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Zen Garden Mission 1 (Part 4)

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"Ah! So we have come to an agreement, then? You don't resist and you don't get another one of those. Of course, it'd hurt less if your housing wasn't so...filthy. Then again, it fits scum such as yourself," the Ferrothorn said mockingly, with a chuckle.

Sabi could only stare daggers back at her assailant, still mute.

"Ooh, you're an edgy one, now aren't you?" the grass-type went on to say, her tone becoming more condescending with time. "Most fish folk don't take kindly to a good whipping, but it looks like you've been caught before, from the looks of it," she went one, examining Sabi's various scars around her body. "I suppose that's one more the books. Oh, I suppose that metaphor's lost on you since thieves can't read!" The thorned taunter found something in that sentence particularly amusing, so much so that she stared to laugh heartily to herself, her tentacles gyrating in the air in a nonsense pattern, her eyes squeezing shut in delight.

Sabi saw her chance in this one moment. Quickly, she began wriggling her body to and fro on the dirt, digging herself deeper into the mud. As she did so, the vines once tight grip became more and more loose, until she found herself almost up to her eyes in earthy slop. But at last, she was able to fidget out of the tendrils' collective grip, managing to roll her ball of water, now rendered opaque at points with mud, onto the wooden floor ahead of her. Quickly, she made an effort to hop onto a chair and then onto another table, each respective piece of furniture receiving a kiss of filth all its own.

By this time, the Ferrothorn had calmed down, carefully wiping a tear from her eye with the underside of one of her tentacles. "Oh, ho ho, aww dear me, oh my. I just lost myself for a minute there. Now." She paused and blinked blankly several times. Where Sabi once was now laid a muddy pit and a mess of roots strewn about in it. Before she could question it, she was treated to another torrent of water to her flank sent to her, with love, by Sabi. "You rat! You're thick and a glutton for punishment, aren't you?" she wailed, turning around in place to face the fish.

"I tire of your tongue. Now, we fight," said Sabi, trying to stare down her opponent past the layer of grime in front of her eyes.

Without missing a beat, the Ferrothorn swiped one of her three tentacles across the surface of the table, missing Sabi who had nimbly jumped away onto an opposing chair, but sending the trays that were on the table clattering to the floor. "Come back here!" she cried, clumsily turning her disk-shaped body towards Sabi's new position. By the time she turned to swing, Sabi had already leapt onto another table across the way. "You thieves are always slippery, aren't you?! I shouldn't be so surprised, honestly, it comes with the vocation," the Ferrothorn grumbled to herself. Another torrent of water, this time directly from behind; if she hadn't been coated with metal, she would have been drenched. She turned around relatively quickly. "Stop doing that! I told you that it won't work!", she said, the exasperation present in her voice, clearly more annoyed by the water more than anything else.

Sabi lept onto another table, putting her on the far side of the room from the thorned attacker. "No. I will not," Sabi said simply, poking her head out of her extremely filthy bubble.

"Fine! Force my hand, will you!" huffed the Ferrothorn, slowly hovering over the tables opposite of Sabi. Carefully, she angled herself so that the broad end of her nose faced Sabi (who had just jumped onto another chair). Suddenly, the metal hull's sheen intensified greatly, sending a blinding flash throughout the room.

The flash would have blinded Sabi had her bubble been any cleaner; the globs of mud had absorbed all of the would-be-attack's luminosity. The koi went to smile, but a glob of filth passed by her gills, causing her to sputter and heave in place.

Seeing this, the Ferrothorn moved in and bashed Sabi with her first available tentacle, this time sending the fish and her bubble sailing to the ground with another wet splat, the heavier particles of mud hitting the ground first. "Now be a good thief and stay down!" she said, her annoyance becoming pronounced.

Before Sabi could recover, she was once again binded by roots which had sprouted from beneath the wooden paneling below her. This time, they hung on so tight that she stared to bleed where the vines made contact.

The Ferrothorn hovered down to where Sabi was pinned, almost touching the floor. "These should keep you down there nice and tight!" She poked at one of the vines with the thorny knob of one of her tentacles, the vegetation stretched far too taut to move in response to her touch. "You are such a handful! I was going to let you come with me to the Royal Guard quietly, but it seems like I have to leave you here while I go fetch them!" She brought two of her outermost tentacles and put them at her sides, none too pleased.

Sabi's eyes widened. "No! Please! Take me with you! You cannot leave me here!" she begged, not mindful of the fact that she couldn't be heard while her head was in water.

The Ferrothorn, satisfied with her work, went on her way. The vines at the door, which once seemed impassable, withered away in her presence, allowing her to pass.

The room, once so noisy, fell to an eerie silence. Other than faint rumbling off in the distance, the mess hall was dead silent, with not a soul around.

Although she herself was pinned to the ground, Sabi's mind began to swim. Her gills seemed to be squeezed shut with all the ilk and grime that accompanied her Aqua Ring. She tried her best to trash like she did before, but was rewarded with the numb articulations of her fins and pangs of pain from her binding's cuts. Defeated, she slumped on the floor, eyes deflated.

Suddenly, she felt the sting which could be described as pain in reverse; her gash from the Ferrothorn's earlier assault had closed up. Soon enough, that same feeling came from under the vine's touch, soon turning into sharp stings of pain as her flesh fought to be rebuilt under the vines. Just when Sabi couldn't bear the pain anymore, there was muffled, but pronounced, snap; her limbs were once again light and free. She, from what she can see from the filth inside with her, had not a single scratch on her left. Well, not any new scratches, anyhow.

"Well, this certainly won't do anymore," she said to no one in particular, eyeing a small pebble amongst the water's ranks. In a snap, her once diligently upheld bubble had dropped, seeping away into the dirt below. She was exposed to the unbreathable open air as she flopped onto the undisturbed wooden floor off to her side. She bent her head upwards, gently spraying a stream of water over herself. The water, instead of sliding off her scales as it normally would, clung to her dutifully. Dewdrops became blobs and blobs became a brand new bubble, cleaner than ever. Sabi gave her hind fin a hard swish so she could feel the water swirl around it and its holes. Perfect.

The koi turned her attention back to the pantry, its door now wide open. She rolled her refreshingly clean sphere of influence to its mouth and wandered back inside. She passed the boxes of other foodstuffs until she came to the same box of berries as before, her bubble picking up a few grains of dirt from the room's exposed floor. She calmly pieced another three berries from the box, turned around and left the room. She paused. Without warning, she shot off out of the room, becoming an orange blur as made two quick rights and was brought back to the closet Wabi was in. She did her best to ignore the slab of wood which she had cut out earlier, squeezing back into the room through the same hole it came from.

Wabi, who at that point seemed to be entertaining herself with drawing in the dirt with her finger, looked up. "Oh, Sabi, you have returned! I suppose those are for me?" she said wearily, pointing to the berries jammed through the fish's chipped horn.

"Yes. Now take them," Sabi said quickly, obviously impatient. Her head was pointing forwards, but her eyes were still on the door.

A faint purple light enveloped the topmost berry that was on Sabi's horn, almost overpowered by the still cheery glow from the window slit. Slowly, it drifted towards the wrinkled pig, who proceeded to take a small bite from it. She chewed. She swallowed. She took yet another small bite from the berry. She chewed. She swallowed.

"Wabi," Sabi said, her voice firm.

"Yes?" Wabi perked her head to the side.

"Take all of them. Please," said Sabi, each word being unusually pointed.

"Oh. Yes," said Wabi, almost as if she was just waking up.

The remainder of the berries were pried off Sabi's horn much in the same manner the first was. As soon as the last berry had been picked clean, Sabi darted off in much the same way she did before.

"Wait! Where are you going?!" called out Wabi, weakly holding out a hand towards the door. She could have sworn she heard a faint "Eat!" from down the hallway, so she did. As she was eating however, she also heard faint voices from down the hallway.

OI, you!

Wha--?


Then a sound which sounded a lot like when Sabi was drilling the door.

Ha! That won't work against me, thief! My hide is--

Quiet! I had enough of you and your talk!

More shrill noises. Wabi absentmindedly took another bite from her berry.

What do you hope to accomplish? You escape twice and yet--

QUIET!


The squealing became higher pitched. Wabi found the berries quite tasty, almost decadently so.

If you want an actual battle, get off of me and perhaps--

AAAAAAH!

Whoever's screaming that was was drowned out by whatever was causing that shrill noise. How odd. Either way, Wabi had finished her second berry. How delightful.

I think that's more than -- EEYYAAAAAAAHHHH!

What is your metal to fire, you saucer! How now? How!? Now!?


Some far off clattering and then it fell silent again. Aw. Wabi had dropped the last half of the berry she was eating. Oh well, she had a lovely two and a half of them.

To not much fanfare, Sabi rolled back into the room, her horn glowing a bright red.

"Sabi?" asked Wabi, her tone slightly worried.

The two gazed at each other for a brief moment. A brief silence.

"I dropped my berry," continued Wabi, a wry smile crossing her face.

Sabi cracked a smile and laughed. It was a hearty laugh, one that sounded deep and feminine as her voice. She dipped down into her bubble to quench her horn with a sizzle. "C-Can you stand?" she asked, her voice recovering from her laughing fit.

Wabi examined the wrinkled flab over her kneecaps. "May be so. Let us find out for sure." She grasped her knees, her soiled hands moving slightly as her extra skin glided away from the force. She gave a grunt of exertion, and with what seemed to be no effort, she was back on her feet. "Oh, would you look at that? Berries are so wonderful, aren't they, Sabi?" she chirped.

Sabi's expression was now deadpan. She stared at Wabi through the beams of light coming in from the room's west side. "Now you know what we must do, do you not, Wabi?"

Wabi's expression hardened. She nodded.

"Good. Then let us be off," said Sabi, turning her back to her partner, her bubble glinting in the light as she did so. "If you will?"

With the familiar purple glow, Sabi's bubble was picked up and was laid to rest over Wabi's head.

"Do things like we do at home," Wabi said, almost mumbling to herself.

Sabi's expression weakened slightly, "That's right. Do things like we do at home."

(To be continued...)
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demiveemon's avatar
Got to love the way you depicted that Ferrothorn and Sabi's fight with it. Very nice read so far and looking forward to reading the remaining parts. :D