POKEMON RANCHER
CH. 12


So I picked both Ruby and Crystal up in my arms and cradled them. We walked officer Jenny out and to her bike. With well experienced hands she put on her helmet and goggles with a quick motion with her hands. Then turned to us.

"Well it looks like Goren likes you Dusty. I'll be back in a few days to see you off. So until then keep out of trouble." She gave me a good look that a mother would give her young son when leaving him over at a friends house. With that she kicked her bike into gear and rode off. As she disappeared over the hill she stopped and looked back before she crested the hill, then she was gone.

Looking down at Crystal and Ruby I said, "Well I guess we should go back in and find out more about the town." They both looked up at me and gave me a nod. So we returned to the bar and looked in. Though it was getting a little more full I couldn't find any sign of Goren. "I wonder where Goren went off to?" So I walked in and made my way over to the bar.

"Um excuse me." The bartender stood up from under the bar.

"And what can I do for you young sir?"

"I was wondering where Goren went off to." He nodded to me.

"He left right after you and the officer left." Well so much for asking him where I could spend the night.

"Then maybe you could help us." His left eyebrow lifted. "You see I don't have any place to spend the night for the next few days. I was wondering if you could tell me where we might be able to stay." He scratched the top of his head for a moment then nodded.

"There's an old inn that you could probably stay at, but the place isn't cheep." I reached into my pocket and pulled out my wallet. I was down to the last few dollars and I needed that money for food for my Pokemon. "Well seeing that you don't have that much money you could battle some people for some money, but since you don't do that, from the conversation, you could trade some other type of skill for your stay." At first it didn't register, but then my mind finally caught on.

"Wait a minute. How did you know that I didn't battle"? He just gave me a smile.

"Voices carry very easily in my bar. So even when I didn't mean to hear, it was difficult not to." I gave him a calculating look. "Ok I'm sorry for eavesdropping on your conversation. So let me make it up to you. You can either work here for some cash, or work over there to help heal some injured Pokemon." I chose the latter of the two and after picking up my pack, he gave me directions to the old inn, which had a Pokemon center in it.

After several hours of grueling work I finally finished with my work and was awarded a small room for the night. Just like the last night the three of us got cleaned up and went to bed. Before I fell sleep I thought it would be a good idea to wake up at a good deal earlier since I would be leaving at some way to early hour.

The next day the three of us got up to the sound of the alarm clock. When I looked over to the clock and saw the time I cursed myself for setting it that early. Even Ruby wasn't to happy with the clock because when she was a little more awake she tried to torch the clock to show her frustration. I got a little burned when I saved the clock, but at least it was on a small burn. Now fully awake I got dressed and I thought about taking my pack with me but since we would be coming back to this room I decided against it. The three of us went down stairs to get some breakfast and after filling ourselves we went out to take a look around the town.

As we left the inn I could see a lot of other people making their way out of other buildings and walking to the docks. I followed a few of them down to the docks. They all seemed like really nice people and one of them even taught me how to fish. Another person even gave me a good rod to keep which I thought was nice of him. With all of this the day was starting to come to a close when I heard a shriek.

Looking over my shoulder I saw both of them nod to me. Turning back towards where I had heard the shriek come from I quickly ran off. Whenever I would stop to try and get my bearings I would hear the shriek again. The sound was coming from the far eastern edge of the town. As I made my way over there I could see that the buildings looked older, broken down, or neglected. Finally I ended up at a two story building.

This building was even more neglected than the others, and since it was so close to the water front the paint looked faded and worn from the spray of the sea. Many of the lower windows were boarded up, but the upper ones were left uncovered. Which left them prone to kids with rocks, as many panes of glass were broken. I made a quick sweep around the building, but it seemed that their was no way of entering. Finally I found a piece of plywood that was lying on the ground.

Getting a little frustrated at not finding a way into the building, I kicked it and it slid to the side a little. My eyes went a little wide. I knelt down next to it and looked at it. Just underneath the wood I saw a staircase that probably led under the building. I hoped that once I got there, their would be a staircase that would lead from the basement to the first floor. Moving the plywood a little further to the side I quickly moved down the stairs. It was so dark down there it was a little spooky. I was glad that I had left the plywood a little off the entrance, because that was the only light that was coming in.

The deeper I went in, the darker it got. Though fear was starting to build, I kept on thinking about that shrieking sound. What if someone was hurt, or injured and I was the only person around to help that person. After a little while my eyes started to adjust to the darkness and I could see that this was some sort of store room. All around the room I could see boxes of many different sizes, barrels that looked like they held something greasy or oily.

Walking around the area I could see that their was a small layer of either sand or dust on the ground. After a few moments I found a set of footprints leading away from the staircase and looked like they were heading to either the middle of the area or the far end. So I followed the footprints deeper into the building.

"Shriek!"

I nearly jumped right out of my skin, from the sound because it was so loud. I didn't know what made that sound and I debated whether or not find out what had made it. Just then Crystal let out a sad mewing sound. Well I guess that makes up my mind. Leaning a little forward I started to make my way around the boxes and barrels. As we neared the center of the building I could hear something whimpering or sobbing. There was also something or someone breathing quite heavily. So I looked around and found a few crates in my way but I knew that I had better not just jump into a situation that I knew nothing about. So I crouched down peeked through an opening in a crate.

There stood a man facing away from me. He was wearing a pair of black pants, brown shirt, but both of them looked extremely dirty. He also seemed to be out of breath. Ruby jumped down from my head and Crystal slithered down my back to join her. As we all looked through an opening in the crate I followed his line of sight and saw something red and white curled up near his feet. It was quite large for whatever it was. 'Was that the thing that had screeched earlier?'

"So you thought you could hide in this old warehouse? Hmm?" Whatever that red and white thing was it started to trill. The trill came out slow and sounded very sad or afraid. Just then I saw the man kick whatever that thing was. "I've been following you for days on end, and I will have what I came for". Just then I finally recognized what that red and white thing was. It was a LATIAS. This guy was beating up this Latias.

"Now I will take what I came for!" He leaned over and I thought he was going to pick up the Latias. Instead when he tried to stand up I saw that he had his hands on the top and bottom of an egg. But when I saw him try to stand I saw that the Latias had her claws on either of it. She was obviously trying to stop this man from taking that egg. 'Was that egg hers?'

"Damn it you stupid Pokemon. Give me that egg. It belongs to me now." He tried many ways to get her to let go of that egg. Twisting it, pulling it, jerking it, but she wouldn't let go of that egg. Just then he let go of the egg then stood back. "Alright, if that's the way you want it." With his right hand he reached into his pocket and pulled out a large knife. I could just see what he was about to do and I lost it.

Without thinking, I quickly jumped around the crate and ran at the guy. This guy was about to kill this Latias. As he was about to bring the knife down to stab it, I leapt at the guy. I guess I must have misjudged the distance because I intended to just push him away from the Latias, but instead I tackled the guy. I hit him in the middle of his back and we sailed over the Latias. I landed on top of him and heard a skidding sound, which I hoped was the knife sliding away. When we stopped skidding I slowly stood up and looked down. The guy looked like he was passed out from the hit, so I turned around and headed back to the Latias.

But then I heard a groan and turned around to see that the man starting to push himself up while shaking his head. Not wanting to deal with him again I quickly knelt down next to him and punched him in the back of his neck. He slumped back down and I could hear him start to snore. Thankfully that hit must have knocked him out, and hopefully this time he would stay that way. I quickly dusted myself off. Just then I heard a mournful mewing sound. I looked back and saw Crystal slither up to the Latias and nuzzle it with her nose. When I walked over to the two of them I noticed that the Latias was still clutching the egg, and I wondered if the egg was her child?

So I knelt down and placed my hand on the Latia's. She tried to scoot away from me but didn't go far since she bumped into Crystal. Just then Crystal let out some sort of squeal then slithered away from the Latias. When I looked down where the Latias was I saw that their was some kind of liquid there on the ground. I stuck a finger into the liquid and brought it to my face to see what this liquid was. Though the lighting was bad and the texture of the liquid couldn't tell me what it was, I had a pretty good guess what it was.

BLOOD!

I quickly wiped my hands off on my pants and looked down. Was this Pokemon bleeding somewhere? Then I saw that she was still clutching that egg pretty close to it's chest.

"Don't worry Latias, I'm not here to take your egg. I'm going to take you to the nearest Pokemon center and get you fixed up." Just then I remembered that their really wasn't any Pokemon center in this town. So I would have to try and help this Latias myself. I spent the better part of fifteen minutes trying to patch up the Latias, but it all proved for not. After twenty minutes her eyes started to glaze over and her breathing started to get lighter. She looked up to me and gave me a soft trilling sound then she did something I wasn't expecting. She held up her egg to me and shrilled.

As she stopped her shrill she seemed to loose her strength and was about to drop the egg. Not understanding what she wanted I only watched her as her head slowly fell back to the floor and the egg started to fall. Just before the egg would have hit the cement I reached out and grabbed the egg. With her last bit of strength she gave a soft trill and closed her eyes for the last time.

Crystal let out a long drawn out sound then nuzzled the Latias's head then backed away. Shifting the egg to my left hand I reached out to try and find a heart beat, but couldn't. The Latias had died trying to protect it's egg.

"I'm sorry Latias. I tried to save you." Tears started to trickle down my face.

"TOR-CHIC"! Nearly jumping out of my skin I looked over to see Ruby standing on top of the man that had killed this Latias. She was currently using the claws on her feet to tear into the mans back. Obviously intending to make this man pay for what he had done. After a few moments of her revenge I saw that he was starting to get up again. I guess from all the scratching she had done, it had woken him up.

Not wanting to face off against him I quickly ran over to Ruby and scooped her up, then ran over to Crystal and did the same. After weaving in-between all the boxes, barrels, and crates I found the staircase that led outside. Taking the stairs two at a time I was out of that basement very quickly. I only stopped on at the top of the stairs to think of where I was going to go. We headed back to the inn I had spent the night at I didn't even say a thing as I just quickly made my way back up to our room.

Once there I quickly unlocking the door, jumped into the room, slammed the door shut, then locking it.Chapter End Notes:Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended