The morning brought with it the fact that the absol hadn’t yet left. She sat at the edge of our camp, which was perched in a small alcove that extended back into the mountainside, staring out over the valley beyond. I wondered if she was cold during the nights, which were well below freezing at this altitude, but she seemed not to mind the cold. Without a Fire type to warm her, though, I doubted that it was very comfortable.
Without the current crisis being an immediately pressing issue, Devi was perfectly capable of preparing a meal for our odd little group, as was his habit. With the cold mountain air, made colder by the lingering remnants of the previous night and the snow scattered everywhere, a warm meal was practically heavenly. The blessing of hot food in my stomach, warming me from the inside out and fighting off the chill, made me especially appreciative of both Devi and of Blake’s backpack’s storage capabilities. I doubted that I could’ve carried any of the food that Devi cooked, not for this long and not without spoiling. In my head, I underlined the idea of purchasing a backpack like that for myself, as if it needed any more reason.
Blake was the first to speak, setting aside the plate that he’d been eating off of to be washed later.
“So, how do we go about this?” He asked. “Shockingly, I’ve never been part of something like this before.”
Kevan nodded. “Yeah, even I’ve only done it once or twice myself outside of training. If we were doing these things the normal way, we’d put in a call to the Ranger group responsible for this section of the mountain range, and then we’d wait while they dispatched scouts. Once they felt out the situation, they’d call in the equipment and Pokemon to get it done.”
“Alriiiight.” I said, dragging out the word a little. “I sense that we’re not doing things that way.”
Kevan shook his head. “I already called this in. Reception’s spotty, this far into the mountains, but I was able to get a link. The Ranger team that would normally handle this area is currently to the north of Coronet, fighting a blizzard whipped up by a number of agitated Pokemon and attempting to prevent it from building up enough snow to start raining avalanches all over that section of the range. Even if they were to calm the Pokemon and clear the buildups immediately, which they won’t be able to, then they’re about a week on Pokemon back from us at best speed.”
Arcanine made a noise that was somewhere between exasperation and concern. Devi nudged his shoulder with an elbow, the cinderace looking sympathetic. Without that team, most of the responsibility would fall on the two of them, with Ajax speaking for much of what was left. Still, they didn’t seem any less determined to get it done.
“So, I’d assume that waiting that week isn’t an option?” Blake asked. Kevan simply shook his head again.
“No. Regardless of the inherent danger of attempting to cross the pass with that sword hanging over our heads, we were led to this by an absol.” He gave a nod to the Pokemon in question, who returned it. “I might not know much about absols, in a general sort of sense, but any Ranger knows that something an absol leads you to is your new top priority.”
“Organizational policy?” I asked, curious. He shrugged.
“More… common sense.”
“Understandable.” I hummed. “So, what do we do, then?” I asked, handing a pot of snow to Ajax, who began breathing a stream of warm air over it.
“I sent Pidgeotto out. She’s trained for this, scouting out potential disasters in the waiting like this. She’ll feel out the rough edges of it, how big it is, give a guess as to how much snow is packed into it. Once we have a better idea of what we’re dealing with, how much snow there is, then we can make more accurate plans.”
Devi flicked his paws out, drawing our attention. When he was sure he had it, he held up a paw, heat flaring to life around it as he gave Kevan a questioning look.
“Maybe. If there’s too much snow, you might not be able to melt it before it gets you, even with you and Arcanine together. You can generate a lot of heat, but you have to remember that physics is king, here. A combination of momentum and your ability to actually move enough thermal energy into the snow to melt or vaporize it is what we should be thinking about.”
The amount of BTU’s to melt that much snow was… a lot. I didn’t need to do any back of the napkin math to figure that out. The amount of BTU’s needed to deal with that much snow nearly instantly? Given our imperfect at best way of actually getting that energy into the snow, especially given that it might be moving at high speed when we tried? Yeah, I could absolutely see how that might go sideways. Would be more surprising if it didn’t, to be honest.
“Setting off the avalanche and putting the Fire types in its path might not be the best choice.” I mused. Kevan motioned for me to continue. “Honestly, we’ll have actual professional Ranger teams through here, and the Route will probably be closed until then. Who says we have to deal with it at all? Why not just set it off, make sure that the trap’s disarmed, then just move on? We don’t need the Route clear to move past it.”
“Hm.” Kevan tilted his head one way, then the other, clearly thinking. “I don’t think there’s any reason we can’t do it that way, so long as we make sure Ranger HQ has logged that we purposefully blocked the pass with all that snow to prevent it coming down on somebody.”
“So we leave it to the professionals otherwise.” Blake pushed himself to his feet, clapping the dust off his hands and nodding. “I don’t have any issues with that. I’d rather somebody who actually knew what they were doing handled it.”
“Well, whatever happens, I’ll touch base with Ranger HQ first, when I toss my summary of the situation their way. Who knows, maybe they’ll have come up with a better plan in the time that we’ve given them.”
“In the meantime,” I said, “I think we’ll fill in the time with some training. A little more practice might be handy, if we need just a little more technique refinement for whatever our plan ends up being- don’t you think, Ajax?”
The houndour nodded, standing a little straighter. I could tell that he was thinking about the efforts that he’d dedicated towards the dam project, and how much his training up to that point had played into what he’d been able to do and how quickly he was able to do it. The glances that he kept sending back in the direction we’d come, and towards Devi, told me that much. Every bit of practice we’d done between leaving Hearthome and arriving at the dam itself had been vital to his performance, and this would be no different.
“I’ll start going over what digital and paper maps we have with Devi. Ajax can train with Arcanine.” Blake turned to Devi. “I need your paws and eyes, see if we can’t map a way around the valley itself.”
They shuffled off towards their tent. I nodded to Jive, who grinned and nodded back, before taking Drake aside. Ajax followed Arcanine off, away from the camp and to the south, where the sound from anything they did was less likely to bounce unfortunately and set something off. Mika and Noble, lacking anything else to do until Pidgeotto came back from her scouting mission, started one of their little games among the rocks that we were surrounded by.
“Be careful, you two.” I said after them, trying not to call out the words. They barely spared me a nod before vanishing.
“I’m going to try and get a little higher, see if I can get a clearer reception.” Kevan said, waving his nav.
“Stick close to Drake and Jive, alright?” I said, a flicker of nervousness in my tone. “I know you’re a pro and all, but I read enough horror stories about hikers just vanishing the moment they were alone for even a brief time to be nervous.”
“Hey, don’t worry, I’ve got it.”
He gave me a casual two-fingered salute, then wandered off up the slope, in the general direction that Drake and Jive had gone. With everybody else gone, that left only the absol and me in the campsite.
Now alone with her, I could focus a little more on her general condition, and I could see things that I missed at a distance. For example, the way she blinked, and the way that her jaw tensed in an aborted yawn. She wasn’t just dirty and somewhat battered, she was tired, and I had to wonder how much she was running herself ragged in the background. With the sheer amount of different crisis events of varying severity happening all around, and given the distance she’d crossed on her own to get here… well, I wasn’t surprised. It was easy to see that she’d been pushing herself hard, nearly non-stop, practically since I’d first seen her. It wasn’t surprising that she was exhausted, it was surprising that she was cognizant and on her paws.
“Hey.” She blinked and turned towards me, and the exhaustion that had shown through the cracks of her regal countenance vanished. “You know, you can’t fool me.”
She raised a single eyebrow. It was easy to get the drift of that expression: ‘whatever do you mean?’ Unfortunately for her, she was too tired to really hide her condition as well as she obviously thought she was.
“Yeah, you’re definitely not fooling anyone. You’re exhausted.”
The absol let out an indignant huff at that. What an accusation! The audacity! Clearly, from the look she gave me, she was directly implying that I was delusional for seeing something that wasn’t there. This alleged tiredness that she was supposedly suffering from was entirely constructed of lies and slander. It was a complicated series of expressions. Specifically, it was a complicated series of expressions that lasted until I enacted a brilliant tactic: that is, I faked a yawn. Caught off-guard, she immediately yawned, and then swapped right to looking mortified as I grinned at her.
“See? Caught you.” She gave me a look of betrayal. “Don’t be like that. You’re no less mortal than the rest of us. When’s the last time you had a good sleep? A day? Two?” She flinched at the latter. “Two days, fucking hell. Look, I know that you don’t want to look weak in front of us, and you’ve got your own reasons for it, whatever they are. But my tent’s right over there, I’ve got a foam mattress down and my sleeping bag on top of that. I don’t think we’re going to need you for a little while, at least until we figure out what we’re going to do about this entire situation. Go, sleep for a while.”
I could see her waver for a second, caught in between her desire to look strong in front of me, my team, and the other Pokemon and humans present, and her obvious lack of sleep. The debate raged back and forth internally, before she finally dipped her head with a sigh. She pushed herself to her feet and meandered in the direction of my tent, sending me a look that was part indignation that I’d put her in this position, and part a plea for me to open the zipper. I simply smiled, getting up.
“Hey, don’t worry about it. I’ll make sure you’re not disturbed.”
Her expression softened to one more thankful than anything. I gripped the little tab of the zipper, running it around the door and opening it for her to leap into the tent, attempting to preserve her dignity in every movement.
“I’ll be right out here. Make some noise if you want me to work the zipper and let you out again, alright?”
She nodded, bedding down among the crumpled mess that was the sleeping bag, set atop the blue foam mattress that rolled up a little at the ends. I could see that she was already fading the moment she set her head down on the soft material, and so I sealed the zipper and quietly padded away, settling into my seat next to the firepit to think.
I couldn’t see there being any resounding issues from what we were doing. With the rougher Routes over Coronet closed from practically every angle, there was no way that there’d be any humans anywhere nearby. It would be wise to make a scouting run anyway between Noble and Pidgeotto, just to make sure, but I didn’t think that it would find anything. I was almost certain that there weren’t any people within fifty kilometers of us.
The issue, then, would be the local Pokemon. There were no doubt inhabitants down in the pass, Pokemon that set themselves up with dens and nests and such that would be in the path of the avalanche as it came down. For obvious reasons, we’d have to warn them, give them time to get themselves out of the way. Thinking about it now, I couldn’t help but wince at the potential damage that we’d be doing to the local Pokemon ecology, but I supposed that it was better than them being suddenly buried under hundreds of tons of high-speed snow with no warning. We just had to figure out how to express that to them, and get them out of the way.
Just like when we’d sent for local Pokemon to help us with the dam, I was pretty sure that our best choice for the job was the absol. They were fast, they were agile, they had credit merely by their status as an absol, and given the usual habitats of absols, I had little doubt that they knew how to navigate a mountain pretty effectively. Hell, there was a chance that she’d come from this rough area, which would explain why she’d followed us so effectively without using the Route.
Still, those were all questions and things to do that would have to wait until the absol was properly rested, and until everyone was back. With information and a report back to the Ranger HQ, we’d have a much better picture of what we’d need to do and the area that we’d need to clear. We could decide how to progress from there.
With that done, I suddenly and quite strangely found myself bereft of things to actually do, save simply twiddling my thumbs and waiting. Between training, traveling, the people and Pokemon I was surrounded with, and the dam, I’d had something to keep me occupied for the entirety of the trip. Even when we’d settled for some downtime on the shore of the lake, I’d had plenty to occupy me.
Here, however, I found myself on a mountainside. I’d had at least some reception on my nav the entire way, but now what I had left was slow and spotty. There wasn’t anything in particular around to distract me, draw my attention, except for the view. It was… peaceful, a moment of solitude that I hadn’t gotten in some time.
I settled near the edge of camp, looking out towards the east. The green of the valley far below my feet, with the ribbon of blue snaking through it that was the river. I could trace the water up the mountain, to the larger body that was held back by the dam, still intact. I could even see the Route, where it ducked out of the trees and rocks and came into the open. Far, far in the distance, I thought I could even see a bit of a shimmer and a little gray, the tiniest hint of Hearthome.
My mind wandered as I sat there, staring outwards, waiting. A memory in mind, the idea that meditation was the act of gently bringing one’s thoughts back to a state of restful neutrality, or something of the sort. The idea that the mind would try to stay active, because it was used to being so, and meditation was convincing it to sit down and not engage with anything in particular. To be clear.
I’d tried meditation before, but it was always a spur of the moment decision, and it hadn’t ever really gone anywhere. I just struggled with sitting still for that long, and there was always something to pull my attention away. Here, however, I felt was a perfect opportunity to try it, if only because there wasn’t anything else for me to do right now. I folded my hands in my lap, breathing in and out through my nose, trying to clear my mind.
I felt a duty to be more patient, more attentive. It was my responsibility, like training and fighting was Drake and Ajax’s, and I wouldn’t fail them at that. I had a feeling that the ability to clear my mind reliably might help with that. And, after all, I didn’t lose anything from practising.
----------------------------------------
By the time Pidgeotto had returned, a number of the people and Pokemon had filed back into camp, reaching a stage of whatever they were doing and trickling back. Kevan had reported back to the Rangers, and had relayed our plan to simply start the avalanche and let it play out without interference. Without professionals to deal with the event or properly carry out the process themselves, they’d reluctantly agreed that it was most likely the best option. They did note, however, that we should search out and evacuate any Pokemon from the avalanche’s path first.
Blake had exited his own tent with a sigh, Devi directly in tow, and I’d heard the popping of his joints from where I sat when he stretched. In a quiet conversation with them, thinking of the absol sleeping in my own tent, I’d hashed out that they’d found a sort of detour that led over the mountains, higher up the pass from the 208, which went around where the avalanche was. We’d come down on the other side of the three-way meeting of the 207, 208, and 211, meeting up with the former. From there, straight shot to Oreburgh.
It was little-used and definitely somewhat worn, but it was a path all the same, and I was glad to have a route around. If we did what we were intending to do, which looked more likely the more time passed, then I definitely didn’t want to attempt to cross over the mound of snow the avalanche would leave behind. A safer route, with snow that we could clear from it with just the attentions of one of our Fire types, was the perfect solution to the problem.
When Ajax and Arcanine returned from their own training, I enlisted my houndour’s help to restart the fire in the firepit, putting on a pot of broth to heat in deference to the cold mountain air. Having something warm to sip at, with the frost all around us, was practically heavenly, and I reveled in the feeling of warm liquid against my fingers and the heat of the fire. Frostbite and hypothermia might be things we had to worry about until we came down the other side of Coronet, though the presence of three different Fire types made it a lot less likely.
It was during this time, when we were sipping at our individual cups of broth and speaking amongst ourselves in low tones, that my head was turned by a ruffle of feathers. Pidgeotto, as a result of being a giant bird that could, and had, easily carried Kevan on her back, wasn’t particularly stealthy. Still, she managed to land right at the edge of our little circle of humans and Pokemon without a moment’s hesitation.
“Ah! There you are, I was getting worried!” Kevan smiled at her, and, though she attempted to keep up a facade of stoicism, I saw the slightly softer look that she gave her trainer. “Okay, now, down to business. How much snow are we looking at?”
Pidgeotto tapped her talons on the stone four times, hesitated, then a fifth. Kevan grimaced, and met my eyes as I looked at him curiously.
“Size four. Maybe five. Means that there’s maybe a couple thousand tonnes of snow out there on the mountainside, all ready to come down on the valley below, and that it’s most likely going to make it all the way there. Probably not enough material anchoring it on the mountainside to really stop or slow it, either.”
“So, we’re talking about something like a tidal wave of snow slamming into the bottom of the valley.” I said. Kevan nodded.
“Something like that. It’s going to be a lot of snow with a lot of momentum and weight going very fast. Not so much of a problem for us, as long as we’re above or far enough to the side that we’ll be out of any area of snow that might collapse, though if it’s a four to five, I’m worried about it destabilizing part of the mountainside as it goes.”
“So, we’re definitely going to have to evacuate the pass, then. Not that we weren’t going to before, but this means that anything that’s down there when it all goes off is going to be flattened.” Blake said, setting his chin on his hands and staring into the fire.
“Precisely.” Kevan nodded again. “We’re going to need to scout the actual avalanche, get an idea of where it’s probably going to flow- I can do that, riding on Pidgeotto, take some pictures with my nav while I’m up there. It’ll give us a much better idea of what we’re looking at in terms of damage.”
I thought I was seeing where he was going with this. “And, while you’re out there and scouting out the limits of it, we can spread out in the pass and seek out the local Pokemon communities, right?”
“Yeah, that’s what I was going to say.” He nodded towards my tent, where the absol was still conked out. “It doesn’t sound like she’ll be up for a while yet, so I’d like one of the Pokemon to stick around the campsite and wait for her to wake up.”
Jive and Devi both nodded, then turned to each other, having a quick little conversation between themselves filled with gesturing. Finally, Devi reluctantly nodded and leaned backwards, raising a paw.
“That works.” Blake said. “I think we should do this in teams of two. With Devi here in the camp, and Kevan out with Pidgeotto, that leaves eight of us, which works out perfectly.”
I snorted gently. “Yeah, I can already see how that’s going to play out without even asking. Mika and Noble, of course, and then Jive and you. Arcanine and Ajax, and then Drake and me.”
“Actually, I was thinking that Arcanine takes Drake, and you take Ajax. I want a Fire type with you, one that can pull you out of a situation if one happens. You might’ve read some books about mountain hiking, but you have absolutely zero experience with it: I really don’t want you on your own.”
I straightened a bit, a frown crossing my face. That was a little unfair of him to say: certainly, I wasn’t the most experienced mountaineer, but I wasn’t a novice. I’d gone hiking and climbing in a number of different high-altitude environments over the years, and I knew enough and had enough experience that I wasn’t completely useless.
“Don’t take that expression with me. You’re a damn amnesiac. You, by definition, have zero experience with practically anything.”
Oh. I deflated slightly with a wince, thinking about that, as Drake gave me an amused look and Ajax a somewhat awkward one. Yeah, with that basic assumption, I could easily see where they were coming from. The ultimate resolution that they weren’t going to let the completely knowledgeless amnesiac wander around in a harsh and dangerous environment on their own, without a Pokemon capable of pulling them out of trouble… yeah, alright, I saw what they were getting at. It stung a little, being treated as somebody with absolutely no idea what they were doing, but I kept my mouth shut and simply nodded.
“Good. Everybody know what they’re going to do?” Kevan asked.
Devi saluted, dutiful and already focused on his responsibility of looking over the camp, and potentially letting the still-sleeping absol out of the tent if she should wake from her exhaustion coma before we came back. Jive sent a much sloppier and less careful salute, but I could see the serious nod that he exchanged with Devi, which belied it. Everyone else nodded, Mika and Noble obviously eager to set out, though Drake kept casting me somewhat nervous glances. Yeah, I could easily tell that he wasn’t happy about leaving me without him in a potentially dangerous place. Him stepping a little ways away from me to train was a far cry from letting me wander a potential avalanche zone with the less experienced Ajax.
“Hey.”
I shuffled closer to him as the others paired up, Blake going for what maps they had of the pass below in an effort to organize the effort. Drake gave me a look that conflicted with his usual stoicism, some amount of anxiety and concern flickering behind his red irises. I gave him a small smile, weaving my fingers with the fur of his scruff.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Don’t worry like that. I’ll be fine, you’ll be fine, we’re not going to do anything risky. We’re just going to go find the Pokemon and warn them about the avalanche, get them moving, nothing more than that. I’m sure they’ll be plenty understanding once we communicate what’s hanging over their heads, if they haven’t noticed it already themselves.”
He let out a small growl, pawing at the dirt underneath him. He wasn’t a fan of being apart from me in the slightest. I could see a bit of that lingering paranoia from the dam, a reflection of when he’d struggled to protect me, had only managed because the cavalry was already on its way. I drew my mouth into a tighter line, finding it unpleasant to see him still affected by that. I crouched down in front of him, mouth settling into a softer smile.
“Remember, we left that ghost behind us, still contained in that ball. We double checked before we left. There’s nothing out there that’s gunning for me, just a lot of innocent Pokemon that are going to be in trouble if we don’t do what we can to get them out of the way. Ajax will be with me, for the express reason that he can pull me out of any situations that I can’t get out of myself… and, anyway, he might lack experience, but that’s what I’m there for.”
His expression softened in return. Another one of those moments where he really didn’t like what was happening and clearly wanted it to occur differently, in a way that satisfied his worries, but understood why it couldn’t. Still, this time he didn’t argue: he’d apparently learned well enough that I wasn’t going to change my mind once it was set on something like this.
“No worries, we’ll be alright. Go join Arcanine, we have to get moving. The quicker we go down there and get this done, the quicker we can get the Pokemon out of the pass, and the quicker we’re out of the avalanche zone. Stalling just means we might have to spend more time down there.”
Reluctantly, he nodded, then gently wrapped his mouth around my hand, holding it there with his teeth. He didn’t press them into me, just let me feel them resting against my skin. I drew him close and gave him a hug, stroking his back. I understood why he didn’t want to be separated from me, and I had little doubt that he’d stick to me like superglue once this particular task was over, regardless of how well it went. I remembered the poochyena sitting in the windowsill: I wouldn’t do that to him.
That done, he disengaged from me, though he took his time going about it. Still, eventually, we were all grouped into our little pairs, and ready to make the trek into the pass below. Kevan exchanged a few last words with Blake that I couldn’t quite hear from where I was, muttered underneath their breath to avoid making more noise than necessary. The Ranger then mounted Pidgeotto, climbing up into a saddle strapped to her back, settling himself into place and strapping himself into it. The moment he was done, the Flying type raised her wings- and then was gone, with a flurry of snow being the only marking of her departure.
Ajax stepped up to my side, nuzzling my leg and giving me a canine-ish smile when I ran my fingers across the bone plate on his head. Blake was the first to leave, moving down the mountain trail as fast as he dared, with Mika and Noble on his heels. We’d split the pass into four columns, centering on the 208, with Mika and Noble taking the one closest to the snowpack- the fastest of all of us, they’d be able to get out of the way in time if the avalanche came down while we were still walking the pass.
The next column over was Arcanine and Drake, for the reason that they could easily melt their way out of the snowpack together even if they were buried by it. Then came Jive and Blake, and, finally, Ajax and I in the fourth column, the farthest from the potential avalanche. Based on its size and speed, it might not even reach the far side of the pass, but it was better safe than sorry.
As we trekked downwards towards the base of the pass, what noise and conversations we were making among ourselves petered out. There was a tension in the air, an awareness, and every time we looked left and saw the rise of snow that hung off of the mountainside, we tensed. Far in the distance, I could see the tiny dot that was Kevan and Pidgeotto, circling the mass of snow and taking their pictures. From here, I could just make out the beat of the Flying type’s wings, but nothing else.
Mika and Noble split off first, the corvisquire rising into the sky to get a good look at the ground from a higher altitude. Down here, unlike farther up the mountain, there was a light forest of pine trees covering the entirety of the pass and working their way somewhat up the mountainsides. I reflected that having more Flying types would make this go much faster, but without any more of them to work with…
We’d set GPS markers, denoting the column-like zones that each of us was searching in. That didn’t mean much for the Pokemon in the first and second columns, but it did mean that we could get them where they needed to be at the start. The more systematic we were about this, the easier and quicker it would be to finish. Ideally, we’d get to all the Pokemon in the pass today, have them evacuated by tomorrow, and trigger the avalanche on the third day before moving on. I was glad that there wasn’t any time restriction or reason to rush that we were working under, or this would be a lot more difficult and stressful.
We reached the split off for Arcanine and Drake next, denoted by a map marker that we’d dropped. I could tell in a moment that Drake was extremely reluctant to leave me; not that I even needed to look at his expression to tell that. Still, it was obvious to everyone by the way that he kept glancing in my direction, puttering about and casting gazes at our surroundings. He wasn’t trying to stall, but he really didn’t want to leave without me at his side. There wasn’t any impatience about this: Blake, Jive, and Arcanine obviously understood the sentiment, going from the expressions on their faces. I’d seen how insistently Devi and Jive had been about at least one of them sticking to their trainer’s side at all times, and Jive certainly wasn’t going to be irritated by another Pokemon feeling much the same way about their partner.
Finally, I stepped forwards. Drake heard my movement in an instant, his ears flicking, but he didn’t turn to look at me. I had a flash of memory of my dog, who had at some point gotten it in her head that, as long as she didn’t look at you, you couldn’t tell her no. There was a spike of… something at that memory, but I pushed it aside, focusing on Drake. My partner needed me, right now. I knelt down next to him, and, finally, clearly reluctant, he looked at me.
“I know, mate. I get it. I don’t want to be separated from you, either. But needs must. You know that Blake and Kevan have the best idea of how to go about this of any of us, and if they say that this is the way that they want to play things… Well, there’s something to that. We have to listen and follow what they say, because there’s a lot of Pokemon out there that might not even know about what’s hanging over their heads.” He growled, softly, clearly unhappy about it. I gave him a gentle smile. “I know, I know. But you and I both know that the best thing we can do is listen to those with more experience, and they’re saying that this is the best way to go about it.”
Drake made a few small noises, hesitant and unwilling to really accept the idea, but I knew he was far too practical and far too smart to just dismiss the plan. Finally, he sighed, his shoulders slumping. His eyes found my face, and he gave a nod, clearly unhappy about things but willing to play along.
“I’ll see you later today, alright? And all of us are going to be fine.” I stroked the side of his neck, the little hyena leaning into the contact with conflict written all over his expression. “We’ll see what Pokemon there are, start warning them, and then we’ll see eachother back at camp once we’re done. Okay?”
Ajax approached, licking the poochyena on the side of his head, and giving him a solemn look. A promise, from partner to partner, that he’d do whatever he needed to to keep me safe, to act as Drake’s stand in for when he couldn’t be there. Drake sat for a moment, that conflict playing out behind his eyes, before he let out a long sigh and nodded. I pushed myself to my feet, Drake turning away from me and marching over to Arcanine. He sent one last look back towards me over my shoulder, and I replied with a wave and a smile. They both turned towards the forest of pine trees in front of them, dusted with frost and snow, and in a moment they were gone. The only thing that was left of their passing was a series of pawprints, Drake's simple impressions left in the snow, while Arcanine had melted holes in the ice, revealing the dirt and plants below it.
I stared after them. I never liked being apart from Drake, but I could mostly stomach it, given that we weren’t too far away from each other. This time, though, we’d be far apart, practically on opposite sides of the pass. I didn’t want to admit it, show it in front of him, but I was worried about it. Did no good to show him that, when he was already having trouble with it himself. At least I could draw some comfort from the warm presence of Ajax. I jumped slightly when Blake’s hand squeezed my shoulder.
“Like you said, it’ll be alright. We’ll finish this, as quickly as we can, and be back at the camp before sunset. So, let’s get a move on.”
“Yeah.” I said, quietly, sending one more glance in the direction that Drake and Arcanine had gone, before turning away and walking in the direction we needed to go.
We crossed the gap in the pine trees that was formed by the 208, the expanse kept somewhat clear of snow. Clearly, the local Pokemon were still making use of the Route, even if there hadn’t been any humans passing through for some time. There were occasional prints in the snow around the edges of the path, speaking to the population of the pass, but there wasn’t any way to tell how many of them there actually were with the lack of snow on the path itself.
We came up and over the other side of the small dip the Route ran through, Jive negotiating it with a lot more ease than he would’ve a few days ago. Practice and hiking in his new form had slowly made him more accustomed to it over time. He wasn’t quite back to the grace and careful control of his form that he hid behind a casual layer, but he was getting there.
With the thick snow and similar looking trees, it was tough to keep an awareness of where you were without looking above to the mountains beyond the treetops. I was sure that a Pokemon with a much better sense of smell could manage it a lot better, but as it was, I figured that I’d be struggling without my nav and the larger landmarks. In and among the pine trees, I wasn’t even sure I’d have the latter. I remembered stories of people getting lost and walking in circles, because humans tended to have one leg shorter than the other. Without something external to orient yourself by, you tended to walk in a circle even if you weren’t aware of it.
With less Pokemon around, the rest of us drifted into a much more quiet walk. With every sound muffled by the dense snows that surrounded us or broken up by the trees, it was almost entirely silent. Putting one foot in front of the other in an environment that was almost totally deadened by the lack of noise was a strange experience every time I found myself in it. It was almost a meditative exercise. It took me completely off guard, then, when Blake finally spoke up.
“Alright, here we are. We’ll head off now, and see you back at camp.”
“Oh. Yeah, uh, alright. I’ll see you there.” I hesitated for a second, gathering myself from the frame of mind I’d adopted. “Take care of yourself, alright? Don’t make me have to get Ajax to haul you out of a jam, huh?”
Jive uttered a sound that I recognized as his laugh, the sound still taking him by surprise somewhat. Blake and I simply smiled at each other, and I gave them a wave. They both waved in reply, then turned deeper into the woods, feet crunching in the snow and quickly disappearing from first sight, then sound. I stared after them for a moment longer, then afforded Ajax a glance.
“Time to get a move on, huh? We have a whole section of pass to search.”
He nodded, sending another glance in Blake’s direction before turning back towards where our map marker was.
Without accompaniment, the forest was even quieter than it had been before. It was only a short amount of time before we reached our marker, then turned deeper into the pine forest as Blake and Jive had, walking between the trees. This time, however, I didn’t let myself fade out, paying close attention to our surroundings: if there were signs of Pokemon habitation, I needed to see them. Ajax circled around me, always remaining within line of sight, but carefully going over the snow all around us, searching for scent trails or anything that might lead us towards the Pokemon that lived here.
Unsurprisingly, the forest wasn’t uninhabited. I got the sense that, while some Pokemon did migrate to some degree, many stuck to wherever they made their homes year round. The most populous of them seemed to be Flying-types, who we occasionally found roosting in trees for the purpose of watching us. We could tell when we neared the border of one of their territories, which was when we’d find a group of them gathered on a branch, keeping a close eye on us.
Ajax was the one that mostly handled these moments of contact, stepping forwards and sitting in the snow, making the ice hiss against his hot fur. He’d make some kind of explanation to the Pokemon we came across, growls and barks that he kept soft. Invariably, their heads would turn towards the mountainside, and I could see the concern and nervousness that flickered across their expressions. There was, I reflected, no real reason for them not to trust what we were saying.
The groups of Flying types scattered after Ajax was done speaking with them, some flying in the direction of the mountainside to scout things out for themselves, others flying in the direction of where I guessed their homes to be. The rest scattered among the trees, making louder calls that pulled the attention of Pokemon both Flying and not. At a certain point, we started meeting groups like this in smaller amounts and in smaller sizes, as the Pokemon relayed the warning among themselves and turned to whatever process they deemed fit to deal with it.
After some time, we stopped seeing Flying-types at all, the message completely outdistancing us as it was carried by Pokemon deeper into the forest. Our responsibility, then, became to seek out the burrows and holes that more grounded Pokemon made their homes in, Pokemon that wouldn’t hear the warning that was being carried on wings throughout the forest. These Pokemon were often hibernating, irritable when awakened by us poking around their homes. Surprisingly, as far as I was concerned, they often forgot that emotion to sit up and pay attention when Ajax started speaking.
I noted that, much like the graveler and their hoard of geodude, the Pokemon that we ran into tended to collect into units. There were few solitary Pokemon, and though we occasionally ran into a solo machop or a meditite, we typically found them in groups centered around a Pokemon of higher evolution. I remembered that wolf packs were typically family units, and I had to wonder if it worked much the same way here with Pokemon, where they tended to collect around and live with a parental figure and their siblings.
Often, the process for these groups was for us to find their burrow, through scent or through tracking their footsteps in the snow. We would make them aware of our presence, and then they would typically send out a representative, often the strongest of the group. With how they typically came out, I got the feeling that they were looking for a challenge from me, much like the Pokemon that hung around the Routes. This lasted up until Ajax started speaking with them, at which point their body language would immediately shift.
Some of them, once we were done, immediately began moving to gather everyone in their group. Others would give us a nod of thanks, then retreat, perhaps to consult with the other Pokemon in their group. Directed hostility wasn’t, however, something that we really encountered. Typically, they came out to take our measure, and then immediately forgot about that in favour of accepting our warning and treating it with the seriousness that it deserved.
We rather got into the rhythm of things. I noticed that, as we went on, the tension that had mounted in Ajax’s legs and face slowly trickled away. He was more relaxed and less stiff with every group that we encountered, more confident and more focused on what we were doing, rather than worrying about how we might be received. I reflected that Ajax had never been a wild Pokemon: he had spent his entire childhood within the bounds of the Jinnouchi compound, with his extended family and the humans that they defended. He was, perhaps, even less experienced with wild Pokemon than I was, and was only now becoming comfortable with them.
It was very noticeable, then, when his tension started to ratchet up. It started as just a raising of some fur, but soon he was actively scoping out our surroundings, seeming a combination of confused and wary. I stopped in the middle of a small clearing, Ajax circling it before settling down at my side as I swept my gaze over the trees that surrounded us.
I quickly went over everything that we’d seen in the past half hour or so, wondering what had set Ajax off. It occurred to me, then, though I hadn’t been thinking about it, that we hadn’t seen any Pokemon or any evidence of them. Before now, we’d pretty regularly seen footpaths that the local Pokemon had carved through the snow, leading us back to their pretty common dens. Here, however, there were none of those paths, and, come to think of it, we hadn’t seen a den in a little while. Something about that had obviously spooked Drake, and even if I was focused more on keeping us on track with my nav, it hadn’t entirely slipped my notice. After all, I’d noted the moment when Ajax’s tension reached a certain level.
“What do you think it is?” I whispered to him.
He raised his nose, closing his eyes and focusing as he inhaled. He held that breath for a moment, a growing frown stretching his face, before he let it out with an irritated huff and gave me an uncertain look. I felt the hairs on my back rise, a sensation like I had eyes on me this very moment sweeping through me. Carefully, I spun in a slow circle, letting my eyes rake over the snow and trees. No movement, not even a little: no Pokemon, not even the mundane animals that we occasionally saw. It was out and out uncanny.
For a bare moment, I found myself wishing that we had Kevan, Blake, or one of the other Pokemon with us. I had little experience with wild Pokemon, and, as I’d noted, Ajax had even less. I couldn’t make sense of what I was feeling right now. I slipped my finger between my teeth, thinking, eyes sharp. Alright, so we’d seen a complete gap in local wildlife. What did that mean?
It could mean a number of things. For one, it might mean that the local area was uninhabitable to the local fauna, for one reason or another. Given that it looked no different than any other section of the area we’d been through, save for the lack of signs of life, I didn’t think that likely. The other option that I could think of was that an individual, or group, was keeping others out of their territory in an aggressive fashion.
“Fantastic.” I muttered. Ajax blinked at me. “I just had the thought that we might not be seeing any Pokemon or animals here because something’s driving them all away. And then, I had the thought that we’re going to have to dive right into the center of it anyway, because we’ll still need to warn whatever it is.”
Ajax winced and grimaced, clearly no more eager than I was about this.
“I think that, whatever it is, it already knows we’re here.” I muttered, still scanning the forest around us. That sensation of being watched hadn’t gone away, the hairs on the back of my neck still standing on end. “So, what do you think? Ursaring? Machoke? A weirdly antisocial and tough bibarel?”
The hellhound sniffed the air again, frowning to himself as he did so. After a moment, he shook his head, looking uncertain.
“What, does that mean that I got it wrong?” He shook his head. “Does that mean that you have no idea what it is, either?” He nodded, and I sighed. “Great. Well, at least we’re both in the shit, here. We might as well keep going, see what we run into. Whatever’s out there, it needs a warning just as much as anything else in these woods.”
A distinctly reluctant expression came across Ajax’s face, but he nodded regardless, fully resigned to the course of action that was us walking right into the layer of whatever thing every Pokemon in the area avoided. Well, perhaps resigned was the wrong word for it, he was more just prepared to do what it took to get us done and out of here. With that mutual moment of agreement, we moved forwards to the opposite edge of the clearing, and back into the trees.
As we moved through, the feeling of being watched steadily mounted. Occasionally, I’d catch something out of the corner of my eye, the movement of a bit of snow or the flicker of something dark amongst the trees. I grimaced, but kept an eye out for it. It wasn’t hard to figure out that I’d been wrong in my immediate suppositions, as this wasn’t one large Pokemon: from what I was seeing, it was a group of smaller ones. A clan or something to that effect, maybe, that really valued their privacy and didn’t like sharing space with other Pokemon species.
Paying this close attention to my surroundings, I began to notice that many of the trees that we were moving through and past had claw marks in the bark. It wasn’t senseless, either, the series of triple lines forming patterns that seemed to indicate something. Not anything that I could intuit, just by looking at them, but certainly something. It would certainly fit for an ursaring to do this, or perhaps even a pack of mightyena marking their territory, but the marks were too fine and shallow for the former and too high up for the latter.
The closer that we got to whatever we were approaching, the more bold and common the figures darting between the trees became. I could feel their eyes on the back of my neck, and I pushed down the urge to swallow, straightening my back. Whatever they were, I wasn’t going to let myself be frightened of them, and I certainly wasn’t going to turn back. I exchanged a look with Ajax, who, despite the wariness flickering about his face, had a burning determination to not be intimidated behind his eyes. I couldn’t help but give him a little smile of approval.
Up ahead, I realized, there was an intensification of the light. Here, the pine trees were close enough together that they reduced the meager amount of sunlight even further, ensuring that there were plenty of shadows among the trees and snow banks for the figures watching us to hide in. Out there, however, I could see where the light splashed over the mounds of snow in the open. As we came through the last line of flora, pushing aside branches that shed fresh snow onto the layer already coating the ground, I realized why.
There was a clearing there, much larger than the one we’d stopped in minutes earlier. In the distance, I could see the rise of Coronet ascending away from us, the side of the pass not so far from us now. But it was what was in front of me that demanded my attention.
At some point in the past, a number of large boulders must have tumbled down the mountainside, or been set here by some large Pokemon long ago. Regardless, they were stacked together in a pile, dusted with frost. Here, unlike most of the forest, I could see the pawprints in the snow, leading in trails away from the gaps between the larger stones.
They were light, much lighter than either of us. Where we sank into the snow to the harder ground beneath, the creatures that were making their way in and out of the stone pile were light enough that they walked atop it. They left their distinct footprints in the layer of finer, more powdery snow that sat on top, stepping over and through each other's lines. I knelt down, casting a critical eye over them. An angular paw, with what looked to be two claws, no back claw.
I shared a glance with Ajax, and then both of us glanced back towards the treeline. I could still feel that sensation of being watched, a prickling that traveled up and down my spine, terminating with the hair on the nape of my neck. As my eyes moved over the trees, I caught a shadow retreat back into the line, disappearing beyond my sight. Obviously, whatever they were, they didn’t want to be seen by or interact with us in the slightest. All that left, then, was following their footprints into their lair, and hoping that there was a Pokemon there for us to interact with.
I pushed myself to my feet, brushing off the snow that clung to my hands and wishing that I’d purchased some kind of thermal gloves. Something to think about the next time I was intending to go into colder climates, I supposed. For now, I simply pressed them against Ajax for a moment, the hellhound’s high body temperature quickly drying my hands and driving the chill out of my fingers. Score one for the living heater.
The two of us circled the rock pile, looking into the gaps between the boulders and trying to either catch a glimpse of something or figure out a good way in. A full circuit around the pile, which was quite a large one, and we came to the mutual conclusion that the best way in was a large crevice between two slabs of rock, one so square that it was almost like a giant book laying against the pile. The gap was wide enough for both of us, as long as we entered one at a time.
I went to enter, my hand finding the cold stone, but before I could duck and try to move inwards, Ajax stepped in front of me. He gave me a look, and, after a moment, I got his meaning. He’d be going first. Whatever was in there, if it was hostile, he’d be the first thing it saw, the thing that it would focus its attention on. I spared a thought for the Pokemon I knew to be at our backs, uncertain that this was that much of an advantage. After a moment of thought, however, I realized that while the crack was wide enough for both of us, it wouldn’t be wide enough for him to turn around. If we had to leave, then he’d be facing inwards, while I could turn in place and face outwards.
“Clever boy.” I muttered, running my fingers through the fur at his shoulder.
He merely gave me a quick canine smile, then turned serious, facing himself into the dark crack between the boulders. I stepped backwards, allowing him to squeeze himself into the crevice, then followed after him.
Under the cover of the rock, none of the snow had had a chance to land beyond a little in the entrance. Still, there was plenty of room between this slab and the boulder that it was leaning against that I could easily move around, even turn if I wanted to, though I could see that my guess was right. If Ajax wanted to turn, we would have to hope that there was a larger chamber in the center of the rock pile to do it in. It reminded me of some of the caves that I’d seen formed by happenstance, as weathering and erosion caused large rocks to tumble against each other. Here, the scratches were less patterned and far more chaotic, obviously made by a large number of individuals of varying sizes. I noted that there were, in a rough sense, two layers of claw marks: a lower one, comprised of two claws shearing at the stone together, and a higher one, which was overwhelmingly composed of three-claw patterns instead. The upper layer was sparser, fewer individuals having made their mark on the rock.
The passage that we were walking through had an opening on the far side, the other end of the slab that was leaning against the boulder, letting back out into daylight. To our right, however, I could see another opening in the rock, leading deeper into the pile. The way that it all leaned and gathered, I figured that my thought of there being a larger chamber at the center was correct, and that would most likely be where whatever Pokemon we were going to attempt to parley with were. Sizing it up tactically, it meant that Ajax would have to be careful with any of his attacks: fire in an enclosed space tended to be bad for humans, even if there was plenty of ventilation by way of holes in the rock. He’d have to use accurate and controllable attacks, if we had to actually strike out at anything. I didn’t think mentioning that wise, however, not when we were most likely being listened to. The walls have ears, and all.
We entered the hole, one after the other. I noted that it looked to have been thinner at one point: the rock around me now exhibited chipping and carving, where the claw marks had worked away at the stone. Obviously, the Pokemon that inhabited this place had purposefully gone about making an actual tunnel out of this crack, and I could see where it narrowed back to what must’ve been natural for it above my head. The ceiling dropped to about a meter and change, and I had to practically crouch-walk, using the stone walls to balance myself in a passage that had obviously been carved out for Pokemon a little over half my height. It didn’t take long for it to open back out again, however, and I was able to stand back up.
Here, in the center of the pile, it actually opened out to a full chamber. Above my head, I could see the holes in the rock where sunlight came through in blinding shafts, knifing through the cloying darkness that filled the heart of the stones. I realized that, despite the obvious signs of habitation, I felt… comfortable, here in this chamber. Like I’d been under the scrutiny of some great eye, and now, here, in the dark, I had finally come out of it. Like a weight had fallen off of my shoulders.
I didn’t have time to really dissect the feeling, however, as Ajax tensed. He didn’t growl, but it was a near thing, and I could see his hackles rise slightly, his lips twitching as they nearly pulled back from his teeth. As I looked up, I could see why.
In the darkness, highlighted by shafts of sunlight that came down behind them, I could see a number of shadows. They perched higher than my head, atop some of the rocks that made up the edges of the chamber. Down, closer to the ground level where we were, I could see smaller shadows moving around, catch glimpses of eyes. I could hear the clicking of their claws against the stones, the hushed chattering of their voices, lacking an echo for the sheer volume of Pokemon that I found myself surrounded with. As my eyes grew used to the dark, I could make out more of their features. Blue fur, with spikes of red coming off of them. I looked upwards towards the larger figures staring down at us, met crimson eyes, surrounded by splashes of red that radiated from their heads, almost like a mane. The yellow gems in their foreheads, glinting faintly in the dim light.
Ajax and I had found ourselves in a sneasel and weavile nest.