Chapter 14

Bandit was pacing restlessly in the cave in which he’d been sealed. He felt no remorse at all. He’d been insulted, Dawn deserved her injuries. He smirked as he thought of the bites he’d inflicted. One on the shoulder and another on her back. He remembered the taste of her blood and ran his tongue over his teeth, feeling something stuck between two of them. He spent a few minutes absorbed in his task of freeing the annoying object. When he did he dropped it on the floor of the cave to see what it was; it was a small piece of flesh from Dawn’s shoulder. He grinned wickedly and ate it. It was a small strike against Firedancer, the flareon who’d burnt him, but he had no doubt that he’d still need more revenge to satisfy himself. All he needed was an opportunity and he would take what Firedancer valued most in the entire world, her daughter. How would he get close to Dawn though? No one would ever believe he would apologise and he was utterly convinced that neither Firedancer nor Dawn, nor anyone else for that matter, wanted him near her. If he waited until he was let out it would be too late, he would be guarded by a skilled vaporeon and although he was extremely arrogant and confident Bandit knew he had a very small chance of beating a vaporeon. That left him only one chance, he had to escape now.

*****

“Are you feeling better now?” asked Firedancer.

“Mmm,” murmured Dawn.

They were alone in the “hospital;” Firedancer was standing next to Dawn, who was lying flat on her stomach with a mixture off herbs smeared on her bite wounds.

“The vaporeon said you’d be better in a few days, although your shoulder will have a scar as long as you stay in your eevee form.”

“Why’d he attack me? I didn’t do anything to deserve this!” cried Dawn.

“Bandit is screwed in the head,” snarled her mother, “He doesn’t care about anyone or anything. He’s got a bad reputation for insolence and cruelty. I won’t let him near you again. You can sleep safely, he’s under guard.”

“I feel sorry for him.”

“Why?” snorted Firedancer, “He doesn’t deserve your pity. He doesn’t deserve to live.”

“Maybe it’s not all his fault. Maybe the first one of his crimes was an accident but now he has a reputation for doing no good. Every little mistake would be blown out of proportion and no one will want to speak to him or play with him. He’ll be all alone with no one to believe in him. I just find that sad.”

“I doubt it went that way. You don’t get a reputation by accident; it’s his fault if he can’t do anything right. He should try harder.”

Dawn shrugged her shoulders then winced as a jolt of pain ran down her leg, “I feel tired.”

“Rest well. Call if you need me.”

*****

“I can’t believe we have to feed the brat breakfast as well,” muttered a vaporeon, his teeth holding the tail of a dead goldeen.

“Yeah,” agreed his partner, “Starving for a while will teach him a lesson for sure.”

The two vaporeon returned to the boulder that blocked the entrance to Bandit’s cave and with a great effort rolled it slightly aside.

“Here’s some food for you, brat,” snarled the first vaporeon as he tossed in the dead fish.

There was no sound or movement in the cave.

“Hey, brat! Where are you? Come ou-!”

Vaporeon’s eyes were then drawn to a tunnel dug through a weak rock. He felt the rock and found it easily broke into small pieces of gravel.

“Alert Steam and Aquafang, Bandit’s escaped!”

*****

Bandit trotted proudly down the least-used corridors, standing tall and grinning even though his paws were oozing blood from cuts from the gavel. He headed straight for the ‘hospital’ cave and, after making sure no one was around, stepped inside. Dawn was still sleeping peacefully. Bandit scratched her back, his claws dragging off her healing herbs and tearing his bite wounds open again. Dawn’s eyes opened in pain, but even as she cried out Bandit slammed his other paw on her muzzle.

“Shut up!” he hissed, “We don’t want to alert your mom, do we? Look what she did to me!”

Dawn’s fear-filled eyes glowed with satisfaction as she saw the painful burns that covered Bandit’s one side. Bandit saw her eyes brighten and ground her muzzle harder and harder into the floor until she was forced to close her eyes in pain.

“I can’t hurt your mother like she hurt me but I can hurt her heart… by killing you.”

Hearing this Dawn pulled free but was immediately tackled down by Bandit, his jaws closing over her throat and constricting her breathing passageway. Bandit held her tightly as she gasped ever weaker for air. Her paws feebly tried to scratch Bandit but he simply stepped out the way, dragging her with him by her throat. Suddenly, he released her and she gratefully sucked air into her starving lungs. Bandit could hear sounds of alarm now.

“They know I’m free,” he said to her, gazing expressionlessly while she desperately gasped for the air her body had been denied. “I’m not as cruel as they say,” ginned Bandit. “I’m leaving now, without saying goodbye, but I’ll be back. You will never come back though, so I’ll give you a chance to say goodbye.”

Bandit snarled and tore into Dawn’s soft belly. His sharp teeth pierced the flesh and allowed him to rip the layer of skin off her stomach. Dawn cried out for the first time as her blood now spilled on the ground. Bandit pawed her insides and her intestines slithered out like a clump of slimy worms. He rapidly chewed some, assuring Dawn’s death and then he bolted out the cave, leaving his crying victim lying helplessly in an ever-widening red pool.

“Dawn! What happened?” cried Firedancer as she ran in the ‘hospital’ and saw her daughter slowly bleeding to death. The flareon couldn’t move from shock and her watering eyes darted from place to place. Steam and Aquafang saw Bandit wasn’t in the cavern and left, followed by a large squad of vaporeon and a few flareon. Firedancer moved one trembling paw and stepped forward.

“Mommy…” said Dawn weakly, her voice barely audible in the silent cave.

“Shush, don’t waste your strength,” advised Firedancer even though she could see it was hopeless she wouldn’t admit it to herself, “You’ll be okay. Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll recover. You’re strong. You can’t die. You can’t die!”

Firedancer collapsed next to her daughter, gently nuzzling her as her eyes blurred from her tears. Dawn tried to nuzzle back but was too weak to move. Firedancer licked her daughter’s face comfortingly, not caring that her blood was seeping into her fur.

“Mom…I…,” struggled Dawn.

“Dawn, please…,” begged her mother.

“I…love…you.”

“I know, I know, honey.”

“Good…bye.”

“No, don’t say that…please no,” pleaded Firedancer her voice growing quieter and more despairing as she spoke.

But a final shudder ran through Dawn’s small body and her breathing ceased and the light in her eyes faded away.

“No…Dawn. NO!”

Firedancer then completely broke down, her cries echoing through the network of caves a she lay by her dead daughter’s side.

*****

Cream was lying in Dark Growlithe’s front paws with him resting his head on her back, they were both on the edge of the river, staring into it the same way Bramble was known to do in his free time.

“Do you really think I’m ready?” asked Cream, breaking the meditative stillness.

“Ready for what?” asked Dark Growlithe, having been pulled back into awareness from just thinking about how nice it was to lie with Cream.

“For my evolution exam!”

“You need to stop stressing about it. It’s definitely happening in a few days and you’ll do fine.”

“Are you sure?” asked Cream again, seeking more reassurance.

Dark Growlithe gave an exaggerated sigh and smiled as he looked over the cute eevee in his paws. She was still small and gentle but, even if she hadn’t noticed it herself, her muscles had definitely strengthened and her lithe body was both feminine and tough.

“Of course I’m sure; I’ve been telling you for the whole last week. You just need to get your mind off it.”

“But I can’t think of anything else.”

“Not even me?” he asked, nuzzling her face.

Cream felt Dark Growlithe’s face press against hers, his warm breath calming her slightly as his moist nose rubbed her cheek. Cream turned her head and pressed her nose against Dark Growlithe’s, sharing the air between them.

“I suppose I can think about you,” decided Cream, her tongue quickly darting out to touch Dark Growlithe’s lips and then back again.

Dark Growlithe was about to react but stopped when he felt a presence behind them. He looked behind him to see a nervous looking Bandit, blood caking his muzzle and even more blood splattered over his face, chest and legs. Dark Growlithe and Cream just stared in shock.

“What did you do?” asked Dark Growlithe finally in a suspicious tone.

Cream moved off Dark Growlithe and he stood to face Bandit, not trusting the eevee at the best of times and certainly not when his fur was sticky with blood and he didn’t have any visible injuries.

“I killed that stupid flareon’s daughter,” proclaimed Bandit proudly.

“You killed Dawn!” exclaimed Dark Growlithe in shock. “You’re a monster!”

“Dawn…” Cream echoed sadly.

“Dark Growlithe! Capture Bandit!”

Dark Growlithe didn’t need to hear Steam’s command a second time but was instantly after his misdirected pupil. Bandit also heard Steam and dashed away as soon as the order was given.

*****

“Get lost mangy dog! You can’t hope to catch me!” yelled Bandit as he sped away from his home.

“Why’d you kill her!” demanded Dark Growlithe as he ran behind Bandit, “She never did anything to you!”

“She insulted me!” shot back Bandit, “And her mother interfered with her punishment so I killed her to punish her mother.”

“That’s just sick!”

Bandit dodged as Dark Growlithe lunged for him and the two entered the forest. The trees flashing past them as a green and brown blur. Bandit was now tiring but Dark Growlithe had a much greater endurance and was catching up to him. Knowing it was necessary Bandit headed for his last resort, a deadly trap. Bandit ran over a piece of ground that looked identical to all the other ground, except that under this was a stake pit. Bandit was light enough to pass over without a problem but as Dark Growlithe passed over the covering broke and Dark Growlithe started to fall. As he fell he used his anger at Bandit to power up a fire a fireblast attack in the short space of time he had. The fireblast hit the ground behind Bandit and exploded. After that, all Dark Growlithe saw were the sharply pointed, wooden stakes rushing up at him until they stopped. Dark Growlithe was floating just centimetres from being skewered, a faint pink aura around his body. He floated back to firm ground and looked behind him to see the espeon teacher catching his breath after saving Dark Growlithe. He glanced back in the direction Bandit had been going but the eevee was nowhere to be seen.

“Thanks,” he said to the espeon.

“No problem. I heard what had happened and used my teleport to catch up and then I had a premonition of you falling in the pit and I knew I had to save you.”

“But Bandit got away,” growled Dark Growlithe, disappointed.

“He’ll get his comeuppance, don’t worry,” reassured the espeon.

“Have you 'seen it?'” asked Dark Growlithe hopefully.

“No,” answered the espeon.

Dark Growlithe snorted, “Pity.”

“Let’s go back. We can’t do anything more now.”

Reluctantly Dark Growlithe turned away from Bandit’s trail and followed the espeon back to the pack.

*****

The entire vaporeon pack was in chaos. Everyone was badly shaken by Dawn’s murder and Bandit’s possible escape. Firedancer was too distraught to speak and was being comforted by the rest of her pack while Steam and the other leaders tried to calm everyone down and make sure that no one else had been injured. The area around the hospital was off-limits as Dawn’s body was still there and would have to stay until Firedancer could decide what to do with the body. Cream was pacing nervously at the narrow path through the mountain that led to the forest. She was afraid that Dark Growlithe would be hurt by Bandit. Kitten was with her but was too angry with Bandit to actually comfort her friend and was rather proclaiming loudly what she would do if to Bandit if she ever got her teeth or claws or any other part of her body on him. One unfortunate side-effect of this was that Cream was envisioning everything Kitten said she’d do to Bandit happening to Dark Growlithe, which just increased Cream’s anxiety. Kitten was finishing snarling out a suitable vengeance when Dark Growlithe and the espeon returned back.

Cream ran to Dark Growlithe, tears of relief falling as she saw Dark Growlithe was alive.

“I was so worried,” sobbed Cream as she checked Dark Growlithe for any injuries but finding none.

“It’s okay,” comforted Dark Growlithe, pulling Cream against his chest, shocked to feel how violently she was trembling.

“Where’s Bandit?” Kitten demanded furiously of the espeon.

“He managed to escape,” answered the espeon calmly.

“How could you lose him? Why didn’t you teleport after him or something?”

“He’d set a trap. I had to save your friend,” replied the espeon, motioning at Dark Growlithe, who had pushed Cream into a lying position and was nuzzling her tenderly as she sobbed. “It’s also not easy as you seem to think to use psychic powers. It takes a lot of concentration and energy.”

Kitten was frustrated by the arguments and couldn’t think of anything else to say so just stormed off to calm down alone.

“I sent a message to Mystery to tell Steam that we’re back,” the espeon told Dark Growlithe, “He’ll be here soon. I’m going to go now.”

Dark Growlithe only nodded that he had heard and continued to tend to the traumatised Cream.

“Is she okay?” asked Steam when he arrived.

“I guess she’s alright now,” answered Dark Growlithe, “I think that she’s in shock.”

Steam looked at the eevee who was now lying there totally silent; the only movement was that of her rising and falling chest.

“I’ll carry her back to the caves for you,” Steam offered but as soon as he tried to take her away from Dark Growlithe Cream began whimpering pitifully and he was forced to stop.

“Just put her on my back,” decided Dark Growlithe, lying next to Cream.

Steam complied and lifted Cream till she hung limply over Dark Growlithe’s shoulders. Then the two began their slow, sombre journey back to the caves.