บท 13: The Wilds 5

All eyes in the cave turned on Dratini, one of which being gyarados which couldn't look harmells if it tried. This obviously made Dratini a bit skittish, as she curled up on herself and wearily looked at Magnus.

Seeing the Dragon-type's discomfort, Magnus said as gently as possible, "Don't worry we're not going to hurt you. I just wanted to thank you for pulling me out the water back there, if I was under any longer I would've had more problems than just watery lungs"

Listening to his words, Dratini slightly uncoiled and edged towards Magnus, but still shot timid glances at Gyarados.

Nipping the problem in the bud, Magnus called out to his pokemon, "Gyarados", Now with dratini wrapped around his arm he finished the sentence, "Do me a favour and look less scary"

Gyarados didn't quite understand what he meant, tilting his head sideward he confusedly looked at Feebas and Corvisquire for answers. Feebas just shook her head in exasperation and Corvisquire was equalled as confused as Gyarados, he seemed to think Gyarados was more cool than scary.

Which Magnus thought as well, but was smart enough to realise that not everyone would see it that way.

Running his hands down Dratini's slender - slightly malleable - body, he approached the confused Gyarados and said "See, Gyarados is just a big softie"

Gyarados inclined his head to take a closer look at Dratini, which initially frightened Dratini, making her recoil slightly and squeeze Magnus's arms even tighter. But once Dratini realised Gyarados wasn't going to do anything, she began to curiously probe his nose with a few pokes of the tail.

Gyarados blankly allowed it to happen, until a ticklish feeling began to build up in his sinus. The pressure quickly became unbearable and he quickly moved his head away from Magnus and Dratini. Not a moment later Gyarados made a loud sneezing sound and two jets of water that rivalled a water gun in power splashed off the cave's stony wall.

Magnus just deadpanned at the strange scene of Gyarados sneezing and banked it away in his memories in case anyone asked an obscure question about his pokemon's sneezes.

Refusing to let Dratini poke at Gyarados's nose, he curiously questioned "So, how did you end up here?"

Dratini as a species, were rarer than their fully evolved counterparts Dragonite. Mostly because Dragonite occasionally roam the skies, giving people the chance to see them from afar, while Dratini were normally kept hidden away in a secure location and protected by their elders.

So seeing one here is quite a surprise, since there weren't any dragonite sightings nearby - at least to Magnus's knowledge - it had probably been here for a while.

Dratini perked up at the question, forming a string of Dra's and Tini's to compile an answer. Magnus being a human and all, had fucking no fucking clue as to what dratini was saying so he had to call an interperator over to help.

"Corvisquire translate for me" he asked the bird.

Corvisquire landed in front of him and started to periodically squawk and jolt his wings about in a chaotic manner. Even though it was difficult Magnus managed to make a rough estimate on what was trying to be conveyed.

"Big battle, explosion, leave… Separate?" Magnus stuttered out possibilities until he formulated a sentence that appeased the two pokemon.

"So there was a big battle, some sort of attack separated you from your tribe and you've been here ever since" he stated, causing Corisquire to nod and Dratini to wiggle happily on his arm.

Magnus began to wonder what happened to throw Dratini into this situation. The dragonite were probably migrating to a different location - they do that sometimes - and when they were passing here, they ended up fighting someone, or something.

But what could even fight with a group packing that much power? There were definitely, at the very least 2 dragonites backed up by an inestimable number of dragonair. Magnus roughly guessed that it was a group of trainers that got too greedy and attempted to capture the dragons.

Pulling out his Pokedex, Magnus scans Dratini.

'Dratini, the dragon pokemon. Dratini is called the 'Mirage Pokemon' because so few have seen it. This Dratini knows the moves: Leer, Wrap, Twister, Thunder Wave, Dragon Tail, Agility, Slam, Dragon Dance, Dragon Rush and Extreme Speed' the pokedex's voice commented.

Both of Magnus's eyebrows raised at the crazy moves Dratini knows. With attacks like that, he wouldn't be surprised if both of his parents were Dragonite. It also begged the question why he never tried to leave here, Basculegion is fast but he doubts it would keep up with dratini using Extreme Speed.

"Hey girl, is there a reason why you stick around here?" Magnus asked while he clapped here head comfortingly. Corvisquire helped Magnus out again and they found out she was actually waiting for her parents to come and find her.

It's a bit heartbreaking honestly, Dratini's been waiting here for a while and her parents were a no show. Magnus wondered if he should break they news to her, that most likely they aren't coming.

After explaining her reason for waiting, Dratini ended up looking a little downcast. Watching as Dratini huffed a misty sigh and sank her body further into the collar of his wet t-shirt.

Taking a deep breath, Magnus decides to just go for it and rip the bandaid off as quickly and cleanly as possible.

Putting on his gentlest voice possible Magnus breaks the news to Dratini, "Dratini, I… Don't think your parents are coming back… I'm sorry" While it wasn't the best idea to tell her such sensitive information when he's well inside the danger zone if Dratini freaks out and attacks. He still said it anyway, Magnus could somewhat sympathise with Dratini being abandoned, being an orphan himself. So after he said those words, he caressed Dratini lovingly, in hopes she would stay calm.

Dratini's coiling immediately froze, slowly she slid her head out from under Magnus's t-shirt to give view to two cloudy black orbs.

"Dra?.." she deplorably squeezed out, looking up with sad eyes at Magnus. Before the water works could hit, Magnus brought her into a hug and rubbed her spine as Dratini rested her head over his shoulder.

Magnus, Corvisquire, Feebas and even Gyarados could feel the raw, unfettered emotion spewing for Dratini at his moment.

Her pain, her sadness, her loneliness.

It was all released from its self imposed shackles and came out in the form of the pitiful tears of the young dragon. She likely already knew they wouldn't be coming back, but still she held onto hope with her child-like faith and trust in her parents.

Magnus felt something in his heart chip away as he callously watched and heard the grief of dratini. Whatever he went through as a child was nothing compared to what dratini was going through right now.

While he has next to zero memories of his parents, Dratini's mind was full of them, and made the loss hit just that bit harder.

Magnus told himself that what he did was right, that Dratini couldn't just waste away her days waiting for something that might never come. But now, he wasn't so sure.

The tears lasted for a while, each pokemon gave their condolences in hope that Dratini could move on, but something like this couldn't be glossed over in such a short amount of time. It did however pull her out of the slump, for however short a time that may be.

Still coiled around Magnus, the trainer asked Dratini, "Do you want to come with us?" He was aware that it might be insensitive to ask that just now, but he thought that something to keep her mind off it would do her some good.

"We'll explore the cave a bit, If I'm not wrong we should be inside wellspring cave. If we explore, we might be able to find some stuff worth selling, maybe even another pokemon or two." Magnus explained to everyone, and they had no problem with it. All that was left was for Dratini to decide if she'll come or not.

Tightening her grip around Magnus, she let in a small "Dra" and rested her head on his shoulder.

Taking that as a yes, Magnus and the team disappeared into Wellspring Cave, apart from Gyarados who was too big to fit.