Warrior Eevees #3: The Search for Daylight

Chapter 4- Border Patrol

Sunlight trailed a little way behind her Tribemates. It was kind of an awkward position, to be patrolling the Plains Tribe border with Rush. Usually, she would keep up with the patrol, chatting with her Tribemates about past squabbles with the Jolteon Tribe, swapping stories and trading playful insults with one another. With Rush there- and Shine- it was just... Weird.

Shine's near-white mane glowed in the sun, trotting along beside her mate, who kept turning his face to the plains, his nose twitching. Sunlight wondered if he missed the Plains Tribe. She wondered if there was no chance that he would go back.

The only other Pokémon on the patrol was Scorch, a kitten from the other litter who had been forced to evolve early. Despite being a Flareon, he was a full head shorter than Sunlight and had to take two steps for every one of the rest of the patrol's.

Sunlight was pretty sure Dusk had asked not to be put on the same patrols as her. She was hideously embarrassed of what she had said to him, screaming at herself for not thinking her words through and telling herself over and over to just get it over with and apologize, but the idea of it made her squirm just as badly.

Especially given that Sunlight would rather do a border patrol than a hunting patrol with her brother. She would still feel bad for him as he tried to keep pace, but at least there was no risk of him missing a kill for the Tribe.

She was confident Dusk wouldn't gloat if she apologized. She should just apologize. She resolved to do it as soon as they returned to the village, although she had made this resolution several times and become overwhelmed by embarrassment several times already. She missed him.

Stupid furball, she thought, not without fondness.

At very least, Scorch was not out of things to say.

"Didn't you hate all that grass?" he was chattering away at Rush like a Pidgey, an endless stream of questions directed at the Jolteon, who, for once, seemed quite speechless. "I don't think I would be able to see through all that grass. How did you hunt? You don't have a tail. Do you have a tail? Is your tail just very short? Is that what all those long quills are? How do you signal your Tribemates if you have a very short tail?"

"The Plains Tribe don't hunt in big-" Rush began to say kindly, but Scorch apparently wanted to ask questions, not get answers, because he continued on.

"My mom says lightning is always hitting the Plains Tribe. Why does it do that? Does it know there are a bunch of Jolteon there? Does the lightning come from you? Does it ever set the grass on fire?"

Rush made no attempt to answer this question, merely exchanging a fond glance with Shine and continuing to follow the border line.

Not a pawstep over it, Sunshine noticed.

The border between the Plains and Sand Tribes was marked by a scruffy fringe of grass, where the desert sand lapsed into sandy soil, entwined with thick roots until the ground became a thick mat of plants to run on in the Plains Tribe's territory. Rush's paws fell firmly in the sand. It had been so long that the Jolteon no longer smelled of the Plains Tribe. If he did cross the border, the Plains Tribe would scent it. Odd thought.

But a coat that yellow...

It was going to be impossible for anyone in the Sand Tribe to forget that Rush had once been the enemy. At least, Sunlight knew it would be impossible for her.

Shine stopped suddenly, and Scorch almost walked directly into her tail, thankfully avoiding a close brush with Rush's quills. Shine lifted her nose to the wind.