Chapter 1: A Shock to the Chest
"Newt, use iron tail!"
That's my trainer, Ash. He was my companion for the past 3 years, training me from a simple Pichu and evolving me through love and hard work through the ranks. We'd been through hell and back together. Team Rocket, 5 gyms, and now a quest to pacify the Red Gyarados at the Lake of Rage.
Ash was a great guy. He was strong willed, straightforward, and kind to everyone and everything he met. That's how we met, actually. He found me by the side of a road after I escaped from the Pokemon breeder I was birthed by. I had received quite the beating from my previous master but managed to paralyze him with a weak discharge before running away. He was walking down the road from Pallet Town to meet Professor Oak in the Sinnoh region when he saw me fainted in the ditch. He picked me up and carried me with him the whole way to Professor Oak. Oak planned on giving him a starter Pokemon, but after I was revived and restored back to health, Ash decided he'd rather work hard to evolve me.
Now, 4 years later, there we were battling more Team Rocket grunts trying to subjugate pokemon to their will, just like my breeder did to me all those years ago. I knew this and so did Ash and so we fought hard to free the Gyarados from their grasp.
"Pika-pika," I yelled, hardening my tail and swinging it in a high arc down on the enemy geodude's head. The move was super-effective and knocked the poor Pokemon unconscious.
"I feel bad for those Pokemon, Newt," Ash said to me about a month back, "enslaved to fight for masters that treat them like animals. Team Rocket doesn't understand the bond between Pokemon and trainer. That's why we need to put an end to them."
Back to the present.
"Surrender now, Team Rocket," Ash yelled to the two grunts. "You have no Pokemon and nowhere to go. Give up now and come with me to the authorities."
The two grunts looked to each other, then back at Ash.
"I still have a trick or two up my sleeve," The one closest to Ash said, pulling something short and metallic out of his belt.
"Now it is your turn to give up, Team Rocket cannot be defeated." He pulled the trigger and a deafening explosion erupted from the gun, knocking Ash to the ground screaming. I ran to his side, watching in horror as red liquid poured out of him, all over the ground and all over me.
"Ash, Ash," I tried screaming, but to him it only sounded like "Pika-pika!"
"It's ok, Newt. My journey is over, but I saw a farmhouse a couple miles away from here. Run there as fast as you can and don't look back," he said, coughing up what I now know to be blood. He pulled my pokeball from his belt and looked from it to me before opening it up and ripping it in half.
"Go, buddy. I'll see you soon," he cried weakly.
A tingling sensation flowed over my body from my red cheeks to my lightning-shaped tail, the feeling no happy Pokemon wants to feel. I took one last look at my beloved trainer, broken and dying on the ground, before scurrying as fast as I could through the forest. I heard police sirens, coming quickly through the forest, yelling, boots treading on hard earth, and then the forest swallowed up everything.
Who knows for how long I ran, the underbrush ripping at my face and feet, branches slapping at my body. After what must have been several hours, I reached a large field surrounded on all sides by forest with a farmhouse and barn in the center of it. I stopped for a moment to catch my breath, looking around at the rest of the farm. There are several fields of different colors with a couple of fenced in pastures. One had Tauras, one had Emboar, and one had Milktanks. I also saw a couple Rapidash in an enclosure right next to the house.
As I neared the house, a little girl came out. She looked to be around 8 or 9 years old with long brown hair, a happy smile, and bright blue eyes. I stopped for a moment and watched her run around the front of the house pretending to fly.
"Mrow!"
I jumped, noticing the Espeon that creeped up behind me.
"Now what are you doing here, little pikachu," it asks, sniffing me and letting off another loud meow. "Aya, look what I found."
Surprisingly, the little girl looked over and ran up to me, patting me on the head.
"Yes, she can understand you. She has the gift of Pokespeak," Espeon told me.
"What happened to you, poor Pikachu? You look terrified and you're covered in blood," she asked kindly.
"I... I ran. So far. My trainer, Ash, they killed him. Hit him with some sort of special attack. His blood got everywhere. The last thing he did before I ran was break my pokeball so now I don't have a trainer anymore," I explained, tears falling down my red cheeks.
"I'm so sorry, Pikachu. Lets go inside and get you cleaned up. My parents will know what to do."
She started walking towards the door.
"Oh yeah, I'm Aya. What's your name," she asked.
"I'm Newt," I mumbled.
"Nice to meet you, Newt."
She opened the door for me into a spacious but homely living room with a wood dining room table and a large kitchen with a wood stove.
"Mom, Dad," Aya called out, "can you come down here please?"
Heavy footsteps on the stairs.
"What's wrong sweety," a deep voice called out from upstairs.
A heavyset man with a goatee and a classic striped lumberjack shirt stepped out from the stairs and came up to me.
"Oh my," he said, "what happened to you, little one?"
"Daddy, his trainer was shot somewhere by the road to the lake. His pokeball is broken so he came here."
"Well let get you cleaned up. Hunny, can you call the police," He yelled up the stairs, "it seems there's been a murder by the Lake of Rage."
"Oh dear," I heard a soft voice say from a different room.
"Oh, and bring some wet towels and a potion down, we've got a hurt Pikachu here."
The father picked me up and gently put me in the sink.
"Do you like hot or cold water, little guy?"
I turned around and turned on the hot water with some cold so it's not too hot. I felt the warm water flow down my back and the man's strong hand showed Aya how to get the blood and dirt off, rubbing gently but firmly in circles. A couple minutes later, the Mother, a slight woman with light brown hair around the age of 40, came in with towels. The man turned off the water, spraying my wounds with a potion that tingled but made the pain go away, and wrapped me in warm, soft towels. He gave me to Aya and asked her to keep me company while he went to get some firewood for dinner.
As he left the house, Aya carried me over to the couch and sat down with me in her lap.
"You're going to be ok now. Those Team Rocket members won't get away with this, you're safe," she whispered into my ear, petting my head and then scratching the base of my ear.
Tears began to well up in my eyes.
"Ash used to scratch my ears all the time," I whimpered.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Do you want me to stop," she asked, concerned.
"No... no. It's fine. It's just hard. I just loved him so much. I don't know what I'll do without him."
I cried against her small chest.
"It'll be ok. I promise. You're with us now," she whispered, stroking my head and scratching my ears.
"I'm sure Daddy will let you live with us until we figure out what to do. We love Pokemon," she said softly.
I kept my face hidden in her chest, memories of Ash going through my mind. The battles on the pier to train against fishermen, the spaghetti fights in our small house in Sinnoh, all the tough battles against gyms and other Pokemon trainers; the only thing I could think about was Ash, the one human I truly cared about.
However, after a couple minutes I found my eyes slowly closing and the sadness fading to a dull ache. The warmth of the towels and of Aya's body were comforting and reminded me of Ash. I fell into a deep sleep.
I wake up to the sound of rain pattering on the roof. It's light outside, the sky streaked with the oranges and yellows of dawn. I yawned and hopped down off the couch onto the shag carpet. I saw Aya sitting at the table.
"Good morning, sleepy-head," she said cheerfully. "How are you doing?"
"Where am I," I asked, the fog of sleep still laying heavily over my senses.
"Remember, you came here after... you know."
Reality hit me. Ash was dead and I was alone without a trainer, just like when I was a little Pichu. I looked down at the floor, fighting back the tears that wanted to well up in my eyes.
"Hey, it's gonna be ok, Newt. Remember, we are going to take care of you," she said with a smile. "We're going to be your new family."
"But no one can replace Ash," I muttered sadly.
"Maybe not, but we can still love and take care of you. Now come on, it's breakfast time."
She pulled out a chair for me and I jumped up onto it. On the table, I saw some pokemon food made from berries and roots. A favorite of Pikachus everywhere.
"Where did you get this?"
"From the pokemart. Mommy went while you were asleep," she replied, taking another bite of some sort of meat.
"It's the kind Ash used to get for me. It's my favorite," I said, sniffing at it curiously.
I took a bite and sighed happily. It really was my favorite. I took another bite, and another until my plate was empty. I close my eyes and smile, full.
"I'm glad you like it," Aya said, smiling that endearing smile of hers. "Want to go look at the animals with me today? We have all kinds."
My eyes lit up at the mention of other Pokemon. I nod enthusiastically.
"Okay, just let me get my boots on and we can go."
She ran upstairs and I hear some thumping before she comes tearing back down with knee-high cowboy boots on and a straw hat looking like a real-life cowgirl.
"Ready," she asked.
"Pika-pika!"
She opened the door and walked out. I followed her down a dirt path to the Rapidash pen where the Pokemon stood grazing on hay left in a trough by the fence. Her eyes widened as we looked at them, with their fiery manes and tails flickering in the breeze.
"These are our Rapidash. We keep them here so we can get around the farm easier since car's can't drive through the tall grass. I'm not allowed into their pen without Daddy. They're so tall they can't see me," she told me as she waves to the nearest one.
It trotted over to her and rubbed its nose against her hand.
"They are really kind," she said. "You try."
I reached my hand out and patted the Rapidash on the nose.
"Hello newcomer," it said. "I've never seen you around here before. Welcome to our humble pasture."
It bows it's head slightly.
"They are a little verbose," Aya giggled. "Come on, let's go look at the other Pokemon."
"Goodbye, young one," the Rapidash said to me as we walked away.
"They are my favorite. When I get bored, I sometimes come to their pen to talk about life and the world with Jaegar, the alpha you talked to. He has some very good opinions. It's probably because he is over 300 years old."
My mouth dropped open.
"I didn't know Pokemon could even live that long," I said, awestruck.
"Most don't," she replied. "Jaegar was once a wild Ponyta in a large herd on the great Fire Fields of the Southern Continent. He's our prized Pokemon and one of the strongest of his kind."
As we walked, she pointed out what crops grew where as well as the best places to find Pidgey along with other things. A couple minutes later, we reached a large field fenced in on all sides with thick oak fences. I tried to see what was inside but, being a Pikachu, the grass was too tall for me to see over.
"What's in there," I asked.
"This is the Tauras pasture. It is the largest one we have and it has over 50 Tauras in it with about half as many Miltank."
She picked me up and put me on top of the fence.
"Can you see now?"
"Yes! There are so many," I said, shocked at the large number of Tauras in the field.
There must have been well over a hundred Tauras and Miltank in the field, ranging from a couple feet tall to massive bulls measuring over 8 feet tall.
"How did they get so big?"
"We figured out a couple years back that Tauras need to eat a mixture of grass, wheat, and a special herb to grow to their full size. Daddy hasn't told me what herb it is, but he said Tauras love it."
I take another look at the huge Tauras. Some of their horns were larger than I was. I waved to the closest one and it looked up and exhaled deeply through its nose.
"They aren't very social," Aya commented.
I stare at them for a second longer.
"Want to go see the Emboar? They are friendlier," she asked.
I nodded. She put me back on the ground and we walked down the dirt path for a couple minutes. Up ahead, I saw a short wire fence around a large square full of mud. Emboar, several Pignite, and a couple Tepig rolled around in the mud and ate from a stubby trough on the side closest to us. A loud crackling like that of a fire came from the pen, most likely from the Emboar's large, fiery manes. I also heard quite a bit of oinking mixed in.
"Hello! Hello. Hello? Hello," I heard from the pen. All the Tepigs and their evolutions were crowding over to our side of the fence and talking at once.
"H-hi," I said nervously.
"OINK, OINK, HUFF!"
The pigs back away from the fence and a massive Emboar steps forward.
"Welcome, Pikachu. We are the Emboar and we are glad to have you in our little corner of the farm. I am Frost, ironic, I know," he bellows, puffing out the flames at his neck. "What brings you here?"
"My trainer was killed a couple miles from here. These folks were kind enough to let me stay here awhile."
"Oh. I'm sorry..." he said sympathetically. "I'm sure our kind masters will make you very welcome here."
"They have so far," I replied. "They have been very kind to me."
"I'm glad. The little ones have a lot of questions for you but I won't have them pester you at this moment. Maybe you can swing by another time to talk to us. They are very curious."
"I will," I promised.
"We'll see you another time, then. Let's go, little ones," he told the Tepigs and Pignites.
The pig Pokemon trot away and go back to happily rolling in the mud.
"See, they are very sweet," Aya said.
"What else is there on this farm," I asked.
"Hmm... The only other thing I can think of is the meadow. It's across the farm though so it'll take awhile to get there."
"Let's go," I said enthusiastically.
While we walked, I looked around at all strange scenery. Before coming to the farm, I had never seen wheat, or barley, or a barn. I'd only been to cities or out into the deep wilderness to train. The farm was a unique place, especially with all the interesting rural smells.
"So how can you speak to Pokemon, Aya," I asked
"I don't know. Mommy said that when I was born, the first thing I did was start talking to the Chansey on duty, but the strange thing is, the Chansey talked back. My parents didn't know what to think, at first. They assumed I was just talking to hear myself talk and didn't realize I was actually communicating with the Pokemon. Once I started using words, though, they knew something was different about me. That's when they had a Meowth translate what the conversations I was having and found out I could talk to Pokemon."
She looked at her feet as she walked.
"Not everyone understands it, though. I hear some people talking about me in town. They say I'm a freak. One boy even said my Daddy has a habit of doing bad things with his Pokemon and that's how I was made," she said, sadly.
"That's so mean. Why would anyone say something like that?"
"Daddy said he's just a bully and I shouldn't listen to him," she said, shaking her head as if to clear the boy from her mind.
"I don't think you should listen to him either. He doesn't know what he's talking about," I told her. "Just like I didn't listen to Team Rocket when they said we were halting progress in the world. He is trying to feel better about himself and some sort of problem in his life."
I gave her an affirming nod.
"Your Dad is a nice man. He took me in, after all," I said, smiling.
"Yeah. You're right."
She gave me a cheerful grin. "Look, we are almost there."
I looked ahead and saw the path began to widen. Up ahead, surrounded on all sides by tall grass and thick forest, was a beautiful meadow full of flowers of every color with a carpet of soft green grass. Combee floated around from flower to flower, spreading pollen as they went. Pidgey and Starley hopped in the grass, pecking occasionally at beetles in the dirt.
"I-it's beautiful," I gasped, wide-eyed.
I plopped down on the grass, which was every bit as soft and comfortable as it looked, and gave off a happy "Pika-pika!"
"Aww," Aya said. "This place is the best spot on the farm to come and relax."
"It's amazing. The grass is practically a blanket."
I spun around, trying to take in all the beauty this place offered.
"My favorite part is the sound of the Combee batting their wings," she sighed. "Sometimes I imagine I'm a pokemon, floating above the clouds and looking down at the farm and my family. Floating above all my problems and worries."
She closed her eyes and lifted her arms in the shape of wings gliding high in the sky. A small smile lit up her face. I closed my eyes and put out my arms, imagining it too. A small breeze blew through the meadow, and for a second I forgot about Ash, forgot about Team Rocket, and simply floated above the world, so high I could almost touch the sun.
We both sighed happily.
Aya opened her eyes and said, "See? It's a wonderful place full of dreams and happiness."
I open my eyes with a smile.
"I think so too."
By this point, the sky had turned a brilliant shade of red as the sun retreated below the horizon, only a sliver of it remaining.
"We'd better get back," she said. "I don't want my parents to worry about us."
We walked the whole way back in silence, both of us remembering our trips above the clouds.
When we got the the farmhouse, the sky had faded to a dull grey and the only lights to be seen were those shining from the windows of the house.
"Mommy! Daddy! We're home!"
Chapter 2: Farmhouse Happiness
I dream about Ash. We are sitting at a table in our apartment eating ramen. Well, he's eating ramen. I'm eating some homemade Pokemon food made from berries and roots we picked up on our last excursion into the wilderness. It's delicious. Not spicy at all and made from all my favorite berries.
"You did a good job today," Ash says in his usual cheery voice. "Without us, that Drifloon would still be stuck on that wind mill."
"Pika-pika!"
Ash laughs.
"Let's try to do even better tomorrow!"
"Pika!"
Shake Shake
"Rise and shine, sleepy-head," a soft voice said.
"W-what," I mumbled sleepily.
"It's morning. We gotta go feed the animals."
I opened my eyes and saw Aya standing above me next to the couch.
"There you go. Now come on, let's eat and then go," she said, picking me up and setting me at the table.
In front of me, I saw a plate full of Rawst Berries. I took a bite.
"Delicious," I cry out happily.
They were bitter, a delectible and sensuous flavor for a Gentle Pikachu like me. I gobble up the rest of the berries and sit back happily, patting my full tummy.
"Thank you. Those were very good," I said.
"But how did you know which ones I would like," I asked.
"I could tell from the way you were at the meadow. Only a gently Pokemon would appreciate it's beauty the way you did," she replied with a smile.
"Hmm... you're probably right. Ash took me to the Doctor's once and they said something about being gentle. They said it was my nature or something, whatever that means."
She finished her breakfast and we left the house for the Rapidash field.
"Greetings, young Pikachu and Aya," Jaeger said. "What quandary brings you to this part of the field today? Care to discuss the morality of eating berries when they, too, could be sentient? I have recently taken to pondering that subject in great depth."
Aya giggled.
"Not today, Jaeger. We're doing something even better."
She hopped over the fence and walked to a small shed in the corner of the pasture.
"We are here to feed you," she said, opening the door and pulling out a bag of Pokemon food, a special concoction of hay mixed with Pokemon food.
"Oh joy. It feels like an eternity since the last time I dined on this delectable feast."
He neighed happily and stomped his hooves.
"You really are a handful," Aya said with a laugh.
She dumped a sizable helping of feed into his trough.
"There you go, Bon Appetit!"
As soon as Aya stepped away, the Rapidash rushed to eat, standing flank-to-flank to devour their scrumptious meal. Aya put away the food and locked the shed before jumping back over the fence.
"See ya later," she called to them as we walked away towards the Emboar pen.
"They always get like that when there is food," she tells me. "It's their way of saying thank you."
"It's kind of funny," I said. "I like them."
She smiled.
"I like them too."
We reached the Emboar pen a couple minutes later. When we got to the fence, all the Tepig and Pignites ran up to us and started pestering us with questions.
"Why are you here? Who are you? What kind of Pokemon are you," they asked, erupting a constant stream of questions.
Frost let out a low bellow and all the pigletts backed away.
"Hello, Pikachu and Aya. What can we do for you?"
"We just came to... you know," she said, motioning to the shed with her eyes.
"Ahh, I see," Frost said. "Well, let's all move away from the fence, little ones."
All the pig Pokemon retreated from us as we climbed over the short fence.
"Now everyone, stay very still for a minute. We are going to play a game."
"Game? Game! Game...? Game," came from a chorus of voices.
"Yes, everyone needs to close their eyes. If you do that, food will rain from the sky," Frost lied smoothly.
The oinking nearly doubled in volume as the pigletts wriggled with glee.
"Now, let's close our eyes so that we can eat."
All of them closed their eyes, some stomping their feet with anticipation. We made our way to the shed where Aya quietly unlocked it and pulled out a large bucket of slop. She took smaller portions of it in another bucket and dumped it into each of the 3 troughs scattered around the sty. Putting the bucket back and locking the shed once again, she nodded to Frost and the other Emboar, who stomped loudly in the mud some of the smaller pigs jumped and all licked their lips.
"Everyone, open your eyes! Food has fallen from the sky into our troughs!"
The pigletts opened their eyes and rushed forward in unison, crowding the troughs and going face-first into the slop. We stealthily climbed back over the fence and I followed Aya's lead to quickly walk away.
"Why don't you let the Tepigs know you put the food out for them," I asked.
"We tried it once. Once we opened the shed and brought the food out, we nearly had to swim our way to the troughs there were so many pig Pokemon. The Emboar were the ones who came up with the idea to say food fell from the sky until the Tepig evolved into Pignite," she explained. "The Pignite know it is us that bring the food, but they can't tell the Tepig that or it would be chaos every time we tried feeding them."
I look ahead and see we are nearing the pen full of Tauras and Miltank, which I will call "cows" for short. In the cow-pen, the Tauras and Miltank browsed on the tall grasses with the Tauras standing in a protective circle around the Miltank and young bulls.
"If you thought the Tepig were interesting, just wait until we try to feed the Tauras, ot rather, we give them the food and they feed themselves," she said nervously.
"What do you mean," I asked.
"You'll see. They are independent to say the least."
As we ducked through the space between the fence beams, the some of the bigger Tauras moved to our side of the herd and watched us as we moved to the shed. Aya unlatched it and pulled out a bag of food. One of the smaller Tauras stepped forward and moved to take the bag of food in his mouth. He then proceeded to dump food in both of the troughs in the center of the herd before dropping the bag off by the fence closest to the way we came.
The largest Tauras came forward a bit and bellowed, "thank you your offering of food. We greatly appreciate the trade relations between our two peoples. You may come to collect milk from our wives tomorrow morning. Farewell."
Aya led me quickly to the fence and climbed back through.
"It's best to never stay in that pen longer than necessary. The Tauras get... antsy with outsiders around their wives."
As we walked, Aya told me about the Tauras and their community.
The Tauras had been independent since Aya's grandparents owned the farm. Since then, there had been several generations of Tauras, but they all behaved the same. Aya's family tried learning all they could about the Tauras society, but hadn't made much progress since they couldn't communicate with them. Since Aya's birth, however, great progress was made on the subject and they now knew much about the Tauras and their civilization.
They were organized into 5 groups based on age and size. They called the youngest and weakest "calves" and protected them fiercely. They considered calves the future of their people and would not let outsiders so much as look at them the wrong way. Above calves were the "Young Ones," Tauras that could walk but had not yet grown horns. They were treated much as humans treat their children, fed, taken care of, played with, and taught it an area of the herd called the school, although it resembled no school Aya had ever seen. "Young Bulls" occupied the spot above young ones, having grown horns but not yet achieved their full adult size. Normally, a Young Bull was between the ages of 5 and 13 but could be younger or older depending on how quickly they grew. Antoine, the largest bull in the herd, achieved young bull status at the age of 3. Once a Tauras achieved its full size, it was accepted into the herd as a protector, a Big Horn. Big Horns surrounded the herd and performed various jobs, from lookout, to teacher, to shepherd (these are the human translations, of course. Tauras do not need shepherds), to the most important: Alpha, the leader and protector of the whole herd.
The Miltank, on the other hand, were unintelligent and seemed to only exist to graze, have children, and produce milk for the farmers. To the Tauras, Miltank were nothing more than machines, producing both children and trade-able goods but possessing no intelligence or feelings.
"That's really sad," I said, "I thought Miltank are always nice."
"They are, but because they aren't as intelligent as the Tauras, they are basically enslaved by them. Daddy said Tauras have a superiority complex," she told me sadly.
By the time we returned to the house, it was getting dark.
The farm must be huge,I thought. We've only visited 3 pens and it's already getting dark.
As Aya took off her boots and jacket, she said, "Hey, Newt,"
"What's up, Aya."
"I know it hasn't been that long since you first got here, but..." she paused, "would you like to train with me? I've always wanted to be a Pokemon trainer, ever since my brother left to become one, but I've never had any Pokemon to work with."
She looked at the ground nervously. I thought for a moment.
"Who's your brother," I asked.
"He just became the gym leader of Eterna Town a couple towns over," she said, grabbing a picture frame off the low shelf by the couch.
"What did he look like? Ash and I went through Eterna Town a couple years ago and beat the gym leader on our journey to fight the Elite 4, but the leader was a woman named Gardenia," I said.
She showed me the picture. In it was a tall, thin boy of about 17 with short brown hair spiked up into a modern-looking style with electric-blue eyes and strikingly similar features.
"He has the same eyes as you," I noticed.
"Yeah, we get them from our grandmother," she told me, "When I was little, Daddy said they were a blessing from the Legendary Pokemon, Kyogre, from back when Legendary Pokemon still walked alongside certain gifted and powerful humans."
She put the photo back on the shelf.
"I don't know if I believe those stories," she sighed, "the only record of Legendary Pokemon we have are the statues in Eterna City where my brother lives. No one has actually seen a Legendary Pokemon that I know of."
I looked at the ground.
"But I'd like to believe in something, that there is something good out there to watch over mankind. What do Pokemon think, about Legendaries, or a God?"
"I've met a couple sea Pokemon that thought Kyogre would come save them from the pollution caused by humans, but other than scattered individual belief, as far as I know, Pokemon don't have one set religion or way of thinking. We are as diverse as our types," I replied.
"Oh," she muttered, "I guess we are in the same boat then."
I heard heavy footsteps from the porch, followed by a set of lighter ones. The door opened, and Aya's parents walked in.
"Now what are you still doing up, you two," her Father asked, chuckling. "Let's get you to bed."
He picked up Aya and tickled her in his arms, causing her to squirm around and laugh happily. He bounded up the stairs with me in tow and dropped her on her bed with a thump.
"I'll take Pikachu downstairs and get him set up on the couch again, sweety."
"Daddy, his name is Newt," she cried in protest.
"Well then I will go make Newt comfortable downstairs."
"Pika-pika," I said, pointing to the beanbag chair on the floor. "Can I sleep in here?"
"Of course you can, Newt. Daddy, can Newt sleep in here," she asked.
"Sure, hun, but the floor is no place for a Pikachu! Let him sleep next to you on the bed," he chuckled, picking me up and setting me down next to her. I wrapped my lightning-shaped tail around her small arm. "Now you guys get some rest."
He shut off the lights and shut the door behind them. I heard their creaky footsteps go down the hallway and shut the door to their room. I lay down and looked at Aya with my big, black eyes before shutting them and drifting off to sleep. For the first night since his death, I didn't dream about Ash.
Chapter 3: Revelations
Sunshine crept through the window and shone onto my face, waking me up. I sat up and looked around with my tail still wrapped around Aya's arm. I heard her parents downstairs in the kitchen shuffling around, cooking what smelled like bacon. I turned back to Aya and raised my hand above her head.
Patting her lightly, I whispered a quiet, "wake up."
She squeezed the blanket and scrunched up her face with a grunt before looking at me.
She rubbed her eyes and mumbled, "is it morning already?"
I hopped off the bed onto my feet and grabbed her shoes from the closet, waddling back over and helping her put them on.
"It's never too early to get a head start on a good day," I said cheerfully.
"It is for me," she grumbled.
We walked downstairs and sat at the table.
"Good morning, sleepy-heads. Bacon is almost ready," her Mother chimed.
After eating a plateful of bacon and eggs, Aya put on her boots and we went to go feed the animals. The Rapidash waxed poetic, the Tepig closed their eyes for food to fall from the sky, and the Tauras fed themselves and before long, we were hiking into the forest to train.
"I'm already pretty strong for a Pikachu, so if anything attacks us, I can fight it off," I told her.
"We should be fine. These woods are only home to docile Pokemon," she explained, "My parents used to walk me through here on their shoulders when I was little and nothing ever happened to us."
Up ahead, I saw a large clearing with 3 logs standing up in the center and a small cliff with a small hot spring under it.
"This was where my Father used to train Espeon before he inherited the farm," she explained, "you can practice moves on those big logs, try climbing that rock face, and then relax your tired muscles in the hot spring below it. He said it is the perfect training spot, surrounded on all sides by trees to dodge in and out of and with an open sky to train on rainy days."
"I love it. Can we start today," I asked, eager to see how much I remembered from Ash's training sessions.
"Sure. To start, show me some of your moves!"
I ran to the center of the clearing in front of the logs and build up a charge inside me. I feel my cheek pouches get red-hot as they generate a massive surge of electricity.
"Piiiiika!"
I shot a massive lightning bolt into the center tree trunk, enveloping it in smoke and charring the outside to a crisp. The innards of the log were undamaged, however, and it remained standing. Aya's mouth dropped open.
"Wow! That was awesome! What other moves do you know?"
I smiled and crouched low, again building up a massive charge in the core of my body. I ran towards the log to the right, bringing my internal capacitors to full charge just as I reached my peak speed. I jumped hard into the log and unleash all my energy into it, both kinetic and electric. The log was again enveloped by smoke, but only a large blast charred the surface in a starfish pattern.
Aya cried out happily. "That was volt tackle, wasn't it?"
"Yep," I said matter-of-factly, taking in her praise, "Ash just taught me that one."
I look at her sadly, "before he died, that is."
"Hey, it's okay," she says comfortingly, "we can stop training if you'd like."
"No, it's fine. I need to let go of the past and focus on the here and now. Let me show you my favorite move," I said, backing up.
In one move, I sprinted forward and jumped high in the air, spinning quickly and hardening my tail to solid steel. I brought it down heavily on the tree trunk and split in clean in half, causing Aya and I to be showered in woodchips.
She jumped up and down with glee, wood chips tumbling out of her hair in the process.
"That was awesome," she screamed.
A couple hours later, we neared the house. Off in the distance, I saw a large barn I had never noticed before off by the Tauras pen.
"Aya, what's that," I asked.
"That's the barn," she told me, "I don't know what's in it though. Daddy said that's where he gives the Tauras their tests."
"The lights are on," I noticed, "want to go check it out?"
She thought about this for a second.
"When I was little, Daddy said not to go in there because we might spook the Tauras."
"Well, you're a big girl now! It should be fine, we'll just go take a look and be right back out before anyone notices."
She nodded in approval. "Let's go."
As we neared the barn, we started to hear a dull pounding and the frantic mooing of Tauras. It started out very quiet but got noticeably louder the closer we got to the barn. By the time we were at the front gate, it was loud enough for both Aya and I to look around nervously, but we had to go in. We tried the windows, but even with me on her shoulders, we couldn't quite reach it.
"Let's go inside," I whispered, pointing at the door.
We moved towards the large barn door and slowly and quietly opened it. We silently moved through the opening and went inside.
What we saw will haunt my nightmares forever. Our mouths fell agape and I let off a small shock from both my cheeks as I stared, horrified at the scene before me. Aya's Father stood above a large reinforced table with four large legs and no distinguishable markings, but it wasn't the table that terrified me, it was what was occurring above it. On top of the steel-plated surface of the table, a Tauras lay on it's side, head chopped clean off and it's legs cut through the bone lying in a pile next to the corpse. The torso was even worse. It's body cavity hung wide open with all the intestines and the still-beating heart dropped in a pile next to the table. It was more of an altar with such a grisly sacrifice on top of it.
Two other Tauras were locked in a small cage in the back of the barn. Their beastial moo's held no meaning other than pure terror.
And the perpetrator of all this violence? Aya's Father himself. When we walked in, we caught him mid-swing with the bloody cleaver still in the air. When he brought it down, it made a deep thump as it cut straight through the poor Tauras' midsection, slicing a sizeable chunk of meat off. He proceeded to dump it into a heap of chopped flesh before raising his arm for another swing. Before he could do any more damage, however, Aya screamed.
"Daddy!"
He jumped, clearly startled. He looked between his daughter and the mutilated corpse in front of him.
He put the knife down and said,"Aya, I can explain."
He started to walk towards her, but realized he had blood all over his arms and stepped back. Aya retreated at his approach but, hearing the cries of the other Tauras, ran forward past her Dad to the cage.
"I won't let him hurt you," Aya told them, trying to comfort them through their desperate cries.
"Aya, we need to do this. Where do you think the hamburgers we eat come from? Or bacon? Or eggs? We need to eat animals to survive," he pleaded, "we take good care of them and treat them with love, but we need to eat too. Sweetie, please. I promise they don't feel a thing."
"How can you say that," she screamed, "they are terrified."
"I know, honey, but once it's their turn, I make it quick and painless. Trust me, I don't like hurting them any more than you do, but it's what we need to do."
He wiped his arms clean with a towel and moved to hug her.
"Aya, trust me. It doesn't hurt a bit."
She stared at him, the anger fading away and the pieces clicking together in her young mind. She stepped forward and gave him a nervous hug.
"I understand, Daddy. As long as they don't feel it. I forgive you."
But I couldn't forgive him. After what happened to my trainer, Ash, the sight sickened me. He was murdering those poor Tauras the same as those Team Rocket Grunts murdered Ash. Maybe he had his reasons for doing it, but it was murder all the same.I turned and ran, ran far into the woods, through the forest, through the underbrush, straight into the wilderness and didn't look back.
I'm still living in these woods, away from the humans that kill Pokemon and eat them for food. Never again will I be tricked into helping them further their evil cause. I am free, and I am safe. Who knows when they will look at us Pikachu's and decide we'd look good on a plate. I'm sure as hell not waiting to find out.