Warrior Eevees #1: The Storm of Fire

2 - The Village of the Forest Tribe

Getting Emmy into the village was less of a production than she had expected it to be. Thyme and Sycamore sunk their teeth into her scruff and climbed in tandem, lifting her onto a broad bough high in an elm tree. The branches were covered in old claw marks and worn smooth from- what Emmy presumed was- years of wear. She was shepherded into one of the above-ground dens.

The dens themselves fascinated her, through her pain-fogged brain. They were made of woven vines and sprigs of ivy, tying together branches that looked as if they had been cleanly cut in half horizontally to create a flat floor. The construction was ingenious. The wooden floor felt solid under paw, ignoring the pitching of her aching head, and when Thyme guided her to a thick bed of moss on the floor, she sank into it gratefully.

"Right," Thyme said. "Eat this, it's an Oran Berry. It will make you feel better."

"I know wh-what an Oran Berry is!" Emmy cried, rolling the blue fruit under paw, delighted to have remembered something, no matter how random. "There are over thirty varieties, which allows them to grow in all kinds of environment. They're a st-staple food for most herbivorous Pokémon, but their healing p-powers prompt even carnivores to eat them sometimes."

Thyme blinked at her, confusion clear in his green eyes.

"Well, I don't know much about the different varieties," he stated hesitantly. "But they definitely have healing powers, so dig in. Let me grab you a Persim Berry, too, that should help your head feel better- and Tough, go grab her something from the prey store."

"Yessir!" Tough agreed immediately, and was gone in a flash, bounding along the swaying tree branches with as much confidence as any of the Leafeon.

Emmy buried her fangs into the flesh of the berry she had been provided. The juice was citrusy, although not too sour, and was warm from being stored in the sun. Sycamore lingered awkwardly in the entrance to the den, swishing his tail back and forth.

"Is there anything I can do?" he asked, looking back and forth between Emmy and Thyme. "I can go- Hunt something fresh, if you have a favorite or something..."

"No, Sycamore, don't worry about it," Thyme said, producing a triangular pink berry from the pile in the corner. "Here you go then- This is what we use for confusion, so it might clear your head up a little. Get them both down, and Tough will bring you something a little more substantial any minute now."

Emmy mumbled her thanks, already beginning to feel revitalized from the healing berry. As she started to work on the second, a shadow suddenly blotted out the door, and she raised her eyes carefully.

The Leafeon standing in the entrance was tall, imposing, and wearing an unfriendly expression. The thick dark leaves that grew out of her body were flared suspiciously, and her green eyes seemed to pick over every detail of Emmy's bedraggled pelt.

"This is Hollyhock, our leader," Sycamore whispered into Emmy's ear. "She looks scary- But she's fair, she won't hurt you..."

"Thank you, Sycamore," Hollyhock growled. "That's enough from you."

She stepped into the den, her pelt ruffled along her spine. Thorn followed her inside and shot a hopeful smile in Emmy's direction, along with another Leafeon molly Emmy didn't know, her long tail swishing carefully back and forth.

Hollyhock stopped before Emmy, rearranging her paws regally before her to stare down her straight muzzle at Emmy's blood-crusted head. The juices of the Persim Berry were beginning to clear the fog in her skull, but to Emmy's distress, her memory was no clearer. As far as she was aware, she had simply appeared here, today, covered in blood and completely alone, with no past at all. The Forest Tribe's leader's nose flared, scenting her for hints to that past, but like Emmy, seemed to find nothing, because she shook her thick-leaved head and said: