Connected Rivers (Chapter 2)

Chapter 2

“Ría… Ría, wake up!” a sly-sounding voice called out. Ría groggily began getting up, picking herself up lazily from the ground, and slowly opened her golden eyes. She stretched out and yawned softly before looking at the source of the voice.
“What is it…?” she answered softly. Standing over her was her friend, Emine, a female Linoone about a year older than her. A somewhat impatient look was on her face as she looked down at her.
“It’s almost noon and you’re still sleeping? You can be so lazy sometimes, I don’t know how you do it,” Emine complained. Ría blushed a little nervously, and picked herself up from the ground to stand up.
“Ehh… sorry 'bout that... I just get comfy really, really easily…” she explained. “But at least I’m awake now...” Emine rolled her eyes and turned back around in the direction she came from.
“Yeah, so let’s just get going already. We don’t need to waste all day sitting here,” she replied. Ría followed her along down the forest path, until a choking sound coming from a nearby bush suddenly startled them. They stopped and quickly rushed over to check what it was to see a Manectric there with a small pile of berries next to him. Both of them recognized who it was, their friend Zeke. “What are you doing, trying to eat those without swallowing?” asked Emine.
“No, I think these berries are spoiled or something, they taste horrible,” Zeke explained. “I found them on this bush here and figured I’d try them out.” Emine examined the berries and gave a small sigh.
“Do you even watch what you’re eating? These berries already went bad a while ago, judging by the looks of them,” she said. “I swear, sometimes I question if you even have a brain in that head of yours.” Ría smirked slightly, finding it sort of amusing, but not too much. Zeke noticed her there and called over.
“Hey, Ría, didn’t see you there,” he called, walking over a little closer. “You trying to hide from me?”
“No, of course not…” she replied. “I just didn’t have much to say is all.”
“That’s fine, no harm in that,” Zeke responded, then turned back to Emine again. “So, what’d you have in mind for us today then?”
“Well, I figured we could probably head down to the river and get some fish. Seeing how sleeping beauty probably hasn’t eaten yet and you had some bad berries, you both must be hungry,” Emine explained, glancing at both of them.
“Sounds good to me, I’m real hungry right now,” answered Zeke. Ría perked her head up as she noticed them waiting for her, and she nodded in response quietly, agreeing with the idea. Emine smiled a bit faintly and began walking towards the river.
“In that case, let’s go get some food. I haven’t had fish in a while,” she said as she led the way. Zeke began following along, stopping to look back for a moment at Ría, who quickly realized they were leaving now and started following along as well.

The trio arrived at the shore of the Amadahy River and looked out over the flowing water. Emine observed the water closely, looking to see if she could see any fish in that area. A few caught her attention as they swam by, so she stood back up and looked to her friends again.
“This should be a good spot for now. If we can’t catch anything, we can just move somewhere else,” she commented. Zeke nodded as he walked over next to the water and laid down on his stomach to get closer, watching the river and slowly wagging his tail.
“No problem, I’ll get us some fish in no time, just you wait,” he said, full of enthusiasm. In the meantime, Ría walked over to a nearby tree and sat down next to it to relax a little again, yawning a little from still being drowsy. Emine stood near Zeke and watched as he swatted at the water and fish with his paws, missing every time. “Gah, they’re faster than I thought…” he remarked as he continued trying to catch one. As he grew more frustrated, he began swatting the water harder and swaying his tail faster. But despite all his efforts, he still couldn’t catch any of the fish.
“Maybe you should calm down, Zeke…” Emine suggested. “It’s not going to help if you keep hitting the water harder like that.” He stood up and glanced over at her.
“Yeah, maybe you’re right…” he admitted. Then he positioned himself to lunge at the river. “So I’m going to take a different approach!” Emine looked over with a confused expression, then quickly realized what he was planning to do and rushed over to hold him down.
“Gah, no! You can’t possibly jump in the river, that’d be a very bad idea!” she exclaimed, doing what she could to keep him on the ground. Her efforts paid off as Zeke settled down and dejectedly laid down again. She sighed with relief and collected herself. “Here, Ría and I will catch some fish instead and we’ll share it with you. Does that sound better?”
“Yeah, I guess it does,” Zeke replied after taking a moment to think. ‘Even though I’m sure I could’ve caught some myself if you’d let me dive in there…’ he thought to himself. Emine stood up and looked around curiously.
“Wait, where is Ría?” she asked. Then she spotted the Floatzel relaxed by the tree and gave an annoyed type of sigh as she walked over. “Ría, why are you over here and not helping us with the fishing?” Ría looked up at her and opened her eyes again.
“Hm? Oh, sorry, I was just resting again…” she responded. Emine slapped her forehead and regained herself before continuing.
“Anyway, can you help me go in the river and catch some fish then? We need your help with it because you’re the strongest swimmer of all of us,” she asked.
“Mmn… sure, I guess I could then,” Ría answered and got up slowly, then followed Emine along to the riverside again. After a moment, the two of them leaped into the water together as Zeke stayed behind to watch. Ría lazily swam along at first, not catching many fish, while Emine continued giving her full effort to catch what she could. Upon seeing her friend not catch anything yet, she approached her once again.
“Why aren’t you catching anything? I know you’re a better fisher than this,” she scolded, looking sternly at her.
“Eh, sorry… I’ll try harder now…” Ría replied, then both continued swimming along again looking for fish. She began swimming harder and caught plenty of fish, while Emine caught what she could as well. Eventually their combined stacks of fish were big enough and they decided to stop. They both climbed out of the river and sat down near Zeke with their piles of fish.
“Well, that was a lot of work, but we caught a lot together,” Emine commented happily. “Now we can finally eat, so help yourselves to however much you want.” They nodded and all began feasting on the meal.

After everybody had eaten their fill of fish, the group stood up and prepared to be on their way. They walked along through the forest to walk off the food and keep active. All the while, Ría stayed to herself and said nothing as she kept looking up at the sky with her paws behind her head. Zeke was lost in thought himself, though mostly keeping his eyes on Emine. Eventually they came to a small clearing and sat down to take a break. Finally Zeke broke the silence as he turned to look at Emine.
“Hey, um… can I ask you something?” he asked, feeling a bit nervous. She gave a slightly confused look, but nodded. "Well, we've known each other for years... we've been with each other along with Ría, growing up a-and all, looking after each other and I-I... well, you know it's just that... I think, erm..." Zeke blushed a little bit shyly and rubbed the back of his head, having a hard time getting the words out.
“Well, what is it you want to tell me? Just let it out already,” she responded, getting a bit impatient. He stuttered a little bit before finally collecting himself enough to get the words out.
“Wh-what I wanted to say is… I’ve grown attracted to you and kind of hoped you’d be my mate…” he replied, forcing himself to say it. Emine blinked for a moment, taking a moment for it to sink in before chuckling a little bit. Zeke felt himself get a little uncomfortable waiting for the reply, until she finally spoke again.
“I’m truly flattered you feel that way and all, but…” she paused for a second to find the right way to say it. “… I just don’t feel the same way about you right now. You’re a great friend and all, but I don’t think I’d go as far as to being your mate just yet. I hope it’s alright…”
“Oh, I see… that’s fine then, sorry for bringing it up…” Zeke responded, a little bit hurt but staying hopeful. “I’m glad you’re not mad about it anyway. I think I need to take a walk by myself, too…”
“Alright, just be careful then. Don’t want anything bad happening to you,” Emine called out as he walked off slowly, leaving her alone with Ría. With Zeke out of sight, she looked back to Ría again and noticed the distant look in her eyes. Taking a moment to think it over, she realized how Ría always seemed to be like that. Unenthusiastic about things, hardly ever interested, and never very reliable, making their friendship feel awkward. It got her wondering why she always acted like that, and she realized there was no better time to find out than now. “Hey, Ría… you feel like talking?”
“Sure, I guess… what is it you wanted to talk about?” she answered, turning her attention to Emine now.
“The way you always act… I was just thinking about that, and I’m really curious to know, why are you like this? Something happen before?” Emine asked with a concerned tone. She moved over closer to make it easier to listen.
“Eh… well, I don’t know how interesting it is really,” Ría replied softly after a moment.
“What’re you talking about? I wouldn’t be asking if I didn’t think it was important to ask…” Emine said, looking over at her. Ría shifted a bit and looked to the side.
“Well, if you really want to know, I guess I can explain it,” she responded, taking a breath before starting with her story. “When I was growing up, my parents didn’t exactly give me a lot of attention or anything, and I never really had any friends. They paid enough attention that I wasn’t neglected, but certainly not enough to feel like they cared. I started to enjoy being alone a little more as time went on, so it didn’t feel like there was a problem.” She stopped a moment to give Emine a chance to take it in so far.
“That’s so sad… I never knew about that before, but please continue…” Emine said with a hint of compassion in her voice.
“As I got older, I started becoming more of a loner, even leaving for things like meal time so I could be by myself. On top of that, it really changed my view on life to where I just didn’t find anything to be really exciting anymore and overall grown to stop caring about things as much. I never really felt like anybody cared about me since my parents expected me to be tough, so I naturally stopped caring over time about others. So yeah, they made me tough alright… so tough I don’t even know what happiness is anymore…” Ría explained, trailing off at the end into a somewhat sad, distant expression.
“Oh wow… that really explains a lot then…” Emine commented, feeling a little down hearing her tale.
“Now I just don’t see a point to really caring anymore, nobody cares about me anyway. So I don’t really see why it matters,” Ría added.
“I’m so sorry to hear that, Ría…” Emine replied after a moment, coming up closer and giving her a hug. Ría looked down at her with a confused expression.
“Uh… what are you doing?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“It’s a hug… don’t you know what a hug is?” Emine responded, backing away to look at her.
“No, I’ve never heard of it… nobody’s ever done it to me before,” Ría answered, shaking her head. “What’s it for exactly?
“It’s a way of showing I care, okay?” Emine said in a slightly annoyed tone.
“Whatever…” Ría muttered, looking away at the ground.
Suddenly, the two stopped their bickering as they heard the sound of someone groaning in pain followed by a thud off nearby. They both quickly turned their attention to the direction of the sound and scrambled to their feet to check it out. Upon arriving at the scene, both let out a gasp as they saw Zeke laying on the ground, holding his shoulder in pain and looking hazy-eyed. Emine rushed over to his side to see what was wrong while Ría stayed behind, her eyes wide as she looked on, unsure what to do.
“What’s wrong, Zeke? What happened to you?” Emine frantically asked, barely taking time to breathe as her concern grew. Zeke open an eye to look at her and gave a faint smile to try and calm her down a little.
“I was walking along here trying to clear my mind and everything, then I noticed that berry bush nearby…” he began, stopping a moment to breathe and recollect what happened again. “It looked sort of purple, and I was curious so decided to check it out and see if the berries could help me relax…”
“What happened next then?” Emine commented as he paused for a moment again. The worry in her eyes continued to grow.
“I went to reach for this purple stub at the base of the bush and it started shaking as I was about to grab it, then I heard a hissing sound. Before I knew it, this huge Arbok leapt out from the bush and bit down hard on my shoulder before slamming me off to the side with its large tail…” Zeke continued, moving his paw away from the wound to show how serious it was.
Emine examined it closely and frowned at the sight. “Oh my, that’s really bad… I think you might be poisoned, Zeke…” she remarked. “We’ll need to find you some Pecha berries right away! Are there any other injuries we should know about? How bad does it hurt?”
“It hurts mostly in the shoulder there near the wound, but I don’t think there’s anything else besides that… but I think you’re right about the poison, too…” Zeke muttered, beginning to feel weak and wincing at the pain a little as well.
“I better stay here with you to watch if it gets any worse…” Emine said, trying to think it fast about what to do. She looked back at Ría, who was still standing to the side looking on. “Ría, make yourself useful for once and go find us some Pecha berries to give him! They’re small, pink, heart-shaped, and have a cream-colored rim. Think you can handle finding that?”
“Eh, sure, I guess I can try to,” Ría lazily replied. Emine gestured her to get moving right away to find it before returning her attention to the wounded Manectric. Ría turned around and walked off to begin her search for the Pecha berries.
She walked along slowly, glancing at the bushes on both sides of the path, trying to find a bush with berries that fit the description Emine gave her. She stopped at a few along the way to brush through and check, but didn’t find what she wanted in any of them. She kept searching, eventually finding some berries that looked too tempting to pass up. “Well, I guess I could use a little snack while I’m here,” she said to herself. She lazily approached the bush to pick a few berries, but suddenly a Parasect interrupted her. “Gah!” she shrieked, as she tried to back away. But before she could get very far, the Parasect flashed an enraged look in its eyes and released a Spore attack on Ría for invading its territory like that. Unable to escape, Ría collapsed to the ground after a moment, KO’d by the attack. The Parasect went off again into its bush after defending its territory.

“Wake up, you lazy bitch!” scowled an angry, familiar voice. Shortly after it was followed by a hard, firm slap across the face. “I said wake up!” Groggily, Ría lifted her head up and slowly opened her eyes, picking herself up from the ground.
“Ugh… what? What’s going on?” she muttered sleepily. She looked over to see an enraged Emine standing over her. The sun was shining down through the trees to indicate it was morning now, which brought a little surprise to the tired Floatzel.
“You are just SO unreliable, Ría! I can’t believe you came out here to sleep instead of help me find those Pecha berries for Zeke!” Emine shouted. “I got tired of waiting and eventually had to go looking myself thanks to you!”
Ría blinked a moment and tried to remember what happened the previous day. “Well… it isn’t like I just fell asleep or something looking, I got attacked by something out of that bush and passed out…” she defended, still feeling a bit drowsy.
“This is no time for excuses, damnit! Zeke could’ve died because of you not getting him those berries! He’s lucky that I found some first, and he should be fine now, but he almost didn’t make it,” Emine replied, still bearing an angry scowl on her face.
“Well, like you just said, he’s alive anyway. What’s the big deal then?” Ría replied as she sat up and rubbed her tired eyes. Emine growled and clenched her fists a moment, appalled by the response.
“I cannot believe you’d say that! You are such a heartless bitch! Have you no sympathy at all?!” yelled the Linoone. “I realize he’s alive, thanks to me, but because it took so long to get him those berries, he’s really sick from the venom and trying to recover.”
“Well, sorry then, it’s not my fault I got KO’d by some wild Pokémon like that. I can’t do anything about that, now can I?”
Emine snarled and punched Ría hard across the face. "IT'S YOUR OWN DAMN FAULT FOR NOT BEING CAREFUL ENOUGH IN THE FIRST PLACE!"
Ría got up from the blow, holding her face and looking back at her with a sort of astonished look. “What’s that for? There’s no need to hit me like that,” she answered back, starting to get a bit angry as well.
“I couldn’t help it, you really pushed me to the limit with this!” Emine said in response, defending her actions.
“Hey, I said I was sorry! What more do you want from me? God damn, I tried to help and got knocked out by something, so stop blaming me for everything like this!” shouted Ría, feeling outraged that Emine wouldn’t back down and accept her apology.
Flustered by her friend’s incompetence, Emine’s anger boiled over and she exploded with one last tirade to express her displeasure. "You know what? I'm sick of your crap, Ría! Absolutely sick of it! Your attitude and behavior is not only deterring, but also damned atrocious! You're such an awful friend! That's it; you and I are no longer friends! Have fun being alone, I'm going back to Zeke and help him all by myself without your damned hijinx screwing things up!" She snarled and turned around, then began storming off while grunting in disgust and shouting back over her shoulder “Good riddance to you!”
Ría just stood where she was, in disbelief and shock, then blinked a moment as she watched her former friend storm off. After a moment, she slumped back and sadly muttered to herself “Yeesh… am I really that bad…?” She stood up and slumped off on her own, realizing she’d need to find a new place to live in the forest to avoid seeing her old friends again.

Days passed by as the emotional effects began to sink in on Ría. She was no longer being woke up by Emine every day, was being forced to hunt by herself, sleeping by herself, and most of all having nobody to talk with. She had to eat alone and had nobody to comfort her or be there to help her after a fight, too. Life was much more miserable for her than ever, and she regretted having been so rude to her friends. “I never realized how lonely life is without friends…” she said to herself in a low, sad voice. “It feels so weird not having anybody who cares about me all over again…”
She continued along each painstaking day, the effects of the emotional pain getting worse. It continued like this until one day, while sitting alone by a tree eating a fish, she came to a grim realization. “I never noticed it before, but… I really am a bad person…” Ría told herself sadly. “I don’t mean to be like this, and I’ll be alone forever if I don’t do something about it…” For a moment, she almost felt like crying, but her toughness instilled by her upbringing prevented that.
With a sad, but hopeful look, she glanced up from the fish in her paws and looked at the river’s flowing water. It gave her a thought that she should move along and find a new place to live so she could go somewhere she wouldn’t be so alone at. Everybody hated her in this place, so it only made sense that she move on after all. “Maybe I’ll find some new friends up the river a little more. I mean, it’s worth a shot,” Ría remarked. “Heh... and a whole new life too... doesn't sound too bad. I may even... like it.” She finished eating her fish and then decided now was a better time than ever to get going. So she stood up and began her move up river to a different area of the Valley’s forest from where she was now.