10. A Fractured Sense of Normalcy

Century. Decade. Year. Season. Moon. Hour. Minute. Second. Most pokemon only ever moved forward in time. But for Celebi, time was his sandbox. Forwards. Backwards. Forks that peered into timelines that would never come to be. All of it twisted around him as he flew through The Passage of Time.

“Oh, where is it where is it? Why couldn’t you do this yourself Dia? Where was I supposed to go again? When? Oh, this is so boring.”

Slipping through the timestream was perhaps the easiest part of Celebi’s job. The Passage of Time was his refuge, a place void of sound, a place to relax when other parts of the job could get noisy and dangerous.

Of course, while the traveling part of their job was easy enough, landing at the right place and time was much more difficult. And influencing events without being noticed was even more difficult. What he wouldn’t do to have a convenient disguise.

He paused at one particular spot, letting pulses of light pass by him for a moment. “Right, this seems close enough, doesn’t it?” As he was alone, no one answered the question. But that didn’t stop him from saying, “you’re right. Even if it is wrong, popping in to check won’t hurt. I’ll be in and out lickety-split!”

He slowed to a stop and squeezed his eyes shut, cutting his connection with the stream to reappear at the moment he stopped.

The sky was a deep red above him stars beginning to appear in the sky. He had entered into a clearing. In hopes of getting a better look, he took to the air.

Something was very wrong here.

Smoldering, fresh gouges and craters dotted the landscape. A few of them were marred with smoking corpses of unfortunate pokemon that had either fought or been caught in the crossfire. Though troubling, neither of these things were what made the air so disturbed.

No, what bothered him was how he could feel time twisting out of shape here, bending and scrunching in ways that it shouldn’t. And if he had powers over space, he was certain he’d feel that unraveling too. Soon, this place would become another one of the mystery dungeons. He hated mystery dungeons and their unnatural order, creating pockets that he couldn’t just enter and that screwed with his senses. As if he wasn’t disoriented enough, they had to go and bend the natural order of time out of shape!

“No, no bad, you idiot. This is not where you want to be. Or when? What year is this? Hundreds of years in the past, at least? What time is the ‘present’ right now?”

But the view of the battleground did help clear up where he was. On the positive side of things, he was at least close in space to his destination. Now he just needed to get out of here and travel through time a bit.

Celebi placed his hands on his hips. “Okie doke. Theran Village, Theran Village… Now, when were you founded, again?”

Though the first day of recovery had been frustrating, Haru was soon back into the swing of her normal schedule. A rest by the river, breakfast, work, lunch, work, leisure. Everything was right back where it was supposed to be.

“Put your back into it!”

Well, as close as it could be, all things considered.

“I’m trying, okay!” Nip snapped. His claws were wrapped tightly around a wooden beam more than twice as long as he was tall. Grombert – the diggersby construction worker that worked with her dad – watched as he dug his feet into the ground, dragging the beam behind him one step at a time.

Vale, the current guard on watch, jumped to his feet in an instant, sparks coursing through his fur. “Hey, watch it! No talking back!”

Nip scrunched up his nose at the start of a snarl but stopped after thinking better of it and dropped his gaze.

Haru let out a huff, watching the situation, and shook her head, veering slightly out of the way to walk past the other pokemon without greeting. Three days had passed now since Nip’s trial, and she was more than eager to move on.

“Hey, Haru, is that you?”

Haru turned her head to the right towards the sound of the voice. Her father stood on his hind legs a bit down the path, draped over a debarked and half gnawed-through log.

“There you are!” Haru called out. “I brought lunch!”

“Oh, thank goodness, I’m starving.” The bibarel stood up straight, pulling himself off the log, and then plopped down on all fours and waddled around to meet Haru halfway. “What’d you bring today?”

“Bread with apple jam and roasted potatoes. It might be a bit cold though. Mom made it this morning before heading off to fell a few trees.”

Chip let out a hum as Haru shuffled out from the bag, then began to dig through the contents in search of the box of food.

“Hey Chip, your girl bring any for us?”

Chip glanced up to look at the waving diggersby before turning his attention back to Haru, who nosed his paw out of the way so that she could pull out the box herself.

“Half of that’s mine, by the way,” Haru said. “There should be enough apple jam if he brought his own bread though.”

Chip glanced in the bags before calling back to Grombert, “not really, sorry! But I got some extra jam.”

Grombert grumbled something under his breath before calling out louder. “That’s fine, I was going to pick up some sweet bread from Swell for lunch anyways. I don’t think I need any more sugar than that!” And then he laughed, as if he had said something funny.

The bibarel lifted a bundle out of the box with his teeth and waddled over to where the other three were. Haru considered picking up her food and leaving, but the walk to town had taken a good portion of her lunch break, and she was feeling a bit peckish already. It wouldn’t hurt to eat here. So, she gathered up her own bundle and followed behind her father.

“‘S fine you didn’t bring me anything,” Vale huffed, lying down on his stomach. “I can’t properly digest most of that stuff after all. Besides, I won’t get a chance to eat till Sparks takes over, and he should be here any time now. I’ll head down to Mandi’s then, then Jhorlo wanted to talk to me about something. That reminds me…”

The manectric stood up and moved a few feet back to stuff his head in a bag lying against the wall. He retrieved a small bundle from inside and unceremoniously tossed it. It audibly smacked the sneasel in the face. He let out a yelp and let go of the beam he was holding, nearly dropping it on his foot.

“There you go, eat up. Or don’t, not my problem if you starve.”

Grumbling under his breath, Nip grabbed hold of the bundle and pulled the knot loose, frowning at the contents.

Haru stole a glance over, noting two razz berries, a nanab berry, a corked jar with water, and a small bowl. The sneasel made a face but began to nibble at the berry anyways. Vale caught sight of his expression and let out a low growl.

“Don’t even ask. I already told ya you’re going have to put up with it until you get some money. You’re a prisoner, not a charity case, and razz, bluk, nanab, and wepear berries have all been ruled as safe emergency food sources for obligate carnivores.”

“I think you’re making that up. I’ve never seen, let alone heard of one of these ‘bulkberries.’ Besides, how do I know you’re not trying to poison me? You seemed pretty ready to send me off to my death, after all?”

Vale responded with a grumble and a roll of the head. “What good would it do me to kill you? Other than maybe getting some shut eye for once, since you’re always whining my ears off? Besides, I didn’t prep those for you. If you got a problem with your provisions, take it up with Whisper.”

“Oh, so the pokemon that actually has a reason to want me dead is feeding me. Got it, I feel safe eating this now. Not.”

“Eat it or don’t but shut up. Or I’ll make you shut up. I don’t give a shit if you starve or get poisoned or whatever, so long as you give me some respect and some peace. And. Quiet.”

Nip glared at the manectric for a moment longer, before averting his gaze, turning his attention to the berries laid out in front of him.

Chip sat down with his food as the exchange happened, watching with a curious glint in his eye. He tilted his head slightly, his tail thumping against the ground. “Er… don’t you think that was a bit harsh, Vale?”

Vale let out a huff and shook out his fur before sitting down, scratching at his neck with his hind paw. “Oh, come on, Chip. Why should I be nice to him? He stole and probably ate Whisper’s egg. He killed an unborn child from our village! He should have been locked up at best, or else executed. But no, I’m stuck out here babysitting a murderer because the village voted to rehabilitate him.” He paused. “No, wait, let me be more specific. I’m here because your son voted to rehabilitate him. It was tied up, and your son had to go and be the good guy.”

“Now hold on,” the bibarel said, standing back up on his hind legs, “you don’t know what way Jhorlo would have voted. He could have gone either way! And I don’t appreciate you insulting my son like that!”

To this, Vale let out a low growl, his claws digging into the soft dirt, and muttered something about asking Jhorlo himself. But before he could jump to his feet and do something he might regret, Grombert stepped between the two of them, pushing them back with his prehensile ears.

“Enough! I know tensions are high, but that’s no excuse to be jumping at each other’s throats! Now, Chip, I sympathize with you, but Vale has a right to his opinion, and he does kind of have a point: the sneasel hasn’t given us good reason to be nice.

“Hah, see!”

“And you, Vale,” Grombert added, turning his attention to the disgruntled manectric, “insulting Toshi was absolutely uncalled for.”

“Yeah!” Haru said, stepping up. “Toshi had nothing to do with what Nip did. So, leave him out of it.”

The manectric averted his gaze. “Fine, sorry. I’m sorry for insulting Toshi. Besides, he wasn’t the one to bring that thing back to the village.”

Haru stepped forward and let out a low growl. “Hey, jabbing at me instead doesn’t make you look any better.”

“I didn’t name any names.” Vale gave Haru a pointed look before standing up to back away from Grombert, turning away afterwards before laying down with a huff. “Fine. Whatever. But don’t blame me when another egg gets stolen, or someone turns up dead.”

Grombert let out a long sigh before changing the subject. “Speaking of eggs… Hey Chip, did you get to talk to Tor about our proposal yet?”

The bidoof sat back down and began to pick at his food. “He’s… hesitant. On one hand the extra security-” He cut off, catching sight of Nip staring out of the corner of his eye. “Actually, can we talk about this later? I don’t know if discussing plans is the best idea right now.”

“Eh?” Grombert turned his head to look back at Nip, who quickly averted his gaze and busied himself with trying to remove the cork from the bottle of water. “That’s right! Eat up! I don’t want to hear you complaining about an empty stomach when we get back to work.”

Letting out a sigh he turned his attention back to Chip. “Right, good point. Maybe it isn’t the best idea to have him around the nursery… but then again, they can watch him and the eggs at the same time. So…”

Nip’s ear twitched, and he opened his mouth like he was going to say something. But then he thought better of it and shut it again, turning his head away to absentmindedly nibble at one of the berries, making a face at the taste.

Haru looked up from her food and stared at the sneasel for a moment, guilt gnawing at her stomach. As much as she hated to admit it, Vale sort of had a point. If she, Shimmer, and Muse hadn’t brought Nip back, this all would have been avoided… probably. He probably would have died in the forest, meat-eating wildeners drawn by the smell of blood. But perhaps he would have survived. Perhaps he would have found the village and stolen from them anyways.

“Do you need something else, Haru?”

“Hm?” She tilted her head up and turned back to look at her father, who was staring at her with a concerned expression.

“Oh, no. Not really. I was just thinking about something. I should… Probably head back anyways. I want to get a couple more trees stripped before the end of the day.”

At that, Chip chuckled. “That’s my girl, always the hard worker. I know it’s a ways off, but I know you’ll make us proud when you take over the business one day.”

Haru hummed in response. Taking over the family business… Part of her so looked forward to it, and yet she wanted to make it into so much more, and worried about living up to that dream.

No, now wasn’t the time to worry about it. She took a moment to scarf up and gulp down the last couple bites of food. “I better get going then, I’ll see you tonight, Dad. Goodbye Grombert. Goodbye Vale.”

The diggersby raised a meaty ear to signal his farewell. Vale let out a huff of air and shook his head but showed no real signs of aggression.

She glanced over to Nip one last time as she began to walk away and caught sight of him staring at her, his pupils narrow slits. As soon as he noticed her looking at him, however, he quickly averted his gaze.

As she made her way back towards home, Vale’s harsh words rang in her head, and she found the guilt getting the better of her. And anger. Thinking about Nip, and how he’d wronged the community stung. His answers during the trial had been unsatisfying, as well.

Her thoughts drifted back towards Shimmer’s words the other day. Was she taking things personally?

A few moments passed in silence as she made her way down the path, turning back towards the walkway to the river. And as she stewed in silence, she became certain of something.

The only way she was going to find peace was to confront Nip directly.

To say Umbra was upset would be an understatement.

No, Umbra was livid. For three days now, she’d allowed herself to stew in her anger. How could these idiot villagers just up and protect Nip like that, especially after a crime as heinous as his? She had come so close to catching him, only for it to be ripped away by a sentimental bidoof!

If that didn’t frustrate her enough, now it seemed like many more of the villagers eyed her with suspicion. More often than not, it seemed like there was someone watching her, waiting for her to screw up. She hadn’t even been able to slip away for some peace and quiet, or to hunt. At least Jhorlo understood her needs though; someone always came by in the morning to provide her with food.

Until today, at least.

The morning had come and gone without a single pokemon stopping by her room. Waiting for food to arrive, she had stuck around, trying to curb her restlessness by doing things like grooming, or reciting stories and legends from her Tribe, refreshing memories of the story, as was tradition. She even spent some time trying to think of a way to extract Nip, realizing – unfortunately – that she would have to spend some time understanding the village structure and customs to stand a chance. But still, no one came.

Now, as late-afternoon light poured in through her window, the claws of hunger dug into her belly. Even on her travels, when was the last time she’d gone nearly a whole day without food? It had to have been at least a few winters ago.

To say the least, she was still in a foul mood when she heard a soft scratching at the door. She responded to the sound with a grunt, not bothering to get up from the nest. The door pushed open a moment later, one of the two purrloin appearing on the other side.

“Jhorlo would like to see you,” she announced, dipping her head in greeting.

“It is about time,” the mawile grumbled, finally sitting up.

The purrloin – Lotte, if she remembered correctly (though she cared little about remembering the name) – waited for her at the doorway, turning to begin walking down the hall once Umbra approached. The mawile followed in silence for a moment. However, there was something off, a concern that she voiced after a moment.

“Where is the… Other one? The one that’s usually with you.”

She seemed to be prepared for the question, answering nonchalantly without breaking stride. “Jaques had other obligations to attend to. He will be back in the evening.”

“I see.” After that, Umbra said nothing more.

Before they could get to their destination, however, the duo was interrupted by a pair of passing pokemon rounding the corner: a kirlia and an absol walking side by side, the kirlia chattering away. Umbra muttered a curse under her breath, unfortunately reminded of the meddling pokemon that also lived here.

“Oh, Musey, Look!” the kirila said, pointing before waving Umbra and Lotte over. “It’s out guest of honor!”

Lotte paused to look back towards Umbra before veering off the planned path to speak with Shimmer.

“For formalities sake, it would be best we say hello. Jhorlo will understand our tardiness.”

Muse dipped her head to the pair as they approached. Lotte came all the way up to stand just in front of Muse, her tail raised in greeting, a slight purr rumbling in her throat. Umbra, however, kept her distance.

“Good afternoon, Lotte,” Muse said, her tone warm. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been well,” the purrloin replied. “Work has gone surprisingly smooth the past week, all things considered.”

Muse laughed, her demeanor softening slightly. “Glad to hear it. Sorry we haven’t been around as much lately. Things have been… interesting the last few weeks, as I’m sure you know.”

“Yeah,” Shimmer added with a giggle. “This is, like, toootally my fault. Really though, things have been so wild lately. If it wasn’t for such dire reasons, I’d say I like that things have been shook up so much!”

Shimmer’s voice was loud and overly upbeat. Maybe some could find it endearing, but to Umbra, it was a headache waiting to happen.

Muse looked up and noticed Umbra and, upon seeing her disdained expression, adopted a curter tone to address her.

“Ah, and Umbra. I take it your day is going well?”

Umbra huffed in response, not answering the question. “I have more important things to do than small talk.”

“Aw, don’t be like that!” Shimmer said, draping herself dramatically over Muse’s back. “You’re such a spoilsport. Just like Haru – but at least I like her!”

Muse flinched ever so slightly, raising one paw as she turned back to look at her charge. “Shimmer… perhaps it would be better to at least be courteous to our guest?”

Shimmer waved a hand dismissively in response. “Why should I? She’s not being nice either?”

“Well, it’s not my place to question you but… if you want to be a great leader someday, you have to learn to be respectful, even when you don’t want to be.”

“That is a good point,” the kirlia said, clapping her hands together for emphasis. But before she continued, she raised a hand and held it up to Muse’s mouth in a shushing gesture. “But I’m not a leader yet and I’m not going to be nice right now.”

Her serious statement aside, the teasing smile returned to her face, and she turned back to face Umbra. “So, how long are you going to stick around moping like this? A decision’s already been made, so why are you still here? Go home, or something.”

Umbra’s expression soured. “I will not leave without Nip. It is my duty to bring him to justice.”

“Is it really?” Shimmer said, a mischievous look in her eye. “Is it really your duty? Or do you have some other personal reason for sticking around?”

Umbra narrowed her eyes, a scowl on her face. “It is my duty. But even if it was not, that is none of your business.”

Shimmer continued to stare at her for another long moment, the air tense. But finally, she relaxed, turning away. “Well, all I’m saying is that he’s facing justice, so your really don’t have any reason to stay here, you know?” Then she turned her attention away. “Come on Musey. We got better things to do.”

The absol shook out her fur and turned, nosing Shimmer back the way they came. “Of course. Whatever you wish.”

“Let us know if you need anything,” Shimmer called back towards Umbra. “We’ll be listening!”

And with that, that the two disappeared around the corner, the kirlia chattering about whatever nonsensical thing came to her head.

Something about the way she’d said her last statement unnerved Umbra. But she pushed the concerns about the vapid fairy-type out of her head and instead turned to address Lotte.

“Is she… always like that?”

“Pretty much,” Lotte replied, reaching up a hind leg to scratch at her neck for a moment before standing and turning back to resume their walk towards Jhorlo’s again. “She’s got her head in the clouds most of the time, but she’s smarter than you’d think. Muse helps keep her grounded though. They play well off of each other, don’t you think?”

Umbra replied with a noncommittal grunt. She cared little about what the pair did or did not do. They were not her concern.

When she didn’t respond, the purrloin faltered, shocked by her lack of care for the social niceties. But she quickly shrugged it off and moved on.

The rest of their short trip to Jhorlo’s room was spent in silence. Lotte couldn’t find a good topic to start a conversation with, and Umbra had absolutely no interest in speaking. Soon, they were standing in front of the door.

Lotte reached up to scratch at the door a couple times, then pushed it open the rest of the way.

“I apologize for the delay, sir,” she said as she entered. “We had a run-in with your daughter and spent a few moments speaking wither her.

“That’s quite alright, Lotte,” Umbra heard Jhorlo say. “Thank you for explaining. You’re dismissed for the evening. Miss Umbra, would you enter, please?”

Lotte dipped her head respectfully before turning, brushing her tail against Umbra as she passed. The mawile stepped forward into the room, and the door shut behind her.

It took her a moment to spot Jhorlo in the room. Fabric had been pulled over the opening – the window – in the back of the room, limiting the lighting to just to just a dim, afternoon glow, and whatever was lit by the glowing moss. The purugly’s location was only given away by the slight glint of his eyes.

“Good evening, Umbra,” he said with a slight rumble in his voice. “I trust your day has gone well?”

“Well enough,” Umbra said in a curt tone. “Would have liked a lunch though.”

“Oh, I figured you would have been able to figure out how to get it yourself by now. You seemed so certain and confident in yourself. I apologize for overestimating you.”

The underhanded jab was not missed by Umbra. “Are you… trying to antagonize me?”

“Only time will tell, I think,” he replied, standing up. “I’ll be curt with you, dear Umbra. It all depends on how well this meeting goes.”

“Do I really need to be here for all this?” A voice barked from the corner. Umbra immediately whipped around and spotted a manectric lounging on his side, a bored expression on his face.

“Oh, please hush, Vale,” Jhorlo snapped as he walked around to the front of the table. “I’ll get to you eventually.”

His expression shifted to a restrained smile as he turned back to talk to Umbra. When you’re in my position, there are many things you have to juggle, you see. But we’re not here to talk about that, now are we? We’re here to talk about you. And Nip.”

She scoffed in response, her expression souring. “I would have thought you would have the final say in any judgements, and yet he’s protected now more than ever.”

“Begrudgingly,” Vale interrupted from his corner.

“Yes, yes. I Know. And who was supposed to catch him before the whole village caught up, might I ask? I told you to go ahead of the villagers for a reason, and yet you still failed. This failure is on you.”

“On me?” she growled. “How is it my fault that a bunch of meddlers ran ahead? Those two, the kirlia and the absol, your daughter and her guard, they are under your command, right? If you cannot control those idiots, I do not see how this is my fault?”

Jhorlo rose up to his full height, his voice coming out in a hiss. “How dare you speak about my daughter that way? I don’t think you understand the position you’re in right now, but I suggest you watch your tongue.”

Umbra’s paws clenched into fists. “Why should I? I am not beholden to follow your rules and niceties. Give me one good reason I should not call our deal off and march down to kill him right now and leave?”

The purugly paused for a moment, looking her over. When he finally spoke, his voice came out silky smooth, instead of the previous hiss. “I can give you a few, dear Umbra. For one, if you try, you’ll bring down the wrath of the whole village. Certainly, there may be a few that would sit out, feeling you did the right thing, but the majority will follow the decision that was made. And besides that, if things go wrong, there’s nothing I can do to protect you.”

“I am not some kit that needs protecting though,” she snarled.

“Fine, fine. I can understand the sentiment. However… There is one other thing. Even if you succeed, if you break your contract, well… Let me just say… things won’t go well for you.”

At this, Vale sat up, alert, and looked between the two squabbling pokemon. “Wait, contract?” His voice dropped to a surprised mutter. “Oh, Jhorlo, you clever bastard.”

As soon as the last word left Vale’s mouth, Jhorlo spun to spit a reply at him. “I don’t remember speaking to you. I suggest you hold your tongue as well.”

The manectric flinched before turning his head away, laying back down. “Of course, sorry, sir. Won’t happen again.”

Satisfied, Jhorlo turned his attention back towards Umbra. “As I was saying, we made a written agreement that you would work for me to bring in Nip. And if you fail that, or if you were to leave without sharing, as per our agreement, both of those would be breaches of contract, you see. And per our contract, if you were to break it, well, I would be allowed to use lethal force. And I do not think you want that, now do you?”

Umbra stooped slightly, adopting a defensive pose. “Is that a threat?”

“It can be,” Jhorlo replied casually, “if you don’t keep your side of the deal.”

The mawile stared him down, thoughts racing through her head. How dare he treat her like this? Had this been his plan all along? Maybe he’d conspired with the village mon to sneak Nip out, and this had all been a ploy to humiliate her. “You did not. Mention. This. Before.”

Jhorlo scoffed. “Well, I figured I wouldn’t have to. It was all right there in the contract you signed. I figured any clever mon would have taken the time to read it.”

At that, Umbra had to take pause. It was true that she’d signed a paper, but it had not occurred to her to try reading it at all. Even if she had, would she have been able to read it?”

“Prove it,” she growled. “Let me see this contract.”

“But of course.” Jhorlo turned to reach a paw up and push a glass jar back on the desk, allowing it to illuminate a piece of parchment. As Umbra cautiously approached, she could make out her signature. But as she looked over the words, she realized with dismay that she couldn’t read the writing. Her people had a very simplistic set of runes, with a handful of different print shapes and strokes representing words or concepts. Not everyone had the means to write it, but everyone was taught how to read and interpret them.

These, on the other hand, were made up of a series of dots and lines strung together, running across and then down the page.

“What kind of trickery is this?” Umbra growled. “This is… this is a bunch of nonsense!”

Jhorlo’s head reared back slightly, eyes glinting in surprise. “You mean to tell me that you can’t read this?”

“These are a bunch of dots, not a reasonable language! Where are your shapes? Your pawprints and footprints?”

A silence stretched out as her question hung in the air. Then Jhorlo began to chuckle, his tone turning dark and silky again. “My, my, this is rather unfortunate, isn’t it? Unfortunate for you, I mean. If you had bothered to tell me sooner, I could have done something to help you, you see. I could have explained the terms in more detail!”

“So, what, you’re just going to hold me to something I couldn’t understand?”

“Well… yes? You were the one that signed it without looking, I can’t have helped if I didn’t know, right?”

Umbra had heard enough. All this nonsense, and she still wasn’t any closer to dealing with Nip. “That does it,” she growled. And without a second thought, she whipped around and charged Jhorlo, her skull starting to glow.

Jhorlo seemed to anticipate this, however. Before she could strike, he stepped to the side. She sailed past harmlessly, but as she passed, she felt a sharp jab in her side.

When she spun back around, the purugly was staring at her with a smug smile. “Goodness? Is that all you’ve got? Well, I wouldn’t do that again, if I were you.”

His words only served to anger Umbra even more, to the point that she was practically seeing red. But before she could lash out and strike him again, a jolt of electricity struck her, sending painful spasms through her body.

She whirled around to strike whoever had attacked her, but her jaws closed in on empty air. Momentum from the failed attack drove her forward, causing her to stumble.

“Ah, swagger,” she heard Jhorlo rumble. Was this funny to him? “A risky move, but the results speak for themselves.”

Was this anger the result of some kind of attack? No, she was already angry, this just made her angrier and threw off her perception. But maybe she could calm down, just a little. She sucked a deep breath in through her nostrils, then let it all out in a huff, relaxing slightly. Now that she wasn’t in a blind rage, she could see exactly where the electrical attack had come from. Still in the corner of the room, Vale had stood up, sparks of electricity bouncing off his pelt.

She looked between him, and then back to Jhorlo. This must have been why he was here; Jhorlo was anticipating an attack. With a grunt, Umbra turned and raced towards the manectric.

An arc of electricity raced through the air as she drew close, slowing but not stopping her. She raced up and underneath the electric type, clamping down on his stomach with her second jaw.

Vale let out a pained yelp, flinching as the sharp fangs dug into his stomach. He responded to the attack by whipping around to try and snap at her and, failing that, let out a powerful surge of electricity, bolts flinging out in all directions.

The surge was much more powerful than she expected, her muscles twitching and convulsing as electricity surged through her body. For a second, she though she smelled burnt fur. Was it her own?

But as the surge died down, she realized that her muscles still felt tensed up and unresponsive. She tried to move her arm but got little more than a twitch. Had the blow been powerful enough to paralyze her? Her? How?

“Watch where you’re flinging that electricity!” Jhorlo snapped. Use something less destructive!

“She was biting me, get off my pace!” Vale took the opportunity to whip around, biting down into her torso to pull her off. He flung her a few feet across the room, where she landed on her stomach. With a feral growl, she slowly forced herself back to her feet and tried to face Vale again.

But he wasn’t in the corner anymore.

Instead, he was rushing her with speed she hadn’t been expecting, pouncing forward with sparks dancing in his mouth. She whipped around defensively to block the attack with her steely jaws.

But instead of landing on her, he sailed overhead, landing just on the other side to spin around.

She reached up to throw a punch against his jaw, causing the manectric to yelp. She tried to attack again, but her muscles seized up again at the worst possible time.

He took the opportunity to swat at her with one hard blow from his paw, knocking her down. This time, he did not waste the opening, not giving her another chance to attack. She felt one paw slam down on her stomach and had just enough time to see his mouth burst into flame before he struck, clamping down on her shoulder.

She felt the fangs sink into her skin, biting down not hard enough to break skin, but hard enough to hold her tight in place. But it wasn’t the teeth that hurt the most. No, it was the flames. Fire rolled off around the bite in waves, scorching and burning fur and blistering skin. She let out a scream and thrashed, trying to twist around so that she could get a good bite down on his leg.

But her struggles were growing weaker and weaker as she tired herself out. Which only served to make her angrier. Finally, she managed to hook her jaws around one paw, clamping down hard enough that he finally let go, stumbling back a couple feet.

Slowly, she climbed back to her feet to face him again. She took a step forward, trying to ready an attack, but then stumbled and tipped forward, falling flat. He took the opportunity to limp forward again, standing nearby ready to strike, but staying away from her dangerous jaws.

At this point, Jhorlo stepped between the two.

“My, my. Now this is concerning,” the purugly mewed in mock surprise. “Who would have thought our own Umbra would turn on us? You saw that. Right, Vale?”

Vale grunted in response, letting out a huff of air.

Slowly, Umbra pushed herself back to her feet, paws scraping against the wooden floor. How in Yveltal’s name had she been thrown around by these two? Or really, mostly just the manectric?

As if reading her mind, Jhorlo let out a smug, chirp-like noise before speaking. “What, surprised you had a harder time against pokemon actually trained for battle, are we? Seems for all your boastful, high and mighty air, you’re not so strong after all.”

Umbra replied by letting out a growl, clenching her fists and snapping her jaws threateningly. “Shut. Up.”

“Oh, are you trying to threaten me again? I wouldn’t do that if I were you, dear.” He sat down, seemingly unconcerned, and began to groom his face. Between swipes of his paw, he added, “Vale has more than enough reason and permission to use lethal force on you now, you know. It would be a shame to kill you though, really. You may have broken the terms by attacking me, but I am a merciful pokemon, and would be more than willing to give you a second chance… for a price.”

With narrowed eyes, the mawile squeezed her fists again. “And why should I agree to anything now?”

“Because if you don’t, then you have no further use to me, and I’ll just have Vale kill you now?”

At that, the manectric stood up a bit straighter, pawing anxiously at the ground. “Are you sure about that, boss? I mean… wouldn’t people notice if she disappeared all of the sudden?”

“I highly doubt it,” Jhorlo snapped. “There’s no one here that cares enough to look into it if she disappeared. But I don’t pay you to ask questions, do I? Remember your own debt, Vale.”

Umbra turned her head backwards just enough to see Vale flinch. He let out a soft whine before replying, “yes, of course. Sorry, sir.”

Satisfied, Jhorlo turned his attention back to Umbra. “So, your answer, please?”

Umbra growled for a moment. She shouldn’t have been defeated so easily. Her, defeated by these two? There had to be some foul play at work. Even so… she was in no position to fight right now.

“Tell me your demands,” she finally answered.

A smug grin crept on to Jhorlo’s face. “I’m so glad you asked. Tell me, how much have you bothered learning about the… laws and regulations about the meat industry around here?”

“Get to the point.”

“Fine, fine. Well, suffice to say that around here, eating meat is seen as a necessary evil. But since it wouldn’t do to go and accidently off someone’s relative, there’s a lot of… restrictions. Down here, civilized pokemon don’t hunt, as you might already know. They harvest bodies of the pokemon that die in the wilds. Or at least… that’s what they’d like to believe.

“Truth is, that’s just not sustainable, you see. Too many pokemon need to eat meat to live. I may be a bit underhanded, my dear, but I have no interest in seeing good pokemon starve just because of a few little rules. So, since you’ve already got a bit of experience in hunting, I have some interest in… recruiting you.

“Here’s what I can offer you. If you hunt for me, hunt for the town under the radar until you finish your objective, then we can just… sweep this little hiccup under the rug. So, what do you say?”

Umbra hesitated, clenching her jaw as she looked between Jhorlo and Vale. “… And if I refuse?”

“Well, that would be quite unfortunate. But I suppose it can’t be helped. I suppose we’d either have to turn you over to the guard though, for attacking me, or else kill you right now.”

If Umbra was being honest with herself, her options were limited. Agree, or die. Agree, or let Nip go. Agree, or lose any hope of avenging her kin.

“Fine.”

The purugly’s maw twisted into a cruel, toothy style. “Excellent. I’ll have Vale fill you in on the details in the morning. Pleasure doing business with you, my dear.”