Chapter Five:

Return

Pip sat perfectly still, his gaze lingering on the place where Howl had been. The silence was so immense and profound it felt as though time had slowed to a halt all around him. It was strange. He had thought he was used to the solitude and stillness that this small, enclosed dome offered, yet it had never felt so empty before.

Howl's words echoed through his mind over and over again.

Words about his parents, but mostly about his mother.

Unbidden, unwanted, but with heart-rending clarity he remembered the countless nights of their travels she had cuddled him, gentled him and warmed him, and told him the stories she had told when he was younger, and when he was afraid, she had assured him that as long as they drew breath, nothing would be able do him harm, and that it would all be over soon. She and his father and him, they would all find The Forest together, and everything would be alright.

The little one's eyes burned. His head swam. His chest ached, until finally he could not just sit still any longer.

He began to pace back and forth, unable to form any coherent thoughts for more than a second. It was as though his thoughts were being projected through a magnifying glass, narrowing down onto one bittersweet memory after another and expanding them to ten times their recent intensity.

Pip couldn't bear it. He wanted to cry out, but he didn't have the strength. He wanted to see his mother again! He wanted to hear her voice and feel her comfort! He wanted his father to come home. He wanted his family to come back!

But they never would.

They were gone. They were never coming back.

The little one screwed up his eyes, trying to contain the bitter anguish, but it was overwhelming! He couldn't stay in here any longer - he needed to get out of this place! He didn't even care if he didn't know any of them - he wanted to be with other Pokémon again! Anybody else's voice would be better than this!

"Howl?! Sir?!" he cried, and darted towards the exit and through the tunnel as fast as his little legs could carry him.

He was so small that he didn't need to worry about crouching low whilst inside it, and almost immediately he was nudging the large leaf aside and looking out across the lake beyond. But the whole place was quiet.

He peeked out a little further, but there was no-one in sight.

Maybe Howl had returned to the eating area? But maybe not, he thought; that girl Pokémon had clearly been annoying him, so maybe he'd gone somewhere else? He shook his head. There was no time for him to dither. His mind felt as though it had become hazed, so that all he felt was grief and sheer loneliness. He made a wild dash for the path he'd taken when he'd fled from the eating area, and listened for any voices nearby.

He turned a corner, ran all the way across to the other end, and then turned another, wishing with all his heart that Howl was nearby.

But as he was nearing the halfway point of a third path, between the way he'd come and the way he was headed towards, he heard a loud cry of pain, and struggled to make himself stop.

He listened closely. Had he imagined it? Then he heard it again; a soft thud and then a high yelp. But this time he heard voices alongside it.

"All right! Ten points!"

"That was not ten points-"

"Shut up, Patrat! It's MY game, and I say that's ten points!"

"You can't just change the rul-"

"Can too! And I'm not changing the rules this time, you're just a bad loser!"

Pip listened for a moment before losing interest, and he began to move onward, but then he heard another voice. A weak, pleading, tremulous voice.

"Stop it…" it said, "This isn't funny… Please, just stop!"

"You, shut up!" snapped the first voice, "You're not supposed to talk! Just keep still!"

"No… I don't want to!"

"You agreed to this!"

"No I didn't-OWW!"

Pip heard a soft thud, and then another, and another. Each thud was accompanied by a cry of pain, but no sympathy whatsoever was given, only jeers and hoots of triumph were heard from the other voices.

Pip looked towards where all the noise was coming from, and saw a small parting in the trees to his left, and hurried into it without thinking.

Seconds later he found himself in a clearing not unlike his hiding place, though this was much more accessible, and there were no walls other than the surrounding trees. The sun shone clearly onto a small group of Pokémon inside, and Pip looked from one to the other. Three Pokémon - all a few years older than he was - were gathered at one end of the clearing, and it was their voices he'd heard before that had been laughing. There was a Treecko, a Patrat, and a Purrloin. At their feet lay a pile of stones, which they were scooping into their hands and counting out how many each of them should have, causing much quarreling.

Pip heard shuddering, convulsive breaths, and looked towards the other end of the clearing, and gasped. There he saw a Pokémon of about the same age as he was, hanging upside-down from the branch of a tree by his ankle, and he was pleading, crying, sobbing, pleading again, but the other children took not the slightest notice.

"You! I thought I told you to SHUT UP!" the Patrat shouted.

"I don't want to play anymore!" the other Pokémon retorted in a voice that would have been anger if not for the tears that shook it so violently.

"Yeah? Well, we do, we're having fun. So grow a backbone and put up with it!"

"I don't WANT to!"

"You agreed to this, Sentret! We asked you nice and simple, 'want to come play with us after breakfast?' and you said yes! Now stop being such a baby and keep still!"

Pip was at a loss as to what was going on. He watched, unnoticed, as the little, sobbing Pokémon stopped covering his eyes and held his arms out wide. And then Pip felt the realisation come crashing down:

The aforementioned Sentret had a concentric circular pattern of white fur which stood out separate from the rest of the light-brown fur in the dead centre of his stomach, and at various places on the white-patterned fur were a number of deeply-marked bruises.

The Purrloin, Treecko and Patrat cheered mockingly.

"OK, Patrat, your turn!"

As the Patrat moved ahead, holding a handful of stones, Pip saw the Sentret at the other end give another tremulous moan, and shut tight his brimming eyes.

He had never seen anyone look so scared.

The Patrat held a stone out before him briefly, and then hurled it forward, where it crashed with horrible power directly into the exposed stomach of the Sentret.

"HEY!" Pip cried out suddenly, stepping into view.

All eyes turned to him at once. Pip felt a shiver pass over him at the sight of the stones in their hands, but he stood his ground.

"Stop that!" he said loudly, addressing the group of three, "Stop hurting him!"

They looked at him briefly, and then to each other, and then the Patrat sneered,

"Get lost, pipsqueak," And threw yet another stone.

"Didn't you hear me?! I said STOP IT!" Pip shouted at the top of his voice, starting towards them, but the Patrat whirled round and made to throw a stone at Pip instead, who cried out and recoiled.

"Unless you want to play with us, you can get lost right now!" the Purrloin hissed at him.

Pip felt his body begin to tremble. He shouldn't have interfered. How could he possibly stop all three of them? But he couldn't just let them continue! They were being mean! They were bullying!

The laughter, jeers and name-calling pierced Pip from one ear to the other. He searched deep within himself, and managed to find enough strength to shout,

"I'll tell Howl! If you don't stop hurting him, I'll tell Howl what you're doing!"

"That," said a deep, growling voice nearby, "will not be necessary."