Normal 1.13: Someday You Will Learn
Pixie
Cold air rushes over you as Avalanche stands. When you whine you’re hardly the only one of your siblings to do so. Your mother ignores you all and trots closer to Aurora. Father. He steps back and reveals a strange creature with white fur and a black horn half-buried in the snow. It doesn’t move. Asleep?
Avalanche growls as she approaches Aurora. They press their heads against each other and sniff before she breaks off to look at the creature. She bends down and sniffs a few times before purring in contentment. Then she opens her jaws, lunges down, and rips her teeth into it. Red liquid stains both the creature and Avalanche’s white fur. The smell strikes you a moment later. It’s… wonderful. Warmth in scent form.
“Blood,” Aurora hisses. “It is life. Yours. Others. We take it to live.”
“Like milk?” Thirdborn mews.
Aurora comes closer as Avalanche continues to violently rip into the creature’s flank. Red comes to stain more than just her snout as she rips and pulls at the creature.
“Milk for adults. Not given. We take it. Take it from the dead.”
“Dead?” you ask. “What’s dead?”
Aurora stares into your eyes. “Someday you will learn.”
He turns around and leaves you, your six siblings, the creature, and your bloodstained mother behind.
*
Avalanche roars and whirls around. You see and feel light move as she shoots a pulse into the darkness. Sharp ice comes back in retaliation. You hear it and duck into the snow and the smell of blood follows you. Yours? No. Not hurt. You dig deeper in defense as the sounds and smells of battle rage above. The snow moves around you as ice shards impale themselves in the snow and your other siblings bury deeper.
The sounds die off. Eventually there is quiet and the deep smell of blood. You hesitantly dig closer to the surface and stick your head out. Avalanche is standing still. You sniffle on accident and she turns around to you. Before you can figure out what to do she presses her snout against yours and sniffs. Apparently satisfied she turns to something else.
Someone else. Fourthborn has an ice shard sticking between her ribs. She’s lying on the ground unmoving in a small puddle of red. Prey. Dead. Fifthborn has a trail of blood leading into her trail but her head surfaces soon after. When she joins you and your siblings on the surface you see that her paw is leaking red.
Avalanche pokes Fourthborn with her snout a few times. No movement. Without a word she picks your brother up in her jaws and walks a few of her body lengths away. There she digs into the snow with her forepaws before depositing your brother, covering him up, and walking back to you. She lies down and looks at Fifthborn before pulling her closer and licking your sister’s paw.
Avalanche never mentions Fourthborn again.
*
Fifthborn’s paw starts to smell. At first it just smells like blood. Later it starts to smell different. More like the dead bodies Avalanche eats. Eventually she can’t walk on it without crying out in pain.
One day she doesn’t wake up. Avalanche buries her near Fourthborn. No one ever mentions Fifthborn again.
*
Your tail splits! Now you’re more like Avalanche and Aurora than you were before. Soon all of your siblings’ tails have split. On the day when both of your tails are equally long, Avalanche howls and Aurora comes to her territory. He has no food with him. Your parents nuzzle each other and then Avalanche brings Aurora to each of you in turn and shows him your tails. When they’re done they both purr in pride and happiness.
Aurora thumps his tails on the ground. “Two-tails! Now you will hunt!”
*
Hunting is boring. You just sit beneath a hole in the rock that you really want to explore but Avalanche says no and she would just pick you up in her mouth if you tried so you don’t. Eventually the sky goes dark. You’re still waiting. Then the sky goes even darker and Avalanche barks and starts spraying cold air upwards. Small winged creatures fall down and Aurora dashes out to intercept and shake all of them in his jaws. By the time the cloud passes the ground is littered with bodies the same size as yours.
Avalanche steps up to one and rips into it. As she chews she makes eye contact with you and gestures towards one of the corpses on the ground. You cautiously approach it and take a few sniffs. There’s heat radiating from it. Very cautiously you sink your teeth into it and feel the warm metallic life flow into your mouth. You close your jaws, pull back, shake, and swallow.
If this is what hunting feels for the predator you can understand why the redcrests took your siblings away.
You drown the thought in another bite and the taste of blood.
*
When your third tail starts to bud Avalanche lets you split up to find prey. The pairs are new every time with Avalanche herself supervising one. Today she’s with you. She keeps one tail wrapped around all of yours. Sometimes she moves a little too fast and you have to run as hard as you can to keep up and sometimes it doesn’t matter because your tails still slip from hers anyway. That gets her attention and she skids to a stop before waiting on you to catch up. When she starts again she goes slow enough that you can match her pace and sometimes accidentally lean into her as you walk. Until she stops and it’s your turn to abruptly break.
Before you can protest she pushes you down into the snow. Redcrests? No. She pushes herself down lower a moment later. She’s either hiding or stalking and the nine-tales don’t hide. Why would they? Her heartbeat’s calm, too. As yours slows in turn you dig a little closer to her and press into her side. She’s projecting more cold than usual. Even inside her fur there’s very little warmth to be had.
She moves. You almost get kicked as she rushes out of the snow and starts blasting light out at something. Her departure kicks up enough snow that you can stand up and sort of watch as she fights a strange floating icicle. The prey blasts out shot after shot of ice but none of it makes a difference to Avalanche; she’s the coldest thing on the entire mountain and nothing can touch her.
Eventually the monster turns to flee. It doesn’t matter. Avalanche takes it out with one well-aimed shot to the back. It slowly collapses piece by piece as gravity comes back to the corpse. When everything’s done there’s a pile of sludge left where the beast’s shadow was. Avalanche sniffs it and then barks to summon you over. When you arrive you realize that there’s no blood. The whole puddle is homogenous: no interesting sights or smells stand out. In your peripheral vision you see Avalanche bend down and lick from the body. You do the same.
It’s not blood. It’s thicker. You can’t taste as many minerals. More like fat than meat. It’s very dense and it tastes very wonderful. You don’t quite have a word for the taste. A little bit like the berries Aurora brought up once from a trip down to the base. Your tongue is too small. You want to lick it up faster. Avalanche’s pace is almost casual compared to your tongue’s rapid strokes. Why? Does she not—
Your head lights up in pain. Attack? No. No blood. Avalanche doesn’t seem worried. As you bury your head in your paws she trots over and picks you up in her mouth. You feel a purr shake through her and into you. Why? She should be much more panicked. You’re her best kit by far.
When you return home she gently sets you down and you shake yourself off. At some point in the trip your headwound faded to something trivial. Was that her spit? Avalanche sets herself (and you) down and tucks her tails into the snow beneath her without answering. “Those are new. Aurora thinks humans brought them.”
You flick a tail out. “Why?” You’ve heard her thoughts on humans. They used to be a nuisance but a tolerable one. Then they started coming more and more frequently.
“They are easy to kill, high in fat, and taste very good. The assembly thinks they are an offering in exchange for their den on the peak.”
Would that justify the den? You haven’t seen it but it’s supposedly very large and they’ve had to bring lots of supply through the mountain to build it. Plus Avalanche thinks that humans do not belong in the presence of the nine-tails because they are smelly and hairless and stupid and gross. She is very smart so she is almost certainly right.
“Worth it?” you ask.
She shakes herself off. “We gave them a trail. If they stick to it we will not destroy them.”
That seems generous and very reasonable. Exactly what you would expect from Avalanche and Aurora and the nine-tails.
*
Firstborn and Seventhborn return before dark. But when Avalanche would usually cover all of you up in her tails and pull you close for the night Secondborn and Thirdborn are nowhere to be seen. Avalanche paces back and forth with increasing fury as the sun sets and the moon rises on the horizon. Eventually she stops, stamps her feet and howls. She resumes pacing until Aurora arrives.
Your parents have a very terse conversation. It’s difficult to make out much of it over the typical mountain wind. When it’s over Aurora sets off in a different direction than he came. Avalanche resumes pacing for much of the night. You try to stay awake. There’s a sense of dread over you and your siblings and you need to know what’s going on. But you’re just a two-tails and at some point you dig a little deeper into the snow and sleep.
*
You wake up to the sound of something very large being dragged through the snow. Once you’re out of your burrow you make out something furry and strange looking (and smelling) staring back at you. There are bloody wounds on its side and one of its arms seems to be entirely gone.
Avalanche is cautiously circling it. “You’re sure?” she asks. Aurora barks with confidence.
With bared teeth Avalanche turns from you and faces the body head on before unleashing the brightest and longest moonblast you’ve ever seen. For a few seconds there’s daylight on the mountain before the light fades and only a charred, bloody, remains. Without a sound Avalanche walks over, lifts a leg, and scent marks it.
Aurora takes the creature away.
“What was that?” Firstborn quietly asks.
“A warning.”
Avalanche walks back to you and your siblings and wraps you up in her tails. Is this it? Are you supposed to sleep now? Where are Secondborn and Thirdborn?
Seventhborn makes your questions known and Avalanche growls before uncurling and going back to pacing in her rut in the snow. “Dead. Avenged.” She stops and glares back at her children before coming forward and sitting down a body length away. After a long, mournful whine to the moon she pauses. When she speaks again it’s in the tone of the ancient stories.
“The Mountain never changes. The Mountain never grows. There will never be more space than there was when I was born. Two nine-tails make a litter. The Mountain never changes. The Mountain never grows. When the nine-tails die they must leave behind one hair each so that there is enough food and space to go around.”
She looks down from the moon and back at you. “There are three of you now. I will allow only one more loss. The Mountain never changes. The Mountain never grows. I may only keep two.”
“What if none of us die?” you ask.
Avalanche shakes her head and sweeps her tails around you before settling down and pressing you into the snow for the remainder of the night.
*
The next morning’s excursion takes you past a snowy cavern. The day before you and your siblings would have walked as close to the edge as you could before Avalanche growled and pulled you back or fear of the yawning chasm finally won out. Today you all cling to the rock wall a few body lengths away, no one daring to put space between them and the firm surface.
It would be very easy to get pushed down here.
Accidents happen, after all.
*
You hear the footfalls and grunts of a strange creature long before you can see it through the storm. Avalanche stands tense with her tails over her children as the sounds gradually become louder. First you can see a strange outline between Avalanche’s tails, a little bit like a redcrest but far larger and without any claws. Most of his body covered in black fur but you can sometimes see dark brown skin underneath.
“Holy shit,” it vocalizes once it sees Avalanche. The two stare at each other for a dozen breaths before Avalanche turns around and gently picks you up in her jaws. She whips a tail at the newcomer as she walks past and the creature belatedly staggers after her. What is he? What is this adventure for? Why did Avalanche choose you?
The storm steadily dissipates and the air grows warmer. At first it’s pleasant like being under Avalanche’s tails. Then it starts to become very warm like blood. Eventually it is painfully warm in a way that you’ve never experienced at all before.
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At this point Avalanche gently sets you down and watches as the strange bipedal creature staggers after her before crashing his hindquarters down on a rock and breathing deeply. “Thanks,” he mutters.
For a few heartbeats Avalanche stares at him in silence. Then she starts trotting back up the mountain, out of the terrible warm. You dutifully follow before she whirls around and growls at you with her teeth bared. You take a step back. What? What is she doing. When she starts moving again you follow with the same result.
The creature slowly stands. “Oh. You, uh, want me to catch it?”
She barks in affirmation and starts bolting up the hill. You start running as a crashing sound echoes behind you but Avalanche turns and shakes her fur. A colorful barrier materializes in front of her and you crash right into it.
“Makuhita, use arm thrust!”
Loud footfalls ring out behind you and you dart to the side while hugging the barrier. You glance behind you and see a large urine-colored creature lumbering after you. He’s slow which buys you precious seconds. Behind the barrier Avalanche makes no further attempts to climb the mountain.
“Why?!” you scream at her. “Help!”
You break away from the barrier to avoid getting cornered between it and a rock. You’re still outpacing the beast but you’re starting to feel warm in your lungs and your fur and everywhere else. You catch a glance of Avalanche and see the dispassionate eyes of a predator staring back.
Oh no.
This is what happens when three vulpix remain.
For a moment you pause in shock. You barely start walking in time to avoid a powerful punch sending up snow and earth behind you. Then you start running again. “Seventhborn is the youngest! Firstborn is a terrible hunter! Leave one of them!” She doesn’t answer. Her eyes don’t change.
Maybe this is a test. Yes, you have a chance to prove your worth by fighting two strange creatures at once and winning (although one doesn’t seem to be doing much at all). You pivot and unleash as much snow as you can while you’re tired and in burning air. It’s too little. After it’s all done the smaller creature just wipes its face off and resumes charging you.
No. You’ll need to weaken him. You turn around and rush the creature. It lunges, you dive, and as you sail past you slap all of your tails against him fast enough that the air cracks. Your eyes widen under the pain of the impact in your tails but you keep going. You have to. There’s no time. With a furious growl you turn around and unleash a barrage of ice at the creature. This time there’s so much less. He doesn’t even flinch.
No.
You see the impact coming but between pain and despair you don’t do anything to block it. Something cracks in your chest and there’s warmth under the skin. Did he rupture something? Do you care? You glance up to Avalanche and give one last mewl pleading for help. For a moment her expression breaks and you see your mother, not a hunter. Then she turns around and slowly starts walking back up as the barrier falls.
No.
The creature descends again. You feel two, three more blows each followed by cracking and warmth in your body but none of it hurts more than what you just saw.
Eventually the attacks stop and the world disappears in bloodstained light.
*
The rainforest is far hotter and wetter than anywhere else you’ve been before and it’s terrible and you hate it but Skysong insists on walking straight into an ambush by a very strong pokémon and you will do what you can to keep her from dying so that she owes you her life and can never abandon you.
You still have the harness on when you, Skysong, and Snowhair walk into a clearing with a small set of platforms in it. Snowhair takes your trainer’s hand and leads her to one of the small ones. “Sit,” she says, and sit Skysong awkwardly does. Then she bends over and unclips your harness before bringing herself upright again.
“It’s fine if you want into your ball, Pix. No fights for a bit.”
You sit down and growl. An ambush predator will strike when she least expects it. It is very important for you to remain visible so that her enemies fear for their lives and stay away.
Snowhair claps her hands. “You ready to begin?”
“Yes,” Skysong replies. Like she’s not only ready to get attacked by a monster but looking forward to it.
“Now, for my trial we…” Snowhair’s eyes go wide and you can hear her say a human anger expression quietly enough that maybe Skysong didn’t catch it. “Uh, you heard of chess?”
“Heard of it, never played.”
Her opponent, the so-called-captain, drums her paw on the platform. “Well, then I can’t expect you to play it from memory. Shoot, should’ve thought of this earlier.”
“We can just say that I won and no one will know the difference?” Skysong suggests in a higher pitch than usual, like she’s appealing for special treatment from her mother. Except Snowhair isn’t her mother. They smell very different from each other and this “captain” is far too young.
“Tempting but no. Wait.” The captain bares her teeth. “I might if you tell me what’s up with Kekoa.”
Skysong moves her shoulders in an act of submission. “He was being a dick. He’s slowly being less of a dick. What exactly do you want to know?”
“A lot,” Snowhair answers before breaking into a laugh. “You might want to withdraw your vulpix. This could take a bit.”
You roar. No! She will not use clever tricks to attack Skysong when she least expects it! You refuse to grant the underhanded monster what she—
*
Where are you?
What is you?
Memories.
What are memor—
*
“Confuse Ray!” Skysong yells. You blink and look around. There’s a giant white human-like thing in the center of the clearing. Looks sick. The dumb mushroom bugs must have done their job and now you will strike the final blow. Just as soon as you can move your eyes. Why are you this slow? Did the pokéball do this? You can feel your head moving and the energy coming but the fluffman is terribly fast and has leaves spread out by his eyes before you can even fire off the attack. Why is it so, so fast?
{Trick room. Also got in a nasty plot boost. Don’t let him hit you.}
Right as you get the message orange orbs appear in front of the fluffman. You desperately run away as fast as your very slow body can take you. Out of the corner of your eye you see the fluffman flinch right before the orbs start to fly. You dive down and put yourself as close to the ground as possible in case they fly high. They don’t. One strikes right behind you and before you can think you’re blasted through the air at normal speed.
“Pixie!” Skysong calls. No. No no no no no no no no no. You can’t fail her and lose without getting a single hit in. With as much willpower as you can muster you pulse a spectral light from your body. Fluffman turns to look at you right as the attack launches. Yes! You remember what Skysong told you and puff up to cool the air. Then with a mighty scream you launch a barrage of icicles straight through fluffman’s stupid leaves. Skysong makes little lightning with her fingers. “Now roar!”
Roar! You can do the roars! The sound takes longer to come but when it does you let as much out as you can to tell the fluffman that you are way scarier than it and honestly it should just run away before it gets eaten. It doesn’t quite work. Fluffman does blink repeatedly and even stumbles over itself and crashes to the ground and you get a wonderful opportunity to pelt it with even more ice shards. You even hit fluffman right in the face as it glares up at you. Then—
Fire. Your head is on fire. No, your mind is on fire. Or broken. Or on fire and broken. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts so much and you want to die or at least curl up into a ball and stay still until—
Skysong screams. You slowly and shakily stand and find her curled up on the ground with her paws squeezing her head and her body curled up.
…
You couldn’t save her.
…
What now?
…
Should you put her down?
…
You don’t want her to slowly die from the rot.
…
Is there even a wound?
…
Matriarch’s going to kill you.
…
Do you let her?
…
The fluffman walks over. For a moment you consider trying to get one last ice shard in its eye to spite it in the end. But your head hurts too much. Just thinking about it breaks you. No. Nothing to do. When your legs give out and you hit the ground your eyes are already closed.
Just get it over with.
No one ever loved you anyway.
And why would they?
You were never good for anything.
The killing blow never comes. At some point Skysong stops screaming but her ragged, harsh breaths and the smell of saltwater tell you that she’s still alive. You open an eye and turn to see the fluffman holding her head in its lap and gently stroking a paw through her hair.
{Who taught you?} he finally asks. You get the message but it’s distorted and echoey. Nothing like absolute clarity of Skysong’s.
Skysong pulls herself up and holds her upper body in the air with her arms. Her breaths are slowing but only barely.
“A.. reuniclus…” she eventually says between breaths. “Sort… of… self… taught.”
The fluffman levitates a berry up to Skysong’s mouth. {Eat it. Good for psychic pain.}
She slowly lifts up a hand and presses the berry into her mouth. It’s a messy process with juice leaking down to the ground and all over her face.
{Inefficient link. Constantly sending signals. Should’ve had a valve.}
“Valve?”
Fluffman sighs. {May I access your powers and show you?}
Skysong half-chokes and half-laughs. “Couldn’t stop you.”
{But may I?}
“Go ahead,” she says before closing her eyes and lowering herself to the ground.
{Is there another pokémon in the link.}
“Yeah,” Skysong mumbles. “Give me a second.”
Loudspore materializes beside you. She seems healthy. Why? You are her strongest team member and should have been trusted to finish the match.
Something tugs at your mind. No, that’s what the first attack felt like this. This time it feels like something is pushing into it. Not like an attack. Sort of like an attack? It’s over very quickly. You blink. The mind pain is gone now. You blink again. What?
“Yeah, I did.” Skysong says to no one. To the fluffman? Why did you stop getting those messages. You inquiry growl and she turns her head a few degrees towards you. “Try to push it into the link, Pix.”
Into the link? To Loudspore. You think “Why are you healthy?” and also think about Loudspore and Skysong.
The former starts chittering and you belatedly get the answer. “…fought yet!”
Oh.
She was the ace Skysong trusted to finish the match.
You see something float through the air in your peripheral vision. A strange glowing stone. Your tails involuntarily tense like you’re in the presence of a ghost.
Fluffman takes the rock and presses it into Skysong’s hand. Your trainer looks up with a startled expression on her face.
“But… I lost. I didn’t earn it.”
The pokémon waves its hand. “Would have if you weren’t interrupted.”
At last she shakily gets to her feet. You stand up and start to trot over when you see her reach for her pokéballs. “Good work, Pix. We’ll talk more later.”
*
“Now, which pokémon did you wish to transfer?” the healer asks.
Skysong reaches down to her belt to fulfill her promise. She takes off one, two, three, four pokéballs and hands them to the healer. “These”
WAIT.
You growl in protest and she glances down on you. {Explain later} enters your mind. No! No! She promised to get rid of all the bugs when the trial was done.
“Alright, we’re all set. Anything else you need from me?”
Skysong shakes her head. “No. Thank you.”
“Congrats on winning your first Z-Crystal,” the nurse says with teeth bared.
“Thank you.” For a moment your trainer. flashes her teeth before turning around and letting her face relax. “Lead me outside, Pix?” Skysong asks/commands. You will so that you can properly berate her without any other humans becoming upset. Once you’re outside she sits down on the steps.
You yip, growl, and roar in rapid succession. She only sighs in response.
“You promised!”
Skysong hangs her head low. “I did.”
“You broke the promise!”
She closes her eyes. “Ce asked to stay with me.”
You thump all of your tails on the ground. “Unacceptable!” You thump them again. “How dare you?!”
Her expression hardens. “Pix, I promised you that there would be no more friends if the trial went well. It didn’t.”
You glare at her and keep hissing. No. She’s going to replace you imminently. Fine. You’ll spite her back. See how the oath breaker likes it. Now, what revenge will you take? Obviously you’ll kill Loudspore. Maybe pee in Skysong’s mouth? It worked for Hummy.
Skysong sighs and reaches for her belt. “Don’t kill her,” she mutters right before Loudspore appears.
You turn and roar at her and she reflexively skitters back and protects her head with her pincers. {W-what did I do?}
“I’m sorry,” Skysong says. “I told you that I’d keep you if Pixie approved. She doesn’t.”
Loudspore lowers a claw and chitters nervously. {Please?} She finally asks. {I like her. I like you. I want to stay.}
You growl as deeply as you can before shouting {No!} with the link open. She cannot stay. That brings Skysong to two pokémon. Two is far too close to three. And when Skysong has to leave someone behind she’ll leave you.
Just like everyone else.
“I’m not going to replace you,” Skysong lies. “Ce is very good at capturing things and she’s very upbeat and makes me smile. You are more challenging.” You growl. You are not challenging. You are a very well-behaved fox. She just waves a paw. “In a good way. You keep me on my toes. And you’re very cute and soft and a great guide fox. I can’t replace one of you with the other. That’s not how it works.”
That is exactly how it works. It’s how it’s always worked and how it will always work.
Skysong lowers her gaze. “I’m sorry,” she whispers. As she should be. Breaking promises. “I’m sorry, Ce, but I told Pix this would be temporary. If she doesn’t want to change…”
You bark despite not being sure exactly where this is going. You want the bug gone.
“…then I’ll still do my best to get you a new trainer. But I can’t let you stay.”
Loudspore doesn’t say anything for a long time. At last she shoots you a final wary look and walks over to Skysong’s leg. She wraps her pincers around your trainer’s ankles and receives gentle strokes between her mushrooms in return. Is this it? Did you win?
No one answers you for long enough that outside becomes unbearably warm. At last Skysong stands up and withdraws Loudspore.
“I hope you’re happy.”
You are.
*
Skysong swallows for no apparent reason. “And in the meantime she likes moist, dark places. And scratches between the mushrooms. And pop music. She loves her moss mixes but she thinks fallen leaves and cattails are almost as good.”
The man on the screen nods sympathetically but he’s been steadily less sympathetic as the conversation has worn on.
“We know,” he says. “We’ve cared for a lot of paras.”
“You’ll get her a new trainer as soon as you can, right?” Skysong asks even though you’re pretty sure that she’s asked it at least once before.
“Yes,” the man responds. “We will.”
Skysong lowers her head and her icky grass-colored hair falls in her face. “Okay,” she finally whispers-cries. “I’ll send the ball over.”
There’s some awkward fumbling but eventually the ball disappears in a flash of red. Did you do it? Is she finally gone?
Skysong shuts off the monitor while the man is still speaking and walks away. You press against her leg and she gently pushes you away before walking on.
*
You trail behind Bloodrage and Skysong, periodically stopping to scent mark something so you can help lead them out later. You aren’t talking to Skysong and she isn’t talking to you. The forest is a little bit cooler at night, even if the air feels altogether too much like rain. Ugh. Your fur gets weighed down when it is wet and you look smaller and less intimidating and it is absolutely terrible. Just like the rest of your day.
“Genesis said you have a headache,” Bloodrage says.
“Already gone.”
Several more steps are taken. Bloodrage flicks on a lightbeam to compensate for the darkening sky.
“You want to talk about the trial?” he asks.
“No.”
The only sounds are those of the forest. Rustling trees, bigbeak songs, and the cries of dozens of pokémon you don’t recognize. You feel a drop of water hit your tails. Clearly a fluke. You feel another. Just a shaking tree. A big droplet hits you right on the nose. You growl in frustration. You are far too lovely and powerful and important to stand in the rain!
Bloodrage abruptly holds out an arm and Skysong walks right into it. Then he takes off running with a sharp whistle. His bigbeak soars down from the trees to join him.
“Kekoa, wait!” Skysong shouts before lifting her white stick and running after him. You take off in response. She moves rather well for being blind, even though there are a lot of tree roots on the—you see it happen but you’re powerless to stop it. Her paw finally hit one of the roots and for a moment she stops entirely. Then her body keeps flying forward while her paw is stuck behind the root.
She hits the ground with a thud and stays down.
Bloodrage is still off ahead. You can hear him give commands and hear something else retaliate with bursts of something. You sit down and try to lick some of the water out of your fur. Skysong can take care of herself.
She doesn’t move but she’s still breathing. Crying even.
Should you help? She did betray you. But if you help her now she might realize how valuable you are and kick out Loudspore for good. Worth the risk. You steadily plod over and gently extend a paw to her back.
She screams with intensity and anger you’ve never heard from her before. She tells a crocodile (?) in the earth (?) exactly what procreative acts he needs to perform. Some involve defecation.
Human reproduction is very disturbing.
Bloodrage arrives around the time that Skysong’s scream breaks into rapid, shallow breaths and occasional gasps and moans. Her eyes are overflowing with saltwater. Did you cause this? You step back. Best not to test your luck now.
“What happened?” Bloodrage asks. He doesn’t receive an answer beyond an explosion of mucus from her nose and an absent-minded paw movement to wipe it off. Ew.
She slowly calms down with progressively deeper and less frequent breaths. Then she’s quiet for several heartbeats. “I tripped,” she finally answers.
“Can you walk?” Bloodrage asks as he crouches down.
“Yes.” She sniffles. “Not too bad. Just.”
“Let me help.” Bloodrage locks paws with Skysong and slowly pulls her up. For a moment she keeps one foot held above the ground while leaning into Bloodrage before she slowly lowers it and winces. “Hey, it’s—”
“I can walk on it,” Skysong replies in a dull, low voice.
For a second it looks like Bloodrage is going to argue with your idiot liar trainer before he just sighs and starts moving forward. You take the lead and track the familiar scents back out of the forest.