Audino's muscles ached and his lungs begged him to stop, but he didn't. He couldn't. He wouldn't. He pushed on, running frantically around route one with no semblance of organization in the direction he ran or the places he checked. He didn't have time to organize or develop a systematic way of checking route one. Time was already running out and he had to use every second on searching, not planning.

The thought of time made him slow down, made him look up. Audino's stomach lurched and settled somewhere in the middle of this throat. Time really was running out, the proof was right there in sky, with the sun sitting directly overhead. The day was halfway over.

What if he didn't find it? What if he never found it? What if it was just gone?

"No," he commanded himself. "No!" And off he went, running as fast as his legs would carry him. He couldn't stop, not until he found it. Not until it was safe, not until it could protect him from--no, he couldn't let himself think about that, not now, not until he had his rock back. And he couldn't slow down again, couldn't stop running frantically around route one, because anytime he stopped, the bad feelings grew, pushing down on him from all directions until he couldn't move at all. (Other pokemon felt bad sometimes, too, he knew that because his ears told him so. But other pokemon could shake the bad feelings off. Audino could not. Not without his rock.)

So he had to keep running, had to keep searching. There was no other choice.

And the darkness was coming.

The very thought of it was enough to force Audino's tired legs to slow down. The darkness would come and obscure everything and everyone, and Audino was powerless to resist it. He slowed to a jog, then a walk, and despair crept up on him like a Tangela's vines, winding their way closer and wrapping their way up his legs, trying to trip him, trying to trap him and grab him and hold him there, in that spot--

But no!
There!
Just ahead!

His pulse quickened and the momentary euphoria pushed the bad feelings away. Because he saw a rock! Not his rock, no, this one was much too large. But what if his rock was behind that rock, or maybe buried underneath it somehow?

Just as the thought of darkness had made Audino stop, the thought of finding his rock spurred him onward. Just for a moment, there was a possibility of Audino being reunited with his rock. Hope was a rejuvenating force and, just for a moment, his muscles stopped whining and his lungs stopped heaving and the despair stopped advancing on him. He ran to the rock, utterly unaware of the trio walking along the path in the distance.

Audino slowed to a walk and looked around the rock, which was maybe a little bigger than a human's fist. There were no rocks around it. But that didn't mean his rock wasn't somewhere nearby. The sun shone overhead like a beacon, like a spotlight shining down on this one spot. It was fate. It had to be. It was meant to be. With bated breath, Audino stepped up to the rock itself and, oh so tenderly, lifted it up.

The barren earth beneath the rock hit Audino like a landslide and he felt himself sinking to the ground, quite against his will.

"Are you okay, mister?"

The Eevee was the first of the trio to spot the weird pink creature, since he was so far ahead. He trotted up to the Audino's side, who only belatedly turned his head to look at the kit. "I... I lost it," he said honestly, but guilt washed over him as soon as the words left his mouth. This Eevee didn't need to know about his troubles. A very nice human had helped him once, by giving him the precious rock that glowed even at night. It had kept him safe, for a time, until Audino had been foolish enough to lose it. Audino didn't deserve more help from anyone. What right did he have to waste someone else's time?

With that in mind, Audino quickly followed up his truthful answer with a lie. "But... but yes, I'm fine." It was somewhat less than convincing, since he said it through sniffles and he looked rather like someone who just gotten the news that a loved one had passed on.

The Eevee was too young to comprehend boundaries or personal space so he came up and sat right next to the devastated Audino. "You don't look okay."

Audino sniffled again and looked at the Eevee more seriously. The fox offered him a smile and Audino returned a more tentative one. "You're nice," he said after a moment.

Right around the time he spoke up, Aiden and Nutmeg arrived on the scene. "Hey," Aiden said. Saffron's ears twitched at the sound of his new human but the Audino hardly reacted at all. He didn't mean to be rude; he simply didn't have the energy for it. Or he didn't have the heart for it. Something like that. "What's going on, guys?"

"He said he lost something," Saffron explained. "I'unno what, though."

Nutmeg's eyes widened. "Oooh, that's awful." She came up to the Audino's other side, though she kept a pleasant distance between herself and the Audino, unlike her teammate. "What did you lose?"

Audino shrugged helplessly. Several moments passed in silence and he realized these people weren't going to leave. His goal had been to not waste their time, and here he was, wasting it anyway. He sniffled again and rubbed his forearm along his nose. "I... I lost my rock." He couldn't bear to make eye contact with any of them when he said it.

Nutmeg didn't understand the significance of a rock, but she knew that heartbroken look on his face all too well. It was devastating to want something you didn't have. For her, it was losing weight; for this Audino, it was finding his rock. "We can help you," she offered quietly, looking nervously from Aiden to Saffron, as though afraid one of them might contradict her.

Instead, Saffron leaped to his paws, tail wagging once again. "Yeah, we can help!" Aiden looked around their section of route one before turning back to Audino and nodding. "Definitely, we can. What's it look like, this rock of yours?"

Audino looked between the two eager pokemon and their eager human. Something like hope began bubbling in her chest once again. Maybe it wasn't too late. Maybe they could still find it--together.

He pressed his hands into the ground and pushed his way to his feet. The simple act of standing up was exhausting but he managed, somehow. "It's... it's yellow, mostly, with orange and red in the middle. It's warm and the middle part, the orange and red, you know? It glows."

"It sounds lovely," Nutmeg offered. Saffron bobbed his head.

Aiden mulled over the rock's description for maybe the length of a heartbeat before the light bulb went off. That was a fire stone, he was sure of it! What else could it be? He had absolutely no idea what an Audino was doing with a fire stone, but he wanted to find out--not so he could take the Audino's, but so he could find out where the Audino had gotten his. Aiden would need a bunch of those before his time as a pokemon trainer was over.

"Where did you last have it, do you remember? Like..." Nutmeg looked around, trying to find a simple way to cut down the search area. "Were you around flowers or crops? That might help narrow it down."

Fear widened Audino's eyes at the mere mention of the tall crop fields. "Oh, I don't ever go in the crops," he said forlornly. It was much too dark amid all those towering plants.

Armed with that information, the four of them spread out, each covering different non-crop field along the dirt road. (There were significantly more than four non-crop fields between Cassiopeia and Ara, but they had to start somewhere.) Over the next half hour, they each searched their fields to no avail. Saffron, with his nose and all his boundless energy, was the first to clear his field and he raced along the dirt road to the next one. Soon, the others moved onto other fields as well.

Time kept on passing and they kept on not finding the right rock. After clearing his second field with no luck, Audino's faith in their expedition began to fade. Somewhere in the distance, he heard the familiar sound of Saffron's frantic paws racing over the ground. "This is hopeless," Audino mumbled to himself. The darkness would be upon him soon, and these poor people would be stuck, too--all because of him. The fear and the guilt were almost more than he could bear. He walked back towards the human's road and headed after Aiden and his two pokemon, who were all working faster than the downtrodden Audino and were therefore much farther ahead. They were still searching fields, though, so making up ground along the dirt road was simple enough.

"Oooh!"

Saffron's excited squeal tore through the air and a moment later, the Eevee appeared at the intersection between his field and the road. "Hey, hey, you!" He wasn't familiar with Audino's species and no formal introductions had been made, but the fox was making pointed eye contact with Audino, so there was no question about who he was talking to. "I think I found it!"

Audino's eyes widened and he picked up his pace, moving from a walk into a jog despite the protests from his tired legs. Nutmeg and Aiden both heard the exchange and made a beeline for Saffron, as well. The fox skittered impatiently, all but jumping in place from the excitement at being the one who had (maybe, possibly) found Audino's rock. "C'mon, c'mon Slowpokes," he called out. Audino reached him first and as soon as he was nearby, Saffron ran off to one corner of the field, amid a dense patch of wildflowers. "Look, look!"

Audino walked forward so slowly, so hesitantly--because what if Saffron was wrong? What if it wasn't Audino's stone? He didn't know if he could take it. Audino was halfway across the field when Aiden and Nutmeg caught up to him. The young fox's patience was running out. "Is it right? Did I find it?"

Audino wasn't close enough so he licked his lips and shrugged, but started walking toward the Eevee a tiny bit faster. "I don't know, I don't see what you're talking about yet."

Eevee whimpered, as though the denial and their slow pace was physically painful to him. "This one!" He stuck a paw into the patch of flowers and pulled the rock out so it was in plain view. "Is it... Is..." Saffron tried to repeat his question (is it right?) but the strangest sensation overcame him, distracting him from everything around him. The world went bright and blurry so quickly that he couldn't see Audino's face erupt in a smile, couldn't hear Audino's gasp, couldn't see Audino begin running toward him, because yes that was his rock! That was it!

"Saffron!" Aiden called out, but his voice sounded terribly muffled and so very far away to the Eevee, who was encased in a bright light that stretched outward and upward, obscuring him completely.

"What's happening?"
"That's it! You found it!"
"Is Saffron okay? Aiden? Is he okay?"
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

They were all so muffled, all so far away, all so unimportant--and then, just as Audino reached the rock, the bright light around Saffron faded. And where an Eevee once stood, there was now a Flareon. "Wh... what?" The young fox sounded punch-drunk and he looked down at the ground. It was two feet farther away now! And when he looked downward, a new patch of light-colored fur flooped down over his eyes! And the rest of his fur was orange! His legs were longer, and he was taller, and he was heavier, and he was so, so much warmer! He felt like he was on fire, like the very act of putting a paw on the ground might make the grass erupt into flames--the sensation of power was foreign to him and he loved it.

Audino did not share Saffron's sentiment.

"You ruined it!" Audino's high pitched wail broke through Saffron's happy moment. The Audino pointed at the rock, drawing everyone's eyes to it. And sure enough, just as the light of evolution had faded from Saffron, the bright flickering light from the stone was slowly fading from Audino's precious rock.

He fell to the ground and Saffron's long ears drooped dramatically. Tears welled up in Audino's eyes. He'd searched endlessly for his rock, and it'd finally been found--only to be taken away again. The darkness. There was no escaping it now.

Saffron took a step forward and looked anxiously from Nutmeg to Aiden, neither of whom knew what to say. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to. I didn't know." The apology came out in a whimper and the Audino slowly looked up.

He rubbed the tears from his eyes and got a good look at the newly evolved Flareon. He sniffled mightily once again and cleared his throat. "I... I know." He sounded so utterly defeated in that moment, but he got shakily to his feet anyway. "It was an accident. I know." Audino stared at the now-dull stone and rubbed his nose. "I shouldn't have said that. It... It was mean. And you helped me search for so long."

With the tense moment passed them, Nutmeg stepped forward and nudged the rock with her nose, as though hoping its residual strength might be enough to turn her into a beautiful Flareon, too. "It's still your rock," she said diplomatically. "You can still take it."

Audino looked at the Tepig and shook his head. They didn't understand. And how could they? He'd never stopped to explain. "No, I... I needed the light." He picked up the rock, which had been given to him by a ranger back when he was young--no older than Saffron, probably. "It kept them away." He was talking to the rock now, almost giving his old protector a eulogy.

"Them?"

Audino nodded, though his eyes never left his once-precious rock. "The darkness. The bad things. I got it from a ranger, a long time ago. I don't..." he sniffled again. "I can't believe I lost it."

"Darkness?" Aiden's eyes lit up. "Nutmeg, you can help with that, can't you?" He nodded to her, prompting her to do something, but it took a moment for his request to hit home with her. Her mouth fell open into a small o and she nodded vigorously. "Yeah! Yeah, look!"

The Audino finally looked up from his rock and once he made eye contact with Nutmeg, she opened her mouth and exhaled a tiny Ember. "I can make as much of that as I want!" That wasn't strictly true--there were limits to how much fire she could produce and as a low leveled, relatively inexperienced battler, her limit was pretty strict. But she hadn't maxed out her fire-producing capabilities before so she didn't realize the limit existed at all.

Aiden looked eagerly from Nutmeg to the Audino. "Yeah, see? I've got two fire types now, and a third who will be a fire type soon, so there's the potential for lots of fires--if you don't like the darkness." He was talking fast now, blending words together as he built up to his actual point. "So we can help keep the darkness and darkness and bad things away, if you want to find that ranger again? Maybe they know where more of those stones are, so you wouldn't be dependent on us forever?"

Aiden's motives were not entirely selfless: if they accompanied the Audino on a quest to find the rangers and then another fire stone, well... maybe he would be able to grab a fire stone or two, as well. But still. It was a win-win situation for everyone, basically.

"What'd'ya say? Are you interested?"

WORDS → 2,735
POKEMON → nutmeg the tepig & saffron the eevee flareon & wild audino
NOTES → fitz very sorry for the word vomit

Aiden presented a pokeball to the Audino and he rushed in. He looked at the pokeball for a long moment, then looked over at Nutmeg. "Is it dark inside pokeballs? I've never thought about it before." It was hard to miss the worried edge in his voice. "It's whatever you want it to be, really. You can have it bright if you like it that way, or dark if you want to sleep. They're sort of like hotel rooms, pokeballs," the Tepig explained.

Aiden looked intrigued, which was still not a reaction she was used to--as an already timid piglet who'd always been too self conscious about her weight to focus on much else, she wasn't sure how to handle his rapt attention. But she liked the feeling of having her thoughts respected, and she liked being able to teach someone something new, so she kept on talking. "I've heard other pokeballs are different inside. Some have more features than others, like, upgrading from a twin bed to a king or something?" The Tepig shrugged, feigning ambivalence. Inside, she was overjoyed that Aiden had listened to her whole spiel, and a little afraid that Saffron would disagree--or that Aiden would mention it to the Audino later, and that he would disagree. So, just in case, she tacked on one last bit: "But that might just all be rumors. I've only ever had a pokeball."

She'd blabbered on for too long, it seemed. She'd been meaning to reassure him but, if anything, Aiden looked more worried by the time she finished. It took the ginger a moment to collect his thoughts. "They're different inside?" This was a whole new perspective; he'd only ever seen them in terms of how expensive they were, and therefore how effective they were at catching pokemon who were unwilling to be caught. Aiden had never been terribly interested in catching pokemon who didn't want to be caught, so he'd never spared much thought for the differences between the pokeball tiers.

"I think so." Aiden eyed the Audino's pokeball more critically now. "So... I've basically been chucking my friends into one star hotels?" Nutmeg's mouth dropped open into the smallest o when she realized how badly her statements had been skewed in her trainer's head. She struggled to think of something to say. Saffron recognized the tension in the situation but he was much too young to be able to think up a diplomatic solution. So instead, the Flareon charged headlong at Aiden, tackling the boy's shins at full force, sending him sprawling.

Aiden crashed into the ground before he realized what was happening and Saffron stood over him, tongue lolling out and tail wagging, while he waited for his praise. The collision had knocked the wind out of him so he laid still for a moment. Nutmeg was about to start getting seriously concerned when Aiden groaned and sat up, then attacked the Flareon's fluffy mane. "Good boy, Saffron," he said with a laugh. "Your, uh, your tackles... they've gotten much better." The fox's tail wagged much faster and he pressed his forehead to Aiden's chest. "Thanks!"

He made a mental note to explain the difference between tackling pokemon and tackling people--or maybe he should go a step further and explain the difference between tackling in a fight and tackling out of affection. Yes, that would be better. But it was a discussion for another day. For now, Aiden didn't want to risk discouraging the Flareon from holding back in a battle.

Once the congratulatory petting was finished, Aiden got to his feet. Somewhere in the scuffle, the Audino's pokeball had been knocked from his hand and rolled toward the path. Aiden headed that way to pick it up, then kept going. His pokemon followed at his heels, Nutmeg on his left and Saffron on his right. Dusk was falling and they still had a ways to go before they hit Ara Village.

WORDS → 658
POKEMON → nutmeg the tepig & saffron the flareon
NOTES → fitz thank you! I'm glad you liked it =D

Once they were back on the path and headed in the right direction, Nutmeg looked up at Aiden. "What'd'ya think you'll name him?"

Aiden hummed thoughtfully before answering. "Well... Let's see. I was planning on focusing on herbs and spices, since a lot of those would be cute names, I think. That obviously didn't work too well." That idea, while nice in theory, had lasted less than one day. Heck, it hadn't even carried over to the first pokemon he officially captured. As the saying went, there was no use crying of spilled milk. Aiden shrugged. "But Carolina Reaper's name just suited her too well to go with anything else."

"It does suit her," Nutmeg agreed, even though she hadn't known enough about peppers to follow his reasoning back when he'd named the uncouth Fletchling. (Something about heat and cap-say-something-or-other. She couldn't even remember the term well enough to ask a question about it.) Nutmeg also didn't know what herbs and spices were, but she did know how to pronounce those words. So she could ask about them. "What... What's the difference? Between herbs and spices, I mean?" Aiden nodded. "Yup. Herbs are from the leaves, spices are usually from the root or seeds."

The mini science lesson made Nutmeg curious and made Saffron bored. The Flareon's eyes wandered while Nutmeg's eyes widened with fascination. "Is nutmeg an herb or spice?"

"It comes from a seed, so it's technically a spice! Herbs come from the leaves." Nutmeg beamed. She liked being named after a spice. It sounded more... exotic, somehow, than an herb.

"What about saffron?" The Flareon was already getting jittery and bored with their slow pace, but he didn't want to be left out of their conversation. "It's a spice, too!"

Saffron nodded sagely. Contented by the answer, the Flareon charged on ahead once again; walking was much too dull to do for long. And thanks to his evolutionary stunt, Saffron had endless energy to burn. While he rushed along at his own pace, Nutmeg stayed next Aiden, mulling silently over the new information. "Well if you've got two spice names and one non-herb and non-spice name... I think you should go with a herb." The piglet paused, scrunching up her nose at the way that last bit sounded. "A herb? An herb?"

Aiden shrugged, as if to say fuck if I know. "Haven't a clue, darling. We'll go with an. Sounds more natural." So he didn't know either. That was reassuring, and Nutmeg smiled accordingly. (She'd had a few friends back at the lab, but most of the pokemon had taken one look at the pudgy Tepig and automatically decided that being fat also meant she was lazy, and also meant she was stupid. She hadn't felt that way since leaving the lab, not once.) She opened her mouth to ask another question, this time about potential herb names, since Nutmeg also had no clue what products from plants leaves might be called.

Before she could get the words out, a Deerling came prancing out of a nearby field and stumbled right into Nutmeg. She simultaneously tripped over the Tepig, knocked the Tepig over, and headbutted Aiden's thigh. "Oof!" The Deerling hopped back to her feet as only a prey pokemon could, and shook her head vigorously. "Sorry 'bout that, guys!" She laughed merrily.

"It's no problem," Aiden said, though his focus was on helping his round Tepig up. "Oh, good! I'm glad I didn't hurt you guys. I forget my own strength sometimes."

"You might wanna be careful out here," Nutmeg began as she finally got back to her feet. "Running into pokemon could be dangerous for you, 'specially if they're fire types." It wasn't a threat--just a fact. As much as Nutmeg had enjoyed fighting Carolina Reaper, that enjoyment had come from the fact that Carolina was mean. Nutmeg liked giving pokemon a taste of their own medicine. So far as Nutmeg could see, this Deerling wasn't mean; she was just oblivious.

The wide-eyed doe blinked at Nutmeg's advice. "Why... why do I, uh..." She paused, struggling to organize her thoughts. "Why do I need to... be careful?" She tilted her head to the side while quoting Nutmeg and looked at the Tepig. If real life were an anime, little question marks would have been springing up over the deer's head.

At first, Nutmeg thought Deerling was maybe joking. But the longer Deerling stared at her, the more she realized... Deerling was dead serious. "Because they're super effective against you?" The Deerling blinked again while she processed Nutmeg's answer, then she tossed her head and snorted. "Pshaw. That doesn't matter." The grass type stomped a tiny hoof on the ground for emphasis, sending up a small cloud of dust. "I can take care of myself."

Whether that was strictly true or not was anyone's guess. Deerling had never actually been in a fight but she'd seen her dad fight before, which was basically the same thing. That Sawsbuck had been able to take down anything. None of the weaklings on route one had held a candle to her fully evolved old man. Like father like daughter, right? That was sound logic, if Deerling could say so herself. "Thanks for the advice, though. You're sweet!" Deerling beamed at Nutmeg and, slowly, something clicked in her brain. The Deerling froze. She craned her neck around looked at herself, just to confirm her suspicions.

"Oh my gosh!" The Deerling literally jumped for joy (only a few inches, but still) and landed with her hooves spread wide apart. She stared at Aiden and Nutmeg like they were Nicolas Cage and she was about to teach them how to steal the Declaration of Independence. "You guys," she squealed. "We're all gingers!"

Aiden laughed along with the Deerling while Nutmeg mostly looked confused. "We're all--what?"

"Gingers, Nutmeg! We're all soulless." That didn't clarify much for her so Aiden elaborated further. "People with red hair! Or pokemon with red fur, I s'pose."

"Exactly! We all match!" It wasn't true, strictly speaking. Both Tepig's fur and the Deerling's autumn coat were more orange than red. But it was close enough to gingerhood status to entertain the Deerling. She turned to Nutmeg with a giddy smile on her face. Before she could say another word, all three of them heard the thud of footsteps (paws, to be exact) in the distance. They looked over in such perfect unison that it almost looked planned.

Aiden had his suspicions and... sure enough, there was Saffron, charging down the path like a freight train, heading straight at the Deerling.

No one had ever embodied the phrase like a Deerling in headlights quite as well as this Deerling. She stood perfectly still, eyes locked on the rampaging Flareon. Her instincts commanded that she freeze but her brain momentarily overpowered that. Her brain wasn't overpowering her instincts so she could pursue fight or flight instead of freeze, though, no sir.

Deerling beamed magnificently. "Look! It's another ginger!" A moment after her observation, Saffron was within striking distance. He gathered himself mid-stride and leaped, performing a jumping tackle aimed straight at the Deerling.

There was a reason tackle attacks weren't supposed to be leaping maneuvers; Saffron proved as much when he knocked the Deerling over and kept on going himself, rolling head over heels in the dirt. He ended up laying on his back with the wind knocked out of him, as though the sheer force of his own stupidity (or inexperience) had been enough to crush his lungs. It only lasted a moment, though. A few seconds of stunned panic gave way to a hacking cough, and then his lungs started working again. He worked his way to his paws, expecting a hero's praise from Aiden and Nutmeg for his ability to save them from the intruder.

No such praise came, though. Saffron's ears drooped and he turned around in time to see Aiden and Nutmeg kneeling over the Deerling. She was sprawled on the ground and she wasn't moving. "Is--is she okay?"

"I think so? I hope so?" Aiden reached into his bag, debating what was better to grab: his phone, to call for emergency help, or a potion. It was only a tackle attack, after all. With a mighty groan, Deerling lifted her head from the ground. "Guys, guys..." Her voice was hoarser and weaker now, but she was still clearly audible. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me. I'm just fine."

She struggled to get her hooves beneath her. Aiden moved away to give her space, gesturing for Nutmeg to do the same. She rounded on Saffron and began a tackle attack of her own. She was still seeing stars from the impact but she was Sawsbuck's daughter and she was not afraid. Her tackle was slower and weaker than Saffron's but she wasn't lacking determination. (Both attacks were similar in terms of clumsiness, since neither of them had experience in battles.) Saffron stepped to the side at the last minute and the Deerling kept right on going, charging full-speed into the nearest field.

WORDS → 1,520
POKEMON → nutmeg the tepig & saffron the flareon & wild deerling
NOTES → Thank you for rerolling fitz <3 If this is good enough to pass the spawn, then Deerling's running away. If not, she'll return from the short-lived Tackle for another attack. Trying to leave things open ended.

Saffron gains 760 experience and grows to level eight (85/275). He's now four levels away from exhaustion.

"Yeah! That's right, run away!" Saffron was positively shaking with glee while he watched the Deerling vanish into the nearby field. She was gone. He'd won! He swung around to look at his trainer and his teammate, bushy tail held high. "Did you see me?" Aiden moved toward the fluffy puppy and wrapped his arms around Saffron's neck, planting a kiss on top of the dog's (very, very warm) forehead. "I did see! You were amazing, buddy," Aiden gushed. "Nutmeg'll have to teach you how to tackle someone without rolling over yourself, though!" He said it partially because it was true--Nutmeg had been able to tackle Carolina with significantly more grace than Saffron had used when tackling the Deerling--and partially because he didn't want her to be excluded from the conversation.

Nutmeg trotted over when she heard her name. Saffron leaned down and affectionately bumped the Tepig's head with his own. "You did do a good job," she admitted. She was sad because the Deerling had seemed friendly--slow, maybe, but nice. Until Aiden had wandered into the lab, she hadn't had much experience with nice pokemon.

Saffron glowed under the praise and squirmed his way out of Aiden's bear hug to focus on Nutmeg. "I'm real good at tackling people as an Eevee, but as a Flareon... I don't really know what I'm doing." He shook his coat, releasing a cloud of dust that had lodged in his thick fur during his somersault, as if proving his point. "Wanna help me now?" Saffron's head swung around the route eagerly in search of something he could tackle.

There weren't really tackle-able objects in this vicinity, though. Saffron's next thought was that Aiden could be their target practice. Before he could propose that particular solution, Nutmeg shot him down. "It's getting really dark, we should get to Ara... Maybe tomorrow we can sneak out of the village and practice then?" Honestly, her legs just hurt from all the walking (carrying around her weight was no easy feat) and she wanted to rest for a while. But Saffron accepted her half-truth without protest. He shook his fur one more time, sending up a second (and smaller) cloud of dust. "I'm guessing you'll need a brushing after this trip?"

"Oh, definitely!" The Flareon nodded for emphasis and looked down the path. If he couldn't practice tackling until they got to Ara Village, he wanted to get there as soon as possible. Without waiting for Aiden or Nutmeg's approval, Saffron bounded down the path, taking the lead once again.

Aiden stood back up and spared one last look in the direction the Deerling had run. There was still no sign of her so it appeared she'd survived Saffron's tackle without serious injury--and if she hadn't come back for round two by now, she probably wouldn't. That was good enough for him. "Shall we, then?" He glanced toward Nutmeg. She nodded. They headed down the path at a significantly slower pace than Saffron--still a good walking speed, of course, but nowhere near the Flareon's exuberant gallop.

Aiden could still hear the Flareon's footprints in the distance. As long as he had a rough idea of where Saffron was (and whether or not Saffron was still running around), he didn't mind how far ahead the Flareon got. Besides, it let him spend more time with his starter! How could he not love that? "I was thinking of teaching you to bake something, once we find a hotel? Obviously you can't pour ingredients or anything, with the hooves and all, but I can teach you the basics. What to add, when, how to mix, how to check if things are done, things you can add to make shit taste delicious... All that. If you're interested?"

Nutmeg thought it over before nodding. "Yeah, that sounds good. I mostly only eat food," she said with a small laugh, beckoning toward her protruding sides with her nose. "Might as well learn how to make it, too." Aiden grinned. "You don't have to eat it if you don't want to. You can make stuff for other people--or you can make it for yourself and add exactly the stuff you like."

"Can we make something with nutmeg in it?" She wasn't entirely sure what nutmegs were, aside from the fact that it came from some kind of seed, but there was no time like the present to learn, right?

"'Course we can! I think that's a great idea."

WORDS → 750
POKEMON → nutmeg the tepig & saffron the flareon
NOTES → fitz

NOTE: the spoiler contains a more thorough background on the espurr's religion. a lot of it is explained sporadically throughout the post but this has it all in one place and might be easier to follow. use if you want to, or ignore it. whichever. c:

SPOILER: Click to show

espurr's religion teaches that all pokemon are mini-gods whose powers can be fully unlocked by bonding with a compatible trainer--"transcendence," as her faith calls it. it is not a process directly related to evolution or training or even being captured in a pokeball, but something more spiritual. pokemon aren't capable of bonding and transcending with any old human, just as not all humans can bond with (or even understand) every pokemon they meet. some humans are not capable of bonding at all. according to her religion, those unbondables were jealous and wanted to even the playing field. they made up legendary pokemon to subconsciously subvert a bonded pokemon's strength. with the "knowledge" that legendaries existed, pokemon would have less faith in their own relatively meager strength (using the fictitious legendaries as a baseline). the unbondables hoped that, over the course of generations, the self-doubt would manifest as actual reduced strength. espurr's faith teaches that they are right.

if a bonded human buys into the lie then their pokemon--by definition of being bonded to them--will also believe it. greed is not limited to humans and joining with a trainer is something many wild pokemon seek. in an effort to fit in with as many trainers as possible, wild pokemon often adopt the local legendary lie as truth, if it's common enough among humans. therefore, if inset's bondable trainers continue to buy into the idea of legendaries, pokemon on and off their team will buy into it as well. the believers (of the false idols) will rapidly dilute the gene pool of the knowers (like her, who acknowledge the lie of the legendary pokemon) and the collective strength of the region's pokemon will whittle away into nothing.

these myths were invented all over the world but not simultaneously. espurr believes the timing difference in the creation of the lie, and the difference in numbers of legendaries that were created, helps explain the differences in strength pokemon can have region to region (Pidgeot native to Kalos tend to be faster than Pidgeot native to Unova, etc). it takes a long time for the effects to become apparent and inset is too young to have seen them yet, but ara village has a shrine with fictional legendaries from all over the world--so when the effect begins to show up, it will progress rapidly.

espurr and other practitioners of her faith believe that one day, there will be no pokemon left on inset who are capable of transcendence and pokemon will eventually lose their powers altogether. attacks and abilities and types will all fade into nothing and their status as mini-gods will be erased forever. her church is made up of pokemon who have agreed to take a vow of chastity. they will never bond with a human and will instead devote their lives to preventing bonded trainers from approaching the shrines and worshiping the false idols. espurr's willingness to use force made her a more effective deterrent than the zealots who only used fear-based or spiritual arguments, and her success is one of the reasons she was chosen as high priestess in her church.

priests and priestesses also forego all identities outside of the church; they give up all ties to their family and their species. they only think of themselves as their titles within the church. espurr will never respond to "espurr" or any other nickname and she also does not think of herself as an "espurr." she is "the high priestess," and that is all. the same applies to all members of her church.

The high priestess crept silently along one side of the path, obscured by the crops that towered over her head. The moonlight was faint and her dark robes allowed her to effortlessly blend in with the shadows. She'd followed Aiden and company most of the day, dodging from crop field to crop field. Wild pokemon on the route knew better than to mess with the robe-wearers; normally they even stayed away from the trainers the robe-wearers followed. Regardless, they were not difficult to deal with.

The Audino's cowardice meant none of them searched the crop fields, which actually made her mission that much easier. (The Audino was a worthless capture. He was too caught up in his phobias to bond with a human. Even from a distance, the high priestess could see that. The human would never bond with him--simply catching a pokemon did not guarantee transcendence.) The Deerling had been similarly unsuitable for bonding. Luckily, the human had shown some resilience there. And the priestess had had no issue handling the dimwitted deer. One harsh Confusion attack had kept the fool running wildly through the field, all thoughts of the battle against the human and his Flareon long since forgotten.

Despite his foolish choice in taking the Audino along with him, the boy was clearly one of the bondables. His Flareon ran around as it pleased and came back just as readily. The Tepig wasn't chained in any way and it stuck right next to his heels. The human spoke with them, joked with them, trusted them. They were bonded, those two and their human. And they were heading to Ara Village.

If the boy's conversation with his Tepig was any indication, they planned on sticking around a while. That made them dangerous.

Anyone who stuck around for more than a day or two eventually ventured toward the shrines, even if it was only curiosity or boredom that sent them there. Regardless of the reason for the visit, the myths took root, one day at a time. If too many of the bondables visited--if too many trainers fell prey to the lies and the sacrilege--Inset's pokemon were done for.

The priestess's mouth set into a deep frown while a blistering hatred took root in her chest. Her ears rose up of their own accord, ready to unleash an uncontrolled blast of psychic energy, but her dark blue robes covered the rings beneath her ears. How selfish could they be, heading to the shrines as though their bonds meant nothing? Didn't they realize? Couldn't they see?

But of course they couldn't. They were ignorant and foolish. Sinners, all three of them. Blessed and unworthy, all at once. They were a danger to themselves, a danger to her, a danger to Inset.

She would change that.

The human and his pig walked along the path so slowly that she kept pace with them even while dodging corn stalks and taking care to not step on twigs or anything that would make noise and give away her position--all this in the darkness, mind you. If their physical sluggishness here was any indication of their mental fortitude, they would accept the myths surrounding Ara's legendary shrines as facts without sparing a second for critical thought.

Trusting the ability to unlock a pokemon's true power to such lazy humans was an awful idea but at the end of the day, the high priestess had no influence over that. The world was full to the bursting point with those idiotic ironies. Her church would fix that in the long run, that was known. They would find a way to allow pokemon to transcend without mankind's help. But until then--here, now, today, with this boy--she would fix the more immediate problem presented by this boy.

But first, she had to get in front of the stupid dog. The Flareon was far ahead of the priestess and therefore even farther ahead of his trainer. She needed to be between the false idols and the bonded ones before she intervened. Once their way was blocked, she would save them from their own wayward intentions, whether they liked it or not.

It was as though Flareon knew her intentions, as though it could feel the danger in its future if it didn't turn back, as though it knew it was doomed--because as soon as the thought crossed the priestess's mind, the dog turned tail and scampered back toward its trainer. She slowed to a stop, when she was a minute's worth of travel ahead of the human and maybe a foot or two away from the path. Not much, but enough.

"I smell something! The village, I think!" The dog's bark boomed over the sleepy route one and the oaf's paws thudded against the road. Nothing subtle, nothing graceful, nothing artistic. And yet he was bonded with a human, and she never would be. All because of fools like him and his trainer, fools who had the gullibility to believe anything and the power to ruin everything.

She honed in on the injustice of it all, letting the anger simmer until it boiled over. She lowered her dark hood and tracked the Flareon's movements with her purple eyes, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. The cornfield continued to hide her from sight. It seemed both the Flareon and the Tepig--while lucky enough to have found a human with whom they could bond--were too stupid to think of sniffing every now and then. Otherwise they would've known. Otherwise they would've seen.

But they didn't know. They couldn't see.

The high priestess was not like them. She knew. She saw. And when the Flareon was level with her, she acted.

Her left ear flew up and this time there was no hood blocking her ring. The golden organ flashed to life like fireworks in the darkness. Psychic energy propelled chaotically toward the Flareon, intercepting the dog's rib cage mid-stride. He didn't even have a chance to yelp; the Confusion simply threw him off his paws, sending him colliding with the ground. The human and the pig were spurred from their languid pace and they ran to his side.

The high priestess was not finished. She swiveled one hundred and eighty degrees and raised her right ear. A second blast of energy shot outward, this time flying haphazardly into the boy, the pig, the dog, and the road. It was more spread out than the first--a consequence of her having absolutely no control over her attack beyond the when and the general where.

Most priestesses preferred negotiating. They liked to pull the humans aside, they liked to explain. They liked to rationalize and discuss. She was not most priestesses. She placed no such faith in a human's ability to reason.

She flipped her hood back up over her head and stepped out onto the path. The human was crouched over his Flareon, asking some asinine question about how he felt. He and the Tepig were so preoccupied with the winded Flareon that they didn't notice her presence. The high priestess had no patience for it.

"When you enter Ara Village, you will not leave." Her booming voice demanded to be heard and Aiden was in no position to ignore her. He turned around, shielding the Flareon with his body in the process. "What?"

In the darkness, it was hard to make out anything beyond the general shape of her midnight blue robes. Her face was not entirely covered but the stiff fabric stuck out over her face just enough to cover her in shadows. All that was discernible were the tips of her feet, the ends of her paws, and a few tufts of purple fur that couldn't quite be concealed by her attire.

"When you enter Ara Village, you will not leave." Being forced to repeat herself drew a snarl to her voice.

The Tepig at his side was positively shaking at the sight of their weird, robed attacker. "W-what? Who are you?"

"Who I am is not important." It was as honest an answer as any of them would get from her. She had dedicated her life to being unimportant--unbonded and untranscended, forevermore--so that she might sway the truly important ones off the paths of ignorance and sin. It was a long story to tell and one that she doubted any of these three would be intelligent enough to comprehend, never mind accept. So she didn't bother. "What is important is that you do not leave Ara Village. The path beyond the village is treacherous. It is imperative that you remain behind."

She had to be careful in these encounters to not mention the shrines themselves. It was the First Sermon all priests and priestesses heard and it was by far the most important of the Seven Tenants of her faith. The shrines were mentioned only during the initiation and the First Sermon. After that, they were never discussed again. Any member of the faith who brought up the shrines--anywhere, ever, to anyone, even within the confines of the church--was forcibly removed. There were members of the faith tasked with ensuring that those traitors were unable to pass on knowledge of the shrines to anyone else after their exile. (Much of the time, that unseemly task fell in the high priestess's capable paws. But that is a subject for another day.)

The Seventh Sermon taught the importance of honesty. Lying was not nearly as severe an offense as telling someone about the shrines. Lying, after all, only brought harm sometimes. Discussing the shrines always brought harm. It made humans curious. If you tell the humans they can't do something, it is inevitably the only thing they will think of doing until it is actually done. There was nothing on earth humans liked so much as forbidden fruit. And out of fear of other route one pokemon mentioning the shrines to passing humans, members of the faith were not allowed to discuss it with other wild pokemon either, unless the wild pokemon mentioned it and the member of the faith believed the other pokemon could be converted to their cause.

The Seventh was the reason most priests and priestesses were honest with humans, when it came time to discuss leaving Ara Village as swiftly as possible. (It is cursed, and the curse will corrupt both you and your pokemon. If the curse spreads among too many humans, it will eventually become widespread among wild pokemon who seek to join humans. And eventually the curse will weaken all pokemon, whether they are among the cursed ones or not. All that.) They chose their words carefully so as not to mention the shrines themselves, as mandated by the First, and hoped for the best.

The high priestess was the high priestess for a reason, though. She was more successful than other practitioners of her faith. Significantly so.

She succeeded because she recognized a reality that many of her faith were loath to admit: truth did not sit well with bondable humans. Armed with their pokemon, they felt invincible. They saw her faith as little more than a trite local custom--nothing real, nothing dangerous, certainly nothing to take seriously.

Their ignorance would be the undoing of pokemonkind and the high priestess had no patience for it. So her strategy was to take the First Sermon and apply it more broadly. If you tell humans not to do something, they will do exactly the opposite. First, she would rid them of the burdensome idea that they were invincible. Then, she would command them to do the opposite of what she actually wanted.

Every time, they retaliated.
Almost every time, the high priestess lost the battle.
But every single time, the high priestess won the war. Every single time, they got out of Ara Village as quickly as their legs could carry them. Whether it was to escape the crazed Espurr or just to prove a point was irrelevant. So long as they didn't stick around, her mission had been accomplished.

The losing bit did not matter. Losing to a bonded trainer was not a symbol of weakness in her faith; it was more of an inevitability. By definition of being bonded, their pokemon were stronger than the wild pokemon who made up her church. (Fighting unbonded trainers would have been an even match, but it would also be a waste of precious time. Her faith had no quarrel with unbondedable trainers. They could believe in legendaries with all their heart, worship the false idols every minute of every day, and it would not corrupt their pokemon one bit. But if a bonded trainer believed? If a bonded trainer worshiped and gave offerings to the false idols? Then their pokemon would believe, too. And then, like a virus, the belief would spread to their other pokemon, and to wild pokemon, and to future generations. Breeders were particularly dangerous in this regard, but many non-breeders dabbled in playing matchmaker between their pokemon at one point or another.)

By the time her threat (or warning, or suggestion, depending on how you looked at it) had been repeated, the gasping Flareon had found its way to its paws.

"You can't tell us what to do." Aiden draped a hand protectively over the Flareon's shoulder, allowing the panting dog to lean against him while Saffron caught his breath. Saffron's boldness inspired Nutmeg and she rounded on the Espurr. "Y-yeah! You can't tell us what to do!"

The high priestess's nostrils flared and balled her tiny paws into fists. "I already have, you fools."

Nutmeg looked at Saffron. Even in the dim moonlight, she could see that his dust-coated fur was splayed and knotted horribly from the Confusion's impact. She could only imagine what his skin looked like beneath the thick fur. Just thinking about it gave her the last ounce of bravery she needed. "No!" She marched forward, stomping a hoof defiantly in the dirt. "We're not gonna be stuck in Ara Village, or anywhere else, just because some bully tells us so!" Bullies were nothing new to Nutmeg. In fact, with her rotund belly and very visible obesity, bullies had been the rule rather than the exception up until the day Aiden took her from the lab. She'd never stood up to bullies before. Never. But she'd also never fought anyone until she'd left with Aiden--and she'd fought a bullying Fletchling and won. So why couldn't she fight this bully and win, too?

"You will remain in Ara for the rest of your days, no matter how you fight it. It is foretold." It was not foretold. That was a blatant lie. But the robed look conveyed her religious background in an instant. The robes convinced people that she believed what she was saying, even if they didn't personally believe it. She could see it in the Tepig's eyes--the fury that came with a stranger really, truly believing their grand journey would never get farther than the very first village on the map.

In telling them what to do, she had doused them with gasoline. And in telling them their journey was destined to be a failure, she'd lit the proverbial match.

As if on cue, the Tepig charged.

The high priestess did not move. Moving was not the point. Evading damage was not the point. Winning this petty fight was not the point. No. The priestess was not afraid of bodily pain. Life was full of pain and death was inevitable. There was nothing this Tepig could do to her that had not already been done by larger, stronger, angrier pokemon.

Her only consideration was that if she lost immediately, the group would ignore her advice. So she braced herself, took the Tepig's tackle, and went fumbling backwards--and then she stood up. Her hood was off now, draping from the neck of her robes. They only got to look her over a for a moment before she was on the move again. The hood and the cape streaked out behind her while she charged the Tepig, claws extended in preparation for a scratch attack.

"Ember!"

The Tepig opened her mouth as ordered. She let loose a batch of flames just as the priestess's claws made contact. There was no one here on the priestess's side, no one giving her orders. She stayed right next to the Tepig while the fire scorched through her robes, marring her fur and burning her skin. She scratched ruthlessly at the pig's hide all the while. Nutmeg wailed and flailed her head this way and that, slamming the wild pokemon with her skull. The beast would not be dissuaded.

"You will never leave Ara alive," she hissed. Nutmeg reared her head back and slammed forward with her whole body, knocking the priestess onto her back. She was down but not out, and her legs flailed wildly. The claws on her toes raked Nutmeg's legs, eliciting fresh squeals from the pig. By that point, the psychic energy within her was almost recharged. She was seconds away from another round of Confusion.

"Saffron, can you help?" In case the answer was no, Aiden was already digging through his bag for Carolina Reaper's pokeball. The mouthy bird was a handful but her attitude was exactly what he needed. Besides, she was always begging Aiden to let her fight. This was the perfect opportunity. Long before his hands found the right pokeball, the Flareon had left his side.

Saffron bounded up to the battle, ready to turn the brawl into a two against one. Fair? Not really. But this wasn't a league sanctioned match. It was a battle with someone who had caught them off guard, who had tried to order them, who had threatened them. Fighting fair was not a priority. "Back up, Nutty," he howled while he ran at the Espurr with a tackle attack. The seven and a half pound Espurr was helpless against the fifty five pound Flareon. He slammed into her just as she started lifting both of her ears up.

The priestess went rolling from the impact and a fresh blast of Confusion ruptured through the area, zigzagging indiscriminately around the route. The psychic energy sent shockwaves through the dirt road. Dust flew high into the air. Aiden and his pokemon were all hit by stray beams of the attack but none of them got the brunt of it; the dust in the lungs was worse than the Confusion itself. They all hacked and coughed, trying in vain to get the dust out of their lungs--but as long as they were in that area, there was nothing but dust to breathe in, so the efforts backfired every time they took a breath.

With his eyes squeezed shut, Aiden abandoned the search for Carolina's pokeball and slid his still-open backpack over his shoulders. "Guys, c'mon! Before she gets up! Run!" Neither Saffron nor Nutmeg needed to be told twice.


WORDS → 3,176
POKEMON → nutmeg the tepig & saffron the flareon & wild espurr
NOTES → fitz lmao 3k words for a pokemon I'm not even taking what is my life

anyway total experience gained is 1,588. nutmeg and saffron split each get 794. nutmeg grows to level twelve (128/375). saffron grows to level ten (304/325) and learns baby doll eyes.