From the Ashes

[LKWayvern]

Chapter 7

After dinner Eric, Koray, and Gadzooks were taken to their sleeping quarters. Apparently, the male members slept in one room while the female members slept in another. There were roughly fifteen hammocks in the room, and yet Eric, Koray, and Gadzooks had it all to themselves.
(RL) The three Pokemon lay on their hammocks, staring up at the grassy ceiling. There was light in the room, from the softly glowing mushrooms in all the corners shining just brightly enough to see but not bright enough to make it difficult to fall asleep. It was like a mushroom nightlight.
There were a few moments of silence. Then Eric heard Gadzooks ask “Tell us a bedtime story, Eric.”
Eric blinked slowly. “I don’t know any bedtime stories. The Rahzyne Clan… They told us old legends of war heroes, hoping that someday we would become as honored as they.”
“Then tell us one of those,” Gadzooks pleaded.
Eric closed his eyes, casting his memory back. “It used to be that Pokemon and humans lived on multiple different regions together,” he recited. “Humans became trainers and roamed the land with their chosen teams of Pokemon. However, certain Pokemon were forced to be with cruel trainers, or unwillingly torn away from their families. Many Pokemon disliked this, and demanded that the humans give them their own region to be free on, and forget humans.”
Eric inhaled for a moment, trying to remember what happened next in the tale. “The humans gave the Pokemon the region of Utopia, and promised they would never set foot there. The Pokemon split into their respective clans, and lived in a golden age for many years. But then the humans broke their promise and returned. They started by capturing a few Pokemon that wandered off, but then one group found the Grafiz Clan, which was made up of Linoone and Zigzagoon. The Clan was destroyed. Adults were captured and sold to rich and powerful trainers, children were given out to young children and elderly adults as pets, and eggs were given to beginning trainers so that the young Zigzagoon would imprint on the trainer, and obey their commands faithfully, no matter what it was. The humans attacked several other Clans, before they found the Rahzyne Clan. The fearless Scyther of the Rahzyne Clan, led by their leader Katsuko, massacred the humans, and ever since that day they honored their promise and never again set foot in the Utopia Region.”
“Our Mama told us that story,” Koray spoke up. “But she said that an elderly Espeon telepathically conveyed her feelings of sorrow and betrayal to the humans, and the humans, feeling guilty, then left and never came back.”
Eric nodded. “What was your clan like?” he asked.
Koray bit his lip. “Our Clan was called the Muli Clan. You saw our village, right? Auntie Rosie said she found you near the buildings area. You saw how diverse it was. How many different homes and dens, each created specially for a specific Eeveeloution. There were also the most abundant farms, and these beautiful gardens that I swear rival Vibrant Meadow’s… And the Muli Clan, we were one of the better ones. We had many allies among other Clans, and often traded with them. We were intelligent, and no one in our living memory had ever went to war with another Clan…”
“The Rahzyne Clan was very different,” Eric admitted. “Our scythes weren’t very good tools for building, so we were a rather primitive clan. What we couldn’t create we attacked other clans and stole from them. We were not well liked among the Clans… My allies, they attacked before they fully thought out their actions. I hated that way of thinking, I wanted to change it… But the only way I could was by becoming leader…”
“Maybe if you rescue your clanmates, they’ll promote you to leader,” Koray suggested.
It took him several long moments for him to realize that both his brother and his ally had fallen fast asleep, their dreams filled with humans and bloody scythes and ashes.
Ashes.
Ashes…