Shadow Rays: Ch 13

Chapter 13: Frigid Conclusions

     The blue ringed Umbreon nodded understandably.  "I see," he spoke in his usual poke-language.  "So an Ariados ambushed ya'll and took your friend away, right?"

     The Leafeon curled her ears backwards and her lips arced downwards.  "Well...  He's more than just my friend..."

     Vesalaki nodded a bit, smiling as he began understanding the pokemon's strong emotions towards this other Eevee.  After a few seconds of being silently jealous of Soljeki's bond, the Umbreon turned to Wes, frowning questionably.

     Wes, having known his companion since the mildly early days of his journey, instantly read Vesalaki's emotions and smiled.  "Of course, pal," he answered the Umbreon's expression back before turning back to Soljeki.  "Leafeon, if you don't mind, we'd love to help you search for your friend," the trainer offered softly.

     The grass-type pokemon hesitated for a moment.  "But..."  She stopped, tilting her head down a bit as warning flags popped up in her head.  I don't even know these two...  Sure, they seem nice, but I only just met them.  Can I really trust them? she pondered to herself cautiously.  In the end, though, only one thing mattered to her above all else: Ailfresi.  She couldn't turn down the offer, even if it meant putting herself in the line of fire.  Slowly, the Leafeon looked back up to the human and gave a shy nod.

     Wes nodded back, already having an idea as he got on his feet.  By placing his two hands like cups on either side of his mouth and positioning his lips to form a tiny hole, he loud out an ear piercing whistle into the sky.  Soljeki winced at the sound, not expecting it to in such a loud volume.  The amplified sound waves that escaped from his lips and bounced off his cupped palms could've easily been heard for miles.

     Vesalaki, having already predicted the brief loud whistle and was thus pinning his ears down to the ground to protect them, brought his head back off the ground and gave a slight laugh as he noticed Soljeki's startled expression.  "I knew he was going to do that."

     The female Leafeon shook her head a bit, trying to rid herself of the fading ringing sound that tortured her ears, then made eye contact with Vesalaki.  "What exactly did he do that for?" she asked in an irritable tone.

     The Umbreon smiled.  "This forest is home to several old friends of ours.  He was calling out to one of them just now."

     Soljeki snorted.  "Well, he could've at least warned me, first," the Leafeon replied back in the same annoyed tone as she looked around the nearby trees, searching for this "companion" of their's.

     It remained silent for a few seconds.  Only the soft light breeze that brushed through the forest undergrowth in a harmonic fashion could be heard.  Then suddenly, the soft welcome sound flapping wings began approaching, growing louder with each beat.

     Finally, a large, familiar silhouette flew overhead.  Wes smiled as he called out a name that immediately got Soljeki's attention.  "Staraptor!  Down here, pal!" he shouted, waving his arms above him.

     A familiar happy cry from the bird pokemon sounded as it circled around and then slowly descended through the trees before finally perching itself on Wes' extended L-shaped arm.  The Staraptor rubbed his downward crest affectionately against the human.

     "Hey, I know that you're happy to see me, but come on, that tickles!" Wes giggled as the bird pokemon's feathers from its crest constantly brushed his cheek's sensitive nerves.

     Soljeki stared in disbelief.  Is that the same Staraptor from before? she asked herself, quickly recalling the close call that the bird pokemon had rescued her from.  It looks so much like him.

     After a few seconds of enjoying the moment, Wes got down to business, making eye contact with his old friend.  "We need your help with something."

     Staraptor smiled and nodded.  "Anything you need."

     "We need you to gather a search party with all the flying types in the area and look for an Eevee.  According to this Leafeon here," Wes began, gesturing to the Leafeon behind him, who was still in a state of shock, judging from her expression.  "An Ariados ambushed them and whisked away her close friend."

     Staraptor's eyes narrowed a bit upon hearing the Eevee part.  "Really now?"

     Wes frowned, sensing the uneasiness stirring in his bird companion.  "Yeah."  He paused.  "Is... Something wrong?"

     Staraptor nodded somewhat.  "Just earlier this morning, I defended an Eevee couple from a lone Ariados."

     "I knew it!" Soljeki burst out.

     Wes and Staraptor looked over at the excited Leafeon with a pair of questionable "hmms."

     "You're the same pokemon that helped us out this morning.  You chased that Ariados away, remember?" Soljeki tried reminding the bird pokemon, confident that it would stir up the memories of the day's earlier events in his mind.

     "Sooo...  You're saying that you're that same Eevee?" Staraptor inquired for clarification, narrowing his eyes even more.

     Soljeki nodded.  "And then, shortly after you left, the same Ariados ambushed us again, but... it got away with Ail-"

     Staraptor rolled his eyes frustratingly before he interrupted the Leafeon with a very irritated and firm tone.  "Look here, young one.  You can't just keep relying on me, now.  I already bailed you out of one bind and warned you that this is not a safe place to wonder around.  And now it looks like I have to try bailing you guys out AGAIN!"

     Soljeki was taken aback by Staraptor's outburst.  "But..."

     Her words were once again interrupted by the bird pokemon again.  "I don't want to hear it.  Stop making excuses for everything and LEARN to fend for yourselves.  The two of you won't grow any stronger, nor will you be able to protect each other unless you both begin to take responsibility for what happens.  Rather than wait for something to happen, you must prepare for it.  This is why you and your friend must train yourselves, both your body AND your mind.  So that you can react to any given situation and make it out alive with no serious injuries."  The bird pokemon paused for a bit, taking note of the Leafeon's shocked expression, but pretending to not notice.  "He might have been able to hold his own against Darkhash, but Ailfresi can't do everything without you.  Getting careless will only endanger both of you."

     Vesalaki's ears perked up for a moment upon hearing a familiar name, exchanging a worried glance with Wes.

     Staraptor's harsh choice of words cut through Soljeki like a twisted knife.  She fell silent, her ears dropping down shamefully as she gazed at the ground where she stood depressingly

     The male flying-type shook his head disappointingly, then looked at Wes with a half-doubt expression.  "I'll organize a search party with my flock.  Though..." he trailed off, briefly glancing at the Leafeon in her current emo state.  "Since he's been captured, I honestly doubt that we'll be able to find him."

     "Then do your best for us, please," Wes requested in a soft, determined tone.

     Staraptor nodded.  "I'll do what I can," he replied, giving the downed Leafeon one last brief glance.  Then, after a few moments, he gave his wings a big flap, lifting himself off of Wes' makeshift perch, carefully maneuvered his way through the tree tops, then darted out of sight above the canopy.

     Soljeki remained quiet, fixing her gaze on a small rock laying just a foot away from her.  Doubtful thoughts that flooded through her mind before returned to haunt her once again.  I knew it...  I'm not strong enough...  I don't have what it takes to defend the one pokemon that I love...

     Wes took note of the Leafeon's depressed state and immediately assumed why.  "Don't worry about it.  Staraptor tends to have a strange way of offering advice to others.  He was only trying to help you."

     Soljeki merely turned away.  "Yeah right..." she responded in a quiet sarcastic tone.

     Vesalaki spoke up.  "I doubt that you're friend would want you to be feeling like this."

     The Leafeon looked back at Vesalaki with the same dull expression, not saying a word.

     "What do you think he'd be thinking about right now?" the Umbreon quizzed Soljeki.

     Soljeki still didn't reply, took caught up in her negative thoughts to really care.

     After a brief period of silence, Vesalaki smiled a bit as he softly uttered a one word answer.  "You."

     This brief reply grabbed Soljeki's attention.  "How can you be sure?  Especially after I let him down," she replied back in her still depressed tone, looking back down at the same lone stone shard from before.

     "If your claim about feelings and emotions that you two have towards each other is true, then there's no doubt about it," the Umbreon explained, trying to cheer Soljeki up.  "Such tight bonds aren't so easily broken by something so small.  No matter what ever happened, the only way you could ever let him down would be if you gave up."  He paused for a moment.  "Rather than take Staraptor's words as an insult, take it as a lesson and learn from it."

     Soljeki seemed to consider this for a moment.  After a few brief moments, she looked up at Vesalaki and nodded a bit.  There was still the slightest shadow of a doubt in her eyes, but the fact that her lover needed her motivated the Leafeon.



     The young male Eevee continued staring at the light blue crystal stone anchored in the cave floor just feet in front of him.  The more he studied the crystal's unique sparkling details, the more uncomfortable he felt about evolving.  However, his body's frozen stiff muscles and numb nose were screaming to be relieved of their suffering.  Ailfresi shut his eyes and turned his head away.  "I can't..." he softly uttered.

     Glacier walked over to Ailfresi's side as he searched for the right words.  "What's wrong?" he inquired as he sat down next to the Eevee's form.

     "I'm not ready..." he replied in a depressed tone.

     Glacier shook his head.  "Kid, listen to me for a moment."

     The young Eevee looked up at the Glaceon as an apprentice would his teacher, listening intently for advice.

     "That maneuver that you pulled back in that cave when we were running from Dreadscar...  The way you aimed that Shadow Ball in mid-summersault was-"

     "-just a fluke," Ailfresi interrupted Glacier to finish the sentence.  "To be completely honest, I launched that attack blindly halfway through your flip.  I wasn't even aiming.  I merely let it loose and hoped for the best."

     Glacier nodded a bit.  "I see..."  The muscular Glaceon stood up and walked to the other side of the cave and lowered his haunches, closing his eyes as he faced the cave wall, revealing a large, nasty, jagged scar that ran from his lower neck all the way down his spine.  "You don't feel comfortable with your current abilities, yet, am I correct?" he inquired, not turning his head.

     Ailfresi shook his head.  "No," he replied back as he studied his friend's scar.

     There was no words spoken for a few seconds.  Then...

     "Fire off your best Shadow Ball at me," Glacier demanded.

     The Eevee was startled by the sudden strange demand.  "What?"

     "You heard me.  Do it," he repeated himself.

     Ailfresi frowned at the strange task.  "Okay then..." he replied back unsurely as he stood up and took on a battle-ready stance.  He then opened his mouth and began attempting to accumulate the required dark energy.  Less than a second later, he whirled his head in a swift brief circular motion and threw his weak energy sphere at the sitting Glaceon.

     Glacier didn't budge as the Shadow Ball attack not only missed him, but fizzled out of existence before making contact with the cave wall.  Glacier growled disappointingly.  "Kid, come on, now.  We both know you can do better than that.  The Shadow Ball that you fired back at the cave was at least three times stronger than that.  Try again, and this time, put your full power into it."

     Ailfresi became more worried over these demands, but eventually pushed them off to the side as he accumulated more dark energy once again.  He concentrated every bit of his efforts into building up the growing sphere's power.  Then, after several seconds of concentrated charging time, he repeated the same whirling head motion as before throwing the sphere towards Glacier.

     Just like before, Glacier didn't move a muscle.  However, he did open his eyes, staring at the cave wall as the Shadow Ball once again missed the Glaceon, slamming into the rock side just next to him, shaking the cavern from the impact.  Newly dislodged rocks from the impact site broke off from their resting spot and landed with heavy thuds on the cave floor, amplifying the tremors even more.  Glacier didn't flinch from these brief tremors, while Ailfresi struggled to even maintain his balance.  

     When the rumbling died down, Glacier spoke up again.  "Better, but please...  Try to actually HIT your target.  That power goes to waste if it can't connect."

     Ailfresi, having regained his balance from the earthquake, raised an eyebrow.  For a moment, he didn't move.

     Glacier sensed the Eevee's hesitation.  "You're gonna have to trust me, kid.  Do it."

     The younger male let out a long sigh.  I really hope he knows what he's doing... because I sure don't.  After a moment of no action, Ailfresi once again repeated his previous rythm from the last two attacks, only this time around, he strained his efforts in amplifying his deepest inner strengths into building the power of what would be his next Shadow Ball.  The sphere that gathered at the base of his mouth crackled with excessive dark energy, and a dull headache began torturing Ailfresi...

     Glacier immediately turned around upon sensing the trouble the youngling was now in and yelled out, "Kid, that's too much!  Let it loose!"

     Ailfresi, having only barely heard the Glaceon, winced from the dark matter that was now zapping his body.  Somehow maintaining his concentration, he repeated his head twirl, hurling the attack in Glacier's direction.  This time, the attack seemed accurately thrown.

     The Glaceon almost instinctively span his body around, his tail already glowing a bright white and curled in a half circle.  When the dark matter came into range just an instant later, he quickly and expertly snatched a firm grip on it. Glacier turned his head towards the trapped energy, fixing his gaze on the sphere inner depths as it gradually weakened within his solid grip.  Then, after a few seconds, his eyes widened as he span his body around again and threw the energy orb out through the cave entrance.  "Impossible..." he uttered quietly to himself with an open jaw, staring out at where he threw away the dark energy orb.  "There's no way..."  His raised eyebrows and fixed stare to the outside hinted that he was oblivious to the fact that he was saying these things aloud.

     Ailfresi, who was still panting from the recoil of his last attack, carefully walked up to the Glaceon and gazed at him, curiously, his dull headache still bothering him.  "What is it?"

     Glacier snapped back into reality from the Eevee’s voice as he turned to him.  "Uhhh...  Nothing."

     Ailfresi didn't believe him for a moment.  "Are you sure?"

     "Yeah.  I'm sure," he replied with a hint of shock still heard in his voice.

     The male Eevee frowned, but wisely chose to not push the matter further.

     After a few seconds of catching his breath, Glacier's expression changed back to normal as he addressed the Eevee's mishap.  "That last Shadow Ball...  You absorbed too much energy.  Trying to inject that much power into one attack will not only strain your body, but also your mind.  The key to controlling that power is knowing the limitations of the attack itself."

     "What do you mean that it could 'strain the mind,' if I may ask?"

     Glacier nodded a bit.  "A Shadow Ball's energy is made up the darkness within the user's heart.  Everyone has a different form of darkness, and each form of darkness varies greatly from individual to individual, and this source usually goes unnoticed by most pokemon."  He paused for a moment.

     Ailfresi frowned a bit, confused for a moment.  Then, it suddenly made sense.  "You can see this darkness?"

     The Glaceon nodded back.  "How I obtained such an ability, I still don't know, but yes, I can.  Trying to over-charge a Shadow Ball attack puts great stress on your consciousness.  The dark energy within the orb is not the kind that mixes well with our minds.  Too much can very well cause permanent psychological damage to yourself."  He got up and padded over to the cave entrance and settled down there.  Ailfresi followed and sat down next to the wise pokemon.  "It would seem that your darkness is fear."

     Ailfresi carefully considered that last statement.  It's true.  Ever since my first few days, I have been afraid of much of this new world, and my encounter with Dreadscar and his posse most certainly didn't help things.  There's only one individual that makes me truly feel welcome here...  His thoughts paused briefly as he glanced back over at the Ice Rock and it's special and unique form.  His eyes narrowed as he came to a decision.  One individual... and only one.  He abandoned his spot as he jogged over to the glimmering radiant crystal.  Quick flashbacks of his last moments with Soljeki raced through his mind as he approached.

     Glacier turned around as he noticed the Eevee approaching the rock.  "What are you doing?" he asked calmly, already guessing the answer.

     Ailfresi remained oblivious to all outside presences as he settled in front of the elemental rock.  This one pokemon has been by my side from day one.  She has given me the strength and determination to carry on.  Slowly, he extended a paw out towards the crystal stone, whispering his last words that he would utter in this form.  "Now it's my turn... to return the favor,"  As he finished his statement, his paw softly touched the cool surface of the crystal.  Both the stone and his body lit up with strong rays of light, illuminating the entire cave and blinding Glacier.  The young Eevee felt a surge of cool and frigid energy coursing through his veins as his DNA structure underwent multiple mutations from the powerful waves of radiation that emitted from the rock.  There was no turning back, now.