They looked around the nearby surroundings, thoroughly checking bushes and trees for any sign of the three missing mon, coming up empty handed. By now, the sun had long since set and the mood was low once more.
Lunar groaned and suggested they get some sleep and resume in the morning, Jinx nodded and agreed with him, both of them going their separate ways and back to the comforts of their beds for the night. Lunar took a shower and slid into his sheets, his mind whirring about Crystal.
5 hours after the Dark type had fallen asleep, his royal blue eyes shot open again. He huffed and threw his arms out to his sides, letting out a loud groan as he stretched, feeling his right leg twitch as he did so. His arms fell to his sides once more and he sat up, turning from side to side to stretch his back, hearing a satisfying array of clicks as he released the tension within him.
He slid out of his bed, looking at the clock on his nightstand and taking note that it was 6:03AM. He sighed and thought for a moment, gathering his thoughts and deciding what his next plan of action was, then a low rumble echoed through the room.
"Food." He decided.
He quickly padded out of his room and went downstairs to prepare a large feast of 3 oran berries followed suit by a few gulps of icy water. He padded back upstairs and disappeared into the bathroom, washing out his fur and lathering his body with soap.
Shortly after that, Lunar shook his fur dry and then swiftly left his house, deciding that, if she wasn't awake and waiting for him already, he would let Jinx rest and not disturb her.
He quickly dashed down the path, remembering the route to the river they were building a house by, and soon reached his destination. He stood there for a few minutes, thinking of possible plans of action. He looked to the ground, seeing that the upturned ground had since become mud, covering any prints that another Pokémon may have made. Lunar grumbled to himself and placed his nose close to the ground, unable to pick up a scent either, due to the overpowering earthy aroma filling the air.
The Umbreon huffed in defeat and sat down on his flank, racking his brain to think of something.
"Okay... if I was Crystal... what would I do..." He said to himself, trying to picture himself in what he imagined a situation Crystal would have been in.
A loud crackle of thunder roared above, making the small Eevee jump. The Glaceon acted quickly and held her tightly, trying her best to comfort the cowering 'vee. Her ears fell flat against her head as she pressed it into the Glaceon's chest, drowning out the sound of the storm and replacing it with the steady but hastened pace of the fresh snow Pokémon's heartbeat.
A blinding flash could be heard before a deafening bang ensued, followed by nothing. Crystal opened her eyes and saw that one of the support poles for the house had been struck by lightning, a large scorch mark had embedded itself in the wet wood.
A painful ringing began to fill her ears and Crystal let go of the Eevee, covering her own ears as the ringing began to slowly subside, being replaced by the heavy rainfall.
Another blinding flash could be seen followed by yet another roar of thunder as another bolt of lightning struck the ground, a few hundred metres away. Crystal looked at the charred wood she sat next to before grabbing the Eevee and deciding this place was no longer safe and they were better off elsewhere. Crystal allowed the Eevee to hang below her, the 'vee's small paws holding onto the Glaceon's sides as if for dear life.
Crystal quickly found Hypro unsurprisingly enjoying herself in the rain and prancing around, pawing at raindrops like a cat would to a laser. Crystal groaned and quickly got her fishy friend's attention before they dashed off into the bushes, deciding to build a makeshift shelter in the thick cluster of trees.
They swiftly found a suitable spot and quickly began working. Hypro made wall foundations out of sticks and Crystal formed ice to create thick walls. They did this 3 more times before they all huddled together for warmth.
With the thick ice muffling the storm and keeping the warm air in, they began to quickly feel drowsy. Crystal regulated her body temperature to keep them all warm enough yet cool enough so the ice wouldn't melt on them. Nova was the first to go, she held the Glaceon tightly and began to lightly snore, followed quickly by Hypro, who was lying on her back and aimlessly pawing at the air in her sleep.
And finally, Crystal feel asleep, her body temperature staying stable to maintain the comfortable environment they had whipped up.
Lunar opened his eyes again, just now noticing the charred wood. He raised an eyebrow and inspected it, seeing it looked like it had been struck by lightning. He let out a small gasp and turned his head behind him, noticing the bushed he had been sat in front of had signs of being trampled recently. He noticed the slight dips and partings in the greenery and followed them, before quickly finding the remnants of Crystal's protective ice cube.
He sniffed around, picking up hers, Nova's and Hypro's scent nearby. His eyes lit up and his ears shot skyward before he kept his nose low and he followed the weak scent.
As he kept stalking the smell, he noticed it was getting stronger and stronger before he heard something and his ear twitched. He lifted his head and listened out again, hoping that the noise would erupt again. He waited for 30 seconds before he heard it again, a feminine cry.
He couldn't tell what they were saying but he decided to see where it lead him, Lunar kept sniffing the ground, following the scent and the sound of the voice. He found that the scent followed the same path as the voice, both of them leading Lunar in the same direction.
As he neared the voice, he began to make out what they were saying and who was saying it. His ears shot up as he heard her voice cry out again, "Nova?!"
Lunar sped up and dashed towards the voice, catching a glimpse of blue fur as his muzzle formed a smile. He crashed into the Glaceon and licked her cheek in relief, happy to be reunited with her once more.
"I was so worried!" Lunar exclaimed, hearing a giggle from the Glaceon below him before she pushed him off of her and stood up, looking at him with a grin. "Aww, can Lunar not survive by himself?" She teased, watching him become slightly flustered at her response.
Hypro trotted back over to the couple and quickly greeted Lunar before turning to Crystal with a more important matter, "I can't find her!" Hypro exclaimed, reminding Crystal of what she was doing this far into the forest in the first place. "OH! Yeah, Lunar um... Nova's missing." Crystal said, earning a groan from the Umbreon.
"She probably just got lost while chasing a butterfly or something." He stated, before they all agreed to stay together and look for her as one group.
They looked around and choose a direction then began padding down the path, they eyes scanning the ground for disturbance whilst Lunar kept his now low to the floor, searching for Nova's scent.
After a good while of searching, Lunar picked up a scent. However to their dismay, it was not one they recognised. Lunar sighed and kept searching, picking up a few more scents, he looked around and broke off from the group a little, distancing himself from them by about 5 metres, and searched the bushes, finding another small dirt path littered with paw-prints. Lunar sniffed the ground, deducing that there were Pokémon here recently. He looked around, speeding up a little as he followed the prints, noticing that they turned and joined the main path that Hypro and Crystal were already scanning. Lunar followed the prints and then picked up Nova's scent. His ears shot up as he heard something to his right before he dismissed it and alerted the others, telling them he'd found her scent. What he didn't tell them, however, was that he also picked up a few familiar scents.
He felt his blood begin to boil as an array of events played through his mind, forcing him to pick up his pace. His slow steps became a slow jog before he broke out into a sprint, following the strong scent left behind by the small cub.
Lunar turned around a corner and heard talking, he caught a glimpse of a few Pokémon with gruff voices and hid behind a tree. He silently told the girls to stay back and hide whilst he silently stalked the group of males ahead of him. He turned off his rings and swallowed his hateful growls as he recognised them as the pack of Mightyena who had been causing him so much trouble. He saw Nova cowering on the ground in front of them as they taunted her.
"HEY!" Lunar shouted, using a special technique to bounce his voice off of the surfaces around him, making him sound both louder and everywhere.
This spooked the pack of dogs, causing them to turn around and growl loudly and take their attention off of Nova.
She noticed this and tried to make a run for it before one of them noticed and kicked her in the stomach, temporarily immobilising her.
Lunar watched silently as his rage built, he felt his paws twitch and he crouched down into an attacking stance before he shot off a dark pulse he had been charging in the meantime, drawing their attention to Lunar once more.
One of the Mightyena growled and retaliated with a dark pulse of his own, barely missing Lunar before the Umbreon charged at him with quick attack, knocking the wind out of the dark dog. The other two Mightyena took this as a perfect time to flee. They grabbed Nova and slung her onto one of their backs and took off as Lunar and the Mightyena struggled on the ground.
Crystal intervened and shot an ice beam and followed up with a quick attack of her own, knocking the dark type off of Lunar, allowing him to escape and charge after the other two dogs.
He growled loudly and used quick attack to catch up to them, seeing Nova looking back at him in fear.
The Mightyenas split up and Lunar continued to pursue the one carrying Nova. He growled and shot a dark pulse, point blank, and realised his mistake as he flung himself back a few metres, giving the Mightyena a wider window of escape. He growled again and resumed his chase, beginning to tire out from the constant use of his moves. He used quick attack again and caught up to the Mightyena again, the dog looked back at the Umbreon and smirked before kicking him away again and then banking right.
Lunar kept following, his eyes fixated on the Eevee cub as they ran. The Mightyena ahead of him grinned and sped up before leaping over a giant gap in the ground, making Nova scream as they got 3 seconds of airtime.
Lunar failed to notice this gap, slipping off of the edge and hearing Nova shout "LUNAR!!" in horror as she watched the Umbreon fall, letting out his own squeal of fear as he did.
The Mightyena stopped momentarily and smirked at the sight before taking off again and disappearing into the dense, dark woods.
A/N
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it feels great to write again.
I'm so sorry for the ridiculous delay but I hope to not repeat that in the coming year.
HOWEVER!
I will begin school again on the 6th of January and will have less time to work on this and other books. But the most important life update is that in February there will be no updates. My first set of mock GCSE exams are set to begin starting on Feb so I will focus a lot more on school work and focus less on this for the month. However after that I don't know what will be going on, I promise to keep you all updated should anything come into play.
With that out of the way I really hope you enjoyed this instalment and consider leaving a like and dropping a comment below, I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions on this book.
If you haven't already, feel free to join my discord server - link in bio-! There you can see previews of chapters, engage with my community, contribute to my book, make friends and much more!
oh yeah, happy new year everyone! I hope you all have a great one <3
Date released - January 1st 2021
Time Taken to write - hm.. 180 days
Total word count - 2158