The interior of the Octavian's office was nearly bare. The sleek wooden walls bore little in the way of decoration outside of a single painting of several red lines bisected by a yellow one. Granted, the painting was enormous, and served as a means of creating contrast between it and the suit of runic armor that hung from a druddigon-shaped mannequin. The armor was always in sight of Octavian, whose desk sat opposite of it, free of nearly all clutter but a few stacks of stationery, sealing wax and the Seal of the Security Advisor. The entire room was brought together by the enormous skylight in the ceiling, though at the present, it revealed a starry sky.

Sitting before him was the nidorino that had delivered the letter to him earlier that day during the Council meeting. Octavian stared at Courier. "Any word come through with that letter?" he asked.

"None," replied the nidorino at once. "Was the response-"

"The response was what I expected."

"And that's good?"

"Yes. Assuming they keep their end of the bargain, Crag will see her Chief Security Advisor ensure she is cared for." The druddigon smiled and scanned the letter he'd received again. "If they don't keep their end of the bargain, well… we have our plans in place. But they will uphold their end." He picked up the piece of paper and blew a plume of blue fire at it. It crumbled to ash between his claws.

"Why do you expect them to hold to the terms?" asked Courier. "They are an unpredictable bunch. Depraved. Dangerous. No doubt you hired them for that reason, but I still have my worries. A few of us do."

"You are your namesake. Your worry is appreciated, noted, but unnecessary. Let the others know that as well."

The nidorino nodded and turned to leave, but stopped halfway. "Why do you trust them? They're considered something meaner than even savages. Unforgivable. Savages have excuses. Wildlings have excuses. The Children of Mother know what they're doing. Know the extent of their-"

"They are tools. Mother Superior knows that. I know that. And so, they are used as such. Speaking of…" He produced a letter from a drawer in his desk and beckoned the nidorino over to his side so he could stow it in one of his pouches. "Get that to her - tonight or just after. And make sure that Windrazor takes off somewhere inconspicuous this time. Pokemon flying within Crag's airspace draws eyes and worry. Usually signals a coming raider attack, and we're not quite ready for that just yet." His face split into an indulgent grin.

"More details on squads with suitable recruits?" asked Courier.

Octavian nodded, smirking. "You've put together quite the puzzle for yourself. I told you it would be better if I didn't explain anything to you."

The nidorino laughed. "It was refreshing to hear someone had a plan for dealing with the sorry state of Crag's leadership that didn't involve yet another committee." At this, Courier gave Ocatvian a respectful nod and said, "Keep the walls strong."

The druddigon watched him go and sat back in his enormous chair, smiling to himself. "I always do."

"So what did you do?" whispered Ran, lying a few inches away from Outrider. She was sleepy, but seeing the lucario appear in the doorway to their Communal, when she had fully expected to not see him until morning, had left her curious.

Outrider let out a reluctant sigh. "I thought the story would be interesting, but now that I have to tell it to your expectant face, I find myself realizing it is perhaps more stupid than anything else."

"Oh come on, you can't just say that. What happened? You say something dumb and get her pissed at you?"

The lucario rolled his eyes. "Please, Ran, I have tact enough for the both of us." He rolled onto his back and opened his mouth to explain but closed it after a second instead. "Tsk."

"Well?"

"She said she wanted kits."

"Oh. That's… weird. But alright, I guess I can't knock her for being so for-"

"While we were, ah, engaged."

"Also weird. But was that a pro-"

"Yes. She is not at all ready for that burden. Especially when she still shoulders an especially heavy one - and I don't mean teaching us." He paused and frowned.

"Vanguard, right?"

"Yes. Not quite over that, even with three years between her and that event."

"What'd you tell her?"

"What do you think?"

Ran rolled onto her back as well and shrugged. "This is a bad idea, I won't do this, we'll talk more about it some other time?" She laughed. "Except much more flowery."

Outrider flicked one of the enormous feathers covering Ran's ears, chuckling. "Hush."

"I'm right."

"You are. And I'm tired. And so, I shall sleep." He rolled onto his side. "Good night."

Ran closed her eyes, the fatigue from the day taking hold of her. Perhaps tonight-

Flashes of red obscured most of her vision, adding to the confusion of the foggy shapes writhing somewhere far away from her. Screams in different pitches and intensities bounced around in her head and made her wince in pain. The stench of blood filled her nose and her mouth went dry. She was so terribly thirsty. The sensation of one of her claws plunging into something warm and wet filled her senses and turned the foggy scene into a single pane of opaque, wine red.

Gods above, she was so thirsty.

Ran sat bolt upright, the screams in her ears fading as the dim room around her faded into view. Her eyes had been closed for all of ten seconds, perhaps less. Right? How had night terrors gripped her so quickly? It had to have been ten seconds. Fifteen at the most. She looked at Outrider, and heard him snoring softly, laying flat on his back. He'd kicked a considerable amount of hay away from his legs like he always did. Stone was no longer clutching Valor, but instead sleeping on her side, the chespin sleeping beside her, face down.

She got silently to her feet, walked over to her waterskin and drained it in seconds. A knock rang out from the door. It had not been ten seconds.

"Is that everything we'll need then?" asked Ran, her key still in the hole of the padlock.

"I think so. We've packed our jerky in salt, and if need be, I'm sure Thea can lend us a hand," replied Outrider, glancing over at the braixen. She gave him a smirk and nodded.

"Alright. How long are you leaving for, Stone?" asked the weavile, turning to look at her friend.

Stone shrugged. "Dunno. They said this one might take a bit longer. Trying to confirm a deposit instead of just scouting for the condition of existing ones. Couple days, maybe more." She patted the bulging satchels on either side of her, and then the messenger bag she wore and the two runic sacks that hung from it. "I'm prepared though."

"Wish we were…" muttered Valor, crossing his arms and pouting. "No new supplies at all."

"We'll manage," said Outrider. He flicked his gaze towards Stone and added, "Without your supplies, Stone. You'll need them more. Our little excursion shouldn't take longer than a day."

"Mhm," said Thea. "Might be back late, but that's all. This one should be easy too. The Unbroken are pushovers, so I'm not too worried about running into them. Ready?" They all nodded, and so, Thea turned on the spot and led the way down to the ground level of Crag.

It was daybreak, not that such a thing seemed to really exist this far down. The towering buildings above them, stacked precariously atop one another and draped in shadow, felt strangely familiar to Ran. So much of Crag did. She'd never been here before. And still the nightmares came to her.

Admittedly, she'd been able to get them under control. Somewhat. At the very least, she wasn't crying anymore when they took hold of her psyche. She pushed last night's episode from her thoughts. Just thinking about it made her feel nauseous.

The pokemon milling about this early all appeared to be either farmhands or warehouse workers. A crustle cut past her, mumbling a very low, "Excuse me," as he did. However, instead of a large piece of stone for a shell, it bore an enormous pallet of goods and supplies tied down and arrayed onto a frame that rested on his body. "Mind the others, they're coming up."

Several more crustle did indeed show up, and each of them cut past Ran and the others with the same focused air. The last one to cross, the smallest and carrying the least supplies, gave Ran a wave of its claws in thanks.

"Pallets of goods instead of shells?" asked Ran.

"They keep them at home," explained Thea. "Really useful, those crustle. Help get far more supplies around down here than any of us two-legs can. And many four-legs. And way more than any no-legs." She chuckled. "I think a serperior and an arbok got into a fight over who would get to oversee a warehouse somewhere down that way." She pointed far into the distance, towards Crag's eastern wall.

Outrider cocked his head. "Who won?"

"Serperior did. They wanted to discipline them both, but the arbok insisted he won fair and square and it wasn't fair to punish them for a fight they agreed to. Went back to moving goods around, just really inefficiently. Still does? Not sure, don't have much reason to go check things out."

Foot traffic picked up around them, and many more pokemon were now bustling past them, though most were nowhere near as polite as the crustle were. Ran was jostled several times as they made their way towards Crag's gate, and right as they were passing under one of the impressive support arches, a flareon crashed into her at such speed it knocked her over. "Hey! Watch where you're going, will you?" she said, annoyed and getting back to her feet.

The flareon stood up and rolled its eyes. "Keep your eyes open, then it won't happen," he replied.

Ran raised her claws and spread them apart. "Look at me, I'm all knives, do you really want to crash into me just because you're in a hurry and not paying attention?"

The flareon looked visibly put off by the gleam that caught on Ran's claws from the torches around them. He inclined his head and hurried off, mumbling, "Yeah, whatever."

As they drew closer to Ives, Thea pulled her badge from her tail free and waved it at the machoke. They went through the same routine as they did every time. Bang on the shutters. Confused conkeldurr. Annoyed wave. Badge around the thigh. Verbal jabs. Soft smirks. As they emerged beyond Crag's walls, Ran caught up to Thea and asked, "Do you like Ives? Or have you both decided it's not worth fighting each other?"

Thea laughed. "He's a nice machoke. Bit cold when I first met him but he warmed up around the time I started doing this." She pointed at the badge. "The placement, not the badge itself."

"Why did I figure that was what you meant?" said Ran, smiling.

"He's bored, wants a reason to poke fun at passing pokemon. I seemed most receptive to it, so he gave it a shot. Kind of annoying at first but I caught on he was joking around after the third time or so."

"He ever say something really offensive?"

"No. He gave me his condolences when Vanguard died, actually. He'd seen us leaving the walls now and again, and-" She paused and frowned. "I guess when you're as bored as he is, you start noticing who's happy and who's not. And when they go from one to the other."

Ran dropped her gaze to the ground. "Second time I've done this. I'm sorry."

"Second time?" asked Thea, raising an eyebrow, one of her ears twitching.

"Back in Nomad. I brought up some… bitter memories for someone."

"It wasn't your fault, Ran," said Outrider, cutting in. "You know full well that Watch was not offended."

"I miss Sentry," mumbled Valor, watching his own feet in a dejected sort of way. He perked up, if only just, when Ran patted his head.

"Well, on that depressing note," said Stone, stopping and pointing in the opposite direction the others had to be going in. "I'm off. See you soon. Try not to die, yeah?" She winked, smiling broadly.

"We should be telling you that, Stone," said Ran, stepping forward.

"I'll be fine. Trust me."

"I hope so."

Stone nodded and turned about, but paused halfway and looked back at Ran, her eyes betraying a hint of worry. "Hey. I mean it. Don't die."

They watched the lycanroc's retreating back for a few minutes before Thea finally said, "Wish it was that easy. Let's get going. Lots of ground to cover, and almost all of it is boring."

"That'll make it easy to listen to Stone at least," said Valor.

"How soon until we turn back, anyway?" asked Valor.

"Maybe another hour. We can push out a bit further - the next part is basically just a single trail through forest," replied Thea.

"I take it the trail is easy?" said Ran.

"Yep," said Thea, nodding, "Some overgrowth here and there and the chances of a wildling attack goes up but it's usually dense enough that moving through is easy and safe. Bad spot to try to do anything, really." At this, a vibrava zoomed directly past Thea, smacking her ear as it flew past. "Ow! Hey, fuck you!" Thea turned in the direction the dragonfly sped off in and shouted after it, "Asshole!"

She was knocked flat onto her face by another vibrava as it collided with the back of her head, flipped over in the air several times and then righted itself and sped off, albeit very clearly wobbling and swaying as it flew. Another, however, flew straight through her, but disappeared a few feet after.

Thea got to her knees and whined. "Ouch. What the fuck are they-" She stopped, her ears twitching. She glanced at Outrider who immediately forced Ran to the ground.

Dozens of vibrava screamed past them overhead. Thea turned and beckoned for them to follow, and they began to crawl their way along the path. And yet, the storm of vibrava did not stop. After flying in nonstop from the west, they had turned around and now zoomed past from the east. And then back again. Thea shouted back to the group, "What in the name of calamity are they doing?"

"I have no idea! Not all of them are even real, one of them was just an illusion!" shouted Ran over the din of the dragonflies tearing through air overhead. "They're not attacking us or anything. Did we do something wrong? Are they wildlings?"

"They'd have to be, why else would they try to fly into us?"

And then, as quickly as it began, it ended. Thea stared at the group, looking thoroughly confused.

"Why did they stop?" asked Valor.

"Don't drop your guard," said Outrider. "That felt like an attack, not encroaching on territory or crossing into a migration of sorts."

"But they didn't really try to attack us," said Ran. "They just flew at us and then-" Something out of the corner of her eye twitched and she immediately focused on it and pointed. "Over there."

Thea looked towards where Ran was pointing but then turned hard to her left and said, "More movement over there." She drew her wand.

Outrider closed his eyes and began to glow softly. "I'll try to find them." Ran glanced at him in time to see his eyes tear open. The lucario turned on the spot and drove a punch directly at the gible that had launched itself at him. His fist connected squarely with the little dragon's stomach and sent it flying through a nearby tree and into the one beyond it. The gible slid down the ground, completely still.

Ran looked around, ears straining to pick up sound. "Argh!" Web wound itself around one of her arms and then around the tree next to her and stuck her to it. She hacked away at the layers upon layers of spider silk that kept her bound to the trunk and shouted, "Watch the trees!" She looked about and barely managed to catch sight of the spinarak retreating into the dense canopy. Several more spinarak dropped from the foliage of the tree she was stuck to and swung at her, trying to latch on.

Outrider immediately fired a sphere of aura energy at one of the spinarak, blowing its newly legless body against the tree, then met another going directly for Ran with a rising knee. Valor sprayed a flurry of needles from the quills on his head directly at two of the others going for Ran, perforating them. One of them dropped from the web it was holding onto, down onto the floor, lifeless. The other bounced off Ran in an almost comical way but otherwise hung still.

Ran raised one of her arms in time to spear the only remaining spinarak on a claw, then flicked it off immediately and clutched the side of her head as her vision began to narrow and darken. It opened up immediately when Outrider delivered a swift chop to the back of her head. "Ouch!"

"Still feeling murderous?" he said, his body glowing again. He turned on the spot and caught sight of several more spinarak descending from the trees. "Because I had a feeling that might work!"

"Just don't give me a concussion," moaned Ran, cutting herself free. "You too, Valor."

"I can hit you on the head?" he asked, confused. A kirlia emerged from the bush behind him and lifted him into the air. His body began to glow and with a scream of pain, Valor clutched at his head, crying, "STOP, STOP!"

Ran dove forward, ignoring the beam of pink and purple energy the ballerina fired at her as it struck her in the gut. She backhanded the ball of purple and black energy the kirlia followed up with, even as she continued to wreak havoc on Valor's mind. The kirlia tried to step back, bringing Valor along with her, but with a shout of fury, Ran closed the gap and drove her claws with precision she did not know she had, straight into the kirlia's eye sockets. Valor fell to the ground as the empath's mouth fell open and her entire body went slack, supported only by the claws Ran had embedded in her head.

Finally, said a little voice in Ran's ear. The weavile's vision narrowed down to pinpricks, her focus solely on the kirlia she'd speared with her claws. She smiled, and drove her free hand directly into the corpse's stomach. Something struck the side and then the back of her head, and distant shouts pressed themselves through the cotton it had become filled with.

"RAN!" It was Valor.

She looked at the kirlia she'd mutilated and threw it aside, disgusted.

"No time to vomit," shouted Outrider, flying past Ran and bringing a haymaker directly into the face of a zigzagoon that had been sprinting straight at her. With a sickening crunch, the raccoon crashed straight into the ground, his head stuck much further back than it should have been. Ran caught sight of the spinarak descending upon Valor and climbed over Outrider and then kicked off of him. She slashed straight at the spider, cutting it apart.

As she rose, her vision narrowed again. Annoyance was beginning to fill her up as much as murderous rage, and it was with great relief that she saw her sight clear as Valor brought a vine directly down on her head and nearly knocked her off balance.

"Take it easy there," said Ran, woozy and swaying on the spot, "I just need you to…"

Valor did not hear the rest, as he sprang from a tree and tucked into a roll to collide in midair with another zigzagoon.

Ran caught sight of Thea as she shot several gouts of fire into the canopy, trying to flush out more spinarak. The braixen screamed in pain as a klink flew out of the bush beside her and ground its way across her torso. The second it had cleared her body, the scream immediately became one of fury, and she brought her wand down in a massive arc, knocking the klink out of the air and into the dirt.

Its body visibly distorting the air around it, the screaming klink tried fruitlessly to get itself back into the air, but Thea dropped a flaming axe kick directly into the left gear, leaving a brilliant red spot where her paw had impacted it. It fell silent, which only terrified the right gear more. "SHUT UP," she spat, "AND FUCKING DIE." The braixen pressed her wand directly against the x-shaped marking on its face. Her entire arm shook with rage and the screaming of the klink became ear splitting as its entire body turned red hot. The sound trailed away as its body turned to slag and Thea stood up again, tossing her flaming wand aside and pulling a new one from her tail.

Her head snapped upward as a tyrogue brought a rising fist up into her jaw and sent her stumbling back. Ran staggered towards them, her head still woozy, and shouted, "Thea!" The tyrogue delivered a sweep kick that knocked Thea onto her back proper and then immediately turned towards Ran and delivered a spin kick to her jaw. Stars erupted in her eyes as she spun away from the little fighter and fell to her hands and knees. She spat blood onto the ground and looked up in time to see the tyrogue standing above her, bringing an axe kick down at her neck.

A sphere of teal collided with his head and sent him stumbling away, and through bleary eyes Ran watched Outrider sprint up to the tyrogue and deliver a flurry of blows. And yet, they seemed to do nothing. Ran blinked hard and saw that the two were locked in a contest of flying fists, elbows and rising knees. Twice Outrider met the tyrogue's rising knee with his own. Twice the tyrogue met a haymaker from Outrider with his own. He was confident enough to trade blows, though as he stumbled away from the second direct punch to its temple, Ran wondered for how long.

"You fight pretty good, you old fuck," spat the tyrogue.

"I'm imploring you, stop. This doesn't have to be this way," said Outrider, his eyes pleading.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure it does." The tyrogue smirked and launched himself at the lucario once more, rolling back to avoid a sweep kick and then springing up and driving an elbow into Outrider's gut.

"RAN! OUTRIDER! THEA! HELP!" screamed Valor.

Ran looked towards the source of the sound, her vision clearing and saw the chespin, bound in web, being pulled away from them all, further down the trail. When had they…?

Thea struggled to her feet and screamed, "They've got Valor!" She launched a fireball directly at the tyrogue, who dodged it but earned himself a direct palm strike to the chest from Outrider in the process.

"Are they going to eat him?" asked Ran.

"Don't be stupid, they're probably Children of Mother! Chase after them, we'll catch up!" shouted Thea, performing a flaming side aerial to create space between her and the tyrogue.

Ran got to her feet, unsteady, and tore after Valor as best as she could, stumbling and falling over roots and loose rocks all the while. She was getting closer. Maybe. His screams for help were at least the same volume. Her eyes continued to focus on the distance bundle of white and green, her head beginning to clear from the overzealous strike Valor had given her, and she was stumbling much less now. But a zigzagoon made her trip.

She fell forward, rolled along the ground, and came to stop against the trunk of a tree. Ran winced as she got to her feet and then doubled over in pain as the zigzagoon delivered a headbutt directly to her stomach and then another as it struck her in the head. She fell flat on her back, the world blurry and filled with stars once more. She could feel consciousness slipping from her grasp when the zigzagoon came into vision again and prepared to deliver one more strike to her head.

This could kill her.

No. She locked her claws together in time to stop the raccoon's attack. Sharp pain filled her paws as her claws absorbed the impact. She unlocked them and drove the claws on her right paw down into the back of its neck. The zigzagoon's eyes went wide, staring directly into Ran's with fear. A strangled breath fell from its mouth, alongside a single word. "Oh." He continued to stare at her, fearful, even as the light behind his eyes faded and the raccoon slumped to his side, defeated.

No one around this time. It was the voice in her ear. Ran closed her eyes, whimpering. She pleaded, her voice barely audible, "Stop."

No. Her vision was naught but pinpricks again, and so, when the late raccoon's friend joined the fray, it struck her in the side by surprise. Ran focused on the snarling zigzagoon and smiled. It launched itself at her, and as the claws fell upon it, the world filled with red once more.

Blinding pain sent Ran to her knees and forced her back to reality. She clutched the back of her head, her eyes trying to focus on the mangled zigzagoon in front of her. Instead, Ran's vision began to darken and her eyes became heavy. "Ran!" shouted Thea from behind her.

The weavile tipped forward as the world went black, slurring as she fell, "Imsorr…"

Ran's eyes fluttered open and her head immediately throbbed. She looked up from Outrider's shoulder and mumbled, "What happened?" As she scanned her surroundings, her eyes still adjusting, she realized he was helping her ride on his back. "Did I mess up again?"

"You can't really help it, so no," said Thea. Her voice nevertheless carried a twinge of bitterness. "I just wish you didn't fall to pieces at the sight of the blood you draw."

"I'm trying as hard as I can. Hitting me on the head worked pretty well." She rubbed where Thea and Valor both had smacked her. "Until it knocked me out."

Thea hung her head, her ears drooping and sighed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be bitter, I know you're-"

Outrider cut her off, his own voice constricted. "Valor is gone."

"You mean-"

"He's not dead. He's gone. We're chasing after him, but when you fell unconscious, we had to choose between potentially killing you by trying to keep up, or losing him and relying on the trail they're leaving behind."

Tears welled in Ran's eyes and she dropped her head back onto Outrider's shoulder. "I'm sorry," she breathed. "I'm so sorry."

"I should be apologizing," muttered Outrider. "Perhaps now you can see why I gave up that old chase, Ran. How did you put it? 'Humans do great things?' Feh." His tone was overwhelmingly bitter. "I don't think I have the ability to."

"This wasn't your fault, Outrider," said Thea. "It wasn't anyone's fault. We were ambushed."

"I thought The Unbroken were pushovers," said Ran.

"They are, and they also don't kidnap kids. But I'll give you one guess as to who does." Ran felt a stone slip into her stomach. The opponents they were facing made much more sense now. "Besides, that tyrogue told us it was Mother. I made sure of it." Ran saw Thea's paw clench into a fist, sparks flying off of it to match the fury in those last few words.

Ran swallowed hard. "We have to find him, fast. Put me down, I can walk."

"Are you sure about that?" asked Outrider.

Ran nodded. "Yes. I'm positive. Please, we'll go faster if you're not lugging me around." Outrider set her down, and it was when he did that Ran could properly see how utterly defeated the lucario looked. He could not meet her eyes, nor Thea's, and as they continued to walk, she caught glimpses of him as he did his best to look at anything but the two of them.

"How are we tracking them?" asked Ran, tearing her eyes away from Outrider's determined avoidance.

"Strands of spider silk between the trees. It's thin but the sunlight makes it shine. It also gets easier to find when you're looking for it." She pointed at a thin, glittering strand that crossed the trail they followed, jumping from a maple tree on one side to an oak on the other. "They're not covering their trail. They're either stupid or leading us into another ambush. Be ready for anything."

Ran and Outrider continued to follow Thea in silence, but after nearly thirty minutes of painstaking tracking and tracing, Ran finally mumbled, "Not meeting our eyes isn't going to solve anything or make you feel better."

"Your failure was warranted and out of your control," said Outrider, squinting ahead and making a show of looking for more webs. "My failure, on the other hand, rests squarely on my shoulders."

"You're being stupid about this. You can't be perfect."

"Humans do impossible things."

"Founding a town is not an impossible thing."

"That was Ulysses. Forebearance-"

"Who cares? You're never out of chances to find what you're supposed to do until you die," said Ran, talking over him.

"I hope you two are looking for webs," called Thea, craning her head to look back at them.

"We are. We're just also working through Outrider's stupid thoughts on what constitutes being a failure," said Ran. She gave Outrider a meaningful look. The lucario again refused to meet her eyes.

"We can only do so much against ambushes. Besides, this falls on my head if we can't get him back. So I'd appreciate-"

"You think we're not going to grind our paws down to the bone searching for him, Thea? He's from our village. He's our responsibility," said Ran, exasperated.

The braixen faced forward again and let out a long sigh. "I know. I'm just on edge. I haven't had to deal with something like this before. I don't like staring failure down."

"We haven't failed yet!" shouted Ran. "Until we give up on getting Valor back, this is just a setback. Even with the stupid shit I have to deal with, I just apologize and keep going. If I give up, I give in, and I'm not doing that. You two shouldn't either."

Thea stopped and held up a fist. Ran and Outrider stopped as well.

"Good pep talk Ran, but we've got a problem that isn't morale or kidnapping now," muttered Thea. "We're out of webs." Her squadmates rushed to her side and looked up at the canopy. The trees thinned out along the trail from this point forward, and the last strand of web they could find led from the tree beside them to the tree behind them.

Outrider's cyan aura flared up for a moment. "There's nothing around us. No ambush."

"They're long gone then. We have to watch the ground now," said Thea.

"What if they flew him away?" asked Ran.

"Those vibrava had to be working with them. So that's entirely possible. But we have to check the ground just in case they are moving him overland." Thea dropped to her hands and knees and began to inspect the grush all around them for any signs of movement. Ran and Outrider joined her almost immediately.

"If they flew him away…" began Ran.

"He'll be almost impossible to track," muttered Outrider. He paused and then stood up, his head tilted. "Unless…"

Thea stopped searching for tracks and looked up at him. "Unless what?"

"There were zigzagoon and that tyrogue, a kirlia and that gible… They had to get out here somehow. Not all of those vibrava were real. So they couldn't have flown them out here." He pointed down at the beaten dirt. "And they were set up along the path. Which means they knew it was here."

Comprehension dawned on Ran's face. "Which means they had to have followed some kind of trail out here. Probably a hidden one." She stood up and looked at Outrider. "Nice work."

Thea stood as well, dusting her knees and her paws off. "Very good work. Start scouting for trails. They could be hidden by anything. And keep your eyes scanning for an ambush."

Outrider and Ran both nodded. As the weavile began making her way slowly down the trail, stepping out now and again to look for any hint of a trail, her thoughts drifted to the chespin. We're coming, Valor.

The grovyle carrying Valor tossed him into the roughly shaped iron cage with notable disinterest. The chespin's head knocked against one of the bars of the cage and filled his vision with stars. His journey to wherever this was had been far faster than he had expected. It was only just after sunset. Then again, he had spent the bulk of the journey on the back of a speeding doduo bounding across open grassland.

He could barely make out any details of the camp he was in now. The walls that surrounded it were crude - mostly wood and bearing spikes, with very obvious gaps here and there that allowed one to simply walk between them and leave. Lit braziers peppered the camp, snaking off into the distance, but providing poor illumination of the surrounding structures. In this dim light, Valor could only tell that the camp was a bunch of shapes that approximated buildings. Crude buildings, at that, given the strange shape of some of the silhouettes cut by the roofs of several structures. There were cages on either side of them, and they were all pressed against a wooden structure, though what it did was beyond him.

He got to his feet and stared hard at a grovyle that was watching him orient himself, but the lizard spared him only a single glance of disdain before returning to the crowd of pokemon nearby. Their bodies were just as poorly lit as the rest of the camp, and as the last of the light in the sky died, Valor could go only off their rough outlines. The dying brazier in the center of the group came back to life, though only just, as a gout of flame reignited it, issued by one of the figures.

"How many?" asked the outline that had produced the fire. It looked like a chimchar.

"That chespin was the last one to come in," said the grovyle. "Which brings us to… seven?"

"Is Mother going to be happy with that?" asked a figure obscured by the grovyle.

"We did what we could," chorused a doduo, walking towards the group and taking a place by the brazier. "You mean I did what I could," he said. "Shut up," he replied. "Hey, fuck you."

"Stop," said the figure obscured by the grovyle. "Whenever you do that you argue for way too long. Seven will have to do. We're limited by our own available resources. Limited intelligence on where to strike means we get what we can get and that's that."

Valor fiddled with the lock on his cage as best as he could while they were talking. He had heard one of them say "mother", which meant if he was where he thought he was, he needed to get away as fast as he could.

A voice beside him, however, interrupted his vain attempts at lock picking. "Don't bother." It was a croagunk. "You ain't getting out."

"How do you know that?" whispered Valor, raising an eyebrow.

The frog chuckled softly and stepped closer to the edge of his own cage, revealing a swollen right eye and several fresh bruises. "First thing I did was try to punch it off. Didn't end well." He gestured at his eye. "Didn't have this when we got here."

"Are we in a camp run by the Children of Mother?" asked Valor.

"We're in the camp. This is Mother's own pride and joy. Heard one of them talking about it a couple hours ago."

"A couple… how long have you been in there?"

"Mmm, maybe six or seven hours? Was walking with my squad when we got hit. We thought it was a wildling attack but-"

"Wait, wait, wait," said Valor, interrupting him. "Are you from Crag?"

The croagunk's eye widened. "Yeah. You too?" The chespin nodded. "Abyss take me. You think the rest of the bastards they got were from there too?"

"Hey!" shouted the doduo. "Shut the fuck up! No talking!" he added. "I've got this handled," he spat. "You sound like you're going to cry half the time, no you don't," he shot back immediately.

"Give it a rest you two," said the obscured figure once more, though now it walked around the grovyle and into view. It was a poochyena. "If you like having working jaws, keep them shut." One of her ears twitched and she turned, looking at an approaching figure. It was very large, and very round.

A blissey stepped into the dim light of the brazier, and waddled straight past the croagunk and Valor, down towards the end of the line of cages. As she did, the other pokemon inclined their heads, and the poochyena mumbled, "The prospects, Mother."

The blissey stopped long enough at the poochyena to pat her on the head, wordlessly, before continuing. Valor had to squint to see her gesture for the cage to be opened by the attending grovyle. He removed a spheal from the cage, though it did not appear to be wriggling in his arms. Or moving. After a few moments of quiet discussion and the blissey pressing a shining, stubby arm to the spheal, she said something in a quiet, curt voice, shaking her head - and body - all the while. She gestured to the wooden structure the cages had been placed against and the grovyle disappeared into it with the spheal, then returned to her side, no longer holding the seal.

This process repeated twice more, and each time, the blissey used the same quiet, curt voice. The third time, however, she was close enough for Valor to just make out what she was saying. "A third loss? You are testing my patience. You should remember what happens when you have too much fun." The grovyle beside her looked visibly terrified, and offered her a stream of apologies as he retreated, dragging the lifeless litleo behind him.

The blissey scanned each of the cages, her eyes lingering on Valor for long enough to look… impressed? "You have all been given an incredible opportunity," she said at last.

"What do you mean incredible!?" shouted Valor, rattling the door to his cage. "You beat us up and stole us!"

The blissey gave him a small smile. "Yes, and now you no longer have anything to worry about. No cruel defense missions to run, scouting expeditions to chart or perilous delves into those strange dungeons to deal with. You're safe here with Mother," she explained, looking at each in turn. Her voice was sweet - much too sweet for Valor. Sentry had taught him about raiders that had come to Nomad once and tried to do exactly what she was doing.

"Cut them down where they stand," she'd said to him. Valor's stomach churned. It seemed excessive, but Sentry had never been wrong about use of force. He'd just never had to actually follow through with it. His thoughts drifted to the houndour he'd killed. Did they know it was him? They couldn't have. But still, what if they did?

"But I can only protect you if you're willing to pitch in. Mother is a generous soul, but the gift of charity must be reciprocated. Kindness must be met with kindness. And that starts with uncompromising obedience." She dragged the word on, and looked at the pokemon watching her speak as she did. They all quailed immediately and began to shift around, visibly uncomfortable. "Do as such, and you will be rewarded. Handsomely."

"Sounds like a great deal. But I had a sweet thing going back in Crag," said the croagunk, snickering. "So I'm thinking it's a 'no' from me."

"Me too," said Valor at once.

"Yeah," said a vullaby from a cage past the croagunk's, though her voice was barely a rasp. "Don't think I'm just going to forgive you for killing my squad."

The croagunk nodded. "Yeah, you fuckin' assholes."

A pokemon that Valor couldn't see piped up from the cage beyond the vullaby's. "You put some of my closest friends to death, you rotten bastards!" she screamed. "Let me out of this cage, I'm going to tear at least one of you apart before I'm through!"

The blissey continued to smile and shook her head. "Shame. Such a shame." She gestured at the cages with a careless wave of her stubby arm. "Drop them in The Hole." Without another glance at them, she waddled away. "They'll cave, same as the rest. Same you all did."

The poochyena watched Mother go and then called into the structure behind Valor. "Pinch! Get out here, we got four for the hole! I hope you've got enough shit for that!" A paras marched out of the building and in front of the cages and turned to look at the occupants. "Coat 'em." Spores exploded from the mushrooms on the bug's back and rushed at the prisoners.

A dense plume of glittering dust struck the cage and exploded all around Valor, and he was asleep before he hit the floor.

Something feathery was tapping Valor's cheek insistently. "Hey. Kid. Kid, wake up. You've been out most of the night."

The chespin opened his eyes, still drowsy. As his eyes focused on the pokemon before him, he gasped, the drowsiness draining from him instantly. "Sentry?" he said, incredulous. He could barely see past the duck - The Hole, or wherever this was, had barely enough light to see past his own nose. And it stank.

"Sentry?" repeated the farfetch'd, tilting his head. "Nah, sorry kid. She's probably a goner if you were with her when Mother struck your squad. Name's Ranger. And you showed up just in time."