Warrior Eevees #2: Pearl's Shadow

5- The Long Winter

The water was so cold it seemed to burn Pearl's nose as she pushed her way through it. It was her first winter as a Vaporeon, her first time being allowed to dive beneath the ice. Her gills prevented her from drowning, but the cold was so bad that even Vaporeon were not permitted to go out alone, so she was hunting alongside Geyser, who was taking his turn out of the water, making sure she wasn't gone too long. He would be down to pull her out of the water, soon.

Pearl wasn't ready to leave, although she had long lost the feeling in her fins. The Lake Tribe was struggling to hunt. The fish stayed hidden in the winter, in muck and shadows. Few bothered to swim where hungry Vaporeon could catch them. The other option was to try to stalk, like Floe, but Pearl was hopeless at that.

The ice darkened the water, too, casting a shadow over the whole lake. It made what fish there were harder to spot and sent Pearl diving after flickering shadows that ended up being nothing more than leaves drifting along the sand or shimmers of light cast when the sun high above broke through the clouds momentarily.

Pearl stroked with her tail, pushing herself forward on another lap around the area, only to nearly collide with Geyser. He jerked his head upward at one of the Lake Tribe's holes in the ice. His yellow eyes flashed in the darkness when Pearl shook her head, and he shouldered her roughly up toward the surface.

Pearl didn't resist and allowed herself to flop onto the grey lake ice, feeling her gills shut as her lungs filled with air. Geyser sprang out of the water after her.

"What are you doing?" she demanded. "We need to keep hunting!"

"Pearl, we've been at it all day," Geyser said calmly. "We can't kill ourselves, it won't help-"

"I'm going back in!" Pearl made a dive for the ice hole, but Geyser snatched her tail in his jaws.

She clawed feebly at the ice for a moment before allowing herself to collapse. She was starving and sore from the icy water, her muscles were exhausted from hunting, and she was freezing cold. It was a really miserable day. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes.

"We have to catch something," she pleaded with Geyser.

"Someone will," he said. "But we've been at it all day, and if we die trying to fish, the Lake Tribe will be in a worse place."

"Who cares about the Lake Tribe?" Pearl demanded.

"Silent will be in a worse place with less hunters around," Geyser snarled. "The Lake Tribe supports all of us. So you should care."

Pearl sniffled and drew her paw across her nose.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I know everyone is working hard. I shouldn't have said that."

"It's okay," Geyser assured her. "We're all under stress these days. Let's go back to the village and get some rest, and maybe we can go out again around sunset."

Pearl followed him across the icy lake. She put her paws into the tracks left in the snow by other Lake Tribe members who had come and gone from the hole. The frozen mud beneath her paws was no warmer than the ice when she stepped onto the Lake Tribe's island, the last of the water finally beginning to run off of her pelt. She poked her head into the Eevee's Den, where Pebble lay in a corner with her tail curled around her kittens.

"Is he doing any better?" Pearl whispered.

Pebble looked down at her litter. Tumble and Crouch had grown thinner from the bad fishing, but it was nothing compared to Silent. Silent had never been the most boisterous of kittens, but the sickness that had struck him near the first snowfall had left him practically wasting away.