Bolt's voice cut me off. "I want to help Inferno!" he shouted from Clover's bush den.
Clover answered him a second before I could. "No, you are going to stay there! If I let you down, you'll just do a whole lot of running around and make it worse! You, mister, are staying up there!"
"Aw... But that's my job, too..." Bolt groaned. "I'm booooooored..."
It turned out that, after Bolt had woken up about a week ago, he hadn't been completely healed. Apparently, he had sustained a broken hind leg when he got hit. Five using Wish had helped, but it still wasn't fully healed. As a result, Clover grew some vines from the roof of her den that now suspended Bolt, and his cotton, Sitrus berry juice, and vine cast, from the ceiling until he fully recovered. Hanging off the floor with nothing to do, Bolt had grown very loud and annoying to the rest of us. Three more days, I reminded myself. Just three more days until he can run again.
I felt bad for him. "As soon as you're better, you can help Inferno." Dim grumbling came from the bush den. As this was the closest I was ever going to get to an affirmative, I continued. "Clover, Surf, Streak, and I are going to look for Night, and Umbreon, you stay in camp and keep teaching One through Five how to battle."
I saw nods all around. Umbreon summoned his kits to the middle of camp to begin their next lesson, Snow bounded over to Espeon and headed towards the camp entrance, and Inferno trailed after them to head out to the secret location of the obstacle course (which we all knew was near the river).
I glanced up at Streak. "How long do you have before you have to go and sit on the eggs again?"
He looked over his wing, back in the direction of his nest. "Maybe an hour? Or two?"
Clover spoke up as she approached. "Why not use the happy medium and search for an hour and a half?"
The Staraptor nodded. "Sounds good. Heh. Maybe if the eggs hatch soon, I can teach you and the Starly chicks how to fly at the same time."
She extended her left wing and thwaped Streak's side with it. "Not funny."
The background noises of One using Tackle, Sand Attack, Bite, and Psychic played while I proposed the same question that I had during the whole of last week. "Where are we looking this time?"
Surf proposed, "What about the big oak tree? We haven't looked there for a few days."
"Or near the downstream river, where it comes near the human town?" asked Clover.
I shrugged. "I was thinking more along the waves of that little clearing near the stand of elm trees. We haven't checked there yet at all."
"What about something closer to home?" asked Streak. "Like around my nest? Night would most likely try to come home, if she could."
I flicked my fin, underscored by Two missing Three with Tackle. "All good locations... We have time. All day, in fact. We can hit all four of those. Start with downstream, hit the stand of elm trees next, then go by Streak's nest and check there, after which, Streak, you can resume egg duty, and then end with the big oak. Sound good?"
Everyone nodded in agreement. Clover added, "And maybe I can practice my flight when we get back, if we don't find Night."
Surf nodded in agreement. "Good thinking."
I stood up. "All right, then. Let's move out!" Streak took to the sky as Clover and Surf stood up, and all four of us exited camp.
We returned several hours later, glum, tired, and with aching paws. Umbreon, who was in the midst of a mock battle with Three, paused in mid attack to look up at us. "Hey! Any luck?"
I let my tail drag along the ground. "No. Not in the slightest," I muttered. I put on a smile and looked up at the Dark Type. "But what about you? How's training going?"
Umbreon started to answer, then was cut off by Three slamming into his shoulder with Tackle. Laughing, he rolled back to his paws as his shiny son swished his tail proudly. "Quite well, as you can see! I spilt everyone up into practice battle pairs."
One called from her mock battle as she circled Two. "But Three always wins! He's no fun to battle!"
Umbreon shook out his short, black fur. "So I figured that I'd teach him how to fight against a much stronger opponent."
"Smart!" I said as Clover and Surf filed past me, each to their own dens. "That's good to know! How's it going?"
Three looked at me proudly. "I knocked Daddy off balance when he was distracted, just like he taught me!"
I laughed. "Good for you, Three!" I sat down with my tail over my paws, watching the three pairs go back to pretending to duke it out. Umbreon had chosen his pairs well.
One and Two were aggressive fighters, Two more than One. One, however, had patience and a Psychic advantage. Both circled each other for a few more seconds before Two made a sudden pounce at One, which probably would have caught me by surprise, but One bounced to the side easily, letting Two fall, off balance, past her. The brown Eevee used Bite on her sister's tail, but Two bounced back quicker than One had anticipated, using Sand Attack to throw her older sibling away and give herself a few seconds to recover. Taking full advantage of her skill set, Two bounded into the shadow dimension with Phantom Force. One recovered a second later, rubbing the sand out of her eyes and looking for her younger sibling, who was nowhere to be found. She narrowed her eyes, trying to detect Two with her Psychic powers, but was unsuccessful. Finally, Two appeared out of nowhere, jumping down from the announcement rock in the shadow dimension to land squarely on top of One's back, pinning her to the ground. "I win!" she shouted.
One did her best to look up at her sister. "Good job, Two. I forgot to look up."
Two grinned at her non shiny sister. "No one ever does, do they?"
Next to them, Four and Five were attacking with less intensity than their older siblings. In fact, by the sound of it, Five didn't want to battle at all. "Why do we have to battle? Why can't we just get along?"
Four answered while concentrating. "Simple. Prey."
Five wasn't convinced. "But why can't we just eat berries?"
As Umbreon was busy, I answered for him. "Four's right, but in both directions. We do actually have to catch prey, unless you're a Leafeon, and something might try to catch you! You need to know how to fight back!"
One piped up as Two jumped off of her back. "Like Splash did with the Garchomp! She doesn't fight unless she has to!"
"Thank you, One, that's true," I said, nodding appreciatively at her.
After a few more minutes, Four and Five called a draw, and Umbreon 'defeated' Three. As he gave his lucky son some tips, an idea came to me. "You know, you all don't have to battle solo. If you are facing a bigger enemy, you could all work together."
They seemed to like the idea. I then noticed Clover watching from her den. How long had she been standing there? One voiced the main question. "That seems like a good idea, but who do we practice against?"
I shrugged. "How about me?"
Umbreon sat down nearby. "A chance to defeat your Clan leader on her invitation..." he said wryly. "I'd take that opportunity while you can get it." All of his kits nodded in agreement.
Clover spoke up from behind them. "She'll be a tough opponent. But this wouldn't be fair unless this was a real battle. I can heal anyone who gets hurt."
"And no hard feelings," I said firmly. They were five kits, barely level six each. How hard could this be?
One smiled. "Agreed. Ready, everyone?"
"Ready!" they all said in unison.
I stood up and squared my stance. "Go!"
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Today, we celebrate the one year anniversary of the Eevee Clan!
Yaaay! Keep those views and comments coming!
You guys are awesome!
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