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Chapter 7

The morning sun slowly rose, illuminating the once darkened land. The tiny droplets of dew that had collected on the surrounding foliage glistened with each ray of golden light. The sparkling moisture lit up a shimmering path that extended through the forest, ducking under bushes, jumping over rocks, and splitting around the trees. The path continued wandering until it came upon the entrance to a cave where there was no more moisture. The light continued inward, slowly lighting up the cave floor, making its way to the back of the enclosure where two sleeping charmanders were.

The light continued its slow ascent and eventually fell upon the face of one of the little fire lizards. He squinted his eyes first in protest, but then he slowly opened them, adjusting to the illumination. He yawned heavily and brought his claws up to his eyes, wiping the remaining sleep from them. He stretched lazily and pushed himself up so that he was sitting. He looked around the cave after he had adjusted to the ever increasing light. His sister was asleep to his right, her back facing the cave entrance. To his left, he saw that his parents were asleep as well.

His dad was lying on his stomach with his arms around his mom. She was underneath him on her back with her arms around him as well. Movement in his peripheral vision caught his attention, and he looked back to the right to see his sister stirring. She too stretched her body out, raising her arms above her head. The orange and yellow leaf that he had gotten for her was still in her grasp. She must have slept with it, which made him smile, glad that he could make his sister happy with something.

She rolled over to face him, eyes wide awake. She saw his bright face staring at her, and she smiled too and sat up to join him. She looked down at the leaf, inspecting it carefully, before holding it up in front of her face for her brother to see.

She said loudly, "Look! It's still pretty brother."

He brought a single claw to his lips. "Shhh." he said before continuing in a whisper, "Mom and dad are still asleep."

She covered her mouth apologetically and held her breath as she looked over his shoulder to look at the two charizards. He turned his head as well and the two watched them carefully, looking for any sign of movement to see if she had woken them up. Seeing none, she breathed out in a sigh and then said in a very quiet whisper, "Sorry. I didn't know they were still sleeping."

He turned back to face her and said, "They didn't wake up, so it's ok."

"Wanna go outside?"

He really wanted to, but he didn't want to disobey his parents. They had always said not to leave the cave without their permission. Maybe they could go outside for just a little bit and come back before they woke up? No. There was too much of a chance that they would get up while the two of them were out of the cave, and if that happened, they would get in trouble. He was worried that they were in trouble from the night before, so adding something extra to get blamed for was not something he wanted to do.

"We should probably stay inside until they wake up. We don't wanna get in trouble."

"Aww, come on brother. It's so pretty outside."

"But what if they're mad because we were out too late last night? I don't wanna get punished, and if we're good right now, maybe they'll be nice to us."

She made a sour face, frowning slightly. She didn't want to stay inside; she had been confined inside the cave for the past week. It was boring in here, and if they had to be quiet, it would be even more painful. She had to convince him to go outside somehow, and then she wouldn't be so bored.

"We don't have to go very far. We can stay close to home, but just far enough away so that we won't wake them up. They won't be too mad if we're close."

It was tempting, and he really wanted to just cave in, but part of his mind kept thinking about what would happen if they got punished. They might have to spend another week inside all the time just because they disobeyed them. He decided the risk of losing his outside play time was too much to put on the line when they wouldn't have to wait very long to ask permission.

"What if they ground us and make us stay inside though? It'll only be for a little while and then we can spend the rest of the day outside."

She didn't seem too sold on the idea. In fact, she started to look sad as she dropped her smile and lowered her eyes. She was trying to get him to cave in by making him feel bad. He wasn't going to fall for it - not this time. But what if she started to cry? Even if she were faking, he would feel bad regardless. He had to come up with another alternative to stay inside and keep her happy at the same time. He thought briefly and glanced down at the ground, staring seemingly at nothing as his mind wandered. An idea hit him, and he decided to go with it.

"Hey, I've got a game that we can play right here."

She lifted her head up as her curiosity raised a bit. She said, "What kind of game?"

"Here, let me show you." He took the tip of his claw and began tracing lines in the little bit of dirt between them. He stuck his tongue out slightly as he concentrated on moving his claw. She looked down intrigued by what he was doing, and followed his claw around with her head as little lines formed behind it. She watched him work for about a minute or two until he lifted his claw up and smiled.

"Done." he said triumphantly.

She looked down at the lines slightly confused. She looked up at him quizzically, "What is it?"

His smile waned slightly as he felt his artistic ego take a hit. He looked down at his work again. Surely it wasn't that bad... He said, "You really don't know what it is?"

She looked down at it again, concentrating on the arrangement, trying to figure out what it was. When nothing came to her, she looked back up at him and shook her head, "Uh uh."

He knew it wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good he thought... Why couldn't she tell what it was? He thought for a second before he figured it out and laughed to himself at his ignorance. "Come on this side with me. Then you can see it."

She scooted around his work until she was right next to him. From her new perspective, she glanced down in the dirt and she instantly recognized the outline of a two charizards. One of them was nibbling on the other's horn, and the other was smiling.

"It's mommy and daddy!" she said very loudly and happily.

"Shhhh. They're still asleep"

She covered her mouth again and glanced in their direction. They remained unmoving, so she turned back to look at the picture on the ground. She couldn't help but say, "Mommy and daddy must be tired."

He looked over at them as well before saying, "Yeah, I wonder why they're so sleepy."

"Should we wake them up?"

He had been trying to be quiet the whole morning so as to avoid waking them up. But why was he trying to keep them from sleeping? If they were awake - even for a little bit - they could ask them to go outside and then everything would be ok. He tried to think of any consequences that could arise from waking them up. The only thing he could figure was that they might get in trouble for being out too late the night before; but that would happen if they woke them up now or if they waited for them to get up on their own. Thinking about it, he would rather get any punishment over with rather than waiting idly for them to give it to them later.

"Yeah, let's do that. Grab your present so you can show them."

"Ok!"

She stood up and jumped over the drawing so as not to mess it up, and she picked up the leaf that she had set down after she woke up. Careful not to damage it, she gently carried it back over to her brother who was now standing up himself. He smiled at her and they tiptoed over to where their parents were.

Seria was the first to say something, "Mommy, daddy, wake up. Look what Drek got me yesterday!" Neither of them stirred in the slightest at the statement. She looked at her brother who was standing behind her watching. They made eye contact and he shrugged his shoulders. She turned back and said, "Mommy, daddy, get up."

Drek put his claw on his chin. Something wasn't right, but he couldn't quite place what it was. Something about them was different... He scanned both of their bodies trying to find whatever it was that was wrong. It was on the tip of his tongue, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure it out. He looked at his dad's head, down his neck, his wings, his back, his tail... His tail.... All of the feeling went out of Drek's body.

His arms dropped to his side as he stared at his dad's tail. He shifted his gaze over to his mom's tail and saw the same blood-chilling thing. He stumbled backwards a couple steps before falling down, catching himself with his arms. No. He couldn't believe it... He wouldn't believe it... He then noticed that his right claw was wet from when he caught himself. He looked down at where his claw was and saw a moist, red patch on the ground.

He lifted his claw up and turned it over, revealing the red liquid on it. His whole body started to shake violently at the sight. It couldn't be true he kept telling himself over and over. Seria had turned back around and was now concerned for him. "Brother... what's wrong?"

He began to hyperventilate as he stared at his claw. He felt sick to his stomach. Please don't let it be true. Please. He diverted his eyes back to the extinguished tail flames of his parents in some forlorn hope that he was wrong, but the sight only confirmed what he dreaded. Tears quickly rushed to his eyes, and he could only stare at his unmoving parents as water blurred his vision.

She was afraid now. She had never seen him cry before... "Brother?"

He responding with a loud wail as tears streamed down his face. His heart felt like it was being ripped in half as the realization came crashing down. They were gone...

Gone...

GONE!

His cry turned into weeping agony. Every joyful emotion that he once had was now leaving him in the tears he was shedding. They cascaded down his face, splashing onto his belly, forming ever-increasing puddles of pain and misery. It wasn't fair. Why did this happen? How did this happen? It just didn't make any sense, but the result was still there. Their parents were dead, and there was nothing he could do to bring them back. All he could do was sit there and pour his broken heart out in anguish.

His cries echoed off the cave walls, filling their home with sounds of sorrow. She didn't know what was wrong, but just seeing her brother crying like that was enough to bring the familiar tears to her eyes as well. She walked over to him and spoke again, hoping to get some sort of actual answer from him, "Tell me what's wrong brother."

He made eye contact with her. She didn't know. She didn't realize it. She had to know, but how could he tell her when he couldn't even get ahold of his own emotions? She was much more fragile than he was emotionally, and if he was this torn up about it, he couldn't imagine how she would react. Regardless, he was there for her and she was there for him.

He managed to say, "Mom...and....dad...are...gone!"

"W-what do you mean... g...gone?"

"They're... d...d...dead!" He let out another loud wail as he said the last word. He still couldn't come to grips with it in his head and yet he was trying to tell his sister. He didn't care anymore about being the brave sibling for his sister. All he wanted was the comfort of his parents, some sign that what he was seeing was not true. But no matter how long he sat there, the same sight of his unmoving parents permeated throughout his mind. It was too much for the young fire lizard to handle. He needed comfort. He needed reassurance. He needed... someone.

She had dropped her leaf in disbelief when those awful words fell into her ears. No. He had to be wrong. He just had to be. But she had never seen him this distressed before, and he wouldn't be like this if it weren't true. It all started making sense though: why they hadn't woken up, why they weren't moving, why he was crying now... She fell to her knees in front of him, tears now freely flowing out of her eyes.

The two faced each other, their hearts slowly evaporating away with their tears. It was too much for the two of them to cope with. All that they had known for their short lives was shattered in a single instance of terrible realization. They were alone... No... They weren't alone... They had each other, and as long as they were together, they would never be alone. Even though neither was in a position to comfort the other, they needed to have some sort of reassuring contact so that their fragile bodies could deal with the loss.

They made eye contact in their distress and both fell toward each other, embracing the other in a comforting hug. They stayed in that position, crying uncontrollably over the other's shoulder until neither of them had any more tears left to shed. And even then, they continued sniffling until they had no more energy left to give. They closed their eyes, and concentrated on each other's warmth: a symbol of how the fire that sparked their lives was still burning brightly.

They had to adjust. They were forcibly and unexpectedly thrown into having to provide for themselves and take care of themselves. But they couldn't stay here. No. Being around this place would only bring pain and misery upon them that would fester inside their weak hearts for the rest of their lives. But where would they go? This was all they ever knew. The only answer that they could think of was just away from where they were now. Wait... There was one place that they knew.

They could go to Charizard Valley.

Their parents had mentioned what direction it was, so surely the two of them would stumble upon it as long as they kept moving. It seemed the best answer. They needed to leave immediately. Staying here for another night would test their sanity too much at such a young age, and they would not be able to prepare their bodies to cope with the stress. If they waited too long to leave, then it would get dark before they had enough time to find a place to sleep.

He stood up first, breaking the reassuring hug from his sister. He took her claw in his and helped her to her feet before hanging his head low. He turned toward the cave entrance and slowly started walking toward it, pulling his sister along behind him. She followed closely behind as they made their slow trek. She suddenly stopped, and released her grip from his claw. He turned around to see what was wrong, and he saw her turn around and pick up the leaf that he had given her; it was still as pretty as when he found it.

She stared at the leaf intently for a few moments before she turned toward her parents' bodies. She placed the orange frond on her mother's chest, and backed away slowly. Their parents had done so much for them... It was the least that she could do. Also, the leaf would undoubtedly get damaged or it would just remind her too much of this place. This way, she could always remember it as unblemished and beautiful. She turned around, sniffling a bit as she walked back toward her brother.

When she reached his side, she interlocked her claws with his again, and the two started for the cave opening again. Both of them hung their heads low as they neared the cave entrance... No... the cave exit. They would never go into this cave again. It would never be an entrance to them for the rest of their lives.

The two reached the exit and took their last steps in the little shelter that they had called home. They didn't look back. That would only cause more pain to them, and they had been through more in a single morning than any young charmander - or any pokemon for that matter - should ever have to go through in a lifetime. They made it outside, and they turned toward the south. They left everything they had known behind them... they just continued moving onward. On and on they walked together. On with their lives. On to Charizard Valley.