Rollin' on ice

by Drakke26

A Venipede loses the grip on his frozen surroundings and ends up in the hands of a weird trainer. (Written in cooperation with Shinyhuntress who pitiably does not have an account of her own.) (Unlikely to get further updates)

2. Chapter 2

C-cold. 'Will this winter end someday?'
I open my eyes and glance around. 'Why am I on the ground?'
A human lies near me and I slowly crawl closer, I need to gain a bit of warmth before I completely freeze. I drop on her chest and relax, the sun isn't going to set for a while, I should be able to rest here for a moment before I flee.
My eyes slowly close.

Warm. I open my eyes and see the human holds me in her arms. 'So much for a quick escape... I might as well try to get the most out of this.'
I snuggle closer against her chest, but can't find an opening to get into the warm shelter. "Is breakfast ready?"
"What?! You have to earn your food, don't think you can just eat everything without paying the price!"
I twitch while the Scrafty glares at me, but after a short wink of his trainer he calms down, a bit. "Not yet, we did not plan on feeding you, so we might have to rethink the share of food everyone gets."
She glances around for a while then turns her head to me again. "Kiba is right though, you should earn your food. A small sparring fight wouldn't be too bad for starters."
The dark fighting type smirks and I gulp. 'Fighting? I hate fighting. Life is hard enough without someone trying to squash you.' "Is that really necessary? I could try to find some food instead."
The sloppy dressed salamander steps closer and rest his arm on Gift's shoulder before throwing me an angry look that seems to tell me I would wish to be dead after he is done with me.
The human doesn't seem convinced he is the right choice, dodged a bullet there I guess. "Are you sure you wouldn't be a bit too much for him? Held is a lot better in restricting himself."
The Scrafty replies with a wide, friendly smile. "Surely not! The frog has other things to do than training this bug, let me take care of it. I will be especially careful."
I shudder as the human looks down to me again, still looking skeptical. "You have to fight small one, but don't worry, if something should happen I will intervene."
'I'm as good as dead.' I hop out of her arms and onto the head of the Scrafty, pushing bug energy into by teeth before biting his crest. Giving him no chance to react I hop behind him and dash toward a tree while the fighting type seems to be startled for a moment.
"Get back here, you little bug!"
The dark fighting type turns around and runs after me, but I move onto a small branch and shake my head. "No, I would like to live a bit longer."
He headbutts the tree and I fall off while my opponent gets buried under a load of snow. I grin for the blink of an eye, but stop as the Scrafty starts to free himself. 'Not good. How did that move work... I remember again, like that!'
I grasp at my core and form several spikes out of poison energy , then drop them around me before dashing away, I hope that stops him for a moment.
"I told you to get here, coward!"
I glance back and see my opponent is running through y spikes instead of around them, not exactly what I expected from a fighter that seemed so experienced. I hurry up and try to get up the next tree, but a punch hits my back, interrupting my ascension to temporary safety. I drop down and grit my teeth, I'm surprised my skeleton is still intact.
"Gotcha. I'm sure Gift will forgive me sooner or later."
My opponent raises his left feet to stomp me, but I manage to rollout and ram his right feet, making him fall over while I dash away again.
It might only be me, but I think the Scrafty took a moment or two longer than before to get up. I run up the next tree and look to him. "Can we not just forget about this stupid fight?"
The dark fighting type simply headbutts into the tree, shaking me off while getting buried under a large amount of snow. 'Does he enjoy that or why does he keep doing that?'
I curl together defensively for a moment in panic as the insane freak shovels the snow away and steps out of his temporary bounds. "My patience is running low. Stop your resistance and die already."
I hear the snow crunch under his steps while he comes closer and I shudder, still curled up. 'Why does nobody help me? Did the human not say she would stop him if he fights too violently? Arceus, protect me.'
A cough almost saturated with pain makes me glance at my opponent who glares down at me. "I won't accept a cowardly weakling as my team mate."
His coughs increase in volume and length and I take the chance the rollout against his feet before fleeing his possible revenge.
After several moment I notice the Scrafty did not stand up again and very carefully crawl closer. "I'm sorry, could you please stop trying to kill me?"
No reaction. I move even closer and see his eyes are closed while he breaths heavily. 'Am I really responsible for this?'
I twitch as a hand pets my head. "Good job, small one, well done."
I slowly retreat while Gift turns the dark fighting type on his back and carefully lifts his torso. She uses her left hand to open one of his eyes. "Held, I need Strength 2."
She reaches out with her hand, not even looking to the frog who quickly uses his tongue to drop a small syringe in her grasp. 'This would be the perfect moment to flee, they are distracted...'
Despite that I stare at the human who removes the safeguard and pushes the needle into his arm, milky-violet liquid flowing into the Pokemon. I take a few steps back as the Scrafty's breathing slowly gets normal again and he opens his eyes again.
After a short glance to his trainer he glares at me and I dash off. The dark fighting type jumps onto his feet, but Gift holds him back on his stomach. He angrily swings his fists at me. "I'm going to kill him! Let me go! He's a goner for sure!"
I blink in confusion as the human pulls him back and softly presses her cheek against his. She smiles. "Easy, Kiba, or the poison will increase in effect again. He did win fair and square, so calm down for once."
The Scrafty folds his arms and growls, I'm pretty sure I'm dead if I give him an opportunity, so I run off. 'A bit of food and relative safety certainly isn't worth that trouble.'

I run for a while before my stomach reminds me I haven't gotten any breakfast yet, and the fight was rather exhausting, so I look around and try to find a few berries.
A Pecha berry tree! I slowly crawl closer, careful not to attract any unwanted attention before grabbing a mouthful and happily chewing on it. 'Sweet. These are definitely the most delicious berries I ever managed to get. Most are already frozen or half rotten...'
After my hunger is sated I sit down. 'What should I do? Is the human right? Maybe I should try to get stronger.' I sigh. 'In hindsight it might not have been the smartest idea to run off like that... I don't think it will be an easy task to find them again.'
I slowly nod. 'I should try anyway. But how to apologize for leaving like that?' I grin. 'A few berries will do the job, I hope.'
I quickly grab another mouthful and crawl up a tree, a higher position always helps if you try to find something. I'm lucky as I can faintly see the tracks I left behind and follow them, if I get to their camp I should be able to find them again.

It takes me a lot longer than expected, but finally I see the human on a path beneath me and happily hop onto her head. I carefully drop the berries into the small opening on her chest and move onto her shoulder. "I found a few sweet berries. You're not angry at me, right?"
The human looks at me in what seems to be slight confusion before taking my presents out of the warm bag and passing them on to the Toxicroak. 'I did nothing too bad, right?'
Suddenly the human grabs my back and raises me into the air. "I think I can forgive you this once, but if you ever run away again without some good reason, I will..."
I twitch as she punches her other fist into a tree, breaching the ice-cover and leaving small red marks on the wood. She smiles."Understood?"
The poison fighting type tips on me. "Believe me, small one, you don't want to anger her. I taught her, but she even exceeded me."
'Why did I come here again?' I slowly nod while my glance wanders to her bag. It seems like not all of the berries made it intact and Pecha juice has leaked into the bag. 'I should try to be helpful and clean the mess up I made, right?' "Don't worry, I will clean that for you."
I swiftly crawl up to her chest and try to lick off the juice before she gets any more angry at me for ruining her pelt.
I try not too enjoy the taste too much and focus on cleaning her skin, but get distracted for a moment as the human simply seems to freeze and falls onto her back. 'Why do I feel like this will get me in trouble?'
I'm about to lick of the last few drops as a fist grabs me and the Toxicroak raises me into the air. "Why did you do that?"
Her other two Pokemon did rush to her side and look down to her. The psychic fighting type gulps. "Everything alright, Gift?"
There seems to be no response, but Held stands in my way, so I might be missing something. I try to calm the frog down with a smile. "I did not intend to do something wrong. I heard mammals take great pride in their fur and skin, so I thought I should clean her before she gets any more angry at me. Why? If her skin did stay wet and sticky like that she might have gotten a cold, right?"
Held shakes his head. "Might have been a nice try, but you shouldn't have done that. Females, human and Pokemon, are pretty sensitive to touches."
I tilt my head and look to the Gallade who lightly slaps his trainer on the cheek without any result.
After a moment of hesitation the dark and the psychic fighting type get a bucket of water and dump a bit of water over her face, resulting in a the human instantly getting up and trying to dry her face with her sleeves.
I glance over to her and see I missed a few droplets."She did not seem to mind me sitting on her shoulder too much. But she would faint again if I try to finish my job? I don't want her to get sick."
The frog slowly nods. "You want to help, that is nice. But next time you should just tell her, she can clean herself. Especially that spot is particular sensible."
The Scrafty growls. "He should simply take a second to think next time. He already has met females before, right?"
I blink in confusion and glance to Gift. The Gallade is carefully putting a blanket around her. I cough. "How should I know how females react? They always seemed too busy to survive, not much time to talk about mammal-nonsense." My glance wanders to the small pile of berries I collected. "Are you going to simply let these lie there? Do you have any idea how difficult it was to get these here without swallowing them?"
The psychic fighting type glances over to me. "How should we? We always had hands."
I glare at him while Kiba starts snickering. "You shouldn't be so cheeky, woodlouse."
"Stop it already! I'm fine and we will take the berries with us. It's difficult enough to find something edible out here, you should know that, Afflicatio!"
I turn to the human and whine. "But they are only fresh for a few hours. Did you ever compare fresh Pecha berries to ones who kept lying around for a while. They lose most of their taste if not eaten fresh..."
I whimper until the female sighs and drops her head. As she looks up again she suddenly smiles. "If it is so important to you we will eat them immediately."
She lightly winks toward the berries and her team each grabs a berry, the Scrafty only reluctantly and after pouring a bit of water over it, then throws an additional one to his trainer. 'Hey, I'm not poisonous! … Wait... I mean I'm not that poisonous. Aww, he washes some of the taste off...'
I'm about to get up and get myself a berry as the dark fighting type rolls one in front of me, I think I caught a glimpse of an angry glare of his trainer toward him though. I take a bite and grin, not as good as the ones I took off the tree, but still a few whiles longer and their taste would have been mostly gone.
The human smiles at me, she seems to be careful not to drop anything onto her chest though. "Nicely done, small one."
I nod. "These are so rare around here we really have to enjoy them."
Everyone except for the Scrafty nods. The dark fighting type just silently continues to eat his berry. 'Ungrateful meanie. I won't get any more berries for him...'
Gift turns to me after the berries are eaten. "I hope you don't mind if we leave this forest, we are on our way to Castelia City. It's still a long way until we are out of the forest, but you should start pondering if you want to come with us or not, I know it's difficult to leave the place you were born and grew up."
I hesitate for a moment. 'I know this forest. Where to get food, most dangerous predators and escape routes, hiding places... But it keeps getting harder to survive, most of my siblings are already gone...'
I slowly nod. 'And if it gets too bad with them I can still leave them in the next forest we get to, right?'
I grin and climb onto the human's shoulder, leaning against her neck. "I guess I will hang around with you for a while. But don't expect me to take on feral Hydreigon or other powerful guys like that."
'Life will get a lot more interesting with them around, but at least I won't freeze to death.'
Gift nods with a small smile. "Don't worry, you're not ready for that yet. You will only have to fight smaller Pokemon once in a while, but even then you will get help." She stands up. "Then let's get on the move, we still have a long way to go."
The fighting type stretch their right hands in the air and nod.
I grin. "You don't mind if I stay here, right? It's so comfy." 'And it's highly unlikely she will let me any closer to her skin I guess.'
The human nods. "No problem, every partner of mine took that place once."

"Are we there yet?"
It getting really boring just hanging onto her shoulder while Gift continues to walk onward.
She looks up for a moment before she drops her bag and look to the Gallade. "That's enough for one day."
The psychic type nods and steps toward a tree. He seems to pray for a moment before jumping up and cutting of several branches. He throws the wood to the middle of clearance and lays his hands onto them. After a moment I see how flames envelop his hands and light the bonfire.
Gift gets some frozen apples out of her bag and puts them next o the heat source.
I shake my head. "Sure you want to eat these? I could look for food again."
The Scrafty folds his arms. "A bit too demanding for a little woodlouse. You should be happy with what you get!"
The human giggles while looking from the dark fighting type to me. "You don't have to. It tastes good, no matter how it looks when it is cooked."
I shudder. "No. No cooked food. I will get you something fresh and really tasty. Don't worry, I will come back."
I dash off, I hope she doesn't get mad at me again, but I can't stand this old food.

A while later I stop and take a deep breath. 'Wait, why did I run here? Home?'
I climb up a tree and glance around. 'Home again! I can't believe I ran back to the place I hatched... It should be easy to find something fresh here.'
"Gotcha!"
A Rufflet grabs me with its talons and rises into the air. I normally do not care that much about heights, but this definitely is getting too much. "Hey! Let me down!"
The bird chuckles and releases me. 'I wanted to get back to the ground... but not that fast... I hate these joking brats...'
I roll together and try to think of something else than the coming impact. 'How did she got me so high so fast? Wish I had less time to think. Reshiram protect me, if I could get all that luck I spared and lacked over the last few weeks and turn it in now I would be really thankful.'
Seems like karma hasn't totally forgotten me as I crash into several branches, painfully slowing down my fall before I finally hit the ground. 'Stupid flying types.'
I try to get up and run off, but stop as pain flows through my skeleton. 'Ouch. My poor shell. Where was the next Sitrus berry tree?'
I more or less quickly find it and swallow several while my body slowly stops hurting so badly. 'Should I take these to Gift? They don't taste that great, but it's better than defrosted food.'
After a moment I shrug and take the berries into my mouth. 'If she does not like them I guess I will need them after the beating I get...'

It takes me less time than before to find the human and I drop onto her head again. 'If female are that sensible in the chest area they could enjoy tasty things getting dropped into it, right? Guess I can't make things that much worse anyway.'
The Scrafty rips me off Gift's head and headlocks me to the ground. I cough and the Sitrus berries roll out of my mouth while the dark fighting type glares at me. "What sort of crazy idea did you have this time?"
I choke. "Can't breathe... Not enough air..."
I faintly hear Gift. "Stop it, Kiba, you're going to strangle him to death!"
Suddenly the Scrafty gets pulled off and I take several deep breath. Held has grabbed Kiba with his tongue and dragged him off me while the dark fighting type growls. "Let me go. Didn't you see that look? He had some crazy idea, again!"
Air. Never thought it could be so good to simply breath. After a moment I blink in confusion toward the Scrafty. "What do you mean? I just wanted to give Gift the berries."
"Really? And where did you want to put them?!" Kiba glares at me and continues to struggle against Held. "I saw where you looked! If you want to give Gift something just drop it into her hand, like everyone else with a brain would do! But it seems like you maggot got none!"
I tilt my head. "Why? It's big enough, keeps the berries warm and if she is so sensitive there she maybe would enjoy the tension..." I glance to the human before I looking to the ground. "I'm sorry. If it is so bad to put something there why do you keep it open like that?"
The female glances down at her bag before a slightly embarrassed smile appears on her lips. "Eh... eh, there isn't really a good reason, it's just the cloths and nothing else. It's just the way woman dress up."
Something clings and I shudder as the Scrafty calms down. I slowly follow it glance and see the Gallade is glaring at me. "You don't ask a lady questions like that!"
I quickly nod and crawl backwards. "Yeah, understood, won't happen again, sir."
Afflicatio has moved into a fighting stance, his blades ready to strike while he shakes his head. "That's not enough, you simply repeat your mistakes over and over again. Maybe a bit of punishment will break through to you."
I turn around and try to run off, but psychic energy gathers around me and lifts me into the air while the Gallade steps closer. "Not so fast."
I instantly panic and wiggle around, resulting in myself spinning in the air. "I'm sorry!"
The psychic fighting types blade pokes me and he grits his teeth. "When I'm done with you you won't simply run away and try to find berries after I wasted hours to find something edible."
I get launched up and desperately grasp onto a large leaf as I get thrown back down.
Ouch... My makeshift protection might have saved my skeleton from shattering into tiny bits, but I still feel devastated. I gulp. 'That was just one attack...'
I barely roll out of the way as Afflicatio stabs at me, ramming his blades several inch into the ground. I'm about to sigh in relief, but the Gallade simply picks up the earth he dug his blades in and throws it at me while freeing his weapons in the process. I'm too slow to evade and the rock-solid object sends me flying several feet before I collide with a tree a drop down.
Pain courses through me and I desperately lick the bit of Sitrus berry juice that has remained in my mouth to at least recover a tiny bit. I get up and dash behind the tree to get out of Afflicatio's vision, that should at least give me a moment or two to think of a better plan.
I try to crawl up, but a wave of pain runs through my body as I try. I drop down and just stay on the ground and whine, rolled up, there's no way I can get away from the Gallade...
'I'm as good as dead... Nobody will help me.' I continue to whine while the psychic fighting type seems to walk closer. Suddenly I hear two object impaling the ground close to me.
"Open your eyes!"
I quickly obey and see his blades have sunken into the frozen floor inches away from me. Afflicatio slowly removes his weapons, but remains close to me. "It's a miracle you survived until now! But you should have learned now that you can't win by running away alone, you have to think twice before you act, understand?"
I quickly nod, I won't risk angering him now. 'He's as nuts as the rest of them. But I have to plan my next escape better.'
The Gallade carefully picks me up and carries me to his trainer who has a small can in her hand and sprays it onto me. I relax a tiny bit while the pain muffles, still there, but a bit more bearable. Gift smiles. "I knew you wouldn't hurt him, Afflicatio."
I silently groan while the psychic type bows and grins. "Of course not! I did just discipline him."
'How to show I'm really sorry? Maybe something to protect her bag?' I slip out of the human's arms and crawl slowly get up the next tree.
After quickly grabbing several leaves I fall onto her head and carefully place them on her chest. I grin. "Good protection?"
Gift swipes my makeshift cover away and laughs. "A really nice idea, but that really isn't necessary."
I slowly nod and sigh. "Sorry. I can't make up for my mistakes so easily, huh?" After sighing a second time I lean against her neck. "I'm a bit sleepy, could I take a rest now?"
The human smiles and pets my head. "Of course, it's time for some rest."
She puts me on the ground and pulls a blanket out of her bag before she puts me onto her knees. Her team leans against her after a moment and I feel the exhaustion of today slowly getting a hold on me. I grin while my eyes close. "Have a good night's rest, okay?"
I roll into a ball and fall asleep before Gift gets a chance to answer.

End of the 2. chapter. Hope this is as entertaining to read as it is to write.