-II- A Lover's Folly -II-

Chapter 7: Shattered Innocence

Nox didn't get to see Caligo much growing up. She knew that her family was divided between the Atrum and Nigrum tribes, but to her it was just a meaningless fact. The existence of family elsewhere meant little for her in the present, nor did the existence of an older cousin born to the sister of Nox's mother.

She first met Caligo around the age of eight, when his parents visited the Atrum tribe to meet with family. Having seen the opportunity for the younger generation to meet, they brought Caligo along. Nox was fascinated by him and the fusion of family familiarity and exotic foreignness he represented. They soon bonded and became fast friends, but alas their time would soon be up and he returned to the Nigrum tribe with his parents.

Still, in the end though she would continue to have opportunities to see him. Every year his parents would return to Atrum with Caligo in tow, Nox progressively cherishing and looking forward to those visits. Unfortunately, they stopped when she was around the age of fourteen. Caligo's parents could no longer manage the long journey between villages on their own due to their age, and so Caligo and Nox's friendship was forced to fall by the wayside.

This year, that all changed. When last she had seen Caligo, he had told Nox of how he looked up to the shamans of their tribes and how he wished to follow in their footsteps. It was a proud, ambitious goal to be sure, but Nox was certain he could do it if he worked hard enough. That work appeared to have paid off when Caligo showed up at the Atrum village gates all on his own, having made the lonesome trip from Nigrum unattended as part of his pilgrimage.

Nox was elated to see Caligo again! It was nearly four years since they had seen each other last, which to them seemed like an eternity. He arrived the day after she spent the night at the ruins with Tenebrae and she was still high with her love for him. All too eager, she couldn't help but tell him of her handsome, strong, adventurous boyfriend. She felt like she was a kid again, but he lapped up every word she said.

The two cousins continued to hang out together over the following days. With Caligo occupied with the Shaman during the day itself, they were forced to meet up at night. They found themselves taking walks outside of the village, and it was on those walks that Caligo proposed the idea of teaching Nox some basic self-defense. In her village, Zorua didn't get much chance to learn how to fight until they evolved. Male Zorua, such as Tenebrae, were at least allowed to learn some techniques but females didn't get such a privilege. Caligo's village, apparently, allowed for the training of Zorua even before they evolved.

Nox accepted his offer, and so it was that each night they would head outside the village and practice fighting under the moonlight for a short while. Nox was less than impressive, with Caligo consistently holding the upper hand over her. She would frequently return from such exercises beaten and bruised, but she didn't mind. It felt good to learn how to fight; perhaps she and Tenebrae could even spar sometime on a much closer level than Caligo was to her.

Oh, Tenebrae... Why did she never tell Caligo her boyfriend's name? All the times they spoke, from when she first spilled her guts about her beloved boyfriend to the training they had done the night before, she never once told Caligo Tenebrae's name. Maybe, if she had... Caligo never knew the Tenebrae he was hanging out with was in fact the boyfriend Nox mentioned so much, nor did Tenebrae know that Caligo was related to his own girlfriend. Nox didn't even know the two were hanging out together, not until it was too late.

She was looking for Caligo on that fateful day, asking if anyone had seen him. He stood out, so it wasn't hard. She found that he had run by and out of the village with another Zorua, said to be wearing a distinctive skull necklace. Nox instantly realized who that had to be: Tenebrae. She was surprised as she thought he was confined to his hut. She had asked his father, Nero, about his whereabouts previously. While he didn't seem to approve of her, Nero was forthcoming about Tenebrae's confinement.

The pieces began to fall into place then as she pondered what this meant. Curiously, she went to the hut she knew Tenebrae lived at and spoke to his mother, Umbra. She told Nox of the ruins Tenebrae had told her about, which Nox recognized as being the same ones they had spent the night at. Wasting no time, she set out after the two.

Nox didn't know what they were doing or planning, or were otherwise heading out to the ruins for. She figured that perhaps they were just going to explore and figured she could join them. Still, perhaps she knew then that something wasn't right. After all, if Umbra had let Tenebrae go, why hadn't he come to see her yet? Worry twisted in her heart as she ran across the wastes.

The ruins were surprisingly expansive despite having the one core tunnel that winded down through them. She took her time checking out the side rooms with the lantern she brought, but as she descended worry made her go faster and faster. She began to run faster and skip rooms all together, instinct telling her she already knew where to look.

So there it was that she found herself crawling through the small tunnel to the cave, coming out the other end to find Tenebrae standing in a pool of blood over Caligo's body. She was too late. If only she had told Caligo her boyfriend's name...

"N-Nox, I..." Tenebrae was at a loss for words, his jaw falling slack. Cousin? Nox's cousin? Why... How...

"Answer me!" she roared, a look unlike any he had seen before flaring in her eyes. She was angry at him, furious even.

"I... I did it for you..." Tenebrae meekly said, his voice quiet and weak. All the strength, all the courage he had built up to kill Caligo, it was all gone now. Drained out of him like the blood that ran over the stone ground. "I-I thought... He had stolen you... Abused you... Cousin?"

"Why would you think that?! Caligo!" Nox cried out, collapsing over the body again, her tears seeming to be without end.

Tenebrae fell backwards, his head hitting the wall and filling his vision with stars. He watched through blurry eyes as Nox pulled herself away from Caligo, stumbling backwards. She said something, Tenebrae saw her lips moving, but all he heard was a splitting sound like his head was exploding. As vision faded he saw her scurrying back through the tunnel, running away, leaving Tenebrae behind... Mud seemed to fill his mind and a darkness set over him as he drifted away from consciousness.

He didn't know how long he was out. Minutes, hours, a day? Down in the ruins without the sky, time meant little. When Tenebrae woke he found himself right where he had been left, slumped against the wall at the back of the cave, across from Caligo's dead body. He pried himself away from the stone, his body aching, head most of all. Holding up his dim lantern, he examined the body and found it cold as the floor, bones locked tight and unmoving. Blood had long since ceased to drip from the corpse, and what had pooled on the floor was now a dark crimson.

The Shaman had been right. Why hadn't he just gone to Nox from the start? Tenebrae pressed his lips together as he looked at Caligo, at the Zorua he had killed under mistaken pretenses. He had done it for Nox, everything for Nox... Yet it was all wrong, and now she truly did hate him. Her love for Tenebrae had never gone anywhere, not up until the moment he killed her cousin in coldblooded murder.

For some reason, Tenebrae began to laugh. He couldn't stop it even as he knew it was wrong and inappropriate, chuckles rising in his throat and building to a full-blown roar. He shouldn't be laughing, not here, not now, not after what happened, but the gravity of his error... How could he have been oh so very wrong? He had always thought he was smarter than that, but indeed, his wrath was truly cruel.

It was only when he realized that he couldn't go back to the village that he stopped laughing. He had never really thought of what would happen after he killed Caligo. He figured that Nox would understand why he did it and they would carry the secret of his murder to their graves. Not so anymore. Nox would probably report what he had done to the hunters or guards. If Tenebrae showed up at the village, they would surely kill him immediately. It was likely even that they would come here, to the ruins, hoping to catch him before he could leave.

His eyes went wide as he realized that. He had to move, he had already lost who knows how much time spent unconscious. Frantically he tried to come up with some idea of where to go, of what he could do now. He thought hard, digging through his memory until his eyes widened as a thought came to him. Perhaps, if he could go to The Guild... It was a long ways away, far across the continent of Varlaja, but would certainly be far enough to keep him safe from persecution. His mind set, he crawled out to the cavern through the hole to wash himself off.

Tenebrae made his way over to the bubbling spring of water in the corner. He recalled how he washed himself after killing the feral Pokemon, and how it had faded his markings. Setting his lantern down to the side, he splashed water over his body until the white chalk markings were all but gone. He felt a twinge of sadness as he realized he would never adorn himself with them again. Unfortunately, they were too recognizable outside of his tribe and could lead hunters that came after him right to his feet.

Returning to the cave, Tenebrae thought of what else he could do to alter his appearance. There was his skull necklace, Tenebrae raising his paw to his neck and running it over the bones as he thought of it. It was fairly distinctive, so if he truly wanted to change his identity he would have to get rid of it. The Zorua took it in his paws and made to pull it over his head, but froze in uncertainty. The necklace was special to him, could he really give it up so easily? Perhaps ridding himself of the markings would be enough.

With a sigh, Tenebrae let the necklace and the small skull hung on it fall back against his chest and the bandana he now wore. That bandana was something he could easily admit he wasn't too happy about wearing, so he reached around the back of his head and untied it. Tenebrae eyed the bandana for a moment, unsure what to do with it now. He could dispose of it, he supposed, but another idea came to him.

In his tribe, those who had committed crimes of some sort were branded with marks in their fur to warn others of what they had done. He couldn't exactly brand himself, but Tenebrae laid out the bandana and folded it into a strip of cloth which he then wrapped and tied around his front right paw; the same he had used to stab Caligo with. Others may not know what it meant, but it would serve to remind him of his own folly.

That left the matter of the knife.

Tenebrae was reluctant to pick it up again. It was caked in dried blood from where it had fallen besides Caligo. He put off having to deal with it until the last moment, instead going around the cave and grabbing a few supplies that had been left behind to stash in his bag for the journey. Yet, in the end, with his supplies gathered and the bag swung over his shoulder, he had to come back to the knife and deal with it. He could just leave it there he figured, but for some reason that didn't sit right with him. His mouth twisted into a grimace, Tenebrae reached down to pick up the knife.

The Zorua blinked in surprise as he held the bloodied blade. He had been expecting to feel something upon picking it up: perhaps regret or even horror at what he had done with it. Yet instead, all he felt was... That familiar sense of nothing. Tenebrae held the bloody knife up and examined it, reminding himself how he had used it to kill Caligo, and in doing so alienated himself from Nox and his tribe. That was bad, right? Of course it was bad! So... Why did he not feel bad?

The thought almost made him drop the knife again. He was shocked at his mistake, yes. He was upset and let down that after all this, he still couldn't be with Nox. He knew what he did was wrong, that it was horrible, and if he had the chance again he was sure he would not have done it. So why, then, did he not feel BAD? He should be breaking down now, he should be crying, sobbing, unable to do anything. Instead he had cleaned himself off after admitting his own exile and prepared to leave on a journey across the continent, all with an utter lack of empathy towards the life he had taken.

No, not just Caligo. Those ferals too. They were beneath him, of course, mere mindless beasts. Yet all together, he felt nothing for the six pointless lives he had taken that day which could have been avoided if only Tenebrae wasn't so stubborn and wrathful. As he held the murder weapon he closed his eyes and pulled into his mind the feeling of it plunging through flesh, slicing through and cutting into a Pokemon's heart. He could practically feel the death throes again, and was surprised to find that, indeed, even as he recalled how that felt... He still didn't feel bad.

It was a curious feeling, or lack thereof. Before today, he had been so opposed to killing. He had despised the mere thought of it, and indeed that was largely why he did not wish to become a hunter. Yet, now... Having killed six Pokemon, including a sentient much like himself... He found that he was no longer afraid to kill and indeed couldn't bring himself to feel anything towards the deaths.

Tenebrae chuckled lightly at the bizarre realization that as terrible an act as he had done, it had helped him get over that little hurdle he had. Nero would be proud of him, at least if Tenebrae could ever see his own father again without being killed on the spot. He clutched the knife in his mouth, scowling around the taste of blood and pushed the lantern ahead of him towards the hole in the wall, about to crawl through the small passage one final time.

He gave a last glance at Caligo's body before he left. It did feel sort of wrong to leave him here like this, but Tenebrae wasn't sure what he could do with it. He couldn't exactly bury the corpse in solid rock, and he figured that whoever came after him would probably want to bring it back to the village. With that final glance Tenebrae turned back to the tunnel and crawled through it, giving the knife a quick wash in the spring to clean the blood off and replacing it in its sheath. He untied that from around his neck and stuffed it in his bag; like the bandana wrapped around his leg, he would keep the knife as a memento of what happened here.

Then, he was off. Clutching the lantern in his teeth, Tenebrae ran up the twisting tunnel to the ruin's exit. Light was starting to set, but Tenebrae was used to traveling at night anyway. He doused the lantern and hooked it to his bag, drawing from it the map and a compass he had taken from the trading post and now wouldn't be able to return.

Tenebrae's journey to The Guild would be long and hard, but at least he had a destination in mind. He had heard of The Guild while growing up, and he wasn't ashamed to say that such stories of far off lands were probably what piqued his curiosity towards exploring in the first place. First he would travel to Redhaven, the capital of Blackdell. He had never been there before, indeed he had never been anywhere aside from his tribe's village and the surrounding land, but knew that he would be able to get passage to the rest of Varlaja from Redhaven.

Of course, he had none of the money the civilized world used and little of worth to trade, so actually getting passage would be somewhat difficult. Tenebrae expected he'd probably have to sneak onto a caravan without paying; fortunately he was quite adapt at stealth thanks to his talent with illusions. Ideally he would find a caravan traveling south, through the region known as Freyden to its own capital: Fairkeep.

Tenebrae had read of it in books: the city was said to be a center of trade and travel, a hub from which one could reach anywhere in Varlaja. Perhaps he could get by there in Fairkeep, but in a city where trade ruled and which was so heavily split between the poor and the wealthy, a poor foreigner such as him would be left floundering in the streets. No, his destination was farther south, amid the plains of Edheren.

Sentinel's Watch was an old fort, built high atop a coastal cliff to the southwest of Edheren. While the fort's origins were shrouded in myth, the guild that was headquartered there was well known even as far north as Blackdell amid tribes who had limited contact with the outside world. The Guild had no formal name, though some called it The Varlajan Guild or even The Sentinel's Guild after the fort it was headquartered in. It had many branches to work in—researchers, mercenaries, explorers even—and was said to welcome any Pokemon brave enough to face the unknown.

There, The Guild at Sentinel's Watch, would be Tenebrae's destination. No longer able to return home, he turned his mind to the outside world. He would travel out and explore as he had always wanted. He would put the past behind him and embrace the future. He didn't know where that future would lead him now, just that in the end, perhaps his mistake had been worth it. This was what he always wanted, after all. All it took to leave and strike out on his own was five dead ferals, one murdered Zorua, an alienated girlfriend, an exile from his own village, and his own shattered innocence.

Orienting himself in the direction of Redhaven with the help of his navigation tools, Tenebrae set off through the wastes, walking towards his future. He couldn't help but stop a smile from crawling across his face; yes, this would be worth it. He would make sure of that.

Umbra didn't know how long she grieved, her eyes blurred with tears, but she eventually backed away from the corpse. She wiped her eyes dry as she looked down at it. Her son, her only son, dead...

Only... As soon as her eyes were clear and she could see the body for what it was, did she realize her mistake. Umbra let out a sigh of pained relief as she observed the colorful markings that appeared to be made with berry juice over the Zorua's fur, and his lack of any sort of bone necklace as Tenebrae wore. Even if he had somehow changed his markings, he would never have parted with that silly necklace he received from his father. For all Tenebrae's talk about hating his dad, he never did leave the hut without that necklace.

Umbra heard people coming from behind her, a small group of Zoroark crawling through the hole and filing into the room. She turned to face them as they approached, finding none other than her husband at their head. She had received word that he was returning, and wasn't too surprised to see him here.

"Tenebrae did this?" Nero coldly asked as he observed the cold body.

That was news for Umbra. Her mouth opened slightly as she looked for words before responding, "He did?"

Nero nodded grimly, walking forward as Umbra stepped to the side. The large, scarred Zoroark leaned down to examine the body, finding the single entry wound in its back. Then he looked around the cave. "He took the knife with him that he did this with."

Umbra sighed and raised a paw to her head. This wasn't much better than if it had been Tenebrae who was lying on the ground dead. "He's gone, then."

Nero nodded, motioning for one of his men to take the body. The rest crawled back out to the cavern, Nero waiting until the last had left from the cave as they pushed the corpse ahead of them. Leaving just the two parents behind, they found themselves looking at each other in silence until Umbra finally broke it. "He took after you more than we thought."

Nero gave a nod and turned to leave. Just before he faced away from her, Umbra could swear though that she saw the faintest glimpse of a smile on her stoic husband's face. Tenebrae was a murderer and would be executed if ever he returned to their tribe, that was without doubt, but in the end... Nero could finally be proud of their son.

End of Part 2

And that's that! Sorry for this short chapter, I just couldn't end chapter 6 any earlier as I think it ends on the perfect spot, nor is there much more I could add to this one without it being filler. Still, all in all Part 2 turned out a good deal longer than Part 1, despite my initial estimates. I hope everyone enjoyed it even if it was different than Part 1, I had a lot of trouble writing this in spots because it's very much different from anything I've written before for me too. Part 3 will be getting back to Shrike though and as with Part 1 will be heavily based off something I've already written last year, so hopefully that won't cause as many problems!

Feel free to leave reviews or contact me with what you thought of it, and I'll see you again once I've finished with Part 3!

-Shrike Alvaron