"Damn it! I was so focused on pokémon around us that I didn't realize there could be something underneath us." Lazarus curses while still holding onto his Aurora, "I'm sorry, Aurora. This shouldn't have happened. I talked about protecting you all, but hours later, this happens. I failed you."
Aurora looks at him and shakes her head.
Lazarus still senses fear from her, it is greatly reduced, but some of it is still lingers. She lets him know that it wasn't his fault and she doesn't blame him.
Lazarus sighs, "I am the one who's supposed to be comforting you, not the other way around. But I am going to make sure this doesn't happen again."
He lifts her to his face and kisses her forehead, "I am going to secure this place. Okay. Do you want to go inside the pokeball? I'll bring you out during dinner in a few hours. How about that?"
Aurora thinks about it and shakes her head. Sure, it might be safe inside the pokeball, but she wants to be brave for her family. They will worry too much if she isn't around, so she would rather be outside with her siblings. And besides, she also needs to thank them. They saved her from the most dangerous situation she has ever been in. This incident today makes her understands exactly what Lazarus meant when he said that the family would protect each other.
"Alright then. I'll leave you with Eidolon. He is also pretty worried about you." Lazarus says. Eidolon has been floating around Lazarus, asking endless questions about her health.
Lazarus turns to him and says, "I am proud of you, Eidolon. You fulfilled your responsibility perfectly. Without you, I fear what might have happened to Aurora. Thank you for saving her."
Eidolon shakes his head. No thanks needed, he only did what felt right.
Aurora can also feel Eidolon's anxiety about her. She reaches her paw towards the floating pokémon and beckons him towards her.
Eidolon approaches her excitedly. She pats him and rubs her cheeks against his steel body.
"Oh, and congrats on learning Levitation. The timing couldn't be more perfect."
Aurora's ear perk up when she hears him mention levitation. The lingering fear of danger has all but vanished. She remembers crystal clear what Lazarus said about Eidolon being able to help her fly.
She looks at Eidolon and then Lazarus and gives him a toothy grin.
Lazarus smiles. Happy to see Aurora back to her cheerful self, "Well... He still needs to practice the move, but I suppose he should be able to float you a little bit, not too high though, I don't want you to fall."
Kamish comes flying towards them and wraps his body around Aurora, his eyes are watery. He almost lost his sister, so he doesn't wanna let go.
"Where is Sol?" Lazarus looks around and finds Sol angrily staring at the burning corpse of the Ekans.
"Sol." Lazarus puts Aurora and Kamish down and approaches Sol.
The fire pokémon doesn't hear him, still seething at the dead pokémon.
"Sol?" Lazarus calls out again.
He carefully approaches him and lightly taps him on the shoulder.
The tap startles Sol, and instinctively, as a defense mechanism, his entire body erupts into flame.
Luckily, Lazarus knew this might happen, so he is able to remove his hand away from the Chimchar in time.
Sol realizes what just happened and looks at his trainer with guilty eyes.
"Are you alright, Sol?" Lazarus kneels down to him and cups Sol's face with both his palms.
Sol guiltily looks away.
"Hey. It's okay. I'm not hurt, look." Lazarus shows him his unburnt hands, "You did good. You protected Aurora, and I couldn't be prouder. But your job isn't done yet. You and I still need to secure this place. We are going to burn all the nearby grass and check to see if there are any more burrows. Make sure no other pokémon attacks any of us again. So, what do you say, wanna help me?"
Sol nods with determination. He is proud to have been able to contribute to protecting Aurora. And making sure no one else gets hurt again is something he very much wants to make sure.
"Great!" Lazarus smiles, "I'll get the shovel from the Cruiser. You go and join the rest of the team."
Sol nods and walks towards Aurora and the rest.
Aurora sees Sol approach and yips at him cheerfully, she sprints towards Sol and tackle hugs him to the ground.
Sol laughs as Aurora licks his face.
---
By the time Lazarus and Sol are done securing the area, it's almost sun down. They cleared out a fifty-meter area for themselves. The lush green grass that was dominating the ground has fully been cleared out. The Ekans is buried inside its own burrow after they smoked it to make sure no one else was inside.
Lazarus hammers in last of the tent pegs in place. The tent is in the middle of the fifty-meter area, right next to the cruiser.
His pokémon are playing not far away from the tent. Aurora finally got her wish of flying like her sibs. Eidolon makes her float in the air. She is barely a meter above the ground, but she is still very happy.
"Come on, guys. It's going to be dark soon. I need you guys near me now." Lazarus says to all his pokémon.
There are drones in the sky that will detect any pokémon getting too close to them. The campfire will also deter most pokémon from getting too close.
"Sol, light the campfire." Lazarus says as his pokémon take seats in front of the campfire, "And let me know if any of you want to spent the night inside the pokeball instead."
Sol lights the campfire. The yellow flame of the fire blends nicely with the orange sunset in the horizon.
Lazarus pulls out a portable chair and a table and places them near the camp.
"It's our first night here, so I am a little worried, but there shouldn't be any problem. But we still need to be vigilant. Eidolon, from time to time, I want you to do a psychic sweep around us, search for any new mental signature around and alert us if you find anything."
Eidolon nods and does a psychic sweep. His range covers almost all of the area they cleared up today. Beyond the signature of his trainer and his teammates, he doesn't sense anyone new. So, all is good for now.
"Alright, so, are you guys hungry?" Lazarus says. He gets an enthusiastic yes as the answer.
They have nutrient packs in the cruiser, but since it is their first day here, Lazarus decides to open up some of the meat packs. Lazarus, Kamish, Sol, and Aurora can eat meat, but Eidolon requires a special diet consisting of either minerals or supplements. He can eat normal food too, but if he wants to grow, then he needs to consume minerals.
Under the starry sky, they eat their food listening to the silence of the night. Sound of pokémon can be heard from time to time. Birds flying overhead, small Kricketots flying around.
After they are done eating food, they put the chair and the table back in the cruiser and huddle together around the campfire. Lazarus tells them stories of his childhood and about the world in general.
"Legendary pokémon are pretty mysterious. They don't really communicate with humans or other pokémon all that much, but when they do, the world always goes through some kind of change. And the power they have is beyond reason, they are all gods among men, immortal forces of nature.
Most people think the reason they are so powerful is that they were all created by Arceus for a reason, but there is no way to confirm that so we don't really know if that is true or not, but some have been confirmed to have played a major part in the development of the world as we know it. Like millions of years ago, Groudon and Kyogre created the land and the oceans of the planet."
Eidolon is surprised, he has never seen an ocean, but he has a fair idea of how big they are. He is fascinated by these two pokemon and wants to know more about them.
"We don't know much about them, but local Hoenn myths claim that both of them hate each other and every time they wake up from their sleep, they fight each other, and the destruction they cause is apocalyptic, and in those legends Rayquaza puts a stop to their fighting. It is also claimed that the last time they fought was a few thousand years ago. They have both been hibernating since then."
Eidolon is curious about Rayquaza, and asks Lazarus about him.
"Hmm. I have never seen him in person, barely anyone has, but anyone you ask will tell you that Rayquaza is the most glorious and majestic pokémon in existence. He protects the earth from falling meteors and when he is not cruising in space, he hibernates at Sky Pillar of Hoenn, it's a kilometer-long tower in the middle of an ocean. No one knows who created it but it is one of the oldest and the biggest building in the world, though some do say that it was created by another legendary pokémon called Regigigas."
Kamish is fascinated and asks if there is any pokémon more powerful than Rayquaza.
Lazarus shakes his head, "Not that we know of. Well... our country has myths about pokémon who are even more powerful than him, Dialga and Palkia, the lords of time and space, but no one has ever been able to confirm if they exist or not. So I don't know."
The pokémon feel their world expand listening to these stories, they soon go to sleep, wondering if they will ever get to see one of these pokémon.