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The tags this time are; birth, blood, death, and tragedy.)\n\nMalla's last little bit of hope flickers out forever.\n\nThis is a side story for the Wellspring series, commissioned by @Overwatchz. There are more entries and the main story on my page!\n\nWant to see more and interact? Join our Discord here! https://discord.gg/efYzC8jT9B", "description_bbcode_parsed": "(As with all Side Stories here, this one delves into Question Content. The tags this time are; birth, blood, death, and tragedy.)

Malla's last little bit of hope flickers out forever.

This is a side story for the Wellspring series, commissioned by \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOverwatchz\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOverwatchz\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
. There are more entries and the main story on my page!

Want to see more and interact? Join our Discord here! https://discord.gg/efYzC8jT9B", "writing": "Malla stood on the bow the bounding ship… Her eyes were fixed on the horizon, and burning brighter than the sun above...\n\nHow had Purgis managed this? It wasn’t a large ship… But with a few whispers and screams, she’d emerged from the shadows and pointed to their transportation. Across the sea they would go, so said she… And she guided them with her strange lantern, and a few soft commands to make the sail turn the way they wanted…\n\nThey had stolen some cargo ship, free of most of its intended load… Now they made their way towards the destiny Purgis demanded…\n\n“We will go around the landmass…” The fox said, arms firmly crossed under her chest... “Though it will take us some time, there on the wilder half of the continent, we can approach the heart of the Deep Forest without being…”\n\nShe glanced back at Dak, who was leaning very slightly over a railing to look at the waters below… Deep, dark, and fathomless… Or was it that it had many fathoms… Too many… Enough to crush his heavy body if he so much as…\n\n“Dakarai.”\n\nHe jerked his head up and let out a subtle, held breath… He took a few careful steps back from the rail before looking at her. Despite how focused she was, she couldn’t help but allow herself a smile…\n\nHe was well contained on this place. Malla had to assure she took care of him when he became too feral… but it was not near as often as she assumed…\n\n“We slipped away unseen. They’ll notice the ship is gone, but with our tailwind, we should be able to make good time… If nothing else, we can always crash land and flee…”\n\nShe turned and breathed out hard… She draped her arms atop her immensely heavy middle, and her eyes drooped…\n\nThe baby inside gave a petulant, bothered kick…\n\n“I just hope we land before… I mean, we have plenty of supplies, but I would rather be on dry land when my water br-…”\n\nShe turned her head suddenly and squinted. A gush of sea foam on the horizon had drawn her attention…\n\n“...Jumpy. Go back to the captain’s quarters and relax.” Dak grunted, arms tightly crossed...\n\n“I don’t need your advice. You focus on what’s important to you, and do not cause trouble…”\n\nDak’s muzzle twisted into a frustrated snarl, but he indeed turned and wrenched up the trap door to the cargo hold. He disappeared into the shadows, illuminated near-uselessly by the swaying lanterns that were strung on the walls…\n\nHe stopped walking. The lantern gave an electric buzz as it flickered, swaying gently and illuminating her, casting shadows across her form… Dak couldn’t help but draw his tongue along his craggy fangs…\n\nIlianna laid there, on a straw mat. She was curled softly, and one of her legs rattled the chain tightly locked there…\n\nDak slowly stalked up to her… His breathing was manic… Quivering… Each soft gasp was a little more difficult than the one before… Until he was nearly growling with each puff…\n\n“Get it over with.”\n\nThe wall beside the Frogadier took another deep gouge at those mumbled words. Thankfully, it was just a stall’s wall for separating cargo… Malla had made it very clear she wouldn’t have him scraping a hole in their hull…\n\n“I haven’t touched you.” Dak spat in response, his eyes widening… “I haven’t touched you since we TOOK YOU… I’ve restrained myself these weeks, Ilianna…”\n\nShe turned her head enough to peer back at him. He was crouched there, sitting on his haunches with his arms dangling between his knees. Between his thighs in the dark, something slick glistened… Throbbed… And yet…\n\nIt wasn’t touched… \n\nHe had his prize… He could lift her leg here, fend her attacks and then… But it wasn’t her body that was the prize. He had that. The swell to her middle got less subtle every day. He couldn’t be sure it was his… In fact, by all odds it wouldn’t be…\n\nIt didn’t matter anymore. All that mattered was that he could claim her as his… HIS…\n\nIf he forced himself into her… She would still be Noah’s… That was fun enough, but it wasn’t what he wanted… It wasn’t what burned the primal fire deep in his gut…\n\n“I gave you my proposal…” Dak spoke, and the contrast to his usual snarling growl was stark enough to be anxiety-inducing…\n\n“I told you…” he continued, as he lifted his heavy paws to pace… “That the Guild fools would restrain you… Tie you down, and far away from what you wish… What you NEED… And you ran away.”\n\n“I…” Ilianna spoke weakly to protest his words, but she had been driven towards madness by day after day down here in the dark… Well fed, well hydrated even for a water type, and yet starving for a bit of sunlight…\n\nShe needed nothing now but freedom, and someone’s arms around her…\n\nDak grunted sharply to cut her off… “No, NO! I was right, wasn’t I? They don’t let you follow Mew’s teachings…”\n\nSilence, save for the ambience of the ship’s groaning…\n\n“They won’t let you be a MOTHER, Ilianna… Not a proper one! They wanted to shove you into a nest and tell you to be calm and quiet, and…”\n\n“Why… WHY!?”\n\n“BECAUSE I WAS THE ONE YOU SHOULD HAVE CHOSEN! NOT NOAH!”\n\n“I LOVE NOAH!”\n\n“DO YOU?!”\n\n\n\n\nDo you…?\n\n\n\nDo you…\n\n\n...do you…\n\nThe words echoed in the vacuous hold…\n\nIlianna stared up with exhausted, pale moons, swimming with tears…\n\nDid she?\n\nDak’s grin widened… There it was… The crack… He dug his claws in and shoved them wide apart…\n\n“Then why would you mourn him… Why… Was he good for you?! You remember… Always insisting he knew better… Fool, PIG… No, lower at times… Did you even want anyone else but me…? Did he… Pull us apart…?”\n\nIlianna listened to him hiss and snap at her, in eager whispers… She didn’t believe a word of what he was spouting… She could tell that they were a self-serving reflection of a long time ago, when he could still pretend to be civil…\n\nHow had it come to this? Pokemon weren’t meant to be in this much pain… What seemed like MOMENTS ago in her mind, she was stood in a room waiting for her husband to return, thinking of nothing but her growing babies…\n\nBut there was that crack in her conviction now… That question. She had submitted to Dak that night… She hadn’t wanted to tell Noah… Why? She knew that Noah wouldn’t turn her away if Dak had done that to her…\n\n\n...right?\nOther moments started to creep in at the edge of her frayed mind… His promiscuity was something she adored about him, but in the dim of that ship’s hold, his roving eyes were suddenly all about her…\n\nNot good enough…? Not strong enough…\n\n...not fertile enough, perhaps…? Her mind suddenly fixated on how long it had taken her to finally... become…\n\nHer hand set gently on her middle… \n\nShe looked up, then started where she laid… For a moment, she saw past the whirling pink eyes of her former Team member… And in the gloom...\n\nShe saw a single, terrible eye… One of searing blue flame… Wreathed in the shadows as if they themselves were peering down at her…\n\nHer blood ran colder… Her hope was eaten away, like snow melting under the glare of the sun...\n\n“You see it…?” Dak whispered… He was now soft in tone… Reverent…\n\n“It’s ALL a lie. The rules they ALL impose on us… The Guilds… And Mew. She’s not as absent as we think. She’s here… Pulling strings. She could be any one of us at any moment… And what does she sanction?”\n\nHe lifted himself a bit taller… his lips were trembling with a snarl that rumbled in his throat…\n\n“Order… Love… Fertility… Breeding…!”\n\nHe spat…\n\n“She is a hedonistic little fool whose demands are listless and whose order is arbitrary… Or if you think I am wrong, call her now… CALL her… She’ll come to save one so DEVOUT as you, right…?”\n\nNo one had seen Mew in so long that most were losing faith she had ever existed…\n\nIlianna looked up at the ceiling… Far away from where she was chained, she saw sunlight streaming down from the trap door… A patch of warmth and… They were at sea… She so longed to breathe the fresh, salty air…\n\nSurely… Surely, mother… You wouldn’t deny your warrior that…?\n\nThe silence that stretched on was deafening… Ilianna’s eyes deepened in their sockets… Her hand trembled on her midsection…\n\n“She abandoned you… She never was here. You still play by her rules…”\n\nThe world was always so clean and simple… She was so tired… \n\n“Please… I want to go… above deck…”\n\n“I want to hear it from you… I want to hear you come to our side… He can give us what we want… What OUR kind need… But you have to be devoted…”\n\nHe finally crouched, getting down on all fours and snarling softly, directly next to her head…\n\n“Cast aside the old cat…”\n\n“I know she’s real…”\n\n“Then… Call her…”\n\nIlianna did not call… She knew that there was no one above deck to save her… \n\n...and no one beyond would hear.\n\nShe lowered her head and Dak gave a roaring howl of triumph. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMalla turned to look at the trap door, seeing a glow below deck seep from between the boards…\n\n“...I don’t believe it. That maniac pulled it off… Fool that he is, I suppose he’s kept around for a reason, hm…?”\n\nShe smirked and glanced at Purgis… The witch’s gaze, however, was on the horizon…\n\nThose jets of water were too regular now to be coincidence. And Malla’s eyes were drawn, just as she was drawn to the same conclusion…\n\n“...It may be Wailmer?” she asked, folding her arms and setting her paw against her lips, as they curled into a grimace…\n\n“Ohh, that is no whale’s spray…” Purgis said, as she waddled back a few feet, her arms softly swishing through the air until they were folded defensively over her middle… “Something is… Coming. Very fast…”\n\nMalla’s eyes narrowed and she too backed away from the ship’s railing quickly…\n\n“It couldn’t be. It COULDN’T. We were gone before daybreak, and there’s no way he would have…”\n\n“Tracked us down? Hmm, he obviously heard of the stolen ship… I was afraid this might happen…”\n\n“But he… He… That far, that fast?!”\n\nPurgis gave a worrying growl, her teeth grinding inside her crooked grin…\n\n“As powerful as the thing that slumbers within me will be, and is already, I admit that what comes for us now is never a formula I have perfected… This strangely potent affliction called… Love…”\n\nMalla’s head snapped back to the jets of water, which were indeed getting closer and closer. By now she didn’t even need to squint on the horizon to see them…\n\n“...that’s assuming he isn’t driven by a desire for vengeance…!”\n\nMalla’s paw went to her throat subconsciously, as she turned and walked quickly to the trap door…\n\n“DAKARAI you blithering FOOL, we need you up here now…!”\n\nShe looked up just in time to see a spray of water create a rainbow… And then a sleek form leapt and became silhouetted by the sun…\n\n“...It’s… Noah…”\n\n===\n\nNoah hadn’t looked back. He hadn’t even glanced in the direction of the confused well-wishers who were pushed aside. His eyes were fixed, and his eternal cocky grin was replaced by a look few had witnessed…\n\nIn the most dire straits… In the moments where even his confidence faltered, and his mask slipped… Even then, he never wore an expression so fierce…\n\nHe spoke to no one as he swiftly made his way down the path from the Guild and into the bustling port town that supported it. The Guild itself was massive and had operations all over the region. Before yesterday, Noah had never thought he would be cast out...\n\nThe thought only made him angrier. He reached up and in one smooth motion, cast aside his scarf. He didn’t even know where he was searching, but he tried to catch anything… A scent, a sight… More than one door had been kicked open when he sensed a Lycanroc or Braxien within…\n\nThe inevitable happened. The Guild dragged him back and, when he was less than cooperative, they simply sent him out of town. And he happy obliged, immediately back to tracking as best he could, with nothing but a pack on his back and a somewhat mad look in his eye…\n\nHe spoke to no one but those whom he needed to speak to. He was curt, and said nothing but what he needed to say. If you had been rescued by him before, you would not recognize his haggard face, nor his dishevelled appearance…\n\n...but those scallops… His blades… They were clean as a whistle, and sharper than they had ever been. \nIt was thought that his kind blunted their scallops so as not to cause fatal harm against other Pokemon… Whether that was true or not, he began to have trouble finding them during his morning training… because they stopped sticking in trees, and started going straight through them…\n\nAwaken…\n\nPractice.\n\nImagine your foe in your mind’s eye…\n\nSteal food, if you remember to eat…\n\nAnd search… SEARCH, desperately…\n\nWeeks…? Time stretched on and his heart began to beat too heavily, his lungs burned at the effort of inflating. He wasn’t taking care of himself. He didn’t see a reason to any more…\n\n...No, that was a lie. He ate what was needed to maintain his physique. He kept himself hydrated. He couldn’t dry out yet, not with the pressure crushing around his psyche like it was anchored and sinking into the lightless abyss…\n\nIt surely would, at some point. He was terrified of accidentally unleashing all of this pent fury on a passer-by… What blood would be on his paws then… Innocent blood…\n\nBeneath it all… He still believed in justice… He still had some little mote of hope… And during nights when his resolve felt particularly strong, he even whispered prayers to Mew… Begging for assistance… Anything to have Illy back…\n\nAnd one day, a small cart full of Pokemon stopped nearby, and one recognized him…\n\n“Aren’t you… Noah?”\n\nHis cagey responses notwithstanding, and his obvious wear and tear dismissed immediately, they told him where they were going… Guild business in fact… \nSomeone had stolen a ship a few weeks ago, and that was something they’d have to rectify. Only recently, someone saw it off of a coast, meaning that they had its location…\n\nIt was prattle to Noah… Until his mind slowly put the pieces together…\n\n“The town…?”\n\n“What’s that?”\n\n“The town. That the ship was stolen from, on this date… You said it was?”\n\n“The Port Town of course. The Guild must be so embarrassed having something like that happen in the dead of night, under their very noses!”\n\nNoah’s vision swam… His body quavered… Numbly, he accepted a ride…\n\nFor the remaining duration of the trip, he said nothing. He let them think he was rude or that he was plotting something. At this point, all he needed was the location…\n\nHe lined up with the rest of them at sunset, somewhere on the coast. They were at a camp on a peninsula, Water and Flying types primarily, who could spread through the sea territory… Noah listened intently as the coordinates were given…\n\nHe could already picture it in his mind’s eye. With the compass in his pack and the ocean waves below, he slipped away from the camp in the dead of night to pursue the ship before the rests of the fools could get their hands on his target… His… Prey.\n\nHe stopped on the tip of the peninsula. The waves crashed a story or so’s height down… Smooth sailing, all he had to do was… Take the plunge…\n\nHe stared down at his scallop… His mentors had taught him to think of them as his very soul… They were a tool for survival, for hunting… For combat… Often his kind contemplated the grooves in the shells, studying the specific shape theirs had and prognosticating their fates…\n\nNoah stared down at his now… Seeing that somewhere along the line, it had cracked… He rubbed his finger on it…\n\nA hair-line fracture… Barely noticed among the rest of the wear and tear. This one would need replacing soon… But that was a process that could take months…\n\nHe turned to look back over his shoulder. The flickering fire lights far behind heralded the wave of bureaucrats and rookies who would fan out over the sea’s surface and find the ship…\n\nAnd then, one way or another, his revenge would be gone...\n\n“Suppose it’s too late for this one.” he muttered, nestling it back into his fur… With one last long look at the stars far above, he leapt into the water and began to swim…\n\nHe had never had to put much effort into swimming… It was as natural to him as breathing. Now, however, he pushed himself as hard as he could to go faster… He propelled himself through the glittering cerulean, zipping so fast that he looked as if he was fired from a gun…\n\nHe breached, spun, and landed on the top of the waves. Using his momentum, he Surfed forward. A spray of water gushed behind him, as he put all he had into his speed, while his eyes scanned the horizon…\n\nHis jaw was set… His fur fluttered in the wind, and his fangs were bared as he jetted towards his mate…\n\nIn time, after the sun had risen at his back, he spied the ship… \n\nThere was a bit of fatigue already, but in a moment it was replaced by pure adrenaline as he rushed across the waves, diving back under them on occasion to build up more momentum…\n\nHe could have crossed the world in a day, though it would have killed him. Here, he only crossed half, so he was half dead as he jetted up with a violent burst of water, and landed squarely on the deck of the stolen ship with a thud that shook the whole thing…\n\nHe flicked his arms to either side and drew his scallops. He took two steps, and then ducked suddenly as a ghostly arm shot out and snagged at him… It reeled back, but not fast enough to avoid getting partially sliced off by Noah’s counter attack…\n\n“Yo-You little…” Purgis huffed her words out and then squinted in frustration as she took a couple steps back…\n\n“The sun, you see…! My flame is small now… Soon I won’t be able to take it at all! But I bet I still have enough to…”\n\nNoah swung his arms and flung his shells. Purgis of course defended herself… And so was too late to stop them from slicing straight through the mast of the ship they were aimed at…\n\nThe rigging sagged and then tilted… Then it came crashing down heavily into the water, sending up a mist that rained down on the listing ship…\n\n“YOU LITTLE…!”\n\nAnd that’s when Noah launched his attack, swiftly and brutally. He didn’t know much about Purgis, but what he did know meant that he wasn’t afraid of putting her out of commission. He stabbed her firmly in her pumpkin body, and then her ghost flesh…\n\nHe dropped her aside as she twitched and breathed in ragged gasps…\n\n“You… You…”\n\nNoah put his foot to her and shoved her hard enough that she shattered the railings, and fell into the sea below with a hiss…\n\nThen he turned and…\n\n...just barely managed to put up his scallop in time to catch a Water Shuriken… The blade spun faster and larger against his barrier until with a cry, Noah deflected it… And heard a soft shattering noise…\n\nHe looked at his scallop, panting as the fatigue began to catch up to him. And now he had only the jagged, crumbling remains of one of his blades…\n\nHe looked up…\n\n“No… NO…”\n\n\nDak stood there, looking almost serene for how happy the scene made him… \n\nMalla stood near him, arms crossed and her head turned away…\n\nAnd between them, was a Greninja… But Noah knew precisely who it was…\n\n“Illy… What… What did they do to you…”\n\nShe flicked her wrist to create a watery blade and averted her eyes. Her gently sloped midsection had the faint imprint of an eye around the belly button… Much easier to see without fur in the way…\n\n“Noah… I knew you wouldn’t give up on me… Your worst traits were that you were stubborn, and didn’t know your limits. Now… Now…”\n\nHer arm drooped a bit. It quivered, and Dak stepped forward…\n\n“Now she understands. She was abandoned by her Guild, and you couldn’t protect her…”\n\nNoah let out a hiss that made Malla jump and take a step back for how vicious it was...\n\n“You… Hurt her…”\n\n“I didn’t do anything until she welcomed me with open LEGS...” he smirked… Noah’s glare of indignation gave way to teary eyes as he looked up and saw Ilianna’s gaze… So much colder… What had happened? Had it really been that bad before? Had he not understood…?\n\nDak’s eyes widened… He saw the same crack form in Noah that had formed in Ilianna… The faith wavered, and he could worm his claws in and pry the vault wide… But he did it to break Ilianna… \n\nAnd he would do it to kill Noah…\n\n“I didn’t need to force myself… She wanted it… She knew who the better male was… The one who would truly let her breed freely… LIKE SHE DESIRES!”\n\nHe arched his back and snarled, then cackled madly…\n“No longer weighed down by your rules, your beliefs… Your GODDESS!\n\nHe gave another disparaging laugh, and he drooled as heavily as if he was eating a favourite meal after being starving for days… years?\n\nYes. He had waited to spit this in Noah’s face from the moment he saw her holding his paw in her hand...\n\n“She is weighed down by MY pups instead!”\n\nNoah let out a noise that could have been described as a scream… A noise of pure hatred and fury that came from so deep inside that it stunned the three Pokemon gathered against him. \n\nNoah rushed forth and planted his broken scallop deep into Dak’s chest…\n\nThe wolf stared in stunned disbelief, and Malla took a step back, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging slightly open...\n\nIlly just looked away… Her eyes deadened further, and her hands curled to fists…\n\nNoah’s arm was trembling and his cheeks were wet with tears, but he drove it further in, and Dak’s snarl of agony gave way to a howl as the two males brutally clawed at one another. They stumbled across the deck, with both aiming for vitals with each blow. \n\nMalla’s panicking mind couldn’t think of any way that would help that wouldn’t also incinerate Dakarai, although at this point, seeing such violent splatters across the deck, she knew it would likely be mercy…\n\nIlianna stared off onto the horizon, with her arms gently crossed… As if her boyfriends were simply fighting over her again…\n\nNoah suddenly slammed a foot down to brace himself and whirled his opponent around. With another violent hiss, he used the momentum to wrench the broken scallop free and fling Dakarai against a railing…\n\nThe crimson pool now formed on the deck spread outwards slowly. The wolf quivered and leaned heavily on the splintered guard rail…\n\nNoah wiped his chin… He wasn’t sure whose blood he was tasting… Then he rushed forward and bashed his shoulder into Dak’s body…\n\nThe wolf tilted further… Thanks to his type’s weight, he plummeted quickly and suddenly… And once the ripples had settled, none could see him for how far he sank…\n\nNoah turned… Despite being wounded, he held himself proudly… Despite being bloodstained, his glare still conveyed how utterly wounded he now was better than any splash of red could… Despite the fact that his body was ravaged with leaking cuts and slash marks, and things didn’t feel like they were settling right inside his ribs… He had gone on enough adventures to know when he needed a proper medic instead of just a few healing berries…\n\nDespite it all, his glare was locked on Ilianna… Who didn’t look back at him…\n\n“Was this your plan…?”\n\nNoah asked, in a trembling voice…\n\n“Did you know I would come kill him? Did you wait for me? Did it just become too much, and so you gave in? Or was it like this all along, Illy… Did you give in because YOU WANTED HIM?!”\n\nSilence… The boat creaked gently, still listing side to side as the currents carried it. Malla looked out over the bow and saw they were drifting further and faster than they should have been…\n\n“Was I just the easier choice… Ilianna…!? Did you LOVE ME!?”\n\n“Did?”\n\nShe looked back over her shoulder. The one word seemed to cut Noah worse than anything Dak had done to him… Her eyes were deadened entirely, with the clever and vital spark of life drilled out of them by weeks below deck, and…\n\n...and… Perhaps the fact… that she could no longer honestly answer his questions… She didn’t even know herself...\n\n“Did you… Did you ever…? Do you know…?”\n\nNoah let out a strained chuckle that sounded a little maddened…\n\n“Because to be honest Illy, I liked you better as a Frogadier…”\n\nHer gaze hardened murderously. The ninja spun suddenly and flung a barrage of shurikens. \n\nNoah darted, ducked, and weaved… He ignored the blades that were on target, and let them slice into his flesh so he could come closer with his blinding speed… His body suddenly began to glow… His silhouette grew larger as Ilianna backed away quickly…\n\nHe dove and tackled the female into the water… Malla heard the splash… \n\nAnd then…\n\nShe was alone…\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShe was panting shakily… Her hands were on her middle, and her mind had been reeling from the moment Noah leapt onto the boat. She wondered what kind of retribution he would have for her, but apparently other things were on his mind…\n\nShe sank to her knees and gave a choked gasp, trying to fill her lungs. It felt like she was drowning… But after a bit, the pressure around her chest eased up… \n\n...but the pressure on her middle did not…\n\n“...No… No, no… Now… Now, Tessa…?” she whispered, as she stood shakily and turned around. The ship was still aimlessly wavering between points on the horizon, until the soft roll of the tide brought her closer and closer to a nearby beach head…\n\nShe ran back and into the captain’s quarters in the nick of time… She only just managed to duck down before the ship slammed into the shore, grinding its underside upon the rocks and then tilting hard until it was strewn across the sand in a crooked heap…\n\nAfter a few long moments, Malla crawled from the wreckage, nearly wheezing with how hard she panted… Her paws pressed to her middle and she closed her eyes…\n\nThe throbbing ache there was unrelenting… The agony of it was too much to deny… Her little one had decided that now was the moment she would emerge, whether mama was ready or not…\n\nHaving just lost her companions, and seen the Pokemon she might truly have loved plummet over and into the sea… She was shaking and damp and tired and angry, just like when she started…\n\nShe ran as quick as her contracting belly would allow up the side of a hill and crested it to peer about. She gave a soft sigh of relief as she spotted the telltale twisted trees that marked the boundary of the Deep Forest… They had been close to their destination when Noah found them… This had saved her a day or so of riding in a cart to get here…\n\nAlbeit, at what cost? ...She slapped the thought away…\n\n\nShe waddled into the eerily silent woods... Looking around, recognizing some features and being familiar enough with others, she was soon deeper in than any Pokemon who merely wandered into the place could get…\n\nShe finally fell to her knees… Safety… Even if it meant that her birth would be overseen by…\n\n...her master…\n\nShe could sense him deeper in… With her body still wracked with pain, her eyes squeezed shut to reveal the infinite yawning night, the gaze within unwavering… Beckoning her for a show… If she would give it…\n\nNo choice now… This was her destiny…\n\nShe was sat on a patch of soft grass, and her body glowed softly with heat, her drenched form drying quickly… Her fur puffed, and she gripped her thighs to pull them apart…\n\nAlmost immediately, there was a sharp pop, and a gush of fluids turned to steam with her body’s heat… Malla set her head back against the bush behind her and gave a weak groan…\n\n“Master… Master… I have lost everything… But I have this, don’t I… I have my progeny… And I can devote myself again to you… I will… Please… Let me have this baby… Safely…! Grant me this…!”\n\nShe couldn’t tell his glare from anger, or indifference… She felt tears welling in her eyes, wasting precious water that her firey body was naturally inclined to burn up during such a trying act…\n\nThe finale of motherhood…\n\nShe raked her claws across her middle and arched her back, giving a sharp yelp of pain as she did. She set her legs wider apart, and pushed, then screeched and slammed her paw down…\n\nNot ready quite yet… Not dilated. You’d have to wait…\n\nEndure, little Malla… That’s what Purgis would have said… And Dak too, he would have demanded she be tough… \n...No… The witch would have watched her baby strain her to death if it benefited her somehow… She was an untamed demon, who likely was not dead despite the terrible damage Noah had done… \n\nThis had been HER fault…! All of it! She had directed their actions... She had given the dark curse, corrupted little Tessa…! And now Malla was paying the price...\n\nAnd Dakarai… She wasn’t sure if he cared… Noah had come, in the end… But he came for Illy… Not her…\n\nWould he have come if he had known…? That the baby now pushed firmly against her pelvis was partially his…? It had been entirely his… Before she had…\n\nShe flinched and pushed a paw tighter against her stomach. It clenched and she screeched from between her grinding fangs, her foot stomping a few times with the pain of it…\n\nEndure…\n\nEndure, like you always had… Like you always would… Find a way out of it, sneaky as a fox…\n\nBut there was no way out of this… She had laid down with an otter, now she was bearing his pup. That’s the old saying, isn’t it…?\n\nIf you love the river, you must bear its whole weight…\n\nShe moaned and her head thudded gently back against the tree. She sobbed softly as the baby, too big it felt for such a tiny body as her’s, moved down inch by agonizing inch with contractions, until it was in position…\n\nFinally, the lazy process had given her the opportunity… No matter the cost in torment…\n\nNow the real ‘fun’ could begin…\n\nShe arched and screamed… She sobbed louder as she pushed as hard as she could… Her pelvis suddenly felt like it would snap, and against her spade she felt a rough, furry head…\n“NNNGGGHHH!!!”\n\nShe held her paws over her muzzle to prevent herself from getting sick, before pulling her legs up higher… She gripped at her thighs, at the scant lean flesh around them to pull herself as wide as possible, as if it would help…\n\nShe pushed as hard as she could… She nearly roared into her gritted teeth… A muffled snarl that caused flames to spit from the edge of her mouth…\n\nShe felt the baby slip through her… It was precisely as difficult as it sounded, moving a heavy newborn pup through you with nothing but muscles… As they clenched, spasmed, and contracted… She could only bite her charred wand, and moan all the louder into it…\n\nThe baby crowned… It spread her painfully from within… More fluids gushed around it…\n\nFor a moment, it slipped backwards as she got too tired… But she panicked, whined, doubled over on herself and gain a painful final shove…\n\nSomething must have torn or broken… She was split up the middle and her body obliterated by this profane act. There was nothing worse than this…\n\nWhen her vision returned, she looked down at herself. Her body was quivering, and sweaty… But she was fine…\n\nShe sat up shakily once she’d gathered the strength… She looked between her legs and saw her puppy wriggling there gently…\n\nShe picked her up, arms shaking, and held her to her chest… \n\nThen, she began to weep softly, until it all came out at once…\n\nA torrent of emotion as she clung to her girl… And in the gathering dark around her, she sobbed with grief, exhaustion, and a little bit of joy… But mostly, she ached… She understood all she had lost… She saw her baby already starting to whimper as her eyes drooped…\n\nThe gloom was gathering around them indeed… And Malla was terrified to fall asleep… But it pulled her down, moment by moment, until she fell with her baby into the nightmare…\n\nIt was a terrible one too… One that lasted decades, as she and her eternally sleep deprived baby made their way deeper into the woods… Occasionally they had to make their way back out to find supplies, but most of their time was spent mapping the woods feverishly…\n\nNeither of them slept well… Each night was spent under the gaze of their master… And as the nights grew longer and the waking world difficult to tell apart from the dreams, she felt the additional burden of dreadful guilt…\n\nWhat had she done, exposing her daughter to this wretched place…? And before she was even born. Now she could see her suffer so, and she felt every bit of her pain just as acutely as her own…\n\nAnd then came the grand finale… Her and her daughter unleashing the endless night…\n\nShe gazed into her flame and looked at what kind of future was to be under the dark of the moon, and saw nothing but chaos and turmoil…\n\nWhere had she gone wrong? Where had she turned her girl into a hateful wraith and herself into a walking corpse? Why had she sacrificed the world to save it? \n\nIf she could not… \n\nThen what else could she do…?\n\n\n\n...The future is written in the wavering weave of the fire…\n\n\n\n977s\nMalla’s eyes closed, finally. \n\nThey were sore, and itchy. She rubbed them gently with her paws and then opened them to look around…\n\nShe stood in Purgis’s hut… And the words still echoed in her large, perked ears…\n\nShe looked up at the grinning ghost, whose expectant gaze pierced her through, as if she knew everything… But only Malla and her kind could see the future through the flames… She suspected that’s why she was kept around in the first place...\n\nShe gasped at a thought, and touched her middle…\n\nPregnant. But not nearly due…\n\n“What did you see?”\n\nPurgis whispered and came near, leaning in. She could tell that Malla had peered into the future and had a vision of something very clear. The look on the young fox’s face was troubled and distant, yet ponderous and intense…\n\n“What… did… you…”\n\nBut before Purgis could finish speaking, Malla suddenly whipped her wand forward and plunged it into the pumpkin’s middle…\n\nThe Gourgeist shrieked in confusion as Malla ground the stick into the guttering little spark there. She yanked it out, and as it flickered on the tip of her wand, Malla blew softly until it had shrunk to a tiny ember…\n\nPurgis was stock still… None of her usual theatrics were on display… She stared with a gaunt, unsure expression…\n\n“...Pledge yourself to me, demon…” Malla hissed gently. Purgis stared… and then, a smile cracked her lips…\n\n“Little witch, I know our kind kill their mothers for their knowledge… But you have so much more to learn under me than ABOVE me… Place my soul… Back into my body…”\n“Or I could blow it out now…”\n\nPurgis tilted her head… Despite her haunting nature, she had an uneasy look…\n\n“What DID you see, child…? Surely from one as wicked as I, you saw betrayal or…”\n\n“No.” \n\nMalla cut her off, and then glared coldly…\n\n“Just bad advice. Now, under my thumb… Or I remove you…”\n\nPurgis finally lifted her arms, stiffly…\n\n“Alright dear… Alright… I pledge my soul to you…”\n\nShe pushed the stick back into the Gourgeist’s body and reignited the flame there… Purgis’ expression was soft… Calm… A gentle, almost proud smile…\n\n...an implied death threat, with every soft sway of her body…\n\n“Crafty little wench.” muttered the Ghost, who swayed herself to her cauldron once more, now with her back to Malla. \n\nThe girl stood and brushed herself off. She took a moment to rub her middle before turning and taking her coat off the rack, where it had been neatly hung…\n\nShe walked from the hut into the gentle patters of rain. She pulled her hood up… then turned suddenly…\n\nSomething in the under brush… A colourful pink glint, a gentle and girly giggle, and then nothing at all…\n\nMalla raised her eyebrow… But then turned and walked into the gathering storm to fetch Dakarai…\n\n\n\n\nThe rain was driving and painful by the time she found him in the torn up clearing. The storm overhead had gathered and hit them dead on, rather than pass them by like Malla hoped…\n\nShe held her cloak a bit tighter around herself and stared at the wolf, who stood with his back to her…\n\nHis claw curled and dug a bit firmer into the tree he leaned against… Hiding from the water…\n\n“...Dak.”\n\n“Not a word from YOU Malla… If you speak to me any word but goodbye, I will end Noah’s bloodline before it truly BEGINS.”\n\nHe turned his head to snap that last bit, then turned away again. Malla saw his shoulders droop gently…\n\n...he was hurt. Malla was dimly aware there was a way to fix his deserved hatred of her… But it was something she’d have to obtain from Purgis. And she had finally broken her destiny from that demon’s direction. She would never let her control it again…\n\nComing here was almost the worst mistake she’d ever made.\n\nDak heard something hit the grass next to his paw. He turned and saw a Guild scarf. He whipped around to look at her…\n\nThey stood on either side of the clearing, each hiding under a tree. Dak stared with trembling fists…\n\n“I do not trust Purgis. She will be useful when it comes time to find our way to the centre of the Forest. But until then… I need someone to care for me.”\n\nShe crossed her arms and tilted her hips gently…\n\n“It could be you. Or it could be the Guild. I will have to return and submit to them, just to get the care I will need.”\n\nThe rain’s sharp pattering and splashing filled the void between them…\n\n“I don’t suppose you could, after all.”\nDak’s sneer turned into a furious snarl…\n\n“You cannot seriously be asking me to RAISE my rival’s…”\n\nMalla suddenly whipped her wand out and swung it. A burst of flame so strong it nearly defeated the rain and made its way to Dak through the torrent before it fizzled. He had felt that fire before, and it was enough to get him to stumble back in intimidation...\n\n“MY. BABY.”\n\nShe said, her wand held out threateningly. A halo of steam surrounded its tip, as the rain evaporated before it even touched it…\n\n“You are so focused on the fact it came from NOAH that you forget part of it is ME as well. ME!!! Tessa is MINE!”\n\n“...You named it?”\n\n“HER!”\n\nOnce more, the only sounds were the rumbling overhead, and the clatter of rain into puddles…\n\n“I named HER. She will be safe. I will defeat the vision of the future I see and I will give her a good life. I WILL DO IT WITH…”\n\nHer wand snapped to point at the scarf on the ground…\n\n“Or without you.”\n\nDak grit his fangs at the challenge… His eyes burned with frustration… He crouched and scraped his claws through the dirt… Trying to work out a way to defy her…\n\n...instead, he stood again and flicked his wrist…\n\n“I will not call her my daughter…”\n\n“You needn’t do anything but ensure she is safely born.”\n\n“...And I want you to continue to-…”\nBefore he could say anything else, Malla flicked off her cloak and stepped through the rain. Dakarai’s eyes narrowed as she walked across the clearing, burning a path of mist through the downpour until she was stood, dry as a bone, directly next to him. Her chest was against his midsection, and she gazed up defiantly…\n\n“I never intended otherwise. I always pay you well, Dakarai…”\n\nTheir intense eyes locked… For a long moment, both had the impulse to press their muzzles against one another and kiss deeply…\n\nTwo cast off lovers… The pair of rejects…\n\nDak suddenly gripped her and shoved her down…\n\nThey made love in the storm… Malla’s eyes remained on the scarf, when they weren’t unfocused and distant with pleasure. Dak screwed all the harder, perhaps some part of him wanting to roughly thrust until Noah’s pup was gone…\n\n...perhaps part of him remembered why he followed Malla about as well. Perhaps something warm beat beneath the stone in his chest…\n\nShe didn’t count on it, or even think about it… She let him fuck her until both of them had steam curling off of their bodies. They remained there under the tree until the storm had passed…\n\nMalla’s belly flickered with a symbol, unnoticed. Tessa squirmed inside her, confused by a strange feeling… Something new… Something to add to her dreams of fire and water…\n\nThe great mountains looming above… She had merely to point, and they moved…\n\nMalla and Dak returned to Purgis’ hut. The witch was far colder now, but inspected Malla’s belly dutifully and informed her of a safe and healthy baby.\n\nThen the pair of travellers left… They had no plan but to make their way into the countryside, and eventually circle back and search the Deep Forest from the other side. With a wilder approach, none would see fit to bother them as they made their way to the heart…\nBut before that, other business demanded attention.\n\nOnce more, Malla hardened herself on the road. Despite her growing pregnancy, as the weeks passed them by, she remained focused and confident… Even if she complained from time to time, Dak could only chalk it up to hormones, drain himself into her, and hope it doused her…\n\nEventually, it wasn’t enough. Avoiding the gaze of vigilant, scarfed bounty hunters, whether truly believing in ‘Justice’ or just the payday that came with capturing them, was slowly degrading them, and burdening her more than her immensely pregnant middle could ever do…\n\nThey escaped into the woods… With packs of supplies on their backs and a goal in mind, they found their way to some distant den…\n\nIt didn’t take long after that…\n\n“HHAAHH! Ggggah… Oh…!”\n\nMalla bit her wand firmly enough to gouge marks in the wood; an impressive feat for how hard the material was… Her other paw was on her middle, and she beat her head gently against the dirt wall at her back…\n\nDak’s evolution meant he had the ability to turn that sub-par hole of grime and wiggling worms into an almost cozy hideaway. They were still a ways from the Forest, but now they certainly weren’t going to make it there anytime soon…\n\nMalla arched and tensed up, then slumped. She panted puffs of smoke with each gasp of air. Dak roughly set a bucket of water next to her…\n\n“Every time you use one of these up, I have to walk all the way to the river…”\n\nHe watched her splash herself with the contents of the bucket, more steam roiling off of her. His gaze softened subtly, and he crouched down to drag his broad paw across her heaving middle…\n\n“Relax. Just push. It isn’t that hard, I’ve seen dozens of…”\n\nMalla shot him a look that shut him up and made him remove his paw. He smirked, and then placed it in her paw instead…\n“Here. Squeeze. I doubt you c-AAAHHOOO!”\n\nHe stamped his foot and bit into his other claw with a snarl, as Malla squeezed so hard that he felt something crack. He could feel the effort she put into her push, and immediately gained a bit of respect for the dozens of females he had forced into the same situation…\n\nNot enough to stop, of course.\n\nMalla spat another burst of flame and gripped the bucket, pushing her muzzle down to sip deeply from it. Her eyes showed immediate relief…\n\n“Get it out before you pull my arm off…!”\n\n“Shut… UUUUPPP!!!”\n\nShe screamed, as she curled and bore down hard on the too-big Fennekin in her body… Dakarai couldn’t help but blush lightly himself, watching her spade spread wide and…\n\nHe reached down without thinking and caught the pup in his free paw… Malla’s back struck the wall of the den and she went limp…\n\nDak pulled his paw from her much smaller one and shook it. It would be sore for awhile…\n\nHe looked down at the strangely coloured puppy in his arm… \n\n...after a weighty pause… He quickly pushed her into Malla’s arms…\n\nMalla embraced her, listened to her soft whimpers, and sighed in relief…\n\n“Hello… Little Tessa…”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDakrai stared down at the scene, holding his paw. He backed away softly as his eyes locked on the strangely coloured Fennekin…\n\nHis nose quivered… Past Malla’s scent, and NOAH’S…\n\nThere was something familiar...\n\nHe turned and started to leave. He heard Malla’s tiredly lift her head…\n\n“...I told you.” he said, as he paused near the entrance… “I am not a father…”\n\n“Dakarai… Dak. You don’t have to leave me… Please…”\n\nThe Lycanroc glanced over his shoulder. He gazed into her tired eyes, and then glanced once more at the pup in her arms…\n\nWith a sharp ‘whuff’ from his nostrils, he slipped from the entrance of the den and disappeared into the night…\n\nFor the next few years, Malla was alone.\n\nShe made the best of it, and in that quiet and well structured den, isolated from all who would accost her…\n\n...she felt at peace, for the first time in a long while.\n\nMostly, it was raising Tessa that put her at ease. Each day she had a goal to settle on that didn’t involve endlessly pouring over scrolls or scheming to save the world from the fools determined to ignore its oncoming demise…\n\n...yet, she peered into the fire of her hearth more than once and saw the same scouring sun. It troubled her more day by day, and slowly overcame the joy she felt at raising her daughter…\n\nThe poor little Fennekin rarely slept through the night. When she was a pup, it was assumed she was simply fussy… Malla stayed up with her every evening until it became clear that it wasn’t mere sickness or growing pains…\n\n...she was having nightmares… Endless nightmares, every single time she closed her eyes…\nMalla’s obsession was reignited against her will. Her motherhood was tarnished… As she cared for her baby, she knew that one day…\n\n...Tessa might want the same… And instead, she would feel only the oppressing pain of the drought.\n\nThe thought made her jaw set, and she spread open an old tome of lore to begin studying again, with eyes as intense as a wildfire...\n\n===\n\nAfter years of silence…\n\nA greying old Pelipper landed on a rock at a crossroads. They watched the lanky wolf loping up the path with an expression that was distant and footsteps that were an aimless march forward.\n\nThe bird briefly locked eyes, set the letter down, and flew away before Dakarai could reach it. He snatched the envelop and opened it by tearing it in half…\n\nHis eyes widened in surprise as he recognized the letter’s script…\n\nTo his frustration and embarrassment, his heart fluttered at the fox’s arcane handwriting...\n\n“...’Come to...’ Ah… So you never DID give up, did you…?”\n\nHe crumpled the letter and tossed it aside before he glanced up at the crossroads sign…\n\nSome worthless city in one direction… Farmland in the other…\n\n...’Mew’s Nest’, dead ahead…\n\nHe snarled sharply and slashed the sign so that it collapsed into the dust. The ‘N’ had been scratched away…\n\n“We’ll see… Noah.”\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Malla stood on the bow the bounding ship… Her eyes were fixed on the horizon, and burning brighter than the sun above...

How had Purgis managed this? It wasn’t a large ship… But with a few whispers and screams, she’d emerged from the shadows and pointed to their transportation. Across the sea they would go, so said she… And she guided them with her strange lantern, and a few soft commands to make the sail turn the way they wanted…

They had stolen some cargo ship, free of most of its intended load… Now they made their way towards the destiny Purgis demanded…

“We will go around the landmass…” The fox said, arms firmly crossed under her chest... “Though it will take us some time, there on the wilder half of the continent, we can approach the heart of the Deep Forest without being…”

She glanced back at Dak, who was leaning very slightly over a railing to look at the waters below… Deep, dark, and fathomless… Or was it that it had many fathoms… Too many… Enough to crush his heavy body if he so much as…

“Dakarai.”

He jerked his head up and let out a subtle, held breath… He took a few careful steps back from the rail before looking at her. Despite how focused she was, she couldn’t help but allow herself a smile…

He was well contained on this place. Malla had to assure she took care of him when he became too feral… but it was not near as often as she assumed…

“We slipped away unseen. They’ll notice the ship is gone, but with our tailwind, we should be able to make good time… If nothing else, we can always crash land and flee…”

She turned and breathed out hard… She draped her arms atop her immensely heavy middle, and her eyes drooped…

The baby inside gave a petulant, bothered kick…

“I just hope we land before… I mean, we have plenty of supplies, but I would rather be on dry land when my water br-…”

She turned her head suddenly and squinted. A gush of sea foam on the horizon had drawn her attention…

“...Jumpy. Go back to the captain’s quarters and relax.” Dak grunted, arms tightly crossed...

“I don’t need your advice. You focus on what’s important to you, and do not cause trouble…”

Dak’s muzzle twisted into a frustrated snarl, but he indeed turned and wrenched up the trap door to the cargo hold. He disappeared into the shadows, illuminated near-uselessly by the swaying lanterns that were strung on the walls…

He stopped walking. The lantern gave an electric buzz as it flickered, swaying gently and illuminating her, casting shadows across her form… Dak couldn’t help but draw his tongue along his craggy fangs…

Ilianna laid there, on a straw mat. She was curled softly, and one of her legs rattled the chain tightly locked there…

Dak slowly stalked up to her… His breathing was manic… Quivering… Each soft gasp was a little more difficult than the one before… Until he was nearly growling with each puff…

“Get it over with.”

The wall beside the Frogadier took another deep gouge at those mumbled words. Thankfully, it was just a stall’s wall for separating cargo… Malla had made it very clear she wouldn’t have him scraping a hole in their hull…

“I haven’t touched you.” Dak spat in response, his eyes widening… “I haven’t touched you since we TOOK YOU… I’ve restrained myself these weeks, Ilianna…”

She turned her head enough to peer back at him. He was crouched there, sitting on his haunches with his arms dangling between his knees. Between his thighs in the dark, something slick glistened… Throbbed… And yet…

It wasn’t touched…

He had his prize… He could lift her leg here, fend her attacks and then… But it wasn’t her body that was the prize. He had that. The swell to her middle got less subtle every day. He couldn’t be sure it was his… In fact, by all odds it wouldn’t be…

It didn’t matter anymore. All that mattered was that he could claim her as his… HIS…

If he forced himself into her… She would still be Noah’s… That was fun enough, but it wasn’t what he wanted… It wasn’t what burned the primal fire deep in his gut…

“I gave you my proposal…” Dak spoke, and the contrast to his usual snarling growl was stark enough to be anxiety-inducing…

“I told you…” he continued, as he lifted his heavy paws to pace… “That the Guild fools would restrain you… Tie you down, and far away from what you wish… What you NEED… And you ran away.”

“I…” Ilianna spoke weakly to protest his words, but she had been driven towards madness by day after day down here in the dark… Well fed, well hydrated even for a water type, and yet starving for a bit of sunlight…

She needed nothing now but freedom, and someone’s arms around her…

Dak grunted sharply to cut her off… “No, NO! I was right, wasn’t I? They don’t let you follow Mew’s teachings…”

Silence, save for the ambience of the ship’s groaning…

“They won’t let you be a MOTHER, Ilianna… Not a proper one! They wanted to shove you into a nest and tell you to be calm and quiet, and…”

“Why… WHY!?”

“BECAUSE I WAS THE ONE YOU SHOULD HAVE CHOSEN! NOT NOAH!”

“I LOVE NOAH!”

“DO YOU?!”




Do you…?



Do you…


...do you…

The words echoed in the vacuous hold…

Ilianna stared up with exhausted, pale moons, swimming with tears…

Did she?

Dak’s grin widened… There it was… The crack… He dug his claws in and shoved them wide apart…

“Then why would you mourn him… Why… Was he good for you?! You remember… Always insisting he knew better… Fool, PIG… No, lower at times… Did you even want anyone else but me…? Did he… Pull us apart…?”

Ilianna listened to him hiss and snap at her, in eager whispers… She didn’t believe a word of what he was spouting… She could tell that they were a self-serving reflection of a long time ago, when he could still pretend to be civil…

How had it come to this? Pokemon weren’t meant to be in this much pain… What seemed like MOMENTS ago in her mind, she was stood in a room waiting for her husband to return, thinking of nothing but her growing babies…

But there was that crack in her conviction now… That question. She had submitted to Dak that night… She hadn’t wanted to tell Noah… Why? She knew that Noah wouldn’t turn her away if Dak had done that to her…


...right?
Other moments started to creep in at the edge of her frayed mind… His promiscuity was something she adored about him, but in the dim of that ship’s hold, his roving eyes were suddenly all about her…

Not good enough…? Not strong enough…

...not fertile enough, perhaps…? Her mind suddenly fixated on how long it had taken her to finally... become…

Her hand set gently on her middle…

She looked up, then started where she laid… For a moment, she saw past the whirling pink eyes of her former Team member… And in the gloom...

She saw a single, terrible eye… One of searing blue flame… Wreathed in the shadows as if they themselves were peering down at her…

Her blood ran colder… Her hope was eaten away, like snow melting under the glare of the sun...

“You see it…?” Dak whispered… He was now soft in tone… Reverent…

“It’s ALL a lie. The rules they ALL impose on us… The Guilds… And Mew. She’s not as absent as we think. She’s here… Pulling strings. She could be any one of us at any moment… And what does she sanction?”

He lifted himself a bit taller… his lips were trembling with a snarl that rumbled in his throat…

“Order… Love… Fertility… Breeding…!”

He spat…

“She is a hedonistic little fool whose demands are listless and whose order is arbitrary… Or if you think I am wrong, call her now… CALL her… She’ll come to save one so DEVOUT as you, right…?”

No one had seen Mew in so long that most were losing faith she had ever existed…

Ilianna looked up at the ceiling… Far away from where she was chained, she saw sunlight streaming down from the trap door… A patch of warmth and… They were at sea… She so longed to breathe the fresh, salty air…

Surely… Surely, mother… You wouldn’t deny your warrior that…?

The silence that stretched on was deafening… Ilianna’s eyes deepened in their sockets… Her hand trembled on her midsection…

“She abandoned you… She never was here. You still play by her rules…”

The world was always so clean and simple… She was so tired…

“Please… I want to go… above deck…”

“I want to hear it from you… I want to hear you come to our side… He can give us what we want… What OUR kind need… But you have to be devoted…”

He finally crouched, getting down on all fours and snarling softly, directly next to her head…

“Cast aside the old cat…”

“I know she’s real…”

“Then… Call her…”

Ilianna did not call… She knew that there was no one above deck to save her…

...and no one beyond would hear.

She lowered her head and Dak gave a roaring howl of triumph.







Malla turned to look at the trap door, seeing a glow below deck seep from between the boards…

“...I don’t believe it. That maniac pulled it off… Fool that he is, I suppose he’s kept around for a reason, hm…?”

She smirked and glanced at Purgis… The witch’s gaze, however, was on the horizon…

Those jets of water were too regular now to be coincidence. And Malla’s eyes were drawn, just as she was drawn to the same conclusion…

“...It may be Wailmer?” she asked, folding her arms and setting her paw against her lips, as they curled into a grimace…

“Ohh, that is no whale’s spray…” Purgis said, as she waddled back a few feet, her arms softly swishing through the air until they were folded defensively over her middle… “Something is… Coming. Very fast…”

Malla’s eyes narrowed and she too backed away from the ship’s railing quickly…

“It couldn’t be. It COULDN’T. We were gone before daybreak, and there’s no way he would have…”

“Tracked us down? Hmm, he obviously heard of the stolen ship… I was afraid this might happen…”

“But he… He… That far, that fast?!”

Purgis gave a worrying growl, her teeth grinding inside her crooked grin…

“As powerful as the thing that slumbers within me will be, and is already, I admit that what comes for us now is never a formula I have perfected… This strangely potent affliction called… Love…”

Malla’s head snapped back to the jets of water, which were indeed getting closer and closer. By now she didn’t even need to squint on the horizon to see them…

“...that’s assuming he isn’t driven by a desire for vengeance…!”

Malla’s paw went to her throat subconsciously, as she turned and walked quickly to the trap door…

“DAKARAI you blithering FOOL, we need you up here now…!”

She looked up just in time to see a spray of water create a rainbow… And then a sleek form leapt and became silhouetted by the sun…

“...It’s… Noah…”

===

Noah hadn’t looked back. He hadn’t even glanced in the direction of the confused well-wishers who were pushed aside. His eyes were fixed, and his eternal cocky grin was replaced by a look few had witnessed…

In the most dire straits… In the moments where even his confidence faltered, and his mask slipped… Even then, he never wore an expression so fierce…

He spoke to no one as he swiftly made his way down the path from the Guild and into the bustling port town that supported it. The Guild itself was massive and had operations all over the region. Before yesterday, Noah had never thought he would be cast out...

The thought only made him angrier. He reached up and in one smooth motion, cast aside his scarf. He didn’t even know where he was searching, but he tried to catch anything… A scent, a sight… More than one door had been kicked open when he sensed a Lycanroc or Braxien within…

The inevitable happened. The Guild dragged him back and, when he was less than cooperative, they simply sent him out of town. And he happy obliged, immediately back to tracking as best he could, with nothing but a pack on his back and a somewhat mad look in his eye…

He spoke to no one but those whom he needed to speak to. He was curt, and said nothing but what he needed to say. If you had been rescued by him before, you would not recognize his haggard face, nor his dishevelled appearance…

...but those scallops… His blades… They were clean as a whistle, and sharper than they had ever been.
It was thought that his kind blunted their scallops so as not to cause fatal harm against other Pokemon… Whether that was true or not, he began to have trouble finding them during his morning training… because they stopped sticking in trees, and started going straight through them…

Awaken…

Practice.

Imagine your foe in your mind’s eye…

Steal food, if you remember to eat…

And search… SEARCH, desperately…

Weeks…? Time stretched on and his heart began to beat too heavily, his lungs burned at the effort of inflating. He wasn’t taking care of himself. He didn’t see a reason to any more…

...No, that was a lie. He ate what was needed to maintain his physique. He kept himself hydrated. He couldn’t dry out yet, not with the pressure crushing around his psyche like it was anchored and sinking into the lightless abyss…

It surely would, at some point. He was terrified of accidentally unleashing all of this pent fury on a passer-by… What blood would be on his paws then… Innocent blood…

Beneath it all… He still believed in justice… He still had some little mote of hope… And during nights when his resolve felt particularly strong, he even whispered prayers to Mew… Begging for assistance… Anything to have Illy back…

And one day, a small cart full of Pokemon stopped nearby, and one recognized him…

“Aren’t you… Noah?”

His cagey responses notwithstanding, and his obvious wear and tear dismissed immediately, they told him where they were going… Guild business in fact…
Someone had stolen a ship a few weeks ago, and that was something they’d have to rectify. Only recently, someone saw it off of a coast, meaning that they had its location…

It was prattle to Noah… Until his mind slowly put the pieces together…

“The town…?”

“What’s that?”

“The town. That the ship was stolen from, on this date… You said it was?”

“The Port Town of course. The Guild must be so embarrassed having something like that happen in the dead of night, under their very noses!”

Noah’s vision swam… His body quavered… Numbly, he accepted a ride…

For the remaining duration of the trip, he said nothing. He let them think he was rude or that he was plotting something. At this point, all he needed was the location…

He lined up with the rest of them at sunset, somewhere on the coast. They were at a camp on a peninsula, Water and Flying types primarily, who could spread through the sea territory… Noah listened intently as the coordinates were given…

He could already picture it in his mind’s eye. With the compass in his pack and the ocean waves below, he slipped away from the camp in the dead of night to pursue the ship before the rests of the fools could get their hands on his target… His… Prey.

He stopped on the tip of the peninsula. The waves crashed a story or so’s height down… Smooth sailing, all he had to do was… Take the plunge…

He stared down at his scallop… His mentors had taught him to think of them as his very soul… They were a tool for survival, for hunting… For combat… Often his kind contemplated the grooves in the shells, studying the specific shape theirs had and prognosticating their fates…

Noah stared down at his now… Seeing that somewhere along the line, it had cracked… He rubbed his finger on it…

A hair-line fracture… Barely noticed among the rest of the wear and tear. This one would need replacing soon… But that was a process that could take months…

He turned to look back over his shoulder. The flickering fire lights far behind heralded the wave of bureaucrats and rookies who would fan out over the sea’s surface and find the ship…

And then, one way or another, his revenge would be gone...

“Suppose it’s too late for this one.” he muttered, nestling it back into his fur… With one last long look at the stars far above, he leapt into the water and began to swim…

He had never had to put much effort into swimming… It was as natural to him as breathing. Now, however, he pushed himself as hard as he could to go faster… He propelled himself through the glittering cerulean, zipping so fast that he looked as if he was fired from a gun…

He breached, spun, and landed on the top of the waves. Using his momentum, he Surfed forward. A spray of water gushed behind him, as he put all he had into his speed, while his eyes scanned the horizon…

His jaw was set… His fur fluttered in the wind, and his fangs were bared as he jetted towards his mate…

In time, after the sun had risen at his back, he spied the ship…

There was a bit of fatigue already, but in a moment it was replaced by pure adrenaline as he rushed across the waves, diving back under them on occasion to build up more momentum…

He could have crossed the world in a day, though it would have killed him. Here, he only crossed half, so he was half dead as he jetted up with a violent burst of water, and landed squarely on the deck of the stolen ship with a thud that shook the whole thing…

He flicked his arms to either side and drew his scallops. He took two steps, and then ducked suddenly as a ghostly arm shot out and snagged at him… It reeled back, but not fast enough to avoid getting partially sliced off by Noah’s counter attack…

“Yo-You little…” Purgis huffed her words out and then squinted in frustration as she took a couple steps back…

“The sun, you see…! My flame is small now… Soon I won’t be able to take it at all! But I bet I still have enough to…”

Noah swung his arms and flung his shells. Purgis of course defended herself… And so was too late to stop them from slicing straight through the mast of the ship they were aimed at…

The rigging sagged and then tilted… Then it came crashing down heavily into the water, sending up a mist that rained down on the listing ship…

“YOU LITTLE…!”

And that’s when Noah launched his attack, swiftly and brutally. He didn’t know much about Purgis, but what he did know meant that he wasn’t afraid of putting her out of commission. He stabbed her firmly in her pumpkin body, and then her ghost flesh…

He dropped her aside as she twitched and breathed in ragged gasps…

“You… You…”

Noah put his foot to her and shoved her hard enough that she shattered the railings, and fell into the sea below with a hiss…

Then he turned and…

...just barely managed to put up his scallop in time to catch a Water Shuriken… The blade spun faster and larger against his barrier until with a cry, Noah deflected it… And heard a soft shattering noise…

He looked at his scallop, panting as the fatigue began to catch up to him. And now he had only the jagged, crumbling remains of one of his blades…

He looked up…

“No… NO…”


Dak stood there, looking almost serene for how happy the scene made him…

Malla stood near him, arms crossed and her head turned away…

And between them, was a Greninja… But Noah knew precisely who it was…

“Illy… What… What did they do to you…”

She flicked her wrist to create a watery blade and averted her eyes. Her gently sloped midsection had the faint imprint of an eye around the belly button… Much easier to see without fur in the way…

“Noah… I knew you wouldn’t give up on me… Your worst traits were that you were stubborn, and didn’t know your limits. Now… Now…”

Her arm drooped a bit. It quivered, and Dak stepped forward…

“Now she understands. She was abandoned by her Guild, and you couldn’t protect her…”

Noah let out a hiss that made Malla jump and take a step back for how vicious it was...

“You… Hurt her…”

“I didn’t do anything until she welcomed me with open LEGS...” he smirked… Noah’s glare of indignation gave way to teary eyes as he looked up and saw Ilianna’s gaze… So much colder… What had happened? Had it really been that bad before? Had he not understood…?

Dak’s eyes widened… He saw the same crack form in Noah that had formed in Ilianna… The faith wavered, and he could worm his claws in and pry the vault wide… But he did it to break Ilianna…

And he would do it to kill Noah…

“I didn’t need to force myself… She wanted it… She knew who the better male was… The one who would truly let her breed freely… LIKE SHE DESIRES!”

He arched his back and snarled, then cackled madly…
“No longer weighed down by your rules, your beliefs… Your GODDESS!

He gave another disparaging laugh, and he drooled as heavily as if he was eating a favourite meal after being starving for days… years?

Yes. He had waited to spit this in Noah’s face from the moment he saw her holding his paw in her hand...

“She is weighed down by MY pups instead!”

Noah let out a noise that could have been described as a scream… A noise of pure hatred and fury that came from so deep inside that it stunned the three Pokemon gathered against him.

Noah rushed forth and planted his broken scallop deep into Dak’s chest…

The wolf stared in stunned disbelief, and Malla took a step back, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging slightly open...

Illy just looked away… Her eyes deadened further, and her hands curled to fists…

Noah’s arm was trembling and his cheeks were wet with tears, but he drove it further in, and Dak’s snarl of agony gave way to a howl as the two males brutally clawed at one another. They stumbled across the deck, with both aiming for vitals with each blow.

Malla’s panicking mind couldn’t think of any way that would help that wouldn’t also incinerate Dakarai, although at this point, seeing such violent splatters across the deck, she knew it would likely be mercy…

Ilianna stared off onto the horizon, with her arms gently crossed… As if her boyfriends were simply fighting over her again…

Noah suddenly slammed a foot down to brace himself and whirled his opponent around. With another violent hiss, he used the momentum to wrench the broken scallop free and fling Dakarai against a railing…

The crimson pool now formed on the deck spread outwards slowly. The wolf quivered and leaned heavily on the splintered guard rail…

Noah wiped his chin… He wasn’t sure whose blood he was tasting… Then he rushed forward and bashed his shoulder into Dak’s body…

The wolf tilted further… Thanks to his type’s weight, he plummeted quickly and suddenly… And once the ripples had settled, none could see him for how far he sank…

Noah turned… Despite being wounded, he held himself proudly… Despite being bloodstained, his glare still conveyed how utterly wounded he now was better than any splash of red could… Despite the fact that his body was ravaged with leaking cuts and slash marks, and things didn’t feel like they were settling right inside his ribs… He had gone on enough adventures to know when he needed a proper medic instead of just a few healing berries…

Despite it all, his glare was locked on Ilianna… Who didn’t look back at him…

“Was this your plan…?”

Noah asked, in a trembling voice…

“Did you know I would come kill him? Did you wait for me? Did it just become too much, and so you gave in? Or was it like this all along, Illy… Did you give in because YOU WANTED HIM?!”

Silence… The boat creaked gently, still listing side to side as the currents carried it. Malla looked out over the bow and saw they were drifting further and faster than they should have been…

“Was I just the easier choice… Ilianna…!? Did you LOVE ME!?”

“Did?”

She looked back over her shoulder. The one word seemed to cut Noah worse than anything Dak had done to him… Her eyes were deadened entirely, with the clever and vital spark of life drilled out of them by weeks below deck, and…

...and… Perhaps the fact… that she could no longer honestly answer his questions… She didn’t even know herself...

“Did you… Did you ever…? Do you know…?”

Noah let out a strained chuckle that sounded a little maddened…

“Because to be honest Illy, I liked you better as a Frogadier…”

Her gaze hardened murderously. The ninja spun suddenly and flung a barrage of shurikens.

Noah darted, ducked, and weaved… He ignored the blades that were on target, and let them slice into his flesh so he could come closer with his blinding speed… His body suddenly began to glow… His silhouette grew larger as Ilianna backed away quickly…

He dove and tackled the female into the water… Malla heard the splash…

And then…

She was alone…























She was panting shakily… Her hands were on her middle, and her mind had been reeling from the moment Noah leapt onto the boat. She wondered what kind of retribution he would have for her, but apparently other things were on his mind…

She sank to her knees and gave a choked gasp, trying to fill her lungs. It felt like she was drowning… But after a bit, the pressure around her chest eased up…

...but the pressure on her middle did not…

“...No… No, no… Now… Now, Tessa…?” she whispered, as she stood shakily and turned around. The ship was still aimlessly wavering between points on the horizon, until the soft roll of the tide brought her closer and closer to a nearby beach head…

She ran back and into the captain’s quarters in the nick of time… She only just managed to duck down before the ship slammed into the shore, grinding its underside upon the rocks and then tilting hard until it was strewn across the sand in a crooked heap…

After a few long moments, Malla crawled from the wreckage, nearly wheezing with how hard she panted… Her paws pressed to her middle and she closed her eyes…

The throbbing ache there was unrelenting… The agony of it was too much to deny… Her little one had decided that now was the moment she would emerge, whether mama was ready or not…

Having just lost her companions, and seen the Pokemon she might truly have loved plummet over and into the sea… She was shaking and damp and tired and angry, just like when she started…

She ran as quick as her contracting belly would allow up the side of a hill and crested it to peer about. She gave a soft sigh of relief as she spotted the telltale twisted trees that marked the boundary of the Deep Forest… They had been close to their destination when Noah found them… This had saved her a day or so of riding in a cart to get here…

Albeit, at what cost? ...She slapped the thought away…


She waddled into the eerily silent woods... Looking around, recognizing some features and being familiar enough with others, she was soon deeper in than any Pokemon who merely wandered into the place could get…

She finally fell to her knees… Safety… Even if it meant that her birth would be overseen by…

...her master…

She could sense him deeper in… With her body still wracked with pain, her eyes squeezed shut to reveal the infinite yawning night, the gaze within unwavering… Beckoning her for a show… If she would give it…

No choice now… This was her destiny…

She was sat on a patch of soft grass, and her body glowed softly with heat, her drenched form drying quickly… Her fur puffed, and she gripped her thighs to pull them apart…

Almost immediately, there was a sharp pop, and a gush of fluids turned to steam with her body’s heat… Malla set her head back against the bush behind her and gave a weak groan…

“Master… Master… I have lost everything… But I have this, don’t I… I have my progeny… And I can devote myself again to you… I will… Please… Let me have this baby… Safely…! Grant me this…!”

She couldn’t tell his glare from anger, or indifference… She felt tears welling in her eyes, wasting precious water that her firey body was naturally inclined to burn up during such a trying act…

The finale of motherhood…

She raked her claws across her middle and arched her back, giving a sharp yelp of pain as she did. She set her legs wider apart, and pushed, then screeched and slammed her paw down…

Not ready quite yet… Not dilated. You’d have to wait…

Endure, little Malla… That’s what Purgis would have said… And Dak too, he would have demanded she be tough…
...No… The witch would have watched her baby strain her to death if it benefited her somehow… She was an untamed demon, who likely was not dead despite the terrible damage Noah had done…

This had been HER fault…! All of it! She had directed their actions... She had given the dark curse, corrupted little Tessa…! And now Malla was paying the price...

And Dakarai… She wasn’t sure if he cared… Noah had come, in the end… But he came for Illy… Not her…

Would he have come if he had known…? That the baby now pushed firmly against her pelvis was partially his…? It had been entirely his… Before she had…

She flinched and pushed a paw tighter against her stomach. It clenched and she screeched from between her grinding fangs, her foot stomping a few times with the pain of it…

Endure…

Endure, like you always had… Like you always would… Find a way out of it, sneaky as a fox…

But there was no way out of this… She had laid down with an otter, now she was bearing his pup. That’s the old saying, isn’t it…?

If you love the river, you must bear its whole weight…

She moaned and her head thudded gently back against the tree. She sobbed softly as the baby, too big it felt for such a tiny body as her’s, moved down inch by agonizing inch with contractions, until it was in position…

Finally, the lazy process had given her the opportunity… No matter the cost in torment…

Now the real ‘fun’ could begin…

She arched and screamed… She sobbed louder as she pushed as hard as she could… Her pelvis suddenly felt like it would snap, and against her spade she felt a rough, furry head…
“NNNGGGHHH!!!”

She held her paws over her muzzle to prevent herself from getting sick, before pulling her legs up higher… She gripped at her thighs, at the scant lean flesh around them to pull herself as wide as possible, as if it would help…

She pushed as hard as she could… She nearly roared into her gritted teeth… A muffled snarl that caused flames to spit from the edge of her mouth…

She felt the baby slip through her… It was precisely as difficult as it sounded, moving a heavy newborn pup through you with nothing but muscles… As they clenched, spasmed, and contracted… She could only bite her charred wand, and moan all the louder into it…

The baby crowned… It spread her painfully from within… More fluids gushed around it…

For a moment, it slipped backwards as she got too tired… But she panicked, whined, doubled over on herself and gain a painful final shove…

Something must have torn or broken… She was split up the middle and her body obliterated by this profane act. There was nothing worse than this…

When her vision returned, she looked down at herself. Her body was quivering, and sweaty… But she was fine…

She sat up shakily once she’d gathered the strength… She looked between her legs and saw her puppy wriggling there gently…

She picked her up, arms shaking, and held her to her chest…

Then, she began to weep softly, until it all came out at once…

A torrent of emotion as she clung to her girl… And in the gathering dark around her, she sobbed with grief, exhaustion, and a little bit of joy… But mostly, she ached… She understood all she had lost… She saw her baby already starting to whimper as her eyes drooped…

The gloom was gathering around them indeed… And Malla was terrified to fall asleep… But it pulled her down, moment by moment, until she fell with her baby into the nightmare…

It was a terrible one too… One that lasted decades, as she and her eternally sleep deprived baby made their way deeper into the woods… Occasionally they had to make their way back out to find supplies, but most of their time was spent mapping the woods feverishly…

Neither of them slept well… Each night was spent under the gaze of their master… And as the nights grew longer and the waking world difficult to tell apart from the dreams, she felt the additional burden of dreadful guilt…

What had she done, exposing her daughter to this wretched place…? And before she was even born. Now she could see her suffer so, and she felt every bit of her pain just as acutely as her own…

And then came the grand finale… Her and her daughter unleashing the endless night…

She gazed into her flame and looked at what kind of future was to be under the dark of the moon, and saw nothing but chaos and turmoil…

Where had she gone wrong? Where had she turned her girl into a hateful wraith and herself into a walking corpse? Why had she sacrificed the world to save it?

If she could not…

Then what else could she do…?



...The future is written in the wavering weave of the fire…



977s
Malla’s eyes closed, finally.

They were sore, and itchy. She rubbed them gently with her paws and then opened them to look around…

She stood in Purgis’s hut… And the words still echoed in her large, perked ears…

She looked up at the grinning ghost, whose expectant gaze pierced her through, as if she knew everything… But only Malla and her kind could see the future through the flames… She suspected that’s why she was kept around in the first place...

She gasped at a thought, and touched her middle…

Pregnant. But not nearly due…

“What did you see?”

Purgis whispered and came near, leaning in. She could tell that Malla had peered into the future and had a vision of something very clear. The look on the young fox’s face was troubled and distant, yet ponderous and intense…

“What… did… you…”

But before Purgis could finish speaking, Malla suddenly whipped her wand forward and plunged it into the pumpkin’s middle…

The Gourgeist shrieked in confusion as Malla ground the stick into the guttering little spark there. She yanked it out, and as it flickered on the tip of her wand, Malla blew softly until it had shrunk to a tiny ember…

Purgis was stock still… None of her usual theatrics were on display… She stared with a gaunt, unsure expression…

“...Pledge yourself to me, demon…” Malla hissed gently. Purgis stared… and then, a smile cracked her lips…

“Little witch, I know our kind kill their mothers for their knowledge… But you have so much more to learn under me than ABOVE me… Place my soul… Back into my body…”
“Or I could blow it out now…”

Purgis tilted her head… Despite her haunting nature, she had an uneasy look…

“What DID you see, child…? Surely from one as wicked as I, you saw betrayal or…”

“No.”

Malla cut her off, and then glared coldly…

“Just bad advice. Now, under my thumb… Or I remove you…”

Purgis finally lifted her arms, stiffly…

“Alright dear… Alright… I pledge my soul to you…”

She pushed the stick back into the Gourgeist’s body and reignited the flame there… Purgis’ expression was soft… Calm… A gentle, almost proud smile…

...an implied death threat, with every soft sway of her body…

“Crafty little wench.” muttered the Ghost, who swayed herself to her cauldron once more, now with her back to Malla.

The girl stood and brushed herself off. She took a moment to rub her middle before turning and taking her coat off the rack, where it had been neatly hung…

She walked from the hut into the gentle patters of rain. She pulled her hood up… then turned suddenly…

Something in the under brush… A colourful pink glint, a gentle and girly giggle, and then nothing at all…

Malla raised her eyebrow… But then turned and walked into the gathering storm to fetch Dakarai…




The rain was driving and painful by the time she found him in the torn up clearing. The storm overhead had gathered and hit them dead on, rather than pass them by like Malla hoped…

She held her cloak a bit tighter around herself and stared at the wolf, who stood with his back to her…

His claw curled and dug a bit firmer into the tree he leaned against… Hiding from the water…

“...Dak.”

“Not a word from YOU Malla… If you speak to me any word but goodbye, I will end Noah’s bloodline before it truly BEGINS.”

He turned his head to snap that last bit, then turned away again. Malla saw his shoulders droop gently…

...he was hurt. Malla was dimly aware there was a way to fix his deserved hatred of her… But it was something she’d have to obtain from Purgis. And she had finally broken her destiny from that demon’s direction. She would never let her control it again…

Coming here was almost the worst mistake she’d ever made.

Dak heard something hit the grass next to his paw. He turned and saw a Guild scarf. He whipped around to look at her…

They stood on either side of the clearing, each hiding under a tree. Dak stared with trembling fists…

“I do not trust Purgis. She will be useful when it comes time to find our way to the centre of the Forest. But until then… I need someone to care for me.”

She crossed her arms and tilted her hips gently…

“It could be you. Or it could be the Guild. I will have to return and submit to them, just to get the care I will need.”

The rain’s sharp pattering and splashing filled the void between them…

“I don’t suppose you could, after all.”
Dak’s sneer turned into a furious snarl…

“You cannot seriously be asking me to RAISE my rival’s…”

Malla suddenly whipped her wand out and swung it. A burst of flame so strong it nearly defeated the rain and made its way to Dak through the torrent before it fizzled. He had felt that fire before, and it was enough to get him to stumble back in intimidation...

“MY. BABY.”

She said, her wand held out threateningly. A halo of steam surrounded its tip, as the rain evaporated before it even touched it…

“You are so focused on the fact it came from NOAH that you forget part of it is ME as well. ME!!! Tessa is MINE!”

“...You named it?”

“HER!”

Once more, the only sounds were the rumbling overhead, and the clatter of rain into puddles…

“I named HER. She will be safe. I will defeat the vision of the future I see and I will give her a good life. I WILL DO IT WITH…”

Her wand snapped to point at the scarf on the ground…

“Or without you.”

Dak grit his fangs at the challenge… His eyes burned with frustration… He crouched and scraped his claws through the dirt… Trying to work out a way to defy her…

...instead, he stood again and flicked his wrist…

“I will not call her my daughter…”

“You needn’t do anything but ensure she is safely born.”

“...And I want you to continue to-…”
Before he could say anything else, Malla flicked off her cloak and stepped through the rain. Dakarai’s eyes narrowed as she walked across the clearing, burning a path of mist through the downpour until she was stood, dry as a bone, directly next to him. Her chest was against his midsection, and she gazed up defiantly…

“I never intended otherwise. I always pay you well, Dakarai…”

Their intense eyes locked… For a long moment, both had the impulse to press their muzzles against one another and kiss deeply…

Two cast off lovers… The pair of rejects…

Dak suddenly gripped her and shoved her down…

They made love in the storm… Malla’s eyes remained on the scarf, when they weren’t unfocused and distant with pleasure. Dak screwed all the harder, perhaps some part of him wanting to roughly thrust until Noah’s pup was gone…

...perhaps part of him remembered why he followed Malla about as well. Perhaps something warm beat beneath the stone in his chest…

She didn’t count on it, or even think about it… She let him fuck her until both of them had steam curling off of their bodies. They remained there under the tree until the storm had passed…

Malla’s belly flickered with a symbol, unnoticed. Tessa squirmed inside her, confused by a strange feeling… Something new… Something to add to her dreams of fire and water…

The great mountains looming above… She had merely to point, and they moved…

Malla and Dak returned to Purgis’ hut. The witch was far colder now, but inspected Malla’s belly dutifully and informed her of a safe and healthy baby.

Then the pair of travellers left… They had no plan but to make their way into the countryside, and eventually circle back and search the Deep Forest from the other side. With a wilder approach, none would see fit to bother them as they made their way to the heart…
But before that, other business demanded attention.

Once more, Malla hardened herself on the road. Despite her growing pregnancy, as the weeks passed them by, she remained focused and confident… Even if she complained from time to time, Dak could only chalk it up to hormones, drain himself into her, and hope it doused her…

Eventually, it wasn’t enough. Avoiding the gaze of vigilant, scarfed bounty hunters, whether truly believing in ‘Justice’ or just the payday that came with capturing them, was slowly degrading them, and burdening her more than her immensely pregnant middle could ever do…

They escaped into the woods… With packs of supplies on their backs and a goal in mind, they found their way to some distant den…

It didn’t take long after that…

“HHAAHH! Ggggah… Oh…!”

Malla bit her wand firmly enough to gouge marks in the wood; an impressive feat for how hard the material was… Her other paw was on her middle, and she beat her head gently against the dirt wall at her back…

Dak’s evolution meant he had the ability to turn that sub-par hole of grime and wiggling worms into an almost cozy hideaway. They were still a ways from the Forest, but now they certainly weren’t going to make it there anytime soon…

Malla arched and tensed up, then slumped. She panted puffs of smoke with each gasp of air. Dak roughly set a bucket of water next to her…

“Every time you use one of these up, I have to walk all the way to the river…”

He watched her splash herself with the contents of the bucket, more steam roiling off of her. His gaze softened subtly, and he crouched down to drag his broad paw across her heaving middle…

“Relax. Just push. It isn’t that hard, I’ve seen dozens of…”

Malla shot him a look that shut him up and made him remove his paw. He smirked, and then placed it in her paw instead…
“Here. Squeeze. I doubt you c-AAAHHOOO!”

He stamped his foot and bit into his other claw with a snarl, as Malla squeezed so hard that he felt something crack. He could feel the effort she put into her push, and immediately gained a bit of respect for the dozens of females he had forced into the same situation…

Not enough to stop, of course.

Malla spat another burst of flame and gripped the bucket, pushing her muzzle down to sip deeply from it. Her eyes showed immediate relief…

“Get it out before you pull my arm off…!”

“Shut… UUUUPPP!!!”

She screamed, as she curled and bore down hard on the too-big Fennekin in her body… Dakarai couldn’t help but blush lightly himself, watching her spade spread wide and…

He reached down without thinking and caught the pup in his free paw… Malla’s back struck the wall of the den and she went limp…

Dak pulled his paw from her much smaller one and shook it. It would be sore for awhile…

He looked down at the strangely coloured puppy in his arm…

...after a weighty pause… He quickly pushed her into Malla’s arms…

Malla embraced her, listened to her soft whimpers, and sighed in relief…

“Hello… Little Tessa…”









Dakrai stared down at the scene, holding his paw. He backed away softly as his eyes locked on the strangely coloured Fennekin…

His nose quivered… Past Malla’s scent, and NOAH’S…

There was something familiar...

He turned and started to leave. He heard Malla’s tiredly lift her head…

“...I told you.” he said, as he paused near the entrance… “I am not a father…”

“Dakarai… Dak. You don’t have to leave me… Please…”

The Lycanroc glanced over his shoulder. He gazed into her tired eyes, and then glanced once more at the pup in her arms…

With a sharp ‘whuff’ from his nostrils, he slipped from the entrance of the den and disappeared into the night…

For the next few years, Malla was alone.

She made the best of it, and in that quiet and well structured den, isolated from all who would accost her…

...she felt at peace, for the first time in a long while.

Mostly, it was raising Tessa that put her at ease. Each day she had a goal to settle on that didn’t involve endlessly pouring over scrolls or scheming to save the world from the fools determined to ignore its oncoming demise…

...yet, she peered into the fire of her hearth more than once and saw the same scouring sun. It troubled her more day by day, and slowly overcame the joy she felt at raising her daughter…

The poor little Fennekin rarely slept through the night. When she was a pup, it was assumed she was simply fussy… Malla stayed up with her every evening until it became clear that it wasn’t mere sickness or growing pains…

...she was having nightmares… Endless nightmares, every single time she closed her eyes…
Malla’s obsession was reignited against her will. Her motherhood was tarnished… As she cared for her baby, she knew that one day…

...Tessa might want the same… And instead, she would feel only the oppressing pain of the drought.

The thought made her jaw set, and she spread open an old tome of lore to begin studying again, with eyes as intense as a wildfire...

===

After years of silence…

A greying old Pelipper landed on a rock at a crossroads. They watched the lanky wolf loping up the path with an expression that was distant and footsteps that were an aimless march forward.

The bird briefly locked eyes, set the letter down, and flew away before Dakarai could reach it. He snatched the envelop and opened it by tearing it in half…

His eyes widened in surprise as he recognized the letter’s script…

To his frustration and embarrassment, his heart fluttered at the fox’s arcane handwriting...

“...’Come to...’ Ah… So you never DID give up, did you…?”

He crumpled the letter and tossed it aside before he glanced up at the crossroads sign…

Some worthless city in one direction… Farmland in the other…

...’Mew’s Nest’, dead ahead…

He snarled sharply and slashed the sign so that it collapsed into the dust. The ‘N’ had been scratched away…

“We’ll see… Noah.”
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