Pokemon: Fate's Path

Chapter 32

Zekiel Lucian

It was lonely travelling alone again but it was for the best considering I would only slow them down. Besides, I was going to leave the region eventually for a while. I didn't want to make it too hard to say goodbye to anyone either. I continued slowly as the light began dying out and glanced back the way I'd came from, perhaps I should've listened to Jay and Soren, I wasn't going to make it to Cario by the time it was dark. Not that I was scared, no one was even on this sorry excuse for a path. It just would've been nice to see the path between the rocks and ashfall but at least the light from my map kept me going in the right direction.

I sighed and stopped to lean against a large rock as I looked down to check my map again, I didn't want to think I was going the right way and end up lost again after all. I coughed as a breeze blew some ash in my face before looking at the screen, good, I was still going the right way. Once I was at Cario I could earn some money perhaps, or at least train a bit so I could earn money from trainers on my way to the port on Kleft Pass and finally get away from Drucan. If gaining money failed though... maybe I could work on the ship as payment.

I glanced around again out of boredom before going on my way again. Cario couldn't be too far away anymore, according to the map I was over halfway there. I heard a clacking behind me as rocks fell and bounced against the larger boulders and turned to look in the direction the sound had came from with worry. A shadow ducked behind a rock and I reached for Treecko's ball uneasily before seeing an aron peek out uneasily and take a few paces in my direction before running off again. I relaxed and continued on my way while the sky above continued to darken until the moon was above the Everlasting Peaks at my back. Ahead I could finally make out the lights from Cario and picked up my pace as more came into sight, as I couldn't wait to get inside a Pokémon Center to rest for the night before getting up early to find out how to earn some money.

The night went pretty well nothing unusual at least, but when I woke up it was to the sounds of fighting rather than my alarm. I scrambled to get out of bed, which only served to tangle me in the blanket more for a few seconds, before quickly changing and grabbing my things. If Cario was under attack then that meant I needed to be ready to run or fight. I had Ankou's ball in my hand as I snuck out through the window in my room and expected to see the common white and gold that Valhalla wore-which was in the fray-but mostly saw darkly clothed pokémon hunters. Why there was a sudden attack like this wasn't something I could figure out other than something of value had to be here that both groups wanted but I didn't want to be caught up in the middle of it.

I tried to stick to the shadows as I snuck off in the direction I hoped Rookrust was in rather than just into the forest. Unfortunately the sun hadn't risen far enough in the sky for me to be sure I was going in the right direction and I didn't want the light from the map to give away my position. It didn't matter though because I a moment later I felt grass wrap around my foot and trip me up while footsteps moved in closer as the hunter caught up to his pokémon.

"What do we have here? Stupid kid trying to escape eh?" The man walked around, stopping inches from my face. "Thought you'd get away with a valuable pokémon? Well kid, I'm gonna show you what happens to people like that."

"I don't have anything valuable with me, I swear." I tugged at the grass knot around my foot as I tried to break free.

"We'll just see 'bout that." He gave a gravelly chuckle. "Victreebel, show him a vine whip."

I shuddered before the attack even landed, though the pain was twice as bad as what my father had done with his belt and the brace I had done in anticipation of the pain was nothing against the stronger hits. I flinched and gritted my teeth before giving a cry of pain as it lashed down on the same spot once more, this time breaking the skin and letting blood flow down my back. Still, this guy had no reason to suspect I had any rare pokémon on me... I couldn't call out Ankou and prove I had something worth stealing. I just had to take this until... I actually didn't know when.