He felt the rush of air, the sense of weightlessness made his mind dizzy. Flight! This was flight. He would learn more about it later. Flight from enemies. Suddenly the sensation of falling stopped. Her tail grasped a branch.
She spun with the momentum and Zeek felt the greatest rush ever. He smiled despite the situation. The sense of the air wrapping about them as she swung and then released her tail. She was soaring from one tree to the next. Zeek smiled as he saw the world hurl by. Leaves exploded in her wake. Her paws grasped a branch and her legs propelled her to the next tree. Her tail balancing her all the while.
Zeek laughed as she bounced to the ground. The jungle was still, silent except for the slaughter high over the canopy. She stepped cautiously as the crickets sang. Dangers lived on the forest floor as well. Victreebels, though declining in the jungle still wandered on the jungle's floor. For small creatures like the smeargle, predators surround them. Hopping on a rock she stood to her full height and scanned the landscape.
“Feralgator!” She softly whispered in fear. She slowly crept behind the stone.
The huge reptile stamped by, not keen on eyesight the huge lizards possessed an acute sense of smell. She held Zeek close as the tremendous footsteps grew lower. It stopped, his mother cringed.
The blue snout swept the air, nostrils flared. Golden eyes searched for the most tempting scent ever. Saliva slowly crept over the scaly lips. Head swinging side to side the gator stepped lightly. Translucent eyelids flipped up cleaning it’s eyes of dust. The blue behemoth craned it’s head low toward the spongy ground. Zeek watched with wide eyes as the nostrils quivered. Zeek found it funny, he let out a chuckle. The head swung up in their direction.
He couldn’t understand why she put a hand to his mouth, why didn’t she want that thing to come over here! He thought it was a fun looking friend. He squirmed in her grasp wanting to see those funny things on it’s snout wiggle.
She prayed Zeek would just settle down. He was excited by the new world of the jungle floor. The mountainous croc thudded closer. She tried to make herself and Zeek squeeze under the stone for protection. She was just too big.
“Tis is muh kill! Get river lizard!” A massive orange head raised from the swamp reeds.
“Keep blowing smoke Char! How many times have I stolen a meal from you?” The gator grinned.
“Muh children need dis meal! Tis time I’m not backuhn down.” The charizard roared and swung his tail.
“Give it up Charlock! That Umbereon is hardly a morsel for me or you! Less your manders! I saw it fall from the trees! Give me the smeargle it killed! I’ll cut you a break this time!”
“Brutus I huv no bad feeluns toward yuh buht I need the meat for the young ones! You know how rare we are tis days. Muh family is starvinuhn! Muh mate is not fairing any betturuh!”
“Cry! Bitch! Wail! I don’t give a shit! I have little ones to feed too!” The croc eyed the smeargle corpse. His tail slapped it out of the water and into the air. His jaws clamped down. “Next time Char! Next time you won’t get off so easy!”
“Brutus! Yuh asshole! Juh hear me! Juh asshole! Chah Damn yuh!” Charlock grasped the Umbereon flying away.
Zeek’s mother breathed in relief as the massive predators left. She ventured out. Zeek turned every which way taking in the sight of the river. He smiled and wanted to paint that river before him. She took several quick scans about before she set Zeek down. He was so small. A Fearow or even a lazy Slowpoke would be a threat to her little one. She drank from the river. Zeek crept next to her. They often drank from the hollowed out gords high above the canopy. This was the first time he saw such a large amount of water. His little lips opened and his tongue dipped down into the water pumping it into his mouth.
He was satisfied he sat and watched her, she was taking handfuls of water and running it over her shoulders. He saw her arms were dripping red like his tail had. He never had saw blood till this day, so he thought it was the stuff from their tails. He wondered what she was going to paint.
She took handfuls of mud once her wounds were cleaned. She pressed it into them, sealing them up and protecting against infection. She pressed it across her sides and along her back. She was so tired as she held little Zeek.
What was she going to do? The others would never accept them again after what Zeek painted and what Sorin shouted. The canopy was forbidden now. Without an elder the scattered tribe would run to join in other clans. They would spread the tale of Zeek, The Death Prophet. The jungle floor was the only refuge for them and it was the deadliest sanctuary to hide in. She found a hollowed tree, she crept into it with Zeek cradled in her lap.
Zeek watched as zubats fluttered by the tree. They flew high over them and further into the night sky. Why had the others grown so angry with them? Zeek could not understand. They had cheered him on, gave him loving looks as he prepared to paint.
In my sheltering arms, in my sheltering arms…
You’ll find peace there!
You’ll find love there!
In my sheltering arms, in my sheltering arms…
You’ll find me there!
Her gentle song eased him. His eyes shut and he began to dream. He dreamed of a far off place where the Umbreon did not exist, where he and his mother would live happily and never worry about chars or gators or Fearow. He held tight and just slept.
“Get away!” She was leaping and Zeek held tight.
The spinarak scuttled about. It spat webs at them. Zeek bleated, he had seen these things before! They raided the smeargle huts at night often dragging babies away. He was almost pulled from his mother’s steadfast grasp by one. She fought so vigorously that the spider gave up. Something had happened in the world and very few wild pokémon still existed. Those that remained were often in bitter battles for survival.
Spinaraks would rather prey on easier animals to snare like venonat or Yanma but, few remained in the world of this jungle. Time and evolution forced the once patient hunters into a more active role in life. They began to hunt by crawling about rather than trusting in webs. It was a survival tactic that proved to be a successful step toward survival. It was good for the spinarak but, like the sparse populations of smeargle it was a foretelling of extinction.
His mother leapt as the spider sprang spitting vines of silk to swing upon. She snarled, if it wasn’t bad enough that the dogs took to the trees it was the spinark plaguing their race as well now. Araidos were pratically extinct now. The larger spider was unable to fit into smeargle huts so they stopped evolving. The huge spiders were seen from time to time but, mostly dead somewhere or dying of starvation. Some would just fall to the forest floor after evolution, as if knowing their kind was doomed they would just lay there letting time kill them. It was over for them, the time of the green runt was at hand.
The spinark launched before them, daggerous fangs quivering with venom oozing from them. Zeek tightened his grip, he saw his face drawn in horror in the insect’s orb like eyes. The little yellow legs began to bend as it was preparing to pounce.
The yellow liquid splashed over Zeek’s face. He shivered as the hot liquid began to cool in the night air. His mother shivered. The spinark was dead but, a massive charizard held the dead bug in it’s jaws. The blue eye slowly turned toward the smeargles. The round pupil constricted into a sliver of darkness. She knew why the dragon’s slit their pupils in such a way. He was sizing up prey.
To be continued.............