The next morning Jackson headed outside at pre-dawn to visit Ramses at his house. He carried a basket of sitrus berries and cheri berries with him to give to the youger Riolu.Jackson knocked on the side of the entrance near the entrance.
"Uh, good morning Miss Nefriska? I—"
His words were drowned out by the sharp howls and high pitched yaps of young children, and Jackson had to cover his ears to keep them from bleeding. A tall, lithe, and attractive looking Lucario stepped out of the den, pieces of cotton lodged in her ears. She looked tired and upset, her long velvet fur tangled and matted. She narrowed her eyes at him.
"What could you possibly want at this hour, young man? The sky hasn't even turned blue yet!"
"Sorry to disturb you, ma'am—"
"You should be! And I am that old enough to be called ma'am!"
Jackson's eye twitched in slight annoyance. He then understood why Ramses didn't want to be at home all the time.
"I apologize. I am looking for my friend Ramses. You know, really short, shiny fur, starry scarlet eyes—"
"Never heard of him"
"Wha— he's your son!"_
She paused and tapped her foot, pretending to think or care.
"Oh, you mean Ram-Ram. Well, I haven't seen him since yesterday morning. I think. Did I feed her that day?"
"Him"
"Him. Well kid, no I have not seem him."
"Did he come home last night?"
"I don't know"
"...Thanks for your help..."
Jackson grumbled and turned away. He felt someone grab something out of his basket, and he turned around to see Ramses's mom taking a bite out of a Cheri berry.
"Hey, you're the chief's son, right? It must be hard living in his shadow and trying to hide that disability of yours."
Jackson felt the fur on the back of his neck rise; he gritted his teeth.
"I stand in no one's shadow. And I do not have any disabilities!"
"Uh-huh"
The velvet furred lucario said skeptically.
"Hey, why don't you ask your dad if I can get more of a discount at the Kecleon stand for me? Tell him Nefriska asked."
She batted her red eyes and smiled. Jackaon rolled his eyes and walked away without a word. A bird-like shadow swept over him, and he looked up to see a Murkrow flying over head. Jackson narrowed his eyes at the mysterious bird pokémon and took off from Nefriska's house, dropping the basket of berries.
"Hey, have you seen Ramses?"
"Uh, hi. Have you seen a Riolu. Runt? Gold fur? Red eyes? Really talkative? No? Sorry for wasting your time..."
" Hello, have you seen Ramses? Cleo's youngest son? No? Alright... "
Jackson sat down beneath a tree just outside the center of the village. He had asked just about everyone that pasted by if they'd seen Ramses and no one knew where.
'Perhaps I need to retrace my steps'
Jackson thought, looking to where the hole in the wall of trees was, the escape route the thieving Zoroark had used. The Riolu got up and walked over to it, surprised that the guards hadn't patched it up by now.'Ah! The guards said they'd search the perimeter for any suspicious characters around dawn. Perhaps they had found something?'
Jackson ran towards the entrance to the village, were the guards stood. He went up to one of them.
"Excuse me, Ace."
The armoured Lucario gave a pleasant smile as he looked down to the Riolu
"Why, hello Jackson. Surprised to see you here, you're usually at the training rocks in the gorge."
"Yeah, uh, I'm taking a break today. Look, the guards that were out on sentry duty— they said they'd go look around— at dawn! Did they come back?"
The Lucario's eyes widened in surprise.
"Guards had left? Nobody told be anything about that. Did you know?"
He turned to the guard next to him, who shook his head.
"Nnnnope"
"Yeah, no. If they did go out, we haven't seen them. Should we inform your father?"
"No! I uh I'll go look for them myself. I'll be right back!!"
Jackson ran past the guards and went outside the village entrance and into the forest.
To be continued*roundabout starts playing*Lolol, ever since school started up again I've been busy. Hopefully I won't abandon my first story!Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I won't keep you hanging for too long! Much love and appreciation, peace.