Her name was Suki. She was five years old, and she had grown bored with staying indoors. Her house was tiny and cramped, smelling of incense from the shop downstairs. Her parents peddled such trinkets to Pokemon trainers who were visiting the Tower, for which the town was so well-known. Lavender Town was always quiet, and if you screamed, everyone would hear. Suki knew this, and she reasoned that if any monsters tried to snatch her away, she could just scream and her Uncle Fuji would come and rescue her with all his Pokemon.
"Suki, you're all grown up now. No need to listen to them"
She liked to play in and around the little stream just beyond the trees south of Lavender Town. It was where the river bent around, bubbling and gurgling happily. There were Magikarp there, safe from the currents, and they would gather round her feet as she stood, knee-deep in the water, waiting for her to drop breadcrumbs and fruit for them to eat. She liked to imagine that they were her Pokemon, and that she would train them and be a master.
"Come to the river. Your Pokemon need you."
She was concerned, that day, for their safety. She was young, yes, but the rains had been getting heavier of late, and the towns down South were flooding. She hoped her darling Magikarp were okay. She had fallen into the stream during the rainy season once: the current had been fast, and she had screamed for her Uncle Fuji to save her. He had come running and had his Cubone pull her to safety. Her Magikarp were so gentle and small, what if they were swept away downriver?
"Suki, your Magikarp are wondering where you are! They miss you!"
She slipped the latch on her window with the bone-hairpin that Uncle Fuji and Cubone had given her for her birthday, then clambered down and onto the lawn. It was early morning and the far-off rain had manifested itself as heavy grey mist: the kind that soaks your clothes when you walk through it. Still, she knew the way to the stream off by heart.
"-karp..."
A feeble cry from up ahead. She quickened her pace. Her shoes skidded on mud, and she grabbed hold of a rotting tree to stop herself falling. The rain certainly had caused the waters to rise, and with them, the mud-banks had collapsed and widened. There was a good four feet gone to the raging waters.
There, on the opposite bank, a mere eight feet from her, a Magikarp flopped, exhausted, on the ground. It couldn't get back to the water: it was too weak. Suki looked-on in horror as it arched its back, then slumped with a sigh. She called to it, but it did not respond with either movement, or a familiar gurgle, but its sides occasionally heaved in an attempt to flip upright. If only she could reach it. She looked down at the water of the stream: dark and quick-flowing. There was no sign of the other Magikarp there. This one must've been left behind. Poor Magikarp.
"Do you even care about your Pokemon?"
She bit her lip, looked to the water, then to the Magikarp. She began to have her doubts: this was not worth attempting. Nobody even knew she was here! What if she slipped? Would she be able to scream in time?
That was when she saw it. Another Pokemon on the opposite bank. At first, she just caught a flash of metal, flickering left, then right. Suddenly, as though it realised she had seen it, the Pokemon appeared from the bushes behind Magikarp. It was tall, with skinny limbs, and was covered in a downy yellow fur. Its snout was long and hooked, and it had big, intelligent eyes. The metallic object she had seen was a small pendant, suspended from a chain in its hand. It looked from Magikarp, to her, then to the river. Finally, it extended its free hand as though beckoning.
She told it that the river was too dangerous; that it should help Magikarp instead of her, but it knelt by the water and reached further out until it almost spanned half the gap with its reach. It nodded to her, calmly. The only outward show of emotion in its confidence was its constant fiddling with the charm dangling from between its fingers, and she was filled with a sudden confidence. Just four feet and she could reach her beloved Magikarp. Just four feet. Maybe if she leaned out, grabbed its hand, it could drag her the rest of the way without the need for swimming.
She extended her arm, hand open as though shaking a stranger's hand
"You shouldn't talk to strangers, Suki dear. You might get lost, separated from your mother."
Her other hand was coiled around the tree behind her, and she leaned closer and closer: towards the Pokemon's grasp. It nodded to her, silently encouraging.
"Did I ever tell you the story of how Cubone lost its mother, Suki?"
The Pokemon's eyes flickered. Just a quick glance, but enough to strike terror into her heart as sure and cold as the river below her. It had looked behind her, at the tree, and with a low creak, she felt the rotten wood give-way.
"Its mother fell in the river, trying to save it from the floods."
She tumbled down, impacting with the icy flow and rolling head-over heels below it. The chill water stung at her, and she felt her limbs go limp and useless. She put all her might into kicking against the flow and burst the surface like a bubble: gasping for air. Her mouth began to form words, to prepare to scream for assistance.
"So to avoid ending up like Cubone's poor mother, you must always do as you are told, Suki."
The first letter, a feeble 'H-' leapt from between her lips, but it was cut short. Inches from her face was the hooked nose of the Pokemon with the yellow fur. Its eyes were no longer terrifying, but gentle. Its charm swung left, right, left, right, and its finger was raised to its mouth as though bidding her to be quiet. Her lungs seized up, her throat went suddenly dry.
"Now off you go to bed, Suki, and remember what I taught you. Do you also remember the rhyme?"
She was no longer able to fight. Suki's limbs were like hollow sleeves and trouser-legs, fluttering in the current like flags in the wind, and she slid below the water without another sound.
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. All good children go to heaven..."
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. All good children go to heaven..."
The yellow furred Pokemon straightened, gazing down at the water for a good few minutes. Its charm swayed left, right, left, right. Its eyes were cold, intelligent once more. It turned and strode back through the trees the way it had come.
The Magikarp shuddered and died in the mud as it left.