Suicune had been visiting me for the last two weeks in my sleep. Ever since our daring rescue of the Legendary Trio, Suicune and I had gotten very friendly. We talked at night, discussing what we've been doing lately, antics of our comrades and friends, and stories of our past adventures. As expected, Suicune had much more to say on the last topic. Generally much more interesting, too. But the most frustrating part about my recurring dreams was that Suicune continued to dance around the meaning of his "parting gift" to me.
His last words to me tonight were "Bolt and Umbreon will be starting up their fight again soon." Might want to take care of that first.
I rolled on my back, stretched out my legs and tail, then stood up and shook off, scattering dirt and water droplets. The sun warmed my fins.
Right on cue, Bolt's yelling cut through the air. "I DON'T KNOW, UMBREON! I JUST... DON'T KNOW!"
Aaaaaand time to intervene.
I hopped out of my den, trotted up to the warring males, and thrust myself between them. "What is going on here!?"
Umbreon looked just as confused and lost as I did. "I don't know! Bolt just snapped at me! We were just talking!"
I faced the other Eevee. "And you, Bolt?"
Bolt's aggression suddenly drained. He looked down at the ground, ashamed. "I... need to talk with you, Splash."
I loosened up a bit. "What's wrong?"
"Remember when I told you I had a problem I couldn't fix? Before the whole Legendary thing?"
"Yes."
"I will tell you now. I really don't want to hate you, Umbreon," he said, looking over my back to the Dark Type.
Umbreon nodded, satisfied for the moment. I looked at Bolt. "Let's talk in my den." He nodded glumly, but followed anyway. We walked over to the pond and sat near the side. Surf was out hunting with Inferno, so they wouldn't bother us.
I looked seriously at Bolt. "This has been going on for a while. Tell me what's going on."
Bolt was still looking down, hesitating and pacing. "I... I just... I'm... Wow, it feels like we've done this before."
I nodded. "We have." This was getting out of paw. I was done with cushioning Bolt. He needed to say this on his own. Whether I was helping him get there or not.
Bolt stopped pacing and looked me straight in the eye. I saw fear, anger, jealousy, and... love. "I'm..." He turned away to look at Umbreon, who was walking back inside his log den, greeted with a loving rub on the cheek from his mate.
Everything clicked. "You're in love with Espeon."
Bolt visibly sagged. "Yes. And... that's why I've been so... touchy with Umbreon. I just see how perfect they are together and..."I let out a slow breath. It was so obvious to me now. How could I not have seen it? The snippets of time snuck with Espeon when Umbreon wasn't around, the extra testosterone with Umbreon...
A thought struck me. "You know Espeon probably knows, right?"
Bolt looked up at me suddenly, alarm written all over his face. "Patrats! You're right! She'd see it before anyone!" He resumed pacing quickly, nervous sparks jumping off his fur. "Would she tell Umbreon? I mean, if she did already, Umbreon would be a lot angrier at me, right? But what if he gets it, so he wants to smooth things over? Then I would have been acting like a jerk for no reason. What if one of them told someone else? What if-"
"BOLT!" I yelled. He stopped suddenly and looked at me like a scolded kit. "Stop! Espeon would never ever tell a secret, no matter what!"
A look of shame crossed Bolt's face. "True..."
Silence settled over the two of us. "You know..." I said quietly, "You might want to talk to her about this."
Bolt looked terrified at this prospect. "What? No. Nonononononono." He resumed pacing. "I can't talk to her now."
I looked at him incredulously. "What, are you never going to talk to her again?"
He said "Yes, I will." His face said "No, I won't."
No comments:
Post a Comment