CARSON

            The black lava-stone castle was abuzz today.  Carson Brightflame could hear the commotion in the courtyard outside his tower cell he was being confined to. Starfall’s guards were excited about something. He couldn’t see them because the single barred window was too high for his ten-and-a-half year old self to peer out of. He strained his ears to listen.

            “…and that ought to please him,” one said.

            “His Grace has been upset since the escape,” said another.  “Ever since the prisoners got loose our sergeants have even been sweating. And who do you think they take it out on? Us. But today, the captain of our troupe told us to gather in the hall, and let me tell you, he was sure relieved.  King Starfall must be pleased with something.”

            Carson frowned upon hearing that.  Pyro, the boy’s Torchic and Spirit Pokémon, chirped unsurely, as if to ask “what do you think it is?”

            The young boy shook his head.  “Whatever it is, it can’t be good,” he replied as he scratched the little Pokémon’s yellow wing that was spotted with red-colored blotches. 

            Starfall had betrayed and killed Carson’s father, the rightful King of Lavaridge and the Mt. Chimney Kingdom.  Then, he sat himself on the Brightflames’ ancestral throne. It was Starfall’s triumphant smile that Carson could never forgive.  For a while, Carson believed that Starfall had killed his older brother, Brandon, as well, until the night he decided to try and save a stranger’s life to get back at the Traitor King.

            He could still see them running down the tunnel to freedom, and he would have gone with them, but he was seeing through Pyro’s eyes, as the Stone Giant in his dream had taught him.  Carson had tried to trick one of Starfall’s guards into indirectly freeing him.  Every night he remembered how close he was when the other guards caught back up to them.  They had known that Brandon and the stranger had escaped, and Carson made them believe that the guard he had tricked was trying to free him as well.  Now that guard was sleeping forever in Starfall’s Salamence’s belly.  Even though that guard was working for Starfall, it still pained him to hear his screams of agony all the way in his cell tower as the hungry Salamence ate him alive. He wasn’t really freeing me, Carson thought. And now it’s my fault he’s dead.

            Carson had heard from the other guards since that day that Starfall had been livid. He had heard that Starfall had been unmerciful with all petty criminals that were brought before him.  Those were the only times he left his chambers; to command punishment ranging from the loss of fingers for theft to tongues for whispering against Starfall’s right to rule.

            When Starfall hadn’t been ruling judgment, he had been locked up in the King’s tower chambers.  From what Carson had heard, Swellow carrying messages were seen leaving and returning almost daily.  The jury was still out as to who those messages were being sent to.

            There came a knock at the door and Pyro the Torchic hopped in front of Carson, who stood up to answer. It’s a little early for lunch time. “Just put it inside,” Carson told the sentry who stood watch over him.  “I’ll eat it when I feel like it.”

            The door opened all the way anyway, and Carson took a step back in surprise, and Pyro did the same.  Miguel Starfall, the Traitor King himself, was his visitor.

            “I’m sorry, little one, it seems I’ve forgotten to bring lunch,” the corners of his mouth played in a little smile.  Carson felt the anger swirl inside of him. He hated that smile.  “We’ll get some when we return. Today, we’re going to go for a little… walk.” The wretched smile got a little bigger.

            Carson hated Starfall with a passion. Yet he knew that showing that passion could get him killed… or worse.  Carson mastered his emotions once again.  The longer Starfall thought he was a stupid, innocent, little kid, the longer Carson would stay alive.

            He put on a smile of his own, though it pained him to do it.  Carson looked down at Pyro, “Did you hear that, boy? We’re going on a walk!” He looked up at Starfall and pretended to be excited.  “Can we play pretend? Like we’re on an adventure?” he asked, full of false innocence.

            Starfall was unfazed, though maybe it was just a façade of his own.  When he said “but of course!” his mouth and voice were merry with excitement, but behind his eyes hid a cruel skepticism of Carson’s feigned excitement.

            An hour later, Carson found himself carrying Pyro in his arms around the jagged rocks and hills that surrounded Lavaridge, the capital of the Mt. Chimney Kingdom.  The Jagged Pass, as it was called, stretched from the east end of Lavaridge into the Mirage Desert.  It was a complete wasteland compared to the fertile valleys and hot springs to Lavaridge’s west.

            They might be taking me out here to kill me, and nobody will ever find us, he thought.  Pyro seemed to sense his thoughts and chirped a consoling message.  If they try, I’m not going down without a fight. He began to eye the five or so guards that were accompanying him.  He had picked up a sharp rock earlier when they weren’t looking.  Carson wondered how many of them he could take with him. 

            And then there was Starfall. If worse came to worse, and they were going on this walk to be rid of Carson once and for all, he doubted he could ever land a hit on him, especially when that Salamence of his was always hungrily waiting for its chance to fight.

            “Ah, here we are, now,” Starfall said.  “Look for yourself, little boy. This is what happens to my enemies. Look and be know what happens to those who plot against me, boy.” They had come to a steep cliff of rocks, about twenty feet high.  There was a corner where two of the cliffs joined, and where they met was a bundle of sticks where once a campfire may have been.  Carson took a step forward and Pyro leapt out of his arms, and ran towards a spot on the ground where a few bright red berries lay strewn across the ground… and then he saw it.

            In another corner, in the shadow that the afternoon sun cast over the rocks, was a dead Pokémon.  It had pale blue skin, and terrible scars.  Some of its flesh was already beginning to rot. Swampert, he knew.  This was the Pokémon that Starfall had captured during the battle of Mauville; the Pokémon that Carson had set free the night he had discovered the secret tunnels below the castle. The night Starfall betrayed my family…

Swampert’s body was sprawled on the ground, and one skinny arm was reaching for what was hanging on the cliff. The rotting corpse of a young man was slouched over a long dark wooden shaft that stuck out of his chest.  He wore dark green clothes, and Carson could already tell some bug Pokémon had been by to scout out and eat from the open wound that the shaft came out of.

            Carson felt tears well up in his eyes, and his heart broke. Pyro stood motionless, observing the scene. It was as if Swampert was reaching out for his young man… But if Swampert died soon after, then they had a Spirit Bond. And the Swampert line belong to the Marshes. Carson realized that the man whose body was impaled to the rocky cliff was Chris Marsh, the King of Slateport that Starfall was always going on and on about finding.

            WHOOSH! Carson felt something fly by his ear, he looked and a second, smaller and skinner shaft fly into the body.  Flames began to spread over it as well before another shaft thudded into the corpse’s torso. And another.

            “It seems fitting,” Starfall’s voice whispered in his ear and Carson shuddered when he felt the Traitor King’s hand on his shoulder. “I killed this man’s father in Meteor Falls during the first Great War, and then the fish’s son came walking into my kingdom, and so I killed him, too.”

Somehow, Carson didn’t believe that Starfall killed this man. Chris… his name was Chris, he remembered Starfall mentioning him while he sat in his father’s throne. He could smell the lie.  But something did happen here… some terrible accident or misunderstanding that led to Marsh’s death.

            Tears were beginning to fill his eyes, and his vision became blurred with them. Stop. Stop this is evil… He was a King, like my father. He deserves a burial, he thought, but he didn’t dare say that out loud.  He turned to look at Starfall with contempt, but stopped himself as he noticed Salamence tearing at the flesh of the dead Swampert.  For the first time since Carson had freed his brother, he had felt helpless in Starfall’s clutches.  More arrows began to feather the dead body, and soon it was engulfed in flame. Pyro leapt into his arms again, and he hugged his Spirit Pokémon tight.

            He didn’t want to watch, but he looked all the same.  I have to look at it, he told himself. What kind of men celebrated the death of an enemy like this? He wasn’t my enemy, Carson knew in his heart.  Starfall’s men were taking turns shooting fire arrows at the corpse as it hung there, impaled to the rocky cliff.  The young Prince of Lavaridge held Pyro tighter in his arms as he heard Salamence tear a chunk of flesh from the pale blue Pokémon’s lifeless body. This is butchery. Sick butchery.