Burning Embers- A Pokemon Fanfiction

Chapter 3- Hunters Don't Choose To Kill

The longer the explanation, the bigger the lie. - Chinese Proverb

The night had fallen, the sun had risen, casting its bloody fingers through the tree gaps in ghostly rays of scarlet panels. The sky was still deep indigo, but streaks of orange decorated the great dome, accenting the stars. Branches reached their fingers up to that sky in the chilly morning air. My breath billowed around my neck like a mane as I ran after my brother, who knew the woods much better than I did. 

We had decided to go hunting at the crack of dawn, and it was still very early. We had been running for hours now, but we had to in order to find prey. Neither of us had eaten for days and the whole family was hungry. Pele promised to take care of Holo while we were gone, but I wished my sister had come with us. She was the best hunter in the family

Kawela led me tirelessly around thin dead trees whose bark was black and rotting, over hills and rocks and dead foilage. My lungs ached and my scabs hurt, cracking open and bleeding as I forced my legs to move as fast as they could. Even with my efforts, I still lagged hopelessly behind my brother.

The shadows shortened and the panes of light faded as the sun rose farther and farther into the sky. Specks of diamond we called stars disappeared from the broken indigo sky above, fading to a more light blue color. I couldn't pay attention much until the trees fell away, and we were standing in a giant white field.

Blinded by the bright snow tinted red, I closed my eyes tight, and dug my claws into the snow and forced myself to abruptly halt. Breath heaving in my chest, I stood there for a few moments, recovering from our long run. I felt Kawela nudge my shoulder and I opened up my eyes the smallest bit so I could look up at him.

"You'll be fine," he assured, his eyes wide open. "It's no different than looking into a fire."

I let the darkness around the edges of my vision unfurl fully and gazed upon the clean snow, noticing that it didn't hurt my eyes as I thought it would. I had never seen snow so perfectly untouched. It was always muddied and trampled by footprints in the forest. Out here, an unbroken blanket of white stretched as far as I could see. Snow-capped red mountains rose far in the distance, standing almost invisibly along the arching horizon. Pink clouds drifted in the sky above, floating with bliss along the winds far above. 

"Wow," I breathed, releasing a cloud of steam into the air around me. 

"Wow indeed," Kawela laughed, breaking into a sprint and ruining the snow with his prints.

"Hey wait!" I called, racing after him. I was glad we had left Holo behind with Pele, she would never be able to swiftly traverse all the way out here without tripping and hurting herself. Something about the small Litten made me feel better about myself. Maybe it was because she was even worse at everything then I was, or maybe it was the fact that she made me feel secure. Whatever the reason, I was glad that my parents had let her stay.

Kawela suddenly halted and I slammed into him, falling rump first into the snow as I did so. I shook myself off and stood on the tips of my toes to look over his shoulder. Tracks that didn't belong to us were strung across the snow in erratic positions. They were long and had little claws at the ends of the tracks.

"Buneary," Kawela announced softly. "Looks pretty recent too."

"Let me catch it," I whispered. He looked at me questioningly.  "I want to get it for Holo."

My brother shrugged. "Alright then, your choice. I'm blaming you if we don't catch anything else though," he added teasingly.

I rolled my eyes and stepped in front of Kawela. I was determined to catch that Buneary. We hadn't seen anything in days, so its appearance was a blessing. It was nice of Kawela to let me try, and I knew that even if I screwed up, he'd track it down and kill it anyway.