When we were sure the spider hadn't followed after us we stopped. Chico set the cacoon, that held the captive houndour, down gently. "Guys, this is bad, if the poison dosn't kill him first i don't know what our masters will think if we bring in this stray. especially with all the bad things his kind are doing around here." Chico said practically hyperventelating.
"Calm down, why don't you use natural gift to clense him of the poison?" I asked.
"I don't have the abillity to do that big of a job, that ariados put enough venom in him to turn his insides into mush within the next hour if we don't get an antidote." She looked down cursing herself for being so weak. Tyler looked at the both of us, angrily he burst out.
"Did we save him for nothing?" he slapped both of us on the forehead. "Get your acts together, we need to get him to the masters, their human should have enough if theirs consequences so be it, but standing around here yapping won't save him." I was surprised at the amount of passion in his voice. You would think the wolf was his brother or something. We both just staired surprised at him for a minute. "What? Pick him up and lets go. Were not five, ten miutes tops from the den." Snapping out of our shocked looks i picked up one end and Chico picked up the other and we hauled butt to the den. We had to stop for a minute when the Houndar started the shake and move, the venom had started doing damage and eating away at him, we didn't have much time. In 5 minutes we could see the house, crows had started to following us as the smell of rotten flesh started to fill the air. once in the house we called for our masters.
Hydro was the first to show himself.
"What is it, whats the matter." He looked at each of us then saw the cacoon on the table. "What, is that?" He said trying to be calm.
"We don't have time to explain, he has less then thirty minutes before the venom kills him." I started. Tyler picked up.
"We were, um, playing tag with him when the ariados struck. We didn't know what else to do but help him." Hydro looked to each one of us.
"You did the right thing bringing him here, quickly tell me about how much poison the ariados injected him with. Oh and how big he was." we told him, the aridos couldn't have been maybe two three feet long, and had bit him for atleast three seconds. However, we didn't know how this information would help. "Oh boy, we have less time than you thought, which explains the smell." about then leaf-blade and Burnout walked in.
"What is that awefull wreak?" leaf-blade looked around and spotted the web. "Oh no, what did you guys do?" Hydro explained the situation swiftly, while Burnout left to go find the human. "You morons!!! Why did you do that, is he worth all of your lives?" The human had entered the room and quietly walked up behind Leaf-blade. He spoke sharply and makeing Leaf-blade stand straight, Leaf-blade moved his arm to his head, we then spotted what they had been speaking into, it was a wrist ban that matched the color of the skin, which is why he we hadn't seen them before. "Yes sir, um, well that was a little... Yes sir." He shrunk back behind the human, which brought a smile to everyones face seeing Leaf-Blade humbled so much. The human walked over to the web cacoon and put pressure, in specific spots. He looked to Burnout and sent him away, only to return later with a knife. We watched as the human stabbed into the web, he was going to kill the houndar. All three of us moved to stop him, but hydro held an arm up to stop us.
"But he's.." I protested.
"He knows what he's doing, trust him." the web popped open revealing a half deteriorated Houndar. "You didn't tell us it was a houndar." Tyler responded swiftly.
"You didn't ask." Hydro looked irritated but kept his 'cool'. Burnout becond me over, the human spoke to Burnout who relayed what he said to me.
With a deep breath Burnout spoke slowly so i would understand. "Anti-venom at this point would do no good, however, when the spider injected most of it didn't enter his body but rather sat on top of his skin eating it away, you have to burn the toxins and the decaying skin off so we can save him."
"Why me? you have more experience in fire."
"All my abbilities are to advanced for this work, however a small flamethrower would work just fine."
"But, it will hurt him." Burnout nodded.
"Yes it will, but that pain won't compare to the pain he will be in if you don't do it now." i understood, but that didn't help my nervousness,tears welled up in my eyes, i hadn't caused any harm to someone that hadn't hurt me first and I never wanted to. I was bullied because i knew flamethrower when no one else did, I promised my self never to hurt anyone unless they hurt me. But i had to decide, and i decided that this was different in order to save him i had to burn away the skin and poisons. I took a slow breath clearing the tears, I nodded to the human, he pointed to the spots that i needed to burn. I took a second deep breath and set to work burning off the skin, the smell of burning flesh was almost to much to bear. the human motioned for me to stop he motioned to me again and pointed, throught the fire i could see the organs and such that were damaged by the venom, a flash of fire went up as i hit a pool of venom. The human motioned for me to stop again, he sprayed something on the insides and then smilled with his one clean hand he patted me on the head. "Good job." I heared through Burnout's wrist band. The human spoke to Burnout who handed him a white cloth material. He then set to work placing the material over the wound makeing a replacement skin. He stuck him with a needle and inserted a blue-green liquid into the houndar.
"That will help his skin to grow back and kill what ever venom is left in his body. Now all we need to do is see if he's strong enough to heal." Burnout said trying to calm me down. I had started to cry again, i didn't want to cry but i couldn't help it. I felt it were all my fault he were in pain, i could'a burned him out of the web before he was envenomated. Burnout looked down at me, he took me into another room. "There, there, it's alright." He got down on one knee. "You may have just saved that younglings life. Thats reason to celebrate if nothing else, on top of that you're all going to be stronger for standing up to that Ariados. I doubt he'll be messing with you three again." He said lifting my spirits a little. When i got to the point i could talk. I recalled the look hydro and leaf-blade had given the houndar.
"Why did Hydro give us such a look when you found out it was a Houndar?" I snuffled. "He looked really angry at him, he didn't do anything wrong." Burnout looked away looking for the words to say.
"That houndar probably belongs to a pack called The Hell-Hounds. They have been terrorizing area by area till there are no edible prey left then they move on." I gasped, "Some pathetic excuses of Growlths and Arcanines have been tailing them, however they're always several steps behind. We've been holding them off here."
"So because he's a houndar he's automatically labeled a hell hound, and he's blaimed for there crimes?" i said slightly irritated and confused.
"Only if the boot fits," he said trying to calm me down. "from what I've seen of this one yes, i think he is one of the hell hounds."
"So what you were going to kill houndar as soon as he's better, thats what it sounds like your doing, sentencing him to death because you think he's part of The Hell Hound pack." Blaze looked long and hard at his talon like hands, I opened my mouth in disgust. "Are you serriously going to kill him? if so what was the point to saving him in the first place?"
"Your jumping to conclusions." i didn't hear him, i kept running the scenario in my head of as soon as i turned my back burnout or one of the other mentors struck down the houndar.
"No! I won't let you kill him, I saved him and I won't let you do it." Burnout stood and towered over me. "You don't scare me." i felt ready to burst, like energy from my rage were growing inside me. i felt my body start changing, "I'll defend him against you if i have to kill you to do it." My body started to elongate my nuzzle grew and shrank into a snout. "I'll stay by his side night and day if i have to." A flame erupted like a volcano out of my neck, i had grown into a Quilava. Standing on my back legs i came up to Burnout's chest but held his eyes in a dead lock not backing down. I could've sworn i saw a smile flash across his face.
"Very well, you are in charge of him, however Blade and Hydro are not bound by my word, I wont bother him so long as you keep your word and stay by his side night and day. But, the other two will likely strike deals of their own with there students, or not depending on their reaction, they may be putting him down now." I looked for the door and darted out it, everyone was gone, the human, Chico, Tyler, their Senseis, was I to late. I was looking for any sign of them when Chico popped her head around a corner.
"Blaze? is that you?" I didn't respond, "Congradulations, what pushed you to evolve? Well never mind that we can talk later. C'mon they put Houndon in a room across from ours." Relieved beyond belief I followed her up the stairs and toward the rooms i paused before entering, i looked into our room and saw the bed, it looked longer then it was when we first arived. i grabbed it and drug it into the room where the unconscous Houndon laid on a bed. the human was sitting at it's head looking at his teeth, he reached in and pulled out a chunk of flesh from his mouth and threw it away. he looked at me surprised to see me setting up the bed, or that i had evolved. Tyler and Chico gave me simular looks. "I want to be close when he regains consciousness, so that he knows he's safe." i explained to them, wheather or not the human understood wasn't my problem. above all I wanted, and i would, was to keep him safe from our mentors. I set the bed up so that i could see the door and settled down and watched the wolf's slow and steady breath come in, and out.
Later that night, the door slowly opened sheding light on my face. "Get out." i growled without opening my eyes. instead of the door closing, I heared a clicking sound, i opened my eyes to see the human attatching a wristbands to my arm. The human twisted a nob until the wristban beeped. "Testing, TESTING, ONE, two, three." I moaned and growled again why was he being so loud. "Testing is this thing working?" I leapt to my feet.
"You can talk, well of course you can talk, but i can understand you and you me?" i looked at the wristband. "What is this," i nuzzled it curriously.
"Its a translator, i finished yours today." he rubbed my head gentely. "You did the right thing saving that houndar, and i'm guessing you know what you really did." I nodded firmly.
"Burnout told me." I said through a yawn and set my head down.
"I see, I wouldn't worry about him he's lives buy his word. He won't harm the houndar so long as you or one of your friends are near him." He got up and headed for the door. "Now get some sleep. I'll watch over him in the morning so you can continue your training. Oh and Blaze," I lifted my head. "Don't tell anyone about that until i make the other's two, and about Houndar, they don't need to know that unless it's absolutly nescisary." I nodded bitterly then curled my head into my stomach, I can talk with the human now, I thought kinda weirded out. Why did he give this wrist ban to me, just to be able to tell me what to do, Or was there some other purpose? Not wanting to think anymore i tuned my ears to the door and fell asleep.
Outside the door Burnout met with the human. "How is he?"
"Who, your pupil or the houndar." Burnout glared at him. "Blaze is fine, he growled the second i walked in the door."
"So he's still sore, well i can't blame him. I guess i didn't explain well enough." Burnout wringed his hands. "and sence you brought him up, how's the houndar?"
"Well he's still breathing but we'll know for sure in the morning, if he lasts the rest of the night he should make a full recovery if not, well atleast he's not in pain i gave him enough morphine to cut off his leg without the thing feeling pain." he laughed slightly.
"Do you think it was wise of us to keep him, if he is a hell hound we could be in huge trouble. they'd..."
"I know what they're capable of, if you recall i trained the now alpha of their pack." Burnout looked down respectfully. "Burnout, you, Hydro, and Leaf-blade are my dearest and most trusted pokemon and friends, i trust your judgement on these matters but i have the final say, and I say he stays. Now you are bound by your word to cause harm to the houndar if you find him alone. I think the amount of compassion that Blaze showed to the houndar is a qualification of a great leader. I doubt even if he knew that the houndar was the enemy he would have saved him." Burnout nodded with a smile. "That boy has heart, he woulda fought me tooth and nail earlyer if i had made a move against the pooch." he said with a slight laugh.
"I think that 'pooch' has quite a story ahead of him." The human placed his hand on Burnouts shoulder. "Good night, and don't worry about the hell hounds, if they come they come."