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Chapter 6: Seperation
Two days after I started training, I was still keeping at it. I played, talked, and most importantly trained. I had gotten a lot better at tackling and attacking in general. I had gotten good at tracking my opponent, my father mainly. He had started moving faster and faster as I gained repeated successes in the past two days, he started with walking but he was now actively trotting. With my success my confidence grew.
It was at the end of this third day of training that Dad finally said, "I think you are good enough to fight in an actual battle!" I was panting and tired by the time he said this, too tired to even celebrate.
I whispered a weak sounding, "Wooo!" While I was collapsed on the ground. I wasn't only exhausted from training, it was also almost night so my eyes were drooping as well.
"Well, it's about time to get you to bed, Astra. You have to have a lot of energy for what we're going to teach you now." Dad said.
I perked up at this saying, "Well I have enough energy right now." Even though I could barely stand on my abused legs.
"No, I know what you're up to. I will not divulge what I am going to teach you next." Dad said, discovering my ruse instantly. I pouted as Mom picked me up and carried me back to the cave without my assent. I nursed and was about to fall asleep before Dad's head shot up his ears pointing towards the entrance of the cave.
He got up slowly before Mom shot to being alert as well. Dad whispered, "You hear that? It sounds like there is something large rustling in the bushes!"
I focused my ears towards the entrance like they were and after a little while of intense listening, I heard it. There was some rustling in the brush, it was faint, if I hadn't listened closely I would have missed it. It seemed like whatever it was they were trying to be quiet. I was amazed that Dad just heard it out of nowhere.
Dad slowly got up and creeped towards the entrance, his body was tense, ready for battle. "Petal, you guard the entrance, I will get closer and try to get rid of the intruder." Mom seemed surprised and hadn't moved until Dad, in a more urgent voice, said, "Petal, protect Astra now!" Mom jerked up from her shock and quickly headed to the entrance while Dad headed outside. I could hear him whisper again, "Don't jump in unless you think I'll lose, protect Astra above all else." Mom just agreed and blocked the entrance with her body, I could just see past her legs but only a tiny bit.
I was terrified at this point. Dad left the cave alone, I didn't want anything to happen to anyone. 'Why can't we just go to sleep together again?' I wondered hopelessly, I had a bad feeling and was trembling like a leaf in a storm.
From what I could see from between Mom's legs, emerging from the shaking bush, two unusual creatures walked out. They were nothing like anything I had ever seen before. They walked on two legs and were super tall, one taller than the other. They had weird fur that was multiple shades of green that blended in with the bushes. They each had two arms attached to their large main body ending in weird paws that had five appendages on each. Their faces were mostly flat besides what I assumed to be their nose in the middle of the face. They both wore an unnerving smile on their faces.
The taller of the two made many noises that I couldn't understand. "Hey, we finally found one, we were almost out of time too. You'd think there would have been more ninetales in a ninetales reserve."
My father growled at them and shouted, "Go away humans! You are not welcome in my territory! I will remove you by force if necessary! He barked at them, crouching low ready to attack.
'That's a human! Mercy said that they capture pokemon against their will, what if they capture Dad?' I thought, horrified at what might happen but unable to do anything.
The shorter human said more things I couldn't understand, "It looks like they're offaly pissed off at us, too bad we don't scare easily." He made a deep laughing sound. He grabbed a red and white ball with his weird paw-thing and threw it. A bright flash of light appeared and after the light faded a pokemon was suddenly there. The pokemon was large and like the humans it also stood on two legs and had two arms. It had a black swirling pattern on it's large round blue body which also seemed to be it's head. It's white paws at the end of it's arms were balled into fists. The human said, "Go Poliwrath, use Hydro pump on the ninetales!" A giant round beam of water shot towards Dad from it's swirl, he tried to dodge but only partially succeeded as part of his side got pelted with water. The force of the move was so powerful that it knocked Dad into the air before he landed on his side.
"Dad no!" I screamed, starting to cry.
The taller human asked something, "Did I hear another pokemon?"
"Quiet Astra!" Mom hissed at me in a whisper. "We can't let them know about you!"
Dad got up, obviously in pain and panting. He growled at the humans and said, "I'll get you back for that one!" His eyes flashed. The creature stumbled backwards while holding his head in pain, it screamed from the unseen attack that hit it.
The taller one made noise again, "It seems you need some help with this." He got out his own red and white ball before he threw it. The flash of light turned into a floatzel, a water pokemon that Dad and I had seen in the stream before.
"No you don't!" Dad yelled as he did a slow and elegant spin with fire trailing from his mouth. When the fire touched the opponent pokemon, instead of just burning out it swirled around their forms, creating a tornado of fire around both the floatzel and the blue round creature, they screamed in pain.
The shorter human shouted out suddenly, "Poliwrath put that fire out with rain dance!" The weird blue pokemon performed a strange sort of dance, which must've been hard with being on fire. Clouds gathered up above the three pokemon and two humans as rain fell, dousing the flame from their bodies.
"Ah, that hurt! You'll pay for that little foxy!" The floatzel spat at Dad, burns covered his body. The floatzel lunged at him with a speed so fast that I couldn't see him, he left a trail of water that splashed to the ground. The floatzel hit Dad and water flew out from the impact. Dad was just barely able to stay standing.
Tears poured from my eyes but I stayed silent on Mom's instructions. Mom herself looked twitchy like she was barely able to stop herself from running in to help right then. 'If she didn't have to protect me she would be able to help Dad win.' I thought hopelessly, wishing that I was stronger so I could help.
Before Dad was able to recover or the mean humans said anything more, the round pokemon shot the same attack he used before and another powerful jet of water knocked Dad completely prone. He didn't get back up.
Unintelligible noises came from the short one again, "Nice work Polly! Now to capture…" He pulled out another ball but this one was half black half white with two yellow stripes on the black part. When he was about to throw it Mom jumped from the entrance of the cave putting her body between her and Dad. She growled and puffed up her fur.
The taller one exclaimed, "Hey, aren't we lucky." He laughed. "Now we don't need to search for a second one! Attack them!"
The pokemon didn't hesitate, they both threw powerful water attacks at her. The attacks headed straight for her, but she didn't move an inch, protecting Dad. When they hit her head on she flew so far back she almost reached the cave where I was crying and now screaming. I ran out of the cave reaching Mom and crying, "M-mom, p-please get up!" I was sobbing over my words.
Mom coughed and in a hoarse voice barely audible said, "Astra… run away to the clan..." She slowly moved her head to see me, the most pained and sad look on her face, her eyes filled with tears.
"No, I won't leave you!" I shouted. No matter how much Mom pleaded I would not go. 'I can protect them! Dad said I was ready for battle, I can do this!' I thought, moving in front of Mom to protect her.
"No, please leave!" Mom started audibly sobbing behind me. "Please Astra, you can't help!" She tried getting up but fell down quickly.
The tall one spoke, "Ha, looks like they were protecting an ugly little runt! But we don't need any extra pokemon." I growled at him completely unaware of what he was talking about but knew it couldn't be good.
The short human belted out something else back at the other human, "We might as well take the vulpix, we could become rich if we sell it! Or I also wouldn't mind using it myself."
"No, we are only here for the job! The boss will just find out about it and take it anyways, we won't even profit from it. Besides, it will take longer for rangers to come after us if they have to take care of an injured pup." The tall one laughed evilly.
The short human sighed, 'Fine, you're the boss of this operation. Polly, make sure it doesn't follow us.'
The big round pokemon walked forwards towards us. I was shaking but I didn't wait for it to reach us. I used the tailwhip baby-doll eyes combination Dad taught me to use before charging at him. I screamed all the way up to it before using tackle on it. Jumping and hitting it with my paws was easy since it didn't move out of the way. When I hit it though, it didn't budge or flinch or do anything. I recovered and jumped back a little bit. It continued walking forward menacingly with a dark look on it's face. My shaking only increased in ferocity, 'I guess I can't fight.'
"Astra run!" Mom said, still crying behind me. Even if I did want to run, my legs had decided to stop working. My body automatically made me shrink back making me look as small as possible.
When the pokemon was right in front of me it stopped towering over me. Unceremoniously he punched me. His left fist, bigger than my head, hooked directly into my right side. The impact was horrible, an audible crunching sound rang out through the clearing. The punch clipping my back right leg, breaking it along with my side. The punch made me fly to the left. As I landed and rolled a few times the pain finally set in from shock. Burning unimaginable pain spread throughout my side. I cried in agony, a tortured horrible wailing sound rang out through the forest. I didn't even hear my own cries or that of my mother's. The agonizing headache along with the physical pain made all of my mental processes collapse. The pokemon still had not finished with me and they walked the distance that I had travelled unintentionally. My left front leg was sticking out from my limp and mangled form so without any pause they punched down. The limb simply didn't stand a chance as it was shattered completely and my screaming started anew. When he lifted his appendage my leg was left twitching as the nerve endings fired off continuously. The sharp pieces of my leg bone stuck out of my skin, bloodying the reddish brown and white fur on the leg. My leg bent in multiple places along its length, going from left to right to left again looking like a zigzag. I puked at the sight, staining the ground in front of me and nearly making me choke.
That was when the pokemon finally walked away saying, "Disgusting, what a weakling. I was hoping to play with you more for revenge for how your parents burned me but any more and I'll kill you. I think it's better to let you writhe on the ground than just end your suffering." It said, before walking back, laughing the whole time.
Both of the humans threw the black, yellow, and white balls at both of my parents. The forms of my sobbing mother and unconscious father dissolved into light. The light quickly disappeared into the round objects each jerking around three times before making a clicking noise.
"I told you to make sure the kit does not follow, not kill it!" The short one seemed to yell at his pokemon. "Anyways, jobs done. Let's get out of here before the screaming gives us away."
As they walked into the forest my screaming and crying never ended. Birds and other pokemon in the trees looked down on me sadly but didn't do a thing to help. The only thought I could recognise through the pain was 'Make it stop!' The pain radiated through me just as strongly as before as I shook and thrashed on the ground, each uncontrollable movement making it worse. Somehow, even with every part of my body flaring with pain I slipped into the sweet relief of unconsciousness.
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During the whole horrible tragedy that was taking place in front of her Mew was on the breaking point of stopping it. She knew lives would be lost if this didn't happen how it was supposed to but was it really worth it?
Mew's will to not go against fate won out sadly. She waited until the despicable humans were out of sight before she forcibly put the poor vulpix's mind into sleep only after hearing 'Make it stop!' She wasn't supposed to interact with her in any way but Mew knew that stopping her from unnecessary suffering wouldn't change anything about Astra's destiny. Every cry had felt like it had each ripped a piece of Mew's soul out of her body making her feel empty inside. Fresh hot tears of guilt had made their way out of her eyes to join the rest that were already making her pelt wet. As Mew left the horrible scene she made sure that Astra's mind had no dreams. She was afraid the pain was so bad it would reach even there. Mew looked at the shaking child one last time before leaving.
Mew couldn't interact with anyone in any way but she could still help a little. Starting from the clearing Astra resided in, Mew went towards the hole in the fence. Along the way she snapped twigs in half, made scent marks, and imprinted fake boot marks in the dirt and mud. Making the path more obvious would let the rangers rescue her faster but not change anything else. Mew wished she could do more but she could only watch.
Morning, 33 hours later.
Abby, the pokemon ranger, was on her usual weekly route around the forest, checking the fence. She was driving in her all-terrain ranger vehicle, it was like a jeep but smaller, only being able to fit two seats. There were paths around the reserve that were rougher than others, so they needed vehicles like these to traverse them. The paths wouldn't be so bad if the ranger station had the personnel to upkeep them. Same could be said for the reason that they only checked the fence once a week instead of once a day. The size of the forest was too big for the four total rangers to patrol all of it in less time than a week. They tried to hire more rangers constantly but there were more downsides than advantages in a career like this. Rangers were working around the clock, they did a little bit of everything. Rescuing any injured pokemon they come across, maintaining reserve grounds, patrolling, paperwork, and arresting trespassers. The pay was decent but not great for what we had to do. Rangers had to stay in the ranger living space due to the possibility of emergency situations. The living space itself was shabby, consisting of a room with five bunk beds, a dining-kitchen room, a communal living room, a bathroom, and office space. A building next to the ranger station was a pokecenter and hospital. The station and pokecenter was located on the left side of route 202 if you were going to Jubilife City from Sandgem Town, in about the middle of the route. The ninetales reserve was located behind the buildings. The center was much better staffed and had more funding since trainers would stop by to heal their pokemon. Housing a total of six doctors and nurses, it even held an emergency care center just in case.
Abby, like the other rangers, had little care for the downsides of her job. She enjoyed that her job involved hanging around nature and pokemon. Working with pokemon in the wild was just a whole nother experience than working with a trained pokemon, they seemed freer. She also always felt proud that she was protecting an endangered species like ninetales.
She watched the forest through a large chain link fence, she made sure to keep an eye on the path to not run anything over. Abby was thinking about the bare trees and how it was almost winter when she was snapped out of her musings by something she saw. A bidoof had come from the side with a fence, the pokemon was way too big and clumsy to get past it. She looked closer to the exact place the bidoof had come from and stared horrified at what she saw.
When she finally shook herself from shock she reached for her walkie-talkie and pushed the transmitter button before saying, "Dispatch, we have a major problem! Over."
Abby waited a few seconds before the device buzzed to life with a male voice on the other side, "What seems to be the problem ranger? Over."
She spoke up as soon as he was finished, "We have a large perimeter breach over here in section A34. I am requesting a full search and rescue ASAP. Over."
His voice immediately responded, sounding a little panicked, "I understand. Wait there, I will gather every ranger and all the equipment needed and meet you there as quickly as possible. Over." The line went dead as he rushed off to get the party together.
Figuring she would have to wait a while but not having a second to spare, Abby took out a pokeball. She threw the pokeball out releasing a Leafeon, He blinked looking around.
"Hey there Rook!" Abby greeted her pokemon.
Rook upon seeing his loving trainer responded with eon~ bounding over to where she was. Abby itched his head and pet his back. He made an odd purring noise rubbing his head against her leg.
"Okay Rook, as much as I would love to cuddle, we have a job to do." The leafeon suddenly looked alert, sitting at attention. "I found a hole in the fence, you know what that means." He nodded. "The search team is on its way, before they get here I want you to try and determine a general direction."
Rook nodded again and said Leaf! He walked towards the hole in the fence and started sniffing. He hopped through the hole and kept smelling and looking around for a few minutes before exclaiming Leafeon!
She walked over asking, "You already found something?" He pointed at something with his paw before saying Leafeon! In the exact same tone as before.
She looked over his body at where he was pointing. There was a foot print set into the ground right in front of her pointing straight. "Huh, I guess they weren't going for the stealthy approach. Well sense you found it so fast all we can do is wait." Abby took out a bag of dried jerky from her pack and fed the whole thing to him as a reward, he seemed happy.
After 30 minutes of petting and playing with him, she finally heard the sounds of vehicles approaching. Two of the same ranger vehicles that she had, drove over and parked. Immediately two rangers got out of one of them and another one got out of the other. One of them, Abby's best friend named Tia, walked over to her.
"After a year of no trappings I was beginning to stupidly hope that there wouldn't be any more." Tia said with a sad look on her face.
One of the other two came over and interrupted our conversation, "That's why we should stop chatting and get moving as quickly as possible, maybe there won't be one." Danny said, walking to the hole.
The de facto leader of the rangers, Alex spoke up. "Danny you get medical supplies, Tia you get the camping and survival gear, I'll have the tranq gun, cuffs and compact stretcher. Abby will be scouting ahead with her leafeon, you all got it?" We all muttered our agreement while getting our stuff before he said, "Okay, let's go!"
Abby entered the gap in the fence with Rook before everyone else did and followed the very obvious trail of snapped twigs and boot prints, it was almost too easy. Pokemon who weren't used to humans scattered in the group's path. They followed the path for what must've been 4 hours until they came across a clearing with a large rock in the center. Rook was acting strangely and started yipping at Abby.
"Guys, I think we found something." Abby said quietly to the rest of the group. Alex took the lead with his tranq gun fanning it across the clearing, looking for any sign of danger as the group carefully crept across the clearing. Rook suddenly broke away from the group running behind the rock as quickly as he could barking the whole time.
"Rook stop!" Abby shouted. The command was ignored as Rook continued frantically barking behind the rock. Abby slowly walked past the rock to see what was happening, the group was close behind her. As her vision crested the rock seeing the ground beyond. What Abby saw behind the rock was the most horrible thing she had ever seen.
A tiny weirdly colored vulpix lie mangled on the ground. It's front paw was out in front of it, completely crushed and bloodied as shards of its own bone pierced it's flesh. Its ribs were showing, fur hung loosely off of it's frame indicating malnutrition. The ribs that she saw on it's left side looked weirdly caved in in some places. The strange vulpix was breathing raspy and shaky breaths but it was thankfully unconscious. Rook was crying, trying to lick it's head once he brought the injured kit to my attention. Abby stood there shocked, unable to move, speak, or even breathe.
Tia came up behind her asking, "What's wrong?" When she got close enough to see she immediately turned to the side and vomited, falling to her knees and balling her eyes out.
The two men rushed forward to see and stood there with Abby in shock. Alex was the first one to break his shock and shouted, "Danny take out the medic supplies and start helping it! Abby help me get it onto the stretcher!" He took out and unfolded the stretcher laying beside the injured kit. The rest of the group snapped out of it. Abby moved onto the opposite side of Alex on the other side of the kit. "Careful, gently lift it on the count of three. One… two… three!" As he got to three He and Abby both lifted part of the kit from the ground. Abby nearly threw up right there. Its body had the feeling of cooked spaghetti, abnormally limp. She could also feel multiple broken bones underneath the skin. They gently set her body on the stretcher. Danny started the treatment. He picked out debris that got stuck in its leg wound with tweezers before pouring antiseptic and wrapping the limp leg in bandages.
"How could someone do something like this!" Tia was still a sobbing mess, her head in her hands unable to look directly at the scene.
Abby came and hugged her whispering, "I don't know, but we have to help it now." She nodded and took a deep breath before Abby released her from the hug.
They were all angry that such a young kit had already been exposed to suffering that none of them could even imagine. Whoever did this had to pay, all of them shared this sentiment without even speaking to one another. They needed to catch these trappers.
Danny after finishing wrapping the vulpix in bandages said, "There is too much internal damage, it needs a surgeon immediately." He sighed, frustrated that he couldn't do more.
Alex spoke up, "Abby and Danny you go carry her back to the pokecenter, Tia and I will continue the search."
They agreed. Abby was glad of her assignment, she wanted to personally insure that the kit stayed safe. She watched the tiny body tremble. Abby and Danny got on either side of the stretcher and carefully lifted it. "Okay, we'll see you back at the station. Good luck on the search!" Abby said and the others said their goodbyes. Abby and Danny carefully made their way back from the forest, it took longer to get back because they were careful to not jostle it. When they finally got back to the vehicles it was dark, they slowly lowered the stretcher into the back of the car and drove back.
When they got to the pokecenter they brought the vulpix inside. They had to go through the main lobby to get to the emergency center. The trainers who were still in the lobby got curious about what we were bringing in but as soon as they saw the poor creature they all looked horrified and backed away leaving us to enter the emergency wing. There was always a nurse stationed there in case of an emergency. When they entered the kit was breathing heavily. Abby yelled, "Get the doctors, quick!" The nurse ran off after recognising us and seeing the stretcher, most likely to wake the doctors.
After a few minutes the doctor came from the back looking disheveled. Seeing the kit he said, "Get it in the back." He held a door open for the two. They carried it through and set it down on an operating table. Then they left to wait in the waiting room. Abby and Danny waited in silence for an hour before the doctor came back out. He said, "We performed an xray and found that her back right leg is fractured and her front left leg is shattered. Most of the ribs on the right side are also crushed, it's a miracle that her spine was undamaged. Just what happened to her?"
Abby sighed before saying, "We think trappers took her parents and left her there like that, she was in this condition when we found her. Alex and Tia are still out looking for the bastards who did this."
"Yes, I hope they are caught as well. Anyways you rangers might as well go to bed, it will be a long night of surgeries. She is still not out of the woods yet but we have her on life support so we think we can save her." The doctor said walking back through the backdoor.
The rangers sighed and resigned. They knew there was nothing else they could do so they went back to the station, ate, and went to bed. It didn't take long for them to fall asleep as they were tired having spent all day walking.
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I wasn't surprised that the first feeling I experienced when I came to was pain. It was not as bad as when I fell asleep but it was still there. I tried to fall back asleep, where my pain didn't affect me, but once I was awake the burning agony kept me from escaping it. There was a weird pulsing of pain in my body, every few seconds it flared and I would whimper. Every time I tried to move any part of my body a new wave of agony would hit me, even though my body wouldn't move at all. I could feel something soft and warm underneath me, not at all like the grass I fell asleep on. My whole body was wrapped in something and I heard a rhythmic beeping sound. 'Where am I?' I thought, more than a little bit panicked. I finally tried to open my eyes but when I opened them there was something covering my eyes. Tears filled my eyes as questions filled my mind, 'What's happening? How did I get here? Why can't I move? Where is Mom and Dad?' I felt so confused and sad. I started crying out loud, I could at least hear my own wailing noise.
Suddenly I heard footsteps and the sound of a human, "She's awake!" I suddenly wished I hadn't cried out if I alerted an evil human to my presence, I was terrified and started shaking. The human said gibberish again, "She's scared, get chansey over here!"
After a few seconds the sound of another being came into the room. 'Oh no, it called another human!' I thought before a voice I could actually understand entered my ears.
"It's okay, young one. You're completely safe." The voice was soft and melodic, obviously female.
"Why does it hurt so much, who are you, where am I, where are my parents, and why can't I see?" I asked my voice covayed my panic pretty well. I was thankful that I could finally understand something but I still felt vulnerable, I wanted answers.
"Calm down." The melodic voice said. "My name is Remedy, I'm a pokemon called chansey. You were injured, rescued by pokemon rangers and brought here to be healed. The reason you can't see is you were blindfolded. Wild pokemon are always blindfolded because they have a tendency to freak out and hurt themselves if they're not. I will tell you about your parents after you've healed a bit more. For now why don't you go back to sleep?"
"It hurts too much, I just can't!" I cried just wanting the pain to stop.
"Oh, you poor dear! You shouldn't be feeling that much pain! I'll have them increase the dosage. Don't worry, the pain will go away soon." Remedy said in a soothing voice. She then walked away in a hurry before another pair of footsteps approached me, they did something that made a rustling noise. After a few minutes the pain started to fade and chansey's voice spoke up again, "Just go to sleep, nothing would ever harm you here." She started to sing a lullaby but as the pain faded away my exhaustion took me to sleep before I could hear the words.
I woke up an indiscriminable amount of time later. I tried to move but still couldn't, this time however it wasn't due to pain but because of numbness. There was a tiny amount of pain but overall I couldn't really feel anything. I groaned, my thoughts felt slow and when I tried to lift my head it was sluggish. There was something stuck over my whole snout and it seemed to be helping me breathe. My blindfold was still on so I couldn't see anything.
Remedy must have heard my groan because she spoke to me, "Hey, you're up again! Are you feeling better?"
It was hard to speak with this weird face thing on but I managed to say, "ah-I don't feel anything, whats on my face?"
"Oh, your breathing became shaky and inconsistent so the doctors put in a respirator on you in your sleep. We should be able to get it off you now, just tell me if you feel short of breath in the future. Also since your numb it shouldn't be too risky to take the blindfold off as well, give me a moment." I heard her leave and come back with someone else. About a minute later something touched the back of my head and I flinched forwards but they continued to fiddle with something. The thing on the back of my head clicked and the respirator released from my face, my blindfold also fell. My fully open eyes were not ready for the sudden light that hit them. I got an instant headache and closed my eyes, my face twisted in a scowl.
After a few seconds, I slowly opened my eyes again. What I saw was a square room, the walls were completely white and there was a rectangular hole in the wall leading outside. I was currently on a raised platform with a soft ground and a railing all around me. A fluffy material was bunched up and surrounding me, making a weird but comfy nest. There were weird multicolored strings that went from my body to the square thing that was making the beeping noises. There was also another thing attached to me, a tube that went from me to a clear container with liquid inside of it attached to the top of a shiny pole. I looked at myself and saw that my whole body was covered in white wrappings that covered my fur. My front left leg was covered in a white hard shell completely barring my vision of my leg.
The one thing that managed to hold my attention was that with the chansey was a human. I felt like it was female, it had long blond hair and seemed to have white and red colors covering over her body. I completely freaked out. Somehow my panic was strong enough to move my previously immovable body. Growling at her, I somehow managed to flip myself over with my front legs and scramble away from her. Immediate pain flared in my body through the numbness I felt before, the pain of the leg that was wrapped in the hard shell was by far the worst pain. I nearly blacked out as it felt like the leg was going to snap in half. I collapsed instantly.
Remedy yelled out as I did this, "Stop please you'll hurt yourself!" The human stumbled back and Remedy quickly pointed to a large brown rectangle on the wall before the human opened it and fled through it. "See it's fine, she's gone! Calm down." When I relaxed a little she continued, "Don't move again. You are on your way to a full recovery, well besides a permanent limp, don't mess this up." She came over to me, lifted me up carefully with her pink arms and set me back in the fluffy nest.
"Why is there a human?" I asked, scared that they'll come get me.
"Not every human is bad. I know what you experienced was traumatic but those humans who did it were bad people. I told you you're safe here. That nurse that fled because she didn't want you to hurt yourself has been tending to you for a while now, healing you. If you can't handle the sight of them we will have to cover your eyes again. By the way, what is your name?"
"How can I trust you If you work with them?" I yelled, ignoring her last question.
"Think about it, if we were here to harm you at all, it would've been easy while you were asleep! These good humans have to get near to help heal you and I really don't want to blind you again, but I will if I need to." Remedy reasoned.
'I am hurting less than I was, that pain before was horrible. Remedy has also been extremely nice to me.' I thought. I sighed and murmured, "My name is Astra and I'll try not to freak out again."
"Good." Remedy said as she moved to the corner of the room and started pushing down on something over and over again, the thing that she was pushing was attached to a glowing panel.
"What are you doing?" I asked, cautious but still curious.
"I'm typing your name into what's called a computer. It's so the good humans will know what to call you instead of making a new name for you. By the way, we need you to be able to understand humans so let me go get something." She exited the room for a few minutes before entering with a small flat square with a round shiney object with a hole in the center.
"This is a Technical Machine." She put the object in front of me. "If you push this button you will be able to understand humans. I warn you that it might feel a little weird." She indicated the red indentation on the device.
'How will this make me understand anyone?' I thought slowly reaching my good paw towards the red button. As soon as my paw pushed it down, it clicked and information rushed directly into my head. I suddenly knew about concepts and ideas that I hadn't ever learned myself. I knew what a computer did, I didn't know how it did what it did, but I knew words that I would've never learned. The tube attached to me was connected to what was called an IV bag, which for some reason I knew. "What?" I asked out loud, searching through my own head for information.
"Yeah, it can be a little bit disorienting but now you can understand humans!" She said this like it was the best thing in the world.
"Yeah… I was wondering, I now know that this hard shell around my leg is called a cast. But what happened to my leg?" I was a little worried.
Remedy looked sad before she caught herself and tried to give me a reassuring smile. "Well… I'm not sure I'm supposed to tell you…" She stopped saying what she was about to say when she saw my pleading look. She sighed and reluctantly told me "When they brought you in, the bones of your leg were shattered horribly. The surgeons here are great but… they can only do so much. Your leg might have… problems after it's healed. I'm not completely sure though, it might heal perfectly!" She tried to be positive but I could already feel the tears rolling down my face.
"How am I supposed to get stronger if I can't even walk right! H-how do I save my parents… if I'm weaker than everyone else? Can you h-help me?" My last sentence ended in a sad sob. I was crying, I felt completely depressed and hopeless.
The chansey looked at me with sad pitying eyes before saying, "Well, you have multiple options for what you could do after you've healed. The original plan for what to do with you was to send you back to the ninetales clan. We know the approximate location of the place and we know you would be taken care of."
I looked at her in shock remembering my friends and family there. 'How will I explain to my grandparents about what happened to Mom and Dad? Can they forgive me for letting them get taken?' I thought, anxiety and sadness taking hold of my mind before I was brought out of my thoughts by Renedy's voice.
"...But if you went back to the clan in the ninetales reserve, you would in all likelihood be stuck there for the rest of your life. There would be no way to try and find your family wherever they are. It's a slim chance you would ever be able to find them, but if you go back... there will be no chance at all. There are, however, other options…" She looked indecisive but looked at me. "The other option is becoming a trained pokemon. This would mean that you would be traveling with a human and battle for them." She paused to gauge my reaction.
I was horrified to say the least, I couldn't just go back to the clan without my parents but this couldn't be the only way. "Can't you just let me go by myself to find them?"
Remedy shook her head from side to side saying, "There is no way the people here would let you do that, even if it was an option, I myself wouldn't allow it. The world outside is a dangerous place, especially for a lone kit that is by no means able to fully defend herself yet. Astra, if you went out there alone you could get captured by someone evil or worse, die. Your kind is valued so highly that if even one trainer or other human saw you, you will be actively hunted. At least in letting you go with a trainer, we could make sure the person you're paired with has good intentions for you. If you truly want to get stronger, going with a trainer is the best option for you. Trained pokemon become exponentially stronger than pokemon in the wild ever do. Trust me, this is the only other option. Don't rush the decision though, this is important and you still have time. Whatever you decide, I will make sure you are always taken care of."
I was stunned silent as her lecture ended, stuck in my thoughts. 'I don't want to but if it's my only option… I might have to. Remedy is nice, so I don't think she is lying when she says that some humans are good. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad?'
"Anyways, let's not talk about that anymore. You need to relax and heal, not worry about the future. It should actually be just about time to finally feed you something real again! We had to use the IV to feed you for a while after the surgery but now we can finally feed you milk again." My stomach growled at the mention of food. "Now a human will have to feed you. I will warn you right now that if you try to move at all I will have no choice but to physically restrain you. I can't have you displace your bones that the doctors have set correctly."
She left and came back a few minutes later with the same nurse that fled before, she looked nervous. I growled, I couldn't really help it, but didn't move. Remedy gave me a stern look of warning and I stopped, setting my ears flat on my head in submission. I didn't want to be held down so I tried my hardest to push back my fear. The nurse walked towards me slowly with her hands out in front of her to show she was only holding a bottle with white liquid in it and a rubber suckle at the end. As the nurse got closer and closer to me, moving the bottle in front of me, my trembling became ever more violent. I wanted to bolt away from her but forced myself to stay.
"It's going to be okay. Maggie just wants to help." Remedy cooed at me and rubbed my back on the part that didn't hurt which calmed me a little bit. As Maggie held the bottle in front of me I took a few tentative sniffs before drinking from it. The taste reminded me a bit of Mom's and I started crying while eating. I drank the whole bottle while Remedy tried to calm me.
When I was done Maggie smiled at me and said, "Thank you for trusting me!" Before starting to tend to me. She changed the IV bag, made sure my bandages were tight, and that my blanket nest was still comfortable before exiting the room with a goodbye.
"See, I told you Mags is nice! You should sleep more now that you're full. They say that rest is the best cure for injuries. I will watch over you so you don't have to worry." She smiled at me before going over to the computer and started typing.
Not seeing anything better to do, I got comfortable and tried to fall asleep. It took a while as thoughts were still swirling about my head. Ever since I got here I had been constantly exhausted so eventually my mind succumbed and brought me into sweet unfeeling unconsciousness.
Chapter End
Story Lore
Remedy the Chancsey's report to the humans regarding the injured vulpix:
Name: Astra
Species: Vulpix
Gender: Female
Age: About two weeks
Physical Condition: She was brought in by the rangers after they found a breach in the fencing surrounding the ninetales reserve and were trying to find the trappers responsible. Astra was found in a clearing horribly injured and unconscious. When she was brought in most of the bones on her right side were broken and her left front leg bone was completely shattered into many pieces. She also sustained a few minor internal injuries but due to how long it took to find her, those injuries almost killed her. Astra had malnutrition when she was rescued. After she was brought in Astra had to go through 8 hours of continuous surgeries to stabilize her and treat her injuries. It took another day for Astra to finally wake up for the first time, which was remarkably fast considering what her body went through. When she woke up we had to increase her dosage of morphine as she was in a massive amount of pain. She is now on track to make a nearly perfect recovery, besides a possible permanent limp she might have after she heals.
Astra seems to be born with runt disease as she is significantly smaller than she is supposed to be, other symptoms of runt disease have yet to be seen though. I will continue to monitor her health for any indications of heart problems or sickness just in case.
Astra also has a peculiar fur discoloration, the fur color doesn't match what I've seen of a vulpix with the condition most commonly referred to as shiny syndrome. Astra has pure white fur as her main body color and silver fur on her underbelly. She doesn't have albinism as the fur on her tails, head, and paws are of normal color as well as her eye color is the same as a normal vulpix.
Mental Condition: From what I have seen and heard from Astra she seems to be sustaining extreme trauma from the events she had to go through. She is trying to hide it but I think she feels guilty for her parents being taken even though she could do nothing in a situation like that. She must've felt weak and helpless when she was on the ground unable to move from her injuries. Astra has expressed the desire to become stronger and save her parents, which I view as a rather positive way of coping with her trauma unless she wants revenge.
As part of her trauma Astra seems to have picked up a phobia of humans and tries to flee when she sees one. Astra almost hurt herself trying to flee Maggie, her assigned nurse when her blindfold was taken off. She was somehow able to overcome the numbing medication she was given before she awoke which indicates an extreme fear. I recommend that minimal human contact is sustained until we can slowly ease her fears. I managed to calm her down enough to be able to be fed and tended by nurse Maggie, so I think she trusts me.
Personal note: Astra is a very sweet kit who has shown curiosity even in pain. I very much doubt that she is the type to give up over something like this. Even with her fear of humans she is considering becoming a trainer's pokemon to make herself stronger, which I find to be quite impressive. I have already made fast friends with her and want to continue looking after her if that could be allowed.
AN: This chapter was hard to write but the story must go on.