A short time from dawn, a Leafeon stumbles on the outskirts of a large town. His head turns from side to side, probing every shadow. His eyelids droop, but the shrill cry of a Hoothoot jerks him back to alertness. A bolt of fear runs through his body. He scans the dense forest growing around the isolated town. All of the trees are dying. Their leaves are a dull yellow and splotched orange. Although he has only been gone for a day, he misses his own trees with their vibrant reds and golden canopy.
The sun begins to touch the very bottom edge of the sky. He takes a deep breath, feeling the crisp autumn air flow through his short fur. He exhales a cloud of frost.
He prefers his own part of the forest. Untouched by many civilized pokemon, it blooms into life every spring, glowing with life. He loves his home, with the sun reflected in every purple flower and blade of emerald grass. He loves hearing the birds sing him to sleep every night.
Seeing nothing, he shivers and fluffs his short fur out. He looks back at the town's formidable clay wall, feeling lost and afraid. "Hello?" he calls, putting his front paws up on the cool surface. "Let me in! I'm cold out here!"
No response. The Leafeon's ears flick around, aware of any small sound. "Hello!" he calls again, louder. "Hey! I saw that pokemon you were asking for!" He beats his paws against the wall futilely. When there is still no response, he droops. He knows that there is only one way in, and it is barred at night. Still, he goes on over to the two heavy wooden doors and knocks on them as well.
"Get out of here!" A white face appears over the wall, illuminated in in the torch that the creature carries. It waves the fire down at him. "How long have you been traveling? That monster's sure to be gone by now, wherever you saw it! Get lost!"
"But-" The Leafeon takes a step back from the angry pokemon, confused. "I saw it! You don't understand! You're not going to go after it? It was by my home! It's going to hurt the pokemon in my area!"
"I don't care," the guard growls, shaking his head firmly. "I have a job to do. Keep your racket down. Some pokemon are trying to sleep here." He bares his teeth and disappears.
The Leafeon tosses his head, feeling angry and perplexed. "Fine! I don't need you." He spits on the ground, turning and striding back into the forest, tramping noisily on the falling leaves. That strange pokemon is going to ruin everything in my forest. A chill runs down his back. Shadows dance in the corners of his eyes. His heart rate increases slightly. "Hello?" he calls, his words returning emptily. He wishes he had never left for this town.
The townspeople came to his area of the forest a week ago, trampling all of the already dying flowers under their careless feet. He had been angry at them, especially when they demanded angrily if he had seen a strange pokemon come this way. He hated to pick a fight, though. They were from a town a good three miles away. He didn't want to turn them all out after coming such a distance. He had shaken his head and promised to tell them if he did see anything.
A day after they left, a sense of being watched came over him. He shook it off, marking it as paranoia. He had taken a walk to clear his head when he came upon a pokemon feasting upon a dead Pokemon. It looked up and fixed him with its sharp red eyes while gore dripped off its worn fangs. Startled, he had run. His legs screamed and his breath burned in his throat, but he kept running, imagining the hunter tearing him apart as easily as that Pidgeotto.
At last he had stopped, swaying, as he scanned the forest around him. Too terrified to go back to his home, he buried himself in a pile of fallen leaves and trembled until sleep claimed him.
The Leafeon shivers as he jumps back into the present, the image of the dead Pigeotto and those burning red eyes branded into his mind. The sky steadily brightens. Unsure of what to do, he simply stands in the middle of the silent forest, listening to his own heartbeat. The quiet is starting to unnerve him. Where did all of the pokemon here go?
"Jumpy?"
The odd stillness is slashed apart by the Leafeon's screams.
"That's the best reaction I've ever gotten. Can you do it again?"
The Leafeon fights to calm his racing heart as he realizes that the voice is bright and childish. Spinning around in circles to try and locate the speaker, he curses and takes a deep breath. "Who are you?" he shouts.
The voice laughs. "Aww, you're kind of cute. I'm Tovi. Nice to meet you… although you might not say the same for me." She laughs again. The carpet of dead leaves a few feet in front of him rustle, and she pokes her head out. She looks a bit like a miniature Pikachu, but he hasn't seen anything like her before. "I love it when the leaves fall. Don't you?" She flicks a few at him. They fall short and fall slowly to the ground. The Leafeon feels his spirits sink for some reason just watching it.
"No," he says eventually. He hates seeing the plants die. "Who are you?" he repeats. "Don't say Tovi. I mean… do you know who is scaring the pokemon near my home?" She doesn't look like much- her head, at least. It's a long shot, but he doesn't know what else to do.
'Rawr. Look at me. I'm a big scary monster." Tovi climbs out of the leaf pile and wiggles her paws at the Leafeon. Now that he can see all of her, he realizes that she doesn't even come up to his shoulder. She looks even more like a mini-Pikachu, except for the markings on her ears and face. "I've never been any more than mile from this town and I've never terrorized any pokemon for sure."
He wonders what jumping random pokemon at dawn, in an empty forest counts as. He shakes the thought from his head. "Alright, fine," he says. "Do you live in the town?" He doubts it, looking at her dirt smeared exterior. She smells a bit too.
"Pfft. Please." Tovi folds her paws over her chest. "If I lived in there, don't'cha think I would be sleeping in there right now? And be richer?"
"So instead you get up early waiting to scare pokemon going their way?" the Leafeon mutters under his breath. "What do you mean, richer?"
Tovi snorts. "Why do you think they have all that security? I've been living here all my life. They put that wall up real fast about a week ago. They seemed really scared about something. Probably robbers or something." She laughs and rubs her paws together.
Something much worse than robbers. They put up the wall about the same time that they came asking him about the strange pokemon. "Yeah, probably," he says lamely. "What are you? I've never seen anything like you before.
"Really," Tovi says, raising an eye-ridge. "I'm a Minun." She offers no other explanation. "At least you didn't think I was a mutant Pikachu or something. What are you?" She runs a paw down his flank and tugs experimentally on one of the leaves on his leg. "Does this hurt?"
"Ow! Yes!" He pulls away, annoyed. "I'm a Leafeon. My parents were Leafeon. There's an evolution rock where I live. We're quite common." As soon as he says it, he regrets the lofty note in his voice, thinking that Minun may be common in this area but not his. "I just want to go home," he whispers, although his heart swells in fear of that strange pokemon.
"Nope." Tovi yanks on his tail as he turns to go, eliciting a pained squeak. "You'll help me get in that town, Leafeon! In return, you get treasure! Lots of it!"
"Get off me!" he snaps, lightly kicking her off with a back paw. "I don't need treasure! I just want to get the pokemon scaring my forest locked up so I can live peacefully!"
A gleam shines in Tovi's dark eye. "Ohh," she says, and smiles triumphantly. The Leafeon leans away, unnerved by the sudden change. "You know, there's this powerful guild thing outside of the forest that will do anything for the right sum of money. Or… valuable items." She winks at him.
He wrinkles his nose, even as he thinks about how well these pokemon could be used against the 'monster'. Without knowing that it's gone, I'll never live peacefully. I'll always be afraid. "Alright," he agrees reluctantly. "But after that we go our separate ways. My forest will be cleared and you'll be rich, and we can both be happy."
Tovi nods and holds out a paw. "It's a deal," she says, and they shake on it solemnly. She smiles. "So what's your name, partner?"
"Kaestra," he responds. He looks at the sun filtering through the leaves and remembers his favorite spot to take a nap, nestled perfectly in a ray of warmth. He nudges the foliage at his feet away and sees nothing but dirt. Wishing for a single flower, he pushes the leaves back. "What's your great plan then?"
"Plan?" Tovi says, smirking. "What's a plan?"
"Oh dear," Kaestra says, sighing… again.
Rain had fallen overnight. However, by the time the sun in high in the sky, not a single cloud is in sight. Kaestra groans as he sees Tovi reemerge into the forest, covered head to toe in dark mud and carrying two heavy pawfuls of the sticky substance. "Rise and shine, sleepyhead," she says as he raises his head, lobbing a clod directly at his chest. It hits hard and he shouts as the cold mud drips off of his chest fur, spitting out a bit that splattered into his mouth. "Done sleeping the day away?"
Kaestra shoots a glare at the Minun, his mind rolling over various threats. I'd hate to get into a fight, but this is another issue completely. "I haven't slept all night," he says, just as her other handful strikes home on his left flank. Anger surges in his body. Tovi giggles and puts a paw up to her mouth. "Oops," she says. "Don't look so down. You're going to distract the guard while I run in and grab us some loot. Got it? Great." She snags an old, worn cloth bag hanging from a low tree branch and smears the remains of her mud over the dull green cloth.
The thought being able to free him of all this trouble bolsters Kaestra. "Fine, fine," he says, rising wearily to his feet. "Do you have anything to eat? I'm famished."
Tovi snorts scornfully. "What? Food? Good luck. Maybe you'll find some apples ahead." She turns and scampers away, in the direction of the town. Before she is completely out of sight though, she calls over her shoulder "Glory! Gold! How can you even think of eating at a time like this?" She waves the bag over her head as a farewell.
Kaestra follows her, painfully aware of the mud hardening in his fur. I shouldn't be doing this. Surely there's another way to get rid of the monster. As he thinks it though, he knows it isn't possible. He has no money or valuable items. Although he hates the idea of stealing from potentially honest pokemon, he has no other choice. Gritting his teeth, he continues onwards. A cold wind ruffles his fur. He shivers. Even worse, he doesn't see any potential breakfast.
The town is located in a clearing. The trees do not quite reach over the walls, so a few steps in between the walls and circle of forest is squishy with mud. As Kaestra approaches the heavy doors- still closed-, he frowns, because he cannot hear any voices, not even the playing of happy children. A Sandslash sits on the wall with their back against the arch of the doorway. Its eyes are closed, peacefully taking a nap in the autumn sun. Kaestra puts a paw on the doors and pushes. It remains firmly shut and presumably barred.
He catches a tiny bit of movement above him. Tovi balances on one of the tree branches near the wall, although the jump to make it over must be at least five feet, plus the fall to the ground if you miss. The branches that high up are fairly flimsy. Kaestra can see the branch swaying even under her minuscule weight. The guard on the wall shifts and cracks an eye open.
"Hey," he calls tentatively, wanting to keep the guard's attention on him. "Why are the gates shut? Can I… come in?"
The Sandslash jumps up as soon as he speaks, her head swiveling to find him. When it sees him, it visibly relaxes. "Sorry sir," she calls down, snapping her claws together. "No one can come in and no one can go out. It's for all of our safety. Go away." A few mere yards away, Tovi runs off her branch and makes a flying leap for the wall. Half her body thumps against the wall loudly as she scrabbles for purchase on the damp, slippery wall. The Sandslash's ears follow the sound. "What was that?" she snaps. "Are you alone?"
"Of course I a-" Kaestra begins, desperate to keep her attention on him, but the guard sees the squirming black shape clinging to the wall.
"Stop!" she shouts, striding towards Tovi.
Kaestra stands, paralyzed with fear. The guard picks up the Minun by the ears roughly, even as she cries out in pain. She writhes helplessly in the stronger pokemon's grasp. Something deep inside the Leafeon awakens. "Keep your paws off," he snarls, digging his paws into the wet dirt. Feeling the power of nature all around him, he shouts, and when he does the guard collapses, dropping Tovi and weakly falling off the wall to drop into a heap beside him. He feels a burst of energy flow through him, strengthening his tired muscles.
Tovi stands up and rubs her ears tenderly. "Kaestra… what was that?" He can't tell if it's awe or fear or a mixture of both in her voice.
"I'm not sure," he rasps, his throat suddenly sore. What was that? How did I do that?
"I-I… I see the switch to open the gates. There are some stairs here. I'll be right there. It's really strange… there's almost nobody here." With a scared glance- definitely fear- she disappears behind the wall, her bag securely strapped to her back, leaving Kaestra to sit and think.
His mind is empty though. He is afraid, but of what he can't tell. Himself? Feeling the power still flow through his body, he shudders.
The door creaks open slowly. Steadying himself with a deep breath, he prepares to meet the town's challenges. Instead of seeing a group of ferocious fighters ready to rip him apart, all he sees in a hunched, old Umbreon sitting in the middle of the doors and Tovi next to him. "Greetings, brother," he says in a voice too strong for his frail body. "I am Zai'an, the overseer of this town. I wish you were not here, brother. Why have you come this way?"
Kaestra recognizes him. Zai'an one of the pokemon that came to his home. "Do you remember me?" he asks, but presses on without waiting for a response. "I live a few miles from here. You came to me a little while ago looking for a pokemon. I saw him. He was disrupting my home. There aren't any predators where I live."
"Do you have to worry about overpopulation, then?"
Kaestra shakes his head. "No, the forest is massive- enough space for everyone. But that's not the point. I saw the monster, and he was- he was killing and-" he shakes his head, frustrated that he cannot properly emphasize his point. Tovi remains silent, standing next to the Umbreon.
Zai'an's eyes narrow. "That monster you're talking about is my son. But you're right. He's a menace. He wasn't always like that. He used to be a normal pokemon. He was ambitious. He had hopes and dreams. We were constantly being raided by another creature. We could do nothing to defend against it, because it struck swiftly and silently. A stranger came to our town and said he could help. My son wanted to rid our town of our enemy, so he went to the stranger. They never seemed to be apart. While he was with the stranger, he grew exponentially. He became stronger than he ever should have been.
"The next time the enemy struck, my son caught him. We don't know what happened to it. We presume he was… killed. Our town celebrated. But then he growled at us and said, 'He told me what you wanted. You're all cowards, the whole lot of you. Hiding behind someone bigger and stronger than you to let them do your dirty work.'"
"So-" Tovi swallows hard, her eyes fixed on the ground. Kaestra feels wretched. These pokemon just wanted to live peacefully, like me. Something always has to go wrong, doesn't it? Are there possibly two powerful pokemon out there, wanting nothing more than to cause pain? Why?
"Think about that before you judge us," Zai'an says, his voice rising over Tovi's. "You're welcome to stay here for a night. We have nothing else to lose." He spits to the side, his muzzle curled in a sneer. "Don't expect a happy welcome, though." He nods at Tovi's bag. "Nothing else to lose."
A huge thank you to the writers on the PMD: Writers United forum for the help with this.