A Late Start

Rescue

RUN, NOW! Her voice echoed through my head. I had done as she asked, fleeing from the scene as fast as I could. I heard the sound of the man's body hitting the floor, twigs breaking under the sudden weight, leaves rustled beneath my feet as a second, smaller thump resounded out from behind me. Far too light to be the assailant I immediately knew what it meant and my heart sank. She wasn't coming with me. My neck felt bare, my scarf still lay in the dirt back there, but I couldn't go back. Not now, after she risked so much to get me away from there. I needed to get back to camp and find her friend. Ethan, he can help me get her back. I could hear her screaming and the guilt of leaving her alone panged on my heart.
"You saved me, and I'm going to return the favour. Wait for me," I muttered to myself. I burst through the treeline, onto the path leading back to camp, turning hard to my left. My focus turned to the leaves and branches cracking beneath my feet as the sounds of the struggle faded into the distance, I began to hear grunts and the sound of shuffling dirt up ahead.
"HEY!" I called out as loud as I could, knowing I had to be close to camp. I burst through the treeline, into the clearing they had set up camp in. Her friend was standing close to the edge, so close I didn't have time to stop before crashing into his leg, bouncing off and barely landing on my feet.
"Ow, Jesus, what even?" The boy turned around and looked down at me. "Silas? Where's Lexi, she went looking for you a little while ago." He knelt, placing a hand on my head.
"She's in trouble!" I spat out frantically, pulling on the leg of his trousers.
"Jeez, calm down Silas, is something the matter." He pulled his hand away and I could feel his eyes examining me. "You don't look to be hurt. But where's your scarf, I don't think I've ever seen you without..." He cut himself off. "Lexi's in trouble. Isn't she?"
"Yes, we need to hurry," I said back, giving a firm nod before turning back to the forest.
"Take me to her, quick." His tone changed, and his smile faded to a concerned crease. I took off towards the spot I had last seen her and I could hear his footsteps behind me. I ran as fast as I could, the boy keeping pace with me easily. I led him to the berry bush that I found myself hanging by not 20 minutes ago. She wasn't here.
"What's the deal, Silas. Where is she?" His voice was cold, I could feel his anger without even looking at him.
"This. This is wrong, she was here, they were supposed to be here." I mumbled to myself. Her scent was still in the area, they had left recently.
"SILAS!" he growled at me abruptly. "Where is Lexi?" I ran over to my scarf, partly buried in the dirt, alongside a small plastic container of some sort.
Ethan came over and examined the objects as well,
"Your scarf... as well as my canteen, you were attacked here?" He turned his gaze to me
"Yeah, this was the last place I saw her." I nodded again, scooping my scarf off the ground with my nose before flicking it over my head. Ethan knelt again, Picking up his 'canteen' and tying a quick knot in my scarf. It was tight and uncomfortable, but given the situation, I was in no place to complain. He continued to stare at the ground running his fingers along the broken twigs.
"She was attacked by a person. These footprints are way too big to be hers, and definitely don't belong to a pokemon. But where did they go?"
He mumbled to himself quietly. What was he looking at? "Silas. I know you're not exactly a tracker, but do you think you can lead me to them?" I nodded again, I could still smell them in the area, and I knew roughly what direction they were headed in.
"Alright, lead the way. But listen, until we get Lexi back, I need you to listen to me, Pretend like I'm your trainer okay? This could be dangerous, we need to be careful." I barely knew him and didn't much care about the idea of taking orders from him but she trusts him and he's the best chance I have at getting her back so I nodded my head in agreement. "Alright, take me to 'em then."

I had never followed someone based only on their scent before and it was hard to pick her out between the forest and its creatures. After what felt like hours we eventually came across another camp, but it was far more expansive than ours, two large tents, one massive square one. And some metallic container I didn't recognise at the far end.
"I guess this must be the place. Why is there a truck in the forest though? What have you gotten tangled up in Lex." Ethan spoke quietly, I assume not wanting to be heard by whoever could be in the camp. At this point he took the lead, gesturing with his hand for me to follow him as we circled the camp slowly. My ears perked up as I heard a second set of footsteps to our right. I gripped onto his pant leg with my teeth again and he stopped, looking back at me with a confused look on his face. I gestured to the right and pretended to walk in place. His eyes widened and he crouched down low, seemingly getting the memo. The footsteps drew closer and eventually the person responsible for them started to talk.
"Of all the impulsive." I knew immediately it wasn't the one who took her. "What was he thinking, bringing a girl back here. He's jeopardised our whole operation here. What am I gonna do?" He sounded flustered, the 'girl' he was referring to HAD to be her I instinctively started baring my teeth before Ethan's hand came down in front of me, silently telling me to stay put. "Better go check on the poor sap, maybe I can convince her to just forget about all of this." He began walking again. We slowly crept through the bushes, Ethan keeping the stranger in line of sight. Sure enough, he led us straight to her. Tied to a tree on the outside of their camp. The man began to speak again
"Hey there, miss. Sorry, you got roped into all this, brought you some water though." He had an obviously faked tone of concern in his voice.
"What do you want from me?" Her voice was like music to my ears, even though it sounded dry, cracked.
"You see, that's a bit of a funny story actually. We don't want you. In fact, I'm still pissed at my partner for bringing you here in the first place."
"Then just let me go!"
"You know as well as I do that we can't do that. Can't have you going and reporting us to the authorities or anything now can we."
"You can't just keep me here forever either."
"Look. Lady, I want to let you go, I do, but I can't. I'll make this easy for you. My buddy thinks you'll lead us to a rare pokemon, one that would fetch quite a price to the right person."
"Do I look like I know anything about rare pokemon?"
"Honestly? No. You have no equipment, and you don't look like much of a trainer either. But my friend here says you were with an Eevee, a little quadruped, long ears and tail. Silver pelt. Now, something like that doesn't just stumble into one of our traps every day. Heard of it?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, I was just gathering berries for my mother when your crazy friend attacked me!"
"Lying little BRAT!" Another voice joined the conversation. One I remembered very vividly. "She untied my snare, settin' the beast free. Then went an' claimed it was hers."
"Miss, please. There's no need to lie to me, you saw the creature didn't you?"
"So what if I did?"
"Y'can't just go an' interfere with peoples business, 'specially when it don't concern you."
"It does concern me because that Eevee is MINE."
"If the creature IS yours, then this is all a big misunderstanding. Surely you must have your ID and its ball then?"
"As I told your friend. I left my bag in my tent this morning when I realised he was missing. All of my gear and registration is still in it."
"You do realise that with no real proof we can't believe you, you could just be trying to trick us into letting you go."
"Brat probably wants the catch for herself."
"Do you have any idea where the creature may have run off to?"
"With any luck? As far away from you as possible." I heard a loud thump. He must have hit her.
"Owww. What the hell dude, I'm already tied up." I felt a white-hot rage build inside me. I bared my teeth again but right as I went to lunge at the man Ethan grabbed me, hoisting me off the ground with ease. I struggled against his grip but couldn't move an inch.
"Dude! Stop. We're already in hot water for abducting her, we don't need to make it worse with assault too."
"Not like we're on the right side of the law anyhow. Now, girl. Are you going to help us find our quarry or not?"
"I'll NEVER let you take him." SMACK. He struck her again, but this time she didn't make so much as a peep in response.
"Maybe she'll be more cooperative when she wakes up." The first hunter declared before he turned to walk away.
"We are in so much trouble..." the second dismayed before following after his partner.

Once they were both far enough away, Ethan carried me over to the tree where she was tied up. She had bruises all over her face, some of which were bleeding. I looked up at her and again felt guilt wash over me. This was my fault. I'm the reason she got hurt. Ethan had pulled a small knife from his belt and was cutting through the ropes tying her to the tree, I couldn't help but nuzzle her hand slowly.
"I'm sorry, This is all my fault," I muttered, quietly. Eventually, her bindings came loose and Ethan hoisted her over his shoulder, gesturing to me to follow him again. He was running and I was barely able to keep up but I followed along behind him we were heading In the complete opposite direction of our campsite, but I wasn't about to leave her side again. We continued to run for at least another hour, changing direction periodically. Ethan hadn't said a word since we arrived at their camp. Eventually, the forest broke into a small town, with buildings and paved roads. But I didn't recognise any of it. Where had he led us? People turned to look at us as we ran past. Ethan was headed towards A large building with a bright red roof, the entire front wall was one big window. I recognised this building as we drew closer to it. This is where I was reunited with her. The doors slid open automatically as we approached them and we burst inside, greeted with looks of shock and concern from everyone inside.
"My friend is hurt pretty bad, is there anything you can do to help?" Ethan burst out the moment we were inside.
"Oh, of course, bring her through here and we'll get to work as soon as we can." One of the women in the room said. She was wearing all pink and a strange headband, I had to assume she worked here.
"Her Eevee may need to be checked as well." He said, gesturing to me
"What!" I cried out. "I'm fine."
"Oh, of course, we'll get the little guy sorted as well." I followed them out into one of the back rooms, where they had Ethan place her on one of their beds before they escorted both me and Ethan back out to the front of the building. Please be okay I thought to myself as I was carried back to the lobby by the strange girl.