THE VENGEFUL TEMPTRESS
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A Crossing With Tragedy

Andru reminded his flareon friend to stay back from the raging river and approached it himself, to fill his canteen and admire the falls and the moss-covered banks and the rocks breaking its flow.

The young 'fire brand' trainer knelt in the cool moss at the waters edge and filled his canteen, while looking at the closest rock. He noticed that is was barren of moss, apparently scraped bare recently.

The reason was obvious as he inspected the next rock between it and the bank opposite; someone had cleared a 'safe' crossing.

'Still too foolishly risky to try to cross,' Andru thought to himself, 'what with the high water.'

He was surprised that the chain of de-mossed stepping-stones appeared to be complete to the other side.

Looking near the far bank at the final rock in the chain, something caught his eye ~ movement and color.

It was a black and yellow poke`mon emerging from the foliage, which stood looking intently at him.

He froze instinctively so as not to scare the poke`mon away, realizing it was an umbreon.

As he watched, she(it did not appear to have male characteristics, but rather a fuller belly than was normal for a healthy male eeveerion form) parted her short yet slightly tapered muzzle and appeared to call; he could not hear anything over the sound of the surging waters.

Short seconds later he was aware of warmth on his left and was startled to realize that Searlok was beside him, watching the umbreon as well.

"Searlok! What are you doing so close to the water!?!" Andru gasped with dismay. "Please get back!"

It was as he pushed on the flareon's chest to get him away from the water, that something about his poke`mon caught his eye; Searlok's tail flames were flaring unusually and definitely had more of the milder yellow-hued licks of flame, especially about the tip of his tail.

His attention thus being drawn to the flareon's hindquarters, Andru noticed something else; the poke`mon was hung out at his sheath.

Dismayed at the circumstances of Searlok's infatuation, Andru realized he needed to make allowances to gain control of this sticky situation quickly ~ hopefully.

"You can have her," he told Searlok desperately, "but she must cross to you ~ you stay away from the water!"

Thoroughly engulfed in what he was feeling, Searlok tore his gaze from the object of his awakening and gave his trainer an apologetic look.

[Thank you for your permission, Andru,] he said pleasantly.

That look did not fit to the words, so as the flareon added, [And please forgive me for disobeying your wishes, just this once,] Andru lunged for his poke`mon's front legs.

But Searlok was mindful of his trainer's protectiveness and leaped spryly farther to the left, a tolerant look in his eye and a fond smile on his muzzle.

[I love you the more for trying to stop me, Andru,] he said truthfully, [but she will not have me unless I go to her. Please head back to the Poke`Center and allow me privacy for my moments with her.]

Shifting instinctively at seeing his trainer trying to move as discreetly as possible to grab hold of him, Searlok was willing to make personal allowances to gain his friend's complete approval. [However, if it is the cost of your allowing me to mate, to cross over to her without your interfering, I will not hold it against you if you stay and watch.]

Andru shook his head vehemently as he continued to inch closer, and Searlok assured him, [I shall not feel ashamed of my intimacies with her, just because you are watching. The less if your eyes are the only ones that behold us together.]

Andru was finally close enough to his poke`mon and slowly reached out his right hand to Searlok's right front leg, never tearing his fearfully worried gaze from his flareon's calmly accepting one.

Trusting in his friend's reasonableness and his love for him, Searlok did not try to escape the questing hand as it sought a firm hold on his ankle. [Please do not try to stop me,] the flareon beseeched him, [it will be a distraction and make my crossing more difficult and dangerous.]

He gently tried to pull his paw from his trainer's worried grip, but to no results in the form of an accepting release.

Resigned to withdrawing from Andru through other means than evasive force, he bent his neck, thereby lowering his head and licked Andru's hand tenderly. Then he ventured hopefully, [Promise me?]

The boy's eyes finally closed and he hung his head in defeat. He could not refuse Searlok when the flareon so rarely asked for assurance in the form of a promise.

"I--I do promise," Andru said with a hitch in his voice, withdrawing his hand from Searlok's ankle and held it up sideways, cupped.

Satisfied at this, Searlok growled in his throat happily and stuck his nose in the palm of Andru's hand, pressing the side of his muzzle against his trainer's fingers. Then the flareon curled his tongue, licked the heel of his friend's hand and said gratefully, [Thank you, Andru.]

[I am sure that someday you will fall as I have fallen,] he said confidently, tactfully backing away from his young master, nearing the first rock of his intended crossing.

Then Searlok once more turned his gaze intently upon the female umbreon and concluded distantly, [Then you will understand the importance of this feeling.]

The flareon's ears twitched and he studied what he could see of the umbreon's assumably desire ridden body as she faced him straight on from the opposite bank. She was still watching them and calling to him and he now answered her inviting cries with his own lustily deep mating howl.

Having staked his claim upon her vocally, he sprang to the first 'stepping stone'...and to the next...and to the next, pausing at each one to make eye contact and howl to her again.

He was invigorated and more aroused, as he got closer and she replied to each of his calls, her own becoming throatier.

Titillated at the realization that his maleness was slowly swelling in the cool, misty air of the falls, Searlok smiled crookedly to himself, pleased that he would be ready for her by the time he reached the far bank of the fifty-foot wide river.

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Andru, watching him progress with a fluttering heart, had to keep telling himself that he had promised...he had promised.

Never had he been so sorry to have made a promise close to the heart of one of his poke`mon, but he could not have refused and indeed had not done so.

With beam-in technology, nothing could be easier than to imprison his flareon and throw him over the river in his poke`ball(he had a good strong arm), or release Ariza his charizard and have her air lift him to the object of his momentary affections...but he was bound by his word.

He could understand Searlok's fears of falling in the estimation of the female umbreon if he hesitated or did not brave the river crossing to reach her and claim her, but he wished the 'mating game' could be played differently in this case.

He was not entirely sure that Searlok's pride was not involved and he hoped the flareon would be dutifully careful in his steps and hops, considering that his life, rather more than his sex life, was on the line...or quite literally 'on the rocks'.

And despite his promise, he stood ready to beam the flareon in, holding his poke`mon's poke`ball in his right hand and considered having Ariza's in his left. But he discarded the idea when he reasoned that she could only pick Searlok up from one of the stepping-stones, not pluck him from the roiling down flow of the river without very much risk to herself. The loss of one poke`mon would be a grievous blow, the loss of two in one day would crush him beyond healing to continue his Journey.

To his relief it was evident right away that despite his strong motivation to hurry, Searlok was playing it smart and safe, pausing to look at his target, howl and then judge his next leap or hop for several seconds, before making each with due caution in his movements.

When the flareon was three quarters of the way across the river, Andru saw him pause for a much longer time to judge the distance to the next rock before him.

The boy could not see Searlok's next 'step' because of the angle and the size of the rock the poke`mon was currently standing on.

A locking of gazes again for a moment, another lusty mating howl and Searlok seemed dismayed at the examination of the key to his way onwards.

As instinctively aroused as Andru knew Searlok must be, there could be little doubt the flareon was looking at a risky scenario, if he was given pause as to whether he wanted to go back.

The reality of the danger came home to Andru when the flareon turned his head to look at him for the first time since he started his crossing, looking defeated and forlorn.

"Please don't take a great risk, Searlok!" the boy shouted pleadingly to his poke`mon. "If it's iffy, nothing is worth the risk of your life!"

Searlok nodded despondently and turned for what Andru fancied was one last wistful look at the object of his naturally aroused passions.

'That's okay; one last look to resign yourself to the loss of the actual experience and to remember her lovely features by,' Andru told his disappointed flareon silently.

He realized with some mental discomfort that he could well expect Searlok to have an erotic dream that night and ejaculate in his sleep. It would be awkward for him and embarrassing for the flareon, he was sure. Maybe he could get him mated sometime this evening before....

His thoughts ceased as he saw the umbreon assume an intimately inviting pose under Searlok's desirous gaze.

'Oh Goddess, don't encourage him!' Andru thought with fearful dismay.

'His fire is just dying and his good sense is returning,' he went on silently, as he shifted his gaze to his flareon nervously, 'and he realizes he should--' "No!"

To his shocked horror he beheld Searlok tensing his muscled form to actually jump.

He held his breath as his flareon friend seemed to hesitate at his horrified shout, and then he knew that his cry might as well have fallen on deaf ears...as the flareon did jump.

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Searlok had paused for so long because he was looking at a small rounded rock, barely out of the river's ripping flow of water...and covered thoroughly with moss.

There was only one way it might be played; he could attempt to use the dangerous stone for a redirectional launch point, not resting his weight on it for more than a second.

But the reality of the situation, the impossibility of his succeeding, cooled his ardor so that he did not feel that the pleasure of any intimacies with the willing female umbreon could be worth the risk of losing his life ~ now or ever.

Disappointed, his coat of flames waning to its normal heat, hues and depth, he turned to look back at Andru mournfully, sheathing his now limply hanging maleness, mindful he had no immediate use for it.

His trainer called to him beseechingly, speaking words he was already resigned to the truth of, and he nodded agreeably, feeling quite depressed. He did not feel the least wounded in his pride.

Cringing inside, he decided to allow himself a final eyeful of the female who had been first to steal heart, but would not have the privilege of stealing his virginity.

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He would not live to regret that last look.
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Searlok peered across the painfully short distance between himself and his lost lover, feasting his amorous mind on every perfect strand of her healthy coat, the luscious curves of her tail, ears, muzzle and fore legs and the intently expectant quality of her gold-flecked, reddish brown eyes.

There was a certain bitter call that was to be given on a male's part to reject a female's proposition of sexual intimacies and he uttered it from his throat, tight with heart-rending disappointment, almost choking on it.

She appeared truly shocked to learn that the halting of his progress towards her was final, and reacted with an ardent, pleading yelp as she turned sideways in his view to display all of her beauteous form to him.

Quivering in her desirous, heated state, she stretched out her legs before her, pressing her chest to the ground and straightening her hind legs to thrust her rump upwards, calling invitingly to him again and again.

Then, with a modest bow of her head to awkwardly press her nose to the bit of earth between her front paws, she shyly curved her black, yellow striped, bushy tail, lowering it and pressing it to her side.

And for the final gesture, for the crowningly arousing touch, she called to him a call of submissive pleading, of unadulterated, needy passion, arching her neck and opening her muzzle wide to the clear sky.

Searlok's wide eyes fluttered closed and he moaned hoarsely in his throat, as he became aware of his maleness once more, and a fire he had already felt the sparks of, finally lit in each of his testicles.

The umbreon's pose was obvious in its meaning, but he even recognized her new call; where she had been willing before, she was saying she was ready for him, now.

He lost his sense of self-preservation ~ he needed her no matter the obstacles between them.

He looked down at the moss-covered rock again. The jump was easy now. If he hurried, he could be enjoying her love in less than ten seconds.

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Complete submersion could kill him in less than that. Indeed, he had less than that long to live.
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Going back to Andru and safety was the last thing on his mind as he jumped....

His front paws slipped, his lust died instantly, and he gave voice to a yelp of unbridled terror, which was cut off as his rear paws fell short of their intended target and his belly hit the rock squarely.

He was left with no breath to be stolen from him, as his momentum tumbled him forwards off of the rock and into the river.

He died six point seven seconds later, as he tried to take a half breath which pushed the water he had already gasped in, down the expulsion duct of his internal flame sac.

As his lifeless body was swept along, tumbling end over end beneath the river's surface, his expression was forever frozen ~ a twisted one of tortured, indescribable agony.

And his half-waned maleness waggled in the current passing between his legs, unsheathed still in what had been his eager readiness.

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Blinded by his instinctive urgency to mate, Searlok had given everything ~ including his virginity ~ to the cold, uncaring river.
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He did not hear a thing except the river, but his eyes told him that all he feared was proven true ~ Searlok did not reappear on the next rock in sight.

Heart racing, Andru rushed to the first rock in the chain on his side and raised Searlok's poke`ball in his hand. It was an impossible long shot, but he had to try beaming his flareon in.

Seven beam shots and no lock on the programmed containment signature ~ Searlok.

He sagged and hated himself for not standing there at the ready; he might have been able to beam Searlok in as he fell into the water. He already knew what regrets are, but this was the first to pierce his heart and numb him to his toes.

Sleepless guilt to that female umbreon, so lacking in self-control! If she had not been so open, so blatantly suggestive in her actions, he was sure Searlok would have returned to him.

His heart for the moment numb, Andru cast his gaze to the blameless cause of his loss, still in her mating crouch, pressed low to the moss of the bank opposite, perhaps shocked at the disastrous outcome of her mindless seduction.

He watched her for some seconds, at first with dazed intensity, but then with what quickly became a growing disbelief.

The cruel air of twisted, joyful triumph could not be mistaken as she rose from her mating crouch and skipped lightly to the river's bank, inspecting down its roiling flow for some glimpse of the doomed flareon.

Whether she was rewarded in this endeavor, Andru could not tell from his study of her posture and countenance.

But she was apparently sure her murderous goal had been attained, as indicated by her bushy tail's erecture and the pleasured flicking of its tip.

Further evidence came of her satisfaction in the results of her seduction, when she directed her gaze at the victim's trainer and her smile of cruel pleasure became a toothy, wicked grin.

Her air of brazen delightedness caused Andru to stare at her in horrified disbelief and his anger rose to overpower his blossoming grief, as she held his stare without flinching in the least...then stuck her tongue out at him.

Enraged at the gesture of contempt, he watched her as she whirled around with a fluid motion, looked back over her shoulder at him with a smirking muzzle and gave him a second contemptuous gesture to hold in his memory ~ a flourish of her bushy tail from one side of her hind quarters to the other.

"You killed him in cold blood as surely as if you had pushed him in yourself!" Andru charged her, screaming at her vehemently as she mounted the higher portion of the bank opposite with a graceful jump.

She paused in her casual departure and her ears twitched as he amended warningly, clenching his hands into fists and squeezing the tears of purest fury from his eyes; "I'll have my revenge on your body to the full value of his blood in my eyes and beyond!!!"

She turned with a maddened vocalization ~ as evidenced by the quick snap of her jaws ~ and met his scorching, vengeful gaze with one of calmly unaffected ice.

They stared for many seconds, two strong willed entities seeking a moral victory.

Finally, the female umbreon deigned to look away, very much in the manner as though she was bored ~ even disgusted ~ to behold him any more.

Losing his loose control over his up surging emotions, Andru spelled out the terms of his threat, without hesitation or the slightest trace of uncertainty: "Mark my words here and now, so when you're hanging from a tree on this very island by some part of your body you would much rather not be hanging by, you'll remember with painful clarity that I promised to have my revenge on your pretty little hide!"

He finished his threat with a wildly furious expression on his face, ranting in the fullest sense of the word: "Then I'll let you feel the truth in, the fulfillment of, my promise! And you won't have any trouble recalling, because it won't be long!"

The umbreon met his eyes with hers again and he judged she was sizing the seriousness of his threat up. The inspective quality of her gaze, giving its place to one of deadly intention almost immediately, led him to take pause in his wild anger.

Calming himself, aware he was probably in danger, Andru's hand went to the poke`ball that contained his female charizard.

It was very likely that gesture on his part, which decided the umbreon's reaction to his threat ~ she laid her glare on him and scared him instinctively stiff.

His mind clouded with his fear, Andru watched her open her mouth after giving him another evilly satisfied grin and form the pulse core of an attack he did not recognize, between her widely parted jaws.

If the attack was of an expansive nature, he knew in the back of his fearful mind that he was a prettily sitting psyduck ~ even at a distance of forty-five or so feet.

His will to live snapped him out of his terrorized shock just as she drew her head back and then thrust it forward, snapping her jaws shut, launching the concentrated power of the offensive move at him.

As the writhing spiral of assumably dark energy sped on its way directly toward him, he dived recklessly to his left, off of the first stepping stone down into the cover of his angle relative to her angle of attack.

Thinking clearly now, he realized she might be determined to kill him to destroy his vengeance and reached shakily for the same poke`ball he had wanted earlier.

He was badly bruised from his dive and realized at least two fingers of his right hand were broken as he tried to flex them and pluck his charizard's poke`ball from its friction clip.

Switching his effort to his left hand, he let out an agonized moan at the newfound pain in his right and tasted warm copper; he had split his lip open on a rock and would find out later that he had two cracked ribs, a broken nose and would develop a black eye before too long.

His face was already swelling terribly as he beamed out his charizard into the air high above.

"Water below, Ariza!" he shouted up to her as best he could, as she phased fully into real-time.

Ariza beat her wings steadily to maintain her position relative to the water below her, and saw him lying among the rocks thirty feet below her. She did not yet realize he was injured.

"Drive that umbreon away!" Andru commanded her with a wince as he tried to move. "Then return to me!"

The first was obviously unnecessary, as the charizard came directly to him after glancing around for the specified target she was supposed to hazard into fleeing for safety.

'Figures; she saw Ariza's phase signature and took to her bitchy heels,' he thought with what little satisfaction he felt like allowing himself, considering that few portions of his body were not numb or throbbing mightily. He got even less satisfaction at the derogatory term he had used, because she technically was and he had never in his life before, so felt like swearing.

Ariza landed on the rocks beside him, aghast at his condition.

"You can help me carefully up and then you must go after her, Ariza," Andru told his charizard firmly. He was silent for a moment then explained in a breathless whisper, "A female umbreon tried to kill me and she killed Searlok."

He reached out to her extended fore claws with his good hand and took a deep breath to steel himself.

"Okay, Ari," he told her bravely, "Pull me up gently."

She did, a tenderly compassionate expression on her long face, tears coming into her eyes.

He was unsure if they were for himself or Searlok, but trusted they were divided with just proportion.

When he was safely positioned on the mossy bank away from the water and the rocks where he had dived, gasping at the pains he felt all over his body, Ariza stood off from him, turned towards the far bank, looking back over her wings at him with an incensed, eager glint in her eye.

"Do you want to find her for me?" Andru asked her quietly.

She inclined her head slightly and grinned a wicked, toothy grin.

"None of that!" he charged her vehemently. "You find her, you corner her, you subdue her, but I swore to her that she was mine! Don't be surprised if she chickens out and tells you so. Not one claw in her or lick of flame upon her, unless in self-defense. Please?"

Reluctantly, but ever obedient, Ariza gave a submissive low and eyed him expectantly for a moment.

[I will not leave you, in your condition, until you call out company,] she informed him seriously, her expression keen with her concern for him.

Andru did not object, but gave her further instructions as he released his ponyta, Searle, and Singe his waxilea.

They were taken aback at his condition as Ariza had been and did not spare their attention from him as she took to the air and crossed the river, disappearing four seconds later into the palms.

Both of them were dutifully silent, after he had given them a clear 'details later' look.

Feeling woozy from his bloody nose and lip, Andru stood with Singe's willing support, and began to trudge back the way he had come, to the Poke`Center, without a backward glance at the Provezen River.

After he had scaled the slope of the river's bank, Searle neighed to him pleadingly and stepped in front of him, halting his slow, stumbling progress. [This is no time for pride, Andru. You should not even be moving, I am sure,] he said carefully.

Andru nodded dully, his thoughts elsewhere. "It is not pride," he corrected his caring poke`mon gently, "but a mindless, all consuming anger, a thought of meeting her again."

The ponyta and the waxilea exchanged glances, wondering who 'her' was, as their trainer announced tiredly, "I will gladly ride."

His mind on Searlok, he knew he needed two kinds of help as he mounted Searle with tender aid from his waxilea.

'Oh Goddess, make that three!' he thought with an outward groan at the breath-stealing, sharp pains in his chest and recalled that medical attention for himself was almost certainly going to be required by Nurse DeCandice.

Singe mounted Searle behind him and endeavored to make his ride more comfortable through various means, as the ponyta began to march slowly with exaggerated movements so as not to jostle his master any more than absolutely necessary.

Andru could not help taking comfort in the warm bulk of Searle below him, and the delicate steadying touch of Singe at his back ~ one of the parts of his body not too badly bruised or numbed in his damaging but life saving fall.

Though he doubtless had plenty of time, he held his grief inside and saved its outward display for later.

He dwelled instead on the favors he would ask of any willing trainers there might be at the Poke`Center, as soon as he reached it. Even at Searle's present, mindfully measured pace, he expected there would still be enough daylight left to begin Phase One of his plans.

And if there was not, someone at the Center would likely have a noctowl...

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[|}~{--}~{--}~{--}~{|] A reminder from the Author [|}~{--}~{--}~{--}~{|]

Comments? Am I missing anything serious? You know how to reach me...

Ere Van Skyl ~ A.K.A. The Phantasm