Mother of the Cave
Feb 17, 2018 3:09:06 GMT
Post by Dtmahanen on Feb 17, 2018 3:09:06 GMT
Just as a heads up, this is the first one-shot I ever wrote. As in, 2014. As in, this is me at the very start of my writing career. Make of that what you will.
(Speech key: Thoughts are italicized, “human speech is between quotation marks,” and {pokéspeech is bracketed}.)
-------------------------
Granite Cave is quiet today. Throughout its black, murky depths, the air is peaceful and calm. Even the chattering of zubat seems to disappear within the silent, inky darkness. Nothing is stirring.
Nothing, that is, except the lumbering giant slowly inching her way across the cave floor.
The matriarch is going through her daily checklist. Do the aron have enough soil and iron ore to eat? Have the geodude made any cracks in the walls that could lead to water rushing in and flooding the level? Are the zubat screeching more loudly than normal, and if so, at what? Is the large gray rock in the center of the floor damaged? And will you please, please stop trying to break the poor nosepass in half, dear? What did he ever do to you?
She smiles in relief. Everything is as it should be.
After separating the unruly machop and nosepass for what must be the hundredth time this week, she begins to make her way to the ore depository to take her meal. She accidentally brushes her long tail against the battered nosepass, who lets out a pitiful groan. [Ah, my apologies,] she says. [I'll be more careful.]
Poor dear, she thinks as she walks. How hard has that rowdy boy been hitting him lately? He should know better than to play-battle with a rock-type at his age.
Reaching the depository, she swings her massive, steel-coated arm at the wall, knocking loose clumps of iron, soil, and rock. Accompanying the predictable flurry of wings and screeches from zubat fleeing from the loud noise, she is almost immediately surrounded by hordes of hungry geodude, aron, and nosepass, all anxious to receive their portions. The massive group of pokémon is almost too much for her to cope with.
Almost.
{Stop fighting, children,} she growls.
The group of pokémon falls silent. Even this part of her day is routine. She lets off a hoarse sigh.
{I won’t have you killing either over a pile of minerals,} she continues. We’ve already had enough fighting today. And besides, someone else needs this food a little more right now.}
She looks over to the wounded nosepass and gestures to the food pile with her horns.
{You may eat first dear. Take as much as you like.}
She can’t tell what the nosepass is thinking as it staggers over to the depository. But when she sees him give her a quick nod as he grabs some dirt in his stubby, hexagonal arms, she knows she did the right thing.
Content, she gives a curt nod to the expectant crowd. Almost instantly, every other pokémon grabs a portion of the food and begins to chow down. Giving off one last tired sigh, the matriarch plops her massive body onto the gravelly floor and watches them eat. She will take her meal after her children are finished.
They are all her children. Not just the little aron, nibbling on pieces of iron ore and scrap, but the nosepass as well. The fat, fun-loving makuhita, the unruly machop, and even the pesky zubat. They all look up to her, and she, in turn, looks out for them. They are her children, and she is their mother.
She would do anything to keep them safe.
----------------
{*SKEEEE skee skee skee SKEEEEE!*}
The matriarch jolts awake. Had she fallen asleep? She looks at the depository. The pile of minerals is gone, so she can only assume that her children had finished eating. So yes, it appears she had nodded off. So why had she been awoken?
Her question is answered almost immediately when a shrieking zubat nearly impales itself on her horn.
Gently swatting away the frightened purple bat, she notices that almost all of the zubat on the level are creating an uproar. Something is scaring them.
Something different is happening in the cave.
She quickly scans the room for signs of abnormality. The geodude are asleep, so it can’t be the walls cracking. The machop from before is sulking near the gray rock, so it’s not another squabble between him and the nosepass. And the little ones, the five aron, are taking their daily nap.
Wait a moment. One of them is missing!
Why would the little one disappear like this?, the matriarch wonders. Maybe she wandered off for a bit. But they always come back to me before long. So why is she not here?
It dawns on her.
Something must have happened. I have to find her!
Now in a state of panic, she begins frantically pacing the cave floor, looking for any sign of what may have happened to her baby. Then, as if the cave were answering her prayers, she noticed a flicker of unnatural light near one of the many sandy ledges dotting the walls of the floor. Curious and on edge, she creeps towards the light as softly as her large, metal body can move. But before she is able to see what the source of the light is, a noise suddenly reached her ears: the squeal of a frightened aron, and the curses of a decidedly non-friendly kind.
“Quit squirming, will ya, you little runt? Rrgh, this better be worth it, boss!”
“Come on, kid, you know how much aron helmets sell on the market. We drag the little brat out of the cave and to a good buyer, we’ll be raking in the dough!”
“Fine, but I ain’t carrying this thing! You want to handle it-"
The matriarch has heard more than enough. Whoever these creatures are, they are hurting her baby, and she will not stand idly by and watch. She charges toward the light with the ferocity of a mama ursaring, shaking the ground with every step.
When she arrives in the light, the scene becomes much clearer. The light is coming from a creature she has never seen before: a four-legged animal with spiky blue and yellow fur, red glaring eyes, and sharp teeth. Accompanying that thing are two other animals, the likes of which she has actually seen before. The “pale ones,” as she calls them, occasionally come down to the cave floor and pick fights with her children. Normally, she does not show herself to them, as they never truly mean to harm the denizens of the cave, only to strengthen the pokémon accompanying them. However, every once in a while, when she takes roll before the next meal, one of her children is missing, so she has always harbored a distrust for the pale ones.
Seeing her baby writing around in a burlap sack screaming for help, her fears are seemingly justified.
{Leave my child alone, pale ones!} she roars. {She is just a baby! You cannot take her away!}
One of the pale ones, a skinny, gaunt-looking wretch, begins to cower in fear. Just as she planned. He will run away.
“Rand, do you know what that is?” he asks his companion, a more muscular creature with hair on his face. “That is an aggron. A big, scary, angry aggron. That looks like it wants to freaking kill us. Do you know what that means, Rand?!”
The bigger pale one, which the frail one called Rand, lets out a strange noise. Is…is that laughter?
“It means that we just hit the jackpot, Matt,” he states. “Aggron helmets are worth even more than what we can get from the little aron brat. And if my sources are right, there’s only one aggron in every cave, ‘cause they’re so territorial. If we can off this one, then we’ll have free reign to came back for aron heads as much as we want! We’ll be millionaires!”
The skinny one looks at the big one in shock. This is not working out as she had hoped. “You’re insane, you know that?” he stammers.
The Rand creature laughs. “Nah, I just think bigger than you. Manectric, use Flash!”
Out of nowhere, the blue and yellow creature lets out a bark and tenses its body. Almost immediately, its fur begins to glow with a harsh light, completely blinding the matriarch. She begins to flail her arms and tail around wildly, hoping desperately to land a hit on one of these horrible creatures.
“While it’s distracted, cripple it with your Fire Fang!” she hears Rand command. “Aim for the neck! I want that thing on the ground!”
Hearing another bark coming from her left side, she swings her heavy tail in that general direction. She feels an intense satisfaction when her tail connects, sending the beast slamming into the wall with a whimper. Regaining her vision somewhat, she hazily sees the blue dog out cold, and the two pale ones off in the distance. This time, even Rand looks frightened, and even a little stunned.
Good. I am not the mother of this cave for nothing.
“Dude, snap out of it!” the one called Matt whispers. “We need to get out of here! That thing'll kill us!”
Matt’s whining breaks Rand from his trance, and a determined look spreads across his face. “Right,” he says. “You grab Manectric, I’ll grab the little brat, and we’ll split. Sound good?”
“Yeah, just move already.”
At the words "grab the little brat," the matriarch knows that her child was in trouble. As she lunges for the bag, she makes up her mind. If these monsters will not leave on their own, I will make them leave.
Reaching her long before Rand is able to grab a hold of the bag, she turns around to look at the pale one dead in the face. Rand freezes in horror as the matriarch begins to summon a ball of energy into her gaping maw.
“Rand, move!” screams the skinny one.
Once again, it takes Matt’s words to snap the brute out of his trance. He springs into action, leaping out of the way just before a white-hot beam of energy slams into the wall behind him. He then proceeds to run towards the sandy slope, screaming like a zubat that’s heard too much noise.
Matt looks at his companion’s flight, and then turns to the matriarch, who was now staring at him with deadly intent.
“Y-yeah,” he whispers. “Y-you can keep the brat. I’m outta here.” He turns on his heel and begins to briskly walk away, still muttering to himself. “I might just, you know, poach some shroomish for their spores, not as likely to kill you…”
The aggron maintains her watch on the floor, waiting until she can’t hear the small one’s footsteps. She then turns her attention to her baby, tearing the bag apart with her metallic teeth until the aron is able to free herself. The poor dear then rushes into the matriarch’s arms, snuggling against her hard chest while crying with relief.
{Mama, mama, thank you mama, I was so scared, they were gonna-}
{Hush now,} the matriarch rumbles. {You are safe now. The pale ones will not hurt you anymore. You will be alright.}
But in her mind, the matriarch despairs. She knows that this will happen again. Pale ones come down to the cave floor all the time. Who knows if all of them are like those two evil creatures?
She cannot take that chance. The creatures of the Granite Cave are her children. She will not let them be harmed like this ever again.
She will keep an ever-more vigilant watch. She will nevermore pass a blind eye to a pale one, should it appear. And if they ever try to hurt one of her children again…
They will face the wrath of the mother of the cave.
They can be sure of that.
Mother of the Cave
(Speech key: Thoughts are italicized, “human speech is between quotation marks,” and {pokéspeech is bracketed}.)
-------------------------
Granite Cave is quiet today. Throughout its black, murky depths, the air is peaceful and calm. Even the chattering of zubat seems to disappear within the silent, inky darkness. Nothing is stirring.
Nothing, that is, except the lumbering giant slowly inching her way across the cave floor.
The matriarch is going through her daily checklist. Do the aron have enough soil and iron ore to eat? Have the geodude made any cracks in the walls that could lead to water rushing in and flooding the level? Are the zubat screeching more loudly than normal, and if so, at what? Is the large gray rock in the center of the floor damaged? And will you please, please stop trying to break the poor nosepass in half, dear? What did he ever do to you?
She smiles in relief. Everything is as it should be.
After separating the unruly machop and nosepass for what must be the hundredth time this week, she begins to make her way to the ore depository to take her meal. She accidentally brushes her long tail against the battered nosepass, who lets out a pitiful groan. [Ah, my apologies,] she says. [I'll be more careful.]
Poor dear, she thinks as she walks. How hard has that rowdy boy been hitting him lately? He should know better than to play-battle with a rock-type at his age.
Reaching the depository, she swings her massive, steel-coated arm at the wall, knocking loose clumps of iron, soil, and rock. Accompanying the predictable flurry of wings and screeches from zubat fleeing from the loud noise, she is almost immediately surrounded by hordes of hungry geodude, aron, and nosepass, all anxious to receive their portions. The massive group of pokémon is almost too much for her to cope with.
Almost.
{Stop fighting, children,} she growls.
The group of pokémon falls silent. Even this part of her day is routine. She lets off a hoarse sigh.
{I won’t have you killing either over a pile of minerals,} she continues. We’ve already had enough fighting today. And besides, someone else needs this food a little more right now.}
She looks over to the wounded nosepass and gestures to the food pile with her horns.
{You may eat first dear. Take as much as you like.}
She can’t tell what the nosepass is thinking as it staggers over to the depository. But when she sees him give her a quick nod as he grabs some dirt in his stubby, hexagonal arms, she knows she did the right thing.
Content, she gives a curt nod to the expectant crowd. Almost instantly, every other pokémon grabs a portion of the food and begins to chow down. Giving off one last tired sigh, the matriarch plops her massive body onto the gravelly floor and watches them eat. She will take her meal after her children are finished.
They are all her children. Not just the little aron, nibbling on pieces of iron ore and scrap, but the nosepass as well. The fat, fun-loving makuhita, the unruly machop, and even the pesky zubat. They all look up to her, and she, in turn, looks out for them. They are her children, and she is their mother.
She would do anything to keep them safe.
----------------
{*SKEEEE skee skee skee SKEEEEE!*}
The matriarch jolts awake. Had she fallen asleep? She looks at the depository. The pile of minerals is gone, so she can only assume that her children had finished eating. So yes, it appears she had nodded off. So why had she been awoken?
Her question is answered almost immediately when a shrieking zubat nearly impales itself on her horn.
Gently swatting away the frightened purple bat, she notices that almost all of the zubat on the level are creating an uproar. Something is scaring them.
Something different is happening in the cave.
She quickly scans the room for signs of abnormality. The geodude are asleep, so it can’t be the walls cracking. The machop from before is sulking near the gray rock, so it’s not another squabble between him and the nosepass. And the little ones, the five aron, are taking their daily nap.
Wait a moment. One of them is missing!
Why would the little one disappear like this?, the matriarch wonders. Maybe she wandered off for a bit. But they always come back to me before long. So why is she not here?
It dawns on her.
Something must have happened. I have to find her!
Now in a state of panic, she begins frantically pacing the cave floor, looking for any sign of what may have happened to her baby. Then, as if the cave were answering her prayers, she noticed a flicker of unnatural light near one of the many sandy ledges dotting the walls of the floor. Curious and on edge, she creeps towards the light as softly as her large, metal body can move. But before she is able to see what the source of the light is, a noise suddenly reached her ears: the squeal of a frightened aron, and the curses of a decidedly non-friendly kind.
“Quit squirming, will ya, you little runt? Rrgh, this better be worth it, boss!”
“Come on, kid, you know how much aron helmets sell on the market. We drag the little brat out of the cave and to a good buyer, we’ll be raking in the dough!”
“Fine, but I ain’t carrying this thing! You want to handle it-"
The matriarch has heard more than enough. Whoever these creatures are, they are hurting her baby, and she will not stand idly by and watch. She charges toward the light with the ferocity of a mama ursaring, shaking the ground with every step.
When she arrives in the light, the scene becomes much clearer. The light is coming from a creature she has never seen before: a four-legged animal with spiky blue and yellow fur, red glaring eyes, and sharp teeth. Accompanying that thing are two other animals, the likes of which she has actually seen before. The “pale ones,” as she calls them, occasionally come down to the cave floor and pick fights with her children. Normally, she does not show herself to them, as they never truly mean to harm the denizens of the cave, only to strengthen the pokémon accompanying them. However, every once in a while, when she takes roll before the next meal, one of her children is missing, so she has always harbored a distrust for the pale ones.
Seeing her baby writing around in a burlap sack screaming for help, her fears are seemingly justified.
{Leave my child alone, pale ones!} she roars. {She is just a baby! You cannot take her away!}
One of the pale ones, a skinny, gaunt-looking wretch, begins to cower in fear. Just as she planned. He will run away.
“Rand, do you know what that is?” he asks his companion, a more muscular creature with hair on his face. “That is an aggron. A big, scary, angry aggron. That looks like it wants to freaking kill us. Do you know what that means, Rand?!”
The bigger pale one, which the frail one called Rand, lets out a strange noise. Is…is that laughter?
“It means that we just hit the jackpot, Matt,” he states. “Aggron helmets are worth even more than what we can get from the little aron brat. And if my sources are right, there’s only one aggron in every cave, ‘cause they’re so territorial. If we can off this one, then we’ll have free reign to came back for aron heads as much as we want! We’ll be millionaires!”
The skinny one looks at the big one in shock. This is not working out as she had hoped. “You’re insane, you know that?” he stammers.
The Rand creature laughs. “Nah, I just think bigger than you. Manectric, use Flash!”
Out of nowhere, the blue and yellow creature lets out a bark and tenses its body. Almost immediately, its fur begins to glow with a harsh light, completely blinding the matriarch. She begins to flail her arms and tail around wildly, hoping desperately to land a hit on one of these horrible creatures.
“While it’s distracted, cripple it with your Fire Fang!” she hears Rand command. “Aim for the neck! I want that thing on the ground!”
Hearing another bark coming from her left side, she swings her heavy tail in that general direction. She feels an intense satisfaction when her tail connects, sending the beast slamming into the wall with a whimper. Regaining her vision somewhat, she hazily sees the blue dog out cold, and the two pale ones off in the distance. This time, even Rand looks frightened, and even a little stunned.
Good. I am not the mother of this cave for nothing.
“Dude, snap out of it!” the one called Matt whispers. “We need to get out of here! That thing'll kill us!”
Matt’s whining breaks Rand from his trance, and a determined look spreads across his face. “Right,” he says. “You grab Manectric, I’ll grab the little brat, and we’ll split. Sound good?”
“Yeah, just move already.”
At the words "grab the little brat," the matriarch knows that her child was in trouble. As she lunges for the bag, she makes up her mind. If these monsters will not leave on their own, I will make them leave.
Reaching her long before Rand is able to grab a hold of the bag, she turns around to look at the pale one dead in the face. Rand freezes in horror as the matriarch begins to summon a ball of energy into her gaping maw.
“Rand, move!” screams the skinny one.
Once again, it takes Matt’s words to snap the brute out of his trance. He springs into action, leaping out of the way just before a white-hot beam of energy slams into the wall behind him. He then proceeds to run towards the sandy slope, screaming like a zubat that’s heard too much noise.
Matt looks at his companion’s flight, and then turns to the matriarch, who was now staring at him with deadly intent.
“Y-yeah,” he whispers. “Y-you can keep the brat. I’m outta here.” He turns on his heel and begins to briskly walk away, still muttering to himself. “I might just, you know, poach some shroomish for their spores, not as likely to kill you…”
The aggron maintains her watch on the floor, waiting until she can’t hear the small one’s footsteps. She then turns her attention to her baby, tearing the bag apart with her metallic teeth until the aron is able to free herself. The poor dear then rushes into the matriarch’s arms, snuggling against her hard chest while crying with relief.
{Mama, mama, thank you mama, I was so scared, they were gonna-}
{Hush now,} the matriarch rumbles. {You are safe now. The pale ones will not hurt you anymore. You will be alright.}
But in her mind, the matriarch despairs. She knows that this will happen again. Pale ones come down to the cave floor all the time. Who knows if all of them are like those two evil creatures?
She cannot take that chance. The creatures of the Granite Cave are her children. She will not let them be harmed like this ever again.
She will keep an ever-more vigilant watch. She will nevermore pass a blind eye to a pale one, should it appear. And if they ever try to hurt one of her children again…
They will face the wrath of the mother of the cave.
They can be sure of that.
