PLEASE NOTE: I do not own Pokémon, and I have to say that I'm kind of proud of it, because the idea of capturing animal-like creatures to make them fight each other is pretty sick, actually. Be this as it may, every species of Pokémon referred to in the following text and everything else that is a part of the Pokémon franchise is the property of their rightful owner, however, the actual story belongs to me. No copyright infringement is intended.


WARNING: This story contains a scene of rape. While this is very obvious in the text, no actual graphic description of this is given. If this offends you, then I ask you politely to leave right now; I will not be held responsible for any possible occurrences of mental damage you might experience from reading this.


Thank you.




----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




School of Hate






It was a sunny day. Bright light was shining in Tomu's eyes, making it hard for him to clearly see anything. Remarkably, this circumstance was more than just welcome to him as he knew that, in whichever way the oncoming events would proceed, he would rather not be there to be a witness to it all. His right paw was holding the bone, his species' most common weapon, at such an angle so it was pointing towards the ground, and the skull that masked his face felt heavy and uncomfortable to wear. He would have taken it off, if it weren't for his instructor who would surely punish him for taking such an action.

"You, Tomu! Are you deaf, or do you just not want to listen?! I told you to get ready for the fight! Is that a way to hold your club?!" Tomu decided not to react at all. It wasn't uncommon for the large, intimidating Dodrio to yell at him, so the instructor's loud voice had lost its effect long ago. No matter what the young Cubone did, he would get pecked at or kicked by one of the Dodrio's strong legs anyway, so there was no reason to follow his orders. After all, he had long ago learned how to cope with physical pain; all it was to him nowadays was a minor inconvenience. There were so many more important things...

"Hey, Tomu!" Hearing his brother's voice made him blink and, in spite of the sunlight, try to recognize something. The older Cubone was standing in front of him, just a few feet away, with his bone raised in a manner that signaled that he was ready to fight. "You know, you really should get ready. Otherwise this might really hurt." Tomu simply shrugged in response and sighed softly. He didn't know why his brother didn't share his thoughts. He didn't know why seemingly absolutely nobody shared his thoughts. Tomu didn't want to fight, and especially not against his own brother. So he just wouldn't.

"Tomu, this is the last time I'm going to tell you this," the Dodrio's voice came from the side. "You're going to lift your bone right now and get in a proper position for battle. It's for your own good." Although the instructor's tone had been considerably calmer than before, Tomu still didn't react. He didn't even look at the Dodrio or at any of the other pupils that, as he knew, were standing close to the three headed bird. When he focused on it, he could hear some of them whisper among each other; others giggled silently. Tomu concentrated on his brother once more. He was taller than the younger sibling, and a lot stronger as well. The smaller Cubone could tell from the way he had positioned his hind paws that he was eager for the fight to begin, and in spite of him wearing the skull helmet that was common to Cubones, Tomu could see in his eyes that he wanted to win. For a short moment Tomu reflected on the past, when both he and his brother had been younger, how they had played together, how they'd had fun... And now they were supposed to fight each other for no reason. Tomu didn't understand it, and he had even more trouble understanding how his brother could do this and be so excited about it. He sighed and loosened his grip on his weapon, dropping it onto the ground. He then reached for his skull mask and lifted it, then quickly tossed it aside. Now completely defenseless he sat down in the grass, right in the middle of the clearing where the training fights took place, looking at his brother while trying to blink the sun out of his eyes, which didn't work all too well. He could see the taller Cubone turn his head a little; Tomu guessed he was looking at their instructor, trying to find out what to do now.

"Go ahead, Rotar," the Dodrio's voice proclaimed in a cold tone. "If he doesn't want to defend himself, then so be it." Rotar nodded and turned towards his brother again. Tomu saw him starting to charge at him and, after a few steps, throwing his bone, which then came rushing towards the smaller Cubone at an intense speed. Tomu closed his eyes just before he felt the dull impact that immediately knocked him over on his back and filled his entire facial area with an immense amount of pain, which went basically unnoticed by Tomu. He simply couldn't pay any attention to what was going on, even as he felt Rotar continuously hit him in the face, his stomach and his sides, as he was much too busy trying to somehow comprehend how his brother could do this to him. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't understand it.






It was a little later on the same day that Tomu was sitting in the shadow of a tall tree with his back resting against its bark, looking up at the hill that emerged from the forest in which his family and so many others lived. He had ventured up there a few times already, as it was usually very quiet and peaceful on its summit. There weren't many trees up there, and only very few edible plants could be found, so both herbivores and predators preferred to stay in the forest. On one side, the hill had a very steep and stony cliff that lay in the direction in which the sun went down every evening. Tomu felt like he should go there right now, but he was too tired for that. He was bleeding out of various smaller cuts all over his body, it hurt when he tried to lift his right arm, whenever he tried to walk he could only limp, and he could barely see anything through his swollen right eye. Tomu knew he would feel better once he got up the hill, but he would also feel better if he just stayed where he was and fell asleep. This was a common thought he'd had quite often already. Sometimes he watched the sun set, wishing for that bright, white ball to never rise again, so that he could sleep for all eternity. Whenever he woke up in the morning, he was disappointed anew.
Both his skull helmet and his bone club were lying on the ground at his side. Even if he had wanted to put on his mask, it would have been next to impossible due to the swellings and bruises on his face. Tomu was taking deep, slow breaths. It came to his mind that maybe now wasn't the time to ponder all these things that made him unhappy, because, just for once, he was able to remain alone and unbothered by anyone. He didn't really like company, but he still always tried to be polite and never unfriendly when anyone else was around. But most of the time he simply remained silent, and he knew that, if more Pokémon did that, he'd have a lot less to be worried about.
Tomu's right front paw was slowly wandering across his face, feeling all of the bumps and dents that hadn't been there before his brother had started to clobber him. His eyes were still fixated on the hill. He wanted to go up there, but it probably wouldn't be of any use, as it was already afternoon, judging from the position of the sun, and his parents would worry about him if he didn't make it back in time for supper. It'd be better to simply wait where he was; then he could just sit for a while and try to get some rest from the madness surrounding him.

The rustling of leaves a few feet to his left made Tomu wake up from his mild reveries and turn his head in that direction, which resulted in a wave of sharp pain surging through the back of his neck. Out of the denser forest a Scyther stepped, shoving a few branches aside with her large blades. She was obviously quite glad to see Tomu, as her yellow eyes seemed to light up somewhat and she quickly walked towards him; she was a bit taller than the Cubone, yet still small for her species as she wasn't quite an adult yet. She was about Tomu's age. The afternoon sun reflected off of her shiny green body a little, slightly blending the Cubone. A soft smile was standing on her face.

"There you are!" she exclaimed, walking until she had reached his side. Tomu looked up at her. "I was looking for you, you know." The Cubone didn't reply, and neither did his facial expression tell the Scyther anything about what he was feeling. The bug type remained standing for a short moment, then sat down beside him, her side leaning against his tree. The thin wings on her back were fluttering a little.

"You don't seem to be very happy to see me," she noticed in a somewhat accusing tone of voice. "I thought you liked being with me." Tomu blinked slowly and then turned his head to look at the hill again.

"It's hard to be happy in such a situation," he said in a low tone. The Cubone always kept his voice low as he simply couldn't stand loud noises. A lot of Pokémon, like his instructor for example, seemed to be yelling all day long; there weren't many things he found more irritating than that. It was beyond him why it was hard for so many others to simply remain calm; there was absolutely nothing to gain out of being angry.
A soft chuckle came from the female Scyther.

"What, just because you got beaten up?" The blunt side of one of her blades brushed across his left arm in a caressing manner. Tomu swallowed. In his current condition, everything that touched him, no matter how tender it was, hurt.

"I love my brother," he replied, not looking at the Scyther. "I wouldn't have thought he could do this to me." From the corner of his eyes he saw the bug type shaking her head.

"That was just training, you shouldn't take it too seriously." Tomu didn't say anything in response and instead closed his eyes, the back of his head slowly coming in touch with the bark of the tree behind him. It was nice not to be staring into the sun for once. He couldn't enjoy this for a very long time, though, as he felt his left arm being lifted a little and the Scyther snuggling up to his side, positioning one of her blades across his belly and his left arm around her shoulder. It was a rather painful experience, but he simply took a deep breath and tried not to pay it any attention.

"You should appreciate me a lot more," the Scyther spoke seemingly right into his ear. Tomu wasn't sure whether or not he was comfortable with her being so close to him, but he didn't move or say anything. "There aren't many females who'd still want to spend time with you after you didn't even try to defend yourself during that fight. I've overheard some of them talking. They're really not thinking too highly of you." Tomu didn't really care about what she was telling him. He had a lot more important things to worry about than his popularity with the other gender. The parameters by which they judged his value as a potential mate, friend, or even as a living creature in general were beyond his understanding anyway. Nevertheless, he knew it would be impolite not to give the Scyther any kind of answer this time.

"Why did you still come to me, then?" he asked, trying his best not to make it sound like he actually wanted her to just go away and leave him alone, which was a little difficult because he knew it'd make him feel a lot better if she did that. The female giggled a little again and began to softly rub his belly with the harmless side of her blade.

"You know that I love you, silly," she said, giving him a kiss on his cheek and after that placed her cheek on his shoulder. Tomu kept himself from sighing. The Scyther had a strange definition of that word; every few months she seemed to find a new male she loved. He didn't know why she had apparently picked him this time some weeks ago, but he really would prefer if she hadn't. She could get very demanding, and it wasn't in his nature to deny anyone anything if they asked for it. The whole situation just appeared strange to the Cubone, not only because he basically, even though he was sure it was only temporarily, had a mate without wanting it, but also because the way his mate "loved" him didn't seem to include her caring about how he felt even in the least. Tomu decided to simply keep staring forwards.

"What's so interesting about that hill?" the Scyther asked after a while of gradually cuddling closer to him. The more her weight came to rest on the Cubone's body, the more pain he felt from all his wounds. He wondered if she was hurting him on purpose.

"It's nice up there," he replied. The female raised her head again and squinted a little, apparently trying to make out why the top of the hill would be a good place to be at.

"You're weird," she said after a moment. "There isn't anything up there that'd make an ascent worthwhile even in the least. Just look at it, it's nothing but a boring meadow! There's nothing to hunt, nothing to gather..." She turned her head to look at Tomu again. "You don't really pay attention during our survival lessons, do you?" The Cubone didn't reply. Of course he didn't listen to what their instructor preached to them every morning, had he the choice, he wouldn't even go there; but this was commonly known. The Scyther already knew the answer.

"Why are you so stiff today?" she wanted to know. The slight movements of her blade had stopped, and there was a somewhat accusing undertone in her voice again. "Can't you just relax a little? I thought you'd be happy to see me, but now you're not even looking at me!" Tomu turned his head to build up eye contact with the female. She was right, actually. It really wasn't polite not to look at someone while talking to them.

"I'm sorry," he said. The Scyther was staring at him with a strange expression. Tomu guessed she was considering whether or not to let him off the hook with such a simple answer. Apparently she decided to let the matter rest as she lowered her head a little.

"You should be wearing your helmet."

"I don't like it too much."

"What if somebody attacks you?"

"I doubt that'll happen." They looked at each other. Tomu had to think about how the argument she had just used had been something that their instructor could have said, too. It was strange how everyone seemed to believe some attacker might leap out of the bushes every moment.
It surprised the Cubone to see that after a short while the Scyther's expression changed into a soft, understanding smile.

"Look, I know you're a little depressed about having lost that fight," she spoke in a warmer tone, almost sounding like she cared. "It really wasn't fair of that stupid Dodrio to set you up against your brother, he's much stronger than you are." She gave him a soft kiss on the tip of his nose, then quickly stood up and moved backwards a little. "I'll just come back when you're feeling a little better, alright? Then we can... do some things together." She winked at him and giggled a little. "You know what I mean." Tomu simply nodded in response.

"I'll see you later, then." The female waved with one of her blades, then walked away and disappeared between the trees. Tomu kept looking after her for a moment, wondering how someone who claimed loved him and apparently regarded that feeling as mutual could ever get the idea that leaving him alone would make him feel better. Then again, in this case she had certainly been right, the Cubone definitely was better off without her being so close to him.









"There you are! What took you so long to come home?" The female Marowak's voice sounded rather shrill and had a slightly higher pitch than usual, making it clear to Tomu that his mother must have been very worried about him. However, he could never be completely sure about what she felt, due to the skull helmet covering her face. The Cubone had put on his as well, simply because he knew how his parents would react if they found out he had taken it off. Tomu looked up at the sky where the sun had drifted away from its highest point some time ago; it was late in the afternoon.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, lowering his gaze. The main reason he hadn't wanted to return too early had been that he wasn't sure how he was going to react to seeing his brother. He had known, of course, that this meeting was going to be inevitable at some point, but it had felt so good, so relieving to just sit under that tree and not think about the terrible things that had happened or would happen later on, that he hadn't been able to come home any sooner. Nonetheless, he truly felt guilty about having made his parents worry.

"You're sorry," his mother repeated and first nodded, then shook her head, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Well, maybe I'll accept that, but you still haven't told me where you've been all this time! Trust me, we were less than ten minutes away from searching the woods for you!" Tomu kept his head lowered.

"I was just..." he began, but was quickly cut off by a voice coming from behind his mother:

"I told you, mom, he was with his girlfriend." Tomu had identified the voice as Rotar's and was thankful that he hadn't looked up yet. "I bet they just went off to somewhere in the woods where they could be alone." Tomu raised his head just enough so that he could see his brother's hind paws. Rotar was standing next to their mother now; he must have come out of the abode, which lay directly behind them. The entrance was basically just a hole that lead underground in a downwards slant where it got wider and wider until it formed two large rooms. One of them was the area where Tomu's parents slept, and the other one served as a place to eat and also for the two young Cubones to sleep at. Most other Pokémon didn't expect Cubones and Marowaks to be burrowing species, but their natural connection with the earth made it quite easy for them to build and properly stabilize such underground housing spaces.

"Is that true?" His mother's tone of voice was rather rough and demanding, but Tomu knew that she wasn't really angry. She had simply been very worried, and it was his fault, after all. However, he didn't quite know how to respond to this question. Sure, the Scyther had been with him at some point, but that had hardly been the reason for his long delay. After a short moment of thinking he decided to answer:

"To some extent, yes." Since he wanted to see how his mother reacted to this he raised his gaze. She uncrossed her arms and he could see her blink under her mask.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She sounded a little confused. However, before Tomu even had a chance to answer his brother interrupted with a chuckle.

"Oh, come on, mom!" He took two steps forward and nudged Tomu's side with his elbow. The younger Cubone was suddenly reminded of how that same elbow had been used to inflict damage on him just a few hours ago. Rotar didn't seem to notice him reliving that painful memory; he grinned under his helmet. "You shouldn't make him tell you these things, that's private." Their mother sighed.

"Fine, then." She turned around, slightly shaking her head. "Just come inside now, we'll have something to eat in a minute." The large Marowak walked down the hole and into the family's den, followed by her two sons. Tomu lowered his gaze again, as he wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to see how his father would react to him showing up so late. Only looking at the ground, he saw the grass beneath his paws suddenly turn into bare earth and just a short moment later the sun seemed to disappear from over his head.
It didn't take long for his brother to nudge his side with his elbow once more.

"Hey," Rotar whispered, "I know you don't want to tell mom and dad. But you'll tell me, right?" Tomu shrugged.

"I guess," he mumbled. He didn't even have to look in order to see his brother's grin broaden.

"So, did you have fun?" His brother had spoken in an even lower tone than before, obviously very careful not to be noticed by their mother.

"Hardly," the younger Cubone replied.

"Hardly?" Rotar repeated in a surprised tone. But when he went on, Tomu could hear a grin in his voice again. "Oh, come on, I won't buy that. That Ehzarie is one hot Scyther, you can't tell me you didn't have an enjoyable afternoon." Tomu sighed very softly, thinking about what to reply to this. He knew that, if he told Rotar the truth about what he had been doing today, and that he'd actually have preferred if Ehzarie had simply left him alone, his brother would never believe him. The younger Cubone decided to just remain quiet. Their conversation was at an end anyway, as the narrow path below the earth now changed into a circular room with dry leaves covering the ground everywhere, which was to both make it a little softer and easier to notice when someone came in, as there would be a rustling sound heard with each step. There were two large, round holes in the circular wall; one of them led to the room in which the Cubones' parents slept, and the other one was the entrance to the food storage. On one side of the room, there were two larger piles of leaves, marking the places where Tomu and Rotar slept.
Their father, a large, muscular Marowak who had his club at his side wherever he went, was standing there and now quickly came walking towards the rest of his family.

"You!" he barked, pointing at Tomu with the long bone. Both Tomu's mother and his brother moved out of the way a little. "Didn't we tell you not to wander around?! You were supposed to come home right after your classes would be over!" The Cubone kept his head lowered.

"I know," he said. "I'm sorry." From the corner of his eyes he saw his father shake his head.

"Don't you even pay attention in survival class?" he wanted to know in a gruff tone. "The forests are dangerous! Do you even know how many things are out there just to kill you?!" Tomu swallowed. He thought it was best if he didn't say anything now.

"You know, as long as you're with your instructor, with your brother or with us, you're safe!" he went on, still not taking the bone away from Tomu's face. "But if you're out there, all by yourself, then..."

"Oh, he wasn't all by himself," his brother interrupted, still grinning in a somewhat gloating way. "He had Ehzarie to watch out for him." There was silence for a moment. His father first looked at Rotar, then he turned his head back towards Tomu.

"Who's Ehzarie?" he asked in a very calm tone that, for some reason, frightened the young Cubone a little. He decided to answer this question in the most basic of ways.

"She's a Scyther I know." Very slowly, his father's eyes narrowed, which was clearly visible in spite of him wearing his helmet. Tomu noticed that the grin immediately disappeared from his brother's face. The large Marowak was now clasping his bone club so tightly that it almost looked like he intended to crush it with one paw.

"Your mother and I are sitting around, wondering just when you're finally going to come home, getting more and more worried with each passing second," he spoke, his tone still calm, but his voice shivering a little, "and all this time you're out there somewhere having fun with some female that's not even one of your kind? Did you even spend one second thinking about what you were doing to your family?!" Tomu didn't reply, as he knew that there was no use in trying to make it clear to his father that he had certainly not been having any fun with Ehzarie. He simply kept his eyes to the ground, now wishing he would have returned home sooner. Once he was out of the burrow, it always seemed so very hard to go back and leave the trees and the meadows behind him, even though he knew, of course, that it would be better for everyone if he obeyed his parents.

"Don't you have anything to say?" his father demanded angrily. "Won't you defend yourself?" Tomu remained silent. He didn't intend to enrage his father, but he knew that there was nothing he could say that would make the situation any better as long as he stayed honest.

After a short moment he could feel two rather large paws being placed on his shoulders.

"Please don't be too hard on him, love," his mother said in a somewhat exhausted tone. "He's sorry. There's no point in scaring him." A low grunt of disapproval came from his father. As Tomu slightly raised his gaze he could see the bone club being pulled away slowly.

"I don't know what to do with you, Tomu," the male Marowak said, still sounding very displeased, but not as angry as before. The young Cubone looked up at him as he turned around so only his back was visible. The Marowak's shoulders drooped and while he walked towards the large hole in the wall that led to the room in which he and his mate slept, he mumbled something inaudible to himself. Even though Tomu couldn't understand a word, he still noticed that his father was very disappointed with him.

His mother softly rubbed his shoulders.

"Let's get you something to eat, sweetie," she said.








Tomu didn't eat as much as his mother would have wanted him to, but he almost never did. He was never as hungry as his brother Rotar as he simply didn't get nearly as much exercise. Even now, maybe half an hour after their father had left the main room, he had gone outside again to meet up with some of his friends in order to do some more battle training. Because of his above-average prowess Rotar was usually allowed to stay outside until sundown, especially when it was to become even stronger.
After he had finished eating about half of the meat and plants his mother had brought him, Tomu looked up at his mother, who was sitting on the ground in front of him.

"Thank you," he said lowly. The Marowak looked at the leftovers and sighed. It first seemed like she wanted to lecture him about how he never ate enough in order to become tall and strong once more, but then she apparently decided on a different topic.

"How were your classes today, dear?" she asked in a caring tone, showing him a warm, yet slightly insecure smile, which was visible due to a large crack in the lower part of her skull mask. Tomu blinked and then lowered his gaze.

"Terrible," he replied tonelessly. His mother looked at the ground as well. Tomu remembered how, after the very first time he had attended classes, he had spent nearly all day begging his parents not to send him back there again. They had declined, arguing that one day he would come to appreciate what he learned from his instructor.
His mother shifted her body, sliding a little closer towards him. Once more she placed one of her paws on his shoulder, causing him to look back up at her.

"I know you don't like it, sweetie," she spoke, "but it's so very important..."

"I know," Tomu interrupted. There was silence for a moment, but the expression in his mother's eyes was quietly talking to him. She was so very worried that it almost hurt the young Cubone to keep looking at her. He knew he wasn't the son his parents would have wished for. He knew they would have liked him to be more like his brother.

"Mom?" he spoke up again, his voice seeming unusually loud due to the silence. "Can I take off my helmet?" The Marowak began to gently caress his shoulder with her paw. Because of her mask it was a little hard to see her eyes, but Tomu was certain that she was looking very sad now.

"I'm sorry, sweetie," she said, her voice now almost as low as his. "Your father might come in again, and you know how much he dislikes it when you're not wearing it." The Cubone nodded slightly and then looked back at the ground. He sensed that the silence was making his mother feel uncomfortable. After a short moment had passed, she started talking again.

"So that Scyther called Ehzarie is your girlfriend?" Her tone was very caring and from the corner of his eyes Tomu could see that she was showing him a reassuring smile. As opposed to his father, she seemed to be happy about these news and she wanted him to know this. The young Cubone shook his head just a little.

"I'm not sure." The Marowak blinked.

"It'd be alright, dear," she said, taking a short glance in the direction in which her mate had disappeared before. "Your father was just a little stressed. It really doesn't matter if she's a Cubone or not, as long as you just love her..."

"But I don't." It was obvious now that his mother was confused. She raised her paw a little, now softly scratching Tomu's chin.

"If there's anything that makes you worry or that you're unsure about, sweetie, you can tell me," she spoke. "I'm your mother, that's what I'm there for." She paused for a moment, apparently wanting to give him a chance to say something. He remained quiet. "I know things can be problematic when you're in love for the first time," she went on, her caring tone never changing a bit. "I also know that this is a very private topic, but I'm sure I can give you some advice if you'd just ask me about something." 

"I don't think it's possible to be in love multiple times," Tomu replied. His gaze met with his mother's, and she slowly retracted her paw. "I don't like Ehzarie very much," he added. "I'd prefer not to spend any more time with her." The female Marowak apparently gave his words the meaning that seemed the most plausible to her.

"Did she break up with you?" The Cubone didn't respond until it looked like his mother wanted to continue talking.

"No." The Marowak frowned, which was hardly noticeable because of her helmet.

"Did she cheat on you?" For a moment Tomu thought about answering with "not yet", as he was absolutely sure that this was bound to happen sooner or later, considering the Scyther's personality, but as this would probably just make the whole situation even more difficult he decided to just say:

"No." His mother shook her head.

"Sweetie, if you don't tell me what's making you so sad then it's hard for me to help you," she said. Now she was sounding even more worried than before. Tomu gave a soft sigh and forced himself to keep up eye contact with his mother.

"The reason I feel this way barely has anything to do with Ehzarie," he said. His mother's eyes were silently begging him to continue talking, and as he didn't want to make her feel even worse he finally spoke:
"Please don't make me attend classes anymore." His mother immediately looked to the side. Tomu had known, of course, that it was useless to ask this of his parents, but he simply didn't want to lie, and the Marowak had basically demanded an answer to her question.

"Sweetie..." she began, but was interrupted immediately:

"I don't want to be forced to fight against Pokémon with whom I'd rather be friends," he explained. "I don't want to hurt anyone." Suddenly the expression in his mother's eyes changed. It had been worried before, but now it was compassionate.

"This may be hard for you to believe," she spoke slowly, "but you remind me a lot of your father when he was young." Tomu blinked. His mother had been right; it certainly was hard to believe. "There once was a time when he didn't want to fight, either," she went on, her gaze now resting on the large hole that led to their sleeping area. "I remember it quite well, he always said that there was way too much mistrust between everyone, and that life would be so much easier if we all just stopped being afraid of each other..." She fell silent, but the way she was staring at the hole in the wall told Tomu that she was still deep in thought. He shared this sentiment with her. His father had to be one of the most paranoid and spontaneously aggressive Pokémon he had ever seen. Not a single day went by without the male Marowak telling him at least once that, out of everyone he would ever meet outside of the cave, at least ninety percent would kill him instantly without thinking twice about it if it brought them even the slightest advantage. Tomu couldn't imagine how the same Pokémon had apparently criticized others on not being trusting enough before.
He shook his head.

"What made him change his mind?" His mother shrugged.

"He grew up, sweetie, and so have I," she said in a tone that sounded as if all questions were now answered. "It's just natural that you eventually come to accept reality as it is. You'll see, it won't take too long and the same will happen to you." His mother's warm tone and her soft smile gave Tomu the impression that she had meant this information to be reassuring, but the Cubone honestly couldn't understand how she had gotten such an idea. To him, these had been the most terrifying words he had ever heard in his life.








It was so difficult not to constantly keep thinking about what his mother had told him. Even during the next morning Tomu's mind constantly drifted off to a grim vision of his own future. He had never truly enjoyed life, but if it was true what his mother had said, it would only get worse from here on.
The young Cubone was barely able to focus on his classes, but this was nothing new. He never really listened when the tall Dodrio yelled at the children he had been entrusted with, as it was just the same old monologue over and over again, unless his three heads disagreed on something, which could in some situations lead to a heated argument. Tomu normally just focused on the nice, fresh feeling of sitting on the green grass that was wet with dew, or he closed his eyes and tried to imagine himself being somewhere far away, at a place where nobody yelled and nobody fought, a place without fear and hatred. His bone club was lying next to him, and when Tomu tried really hard, he could sometimes entirely forget that it existed.
They were being lectured on a clearing that lay basically right in the middle of the forest. The sun was shining rather nicely today, and it threw long shadows of the trees and the young Pokémon, who were sitting in four rows with eight children in each one, across the ground. Their instructor was marching back and forth in front of them, his three brutal stares wandering through the small crowd.

"Now, let's see what you've learnt," his right head spoke in a cold tone. He fixated one of the pupils. "You there, little Charmeleon!" The fire type, who was sitting in the front row, quickly stood up. His tail flame was burning brightly. Tomu reclined his head and looked at the white, puffy clouds in the sky. He wished he was up there with them, simply drifting in the gentle breeze, never having to worry about a thing.

"Let's say you find a little Caterpie trapped under a branch," the instructor said. "It's still alive and begs you to help him out. What would you do?" There was a short pause, during which the Charmeleon apparently thought about what to say.

"I would... I would first make sure that he'd have to give me something in return for me rescuing him," he then spoke excitedly, and even though Tomu wasn't looking at it, he could still see that his flame was burning even brighter now. "Maybe he has a hidden stash of food somewhere, then he'd have to tell me its location. And as soon as I can be sure that he doesn't have anything important to tell me anymore, I'd kill and eat him." Tomu was so glad that he was a cloud, because clouds couldn't hear it when somebody said something terrible. It was great to not have to listen to anyone, it made all the horrible things much easier to ignore.

"Hmmm," the Dodrio muttered, "yes, not a bad answer..."

"Well, you should take care not to take too long asking questions, though, or else someone else might come to his aid," one of his other heads said. "It'd be better if you freed him right away, then tell him you'd kill him if he doesn't want to lead you to his food storage, and then eat him anyway as soon as you're there."

"That's not too good, either," the third head spoke. "The Caterpie could decide to lead him to his family instead, and then he'd be in a lot of trouble. He shouldn't even take any chances and kill him right away, that'd be the safest method." Tomu stayed up in the sky, where he belonged. The ground was no place for an innocent little cloud, it was much too violent and unpleasant in general. He'd travel through the skies forever, and if anyone tried to get him back down he'd just rise more and more, so that nobody would ever be able to catch him.

Something pointy touched Tomu's shoulder. He blinked.

„Hey!" he heard Ehzarie whisper. The Scyther was sitting right behind him. „You should be careful not to space out, he's giving you that look again!" Tomu quickly tried to make it seem like he was paying attention, but it was too late already. One after another, all three of the Dodrio's heads started to directly stare at him. The large Pokémon had stopped walking and now turned around. From the corner of his eyes Tomu noticed that everyone sitting between the instructor and him quickly moved sideways in order to form a pathway for the Dodrio to step through.

"Tomu," the head in the middle spoke in a threatening tone, "One would think that you, as the one who needs these lessons the most, would listen closely whenever I say something." The instructor moved towards the young Cubone until he was standing right in front of him. The bird Pokémon's size was quite intimidating, but Tomu looked up at him without showing any signs of fear. There was nothing to be afraid of, after all; he would certainly get injured, however, that didn't matter so much. Tomu was scared of almost everything in the world, but something as insignificant as physical pain wasn't worth worrying about.

"You just don't want to learn anything from me, do you?" The Dodrio lowered his head, staring at him menacingly. Tomu didn't reply. It would be a lie if he said yes, and if he told the truth he would probably just get beaten even more than he was in for now. The instructor waited for a moment, during which his eyes narrowed, then continued:

"I asked you a question." Tomu nodded.

"I know that." This only seemed to enrage the Dodrio even more. He raised his head again, still fixating the Cubone with all his six eyes.

Suddenly, the air got pressed out of Tomu's lungs. He was lifted from the ground, flew backwards for a very short distance before coming back down again, rolled across the grassy floor before finally coming to rest on his back. He blinked at the sun now shining directly into his eyes.
Then the pain arrived. It felt as if his entire ribcage was on fire, burning both his insides and his flesh. When he tried to draw breath it only got worse. The Dodrio had kicked him in his chest and now, before he'd had even the slightest chance to recover, placed one of his large talons right on the area of his body that hurt the most. When the instructor applied a bit of pressure to Tomu's chest, the entire world went black for a moment and the Cubone believed he would soon pass out from the pain.

"That's what happens when you don't pay attention to your surroundings," he heard the instructor grunt. "Now, if I was your enemy, you'd be dead." Tomu was clenching his eyes shut, now mostly feeling tired. The pain began to subside a little and, in spite of him being almost completely unable to think at this moment, the Cubone still knew he was dying. There was no air left in his lungs and he couldn't breathe, as the Dodrio kept his talon on his chest. All this time Tomu hadn't even thought of struggling, and now his body wouldn't react anymore even if he had wanted to move. His thoughts began to drift off. Maybe it was better to die now before the same thing would happen to him that had happened to his father. However, just a small moment before Tomu would have lost consciousness, the pressure on his chest suddenly disappeared; out of pure instinct he breathed deeply, pumping his lungs full of life-saving air, making all the pain return along with it, only that it was now at least ten times stronger than before. Even though his entire body felt numb, all of his muscles hurt, which completely clouded his mind. Tomu wanted to scream, but he was too busy breathing, panting and gasping just to stay alive.



The Cubone didn't know what was going on around him, and neither did he have any idea how much time passed. It almost felt as if he had become both deaf and blind, not being able to hear or see anything, simply because the nearly unbearable pain dimmed out all noises and he just didn't want to open his eyes.
When something came in touch with his chest, he winced.

"It's break time. Get up." The impatient female voice somehow found its way through to his mind. Tomu didn't move, but he now opened his eyes about halfway and recognized Ehzarie's face blocking out the sunlight. She was looking rather annoyed.

"You've been lying around for ten minutes now. Don't you think that's a little exaggerated?" Tomu sighed inwardly. It was incredible how this Scyther, who claimed to love him, apparently didn't even think of asking him if he was alright.

"It still hurts a little," he replied hoarsely. Ehzarie shook her head.

"You're embarrassing yourself and everyone who gets associated with you," she murmured while holding out one of her blades. "Here, I'll help you up." Tomu actually would have preferred to just stay lying where he was, but he didn't want to further provoke the Scyther. He grasped the backside of her blade and let Ehzarie pull him up, feeling a large amount of pain return to him within less than a second.

"Thank you," he said out of pure politeness. Looking around he could see that the Dodrio had disappeared. Most of the pupils had engaged in conversations with each other, but some of them were also watching the battle that had broken out between two others. Tomu frowned as he recognized his brother fighting a Slowpoke that was considerably larger than him, but way too slow to pose any kind of danger. Other young Pokémon had formed a circle around the two combatants, cheering them on and sometimes gasping in surprise or admiration for a very successful attack. Tomu quickly looked away again, seeing that Ehzarie's gaze had drifted off in the direction of the battle.

"You should be more like your brother," she said as she noticed that he was facing her again. She pointed in the direction of the fight. "Just look at him. That's the right way to get attention." For a moment the Cubone pondered whether or not he should tell Ehzarie that he didn't want any attention, but he decided that, even if she believed him, it wouldn't be necessary for her to know and he really wasn't in the mood for talking. He carefully brushed some dirt off of his hind legs and front paws while trying to keep his breathing calm and not inhale too deeply, as this now felt like something pointy got rammed deeply into his chest.

"You know, that Dodrio's right, in a way," she continued. "If only you started listening to him you might begin to finally concentrate on what's important." She lowered her gaze a little, now looking at his chest, and then shook her head. "He shouldn't have kicked you so hard, though. Just a little more, and he would have broken your ribs." Ehzarie pointed at his chest with her right blade and Tomu quickly stepped backwards, fearing she might accidentally touch him and send a new wave of pain through his body. The Scyther frowned.

"Look, if you don't want me here, just say it," she spoke, now suddenly sounding very insulted. "I can find someone else to be with, you know." The Cubone quickly lowered his gaze. He thought about what to do; it certainly was a tempting mental image to finally get rid of the Scyther, but he would probably hurt her feelings if he told her he would rather be without her. That was, if she had any.

"I'm sorry," he said. Ehzarie sighed, and he could feel the side of her blade touch his left shoulder.

"I know you are." She stepped a little closer towards him and then, without warning, pulled him into a tight hug, which immediately made his entire body tense up as it hurt quite a bit. His first reaction would have been to struggle against the embrace, but he decided to keep calm and try to forget about the pain instead. "Please try harder from now on," Ehzarie spoke lowly. "Everyone's already laughing at you. You have to get stronger."

Tomu simply kept his eyes closed and tried to imagine himself as a cloud again. With the Scyther tightly holding him, however, this was an impossible thing to do.








It was such a relief to finally be able to take off the skull helmet. Tomu had saved this pleasure until he had reached the top of the hill, and now that he could finally feel the soft wind on his face and breathe deeply he knew this had been the right decision. He flicked his ears, noticing that it was absolutely silent. There was no other place like this, and if it had been possible, the Cubone would have stayed up here forever. He had left his bone club, which he had used as a walking staff, at the trees that stood a few feet behind him. The edge of the very steep, stony slope that lay in the direction in which the sun set every day was his favorite place to sit. The grass was still slightly wet.

The forest below appeared to be so peaceful and motionless that it was a pleasure to look at it. Tomu knew that, the longer he stayed up here, the more trouble with his parents he would be getting into, but that wasn't important now. He was somewhere else, in a different world, in a different time. There was nobody who expected of him to eventually become a murderer up here, there was nobody who yelled at him or kicked him, there was just nobody at all... Tomu knew that this was a good thing, but he just couldn't stop thinking about how much better it would be if he had some company, if there were other Pokémon like him who would then be his friends... But the Cubone had never known anyone like that, so he wasn't even sure if they existed at all.

Tomu turned his head to the left, seeing the sun that was currently standing somewhere around its highest point. He then looked down at the forest again. 

The Cubone closed his eyes.

When he opened them again one short moment later, the sun had traveled a considerable distance; however, as gray clouds were now covering the whole sky, only a small, bright spot behind the thick veil was noticeable. It had started to rain softly, but even though the drops of water were rather cold, Tomu lay down on his back and welcomed them with his arms spread to his sides. It felt especially good on his chest, as the rain seemed tender and soothing. Tomu had had a bit more trouble than usual to get up on the hill, since it had still pained him to breathe too deeply.
Even though he was out alone in the rain the young Cubone was feeling a lot more comfortable on the hill than he would have felt in his family's burrow. He had been sad for a long time, but now the sky was crying for him, and this made it easier for Tomu to bear with the things he remembered somewhere in the back of his head. Those were unpleasant memories, memories of being kicked and beaten, scratched and bitten, but all these things were in the past for now. However, this was certainly the downside of being on top of a hill; no matter which direction he'd choose, it would always mean to descend back into this cruel world again.

It was getting colder now as the day approached its evening, but Tomu kept himself warm by redirecting the focus of his thoughts towards the lighter moments of his life. There had been a time when he had still been a little child, a time when everyone had been nice to him, his brother, his parents, other Pokémon that had been his age... But then, all of a sudden, this time had stopped. It had been declared that he would have to become an adult now, that he would have to learn how to defend himself and how to compete with others, how to regard those who had once been his closest friends as potential enemies. Tomu had never understood how this had happened, or why this had happened. He hadn't understood why things couldn't just go on forever like they had used to, he hadn't understood why becoming an adult apparently made being alive such a chore. Even now, when he thought about it, nothing of it made sense. There was no point in worrying, and still everyone did it all the time. There was no point in fighting each other, there was no point in fighting for something or someone, there was no point in trying to achieve anything... Actually, there wasn't even a point to existence as a whole. All these terrible things his parents did and now wanted him to learn how to do served only one purpose, and that was to stay alive. However, no matter how hard they tried, death was an enemy no one could defeat. Tomu had never thought about such things during his childhood. At that time, life didn't need to have a reason, for there had not been anything bad in existence. But now, with all the worries on his mind and the tribulations at hand, the question of why he should endure this struggle at all had to be asked. Tomu didn't know the answer to that question, and when he paid attention to those who surrounded him, he always had to notice that they didn't know it, either. Sometimes he wondered if this strange, bothersome life was actually just a construction that everyone had agreed on in order to keep themselves busy with something, anything that perhaps might be able to distract them from having to ask such a depressing question. Once again, Tomu wondered if he would eventually pick up this pattern of behavior as well, just as his father had such a long time ago.

The Cubone wasn't sure whether he was crying or not; it was impossible to tell with all the rain coming down. It was already getting dark as he finally stood up, knowing that his parents had to be worrying about him again. There was no reason why they should, though. It only made sense when one was always expectant of some sort of attacker jumping out from between the trees. Once again, the question of "why" could be answered with the construction of violence.

Tomu picked up his skull helmet, his bone and began his descend. The path back to his family's burrow felt strangely short, as if he hadn't been fully conscious for most of the way. Of course his parents, especially his father were very angry at him returning so late, but the young Cubone hardly even heard what they said. Feeling very tired, he quickly went to sleep without eating anything or even directing one single word at his parents.









"...is one of the weakest children I ever had to bother with. If only he were to take into consideration to maybe learn a thing or two from his brother, but not even putting them up against each other in direct combat seemed to be able to make him realize that he has to become more like him. I'm sorry to tell you this, but unless your son improves drastically, I fear I must dismiss him from my classes. The way things are now, every effort I can make would simply be wasted on him."

Tomu had, of course, recognized the rough, always at least slightly aggressive voice of the Dodrio. He had just woken up, so he figured that pretending to be asleep would keep him out of trouble for a few more moments.

"You can't just give up on him!" his mother shrieked, her voice sounding very uncertain. Tomu kept his eyes closed and tried to force himself to go back to sleep right this instant. He just didn't want to hear this. "He needs your guidance more than anyone else!"

"Well, he certainly doesn't seem interested in my guidance," the Dodrio spoke, apparently somewhat angrily. "No matter how hard I try to teach him, he simply refuses to learn."

"I'll take care of that," the voice of Tomu's father sounded. "He's going to shape up soon, I'll train him personally. But in order for this to work, he must be allowed to further attend classes." There was a low, grumbling sound, and Tomu could hear someone walking across the leaves that covered the ground.

"You should better train him really well," the Dodrio said, now sounding like he was standing a bit further away than before. "I'm not willing to put up with such incompetence for much longer." Tomu heard a few more leaves rustle and then, after a short moment, there was silence. For a few seconds the young Cubone attempted to convince himself that what he had just heard had been nothing more than a bad dream, but it proved to be a futile effort. Tomu's thoughts began circling around the mental image of him training with his father. He imagined how disappointed the Marowak would be at realizing once more just how very useless his second son was and how angry this would make him in the end. Now that Tomu knew that his father hadn't been too different from him when he had been young it made him feel even worse to further disappoint him. The Marowak's life had to have been unfortunate enough already and Tomu's incompetence certainly didn't make it any better.

He heard his mother sigh.

"It's going to be alright. Sooner or later Tomu will realize that there is no other way to live, and then he'll be a lot more eager to learn."

"Yes, you're right." His father's voice sounded very exhausted and, to Tomu's surprise, not angry at all. He then heard the rustling of someone walking through the burrow again. "I'll go out to do some hunting," the Marowak continued. "Tell Tomu that our training will start as soon as he returns home." 
Tomu's father left the small cave and for a moment there was nothing to be heard except for his mother's careful steps on the dry leaves. He then felt the female Marowak's paw come in touch with his shoulder.

"Wake up, sweetie," she spoke in a warm, caring tone, "it's time for your classes."









It was a very sunny day and there was not a single cloud visible in the sky. Tomu felt much too hot under his heavy skull helmet and it didn't help either that his brother was moving at an even quicker pace than usual. Tomu had a lot of trouble not to fall behind too far; he was panting and beginning to sweat while Rotar jumped over fallen trees and simply ripped out entire bushes that stood in his way like it was nothing.
When Tomu was climbing over a conglomerate of roots one of his hind paws suddenly got stuck and he fell to the ground with a surprised shriek. His brother had apparently heard him as he was already standing at his side when Tomu raised his head again.

"Come on, get up!" Rotar sounded a little annoyed. Tomu had hoped that his brother would offer his paw to help him, but as this did not happen he slowly rose to his hind paws again by himself. The young Cubone felt a bit dizzy and his hind legs hurt a little, but at the moment he was concentrating more on his brother's barely visible eyes. He wasn't absolutely sure, but it seemed to him that their expression was somewhat aggressive.

"Pull yourself together!" Rotar was almost shouting, which reminded Tomu a bit of their father. The younger Cubone instinctively stepped backwards and almost tripped over the same roots from before. Seeing that he had apparently scared his brother, Rotar's gaze softened a little.

"Look, I'm just trying to help you," he explained. "You really need to shape up and this is a good way to train." He reached out with his front paw and placed it on Tomu's left shoulder. "I don't want our instructor to hurt you again. If you become stronger he'll have fewer reasons to be angry at you." Tomu nodded slightly and then looked to the ground.
His brother picked up the bone club that the younger Cubone had dropped during his fall and gave it back to Tomu. They then continued walking through the dense forest at a slightly slower pace, for which the younger Cubone felt deeply thankful.



They had come very close to the clearing on which the Dodrio held his classes when Rotar suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and raised his club. Tomu froze and kept completely quiet as he knew that the reason for this could only be that Rotar had detected someone close nearby. Although the younger Cubone was certain that there was, in fact, no danger at all, he still didn't say anything in order to not annoy his brother.
Rotar turned a little to the left and now Tomu could hear the low rustling sound of someone walking through the bushes.
"You there, whoever you are!" Rotar barked in the general direction in which he suspected the stranger to be. "Come out right now and don't even think about trying anything!" A tiny moment passed, then the answer came:

"It's just me, Ehzarie!" Rotar slowly lowered his bone club, yet still kept staring in the same direction. The rustling became louder and louder until the female Scyther finally stepped into view.
"I'm glad I found you two," she spoke, winking at Tomu as if she was silently adding "especially you". Rotar was now finally getting out of his usual battle stance. He was, however, frowning.

"The clearing is in that direction," he said, pointing forwards with his club. "Why are you strolling through the woods?"

"Haven't you heard?" she asked. "There are no classes today." It was probably the first time the Scyther had ever said something that made Tomu feel better. Rotar, however, was apparently not pleased by these words.

"Why would that ever happen?" he wanted to know, sounding clearly disappointed. "Survival classes are important, they can't just get cancelled!" A sly grin appeared on the Scyther's face.

"Well, apparently they can," she spoke. "That is, if a certain Dodrio suddenly thinks it might be a good idea to tell an angry Arcanine that his only son is nothing but a snotty little brat who will never amount to anything if he doesn't start to take classes seriously." Rotar only replied with a frown. His brother grasped his bone club more tightly.

"Is he alright?" He asked. Ehzarie blinked.

"Why would you care?" She replied in a surprised tone. "You hate him." At first Tomu wanted to say that he did, in fact, not hate their instructor, he simply disliked him very much. However, after a moment he realized that this would most likely be too difficult to explain, so he simply kept his mouth closed. "Anyway," the Scyther continued, "judging from what I've heard, he just got a little burnt. He'll probably continue teaching in a few days." Rotar nodded and turned towards his brother.

"If that's the case, I'll go meet with some friends and train on my own," he raised his weapon and waved it at Tomu. "You should come with me, it might help you." Before Tomu could reply, Ehzarie had already stepped forwards and gently placed one of her blades on his arm.

"I think Tomu would rather come with me," she cooed, gradually inching closer to the young Cubone. "There are some things he could learn from me, too, you know..." Even though Rotar's face was obscured by his helmet, Tomu was certain that he rolled his eyes.

"Fine, if you want to keep disappointing our parents, go ahead," he spoke. Tomu opened his mouth, but the Scyther cut him off before he could even begin to talk.

"You put too much pressure on him. It's no surprise he keeps messing up when he's always under stress." She was standing at Tomu's side now and linked arms with him. "What he needs to do is relax a little. Come..." she slightly pulled his arm in her direction, "let's go somewhere else..."

"My parents said I should stay close to Rotar..." he began, but Ehzarie shook her head.

"He's certainly not going to tell on us." She turned towards the older brother. "You wouldn't do such a thing, now would you?" Her voice sounded different than usual, it had gotten slightly seductive. Tomu could only assume what was going on; he guessed that the Scyther was playing with the thought of betraying him with his own brother someday; he wasn't sure how Rotar would react if such a situation should occur. Right now he seemed to be a bit unsure.

"Well... Of course I could tell them you'd have been with me all day long, but I really think you should rather..." Ehzarie smiled softly and winked at him. Rotar swallowed and lowered his bone club. "Alright... I can help you out this one time, I guess..."

"Thank you very much," she spoke, once more tugging on Tomu's arm. "Follow me now," she whispered in his ear. "I'm going to make you feel a lot better..." The young Cubone doubted that this was the truth, but still came with Ehzarie as she turned around to walk away. It wasn't like he really had a choice in the first place, since she was pulling him with her. Rotar looked after them for a moment, but he disappeared in the forest rather soon. Tomu turned his head towards Ehzarie as she led him through the brush. She showed him a smile, which seemed a lot more greedy than sweet to the Cubone. When he thought about it, he really couldn't say whether or not being with the Scyther was better than being with his brother when he was fighting.

"Aren't you glad we don't have classes today?" Ehzarie asked. Tomu simply nodded in response, as his mind was occupied with doing its best to not think about what the Scyther was probably planning on doing to him. However, this was a hard thing to keep up, as he noticed in which direction they were going. Ehzarie had a hideout, hidden deep within the woods; it was basically nothing more than a large hole she had dug into a hill with her blades. She had taken him there two times already, and the outcome had been less than pleasant for the Cubone.

"You're way too tense," Ehzarie noticed. "You should lighten up! I'm with you now." Tomu did his best to smile, now feeling thankful that his mask hid the worried expression in his eyes. He wondered if there was any chance she might let him go. He probably wouldn't get out of this without hurting her feelings or disappointing her in some way. Tomu breathed deeply. It was better to hurt oneself than to hurt others.

"I... I'm not entirely sure if I'm feeling up to it right now..." he began slowly. A mistrustful frown appeared on the Scyther's face.

"What, am I suddenly not good enough for you anymore?" she asked in a sharp tone. Tomu quickly shook his head.

"That's not what I said..." he replied. Ehzarie started grinning again.

"Well, there we go," she said. "You can't tell me you wouldn't want it." The Cubone lowered his gaze. The Scyther was right; he certainly couldn't tell her this, not with the way she would probably react towards it. It looked like he'd have to endure this until she eventually got tired of him and "fell in love" with someone else.
Ehzarie led him across a small clearing and the Cubone caught a glimpse of the blue sky. He envied bird types, they could fly wherever they wanted and nobody could follow them... a short moment later, however, the canopy returned and the brush became harder to pass through. The Scyther didn't slow down, though, which made it harder for Tomu to keep walking next to her. He was worried he might stumble and Ehzarie would just drag him along in such a case. Thus, he wasn't exactly sure whether he should be thankful or not as they reached the small mound.
The forest was rather dense in this area. There wasn't very much light shining through the green all around them, and the hill itself was covered in bushes, high grass and trees. Ehzarie had picked this spot for a reason; she didn't want anyone to accidentally stumble upon her and her current mate. The Scyther stepped forwards, leaving Tomu standing behind her.

"Here we are," she spoke, shoving one of the many bushes aside with her blade. She looked back at the Cubone and now her grin seemed downright dangerous to him, especially since there was a lusty expression in her eyes now. "Please come inside..."

Tomu did as he was told. He slowly walked past the Scyther, holding on to his bone club as if it was the only thing that could protect him from the terrible things that might happen, even though he knew very well that he'd never use it.
The small cave was only a few steps deep. It didn't need to be any larger to serve its purpose. Tomu breathed deeply and stared at the earth wall in front of him. After a short moment he heard a rustling sound, and then he could hardly see anything anymore. He turned around, recognizing the Scyther's dark silhouette in front of a few very tiny gleams of light, standing between him and the only exit. He swallowed as she slowly came closer. Then, within less than a second, she had already jumped at him, knocking him to the ground alongside with her. He shrieked in both surprise and fear as he landed on his back, his arms spread to his sides. Tomu heard a low swishing noise and as he turned his head first to the left and then to the right, he could see that Ehzarie had dug her blades into the ground. They formed a dangerous arc across each of his arms, this much he could still see in the very dim light. Should he try to move or raise either one of his paws, he'd risk deep cuts on his wrists.

The Scyther giggled lowly. Quite apparently this was just a fun game to her.

"You need to get quicker, sweetie," she said. "Just imagine what would have happened if I had wanted to hurt you..." Somehow, Tomu doubted that it would have been worse than what he was already experiencing. In the back of his mind he noticed that he had dropped his club when Ehzarie had tackled him. This only reminded him once more of the fact that there was truly no way out of this.
She licked him across his cheek, right where his bone mask ended.

"Now, you don't need to be afraid of me," she whispered in his ear. "I'll make sure you'll be fine... We'll have a lot of fun together..." Tomu closed his eyes and tried his best to stop thinking. If he could forget what was happening, if he could forget where he was, it might not hurt so much...





Some might think that it is impossible for a female to force a male to do something like this against his own will. However, Ehzarie knew very well what she was doing, and there seemed to be an ancient instinct or desire to be living somewhere deep within the Cubone, which he despised and of which he wished it would just go away. There was nothing he could do against his body betraying him, as it responded to the Scyther's caresses in exactly the ways she wanted it to. He kept wondering how Ehzarie could do this to him without feeling the least bit guilty, but she probably didn't even know that she was hurting him and how was she ever supposed to find out? Tomu wasn't going to tell her, and his body didn't seem to resist. He couldn't blame her. She was just being the way she was, and so was he... It wasn't her fault that they simply couldn't understand each other.
Even in his misery, it made the Cubone feel at least a slight bit better that Ehzarie was apparently enjoying herself. The way she moaned whenever she... But he didn't want to think about it. He kept his eyes closed and pretended not to be there. Nothing was going on. He was alone. He was not in a small cave, he was somewhere else, outside, on top of his favorite hill, all by himself, with only his own thoughts and the view on the forest and the sky. Everything was going to be alright someday... He didn't know how it was going to happen, but everything would be alright...

At some point, his body trembled slightly, but he hardly even noticed. He knew that something was happening, but he kept denying it. Still, his mind seemed to slowly return to reality. Tomu could feel that the Scyther kissed his cheek.

"I love you, sweetie," she whispered. The Cubone opened his eyes. Ehzarie lifted her body and Tomu was glad that her blades weren't threatening to cut off his arms anymore. He saw her standing in front of him, once again just a black silhouette in front of a dim light.

"I have to go meet someone now, so don't miss me too much, alright?" She turned around and was gone just a moment later. Tomu blinked. He was still lying on his back. Very slowly, he sat up and reached for his skull helmet. He took it off and placed it on the ground. Then he covered his eyes with his front paws and breathed deeply. He could smell the Scyther all over his own body and it made him feel like he was going to be sick. At first he was trying not to cry, but after a few moments he remembered that he was alone now. Nobody expected from him to be strong. There was no need for him to hold back his tears.
He fell to the side, curled into a ball and began sobbing, fearing that nothing was ever going to be alright.





It had to be about two hours later when he left the small cave again. The bone mask covered his face and nobody would notice that he had cried. Tomu stumbled through the forest, trying to find his way back to the place where his brother and he had split up. Rotar hadn't said that they would meet there again, but the younger Cubone simply hoped he would return to this place. 
When Tomu arrived there, his brother was nowhere to be seen. He slowly sat down on the ground and stared at his bone club. It had been given to him so he would be able to protect himself. However, it had never been of any use to him. The club didn't do anything by itself, and the thought of hurting someone else just to minimize his own suffering seemed revolting to him. Tomu knew he couldn't protect himself, and he wished there was nothing he'd have to be protected from, but now, after this had happened to him, he couldn't help but think about how nice it would be if there was someone watching out for him. He imagined his older brother as his caretaker. Everyone always seemed to think it was such a very important thing to be independent, but then again, being independent actually just meant being alone...

"There you are," he suddenly heard Rotar's voice. Tomu raised his head. There were traces of dirt all over his brother's body, and his bone club had some dried blood on it. The helmet made it impossible for Tomu to recognize whether his brother was happy to see him or not.

"Come on, get up!" Rotar commanded. The younger Cubone quickly did as he was told. Judging by his tone of voice, his brother seemed to be a bit annoyed.

"Let's go home." Rotar started walking and Tomu followed him. His brother didn't turn around to face him as he spoke:

"Don't even think about getting used to this. I'm going to do this for you just once." The younger Cubone nodded quietly. He didn't want to go on his brother's nerves. "You know, it's pretty hard to believe if you think about this," Rotar continued. "Our parents trust you to always do your best, and then you just decide to go and have a good time with that Scyther girlfriend of yours." Tomu lowered his gaze.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. His brother slowly came to a halt. Tomu stood behind him, looking at the back of his head.

"You know, sometimes you really make me a bit angry," Rotar said, grasping his bone club more firmly. "We're all worried about you. Don't you care about your family at all?" Tomu swallowed.

"I'm trying..." he began, but Rotar cut him off.

"You're not. You never really tried." The older Cubone took a deep breath. Apparently he was trying to stay calm. "It's gone so far that I have to be ashamed that you're my brother." He suddenly turned around and held his club right in front of Tomu's face. The younger Pokémon jumped backwards, tumbled and landed on his hindquarters. Rotar shook his head.

"Have you ever even thought about how hard this has to be for mom and dad? That their son is the greatest weakling anyone has ever seen?" Tomu kept his eyes to the ground. He felt the tears coming again. This was simply too much, he couldn't take his brother yelling at him, especially not after what Ehzarie had done just a short while ago.

"Look at yourself, you're just sitting there! Defend yourself when someone attacks you!" Tomu didn't reply. He tried not to break out in tears. He nearly always felt miserable, and being accused by his brother like this made everything so much worse...

"Do you even understand what I'm saying? Or are you as dumb as you are weak?!" The bone club hit Tomu's helmet. His brother hadn't used very much of his strength, but it was more than enough. "If you cared about anyone other than yourself, you'd try to get stronger! What's going to happen when you'll be an adult? Do you think mom and dad can just let you live your own life without constantly worrying about you when you can't even fight?!" Rotar lowered his club and used it to poke against Tomu's chest. "Everyone's laughing at me because of you!" His voice suddenly sounded a lot more dangerous. "And I'm tired of always being told to keep watch over you. But you don't care about all this, do you? All you want is to be alone with Ehzarie. You make your parents worry, you make me the laughing stock, and you don't even care..." He slowly stopped talking and pulled his club away from his brother again. The younger Cubone was crying. His head was still lowered and Rotar couldn't see his eyes, but he could hear Tomu sob lowly and he noticed his body shivering slightly. At first the older Pokémon just frowned. Then, Tomu heard him sigh.

"Crying isn't going to make it better," Rotar said, now sounding a bit less aggressive. "Pull yourself together and try to shape up, then everything will be alright." Tomu tried his best to stop the tears from flowing. It was bad enough that he was nothing but a disappointment to his family already, and crying in front of his brother certainly wasn't going to make anything better. Everyone seemed to be bothered by the fact that he was so very weak, but he just couldn't do anything about it. He kept his eyes to the ground, his face becoming wetter and wetter beneath his mask.
After a short while he felt his brother's paw lightly touch his shoulder.

"Hey," Rotar said, his voice now a lot softer than before. "Hey, little guy. It's not so bad." He took a deep breath. "Listen, I didn't mean what I just said. I'm in a bad mood, that's all. I'm sorry, alright?" Tomu blinked and raised his head a little. Through the veil of tears he could see his brother squatting in front of him. "Come on," Rotar continued. "Stand up." He took Tomu's front paw with his and pulled his little brother back up to his hind paws. "We'll go home now, and then you can train with dad." Rotar apparently thought the younger Cubone would find this reassuring to hear.
Tomu stared at his older brother. He breathed deeply, now slowly regaining control over his own body. The tears stopped flowing and his paws ceased to shiver. And still, he just wished that Rotar would hug him and say that everything was alright. This was what he needed the most. He wanted to be held and he wanted someone to honestly tell him that everything was alright. Nobody had ever done this. Everyone just expected things from him. There was nobody who'd just hug him and say that everything was alright...

"Don't worry," Rotar said. "Things will get better." He turned around again and started walking. Tomu followed him, holding on to his brother's paw, wondering why things couldn't be better now.







"Here, look at this. It's called Bonemerang, try to remember how I do it." Tomu's father raised his right paw. He slowly rotated his bone club once, then suddenly he pulled back his paw and threw the bone in one complex movement that Tomu didn't fully grasp. His paw had moved to the left, to the right, backwards and forwards, all at once, as it had seemed. The bone flew through the air, spinning rapidly. It quickly reached the end of the clearing, cutting several dozen leaves off of the nearby trees. It then proceeded moving along a curved line, slicing its way through the canopy, until it returned to its owner. The Marowak raised his paw and, without any kind of greater effort, caught his bone club. Instead of ripping off his paw, it quickly came to a halt. Tomu's father nodded at his son.

"That's how you have to do it. You try it now." Tomu blinked. He had no idea how he was supposed to perform such a feat by himself. Feeling the knowledge that he was going to disappoint his father again gnawing on his nerves, he slowly raised his own club. He swallowed. Then he did his best to imitate his father's movements, even though he couldn't remember most of them. The bone slipped from his paw, rotated once, and fell to the ground just a few feet away from Tomu. The young Cubone lowered his gaze.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. As he went to pick up his bone club, he heard his father sigh.

"I know you are, Tomu. But that's not what matters. You're not doing this for me, you know. You're doing it for yourself. If you can't fight, they will kill you." Tomu returned to his father's side, keeping his eyes to the ground. The Marowak patted his son's bone helmet. "And it's not even enough to be a good warrior, you see." His father's voice suddenly sounded rather tired. "You always have to try to be the best of them all. If you don't, you will fall behind, and if you fall behind, you will get killed." Tomu slowly raised his head. It was clear to him that his father didn't like his own words. He began to remember what his mother had told him the other night. His father hadn't always been like this...

"It can't be nice to always be fighting..." Tomu mumbled. His father shook his head.

"That doesn't matter. It's what we have to do." He lowered his gaze. "Your brother understood this very quickly," he continued tonelessly. "Your brother has always been great at fighting. He hardly ever does anything else." The Marowak slowly sat down on the ground and took a deep breath. "He won't have any trouble getting through life. He can watch out for himself." He turned his head to look at his son. "Tomu, I know you don't like your instructor. I know he hurts you and I know he makes you do things you hate, but that's life. It will always be like that, you know. You... you should try your best to get used to it."

Tomu wished his father wouldn't be wearing his mask. It was so very hard to guess what he was feeling... The Cubone had gotten the faint impression that his father was ashamed of his own words, but he couldn't be quite sure. He let go of his bone club and it fell to the ground.

"Never let go of your weapon," the Marowak scolded, but he didn't sound very confident. "If someone were to attack you..."

"Nobody will attack me, dad," Tomu replied. "Besides, you're here to protect me." The Marowak nodded slowly.

"Yes, but that won't always be the case. And one day you will have to protect someone, too. That Scyther, for example, or..." The Cubone swallowed. His father had apparently noticed that this topic made him feel uncomfortable.

"Do you love her?" Tomu kept quite and shook his head. The Marowak slowly stood up again and turned around. He was now looking in the direction their burrow lay in. "I see," he spoke. "Well... that's another thing you should get used to, then." He paused for a moment. Tomu was looking at him, worrying about what he might say next.

"I know you want things to be different," his father continued. "I know you want all the fighting to stop. I know you want to feel that there's someone you can always rely on. I know it shouldn't be asking too much. But that doesn't matter." The Marowak turned around to face his son. Tomu could hardly see his eyes, but it seemed to him like his father was angry. "You have to be strong all the time. Whether you fight to eat, to protect yourself or just because someone disagrees with you, you have to be strong. Everyone wants something, and if they don't get it, they'll attack you. Everyone only lives for what they want... You have to be like this, too, Tomu. Either you become like them or they kill you." He raised his bone club and pointed its tip at his son. "Now pick up your weapon," he said. "We have a lot to do."







It went on like this for a few days. Tomu trained a lot with his father, but they didn't talk very much anymore. Apparently the Marowak had gotten the impression that everything had already been said. The young Cubone was slowly improving; however, he knew that all of this was practically useless. Everything was fine as long as his father wanted him to attack tree stumps, but it was clear to Tomu that, in case he'd ever get involved in any kind of real fight, he wouldn't be able to do anything. The point was simply that it didn't hurt anyone when he smashed his bone club against a piece of dead wood. If it was to be a living, breathing creature that could feel pain, it would be impossible for him to even lift his bone.
Rotar often went out to fight against his friends and Tomu's parents allowed him to accompany him. However, the young Cubone kept declining. He was worried that he might meet Ehzarie if he went with his brother. Thus, he spent most of his day gathering food together with his mother, as even his father had to realize that his youngest son simply wasn't in the right condition to come hunting with him.

After four days had passed, Tomu was awoken from an uneasy sleep by his mother. She greeted him with a somewhat sad smile.

"Your instructor just came by to say that he's teaching again," she spoke. "Rotar will take you to your survival classes." The Marowak knew that her youngest son didn't like this news. "Now, first of all you should have some good breakfast," she continued, "then the day will be a lot easier." Tomu slowly sat up. He blinked and then looked to the side.

"I'm not very hungry," he mumbled.







The Dodrio was limping and a lot of his feathers were missing. Others looked slightly singed, and all in all he didn't make a very good impression. However, this didn't stop him from being as cruel as he always was. At the moment he was talking about the best way to tear an enemy's throat open, be it with claws, teeth or any kind of sharp object one could get their paws on.
Tomu wasn't listening. He was thinking about something, but he couldn't even say what it was. All he knew was that his head was laden with vague worries, which could become a serious problem if he didn't get any time to be just for himself soon. Letting his gaze wander, he saw Ehzarie sitting just a few feet away from him. She seemed to notice his paying attention to her and turned her head towards him. It was difficult for Tomu to read her facial expression; his best guess was that she was a little angry at him because he hadn't tried to be with her for four days now. He felt guilty. She had probably wanted him around and he had disappointed her. However, he simply hadn't been able to force himself to actually go out and look for her. Even now he could feel a sense of fright returning to him when his gaze fell on her sharp blades.

"It might also be a good idea to simply impale your victim instead of scratching or biting them," the Dodrio's left head said. "It all depends on your physique, of course, but let me tell you, there's hardly anything more satisfying in the world than ramming your pointy beak deeply into somebody's neck." The other two heads nodded in approval, as the left head continued in a slightly dreamy tone: "To feel the blood gushing from the fresh wound... To feel your victim writhe, to hear them rattle in their few last, desperate attempts to draw breath..."
Tomu listened to the wind. To be a cloud, nothing but a cloud... But it was a hard thing for him to imagine as he was feeling very heavy. He knew he had to get rid of his worries somehow. He knew he made his parents angry by strolling around without his brother, but he couldn't help it. Tomu felt like he was going to fall apart. There was only so much he could take. His eyes were fixated on the sky, which was rather cloudy today. Not only his thoughts were heavy, but so was the air. There seemed to be a storm brewing...

"Killing is an art form! It's very difficult to master; you have to put your heart into it! Kill or be killed! Repeat that, children!"

"Kill or be killed!" the class shouted. Tomu simply moved his lips, but didn't say anything. All of the Dodrio's heads nodded; they showed grim expressions.

"Very good, now all you have to do is remember this and act accordingly. You can all go home for today." The instructor turned around and limped into the forest. Tomu blinked. This had seemed like a very abrupt end of their classes to him, but maybe it was just because he had hardly even heard a single word of what the Dodrio had been saying. Everyone else had already stood up. Tomu looked around and saw that his brother was with a small group of Pokémon, among them a Pikachu, a Hitmonlee, a Growlithe and others. There were probably a few training battles going to happen soon, so Rotar would be distracted. Tomu sighed softly. It was wrong to just be gone for a while without telling anyone, but...

"Tomu?" The Cubone looked up. Ehzarie stood next to him with a frown on her face. "You aren't avoiding me, are you?" she wanted to know. Tomu swallowed.

"I'm sorry, it's a bit complicated..." he began, but was interrupted as the Scyther poked his chest with one of her blades.

"It's because of your parents, isn't it?" she asked. "You don't want them to get suspicious?" She shook her head and sighed. "I don't even know why I waste time with you," she continued. "You're apparently not willing to take even the slightest risk for me." The Cubone looked to the ground.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. Even though he couldn't see it, he was sure that Ehzarie rolled her eyes.

"We'll talk about this tomorrow," she said. "I really don't have any time now. If you want me to still be there for you in the future, you should consider trying harder not to hurt me so much. Think about it." Tomu nodded silently, still keeping his eyes to the ground. He heard the Scyther walk away. For a moment he thought about her last words, wondering how she could have the boldness to claim that she had ever been there for him and to accuse him of having hurt her. However, nothing of this was important.
Tomu rose to his hind paws and made his way through the crowd of young Pokémon, who were all talking, arguing and fighting among each other. What he needed the most now was silence.








Tomu breathed deeply. He was sitting at the steep edge of the hill, his gaze wandering from the clouds over the trees towards the rocky cliffs deep below him and then back up to the clouds again. Both his helmet and his bone club lay behind him in the grass. He could feel the wind gently brush across his face. It was getting a bit cold, but everything was better than being trapped under his own mask.
The Cubone was thinking. He was feeling guilty for so many things and he was trying to find out why. He was a disappointment to his parents and to his brother. However, something about this seemed to be wrong. Tomu didn't understand why exactly he should be responsible for this. He had always been himself, and in order to not disappoint the expectations that others had in him he would have to change. Then again, if he were to change, he would simply become like his father and if he became like his father, he would do whatever would then seem necessary to him. Not only would he become violent, but he would also get mated to a female he didn't really love and then have children...
This was it. Tomu had been born into this violent world without having been asked in advance, and if he truly were to change, he would end up making the same mistake. There was no way he could take this responsibility. It was bad enough already that he kept disappointing his family and Ehzarie, but all of this was unintentional. He hadn't had a choice before. He was his parents' son and the Scyther's temporary mate, but none of this had been his choice and thus he wasn't directly responsible for it, at least not as responsible as he would be for any potential children he might have in the future. He imagined himself as a Marowak, strong, but ultimately broken, teaching his own children how to hate... It was out of the question. He couldn't take it.
Tomu let himself fall backwards, now staring up at the sky, which was slowly becoming darker with thick clouds.

"What's the necessary conclusion...?" he asked. The wind was breezing along. The sky seemed to be sad. Tomu closed his eyes. He wondered what he was supposed to do. In the end it was all a matter of responsibility. In the end he would always hurt somebody. How could he do as little damage as possible...?
Over these heavy thoughts he drifted off to sleep.



At first he didn't even notice it. There had never been a dream more real than this one. He opened his eyes again and looked up at the clouds. Nothing had changed. The Cubone sat up and looked around. The few trees on the hill looked the same. The forest down below looked the same. However, something seemed to be different about the cliff right in front of him. He carefully crawled closer towards it until he could look down. There were rocks almost everywhere; only a few tiny bushes could be seen growing out of the gray wall. Tomu held on to the edge with his paws. All of a sudden he began feeling very uneasy.
And then the abyss started talking to him.

"Why not?" it said, its voice sounding deep and hollow. The Cubone couldn't see where it came from; all he could be certain of was that its source had to be somewhere below him.

"Am I not the solution to everything?" the abyss continued. "No responsibilities. No expectations. No more suffering ever again. Nothing ever again." Tomu blinked. His paws grasped the edge of the cliff a bit tighter.

"You know your future," the abyss said. "You know it is only going to get worse. Come to me. I cannot make it better, but I can at least make it stop." The Cubone stared into the vast emptiness below him. There was nothing for him down there, but his life consisted of nothing else than uncertainties, fears, pain and the hatred that everyone was trying to teach him. He would gain nothing if he jumped, but he would lose everything that made him sad and worried...

The wind picked up and Tomu raised his head. It came from the northeast. Very slowly, he turned around. He rose to his hind paws and began walking in the direction the wind came from. It wasn't cold anymore. It was affectionate and gentle, caressing his face and his body, reminding him of something he had once hoped he might find someday...
There was a voice. It didn't sound like the abyss at all; this one was soft and caring and yet it seemed to contain a certain amount of heartfelt pain. It came to Tomu with the wind, the voice of a female, the voice of a very sensitive person...

"Please... Come to me, I'm waiting for you... I've been waiting all my life... We can always be together... Come to me, please..."

For a fracture of a second Tomu caught the glimpse of something blue. He blinked and shook his head. It was impossible for him to remember any kind of shape; all he knew was that there had been something blue and that it had something to do with the voice that the wind had brought to him. He took a deep breath. The air seemed to be fresher in the northeast. Tomu wondered where the wind had come from. He wondered whose voice he had heard. He knew he wasn't going to find out any of this if he stayed where he was.
A thought arose within him. Maybe it weren't the Pokémon who had made this an awful place; maybe it was the place itself. The hatred of generations had been absorbed by it. Maybe things were different somewhere else. Tomu had to find out. He had to.

"Don't worry," a third voice spoke. It sounded deep and male, but also very likeable. Tomu looked up at the sky.

"We will help you." The mass of dark clouds was talking to him. To his surprise, it didn't frighten him. A storm was coming. A friendly storm.



Tomu opened his eyes and sat up. He was awake. Judging from his surroundings, he hadn't been sleeping much longer than for maybe half an hour. The clouds were still there. The Cubone turned towards the northeast. He was certain to hear a soft whisper in the wind.
Tomu knew what he had to do. He picked up his bone club from the ground and then stood up. For a moment he just stared at it, then all of a sudden he turned around and threw it as far as he could. It flew over the cliff and disappeared from his view. The Cubone quickly picked up his bone helmet and looked at the cliff again; he decided to keep it for a little bit longer.
The Cubone searched the cliff for a short moment and then picked up a sharp, pointed stone. He walked over to a fallen tree and used the stone to cut off a large piece of its bark. He placed it on a rock and began to carve symbols into it. He had learned how to do this in class; it hadn't really anything to do with hurting others, which was why he had decided to pay attention when it had been taught. The symbols were very simple as they were supposed to be used during the hunt in order to silently communicate with eventual hunting partners. It was a bit hard to form coherent sentences using these symbols, but Tomu tried his best.

{I} {to go to} {an unknown place very far away}
{to do} {not} {to come} {to look for} {I}
{I} {to return in the future} {maybe} {someday}
{to do} {not} {to worry about} {I}
{I} {to apologize for} {everything}
{Cubone} {youngest son}

Tomu read what he had written and nodded. The wind had gotten stronger. He heard a clap of thunder and quickly looked up to the sky. It seemed like the clouds were going to burst at any moment now. The Cubone put on his helmet, grasped the piece of bark and began running downhill.





Ehzarie had said she didn't have any time to talk to him. There could be only one reason for this. Tomu was running through the forest, trying to get to the small cave as fast as he could. He knew he wouldn't like what he was about to see, but he didn't have a choice. The Scyther was the only one he could ask to do this for him.
A bolt of lightning illuminated the sky and the roaring thunder followed soon after. Tomu was panting, but his hind paws didn't want to move any slower. He couldn't afford to lose any more time. He needed to keep every last bit of innocence he still had left.
It was rather dark already when he arrived at the small hill, but he was still able to see enough to confirm his expectations. Ehzarie was standing with her back against the hillside, her blades wrapped around the Smeargle in front of her who was holding her embraced. They were locked in a deep, passionate kiss. Tomu was surprised they hadn't noticed him yet, as he hadn't exactly been quiet, and even now he was panting loudly. After all, he had just run a considerable distance in a very short time.
He didn't know why, but he couldn't help but feel a little hurt. He had always known that this was going to happen and he hadn't even liked the Scyther in the first place; still, maybe there had been some tiny, desperate hope inside of him, something that had only existed because Ehzarie had said she loved him, even though he had never believed her...
He shook it off and took a deep breath. It was ridiculous.

"Ehzarie?" The Scyther's eyes shot open. She broke the kiss and blushed. The Smeargle turned his head towards Tomu.

"Who's that?" he asked. Quite obviously, he was very annoyed. Ehzarie shook her head and carefully got out of the male Pokémon's embrace. She seemed to think about what she should say.

"Listen, Tomu," she began, "I'm really sorry this happened, but..."

"I don't mind," Tomu interrupted her. Ehzarie was looking at him with a puzzled expression. The Cubone shrugged. "You can do whatever you want. I just came here to ask you for a little favor." Ehzarie seemed to misunderstand him.

"A favor?" she repeated with a glance at the Smeargle. "I don't know if..." The male stepped towards Tomu and raised his fist.

"Leave us alone, you little twerp," he growled, "or else I might have to hurt you." Tomu shook his head.

"Don't worry, I'll leave soon." He turned towards Ehzarie again. "Please listen. It won't take long until my family will come looking for me. They're certainly going to ask you if you have seen me somewhere. When that happens, please give this to them." He held up the piece of bark. "Can you please do this for me?" The Scyther shrugged and held out one of her blades.

"Of course I can. But why...?"

"I'm really sorry, but I don't have any time to explain this." Tomu carefully placed the piece of bark on the blunt side of Ehzarie's blade. He then took off his bone mask and dropped it on the ground. "Please promise to give them the message and my helmet. It's very important." Ehzarie frowned.

"But you need your helmet," she argued. "Without it you're completely unprotected..."

"That'll be alright," the Cubone replied. He was trying to stay calm, which wasn't quite easy as he was losing his patience. Lightning struck again and the following thunder was a lot louder than before. It would begin in less than a minute. "Please, Ehzarie," he begged, his voice shivering a little. "Please promise me you'll do it." The Scyther sighed.

"Alright, fine, I promise. I'll give these things to your family. Now, maybe you can..."

"Thank you very much." Tomu nodded. He then turned towards the northeast. The wind was still whispering to him. The sky was almost completely black. It was time. "Fare well, then. I really hope everything will be alright for you." Before Ehzarie could say anything in response he had already dashed off into the forest, heading west. This way, the Scyther wouldn't be able to tell anyone where he really went.

As soon as he could be sure that he was out of her viewing range he changed the direction. He ran around the hill in a large curve and then headed northeast. Even in the dense forest he could still feel the wind. He could still hear the voice echoing through his head.

The sky became white for a moment and the thunder came from directly above him. Just a second later, water came pouring down from the sky. It seemed to Tomu like an entire ocean was gushing out of the dark clouds, making it impossible for anyone to read his traces as they got washed away the moment he lifted his hind paws. He could feel the water on the ground, he could feel it on his body and he could feel it on his face. It served to make him realize once more that he had left his bone helmet behind.

Tomu was wet and he was cold, but he was running away, running to reach the place where the voice had come from, running away from the hate. He never wanted to stop running again. He wanted to keep going until he would have reached this land that had to be so very far away. The dark forest lay in front of him, but he wasn't afraid. Everything that he had been afraid of was behind him now, and it couldn't follow him.


Tomu was running, and he felt like everything was the way it should be. 

Things were alright.




(18017 words)