Chapter 18

Cream awoke to find Dark Growlithe watching her closely through his large, dark eyes.

“Morning,” greeted Dark Growlithe, “I didn’t want to wake you.”

“Thanks,” replied Cream.

She knew she should go to get them both breakfast but she could feel the cold morning air outside. Cuddled up to Dark Growlithe she was warm and comfortable. She also didn’t want to leave him alone with an injured leg but they needed food and it would be stupid for Dark Growlithe to go out and injure his leg again unnecessarily. She nuzzled closer to Dark Growlithe, crawling between his forelegs and resting her head under his chin.

“I was worried about you,” she admitted quietly, “When I saw you lying there and not moving.”

“I’m okay,” Dark Growlithe reassured her, “I can fall from further than that and I’ll be fine in no time.”

Cream could feel Dark Growlithe’s chest vibrate as he spoke to her. When he stopped she could hear his heart’s slow and steady beats. As long as those beats never stopped her world was safe but as soon as they ended she could no longer see a reason to continue.

“Just don’t try to prove it,” she scolded, trying to lift her spirits with a joke.

Dark Growlithe chuckled lightly.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to try. I don’t want to scare you. I want you to be happy. You must be happy. We’re both alive and I’ll recover soon. It’s the danger that makes life fun. Right? Wouldn’t life be boring if it was all predictable?”

“I guess …” answered Cream, unsure of that, “I wouldn’t mind if I knew we’d be together forever.”

“How about we don’t worry about it and just stay together as long as we can?” offered Dark Growlithe.

“You’re right,” declared Cream, pushing her uncertainty to one side and trying to take up a more positive outlook, “We’ll stay together as long as possible. There’s nothing that could take us apart.”

“Exactly,” agreed Dark Growlithe, “Now what do you say to continuing our journey? We won’t find that old jolteon by just lying around here.”

“No, no, no, no!” stuttered Cream, jumping out and pressing Dark Growlithe to the floor, “You aren’t going yet. I won’t let you.”

“Come on, Cream. What do you plan to do?”

She had no answer.

“We can’t just wait around. I can move around now that you fixed my leg.”

“But I’m not sure if you should be walking around yet,” she protested, “I won’t forgive myself if you get hurt.”

“We can take it easy. I’ll tell you when I get tired or experience a pain and we can stop and rest. Hmmm?”

Cream just glared at him disapprovingly. He gave a poor pitiful puppy whine that softened her gaze.

“I’ll think about it,” she relented, “But I’m going to get food, alone, and you’ll wait and rest here. Okay?”

Dark Growlithe watched her tail twitching from annoyance at his wish to leave.

“I’ll wait,” he sighed.

“Good.”

Cream turned to leave when Dark Growlithe called out to her.

“You’re cute when you get stubborn.”

Cream didn’t turn around but her eyes glowed with delight from the unexpected compliment.

*****

Ninetales paired Puki up with a vulpix who was his half-sister. She wasn’t sure if they knew that they were related but it wasn’t any of her concern, she had more important things to think about. From the cave door she watched as the two half-siblings went for a walk.

“I think we finally have our key,” stated Ninetales happily.

“The pup?” asked Bandit.

“The pup,” confirmed Ninetales, “The vaporeon wouldn’t be so heartless as to kick out a poor innocent little cub would they? He can ask Dark Growlithe to take him into the forest to find his parents and then we can capture him and take him back.”

“You’ll also have to watch out for pidgey and pidgeotto; if they see you coming they might tell Steam.”

“Who’s Steam?” asked Ninetales, “Does Steam live in the forest?”

“Steam’s the leader of the vaporeon pack,” answered Bandit.

“Watch the birdlife then? Got it. Finally I’ll have Dark Growlithe back and my children will be stronger than any other pokémon. A combination of my intelligence and magic boosted by the extra dark gene that Dark Growlithe carries.”

Bandit and Ninetales walked out of the den into the sunlight and the attention of every pokémon in the pack.

‘Soon you’ll be here, Dark Growlithe,’ thought Bandit, ‘Then I’ll get payback for that last attack. Ninetales probably won’t like that idea but you must be punished!’

“Attention everyone!” barked Ninetales.

The entire pack immediately stopped whatever they were doing and focused on her. Puki and his half-sister were luckily still nearby and watching, there’d be no need to try and find them.

“I want two smaller packs to assemble,” she commanded, “One will be coming with me and the other will stay here with two Vulpix Squad members. I want those packs done now! Males remain behind.”

Ninetales waited as everyone scrambled into two packs. Two of the Vulpix Squad remaining to keep the one in line and five were coming with Ninetales to capture Dark Growlithe. Puki and the other vulpix now stayed close with Bandit and Ninetales.

“Let’s go,” commanded Ninetales, and her lot of pokémon moved out, following Bandit’s directions to get to the hidden vaporeon pack.

*****

Dark Growlithe lay, almost contentedly, in the cave, waiting for Cream to return. He’d been thinking about what had happened and decided it was actually a good thing that he hurt his leg. True, he was now not much use but he was confident that this would contribute positively to Cream’s development. Cream would now be forced to look after both herself and Dark Growlithe. She’d have to fight and hunt all the time, alone. It would show her that she was stronger than she thought and therefore boost her confidence.

“Look here brothersss. A stranger in our cave, yesss.”

Dark Growlithe snapped out of his thoughts and saw a group of ekans at the entrance to the cave.

“He'sss obviousssly here to join usss for a meal,” decided one of the snakes.

“It won’t matter the other essscaped now,” agreed a different snake as they advanced on Dark Growlithe.

Dark Growlithe rose, trying to disguise the fact that his leg was injured but unfortunately he winced as he put pressure on it and it was noticed.

“He’sss injured. He can’t fight usss.”

“Exssselent.”

Dark Growlithe let out a torrent of fire that singed the ground where the ekans had been moments before. They were fast enough to dodge his long range attacks. Since he couldn’t fight properly without his leg he was in trouble.

*****

Smouldering bird carcasses were strewn across the forest’s floor, marking the trail that Ninetales had taken and a token to the Vulpix Squad’s accuracy.

“There’s another one,” noted Bandit upon sighting a pidgey sitting on a tree branch.

A vulpix raised her muzzle and attacked. Flames streaked forward and hit the pidgey. It spasmed as its body was set ablaze by the attack. It tried to cry out as a warning but its vocal cords were already burnt away, silencing the bird for ever. It hit the ground with a soft thump. Puki winced as he saw the pidgey’s murder and buried his face in his half-sister’s side. They had gotten on well. She wasn’t cruel like most of the other vulpix and was very friendly to Puki.

“It’s okay,” she whispered, trying to comfort Puki.

The poor pup had lived a good life with his parents and wasn’t emotionally prepared for the cruel way Ninetales lived. A tear ran down his grey muzzle and his sister felt his pain like it was her own.

“There,” said Bandit finally, “Through that crack is the Vaporeon pack.”

“And Dark Growlithe,” Ninetales reminded herself, “Come here Puki.”

Puki stepped up to Ninetales apprehensively and only after Vulpix gently nudged him forward.

“Now, Puki, you’re going to go to the Vaporeon pack and say that you were separated from your pack. When you find Dark Growlithe ask him to help you find your family and lead him out here. You got that?”

“But you’ll hurt him,” cried Puki, “I don’t want to be responsible.”

Ninetales glared at him coldly, “So you don’t want to be responsible if Dark Growlithe gets hurt?”

Puki shook his head.

“So you’d rather be responsible for her death?” asked Ninetales, pointing her muzzle at the vulpix responsible for Puki.

She looked shocked just before a vulpix from the Vulpix Squad tackled her down, pinning her on her back, her teeth at her throat. Vulpix’s eyes filled with fear and Puki tried to run to her. Bandit acted immediately tackling and pinning Puki who wasn’t expecting anything like this.

“It’ll be your decision,” stated Ninetales, “Who means more to you? Your sister or a pokémon you’ve never met before?”

Puki was trapped, he didn’t want anyone to be hurt but now he had to choose. The VS (Vulpix Squad) Vulpix tightened her grip until Vulpix was struggling to get air. They were also sisters but Ninetales had almost removed all feelings of attachment and sibling love from her pack.

“Stop it!” cried Puki, “I’ll do it! Leave her alone!”

Ninetales grinned and nodded. The VS Vulpix left her gasping sister and sat at attention. Puki dejectedly made his way to the Vaporeon pack, looking as depressed as if he had lost his family.

*****

Cream had managed to capture a young mankey that had strayed and she was now heading back. As she got close, however, she saw a flamethrower shoot out of the cave. Dark Growlithe was in trouble! She dropped the mankey and ran as fast as she could, hoping she wouldn’t be too late.

Dark Growlithe flung himself sideways, landing on his back and rolling away from the ekans that were attacking him. The closest ekans followed him and once it was in range struck. Blood splattered on the ground in little red circles. Dark Growlithe could feel no pain and opened his eyes that he’d snapped shut before the attack, to see what was happening. The ekans that had been about to bite him was lying dead under Cream. The ekans had almost been cut in two and there were matching bloodstains on its scales and Cream’s muzzle.

“Cream!” exclaimed Dark Growlithe in surprise.

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you,” she said.

Her fur was fluffed out to make her appear bigger as she stared down the writhing contingent of ekans.

“You can’t attack an injured pokémon!” shouted Cream at them, “That’s just mean!”

“It’sss two mealsss,” hissed the greediest ekans happily.

“Ssshe killed our brother,” commented another, looking a little frightened, “We need revenge.”

“Just try it, worms!” growled Cream as she sped forward.

There were three ekans Cream needed to defeat.

*****

“Now we need to get you eevee fit so I want you to run ten laps around the grassy area,” ordered Vaporeon-sensei.

The new batch of young eevee that were being trained set off on their run. Vaporeon-sensei looked around happily until his gaze fell on the depressed poochyena that was trudging into the pack territory. One little pup wasn’t a threat and Vaporeon-sensei ran up to him to see what was wrong.

“Are you alright?” asked Vaporeon-sensei as he reached Puki.

Puki shook his head, his eyes were red and you could see he’d been crying recently.

“I lost my family,” he lied, new tears springing forth as he thought of what would happen if he failed, or even if he succeeded.

Vaporeon-sensei picked up the sobbing pup by the scruff of the neck.

“Don’t worry,” he mumbled through the fur, “I’m sure you’ll find them. You can rest here for a while.”

*****

Cream moved as quickly as she could, darting between the snakes and inflicting savage bites. The snakes tried desperately to poison the eevee that was causing them so much agony but she was constantly moving at random and it was impossible to target and attack her. Cream hit the ground after jumping at another ekans and as she turned around used her sand-attack to blind the helpless serpents. One had had enough and fired acid in the direction that he thought Cream was. The was a cry of pain from one of the other ekans as the acid hit him in the face, melting away his scales and flesh until only bone remained.

“What happened?” demanded the other snake, blinded by the sand.

“He died!” yelled Cream, locking onto the snake’s body and tearing it open. Sensing a movement above her she dashed away as the only remaining snake sank his teeth into his dying brother, killing off a second of his team mates. The sand blew away leaving only one ekans and Cream facing off against each other.

“You’re never going to hurt my Growly again!”

Cream moved faster than ever before moving into a spin, her tail glowed with energy as it was powered-up for her strongest tail-whip ever. It struck the ekans in the throat and he folded over it with a snap as his neck broke from the impact. Cream skidded to a stop and the ekans shot off her tail and crashed into the wall of the cave. Cream took a breath as the adrenalin faded from her blood and she returned to normal. Once that happened, she turned around and rushed to Dark Growlithe.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “They didn’t injure you, did they?”

“I’m okay,” he answered, “thanks to you.”

They nuzzled each other with relief and, without even thinking about it, they moved their heads until their lips met.