitches before, at least not that I could remember, so I didn't fully know what to expect.

After rubbing my arm with the antiseptic, he gave me a shot of local anesthetic and then stitched up the wound. It was a lot less of an ordeal than I had expected.

"If the wound gets infected", Dr. Saint Lawrence told me, "it's very important that you tell one of us right away so that we can put you on antibiotics. As a forewarning, though, they can really do a number on you".

"I kind of wish you hadn't told me that" I replied in a slightly snarky tone. Perhaps I should have been reading the metaphorical room better, though, because the doctor did not laugh. In fact, he sounded more serious than I'd ever seen him, almost angry.

"It's a big deal, Bradley. It really is. You don't want to get a staph infection or anything like that, and trust me, these things run rampant in the jungle. So just be very careful about any cuts or scrapes you may get in the future".

I nodded sheepishly. After the stitches were finished, I stood up off the ground and took another drink of water.

After that, we kept moving, more than an hour behind schedule. Even though it was for a noble cause, I felt rather guilty that it had to be this way, since it was my fault we were running behind.

I had learned two valuable lessons that morning.

Lesson number one: Never disturb the nest of a Rowlet and her children. You will pay the price. Sometimes, if you're not with a Pokemon capable of fighting back, you will pay the ultimate price.

Lesson number two: Watch your step.

Now you know why I named the Alolan Vulpix Jacob; I wanted to title this chapter after an excellent TV miniseries (yes, I have no shame). Seriously, while we're all in quarantine, you should watch it. It's very good.

If anyone wants to chat with me on Discord, you know where to find me. My contact info is in my profile on this site.

That's about it. Take care, stay safe, and I'll see you guys next time!