Chapter 7: Dragons and Blood

I relaxed my shoulders and carefully examined myself in the mirror. I just had on a simple pair of black training pants, they were light and easy to swim in. They'd dry fast, too. I also wore a simple red tank top that hugged my body, I didn't really like the shirt, but once again, it was very easy to swim and move in. My hair was pulled back into a low ponytail, so it'd stay out of my face.

I gazed at my hair, trailing down my back. It was all the way down to the small of my back. My hair had always been long; it'd been difficult to get it cut when I'd been a kid. It also grew very fast, though I did try to take good care of it. Despite all the names I'd been called because of my hair, I did like it. It was soft and an amazing shade of rare red, my most distinguishing feature. It was a bit darker than my mother's, but it wasn't much different.

I'd cut my hair short before and had regretted it horribly. It made me look incredibly feminine and frizzed at the tips. So, I preferred it long. Gold did, too. Still, it was getting too long. I needed to get it cut, maybe to my shoulder blades or armpits...

I glanced up as a knock sounded at the door. "Come in," I offered, turning towards the door.

"Ready?" Lance asked.

I grabbed my belt and wrapped it around my hips. My pants didn't have belt loops, but my belt stayed put. I clipped my pokemon to it and turned back towards Lance. "Yeah."

He gave a nod, and we left the house after a quick breakfast, sending out our flying types once outside. Lance climbed on his aerodactyl, and my father's Crobat took a hold of me. Honchkrow wasn't fast enough to keep up with Lance's pokemon, though his endurance was much better, so I usually took my black crow pokemon. Crobat was an extremely fast flyer, though.

Lance frowned. "Silver, it's easier if we fly together. Aerodactyl can easily hold us both."

I frowned slightly. Gold would hate me being closer to Lance than I had to be, but it would be easier for us to fly together. I returned my pokemon and joined Lance.

We flew in silence. I hadn't called Gold back last night... I'd been so tired last night, and I'd promised myself I'd call him in the morning. Then this morning I'd winced and been scared about waking him up at such an early hour. I sighed quietly, letting my eyes drift closed.

Lance hummed. "Sorry for prying. Is something bothering you, Silver? You feel distressed."

I smirked. Lance was awful at reading humans despite his gift of reading pokemon's emotions and thoughts. Except for me. Oddly enough, he often read me like a book. Though most of the time he stated I didn't have much emotion, so when he felt something he almost always brought it up.

"Kind of. Relationship stuff."

Lance scoffed. I smirked at him. He hated the thought of a relationship, and yet he had the entire Dragon Clan hounding him about marriage. Lance was 35, and the older he got the more they bothered him—especially Clair.

"Like what?" Lance asked after a moment. Nosy.

I wasn't about to tell him, but then I thought it might draw a chuckle from him. "Gold's jealous."

"The two of you have been dating for years," Lance scoffed. "What, have you been flirting with someone, Silver?"

I nearly choked. "Oh, god, no. You know how much I love people."

Lance chuckled. "You're better with them than I am."

I shrugged. As much as I enjoyed being a Gym Leader, I did have to deal with people—all the time. It got annoying. Then again, most of the people weren't that annoying. "He's jealous of you, believe it or not."

Lance sniffed. "Of course I believe it! I mean, look at me! He's been like that since you two first started to date."

I looked at Lance in surprise, tugging my eyes away from the clouds below us. "Really? But he didn't even know we'd kissed until last night."

Lance faltered, his gaze on me suddenly turning a bit weird. I titled my head in confusion. It'd been so long ago I didn't even remember what it felt like. What was the big deal? Lance turned his gaze away. "He's just being protective of you. He doesn't want to lose you."

I gave a nod, and then suddenly my stomach lodged itself in my throat as we started to drop altitude rapidly. I scrambled to grab onto Aerodactly before I flew off his back.

"We're here," Lance informed over the suddenly strong wind. No kidding!

Aerodactyl flew us straight into the den, knowing just how to tuck his wings at the crucial moment before darting into the entrance. It was impressive. It probably took a lot of practice.

I jumped off the dragon's back, landing on the wooden floorboards of the shrine's deck. It was the only building in the Dragon Den, though it was quite large. They gave a soft creak. The air inside the den was humid and hot, so wood rotted amazingly fast. Still, the boards were sturdy for now.

I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and a sharp jolt of realization coursed through me. It was just the sudden silence and the flow of the air—the Masked Man, my father, and Green had taught me long and hard about sensing things. It was a bit of a gift. I'd been drilled in it since I was a tiny child.

I dropped to the floor, wincing at the powerful blast of air that rushed over me. My hand was already on Feraligatr's pokeball. "Hydro Cannon!" I hissed out. I glared at Lance as Aerodactly plummeted from the sky from my pokemon's ultimate attack. "What would you have done if I hadn't of ducked?" I yelled angrily. He could have taken my head off, the idiot!

"He was prepared to stop," Lance sniffed. Like hell he was!

Feraligatr was breathing hard from his attack. I returned him and released Ursaring—he needed some training. Plus, I was pissed. Not the kind of pissed where I lost my head. Just the kind of pissed where I wanted some revenge. As most people learn the hard way, when I want revenge, I usually get it.

Lance sent out a dragonair. They were his weakest pokemon, but they had massive move pools and few weaknesses. "Ice punch, Ursaring!" Most of my pokemon knew the elemental punches via TM. I was particularly fond of ice moves—just for Lance.

It was a magnificent battle of constantly switching pokemon in and out. Even us trainers were running around, dodging attacks the best we could on the fairly small deck. The only time I had fun battles like the one we were in now was sometimes with Green or Gold, and it'd been too long.

Finally, after another hydro cannon from Feraligatr, Lance flew off the deck and plummeted into the water. Thoroughly pleased, I returned Feraligatr and sent out Gyarados into the water. I jumped onto his head right as Lance burst from the water on his own gyarados's head. And so the battling continued.

As his gyarados's fangs wrapped around mine's neck, Lance and I were less than a foot apart, eye to eye. Lance raised an eyebrow and reached out to push me off into the water. I ducked and swept his feet out from under him. Back into the water you go! Sure enough, he fell, but he grabbed my ankle and took me down with him despite my flailing to try and grab onto something. It was more difficult to catch yourself with more than twice the weight, though. Also, my gyarados didn't have too many places to grab—just a bunch of sharp scales and spikes that were very painful to grab.

I fell on top of Lance when we fell into the water, which hurt, but it probably hurt him, too. The bastard… I broke the surface and took a thankful gulp of air. The den's waters always made me nervous. They were dark and murky—you couldn't see a thing. They were also warm and dragon infested.

Something grabbed my foot and yanked me under. I managed a single yelp before Lance dunked me. Now our gyarados were simply watching us as we battled with each other in the water. For a moment I had a vision of our gyarados yelling out attacks to us.

Then suddenly Lance let me go and I broke the surface. I noticed our gyarados were stiff. Lance broke the surface beside me. "Silver, be still," he commanded.

What was it? I felt my heart quicken as the water stirred under my feet. I was treading water as gently as I could, but… "Fuck," I choked out as a massive gyarados burst from the water. Immediately Lance grabbed me around the waist and sent out his strongest pokemon and closest partner—Dragonite.

It wasn't a regular pokemon battle—it was a brutal fight. When trainers' pokemon battled, it wasn't to kill each other. It was just competition, showing strength. However, when wild pokemon battled it got brutal sometimes. That gyarados meant to kill. Lance pulled me out of the water, onto the deck, and sent both our gyarados to help Dragonite.

"You're bleeding," Lance hissed, roughly snatching up my hands that I'd cut up on gyarados's scales.

I paled.

Lance's eyes narrowed at me. "Your blood and our splashing sent that damn gyarados into a feeding frenzy." He looked annoyed to say the least. "What kind of a stupid idea did you have, thinking it'd be smart to bleed in the water? Haven't you ever heard that water pokemon have an incredible sense of smell?!"

I glared at him. "You're the idiot who dragged me down a gyarados' side!"

Lance scoffed and we turned out attention back to the fighting pokemon. Lance's pokemon were doing extremely well, but there was something about a gyarados that had its rage unlocked. The things didn't even register pain—they were killing machines.

Suddenly, the entire den lit up as Dragonite fired a hyper beam. My mouth fell open at the sheer power of the attack and I was quickly reminded how weak I truly was compared to Lance. The gyarados collapsed into the water, silenced for now. I could feel tension in the den, though. All the battling had started to get the pokemon in the den riled up.

"Let's go," Lance grumbled. "We need to get out of here."

Silently, I joined Lance on Aerodactyl. We returned our pokemon, and then flew out of the den. I winced at the sudden sunlight as it tried to burn my eyes from my skull. Lance landed me outside one of the homes, and I recognized it as Lance's simple place. He often spent most of his time at the Whirl Islands, but he did have an actual house with a shower and a bed…

Lance unlocked the door and motioned me in. I entered hesitantly, and carefully looked around. I'd never actually been in Lance's home. It was very, very simple and bare. It looked like he didn't spend all that much time in it at all. "Take a seat at the table," he said, taking off deeper into the small home. Lance hit me as the type to own a mansion, but then again, he also wasn't the type to live beyond his means.

I waited patiently at the kitchen table, and I looked around. White tiled kitchen floor, white simple counter tops, wooden cupboards, white fridge, silver sink, and other normal kitchen items. Not much to look at, so unfortunately my mind wandered to Gold. I could visit him if I had any free time, but I'd just left him yesterday so maybe not. I'd at least call him tonight.

I glanced up as Lance came back down the hallway with a first aid kit. In the grand mansion my father had owned, Lance didn't look too out of place. He also didn't look odd in the Whirl Island cavern he hung out in. However, watching him walk down the hallway of a normal home looked funny. Lance was a very large man, and always so extravagantly dressed with his cape on. He looked stupid in a normal hallway.

Lance raised an eyebrow at me as I snickered. "What?" he huffed, obviously still pissed about the incident at the den.

"You look dumb," I uttered. The insulted look on his face just made me laugh harder.

Lance scowled at my laugher, but he really didn't look all that pissed anymore. He just stood there, frowning. When my laugher died down, he sighed. "I've never heard you laugh like that. I'm not sure quite what's so funny, though. I'm also not sure what required that insult."

I smiled nervously. "Sorry. That was a bit… rude. I didn't mean it like that. I just meant it's sort of funny you see you in your cape and everything in a normal house. I'm just being odd."

Lance nodded curtly before shaking his head in dismay. "Anyway, let's see your hands."

They looked awful, still bleeding a bit, and they hurt quite a bit, too. Though most of the cuts weren't that deep and would heal up fine. My fingers were all cut up, with some nicks on my palms, too. Though, they weren't too bad. It was just the dirt and dried blood that made them look so bad. Lance dragged me over to the sink to wash them off. He then applied quite a bit of antiseptic and some Neosporin. He wrapped my hands up, each finger individually so I could move them. My thumbs were fine. My hands looked silly, so I pulled my gloves on.

"Thanks," I stated after Lance had returned from putting the kit away.

He simply sighed. "I forgot what a handful you are. You attract trouble like a magnet."

I'd been told that many times. I guess it was sort of true, though. My stomach growled and I glanced down curiously at it. Lance regarded me in silence. "It is past lunch time, and we haven't eaten anything… come on. Let's go get lunch."

I shrugged and followed Lance outside. "I can't eat meat," I reminded him.

Lance nodded. "Yeah. I remember. You like fish though, right?"

I nodded and Lance took me to one of Blackthorn's eastern buffets. Which was fine. They had sushi, rice, soup, and crab legs—which I really enjoyed. I really wasn't a picky eater. I only hated olives with a passion, and I'd eat most anything else. Heck, I'd eat olives if I had to.

"So, Gold's off to the pokeathlon?" Lance asked.

I gave a nod, laying down my fork. "Yeah. He's there for three weeks, he'll come home for two weeks, and leave for another three. I'm really not sure how people can possibly take off that much time from their lives to do it."

Lance shrugged. "Trainers don't really have hours. I heard there are some gym leaders down there, I'm surprised you didn't join."

I shrugged. "I really don't like those sorts of competitions. When you battle, you're right there beside your pokemon. In the Pokeathlon, you're standing off in the distance and the pokemon do most of the work alone."

Lance shrugged to show his indifference. "Well, the pokemon do have a lot of fun. The trainers do, too."

Well, I guess. Whatever. I happily went back to eating. Oddly enough, I was starving. It must have been the minor blood loss. That or Gold had succeeded in his devilish plans to make me eat. I'd wonder about it later.

After the free meal, I abandoned Lance to return to Viridian. He'd paid without giving me the chance, and as Lance and I had discussed yesterday, it was against the law to deny free food.

I called up my ref on the way to the gym. I'd left him a message this morning about how I'd be vanishing off the face of the earth and that I'd call him later today. As much as he didn't want to admit it, I knew how much he loved time off, so I tried to let him know most of my plans (first so Blue could find me if I was out of pokegear range—she usually called him to locate me, and second so Mike could plan his schedule—the poor guy was pretty much bound to mine).

I did have two challengers… and Yellow wanting on me, which usually meant I had to deal with people…


AN: Crab sounds great right now.