Chapter Six:
The Guardian's Governance
Pip felt his stomach leap. The group of older Pokémon had heard the voice too, and fell still at once. Pip whipped around and began to cry joyfully,
"Sir-"
But he gasped and choked the sentence back unfinished.
Howl was standing exactly where he himself had been under the shade of the trees, and there was look in his eyes Pip had never seen before. In an instant, all the relief he'd felt not one minute ago was snuffed out like a candle.
He felt cold and afraid.
Howl moved until he was framed clearly in the entrance of the clearing, and looked from the group, still holding their handful of stones, to the Sentret, still crying, still hanging upside-down just beyond where Pip now stood.
The Patrat, Purrloin, and Treecko seemed to have been petrified. Their very movements had once been rich with malicious glee, but now their faces showed fear in every visible aspect.
Then there was a rumbling noise throughout the clearing. A deep, ferocious growl which Pip felt through the soles of his feet.
He had never truly seen Howl's anger before. He thought he'd seen some traces of it at times; like earlier that day back in the eating area, but that had only been mild animosity. What he saw now like was nothing he could have ever imagined. Howl was terrifying!
Pip could see his whole body bristling with savage fury: his crimson eyes were ablaze, his fur seemed to be charged with some kind of electric current, and his tail moved slowly from side to side.
Pip couldn't help it; never before had he seen a Pokémon so frightening. He had to creep towards the entrance-end of the clearing, somewhere more-or-less out of Howl's line of sight before he felt even remotely safe.
"Well, well…" Howl said, and his voice was so low it was barely distinguishable from a growl itself,
"What have we here…?"
Pip heard a noise beside Howl, and realised he was not alone. There was another Pokémon beside him; a Lillipup, and she looked just as frightened as Pip was. There was no time for him speculate as to what she was here for, however.
The Patrat, Purrloin and Treecko all made involuntary movements and dropped the stones in their hands.
Howl had barely begun to take his first step towards them when they simultaneously turned and made a wild dash in opposite directions.
"I don't think so!" Howl snarled, and in a blur of blue fur he sped forwards and seized them one by one - an ankle, an arm, a tail - and pulled them back towards him. They cried out and struggled against his grip, but it would not loosen. Then he forced their backs together, gripped all three of the scruffs of their necks in a single large black paw, and lifted them clear off the ground.
"Explain yourselves. Now," he growled, holding them out before him at arms-length. The three fell suddenly limp and still, helpless.
An intense silence reigned. Howl turned the Pokémon around in his grasp to look at each of them individually, and not one of them dared to meet his eyes.
Then Sentret's voice broke the silence.
"S-Sir…?
S… Stick? Is that you?"
Howl said, "Stick. Go help your friend down."
"Yes, sir!" said the Lillipup at once, and hurried past Pip to do as he said.
Howl then looked at Pip, who felt his heart skip a beat.
Howl's eyes seemed to glow like the fury of fire itself. Pip had never seen such a glare, never felt such danger, and he didn't even want to imagine what it must feel like for the Pokémon it was being directed at. Howl glanced pointedly to the other end of the clearing, where the Lillipup had managed to scramble up onto the tree and begin to scratch at the vine Sentret was tied to. Pip understood what he meant, and hurried to help.
"Let us go!" Purrloin cried out suddenly as she struggled in vain, "Put us down!"
"You're not going anywhere…!" Howl said, his voice still dangerously low.
"We're sorry, okay?!" Treecko said desperately, "We're really sorry! We won't do it again!"
"Treecko!" Patrat snapped, "Shut yer yap!"
There was another ominous silence. Then Howl turned them around again 'til he was face-to-face with Patrat instead.
"Very well then, you can explain…" he rumbled.
"Uh…" Patrat said anxiously, forcing an innocent smile, "Explain what, Howl, sir?"
Pip could no longer see Howl's face from the angle he was at, but saw the smile fade from Patrat's almost as soon as it had formed.
"I warned you…" Howl said, "When each of you arrived in this forest, I warned you, did I not, that I will not condone this sort of thing. And again later on, when I caught you mercilessly picking on Pichu in an attempt to steal his food, I warned you once again.
Didn't I… Patrat, Purrloin, Treecko."
"But, sir!" said Patrat, "You don't understand! This… This isn't what it looks like!"
"Go on…" Howl said.
"Uh… W-We were just playing a game is all! We weren't doing anything, I swear!"
"A game…?"
"Yes, sir, I swear!"
"And what game would that be…?"
"Um…" Patrat hesitated. Then mumbled, "Bull's-eye, sir."
There was a pause. Howl turned his head and roared,
"Rustle!" Pip and Stick both jumped. They had been trying to ignore the talk that was going on, but with little success, and the Sentret was still hanging suspended by his ankle.
"These three," Howl continued, shaking them once as if they were no heavier than feathers,
"did they invite you to play this 'Bull's-eye' with them?"
More sobs and a distressed moan was the Sentret's reply.
"Answer me, Rustle. Just nod or shake your head! Did they ask you to play Bull's-eye with them, yes or no?"
Rustle gave another sniff, and said, "They… asked me to come play with them, but… they didn't say anything about what game… and they didn't… tell me…"
He could not go on. Howl had barely turned his gaze back the three in his grasp when they all spoke feverishly over one another.
"-He's lying, sir!-"
"-Don't listen to him!-"
"-That's not true!-"
Until Howl snarled, "Be SILENT!" And the voices stopped at once.
"I have heard enough. I don't have the time, or the patience to listen to more of your lies. I warned you time and time again what would happen if you continued this way, yet your actions have not changed."
And suddenly he released them, and they fell in a heap to the ground at his feet.
"Do you remember what happens to delinquents who break the rules?" he asked them.
The Patrat, Purrloin and Treecko exchanged nervous glances.
"They are punished," Howl continued, "in a manner which is similar, if not identical to the pain that they themselves have inflicted.
So, for the three of you, that would mean…"
His eyes moved slowly towards the pile of stones nearby.
The three realised what he was saying, and immediately they scrambled up to their feet and began to back away.
Howl moved to the side and picked up a handful of the stones in the pile.
"This game of yours…" he said conversationally, letting the stones fall in succession back into the pile until only a select few remained,
"This Bull's-eye… it seems to me like it'd make a good training exercise. I might like to try it myself…"
The Patrat, Treecko and Purrloin backed away even further, twice stumbling over each other's feet.
Howl stood, and held up the stones in his paw.
"Three shots," he said, his eyes blazing down at them behind the length of his muzzle,
"I have three shots - one for each of you. I'll give you a five-second head start. You'd better run."
He had barely finished saying the word 'run' when the Purrloin turned at once and scampered away through the trees until she was lost from view.
Both the Treecko and Patrat remained, hesitant.
Howl began to count,
"One."
The Treecko took a step away from him.
"Sir, please!" he said, ignoring Patrat, "Please! I won't do it again, please!"
"Two."
Treecko gave a little cry of fear and disappeared along the path.
Only Patrat remained.
"We could tell on you!" he said in a final stand, "We could tell Mist!"
"You could," Howl affirmed, "but you won't."
"How d'you know-"
"Four."
Patrat finally turned and ran past Pip, Stick and Rustle through the trees, crying out more loudly than any of his companions.
His footsteps were still audible when they saw the stone soar through the air and heard it land with an echoing thud into the bark of a distant tree.
They heard a high, terrified yelp, and caught the sound of Patrat's fleeing footfalls for a few seconds more before at last, they too, had vanished.
Pip felt his whole body tremble when silence fell once again. He could feel his heartbeats pounding through his suddenly breathless chest. His mouth and throat felt as dry as the bark of the tree he stood on, and his legs felt as though they would buckle under the tiniest shift of weight, sending him tumbling down to the hard ground. But the nausea he felt that was most prominent was a dark, sickly feeling in the very pit of his stomach.
He heard two silent patters as the remaining stones fell one after the other to the ground. Then came the sound of approaching footsteps.
Pip felt a sudden lurch of fear and instantly began to dig his claws into the vine once more, scratching feverishly as hard as he could, trying to at least create a tear in its surface.
"Hey…" said Stick gently, and he knew at once it was too late.
He shifted a glance to his left, and saw that Howl was barely inches from him. He couldn't bring himself to look into his eyes, however, for fear of what he might see.
A large, charcoal-black paw gripped the end of the vine nearest to that of its burden, and from the other paw extended a silver claw the size of Pip's leg at least, which sliced through the vine with no more resistance than air.
They heard Rustle's faint moans as he was lowered gently to the ground, and continuous sobs rattled his every breath. Stick leapt down beside him and began to comfort him as the black paws untied the knot around his ankle.
A few moments passed. Pip had a feeling that Howl's eyes were on him, but he did not make an effort to find out, and instead kept his eyes on the Pokémon directly below, curled up on his side.
When Stick had comforted him some more, and Rustle's breathing sounded more in-control, Howl's familiar deep voice said,
"Rustle, hold your arms out. Wide, if you please."
But the Sentret shut his eyes tight and shook his head miserably.
"It's OK, Rustle…" said Stick reassuringly, but Rustle mumbled incoherent words and shook his head again.
"If you don't listen to me, little one, I can't do anything to help you," Howl said in a matter-of-fact tone that for all its simplicity still somehow gave the subtle impression that one understood the pain the other was undergoing.
"Please, Rustle," Stick urged.
Rustle moaned, screwed up his eyes, shook his head, moaned again; and at last rolled over slowly onto his back and held his arms out, exposing his stomach for all to see.
Stick gasped, Howl gave another low growl, and Pip felt his own stomach turned over by what he saw.
"Is it… I-Is it bad?" came Rustle's voice. He lifted his head to try and see, but Howl suddenly held his paw out just above his chin, intercepting his line of sight.
"No," he said, "no, Rustle, don't look."
"Huh?"
Rustle tried to angle his head to left and right, but Howl would not let him see the damage that had been done.
"Rustle," Howl said when he had finally given up trying to steal a glance and looked reproachfully up at him instead.
"I'm going to take my paw away now, but before I do, I want you to promise me you aren't going to try and look. Will you do that for me?"
"But - But why, sir?"
"Now, Rustle."
"Ohh… OK."
"Good," Howl said, his tone suddenly warm and full of sincerity, "Thank you."
Rustle shut his eyes again when Howl moved his paw away, and Pip watched as the Guardian then held his paw out directly above Rustle's heavily-bruised belly.
"Now, keep very still."
At these words, the outline of Howl's paw glowed a bright white, and from what seemed to sound like a great distance away was a humming noise so silent it was almost lost to the ears.
Stick took a nervous step away, and Rustle opened one eye to see what was going on, but Howl took no notice of either of them. It was clear he was concentrating hard.
Then at last, tiny specks of light began to fall from Howl's paw, drifting down like shining flakes of snow onto Rustle's stomach, and in the places on which they fell, there emitted a small pulsing wave like the ripples that spread across the water's surface when a pebble is thrown into its depths. The waves spread out in small circles along Rustle until they faded away into nothing.
Pip watched in mild bemusement, wondering just what on earth Howl was doing, but then he saw something happen which immediately brushed aside his skepticism.
As a speck of light landed beside a particularly deep bruise around the middle of Rustle's stomach, the pulse it emitted seemed to clear the bruise away.
Or was Pip just seeing things?
No, there was no mistaking it! It was as though the bruise was gradually mending as the white waves spread across it, and by the third or fourth time a wave had crossed it, it was almost completely healed.
But then there was a low, exhausted grunt, and the sparkles of light were no longer falling. The mysterious light surrounding Howl's paw had vanished, and the Guardian himself looked as though he had been drained of some invisible vitality.
He closed his eyes and breathed deeply for a moment.
"Sir?" said Stick tentatively, "Are you OK, sir?"
"Yes… I'm fine…"
He opened his eyes and looked down.
"How about you, Rustle?" he asked.
Rustle pushed himself up feebly into a sitting position, and felt the places where the bruises had been. He was about to answer, but then he touched the place where the deepest bruise had still not yet fully healed and gasped sharply.
"Does it hurt?" Stick asked.
Rustle could manage no more of a reply than a mere, "Mm-hmm."
Howl said, "I'm afraid some of your injuries were too badly damaged to heal so quickly. But even so, Heal Pulse still isn't my finest Move…"
"Heal pulse?" Pip repeated blankly under his breath. Howl seemed to have heard him and made to look up, but Pip had already averted his eyes.
Rustle's shuddering breaths had returned, and eventually they resumed into sobs.
"It's all right…" said Howl gently,
"It's over now. Those three are gone. They won't be bothering you again."
There was the sound of a light pat, and Rustle gave a loud sniff to try and calm himself down.
"Now," Howl's voice said, "let's get you back to your family, Rustle.
Can you walk on your own?
No?
…All right then. Here."
Pip looked, and saw Howl carefully lifting Rustle into his arms and straighten up to his full height again.
"You two had better come with us," he added, before turning and heading back towards the pathway. Stick followed without question, but Pip hesitated on the branch. He did not want to follow Howl anymore. What he wanted more than anything was to return to his hiding place and not come out again. But that place was not as safe as it had once been; its location had been discovered. Howl would know exactly where he had gone if he tried to slip away. And besides, Howl himself had told him that if he tried to hide away again, he would find him.
Pip swallowed. Although the thought of following Howl now made him feel scared, the idea of what it would be like for him to be trapped inside his hiding place and on the receiving side of Howl's anger…
"Pip, hurry up."
Pip felt his insides lurch.
"I-I'm coming!" he called, scrambling awkwardly down from the tree and hastening after them.
They walked on in silence; the two children and the Guardian of The Forest. The youngest of them, Rustle, held securely in his arms whilst Pip and Stick trotted diligently along behind him. Voices could be heard in the distance, growing louder and then steadily quieter as they neared one end of a path from the next.
Eventually Pip said cautiously,
"Um… Sir? Sir?" looking up uneasily at the back of his head.
"Not now," was his curt reply, "You and I will talk later."
That seemed to confirm Pip's worst fear: Howl was angry with him.
No doubt he thought that Pip had been in with the bullies, but had only held back from punishing him because of some slight merciful tolerance. But still, there was no denying it now: he was in trouble.
He gulped to try and govern his nausea, and tried to prepare himself mentally for what was coming.
Eventually they reached the eating area once more, with the familiar sounds of light-hearted conversation and friendly banter ahead. Howl stood in the entrance and looked around to left and right, then after a moment, said to the two of them,
"Stay close to me," before moving on.
Pip did as instructed, and kept to Howl as they moved in-between the mass of Pokémon in the clearing. Admittedly there were fewer than there had been before, but it would have been almost impossible for him or Stick to find their own ways through, as they were both so small compared to everyone else around them.
As they passed by a group of who sounded like older female Pokémon, Howl slowed and tapped one of them on the shoulder, which stopped their conversation at once.
"Excuse me, madam," he said, "may I speak with you please? This way."
The Pokémon - whom Pip recognised as a Furret - sounded bemused, but she agreed and followed him, Stick and Pip through to the other end of the eating area and along a grassy lane so small and so well-shaded by the trees that it was almost invisible, but as the group followed it for a short while, and turned a corner right-ways, they finally came to a circular area completely bereft of grass, and where a tall and strong-looking tree stood in the middle of it.
Howl slowed to a halt, and turned around.
"What is it, sir?" the Furret asked; or began to ask before she saw the Pokémon in his arms.
"Rustle...?" she gasped, "Wha… What's happened?! Is he in trouble for something?!"
"No," Howl replied simply, passing him over to her. The instant Rustle was in his mother's arms he gave a silent wail, hugged her tightly and pressed his face into her fur.
"Wh-What is it?" she said, "Rustle, sweetheart, what's the matter?"
"The poor kid has had a rough morning," Howl said, "Not half an hour ago he was being bullied by three other children."
Rustle's mother gasped,
"What?! Did you say… bullied?!"
Howl explained clearly and as level-headedly as he could.
"Three of them…" Rustle's mother said when he'd finished, her voice suddenly weak and breathless, "And… And did you say they were throwing stones?"
"That's right."
Rustle's mother held her son cradle-like in her arms and looked down at his stomach.
"Ohh, my poor little…" Words failed her. All she could do was hold her son tight and make soothing, gentle sounds. Pip, who had receded under the shade of one of the trees to the side, felt a pang as memories of his own mother stirred within him.
"But wait…" she said at last, lifting Rustle's arm out of the way to look at his stomach,
"These bruises are all healed. Except for that one in the middle, they all look just fine…"
"How about that," Howl said expressionlessly.
She looked up at him. "Did you-?" She looked back down at the bruises and back to him again. "Did you do that? Did you heal him?"
"Yes."
"You-" Rustle's mother stared, and then leapt in to a blather of gratitude and praise,
"Oh, thank you, sir! Thank you!"
Howl waved a paw dismissively.
"Don't worry about it," he said, but before he could lower the paw, she seized it and said, "Thank you!" over and over again.
"Enough!" Howl said finally, "If you want to thank someone, thank Stick over there. If she hadn't found me, I'd have never known."
Rustle's mother looked toward where he'd indicated, and saw Stick standing awkwardly out of sight.
"Is that true?" she asked.
"Y-Yes, ma'am," said Stick shyly.
Rustle's mother moved over to her, crouched, and gave her a hug.
"Thank you so much, Stick," she said.
"You're welcome..." Stick replied, a warm blush suffusing her cheeks.
She straightened up again and turned back to Howl.
"Madam," Howl said in a courteous tone of voice, "forgive me, but I'd like to speak to these children now; in private. Could I ask you to leave us please?"
"Oh," she said, then, "yes. Yes, of course, sir. And thank you, thank you again."
She looked down at Rustle in her arms and gently licked a tuft of fur on his head.
"Rustle? What do you say to Mr. Howl, hmm?"
Rustle withdrew his tear-stained gaze from his mother's fur, wiped his eyes, and said quietly,
"Thank you, sir. Thank you very much."
Howl smiled down at him.
"I hope you would do the same when you're grown up," he said.
Rustle's mother gave a short bow, and then left along the pathway, clutching her son close to her chest.
Howl waited until she had turned the corner and disappeared from view before beckoning Stick and Pip to him. The latter felt a cold chill run down his spine.
Howl had not so much as glanced in his direction whilst they had been in this tiny space, and Pip had thought himself perhaps unnoticed to him, yet his sideways gesture had been towards his exact location. He could have tried to sneak away at any moment, and Howl would have realised at once!
He obeyed, taking as long as he dared, and kept his gaze fixed firmly on the ground before him. When he was close to, he looked up and found that Howl had bent to one knee so he could look at them face-to-face, and that he was watching him closely.
His eyes glowed ominously, and were set in a deterring scowl. But then he remembered they had always looked like that, and now that he was closer, he could see that the fiery glow within them was a lot calmer; more like the fading light of embers than the blazing inferno they had been before.
'Maybe,' he thought, 'he won't shout at me, at least…'
But that was little comfort.
When they were both level with him, Howl looked from one to the other briefly. Then his gaze settled on Stick.
"Thank you, Stick, for telling me what was happening. As I said before, if you hadn't informed me Rustle was being bullied, he could have suffered even more until the damage became permanent. But thanks to you, he'll be just fine. Well done, child."
"Thank you…" said Stick, blushing furiously once more. Howl continued, "But I imagine it's going to be difficult for him to cope with what happened. Such a thing would truamatise anyone his age. He might find it difficult to speak to you every now and then, and he may even feel embarrassed or ashamed to show his face to you. Because you, after all, were the one who saved him. Try to be understanding and kind to him if that ends up being the case, and let him know your opinion of him hasn't changed.
He's going to need his friends now more than ever before.
Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir. I understand."
"Good… And now," he glanced purposefully towards Pip,
"I'd like to speak to Pip here, also in private. So I'm going to have to ask you to leave us too. Why don't you go and find some of your other friends to play with in the meantime? Or if you wanted, you could go and keep Rustle company. But I'll see you again later and be sure to tell your parents just what you did.
Now go. Away with you."
Stick nodded, and made her way towards the path. But just before leaving, she looked round.
"Sir…?"
"What?"
"Is Rustle… gonna be okay?"
There was a short pause.
"Yes," said Howl firmly, "he will. As long as he doesn't exert himself and eats Oran Berries with every morning and evening meal, he should be completely recovered in about a day.
There's no need to worry."
Stick seemed to be reassured.
Thanking Howl once more and bidding him a last farewell, she walked away along the path at a pace which, to Pip, seemed to take forever. But finally they saw Stick's almost imperceptible figure turn left along the grassy pathway and vanish.
Pip felt his ears and tail droop. It was finally time. He wished his heart would stop beating so fast, then at least he could try to dredge up some of the strength he'd found before. But was there any point in it now? Was it likely Howl would be slightly more forgiving if he showed some spirit along with his guilt?
…No, probably not.
He sensed movement beside him, and suddenly all thought of spirit was gone.
With awful trepidation, he turned slowly towards the noise and looked up.
Howl's expression was inscrutable. He looked angry, but then he reminded himself again, that was just the way his eyes looked. He tried to spot any obvious signs of danger, or any visual signs of bodily tension, but there were none. Howl was just looking at him, as though he were almost waiting for Pip to speak in his own defense.
An odd sound, something between a nervous exclamation and an attempt at speech was shaken from him, and before Pip could stop himself, he looked away to hide his embarrassment.
Howl made a quiet, contented sound, and finally he spoke,
"You truly are their son. Through and through."
Pip was unsure if he had heard him right, until he felt a large paw at the top of his head gently ruffle the fur between his ears.
"I'm proud of you, Pip. You did very well."
Finally Pip looked up again, and saw that Howl was smiling. It was then, in that very moment that he realised he had never really registered it before: Howl's smile was incredible. It gave a vast impression of paternal compassion, strength, and knowledge beyond his years. It was the kind of smile that made him feel undeniably safe, as though as long as he stayed right by Howl's side, no dangers in the world would be able to even get close.
He struggled to find his voice.
"Yuh-… You're not… angry?"
Howl's brow furrowed.
"Why would I be angry?" he asked.
"Ah - I-I just… I thought…" Pip shook his head. "What do you mean I did well? I didn't do anything. - S-Sir," he added for safety.
"Modesty," the Lucario chuckled, then, "Yes, you did, Pip. You did do something, and I know for a fact most children your age would have struggled to attempt it against just one bully."
"I don't understand."
"Don't you?"
"N-No, sir."
"You stood up to them. More specifically, you stood up for someone else's sake.
You didn't even know Rustle, but you realised he was a victim, and tried to stop Patrat, Treecko and Purrloin from tormenting him any farther.
That was very noble."
"Not really…" Pip mumbled, guiltily lowering his eyes to the ground, "I didn't really make any difference, did I? I just kind of stalled 'em for a bit, but I didn't actually make them stop."
But on the word 'stop' Howl suddenly said sternly,
"Hey. I'm up here."
"Sorry!" Pip said, and immediately looked Howl straight in the eye,
"I mean… I didn't really make any difference, did I? Sir, you were the one who really made them stop in the end…"
"Yes, I suppose that's true," Howl concurred, "But it doesn't matter how they were stopped in the end. You could have just turned your back and run away - most children would've done when bullies threatened to start throwing stones at them too, as they did to you.
But you didn't run away. You wouldn't let them carry on hurting Rustle. You stood your ground and flat-out told them to stop, even with the full knowledge that you could've ended up right beside him on that tree.
That takes a certain strength of character."
Pip opened his mouth to speak, but found he had no idea what to say in response to this statement, and then closed it again.
He felt his warmth spread slowly across his cheeks, but at the same time he felt a different kind of warmth in the centre of his chest. He didn't think what he had done was nearly as good or heroic as Howl had made it sound, and he especially didn't believe that most children would have just run away if someone was being hurt right before their eyes; and yet Howl's words had had a curious, forthright sort of quality to them, so that even in the depths of his humility, Pip couldn't help but believe that what he said was true.
"I guess so," he mumbled, unable to prevent a smile from working its way to the corners of his mouth.
"Sir?" he said, after a brief silence had passed between them, "Can I ask you a question?"
"Of course."
"What, um… What're the rules here, sir? In The Forest?"
Howl looked at him, his expression quizzical.
"Why do you want to know that?"
"I dunno, sir, I just… I think it'd be pretty good to know, just so I don't break any of them by mistake."
"By mistake?" Howl repeated skeptically.
"Yeah," said Pip compellingly, "I mean, you were really-" But he realised the rest of his sentence and stopped himself just in time.
"I was really… what?" Howl asked.
"Nuh-Nothing. Nothing, sir."
"That didn't sound like nothing…"
"No, sir, really, it's… nothing."
Howl sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Speak your mind, Pip. You're not going to be scolded for telling the truth.
If you have something you want to say, then speak up."
Now Pip felt he had no choice but to complete his sentence. But he couldn't actually say what he'd been about to; but he didn't want to refuse either. He'd have to think his words through carefully.
"Um…" he began awkwardly, "I just… Well…" Until finally he focused on making his voice as bland and sincere as he could,
"I just don't want to get in trouble."
His voice had been completely steady, and from what he could tell, his face had been blank and devoid of any nervousness, but regardless, understanding slowly dawned on Howl's face.
"Ah," he said, "Yes… I see."
Pip felt suddenly uncomfortable, and lowered his eyes to the ground. He could tell Howl had figured out what he had really meant.
"That's not how I'd have chosen for you to see me…" Howl said.
Pip swallowed. 'Look up' he thought. But somehow he couldn't bring himself to do so.
"You were really angry…" he mumbled.
"Yeah, well… I did warn them I would be if they carried on the way they were.
…But still. I'm sorry you had to see that. I didn't frighten you, did I?"
"No," said Pip at once, meeting Howl's eyes firmly in the hopes of reinforcing his response.
"N-Not really…" he added a second later.
"…A little bit."
Howl breathed a weary sigh. When he sighed, he sounded so tired and so much older than he really was. Pip had thought when they had first met, because of Howl's demeanor and composure, that he was truly old. But recently he had come to the realisation that he was not, in fact old, but quite young; younger even than Pip's parents - his fur seemed to have only just begun to darken slightly from the vividness that was a young Lucario's fur - yet he seemed so wise, so experienced… and so very alone. The way he had spoken to Pip before about the loss of someone important had been unnervingly precise, as though he himself really had lost someone close to him, and yet he'd said he had never been raised by his own parents…
Oh, it was so unclear to Pip. But there was one thing he could be sure of. The Pokémon before him had suffered, and gained strength and knowledge through terrible ordeals, made evident by the scars he now saw scattered across his arms and paws. But it was not just physically he had suffered. There was, to be sure, an emotional scar that had still not fully healed.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Howl said finally, "It was them I was hoping to scare, not you."
"It's okay, sir, really… it's not your fault."
"No, it is my fault. I should've told you to leave, but since you'd just shown up among other Pokémon, I wanted to keep an eye on you."
He shook his head.
"Please, Pip, try to understand. I didn't punish them because I wanted to, I just can't afford to be soft on the evils in this forest. Instead, I have to stamp them out, and sometimes… if a rule-breaker will not listen to reason, I will have to give them a bit more motivation to stop."
"I get it, sir, I really do," said Pip earnestly, "But that's why I want to know, sir! What rules are they?"
"Well… it's simple. In fact, they aren't rules that were merely thought up and laid down one morning, they're more like morals than rules.
Every Pokémon in this forest is told when they arrive that they are not to cause fear, pain, or any form of distress to others who are here. If however, it's a matter of mutual hostility between two Pokémon that they can settle like adults, then they're entitled to do so, however they wish. But if there is an aggressor and a victim, we will always intervene."
"We?" Pip repeated.
"Yes, we. Mist and I. The two of us stand as the 'leaders' of The Forest, if you will."
Pip thought about what had been said for a moment, and was about to ask a question, when he heard light footsteps from the end of the pathway.
"Ah," Howl exclaimed, standing up, "Mist. What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you," replied a feminine voice, "I saw you heading in here with Rustle and his mother, and I couldn't help but wonder what…" She broke off and said, "Oh! Who's this?"
Pip had never felt quite so small before. He could not see the face of the Pokémon who had joined them, and he could no longer see Howl's face either, he tried to lift his head to see the newcomer, but found the light from the sky dazzling his eyes so much that he had to look away.
Howl answered her, "This is Pip. You remember, Espeon's son? I thought that you knew each other…"
"Pip?" she said blankly, "No, I… can't say I remember that name."
"Really…?"
Pip felt his heartbeat quicken. He could tell by the sound of his voice that Howl was eying him suspiciously.
The newcomer approached and crouched down until she was level with his height, and Howl took a step back from them both.
"So you're Pip, are you?"
"Mm-hmm," Pip replied, feeling suddenly shy. The voice of the Pokémon named Mist was deeply mellifluous and gentle. A voice that was wonderfully pleasant to the ears.
"I'm Mist," she said unconcernedly, holding her hand out to him,
"Pleased to meet you."
Pip looked up finally, and suddenly all the breath left his lungs; for Mist was a Gardevoir, and the most beautiful Pokémon Pip had ever seen in his entire life.
"…Hi…" he managed to say, raising his paw and placing it into her palm. She closed her hand lightly around his paw and shook it once, very gently. Then she gave a little flustered laugh at the sight of his reddening cheeks.
"Every single time…" she said, letting go, "I only say 'pleased to meet you,' but as soon as I do, they always start blushing… Why? I just don't get it… Is it theway I say it? Is it something about me?"
"I have a theory," Howl said from out of sight. Then, "Wait... Mist, you haven't met Pip before?"
"No," she said, looking towards him.
Pip felt the warmth suddenly leave his cheeks, and felt his heart begin to race again.
"Pip, I thought you told me that Mist here told you to gather water from the lake this morning," Howl said.
"Umm…" Pip hesitated to reply.
"Were you lying to me?" Howl asked, amused.
"Umm…" Pip said again, but before anyone could say another word, Pip's stomach rumbled.