Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Luck ❯ Chapter Eight ( Chapter 8 )

Luck

 

Chapter Eight

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Kokennin led us until the sun had set, and still kept walking through the dark, heedless of the dangers in the forest. I don't know what had gotten into him, but he seemed almost…inhuman. As if what happened wouldn't affect him in the slightest. Even I could recognize that what happened to one person affected all those around them.

 

“Kokennin, can we please stop?” I asked at around ten by my watch. He turned his blood-caked ear to me and kept walking.

 

“Fine,” he said half a second before we came upon a rest area. Ringo panted a sigh of relief behind me, and Satsuma walked up as if she had simply gone for a stroll around the block. “You can set up your tent.”

 

“Where Master going?” Satsuma asked when he headed in the direction of the trees.

 

“Hunting,” he said tersely, dropping his pack. “I'll be back before sunrise.”

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“He's late,” I said sleepily, looking at the eastern horizon. The sun was just barely peeking over the hills, and my reluctant guard had not returned. Oh, Daddy was going to be angry. Zalira stirred beside me: we had both stayed up, waiting for Kokennin to get back.

 

“D-d-d-does Master do th-th-this often?” Ringo asked beside me. I shook my head and sighed.

 

“I thought I'd figured him out after almost a month,” I said. It was true. I was starting to get an idea of the man's character, but he just had to go and pull something like this! That…that…animal…was going to have hell to pay.

 

“Master do strange thing,” Satsuma added. “But still nice inside. Do what best.”

 

“Satsuma, do you have any idea where he went?” I asked her. She shook her head.

 

“No,” the Cheetit said. “Master no tell. Just say `hunting.'”

 

“I wonder what that could mean,” I mumbled, though I'm pretty sure that they both still heard it. A few minutes passed in awkward silence before I felt something heavy flop beside me with a loud Thump! I jerkily turned my head and tried to pass out, scream, and throw up all at the same time before just shutting my mouth and looking back at the bloodied figure of Kokennin. He was standing there with an unreadable look on his scarred face, a brooding shadow in his eyes. He crouched down next to the hunk of bloody red meat that looked like what was left of a quadrupedal animal. He drew one of his knives without a word and started cutting the flesh into narrow strips.

 

“What Kokennin…uhhhh,” Zalira groaned. I she fell over with a soft thump on top of Ringo, both in a dead faint. Satsuma looked about as sick as I felt.

 

“Master…what that?”

 

“Our meat supply for the next three weeks,” he said curtly. “Unless you decide to pick up any more stragglers, Girl.”

 

“I…listen you: my name is Stefanie. Ste…fan…ie… Not `Girl.' Got it?” I practically screamed at him. He simply ignored me and continued to cut the meat, skewer it on sticks he had brought with him, and stick the other end in the ground around the fire I had managed to make. With Satsuma's help, of course.

 

Once about half of the meat was roasting, he sat back on his haunches and stared into the flame. I looked at his usually cold gray eyes and found them to be clouded over, as if he were in a trance. I thought back to what Daddy had told me before we left. He said that he was a werewolf, and that he turned into that furry thing on the night of the full moon. There were other creatures in his world, too.

 

Daddy also said that Kokennin had been living in the wild for most of his life, and was a wanted criminal.

 

He certainly looked the part, that was for sure.

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Several hours later, we (we being Ringo, Zalira, and me) staggered into Dublith, a small town out in the middle of nowhere. There was the DarkFist Gym and Ranch, but more importantly…

 

“The pokecenter,” I breathed. I was dead tired after walking almost nonstop today and most of yesterday with no sleep yet. All I wanted was a nice, soft bed. Kokennin tensed up a bit when the glass doors slid open.

 

“Welcome,” the NurseJoy chirped cheerfully. “If you're in need of a rest, we have a room on the upper floor that's perfect.”

 

“Th-th-thank y-y-you,” Ringo stuttered. Zalira was leaning on her heavily, and both of them stumbled down the hall after me as I followed the `Joy, while Kokennin and Satsuma followed them. The pink-haired pokegirl showed us to a door and opened it, commenting on how it would be perfect for us. I blindly thanked her and labored into the room, where the last surprise of the day sprung its trap.

 

“Th-th-there's j-just w-w-one b-bed?” Ringo stammered, sounding as exhausted as I felt. Sure enough, the only bed was a large one that dominated the room. This was obviously a Taming Room, and the `Joy must have gotten us confused. We were just looking for somewhere to sleep. I'm sure that none of the pokegirls are up for a Taming after that trek. Kokennin brushed passed me and dropped his pack in one corner of the room. He sniffed around and seemed to be satisfied with what he smelt, or didn't smell, or whatever it was he was doing. The point is, he curled up by his bag and acted like he was asleep, leaving the large and quite comfortable-looking bed to me and our girls.

 

I took his offer gratefully and flopped onto the clean sheets. They were pleasantly warm. I felt the others crawl up beside me and follow my lead, and peered out of my half-closed eye at Kokennin, who was stirring slightly.

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I woke up and looked at my watch. The small, glow-in-the-dark letters read 4:47 a.m. Groaning, I turned onto my side and closed my eyes. A few minutes later, I almost made it back to Dreamland, but a low moan jarred me back to consciousness.

 

“…Mana…” I heard Kokennin's coarse voice creep. It reeked of turmoil, agony, and morosity. “…no…don't….”

 

I pushed myself into a sitting position, my popping joints arguing with me every step of the way. My reluctant guardian was still in his corner. He thrashed violently, his teeth bared to someone only he could see. He said that name again—mama, or Mana, or whoever it was—and rolled onto his back. Breathing heavily, he lay still.

 

“Ko…Kokennin?” I whispered as I slipped off the bed, where Satsuma, Zalira, and Ringo were still snoozing away. I inched closer to the only male in our group and kneeled beside him. “Are you okay?”

 

Duh, he's having a nightmare—a pretty bad one at that—of course he's not okay.

 

I watched him, wishing that I could see what was in his mind. He'd always slept outside my tent and woken up before me, so I'd never really seen him sleep. Well, except for that one time right before we first met, but Kokennin had seemed so peaceful then. He trembled on the cold floor, an anguished expression pulling at his scarred face. Then I felt something I thought I'd never feel for him:

 

Pity. I pitied him. He'd been so…so…harsh and cruel and kept putting me down, but I still did. I thought about what I knew. Whoever Mana was, she and Kokennin were very close—maybe even lovers. It must be hard on him, not being able to see her. I remembered how lost I felt after Mama died and how she comforted me when I had a bad dream.

 

“Kokennin,” I whispered gently. He twitched under my hand when I put it against his cheek. His jaw was tight; his eyes darted back and forth under his eyelids. His breathing slowed and deepened as he calmed down from whatever dream he was having. His eyes slid open. I saw two slivers of steel with glimmers of gold.

 

“Mana?” Kokennin breathed. His eyes opened enough that I could see his pupils, wide and watery-looking. If I didn't know better, I would've said he was close to crying.

 

“Kokennin?” I said, hoping that he was okay. His eyes met mine, even though they still seemed to be focusing on something far away. He pulled himself up to within a centimeter from my face. Oh, he was so close! My body went rigid when he pressed his lips to mine. I didn't know what was going on. Kokennin had seemed so…distant, and arrogant, and rough. Why would he kiss me? I pushed against his muscled chest, but I may as well have been pushing a stone wall.

 

“Oh, Master and Stefanie are kiss,” Satsuma whispered in my ear. I jumped back and managed to tear free of Kokennin's grip—his arms had wrapped around my waist. “That Satsuma's.”

 

“He did it to me, got it?” I loudly hissed at her.

 

“If Stefanie say. Satsuma think Stefanie like kiss Master.” I hated that smug look on her furry face.

 

“I—I did not!” I honestly didn't know how I felt. Kokennin fell back to the floor and rolled onto his side, asleep immediately.

 

“Stefanie may not, but Master do,” she said in an infuriatingly teasing voice.

 

“And how would you know that?”

 

“Master and Satsuma bond. Know Master feel.”

 

“And…what…what did he feel?”

 

“Master feel…” she paused, drawing it out just to torture me. “Master feel love.”

 

“Love?” I parroted. She confirmed it with a nod.

 

“Satsuma see dream part. Pretty lady, look Stefanie, but old. Other different.”

 

“What?”

 

“Carry baby in tummy.”

 

“She was pregnant?”

 

“Yes, what Satsuma say.”

 

“Do you know who she was?”

 

“Satsuma Alpha, no Psychic. No know.”

 

I thought about what I knew of him and connected the dots. The girl, his lover, maybe even his wife, and he were going to have a child, but he got pulled into our world. That could be why he was so angry all the time.

 

“Satsuma, you said she looked like me?”

 

“Yes. Older, but.”

 

Maybe he had confused me with her? That would explain why he…he…did that.

 

“Satsuma tired. Go bed.”

 

“Yeah, me too.” Ah, what the heck? I'll give him another chance. “What could go wrong?”