Chapter I: Ossatueur

They were going to catch her.

In the blushing blue light of a cloudy dawn, the marowak raised her head, her nostrils flaring as she took in the scent of their pursuers. Her four paws, planted firmly on the rain soaked silt, could feel the echoes of their rapid but heavy footsteps, tracing closer and closer to the field outside of Lavender Town where she had fled to after being flushed out of her nest in the Rock Tunnel.

She had smelled them coming hours earlier, the reek of their black-clad bodies tainting the cold, clear air of the mountain cave, but not until she heard the cries of her neighboring pre-evolutions in the darkness did she wearily and desperately gather enough strength to leave. She had gone as quickly as she could—too quickly to grab the stone-weathered femur that was her weapon of choice—but she had been significantly slowed down by her precious burden and her own exhaustion from the night before.

And now, caught between her nest and the secret boneyard that only her species knew about, the new mother's protective instinct flared to life under a veil of fatigue. Turning her bone-covered head over her shoulder, she opened her gentle jaws and picked up the small, earth-colored fuzzball that was her offspring, her hidden ears pricked back as she listened as the mouth of the cave funneled her pursuers' footfalls towards her senses. She had time, yet. Her four paws sinking into the wet dirt with every quick step, the marowak trotted down the hill towards Lavender Town, her pace hurried but not excessive in order to save the last of her energy. It was only when she heard the humans shouting after her retreating form as they left the tunnel did she kick up her heels and gallop into the still sleeping human settlement, spraying dirt behind her with every step. The clouds above her were thickening and darkening, blotting out the light of dawn, and the air filled with the smell of rain.

Long ago, the humans had built the strange square obelisk to their beloved dead near the entrance to the mountain path that led up towards the Rock Tunnel, unknowingly blocking access to the marowak boneyard that had been centuries in the making. But the marowak were a clever species, and had dug a narrow passageway underneath the thick concrete slab that the building had been built upon, and had so regained access to their sacred graveyard. Over the years, the passageway had opened up to the main floor of the tower, and the humans had found themselves sharing their pokemon cemetery with handfuls of stray cubones, drawn to the tower because of its contents. Cubones loved skeletons, and when there was too much competition in the Rock Tunnel from the stronger marowak groups, they often found solace in the bones they dug up in the Pokemon Tower.

The marowak hadn't been in the tower in years; being one of the largest and strongest marowak in her section of the tunnel, she always had first pick of the bones that came her way. As she squeezed her newly hollowed body into the whisper-thin opening near the back of the tower, she dimly recalled her own mother accompanying her to this sanctuary in times of trouble; floods in the cave, collapse of the ceiling due to excessive activity from the bigger pokemon such as onix.

But never this.

She had just pulled her haunches clear of the opening when a metal rod came lancing into the dry dirt directly behind her, piercing the ground with the sound like a snap. A shout of frustration punctuated the action of it being pulled up without her body skewered on its sharpened end.

"Mreep," the burden in her mouth said. The marowak turned to the side, muscles tensing, a growl stuck in her dry throat.

Ouside, there was a sound like a hiss, and a tinny-sounding canister clattered into the narrow tunnel after the mother and her child, spinning around with the force of the tainted air spraying out of its nozzle.

The marowak spun around and sprinted down the length of the tunnel, trying to close her lungs against the smell. She knew about this tactic—if she stayed in her long enough, the bad air would numb her limbs and slowly poison her body, making her easy prey for the monsters that were chasing her. It had happened to her own mother, whose skull she had borne for most of her life. The marowak had been a quick learner. She had never trusted humans after that. There was nothing in their hearts but greed and self-love. They were the only species she knew of that regularly abandoned their children, as she had often seen while gazing down at Lavender Town in her younger days. A human's worth was only visible to themselves, it seemed, for she could not understand their needless brutality.

There was a silver beam of light ahead of her and she gathered her hindquarters and leapt up through the opening. Leaving the darkness blinded her honey brown eyes for a moment, but her legs moved automatically, dragging her body up and over the lip of the floor and through the low, square hole in the wall. The room she had come into was the ground floor of the Tower. Her reflection shone in the smooth, polished tiles, and the pads of her paws made quick tapping noises as she headed for the winding staircase across the empty space. It was too early in the morning for the humans to mourn, and the lights were dimmed above her. The windows showed the sky to be angry, shining dark silver, making her mother's skull glow dimly.

The door flew open with a bang when the marowak hopped onto the first carpeted step. Without looking behind her, she closed her mouth more tightly around her child and bounded up the stairs three at a time, her lean body stretching out to its full length and her tail swinging from side to side for balance. There was the sound of a heavy item being thrown down, and someone started shouting orders in a deep, bellowing voice, punctuated by barking that struck fear into the marowak's heart. A chorus of footsteps—both human and pokemon—hit the stairs as she was halfway to the next flight of stairs on the first floor. Headstones, their polished marble forms impeding her weary way, rose up around her in a forest of gray. The smell of old death in the Tower clung to the back of her throat, but it did not bother her. Death itself did not bother her; she wore its badge over her own head; the members of her tribe were architects of bone, but for her offspring, so soon after being brought into the world, she would rage against it until her final breath. She would not let her offspring's tiny flame of life go out.

She hit the second flight of stairs without much trouble save for her own labored breathing, and continued her relentless pace towards heaven until a ferocious growl from behind her told her that something had caught up to her. In one fluid movement she had deposited her offspring behind a headstone close to a wall and whirled around to see that a growlithe, its thick neck clasped in a tight black collar, was standing a few paces away from her, its hackles raised and a menacing snarl vibrating in its chest. The humans' voices were still downstairs, searching for her among the maze of tombstones. She did not have the time or energy to attack this creature, this slave to some ignorant trainer, but she could not turn her back to it. Whether or not it would raise the alarm to its masters downstairs depended on the time it took for her to make it faint.

The growlithe made no pretense in attacking her. It lunged forwards as soon as she had turned, its jaws opening wide, pink tongue lolling over jagged teeth. The bite caught her between her shoulder and her chest; the thick fur there prevented it from doing much more than superficial damage. However, her new mother's body was already weak from the loss of blood, and it took most of the strength she had to yank herself away, whirl around, and deliver two swift kicks to the fire dog's side. The dog whined and inhaled sharply through its nose, spitting out a ball of flame that she barely avoided; as she leapt out of the way, she struck her shoulder against a headstone and went down heavily on her side. The growlithe was on her instantly, its furry paws braced on the floor on either side of her body, its jaws open and closing in on her throat. She shoved at its body with her paws, and for a few tense moments they scuffled, their physical attacks clumsy and frantic as their bodies skidded on the polished floor.

In the end, the dog's forced loyalty to its master distracted it, as a whistle from the floor below momentarily arrested its attention and it looked towards the staircase expectantly. The marowak's head jerked up, her mother's skull smashing into the growlithe's muzzle with the sound of bone cracking against bone. The fire dog, several of its teeth broken and its nose wet with blood, flopped in a tangled heap to the ground, nearly crushing her under its weight. Limping, missing a patch of fur from her chest, the marowak retrieved her cubone and headed wearily up the next flight of stairs. Her body was fleeing, to where she knew not, but in the back of her mind she knew she had cornered herself. Her instinct told her to find solace in her ancestors' burial grounds, but she was unwilling to drag her child to such a fate. He would live. Whatever happened to her, he would live.

She reached the next level and headed for the last flight of stairs, all of her senses tentatively attuned to the distant sounds of her pursuers. She paused as she was about to ascend the steps, opting instead to limp around the empty floor, walking carefully around the headstones until she found what she was looking for: an out-of-the-way grave marker with a freshly cut bouquet of vibrantly colored flowers resting on their side in front of the marble. They had been watered recently and their myriad scent still smelled heavily of fresh air and sunshine.

Her mouth opened and she dropped her offspring and nudged him, none too gently, into the bouquet of red roses. It squeaked at her as she stepped away from it, trying to follow her. She turned patiently and pushed him with the bone nose of her skull helmet back into his hiding place, warning him with a slight trill that he was not to move. When he tried to follow her again she stamped her hind foot impatiently and barked. Obediently, the newborn cubone, his downy head and shoulders not yet knowing the weight of his own mother's skull, hunched down in the shadows of the headstone, watching his guardian with wide eyes as she trotted away and took her position in front of the flight of stairs that led towards the last floor above them, restlessly walking back and forth on all fours, her sides heaving with exertion. Once or twice she glanced at her offspring from the corner of her eyes, but she did not move any closer. The risk was too great.

Moments later, in a rush of black and red, Team Rocket had her surrounded.

Her eyes flicked from one grimacing human face to the next, counting them, not knowing the number but agreeing when her instinct said too many. Several of them, their hats shadowing their pale foreheads, were carrying long, thin clubs and razor-sharp metal skewers, and she recognized the dim smell of bad air on the ones who had canisters tied to their belts. Another human stood behind the group, a pair of pokeballs in his hand.

"That's probably the little bastard who busted up my growlithe," he said nastily. "Can we skin it, boss?"

The one addressed as 'boss' made a face. "I thought it had a cubone with it," he said, looking around suspiciously at the headstones around them. Most of them were decked with fresh flowers, all red roses, and impatience rose like gorge in his throat. "It started running when we were clubbing the others and it had somethin' in its mouth."

As if on cue, the marowak began backing up the stairs, hissing loudly. All of them had the smell of dead cubones on their clothes. The boss followed her, step by step, trailed by the rest of his crew.

"Awright, you little bugger, where is 'e? I promise I won't hurt ya. Just gimme what'chew was carryin' and we'll be on our way."

She came out on the top floor, still moving steadily backwards. This upper floor consisted only of a long, narrow chapel. A stained glass window, hanging above an altar covered with a white tablecloth and decorated with a single lit candle, threw its rainbow light onto the red carpeted aisle that the marowak stood in the middle of. Her breath came in a constant hiss now as she was slowly herded towards the altar, but she was pleased that not one of the humans had stayed on the floor where her precious one was. She had distracted them, for now.

"Search dis floor," the boss said, his narrow eyes locked on the defiant pokemon before him. "It's gotta be here somewheres or else momma here wouldn't be so angry. Stupid things, marowaks is. And dis one practically flushed itself outta da cave and let us corner it up here. Where else ya gonna go, darlin'? Was you gonna jump?"

"I ain't seein' anything, boss," said one of the thugs as he peeked under the altar's tablecloth. "There ain't no places for a cubone to hide."

"It was this big fer chrissake!" The boss made a circle with his forefinger and thumb. "Momma here probly shoved him into a crack in the wall somewheres! Find it, dammit!"

But try as they might, the other Team Rocket members could not find the marowak's offspring. They went over the floor again and again, turning up nothing but stems of incense and a box of replacement candles for the one burning on the altar. "Besides, we've got two whole loads of cubone skulls waiting downstairs with Frank and Rex," another one said as she finished her third sweep of the floorboards. "And Giovanni's only asked for one shipment. We've got too much surplus to deal with cuz now we gotta process all those skulls before the next order comes in." Her eyes brightened. "Why don't we just take this one's head? We got her cornered. Might as well make all of our trouble worth it. My legs ache from climbing all of those stairs."

"Cuz marowak skulls is too hard, dipshit," said the boss, crossing his arms over his chest. "Can't shape 'em like ya can with cubone skulls. Worthless pieces of shit," he muttered, looking at the still-bristling marowak. Suddenly his temper flared and he lashed out with his foot, catching the pokemon by surprise as his boot caught her underneath the jaw. Her body flipped over itself and crumpled by the wall.

"Ya sure ya can't find da little bastard?" the boss demanded furiously of his team. They shook their heads fearfully. "I swear I saw this slimeball run outta da cave with one a' my cubones in its mouth. A whole cubone—that's five hunnerd dollars this little monster has stolen outta my pocket!" He reached down to grab the marowak but her head came up and her teeth barely missed ripping open the man's hand. His thin face darkened in fury and he held out his hand. "Gimme a club, damn it! I'm gonna teach this little bastard a lesson in respect."

The proffered club was taken and the man tapped it against the palm of his opposite hand as he regarded the weakened creature in front of him. It was watching the other humans, its body stiff as if in anticipation, seemingly waiting to see if one of them would come across what he was looking for. Anger and impatience consumed him and his hand flashed down.

"I don't have time for dis!" he bellowed as the club connected with the hard skull covered the marowak's head. It nearly bounced out of his hand at the force of the contact, but the pokemon still cried out and stumbled away, closer to the altar.

"Ya gonna pay fer playin' with me! Now I gotta go back to headquarters with five hunnerd less than what I wanted to get!" He swung again and missed, and this time the marowak lashed out and headbutted against his shin. Splitting pain lanced up his body and he collapsed, dropping the club and clutching his leg with both gloved hands.

"It broke my leg!" he wailed, his voice cracking. "The bastard broke my leg!"

The marowak backed up again, facing the encircling group of Team Rocket members with triumph in its golden eyes.

"Kill it!" the boss screamed, pointing. "I want this thing dead an' bleedin' at my feet before we leave!"

Several of the Team Rocket members looked at each other dubiously. Killing the pokemon would mean leaving blood, which meant evidence, which could possibly trace the event back to them.

"Whaddaya want us to kill it with?"

"Clubs! Kickin' it! Play wid it like it just played with us for the past thirty minutes!"

They all turned on her then, their smug faces dark with malice at the promise of spilling blood, and the marowak dropped her elegant head, braced her sturdy legs, and prepared to fight. These humans, she thought as the first blow from a heavy club landed on her back and crushed her hipbone, were definitely the plague of the earth. Cruelty fed them and sustained them. One of the metal skewers glanced off of her mother's skull and nearly cracked it in two. She managed to wound all but one of her assailants; the one she could not reach was standing at a distance and pinning her neck to the floor with a choke-collar that he had managed to slip around her head when her back was turned. More blows now, coming down like rain, and she bit and kicked and lunged until the pain came up like a wave and overwhelmed her and she went down, still fighting in her mind even though she wasn't sure that her body was responding. These humans had been the curse of her tribe, of all tribes of pokemon across the face of the world, their violent trade going unchecked and unbalanced. Her spirit rose up in her heart and cursed the humans who were doing this to her—cursed all humans, for she was sure that there was not one of them who had a heart capable of loving anyone but themselves.

Ten minutes later, it was over. Team Rocket quickly vacated the tower as the storm outside broke and the morning came with a torrential fall of rain; the boss had to be carried out by four of his underlings. They were all covered with blood. Only some of it was their own.

After a while, the small form of a cubone appeared at the top of the stairs. A rose petal was stuck to his furry body and he waddled unsteadily on exhausted back legs down the center aisle; the climb up the stairs had tired him out and his stomach was rumbling. He had only had one feeding from his mother before they had been forced to leave. He had stayed where his mother had left him until hunger had compelled him to search for her. The smell of death filled his nostrils long before he reached the broken form lying in a pool of light from the stained glass window. He nudged her under her jaw, moving his nose to poke at her crooked neck, her stiff forelegs. She did not respond.

He stayed by her side for hours until more footsteps, gentle and shuffling, told him of another presence approaching him. He looked up and growled weakly at an old man, as warped and crooked as a lightning-struck tree, who stood in the doorway, leaning heavily upon a carved cane.

"Oh," the old man said, his voice whispery and full of grief. "Oh, you poor thing."

The cubone was picked up without pretense, and the hungry creature did not have the strength to protest. Instead, he allowed himself to be carried towards the stairs, away from the protector whom he had barely known, but would soon know, learning her burden through the weight of the cracked skull he had placed over his own head.

His lonesome crying did not start until he had lost sight of his mother over the old man's shoulder.

And the candle glowing on the altar that the old man had placed marowak upon flickered gently and then burned brighter than before.

I used to capitalize 'Pokemon' and the names of all the species, but after reading the reasoning behind why these things should not be capitalized, I have taken this into account. Thanks for reading.

People are stewards of the world, not the masters, so please, take care of the animals?