The Calm Before the Storm (Part 3)

I can say this for certain.  Clover's new Emergency-vine-that-you-can-only-pull-on-in-desperate-situations-as-in-SOS-someone-is-dying-and-I-need-to-contact-Splash-immediately works pretty well.  The slack is hidden under a rock, and the rest of the vine snakes though a small tunnel underground that Clover made with Dig.  Because my bed is in an air-filled space under the pond, it's kind of hard to contact me in case of emergency.  So, Clover tied the other end of the vine to my bed.  That way, if someone moved the rock aside and pulled on the vine, my bed would rise up and slam against the ceiling.  I have been told I sleep very deeply, so...  Since the possible threat of another Mightyena attack, I had Clover install it.

Needless to say, it works perfectly.

WHAM!  "OW!" I shouted as my head hit the ceiling.  I rubbed my brow with a paw.  The mechanism worked all right.  Oh, wait.  Emergency.  Right.  As I slid into the water, I thought to myself "I swear, if this is Bolt or Inferno playing a prank on me, I will seal them in their rock den for a WEEK."  As I reached the surface however, it appeared as though Bolt and Inferno were safe.  Espeon and Umbreon had pulled the alarm.

I pulled myself onto the ground, not even bothering to shake the water off of myself.  The pair looked rather eerie in the moonlight, with Espeon's jewel giving off a light aura and Umbreon's yellow rings glowing brightly in the dark.  I looked back and forth between the two.  "Ok... when I said that the Emergency Vine was only for emergencies, I meant it....  I am losing valuable sleep here...  What's going on?"

Umbreon spoke first with a note of urgency in his voice.  "I've had a premonition."

I was too tired for this.  "What?"

"A premonition." he repeated.  "You know, a feeling of what's to come."

"Like Future Sight?" I asked, still somewhat dazed from my head trauma. 

Espeon responded this time, soothing my head while she spoke.  "Something like that, yes."

I used Recover to fix my bump on the head, my drowsiness forgotten with Espeon's help.  "How?  You don't know Future Sight."  I gave a nod of thanks to Espeon as Umbreon explained.

"I don't.  But ever since Espy and I have been together, we've kind of... picked up a few tricks.  You know, like Bolt built up a resistance to fire since Inferno tends to explode in his sleep."  I nodded.  Inferno was prone to sleep-splosions.  Umbreon continued.  "Well, I've picked up two things from Espeon.  One you know about; I can sense lies?"

"Oh yeah," I recalled.  "All those times we've almost been scammed or cheated..."  Umbreon was my lie detector.  He was always present during customer negotiations to make sure our customer could and would pay.

Umbreon nodded and kept going.  "Right.  But the other one developed much more recently.  I can sort of... sense when something bad is going to happen."

Uh-oh.  "And... you sensed this just now?"

He nodded.  "Yeah.  Woke me up.  Someone in the Clan is in danger.  I can't tell who, but..."

I nodded seriously.  "I'll tell everyone to be on high alert.  I'll station two Eevees on watch and make sure anyone who goes outside the camp is with their battling partner."

Umbreon sighed in relief.  Espeon spoke.  "Since we're already awake, why don't the two of us relieve Snow?  She's up there right now.  It's only midnight."

I groaned.  "Thank you for reminding me of that fact...  Sure, go ahead.  Let her sleep.  And in the morning, put... Bolt and Inferno on watch.  Tell them that if there's too much chitchat and not enough watching, I'll box them around the ears."

Espeon chuckled.  "Will do."  With that, they walked off together, exited the camp and jumped up to the lookout post just as Snow slid down the ice slide.  The Glaceon shook her fur out and then walked casually to her thorn-bush shielded den with Clover.  I smiled, replaced the rock on top of the extra vine, and slid back into the water.  I swam into the small opening in the side of the pond, surfaced in my cozy little den, and laid back down in my bed, drifting off to sleep.

The next morning, I was grumpy from sleep deprivation.  Fortunately for everyone else, Surf met me in the middle of the pond.  I told him what happened the night before, and he not only told how reasonable I was, but rubbed and swam with me for a good half hour, melting my bad mood away like ice in the morning sun.

Together, we swam to the surface.  As we pulled ourselves out of the water, we were met by Snow and Clover.  Clover gave me a bright, sunny smile.  "Good morning!  We wanted to go out on a hunting patrol, if you Love Pidoves would like to join us."

I smiled at the analogy.  Surf just looked slightly embarrassed.  I nodded.  "Sure.  We'd love to.  Just one sec."  I left the three of them by the pond and walked over to Espeon and Umbreon, who, despite their long night, were eating by the prey hole, sharing sunny looks with each other.  If my calculations were correct, Espeon's eggs should be coming along in the next week or so.

I trotted up to the amicably.  "Morning.  How are you two this morning?"

Umbreon gave me a coy smile.  "You seem in a good mood, despite your late night."

I shrugged it off.  "You'd be surprised what Surf can do."

Umbreon leaned on Espeon.  "Oh, I know."

Espeon spoke, her soft voice like sunlight.  "Did you want to ask us something?"

I shook my head.  "No, tell you.  Snow, Clover, Surf and I are going out hunting.  I want you two in charge at camp.  We'll have four out and four home."

She nodded.  "Absolutely.  Be careful, though," she finished seriously, referring to Umbreon's prediction.

I nodded firmly.  "I will.  I'll be careful and make sure everyone else is, as well."

They nodded in thanks.  I turned back to the other three by the pond, sweeping my tail towards the entrance to signal to them that we were good to go.

Ten minutes later, the four of were padding side by side across the forest floor, keeping our noses and ears tuned for signs of prey... and danger.  Clover voiced my thoughts.  "Does anyone else find it a tad odd that it's right in the middle of fall, the leaves are turning and falling, and there's not a single sign of prey anywhere?"

"Yeah..." I agreed.  "Maybe we should head back.  I don't like this...  Everyone be on your guard.  Back to camp."  We turned around and started walking back home.  I couldn't shake the sense that we were being watched.

As it turns out, I was right.

Shuffling in the bushes caught Surf's attention.  He nudged my shoulder, and silently alerted the others to the threat.  Therefore, we were ready when the same pack of 10 Mightyenas exploded out of the thicket.  They surrounded us.  They had obviously been tracking us.  Thinking quickly, Clover thrust thorny brambles up from the ground, circling and shielding us from the ferocious dog Pokemon.  She turned to me.  "I can dig a hole back to camp!  Stay here and keep them occupied!" 

"Go!"  I shouted.  Clover sprang to the middle of her bramble circle and used a rapid and panicked Dig, drilling into the ground with alacrity.  Surf, Snow, and I remained outside the tunnel, drawing the Mightyenas' attention.  The three of us fired moves through the thick brambles, trying to disable or knock out any that we could, but it was hard to aim.  Our foes on the outside snarled and barked, trying to get into our protective circle.  All we could do was wait for Clover to return and give us the all clear.

Suddenly, Espeon's voice shouted in my head.  "Splash!  The pack is back!  They're at the camp!  Don't come back!  Wait for them to leave!  We're in hiding, better this time."

I stopped in dread.  I sent a desperate thought back to her.  "We're being attacked as well!  Clover's digging back to camp!  Tell her to come back!"  No response from Espeon.  "Espeon?  Espeon!"  I turned to Surf.  "Espeon just contacted me!  She said they're under attack at the camp, too!  There are more of them!"

His first concern was the same as mine.  "What about Clover?"

I shook my head.  "I tried to tell her, but she's not answering!"

Surf thought hard and fast.  "Maybe that warning to you might have given them away.  The less time in contact with you, the better."

"Not in this case!  Clover's in danger!"

Snow whipped around to face us.  "Splash, you go after her!  You can use Blizzard to freeze the tunnel in case of possible collapses!"

"Good idea!" I called back.  With that, I dove into Clover's hole, pinning my fins to my back and sides to avoid scraping them on the tunnel walls.  As I tore through the dirt tunnel, coming closer and closer to camp, I grew concerned for Clover's safety.  Finally, to my relief, I spotted her.

The good news was, she was fine.  The bad news was, just as I caught sight of her, she opened the other end into camp.

At first, I saw no Mightyenas.  Apparently, neither did Clover, because she stepped out into the open.  As she turned around to come back into the tunnel and reinforce it, something heavy stepped on the ground above the hole, exactly on the spot between Clover and me.  The extra weight caused a cave in between us before I could warn her.  I could only launch Blizzard to keep the tunnel from caving in on top of me. 

The only problem with this strategy was that I also ended up freezing the soil in front of me.  As I scraped and scrabbled my claws against the ice, I heard Clover crying out in surprise and pain.  She was in trouble!  Finally, I had the idea to use Stone Edge to shatter the ice in front of me.  However, by the time I was able to start digging, Umbreon was joining in from the other side.

As he dug me out, and Inferno and Bolt joined in, pulling me from the soil.  I glanced frantically around camp.  "Where's Clover!?"

Espeon shook her head.  "That Mandibuzz came back.  It snatched her right off the ground while the Mightyenas kept us busy.  It's my fault, Splash.  I should have took your sent thought.  She's gone."