Ryker's struggle

Prologue

***

A little shiny Eevee was sitting in a bush all by himself as his parents had left him there. He tucked his paws underneath him as he got comfy, well until some strange mons he had never seen before, came stalking his way. "WHERE IS IT?!" an angry Houndoom shouted. Imedantly the sliver Eevee became aware that these mons were not his friends, but possibly hungry predators wanting to eat him. He backed up deeper into the bush making sure his tail was tucked in and nothing that could give him away was sticking out, as these mons fanned out searching the grass for him. He began to tremble in fear as a few walked past him sniffing the grass. "Little Eevee come out, come out wherever you are." he heard one of them say. Which scared him more as they confirmed that they were indeed looking for him.
After what felt like hours to him which was only five minutes, a loud voice finally shouted. "Ok, that's enough guys! We're not going to find it, we need to head back to camp." And with that demand, they all started padding away leaving the shiny Eevee alone again, but he was safe now... At least he had hoped.

***

*hoot* hoot*
Feeling shocked the little Eevee lifted his head after waking up from sleep, now realizing that it was nightfall as the moonlight shone through the trees. He began to shiver from the cold. He let out a whimper as his parents still hadn't returned to him. 'those predators left hours ago... Why are they not back yet?' then he heard the Noctowl again as it hooted again. He felt his furr stiffened with fear knowing that if it saw him it would try to eat him. Feeling alone and scared he began weeping. Where were his parents? Why had they not come back for him? 'oh Arceus what if I'm lost?? What if those mons were trying to help me? Did I mess up by hiding from them?.' then his ear's perked up as he heard paw steps on the soft grass approaching. He froze as a shadow fell over him.
His face was full of tears now, he was scared until he saw the mon. It was a female Liepared, one who he saw earlier today before his parents left him, he knew she was a friend. He ran over to her and hugs her feeling happy instantly. 'maybe she'll take me back to my mom and dad!' She leaned down and pulled him closer to her. "it's alright your not alone anymore..... Ryker..."
She picked him up by the scruff and began carrying him away, but something seemed off to Ryker, he could tell that she was deeply troubled by something, as she was moving fast, as he dangled from her jaw he began feeling homesick as he realized she was not taking him back to his den at all but taking him further away. "Wait! I want to go home!" he cried out. But she ignored him and continued to run faster. He yelped as she leaped over a river and continued to move swiftly through the forest. Ryker was now crying again as he realized she was kidnapping him. 'she's gonna eat me!' he began crying louder until she stopped by a huge oak tree, she hesitated for a bit before leaping at it and climbing up to the lowest branch which was too high up for the little Eevee to climb down safely. She put him down beside her. "Hush! Be quiet Ryker, I'm not going to hurt you." but the sliver Eevee continues crying. "I... I... I want m-my mom and dad." he whined out. She froze for a bit then looked down at her paws. Ryker wiped his face with his paws trying to clean away his tears. "they're not coming back..." she finally answered. "Huh?... What do you mean?" he noticed she had a few tears in her eyes. As he looked at her more closely he could now see that she had some cuts and scratches on her and a big burn mark on her face. She took in a deep breath before meeting his gaze. "They didn't want you, Ryker... They left."
"Ryker?... But that's not my name my name is Willow."
"It's your new name, look kid they didn't want you and someone needs to look after you, I'm going to be your new guardian from now on." the shiny Eevee frowned feeling more hurt and upset. "But... I've always been good... Why didn't they want me?." she frowned. "They just didn't... No more questions about it ok? They abandoned you and that's the end of it." she then pulled him closer to her. "Now go to sleep, we've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow, we need to get out of the forest, and fast."
Ryker felt alarmed that he didn't want to leave the forest he had good memories of behind, pulse he still didn't fully believe that his parents would just abandon him, he wanted to look for them. "But why?! Why do we have to leave?!"
"We just do ok! It's not safe here for us!"
"Why? Through???"
"NO MORE WHY'S! We are leaving because I told you we're not safe!" Ryker now felt intimidated by her seeing how mad she got. "Oh...o-ok.." he said in defeat and curled up close to her. He closed his eyes feeling sadness, wash over him. 'my parents... They didn't want me?? Did I do something wrong? This must be a bad dream... It's got to be.' but the little Eevee knew this was reality. He felt more tears dripping down his face as the pain in his chest was pretty tight, it really hurt him to think after all the games they played, everything he had done with them, and now knowing that they never really loved him, they waited for an excuse to ditch him in a bush. Then another horrible thought crossed his mind. 'did they leave me out to get eaten by those predators? is that why we need to leave?' as he shyly glanced up at the Liepard he noticed she looked deeply troubled and upset then he caught her murmuring to herself. "I'm on my own again... No mons gonna help me... I....I'll figure this out I just need to focus on getting out of the forest before a search party is sent out." this raised more questions in Ryker's head but he was too scared to question her so he rested his head against her then slowly drifted off to sleep.

***

The next following morning the Liepared nudged him awake with her paw. "Come on Ryker we need to move now." her voice sounded very urgent. He let out a tired yawn.
*yawn* feeling puzzled he could see that it was just only the first crack of dawn.
"Why are we in a hurry? Can't we eat first?" she paused looking frustrated for a bit. "We'll eat later but right now we need to leave." then without further ado, she grabbed him by the scruff and then half-climbed down before jumping. As they landed on the forest floor. Ryker gave a yell as she yanked him in the process. She put him down. "Get on my back," she ordered and he obeyed climbing on top of her as she lowered herself. Then she began running once again and Ryker had to hold on tight. "Why are we running?!" he asked but she didn't answer. "Well, can you at least say where we're going?"
"We're going to live in the rainforest, that should be far enough."
"From what?"
"Ryker stop asking questions!." she hissed, he shrugged his shoulders and then watched as they got further and further through. Then he began feeling sad as he thought about his mom and dad once more. He felt tears forming in his eyes. 'I guess it's just me and this Liepard now.'
"w..what's your name?" he asked. "I'm Ruth, but you can call me Mother if you like," she answered. Ryker began thinking of his new name. He had liked being called Willow but if his parents were black-hearted enough to just abandon him alone like that then he no longer wanted to keep it. 'From now on im Ryker... And I never had parents.' but it still hurt him. Now he was trying to put the pieces together of what he might have done wrong. 'maybe it is my fault they left me... I wish I could at least talk to them one last time.'
He started weeping again. Then Ruth paused. "Little one..... I know how upset you must be but any predators that hear you crying will surely come and try to get you." he stopped suddenly wiping his face again but he couldn't help it he still felt really upset with this whole situation.
"Kid just be grateful I found you, you'd never have made it if I hadn't found you." now he did feel grateful about that. 'she's right... That Noctowl would have found me out eventually I'm alive and that's what matters more I guess.'

***
Later on that day

As Ruth was still padding on through the forest Ryker's stomach growled. "Ruth?... When can we eat?.... I'm hungry..." he said. It took him a lot of courage to ask because they had been walking all day and the Liepard seemed very eager to keep going. To his relief, she stopped looking tired. "Ok... We'll take a break, you're still very young do you eat berries?" the shiny Eevee nodded. His teeth were slowly coming in but he still had small baby teeth. Ruth sniffed the air. "Come on we need to find water, and where there's water we'll surely find some berries to eat. As she began padding on again he ran after her. "Stay close to me Ryker and whatever you do don't leave my sight." he nodded as he made sure to stay close, he couldn't help but feel curious about these woods since he'd never been here before. He gazed at the trees and grass areas around them. "Are we almost to our new home?" he asked. The liepard shook her head. "We have some way to go yet." he frowned. "Why do we have to go so far?"
"Trust me, it's for the best," she replied. Then the water came into view as they approached a river. Ryker got excited as he spotted some Razzberry bushes, and he ran towards them. "Ryker wait!!" Ruth screeched as she charged after him. Before he could pick one she stopped him. "Huh? What's wrong?" he asked. She snorted "Ryker you can't just run up and eat any Berry you find!"
"Why not?"
"Because you don't know if it could be poison or not."
"But... Their Razzberries..." the liepard sniffed at it. "Ok you can eat them, but Ryker there are some poisonous berries out there that could kill you, and a lot of them are red." he slowly nodded then he began nibbling on some feeling really hungry. As he was chewing on his berries he watch as the Liepard padded over to the water and splashed some on her face, cleaning her wounds. 'must have gotten into a fight.' he thought as she let out a painful moan dunking her head in the water. "Ruth... What happen to you?" he asked. The liepard shot him with a mean glare and didn't answer, so he thought to just leave it alone as she sat down beside him and started eating berries. He looked at her, the burn on her face looked painful. "Maybe we can find some berries that heal burn?" he asked. She shook her head. "No, I'm fine! What doesn't kill me only makes me stronger!" she snorted sounding angry. Ryker flinched then she let out a sigh. "Ok drink some then we'll be off again." he nodded and padded over to the river and began lapping at it with his tongue, once he was satisfied with enough water he grabbed a pawful of barriers for the road before climbing back on Ruth's back.
They carried on again.
Loneliness sank in once more.
"Ruth?... Can I call you mother?" he asked. "Yes, you can, from now on I will be your new mother." that made him feel a little better. But it still bothered him that his parents left him he wanted to know why. Grief stabbed at his heart he gulped down the rest of his berries and then curled up into a little ball on Ruth's back feeling sleepy now, he drifted off to sleep.