FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Note: Italics indicates thought

Alright! Finally got another chapter uploaded! I wanted to have this chapter done today, but I ran into a bit of a huge problem. I was going over my outline for the story and found out that a) the conflict/plot has too many inconsistencies and b) it no longer sounded as good as it once did. As a result, I spent less time writing this chapter than I wanted and a lot of time (unsuccessfully) trying to figure out where this is going to go once I get past the introduction of all the characters. This entry is sitting at just under 2400 words (my longest yet by 700! This makes me feel good inside XD), but the whole chapter should total closer to 4500-5000 words if my estimate is correct (I hope it is).

As always, constructive criticism is welcome and wanted. You want a better story, I want to be a better writer. Win-win!

Legal Jargon: I do not own Pokemon or any other publicly recognizable intellectual property. They belong to Nintendo, Gamefreak and whoever else owns them. All original characters and the original plot are mine, however. No touchy without the asky!

Without further ado, the story you came here to read,

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Man, I'm glad the Pokémon League funds the captain of that boat, I would've had to go ask Nurse Joy for money if they didn't. Mathias thought to himself as he finally set foot on land after the long, uneventful and boring boat trip that saw him to just outside Petalburg. He shifted his backpack in an attempt to make it sit more comfortably upon his back and set off, heading north towards Petalburg Forest.

About half an hour into the woods, Mat suddenly stopped walking and went as rigid as a plank of wood as a sudden, horrible thought struck him. "Nurse Joy never said what time dinner is..." he whispered, his voice trailing off as he slowly looked down at the single Pokéball that was clipped to his belt. He slowly started to unclip it from his belt before another though hit him. "What if I'm early and she attacks me anyways?" he breathed, his faced suddenly scrunched up in anger as he said in a more normal volume, "Aggghh! Joy, when I see you, I'm gonna...I'm gonna...I don't know what I'm gonna do but it won't be pretty."

Get ahold of yourself Mat, if you keep talking out loud like that SOMETHING might attack you. Deep breaths. Deep. Breaths. What time is it? If the sun sets early it might not be dinner time for quite a while...then again it's already almost dusk and if it sets late then I'm screwed. Let's just look at the Pokédex and go from there, shall we? All during this inner debate, Mat had been pacing in a circle with a zoned out expression and glazed eyes that screamed "I'm not paying attention to my surroundings! Attack me now if you want to!"

Nothing, however, leaped out of the underbrush to attack him as he slowly pulled his Pokédex out of his back pocket and opened it to glance at the time. His eyes widened and his mouth hung open as the clock blinked at him once a second. It's...it's almost nine o'clock...shit this Pokémon is going to kill me! Damn it, Joy!"

_ _

Mathias quickly dropped his bag to the floor and began fishing around in it for the Pokémon food and the bowl that he had been given. "Better that I have it ready for her rather than make her wait longer AFTER she sees that I forgot dinner" he muttered to himself as he finally found the Pokéchow and began pouring it into the bowl.

Ten seconds later he held his breath as he pressed the button on the Pokéball and released its occupant onto the grass in front of him. He barely had time to register that the Pokémon had tan colored fur, walked on four legs, and had several green spots on it before a long, thin, green appendage sprouted from it and smacked him across the face, leaving a long red mark.

The small Pokémon stood roughly three feet in height, not counting its ears. Its paws, eyes and the inside of its ears were all dark brown in color. The ears were green on the outside and, like its tail, were leafy in shape. It had dark green sprouts growing on its legs, chest, the back of its neck and its head, the head sprout being the largest of them. It was roughly vulpine in shape, though its muzzle was rather short and blunt

The slight tilt of her head and the expression of minor annoyance were instantly replaced by something more sinister as she took stock of her surroundings. Her eyes seemed to visibly grow colder and take on a glint of hatred, her brow furrowed, her hackles raised as she began to growl and the green vine on her head began to thrash around as frantically as if it belonged to a dying octopus.

Mathias held his hands up and said in a soft, unsteady voice, "Sorry, sorry. I was just going to wait until dusk for dinner, Nurse Joy didn't-"

At the mention of Nurse Joy the Leafeon growled louder and then yelled at the top of her lungs, "NURSE JOY? NURSE JOY?!?!? THAT PINK HAIRED BITCH PROMISED SHE WOULD NEVER LET A TRAINER TAKE ME AGAIN, NEVER! YET HERE YOU ARE, ANOTHER FUCKING TRAINER!!! YOU AREN'T EVEN FIT TO LICK THE DIRT FROM MY FUCKING PAWS, YOU BASTARD!!!"

Before she had finished, she leaped at Mat, knocking him to the floor and sticking her face in his. Her growl became much softer, yet somehow all the more menacing for it. She stared at him for a few seconds, drinking in his pale face and wide eyed look of fear. Finally she leaned down and whispered in his ear "Did you really think I was threatening you because you were late with dinner?"

"Y, y, yes" Mat stammered as he looked sideways to keep eye contact.

The Leafeon reeled as if struck. "You can understand me?" she asked quietly. Mat, no longer trusting his voice to obey him, simply nodded in response. The Leafeon recoiled, scrunching her face and sticking her tongue out in disgust.

"Freak!" she barked, "Science freak! Is that why Nurse Joy gave me to you? So you would have protection when the so-called "professors" came after you?"

Mathias was only able to open and close his mouth like a fish out of water before he finally said, in a quiet voice "No." I hope this throws her off a bit. If not I'm dead. "What's your name?"

_ _

The Pokémon on his chest blinked. Her name? He wanted her name? She was ready to kill him and he wanted her name? Not knowing what he was playing at, she gave him the safe answer "Leafeon" before muttering a bit too loud, "Not like any human would ever bother calling me anything else anyways."

"Why not? Why wouldn't they call you anything else?" queried Mat, his face slowly beginning to regain its color as the situation defused.

Leafeon glared at him and said "Because they don't care what my name is, nor would they care to give me one. I'm a Leafeon, and Leafeon is what they would call me."

Mat frowned and said "Well I don't care what other humans would call you, what do you call yourself? What do your parents call you? What's your name? Everyone has a name."

My parents? I don't know my parents, so I don't know what they would call me, but let's throw him a bone and get back to the point where I was going to kill him.

"Aela, my name is Aela." She said, pronouncing it "Ey-luh".

She had no time to so much as growl again before Mat said "Aela? That's a nice name. I'm Mathias Shaw, but you can call me Mat if you want."

Aela closed her eyes and shook her head. A human trading names with a Pokémon like they were equals? That's just too weird. I guess I could see where this goes. I most definitely will NOT make things easy on him though...let's see, how can I infuriate him? She opened her eyes and began scanning the immediate area, stopping when she noticed the forgotten bowl of Pokéchow. Perfect she smirked before hopping off of Mat's chest and sniffing towards the food as if she was interested in it.

As soon as she neared it however, she scrunched her nose at it and stuck her tongue out. "Blech! Is that the generic brand you've got? That stuff is disgusting. I will not eat that."

She smiled on the inside as Mat checked the bag to find out that it was indeed the generic brand. "It's all I-" he started before she suddenly went stock still and began smelling the air intensely. Her posture had the desired effect as Mat stopped moving and froze as she began smelling the air in all directions, finally starting to walk towards his backpack.

She sniffed at his backpack for a few seconds before saying "You have berries in there, what kind?"

Well, berries have different curative properties, maybe something is coming and she wants to be ready for when it gets here? Mat opened the bag and began pulling the berries out of the little cases they were in in lieu of answering, setting them on the ground next to him.

Each berry lasted only a second though, before Aela's vine snatched it up and brought it to her open maw. She didn't even bother chewing them, she simply swallowed them whole. When Mat finally began to zip up the bag once again, Aela quickly swallowed the last berry, turned around and fired a flurry of razor sharp leaves at the bag containing the Pokéchow.

Mathias turned sharply at the sound of tearing paper and noticed not only the complete disintegration of the bag of Pokéchow, but the complete lack of berries at his feet. The Pokéchow I get, but the berries, "Aela, did you eat the berries?"

"Yes." Came the smug reply.

"Why did you eat all of them?"

"Because I'm hungry, why else?"

"Aela" Mat said sharply, causing her to turn around and look at him. "Those were all the berries I had. If you aren't going to eat the Pokéchow, you just left yourself without food until we reach Rustboro."

"Oh, so you're going to Rustboro? Are you going to challenge the Gym there?" Aela asked in a tone whose innocence was completely undermined by the hate visible in her cold, glaring eyes.

"No, we are not going to challenge the Gym. We are going to the airport."

"The airport? Why aren't you going to challenge the Gym? Oh, by the way," a smirk slowly graced her muzzle as she continued. "I'm still hungry, why don't you go find me some more berries?"

"Me?!?" Mat's jaw dropped and he completely forgot about her first question. "Why me? You're the one who decided to eat everything in one sitting." He pointed a finger at her accusingly, but didn't dare do anything more aggressive, lest she decide he wasn't worth keeping alive.

"True, true," Aela said nodding her head while her smirk transformed itself into an evil smile. "But trainers feed and care for their Pokémon and their Pokémon protect them from wild Pokémon."

"Is that a deal then? I feed you and you will keep me safe?" Mathias asked dubiously, squinting at the Leafeon and frowning.

"That's how it's supposed to be. Of course, if you don't want to go find some berries, I could just eat you." Aela said, her words dripping with enough venom Mat was surprised the grass around her didn't start to wilt.

Mat threw his hands in the air, exasperated. "Fine, fine. I'll go get your stupid berries. If I yell though, you come get me out of whatever trouble I might be in, OK?" This time, Mathias glared at her as sternly as he could, hoping that the rebellious furball would listen if he actually needed her to.

Aela though, was not looking at him. She had already begun walking impatiently in a circle. She didn't even deign to respond, she just continued her pacing. Mat, seeing that further conversation would lead nowhere, spun on his heel and left the Pokémon in a huff.

I've got to get her back in the ball. If I don't she's going to walk all over me and we both know it. But how do I get her back inside? She'll see me going for it and stop me before I even have a chance. Hmmm, I'll have to trick her into turning her back to me, but how would that work? Hmmm. Mat's mind tried to work out this problem while he collected an armload of berries. Fortunately for him, it was currently that time when most creatures were going to sleep, and the nocturnal ones were just waking up, leaving him relatively safe so long as he returned to Aela quickly.

He was still desperately attempting to come up with a solution to his predicament when he returned to the area that had accidentally become his camp. As he rounded a tree, Mat saw that any hope he may have had for a sneak attack, which wasn't much to begin with, was gone as Aela was laying on the floor patiently watching him with emotionless eyes.

Mathias stopped in front of the large vulpine, held out a berry and growled "Here. Happy?" As she used her vine to pluck the red berry from his hand, however, Mat roared in frustration and threw the rest of them on the ground.

Again, Aela didn't bother responding to him verbally, she just glowered at him and slowly began eating the berries off the floor. Mathias had hung his head and was about to give up on getting Aela back in her ball when he was struck with sudden inspiration. He had accidentally given himself the opening he needed.

He walked slowly to a tree behind Aela and lowered himself into a sitting position so that his back was to the tree. He kept his eyes closed and his breathing steady so as not to alert his adversary to his intentions. When he opened his eyes again, he caught Aela watching him with a berry sticking out of her mouth. "What?" he asked. "I'm trying to sleep. It's been a long day."

She didn't seem to buy it though, as she cautiously went back to eating, glancing back every few seconds to make sure he wasn't up to anything. What she didn't see, was Mat shutting his eyes whenever she looked back, she didn't see him grab the Pokéball and play it of by "trying to get comfortable," and she definitely didn't see him press the button to return her to her spherical confinement.

That's probably going to come back to bite me in the ass, but I'll deal with it when it comes up. I wonder if she would believe me if I said that I only wanted to make sure she had food on hand? Doubt it, but might as well try.

_ _

Mat gathered up the rest of the berries and put them away before unrolling his sleeping bag, crawling inside and attempting to sleep away the day's troubles.

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The next morning, Mat quickly broke camp and set off once again in a general Northward direction. His quick gait was evidence to the fact that he wanted to cover as much distance as possible before he let Aela out again. He knew that once he did, he might not travel anymore that day. Breakfast time however, came long before he was anywhere near the edge of the woods.

With a deep breath, Mat slowly and almost reluctantly unclipped the Pokéball from his belt and released its captive, but not before having breakfast prepared and ready for her. The Leafeon had only enough time to open her mouth to speak when a loud unnerving howl sounded from some ways away.

"What's that?" Mat inquired under his breath. "And don't say 'A Pokémon' I know that much."

Aela smirked and was about to reply 'A big Pokémon' when another howl sounded, this one much closer to the pair than the previous one. Instead, she paused, cocked her head, closed one eye and tried to recognize what Pokémon the howls belonged to.

Finally she murmured, "I'm pretty sure those belong to Mi-" but she was cut off by yet another howl, this one frighteningly close, as though the creatures the howls belong to were hunting the unfortunate duo.

"Mightyena" she finished as soon as the howl ended. "I think there are only two of them, I can handle them."

"You can handle a two on one fight against these Mightyena things?" Mat breathed, a hint of hope in his voice.

"Sure I can handle 'em. They're quick but I'm faster." Aela replied, a touch of arrogance in her voice and a smirk on her face. Sucker,_she said to herself. _Sure I could take on a couple Mightyena, but why should I fight for you? Nah, I'll let you be their lunch while I get away. Thanks for being such a tasty distraction.

Before Mat could reply, there was a sound of a thousand twigs breaking and a huge Pokémon strode confidently through a dry bush towards them. The creature could only be described as massively intimidating. It was huge, standing at over six feet tall on four legs with its limbs and silent grace belying its power. Most of its body was covered in orange fur broken by jagged black stripes. Its head, chest, tail, elbows and ankles were swathed in great tufts of beige fur. The beige on its head was broken only by two ovals of orange around its eyes and diamond shaped ears. Two fangs were clearly visible against the beige of its lower jaw. The tufts on its elbows and ankles flowed behind it in a way that was reminiscent of fire. Though Mat was unable to see it, its underbelly was covered completely in black fur.

While the whole visage was intimidating in itself, the eyes of the Pokémon left no doubt as to its intent. They burned with a cold hate, with a desire for murder. And the one they focused themselves on, was Mat.

Mat, only able to stare at the newcomer, didn't notice Aela pin her ears back and tuck her tail between her legs. Nor was his brain capable of processing her sudden proclamation of "Shit! An Arcanine. I am not going to wait around for the second one to show its face, I'm out of here."

Mat did notice, however, Aela's sudden burst of speed away from the Arcanine. He was only able to shout "Hey!" before the behemoth of a canine in front of him began to growl. It was a low growl, menacing in the extreme for the poor human it was targeted at.

There was not even time enough for Mat to gulp in fear before a loud "Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!" could be heard coming from the direction Aela had taken off in. Both human and Pokémon turned towards the sound to see a tan and green bullet streaking away from yet another Arcanine. While Aela was obviously running as fast as she could, the new Arcanine appeared to be doing nothing more strenuous than taking an afternoon stroll.

Mat used the distraction to fall into step with the screaming Leafeon. Surprisingly, he was able to keep pace with his four legged "friend," though doing so was not easy. He wanted to ask her what kind of Pokémon those were as they were obviously not Mightyena as evidenced by the fact that she was running and not fighting, but his lungs could not work hard enough to allow him to speak and sprint at the same time, so he sprinted.

The forest became a green and brown blur with occasional flashes of color when they passed by other Pokémon. They ran for what seemed like hours and just when they began to show signs of slowing, one of their pursuers appeared beside them without so much as a snapped twig to signal its arrival.

Looking at the Arcanine as it strode gracefully beside Mat, one could almost be fooled into thinking it was simply playing a game. It appeared to be smiling, its tail might have been wagging, though that could have simply been a side effect of running, and it wouldn't stop looking at Mathias.

When the eyes are taken into account, however, a much more sinister image is portrayed. The eyes, seething with an almost tangible rage and bloodlust, gave the Pokémon a psychopathic image. Gave it the image of one who is going to kill and is going to enjoy ripping the life from its prey. Those eyes would have held Mat transfixed if it wasn't for an error committed by its fellow that so far has been extremely uncharacteristic of them. The snap of a twig.

Instantly, Mat turned to look behind and saw the other Arcanine keeping pace, but also keeping its distance a short way behind. As he watched, the graceful canine opened its maw and an orange energy began to accumulate within. Somehow, Mat understood the energy to be the beginning of a fire based attack. The moment that realization hit him, he became a man possessed. He let loose a yell, pitiful compared to any Pokémon's to be true but powerful all the same, and dove at Aela, pushing her out of the way of the attack.

He was incapable of seeing if he had succeeded in saving Aela from the attack as all of a sudden, the world turned red and orange. Fire, heat, unbearable heat encased his entire body. He began to writhe and roll on the ground, incapable of smothering any of the flames that licked across his prone form. When he opened his eyes again, he noticed two things. One, the world appeared to be melting. And two, he was screaming. He was screaming at the top of his lungs and he hadn't noticed. His throat felt raw from his screaming. Or was it the heat that caused his throat to burn so?

After what felt like an eternity of being burned alive, and of the world slowly melting, Mat could feel the darkness of oblivion finally reaching out to him. Promising him relief if he but shut his eyes and allowed the world to fall away.

He resisted for as long as he was able, but the exhaustion from his world-record breaking sprint coupled with the overwhelming pain facing him quickly sapped his will to stay awake. In the last moment before darkness claimed him, the fire in front of his eyes flickered out of view, and he saw a single, black foot paw descend in front of him. It too, however, appeared to be melting. Before it lifted itself off the floor again, the jaws of oblivion had closed shut around Mathias Shaw.

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