A/N: Okay, yeah, I'm not making any more updating promises, because inevitably, when I do, my computer gets a virus or it crashes or the Internet connection screws up or all three. But I AM going to finish this sonofamonkey if it KILLS me. :: knocks on wood ::
This chapter is a little different from the rest - I felt it was time to pay a little attention to the other parts of the story and set up some things that really need to happen. Don't be surprised if something doesn't make sense. It probably isn't supposed to.
R+R at the bottom as usual.
"I don't understand how she could have slipped out without anyone noticing."
"That's how she is," Mahk reminded his friend. "Kasu's a sly one. She'd get along well with Meowths, she's such a sneak."
Cheggah didn't reply. His big Flareon face, however, was more than a little sad.
It had been a long time since that ill-fated evolution ceremony, or at least it felt that way. Mahk knew in his head that it couldn't have been more than a few weeks, but every time he examined it logically his heart sank.
And his poor mother... she too was heartsick, constantly imploring the deaf Rama to continue the search for the silver Eevee. Rama, however, while he was sympathetic to the family's feelings, felt that the best interests of the pack were served by the disappearance of the silverpelt. Mahk knew he felt this way - the young Jolteon had been among those in the token search party sent out the day after. The search had been halfhearted, not taken seriously by anyone except Cheggah, Demi, and Mahk himself.
Now it was as though she had never existed; life went on as normal. The only exception was the closing off of La'Shanke's den. The Vaporeon shaman, upon her return from the ceremony with her four newly evolved Vaporeons, had heard the whole sorry tale and promptly shut herself off from the pack. Cheggah had tried to talk to her through the den opening, but got no response. Mahk hadn't even tried.
Beneath the tree, the two friends now lay. Mahk always found it hard not to think of his foster sister when under this tree; it was nearly impossible not to recall her walking up to them the day of the ceremony and the subsequent conversation.
He hoped that, wherever she was, she was all right.
"Say, Mahk...?"
"Yeah?"
Cheggah lay on his belly, front paws precisely folded as he stared off into the distance. Mahk noted idly that he was looking in the direction of his father's den.
"You ever think... we could go after her ourselves?"
This was not a new topic of conversation. Mahk always felt irritated by it.
"We've been over this. Your father would throw a fit, we'd be severely punished, and anyway it's been too long. How do you plan to find her? It's a big world out there and she could be anywhere..." always assuming she survived the first few days in the first place, he added silently.
"Does all that matter?" Cheggah asked, as he had so many times before. "She's your sister and my friend. If not us... who?"
"Who indeed?"
Mahk jumped. Behind them, silently eavesdropping, was La'Shanke.
"I was looking for you two," the shaman said quite calmly.
"F-for us?" Mahk said almost timidly. "Whatever for?"
"Why, for exactly the same reasons you were just discussing," La'Shanke said, giving them both her patented "pay attention" glare.
"What, looking for Kasu?"
"Exactly." La'Shanke's glare sharpened. "Frankly, I'm surprised at you two. Why haven't you done it yet?"
"You heard - "
"Of course I heard. And Cheggah was right. There are more important things." La'Shanke stepped forward until she and the young Jolteon were almost nose-to-nose.
"One would think you'd remember your promise... the one you made when your mother took in Kasu."
"The promise?" Mahk felt a glimmer of memory, but it had been long enough ago that it wasn't automatically coming to mind.
"The one where you promised to look after her..."
A cold winter wind... the feel of snow on his paws... and Mahk got it. "Oh! I remember."
"You're not keeping it."
Mahk flinched.
"Staying here, finding every excuse not to go after her..." La'Shanke waved a paw. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're afraid to go off pack lands, even for your sister's sake."
"I'm not afraid of anything!" Mahk exclaimed, his voice rising in pitch.
"Good," La'Shanke said, smirking. "Prove it."
Mahk stood for a moment, legs trembling slightly. Suddenly he whirled on Cheggah.
"Hey, let's go! Now! What are we waiting for?"
Cheggah gave his wild-eyed best friend a strange look, stepping back to avoid the bristling spines.
"Well... if you say so," he said slowly. "Awful quick change of mind - "
"I SAID LET'S GO! My sister's out there and I'm not staying here another minute!" No question about it, Mahk was definitely unsettled. Cheggah glanced over at La'Shanke and caught her look of approval.
"All right, buddy, we're going," he soothed, turning back to his friend. "We're going. Now?" he directed at La'Shanke.
"Now, if you want to be well gone before you're missed," La'Shanke advised.
"Got it."
As she watched them go, La'Shanke felt troubled. Certainly she had fulfilled the mission the spirits had sent her on - now that the boys were off looking for Kasu, things would start falling into place the way they were intended to. But still, the shaman felt apprehensive; following the directions of a spirit she had never dealt with before was a trying experience, and one she wasn't sure she was right in doing.
Sighing, she dragged herself back to the river and her den, flopping in the center of the small riverside cavern with the greatest sigh of all.
"Tell me," she implored of no one in particular, "am I doing the right thing here?"
There was no answer, but she knew in her heart a spirit smiled. She did not think it was one of her four.
It was dark; the surroundings were blurred but familiar. He knew it was a dream. It had to be.
Rama was standing before him. Then, he had been young, young and filled with the zeal of the young ruler; determined to get rid of any pack member he considered a threat to the pack's safety. Of course, that meant him. He stood silently as his banishment was pronounced. He knew how this ended; he couldn't be angry anymore. But his dream self, the one caught in memory, still was.
"Why am I being banished? My only crime is this new discovery!" He gestured angrily at his own body.
"That's all that's necessary," Rama said severely. "This will cause discord among the pack... and you, you with your blatant disregard of custom, will bring the humans' wrath down on us!"
"The traditional way is not always the best!" he shouted. "I don't know what you're more afraid of - change, or humans!"
At that Rama leaped at him; his present self watched dispassionately as for the thousandth time he received the deep wounds that would become his current scars.
But he didn't wake up; instead, the dream faded into something new. He was an Eevee again, sitting in the dirt before the Council rock. On the rock, a Vaporeon perched; La'Shanke, restored to her former vigor. He remembered it well, though it had been long since he was an Eevee. This would be an interesting dream, he was sure.
La'Shanke was speaking. It was a story; he remembered these days, when the young Eevees would gather to hear one of the shaman's tales. She had many stories, some of which he had never heard. He had loved her story-telling voice, rich and vibrant, alive with the sounds of a story. She could make the sound of rain on leaves. She had been heard imitating the voice of a human. And when she howled like a Mightyena, everyone present felt their hair stand on end.
Tonight was a particularly long story, one he'd only heard that once - the story of a brave Arcanine. She had been small for an Arcanine, but courageous, and she had surmounted impossible odds to survive in a world increasingly dominated by humans. He smiled, even in the dream, and settled back to listen.
But, though the name was right, the story was wrong.
He listened in surprise as La'Shanke instead described a young Eevee, like himself outcast for being different. Like the Kasu he remembered from the story, she was courageous, strong, and clever - and she too was surviving in a harsh world. Shocked, but enthralled, he listened with perked ears as La'Shanke described her ordeals.
"Do you understand?" she asked, staring right at him. And her face wavered and bled into a black one, with gleaming red eyes.
And then, finally, he woke up.
It was a forbidding mountain, dark and imposing even in full sunlight. Crowned by ever-present snow, it was the undisputed king of the mountain range.
Along a long ledge, a lean shape flitted, keeping to the shadows. Across the imposing face it shot, appearing entirely at home in this forsaken place. A momentary pause revealed lavender fur, big ears, and a forked tail; then it was off again, darting along the ledges with expert ease before diving into a deep crack in the cliff face.
"You're late, Eifa," came a stern voice.
"Terribly sorry, Great One," the lean 'mon said, flattening herself on the cold rock in a gesture of submission. "Emeria interrupted my coming."
The other 'mons in the cave were all like her, lavender-furred and big-eared and looking very much scandalized by Eifa's lateness. The one in the center of the loose circle was perched on a rock that served him in place of a pedestal. He glared down at her.
"I see. Don't let it happen again."
"Yes, O Great One," Eifa mumbled, her muzzle still pressed into the floor.
"Good. You may rise."
Gratefully peeling herself off the floor, Eifa joined the loose circle as the one on the pedestal raised his voice.
"My faithful followers! Now is the time. You know as well as I the problem. I have proposed the solution. Are you all ready to carry out the plan?"
A resounding roar confirmed it.
"Good! Now, we know our assignments. Be ready, my faithful friends, and stand vigilant for my sign. Listen, and I will tell you more..."
Outside, the wind sped up as it continually fled that king of mountains.
And somewhere further down the king mountain, another lean frame caught the change in the wind and worried.