AN: I do not own pokemon, I just own a lot of the games. This story is co-posted with Zalezagoon, She's the one who wrote it and I'm just the beta for this story.
For a certain young Grovyle, the afternoon seemed to be going pleasant. Having just made a trip to Union Town's book shop for the latest deliveries, Kyoya snatched up the rare books that weren't in his collection and had managed to pay for and leave with them without any annoying neighbors asking him how his day was going, and without a few new Hall members asking to borrow one of his books. Despite the rather grey, dreary weather and the chilling breeze that swept through Union Town, Kyoya was happy and couldn't wait to cozy up on his bedding and break into his new books.
Traveling down the beaten dirt path bordering a slope descending down to the nearby river and past the west end welcome sign for Union Town, Kyoya thought about the three books sitting in the satchel slung over his shoulder. Which book would he read first? Which book sounded more interesting than the others? They all sounded so interesting, and they all had been difficult to find! Treasures of Ruin, Vol. 3: The Scenic View was about the strange treasures found on the sea floor that supposedly were linked to an ancient civilization that once lived in the bottom of the sea. That book was all about the treasures, where they were located exactly from known ruins, what their uses were likely to be, and an estimation of how long they'd been there. Kyoya had already read the first two volumes—the first volume being about an ancient civilization from the sky, and the second about old clans and tribes in the mountains that had long since passed—and had thoroughly enjoyed both; the empty spot next to those two books was where this one would go once he was finished reading it.
Ancient and Unexplained Anomalies was another one that had Kyoya rather excited. This book focused on strange places that were created by impossible means of that time, or unexplained events that still leave researchers questioning how and why it had happened. This book was one Kyoya spotted long ago while visiting another town after completing one of his missions and after claiming the bounty. Kyoya had spotted it sitting on the bookshelf behind the clerk in passing while dragging the target to the police station, but hadn't reached it fast enough after bringing the criminal in. The book had been swept up by another collector in that town, and Kyoya knew for an absolute fact there was no bartering with another collector for a book.
"Perhaps I'll read that one, then. I've waited so long to find it again." Kyoya mumbled to himself, taking a left and off the dirt path and towards the woods where his home was tucked away. The last book, Golden Rescues, was a collection of tales from famous Explorers and Rescuers from the past, and some of the harder missions that they'd gone on and overcame with hard work and unique tactics that saved them in the long run. Many of the teams listed in the book were some of Kyoya's personal favorites, and reading some of their missions was nothing new to him, but he didn't mind; he enjoyed each tale just as much as if it were the first time he'd read about them.
Very suddenly the third book appealed to him the most of the three in the white and green bag on his side. "Yes," Kyoya decided, catching his reflection in the silver and gold winged egg shaped badge pinned to his bag, "That one is the one I'll read first." The Grovyle stated to himself, proud of his lucky finds in the bookshop.
Glancing up from his bag and stepping between two closely-grown trees, the reptilian paused in place for a moment, both rather surprised and a little annoyed about the unwelcomed guest roaming beneath the tree his hut of a home was built in. The hut was too high for the small brown and beige fox to jump into, and Kyoya hadn't dropped the ladder from the porch down for anyone in months, making it impossible for the intruder to climb up, thankfully. He couldn't help but notice that the small creature seemed lost and rather unsure, looking up to the hut and calling up, looking for someone who may or may not have been in there. Kyoya grumbled to himself, wondering if this small Eevee was looking for him specifically to ask if he'd take a small mission.
What annoyed him most, though, was that this little Eevee had found his humble little hut built in a tree; Kyoya didn't like anyone knowing where he lived, which was why the tree was the perfect place for his home in the first place. Most Pokemon were too stupid to look up when looking for his home, which was perfectly fine for him because it meant he wouldn't have to be bothered by Pokemon seeking him out and taking small missions that he didn't really want to take in the first place. Kyoya was a Pokemon who liked a challenge on his missions and it was much easier rejecting weaker missions meant for the new Union Hall members if it was on a bulletin board and not from the mouth of the requester.
Kyoya bit back his anger a bit to appear less annoyed than he already was and approached the fox, a frown very pleasant on his face.
The Eevee continued to stare up at the hut, her calls for some assistance finally subsiding to low mumbles. Her ears dropped along with her bushy tail. No one's home. So what do I do? She thought quietly to herself, unaware of the home owner approaching her from her right side.
Kyoya stepped into the Eevee's vision just as she turned to head back through the trees Kyoya had slipped through earlier, and the Eevee perked up slightly. "A-are you the owner of this house? I've been trying to call up to see if anyone was home, but no one's answering." She quickly asked. "I'm a little lost and I need a bit of help!"
Perhaps this isn't a plea to take on a weak, low-class mission, Kyoya thought to himself. Many Pokemon thought he was an asshole for turning down missions that he considered weak and not challenging enough, but Kyoya didn't seem to care what others thought of him. It was their problem if they thought he was an asshole for wanting the challenge. The weaker missions could be saved for the weaker, newer Union Hall teams.
But, regardless of what this Eevee wanted, it was still dangerous to not only be wandering around alone, but to go up to complete strangers with such disregard for the danger she may or may not be in. "And you thought it would be a good idea to call up to a random stranger in the middle of the forest to ask for directions? In this day and age?" Kyoya grumped out in a low growl. Clearly she didn't care about her own safety if she was trotting up to him so willy-nilly.
The Eevee's ears dropped slightly at his tone and question. "Well…" How could she respond to that? Of course it was common knowledge that going up to a stranger wasn't a good thing to do, but she didn't have much of a choice. She didn't know where she was, after all.
Kyoya rolled his eyes in annoyance with the trusting little Eevee. "Leave the woods through those trees and right, then follow the path to Union Town once you leave the tree line." He answered in a softer, kinder tone, glad that directions were all this little Eevee wanted from him. He certainly wasn't in the mood to be asked to take on special quests, and he certainly wouldn't be accepting any unless they really piqued his interest. The only thing the reptilian wanted to do was read his books in peace. At the moment that was all Kyoya really wanted.
The Eevee, looking both annoyed and rather nervous to be going back out alone when she only had vague directions to go by, turned her attention to the trees Kyoya nudged his head towards, then glanced back to the reptilian once again. Kyoya, however, had already leapt up and into the tree his little hut resided in, and onto the mini porch built around a large branch, and was already heading for the door without pause to look back on the Eevee.
The Eevee bit her bottom lip, watching the Grovyle disappear into his home before turning back to examine the forest setting around her. The Eevee pawed at the ground, taking in her surroundings. Really, all there was were trees, trees, and more trees. To her left were a very close cluster of thick trees, and to her right were more trees grown closely together. In fact, the clearing that she was currently in seemed to only be surrounded by the clusters, as if they'd served as a sort of convenient, makeshift fence for the Grovyle's home. She couldn't help but wonder if this location was purposefully chosen for his home to be built in, or if the closely grown tree line had grown afterwards. The Grovyle didn't seem that old, however, so it was likely the former was true; the Grovyle seemed to act like a grumpy old mon, though.
The Eevee trotted over to the opening the Grovyle pointed out, occasionally looking back to see if he was looking through the small, round window to make sure she was leaving (he wasn't), and paused several yards from the small gap she'd gone through, looking around carefully. Which direction did the Grovyle tell her to go to? Was it the right? Was it the left? Did it really matter if she even had to go through those specific trees to get to the nearest town? Maybe it did matter. Maybe there was some sort of cliff, or a small brook if she'd gone straight to the left, or right, from where his tree hut was located. Or maybe it didn't matter- maybe she could have gone and found the path if she'd just kept going through the tree line, as closely grown as they were. She was a small creature and had little problem squeezing through small gaps, at the very least! Maybe this was the way the Grovyle went, so he was used to telling people to go this direction?
What was the direction she was supposed to go to next? Right? Or was it left? She tried to recall what that Grovyle had told her, closing her eyes to try and remember, but it all seemed to come back to her as a low hum of words she'd barely heard. But the words 'Left' and 'Right' sound completely different! What was the sound that the Grovyle had made when he was talking to her? And why exactly hadn't she been paying attention to what the Grovyle had been saying? She'd been asking for the help, so there shouldn't have been a reason for her to not hear him or pay attention to what exactly he was saying.
The Eevee's gut was telling her to go to the right, and although she questioned what her gut might have been telling her, she ended up going to the right anyway. Maybe that Grovyle had said to go to the right if her gut was telling her to go right. Padding to her right, the Eevee hoped silently to herself that she'd just made the right choice, and, shortly after making her decision, her questions about which was the right way were answered when, between the tree line, she could see a lone dirt path in the shade of the trees just before the grass gently dipped down a hillside.
Trotting between the trees and onto the path itself, the Eevee looked around her in hopes of spotting some sort of marker or distant town. That Grovyle said there was a town nearby, hadn't he? But there wasn't a single sign on the road telling travelers where to go from this point! She'd have to choose to go left or right in hopes of running into either the town, or a sign pointing her back to the way she came; finding the town was far more tedious than she'd thought it would be…
Climbing up the slope, however, the lone Eevee saw a small red and orange chimp Pokemon coming towards her and muttering under his breath. He looked like he'd just gotten in a fight with a thorn bush. Were there thorn bushes down at the bottom of the slope? She hadn't been out on this dirt path yet and didn't know; the Eevee crept over to the edge of the dirt path and looked down to see exactly what had was down there. "You don't want to go down there," the chimp huffed out, raising one of his arms and pinching a thorn out from under it. Just as the Eevee expected, there were thorn bushes down below, just before what seemed to be a small river flowing towards what looked to be a small cliff in the distance to the right. The thorn bushes didn't look like they bordered all of the river, though; the chimp Pokemon must have just taken an unfortunate tumble in the wrong direction. "Those thorns hurt."
"I can imagine," the Eevee mumbled, backing up to the beaten dirt path. "Did you fall down in there?"
"No," the chimp stated rather irritably, pulling another thorn out from under his other arm. "A few thieves came running by and stole something from me and fled into the water; they whacked me into the thorn bush just before I caught them just so they could get away without dealing with me." He explained quickly, gritting his pointed teeth angrily. "I'll get them soon enough. Next time they come back I'll make sure they pay for stealing from me. Then I'll haul them back to Union's jailhouse and get them off the path. They've been lurking in this area for months and have evaded capture for the same amount of time; we don't get any more visitors because of mons like them." The last bit had been hard for the Eevee to hear, but had a good idea of what had been said.
"You're from Union Town?" The eevee asked curiously. "I'm a little lost and I'm looking for Union Town. "Can you tell me, or show me where it is? I was told to follow this path, but…" the Chimp gave her an odd look and the Eevee could tell he was questioning how she could be lost in the first place. If she was on the path, and came from one direction, the answer should have been obvious! "I stumbled through the woods, and the one who told me it was down this path didn't tell me right or left."
The chimp seemed to understand once the Eevee said this. She hadn't been on the dirt path at all! Maybe she'd gone through the woods to avoid being targeted by the bandits that lived around outside of the woods! But it was still dangerous to travel through the woods, especially alone. There were others other than the bandits in the area that lurked around, looking to cause trouble for lone travelers like this Eevee. "What are you doing traveling alone? Yeah, I'll take you back. You shouldn't be traveling alone in this area to begin with."
"That's what the other mon said…" The Eevee mumbled, only this time she had a good idea about why it was dangerous to be wandering around alone. Thieves were nothing to mess around with unless you could deal with them with little problem; she wasn't strong enough to deal with the thieves nor did she have any clue about what they looked like! In fact, for all she knew, this chimp could be one of the thieves himself!
But what could he possibly hope to get from her? She had nothing on her, unless her fur counted as something desirable to be stolen. "Follow me," the chimp said before she could question just who exactly this mon was, or even wonder if it was at all possible that he himself was one of the thieves that had been lurking around. He might have been a thief, or he might not have been. Really, the Eevee didn't know. For all she knew that Grovyle could have been a grumpy thief as well. He certainly didn't seem like a thief, though, but he also didn't seem interested in her at all. Perhaps he saw that she had nothing of worth and just directed her away. Maybe he pointed her in the direction of his thief buddies!
Maybe she'd fallen into a trap!
Maybe she wasn't going to be lead to Union Town!
Maybe she was being lured to their hideout and was going to be mugged and beat up there where they weren't on the road!
Maybe—
"Did'ja hear me? I said follow me!" The Eevee snapped out of her frantic thoughts and turned to look at the chimp, who had already walked several feet ahead before apparently realizing she wasn't following. If he was a thief, he'd walk behind her to make sure to keep an eye on her, right? No thief would turn their back to another, right? "Union Town is this way!" This time he made hand gestures, signaling that she should follow him.
The Eevee took a moment to consider her actions and decisions, and although part of her was telling her to decline the help she'd wanted in the first place, she had a feeling that listening and following him was the best idea possible. "Yeah," The Eevee mumbled softly, beginning to trot after the chimp. If he was leading her to a trap, she could outrun him. Right? But if he knew where the town really was, then it would have been very worthwhile to do as she was told and follow him. "'m coming."
The chimp waited for her to catch up before beginning to walk alongside her. "By the way," the chimp began, "Why are you all alone out here? Surely you know it's not very safe to be out alone." That was a good question. The Eevee wasn't entirely sure, if she had to be honest. She just found herself wandering around in the woods. She didn't just suddenly wake up on the ground; it was as if she had the sudden realization that she was walking around, and she wasn't entirely sure why.
The Chimchar took her silence as her not wanting to answer him, and moved onto his next question as they continued walking along the damp dirt path. "Do you have a name? I'm Kouku."
A name? Come to think of it, a name wasn't something she could recall, either. What was her name, and why was it so hard for her to remember it? The longer she thought about it, the more she began to realize that she didn't remember anything about herself. She remembered… she remembered suddenly realizing that she was walking in the woods. She didn't remember anything else. Why didn't she remember anything else?
"It's okay, I'm not a bad mon." Kouku cut through her thoughts again. "I'm not going to hurt you. But if you don't want to tell me your name, I guess that's fine. I was just being curious."
"Masa." The Eevee quickly said, inwardly wondering why she'd just said that. Was that her name? Why had it taken so long to think and remember it? Something in her mind told her that Masa was the right answer to his question- but which one? Was Masa her name, or was Masa where she came from, or was someone or something named Masa the reason she was traveling all alone in these supposed dangerous area full of bandits and other alike?
"Your name is Masa…?"
She needed to decide what her answer would be; already her silence was strange and questionable at best. "Yes. Call me Masa." Masa stuck out in her head, and there had to be a good reason for that. Maybe, in time, she'd figure it out.
"That's a strange name for an Eevee! But there's no shame in having a different name, either. I know plenty of mon's with rather strange and different names! My cousin's name is Fiero, and for Chimchar's most names have something to do with the species name and the typing, or has to do with lore." Kouku stated, trying to keep the air between from being filled with silence as they continued walking. "In the past there was a famous Infernape that went by the name of Goukuzara—Goku for short!—and my name is sort of like his, only it's spelled and said as 'Kouku' instead of 'Gouku'." Kouku explained, making sure to be extra clear with the different sounds the single different letter made. "Most mon's call me Gouku, though, which I find rather annoying, but sometimes it's hard to tell if it's Gouku or Kouku."
To Masa, it all sounded the same. Kouku? Gouku? She could faintly hear the difference, but decided not to repeat it just in case she said it wrong. "What are most Eevee's named?" Masa asked curiously, trying to keep the conversation going. "What are most of the names you've heard?"
Kouku had to think about this for a moment, pausing in his walking for a brief moment before answering; he hadn't exactly met a lot of Eevee's in the past so he really had to think about it. "I think they're usually named Bri, Eve, Biri, Vee, Nora, Noma…" Really, there were a lot of names that he'd heard, but he was sure that there were more names out there for an Eevee; Masa was new to him. "A name is something that makes one unique, even if they share a name with another, though, and so we're not constantly referring to mon's as their species when addressing them. A name gives someone or something a measure of personality, which is why a name isn't exclusive to a single species nor are they supposed to stick with one set of names. I've never met anyone named Masa, but that doesn't mean you're not allowed to be named Masa. It's a strange name to me, but I like it. Do you… kinda get what I'm saying?"
Masa wasn't entirely sure what Kouku was trying to say, and even Kouku wasn't sure he'd said it all right, but it all sounded rather meaningful. A name was a name. It wasn't exclusive to one species, and one species wasn't just allowed to pick from a pool of names. Names gave character, and it was a unique way of doing so. Masa was a unique name to Kouku, if Masa understood correctly, and perhaps she could even draw that it was extra unique given her species wasn't prone to choosing a name like such. "I think I do." Names were special in general, but it sounded like Kouku was saying that Masa's name was even more special to him.
AN: Please review this story and let me know what you think of it. Flames will help me make bon fires and burn random trees.
