Disclaimer: I don't own pokémon. I'm not nearly that rich.
The pokémon across from Rok growled at him, still wincing in pain from the force of his attack from earlier.
They looked a little bit like Atala, though they were a good deal taller than her. Their fur was grey, and sort of layered in on itself, with thick dark fur covering their chest and shoulders. Wicked red claws tipped their fingers and toes, and their mouth and azure eyes were outlined in that same red. It was a bit disconcerting, like they'd just been hunting and they decided to use the blood as makeup.
But by far their most striking feature was the thick, lush mane of red and black hair that fell down to their feet, tied at the end with a large bead the same colour as their eyes.
Rok couldn't help but remember the flareon back at the village, and how often they'd complain about how difficult it was to maintain their thick pelts.
He wondered if they'd still complain if they met…whatever this pokémon was.
"Who are you?" Rok asked again, crouching into a fighting stance. "What are you? What was that thing with the room just now?"
The pokémon just hissed.
Rok felt a snarl building in his throat. He could feel that dark energy from before roiling inside him again, and he desperately wanted to set it loose, to make this pokémon answer his questions, to punish them-
Reaper groaned, shifting on his back, and Rok's thoughts stuttered to a halt.
Giratina, what was he thinking? None of that mattered, and he didn't have time to fight this pokémon anyway. He needed to leave this Dungeon as soon as possible. Reaper didn't have much longer before the poison ran its course and then she'll…
She'll…
Rok shook his head. No. No she won't.
Rok backed away from the hostile pokémon, who glared at him as he went. Fine, just so long as they weren't attacking him, that was fine. All Rok needed to focus on was finding the way out of this Dungeon.
This shape-shifting maze of a Dungeon…
That was full of wild pokémon who will attack him on sight…
That had an unknown number of levels for him to struggle through before he could finally leave.
Rok stopped backing away (much to the strange pokémon's displeasure) and whined in frustration. How in Dialga's name was he going to get out of here in time? Reaper was really badly poisoned, he needed to get out of here and heal her fast! But how was he supposed to find the way out? He'd never even been in a Dungeon before. He hadn't the slightest idea of how to navigate one!
The other pokémon growled again and Rok glared up at them, fully prepared to tell them that yes, yes, he's going now leave him alone for Arceus' sake!
But then he paused.
This pokémon…they probably lived in this Dungeon, right? And they weren't outright attacking Rok, just warning him away. All they seemed to want was for Rok to leave and get out of their (really impressive) hair.
And what better way to do that than to leave the Dungeon entirely?
"I know you're wild and want nothing to do with me." Rok said, "But I need to get out of here."
The pokémon stopped growling, but kept their teeth bared.
"My friend has been poisoned." Rok said, jerking his head at Reaper for emphasis. "And I need to escape to cure her. You already want me to leave. Please, can you just…show me the way out of here? You'll never have to see me again, I promise. I don't intend on ever returning to this Arceus-forsaken place ever again."
The pokémon just stared at him, and Rok started to panic. What if it couldn't understand him? He really should have expected that, wild pokémon never bother to learn civilised language, they just bark and growl at each other in wild-speech. Dammit, he was wasting time talking to someone who doesn't even know what he's saying while Reaper is dying!
Eventually, the pokémon snorted and turned away, their long, thin arms swinging by their sides.
Rok groaned and slumped forward, only to immediately jolt up again as he felt Reaper starting to slip off his back. Great. What else was he expecting, real-
"Follow."
Rok started at the voice. The wild pokémon had paused and was glaring at him.
"Follow." They said again. Their voice had a distinct animal whine to it, and the word was clipped and twisted. Well, his voice, when Rok thought about it. It was always a little hard to tell with wild pokémon, but this one was definitely male.
Slowly, Rok stepped after him, and he immediately turned away and started stalking off again. It was a struggle for Rok to keep up with Reaper on his back, but he managed.
"Um, what should I call you?" he asked.
The pokémon shot him a quick glare. "Zoroark."
"Cool name." Rok remarked with a smile, trying to be friendly.
Zoroark ignored him.
Rok swallowed. "Thanks for helping us."
"Not helping. Making traitors leave."
Rok frowned in confusion. "Traitors?"
Zoroark snarled slightly. "You. Her. Ones above. Traitors."
Oh. He meant civilised pokémon.
"Thanks either way." Rok tried again.
Zoroark just scoffed.
They came to a small cave. Well, really it was more like a large crack in the wall, but Zoroark was crawling through so Rok figured that it must be a cave. He moved to follow, but quickly scrambled back at a warning growl from the tall canine.
"Stay."
Rok nodded, folding his ears back in a show of meekness. The last thing he wanted was to annoy his best way out of this Dungeon.
As Zoroark was slowly consumed by the darkness of the cave, Rok glanced around him nervously. He wasn't worried about Zoroark leading him into a trap. At least, not like this. If a wild pokémon wanted to trap you, they generally went for a more direct method like that thing with the room with the endless hallways that Zoroark had created (somehow). What he was worried about though were other wild pokémon showing up and attacking. He didn't know how well he'd be able to protect Reaper. Zoroark might help. Then again, he was only doing whatever he was doing to get rid of Rok and Reaper, so he also might just sit back and watch them both get torn apart.
The way the day had been going, Rok was fairly certain that some god had decided that he was going to spend every ounce of bad karma he had accumulated throughout his entire life before sunset. So, he wasn't at all surprised when a long purple snake slithered around the corner.
"Ekans…" it hissed, and Rok tensed, ready to fight it off if necessary.
The ekans' tongue flickered out, tasting the air. Its sickly yellow eyes rolled over to the spot where Rok was standing…
And then it just slithered right past.
Rok stared after it. Did it…not notice that he was there? But how was that possible? He was right out in the open!
A short, irritated yap made him jump and he whirled around, markings burning, to face Zoroark who'd poked his head out of the cave.
He was holding a pecha berry.
"Give girl." He said, slicing open the pink fruit.
Rok hurriedly stepped forward, crouching down so that Zoroark could better see Reaper's face. He could just barely see the grey canine coax Reaper's jaws open, dribbling juice from the pecha berry's torn flesh into her mouth. Reaper took a shuddering gasp, as though the air inside her didn't quite know where to go, and she somehow went even more limp on Rok's back.
Zoroark growled. "Will live. But must heal. Hurt bad."
Rok winced. "I don't suppose you have any healing berries you'd be willing to share."
Zoroark frowned, grinding his teeth like he's chewing on something especially foul tasting. "No berries." He eventually said. "But rest. She rest, she heal."
He shuffled to the side, leaving the cave opening free for Rok. "She rest here." He hissed. "Then leave."
A/N: I've been wanting to write a zoroark for a long time. When you think about it, the illusions are actually really OP, and pokédex entries say that zoroark can do a lot more with their illusions that just make themselves look like other pokémon so I'm going to be playing with that a lot.
Please review!