Sparks of Romance? (Part 3)

Bolt plodded back through the forest towards camp, paws dragging at the ground.  He had blown it.  REALLY blown it.  If he had a tail, it would be dragging in the dirt behind him.  It had been going so well...  Or...  Not terribly, at least...  But then...

Next to him, Bubbles had offered to walk him at least part way home, watching him in concern.  "Are you feeling any better?"

"Physically, a little..." he muttered without looking up.

The collared Vaporeon gently nudged his shoulder.  "Hey...  It's not your fault..."

"It kind of is..."

"Unless you did it on purpose, I don't think it was."

"Of course I didn't do it on purpose..."

"Then it's not your fault!  Stop beating yourself up over-"

"I didn't do it on purpose, but I still got sick on my new girlfriend!"

Bubbles winced slightly.  "...Look...  I'll try to talk to her.  You made her a beautiful necklace, you two were really starting to get along, you clearly feel awful about it..."

"No, she'll still stay far away from me..." he said certainly, still not looking at her.  "That's just the way my luck works..."

"Don't be like that, you'll find someone," she said cheerfully, bumping Bolt's shoulder slightly harder than she should have at this point.  He stumbled heavily, almost falling over, but catching himself in time.  What was wrong with him?  Normally, he could jump from one tree to another while running at full speed, even if there was a defining gap between them and he was in the thinnest, topmost, and most flexible branches.  Now he could barely move his paws right on solid ground?  Even apparently being sick, that shouldn't bother him.  What was wrong with him?

Bubbles made sure that he was all right before coming closer again.  "Sorry..."

"It's fine...  This is really throwing me off...  I might need a drink, I'm parched..."

"No water, Bolt," came another female voice from nearby, just as Espeon and Umbreon stepped out from behind a nearby bush.

Bolt's throat went dry from both thirst and embarrassment.  What were they doing so far from camp?  Bubbles, however, was far more polite.  "Oh.  Hello."  The couple nodded in greetings.  "You two know Bolt?"

"Of course," Espeon responded.  "We're in the same clan as he is."

"Oh...  I honestly thought it was just a whole pack of Jolteons!"

Espeon laughed in that amazing way that she did while Bolt just tried to hide the fact that he was going redder than Inferno's fur.  He was over Espeon...

Umbreon was smiling slightly, but still watching the new Pokemon.  "And you are?"

"I'm Bubbles.  A friend of Bolt's.  Well, a friend of a friend, really.  Why shouldn't he have water?"

Espeon instantly grew more serious, but it was Umbreon that spoke.  "...Bubbles, you should go home."

"What?  Why?"

Espeon answered.  "Almost everyone in our clan is sick.  We think something is poisoning the river, and I don't want to risk you getting sick if-"

Bolt finally spoke, interrupting her words.  "Wait, everyone's sick?"

Umbreon nodded once.  "Everyone except the two of us, Sunbeam, Moonlight, and Inferno."

Bolt's immediate thoughts were of Three and little Five.  The poor kits...  "...I have to go help..." he said, already preparing for a run.

The Vaporeon took a step closer, looking concerned.  "Bolt, you could barely walk earlier, you shouldn't be running!"

"I have to go!  Three and Five need someone to look after them!"  He didn't let anyone else say anything before he bolted off into the woods, back towards camp.  Forget his failed love life.  If Espeon and Umbreon couldn't be there, then he would.  Those five always came first.

Moonlight trotted alongside her older sister as they continued upriver, just as they had been doing for about two hours now.  Sunbeam was walking with her eyes closed and her split tail curled slightly around Moonlight's so that the Espeon wouldn't crash into any trees, trip over any rocks, walk into her sister, fall into the river, etc. as she cast all of her senses towards the river, trying to detect anything wrong with it.  Moonlight was getting slightly impatient, since that was all they had been doing for the last hour, but it was for the good of the clan...

"Nothing yet..." Sunbeam finally said, opening her eyes again to take a reality check.

Moonlight paused so that her sister could re-orient herself.  "I thought Splash said it couldn't be far."

"We have to be close by now."

Moonlight nodded curtly, then offered her tail again, muttering as Sunbeam anchored herself again.  "I swear to Arceus, if we missed it..."

"We didn't miss it, the plant life under the water is still wilting..."

Moonlight said nothing, just resuming walking slowly and being the lookout.  They were getting awfully far from camp...  And their parents had told them not to come this way when they were younger...  Oh well.  Any tough Pokemon that came at them, they could handle.  They had proven that multiple times.

Still, Moonlight couldn't shake the feeling that they were walking towards something they shouldn't be...  Apparently, Sunbeam felt the same way.  "...Sis, do you feel kind of weird?"

"Like we should turn back or something?"

"Yeah...  It's giving me the creeps..."

Moonlight lifted her nose to the air, about to respond, but froze instead, then addressed her sister in a harsh whisper.  "Sis.  Mightyena."

Sunbeam snapped to attention, ready to move.  She couldn't sense Dark Types, but she could still fight, especially if both she and Moonlight stayed together.  After a few tense seconds, however, when nothing happened, Moonlight crept forward.  It wasn't attacking them...  They were right in the open...

A howl from another Mightyena a fair distance ahead split the air, and the Mightyena that Moonlight had smelled bolted out of hiding, completely ignoring the two Eevees to run towards its packmate.  Moonlight watched it go, then glanced back at Sunbeam.  "...Was that just me, or was that weird?"

"Definitely weird," said the walking encyclopedia.  "It's like it was watching for something until that other Mightyena gave the alert.  That's not a natural behavior."

The shiny Umbreon looked at her sister, the question not needing to be asked aloud.  They were sent out for a reason, but something was up here.  Should they investigate?

A furious roar and a howl of pain rang out from where the Mightyena's howl had come, followed quickly by sounds of a massive fight.  Sunbeam spoke without taking her eyes off of the direction of the battle.  "...We should go check that-"

"Yeah," Moonlight said with a nod.  Something weird was going on, and Moonlight somehow sensed it could be connected to the river.  But what would a pack of Mightyenas acting strangely have to do with her sick clan?  And, she wondered as she and Sunbeam raced towards the sound of the commotion, why was that big, white human building she could see so far away from anything else that reeked of humans?