Author's Note:
Hey everyone! Sorry for the late update! It was a really busy week, and yesterday I was at a Smash Tournament. I got my butt kicked by a Fox player, and then my roommate eliminated me after a close match. It was still fun though. Anyways, I think our internet is fixed now. Some young guy came in and actually identified problems with our connection even while the internet was up. I was really impressed. Maybe I'll finally get to start streaming some 3D animation work this week.
PokeGamma54: Chapters are short? Fair, I suppose. That's mostly because I divide chapters by plot points rather than length. This story will probably hit over 100k words by the time it is done though. As for missing details, if you can pinpoint specific aspects that are missing, that would be really helpful. I tend to forget about things such as body language and environments due to the dialogue-heavy nature of the story. I'm really glad you like the story! I'll definitely do my best to keep it going.
Phillip Harbindinger: Welcome back! Take your time to reread what you need to. You'll probably pick up on a few more details. No worries about your last review. It wasn't as bad as you might be thinking. As for the last chapter, its purpose was a bit more abstract than most of the chapters I write. The concept really only applies to binge readers rather than those who check back weekly, so no need to worry about it.
I'm not 100% certain I've quite captured the emotions of the characters properly in this chapter, but otherwise it transitions very nicely for the next chapter. But nevermind that, I'm sure many of you have been waiting to find out what happened to Kieren the night he was exiled. Well enjoy!
Today is 6/12/16 and this chapter is 2800+ words.
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, just dream it.
Chapter 19: Katfight
"Did you sleep well?" the furret asked Kieren upon his awakening.
"Yes. Thank you," Kieren answered politely.
It was mid-morning. The sun was still battling against the changing seasons, and today it was definitely winning. The grass glistened of morning dew, painting soft rainbows with every sweep of the dancing breeze. A couple lazy clouds drifted slowly in the blueing sky, beckoning one last summer adventure before the cold made its temporary annexation.
"Here is some breakfast for you, young umbreon," another furret told Kieren while bringing him a bowl of berries.
"You don't have to," Kieren responded, raising a paw.
"We insist," the furret demanded, setting the bowl down and staring Kieren straight in the eyes.
The furret had been so nice to him ever since he left the forest. It was all thanks to a starly that interrupted his parting with Drake last night. The starly went out of his way to make arrangements, and the furret seamed rather eager to take him in for the night. Kieren had never realized that the furret had remained just outside the forest since their mishap with the tribe, but now they seemed happy and well off.
Kieren watched the little sentret play with a colored ball as he swallowed the berries the furret had kindly gifted him. The peace was bittersweet. Kieren would miss his family, his mom, aunt, uncle, and cousin. He would miss Kat and Caleb. He would miss Drake. He was all alone now. He had to invent his own life; start a new dream and pursue it. Eventually the sentret children disappeared into the tall grass hill shortly after Kieren had finished his breakfast.
"Headed out?" asked a furret as Kieren stood up on all fours.
"Yep. Thank you for all your kindness," he answered gratefully.
"No problem. An enemy of Celestia is a friend to us. Take care now!"
"An enemy to Celestia?" Kieren thought as he embarked on a path headed towards the city. "Why just Celestia, and not the tribe?" he pondered, but he dared not ask and push his luck. He needed as many new friends as he could get, now that he was on his own. He refocused himself on his next destination. He was going to the city, where he hoped he could find a new lifestyle. No one from the tribe would chase him, and he wouldn't have to worry as much about trainers trying to catch him, thanks to Melody's insight. Well, at least he wouldn't have to miss her since she'd likely be running errands from time to time. As for right now, he'd explore and talk to other pokemon until he found his place.
"See ya later," he called back to the waving furret behind.
"Did Kat say anything about Kieren?" Melody asked the flareon once they finished exchanging tales of last night's event.
"I was out," Trent reminded her.
"Oh, right, sorry," Melody recoiled. Her tails smashed together in angst.
"Nevermind that. I need to talk to her and Caleb right now and discuss options," Trent informed her, looking off towards the cliff.
"Caleb?" Melody asked.
"Yea. The other day, Caleb showed me some moss he found hanging off the poachers' heli…thing…" Trent failed with an embarrassed chuckle.
"Helicopter?" Melody hinted.
"Yea that. There was some kind of energy emitting from the moss and he wanted to know if it resembled the feeling of evolution."
"Did it?" Melody asked, ears perked.
Trent nodded.
"Whoa. Really?" Melody gasped, her eyes asking the same question.
"Trent!" yelled a voice from a distance. The two turned and saw an eevee tearing down towards them with a worried expression. He stopped in front of them heaving to catch his breath.
"Caleb!" Melody gasped.
"Caleb, I have a huge favor to ask you," Trent stated, barely giving the still-eevee a chance to rest.
"What?" Caleb huffed between breaths.
"The moss stays secret, got that?" Trent hissed.
Caleb smiled as his limbs relaxed, despite his still-heavy breathing.
"Good. I was about to ask you the same thing, but I guess it's ok if Melody knows."
Melody and Trent both gave a sigh of relief.
"So what are you going to do now?" Melody asked.
"I don't know. I was hoping one of you two would have an idea," Caleb confessed somewhat sheepishly.
"Keep growing it," Trent commanded. "It might be useful in the future. Melody and I will build a sign to keep the others away after we talk to Kat, right Melody?"
Melody nodded.
"I'll go with you," Caleb asserted.
Trent nodded and turned towards his destination. Caleb followed his lead. Suddenly Trent paused and glanced back.
"Melody?"
Melody quickly returned her gaze back to the two of them revealing her paling expression.
"Someone's coming!" she quickly told them. Caleb froze, while Trent stepped in front of Melody.
"Trent! Is that you?" asked a familiar female voice as a flareon and two eevee emerged from the forest trail and approached the startled group.
"Why the heck aren't you three at the party?" Trent scowled.
"We have things we want to discuss with you," Andy answered remarkably calm. "Where are you headed?"
"Go back to your party! I don't need to be attacked again!" Trent snarled.
"He's got a point. Let's go," Connor beckoned.
"Wait," Andy snapped. He looked back up at Trent. "Trent. I owe you an apology."
Caleb and Melody shared glances in anticipation. Connor's eyes had grown in shock while Paige jawdropped. Trent waited for an explanation.
"The Kieren we exiled was not the Kieren you battled last night. This whole time, you've been trying to break the curse and unlock the Kieren no one else could ever see, potentially a true alpha. You were so close too. I saw it in your battle last night, and I am willing to let your family bias slide for now on one condition: You promise me that if you learn his curse is untamable, you will let him go."
Melody was fuming, literally. Smoke emitted from her nostrils as she hissed at the flareon that had spoken.
"Caleb, take the eevee guy, I got the girl," Melody whispered.
Trent turned overhearing the plot. "Relax you two. In a sense he's right."
"What?" Melody asked appalled.
"I'll explain later," Trent whispered. He turned back to Andy. "I couldn't have asked for a more honest deal. I'll be more than happy to answer questions."
"Great! Where you headed?" Paige asked abruptly.
"We're going to check on Kat; make sure she's ok," Trent answered.
"We're going with you," Andy stated.
"No! Bad idea!" Trent objected.
"Why?" Paige demanded.
"Because her best friend just got fuckin' exiled!" Caleb erupted, diverting the attention away from Trent. Melody signaled her agreement.
"And how does that make our attending a bad idea?" Connor asked.
"This is time for sympathy, not sleuthing," Trent answered firmly. He maintained his firm upright stance as he spoke.
A moment of silence lapsed while the flareon contemplated, the two eevee behind him waiting with mixed expressions.
"It is in our best interest to support her in whatever way we can," Andy eventually asserted.
"Fine," Trent decided, not releasing his established control over the matter. He turned to begin walking again, but looked back at Kieren's friends.
"If you two prefer to wait until this is over, that's fine," he whispered.
"We'll come," Melody answered. Caleb glanced over at her, trying to read her thoughts to no avail, before following suit.
As much as she disliked the other Eon members participating in this sympathy meeting with Kat, Melody was more concerned about Kieren. She was confident she would be able to find him and discuss everything with him, but right now she needed as much information about the tribe as possible, especially information pertaining Kat.
"You're Melody, right?" Connor was asking her.
"Mm hmm," Melody affirmed. "And you are?"
"Connor. She's Paige and the flareon is Andy," the young eevee introduced informally.
"So why exactly are you three all of a sudden interested in Kat?" Melody asked, suppressing a curt tone for a more friendly one.
"I'm not really sure. Her name came up in conversation, Andy got curious, and now we've been following detective Trent to uncover the tribe's mysteries and correct our mistakes," Connor answered adventurously.
"And I'm guessing your last detective adventure ended in a fight?" Melody pressed.
Connor drooped his head. "Yea. Unfortunately."
"So what made you come back exactly?" Melody asked.
"Andy wants Kat back in training and back with us. We all felt really guilty when we learned the truth about her quitting, or something like that, so we're trying to make it up. Plus listening to a flareon logically decipher mysteries is incredibly entertaining!"
"Well just a heads up, if any mystery-solving does occur, it is going to be relatively biased. After all, Trent is the only one on our side who made the deal, and it breaks if you betray any one of us, as he is with us," Melody hissed warningly.
"We understand," Andy answered, overhearing the last bit.
"Melody!" Kat cried as she caught glimpse of the arriving pokemon from the shoreline where she stood. She rushed over and fell into the vulpix's embrace, wrapping her tail against her side.
"Is he alright?" she asked, welling up in tears.
"I haven't gone out yet," Melody admitted softly, laying her chin across the eevee's neck. "I'm sorry."
Trent and Caleb tried their best to comfort the eevee breaking in tears as Melody held her. The other trio sat down and patiently waited for a signal from Andy. A few minutes passed before Melody, Trent, and Caleb succeeded in calming the distraught eevee.
Kat broke from Melody's embrace as she attempted to rebuild her composure, straightening her legs and lifting her tail. Her eyes caught Andy and his companions.
"Why are they here?" she glowered.
"We are concerned about you, Kat," Andy answered.
"Yea right," Kat scorned sarcastically.
"They actually are concerned about you," Trent explained to her. "They just don't give a fuck about Kieren."
"Their call," Kat remarked before promptly ignoring her unexpected guests as she turned back to her friends. "So have any of you had contact with Kieren since the poacher attack?"
"You haven't heard anything?" Melody asked in horror.
"I haven't heard anything either. We've been busy lately with the ceremony and all," Caleb confessed. He glanced over at Kat, before staring down at the ground again.
"I'll start," Trent announced softly as he cleared his throat. "Evelescence Day after the attack, he and I went to the lapras to help him make his last minute decision. They gave Kieren step-by-step instructions on how to survive the ceremony and informed him he needed to find Zach, A.K.A "The Guardian", who is apparently an expert on our species."
"Sorry for interrupting," Caleb inserted, "but didn't Kieren have dreams about a Zach kid or something?"
"Those weren't dreams, Caleb," Melody answered, having already made the connections.
"Kieren and I spent weeks in the city's Pokemon Center recovering after the nightmare attack," Trent continued. "Zach often came in to check on us."
"Why did Kieren think it was a dream?" Caleb asked.
"Drugs," Trent answered. "His condition was much more severe than mine."
"I see," Caleb replied. "Continue?"
"Actually, that's everything I got. After talking with the lapras we were able to take in the moment for what it was," Trent exhaled, looking at the stirred dust, wishing he had more.
"And Melody, did you see him at all outside the reserve after the ceremony?" Caleb asked.
"I was his tour guide," Melody answered, smiling after seeing both Caleb's and Kat's reaction.
"Really? So what happened?" Kat asked excitedly. "Tell me everything!"
Melody giggled at Kat's outburst.
"Well, we went to the city, and I lectured Kieren on city things. We stopped at the stone shop and then ate lunch at the Pokemon Center. After that we tried golfing."
"What's golfing?" Trent asked. Melody never mentioned that term in her previous summary of their adventure.
"Well…" Melody paused, attempting a way to explain it. "Do you remember that white thing I was riding on when I ambushed the metagross?"
"Wait!" Andy interjected, reminding everyone of his presence. "Sorry for interrupting the story, but was that your flamethrower that struck the metagross from behind?"
"Yea. Why?" Melody asked glancing up and turning her head, as surprised as everyone else at the sudden change of topic.
"Damn! Girl! You just instantly won my respect," Andy declared.
"Thanks?" Melody offered awkwardly.
"Continue on," Trent prompted, snapping Melody back to the previous topic.
"Ok, so golfing is a game where you hit a small ball with odd-shaped clubs and try to get it into a hole. So we were playing, and Kieren was doing extremely well, until the very end when he got knocked out by a ball my father shot. After a few days at the Pokemon Center, he woke up from his recurring nightmare."
"Kieren has a recurring nightmare?" Connor interrupted this time.
"Yea, of getting nearly killed by his tribe!" Kat answered spitefully.
Andy flinched, but Connor outdid him and was already backpedaling. Paige simply turned away.
"Continue?" Kat asked Melody sarcastically gracefully.
"Uhh. Yea. So…Once Kieren figured out where he was, Zach came in and gave him something called a moon shard. He said it was a long time since he found an eevee deserving of one. He then told us Kieren had to battle with it before it would take effect."
"He fooled me good," Trent added.
"Is that all you know?" Kat asked, hoping for something hinting as to what Kieren was.
"That's all we got," Melody answered.
"Sorry if this is a stupid question, but what exactly did Kieren do wrong?" Connor asked.
"We still haven't figured that out yet," Trent admitted.
"You haven't," Kat spoke abruptly, catching everyone by surprise. "One look at my mother's face told me everything."
"What was it?" Connor asked.
"I need to train," Kat answered.
"With us?" Andy asked eagerly.
"No."
"Why not?" Paige asked.
"I'd be bored to death!" Kat replied.
"Why? Because Kieren won't be there?" Paige sneered. "Seriously. Get over that fuckin' loser and be with us like you used to be, Kat!"
"Paige!" Andy shouted, alarm radiating from his rapidly expanded eyelids. Trent tapped Melody on the shoulder and lead one paw in the opposite direction before Kat stopped them.
"It's alright," Kat informed everyone present as she slowly approached Paige while kicking her legs in the dirt as a warmup exercise. "I already needed to kick some asses for exiling my best friend, and this is the perfect time to start."
Andy sighed. "We need to go," he whispered to Connor unknowingly loud enough for Trent to hear.
"Relax, you two. Kat's not mad at you yet," Trent caught them without Paige's notice. "Besides, don't you want to see Kat battle?"
Trent couldn't help but laugh at the way Connor's eyes flew up like bottle rockets, just in time to see a knowing smile from Kat aimed for him and Andy.
"Thanks," Andy gave in.
"3!" Caleb counted.
"2!"
"1!"
"Go!"
Kat was quick to build up a shadow ball and launch it at her foe. Paige opted to crouch back, waiting to counterstrike. Just as the shadow ball was in front of her face, Kat flung herself with a quick attack through the shadow ball and into Paige's front-side, causing Paige to tumble backwards into the dirt.
"You little," Paige grumbled as she lifted her eyes back onto her adversary. Without warning, she charged Kat with a quick attack of her own. Kat quickly braced herself for the impact milliseconds before Paige rammed her left shoulder against Kat's body. To Paige's surprise, Kat's body didn't give an inch in the collision, and Paige found herself rolling off the top of her target. She slid on her feet a few yards past to see a divot where Kat's body had been. Kat, however, was quick at work building up a double team slowly advancing towards Paige. Paige, recognizing the near-linear formation of the eevee illusion squad attempted to ram them all down with take down. One by one the illusions faded, but as Paige neared the second-to-last one, the remaining illusions disappeared. Caught off guard, Paige attempted to turn around while skidding backwards in an attempt to spot her elusive opponent. Just as she had done so, Kat reappeared behind Paige, catching Paige's tail in her bite. Using Paige's backwards momentum to her advantage, Kat spun the surprised eevee a quarter-turn, aligning the eevee for a powerful iron tail that blasted Paige into the rocky frame of Kat's hideout.
"That was wicked!" Connor exclaimed in awe of the sly maneuver.
"Are you going to get up?" Kat teased.
"I can't," Paige murmured as she attempted to move her limbs, before going cross-eyed and collapsing.
"Well that's that," Kat announced as she returned to her spectators while Caleb departed to pick some herbs for the battered and now unconscious eevee.
"I told ya she still had it in her," Trent told the flareon beside him.
"Apparently," Andy answered, thoroughly impressed.
Author's Note: Well I hope you enjoyed that chapter. It's nice to hear back from old and new readers alike! Don't forget to leave some feedback. I'd especially love some more name suggestions for that protagonist. Her introduction is coming up soon. For those of you in the Midwest, try to stay cool. It is blasted hot. And for everyone, enjoy the summer! ~Dreaming I'm Latios