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Thyme gnawed on several blades of grass.   

Then, she stopped.  She looked more closely at them, ignoring the flitterby dancing in the air by her nose. 

Green. 

Green like Mom and Dad and Rooty.   

How were they doing? she wondered.  It had only been a few days since she had left, but it felt like forever.  They were her real family, after all, the only one she had ever known; maybe someday, when she learned, exactly, what a mareep was, she could go back and tell them. 

It would be nice to see her family again . . . 

Thyme ignored the tear that threatened to roll  down her muzzle and continued grazing.  Even if it was a bit difficult to swallow, past the lump in her throat. 

"So that's it," said Cleomie to Jasmine, "he ain't coming back. Oh
well. Rye's a better ram anyway."

They continued to nibble the grass.

Cleomie looked around to make sure no one else was listening, except
maybe Ivy nearby. "Well, Azalea didn't come back either. We get
Fluffy tonight, if we can," she said. "Now we know it works."

_Why?  Why would they want to "get anyone?_ wondered Thyme.   

Jasmine, a Flaaffy, glanced nervously at the green-eyed ewe. "I think
she heard us."

"So what. Whoever doesn't know that Fluffy killed my best friend by
now, should know. And, uh, she doesn't talk," Cleomie informed
Jasmine. "I dunno what's up with her, i think she's like--I dunno."

Cleomie stepped over to the one that Chirin had sometimes
called 'Green-eyes.'

"Just so you know," said the hefty ewe, "Fluffy killed my best friend
Coddy in cold blood and she'll do it again if we don't get rid of
her."

Cleomie looked back at Jasmine. "See, she can't talk, she's like,
dumb. You know, like a retart."

Petunia stepped over to the green-eyed ewe as the other two walked
away. "Don't pay any attention to her," she said. "Cleomie's a nasty
person to anyone she thinks isn't good enough to be her friend.
However, the fact that her best friend was killed by Fluffy, has made
it worse. I was there, I saw it happen. I do fear Fluffy might--do
something again."

This mareep -- was her name Petunie? --  was kind enough to speak to her and desrved a reply for that kindness, thought Thyme.   

Before she left, she whispered to Petunie, "That's all right.  I don't think she likes the color green, anyway." 

Petunia made a quiet gasp. Green-eyes had talked!



"Yes...it is bumpy," she agreed. She looked back at the rest of the
flock, who grazed a distance away, their peaceful, periodic bleats
concealing any hint that there would be turmoil tonight.

"Just between you and me," said Petunia, "I'm afraid there's going to
be something terrible happening tonight."


Thyme saw her look back at the rest of the flock.

"What cloud be so terrible about the night?" wondered Thyme. "The dark is
lit by the souls of our ancestors watching over us."

"Oh," Petunia smiled. Green-eyes was not only able to speak, she was
able to speak well! And here Petunia had thought she was
dumb. "Chirin would have said the same kind of thing. I wonder where
he is right now. By the way...I'm Petunia. What's your name?"

"My name is Thyme.  It's nice to meet you, Petunia."  Thyme grinned a bit.  "I don't know if my beliefs are related or not, since I only found out lately that I was adopted."

Uh-oh.  Thyme winced a bit. Perhaps she shouldn't have mentioned that?

Well, too late now. 

"You were adopted? Well," she smiled, "welcome to a whole flock of
mareep--well, Flaaffy I guess, now that I've evolved--Chirin said
that's what the evolution of Mareep is, and--here I am." Petunia
laughed. "Welcome to a whole flock who was adopted. No one here
remembers their parents. We were taken from them very young and
raised on the farm." She paused. "The farm adopted us. Who adopted
you?"

"I was adopted by Mom and Dad.  A Victrebell and a weepinbell.  My brother Rooty was a bellsprout."  

_I may as well admit it,_ Thyme thought.  _After all, it's who I am._

Petunia knew what a bellsprout was, but not the others. Maybe they
were relatives...or evolutions. "Wow, that's amazing," she said. "So
you were raised by plant pokemon, is that what those pokemon are?"

"Yes, and I thought I was one too, for the longest time.  Anyway, when they told me I was adopted they thought maybe I should try to find some other mareep to learn stuff they couldn't teach me.  I guess I got too big for them."  

Her eyes began to water.  _No,_ she thought, _I'm not going to cry._

She knew Mom and Dad had her best interests in mind when they told her she should seek out other mareep.  That didn't matter right now.  She just wanted to go home.  The world was a very strange and crazy place -- hard to take it all in at once and harder still to let it all go.  

No, she wasn't going to cry.  She shook her head and lowered her muzzle a bit toward the ground.

"They didn't know much about what mareep were, anyway," she murmured. 

Petunia grazed alongside her. "I know how you feel. You must miss
them. I miss the farm too sometimes. If you like, some time I could
visit your plant family with you. They sound really nice, I'd love to
meet them." Actually she wasn't too sure about them encouraging her
to leave home so young, but they had probably meant it for the best.

"They were nice," said Thyme.  "I'm not so sure I was ready to leave.  They probably thought it was about time for me to find out something about  the world and about what I am.  That doesn't make it hurt any less, finding out that you don't really belong..."  This much was true, really.  "What is a mareep, anyway?" she asked Petunia. 

"A mareep?" Petunia had never been asked that question at all, much
less by another mareep. "Well, it's what you are, and what I used to
be. It's...fluffy and woolly and turns into a Flaaffy, which is what
I am." She laughed. "Funny, I thought it would be a much longer
answer."

Thyme grinned.  "That's okay if you don't really know the answers either.  Maybe that's why we're all here, to find the answers for ourselves."  Thyme turned and looked back where she thought she had come from.  It seemed as if they had been turned around so many times, she wasn't sure where she was any more, much less what she was.  The one thing she knew?  Her name was Thyme.  She knew her birth parents had chosen that name.  That's all she knew about them.

She turned back to Petunia.  "Did you always know that you would become a fluffy Flaafy?" she asked.  "I'm just wondering because until Mom and Dad told me I was a mareep I'd never heard of them before, so..."  She ducked her head.  This probably was a strange conversation, she thought; still, she felt better talking about at least some of it. 

"No," said Petunia. "Chirin told me. I wasn't even sure I believed
him until it happened. It'll probably happen to you too, and every
other mareep."

Thyme shrugged. "I don't know if it happens to everyone. I guess I'll find
out, some day." Just like some day she might find out where she belonged and
what to do with her life. "There's plenty of thyme for that..."

"Yes," said Petunia, returning to her grazing. "Evolution just
happens, I know I didn't plan to do so myself."

Farther up the field, Cleomie, Jasmine and Tearose kept their eye on
Fluffy.

"I wonder if I ever really will," said Thyme.  "I don't fell like I will.  Did you?" 

"No," said Petunia. "It took me completely by surprise. I didn't like
it at first. I felt like a freak or a monster. But now I sort of like
it. I feel safer than I used to, less helpless."

"If your name is Petunia then you're not Les Helpless.  What kind of name is Les Helpless for a mareep, anyway?  Although I did know a Lers Waters once, he was a squirtle.  He was just passing thorugh the forest, though." 

"Hm?" Petunia raised her ears in confusion. Something about her name?
She didn't want to say the wrong thing, especially after it had taken
so long for the poor little dear to come out and
speak. "Petunia...yes that is my name. I never thought about whether
it sounded helpless or not. I always thought it was pretty. I
guess...my mother or someone named me that, but I don't remember now."

"Petunia is a very pretty name.  It's a flower.  Mom and Dad wanted something for me that they thought was special, so they named me after a spice.  Sometimes I wish they didn't," Thyme said.  She wrinkled up her nose.  "It's too much like a food and I don't want anyone to think that I'm good enough to eat.  I want to stay around long enough to ask a lot of questions."  She grinned at Petunia.  Now that she was talking -- well, it wasn't so hard now, was it?

Petunia giggled. "Petunias are beautiful flowers--AND they're great
to eat."

Thyme giggled too.  "Well, I guess.  But I guess when you're raised by plant Pokemon -- well, maybe that's why Mom and Dad sent me away, finally.  You know, maybe I chewed too much on their leaves." 

Thyme laughed.  "You do realize I was teasing about chewing on their leaves, don't you?  I could never do that to them."  Thyme sniffed at the air.  Still damp, but fresh at the same time.  The grass smelled good -- too good, Thyme thought, lowering her muzzle to gnaw on a few blades. 

Petunia laughed. "I hadn't realized actually. I don't really know
anything about plant Pokemon, you see."

17771
Thyme gave Petunia a sad little smile.  "Plant Pokemon are all I do know about, since I thought I was one for the longest time." 

"That's so ironic," said Petunia. "But you probably know more in
general than I do. I didn't even know that mareep evolved until
Chirin told me, and then I didn't believe it until it happened to me."

"Well, everyone changes," said Thyme.  She chuckled.  It still hurt, kind of, but she did feel a bit better now.  "Even if I don't change physically, leaving my home and the family that I gre w up with is a big change for me.  That's kind of like evolution, I think."

They both involved changes.  _Even if I don't look any different, I did kind of change outside.  Only, it's the outside that's changed.  I'm still the same that I've always been._

She looked up at Petunia again.  "Did it hurt, to change like that?  To evolve, I mean?" 

"No," said Petunia, "it didn't hurt me at all. In fact it felt kind
of uplifting, and a big white light came over me." She sighed. "I
guess I should have savored it more."

"Well, there's a lot that we don't appreciate when it happens to us, the first time," Thyme mused.  "Not that I remember it, but Mom told me I was a terror when I got my first tooth. I was too young to think that teeth would help me taste and chew stuff, I guess.  But it does open up another world to you -- or another part of the world that may have been in front of you before, but you never see it."

Thyme sighed.  "Do you think it's too late for me to learn about what I'm supposed to be?"  

She thought about what she said for a minute, and then started giggling.  "That didn't sound right, did it?" she asked. 

Petunia giggled. "That's okay. As for me, I don't remember getting my 
first tooth. And I never really thought of having any purpose. I just 
enjoy the grass and the sunshine. When the weather permits, of 
course."

"Me, too," Thyme agreed.  She looked towards the others.  "What happened to make her so bitter?  How did her friend die?" 

"Oh, goodness...You're just lucky you weren't here. There was this 
frightful row...between me and Coddy. Coddy had been spreading 
horrible rumors about Chirin and they wanted to kick him out of the 
flock! I came out and tried to tell everyone it wasn't true. Even 
though I wasn't sure. They kept saying Chirin had led us all into 
great danger. It's true he did lead us out of the farm...but...Anyway 
Coddy and I got into a horrible fight. And then just when they pulled 
us off each other, Fluffy comes in and starts screaming at Coddy, 
then she fired this big ray of white light. It killed Coddy 
instantly. It was terrible and bloody. Everyone ran off after that, 
including Chirin. A few of us found each other later, and came here. 
We've been living here ever since. 

"But now Fluffy's come back. I imagine she was like a lot of us, 
wandering around without knowing where to go. I haven't asked her, I 
really don't want to speak to her. It was wrong of them to spread 
rumors, but even worse for her to outright kill someone."

"That's horrible!  But -- you mean our tails -- what Chirin calls the denki -- can kill other mareep?" asked Thyme.  "Did she know what she was doing at the time?  I can't even control mine the right way," Thyme said, looking at her own tail bulb.  "It's hard enough for me to imagine having such power.  But she didn't want to take over the flock?  That is what I heard a lot of the most powerful among the weaker want to do, is to take over as a ruler." 

"I don't know what did it," said Petunia, "but it wasn't electricity. 
That would not have killed Coddy or even hurt her much at all. This 
attack--it came out from her whole body. Fluffy--oh, oh I don't even 
want to think about it. There was blood everywhere."

"It came out from her whole body?  That sounds more like something evil took possession of her body, then -- like Dark Ones, those of the Lost Ones who are jealous of the living."  Thyme stood up and stretched her legs.  "Was Flaafy also part of the flock at the farm?" 

"Fluffy, yes, she was. She was always rather loud and energetic, but 
none of us ever thought she would--kill anybody. But Chirin often 
talked about dark ones too and that spirits were possessing people's 
bodies. I don't know, maybe he was right." She paused. "What exactly 
are Lost Ones?"

"The Lost Ones are those Pokemon captured by the humans within those small round balls and then abandoned.  Their spirits remain lost, unable to find where they truly belong."  She remembered hearing this story from when she was a half-sprout -- or what passed for it among mareep.  "I still remember Rooty warning me not to chase after strange noises in the forest.  The lost ones are alone and lonely.  They look to make friends to ease their loneliness. It is said, though, that those who become friends with a Lost One becomes a Lost One in their turn.  It is a very sad story."

Thyme paused for a moment.  It had been quite a while since she had first heard the legend of the Lost Ones.  She hoped she was telling it okay.  You never know when the information in such stories could be of use to someone.

"The Dark Ones take advantage of it. They are Lost Ones who have turned from the path and deliberately lure good Pokemon to do evil things.  They suffered much pain in their short lives, so they take it upon themselves to hurt others in return for their own pain.  It, too, is very sad."

"That's...terrible," said Petunia. "I never knew that that's what 
happened to pokemon whose trainers abandoned them."

"It is terrible.  With nothing to light their way out of the darkness that the humans abandoned them to, the Lost Ones cry on the winds at night.  If you listen closely, they might even call you to them."  Thyme shuddered.  "It is not something I like to think about a lot.  It's pretty scary."  

"Chirin said something about that too, more than once," said 
Petunia. "He said that there are dark spirits who are always trying 
to lure you into shadows, or jump into your body and possess you, but 
that our lights can fend them off. He said that even the trees and 
things can turn evil. I don't know about that, but it ran a shiver up 
my spine to think about it. I agree with you, I don't like to think 
about those things."

"Yes, but it sounds like one of those Lost Ones -- the Dark Ones -- may have taken some control of Fluffy, doesn't it?  That strange power..." 

Thyme chewed absent-mindedly on another blade of grass without even 
tasting it. "Do you think Chirin of the green will make it back to 
us all right?" she asked Petunia.

Petunia remained silent. Perhaps Chirin-chirin of the green apricon
wasn't quite so fortunate? He didn't seem the type to join those
lost sould within the forest. Perhaps they felt he would come back?
They all remained here.

Thyme wondered if she should continue her search for her own roots.
Peraps they were not so deep within the earth that she could not find
them.

~

They had waited a night. Cleomie had wanted to make sure that all
this mess with Chirin and Azalea both disappearing was over with,
although everyone still seemed to be chewing an awful lot of cud over
it.

Cleomie had also evolved. Now she was one of several flaaffies in
this flock. Really, only a few mareep were left. Well, it made no
difference really. She was a match for that murderer now. Tonight,
Fluffy would pay.

She fed alongside Jasmine and Tearose. That wanna-be Yuoa browsed a
bush nearby, probably thinking she was cool or whatever.

Cleomie kept waiting for her to leave so she could talk to Jasmine
and Tearose about doing the plan. But that stupid clueless flaaffy
kept moving from bush to grass-tuft to whatever, wherever they
wandered. She couldn't be trusted with a secret, that was for sure.

"I bet she'd eat dirt if it helped her hang on us even more," said
Jasmine.

"I'm gonna make her eat dirt if she doesn't stop. Hey Yo-yo! Why
don't you go eavedrop on the Zubats and Ledians, huh? MUCH more
interesting stuff than anything we could say."

Rye grazed down the field from them, his tail light dim and at ease.
The half-moon's light turned his pink skin and buff-white wool a
uniform bluish-gray. It muted the slightly golden hue his hide had
begun to take on.

He overheard Cleomie's voice down the way. He really needed to keep a
closer watch on that bunch. There had been unrest among his ewes ever
since the others had joined them, and if he didn't step in soon, the
flock might break up--or worse.

He began to feed his way towards them.

Petunia grazed near Fluffy. She didn't know what to think or make of
the little silvery flaaffy, only that she had been right there when--
it--had happened. But Fluffy seemed so peaceful now, nibbling grass.
Perhaps she had simply been cursed with too much power too soon.

She stayed a small distance from her nonetheless.

Ivy grazed daintily nearby Cleomie. She had yet to evolve, but was content as a Mareep. If the time came for her to evolve and lose most of her full, fluffy wool...but when the time came she would. Her gaze flickered to Fluffy. She hadn't hated the Flaffy too much as first...but the seed of fear and hatred for her had grown to immense proportions. She could now hardly stand to look at her without thinking of the murder of Coddy...and that she could very well murder again. 

Chirin was still on her mind, but mainly in dreams. Happy dreams...dreams of his finally seeing Azalea as the pathetic leech she was and leave her in tears to be with Ivy herself...

But it was only a dream. 

~

Then, she grinned. "I guess mareep don't have roots, do they?" Thyme
wondered aloud. "If we did, then they would have to be planted within the
soil for nourishment and water, like Mom and Dad and Rooty's. Then we would
not be able to travel, would we?"

"I...suppose not," said Petunia, smiling because that was all she
could think to do.

Thyme stood to stretch her legs and stamp her diminutive hooves on the
ground. The evening's air currents were brisk and sometimes strong. "Mom
and Dad and Rooty can dance, but they need breezes for that. It seems that
all we require are the currents of our moods."
She went over to get herself a drink of water from the lake. When
Thyme looked up again at Petunia she asked, "Or are the roots of mareep just
as deep but with nothing to do with earth or soil but rather with family? If
so, then it seems my quest is over, since my family lies back there among the
willows and the brambles. It still tells me nothing about what a mareep is
supposed to be, of course..."

"Well...let me think. We're supposed to be just what we're born as,
fluffy woolly pokemon who like eating grass, and bleating,
and...those kinds of things. But I guess maybe it can be a bit
confusing, if you're raised like a plant. We evolve into Flaaffy,
and, just keep on doing what we were doing when we were mareep, only
with a little less wool. And more electricity, I forgot the electric
part."

A bit (err...) sheepishly, Thyme sat back on her haunches.  "I suppose it is rather shocking, isn't it?" 

Thyme sniffed at the night air.  Chill as it was, there was a sense of -- disquiet, an unease about the atmosphere.

Evil was afoot, tonight.

She didn't know where, or when.  Sure, there was evil everywhere, at all times; but the charged atmosphere told her that something not-so-nice would happen tonight.

Too bad she didn't know anything about it.  If she did, would she be able to do anything to help?  Of course, she couldn't even find her way back to Mom, Dad and Rooty now.  Thyme was quite sure that, since she was new to this forest, it was completely unfamiliar to her.  She would surely be lost in the matter of a few short moments!

Ah well, she reflected, and lowered herself to the ground.  When you can do nothing else, then you may as well sleep.

At least, it keeps you out of the way of others.

"Come on." Cleomie nudged Jasmine and Tearose awake. "She's sleeping
right around the way. It's time."

The stocky flaaffy turned round bushes in the familiar trail through
the trees. Fluffy slept near its edge, her silvery light flickering
in a dream-state.

Cleomie, Tearose and Jasmine surrounded her.


Half=asleep, THyme heard the rustle of the grass and looked up.  She asked Petunia, "What are they doing?" 

Petunia had been napping too and she whirled around to see. "Oh, my
goodness!"

Her bleat woke Fluffy just as Jasmine made a dive for her. The
smaller, silvery flaaffy rolled out of her reach. Jasmine lunged for
her again but Cleomie sparked in her face.

"Let her go, are you crazy?! That thing's Dangerous!"

"Hey, hey," said Rye as he came trotting over. "No one's hurting
anyone, all right?" He eyed each ewe. The season to breed was fast
approaching and many of them were of age to, including Cleomie. He
had expected some tension, but the issue between Cleomie and Fluffy
added on top of that might tear his flock apart if something didn't
give.

"Listen Rye, I unnerstand you want peace and all, but there will Be
no peace till that murderer's got rid of!"

Rye knew all too well what Fluffy had done. He, like most of the
flock, had seen it. He didn't want to drive her out, but it was
looking like he had no choice. He stood in the midst of the gathering
ewes, and Chestnut, the other ram. "Fluffy," he said softly, "I'm
afraid that if you stay, you're going to get hurt eventually. What
you did to Coddy is, well, it isn't just forgiveable or forgettable.
I know winter's coming, but you're going to have to leave, or we will
have to leave you."

"Oh, please," said Petunia, "there has to be some way, than to leave
her all alone."

"Some way, my blue-tail-lighted @$$," said Cleomie. "Being alone's
sure better than dying--like Coddy did. If Fluffy stays, *I* leave,
and I'm willing to take anyone who'll come with me. I know there's
lots of places to go to the south, the west, the lake, anywhere. And
if you try to follow me, killer," she breathed in fluffy's
face, "you'll get THIS," she lifted her foot and pointed to it, "down
your throat."

Cleomie faced Rye. She hoped he would choose to come with her, but it
all depended on Petunia. Petunia was Rye's close friend, and try as
she might, Cleomie knew she'd never be Rye's favorite, any more than
she would have been Chirin's. "Look, people, i know I can be...feisty
sometimes, and quick to get mad, I'm sorry if i piss people off. But
with Fluffy around I can't relax. I can't stop seeing the whole damn
thing in my head. She killed Coddy!"

Cleomie whirled on Fluffy and stared her down. Tears were in her
eyes.

"You killed Coddy!"

"It seems to me as if there are no winners in this situation," Thyme whispered to Petunia.  "Regardless of what she may have done -- and I don't know why she killed Coddie -- but she doesn't seem particularly dangerous now.  A little sad, perhaps -- she's alone, even among the rest of us.  Without friends -- that's like being alone.  She has no family here either, does she?" 

"Her family is us," said Petunia. "the flock--us. I'm just scared--
and so is Rye--that if she stays here, Cleomie and those other ewes
will kill her or drive her away anyhow," she whispered, keeping an
eye on Cleomie's and Rye's face.

Moved by what Thyme had said, and by poor Fluffy--the littlest
flaaffy among all of them, even Snapper--standing there sniffling and
hiding her face, Petunia spoke aloud. "Perhaps someone could stay
with Fluffy," said Petunia. "For a little while, at least--to guide
her back to the farm maybe, or find some home up north, where there
may be other mareep...i know she did a horrible thing, but to leave
her alone is--I just can't conceive of it. No sheep should ever have
to be alone, Rye."

"That's up to them if anyone wants to stay or go with her," said
Rye. "I'm only trying to solve this so that no one else dies. Lord
knows we've had enough death and killing already!"

"Leaving her alone is as good as killing her," said Petunia. "she
does have--unusual powers, but she's still so young. She evolved too
soon."

"So you're going to wish her on some other flock, is that it?" said
Cleomie. "that's going to solve everything?"

"Well, killing her won't!" said Petunia. "It's just as bad to kill
Fluffy as it was to kill Coddy! Would you really be a killer too,
Cleomie?"

"Oh, defend her now! Defend her even though she murdered my best
friend for no reason. I'm going back to sleep. Come on."

Tearose and Jasmine followed Coddy as she stalked away, three lights
dragging off through the grass.

 "If I knew the way back to the farm then I would go with her," said Thyme.  "I am not sure after all the rain that I could even find my way back to Mom and Dad and Rooty."  She lowered her head.  "Not having anyone is a harsh thing, no matter the circumstances." 

Petunia sighed. She had never bred before, but knew that her time was
drawing close. She wanted to be with the flock. Still, Rye was not
the only ram around and this would not be her only chance to have a
lamb come spring.

She wanted to have it by him. But fall was still just barely begun,
and she sensed that she would have plenty of time. "I have an idea,"
she said, mostly to Thyme and Fluffy. "I know the way to the farm. If
I went with you, we could both take fluffy. And if the farm isn't the
best place for her...who knows if they'll take her now except as--as
meat...after all, we did leave to escape that. I'm sure there are
other places by the lake where she could live and be happy."

Worry shaded Rye's face. "Would you be back by winter?"

"I don't see why not. Fluffy, Thyme...what do you think? Would you
like for us to go?"

  Thyme nodded.  "I've never seen a farm.  If we're careful, then maybe we could find out if it would be safe enough.  At any rate, it's better than being alone out here.  Right?" She grinned at both Fluffy and Petunia. 

"Right," said Petunia, doing her best to grin back. She hoped she was
making the right choice. If the look of worry rye kept giving her was
anything to judge by...Rams could be so hard to decipher. Was he
truly concerned about her welfare, or was he just worried she would
come in heat while she was gone--and he would have missed a breeding
opportunity? "Well," she added, "I'm all set to go."

* * *

Cleomie had wandered away from the talk. nothing she could do one way
or the other. She spat a wad of cud through tight lips, seeing how
far it flew. "I'm letting them all decide wher they're going," she
told Tearose and Jasmine. "Cause it don't matter. So I don't catch up
with Fluffy now, don't mean i can't do it next year."

"winter is coming anyway," said Tea, nosing at the grass. "are we
going to follow them if they go?"

"I dunno."

Then Cleomie got a thought. for lack of anything else to do she had
turned to old things left standing and her mind dusted one thing
off. "But...there's other things i gotta do. Got unfinished business."

She smiled at their blank stares. "I mean Yuoa, of course. The poor
thing. I called her names and i was really bad you know. I owe her a
Biiiiiig apology."

Cleomie sauntered over to where Yuoa grazed, some distance from Rye
and the others. "Hi, Yuoa." She got around to face the flaaffy
ewe. "Uh, listen...I have a Biiiiiiig apology to make. I snapped at
you in a big bad nasty way and I'm very, very, very, very sorry.
We're all sorry. Right guys?"

Tea and Jasmine nodded, smiling sweetly and apologetically.

Cleomie clapped her hand on yuoa's shoulder. "You see, I get into
these moods. It's my hormones, it's that time of year and they go Up
and down and Up and down...like a yo-yo. So, I said the wrong things
and I feel oh so bad. I'm so so so sorry. All I want...is for you to
jion our gang again, cause you know you're the coolest. So...I ask of
you..." She hunched her shoulders and blinked her eyes sadly. "Do you
forgive me?"

Yuoa didn't seem to be answering. Cleomie looked at her with sad, sad
eyes. "You must forgive us," she whimpered.

Yuoa smiled at Cleomie.
"Yeah. I forgive you," she said kindly. "I WOULD like
to be back in the gang, I was just a bit upset at you
guys for a moment...I am kinda nearing your age
Cleomie and ya know...hormons..."

***

Fluffy was sure to stay as far away as possible from
Cleomie. The tiny, silver flaaffy kept peering around
nervously. She was a bit shaken.

Cleomie clapped Yuoa on the shoulder. "Yup...hormones. But you are
BACK in the gang."

She watched Petunia, Fluffy and Thyme head off north. She wondered
whether to stay here, or follow them.


19579

Petunia smiled at Fluffy. Thyme was by her side. "Fluffy, if you'r
ready to head to the lake, we should get going soon," said
Petunia. "Don't worry about them, you'll be fine with us. Come on."

Petunia started leading them off towards the lake. "Well," she said
aloud, "let our little adventure begin."

Yuoa smiled weakly and then fell over, pointing with a
hoof, wide-eyed and scared.

"F-------fire!!!" She gasped, pointing at the smoke.

"Yup," said Cleomie, smiling down at Yuoa. "You bet. Don't worry, we
won't follow Fluffy if she decides to go in and get herself roasted."

Cleomie led them onward, northward, westward. "Remember guys, we want
to stay a good bit behind them. Can't have them spotting us at night
or anything. Oh yeah, and this means NO flashing your lights or
static or anything stupid like that at night. Unless you absolutely
have to." She wasn't sure how far away their lights could be seen.

They arrived at a stream. Cleomie came forward and had a look at it.
She stepped one foot in, testing the current.

"Well, it's cold as $#%& but going through it's the only way up
there." She snorted. "If Fluffy can do it we can."

Well, she wouldn't be one to just stand here waiting for someone else
to go first. She strode right into the water and began wading across,
clenching her teeth. It was cold.

Yuoa stepped into the water and jumped back out. It
WAS cold! She took a deep breath, and stepped back in
again, fighting the urge to leap out.

Cleomie waded out the other side, and shook herself off even though
she'd barely gone in up to her waist. "You know, after all the junk I
got run through when we were with Chirin this is nothing. You know I
was almost drowned by these Quagsires in this cave place, they kept
making us go through these crazy water tunnels--"

She stopped and looked around. This terrain was familiar--too
familiar!

"Holy $#%&, this IS Moonhome! We are taking a Quick detour, that
way." Cleomie pointed southeast into the woods. No WAY am I letting
those blue things lay their slimy hands on me again. Next wooper I
see gets a stomping."

"I, like, take it you had a rough time reachig us?" said Jasmine as
they forged through the field

"You said it."

Cleomie paused to nibble on some grass. It was kinda dry, it was fall
now and everything was up an' dying. She heard a bleat of displeasure
from Tearose and she lifted her grass filled head.

"Look out there! Listen! That's water. We have another freezing
stream to cross if we're going this way."

"Well, then let's get on with it," said Cleomie. "We're so far off
our track already that we're gonna have to make the time up. They
said they're headed towards the lake, though, so even if we lose them
completely we can just head there. I'll bet anything they'll end up
around the farm."


~

20041
Rudy saw Striper had noticed them so after swallowing another bite of the
unevolved ratticate he decided to greet them.

Getting up was kinda tricky as he was still bleeding upon much of his arms
from the battle a few minutes ago. He took a step foward. " Greetings. I am
Rudy." he said in a voice that hopefully would be interpreted as friendly.

Cleomie came across the stream with her wool ruff wet. She shook it
out and stepped out through the grass, trusting that the others would
follow.

She smelled something coming from the woods...Growlithe. Oh crud, not
enemies...

She stepped back towards the water. "Guys I smell somethin."

They still seemed to be far off so Rudy grabbed another piece of the
delicious prey. After all, standing's hard.

Char was unsure of the newcomers. After that meal, he should not have
any bad intentions about them but it did make him feel a bit
uncomfortable. He waited for the gang to make their first move.

"Jasmine," said Cleomie as the other flaaffy came across the stream,
she pointed out over the water, "back. Growlithes or Arcanines or
something on this side. In that forest. I don't like the smell. Ain't
no way I'm messing around with enemies again."

"Ohh...right," said Jasmine as she too smelled the scent.

"Come on guys," said Cleomie, "looks like we're gona have to take
another way."

* * *

Striper heard bleats, far off, just past the edge of the
woods. "Guys...I think I hear mareep!" He loked out at where the
lights had been. "I think I SEE mareep--not mine, but maybe they'll
know where others are!"

Yet were his among them? Those bleats sounded familiar...

Striper broke from the forest, barking. "Mareep? It's me! Come back!
It's me, Striper!"

20174

" Had we found the flock so soon." Rudy wondered. This was a
tremendous stroke of luck. Knowing how large these regions were it
could have taken them months to find them. Having swollowed the bite
Rudy bounded after Striper, figuring that if there was any
misunderstanding the Mareep would be less threantened if there was an
abra with him.

Cleomie stopped in her tracks, right in the middle of the stream with
the icy water stinging her up to the hips. "STRIPER?"

Jasmine had stopped too, and Tearose, who had just crossed over
fromthe first time, dared to stand and wait for the growlithe's
arrival.

Cleomie sloshed up out of the water and up after Tearose. "Striper?"
she called. She knew his back, that was him.

" Unless there's another growlithe named striper we're set." Rudy beamed
gladly. Then yet another thought hit him. " What if the mareep are happy here
in the wilds and they don't want to go with him.!"

Char jumped with joy at the sight. Striper's wish had finally come
through and only within a few days of searching. It was a really
happy occasion. And waited in the background, trying to see what
would happen next.

Striper stood looking at the pink, half bald sort of mareep...two
more of them and a mareep were coming up behind her.

"Striper?" said the one in the lead as the Growlithe looked at her
sort of funny. She clearly knew who he was. So did the others. And
her voice was familiar, albeit older-sounding.

"Coddy?" His face scrunched up. He could not really believe it. "What-
-what happened to you?"

"I'm Cleomie, and I evolved. We evolved." She shrugged. "Hey, I had
no idea it was gonna happen." She stepped back, hands on hips in a
very human manner. "What are you doing out here?"

"Where's Coddy?" Striper asked before thinking. It was just so
strange to see one without the other.

"Coddy got killed. By Fluffy."

Rudy smirked. He wondered if that pokemon was lieing or if they named their
strongest " Fluffy." Either way it seemed funny.

Cleomie looked over at the yellow dude. "What are you laughing at?"

Striper rolled his eyes. The sheep hadn't changed. "Cleomie, he's
just a friend of mine, Rudy...what *are* you laughing at?"

"Coddy was my best friend!" Cleomie lashed her brightened tail.
Spittle flew from her mouth as she spit her words. "And she was
murdered!"

" Abr?" Rudy spoke up. " I'm sorry if she's mad at me for something but I
haven't quite gotten their language down yet," Rudy lied hopefully
convincingly." Did she just say that she was very fluffy?

20233

"all right, that's it." Cleomie stomped over to Rudy looking about as
un-sheepish as a sheep could look. She lowered her head as if to
charge, but rammed him with words alone.

"Fluffy may have a cute name, and maybe she was a sweet little lamb
once, but she changed when she evolved. She turned into a MURDERER."

Rudy tryed his best to look very confused but a little of his fear shown
through espescially in the face of the evolved pokemon.

Feeling her point was taken, Cleomie looked back at Striper and
puffed her wool. "And that's why us four are out here. We're on our
way to give that little furret her sweet revenge. And beware--she's
headed towards the lake."

"Towards--the lake?" Striper's min was still stumbling over the first
part. "A--a murderer? Little Fluffy?"

"The same." Cleomie held up a flipper in front of her face, doubling
the tip over to rub an itch on the palm. She squinted at a piece of
dirt there. "Who knows how many more she'll bump off before we catch
her up and run her down. Right guys?"

"Right." Jasmine spit some cud on the ground and Tearose flicked an
ear.

Rudy shivered intencionally. "So you said that she was killed? I'm sorry, I
didn't realise. " Not knowing what else to say, the abra sat back and
listened more.

"Yup, that's what I said," Cleomie said without taking her eyes off
Striper. "Good to see you're back from the dead, old buddy...Where
you *been?*"

"Oh...me? Well, I got sort of lost back when I was hunting down those
lambs with...Willy, and, well, those arcanines attacked us again, and
they spared me, but Willy wasn't so lucky. So from there, I tried to
find you all but I'd lost the trail. I've been wandering around
looking for you ever since."


Rudy yawned just a little. It was weird how he hadn't slept yet. Twas
probably too late now. It was almost morning and once the day came there
would be stuff to attend to. The others would need it though. Neither him,
Char or Striper had slept all night. And Dante.... hopefully he would be back
soon.

" Well I think it might be a good idea to get a little shut eye." Rudy
mentioned as he curled up in the hope of getting sleep.
 
"Yeah...you know, he's right," Striper inclined his head in a gesture 
towards the abra. He looked back at Cleomie, who seemed to have taken 
his story without skepticism. In fact he was actually relieved when 
she gathered breath for another tirade.

"You think YOU had problems all this time? We got dragged through 
more $#%& than you could--then you could--ever--." She blew a sigh, 
ruffling the wool on her forehead. She rolled her eyes and pointed at 
him in exasperation. "I got: Attacked by my friends, when all I did 
was put up a little argument--Chirin's flock took us in, but then 
came the WOOPERS. Those little blue $#%&heads hauled us--FORCED us 
into their water place where we almost got drowned, finally we get 
away from there, half dead...and Chirin doing who knows what 
worshipping this dude in a light ball..."

She trailed off, as if seeing Rudy for the first time.

She took a step back, sparks erupting over her fleece. "YOU." 
Pointing, "You're the Moonhome--savior or whatever! I'll tell you 
right now, if you've come here to catch us again I'm gonna whoop your 
@$$ so bad you'll be--"

Striper began barking. "Stop! Cleomie, he's just my buddy! We've been 
traveling in the open for days now." He turned to Rudy. "You have any 
idea what she's talking about?" he cocked his head towards the pissed-
off and much frightened ewe.

Rudy yawned as he looked up. " Had he mentioned to Striper that he was with 
wooper?" He wondered. He probably hadn't, though he told them that he had saw 
a mareep in the vicinity.

" Heh." Rudy laughed a little bit. " If I had a place where the pokemon were 
worshipping me think I would leave? Really. Besides basically the only thing 
wooper care about ore round objects.... er I think. I haven't read up on them 
in a while." Rudy kept his head up as he wondered what the flaffy would say 
now.

This was really getting out of hand, Char was really getting scared. 
If something wasn't done...a fight may erupt. Char's mind raced, 
trying to find something to say, something to do before these two 
parties decided to start whacking each other.

If only his father was here...but he was not. He had to do something 
but the question is - WHAT!?!

 
  Rudy rolled his head. He didn't feel like waiting for a responce anymore. 
Since he didn't feel sleepy he got up and moved over to to the carcass. 
There wasn't much meat left so he helped himself to the remaining leg.
 
Cleomie stood back, watching Rudy take up eating something meaty back 
there--a very unfortunate Rattata, by the smell. He wasn't a threat, 
not if he was with Striper. "Just that he was with the woopers and 
quagsires too, and believe me if you'd been what we been through, 
you'd be flaming yourself silly the minute you saw anything coming 
out of that place. Which, by the way, we're coming down this way to 
try to avoid."

"I see," said Striper. He looked the other three over: Yuoa, Tearose 
and Jasmine. He recognized them mostly by smell, but now their faces 
looked familiar too--especially Tearose, who was still a mareep. "Is 
it just four of you here or are there more?"

"Nope, just us right now." Cleomie rolled a ball of cud from one side 
of her mouth to the other and chewed. "We left a flock down south of 
here after that Fluffy headed on up to the lake--to try and find 
somewhere they don't know her name. I'm gonna see to it that she 
never finds that place. Couple of other ewes took pity on her too, 
they're with her. I don't agree with them, but I don't really care 
either."

In the back of his head, Rudy wondered where he would be if he had hopped on 
a car. He guessed probably somewhere in town and out of the chill. He was 
rubbing his hands together to warm up before he realised there was a 
charmander near by. Moving over to Charhe sat behind his tail.

" Don't worry." he comferted. "I'm not trying to put your flame out.... I'm 
just a little cold. Hope you don't mind."

"So," Cleomie went on, "we're heading north around *Moonhome*, home
of the crazy quagsires, and then north again to get the jump on that
Fluffy. She's got to be stopped."

Striper looked at Cleomie's gang and wondered who really had to be
stopped.

"Why--why did fluffy--"

"Cause she didn't like what Coddy had to say to Chirin. *Chirin*,
it's always about *Chirin*, ain't it? Well, she killed Coddy with
this light thing, Coddy...anyway we're out to stop her before she
does it again."

And for revenge; in fact, he noted Coddy's subtle squint and thought
to himself that that was perhaps her main intent.

"Um...so...where is Chirin now? And the others?"

"Most of'em are gone. Ther ran off in that whole big mess. A bunch of
us are staying down south, after we're done with Fluffy that's where
we're gonna winter probably. I dunno. And Chirin? Dunno about him
either. His...friend disapeared and he got the idea she was up at the
lake so I think he went there too. I ain't seen him."

"So..." Striper's hind leg scratched an itch on his flank. He blew a
little flame of a sigh. What to do now? Head down south? They didn't
seem like they needed his guarding anymore. His fur was standing
partly on end just being near these strange pink sheep; their
evolution had clearly granted them the power to defend
themselves. "They're all...turned pink, evolved, down there too?"

"Mostly, yeah."

"Well, I guess I'll stick with you guys...or you can stick with us..."

He stopped talking so he wouldn't dig his hole any deeper. "What does
everybody wanna do? Except you," he stopped Cleomie, "I know what
you're looking to do. What about everybody else?"

Personally, Striper wanted to find that crazy little ram, wring his
neck, and bury him next to Willy.

20323

Rudy stood up. Striper had most likly been talking to the flock, however it
was most likly safer to show solidarity.... at least that was what he guessed.

" You can count me in on which ever course you chose. I said I'd help youand
I'll stay true to my word no matter which way we go."

" Whoa!" Rudy thought to himself. He was sincear about this!

"Thanks a lot kid." Striper gave him a doggy smile. "I'm thinking
we'll head to the lake too with this bunch."

Cleomie gave him a long look, that clearly said, *Don't you dare try
to stop my plans.*

"Relax," said Striper, who would let this ewe conflict remain just
that. "I'm only going to find Chirin. He may know where the rest of
them are. I know, it's pretty plain to see you don't need me anymore
like you did, but I still want to see about the others. It's why I
came down here. Plus...I like you folks."

"Aw shucks Striper, you're making me blush," said Cleomie with a wry
smile.


Char was very relieved to hear that. They were not going to fight
anymore. Following Rudy's lead, Char also wanted to help.

"Striper? I also wish to help you in any way I can. Can I also come?"

Striper looked at him almost weird. But he was just a little tyke.
Like a lamb really, who didn't want to get left out of the flock.
Funny how he still thought of things in terms of mareep on a farm. "I
wouldn't dream of leaving you behind buddy," he said. "Or your dad. I
dare say he's pretty handy when it comes to, you know, hunting, and
flying over stuff to check it out." He gave a perk of his ears, sort
of the growlithe equivalent to a shrug. "Anyway you're part of our
pack--er, flock," he said, looking back at the sheep.

One could say Rudy was glad to have a chamander coming with them. But one
could more say that he was VERY glad to have the protection of a charizard. "
Where is Dantes anyway!" He wondered with a slight sence of annoyment. " If
my father had left me for this long....." Rudy's thought broke off. He didn't
know his father.

Rudy quickly slipped that from his mind. There would be plenty of time for
him to recover his mmemory once they had found Stripers mareep.

As the sun passed over the horizon Rudystrode over from Char to where the
others were, a full 5 feet away. " To the flock then." passed from his lips
with a hearty emotion flowing through the words.

"That's the spirit!" Striper clapped him on the back with a big furry
paw. "On to find my flock, or at least part of it. My idea was to
round everyone we can up piece by piece...starting with you four," he
looked at Cleomie and them, "then we'll pick up Fluffy and whoever's
with her...then Chirin and so on."

"I don't have a problem with that," said Cleomie. Come to think of
it, with Striper around they might find Fluffy even faster.
If Striper wanted to lead for now, that was fine with her, as long as
he didn't try to stop her plans. And she could tell. He was *afraid*
to get involved with it. Good.

And so off they went again, looking for Striper's lost flock - or
maybe the rest of the lost flock. It was a joyful time for them, each
member of the flock, er pack, ??? in his
own jolly mood. If everything went according to plan, Striper and the
other mareep would be together again.

20444

"Well, great...I guess we'll head up to wherever you were headed,"
said Striper to Cleomie. Cleomie gave a stiff now.

"Yup," she said. "Tea, Jasmine, Yo--Mind if I call ya Yo for short,
Yuoa? It just sounds cool, a cool nickname, you know." She winked at
Yuoa, then winked at Tea and Jasmine. "Onward. Northward. If that's a
word."

"I think it is," said Jasmine.

" Okay. So.... if we want to go around that hill thing there," he said while
gesturing in the direction of moonhome." We should go east first, right?"
Rudy felt he had given them ample time to respond as he baagan jogging in
that direction.

Rudy paused and took in a deep breath. He seemed to be constently enjoying
the nice clean air. No polluentents, not too hot, and best of all it was
fresh.

He turned his head to the side and smiled at the semi distent hill which
enclosed Moonhome. " Were the wooper about to celebrate another moonday?" he
pondered. " I'll just have to not walk by in a ball!" That thought forced a
smile onto his face.

Char giggled at the comment. It seemed that the journey had made all
of them lighthearted and fun loving. This was good. ^_^

Moonhome, Char heard it from his trainer, Justin before. A place
where woopers made their home. As for the moonday, Char did not
really know much about it. He only knew that wooper's would steal any
thing that is round during this time. For what purpose or reason,
Char did not know. But it irked his curiousity (as usual).

"Why do they steal round thing? Does any of you have any idea?"

"Cause they're weird," said Cleomie as they walked along. "Careful,
they might try to catch you too. I still don't really know *why* they
wanted to catch us for that thing, I'm just glad they changed their
minds."

"Maybe it was that they were so into, like, you know, round things,"
said Jasmine, "that they liked the ends of your tails." She waved her
own tail, blinking it as an example.

"Nah, that wasn't it," said Cleomie, "but we're getting out of the
area, that's good."

As she walked, Cleomie took a turn northwest. She knew Fluffy
couldn't be far off, and that sooner or later she would see or scent
them. As for enemies, with Striper here they were much better
protected.

Striper just followed along. After the lousy job he had done leading,
he was content to leave it to someone who, at least, knew where she
was heading. He'd never thought it would come to the sheep leading
him.

Rudy raised his eyebrow (/ the thing he has) at Cleomie's change in
direction. Not that he was worried about the little water pokemon, but if
they saw him out and called him by name...

Rudy snuck over to the side of the group that was the farthest away from the
hill.

As they walked by, Char could feel a warm presence again. It was
his father. Dante had finally returned from his hunting. Char ran
ahead of the group, searching the sky for signs of his father.

Finally he caught sight of him, flying rather low over the trees from
the west. Char squinted his eyes to see better, happy and excited
that his father had returned. But something was wrong. Dante flew
with certain difficulty. Over the distance, Char noticed that his
father was clutching his left arm.

Dante almost crashed as he landed. On the ground, he met a very
worried charmander. Dante smiled. At least the trip was worth it.

"Wa..what happened?" Char almost shrieked at the sight of Dante's
left arm. It was caked in blood, mostly dried blood but the sight was
rather terrible.

"Well," Dante rolled his eyes, trying to recall what happened. "I was
supposed to be looking for mareep as well as food when I had a chance
encounter with this group of hunters way down south. Urgh. They were
certainly not a friendly bunch. First thing they did was open fire.
One of their bullets managed to graze me."

Char looked at the wound. If this was a graze then what would his
father call a real wound?

Dante continued, trying to move his arm to get the blood
flowing. "Well, I quickly took a turn west and made a *very* wide
detour around the whole place. Didn't want to lead them to you."
Looking at the whole group, he realised that there were new members,
few rather nice looking mareep. He nodded towards the mareep, "Sorry
I didn't notice you before, my name's Dante. Nice to meet you."

Cleomie and company were sparking like live wires at the sight of the
bloody charizard, and his blood scent didn't help matters.

"Oh, oh no, I gotta get'em all calm around you and stuff, these
sheep, they get nervous easy, hold on one second." Striper ran over
to the three flaaffies and one mareep. "Don't run guys! Yeah he looks
big and scary but he's not, really, he's a friend of mine, in fact
he's been helping me hunt for all of you!"

"He's hunting...for us," said Cleomie.

"No, no!" barked Striper. "Not that way! Come on, look at him, if he
wanted one of you he'd've done it by now don't you think?" He
sighed. "Just don't run. If you just stay there you can watch and see
how friendly he is."

Striper left them there for the moment and trotted back to the
others. "They've never seen a charizard in their lives, and they grew
up on a farm, so they're a little spooked. Uh, Dante, is that...big
wound there...gonna be all right? You're sure it just grazed you?"

With everybody's eyes on him, Dante could not help but shrug. "It's
nothing really. I've seen worse." He moved his arms a little. "It
will be out of commission for a while but nothing a few days of rest
will take care off."

Dante lifted Char up with his other arm, nuzzling
him. "Unfortunately, I wasn't able to hunt. Because of those poachers
I couldn't bring back anything." Dante looked extremely annoyed at
the fact. But his face soon relaxed, "Sorry that all of you had to go
hungry waiting for me."

Char licked his father's face. "Don't worry about it dad," he grinned
and winked at Striper and Rudy from the corner of his eye. "We didn't
*really* have to rely on you."

Char jumped off and laid his head on Dante's belly. "You don't have
to worry about him. He may look scary but he's a softie inside."
Dante gave a toothy grin at that remark.

Striper's stomach growled. "Oh...don't worry about it, we managed to
make a kill for ourselves just fine." And would have to soon again.
He glanced at the sheep. "See here, Dante's a new friend of ours."

Cleomie had long since realized that the charizard wasn't going to
hurt them, but she was still scared anyway. However...they weren't
going to get any closer to Fluffy by just cowering here.

Striper had another thought. Dante must have to eat a lot more than
any of them. "Are you okay to hunt later on? Not for us--we're
catching on to hunting okay--" he didn't like to talk about it in
front of the sheep-- "but for you? Wouldn't want you going hungry or
anything, that's all."

Cleomie listened with interest, appearing cool, if cautious. If that
giant dragon was having trouble hunting she was sure clearing her and
her gang out of here fast before he got any ideas that they'd make an
easy meal.

Kitaki watched from behind a bush. A big
dragon...A dog of flames...And sheep...Kitaki licked
her lips...Flaaffy...Or...did she eat meat? She had
eaten her mother and father...So that must mean that
she ate meat!

The Sneasle was confused. She was trapped within her
own mind. She had been since her birth.

"Yes," Kitaki hissed, "...Meat...Flaaffy are
meat...Meat is below their skin...Food...Must eat..."
Kitaki lurked in the bushes, waiting for the right
moment to strike...

Rudy smiled. " We're starting to grow an entire army of pokemon aren't we?"
he jokingly said. Now that there were other pokemon worried about the
charizard Rudy felt for some reason safer. He might of known that he was
feeling " balence point" a statement used bysome alakazam philosophers who
describe those who feel an emotion to counter. In this case Rudy was feeling
more safe, as to reassure the flaffy incase they were worried.

" Mr. Dante, how does the terrain look from high up?" he asked.

20722

As Rudy spoke he couldn't help him turning his head to the side for a moment. 
Something smelled... of darkness. " Nah!" he thought. That's crazy. How can 
stuff smell of darkness.

Striper thought he smelled something peculiar too, in the bushes or 
something. Could it be that supper awaited?

"Hold on guys."

Striper took careful steps, following his nose.

 Kitaki watched the Growlithe with intrest...It was now or never...The Sneasle sprang from the bushes and ran at the Flaaffy...Claws ready to tear at their flesh and her teeth bared. 
 
Rudy whirled around seeing soe weird pokemon about to attack the poor 
flaffy.

" Not on my shift." he muttered like some old movie line. and raised his 
finger for the metranome. As the snealsel was about to attack he did it 
rather quickly. " Metranome!" he said firmly... okay actually he said abra 
but translated it's metranome.

His fingers glowed blue and out shot a fire blast. As it took off towards the 
snealsel Rudy wondered what effect it would have.

20745

"What the--"

Cleomie danced back as the black thing, a shadow under a bush, leaped 
at her. The other three scattered back behind Cleomie.

Cleomie sidestepped the creature but its claws grazed her leg. Hardly 
afraid--the thing was clearly not too powerful--she ducked to all 
fours. 

"Moko--Mokoko!" Cleomie flung out a long electric spark from her 
tail, arcing over her head, aiming down at the sneasel. Behind her 
she heard Jasmine--or was it Yo? shouting something.

"NOT ON MY SHEEP!" Striper tore through the grass with blood in his 
gaze and teeth bared. Seeing Cleomie attacking first, and the others 
maybe organizing to do the same, he ran around behind the sneasel to 
cut off its escape route should it turn. Cats! He'd never liked them 
much on the farm, but this one he'd be eating!

" Hey", Rudy yelled, seemingly ignoring the now probably no threat sneasel. " 
That's my stolen motto!" he smiled as he said that to let Striper know he 
wan't really mad at him. Just burning with the bitter desire to let the 
lawyers out on him once he had made sure no lawyers were coming after him. 
Just that feeling of course. There were no lawyers involved.... 

Striper was too busy growling at the little black sneasel to really 
notice Rudy claiming copyright infringement. ^_~

Kitaki had sprung when two things happened. 

An icy blue flame had hit her in the left side, while an electric spark hit her right.  

Then a Growlithe ran in between her and the Flaaffy. Why was a predator defending them? Was this normal? 

The young Sneasle landed on her knees and she whimpered slightly. One of her clawed hands was on one of her knees, while the other rested on the ground. Both knees were on the ground. 

"..." she just looked at the Growlithe, a mixture of confusion and anger on her face  


Some of the flames had caught on the grass. Rudy tried the metranome again 
and got a splash. The abra sighed and tryed again.a small earthquake went 
through the flames putting it out.
With thaconcern taken care of Rudy was able to get a closer look at the 
sneasel. It had handled the double hit quite admerably. If Dante had gotten 
involved that might have been another story but for what it was worth it 
seemed pretty well off. It seemed.... young. Not exacly high on sence or she 
wouldn't have tryed jumping into this. Still.... perhaps she would make a 
treat for the charizard

Dante watched the battle with amusement. With one hand he was holding 
Char back, he didn't want the young guy to get hurt in this. He would 
have joined, but with his arm...he perished the thought. But still a 
simple flamethrower would been great. He grinned from the distance.

"DAD, let me go! I WANT TO HELP MY FRIENDS!" cried Char over and over 
again while the battle raged on. But Char couldn't move an inch, with 
Dante's firm grip over his shoulder.

"You ARE not getting into a fight. Not when I'm around. Besides, it's 
nothing your friends could not handle." The Sneasle was in deep 
trouble now. Severely outnumbered, she was going to die the moment 
she stepped into view.

With the sneasle surrounded, Char finally relaxed. He glared at his 
father for not letting him into the battle.

Snarling, Striper gathered breath for a final assault on the sneasel. 
This little feline was up to no good and he would end the trouble 
here. Plus get some food for them all! At last, a real kill that he 
would make!

His lungs pushed forth a barrage of flames at the weakened sneasel.

Cleomie, satisfied that her attack had stopped it, she and the other 
flaaffies stood way back to let Striper and his friend finish it off. 
She nursed the parallel scratches on her leg, which tingled with an 
icy sting. Striper and the other meat-eaters could get a meal and 
they could start moving on already.

20764

Kitaki watched the flame attack head for her. She rolled out of the way, winced, and struggled onto her legs. 

"...Fire dog...Dragon...Sheep...," Kitaki was confused. She stood up and looked around at them all, quite confused. "What happened? Did me do something bad?..." The Sneasle walked around for a bit, looking at all of the Flaaffy, the Growlithe, and the other Pokemon that were there too. Why did they make a circle? 

"What happening fire doggy?" the confused Sneasle asked. Was this supposed to happen? Or was it a bad thing? A look of even more confusion crossed Kitaki's face and stayed there. She looked at Striper. 

"Me Kitaki...I think...Who you flame doggy? Why you attack me and growl and stuff?" Kitaki asked Striper.  

Striper couldn't believe his bad aim. His fire, while looking 
powerful and scary, hadn't even managed to singe the fur on the 
kitten's back. Then again, she was pretty fast. 

He figured she might as well know the reason before he killed her, or 
before she sprinted away.

"You attack my sheep, you die." He lunged at her. "And I'm hungry."

Hmm... Rudy thought. The pokemon seemed young. Her parents might be around. 
That would mean more food.... Not that Rudy felt particulary hungery. With 
this Striper and Dante would get a good meel. Most psychics didn't need to 
eat as much due to self restraint plus the many things they strived to do. A 
human would compare it to a monk in fasting.

The flaffy and the mareep should be able to get buy on grass and Char... due 
to his age he should be able to eat little too. It still seemed strange that 
the pokemon had jumped out of nowhere to attack unless....

" Oh no...." Rudy thought ice filling him.

" Striper wait!" he yelled, running over to the little pokemon. Was the 
pokemon just playing? He gestured with a hand motion to hold off a bit as he 
walked up to it, not knowing she was the type strong agenst him.

" Little one, were you just playing?" he asked in a non threatening voice.

Kitaki looked at the Abra. She cocked her head to the side. 

"...I do not know...Was I playing?...I might have been hunting...Or was I? I forgot. Me Kitaki...Me trapped in me mind...Not know lots and lots of times me confused or bad...Was I bad? Why big fire doggy try hurt me?" she asked. She sat down and looked at one Pokemon to the next until she had seen them all. She yawned and looked back at the Abra. 
 
Striper stepped back from the kitten. She was starting to appeal to 
his domesticated side, despite her having outright attacked his 
sheep. 

"I try to hurt you because you tried to hurt my sheep." He pointed to 
Cleomie and her three companions. "I'll give you one chance to run 
away. Now. Go."

"Wait a minute." Cleomie strutted forward. "Striper, we been through 
tons more $#%& than you saw us get dragged through, and we respect 
you and all, you're our old buddy, but I ain't your sheep. None of us 
ain't your sheep. If you wanna say "your" something, say "my friend," 
or something like that not "my sheep. We clear?"

"Clear," Striper gave a humble bow of his head, rolling half a growl 
in hs throat. "Then what do you say we do with this little bugger?" 
He grunted towards Kitaki.

Cleomie shrugged. "I dunno. But I don't really care either, we showed 
her who's boss. She ain't gonna do nothing now. If you want to like, 
you know, kill her, go ahead, us sheep'll go down there and have some 
grass." She was putting on her tough indifferent face, but knew that 
she'd never be able to stand seeing anything get killed. Better to 
saunter off than bolt in a skittery panic.

20795
So.... the shflaffy were showing indipendence!

" Well so we best get moving. If we're not going to eat there's no reason to 
stick around." Rudy offered. They needed to move. The sooner they found 
that.... killer, the sooner Rudy could go learn about his own fate. 

Striper grumbled to himself. "Yeah, you're right," he said. 
Abandoning the kitten, though still keeping an eye on her, he started 
off. "Well, Cleomie, if you're leading yourselves more or less I 
figure you know where you're taking us?"

"You bet." Cleomie shot the sneasel kitten a dagger glare as she 
passed her, waving a tail like a sparkler. The other three sheep 
followed in kind, on the far side of Kitaki from Cleomie. She 
strutted on in the lead, giving Char and Dante cool glances. She 
shrugged off her nervousness and smoothed her billowing wool, knowing 
they wouldn't hurt her and wishing her instincts would just cut it 
out and believe her. 

"Just so you know everybody," she said, "us four are on the trail of 
a murderer. A bad@$$ sheep killed my best friend and she's going to 
pay when I get my hooves on her. So everybody, if you're coming along 
you're helping a good cause. You'll be helping us rid these beautiful 
fields and stuff," she gestured at the rolling hills dotted with 
copses, "of a flaaffy gone bad. Before she does it again. So come on 
everybody. Day's wasting."

"I think that's "time's wasting," said Jasmine.

"Whatever. You know what I mean."

Cleomie had a thought. If she could persuade that big dragon dude to 
help her he could just scope Fluffy out in no time, and hop in if she 
needed help. After all, Fluffy had killed a flaaffy twice her size 
already.

As Striper fell behind the sheep, still worried for them--rather like 
the parent of teenagers--he, as well as the others, were entirely 
unaware that they, on the trail of an accused killer, were themselves 
being followed.

"That is one confused sneasle. And some act tough flaffies and 
mareep." mumbled Dante. Unfortunately Char heard the remark. Again. 
Char glared at Dante for being so mean.

Char felt that something was wrong with the sneasle. He didn't dare 
share the thought but to him, the young sneasle seemed to be 
slightly...'nutty' if that was a good word to describe her. Was it 
safe if the group left him there? What if he followed and made a 
sneak attack?

Striper decided that since Cleomie was busy acting so brave and bossy 
up front that he would do the real work and cover the rear. Now with 
that sneasel around he had a reason to. He almost hoped she tried 
something again--that would give him a reason to snap her neck in 
half and have himself the dinner that his stomach was seriously 
begging for.

And the group got ready to move, Dante ushered Char in front of him. 
Not safe to have Char walking without Dante keeping an eye on him. 
Char was more than happy to do so.

Just as they were about to leave... Dante cocked his head to one 
side, curiously looking at some trees to his left. "Char, move to the 
center of the group please." he eyed behind him suspiciously. "Wait 
there. I think I may have a chance of redeeming myself," he said it 
with a playful grin.

Dante stalked off, circling around the cluster of trees he was eyeing 
a while ago. He moved with amazing stealth, surprising Char. Char, 
even though much smaller and lighter, could never had walked with 
such silence and stealth.

As Dante disappeared behind the trees, Char wondered what was his 
father doing. His question was answered when he heard an earth 
shattering roar followed by brown shapes shooting out from the trees. 
It was clear to him now. His father was hunting.

As the shapes flew, a whole flock of them, numbering around twenty, 
Char saw an orange shape suddenly shoot past the whole flock. It went 
straight for the largest bird in the sky and before Char knew it, 
they were hurdling straight for the ground. As they hit the ground, a 
tussle of dust and feathers, Char could hear the scream and then 
silence. 

Running quickly, he saw his father on top on a pidgeot, with his fang 
clearly on it's neck. It was rather soon that the pidgeot finally 
gave it's last breath. Char was excited that his father had caught a 
meal for them but it soon became terror and Dante towered over him.

"I TOLD YOU to stay with the group!" he lifted Char up by the scruff 
of his neck, leaving Char staring face to face with Dante's bloody 
face. Char started to wimper. Dante's composure soon relaxed. How 
could he be angry? "I don't want to lose you again." Dante hugged 
Char. "Don't do anything stupid ok?" Char nodded.

Slinging the pidgeot over his shoulder, Dante hauled Char back to the 
group. Wiping the blood off his face, he turned to Striper, "Looks 
like we have a meal. But it is not safe to eat it here. Not with that 
sneasle on our tails. Let's go. We'll eat later."

"Um...well...Thanks a lot buddy, some of us here don't have your kind 
of luck. But...that sneasel? We can guard against her any day," said 
Striper, and in fact that would be the least of their scavenger 
problems--if any materialized. Striper had a feeling that no one 
would come all that close to a feasting charizard. But neither would 
he go against Dante's wishes, so he picked up to head onward. 

He realized that there were no sheep to be seen. 

"Cleomie? Jasmine? Anyone?"

Glowing tails and woolly heads appeared, popping out from bushes and 
a nearby copse. Cleomie trotted forward, and the others followed 
suit, apparently waiting for her to make the first move. Heh, so the 
plucky little leader had shown her jumpy side. He could hardly blame 
her, though...Striper himself had felt that urge to run away tingling 
in his paws when he'd heard the scream of the giant bird. 

Cleomie was NOT getting anywhere close to that dragon. With a few 
blinks of her tail she had organized the other three behind 
her. "I'll take the rear if you don't mind," she said to Striper. Her 
eyes kept rolling round to Dante, showing their whites. The fizz of 
static lifted Striper's fur as she stood near him.

"Well actually I'm not sure, that sneasel--"

"I'm taking the rear."

Kitaki watched as Dante killed a Pidgeot. 

"Big bird...Me also get big bird! Back in later time!" the Sneasle sprang off into a cluster of bushes. There was a loud cry of a Pidgey and the snarl of Kitaki, and moments later she came back with a dead Pidgey in her hands, looking quite proud. 

"See? Me also got VERY big bird! Flame doggy? You want birdy? Me can get other for me...You want?" Kitaki offered. 

Dante was very unsure about the flaffy's decision. Even though they 
outnumbered the sneasle, still they had to take precautions. Dante 
edged his way slowly to the side. This way, he could at least see 
both his young charmander and the flaffies and mareep. Dante 
reajusted the pigeot's position on his shoulder. Their stubborness 
will get them into trouble one day, Dante thought as he kept Char 
marching infront of him. 

Char of course was not very pleased with this. He was used to 
freedom, ok at least a certain amount of freedom but now he felt 
miserable. He knew that the large charizard is only protecting him 
but this was overkill. But he didn't want to complain. At least he 
got his father back. Still, he felt more like a prisoner, trapped in 
a prison that was his father.

Striper filled with mixed thoughts as Kitaki brought the downed bird 
back. That there had been any birds at all left there after Dante had 
destroyed its tranquility was incredible, but more importantly 
Striper realized that this cat was more dangerous than she had first 
seemed. She was clearly very fast, and if they weren't careful that 
mareep among Cleomie's company might be in for a bit of trouble. 

"Um, no," he said to Kitaki's offer, "you eat that yourself, you're 
hungry." Wasn't he the one who'd tried to kill her? And here she was 
offering him a meal? Odd...no, beyond odd--crazy. This sneasel was 
bonkers. Of course he'd always known cats could be an unstable bunch, 
but this one took the cake.

He realized she was small enough, and in the approaching night, dark 
enough, to hide well in the grass. It was not safe for him to let her 
trail the group. If she could make a kill this easily she could fend 
for herself and there was no need for her to be with them.

"Eat your kill here, and do not follow us," he said. He glanced back 
at the sheep, who also had their eye on the sneasel.

Rudy happened to glance up at the nearly dark sky. Behind him was the 
sunset and in the front.... No Moon. " Good." he thought. No moon would mean 
that if the Sneasel decided to follow she'd be weaker. " Not that she was 
much of a threat anyway." He thought, laughing at the stratagy of jumping 
into a place with evolved pokemon, a growlithe, abra, mareep and a 
charmander. He wasn't sure if she had guts or.... something had seemed wrong 
with her. " Where were her parents?" he wondered.

Cleomie paced the outer rim of the group. Too many predators here and 
not enough of them. The whole thing was freaking her out--especially, 
now, that sneasel. "Guys what do you say we lose this crew and head 
on up ourselves? I want to at least pick up Fluffy's trail again 
before we sleep."

"It's up to you," said Jasmine, "but I keep feeling like I'm next or 
something."

"You feel like *you're* next?" said Tearose, the mareep. "what about 
me?"

Cleomie's flippers felt her temples. "I'll talk to Striper about it."

"Wait!" Kitaki yelled, running after the retreating group, the dead Pidgey still clutched in her clawed paw. "Me no do nothing! Promise!" Kitaki looked at the Growlithe, she looked around at the sheep, who didn't look too thrilled at the sight of the dead Pidgey, so, blushing, she quickly hid it behind her back. 

"Please pretty fire doggy?" Kitaki whimpered, looking up at Striper hopefully. 

Striper was looking at this little Sneasel and wondering what to say 
to her--he knew when he was being sweet-talked, and it was even worse 
when mental illness came into the whole deal. Or maybe she was just a 
tharn kitten--if tharn kittens could have caught Pidgeys. She was 
going to have a harder time convincing him now that he knew she was 
perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

"Well I guess we'd better start from the top here kid. Why do you 
want to come with us?" He didn't even know why he was asking, because 
he wasn't sure if he'd believe a word she said anyway.

Cleomie came up right about then, and she stood a small distane away--
far enough to avoid Kitaki if she pounced, but close enough to talk 
to Striper.

"Striper what's the deal with all these enemies? If there's gonna be 
tons of meat-eaters killing everything all over the place then we're 
out of here."

"I--" Striper looked from Cleomie to Kitaki.

A pang of jelously briefly went through Rudy when Kitani refered to Striper 
as the leader.... Of course Striper was the leader, however Kitani didn't 
know that.
Brushing that aside Rudy noticed the forest ahead.
" A flaffy went throught there!" Rudy said, albiet quietly, shocked. There 
seemed to be a vast forest ahead in both directions. " I guess Dante finding 
her is out." he said." It would be tricky moving through this part, and not 
to mention the preditors. It would probably be venusaur and more pidgeot he 
guessed as he sat back shocked.

The group now seemed kinda disorganised. Who would expect that one 
sneasle would cause so much trouble. With Rudy mumbling something in 
front of the group, the flaffies and mareep discussing some plan or 
plot and Striper trying to get the sneasle off their tails, Char and 
Dante was at a lost.

Char tried to move closed to hear the conversation between Striper 
and the sneasle but was stopped by firm claw on his shoulder yet 
again. On look at Dante and Char could tell that his father would not 
approve of him going any closer to the sneasle. Char sighed and stood 
there, waiting for the next turn of events. He longed to join but 
with his father around....

Kitaki cocked her head to the side and sat down. She bowed her head and waited for Striper to decide one of three things. 

1. Let her come with them. 

2. Kill her. 

3. Tell her to leave. 

"...You scary...," Kitaki murmured towards Striper.  

Everything was going to pieces because Striper had chosen not to act. 
If he didn't do something now to get rid of this pest he'd lose his 
sheep, and maybe Char too, whose father didn't look too keen on 
letting him around this black cat. He couldn't blame him. 

"You're a lot scarier than me," said Striper to Kitaki. He didn't 
know what she was about but if he didn't get rid of her she might 
break up the entire group. 

"Kid, you're scaring the bejesus out of my sheep and I'm giving you a 
chance to leave now before I attack you again. You see I'm rather 
hungry." 

Striper growled at her, lips lifting to expose his teeth. Hot breath 
issued from between them.

With the matter of kitaki taken care of, one way or another, Rudy decided to 
ask the leader of the other.... "faction", Cleomie, to see in which direction 
she believed the rogue flaffy was.

" Excuse me mamm," he began." Which way do you think she went?" he asked.

20859

"Northeast, to the lake," said Cleomie. "And I ain't thinking, I'm 
knowing. We watched them head up. She's with two others, a mareep and 
a flaaffy. I don't care about them--just fluffy."

Though she and Petunia had never been close friends, the older 
flaaffy had stepped down a few more notches on Cleomie's buddy chart 
since taking the side of that killer. 

Cleomie had had enough of this waiting. She started off again north, 
heading out around the copse Dante had made his kill in. She didn't 
need the charizard's help, though it would have been nice. What 
mattered to her was getting the job done. And she and her friends 
here could do that fine. The longer she dallied around here the more 
time those three sheep had to lose them altogether.

"Wait!" Striper barked. Well, he knew where they were heading, most 
important to take care of this sneasel and make sure she didn't stalk 
them or anything.

Cleomie's tail led the other three sheep after her. She squinted 
through a chilly breeze that nipped her ears and made her nose run. 
It was a cold world that would let some scruffy scum rip her best 
friend's chest open.

" Well...." The flaffy may be going on their own but that didn't mean they 
couldn't find Fluffy with out the flock. Still, now that they were on their 
own Rudy felt more comfertable as there was less tension. 

" Guys." he called to Dante, Char, and Striper," I guess we should get a move 
on it, eh?"

"You go on ahead with the sheep, I'll have no trouble tracking you 
down," said Striper. "And I won't be long. I gotta make sure this 
sneasel doesn't give any trouble."

He glared at Kitaki, giving her a last chance.

Rudy nodded. There really wasn't a reason to be worried about the little 
thing, but Striper was probably just being very careful. He did wonder about 
where it's parents were though.

There had been something about it that he didn't like. A pain....
Who knew. Not that he knew anything about his type weakness." Perhaps she was 
abbandoned...." He tried to brush that idea away. They had no need to carry a 
little pokemon with them. He, himself wasn't that old and Striper probably 
wasn't that old either. Char was also young so it simply wouldn't make sence.

Rudy began walking in the direction the flaffy had gone....

"You guys find a place to sleep and Dante, save me a piece of that 
meat old buddy, thanks!" Striper called after his friends. Once he 
got done dealing with this sneasel, he wanted to discuss things with 
his non-ovine friends. Cleomie was marching onward with a 
determination that Striper found a little scary. He was not going to 
just tag along and let his sheep start killing each other. 

Especially since, if he hadn't left them in the first place, they 
wouldn't have started killing each other at all. That murder Cleomie 
had fixated on had happened after he had left. Who knew what else had 
happened--after all there were lots fewer sheep now than there had 
been.

"But Striper!" Char tried to protest but was interrupted by his 
father. Char felt sorry for the young sneasle. She was...crazy but 
kinda pitiful. He wanted to help but his father would never allow it. 
As he was picked up and slung over Dante's shoulder like the pidgeot, 
he could only look sadly at Kitaki, wondering what would happen to 
her. Would she be killed?

"Don't worry about your sheep. I don't think they will go far." Dante 
said, looking back at Striper. Dante did not share the same feelings 
as his son. To him, that sneasle would only bring trouble as well as 
an ever present threat to the group. He didn't want Char to mix with 
her.

Walking off in the direction Rudy went, Dante said "As for the meat, 
well, you better be fast! I can't be sure whether there will be any 
left when you arrive!" he turned his head and gave a playful grin.

"Heh, yeah," Striper's little laugh turned to a roll of the eyes as 
he looked back at the Sneasel. His voice came out a growl.

"From here we part directions. You don't need any help from us and 
our group'd do a whole lot better on our own too. Enjoy your kill, 
good luck, and all that stuff, be glad I didn't kill you cause I sure 
wanted to." He turned and barked. "Hey wait up!"

Striper took off after the others.

It seems like they had only taken a few steps into the forest when 
Char saw Striper running towards them. "HEY! Striper back!" Char 
shouted over his father's shoulder, almost deafening Dante in the 
process.

"OWW! Don't shout like that!" he turned to see Striper running 
towards them while rubbing his right ear. "Wow, that was fast. So, 
you took care of the sneasle yet?"

Char frowned. Seems that he won't be seeing Kitaki anytime soon.

" Hmmm... this seems adaquit." Rudy called to Char, Dante and Striper. There 
was a small clearing with no trees in itabout the size of 1/8th a city block. 
Inside there was plenty of room for all of them. Also it seemed dry. As he 
looked up he saw that the branches of the trees hig above covered the space.

" Good thing there were plenty of fire pokemon with light here." he thought.

"Yeah, I frightened her off," said Striper. Dunno why I didn't just 
kill her, but she dashed away before I could grab her. Oh well."

Cleomie and co. had stopped near the forest's edge, and stood around 
as if they'd been waiting for him. Hm, maybe they weren't as 
independent as they had made themselves out to be earlier.

" Guys!" Rudy sprinted back to them like some one involved in a bleacher 
clearing incident. " I found this place where I think it's safe to sleep. 
It's right in there." He gestured towards it's location with his non banded 
hand, which of course was the right one.

Striper looked into the woodsy little place. "Looks good to..." A 
bleating from one of the ewes distracted him. It was Cleomie.

"Guys!" she said, but it wasn't the guys whom she was calling, it was 
the girls. "I found their trail." 

Jasmine, Yo and Tearose hurried after her (sorry Storm/Darkstreak, 
but I'm moving Yuoa just for now, i have to...i suggest you post for 
her & fluffy rather soon, they're getting involved in big stuff). 
Cleomie stood at the edge of the really big forest--the one 
surrounding the lake, Striper knew. She was pointing at something. 
Striper outpaced the sheep and inspected whatever it was. It was 
sheep dung, somewhat fresh, left there within the last day or so. 

"It makes perfect sense that it was them," Cleomie was telling 
Jasmine when Striper got there. "If we head up to the lake now I bet 
we catch'em tonight."

"And do what?" said Jasmine. "No offense...but I'm not so sure we can 
just sneak up on them."

"If there's a time we can, it'll be at night," said Cleomie. "If we 
don't sneak up on'em how'll we get'em?"

Jasmine just looked down and shrugged. Tearose pawed the ground with 
her front hoof and looked around in the cool wind. She looked briefly 
at Striper.

"There's four of us, more if these guys want to help," Cleomie was 
saying. "And only three of them. That lamb won't be any problem. That 
leaves Petunia--Jas, Yo, you two could take her together. Now Fluffy, 
she's the real problem, she's got some freaky powers and sh--"

"I don't know about anyone else but I don't like this talk 
of "taking" this one and "catching" that one," barked Striper. "I'm 
not going to help some of my sheep kill others."

"I said we're not 'your' sheep." Cleomie's wool flicked sparks out, 
showing up brighter at night.

Rudy frowned. He didn't think he would get any sleep anyways but to keep on 
moving.... Rudy walked over to the dung. 
" I don't know." he siad to Striper." If we fall behind they could escape our 
search for good. We can decide how to deal with them one way," he turned and 
grined at Cleomie," or another." he once again faced Striper." But for now we 
should find them."

"I'm glad someone agrees that killers shouldn't just go free," said 
Cleomie, giving Striper a fleeting glare. Striper dribbled air out 
his lips. 

"Okay, okay, you know this really puts me in a bad position, Cleomie, 
it's either let her go free or let you guys kill her. Hey, I just 
thought--wouldn't that make *you* a killer too?" He stood pointing 
like a hunter dog at her. His paw fell. "Well, I guess I've killed 
pokemon myself...but not one of my own kind!"

"I don't care," said Cleomie. "She killed my best friend and if we 
don't stop her who knows what else she'll do! You weren't there when 
she did it. You didn't see. If you saw it you'd agree with me, she 
has to go."

Cleomie marched off towards the woods. "Come on guys."
 
Rudy leaned over and whispered to the growlithe.
" We might as well go along with them. If we don't Cleo will anyway and what 
does that gain you? With us there we may be able to stop her espescialy if 
Dante lends a hand." he turned his head and winked in the direction of the 
fire dragon. " But either ways it's your call." The abra grined. " Ts thine 
flock."

"I've been waiting for a chance to ask Dante to help me out," said 
Striper. "If and when they do meet up with her. Trouble is Cleo can't 
hear. Oh I'm following them, no doubt about it. I just wish I'd been 
there to see this so-called murder. Cleomie and Coddy were always 
joined at the hip, though, so I know it's been rough on her."

Striper edged back away from Rudy and spoke to all of them. "Here'd 
be a good place to stop and eat...for us meat-eaters," said Striper. 
If the sheep went on without him, what could he do? They were half 
in, half out of his paws now and Striper knew that if he didn't eat 
now he wouldn't have the energy to make any difference if they did 
run into conflict.

Rudy closed his eyes. Dimly he could see the shape of a wolf like next to him 
but anything beond that was just a blur. He shook his head. " It's nothing." 
he told Striper. " I was just trying to see if I could sence them with myeyes 
closed. It's not within my ability."

Striper raised a brow, looking the little yellow fellow 
over. "Er...okay...yup. Gotcha." He nodded as if he understood and 
headed off after Cleomie. "Better get a move on, she's not stopping 
for anything."

He hoped she'd stop soon--at least long enough for him, Dante and 
Char to stop to eat!

Dante and Char were both rather shocked and surprised that these 
sheep had such a horrible thirst for revenge. Dante found this 
amusing while Char was rather taken aback by this.

Char slowly crept over to Striper and whispered, "Striper, were they 
always like this?" Char looked at the sheep with certain fear.

Striper sighed and rolled his eyes. He let the sheep walk along a 
ways away so he could talk about Cleomie without her knowing it. 
Geez, even he was half scared of her!

"Cleomie and Coddy--her best friend who died--they were always an 
aggressive--pair. They hung out with a few others who were bad too--
they got the best grass on the pasture, pretty much. Them and Willy 
and a few of his friends sometimes too. I tried to break it up when 
they took to picking on someone else--that happened sometimes--but I 
didn't have much time, I had to keep a watch for wild pokemon and 
herd the mareep around. I mean, no offense to anyone wild here--but, 
well, there was always some pest waiting to fly down or leap the 
fence or whatever, I had to be on guard, along with Kiku--the Raichu 
who helped out with the sheep too." Striper blew out a long sigh. He 
hoped Dante would share the meat soon, but he wouldn't nag him. "I 
never really thought what would happen if something happened to one 
of them--Coddy and Cleomie. Don't know why they were always a bit 
bitter." After all they'd had the best of it on the farm. No one had 
chomped a clover blossom if they'd come along and claimed it for 
themselves. They'd had power. Was that why Cleomie so angry now--this 
loss of power? Then again she didn't seem eager to head back to the 
farm, and there were more clover blossoms and whatever else out here 
than she'd ever have gotten back home. "I guess there's no 
understanding some females." He scratched an itch, and his stomach 
growled from the effort.

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Char could sense that everybody's stomachs were growling. His father, 
on the other hand, was still blissfully unaware. He seemed too 
preoccupied with guarding the rear flank in case any trouble crops up.
It also didn't help that the sheep were almost like slave drivers, 
they never seemed to want to stop. Char went to his father, maybe he 
would also want to stop.

"Stop? Sure why not? This meat is going to get spoilt if we don't 
stop soon." Dante patted his kill. "My legs are also killing me, 
never liked to walk when I can fly" he added. "Hey Striper! When are 
we stopping? I would rather carry this bird in my belly than on my 
shoulder!"

"I feel for you buddy, right here's as good a place as any!" Striper 
nodded to the patch of grass they stood on, right at the forest's 
edge.

Kitaki had been trailing the Pokemon for some time now. She stopped, meowed sadly, then, tears falling from her bright red eyes, she sprinted past them all, crying. 

Yuoa shook her head sadly. What an awful day that had been! She had just come out of that awful 'big burrow' and then she saw it... 

The Mareep opened her mouth to say something to Cleomie, but was cut off as Kitaki rushed passed them all. 

"I for one am glad that Sneasle left," Yuoa muttered to Cleomie, "I think, and I am sure that everyone else agrees, that she would have been nothing but trouble. You okay?" She added, looking at the scratches that Cleomie had recieved from the mad Sneasle's attack. 

"You bet, Yo," Cleomie gave Yuoa a pat. "Don't mind if I call you Yo, 
right? It's a cool nickname." She winked at Yuoa, then at Tea and 
Jasmine.

Cleomie wandered a good way away, where she wouldn't have to see the 
carnage. On top of her simply being a sheep, it reminded her too much 
of the sight of Coddy lying burst all apart on the grass in the 
rain...too much red where red shouldn't be.

She gave a bleat of surprise as a little black shadow cut through the 
grass towards the meat-eaters. She geatured for the other sheep to 
back off, and they seemed to need no gesturing. 

Striper snarled at Kitaki. "I can't believe it! You again!" He raged 
at the sneasel. "So you think you can track us down and live off our 
kills, do you? Go eat your Pidgey and GET OUT! OUT! OUT!" He barked 
at the top of his lungs, spits of flames flying out. He meant 
business now--if he hadn't before.

Rudy laughed at Striper being so worried of that little pokemon. It was 
obiously abanndoned and no threat to them. At least not while they were awake 
and could see it sneaking up.

He did agree with Striper wanting to get rid of it though. If he didn't it 
might follow them. Others of it's kind might be around here so it was safer 
for it to stay.

" Er.... Striper, could you do me a favor and re assure me, just a little. 
You don't smell anymore of that kind of pokemon around here do you?" he 
gulped with a face that might be described as fear. " You know, larger ones."

"Larger ones?" Striper looked, sniffed around. He didn't see so well 
at night. "Um...nope. Why, do you?"

Yuoa smiled at Cleomie. 

"Okay," she said. She then cast a glance at the reatreating Sneasle. "...What if she comes back? Then what?" She was slightly worried. 

"She won't attack us again," Cleomie said around a gob of cud. "We 
showed her once, all's we gotta do's keep our eyes peeled. Striper'll 
pick her off easy if she tries anything, him or that dragon." Cleomie 
grinned. "We won't have any trouble with him around."

She looked about her. "Well, we got their trail--it'll be easy to 
follow'em now even if it does take another day or so." Cleomie took 
to grazing, figuring that if the carnivores were taking a break over 
there, they might as well too. She edged away from Striper and them 
till they were almost out of sight--she had no stomach to be watching 
when they ripped that bird open.

Rudy shook his head. " No. But don't you think it's strange for some little 
pokemon to be out on it's own with no others of it's kind around?" Rudy 
realised he was almost describing himself as well. Of course he wasn't saying 
his own situaction wasn't strange.

While waiting for a responce he pulled off a bit of meat from the bird's wing 
and began eating it. That way most was saved for the pokemon who needed it 
but it didn't hurt to have some himself.

" Thanks." he told Dante.

"Cats..." Striper snorted. "They're loners. You see how fast that one 
made a kill? She's old enough to be on her own. Stupid or nuts or 
something, but hey, I do what I gotta do. And anyway, we're quite a 
crowd ourselves at this point. If I was some cat lurking in the 
bushes...I'd think twice about trying to attack us--a charizard, a 
growlithe, you and Char, and a bunch of feisty electric sheep!"

He gave a curt nod to the whole situation. Things really were not all 
that bad right now.

Yuoa smiled. 

"Yeah, I guess that you are right," she said, "...What are we gonna do when we find Fluffy eh?"

"I ain't sure yet." Actually, Cleomie just didn't want to discuss it 
yet...with Striper or that dragon anywhere where they could hear. She 
knew Striper was going to try something to stop her. 

Ohh, he'd pay too if he messed her plans up! Not after they'd come 
this far!

Rudy nodded. He guessed what he said made sence. He cocked his head to the 
side a bit. " The flaffy are far enough a way to talk openly, I think." he 
whispered." Now may be a good time to ask Dante. And don't worry about that 
pokemon. I can keep my eye on her."

Striper sighed. "Yeah. I'm not worried about the sneasel. I'm worried 
about Cleomie and them." He went over to Dante. "Dante...er, I hate 
to ask you a favor, but...there's a slight problem with my sheep. You 
see, some of'em...are on a trail to find this Fluffy, and I remember 
her, she was always such a small little lamb...I don't know what 
happened while I was gone, but whatever it was Fluffy caused one of 
the other sheep to die. Now...you know the situation, we all know 
now. Cleo's not making a secret of it. I'm just wondering...if 
trouble breaks out, is there any way you could help me stop any more 
of my cheep from dying? Only if any help's needed--I'm sure I oculd 
do most of it if--there is an "it"..."

Striper ran a floppy paw down his tired face.

Kitaki stopped running when she saw that she was rather far from the others. She curled in a ball and cried loudly. She was far from them, but not too far. She could still hear them, and see them. She heared a soft hiss behind her. She jumped up and found herself eye-to-eye with an Ekans...Or was it she that it was looking at? She jumped, startled when she saw that it was the sheep she was looking at. Now in a panic, she darted over to Striper, glancing over her shoulder at the large snake, who was slithering closer... 

"Fire doggy!" Kitaki said wide-eyed and scared, "Ekans! It is trying to get sheep! Me saw! Look! It is coming!" 

"Help?" Dante stood at the edge of the group, leaning against a well 
built tree while observing the others eat their fill. "Sure. But I 
don't know how however. Anything I do may just hurt them more" he 
chuckled. "If worse comes to worse, I will just grab the sheep 
they're after, this Fluffy and fly off with it. No enemy means no 
fighting." he moved his left hand a bit. "Any other ideas?"

Char perked up from his meal. He didn't actually like this. His 
friends were going to get hurt. He slowly chewed on the meat while he 
thought of something to do.

" Damn!" Rudy muttered. " She's telling the truth!" he had been keeping a 
close eye on Kitani and upon closer look he had seen what she was taking 
about. The abra started running towards the ekans.

"That sounds good to me," said Striper. "A non violent way...a way to 
get fluffy safe..." Just then he got wind of some bleating and 
sparking going on over down where the sheep were.

"FLAAAF!"

Cleomie's clap of static electricity struck the Ekans. The serpent 
curled into a ball of its coils, the voltage causing its muscles to 
contract. 

"Jasmine! Yo! Tea!"

The flaaffies were already on it, zapping their best shot. They were 
still bleating, clustering into a tight group, firing static blows 
upon the ekans long after it must have been dead.

Dante was ready the moment the sneasle ran into view, screaming and 
shouting like there is no tomorrow. He wanted to just grab that 
irritating sneasle and flame her. It would solve the whole problem. 
As he got ready to lift off, he noticed something was wrong. Kitaki 
was scared, very scared. He glanced behind her. "Oh no, not another 
snake!" he mumbled to himself. "Char! Get to safety! It's a ekans!"

Char was stunned at the shout. One minute he was happily chewing his 
meat, thinking of what to do, next thing he knew the whole groups was 
in chaos. But he heard the shout, and memories of his last encounter 
with a snake gripped him. He needed no more encouragement, he ran 
quickly, away from the path of the snake. BUT WAIT! It was headed 
towards....Char looked in the direction the snake was 
going...STRAIGHT TOWARDS THE SHEEP! "NOOO!" he cried. "DAD, THEY ARE 
HEADED TOWARDS THE SHEEP! STOP THEM!"

Dante jumped and lifted into the air. If he had ran, he would not get 
there in time. "Striper, Rudy! Try to slow that thing down!"

Striper's paws were tearing up the grass as he ran. The sheep had 
laid off their attacks, backing away from their enemy in a tight 
little group. 

He snarled at the ekans, which did not move. He blew a flame towards 
it anyway, should any life be left.

There wasn't. 

"Good job guys," he nodded to Cleomie and the bunch.

Upon seeing that the flaffy's had taken care of it Rudy stopped raised his 
arm and metranomed, hitting it with a thunder shock for good measure.
" Maybe I can use the skin for something."

Dante was already in the air when ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! He saw blue shots of 
electricity hit the snake over and over again. Wow, he thought to 
himself, these sheep have back bone. He flew down and landed beside 
the smoking body of the ekans to inspect it.

Char went slowly to his father, hugging his knee while Dante 
continued to inspect the body. It was a total wreck. It was charred 
black, anything more and they would have ended up with black dust. He 
shook his head, amazed at what he saw. Maybe trying to stop them 
later when they were fighting was not such a good idea after all.

"Oh gross," Jasmine put her hand to her stomach and gave Rudy a look 
of disgust before wandering away from the scene.

Rudy raised an eyebrown at her." Women." he grinned as he leaned down at the 
ekans. It was burnt but.... He dusted it a bit and saw the skin was still 
there. He pulled the scales off of it leaving just the meat.

" If you guys want it, you can have it." He told them"

Before Kitaki could raise a claw to help, the Ekans was burnt black. She sighed and turned to Dante, Char, the sheep, Rudy, and Striper. She sighed again, and looked around at them all with sad eyes. 

"I guess," she said in a more normal tone then she normally used, "I should...go now..." 

Cleomie and the other three sheep were already far enough away that 
if they did hear him, which they had, they could ignore him and 
pretend they hadn't heard him over the munching of grass and cud, 
which they did.

"Ah, you gotta expect they're gonna get squeamish around meat, they 
are mareep--or evolutions of them," said Striper, digging in. He 
didn't want the foolish little ekan's meat to go completely to waste. 
He figured he'd have some of this as an appetizer, for the Pidgeot. 
He ate around the burnt parts.

Char saw Striper tuck in and it reminded him that he was not finished 
with his meal yet. As he walked back, he saw Kitaki slowly walking 
away. Her body language told everything to Char. She was alone and 
afraid, just like he was before he met Striper. No, he could not let 
any pokemon live like that. He had to do something.

Char walked over to the young sneasle. He made sure his father was 
too busy doing something else or he would surely ruin this. "Umm, hi" 
he said meekly to the sneasle. "Do you want some meat?" he pointed at 
the pidgeot.

Kitaki stopped and looked at Char. She smiled. 

"...I guess," she had lost her Pidgey when she was running away from the Ekans. "What will your daddy say though?" 

Char turned. Dante was busy inspecting the body. Char had no idea why 
he was so fascinated with it. "I dunno. But I hope that you could 
be...well...my friend." he said softly.

Striper suppressed his growl and sat back. He wasn't sure why, but 
what was the point of upsetting Char by attacking Kitaki again? The 
little one was clearly befuddled...but then hadn't he himself made 
some frightful mistakes of his own?

Char thought of the time when he was lonely, sad, alone, in the 
woods. The time before he found Striper, before he found that he had 
a dad. The few night he spent alone, crying as he had lost his 
trainer. He never wanted to relive those nights again. And looking 
into Kitaki's eyes. Char felt that the sneasle felt the same way, the 
same sadness he had felt. No, it must never happen again, not to me, 
not to anyone else. He turned left and right, hoping that nobody saw 
what he was doing. He ran quickly to the pidgeot and with all his 
strenght, tore a peice loose. Running back he grabbed Kitaki's paw 
and led her into the forest, not too far away but safe from any 
watchful eyes. There he offered the meat to her. "Umm, here you can 
have this."

Rudy grinned. " She's hardy a threat, is she Striper?" Rudy had been feeling 
kind of bad for Char. He couldn't guess at Chars age but he figured that the 
pokemon's was about Chars.

The Abra sprinted into the bushes. " If you're going to stay could you tell 
us your species and what your name is?" he asked her.

Char was shocked to see a bright yellow thing come barging into the 
bushes. He almost wanted to scream. Then he realised that it was only 
Rudy. "Rudy! Don't do that!" Char heart felt like it would burst out 
of his chest. He regretted choosing this spot. The others had found 
it too easily.

"Nah, she's not really a threat at all, but they can be fast, is all. 
I was just worried she'd try something when we were asleep, but...she 
seems to be acting...less dangerous now. And I mean, she's got plenty 
of meat now so she won't need to make another kill."

Striper tried his best to reassure himself.

Kitaki was about to answer, when she suddenly found herself being dragged into the bushes by Char, and then Rudy sprinting over, asking her what she was and what her name was. 

"Me Kitaki, me a Sneasle," she said to Rudy, then she turned to Char. "...Me always wanted friend...So, maybe we be good friends? And we split the meat, and we both get same ammount...But...When time to go, what big dragon say? And sheep and flame doggy? They no like me..." She suddenly remembered something. 

"I attacked the sheep didn't I?" she asked in a shaky voice. "You looked mad...So did everyone else...And scared too...Did I...Did I really do that?"  

" It's ok." Rudy re assured Char." Striper seems to be warming up to her and 
I'm fine if she stays. Probably only the flaffy will have a problem but...." 
he smiled.

" Er... My name is Rudy, that," he pointed th Char," is Char, the fire doggy 
is a growlithe names Striper, and the fire dragon is a charizard named 
dante." Rudy explained." I don't know what Dante'll think but he'd probably 
respond better if we come out into the open. C'mon." he gestured to them as 
he exited the bush.

Cleomie had grazed her way over and she eyed the situation. It was 
pretty clear. The kid had gotten her @$$ kicked and now she was 
sucking up. She was no threat. Cleomie could wipe the floor with her. 
Blindfolded.

"Hey there Kitaki," Cleomie made a friendly gesture as if saluting to 
Kitaki. "I'm Cleomie. You might recognize me my peeps here as the 
ones you jumped." She grinned. "Let's turn over a new stone, shall 
we?"

"That's 'turn over a new leaf,'" said Jasmine.

Cleomie, still smiling, looked at Jasmine out the side of her 
eye. "Whatever."

Dante wasn't please at this. He wasn't pleased at all. This sneasle 
was trouble, he knew it. He could *feel* it in his bones. But he 
didn't say anything. The group had already accepted the young sneasle 
and he didn't want to make any trouble just because he didn't like 
the sneasle. As for his son, he didn't want to hurt his feelings 
but... 

He stormed over to where Char and Kitaki stood. There, he placed one 
of his claws on Char and gave Kitaki a glare that he never gave 
before. A glare that could only say "IF YOU DO ANYTHING TO HURT MY 
KID..." he flexed his right claw and let a small burst of flame 
escape his jaws to emphasise his point.

Char knew what his father was doing. He didn't like it but he could 
not do much. Dante was his father, no matter what he did. Char sighed 
and gave a weak smile to the sneasle. He hoped that Dante did not 
scare her *too* much.

Rudy sihed at Dante's attitude. It was understandable but still Rudy sighed. 
He moved off a bit from them over to where there was some trees.

" Time to see test number two." He whipped out a strand of psychic energy 
aiming it at a tree branch. It connected and he pulled the branch. It came 
off with a small explosion. After glancing to make sure the others hadn't 
noticed the abra scampered over to where it had come off and noticed a small 
spherical space where the explosion had happened.

He slid don the tree to the ground and sighed. " Okay. that's another power I 
can't use." he said to himself. 
Kitaki watched the Charizard, not even flinching. She smiled at Char. Then she looked up at Dante. 

"Dante," Kitaki began, "Why you do that? If you are scared that me hurt Char, you are very wrong. I would never hurt him or anyone else." Then she turned to Cleomie, "Hi Cleomie. I am sorry for scratching you."

Dante's eyes widened at the sneasle's reply. She actually dared to
face a charizard's wrath! Infuriated, Dante stormed back to the
pidgeot, tearing whole chunks of it and swallowing them whole, trying
to ease his anger.

Char on the other hand was grinning from ear to ear. It isn't always
that a pokemon could do that. "You're very brave!" he whispered into
Kitaki's ear with a grin. Char was beginning to like this sneasle.

The beutiful, handsome and cynical abra, Rudy perked his ear upon hearing the
charizard and his pidgeot meal.

" At least he's not eating any of us." he thought incredable thankfully.

Turning his thoughts back to the matter at hand, he ran through the other
psychic processes which he might be able to do. Teleportacion had "burned"
him and moving objects seemed to cause an explosion. His attempt at second
sight seemed hopefully useful, but that would take ages to develop.

" I've done physical, realmical," what ever that meant," and beyond seeing. I
feel like I missed something." What!? What was left.

" Of course!" he said out loud with as much emotion as the original "
Eurika!" Mental! Some how in his running through he had forgotten that one.

" Lets see. A mental skill would be.... telepathy." The last word he
savoured, like a fine meal.

Rudy strode proudly out to where the rest of the group/flock was, satisfied
that he had learned what was importent.

" You guys can stay here and rest if you want but I'm going to scout a little
ways ahead." He raised his arm to his head in a saulte before heading north
east.

Dante still could not get over the fact that the young sneasle was 
brave enough to actually face his wrath. It really burned him up. 
Inside he was at the point of boiling up, he needed to get some time 
alone. Since Rudy wanted to scout, maybe it would do him some good as 
well to scout out the area to the north, get some time alone. Alone 
the way, he could kill something to let off some steam.

Rudy didn't know what feeling he had felt back there but he knew he liked it. 
He had just blocked out all of his doubts and fears and focused on what 
needed to be done.

" Whoo"

Twas nice and peaceful away from there. No sheep gossiping, or what ever they 
did, no growlithes running after sneasel. Just the chirp of the incects and 
the honk of a horn.

" The honk of a horn!" Rudy pulled himself onto a lowlieing branch, climbing 
up the tree. Off in the distence was the town! It was so close.... and yet so 
far. It was with a bit of sadness Rudy climbed back down. He wouldn't be 
going there until he found fluffy, which did seem like a weird name for a 
killer to him, and he had seen no hint of a flaffy through the dence canopy.

" I guess it's the land route then." he sadly said as he continued his 
scouting.

Dante's gusto for the pidgeot made Striper take a back seat; it was 
worth the wait for safety's sake even if the white meat would be gone 
by the time Striper stuck his snout in there. From the looks of it, 
if he tried to grab a bite now his head might get snagged on 
charizard teeth. 

He picked at the remains of the ekans, the edge well off his hunger 
anyhow.

* * *

"Hey, if you're scouting, we're Sheep Scouts." Cleomie gave Rudy and 
Char a mock salute. "Go where you want, me'n my peeps are tracking 
this trail. Jas, Yo, Tea, swallow the grass, come on."

Dante wanted to just fly away without telling anybody but he could 
just leave Char behind. No, he would not abandon him again. "Char," 
Dante said softly to his son, "I will be leaving for a while, need to 
cool off," Dante stared at Kitaki. "Don't cause any trouble ok?" 
Dante gave Char a hug before he left.

Char was sad that his father had again went away but he knew that 
Dante would be back. Maybe as he waited for Dante and Rudy to return, 
he could get to know Kitaki more, as well as get some rest.

"Hm," Striper watched him fly away. One little sneasel causing all 
this hullabaloo...

"Hm." His gaze returned to the half-eaten pidgeot carcass. He sidled 
over. "Guess he wouldn't mind if I had a bite," he said around a 
strand of dripping meat.

Char tried to stifle a yawn. When was the last time they actually 
rested? Char actually wanted to know more about but his weariness was 
beginning to catch up on him. "Urgh, Kitaki. I'm very tired. Can we 
talk after I catch some sleep," Char's eyelids seem to droop and 
close. Char didn't even bother to look for a better place to rest, he 
just laid on the floor where he stood. Sleep came sooner than he 
expected.

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