Chapter Text
Nathaniel woke up in a dark and dense forest with the smell of smoke still on his nose. His head was heavy and he felt confused. The boy’s back was throbbing with pain, and large scratches burned along his arms and legs.
Attached to his hurt back was a large bag, and wrapped in his arms was a little dark fox pokémon, still fainted. He felt his heart ache seeing the fluffy fur of the Zorua, now knotted and burned.
Despite the pain and the bruises that surely were covering his body, he couldn't feel anything broken or severely injured, so he forced himself to sit, still holding the pokémon, and look around.
Wide, twisted trees surrounded them, holding thick hanging vines. High canopies blocked the sky above letting only little lightframes pass. Some of the most curious pokémon peek into the bushes trying to observe the strangers. But, the boy’s focus wasn’t in any of these, but trapped in the figure at his right.
A large Staraptor was knocked down on the ground and stained with blood. The pokémon had large wounds along its body and a deep cut on its chest. A lot of feathers were spread around, and a pool of blood could be seen painting the grass red. The memories suddenly struck the boy, strangling his breath.
The Wesninski manor on fire. His mother’s screams. All of her pokémon falling down one by one. All to distract his father and his men while her Staraptor escaped carrying Nathaniel away.
It worked till it didn't. Lola, his father’s right hand woman, noticed the absence of the boy and found them as they prepared to take off.
Somehow they managed to escape, but not unharmed. Nathaniel recoiled as he remembered the moment of the fall. Staraptor dozed off as the pain and wounds of the battle with Lola's pokémon drained the last of his forces.
The bird pokémon tried to land before fainting, but his consciousness went off as soon as they reached the treetops, letting the gravity send them down.
All Nathaniel could do was to wrap his arms around the Zorua on his lap before the hit on the ground sent him to the dreamland.
Now, he didn’t need to reach the large pokémon to know that he was already long dead. Nathaniel's stomach turned at the thought. He turned to the dark pokémon still wrapped in his arms and couldn't hold the growing worry about the pokémon's health.
“Hey! Wake up!” He said, shaking the pokémon that frowned in its sleepy state. Zorua whined lowly before finally opening his big blue eyes, sending a wave of relief through the boy.
“Hey buddy!” The boy relaxed, opening a soft smile that he reserved for, and only for, his pokémon.
“Auf!” The pokémon cried back, nuzzling on the boy's chin slowly. They both hurt, but they’ve been through worse and stayed standing.
The relief didn’t last long though. The smell of blood was thick in the air, pulling the duo back to the situation. Nathaniel was used with cold bodies and fresh blood, both pokémon and people. It couldn’t be different being the son of the butcher as he was. But somehow the pokémon in front of him hit differently.
Not only did the pokémon sacrifice his life so the boy could run, Staraptor had been with his mom since he could remember. It was one of Mary's most loyal pokémon and rarely had been seen without her. Seeing its body like that only made Mary's last screams echo in his mind, and the smell of smoke invade his senses once again.
He started to count in his mind. He couldn't lose control of his feelings in a time like that. Staraptor somehow managed to drop them in a dark spot of some kind of forest. The thick treetops made for them a great cover, but it wouldn't last forever.
Nathaniel didn’t know how far from the manor they had reached, for how long he had fainted or how long it took for his father to control the fire on the house and start the search for his runaway son. All information that could make the difference between life and death for them.
The only thing that he knew for sure was that he needed to start moving and do it quickly.
He took a deep breath and started putting things in order.
Nathaniel put Zorua in the ground with one last pet and picked up one of the red pokéballs on his belt releasing Growlithe. The pokémon quickly looked around searching for any danger. He stopped a moment when he saw Staraptor’s body, but didn’t long and finished his search turning to his trainer.
The boy knelt down and the fire pokémon sized up his wounds and licked the one in his knee. It wasn't the worst wound that they had seen by far, but the pokémon couldn’t help feeling bad for his trainer at every scratch or deep cut.
“It's okay, I’m fine.” Nathaniel said petting the pokémon that didn’t look impressed by his comment. “Come on, we need to take care of the body.” The boy continued, getting up.
He didn’t like it, but knew that any trace that they left behind was a track to his father’s men to follow direct to him and his pokémon. His best option here was to burn the body down and hide the ashes.
Normally it wouldn’t be good to try something like that in a closed forest like that one, but Growlithe knows how to control his flames. With a focused Flamethrower, the pokémon set fire on the body, maintaining the heat till there’s only ashes in the ground. The process didn’t last more than a few minutes, but the trio kept a close watch on the flames till it ended.
The ashes left a sour feeling in the boy's mouth, but he ignored it. He asked for his pokémon's help and the three of them dug the burned area, mixing soil and ashes until the evidence of the fire didn’t appear on the surface. It left a spot of soil without grass that was still suspicious, so they collected leaves around to cover it.
It wasn't perfect but would at least delay any search party that may pass there.
Nathaniel, then, took off his backpack, freeing himself of the weight against his aching body, and started to make an inventory of what they have.
First the food. He finds some canned, some protein bars and dehydrated fruits besides some berries and poké food in the bottom of the bag. It wasn't much and a part of it was smashed when they fell, but if they rationed they could make it last till they reach the next city. At least Nathaniel hoped so. He wasn't the biggest enjoyer of hunting.
The redhead placed a part of the poké food on the ground in front of the two pokémon that didn't wait to start eating. He got one of the protein bars for himself and continued his search on the bag.
A town map, an old paper pokédex, three potions (and two broken containers), five repels, water bottles, some clothes, hair dye, contact lens, money, his new documents and his binder with his mother contacts and the location for more money. His belt also carried four empty poké balls along with Zorua and Growlithe’s ones.
Good for a start.
The boy changed his dirty clothes and put on the contact lenses, covering his distinguished blue eyes. He also wanted to dye his hair as he knows pretty well how recognizable he is with his bright red hair showing. But he also knows that, no matter how many times he had trained with his mother, the result of him dying his hair in the middle of a dark forest without any way of seeing himself wouldn’t be good.
Without other choice he holded his discomfort and put a black cap on the head to cover at least a part of the notorious hair.
Finally, he checked his new identity. The boy in the ID photo was exactly like him, besides the dark hair. All the information was forged including the new name written below the picture.
‘Neil Josten’. He had chosen the name and, in a rebellious act, convinced the forger Mary contracted to put it on the document instead of the name his mother determined.
Names have power. And just by erasing his birth one of his mind he already started to feel better in his skin.
Neil sighed and turned to his pokémon. “Let’s Go.” He said letting Zorua climb on his shoulder and signaling Growlithe to follow him
“Auf!” “Barf!” The two pokémon cried happily and the group started to walk away.
They spent the next hours exploring the forest, searching for an exit. Neil tried to keep focused on the objective (leave the forest, hide, move as fast as he could from his father), but couldn't help losing track of time as they walked around admiring his surroundings.
Outside the dark spot where they wake, large trees make room for deep green clearings where the grass pokémon play and rest in the sun. Sentrets bounced around in the bushes. Different bug pokémon buzzed around or hung on the trees. Groups of flying type ones perched in the low branches observing the group pass by. At some point they find a stream full of happy Woopers swimming and playing around in the water.
Along their way the air was warm, but not suffocating. A light breeze drifts through them, ruffling the pokémon fur and alleviating the boy's cut burns. The smell of leaves, earth and fresh air cleared his senses from the smoke memories. Sun rays illuminated the forest with different shades of green creating a stunning picture. The terrain was mountainous and the trio found themselves going up and down several times along the way, but it only made the boy's lungs burn in the same good way as from when he used to escape to run around the surroundings of the Wesninski manor.
Neil kept his guard up, never fully relaxing, but he couldn’t hold the joyful feeling in his chest from growing. He couldn't remember a moment where he'd felt more free.
He could see the forest effects on his pokémon too. In the beginning, Growlithe had kept himself tight close to the redhead boy, his guard up at all moments. But as the hours passed by he just couldn't hold himself.
The fire pokémon would glare at the trees, sniff the grass as if the secret of life and death was hidden in it and bark randomly as he had never done before. He would pick fights with the wild pokémon too, coming back to his trainer with his chin up and tail wagging as he had just burned down Nathan himself and not a random Caterpie passing by.
Zorua didn't even try to control himself. He just jumped from his place on Neil’s shoulder at the first opportunity, starting to wander around. The fox pokémon transformed himself into different forest pokémon, scaring the death of them. He stopped to smell the flowers around, jumping from busch to busch till he almost was poisoned from a Vileplume spore attack, dodging at the last minute. In general, having the time of his short life.
Neil couldn't really complain as he completely understood the feeling of the pokémon. They never went so far from the mansion. Rationally, he knows that that forest wasn’t anything special. It couldn't be much different from other forests of the region and neither can the pokémon around.
But the atmosphere there was so different from what they were used to. It was grassy soft ground instead of old wood and cold concrete. Shiny and warm sun rays rather than the low artificial lights that illuminated the mansion at night. Refreshing shadows formed by the treetops and not intentionally dark rooms that make goosebumps run up his arms. And happy pokémon cries instead of screams.
It was so relaxing that it was hard to hold the will of staying in this moment forever. And it hurts because he knows that they can’t do it.
Neil continued to walk till something caught his attention. It was a rusty, decadent, but somehow still standing, metal sign covered in ivy. The writing was barely readable, but with some effort the boy managed to identify the half-erased ‘rt. 45’ printed on it..
He cheered up and took the town map in the bag. If the sign was right, then they were closer to Kanto, the neighboring east region, than the boy had thought earlier.
According to his map they can’t cross the regions directly from where they are as a large mountain blocks the land connection between them. Also, in the southernmost part of the region a large ocean bay interrupts the connection between route 29 in Johto and 27 in Kanto.
If at least he had a water or flying pokémon they could cruise the distance in less than a day, but as things are now they would need to cross the Deep Forest (as it is known) between the mountain and the bay.
He frowned at the thought. It wouldn’t be easy nor safe. Neil knew his pokémon were strong, they trained day and night for that, but the Deep Forest was known to be a hard challenge even for trainers with years of experience. The pokémon that inhabited there were territorial and aggressive, and the constant fights between them only made them stronger than normal.
Despite that, it was still they’re better option. Zorua still needed to develop his illusions tricks, but the few ones that he already learned could help them to pass unnoticed to the wild pokémon and Growlithe smokescreen could help them escape any unavoidable encounter.
Neil was deep in thoughts and planning. So deep that he didn’t notice when Zorua moved away to a close tree and started licking a yellow spot in it. The honey was sweet in his tongue and, lost in the taste, he couldn’t dodge when a huge punch came in his direction.
The redhead barely had the time to react when the pokémon was sent flying with a loud yelp in his direction. He catched the dark fox by instinct before it hit the grass and immediately darted in the opposite direction of the blow, town map stuffed into the bag without care. The angry roars of the large Ursaring running behind them only hastened his heartbeat propelling his legs.
Growlithe followed the run after launching a big cloud of smoke in the bear pokémon direction to slow its pace.
In the run he lost his track of direction, the large trees and dense bushes blocking his view of what it’s in front. That way Neil didn't notice the hidden cliff till the ground vanished from his feet. On the good side, they lost the Ursaring. On the bad side, they are falling again.
He saw Growlithe falling next to him and braced Zorua in his arms while they rolled down the hill. The rocks, roots and sticks hit his body creating new bruises, but, luckily, the cliff wasn't as high as it first looked like.
They landed in a clearing at the foot of the cliff, scaring some pokémon there that ran away.
“We need to stop doing that. There are better ways to go down a hill.” The boy said, sitting and rubbing the back of his neck.
Zorua whined looking at him with sorrowful eyes. “Hey! Don't worry too much, we’re fine, aren't we?.” The redhead said petting the pokémon.
“Bark!” Growlithe agreed with his head before shaking the dirt that got stuck on his fur along the fall.
Sure, Zorua could be more careful and the boy could hear and feel the spectrum of the screams and heavy hands of his mother correcting their reckless and carefree attitudes. But he doesn’t have in himself the force to correct the pokémon as he was taught to do.
Neil’s body was aching from the two falls and the long walk in the forest, but he forced himself to get up.
Right in front of the trio was another sign, this time clean and shiny new, with the written ‘rt. 46’.
Neil asked for the pokémon to keep the guard up this time as he took the completely crumpled, but still readable, map.
According to it, they still can reach the Deep Forest if they cross New Bark Town at east and turn north.
Neil frowned with the description of the city on the back of the map. He didn’t need to know the town to recognise it as a regular small city. Few houses, few people. Anything new was a big thing and anyone that arrives in the town became gossip. In other words, the worst place for a runaway.
The problem is, apparently, there’s no way back from route 46 to 45 besides climbing the hills, which they can’t do without proper equipment or some pokémon help. That means that they’re only path is through New Bark.
He sighed. And he was beginning to think he had at least a little luck.
“Zorua, it's time for your trick” Neil said, turning to the dark pokémon at his feet.
The dark pokémon cried seriously and closed his eyes concentrating. A dark aura surrounded him and the air around oscillated like a mirage.
Zorua, and its evolutionary counterpart Zoroark, are rare and skittish pokémon. That means that, besides all the conjectures and rumors around the dark pokémon, very little is truly known about them.
There are few reports of protective Zoroark and their packs, living harmonically with other pokémon, hidden from the curious trainer's eyes. And the same amount of tales of blood tasted lone pokémon that uses their tricks to lure unaware trainers to their deaths.
The consensus is that they are mysterious pokémon that can use different illusion tricks to hide and hunt.
While Zorua are shapeshifters that can transform itself into different types of people and pokémon, Zoroark can, furthermore, make elaborate illusions shaping not only their own form, but also its surroundings. Creating living dreams and nightmares. Changing routes and trails around to confuse stalkers. Making illusions so intricate that it seems solid reality. Everything in a blink of an eye.
In resume, highly powerful, elusive, cunning pokémon.
Actually, till now, no one, neither the responsibles, knew how a Zorua’s egg ended up mixed with the others in the smuggled cargo from the Unova region that was sent to the Wesninski manor a few years ago.
But it was there, looking exactly the same as the others. So, that Nathan remained completely oblivious to the golden gift that he had just given to his son till it was too late. Both trainer and pokémon quickly became inseparable and fought fangs and knives to remain that way.
So, for the ones that may be interested, here goes some true facts about Zorua.
They tend to live in small nuclear family packs where the youngers leave to find mates and start new packs.
These pokémon were hunted down multiple times throughout history for both greedy trainers and superstitious people. Because of that, they now tend to hide in the darkest forests of Unova, but some curious invidious still cross human paths when they leave to explore.
Normally, Zorua really can’t do other tricks besides transforming themselves. Learning to create and manipulate illusions is an ability as hard as to comprehend it. The power to make out immaterial things in reality and the concentration to maintain it are barriers that only Zoruaks can fully overcome.
That said, put a Zorua in a stressful environment, train it to exhaustion, threaten his trainer’s and his own life and, apparently, It can actually learn a trick or two.
That’s how Neil's Zorua, among other few tricks, learned how to change other people's appearance. Not the whole body as with his own form, but change a few features here and there and he could make a person unrecognisable.
It was a powerful trick back then, and it's an amazing tool now, but it needs to be used carefully. The main thing about illusions it's concentration, and breaking it at any point means that the illusion is as good as gone.
That means that, as powerful as it is, this trick was also a double-edged sword. If Zorua loses the illusion control in the middle of a city like New Bark, Nathan would be in their necks in a matter of hours.
It’s a risk that they can handle now. After all, all they need to do is cross the city unnoticed. Maybe buy a thing or two for the dangerous journey. It can’t be that hard, right?