Merry Christmas to you all!
Or if you're a Jew like me Happy late Hanukkah!
Or Happy Kwanzaa!
Or if you're none of the above Happy Holidays!
Or Happy There's Almost Enough Snow to Cover the Ground! (Here in IL)
Or Happy Winter!
Or Happy December!
Or Happy Something!
Anyway, as a very late Hanukkah (DARNIT GOOGLE DOCS IT'S MY HOLIDAY I'LL SPELL IT THE WAY I WANT) gift/ Christmas gift (If that's so then you have to wait until tomorrow to open it!) or as a Kwanzaa gift (early or late? Someone please tell me, I have no idea) or whatever, here's the next chapter!
P.S., It seems I have been misspelling Carry as Carrie and Team Sound as Team Song and Craeg as Craig...Please ignore that xD Sorry
This chapter has a strong amount of drama in it and we learn a whole lot about Wylie and Austin.
Don't miss this, there's some pretty important stuff in here about the characters!
ENJOY!
Chapter Sixteen
TheUmbreon
I immediately recognized the place once we arrived on the cliff. "Sharpedo bluff?" I wondered.
"Yes," Wylie said.
Austin, tired out, sat down as Wylie searched the ground for something. Austin placed a hand on the ground (Maybe it helped him to sense things when he was so tired?) and said, "Left." Wylie moved a little and then, smiling a little as he found something, pushed the mud around until a gray plate could be seen. He moved the piece of stone, revealing a ladder.
"Down there?" Carry asked doubtfully.
Wylie confirmed, "Down there." He went first, quickly lowering himself down into the earth. A few moments later the click of a lightswitch was heard and light could be seen emanating from the hole. "Come on," Wylie called.
Austin managed to stand up and walk over. He slowly climbed down the ladder.
I followed next, the rest of my team soon after.
The room we entered was wide and cozy with wooden floors and walls, like a cabin. There was a fireplace in the corner, too, which I liked. There were a few doors, one which Wylie appeared from with bandages and a medical kit.
"Welcome," Wylie said, smiling, "to our old home." He pointed out a room for us and told us which one was his and Austin's. "I'm going to go fix up Austin, but you guys can head to bed if you'd like."
We four gladly did so.
TheBuizel
I walked into Austin's room, my arms full of medical supplies. "Hey," I said to Austin as I entered, closing the door behind me with my foot.
"Hey," he answered, his voice very weak, as I walked over. He was shivering on his straw bed. Pain? Tension? Cold? Probably a mix of them all.
I sat on my knees beside him, setting everything down in an orderly fashion. I examined the wound.
It was red and swollen and very wide. Blood leaked out, and he was very pale, a sign of the effect losing this much blood had on his body. Austin sounded weak, and looked it as well.
"I'm going to have to give you stiches," I told my friend. "So I'm going to knock you out."
"No, it's alright-" he began.
I cut him off. "Austin, you've taken a lot of pain today. You don't need anymore," I reminded him, my voice calm and gentle. Before he could protest, I placed a hand over his eyes and used sleep powder, a strange move for a buizel.
I opened the kit and took out what I needed to stitch my friend together again. "All the king's blitzle and all the king's friends could definitely put eggsecutor back together again," I whispered. Physically, anyway, I thought. As I worked, I doubly reinforced each stitch. Austin had a tendency to rip them out accidentally. After I sewed him up, I cleaned and then bandaged the wound.
When I was finished, I stood up and stretched a moment, then gathered my supplies and walked back into the kitchen to put them away. I then went back into the room and removed the bloody straw and then once more returned there with a blanket as he was still shivering. I gently laid it on him and walked out.
I checked on Team Sound. Heather was curled into a ball, her breath gracefully gentle. Carry, on the other paw, was lying on her back with her legs wrapped around her. Her quiet snoring told me of her sleep. Jared was on his stomach, his arms on his pillow. Dark, in the far corner of the room, was curled like Heather and had his face turned to the wall, but his breaths were fast. Was the cause a nightmare, or still being awake?
"Dark?" I called softly from the doorway.
Dark jumped, scrambling to face me. "Oh, it's you," the umbreon realized, calming down.
"Sorry to scare you. Are you alright?" I wondered. I already knew the answer, but curious as to if he'd admit it.
He sighed and said, "No, not really. Over the course of the last month I've been unconscious for three weeks, I found out my mother is dead and my sister and father were kidnapped, my friend has almost died, and the weight of the world is sitting on my shoulders."
"That would do it," I said. "Can I come in?"
"Better I come out," Dark said, standing and walking over. "Don't want to wake everyone. Especially the Carry monster."
I smiled at his joke. I held the door for him, and he nodded his thanks as he walked out of the room. I closed the door and suggested we sit outside. Dark agreed, and we climbed back up to the surface.
Sitting out there on sharpedo bluff was great. The stars were bright holes in the blissfully dark blanket that was surrounding our world, the moon its beautiful design.
"You know, Dark, we're here to help you," I told him as he stared up.
"I don't want to risk any of you getting hurt," Dark said. "Anyone else, I mean."
"Well, that kind of stinks," I told him honestly, " because Austin is already in too deep as he's the other Celebi's chosen. I'm actually a Uxie's chosen, so I'm stuck. Carry was sent here to be your guardian. Heather and Jared... they're your true friends. They wouldn't abandon you no matter what the crisis."
"I don't need a guardian, they don't appear to have you on their wanted's list, and I'm sure I can slip away from Heather and Jared," Dark countered.
I laughed. "Oh, Dark, yes you do. Everyone needs a guardian."
"What about you? You held so strong today. Barely shedded a tear through the whole thing," Dark argued. "And when Skun scratched you up, you lost a ton of blood, but you still lived through it."
"Dark, I've had years of practice," I told him. "Like yours my life has been one catastrophic event after another."
"You know my life story, so what's yours?" Dark asked me.
I took a deep breath. "You really want to hear it?"
"Yeah," Dark said.
"Well... I was always as good at fighting as my brother was, even though he's five years older. He hated that like nothing else, except how he hated me. In fact, he told me once that 'hate' wasn't a strong enough word," I began. "I didn't like him too terribly much either, though. He always beat on me and Austin and our friend Laek."
"How long have you known Austin?" Dark wondered.
"Since I was born, you could say," I told him. "Our mothers were best friends and because they were in labor at the same time they managed to get into the same hospital room."
"You share a birthday?" Dark asked.
"Yes. We've been as close as you'd think brothers would be," I confirmed, then continued. "My brother truly showed me his hatred when I was ten. He killed my mother."
"What?" Dark demanded. "He killed his own mother?"
"She loved us equally, and he couldn't stand that. He needed to be constantly better than me at everything," I explained. "When my dad found out he killed him, too. Both of them right in front of me. I remember him telling me it was a warning.
"The next day, when I hid behind Austin and Laek when my brother came over, Austin stood up to him and he fought him. I don't know if you've ever noticed a slight scar over his right eye, but that was the deepest cut he got. Thank goodness he was such a greater fighter, even back then."
"At this point in time, my mother was far before not friends with theirs anymore. Austin's parents abused him, and Laek's ignored him. We decided it was time to go. We ended up here, actually. This is where we lived until we became a rescue team."
"What happened to Laek?" Dark asked me.
"He was kidnapped," I told him, staring up at the pure-white moon. "And that brings us to a close."
"I'm sorry," Dark said quietly.
"You shouldn't be. You've done nothing wrong, and at least I don't have to relive every single memory, good and especially bad," I told him.
We were silent for awhile before Dark asked, "Do you ever wish you were someone else?"
"No, I wouldn't wish this destiny upon anyone else," I told him honestly. "But I wish you and Austin and everyone else involved in this mess was someone else. Someone who consciously and readily chose this path and truly knew what it would mean. Not that Austin and I didn't know what we were getting into. It just wasn't really much of a choice."
Dark didn't respond. I didn't blame him.
Pretty strong crud, huh? Especially since it's the holiday season.
OH, MY GAWD!
I just had a splendid idea.
What if Dark and friends met Austin and friends for a holiday thing?
That would be interesting...