Defenders of Evodusai Part 4
"How do you--" I started, but then it all came back to me.
All the fractured pieces of that one buried memory resurfaced,
bringing along with it a whole range of emotions. It happened five
years ago, when I was old enough to become a trainer. Since my family
made a living breeding pokemon, I was confident in my abilities to
raise one for myself. I was given a freshly laid egg and told to take
care of it. Twenty one days later, she cracked through the fragile
shell and saw me for the first time through her amber colored eyes.
We stared at one another, both unsure of the situation presented
before us. Taking a step forward, I heard her give a few sniffles
before she went off into a full on bawl. Her crying alerted the rest
of my family of the newborn's arrival and my siblings came running in
out of curiosity. My parents walked into quite a scene that day. Like
an overprotective mother, I was clutching the baby tightly in my arms
while trying to drive off my younger brothers and sisters. When
everything had calmed down, I was left with a sleeping totodile
gurgling in my arms. From there, it went downhill pretty quickly. A month had past
since Liru was hatched. I spent most of those days taking care of
her. As a result, she got pretty clingy to me, following me
everywhere I went like a duckling chasing after its mom. I didn't
mind it much, but I was definitely worried about her safety. Some of
the family's breeding pokemon had recently gone missing and I was
afraid that whoever took them might target her next. I wanted her to
stay inside while I got the chores done around the house, but
couldn't bear the sorrow coming from her cries of loneliness. My
inexperience with this kind of thing would soon make me regret my
decisions for the next couple of years. On a day where storm clouds rolled by in thick sheets of gray, I
didn't know that my greatest fear would turn into a reality. Despite
the weather looking horrible, I brought Liru outside to get some
fresh air. Chores already done, we played together in the windy
conditions for a good hour or so. The bellowing of a miltank was a
big enough distraction to draw my attention away from my totodile for
a split second. Soon enough, her cries of terror instantly made my
blood freeze. Turning, I saw three guys escaping with bags slung over
their shoulders. Running was all I could do to catch up to the
culprits, but all that I could remember was pain. When I came to, I
found myself lying charred up on a bed in a pokemon center. The nurse
who treated my burns said I was lucky and that I would fully recover
in about a month or so. By then, I knew it would be too late to save
her from the kidnappers. For five long years, I buried away the
feelings of despair and worked to try and forget it all. But the
physical pain of having my body pushed to their limits was nothing
compared to the scar left on my heart. One night after working myself to exhaustion, I came home to find
the area surrounded with rangers. Fire had found its way onto the
roof of my house. One of them came up to me and broke open the bad
news. "...Critical...Missing...Painless..." were the only words
that I could make out through all of the panic. Watching them
dragging out the captured fugitives set me off into a rampage. How
could my neighbors, who were once close friends of ours, do such a
thing? I shouted and yelled for answers, but only received smug grins
and silence as they were taken away. I later found out that everyone
in my family would be alright. The business, however, was completely
ruined. Blinking, I stared at the gator in my arms who was sobbing
uncontrollably and clutched her deeply into my chest. A couple tears
of my own streamed downward, mixing with the tears that were already
on the ground. Looking up, a couple of drops fell onto my face."I lost you on a day just like today. I'm never going to lose
you ever again."