Whew. 3PPOV is wearing me out man! I can't get in to Kaivo's head as well as I want to. Alright, I know it's a little short, as was the first one, but I figured maybe it'd be easier to make the chapters shorter and have more of them. Of course, not too short, but not so long it takes me forEVVVEERRR to type just one. You know, each story is different. Anyways, I hope you're enjoying so far! I'm loving Leafeon more each day. Glad I decided to write about them!

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Leafeon's Compass – Chapter Two

A large male paced the mouth of his cave against the setting sun. He shook his head worriedly and grunted strange, angry noises. A smaller Leafeon sat patiently outside the entrance of the grotto, his tail curled around his sitting form, his ears low on his head. He sat quietly, awaiting anything from his parents.

"Rei…" the Alpha female began, but trailed off.

Aki sat patiently in the cave, leaning against the wall calmly. "Father, it's not such a big deal. Let me go take care of it."

"No." Rei stopped pacing and turned to his wife and son. "This is bigger than it looks."

"Dad, it's just an outsider; don't get so upset." Aki reasoned.

"No, it's not just an outsider Aki! Don't be so naïve!" Rei growled, and began pacing again. Aki didn't give in though.

"Father." The prince stood up and circled around his father, his head low, a ferocious glint in his eye. He stopped, blocking the mouth of the cave. "I'm the future Alpha; listen to me. Let me-"

Aki winced in pain, knocked back onto the rocky floor by the power of his fathers strike. He was wise enough to stay down, not daring to get up or move to ease the pain of the slash across his face with his paw. "Fool! I'm present Alpha, you listen to me! For the last time, no, you will not be going to 'take care of this'!" Rei raged shouting and spitting at Aki's motionless form.

He poked his head around the corner; just enough so he could see what was going on. Kaivo didn't dare get involved; he knew what his father was like when he was angry. He pulled back a smidgen when his father started to pace again, but kept one of his brown eyes on the scene in his parent's den. Spitting and growling in frustration and stress, his father began to pace again, become more venomous as each moment passed. Aki was still on the ground; Kaivo had heard the crack of something when his older brother was sent flying into the cave wall. He admired at his brothers determination, but it was more foolish than courageous to defy Rei when he was normal, let alone when he was in this state.

"Outsiders," he seethed, wrinkling his muzzle. "Filthy, no-good Outsiders!"

Even Reina was helpless to sooth him now. "Honey, if Aki won't deal with them…" but she was cut off by the livid bark of her mate, telling her he'd deal with them right in the morning, at dawn.

Outsiders. That's was Kaivo had seen; an Outsider. The only thing Kaivo had to distinguish the exiled one from a regular rogue was the dark, black circles lining its eyes, making it truly appear as a killer. It was a Leafeon, and one previously from their pack. They were banished by the Alphas for defiance, unspeakable acts, and such. About a year ago, Kaivo remembered, a trio of them was exiled for supposedly killing the previous Alpha, and Kaivo's own grandfather, while he was still in power. He had been a strong, young leader, that's why it had presumed that the three of them together committed the act, for it would have been seemingly impossible for one Leafeon alone to take down a Pokemon of such strength. Of course, Nonno had been killed, so there was no one to confirm the trio guilty or innocent except for the supposed "evidence", the fact that one of Rei's good friends had vouched that he saw the three leave their trees that night.

Kaivo, not sticking around to hear any more of the conversation, slinked past the open cave mouth and down the cliffside, back through the hanging vines draped over the opening to his own cave beneath the Alpha's, where he could still hear his fathers angry ranting and feel the dust and pebbles knocked from the roof of his cavern.

It was an uneventful night of sleep for Kaivo, seeing as how his it took his father the first part of the night to calm down, with some help from Reina.

He couldn't quite get into sleep; it seemed it was avoiding him. Finally though, he fought off his restlessness and was able to doze off into an uncomfortable semiconscious sleep.

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When he opened his eyes again, everything was black. "Where am I?" a voice echoed in his ears, though his mouth did not move. Tears began falling down from his eyes, though he was not crying, falling into the endless void before him, not making a sound, ever falling. He found his body was not underneath him quite fully; he could not feel, smell, nor touch anything.

Finally, after eternity had gone by, he could move. He took a tentative first step, fearful of falling. But the blackness was not there to hurt him, but to help him. He found every direction to be obtainable, he could, strangely, go any which way he desired. A shadow streaked by him, a flash, like a shadow fleeting past the open mouth of a cave. He struggled to run fast enough to reach the shadow, even at least its tail. Cackle. There was a loud, ominous cackle heard throughout his dark nightmare. "Kaivo…" it mewed teasingly. "Kaivo…"

Kaivo turned all around, catching sight of the taunting shadow, following it still. As he came further, or so it seemed, to the flickering outline, a scream pierced through the night-like black, echoing through all sides, blasting against his head, sound waves bursting his eardrums painfully, more tears falling out of his uncrying eyes. "Where are you…?"

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Gasping for air and drenched in sweat, the Leafeon quickly opened his eyes, the scrutiny of the ceiling of his cave coming in ever slowly. Blinking his auburn eyes, he realized he was flipped over onto his back, and his back was yelling at him for sleeping like that. Painfully he rolled over onto his side; from there lifting himself onto his paws. Shaking off the salty body fluid and giving his coat a quick wash, he stepped out of the cave, only to be embarrassed at how late he had slept. The sun was already way up! He felt the blood in his cheeks boil when he realized that he has missed the morning routine for the first time since his father forced him to get up and see it. Shrugging it off, he realized that it was his fathers own fault to blame, getting so worked up about the Outsider last night, and that strange dream…Kaivo shuddered and continued to head down to the watering hole for his morning trip.

"That's odd." Kaivo noted as he looked over the pack. "Today's Dad's day off, he should be lounging around down there somewhere with his friends…" He thought to himself.

Turning his gaze up to the dark hole that was his parents cave, he leapt up the rocky path of the cliffside to the space before the Alpha's cave, where the ledge widened out to about ten feet, big enough to relax and laze around on, and high enough to watch the packs activities during the day. The Leafeon prince stepped up to the entrance, a strange scent filling his nose.

"Blood…okay, no problem, Dad's already been out hunting with his buddies…it must be later than I thought…" Calming himself with reassuring thoughts, he took a hesitant first step into the cavern…and another…and another. He looked about, darkness enveloping him, his dream flashing back through his head. "Hello? That's strange, where's all the light from the windows?" He suddenly felt alone. Secluded. Isolated. His body began to wrack with shivers and shudders as his dream came back to him more vivid than the dream itself. A cold sweat dripped down from the back of his neck.

And then, he stepped on something. It was soft, and wrinkly under his toes. The moment he looked down he felt the urge to scream, to back away, to wake up.

He lifted his paw quickly from his fathers limp ear, covered in a blood that was now covering the pads of his paws. He looked up from the ear, and to the body that was attached to it.

His father and mother, side by side, covered in large, seeping, bleeding gashes. He circled around them, being careful not to step in anymore blood. Their eyes were open, a thick, white film encasing their previously lively, auburn eyes, blood dribbling from the corners of their mouths. He licked his mother's delicate face, to which she couldn't respond. He dropped his head low, closing his eyes tightly, trying to prevent the tears now falling out of his eyes, this time, hitting the solid ground, mixing in with the crimson liquid slowly creeping its way across the cave floor.

Painfully he turned from the gruesome sight, his eyes still closed, the picture burned vividly into his mind. As he felt himself nearing the light, he bumped into something solid.

It was Aki, looking at him with the most disgust filled look Kaivo had ever seen. He looked up at him, scared. Aki growled and before he could do anything about it, grabbed Kaivo's wrist and turned it up, revealing to be the paw with his parents blood on it. The next words that came out of his brother's muzzle stung him harder than a million Beedrill.

"What have you done…?"

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Within the next hour, a pack meeting was called by Aki. He told the pack to wait below the speaking rock when the sun hit the tops of the trees, which was now.

Aki cleared his throat and the chattering, nervous pack silenced. "Attention all pack members…" he started formally.

"I am sad to inform you that my parents, the Alphas, have been…" he paused to search for the right word, "murdered."

Gasps and worried looks erupted and swarmed over the faces of the Leafeon pack, many shouting out questions and worried remarks. Aki waited till they were silent. "I, in fact, know who killed them." Again; many gasps and more worried questions.

"Please calm down! I have the culprit right here," the crowd calmed down a bit as he pointed to Kaivo, who was sitting down by the rock, being held by a large male Leafeon. The pack's heads turned all towards Kaivo; many with looks of surprise, others with hatred. "I caught him in their cave this morning, literally red handed; red handed with the blood of your Alphas and his own parents!" The guard holding Kaivo turned his paw up and lurched it forward, showing it around for everyone to see. "Let's see if he has anything to say."

Aki nodded at the bailiff-like Leafeon, who shook his arm and grunted roughly "Got anythin' ta say, punk?"

"It wasn't me!" He looked to the crowd, and then to his brother, desperately. "You've got to believe me! I walked up there because I didn't see Dad out in the pack like he usually is, and I found them like that!" Kaivo struggled, pulling on his captive arm.

Aki glared down at his younger brother. "Foolish brother! I saw you get up during the night! I know it was you that passed out in front of my cave like a shadow. I also heard muffled screaming in the night! Did you not?" Turning to the pack, he watched as slowly, the heads of the Leafeon began to turn towards each other and begin nodding among some whispers.

"But I saw that shadow too! It passed in front of my cave too!" Kaivo screamed urgently.

"How could that be, Aki? Isn't your cave before mine? How could I pass your cave going in the opposite direction?"

"Then why did you not get up to follow it?!"

"But-"

The Leafeon atop the high rock slammed his brown paw upon the rocks surface, the crowd falling silent. "He is a killer! Killers always return to the scene of the crime, that's why he was up there!"

"Brother, why did you not follow it? Aki, you were up there too…who knows how many of the pack members could've been up there? Who knows what that shadow was? Aki, why won't you trust me?"

"Yeah!"

"Banish him for good!"

"The no-good, he belongs with the Outsiders!"

It was like his brain was swimming, his thoughts sloshed about in his mind. "A killer? An Outsider?" A shudder ran over his spine.

"Then it's unanimous!" He shouted, almost with glee. "Exiled!"

"My brother! Why is my mouth tied so? Can't you trust me; can't you trust your own brother? Have I ever given you a reason to believe I could do such a thing to you, or to myself? How can you so heartlessly shove me from your life, from our life, without even a fair hearing?"

The pack turned their back on Kaivo, as only Aki kept his eyes on him, to watch him and make sure he would leave. With one last pleading look towards his brother, he knew he would not change his mind. For whatever reason, he was stuck. He couldn't believe it. His own brother, betraying him. For once he was glad that the pack would not look at him; their backs were much less hurtful than their eyes. And then, it struck him. He was an Outsider now. He was hated, alone, lost, not to mention scared. Convicted of a crime he didn't commit, how could he ever find a peaceful life with brutes like the Outsiders? They'd never accept him. They'd call him weak, or he wouldn't fit in because unlike them, he hadn't actually committed a wrong.

He couldn't even bring himself to look back on the back ends of his fellow Leafeon once he was on the edges of his…former packs grounds. He couldn't bear to look back onto the land that would now never accept him as a citizen, let alone an Alpha. He wished he could still look upon the Alpha's cave to wish it was his, rather than his life.

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