Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Charon's Pursuit ❯ Tempting Company ( Chapter 6 )

AUTHOR’S NOTE: And here is chapter six. I enabled anonymous reviews to be allowed so that readers without an account can leave behind some critique. It was disabled for some time due to persistent flames on one of my works, but I’ve since realized that disabling anonymous reviews to filter out flamers is rather pointless. If they want to blow hot air in order to gain attention, let them. They are the ones who make asses of themselves. :D

Calien, Lily, and Charon, now all fully awake, looked down upon the limp form of the female pichu. Just minutes ago it had plummeted high from a tree, landing hard upon the top of her head. Her scream had awoken Lily’s mate, who immediately rushed out of the cave in panic, thinking the scream belonged to the maiden vulpix. Calien quickly realized his mistake, fortunately, and was able to restrain himself from roasting Charon alive. But now they were faced with a new problem.

“She’s not…dead, is she?” Lily asked, almost tearing up.

Charon stepped forward to the limp pichu. Lowering down to all fours, the raichu placed his ear upon the litter’s tiny chest, listening for signs of life.

“Her heart is still beating and she’s seems to breathe ok,” Charon answered, getting back up to stand on his hindlegs, “I think the pichu’s just unconscious. Dammit, this never would’ve happened if not for yesterday! I’m such an idiot!”

“What do you mean, Charon? What happened yesterday?” Calien asked.

Charon, turning to face the foxes, let out a pitiful sigh. “I was lounging around on a tree branch yesterday, eating an apple, when I had heard someone trying to sneak up on me. I assumed it was Synope, that snake that’s always trying to kill me, and I thought I’d scare the daylights out of him by pinning him to the bark and baring my teeth. And wouldn’t you know, it was really that goddamn Pichu laying before us!” He jabbed a paw towards the unconscious litter. “She only slipped and fell because she was trying to get away from me, the terrible raichu.” Those last words dripped with sardonic tone.

“I see,” Calien said, “It certainly wasn’t the best way to make an impression upon her.”

“What else was I supposed to expect?” Charon replied, “I didn’t know there were other chus until she showed up, and Synope’s the only one that ever wants to get close to me; and that’s not because he wants to be my friend.”

Lily looked down to the ground, her olive eyes becoming moist. “That’s not even the worst part,” she said, “Hasn’t anyone noticed that her mother is nowhere to be found? She should’ve come running for her offspring by now!”

The two males turned to look at her, the fact suddenly hitting them like bricks. “Oh dear,” Calien said, “This is worse than I thought. This pichu might be an orphan.”

“Or abandoned!” Lily exclaimed.

“Or an unwanted bastard of the broken,” Charon added grimly, “But only the kid knows for sure.”

An uneasy silence passed over the three. They looked again at the unconscious pichu. Despite being comatose, it somehow still bore an expression of despair, touching an empathetic chord in them.

We could just be assuming the worst…she mentioned her mother the first time around, Charon thought, or was that just a fake memory to protect herself?

Charon sighed. “Listen, Lily, Calien…I don’t want to drag you into this. It’d be stupid to ignore helpless offspring of my own race, especially when I intend to have offspring myself. It goes against why we even bother to survive in these woods. I’ll take the pichu with me and help her find a new mother. You two can worry about having your own offspring.”

“Well, er…I suppose you’re right,” Calien said, “Lily, we ought to prepare to conceive our litters soon, yes?”

Lily did not respond. At the moment, it looked like the maiden vulpix was about to release a waterfall of tears.

“Lily? Lily, what’s wrong?” Calien asked, not having a clue as to why Lily suddenly became so emotional.

“You…you…HOW CAN YOU BE SO INSENSITIVE!?” Lily suddenly burst out, the dam holding back her tears crumbling before the emotional onslaught. Calien and Charon recoiled in unison, gripped by a mix of confusion and utter fear.

“What did I do, Lily?! What did I do?” Calien blurted in panic, his six tails tucked between his legs.

“It’s just so terrible! This poor pichu was just like me! I NEVER HAD A MOTHER!” Lily sobbed.

“But Lily, I didn’t have a mother either! We were both born in captivity, remember?” Calien pointed out.

“THAT’S WHY YOU’RE BEING INSENSITIVE, YOU STUPID JERK!” Lily shrieked, letting out a burst of flame from her red muzzle that drove poor Calien behind the cover of a tree. Charon, knowing better than to interfere with the fights of young couples, watched the spectacle unfold with bewilderment, being sure to keep himself and the unconscious pichu at a safe distance.

“I’m sorry Calien,” Lily proclaimed, “But I can’t just start a family knowing that pichu might never have a family at all! I’d feel so sad I could never get in the mood, you know?”

The maiden vulpix immediately turned to Charon, whose heart skipped a beat when her razor-sharp stare threatened to slice through his head. At once she charged right up to the raichu, stopping just inches before him, and looked up to him with a face of iron determination.

“Charon, Calien and I are going with you!” Lily proclaimed.

Charon’s jaw dropped. “I…I…” he stammered, but he could barely stand on his hindlegs, nevermind speak.

“What?!” Calien cried, rushing to Lily, “Lily, don’t do this to me! You promised today, Lily! You promised!”

“Calien, relax! I’m not gonna break my promise…but I can’t do it until this pichu is saved! You understand, don’t you, Calien?” Lily reasoned.

Now it was the male vulpix’s turn to shed some tears. “But…I just wanted to mate today…cruel fate, why do you deny me?!”

“Don’t be so dramatic! I want it just as much as you, but it has to wait, ok?” Lily said. She turned to Charon. “So where are you going to go, Charon?” She asked.

“Well…I…was going to go…to…the lake…” Charon managed to utter, even though his eyes seemed to stare into the depths of nothingness.

“Great! Let’s go then!” Lily stated. “We’re off to save the pichu!”

“…Right…” Charon barely replied.


____________________________________________________ _________________


The spring, midday sun shone overhead in the forest. Activity was bustling as usual. A bird flew here and there, and a fellow woodland creature would dash from tree to tree. But animals that were normally out in the open were taking cover wherever they could, for dangerous creatures (at least, what they perceived to be dangerous creatures) were traveling in their midst, their pace slow but steady.

Charon took point in this small group of rare, powerful creatures. He walked upon his hindlegs like a human biped, his long, weapon-like tail curled upward like the venomous sting of a scorpion. Though he knew it was inevitable, he disliked having to disturb the other inhabitants with his imposing presence. Normally he’d be dashing to his destination on all fours, as common rodents do, but his right paw had to carry a comatose pichu upon his shoulder, since in the unconscious state the litter wouldn’t have stayed upon his back. It was a wonder that the fall the pichu endured hadn’t killed it outright.

Trailing close behind Charon was the vulpix couple, Calien and Lily. The fire-breathing foxes, walking on all fours with their elegant tails fanned out, also struck an imposing presence upon the inhabitants; but both of them were preoccupied with other thoughts. Lily, on the right, constantly kept her eye upon the pichu. Having been conquered by empathy, the female desired the rescue of this lost offspring more than she desired the conception of her own litters. Walking very, very close to Lily’s left was her mate-to-be, Calien, switching between staring at Lily’s body lustfully and staring down to the ground in self-pity and frustration. A twist in fate had denied him Lily’s womb just a little longer than he had expected. Since this mating would be new territory for both of the foxes, he wanted the promised day to be very memorable, as well as a concrete reason for Lily to stay by his side…but already his intended plans had been screwed over by the pichu Charon carried, stealing Lily’s emotion. Now everything would have to be done in an impromptu fashion. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to find the privacy Lily would want, with the raichu in their midst, and what if Lily got too tired before they could conceive? Or even worse, what if all the stress from today cruelly makes Calien mess up and ruin the experience forever? Such a tragedy for Calien would be nearly too much to bear.

Although no one would know it from looking at Charon’s face, the raichu himself also had some gnawing thoughts. If he had possessed knowledge in ancient human curses, he’d speculate that he was struck by the curse of the Chinese: “May you live in interesting times.” He never expected the rekindled search for a mate to be an easy one, but already it was becoming too much. His only lead to the whereabouts of the other chus laid in the memories of this pichu who was terrified of him. He had no idea how he was going to earn the litter’s trust. But that wasn’t even the biggest problem. The biggest problem was right behind him, walking on all fours, possessing a feminine beauty that threatens to ensnare him.

Lily…Lily, why are you here with me? Why aren’t you letting me go, to live happily with your mate? Don’t you realize that you are tempting me? I’m not a creature of the wild…never have, never will, no matter how much I pretend. I have feelings that have been with me since my exile…feelings that wild creatures never have…Feelings that have been dormant, until now.

Do you know these feelings, Lily? They are the feelings of the broken. You have awoken them. And until you are no longer part of my life, I’ll live in mortal fear. I came close to committing the atrocity before…Can I resist the second time?