"I didn't mean to push you so hard!"

"You spoke."

Protector of Silence

Chapter Eight - Speak

"I still can't believe those guys thought that plan was seriously going to work!" Kate laughed, swinging her legs back and forth over the cliff at the back of Ranger School.

Beside her, Kellyn opened the book on Eevee Evolutions and silently laughed. He wondered where Liam, Nick and Keith were currently hiding in fear of Kincaid. Their plan to bust Keith out of detention hadn't exactly gone to plan. First, Kincaid locked Keith inside the classroom when he left, so Kate had to use her screwdriver to break open a window to get him out. But things went drastically wrong at the school gates, when Kincaid had found Liam and Nick trying to smuggle their Pontya out of school. The Pokémon had got away, but Kincaid had gone into a rant that surely involved a month's worth of detentions before he had finally been distracted by Kellyn invisibly sending a barrel rolling at him. Liam and Nick had finally gotten away when Kellyn had persuaded the Bidoof to use Kincaid as a gnawing post.

"Honestly, those guys are so gonna owe you one for this Kellyn!" Kate laughed "Just remind them of this whenever they try to make you do something!" Kellyn nodded.

Back to the point, which evolution are we doing for our project?

"Ah yes, our Eevee Evolution" Kate smiled "Did you bring the book? Good." She took the book from him and began flicking through it "Well, Eevee would naturally be the easiest, but this is my personal favourite." She held up the book. Filling a single page was a drawing of a Pokémon that looked like a cross between a cat and a fox. Its body was tan coloured and it had one shade of dark brown that was carried out on the tip of its paws, as its eye colour, and in the centre of its ears. It had sprouts growing all over it, making it look more like a plant and a longer sprout of its forehead. It's ears and tail both shared a leaf-like quality.

"It's called Leafeon" Kate explained "Try saying it. Leaf-e-on." Kellyn took a deep breath and automatically his throat tightened. He just managed to croaked out:

"Ee-eon."

"That's it, Leafeon" Kate smiled encouragingly "Although I also like this one." She showed a different Pokémon. It was a fox like Pokémon covered in light-blue fur. It's inner ears, two spots on its back, tail end and cap-endings were all rhombus-shaped and darker blue, in contrast to the soft cyan of its main body colour. It's feet were also a dark blue colour, giving it the impression of wearing snow boots.

"This is a Glaceon" Kate explained.

"A-eon."

"Yeah, Glaceon" Kate nodded. As she settled on one page, her eyes lit up "Oh! What do you think of this one Kellyn?" This Pokémon had a sleek black body with a pair of crimson cat or fox-like eyes and yellow bands on its long, pointed ears and bushy, fox-like tail. It's forehead and legs had yellow rings on them. Kellyn read the title at the top of the page.

'Umbreon' he read in his head, his mouth forming the word as he did so.

"Yeah, Umbre..." Kate began, then she broke off. Her jaw dropped so much Kellyn was surprised it didn't hit the ground.

What, something wrong?

"S-Say that again" Kate ordered in a trembling voice "Umbreon."

'Again?' Kellyn shrugged and tried to speak again. It was more painful than before and he was just able to croak:

"U-ee-on!" before panting so hard from lack of oxygen he was surprised he didn't pass out.

"Kellyn!" his eyes were closed, but he could feel Kate shaking his shoulders "Kellyn are you alright? I'm sorry! I didn't mean to push you so hard! Kellyn!" He waved her concerned hand away and rubbed his eyes, focusing on Kate's terrified expression, looking like she was waiting for him to storm off and leave her. Her reassured her the best he could with and smile as his breathing returned to normal.

"You sure you're okay?" she asked. He nodded again.

I'm fine, let's just not try that again

"Yeah, we agree on that" Kate agreed "Are you sure you're fine." Kellyn nodded. "Well, in that case..."

A blob of water smacked Kellyn straight in the face. He was unsure of how to react to that. He just sat there, blinking as water dripped off his chin and off the point of his nose. He didn't even attempt to rub his eyes. His was just stuck there, stating at a grinning Kate past the dripping water. He blinked again and looked down at the ground in front of him; he saw a red balloon, the remains of a water bomb.

He frowned, flicked the water from his eyes with the back of his hand and plastered a glaring look onto his face so his eyes had the word: 'Die!' written all over them.

Kate squeaked and ran along the cliff top towards the back of the woods. Kellyn smiled and ran after her, waving his right arm with a clenched fist in lasso-like circles just above the side of his head.

'Little human!'

Kellyn ground to a halt as he heard a low Pokémon voice call out. He heard the sound of wood snapping on a grand scale and suddenly realised what was going to happen. He pounded after Kate as fast as his legs would take him, squeaking as loud as he could so he was heard over the sound of the snapping. How could Kate not hear it? Why wasn't she stopping?

'Kate! Stop, please!' he begged mentally, wishing more than ever for the ability to call out to her 'Kate please! Stop!' It was such a simple thing for others, why was he and he alone robbed of such a life-saving necessity. 'KATE!'

Kate suddenly stopped and looked at him. He was so relieved when she stopped he didn't take in the look on her face. He just grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the danger. But he pulled so hard she was sent flying into him, sending him skidding across the grass with her on top of him. A split second later there came a loud thud.

Kellyn groaned and focused on Kate's blue eyes staring down at him. Both blushed when they realised what position they had got themselves into.

"S-Sorry!" Kate stuttered. Before Rhythmi and her perfect timing could appear and spot them in this embarrassing situation, Kate rolled off Kellyn and the two of them sat up, panting. Where Kate had previously stood, a large tree had been Target Cleared. If Kate had kept running or stood there a second longer, she would have been crushed.

Kellyn looked into the trees. He thought he saw the shape of a large Pokémon walking away before Kate got his attention. She was as white as a sheet.

"Y-You saved me" Kate breathed. The two of them stared each other in the eye for a while. Neither were sure how long they sat like that before Kate finished with: "Thank you."

Kellyn shrugged.

It's okay. I wasn't going to let you die

There was an awkward pause before Kate said:

"You spoke." Kellyn blinked and she went on. "You spoke twice now. First when you said the word Umbreon, that's why I asked you to repeat it. And second when you called my name, that's why I turned around. I would have die if you hadn't."

There was another pause. Kellyn was speechless, even if he had been able to talk he wouldn't have been able to say a thing to that.

"That's why I thought, we could our project on Umbreon" Kate went on "Since it was the first Pokémon's name you spoke, it's special."

Kellyn thought about this, then nodded.

Umbreon it is then

They smiled at each other, unable to find anything else to say. The last few minutes had been too much for both of them to handle.

"HELP!"

Their smiles faded into confused expressions. Then Kate spoke the same word Kellyn mouthed, so if Kellyn could speak they would have spoke in unison.

"Keith?"

"Help!" Keith's voice cried again "Somebody help us!"

"Mr Kincaid's on our tail!" howled Nick, his voice coming from somewhere inside the school along with Keith's.

"He caught us running in the hallways and now he's going to fry us, dissect us and eat our guts for dinner!" cried Liam in a voice so quick and high-pitched Kellyn and Kate had to focus hard on it to catch what he was saying. Their three screams then drowned out Kincaid's replying words, but the two of them had a feeling it involved three months of detention and probably suspension in there too.

Don't suppose you have any left-over water-bombs for Kincaid do you?

"Maybe one or two!" Kate laughed "So, I take it we're going to save those idiots from Swirly-head again?" Kellyn nodded and began writing. It was longer than what he normally wrote and his hand was beginning to hurt by the time he finished.

Well, I could do it invisibly so he wouldn't know who threw it. Then he would have to go back inside and take forever to fix his hair, so the others could probably take cover in the woods until dinner or something. When he's busy eating, we can sneak them into school or something

"Do you actually think these plans up on the spot or do you have them pre-planned or something?" Kate asked.

Isaac and I are forced to live with those rebel-rousers. What do you think?

"Yeah, pre-made works best" Kate nodded "So, let's go save their sorry stylers again."

Kellyn nodded and stood up, dusting off his trousers as he did so. Holding his hand out, he helped Kate to her feet before they headed back towards the school.

"Kellyn wait." Kate stopped, grabbing at Kellyn's wrist so he would stop too. "One more thing. Back there, where you saved me. You could have been crushed under that tree too, the way you ran out there. So why did you?"

Dunno, maybe it's the rebellious Fiorian side of me

"Really?" Kate asked "I never saw Fiorians as rebellious. Well, maybe that just because I am from Fiore."

Kellyn raised an eyebrow is surprise.

Are you a transfer student then?

"Yeah, I transferred here last year" Kate nodded "I'll probably be moving back there when I leave Ranger School. I really want to go to Summerland - my brother works as a ranger there and I know all the guys really well."

You're leaving at the end of this year?

"Yeah" Kate shrugged "Why do you seem so upset about it?"

Kellyn wrote a message and a faint blush came onto his cheeks as he showed her it.

Because I like you being here