Cubone and Marowak

She froze at the sound of footsteps. Gravel tumbled along the narrow path outside the tiny cave she had taken refuge in. "So what exactly do people want 'em for? Skulls and bones, ugh."

Her egg quivered. The Marowak wrapped her arms around it, to keep it from making noise. With it still, they might not be discovered.

"Rich people fancy bones," another voice said. "That, and their skulls are said to have magical defensive qualities, if you believe in that kind of voodoo. And those bone clubs they have, sometimes it's especially strong and thick. Trainers would kill to replace their Marowak's regular club with a Thick Club."

"Still strikes me as creepy." The voices were trailing away. Leaving?

It seemed so. The Marowak released her egg, then went back to loosening her skull piece. Her kind had partial exoskeletons, as bone grew out over their heads and alongside their arms. The extra arm bone would eventually break away, allowing them to use it as a weapon. She had two such clubs, both lying on the ground. A third was just starting to grow off her right arm, but it wouldn't be ready for several weeks.

The skull piece shifted back and forth until it fully snapped off. The tension between her conflicting instincts rose again. The new skull piece underneath was soft; she had technically pulled off the old one too early, earning her a dull ache around her head. However, her maternal instincts had grown loud, as they always did when one of her eggs was in process of hatching. Her instructions for being a mother told her to take the skull piece off before the baby was born.

The maternal instincts won, as always. She slipped off the helmet and waited.

The cracks on the egg spread, but it was a slow process. Eventually, the shell could withstand no more and broke into five pieces. The baby Cubone toppled over, causing one of the shell fragments to slip towards his skin...

The Marowak caught the wayward egg shell, having anticipated that it could happen. She moved the shell pieces away from her child. He looked similar to her, only shorter, stubbier, and stockier. But he lacked the ability to grow an exoskeleton, and would never be able to until he evolved into a Marowak too. His head was round and smooth, but as soft as fruit. It was easy for a Cubone to suffer a head injury and die.

To prevent that, the Marowak stuck her old skull piece onto his head. Then she told him the first thing her mother had told her, and the first thing her grandmother had told her mother, which every Cubone and Marowak had heard in generations of their kind. "Trust in my bones and they will protect you. Leave that bone on until your own can grow underneath."

The Cubone got up and looked at her through the eye sockets of her old skull. "Mother... yes mother."

She picked up the newer club bone from the ground and handed it to him. "This bone shall be feared by your enemies. Take care of it until you have your own, and it will take care of you."

"Yes, mother."

With that ritual done, she smiled and could have said something more. But then the voices from before returned. "I've found two of them!"

"Great, now get the Pokemon this time."

The man smiled greedily at them. He wore a peculiar outfit of tight black pants and shirt, the latter of which had a giant red 'R' on it. The Marowak knew them to be trouble; they had harassed her for over a year now, trying to steal her from her home. But she knew how to escape those spherical machines they kept throwing at her.

She picked up her old bone club. While they were strong, the bone couldn't hold up forever, and this one was starting to show signs of wear. But it was important for her child to have a stronger club to protect himself with. "It seems I must show you this before I meant to."

The Cubone was understandably afraid, as he was only minutes old yet watching his mother prepare for battle. "What's going on?"

"These people are cruel. Don't let them touch you."

The Marowak rushed forward and struck the man in the knee. Yelping in pain, the man kicked her into the hard rock walls. Normally, she would have been fine, but her new skull piece was too soft for protection. The shock of hitting the hard wall with her soft head killed her.

The Cubone was terrified. Although he was newly hatched, he knew some things through the memory of his specie, one of which was that she was supposed to take care of him for a few months until he was ready to be on his own. She was supposed to teach him how to fight and look for food. Now that she was gone, he wasn't sure what to do.

Trust in my bones and they will protect you.

The 'R' man had stumbled back to check on his knee. Seeing an obvious chance, the Cubone jumped up and smashed his bone club into the man's head. He grabbed hold of the shirt's collar and yanked, ripping it right off. His mother's murderer seemed more vulnerable than he was now.

"Ah ****!" the man shouted, scrambling away. "Mad Pokemon!"

"What's going on over there?" the second man shouted.

"It's gonna kill me!" He ran off. After a moment of consideration, his partner chased after him.

Trembling, the Cubone looked around at the rocky mountain pass. So he could fight... but what about everything else? For a second, he saw a large snake made of rocks that somehow floated through the air. What was that? Friend or foe? What should he do? There was so much he didn't know, and everything he saw was another mystery.

He went to his mother's body and crouched by her. "Mother... what should I do?" He began crying.

A few minutes later, an old man came down the mountain path. The Cubone felt conflicted: should he escape or should he stay by his mother? But there was something to this human, something different from the 'R' man. He had a calming presence and the Cubone somehow knew that this man would not hurt him.

The old man looked over the scene: the Pokemon by his mother's body, the white egg shell fragments, the torn 'R' shirt, and the flecks of blood on the Cubone's club. He seemed to understand its meaning, but wasn't afraid of the young Pokemon. Instead, he came closer to make sure the Marowak was dead.

"It's a terrible sacrifice for love," he said in a soothing voice. "You need not fear me, child."

"I don't know what to do," the Cubone said, then hiccupped from crying.

"My name is Mr. Fuji. Why don't you come with me?" He gently picked up the Marowak's body. "We'll see to it that she rests safely in peace."

The Cubone quietly followed.

…

Cubone Fire Red entry: It wears the skull of its dead mother on its head. When it becomes lonesome, it is said to cry loudly.

Marowak Fire Red entry: It is small and was originally very weak. Its temperament turned ferocious when it began using bones.

Another side to that little story detail in the Kanto games. I love all the little story details scattered through the series. They make such great springboards for fanfics.