Ikimono: Reality Guantlet

Ikimono...

Creatures familliar yet not at the same time...

Wild hearts, pure elementals, free spirits...

All of this will be tested, as a human interferes with the natural order of things and distorts reality, forcing many ikimono to become slaves to humanity. Twelve year old's toys in a war to be the very best by killing their oponents ikimono, adau;lts slaves for doing mundane chores like sweeping or mioving boxes.

In all this unnatural chaos wrought by one twisted human, another human became one with his ikimono, and goes on a journey to right reality and save ikimonokind from this distorted reality.

Bouldertooth sniffed the ground eagerly, his tail swishing from side to side. This ground was different. There was nothing here but rotting dirt and faint traces of blood. The ground type was intregued. This couldn't be! He was certain that all Ikimono lived in relative peace with each other...no great battles had taken place since the Climate War seven centuries ago. The earth should not be stinking of death, the ground shouldn't be telling stories of bloody battles and bloodlust.

The grouptor (for that is what his species was called) called for his friend, surely Keme would know what was going on!

"Keme! Kemeeeee!"

The small mouse's ears perked up at the sound of his name. Keme scrambled over to the Grouptor, eager to see what the Ground-type had found. The Denachu had been trying to find clues as to what could have happened to them. The Electric-type knew for a fact that this place was different then what he was used to. It was a feeling in his gut and one that told him things were about to get bad for him and the rest of the Ikimono.

"Did you find something?"

"The ground is dirty" the little Raptor creature said, scampering about uneasily "Blood inside. Look! Smell! Listen!" his ears twitched and he thrashed his tail. He ran to anbd fro, growling "I do not like this place! Whatever the light was that brought us here, I want to go home!"

Keme blinked at his friend's reply. He knelt down and sniffed at the ground, ear twitching as he kept listen for anything that might try to attack them. They didn't know about this place after all. Danger could have been lurking anywhere. He couldn't help but agree with Bouldertooth. He would have liked to go home as well, yet he didn't think that was possible right now. That strange light had brought them here and it didn't look like it was going to come back anytime soon.

Before he could reply, Keakle came over. The Water-type rabbit hopped up and down happily as she grabbed the Denachu and spun him around with a grin on her face.

"Isn't this place awesome, Keme?!" the Hydrani exclaimed with a wide grin on her face. Keakle had always been one for exploring new places and going on adventures, so this was one such thing to the bunny. She was going to enjoy this and he could only hope she didn't do anything that got herself hurt or worse.

"P-Please put me down Keakle..." he begged his overly hyper friend. "And I don't see how awesome this is. We're in a place we don't even know."

"Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Back home."

"Killjoy." Keakle huffed as she put her friend back on the ground, to which he was thankful for.

"Someone's coming!" Boulder said "Hide!" He shifted the ground, making a small burrow for his friends and him to hide in. "They don't smell like any Ikimono I've smelled before..." he said, hopping in the hole to make it slightly bigger.

Keme and Keakle would have darted off to find a place to hide, had Boulder not created a place for them. The duo hopped into the freshly made hole, mindful to watch out for the Ground-type. Neither of them wanted to get smooshed. The Denachu pointed his nose to the sky, it twitching as he scented the air. Their friend was right. Whatever was coming their way didn't smell like any Ikimono. It was a different scent. Something ailen to him. What in Hermies' name was that?

"What are they? They're hairless...and they wear clothes! No feathers fur or scales!" Boulder hissed as the strange creatures walked by, laughing and having a great time or so it seemed. The two stopped and began to speak excitedly to each other.

"I almost caught a Platypool in Barking Lake the other day!" the male with dark clothes told his friebnd, who wore orange and red clothes. His friend scoffed at him

"Those wimpy ikimono? You couldn't catch one?!"

"Hey, train them right and they'll kill even a grass type ikimono!"

The Denachu stiffened at the words, his breath catching in his throat. Did that weird creature just say kill? He wasn't a stranger to seeing Ikimono kill each other. It happened way too often for his liking back home, but from the way those two were speaking, they were training them to slaughter each other. It was no longer the basic law of nature at play. The mere thought of it made the mouse sick to his stomach.

Shara felt sick to her stomach too. She was worried.

None of this sounded good. Keme swallowed as he glanced back at his friends. Whatever these odd creatures were, it sounded as though they meant harm to all Cremon. But why? As far as he knew, they had never done anything wrong to them. They hadn't even seen anything like them before! What could have caused this?

"You okay Keme?" Shara asked.

"I'm worried in all honesty."

"So am I..." he admitted. He didn't understand this. He knew the others didn't neither. They were taken to this strange new world were if they were found by those weird creatures, they'd be forced to fight to the death. He gripped the female Electric-type's paw. He couldn't allow that to happen.

She returned his grip. She trusted him. She knew that he would help her protect the others.

Keme turned his attention back to the edge of the hole. The weird creatures were gone, leaving the Cremon alone once more. Once they were out of sight, the Denachu breathed a sigh of relief. Yet he was still on guard after what he had overheard. He turned his gaze back to his friends.

"We should probably get out of here before they come back. I don't want them to find us."

"Sounds like a plan at least." Shara admitted.

"Fair point..."

She merely nodded.

Keme climbed out of the hole, shaking dirt from his fur. Keakle followed not long after him, also getting rid of as much dirt as she could. The duo turned their attention back to their friends. They were all going to have to be careful from here on out. No one needed to get taken by those odd creatures.

Shara looked around, to make sure that they were safe.

Keme and Keakle began to head off.