FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 2

As the sensation of falling faded, and I felt wet send underneath my feet, I opened my eyes. The sound of the softly flowing ocean hitting the shore of the island and the sounds of the jungle just in front of us were very prominent.

Releasing Enzlo's paw, I looked over my shoulder, back to the coast. The town and the ridge it was one looked towering from this location. I realized I couldn't see any of the other islands, and from that I knew Enzlo had teleported us to the closest island.

"Why only bring us to this island?"

"There's no barrier around this island. If I teleported to the two that did, we'd alert the ghost types of the intrusion." Enzlo answered me, and as I looked back to him I was stunned as I saw that he had stood up on two legs and was walking his way up the pathway into the jungle ahead.

"Wait, you can walk?!" I shouted in surprise.

The Abra whipped his head back with a loud, "Shhhh!" Then turned towards me and folded his arms, "Yes I can walk. What made you think I can't?"

I started up the path to catch up as I continued on, lowering my voice but still shocked. "I've seen the Abra Clan, you're all way to feeble to barely move! The Kadabra and Alakazam seem even barely able to!"

"That may be true for most Abra." Enzlo admitted, nodding his head, and making a dismissive motion with one of his paws at hte same time, "But I'm not a normal Abra."

He turned away and kept walking into the jungle, "Now follow me, and keep quiet, or we're going to draw unwanted attention."

I followed him, grimacing again at how strange an Abra my newfound companion was. My mind was quickly distracted by the appearance of the jungle though. As we entered into the shade of the canopy of trees, the moss on the rocks and grounds began to glow a soft blue. It pulsed on and off like a heartbeat, illuminating the gloomy darkness and fading away again.

Several mintues passed as we drudged deeper into the jungle, myself eventually taking the lead to help clear out the dense plants and vegetation on the path. It was as I was using Metal Claw to cute a log that was in our way, that a sudden rush from the brush beside us caught us off guard.

A Rattata the like I'd never seen before launched itself from the jungle and jumped me, shouting out something in some language I did not understand. I lifted my arm in defense, and howled out as he bite down onto my forearm with teeth slightly smaller than what was normal for his species. That didn't stop them from being just as sharp though, as I felt his teeth sink in to meet my bone.

I struck him on his side with the Metal Claw on my other paw, and he shouted out, letting go and flying through the air, disappearing into the brush again. The sound of his scurrying through the brush faded as he fled, his shouting continuing on until if faded as well in the distance.

Instantly, I began to heal the injury on my arm with Healing Pulse, the Metal Claw fading as I placed my green glowing paw over it. The pain faded quickly, but I knew mending the flesh would take longer.

"What the hell was that!?"

"A Rattata native to the island." Enzlo stated behind me, as he came up beside me, picking my paw up from the wound to inspect it a moment. "You should be fine..."

"Yeah I will be." I answered and grimaced, putting my paw flat over the wound again as it was bleeding heavily now, blood dripping on the ground. "But still, that was unlike any Rattata I've seen in this world." I hadn't gotten that good a look at him, but besides the slightly smaller teeth, he had also had a long moustache at the sides of his nose and no whispers.

"We'd be wise to go forward assuming these islands are not part of this world to begin with..." Enzlo said briefly, and folded his arms in thought. "But something tells me...I may know this island."

"What do you mean?" I asked as I moved my paw to check the wound again, the bleeding had stopped, but now I had a hole in my arm where he had bitten me. I decided for now, it would be fine. Mending the flesh itself would take a lot longer then just stopping the bleeding.

"This place is familiar...it sparks memories..." Enzlo said again, whispering quietly almost as if too himself. He nodded and unfolded his arms, "Come this way."

_______________________

Enzlo led me through the jungle off the beaten path to what I could only say was a wild pokémon's den in a small clearing, complete with a small fire pit. However, it had obviously not been used in a long time.

As he approached and stood at the entrance, he sighed, "So this is those islands..."

"You know what islands these are now?" I asked, eager for more information.

"Yes, but I had to confirm it to believe it. This was once where I had made camp on this island as a trail. I stayed here for weeks before returning to the mainland and the Corsova Clan." Enzlo sighed and he turned to face me, a mixture of sadness and anxiety emanated from his body, "These are a group of islands known as the Onyx Isles. The one we are one currently is called The Shadowed Jungle. I believed it was them before, but the barrier obstructed my view of the other islands so I could not tell for sure." He turned back to the den, "But this camp...it's the same as when I left all that time ago..."

"What wait, you mean you were here once before?"

Enzlo nodded, "Yes, and with this realization comes another...these islands are exactly the same as they were thousands of years before, right before Arceus closed the gate perhaps."

I looked over my shoulder into the jungle behind us, "Then, that pokémon earlier...?"

The Abra shook his head in thought, "No, that was not a native of the island... I have a theory though." Enzlo looked at me sternly a moment, "That Rattata was once a human."

"What?"

"This world rejects the human body, correct?" Enzlo asked me and I nodded, "Epa told me as much about you and the others that had came. These islands just now appeared, as we have hundreds of pokémon attacking the scouting groups the Eeveelutions sent out..." He stopped as he thought deeply a moment, "You heard the language the Rattata spoke correct?"

I nodded as he continued, "It's the tribal language of a group of humans that lived here, and now, they've been transformed."

"But why don't they look like normal Rattata?" I asked, and at this Enzlo hummed.

"I do not know..." He gave a little shrug and sighed, "But, at any rate, we can use this den as a campsite while watching the other islands." He pointed a thumb over his shoulder, "Just past here and over one hill is the shoreline of the island, it looks out to the island with the city on it. You can also see the other three smaller islands from there."

I followed him over the hills and indeed, there was a beach head, larger then the one we had arrived on. The main island was ahead of us across the water, but besides the tall skyscrapers, the rest of the island couldn't be seen over the water. I saw the other three smaller islands, two to the left of the main one and one to the right, farther in the distance. The second main island must have been hidden behind the other at this angle.

"With all their owners and the like turned into pokémon as well...the normal ones are acting very defensive, we need to let them come to us first." Enzlo said softly, but he folded his arms. "But...the fact these are the Onyx islands worries me greatly..."

"Why?" I looked down at him.

"These islands were where it all began Ruli..." He said, "The city...it was where humans first discovered how to take a pokémon's energy."

I jumped, "That's...that's Rakawera City?!" I shouted, pointing out at the skyscrapers.

"That's right." Enzlo nodded, "You remember it's name from your research I take it." He said.

I nodded, "Yeah, a scientist by the name of Jack was responsible for finding out about a pokémon's life force, and developed the means to extract it..." I feel silent as I thought, trying to remember more about the history, but Enzlo did it for me.

"That's right. Jack made the means to extract energy from pokémon. In weeks, he killed thousands in doing so, extracting enough life force to last mankind untold years...but as more and more of those new "inventions" came out, eventually...someone found out how they were doing it...and when Arceus was alerted to it he opened the gates, took his people, and fled to this world with them, while the Mega," He looked up at me at this, "Kept the humans trying to capture all the pokémon they could at bay."

Enzlo looked down at the sand he stood on, sighing deeply, "I remember before it was discovered. Humans lived in relative peace with pokémon, the only real discretion some people had was battling, where 'trainers' grew bonds with pokémon and pit them in fights against other trainers. Most people liked it, some thought it wasn't the right way to go about things. The Corsova Clan was one of them."

"The Corsova Clan believed humans were no greater than pokémon, and attempted to live among them in the wild. They had a far deeper understanding of pokémon than most humans, and several of the so called, 'professors' attempted to gain some of our knowledge, including Jack."

Enzlo shook his head, and he turned away and started to walk back up the hill. I followed him back to the den and ducked down to follow as he entered it. Barely any light shined into it but I could see a few small, but now dried, beds of vines and leaves.

"I'll have to replace the bedding here..." Enzlo grumbled as he first held open his paw and a small ball of yellow light appeared in the middle, lighting up the den and I stared at it, wondering what kind of power that was.

Enzlo began to clean up the bedding and I paced slightly where I stood. "We should return to Epa to make her aware of the situation."

"That's not a wise move."

"Why is that?"

"If you inform her that islands housing the lab where humans first stole energy from pokémon is now here in your lands, and that gets out to the public, panic will ensue and the Eeveelutions will be forced to invade." Enzlo stated, then questioned, "What do you know about Jack?"

"Well, as I said, he was responsible for finding out how to extract the life force from a pokémon." I said at first, "But...really, that's all the history told me. Truth of it is actually, just after Arceus closed the gate, the islands disappeared and were never seen from again, but the technology had already been reported to others."

"Why are the islands here, now, of all times, thousands of years after the gate closed, the barrier raised? What made them vanish and follow?" Enzlo continued, and I shook my head as I didn't know.

"Exactly. If we're going to find out what happened, we need to be careful not to alert Jack, if he's still alive, now a pokémon himself or not. That man destroyed my clan and killed-" Enzlo cut himself off suddenly, then stood up with armfuls of leaves and vines.

"We'll eventually return and gather select individuals to help us, but for now, we need to assess the situation. Explore the island if you wish," He told me, suddenly much calmer, "But don't make any unnecessary noise." And suddenly he teleported, leaving me alone with the small floating ball of light.

I grimaced and grumbled to myself in confusion, but I supposed he was right. The islands had vanished shortly after the gate had closed, if somehow they had arrived here in this land, we couldn't let Epa know that Jack and the very first energy draining machine was here. She'd instantly start an invasion and cause panic.

I wished we had at least brought Axel though. I tapped my footpaw on the ground for a bit as I grumbled still before turning and leaving the den, and I started to explore a bit, putting my paw on my arm to continue working on healing the deep wound the Rattata had given me earlier.

___________________________

I returned to the den sometime later in the evening, having taken the whole time to walk around the beach of the island. I found the village of the once humans now turned Rattata. They scurried around in a rush, a few of them tripping, not used to running on all fours. Occasionally, one would jump the other and start to fight, biting and clawing to the point they would be bleeding heavily. They were clearly confused and wound up, fighting over food, and given that I couldn't understand whatever odd language they used, I didn't try to make contact, making a mental note to avoid that area for now.

I found several caves filled with the glowing moss and foliage of the island in the darker, middle areas. It was obvious why the isle was called The Shadowed Jungle, given the darkness and shadows cast by the glowing plants.

Besides the Rattata, I found several other species of pokémon on the island, but only a few. They ran at the sight of me, but at least, I found, I could understand them. I decided it best not to give chase and scare them anymore than they already were with what was going on.

Enzlo was already in the den as I crouched down to enter. He had found fresh leaves and vines to act as flooring for the den, and now, instead of a ball of light, a fire sat in the middle, the smoke billowing out of a hole at the top. He was sitting cross legged by it and staring into it deeply

"So what should we do?" I asked him as I sat down at the other end of the fire and he held up a finger.

"Sshhhh...quiet..." He was staring into the fire intently and I folded my ears back, frowning.

For several seconds he stayed staring until he sighed, "Damn it...it faded."

"What faded?"

"I was having a vision in the fire." He said and I blinked.

"Really? What did you see?"

"Not much...but I think we need to go to another of the islands for now, The Moonlit Key, probably tonight..."

"Why?"

"I believe we will find something there to assist us...that much the vision did show me..."

"Well then lets hop to it."

Enzlo nodded and he stood up, sliding past me and I followed him out to the beach behind the den. He pointed his finger out over the ocean to the island across from us on the left side of the main one.

"We'll just go straight to the beach there on that island. From what I remember, I'm pretty sure there isn't any humans there, so the only pokémon we find there will all be wild pokémon."

"You think since they were pokémon to begin with and disconnected from the humans, they'll be more likely to listen to us?"

Enzlo nodded, "Exactly really, that's what I'm hoping." And with that he reached out his paw to me and I took hold of it, closing my eyes as he teleported us.

The falling sensation held me a moment longer than I expected it to, and when we finally settled, it wasn't soft beach sand that found me. My feet found uneven ground and instantly I fell backwards, tumbling down rocks. I shouted out as I felt myself find ground but rolled a few times, flinging me off a cliff and down a hill. I kept rolling through dirt until I came to rest as the bottom, groaning.

Opening my eyes and clearing my head, I slowly sat up, hissing slightly as my shoulder ached. I reached up, holding it with my opposite paw and starting a Healing Pulse to heal the damage. Other areas I impacted ached too, but those would be fine for now. I scanned my surroundings quickly. I had landed at the side of small stream that was flowing through a field. The grass was short but closer to the hill I had just fallen, it was long and wild. Ahead of me on the other side, was a field of the same short grass, trees on the other end.

"Enzlo?" I called out as I slowly stood up, keeping my paw on my shoulder as the pain was starting to fade with the Healing Pulse. "Enzlo? What happened?" I said again loudly, but the Abra gave no response. What happened, I had felt his paw until the moment the teleport ended, and why had I ended up on the top of a rocky hill and not at the beach as he had intended.

The thought came to me that perhaps he had dropped me there on purpose, hoping the fall would kill me, but I pushed the thought away. I didn't want to mistrust Enzlo. I shook my head and started to walk my way down the stream.

I saw a path up the hills on the other side of the taller reeds and pushed my way through them, trudging up the path I got a good look at the valley below. It swayed in the light breeze that came through, and I stopped a moment to stare. It seemed really peaceful here for some reason.

For minutes I stood and watched, until my shoulder stopped aching and I rolled it to test. There was no pain so I stopped my Healing Pulse and started my way back up the trail. I began to call out again.

"Enzlo!" I cupped my paws to my mouth as I shouted, "Enzlo!"

"I thought I told you not to shout and make too much noise, you'll draw attention!" The grumpy Abra's voice scolded as suddenly he appeared just above me on top of a rock.

I put my paws on my waist and pouted, "Got you to me didn't it? And what the hell happened? I ended up falling down a cliff rather than on a beach!"

"I...miscalculated the distance and ended up teleporting you farther than I did myself. It's difficult to explain to you...but basically think of it as that, the heavier you are, the more effort I have to use to move you, I used too much and moved you beyond what I intended. Better than dropping you in the ocean though right?" He said softly and I shook my head as he continued. "That, and attempting to teleport to this place based on my memories of it was more difficult than seeing the beach itself like I could at the coast..."

"Whatever." I folded my arms, "I'm fine anyway so let's continue on." I shrugged, and grunted as suddenly I felt weight drop onto my shoulders. Enzlo's paws grabbed two of my tendrils.

"I'd like to be here...if you don't mind. Make sure I don't lose you again."

"What! No way! You can walk I'm not gonna let you pull the 'carry me' shit!" I grunted and tried to shake him off. "Mr 'I'm not the average Abra'!"

"Shut up! Stop making so much noise!" He hissed in my ears as he held on.

A large rock suddenly slammed down in front of us and I jumped in surprise, this nearly flinging Enzlo off my shoulders as he hung onto one my tendrils. I didn't care though as the boulder grew four arms and two legs. Two of its arms were much longer than the other two, which it kept hugged closer to its round body. Besides the few gleaming dravite amber gems I saw in its body, it was obvious what pokémon this was to me.

"Who trespass in Graveler hills, hmm?" He pointed at us both as Enzlo resituated himself on my shoulders. "Load yelling wake up Graveler..." He grumbled at us.

I raised my paws, smiling, "Easy big guy, didn't mean to bother ya, I was just trying to find my friend here." I felt Enzlo wave his paw slightly above my head as I chuckled nervously.

"Hmm..." The Graveler grumbled and he reached out with one of his long arms and poked the side of my chest, making me wince a bit, "You look like Mega, but no way you can be him, he gone with creator through hole..."

"He's talking about Arceus...they still remember that the gate just recently closed..." Enzlo's voice said in my mind and I wondered when he had made the connection to my mind, but tried to stall the Graveler, grinning still.

"I am Mega Lucario, I'm just making sure that we really are safe from the humans."

The rock type shook his head, "Naw naw. I heard about it from flyers. He died to assault from humans." The rock type looked out over beyond the trees to the coast line just barely visible in the distance. "And now islands somewhere new..."

The rock type growled and he reached to his side to pick up the boulder that Enzlo had just moments ago been sitting on. "You are fake!" He roared and he swung the boulder down like a hammer.

I jumped back quickly to dodge.

"Hey easy!" I yelled, trying again to calm him, "Relax! I can explain!"

"Rotten Lucario steal power from Mega! You don't deserve!" The Graveler lifted the rock, holding it still and he reached back to swing it at me horizontally. As he swung I crouched and jumped over his wild swing. Enzlo teleported off my shoulders as I dived down and punched the Graveler in his face, channeling force to my paw for a well placed Brick Break.

I heard his rocky body snap open and he howled out in pain, releasing the boulder, which started to roll down the hills as he stumbled back. I landed in front of him, holding a fighting pose, but I didn't really want to fight him.

"Relax! I didn't steal this power!"

The rock type huffed as he removed his hands from cradling his face, showing a deep crack down the side that was slowly leaking red blood from his inner body.

"I don't want to hurt you." I said, "I just want to talk and figure out how-"

The Graveler roared and planted all four of his hands onto the ground, and the earth around me began to shake and rumble, rocks and pe falling down over me. Enzlo again appared on my shoulders and he shouted.

"Run! He's going to cause a landslide!"

I turned down the path and sprinted for it with Enzlo riding on my shoulders, dashing back through the reeds and across the small stream, leaping over the water. I darted through the fields just as I began hearing large boulders slamming into the ground behind me. Halfway across I looked back over my shoulder. I couldn't see the Graveler anymore, as now most of the air was covered in a cloud of dust. But, as I ran, my eyes widened as from the cloud of dust, suddenly a huge slab of earth rose up and flung itself through the air at me.

Thinking quickly I did the only thing I could think of and held a paw out behind me and gathered an Aura Sphere, firing it at the flying earth. The sphere exploded against it and thankfully blew it apart, but now earth and debris began raining down around it. I dodged and darted left and right as it rained down and Enzlo shouted in my ear to get into the trees. I put on a burst of speed as I rushed forward and darted into the safety of the forest, as the earthquake continued behind me.

_________________________

I came to a rest after a minute of running, panting slightly and I shook dust out of my fur as I growled. "What the hell just happened? How the heck did he manage to pick up such a huge slab of earth to throw at me? And why does he look different from normal Graveler too?"

"I do not know." Enzlo said atop my head, "It's interesting...when I came here as part of my training in the Clan, there were no such pokémon..."

I shook my head and panted still as I tried to catch my breath. The ground had stopped shaking. "So much for trying to find something to help us here."

Enzlo stayed silent and he looked up at the sky, it was starting to get that orange glow to it. "The sun is starting to set, let's set up camp."

"Here?" I questioned as I stood up, "Why not go back to the other one?"

"I just have the feeling to stay here..." Enzlo stated and I shook my head.

"Fine, but where?" I waved my paws about, "We're out in the open here."

"Perhaps that will be a good thing."

I suddenly was feeling too tired to argue. After the adrenaline of running wore off and now the energy I had used doing Healing Pulses through the day was catching up to me. I slid down the trunk of a tree and closed my eyes with a huff. "Whatever, keep watch then, I'm taking a nap."

"I'll try but I sleep too ya know." Enzlo returned at me and I shrugged, stifling a yawn.

_______________________

I felt hot puffs of breath against my cheek. I mumbled and turned my head away, but the breaths followed where I turned my face and I growled out.

"Stop breathing on me Axel I'll get up in a bit..." my sleep idled mind spoke out for me and I heard the other chuckle.

"Axel? Who's that? And why would you sleep now? The moon's out, it's great..."

Again, my sleep idled brain responded while I turned he head away from the hot breaths of air, "Yeah yeah, you Umbreons and the moon are all buddy buddy I know..."

"I know a few Umbreons, but none by the name of Axel." The other voice chuckled again, and now, as I was starting to wake up, I realized the voice wasn't Axel's.

My eyes opened up, my vision blurry a moment and at first I thought I was looking into some rose tinted lights, but as it cleared I realized it was the glowing eyes of another pokémon.

Instantly, I jumped up and away from it, shouting out. "Enzlo! I told you to keep watch!"

"Znrk!" I heard a loud snort from above me and then the Abra fell out of the tree, landing into a bush with a thump. However, he continued to snore, not even the fall had woken him.

The newcomer laughed, holding its stomach with a large claw and giggling, "Hehe, that was great...I didn't even know he was up there." it wheezed after a long laughing fit.

As my eyes grew more adjusted to the light, I took in the other pokémon. It wasn't anything I had ever seen before in any of my studies. The first thing I realized, obviously due to the size, was that it was male, a thick sheath and orbs showed between his legs as he turned towards me.

His body was canine in nature, but he stood on two legs. Both paws featured long, sharp black claws at the tips of four fingers, and his footpaws had three claws that dug into the earth where he stood digitigrade. He stood hunched over, his body and waist thicker than the rest of him, except for a huge amount of fur he had on the back of his neck and head, white and tipped with black. He held his arms and paws between his legs, the claws on them just barely crazing the ground.

He was wearing a tattered brown scarf around his neck, and similar bands were wrapped around his wrists. I felt a moment of interest at the sight of the scarf, reminding myself of my own purple one around my neck as well, but it wasn't nearly as long as his was, it flited down his back just between he legs, where I noticed he also had a medium length tail as it wagged back and forth.

The main part of his body was red, except for his arms and legs which were white like he was wearing gloves and socks, and his muzzle was white furred, a black nose at the end. His tail was white as well.

His eyes didn't seem to have any irises, I noticed after staring a bit that they were there but were the same color as the rest of his eyes and only barely distinguishable by when he moved his eyes slightly. They also glowed brightly in the night.

He tilted his head at me, and at that point I also saw his teeth as he was grinning, rows of incredibly sharp looking fangs and I crouched low to defend, expecting him to attack me.

"Hey there." He said then, holding his grin. "How you doing tonight? I like your scarf."

I didn't answer, squinting my eyes as I held my paws out in front of me. Despite how friendly he seemed, wasn't going to take a risk again like with the Graveler. He waited for me to answer, and kicked the ground with his footpaw once when I didn't, his smile fading a bit.

"Pretty awesome moon huh?" He asked instead, voice a little quieter and he looked up at the sky, and I took the chance and lashed out to hit him. His eyes flashed as he glanced back at me.

He dodged it, almost lazily sliding his body to the left, his paw coming up and slapping my arm away, making me trip slightly as I stopped myself and he spun up around behind me, basically making us trade places where we had been standing. He stayed slouched over though, but his eyes suddenly glowed even bright and his grin grew.

"Ohhhh wanna play huh?" He said happily and he brought his paws up and made a motion with his claws, taunting me to try again. "Been some time since someone wanted to!"

I grimaced and waved my paws, creating my bone staff. I held it at my side as it glowed green and he wagged his tail behind himself as he crouched low and brought his paws up, holding one in front of himself and the other behind himself as he giggled. "Now fight fair eh?"

I growled, baring my own fangs as I lurched forward and swung my staff about. He jumped up over my swing, but before he might try to attack from above I ducked down, and swung the staff into my other paw to bring it up and about over my body to hit him.

He gasped in surprise, clearly he hadn't actually expected me to challenge him and I felt my attack hit. I expected to hear him tumble along the ground but instead, his feet landed in front of me and I looked up to see he had my staff gripped in the claws of his paw, somehow those huge claws could grab things too. He was eyeing down at me with a look of appreciation.

"That was a surprise. Good form." He said with a grin, his eyes glowing even brighter as he growled softly in his enjoyment. I dismissed my staff so that he wouldn't have the grip as instead I extended the spikes on the back of my paws into Metal Claws.

He stepped back as I swung at him, deftly stepping to the left and right to dodge my slashing strikes. He kept stepping backwards as he dodged, giggling.

"Geeze you're pretty fast! I heard the Mega were good but this is great!" The glow of his eyes was nearly blinding and I could barely see where I was swinging. Suddenly I felt my claw hit something, the bright glow of his eyes was blocked by his arm that he had lifted up to take the hit. No, wait, I slowly realized. His fur was stopping my blades!

I jumped away, panting. He chuckled and lowered his arm, lifting up his other paw and he tapped at his fur to show me. It echoed like he was tapping a solid rock. I noticed now that the fur of his arm had seemed to bunch up, while the rest of his body seemed relaxed, the fur swaying slightly in the night breeze.

I kept panting heavily and he giggled, making that same motion he had with his paws earlier as if taunting me, "Come on now! I know you can do better than that!"

My Metal Claws faded as I grunted, slipping down onto one knee and the canine stood a little straighter, a look of concern coming over him. I held my gaze with him as he stepped closer.

"Then again, you look exhausted...I guess it is night time, you're used to sleeping right now." He knelt down in front of me and he offered me his paw. The glow of his eyes was dimming quickly to a dull one, allowing me again to see more of his features in the dim light of the night. His smile was friendly and his tail was wagging between his legs. I looked at his paw and thought hard. If he had wanted to hurt me, he would've done so already. Clearly, even given my Mega form, he had more power than I did.

I reached and took it, and his claws wrapped around my paw like large clamps as he lifted me back up to my feet. Slowly, he saddled up beside me, slinging my arm over his shoulders. I felt that large head of fur on his neck and head as he did this, and felt small bits of rock brush into my own fur. As my body pressed up against his side, I felt even more dirt and rocks deep in his fur.

The canine helped me step back to the tree and he used his other arm to reach into the bush and he fished out Enzlo, hoppling him up over his other shoulder. The Abra snored as he turned us through the forests and spoke, "I'll let you sleep in my den, it's safer than out here, you're lucky I'm the only one that found you. We can talk more once you're awake, and hopefully I won't have ended up sleeping by then myself." He chuckled.

"Who are you?" I panted softly as I walked beside him, my other paw gripping his arm that was wrapped around my shoulder.

"I go by Rook." He responded, smiling and he looked into my eyes with his as he turned his head slightly, bringing the end of his muzzle just inches from mine and he closed his eyes during his smile. "I'm a Lycanroc. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mega Lucario."

"Just...Ruli is fine." I answered back and turned my muzzle away slightly, feeling a bit of blush rise in my cheeks.

He didn't seem to notice as he nodded, "All right then, no problem. You just relax, with me with you, you won't have to worry about any others here."

I nodded slightly and sighed, closing my eyes and making sure to keep my feet moving as he walked us forward. At least Enzlo had seemed to be right about finding a friend here.