departure and arrival

[wynnyelle]

ooc: Ok, I've decided to begin the RPG with a little backstory so bear with me.

ic:

Alcatraz stepped into the cascading waterfall, standing waist deep in the pool while the white water poured down over the tall, young aruseus. He was a cooler grey than most aruseus, as well as being tall; he had an ovaline, opalescent birthmark between his eyes; but the most significant feature he had that set him apart from the rest of his race was his wheel. No two arusian wheels were the same--some were more developed than others, some were wider, some narrower, some thicker, some thinner. Some were more of a bronze than a gold. But Alcatraz had a double wheel with an extra set of gems, something he had grown gradually in the years after his elemental journey. Alcatraz liked his double wheel. He thought it made him unique.

~Uniqueness won't win you back the respect you lost with your kind,~ said a voice in the back of his mind. Alcatraz stepped out of the waterfall and stood on the rocks next to the water. He changed to fire type and flamed himself dry within a few seconds. He took deep breaths, trying to meditate...although amidst his turmoil, a part of him felt at peace for the first time in a while. Maybe for the first time ever.

Alcatraz was leaving the pack that he had lived with ever since his elemental journey many years ago. He had known he had to do this for a while, but now he was actually going to do it. He would follow through on discussions he had had about it with Connie and the other pack elders.

Here, he was, as his kind liked to say, flapping his wheel, going nowhere. He had begun to feel lonely and homesick for things that these pokemon here, as wonderful as they were, could not bring him. There were things he sensed that he needed that a canine pack could not provide. And after the last few nights it had become obvious to him what he really wanted to do. ~I just wish it wouldn't break my heart so much.~

As he walked through the forest after his bath, Alcatraz looked over at the pack. They were at early morning rest, the pups and kits playing by the den. ~Oh...the kits...and Linella...~ He could change his mind and stay. If leaving really was too much for him to bear...No. He had to do this. Alcatraz got up and strode over towards Connie. He found the mixed-blood absol resting right atop the mound roofing the den. ~Connie...~

~Say no more.~ Connie's eyes were sad and as he looked into them, they seemed to show their age, drifting from young towards middle age, even more. ~So you are going to go through with what we discussed?~

~I have to. I just don't know how to tell them.~ Alcatraz nodded at the younger members of the pack.

"Start by saying it outright. You're not the first one to leave this pack, and you have every right to, even a need to, more of one than any of us. We're all dogs, of a sort. You're not."

"I know." Alcatraz caught the eyes of several in the pack looking at him now. Each of them like a family member to him.

" Leave? Who's leaving?" Linella stopped her game she had going with her pack-sister and looked up at Connie, then Alcatraz. She already knew the answer, but it just had to be untrue. She had to be wrong.

"Linnie...I--I don't..." Alcatraz sighed and looked away, down at his presently pink hooves. In his psychic form he felt her confusion boiling into anguish.

" How could you?" Linella turned to Connie. " Why's he leaving?" And back to Alca. " You're just going to leave? Why?"

" I have places I need to go to and people I need to see, things I need to do," said Alcatraz. " I have to go back to my own kind."

Linella blinked. "Why? No you don't."

Alca laughed a little, but quickly sobered, he knew there was nothing funny about it. " Yes I do. I feel lonely for them. I feel them calling me. I have to go." Tears rolled down his cheeks, he wished they would not come.

"So you're just going to leave me, right now? Today?" Linella's voice began to tremble.

"Linella, it's not like that," said Connie. "He needs to do this. He's not of our kind and never will be. This life is foreign to him. He may seem like any pokemon to you, but--he isn't, Linnie. He's a pokégod, he may rule the world someday, or something."

" I don't know about ruling the world," said Alcatraz. He still found it so hard to look at Linnie. " I'm really going to miss you Linnie. But I'll come back and visit, I promise."

Linnie sniffled and her brow furrowed, then she snapped her head back up towards him. " I'll go with you."

Alca looked out at the trees. " I can't take you with me. Where I'm going, you just, you won't be able to follow."

" Why not?"

Alcatraz shook his head slowly, helplessly. He looked at Connie and the others. The others were coming forward too, to say their goodbyes. Alcatraz endured it all, every goodbye pulling painfully at somewhere deep inside.

" You haven't answered me," said Linnella. " Why can't I go with you? I'm not a really little kit anymore."

Alcatraz turned his gaze back to the eevee-absol hybrid, who had the blood of some other pokemon in her as well. As he stood there, a shaft of light cut downwards through the air from above him. It widened and brightened, casting Alcatraz in silhouette as he began to rise up from the air.

" Goodbye...I love all of you, and I will be back to visit, I promise I will."

"Wherever you go...may you be loved and respected," said Connie. " You deserve that. Goodbye and best wishes."

"Pokegods keep you," said Alcatraz. "May you all forgive me someday for leaving you...if my leaving has hurt you."

The shaft of golden light had opened up into a portal. Alcatraz turned around and stepped up into it, as though he were walking up a great staircase. Just before his portal closed behind him, he glanced over his shoulder and glimpsed his beloved packmates one more time. And he heard a familiar voice yipping.

" I haven't forgotten!" called Linnella. " We have a connection! And I'll be finding you!"

Alcatraz vanished from the mortal realm.

[wynnyelle]

Alcatraz stepped into a realm he had not been in in some time, and then only a few times. "Dimity," he said to himself, under his breath, as though to strengthen his resolve and clarify the reason he was really here. He had already sensed the presence of other aruseus here...all he had to do was track them down. Alcatraz sped through the realm of crystals, clouds and light towards the psychic signatures of his kind.

When he found two aruseus he knew were related to Dimity his heart soared. Alcatraz approached them in what he hoped was a humble and friendly manner. " Hi...I don't know if you remember me..."

" Yes, I remember you, you're Alcatraz right?" said the female aruseus.

" Yes," said Alcatraz. " It's nice to see you again. I was wondering if you knew where I could find Dimity?"

Both aruseus snorted and nearly turned up their noses. " You won't be finding her," said the male. "She does not want to be found by you...and she's all but mated, moreover."

Alcatraz pressed them for more information anyway, but they refused to tell him more.

"If you have any smarts, you'll go back to the world of the *lollen* that you have consigned yourself to," said the female with a grim glare. "Now get out of our realm."

" It's my realm too," said Alcatraz, and he stubbornly flitted off towards where he sensed the other two aruseus were, in this realm. Wherever the other aruseus all were, they were not here. He soon spotted them, and slowed to a drift and a walk.

"...Oh yes, -everyone- will be there for this," said a male aruseus to one apparently his mate as Alcatraz stepped nearer them. Alca remembered seeing them somewhere but could not call their names to mind.

"The what?" said the female, as they both lounged on crystallic, smooth structures shaped conveniently for lounging.

"The great gathering," said the male. " You know everyone'll be there, everyone has to be."

Alca stepped over to them, head cocked. " Hi, um, sorry if I'm interrupting anything, I was just wondering--when will this great gathering be taking place?"

The male looked up at him quizzically. He did not recognise this aruseus--and he knew them all. After all, there were not that many to know. One thing was for sure--he had never seen this aruseus before in his life, he had never known aruseus with a full double wheel even existed. The whole thing was fairly incredible. " In five more years, on the summer equinox. On Atuna Piaru. And you would be?"

"Alcatraz." He smiled, a little shyly. Both the male and his mate were looking at him now. Alca felt fairly put on the spot. When they didn't respond right away, his smile began to fade. He felt misgivings shadowing him, and turning psychic, he sensed growing fear, hostility even--emanating from them. As soon as he turned visibly psychic, he felt the others' thoughts pull away and retreat into a shell of mystery. " And you are?"

" Whose business would that be? Surely not yours," said the voice of another male. Alcatraz turned his head to look at a short but heavily built aruseus whose wheel was in four pieces. He knew who this was--Cannendayous. " Not if you're Aranuka's and Diamanta's filthy son. You're a curse on this holy plane. You've no business here except to leave."

" I'm an aruseus like you, I have every right to be here." Alcatraz frowned. " Who are you? Is this hostility over my past mate? Because I'd be really upset if you're trying to defile her name."

" You're the one defiling," said the shorter aruseus. "Defiling the great Higher Plane just by setting your hooves on its crystal floors. You are not an aruseus."

Alcatraz fought back tears, to his own surprise. But he didn't let himself cry. He couldn't. When he spoke, there was only a slight waver in his voice. " I'm as much of an aruseus as you are. What I do or did doesn't change what I am. "

"What you do -makes- you what you are," said Cannendayous, practically spitting in Alca's face. "You are a failure. And you are not welcome here. I suggest you leave now before I and the many who agree with me force you out--and should we ever see you here again, we will break that pretty double wheel from your body and throw your bloody carcass to splatter and rot on the grounds of the mortal realm as your soul will do in hell."

~Five years from now on the summer equinox. On Atuna Piaru.~ Alcatraz committed the place and time to memory. He took a good last look around him, he wondered if he would ever come here again. ~Sure you will. You will redeem yourself someday.~ How, he had no idea, but he couldn't go on the way he was. Something would give, he would make it give. Alcatraz forced himself to stay silent. He stepped around so he faced away from the other male, lifted his tail and took several steps away. Before the other could do anything else, Alcatraz vanished from the Beginning Dimension in a swath of white light.

[wynnyelle]

Alcatraz re-entered the mortal world not far from where he had last left it. He quickly took off flying, heading north, away from where the pack would see him, and away from the pain of being back in familiar lands and feeling tempted to just give up and return to the only place where he would be welcomed home.

He could return now, and give up on ever being a proper aruseus. ~If I'm not welcome in the beginning dimension, how can I ever be?~ Or he could live with his pack until the five years had passed, and it was time to go to Atuna Piaru and meet Dimity again at last. He tried to imagine just how beautiful she would have become by now...

~No, you said you're leaving, and you will leave. To go back now is to give up.~ And the longer he stayed the harder it would become to try and set out to find his true calling. Letting himself shed tears, the pokegod flew on, the blue sky matching the accents of his Flying form.

He was tuning into the life-paths of other pokemon once again, and one that stuck out at him was the life of a pokemon fleeing danger. She was somewhere up north of here. Alcatraz was back to his duties again, and he was glad. It meant he -was- an aruseus--a pokemon who could do something about his situation, take hold of it and someday change it. ~Hurry, hurry, she is in trouble,~ the thought rushed upwards at Alcatraz like a wind in the face as Alca soared at a great speed over the world of living plants and pokemon... Following the course of the signals coming from the distant pokemon, he let it guide him. He vanished from the sky.

* * *

Cirenze's candy-pink paws raced over the forest floor. The houndoom was behind her and gaining on her but she dared not look behind her. The three-tailed vulpix-like pokemon--or was it poochyena-like? spotted a tree and dashed behind it. She had no time to go anywhere else before the houndoom would be upon her...

The houndoom tracked the young canine pokemon's location straight to the tree. He found her there, snarling at him in her pitiful kitlike way. He grinned. "So you decided to trespass on our territory, eh?"

" I didn't know it was your territory! I'm just trying to find something to eat," said Cirenze, her hackles raised and her deep pink-tipped tails flared to make her look as big as possible. Her deep-pink paws stood splayed over the ground. " I'll leave, I promise!"

" No," said the houndoom, " you won't be leaving."

" You will," said another voice, to the houndoom. Cirenze gasped and stared at the great light-grey pokemon who stood way tall behind the houndoom. A faint aura seemed to surround him and his gleaming, golden double wheel.

The houndoom turned around, saw Alcatraz and spared no time in dashing away with his tail between his legs. He wasn't going to stick around to get killed by this thing, nor would the pack believe him if he ever told them what it was he had just seen.

Cirenze stood where she was, too afraid now even to put on a stance of aggression. She wanted to flee, too, but she couldn't unlock her little legs. ~What kind of a dark type are you?~ she thought bitterly to herself. Now she was at the mercy of this creature...

" Are you Aruseus?" She just -had- to ask...

" Yes," said Alcatraz. " An aruseus...there are a few of us actually. Are you all right?"

Cirenze finally managed to nod, a little bit. " I--I just have to get away from this land--it's a pack territory and I didn't know."

" Come with me and we'll find a place where you can stay," said Alcatraz. He smiled at the little pokemon. " You can hop on my back and we can fly around and choose a new place for you, if you like."

Cirenze realised her mouth had dropped open. " Really?"

Alcatraz smiled wider and nodded. " Really." And from him came a force that moved towards Cirenze and lifted her up through the air and onto his back, but only with her willingness to be picked up.

Cirenze had never felt anything like the psychic force that picked her up and placed her gently onto the aruseus's back. She didn't resist it though, since he was doing her a favour. Her mind was spinning. Why was he doing this for her? And where would he take her?

Alcatraz lifted into the air--not too quickly, he didn't want to upset the kit. He zoomed up past the high treetops and out over the forest, surveying these lands. They were beautiful. Cirenze's plight had brought him to an uncannily lovely land. " It sure is beautiful here."

" Yes." Cirenze had never thought about it. To her, it was just home. But she was scared of disagreeing.

As Alcatraz flew over the woods and beautiful flower-painted fields, he got a plan in his head. If he had five years, or a little more, until he met with Dimity, then he would do something with that time. He flew back down through a hole in the canopy of the forest near the base of a mountain. Here he landed. " This should be a nice safe place." He let that same psychic force place Cirenze down on the ground again. ~And a nice place for me as well.~ " I think I'm going to stay here, too, for a bit."

" Really?" Cirenze took a look around, then looked up at his alien face.

Alca smiled. "Really." He remembered how Dimity loved the mortal world as much as he did. He stepped on once-again golden hooves towards the side of the mountain. It was a solid, sheer face jutting almost straight up for a while. All he had to do was test its soundness, and then get to work.

" Well then I'll be off hunting for now," said Cirenze. Sure, she could live here. Especially if there was Aruseus--well, -an- aruseus--living nearby. She didn't want to ask any more favours of him though.

" Oh, I'm Alcatraz, by the way," said Alca, feeling silly for not having told her his name yet.

" I'm Cirenze." With a smile and a flick of her three bushy tails, she trotted off into the woods.

Alcatraz watched her go and went back to his new task. He turned to ghost form, and floated -into- the rock, checking out whether there were caves or anything inside. If there were then it might not be safe to excavate, although it might be, and then all he'd have to do was tunnel in to unlock a nice home for himself, and, in a few years if he got lucky, Dimity too.

He found the rock solid for a while in, but then he encountered caves lying empty. ~Perfect.~ He drifted back outside and switched to his rock form. And the excavation began.

[fya]

The crisp forest was relaxing, though relaxed wasn't the mood. The jungle was calming though, and it did settle the party's ancy mood down a bit.

"Are we there yet?" whimpered tiny Coralyn. The zigzagoon kit stopped in her tracks for a moment. Her dark red striped fur glinted in a streak of golden sunlight. She moaned and added, "Please say we get to have lunch soon."

"Coralyn why are you such a wimp?" The blood red poochyena laughed and nosed his foster sister. He was blood red where most of his kind were blay and a light silver where most were grey. His tiny ears swiveled around listening to the chirps of the birds and the buzzes of the insects.

"Don't pick on her, Sassano," said Lelaka. The emurit glanced back at her two companions, Coralyn and Sassano. The two young Pokemon were part of her recent project. She had found them abandoned after some fight and had taken the two younglings. They'd been orphans before that and were possibley half siblings. The rumor was that their father was an evil zangoose known as Marcol. She figured it was probably true, as both Sassano and Coralyn had cat in them. Coralyn wasn't as ruffley as a normal zigzagoon and she was longer. Sassano was sleeker and had less bangs than most poochyena. Whoever their parents were, Lelaka would always love them as her own children. Her own children that she'd never have.

"Why not? She's a wimp Mom," replied Sassano darkly. He lashed his short tail, but it was obvious he was just playing.

"Mommy I'm hungry," whimpered Coralyn. "And are we ever gonna be there?"

Lelaka chuckled. "All right we'll stop. I see some berries up there. I'll go get them for you lazy buggers." She grinned at them and flew up to pluck a few ripe Qualot berries off the tree. She dropped them down and Coralyn caught them with delight.

Coralyn caught the berries deftly. She was small and quick. Amazingly quick. Soon she was chowing down with delight.

Sassano wrinkled his nose and waited for his mother and sister to eat. He had already learned to hunt when Lelaka had found him and Coralyn. He didn't get hungry much and was pleased with that. He knew that his mother and sister were never pleased when he ate in front of them. But it was hard not to since Lelaka would never let him out of her sight.

Lelaka ate. She then felt her aura tingle. "Wait here guys." Her voice was urgent and she flew up into the trees. She felt him. He was here. Could she have really found him. ~Alcatraz? Is that you?~ She eased her psychic towards the aruseus. It had to be him. She hadn't seen him since forever. She thought of her childhood on the islands. It made her cinge.

"Mom?" But she was already gone. "What is up with her these days?" said Sassano, batting a wrotten berry around with his paw. "She's been so out there..."

"Yeah," said Coralyn between bites. "She has." She wondered if their mother had finally found who she was looking for...after all Lelaka had never been willing to tell them. "Well at least we get a break."

"Lazy," growled Sassano, playfully batting at his sister.

"Shut up. I'm dainty unlike you oaf," retorted Coralyn with a laugh.

[wynnyelle]

Alcatraz felt a mental touch of another mind contacting his, a touch that he had not thought about in a long time. He landed, and stopped his rock-tunnelling work. Changing to psychic form, he tuned in. It could be none other than her, although her mental waves were so much stronger and more controlled than he remembered. ~Lelaka!~

She couldn't be far from where he was working. Focusing on where she was, he teleported towards that location. The aruseus spotted her instantly. She looked so small...but definitely more mature than she had looked, all those years ago, when they had been such good friends on the islands. "Lelaka! It's really you!"

Lelaka stared at him as he appeared. "Alca.....I've been looking for you so....so long," she stammered, still surprised that she'd found him. "You've...done your elements..."

"Yeah...a while ago now." Alca's smile was a little sad. Thinking of those days made him think of all the pokemon he had known then, and his young love with Ankh...who was now gone too. They had all told him mating her was a mistake, but if that was the case, it had been a mistake worth making. " You've grown up too, you look great. How--how'd you find me?"

"I....well I've been doing my own stuff for a while...and then I felt your presence....days ago..it's scary...I must have been miles away..but I felt it. And I knew it was you..and then I missed you all over again." Lelaka paused, and thought of the moment she'd felt Alcatraz's pressense. She could feel anyone's pressense she wanted to now even if she was miles and miles away. She was full grown and her powers were maxed. "So I followed where it went...you went into your realm and I thought I'd lost you..I have been traveling with friends..they'll be wondering where I've gotten to..let's go down to the ground."

"I've been living with the pack south of here for years now... Yeah, let's go." Alcatraz fell towards the forest once more and slowed to a halt just as his feet touched the ground. Lelaka had such a powerful mind now, he was impressed.

"Hey guys," said Lelaka, calling to her two little friends. She smiled at Sassano and Coralyn. "I've brought my friend...the one I've been looking for."

"Woah," said Sassano. "What -are- you?" He stared up at Alca in a amazement.

Alcatraz hated this question. He knew that it was coming from someone innocent though, so he put on a smile. " An aruseus," he said but it came out a little mumbled. He was glad he had fur, so no one could see the heat on his face. " My name's Alcatraz. Who are you?"

"I'm Sassano." Sassano cocked his head. "I'm a zangoose-poocheyna. Are you a god? Mom's a god too but she won't admit it." He giggled and smiled up at Alca. "You're really tall."

"And I'm Coralyn," said Coralyn. She looked up at him. He was so...different.

"I'm, well, I guess I am a god, but there's a lot of things I can't do," said Alcatraz. "Sassano and Coralyn...very pretty names."

--RP'd by Wynn and Fya, the only two members of the rpg so far! w00t

[fya]

"Thanks," said Sassano. He wagged his stumpy red tail and smiled at Alcatraz. So this was the mystery Pokemon Lelaka had been searching for for the last few days.

"Alca....are you ok?" Lelaka could see discomfort on her friend's face. "Did you ever find..Dimity?" It was hard for her to say this, but she knew she had to. And Sassano and Coralyn weren't a problem being there. It wasn't like any of these names were familiar to the two young Pokemon that had been in her care for the last few months.

"They banished me....Denocaris and Halanga and the others...everyone wanted me gone.." Lelaka blinked, but she wasn't crying at all. She'd grown used to the dislike the other guardians had with her. First her childhood, then Kuruno, and then the ban. Kuruno....I couldn't miss you more..maybe I'll find you, she thought weakly.

"Nobody liked Mom," said Sassano. "They didn't get her." He and Coralyn knew Lelaka's banishing story perfectly. Not her childhood, though. They'd bugged her about it but had never gotten it out of her. But they knew about Kuruno and the others like him.

[wynnyelle]

" Oh, Lelaka...I know just how you feel. They banished me, too." Alcatraz felt like he had everything in common with his old friend. " Banished me because I took a mate who was a suicune, years ago now. She's gone..time stole her away from me, a few years back now." Actually it was more than just a few, but the aruseus's concept of time was different than that of most other pokemon. "And I never did find Dimity...but I will. In five more years and three or so months." He gave his hoof a little stamp. " So...what happened to you? Banned--by your own parents?" Even Alcatraz still had his parents' love. They would always welcome him.

[fya]

Lelaka sighed. "Banned for your love? That's pathetic Alca..." Lelaka took a moment before answering his question. It had all been so fast then...time was so slow now.

"Well I'd already had strike one...with my running away from home when I was so...young. They didn't like that. See they always thought I'd follow in their footsteps..they thought my running away then would maybe get the kinks out of me..so I could take their place....," she started. "Then...about 20 years later I..I met him. His name was Kuruno. He was a dark mew....apparently when your mom and dad went after the darks they didn't get them all." She frowned. "Kuruno's dad was Darsk."

"Darsk had been dead for some time by then...but Kuru had some weird powers. He..he could sense feelings...like really. No matter how hard you tried to mask them he could always know your emotions. But he was my friend...those days...I was still a child then. We spent a lot of time together...out of Arua. Somewhere near Arua, but not on the islands. We were made for each other....but then there was a fight. The dark mews attacked my parents and the other guardians and they claimed a friend of mine had led them straight there. My parents had moved to a different island..and they found it. Maybe I'd said something to Kuru, but he was my best friend. He hated them."

"So then they called me home. They were horribley broken. The mews had vandalized everything. They were so..blind. They believed their sworn enemies! They believed them that it was my fault. And they banished me from Arua. They said I was a threat to their very existence. And they blocked my psychic powers..for a while."

"Kuru stayed with me. He wouldn't leave me. He helped me look for the hidden realm of Dialga and Palkia....they would be able to give me my powers back. And we didn't find their lair..but we found a family of my kind. They were pretty strong and they knew where Palkia and Dialga could be found. They wouldn't tell me. But they were able to restore my psychic. So then my parents found out. And immediatly hated that family." She broke off and cried, "I swear Alca everywhere I go I turn my parents against my new friends!"

She sighed and then went back to her story. "Kuru and I left. And then my parents did what they thougt was best. They killed Kuru. Said some shit about his powers were bound for trouble and he was influencing me badly. So I left them. I went back and lived with the family that had given me my powers back for a while...and then I felt your pressence in a dream...and I came looking for you."

[wynnyelle]

" Wow." Alcatraz felt his own story wasn't nearly so heartbreaking. He'd always known Lelaka had quarrels with her parents and was at odds with them, but this, this was just horrible. " I really can identify, in a way. The Dialgas and Palkias, well they're hard to find since they usually exist in parallel realities and such. But like my kind, they can make themselves known in this world when they wish to."

He moved his head over to her and gave her a nuzzle, even though his head was huge compared to her. "Just stay here with me for a while, maybe someday your parents will see what a wonderful person you are, and they'll be able to overlook all the past. I'm afraid my own story isn't very much...I met a suicune and fell in love with her after I left the islands. I had gone to Yanneofwele for training, but the darkrai-led army--they say there was also an amurai--came and attempted to have me killed. Spitania, my gardevoir guardian at the time, teleported me to safety but the teleportation landed me in a new place. I was on my own for a little while and there I met Ankh...my mate now gone. She and I settled down to live together after I completed my elemental journey in an...unconventional way. It was horrible, but it brought to light that the Great Stone can be used that way for at least some aruseus--to give them their elemental powers. In short, the amurai army tracked the plates down, seized them and then threw them into the Locked Sea. There was a huge slaughter as they killed the plate guardians. I could do nothing, it was too late when I found them dead already. We knew it was amurai involved because Archimedes and Willanda, the lead and elder aruseus at the time, were also killed by them. I knew they were going to go straight to the Great Stone and attempt to either harm it or keep it for themselves, so I begged Spitania to teleport me there, I felt it was my duty to do what I could to protect it. When I got there, I was standing on the Great Stone....there was a voice of a spirit who guided me to tap into the stone's powers. I did, and I took on my elements. The army attacked at that point but I followed the spirit's instructions, and I told any of my loved ones who were there to flee the chamber. Then, then there was a huge blinding blast of light. When it faded, all noise was gone. The spirit was gone, and I was alone in the chamber of the Great Stone. The army--was gone."

[fya]

"Woah," said Lelaka. "That's scary Alca.." All this stuff with the elements..it was above her and was confusing. But it was simple enough. There was quite a bit of trouble in the world. And as usual, the amurai had caused most of it.

"So...they're all mad at you?" She'd had some trouble following her friend's story. "They think..its your fault?" She fell back a little at Alcatraz's nuzzle.

Sassano raised his eyesbrows. It surprised him how strangly amazing these Pokemon's lives were. He remembered thinking his short life had been exciting..the battle that had left him and Coralyn stranded and then getting to travel with Lelaka. But his and Coralyn's pasts were dwarfed by the amazement of Alcatraz's and Lelaka's.

[wynnyelle]

ooc: I love your new avatar!!!

ic: " Some of them do," said Alcatraz. " There was an amurai disguising himself--possessing one of my friends and no one knew it. I told him where the plates were and then the amurai knew, so yes, some of them blame me."

[fya]

"Possessing?" Lelaka shivered. Possessing was no easy thing to do. "That's terrible Alca...we really should stick together more...I think we'll generally do better." She laughed. "Like in the old days."

"How -old- are you guys?" Coralyn finally asked. She'd never asked Lelaka and was suddenly curious. "I'm four months."

[wynnyelle]

"I'm...well I kind of lost track, a little, but I think 169 years old," said Alca. " I agree with you Lelaka. We do better together. There's an awful lot of darkness in the world, some of it seems to come from our own kinds. Nothing to do but stick with the few pokemon you can really trust."

[fya]

Lelaka laughed. "I don't even keep track. It doesn't matter to me. But I guess I'm young than Alca, I know that. Not much though." She looked back at Alcatraz. "Definatly. So you said something about five years until you get to see Dimity? We'll stick with you. I've got no place to go...as you can see."

"Why don't you keep track? And how'd you get so old?" Coralyn cocked her little head curiously. "Will I be that old?"

"No," said Lelaka. "I don't keep track because it doesn't make a difference. I'm not old. Age varies from Pokemon to Pokemon, Coralyn."

"How old will I be?" Coralyn was getting curious now.

"Oh I dunno. Maybe 20?" Lelaka wasn't sure. But it sounded about right to her.

[wynnyelle]

" Yes...five years until the great gathering on Atuna Piaru. That's to the north of Erymire," said Alcatraz. " until then I will be living here, and constructing my home for us both, should she choose to live with me once we meet again." He looked at Coralyn. " I don't keep track because it really doesn't matter how many years old I am. At least it doesn't matter to me."

[fya]

"Ahh," said Lelaka. "We'll stay with ya, Alca." She smiled dreamily. At least Alcatraz would get his love back. She knew that Kuru was gone for good. But she could be happy for Alcatraz. She could be happy for her friend. And she had Coralyn and Sassano. Her little buddies.

"Oh," said Coralyn. "I guess they don't really.." They did to her, though. She hated it when Sassano boasted that he was older. She always said that meant he'd die sooner, but he just rolled his eyes and moved on. It was annoying to be the younger sibling. "Do you have any brothers or sisters?" she asked.

[wynnyelle]

" Me? No, I'm an only child," said Alcatraz. He stood back up. " If you want to go back over to where I'm working on a home you're welcome to come. I'll be staying by where the mountainside meets the forest, and digging out an alcove there in the stone."

This reminded him of home--the home he had known with the pack for nearly a century. Some members of that pack had been there already when he had come, and were still there now. Ninetales, after all, lived a lot longer than a century. ~I shouldn't let myself slip back into the same sort of life that I left, otherwise why did I leave in the first place?~ But no, this would be different. Here he was working towards his goal--acceptance by his kind, and maybe even Dimity's love.

[fya]

"Oh," said Coralyn. "I had a sister but she died. So I only have Sassano but he's not my real brother I don't think." She then frowned. "How do you dig the rock out?" Sure he looked pretty strong...but rock was rock and the only thing that got through rocks were onix and steelyx and those didn't live around here.

"He's got magic powers, duh," said Sassano, rolling his eyes. "He's a -god- remember?"

"Oh," said Coralyn. Lelaka was a god too but she couldn't make rock go away...

"You guys are still with me right?" said lelaka to the two pups. They were old enough to be on their own if they wanted to, and she didn't want to be restaining like her own parents.

"Yeah, of course Mom," said Sassano. He glanced at his sister who was nodding and smiling.

[wynnyelle]

" I use my rock attacks to hollow it out," said Alcatraz. " Then once I'm done with excavating I'll use my fire attacks to smooth out the stone and make it nice and liveable. So..." he looked at Sassano and Coralyn. " Sassano, do you have any other family?"

He stepped over closer to all of them, ready to teleport them all there if they all wanted to go.

[fya]

"Umm no not really 'cept for Coralyn and Lelaka. Our families got killed in a fight with supposedly our dad. Mom thinks we've got the same dad," said Sassano. The story was that he and Coralyn had been rescued and taken in my a small pack. And then their father and his gang had killed them all, but Lelaka had saved them.

"Well let's go," said Lelaka. She put a hand on Alcatraz, ready for him to teleport them.

Seeing the cue, both Sassano and Coralyn put a paw on Alca's leg.

[wynnyelle]

Alcatraz blinked them all back to his new home. Scraps of rock lay about, near the mouth of a large, wide hole carved into the side of the mountain, like some giant paw had scooped it out. " Well...here we are. It's not much but it's a start. At the very least it'll keep you dry out of the rain if you go in there. You're welcome there, any friend or family of Lelaka is the same to me."

[fya]

"A start is a start," said lelaka with a smile. "It'll be great with five years of worked." She grinned and laughed. She glanced at Sassano. "You can hunt if you want to. This place is well protected with Alca in town. Nobody messes with aruseus' friends if they know whats good for them."

"Ok," said Sassano. He was getting hungry. He flitted off into the forest after remembering the spot.

[wynnyelle]

Alcatraz returned to his work, and hoped that nothing vital would disturb him while he did so. He hoped Cirenze was getting along well, wherever she'd gone. " Well," he said to Leleka, " that's one way to put it. I try not to hurt anyone if I can avoid it though." He rarely even ate meat anymore...and when he did it was usually fish. Not that fish couldn't feel pain...so he tended to avoid that as well. Since, when he was in the mortal realm, he needed to eat more plants than anything.

[fya]

Lelaka smiled at Alca and chuckled. "Well let me restate that...since you're the wonderful aruseus you are, it'll be ready tomorrow, right?" She grinned at him. It was great to have old friends back again.

Sassano slipped off, on the trail of a ratatta. He slipped through the bushes, trying not to make too much noise. He wasn't the greatest hunter, but he was pretty good...or so he thought.

[wynnyelle]

" Tomorrow?" Alcatraz laughed. " I doubt it! It's sleepable now, but it has all those rough edges. It'll take me a while to smooth it all out. And once I'm done with this home I want to start a vineyard, with some of the bluks that Willanda herself cultivated all those years ago."

[fya]

"Oh cool," said Lelaka. "You can raise your own berries?" This was a new idea to her, and it intrigued her. "That sounds awesome." It did...to be able to grow your own berries and not have to search for them.

"What's a vineyard?" asked Coralyn, not understanding the consept.

Sassano caught up with the rat and pounced on it. To his annoyance, it slipped from his annoyingly large paws into a hole. His paws were too big for his body, that was for sure.

[wynnyelle]

" Well, it is an ancient arusian art," said Alcatraz. Ooh, alliteration, he thought. " We've been cultivating bluks especially since, well, almost since bluks existed at all. And we even can make cheese from miltank milk. I don't know how to do that, I don't even know how to make virra, which is a drink made from bluks, but the bluks themselves are just so delicious."

[fya]

"What's a virra taste like?" asked Coralyn. "And what's cheese? And what's a miltank? And how do you do it?" She was full of questions and wasn't afraid to ask them with Sassano gone. He always intimadated her from finding out what she wanted to know.

Lelaka chuckled at Coralyn's stream of questions.

Sassano cursed angerly and moved on. He'd find something else, even if he did have to settle for a bug. There were plenty of those. Or maybe some fish. He could kinda fish. He smelled the river close by and headed towards it. In the past he'd caught remoraid before. They were small, but if you got enough of them they were good. And sometimes young polliwag were catchable.

[wynnyelle]

" Virra has a unique taste," said Alcatraz. " You have to taste it to know. But don't drink too much of it...it kind of goes to your head. Miltanks, they're herd creatures who produce a huge amount of healing milk. Milk from a miltank is one of the healthiest things that can be eaten. Back in the land where I went through my schooling, the aruseus kept a herd of them there. They protected them from predators and in return the miltanks gave a little of their milk, which got turned into cheese, a kind of hardened and salted food that is too delicious for words."

* * *

A raticate picked up the trail of Sassano. ~Heh heh,~ he thought to himself. He would have some fun picking on the kit.

[fya]

"Woah," said Coralyn. "That's really cool. Can you show me a miltank sometime? And can you make me a virra when your house is built?"

***

Sassano headed towards the river, not suspecting he was being followed. He didn't scent the air anymore, he knew where the river was now and thought there was no need to look around for more land prey. Or preds. He figured Lelaka was right and he was safe with an aruseus near by.