Ledyba's Story - Chapter Three
#27 of Sara's Story
I woke the next evening as the first stars began to shine through the dim twilight. There was a mixture of activity around as some Ledyba were still fast asleep and others were busy at various tasks they tried to accomplish quietly. I felt hungry and a little thirsty, so I slipped towards the berries we had brought with us.
An older Ledyba approached me while I was looking for a berry I wanted, and after a second I recognized her from the fighting ring yesterday. She was carrying a plain brown cloth that smelled... interesting was the only word that came to mind. Something metallic and sterile, with a bit of a smoky quality too.
"The Matriarch heard about what you did at the fighting ring yesterday."
I blinked and dropped the berry I had reached for, suddenly worried I was about to be punished. "H-he started it!"
"Relax, you're not in trouble. You actually did good; she thinks we can recruit the fighter you knocked out. He'll be a good help to us if we can. So you're getting a bit of a reward - take this." She handed over the cloth and I took it carefully. I still wasn't sure how I felt about the smell of it. "This will let you go in and out of the dome, if you want to. There are guard posts spaced around the dome, like the one we came in at; if you show them this they'll open part of the barrier to let you in and out. It's supposed to be for gathering berries and food to help feed everybody, but you don't have to bring anything back if you don't want to, or even go outside if you don't. Just be yourself for today." The older Ledyba gave me a reassuring grin and a pat on my back, then flew off to the other side of our clearing.
I stared at the cloth. The Great Swarm had a lot of stuff inside it that was interesting... but I had seen a lot of it yesterday. And I could see more of it tomorrow. I might not have the opportunity to see outside tomorrow, and I suddenly wondered what was out there. Other Pokemon? Interesting berries that we didn't have at home, trees with delicious sweet sap, other treasures I couldn't even imagine? I clutched the cloth tighter and rose into the air, angling towards the edge of the dome. I wasn't sure... but I couldn't wait to find out.
The Ledyba guarding the exit just took a quick glance at the cloth I had and waved me through. He took down part of the reflective screen, then put it back up after I zipped through. I hovered in midair, realizing something was different but not sure what exactly it was... until with a bit of surprise I understood that it was quiet. Inside the Great Swarm there were constant sounds - buzzing of wings, scurrying of legs, distant cheers of excitement or groans of disappointment. Activity had been all around, even in the scent of complex messages passed between swarms and individual Ledyba, but outside the dome...
It was quiet.
I hovered there for a moment, marveling at the stillness disturbed only by the buzzing of my own wings... at least until a Noctowl somewhere in the forest broke the silence with its own hoot.
I picked a random direction - though not the one that the Noctowl's sound had come from - and flew off, excited to see what was out there.
I wasn't disappointed. There was so much to see! I thought the Great Swarm had held surprises, but the forests outside it held even more wonders for me to find. The trees smelled different than the ones back on the island I had left - not quite as sweet, but deeper, like it had more of the dirt and ground in it. I nibbled at a bit of the bark of some trees, but neither the bark nor the sap underneath tasted very appetizing. There were a few fruits that seemed familiar, and a few fruits that I hadn't seen before. I didn't see any berries - they had probably all been gathered up by other Ledyba and taken to help feed the Great Swarm while it was here - but I did find a few other treasures. A shiny rock with flecks of gold in it, a strange red and white orb with a button on it, even a piece of food inside some kind of clear wrapping. I spent a bit of time trying to get the food out, but I couldn't manage to unwrap the crinkly substance covering it, so I dropped it back into the ground and continued exploring.
I was zipping along between trees when something hit me in the side of my head. Pain shot through my body and I plummeted to the ground, bouncing and rolling in the dirt. I caught sight of a decent sized rock bouncing on the ground beside me and realized something must have thrown it at me. I was still trying to figure out what had attacked me when I felt several more impacts, this time lighter ones directly against my chest. They drove the air from me, and I lay on the ground gasping for breath.
"Doesn't feel so good when you're the one being jumped by surprise, does it?" The voice came from above me, and I gradually recognized the voice - it was the fighter from the other day. I sucked in some air and rolled over, getting ready to fight back... but something else slammed into me and drove me further into the dirt. I struggled against it, but whatever it was held me down.
I stopped struggling and looked around instead. Four - no, five Ledyba were pinning me down on the ground, while the Ledyba from before hovered in the air above me with a look of pure malice.
"Stupid nestling. Do you have any idea what you did? I spent years training for those fights! I beat all the other fighters, all the other challenges, and everybody saw me do it! I could have had my pick of swarms to live in, Matriarchs would have been begging me to leave the Great Swarm with them - and then you came along and ruined everything! Everybody saw you take a cheap shot after I was exhausted and knock me out, and now I'm just a joke. I can't get into any swarm; my own swarm doesn't even want me! I'll be lucky if I'm not left behind when the gathering ends to try and beg for a trainer to run off with. You ruined everything for me!" The Ledyba kicked dirt at me with those words, and the dust stung at my eyes. I tried to blink them away and tried to struggle again, then froze as I smelled and heard something terrifying coming from behind me.
Fire.
"So it's only fair I ruin everything for you." I saw a reflection in his eyes as I felt warmth behind me - a reflection of another Ledyba holding some sort of torch, with flames licking up into the air.
"N-no!" I struggled, but the other Ledyba held me down. "That's not true; the older Ledyba told me the Matriarch wants you to join up! She's going to bring you into the nest; she knows how strong I am!"
The anger on the Ledyba's face faded for a moment as he hesitated, as if considering my words... but then he shook his head and the hatred returned. "You're lying! You'd say anything right now - you're just a nestling; a Matriarch wouldn't have any idea who you are. Do it!"
"NO!" I struggled even more, but it was useless. I felt the heat growing behind me and felt the Ledyba pinning me down suddenly pull at my shell, exposing my wings to the night air. I tried to move them out of the way, tried to struggle again, but the other Ledyba kept me trapped. I flinched as I felt the heat approach my wing... and then I felt the wood of the torch touch my wings.
It was... cold?
I blinked in surprise. There was no pain, no burning; just... cold wood. I'd landed on branches that felt warmer.
I heard the Ledyba around me give out startled gasps. The glow around me changed, becoming steady. It no longer flickered as if the flames were moving randomly; the edges of the glow ended cleanly against the darkness of night. And the color...
The color shifted from an angry reddish-orange to a soft, gentle blue.
The glow began to move, and I saw the fire drift into view, moving through the air above me. It wasn't on the torch anymore. It was just a blob of blue fire floating along, almost lazily, as if it was perfectly normal for fire to float away like that and it wasn't bothered one tiny bit.
The blue flame moved out into the trees, the glow fading until all we could see was the flame itself. Then it split in two, moving a few inches apart, and...
I flinched as the flames turned red once more. They started moving towards us at a slow pace, as if...
A Ninetales strode out of the darkness, two red eyes where the flames had been. Her fur was silvery blue, growing bluer at the tips of her tails. She moved forward until she was just a few feet from us and glared at the Ledyba in front of me. "Leave. Before you get hurt."
Her voice was soft, gentle, but it still sent a shiver through me. It was just the way she said it - like it was simply a fact, an observation that we all needed to leave, or else we would be hurt. Badly.
A new pair of bluish flames flickered to life beside the Ninetales' head, hovering ominously beside her.
I was more than ready to do exactly what the Ninetales said, but the other Ledyba still held me down. The ringleader across from me was still filled with false bravado and took a step towards the Ninetales. "No, you leave! This is our land, the land of the Great Swarm! This is for Ledyba, not for you - you are not welcome here!"
The Ninetales tilted her head as if in amusement, and...
I didn't even see the flames move. One moment they were hovering beside her head, and the next the Ledyba was simply on fire. Bluish flames danced over his shell and sent smoke curling up into the sky. He shrieked in pain and spun in a circle, then rolled over to try and smother the fire in the dirt beneath him. It didn't work - the fire simply moved from his back to his belly. He continued to shriek and yell, and...
The flames burning him vanished suddenly. One second he was on fire, and the next second the two orbs of blue fire hovered beside the Ninetales again. The Ninetales shifted her gaze away from the Ledyba still rolling on the ground to one of the ones holding me down. "Leave. Before more of you get hurt."
I felt the pressure against me suddenly vanish and heard wings buzzing as the other Ledyba fled. I started to get up and prepared to fly off too, wanting no part of the fire the Ninetales controlled so effortless, but her gaze shifted to me. "Not you."
She took a few more steps toward me and sat down. Her tails curled lazily around her, pausing only long enough to flip the rolling Ledyba back onto his feet. She waited while he flew off before looking back at me. "You don't belong with a swarm. There is no place for you among the other Ledyba, and no swarm that will show you the wonders and mysteries you seek. But there is one who will - there is a trainer here who needs you, who will take you to the ends of the earth just as you desire. You will see incredible wonders with her, fight in many battles, and make friendships you've never dreamed of. She arrived earlier today." The Ninetales looked away from me and up to the sky, towards the south, as if looking at something far away. "Her Umbreon is in the forest now, searching for a Ledyba to join her team." She paused before smiling gently down at me. "That Ledyba is meant to be you. Go find him. Tell him Sinori sent you to him, and to Sara." She grew still for a moment, then smiled. "I'll see you again soon, Constella."
And just like that the Ninetales was gone. The night was dark again, lit only by the gentle light of the stars filtering through the trees.
I blinked again and rose back up into the air, wings fluttering enough so I hovered just above the ground. I glanced back at the Ledyba who had attacked me, wondering briefly if I should help him, but saw that his wounds were gone. His shell looked just as it had when he had first approached me, completely unburned.
I turned and flew towards the south, keeping alert for any unusual scents. I wasn't sure what an Umbreon smelled like - or looked like, or sounded like, or what an Umbreon even was. But I was sure going to find out.
I found the Umbreon after a few hours of searching. His eyes were as red as the Ninetales, and he looked even scarier... but his appearance was nothing more than an appearance. He was nice, especially when I mentioned Sinori - he had lots of questions about her, and seemed almost sad when I couldn't give him any answers. But he was nice, and seemed impressed at my punches.
He brought me to see Sara, his trainer - and she was nice, too. She showed me many wonderful things - the buildings the humans lived in, the beautiful lights they had made, some of the many foods they had. Sweet saps, honeys, berries. She offered to show me more, if I would be friends with Opal - her Umbreon - and help her fight other Pokemon.
I grinned at that. As if the chance to punch and fight wasn't part of the appeal.
I left with her, with only a brief glance back at the glittering dome growing up out of the forest. I fought other trainers with her, and was given a name after a few battles - Constella, which Sara said was short for the constellations of stars that the dots on my shell reminded her of. I became friends with her and the rest of her Pokemon - in addition to Opal there was a Cherubi named Sonata, who seemed a little nervous around me but was nice once I got to know her, and a Vibrava named Phoenix who I became both friend and competition to. Together we saw many other cities, and gym battles, and a great championship battle - like the ring battles I saw during the Great Swarm, only on a much, much larger scale. And we were winning - at least, we were up until the point we stopped, and Sara withdrew us from the competition. Phoenix and I are still certain we would have won if we had stayed.
But that is a story for somebody else to tell.
Clara woke with a start. Something... something was wrong. What was it? Had it been a bad dream? A nightmare? Something else, some warning at the edges of her senses that had pulled her from her sleep?
She shifted in the bed, reaching out with her mind to touch Flen's...