Arcane Explorers: An Eeveelution Story

Chapter XIII

[Anion POV]

'One mon. That's all it took. A single mon managed to cause enough pain and destruction to nearly wipe out an entire kingdom. Any Vaporeon who's heard of a Jolteon before always thinks of that one mon. A mon that decided to take advantage of his species' typing to prey on the weaker water types. Both I and the members of the tribe view him as a horrible tyrant. I truly despise having to share the same surname as such a mon. Unfortunately, it would seem that I am the first in my family's history to think that way. That's somewhat made up for by the fact that I am the only remaining mon carrying the 'Valence' name. However, the treatment of our species after what that mon caused was deeply cruel. The other kingdoms worked together in an attempt to completely kill off our species. The main kingdoms behind it all were the Espeons and the Sylveons. You can't even find a thunder stone now. They're all either destroyed or hidden away in a storage facility only accessible by royals. In total, including my new acquaintance, Lipo, there are around 37 Jolteons left throughout all of the kingdoms. We're forced to hide out in the woods because of how we'll be treated if we wander out into society.'

I continued deep into my thoughts as I carried the wounded Vaporeon through the woods. "Where are we going...?" She sounded tired, likely on the verge of falling asleep on my back. "We're going deeper into the woods. I wasn't able to fully treat your wound properly, so I'm taking you a few kingdoms over to a healer I've heard of." She seemed to think over what I'd said. "Alright..." It wasn't but just a couple moments later that I felt two limbs softly wrap around my neck, and Sapphire went silent. She was definitely sleeping now. I felt my face heat up for just a brief moment. 'Today's gonna be a long one...'

. . .

Sapphire was still asleep as I opened up my map. It was much later in the day now. I'd managed to cross through the Vaporeon and Flareon kingdoms, and I was now deep into the Espeon kingdom. There was still more ground to cover, however. I had to make it to a place known as Satellite Forest, located in the Umbreon kingdom. I wasn't as far away as I was expecting, which was nice. I carefully folded the map back up and placed it in my bag. I took a deep breath before continuing through the woods.

The bright autumn leaves slowly drifted down onto the forest floor. I watched some of them fall as I walked. It was completely dead silent except for the wind occasionally rustling the leaves. I was completely alone with my thoughts now. Something I remembered as I walked was that Lipo and his friends were supposedly heading to some sort of event hosted by whoever the Espeon king is now. Knowing recent events, I was almost certain that the event would likely be canceled. It made me somewhat curious as to where they'd go next. 'Aconi's wounds were treated by Lipo if I remember correctly... I wonder if he treated them properly. Would be funny if I ran into them in the woods on their way to the healer.' The healer in question was someone I'd heard about from the tribe's cartographer. The reason I'd chosen this healer in particular is because they were one of very few that live deep in the woods, far away from any towns or villages. Though, I have no idea what kind of pokemon they are, let alone what their name is. 'That's gonna be a fun encounter.' I continued through the empty forest.

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[Aconi POV]

I walked alongside Lipo and Carbon as Topaz led us back to the inn. "It's a shame that the speech was canceled..." Topaz had seemed mildly upset about the speech being canceled since he read the note on the community board after we'd arrived in the town he'd led us to. He never said the name of the town, so none of us besides him knew what it was called. As I was walking, I felt a mild soreness creep up through my torso, slowly turning into a slight pain. The pain spiked for a moment, and I let out a quick cry. The others stopped walking and turned to me. Lipo had an incredibly concerned look on his face, as did Carbon. "Are you feeling alright, Aconi?" I nodded to the Jolteon. "Y-yeah, just a sudden spike of p-pain, that's all..." His expression grew more worried. "From your wound?" I nodded. Carbon spoke up. "What kind of pokemon were you attacked by?" I paused for a moment, thinking back to that scary encounter. "M-mightyena..." His eyes widened, and I noticed Topaz perk up. "That's not good. From what I know, some dark types have a move that's somewhat of a modified curse. It can only be healed by other pokemon that are trained to do so."

Topaz walked over. "I think I might be able to help. Do any of you have a map?" Lipo pulled out the map that Anion had given us and pulled it out. "Yeah, here." He pawed it to Topaz. He opened it up and pulled a fountain pen out of his bag. He made a small mark on the map and gave it back to Lipo, putting the pen away as he did so. "There. I've heard of a pokemon that knows how to heal special types of wounds or effects who lives near there. Very few have actually encountered it, so nobody really knows who it is. The reports of what kind of pokemon it is vary too much for anyone to be certain. I'm sure they'll be able to help you." Lipo nodded. "Thanks for the help." Topaz smiled. "Anytime. I've gotta run, I still have to run the inn. See you around." We waved as he ran off into the distance. Lipo turned his attention back to me. "Do you think you'll be able to walk there?" I thought about it for a few moments before shaking my head. He walked over to me and let me climb onto his back, a process that I was becoming deeply familiar with. "Hey Carbon, could you use the map to lead us there?" He nodded, and Lipo pawed him the map. Carbon looked at me for a moment. "You two are quite the couple." I felt my face burn up. "C-carbon!" He chuckled as he walked into the woods. Lipo followed. I wrapped my arms around Lipo's neck as we headed deep into the forest.

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A/N

Hello! I was originally planning on making this chapter a bit longer, but I decided that this was a good place to stop. Gotta have some building excitement for what happens next! Now we wait to see who will encounter the mysterious healer first. Also, this is my first time trying a POV switch during a chapter. Please let me know what I can improve on! Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Have a good day/night!

-Volt

(11/27/23, 00:08, -5 GMT)