Cynder woke famished, he rolled on to his gut and started the slow process of morning flexes. He felt the strange mixture of acids in his stomach churn and groan for nourishment. The group of females he bred still lay sleeping. He shook himself awake before hunting. He lifted his snout sampling the air for prey, his ears quivering, straining to hear a smaller heartbeat, the slight escape of breath of lower animals. Cynder made a dashing run into the fields.
He pounced upon an assortment of rodents. He still had a rumble in his stomach. Cynder took to the trees. Typhlosions being excellent climbers allowed him to snatch up bird eggs. While the feathered critters pecked at him, he simply slurped one egg after the other discarding the shell to the ground below. His snout pointed in various directions as he hunted for more. His kind being so heavy needed to eat their own weight in food and the sparrow eggs weren’t cutting it. He tried to detect spearow or pidgey nests, he didn’t catch wind of any.
On the floor again Cynder was still hungry. He stripped a privet bush of it’s purplish berries. He attacked an ant hill. Unlike the cyndaquil, ty's lose the tough skin on their tongues. He soon lost interest due to stings.
"There has to be something worth eating around here!" His jade eyes scanned the foliage. His stomach continued to beg for more.
Something moved ahead. Leaping he tumbled with it, as the dirt settled he found he tackled a bellsprout. Grumbling to himself he eyed it trying figure if he was hungry enough to eat a sprout. He snapped off the head the only edible part of a sprout. The stalk was tough and the roots would take a year of chewing to soften the fibers slightly.
As the stalk lashed about Cynder went in search for more. He found a few poor specimens, they left him craving more. He crashed into another plant. Again he waited till the billowing dust clouds settled. He found he caught an oddish.
"Don't eat me please!" It shivered while Cynder's drool struck it on the face.
He considered if he should let it go. Sniffing he found it rather unappetizing in smell, though Oddie smelled worse. He opened his jaws, it would barely fit in his mouth. He looked down at the pitiful thing covering it's face with leaves.
"I'll make it quick." He threw his head back parting his mouth, his eyes shut.
He felt the plant quivering. His ears flopped to the sides of his head. He shut his mouth and looked at the oddish.
"I must be going soft." He raised his paws letting the creature run into the woods.
Wiping drool from his lower jaw he jogged back to the clearing. He kept wondering to himself why he let the plant free. He always ate what he caught unless it wasn't worth the trouble like Qwil. He caught her while he was fishing. Considering the spikes and poison he dropped the malicious puffer fish. As she flopped around Ace captured her. It was rare Cynder allowed prey to scramble away.
In the meadow once more Cynder trotted over to the sleeping group. As he began to harass a doe with snout bumps to her face a golden body fell from the sky landing upon a sleeping doe. Cynder roared, the three other does lifted their heads and as the fourth grew silent they bolted. Cynder crowed as loud as he could. The Call of Unity.
Draco reluctantly took a flame bath. He rolled in the morning dew but, it wasn't like his usual swim. Bored he began to sleep again. He dreamed of Cole, he was slowly guiding his hands about her face as his other drew her hips nearer to his. She looked into his eyes and her hand raised.
“Why did you leave me behind!” She struck her paw fully across his face. “You always abandoned me when I needed you the most!”
She struck again, Draco cried out as the King and Queen stood before him. He was lashed at with whips. All shouting at him about his betrayal of them. All shouting that he abandoned them all to the fiendish plots of Team Rocket.
Nearby Ace dreamed of his father, mother and sister gathering torturing him for his failures. Ace felt the crown of House Emerald crash down on him, shattering his body. The past rulers of Emerald gathered shrieking failure at him. He stared each elder wolf in the eye shouting his innocence in Emerald’s fall.
“You son of a bitch!” Cole shoved him on his rear. “Where were you! Why didn’t you save me? They hurt me and you were off in Amber fucking hens! You bastard!”
“I thought you were dead Cole! I was told you were dead! I tried to go on living was that a crime!” Draco shouted.
“You gave up on me! Was Landra that good? She left you to follow her trainer!”
“Chah! These false images! Chah make it go away please!” Draco shut his eyes as he covered his ears.
“Why should Chah help you Draco? You never really had faith in him! You always question if he truly exists! That is when you are not accusing him of ruining your life!” She laughed, so cruelly her laughs punished him.
“It’s a dream nothing more!” He woke with sunlight blazing in his eyes.
He wiped the tears from his troubled face. What was the dream all about? It was his guilt, his guilt worming into his mind and stinging him at every turn. His guilt for not staying behind with Cole, he could have told Ace he refused to go into Amber but, he hadn’t. It was his guilt for not being there to save his adopted family. Ace’s parents treated him like one of their own. He knew it was his guilt for loving another while Emerald suffered, while Cole suffered. Yet? He was told she was dead, did he have the right to try another chance at love?
Loki laughed within his prison. He was easily manipulated by this hen, Loki had delved into his mind and found what he needed and what he could use. He had to think it over, even now the drake was in control of his rage. How was this all possible? How was the char capable of such control? What had Loki lacked in his life that made him such an untamable fire? He would scorch anything in his path for his pain drove him into his killing sprees. Loki remembered though it was hard, he had once tried to soothe his pain.
He failed and many suffered for his inability to be at peace. He was in every sense a demon. There was something in his past he could recall. He had lovers. He waited in his lone cell and recalled those who he loved and those that had returned his love. Loki wondered if he could ever find a mate, a perfect mate for him. Had his first mate as a ghost had stayed by him he would have been something else. His evil would have been vanquished and he would never have found himself captured by Ace.
As before in these dreams near the end a black she-wolf with brilliant purple eyes came to soothe the pain away. Ace felt his mind settle. He felt like slipping into his own wolf form.
He lifted his head as Ace began to stir. Laura was watching Ace as he slept. Draco saw something Ace didn't, she was interested in him. Draco's grin embarrassed her. He forced away his dream, he had to save his father so he could return to Cole. He was going to do the right thing after all of this, he would be at Cole’s side no matter what.
Nero was gone. Draco found this curious. He strolled about until he found the youth staring at a map. Leaning over his shoulder Draco tried to read the odd scrawl on it. The few words he could read didn't help much.
He noticed Nero's dyed brown hair was fading. In fact his surreal white hair began to leech through. It even was growing longer. Nero greeted Draco. He gave Draco a scratch behind the ears, Draco enjoyed it.
Strolling back he found Ace already up, a red shirt flapped against his body. A fierce green dragon was stitched on the back. Draco imitated the ugly face for fun.
"Shit!" Ace fell on his ass and scrambled away when he turned to see Draco's face.
Draco was stunned, he stepped back with his face showing his confusion. What did he do? Ace was shaking as he kept staring at him. He was fooling around he didn't mean to scare Ace like this. He decided he was making it worse by trying to apologize and help Ace up. He kept backing away from Draco. He flew off.
He was high above when a distinct bark cracked the air. Knowing it well Draco dived ready to battle. He knew he was hearing Cynder calling for unity. He filled his fire lung, the gases pouring rapidly into it. He sent a wave of dirt flying as he set down.
A female tore into a Ty corpse while a male roared in Draco's face. He was a giant, Draco compared his six foot body to the eight foot brute before him. A Charicific Valley char? He was huge like one. Draco had no choice he made his intentions clear. He was stealing their breakfast.
Locking his green eyes with the goliath's blue eyes. He lowered onto all fours, snapping his jaws while snarling. His tail flogged from side to side, lashing in the giant's face. Making false slashes Draco hoped to intimidate the older charizard. A battered Cynder came to his side. Goliath growled and raised a paw to strike.
To be continued..........