Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Charon's Pursuit ❯ Emotionally Bankrupt ( Chapter 11 )

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Upon the arrival of the morning sun, Charon, Calien, Lily, and Ivy awoke from their slumber. Not much in words were exchanged amongst them that morning. In fact, the group’s individuals had grown more distant since the previous night, and it showed in the manner that they traversed the forest to make their way to the mountain pass.

Charon, who normally took the lead, trailed far, far behind the others. The raichu was doubly paranoid that Lily’s trust in him had dramatically down-spiraled, since Lily would have to be a blithering idiot not to deduct that Charon had broken tendencies (and she obviously wasn’t a blithering idiot.) It wasn’t hard to imagine the hellish inferno that would follow if Lily sensed the slightest hint that poor Charon couldn’t keep to himself.

Calien was next in the line, also by himself, and he was depressed as hell. Besides Lily’s promise to mate with him last night being so promptly broken, for some reason his mate-to-be was staying as far away from him as possible now. He hadn’t the foggiest idea what prompted this change, but he immediately assumed that he had to have done SOMETHING wrong. Not know what he did exactly, however, only depressed him further, especially when he would stare at Lily’s backside.

Taking lead this time, Lily trotted through the forest ground nervously, an equally nervous pichu by her side. Of the group, her emotional stability was the worst off. The concept of going in heat was something unknown to her. Her only experience with the phase was when she became horribly moody in previous springs, sheltered in that store, without ever understanding why she acted that way. If what Charon said was true, Lily would be in serious trouble once her body starts to emit the scent…and if what she sensed from Charon was on the mark, the raichu would become her greatest danger. But it was too late to turn away now. She would never forgive herself if she didn’t see it through that Ivy would reunite with her mother again. Such was the attitude of a surrogate caretaker.

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The traveling quartet of mammals made their way up the mountain, their conversation minimal. While the mountain wasn’t so high as to be inhospitable as Mt. Everest, the trail still proved to be quite unruly: the higher the group climbed above their sylvan homeland, the rockier and steeper the trail would become. Other parts of the trail narrowed to thin strips of land wrapped around a nearly vertical face of rock. The view over the edge from that particular chunk of the trail proved quite harrowing, for plenty of pointy rocks waited below, more than eager to make the last moments of a falling creature a gruesome one. Hugging against the rock-face as they would traverse these dangerous grounds, the four would often lament their lack of wings.

By the time they reached the peak of the mountain, where the land mercifully flattened out a bit, the four animals ached in every inch of their bodies. The exhaustion of Charon, Calien, Lily, and Ivy, combined with how their nerves were rattled from braving the most dangerous trail mother nature could concoct, caused their bodies to crumble to the earth.

“Ugh!” Charon grunted, his back to the ground as he shielded his beady eyes from the noontime sun, “This damn mountain path is going to kill us!”

“The trail is so horrendous,” Calien moaned, “Ivy, how on earth did you ever traverse such nightmarish ground by yourself?”

The pichu did not answer, for as soon as they had reached the peak the young rodent had already succumbed to slumber, resting against Lily’s ribs.

“Shhhh….Ivy’s sleeping,” Lily said, whispering to the two males.

“Sleeping? Why now?” Charon asked, somewhat irritated, “We should be getting out of this hell as soon as we can and it’s going to be a lot easier if she’s awake.”

“Hush, Charon!” Lily pleaded, “She’s only a little girl…let her get some rest. We need it too, you know!”

Charon sighed. “Yes…I know.”

As Charon and Lily were having their conversation, the male vulpix was resting upon his stomach, eyeing Lily’s figure. His better judgment clouded by tantalization, Calien inched closer to Lily on his stomach. The maiden fox did not sense or see his approach, for her back was facing Calien as she lied upon her side, focusing on getting Charon to shut up and leave the pichu alone. Taking this golden opportunity, Calien came so close to Lily that he was damn near spooning the maiden fox. One can imagine the petrifying of Lily’s nerves once she realized that Calien was physically coming on to her.

“Lily? You’re quiet all of a sud- ” Charon began to say, as he rolled to the side to see why Lily had suddenly silenced herself, only to cut himself off just as quickly once he saw what Calien was doing. Whoa, the raichu immediately thought, Calien’s either really brave or really desperate…

“C-C-Calien?” Lily stammered, growing incredibly nervous at the male fox’s touch, not even willing to turn her head to look at him. “W-W-What are you doing?”

“What do you mean?” Calien answered, “We used to do this all of the time in the winter.”

“But we have c-c-company!” Lily stammered again.

“We have not done this in ages, Lily,” Calien said, continuing his touch, “You broke your promise last night, so you could at least not shy away from this!”

The words that Calien spoke to her had pierced right through her, like verbal spears. Suddenly overcome by sorrow, Lily began to weep. Charon saw her tears and at once looked away, not wanting to watch the poor vulpix suffer like that. Calien heard the weeping as well, causing him to freeze his gentle touch. The sound of Lily’s suffering stirred Ivy from her slumber, causing her to open her eyes groggily. Having come back from her slumber the pichu was blissfully unaware of what was going on.

“Calien…please,” Lily pleaded, her body shaking and her voice a desperate whisper, “I’m sorry…I’ll make it up to you…just don’t do this now. Not in front of them. Please.”

Charon sensed that Lily was not in the right state of mind to go through with what she meant to do last night. The raichu approached Calien, saying, “Calien, there’s nowhere the kid and I could go if you want to cuddle up to your mate without peering eyes. We’re stuck at the top of this mountain, remember? Wait until we get back to the forest. She’d be ready by then, wouldn’t you, Lily?”

Charon peered to Lily, his expression reading You’re going to be ready by then, right?! I’m going insane because of this! It only served to instill even more nervousness into the maiden fox.

Calien, feeling guilty upon hearing the dismal voice of his mate-to-be, finally backed off, albeit. He rose again to his feet, recomposing himself. Lily remained on the ground, for she was providing Ivy the comfort of her warmth, thus letting the pichu fall back to sleep.

“I apologize, Lily,” Calien said solemnly, “Our intimate time together should be private, as you say. I suppose…in a way I still feel cheated from last night. But that’s selfish of me.”

Lily did not respond, allowing an awkward silence to pass between them. Charon could see that she still was nervous as hell. He didn’t know why at the moment, but it angered the raichu. Just yesterday Lily was quite a cheery, playful character…and now she’s as fragile as an autumn leaf.

“We’re going to need a bit more rest,” Charon said, breaking the silence by changing the subject, “but not for too long. It’s just too dangerous to hang around here for long.”

“I’ll say! You forest dwellers are luckier than a ditto at a breeding center!”

The new voice that popped out of nowhere, ridiculously high-pitched yet nearly booming at the same time, shocked the four mammals so badly that their hearts skipped several beats, as though their blood had suddenly transmogrified into oozing peanut butter. Ivy, in particular, literally leapt into the air, and scurried behind Lily as soon as she came back to the ground. All sharply turned to the source of the voice.

“What the-?” Calien spoke, not exactly sure who or what he was looking at. Lily was equally dumbfounded, struck utterly speechless, while Ivy shrunk further behind the maiden fox, scared as always. It seemed that only Charon had any clue regarding the kind of creature that stood before him, its size barely smaller than the vulpix themselves…but all he could do was hold his head and suppress a chuckle.

“I never get used to seeing you guys,” Charon said, “Your bodies are so round it’s ridiculous.”

“Hmph! You’re getting a little round yourself, you oversized rat!” The creature snapped back, puffing its pink, spherical body to a larger size to display some newfound irritation.

Lily rose up to her feet, approaching the creature with great curiosity as Ivy reluctantly followed. “What…are you?” Lily asked, cocking her head slightly. “Your eyes are so big…I can see my reflection in them!”

“Hey, hey! It’s not nice to stare like that,” The creature blurted, backing away slightly as it deflated back to normal, “Haven’t you ever seen a jigglypuff before?”

Upon hearing that name, Calien nearly gagged. “You’re called a jigglypuff!?” he proclaimed in disbelief, on the edge of bursting with laughter, “What kind of a name is that?!”

“That’s what I first thought,” Charon said, grinning.

The jigglypuff was not amused. “Stop being mean!” It snapped, puffing its body again in anger, “If you’re just gonna insult me I’ll just lull you guys to sleep and throw you off the mountain!”

Hearing this threat, Charon immediately worked to ease the tension. “Calm down, alright? I was only joking about before. As fast as I’d like to get off this mountain I’d rather make it to the bottom alive.”

Jigglypuffs, for some unknown reason, had the ability to lull their adversaries to sleep by means of their singing voice. The balloon-like creatures with cat-ears and forehead curls practice this skill daily, thus it was not wise to piss off a jigglypuff unless one wanted to be the recipient of a creative prank…or worse. Charon knew this all too well, for such a misfortune had happened to him in the past. Sensing the seriousness in Charon’s voice, Lily and Calien opted not to question his actions.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought!” The jigglypuff said, pointing at Charon with one of the flabby appendages that passed for forelimbs as it grinned victoriously. “You’re pretty smart for a brute, you know that? Any other raichu would’ve just tried to zap me outright, but a lot of good that would do them! Heh-heh-heh!”

“You’ve seen other raichus before?” Charon hurriedly asked.

“Sure have! There’s a few of them along with a whole lotta other chus down on the other side of the mountain,” the jigglypuff explained, “Sometimes a raichu comes up here just ‘cause they’re bored to death, but otherwise they stay over- Hey! I remember you!”

The jigglypuff waddled over to Ivy, beaming with a smile. The pichu shrank even further behind Lily. “It’s me, Marshie, remember?” The jigglypuff said, “I helped you get over the mountain some time ago. I see that you found a new family already. Way to go, Ivy!”

Ivy did not respond.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk,” Marshie said, turning to Lily, “She sure is a shy one, eh? You should’ve seen how she was trying to climb the mountain all by herself, trying to run away from her nasty father. So helpless! So innocent! Brought a tear to my eye, it did. But how come you folks are bringing her back?”

Lily was hesistant to respond to this creature, still captivated by Marshie’s unusual appearance. Calien saved face, however, and approached Marshie, speaking formally. “We are attempting to reunite Ivy with her mother while Charon here seeks the opportunity to regroup with his kind and earn a mate of his own. In the meantime, my mate-to-be is Ivy’s caretaker.”

“Ah, I see,” Marshie acknowledged, “You must be former captives, then. It’s rare to see anyone from the wild go out of their way to help someone not of their own race. ‘Survival of the fittest’ and all that crap.”

“Marshie,” Charon intervened coldly, “Did you come to us just for small talk?”

Charon’s tone invoked a glare of disappointment from Lily and Calien. Marshie, however, seemed unfazed. “Well, of course not! Since you guys are so determined to go over this mountain I just wanted to warn you that you’re gonna have quite a problem getting down to the forest floor.”

“And why’s that?” Charon asked.

“Well…do you know what a zangoose is?” Marshie inquired, “White fur with a jagged red spot, fierce eyes, about twice the raichu’s height, lethal claws and all that stuff?”

“Don’t tell me,” Charon said, as looks of horror suddenly appeared on the vulpixes’ faces (not to mention Ivy’s), “There’s a zangoose standing in our way?”

“Yes,” Marshie confirmed, “His mate was captured by humans a few days before she would go into heat, so the guy’s gone totally berserk! He goes apeshit on anyone who rubs him the wrong way. No one’s been able to go up the mountain from the direction you guys are headed since he hangs around near the mountain’s base. That’s because everyone thinks he’s gonna kill off any guys that get close so he can steal their females from them. A shame, really…he used to be quite a friendly fellow.”

Lily hung down her head. “That’s horrible…”

“I’ve seen worse,” Charon responded. The raichu did not seem shocked by the predicament of the zangoose, for his tone wasn’t exactly sympathetic.

“Anyway, unless you forest dwellers are really, really, REALLY good at sneaking around, that psycho zangoose is gonna cause you trouble once you get off this mountain,” Marshie concluded, “And since you have a lumbering raichu in your group it’s safe to say that your stealth abilites are just about nil.”

“Then what do you suggest we do about it?” Charon asked, annoyed by the comment directed at him, “If we have to fight off that zangoose then we’d have no other choice but to face him head-on.”

“That, my oversized rodent friend, is downright suicidal,” Marshie stated, “There’s only three ways to do this: you either travel in a large arc around where he loiters about, which would make your path a lot more dangerous; find someone that could knock him unconscious without having to shed blood; or, if all else fails, find a female that’s willing to be his mate. Nothing calms a male down more than getting laid, or so I’ve heard.”

The male vulpix sighed sadly to himself, looking down to the ground. Any thought of mating with Lily was becoming an emotionally painful routine.

“Well, I’d go for option two, then,” Charon stated, “Since you’re so concerned for us it’d be no problem for you to tag along and help, right?”

Marshie hesitated. “Me? Come along? But…I’ve never been off this mountain before. I’d just be extra baggage, for sure! That, and I’d rather not get close to that zangoose myself.”

“Marshie…we don’t stand a damn chance paving our own way through the mountain, and Lily here would most likely die before she ever submitted herself to some crazed broken,” Charon reasoned, “But we’d have some chance if you lend your singing voice. Otherwise, I’ll see to it that your balloonish body makes for a lovely punting ball.”

“Pfft!” The jigglypuff scoffed, adjusting the pink curl on its forehead, “Why bother with needless threats? If you need my help that badly, then I’ll have no choice but to come along. I can’t have Ivy gnawing at my conscience, anyhow. Such a cute little rodent, she is.”

Charon breathed a sigh of relief. “Welcome to the ‘herd’,” he said to the jigglypuff.

“I’m very honored,” Marshie replied, taking a bow.

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Wher e is my mate? Where did she go? Where did they take her? I still remember her scent, her warmth, her touch. They’re torturing me now. The memories tear at my soul. Her screams, her cries of help, her wails of sorrow. They peel at the flesh of my body. They expose my weakness. Where is she? Where did she go? She is gone. Gone. Gone. Why is she gone? Humans took her, beat her, stole her. She is gone. I am alone. Lost. I have nothing. Nothing. Nothing. No one. I am the last. I am alone. But everyone else prospers. They pity me. They pity ME. How can they? They have mates. They mount their females. They thrust. They moan. They enjoy pleasure. I endure pain. Pain. Pain. Pity? It is mocking. They take pleasure in my pain, my suffering, my despair. They hated me. I was strong, feared, respected. I am ruined. They enjoy it. They are monsters. Monsters. Monsters. Monsters deserve death. They deserve to die. Their females. Females. Females should be mine. All of them. I shall mount, thrust, over and over and over and over and over…

They will be mine.