[Part 1]
Things were bad. Things were REALLY bad, if not outright terrible. Just atrocious. And all because she was too preoccupied with the human intruders to pay enough attention to her surroundings. Hell, she didn't even THINK that the dragon would get the bright idea to follow her. How?! She should've known better, given how bored and curious that girl probably was after so many days of just sitting around and trying to recover, with an occasional brief chat! So of bloody course Inabayama followed her to the village at the base of the mountain, and witnessed her dealing with the intruders, and that one Pokemon in a, by Pokemon standards, grotesquely violent manner!
And Hiei wasn't oblivious. She knew just how terrifying she could be, even without trying. And back at the village, she WAS terrifying. She knew she had to be. Not to scare the humans, of course - who cares if they're scared when they are dead? Rather, for the sake of Pokemon, both living in the village, and the ones she just freed. The former saw the strongest, scariest monsters on THEIR side, and that alleviated the rest of their fears and worries. The latter saw said monster making an example of one of their own, and that made sure that they behaved properly. Which was exactly as she intended. Except then, as she turned, she saw that look of a newborn kit facing a ravenous predator on the dragon's face.
Inabayama did not give an impression of someone being easily scared. She saw and performed her own share of violence, after all. Some of the stories of her misadventures were impressively violent, even by Hiei's standards. And yet, the Gardevoir had managed to scare the dragon by wielding a degree of force that should've been far outside the realm of physical possibility. And after a few days of talking to her in a relatively casual manner, Hiei couldn't stand the thought of the dragon being scared of her. Just the idea felt wrong for some reason.
Which is why, she decided not to go down the mountain for a few days. Give the Goodra some time to calm down. Maybe she wouldn't be counting seconds to her imaginary demise after these few days.
The King of the Mountain still did not understand fully why she went to such degrees to accommodate her guest, but maybe she would be able to figure it out by the end of this timeout.
[Part 2]
And once again, Inabayama had troubles sleeping at nights because of her brain being an annoying little shit. But this time, it kept rewinding time back to the Pokemon village. To how Hiei seemingly vaporised the humans into bloody mist with a mere gesture. How she offhandedly crunched the head off the yellow mouse while shrugging off their futile attacks. How her eyes dangerously glinted with the promise of an inescapable death. How she looked absolutely impassive and casual all the while.
And Arceus, did those memories do things to the Goodra. Made her mind run a thousand steps a second, seemingly jumping at random to what Hiei could do to HER. To how those claws could easily rend her apart. To how those arms could mercilessly choke her out. To how those jaws could pierce through her hide, flesh and bone like it was nothing. To how those crimson eyes could instantly end her in a flash of overwhelming, vaporising pain. And maybe, just maybe, Gardevoir's ability to kill did not even end there!
And it was EXCITING.
It was WONDERFUL.
It was BEAUTIFUL.
To say she was giddy in her anticipation of their next meeting, of the next time she could see that gorgeous, beautiful, dangerous woman, would've been an absolute understatement. Inabayama's heart was beating like crazy, disrupting any attempt to fall asleep up until her mind finally tired itself into passing out, only to dream those same thoughts and memories through the entire night.
And then, the next day greeted her with nothing. Despite her waiting patiently until the sun crossed the sky and hid behind the horizon, Hiei didn't come down the mountain.
Dejectedly, Inabayama went to sleep, only to fall into the same deep pit of memories and thoughts as last night. And then, she awoke to a practically identical day as the last time. The Gardevoir did not come down the mountain.
The excitement slowly transforming into longing by the end of the second day, the dragon went back to the building where she had been sleeping, wondering why the King of the Mountain did not come for their usual chat two days in a row.
Did dealing with those humans and the mouse tire her out too much? The dragon couldn't tell how tiresome it would've been to vaporise three human bodies, and she had no point of reference there, just speculation. Or… Was she mad at Inabayama for following her to the village? That place wasn't technically off-limits, she's been with the Gardevoir the entire time, and she was not told NOT to go there, but… Maybe there was an obvious rule she forgot or missed?
The Goodra… Was honestly hoping that Hiei wasn't mad at her. Though maybe that was preferable to the King of the Mountain falling sick or something - oh crap, did she get sick? What if Inabayama had to come up the mountain and nurse that clearly malnourished lady back to relative health?! Maybe… Maybe she REALLY needed to disregard that rule about not coming to the mountaintop this one time, just to know that the Gardevoir was still okay, and-
Suddenly, the dragon stopped and ducked, following a gut feeling.
A mere moment later, a light beam grazed through the air right where her head just was.
She snapped her attention to the side to find five relatively strong-looking Pokemon in what looked like a battle formation surrounding a… Human?..
Was they here for her? Or for Hiei?
She quickly raised her foot for a groundbreaking stomp, only to curse and abandon that idea for a mad dash towards the enemy. Causing a displacing earthquake would break at LEAST one or two rules set by Hiei. She also had to avoid using trees for cover, meaning she had to quickly reach close quart-
The air in front of her erupted in a wall of ice shards, harshly cutting at her hide, and making her stumble. That must've been that blue long-necked frilled lizard. The lizard that was then sidestepped by another Goodra that quickly breathed a laser beam at her, which she narrowly dodged, only to be hit by a leg swipe from a big, red lizard with a rocky hide, claws cutting into her side. That hurt!
She grabbed the red one by the leg, swung them overhead and slammed against the ground a couple of times (she could've sworn she heard their neck break at the second impact), and then planned to throw the massive thing at the blue one to take the ice shooter out - but a laser blast from an enemy Goodra (so THAT'S who shot first!), accompanied by a ghostly splash from a flying pumpkin appearing next to her made her flinch, dropping the improvised projectile a few metres away from her.
Still, one down. Four to go.
Snarling at the pain, Inabayama whipped her head, grabbing a white-red-green bird that tried to body slam her out of air with both of her prehensile horns (nobody expects prehensile horns!), and used the opponent as a body shield against another wall of ice shards and a laser breath, the combined force shredding the poor thing asunder.
Two down, three to go.
And at this very moment, the mountain shrieked.
The air shook around them, freezing the blood in their veins and causing the battle to suddenly halt in the face of an overwhelming, unknown terror. Inabayama herself, managing a guess at what was happening, jumped back from the enemies (which was probably a good idea, even though most of them were ranged fighters), as the silent forest seemingly came to life, the canopy frantically shaking closer and closer, as if something was rapidly approaching them.
And then, a demonic figure of flowing white and dark and glowing crimson red descended upon them, looking at the human in pure, overwhelming, primal fury.
A clawed hand swatted at the blue lizard that was in the way, instantly smearing it across next fifty meters. The flying pumpkin spat several seeds that meekly crashed against an invisible barrier, and then was lit like a blazing bonfire at a dismissive wave of a hand. And then, the enemy Goodra threw herself in front of the human in order to protect them.
At this, the demonic figure stood still for a few moments, flashes of some other emotions briefly surfacing from beneath the feral rage, as she tried to look for SOMETHING in that Goodra, that was too terrified to move otherwise.
Oh. Was… Was she only half-awake?..
"Uhh… Hiei, I'm here" Inabayama took a risk to speak up, the scarlet eyes immediately snapping to her "And I didn't bring them here? I think"
The recognition instantly flashed in the Gardevoir's eyes, cutting through mental fog and finally waking her up, and she mercilessly and swiftly bisected the enemy Goodra with her claws, then turning her gaze towards the human. The human that, clearly in a state of panic, released one last Pokemon, and then turned tail, while giving it a command.
Not them. It.
This time, it was a monstrosity of sleek white and green steel with glowing purple eyes and a crystal through its chest. Both of its arms wielding energy blades of that same purple colour, while white sheets of steel around its waist nearly reached the ground.
It was a revolting, human-made, mechanical mockery of Hiei's appearance, mixed with something else entirely.
Inabayama felt sick.
And then, as she noticed the look in Hiei's eyes, Inabayama was worried.