I shut my eyes, waiting for the fire to end me, set me ablaze on fire and reduce me to nothing but ashes to be blown away in the after wind once everything died down. I felt the heat of the fire all around me now, licking its deadly flames around my body. I was afraid, but hoped it would all end in a matter of minutes.

But for some odd reason, the flames didn't feel that hot to me. In fact, it felt like I was at level with the heat. I struggled to open my eyes, the unbearable heat making it difficult to do so. With force, my eyes opened, glancing about the entire area.

I had to blink as sparks of fire flew past in front of me. I rubbed my eyes, the dry heat irritating them as the moisture dried out. The area around me, once dark and filled with huge trees, was now light with trees ablaze.

I heard the sound of a crack and I glanced up in time to see something very large land in front of me. This caused a flurry of fire sparks to fly everywhere, including at me. I made the mistake of panicking and rolling, which shot more pain up my body thanks to my foot.

I yelped and cried as I lied limp again. I was breathing rather heavily, the smoke badly burning my lungs. I felt like my heart was about to go out at any second. I slowly sat up, trying so hard as to not agitate my foot. Somehow, through luck, I managed to sit up right, my feet out in front of me.

I looked around the blazing forest, wondering which way to go. I did remember that the fire engulfed me from behind, so I would have to go in the direction the fire came from. Joy for me, especially when I had nothing to support my foot. The best thing I could do was slowly crawl my way out, but that would take a long while to do so.

I sighed, knowing that I didn't have any other option. So I slowly turned onto my stomach, trying to keep my aching foot in the air without trying to agitate it much, to which it was.

With a deep breath, I quickly turned over, gently placing my foot back on the ground. Again the pain was excruciating. At least I was facing the way I had wanted to go. Using my paws, I began dragging myself forward, dragging my broken foot behind, unable to move it, let alone twitch it.

There were times I had to stop to pant and others to avoid being killed instantly by burning limbs falling from the trees. The night seemed to drag on forever as I continued to slowly drag myself forward, my body just wanting to collapse and never get up again.

However, my determination to live seemed to keep me from dropping dead. I felt my heart pound with that kind of determination and it strengthened me to keep on going. I heard the sounds of limbs cracking and dropping down upon the ground and felt the sparks of fire spray outwards as they fell.

Once, a tree actually fell down an inch from my face. I was scorched a bit by the sparks of fire and I yelped, letting my body fall to the ground as I clutched my face in pain. The burns were excruciating and I rolled around, keeping my broken foot in the air as I did so.

The pain stopped eventually, but I could feel that my eyes were beginning to puff out just a bit, almost like they were swelling. It made seeing just a bit difficult for me, but I was still somehow able to see.

The burning tree was still lying in front of me, slowly turning to ash. It would take a while for it to be completely diminished, and I didn't feel like staying here for that long. So keeping my foot in the air, I slowly rolled to my left, making my way to one end of the tree.

I stopped once the burning tree no longer lay in front of me and I resumed my dragging. My muscles were worn and aching. I was utterly exhausted and more than that, thirsty. Forever seemed to go by as I went on, not stopping once for a rest.

The more I went on, however, the more I noticed that the flames were starting to die down some. I took this to be a sign that I was nearing the edge of the forest. It was in that moment suddenly that I began hearing noises.

I stopped and listened, straining to hear the sound. I couldn't tell what it was exactly, so I began dragging myself closer to the sound, it getting louder and louder as I drew nearer.

Then, suddenly, I stopped, for I saw something fly past several feet away. I slowed myself down some, not wanting to get in the way if whatever it was that was going on.

"Had enough yet?" I heard someone ask.

I couldn't hear anything else, just the sounds again that I heard. A lot more slowly than I was going, I made my way to the area I saw the thing fly past at, stopping several inches from it, also near a dried up shrub.

I squinted my eyes to get a good look at the figures that were running around and realized that they were in a battle. I wasn't even sure if they knew that the forest was on fire, but I remained where I was and watched, waiting to see what would happen next.

I watched as one of the beings suddenly slammed into the other, sending it flying back in the opposite direction I had seen it fly by the first time. It skidded to a stop several feet away from me and instantly realized what it was.

I was looking straight at a huge bug with a very large horn on its head. I was looking at none other than a Heracross. I noticed that the Heracross had major burn wounds on him. He struggled to get up, his body shaking. He fell down once, but got back up quickly. From the looks of things, he seemed like he was ready to collapse any moment due to exhaustion.

"Damn," I heard him muttered. "I've never met a pokemon as strong as him before."

I turned my head, seeing the other pokemon walking towards the Heracross. The pokemon, as I saw as it came into view, was an orange turtle with a glowing shell on its back. I never saw this kind of species of pokemon before, but from the looks of things, I could tell that it was a fire type.

"Admit defeat, Heracross," the fire type said. "And I'll make your death as quick as possible."

"I'll never stop fighting," the Heracross said. "I am the protector of this forest, keeping troublemakers like you out from it."

"Then so be it," the fire type said. "Your death will now be slow and agonizing. You would only wish to have died quickly with lesser pain than I'm about to inflict on you."

"Damn Torkoal," the Heracross said.

The name got stuck in my head as I watched the two argue at each other. This was the first time ever to see one up this close. From all the fighting the Heracross was doing against him, it dawned on me that this Torkoal might have been the one to start the forest fire, and all he might have been trying to do was pass on through until he got into a fight with the Heracross.

I looked around the forest, seeing the damage done to it and wondered if the two even realized that the place was on fire. I knew I was in a worse condition than the Heracross, but if they hadn't realized that the forest was set ablaze, I should at least let them know that. I couldn't just leave the forest to be burned down, though it may have been already too late.

I began scooting forward towards the Torkoal who was sucking in a deep breath. The Heracross must have seen me nearing the Torkoa, because I heard his confused reaction.

"What the-!?" he said.

I stopped and stared at him before staring at the Torkoal who turned his head towards me and unleashed a stream of fire at me.