Ash's Arc

Chapter 7 of 14

Morning found Ash still lost. He had walked all night since the fire hid his escape. Now the ringed beast's owner was far behind, but so was every path out. The fire pig trotted at his heels, tired and hungry. The mouse rode his shoulder. Ash's badge sat in his pocket, useless if he could not reach the next gym. Every hour spent here kept his team from healing and his training from starting. The trees around him wore strange faces. One trunk had grown into the shape of a hound with drooping ears and sad eyes. Another gnarled tree cradled the curled form of a sleeping dog in its branches. Ash stopped and turned in a slow circle. Every direction looked the same. Bark dogs watched him from all sides. "We keep circling," he said. "We passed that leaning tree twice." The fire pig lifted its snout and sniffed. Then it barked and trotted ahead, stopping at a tree shaped like a young dog covered in green leaves. The leafy dog seemed to face one way, its leaf ears pointed like a signpost. Ash knelt beside his pig. "You smell something?" The pig pawed the dirt in the direction the leaf-dog faced. Ash trusted it. The pig had trusted him once when no one else would. He followed where it pointed. The mouse's cheeks sparked, lighting the shadows between the trunks. They walked for an hour. The wooden hounds thinned. Then the fire pig broke into a run, squealing. Ash chased it through a gap in the trees and stumbled into open air. A weathered wooden sign leaned in the dirt. Its faded letters read: the Forest of the Forgotten Dogs. He had reached the far edge. Beyond it the ground fell away toward a valley. At the valley's bottom stood a dark building. Sharp spires rose from its roof. A carved skull glared above its doors, and pale blue flames guttered along its walls. Green light leaked from every window. It was a gym. A ghost-type gym. Ash's heart jumped. A gym meant a healing center nearby. A gym meant a second badge. A gym meant the arc of his journey moving forward again. He scooped up the fire pig and rubbed its head. "You got us out. Good work." Then he looked closer at the building. The blue flames did not flicker like normal fire. Shapes moved behind the green glass. No trainers stood at the doors. No line waited outside. Something about the place felt wrong, like it had been waiting for him. Ash set the pig down and started down the slope. His team was still tired. His pig's ember tail burned low. But he could not turn back into the forest of watching dogs. "One badge closer," he said. "Even if this one battles in the dark." He walked toward the skull-crowned doors.