Chapter Nineteen:
Wanted
Voices, upon the wagon slowing to a halt, was the first sound to meet their ears. Raised voices in the distance, calling unseen people to browse their hand-crafted wares, voices of high-spirited conversation and the sound of bells chiming their gentle notes across the chatter, bidding the waking settlement good-morning.
"Here you are, lass," said the driver, helping her down the step and easing her onto her faulty leg.
She heard the mother speak, but it was only when Rowan nudged her on the elbow that she snapped back to her senses.
"Sorry?" she said, looking round.
"Yes," said Helen, nodding to herself, "that settles it. C'mere, love, rest your arm here, I'll support you."
"W-What?"
"No, really," Rowan intervened, "thank you, but we can make it from here, honest."
"Don't be silly, Jack, you two are in no shape to be left alone. Your parents will be worried sick if-"
"It's not far!" he replied sincerely, "You guys have done enough for us, and you've got your own goods to sell! We can manage from here on."
"Yeah, really," Sally concurred.
The woman had been about to respond, but then there came a call from the second wagon,
"Helen! We have to go, we're already late!"
"I promise it's OK," said Sally.
"But I can't just - If you were my kids…!"
"Ma!" called Morgan.
Helen shook her head.
"Please just be careful," she implored in a soft voice, "Get home quick, you hear?"
"Of course," Rowan assured, putting Sally's arm around his shoulders.
"Thank you, Helen," said Sally, as Rowan supported her away from the wagons at last, then around a corner into the small market square. They withdrew under the balcony of a building and Rowan muttered,
"What do we do? Should we just get out?"
"Definitely," she said at once, "We can't be seen. We just have to lay low and find a way to cut through-"
"Sally, look!" Rowan said, alarmed, and when she followed the direction he was pointing, she saw the reason for the panic in his voice.
Soldiers were patrolling around the buildings and stores, and two were pinning large-printed papers onto building walls and street-lamps.
"Get in, quick!" said Rowan at once, grabbing her by the arm and hurrying through the door, closing it behind them the instant they were out of sight.
"D'you think they…?" she asked.
"I dunno," he replied, his voice trembling, "but we're in deep trouble now-"
"Welcome!" a voice said brightly across the room, "How can I help you today?"
Sally and Rowan whipped round.
They had stumbled into what looked like a general goods store, with shelves all aligned in the centre of a large room, and all packed densely with foods, medicine, trinkets and tools.
"U-Umm," Sally stammered, looking around as if examining the items piled about.
"You got any food?" Rowan asked at once, striding away from the window and up towards the counter.
The shopkeeper's smile faded as he looked the two of them over.
"Food, eh? Yeah, I got food…" he responded cautiously, "The only question is whether you two can pay."
Sally looked up, puzzled as Rowan responded,
"If I said I couldn't, would ya take pity on me?"
"This ain't a charity! Go on, escort yourselves out! I swear, the nerve of today's-"
"Wait," Sally said calmly, stepping up to join Rowan at the counter, "wait, sir, please ignore him, that's just his idea of a joke."
"Oh, a joke, was it? How original, never heard that before."
He grumbled some more, but when Sally showed a willingness to pay, he made no further comments, and with Sally merely having to stamp Rowan's feet to stop him causing further tension, they were leaving the store in minutes.
"Not even a 'come again'?" Rowan asked as they closed the door behind them, "Jeez, what was his problem?"
"You were asking him to give you the goods for free!" she snarled under her breath, glancing round for any suspicious eyes, "D'you have any idea how hard he probably has to work for that stuff?"
"I was kidding! Obviously I was kidding!"
"How's he supposed to distinguish that from the folks who actually mean it, though?"
"Who actually means that?! I wouldn't-"
"You'd be surprised how many drunken idiots have tried sweet-talking me into giving them free drinks. And I can't speak for every small-business-owner, but hearing that after a full day of working myself into the ground tends to make me feel… near-homicidal, sometimes."
"I thought he was kidding us around though!" he retorted as they slipped off the main road into a gap between two buildings,
"Why was he asking if we could pay?"
"Look at us," she said simply.
She hadn't realised it before, and clearly the family in the wagon had been too polite to mention it, but the two of them were filthy; their clothes still cold from the night's rainfall, torn in places and blanketed heavily with mud. There were even some noticeable streaks of red in places.
"Oh," he said,
"Oh yeah…"
Sally ringed her hands together irritably, searching for an alternative. But she shook her head, saying,
"We can't go around like this, we're way too conspicuous. These clothes aren't fit for travelling anyway."
"Oh, so we're going clothes-shopping now?"
She gave him a deadpan stare.
"I…" he said hesitantly, "I wasn't being serious.
…Sally! There're guards patrolling around here! You said we were just gonna get out!"
"We won't be able to, looking like this. We'll stick out like a wart on the nose. I think I saw a place when we got off the wagon. C'mon, let's not hang around."
"This is crazy… This is…"
Rowan muttered some choice words, but followed her lead, each glancing around the corners before heading out and keeping off the main road,
"Where's our demon bodyguard when we need him?!" he burst out in a hushed voice, "I thought for sure he was going to stop the wagon before we got here!"
"I don't know…" she growled, "But as soon as he shows up, I swear I'm going to hit him. What's he doing leaving us for this long?!"
"Uh, really, Sally?" said Rowan, a smirk escaping him, "You're going to hit him?"
She paused before responding, opened her mouth, paused again, and then shook her head, grumbling irritably,
"Bah…"
They slipped into the crowd of townsfolk moving to and fro, some carrying bags of tools to work and others – mostly children accompanied by a parent – mingling to examine the wares that travelling merchants had on display.
As a handful of guards began to join the crowd, most heading towards the buildings to pin large-printed parchments up on their walls, Sally felt Rowan tap her on the arm, and when she looked, he had stuffed his cloak into has satchel, rolled his sleeves back, and donned a small torn cap atop his head, holding out to her a cloth for her to wrap around hers.
Biting back her questions, she took it from him and proceeded to remove her own cloak, watching out the corners of her eyes as the guards moved away, realising that yes indeed; the parchments they'd pinned up displayed the faces of wanted criminals.
Minutes later, she pulled his arm, leading him through a more compact lane away from the sprawling crowd, closer towards the way they had entered, and as her ears adjusted to the relative silence, she heard footsteps following them. At first she thought she was merely being paranoid, but when they crossed the road to keep closer to the shade of buildings, she glanced back felt a chill down her spine.
"A guard!" she whispered, "He's following us!"
"Yeah, yeah, I see him," Rowan hissed, "just act natural – don't look at him!"
She heeded his advice, and kept her eyes fixed ahead. It was only as the moments stretched on, however, that she was unable to prevent her pulse quickening rapidly. A small throng of people had broken away from the bulk of the crowd and were beginning to fill the quiet street, and as they drew closer towards it, they heard the voice from directly behind them say,
"You two! Stay where you are!"
Sally clenched her knuckles. The building they sought was directly ahead, yet there was no way for them to slip inside unseen. Perhaps if they were to hide amongst the crowd…
"Halt, I said!"
A door behind them opened and multiple footsteps clamoured across the pavement accompanied by loud voices, and Rowan and Sally strode ahead towards the shop, reaching the door in seconds. Sally grasped the handle and pulled, stole a glance over her shoulder and then, for but a moment, hesitated. She couldn't see the guard anywhere; neither beyond nor forcing his way through the workers who had intercepted them, and she could hear no trace of his voice.
"Sally!"
She jumped and hurried inside, closing the door behind her.
The shop inside was larger and more packed with people, so much so that the two newcomers blended seamlessly into the crowd – their faces lost amidst the tide of customers moving from one end to the other. Sally couldn't help but glance around towards the entrance whenever she was given an opportunity, but even as she and Rowan scoured the shelves and stands, she saw no gleam of metal, heard no clatter of armour. Not even a pair of eyes turned their way as they snuck round a corner with the pretence of searching the shelves where travelling cloaks were kept.
When at last she was certain that they had not been followed, she turned around just in time to catch the object Rowan had tossed to her.
"Try it on!" he said, smiling.
"Not my size," she responded, replacing frivolous, brightly-coloured cloak with disdain.
"C'mon, Sally, we can't be picky here."
"I'm not being picky," she replied calmly, "I told you, it's not my size. Here," she said, pulling out a mossy-green one and holding it out to him, "matches your eyes."
"I… I'm not wearing that," he said plainly, "I'll look like a Leprechaun."
She snickered, "Maybe in stature, but you do not look like someone who has a secret pot of gold."
"Hey! Uncalled for!"
-but they both fought to stifle their mirth, looking around to check nobody had glanced their way, and went on to gather the proper clothing they needed;
Sturdy boots of a water-resistant fabric; Hard-wearing, lightweight tunics woven from canvas, and at last reaching a decision on what cloaks to purchase – Sally choosing one that was maroon in colour, and a cut above her old cloak's quality, whilst Rowan ended up picking one that was almost identical to his old cloak, both in the earth-brown colour and in fabric. She even speculated shrewdly that he had chosen the exact same make.
As they made their ways back into the bustling main room however, the door burst open and a guardsman pushed through the throng of people, eyes set on the store clerk and a roll of parchment in a gloved hand.
Rowan and Sally dared not exchange a look nor a word.
They kept close to the walls, avoiding eye contact with everyone they passed and heading swiftly towards the open exit to the outside. And sure enough, just as they had pushed their ways through and were free to move unhindered, they heard a collective murmur from the people indoors and a booming voice call,
"Stop right there, scum!"
But Rowan and Sally were prepared to do anything but obey.
They slammed the door shut and pelted away together, turning the corner back to the market square as they heard the door crash open and heard the swift, heavy footfalls of their pursuer sprinting after them.
As they saw the market before them, Sally noticed a gap between two buildings and pulled Rowan along into it, hoping to fool the guardsman into thinking they were among the crowd, but their movement was hindered more than she had anticipated, the ground strewn with litter and muck, and it was only when they had reached a turning point into the shadows when they heard splashing sounds directly behind them, heard his voice shout out to his fellows, and heard his footfalls drawing upon them with horrifying speed.
With waves of icy fear raising through their chests, she and Rowan desperately dropped to the ground and picked up the first thing they could find, he a fist-sized rock and she an empty glass bottle, turning as one to face their foe as the gleam of his armour shone directly into their eyes. His sword pointed at them, his chest heaving, he opened his mouth to speak, and the two of them made forward, their weapons held high, but before any of them could make contact, there was a fleeting glimpse of the guard's shocked expression before he fell flat on his front and was dragged away into the shadows by what looked like ropes wrapped tight around his ankles, his armour cutting through the mud and his hands clawing and scrabbling wildly as he disappeared from view.
They heard scuffling sounds as the guard struggled for breath, heard his armour rattling violently as though he were being shook from side to side, and then they heard what sounded like whips lashing across him again and again alongside low, grunt-like snarls and, horror-struck, they each retreated a couple of steps before recovering their wits and running away through the alley, their feet slipping and splashing with every step.
Suddenly Sally heard Rowan cry out and twisted around, sliding dangerously in the mud as she came to a halt, and she had no time to register the emptiness all around her when something grabbed her upper-arm and lifted her up, powerfully up, and she could do no more than yell before she was settled down on the roof of the building beside her companion, and the hold on her was relinquished.
Breathless and stunned, she looked round, recognised the figure between them and gasped in a voice hoarse but rich with elation,
"Howl-"
"Quiet!" he said curtly, "Don't make a noise, either of you." –before jumping down into the alleyway again and rushing towards where the whipping sounds were still echoing through the gloom.
"Hey-hey-hey HEY!" he barked, arms shielding him as he stepped between the guard and their attacker, forcing them to cease,
"What did I say to you?!" he commanded, "You knock them out swiftly and silently, stand down right now!"
"Little more..." replied the young Ivysaur, teeth bared and eyes burning, "Just let me-"
"I didn't let you out so you could have your revenge!"
The guard gave a croaking, rattled breath then, his eyes open but drifting in and out of focus. Without a word, Howl flicked his helmet off and shoved his head roughly into the wood of the hut, knocking him unconscious, and turning round just in time to catch the Ivysaur's vines in each paw before they could resume their lashing.
"Keep making noise and you risk all of us being caught, and then getting thrown back into a cage will be the best-case scenario for us. You want that on your conscience?"
The Ivysaur's vines slackened slightly, and he turned his gaze towards the six other Pokémon concealed in the alley, their dark outlines all thin, weak and trembling.
"I-I…" he began to respond, but another voice cut him off,
"Mister!"
It was Pidgey, her little wings fluttering in the silence as she swept over their heads and hovered before Howl, "Come quick," she said, and, understanding, he released his hold on the Ivysaur and turned his gaze briefly towards the Sewaddle beside him.
"String Shot, please," he said, pointing towards the guard. The Sewaddle nodded and proceeded to plaster web after web down onto the human's limp figure, careful with where they took aim as they had already been scolded by Howl for covering a previous guard's nose and their mouth, risking suffocation.
A moment's glance at their work, and Howl followed the Pidgey swiftly past the other Pokémon huddled in the shadows; a Houndour, a Bunnelby, an Axew, and a Pachirisu, and then saw the cause of Pidgey's alarm and dropped to his knees at once, speaking quietly to the Pokémon lain down against the cold ground.
"What's the matter?" he asked, but the Delcatty was too weak to respond. She had to take three rattling breaths before attempting to speak.
"I can't…" she breathed, "I'm so weak… so tired… Eaten in days… I just can't carry on-"
"You have to," he growled sternly, pointing towards the large egg tucked close to her chest,
"That egg's going to hatch soon, and the little one inside will need its mother when it does."
"But…" she panted, "their father… their sisters… I can't… not on my own…"
"Enough. Quiet down, save your strength. You're not stopping here and we're not leaving you."
He swung the tattered sack onto the ground and reached inside it.
"Here," he said, holding out a pawful of Oran Berry skins and a fresh red apple, "Eat these. We can't afford to linger, so be quick abou-"
-but the Ivysaur cut across him.
"You've… You've got food?"
His tone was calmer now, and his expression hopeful. The others had turned their heads to look now as well.
The sack still in his paw, Howl upended it onto the stone tile in the centre of their gathering and stepped back, allowing them room to gather and sate their desperate appetites.
"Keep a lookout," he grunted to Pidgey, and she nodded resolutely.
They heard familiar footfalls, and then Howl was clambering back up beside them on the rooftop, red eyes moving over them both.
"Right," he said, "Well… you two seem fine. You feeling OK? No aches or pains? Any fresh injuries to- Whoa."
Without any warning, Sally had flung her arms around his neck and embraced him tightly, her forehead pressed into the fur at his shoulder. Rowan too had leaned forward suddenly but seemed hesitant to commit to the movement, and Howl had just enough time to say,
"Don't. Don't, ple-"
-before he too had put an arm around his back and pulled all three of them into a group hug.
"You gotta be kidding me…!"
Howl exclaimed, his expression nothing short of devastated.
"Where were you?!" Sally demanded as she and Rowan pulled away from the embrace at last, "The family found us and they took us to town and we thought you – we thought you'd just contact us or try to stop 'em, or-"
"All right-"
"But when we didn't hear from you, I… I wondered if your wounds were-"
"I tried to contact you, but you didn't seem to notice. My telepathy didn't seem to be getting through," he replied in a pacifying tone, and as he'd done so, she had noticed some subtle faults in his body language; the way his tail hung limp on the roof behind him instead of raised and swishing with each passing moment, how his ears were bent a little to either side instead of upright and turning to each speaker in turn, the slight tremor in his legs as though shifting in any direction would cause him to overbalance.
He seemed to have noticed her observations, however, for she had barely begun to ask,
"What about you, though? Are-"
-before he had turned his back to them to peer over into the market square.
"Far too crowded…" he said quietly, "If there was a throng of them leaving all at once-
…No. No, that still wouldn't be enough."
"We…" Sally began, "We could take a ride out in a wagon, like how we came in?"
But it was Rowan who responded,
"That won't work. The public wagon drivers always make sure to check their passengers names and faces on this little list they've got. They'll recognise us just as well as the soldiers would."
Howl made a note of what sounded like agreement.
"Those people you came in with," he said, "Are they merchants or do they live here? Is there any chance they'd be willing to let you leave with them?"
"No," she said, "This is their home. And anyway, we… told them we were visiting family. They'd get suspicious."
The Pokémon uttered the briefest, softest growl in his frustration.
"Sorry," she said, before she could stop herself.
"Don't be a fool," he replied gruffly.
Minutes passed, in which the two humans sat in silence, their minds working furiously for any way they could escape while the Pokémon scanned all of the market square and the town walls that were visible to them. Occasionally his Sensors would lift and he would remain still for some time, and twice he would jump down from the rooftop to whisper with his shadowed Pokémon companions, until at last the Pidgey joined them with a chirrup, and began to converse with him.
"I think I know a way out!" she said urgently, I could see from high up! There's this one gateway into the town that doesn't look like anybody's come through all morning! I can't see any wheel marks in the mud, and there's barely anyone there except for the guards at the gate!"
"How many of them?" Howl said at once.
"Two in the little watchtowers, and two right by the gate."
"Where is this gateway?"
"It…" she hesitated, something even Rowan and Sally understood, before she answered fully: "It's at the northern end of town."
Howl looked in the direction of the morning sun and took in their surroundings even further.
"You're certain it's the northern end?" he growled, "Well… that's a start."
He remained silent for a few moments, his eyes casting about between his companions and his expression strained as he worked his tiring mind.
"Alright," he said at last, addressing the humans, and divulged his plan to them. Sally and Rowan would merge back into the crowd once more and head towards the northern side of town while Howl kept to the shadows along their path until the gate came into view, where they would withdraw from harm so that he could address the problem of the guards around it.
"Any questions?" he concluded.
"Yeah," said Rowan, "What about them?" He gestured to the Pokémon in the alley. Sally had been wondering about them as well.
"They'll be leaving town with us, of course," Howl replied.
"But won't they see us?" she questioned, "Won't they think we're-"
"I'll be keeping them concealed in shadow. I'll try to make sure you're given enough time to put some distance between us, and I'll be in contact with you the whole time."
"No, that's not... we mean, what about afterwards? Are they travelling with us now, or…"
"Honestly, I… I'm still figuring that part out," he confessed.
"What… will you tell them?" she asked, but he shook his head.
"Doesn't matter now," he growled, "We've spent enough time in here. You'd better get a move on before the crowd shrinks too much."
They could argue no further. They moved as commanded, allowing themselves to be lowered carefully by the arm, and he landed beside them with a rather graceless splash of mud.
"Be ready to move," he said turning away from them, "I'll tell you when."
"Howl…"
Sally couldn't help herself. The fear that had so briefly abated was now squirming in her stomach again, and she could sense by his tight-set lips and clenched fists that Rowan was feeling just the same, but Howl cut her off again,
"I know, all right? It's made things complicated, but you two are my clients, so it's you two who are my primary concern. Even if there's no contract between us, I've still sworn an oath to you, and I intend to honour it. I'd be a disgrace of a Guild Pokémon if I couldn't even do that. So if you're worrying about whether or not I might choose them over you, set those thoughts aside right here. I'll figure out what to do with them once we're out of this mess. Got it?"
She breathed carefully. His words were comfort, though not a total relief to them, and by the time she had looked up to reply, he was already trudging away through the wet mud, further into the cold dark.
"G…" Rowan stammered beside her, "Guild… Pokémon?"
She shook her head, feeling just as clueless as he was, and knew, without really knowing how she knew it, that if he had not been so unwell, their guide would never have let those words slip before them.
They moved on back the way they came, and waited until they heard his voice give them the all-clear before at last slipping into the sunlit crowd, and following the current of movement northwards, whilst Howl himself arranged his concealed Pokémon brethren in a huddle close to him, holding the Delcatty in his arms and letting the three smallest Pokémon clamber onto his back, and waited his chance to dart past watchful eyes, across the near-deserted street.
At that point, the tide of people had indeed begun to relent, but there was no shortage of merchants at their stands and customers for Sally and Rowan to mask themselves beside.
The guards that were dotted here and there among the townsfolk still worried them, despite their certainty now that they were indeed protected, and every minute or so they were sure one had looked in their direction or was heading straight for them, but were always either mistaken or at least able to evade detection by appearing as though they were part of an on-going queue.
It seemed Howl's judgement had been right, and that in the market they were truly invisible.
As they moved on through the clamour, Sally thought she heard what sounded like a bell being rung somewhere out of sight around the other end of a street, with a voice calling above all others with a confident sense of purpose to their tone, and just as she'd begun to wonder whether she had really heard such a thing, they heard a collective murmur behind them; voices filled with exhilaration, and suddenly there were people on both sides running past them and even a few jostled them out the way in their haste to see what was happening.
Sally tried to see their faces, alarmed and a little angry, and then turned to meet Rowan's eye, noticing as she did that while his face mirrored her own surprise, there was a subdued comprehension in it as well.
"What's going on?" she asked. She saw his mouth move, but couldn't make out a word over the tumult. In any case, his furrowed brow had become even more pronounced as he'd spoken, and she had made out by his body language that he thought they ought not to linger to find out. Whether or not it was what he'd said, she found herself agreeing all the same, and together they attempted to move along with the tide until the found themselves being steered to the right, towards quite a different direction from the one they were headed for, and forced their ways through stubbornly, both of them so focused on their direction that it came as a shock when a handful of voices shouted to them, chiding them and urging them to get off the road.
She looked around and saw multiple faces turned their way, some weary and some scathing, and it was the sounds of wagons turning a corner way across from them that was the final piece of the puzzle.
Feeling suddenly flustered, she and Rowan rushed to do as bidden, avoiding the eyes of passers-by and still resolutely pushing onwards.
"More traders?" she wondered aloud to him.
But it wasn't.
She had nary spoken the words when there was a cry that cut across the crowd, closely followed by a vicious roar and what sounded like a jet of flame bursting through the very air.
The townsfolk murmured excitedly when they heard the sounds, quite unlike her own feelings, and then the crowd's excitement grew even more at the sound of further roars, returning bellows of unknown rage, the two were unable to prevent themselves; their curiosity overpowered their instinct for survival, and they turned to follow the eyes of the townspeople towards those inhuman voices aboard the wagons that were fast approaching.
As the driver of the wagon realised the attention, they saw him tug cruelly on the chains of the Pokémon pulling the vehicle, forcing them to slow down so that he and his companions could bask in the praise of the appreciative crowd around them. As Sally saw him more closely, she realised the man's attire was not that of a trader, or even of some performer. He was a monster-hunter. Those 'inhuman' noises aboard the wagons were not human at all.
"Oh…" she gasped, "Oh no…"
She thought she felt Rowan pull on her sleeve, though she felt no commitment behind the pull. She heard him saying they had to move on, that neither of them wanted to see this, but there was a glazed, surrendered tone to his voice that meant he too couldn't manage to tear himself away.
"Good haul this week, eh, fellas?" said a voice from the crowd as the first wagon rolled straight towards them, drawing ever nearer, and she saw the self-satisfied grin on the driver's face. It made her sick to watch.
She heard a familiar voice inside her head. A familiar commanding growl, and fought to shake herself free of her morbid curiosity. They had to move. They had to. And it was only then, not a mere moment after she had managed to force her gaze towards the northern road when there came another cry; loudest of all, and not from any of the wagons now closing in on the town square to meet with the authorities; their primary customers.
Howl pulled the little Axew back and slapped a paw tightly over her mouth, muffling her cries even as the Charizard whom she had tried to call out to, her own father, heard her voice and began to shake his imprisonment more violently than ever, forcing thin flames out of the bindings over his mouth and struggling to see where she was.
The Pachirisu and Bunnelby held her little arms tightly, each pleading with her in hushed whispers, but she would not listen, would not be consoled; she seemed not to even hear them.
Howl strained his ears over the noise of the excited crowd, trying to sense by sound alone if anyone had heard the Axew's cry, if anyone was coming to investigate, and indeed while the voices of the distant townsfolk were still raised in awe and jubilation, there was a definite lull to the voices nearest to them. Perhaps his ears were deceiving him, but sudden, brief silence was not the only thing he could discern.
The monster hunter who had tried to quiet their captive recoiled from the cage as the creature spat a short jet of flame from its bound maw, skimming over the man's head and singeing his hair, and the Pokémon continued to roar with its mighty lungs and thrash with unrelenting fury at the chains and shackles that bound it to the floor of its cage. But the eyes of those nearest were not turned towards this display. Like Sally and Rowan's, they had turned to gaze, horror-struck towards a cry which sounded as though it had come from the very rooftops of the surrounding buildings. Several members of the crowd were craning their necks to try and spot what had caused it, and some of the guards had begun to make their ways uncertainly towards the source, hands held closely to the blades at their hips.
'Howl!' she internally pleaded, her teeth clenched, ignoring Rowan's more insistent tug on her sleeve,
'Get out of there! Hurry!'
Once they were all concealed in an awkward huddle around the end of the roof furthest from the approaching humans, Howl whispered urgently, pleadingly to the Axew, but she only responded with further despair,
"Daddy…!" she sobbed, actually scratching at his wrists with nail-like claws to escape his hold, "Let me go, let me go!"
He heard the clatters and scrapes of armoured boots drawing ever closer, and choked back his pity; he had to be ruthless. He covered her mouth with his paw again, pressing his thumb up from underneath her chin to prevent her from talking further and waited, focusing all his senses on the sounds of the approaching enemy.
Something warm trickled against his paw and he felt as though his heart had sunk from his chest upon seeing the little, desperate Pokémon crying her little, desperate eyes out, shaking her head in the limited movement his grasp permitted.
"I'm sorry," he said via telepathy, feeling as though the words were made of white-hot metal, branding themselves upon his brain,
"I just… We can't… We… have to…" he couldn't bring himself to say it. He could not articulate the words within his own mind. As they had done since the beginning days in The Forest, as they had been doing so for so many years now, every intricate part of Howl's being was roaring at the injustice of it all, but still Mist's words resounded within his memory; her tale of how things had gone for the first group she had travelled with, how they had tried to save every Pokémon they could from every human settlement they crossed until that dreadful day when the humans had at last tracked their movements and retaliated with forces the likes of which they had never encountered, and had had no hope of defeating or escaping from.
This situation was the same; it was not just their lives he had to protect, but it was two others he would be putting at risk as well.
He opened his mouth to finish his sentence, aware that the eyes of the Pokémon all around were on him, but then closed it again.
A flame was burning in the pit of his stomach, from whence it had come, he did not know. The flame was growing larger, kindling itself inside him, fuelling some new emotion that was brewing in the back of his mind, as though it had lain dormant for a long time.
Then he remembered.
A Riolu and a Chimchar – himself and Illume – on the evening of the day they had enlisted at the guild, battered and bruised from the entrance exam, each bent to one knee before Guildmaster Wigglytuff as he had adopted his seldom-heard authoritarian tone.
His eyes fell from the Axew's face until his head was forced to follow.
"You, who have overcome our trials..." Wigglytuff had said in a clear, slow, powerful voice, "You, who wish to fight at our sides, as proud Guild Pokémon...
Can you devote yourselves; devote your lives to serving as the claws of the weak and the shell of the innocent?"
The Chimchar had responded straight away, her voice shaken with nerves, but alive with zeal.
But the Riolu had remained silent and confused, even as the eyes in the room had turned towards him.
"Howl," his companion had said, giving him a light nudge on the shoulder.
The Riolu had struggled to form the words, until his companion's reassuring face had cleared the haze in his mind, and he followed her lead.
"I can," he had replied at last, "and I will."
"Are you prepared," the Guildmaster had gone stoically on, "prepared to scale the most treacherous peaks, scour the darkest of labyrinths, and combat the most vicious of Feral if the mission's success needs it to be done?"
This time the two had held each-other's gaze, so that one could continue to support the other,
"For the mission," they said together, "I will walk through fire and water."
"And do you possess the resolve and discipline to always stand by the Guild-Mon's code?
To put honour and glory as trivial, and fight always to make others smile?
To do what you know to be just, whether the land sings your praise or curses your names?
To accept that a Guild-Mon's work is never finished, and to see the fight through without fear or fatigue?"
The Riolu and Chimchar had broken away from one-another's gaze then to meet the speaker's, and together they had responded,
"Yes, Guildmaster."
"Then," Wigglytuff had said, what would become a familiar smile working its way to the corners of his lips, "Miss Illume. Master Howl.
By my title as Guildmaster, I name you recruits.
Welcome to Wigglytuff's Guild."
-and over the applause that had followed from the older recruits and esteemed members, the Guildmaster's demeanour had shifted in an instant and he had grasped each of their hands, pulled them to their feet and shook their arms up and down wildly, crying,
"We're friends now!
Friends forever!
Welcome to the team, Illume!
Welcome to the team, Howl!"
And as his and Illume's mortified faces had turned towards one-another, Howl remembered seeing Chatot eyeing the display with a pained face before burying his head in his wing.
The memory, though brief across his mind, was as vivid as though he had experienced it mere days ago.
His eyes moved upwards to meet the Axew's again, and something in his expression made her cease her silent cries.
There it was. His mind was made up.
'Sorry, Mist,' he thought, 'but your way doesn't apply here. There aren't any Pokémon settlements nearby to take the blame. Not this time. I'm done sitting around and letting this happen.'
He let the Axew down gently, saying, "Listen to me, little one. I'm going to get him out."
She looked at him with wide eyes, her mouth ajar, as though she were in doubt she had heard him.
"But," he added immediately, "you'll need to stay out of the way, get out of this town first, and then I'll send him after-"
But he broke off. There was a rush some of movement within the crowd below, a murmur of excitement at some struggle that was taking place.
"No! Get your mitts offa-!"
Sally thrashed and writhed against the guard's hold, managing to land an elbow on their jaw, but a weak one at that, and the guard clasped her arms behind her back and began to bound them tightly together, and she was dragged alongside a struggling Rowan away from the wide eyes and murmurs of the townspeople, some of whom had realised who they were and jeered whilst others applauded the guards who had found them.
Over the snarled insults of the guard behind her, she heard another talking in high spirits to someone outside her field of vision, being so forcibly jostled and shoved as she was. But it was only at the words,
"Our thanks, Mr and Mrs Mason."
-that she struggled to stop and craned her neck back to see, unable to believe what her ears had told her.
"Helen?!"
The guard snarled at her once more, but she fought his hold again, trying to turn her body around and meet the eye of the familiar husband and wife, now having their hands shaken by a guard who looked to hold more authority than those around him. Helen did not seem pleased to be receiving the praise, but neither did she seem regretful, and when their eyes did meet at last, her face was not moulded with disgust or contempt, but full of what could only be perceived as disappointment – as though she had believed in them, trusted them, even, and while Mr Mason and the guard discussed the details about their due reward money, she shook her head once, desolately, before being led away by her husband and ignoring Sally's attempts to call her back.
She stopped struggling; stunned; disbelieving; numbed; and then fell to her knees as the guard took advantage of her stillness and kicked the back of her leg hard.
She had no strength left to even cry out. She held no feelings within her; her whole being was struck dumb by the look the motherly woman had given her, that once-so-kind face so unhappy, so wrought with depreciation, as if she were her own mother, as if Sally had been the betrayer and she was the one who was hurt.
Suddenly her emotions came back in full flow, flooding her brain and she writhed and shook and lashed out at her captor over and over, slipping her right arm out of the half-done binding around it just in time to land her blows – and she was free, turning around and pushing the guard away with tired arms suddenly revitalised with a current of wild fury. They staggered backwards and straight into the throng of people along the sides, tumbling to the floor as their feet were entangled among so many others, and another guard saw the commotion and made for her, but Sally ducked under his arms and managed to snatch her fingers around the hilt of the blade at his hip, but it wouldn't come away. She pulled and pulled, but its weight was far greater than she'd anticipated, and then the guard grabbed a fistful of her hair and aimed a sweeping kick at her knees again, pushing her head down with the strike and forcing her onto the ground, helpless, and eyes watering as the wound on her leg burned white-hot with pain.
Then it happened; immediate and merciless.
She hadn't noticed the crowd's chorus of fearful cries, nor the burst of some great sphere of navy-blue energy which had tipped a carriage off-balance, but she heard the great crash as it fell onto its side and the rushing of air as something came soaring like a gigantic arrow into the guard before her and collided with such force that he was sent skidding along the muddy path with his legs splayed in the air, knocked unconscious before he had even realised himself under attack.
Sally and Rowan's guide hurried to her side and sliced her bindings in one swift movement, pulled her upright, growled the order, "Run!" and sped away before she could even begin to respond.
Howl ducked down, lifted the unconscious guard off the ground and flung him high through the air, doomed to fall directly into his companions, and their guide seized the chance and closed in, striking wherever there were gaps to be found in their armour; their jaw, stomach, under the arms and behind the legs his blows travelled and the trained human fighters were given not a second to regain themselves. Then one of them collapsed under the assault, and there he lay, unmoving, and as Howl moved to finish the guard next to him, a harsh voice roared,
"Stop right there, Beast!"
Howl turned his head to see who had spoken just as he heard the voice of his other client yelp in pain from the same place.
What his gaze found made his stomach turn over. A monster hunter had evidently shoved aside the guard who had been binding Rowan and wrapped a muscular forearm around the young human's neck, holding a long dagger straight into his stomach.
"Get down on the ground..." the monster hunter continued, his voice low and his mouth curled in a callous grin, "The posters said these scum were travelling with a dangerous monster... That'd be you, wouldn't it, Beasty? You'll be nice and complacent now, unless you wanna see the brat's guts spilled all over the-"
-but he broke off and gazed straight down. The man had felt something in the earth below, or heard something shift, and Howl did not need to scan the Aura around to understand what it was. He sprang forwards and ran at the man, fangs bared and eyes throwing fire as the ground beneath their feet burst open and Bunnelby bounded up in a shower of rock and soil, his Move sending humans all around him up into the air as well. Howl followed after his still-captive client with Extreme Speed, reaching them in mid-air, smacking the dagger aside, grasping Rowan with his free paw and pushing the assailer down to the earth with his feet, and both Pokémon and the handful of humans all fell one after another to the hard ground.
"Excellent!" Howl said, letting go of the human to catch the Bunnelby in the air before him, "Just like that!" -before turning around and flinging him high above the heads of the rest of the crowd, "Now go!" he commanded, "Again! Dig!" -and the Bunnelby responded with a rattled cry of gusto as he began to spin like a drill in the air before he burrowed into the earth again, somewhere in the heart of the group of onlookers.
The air was rent with noise; the townspeople's screams as they fought past each-other to escape, the Pokémon still held within the wagons struggled and pulled at their bindings behind their large, metal bars, and the soldiers calling for calm and requesting the backup of their fellows as the captives Howl had gathered began to join the fray, keeping, as he had instructed them, out of sight or harm one way or another, a monster hunter would be snagged at the throat by the Ivysaur's vines and dragged away from his fellows, a short burst of Pachirisu's Thunder Wave or Houndour's Flamethrower would rain from the rooftops onto guards before the attackers ducked out of sight, and the Bunnelby would burst forth from under the ground, scattering all in his way before vanishing under it again.
"Rowan!" Howl said desperately over the noise, gripping the human by the shoulders, "You alright? Were you hurt?"
But over his tremulous response, Howl noticed something else; the monster hunter getting dazedly to his feet, struggling to reach merely higher than his knees. The fury which had momentarily abated suddenly surged through him and he let go of his client, strode over to the monster hunter and drove his fist into the man's ribs as he turned round to face them both, and the blow that landed was a cruel one; even over the tumult of noise battling for their attention, Rowan and Howl both clearly heard the sound of bones fracturing beneath the Demon of The Forest's fist.
Howl grabbed the brute by the hair and lifted him a few inches off the ground, growling into his mind,
"Never threaten a Guild-Mon's clients..."
-and in a flash, Howl had let go, pulled back his free arm and struck the fiend again, his fist plunging into their gut with all the strength it possessed, enough for the humans body to hang from it, held aloft at their stricken abdomen before Howl shook him off with disgust. His mind was still too charged and there was far too much going on for him to do anything about it, yet as he hastened to return to Rowan's side, he took notice of the flinch Rowan gave as he approached.
"Can you stand?" he asked, and, not waiting for an answer, he took hold under his arms and helped him up, continuing, "This wasn't part of the plan, as I'm sure you guessed, but the chaos will provide us the perfect cover. Regroup with Sally and get out of town, quickly."
"What?!" Rowan responded, his voice, though breathless, strong with defiance,
"We can't do that! I dunno if we can fight, but we're not just gonna up and leave you! There's gotta be something we can-"
-but his sentence was never finished.
The fire had returned to their guide's crimson eyes; the points of his white teeth gleamed beneath his lips.
"You and Sally and Pidgey... the lot of you...!" he snarled, and before Rowan was given time to even think, Howl had grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled him close until their noses were practically touching, the human unable to look anywhere other than straight into the blaze of red anger.
"Now you listen to me, human child," his voice thundered, "You are not my comrades in this. Neither of you two nor little miss featherbrain are fighters. You are my clients! It's my job to protect you! I don't need or want your help! I want you safe! And so help me, if I catch you trying to join in the fray, I'll knock you unconscious myself if I have to.
Do I make myself clear?"
Rowan's face went white as chalk, and through his stammering he managed to move his head in a nod.
Howl released his grip, and before he could even begin his command, Rowan had moved to obey, running back to where they had last seen Sally, keeping to the side of the roads, away from what looked like the centre of the conflict.
Even with his mind still flooded with fighting passion, Howl felt a stab of guilt as the moment passed.
'You took that too far,' said a small voice in the back of his brain - the one that sounded most like Mist,
'You didn't have to threaten him.'
'But it worked," the rest of him replied stoutly, 'He wouldn't have agreed otherwise. It was a necessary force.'
Time for guilt was a luxury he didn't have, so pushing the thoughts away, he saw that the guards had managed to evacuate a large portion of the townspeople, and that if their proficiency remained unchecked, his clients would have no cover to use for their escape.
He scanned their formation briefly, located a target in the middle of a throng of people and sprinted back into the fray, readying his Force Palm as he drew near to the armoured foe.
"Sally! Sally!"
Though she heard him call, her mind was too preoccupied, and it was at the very moment he had grasped onto her arm and made to pull that she managed to tug the key off the unconscious monster hunter's belt.
"Yes!" she exclaimed, and slipped out of the hold as she made her determined course through the onslaught of hurrying civilians, straight for the wagon in the middle of the road.
"Sally?" Rowan's voice trailed through the air.
She forced the key into the large padlock and turned it with a loud click – louder than any door's lock she had heard – and ducked through the entrance as the large, thick-orange-hided creature saw her and glared, its blue eyes incandescent with hatred and fire – actual flames – dancing at the corners of its bound maw.
"It's OK," she said, though she could barely hear her own voice over the surrounding chaos, regardless of whether or not this mighty beast of flames could understand her or not.
She put out a hand in what she hoped was a peaceful gesture and stayed low as she edged towards the creature, and a mere split-second before her hand came to its nose, she flattened herself down as it struggled to open its jaws as far as it could and spat flames straight through the open cage door, though they reached no-one.
"C'mon!" she pleaded, scurrying to its side as its bindings slammed its mouth shut again and it began to thrash and twist as hard as it could. She took a breath, closed her eyes and, though it took courage, managed to place a hand on the creature's rough skin and run her palm along it gently; kindly; sympathetically, praying it might understand, hoping against the odds...
The creature fell still. Even it's heaving breaths were suddenly gone without a trace. The only thing she felt was the rapid beating of its pulse – though she thought that it could well be her own she felt.
Sally heard Rowan's voice call her name from somewhere, but her attention was remote. Nothing could distract her now.
She moved her palm along the creature's neck 'til she reached the shackle that bound it to the floor of its cage, then she fumbled briefly with the padlock and the shackle opened with a clatter.
The creature remained immobile as she moved swiftly to unlock the chains around its middle, and as they came loose she was startled as it raised wings out from beneath them, smacking her across the face as it stretched the appendages out. Then came the shackles at its large, flat feet; the one at its tail, which bore a tiny flickering flame like an elongated, lithe torch, which bat the ground hard as it was released.
Then, finally, she undid the shackle around one of its arms, caught a fleeting glimpse of the look in the creature's eyes and realised it in an instant, but was too late – the creature struck out with its freed arm and she crashed into the cage wall, winded, but still upright as the creature twisted round with its unbound body and began to pull with all its might at the one last shackle.
"Sally...? Wha... what are you doing?!"
She looked round and saw Rowan's pale face and familiar thin figure climbing up into the wagon and she started towards him with her battered body, and then each of their gazes turned as their was a splintering sound that tore at their eardrums even amidst the other chaos, and the creature tore the shackle away from the floor and lunged forwards, crashing into the two of them and sending them skidding along the muddy road as it too landed with a rough splash, tore the ropes off its mouth with its claws and bellowed flames high into the heavens.
She heard, from what sounded to her like a voice from across a lake, a loud, commanding call abandoning all pretence of calm and urging the people to flee at once, and she felt a tumult of heavy footfalls thundering past her on all sides, and she tried to lift herself upright, but her limbs felt so lifeless, and her ribcage still throbbed with pain from where the creature had struck her, the entire length of her spine cried out from the bearing of collision with both the cage wall and then the cold hard ground, her legs – injured and otherwise – were numbed beyond coherent measure, her body an entangled web of different pains all blaring over one-another, and the only thing keeping them at bay was the swaying dizziness of her debilitated brain. Sally had never felt her being so thoroughly ravaged, never found the oblivion of unconsciousness to be so welcoming, and were it not for what she thought to be a familiar hand on her shoulder desperately shaking her, trying to yield a response, she would have been unable to relocate any sense of herself. Her senses were still being bombarded, but her brain could register none of it. Her eyes caught movement, and with it she felt adrenaline pulsing through her more and more by the second, slowly bringing her back down to earth. She saw monster hunters and guardsmen alike firing projectiles of wood and metal, and subconsciously she followed their flight and saw them splinter one by one against the fire-breathing Pokémon's wings which it had held before itself like shields and ducked its head behind, and while one or two arrows skimmed across an arm or leg, the rest fell in tatters to the ground.
Now the adrenaline came not in pulses, but danced in her brain like strange, noiseless sparklers in various corners, and she found her weak arms and legs dragging the rest of her away from the beast, eyes locked on its movements and her breath sharp on her parched tongue.
The creature, blue eyes filled with rage, reared its head up on its long neck and spat an endless wave of fire from its maw right back at its attackers, sweeping across from one side of the street to the other and decimating any opposition who were not quick enough to duck.
Sally heard their screams, heard the sounds of destruction, saw the creature cease its attack and hold out its arms, saw its wings begin to beat, and its claws suddenly shine with a rich white light, and then, at the exact same second it'd begun to move, Howl appeared at its side and thrust his paws into its body, and with a great burst of light, the mighty Charizard was sent straight towards an empty building and actually smashed through the wall, demolishing and shattering what sounded like every object and furniture piece to be found in the ground floor.
She exhaled briefly and tried to sit up, uncertain whether she had mistaken the sound of Rowan's voice speaking as Howl ran to their assistance.
"I didn't - I swear I didn't-!"
-but whether she had heard it or not, she felt herself and Rowan being pulled roughly to their feet and led with equal roughness away, and held no doubts about the certainty of their guide's words:
"Go! Just GO!"
-and staggering under the hard push he gave them, they fled as fast as they could, making it all the way round the corner before the pain in Sally's leg claimed her mobility once more, and had to put her arm around Rowan's shoulders to continue their escape.
Howl watched them flee until they had reached the corner when he heard a loud screech not remotely human-sounding and whipped round to see that the tables had turned considerably now the townspeople were out of harm's way. Had the monster hunters and guards' opponents been warriors from the guild or even a mere handful of Howl's students from the Forest and they wouldn't have found it so easy to gain the upper-hand, but whether these Pokémon were true warriors or not, they had been starving and sickly for days or even weeks, and the strength of their Moves alone attested to that with clarity.
The cry of pain had come from the Houndour, whose location had been found and the monster hunters had hurled a lasso around its throat and were pulling it viciously down to the ground, and still on the roof, Howl could see the Pachirisu desperately deflecting more lassos and dodging arrows with its electric shocks, though her movements looked clumsy, and soon enough one was bound to find its mark...
Howl sprinted to intervene, charging an Aura Sphere as quickly as he could and hurling it at those whose focus was on Pachirisu, and though his shot landed right where he had wanted it to, it was not a powerful enough Sphere to incapacitate the targets, rather they were all staggered, a couple even dropping the weapons in their hands, and in the quarter of a second he had before the haze of Aura dissipated, Howl sped forwards as fast as his legs could carry him and jumped, soaring straight through the haze and kicking hard at a space he knew a human to be. His foot connected with something, and he heard the grunt of pain, the sound of his victim falling, and as he himself felt his own descent, he landed roughly on the muddy ground, dug his claws deep to keep his grip and swung his whole lower-body around in a circle, aiming to sweep the legs of the human he had glimpsed as he'd struck down the first, and they too fell down. By then, the remaining five or so had seen their new opponent and made for him, weapons drawn, and Howl still on the ground had only enough time to roll – away and away from them, the cold muck sticking to and drenching his fur through to his skin, but still he heard them following determinedly after him, and he managed to scramble up into a crouch, ready to meet them with whatever he could, when there was a splattering sound as though a great handful of mud had been thrown at one of the pursuers. But judging by the way they had stumbled and near-fallen face-down, it couldn't have been mere mud. Then returned the sound, and now he saw its source – the Sewaddle using her String Shot on the human's feet bought him just enough time to steady himself and lunge again, striking with a Force Palm to the stomach, and at the exact same moment, a mighty crash had resounded through the street, and all remaining human warriors had either plummeted face-first into the earth or been sent soaring in opposite directions, and not even their cries of pain were heard over the deafening Move.
As he climbed dazedly to his feet, trying to see who had fired it, there was a scuffle from the roof above, a yelp, and then a scream as the little Pachirisu tumbled sideways off the roof and Howl just managed to catch her in his arms, saying, "Alright - I gotcha,"
-and there was a scornful laugh from across the street, almost to the point of arrogance.
"Dragon Rage," said the voice's owner, the Charizard, with his daughter, Axew, held close to his chest, "That's how you do it, kids. None of that messing around with String Shots and Thunder Waves."
Howl wondered how many humans were capable of surviving such a Move as that, and would have liked nothing more than to remind the Charizard of that, but time was running out; he could hear hurried, armoured footsteps in the distance and knew that more combatants were on their way, so, with brief orders to those around him via telepathy, he left the Pachirisu to help Houndour cast off the rope around his neck, ordered Bunnelby and Pidgey to help untangle Ivysaur from the brutal vine-laden net he had been ensnared in and told the Charizard to swiftly search the wagons for any other prisoners who had not been released whilst he retrieved the Delcatty mother from her hiding spot on the roof.
By the time they were readily reunited, they could all hear the human footfalls, and with Howl leading the way, they too fled the scene, Howl following the two trails of Auras of his two human clients.
"You..." Pidgey said to him suddenly as they reached the northern gates and he and Charizard, after quickly dispatching the humans in their little towers, began to pull them open for the others to head through, "You did it... You actually did it. You actually freed 'em all..."
"Yes, I did," he responded laconically as they followed the others out the town and away from the hurrying feet that pursued them still, "I said I would."
"But you..." she continued, disbelief and awe in every syllable she uttered,
"Mister... Seriously. Who are you? For real?
Are you really a real-life Guild-Pokémon?"
But her question was left unanswered, for the fleeing prisoners had all come to an abrupt, inexplicable halt. Some of them were talking, and their tones held anxiety and some even despaired.
Howl, his focus still on the Auras of his clients pushed his way through to the front of the gathering before opening his eyes at last.
Before them stood a cave, whose surface looked bland and unremarkable, with the surrounding wall of stone being carved into the mountain itself, reaching far too high for their injured party to climb as a group.
But more than anything, it was the feeling the cave gave as he drew closer towards it; a kind of chill along his spine, though not from any cold breeze; a sort of tension, though the air was clear.
Howl knew this feeling. He knew what it meant. Half his life had been spent near-enveloped in it.
And the Auras of his clients had strayed right into it without hesitance, without knowledge, and most importantly: without his protection.
Sally and Rowan, in their haste to flee, had wondered their ways straight into a Mystery Dungeon.