Ch 1: Telling Tales
The pier on Thorset Island was the major attraction on a bright summer day. It was a kid's paradise, boasting the largest ferris wheel in the world (only eclipsed by the wheel in Nimbasa city in faraway Unova) and many other rides and attractions. Children rushed ahead of their parents to try pinning the tail on the Pikachu or guessing the weight of the Snorlax. Two Gurdurrs were competing in a strength competition. Everywhere the smells and sights of the carnival on the pier captivated and entertained.
But one of the strangest attractions on the pier was gathering a crowd near the entrance of the carnival. The crowd on the pier hummed with curiosity and awe as two mysterious figures, one tall, and one small, stood cloaked under long, black capes and hoods on the railing. They stood perfectly still, back to back. Some young children had gathered close to the rail and were looking up at the cloaked figures as if they feared they were about to fall over the edge and down into the waves below. Some women marveled to their husbands as to how the nuts could just stand there in black clothing for so long on a hot summer day without overheating.
The crowd's chatter was silenced as the cloaks flew aside theatrically to reveal a girl, about in her late teens, wearing a harlequin mask with her long brown hair flowing around her in the wind. The other was a small, green creature with long thorny ears and claws wearing the same style mask. The children who had been standing there moments before had nearly leapt out of their skins and ran back to their parents. The crowd gasped and murmurs passed throughout the onlookers.
"If I may ask you curious truth-seekers to please form a semicircular stage in front of where we stand," the girl called above the noise. "As you can see, the position we are in is rather precarious and I'd prefer to have my feet on solid ground for the performance." The people didn't question her, but simply moved back so that a semicircular area had opened up. The pair leapt into the air, linked arms, and spun around, capes billowing out around them like bat wings. They landed softly, arms still linked. Bowing gracefully to the bewildered audience, the girl took up a dominant pose in the stage area and began to speak in a somber voice.
"Good day residents and tourists to Thorset Island. My name is Cassandra Lemuria. And this is my brother, and performing companion, Twikk. We are tourists ourselves," The green creature bowed again and revealed a shining white smile. "You may have guessed that Twikk is indeed a Pokemon and could never possibly be my brother. By blood, no we are not. But in spirit, we may as well be."
"I've never seen that Pokemon before!" a child from the front of the audience said to his mother. Cassie heard the comment and turned to the side of the crowd it had come from.
"Ah, well I'm not surprised. Twikk is nearly the last of his kind. We were both orphaned at young ages, I when I was only seven and he as a small Pranch," she explained mentioning her Pokemon's pre evolved form. "A group of humans destroyed his family's home. Human cruelty resulted in their rarity, and their near extinction." Twikk made a slashing motion across his throat and several children flinched. A few parents frowned disapprovingly at the performance. Several walked away to take their kids to the more friendly, predictable carnival.
"If you wanted to go out and catch your own," Cassie continued drawing her cape up to her chin, "you would have to search all over…Hmm…where is it again you lived, Twikk?"
The green Pokemon grinned as he heard his cue. He spread out his cape and leapt in one great bound to stand on the top of Cassie's shoulders. "I lived in the forests of the mainland of course!" he boomed proudly.
The audience went wild. No one had expected this Pokemon to actually tell them where he lived on his own! A larger woman towards the back of the crowd fainted. Whether it was from heat exhaustion or from pure shock, Cassie couldn't tell, but she was pleased with the reaction all the same. The little kids who had run away earlier had returned to the front to see if this Pokemon was for real.
"That's right!" she declared. "Twikk isn't just rare. He's gifted. Most Pokemon can understand human speech, but very few can learn to speak it." She showed the audience her empty hands and flashed her cloak's inside. "I am not a ventriloquist, nor do I have any tape recorders on me. Twikk has a highly developed brain and thinks much like you and I do. He learned to speak from me much like a human child would."
Twikk cut her off in her speech to prove that he was indeed speaking on his own. "Yes, truth-seekers! I'm real. I have a tongue, brain, feelings, attitude, dreams, intelligence, desires. Everything!" Cassie could see several teen boys who looked like young trainers hovering around another who had a Pokedex. They were glancing over their shoulders and shaking their heads. They obviously had never seen anything like this. "Plus, I have dashingly good looks," he added with a smile.
"But," Cassie interrupted the conversations going on in the audience, "are you all ready for the tale he has to tell?"
Twikk and jumped down from Cassie's shoulders. "I have a story to tell the truth-seekers and trainers among us. And maybe you regular folks can learn a thing or two also." He removed his mask to reveal a grave face. "It might just be the most important thing you hear in your life."
The green Pokemon jumped up and landed once again on the rail while Cassie sat down cross legged, beckoning the smaller kids forward into the semicircle so they could see better.
"This is a legend my family told amongst ourselves for generations!" Twikk roared. He then took in a deep breath and blew a cloud of shimmering spores out of his mouth. The cloud hung sparkling in the air as Twikk took one claw and slashed away at the shining mass until a shape had appeared. One of the kids in front recognized it.
"It's Arceus!" he exclaimed pointing at it.
Twikk smiled and nodded at the shimmering form of the ancient god. "Arceus, the creator of all Pokemon, created one Pokemon to be the ancestor of all others. In the most ancient of times Arceus was said to have shaped the world with his thousand arms. But once he had made the world, he became lonely." Twikk took another breath and this time exhaled green spores in the shape of another Pokemon. "Mew," he said pointing to the shimmering pink Pokemon. "While Arceus shaped the lords of time and space, land and sea, night and day, they were unchanging, not alive. Mew, the ancestor of all life as we know it, lived many years with these powerful beings while the world remained barren and unchanging. Dead." He began swirling the spores together until they mixed together in a circle. "Legend has it, Mew laid eleven eggs, the ancestors of each domain on the planet. The plants, the bugs, the ocean creatures, the land dwellers, those blessed with flight, those born from the earth, those who were monstrous, those who were tiny, those born from strange circumstances, the mighty dragons, and the humanshape"
Twikk blew the spores into a firework of glitter. "These eleven Pokemon quickly populated and ruled the world. To this day, nobody knows who these ancient descendants were, as it is not even mentioned in the legends. The descendants of Mew lived in harmony for thousands of years.
"Mew had brought life to the planet. However, legend goes that one of the great beings Arceus created became jealous of the power given to Mew the favoritism Arceus exhibited towards her. So one day, he tilted the balance in favor of one group of decendants – the humanshape."
"Sad as it may seem," Twikk emphasized, "none of the greats did anything to stop the violent upheaval of Mew's creations. The changing conditions of life as it was became life as we know it. Each of the great ones was able to take control of the world, while Mew, ashamed and betrayed by her brothers and creations went into hiding, never to be seen again."
"And this is the story we tell!" Twikk shouted, startling several people who hadn't been paying attention. "How we see the balance of the world is much different than how you do. But in the end, it is we who see you as being from the same line, brothers."
The crowd was silent after Twikk finished speaking. A little girl in the front row was being comforted by her friend, tears streaming down her face. Cassie noticed her discomfort and glanced at the look on her companion's face – one of anger and despondency. Several faces in the audience let her on to the reason behind Twikk's anger. They shook their heads, frowned, and fanned themselves in the heat, bored by what they saw as a moral lesson for children.
"But hear this," Cassie added in desperation to calm Twikk's anger. "Although this is only a legend, take heed to the lesson of this tale. Be aware of your family and friends. Strive for harmony in your relationships. Thank you for watching."
Cassie stood up and threw her cape away from her right hand. In it, she held a small glass jar that had the word 'tips' scrawled on it with marker. "Thank you for stopping to see our performance. I hope you enjoyed it."
She didn't expect the applause and flood of change that came at her that very moment and she was almost trampled by people wanting to ask questions and the overflowing tip jar.
"Okay!" she shouted leaping up onto the rail, tucking the tip jar safely into her cape. "I'm sorry, but I will only take questions and comments from the children ten and under today. Everyone else can come back tomorrow before our next performance." Cassie removed her mask and wiped off a bead of sweat from her forehead as most of the crowd left. She felt a sinking feeling in her stomach as she knew that they were probably more interested in Twikk's ability to speak than what he was actually saying. They chattered to each other excitedly. She overheard one of the teenaged trainers in a black leather jacket talking to his friends nearby.
"I'll bet she's a ventriloquist," he said nonchalantly. "The whole thing looked like a big magic show. They're obviously poor street performers. You know, like the freaks who perform in the inner city. If that Pokemon's so rare, she probably stole it from some rich guy."
"But you heard the girl. She said they were like family. If he was acting, he was very obedient," muttered a girl who was holding her Pokedex up to her chest.
The boy in the jacket simply laughed. "They're actors, sweetheart. Useless. I'll bet she hasn't had a real Pokemon battle with that green thing before in her life."
Overhearing the whole thing put Cassie at her boiling point, but before she could shout anything profane to them a small girl tugged on her cape.
She looked to be about six and she had a small purple birdlike Pokemon at her side. Cassie recognized it as a Cassobane. She'd spent a lot of time with her favorite pair that Professor Lemuria kept at his lab. The little girl's appeared to be young as it was so small and adorably cute.
"What can I do for you, miss?" Cassie asked. The girl looked shy and she was blushing visibly.
"Could your Twikk make Cassie shimmer?" she asked hopefully, shuffling behind her little Pokemon. Cassie had to laugh at how she's worded the request, but she knew what the girl wanted. She turned to ask Twikk if he was willing to make some more cotton spore artwork today, but he was already over his bad mood and eager to ham it up. Twikk made a great show of concentration as he huffed and puffed pretending conjuring the spores was a huge challenge.
The little girl believed him and shouted words of encouragement. "Come on Twikk! You can do it!" she cheered.
Finally, the green Pokemon screwed up his face looking like he was trying to prevent and enormous sneeze, but to no avail. He sneezed blasting a cloud of silver, purple, and gold spores in the shape of the little girl's Cassie. She giggled with delight as Twikk smiled and bowed wiping his nose with a claw as he did. Even the little Cassobane seemed to be delighted.
"Thank you!" She crouched down to look at Twikk. "I really liked your story, Mr. Pokemon."
Even Cassie was amused with how easily it was to make her happy. But Twikk was positively beaming from ear to huge floppy ear. Before the girl turned to go, Cassie put a hand on her shoulder. "You're very lucky to have a Pokemon friend at your age. I can tell you two will be together for a long time."
"Oh, don't worry. I take really good care of him! We're best friends. Thank you!"
"Feeling better now?" Cassie asked Twikk as the little girl ran after her parents down the pier. She threw the hood of her cloak back on and started walking away to the pier's exit.
"Marginally," he replied. "Are we going back to the hotel already?" asked Twikk running to keep up with Cassie's larger, human strides.
"Yeah. Dad told us to be back around four. And besides, it looks like rain on the horizon," she said glancing back at the dark clouds that were forming over the distant ocean.
Twikk slowed his pace to look over his shoulder. "Hmm, my enhanced Pokemon instincts tell me that it won't rain until about six. Can't we go do something fun for a change?"
Cassie stepped onto the sidewalk that began the long winding ocean side trail back to where their hotel was. She knew one thing that always got Twikk to stop whining.
"So you'd rather go out and spend money instead of going home and counting the load we made today?" she baited taking the jar out of her cloak and dangling it in front on Twikk's face.
A green flash blasted from behind her and all of a sudden, Twikk and the money jar were in front of her.
"Race ya home!" he called, taking off down the beach.