It beats within us all, pumping vital lifegiving fluid through our bodies until the day we die. The heart is also where our emotions affect us most, slowing down when calm, speeding up when terrified or excited, stopping when shocked or afraid. It's referred to as the center of our emotions, especially feelings of joy, sadness and love. Guilt tugs on our heart, happiness gives us a unique tightness that can only be described as happiness, and love gives us the warm fuzzies.
For one lone Lucario female, there was no love.

She hated everyone. Since that day, years ago when she was but a Riolu pup and she was weak.
She hated everything. It all reminded her of that horrible encounter with the male Garchomp.
She loathed males. Selfish brutes with their heads in their crotches who only thought about where they could park it next.
She was alone, all because she was 'tainted' by the Garchomp doing whatever it wanted with her, then leaving her in a sticky puddle of blood and fluids. Instead of family and friends, all she had to talk to was the trees, and she knew she was slowly going out of her mind. So above all, she hated herself, because it was all her fault that she hadn't been strong enough to fight off the large, powerful male that had destroyed her innocense.

She was walking away; this time from a den she had claimed as her own weeks ago, only to be muscled out by a much, much larger Tyranitar male not a minute back. Her face was in tears, and when she was far enough away from her stolen den she lost control and broke down completley. She punched a tree, venting her frustrations, but only managed to make it shake and drop berries all over her head. Sobbing, she collected the berries, putting them into a backpack she had discovered one day. It had been on a skeleton, and she didn't leave anything behind except the Pokeballs that were in one of the pockets; why waste room for something you don't need when you could fill it with precious food?

She was called Cathie, named by her mother after the pure aura she had when born. She hadn't looked at her aura in months, but she was sure that it wasn't pure anymore. Now, with her face covered in tears, she walked on. To where she didn't know, but she didn't really care. She couldn't go back to her clan, they had banished her shortly after her rape, and she couldn't go back to any of her last dens, they had all been taken over by much more powerful Pokemon. Though the Kangaskhan who took her second den had offered to share, saying it wasn't quite fair to take it through force, she hadn't wanted to impose on the mother and child, and so she left before any questions were asked.


She kept walking, ever onwards and forever down the mountain. There were few Pokemon around, so she conversed with trees as she passed them. To the outside viewer, she'd have seemed out of her mind, but it was a defence mechanism; she was alone, and the only things around that'd listen to her worries were the trees, even if they didn't talk back. Every so often she'd pass a small abandoned cabin, made by humans as dwellings, but she never dared enter one. They were almost always the habitats of bug Pokemon, used to spawn their near endless numbers, and the wooden abodes were always swarming.

Soon it was midday, and she sighed as she sat against a tree, swinging the bag off her back and unzipping a pocket. Before she could take a berry out, though, she zipped it back up. Her ear twitched, and she heard some bushes nearby rustle. She carefully stood, slinging the backpack onto her back once more. Her ear twitched again, and she turned towards a figure that lumbered into the tiny clearing.
Garchomp.

It appeared already wounded, but only slightly. Blood dripped from its mouth, and it bared glistening teeth, also tinted red. She took a step back from him.
'Oh Arceus, he's a carnivore!' She thought, now worried. 'He's going to butcher me and then eat me! There's no point running, I can't outrun a Garchomp, and he's clearly very strong..!' She took another step back, to which he stepped forth. The Garchomp lunged, and she screamed, louder than she'd ever screamed before.
"Close Combat!" Another female voice called. The Garchomp was sent sprawling when a large, male, Infernape slammed into it, landing a fierce blow that left it dazed and confused. "Garchomp don't give up until someone's dead, Adar." The voice said. "And he's already killed and eaten three of our best lumberjacks. We need to end this before more life can be taken." The Infernape nodded and walked over to the Garchomp, stopping next to it and grabbing its head in his hands. "Justice must be done." The female voice said sadly. "Hyperbeam."
The Infernape lifted the Garchomp from the ground, and a beam of pure white light engulphed his head. The now headless Garchomp corpse fell to the ground, smoking a little where the energy had burned its neck.

She couldn't believe what she was seeing. The Infernape had just killed a huge male Garchomp like it was nothing! She cowered when he turned to her, and she backed herself into a tree when a human female came into view, stepping over and petting him, praising him for a job well done. She followed his gaze, noticed Cathie, and stood upright.
"Well now, it's rare to see a Lucario all on its own." She said. "And you have a backpack, do you have a trainer?"
She shook her head, not answering so much as in fear of what might happen next. She tried to back herself further into the tree, but pulled the bag off her back and held it like a shield.
"Now, now." The woman said. "We're not going to hurt you. What's your name?"
Still she shivered, shaking her head and hoping this was all a delusion, brought on by the Garchomp ripping her to shreds. She fell down on her ass, scrunching herself as tight as possible as her heart beat ever faster. She felt arms wrap around her, and a kind of warmth. Her eyes shot open, and she found the Infernape to be trying to comfort her.
'Shh, calm down.' He said in their tongue. 'We're not going to hurt you, but you might harm yourself if you don't settle.'
Her heart skipped a beat, and he found herself leaning into his embrace ever so slightly, but before she could come to terms with what was going on, she flung his arms from around her, whipping the bag onto her back. She stepped away from him, still shaking with fear, but now adrenaline had taken over, and she used Extremespeed and a jump, leaping away from the clearing and soaring over the treetops until she landed in another tree.

She sat on the high branch, carefully eating a berry from ber bag and thinking about what had just happened to her. She had leaned into his embrace, taking comfort from him like she would if he were her parents! She sighed, the first friendly contact she had had in months and she pushed it away like a rotten berry. Her mind ran over the encounter again and again, and she couldn't quite get his face out of her head. She sighed again, zipping the backpack up and standing on the branch, her lonliness now creeping up on her like the Garchomp had when she was little. Skillfully, she leapt from branch to branch, climbing down the tree and into the forest below.

She wanted to find him, thank him for saving her life and apologise for running away like that. Quick as she could without running, she walked back to the little clearing.


They weren't there, neither was the corpse, but there was a small basket full of berries and a note. She could barely read the writing, not that she couldn't read, but that it was so scribbled that it was nearly illegible.
'We're sorry for frightening you, and we have left you some berries to feed yourself with. If you would like to meet us again, please travel downhill two kilometers, you shall find a cleared part of the forest where we are harvesting lumber. Be careful, the area can be dangerous to the unwary.'
She smiled a little at it, before putting the note down and taking a Pecha berry from the basket. She put her bag down, practically threw her back at the tree, and slid to her butt before she started eating.

She was already pretty full, so she sorted the berries into a pocket of their own in her backpack with the rest of the Pecha berries she had harvested herself. She took a moment to remove any rotten ones that she had left too long, not that there were many; Pecha were her treat, her one consolation from harsh reality, and she munched one regularly in vain attempts to keep her spirits up. She stood, zipping the bag up and slinging it onto her back, and then cautiously wandered down the mountainside.

Eventually, she approached what sounded like someone hitting wood, and she saw a human, scarcely bigger than herself yet with muscles that bulged, swinging an axe into a treeside. Wood chipped away from the blade, and with one final swing the tree creaked. He pulled his axe away, yelled 'heads up' loudly, and then ran. The tree creaked louder, and then fell, loudly slamming into the ground with a thunderous crash that shook the very ground beneath her. She held the basket tightly, and carefully stepped forth, but no sooner than she had taken a step, the axeman noticed her and yelled.
"Wild Pokemon!" He bellowed, throwing his axe at her and managing to get it to wedge into the tree she was hiding behind.
She saw the Infernape come rushing, and she ran as fast as she could, dropping the basket where she was standing before her legs carried her far as fast as they could.


The Infernape, Adar, had started to chase her, but stopped when he saw the little basket and note on the ground, and instantly he knew what had happened. He picked it up and walked back into the clearing, where the axeman was glaring at him furiously.
"Why didn't you go after it?!" He yelled. Adar put the basket down at his trainer's feet, a young woman named Patricia, who was a foreman of the little tree cutting business they had going on. She sighed, and watched him return to the tree, pulling the axe out and walking back to the axeman with an angry expression. Quick as a flash, Adar slammed the axe blade into the recently felled tree, wedging it deep and snug. He gave the axeman one, last, angry snarl before returning to his trainer and picking the basket up.
"She was here, wasn't she?" She asked, to which he nodded. The young woman sighed. "Alright, I'll tell the axe and sawmen not to attack or startle any Lucario that happen to approach them unless it's an emergency. It's the best I can do until she returns, I'm afraid." Adar nodded again, this time a bit slower. "For now, I think it's best if we get back to work. I'll keep patrolling the borders, you help with this one."
She went to walk, but he tugged her sleeve, a pleading look on his face. She sighed and relented.
"Alright, go get her." She said. "But be careful, we don't know what might be out there right now."


A ways off, back at the clearing she had found the basket, the Lucario was up in a tree bawling her eyes out. She had been so close, yet so very far away. The axe had almost hit her, too, missing by inches. Then she had been charged by the very person she had been trying to get into contact with, truly, today was not going well.
A fist slammed into her face, knocking her off of the branch and onto the grass below, knocking the wind from her. As she struggled to breathe, a Primape leapt from his higher position in the tree and stepped towards her, eyeing her hungrily.
'Whadda ya know, a female.' He said. 'Just what I was thinking of.' He grabbed her left leg and held it down. 'You an' me're going to get aquainted real well.'

Adar was moving quickly, swinging from trees and bouncing from their trunks with his powerful legs. It was so much easier to move quickly when you didn't have to keep a human safe at the same time. He had picked up her scent a while back, not that she was covering her tracks well. He knew where she was already, but chasing by scent helped to keep his senses up and alert. A scream echoed through the trees, and he hastened his pace, now leaping with enough force to shake the trees violently when he struck them and when he kicked off. From a fair distance back he could see what was happening already, and it was enough to make his blood boil with rage.

She was writhing on the ground, fighting against the Primape male with everything she could muster before he could do whatever he liked with her. He was winning, however, and soon he had pinned her other leg to the ground.
'That's quite enough outta you.' He said. 'Stop gripin' and take it like the bitch you are!'
She screamed for a second time, tears freely flowing down her face and into the grass beneath her. One eye was bruised from where he had socked her unawares, and it throbbed and hurt badly. The Primape reached for her most secret of places, and was knocked off his feet and across the area by Adar, who could stand no more. He towered over Cathie bravely, the light shining in his fur and making him glow from her point of view.
'You lowlife piece of filth.' Adar snarled, spitting at the Primape.
The Primape leapt up, angrily charging at Adar blindly. However, the stronger, smarter, and faster Infernape easily sidestepped a swung fist, grabbing his arm and snapping the bone like a twig before landing a fierce blow upside the Primape's head. As soon as it had started, the fight was over, and the Primape slumped to the grass.

Cathie's heart hadn't beaten faster since she was a pup, the memories of that horrific day flashing before her eyes before Adar had intervened. Her breathing was shallow and quick, her lungs not getting enough air to fuel her body, and she looked into Adar's caring eyes before hers closed, and she slipped into a peaceful darkness. Adar had rushed to her, putting an ear to her chest to check that she was still alive before he lifted her carefully, carrying her back to the lumber camp.


He had been greeted like a hero, just like when he had dragged the Garchomp corpse onto the grounds for burial. One of the axemen ran up to him, stopping his progress and checking the Lucario he held in his arms.
"Wh-what the hell?!" He yelled angrily. "It's still alive! What, did you not have the guts to kill a female so you brought it back for someone else to deal with?"
Adar gave the axeman a look. It wasn't a particularly angry or threatening look, but it was an annoyed one all the same, as if saying 'of course not, you dipshit.'
Adar's master came jogging over and carefully inspected the unconsious Lucario. "Did you do this?" She asked, indicating the black eye. Adar shook his head and beckoned her to follow him.
He carried Cathie to the main building, a large concrete building for all of the site's paperwork. Through the main room and into the head foreman's office, where he put her on the couch in the corner and turned to the foreman. He was a short, stout man with a temper that matched his stature and a closed mind to the problems of Pokemon. He didn't care that Pokemon practically ran the site, he wanted results even if it cost Pokemon's lives, and it often did. 'Animals', 'Beasts', 'Slaves'; these were the names he usually gave Pokemon, and right now he was glaring at Adar with the same amount of fury that a bull sums up a red flag.

"You had better have a very good reason to bring that thing in here!" He snapped.
The head foreman's office was the only room in the entire site that had a translator, and it was built into an intercom like system on the desk. Adar snorted.
"She was almost raped out there, and-"
"I don't give a fuck what happened to her!" The foreman yelled. "It's wild, not trained! Kill it or return it to wherever you found its mangy, flea-ridden pelt! You have work to do, saving wild Pokemon doesn't fill wallets!" Now Adar glared at him, once again he could feel his blood pumping anger through him. "Do you have a problem, monkey?!" The foreman screamed, before being grabbed by his throat and hoisted off of his feet.
"You could say so." Adar growled.
"R-release... me..!"
Adar grinned. "You've trained me and others to kill wild Pokemon regardless of species, hell, even regardless of what they were doing; what makes you think you scare me, you pathetic little human?" He grinned up at the man struggling against his grip. "We've all got it hard here, we work in dangerous, volatile conditions, we sleep well aware of the dangers that wild, carnivorous Pokemon could come crashing in and end us at any time, and yet you! You, who treats his only protection like shit, thinks that he is above everyone? You've never cut down a tree in sweltering heat. You've never had to witness a friend be struck by a loose blade. You've never had to tell them that everything will be alright, even when you've been ordered to end their life and justify it as being merciful! You made me what I am, and for that I repay you now!
"You dare to think that you're above us all, just because you've got more money in your pocket?! A year of working out there wouldn't change who you are, though it might break you, it'll never change you! I could kill you here and now, and we could all just dump your corpse, claiming that you were devoured by a wild during the night; but I won't." Now he lowered the portly man to his feet again. "Because I will if things don't change. We need a Pokecenter with proper stocks. We need cabins for the Pokemon and humans that don't whistle during calm days and shake when it's stormy. You've Pokemon translators in the warehouse, I've seen them; they are to be distributed amongst the humans, not left to gather dust! You will get this done, and you will be a lot fairer on everyone, else your chin shall lose contact with your shoulders. I don't threaten today. Today I promise!"

The silence that flowed from here was deafening, broken only by the gentle snoring of the Lucario, who was still asleep. Adar had leaned into the foreman's face, and he was baring his teeth angrily. The foreman, however, looked like he was going to piss himself. He found refuge where he could get it.
"P-patricia! Your Pokemon is being unruly, discipline him!"
Patricia stepped forth and leaned in with Adar, her t-shirt showing the muscle tone that working as a lumberjack forces into someone. "I'm unsure, who's the one who has been treating everyone like dirt?!" She grabbed his shirt tightly. "Go get those translators. Now!" She yelled. "The workers have all been waiting for those for months, morale would boost like there's no tomorrow if they were to recieve them, and the cabins really need an upgrade. They're the same ones we built when we got here, and those were only supposed to be temporary!" The foreman looked dumbstruck at her. "Now!!" Patricia yelled, letting go of his shirt and watching him scurry off. She sighed and stood upright. "I had a feeling that little bastard was holding out on us." She mumbled. "So, anyway, how did she get hurt, I only told you to go find her, not-"

Adar growled again, interrupting her, and stepped over next to the sleeping Lucario. "I found her in the clearing." He said. "I also found a Primape."
"So she upset it?" Patricial asked, to which he shook his head.
"No, she was trying to wrestle free." He said. "He was going to rape her, and it was all I could do not to kill that son of a bitch."
Patricia remained quiet, partially sitting on the desk as she eyed the Lucario. She looked like she'd gone through hell, and as far as she knew, she'd almost been eaten and raped in one day.
"What do we do with her now?" Adar asked. "It's unfair to capture her in a ball when she's unable to defend herself, but if we don't keep her some place secure, one of the other lumberjacks might do it without bothering to worry about her feelings."
"For now, keep her with us." Patricia said. "Don't let anyone touch her but us." Before Adar could pick the Lucario up, however, Particia leaned in and inspected her critically, checking her muscles and general body strength. "She doesn't look very strong, but we might be able to remedy that with hard work. She's not going to become a gatherer, no matter how good she may seem at it." She motioned towards the backpack on the Lucario's back. "She'd be too vulnerable, today has been enough of an indication of that."
"So we give her progressively harder work?" Adar asked, to which he got a scratch behind his ear.
"Yeah. We'll teach her the axe and saw, get her to start on already fallen trees to build up strength, like we do with new lumberjacks." She gently lifted their sleeping charge and pulled the backpack off of her back, unzipping a pocket at random, discovering the veritable bounty of berries within. "Though, she could tell the gatherers where she got a couple of these, not seen Leppa in a while now." She zipped the bag back up and motioned Adar to follow. "c'mon, we'll sort the rotten ones out in the cafeteria."

Adar carefully lifted Cathie from the couch and followed his master through the building. they stopped for a moment when another Lumberjack handed Patricia a translator, and she took a moment to clip it on before continuing. Already things had changed, when they looked out of windows they could see the other employees conversing happily with the Pokemon they worked with, for the first time having actual conversations with their companions. It made Adar smile a little, and it distracted him long enough for him to not notice entering the cafeteria, but he did notice when his passenger was taken from his arms and put on a table by Patricia before she spread the contents of the bag across three that she had put together.
Adar's eyes had widened at the amount of berries that were within, there were dozens of different types. Oran, Leppa, Pecha; even a few rare ones like Lansat, Petaya and Starf. A large, spiky berry rolled out onto the top and the smell of this one struck him hard.
"Well, that one is off!" Patricia commented, motioning to throw it out.
"Don't throw that away!" Adar snapped. "That's a Durin, they're supposed to smell like that!" He gripped it in his hands and sniffed deeply. "These are quite bitter, Samuel's Combusken would do anything for this, you know how much she loves bitter foods."
"But it stinks!"
"Wrap it in a plastic bag and store it in a refrigerator reserved for Pokemon, I'll handle Sally and tell her it's for her birthday."
"We can't just steal Lucario's berries from her!"

Unknown to them, Cathie had been woken by the smell of the Durin, and she shifted on the table to look over at them going through the contents of her bag.
"What're you doing..?" She mumbled, getting their attention. "That's mine!"
Adar sighed. "Sorry, we didn't mean any harm." He said. "We wanted to sort out the rotten berries for you, but got distracted by the Durin."
Cathie sighed, putting a paw over her bruised eye. Suddenly she remembered the events out in the forest, and she looked down at herself in panic. No moisture, no blood... She was clean. She quietly mumbled 'thank Arceus' to herself.
"Adar has told me what happened out in the forest." Patricia said. "I'm sorry that he couldn't get to you before the Primape got as far as he did."
Cathie nodded slowly, trying to force the memories into the back of her mind. She sighed and decided to change the subject. "The Durin I found higher up the mountain." She said. "As with all the other berries. I've been steadily moving down the mountain for the last year..." Again, she found herself thinking of her past, and she held back a sniffle. "My clan banished me, and I've been muscled out of my dens almost regularly every few months... The backpack I found on a skeleton not far from my clan's territory, I figured he didn't need it anymore, so..."
"If I may, why were you banished?" Patricia asked.
Cathie sat up, letting her legs dangle off the table. "When I was a Riolu I was raped." She mumbled.

"I don't even know why the Garchomp did it, nor do I remember hearing him sneak up on me. All I remember of it is the pain, and then being nursed back to health by my mother. I was so relieved that the Garchomp hadn't made a meal of me that I evolved, but the elders saw it as a sign that I was tainted by the incident, and so they had me banished." She sighed, letting her sadness take over. "It's all my own fault, I was weak enough to get attacked."
"No, it's not your fault." Patricia said. "It was the Garchomp's fault, and his alone. The elders clearly didn't care about what might have happened to your well being, forcing you out like that at such a young age and with that sort of incident as the cause." She walked around and carefully wiped the tears from Cathie's face. "Tell me, what did your mother call you?"
"C-Cathie." She said, a little shocked at how kind she was being.
"That's a sweet name." Patricia said. "My name is Patricia, I'm one of the people in charge at this wood cutting site. If you'd like, we could get you a bed with the rest of the Pokemon? There is only one condition that comes with it, but we can discuss that after sorting the rotten berries out."
Cathie's mind could barely keep up with this, and she gave a distant, hopeful look at Patricia before nodding. Patricia smiled and pet Cathie between her ears.
"Don't worry about your past and what has happened to you." She said. "Adar and I will protect you until you can protect yourself. You're safe here."
Cathie's eyes went wide as she stared at the human. She started to cry, and threw her arms around Patricia's shoulders.
"Thank you!"


An hour later, they had sorted through all the berries and Cathie had marked on a map of the mountain where she found most of them, also marking off where her old dens were so as to show territories and potential dangers. Adar had been sent to check on the lumberjacks while Patricia led Cathie to a large fenced in area.
There were a few trees here, and short grass made the ground softer, with big patches of open soil in rows every few feet apart. Patricia took Cathie to an empty row and put down one of the buckets of rotten berries.
"This is our plantation." Patricia said. "We usually take any berries that have gone bad and plant them in these rows. After about a month or so, the berry has grown a tree large enough to start harvesting. If we keep the tree's growth cut low enough, we don't need to climb for the fruit." She motioned to another human who was carefully picking the ripe berries from some nearby trees. "I'll show you how we do it, then you can continue for the rest of the row. I'll not be far off, I've got a few things to deal with, okay?" Cathie nodded, and she was rewarded with a scratch behind her ear.
She watched Patricia dig a small hole, just deep enough for the berry to be covered, and cover it back up with soil before making sure it was in tight.
"If you don't pack it in tight, air might be trapped down there, and berry tree roots don't like that, causes them to grow funny. Now that you know how to do it, I want you to keep going for the entire bucket. Plant one every foot or so, about the length of your forearm. Don't let anyone try to take you from here. Trust no-one but Adar and I, alright?"
Cathie nodded, taking a berry out and trying for herself, looking up to Patricia for approval.
"Yep, you've got it." She said, scratching the female Lucario behind her ear. "I'll be back in a while, I'll get Gerry to bury this bucket," she lifted the bucket still in her hand, "don't wander, just set to it."
Cathie nodded again and kept going, planting another berry as Patricia wandered off.

She'd been planting berries for half an hour, and was almost three quarters of her way through the bucket. It was warm work, she had to admit, but it wasn't exactly back breaking. She did pant a little, her body trying to alleviate the heat it was generating from the beating sun, but she was enjoying what she was doing; it had been a very long time since she'd had time to do something quiet and peaceful, usually in tears or just on the move. She'd just finished burying a large Leppa when a pair of hands grabbed her stomach and wrenched her from her knees. She gave a yelp in surprise as she sprawled on the grass, and she spared a look at whoever had touched her.
He was tall, yet another human lumberjack built like a brick wall, with short brown hair and a moustache. He looked down at her like she were a bug underfoot.
"Wild Pokemon don't belong here!" He snapped, kicking her and causing her to yelp loudly and roll from the force. "So I'll beat you into submission and make you mine!"
There was quite a crowd around now, and she was kicked in the stomach when she noticed the sun high in the sky, signifying it to be about midday. The lumberjack pulled his fist back, swinging it down. He was caught in mid swing by Adar, who snarled angrily.
"Mach Punch!" Patricia's voice yelled angrily. Adar followed orders, and slammed his other fist into the lumberjack's chest, winding him and making him fall to his knees. Patricia soon walked into view, and she grabbed the man by his ear. "This Lucario is under the protection of Adar and I!" She yelled. "No one is to touch her, understand?!"
"Patricia, that's a wild!"
"And wilds can be tamed, Frederick!" She snapped back. "She's safe enough, leave her alone! That goes for all of you!"
Slowly but surely the crowd parted, leaving Adar, Patricia and Cathie practically alone in the plantation. Cathie picked herself up and went back to the bucket of rotten berries, setting back to her work.

"Are you alright, Cathie?" Adar asked, to which she nodded. "Alright." He mumbled. "I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner. I was just returning from my round, too." He gave a lopsided frown.
Cathie sighed. "Today's just not been my day." She sadly said. "Next thing I know, I'll get struck by lightning or something."
Adar chuckled. "I don't know about lightning, but what we've got you doing next could be dangerous if you don't focus." He heard her meep quietly to herself. "I'll be nearby, however, to keep my eye on you."
Cathie stayed quiet, busily burying the last of the berries before standing up and looking to Patricia.
"Alright, now that that is over, come with us." She said. "Leave the bucket at the end of the row, that way we'll know that this one has been planted."
She did as she was told and was quickly escourted to a tree near the outskirts of the valley. There was an axe resting against the tree, and it had a unique handle designed to tie the hands of whoever held it, wrapping around their mitts.
"This axe is designed for Pokemon with furred hands, like yourself." Patricia informed her. "For now, you'll be over in this general area cutting down trees before helping to haul them further into the clearing where we strip their branches and make them logs. While you're pulling the fallen tree, we have a Nidoking come along and rip the stump out of the ground, giving you a clear bit of space to move onto the next."
Adar moved over to the tree and dragged a claw across the bark twice, leaving a pair of deep gashes.

"Alright." He said, lifting the axe in one hand. "When you swing, stand with your feet wide and side on to the tree," he showed her the stance he expected of her, "and heep a firm grip on the axe here and here." He showed her this as well, his hands both in the part of the axe that would keep his hands on it. "Because of the design, you've got to take wider swings than a human would, because their hands can slide down the shaft slightly to give them better control. What we're aiming for is a barely controlled, powerful cut. Strike between the gashes, from below and above in a diagonal pattern until about halfway through... No, you're not that strong yet... Cut until you're two thirds through the tree, then stand behind it and push it down. Be sure to yell out a warning when you do this, as a falling tree can and will kill anyone in the way. Move away from the stump when the tree topples, else it could strike you when it bounces, and that doesn't feel pretty, trust me."
He took his hands from the grippy part of the handle and held it out to her, letting her get her paws onto it and hold it away from herself cautiously. Adar stepped closer and tightened the grip, making it very hard for her to struggle her lower paw free.
"Don't let this axe get away from you." He said. "The heads are very dangerous. I made sure it's on tight before I put it here for you. Sharpened it, too. One paw is free so that you can release the other "
She looked down at the axe in her hands before he stepped away, giving her a chance to get used to the feel of it. She stood next to the tree as instructed, checked behind her to make sure that they were a safe distance away, and swung.

It was haphazard and a little reckless, but it got the desired result and chopped into the tree with a soft 'thock'. She smiled at it, and before she pulled the axe out, she had a facemask put over her head, transparent plastic covering her eyes to protect her from stray splinters or woodchips, opaque plastic covering her muzzle and head. She looked around at Adar curiously, who had put it over her face,
"When you get chips of wood flying off all over the place like only Pokemon can manage, you really don't want it to be hitting your face and hurting you." He said.
She nodded and waited for him to move away before swinging again, this time on a downwards angle. The axe did as it was made to do, and a large chunk of wood popped out of the trunk. She swung a couple more times, still getting the mark exactly, before Patricia spoke up.
"There you go, you're a natural." She said.
Cathie stopped, and pushed the mask up, making it rise over her head but not come off.
"But if I have the only axe, what's Adar going to do?" She asked, to which he chuckled.
"You've not the only axe." He said, stepping next to another tree and lifting a larger, bulkier axe from behind it. "This one's mine." He said, before swinging it through a nearby tree roughly a foot thick. She blinked, and he easily lifted the tree and tossed it into a nearby pile.
"Okay, Adar, don't show off." Patricia said teasingly. "She might not keep her eyes on her work otherwise." She walked over and took Adar's axe from him, inspecting the blade before handing it back. "It needs sharpening anyway." She gave him a sharpening stone. "Get to it, I'll be back at sundown."
Cathie nodded, made sure that neither of them were within her swinging arc, and set to it.

She swung for roughly twenty minutes, and had soon done enough damage to the tree to move behind it and push it down. She thought for a moment, however, before pushing it.
"Heads up!" She yelled as it creaked and gave way.
Adar watched as she moved away and the tree struck the ground. It bounced a little, and the dust settled. Cathie stepped back towards the tree, Adar soon following.
"Not bad." He said, helping her to unfasten her paw. He moved her back and swung the axe into the trunk, wedging it in. "Alright, let's go deliver this one and give King enough time to get the stump." He grabbed a likely looking branch, motioning for her to grab another, and soon they were hauling it deeper into the cleared valley. They left it with another tree, a much larger one that had only just been delivered by a very large Charizard who nodded to them before returning to where he had been. Adar pulled the axe from the tree, handed it to Cathie, and they returned to where they had been. They arrived just as the Nidoking plucked the stump from the soil as easily as a human pulls up a carrot. He, also, nodded to them before continuing on, leaving a small indent where the trunk had been after shaking all the soil free.
"A-Adar..?" Cathie started.
"Hm?"
"All of these Pokemon... they're clearly stronger than you are, yet you were the one who killed the Garchomp..."
Adar sighed and put the palm of his hand to a tree. Light shone between them, and where his hand touched the trunk the wood exploded, throwing splinters all around.
"They're only stronger than I." He said. "However I developed my strength through fighting, theirs came naturally from their work. While they've a lot of strength, they lack speed and endurance, and I strike harder with my attacks than they do." He helped her strap the axe back onto her hand before brushing the woodchips from his fur. "I've been brought up to kill more than trees, the Garchomp earlier wasn't actually very strong."
Now she felt embarrassed. "He'd have easily killed me." She mumbled.
"If you'd like to learn combat, Patricia and I will be happy to oblige, but you need to get some strength first, and learning the axe is the easiest way to do that. King, the Nidoking from before, can take down trees like they're twigs, but he pulls stumps out because almost no one else can, and we want to be able to get this field grassed as soon as possible."
"But won't grass be ruined by dragging trees?"
"Probably, but we can cross that bridge when we come to it. Now, I believe that we've got work to do, and you might as well finish off this tree I've started for you." He shook her gently. "For now, I'll go and put scores on other trees. Eventually you won't need them, but until then you need your practice." He scratched his claw across another tree, leaving another two marks for her to aim between.
She nodded, pulled the face mask down, and waited for him to move away before starting to swing.


She had to admit, the whole time she was cutting this tree down, she was absent-mindedly thinking about Adar. She hadn't meant to, but she just couldn't get him out of her head. Every time she tried to think of something else, she'd think about how it reminded her, in some strange distant way, of him, and it distracted her slightly. She hadn't noticed how distracted she was until Adar wrenched her from her position, throwing her across the clearing. He followed her close behind, a worried look on his face. The tree she had been cutting had been cut so thin that it gave way, and she hadn't even realised that she had gone that far. She stared at the tree distantly as it struck the ground and bounced a little, right where she would have been standing.
"Are you alright?" Adar asked as she picked herself up.
"I-I think so." She replied, making sure she hadn't cut herself with the axe.
"What were you thinking?! You could have gotten yourself killed!" Adar snapped angrily, to which she backed up a step.
"I..!" She stammered, before becoming teary eyed. "I...!"
She broke into tears and ran, using Extremespeed to get away as fast as possible. Adar watched her run, holding a hand out as if that's make her stop running
"Well... Shit."
A psychic type, a Gallade, walked past, axe slung over his shoulder, and smacked Adar over the head. "You twit." He said.
"What the hell was that for, Knight?!"
Knight, the Gallade, sighed. "I'm a psychic type you stupid monkey." He said. "I wonder if you know how much you just hurt her feelings with that harsh tone?" Adar looked a little shocked, and his eyes went wide as he contemplated this. Knight sighed again. "Go chase her down, for all the good it'll do." He said. "I'll take this tree back, King will be over soon, so it has got to be gone or he'll throw a fit." His eyes shone purple for a moment, and he smiled. "No, she won't have to worry about wilds, the gatherers are in that direction today."
Adar turned and ran into the forest, following Cathie's scent into the trees.

Deeper in, Cathie had stopped running, and she threw herself against a tree, roughly unstrapping her paws and dropping the axe to her side as she crossed her arms and slid with her back against the tree. Berries had fallen all around her when she thumped the tree trunk, but she didn't pay them any heed. She felt like she had all those months ago when she was banished, betrayed and hated for something that was completley out of her control. She buried her face in her arms, gritting her teeth in a vain attempt to calm herself down.
"Hey, are you alright?" A female voice asked. Cathie swung her head to see who had intruded, discovering a female Infernape to be looking at her worriedly. Cathie shook her head. "Would you like to talk about it?" Again she shook her head. "..Alright."
Adar came running into view, and he slid to a stop a few feet from Cathie, who eyed him tearily. The Female Infernape looked up at him.
"Oh, hello hun!" She said.
Cathie stopped breathing for a moment, her eyes going a little bit wider before she slid her view from Adar, hiding behind her arms again as she broke down further, the female seemed to notice.
"She one of yours?" She asked. "My, my; you certainly have a way with the ladies."
Adar sighed. "Mum, just go back to the rest of the gatheres would you please?" He asked. "I'd like to talk with her in private."
The words rolled off of Cathie, barely listening to his voice.
"Alright, I'll see you at dinner." The female said, walking away.

Adar, carefully, sat next to Cathie. He sighed and rested his arms over his knees. She didn't acknowledge his presence, she barely acknowledged the presence of the tree behind her, but she felt a vibration when he thumped it gently, and a berry landed in his hand.
"I'm sorry," he said to no-one in particular, "for yelling at you like that. I didn't mean any harm, but you could've gotten yourself killed..." He trailed off, and she didn't respond to him. He sighed. "I'm sorry."
She was listening now, only just, but she did manage to hear him apologise. "..Who was that female?" She breathed.
"That was my mother." Adar replied. "She's nice, but she's a mother at heart, and I've got quite a few brothers and sisters about the place." He chucked a little, putting the berry he held down where she could see it before folding his arms behind his head and leaning back against the tree. "I swear, she's just a baby making machine that collects berries in between making more children."
They stayed quiet for a minute or two before Cathie tried again to spark a conversation. "What did she mean by 'that way with females'?"
Adar sighed. "I'm... not much of a looker, as you may have noticed." He said, to which she thought quite differently. "And, well, I do stupid things that usually end up with females in tears. The last female that I wanted to be with went insane, and she seriously injured three lumberjacks and another Pokemon before I managed to stop her, but there was nothing that could be done for her." He trailed off dismally, staring at the ground between his feet. "We buried her the next day."
Cathie felt herself become a little nervous, and she subconsiously shifted away from him slightly, to which he laughed.
"Don't worry, it's not contagious." He said. "She was tormented by the head foreman, who was her trainer, and she snapped. I don't think that he's ever shown any remorse over it..." He sighed again. "She was a very pretty Lopunny, I think he just liked her because she was a rare colouration."

Again they sat in silence, Adar staring into the distance, seemingly listening to the forest and his surroundings, alert as any good hunter would be, and Cathie staring at the grass beneath her. She sighed and stood up, grabbing the axe and holding it out for him to help her strap it down. Dutifully he stood, taking the axe and her paw in his hands and gently strapping ger paws to it tightly. She stared at his hands as he maneuvered the straps around her paws, and she walked in his wake as he led her back to the valley.
From behind the tree, Adar's mother watched them walk with a smile on her face. "Maybe, for once, he's found someone that he can't break..."


A few days passed, and Adar never left Cathie's mind or vicinity, helping her when she called for him, advising her when she needed it. They had cut down a fair few trees, getting a steady flow of at least ten in roughly six hours, breaking for a short lunch, and then returning to their woodchopping. Cathie had been claimed in a Pokeball by Patricia, and when they weren't cutting trees or eating a meal, they were training her in combat, giving her advice on how to utilise her strength correctly, how to harness her powers, and even teaching her a new move or two. Steadily, she became more and more attatched to the pair, especially Adar.
She had been introduced to a whole pile of Pokemon, all of whom were larger and much more physically powerful than her, except for Adar's family, his mother, father, and all of his twelve brothers and sisters. They, also, were training to be gatherers, like their mother, because she didn't want them becoming dangerous to have about.
On the third day, she helped to build a new, much larger, building. Wood logs were the main component of this grand lodge, and the building, when it was finished at the end of the day, was huge. Two floors, one giant room at the front with a stone fireplace and chimney for the winter months, with a kitchen at the back next to, of all things, a Pokecenter counter, actually staffed by a Nurse Joy, who had volunteered to work at this quiet locale. Almost every other room, three on the top floor, and two of three on the bottom, was a huge bunkhouse, beds or Pokemon nestings spanning for dozens of metres. On the bottom floor there were toilets, with real plumbing that had been put in by workers during the week, it was a huge step up from the outhouses that she was used to already that smelled like they were full of rotting corpses.

Cathie and Adar were out at their usual spot, cutting down trees as they usually did, conversing whenever they took them to the shed, play fighting on the way back. they stopped back where they had been cutting, and waited for King to wander off with the stumps. Adar watched him disinterestedly, Cathie paying him no real heed. King seemed to notice something between the two, and he smiled slyly before wandering off, stumps slung over his shoulders like sacks of potatoes.
"Adar..?" Cathie started.
"Hmm?"
"I..." She mumbled quietly, having difficulty finding the words. "I... think I love... you..." She managed, closing her eyes tight and turning her face down to the ground below them. She expected Adar to be irritated. Disgusted. Spiteful. She felt his hands grasp her face, and her eyes opened to look at him.
Gently he moved his face closer, nuzzling the tip of her nose with his own. "I... I love you too..." He said, before closing the miniscule distance between their faces and kissed her.

From the distance that Patricia was watching with Adar's mother, Elizabeth, they had been kissing a while. They smiled at the display, but when they saw the head foreman walking over, they acted quick. Elizabeth rushed over and grabbed him, dragging him to where Patricia was waiting patiently with her arms crossed.
"Is there something wrong with my Pokemon that is important enough for you to attempt to discipline them before coming to me, sir?" She asked coldly.
He waved at their public show of affection. "That's disgusting, and it doesn't get trees cut down!"
Elizabeth leaned in close. "That's nature, and they've been cutting down more trees than the rest of our lumberjacks." She growled. "Leave well enough alone; besides, you've still got more work to do. Several of our lumberjacks still lack translators, hop to it." She let him go, and he scurried off. "I swear, if it weren't for the fact that he isn't all sticky, he could classify as a snail." She quipped, getting a laugh from Patricia. "Besides, it's the fourteenth; today is made for young love."
Patricia waved Elizabeth off, and she slowly walked towards her Pokemon, who still hadn't broken from their embrace. She got close enough to be able to talk with them, and they carefully parted, suddenly painfully aware of how public a display they were putting on.
"Alright you two," Patricia started, "You've got the day off." Adar went to protest, and she held up a hand. "Ah, no buts." She said. "You've been working harder than the rest of the lumberjacks, so I'll let you two rest for the day. Go chill out and relax."
Adar nodded, and Cathie grabbed his hand, leading him to the lodge and up to their bunkroom, which was blissfully empty, closing the door behind them. She pulled him to her bed and pushed him into it, leaping in ontop of him and kissing him again.
"A whole day to ourselves." She said with a seductive tone. "Ooh, whatever shall we do..?"


They awoke the next day, still lying in Cathie's bunk. Adar looked over at her, sleepily returning the gaze before kissing him. They sat up in the bunk before noticing that they were, actually, clean.
"Wh..?"
"Good morning." Adar's mother said from her position sitting next to them. They gave her a worried look, but she waved them down. "Now, now, it's alright. I cleaned you two up last night before the rest of the Pokemon came in; they'd have never let you two forget it had they caught you in that much of a mess. Just lie back and relax, have an easy morning." She stood up and turned to walk away. "And congratulations."
Adar and Cathie watched her dawdle off, grabbing one of her young Chimchars from the bunk he was climbing all over and playfully wrestling with him in her grip. Cathie lay back and hugged Adar closer.
"Thankyou." She mumbled. "I've... never really been this happy."
He returned the tight embrace, nuzling the side of her face. "Anything for you." He mumbled. "Anything at all."


Happy Valentines, everyone.