The storm howled and roared through the forest. Frozen rain fell and pelted everything that had failed to find shelter before its fury. Chloe was running out of time, the storm was quickly demolishing the only trail she had to go on. The scent was the first to go, whisked away by the wind.
She didn't fear the storm herself. In fact she felt right at home within its fury. Like all ice types, she was naturally shielded from its effects. However she feared for the pokémon she was looking for. If they hadn't found shelter to hunker down in by now, they were in major danger. The temperature alone was becoming too dangerous to be exposed to for long.
It had been hours since she and Felix had separated. If she was lucky, someone would be on their way. Despite this, she couldn't count on their help any time soon. Between the travel time to the burn site and the storm in the way, there was no way of knowing when they would arrive.
"With the trail gone, they won't know which way I went." Chloe cursed under her breath. She was on her own at least until morning. Thankfully she still had her supplies as well as the extra that Felix had given her.
Slowing down, Chloe weighed her options. She noticed the tracks were beginning to become uneven. The pokémon she was looking for was showing signs of either being wounded or it was losing strength. It was time to take a gamble.
"HELLO?" She roared into the wind. "ANYONE THERE?" Natures' fury was her only answer. Chloe snarled, refusing to give in to the elements.
"I'm not close enough for them to hear me." She thought to herself before breaking into a sprint. Only faint traces of the tracks remained now thanks to the increasingly inclement weather. Looking for some sort of sign, Chloe bounded deeper into the forest as she continued to call out to the unknown.
The flame crackled at the end of his torch as it fought to stay alive amidst the frenzied gales of wind around it. Rowan gripped the opposite end of the burning log as he pushed himself to put one foot in front of the other. He saw the blizzard coming for a long time now, it's why he pushed himself so hard in his search for some sort of shelter, but there was little he could do to outrun it. He was extremely grateful for thinking ahead and grabbing a branch that had been burning before he left the scorched area he had found himself.
However, things were beginning to look bleak again. He had managed to get by this long but the flame on his torch was beginning to wane. It was nothing short of a miracle that it had even lasted this long to begin with. The wood burned slowly but the elements were proving too much for it to endure.
The blizzard had all but blinded him, reducing his vision to just a few yards. Thankfully he was in a forest so he had little fears of falling to his doom, but it also meant it had little to offer in terms of shelter.
"Well they say good things come in threes" Rowan mumbled as he stumbled along. "Maybe there's a hunters cabin out here. Hell, I'd even take just a stand. At least it has walls."
Rowan suddenly lurched forward when his foot caught on something in the snow. He fell face first into the flurry, his only source of warmth flying from his grasp. Rowan watched in disbelief as it sailed into a mound, extinguished.
"Shit!" Rowan cursed. "No, no, no...NO!"
Scrambling to his feet, Rowan dashed to the torch turned charcoal. Hunkering down over it, he blew on it in a vain attempt to rekindle it but it was too late. The flame had been put out, the embers smothered by the very snow it melted on impact.
"What the fuck!" Rowan yelled, hurling the useless stick into the distance. Crawling on his hands and knees, he bit his lip. Bitter tears stung at his eyes, freezing as they slid down his cheeks. How could it have come to this?
"What did I do to deserve this?" He cried. "Why is this happening to me?"
"I was about to FINALLY live my own life!" Rowan moaned as he slowly crawled to the closest tree. "WHAT GOD WOULD DO THIS?"
Slumping against the tree for support, he looked at his hands. In the brief time since he had lost his sole source of warmth they were already showing signs of frostbite. It was like nature had pulled out all the stops to scrub him from the forest altogether now that he had lost his fire, both literally and emotionally.
Jamming his fingers into his armpits, he realized how much that flame had protected him. His attire was woefully lacking in its ability to ward off the cold. The only thing he could do now was to sit and wait for death to claim him. When night fell, he would almost certainly be doomed.
"Out of the frying pan and into the freezer." he grimly thought as his vision grew darker and darker with each passing minute. "Can't wait to see where I end up next."
As the night passed, so did the bulk of the blizzard. Copious amounts of ice and snow built up on the trees and the forest floor below. Regardless how much effort she put in her search, Chloe was unable to find a single clue. The blizzard had seen to the destruction of the only trail she had to go on, leaving her blindly searching the vast forest.
Firing another signal into the sky, Chloe waited for a short while before moving on. If Felix succeeded, another team might be in the area. If she could find them then they could at least coordinate together for an area sweep.
Chloe slowed as she thought about how long it had been since she had started her search. Nearly a day had passed since she and Felix had stepped out from their base to investigate the strange fire. She sadly shook her head as she came to terms with her failure. A massive blizzard had finished devastating the area, not even some of the most powerful fire types could have survived it without shelter. She was officially searching for a corpse; a difficult task considering the thick layer of white that blanketed the entirety of the forest.
"Arceus damn it all!" Chloe cursed before launching another signal into the air, this time waiting in the general area for her to be found.
It wasn't long before she heard the crunching of snow in the distance. Two other pokémon arrived, one sporting a large cloak around its body and the other wearing a simple bandana similar to her own but with a different emblem. It was obvious at a glance they belonged to other teams.
The first one was a Machoke, his already bulky frame seemingly larger with his oversized coat. The other was an Alakazam that floated shortly behind the fighting type, using his telekinesis to keep himself from touching the frigid ground below.
"OI!" Machoke bellowed. "You Chloe?"
She winced a little at his volume. If any Pidgey were around, she was confident they would have been scattered by his booming voice.
"Yeah!" Chloe answered as they drew closer.
"Oh good. I was gettin sick of running around like a Doduo with his head chopped off!" the Machoke joked. "The names Ollie, nice to meet ya!"
"And mine is Vrid" The Alakazam bowed as he introduced himself, his thoughts entering her mind fluidly. "How can we be of service?"
"Nice to meet you two, I just wish it were under better circumstances." Chloe replied before explaining the situation. The two listened to her intently as she brought them up to speed.
"I see, that's most troubling indeed." Vrid replied, stroking one of his mustaches.
"So now we're lookin for a body right?" Ollie asked somberly. Chloe nodded sadly.
"Yes, I wasn't able to find who I was trailing in time. Unless they themselves were an ice type, I'm certain they froze to death in the blizzard." Chloe said, the words falling from her mouth like stones. They were far heavier to hear out loud than to simply think.
"Fret not Chloe. Your attempt was a valiant one to be sure but if Arceus willed them to perish in this land then there's little you or I could do about it." Vrid said to her, trying to comfort her. "Allow me. I can find them quickly enough and Ollie here will carry the body."
With a sigh Chloe nodded. A psychic type in this situation, while gruesome, would be more than helpful to have. Vrid closed his eyes and floated into the air above them, pulsating with psychic energies. The purple aura around him suddenly bubbled out and swallowed them in its thin barrier before passing over them into the forest beyond.
"It is done. This way." Vrid instructed as he floated back down and pointed in a direction with a spoon. Ollie hesitated as Vrid led the way, kneeling down to Chloe.
"You want me to carry you for a while? You look like hell girl." Ollie offered, extending one of his arms from the cloak. The limb was heavily muscled and practically oozed raw strength. Ollie seemed as kind as he was beefy.
"No thanks" Chloe politely declined as she started to follow Vrid. "My companion made sure I was well stocked for the night with supplies. I'm just in need of a long hot shower."
"I uh… wait what?" Ollie sputtered, puzzled. "I thought Ice types don't do well with heat?"
Chloe giggled at his reaction. This misconception often left others just as confused. She seized the opportunity to have a distraction.
"Well yes and no," Chloe tried to explain. "I'm not made of ice. I just use it. I can still handle normal heat like anyone else can. I can still take a bath and I still like to sleep somewhere warm. I just can handle the cold better than my other evolutions."
"Uh huh…" Ollie nodded, scratching his head. "But what about battle? Most people think Ice types kinda suck to have on teams. I mean yo-"
A ball of snow exploded against his face without warning. Vrid was facing them as they walked, floating backwards as he prepped another snowball with his abilities. Chloe watched in wonder as the powder slinked from the earth and coalesced into a ball midair.
"HEY!" Ollie protested loudly. "What was that for?"
"Enough Ollie. I know what you were about to say you oaf. Let's not be rude." Vrid scolded. Ollie stiffened as the realization came over what he had said; what he would have finished saying.
"Gee Chloe, I'm awfully sorry" Ollie apologized, clasping one hand behind his head. The cloak opened just enough for her to see multiple bags strapped to his sides. If he was carrying all of their supplies and then some, it most definitely explained his size with the coat on.
"You seem super strong. I didn't mean to make it sound like it did."
Chloe blew a puff of Powder Snow in his face. "Apology accepted." She replied, giving the gentle giant a wink.
The three spent some time talking as they walked. Vrid explained how Felix approached them at the local bar, nearly frozen from snout to tail tip with all his foliage fallen off. That the snake seemed eerily naked by comparison. As proof Vrid even projected a memory of it into her mind for them all to share a good hearty laugh.
After a while, Chloe felt Vrids' mood shift to a more somber one. She didn't need to ask, she knew they were close just by glancing at his expression.
"Be prepared, I sense more than one body." Vrid said to them. Ollie crossed his arms and nodded, prepared to carry as many as he needed to get the job done.
Shortly afterward Vrid drifted to a stop, Chloe braced herself for the sight she was about to witness, however nothing could prepare her for what was lying against the tree. A few yards ahead was a body of...something she had never seen before.
The body had a build similar to Ollie but without the sheer muscle mass. Atop its head, in place of a Machokes signature ridges, was a generous amount of blonde fur. Along the length of its arms was blonde hair as well but it was obviously far too short to be of any use in a blizzard.
"Impossible…" Vrid said out loud, shocking both Ollie and Chloe. It was the first time he had actually spoken outside of telepathy today.
"What is that?"" Chloe asked nervously. For all she knew, they could have just discovered a monster.
"That's the stringiest Machoke I've ever seen." Ollie whispered to her.
"I don't think that is a Machoke Ollie…" Chloe whispered back.
Having regained his composure, Vrid floated closer to the corpse and inspected it. The psychic type circled around it multiple times before flying towards them.
"Do you know what that is?" Vrid asked incredulously. "That's a human ! One of the old ones! They've been extinct for hundreds of years!"
"That's impossible," Chloe breathed. "Then why is there a dead one here? Now?"
"That's what I'd like to find out." Vrid replied, floating back to the corpse. He seemed completely enthralled with the idea of seeing a piece of history literally frozen before his very eyes. Chloe breathed a sigh of relief, as far as she was concerned no pokémon died as a result of her failure.
"Wait" Ollie waved, getting their attention before pointing to a nearby mound of snow. "Didn't you say there were two bodies? Cuz I'm pretty sure this one is still alive."
Surprise and fear spiked within her chest as she hurried to Ollies' side. Sure enough, a paw was sticking out from the bottom of the snow pile. Alarmingly, she recognized it as a paw that belonged to another Glaceon.
Quickly digging away the snow and ice, Ollie gently scooped up the unconscious pokémon from the ground and cradled it. The pokémon groaned in his grasp, weakly pawing the air. Chloe spun around to get their psychic's attention.
"VRID!" She yelled, snapping him from his stupor. "The human is already dead! This ones still alive!"
The Alakazam teleported instantly to their side and examined the unconscious Glaceon. Ollie sat on the ground, the snow crunching beneath his heavy weight.
"Yes but barely," Vrid replied as a bottle of sitrus juice floated out from beneath Ollie's cloak and into his thin hands. "Hold him still."
Chloe looked on as Vrid carefully dripped the liquid in the victims maw. The effects didn't take effect immediately, they had to patiently wait for the restorative berry juice to do its job. After a few minutes the Glaceon eventually stirred, struggling to even open his eyes.
"Hey there champ!" Ollie boomed, making their patient flinch at his volume. "Feelin any better? You remember what happened?"
"Volume Ollie, volume." Chloe gently reminded him before asking "Do you know where you are?"
"I uh…. I can't see." The Glaceon hoarsely whispered, panic slowly seeping into his voice.. "Where...am I? Who...are you?"
"You're safe." Vrid said out loud. "Just relax, you've been in an...accident. Can you tell us your name?"
"My name?" The pokémon whispered as he began to fall back into the clutches of unconsciousness. Chloe leaned in, listening intently.
"My name… is Rowan."