Ch. 43
Imported from SF2 with no description.
-Trainer-
Gwen was happy to let us see to breakfast, and even pointed out a few places where we could forage or fish that wouldn’t hurt anyone. We indulged in quiet hours, and mostly just enjoyed the warmth and closeness by the bank of a pretty little river.
I could hear pokemon, birds in the trees, and what I had assumed was at least a trio of nidoran foraging in the grass. If they thought anything of my presence, they made no indication of it, and for a time I was content to lay back in the grass and watch the clouds float by. High, white fluffy shapes swirling past on the breeze.
Mira seemed impressed by my quiet, and curled up on my chest, her ribbons wrapped around me, everywhere she could reach, as she hummed softly to herself. Cocoa and Penance had gone to gather up a bit of tinder and whatever berries they could find, but I could hear their conversation, idle and pleasant, from where I was.
It had been some time since I really just lay still for a day. Voluntarily, at least. It was little surprise to me that I found myself almost dozing off to the increasingly familiar sounds. Occasionally, I’d have to sit up and reel in the line, my cheap little fishing rod held up fine, and I kept the ones that were worth eating, tossing the others back to swim another day.
Cocoa and Penance had managed to gather up a fair helping of berries and fruits, such that I doubted we’d need to come back tomorrow, except perhaps to enjoy the sound and the companionship. The day, it felt, had still scarcely begun, the sun lazily making its way to noontime zenith, and the breeze that beckoned us back to camp was a welcome change from the morning stillness within the trees.
As I set to the fire, and the task of cleaning the fish, Cocoa settled down next to me, and watched with no small curiosity as I worked with little more than a fruit knife and a flat rock with a happy, practiced ease.
“Didn’t reckon you for much of a fisher.” She said, as I scaled the first fish, the castoff remains set aside in an empty can. “Spend a lot of time doin’ it?”
“Some.” I replied, with a nod. “Better days, when my dad wasn’t away so much. Was little then, but I paid attention. Used to go out alone, when I got older. Never caught much. Today was a lucky break.”
“Didn’t hurt none that Gwen was so keen on sharin’ her favorite fishin’ spots.” Cocoa replied, with a playful poke before she turned to stir the pot. “I figure this takes care of supper, but maybe... “ She paused, and changed her tone, calling out a greeting. “Oh hey, we have company!”
As I looked up, I saw the absol, the one that they had called Helena approaching us. She observed us from a distance for a moment, before I waved her over with a sigh. “Stay or go, but don’t linger!” I called as I set myself back to the task.
“Just the four of you? I see you thought it through. Well, the feeling of impending calamity faded, so I assumed you figured something out.” She said, as she sat opposite me, the flat rock between us. “Good. Despite what you might think, I don’t necessarily want anything bad to happen.”
I shook my head, and smiled. “You had your reasons. Your bedside manner sucks, though.” I said, as I set to the second fish, deftly taking head and tail, and setting them aside. “You’re a little early for lunch, but I don’t mind sharing. You like fish?”
Helena couldn’t hide the happiness at the prospect, and agreed a little too readily. “Sounds good. And… besides, I wanted to talk to you about something. A problem that …” She hesitated, a long moment. The words stuck on the tip of her tongue before she growled and muttered the rest of her thoughts. “Fuck, I hate this. I hate everything about this, but I need your help. We. Need your help.”
I paused, mid-scaling and looked at her. A moment passed before I found the words. “What’s so wrong with asking for a little help?”
“I hate th… no. Never mind that, it doesn’t matter. They’re going to make a move, those poachers, the thieves. The same ones you ran into, well… their group.” She said, in a rush, trying to make sense of it all. “I need you to protect Gwen, it’s… if you don’t…”
“If I don’t, creepy absol prophecy?” I asked, as I set down the blade. “Cocoa, will you go grab Penance and Mira? They should hear this, too.”
“Do we know when?” I asked, as Cocoa headed to the tent. “Where?”
“No. It doesn’t… It doesn’t work like that for me. I get feelings and I have to figure out what would make me feel that way and it’s always a mess and it’s always a problem, and sometimes I don’t figure out soon enough. And that’s… that doesn’t matter. She’s going to get hurt, either way. But it’s going to be a lot worse without you.” Helena replied, shaking her head. “I don’t see the future. I never did. I just…”
“So all that stuff before?” I asked, with a sigh. “You never saw my death, did you?”
“No. I … smelled the smoke, tasted the ash, felt the heat of a huge fire. The fear. The absolute horror. I thought telling you that you’d die would stop you. People… they only … do the right thing when it helps them.” She sighed, and shook her head. “I didn’t … I wasn’t…” She struggled trying to find the words, but I just shook my head and smiled.
Mira had come to my side, and sniffed at the fish, feigning more curiosity in when lunch was happening than anything Helena had to say. Finally, she more or less flopped down at my side, and stared up at the absol.
Penance sat up on the stump near the fire, and watched. I couldn’t tell without craning my head, but it sounded like her claws were idly scraping against it. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Warm welcome, indeed.
“You’re not wrong. People can be pretty awful. I know… I haven’t … always been the exception to that, being generous…” I nodded, and set aside the work for a minute. “Helena, right? You’re forgiven, completely. If you thought you needed to be. I know what it is to have to get someone’s attention when they desperately don’t want to give it to you.”
She didn’t reply, just looked aside, and waited. I could see the tension coiled in her shoulders, the want to move, to go anywhere else, anywhere except that moment.
“On the other hand, I can prove you wrong on one point. I’ll help, all you had to do was ask.” I said, with a nod. “Just… I don’t quite know what I can do that’s going to matter.”
“Neither do I. I don’t know when, where, just soon. Sooner with every heartbeat. I hate it. I hate how it feels. I can feel her fear, her pain. I can feel scornful joy, and the feeling of greed being fulfilled… fear and loneliness and resignation and all of those things… but I can’t figure out what it means, beyond that!” She was frantic as she said it. I sighed, and nodded.
“Welcome to the frailty of humanity. We all basically know things are going to go wrong, and we all make the same mistake of trying to figure out when, where, how, anything to get an advantage. But you know… something I was told recently?” I asked.
She glared at me, and shook her head. “What? What’s so damned important?” She asked, in an impatient huff, pacing back and forth.
“You can’t help anyone by being miserable.” I said, with a smile. “Sucks to hear, I know. But it’s true. What you’re doing right now? Who is it helping? You don’t know anything more than you did five minutes ago, and I can damned near hear your heart from here.” I sighed, and nodded. “You’re winding yourself up and it’s not getting you anywhere, right?”
“Then what do you think I should do?! What’s your plan?” She demanded, through clenched teeth. I could just about feel all the tension in her back and shoulders. It was enough to make my own back hurt in sympathy.
“For now? Lunch. Staying?” I asked, with a shrug as I moved back to work, cleaning and scaling the fish.
“Are you fucking kidding me? We should be... “ She stalled, gnawing at her own thoughts. “We should be…” She repeated, before audibly growling and snapping at herself. “Fuck. Damn it! I don’t know, but not this!”
“So… you’re saying starve until something horrible happens? Good plan. Fighting from that disadvantage sure is going to help Gwen.” I said, as I set to the third fish.” I sighed, working the blade back down, scaling the catch. “Helena, I understand. I do. I really do. But there’s nothing we can do right now. They’ll either strike in the dark, when everyone should be asleep, or first thing in the morning, so they have all day to work. Today? Already done. At worst they’re getting in position, and we without the means to discern where.”
“Then… you’ll keep watch tonight?” She more pleaded than asked.
“I’ll do better than that. For now, why don’t you sit with us, and eat? You’ve probably been too nervous to do so for a while, right? A little food, a chance to calm down and not have to do this all by yourself. Sound good?” I asked, gesturing to the fire. “Go get comfortable, I won’t be long, here.”
She hesitated for a moment, her paws kneading the soil as she warred with herself on the idea. “You’re right.” She admitted, finally. “I… you’re right.”
I smiled, as Cocoa pulled a bowl of sweet berries and cream hot off the campfire, dished up to serve to our guest. I didn’t need to ask. It took a little while to get the fish cooked, but we all enjoyed the dessert first, while I did.
“Gwen means a lot to you, doesn’t she?” I asked, without looking at Helena.
“She... “ Helena sighed. “I don’t think you’d understand, but yes. She does.”
“Seems she means a lot to a lot of pokemon. It’s good though. Even if it’s only her, it’s good that there’s someone out there they can count on.” I said, with a sigh. “We’ll keep her safe.” I smiled as I served up fish to the girls, my own portion going to Helena, who stared for a moment, but gave up the idea of refusing it quickly enough.
“We all count on her, in our own ways. I don’t think most of them realize how much she does. Annabelle tries to help, we’re both afraid of how old she’s getting. She won’t be able to do all of this forever. We’re worried whoever comes next is … isn’t going to understand.” She said, with a defeated sigh. “That it’ll go back to how things were before.”
“Before?” I asked, and sat back by the fire, poking at it with a stick as I enjoyed the scent of the roasting fish.. “What do you mean?”
“There was this ranger before her, he… it wasn’t like he did anything particularly wrong, he was just … insensitive. Careless. He treated us all with familiarity we weren’t offering, and didn’t understand why we didn’t want to be around him.” She said, with a sigh. “It was … miserable.”
“And there’s no way of knowing what comes next. Good, bad, or otherwise.” I said, nodding. “Yeah. I can see why that would make you anxious. Should I talk to Gwen about it? About how you’re feeling?”
Helena sat quietly for a moment, and sighed. “I have, before. She just told me to not worry about it, that she wasn’t going anywhere for a long time, and that she’d make sure things weren’t a mess when she did.”
“Maybe she’ll take it seriously hearing it from me?” I asked, as I set a helping in front of the girls, then Helena, who managed to look grateful despite the obvious lack of appetite she’d managed to work herself up to. “No… she did take it seriously, I imagine. She really believes she’s going to be here until she’s …” I trailed off and smiled. “She’s found where she wants to be, and who she wants to be with.”
“That’s why… it’s important to all of us, to keep her safe.” Helena replied, with a sigh. “Understand? I’m not asking. I’m begging. I'll do anything.”
“I already told you, I’ll help. But… if it’s important to everyone, what kind of help can we get?” I asked, with a smile. “I think… maybe we should give these bastards a nice, warm welcome.” My smile turned to a malicious grin as I turned to face Helena. “After all, Gwen specifically said she didn’t need them alive, only that it’d be preferable… That leaves an awful lot of latitude to work with, doesn’t it?”
Helena stared for a moment and shook her head. “You already have a plan?”
“More or less. Just needed time to think on it. Who’s around that we can get to help?” I asked, with a smile. “We’ll get as much done as possible, and make sure we have all the warning we can.”
“I’ll go find out. You’ll be here?” Helena asked, gesturing to the tent.
“Nope. Gonna go talk to Gwen. She should know what’s going on.” I said, with a cheerful grin. “C’mon, girls, let’s go get cleaned up. We have a house call to make.”
Helena headed off for the woods, sparing a glance over her shoulder at me as I wrapped up lunch and snuffed the fire. My mind was already awash with ideas and plans for what I could do to tilt the table in my favor. Whether those opportunities existed or not, my day had just become much more interesting.