Chapter 3

Exploration

Sparks and Sparky sit outside the nest as the snivy sleeps in for now. Sparks had been sitting out an hour before Sparky had made it out to Sparks. "What are you doing?" Sparky asked.

"Just thinking," Sparks answered.

"About what?"

"Just thinking, that Tsutarja is now about 5 weeks old and well, she hasn't really been outside of the nest to explore. Maybe it's time that we go with Tsutarja and let her go and explore."

"That's a great idea! Let her see the world in her own eyes. Plus we shouldn't keep her in the nest forever. Do you think she's ready though?"

"Yeah, she's definitely ready… she has so much energy and she needs an outlet for that energy. Having her go outside to explore and run around will be great for her."

"True, it'll be a lot of energy to watch her though."

"Welcome to parenting. This time though, I won't fail."

Sparky takes a second before she replies, "You didn't fail…"

"I did fail, I didn't protect them."

"You couldn't protect them. You tried, but they were to powerful and they overwhelmed you. You couldn't have prevented that."

"Well this time I'm not going to fail this time. This little one will live very happily and very long."

Sparky smiles, "Yeah."

The little blue snivy walks out of the nest. Sparks looks at the snivy, "Did you sleep well?"

The snivy, unable to speak looks at Sparks with a slightly confused look. Sparky looks at Sparks, "You know that she can't talk, why do you talk to her?"

"It's good to have her know your voice, plus how else is she going to learn to talk if you don't talk to her."

"That does make sense."

Tsutarja looks at the branches around, balancing on the branch naturally. Both Sparks and Sparky looks at the blue snivy a little surprised to see that she is balancing perfectly on the branch for her only being a few weeks old. Tsutarja walks towards Sparks and Sparky on the branch with little wobble in her footing or balance. When she reaches them she sits on the branch and looks around at the amazing environment. All these colors. The green leaves, the clear water from the lake reflecting the sky and trees. The feel of the warmth of the sun directly on her left tail. It was an amazing first time experience for the little snivy. The tail leaf of the snivy brightens as the sunlight shine onto the snivy. Both Sparky and Sparks didn't realize that snivy need sunlight to stay healthy because they take nutrients and energy from the sun that they don't get from their diet. Snivy will normally bring their offspring outside within the first week of hatching, if the weather allows them to get some of those nutrients. After 2 weeks after hatching, the snivy will bring the snivy outside almost daily for an hour or so.

"I guess this snivy wasn't as healthy and happy as we thought." Sparks noted.

"Maybe we need a snivy for help," Sparky said. "We don't want to accidently hurt her."

"Do you know another snivy?"

Sparky's ears droop a little, "No."

Tsutarja see some movement in the grass under them. She climbs down the trunk of the tree without Sparky and Sparks noticing that she is on the move. Tsutarja chases the moving creature into the tall grass. Sparks spots Tsutarja before she races into the grass. Sparks immediately jumps up, climbs down the trunk and chases Tsutarja in the direction last seen her. Sparky doesn't move as she is confused what Sparks was doing but after a minute of looking around she sees that Tsutarja is missing. Sparky decides that she should stay at the nest in case Tsutarja comes back. Tsutarja chases the unknown creature until it climbs a tree where she grabs it. The creature is a bug with a magenta head and thorax. It also has black markings on its body and has a green abdomen. The bug struggles to in the hands of the snivy while the snivy examines it. The bug soon stings Tsutarja with a painful barb. Tsutarja drops the bug from the surprised pain. The bug quickly climbs the tree out of snivy's reach. Tsutarja slowly pulls the venomous barb out of her side. She looks around to see another bug of the same species of the other one climbing along the ground near the snivy. This time though, she leaves the bug alone. Tsutarja begins to feel sick and weak. She struggles to go to a tree only a few feet away to sit and lean against. Her breathing increases and she begins to pant and sweat a little. She begins to have a fever as she slowly and naturally crawls into the cooler shade of the trees and curls up to try to endure the pain. With the light of day being engulfed by the darkness of the night, this should be the time for the daylight creatures to go into their shelter. The night is dangerous for a small snivy. Despite the initial pain and sickness from the bug's barb from an hour ago, she begins to lose her fever and begins to feel a little bit better. Tsutarja slowly sit up to see a cyndaquil watching her. Tsutarja takes a few more minutes to stand up. The dark creatures of the night clearly are awake and active as the different creatures sing a different song from the daytime creatures.

Finally the cyndaquil said, "Oh, you're awake now, good." He steps closer to the little snivy, "So you are the child of Dash and Penny."

Tsutarja looks at the cyndaquil with a very confused look. She musters out a few words among many sounds she made as she tries to speak and communicate, "S- sp- sup- spu- spr- spa- Spar-ky Sparky… Spar- Sparks."

The cyndaquil chuckles, "Oh them, I know them, but they aren't your real parents. They got you thinking that they are your mommy and daddy, well that's false."

"Mo- m- mom s- sp sparky, d-, dah, da- dad, s- sp- spar- sparks."

The cyndaquil shakes his head, "They have fused that lie in your head," a dark shadow stands behind the cyndaquil. The shadow jumps at and almost seems to enter Tsutarja. Tsutarja immediately begins to feel drained and barely is able to stand. "But that doesn't matter to me." Tsutarja suddenly faints and falls to the ground almost like she was shut off like a robot. The shadow leaves Tsutarja's body. The cyndaquil looks at the shadow and the shadow turns into the form of a dark Tsutarja. "Good." The cyndaquil walks away, as the shadow lays back down the blend back into the shadows.

Tsutarja stands in a seemingly endless darkness. She looks around. Whispers can seemingly be heard. One male and one female but the direction of the voices could not be determined. It almost sounded like they were coming from everywhere. Tsutarja nervously look around. Suddenly, an adult snivy appears out of thin air a few yards away from Tsutarja. This adult female snivy has a non-threatening presence and aura to Tsutarja. Not long after the snivy appeared, a male oshawott appears next to the snivy again with a non-threatening aura. Tsutarja immediately sees the blue dash across the oshawott's face. Tsutarja curiously walks to the oshawott and snivy and reaches her hand to touch the oshawott's blue marking. The snivy giggles, "She has your curiosity."

Tsutarja looks at the snivy, "s- Sparks dad."

Both oshawott and snivy look at each other with a worried look, "Guess they haven't told her yet." The oshawott said.

The snivy nods and said after a short pause, "Well I'm Penny."

"And I'm Dash" the oshawott said.

Tsutarja looks at Dash and Penny with an interested look.

"Well… I know that Sparks is your dad and Sparky is your mom," Penny said slightly nervous, "but I think you should know that you're not their offspring, but ours… and well we wish that we could be there for you to take care of you and watch over you but well the fact is we're actually dead and these are our spirits." Penny sighs, "And this is your mind, your conscience that we are speaking in."

Tsutarja looks at the pair with an unsatisfied look.

"I know it's crazy but it's the truth. Look while we can't take care of you…" Dash said while he hands two cards with weird symbols on them to Tsutarja. "We can at least help protect you, play these cards in front of you to have us become a solid form to be able to fight for you. Just be conservative with this power, we have limited energy."

"I know this is a lot to take in but… please don't shut us out as liars, we only want to help you…"

Tsutarja looks at both Dash and Penny, and then she looks at the cards, clearly unsure of Dash, Penny, and the whole situation in general.

Both Penny and Dash begin to fade away. "Well it seems like you're waking up." Penny said.