Epilogue

In the evening, within the confines of a burrowed hole in the ground of the forest, two foxes lied close to each other in the dark. Both were vulpixes. The confines of their shelter grew warm from the heat that radiated from their exhausted bodies as they breathed slowly and deeply. The female of the two, in particular, appeared amazed and overwhelmed, perhaps even embarrassed. The male, however, in spite of his missing eye, nuzzled his partner affectionately, for he was as happy as a child given candy.

"You seem quite surprised, Lily," the male remarked teasingly. "Did I not say I would please you?"

Lily burned redder in the cheeks as she turned to look at her mate. "I…I can't deny that you did, Calien."

Calien gently licked Lily's cheek, his ego boosted by the female's answer. "It was rather nice of Charon to help make this hole for the two of us. I think he genuinely felt sorry for how long we were delayed."

"I feel guilty about it," Lily confessed as she lied her head down. Her expression showed concern.

"Why would that be, Lily? Ivy got a family again in the end. That is why you wanted to go."

"It's a surrogate one at best, Calien. Charon's still training on the job, and those girls will want offspring of their own. I'm worried something bad will happen and it'll all fall a-!"

"Shhhh." Calien hushed his mate, gently putting a paw against her muzzle. "You need not worry so much anymore. Charon did say we are always welcome to pay his herd a visit whenever we like. We can always check on Ivy to assuage your fears. But, I think we can safely put our faith in the raichu at this point. The company of that herd has mellowed him out significantly."

As Calien pulled his paw away, Lily's concern was mitigated, but not fully squelched. "Until I'm really convinced she'll be okay…it'll be hard for me to sleep," she admitted.

"Then we will have to make the most of it." Calien cracked a devilish grin as he began to slink his body over Lily's back.

"W-w-wait! What're you doing?" Lily stammered in surprise.

"Making up for lost time," Calien calmly replied, as his paws wrapped around to clutch Lily by the waist.

"But we just did this minutes ag—AAAH!" Lily quickly lost her ability to talk as a more primal mindset promptly took over.

***

On that same night, long after the former patriarch had ceased to be a threat to the pikachus, the raichu Charon found it nigh-impossible to sleep. He had snuck out of the hole in the ground he reluctantly shared with the chikorita, Botana, who had already been lulled to sleep by the warmth of his body. He had continued sneaking past the collection of holes dug in the past few days, all housing pikachus (and a certain little pichu) sound asleep in their shelters, until he came upon a lone rodent patrolling as the night watch.

"Evening, Aaron," Charon greeted, his demeanor subdued. The pikachu spun around in a fighting stance, perhaps a bit too much on edge, but upon realizing it was the raichu, the yellow rodent relaxed his stance and sighed in exasperation.

"Geez, Charon! Why'd you sneak up on me like that? That's just cruel," Aaron whined, "Shouldn't you be sleeping with the plant girl?"

The raichu merely smirked at the pikachu's implication. "I suppose you prefer that I was sleeping with Cassandra instead?"

At once Aaron became miffed. "I told you not to joke about that!" He insisted.

"I know you and the rest of the herd were expecting me to round up a harem from day one, Aaron, but even I couldn't enjoy the mating season without food, shelter, and security. Don't worry, I'll be a patriarch proper in the days to come. I'm just waiting for the search parties to come back before I take that leap."

The pikachu sighed again upon Charon's mention of the search parties. "You don't suppose they'll actually find even one of those other raichus, do you?"

"One can only hope. It's better for them to have a place to belong than to live in exile. Then again, they might just prove a challenge for Cassandra's affection," Charon teased, "She just won't be able to resist a gang of bachelors as big and strong as raichus."

Blood rushed to Aaron's cheeks as he was filled with the desire to clobber the raichu before him. "Dammit, Charon! Stop pushing my buttons!" He cried as he flailed his arms in a hot temper.

The raichu laughed heartily. "Okay, Aaron, I've had my fill. I'm going to climb up that tree over there and lounge for a bit. I need some time to myself."

As Charon walked away from the lone pikachu and began his climb up the bark, Aaron called to him, "Yeah! You better climb that tree, 'cause I'll zap you like a butterfree if you even try to sneak into Cassie's hole!"

"Pipe down, would ya? Some of us are trying to sleep!" a pikachu called from his hole in the ground. Aaron, at once feeling foolish, immediately fell silent but quietly fumed as he resumed his night watch.

Now high from the ground upon a sturdy branch, Charon lied down with his head against the tree as he peered up towards the starry sky through the canopy and listened to the soft ambience of the forest below. For a moment he was away from the troubles of his newfound life, best summarized as a delicate assertion of responsibility and power played out on a daily basis. Yet, during that period of peace, his thoughts still lingered on issues that dangled, not yet fully tied. There was still that one major goal he had yet to obtain.

"You have been thinking about whom to claim for a mate, have you not, rodent?"

Charon peered over to the gastly, Katar, as he appeared floating to the side of him. "Yes, I have. Every waking moment. I can take any girl from this herd I want now and yet if I do I'll drown in my own guilt."

"Because of Azelia?" Katar inquired.

"Because of Azelia," Charon confessed, "I hate it, Katar. I'm on the verge of going crazy. Cassandra and the other females are absolutely beautiful, but any attempt to embrace them would bring those girls to tears."

"Ivy doesn't seem to mind you all that much anymore," Katar observed.

Charon nearly leapt from his lying position. "Ivy's just a pichu! She's too young!"

"She won't be a pichu forever."

"I'm pretty sure mating with Ivy as soon as she evolves would still be rocking the cradle!" Charon exclaimed.

In response, Katar openly groaned. "Your situation is not that dire, rodent, whether or not Ivy's a viable candidate. You know as well as anyone that a female can lust for a mate as much as a male can, especially when in heat. They just worry that you would seize them as a selfish brute would. I think with the right amount of confidence and a mountain's worth of patience, whichever females you take under your wing will quickly change their minds about you."

Charon raised his brow. "You're expecting me to choose more than one?"

"If you count the chikorita, yes. I think sex with her is inevitable. You're the alpha of this herd now. Whether or not you're 'broken' is irrelevant as long as you live up to your title. Besides, if you weren't open to the idea you wouldn't even be sharing the same hole with her."

For the first time in a long while, Charon felt pangs of embarrassment as he turned his gaze away from the gastly. "She does have her cute moments…and she'd do anything for me. It's hard to drive someone like that away. But if I have sex with Botana before I have a proper mate, she'd end up being a crutch. I can't do that to her."

Katar merely chuckled. "Do you ever allow yourself a moment to relax and enjoy yourself once in awhile? You'll never enjoy mating otherwise."

"When I do, I feel like I don't deserve it," Charon replied, "The warden probably told you what happened before I ended up living in the woods."

"Indeed. Your capacity to kill greatly outmatched my own when I was alive," Katar remarked.

"It's not something I'm proud of, to say the least," Charon went on, "I can't bring those lives back, Azelia's or anybody's, but I can bring new life into the world. Whomever I take as a mate, I'll give her and the offspring I seed the love and happiness I denied to those I killed. I know it's not an equal exchange…but it's something."

"Would not wanting to die a virgin also have something to do with it?" Katar quipped.

"Oh, shut up, will you?" Charon grumbled.

***

Far, far away from the forest and the troubles of its inhabitants, deep within human civilization, a pokémon tossed and turned in his sleep. He was embroiled in an intense dream that subjected him to a tension so great that he snapped out of his slumber and nearly jumped right out of his bed in a cold sweat. He found himself back in the shelter of a daycare center, where his trainer had left him after being captured. Disturbed by the imagery he had just seen, he sat down upon his bed and held his brow as he breathed in deeply and gathered his bearings.

"You look like you had a very nasty dream." A zangoose sitting upright in the bed across from the disturbed pokémon had been quietly watching him.

"I dreamt that I was the leader of a herd, with a mate and daughter I loved very much, but I unraveled everything that I cared for by my own paranoia and nearly killed everyone who had relied on me," the pokémon described to his company, "I was a monster."

"You don't seem the monstrous type," the zangoose remarked, "Maybe you just fear becoming one."

"Maybe. But the dream was so vivid I'm almost convinced it actually happened. In fact, I've been having this dream every other night. It's like it's haunting me."

The pokemon's companion giggled a bit. "Now that's just silly. You just want to be a father but worry about doing it all wrong. Don't you have to worry about finding a lover first?"

"I don't even have a name. The trainer just calls me 'raichu.'"

To this, the zangoose sighed. "For not remembering who you are, you sure carry a lot of baggage. You really ought to let me wash those worries away. The trainer's hoping you'll give me offspring, after all, being the handsome male you are."

The raichu shook his head. "It's tempting, but I can't. Not tonight, at least. I hope you understand."

The female shrugged. "The offer's still open if you ever change your mind. Now try to get some sleep." She turned away from the other pokémon and wrapped herself up under the covers of her bed.

For a while the raichu remained sitting upon the bed, quietly mulling over the strange nature of his recurring dream. A part of him was truly convinced that somewhere, sometime, the events that repeated in his slumber actually happened. If he was ever released back into the wild, he owed it to himself to investigate and put his paranoid theories to rest. For now, though, the battles and breeding his trainer planned for him would at least take his mind off such thoughts.

That human sure was thrilled to have caught me, considering how soon he gave me a female to keep me company. Being his trainer pokémon might not be too bad.

The End

NOTE: And with that, another story officially comes to a close. I'm sorry that the story took so long to complete, but I hope that overall you enjoyed following the journey of Charon and his companions. I thank everyone who reviewed and provided their feedback (one of the latest ones was particularly thought-provoking) and hope to hear from you readers at again in the days to come.

-Pathwarden