FLOOD [Pokémon]

Chapter 36*

^ "Damn, She's Big" (6-8-19)

—

???

The chains had weakened him, burned so strongly that they'd left marks and depressions in his flesh.

All the same, he was pretty certain that he'd left them far behind — he'd glanced over his shoulder constantly over the past half hour, and hadn't seen or heard any signs of pursuit.

Perhaps that didn't matter though — they had his family, and so the man with the ice had a way of finding him. But it would take a while to figure that out, or so he hoped. The man with the ice was shrewd and cruel, and he himself felt even more cruel for leaving his kin behind in his clutches.

No choice. He was weak, injured by the chains, and he was bleeding too — had he turned to put up a fight, he would've been recaptured, maybe even killed. His mother had told him this before he'd escaped, yet he could not shake the anguish and the guilt that battled for dominance in his gut. Combined with the pain racking his body, he thought he might be sick.

He sailed blindly onward, slowing when a stretch of colorful ocean floor caught his eye: a reef, rife with Pokémon, with seaweed growing along the edges. It could be a good place to hide — after such a long swim, he was desperate for rest, and food. Shielding himself, he went down.

There were lots of rocks here, and as he tiredly inspected the terrain, he found an empty hollow beneath several giant clusters of coral, masked by a curtain of luscious seaweed. He went down, and a Krabby popped out of the sand, sensing the vibrations and peering around. He unshielded for a moment and glared at the Pokémon, and it quickly scuttled off. He went to ground, crawling the rest of the way into the hollow before collapsing fully. He barely had the mind to tear off a couple of stalks of seaweed and gulp them down before a black tide rolled across his mind, sweeping him toward unconsciousness. For a moment he struggled against it.

Plan. I need to think of what to do next. How do I help—

But the black wave was too strong, and quickly, he passed out.

***

NERO

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

"Jude," I said lowly. "Up."

I tapped his arm and knew that he was awake — his sweeping tail was proof enough of that — but he ignored me and remained motionless, pretending to sleep. I went over to our things — a bookbag that Cora had salvaged somewhere for me, the small, the handmade satchel for Jude — and did one last check, making sure everything was packed and tucked in, before I came back over and tried again.

"Jude," I said, "quit sniveling. Let's go."

Again he ignored me, and when I grabbed his arm and yanked him up into a sitting position, he stared away from me, acting like a stubborn, petulant merboy doll. Which was fine, if that was how he wanted to play it. At least he wasn't fighting... Though that perturbed a small part of me.

I got him off the bed and set his satchel over one shoulder. Then I glared at him — it really was like working with a mannequin. "Are you going to be like this the whole way?" I asked.

He didn't respond, his eyes dark.

Damned brat. Whatever. He wasn't going to guilt me into staying — he'd tried that yesterday after I'd returned with Magdalene, and it hadn't worked, probably because my last conversation with Cora had filled the space that elation at Mag's return had left behind.