Farin walked for the last time around the apartment. The shelves were clear, books packed away and left in storage, clothes mostly flogged to friends or donated to local charity shops. The kitchen still had scorch marks above the fridge from Agni's rebellious stage, back when he was still a charmeleon. Farin stared at her sloppy attempt to paint over the black and felt a twinge of nostalgia.
On the table was a rucksack, a one-person tent and three pokeballs. Those few items would be all she took when she left, limited to what she could carry on her back. She'd slid a few of her research journals into the inside pocket, mostly blank except for the notes from her Master's thesis: Anthropological Residues of a Legendary: Tracing Mew through Stories and Songs. When she reached the Orange Islands and met Professor Ivy, Farin hoped that she could shift her research away from the representation of pokemon in human culture and begin to explore them in their natural habitat. It was exciting to be setting out with more blank pages than filled ones.
Suki was waiting at the door, swishing her cream-coloured tail. The purple tufts of fur on her ears pricked up as Farin approached, and she let out a long meow.
"My, you're very active, Suki, given it's only mid-afternoon," Farin said to the delcatty. As if in answer Suki yawned, showing her little pointed canines.
"We'd better get going. Need to take you round to Dad's before he leaves for his evening shift."
The delcatty turned her head sideways and pouted.
"I know you want to come with us to the archipelago – but Suki, you're a house cat. We're going into the wild, you'd hate it."
Suki looked away sulkily. Farin crouched down next to her and stroked her back, but the delcatty slid out from beneath her fingers and stalked into the hallway.
"A year isn't that long, Suki..." said Farin, but the pokemon would not meet her eye.
It was a quick car trip to Farin's father's house; she would leave the vehicle with him, stacked with a few bits and pieces that she couldn't part with. Suki stood up on the front seat, watching the town thread by. Between the buildings she could see the glittering blue of the ocean.
When Farin turned into the driveway, her father's car was not there. She knocked on the door for several minutes, walked around to the side where the big metal fence was locked, and was just about to phone him when she noticed a stray piece of paper flapping in the flower bed. It was caught between two daisy stems, fluttering in the breeze, and had a piece of tape stuck to the back. Farin picked it up.
Sorry I couldn't be here to see you off the message read in her father's untidy scrawl, got called in early to work. I'm so proud of you. Leave the keys in the letterbox. The back window is slightly ajar so that Suki can crawl through. Love you.
Farin pressed the paper to her chest and then slid it into her pocket. She felt a diffuse kind of sadness, that her father wasn't there to see her off – and that the letter hadn't mentioned his promise to visit her in the Orange Islands. Her father tended to shy away from sentimentality, but she wished he'd at least called her. Something about it didn't seem quite right.
Suki was still in the car, curled up on the front seat.
"Suki, it's time to say goodbye," said Farin, opening the door for her. Suki kept her eyes shut.
"I know you're not really asleep. Come on, Suki, you have to get out."
The delcatty scrunched her eyes tighter and slid her head under her arm.
"I'll leave you locked in the car," Farin threatened. Suki didn't move.
"Ok. If you're going to be like that." Farin looped her arms under the pokemons belly and lifted her up. Suki yowled and twisted, and was dumped unceremoniously in the flower bed. She stared daggers at Farin.
Farin sighed. "I'm sorry, Suki, I am. But you'd hate it in the islands – we'd be travelling around a lot, and you don't like being in a pokeball. I don't want to leave you behind, but you'll enjoy it here. You like Dad."
Suki blinked silently.
"The back window is open for you," said Farin. She leaned down to hug Suki goodbye, but the delcatty slunk off under the bushes.
"Ok. Well, I'll see you in a few months."
A purple tail flicked from the shrubbery.
It was a pleasant day for walking; Farin hitched her bag, to which she had tied the tent, onto her back. The three pokeballs jostled in her pants pocket; Agni, Lorcan and Rae. Heat radiated from the concrete pavers and bright white clouds skidded through the sky. It was about half an hour to the docks – Farin could have caught a bus, but she wanted to get used to walking. The ferry would take her to Ascorbia island, from which she planned to fly on Agni to Butwal island to visit her old friend Ollie, before finally heading to Valencia to meet the professor and start her research. Farin whistled as she walked, a melody to accompany the rhythm of her footsteps.
Fingering the folded note in her pocket, Farin wondered whether her dad was having a hard time at work; it was very unlike him not to see her before she left.
Sun slanted down through the boulevard trees, making patterns across the road. It really was a beautiful day to start an adventure. Farin thought about Suki, curled up under a daisy bush. She began to feel bad. Why shouldn't the delcatty come, delicate though she was? I've never been on any long trips before Farin thought, what makes me think that I can do it but Suki can't?
Farin had gotten Suki in a wonder trade a few years ago. It was her first time, and she was saying goodbye to a spearow she'd caught on the balcony of her apartment earlier that day. Her friend Patty was showing her how to do it – just put the ball in the machine, and it will match you randomly with another person, somewhere in the world, who is doing the same thing! It seemed a bit cruel to Farin, but she couldn't deny that it felt thrilling. The machine vaporised the ball, sent spearow spinning into the ether, and moments later Suki appeared.
"It's a delcatty!" Patty had gasped. "Oh, isn't it adorable? You're so lucky."
Farin had taken Suki with her to the Pokemon Center, where they determined that she was just a baby.
"Someone has bred a skitty and immediately evolved it using a moon stone," the nurse had said. "Probably trying to fill out a pokedex. Poor thing, it probably doesn't even know any moves – it's very weak. There's so much that needs to be learned at the skitty stage, which this delcatty won't ever get to know now."
The nurse had shaken her head, and Farin had scooped Suki up and held her against her chest. The delcatty purred happily, but Farin was swelled by pity; Suki, born and immediately forced to change, then discarded through the uncaring trade system. Farin had taken her home and made up a bed of blankets and cushions, and stroked the little delcatty. Years later, Suki had become an avid house cat.
Farin was making good time as she walked. Rounding a corner, she saw a flicker at the edge of her vision – a shadow, leaping from one bush to the next. She stopped, searching the verge-side for signs of movement. Everything was still. She kept walking.
Bird-pokemon sang in the trees. Several of them took flight, their shadows flitting across the ground, and again Farin sensed something in the periphery. She had the unpleasant feeling of being watched. Taking her hands out of her pockets, she stopped whistling, straining her ears for the snap of twigs or sudden heavy footfall. The world was quiet, except for the low hum of traffic down by the marina.
I'm getting paranoid already she thought. She fingered the piece of paper in her pocket. Down the hill she could see the docks, framed by the glittering ocean. A feeling of excitement spread through her chest, but it was tempered by something else, something she couldn't quite put her finger on; a sense of foreboding, of things not quite right. She kept walking, and behind her the shadow crept along.
To be continued...