Chapter 8

Bump In The Road

It was another day for Flint, Rose, and the group as they walked through a meadow of tall grass. The grass reached above their heads, but Aurora seemed to know where she was leading everyone. Flint hadn't mentioned to Aurora, nor Tesla that Rose had begun bleeding, he felt they didn't need to know, but at the same time it could also be important information in the near future. Kindle also seemed to keep quiet about her incident with Tesla, lucky he was too drunk to remember anything and blamed his pounding head on a hangover, Kindle couldn't stop thinking about the whole thing though. She hadn't told anyone about her interest in Tesla, but last night was the first time he spoke to her in a way that slightly aroused her, except for his drunken state. The thing is is that fennekin also have their heat cycles once a year, their's was also during the spring and she was expecting her heat soon.

Flint decided to break the silence that lingered over the group, "Why exactly are we blindly walking through this meadow instead of traveling on a road or something?"

Aurora continued pushing on through the grass, "We're not blindly traveling through here, well, I'm not anyway. The reason we're cutting through here is so we can take a straight path to Whitestone, instead of having to take roads that resist and bend through other towns and villages. This cuts a lot of the traveling down, so hopefully, we should get there sooner than expected."

"With our luck though, something bad should deter us and compromise what we have planned, thus slowing our pace anyway," Tesla said.

"Well, nothing should go wrong today, there's nothing but meadows between Whitestone and here. This should be a cakewalk."

Ironically enough, this was not the case. As Aurora took another step, she ended up falling into a pit trap, Flint and Tesla joining her, while Kindle barely managed to pull Rose back a safe distance. She thanked Kindle before they looked down in the pit to see if everyone was okay. For the most part, they were fine, just a few bruises, scrapes, and scratches.

"Don't worry you three," said Kindle, "Rose and I will find a way to get you all out of there." The two then ran off scavenging around for something to help the others out with.

"This is just great," Aurora spat

"Calm down," Flint said trying to keep her at ease, "Kindle and Rose should be back soon to help us out."

"Oh? You mean the broken eevee and the not-so-bright fennekin? I'm sure they'll be tons of help."

Flint shook his head and looked up out of the hole they were in, "Sometimes a pokemon's true potential goes unnoticed by a blind eye, such as yours."

"There's no context to your statement."

Flint decided to ignore her as he put his trust in the paws of Kindle and Rose to help him out of the hole.

In the middle of the ocean, a storm was brewing. Thick blankets of clouds hung over three ships that sailed over the rough waves. Thunder echoed in the sky and the winds whipped about in the air. Thankfully, there had been no rain yet.

"With these winds, we should be making great progress!" Gleefully chirped Psyche. "We should arrive in Whitestone by sundown."

The ships had spent all day yesterday and all of today heading back to Whitestone. The winds had indeed increased the distance they traveled and reduced the expected date of arrival.

Nixie was struggling to keep her balance as the ship traversed through the choppy waves. She hadn't been out to sea as much as the rest of the crew, but she couldn't really do much since she was mainly a guest for the ship, so most of her time was spent in Psyche's cabin where she admired the paintings and tried reading a couple of books though she didn't know how to read.

Currently, Psyche was steering his ship, making sure to approach the waves at the correct angles. Nixie stood next to him failing at keeping her balance most of the time. She had to use the railing along the ship to support her body.

"How long should this storm last?" Asked Nixie.

"Well, I may be a psychic-type, but I'm no castform." Psyche then looked up towards the sky, he saw that the water and the clouds connected along the horizon. "We have more than thirteen nautical miles of clouds visible. We could possibly be in a storm for the rest of the trip."

Nixie accepted the fact and decided to inch her way towards Psyche's cabin. Just as she reached the stairs, the ship hit a slightly larger wave, causing Nixie to lose her balance and tumble down the stairs. Psyche noticed this and handed the wheel to a trusted crew member before assisting Nixie.

"Are you alright?" Psyche asked while helping Nixie to her feet.

"I'm fine, I'm just trying to head back to your cabin."

"Alright. Looks like you still need to get your sea legs."

"I don't really expect to go on another ship after this..."

"That's understandable. I was the same way back when my father took me on our first trip out to the ocean, I was a stumbling mess! But after a few other occasions, I started getting used to the behavior of the waves. It's like the way an ocean speaks, the waves speak to me, and eventually, I predicted their patterns. Now, I have the hang of it and I'm pretty stable."

Psyche had then finished walking Nixie to his cabin. He opened the door and told her to stay there while he stayed outside steering the ship. Nixie found her way to a chair and sat herself down. Observing the room, she wondered how the books on the bookshelves hadn't fallen over, or how something wasn't out of place for that matter. It irritated her and she was already slightly perturbed from all of her stumbling making herself look like a fool. She wanted to take her anger out by throwing a book but decided against it.

"Arceus, if you truly are real, what do you want from me?" Nixie said to herself but directed at a god she was unsure actually existed. "You took everything from me: my family, acquaintances... everything... Why though? You obviously didn't want me to die, or at least not yet, but even if you are real, you won't answer my questions, I'm just left in the dark without any answers..."

She continued looking at the bookcase at a specific red book. She was irritated for many reasons. She didn't usually get frustrated this easily, but considering what's happened to her recently, she needed to vent out her anger since she already had shed her tears from sadness. Her glare intensified on the book, then suddenly it was launched off of the shelf across the room. Nixie jumped up from her chair, startled by what happened. She looked around the room before walking over towards the book, stumbling a couple of times on the way of course. She picked up the book and set it back on the shelf, confused as to what had happened. She shrugged it off before hopping back into her chair. She let out a long sigh in an attempt to calm herself down. Afterward, she decided on resting until something interesting happened.

"What are we going to do?" Asked a worried Rose.

"I'm trying to find something that will help us help them out of that hole," replied Kindle, who was blindly searching through the tall grass.

"What are you expecting to find? We're in the middle of nowhere with nothing but rocks and grass. Doesn't anyone have a rope or something in their backpack?"

"Huh, I hadn't thought about that. Me and Tesla don't, do you know if Flint has any inside his bag?" Rose shook her head no. "Then we can ask Aurora." Kindle looked to her left and right, "Do you remember which way we came from."

Rose stiffened as she realized Kindle's uncertainty, "Y-you weren't paying attention!?"

"No..." Kindle replied sheepishly. "We couldn't have wandered too far, we could call out their names if that's any help."

"I guess."

Kindle began walking in a random direction, "Tesla! Flint! Aurora! Where are you!" She was met with silence, she yelled their names a second time, but still, nothing happened. "This isn't good."

Rose now seemed scared, the two of them were lost and were now unable to save the others. The two heard some rustling in the grass and froze. Kindle got in a defensive stance in front of Rose, preparing a ball of fire inside her mouth. Suddenly, a blue orb with grass on its head emerged from the tall grass.

"Oh, it's just an oddish," Kindle said as her flame died down. "Could you help us find-"

Before Kindle was able to finish her sentence, the oddish rammed its head into her side, causing her to fall on the ground. Before Kindle could get back to her feet, it rammed into her again, knocking the wind out of her. Rose was frozen in place at how unexpected this was and watched as the oddish rammed into Kindle a third time. Rose snapped back to reality and charged at the oddish, using her teeth to rip parts of its grass head off. The oddish yelled in pain.

"Are you okay?" Rose asked Kindle.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Kindle said while flashing a quick grin. "That was... unexpected."

"To say the least."

"Alright, what gives? Why'd you attack me?"

The oddish didn't answer, instead, it quickly ran back into the tall grass. A few seconds passed by, Kindle and Rose exchanging a glance before shrugging and continuing to look for the other three. Just as they turned around to head in another direction, they heard more of the grass rustling. Kindle hesitantly looked back. The next thing she knew, a handful of angry oddish were charging through the grass towards them.

Kindle quickly turned around, "Run!"

"Kindle! I can't, my leg. Can't you fight them? You have an advantage against them."

Kindle halted in her track. "I guess you're right. I'll distract them for a little bit to give you a head start. Don't worry about me."

Rose decided not to argue and left in search of the others. Kindle stayed back, prepared to fight the oddish. They stopped in front of her, each getting in a defensive stance. Kindle was now able to count that there were seven of them. Shouldn't be too much of a problem. The seven then formed into a circle around her, blocking her blind spot.

"Look, I don't want any trouble. I'm just trying to help my friends."

"You trespass in our territory, now you pay price." The oddish in front of her said in a male tone.

"We were unaware of your territory. We'll leave immediately, I just need help finding my friends."

"It's too late now. You, and friends, pay price. We take you to leader, he decide your fate."

"I guess talking my way out of this won't work. I didn't want to fight you all, but you've left me with no choice."

Before they oddish could speak again, Kindle launched a fiery ball into his face. He screamed in pain as it burned away at his flammable, grass, flesh. Two of the oddish behind Kindle decided to attack at the same time. She had expected this as she jumped in the air with a backflip. As her body was in the air, she was able to fire another ball of fire during her backflip. It collided in the back of the head of one of the oddish who now screamed in pain and ran in a circle to try extinguishing the flame. As Kindle landed, she shot her third fireball and hit the other oddish who tried attacking her. It also went up in flames.

Kindle knew her flames weren't going to kill the oddish. She only wanted to get the point across that she was very capable of defending herself. Why she couldn't fight Frostbite this easily, she didn't know. She found his potions cheap and unfair, then again all is fair in love and war. Two of the oddish that hadn't been set on fire were trying to kill the flames on their comrades. The other two that were left still decided to fight. She didn't expect the next move that came from the oddish. They both shook yellow powder out of the blades of grass on their head, directed at Kindle. She was caught off guard and the powder attached to her fur. She felt little zaps around her body, causing various muscles to twitch or not cooperate correctly.

"Stun spore..." she said to herself.

The other oddish were able to kill the flames of their friends and now focused on the battle. The tables had turned so drastically in the use of a stun spore. Kindle cursed to herself before turning around and running to wherever Rose had gone. The four oddish pursued her through the tall grass.

Rose hadn't made it that far, but still a good distance away from the battle. Kindle had caught up to her, without explaining, she picked Rose up and carried her on her back while running in a random direction. Rose looked back and saw the oddish chasing not too far behind, then she noticed some yellow spores on Kindle's fur.

"What happened?"

"Well, to put it simply, the battle didn't go as expected. Where could they be, we couldn't have traveled that far away from the hole. Could we?"

Kindle continued running, but the stun spore decided to be 'helpful' and cause Kindle's left foreleg to not work properly. This caused her to trip and drop Rose. Rose rolled along the ground and ended up falling in the same exact hole Tesla, Aurora, and Flint were in. However, she landed on her broken leg, causing her to cry in pain. Luckily, the splint prevented further damage to the leg.

Flint quickly rushed to her side. "Rose, are you okay!?" With tears in her eyes, the answer was obvious, but she still shook her head no. "What happened?"

She didn't speak, only continued to cry. Flint hugged her trying to comfort her. Kindle was slowly dragging herself to the hole, the oddish closing the distance towards her. Just as she reached the hole, an oddish tackled her, causing her to fall into the hole as well. Kindle ended up landing on top of Tesla. Tesla glared at her before pushing her off.

"What the hell just happened?" Asked Aurora.

"We were attacked by oddish, a large amount of them," Kindle explained.

Aurora gave a not-so-satisfied look. "Oddish? A pokemon that's nothing but weak towards you? How could they pose a threat? They don't even have arms for arceus sake!"

"I know. I know. But they caught me off guard with a stun spore, I tried saving Rose and getting back to you guys."

"Looks like the oddish are here..." Tesla said while looking out of the hole.

Sure enough, four oddish were standing by the hole looking down at the victims of their trap. Flint, Tesla, and Aurora got into defensive positions, but before they could attack, the oddish flung a green powder over the team. Suddenly, all five of the pokemon were growing tired, they tried their hardest to stay awake but failed...

Water was thrown onto the five sleeping pokemon, abruptly waking them up from their slumber. All of them had their front and back legs tied together, while Kindle and Flint also had their maws tied shut. They were in the middle of a crowd of oddish, gloom, vileplume, and bellossom. In front of them was a decorative chair where a scyther sat, a vileplume fanning him with a leaf.

"You've finally woken." He said in a low, yet smooth, voice.

"Who the hell are you?" Aurora demanded.

The crowd gasped at the way she talked, the scyther glared at her and walked towards her. Aurora kept her glare on him. In a swift motion, the scyther used the dull side of his blade to slap Aurora harshly, she fell on her side from the force.

"Don't talk to me in that tone of voice. You should be lucky I haven't killed you yet."

Aurora spat some blood from her mouth, "Do you have any idea who I am?"

"It's not relevant, you're all in my territory, and now you must pay."

"I'll have you know that I'm a royal guard of princess Starshine, when she finds out about this she'll-"

"She'll what? Throw a fit? Sounds suiting for that spoiled child you call as your 'leader.' She'll never be as good a leader as her predecessors. She doesn't know the first thing about ruling an entire country."

"She may not be the best leader, as of now, but she didn't get the full training she needed, and you know why she had to take the throne at such a young age. Besides, what would you know about ruling a country."

"I don't know much about being in power, but I started with these oddish. I'm their dictator, if they treat me right, I'll leave them be. Now, back to the original subject. You must pay a price."

"What do you have in mind?" Tesla decided to say.

The scyther was now angry at Tesla and slapped him across the face. Kindle looked at him worriedly, Tesla glared at the scyther but picked himself up off the ground.

"I wasn't talking to you, but if you must know, food is scarce here in the wild. I mainly only get to eat berries, leaving whatever I don't eat to these oddish and their evolutions. It's not every day that I come across pokemon who have meat on their bones."

The five widened their eyes knowing exactly what he meant.

"B-but you can't e-eat us!" Rose tried to protest.

Again, the scyther was mad at another outburst. He walked over to Rose and lifted his blade and smacked her just as hard. She was tossed a good distance, skidding along with the dirt. It took a few seconds for the pain to register, but when it did, it hit her like a ton of bricks. Tears formed in her eyes and she sniffled a bit, then she softly cried in pain. The world went silent around Flint, his eyes widened in disbelief. He had already been beating himself up about Frostbite breaking her leg, and now this mysterious scyther showed up and brought more pain to the defenseless eevee.

Flint's shock became guilt, which quickly lead to anger. He turned his head back to the scyther who had said something but went unheard by Flint's ears. His breathing was picking up, along with his heartbeat, and his eyes narrowed on his next target. He'd never felt this angry before, but something snapped when he saw the scyther slap her. He began growling while a flame built up inside his mouth and leak outside a little, slowly eating away at the rope.

"What are you growling at? Upset that I slapped your little bitch?" The scyther taunted unaware of the flames burning the rope off of his mouth. "In that case, why don't I slap her around a bit more?"

The scyther got ready to slap her another time before Flint's voice cut him off, "Don't you fucking touch her."

The scyther was startled, "I thought I tied your maw shut." The scyther looked a bit nervous, but then he rotated his arm so the blade side was facing Rose, "Don't make any sudden moves, or else."

Flint was unfazed by his threat. He could either attempt saving her or watch as he smacked her around a few more times. The answer was obvious for him since his focus had always been to ensure the safety of Rose. Within a matter of seconds, Flint wrapped his body in flames, burning the ropes that tired his legs. While he was still engulfed in flames, he then charged at the scyther. The scyther was startled as he quickly went to swing his blade downwards, but Flint was too fast for the insect. Flint had launched his skull into his gut, making it crack inward. The force sent a wave of fire over the scyther's body. The scyther was thrown back a few feet and landed on the ground gripping his gut in pain while blood flowed out of him.

"F-Flint?" Rose asked somewhat scared of how angry he looked.

"Are you okay?" Flint asked sternly not giving Rose eye contact.

"Help me you fools!" Exclaimed the scyther. His pokemon all seemed too scared to aid him.

"Are you okay?" Flint asked again with more emphasis on his words.

"I'm in pain, but other than-" Rose didn't get to finish her sentence as Flint rushed towards the scyther.

He forced a paw on the scyther's throat, cutting his air off a bit. The scyther attempted to swat him off with his blades. Flint, however, dodged and increased pressure on his throat. The scyther was gagging for air at this point.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Attacking a child. Not just a child, but you hit two females." The scyther said nothing but continued struggling. "Then, like a coward, you used her as a meat shield. You're fucking pathetic." Flint shot a thin flame into the scyther's left shoulder, he precisely cut his blade arm off while also cauterizing the wound. The scyther screamed in pain during the whole process, Flint nonchalantly watched. He then got off of the scyther and walked back towards Rose.

"Y-You're not going to kill me?" The scyther asked, still unsure himself why he would ask that.

"I'm not a killer. If I killed you, I would be just as pathetic as you. I'll leave these pokemon here to decide what happens to you next. You ruled over them by striking fear into their hearts. But now that you're weakened and defenseless, what leader are you to them?"

"You'll regret this decision!" Spat the scyther

Flint paid him no attention, he looked back at his group which we're now looking at him in shock. He went to help Rose free from her ropes, but she crawled away from him in fear.

"Rose, I'm not going to hurt you," Flint said with a softer tone now.

"That wasn't you," she said.

"What?"

"You never get that angry, and you didn't hurt pokemon to that extent."

"I was angry because of what he did to you. Let me see your scar?" Flint went to inspect the area where the scyther had hit Rose, she was still scared and snapped her teeth at Flint. "Rose, I'm only trying to help."

"You should have killed him you know?" Aurora said, not looking him in the eyes.

"I told you already, I've killed one pokemon, and I don't want to kill another."

"He smacked us, called Rose your 'bitch,' used her as a meat shield, and was going to eat us. Yet all is forgiven and you let him live!?"

"I don't want to argue right now, I just want to go to Whitestone and finish this bounty."

Eventually, the rest of the pokemon were untied and left the area. There was a silence between all of the pokemon, not even to bring up Flint's change of attitude and the fact that he mutilated someone. Rose was walking next to Kindle now while Flint followed from behind.

'You'll regret this decision!' Echoed the scyther's voice inside Flint's head.

He clenched his eyes, 'No, I won't regret not killing him. I just need to stay calm. Death is not the answer.'

'You should have killed him you know?' Aurora's voice now echoed.

'What good would that have done? Rose already seems slightly scared around me because of my actions. How would she have acted if she saw me kill him? It's just like I told Rose back at the tree inside the cave: she only thinks there's one way to solve a problem.'

'That wasn't you,' echoed Rose's voice.

Flint felt a twinge of pain from those words, 'I know I don't usually get angry, especially that angry. I was only trying to protect her, but I only ended up scaring her, because I went too far. I don't even know what she thinks of me right now. I know she's mad that I dragged her into this bounty hunting thing. She made that more than obvious. Was there a better way to go about things?'

Flint let his thoughts flow from there. He had a lot of confusion and questions. He was too distracted to even realize how much time had passed, it was already night out.

"We're almost there," said Aurora.

"About time, I don't know how much more of this I can put up with," Tesla replied.

"How much further?" Asked Kindle.

"You'll see it after we get to the peak of this cliff we're climbing."

The group had a quick boost of energy, they all gave it one last push to finally reach their desired location. Kindle was the first to the top and was taken away by the sight before her, she didn't even realize that the cliff abruptly ended at the peak and lead to a deathly fall. Aurora and Tesla were the next ones to reach the peak, Tesla enjoyed the view as well while Aurora smirked at their reactions. Rose was next to see the breathtaking city, lastly was Flint who was off to the side a little more. Nonetheless, he shared the same expressions as the rest.

The city was massive, larger than Grassroot and Bark Leaf combined. So big that even combining the two couldn't compare to the sheer size of the metropolis-like city. The cliff acted as the walls of the city as it encircle its entity except for where the water met. Built into the walls of the cliff were plenty of houses and walkways for pokemon to walk along. A lot of the buildings in the city were square shared and looked identical to Greek buildings. There was a dockyard where ships were trading goods between friendly countries, there were even military vessels. Lastly, and most noticeably, was the castle that was carved into the cliff and overlooking the entire city. The castle had three large towers, the middle one being the largest. It was surrounded by a tall wall and guarded by plenty of pokemon.

"Well, guys," began Aurora, "welcome to Whitestone."

"This is great and all," Flint began, "but, how do we enter the city without falling to our deaths?"

"Oh, right, heh, I should probably take you to the entrance which is a pretty lengthy walk around the cliff. Then I'll take you to the castle."

Everyone groaned in unison thinking they were finally done, but now they had to suffer through walking to their last destination and presumably speak with the princess.

In the distance, at the docks, three vessels had just arrived. One of which belonged to Psyche who was currently in his cabin with Nixie. He was going through some paperwork at the moment. He was interrupted when there was a knock on his door.

"Come in," he had said.

Rykon then entered the room, "Still working on the ship's log?"

"Yes, I'm being as precise as possible."

"Huh, well, would you like me to show Nixie around, get her used to the city?"

"No, it's pretty late. I still need to take her to Starshine and register her under our care. She can have a tour of Whitestone tomorrow, or whenever Aurora arrives with some strangers she is bringing along with her."

"You seem slightly busy. I could help you, I'll make sure Nixie here is registered."

"That won't be necessary, there are a couple of things I need to tell her."

"Okay?"

"In private."

This grabbed Nixie's attention, what could he possibly need to tell her in private that he hasn't told her the duration of the trip?

"Oh, well, I'll be on my way. I'll see you later, Nixie," he finished with a bow before leaving.

"What did you need to tell me in private?" Asked Nixie.

"You'll have to wait until we get to the castle, but it could be highly important, just know that."

"Okay?" She replied awkwardly.

"Anyway, we haven't time to lose, I must get you registered after all. If you'd follow me," Psyche said while exiting his cabin while Nixie followed behind.

Meanwhile, in Zerith, a certain pokemon was running through snowy terrain, avoiding colliding with a pine tree. Nightfang had been on the run for the past two days with hardly any breaks. He was running for his life.

'Damn it! She knows!' Nightfang cursed to himself for almost the hundredth time. 'How could I be so stupid! I fell right into her damn trap and now I need to warn them. She knows I gave it to someone, but I can't warn them until I'm sure she's no longer following me.'

He stopped running for a bit and rested against a tree, out of breath. He grabbed a mouthful of snow and let it melt inside his mouth so he could have water. He repeated this a couple of times before sitting down on the snow.

'How did they even find the gem? I shouldn't be surprised though, something with as much power as that couldn't hide from someone as evil as Tenebris. The worse part is that this is only the second of three artifacts he needs. He already infused the royal leader capes with giratina's ashes. That's why the capes let them teleport almost anywhere here in Zerith. Then there's the gem he's after... it has the power to completely brainwash a pokemon. It's like a parasite that eats away any positivity, it's horrifying. After that, he'll initiate the process of finding the third and final artifact. Then... only then-'

"Lost in thought are you?" A female voice said from above him.

He snapped his attention in the direction of her voice and saw Angel laying on a branch with a bored expression.

"Get away from me!" Nightfang yelled before sprinting further into the snowy forest.

He didn't get far as Angel teleported in front of him, "You know, all you have to do is tell me who you gave it to, then you'll be free."

"That's a damn lie I've fellen for far too many times," Nightfang then ran in another direction.

Angel materialized in front of him again, "Come on, Nightfang, don't you want a somewhat normal life back? Back when you were my royal guard and you and I had some benefits with our friendship," she said while emphasizing the word benefits.

"I was blinded from the truth, how can you not see what your doing is going to doom the world!?"

"You've got it all wrong Nightfang, we're doing this to prove a point about natural selection."

"There's nothing natural about what you're doing!" Nightfang then kicked snow into Angel's face before darting off again.

She shook the snow off of her face and grinned to herself, "You can run all you want Nightfang, but there is no escaping your guardian Angel."

Big thank you to AuraCaster for beta reading this chapter.

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