The Viterals

Chapter 12: The Split

"Five!" Lyres stepped up and took the next Eevee as everyone else was preoccupied.

"Another!" Makua said, coaxing it out of the mother.

"Kappa!" Bambi said, kneeling beside her Eevee. "You have to go through with your evolution! Don't fight it Kappa!"

Kappa.

Where had his baby cousin gotten the name, Zakana wondered. He would ask her when he got the chance. He would be able to ask her so many things.

"Kappa, can you hear me?" Bambi kneeled over her Eevee in desperation. "You have to go through with your evolution. I know its painful, and I know you probably want to be the same thing as your babies, but you have to change now! You can't fight it!"

She had changed, Zakana knew, just in the time that he watched her now. Bambi was stronger, fiercer, and more brave than he was. He held the baby thing in his good arm. It was kind of cute, but it would probably change soon and become big and ugly, like most Pokémon.

"Here it is," Makua said, handing the next baby to Isaque.

Kappa panted. And whined. And screamed. And Zakana thought the whole forest would be upon them soon. In fact, it was eerily quiet and as he looked across the clearing at the other faces, he knew something else had changed.

"How many babies are there?"

"There she goes! She's pushing out another!"

Again, Kappa's coat fluctuated, became a shimmer of gold and black, fought against the pull of beige.

"Fight it, Kappa!" Bambi said.

Still, Makua slaved over Kappa's birth space. "This should be the last!" It slipped out with ease.

Finally, at Zakana's feet, Kappa's coat went solid black, instantly, like a button had been pushed, and gold bands appeared at its ears, legs, forehead and tail. Hower continued to lick Kappa to cool her. Tiny yips of fear and confusion sounded among the group, as each member held an Eevee. Everyone except Bambi, whose Eevee now lay at the base of the tree, panting still, through with the birth and the evolution but clearly in pain. And now, it was no longer an Eevee at all.

Zakana flicked open Oodi again, pointed it at the new form.

"Umbreon. The moonlight Pokémon. Umbreon evolves from Eevee as a result of exposure to the moon's waves. This Pokémon can be dark and secretive, and waits silently in the darkness for its opponent to make a move. The rings on its body glow when it leaps to attack."

Bambi kneeled closer to her new Umbreon and softly pressed her body to it. "Oh, Kappa, I was so worried about you!"

"Hush!" Lyres said.

Again, Zakana felt the silent whisperings around him. He noted the way this Umbreon's rings glowed under the moonlight. Everyone seemed to be watching it, waiting for some reaction. When it opened its eyes, blood red stared back.

"We need to move," Lyres urged. "It's the worst place to be at this hour."

And then, Zakana felt the presence again.

Something lurked beyond the trees. His training told him there was another presence.

All at once everything tightened. The group hamstringed together. Something emerged from the shadows. Quickly, deliberately, it faced them, raised an arm and threw something.

By instinct, or something else entirely that Zakana could not place, he stepped in front of the object.

Instead of hitting Kappa or Bambi, for where it was headed, it nailed Zakana, just above the knee.