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

[Suicune's Fire]

Chapter Twenty-six: Knock-knock

It was an expectation of mine to see ground type pokémon. I thought they would be nearly everywhere, littering the hardened earth and burrowing through its core, carving paths that would soon be forgotten. Sometimes I thought of it to be quite a nasty scheme; a ground type could just dig its way through a section of the ground and wait for prey above – either that or any unsuspecting trespasser – to fall through the weaker parts and be sucked into the earth. I never really thought about that while living on the surface until the underground tunnels revealed such possibilities to me. It seemed somewhat unrealistic that some heftier pokémon could trek on the surface without falling into a hole that they themselves happened to make within that small collection of seconds.

Sometimes the ceiling above me would arch so high that I found it unbelievable that there was stable land on top. Some part of me was glad for relocating to this lower level, but part of me was worried—as well as the danger of being a pokémon on the outside falling down, for us there was a danger of them falling on us. I didn’t wish such a death upon any of the pokémon I was travelling with, let alone me, as even the houndoom did not escape my concern.

He and Azure, Splash and I had been trudging through an ongoing tunnel for a short time – possibly about half an hour, during which my temper managed to cool off – and in that time, hardly a word was uttered. I wanted to ask him how he knew Azure, but I knew the chances of him answering that were low. If he hadn’t told me yet, and he hadn’t before they met up with us, then I didn’t imagine he had a wish to tell me at all. I stopped myself from huffing when I compared it with my own wishes—I wouldn’t want him to know of any personal information about me. Nevertheless, it didn’t stop me from wanting to hear about his relationship with the ice type. It wasn’t as if I could ask Splash either. He was as dull as the surrounding cave walls, and provided no such entertainment. Not even words. It hadn’t been long since they met up with us, but I had a feeling that the dual type was not accustomed to talking much, if at all, and it even crossed my mind that perhaps he wasn’t capable.

After coming to a forked path and hearing the two canine pokémon argue over which way was the correct one, we eventually decided to follow Azure. I had no idea if the action was wise or not, but she gave us little choice as she began to strut down the tunnel she chose with little more than acknowledgement that there was another direction. Zaion (I still had trouble attaching the name to the face) was less than impressed or even accepting as we continued, and he dropped back to pad with me, a firmer gait and more focused attention suggesting that he was more alert that usual. He was clearly annoyed to have been overridden with the glaceon’s choice, and looked to firmly believe we would end up somewhere we didn’t have a desire to go.

Realising my chance had arrived to try to get some information out of him, I warily glanced up ahead to check that Azure’s ears were too far out of reach to hear our words. “Houndoom,” I hissed quietly, hoping the blubbery form of the quagsire between us and the glaceon would block some of the sound. “What’s going on? How do you know her?”

He looked relieved if anything that I had spoken, although the implication was so miniscule that I had to recheck if that was what it really was. His eyes didn’t meet mine as he muttered, “We’re...old friends.”

“You don’t look like friends to me,” I mumbled. “Neither do you sound like it. Or even smell like it. It’s like there’s some wafting stench of hate emanating equally from the both of you.”

He only allowed a frown to press atop his eyes, and curled his mouth into an expression of berating confusion, as if I had said something absurd and completely unrelated... And then I realised I had. “Maybe ‘friends’ isn’t the exact term to use.”

“No,” I agreed with several nods, following his line of sight past the powder blue pokémon and landing on the glaceon up ahead. “It certainly doesn’t seem like it.”

“It’s mere past quarrels is all,” he told me simply, and I knew from that statement that he was not inclined to tell me more. As much as I wanted to know, it wasn’t going to happen.

After another short while, we had come to an opening that overlooked a cavern far down below, which had opened up from the path we had been travelling to create a large roughly circular area. The distance amazed me; I wasn’t aware that the cave spanned so far downward. It was the distance that a short cliff would be from the ground, but when it was beneath the surface, it seemed all the more strange to see. There was a narrow ledge curving from our right that ran along the outside of the large room and descended for a time before it dropped off. The height of the end of the ledge, which stopped before the directly opposite side of the room to which we were standing, was still too great to be able to drop from. That was, unless one was willing to call themselves experts (but even then chance a broken leg). On the left side of the opened room branched another tunnel that burrowed through the great wall of rock that shaped one side of the room, and I suddenly came to wonder just how many underground paths there were.

“Flair,” muttered the houndoom, and to my surprise, I realised I was the only one stationed by the large opening in the wall that overlooked the cavern. They had all taken the path to the left that continued on from the one we had just been passing along. In my distracted state, I hadn’t realised that there was another way to go other than through the opening and into the large room. He jerked his head in the direction Splash and Azure had walked.

I blinked a few times and bounded after them as Zaion turned and began to stalk away, catching up to him in no time. When I spoke, my words were hurried with excitement, which I hadn’t purposely done, but was perfectly content with it anyway. “Did you see that?” I paused to see his reaction, but he merely stared ahead with half-open eyes, clearly far from amused. I didn’t care though. “It was amazing! Like some giant...circular...hall in the centre of a cave!”

“It’s not the centre,” he murmured, and I cocked my head, somehow feeling washed with a form of mollified joy.

“Oh, well, it’s still awesome.” I glanced back over my shoulder, only witnessing the stream of light pouring in from the opening, which was difficult to see from the angle, much less the room itself. Minor disappointment seeped through my mind as I turned back, but I shrugged, angling to the right as the others did so whilst following the path.

It soon occurred to me that we were inside the wall that the left tunnel of that room had burrowed through, and concluded that we would be crossing over it, considering the different levels. I found myself wondering what other wondrous elements of caves were in existence; in all my travels with my trainer, I had only occasionally passed through caves, and the ones we made it through were short and daft. It was amazing to explore a proper one. However, happily I corrected myself, noting that this was hardly exploring. Exploring would mean stumbling across things more amazing than a simple room and on purpose; I began to picture all the other kinds of sights I would be able to see.

Surprisingly the number of pokémon we happened across was fairly limited. The whole trip consisted of a few families of drilbur, a sandshrew or two and a couple of trapinch. They were often on the move for meals or, as it was for the drilbur, popping up at random intervals and intersecting our paths by mistake. One of them shot up from the ground right in front of me at one stage, scaring the living daylights out of me. She repeated hasty apologies before disappearing; I got the impression that she was looking for someone, but I wasn’t to know. The details didn’t exactly matter anyway.

There had not been another cavern such as the one we had encountered earlier, much to my disappointment, but the amazements didn’t cease. On a few occasions, the cave became granite, and sometimes produced more tunnels in one spot than we could have split up to travel down. A wider room soon came into view, the walls extending outward and the ceiling a was fraction higher to allow for hanging stalactites to drop from above and have enough room to shatter. As we began to pass through, me at the back with the others in front, I was glad to deduce that there were no spears of rock looking to be unstable enough to fall, and I was reassured by my judgement alone that it was safe to pass through. Besides, the houndoom had clearly been through these parts before, and therefore was somewhat familiar with the oddities lurking in the depths of the underground tunnels. If he thought there was something wrong, I believe he would have spoken up.

Stalagmites grew from the floor, riddling the walking surface with their obstructing forms. The arrangement went on for a while, and even though I was somewhat assured that we were not going to get separated, I had that odd sick feeling that was hard to shake.

I made the decision to walk with the others, but my random position change might have drawn some kind of unnecessary attention; I didn’t want them to think I was afraid of the possibility that they might descend and pierce my body, or that I was frightened of enemies which may have crept up from behind. “Hey, uhh...what’s up ahead?” I asked aloud. I tried to look as casual as I could as I waited for their answer.

“Um,” Zaion began, tossing his head out in front before returning it to me. “Nothing of note.”

“Oh, really?” I asked, pretending to be totally clueless. He looked at me oddly and nodded slowly with a raised brow. I waited a moment longer after purposely averting my eyes, and upon looking back to him, his questioning face made me clarify. “Oh, it’s just that I can’t really see anything up ahead. You know, with three pokémon in my way.”

He furrowed his brow, and was quite perplexed. “Dusty. The room is wide,” he began, gesturing to the rest of the room at once. “You just have to look past us. And what view could three pokémon like us possibly obscure?”

“Hey,” I started, realising for a moment that he had a valid argument, “I couldn’t see, okay?” I reiterated, a little bewilderment in my tone as I shrugged,

“Right.” He whirled around and continued on.

I was a little agitated that he didn’t seem at all to care. “Well, I think I’ll just...”

Not waiting for a reply, I trotted past him, feeling his eyes on my back as I continued, and stopped at the front after passing Splash and ending up beside Azure. The glaceon was clearly not very impressed as she glared at me. I understood; it wasn’t like we were friends. She heaved a sigh and I turned around, eying the houndoom from up front. His head was turned, but he probably knew I was looking.

We walked around protruding spires of rock as we went, and a few times I got to stand on stumps, the top half no longer there. None of the stalactites fell either, and I assumed that they were fixed to the ceiling with security that was difficult to surpass. Nevertheless, it was difficult to come by and rely on reassurance alone; at least, travelling with a pokémon beside me, we would have more of a chance to defend ourselves if one of them cascaded from above and threatened to puncture our bodies.

We kept going, encountering a small pool at some point, which we stopped to drink from. It was appropriately guarded by rock watchman sprouting from the cavern floor, and for some reason I was compelled to imagine them with human dress and some type of spear. And then I imagined a moustache on one of them, a broader one, and was so distracted by the other amusing mental images which generated in my mind that I forgot about the fact that we were on the move, the others departing from the lake before me. When I realised, I flicked my head about and quickly caught up with them.

We made it out of the cavern and popped out into a tunnel branching left and right, each of us displaying a notable difference in our tenseness. I could relax now that there was no blatantly obvious danger, even if it had only been falling stalactites that were the threat. The coast was clear, and there was nothing that could visibly cause any sort of wariness.

The others began to move off to the right, and I skipped ahead to catch up with glaceon, thoughts of her telling me what had happened between her and the dark type testing my mind. When I walked beside her once again, she sighed irritably, making me strangely content.

“So you...know the houndoom,” I confirmed slowly. She remained silent, so I took it upon myself to continue. “Tell me...how long have you known him?”

A spark jumped between us, some sort of wave that shattered a wall she learnedly hoped I wouldn’t even gaze upon. I continued to look her in the eyes as my curiosity gained me the right to know what exactly was going on. If they didn’t want me to know, then they could keep their strange rivalry to themselves and stop involving me in it. Even though they hadn’t said a word to each other since their “greeting” when Azure and Splash ran into us, aside from the argument over the path we were going to take at one stage, they constantly shared looks of silent disdain they clearly didn’t want to voice.

However, I would be caught in the crossfire, and their mutual mistrust of one another made it difficult to make decisions based on fact and logic alone. If that was the way it had to be, then I believed I deserved to know why my journey was being obstructed by personal matters. The conversation they had exchanged upon meeting with each other in particular stuck with me; there were things mentioned that I wanted the answers to, but then again, I probably didn’t have the appropriate jurisdiction. I fought with myself to leave it alone, but regardless, I was left immensely curious.

She shifted uncomfortably and looked ahead, as if maintaining some sort of expected pride. “I don’t wish to answer.”

“You don’t have a choice,” I growled, and she was momentarily shocked, and then her condescension returned.

“I always have a choice. And I’m choosing not to tell you.” She swished her tail in a manner that reminded me of her insolence on the ship, and suddenly fragments of those events flashed in my mind.

“Sooner or later, I’m gonna find out. You guys can’t look at each other without some sort of trade of hate. I wanna know what is up with that; I do believe I have a right to know why the members of my travelling party are incapable of getting along for at least a few minutes. If it didn’t affect your ability to make rational decisions, I’d be more likely to leave it alone.”

“That’s asking too much,” she snapped, twitching her head toward me but not actually directing her eyes to mine. It was my turn to react with shock, and I proceeded to stare at her, almost bewildered. She was as stubborn as Zaion.

“So you think that I have no right to know? Is that it? You guys are allowed to go on and banter about this and that, and nearly get into a physical fight, and you tell me that it’s not my business?” I tried to catch her eyes while not letting Zaion come into awareness of our argument. “Yeah, I get privacy. But this is ridiculous. What happens when the fight involves me, and I’m forced to choose between trusting you or him? Can you still not explain it then? Is that what you call fair?”

“Oh, just shut up!” she hissed, finally meeting my eyes. She quickly looked back to Zaion, who was thankfully not paying us attention. His sights were set on a nearby duo of wary rattata. I assumed he was rather eager to catch some food, on account of how we hadn’t eaten all day so far. She looked to hold something back before giving in and whispering quietly, with almost a hint of shame, “I can’t tell you.”

I snorted. Couldn’t tell me? What kind of nonsense did she expect me to freely believe? “And why not? You two have some kind of falling out? What, were you...” I tried to search my mind for possible answers, chancing one that came to mind. The thought raised my spirits a little with amusement. I nearly chuckled with cheekiness before I proposed, “Were you once mates or something?”

“What?!” she responded, the incredulousness in her tone melting through the solid rock walls. Immediately she piped down and cleared her voice, redirecting her face as Zaion looked up, obviously curious about the sudden outburst. If she could have turned red and have it show through her blue fur, she would have. She looked to readjust herself and uttered to me in a hushed voice, “No! Of course not! Why would you even suggest that?” The disgust in her words made me smile with humorousness; the thought of being mates with that houndoom was on a level of repulsiveness suited to her reaction.

“Calm down,” I replied, an entertained scowl brushing my face. I spoke the sentence as if she had reacted far more dramatically than what she had needed to.

She threw me a glare I was suddenly sure could startle the fiercest of enemies. “Don’t be so absurd.”

“It was just a question,” I responded with a claim to innocence. At the same time, my voice betrayed layers of patronisation.

She rumbled and stared at the ground for a collection of seconds before looking up toward the path before us, the torch Splash still held emanating its light. I took a moment to admire the awe that entered my mind and embodied my limbs when I came into the presence of fire, embracing its glory. There were so many things I loved about fire, and when I blinked, only to open them on the glaceon beside me, I could see nothing but solemness. It was then that I recognised the weight of duty and sealed knowledge which dragged her down and stole her thoughts. Clearly the answer to the question I had put forth carried elements of a burden, or at least something that she felt she could not easily share. I could understand, but at the same time I was still highly curious to know, although I didn’t wish to press any further.

I felt my nose scrunch as my cheeks elevated, pushing up against my eyes in a face of reluctant compliance. I released it with an exhalation and grunted in surrender before uttering, “Fine... I won’t hound you for answers.”

The glaceon waited a moment before turning to me with some mild degree of disbelief. Her brow shaped her eyes with a frown of question, and I raised mine, giving a light nod. She looked mutedly thankful and relieved. I could tell that another minute of thinking she would have to spill the beans at my request would have pulled uncomfortably on vines she wanted suspended in secret, which I did not want to be responsible for. She did not ask questions, but merely gave me the tiniest of joyless smiles and returned her attention to the path.

I sighed in disappointment; it was true that I wanted to know, to learn of their shared past, but rightfully it wasn’t mine to know. In fact, she had no obligation to me whatsoever, and I had acted as if she owed me the world. ‘Well...I did save her life on one occasion,’ I thought in consideration, but, remembering back to the incident with Sed, Tooloo and that Mr. Mime, I reiterated to myself that she had come to my rescue. If I recalled correctly – for the incident, due to my state at the time, was a muddled mess – Splash had retaliated first. It occurred to me that I had forgotten to thank him deciding that sometime I would.

“So...” Looking to her again, I held her gaze for a moment to check she was paying attention. “We even?”

She didn’t smile, but she was complacent with the notion. She gave a brusque nod. On the contrary, I smiled.

***

“I told you it was a foolish idea to cross through here,” Tarla grumbled, perched upon a rock wall. She peered down into a break in the rock, a collection of three pokémon making their way through the channel no faster than snails. The path was wide enough for the krinar and kirlia to fit side-by-side, but Derino would certainly have had trouble beside another. He waddled gruffly between the two giant slabs of rock, clearly agitated as he had to sometimes turn so his belly and back were against the rock. The others did the same, although they had a considerably less difficult time doing so.

“Yeah, well, sometimes we need more convincing than we think we need!” shouted Etire, and Tarla only scoffed. It was like him to shift the blame.

“Mm, because of course, it’s my duty to look after you when you purposely disregard my warning.” She scowled. “How was it not clear to those glazed-over eyes of yours that this way was treacherous?”

“What other way was there? I saw none,” retorted the krinar. He dragged the kirlia out the way of a falling rock and watched it shatter.

Tarla sneered at the very thought; she was partly glad that they hadn’t agreed upon going the other way, but at the cost of time, she knew. “Underground.”

“I’m afraid I have trouble seeing in the gloom,” the kirlia replied delicately, her words drifting gently through the air to meet the flying and dragon type.

“We all do,” Tarla clarified, her voice an unpolished stone in comparison.

“Quit your arguing,” a voice of a forth pokémon grumbled from up ahead. “We can’t change the path we’re on. We already chose this, so use yer initiative and apply it to your surroundings now.”

Tarla and Etire sighed, understanding he was correct, but obviously unwilling to believe so. The kirlia waited until Etire moved before following.

They wandered on for another while, and by the looks of things, Tarla assumed it would take them all day to weave between the right cracks and navigate their way out of the rocky maze—however, with her to guide, they would be able to make it through in at least half the time, and decided that they could be out by a few hours past midday. She constantly glared up at the sun, checking to ensure that she wasn’t going to miscalculate. There was no place she couldn’t see from above; her ability of flight proved to be a very helpful one.

A few times, they had been unsure about following her lead, and she had to fly partway into the distance to double check it was the correct path, but even then they were hesitant. When it happened again, they had come to a fork. The left was fairly straight, whereas the right path veered off at a sharp diagonal angle, rather than following the path forward. The trio below insisted that the right path to follow was the left one, as it trailed toward the right direction. Derino was adamant that the path to the right would lead them astray, and the frustration Tarla felt for the normal type welled time and again. The krinar was not much better—both were stubborn.

“Rantana,” she called to the kirlia, fluttering down before the fork to address her personally. “If you’re having trouble believing me, use your psychic abilities to confirm the truth.”

The cream pokémon watched her with calm but innocent eyes. “I do not doubt your judgement.” Tarla kept staring, unsure exactly what her answer was. “I have no reason to confirm your words because I already believe them true.”

“Rentana,” Etire began, on her left as he snatched her attention. Tarla frowned. “Everybody makes mistakes. It’s normal that Tarla does, especially.”

“Shut your little mouth, you twerp,” hissed the altaria, her feathers looking to rise as she puffed herself up.

“What? Aren’t I allowed to express my opinion?” he wondered aloud, his disapproving glance agitating her as it usually tended to do.

“Not when I can see the end of the path meeting up with the rest of the paths that lead to the correct location.”

“And how long does the right path take if it bends and later rejoins with the “rest of the paths”?” he questioned, stance relaxed but easily mouldable.

The altaria seemed to contemplate her pride and reason as she moved her beak. She held the words back for as long as she could, well aware that her answer could define the final choice. “The turn takes up a lot of time that the left path doesn’t,” she quickly spilled, and he gave a smug smile and crossed his arms, as if he had won. “But the left path comes to a dead end. You can’t cross through there, so all that “saved time” gets you nowhere!”

“I can if I break through the wall,” he answered, far too sure of himself. He spoke casually, as if the words meant hardly anything. Tarla knew that he was going to have a positively difficult time doing something like that. Although she ached to see him try so she could jeer when he failed, she did not wish for these colony members to stray off track and waste time. It was also her pride at stake, which she was going to keep either way—except, of course, the krinar somehow managed to pierce the wall.

She sneered and looked to Rentana, who gave a tiny apologetic shrug. Derino crossed over behind Tarla to the path on the left. His ignorance inflated, as it often did, and he blundered blindly down the path. Tarla’s cheeks rose in disbelief; she was almost disgusted.

“Where are you going? I told you to go the other way!” she yelled, clearly impatient as he continued.

“My eyes do not deceive me,” he barked, angling his head up so his words would be most likely to rush to the place he targeted.

“Your eyes aren’t the ones surveying the ground from the skies!” The granbull merely raised a thick purple paw, dismissing her claims and anything else she tried to get across. “But that’s not the right path,” she exclaimed again, and turned furiously to the krinar as he snorted in amusement.

“Nah, you’re correct,” he began, starting off after Derino. “It’s not the right path.” Rentana followed slowly, looking tired. When the krinar was a few steps in, he turned around to finish his sentence, smirking. “It’s the left path.”

In a fury, the altaria fired a dragonbreath down the channel, momentarily heedless of the possibility that she could have instead hit the kirlia. When it reached not even her, Tarla bit down, the pressure of her beak marginally unsettling. She took off, beating the air with powerful strokes and rose in a considerably short time. Her anger swirled in her mind, and she wondered why in the world she came if her own party members, the pokémon obliged to trust and listen to her, couldn’t even believe her words. Etire was too cocky, Derino too stubborn and Rentana too flimsy. The combination was fatal when pitted against one who opposed their views.

Hissing in response to the aggravating situation, she powered forward, racing past her fellow colony pokémon in the blink of an eye to verify that the end of the path led to where she knew it did. A dead end. She wanted to once again analyse it for herself, and she knew that if she did, maybe she could convince them. After all, she was the one looking at it from above, and obviously knew more about the situation and the settings than the others; however, that hadn’t stopped them from overruling her judgement before. Nevertheless, it was worth a try, even if she didn’t believe that they would come to listen at all. ‘Aemara would have listened to me,’ she thought bitterly, resting her thoughts on her closest friend to seek some kind of comfort.

She began to miss her company after a number of days without seeing her, and she found herself wishing she could have come. The ghost and ice type could have levitated over the smaller rock ledges to rise higher and eventually cross across the top of the rock. She not only would have been a faster traveller, but also more efficient and wouldn’t waste time or effort derailing because she, in light of better judgement, was not foolish enough to imagine she had more knowledge than Tarla of the correct direction.

Her eyes fell upon the mountain ahead once more, unsure if its closeness was a good or a negative thing. It was both, she guessed, in their own ways. As well as all the hurt she felt from the banishment, she also treasured wonderful memories of a mountain very close by that helped provide her with refuge and a new people to start life over in the company of.

She cast an eye down on the rock below, watching it slowly trudge by as she approached the end of the path in which the party was soon to walk. Upon arrival, she fluttered her wings and descended, dropping to the edge of the rock wall to peer ahead. The trail came to an opening, sort of like a roofless room that was barred by rock walls. A small path branched off to the side of the area, but only continued for a few metres before it, too, was blocked off by rock. She found herself remembering that she was right, and that Etire and his cocky attitude were wrong. Him and Derino—the two males were useless when it came to listening to others, and in Etire’s case, especially to females. The only female he listened properly to was Rentana, but even then it was only because they were mated and he valued her opinion.

“His extensive self-assurance is his undoing,” she muttered to herself, sure that one day his attitude would get him in serious trouble. It was the same with Derino’s stubbornness. She suddenly felt grateful that Hunter, his son, was not without external influences. Any chance to take after his father was best tempered by others.

The party of three arrived within the following ten minutes, and as they came closer, the granbull’s face remained hardened and unchangeable, while the krinar was still overflowing with confidence, even when his eyes ran the height of the wall. He seemed unsure of himself for but a moment before returning to his confident state, and she raised a feathered brow, wondering if he had doubted himself at first.

She didn’t speak as they spilled into the area and ran their proud gazes along the wall. The two males wandered partway down the path to the side before meeting a dead end, despite being able to clearly see without taking the short cut into the rock, and pressed limbs against the walls to test their durability. Etire avoided Tarla’s supercilious gaze as he continued prodding the wall, moving out of the small path and testing the other sides.

“Will you just admit it already?” Tarla persisted, bemused by their useless attempts. “You didn’t listen to me and I was right. In effect, that means you were wrong.” The ralts evolution just glared at her, not intent on having his precious pride wounded, it seemed. His eyes were marginally concerned and growing with frustration.

“I told you that we can break through,” the krinar protested whist trying to convince himself, running a clawed hand down the surface of the rock. Tiny crumbs of stone broke off as he went, pattering on the earthen floor. He was doubting the possibility, but refused to give up before he started.

The altaria scoffed, half in annoyance and half in amusement, and ruffled her feathers before settling comfortably down, watching as he once again tested the rock with short slams of his fists and legs, and did something similar three more following times, as if contemplating. “Praising the wall won’t help you break through it,” she teased, and he stopped stroking it, obviously aware of his actions and how they were similar to stroking a young child’s head when they did well after completing a task.

“It’s called testing the surface I’m going to smash.”

“Testing?” she jeered again, a single eye on him as he looked up with a haughty frown. “You’ve been testing it for quite a few turns now, haven’t you? I think the rock has been using iron defence each time you attack with a stroke.”

“Look who the funny one is now,” he growled with the tiniest bit of accompanying mockery.

Tarla shrugged, quite enjoying what she got to do to him. “I have a talent for it.” The altaria stretched out a fluffy wing and began to preen a few of her cloudy feathers. “Faltering is the first sign of failure,” she told him half-attentively. “I think you should reschedule a time with the rock. Clearly you’re too busy procrastinating to actually make a move. I think the rock won the battle.”

Instead of exploding with anger, the krinar stood, absorbing her words as he inhaled, and exhaled with a small smile of acknowledged defeat. He shook his head to himself and focused back to the rock, heedless of the kirlia behind him.

Derino was marching back and forth, attempting to find some fault in the rock’s composition for a way to break through. Tarla understood that it wasn’t so much pride for the normal type, but simply an inability to acknowledge that he was wrong. He would keep looking for an opening simply because he was oblivious to the fact that the way he chose could have been incorrect.

A good ten minutes passed, and in that time the dragon type managed to keep her beak shut for the most part. She watched between preening as the two pokémon below her, as the kirlia also stood watching, searched for weak points in the rock. It was unlikely that they would encounter any, she knew, but they looked anyway.

“It seems you have a little issue,” the altaria called softly from the cliff, stopping her task to look at the krinar. Derino was hardly paying attention. Etire enquired with his eyes what she was talking about. “Someone told you to go one way, and you went another! Preposterous that she was right and you were wrong, isn’t it? It’s astounding that the great Etire was...wrong!” She cocked her head back and grinned greasily, more than happy to be in her position. The feeling of annoyance and wasting time hardly entered her mind as she revelled in the power she held. “And your plan doesn’t seem to be working.”

“Oh, come on,” he whined, clearly unsatisfied with defeat. “Can it, would you? You’ve milked this situation as if it was a bloated miltank. You don’t have to keep rubbing it in.”

“I’m sorry. I thought I heard someone whining. Was that you?”

The psychic and fighting type drove a hand to his forehead and stared with drooped shoulders at the wall in front of him. For the first time, he admitted its density and began to doubt his ability to break through. He took a look at the altaria above and shook his head in defiance, reluctant to allow her the satisfaction of a complete victory. He knew he had calculated wrongly and made a foolish decision, but his regret was not strong enough to overcome his pride.

He focused his energy, breathing in as he tried to imagine a sudden outbreak of punches and kicks on his behalf. He tensed his claws, pressing them together as he tried to build up strength. He had no idea if his technique would work or how effective it would be, but he stood with a mind narrowed to focus on his task. He had to focus solely on the wall before him to leave a proper mark. He would have to block everything out and round up all his attention, then place it in front of where he stood so he was able to carry out the desired combination of movements. He again inhaled and exhaled, moving his shoulder joins around in rolls before opening his eyes.

It was then that he saw Tarla and her arrogant grin.

“No,” he hissed to himself, tearing away from her and shaking his head. ‘This is not working,’ he told himself agitatedly, hesitant to admit such a thing to himself. He needed to be focused in order for anything to work, and telling himself that he wasn’t was defining a path to failure.

Without bothering to try again, he rotated his body quickly so he was side-on, took a firm step and extended his arm quickly like a spring before it rammed into the wall. Small fragments broke off and crumbled to the ground, a small dent in the wall. At first, for a split second, he was happy. However, he realised again how tiny the mark was, especially in the vastness of the wall. And then again as he thought of its width. Etire sighed, nearly ready to give up before he even started.

“Well, go on,” Tarla teased, baiting him. “I’m waiting for the wall to suddenly collapse.” She emphasised her last word with a heavy implication that it was ridiculous as she stood up to shake, then proceeded to sit, her fluffy wings spilling over the edge.

He gave a tiny sneer, trying not to lose his cool, and turned to Derino. The lavender pokémon was searching back and forth, still unsure where to anticipate a break in the rock. The krinar found it marginally agitating, as he wasn’t doing anything to help, and shook his head brusquely. He tried not to focus on it as he turned his attention back to the wall and released a cry, not caring that he hadn’t bothered to charge up as he dealt a focus punch.

He was not expecting a sudden head to emerge from underneath him, feeling an instant pain as it rammed into him, accompanied by rocks and dirt. He stumbled away, collapsing with the temporary surprise. “What the—?!” he started to say, but his own shock cut him off. The kirlia noticed, darting to the spot where the krinar had been standing before the pokémon who had attacked disappeared down a tiny opening. Some of the dirt caved into the hole and covered part of it up.

Tarla watched from above, suddenly shocked, and quickly flew down from her perch, approaching Etire as Rentana did so as well. “Etire?” the kirlia asked with interest. The pokémon moaned and sat up, giving his head a quick shake as he got to his feet. He blinked a few time and looked around, expecting to see some kind of large opponent, even if what had struck him was little.

“Where is it?” he demanded, and Rentana looked at him with curiosity. Her tender expression clearly opposed the ruggedness of her mate, and she gave the shadow of a smile, which was accompanied by a layer of concern.

“It was a diglett,” she told him, and he furrowed his brow, wondering how something so tiny could have knocked him off his feet. “Are you injured?” she asked softly, and he gave an appreciative smile, shaking his head slowly.

“It’ll wear off,” he reassured, and moved past her toward the small hole. “I didn’t know the ground was even soft enough to dig through.” He kicked the side of the hole with his foot, expecting part to crumble off, but it hardly seemed to budge. He gave it a frown and snorted, uninterested.

Tarla, although just to herself, uttered a few chuckles. “A diglett.”

The three of them turned as they heard solid marching and saw Derino approaching the opening in the earth. He glared down at it with disapproval, even if he didn’t yet know what it was he was disapproving, and his heavy brow clouded his face with a pretty stiff frown. “What is going on here?” He could clearly see the hole, but apparently was not making the connection between it and the marginally injured state of his fellow colony member.

“There was an attack,” Rentana pointed out quite seriously, and the others looked to Derino.

He drew back, interlacing his arms and peering down before angling his torso forward to inspect the hole. In response, another diglett emerged from the hole with blinding speed and head-butted his chin, startling him backward and causing him to topple to the ground with the force. The mole-like pokémon ducked into the hole again and they heard distant dirt excavation until it faded.

The three stood completely still, unsure what to make of the situation. Tarla took to the sky, fluttering up to her cliff perch to peer down and inspect the area.

“Be...very...careful,” Etire warned, and although Derino shot up defiantly, the kirlia began to move slowly, her form graceful even when trying to avoid danger. She held her mate’s eyes for a time, unblinking as they waited for something to happen. It was true that it was only diglett they were facing, but the surprise of the attacks was the main thing.

After a good five minutes of no activity from below, the three on ground were somewhat sure that there were no other pokémon around who planned to attack. Etire was quite confident that he could break the wall now, with the intruders out the way, and began to focus once again. The others relaxed and Derino went back to what he was doing, the kirlia simply watching as she had before.

Etire aimed at the wall and smashed his fists into it again, creating a larger ditch this time. He smiled at the effect and regretted the effort the attack took; when he again thought of how thick Tarla said the wall was, he cringed. He didn’t know how much longer he could keep his attacks up, and the reminder that such a big effort had only created a tiny mark was not at all comforting.

Focusing once more, he aimed to increase his form by tensing his muscles, feeling the strain in his arms and legs as he contracted them as tightly as he possibly could. He imagined muscle inflation, and his thoughts became somewhat of a reality as he released, feeling stronger and more solid. He had always liked bulk up for the very reason that it was easy to use and didn’t require much energy.

Drawing his attention to the wall before him, he resorted to using an attack that he thought he may not have had to use. It was not comforting to know that his fighting abilities outside of actual battling moves were not very strong; he was supposed to be a fighting type, and his training was not light. He was always striving to be better and hated when obstructions such as the wall of rock before him prevented his growth.

Exhaling to empty his lungs, he kept himself breathless for a number of seconds, feeling the weight of his belly as he plugged his airflow. Suddenly he released, opening his eyes and breathing swiftly in, and then launched himself forward, leaping for added momentum and drawing back his right arm before slinging it into the rock. The effect was grand; a large split appeared in the rock, spanning out in multiple directions and continued to increase. The section before him, at least as tall and wide as his body, crumbled and detached from the wall around it, tumbling sadly from a previous habitat to make way for whoever had removed it. Etire smiled proudly and watched as other sections of the wall gave way, if only a little bit. He cradled his right wrist in his left hand, waiting for the pulsing to stop before he recomposed himself and went for another bulk up attack.

Rentana, standing back from her mate and somewhere near the hole, watched with concern. She knew that the reason the diglett appeared was because he was destroying the wall, which she was less than comfortable with. As she watched, she noticed that her mate had looked to grow even stronger upon boosting his confidence and physical strength, and she curled her bottom and top lips into her mouth, holding them against themselves with her teeth. She began to flick to the opening in the ground, expecting another diglett to appear from the ground and attack again, and when a significant time had passed and none came, she didn’t know what to think. However, she did know that she had to warn the krinar about his destruction and the results that may come, and she decided now was the perfect time.

She darted forward in a leaping fashion. “Etire,” she began, catching his attention while he had his eyes closed.

He took a moment to reply with, “Yes, my sweet?”

She ignored his use of a pet name. “I think the diglett appeared because their wall was being threatened.”

The krinar opened his eyes and looked at her, putting aside any previous focus he had gathered. “Nonsense. They were probably just playing around.” He rolled a shoulder in its joint and cracked his neck to one side. “What would they want with an ol’ wall, anyway?” he asked sceptically, gesturing to its massive expanse as he shrugged.

“It’s part of their territory,” she reminded him, and he seemed to consider her statement for a mere moment before dismissing it with a noise and a bat of his hand.

“Ehh, they won’t miss it.” He looked back to it, a small chuckle starting up in his chest. “Heh, what, so they live inside the wall or something?” Rentana gave an unimpressed cringe as her mate neared the wall and harnessed his cockiness, tapping his clawed hand against the rock. “Hey! Anybody home?” When nothing happened, he gave a dirty grin and his mate inclined her neck a little, preserving dignity as she watched his childishness. He shrugged off her reaction and turned back to the wall, knocking again. “I can’t hea—”

Part of the rock inexplicably extended forward and collided with the krinar’s jaw. The psychic and fighting pokémon was thrust backward, stumbling over his feet and colliding with the ground in no time. Rentana watched, shocked, as did Tarla. The latter took longer to realise what was happening after she pulled her head from her wing while preening.

“What just happened?!” demanded the altaria with minor urgency, inspecting the scene briefly before part of the wall dislodged and crashed to the ground in a solid thump. The chunk that had supposedly “punched” the krinar was differently coloured to the rest of the rock; in contrast to an ecru, russet and copper, it was a darker shade of grey. The sight of a moving rock surprised her to the point of confusion before she realised that it was a pokémon—a geodude.

Giving them no time to think, the wall from Derino’s side suddenly caved after muffled roars, and he turned with a surprised grunt to find rock spraying in multiple directions, bouncing off the channel walls and some striking his body. Rentana calculated their range and twirled out the way of each one that managed to reach her, and in their wake was a number of thundering pokémon the colour of the geodude all trampling their way down the path with recklessness that clearly conveyed their rage.

Tarla’s eyes widened instantly and she whipped her head to Etire, her eyes sharp as he watched on.

“What have you done?!”