Chapter 5 – The Forest
Before Misty had even finished her shower Ash had fallen asleep. The small towel provided by the Center was barely large enough to dry her, and not at all big enough to cover her properly and so, realizing that she'd only brought her soiled clothes into the bathroom with her Misty threw the towel around her waist and strolled absentmindedly into the main room, more or less exposed to the world. She'd gotten as far as the pack she'd left by her bed before it occurred to her that Ash was still in the room and that both of his Pokémon were staring at her with curious gazes.
Misty yelped in surprise, the euphoria from the hot shower disappearing in an instant, and grabbed her backpack. She reflexively jerked it up in front of her chest, making a terrible ruckus in the process and loosening the knot that held the towel around her hips. As Ash stirred and reached up to rub the side of his face the white cotton cloth slipped and dropped to the ground at Misty's feet at approximately the same time that she realized how noisily she'd try to conceal herself.
For a brief second though, Misty failed to notice that her towel had slipped. She had just had time to process that Ash had, at some point during her shower, stripped of his shirt and lay on the bed with his hands behind his head. Wow, thought the girl for a second. He's got to be older than sixteen… she told herself, ruminating for a moment not so much on the idea that she was ogling a man younger than herself, but more on the fact that Ash looked as though he were carved out of wood.
Growlithe sneezed once, tossing his head and shattering Misty's thought process. The redheaded trainer shook once and instantly remembered that she standing in the room all but naked… Mortified and now blushing furiously, Misty simply clutched at the backpack and ran into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her with a loud crack that put Growlithe immediately on full alert. Ash rolled over onto his side, faced the wall, and mumbled in his sleep. Pikachu and Growlithe exchanged glances of mutual confusion before turning to stare at the door.
Slouching against the wall, Misty tossed her backpack between the toilet and the sink and took several deep breaths. She straightened up a moment later and put her ear close to the door. She heard only the panting of the canine by the door and sighed in relief. "What was I thinking?" she mumbled, shaking her head and blushing again. Breathless, she put her hand to her chest and turned to the shower again. "Right," she mumbled, reaching for the handle and turning it to 'cold.'
Ash slept deeply and peacefully for the next half an hour, a fact for which Misty was exceedingly grateful, unsure she'd be able to look at him anytime soon without blushing. To get herself out of the room, the girl decided that it was time someone did the laundry and the Center had a facility in the basement for doing just that. To that end Misty gathered up all of her clothes, minus the set she wore, which by coincidence was also her last clean set, and threw them in a plastic bag the Center had left by the door.
Glancing around and seeing that Ash still wore the same pants she'd seen him in when they left Pallet Town, Misty assumed that the rest of his clothes were clean and that the young trainer, much like herself, was no stranger to sleeping in less than ideal conditions. She left the room after picking up his shirt just in time to glance out the hallway window and catch the last glimpse of the sun disappearing behind the horizon.
The rest of the night passed without incident. Misty finished her laundry and got back to the room at nine pm, after a short detour to the cafeteria for a 'cheap' dinner. She had considered dipping into her field rations to conserve cash, but decided against that option. It may be expensive, she told herself, but even so… we can't eat money if we're caught in the wild with no food.
By the time she got back to the room, Ash had woken up and was taking his shower. The orange haired trainer made sure to knock on the closed bathroom door and call in that she was back so Ash would know not to walk out naked. No call came in for Fearow before eleven and, after an exceptionally Spartan dinner and some small talk, both trainers decided to turn in so they could sleep in a little the next morning.
"Mind if I ask you something?" Misty asked as she and Ash crawled into their beds.
"Go for it," said Ash, listening in the dark to Growlithe sleeping lightly by the side of his bed and scratching Pikachu behind the ears. The little yellow rodent had curled up by Ash's head, between the side of his face and his shoulder. "I think we're passed the point of needing to ask to ask questions," he said.
Misty shrugged even though she knew Ash wouldn't see the gesture. "You haven't mentioned to anyone that Pallet Town has been destroyed," said the girl.
"There's not much anyone could do about it even if I did say something," said Ash. "It's not like the news won't be all over it by tomorrow or the next day anyway… by not bringing it up to anyone we avoid a lot of unnecessary attention" and pity.
"That sounds reasonable," said Misty. "Goodnight then."
"Night," Ash muttered, closing his eyes and trying to relax.
Misty waited for several minutes, until she was sure Ash was asleep, then rolled to the edge of her bed and, as quietly as she could, reached down to her pack and opened a small concealed flap. Reaching inside she dug around for a minute and pulled out a plushy Squirtle doll. Grinning to herself she tucked herself under the covers and snuggled with the little doll, gradually slipping off to sleep.
SC
The sunrise the next morning was a brilliant one. Crystal clear and cloudless skies gradually lit up as the minutes passed and the first sliver of the sun on the horizon slowly lit up Ash and Misty's rented room. The thin curtains over the windows were there, Ash guessed as he slowly woke up, not so much to block out the sunlight, but more to scatter it evenly throughout the room.
By seven, almost a quarter of the sun was over the horizon and, feeling refreshed and fully awake, Ash got up, got dressed in his clean clothes and tactical armor, and walked to the windows. Instantly Pikachu was awake and alert and sitting up on the bed, keeping an eye on its trainer. Growlithe opened one eye as Ash opened the curtains enough to get a clear look outside, but remained still and relaxed.
Sometime during the early morning, Ash gathered when he turned towards the door and saw a folded piece of paper lying on the carpet, someone must have come by and slipped a note into the room. How they did so without waking the Pokémon was a question he pushed to the back of his mind. Misty stirred under the covers and poked her head out as Ash broke the sticker holding the note closed.
"Wassat?" Misty mumbled.
Ash quickly scanned through the note and then refolded it. "It's from the nurses who were in charge of Fearow," he said. A wide grin broke across Ash's face as he slipped the paper into his back pocket. "The treatments went off without any problems. Fearow will need to take it easy for a little while but the note says she's going to be fine."
"Fearow is a she?" Misty asked, waking up enough to sit up and stretch.
"I know," Ash chuckled. "She didn't seem very feminine to me the other day."
The two trainers collected their things and packed up what they had not prepared the night before. While Misty was preoccupied putting away something that Ash perceived she did not want him to see, Ash took the opportunity to count through the remaining money he'd received from Jesse and James. Wow, he griped. Still this much to get rid of? And he couldn't exactly just spend it all in front of Misty or she'd doubtlessly become curious.
It would only be much later that he'd reflect on the irony of wishing he didn't have money.
With everything ready to go, Ash and Misty went down to the cafeteria for a quick breakfast, then picked up Fearow and left the Pokémon Center behind. They stopped at the same militia surplus store they had visited the previous day and bought a few 'luxury' items for the road such as toilet paper and some wood-alcohol at Misty's suggestion. She said the latter made good sterilizing solution when nothing else was available.
They left the city through Viridian's northern gate at nine, trekking down the rugged but well maintained footpath encircling Viridian for a quarter of a mile before turning onto the broader, gravel topped, way of Route 2. They saw a few other people on the road as they walked, and the ground underfoot gradually faded from crushed stone to dirt as they left the town behind, but by far and large, Ash and Misty met no one else who was leaving the city.
After they'd been traveling for an hour, the trainers saw no one else traveling the road at all, and Route 2 had narrowed from a wide road to something of a rural path cutting through tall grass. Along the way Ash stopped once or twice when Growlithe, who had taken to heading up the group, paused to sniff the air or whirl on a rustling in the grass just off the path.
"He's really turned into quite the little protector," Misty whispered to Ash when Growlithe stopped and bounded off to the edge of the road, barking furiously at something neither trainer saw.
Ash nodded when he heard the rattling hiss of a terrified Rattata and saw the purple rodent's tail twitching madly as the Pokémon turned and fled into the grass. Growlithe barked once more, especially loudly for good measure, then turned back around and trotted back to Ash, sitting in front of him and staring up at the trainer with a 'didn't-I-do-so-good' sort of look.
Ash knelt and scratched Growlithe's ears, making a point to compliment him and point out that he did a good job of chasing off the Rattata. "I get the feeling that this little guy is a lot stronger than I thought when I met him," said Ash as Growlithe drank in the praise. "Even without a pack he's assertive, confident, and playful. How old do you think he is?" Ash asked, turning to Misty.
Misty cocked her head off to one side and shrugged after giving the Pokémon a quick looking over. "Fire-types really aren't my specialty," she said. "Maybe two or three?" she guessed.
"That was about what I was thinking," said Ash. "You know," he grinned and had to make himself resist a laugh. "Most healthy and well-trained Growlithe will evolve sometime when they're between three and five years old."
Misty sighed. "That would be pretty amazing," she said. "Arcanine are fierce Pokémon from what I understand…" Now it was her turn to grin. "I hear they can be a little too fierce for some trainers. You sure you can handle one?"
"Of course," said Ash, standing up quickly. "I mean- If I've trained Growlithe right he should be exactly the same Pokémon he is now when he evolves."
"Well, it's too bad we don't have an Arcanine right now," said Misty.
"Why's that?" asked Ash, petting Pikachu to keep his companion from feeling neglected.
Misty cleared her throat and pointed to the north. "Because we're about to head into Viridian Forest," she said. "And as little as I know about fire-types, even I wish we had a few strong ones going in there with us."
Ash followed her gesture and found himself caught a little off guard. He'd been paying attention to Misty and to the trail directly ahead of their group, largely ignoring anything farther out than a good stone's throw. As such, the silhouette of the forest rising up from the sea of gold had snuck up on him. Viridian Forest loomed less than a kilometer away.
"Wow," Ash muttered. "It's darker from a distance than I remembered."
"It's probably not any safer than you remember either," said Misty. "We don't exactly have Professor Oak with us."
"Well," said Ash, reaching behind his back and detaching a pokeball from his belt. "I guess this is as good a time as any then."
"What are you going to do?" asked Misty.
"Would you mind sending out Blastoise," Ash said with a grin as he tossed the pokeball into the air. "He'd be good for dramatic effect."
Misty nodded and quickly released Blastoise from its pokeball at the same time that Ash's burst open and bathed the ground beneath it in a hot white light. With a squawking caw, Fearow materialized from the light and stretched its wings out wide, revealing a startling wingspan of a full twenty-five feet.
Completely oblivious to the forms around it, Fearow stretched again with eyes held shut, first pushing its right wing and right leg out as far as the limbs would go, then shifting its weight and stretching its opposite side. When the bird did open its eyes it jerked in surprise and jumped backwards, instantly locking its eyes on Ash, then glancing warily at the glowing yellow rodent atop the trainer's head.
"Pikachu," Ash said, nothing but confidence in his voice as he stood at ease. "If she tries to fly off, feel free to subdue her."
Pikachu chittered in acknowledgement. He hadn't caught the exact meaning of Ash's order, but as most Pokémon could, he got the gist of it. Obviously Fearow understood the basic concept of the situation also. By now the bird saw that it was completely surrounded by Ash and Pikachu, Growlithe, and Blastoise and Misty. It refused to relax, but it did fold its wings, unwilling to start a fight it was certain to lose.
"Well you're smart enough to understand that we're not here to fight," said Ash, as much to himself as Fearow, wondering how best to display dominance over a bird, especially one so large as Fearow. "Now you just need to understand that I'm in charge from here on in." He took a step closer, but stopped as Fearow snapped her drill-like beak shut and hissed once at him through tightened nares.
"It's a female," said Misty, quietly getting Ash's attention. "A lot of male flying-types will show superiority to a flock of females or younger males by plucking out a few feathers on the subordinate's neck. I know that's how some trainers show that they're in charge."
Ash swallowed once, meeting Fearow's narrowed glare, then shuffled any display of anxiety to the back of his mind. "Pikachu," he muttered. "Be very, very, ready." This Pokémon could- he cut the thought short and stepped forward without pause and reached out before Fearow could react. Grabbing quickly and pulling with a swift tug he plucked two feathers from the side of Fearow's neck as if he were reaching out to shake the hand of a good friend.
Fearow squawked once in utter surprise and took a clumsy step backwards. It turned its head as if it were going to thrust its beak forward, but a bright warning spark from Pikachu's cheeks checked the large bird. Instead Fearow sat still and watched carefully as Ash stepped forward. The large bird twitched as the trainer reached out again and touched its neck. This time however Ash stroked the now thinned patch of feathers from which he'd plucked his trophies. The gesture by no means put Fearow at ease, but Fearow refrained from striking out.
Misty watched, shock plain on her face as Ash focused all his attention on the Pokémon. The red headed trainer's hands were balled into pallid, icy, fists, and her voice perched on the edge of barking for Blastoise to attack. The Pokémon should have pecked Ash's eyes out, Misty fretted, sweat breaking out on her palms and on her forehead. What was I thinking mentioning that he could pluck a feather… even experienced bird trainers hesitate to do that.
All Misty could do was watch as Fearow, still tense but more watchful than frightened (or, she noted, furious,) let Ash stroke the side of its neck. This is not natural, she thought. Taming Growlithe so quickly was one thing. But Growlithe was wounded, alone, and weaker than this Fearow. Growlithe had time to grow close to Ash while it was hurt in the wild. Her eyes shifted to Ash who was now grinning and openly scratching through the bird's feathers with both his hands. How does he do this?
"Alright," said Ash, stepping back and crossing his arms. He pointed off towards the forest and turned to Misty. "I remember bugs being the biggest treat to travelers in Viridian Forest," he said. "And now we have the perfect counter for them." He gestured to Fearow.
Fearow can gorge itself on all of the Weedle and Caterpie it likes, thought Ash with a satisfied smile, which should be easy pickings for the big bad bird. And while Fearow is busy keeping the rest of us safe from the nastiness in there it will think that I'm treating it to an all you can eat buffet.
"We're going to be hoofing it from here on in," said Ash. "You," he patted Fearow's side, "feel free to eat whatever comes within twenty feet of us."
Neither Misty nor Ash could tell whether or not Fearow understood what role it was to play, but the big Pokémon shook itself once and ruffled out its feathers. With a flick of her wrist Misty returned Blastoise to its pokeball, an action well-noted by Fearow, and snapped the ball to its magnetic clip on her belt.
"I'm not going to be able to do too much in there," said the girl. "My Pokémon can't stand up to a whole lot of poison so this is going to be mostly on you Ash." She made every effort to keep her voice steady but Ash still caught the uncomfortable edge in her tone.
"Don't worry about it," he said, walking forward to get the group moving again. He gestured and Growlithe again took point while Pikachu pivoted on its trainers head to keep a close eye on Fearow who walked beside Ash. The feathered Pokémon strutted at the awkward human pace in dipping strides, bobbing its head as it went along. "We've got a crack team lined up to handle anything."
Misty wrapped her arms around herself as they walked, the forest approaching all too quickly for her tastes. "You do realize it could take a week or more to hack our way through this place?"
Ash nodded. "My grandpa and I got through in five days so I figured we'd probably be a week." He shook off the chill that ran down his back as the party neared the edge of the forest and stopped. Just before them, plains began to give way to tangled brush and brambles. Fifty meters ahead of them the inexplicably contiguous forest stood like the wall of a dark trees and thorny bushes.
The road at the party's feet continued on in a straight line between two especially large, tower-like, trees where someone or something had slashed a rough tunnel through the forest. The edges of that tunnel were jagged, Ash could see even from this distance, as the forest had begun to take back the path. The trainer swallowed hard now. It was a considerably more narrow way than he remembered.
Maybe we should just burn the whole thing down, he thought, bordering on a cold sweat but continuing forward as though nothing were bothering him. Approaching the actual break in the trees that allowed for the path set him a little more at ease though. The path was still apt to inflame claustrophobia, but he could see that once someone passed beyond the initial wall of trees, the forest opened up in much the same way that a clustered city would, with thick patches of trees forming blocks around which little paths and alleys broke off.
Ash, flanked by Fearow and Growlithe was the first to pass under the battlements of the forest, instantly finding himself shadowed by the thick canopy of the trees. "See?" he said, as much to himself as to the trainer behind him and the Pokémon beside him. "This isn't so bad. We're already inside and nothing has-"
"YAAAaaaa!" Misty shrieked as her skin lost all of its color in a flash. The girl jumped behind Ash and kicked her leg furiously. "Get it off get it off get it off!" she yelled pointing to the green thing that had suddenly wrapped itself around her leg.
Ash barely had time to look behind him and see that a Caterpie had crawled out from the shade of the bushes and attached itself to Misty's comparatively warm leg before Growlithe barked out a battle cry and leapt into action. The canine turned its head and snapped its jaws shut around the bug, bursting it in a splash of green as Growlithe wrenched back and shook his head like an attacking crocodile to ensure total evisceration.
Able only to watch in shock, Misty looked down as the last, unrecognizable, fragments of the insect fell away from the dog's verdantly stained teeth and maws. She felt her stomach fall into her feet as she saw the slimy green insides of the bug spattered on her leg, clinging to her shoe, and hanging from her thigh. Her cheek twitched and her hollow eyes mirrored the shell-shocked smile plastered across her face.
"Good boy," said Ash, kneeling down and petting Growlithe and scratching him behind the ears. He went on to further compliment Growlithe, as well as to praise both Pikachu and Fearow for being so vigilant, as Misty, standing in exactly the same place, clinging to the empty space Ash had occupied more than a minute ago, still stared down at the goop on her leg.
SC
"So," Ash began, scraping the bottom of a can of beans with his spoon, "why exactly don't you wear all of the armor my grandfather gave us?" He glanced at Misty across the tiny campfire they'd built an hour earlier. As late evening drew in all around them the little flames had died down to barely more than glowing coals, but there was still enough light for him to see that Misty wore only half of the protective outfit, and left her legs almost completely exposed.
Misty finished the last bite of a protein bar and put the trash in a paper sack, then shrugged and handed the sack to Ash. "Girl's got to have prerogative," she said as Ash put his trash in the sack and tied off the top. "I'm just more comfortable this way."
Ash nodded, deciding that when a girl said something was her 'prerogative' it would be silly to try and convince her otherwise. "Makes sense to me," he conceded, effectively closing the conversation and turning away from the fire. "I'll take care of this." He disappeared into the woods for a moment, after Pikachu hopped up onto his shoulder of course, and came back without the sack. Ash instructed Growlithe to take the first watch and returned Fearow to her pokeball at Misty's behest to prevent the Pokémon from trying to get away. Ash however saw this as an unnecessary precaution.
They smothered the fire with dirt and then scattered the ashes before turning in for the night.
Growlithe sat vigilantly a few paces from Ash while Pikachu slept on his trainer's chest. When the orange canine felt fatigue beginning to eat at his concentration, the Pokémon got up and began pacing out a perimeter around the tiny camp, moving as silently as he could and never straying more than a single bound away from Ash and Misty. At just passed two, Growlithe woke Pikachu, being sure not to rouse either human in the process, and the Pokémon traded shifts.
The rest of the night and the next day passed without any notable trouble. Ash and Misty both woke at the same time before dawn and quickly packed up their bedrolls. Ash again took point when they continued north into the forest, flanked by Growlithe and Fearow. Pikachu, as always, sat on Ash's head and continually scanned the forest for threats. More than once Fearow would stray a few meters from the group and plunge her beak into the brush to snatch up an unsuspecting Caterpie. Growlithe likewise, Ash noted, seemed to be going out of his way to capture insects on which the canine would quickly feast before continuing.
After a short and scanty lunch around noon Pikachu spotted yet another Caterpie and blasted it with an especially impotent bolt of electricity. The shock was still enough to paralyze the insect and Ash went on to capture it with one of his empty pokeballs.
"It's too bad the Pokedex isn't active," said Ash, holding the newly captured Pokémon's container up to the little computer. All the screen would display was an 'inability to connect to the network.' "I'm a little anxious to start cataloging things."
Misty patted him on the shoulder and said they'd get their chance. "We'll still have all of our Pokémon once this Bill guy gets the Pokedex online… and it's not like we've run into any other trainers with Pokémon to cata-"
Misty stopped short as a quiet 'plip' sounded and Ash, still looking down at the little screen flinched and held the Pokedex out at arm's length. "What is it?" she asked, even as her eyes fell on splatter of liquid on the screen.
Ash's eyes traced upwards and his head slowly lifted as he looked up. Another drop of liquid fell on his cheek with a 'plip,' and the trainer twitched and wiped at his face, smearing red across his cheek. "What the hell?" he muttered, looking at the back of his hand.
Misty looked up and fell silent as Ah used his sleeve to wipe the red liquid off his face. "Hey Misty," he said, turning to face her and showing his hand to her. "What do you… make…" he looked up as Misty pointed upwards and also fell silent.
Hanging suspended above them from an especially sturdy branch, some fifty feet in the air, was what appeared to be a white pod made of silk. It was much too large to be that of a Caterpie or even of a Weedle, and the bottom of the pod was stained the color of blood.
"What do you suppose that is?" asked Ash.
"We should definitely get moving," Misty replied as both trainers' eyes lighted on the butterfly net protruding from the side of the pod. "We're not halfway through the forest, and we've already found a dead body…"
"Bodies," said Ash. He'd turned off to the right and spotted a similar pod clinging to the side of a tree ten meters ahead of them. The bottom of this one was also ruby in color and dripped a dark liquid, not all blood from the looks of it, down the side of the tree. Strewn on the ground beneath the pod were pokeballs, a backpack, and a broken butterfly net. "C'mon," said Ash. He moved to take Misty by the hand but the girl moved of her own accord and followed Ash in the direction of the second pod. It was on their route.
Pikachu was on alert and Growlithe was sniffing the air with every breath as the party arrived beneath the tree. Misty stood in front of the tree, the pod was just above eye level, and examined the ghastly scene while breathing through her shirt. Ash scanned through the debris and then stood up.
"All of the pokeballs are broken," said Ash. "They're useless and the backpack is empty."
"The body is beginning to decompose inside of the cocoon," Misty answered. "Whatever did this must have moved on before we got here."
Ash gave the cocoon a onceover and then stepped back. The close, stale, air of the silent forest combined with lingering smell of death made his eyes water. "You think Weedle did this to him?"
Misty nodded. "Their poison from a Weedle causes the victim's body to rot even before they die… so I can see it doing this." She and Ash both turned away from the scene and began walking without another word, closely together this time.
From then on the trainers and their Pokémon moved quickly but with as much caution as their pace allowed. Fearow was returned to her pokeball, mostly because the bird was making too much of a ruckus trying to pick her way through the brush. Growlithe was like a ghost beside Ash, moving without a sound that the humans could hear aside from his near constant attempts to pick up on any threatening scent. For a while Ash wondered how the Pokémon had missed the smell of decomposition, but later decided that it must have been that, as he had only recently noticed, there was absolutely no wind within the forest to stir the air.
The party ignored for the rest of the day the Caterpie that would occasionally peak out at them from the brush. The entire forest seemed to hold its breath and, to Ash at least, the sound of even the trainers' quietest attempts to navigate the undergrowth was noisy and clumsy. Along the way the trainers found four more pods, each presumably containers for the dead, suspended in the trees. Ash and Misty stopped that night and prepared for bed in utter silence. Neither said a word to each other or to their Pokémon, nor did they build a campfire. They ate a cold dinner and went to sleep once Growlithe had taken watch.
The night brought with it no sounds. Any insects moving in the forest did so silently. No owls hooted, no dogs called, and no wings stirred the quiet. Ash found himself longing for a sound, any sound at all as he lay on his side, trying to tune out the deafening quiet. A cold sweat broke out on his forehead when he realized that he couldn't hear Growlithe. Making every effort to be rational however he told himself that the canine was not moving but still keeping watch.
Or had the bugs gotten to Growlithe and killed him silently? Were they now encroaching on his own bed and readying to sting?
No, Ash told himself, shaking his head once to clear out the thoughts. Growlithe is fine. He's just as tense as the rest of us and being quiet.
Then again poison can kill quickly and silently.
Ash jerked and lurched up from his bedroll, slapping at his feet having sensed what he thought to be a crawling on the ground beneath him. The snap of his palm hitting the fabric rang like a firecracker and instantly Misty bolted up as did Growlithe and Pikachu. From nowhere Misty had drawn a hatchet with one hand and held a pokeball in the other. Pikachu's crackling cheeks provided enough illumination for Ash to see the sweat on Misty's face and detect the quick rises and falls in her chest. She must not have been sleeping well either.
"What is it?" Misty hissed.
Ash shook his head again. "Nothing," he said. The sickening sensation of movement beneath his bedroll had ceased. "Sorry," he went on in a low tone. "It was just a dream."
Misty sighed in relief, withering just a little in the process. Pikachu relaxed, his spiky yellow fur lay back down on his body and he curled into Ash, more feline than rodent. "Alright," said the redheaded trainer. "This forest is really getting to me…"
"Me too," said Ash, laying back down and hearing that Misty did the same.
Neither once spoke again for the rest of the night, and again Ash found it impossible to sleep. His imagination ran wild in the silence and drove him he thought to the brink of insanity. Riotous images of poisonous monsters paraded through his mind no matter how tightly he clenched his eyes or how tightly he curled up in the bedroll.
Waking the next morning, Ash realized he had no memory of even beginning to drift off to sleep. Given that he was still exhausted in the predawn minutes he guessed that he must have passed out, not fallen asleep. He and Misty got up and packed up their camp in silence. As sunlight began to filter in through the treetops both trainers saw deep purple bags under the other's eyes and both understood.
"Grandpa told me this forest did things to people," muttered Ash over lunch, back against a tree. He still listened into the deathly silence of the windless forest. So deep into Viridian were they now that even at midday the forest seemed in the coils of dusk. Whereas before sunlight and even peeks at the sky could be glimpsed through breaks in the overhead canopy, now the foliage was so thick that only diffuse light the color of ashes fell to the forest floor.
"It takes something special to get through," said Misty, finishing off a small bit of canned meat. She threw the garbage into the trees, heedless of it, and stood up as Ash finished his lunch. Again they pressed forward and hours began to crawl by. At five in the afternoon, Viridian Forest was again as dark and as silent as a crypt and now it began to grow cold. Ash could feel it all beginning to add weight to his limbs, the fatigue, the sleeplessness of the previous night, and now the cold front sweeping through the forest.
This must be what it feels like to lose your mind, he thought when he and Misty decided to stop for the night a few hours later.
Now, it was genuinely cold and the ground was hard dirt. A few more nights of this, thought the trainer, and working on the Pokedex will be the last thing to worry about. Ash, beginning to shiver and feel the cold prickling on his face, tried to force the thoughts from his mind, to tell himself that tomorrow would be the midpoint of the journey and… and… and that would mean that tomorrow, the day after another cold and sleepless night, would be the hardest day's journey. Fuck…
Ash heard a rustle from his left and rolled over, straining his eyes on the dark. Even in the near blackness he could make out Misty's bedroll and he looked just in time to catch the end of a shiver and hear the tail end of a curse about the cold conditions. This is a miserable place… Ash thought, unable to sleep as another three hours rolled by and the night grew even more inhospitable. At least this should keep the bugs away…
Ash rolled over again, suddenly aware that he didn't feel Pikachu curled up beside him. A panic almost had time to set in before he spotted both Pikachu and Growlithe asleep together just out of reach behind him. Apparently both thought it was too cold to try and keep watch. Ash grinned just a little and looked back over at Misty. Now, his eyes having adjusted a little more to the darkness, he could see that she was shivering and his heart sank.
"Screw it," he muttered, standing up on a whim and walking without a second thought over to Misty. I don't care if it's awkward or if she gets the wrong idea…
The girl stirred only when Ash set his bedroll down directly behind her and crawled into his roll. "It's too cold to worry about a little modesty," he mumbled, catching sight of his breath now and wondering for a second how it was possible that the forest could be this chilled. The trainers scooted a little closer together and almost immediately Ash felt a little warmer.
"I was just thinking the same thing," Misty said quietly. She curled up more and couldn't suppress a little grin when she felt Ash lean into her some.
"It seems to be working for the Pokémon," said Ash, trying to make a quick joke. All he heard from misty was a quiet hum to acknowledge the statement and then her breathing leveled off. Ash couldn't help noting that she hadn't told him not to get any ideas. He closed his eyes and fell almost immediately asleep.
The next morning Ash awoke well before it was light to the discovery that during the night Misty had turned around to face him and buried her face in his chest to better stave off the cold. Ash in turn had pressed his face into her hair. Rough as both trainers were from the trail, Ash felt refreshed… not good by any stretch as the forest was still exacting a grueling toll, but he felt now that he could go on. The thought of hiking the remaining miles today through the darkest part of the forest no longer made him feel ill inside. He grinned but quickly pulled away and got up as he felt Misty stir.
"Good morning," said the redhead, stretching as Ash packed up his bedroll. "What time is it?"
Ash checked his watch, having to hit the button to light up the face. He flinched when he read the numbers. "It's… ten in the morning," he looked up at the sky. "Wow…" It still looked like the darker side of twilight. Ash could even see a remarkably thin layer of frost just beginning to form on rocks in the darkest parts shadows cast by some of the trees. "This sucks."
"Let's focus on just getting through it," said Misty with a smile as Growlithe and Pikachu woke up.
Ash smiled back and nodded, secretly trying to read Misty's face, then moved to help her pack up her bedroll. The color in her features grew more pronounced, he noticed, as he neared and packed away the bedroll.
Of one thing Ash had been absolutely right; the cold did indeed keep the bugs at bay. When they stopped for a late lunch at just after three, the party had not seen a single Caterpie, or any other Pokémon for that matter, despite the cold snap of the previous night having abated some. Ash could no longer see his breath, but the constant and oppressive darkness of the forest was still wearing on his nerves.
"I can't wait to be out of here," said Ash as the party walked on, what little light there was beginning to fade already. "I only wish I could remember the route I took through here with grandpa. I don't remember it being half this bad-" Ash stammered and fell forward as his foot struck something hard hidden in the newly reappearing undergrowth. The tumble pitched Pikachu from Ash's head and sent the little Pokémon skittering into the dark.
"Ash!" Misty called, only having caught that Ash suddenly vanished into the dark grass in front of her.
"I'm fine," said Ash, getting up to his knees and turning around. "Just tripped over a rock or something." Ash knelt down and rummaged through the grass as Pikachu leapt back on top the trainer's hat and Growlithe, tailed by Misty, quickly flanked Ash. "Um," Ash mumbled, pausing and staring at the patch of grass he had cleared.
Misty looked down into the grass and quickly spotted among the gloomy shapes a human body, wrapped in a dark, full length, coat and wearing a tattered backpack that barely hung from his shoulders on shredded straps. "Oh my god," Misty breathed, kneeling down beside Ash. "This is a Ranger from Indigo Plateau…"
Ash nodded, having also noticed the insignia of the Elite Four, a coat of arms consisting of four golden swords against a black field, stitched into the Ranger's sleeve. "I knew the Elite Four sent patrols into the forest to keep it safe for the travelers, but I never thought I'd see one."
"Much less a dead one," amended Misty. "Rangers have to be some of the most hardened survivalists in the region and whatever killed this one might still be around. We should go right now."
Ash agreed and, after quickly searching the body for anything useful got up and slipped the ranger's thick wallet into his backpack. He released Fearow from her pokeball and together the party began to navigate the forest again, continuing ever North. They went on unhindered and making what both trainers thought to be amazing time for the next several hours until light had again faded almost completely from the dark stretches of the forest.
Not wishing to remain any longer than was absolutely necessary, Ash and Misty agreed that they would continue on through the night in hopes of reaching the more hospitable northern reaches of the forest before noon the next day. From there they both calculated that if their pace were steady enough they could make it out of Viridian Forest by nightfall of the next day.
By the time the outside world was experiencing sunset, Ash and Misty had covered nearly more ground that day than they had the past two days combined, due in part to the terrain having opened up some and slanted to run steadily downhill. Ash lead the group, flanked by Growlithe and Fearow while Pikachu sat dutifully atop his head and kept watch. Misty had even begun to brighten, despite the encroaching darkness, openly talking and joking, albeit quietly, with Ash.
"Hey," said Ash as Growlithe stopped in his tracks. "What is it?"
The orange canine froze, only moving to sniff the still and stale air. As Growlithe stood quiet for the next several moments the party fell into a deep silence. Fearow and Pikachu cast about uncomfortably, while Ash and Misty both waited for the Pokémons' highly tuned senses to detect a clear path. It was only after the ringing quiet in his ears had abated that Ash focused enough on his surroundings to notice that the party had entered a large open area. He couldn't call it a clearing, for the trees ringing the plot were so enormous that their canopies still blotted out the sky, but Ash could see that he and Misty had wandered perhaps a third of the way into an open space maybe sixty yards in diameter.
It's nice to not have walls closing us in all around,thought Ash, taking a deep breath. It's even nicer that the air has finally warmed up some.
"Hey," whispered Misty, apparently having made the same observations of the surrounding terrain as Ash. She pointed up after giving Ash's sleeve a quick tug. "What do you make of that?"
Ash followed her gesture and saw what looked to be hemispheres and crescents of almost luminescent white hanging in empty space far above them. There must have been dozens of them suspended in the air like tiny, dim, moons. Also, here and there he could, after a moment of focusing his vision, detect thin, almost invisible lines of pale white hanging in the same manner as the hemispheres and crescents. A draping line would appear from nowhere and run a course through the air before disappearing into nothing again. The effect made Ash flinch as his mind tried to process exactly what it his eyes were seeing.
"Oh my god," he muttered, utter horror driving cold claws into his chest as realization smashed into him. He grabbed Misty's hand and began pulling her backwards, almost tugging her off balance. "We need to get out of here," he hissed, cutting her off before she could protest. Growlithe and Fearow had apparently reached the same conclusion as they were both backing up, not turning their backs to the center of the clearing.
"Why?" Misty said, a sinking feeling gnawing at her, the thought of again being ringed in by the trees making her almost ill. "What's so-" she didn't finish. "Oh…" She looked up again as a rustling both above the group and in the forest behind them drew her attention again to the white crescents and hemispheres seemingly floating in the air. "Silk pods," she muttered as she and Ash stopped only a few feet from the barricade of trees.
They were all dead bodies embalmed in silk, she realized. The draping lines overhead were strands of silk hanging in the invisible canopy and each object floating in the sky was a victim of the Weedles, into whose nest the party had just stumbled.
"God damn it," Ash spat under his breath, hearing clearly now the unmistakable slurping sounds of Weedle slithering down tree trunks and the scraping of them crawling through the brush, and knowing the bugs would have sensed the trainers even before they'd blundered into the clearing. "Just run!"
In an instant the two trainers, Ash's Pokémon both taking the lead, made a break for the far end of the clearing. Only seconds ago Ash could barely see a few feet in front of his face but now, as adrenaline began to course in him, his vision sharpened and the dark gloom all around leapt into stark relief. He had vastly underestimated the size of the clearing, seeing now that it was no less than eighty yards in diameter and not completely circular. It was more of a shallow ellipse through the center of which he lead the charge. The young trainer looked over his shoulder and now saw the bugs beginning to emerge from the edges of the clearing behind them and from the sides of the clearing all around them.
Though the gloom should have been impenetrable Ash looked forward as the party reached the halfway point of the clearing and skidded to a stop. Misty stopped beside him as did the Pokémon. The girl was pale and sweating, wordless panic beginning to chip away at her senses, but nonetheless she made out the bulges in the ground ahead as arm length worms, each spouting stingers the size of an index finger from their head, burrowed up through the turf and blocked their path. There were a number of shallow pools of water, Ash saw, dotting the clearing. Each was ringed with a slimy ooze of pale egg sacks, each one carrying dozens if not a hundred or more embryonic Weedle.
Ash whirled around, taking in as much of the scene all around as he could in a quick glance, looking for a way out. Of course we'd wander into the biggest nest of deadly insects in the whole forest, he griped, seeing now that the bugs were emerging from the edges of the clearing, slithering out from the muddy bottoms of the pools, and tunneling up from the ground like maggots from a corpse. They were nearing quickly, coming to within a stone's throw of the party and showing no signs of stopping.
Alright, alright, thought Ash, steeling himself against the fear that clawed at the edges of his mind. We can fight through this, he looked to Misty beside him. She was casting about in fear but showed no signs of panicking. She'd hold together, he thought. It doesn't take much to kill a Weedle and Pikachu has more than enough energy stored to-
Ash cried out in shock as an impact in his shoulder nearly knocked him over. From out of thin air a Weedle had appeared and thrown itself at him burying its stinger in his shoulder, or at least in the hardened plate that protected his shoulder. The stinger sprayed a stinking purple goop into the dent in the armor, but the plastic and the tightly woven cloth beneath absorbed the attack, giving Ash the instant he needed to reach up and yank the huge bug away before it could curl around his neck.
Rearing up he held the Weedle above his head and threw it to the ground. He meant to stomp on it, but Growlithe was there in an instant and tearing the insect to slushy bits while at the same time Misty shrieked. Ash whirled around and saw that a Weedle had dropped onto her head. By some luck it had not stung her and Fearow had bolted back and thrust its beak into the bug atop Misty's head, skewering it and pulling it away before the large bird devoured the bug. "From where?" he asked. The Weedle crawling at them from all directions were not yet near enough to leap at them.
Not from nowhere, Ash realized looking up, above. His spirit seemed to drain out of his body. Ash thought the scene to look very much like what one would expect to observe in a rotting corpse, hundreds of maggots burrowing around in the rotting carrion, except that in this case the maggots were the Weedle and the corpse was the canopy of the forest. Innumerable bugs appeared from between previously impercievable branches and quite literately crawled out of the woodwork, and many of them were now throwing themselves down at the invading party.
Ash could only hold up his arms in defense as the insects came raining down. Pikachu, who had been previously storing his energy, began to unleash dozens of thin yellow bolts of electricity that slapped into the airborne Weedle. The shocks would barely have been enough to make a larger Pokémon's hair frizzle but to the Weedle the attacks proved more than lethal and the air soon filled with the crackles of flash-cooked bugs as they plummeted to the ground. Fearow and Growlithe drew in closer to the party, ringing Misty between Ash and themselves.
"Misty," Ash said curtly but calmly. "I know your water-types don't much like poison, but Pikachu is beginning to run low on energy."
"Right," said Misty. She took a deep breath and reached for a pokeball. Her hand slapped to her side with a loud squish as a ball of sticky white goop slammed into her flank and glued her hand in place. "Ash!" she shouted just before another, smaller, rocket of goop slammed into her face and covered her mouth and nose. Misty instantly dropped to the ground and began tugging at the mask of white webbing.
Spinning on his heel and nodding once, the cue for Pikachu to continue his fight from the ground, Ash saw Misty's plight and knelt beside her without a thought. She was tugging furiously at the smothering web, but it had wrapped completely around the lower half of her face and stuck tight no matter how she clawed at it.
"Oh god," Ash hissed, looking over his shoulder for a brief second as he felt something light across it. A thin line of string-like web had fallen across his shoulder. He reached up to wipe it away but as soon as his fingers contacted the string they stuck tight, glued to his shoulder. "Fuck me," he barked, ripping his hand away so quickly the string gave. His hand burned and he realized blood now dripped from his fingers where he'd torn cuts in his hand from ripping it off the string. He turned back to Misty, seeing the implication immediately.
We're so fucked, he fretted, feeling more of the strings falling across his back. He saw from the corner of his eye that all of the Weedle had stopped advancing, forming a circle a few meters arcos around the party, from which they now spat out the sticky lines of string. Growlithe was already glued down in place and Fearow's right wing was tied to her side. Only Pikachu remained free as the Pokémon dodged around and avoided the attacks.
Even Ash knew he was now immobile. Many of the strings falling across his back had joined into single lines that pinned him in place but he ignored it, reaching around his side and pulling out the heavy knife he'd bought in Viridian. "Hold still," he barked, tugging at Misty's wrist to pull her hands away from her face and realizing that her hands were stuck to the web. The girl's eyes were rolling back and her skin was turning red. Ash took aim as fast as he could and ran the tip of the knife along where he imagined Misty's lips to be.
It would only be later that Ash could take the time to thank his luck; Carbide has absolutely no pores and the polished surface of the substance makes it nearly impossible for anything sticky to cling to it. A thin slit appeared in the web and Ash immediately heard Misty suck in a relieved breath, and then choke as she tried to recover all the lost air. Thank god, was all he could manage to think even as the group continued to fall under the net of webbing.
"Haha, ha ha ha ha," the almost squealing laughter echoed in the clearing, accompanied by the sound of clumsy feet coming crashing through the trees.
Ash struggled against the glue that now held him firmly in place. He'd dropped to all fours and hovered over Misty enough that no more of the strings could fall across her face. He saw emerging from the shadows the shape of a child, or perhaps a very short man, who wove among the Weedle as if they were not even there.
"I gotcha, I gotcha," he said in a much more level tone, prompting Ash to think he was just a short man. "You almost got away from my precious bugs but I gotcha!" he said as the insects continued to entomb the party. "You two put up much more of a fight that all of the others," said the man, whom Ash could now see had short and scraggly black hair and the most ugly face the young trainer had ever seen. "But old bug-catcher Cade gotcha good!" he raised his butterfly net and pointed to all of the numerous pods in the sky. "You all will make a lovely addition to the stockpile and now I'll have more than enough to last all of us through the next three winters."
"Ash," Misty gasped, managing to pull some of the webbing away from her lips as the stuff dried and became a little more brittle. "What's going on?"
"We walked right into this lunatics trap," he said quietly as the bug catcher began laughing hysterically to himself. "He's either controlling the bugs or they don't know he's there," he went on in a whisper. "I think he's using something to mask his scent. The Weedle are leaving him completely alone."
"Ash," Misty said again, her voice breaking. "I don't think we can get out of this. As soon as all of this string hardens we're going to be trapped in a rock hard cocoon."
Cade the bug catcher skipped around the Weedle and knelt down by Ash and Misty, so close that both trainers nearly gagged on his rancid breath as he spoke. "You're a pretty one," he said, looking at Misty. "Maybe you and I could-"
Filling the air with the sound of snapping strings of glue, Ash wrenched forward as hard as he could, freeing most of his upper right side and stabbing the knife in his right hand into the bug catcher's thigh. As Cade howled in pain and fell backwards, Ash tried to leap at him but the hardening glue around his legs held him fast. Immediately all of the Weedle began focusing their attention on Ash, pinning him again in a second.
Cade rolled on the ground and swore at the top of his lungs, clutching at the knife that had stuck him like a pig, but lacking the courage to tug at the blade which Ash had buried clear up to the hilt. Blood ran like water from the wound, such that Ash could only guess he'd struck his opponent's femoral artery. "At least I killed you too," said Ash to himself, beginning to crumple under the weight of the pile of string on his back.
"Ash," said Misty, looking up at him now. "I've really enjoyed being with you," she said.
"This isn't over," said the trainer, using every bit of his strength and heaving himself up. He heard some of the drying strings snap, but the mountainous weight of them, and the continued efforts of the Weedle held him down. "Okay," he admitted, "maybe we are in trouble."
Cade finally jerked the knife out of his leg, but instantly regretted doing so. Blood spurted in a fountain from the wound and splashed some of the Weedle attacking the party. In a flash those bugs turned from Ash, Misty, and the Pokémon, and whirled on Cade. They slithered towards him as the bug catcher crawled on three limbs back towards the edges of the trees. He was overtaken in an instant though and could only scream as stinger after stinger plunged into him from every angle. Both Ash and Misty tried to blot out the gurgling screams as the Weedles' poison began to literately melt Cade from the inside out. Neither wanted to think of the mess he'd be in a matter of minutes.
"Didn't think it would be a bunch of bugs that got me," said Ash. "We'll have to-" He stopped short as a deafening bark, like that of a monstrous dog, tore through the forest. It was so close though that the sound shook Ash and made his ears ring. He heard a grinding tear and felt the tug as the cocoon's strings began to pull away from him as something broke out. Straining himself and rotating his head as far as he could he saw Growlithe rip out of the cocoon and bark, again the sound was infinitely too loud for the little Pokémon.
Watching in amazement, Ash saw the orange fur on Growlithe's back and flanks jut out like needles and begin to glow with an infernal red light. A second later Ash felt a wave of heat roll off the Pokémon's form as the fur burst into flames and Growlithe disappeared in a little pyre of bloody light. Growlithe shook his body around as though he were trying to dry himself and sent countless embers out in all directions. Anything they touched burst into flame and for a second Ash worried that instead of a slow death in a string tomb he'd be burned alive.
Fire raced across the cocoon so fast Ash could barely tell that it did, but it consumed all of the highly flammable string in an instant and left both Pokémon and trainers untouched. Pikachu appeared from underneath a pile of glue a few feet to Ash's left and Fearow broke out and screeched an attack before throwing herself in a frenzy at the Weedle.
Growlithe began barking and shaking wildly, flinging more and more and more fire out in all directions, spraying with white-hot sparks nearly the entire clearing. Weedle crumpled beneath the flames and those close to the canine actually caught fire and withered into blackened husks. Ash scooped up Pikachu and covered his face to protect himself from the sparks. Misty curled up next to Ash and both were forced to turn away. Fearow, protected by fire retardant feathers, was nearly berserk. Any insect that managed to escape Growlithe's fury found itself diced to bits by the blurring talons of the bird.
Then, the hellish scene ended as quickly as it had begun. There was not a single bug left within sight. Fearow calmed and returned to the party, and Growlithe had faded from the roaring inferno to a less spectacular, but still glowing, little dog. The canine walked calmly over to Ash, warming the air around by a full ten degrees as he did, and licked Ash's hand once, then began panting. Ash didn't know what to do except to reach out and pet the Pokémon's head. Growlithe barked once happily, then stared off into space for a second as fatigue washed over his eyes. As Misty broke the remaining web away from her face, the Pokémon rolled onto his side and passed out.