Chapter 12

Cream nuzzled Dark Growlithe’s face until he finally stirred and opened his eyes.

“You were sure sleeping deeply,” commented Cream, “I’ve been trying to wake you for ages. I was about to bite your ears.”

Dark Growlithe rubbed the sleep from his droopy eyes with a paw, “Yeah, I was thinking last night.”

“About?”

“Nothing important,” muttered Dark Growlithe, there was no need to remind her about what they had seen last night. “Breakfast's ready, let’s go.”

The scent of freshly killed fish, brought to the caves by the hunting vaporeon was lazily drifting through the passages.

“That’s why I was trying to wake you!” exclaimed Cream, “It’s breakfast time.”

“Well why’re we waiting here then?” asked Dark Growlithe, starting down the shortest route to the chamber where the breakfast was brought.

Cream sighed but followed him.

*****

Dark Growlithe rested a while after breakfast, waiting for his whole class to show up. Cream was there and so was Kitten, the two of them playing together on the dew-covered grass, last was Bramble, who was watching leaves and twigs floating down the river. Bandit was nowhere to be seen; in fact no one had seen him all morning. Dark Growlithe was naturally suspicious but he was supposed to give Bandit time to get to class and not do something without him.

“Here’s Bandit,” called Kitten from where she was pinning Cream down in their play wrestling match.

“It’s about time,” muttered Dark Growlithe, “Bramble!”

The eevee looked up from the shining water of the river to his mixed-type teacher, got up and joined the group.

“Where were you, Bandit?” inquired Dark Growlithe.

He could only just make out the faintest smell of blood on the eevee. He doubted any of the other pokémon in the pack would have detected it even if they’re nose was pressed right up against Bandit’s fur.

“That’s none of your business,” dismissed Bandit. “What’re we doing today?”

“I want to know why you took so long to get here. You’ve held up our whole lesson and you won’t even give an excuse.”

“My business is my business. If you’re so desperate to know, find out yourself.”

“Fine, don’t tell me.”

“I won’t.”

“Perhaps I should tell Steam you’re disobeying orders from a superior pack member.”

Bandit glared at Dark Growlithe and snorted, “Do what you wish.”

“I will,” answered Dark Growlithe, echoing Bandit’s earlier tone of voice, “For today’s lesson we’ll practise wrestling.”

He had just thought of the idea from watching Cream and Kitten.

“Sounds fun,” grinned Bandit.

The other eevee looked apprehensive and shot Dark Growlithe some questioningly glances. Did he really expect them to fight Bandit?

“I think Bramble and Kitten will be the first pair.”

Kitten and Cream both gasped in shock. Cream was the weakest in the team and Dark Growlithe was going to make her fight Bandit, the strongest.

“Oh, wait, you’re too good to fight Cream,” said Dark Growlithe, pretending to have only now realised the large skill difference.

“Too late,” declared Bandit, “We should make proper decisions and see them through.”

“Usually I’d agree, but you deserve someone more at your level,” everyone was now confused and Bandit was thinking as fast as he could about what Dark Growlithe was planning. “So Cream will assist Bramble. It’s a little unfair for Kitten but it will do her good. For the second fight I’ll fight Bandit. Now,” continued Dark Growlithe, ignoring the looks of absolute surprise on his three good eevee’s faces, “for the rules; no biting or scratching, no permanent injuries, preferably none at all. The idea is to pin your opponent for five seconds. The match will continue until there is a winner. Cream, Kitten, Bramble when one of you goes out the other two will go against each other. But Kitten is on her own, Bramble and Cream, you two must work together. You don’t have a problem with this do you, Bandit?”

Bandit grinned, although it was more of a snarl, and showed his sharp canines, “It’s fine with me.”

“Good.”

Kitten moved into a defensive stance and prepared for the unbalanced combat, she knew she could beat either Cream or Bramble in a one-on-one fight easily, but together they would be a problem. As she had predicted, when they attacked they each came from a different side. Kitten was physically weak when compared to some of the other eevee in her year but she was the fastest in short spurts. She used this to her advantage in her battle style, using lightning-fast last-minute dodges. Feigning confusion, Kitten glanced rapidly from Cream to Bramble, what she was really doing was measuring distances and speeds. Cream and Bramble lunged at her once they were within range, less than a split second later she launched her plan and darted forward. Bramble and Cream hit each other in mid-air, luckily avoiding a head-on collision, and crashed on the ground. Kitten twisted around and targeted Cream, tackling her and sending her rolling away from Bramble. Kitten then pinned her stunned friend down. She only held her for three seconds before Bramble recovered and attempted to jump on her back. Kitten leapt to the side and would have made a good escape if it wasn’t for the fact that Cream kicked her left hind leg, causing her to loose her balance and stumble. Bramble landed perfectly and made to pin Kitten again. Kitten raised her hind legs though as she rolled on her back and kicked Bramble in the stomach. He fell on her, winded and she easily pushed him to the side and pinned Cream again, before she had time to scramble to her feet. Cream writhed under Kitten and succeeded in knocking her over and rolling on top of her. Kitten just continued the roll by using Cream’s momentum and was instantly back in control. During the roll though she had lost track of Bramble who had caught his breath and now tackled Kitten in the side. They rolled a bit; fighting for dominance but when they stopped it was Bramble on top. Kitten knew she was in trouble and used all her strength to try and push Bramble off her.

“Cream! Help me!” cried Bramble.

“Right!”

Cream jumped on top of Bramble making an eevee pyramid. No matter how much Kitten grunted and strained her legs were just too weak to push the other two eevee away.

“Well done, Cream,” congratulated Kitten. “You’ve won.”

“No she hasn’t,” disagreed Bramble, “She’s still got to beat me.”

“She’s on top of you, pinning you down. It’s been more than five seconds since you beat me. Cream wins.”

“No way!” cried Bramble, “That sucks!”

“Does, hey? Now please get off me, you’re making it hard to breathe.”

“I know you’ve wanted to fight me for a long time,” said Dark Growlithe, “Do you remember what you said to me when we first met?”

“I said you had a stupid name and the only reason people think you’re special is you’re a funny colour.”

“It’s not funny, it’s unusual. You also said you could beat me in a fight. Let’s see if that’s true.”

“It’ll be your loss,” commented Bandit confidently.

“I’ve survived against pokémon far stronger than you.”

Dark Growlithe sank his teeth into the vulpix’s shoulder. Blood squirted into his mouth and she cried out in pain. The other vulpix shot her own flamethrower, hitting Dark Growlithe in the chest. He flew back into the wall, slightly shocked. She then lunged for his throat but Dark Growlithe was lying on his back, raised his hind paws and kicked her in the face. Her jaws snapped together with a loud crack and one white fang fell out between her lips.

Bandit ran at Dark Growlithe then veered off to the left and began to circle Dark Growlithe counter-clockwise. Each pokémon was now going to have to rely on a different strategy, for Bandit it was obvious, his speed and size would give him better manoeuvrability, and whatever cheap tricks he could think of. Dark Growlithe, although he wasn’t a fully-grown growlithe, was still almost twice the size of Bandit and at least twice as heavy, he therefore had a major advantage in brute strength. Bandit broke out of his circle and tackled Dark Growlithe from the side. Dark Growlithe braced himself and barely moved when Bandit hit him. He then spun around himself to counter-attack and head-butted Bandit, knocking him away. Bandit recovered quickly and then feinted another tackle but rather darted past Dark Growlithe’s face, using his tail to whip Dark Growlithe’s eyes. Dark Growlithe yelped as his eyes stung painfully and held them closed tightly. Bandit used this temporary advantage to tackle one of Dark Growlithe’s hind legs and trip him up. Dark Growlithe fell and Bandit jumped on him, knocking the wind out of him, and pinned him down. That only lasted about a second before Dark Growlithe twisted his body and rolled. Bandit fell on his back and Dark Growlithe pinned him by placing his right front paw on Bandit’s chest. The eevee wriggled for a bit, his expression getting angrier and angrier, and then sunk his teeth into Dark Growlithe’s leg, almost exactly where his old wound was. Dark Growlithe jerked back in surprise and pain. Bandit’s teeth were luckily not very long so the cut was shallow but it was still bleeding.

“What the hell are you doing!” demanded Dark Growlithe.

Bandit didn’t answer but snarled. He looked a slightly different now. His fur was ruffled and sticking out, his eyes were different and his whole body just in general looked slightly darker.

“That’s Bandit’s rage attack!” shouted Bramble, “He won’t hear anything you say!”

Bandit ran head-on towards Dark Growlithe then jumped up to attack from above, jaws wide open. Dark Growlithe dodged to the side then back as Bandit attempted another bite.

“Bandit! Cut it out!”

The enraged eevee just used a quick attack and managed to get on to Dark Growlithe’s back, scraping his small claws over Dark Growlithe’s skin. Dark Growlithe reared up using the back of his head to hit Bandit’s face. The eevee fell back and was pinned again by Dark Growlithe, only this time he was careful not to leave his leg where it could be bitten. He held Bandit for a few minutes before the eevee finally returned to its senses. Dark Growlithe then berated him for being irresponsible and using a technique where he wouldn’t have any control in a practice fight. Bandit made a big show of watching the clouds floating leisurely above him and ignoring the fact that a tiny trickle of blood was coming out of his nose.

“If anyone, Bandit excluded, wants to do some extra lessons on anything then you can tell me and I’ll teach whoever wants more stuff sometime after normal lessons.”

“Why am I excluded?” asked Bandit haughtily, obviously under the delusion everyone should invite him to everything.

“Aren’t you too good for extra lessons?” asked Dark Growlithe, “If you need more help and can’t cope then you can come too.”

Dark Growlithe knew this was a safe way to invite him. Since he’d just been beaten he would be all upset and determined to show how great he still was so he’d never lower himself by saying he needed help just so he could see what the others were learning.

“I don’t even need your normal time-wasting lessons,” snorted Bandit and he left.

“I know you want to come,” said Dark Growlithe to Cream, “What about you two?”

“Sure, I will,” answered Bramble.

“It’s fine,” replied Kitten, “I like my free time. I might just visit once or twice though.”

“You’ll be welcome. I’ll decide when to start the lessons and then tell you all tomorrow.”

“Thanks,” said Bramble politely, “I’ll look forward to it.”

He then left.

“Do you want to play tag?” asked Cream.

“Tag?”

“You know, chase each other tag someone, then they chase each other.”

“I’ve never played before,” answered Dark Growlithe.

“I can teach you in no time,” Cream assured him, “It’ll be fun.”

“...Why not? I’ll play.”

“We need to find a few more players to make it more fun,” stated Kitten, “Follow me.”

Cream ran after Kitten and after a moments hesitation Dark Growlithe followed.