Twitch had to hurry to keep up with her mother's longer strides. She never slowed down for anyone, even her own pups. The only option was too speed up.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
Her mother didn't answer.
"Can I ride on your back? I'm tired and it's not fair that you carry Lil' everywhere."
Her mother slid one red eye towards her in a glare, not breaking her stride.
Twitch's brother hung from the Ninetales's jaws. A loose scrap of fur with closed eyes.
Twitch had always felt bad for Lil'. He had been born sickly and small. Unable to walk too. And their mother had named him Lil' for his size.
She supposed later on it could be short for another name. Such as Lithe or Lively or Little Patience or something. But it still meant "Small" to them.
Their mother had gone and given them weird names. She was called Twitch after all. But it was still better than being called "Small".
"I don't like this part of the forest," she complained, trying to get a reply. "It's all foggy and creepy and dark. Why can't we go back to the nice bright part?"
Still no reply.
Through the fog she glimpsed something dark and pointy.
It was a metal fence, trampled down in areas, stretching of into the grey haze. Overgrown with ivy and shrubbery.
There were two tall metal gates nearby, in-between imposing stone blocks. They were dented and wrenched open, barley held on by the hinges.
"Mother? I don't like this. I want to go back."
But her mother ignored her whimpers and stepped over the trampled area of fence, giving Twitch no choice but to follow.
She looked back at the stone blocks.
There was a dark figure perched on one . . . Watching them.
She blinked.
The figure was gone.
They followed a dirt path winding through grass stretches on either side. The stretches were covered in orderly rows of stone blocks and slabs at first. But as they got further in, they became muddled and patchy. The once neat, carved stones became regular chunks of rock shoved into the earth.
A few they passed looked newer, the earth scraped up and pressed back down in front of the slabs done no earlier than a few days.
"Mother. . . ?"
Something glowed up ahead on the path. A pair of red eyes and some yellow rings.
Twitch's mother muttered something to herself. Twitch pricked her ears, it was the first she'd spoken during the entire trip.
"Of course it had to be her."
Her? Who was this her? The red eyed thingy?
As they got closer Twitch could make out black fur, four legs, a tail, pointed ears. . .
It was an Umbreon. An Umbreon with glowing yellow rings and a white crescent moon pendant on a silver string around her neck.
"Greetings," the Umbreon said. "I am Gloom. Welcome to The House of Dying."
YOU ARE READING
House of Dying / Pokémon
FanfictionI am Gloom. Welcome to The House of Dying . . . Not every Pokémon can live forever. At The House of Dying that is a known fact. The Pokémon that live there accept that, the community built inside the old timber walls live to die with each other.
