Chapter 9

Whitestone

Starshine was pacing back and forth in a large open room, deep in thought. The room had a red, narrow carpet that trailed from a double doorway to just a couple feet away from a set of two, eloquent chairs. Two escavalier stood guard by the door, and the walls were decorated with either paintings, a window, or small bust. Currently, the princess was not in her formal wear; that being her silky, white dress, and golden crown. Leaning nonchalantly against a wall, with her arms crossed, was a female meowstic with a bored expression on her face. Using her psychic abilities, the meowstic was also enjoying a hot cup of tea.

"You appear to be taut," the meowstic said, "What is it that happens to be troubling you at this moment in time?"

Starshine stopped pacing for a second and shifted her eyes towards the meowstic, "Aurora and Psyche are back, they've each brought new comers. I don't care too much about the new comers, but rather the eevee. Something doesn't seem right, and I have the feeling Tenebris feels the same way."

"Yes, you did divulge in the subject of said eevee. There is not much I can make of the matter, in light of the fact that you and Tenebris were supposedly the last of your kind, and that other stuff you directed me not to mention."

"Supposedly the last?" Starshine retorted with slight anger, "We are the last! Nothing adds up, and yes, the unforgettable, traumatizing, event between us happened, but still, there was nothing more after that."

"Aurora had mentioned that the eevee was that of a child, yes?" Starshine nodded her head up and down. "Then we can question whomever the caretaker of the eevee may be, or perhaps the father. The father could of mated with an eevee, or evolution of an eevee, thus shedding light on if you truly were the last eevee born."

"You don't understand, do you, Mystic?" Starshine referred to the meowstic known as Mystic. "My father, the asshole he is, made it more than clear that I was the last eevee ever born."

The room was silent after that. Mystic and Starshine then sensed a large presence coming towards the doors.

"They're here," Starshine muttered. "Are you staying?"

"I do not have anything much better to do as of this moment, also my husband, is returning, so I might as well stay."

After that, Starshine found her way to her chair, and sat on it in a proper manner, Mystic lazily leaned against her chair. Three loud knocks echoed through the room, after Starshine gave a nod, the escavalier opened the door. Aurora and the four bounty hunters stood on the other side. Aurora was in the middle, and walked in with a prideful manner, with her eyes shut, and nose pointed upward. Rose and Flint were on her right hand side and followed her, Rose being a little more timid than everyone else. Tesla and Kindle were on Aurora's left side, Kindle seeming overly amazed as she observed the entirety of the room.

Starshine kept a watchful eye on Rose, and noted how she hid behind Flint a little. "The growlithe," she whispered to Mystic, who replied with a nod.

"Your majesty," Aurora said, before she bowed, "I have returned." The rest of the group did a delayed bow, realizing their rudeness in front of the princess.

"Welcome back, Aurora. The package is safe?"

"Yes ma'am," Aurora said while pulling out the rectangular, box shaped package.

"Well done, Whitestone is in your debt. Now, who are these friends of yours?"

"Um, well, there not really friends per say."

Starshine seemed slightly annoyed at Aurora. "Well if you won't introduce them, then I guess they will themselves. First off, I'll introduce myself, I am Princess Starshine, I watch over Mardol."

"It's an honor to meet you, Princess," Kindle stated with her bubbly personality, "I'm Kindle, and this here is my partner, Tesla," she said while grabbing Tesla and dragging him towards her.

"And I'm Flint, this eevee here is Rose," Flint then introduced.

"Is Rose your child?" Starshine inquired.

"N-no, she-"

Rose surprisingly interrupted Flint. "No, but he is the closest thing I have to a father."

Hearing that made Flint a little shocked at first, yet slightly ecstatic at the same time. He never considered himself as a father figure for Rose, but at the same time it made sense that she would view him as one. Mystic and Starshine, however, only seemed perplexed.

"Where are your actual parents?" Starshine asked, with a tilt of her head.

"I don't know, I have no memory of anything except meeting Flint and everything that happened afterwards."

"How long have you known Flint?"

"A couple of months or so now."

"Interesting... very, very interesting..."

"I hate to interrupt," Tesla interrupted, "but the bounty is now complete, Aurora has arrived safely with the precious cargo, I believe we were told about our compensation for our efforts."

"Way to be kinda blunt about it," Kindle whispered to him.

"Yes, your efforts shall be rewarded accordingly. I have a reward in mind for you and Kindle, and something else in mind for Flint and Rose." Starshine said.

Flint felt suspicious, but shrugged it off.

"Mystic, take the fennekin and mareep to the vault, give them a reasonable reward." With that said, Mystic kicked herself away from the chair, and beckoned for Tesla and Kindle to follow her. "Aurora, I wish to speak to you tomorrow, for now get some rest, as thanks you for your help."

Aurora bowed before leaving.

"Now, Flint and Rose, I'd like to speak with you two in private." Starshine then looked at her guards, who then left the throne room, leaving her and her guests alone. Flint now felt really nervous, and Rose was unsure how to feel.

"So, you're a bounty hunter, right?" Starshine asked Flint, who nodded yes. "So you're obviously familiar with traveling a lot and all of that. Something you've probably realized is how dangerous it is, correct?" She said, while making it more than obvious she was staring at Rose's broken leg.

Flint still felt guilty about the incident. "Yeah, it's pretty rough, especially when I'm concerned with not only my life, but her's as well."

"So, here's my offer to you, how would you like to quit the life of bounty hunting, and instead make a living here in Whitestone?"

Flint seemed speechless from the offer, "Your majesty, as much as I appreciate the offer, there's absolutely no way I could afford living here."

"I could help with that, I can give you a house here with no payments, just taxes."

"How would I make an income?"

"Here's were a little bit of a catch comes in, I have plenty of tasks you could assist in, as an adversary of mine, your payments would be far more superior to the bounties you do."

Flint let all of the information digest in his mind, it all seemed too good to be true. He was curious as to what 'tasks' she had in mind,then again, he remembered a small argument he and Rose had gotten in, she really didn't like the bounty hunting life, and he had dragged her along with him without her consent. With this, she could live a little happier, attend a school, make friends, and more. Ultimately, Flint saw it as a good decision, he was just clueless to what kind of tasks Starshine had in mind.

"What kind of tasks?"

"Just assistance with documentation, and on some occasions, travel will be necessary, but not for too long."

The answer seemed vague, but Flint really didn't want to upset Rose by dragging her into more bounties, if anything, Flint could possibly keep Rose at the house while he did these tasks, while secretly doing bounties too.

"I'll accept your offer," he finally said.

Starshine smiled, "Excellent! I'll have Mystic assign you your home. I would like you two to stop by the castle entrance tomorrow, so you can attend the tour of Whitestone."

"Sounds fair enough."

Just as their conversation ended, Kindle and Tesla were heading back. Tesla had a smug look on his face, while Kindle seemed quite pleased.

"What do you guys plan on doing now?" Flint asked, after they finished walking in the room.

"Well, Kindle and I might take a small break for now, probably stay in town a couple more days before we take on our next bounty." Tesla replied.

"I'll have to make the best out of these few days while you two are still in town, never know if we'll see each other again."

"Yeah that's true, we can arrange some times to hang out later. For now, Kindle and myself are gonna head to a hotel, we'll catchya guys tomorrow during the tour," Tesla mentioned. Flint assumed Mystic informed the two about the tour.

"Alright, take care," Flint waved as the two exited the room. As they left the room, the escavalier on the other side re-entered the room and stood guard.

"Mystic, could you fill out some housing documentations for Flint and Rose, they'll be living here now, and Flint will assist in my tasks."

Mystic was slightly annoyed, since she had just returned, and had to leave again. "Follow me," she said, while beckoning for Flint and Rose to follow her. Eventually the two left the room, leaving Starshine to herself.

Her temporary peace was interrupted by another knock on the door. Starshine let out a sigh, and nodded towards the escavalier, who then opened the door. Now entering the room was both Psyche and Nixie. As they walked towards Starshine, Nixie couldn't help but admire the surrounding scenery. Eventually her eyes landed on Starshine, and she instantly recognized her from the painting in Psyche's office, only she wasn't wearing the white cape, golden tiara, nor the silver necklace. Once they were close enough, Psyche came to a halt, and took a knee to respectfully bow. Nixie was confused with his actions, but then awkwardly did the same thing.

"I have returned, your majesty," Psyche said.

"It appears so. All was safe on your voyage home, which slightly worries me. I know not what Tenebris plans to do next, but it's best that we keep these waters safe. Furthermore, I'm aware of the newcomer you've saved. Step forward, buizel."

Nixie nervously approached Starshine. The princess inspected her with a watchful eye, taking a large notice towards her eyes. They intrigued her.

"What is your name?"

"Nixie," she nervously replied.

"No need to feel tense, you're safe here, Nixie, the followers of Tenebris can't harm you here, you're protected by the light."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Mardol is a safe haven for the pokemon who've fled from the darkness of Zerith, we are a light that shines within that darkness with the purpose to defeat it. You have nothing to be nervous about here."

Nixie hadn't the slightest idea how to respond to the espeon, she wanted to believe her, but she had a strange feeling that she wasn't truly safe for sure yet. Psyche had then chose to enter the conversation.

"Princess Starshine, my wife, where is she at the moment?"

"Mystic is currently in the registration office, assigning a home to some other newcomers."

"Speaking of which, my I have your permission to give Nixie a home?"

"I grant you permission, but you know the rules, she must have a job within the next month."

"Yes yes, I'll explain that all to her in the future. For now, I shall take my leave, and I'll ensure that Nixie attends tomorrow's tour, along with the others that Aurora had brought."

"Very well, for now, I shall go back to my duties, I'll see you around," Starshine said, while hopping off of her chair, and waving with her tail.

Psyche then lead Nixie through the castle towards the location of the registration office. The office has many different purposes, one of which being assigning homes to citizens of Whitestone. There were other registration offices located outside the castle, since the office within the castle was used for more higher class citizens. All of the documentations held within the room were important to the tax system of Mardol, however, since this was the castle of Whitestone, it mainly focused on Whitestone's taxes.

One large cabinet held the documents of all of the files of the upper class citizens, the documents had a section that specified the owner of the home, number of residents, species, age and gender of each resident, estimate income, then a mathematical formula to find the estimate tax.

The other offices around the city did the same for the lower, and middle class residents, sending the taxes towards the castle. Other cabinets contained files for other types of buildings, that were used for businesses, such as inns, taverns, barber shops, saw mills, black smith shops, theaters, etcetera. Psychics were held in charge of the offices so they could communicate with one another from each office, as well as solve the equations quickly, and ensure the taxes had been paid for the month.

The two had then reached the door of the office, Psyche knocked on the wooden door, and waited for an answer. After a few seconds, Mystic opened the door, she seemed really tired, but seeing her husband for the first time in a long time put a smile on her face.

"Psyche, you're back!" Mystic said, while tightly hugging him then pulling him into a kiss, while Nixie awkwardly waited for whatever Psyche needed to do.

"Yes, I'm back. I needed to quickly fill out a home registration sheet for this buizel here." Hearing that she had more work to do made Mystic quickly frown again in annoyance. "By the way, Mystic, this is Nixie. Nixie, this is my wife, Mystic."

"My husband has told me about your existence. I feel the need to apologies for the loss of your colony, just know that you are now safe while you are here within the boundary of Whitestone."

Mystic then lead them back into the room, it appeared that she had already finished up with Flint and Rose, since they were no longer in the room. It took a few minutes, but eventually Mystic finished the paperwork, and called for a clefairy, who was a guard, to escort Nixie to her new home.

As Nixie left the room, Psyche turned to Mystic and said, "We should head home now, you seem tired and stressed. Also, there's a couple of things I need to tell you."

The clefairy had finished showing Nixie to her new home, and was now gone. Her house was built along the mountain wall that circled the city, found a little more towards the center area. Her home wasn't too large, it only had one floor, and was somewhat of a rectangular shape. On the right side of her home was a staircase that lead to her roof, while it also extended to the right connecting to another home, who's staircase was on its left. To the left of her house was the door to another home that mirrored her own. The homes then continued this pattern.

She let out a sigh, and decided she wanted to go on the roof to look up at the stars like she usually did. As she reached the top, she was surprised to find someone else had a similar idea. Sitting on the roof was a growlithe, who was watching over the horizon, looking at the ocean. She hesitated going back to her house or not, but decided against it.

"Do you mind if I join you?" She asked, startling the growlithe.

The growlithe looked back before replying, "S-sure, go ahead."

Nixie sat herself next to him. "I assume you're my neighbor?" She asked, while staring off in the distance as well.

"I guess so," he then turned towards her, and extended a paw, "I'm Flint, by the way."

Nixie then turned towards him, "I'm Nixie." Her eyes then looked down towards Flint's paw, causing her to remember what Psyche did when he introduced himself. She found it weird, but attempted to shake his paw.

As Nixie was turned towards him, Flint noticed her blue and pink eyes, but ended up staring at them for longer than he expected. Nixie found it a little awkward, so she looked back towards the ocean, snapping Flint's attention back.

"S-sorry, I didn't mean to stare," Flint said, slightly embarrassed.

"It's fine," she said with a sigh, "I'm use to others staring at them anyway. I've always been viewed as a freak because of them."

"Why would anyone view you as a freak because of your eyes? If anything, they're very beautiful-" Flint suddenly said, while choking on his words at the same time. He wasn't sure why he had just said that, it felt very impulsive, and unlike him. "Sorry, I'm making this more awkward, I'm just going to head back inside," Flint said, while leaving before Nixie could say anything else.

Nixie didn't know how to feel just then, she looked back up at the sky, and spotted the same star she saw the night her 'friends' died. She then remember the wish she had said to the star. She had wished that someone wouldn't view her eyes in a negative way, but instead, think they were, quote on quote, beautiful. Yes, Psyche was the first to view them in a positive light, but Flint was so far the only pokemon she had met that referred to them as 'beautiful'. She couldn't help but slightly blush thinking about it, and find it slightly cute how he seemed embarrassed for referring to them as such.

"Thank you," was all Nixie said to the star, before eventually heading back to her home to sleep.

Psyche was lying on his bed, while his wife was straddled on his hips, pinning him down with her arms, while kissing his lips.

"I thought you were 'ready for bed,' as you put it," Psyche said, after Mystic pulled away from their kiss.

"I am ready to sleep, but as you had said earlier, you had things of which you wanted to address to me, so shoot." Mystic then began kissing Psyche again.

Psyche waited for the kiss to end before speaking again. "It's about Nixie."

Mystic let out a sharp breath through her nose, before pushing herself away from Psyche, and lying on the other side of the bed, "I have told you on numerous occasions that we are not adding a third partner in our sex life."

Psyche gave her a blank stare, "...I wasn't implying that... There's something different about her."

"Are you referring to her eyes? About how each one is a separate color? That is due to the recessive genes found in both of the parents' genetics."

"No, there's more to it than that. I can't blame you for not noticing just now because of how stressed you are right now, but she lets out a small field of energy, similar to that of a psychic type."

Mystic now seemed interested in the conversation. "How is that so?"

"I'm not sure, but I think we can investigate more on the subject."

"I suppose we possibly could, but for now, I feel we should get some sleep, my day tomorrow is not exactly going to be easy."

Flint woke up to Rose poking his face with her paw. He weakly looked at Rose, before he turned to face away from her. Rose frowned at him, and poked his face some more.

"Flint, you need to wake up so we can go to that tour thingy."

"It's morning already?"

"Yeah, and yet again, I'm awake before you."

"I'm too old to wake up early with as much energy as you have."

"How old are you anyway?" Rose asked with a tilt of her head.

Flint sat and thought about it for a minute, since his brain was still trying to wake up with him. "I'm about... eight years old."

Eight years old for a growlithe is still considered young. Most growlithe live around to twenty to thirty years old, but if they evolve into as arcanine, they can live to be sixty to seventy. So Flint's age is nearly the equivalent of someone in their younger twenties.

"How old do you think I am?" She then asked.

"Well, let's see, you just started your heat cycle recently, but I can't tell for sure if that was your first time or not since you have no memory of anything that happened last year. If I was to make an accurate guess, I'd say you're probably between three and five years old."

Three years old is roughly when eevee start having their heat. Eevee also live anywhere to around thirty or forty years without evolving, and about seventy or eighty years if they do evolve. In Rose's case, she is equivalent to preteen.

"Anyway, get ready, we don't want to be late, they'll start without us!"

Flint got himself ready for the morning and headed towards the castle, roughly remembering the path they took to get there. It was about a fifteen minute walk, but they eventually arrived at the front gate of the castle. Standing there was a familiar fennekin and mareep.

"Good morning, you two," Kindle chirped.

"Good morning," replied Flint, "how'd you sleep?"

"With my eyes closed," Tesla replied sarcastically.

"Anyway, who's giving us the tour?" Flint asked.

"I don't know," Kindle began, "we weren't really told."

Now approaching the gate was another pokemon, it was Nixie who just now seemed to have made her way there. As she reached the group, she instantly recognized Flint, as did he.

"Good morning, Flint," Nixie greeted.

The other three looked towards Flint with a questionable stare, since they didn't know who she was, yet she knew him.

"Oh, um, morning, Nixie," Flint said, while avoiding eye contact.

"You two know each other?" Tesla asked.

"We met last night, she's our neighbor."

"Wait, neighbor?" Tesla asked, since him and Kindle were unaware of the fact that they were now living in Whitestone.

"Oh yeah," Flint replied, "Starshine gave Rose and I a house as our reward, so now we're citizens of Whitestone."

"That's so cool," Kindle said excitedly. She then ran up to the buizel. "you can call me Kindle!"

"Might as well introduce myself too, I'm Tesla,"

"The eevee here is Rose," Flint said for her, "I take care of her for the most part."

"You don't do too good of a job at it," Tesla said under his breath, while looking at Rose's splint.

"Is she your child?" Nixie asked

"Not necessarily, it's rather complicated."

Before further conversations could arise, a familiar shiny manetric approached the group. "Good morning everyone, I assume you're all here for the tour?" Everyone replied with a nod. "Well, I'm your designated tour guide, you can call me Rykon. I'll show you around to some main locations and whatnot, just try and keep up."

"Excuse me, Mr. Rykon," asked Rose. "Why aren't you the normal color of a manetric, aren't they usually blue and yellow?"

"Good observation, young eevee. To answer your question, it's because I'm a shiny pokemon. Being shiny has a one in a million chance of occurring, or something like that, so that makes me more important than your average pokemon."

"Where are we off to first?" Kindle asked.

"Hmm, on the route I like to go on for the tour, I usually go to the southern market, the tour should end right back here once finished. Let's get going."

Just as Rykon had said, he lead them to the southern market. The market seemed more for upper class pokemon; the roads were made of smooth bricks, the stores were all small buildings with vines climbing their walls, a large fountain was found in the center where some pokemon were either sitting at for a break, or tossing a coin into the water, followed by a wish of some sort. The stores sold items such as jewelry, pottery, wines, medicines, furniture, and much more pricey items galore.

Afterwards, Rykon lead them through some streets to take them to the western market. Along the way, he showed them other slightly significant buildings, such as churches that participate in the worship of various legendary pokemon, schools that taught skills in the working world, a couple taverns, and a dome shaped building that was almost entirely made of glass.

"What's this building?" Asked Kindle

"This?" Rykon responded. "This building is the Whitestone garden. Inside is a large assortment of plants from bushes to flowers, even a couple trees."

"Can we go inside?" Rose then asked.

"We don't have time to do that during the tour, but feel free to check it out whenever you'd like, it's free admission, and it's quite the attraction here."

Moving on, they eventually reached the western market. This market was mainly focused on craftsmanship. There was a store dedicated to leather work, Flint recalled going to one ages ago to get the backpack he has now, he also began considering obtaining a new one. Other stores included, locksmiths, blacksmiths, candle makers, fabrics, potion stores, a shop dedicated to enchanting items, and a few more of similar fashion.

Next up was the northern market. Along the way was more churches, schools, taverns, and some middle and lower class housing. They also came across barracks for the military and guards. Rykon had also pointed out a building known as a registration office, and explained how they worked and coordinated with one another around Mardol, and the cities and towns within Mardol. It seemed pretty confusing to most of them, so Rykon just dropped the subject.

Eventually, they had all reached the northern market, which had an excellent view of the beach and ocean. Most of the stores here sold basic items, such as cooking goods, quilts, water jugs, seeds, and other inexpensive items. Rykon had explained that this was the lower class market, however, others did shop here because of various items that weren't found anywhere else.

"Before we head to the eastern market, I'd like to show you all the beach area," Rykon told the group, while leading them to the beach.

The beach was occupied by various pokemon, all enjoying the cool water. Rose had excitement gleaming in her eyes, this had been her first time ever seeing a beach.

"There's so much... water!" She exclaimed.

"Indeed, there is. This water stretches for miles before you ever see land again. Directly north from hear is the marsh lands of Zerith, to the west are our other enemies; the Jagorii."

The word Jagorii was pronounced jah-gory, sometimes also pronounced juh-gory.

"The Jagorii?" Flint asked.

"Yeah, we don't like to talk about them much here, they aren't our main focus either. They haven't been bothering us as much as those who occupy Zerith. However, they have been attacking our mining sight on an island between the two of us.

"Anyway, this is the beach, it's a great place to relax or have fun. As you can see, to the east is the harbor, that's where ships carrying trading supplies dock, we also keep our naval vessels over there. To the west is the pier, it's littered with places to eat, there's even a cove somewhere in the mountain. And up there is a lighthouse too," Rykon said while pointing with his paw.

After looking around the beach some more, Rykon then lead everyone to the eastern market. As usual, they passed by some more houses, small shops, taverns, and other points of interest that a city would have.

Once they arrived at the market, they noticed shops selling items such as books, toys for children, and even weapons, which surely was the shop considered the odd one out. The interesting thing about the weapon shop was they made weapons for all types of pokemon, and not as in type specific. They had weapons suitable for quadraped pokemon, such as almost everyone in the group. Some of the weapons were symmetrical with a grip in the center so pokemon could hold it in their mouths while causing harm with its blades. Another weapon also had a mouth grip, but only had one blade to either extend out the left or right side of the mouth. There were also spiked legging prices, possibly used for blunt attacks with one's legs.

There was also common weapons for bipedal pokemon, such as knifes, swords, axes, and whatnot. The shop included weapons designed for pokemon that were bipedal, but didn't have fingers or hands (like jigglypuff for example); these weapons had leather straps to create claws around their arms. They also had weapons for birds and aquatic pokemon too. However, they didn't have anything to help pokemon without limbs, much to a voltorb's demise.

"Well, this basically concludes the tour, there is a center to the town, over there you will find a statue of our founder, and the museum of Whitestone. We also have a theater around that area. There is a prison and court found elsewhere within the city, but I figured that wouldn't interest you. I would have shown the gallows, but there is a child here."

"Does that mean some crimes are punishable by death?" Tesla asked.

"Yes, but those are for major offenses, but we also use it for spies or enemies we have hostage."

There was a bit of a silence about how casually Rykon talked about death. Nonetheless, he still lead them all back to the front of the castle. Waiting for them outside was Mystic, who was talking with Aurora at the moment. Mystic then noticed the group approaching.

"Ah, you all have returned from your expedition of obtaining knowledge of the whereabouts of locations spaced about the city, welcome back."

"Yes, hopefully these new citizens won't have too much trouble navigating around Whitestone," Rykon said, while looking back at the group.

"Oh, by the way, Flint, Princess Starshine had asked me to engage in a conversation with you, in regards to this eevee you care for. Our apologies for not addressing this matter as of the previous night, but we would like to tend to the wound that is prominent on Rose's right foreleg."

"What do you mean?" Flint asked, confused by the meowstic over-explanatory, yet confusing, speech.

"They want to fix her leg," Aurora said. "Yes, the necklace has numbed the pain, but the bone is still growing incorrectly, we have medical experts that can help realign it properly. Afterwards, she will have no need for the splint any longer, and she'll walk just perfectly."

"How long will this procedure take?"

"That depends entirely on the severity of the damage delt towards the bone," explained Mystic. "An estimate time of completion of the medical procedure could take about three hours, however, in the case that the damage is worse than that of which we interpreted, then the procedure could possibly be delayed a few additive hours more."

"What do you think, Rose?" Flint asked.

Rose then looked at her splint, and saw the unnatural bends in her leg. She simply nodded, giving her consent to the medical procedures.

"Will I be able to stay with her during the process?" Flint asked.

"Sorry, but due to the expertise of our medics, full concentration is a must. No distractions are wanted in the vicinity, and to them, you are included in their list of distractions," Mystic replied.

"What's all included in that list?" Kindle asked, receiving a glare from almost everyone for her asking the long winded meowstic. Luckily, Aurora perverted the conversation from going any further.

Flint lowered his ears after Mystic's reply. "Oh, that's fine... I guess, I just have never really been separated from Rose..."

"What about that time in Bark Leaf, when you and Tesla went someplace, and you left me with Kindle?" Rose asked.

"Well, yeah, I suppose that does count-"

"Or that time in Rockpoint, when you lost me in that crowd of people and didn't notice for a couple hours?"

"Okay, I get-"

"Or that incident we had in Redgrowth."

"Look, we don't talk about that incident."

Kindle giggled to herself, "Man, Flint, you sure sound irresponsible."

"Anyway," Aurora said, attempting to change the subject back on course, "Rose, just follow Mystic to the infirmary."

Rose shyly walked over to the meowstic, then turned back to look at Flint. He gave her a reassuring nod. With that, Rose then followed behind Mystic, as she lead her through the castle.

Rykon and Aurora had left the group behind, leaving only Tesla, Kindle, Flint, and Nixie.

"What now?" Flint asked.

"I don't know about you, but I'm pretty hungry," replied Tesla. "I'm going to get some food, you and your neighbor are welcome to join."

"Well, nothing better to do, I suppose," Nixie said to Flint.

Starshine sat on her chair, fidgeting with the package Aurora delivered. She was eager to open it, but she knew now wasn't the time. She let out a sigh, and set the package in a concealed compartment in her chair. She then heard footsteps approaching from behind her, after averting her attention, she notice Mystic walking towards her.

"The eevee has gone through the appropriate medical procedures necessary in the recovery of her leg. As of this current moment in time, she is still in her state of slumber. I am here to propose the idea of reading her memory to see what it is she knows and does not know."

"Good, I need to understand this eevee more. I need to see what secrets lye within her."

Starshine hopped off of her chair, and followed Mystic to the infirmary. Inside the room were numbers of beds lined against the wall, with small tables next to them holding a vase with a flower on top of them. Starshine spotted the bed that Rose was resting in. She was peacefully asleep, no longer wearing the splint. Her leg looked a lot better and was back to its correct shape.

"Let's see what you know," Starshine said, while placing her paw on Rose's head.

Starshine's eyes began to light up with a blue aura, and she was now navigating through Rose's head. With her perspective, she saw nothing but a black void, her aura acted like a third eye that invaded Rose's brain, she was able to see all of her memories, read her thoughts, see her dreams, and much more.

Within the black void, Starshine eventually found an oval shaped object, displaying images at a rapid rate. She assumed these were her memories. Using this third eye, Starshine walked into the screen-like object, now visually seeing what Rose had seen at one point in time.

The memory was seen through Rose's point of view, she was in some type of room that had a bath tub. She turned the knob allowing water to fill up inside. As this happened, she grabbed a white towel from the bed and approached the tub again, now turning the water off. Before she hopped in the water, she noticed a drop of blood on the ground. Confused, Rose used her towel to clean it up. She looked back where see was once standing and noticed a drop of blood there as well. Then she looked down at the towel and saw a drop of blood drip from underneath her. Curiously, see wiped her stomach to see if she was bleeding. The towel was still white, but she saw another drop drip from her. She then nervously wiped between her legs with the towel, and saw a smeared trail of blood. Rose was in shock, but a knock on the door snapped her back into reality.

"Flint?" She asked.

"Yes, are you alright?"

"N-no, I'm bleeding."

Starshine stopped watching the memory there. "This memory is recent. She's in heat..."

"Oh dear," Mystic responded, "How far into it does she happen to be?"

"She's just bleeding at the moment, next week is when she'll give off her scent for potential mates."

"Is Flint aware of the subject?"

"Yes, what he plans to do though, I do not know. Anyway, I'm curious how she got this leg injury, let me continue looking around."

Starshine spent well over an hour watching Rose's memories, she saw her grab the necklace of healing, Frostbite snapping her leg, the group solving the first puzzle in the cave, the long journey Flint and her took to get to Mardol, a bit of the bounties her and Flint had done, the bonding moments the two had, and eventually she stumbled upon the first possible memory Rose had, which was probably a couple months old.

The memory, for the most part, just showed her waking up to the sight of Flint standing in front of her with a concerned face. There was a small conversation that lead in the eevee following the growlithe, eventually going into all of the other memories Starshine had just briefly viewed.

"It just doesn't make sense."

"What?"

"There's no memories, whatsoever, of her past. I can't find her parents, how she was raised, where she lived, nothing, only a few months of things that happened ever since she met Flint."

"Then possibly the eevee is not the one you should really be concerned about, what if by chance the answers to your questions are within the thoughts and memories of that growlithe that accompanies her?"

"I'll try, but it still doesn't explain why almost all of her life in memory is practically non-existent."

Tenebris and Frostbite were walking through the open field of ash in Zerith. Frostbite couldn't help but constantly look at the new vial that Fade had made for him. There was so much mystery about what it could do, but the effects of the vial wasn't the only thing on his mind.

"So, why exactly are we walking to Whitestone? We could of teleported to the shore, and been there within days."

"We need to do this subtly," Tenebris explained. "Since you've again failed at killing Aurora, she's no doubtedly talked to Starshine by now."

"And what's the problem exactly?"

"You informed me about the eevee, as you know, Starshine and I were the last eevee born, now suddenly there's this new one. No doubt Aurora has informed her about the eevee as well. With that said, Starshine knows that I know of this eevee's existence. She also knows that my mindset is to capture this eevee at all cost. Right now they are probably keeping a close eye on the eevee."

"So they would have been expecting us if we had gotten there sooner?"

"Precisely, but I'm waiting for some more time to pass so I can use another member more effectively. They'll still be predicting me, but with security slightly off guard just a little will give us our perfect opportunity."

"Who's this other member you speak about, Lord?"

"He's over there," Tenebris said, while gesturing with his head towards a cave entrance.

The two had entered the cave that descended deep into the crust of the earth. Below was a prison similar to one Nightfang was held in. An arbok standing guard noticed the two enter and straightened its posture while saluting with its tail.

"Lower, Xandora," Tenebris ordered.

With haste, a cage containing a zoroark was brought down. His left eye was swollen shut and his torso was covered in numerous brushes and scars. His claws were chipped and his fur was mangy.

"The hell do you want now?" The zoroark known as Xandora asked in a raspy voice.

"Not even a hello after all of these months?" Tenebris asked with sarcasm.

"Piss off."

"You should be less hostile towards me, unless you want me to explain to your son that now his father won't be coming home again either."

Xandora glared, images of how Tenebris slaughtering his wife flickered in his head. "Just tell me what you want."

"We have a small task that requires your experience. We need your help kidnapping someone in Whitestone."

"Are you fucking insane, we'll be killed on site!"

"Yes, they could try to kill Frostbite and myself, but your the key to making this all successful, especially considering the abilities you zoroark and zorua have."

"What's in it for me?"

"You'll be guaranteed to live another day filling your son with false hope of your return."

Xandora gritted his teeth, but accepted helping the umbreon out. After all, he is the only source of completing this mission, they'll be at his mercy once he's out, as he didn't truly plan on helping the umbreon anyway. If Tenebris would fill his child with false hope, that's just what he'd do to Tenebris.

Big thanks again to AuraCaster for beta reading this chapter.