Sedimentation
Chapter 7

The larvitar held his breath and summoned up what power within him he could manage, then let it loose. He imagined the brightest, greenest and fullest leaves he could. He only felt a little fuller in the end as a result.

But it still helped, because they were down to their last scraps of food now and fighting for what was left. The delibird were less now. The fog was thicker. They were starting to come into the territories of other ice pokemon – and they were less friendly than the delibird from before.

They stuck to the tunnels that were supposed to be neutral territory – but neutral was a laughable word in their times. The caves and water holes opened up into the tunnels after all, and those entrances belonged to the ones who slumbered within. The zubat had had a wing encased in ice by a spheal before larvitar managed to land a rock on its tail, dragging the spheal back into its watering hole. They'd missed a chance at that flesh – but maybe it was a good thing they'd had. They could see the glowing eyes in the dark, watching. If they'd killed one spheal, the others would have spilt out of the watering hole and attacked them.

They'd learnt to approach attacking with caution thereafter. If it was something that didn't live in those parts it was fine. But those were rare and far between. They had managed to find a crobat and a strange purple blob who had sneasel claws but had far more appetising meat, but that was all.

Their food was running low, and though the larvitar gently scratched away at the zubat's wing, she wouldn't be able to use most of her attacks for a while.

'I can still fly after this,' she said stubbornly. And it was true. Their wings had been frozen before. They knew the exercises they needed to do to make sure that wing would still be usuable afterwards, when the ice came off. But there was a limit to that, and that was why the larvitar scratched away at her wing, peeling a little more ice away each time. If he were older and his claws more developed, he would be able to scratch off more, and faster. But he couldn't, and there were delayed a little more as a result.

But training was hard work as well, and the larvitar was thankful for the feeling of satiety he managed to muster up. He hadn't known that would result from his choice, but he was glad it had. He may have already starved otherwise. And if he could master that technique he could feed his zubat friend before what remained of their food ran out as well.

She said nothing when he mention that, just bid him to keep on training. Aside from her surety that she would fly again, she had fallen rather silent as of late. Their progress had slowed as well. Because the larvitar could not rest for very long for fear of the moisture settling into his stone, they had to stop more frequently. And because of his training he had to stop as well. He could feel the power now, more than just the satiety – but it still wasn't enough. They had not reached the lake in the mountain yet, but when they did they would need to fight to cross it. It wouldn't be like the scrimmages at the water holes: stray attacks that were designed to drive opponents away. It would be an all out feud they would have to get past.

But it didn't need to be a powerful attack. So long as they could slip past the drama that would unfold, it would be fine.

But he still needed to master that attack. He needed something that wasn't rock slide, that wouldn't sink the boat they'd use to get across. The zubat had mentioned it before: their plan. The attack of rocks that was every larvitar's trademark. They'd use that as a raft and the zubat's tailwind and get across.

But before that, they had a ways to go. The larvitar closed his eyes and held his breath and summoned the power within him again. Come on, he begged. Work.

Something crashed around him and he opened his eyes to see the glowing green orbs. The zubat who'd been sleeping opened her eyes as well. 'You did it,' she said, her voice filled with wonder.

The larvitar wondered if she'd doubted him…though it didn't matter if she had. He'd doubted himself after all. He was young, and inexperienced, and clumsy and slow. But he'd wanted to try anyway. He'd wanted to reach that place the zubat was trying to reach.

He didn't know why. He didn't know why he was trying so hard when he was going to die soon anyway. But it felt good, somehow. Walking, day by day, and fighting on. Even that hollow feeling in his stomach, before he'd mastered enough of his hidden power to fill it up. He felt like he was growing up, in a way that spending his time in the cave, stiff and asleep, would not.

The decay of his body was no longer a secret to him now. It had gotten to the point where the black had spread over his stomach and his claws, and he could see it. But he didn't mind. He'd imagined his body like that anyway, just in white. That was what would have happened to him in the cave, when the winter stepped further in. Not this year, perhaps. But maybe the next one, or a few winters from now. The snow and cold would reach their caves as well, and that would be the end of tem. The giant snakes of rock that had once lived…that was how they'd met their end. Those ones that had made the tunnels now used by everyone.

And now the larvitar had a new attack as well. An attack that would help both of them. 'I did do it,' he said happily, catching one of the green orbs and sucking it dry. He squealed the moment the cold reached his tongue – but it was nothing like the cold of ice. Rather, it was the cold of fresh water in the summer time, mixed in with the tang of crisp spring leaves.

He caught another and gave it to the zubat. She took it carefully, one foot still hanging on to him and one wing still frozen, and sucked more slowly. She made a noise of contentment as well, sucking as quickly as she dared. It was nothing like the frozen meat they'd been forced to tolerate. Nothing like the sparse fruits even that grew on the outside – and even though she'd tasted it before, from other larvitar, it was something beyond her expectations every time.

The larvitar caught all six of those spheres and the two of them devoured them before moving on, with a new vigour. The rocks were still enough to combat the spheal, but when they stumbled upon the golduck and poliwrath quarrelling over a broken wall that united their territories the new hidden power he had mastered was a godsend. They had to use the rock to swim across early as the tunnel had also collapsed, but that was fine. It worked in their favour actually, because the holes in the back walls led them into the main cavern beyond, and the water beasts there were too agitated by the conflict on the other side to notice the larvitar and zubat sail past on the gust.

But it was still a rough journey, even without the opposition from other pokemon. The water struck at them mercilessly, and the zubat's gust was growing weaker along with her body. She couldn't maintain a straight course and every time they came close to a fish staring quietly behind them the larvitar would hold his breath and hope they wouldn't crash. They were being ignored now, but he doubted they would ignore a perceived attack from them.

But, luckily, they didn't crash. They made it to the other side and the zubat collapsed, her energy spent. It was a long way. Longer than the outside world to the little home of the larvitar when she carried meat. And she was getting too old for such trips now.

But there was still a ways to go. Smaller trips, from one foothold to the next, until they reached the top. And they wouldn't be seeing any opposition now. Not from the pokemon. Not from the cold. At the very centre of the mountain was sloping ice that had no breaks, but there was also an orange heat that cast the ice aglow. The source of all the light in the mountain, even though no pokemon nor legend could tell of the origins of that fire, nor why the ice was so perfect in its midst.