Once Is Enough

Part 13 (End)

Until...

"It started to become some kind of a game for them, to see who can bring back the most food in the most savage of ways. And that method... Soon became the only way to raise in the ranks of the pack.

Avian stopped suddenly, as did his world.

Power. It was all that mattered, the top priority."

His amber eyes became dead wide.

He felt his heart lurch as he settled on the sight.

As he remembered his next words.

"At this point... If I were to even to pick a fight with any of them...

...I probably wouldn't come out alive..."

"ZOAR!"

Avian rushed over to the Pokemon as he lay on his side. Gashes, open bite wounds, and claw marks covered his once beautiful black and blue fur that he took care of so well with dark red matts that dripped off his figure. His eyes were closed, his chest barely circulating with oxygen. One of his legs was entirely mangled with fang punctures and hardening mud, and the ground they rested upon was puddled with his blood, which Avian became soaked in when he touched his still body.

"Oh no...! Zoar, NO!" he cried, shaking him. "Wh-what happened to you...?! Did they do this to you?!"

Zoar struggled to open his eyes, now dull and cloudy. When he tried to look at the pup, who was begging for him to at least show he was alive, he saw that his vision was blurred, Avian's face almost blocked from his sight.

How he longed to see it again. So much, that he never wished for anything else as much as he did now.

"...Ave..." he rasped. Avian hastily looked at him, a drop a relief brushing his heart.

"Oh, Zoar...!" The Riolu hugged himself to his neck, feeling the touch of his body once again. It was colder than usual, but he tried his best to warm it up again with his. "Wh... What... Why did you fight them on your own?!" he whimpered with his cracking voice. "You knew this would happen...! Why didn't you let me help you?!"

Zoar breathed shallowly. "...I'm sorry... Kit..." He trembled weakly. "...You'll understand one day..." Avian shook his head recklessly.

"No! I want to understand now, Zoar! I'm not a little kid! You know that!" His grip tightened around the Luxray. "I...I'm...! I'm not...!" Warm droplets fell from his eyes, and he hiccuped the shakiness from his throat.

The wounded Zoar could only watch Avian break down beside him as he lay limp there in his arms. The feeling was indescribable; never did he imagine this happening. It was almost so unbearable, he wanted it to ebb away from existence into a some sort of a paradise. But he knew Avian wanted it to too. Avian... His pride and joy.

"Do you... Want to know something, Ave...?" he muttered. He felt the Riolu nod between his mat tremulously. Zoar wheezed softly. There was so much he wanted to say! But...

"I always dreamt that I would see the day you would glow that shining blue...

...That I would... Watch you grow into that... Strong... Resilient form..."

No... Stop it...! Avian trembled, grieving even more.

"The light would die down... And you would run into my grasp..." He let out a husky chuckle.