Murdered
“Guess it’s time to setup for camp tonight.” I said out loud.
“Maw!” A little two foot tall Mawile replied happily at my feet. I looked down and smiled at her as the two of us walked along the route. The sun was starting to set, changing the sky from its customary bright blue to a maroon and yellow gradient. I pulled out my PokéGear and loaded up the map.
“Well, we’re about an hour north of Goldenrod. We should make it there in the morning.” I stopped for a moment to stretch my legs that were cramping up.
“Mawile!” she said happily and sat down. After a few minutes of stretching I set down my backpack and began to setup camp for the night off to the side of the road pulling a portable collapsible tent out of my backpack. It took a few minutes of struggling and some of Mawile’s help, but she was more than happy to assist, several times using her larger mouth to hold parts of the poles in place while they were pushed into the ground. Once finished, I spread out the sleeping bags inside in the tent, this time Mawile being a bit more playful and in the way as she decided to plot down and spread her small two foot body across the sleeping bag I was trying to adjust.
“Oh come on Mawile!” I said smiling. “You gonna let me fix it or am I gonna have to pick you up off of it?” When she refused to move I picked her up and pulled her into a hug, tickling her sides. Despite her best efforts to squirm her way out, I had her pinned and all she could do was scream in laughter as I mercilessly tickled her side.
After a few seconds I let her go because her giant mouth started to lick me in the face, completely distracting me from my original task.
“Haha, fine you win.” I said laughing. I walked back out of the tent to my bag and pulled out some food and a pan for heating stuff in. I looked around for some water and noticed a pond nearby. I ran over quickly and filled the pot with the water before returning to my makeshift camp where I started to gather fallen branches and leaves to make a small fire. Once I had enough, I pulled out the lighter and started the fire and sat back for a bit while it burned. Mawile walked out of the tent and sat next to me, leaning her head against my arm. I looked down and started to scratch her back a little bit.
“You know Mawile…” I said after a few minutes of silence. She looked up at me with a “Maw?”
“It’s been 7 years since you and I started venturing on our own into the world.” I finished, looking back up at the now star filled sky. “7 years today we left home and began journeying. Hard to believe isn’t it?” She nodded a little and shuttered a little bit as a nighttime breeze started to blow.
“You a bit cold?” I asked her. She smiled at me and shook her head. I nodded and moved closer to the fire, grabbing the pot of water and placing it over the flames. We sat in silence while the water slowly came to a boil.
“Hey Maw?” I said.
“Mawile?” she replied, sliding up next to me.
“Can you go get the meat from my bag? The water’s ready and I’m sure that you’re just as hungry as I am. She nodded enthusiastically and toddled off to in front of the tent where my bag was and began to search for the meat.
“I think it’s in the big pocket on top, not sure.” I called out.
“Maw maw!” she said, her reply muffled due to her entire head now inside my bag as she searched for the meat. In all honesty, it was rather adorable as the bag was nearly as tall as she was and her feet were flailing a bit in the air.
“Did ya find it yet?” My own question was answered as she promptly pushed herself out of the bag holding a big bag of meat and beaming.
“Good job Mawile!” I said as she deposited the meat beside my feet.
“Mawile Mawile!!” she said happily as I pet her on the head. I opened the bag and pulled out a handful of the meat and dropped it into the boiling water. Steam billowed out from the top of the pot as the meat came in contact with the boiling hot water. I quickly moved the pot away from my face before the steam engulfed my head.
“Now we get to wait for this stuff to get done.” I said, holding the pot over the fire. Mawile sat down next to me and rested her head on my arm again as we waited for the meat to get done. It didn’t take long thankfully as the smell of cooked meat soon permeated the air and I knew it was ready. I took the lid of the pot and covered almost the entire top and walked over to the grass, tilting the pot on its side. The sizzling water poured out of the pot, causing steam to rise up from the grass. Once I was satisfied all the water was out, I returned to the campsite where Mawile was sitting and set the pot down in front of her.
“Hang on while I pull out our fancy forks.” I said sarcastically, getting a small laugh out of Mawile. I walked back over to my bag and pulled out a pair of plastic forks and walked back over sitting beside her. With the pot between the two of us, I handed her the fork and we dined on some tasteless cooked meat.
“Tomorrow, I’ll treat you to something better than this.” I said between bites. “I was hoping to do it tonight, but unfortunately we ran out of time to get to Goldenrod before sun down. I don’t like traveling at night.” Mawile nodded while chewing on a piece of meat. “What do you think about that?”
She swallowed the piece and looked up me smiling. “Maw!” I smiled and rubbed my hand over the top of her back mouth. The tongue slipped out a little bit and licked my hand as I slid along the top. I set my fork down inside the pot and flipped open my PokéGear. It was going on nine in the evening.
“Well, finish up Mawile, and then it’s time for bed.” I said standing up. Mawile took one more piece of meat from the pot and threw up in the air. Her back mouth twisted around and caught it with its long tongue and chewed it up. I ducked into the tent and got my sleeping bag prepared, throwing the pillows around a bit to get them more comfortable when I felt something jump on my back. I turned my head around and saw Mawile on my back beaming down at me.
“Mawile!” she said happily. I laughed and looked around the tent.
“I need to get the sleeping bag setup for us Mawile.” She decided lay down on my back and stuck her tongue out at me. I contemplated several scenarios before choosing the easiest one. I carefully lowered myself before pushing back up rather fast which lifted Mawile off my back, startling her.
“Maw??” she blurted out. Before she came back down, I dropped to the ground and spun my body around where my back was now on the ground. I had spun around just in time to have her fall on my chest with a small plop.
“Mawile!!” she exclaimed, looking at me. I stuck my tongue out at her and she poked me in the chest. I laughed a little bit and hugged her.
“Heh, I’m sorry if I startled you.” I said. “But now we can sleep more comfortably.” I looked outside at the fire that was slowly burning itself out with the pot next to it and decided to deal with it later.
“I’m tired Mawile, let’s go to bed shall we?” She nodded and rolled off my chest and on to part of the bag next to me.
“Goodnight.” I said to her.
“Maw!” She closed her eyes and snuggled up to my side and closed her eyes. I watched her for a few minutes as her breathing slowed down and steadied out. I smiled and wrapped an arm around her, bringing the top of the sleeping bag over her and closed my eyes to go to sleep.
…
A loud noise outside woke me from my sleep. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I wasn’t going to stay inside my tent to find out. I slowly opened the bag up, being careful to not disturb Mawile, and walked outside. There was a cloaked figure huddling over where the fire was, making some movements as if they were rummaging through something.
“Hello?” I called out to them. I startled them and they whirled around arms at the ready. I held up my hands.
“Hey, what are you doing over there?” I saw my backpack behind him and noticed several pockets that were previously zipped were no longer zipped.
“Were you going through my stuff?” I said taking a few steps towards him. He jumped back pulling out a knife and holding it out in front of him. I held my hands up again.
“Hey man, relax. I’m just going to get my stuff. You go on your way and nothing happens.” The hooded stranger didn’t move so I made a move towards my pocket.
Apparently he didn’t trust me as he darted towards me, brandishing his knife around. I managed to jump out of the way in time and kicked him in his hand, sending the knife flying out somewhere. His other hand came up and grabbed my leg and flipped me over. I landed on my head causing stars to dance in front of my eyes. The hooded figure proceeded to sit on me and started throwing punches at me. I managed to roll my head enough to miss a few, but I felt the sting of his fist smashing into my nose. With a grunt I managed to kick him in the back and push him off of me. I rolled onto my stomach and pushed off of the ground back onto my feet. At this point I noticed that Mawile had walked out of the tent and was staring wide-eyed at the stranger.
“Mawile, go back-“ I heard a gunshot ricochet across the route. I turned to face the stranger and noticed he had the gun aimed at me. I ran my hand across my chest and felt a small hole over where my heart should be. Suddenly, my legs felt cold and weak, and I fell to my knees. The man put his gun away and ran off into the night. I started to cough up blood onto the ground and fell down all the way onto the ground, lying in a pool of my own blood. I heard the frantic cries of Mawile and soon felt her hands over my back.
“Mawile…” I said weakly. “Come here.” I heard the faint patter of her footsteps as she stopped in front of me and got to her knees. There were tears running down her face as she struggled to keep from crying.
“Help roll me over.” She nodded and started to lift my right shoulder. With her help, I managed to roll onto my back and she hopped on my chest, the tears now flowing freely from her eyes. I smiled a little bit and slowly lifted my arm and ran my hand along her head.
“Shh…don’t cry…” I said. “Please…I can’t bear to have my last memory of you in tears…” She seemed to lose it and burst into crying and falling flat on my chest, her tiny arms trying their best to wrap all the way around. I felt my own tears slide down my eyes as my vision blurred a bit. I rested my hand on her back and scratched a little.
“I’m sorry Mawile…it seems I’ve failed as a trainer to stay by your side.” I whispered. She looked up, her eyes an even darker red.
“Mawile!! Maw Mawi!!” She said, shaking her head, sending tears flying around. “Maw Maw Mawile!” She put her head back to my chest and continued to cry. A dull ache formed in my chest and before I could say anything, I coughed up more blood, covering her slightly in it. The warm liquid startled her as she sat up quickly and looked at what was covering her.
“Maw…? Mawile! Maw!” she slid up and got close to my face and hugged me again. I tried to calm her down, but my strength was ebbing away faster and faster every second. With the last bit of my strength, I gently grabbed her head and kissed her on the cheek.
“Goodbye Mawile…I love you…” My vision started to fade away as I released Mawile. The last thing I remember is Mawile shouting frantically before everything went cold.