I am so so very sorry to have not updated during the past year. Can't believe it's been this long since I've written on this site. I hope this chapter makes up for your patience.
Zorua was hungry. After weeks of avoiding humans because of the risk of capture, her stomach finally took the upper hand. And look where it brought her now! No doubt that this new human would treat her the same way as her past owner treated her.
Too late for going back to my den now, Zorua thought as she strolled across the grassy plains of the pokeball. She curled up into a small ball, making herself as compact as possible in a futile attempt to prevent the insatiable hunger that was plaguing her. Not long after, her eyes started to droop, and she felt her mind getting all fuzzy and her body not reacting properly to her control. The tricky fox pokemon instantly fell asleep.
"What do you expect me to do, Ash? I'm not the one with the healing abilities here!" Riolu shouted, breaking Ash's genuine concentration and making a snarl creep up on his draconic face.
"Shut up, Riolu. I'm trying to save a pokemon's life. I can't just let you distract me," Ash murderously intoned as his eyes glowed a vicious gold and black like soot and ash. Gone was the immature, happy go lucky dragon that wanted to make friends with everyone. Instead, the fierce, protective dragon was rearing its noble head, similar to the mythical legends that Riolu was told in his childhood.
Riolu paled. If Ash was a wild pokemon, Riolu would be sliced and diced into more pieces than he could count. Not to mention the bloody mess that would happen. While Ash was using his Heal Pulse to restore the extremely malnourished Zorua stable enough, He was serving absolutely no purpose and had zero intent to help Ash. His brown eyes developed a sudden interest in his feet. Timidly, he rose and approached the form of the blue dragon.
"Errrmm… is there any way I can help?" Riolu asked, his voice filled with shame.
"Get some berries, preferably Lum or Oran," Ash angrily hissed to Riolu. Riolu, being raised as a wild pokemon, knew where the freshest berries of each type were. Lum berries were deeper in the forest, lest the flying types eat them all, while the Oran berries were near the lakes and other water sources.
Riolu knew that at the moment, Lum berries were the priority as a) they could heal any status effect, like poison or burns, and b) they also were high in energy and nutrients. Additionally, the Lum berries were delicious. Among forest pokemon, these berries were a delicacy and pokemon who could input a steady supply of them were often well respected and valued.
Riolu took a good look at his surroundings. They were both in a clearing, outside of Route 1, but still relatively near the road. He slowly walked into the foilage, using his sense of smell to guide him. Riolu focused harder on his concentration as he sensed multiple aqueous lifeforms. There were about a hundred or more of these auras, and a high concentration of these auras meant that there was a lake nearby. Hurriedly, Riolu dashed to the place where he thought was the lake.
The lake was huge. It probably was of similar size when compared with the forest. Life was teeming everywhere, from lively Magicarps, lazy Crabbys, and even some glimpses of Feebas living in the area. One in particular caught Riolu's eye. It was an Azumarill holding a Lum berry. Riolu, hiding in the trees, stealthily tiptoed towards the Azumarill who was nibbling on the berry. Riolu's head bobbed around as he tried to find where the Lum berry tree was. His panicked thoughts were interrupted by one Lum berry dropping off of a tree into his head.
The young Zorua was stable, at least. If stable meant barely clinging on the edge of life, yes, she certainly was. When is Riolu coming back? I swear, if he gets into trouble I will… Ash's evil thoughts were interrupted by said riolu dashing back to the Lati with Lum berries stocked in his arms, with a proud expression on his face after he saw the shocked expression of Ash.
"How did you get this much Lum berries? You know what? I'm not going to question it. Let's just help the Zoura first," Ash said exasperatedly as he began to almost force-feed the Zorua with his psychic powers. To make sure Zorua didn't choke on the food, he used his abilities to control almost every bodily function that the dark type used to digest food. Of course, using psychic and miracle eye at the same time was very strenuous to Ash's mind, but he wasn't a trained Latios for nothing.
A few minutes after Ash fed the Zorua the Lum berries, he sensed some kind of consciousness from the Zorua. He stopped his psychic process immediately and watched the Zorua twitch into reality. On a closer look, the Zorua's bones were still showing, but it (Ash certainly didn't want to check if the Zorua was a boy or a girl without his? her? Permission) was certainly healthier than when they first caught it. Instead of having naturally red spots, Zorua had blue ones instead. Looking at a malnourished Pokemon like this made Ash feel horrible for further fighting the tricky fox pokemon. Unfortunately, what was done was done. All he could do was to wait until the Zorua finally woke up. In the meantime,
I'll set up a camp for us to spend the night in, Ash thought.
Night soon approached, and the Zorua still showed no signs of movement. Ash personally didn't mind staying in the forest for this long, but the night gave a foreboding atmosphere. Almost as if something important was going to happen… but that may just be my thoughts. In all honesty, Ash felt, well, scared as of now. Even inside the giant tent that his mom bought for him when he was four, he felt something that he didn't feel for a long time. Fear.
Not only did the night give shivers down his spine, a strong psychic presence was unnerving him. A psychic presence was only able to be detected by other psychics when an extremely powerful psychic being used an excessive amount of power. Of course, Ash himself could prevent that wave from being detected. Six and a fourth years training really taught you a lot. The presence, for the lack of a better term, felt artificial, but Ash was still confident that he could defeat it if necessary.
"Do you feel that?" Riolu whispered in the blissful confines of his sleeping bag.
"Yeah, something's wrong here," Ash whispered back, "should we look into this? I mean, this might be our only chance..." Ash trailed off as Riolu with unusual vigor shot off from his sleeping bag and ran to the direction of the feeling.
"What am I going to do with you, Riolu?" Ash sighed. Transforming into his draconian form, Ash accelerated to Riolu's general direction, while bringing Zorua's pokeball along with him as well.
Well, decided to upload this horrible chapter once and for all. Ah well. Why not? Should have updated this sooner, but school bombarded me with projects and tests that I have to study for. (seriously, like two tests a week, an essay, and a project due on Thurday? Give me a break!) Hopefully see you soon!