Others

Female scyther are territorial and almost never leave their territory. Male scyther, on the other hand, are nomadic, visiting many clans' territories and never staying long. The females tolerate them only as long as they have to.

The third day dawned, and the scyther were off and running again. In the early afternoon, they saw another scyther ahead. He saw them too, and was waiting.

"Care to dance, ladies?" he called once they were in earshot, and then recognised them. "Shining Blade, Long Claw? You're a long way from home, aren't you?"

They'd found the human's camp from the night before. The male was standing in the middle of it.

"Go away, Sure Dance," Long Claw growled.

"I'm not in your territory," Sure Dance said. "What are you doing out here?"

"Chasing a human," Long Claw said shortly. Now go away." The three younger scyther shared a look, then started to search the campsite, leaving Sure Dance to Long Claw.

He took a few steps back, but didn't leave. "Need any help with that?"

Shining Blade intervened before Long Claw could say something she'd regret to one of the clan's favourite males. "Thank you, but no, we prefer to handle it ourselves. It's... personal. If you-"

"Sharp Fang!" Smooth Stroke called. "There's blood here."

Sharp Fang darted to where Smooth Stroke indicated and crouched to sniff at the congealed spots. "It's scyther," she said. "It's prob-"

"Woah!" Sure Dance exclaimed as Long Claw shoved past him and started running again. Shining Blade growled under her breath and took off after her. The others followed them.

Smooth Stroke lingered. "Sorry we couldn't stay. Um... maybe on the way back?"

Sure Dance gave her a wink. "I'll be waiting, gorgeous."

She nodded and was gone.

Shining Blade was trying to calm Long Claw down. "We knew she was hurt. This doesn't change anything. Slow down, you can't keep up this speed all day."

"It was only a few drops," Sharp Fang put in. "If she was... you know... badly injured, there'd be more."

"What if we find her just a little bit too late?" Long Claw said, but she slowed to a sustainable speed. Smooth Stroke caught up, and didn't say why she'd fallen behind. They kept running.

Up until now, the terrain had been fairly flat. There was the occasional rise or dip, but mostly the landscape was level. An hour or so after they left Sure Dance, it changed. The smoothness gave way to a mess of little hills and valleys, as though someone had crammed too much geography into not enough area. The younger scyther were delighted by the novelty and found it highly amusing. The older two didn't like it. Even from the top of a hillock, the innumerable valleys scattered around it provided perfect hiding places, and the forest, its edge now more uneven than ever, filling valleys and carpeting random hillsides with trees didn't help visibility. "The human could be right there and we wouldn't see them!" Long Claw complained. They were forced to spread out, just in case, which made them more vulnerable to attack. For once, everyone was happy when darkness fell and they had to stop for the night.

Ruby was used to his pokeball, and being sent in and out of it didn't disconcert him at all any more. For the last few days, he'd been spending a lot of time in it.

It was evening again, which meant they'd spent the whole day flying... again. Poor Topaz. She wouldn't let it show, but it had to be wearing her out.

"Can you light the fire for me, Ruby?" the master said. It had scrounged up a small pile of firewood, not really enough to get through the night, but not bad considering that - as Ruby looked around and saw - there weren't many trees around. "We'll just have a little fire," it added. "I'll get dinner ready."

Ruby set up a campfire, carefully scorching a bare patch in the grass and stomping out any wandering embers, scratching out a shallow pit, dragging one of the smaller branches into it and bathing it in flame until it finally caught. The familiar flashes of light behind him heralded the appearance of his fellow pokemon. Ruby practiced his metal claw technique and reduced the larger bits of wood to more conveniently-sized pieces. That done, he found the bowl of food the master had set out for him, next to Citrine, and started to eat.

The new scyther was standing off by herself. Citrine was watching her carefully, but Ruby didn't think she'd try to run off again. The master was trying to convince her to eat. "We're going to be training tomorrow, you'll need the energy."

"I don't want your stupid training!" Emerald snapped. "I don't want to be part if your team. I want to go home!"

The master understood the tone if not the words. "Why don't you try to be happy?" it pleaded. "The others aren't so angry all the time."

"I was very happy!" Emerald wailed. "And then you ccame along! But you're too stupid to even-"

"Oh, for goodness' sake." Thyst, it seemed, had been annoyed enough to interrupt. "Poor little you. You think you're the only one who's ever been caught? We were all of us wild, and we're doing just fine now. We don't spend all our time sulking. You're supposed to be a scyther, aren't you? Stop behaving like a hatchling and act like one!"

"What he said," Topaz mumbled, almost inaudibly.

Emerald stared at the ekans. She opened her mouth, closed it again. Finally she stomped past the human to her bowl and began eating.

"Good," Thyst hissed. "And if you throw another tanty like that, I'll eat you." He bared his sharp little fangs at her for a second and slithered away, leaving her looking after him nervously.

"He wouldn't really," Ruby said, in the interest of team harmony.

"Probably not, anyway," Topaz added. Citrine gave her an admonishing look, and she shrugged her wings. "Just sayin'."

Emerald went back to eating, as did Ruby, and by the time he'd finished she had too. "Good girl," the maser said happily. "I still think I should recall you overnight, okay? I'll let you out in the morning." Emerald turned her head to look at it but didn't otherwise respond. It recalled her, happy that if she wasn't being positive, she at least wasn't being negative.

"Silly bug," Topaz said scornfully when Emerald had disappeared. "She doesn't know how good she's got it."

"She doesn't," Citrine said. "Be patient with her, Topaz."

Topaz ruffled her feathers but didn't say any more, just tucked her head under her wing and dozed off. Citrine snuggled up next to the human in its sleeping bag and they fell asleep too. Ruby sat watching the fire; he wasn't tired, he hadn't been out of his pokeball since the night before. The human's quiet snores were soothing: it was safe when it was asleep with all its pokemon around it, and Ruby's main concern was keeping the master safe. The wood in the fire broke into coals, sending sparks dancing into the air, and Ruby saw a pair of eyes glittering. Thyst too was still awake.

"She'll be trouble, that scyther," the ekans said quietly.

"That's not your problem," Ruby said sharply, turning away and lying down. Thyst didn't press the issue, and the charmeleon found that he could sleep after all.

Author's Note: This chapter is shorter. It is shorter because, as the interested among you may have noted, I am dividing the chapters by day, and not much happened today. Next chapter will be longer, because more stuff gets done.