Quest for Life, Part 1 ( A Pokémon Story)

Chapter 4: Recollection

"Did you try making it to another village?" I asked.

"You know full well that I wouldn't be able to reach the next village in time." Nate scolded.

"Sorry, I thought you would've made it." I said pulling my hands back. Nate then looked back at his own hands.

"No, I'm sorry. It's been so long since I had a real friend in such a long time. All I've had are just rouges and robbers around me." Nate admitted.

"I can help you, we can start you off with a clean slate." I said trying to comfort Nate. Nate looked up from his hands and stared directly at me.

"I don't think that can happen." Nate said disappointedly. He leaned onto the table and showed his tattoo on his arm. "You may be able to set a clean slate, but everyone would recognize this symbol. I'd never be able to live a life of peace." I thought for a minute, then a thought came to mind.

"You know how I offered your men freedom?" I said looking into Nate's eyes.

"Yes, but they're all dead, you finished off the last one." Nate replied.

"What if I could give you that same freedom?" I asked calmly. Nate stared at me with confusion.

"How? Tattoo's never come off once they're put on." Nate said bringing up his tattoo again.

"It's going to be painful, but it will grant you your freedom from the rangers." I said bringing up my scythe. Now that I looked at my scythe, maybe it wasn't the best choice, but I knew someone who could help.

"You plan on cutting off my arm!? No way! I'm not doing that!" Nate exclaimed.

"What? No, I'm not going to cut off your arm, I'm not mad." I said setting the scythe on my lap. "But it will draw blood, that much, I'm not going to lie about." Nate looked at me, then back at his tattoo on his arm.

"Fine, just get it over with." Nate said stretching his arm.

"Whoa, hold on a minute, I can't do it with my scythe." I said returning Nate's arm. "If I did, I'd more than likely kill you before I get the tattoo off. But one of the others could get it off." All of a sudden, we heard a voice from outside the doors.

"Sir, if this is true," A guard said stepping through, "then let me share your pain. I'm getting tired of being a Ranger myself."

"Same here." Said another. "I can barely stomach down what we have done."

"Well, what do you say?" I asked. Nate looked at me with mixed emotions, then looked at me solemnly.

"For so long, I've forgotten what freedom is, but now, I can get mine back." Nate said assuredly.

"Before we go on with the plan, there are a few things I want to talk about." I said calmly. "But to finish this up, we are going to need some rags or some kind of strong band we can put on your arm."

"I know where a few are, I'll go gather them right now!" A guard said running back out. Apparently, we were speaking a bit loudly, and a few guards had overheard our little plan. They were all interested in being free from the Rangers.

"That being settled, I would like to get everything we had back, at least, that I don't already have."

"And what would they be?" Nate asked.

"Mainly it's my armor and some supplies, that's all." I answered.

"I'll see if we can find it or get it from another Ranger, but I wouldn't be surprised if most of it fell into the pit." Nate replied.

"Alright, we'll look for that later, but for now, I need you to take me to the other generals." I said finishing up.

"My men should have taken them outside near the gate." Nate said. "Come on, I want to get this over with as soon as possible." With that, Nate led the way, along with about twenty others, towards the other generals. The guard returned with some rags and a few chains. At first, when they saw the crowd coming towards them, the tensed up and got into defensive positions, but once they saw how relaxed I was, they knew they were over-reacting. I explained my plan to each of them. When I said my plan to remove the tattoos from them, some were so afraid, that they fainted onto the ground. I figured this would be a better opportunity than most. I instructed any with hard skin to go to Carinthia and Kathrin, the rest would go to Lilith and Sarah. Nate was the first one to step up to get his removed. We strapped a cloth around his arm to cut off the blood.