A girl cycles through a town at top speed, skillfully swerving to avoid the townspeople. She leaves a cloud of dust in her wake as she zooms through. Her scarf flutters behind her, and slips off her neck. She doesn't notice, and keeps riding. A little boy laughs, grabs the scarf as it drifts through the air, and runs after her. "Hey! Hey, miss!" he yells. The girl doesn't hear him, and pedals out of sight. The boy is crestfallen, and looks at the red scarf. It's very soft, and has a good length to it. A nice scarf, all in all. He peers down the road, hoping that she will notice it's missing and come back. She doesn't. The boy sighs, and clutches the scarf. She'd want it back. He's sure of that much. He'd give it back when he next saw her. If he saw her. He holds the scarf up and scrutinizes it carefully. It really is a good scarf, and his favorite color. He hesitates a moment before wrapping it around his neck. Just for safe-keeping, he tells himself.
A week later, the boy is walking down the road to play in the river when he sees a cloud of dust off in the distance. His heart rises, and he stops where he is in the middle of the road to wait. Yes, it's the girl again. She pedals with her head down. The boy smiles excitedly as she gets closer. And closer. And closer. She hasn't looked up yet, and she's very close. The boy realizes she's not going to look up, and dives out of the way at the last second. The girl continues past as fast as she can go. "Hey!" he yells indignantly. The girl glances over her shoulder, spots the boy lying in the road, and brakes to a stop. She pedals back slowly. "Hey, kid, you okay?" she asks worriedly. He nods, getting up and brushing himself off. "Yeah. You almost ran over me, but I'm alright." She laughs in relief. "Sorry about that. I was… focused on something else," she says, and glances at her watch. "What? Hey now, that's not fair!" she shouts, startled by whatever it was she saw. She groans, and rubs her face with a weary expression. "Man, and I came all this way too. Look, kid, I'm glad you're fine, and I really am sorry, but I gotta go." She begins pedaling back the way she came. The boy's eyes widen, and he quickly steps in front of the bike. She looks at him in surprise. "Excuse me, but really, I have to go," she says firmly, and maneuvers the bike around him. "But I have your scarf," he says plaintively, unwinding it from about his neck. The girl glances back, and does a double-take. "Woah! Hey, thanks a lot, kid," she says as she hops off her bike, reaching for the scarf. The kid looks at her before skipping backwards a step or two, holding the scarf behind his back. "Nuh uh. You almost ran me over. I want to know why you're in such a rush that you almost killed me," he says with a scowl. The girl stares at him, then laughs. "You have some nerve, kid. We both know I didn't almost kill you." They stare at each other, the girl with her hand held out, the boy with the scarf hidden behind his back. The girl finally sighs. "All right. It's a secret though. Can you keep a secret?" she asks in a low voice. The kid's face lights up. "Yes! Yes, I can keep a secret!" he shouts excitedly, jumping up and down. The girl winces as the echo reverberates throughout the forest. "Yes, I can tell you're great at keeping secrets," she says with a straight face. The boy notices his echoing affirmation and blushes. "I can keep a secret," he whispers. "Really. I can." The girl holds her chin and nods thoughtfully. "I'll tell you what," she says, "You have to prove you can keep a secret. You know what you're going to do?" The kid thinks very hard, but shrugs his shoulders. "Dunno," he says. The girl grins down at him as she mounts her bike. "You're gonna keep my scarf safe until I finish what I'm doing. See ya!" And with that, she kicks off and zooms away. The kid stares for a moment, then realizes she's leaving without telling him what she's doing. "Hey! Hey! Come back! I wanna know now!" he howls in dismay, running after her, waving the scarf frantically. It's no use. The girl is gone, and he has the scarf again, or rather, still. He sighs, and wraps it around his neck.
Time passes by in its usual rolling fashion. Days roll into weeks, weeks roll into months, and months roll into little over a year. It is fall, and the boy is running through the forest, pretending that he is a leaf. His beautiful red scarf helps his imagination quite a bit. "Zoom! Zoom!" he shouts as he leaps over a log. "Zoo- agh!" he bumps into something unexpected. He looks up into the face of the girl. She is smiling down at him. He recognizes her after a second, and grins excitedly. "You're back! You're back! Now you can tell me what you were doing!" he yells happily, jumping around. The girl sighs. "Fine. Here, catch." She tosses him a pokeball. He catches it with a bit of fumbling, and stares at it, confused. "What's this?" he asks after a bit. She snorts. "It's a pokeball. What else would it be?" He stares at her indignantly. "I know what a pokeball is. I was asking about the pokemon inside," he says, thrusting the ball at her, demanding an explanation. The girl's face lights up. "That," she says, bending down next to him, "Is what I was tracking when I ran into you. I finally caught it a few weeks ago." She stares down at it as if she can barely believe she managed to catch it. "Its name is Mesprit. It's a pokemon straight out of legend," she continues after a moment. "Cool, isn't it?" she adds, grinning at the boy who held the stuff of legend in his hands. The boy stares up at her in awe, then looks back down at the pokemon slumbering in its ball. "It sure is," he says in a hushed voice. He stares transfixed as Mesprit stirs sleepily and looks up at him through the glass. There is something peaceful about its gaze, and he relaxes into a sudden calm. The boy and the pokemon look at each other, and for a moment, there is nothing in the world but them. Then the boy shakes himself, and the spell is broken. "Hey, I think it likes me," he says, looking up. But the girl is gone. He stands hurriedly, and looks around. "Hey! Where'd you go?" he shouts, clutching the pokeball to his chest. He spins around frantically. She is nowhere to be seen. He pauses, and touches his neck. The scarf is still there. He sighs in relief, and looks down at the pokeball. "I guess she's coming back," he says softly to Mesprit. Mesprit swirls in the ball. It seems content to stay with him. He stands there a while longer, though, listening and waiting, just to be sure she hasn't wandered off for a bit. He waits until the sun is low in the sky, and the birds are beginning to sing their evening songs. Then, and only then, does he sigh and go home. The scarf is his for a while longer.
Over the next few years, the boy sees the girl three more times, and each time, he receives a legendary pokemon, and each time, she leaves without taking her scarf. So she hands him Mesprit, and then Uxie, and then Azelf. When she hands him Cresselia, the last of the four pokemon, and leaves, he eagerly awaits her return, certain that he will give her the scarf when they next meet.
But she never came back.
A decade later, the boy is running.
He is running from his past and his family and his pursuers, but most of all, he is fleeing the world.
The world seeks to take his precious friends from him, his precious pokemon.
They have done nothing wrong but exist.
It's not their fault they're legends.
It's his fault for not seeing that they were in danger.
He pauses by a tree to catch his breath. He listens carefully to the wood around him as he struggles to control his panting. There is nothing to hear. He lost his pursuers back by the road, but he hadn't been sure of it until now. All the tension goes out of his body, and he sinks to the ground in relief. He leans his head back against the tree and closes his eyes for a moment with a slight smile. He's safe, they're safe, they're all safe. Safe at last, safe at last…!
He's been running for weeks now. His hometown… They chased him away, and now he has no home. He thinks he should be grateful they didn't do anything else.
At first, he ran from town to town, seeing sanctuary, but everywhere he turned there were people with nets and guns and angry voices waiting for him. Even when he tried to go home, his mother… He shivers, and feels Mesprit's ball quiver in sympathy. He pats it gently through the fabric of his pocket. He'd let his friends out, but Uxie seems to be saying this would be a bad idea. He agrees; they have to keep moving, and the best way for his friends to be safe is for them to be hidden. He just needs to rest his weary body for a moment…
He awakens later that day to the sound of thudding boots and shouting voices. Crap, he thinks, muzzily alert, and struggles to his feet. He looks around frantically in the golden late afternoon light, his heart thudding and mind clearing with the adrenaline. Gotta hide, gotta hide, gotta find a place where I can hide… The boots are almost upon him, and he looks up into the tree desperately. "No, no, no!" he mutters. If he goes up there, he'll be trapped if they find him. But he has no choice. The underbrush will be well-searched, and these folk have enough resources to surround the forest. The only way he stands a chance is if he climbs that tree. He grabs the first branch, and prepares to hoist himself up when he hears a gasp, and then the click of a rifle. He freezes, and slowly turns his head. A man, one of their men with the khaki uniform, stands off to his left, pointing a gun, and talking into a mic. He can't catch what the man is saying until he is addressed. "All right, get down here and stay in front of me. No funny business, you hear? If you do something stupid, I'll shoot you," the man says abruptly, and gestures with the gun. The boy very deliberately lowers himself, and makes his way in front of the man. The man grins predatorily. "Good. Now start walking," he says, and gestures with the gun. He doesn't get closer, preferring to stay a safe distance away with his finger on the trigger. The boy walks, very compliant, but his mind is racing as he is marched stiffly through the forest. He hits on an idea, and he shoves his hand in his pocket. He flicks his fingers in a strange way, but his pokemon see it and understand the code. The soldier growls in annoyance, and closes what distance there was between them. He yanks the boy's arm up out of his pocket, and holds it at an uncomfortable angle. The boy winces, but says nothing. "Now I thought I told you no funny business, trainer," the man says with a cruel tone, and twists the boy's arm unexpectedly. A small cry of pain escapes the boy, and the plan is in action far faster than he intended. Four pokemon burst out of their pokeballs, and the guard is flung headlong. He hits a tree, and falls limply to the ground, unconscious. The pokemon pay him no heed, and examine their friend worriedly. The boy laughs, and gently fends them off. "I'm all right. I'm all right," he says. A laugh sounds from within the underbrush, and the boy instantly finds himself firmly placed behind Cresselia. He peers over her graceful body to see Azelf and Mesprit hovering with wary expressions. Uxie floats behind them, eyes wide open for once. They all look into the lengthening shadows of the forest, anxious. The sun is setting, and with the dark comes danger.
A person steps out of the shadows, and the boy stares in surprise as the last ray of sunlight catches her face and a familiar grin. "Hey, kid, you still got my scarf?" she asks, ignoring the pokemon for the moment. The boy smiles, and taps Cresselia. She moves aside, well aware of who this is. The sun sets, and the world is slowly getting darker. There is still light enough to see, though.
"Cresselia, Azelf, Mesprit, Uxie, nice to see you all again," the girl says with a bow. They incline their heads in a gesture of familiarity. "Oh, and don't worry about the rest of the folk that were chasing you. I've taken care of them," she adds with a flip of her hand. The boy nods silently, and listens carefully. No, he can't hear them anymore. He wonders what she did. Will she try to take his friends, too? She'd be powerful enough to do it. But as he looks at this person from his past, he realizes that she, at least, he should trust. She's a trainer as well. Besides, what would she gain from hurting his pokemon? She was the one who gave them to him, after all.
"Well. I suppose this is yours," he says after a moment of consideration, and hands her the scarf. Grinning, she swings it around her neck in a majestic gesture. "Yeah. Thanks for keeping it safe for so long. You've done well, kid," she says, and ruffles his hair. He shifts his feet uncomfortably. She takes it for something else. "No, I really mean it. I saw you, all those years ago, and I thought that you were just about the sweetest and well-meaning person I'd seen in a while. So I thought, hey, if there's anyone who deserves these pokemon, it's this kid. And if there's anyone the pokemon deserve, it's still this kid. So," and here she winks, "How do you like your presents?" The boy looks up at her (somehow he's still shorter) with full eyes. She laughs even before he can open his mouth. "Ah, I can see it already. It's written all over your face. Don't say it. Some things are just too beautiful to be said for the world to hear," she says with a joking smile, and tilts her head up to consider the dusky sky. There is weight to her words, though, and the boy can sense that there is indeed something solemn behind her smile. He stares at her patiently with his head cocked, waiting for her to speak. She notices him watching her out of the corner of her eye, but she only says, "Look." And so he looks up, and together they watch the color fade from the sky. When the first star begins to shine, she says, "Beautiful." He shifts his focus from the star to her, but she is still looking at the star. "And not of this world," she adds as an after-thought. He nods, unsure of what she means by this.
They stand and watch the night sky. The boy hasn't done this in a long time. It's peaceful. It's so peaceful, he finds his thoughts wandering. Did that guard ever go star-gazing? Speaking of which, how is he still unconscious? The boy casts a look over his shoulder. The guard is gone. Oh well. He shrugs. He and the girl will be long gone by the time the government gets wind of their position. So he enjoys the stars a little longer.
After a while, the girl stretches. "Well, I should be going." She begins to walk off into the trees, but she stops and turns. "You want to come with me? See what I've been doing since the last time we met?" she asks. He nods with a wry smile. "Not like I can go anywhere, though," he says, and gestures to his face. "This is all over the national news. I'm a wanted man, you know," he says bitterly. She smiles. "So am I. So are all the people I work with. We're all trainers, just like you." She beckons him towards her. "So come on. Let's go see the trainer sanctuary, huh?"
The boy rolls his eyes. She already knows he's going with her…
"Hold on," he says, realizing something, and digs the pokeballs out of his pocket. His pokemon are a little unwilling, and but go back inside without argument. "Thanks again, guys. I'll get you out of those things as soon as we get to wherever we're going," he whispers. They are fine with that.
"Alright, let's go," he says, and they walk off into the moon-lit forest. The shadows don't seem as dark now as they had the moment the sun set.
Hiya! If you all want to see more, please let me know. I think that I might turn this oneshot into a story if I get a good response. It was a lot of fun to write, and personally, I think the concept is interesting. Who was paying attention and thinks they know what happened in those ten years I skipped over?
But anyway, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it! Please feel free to follow, favorite, review, or even reread. Whatever you want to do!
Thanks again, and as always, stay awesome.
-D. Runes