Chapter 21

 

 

Geno flicked a wing out, knowing that if he hit the water first, he would die. Letting Troopa hit it first would merely make him likely to die. He screamed as his wing sapped like a dry twig after connecting with an outcropping of ice, but it did the trick, and rolled them over so that Troopa Jr hit the water first. Even with Troopa hitting the water first, he still reflexively exhaled as the water hit him, both from the cold and his wing being jarred yet again. Why the fug does it always have to be me…

 

He pushed himself away from the flailing Troopa, and forced his already numbing limbs to thrash, trying to get to the surface. Something hit the water behind them, but he ignored it, already feeling a semi-familiar burning in his lungs, of not having enough air. He felt himself suddenly get pulled to the side, and slipped into an underwater section of the river, an off shoot that could lead to anywhere. Even as he fought to rise, his water soaked clothing, meant to keep him from getting cold, now kept him from getting to the air, and he couldn’t feel his limbs anymore. He felt himself drifting, and silently apologized to his harem, even as he felt himself begin to rise. So, this is dying. I would have thought it would be faster…

 

He suddenly broke the surface of the water, and dimly heard what sounded like Razia begging for him to breath, but could not be sure over the sound of water rushing over a cliff. The person holding him screamed, and then he was falling, only dimly aware of what was happening, as he slammed into the water, and felt something crack in his chest. A few seconds of sinking, and then he was yanked to the surface of the pool, just barely deeper than he was tall, and dragged to the side. Razia was talking to him, begging for him to not die, that she needed him more than anything, but he could not even get the numbed muscles of his chest to move. He slowly stopped hearing her voice, and became conscious only of the strained beating of his heart.

 

He was being dragged onto the shore of the small pond, his wing at an unnatural angle, something that would have been extremely painful if he had been able to feel anything. He heard her talking to him, something about water in his lungs, right before she pushed hard on his stomach, and he puked up the water that had been interfering with his breathing. He felt himself choking on the water, coughing it up and rolling around, as Razia held him down, looking into his eyes, tears in her own. He finished hacking up as much of the water as he could, before he whimpered and curled up around himself. “C-C-C-C…cold…”

 

Razia immediately nodded, and knelt beside him, wrapping the arm on the opposite side of his broken wing around her shoulders and then standing. She gasped as she stood, but did not say anything, too busy dragging him toward a small cave in the side of the cliff face. He staggered alongside her, and focused simply on moving, forcing his frozen muscles to keep moving. Razia started limping, each step accompanied by a whimper of pain as her half frozen muscles began to protest her quick movements and her dragging his soaking, frozen ass around. They passed through the first cavern of the cave, having discovered that it was part of a small series of caverns, and had almost made it through the second when they both finally collapsed. He started coughing, and spat up a bit more frozen water, but he wondered why there was some red stuff in it. Razia looked at her tamer, and began to pull the sodden clothing off of him, trying to get him to warm up.

 

She got most of his clothing off, leaving him in just his boxers, and then ran to the other end of the cavern, and shook herself hard, water showering the area before she ran back, and stumbled to a halt, one hand on her left thigh. She pulled him against her chest, rubbing his back, and began screaming for help, realizing that without supplies, she couldn’t save him. He shivered in the cold air, as her voice echoed, begging and pleading for someone, anyone, to help her.

 

She whimpered in fear, holding him as her echoes died, and then buried her face in his hair, still pleading with him to not die. After a moment, she looked up, fearfully, as someone stepped into her line of sight, before they knelt down about ten feet from the slowly freezing cheetit and her nearly frozen tamer. “Is he really worth both your pride and your tears?”

 

She stare at the dark gray dragoness, who stared right back at her, unblinkingly for a moment, as Geno finally stopped shivering, his body starting to shut down, and whimpered, his head between Razia’s breasts, and her right hand over his heart. Razia felt her tears trickle slowly down her face, and whispered, “Please… anything…”

 

The dragoness raised a single eyeridge at the cheetit, and then nodded, “Alright, but if you withdraw when I name my price, he dies.”

 

Razia nodded again, as the dragoness stood up and gestured for her to follow. The cheetit carefully gathered her tamer, and followed after the stranger, wondering what she had just promised to do, but she simply looked down at her helpless tamer, and kissed him, before limping after their ‘savior’. The dragoness had been watching Razia over her shoulder, and turned back leading her into the next cavern, where a single bedroll and a warm fire burned, along with a backpack and several supplies. Razia had eyes only for the warm bedroll, large enough for all three of them if they huddled together, and started toward it, only to be stopped by the dragoness’ outstretched wing. “Where do you think you are going?”

 

Razia whimpered as she felt his breathing falter, fast and shallow, before she pulled him closer to her. “Please, he has a cold vulnerability blood curse. If I don’t warm him now, he will die.”

 

The dark dragoness stared at the Cheetit with coal black eyes, and then nodded, before grabbing something from her pack, and tossing it into the fire. As the item, which looked like a lump of coal, hit the fire, the temperature in the room suddenly jumped, and Razia gave the other pokégirl a look of gratitude, as she tucked Geno into the bedroll. She set him down on his stomach, and had carefully wrapped his form with the blankets, though his broken wing was making such an action difficult. She sighed in vexation, before kissing his cheek, and purring softly at him, forgetting about their hostess and savior. “Master, why do you always end up getting into trouble? Now hold still.”

 

She looked at the broken wing, and started to reach for the major bone on each side of the break, but stopped, not sure how to set a bone, let alone one that she herself did not have. She considered the problem for a few seconds, before turning to the dragoness, who watched them on the other side of the fire. “Can you help me please? His wing is…”

 

She was interrupted by the dragoness’ snort of disdain. “Broken. Yes I can see that. You seem to think the world of him. He is human, and easily replaced for one such as you.”

 

She might have continued on, but Razia’s warning growl was enough of an answer. The dragoness stared at the Cheetit for a moment, and then nodded, almost to herself. “Very well. Come with me, now.”

 

Razia stared at the dragoness for a moment, before looking at Geno and then back at her ‘savior’. “But he…”

 

“Will survive. Unlike if you go back on our deal. Right now, you owe me one favor for getting him to a place you could warm him up in, which was NOT going to be my bedroll. If I set his wing, tend his wounds, and let both of you use my bedroll, you will owe me two favors, both of which are without restrictions. So think very carefully about that before you agree.”

 

Razia could only listen with shock before she turned back to her master, who choose that moment to whimper in pain as his wing twitched. She closed her eyes, before she turned to the dragoness, and nodded, tears in her eyes as she agreed to the demands, knowing that she might be seeing Master for the last time. The dragoness stared at Razia for a moment, as if she couldn’t believe that she had just agreed, and then nodded, before gesturing to the Cheetit to stay where she was.  “Then stay with him, since he means so much to you. I will be back later.”

 

The dragoness stood up, and then grabbed her backpack, before stalking out of the cavern, leaving Razia wondering what had just happened. She winced in pain as she moved around to slide into the bedroll beside her master, and rubbed her thighs, wondering when she had hurt them. After a moment, she shrugged off the thought, and pulled his head against her chest, wrapping her body around his, though the broken wing made moving around difficult. After a bit of wiggling, gentle gasps of pain, and curses, Razia finally settled for lying on the side with the broken wing, carefully easing herself down so that she could hold the limb still without aggravating the damage further. She purred softly holding his head against her chest again, and found herself nodding off, the cold, fear, and strain of saving him having taken a toll on her.

 

 

Razia suddenly jerked at a hand on her shoulder, and looked up into the coal black eyes of her savior. She started to move, and then bit her lip to keep from screaming in pain, her thighs burning. She buried her face in Rathin’s shoulder, trying to not wake him. After a moment, she managed to look up at the dragoness, who was watching her with some concern, though she merely raised an eyeridge when Razia shook her head. “I am going to splint his wing, and then try to promote the healing with one of your hi potions.”

 

Razia nodded, and slowly shifted so that she was lying on top of him, and holding his wing still with both hands, one near where it connected with his back, the other near the break. She then nodded to the dragoness, how shifted her own grip and then snapped the break back together, making Rathin scream in pain and convulse, though both of the pokégirls managed to keep him from hurting himself. The dragoness then ripped the thin layer of flesh covering the break, and sprayed the hi potion into the wound, and watched as the damage wing actually responded, the bone partially knitting back together before the flesh healed itself. She then put the hi potion back into Razia’s fanny pack, and stood up.

 

“I am leaving the bedroll for both of you. One of my sisters will eventually call upon you for redeem both of those favors at the same time. I would strongly advise that you do everything you possibly can to make sure that she gets what she wants. Otherwise, she might just come back with the rest of our sisters, and I strongly doubt that he would like that. You can get to Mahogany Town by travelling west, along the river, for a half day. There will be a rough trail up into the cliff face, and it will lead northwest for about a day and stop at just before the outskirts of Mahogany.”

 

Razia glared at the dragoness, protectively pulling Geno against her chest, and hissing softly at the other pokégirl. The dragoness ignored the Cheetit, her advice and warning delivered, and turned on her heel and left the two of them in the cave alone. Razia sighed, and then gasped in pain as she shifted her legs, and froze when she rubbed her thigh, finding the muscle rock hard and hot. She slowly looked down, and then touched the other thigh, finding it unusually hot as well, but not quite as hard. She looked at Geno with a trace of sorrow in her eyes, before smiling bitterly, knowing that her thighs were bleeding internally, and that while she might be able to stop it with the hi potion, if she didn’t, she wouldn’t have to do anything to help the dragoness. She kissed his forehead, and then softly whispered, “No one threatens master to get me to agree to something, no one.”

 

 

 

Geno gave a groan of pain, wondering why his body ached so much. He opened his eyes, and then smiled as he realized he was pressed against Razia, fast asleep with her head on his chest. He kissed her hair, one hand rubbing along her back, and then frowned when she whimpered in pain, one hand reaching down to rub her thigh. He looked down, and then cursed aloud when he saw her thigh was nearly half again the size he remembered. She did not wake when he slid from under her, something that normally had her cursing sleepily and trying to pull him back against her.

 

He paused for a half second to look around the surprisingly warm cave, wondering where the fire and bedroll had come from, before pulling Razia’s fanny pack to him. He pulled a spray-on type hi potion from the pack, and then gently touched his Cheetit’s thigh, before rubbing Razia’s neck. Her thigh was burning hot and rock hard, and she was hot to the touch. He cast about, looking for some kind of edge, and then looked at the end of his tail, remembering his tail blade. He spent a few minutes fiddling with his tail, before finally just pulling the lair of scales down, and then tensing every muscle in his tail to ensure the blade stayed out for what he was going to do. He then grabbed the blade, and forced himself to make a cut along her thigh, and blanched at the amount of blood and pus that spilled from the small incision.

 

He let go of his tail, and pulled her close to the fire and off the bedroll, though he would have to clean it before he would sleep in it again. He then finished making the cut, before turning to the side, trying to ignore the fact that he was cutting into his Cheetit, never mind he was trying to save her life. He then shoved his hands into the fire, a primitive sterilizing technique, but it would work. After a moment, he pulled his hand from the fire, idly waving his hands to cool them off, and then began spreading the muscles apart, carefully spraying as much of the potion into her thigh as he could, mindful that he was going to do the same thing again on the other side. Finally done, he held the cut he had made together with one hand as best he could, and then sealed the wound with the rest of the high potion, her wound not responding as well as he would have expected to the potion.

 

He looked at her other thigh, and then pulled her second and last potion free with a sigh, realizing that if he used this one, she would be out of healing until he linked up with his harem, Kaigan, and Liandra. With a grimace, he placed his tail blade, and then continued. He wasn’t losing her here, not like this.

 

 

Several hours later, he rubbed Razia’s cheek as her eyes fluttered and then she moaned, her hand going to his. She whimpered and then screamed as her leg moved, letting him know his attempt to help had not been enough. He touched her thigh, and while it was no longer swollen or overly hot, it was still tight. He rubbed her cheek, and then directed his thoughts at Ia, trying to call her, but he had been doing that since he had woken, and she had not responded or appeared, having either abandoned him as dead or not hearing him for some reason. He hoped it was the later, rather than the former, since he had grown rather fond of her since meeting her.

 

He turned his attention back to Razia who was sobbing against his chest, one hand rubbing her thigh, the other holding him like she was terrified he would up and vanish on her. He tried to work his hand free since she was cutting off circulation, but she whimpered and clung tighter, making him yelp. “Razia, love, you are crushing my hand, please ease up.”

 

She whimpered and let go of his hand, before curling up around herself, shaking as she silently cried. He held her close, and kissed her, still trying to understand why she was so upset, but for the longest time, she simply ignored his questions. After a while of holding her and trying to comfort her, he finally kissed her forehead and asked the question again. “What is wrong? Something is clearly tearing at you, and if you don’t tell me what it is, I can’t try to make it better.”

 

She whimpered and kept her head pressed against his neck and shoulder, still shaking in fear. He gave her a few more minutes, before he finally pushed her head away from his shoulder, and forced her to meet his eyes by grabbing her chin with one hand. “What… Is… Wrong?”

 

She looked at him, fear plain in her eyes, but she did not fight against his hand, tears flowing down her cheeks, leaving small trail of wet fur on her face. She whimpered slightly, before she rubbed her face against his hand, spending a moment trying to work up the courage to respond. “Please… don’t leave me… I… I can still help…”

 

That made him freeze, and simply hold Razia close to him, as he went over everything he had ever done with her. He rubbed her side, carefully considering his words. “Razia, Kitling, have I ever indicated that I did not want you? That I would… leave you behind if you got too injured to fight at the level you have been? If so, please tell me when, because I never intended for you to feel like you speed was the only thing that you were contributing.”

 

Razia buried her face in his shoulder, still crying softly, not answering his question immediately. He simply waited, rubbing her side, and eventually got her to reply. “No, I just… don’t want to… to lose you. I need… you, even more than…”

 

She stopped, not able to continue, but he could guess the rest of the sentence. He simply held her, picking his words carefully. “I would never abandon someone I love simply because she is hurt. When did I give you the impression that I would do something that… wrong?”

 

She whimpered again, and buried her head against his shoulder, before she finally finished her previous statement. “I don’t want to lose you master. Even if that means I am never able to be helpful again, I love you and never want to be alone again.”

 

She would have gone onward, but Geno was busy resisting the urge to hit something, namely either himself or the wall. He gave her a blank look as she babbled, before placing one finger over her mouth, silencing her. She shivered as he shushed her, trying to bury her face into his shoulder again, but he pushed her away from him, making her whine in sheer terror. He glared at her, before he shifted her around, so that her back was against his chest. He then kissed her neck, and ran his hands along her sides, stroking her like he had so many times after their tamings. That finally got her to stop shivering, and he leaned back, pulling her down so that she rested against his chest.

 

After a few moments of just holding her against him, his hands wandered up around her sides, and he rubbed her stomach, before rubbing his face against her neck, burying himself in her scent. He grinned she started to purr softly, and he slid his hands upwards, making her purr turn into a moan. He slowly rubbed her breasts, as he whispered into her ear, “This is just between you and me. Len may be my sounding board, Asheer my love to keep me from losing myself in a rage, but you are the favorite I enjoy… no, I love for simply being yourself. Even if you never fight again, you are staying with me, because you are MINE, and my kitling, and even hell itself will not keep you from me.”

 

Razia stopped writhing when he stopped teasing her, listening to him, and when he finished she contorted as only a feline could, and stared at him, eyes clouded with emotions, before she buried her head in his shoulder, crying again. After a moment of her crying into his shoulder, and him rubbing her back, she suddenly started to glow. He cried out as she dug her claws into his shoulders, drawing blood, and then closed his eyes as the light got blindingly bright. He waited for a moment for Razia to stop evolving, and then spent a good five minutes waiting for his eyes to clear. He kept a firm grip on his former Cheetit, just in case she tried to do something stupid.

 

Once his eyes finally cleared, he glanced down at Razia, and felt himself growing a predatory smile, as he looked down at Razia’s new body. She was as deliciously curvy as she had been before the evolution, but gone was the pale white fur on her belly, now her golden fur was covered in small black dots, and it made her look absolutely divine. He smiled up at her, noting with some concern that her eyes were strangely content as she rolled over to straddle him, her hips grinding against his stomach as she lifted one of her breasts, and placed the already hard nipple against his mouth. He licked the offered breast, making his Leopardess purr in pleasure, before he bit it making her squeal. His hand rubbed her thighs, and he relaxed as his fingers found them as they should be, her powerful muscles giving slightly to his gentle fingers, before he turned his attention back to his kitling, intent on making her squeal even more.

 

 

 

Geno glanced up the rude trail that Razia has leading him along, and shook his head. “Are you sure this goes all the way through?”

 

His Leopardess looked back at him, and shrugged, “That is what the dragoness said. I don’t know if she was telling the truth, but right now, we don’t have much of a choice master.”

 

He nodded, and continued following her up the path, idly running his hand through his hair. He glanced about, and was thankful for the lack of ferals, it meant that Razia wasn’t having to fight her way through to get him to safety, but it also made him nervous. He paused to pick a half dozen Great Grapes, and placed them in the blanket that he had used as a bed roll, while wondering why this prime feral territory was so empty. It should be crawling with ferals, and the fact that it wasn’t made him think something large and nasty lived nearby, and had either killed or run off the other ferals in the area.

 

He shifted his sling uncomfortably, and pushed up after Razia, focusing more on the trail then on Razia’s backside, though he would prefer it the other way. He simply shrugged off the thought after a moment, and continued upward, away from the icy river that had nearly killed him. He glanced back up as Razia paused, her long tail slowly twitching as she watched something, and he mischievously grabbed her tail and tugged, making her yowl in shock before glaring at him. He grinned up at her, and finished climbing onto the ledge before giving her a hug. “What? It was far too tempting an opportunity to pass up. And you know you liked it.”

 

She sniffed, and turned back to what she had been looking at before, though she leaned into the hug instead of moving away. He looked down into the valley, and then frowned, staring at the figures moving around in it. “Well, looks like we found our missing ferals. Wonder why they all are in the valley, instead of spread out.”

 

It wasn’t really a valley, more of a glorified gully, but it was wide and long, even if it wasn’t deep, and he could see one golden figure fighting several hulking blue ones, one of the blue ones standing a good head and a half above her fellow ferals. The golden one was skilled, using her ranged techniques and diving about, causing several attacks to hit her enemies as they tried to track her and got in each other’s ways, but he could see that the golden skinned feral was on her last wind, and even as he watched, a water spear from the largest blue skinned feral slammed into the gold feral’s shoulder, spinning her around and slamming her against a tree. He gestured to Razia, taking in the situation as he handed her two of the three remaining pokéballs. “It looks like a pack of Cuntnaws being led by a Feraligarter. I would like for you to distract them while I snag the odd feral. Just get their attention and then avoid getting hurt, I don’t care if you capture any or not, but use those pokéballs to avoid getting trapped.”

 

She nodded, and took the two pokéballs, before starting down the path at a dead run, hoping to beat her beloved down the slope. Getting to the bottom, she glanced back, and then allowed herself a small smile, as she realized that he was barely halfway down, even though he was clearly moving as fast as he could. She still had some of her previous speed, even though it was greatly diminished. That made her smile before she charged forward, and then jumped up to unleash a hyper kick into the back of the Feraligarter’s head, knocking the larger feral into the ground. She danced backwards to get some room, and then rolled to the side to avoid a water gun attack from one of the Cuntnaws. She saw Geno run around the group, easily avoiding their attention since they had someone to attack, but she needed to draw them away from him, just in case they decided to try and use him to feed their ‘other hunger’. She smirked to herself as she dodged a water spear, and then darted forward and used hyper kick against the Feraligarter again, this time unloading the attack into the feral’s crotch as she struggled to get up.

 

The feral didn’t even scream as the attack hit, simply dropping and grabbing herself, and Razia figured the most powerful feral had had enough, pegging her with a pokéball. She was distracted by the toss, and took a water gun attack to her side, but managed to dance out of reach as another Cuntnaw tried to bite her. She lunged around the feral, and dashed through the pack, getting hit with a pair of slashes as she dodged through, but she grabbed the feral, and was after Geno, who had already disappeared into the woods with the dragon feral in his pokéball.

 

 

 

Geno sat down in one of the love seats with a groan, ignoring the looks the local tamers gave him as Razia snuggled into his lap. The on duty desk helper, a tired looking Growlie, had let him borrow a premier pokéball for Razia so she could get a healing cycle, and had destroyed the pokéball after he was done, warning him he needed to get her a permanent pokéball before they would heal her again. He gave Razia a hug, and then rested his head against her shoulder for a moment. He was waiting for the feral’s pokéball to get done with the healing cycle before retiring to a room and calling his friends and harem. He wanted some privacy for that call.

 

He glanced up as the Growlie called his name, having not heard the PHU ping at the end of its cycle, and gently displaced Razia, and collected his feral. The feral had turned out to be a Dracona ,as he had suspected and was a good thing, but also a pokéwoman, something he was not sure about. He thanked the Growlie for her help and the room, but was slightly miffed at her blunt reply, a bit cold for a fire type. He simply nodded again in thanks, and palmed the pokéball, before heading toward his room. He stepped into the room, and then limped over to the computer, where he quickly punched in the comm. number for his pokédex, and then leaned back into Razia’s hands as she began to rub his shoulders, helping the tension drain out of him.

 

He gave her a smile, and then waited for someone to answer his pokédex. After a moment, the exasperated and frustrated but well loved face of his alpha appeared on the screen. “Can I help…GENO?!?!”

 

He grinned, and said. “Yep, still alive and well, and calling from Mahogany Town, wondering where everyone is?”

 

There was a number of cries and then it seemed everyone from his harem was trying to get a look, and Asheer’s yelling for control did not seem to deter them. He sighed, and then snapped. “ENOUGH! Give the ‘dex back to Asheer. Everyone can listen, but I need to make sure she knows where I am. She is still your alpha, regardless of whether or not I am there, and if this behavior is the norm for when I am not around, I have obviously been lax in my duties as a tamer.”

 

There were some mumbled denials, but the glare that Asheer had on her face let him know that the current attitude was the norm when he wasn’t there. He sighed, and then said, “Asheer, you can beat them all senseless later, right now, ball them all except for Sara, then have her recall you, and carry all my stuff to the Mahogany pokécenter. If anyone gives you crap, you can beat them senseless now.”

 

That got everyone to be quiet, and Asheer glanced up, and then looked back down. “Kaigan and Liandra want to talk.”

 

He nodded, having expected that, and she handed him over to the other two tamers. Kaigan was looking over Liandra’s shoulder, and both of them looked both relieved and annoyed, Liandra more relieved than annoyed, and Kaigan more annoyed then relived. All in all, they looked about how he had expected, and he gave them a wave. “I will give you all the details I know when you meet me at the Mahogany pokécenter. But take your time, I suspect my harem is going to want to reassure themselves that I am really alive and well, and that will probably take a few weeks, if not months.”

 

Kaigan’s mouth twitched but he simply shook his head, and did not give a verbal reply. Liandra pouted, and then gave him a coy look. “But what if I want to make sure you are alive and well?”

 

“Then you can wait until my harem is done. You are not part of my harem, however much you act like it.”

 

Liandra’s mouth narrowed, but a huff was her only reply, before she offered the ‘dex to Kaigan. He shook his head, and she handed the unit back to Asheer. He waited a moment, ensuring that Asheer was alone, before giving her a look. “Should I be annoyed with you or not?”

 

She gave him a shocked look, before blushing. “Sorry, Master, I didn’t know that was an Amachop until she threw me through one of those ice formations.”

 

He shook his head, not referring to that. “Not that, she had both of us completely fooled, I wasn’t expecting Troopa to have enough of a brain to set up a trap, basic though it was. No, I am referring to the way the harem was acting. Do they do that often, like whenever I am not around?”

 

She blushed harder, and shook her head. “No, at least, never that bad. We are all just really worried about you. The longer you had been missing the more confrontational the group became, except for Tiamat, oddly enough. And Ia never showed up, by the by.”

 

Geno sighed, and rubbed his eyes, before nodding, “Fine, get everyone put up, and then get back here, we are going to hang out in Mahogany and do some serious retraining, and I am going to have a long talk with the harem about emergencies involving the tamer, and what they are expected to do. See you when you get here.”

 

She nodded, and signed off, leaving Geno leaning into Razia’s massage. He gave her a curious look, before glancing at the bathroom. “I need to get the grime of truly roughing it off me. Want to help?”

 

He yelped as she suddenly grabbed him and nearly dragged him into the bathroom.