A little teaser chapter of a story I was writing. Not any more, I suppose. :/

I watched the middle-sized family of Bidoof stumble into the clearing. The others in the pack communicated telepathically with each other to compare strategies on how to take them down. Some just tensed and wove their illusions closer, while I just sat there, waiting for the sign. The pack supervisor sat in the tree above me, watching carefully. He had evolved yesterday, and he and his two-week older brother were almost ready to go to the next pack. I could see an old Bibarel, as well as a couple of young Bidoof frolicking along behind the others. There was a couple of fat Bidoof strolling along leisurely in the center of the group. I licked my lips. They would taste nice.

The Bibarel sat down for a second, and I saw the Illurer walking beside him. He was disguised as a Chimecho, since Bidoof and their evolutions trusted them. Then I saw something that made my heart start pounding. A couple of Chingling were following behind, obviously having heard the chime of the Illurer's disguise's trademark sound. Dammit! I thought. I could now see the Illurer's irritated face, and was relieved that he hadn't let them with him on purpose. No Illurer would ever do that. These two Chinglings looked around the stage that they learned uproar. He'd blow our cover, waking up all the Pokémon around the clearing, and they would come investigate. We couldn't have that. I could hear a few angry telepathic thoughts being aimed at the Illurer, and I could see him flinching every time one got to him. I could see that the Chingling would have to be taken down fast.

I could also see a few fit Bidoof trailing behind, looking around wearily. They could tell something was wrong. Well, my friend, let's see how right you are, shall we? I thought, grinning, and the Illurer gave us the sign that everyone was in the clearing and could attack. Our evolved form was holding an illusion around the clearing to keep out low noises, and to make sure no one could see us. High-pitched noises, however, like the ones a Chingling could make, would instantly break that illusion, since we're very sensitive to them, and they break out concentration. Once the sign came, we all let down our illusions and charged at high speed.

Since I was the closest to one of the Chinglings, I attacked him first, taking him out without a peep, using a strong bite. The pack member supposed to take down the other Chingling, however, had trouble getting a grip fast enough, so sure enough, out of his mouth came a high pitched screech that had the whole pack writhing around on the ground. The only thing that stopped the noise was the supervisor, who had enough sense to fall out of his tree the right way, and crushed the Chingling. The sound stopped, and we quickly turned to the Bidoof, while the pack leader and the supervisor quickly tried to re-work the illusion around the clearing. It wasn't good, so we attacked with a vengeance, and I used take down on one of the fitter Bidoof, which weakened him to a pack member's slash, but left me panting. I got up from where I had fallen, and used bite on the Bibarel, who died quickly. A few seconds later, the pack was victorious, but there was no time for rest. We quickly picked up our catch and zipped off through the forest, away from the clearing, which was too close to a town in the first place. The pack supervisor ran on all fours behind us, but not being as small as us, was having trouble dodging through the trees as well. In times gone past, our evolved forms were faster than us, but it all changed when the Great Move happened.

I looked back at the clearing, and saw many pokemon investigating, and trying to stop the Zubats from destroying the evidence. I smirked, and looked back the way I was going. The Zubats and our pack had come to an agreement. They told no-one of our existence, and got to eat the food scraps we left behind, and we didn't prey on them too. It was a good agreement. Any nocturnal Pokémon that didn't eat scraps of meat, or meat at all, lived in fear that we would prey on them, so they didn't tell either. Once, a Noctowl tried to tell about us, but he disappeared mysteriously, and wasn't seen again. Except by us. I licked my lips, remembering the taste. He tasted alright too. Kinda like… Combusken, I thought. My friend Zorr looked over at me, hearing my thoughts, and I remembered that we were all still linked telepathically. I remember him, she thought to me. He did taste like Combusken.

She licked her lips too, and helped me with the Bidoof I was carrying. We ran along, through the cool night air, the pack weaving through the trees with all the grace of a Kirlia dancing, but with a little more speed than a Stantler running from a predator or hunter. We'd caught a couple of Stantler last week. They'd tasted nice too. The rest of the pack was congratulating each other on our great catch, and chatting amongst each other, telepathically since we would rather not have other Pokémon listening in.

Pack One was out hunting tonight as well, except for Mareep, which they had to go on the other side of the mountain for. They also had to watch out for humans, for getting to the Solaceon town farms is rather close to the town, and they have to pass routes that humans use too. The farms are both Spear Pillar and the Distortion World at the same time. The good parts are that they're stocked full of Mareep, Miltanks and Tauros, as well as other livestock. The not so good parts were that they're usually guarded well, with Growlithe and sometimes even Arcanines. Once, when it was Pack Two's turn to go there, I swear I saw a couple of Luxrays.

"ZORRUUUU!" I heard from the front of the pack, signalling that we could talk properly now, as we reached the edge of a large grassland. In the middle, about half a kilometre away, was a twisting formation of rock, and I knew that underneath were the burrows that the breeding pack lived in, as well as some of the evolved packs. I could see a couple of patrols around the outside of the grassland, with its long swaying grass, and occasional boulder and rock. It was just perfect for us, since we liked to sit in the shade of the grass, or a rock, thinking about things. Also, since we were dark type, we liked it better than sitting out in the sun. We were smarter than most Pokémon too, except for some of the more humanoid ones. It seems that the more like humans Pokémon look, the smarter they are. It was a strange thought, so I pushed it aside.

I joined in the chatter, talking about things with my friends, and lifted my nose in the air to smell what was around. I could smell the grass, and smoke too. I let Zorr take the Bidoof for a second, crouched down, and then jumped right up into the air. I saw the glow of many fires lighting up the night from the area of the rocks. We don't really like the sunlight, but we don't mind fire. I came back down, and could now hear taking coming from the twisted rocks, and laughter too, from the new home of two families. They spread into about twenty something families about now. The home of what was two, shipped in from another region for some reason, and then escaped.

They bred, and now there are twenty families here at this new home.

The home of my family, my friends.

The home of my many relatives.

My home.

The home of Sinnoh's tribe of Zorua and Zoroark.

An empire.

If you think there's something missing, or you spot a mistake, I'll work on it instantly. A note: The Illurer is the Zorua that uses illusions to lure prey in. Lock Jay~