A Long Time Ago
"AZ, come and greet your kingdom, darling." My mother stared up, straight at my face, unfazed by the difference in hight between us, she spoke to me like I was much smaller than her.
"But…I…" I stammered, trying to think up an excuse to not go out there and face subjects who feared me, "I…feel faint…I…can I go get some fresh air in the back?"
"Honey, you can get some air outside in a second." She reassured me. Then I knew there was no changing her mind about this. Resigned to my fate, I meandered out onto the balcony, like I required it to be able to tower over my subjects.
"Good morning!" Mother addressed the crowd below, then shoved me in front of her, expecting me to say something.
"Um…hi." I said, trying to make my voice as small as possible, even so it boomed over the courtyard, children about my age cowered, adults cheered, screaming "Long live king AZ!" they always chanted louder and longer than they ever did for Mother, I envied her for that, they only cheered to appease me, for Mother, there was pure admiration in their voices. It wasn't that I didn't appreciate them, I just felt as uncomfortable as they did when I was around them.
"Can I go in now?" I whispered to Mother, though it managed to project into the crowd, allowing all of the people down below to gasp in fear that they had angered me somehow. Mother gave a worried smile, assuring me that I was excused, but also to her despair that I would never be able to do something as simple as greet my subjects on my own.
I bounded down the stairs, desperate to be released into the outdoors. I put on my coat and scarf and flew out the door. In my large backyard, there was a small woods in my backyard, with plenty of tall grass in it. Plenty of pokémon flocked to the place every day. They always ran away from the sound of me approaching, but I found ways of interacting with them without alerting them to my presence. I left poképuffs for them on stumps, even though I'd hardly ever seen them eat, and when I did, they simply scurried away, just seeing that they'd eaten what I offered them was enough. Today, though, there was a little flabébé, I could hardly see, munching on the pink cherry poképuff I left for her. Her flower of the same hue floated in the wind delicately. The flabébé was hardly making any progress on the thing, it being several times her size. I thought I could approach her, when she noticed me and began to scream a tiny, high-pitched scream.
Suddenly, a floette flew in front of her and blasted some bright light in my eyes. I was so startled I fell on my face. The flabébé, however, upon seeing the floette, floated away, screaming just as loudly, and I was starting to see why. The tiny thing was grasping an ugly, evil looking flower with a blood red stem and black pointed petals, contrasting with her body's color scheme of ocean blue and white. She looked forlorn, lonely, and upset that her attempt to befriend the flabébé had failed, as she started to return to the tall grass.
"Wait." I called before I knew what I was saying.
The floette turned, anger in her eyes, I had to find some way to lure her without scaring her away. I dug into my coat pocket with my other hand, searching for the poképuff I had come to replace the pink one with. I broke off a chunk and placed it in my hand. She looked insulted, like I was setting a trap for her that only the stupidest pokémon would ever fall for. I was crestfallen, I couldn't think of any other way to entice her, so I simply lay limp, allowing her to escape if she chose to.
but she didn't.
She looked straight into my eyes, and she must have seen something. Because in that moment, a flurry of emotions flew across her face in rapid succession. She went from anger, to confusion, to pity and regret, and then a genuine smile. She floated over to my meaty hand and allowed me to hold her. She floated in my hand while I stood up, I was extremely careful with her, afraid she'd disappear, like a good dream, if I moved too suddenly. Once I was at my full hight, I looked straight at her,
"Hiya, I'm AZ!"
She grinned in return and began to squeak and chirp. I couldn't understand it, and she probably couldn't understand me, either, but i didn't matter, we understood each other on a different level, one that transcended language. I wanted so badly to hug and squeeze as hard as I could, but I knew that would crush her, so I restrained myself. I took her back inside my castle, and scurried up to my room.
"I don't have an apricorn for you, so you'll have to sleep somewhere else…" I looked around my room, and spied a small wooden box with a flowery design on it, just her size. I ripped open one of my thousand pillows a little bit and let out a few feathers. I placed them carefully into the wooden box, so they'd be just right for Floette to sleep in. Floette took to the makeshift bed quite well, she slept in it every night next to my bed. Mother didn't mind Floette, she was happy to see me as content as I was ever since I met her. I'd take Floette on tours around the castle, pet her and feed her poképuffs, and chat with her about everything, and she would reply with her usual noises. Everything was great, until one day, when I decided to take her outside for the first time since I had found her.
We started out on the same place where I had first encountered her, I approached the stump to leave another poképuff, when I spied a floreges hiding in the grass, before I could stop her, Floette saw what I was looking at and began to float towards her. The floreges took one look at Floette and jumped out of the tall grass along with the pink-flowered flabébé. Both lashed out at her, squeaking and chattering loudly and viciously. Floette had a look of complete shock on her face, which began to turn to anger. I realized she was about to do something she was going to regret.
"Floette, stop."
At the sound of my voice, the floreges and flabébé dashed back into the tall grass. Floette looked at me, dumbfounded, as hot, angry tears streamed down her face. She flew over to me and buried her face in my hand.
"It's okay, I know they were being mean, but that doesn't mean you should do things like that."
She cheeped at me in between sobs.
"From now on, it's just you and me, Floette, we'll protect each other, okay?"
Floette nodded, her face still embedded in my hand
"Don't be the monster they think you are." I told her. I caressed her with my thumb until she calmed down enough for me to take her back inside.
More time passed, and I only seemed to be growing bigger, I was already much taller than a full grown man, and at this rate, I'd be twice as tall as a full grown man by the time I reached adulthood, along with my hight, my hair was growing even faster than before, I no longer needed a scarf to go outside, as I constantly had a thick brown scarf growing from my head, although, Mother made me wear one anyway. However, even though I was becoming larger and more intimidating, I grew more gentle and controlling with my voice and touch from speaking to and petting something of pixie stature each day. Floette had been a sort of pseudo-secret to the public all this time, we didn't mean to keep her unknown to the public, I had just never gotten around to it, as my meetings with my subjects were usually incredibly brief and sparse. During one of he times Mother forced me to greet the kingdom, she asked me if it would make me feel better if I could bring Floette with me. I didn't see anything wrong with it at the time, so I woke up Floette, who frequently slept through the morning meetings, and set her in my coat pocket.
When I opened the door to the balcony, Floette zoomed out of my pocket and flashed a cute grin to her audience. For a second, everyone in the crowd was silent, as every eye in the crowd scanned over Floette, when they saw her flower, they all screamed in fear, and Floette looked like she was about to burst into tears. No one in that crowd had the right to judge her by what she held, she was obviously just trying to be nice, why couldn't they all see that?! It infuriated me that Floette was going to sob again, the crowd would go on being their ignorant, afraid selves, and NOTHING would change. I couldn't stand it anymore.
"How DARE you?!" I roared. The crowd hushed in fear."She's just trying to make friends! And you treat her like a monster!" I could feel the tears streaming down my face, mother had her comforting hand on my back, but I couldn't feel it through all the rage surrounding me.
Then I heard a tiny squeak from my coat pocket.
I looked down to see Floette, she looked frightened, but not by my voice or intimidating appearance, she was afraid because the AZ she knew wasn't there. Then, I stopped, the red tint drained from my face and I stood there, frozen, looking like a child in front of thousands. Mother ushered me inside and sent me to my room to calm down.
That day, I truly learned the meaning of our pact, not only would we comfort and protect each other from people or pokémon that fear us, but we would also be there to help rein each other in when it becomes too much for us to take.
Just like I had predicted, by the time I was grown, I was double the size of a man my age. Luckily, though, my hair seemed to have capped off it's growth a little higher than the middle of my back (If I cut it any shorter it would grow back in less than a day) Mother had passed away a few years ago, leaving me to rule with Floette without her guidance, understandably everyone was a little worried. I tried my best to be liked, but I was never as social with the kingdom as Mother was. Though I wasn't that interested in my human subjects, I spent plenty of time helping out my pokémon subjects, I built little spots throughout the forest area around the castle for pokémon to stay when they need a rest, and of course, poképuffs on every stump. This way, I could help them without scaring them away.
Things seemed to be going well for a while, until news spread of the titan king and his Floette holding the red and black flower. Even though no one in the kingdom recognized it, A neighboring kingdom's botanist recognized the flower. The flower contained the life force of the legendary pokémon, Yvetal. Legend has it that the flower would summon Yvetal and destroy the world, as well as grant eternal life to the summoner. As soon as this information got out, countries far and wide attacked the kingdom. Everyone was in panic, and blamed Floette and I for bringing this upon them. I couldn't stand the greed and ruthlessness of the neighboring countries. Floette was the only thing keeping me sane, as she kept up our pact unwaveringly . Floette spent most of her days in the box, and the rest in my coat pocket. We were both slipping into a depression while outside, people and pokémon were fighting for their lives.
Finally, the citizens couldn't stand it anymore. They demanded that I turn Floette over to the armies at our doorstep, but I knew if I did that, they would kill her and take the flower for themselves. It was a hard decision to make, but Floette end up making it for me. She hid herself alongside supplies being shipped out to the warfront, inside her wooden bed.
Only later did I find out her true plan, my general brought me the news, along with the wooden box. Floette tried to end the war. She flew out into the field and let herself be hit so the flower would die and no one would be able to fight over it anymore. However, things didn't go as planned the flower lived still, as not only Floette, but Yvetal itself's life powered the flower. They had ran as fast as they could to grab the her body before anyone could claim the flower. He then handed me the box, a flower lay on top of it, closed up, like it did when she was asleep or tired, and shedding it's petals, but alive. and the reality of it all hit me like a sack of rocks. Inside that box, was Floette, no longer breathing.
"No…No." I murmured, ever since Mother died, she'd been the last living thing I truly loved, and now it was gone. We swore we'd protect each other, but I couldn't help feeling we'd both broken our promise.
I cried my way through the night, trying to calm myself, but only thinking of her and crying harder. I stole glances at her body every so often, but the only thing remotely alive about her was the flower she tightly grasped even in death. That awful flower is what caused all of this, it had been the scourge of Floette's life every second she was alive, and it would eventually lead to her demise. I knew I could't blame the flower for it's use, but who could I blame? I could blame people, disgusting, foolish people. Whenever something of beauty or worth exists, be it pokémon, or this flower, people will seek to use it and in the end, someone will inevitably get hurt. This whole war, people and pokémon have been getting hurt, not just Floette, countless people and pokémon have died and we have nothing to show for it. Nothing will change. Nothing will change unless I make it change.
I needed to figure out how the flower worked, it would be my only hope of ever getting Floette back. I searched for information for years, scoured every library I could find, which was a challenge while my country was as war-torn as it was. I learned that Yvetal lives in the sky, awaiting it's next chance to bring the destruction of worlds. I no longer saw it as simply destruction, it was a cleansing, eradicating the foolish and evil from the world, and taking the good with it. This point, I often debated myself with, was it truly necessary to destroy the good, only to end the bad. From my experiences, I learned that good only existed to be twisted, crushed, and used by the black hearted. Though, some part of me, some foolish, naive part of me, told me there must be a better way. In the end, I was sure, this would be the only way Floette and I could finally be happy. I ordered my men to build a machine for Yvetal, saying it was a memorial, and shaping it like Floette's flower. I intended to trap Yvetal, to make sure he would comply to my orders. I often felt guilty about having to trap a pokémon like this, but it was only another sacrifice I was forced to make in order to ensure Floette would be happy.
When the time came to finally summon Yvetal, with the flower and wooden box in my hands, I tightened my grip on the closed bloom, and a screech of pain erupted from the sky. I was ecstatic. Soon, she would float in my hands, alive, instead of laying limp in her wooden casket. Yvetal landed before me, a red and black, evil looking thing, just like it's flower. The beast spread it's wings, preparing to attack, when I squeezed the flower a little tighter, causing it to flinch and fall to the ground. I believe it understood that I was giving the orders now. I trapped him at the bottom of my contraption, and hurried up to the tip of the closed flower. I knew it's immortality powers would encompass the entire tip of the flower, but I intended to make sure Floette got the most of it, by placing her body, and the flower in her arms, into very tip where all the petals met.
A flash of light exploded from the top of the flower replica, Floette's body shook with all the light being poured into it. I began to feel something similar, . Yvetal was properly performing his function, to my delight, everything was so close in my grasp. Floette seemed to stir, and her eyes were opening, along with the petals of the flower. Life returned to her eyes as her mouth formed into a tiny smile. It had been so long since I'd seen that smile, I could hardly believe it. I wanted to take more time to properly explain what had happened, but I knew soon, Yvetal was going to unleashed his rage upon me, and if the machine worked correctly, it would only backfire on him. I embraced Floette and tumbled off the flower, sure we'd be safe. hitting the ground wasn't painful at all, it was like falling on a bed of feathers. Floette looked at me, wide-eyed, as the tip of the flower began to quake and sputter, it's petals falling open. A giant beam of light erupted from the center, streaming into the sky, then swerving towards the Earth as the beam made contact with with the ground, the flower began to sink, trapping the sky pokémon deep underground. I watched in excitement while Floette stared on in fear. The blast washed over us, no more harmful than a strong gust of wind, but destroying everything in it's path.
"See, Floette, now you're safe, no one will ever hurt you."
Floette looked stricken, and a look of disbelief crossed her face.
"I used the flower to bring you back, you were dead, but now you'll never die again."
Floette seemed like she was about to say something, then stopped. She knew about the flower's power, and the sacrifices needed to unlock it. She surveyed the area around us, charred, broken trees and plant lay, shells of their former selves. The land had been baked a grayish tint, and the bodies of lifeless pokémon were strewn throughout the area like dolls.
I stared nervously at Floette, hoping she'd understand everything I'd done was only for her betterment.
She burst into tears.
I tried to encompass her into my arms, but she started to float away anyway. She was…running away.
"Floette, come back, please." I said, in shock after what had just transpired.
She continued to fly, higher than even I could reach. I couldn't believe it… I did this, all of this, for her and she simply ignored it, cried, even. She just didn't understand, she didn't understand because she was just another foolish, heartless pokémon, just like the thousands I had eradicated to create this perfect world. Anger bubbled in my stomach, and no one was there to stop me.
"Floette, I am your trainer and I OWN you! Come back down here, RIGHT NOW!" I screamed.
No reply, I could still see her, her tears were falling to the Earth like tiny raindrops.
"FINE! LEAVE! Just understand, any person or pokémon you'll ever meet, will die, and you'll continue to live! You don't even have a choice, Floette! And after every battle ends and every civilization begins and falls, in the end, all you'll ever have is ME!"
She stopped, looked back, and I saw that face. A face of pure fear, I remember seeing it the day I blew up at all those pesky, ignorant people, all for her. She was afraid, and that moment, for the first time in my life, that was a good thing.
A/N:Wow *face palm* , sorry if you "read" (I use this term loosely) this before now, but I've learned myself a lesson, always check your documents before posting them! Hopefully this turns out readable, and
I'm soooo soooorry