Warrior Eevees #1: The Storm of Fire

27- Above the Sky of Madness

The clouds below them were so thick and dense that Emmy felt they were flying just above the ground. They boiled and rolled like the lava pit below the Mountain Tribe's home, flashing gold and red through the choking, smokey black. The fighting threw up gusts of winds that tossed the Pokémon trying to sneak past the legendries by soaring above them.

Rogue's wings were open and held straight at his sides, surfing the bucking winds with Sycamore and Emmy on his back, the unpredictable wind throwing them up and down wildly. He wasn't struggling to stay above the clouds, but he was certainly struggling to stay upright. The dragons had lowered their heads, plowing through the updrafts, but now Rogue's feathered wings, more equipped for windsurfing, were working against him.

Lightning split the blue sky above them. The smell of it was everywhere, intermingled with the choking smoke.

Rogue tilted his body, riding one of the wind swells to draw level with Meteor. The huge Dragonite was faring better than the other two, his greater weight holding him in place. Rogue angled his wings to try to surf in his wake.

"Where's Derrick?" he shouted to Meteor.

"Over there," Meteor pointed. "He's doing all right, I think."

Sycamore's pelt was ruffled uncomfortably.

"I thought I was getting over worrying about flying," he mumbled to Rogue's feathers. "I thought I was getting over it."

"I think we're all nervous up here," Emmy assured him.

The noise was unbelievable. The roar of fire and thunder, the hiss-crackle of lightning, and the howl of the wind blended together in a horrible song of destruction and misery. Were they over the plains, now, Emmy wondered, or had they made it to the desert? The dense boiling clouds made it impossible to tell. Were they moving quickly, or was that just the wind?

Rogue leaped forward when the air caught him, sending him whirling across the sky like debris. He corrected with his tail, whipping back on course, with Sycamore and Emmy rocking wildly on his back.

"Hold on!" he screeched back at them.

The mountain was looming up in the distance, closer and closer. Rogue swept his wings back, shooting through the sky like he was chasing prey.

Below, the clouds rocked and swelled horribly. Flames jetted through the blackness on a collision course with Rogue's body. Emmy felt him jerk with all the strength he had, but it wasn't enough-

The buzz of Derrick's wings seemed to blot out the thunder and fire, as the dragon shot between the blast of fire and Rogue, smoke curling around the edges of his huge wings. Emmy heard him roar, and roar very loudly- and this made her remember that Derrick didn't like roaring, he thought it was quite undignified. Upon his back, Aqua, Shine, and Rush all shrieked.

Instantly, Rogue tilted in the sky, his talons raked forward to snatch Shine off the injured Dragon, relieving his weight. But Rogue was not large enough to fly with so much weight, and he began to stagger in the air, dipping down, down, down toward the burning cloud. Sycamore and Shine were screeching.

Emmy could feel the mountain in the racing wind. It wasn't far, it wasn't far at all. She could make it, and she didn't think before leaping from Rogue's back. The Braviary screamed in terror even as his flight righted, and that was all Emmy saw before plunging into the cloud.

She flailed wildly, ash and smoke choking her throat before her belly collided painfully with rough rock, driving the breath from her body. The shock of it pinned her to the mountainside where she lay for a long moment, gasping in pain, until she felt her lungs reinflate.

Thunder roared all around her, and flames scorched her whiskers. She couldn't stop. She forced herself to her paws and began climbing painfully upwards.

The fall must have been further than she thought. It felt as if she wasn't moving at all, so thick was the cloud that concealed everything not immediately close to her. Static electricity stung her painfully, and her pads ached from walking on the flame-scorched stone. She squeezed her eyes shut, allowing the wind to inform her of what was around her.

Suddenly, cool air broke over her nose, and she took a grateful breath of frozen air. It was shocking, emerging from the fiery cloud into the icy air of the Mountain Tribe's home, but she welcomed it.

"Over there! She's okay!" it was Crystal's voice.

Emmy opened her eyes to see Rogue's beating wings filling the sky, his eyes shining with tears.

"Don't do that!" he wailed, embracing her once more with his wings.

Sycamore and the others were beside her now, too, expressing their relief as Emmy pulled herself out of Rogue's hug.

"We have to keep going, we can't stop now," she pointed out. "Everyone- come on!"

"There's a problem," Sycamore's coat was fluffed up against the cold, and Emmy could already see him trembling, the tips of his leaves curled from the icy wind. "Derrick's hurt."

Derrick was crouched on a nearby boulder, hunched over himself and clutching his chest, his breath coming in heaving gasps. His wings hung loose down the sides of the rock. He was resistant to Fire-Type attacks, but not immune, and now the scales all along his chest and half of his neck were scorched brownish black, the skin peeling away from them.

"It isn't as bad as it looks," he insisted while Meteor tried to feed him human cures from his bag. "I can keep going."

To demonstrate, he half-raised his wings, but they flopped back down before he could fully do so.

"On a team," Meteor rumbled. "We know when it is time to take over and allow our teammates to rest. If we were in battle, you would have surely been recalled. Besides, the winds will be difficult further up the slope, right Rogue?"

Rogue ducked his head, embarrassed.

"Well, I don't know if they'll be weirder than what we just faced, but they roll downhill. It'll be a headwind the whole way up."

"It will be faster to walk," Emmy said.

"Emmy," Rogue was injured, his eyes wide.

"Rogue, you did great. You did amazing," she reassured him. "But Meteor's right. It's time for us to take over."

Rogue nuzzled her with his beak affectionately, although he was now crying again.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine. I think we just made it through the hard part," Emmy said.

It was easy to believe, looking back over their shoulders. The world behind them was a swirling, tearing sea of fire and thunder. The world above was a mountain slope with spare flurries skuttling across it. It would be cold, but it at least wouldn't torch anyone in an instant.

Derrick groaned painfully.

"Let them go, Rogue. Dragon and Flying-Types aren't going to do any good in the cold."

"I just... I don't like it."

"I don't like it either," Emmy butted him with her head. "But we have to go. As soon as possible."

She turned to call the other Eeveelutions, but they were already gathered there. Sycamore was sitting very straight as if trying to prove even a Grass-Type like him could make it. After all, they had to.