chapter seven: lucky misfortune

The ball rested with ease.

I walked over to the tree and peered inside. It was hard to make out all of what exactly had been stolen by this bird, but I could tell there was a lot here. I scooped as much of it as I could out of the trunk and stuffed it into my hoodie.

Gently picking up my new team member off the ground, I imagined the looks he was giving me from inside the poké ball.

I chucked it and out he popped with a firm cry of indignation. He swooped down on my, talons primed to rake me again, but I just pushed him out of the air and sent him rolling across the ground.

"Hey!" I shouted. "You're mine now! You will listen to me!"

It was hard to see him in the dark, but I got the feeling that he hopped up onto his feet. He started cawing at me again, clearly resenting his recent capture. He wouldn't cooperate with me.

"Listen," I said calmly, getting down on my knees. "Lead me back to the daycare facility. I'll give you something back from your stash."

He didn't make a noise or any sort of movement, as if he were contemplating my request. He finally responded with a low grumble and took to the air again, flying away from me.

So that's a yes, then, I thought.

I followed his shadow through the forest until he lead me back to the river bank. Together, we made our way to the house. The light on the porch had stopped flickering and was just off altogether now.

I knocked on the door.

"Aimé," I shouted. "I caught one."

I froze when I heard unfamiliar voices on the other side of the house. I peeked into the window. All the lights were off.

"Listen, these orders came straight from the oligarchy. We need to bring this bitch in or Bryony will gut us."

"Shut up," someone replied. "I think I heard something over here. Back me up. That damned Ampharos put seven of our men in a coma."

I sunk to the deck and started panicking. I was so close to surviving this, at least for a little longer, and it was all about to be for nothing. I didn't stand a chance against these guards, not without Ampharos. Murkrow was tiny, and even if he could fight them off, it was questionable as to whether he actually would. He hopped beside me, seemingly uninterested.

Where were the people who were supposed to be protecting me? Was this all some elaborate scheme to get Ampharos back and leave me out to dry?

I couldn't think about it. None of that mattered now. If I didn't try to fight, my situation would be even more hopeless.

"Murkrow," I whispered, his glowering eyes boring into mine through the darkness. "If you distract them and lead them into the forest, I'll give you two of your things back."

He gave me a slow, frustrated blink before turning away from me. His small body was almost completely invisible against the dark ground. Taking to the air, he flew over to the men and out of my sight. I heard one of them shout. A moment later, Murkrow appeared again, a small shiny item clamped in his beak as he headed into the forest.

"Hey! That thing took my scope!"

I tiptoed quietly off of the deck and ran towards the other side of the house. I hopped over the fence, stepping quietly towards the front of the house. So far so good.

I heard the men grunt and assumed they were making their way into the backyard.

"Look! It flew into the forest! Come on!"

I took a deep breath of relief.

The bag I had packed before almost murdering my host couple and their grandson in a frenzy was still sitting on the counter of their kitchen when I had left. With any luck it would still be there – although it seemed I had virtually run out of all my luck when I decided to become an anarchist.

I pushed lightly on the door, opening it a crack. The living room was so dark I couldn't see anything. I tiptoed carefully into the kitchen and felt around for my bag.

I heard the faintest creak come from somewhere behind me, and then suddenly as I began to turn, a very blunt metal object made contact with my head and almost sent me to the ground. The dark room was alight with the stars in my vision.

I let out a cry of pain.

"Moira?" It was the old lady.

"Oh thank Diancie," said another voice. It sounded like Aimé's. "I was just about to go look for you."

"I'm very sorry, Dear. I thought the officers would have found you by now," the old lady said.

A melange of emotions coursed through my body. My depth and sense of compassion were off, as they often were after being physically assaulted, but the lack of faith from the old daycare couple was getting frustrating. Although, maybe my feelings were amplified because I was angry about being hit in the face.

"Where's Ampharos?" I asked with clear disdain.

Aimé handed me back his poké ball.

"You caught something, right?" he asked.

I was about to reply but was interrupted by an apprehensive silence after we all heard a knock at the door. Aimé grabbed me by the arm roughly and pulled me into the bathroom with him. He closed the door and locked it, turning the lights on. I could see deep circles under his lively green eyes.

"Stay quiet."

I heard the old lady go answer the door.

"Is there a problem, Officer?" she asked politely.

"Not at all ma'am," he replied. "We just came to see if you or your husband have noticed anything off around here lately."

"Oh, well, I can't say that I ha–"

"Yes actually," the old man said. I could hear him lightly shuffling to stand at his wife's side. "I was outside yesterday tending to the pokémon in the forest, only, they all seemed to be frightened by something off in the distance. I went over to investigate and – well, I'll be damned if it weren't the strangest thing I've seen in my life – there in the treetops on the other side of the fence, a colony of sneasel. Sneasel of all pokémon! All the way out here! Have you ever heard of anything so strange?"

After Aimé deemed it safe enough to exit the bathroom, I went out to the back porch to wait for Murkrow to return. He eventually came back (much to my surprise) still holding the officer's scope in his beak. I recalled him to his ball with a firm "thanks" before walking back into the house. I once again had a conference with the family at their dining table. I ran them through the events I experienced in the forest.

"You caught that pesky murkrow?" the old woman asked. "Well, you're doing us a favor at least."

"But you did get the keystone back?" Aimé asked.

"Yes – I mean, I think so." I realized I didn't actually have a chance to check. I emptied my pockets all out. Murkrow's stash was bigger than I'd originally thought. The various silver and golden objects shined in the light as they crashed across the table.

The old woman gasped and reached into the pile. She pulled out a small silver pendant in the shape of a fleur-de-lis. She began tearing up.

"Wulfric gave this to me when I first joined the resistance," she said. The name didn't mean anything to me, but a somber silence fell over the table. "I thought it was gone forever." I looked to Aimé for clarification, but his gaze was fixed on his grandmother. I decided to leave it.

After a few seconds of scanning the pile with my eyes, I found what I was looking for.

"The keystone!" I said as I shoved my hand in there and grabbed it out. Aimé turned his attention to me. His eyes reflected a shift in emotion.

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank Diancie. Okay, now that you've found it, we can head to Cyllage City. We need to go now, before your search party gets there first."

"What's in Cyllage City?" I asked. "Why can't we stay here for a few days until they give up?"

"We can't afford to waste that much time. They likely believe you won't survive long enough to make it to the coast at all. They're going to stick around here for a long while, and the longer it takes to find you, the more desperate they're going to get. They'll prefer to take you live. It's easier to make an example out of you."

Surprisingly, the thought didn't make me shudder.

"If we go now," he continued, "we'll be a good distance ahead of them by morning. When we get to Cyllage City, I can contact someone to come change up your appearance. That will buy you at least some anonymity."

After our discussion at the table, the old couple bid us farewell and safe travels before heading off to bed. Remembering my promise to Murkrow, I shoved all of his stolen objects into the bag – the one I had coincidentally stolen along with many other supplies – before I was finally ready to head off.