Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Charon's Pursuit ❯ The Broken Sleepwalker ( Chapter 19 )

Author’s Note: Well, my track record for updating this story has proven to be quite terrible. Sorry about that. :( There is stuff that I intended for this chapter that will have to carry over into the next one, or else by this rate I’ll be back in college again before the next update is ready. Oy vey. :/

Chapter Nineteen

“Well…he is certainly quite a mess. Skewered shoulders sloppily mended with leaves? Left comatose out in the open beneath the trees? I am surprised his heart has not failed him yet, or that a predator has not devoured him, for it would coincide well with his terrible streak of fortune.”

“Don’t say things like that, Calien! It’s not helping things. You’re just going to upset the pear!”

“I doubt she understands much of what we are saying. She is even more of a foreigner than we are.”

“It’s still rude. Now hush!”

The vulpix couple, Calien and Lily, along with the pichu Ivy, had swiftly pursued Botana, the foreign chikorita , as the four-legged living pear led them down the path where Charon hastily scurried off. Now the four of them stood before Charon’s unconscious body, encircling him. Streaks of dried blood stained the raichu’s coat of fur, evidence to the inadequacy of the leaves covering the gashes inflicted by the former zangoose’s claws. His face lied against the ground, the curly-qs of his ears lying limp amongst the soil.

Botana nudged the raichu by his side, trying to stir him awake. She got no reply, causing the chikorita’s big eyes to swell with tears.

“Is he…dead?” questioned the pichu, stepping towards Charon as she observed him with apprehensive curiosity.

Calien stepped ahead of Ivy and placed his ear against Charon’s back, taking care not to stain himself with any blood. “Lily, help me roll him upon his back,” Calien requests, after pulling his ear away.

Lily quietly nodded, stepping to the side of her mate-to-be. The two of them stuck their heads beneath the weight of Charon’s body and pressed forward with the strength of their backs and their legs. They strain somewhat from the considerable heftiness of Charon’s bulk, but soon they persevered. The raichu now lied on his back, revealing his comatose countenance, as the two vulpixes sat down for a quick breather.

“He looks even worse at the front,” Calien remarks.

“Does he look dead?” Ivy questioned, hesitantly stepping closer to Charon.

“Not dead! Not dead!” Botana suddenly blurted out, as she glared at the pichu, quite upset, “Las Phantasmas tienen Charon!”

“Aaaaah!” Ivy yelled, as the Glare of Imminent Death from the chikorita frightened her in such a way that she stumbled backwards and fell upon her back. She remained lying on the ground, not wanting to look into the fiery eyes of Botana again anytime soon.

Lily at once rushed to intervene, fearful that the chikorita had grown violent. She anchored herself between Ivy and Botana, returning the hostile glare to the plant-like creature. “I know you’re concerned for Charon, but don’t take it out on Ivy!” She snaps.

Botana, faced with the fear of having her delicate body ablaze by the fire-breather (for the bodies of plants could easily fuel their own hellish demise with the smallest of flames,) had no choice but to suppress her despair. She bowed her head, whimpering, shedding her tears into the muddy ground below.

“I know not of the ‘phantasmas’ she keeps speaking of,” Calien says, as Lily turned away from the chikorita to check on the offspring, “but the pear is correct: Charon is alive.”

Ivy was helped to her feet as she took hold of Lily’s muzzle and held on as the maiden vulpix lifted the pichu’s back off from the ground. Yet, even clamping against her cherished caretaker couldn’t dissuade the pichu’s apparent preoccupation with the raichu.

“He doesn’t look alive,” Ivy said, “You guys pushed him and he didn’t move around.”

“You seem awfully concerned for someone who frequently scares you to death,” Calien remarked, narrowing the gaze of his remaining eye.

“I don’t want him dead!” the pichu exclaimed, stepping back in reaction to the fox’s grotesque, scrutinizing eye. “I don’t like him but I don’t want him dead!”

“Fair enough…still, you seem to doubt the validity of my words. Why not climb upon him and listen for the sound of his heartbeat? Since he lacks consciousness, I doubt he would mind. He does not even have to know about it,” Calien suggested.

Lily, who had up to now eyeing the pichu for injuries, immediately tore her gaze from Ivy to stare bewildered at the male vulpix. “WHAT did you tell her to do?” Lily practically sputtered, as the pichu froze in place like a deer in headlights.

Calien was unfazed. “I told her to listen for Charon’s heartbeat, which means, considering their difference in size, she would have to lie upon his chest. She does not believe Charon is alive, and apparently she would prefer not to see him perish, so if she confirms the life in his body by her own means it should give her peace of mind, should it not?”

He peers back to the pichu, his gaze askew so that the gash on his face wouldn’t impose fear and disgust upon the offspring. “There is something you ought to know by now, Ivy. In the absolute worst-case scenario, if Lily and I have to leave you behind, and your mother is never found, and the herd that once gave you a home completes their fall into ruin by the reign of your terrible father, the raichu you see lying before you will be all you have left to care for you. The reverse is true for Charon as well. He may be intimidating, powerful, and capable of frightening violence, but his situation is no different from yours. He is alone. He is desperate for the comfort of another.”

Calien pauses, letting his words sink into Ivy’s mind. The pichu’s face contorts a look of apprehension, but her wayward gaze suggested that the vulpix had struck a chord of empathy. Thus, Calien continues, “Charon would not stand to see you suffer like he has. He has never been a father, but I am sure he is more than willing to learn how to be one. But that will never happen if all you do is hide behind Lily. You must suppress the fear you have for raichus and give him an honest chance, or else the pains of being an exiled orphan may never cease to torment you. Start small, however: you can trust Charon would not hurt you while he is unconscious, can you not?”

Ivy began patting the digits of her forepaws gently together, leaking out the anxiety brewing in her conscience. “Y-y-yes,” the offspring managed to stutter.

“Then you have no obstacle, save for your fear. Go to him,” Calien implored, “And see for yourself that he lives.”

The tiny rodent stood in one place for some time, before she mustered the courage to close the gap between herself and Charon. As she walked sluggishly to the raichu’s side, her nerves began to tremble as she eyed the impaled shoulders. She couldn’t ignore the tiny wounds on his forepaws that she had once ripped open with her teeth, either. Her own forepaws wrung together with an intensity that could choke someone to death, the proverbial dam of her emotions cracking and threatening to burst.

Lily rushed to Calien’s side- then switched to the other side the moment she recoiled from his scar. “Look how frightened she is, Calien! Ivy doesn’t have to do this! She shouldn’t have to!” she pleaded to his mate.

“Yes, she does,” Calien insisted, “She has grown too attached to you. She will never be able to move on and live with her kind if you constantly spoil her with affection and care.”

“She’s only a child! She needs someone to take care of her!” The maiden vulpix insisted.

“That is the responsibility of her species!” Calien snapped.

“And they’ve done such a fine job, too,” Lily lashed back.

“They at least have the sense to produce their own offspring. You have not borne a single kit. All you have done, though beneficial to the offspring, is merely a babysitter’s job. Anyone who values posterity would tell you that having your own family means everything!”

The maiden vulpix narrowed her eyes. “You’re just upset we haven’t done it yet, aren’t you?”

Calien grimaced, glancing away shamefully from his mate-to-be. “It’s all the more reason to make Charon do more for the offspring, I say. We would have already gone down the road to being parents had you ever thought the raichu had the capacity to be a decent caretaker!” He refocused his gaze upon Lily with a scowl. “Or perhaps, deep down, you wished you could keep the offspring for yourself so that you would never have to face-.”

“Stop it, Calien!” Lily interrupted angrily. “That’s out of line and completely unfair! I’d NEVER put my interests ahead of what’s best for-!”

Lily’s retort against Calien’s accusations is tragically cut short when Botana shot through the space between the two of them. She is rushing towards Charon and Ivy, having caught sight of a scene that greatly disturbed the chikorita, making her wail in her foreign tongue. Naturally, her swift charge towards the raichu draws the startled gazes of the foxes towards her target. It was at that moment they saw Charon back upon his stomach, trapping the helpless pichu between the earth and the weight of his chest, paws clasping at the sides of the offspring’s tiny frame.

“Azelia…don’t leave me…it was an accident...” Such are the whispers of desperation flowing from the dark recesses of Charon’s unconscious mind, poured into the ears of the frozen offspring, the terror silencing her little tongue as her tiny paws thrust outwards every which way in a futile attempt to escape from the harrowing embrace.

“What is he doing?!” Lily shouted.

No one answers her, for Calien immediately rushed to shove Charon off of Ivy, assisting Botana (also attempting the same.) Charon, however, trapped in the delusions of his psyche, resists all the force they can muster, determined not to lose his grip. “No…I won’t let you go. I don’t want to lose you again!” He says with fierce resolve.

“Please! Get him off me!” Ivy suddenly cried, her strength failing as Charon’s weight continued to crush her into the ground. Her instincts start to take over, charging the electricity in her cheeks. But, being a mere offspring, she was much more likely to inflict great pains to her delicate body, for her natural defenses were far from matured.

“Calien, back away from them!” Lily suddenly barked commandingly.

“What? But the offspring-!” The fellow vulpix tried to object, but Lily cut him off.

“Just do it!”

Left with his actions rendered futile, Calien reluctantly withdraws from the sleepwalking raichu. “You better know what you are doing!” he says to Lily.

Now it was Lily’s turn to charge forward. Not paying heed to Botana (for the vulpix hoped the visual cues would provide enough warning,) Lily circled around to the raichu’s side opposite of the chikorita. The fox perched her upper body upon the rodent, reached down to one of his severe wounds in the shoulders, and ripped away the bandage of leaves covering said gash with her sharp set of teeth.

Botana gasped in shock, mistaking Lily to have lethal intents. “Qué estás haciendo?!” The grass creature shrieked, “Get away! No harm Charon!”

“Why, Azelia? Why can’t you come back with me?!” Charon went on, as his grasp enveloped Ivy into a hug, burying Ivy’s head into his chest, muffling her cries for help.

Calien jumped in front of the chikorita, pushing her away from Charon. “Let Lily do what she must!” He insists.

“Ustedes estan locos!” cries Botana, as she whipped the leaf on her head, trying to make Calien back off. But the threat of another gash in his flesh wasn’t enough to defeat the vulpix. He hopped back a short step, only to launch into a full-on tackle, pouncing upon the chikorita. Botana was knocked clear off her feet, her back now pinned against the earth, the heat of a fire-breather blowing against her face as Calien forced as much of his weight against her as possible in order to keep her still. Were she not so helpless, the chikorita’s expression would’ve betrayed her newfound hatred for the vulpixes.

The wound now fully exposed, Lily placed the tip of her muzzle right upon it. A moment of hesitation seized her, giving her a moment to contemplate the act she was about to commit. The panic of the pichu as she began to suffocate beneath the raichu, however, silenced any and all doubts. Slowly she inhaled the morning air into her lungs, churning the furnace deep in her body, until at last a burst of flame expelled upon Charon’s gash.

Charon’s body violently sprung out of its dreamlike trance as he let loose a scream that could wake the buried dead.