Chapter 15

Bandit’s murder of Dawn had severely shocked everyone and, obviously, postponed the Evolution Exam until Dawn’s funeral, which was occurring now. Steam led the procession of mourners through a series of tunnels that had to be unsealed before pokémon could pass through. Dawn’s body was wrapped in vegetation and carried next to her mother by two flareon.

Eventually, the passage they followed opened up into a breathtaking cavern made almost entirely of green crystal, and dimly lit from light shining up from the floor. Dark Growlithe stepped silently while gazing around at the beautiful rock formations that surrounded him. He looked at his feet, curious as to why the light came from beneath him and realised he was standing above a massive underwater lake with light filtering through to its depths from the surface. Steam stopped in front of a large hole in the floor and waited for everyone to find a place to settle around. From inside the hole a constant deep roar emanated and could be felt as a vibration if you came closer to the edge of the hole.

“We are here under one of the saddest circumstances I have ever known,” began Steam, “A pokémon who was once part of my pack killed one of our allies. He cannot be forgiven, but in your anger do not forget his innocent victim whose life he so callously stole. This gathering was meant to bring joy and reaffirm our ties of friendship, not cause heartache and pain. We are here to honour the memory of Dawn and release her body back to the spirits so that she may know greater happiness in death than in life.”

Steam then nodded to Firedancer and, looking through eyes that were blurred from tears, she pushed the enshrouded body of her daughter into the hole. Dawn’s body dropped through the hole and into the middle of a gigantic whirlpool and was taken by the water to an unknown destination only ever reached by the dead.

Back on the surface everyone was silent; their heads bowed in remembrance, only the occasional sniff or sob breaking the stillness.After all the pokémon had left the burial cavern it was once again sealed.

*****

“She was so young when she died,” commented Cream sadly. “And she died away from home, violently.”

“Hopefully she had had a good time before Bandit got to her,” replied Dark Growlithe as they walked to the shade of a tree to rest.

“And she also went through the whirlpool. I hope if I ever die I can go through.”

“Was it a whirlpool down there? I didn’t get close enough to see.”

“It’s a huge whirlpool that spins continuously. It probably doesn’t do anything but there is a legend that the whirlpool is the easiest way for your spirit to get to heaven and if your body is offered to the whirlpool it leaves a trail for your spirit to follow.”

“I’ve never heard that story or anything similar before.”

“Nothing similar?” asked Cream, “What did you believe happened to your spirit?”

“I’d never thought about it. I suppose I would have just assumed you’d lose your memories and become a ghost pokémon.”

“There aren’t that many ghosts,” disagreed Cream, “I say when you die I’ll make sure you are given to the whirlpool, that way you’ll be happy after you die.”

“Thank you, it means a lot to me.”

“I know. I have to make sure you’re happy. I love you,” affirmed Cream, kissing Dark Growlithe’s muzzle, “And you’ll do the same for me when I die?”

“Of course I will. I promise.”

*****

It was midday and Dark Growlithe, Cream and Kitten were taking a walk through the forest. Entirely by coincidence, they were travelling along the same path Bandit had travelled when he went out on his excursions to exercise his malice.

“That was a good meal, hey?” commented Kitten contentedly, referring to the rare staryu the three had shared.

“I was worried it would hide under the water,” admitted Dark Growlithe, “None of us would have been able to get it then.”

“It was worth it,” said Cream, “I’ve only had staryu twice.”

“It was my first time,” stated Dark Growlithe. “Actually, I’d never eaten a water pokémon until I came to this pack.”

“Now it’s almost all you get,” remarked Kitten.

“It’s also the first time for a lot of the other packs’ eevee” stated Cream, “I saw some of them looking at it as if it was poisonous.”

“You could have had some fun with them,” declared Kitten with a grin, “Next time tell them that unless they eat a pawful of bitter berries before and after the meal a poison in the fish will make them extremely sick.”

Cream laughed and Dark Growlithe also grinned even though he didn’t think it was the nicest thing to do.

“What if someone found out,” he asked, “You’ll get into trouble for deceiving them like that.”

“It would be worth it though,” decided Kitten, “Just imagine their faces.”

“I accidentally ate a bitter berry when I was little,” remembered Cream, “It took all day for the taste to leave my mouth.”

“I remember that,” laughed Kitten, “You were crying to your mom and saying your tongue was dissolving and you were going to die.”

“I didn’t say that!” protested Cream.

“Look out for the ghost of Cream!” cried Dark Growlithe, pretending to be scared and jumping behind a tree.

“I’m not a ghost!” protested Cream, “I’m perfectly alive!”

“Unlike our chicks!” shouted a voice from above.

The three pokémon looked up and were startled to see a flock of pidgey and pidgeotto glaring down angrily at them.

“More murderous eevee,” sneered a pidgeotto. “Let’s kill them!”

Cream, Kitten and Dark Growlithe bunched closer as the other birds appeared to agree and were twittering discontentedly to each other.

“We’re not murderous eevee,” disagreed Kitten. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t talk down to us!” snapped a pidgey, “Are you looking for your killer friend? We can understand you catching one of us for food now and then but now you’re killing us for sport! Well we’re sick of it!”

“Yeah! It’s time we drove you cruel eevee out of the forest! For good!”

“It’s time we killed you! See how your pack likes it!”

“It’s not us!” protested Dark Growlithe, “You’re probably talking about Bandit!”

“You think he killed them for no reason?” asked Cream, looking at her boyfriend in shock.

“It’s possible,” he answered, then turned back to the flock of bird pokémon, “Was it a small eevee with a darker coat? He also had an insolent attitude.”

“We don’t know what his personality was like! He picked us off one by one and then fled before we could get our retribution.”

“If it’s Bandit he’s been kicked out of the pack,” stated Dark Growlithe nervously.

“Why?” demanded a pidgeotto, “You jealous?”

“We didn’t know about this!” protested Cream, hurt by the accusations that she and her pack were cold killers.

“He killed one of our own,” snarled Kitten bitterly.

“And he escaped from me,” said Dark Growlithe, his head falling a little from shame, “We don’t know where he is.”

“Did you burn him?” asked a pidgey behind them.

“No,” answered Dark Growlithe, “But he was burned. By a flareon.”

“I saw an eevee heading away from here. He was bleeding from a few wounds and was badly burned on one side.”

“That’s him!” exclaimed Dark Growlithe.

“Where is he!” demanded Kitten.

“Why didn’t you tell us earlier?” asked the first pidgeotto, “We could have killed him then.”

“I’d never seen him,” replied the pidgey, “How was I supposed to know he was the killer? He’ll be too far away by now for you land pokémon to catch him. We’ll pursue him from the air.”

The rest of the flock agreed and the majority of them took off, led by the pidgey who’d seen Bandit’s escape.

“Can we go now?” asked Cream tentatively.

“I guess,” muttered a pidgey, all the pidgeotto had left to hunt down Bandit.

Thankful, Cream, Kitten and Dark Growlithe filed away as quickly as they could without looking like they were hurrying.

*****

“So Bandit was so messed up that he even went killing the other pokémon in the forest,” observed Kitten.

“Damn it!” barked Dark Growlithe, “I should have told Steam about that night.”

“What night?”

“After our first date we saw Bandit,” answered Cream.

“He washed himself in the river but I still smelt some blood.”

“But that was a few weeks ago!”

“I wonder how many pokémon he killed just because he felt like it?” wondered Cream sadly.

“At least he’s gone now,” declared Kitten, “He can’t do anything more around here and that flock of birds will finish him off.”

The three lay together in silence for a while as the setting sun gradually sank and ceased to shine its light.

“I remember a story I was told as a cub,” said Cream, “about a pidgey that died and was reborn. Do you two know it?”

“That was the one with mew sending a message, right?” asked Kitten.

Cream nodded.

“I’ve never heard it,” said Dark Growlithe, “I hardly ever heard stories in my old pack.”

“Then I’ll tell you,” said Cream happily.

A long time ago when Mew was still actively involved in the affairs of other pokémon he knew of a war about to begin far away from where he was between grass and fire pokémon. It was obvious the fire pokémon would win and that all the grass pokémon would die but he loved all the pokémon and didn’t want any of them to die in an unnecessary war. He planned to use his incredible psychic powers to split the earth where the war was to take place and separate the two combatants. The only problem was that he was busy negotiating another peace treaty far away and would be unable to get there before the fight broke out, so he went to a flock of pidgey, much like the one we saw today and told them of his problem and asked them to take a message to the fire and grass pokémon.

Shockingly, none of the pidgey were prepared to undertake the dangerous task for Mew except for the smallest and weakest one. So Mew gave it his message and sent it on before him to keep the peace until he got there. Pidgey flew as hard as he could until he reached the grass pokémon and told them the message. They agreed to wait until Mew arrived to sort out their problems and, satisfied, Pidgey flew on to the fire pokémon. They were not as friendly and refused to wait; they wanted blood. Pidgey tried his best to convince them but they still refused and grew tired of his constant irritations and the leader of the fire pokémon burned Pidgey to death.

When Mew arrived shortly afterwards and learned of Pidgey’s fate he grew angry at the fire pokémon and after separating the two groups of pokémon went to Pidgey’s ashes and used his powers to revive Pidgey. But Pidgey wasn’t just reborn, when he rose again he rose with feathers of flame and far more power than before, he became Moltress and Mew gave him the power to rule over the fire pokémon that had ignored him.

“That’s the story I was told of how Moltress came into being,” finished Cream.

“It’s a nice story,” commented Dark Growlithe, “Pidgey becoming Moltress. I hope the pokémon Bandit killed have an afterlife like that.”

The two eevee agreed and the three gradually fell asleep.