A/N: Chapter 2. I've actually written sixteen complete chapters for this story, and forward planned another twenty chapters, but I have not edited anything post chapter five.
A/N 2: I have dyslexia, please let me know if you notice any problems and I will do my best to fix them.
A/N 3: This is my shortest chapter so far written. The rest aren't normally this short, but I felt this was a good stopping place.
A/N 4: 16/10/2021. I've gone back and edited this story. This chapter is now longer then it was before and has a better flow and more body.
Chapter Two: Lost
Much to my worry, Ninetales didn't start recovering following the birth of her latest children – to tired in mind to find the strength to get up. I did what I could, sneaking to her enclosure as often as possible to speak with her and reassure her of the health of her eggs – including the runt egg which I was able to check on with ease due to its placement in the storage and laundry room. Unlike in the past when speaking with her, and providing her with a few minutes of soothing Aura, Ninestales didn't start showing improvements.
Then, to my horror, Yan noticed and told the other criminals.
I had always known that with each pregnancy this was a possibility, but Ninetales had always been so strong and I'd foolishly hoped. When she'd survived the labour without complications, I'd thought that she'd pull through but clearly that was a fools' hope. If she didn't make a sudden turn around, then the criminals were going to terminate her because she was no longer of use and so a drain on resources. She was becoming expendable.
Due to the abundances of Vulpix's in the wild, it wouldn't be hard for them to capture a relatively strong female and force it to evolve using a Fire Stone in order to start the process again. Or, if any of Ninetale's kids happened to be girls, they would be groomed to take their mother's place since their genes would be known as strong.
"Ninetales, please, you need to eat." I said softly, placing the bowl of berries before her and rubbing her neck softly. "All your babies are okay, they'll hatch. Please, you need to eat and get better."
Ninetales whined mournfully, turning her muzzle away from the food.
"Please, I can't see you dead to. They'll make me watch." I said desperately. "I've seen them kill to many, please. You're stronger than that."
"Nine." Ninetales muttered softly, sadly.
"Girl, get away from her." A hand harshly yanked me by the back of the head and dragged me away from Ninetales. I struggled and tried to get my legs under me, but Adam had a strong grip and he knew better than to allow such movement. "You aren't wasting anymore resources on her."
"No please, she just needs more time!" I pleaded.
"We aren't a day care," Adam snapped, throwing me into his tent. "And you've already wasted perfectly good berries on it. Berries that cost us money."
"Please, she's just worried about her eggs. Maybe, if she could see them, she'd get better." I scrambled to my feet. I knew what being in any of these tents meant, but I couldn't just stand by and let them kill Ninetales. I had to try.
"Those eggs have already been sold and that Ninetales is now worth nothing to us. Mr Johto is already searching for a replacement." Adam snapped. "Gary's getting frustrated with your insubordination, and so am I."
"I'm not one of your employees, contractors or people. I will never be one of yours." I said determinedly, a stupid courage suddenly flaring through me faced with the knowledge of my impending loss.
Adam's hand shot out and grabbed me roughly around the neck and lifted me to his eye hight before using his other hand to run the pad of his thumb over my eyelid.
"Perhaps, if I take something from you, you'll change your mind."
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Waking in the dark was not an unusual experience, but this darkness was different. It was permanent, complete and without an end. And this darkness came with the knowledge that I had failed, failed to protect one of the few friends I had made in this horrible place. Ninetails had been warm and comforting even though her situation was just as bad as my own. She'd held on longer than any other Pokemon placed in the 'breeding program' and also hadn't turned against the children she was forced to carry or the world.
I'd failed Ninetales, but I wasn't going to fail her child.
I'd woken late at night. Adam was sleeping on his camp bed, and if he was asleep then the rest of the camp was also asleep. The criminals never set up a night watch, and only stayed up late working when a Pokemon went into labour late at night or one of their hunters was scheduled to arrive in the evening. In the years that I'd spent as their prisoner, I'd never seen a boat sail close to the island or land unless they were associated with the criminal group so they didn't have to watch for anyone landing.
Focusing on my Aura, I drew it up and to my sight. One of the basic skills that Lucario had first taught me was using Aura in order to sense my surroundings, which then developed into using it to 'see' without seeing. As Aura existed in every living thing, I was able to sense where things were and create a blue shadowed image of the world in my mind. Now that I had no eyes with which to distract me, it was much easier to reach out to use this skill. Before, I wasn't confident that I could detail small movements like a hand moving towards me but now I felt that I would be able to.
Moving carefully, and as silently as I could, I headed to the storage shed.
I didn't know how long I had been unconscious but it felt like it might have been more than a day, and I had more injuries than I remember sustaining. Adam was known to cause me injury even after I was unconscious, especially if I didn't wake by morning. Judging by how much I hurt, either Adam had been very angry or it had been three days. It wasn't a reliable way of telling the time, but either way I needed to check on the Vulpix egg and do what I'd been to terrified to try and do before now.
I needed to get away from this island.
Firstly, I pulled the Vulpix egg out from under the cooling incinerator as none of the criminals had bothered to stoke it while I'd been unconscious. Fortunately, the egg was still warm to the touch and felt full of life. Using Aura, I was able to see a condensed blue glow coming from within the heart of the egg. The egg was alive and thriving despite the fact that the incinerator hadn't been kept at an ideal temperature. We'd gotten very lucky; I couldn't lose my last link to Ninetales. There was no way that the other Vulpix eggs would still be here, they would have been shipped out immediately to their buyers.
Once I was certain of the eggs condition, I placed it back in it's nest of blankets and I went about gathering things from where I' put them away in the storage shed. Fortunately, no one would have come in and moved anything which means I was able to find everything I needed despite not being able to 'see' everything. As all the materials in the shed were synthetic, they didn't glow to my sense so I had to confirm that I had what I needed by picking up and touching the voids in the places that I remembered the items being.
I started with a large camp bag, one of the spare one used by the hunters, since I was planning on stealing a lot of things. Once I got out onto the water, I'd have no way of knowing where I'd end up or even if I'd end up on an inhabited island. I didn't know for certain where Grasshope was located in regards to the other islands, and I no longer had any way of navigating the waters.
Into the bag, I placed the cloths which were as close to my size as possible; brought back by one of the hunting parties who'd raided the bags of Pokemon Trainers that they'd attacked. I wasn't exactly comfortable wearing the cloths of dead kids, but it was that or wearing the clothes of the criminals which were so big they wouldn't fit and would impede movement. Then was the set of shoes I never wore, preferring to walk around camp barefoot since it kept me grounded.
After a little hunting, I managed to find two spare blankets which weren't being used elsewhere or waiting to be washed, some rope, a knife, a bed role, human medical kit and finally some spare cloth. One of those pieces of cloth I immediately tied around my eyes; I wasn't sure as to the extent of the damage done to my eyes but I knew that it was currently the same as having a gapping wound on my face which was highly susceptible to infection. Covering my eyes with cloth would help protect them from bacteria.
From the incinerator building, I moved to the shore and began searching around for a boat. It took a bit of feeling, but I eventually found one of the large paddling boats that the criminals used to maintain the sea fence. I couldn't afford to use any of the covered or powered boats; the powered boats would wake the criminals before I could get far enough away that their water Pokemon wouldn't be able to recover me, and the covered boats were all to large for a single person to navigate even if they ran silent. The small paddling boats wouldn't be sturdy enough to take a fully packed bag, plus the incubators with the Vulpix's egg and as many of the eggs as was left in the breeding building.
I wedged the bag up at the bow of the boat before heading to the breeding building, only to stop in horror. As it was spring, they'd been an increase in eggs through the base; I'd helped seven Pokemon give birth, totalling thirty-six eggs. And yet, I could only feel five sparks of life in the building. As there hadn't been enough time for those eggs to have hatched, it meant that the criminals must have had sellers lined up for all of them. Hopefully, those who received the eggs were Pokemon Trainers and not criminals but I knew that they had more contacts in the criminal world then they did in the legal Pokemon world.
Carefully, I transferred the eggs from the fixed incubators to the moveable double incubators. Methodically, I moved the incubators to the boats, fixing them in pairs side by side – doubling back to the incinerator to get the Vulpix egg and add it to the third incubator to bring the egg total up to six. Since there was a slight indent inside of the incubator at the top and bottom, the eggs were secured and so unlikely to move around unless confronted with vigorous or violent movement. As I was going out into the sea, which could be very unpredictable, I took the blankets that I had used to wrap Vulpix, along with some towels, to wedge around the incubator and keep them in place between the benches. Then, I sauced even more rope and tied the incubators down to be double sure.
My final supply stop was to the kitchen to pack a second, smaller, camping bag fall of as much long-lasting food as I could get my hands on – stocking and cooking all the time being a blessing in this case because I would struggle to find the food I needed otherwise. I also grabbed all the canteens and filled them with fresh water as such wouldn't be available on the boat and I didn't want to risk dehydration after being unconscious for so long.
In order to find land, I was going to have to listen for land dwelling Pokemon like Wingull and Pelipper who didn't fly far from land except for when they were migrating in large groups. As it was spring, such Pokemon wouldn't think to migrate to the southern Orange Islands for another few months so that they would be on the warmer and less storm prone islands for winter.
Once I was within two miles of land, I'd be able to use Aura in order to sense the land and navigate to it. Unfortunately, I wasn't strong enough yet to extend that radius although Lucario thought I was going to be one of the strong Aura Adapts with the potential of becoming an Aura Guardian if I could find a life partner in a Pokemon capable of manipulating Aura's like one of the Lucario family, as well as some historic reading material on the Aura Guardians of old so that I could have a guide and teacher. From the stories Lucario had told, there hadn't been an Aura Adapt strong enough to become an Aura Guardian in a long time.
Before pushing the boat out into the water, I took the time to lay a false trail leading into the woods away from were Lucario was. The criminals would look for me first on the land before noticing that the boat was gone, by which point I should be to far gone for even their flying-types to have a chance at finding me.
