Warrior Eevees #2: Pearl's Shadow

8- The Thaw

It was a few moon cycles later when Pearl was awakened by the joyful cry of Bubbles, who had been assigned to hunt early with Shell. Every other Pokémon in the den lifted their noses to scent the air drifting inside. It smelled of water, liquid lake water.

Pearl didn't move as her Tribemates rushed outside to see, laying her head on the flukes of her tail. Over the last few days, the weather had been finally growing warmer. Hunting had improved. Patches of mud and grass poked through the snow. There was an undeniable tinge of hope in the air- the long winter was ending! Soon, there would be good hunting and long, lazy days basking in the sun on the shores.

Pearl hated it. The misery of winter had allowed her the excuse to be miserable all the time, clutching onto Leap's memory as well as she could. Even now, it was fading. Pearl could no longer remember the exact scent of her pelt, and it was getting harder and harder to recall her face.

Sometimes, on patrol in the warm winds, she caught herself forgetting, smiling again. It was a betrayal, wasn't it?

A shadow blotted out the entrance to the den. She recognized Silent's scent and caught sight of Geyser behind him.

"The ice is breaking!" Geyser's tail was lashing with excitement. "Come and see!"

Pearl pushed herself to her paws and forced herself to pad after her friends, afraid that she would forget Leap entirely in the moment. Silent stayed close beside her, staring up at her face.

"You can't mourn forever," he whispered.

Pearl turned her face away, unsure of how to respond. The sunlight broke over her muzzle, feeling hot for the first time in many moon cycles. The air was swamped with the smell of lake water, finally overpowering the taste of ice. The dull, slushy expanse that had surrounded the village had split into grey shards, floating on the dazzlingly clear lake water. The melting ice and snow forced the water up over its banks, washing away the last dregs of winter.

Winter couldn't last forever, either. And Leap wouldn't have wanted it to. Pearl didn't believe the pain would ever fade completely, but maybe she could allow herself to enjoy a fishing trip. 

Pearl powered her way upriver, nosing her way through the ice floes. In the rivers, the ice had broken mostly near the middle, leaving a dark channel of swift black water, edged by sodden, cracking ice. The cold felt kind of nice on her pelt as she forced her way up the current, enjoying the feeling.

Geyser's back fin cut through the water next to her, and his scarred muzzle poked just above the surface. Pearl could see his eyes glinting at her from just below the water. She wished Silent could have come with them, too, but the rivers were too rough for unevolved Eevees.

"You know the Forest Tribe wouldn't hurt us on our own territory, right?" Geyser asked her, his head resurfacing in an explosion of water droplets.

Pearl felt herself flinch in the water. Diver had actually ordered she and Geyser to hunt on the river that sat near the Forest Tribe's border, but she had been too nervous to go near it. The memory of trying to battle them was too strong. Instead, she had begged to be sent up the rivers to the north, where the fish were smaller, but sometimes more plentiful with more mud and reeds to hide in.

"I know," she said softly, but she couldn't quite forget the looks on their faces.

With the ice breaking, soon, Lake Tribe members would be allowed to hunt alone again. For now, the water was still too cold to trust, but soon the sun would warm it. Pearl dreaded it, she dreaded being left alone with her thoughts. But for now, Geyser was here to distract her, even if with teasing. The Lake Tribe was still under orders for no Pokémon to go out alone, but after moon cycles with no incident, Pearl wasn't sure how much longer that could last.

At some point, they would find a place to stop and fish. Pearl was hoping the ice on the pools further downriver would have broken in the warm weather. The deep, still water was home to many Barboach, often even in winter. The slime coats of these fish were unpalatable to some, but Pearl didn't mind it. Plus, food was food.

Pearl and Geyser spent an optimistic morning hunting, diving for slow-moving fish still chilled by winter and piling them on the shore. No dive lasted long enough for concern, and neither Vaporeon came up empty-jawed.

Geyser emerged from the shimmering water for a third time and waved his tail at Pearl, indicating to her that it was her turn to take the dive. She rose to her paws and leaped in with no hesitation, stretching her forepaws to the muddy bottom.

The snowmelt rendered the water crystal-clear, and the cold had yet to pierce her overcoat. Frigid water slid across her gills, and Pearl thrashed her tail, driving herself toward the bottom. She nosed through the mud, feeling for her prey with her whiskers, relishing the light streaming through the surface of the water. She focused and allowed her pelt to blend in with the water, vanishing from sight. Hunting here, it didn't matter what color her fur was.

When she resurfaced with her catch, blinking water out of her eyes, it she realized that Geyser was nowhere to be seen. Shaking out her fur, Pearl glanced around and spotted his pawprints in the mud, then his dark blue tail in the reeds. She joined him there, where his nose was to the half-frozen mud.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Can you smell that?" he said suspiciously.

Pearl snorted the scent of river water out of her nose and joined him. They were right at the border of the Lake Tribe with the western portion of the Wildlands, a sparce woodland with tangles of ivy across the ground. It was not good land for hunting, with no decent undergrowth to stalk in or water sources to fish in. This border smelled of the Lake Tribe and practically nothing else, so it was hardly worth marking it.

Except for today, apparently.

"What is that?" Geyser asked.

"I don't know," Pearl drew air over the scent glands in her mouth, trying to decipher the smell. There was something to it that she could have sworn she remembered... From somewhere.

Does that have to do with the Sky Tribe?

Pearl had only met them once, passing through Lake Tribe territory. The Sky Tribe were nomadic, and always smelled of a thousand different territories they traveled through. It could have easily been a random scent picked up by their paws. Or not. Pearl didn't know.

Geyser shrugged and swept his muzzle across the stray branches that lined the border, rubbing Lake Tribe scent over the mysterious smell.

"We'd better get back and report this," he suggested. 

Diver sent Shell, Floe, and Reed to investigate the strange scent as well, but none of them had any idea on what it could possibly be. The Lake Tribe contented themselves with re-marking the border, hoping to send a message that they had noticed to whoever could be thinking about invasion.

"We could go to the Forest Tribe and ask them if they recognize the scent," Geyser had suggested. "The marks were against our border, they might share with the Forest Tribe as well."

"We're not asking the Forest Tribe for anything," Diver grumbled. "They haven't exactly been friendly since that scuffle on the border."

Pearl tried to shrink in her pelt. The 'scuffle' he was talking about was her fight with the Forest Tribe with Leap. The Forest Tribe, while never overtly aggressive, had begun patrolling their border with the Lake Tribe more frequently.

"The cold snap must have frozen the lake over," Dogwood had said while Pearl tried to hide behind her Tribemates on patrol. "Your Tribe must be hungry. Hollyhock wants us to remind you that our territory is not where you will find extra food. You are surrounded by Wildlands, hunt there if you must."

If Dogwood knew what the Wildlands surrounding the Lake Tribe looked like, Pearl was sure he wouldn't criticize.

Fortunately, there had been no other fights on the Forest Tribe's border. The rest of the Lake Tribe, it seemed, was not so easily tempted by Forest Tribe prey. Still, the relationship between the Tribes remained tense, and Pearl didn't blame Diver for not wanting to speak to Hollyhock. She blamed herself.