chapter 4

Chapter 4: Off Your Game

Author's Note: Hey all! Welcome to the next chapter of Midnight Hound/moonlighthound and i'm glad you all managed to still stay here up until now. If anything let's get started and remember to give constructive criticism when reviewing, also tell me what your favorite chapter is so far. (Trust me it helps.) Also for another thing, this chapter is not too important to the story at least in my opinion, compared to the much later chapters I have planned this one is honestly taking a chill pill.

Next Day…

Morning has came right on schedule, you know who wasn't on schedule? Dusk.

Silver and Ray walked outside of their little shelter when they caught the first signs of daylight, they caught Dusk still asleep on the ground, seems he has gotten a bit too relaxed.

"That's weird, Dusk is up way before dawn. Normally." Ray implied before the two approached him, Silver with a curious look on her face.

"I wonder…" Silver thought before a evil smirk spread across muzzle, Ray looked at her questioningly.

"I'm not sure Dusk would like being pranked." Ray suggesting trying to stifle a laugh, he knew his sister had a really playful personality.

She giggled before sneaking up behind Dusk. "Don't worry, I think he'll be fine with it. This isn't near as bad as what you can do you mischievous fox." Silver giggled wriggling her body like she was about to pounce. The Vulpix joined his sister not wanting to miss out.

"On three." The Lycanroc winked to her brother who gave a silent nod. "One…" They assumed their positions. "Two…" They raised their tails up with no grins leaving from their muzzles. "Three!" The two shouted simultaneously before springing onto Dusk.

"Holy Shit!" Dusk yelped suddenly being taken off guard from the two playful pokemon, he was heavily breathing until he saw that it was only Silver and Ray, a breath of relief was given as the two giggled, soon enough, Dusk couldn't help but join them in their amusement.

"You should watch your mouth." Silver playfully scolded as Ray laughed.

"Sorry." Dusk said laughing a bit under the two.

"Heh heh...I can't believe I overslept." Said Dusk with an embarrassed grin before the two got off of him with a big smile.

"You seem a lot different today Dusk!" Ray announced with a nod of agreement from Silver, though she knew full well why.

"Guess i'm just in a good mood today." The hound replied rubbing his tail through the fox's hair. Silver sniggered at the two. The Fox, and the Hound, and the Wolf. This was certainly an unlikely trio of friends.

"So Dusk, you said you wanted to explore around here right?" Silver asked curiously before Dusk gave a simple nod in agreement.

"Have you thought about what exactly you were looking for?" She continued. Dusk had to admit he wasn't fully sure, he had a much clearer mind set now than he did have before coming to this place.

"I guess for now we can just explore or something, maybe i'll get an idea soon enough but for now I didn't really have any fixed plan for this." Said Dusk lost into his own mind as he sat back on his haunches.

"Don't worry it's fine." Silver reassured giving Dusk a sweet smile, he didn't know why, but the way she smiled at him seemed to have a bigger effect on him with each passing moment, but he generally tried not to stare.

"Well c'mon then slowpokes! (No pun intended.) Let's go then!" Ray barked impatiently running off to no one knows where. Silver could only giggle at her brother's rash nature and proceeded to follow after him, before accidently bumping into Dusk, making both of their faces flush with red.

"S-sorry." They both said to each other in near perfect unison followed by an awkward smile, before Silver dashed off to catch up with her brother.

"C'mon Dusk!" She called.

Dusk followed after them, he wondered what was wrong with him today. He seemed to feel a completely unusual way around Silver ever since the events of the previous night have passed. It's not that he only acted like this because she was a girl, he already knew that wasn't how it worked, but what was bothering him. Why did his body suddenly feel all warm and fuzzy around her all of a sudden? He didn't know it but whatever was bothering him, was bothering Silver as well…

A few minutes into the walk Dusk got naturally curious and began to ask her questions about what this place actually was. She replied in kind. "This place is really nothing nothing special, this is just Wilder Mountain Path, there of course is a mountain in this area named the same. But honestly that's it, I know nothing about it since I have never been inside." Silver concluded as Dusk suddenly got intrigued.

"I wonder what's in there, there must be a reason why she has never been inside there. Maybe it's something best for another time." Dusk thought...

Silence has fallen on the crew for the rest of the generally short tour unless it was either Silver or Ray who commented on something they passed by, Dusk would simply nod to show his understanding. But he wasn't any closer to finding any answers that there simply wasn't a question for, unless it would be why did the place have such a familiar feel to it.

Not long afterward the gang had decided to break for some rest, sure Silver and Dusk already knew how to travel great distances without food or water, of course Ray was but a pup so he needed whatever nutrition he needed.

"Uh Dusk...when do you plan on going back to the forest?" Ray asked and Silver kind of was concerned to know as well, not that she didn't want him to leave or anything.

Memories of completely frightened pokemon running away from him was brought into Dusk's memories. He did generally wonder why did he even call that place home, he shook the thoughts out of his head for now and simply replied with. "I don't know for now, however long I need."

This of course made Ray cheer knowing he could spend more time with his hound friend and as for Silver she actually seemed relieved to the fact that Dusk and them would probably be traveling together for a couple of days. A silent yes ran through her head as she gave a cheery smile. It was only near midday when this was all said and done so they once again went hunting.

Of course Dusk ate the majority of berries while Silver and Ray did the actual hunting and caught themselves some small rodents to snack on, tearing through their flesh to pick the tough meat off, Dusk simply just chewed. And swallowed. Not that he minded at all, he was a carnivore so he would eventually have to have some meat every now and again. After their meal, the three of them just lazed next to each other in the warm heat of the sun. Something Silver and Ray enjoyed doing while at the same time something that Dusk had never experienced. In fact it has all been new experiences for this Houndoom lately and he started to mind less and less as each relaxing carefree minute passed by…

Dusk thought to himself for a moment, wondering how much time he has spent being lazy, that's at least what he calls it. He thought about his two friends, wondering if he actually could protect them. Silver looked towards Dusk and gave him a concerned look, the hound saw this and decided to smile. When he saw the faces of the Lycanroc and the Vulpix he generally knew that he would be able to protect them whenever the time had come…

For now he enjoyed this relaxation. From a distance up onto the steep cliffs a pair of red eyes gleamed from above as it stared at the trio. It had two large shiny black manes running down to its rear end. It also had huge white claws scything out from each paw toe it had, they could slice a pokemon to pieces at point blank…

"That can't...possibly be." It said to itself upon looking at one of the three closely before showing a sharp fanged smirk. For now, it walked away chuckling to itself thinking of a no doubt mischievous plot…

Sometime Ago…

The Houndour/Houndoom pack was pretty chill for the time being. All the young Houndour were playing games and such while the adult Houndoom casually chatted the day away. All was good for everyone, well almost everyone.

Dusk was in the darkness hiding from everyone, he didn't want to be caught in the sight of the other Houndour, lest he wanted to be made fun of again. All the other pups had made fun of Dusk. (For obvious reasons.) He was mostly sad and alone. Mother, dad, and brother were normally out doing their own thing, thinking Dusk would be having fun by now.

Long story short, he was eventually caught and with no adults around to protect him Dusk was of course subjected to the consequences. Nothing really bad, just the usual name calling, shoving, or whatever, typical little pup trying to be scary bully. Dusk was only a puppy himself, and he felt really hurt by all of their harassment towards him and he eventually ran away, though the others were one step behind him eager to see how far they could go before he cried.

Something watched from a safe distance as it watched the Houndour run away from his supposed to be so called allies from a thick bush. It was a canine indeed but its form was greatly covered and was able to be seen.

The bullies ultimately concerned the poor ice hound sooner or later and continued their pleasure, which was seeing Dusk's pain. Eventually, he buried his head in his paws and sobbed wishing his mom or anyone would try to stop this. It was then at everybody in the area heard a snarl from somewhere, it was a weak and feeble one but it still was there. The other Houndour ran back like little babies back home to their mommy's. Leaving Dusk alone to cry to himself to distracted to even hear what everybody else had heard…

The creature from before walked out of the bushes and spoke to Dusk. It was the voice of another pup.

"Hey you alright?" The canine said slightly nudging Dusk before he picked up his head to meet him.

"Don't worry i'm not a bully. I scared those meanies away!" It barked proudly making Dusk pounce on him and lick his face happily, wagging his little Houndour tail.

"Thanks!" Dusk said with a optimistic look before he got off of the other canine, afterwards the two exchanged introductions and made quick friends really fast.

"Uh...you wanna go play?" The mystery dog asked Dusk who was barely never asked to play before. His only response was a tiny bark before nudging the dog with his paw.

"Tag!" Dusk yelled before running away, the other puppy laughed before running after him too. Dusk was actually pretty quick but eventually the canine pounced on him to tag him back and the both of them had a good laugh. Those two would surely make the best of friends for years to come…

Dusk woke up and it was now dark. He had a pretty fun day of naturally relaxing for once with Silver and Ray. The three went hunting, swimming, rock climbing, and all the other good stuff. It was past midnight for certain, Dusk thought about a dream that he just had, an obviously very important dream. The dreams he had now were a lot more vivid and not random all of the time anymore, but this wasn't just a dream, but it was also another memory. Dusk sat up as he thought to himself.

Though this flash was clear he still couldn't see one particular puppy's face, or any other features for that matter and whoever that was, was no doubt the main character to that sleeping tail…

Looking over Silver and Ray who were rarely ever bothered by their sleep, a smile came over his muzzle and he naturally calmed down. He felt that eventually he would find the answer to that, and that eventually would come real soon.

Dusk closed his eyes again as sleep overcame him, the soft cool winds of the night sky flew gently passed everyone's fur, and it could almost sound like there was a laughter being carried with it...