Ch. 76
#83 of True Confessions of a Trainer
Penance (OT's Arcanine)
It took a little convincing to get him on my back. He already felt a little bad that I carried the backpack most of the time now. But the weight of him felt good atop me. A kind of closeness that was ours. The way his hand would idly brush through the fur at my neck, or scratch behind an ear as we meandered through open meadows. It took far less convincing to get him atop me in the more intimate ways, he just needed the privacy or dark hours we could share together.
I hadn't realized how claustrophobic the ship had felt to me, until I was away from it for a few days. Having the room to stretch, turn around, the freedom to get my paws on his shoulders and wrap him up, or kiss him almost whenever I wanted? I had missed those freedoms. I had missed the way he touched me, when we were alone together. The way his hands knew just where to wander to heat me up inside. The way he could tease me into a frenzy until all I could focus on was the scent of him. Effortless, instinctive, perfect. I fell in love with him again, and again. Every time we were alone, every time I looked at him when the light was just right. Every time he wrapped his arms around me.
I was big enough now, strong enough that I could protect him. I made show of it, when we trained. Put my agility to use keeping Tempest busy, occasionally going fang to fang with the bitch, or tackling her to the dirt, my sheer size enough to put her in her place. I outweighed her seven to one, and in straight combat it wasn't even fair. Still, she didn't make it easy, and the more we sparred the better she got, until I was catching claws as often as I was delivering bites.
Claire was my real competition, my fire didn't push her away, but her psychic attacks were nothing short of brutal. If I wasn't quick and decisive she'd make sure I was regretting it well into the morning. She was cautious too. It was hard to get close to her, even with my newfound speed. While it was all but impossible to catch Mira once she found her step, she struggled to land a decisive blow the way Claire could.
Everyone had their strengths, and everyone had worked hard for it. I knew that. I might have been bigger, but that wasn't enough. I was getting stronger every day. I trained when the others were asleep. I trained after breakfast. I trained by carrying my lover on my back, and all his things, too. Trained in the hills, trained in the open meadows, trained until my paws bled. I wanted to be what the others were, and being big wasn't going to be enough. I had a lot of catching up to do. I'd show them a shepherd's determination.
And in the evenings, when we were alone... I'd show him a lover's warmth. No matter how tired I was, I was never too tired for that!
Belle (OT's Lucario)
We had made tracks around the island, arriving before a vast and winding canyon. The walls rose up around us, too steep to climb, and so high they seemed to swallow the sky. It was an interesting place, windswept and beautiful even in the ways it felt barren, and alien. The trainers we encountered were all interested in fights, and it seemed even the ground itself agreed that making any kind of passage would be difficult at best, even following the relatively well marked trails.
The darkness in the caves was, mercifully enough, no obstacle to us, thanks to Claire's carried fire. I felt a little guilty for the nocturnal sorts we disturbed, and had to help put more than one zubat in their place along the way. But this was the way things went, human or pokemon alike, nobody wanted their home disturbed at all hours. Home though it was for them though, I was unsettled more with every step. There was something about the place that pricked at my senses in a way that felt wrong. As though we were all being led by something we didn't understand.
When we made camp that night, it was only slightly off the beaten trail, hidden by high walls, and obscured by deep shadows. No fire did we burn, and at master's insistence, only Tempest and I were kept out. The others to take a good rest, as much as possible, in the safety of the pokeballs. It seemed even he had begun to feel wary and pressured. We knew better than to wander at night, and while I didn't object too sharply, I wasn't feeling very good about taking second watch.
I didn't realize how exhausted I had been from the climbing, the fighting, the sheer distance we had covered in the winding maze. I hadn't realized I'd fallen asleep until I heard the sound of arguing. Of Tempest's angry voice, hushed and near, but not directly beside us as I had assumed she would be.
I had to strain to make heads or tails of it.
And when I understood what was going on, I moved to wake master.
Tempest (OT's Lycanroc)
We had been followed most of the day, curious eyes from the dark corners, and frustrated cave seekers marking our intrusion through their homes. But there was something else in the mix. Something that felt familiar, and frightening. Like an itch at the back of my neck, my fur bristling in moments the others didn't seem to notice. Claire had shared a concerned glance my way but was oblivious to the cause of it. I almost wanted to argue when master had insisted the rest of the girls shelter in their pokeballs, but I knew how tired they were. Arceus, but I knew how tired I was.
And there, as if a taste of bitterness on the wind, that same familiar disturbance. Only growing as the shadows did. My turn to keep watch, and if the first hour moved at a crawl; the second was nothing less than agony. My eyes had adjusted, straining against the dark, ears swiveling at every sound, every echo. Whatever it was, I was ready. I was ready for anything, I thought. Except to suddenly find myself looking into a mirror.
Fuck, but he was bigger than me. The lycanroc I was now standing in front of. A coat of ash and blood, his eyes locked to mine, appraising, dissecting. If it came to blows... no. When. It came to blows, it was going to be bad. For both of us probably, but definitely bad for me. I could feel it, the rush of blood to my head, the way my heart had begun to pound, the tension in my hands, the want to sink my claws in even before he spoke.
"It's about time they fell asleep. I've been waiting for you all day." He said, as he looked me over, circled, at a wary distance. "And you've been waiting for me for a long time, haven't you?" He asked, no confusion about what he wanted from me. Already the length of him had risen to display himself proudly to me. "Try not to howl too loud, we wouldn't want to wake your friends."
Arrogant. Overwhelmingly strong. The scent of him almost an assault, dizzying. I hated the way he smelled, and I hated my body for betraying my heart. But I wasn't going to give him what he wanted. No matter how my veins sang for it. "I'm not yours to take. I belong to him." I said, taking a defensive posture. One master had taught me. Night after night, as we fought and grew together. "Do you want to die tonight?"
"The sweeter the fruit, the harder the climb." The response nonchalant, cold, and resolute. "He cannot satisfy you. Could never satisfy you. I can smell you. You need this as much as I want it. Why lie? Why pretend? He doesn't need to know."
I was already done with conversation. I could feel it, burning in my stomach. I hated myself for it, to know he was right. I could smell me too. If I was going to have a chance, I had to strike first. As I lunged in, he leapt back, only to surge forward, claws raking against my side, a ragged wound narrowly averted by the way I twisted with the blow, followed and swept a sharp kick at the back of his legs, hobbling him enough to make the next shot count, bloodying his cheek with a savage rake. His snarl met mine, and as he lunged in again I knew it was about to hurt.
One more wound, for my lover's sake.
But it was a wound that didn't fall on me.
Trainer (OT)
I didn't have time to wake up, or think. She needed me, and she needed me quite some time ago. Their fight had already started by the time I closed the distance. I blindsided him, as he moved in for the kill. His claws would have ripped me to shreds, so instinctively I kept him as close as possible, my arm sweeping up to halt his blow. From below my own returned, a knee strike that would have seen me disqualified from any tournament you'd care to mention. It was enough that he took some distance from me, and reconsidered the situation.
His claws had raked over my forearm, but fortunately he'd mostly just struck against bone. Between the adrenaline and the anger, I barely felt it. Shook it off and kept a tight fist. "Don't run, coward. You stand and fight." I called at him as he took a glance toward the high walls, perhaps where he'd come from. "Don't you dare run. If I have to chase you, you're going to die tired. Stand and fight and I'll let you off with a beating."
He sneered as he stood in front of me. Much closer to my size than Tempest's, and with an attitude to match, he rushed in, claws, fangs, and fury. But I had trained for it. I knew what he could do, and by his movements, most of what he would do. Tempest called out a warning, but I didn't need it. My hands snatching his wrist and elbow, twisting him up as if to throw him but without the release there was only one place he'd go. The impact against the dirt second only to the impact of my palm crashing down against his chest. His free arm shot up, aiming to eviscerate me, but I kicked off of him, out of his reach once again.
He'd torn my shirt to ribbons. I got out of it with little more than a scrape, and the frustration of having lost a shirt I liked. Our next exchange was pure savagery. My fists pummeled his face, his teeth sank into my skin, and I bit him in return, taking hold of his ear, twisting and tearing before we separated again. We were both bloodied, but he was unprepared for what I was, and had received the worse of our violent bargain.
"She's mine, and I'm going to show you why." I said, as I settled into my stance. "I was just warming up before. You're twenty years too early to test me." Lines stolen from my favorite movies. If it wasn't my words, maybe it was in my posture, because he didn't come right back for more. "I will allow you to leave, or I will allow you to have your bones broken. Choose!"
He looked to Tempest, then to me and spat. "The bitch isn't even worth breeding. Keep the human stained whore and count yourself lucky you are both beneath me."
I snarled, half an expletive escaping me as I moved in. I wanted to close the distance, to shut his mouth as forcefully as possible. Unfortunately for him, Tempest got to him first. Of all the fights we had ever shared together, I'd never seen her as angry as she was in that moment. I had never seen anyone that angry.
Imagine it, if you dare. If you insist. If you must. Even now I would never speak of it. They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. I promise you, you want to keep that word of warning close. What was left of him dragged the rest of him out of the canyon with a raspy, stuttering pleading. So terrible was her fury that we immediately broke camp and got as much distance from that place as possible, darkness be damned.
As ferocious as her answer to him had been, her answer to me was perhaps even worse. I doubted greatly my ability to walk, when I thought she was through with me. When I was through with her. It would be impossible to explain which of these was true. Neither? Both? She had surrendered herself to me, and yet still pushed me as far as I could go. To quench my thirst in the aftermath was a greater task than both the canteens I kept could handle, and the way she looked at me was as though an all consuming hunger had robbed her of her senses. Far from being through with me, it was only a brief and blessed intermission. Her howling and mine echoing off of the walls of the cave we occupied as if we were a banshee mourning the dead. It was all I could do, and all I could endure to even attempt to keep up with her passion!
I awoke some time later, in the depths of that dark cave. Awoke with her still wrapped around me in the most intimate of ways, Belle sitting nearby. The dim glow of my tablet between us. A wink, a grin, and a teasingly offered good morning, as she got up and stretched. "Do you think you can stand, or do we need to carry you out on a stretcher?"
"Do we have one?" was my not quite joking reply. Every part of my body was alight with pain like electricity arcing along my every nerve.
Claire (OT's Delphox)
It was an interesting story I got, as we rested in the comfortable cold and dark of the cave. A shame I wasn't there to see it first hand, but she'd definitely left an impression on master. Marked him from head to toe in her scent. Exhausted him, utterly. We wouldn't be going any further for the moment, but it suited me fine. We weren't in a hurry, and they had somehow found themselves tucked away in a place no other trainer had been, perhaps in years. Perhaps ever.
It took some time for him to find the strength to stand up, and even then it was on trembling legs. Belle had helped the worst of the bites and claw marks heal, most of them having been a lover's passionately given wounds. But he insisted that the rest could wait, at least until we found sunshine again. So we meandered on our way, following the fresh air up through the winding crevices. Penance content to let him lay atop her back, as comfortably as he could, arms and legs both dangling down her sides.
Tempest, as if perhaps to make up for what she'd put him through, carried the pack, and held my hand the whole while. Every filthy detail of the night before shared with me, the warmth now in her belly a far more contented and wanted feeling than the one she replaced. Fur matted with the proof of their union, his scent all over her, and hers on him.
Maddening that I missed it, but I was also glad to not be in his sorry state!
By the time we got out of the caves it was in the early afternoon. It had been a quiet morning, and as deep into the canyon as we'd gone, we hardly saw any trainers. The ones we did pass were all tired enough to let us slip by without much regard. It suited me well enough, happily distracted with pleasant little murmurings between my lover and I. Promises made that she would give me every bit of what he got last night, once we were alone enough to enjoy it.
I was glad that he'd protected her. That she had protected herself. The close call I'd had before... I wouldn't have wished it on anyone. She was ours. Mine and his. We'd fight to keep it that way. All three of us.
Belle (OT's Lucario)
I both loved and hated seeing him draped over the arcanine, as exhausted as he was. I could see all his aches and pains, in the ways he moved, in the ways he avoided it, and in the occasional shocks of color in his aura. He was exhausted, but happy. Sated in a deep and lingering way. The occasional glance at Tempest filled with so much love and want that it left me almost jealous. Almost.
It hurt me, in a deep and lingering way, to see how free everyone else was with him and to feel that wall between us. So afraid of him. So afraid of me. I couldn't even say for sure what I wanted. If I was just afraid or if it was something else. If it was old memories, or new worries.
I was grateful for Helena by my side. For the occasional nuzzle, the warmth and closeness. We still hadn't figured out what we were, but in the moments we collectively took breaks, we'd talked a little. Learned more about each other. About what we were hoping for, what we wanted with our newfound master. What we hoped we could have together, as friends, and maybe as something more.
It all really came back to him. If it weren't for him, there wouldn't be anything between us, not really. It wasn't that she was unattractive, or that I minded the kisses we'd shared. It just wouldn't have come up. But with him in the mix it seemed as inevitable as fusing a magneton. I could feel the pull between us. The things we had in common. The ways we hurt, and had healed, and had hurt again. Who we were, so similar that our auras could blend seamlessly when we argued and bickered. I'd never noticed it before. Never noticed her before. Not the way I had now.
I hated to admit it but as much of a bitch and a troublemaker as she was, she drew the better part of me out. I had always done the same to her. Brought her back to her senses when things left her teetering at the brink of violence. We'd always been leaning on each other. Maybe this was the natural outcome. The way things should have been.
I felt safe with her. A little piece of home I got to keep. I hadn't realized it before, but as much as I missed the way he treated me, I missed Helena even more. I'd never have been able to admit it, before. She was a troublemaker, she was a menace, but she was family to me. I still wasn't sure where we were going with it, what it would, or should be. But no matter where we ended up, we were going there together. I loved knowing that.
Helena teased, and offered ideas. Suggestions about getting master between us. About kissing each other around him, if not with our tongues, with something just as warm and wet. Insisted how much we could drive him crazy doing it. I knew I wasn't ready for that, but the more she talked about it, the more I could feel myself responding. Maybe not today, but she made a good argument. A very good argument.
I loved the little troublemaker, but I wasn't going to let her set the pace all on her own. I'd need to figure out a few things, first!
Trainer
By late afternoon I was at least walking on my own, although I was still walking a little crooked. Penance kept near, let me keep a hand on her to steady myself in the moments my balance faltered. Claire took my arm, on the opposite, and shared with me all her thoughts. Devious and dark, all the ways she wanted me to be well rested, so I could give a repeat performance. All the ways she wanted Tempest and I both to do to her what had been done to me.
She didn't mind that I wasn't up to it, could only reciprocate in thought and in the contented brush of tired fingers through her fur. As much as I enjoyed being that worn out, I wasn't in a rush to do it again. Whatever had gotten into Tempest lingered, and as we set up camp for the night, she came close, nuzzled against my neck, her tongue teasing a slow, loving kiss against my bare skin.
Joined then by her lover, Claire taking the opposite side. Promises of every affection, every indulgence, before they both pulled away, with a wink, and a shake of their tails as they walked hand in hand around the high rocks, to give to each other what I couldn't have given them for all the want in the world.
They would be near, I knew. Near, and safe, and loved.
All I wanted at the moment was food and sleep. Food, and as much sleep as I could possibly get. I ached from head to toe, and couldn't believe Tempest had anything left to offer Claire. What a monster! But I loved it about her. Even if I couldn't keep up, I loved that she did anything she did with all she had. It meant everything that I had kept her safe. It meant absolutely everything to me.
Penance and Cocoa were more than happy to oblige in caring for me and I soon found myself pleasantly sandwiched between them. When Mira settled in, cradled in my arm, her ribbons looped lazily over me, oblivion would take me quickly. Despite having no worldly clue where we were in the depths of the canyon, or where we were going, I rested better and more easily than I had in months. Nobody needed me to do anything, nobody asked. They were all there, happy and safe.
Sometime in the midst of my drifting in and out, I felt the familiar weight and pinprick of claws at my leg, Sybil announcing herself without a word. I wasn't afraid to fall asleep, she'd be awake, she always was. She was awake just so I could sleep. I'd have to get her a treat at the next stop we made. I wondered idly what kinds of things she'd like.
What kind of things I could give her that wouldn't cause a scandal, at least. It was my last idle thought, and I surely fell asleep smiling. I could only hope I would be less sore in the morning. Although instinctively I understood the opposite would be true. At least until I got up and moving, forced my muscles to loosen up a little.
Tempest had given me everything she had, and it was more than I could bear.
Arceus, but I loved her!