It's Just a Question
Every part of Nip's body ached.
He was no stranger to hard work; keeping the tribe's resting grounds clean and tidy was by no means easy. And on rare occasions, more involved hunts and tasks kept him away from the resting grounds for days. But dragging around materials more than twice his size for hours on end with only a short break in the middle? Slicing and chopping wood for so long it made his paws bleed? No, that was not normal. But it was his new routine. And now, he found himself exhausted at the end of every day.
Somehow, he figured that was the point. Afterall, he knew far too well that an exhausted pokemon caused no trouble.
As usual, the day's work continued as the sun crawled its way across the sky, until it was nearly dark out.
"Aight, I think that's about enough for the day."
The diggersby's call announced the end to the grueling work. At once, Nip breathed out a relieved sigh, sinking to the ground before flopping his back. The dirt be damned, he was already dirty; what was a bit more? By now, the shadows were long, and the sky had grown a deep orange. Scattered, puffy clouds were tinged crimson as they drifted across the sky. Some pokemon back in his tribe would consider the color an ill omen. He didn't know whether he should, as well.
He heard footsteps approaching and instinctually tensed, trying to sit back up. But his aching muscles protested, leaving him prone as the form of a quagsire loomed over him.
"Are you about done moping around? I'd like to head back and lock up for the night."
Nip bit back a stinging retort, trying to hide his annoyance behind only the twitch of his ear. Best to not make things worse than he already had today. Rolling first onto his side, then onto his stomach, Nip peeled himself from the ground, climbing slowly to his feet.
As they began to walk away from the daycare and back towards the guard hut, he kept his head down, not interested in seeing the stares and leers of any village pokemon that might be going about their business at this hour.
The walk back towards the guard hut was fairly short; most places that weren't dens – or houses, or whatever weird made-up word the villagers used for their weird shelters – were all together in a ring, taking a few minutes at most to reach, and the hut was no exception.
He came to a stop just outside the fabric barrier, listening to the quagsire follow behind. His ear feather twitched irritably as he waited. On one hand, the whole arrangement annoyed him, spending night after night in a dank cell, curling up in a corner in hopes of keeping warm in the drafty building. How did these pokemon stand it, being in such a wide-open chamber with only one narrow exit?
On the other hand, he couldn't blame them for keeping him somewhere where he couldn't run. He'd already tried finding a way out of the barred cell, striking at the metal with his claws and ice, to no avail. And it wasn't the worst place he could be. Even if he couldn't run, at least Umbra couldn't get to him here.
At least, he hoped not. If she could, well, he was like a cornered rattata.
And that didn't even touch on the diet he'd been given thus far. Whisper claimed that he'd eventually have money to purchase meat, but he wasn't sure he believed that. He wasn't sure that she wasn't slowly starving him to death, enacting the only form of revenge the village had allowed.
The quagsire - Slies, if he remembered the name correctly - paused just behind him, waiting for him to keep going. When he did not, Slies scoffed and reached up to pull the curtain aside. Nip let out a resigned sigh and stepped inside.
The guard hut was one of the larger buildings, built with a second level. He had no idea what was on top, but the bottom was furnished with only a low, wooden platform, a couple of nests for the guards or any visitors to rest in, and three cells of varying sizes.
Typically, the bottom floor was empty at this time of day, or at most might have a single guard waiting for him and his watcher to return. But tonight, someone else, someone familiar was waiting in one of the nests.
A lump of brown fur raised up as they entered, alerted by the rustling of the fabric.
"Eh? Haru? What are you doing here?" Slies asked. "Everything alright? I hope you haven't been waiting here long."
"Long? Oh, no, no, not at-" Haru cut herself off with a yawn, blinking a few times. "Not at all. I just, er… and this might sound a bit weird I guess, but I kind of wanted to ask the, um… I wanted to ask Nip a couple questions. Is that okay?"
"Him?" Slies tilted his head, thumping his tail against the wooden floor a couple times. "Well, I mean, I guess it's alright, go ahead."
"Thanks. Of course." But then she said nothing, just staring at Nip, then back to Slies. "Um… I know you have to keep an eye on him and all, but… do you mind giving me a minute of privacy? Maybe you could… just guard the entrance? There's no windows or anything for him to escape through."
"I dunno about that Haru… What if he takes you hostage or something? That could be just as bad."
Nip felt almost insulted by the suggestion. "Do you really think I would do something as cowardly as that?"
"You stole an egg," the quagsire pointed out. "I wouldn't put anything past you."
At that, Nip could only clench his teeth, his ear lying flat against his skull. He understood why they were upset, but death and cruelty were just facts of life, and he was only doing what he thought he had to for survival. How would taking Haru hostage help with that? In fact, it was more likely to get him killed.
He didn't air his thoughts though, not wanting to risk a blast of frigid water to the face. Or worse.
Slies continued to give them a hard stare, but when Haru did not budge, he sighed and gave in. "Fine, Fine. Just for a few minutes though! I'll be right outside. Give me a shout if you need me. "And you"—he turned to face Nip, thumping his heavy tail on the ground a couple times in a threatening manner—"you better be on your best behavior."
Nip said nothing, but forced himself to relax slightly, his tail feathers twitching.
With that, Slies brushed back past the curtain, leaving Nip and Haru alone in the room.
At first, Haru still said nothing, her gaze shifting to the ground. Nip shifted his weight uncomfortably in the silence, watching her without a word. "Well, what is it that you needed to ask so bad?"
"Just a second," she said quickly. "I'm trying to figure out how to word it." The silence stretched on for just a bit longer, before she finally sucked in a breath and answered. "I just… I don't get it. What's your problem?"
He blinked. "What's… What's my problem?"
"Yeah." She looked back up. "How can you live with yourself, turning on and hurting the pokemon that took you in and saved your life? You killed someone's child. Do you realize that? Or are you just morally bankrupt?"
Nip scrunched his nose at the start of a snarl, her sharp words stinging. This is what she came here for? To insult him and ask questions that he had already answered? He forced his fur to lie flat before replying. "That's… Death is inevitable. Whether it be at the hands of a hungry predator, or because your prey struck back. Or any sort of horrible accident. And at some point, you just have to accept it. You have to accept that you must kill to live, or you have to accept that the world isn't safe, and that others might hunt you for food. Sometimes it's both. It's terrifying, I will admit. But it's just the way life works."
Haru blinked a couple times, seemingly stunned by his response. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, he couldn't tell. But finally, her gaze hardened. "So that's it, you justify your actions because that's just the way the world works? What a terrible excuse."
"Well, I'd like to hear what you think then. Do you really think searching for unfortunates and letting your carnivore friends eat what amounts to carrion is healthy? That it's right? Do you really believe that it actually works that way?"
"Yes? That's the agreement every pokemon has to live by, to be able to live in a civilized society. They don't hunt and kill other pokemon, and in turn, they have access to all the resources and materials living in a town provides. Simple enough."
"You can't really believe that's sustainable, do you?"
"Why wouldn't it be, it's worked for all these years."
"How do you know though?" Nip asked, tapping his claws together. "You don't seem like you've bothered keeping up with any of that. Have you ever even bothered asking and finding out?"
"I don't need to," Haru insisted. "It's written into our laws and rules. If there was something shady going on, surely someone would have done something about it by now."
Nip opened his mouth to say something more, but shut it, sensing that this wasn't an argument he was going to win. Instead, he just let out a huff of air and returned back to the first subject.
"Fine. Let me try explaining another way. I…" He trailed off, hesitating. How much was he willing to share? On one hand, he'd already spilled most of his story, and he doubted hiding anything now would matter. On the other, he was still hesitant to tell the whole story, seeing how she'd reacted thus far. There were still things about his life that he doubted she would take well. And he feared the idea of losing this last chance at life if he said the wrong thing.
"Well? I'm waiting. And you know what, let me ask you another question while I'm at it. Why did you steal an egg, when you could have just gone a little bit further out of town and stolen from the meat shop?" Then she quickly added, "Not that I'm encouraging theft, but theft is less heinous than murder."
"I already answered this," he growled, quickly growing frustrated. "I honestly thought that it was my best option. In the moment, I was concerned with getting away as quickly as possible. For all I knew, Umbra could have already reached the village and was just waiting for me to show myself."
"And you really think she would kill you in the middle of the village? Or at all?"
"Yes!" Why couldn't anyone else see Umbra for how dangerous and aggressive she was? "If it wasn't for the guards here, she would sneak in and kill me right now, I'm sure of it. And if she had caught me alone in the village then, well, if she didn't kill me where I stood, she'd at least drag me off into the woods and kill me there."
"Because of what you did in your tribe?" Haru hesitated for a moment, pawing nervously at the straw. "…I'm going to be honest Nip, based on everything you two have said, I can't totally blame her for wanting you dead, even if I don't agree with handling things like that."
Nip recoiled. Was she serious? Did she wish him dead too? He drew his paws down his face, trying to keep his emotions in check. "No. Well, yes, but also no. She wanted me dead from the moment we were paired together, because she saw herself as too valuable to be paired with a scrawny, runty sneasel for a mate."
He sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly, then began to pace, his ear lying flat against his skull as he grew more and more irritated. "But she couldn't just kill me, could she? That would just get her thrown out of the tribe instead. So, she went out of her way to make my life a walking nightmare. Do you have any idea what it's like to be kicked out of your home on a cold winter's night? To be forced to find shelter elsewhere as a blizzard bears down on you? To day in and day out be scared to leave home, for fear of someone taking their anger out on you? To have everyone look down on you and view you as a disappointment? Because if not, then you have no right to judge me. And if that's all you came here to do, you might as well just leave."
Satisfied with his response, Nip turned and took a few steps away, turning his back towards the door. It would be so easy to knock her over and make a mad dash to freedom right now, but what good would it do him, breaking out in the middle of the square with too many pokemon still around? Umbra would just chase him down again, and he'd be back to life on the run.
He expected Haru to turn and leave, but he never heard the sound of retreating pawsteps or of rustling fabric. When the silence stretched on for far too long for comfort, he turned to glance back, and caught sight of Haru still standing in the same spot, staring at the ground with an unreadable expression.
"Did you have something else to gripe at me about?"
Haru was startled out of her thoughts, jumping at the sound of his voice. She blinked once, then spoke hesitantly. "I just… I don't get it. I can't figure you out. You're ungrateful and cold-hearted and act like you did nothing wrong. And yet you're just serving your sentence like you want to change. Why haven't you run off by now?"
The truth? A believable lie? What difference would it make, now? "I… suppose it sort of benefits me, at the moment," he replied before taking a seat in one of the nests, pausing to run his tongue along his shoulder, beginning his nightly grooming ritual.
"What do you m- do you just do that in front of everyone?"
"What, groom? Most pokemon know better than to stare. There's no privacy here anyways."
"No. I mean, yes, but most pokemon just don't groom in front of others period. Unless they're trying to show off that they don't see someone as a threat, or they're really close I guess."
He let out a quiet huff. "Well you can view it that way if you want. Because I don't see you as threatening at all."
"Hey!" Haru snapped. "Don't forget who beat you last time!"
"You used dungeon magics on me. I'd hardly call that a fair fight."
"What, the orb? If you're upset about being beaten that way, that's your problem, not mine."
Nip held back a growl. Great, now they were back to arguing again. This would get them nowhere. So, he elected to ignore her again, returning to his grooming. The silence stretched on for another few minutes before Haru spoke again.
"Ugh, let me just… I can't make sense of you. How is this beneficial to you?"
"It's simple," Nip replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "If I'm in here under the watch of all these guards, and Umbra's out there, then she can't get at me without a fight. It's not ideal, but it's safer than trying to run off now. She can't even attempt to kill me without everyone noticing."
Haru stared at him for a long time. "Okay, Nip. I could believe that, but I'm still not convinced she's going to kill you."
"You don't know her like I do. It took me more than a moon to travel from my tribe to here. Do you really think she'd go all that way back with me as a prisoner? Even if it wasn't so far, she would have killed me anyways. She's always been looking for an excuse to get rid of me, I know it. She was expecting someone far stronger and more prestigious than a runt that had to fight to be acknowledged as a skilled hunter."
As he spoke, he could see the Haru's expression begin to shift towards one of deep concentration. "Are you… sure you're not overreacting a little?"
Nip let out a low hiss. "You don't know what I went through. How many nights I spent either out in the cold, or huddled in the back, expecting Umbra to come back and lash out for existing around her. Don't you dare tell me I'm overreacting."
"Surely someone would have noticed if any of this was actually happening and done something about it, right? Why didn't you just tell someone?"
He couldn't help but scoff. "I did. But no, Umbra was too well-respected, no one would have believed me. The few pokemon I did tell did nothing to stop it. Tempest at least tried to provide some comfort… but he's even more an outsider than I was. What was he supposed to do?"
Haru open her mouth to say something, but paused, thinking. "Who was Tempest, again? I think you said his name before."
"My mentor. He taught me much. But he was adopted into the tribe as little more than a pup. He never would have gained much power in the tribe, and he didn't have any when I… left."
He waited for a moment for Haru to reply. When she didn't, he turned his attention to smoothing out his ruffled fur. Another moment or so passed before she finally stood, shaking a couple times, tossing bits of straw that had gotten stuck to her fur in all directions before beginning to head to the exit.
She paused halfway there. "You know I have no reason to believe you, right?"
The statement stung more than it should have. "I don't care whether you believe me or not. I know the truth. But if you're not going to listen… why did you bother coming in the first place?"
Haru took another few steps, then faltered. She hesitated for a few seconds longer, not daring to look up at Nip. "You better watch yourself," she finally warned. "They might change their sentencing if they don't think you care about changing." Then she disappeared through the fabric.
Nip stared for just a bit longer, a cold pit forming in his stomach. But he forced himself to relax. He didn't need to worry about what she thought. Whether she got the answers she was seeking, he did not know. Nor did he care. He couldn't be bothered to care, when she obviously didn't do the same.
Slies entered a few heartbeats later, his mouth turned in a tired frown. "By 'Gigas, could you two be any louder? You're luck-" He cut himself off. "Nope, not going to say it. That would probably be in poor taste."
The quagsire's tail thumped against the ground a couple times as he headed over to an alcove on the far side of the room and reached an arm in, pulling out a ring with three bumpy bits of metal. Keys was the word Nip had learned over his last few days here.
He begrudgingly stood up as Slies approached him, not wanting to draw his ire and take a thump from that slimy tail. Silently, he allowed the quagsire to lead him over to the mid-sized cell, a small chamber perhaps three times as wide, long, and high as he was tall. Calling the inside sparsely furnished would be an understatement; the only things in the cell were a small water trough by the bars and a messy straw bed. Bits of hay were still strewn about the floor from when he'd gone a bit stir-crazy the first night he'd been held here, but that he hadn't bothered to gather up.
Now behind the relative safety of the bars, he waited until he heard the sound of a click behind him before moving to settle into the nest with his back to the rest of the room. There, he finished grooming himself before settling down uneasily.
Not that he was asleep though. No, that would take some time. For a while, he just laid there with his back to all the guards that came and went, getting ready to change shifts. Whisper approached his prison at some point, trying to get him to speak to her. Demanding it even. He didn't answer though. He never did. Because he doubted anything he could say would make her forgive him, and he didn't see the point in trying.
He didn't even want her forgiveness, though. Stealing eggs was just a part of a sneasel's nature. Or so he'd been told. And he felt no shame using that to his advantage, even if he would have done things differently now, now that he'd had time to think about the repercussions of his action.
Eventually though, the sun set completely, leaving the room dimly lit by jars of luminous plants. And after a short time, one of the guards came and put most of those away, leaving only a single source of light in the room.
Even then, Nip stayed awake for a while longer. Listening quietly for the sound of movement, particularly from outside. But all he heard was the occasional passing of footsteps, accompanied by torchlight from under the curtain doorway as a guard made the rounds.
At some point, he sent a silent prayer to Yveltal, wondering if he'd said and done the right things.
Only once he was totally exhausted did Nip finally drift into fitful, troubled sleep, his dreams disturbed by rough waves, flashing lightning, and frost-covered trees.
Morning came and went in much the same way it had been for the last several days. A guard would come and rouse him by stuffing a handful of berries into a thin slat under the bars, and he'd chew with disinterest so that his stomach at least would not be growling when he left to do labor.
Eventually, the sound of scraping claws or heavy footsteps on the wooden boards would alert him to an approaching guard, and he would get up and follow them out to help with construction, the only job that he could help with at the moment. Or at least, the only job willing to take him.
This morning, however, there was a slight bump in the routine. Breakfast came and went as usual, and the flaffy guard came at the usual time, but as they made their way across the square to the construction zone, Nip noted several dozen wooden boxes laying along the road, filled to the brim with berries. There, Essra was busy using her psychic powers to load them up on a wooden board with wheels, the rapidash guard waiting at the end of it.
Nip slowed down as they passed by, curiosity getting the better of him. For a second, he locked eyes with the bellossom that ran the stand. But she quickly averted her gaze to her partner, the roserade standing beside her. That pairing was something he had been curious about for a long time, but an explanation would have to wait for another day.
"Move along, sneasel," the flaffy bleated, poking him between the shoulder blades to get him moving. "Nothing to see here."
"What are they doing?" he asked.
The flaffy snorted. "What, never seen a convoy before? They're getting ready to trade goods with one of our southern neighbors. Don't you have anything like that where you're from?"
"Not at all," Nip replied. "Territories are heavily disputed, and it's always each tribe looking out for themselves."
"Don't know how you guys survive like that. But whatever. Now come along. We haven't got all day."
And then they were off again, closing the last of the gap to the nursery construction site.
Both Grombert and Chipper were already there, the bibarel of the pair busily gnawing away at a long, relatively thin log, working to cut it apart into manageable pieces. When he saw the pair making their way towards him, he raised a paw in greeting and paused to stretch out his back.
"Oh, good morning you two. It's a bit colder today, don't you think, really doing a number on these joints of mine."
Now that he mentioned it, Nip did realize things were a bit colder. Nothing like the harsh weather of the north, but at least cool enough that he felt comfortable in his fur. His ear feather twitched in acknowledgement of the comment.
"Y'best go talk to old Grombert and see what he wants done today. I think we're putting up the awning today. Another day or two and I'd say we'll have this job finally done.
"Really, like this?" the flaffy asked. "You're not going to put in any security measures?"
Chipper blinked a couple times, and then groaned, sitting back on his haunches. "That's right, I totally forgot about the gate. Grombert was working on the fence today. Guess I'll have to bring over more logs tomorrow."
"How is this... gate supposed to protect this place?" Nip questioned.
All eyes turned to Nip, their gazes ranging from cautious glances to dangerous glares. It took him a second to realize what their problem was.
"No, no," he said quickly, raising up his paws in front of him defensively. "Not like that. I mean. Where I'm from, they use thorns and brambles, as well as mon-fashioned spike traps, to protect the nursery den from intruders, so that the only way you'd be able to get in is either an attack or by going through the front entrance. otherwise you just get a paw or face full of painful spikes."
Chipper's eyes lit up. "Oh, this works... similarly, I guess. Perhaps not as dangerous to the children. It's just a fence around the perimeter to keep people from just walking right in."
That made... some sense, Nip supposed. Though he didn't see how that would protect from an attack from above. Something like a staraptor swooping from above would be a real threat.
Before he had a chance to voice this concern, however, he heard a voice squeak from behind.
"Eep! The sneasel's back!"
He turned his head just in time to catch the retreating, spectral form of a pumpkaboo, rushing back to the safety of the daycare. Once he was safely back on the other side of the wall, he turned back to steal a glance towards Nip from the entryway. But when he saw the sneasel looking right at him, he squeaked in alarm again and disappeared inside. Every day, it was the same thing. The skittish pokemon would cry out an alarm when he saw him, and then run off.
"Tor, the sneasel's back! Why won't you make him go away?" he heard the child cry out.
Then he heard the blissey's deep, monotonous voice reply quietly. "It's not my decision Myo. I just need you to be brave for a few more days. Can you do that for me?" The pumpkaboo, Myo, said nothing, so Tor continued. "Why don't you get Aves and go watch the berry cart head out of town. Wouldn't that be fun?"
"I... guess so..."
"Hey, earth to sneasel. Anyone in there?"
Nip snapped back to attention as a pink paw waved in front of his face. He turned his head slightly towards the flaffy, who grunted before pointing out Grombert again.
"I said, why don't you hurry up and get started already."
Biting back a stinging retort, Nip lowered his head and began to walk towards the diggersby. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the pumpkaboo from before and the shuppet he'd fought during his escape leave the daycare, giving him a wide berth as they floated off towards where the boxes of berries had nearly been loaded up.
Now standing before Grombert, he cleared his throat to catch the diggersby's attention. Grombert turned towards him, one ear holding a handful of small, uniformly shaped red rocks.
"'Bout time you showed up," Grombert said, grumbling as he dropped the stones onto a pile of more stones. "I'll be having you work on laying bricks for the fencing today, at least till it's too high for you. Got everything you need right here." He gestured with both his left paw and left ear towards the pile of rocks, and then to a wooden trough filled with some sort of grainy, grey slop.
Nip shivered involuntarily at the thought of dipping his paws into that mess. "What, do expect me to use my bare claws or something?"
"Only if you break the trowel." The diggersby stooped down and picked up a flat piece of wood sticking out of the grainy mess. "It's easy enough. Lemme show you how it's done."
Nip watched as he began to work, scrapping a thin layer of the substance, which Grombert soon explained was called "mortar" on the side of one of the stones before placing it next to another one on the ground. He did this a couple more times before starting a second row, setting up the next set of bricks so that they overlapped with the previous row. Then he finally passed the trowel off to Nip and pointed out where he wanted the bricks before finally leaving him alone with his guard, heading over to where Chipper was busy at work prepping wood.
Despite his best efforts, Nip managed to get some of the mortar stuck to his paws as he began working, the cold, wet, grainy substance sticking to his fur in uncomfortable ways. He grumbled as he laid the bricks, fighting the urge to work carelessly.
He had only just finished his first row of work when he was interrupted yet again, this time by Haru approaching the work area, pausing to let the berry cart pass by before crossing over to the work area.
She didn't even acknowledge Nip as she passed, heading straight to her father, grumbling under her breath.
"Mom said you forgot to take your herbs," Haru announced before Chipper could say anything, ducking out of her bag's strap. "She still doesn't want Toshi up and about, walking all the way to the square yet after his injury, so she sent me instead."
"Is that why I'm aching so bad?" the bibarel asked. "I thought it was the weather."
"Well, it is cold," Haru agreed, "so I don't know. But please don't do this again. I had to stop what I was doing to run these all the way down here. I was nearly done cleaning the tree I was working on, too!"
"Gods, thanks Haru, didn't mean to make you worry about me or anything," Chipper said as she pulled out a couple of white herbs, placing them on the ground in front of him. "Thanks though."
"Don't mention it. Now if you'll excuse me, I-"
Haru didn't finish her sentence. In the distance, there was a loud crash and a bright flash of light, followed by shouting and a blast of frigid air.
All five pokemon turned in near unison towards the source. A gout of flame burst into the air in the distance, but the source was out of sight. Seconds later, Whisper came dashing by, heading in the direction of the fire.
"That looks like it came from the direction of the berry cart," the flaffy announced, alarm creeping into his voice. He looked out towards the direction, then nervously back at Nip, then back towards the sound of shouts. "Stay here," he said in a warning tone, before racing off towards the source.
That left Grombert, Chipper, Nip, and Haru, to stare at each other uneasily as shouts and the sounds of battle kicked off in the distance. Every few seconds, there would be a flash of light or a plume of fire, followed by a crash or a snap, or many other manners of attacks.
It seemed like the sounds were slowly growing closer, however. Many of the village civilians had come out from the surrounding businesses to look at the commotion.
A pair of ghastly figures came zipping through, making a beeline for the daycare. They dashed behind the gathered pokemon, then huddled behind Tor just beyond the doorway.
"A scary pokemon's trying to break into town," Aves announced, huddling a bit closer to Myo.
"Yeah! real scary! He attacked Romi when she wouldn't let him by. Wouldn't even talk to her!"
Another blast of frigid air flowed in their direction, strong enough for ice crystals to begin forming on the tips of Nip's fur even this far away. He paused, sniffing as the wind passed by. Another plume of smoke filled the air. Something about the smell on the wind struck Nip as off. Familiar, even. For just a few seconds, he was transported in his mind back to kithood, to a cold winters day as he followed a pokemon off into the woods surrounding their home.
Without thinking, Nip darted off, dashing in the direction of the smoke. Behind him, he heard shouts of protest and anger, and at least one pokemon chasing him, but he ignored them.
He wasn't trying to run away. Not right now. He just needed to know.
It wasn't long before the scene of the battle came into view, though it seemed like the fight was nearly over by now. Four of the guards were fighting, some in better conditions than others. A thin layer of ice caked one of Whisper's wings, while the rapidash was struggling to stand, with cuts and bruises lining her body. Sparks of electricity danced off of both Vale and the flaffy's flank, neither of them looking too bad, with only a couple of scrapes and some ice crystals stuck to their fur.
Collapsed in the center of the four was a ninetales, his blue-white fur ratty, caked in mud, and singed. He, like Romi, was struggling to climb to his feet, his breathing ragged. As he stood, Nip could see a nasty, infected wound stretching from his neck all the way down to his shoulder.
And despite all that, despite the wound and the mud and the vague look in his eye as he stared down the village guard with a soundless snarl, Nip still recognized him. Without thought for his safety, he called out the familiar name.
"Tempest!"
A/N: As a quick note, the first bonus episode is now up! If you're interested in learning more about the world or side characters, check out Stories They Couldn't Tell! In the future, I'll make a note when a new episode is uploaded.