Chapter Text
It had been a couple days since they set out on their journey towards the town with the guild. Lux wasn’t sure how they would get answers from there, but it was better to try than to sit around doing nothing. The couple dungeons they went through so far weren’t too bad, and Lux was glad they did some practice in the dungeons close to the village. They would’ve done worse in these other dungeons otherwise, still getting a handle on their abilities.
Night had fallen and the group set up camp in a small clearing. Aiden was busy getting a fire going, the spots on his head and back temporarily spouting flames as he lit up the fire pit in the center. Naida was nearby, carefully putting together their beds for the night and patting them down with her flippers.
Lux could only float nearby and watch them work, not knowing what to do. The shifter sighed and lightly tugged at the band tied around their arm, a gift from the siblings’ mothers before they all left. “Something to keep you safe,” they said.
They knew the two siblings were more than happy to join them, but they still couldn’t help but feel guilty. The village was so nice and peaceful, and who knew what dangers lurked out here? Lux remembered before they left about a warning from a traveling pokemon, about a group of thieves that might be in the area. They’ve been safe and careful so far, but did they pass by yet? Were they really going to be safe once they get through the mountain pass the elder mentioned?
“Lux!”
Lux flinched, their form changing slightly before turning solid again. The brionne was looking at them, lightly patting the bed underneath her with a flipper. “Come on, you need some sleep! Aiden said he’d take the first watch.”
The shifter glanced over to see the quilava sitting by the fire pit, who looked back at them with a smirk and a nod. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”
Naida settled down on her bed, curling up into a ball and sighing. Lux shook their head. They knew they shouldn’t worry too much about things, but everything was still so new and jarring, they-
Something fell over Lux’s head and covered their whole body, suddenly jerking them to the ground harshly. They yelped at the impact, immediately struggling against whatever was on them.
“Lux!”
They heard the siblings call out to them, and they finally took in what was happening.
A group of pokemon were slowly appearing, surrounding the campsite. Lux looked up to see one of the pokemon above them, an ariados. Web. That’s what Lux was trapped in, the ariados formed a net with their webs and used it to capture them.
“If you kids don’t mind, we’re taking this one with us!”
Lux looked over and saw a flareon step into the campsite, his fur was matted and a large cloth wrapped around his middle. They glanced around to notice some of the other pokemon were fire types as well. They were completely surrounded and outnumbered.
“We’re not going to let you!” Naida yelled, her brother taking a stance next to her but facing the other way to glare at the rest of the group.
The flareon laughed. “And what’re you going to do about it, huh? Just be good children and do as you’re told.”
“Screw you!” Aiden shot back immediately.
The flareon snorted and took another step forward. “You should learn to respect-”
A large, sudden water jet shot out from the bushes nearby, hitting the flareon in his side and sending him flying just past one of the group members. Everyone in the campsite froze up in confusion.
Lux flinched as something large landed over them, large legs towered them on all sides, and another water jet sprung forth, hitting a couple more of the fire pokemon surrounding the area. Naida and Aiden were quick to jump into action; the brionne attacking the other pokemon and the quilava sending a burst of flames straight towards the ariados to send the pokemon running.
The group tried their best to fight back, and Lazarus-the elder!- stepped forth and moved faster than Lux had seen him move before. He headbutted pokemon that tried to attack his companions, and he bit into the leg of a houndour and threw them aside like they weighed nothing. Lux watched with wide eyes at the sight before them. They were told that the elder had his battles back in the day, but never did they think the old kind soft spoken pokemon was this brutal and quick in a fight.
Once their attackers finally all fled, Aiden began to carefully bite and burn parts of the web holding Lux. “Holdth on, i goth thish!” He mumbled out.
“Elder, why- I mean, thank you so much!” Naida bowed towards the araquanid. “That could’ve ended badly, they were so many and they already had Lux and-”
“Yes, child, I saw.” Lazarus interrupted, stepping over to help take off the remaining web off the shifter.
Lux floated up in the air and shuddered, patting down their body. “Thank you, that…that was surprising.”
“That was awesome!” Aiden propped up on his back legs and grinned. “They came out of nowhere, but then you came out of nowhere and-”
“Children.”
Both of the siblings went quiet, and Naida stepped over to line up next to her companions.
“I was worried about you all, this is your first adventure on your own, after all.” Lazarus continued. “Not to mention we had heard about that group before you left, so I was even more worried. I decided to follow you until you got to the Red Mountain Pass. Beyond there, the guild should have reached the area and would be able to help you out in such a bind. And there aren’t as many open areas as this. Our village is small and not too close to other places, so there’s plenty of areas around here where such bad pokemon take to hide. I’m just glad I was here and I was able to help.”
“So are we, elder,” Lux bowed their head a little. “Thank you.”
“You should especially be careful, Lux.” The shifter lifted their head back up. “You’re more unique than you think, I believe. There’s a reason why they tried to steal you away. Take it as a warning for the future; this won’t be the last time this happens.”
Lux floated down a bit lower to the ground and gulped. Being kidnapped for any reason was something they never considered to happen, but it only made sense. They nodded and fidgeted nervously. “I understand,” they mumbled.
“We’ll be more careful too, elder!” Naida piped up.
“Yeah, we’ll protect Lux better next time!” Aiden agreed.
The brionne and the quilava got closer to the shifter, wrapping their front limbs around Lux protectively. Lux couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Thanks guys, I feel safer already.”
Lazarus laughed at the sight. “Good, that’s what I wanted to hear. I will accompany you all to the mountain pass tomorrow, but for tonight, all of you sleep. You will all need your energy for tomorrow and the trek onwards.”
“But-!” The siblings said in unison.
“No. It’s fine, I can keep watch all night on my own, don’t worry.” The elder turned and walked over by the camp fire, carefully lowering himself to the ground.
Aiden and Naida let go of Lux and all three of them went to their beds.The siblings were quick to go to sleep, but the shifter had a lot on their mind. Those thieves saw that they were unique and tried to steal them away. For profit, most likely. Lux had been lucky so far honestly, the village pokemon took them in with no real issues. How would other pokemon react to them? Would they actually get help? Would other pokemon shun them away because of how different Lux was? Would they also try to take them away from the siblings?
The shifter sighed and closed their eyes. They wouldn’t know what could happen and worrying about it wasn’t doing them any good. They could only sleep and hope that things went better from now on.