I rested my head on the edge of Surf's nest and sighed. I took a long time inhaling again, trying to discern as much of Surf's scent as I could It mostly smelled like the Sea Incense that I had given him, the one that he wore almost all the time. It now sat near his pond access hole, untouched since he rushed to help me contain Espeon's kits. Half of me was glad. It was fine, unharmed by the explosion. I touched the Shell Bell around my neck with one paw. Half of it was shattered and unusable. I had fallen on it when I was thrown by the blast. It had made the most beautiful sound...
I shook my head. I had two kits to take care of. When everything was back to normal, then I could ask Surf about fixing my Shell Bell. I hopped out of Surf's nest, reflecting on my lack of dreams and trying to prioritize. I sat down in front of the pond water and curled my tail over my paws. Think.
First things first, I had to get the kits and I fed and cared for. I still had the berries from Clover's den, so the kits should be ok on those. I, however, had to hunt. But what would One and Three do while I was out? I couldn't just keep them in my den forever. I'd cross that river when I got to it. For now, I had to care for the kits.
Diving into the water after smelling Surf's Sea Incense one last time, I contemplated my lack of Legendary dreams. Suicune hadn't shown up. There was the off chance that he had been busy. Maybe that was it. Probably-
"ONE!?" I screeched through the water as I spotted the brown Eevee, who couldn't swim, struggling to reach my den. I shot through the water like a Sharpedo, grabbing One's scruff in my teeth, and leaping into my den, accidentally knocking Three backwards with my tail.
I landed on my paws and dropped One, checking to see if she was still breathing. She wasn't, though she was alive. I quickly flipped her onto her back and pushed on her chest pushed with my front paws, using my tail for balance. Nothing was happening. I tried to focus on the water in her lungs, trying to draw it out, but nothing was happening.
Three, still dazed from his tail-slap to the face, stumbled over to me and One, leaning on my thigh. I turned to look at him for a moment. "Three, give me space! I'm trying to save your sister!" But as I pressed on One's chest, just after finishing my thought, One suddenly hacked up the pond water that she had swallowed, drooling it all over her fur. I quickly got up and righted her, though I didn't push her to stand up. One continued to cough and throw up pond water, and I sat right next to her until she stopped and was breathing normally, if not raggedly, again. I leaned close to her, ignoring the water on the floor. "Are you all right, One?"
It took her a few seconds before she could answer. "I... I think so... That was scary..." she stammered, barely whispering.
I gently picked her up and placed her in my nest. "What were you doing? You can't swim."
She gave me apologetic Growlithe eyes. "I... I was looking for you... We woke up and you weren't there..."
I closed my eyes and sighed softly. This was my fault. "I'm sorry, One. You two were sleeping in my bed, so I slept in Surf's. I should have woken you up and told you. I'm sorry."
She put her head down and closed her eyes. "I rubbed Three all over before I tried to swim, but it didn't work."
I tilted my head. "You rubbed Three? Why?" I inquired glancing at the shiny Eevee that was, once again, playing with the seashells in my Vaporeon box.
"Three's really lucky," One stated simply. "If you rub against him, some of his luck rubs off on you for a little bit."
My fins lifted. It all made sense. Three never got into trouble because he lucked his way out. He almost always won the games that the kits played that involved hiding or chance. And during the ice skating fiasco, he was one of the few who didn't fall in the hole in the ice. One had been lucky when she rubbed Three and jumped in, not that she got to the surface, but that I had woken up and gone into the water at the exact moment that I did. And hadn't he leaned on me when I was trying to get the water out of One's lungs? Wasn't that the exact moment that I was successful? My gaze shifted back to Three without saying anything. So the shiny male, too, had powers of a sort. Something made me wonder if all five of Espeon's kits had something.
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Espeon had to sit in silence for a few minutes. Snow, after receiving no answer, tried to break the tension. "So, I guess the Spring Vaporeon Marathon is cancelled, Surf?" Surf just let out a tense sigh in response.
Espeon fretted. What should they do now? Something was still restricting her powers. She had to find out what. Surf spoke before she could start. "I don't know, Snow. Let's focus on the problem at our paws right now. Is there any way that you can get out of your cage, right now, right this second?"
The Glaceon faltered. "No..."
Surf sighed. "Well, I can think of three ways that I can escape, right here and now."
Espeon tried to home in on the source of her Psychic blockage as Snow answered. "Really? What?"
"I can turn into a puddle and slide out, I can use Dive, and I can use Iron Tail to smash the door out," Surf explained in a simple tone of voice.
Espeon tuned in to the conversation. "I would be able to teleport out or use telekinesis to pull the door open or open the lock."
She couldn't see Surf, but she guessed that he tilted his head. "Would?"
Espeon nodded, though, again, no one could see her. "I would, but something is blocking my Psychic powers. Surf, I tried to help you escape by clouding the humans' minds, but something was holding me back. It still is."
Surf got right down to business. "Is it inside or outside your cage?"
Espeon used her telekinesis to lift both bowls and a lot of sand at the same time. "No, definitely not inside," she stated, gently placing everything back down. Before Surf could even ask, Espeon tried lifting things outside her cage, at varying distances away. She didn't move it much, so as not to alert the burly human, but enough to gauge by how much she was being held back. Closer to her cage was an issue, though not terribly big. However, the nearer she got to a dark corner...
Espeon placed the empty can that she was lifting and tried to read the presence in that corner. She couldn't figure out anything about it, revealing that it was a Dark Type. Full-blooded and single Typed, but very gifted with tricking the mind. Espeon ran though the list of Pokémon that she knew.
A small, shy, female voice interrupted her thoughts. "Um... Excuse me? Y-you're the Espeon, right?"
Snow and Surf had fallen silent to let Espeon and this new Pokémon talk. Maybe she could help. "Yes. Who are you?" Espeon asked politely.
"Um... I'm Zorua," she answered simply. Something clicked in Espeon's powerful mind about the presence in the corner. Zorua confirmed her suspicion. "That's a cousin of mine over there. He's a Zoroark." Everything about her power blockage was explained perfectly. Zoroarks relied on mind tactics to create their illusions, explaining why he could weaken Espeon's powers.
Before Espeon could respond, another human burst in through the doorway, carrying a large cage. His body was blocking what kind of Pokémon was inside. "Found the last one! The cage got thrown when our Rapidashes had a fright!" Espeon watched carefully as the human marched over to a large hook on the wall and hung the cage there. "Mark male Staraptor on the list there," the human said as he stepped away from the cage. Espeon's eyes went wide. Snow gasped.
Inside the cage, broken, bruised, battered, and restrained, lay Streak.
Umbreon kept a vigilant watch all throughout the night. The night was his domain. The moonlight gave him all the strength that he would get from sleeping through the night. He had purposefully dimmed the glow on his rings, so as not to attract any unwanted attention, but there had been a Luxray and a Gengar that had noticed their encampment. Luckily, the Luxray had been one that Umbreon had met before, when walking this way Espeon. He wished Umbreon luck in finding her and left to tend to his own new family. Apparently, he now had two Shinxes to look after. As far as the Gengar encounter went, it had wanted to find Clover and Four, but a threatening glare from Umbreon was enough to convince it to keep moving.
Clover, as usual, was up with the sun. "Morning, Umbreon," she said as she exited the den. Umbreon had to agree with her that it was not a "good" morning.
"Morning," he returned.
There was a bit of silence in which Clover began stretching in the early light. "You can tell there's a hint of spring in the air," she said as she bent into a stretch, displaying her wings.
Umbreon nodded. "Yeah. It was pretty warm last night." He couldn't help but admire her wings. He wouldn't mind having wings like those, even if he had no clue how to use them. He'd figure it out and find Espeon.
Clover seemed to sense Umbreon's gaze on her wings, snapping them back into their hidden position along her sides. "Stop that. You know I don't like that."
"They're very pretty," Umbreon defended. "I can look at them."
"How's your shoulder?" Clover countered, using a slightly acidic tone.
"Fine, as a matter of fact. I was right. A night off made it better," Umbreon lied. It actually had gotten a bit worse overnight. When Clover said nothing, just looked at him, Umbreon stood up. "In fact, I'm going to go hunting. Watch Four. I'll be back." Umbreon trotted into the surrounding foliage, forcing himself not to react to the pain in his shoulder.
As he passed out of Clover's range of sight, Umbreon let himself walk and limp. He used Moonlight, kicking himself that he hadn't thought of that before (he really didn't need to use his healing move all that much), and tested it out to see if that was better.
It still had a dull ache, but using Moonlight again would have more potency when the moon was actually out. He'd heal himself tomorrow night. But for now, he'd look awfully silly if he returned less than a few minutes after leaving with no prey.
He closed his eyes and lifted his ears and nose. Rustling touched his right ear, accompanied by a faint smell of Spearow. Using his Dark Type powers to home in on the unsuspecting bird Pokémon, he walked as close as he could to his prey without alerting it. Deciding that crouching and creeping would irritate his shoulder further, He bounded into the shadow dimension using Phantom Force.
Landing easily on his paws, Umbreon relaxed. Everything around him looked like it was either in shadow or early dusk lighting, and the normal lines and boundaries of objects were blurry. The only solid thing in Umbreon's line of sight was Umbreon. He walked towards the Spearow, which was very busy wrestling with a Weedle. Passing straight through a large rock that would have been blocking his way, he walked right up to the Spearow, so close that he could touch it. Actually, if he had tried, his paw would have passed straight through his prey. He still went undetected.
Umbreon put his weight on his hind legs, leaping high into the air and opening another hole between dimensions as he fell. He landed squarely on top of the Spearow, before it could even register that there was a threat. Phantom force knocked out the tiny bird Pokémon is one hit. But just as Umbreon was about to pick up his catch, a terrified voice screeched across the forest.
"UMBREON!"
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Bolt turned in about 17 circles before earning a look from Two and laying down next to his nieces. The meeting had gone better than Bolt had expected. Chris, Soursap's trainer, had certainly been surprised when he had come back into his den to find out that a Jolteon, Flareon and two Eevees, one of which was shiny, had suddenly appeared on his "sofa," but honestly, who wouldn't?
When Soursap had told them on the spot to get Chris to like them in two harshly whispered words. "Be helpful!" This had led to Inferno dusting various things with his tail, Two staring out the window, and Five picking flowers from a nearby pot for Chris to have. The human did not seem particularly happy with Five, but said nothing to her after looking at her proud and adorable smile.
When Bolt couldn't think of anything to do that would be helpful, Soursap had suggested fixing the "television," which was apparently 1. a sort of glass pane thing that moved and showed things happening that weren't really there, and 2. broken. It hadn't taken Bolt long to find the problem. Some small Pokémon had chewed through one of the cables. After some experimentation, Bolt selected a bit of metal foil and some rubber circles to repair the wire, jump-starting it with a mild Charge Beam. Bolt then proceeded to track down the culprit, a lost Dedenne which Bolt chased outside as Soursap held the door open.
Thus, they had earned a place to stay for the night. Soursap had his own bed, which was soft, cushy, and filled with vines, leaves, and flowers. He had volunteered to let Bolt have it, since he could sleep on Chris's bed, and Inferno would likely catch it on fire. Inferno was sleeping a part of the den that Chris called the "bathroom," in a dip in one of the stone slabs that was perfectly Flareon sized. Bolt had taken the offer of Soursap's bed due to the fact that Two liked it, Five loved it, and it was right next to a power outlet.
Bolt had, as usual, woke up at the crack of dawn. As he was about to wake everyone else up as well, Two, who had been awake for a while, shushed him and told him not to. So Bolt laid back down next to her and Five. Bolt pointed his nose towards the bathroom. "Can you hear Inferno snoring?" he whispered quietly, earning a giggle from Two.
She regained her composure relatively quickly, looking at Bolt curiously. "Uncle Bolt?"
"Yes, Two?" Bolt asked, looking at her.
"Why does Soursap like living with a human?"
Bolt tried to recall what Splash had said to him after Snow Day. "Well... Some Pokémon are different than others. We like to self-reliant. We make our own dens, hunt our own food, and heal our own injuries. Some Pokémon like the companionship with humans, and aren't as good at taking care of themselves. Some are just used to being with humans. Soursap has both. He's blind, so it's hard for him to care for himself, and he's been with humans almost his whole life." Sometimes, Bolt thought that the tiny shiny Eevee was older than she looked. She asked good questions.
She nodded, accepting the answer. She looked over at Soursap. "Why is he blind? Why does he have two tails? What happened to him?"
Bolt flicked an ear. "Humans did that to him, too. There are a few good humans, but there are also a lot of bad ones. That's why we live in the Eevee Clan and have ways to avoid being caught by humans. It's better to be safe than sorry."
Two was still stuck on Bolt's first sentence. "Humans did that to Soursap?" Bolt nodded seriously. Two looked up at him, a trace of fear in her eyes. "Can we go home now? Chris is nice and all, but that's scary."
Bolt nodded again. "I know, Two. We'll go as soon as everyone else wakes up. Chris and Soursap were nice to us. We can't just leave without saying goodbye."
Two shrugged, putting her head back down. "I guess not."
Bolt's mind drifted. Was it a good thing that Two was scared of humans? Probably a little of both. Her two interactions with them thus far were a pack of humans blowing up he home and kidnapping her mother, and one nice human giving her a place to sleep. Where was Espeon, anyway? Bolt wished that he had one of the little stone things that Snow and Clover had. That would have made this whole thing so much easier. He knew that Espeon could easily escape whatever the humans had put her in. She was brilliant like that. Then he, Inferno, Two, and Five could find her. That'd be half of the Clan right there.
If only it were that easy.
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