Awww yeah! Look out people cause I am BACK! I want to thank everyone for being so awesome and patient with me, and this time I promise I'm going to try and update this story more often now that I have a plan going.
The thing is, I was caught in a severe writer's block thanks to school and other work, but I'm finally getting back into this.
Thank you those who gave me advice on what I should do next in the story and the like, especially EmeraldDragon1, BlueSnapDragon, and XxADVENTURE TIMEx for the ideas and urging me to continue. You all rock!
Chapter 13: Bonding
The next morning Eve woke with a start. Something was off.
Instinctually she curled her tail and noticed what was wrong. The baby Ralts wasn't there!
For a moment she went into a full panic, leaping up and looking around frantically for the baby. After she had succeeded in nearly tearing the blanket bed apart, she heard a loud screeching giggle come from the front of the tower.
Horrified, she ran as fast as she could to the source of the noise, nearly slipping off the stone steps of the tower.
Once she reached the grass, she was relieved to see Haunter playing with the shiny albino Ralts. He was floating over the baby; dangling one of his hands over her so Ralts could hang off one of his large fingers. Her tiny white nubby hands barely wrapped around his right index claw and she'd constantly slip off and fall onto the cold grass, but would giggle and grab onto his finger all over again.
It was almost as cute as when she caught him resting with the egg against his chest a few nights ago.
She continued watching as Haunter floated down and carefully picked her up in one of his claws. She was tiny enough to fit comfortable in his palm and proceeded to wiggle around a little bit. Carefully, he used his free hand to float it down and let her tug at his fingers and giggle as he brushed her stomach with their tips, tickling her.
When she let out another overexcited laugh Haunter couldn't stop from laughing too with that all familiar cackle Eve has grown up with.
The baby stopped laughing immediately and stared up at him, as if she was puzzled. He recoiled his hand from her slightly, only to be surprised when the baby suddenly let out a hearty cackle much like he had, though it was a Ralts version of his laugh.
He was a little shocked at how fast she was able to comprehend 'imitation', but he could care less and simply cackled with her.
Umbreon smiled at them both and darted her eyes towards the tombstones when she saw movement, immediately feeling protective even though Haunter could take care of himself. However, she let out a sigh of relief when she saw it was just a few grumpy looking Ghost Pokémon, annoyed at the noise they were making this morning when they were trying to sleep.
Finally, she walked towards the two and made her presence known, "It's surprising to see you up, Haunter."
He jerked in the air and looked at her like he had just been caught committing a crime. As soon as Ralts saw her she began reaching eagerly for Umbreon, making cooing noises the whole way.
Embarrassed that he had been seen being so 'cutesy' with the baby Pokémon, he gently placed her on the ground in front of Umbreon. Ralts crawled to her and hugged her front legs, happily nuzzling them.
She smiled down at the adorable Pokémon and looked back up to Haunter, who was twiddling his thumbs sheepishly, "What, what?" he asked, slightly gruff, "She woke up early and started wiggling around, so I had to keep her busy so she wouldn't wake you up."
Umbreon giggled at his sweetness and looked back down to Ralts, "At least she seems to like you. Psychic types tend not to get along with Ghost types."
He rolled his eyes sarcastically, "Oh gee, I wonder why."
After they giggled a little bit, Ralts finally let go of Umbreon and began wandering around, exploring various tombstones as much as she could by crawling. As they both kept watchful gazes on her, Umbreon hesitantly said, "Haunter, at least until she evolves into a Kirlia I think that a majority of her growing should be back in my burrow."
Haunter kept his eyes on the baby, but there was a look of disappointment in them, "Why?"
Umbreon shifted a bit, uncomfortable with the idea that she'd have to explain this, "Come on Haunter, Raltses and their evolutionary lines are empathetic emotional Pokémon, able to sense the emotions of others. No offense but do you really think a Pokémon like her is best to raise in this kind of place? We may be creatures of the nighttime, but not her."
Haunter opened his mouth and looked like he was about to argue more when he was interrupted.
"Hey!" A random voice shouted.
They both saw the tombstone she was exploring near stir slightly and a Duskskull appear from behind it, looking pissed, "Do you mind kid? I'm trying to sleep!"
The sudden appearance of the scary Ghost Pokémon made the baby yelp.
Eve and Haunter were about to spring into action when Ralts began to glow a bright blue and enveloped the small Ghost Pokémon. Before he could react she psychically threw him clear across the Graveyard, disturbing more Spirits before they grumpily went back to sleep.
They bother gawked at Ralts, amazed she had managed to do that at such a young age.
Slowly, Haunter awkwardly seemed to understand and mumbled with more depression than he meant, "I suppose you're right…"
Ralts then sat down and put her little hands to her eyes and began to cry.
Immediately Haunter and Umbreon went to her aid, Haunter picking her up and hugging her while Eve spoke in a soft tone.
While they were comforting her, a shadow began to appear near them.
Haunter was the first to sense the entity and spun around to face it. When Umbreon followed, she was surprised to see the shadow before them materialize and shape into an odd figure.
When it formed fully in front of them, Umbreon gasped. It was of course a Ghost Pokémon, but one she hadn't seen before.
It was an odd looking Pokémon that stood on two stubby legs and had matching stubby arms with three small but sharp looking claws crossed over its chest. He was missing one of his ruby red eyes, nothing but a partially closed and empty eye socket in its place. The sight made her shudder.
She wasn't disgusted; it's just that his missing right eye reminded Eve about the Nidoking that killed her mother. She somehow had a feeling that any Pokémon with a missing eye would remind her about that awful night.
Umbreon could tell he wasn't too fond of her, probably because she always spent so much time there. Strange, she knew when they were kids Haunter had mentioned something about a Pokémon who lost his eye when trying to get away from humans, but who was he again? Was it this guy?
Judging by his expression, he was a mixture between exhausted and annoyed, "Ugh, Haunter do you know what time it is? It's 8:00 am! Why are you and your friends stirring the dead at such a late hour? Need I remind you how important it is we get our rest for the big day coming up?!"
His single eye was half closed and he had a hard time focusing through this tired sight. As it was, he could barely see the two before him now.
"Aw come on Gengar…" Haunter whined while Umbreon was trying to ponder what he meant, "It's a week away! There's plenty of time to rest, and I don't think a few lost hours are going to hurt us. Besides, it was an accident. Ralts is just a baby after all."
"Ralts?" Gengar's eye widened a little bit as he tried to focus and he glanced at the sniffling baby Haunter was holding. His vision was so blurry before he hadn't even noticed her, "Ah, so that's where the psychic pulse from the tower came from."
He then cast his gaze to Haunter in a glare, "I trust that you'll keep her under control. The last thing we need is a bunch of tombstones flying everywhere."
"Don't worry about it." Haunter said, patting Ralts's back a few times, "She'll be fine. She just has to learn how control her powers."
The albino baby turned a little bit to see the grown Gengar eyeing her suspiciously. The sight of a very large, unfamiliar ghost with a huge mouth and a missing eyeball terrified her further. This caused the baby to squeal and hug onto Haunter, sobbing louder than before.
In an uncharacteristic fashion, Haunter yelled in a worried tone, "Oh now look what you did!"
He resumed comforting her when Umbreon finally spoke up, "Um, may I ask what day you two were talking about? I've been trying to figure it out but can't."
Gengar gave her an odd look before rolling his eye in annoyance, like if she was supposed to know, "Halloween Night! Duh!"
Umbreon cocked her head a bit. She knew what Halloween Night was to humans and Trainer-owned Pokémon. It was some kind of bizarre holiday that they celebrated once a year, kinda like a birthday but with a lot of weird outfits. She's seen children, teenagers, and even a few Pokémon, walking down forest paths before, talking all about the night's 'trick or treating', or something like that. She didn't know what it meant, but she always thought it looked like fun.
She'd only seen this here and there in her lifetime, so the date and rules of the Holiday were vague to her. She didn't even know why they celebrated it.
"What interest does a Human Holiday give you guys? I thought the Ghosts in the Graveyard stayed away from humans." she asked, still confused about the whole ordeal.
Gengar sighed and looked impatiently to what she knew was his Grave. He must be exhausted.
Then he looked back to her, "Halloween Night interests us because it's the one human holiday we bother celebrating in this Graveyard. Well, we celebrate it in our own way. We don't dress up in costumes and do this weird 'trick or treat' ritual."
He suddenly leaned towards her playfully with his claws bared and a goofy grin stretched across his face, "Instead, we take this night to leave the Graveyard and scare people!"
Haunter nodded and continued the explanation, "The older ghosts of the Graveyard go to Zoryn village to scare people, steal sweets, the usual chaos. We always go in a group and make sure everyone is present when the night ends. That way we don't risk our lives, so to speak. Besides, people there are so used to seeing Ghost Pokémon in their town on Halloween they don't bother us anymore. It's the perfect night to cause mischief because it's the human holiday for mischief! People get pranked all the time on Halloween so they usually laugh no matter what we do, especially the children! Hee hee hee."
Umbreon had to smile at that a little bit. Okay, now this holiday REALLY sounded fun! The more she heard about it the more she wanted to join in.
Then Gengar leaned back and gave a mild glare to Haunter, "As I was saying. You guys can do what you want at night, but during the daytime keep it quiet!"
"Yes sir." He mumbled as Gengar turned into a dark purple mist and disappeared, no doubt going back to sleep for the daytime.
Haunter stuck his tongue out in his direction after he left. Ralts had finally calmed down once Gengar left and noticed him doing that. She thought it was funny and also began sticking her tongue out.
Umbreon giggled at the imitation as Haunter placed Ralts on her back so she could ride her, "Haunter, how come you never told me about celebrating Halloween? It's sounds so great!"
He shifted his eyes to the left a bit and scratched the back of his neck, like the subject really bothered him for some reason, "Well, to be honest I didn't tell you because I don't 'celebrate' with the others. Not really, anyway."
Eve frowned a bit and Ralts started moving from her back to the back of her head to hang on, "What do you mean?"
The ghost wrung his disembodied hands a little bit, feeling even more uncomfortable, "Eh, well truth is I don't like humans very much. Even though it's safe and no Ghost has gotten hurt in the town, I don't trust it. I don't know if I could face one human, let alone many. So I usually stay here with a few of the other adults to look after the younger Ghosts or keep the Graveyard safe from hooligans. We rather keep our home clean, after all."
Umbreon smiled up at him enthusiastically, "Perhaps we could take Ralts and go together? That way there'd be a lesser chance of something bad happening to you. Would that make you more comfortable if we were there instead of just the other Ghosts?"
He was quiet for a long time, pondering. Honestly, he really didn't want to go to that human town. Ever since that bad experience with the Graveyard all those years ago he really mistrusted them. He didn't hate them, but as much as he hated to admit it he feared them what they might do to him, or more importantly those he cared about. He was truly scared of what could happen.
Yet when he looked into Umbreon's red eager eyes something inside told him it would be alright. He was always afraid to go with the others because of his fear of humans, but with her beside him perhaps he could pull through…
Releasing his breath, he smiled slightly at her and said, "With you and Ralts with me, I think I might be able to work up the nerve."
This made his childhood friend beam in excitement as she exclaimed, "Great! We'll all plan to go together! It'll be good for Ralts to see a human town in case, well, she wants to become a Trainer's Pokémon when she old enough to leave our care."
For a moment, she saw a hint of dread in Haunter's eyes as he muttered, "Leave? O-oh, oh yeah, when she gets old enough. Uh huh."
Umbreon had to give him a subtle frown for that. If she wasn't mistaken by his emotions, he seemed to already be hesitant about giving her up though it's only been a short amount of time.
Then again, as Ralts sat on her back and playfully tugged and chewed on her right ear, she had to admit it was already making it harder for her to come to terms with the truth.
Still, she knew that Ralts deserved to grow up with her own kind, or at least under proper care, not two random best friends who don't know anything about raising a baby together.
Though the thought made her heart ache with depression, she knew it was for Ralt's own good.
Deep down, she was beginning to hope that it would be a while before that day.
Eve watched the baby Ralts play in the burrow's river a little bit, having never seen water before. It was adorable to see her splash around and occasionally scare the water Pokémon with her antics.
When she had come back to the burrow, she had received some odd looks from the other Pokémon. They were no doubt wondering what Ralts was, since they're rare to find out in the wild. At least in the Unova region.
But she ignored them. It wasn't their business and she had gotten over what other Pokémon thought about her. Well, except for that one particular subject…
She was abruptly interrupted from her thoughts when a figure stuck it's head out from a nearby bush. It was a Glaceon, and judging by the scent it was male.
Umbreon was surprised. She hasn't seen a Glaceon around here before. He must have just evolved into one.
She smiled and acknowledged him with a nod, and he followed suit. Then slowly he cocked his head at her a smiled a little bigger. Eve didn't know what his intentions were until he moved towards her and tried to nuzzle her face. She backed up to avoid him and stared, and he only stared back in confusion and hurt rejection.
She had to frown at that.
Among her kind, nuzzling was a close sign of affection and for a stranger to try that immediately meant he was trying to court her. He was looking for a mate, in other words.
The Eeveelution gave him a once over. He was handsome, sure, and looked very healthy and strong. On the eyes, he wasn't bad and seemed to be genuinely polite; else he would have become aggressive when she rejected him.
If it was any other time, she would have probably tried courting him in a second…but…
Sighing, she said the words before she was able to think, "I'm sorry, there's someone else…"
Eve blinked at what she just said. Did she…did she just basically say Haunter was her…
Her face began to get hot under her black fur and watched the male Eeveelution for a reaction. He slowly seemed to understand and nodded back, slightly upset. Then he turned around and walked back through the bush, searching once again for his soul mate.
Eve felt a great sense of sadness wash over her at the thought of potentially finding someone, yet a wave or relief hit her as well.
She really had just admitted to herself and subtly to someone else that she really is in love with Haunter. This whole time she had been trying to get her attention she's been unsure of herself, but now she knows without a doubt. It was eating her inside and if she didn't get his attention soon she would be forced to just ask him if he felt the same.
Umbreon doubted that though. If he really did like her he would catch on to her courting methods and return the affection somehow, right?
Getting dizzy from all these complex thoughts, she turned around walked to Ralts in the River. She picked her up gently by the scruff with her mouth and brought her a short ways over to the Pecha Berry tree Eve planted all those years ago.
She placed her before it and said softly, "I wanted to show you this, Ralts. This is the Pecha Berry tree Haunter and I bonded over all those years ago. It's very dear to the both of us, and you deserved to know why."
The baby Pokémon smiled up at the hanging pink berries that were swiftly becoming her favorite treat and reached up to them and hopped a few times. Giggling, Eve was about to retrieve one when something plopped before them both and startled her.
There on the grass was a purple Pecha Berry.
It put Eve into a state of awed shock as Ralts gleefully didn't seem to notice the difference between purple and pink and without hesitation picked it up and began eating it.
Umbreon just stared at the purple berry. It was exactly like the berry that hit her head that morning and inspired her to go make up the Gastly. They even shared it together.
Of all the times…why?
She immediately looked back up to the tree to see if someone had dropped it, but no sign of anyone. She couldn't smell any kind of presence there either, and even if it was a ghost she would have been able to sense something thanks to her time in the Zoryn Cemetery.
Feeling uneasy, Umbreon gently tapped Ralts in the back with her black paw and muttered, "Come on little one, let's get you back to the tree for a nap."
She didn't know why, but now she wanted to get away from that Pecha Tree for a while. She would feel better if they did.
Ralts finished her treat before she slowly obeyed her 'mother' and followed Umbreon back to the tree. Umbreon didn't need to carry her since it was such a short walk, even with her crawling.
As they moved back towards the tree, Umbreon failed to notice Ralts stop crawling and immediately jerk upwards. Then she twisted around towards the direction of the tree and appeared to be looking at it, or more like ABOVE it.
She continued to stare for a few second before smiling and eagerly waving one of her little hands at whatever invisible thing was there.
Then she abruptly stopped, frowned slightly, and twisted back to continue crawling after Umbreon.
Whatever it was that was there had disappeared…
So what do you think? Read and Review! And thanks again for all the advice and patience!