Chapter Two: They Fight Like Beasts
“Here we are.” Catrin came to a stop and stood up on his haunches, and Elaine joined him at the forest's edge. It was so dark she could hardly see a thing, but since pokemon had good night vision, she trusted Catrin to at least guide her through the forest without bumping into any trees. (She did bump into trees. Two, in fact, but she wasn't going to be mad about it.) Out of the woods, she could at least see a little better. There was a dirt road ahead and a bridge further in the distance. But the real thing that drew her attention was the looming mountain. In the night, it was black as a shadow, and it made Elaine's heart thump. You could see mountains far in the distance on the Castelia rooftops, but she'd never been so close to one.
“Ragged Mountain,” Catrin said. “The caves are known to become mystery dungeons spontaneously, but I didn't hear any reports of it before I came to this region. It should be safe.”
“A mystery what?” Elaine asked.
“I'll explain later.” Elaine winced at the snap in his tone, and he looked down apologetically and lowered his ears. “Ah, I mean, er... I apologize for my tone, Savior! A mystery dungeon is-”
“It's alright, you can tell me later,” Elaine said. “So, the bandits are up there?” She lifted a hoof and gestured to the mountain.
“Should be. It certainly sounded like they were here, from that howl.” Catrin lowered himself onto all fours and pulled his hood lower over his forehead. His big, circular ears poked out from two slits in the hood, and Elaine's heart skipped a beat. Okay, no matter how rude this oshawott could be, that was adorable! “We need to be careful here. There's no cover at the mountain's base. They can spot us and lay an ambush.”
Elaine grit her teeth and gulped. She was not in the mood to be ambushed by crazy pokemon today! Especially since she was a lot smaller than she was used to. If a pokemon could kill her easy as a human, she didn't want to imagine what they could do to a little, patchy tepig. “So, then! What do we do?”
“Stay close to me.”
Catrin slunk out of the bushes like a purrloin and crept along the edge of the underbrush. Elaine followed him, though she didn't feel near as stealthy. Catrin was sleek and thin, but her new body was clunky and pudgy, and she scraped against the underbrush and snapped every twig underfoot (underhoof?). At one point, Catrin shot a glare back at her. “A little quieter, if you will?” he hissed.
“It's not exactly easy being a tepig!” Elaine huffed back.
They neared the base of the mountain, and the ground began to slope upwards. The trees fell behind them, and Elaine felt only rock and dead grass underfoot as they crept uphill. As she followed Catrin, Elaine used the height to get a better look around. The world was made of silhouettes; everything from the trees to the mountains to the river below was nothing more than a black shadow under a purplish night. The sky itself was the color of a bruise, with just a few flickering stars and the black sphere of a moon. Sadness passed through Elaine, looking at it all. Nights in Castelia City were bright and beautiful. Yeah, scientists were in a huge tizzy over light pollution, but you didn't need stars when the city lights breathed life into the night. The streetlamps and yellow windows and bright blue billboards were like spirits coming out to play. You never had to be scared of the dark. But here, there were no spirits. It felt like the sun had gone down and the world had died. No breath.
She really needed to stop letting her mind wander and freak herself out.
Elaine gulped, and her lip quivered. "H-hey, Catrin-"
“Here.” Catrin's whisper cut her off. She looked up to realize they'd come to a gaping, dark hole in the mountainside. Elaine had figured the mountain was as black as black could get, but turns out it could get darker. Good. Cool. Catrin sniffed at the air, and his tail swished. “I smell them in here.”
Elaine sniffed, but all she could smell was dead grass and dew. Good to know her chunky tepig body didn't come with heightened pokemon senses. Lovely. “So, what's the plan? We go in, shoot some water, and done?”
Catrin narrowed his eyes at her, like he couldn't tell if she was making fun of him or not. Elaine wasn't, but she didn't mind him thinking otherwise. “I'd prefer not to get killed, Savior. If anything, it'd be ideal if we weren't spotted. Sneak in, sneak out. But they'll probably smell us before we get that far.”
“So what do you want me to do? Dress in drag and do the hula?”
Catrin blinked at her. “Is that code... ?” Elaine broke into a fit of giggles, and his face heated up as he smacked at her with his paw. “Savior, please focus! I think the best plan is if I go first and distract them. I hate to ask this of you, but can you grab my parcel while I have their attention?”
Elaine's eyes widened. “Wh- Dude, I dunno! I'm not used to this body yet, a-and they've got a dog in there, a-and...”
“Savior, please, I need you to help me. If I don't get that parcel back...” Catrin's voice trailed off. He curled his claws in and grimaced.
Elaine wanted to keep arguing, but the look on Catrin's face... Just how important was this parcel? She could feel an iron ball of anxiety sitting in her chest, but she swallowed it. “Fine, fine. I'll follow your lead, okay?”
Catrin's eyes sparkled with gratitude. “Thank you so much, Savior. You really are as selfless as the Great Prophetess foretold!” Elaine shifted her weight, not really sure what to make of that, but Catrin didn't notice her discomfort. “We'll need to disguise your scent. So, here.”
He grabbed his cloak with his paws and, after a moment of hesitation, pulled the hood over his head and dropped it on Elaine's back. It landed with a
fwump and fell over her eyes. She had to buck her head just to get the hood out of her face. “You're giving me your cloak? But, I don't wanna get it dirty!”
“Keeping you safe is more important, Savior,” he said, though his voice wasn't very convincing. He stared at after his cloak like he'd given Elaine his baby to hold. “Just, be careful with it, okay? I can't get another one.”
With a hoof, Elaine nosed her way into the hood. Her dumbo ears barely fit in it, but at least it'd stay. “I will. I promise.”
“Thank you, Savior. Now, follow me. My parcel is the brown cloth bag; you'll know it when you see it.” On all fours, Catrin slunk into the cave, and Elaine followed.
The caverns of Ragged Mountain were as pitch black as the world outside. The rock was slick underfoot, and Elaine could feel drip drops plunking her back through the cloak. It was heavy over her body, like the lead blankets the doctors put over you during X-rays, but the material just felt like thick, velvety cloth. Being in the cave was like journeying through the belly of a wailord. If she squinted hard at the gray ceiling, the cracks and curves in the rock looked like a giant rib cage.
“Not a mystery dungeon. Good,” Catrin whispered. They padded a few more feet, and then he stopped and lifted his tail. “Up ahead. Do you hear?”
Elaine, up to this point, hadn't heard anything over the sloshing of their footsteps through the puddles. But now, she shifted her ears (she could move her ears now. She wasn't sure whether she liked that or despised it) and listened. She heard it up ahead, just barely: the faint sound of voices.
Catrin glanced at her and gestured forward with a nod, and they continued on.
Growing closer, there were three distinct voices echoing off the rock. One deep and gruff, one high and shrieking, one nasally and whining. A flickering orange light appeared up ahead, the first light Elaine had seen since coming to this world, and she breathed it in like a fresh breath of ocean air. They came to a bend in the tunnel. Elaine and Catrin ducked behind a stalactite and, as quietly as possible, peered out into the clearing.
Three pokemon were huddled close together in a circle of stalactites. Elaine spotted a golbat with a missing fang and a scar over its cheek, a misdreavus in some sort of black cloak (how was it wearing a cloak, it was a ghost-type?), and... Elaine's heart jerked when she spotted the mightyena. Its muzzle was mangled with faded scars and bare of fur, and one of its fangs had been replaced with a wiggly, gray rock. She started to sweat, but Catrin brushed her gently with his tail and gestured out into the clearing with a nod. And Elaine spotted it. The golbat was perched on a brown cloth bag. The parcel!
Elaine took a few deep breaths. It'd be fine, it was just a dog! Just a dog. Catrin nodded to her, and she gave a shaky nod back. Taking a deep breath, he sprang out into the open. “Hey, you three!”
The bandits looked up in surprise, and then their lips curled into devious grins. “Well, well, if it isn't the little church boy!” cooed Misdreavus.
“Took ya long enough! Nyeeheehee!” Golbat squawked.
Elaine could see Catrin was trembling, just slightly, but he grit his teeth and held his ground. He stalked forward on all fours. The mightyena grabbed hold of the parcel with its claws and slid it further back into the cave, and the three bandits stalked forward to meet Catrin. “So, decided to come, little church boy? I thought you'd at least have the sense to know when you'd been beaten. I was gonna let you go without no blood, but if the rattata walks itself into the ninetales's mouth, who am I to refuse?” Its voice was deep as the rock and tunneled through Elaine's chest.
Catrin stalked around the trio of bandits in a circle, and they turned to keep him in sight. It just looked like drama to Elaine at first, but then she realized. He was turning them away from her! She took another deep breath, and once they were turned away enough, she snuck along the stone wall of the cave towards the bag.
“You thieves should know that stealing from a pokemon of the Church is a violation of the Third Verse of the Solar Texts. Such a crime can b-bring... bring the Sun's wrath unto you.” His words started as a confident growl, but his voice wavered halfway through.
When the mightyena barked a guffaw, Elaine nearly leaped out of her skin, but she continued to sneak. “BWAHAHAHA! The sun's wrath? What bloody sun is going to touch us, you big-nosed fool?”
Catrin grimaced. His eyes, strong as iron just a few seconds ago, now looked weak and vulnerable. “Wh-when it returns-”
“Idiot!” The mightyena swiped its claws so fast that all Elaine saw was a blur, and Catrin was on the ground in a second. He cried out, and his body tightened as he clutched his cheek. Elaine's heart nearly leapt right up her throat. Her friends had gotten into fights before, but never her, her Mom would kill her if she ever got suspended. Should she intervene? Stick to the plan? Oh Dragon, what should she do?!
But Catrin swished his tail, pointing her on, and she knew she had to keep going. She was so close now, just a few feet away. Elaine crept on as the bandits stalked towards Catrin. “You should never have come to this neck of the woods, church boy.” The mightyena's growl rolled across the floor like thunder. “We don't need your kind here. Trying to leech the last fruit in the land for the sake of something that no longer exists. Fueling false hope into a dying people with promises of a prophecy and a savior!” Elaine looked up at that, but when the mightyena suddenly barked, she jumped as the whole cavern vibrated. “YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO EVEN COME AFTER US! YOU DON'T EVEN DESERVE THE FUR ON YOUR BACK!”
Elaine's whole body was shaking, but she tiptoed the last couple of feet and reached the parcel. She grabbed it in her teeth (after trying to grab it with her hooves, which obviously didn't work) and glanced over at Catrin. Across the room, he rolled onto his back and sat up. Elaine's breath hitched at the sight of his bloodied cheek fur, but his teeth were bared, and his eyes narrowed in blazing hatred. “The Church is no evil. Pokemon like you are everything that's wrong with this damned world! Savior, NOW!”
Elaine jumped out of her skin. What?! What did he want her to do?! But within a second, she got her answer. Catrin's chest heaved, and a blast of water erupted from his mouth and sniped the golbat out of the air. The torch in his foot extinguished in an instant, and blackness engulfed the cave like a leaping fog. The bandits cried out in surprise, and Catrin shouted, “This way, Savior!” from ahead. She could hear pounding footsteps, and she had no idea what was happening in the dark, but Elaine broke into a run. The parcel flying out behind her, she dodged around the spinning shapes of pokemon and followed Catrin back through the tunnel.
Elaine and Catrin's feet thundered against the slick rock. Right away, she heard yelling and baying behind them. The tunnel was pitch black, but their pursuers' thundering pawsteps and wing flaps were a deafening roar in Elaine's ears. Every step nearly sent her spinning to the floor, and keeping her hooves straight on the wet rock was near impossible. But finally, light (in a relative sense) appeared up ahead, and Elaine and Catrin burst from the mountain.
“GET BACK HERE, YOU SNOT-NOSED PUNKS!” The mightyena's booming bay erupted from the cave mouth.
Elaine's heart clenched at the roar, but Catrin shouted, “Keep running!” and she managed to sprint after him down the mountainside. They dodged through outcrops of rock and scraggly mountain shrubs. Catrin wove through as elegantly as a basculin through water. Elaine managed to bump her nose on every branch.
“We need to get across the river! If we can get to Post Town-”
“STOP RIGHT THERE!” The thunderous roar split the sky above, and Elaine glanced back to see the mightyena and its goons erupting from the cave and charging down the mountain after them. Golbat's fangs were bared, and Misdreavus's eyes glowed bright red in the night. Catrin shot back a glare and snarled in frustration. As soon as he and Elaine jumped down to flat ground, she followed him along the dirt road towards the river. They moved to cross the bridge, but-
“Stop!” Catrin shouted just in time for Elaine to grind her hooves into the dirt and skid to a halt before she went flying into the water. The remains of a wooden bridge were still intact along each bank, but the structure had collapsed into the river. The old wooden planks were water-logged flotsam jutting up from the frothing white. They were trapped.
Catrin's eyes blazed, and his fangs ground against each other. He stared at the river, his muscles pulsing, but with a glance at Elaine, he growled, “Dammit!” and spun around to face their attackers.
Elaine wasn't particularly bright, but she didn't have to be valedictorian to put it together. “Just swim across and go! I'll figure something else out!”
“What are you, nuts!? I can't abandon the Savior!” Catrin stood up on his haunches, grabbed the shell off his chest, and brandished it like a knife. “Just get behind me!” And Elaine, against her better conscience, did exactly that.
The mightyena and its goons were coming fast. Within seconds, they were down the mountain and pounding down the dirt road. “I'LL KILL YOU FOR THAT LITTLE STUNT!” The mightyena's roar shook the ground beneath them.
“Come and GET SOME!” Catrin roared back. His voice wasn't near as loud and higher pitched, but there was a deep anger in it that made it boom across the clearing. The mightyena lunged through the air, and shell flashing in the faint starlight, Catrin sprang.
They met in mid air, and the fight exploded. Fur and specks of blood rained everywhere as Catrin and the mightyena ripped and tore at each other. Even Golbat and Misdreavus stepped back to give berth to the flying claws. Elaine's chest tightened with terror. This didn't have one shred of the elegance seen in a normal pokemon battle. In her world, pokemon fought along their trainers to show off their prowess, wow the crowd with awesome moves, put on beautiful displays of battle. But this wasn't battle, it was violence. All the pomp and prettiness went out the window as these pokemon fought for the sole purpose of ripping each other apart.
They rolled across the dirt road, mightyena clawing and biting, Catrin hacking away with his claws and shell. His chest heaved as he launched a water gun that knocked the mightyena off its feet, and Catrin leapt and hacked at the mightyena's belly with the sharpened blade of his shell. The mightyena squealed and smacked Catrin aside with a heavy paw. The oshawott rolled through the dirt for only a second before jumping back to his feet and throwing himself at the mightyena's face. Catrin was nothing like the cute little oshawotts dancing their ways through battles back home. He was absolutely feral! He hissed and spat like an enraged animal, relentless in his attacks. He was little but fought with the force of a hurricane!
But as he clawed for the mightyena's eyes, the hound's entire body heaved in rage, and a bellow erupted from its throat. “Goddammit,
ENOUGH!” Catrin cried out as the mightyena body-slammed him to the ground and pinned him down with two heavy paws. Catrin's shell skipped across the ground like a stone on a pond and fell into the brown grass on the other side of the road. Catrin hissed and tried to wriggle out, but the mightyena pushed him into the ground and roared like a dragon. “YOU'RE DEAD FOR THIS!”
“Catrin!” Elaine cried. The mightyena ignored her, but Golbat and Misdreavus spun around like they'd just remembered she existed. Apparently, they'd been as entranced by the fight as she'd been. Elaine knew she had to help Catrin, she had to do something! But the goons apparently knew what she was up to, for they circled in on her, eyes flashing.
“You ain't goin' anywhere, sweet cheeks,” Golbat trilled.
“Should've known not to mess with us!”
Elaine took a hasty step back, and a spike of anxiety shot through her heart when her hoof nearly slipped against the rocky edge of the river. “L-l-look! Can't we all just get along? We don't have to-” Another cry of pain from Catrin cut her voice short, and she grit her teeth. She didn't have time for this, she had to move!
Shouting “GRAAAAAAAAH,” Elaine barreled forward. She slammed through the goons, headbutting Golbat out of the sky when he tried to block her, and charged the mightyena. Blood racing and heart pulsing, she leapt. SLAM! A snap of pain shot through her neck as she connected with the mightyena's flank. It yelped in surprise as the two of them bowled over onto the dirt.
Within seconds, Catrin was on his feet. Elaine gasped at the sight of him! His fur was soaked in blood, and he was badly scratched up on his shoulders and back, but he didn't even seem to feel it. His whole body heaved with rage, and the cute, fluffy oshawott face twisted into something mean and hungry for blood. Elaine felt his fury with all the force of a lightning storm: massive and oppressive and white hot, ready to lash out, attack, and destroy. The mightyena scrambled to its feet and crouched into an attack stance, fangs bared. Golbat and Misdreavus inched forward, and Elaine found herself frozen. The air crackled with tension. The pokemon stared each other down, eyes raging, claws flashing, all ready to spring!
“That's quite enough now!”
Just like that, the tension dropped out of the sky like a weight. All the pokemon swiveled around to see some sort of slimy water pokemon- a quagsire? That was a quagsire, right?- emerging from the river. It was a foot taller than the mightyena with a good amount of pudge and muscle packed under slippery gray skin. Its eyes were small and hard as rocks.
“This road is the property of Post Town and its adjacent properties.” Quagsire shambled into the middle of the ring on four legs and then stood up on its webbed hind feet. It slapped the ground with its tail and narrowed its eyes further. “It's ill-behaved of you all to be fighting like beasts so close to a town. Just who do you think you are?”
Elaine was stunned. All her logic told her that this quagsire was an idiot, stepping into the middle of a fight between two pokemon that could kill it easy. But this quagsire carried itself with all the grace and power of a reshiram. Catrin and the mightyena could turn on him, but Quagsire's demeanor denied the possibility. The other pokemon seemed to feel the same. The twisted lines of rage in Catrin's face dropped away, leaving him looking surprised and kinda awkward. The mightyena and its goons just looked confused. It didn't matter whether or not they could beat him; no one would try.
“Just who do you think you are, old man?” The mightyena's teeth were bared, but all the thunder was gone from its voice. Its eyes narrowed, like it was trying to figure out whether it was being pranked.
“I'm the groundskeeper of these parts. Or at least I like to think I am,” Quagsire shrugged. “Now, do you have business in Post Town, young mon?”
The mightyena was silent.
“No? I should hope there's not a reason for that. It's unbecoming of a young man such as yourself to have a poor reputation precede him.” The mightyena and its goons were all silent, an even mixture of confused, afraid, and confused as to why they were afraid. Quagsire waited a beat, then slapped his tail on the ground. “Off with you, then! Get on!”
For a moment, the mightyena and the goons were frozen in absolute shock. The mightyena looked like it was debating whether to pounce the newcomer, or if Quagsire had some hidden card up his sleeve. But then Misdreavus squeaked, “This isn't worth it. Let's just go,” and the three bandits ran off and dove into the dark woods.
Quagsire huffed and brushed off his front flippers. “Honestly. What poor company.” He then looked at Catrin, and a frown tugged at his lips. “And who are you two, then? More n'er-do-wells I should be chasing off, hmm?”
“A-actually!” Catrin approached Quagsire on his hind legs, wincing just a bit with each step. “I believe we may have spoken before. I sent a letter to the groundskeeper of Post Town about the available land? I'm with the Church of the Sun.”
Quagsire's eyes widened, and his face relaxed as something seemed to click. “Ah! Yes, Oshawott, I recall your letter quite well. You came from Noe Town, hmm?”
“That's correct."
“Very well, very well, I won't chase you off. Though I must say, hmm, your first impression pales in comparison to that of the well-kept church member I spoke to in letter. You look no different from those ruffians I chased off, all bloodied and battered.” Catrin's only response was to blush and turn his face away. Quagsire then turned to Elaine, and she near jumped in surprise. With all the commotion, she'd felt invisible. “And are you another member of the Church, hmm, Tepig?”
Elaine tried to answer, but her words all tripped over each other. “A-ah, um-”
“She's with me!” Catrin interrupted. “We ran into each other in the woods. I'm assisting her.”
Quagsire stared at Elaine hard for a good moment, making her squirm, but then he turned away. “Hmm, very well. Come with me, then. We'll need to get you patched up and cleaned, Oshawott, and then we can discuss business. Come along then, I'll help you across the river, Tepig. Welcome to Post Town!”
Quagsire ambled towards the river. With a fleeting glance at Elaine, Catrin grabbed his shell out of the grass, stuck it back to his chest, and walked after the groundskeeper. For a second, Elaine hesitated. Her legs were still shaking from that fight. Images of the mightyena and Catrin's face, bloodied and twisted with anger, kept flashing through her head. She glanced up at the sky, still black as a void. Wasn't it gonna be morning soon? But with a sigh, she grabbed the parcel off the ground in her teeth and followed Catrin and Quagsire towards the unknown.
