The Fire in Their Eyes

Chapter 5

          And then she heard it. The pounding of a hundred hooves. A brown river beelined straight toward them from the distance. A stream of horns and whipping tails and muted bellows. Dust rose from either side. The sound of stone beating against stone. Hrruuummmm! Hrooooommmmm!

The bellows trembled beneath her feet, traveled up her legs, shook her very core.

"Climb the trees!" she shouted.

"No time!" Blanche argued. "A measly tree trunk won't stop them."

Candela watched as the herd of Tauros made their way through the forest, not even bothering to jump over or dodge the rocks and trees. They rammed straight through them. They didn't even slow. Rock shards and wooden splinters littered the path.

Spark clapped his hands together. "I know! If we show them we're friends, they won't kill us!"

Candela exclaimed, "Are you out of your mind?"

"What? Maybe they got spooked and all they need is some gentle reassurance. You with me, Quill?"

Jolteon zipped into the bushes and disappeared.

"Hey, don't bail out on me now!"

Candela clenched her fists. A bead of sweat trickled down her neck. This was no time for talking!

She turned to Victreebel, but before she could do anything, Blanche cried, "Dewgong! Ice beam!"

Finally, some action!

She waited.

But, strangely, the attack didn't come. The Tauros weren't slowing. They hadn't even been hit. She spun around, her jaw gaping in disbelief.

"What the--"

A wall of shimmering ice stood tall behind her. She saw her own startled face a hundred times in the shards, peering out at her, reflected by the dozens against the mirrors.

Candela touched the barrier. It held firm, the coldness nipping her fingers.

Then she kicked it.

"Hey! I know you can hear me! You'd better let me in there!"

No answer. She pounded on it with both fists.

The Tauros were closer now, much closer. She could hear their braying, see their wildly rolling eyes. She grit her teeth. Guess it's up to me now.

"Victreebel, Charmeleon, use leaf storm and flamethrower. Don't hold back!"

"Vi!"

"Char."

She flung up two more Pokeballs. "Flareon, join him with your flamethrower. Shoot it out as far as you can. Gengar, double team! Distract those Tauros and lead them away from us!"

"Flare!"

"Gen!"

Bursts of red-hot flame rushed out. They blasted forth in crackling torrents, meeting the Tauros head-on. Victreebel's howling gales fanned them even bigger, blooming angrily in burning red blossoms. Needle-sharp leaves burrowed themselves into the Tauros's pelts, as swift as rain, nearly too fast to see.

And yet...

they...

didn't stop....