Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Charon's Pursuit ❯ Athan and Ida ( Chapter 15 )

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Ok then! Looks like I’m getting the hand of shortening the interval a tad. Unfortunately I’m not sure this writing is meeting expectations. I don’t mind if you gush over the story, but if it can be improved somewhere, feel free to point it out.

Agh, I seem to be a broken record nowadays. D:

Chapter Fifteen

“Oh my, what a mess this raichu is!”The Warden of the forest, not hindered much by such annoyances as heavy rain and darkness, discovered Charon’s bleeding, unconscious body with adequate speed. No longer dealing with trees, the Warden found amusement in speaking with his actual voice for a change instead of the telepathic messaging he almost always had to do.

Although he is more than accustomed to the aftermath of violence upon creatures of flesh, it still surprised the forest’s guardian that Charon, though having fainted from his wounds, still appeared to be drawing breath. Clearly the rodent is physically tougher than the usual woodland denizen, but then again that was common for any creature at the top of their genetic chain.

“You certainly made it easy for me to find you, rodent,” remarked the Warden to Charon, “Unfortunately you probably overlooked the fact that your excessive bleeding’s not going to help you stay alive. The fact that you’re comatose at the moment probably already clued you in on that fact, heh-heh! Not to worry, though. Once I materialize I can give your wounds there a fixer-upper.”

Just as he said, the Warden shed his invisibility, thus revealing his true form, hovering just above the ground. If some lucky mortal had happened upon the Warden, it probably would’ve bewildered him or her to learn that he, the spirit responsible for keeping all life in his domain safe from chaos and extinction, was in fact nothing more than a stout, red-eyed, wide-grinning, spiky-tailed, eggplant-colored poltergeist, better known to human and animal alike as a gengar.

“Pity. I probably won’t get to see that look this time…I always love to see it when the other wildlife soil themselves,” he says with glee, as he floated down to the wet earth to stand right next to Charon. “Bah! Already I tire of the rain. Being a specter for countless seasons have done nothing but spoil me rotten!”

The gengar held up his hands towards the canopy of the forest. “I suppose you guys don’t mind if I snatch a dozen or so leaves from your branches, do you? Thanks!” He said in a casual manner. Soon afterwards, leaves from oak trees unfortunate enough to be nearby were plucked into the air, thanks to the invisible hands of his ghostly helpers. These leaves zipped through the rain, landing into the Warden’s extended grasp.

Ow! That hurt, you swine! One of the trees complained, their stripped branches feeling quite tender.

Don’t be such a baby, the Warden retorted. Moments later, the purple poltergeist took his leaves and applied them to the large wounds in Charon’s shoulders. “Katar’s claws went right through him,” the Warden remarked, “Ouchie! Well, at least he didn’t aim for your head or your gut. That definitely would’ve left little to work with.”

The Warden, once finished, took a step back to take a look at his handiwork. “Not exactly state-of-the-art, but still one-hundred percent natural! Heh-heh!” He took a moment to stretch his back, an action more out of habit than necessity considering he technically had no flesh or bone at all. “Now I can finally get a chance to dive into that mind of-.”

“Forest Warden! Forest Warden!” cried a panicked voice from behind.

The gengar groaned in irritation. He turned around to find that it was one of his helpers, materialized in the shape of a floating, spherical, black head surrounded in purple mist (typically referred to as a Gastly.) It hovered in a severely jittery fashion, clearly desperate to blast out of the vicinity as fast as his fleshless form could take him.

“In case you can’t tell, I’m rather busy here!” The gengar snapped, “What is it you want?! Is it poachers? An epidemic? Wanton interspecies orgies? Speak!”

“The Mountain Warden’s coming this way!” Cried the Gastly, “And she’s on the warpath! The WARPATH! AAAAAAAAAH!” With his cry of fear he at once rocketed past the Warden, fading back into invisibility in order to escape.

The gengar’s face quickly fell into a worrisome frown. “Oh, fudge,” he muttered. Not too soon after that, he could feel the rapidly approaching soul cutting through his domain like a knife through juicy butter. He could feel his minions scattered about by the Mountain Warden’s fury, for those unfortunate enough to be in her way were plowed right through, tumbling every which way in the sky. It didn’t take long at all for the Mountain Warden to finally grace his presence, her upward gaze to him so razor-sharp it threatened to turn the Forest Warden into fresh, ghostly sushi.

The Mountain Warden was quite different from the Forest Warden. They shared their dark hues and ghostly essence, but while the gengar resembled an impish demon, The Mountain Warden more closely resembled a small (barely smaller than the raichu), abstract apparition, lacking limbs in general. The top of her head boasted voluminous, tapered waves, accentuated at the tips, bearing a resemblance to hair, while the bottom of her body fanned out as though it was a cloth suspended in the breeze. She also bore crimson spheres around her neck that resembled jewelry, while the Forest Warden possessed nothing of the sort, more closely resembling a small animal than she. Was there a mortal to see her, they would’ve identified her as a Misdreavus, not that they would want to stick around in light of the current situation. No doubt about it, this Misdreavus was pissed.

“ATHAN! What on earth have you been doing all this time?!” demanded the Mountain Warden, her shouting voice akin to a trumpeting elephant on a helium-puffing high.

Athan cringed. He would often wonder, at times like this, how the Misdreavus could shout at such a high pitch without turning blue. “Ida, you know we shouldn’t be using our real names in public,” The gengar reasoned in an attempt to cool the apparition’s jets. That effort quickly proved to be futile.

“Do I LOOK like I give a rat’s behind about who’s listening right now, forest warden!?” She shrieked, “I swear, I have no idea how they’d ever think you were their god, seeing the ever-so-graceful way you handle things! I mean- AAACK!”

Ida phased out of existence for a brief moment to escape the large Gengar’s attempt at a bear hug, who shot towards the Misdreavus so rapidly it looked a lot more like a pounce. When Athan stumbled as his arms grasped nothing but air, a pitiful frown drew across his face. “Awww, is that any way to treat me, babe? It’s been soooooo long since the last time,” He said, his façade of sadness barely covering the smugness in his tone.

The misdreavus reappeared hovering above the gengar, out of his reach, her dark hue tinted by the bright red of embarrassment. No one would have known she was blushing based on how she talked, however. “Athan, this isn’t the time! I know you’re just trying to distract me. It’s not going to work!” She called down to the Forest Warden, her anger far from squelched.

The gengar’s frown changed to one of irritation as he peered upwards to look at the Mountain Warden. “Could you at least TELL me what I seem to be doing wrong, toots? In case you haven’t noticed, I have a raichu that I have to mentally examine.” He pointed towards the unconscious raichu behind him. “He’s not going to stay asleep for me forever, you know. It’d be such a pain to use hypnosis if your wonderful shrieking drives the life right back into him.”

“You need someone to tell you how you’re screwing up? Fine! We can play it that way!” Ida called back to him, the irritation mutually shared, as she cautiously floated back down to ground level. “First off, don’t you remember what happened seven nights ago in the Chu herd? Hmmmm?”

“How could I forget? The Patriarch exiled the herd’s Matriarch,” Affirmed Athan, his arms resting akimbo, “Their sole daughter ran away soon after. That herd’s been in shambles ever since, which is why I’m trying to make use of this raichu here, you know.” The last parts of his sentence were spoken in a somewhat patronizing matter.

“And did you think that offspring just magically disappeared off the face of the earth!? Who do you think was the pichu traveling with those foreigners, a pet store reject?!” Ida shrieked.

Athan hesitated. “It was a safe assumption,” He mutters, looking away.

Ida scoffed at him. “Don’t you know that we’re supposed to be helping each other, Forest Warden? I may be the Mountain Warden officially, but my lofty perch lets me cast an eye on other domains.”

“‘My lofty perch lets me cast an eye on other domains,’ Nyeeeh!” Athan mocked, imitating Ida’s voice in a scathing manner.

“Let me finish, you child!” Ida snaps. Quarreling between the two of them was unfortunately a common occurrence. “I knew for a long time that there was a lone raichu on the other side of the mountain, but I couldn’t do anything. The inhabitants hate leaving the mountainside and I don’t have an army of minions like you do. But opportunity knocked once that pichu wandered to the mountain.”The Mountain Warden started to circle around the Forest Warden, twirling on occasion as the thoughts of her planning invoked a sense of glee. The gengar stared straight ahead, bubbling silently with agitation. “It was so perfect! I took the little cutie and helped her brave those rocks and inclines. I made her forget about me once she made it to the forest. Then I let the fates take care of the rest. And wouldn’t you know it, that raichu found her, thought to the natural conclusion any male would do, and the rest is history!”

She stopped in place to glare right into the Warden’s eyes. “At least it WOULD be, except YOU let that crazy zangoose attack them out of what, entertainment? Now that pichu is nearly back to square one, assuming those vulpixes are even still with her, and that raichu’s psyche is probably all but shattered!”

For a moment, the two of them glared at each other. By now the two of them were soaked by the rain, dripping everywhere with water. The tension between them reached dizzying heights, for the two of them were on the brink of fighting each other. Each waited for the other to make their move, whether the assault was verbal or physical.

It was the Forest Warden who made the first move. “There’s two reasons why I let that happen, Ida,” he spoke with a low voice, “I wanted to be sure they had not only the strength, but also the will, to survive, especially that raichu. If he couldn’t handle the zangoose, he would have been doomed to fail from the start. The second reason is…Katar, deep down, wanted someone to kill him. He wanted a way out. He had too much pride to turn his claws on himself.

“I know I can’t prove that now, but I don’t think we have the time to speculate on that. A much greater problem is growing in that chu herd and if I don’t make use of this raichu to put a stop to it, this whole forest is doomed to collapse. So how about letting me do my job?”

Ida backed away. “It’s my job, too, but someone has to be there to keep you in line.” She sighed, “We took it on ourselves to better the lives of the living, Athan. We gave ourselves and the ghosts of these wilds a purpose. We can’t jeopardize that by making mistakes.”

Athan relaxed a bit, chuckling. “Ida, we’re not gods…we’re just pretending to be gods. We can always make up for whatever screw-up we do, though. You oughta loosen up. And I know just the thing for that, but unfortunately it must wait!” He quickly turned around. “I must take care of- GAAAAAAAH!”

Much to the Warden’s dismay, the spot where Charon was supposed to be lying unconscious was now quite vacant. A small pool of blood and the flattened foliage were the only remaining evidence of his presence. There was no telling how far it may have gone. Understandably, the poor gengar was on the verge of having an aneurysm.

“Oh dear…it looks like he’s been spirited away,” Ida remarked sheepishly. “Er…oops?”

“OF ALL THE TIMES WE FIGHT YOU JUST HAD TO DO IT RIGHT NOW!” The Forest Warden cried, almost whining as he did so. He took in a deep breath and, with both hands to his mouth, blew a loud whistle. In moments his ghostly minions assembled around Ida and himself. They numbered in the several dozen.

“We are ready for your orders, Forest Warden!” stated the head minion.

“A raichu with impaled, wounded shoulders has to be found and brought to me,” Commanded the Forest Warden. “Be on your guard, for he’s most likely unstable and might fry you like he did that zangoose out of fright. Do not harm him, for he’s already quite hurt. Use paralysis as a last resort!”

“Understood!” confirmed the head minion. In minutes the minions dissipated out of sight, intending to comb the forest grounds unseen. Once they were gone, Athan turned back to Ida.

“You have your own domain to look over,” He told her, “I will go check on the offspring. I assure you, I will do everything in my power to solve this mess. If I need your assistance, I’ll come to you myself.”

Ida frowned. “You’re right, Athan…it has been awhile since the last time. We shouldn’t force ourselves apart like this.”

“Our lack of numbers demand it,” the gengar said sadly, “But we can always treat ourselves to a break, right?”

“Right,” Ida acknowledged, “I’ll go now. But I’ll keep my eyes on you. You don’t always ask for help when you need it.”

The misdreavus faded away, traveling back to her mountain domain. The gengar was now alone, with no company save for the drenched trees. If there were any animals present, chances were likely that they were way too scared to make their presence known.

“It’s time to get to business,” he said to himself, as he finally phased out of sight.