Chapter 2: Alone
A/N: I have been using the word cut to refer to the attack scratch sometimes because it often sounds better. The attack cut is actually never in this story.
The charmander had grown up safely. He was now a yearling. From birth, his claws were his primary source of defense, although he always had an incredibly startling roar. After a few months, he had begun to learn to spew out flames, and recently learned to contain the flames in his mouth, creating a smokescreen. He was growing up. Soon he would become a charmeleon and begin his solitary travels.
His mother had three rules for him. First, he must never, without exception, under no circumstances, allow himself to be seen by a human. Particularly if he saw one holding a round object with two distinct colors, known as a monster ball. If he was seen, and he didn't see a monster ball, he was to shoot a smokescreen and run away as quickly as possible. If he did see anything round, he was to run zigzag.
The second rule was to be cautious around any other creatures. Try to communicate with them if necessary, but always be careful about other predators. She taught him how to hunt easy prey, such as caterpie, metapod, and kakuna. She also taught him how to carefully hunt more dangerous prey, like weedle, pidgey, magicarp, and goldeen.
The third rule involved magicarp. When told to be cautious around them, the child snorted, and asked why. Then he learned of his greatest weakness. His mother pointed to his tail, which resembled a match. "If that flame goes out, you die. Even a weak magicarp, unable to do anything but splash water on you, can be dangerous, even deadly if underestimated." The child avoided water from then on.
The mother and son were hunting one day, about to pounce on a caterpie. The mother leapt forward, her arm over her eyes to block the inevitable string of webbing shooting out of the small creature. As the spray paused for a moment, she picked up the bug in both hands, holding the web-launching end away from her. Then she shot flames at it until it stopped moving. She cut it up, and she and her son burned it thoroughly before eating.
Partway through their meal, she froze, and listened. Her son saw her motion and copied it. He could hear a faint noise of motion coming from above. Suddenly, his mother moved. She ignited the edge of a nearby tree as quickly as possible, and then cut away the charred bark. She then stuck the edge of her tail into the open space and insisted that her son copy. He had seen this before. He imitated her, pointed the edge of his tail up, and stood still. Drops of rain started to fall. They stood, totally still, feeling the rain drip onto their heads, running down their backs and onto the base of their tails. If they relaxed the edges of their tails for one second, they knew it could mean death. They were trapped, helpless to do anything but try to survive.
After a few hours, the rain subsided. They went back to their home, partway up a steep, rocky hill. To enter, they walked up the slope, and then walked completely horizontally into their hole under a rock.
Once inside their hole, they were about to collapse from exhaustion when the mother froze. She heard something from deeper in. Suddenly, a sandslash leapt at her, catching her by surprise and slitting her throat. She tried to scratch it, but it curled up into a defensive ball. Then she burned it. Gradually, it was being hurt by the flame, but her blood loss was killing her faster. Deep in her home, defending her child, she died.
The charmander saw only blackness as the flame disappeared on his mother's tail, and then he understood. Listening, he could hear the sandslash moving. He dashed out into the woods, as it started to rain. Grabbing a leaf, he held it over his tail. It was only a temporary fix, but better than nothing. By the time he reached a tree, holes were starting to appear in the leaf, which was being charred by his tail. Copying his mother, he burned, and then tried to scratch a groove into the tree, but he wasn't strong enough. He could hear drops of rain turn to steam as they hit his tail. He was going to die. Suddenly, something wrapped around his legs.
He struggled and fought as an arbok spun around his body. His greatest fear had come true. Unexpectedly, the arbok was speaking.
"I will not harm you unless you burn me. Will you?" the snake asked. The charmander shook his head. "Good," the snake replied. Now listen. I am going to protect you from this rain by extending my neck over your tail. Do not fight me."
The charmander felt the arbok act on his words. He only wanted to know one thing. "Why?"
"I am full. I do not need you as food. Why should I let you die unnecessarily? Surely you follow my sentiment?"
The charmander said nothing, thinking about this strange new idea. They stayed quiet until the rain stopped, early in the morning, and the arbok slithered off. He was alone.
He spent most of his first motherless day trying to catch prey. The rain was totally gone and he needed food. And sleep, but that was impossible. He needed to find a safe place.
Near the end of the day, he saw two, long, blue things moving. He looked up. Was this a human? He saw the round objects on the human's waist and knew for sure. Hiding deeper in the bush, he waited. Suddenly, a sandslash appeared in his face. Danger! He dashed out of the bush and ran, all the while creating a smokescreen. The sandslash ran through the smoke, grabbed him both by the neck and just below his tail fire, and carried him back to the human.
As they returned to the human, it drew out a ball, pointed it at the charmander, and pressed a button. The ball sent out a beam of light, capturing the creature inside. He fought hard, with the little strength he had left and broke away, being beamed back to the ground and destroying the ball. The human ordered the sandslash. "Slash! But be careful not to kill it." For some reason, the creature obeyed. The charmander felt intense pain sear through his chest, then he collapsed, and was almost grateful for the next ball to end his anguish.
A/N: I plan to update this story every Friday at about 4:00 EST.
A new challenge every week! This week's challenge: guess what region they're in! Is it Kanto, Johto, Hoen, or Orre? I love reviews.
Anyone for a poll? My profile has a poll on what I will write next. A popular idea is more likely, but not necessarily where I will go next or ever.