The following dawn brought a new sense of uneasiness. Mandite was gone – who knew where that kid was now. And, as I woke up, I realized Aurora wasn't where she was sleeping last night. The little indentation of the shrubbery she had piled to cushion the roughness of the rock bed was all that was left. But, scanning my surrounding quickly, I knew she hasn't wandered far.
I found her sitting at the edge of a cliff, where the rock island has elevated high over the lower grounds, where we left Mandite. The trees here grew more thickly, and forms of soil were found here and there along with vegetation. Dangling her legs off the cliff, not particularly caring about the height, Aurora stared off at the pale horizon, the soft morning light highlighting her face. She didn't notice my presence at all, until I sat down next to her, not knowing what else to do. It wasn't entirely because I just wanted to be with her – that panoramic view made me think, and wonder where the third person of our party was. Aurora didn't say a word in greeting, so I just left the silence be, as the land was washed over with the sun's golden entry. As the silence drew on, the more and more aware I was to Mandite's absence. Normally, we would be walking again, but neither of us had made any movement or word to start the day's trek. I also realized that Mandite was a vital addition to the group as well – he was a key reason why Aurora and I were still together. In the recent months, sometimes Aurora and I grew upset with each other, and if Mandite wasn't there to coax apology from me, or to smooth the creases, then we may always have an awkward boundary between the two of us. What if that happened again, and then what?
"Do you think it's my fault that Mandite can't come with us right now?" Aurora was the first to speak. I blinked, finally facing her for the first time today, looking into her magenta eyes, bubbling like a creek playing with flickering flame. Was it her fault?
"No," I assured her, "Gravity acts on its own – if Mandite had gone before you, then you may have been the one left to find us." Aurora trembled a bit, her emotions delicate at the moment.
"I would be really scared," Aurora sighed, closing her eyes, "for most of my life I traveled with you – I don't remember what its like to walk by myself anymore." I remembered when the two of us first met – both of us had been wandering alone. We've been together ever since, existing as friends. To imagine becoming a solitary nomad again... Well, I guess that will come true in the near future, whenever Mandite finally goes home. By now, I am used to this thought of the aftermath, it's just I can't believe that it would happen.
"Do you think Mandite is scared, being by himself?" Aurora asked. I felt the soft fur of her tail brush lightly against mine, giving me a moment of blank thought.
"Mandite is fine, he knows how to fend for himself," I said, speaking confidently, knowing full well that he could, "he's probably delighted with the fact he doesn't have to share cookies with us for the moment." I added, in an amused tone. Aurora laughed a little bit, but it was a perfectly possible thing he would say to himself at this moment. In fact, I had a good feeling he said that some time by now.
"Lucario," Aurora began to say, "do you remember that day when you were with Michelle?" I felt my face burn with guilt and embarrassment. Why is she mentioning this?
"Yeah," I said, feeling hesitant.
"How did you meet her?" Aurora asked, merely sounding curious, "And why did she come back with you?" I was feeling a little uncomfortable now, wondering how I should answer these questions.
"I sort of bumped into her, I guess," I said, using a paw to rub the back of my neck, "and then she wanted to know who was my so-called trainer, so I showed her." Aurora nodded, thinking. I stared off to look at the sky, watching the sun float over the horizon, feeling I've answered that question fairly enough. The biggest thing nagging me right now was why would she ask those questions?
"Aurora," I asked, "why did you ask me that?" The female lucario lowered her eyes, looking extremely troubled and dismayed by some internal feeling.
"You told me that you loved someone a long time ago, right?" I suddenly remembered staring at the moon and listening to water trickle down a fountain, trying my best not to look at Aurora.
"Yes," I said, cautiously. Aurora sighed again, before continuing,
"Well, I wanted to make sure you weren't cheating on that female." Cheating sounded like a term Mandite would say. I knew that Mandite had sometimes claimed I was cheating while we were playing chess – but in that case, it meant that I was playing against the rules. I would never cheat that way, because Mandite would win either way. But in this context, I had no clue.
"What do you mean, 'cheating'?" I asked her. At that point, Aurora seemed to be extremely upset.
"It means that when someone claims to love their partner, and then turns around and says the same thing to another." Aurora stated. I frowned – what happened to Aurora to make her so sad?
"Being cheated on hurts, so don't cheat," she continued. Suddenly, I realized the reason why she was so upset. I reached out and rested my paw gently on her shoulder, feeling every shake of Aurora's body.
"Zhoke cheated on you, didn't he?" I asked her. Instead of bursting out crying like I expected her to, she just quietly spoke in a somber voice.
"I went to visit him the night before we left the city to talk to him about me leaving. When I knocked on the door where he and his trainer were staying, no one came. So, I peeked in the window." Aurora stopped, becoming silent. I didn't need her to finish the story – I could already guess that Zhoke was with another female.
"I didn't mention anything about it, though," Aurora went on, "I thought he would apologize for it, knowing that he did something wrong. He didn't say anything, though." This comment made me want to fly all the way back to Zhoke and teach him a thing or two. Aurora deserved to have a completely faithful lover, not some addled git. But, instead of ranting about that, I decided I would extend a different option.
"If Zhoke cheated on you," I said, "why don't you just leave him and find someone else?" Aurora only sighed heavily.
"But there is no one else," she replied quietly. Those words hit me hard in the chest. Here she was, saying that there was no one else for her, and yet I am sitting next to her. All this time, I was beginning to hop, just a little bit, that Aurora would begin to favor me. I guess not. I stood up abruptly, to Aurora's surprise.
"We wasted enough time here," my voice sounding rather choked, "Mandite said we have to keep moving." I turned away from her, the wounds inflicted on my heart reopening and pouring out my sorrow and vain love.
~*~
I was becoming extremely worried.
It's not because my sleeping patterns had been greatly disrupted, and not because I wasn't eating enough. It was definitely not because we were now in a thick, dark, forest that could have Bruno hiding in it, nor it was the thorn stuck in a pad on my foot. It wasn't because my heart hurts so much from heartbreak. It wasn't because I haven't been drinking much water either. It wasn't because I was ill.
It has been three weeks. And no Mandite.
"Lucario," I heard Aurora plead to me for the umpteenth time, "you have to eat." I only stared at the berry she had dropped in my paws, thinking deeply.
"You realize it has been three weeks already, don't you?" I asked her. Aurora sighed impatiently.
"Yes," she exclaimed, "but you have to eat!" I thought otherwise.
"I need to know where he is," I said, wincing from the pain in my foot as I stood up, "I want to see if he's okay." Three weeks seemed more than plenty enough time to cover the space in between us from the beginning. To my surprise, Aurora firmly grabbed my arms and pushed me down back onto the fallen log I was previously sitting on.
"Aurora," I complained, "I'm serious – I have to-"
"You are not going anywhere until you are back to normal," she said in a sharp tone, "that means you've eaten enough, drank enough, slept enough, and stopped acting like a lunatic."
"But I'm not hungry, thirsty, or tired," I argued, being perfectly honest to her.
"Lucario, you've got to snap out of it!" Aurora shook me, desperation in her voice, "I don't know what's wrong with you but you've got to get better! And doing this is not going to help!" I watched her, still agitated with the fact that Mandite was still gone.
"Aurora," I said firmly, "I'm fine, I'm all right – it's just been a really long time." Aurora sighed and sat down next to me, shaking her head.
"I know Lucario, I know," Aurora said, "I'm worried too – for you and Mandite."
"I told you I'm fine," I repeated.
"No you're not," Aurora retorted, "But I promise that if you will just stay put and recover, then we can go back and look for Mandite." For the first time since three weeks ago, I really looked at her. Her ears were pulled back, and her eyes were pleading with me. And I realized I haven't exactly taken care of myself ever since three weeks ago, unintentionally. I guess I just got fed up with the whole vanity of my love, and didn't really care too much about my appearance. I must look extremely bedraggled, and disgusting. I gave a long sigh, and all the hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and aching rushed back to me in one, great wave. What a mess I have caused for myself...
"All right," I finally agreed, "just for a day, though."
"Two days," Aurora said.
"Okay, two days," I said, wearily. I took the berry that Aurora had given me earlier and snapped it up in three bites. It was sweet, and thirst quenching. Without a word, Aurora handed me another one, and I ate that too.
"Thank you," I said gratefully. Aurora only smiled sadly.
"You should get some sleep, too." She suggested, and I nodded. So, she helped up and together we sought out a decent place for me to rest and sleep. Luckily for me and my injured foot, we found one soon enough. As I stood and watched Aurora pile up leaves to form a nest like shape, I began to feel ashamed for my behavior. What kind of friend was I being? I became more like a nuisance over the past few weeks than a leader, acting like a whiny child and a pokemon with no common sense whatsoever. That disgusted me greatly.
"I'm sorry," I said out loud to Aurora. She stopped piling leaves and looked at me over her shoulder with a questioning expression.
"For what?" she asked, sounding puzzled.
"For being a nuisance and a lunatic," I answered, my knees becoming weak from fatigue. Aurora snorted, and helped into the nest she made for me. Surprisingly, despite the wickedly shaped leaves that made it, it was very comfortable – but I guess I was so tired I could sleep in fire and say it was comfortable.
"You put yourself with too much responsibility," Aurora said, sitting down next to me, brushing a stray leaf from my ear, "you worry too much – that's you're problem."
"Hmm," I answered, too tired to think of any retort. Maybe she was right. My eyes followed her movement as she crawled over to my foot – the one that had the thorn in it. The expression on her face told me that it didn't look at all pretty.
"That's definitely infected," she grimaced, gently holding up my foot.
"Well, what are you going to do with it?" I asked. Aurora shrugged.
"I'm no expert," she said, putting my foot down slowly, "let's just hope we find Mandite soon." I smiled, knowing that Mandite would know how to deal with it. For now, it remained as a sting in my foot. Aurora had walked back to sit next to me, where she watched over me. Meanwhile, I was contemplating what to do with my feelings for her. She had proved herself that she would not go for anyone else except for Zhoke, including me. How long should I put up with this vain love? How can I get rid of it?
"How come you're not asleep yet?" Aurora's voice interrupted my thoughts, "I thought you were really tired."
"Ah... I am really tired," I grinned sheepishly, "but I guess I was worrying again." In response, she rolled her eyes, propping her chin with a paw with a smile.
"Honestly Lucario, what am I going to do with you?" she said to herself, and laughed. Deciding that I could worry about all things later, I allowed the exhaustion of three weeks take over, sleep enfolding me in gentle arms.
~*~
Just as promised, we were backtracking in the search for Mandite two days later. Everything, asides my foot, was refreshed, thanks to Aurora. It made me feel much more optimistic.
Even though we were heading in directions that went against my homing instinct, I didn't feel a pull that wrenched my soul. Instead, I felt drawn towards a different source. I don't ever remember experiencing this before, except for the time I had gotten separated from my father in the ocean while fishing. I found him soon enough, and then we caught a lot of finneons for dinner. Other than that, I can't remember any time else.
At least Cresselia had given me an answer for these strange skills – I suppose my ancestor's instinct that lead him to Ash's pikachu was guiding me to my chosen target, Mandite. And this new experience gave me a possible reason why Sir Aaron's lucario never went home again – the instinct to find a living thing overpowered the instinct that drew one towards home. I followed this new force where it took me, and I soon grew a firm trust in it's power. However, Aurora seemed to be hesitant about it.
"You have to be careful where you step, Lucario," she said, as I ran into a tree for the second time. I suppose that this instinct didn't lead me in a navigable path – it just lead me in a straight line, right through whatever was in front. However, the pull was so overwhelming, that it was hard to move from the line of direction without feeling like I was about to spill out the contents of my stomach. It's amazing how Sir Aaron's lucario was able to put up with this feeling and safely guide Ash the pokemon trainer to his pikachu without knocking himself senseless with trees. This instinct... It felt more like a curse now than a gift. But Aurora doesn't understand why I am suddenly becoming a clumsy fool – I haven't told her my relationship to Sir Aaron's lucario yet.
I decided to deal with this by only evading the obstacle at the last second before I could make contact, so I wouldn't have to feel sick for very long. If it was something I could climb over, I would climb over it. However, the biggest nuisance of all were the vines that hung down from the trees and sprawled everywhere on the forest floor. I sometimes got entangled in their webs of terror. Growling, I wriggled through a network of them, and ran forward. Avoiding several crashes with trees, I soon veered away from the direction Aurora was going.
"Lucario, where are you going?!" Aurora cried out, who had been running to catch up to me. A low hanging vine that I previously didn't see caught my shins and I fell onto my stomach painfully. Darn those vines...
"I know Mandite is in this direction," I said, groaning as I stood up, "I can feel it." Aurora raised her eyebrows, coming to a complete stop.
"That's good to know Lucario, but it looks safer over here." That made me think.
"What do you mean, 'safer'?" I asked.
"I have a bad feeling about going over there, Lucario," Aurora warned, "I think we should go this way." She indicated the direction she had been following. At that moment, there was an internal conflict within me; I wanted to go with Aurora, because I didn't want her to think I was being crazy again – and then I wanted to keep moving forward in my direction, because I knew Mandite is going to be there. The instinct urged me to move forward, propelling my feet.
"Lucario, get back here!" Aurora cried, running after me, "Don't go over there!" Up ahead, I saw only thick trees – what could be so dangerous?
Suddenly, I felt the floor drop out from under me, and the pull of gravity jerking my instinct out of control. With a feeling of general horror and stupidity, I realized I had just ran off a cliff that overlooked a great canyon. It sounds funny in a different perspective, but I was terrified as I felt my body begin free fall. Oh dear... Giratina condemn me for my stupidity.
A sudden jolt that yanked my stomach, my neck, my arms, my legs, and muzzle abruptly ended that fall. Then, my body twisted painfully as I sunk lower, suspended by some magical rope that was digging painfully into my skin all over my body. Shocked, frightened, relieved, and unsure of what happened, I tried to shift my head to look up, but then something dug painfully deep into my arm, preventing me from doing so. It wasn't before long I took a deep sniff, and in came the smell of vegetation; these magical ropes that stopped my free fall to death were the very vines I had despised earlier. I would be very grateful for them, only if that it didn't tangle me in their netting so uncomfortably and didn't bite so deeply. My head was twisted to the side and pulled upwards by the vine that hung around my jaw. The vines around my arms and legs had pulled them together so that each paw touched each other and suspended over my head, as my body was twisted halfway around at the midpoint. Even worse, as I tried to move to a position that didn't put quite as much stress on my body, the vines that trapped me cut into my skin. In fact, every tiny movement, such as breathing, would trigger the ropes to sink in a little deeper. I was beginning to smell the first drops of my blood.
"Lucario!" It was Aurora's voice, crying out to me. I could try to answer back, so she would know that I was still alive, but I would hurt myself in doing so. My eyes were watering from the intense, sharp pain from my tight position.
"Lucario!" She had to know I was alive.
"Auro-AAHHR!" I cried out in pain, knowing for sure that the vines now had itself wedged in my muscle. Droplets of dark liquid hit my nose, and the tangy smell of blood filled my senses with fear.
"Lucario," her voice called to me again, "I'm coming down there!" What? She's going to kill herself if she tried! But, of course, if I attempted to tell her to stay up there where she was safe, these vines would most likely slice to my bone. So, I helplessly dangled, the wind slowly rocking me back and forth.
It wasn't before long when I caught a glimpse of Aurora, with a vine tied around her waist, slowly lowering herself down bit by bit by holding onto the lifeline tightly, loosening a coil to add more length. Although she hung awkwardly, at least she knew what she was doing. When she had reached my level, Aurora took the coil she held in her paws and knotted it tightly with the vine that suspended her so she didn't have to keep holding it to prevent herself from falling. It was a remarkable feat on her part, stunning me. Since when has she learned to do that?
Aurora was hanging only a few feet from me, so she didn't have to swing far to reach me. Keeping a paw holding her lifeline for balance, the spike on her free paw molded over into long, metallic claws. Then, she swung over, and with careful precision, she sliced the bindings under my chin. With a relieving sensation, my head was free to move about, although it basically hung from my body, pulled down my gravity. The blood from the toes were beginning to rush down to my head, giving me a headache.
"Are you okay?" Aurora asked, scrutinizing the web that bound me for any more vines that she can lacerate without causing me to fall. Was I okay? The wounds all over my body from the vines slicing into me were throbbing, and my head pounded with the beat of my heart. Far from it.
"Does it look like it?" I gasped. Closing my eyes to seal back some of the pressure, Aurora cut through the vine that held a leg and an arm. In no time at all, those too were dangling with my head. Opening my eyes again, I got a closer look at the damage the vines - my saving grace that had backfired on me – had done. I could see a large gash of red that wound all around my arm, cutting so deep I could see some of my flesh. Little rivulets of crimson rain flowed down, punctuating my pain. The whole sight of it made me feel sick, churning my insides uncomfortably. Aurora, too, was staring at it, grimacing.
"So," I said, my voice a little raspy, "are we going to hang here until some saving comes around?"
"MEW!" Something behind me mewled, calling my attention. Aurora in front of me froze, her expression etched with awe. Apparently, someone did come.
"MEW!" it mewled again, and then, as she flew over to hover next to my head, I got a good look at my guardian for the first time. I never seen Mew before, even though she had been watching over me. And now, there she was. The delicate pink body of the Legendary floated effortlessly before me, staring at me with round, baby blue eyes.
[Hello, Lucario,] a childish, female voice echoed in my head, [you've gotten yourself into quite a predicament.] Mew held her tiny paws to her muzzle, making a giggling sound, her tail flicking about in pleasure. However, I didn't find anything funny.
"Could you help me and Aurora?" I pleaded, feeling the strain the pressure in my head sucking my consciousness away. Mew studied me with her large, blue eyes, not quite laughing anymore.
"Mew..." she said, glancing up at Aurora and then at me. Without another sound, she backed away from us, her body suddenly lighting up bright white. The light, in the shape of Mew, began to transform into a much larger creature. The light gave way to a magnificent, feathered pokemon, colored a soft beige with fine, gold and red streaming plumes flowing from her dignified head. In one, great flap, the pokemon climbed higher into the sky.
"PIDGEOT!" Mew cried out, flying by with her great beak snagging the vines that hung the two of us, Aurora and I. The bindings immediately snapped, and with a flip of her head, Mew pulled us onto her feathered back, safe and sound. I held on to the back, clutching some feather tufts to keep balance as Mew's wings struck the air with powerful strokes. Aurora, who had landed behind me, wrapped her arms around my waist, leaning her head against my back. This gentle touch was followed by the feeling of something warm and wet. Glancing back to look at Aurora, I saw that her beautiful eyes were closed tight, tears running along the serene line of her lids, becoming diamonds as they caught the light from the sun. The sight of her crying silently like this, remaining just as breathtaking as any other time I have seen her, touched my heart. Whether or not she was crying for me, that would be up to her for decision – I just thought it was nice that she held to me for comfort. I turned my gaze forward again, feeling the blood leak out from my wounds and seep into my blue fur. Flying high over the forest, over the land, my heart plucked a string filled with melancholy tone. It was great that I felt so free, high above the world and cares with Aurora, but where was Mandite?
"YIPEE-KI-YAY!!!!!" I nearly fell off of Mew from shock, as a low thrumming sound of song powered by wings drew into hearing range. From the corner of my eye, something green shot past us, making crazy loop-de-loops in the air before us. The green blur shot back around us one more time before slowing down to our pace, revealing a flygon, and a little blue warrior holding his backpack gleefully.
"Honestly Lucario," Mandite scolded, glancing up and down my body, "I trusted leaving you to take care of yourself and I now find you like this! The nerve..." Despite his reprimands about my scars, I was extremely pleased to see him. More than pleased – joyful. Aurora had lifted her head to smile at Mandite.
"Where have you been?" Aurora asked him, "We got so worried about you!"
"I should have been more worried about you guys," he replied, gesturing to my scars again, "See what happens when I'm not around?" We all chuckled.
"But seriously, where have you been all this time?" Aurora asked him again, and Mandite only shrugged.
"Here and there," he replied nonchalantly, "I was actually looking for you guys, until Tyyakkuvh here gave me a lift." He patted the flygon's back appreciatively, while the two of us stared at him, confused.
"You were looking for us?" I asked, "We were looking for you!" Mandite shook his head, closing his jade green eyes.
"I told you guys to keep moving forward," he said firmly, "I probably passed you guys about ten times, now that I think about it."
"But how?" I asked, not believing that he could pass us ten times without us even noticing him at all. Mandite grinned sheepishly, and glanced upwards, humming for a bit.
"I walk really fast when I eat cookies," he said, a little guiltily. As expected, he had taken advantage of our absence to eat whatever remained of the fortune cookie stash. But I didn't even glare at him – I could only roll my eyes and chuckle to myself, resisting the stinging of each scar across my body.
"Hey, did you know we're flying over Dialga's Canyon?" Mandite piped up, and immediately we looked down to see for ourselves. Below us was a deep canyon, covered by trees, that didn't resemble anything at all except for a hole in the ground.
"Well, how could you tell if you never saw Dialga in your life?" I asked, knowing perfectly well he hadn't. Mandite, about to say something back, stopped with his mouth open, closed it, and tapped the side of his face, frowning.
"Good point," he admitted, "but that looks like a head over there." Mandite seemed to point directly at the center of the canyon.
[It sure is!] Mew quipped gleefully through telepathy, broadcasting it so that everyone could hear it, [It was the biggest face-plant in all of Sinnoh history!] Mandite didn't seem to be so surprised when Mew spoke – instead he looked very amused with that fact. Tyyakkuvh's wings thrummed a lower pitch, as he began to descend, tipping his body downward.
"I'm dropping you over there," Tyyakkuvh spoke to Mandite in his grainy tone, and Mandite nodded.
"Follow them, Mew," I said. Mew, making no comment, veered to the side with a tilt of her wings and tipped down, following Tyyakkuvh down into a sparsely covered terrain. It didn't take us long to reach ground level, where Mew slowly lowered herself by beating her powerful wings before her talons touched the ground. Tyyakkuvh slid from the air and landed on his feet. Hopping off from his back, Mandite thanked the flygon, and with a thrum of his wings, Tyyakkuvh was off. I slid off from Mew's back, and thankfully my legs could support my weight, despite its scars. In fact, my legs were merely bruised – it was just my arms that were as bad as I thought. Once Aurora had gotten off, Mew once again transformed into a figure of light, reshaping herself into the more familiar form of a starly. Cheeping a last goodbye, Mew flew off into the distance, her silhouette disappearing from view.
"Now, let's address those wounds, shall we?" Mandite said, eying my arms. Pointing to one of the slabs of rocks that were scattered across this area of forest, he began to sift through his backpack for medical equipment.
"Go on, sit on it." He said, not looking up from his rummaging. I sat down, and continued to watch him. Aurora took a seat next to me.
"You know he has an infection on his left foot," Aurora informed Mandite.
"I could tell," he said, not seeming to pay attention, "I'm dealing with that first." Finally, Mandite dragged his bag over so that it rested next to my foot.
"Now, let's take a look," he said, lifting up my foot to investigate. The sudden, strangled look on his face worried me.
"Is it bad?" I asked, and Mandite looked up at me, his face screwed.
"It's disgusting," he said, looking like he was ready to spill the contents of his lunch. Instead, Mandite reached into his backpack and pulled out a thin, long, metallic needle. Holding it, he stared at the infection, thinking of how to pull out the thorn.
"Tell me – how did this happen?" he asked, still staring.
"Lucario stepped on some plant and a thorn got stuck in his foot," Aurora supplied the answer. Mandite drew in his breath, holding up his needle; looking at it made feel a little nervous, but the wounds on my arms nulled the pain in my foot, so this couldn't be that bad.
"Now I want you to face me and answer some questions," Mandite said, looking up at me while held my foot. I glanced down.
"No! Look at me," he commanded. I did, staring at his green eyes.
"Now," the little warrior said, "how do you put a giraffe in a refrigerator?"
"What's a giraffe?" I asked, "And refrigerator?" Mandite sighed.
"A refrigerator is something with a door, all right?" he explained.
"But what's a giraffe?"
"It doesn't matter," Mandite said, still looking at me, "now answer my question." I was beginning to wonder when will Mandite begin working on my foot.
"Why would you put a giraffe in a refrigerator?" I asked, still not knowing why Mandite was asking such an irrelevant question. Mandite only sighed and held up something placed in tissue paper. I received it, and examined the green and purple thorn that lay inside it. Mandite began to apply some kind of cream to my foot.
"What's this for?" I asked him, holding out the thorn. Mandite looked up, still applying the cream.
"It's the thing stuck in your foot, dummy," he said bluntly, "I took it out while you were busy asking what was a giraffe." So Mandite was distracting me while he pulled the thorn from my foot. I didn't even notice – that was clever of him. Mandite returned the bottle of cream back into his bag and pulled out some gauze – the kind that he had used when Aurora dislocated her foot. With amazing precision and deftness, Mandite whirled the roll of gauze around my foot, tore it with his hands before tying it tight knot. Gingerly, I lifted my foot to admire the treatment, as Mandite sought out something to treat my other wounds. First, Mandite examined my arms, the ones that were damaged the most, prodding them gently and wrapping cloths loosely over the deeper spots. He went back to his backpack, taking out the needle and cleaning it with a strong smelling liquid.
"Aurora," Mandite asked, "can you do me a favor?" At the moment, Aurora had been adjusting the cloths on my arms so that cleaner patches of it could soak up more blood. She looked up, holding my shoulders.
"I need you to knock him out for me," he said, casually, as if there was nothing wrong, "I don't want him to struggle, and I need his heart rate to be slow." This didn't sound good at all, and I fidgeted, becoming nervous. Aurora squeezed my arm comfortingly.
"Now tell me, Lucario," Mandite said, in a strange, pleasant voice, "how did all this happen?" He gestured to the gashes that wound like curls of smoke across my body. I blushed, thinking about the earlier incident that lead me to this predicament.
"Well..." I said, embarrassed greatly, "I... I suppose I fell off a cliff."
"You mean you ran off a cliff," Aurora muttered. I felt my face burn, as Mandite remained silent – a second before he burst out laughing, his body shaking hard.
"Wow," he said between chuckles, "you still ran of the cliff EVEN when Dhenalix warned you about it! And then Aurora probably warned you, too – what were you thinking?" Humiliated, I said nothing, my face extremely hot, and my mind feeling very dumb indeed. Mandite allowed himself to finish his last sighs and bursts of laughter, before he asked me,
"Then what happened?"
"There were some vines that hung from the cliff," I said, "they caught me, but left these scars." I gestured to my arms with a jerk of my head. Mandite stared at the reddening cloths, tapping the side of his face with a "hmm..." expression.
"Knock him out now," Mandite said, turning away from us. Aurora and I began to protest.
"It won't hurt when you're unconscious, I promise you that, Lucario." Mandite assured me, and I trusted that, but exactly how was I going to be knocked out? I opened my mouth, when, without warning, Mandite swung around, his arms in a throwing motion. Before I could react at all, I felt something hard and small smack in the middle of my forehead. That was the last thing I felt before everything went dark.
... Mehr.... Bad.... ^^;