Dedication: This fic is for Miss Black Dragon or NightSong. [Userid = 45696]. She is a very cool friend of mine, also a kick-ass author, who had a birthday almost a month ago, on March 25th. This is a story for her! Hope it's as good as she deserves - probably not. ;)

Disclaimer: Pokémon is copyrighted by Nintendo, Game Freak, Warner Bros, and Wizards of the Coast. I in no way claim rights to Pokémon; this fic is a non-money-making venture for free distribution on the Web.

Note: Speech-as-people-hear-it is in normal quotation marks. Translated Pokéspeech is like "[this,]" and thoughts, or body language, are like this.

Azury's Curse

1: There's Something About Azury

If it had been sunny, my trainer Gina would have been happy. If we had been walking through a scenic area, she would have been happy. But today it was both, so she was grinning, skipping, and singing - songs that she broke off in the middle of, or repeated the chorus of, because she couldn't remember the words. She is very demonstrative.

She stopped singing one song and started on another. Then paused to twitch a few strands of blonde hair out of her mouth. Then she smiled down at me. "Nice, isn't it, Shiver?" she asked, enthusiastically.

"Sell," I said. I nodded. Sneasel are not very demonstrative.

But, though I don't mind it when the temperature drops, I do mind too much humidity. And I like pretty forests too. So I did think it was 'nice'.

"Hey, cute guy ahead!" Gina said with sudden interest.

I looked up, expecting to be entertained.

Gina had spotted a teenager with blue hair who was sitting under a tree, eating lunch. He was far away enough not to hear us, I thought, but I should have smelt him by now. As we walked closer, I lifted my nose up, and sniffed.

The boy must definitely be a trainer, because water-Pokémon-smell was mixed up in his faint scent. Good. Gina would be pleased. She would probably end up talking the guy into travelling with us - if not very far, then at least to the Cyan Town Catacombs. That was where we were headed. Gina wanted a ghost on her team.

She was hoping for a Haunter. I thought it was more likely we'd find a Gastly. Besides, we might have problems with Haunters. In my experience, they held incredible grudges.

Gina glanced at me as we walked closer, then called out, "Hello!" The boy looked up. Okay, so maybe he was cute. By human standards, anyway. Melting brown eyes, that kind of thing. His blue hair was pretty. It was sleek, and in the shades of a tropical sea.

"Hi," he said, sounding friendly enough.

"I'm Gina! Are you a trainer?" Gina called.

The boy hesitated. "In a way..."

I was puzzled. I sniffed again. And barked out in surprise.

I'd never smelled anything like him before. He didn't smell human. He smelt like a Vaporeon - and like a human too - and the two scents were mixed up together. "[What are you??]" I asked him in my language, kind of expecting him to understand.

The boy looked at me in alarm. Don't tell! his expression said.

I was terribly confused. This boy was some odd creature, with a totally alien, strange, scary scent - but his scent also told me that I could trust him. I didn't know why. I just knew it did.

Gina was looking at me, totally confused. "Shiver..?" she said.

I hesitated, and then answered her, "[Don't worry, it's nothing.]" She's not very good with Pokémon language. But she recognised the tone, and nodded.

"Uh - hi," the boy said again, glancing warily with me. "I'm Azury. Sorry - I don't usually get along with Ice types..." He glanced at me again.

Liar, I thought, but again I didn't warn Gina. I just glared. And felt confused.