There are a few experiences marginally less painful than swallowing a grenade after the pin has been pulled and counting to twenty, and Akari is convinced that being shunted from Wyrdeer's back and falling ass over teakettle into a banyan sitrus grove, crushing the yellow crocuses under her unwieldy weight, was one of them.
She nursed a brutal sprained wrist afterwards, and a bruised ego as well as a healthy appreciation for riding low and stable on the noble's back, watching his body language to make sure she wouldn't be launched over his shoulder again if the cloven hooves came to a sudden, abrupt, standstill. The nurses had wrapped it tight, and assured her as long as she kept off of using it her hand would heal within a week, but it was still a lesson in humility.
So she let him guide them around, weaving them across craggy, rugged inclines, yearning ever higher for sparkling azure ore deposits. She came to the unwelcome conclusion that much of her supplies would need to be procured by herself- and feather balls were now a concept she had been told about. They were light as their namesake, but hit like they could break bones when shot at an unsuspecting Pokemon, and thus her capture rates for study specimens had dramatically improved.
She let Wyrdeer nimbly leap across expanses, sure footed on even the slightest ledges. Akari learnt to trust the noble in these matters, as she suspected the psychic powers the stag possessed surely helped with these dangerous ascents. She just held on for dear life.
"There!" She spots an outcropping of blue, like fingers reaching to the sky. Another deposit. The noble indulgently makes it over to where she pointed within three jumps, and before she can release Quilava from his ball, the noble shakes his head with a restrained neigh and his horns glow, turning pearly gold to iridescent purple and the outcropping is crushed with a frightening show of psychic prowess. If she didn't know better she'd say the noble was smug, or proud. Akari knew he enjoyed their excursions, which was no doubt why he allowed them. Though a noble's job was to serve as much as it was equally to be served- her little hunting trips no doubt enriched his routine.
Wyrdeer has already selected a choice few highland mountain stream coloured rocks, blue as though cut from the sky itself, and then paused, which had Akari pausing too. He levitated them over, on a cushion of vibrant psychic energy, and she saw an altogether different rock. The stone was faded as she held it up to the light and- yes, she was right. It had a completely liquid inside. Blue glassy, frosted exterior- winter faded and frayed in these cooler temperatures, but inside was a swirling nebula. It glowed with power, slight cracks in the surface worried her the whole thing would burst open, but emanating outward was salt and dark, drunken energy. Her head felt fuzzy, cradling something emanating so much raw power in her good hand.
Wyrdeer's voice sounded in her head, from an imperfect vessel to an eager listener the conversation was always cut with static interference, but they managed. It never occurred to her that a psychic type Pokemon could actually talk with humans, no matter how rudimentarily
"Water Stone." Was his curt observation, and from atop his back Akari stared with awe. There remained a present doubt in her mind- that a stone, no matter how gorgeous or luminous, could be responsible for a process as mesmerising and life-affirming as what Quilava had done. She'd seen evolution several times now in Pokemon she captured briefly and helped evolve to study, and nothing material or worldly was involved in it. The introduction of an item felt- banal.
She abruptly was reminded of Eevee, and her pleasant mood soured. She hadn't been back to see Eevee since she sprained her wrist. Akari returned every day for three days to no sign of the canine, so Akari finally took the hint and fucked off. Eevee obviously wasn't interested and whatever affection they'd built up was for naught. Akari couldn't help but despair though. She hadn't gotten a single Pokemon to join her since she got here. Was she not meant for anyone? Was there something wrong with her? Would she only ever have Quil to rely on?
Wyrdeer cuts though her sombre recollection- "Powerful but. Will crack" The last word was hazy, showing instead a feeling- a wolf growing more and more sluggish, movements slowing. Ah, the stone would not last? It would start losing power now they had unearthed it, is what Wyrdeer was suggesting. Fuck, if only she had a Pokemon that could make use of it.
Well. She could still find an Eevee to give it to, do her research on Vaporeon even though it wouldn't be nearly as fulfilling. She didn't exactly have any better options, and it would be a shame to let this stone go to waste.
"Lord Wyrdeer, could you take us to horseshoe plains? I want to find an Eevee there to give this stone to, before it expires" Her mouth quirks, she isn't sure 'expires' is the right word to use.
He whinnies, correcting course within a fraction of a second, and they're leaping across fox red rocks that governed the topmost part Wyrdeer's domain, down the dark hills- sliding forward on a patch of unstable gravel which has Akari's heart in her throat- and to the glittering river spanned by a single felled oak as a bridge. Too soon they were in the hummocks and pale moring sky coloured pools of the horseshoe plains.
"Thank you Lord Wyrdeer, could you stop here?" She stops him on a declivity leading to a shallow, rainwater pond where Eevee's sometimes gathered. "You'd scare off the Eevee's" she can't help but tease, and he throws his head in mock offense.
She clambers off, not the least bit graceful as she drops to the floor, only narrowly avoiding being winded by gentle tendrils of psychic energy recalibrating her so she remains upright and doesn't eat the ground. She produces a grain cake from her satchel as thanks, having learnt to buy and keep a stock of the cakes to bribe and endear herself to the noble.
She leaves the noble to eat his due and climbs an outcropping of cold granite, careful not to jostle anything. She once clambered up too hastily and a segment of the rock shed itself with a sound like a musket shot, startling all the Pokemon who began a mad scramble away from the horrifying monster who unleased such a sound; a fifteen-year-old girl with hair only barely contained under her headscarf, who had now lost hours of research. Terrifying, truly.
She crests the top of the hill and pauses to observe. Several Bidoof, a Ponyta thoroughly fed up with the other foals if the fireworks display is to be believed, and even a Bibarel. How rare!
Then she sees that which causes her muscles to lock up, and her breath to stick in her throat like thick octopus's ink- a brown shape curled pitifully on a rock Akari had summarily come to know as 'her' rock- the giant Eevee made a sad sight, so collapsed in on herself. Akari wasn't conscious of the descent but it must have happened, as she recognises that she is now in front of the sleeping form of Eevee, hand halfway to touching her.
It wouldn't be a good idea to touch any Pokemon while they were asleep as even the most docile could startle and hurt the average god fearing survey recruit. She pauses, deliberating on how to wake her Eevee up. Well- not her Eevee. The rejection still hurt but after not seeing Eevee for almost a week, she's overjoyed to see the little canine/feline creature alive and well. She doesn't have to wait for long, because Eevee's nose starts twitching- that goddamn sense of smell was insane- and her eyes snap open, warm dark brown and damp like late summer plums and she barely has time to blink before thirty kilograms of sun baked fur launches at her. Akari tried to catch her but with her wrapped wrist she fumbles her, leading to her being laid out flat on her ass with Eevee now squarely on top of her. Eevee stops her joyous greeting when Akari sucked in a muted breath, the Pokemon jostled her wrist and sent a jolt of pain as poignant as a lightning bolt up her arm.
"Epa?" She turned to sniffing Akari's wrist, and perhaps smelling the pain or reading Akari's expression she pressed her ears completely flat against her skull, looking mournful.
"No it's okay girl, I sprained it a couple days ago. Not your fault." The sudden jolt of pain made Akari vaguely nauseous but she ignored it for the sake of asking the question at the forefront of her mind;
"Where did you go? You disappeared on me so suddenly I thought something happened to you, or maybe you hated me-"
She's interrupted by a noise that pretty clearly indicated protest but it was half formed and instinctual, as though Eevee didn't know quite what she was rejecting.
She doesn't further define what Akari said that Eevee is soundly rejecting, merely circling Akari and pawing at her satchel.
"What are you looking for? I don't have any treats for you, sorry girl." Again, Eevee makes a disapproving sound, one that translates roughly to 'you're stupid' and manages to unlatch her satchel. Akari, now invested in whatever the fuck Eevee was rummaging for, empties the satchel's first pockets out- making sure the valuables in the second pocket were kept out of mitten range of this Eevee menace.
Apparently it wasn't needed, as Eevee picks up an object in her mouth that makes Akari's heart thump, once, twice, erratic and off rhythm. If Eevee gives her heart problems she's going to sue. In her mouth is a crudely carved apricorn, one that Akari showed off a week earlier to this self-same Eevee- her first attempt at carving a Pokeball. Akari told Eevee that she would save this Pokeball for her second Pokemon, the first that she adds to the team after being granted Cyndaquil.
Eevee knows the significance of that ball so why was she….
She sets it down in front of Akari with a decisive motion, bapping the top of it. Did she really mean to say….
"Are you sure? You never wanted to before." And Eevee seems patently done with Akari's hesitance, as she pushed the ball closer and into Akari's hand, which lay limp on the ground from shock. Eevee had waited for Akari on her rock and seemed so happy to see her, and now wanted to become part of her team? This was all too good to be true. But again, Akari had an ideal she stuck to and lived by- if a Pokemon wanted to be on her team, or stick by her, she would accept them no matter what. Her own personal Hippocratic oath to help Pokemon regardless of disposition or looks or power or usefulness.
So she picks up the battered and chunky ball with so much personal significance, and opens it and her heart up to Eevee. She disappears in a light that is impossible to describe, one that merely happens and then doesn't- a full creature which reached up to her knees turned into glossy, brittle light. One shake, two, and then there were three. Her, Quilava and Eevee.
Pokemon were not of her earth, and thus were obedient to laws outside of her earth- but when the ball clicked into place and then lay in perfect stillness the emotion she felt was entirely too human. Her eyes brimmed with tears in an embarrassing display of emotion but she couldn't help it- she finally had another Pokemon!
She owned this knowledge with both relief and hysteria. God- she didn't set out to bring another Pokemon into the fold today, and was not thusly prepared for this reality. Now that Eevee came back to her, any affection and familial feeling she had reignited twice as strong, and it's only then that she remembers that she should've asked Quil about her joining the team. He would doubtless accept Eevee, his disappointment and anger at her disappearing was only marginally less than Akari's. She'd just have to introduce them now.
Apparently Eevee has a similar thought, because she pops out of her ball and tackles her with faint pinkish energy, not hurting but enough to slam Akari back into the grass from where she'd sat up. Laughing in tandem ecstasy, she pets Eevee, scratching under her chin like she knows Eevee likes. Having Eevee by her side….. it's exhilarating.
"Hey girl, I've got someone you need to meet now you're a full-fledged member of the team"
Quilava is about as big as Eevee is, though because he keeps his body so low to the ground it doesn't appear so. He manifests with a sort of discrimination he's only developed after evolution. He's proud of his coat, kept glossy and healthy courtesy of Akari and her grooming and meticulous research to customise a diet best suited to his health. He's also stronger, and developed a sense for his own uniqueness- being the only Quilava she's seen around. He appears, scanning for threat but stops in evident shock upon seeing Eevee.
He's not going to be testy, too laid back for that sort of thing, but he remains wary as Akari explains the situation. They circle each other, sniffing at the other but no hostility is evident in either of their bodies- in fact, Eevee seems happy about Quil's evolution, already asking for a battle. This girl and her competitiveness. Akari can't help but be fond of her, and she knew Eevee would be twice as obnoxious about her evolution as Quil was.
Vee was proving to be an ornery bastard, upon discovering in their first training match that Quil had learnt psychic type moves courtesy of Wyrdeer's schooling and had demanded to be taught as well. Lord Wyrdeer had surveyed her, taken her request into consideration and agreed, seeming to have liked something about Eevee's adamant, relentless disposition.
Each move had a type- Akari recalled, but what surprised her was the elasticity she saw thus far from her Pokemon in regards to learning type moves that were not innate to them. Quilava had taken to harnessing psychic energy like a duck to water- his fire flared whenever he concentrated on Psychic, or attempted a Psybeam, which Akari found endlessly endearing. Wyrdeer refused to teach them his signature 'Psyshield Bash' but she could probably formulate their own version of such a move…
Eevee had a harder time grasping the psychic type moves, nor could she really learn any of Quil's fire type moves either, all her adaptability besides. Ghost type moves were out of the question for her, while Quilava took to Shadow Ball with a swiftness that shocked her- for a pure fire type he was very good at learning esoteric type moves.
"It's alright baby, take a break" She saw Vee about to protest, contrary to the end.
"You did good. Exhausting yourself won't help. It's only been two days since you started." To have not made much progress, energy snapping and bucking wildly out of Eevee's control, frustrated the mercurial Pokemon to no end.
Akari idly ran her thumb over the water stone in her pocket, fingers catching on the cracks which grew to cover the entire stone by now. The liquid inside remained unchanged, still glowing with power- but once the outer casing cracked open all of that energy would dissipate.
"Have you thought about what you want to evolve into Vee? Maybe cross out Espeon" She tries to joke, petting Eevee in a comforting motion. She tilts her head in confusion at the non-sequitur.
"Maybe weird types like ghost or psychic would come easier to you if you weren't a normal type. Just a thought." Vee knew her only weakness right now was fighting types, and a solid psychic type attack could kneecap a fighting type mon'.
She wants to offer Vee the water stone, but this wasn't just some random Eevee. She didn't want to force her into settling into a single evolution for the rest of her life, didn't want to influence her. But she did want to leave the option open to her. She'd accept anything Vee wants to evolve into, or if she doesn't want to evolve at all- even if she wants to be a Flareon just to spite Quil.
Eevee doesn't say anything, content to ponder the question for a bit before shaking her head- an unmistakable 'no'. This could be good. She could have her cake and eat it too, given she doesn't fuck this up. Tall order.
"Hey girl. I was going to offer this to you but I don't want you to feel pressured into evolving at all. I will love you always, whether you evolve or not, whether you fight or not. I…"
She makes a sound that doesn't have a close human translation but revolved around a concept she had to learn resided mostly within Pokemon psyche. It means Akari does not expect anything in return- for what? No definite answer, but in the context of their relationship Akari will give Eevee trust, her heart, a safe home and protection- for which Eevee owes her nothing. Akari is implying a dynamic here wherein Akari is the stable anchor that offers all this, to which Eevee is bound by no obligation. It's a statement not many Pokemon make, nor humans for that matter. It has weight, and actively disadvantages the speaker.
As she says this she pulls the water stone from her pocket, offering it cupped in her hands. Eevee stares at her in undisguised shock. The speech was a lot, admittedly, but Akari felt the need to prove to Eevee that her acceptance and love on the team was in no way decided by bullshit like how well she fought, nor was she going to be forced to evolve into something for 'type coverage' or whatever the fuck.
Eevee's eyes are rich and wet, liquid chocolate staring up at her with undeniable affection- she shakes her head as if to clear it etch-a-sketch style. Eevee in not at her core, a creature of hesitance or indecision, and as she approached the stone there is some slight lessening to the quality of sunlight, clouds more oppressive than before without discernible cause. A rumbling sound brewed from the converging clouds, and the air grew heavy with the earthy twilight smell of rain on dry ground. It was a strange phenomenon that Akari had no time to comment on because soon enough Eevee lifted her paw onto the stone in a parallel to what she did with the Pokeball- for the second time in a week. To the onlooker one could not tell who was higher status here, Akari kneeled before the Eevee, completely passive but human at the end of the day. Eevee was undoubtedly animal. Gentle onlooker, were you witness to the chains binding them together tightening more firmly in place, or a liberation?
It was both, a silent agreement to stay forever at Akari's side, an opportunity for Eevee to gain independence should she ever leave. Eevee is soon enveloped by a pure, dizzying white glow and Akari is suddenly reminded of that faceless, formless vast thing in the empty darkness, the complete stillness and homogeneity of the dead silent void a source of vague horror to Akari. The stone shatters in her hands, shards not digging into her palms like she expected but becoming soft, malleable like plastic. The liquid disappears within the white uniform light and the wind picks up, coalescing on Eevee who hitherto stood stalwart against the buffeting winds, now stumbles as limbs elongate- bones cracking and stretching or ceasing to be entirely.
A long tail unfurls and she grows all round, and even with the glow and wind Akari can tell she reaches at least her mid-thigh now, probably more. The whipcord thin trees rattle in the wind, and grass is uprooted as the light undulates, gradually fading to reveal a phosphorous cold form who shook herself off, droplets of emerald green water arced in each direction in fiery patterns, a frosty display of flame-like wisps of light- water running in rivulets off of the newly created Vaporeon.
She looked semi-transparent, as though you could stick your hand into her surface and drag it across to create a ribbon of rippling fire much as you would on the surface of a lake. The light reflected and refracted on her to such a degree that it seemed as though in the eye of the day there were suddenly a million different fireflies. She solidifies, boneless free moving form calcifying with sinew and muscles that corded together as she emerged.
Eevee -shit no- Vaporeon looks at her with taut muscles and leaps at her with the oddly disjointed grace of a puppet- long muzzle displaying a vulpine pleasure that was quite unaffected by Akari's terror. She's hit with sixty kilos of faintly scaled saltwater scented mutt, and though she's braced for it she's pushed backwards, gouging the dewy grass as her shoes dig in for purchase. Vaporeon is all over her in excitement, rough tongue scraping Akari's face with such vigour she's afraid of friction burn.
"Vee, Vee! Stop it girl!" She's laughing, exasperated but on the whole so entirely happy and only making the laziest protestations against Vaporeon's machinations. She too eventually exhausted herself and lay, eyes still gleaming and tail idly flicking to and fro as though with the gentle pulse of the sea. No doubt soon enough she would challenge Quil, and he'd have to assert his position as first and best of Akari's team by winning despite the type advantage. She wouldn't be surprised if Vaporeon chose her evolution partially just to have the advantage over Quilava.
She ran her hand absently along the spine frill, which was surprisingly unyielding, much more solid than the membrane Akari was expecting. Eevee's were said to be the most adaptable type of Pokemon, it did not surprise her that even a settled evolution could be so malleable. She's glad Vee still works as a nickname, being possibly the only evolution this could work with still.
They sat there in the empty plain, silent and sleepy in the brilliant shower of sunlight now the clouds retreated. The air was the warmth of late spring and Vaporeon had crawled to lay on Akari, a toasty coverlet that was slowly crushing her to death.
"Okay, off off off girl. You're massive now." She struggles to shove the Pokemon off of her, who suddenly went limp and boneless in protest. There's a level of levity and joy in the air as tangible as a draught of wind and Akari can't help the grin splitting her face in half.
The village was filled with people who looked at Akari the way one might a coyote and she tried to not let it get to her because the atmosphere of the village was not cold in and of itself but it was drab, without the typical sounds or smells she was used to in a small town; the cluck of hens and barking, frothy mouthed dogs- women and men bargaining without a decibel upper limit, the smell of freshly raised bread and the heady, amber-warm smell of the livestock; Akari remembers this whenever she went to visit her grandmother on her father's side. She misses her family, and the small village that didn't object to her on principle of her falling from the fucking sky. She can't help it. Though most don't know her origins as an unidentified falling object, just her being an outsider.
The only thing that remedies the situation is actually something Akari can and does actively contribute to- Pokemon. She received semi-shy, wary requests from people, either via the professor or directly to her face as they recognised her talents in Pokemon surveying. They're varied, from a mother of two, Radisha, who wanted a pickling stone who Akari then paired off with a particularly lazy and laid back Geodude, to giving the soft doe-eyed security guard named Beauregard a Wurmple. The splash of vermillion red faithfully stuck by the guard who now greeted Akari enthusiastically instead of the default politeness made her inordinately happy.
Slowly, ever so slowly, the village was growing both closer to Pokemon and more similar to the small Corfu village her grandmother inhabited. Now some people weren't apprehensive whenever she had Quilava out (him being the smaller and less intimidating of the two) and some were actually interested in her exploits. The mission she picked out for herself was one handed off to the professor. She had taken to hanging out in his office with Oshawott and Rowlet, often leaving them handfuls of berries. A member of the Supply Corps had spotted an wierdly coloured Ponyta that Akari was asked to investigate. She suspects that it might be an alternate form, much like Burmy.
She's hesitant to take Vaporeon on this mission with her, who since her evolution a couple of days ago has been speedy on the uptake of psychic moves and had learnt Water Pulse. She was testy, moved with jagged uncertain insectoid movements and was not yet settled into her skin as a Vaporeon. She'd underestimate or overestimate her reach because even with much of the body's ambulatory actions being intuitive, moves were not so much. Fine motor control with her telekinetic psychic powers was non-existent and she had not yet learnt Aqua Tail, nor any moves that took advantage of her incredible natural bulk, dense muscles and a dexterous powerful tail topped with a caudal fin.
Despite all this she was indiscriminately confrontational from a nature borne of her new, superior size and her pre-existing antagonistic tendencies being superimposed atop each other. The horseshoe plains this Ponyta undoubtedly resided in was the nexus of all of Vee's overcompensation, because there resided the vast, monolith creature, pawing and baying- head bowed and mouth frothing with vile hatred which then flung itself upwards upon sighting another creature near it, gigantic cloven hooves caving in the spine of whatever idiotic lesser being wandered too close. That Rapidash terrified Akari, and to Vaporeon with its new assurance in her own superiority and swayed by the type advantage- it would be an irresistible challenge.
But. She had to trust her Pokemon. Rei was improving his relationship with Pikachu, both of them making progress with the trust exercises Akari had set being mostly successful. She did not want to be a hypocrite in this, she had to talk to Vaporeon and trust that her Pokemon would listen to reason. She just had to think of it as a high stakes trust exercise.
She still doesn't however let Vee out till they actually reach the fieldlands camp. Vaporeon would be a good pick here, due to her being entirely invisible in the water that guides them to the horseshoe plains she is the subtler of Akari's Pokemon, and her water typing makes the Ponyta's think twice before attacking.
The Pokeball hanging on her belt shakes in excitement as Akari picks it up, and she quickly unlatches it so Vaporeon can materialise. She does in fact reach beyond Akari's waist now, more alike a timber wolf in size despite her feline constitution. If she stood on two legs she'd be as tall as Akari, which is frankly disturbing. The games always made the Eevee line look like lap dogs or house cats, not wolves.
"Hi girl, we have a task we need to research in the horseshoe plains." She clarifies when Vee tilts her head at Akari in askance. Vaporeon immediately whips her head in that direction, eyes going flinty.
"I wanted to level with you first. I know you want to challenge that Alpha Rapidash but I don't think we're ready yet. I don't feel confident facing it. Please come with me and just do what I say?" She doesn't quite plead at the end, but the thought of that oversized monster from her nightmares scares her a fair bit. Vaporeon sets her jaw mulishly for a moment, then magnanimously nods her assent. Thank god.
She chats idly to Vee while they make their way over, both of them betting on what they think the cause of the off-colouration was. Vaporeon bet it was illness in opposition to Akari's alternate form view. She assumes this endeavour would take a while, and was certain the payoff would be valuable regardless, she really did hope it was just another variant.
"Alright girl- we're close by. Don't go running off now, we've got a job to do."
Vee rolls her eyes and melts into a puddle nearby as Akari posts up against a tufted cypress, sweet earthy smell filling her nostrils. They set off in early morning, before the sun reached its zenith and the pale gray morning sky filled with sweet birdsong. She doesn't know which Pokemon sang so sweetly, or if they were Pokemon at all. The Ponyta would wonder by once the sun began to break over the horizon, the warmth drawing the fire types out to revel.
As the sun moved across the heavens Vaporeon entertains herself with fine-tuning her hydrokinesis, thin tendrils of water rising and falling without any bodily input from Vee. Akari sketches her as she does so, enjoying the highly unserious actions of her mon.
It takes an hour for the Ponyta to appear, several older ones leading the herd before all of them disperse, drinking and grazing without care. Akari can't see any of them being ill, or patterned differently. After twenty or so minutes something catches her eye- a jewel bright sparkle of impossibly blue flames, like a river of fire atop the back of a pure white foal. It had to have been born very recently, skinny and staggering as though unused to the mechanics of quadrupedal movement. It seems shy and reticent, wandering close to a gathering of Ponyta by a pool and several of the older ones whinny, ears pressed flat- biting at it and kicking their back legs to make the malnourished little foal back off.
Are they chasing it off for being sick? Or was the colouration itself the issue? She wanted to observe for longer, but when a kick landed squarely in its neck and she hears it get winded and gasp in oxygen she jumps, motioning for Vaporeon who had been watching this entire scene play out. She leaps out of the water, all fluid action and musculature and then, suspended mid-air as though still in the water, she lets loose a barrage of water jets, each aimed not to hurt but to get the attacking Ponyta to back off.
All the while Akari dashed forward, Pokeball readied in hand and let loose with marksman precision as the startled Ponyta scatter and stampede around. The ball flies true and the off-coloured Ponyta is soon disappearing in a lightshow, safe from the rampage of its kin. Vee struts forward smugly, pleased at their blatant show of power, while Akari approaches the stationary Pokeball. She honestly thought it wouldn't stay put, the ball was mostly to get it safely away from the stampede, she didn't have any intention of catching it just then.
She can't say she's upset about it, poor baby looked sickly thin and had open sores all over, probably from the other ponies nipping it. She's more and more convinced it might be sick, which means she owes Vee a considerable sum of money. It probably got rejected by its mother for the unusual colouring, or for being ill and thus not worth the effort to sustain.
"Hey little guy. You seem unwell. Do you want to stay with me until you get a bit healthier?" She honestly doesn't think it will respond but the ball wiggles a bit and it doesn't seem to want to get out. Huh. She clips the ball to her belt- she will leave it in the village pastures and work on rehabilitating it, maybe training it up a bit so it can fend for itself once she releases it.
Vaporeon strides up to her, all cocky self-assurance and wolfish sly amusement when there comes a howling from beyond the eminence surrounding them from the eastern side, deep sardonic barked out sounds heard clearly even though the terror responsible for making them must have been hundreds of meters away and she sees every muscle of Vaporeon's body tense, locked into position and eyes gaining a manic gleam. She bares her teeth in an unconscious threat display, hackles raising.
"No. Vee, you can't. It's too strong for us to take on." Even as she says the firm denial she knows she picked the wrong words, Vee didn't like the be reminded of her weaknesses. "Please just come back to your ball." Pleasing usually worked, Vaporeon yielded to her trainer if she asked genuinely or earnestly enough. And she did hesitate, unable to look into Akari's yearning eyes. But just as soon as she took a step forward, her mind changed as she heard the discordant baying start up again.
When Vaporeon lunges forward, Akari is not given time accordingly to react and she manages to snag her Pokeball out of Akari's hand, dashing off with it in her mouth, headed straight for the stones forming a rough semicircle in which the gargantuan monster of Akari's nightmares stood. Fuck. Shit.
Akari is much slower than her Pokemon, who's ground-eating bounds meant she was almost by the stone circle while Akari struggles to catch up, landscape blurring by her and ears blocking all noise bar her heartbeat as loud as a tom drum. It takes her about thirty seconds to reach them.
There is a mighty flare of fire so potent the air fills with acrid smoke and the very light quality changes, as the fire paints the sky a muted red Akari has to look away to not have her vision go spotty. She skidded to the blasted heath, the air rippling with strange vapour and with pure heat, grey ash already blowing about in the wind from where a maw opened flamethrower to guzzle up the surrounding vegetation. The sunlight grew oppressive and Akari feels no small amount of dread as she beheld this sick scene; Vaporeon backed up against a blackened boulder in the midst of a roaring inferno, skin dry and flaky, breath laborious and hurt in numerous immeasurable ways while the Rapidash looks barely winded. It was a scene out of hell.
The closer Akari got the more the smoke seared her airways, her mouth dried till her salvia became thick as glue and she could not move out of some vestigial instinct that warned her, an uncanny recognition of primal threat she hitherto had never dealt with, that if she moved her death was inevitable. However, in moments of pure terror, where the mind becomes overwhelmed to the point of abandoning sanity, humans are capable of disregarding all self-preservation instinct.
She sees Vaporeon let out a weak jet stream of water that does nothing but irritate the hulking, seething vortex of fire vaguely assembled in the shape of a horse, vile eyes alight with madness, thin membrane covering them washing it red and watery. An entire house or hill cantered in her direction, reared up to the size of a mountain- fuck- and its snarling muzzle yawned wide, a furnace building within. This unsticks Akari's feet and smoke ventures deeper into her lungs, restricting all breath but she moves, more conviction filling her bones than ever before. She can't drag Vee to safety, but if she can just find her fucking Pokeball before she gets her skull caved in…..
Akari sprints forward, one step, another, one more, and she knows she's too late. The Rapidash slams cloven feet into the ground and then alongside the ground coming loose and airborne, lets out a spout of fire so Akari does the only thing she can think of.
She throws herself bodily over her supine Pokemon and scrambles to find the Pokeball despite the fire licking her back. There is no sensation for a moment, the fire surprisingly cold against her spine, then-
An agonising, violent force tore through her body, her muscles locking and nerves writhing. It was as though someone poured hot, molten lava down her back- it lasted a whole century in which her flesh sloughed off her bones and she was seared to her very core. Her breath no longer came at all, air too arid and dry for her tears to fall and her hands still scrambles for the Pokeball- where the FUCK was it? – which then close around an object that jars her whole arm, blisteringly hot. She tries frantically to remove her hand but finds it cramped shut around this thing. The only balm in this situation is that she knows the hose-spray of fire had shut off, though everything is dark and black and she can't fucking see, and Eevee- Vaporeon- fuck- disappears beneath her. That was the Pokeball? She stumbles upright, hand still incapable of letting go of the searing hot object and she could not tell which way she was facing, or if the moisture now gathering on her body was sweat or blood, or if she was even alive at all. Every nerve lit up in pure agony.
Her clothes were on fire. Why the fuck were there still flames? She needs to find water. There's a river. Where was the river?
She can't see nor hear anything beyond her own thin, wheezing breaths as she moves, crawls, stumbles, towards the crystal clear heavenly body of water. Something hits the side of her head, or maybe she trips, or maybe she was dead all along- but the shock of the cold water against her sweltering taut skin immediately overwrites all other sensation, and she passes out from shock, facedown in the water.