Through the Eyes of a Flareon [PG] (Chapter 31 FINALLY up)

[FedoraChar]

OmigoshYouPostedThisHereOmigoshI'mOfficiallySoHapp yI'mSpazzingOut

*breath*

ANYWAY, I kinda regret that I hadn't read this before--but! Now that it's here, I can finally catch up and stuff WOOT. First off, I love all the detail that you put in your writing--from describing how the characters look to the way the battle unfolded. I don't think I've actually ever read a story that looked at the Pokemon's perspective in the heat of the battle (Trainer battle, that is--and weird, I know), but you really pulled it off aplomb! It was engaging and well done! Not excessively over the top but easy to follow and downright exciting! I'm curious to see why the Golem was so anxious to win--for the sake of protecting Dusty, though. Wonder what that's about... (I know I could probably chase down the fullest version of your story, though I kinda want to follow it here, though, so I can comment and such x3) WELL, lookin' forward to finding out in future updates! ^^

So in conclusion, you're amazing and stuff! 8D Thanks for posting here! ^^

[Suicune's Fire]

Chapter two: Night Sky

I was looking Izante in the eyes the night we won the battle. That same enthusiastic emotion had always stayed alive in them for as long as I could remember. She was smiling, and was more than satisfied that we had won the match—as was I.

However, I was a little worried. Those odd things that Roarake had said during the battle... What did he mean by them? Was he trying to make me feel uneasy? Because it had worked. The golem I had been up against had even told me odd things after the match, which was all the more strange.

I remember it clearly: my leafeon friend and I were celebrating our victory moments after she had fainted Roarake. Our masters had both cheered about it, and not long after, they joined us in the happy seconds of it all.

While I was nuzzling Master on her dry nose, out of the corner of my eye I happened to notice Roarake’s trainer walk over to him, rather unimpressed. He told the pokémon that he was useless, and a waste of time and effort. After he called for his poké ball to return his pokémon. However, the poké ball did not do so. Instead of popping open and the red energy flowing over the golem, the red and white sphere just sat still in the trainer’s hands. It was then when the human hit his fist against the round object, obviously angry with it.

Master had then put me down. She made her way to the female trainer who owned the butterfree, and Izante’s master walked to the male trainer who owed Roarake. “Great battle! You had the upper hand for a while there,” mentioned Master while I trotted across to the golem.

He spotted me and instantly looked away. The glance that I stole from him before he turned told me that he was ashamed. I stopped for a second, but then continued on towards him, edging into his space. “Hey, Roarake,” I called once I was about four or so metres away from him. He still seemed uninterested, but it wouldn’t stop me from continuing. “Nice battle back there. You were quite impressive.” But in return, all I got was a grunt. He didn’t turn around, either. “I thought I was going to lose at one stage. But I guess my speed paid off—as well as Izante’s save right at the end,” I mentioned, showing a friendly smile. I had a slight feeling I was talking too much though.

“Hmph,” he muttered once again. At that, I frowned.

“What’s your problem?” I blurted, my tone shifting completely. “I’m just trying to have a bit of friendly conversation here!” I yelled at him, agitated. I snapped a stick under my paws in the process, hardly noticing.

“....” He stayed silent as I stood on all fours in front of his boulder-like body. He flung himself around to look at me sharply. His eye twitched, as well as the skin just above his mouth. I stayed standing and glared at him. All I wanted was to make sure we were friends. After all, it’s never good when you instantly become enemies with the pokémon you were facing after a battle. All it did was create more tension, and the matches were supposed to be friendly and for mere, harmless competition.

But I thought again, realising that yelling at him wouldn’t do the trick. So I sighed, waiting for him to do or say something. I looked harder at him. The twitching began to make sense. Shiny pools of salty water began to generate in Roarake’s eyes. He began crying. Utterly confused, I blinked over and over again, wondering why in the world he would be doing such a thing given the circumstances.

‘Could he be...crying because he lost? Or...was it something I said?’

In the middle of my confused thoughts, Roarake’s lips separated. “Do you know...what it is like.....to be stolen away?” he bravely stuttered. He looked at me with such sorrow and agony. His eyes were droopy and stone cold—but not in a scornful way. It looked like the life had been drained right out of them.

I slowly rotated my head to the right in small jolts. I watched him with concern and a furry frown. “N...no, I don’t,” I replied, not knowing whether I wanted to know his reply or not. And from what I could tell...the answer would be one composed from his own personal experiences.

Taking in my reply, the golem had released a long sigh that was somewhat jagged. “I...was trying to—” he started, but was instantly cut off by his trainer. The human must have become sick of talking to Izante’s master and wrapped up the short chat. He put a hand under the golem’s chin and shifted the pokémon’s head in his direction. Personally I thought of him to be handling Roarake much too roughly, and if my master handled me like that I would definitely have something to complain about.

“Thank you for that wonderful battle, Golem.” He smiled greasily at his pokémon, speaking with sarcasm. After that, the trainer’s face turned to a frown. In response to his master’s statement, Roarake just sneered with a dark frown. He pulled away, the human letting go but scratching the golem’s face ‘by mistake’.

‘That’s not how you’re supposed to treat your pokémon!’ I thought while staring at the two.

His trainer looked immediately unimpressed with Roarake, and his face formed the most ugly expression of annoyance and intolerance. Frowning at this, I cocked my head to one side. What was going on?! And why did they treat each other that way? Pokémon and their masters were supposed to look out for each other and be happy together. But these two seemed like they were fighting fire with fire. ‘I wonder what’s up...’ I thought with negative curiosity, keeping a eye out for anything that would further my suspicion
.
Then the trainer looked at me. “What a fine pokémon you are,” he complimented, reaching out to stroke my head. “What a shame you are not so useful,” he s******ed condescendingly, facing Roarake. The great duel type rumbled back at him.

Suddenly I felt angry. A low growl sounded in my throat, which made the human’s furless paw freeze before coming any closer. Humans who treated pokémon like he did was one of the few things that made me sick. As his hand progressed towards my tuft, I snapped at his fingers, nearly hesitating in case Master was looking. But she would believe me over this man anyway.

The man stood up, spitting at me. I blew a flame at the falling saliva, causing it to vanish before it reached me. He sneered, turned around, and strode over to our trainers, seeing as I apparently won our strange argument. I turned back to the golem, eying him with a much softer glare than the one I gave his trainer.

Shortly after that, the butterfree’s trainer had lead it away from us all, and was beginning to walk back in a different direction to where we were headed—which was weird, because that was the way they came...

While Roarake’s trainer was saying goodbye to our masters, the golem’s gaze gripped me. “Do not let it happen,” he shouted to me, making me a little startled. “Be wary; be very wary! And let me tell you one thing.” Roarake had been absolutely serious about his every word. But I was still completely mystified. “Being stolen away is the most devastating event that could happen. It would be better to see our masters die than for us to be taken! At least you know...that you will never see them again that way!” And those were the last words I heard from him before he was called back, this time with a different poké ball which seemed to be the correct one.

Master turned to me, her face clouded with a mist of concern. “That golem...sounded distressed,” she mentioned to me, and I couldn’t stop frowning.

***

I watched as the bonfire burned in the cool night air, dancing across to blacken logs. The fire was using it to stay alive; washing over the different pieces that were once part of a tree and consuming their goodness. The flames climbed upwards and lapped over the wood time and time again, as if licking it and devouring it slowly. Tiny, tiny sparks flew from the pile of wood engulfed in flames, flicking around everywhere. A few even struck me on the muzzle...but I didn’t mind at all. My eyes were too busy swaying and flickering as I observed the amazing sight.

At the same time, I lowered my head with exhaustion. I knew that it was late, and Master had already gone to sleep. She had kindly allowed me to stay up to dwell in my thoughts, as I wasn’t ready for sleep at the time. I felt my fluffy tail hovering just above the ground, but curled it around the side of my body for more warmth—not that I particularly needed it.

Izante was lying about a metre away from me a little closer to the fire. She needed all the warmth she could get, being a Grass type who gained warmth from sunlight. While I was always warm, my best friend was constantly cool when the magnificent burning orb was not suspended between the clouds.

She threw me a soft glance and held her head in position. “We should head off to bed soon. I’m getting tired,” she told me. I nodded, but I didn’t plan to head back right then and there. I needed a minute.

“Soon,” I muttered back, my chin on my paws while I lay down.

Once we had stopped talking, all that could be heard was the small crackle of the fire spitting and spattering, and the soft padding of my friend walking towards the tent only sounded after a few moments. Silence was present, and I nearly let my eyes move from the fire.

“Well...I’ll be in the tent,” she called to me softly in an effort not to wake our masters. Deciding not to reply, my eyes stayed focused on the fire as it reflected its orangey-red light off my already-orange face.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the battle. The pain in the side of my body had nearly cleared up, as well as the other pains, and I almost felt fine about them. Master had sprayed me with a special healing spray that helped cure my wounds and fed me a few natural berries said to assist curing injuries. Izante’s master probably did the same to her, seeing as she looked the same as me relating to health statuses.

I had really thought deeply of what Roarake had told me, and those repeating words that circled my mind endlessly nibbled at my nerves, and it was the only thing on my mind...

“Flareon, forgive me for my weakness! I failed to p—”

What could he possibly have meant by that? And then the talk about being stolen? What did he even mean by that?

Though my wondering mind didn’t cease to slow down the gears, I knew I needed to rest soon. It would probably be a tiring day tomorrow, like any other day, and I had spent long enough thinking about the strange issue...

***

My sleep was very daunting. I was constantly having weird dreams that made no sense, but a lot of sense at the same time. Things would be muddled up in some places, frightening in others and plain mysterious at every other time... I knew they were partly to do with Roarake’s speeches, but other parts were randomly stuffed in there that had no relevance to him or the battle we had.

Eventually I had become sick of waking up repeatedly and gotten up, even though I felt dizzy and notably unwell. The tent we were staying in was fairly simple and rather small, to ensure easy transportability, so I needed to be careful of our masters when climbing over them to reach the entrance. They both had long sacks to sleep in, which were warm, silky on the outside and different colours. Izante and I lay next to them, but we also had the choice of returning into our balls. However, what crazy pokémon wouldn’t have chosen to stay beside their trainer as opposed to being cooped up in a tight and uncomfortable space where reality seemed not to exist?

As I had stood up, I noticed Izante stirring, and hoped that she was having a pleasant sleep—unlike me. Quietly, I crept around Master, being extra careful not to bump her or Izante’s master. They both looked to be sleeping peacefully, which was good. I made my way to the entrance of the tent which I had cleverly unzipped using my teeth. It did take some time, but eventually I managed to make a hole big enough to slip through. After I landed on grassless ground, I attempted to zip it back up, but I only managed to get it half way before I shrugged and left.

I stood out in the early morning air. The sun was a few hours away from rising, and I knew it wouldn’t be coming up anytime soon.

Looking for a nice place to be by myself, I began to wander north of the tent. I padded slowly through a tree-populated area where the branches leaned in all directions. Although I assumed they were there, I didn’t notice the many sleeping pokémon in the trees and bushes as I walked by, simply because I wasn’t concentrating.

The moonlight shone through the canopy, casting patches of light upon the dirt. There were barely any stones on the forest floor, which made it easier for me to keep walking without interruptions whilst staring upwards. The sky was like a vast sea dotted with many shining pokémon, and occasionally there would be the odd bird pokémon to fly alongside it.

My walk ended when I crossed paths with a beautiful lake. I was still coming out of the trees when I spotted the water sparkling and shimmering as the moon’s reflection wobbled across the lake’s surface. There wasn’t much of a breeze, so the water was almost perfectly still. I listened to the silent nature around me as I wandered closer and shut my eyes. This was as peaceful as it could get.

Opening them again, I stepped carefully onto the muddy ground lining the edge of the lake. The mud was squishy and reasonably cool, and it seeped in the gaps between my toes. I decided to dip my front paw into the water so its tip was under the surface. The water wasn’t very cold; it was just right. In fact, it was almost warm. ‘If I wasn’t so scared of water, I would surely go in for a dip,’ I quietly thought.

Then I began to wonder why I was so scared of water. ‘You’re a Fire type, silly,’ the voice in my head giggled. I smiled as my thoughts carried me to another world.

Just like the trees, I swayed in the night, my eyes at half-mast. I was suddenly startled as a splash caught me off guard. My eyes caught sight of something jumping out of the water. I didn’t get a good look at it, but from what I was able to see, a blue tail with patches of pink that was shaped like a butterfly’s wing flicked at the surface, then disappeared. ‘Finneon.’

While I was lost in the breath-taking sight, my thirst hit me like a rock. Even just touching the water focused my thoughts to my dry mouth. After all, when I ate my night meal I didn’t have anything to drink. So I lowered my head, but kept an eye on the moon’s shimmering reflection, keeping the magical sight in view. My tongue touched the liquid and felt a pleasant feeling; almost an exciting one. It lapped the water into my mouth and I swallowed, repeating the process to slurp the taste of nature to satisfy my body’s needs.
By the time I’d stopped, I was almost leaning into the water. My paws had dug their way into the mud, and I had to re-steady myself. The last thing I wanted to happen was to fall in.

Suddenly the sound of a stick breaking in half pulsed to my ears. They immediately perked up, intensifying themselves to be more able to hear. I span around to the direction the sound was coming from at the same time. I felt myself tremble with both fear and anxiety to fight. My fur stood on end as I looked hard at the bushes and trees which were now in front of me. ‘Whoever it is is going to get creamed,’ I thought with confidence, lowering my head and changing my stance into a fighting one. Another rustle sounded in the bushes, and I began to sense something sinister. My eyes widened, and in a split second, I had taken a few-stepped push off from the soft earth and leapt into the air!

I came crashing down onto my foe after a few moments of hang-time, and we rolled over each other. I was scared to the bone, but furious at the same time. Someone had tried to ambush me! I bit and scratched at what I thought was attacking me, not focusing on who it was. But once I heard that shriek, I stopped, realising that I was attacking someone very familiar.

At first I couldn’t identify the pokémon due to the dim light the moon provided, but once I adjusted, it became clear. Izante was the one beneath my paws, subtle whimpers escaping her muzzle.