Saffire Persian
Feline of Light and Shadow
- 140
- Posts
- 18
- Years
- Age 36
- Utah
- Seen Nov 7, 2011
For the one-shot fanfiction prompt challenge.
Rating: PG
Prompt #1: Rain
All You WantedRating: PG
Prompt #1: Rain
By: Saffire Persian
At first, all you had wanted was freedom.
The human that had forcibly taken it away didn't deserve your loyalty. You would not submit. He wasn't an Alpha: he was a weakling, a little fool, not one of your kind. How dare he try to control you, subject you to such humiliation! You were more powerful than he would ever be. You weren't one of those tame ones who conceded to being pawns in the humans' silly games. You didn't belong here. No, you belonged out there.
He used you, day in and day out. It was only your pride as a wild pokémon that kept you fighting. You fought because that was the law of the wild—it was the only way to get stronger and gain rank—not for him. You also fought because you knew that one day you would break out of the invisible chains that bound you, and you could not afford to be weak.
It didn't matter how long it took. Be it days, months, years—you would find your freedom again.
*
You found it.
The human was a fool, a stupid little fool. You had bided your time, waited for the right moment. You were patient. He trusted you, he underestimated you, he thought he had tamed you. Let him trust, you had thought back then. Trust makes you stupid. You fought his battles for him. You won many times, but winning was nothing. You also lost many times, but you never lost your identity or your pride.
Trust makes you stupid.
Trust made him stupid.
Little fool, little fool. Look at me now, little fool! Look at me!
He had let you out of that hellish contraption. He had been releasing you from the ball more as time had gone on. You never ran when he did. Oh no, you were good. You tried running before, just after he caught you, but it was no use while he was there. That red beam would just catch your legs and pull you back in. But now things were different. He said, Watch, Ai. You were in the desert. He hoped to find some rare pokémon. I'll be right back. A female human tag-along wanted to talk with him. Alone.
He left that thing in his hurry. That red and white sphere that was your prison. Despicable thing. You hated it.
But now that he had left it (little fool, little fool!) you knew you were free.
Free!
*
Next, you wanted assurance.
You desired it because you never wanted to be a human's plaything again; never wanted to be stuck inside that place where the few things you treasured were taken away, leaving you trapped and alone in the dark. You ran through the desert, the hated thing in your jaws as the sun shone down. Hated thing. Despicable thing. Emblem of my shame. But the little fool couldn't be left with it. He might find you again. He was young, but he was crafty. He used tricks, dishonorable tricks.
Sly little fool.
But you, you were better than that. You were smarter than he. Smarter than all of them. You would find a way.
*
You found it.
It was because you remembered what one of the tame ones said. An Eevee, stupid little creature, object of everyone's eyes. They all said she was the best, the one with the most potential, the most rare. That's why many people had tried to steal her, spirit her away, but they couldn't. You remembered when a little human had tried to take her, throwing one of those balls at her. It hit her, but it wouldn't work. It bounced off her body and clattered to the ground, useless. Later, you asked the Eevee why. She said that the device wouldn't work because she was already owned. They'd have to take the ball or destroy it to catch her, but the sly fool always kept hers with him, and he guarded it savagely.
But he didn't have yours, not anymore. You had it. Your freedom was in your jaws. He had made a mistake.
You wouldn't destroy it. Oh no, no matter how much you despised it, you wouldn't. You could crush it with your teeth, you knew you could, but then you could be captured again. Instead, this thing that had once taken you away from your home would now keep you free.
You knew things about this desert. You had always heard the tame ones talk about this place, just like many of your elders who had wandered the land for years upon years had. Not many humans came here. The terrain was harsh and always changing. The frequent sandstorms were a testament to that; they burned your eyes and wore away the thin skin around your face where the fur didn't quite cover as thickly until it was raw. And the sun—the sun and its heat… but you were resilient. For a human, such living conditions would be unbearable after too long. So you would hide it here and bury it deep, deep beneath the sand. No one would be able to find it. Not even a sly fool.
For the first time in many months, you smiled.
Free!
*
After that, you wanted food.
The desert was as desolate as a graveyard of bones, but your stomach was as alive and well as a herd of rampaging beasts. You had to find food. You needed something to add to your frame and make you alive—truly alive—again. Now that you were free, you could hunt. No longer did you have to rely on handouts from a human that tasted like dirt to stay living. Your nose was keen, and you wandered for miles and miles beneath the sweltering sun and under the cool moonlight, but all you could smell was the rusty scent of sand.
But you were a survivor, you were a predator; you had gone through times of harsh weather and famine. You would survive. You would find prey, somehow, somewhere, and satisfy the angry thing inside you.
*
You found it.
Even the inhabitants of the desert could not hide from you. The deep, gnawing pains in your stomach were relentless and unforgiving, but you kept your head, searching, always searching. Then you smelled it—this aroma. It was sweet, intoxicating. You wanted it, and you would have it.
You followed the distinct trail through the sand, golden eyes gleaming in the moonlit darkness, enjoying the quaint, gentle breeze that had brought this strange, exciting, foreign scent to you. As you quietly padded up a hill of sand, you spotted it—this quaint, strange creature with black eyes and prickly green skin. It looked inedible, this prey, but the smell—it could not lie.
Then, you ran, a blemish of black upon the night.
The strange plant-animal turned and squealed. It had not been expecting someone like you. You tackled it, bowling it over in your adrenaline-filled frenzy. The scent was overwhelming; it was driving you mad. You wanted to tear the pokémon into little tiny pieces, but it wasn't going to go down without a fight.
It screamed, screeched, and shrieked.
Its hands and body were covered with needles that were hard and more like spikes. They hurt, they stung, they pieced deep into your flesh as it flailed its club-hands, but you were stronger. Its flesh was thorny, but tender and soft where the needles didn't cover. Your fangs pierced it so easily; it was like cutting through the throat of a fish.
Soon it gave in, surrendered, and died.
Free!
*
Now, all you wanted was water.
Water, that's all. Even the constant growling in your stomach due to the scarcity of food was nothing compared to this. Your throat burned, as dry and raw as the wilderness around you. Your tongue was rough and dry as it lolled out of your mouth as the sun took its vengeance. No matter how far you wandered, the scenery never changed: blue sky and sand, sand, sand. The strange prey you had found had quenched the hurt in your throat a little at first—and that had been days ago—but it had never satiated that greedy desire that now was a constant part of you, like your shadow.
You could feel the strength in your legs becoming weaker every hour
after hour
after hour
but the need kept growing.
Still, no matter how dizzy or lightheaded you felt, no matter how much your legs didn't want to move, you kept walking, going wherever your body led you, sniffing the stale air continually for the scent of water, because you could no longer trust your failing eyes. You would find it, even if it was the last thing you did.
*
You found it!
Your legs trembled and shook with exhaustion, but no matter. You had finally found it, the water.
You had been walk-dreaming, remembering how things used to be before that human (little fool, little fool, look at me now!) caught you, when you suddenly thought you saw him marching up a hill of sand with his little army of tame ones. You froze. He called your name.
Ai Ai Ai Ai Ai Ai!
But wild creatures like you had no need of names; you were you and they were they. All you ever needed to know was your place within the pack, and if your rank had no name, then you were nothing.
Ai Ai Ai!
You immediately began to run, paws flying across the sun-heated sand even as your muscles cried out in protest, heart thumping, chest heaving, legs burning.
Then you heard the Eevee's voice. You looked back behind you, never losing speed. The fox's face was twisted in a savage, half-laughing snarl, leading the fray because she is the chosen one. There was something familiar in her mouth.
No, no, no! your thoughts screamed.
Look! she taunted back. Her form seemed monstrously bigger and more human. Look! Recognize it? It's yours, not mine.
Tricks! you snarled, because you knew that it couldn't be true. You hid it deep beneath the sand. It's lost to the elements now.
But still she insisted, and no matter how fast you ran, her voice and his voice always seemed to be right behind you. It was only when a sandstorm howled into existence that they went away, their bodies being torn apart by the grainy veil until they were nothing, their voices lost to the swirling winds.
You fainted.
When you woke up again, the sandstorm was gone. So were they.
Your body ached. And for the first time, you found that you didn't want to move at all. It took a long time for you to pull yourself up from your resting place, legs quivering. You didn't want to be in this place. He might still be near, and you needed to find water (that was all you wanted). So you walked. Your pace was slow, but you didn't care. The terrain swam and darted about you and played havoc with your vision, but you ignored it. You had to keep moving. One paw after another.
You didn't know how long you had walking.
You didn't know how long you had been dreaming of the times when there had still been grass under your feet.
But somehow, you knew something was different.
It was only when you raised your head to look up at the sky that you saw them.
Black clouds.
Large, thick clouds with their bellies full and bursting with water. Above you.
Water!
Water.
Your legs shook. Your whole body convulsed with an excited, eager tremor.
You had finally found it!
You had been wishing for it for days and days and days.
And now—
A low chuckle burst from your raspy throat.
Look at me now, little fool. Look at me now!
Your chuckle turned into a frenzied laugh. Your legs buckled and gave way from underneath you--and you knew, somehow, that you wouldn't be able to get up again—but still, you laughed until the very air seemed to echo the sound. You couldn't help it.
The clouds drew closer.
Plip.
Your laughs began to quiet. It was coming.
Plop.
Your eyes closed. It was falling faster.
Plip.
Your breathing slowed to a quiet hiss.
Shhhhhiiiiiissssshhhhhhhhhhhhh
You were free.
Last edited:
