FLOOD [Pokémon]

Chapter 44*

NERO

Sunday, April 8, 2018

"Where are we?" Jude rasped.

"I don't know," I said honestly. After escaping the soldiers' trap, we'd punched hard west on Mag, all three of us: me, Jude, and our captured soldier. We were closer to the mainland, that was for sure, but other than that, I had no idea. Right now, we were resting on the floor of a giant kelp forest, which I'd had Mag clear before we'd gone in. Things were silent and still—save for the waving stalks — for the moment, but both Mag and I had our eyes and ears open, watching carefully for predators.

Had I been sure that we weren't being followed, I wouldn't have chanced ducking down into a kelp forest possibly teeming with predators, but I wasn't. It was nearing noon, and so far there hadn't been any signs of pursuit, but I wasn't praising my good luck just yet: back near Coralora, the soldiers had to had to have found the bodies we'd left behind by now, and were perhaps approaching the conclusion that the hole in their ranks we'd punched through had angled west, and therefore, that's where we'd gone.

Or not. Maybe we were home free. Or maybe they were coming after us. Or maybe they were simply regrouping, and planning a new formation: one that involved soldiers already stationed in this part of the ocean. I didn't know. I wanted to know. I turned and stared at our prisoner: he sat on a rock several yards alway, white-faced and miserable. Mag floated high in the kelp above him, one eye on him, and one eye on our surroundings: in her shadow, he looked even smaller than Jude. He hadn't said another word since we'd taken him hostage, and he was still shaking.

"Are you hungry?" I asked, turning back to Jude. He was lying in the shade, out of the moving shadows and sunlight, his face waxy and his eye still stained red. He was no longer exhaling blood, but I had no idea of what that meant.

"My head...hurts," he groaned.

"I know. A bite to eat might help."

"I don't...want...food...want...this...head...ache to...go away..."

I was encouraged that he could still be petulant. "We're going to have to see if it'll go away on its own. I don't...have any medicine."

His eye closed. "Kuma...would," he said pointedly.

I didn't answer that, just tore a hunk off of a leftover Octillery tentacle and gave it to him. "That better be gone by the time I get back," I growled.

"Where're...you...going..." Jude breathed.

"Not far. I'll be right here. Eat."

He didn't reply, just closed his eyes and groaned in pain. I got up, trying to swallow a spike of anxiety, and moved over to the soldier. He was watching Magdalene with an expression of hollow terror; he flinched when I spoke.

"She won't eat you," I said. "Not unless it's clear that you aren't cooperating."

It worked: his eyes flashed to me, glowing with intense desperation. I'd just turned from captor to lifeline. "I'll cooperate," he rasped.

"Are you sure? Even if it means selling out your comrades?"

That made him hesitate, and I watched his eyes shift as he weighted the pros and cons. They were green, his eyes, a shade lighter than the surrounding kelp, and they'd swollen to almost comical size in his eye sockets.

"I...yes," he said eventually. His voice continued to rattle in this throat. "B-but I don't know anything... I'm no one important, just another guy holding a spear... Gods save me, I just started!"

I squinted at him. " 'Just started'? You're wearing armor: you had to have been training with them for at least six months."

He was surprised I knew this: he gave me a searching stare before saying, "Well, yeah, but... I-I'm still new. I was just promoted from squire..."