A tug in the dark (one shot):

Sheets of water poured down on to the sand, and the night was pitch black with clouds covering the stars. A bare foot peeked out into the rain, tough with calluses and scrapes. There was a squeak as droplets hit the small toes and the foot drew back. There was a grumble and a huff, then a young boy, no older than four, stepped out of his shelter and into the storm.

"Why in the world am I doing this?" the young boy grumbled to himself. His clothes were plastered to his skin and he felt soaked through to the bone. "..it's cold, and wet, and MUDDY". The boy felt his feet squish into the soaked sand and felt water trickle in between his toes. "YUCK!"

He shook his wet hair and imagined water streaming in all directions. "I'm prolly gonna get a cold, and I can't even see!" The boy stopped short, then started to laugh. Of course he couldn't see, he could never see. What a stupid thought.

The boy instinctively shrank as a boom of thunder sounded overhead. He was considering trying to find his way back, when he felt it. A little tug in front of him, a nudge in his mind to go just a little further. The same sensation that had him out in the middle of the storm in the first place.

All his life, the boy had been lost. He never knew where he was or where he was suppose to go. So he'd scoot along the edges of walls, or cling to his mother's clothes for dear life. But strangely, this night he knew he had to keep walking. He didn't know where he was, but he knew where he had to go. His world was black, including only his shivering body, the cold droplets on his face, and the mud beneath his feet. But now, there was also that tug.

So the boy kept moving, his little legs shaking from the wind and the rain. Soon his foot touched something slick and wet, so he stopped. He knelt down and stretched out his hands. There was the tickle on his wrist and his fingers found the slick wet shape of a leaf. He had found a fox tail bush, but he knew he was in the right place. So he stretched his hands deeper into the bush, letting the fox tails brush and tickle his cheeks.

The texture soon changed from the slick leaves to something much wetter and fuzzy. At first the boy wondered if it was another fox tail, but as he felt the shape of the thing, he realized it was much too big to be a plant. He ran his hands along the object, water dripping from the fur and onto his hands, and soon began to identify legs, ears, and a tail. As his fingers grazed the things face, it made small pitiful squeak.

"It's alive! I think I've found a pokemon, and it's still alive!" The boy gathered the small bundle into his arms, and rested it on his chest. It was drenched, and cold in his arms. The pokemon wriggled weakly, and gave another squeak.

This was why he'd come out in the rain! He had to rescue this little creature. But how had he known? And what creature was it? The same feeling passed over him, and suddenly he knew, the same way he'd known how to find it.

"You're an Eevee, and a really small one at that. Probably only a few months old." The boy stood up slowly with his new charge, and puffed up his chest. "Well Eevee, I'm Quinn and I'm here to rescue you." Quinn turned away from the bush, and the air quickly left his chest. Now that he'd found the Eevee his sense of direction had vanished. All he felt was the rain on his skin, the mud under his toes, and the wet ball of fur on his chest. The rest was an empty unknown. "As soon as I find a way back to my house…"

Quinn woke to the sound scuffling and groaning, as people began to wake from the safety of their dreams. His eyes opened, but his world remained black. He felt the presence of his fellow slaves around him in the sleeping barracks, and the familiar sound of cloth and fabric against sand reached his ears.

His Eevee, Luca, was curled up by his belly breathing softly. Luca's ears twitched as she heard Quinn wake. She gave Quinn's hand a little lick, to let him know he wasn't alone.

Quinn reached down and ruffled Luca's fur. Luca was his one light in the world of darkness, the one source of warmth and kindness in his life.

"Morning Luca. You know, I was just dreaming about the night I met you." Luca's ears perked in understanding. " You were so cold, and small, but that didn't stop your appetite!" Quinn laughed at the memory, " Do you remember that it took me all night to find my home again? I felt the warmth of the sun on my back, by the time I found the stone steps of my house. I was covered head to foot in mud. Man, Mom was soo mad…."

As his hands rubbed further along Luca's neck, his fingers met cold metal, and Quinn scowled. He rubbed his own band of cold metal on his wrist. It was the mark of a slave, harsh and unyielding. Quinn hated these bands, almost as much as he hated his mother for what she'd done.

Luca bumped him in the chest worriedly, sensing his dark mood.

"Don't worry girl, I'm alright. Remembering the past doesn't help much right now, does it?"

Quinn rolled over and put his face in Luca's fur. "I promise we'll escape someday, you and me," Quinn mumbled, his voice harsh with emotion. "We'll get out of here and make a life for ourselves." Luca's cold nose nuzzled his ear in affection.

Quinn lurched back in surprise. "Hey, stop that! It's cold!"

The scuffling grew louder, and shouts began to break out as the rest of the slaves began to wake and argue over the first spots in the breakfast line.

Quinn breathed in Luca's scent, then stood up, wrapping his measly blanket around his shoulders like a cloak. "Right then, let's go get some food."

Luca jumped up, gave her fur a little shake, and took up position by her partners feet. As they walked through the crowd, Luca would nudge Quinn in a certain direction, or block him with her little Eevee tail to let him know something was in his way. This is how the pair navigated their surroundings. Quinn, interpreting the smells, and sounds of the day, and Luca giving him just the little bit of guidance he needed to get around.

'I'd be lost without her' Quinn reflected, as he had almost everyday of his life since he'd found the little shivering bundle in the rain.

-end-