Author's Note: Hey, thanks for your patience. And now we continue. Thanks for all of the support!


Chapter Two: The Tugging Vines

A port is for final endings, not new beginnings. It only works if you reach it.

Anabel's mother had been buried, as all who died in the service of war or childbirth were buried, far from Crown City. It was to let them give their services to all of nature, down to the nutrients in their marrow. Her stepmother, who had always been considered in her heart to be her mother, discouraged her from going here aside from the once a year respects. Grandmother encouraged her not to listen. Anabel didn't listen.

She stared at the small shrine with trepidation and guilt in her stomach. They could find her here rather easily if they wanted. They knew she loved this place, unlike most of her kind. Earth mages, psychics, they tended to value light, life. And yet here she was, looking at her mother's name etched in stone, at the photograph lightly covered in dust.

"I'm going on a journey mom," she said.

Meema watched with thoughtful yips, marking a path from one side of the little shrine to the other.

"I'm sorry I didn't bring any flowers," Anabel continued. "It was spur of the moment. I don't think they'll let me come back here for a while."

More silence. The leaves rustled.

"I know you made me for roots," she said and the wind protested. "I kind of hate you for that. But maybe I'll understand when I'm older. Maybe I'll be stronger then. Maybe I'll be better for this. I don't know. I know you don't. I know you can't."

She was probably a little insane, talking to a stone. But it wasn't like she had any friends. There was no one to go with her on this journey for now, except Meema.

Anabel closed her eyes and bowed her head, letting the leaves speak for her, to her. For a moment or two, she relished in the nature she had grown up with so fondly. Then she straightened her shoulders and turned on her heel. "Bye mom."

Meema waited for her to walk past before sinking into a stubby bow. Then with a scoffing swish of her tail, she went after her current charge.

'So sentimental,' she teased.

Anabel chortled. "Was it?"

'Root bearers are supposed to put a better head on their shoulders than that.'

"According to you."

She kept walking, and wondered if her Meema was right.


The roads to port towns were the clearest and best kept pathways in Sinnoh, barring the one up in Snowpoint, for obvious reasons. So many walked them, so many needed safe passage. There wasn't much choice. It didn't matter what region, that was a common rule of thumb if you wanted an economy.

Not that this helped Anabel be any less paranoid as the days went on. Even the best kept roads were easy to see attacks. They were just stupid attackers. Meema was perched on her head as a scout, a rather comical image considering the weight of the Zorua. Not for the first time,, Anabel prayed for a starter.

She was going to have to decide that soon, she realized, having little else to think about that wouldn't depress her. Anabel sighed. The first Pokemon was an important decision, and to look like a typical, privileged trainer, she would need to pick a starter from the region she was heading to.

Honestly though, she wanted a Turtwig. They were a pain to get outside of Sinnoh or Johto (because Johto was the best place to breed most any Pokemon anyway.) so that idea was naturally nixed. L

Anabel sighed and hurried on. She felt a pair of eyes resting on her bony shoulder blades and refused to turn. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction of frightening her. She was a future root of Crown City. Roots clung to the earth and weaved their path. They weren't going to crumple at one stalker.

'Relax,' Meema chided in her mind. 'They have one pokemon, and it's no match for me. You really do need your own.'

"Yes and stealing my friends from their parents is a great idea at two in the morning."

Meema huffed at her, as if she didn't believe the implausibiity. Too bad, it was true. She kept walking, not listening for footsteps, not listening in particular. After all, they could just be a fellow traveler heading to port.

Hah. Right. Okay. She was a defenseless (mostly) girl on the open road. Right, she was fine.

She kept walking, aiming for the distant Canalave with a slight increase in the speed of her steps. It was only a couple of hours away. Then she could get to the Pokemon Center and borrow a room. She wasn't a trainer yet, but she would be, so they had to at least let her in so she could get out of the way before her follower got a hold of her.

Now, she just had to get there.


Further along, much further, a fisherman stopped her and offered her a free, decent rod. She took it; she never refused free stuff. Every trainer was like that. Even if it bit you, you could drop it in a trash can. But most weren't that stupid. Anabel stuffed the folded rod into her bag and hurried on. The stalker was gone now, but that likely wouldn't last. Why would they bother anyway? It wasn't like it was her fault that they hadn't seen Celebi for so long, that the land had been cursed.

She pressed forward into the restway regardless. Her Meema (after all, once her grandmother had passed, Meema had become hers somehow, yes?) caused people to follow her as she sat down. She shut her eyes and ignored them as best as she could. She had no idea if Canalave was bustling and noisy or not. Crown was peaceful even with all of its people. She had never left its walls before.

Oh Arceus help me.

She was going into a completely foreign region of the world with no support system. What had she been thinking? Escape, Anabel's mind reminded her. She had been thinking of escape.

When she felt the throbbing in her calves, starting to ebb, she made herself rise and head into the city. The smell of seawater was thick and rich. She covered a sneeze and looked out. Her purple eyes went wide as saucers.

"Oh..." Anabel whispered, staring at the many islands of Canalave dotting the sea. "Oh."

'Having any second thoughts now?' Meema teased, earning a soft smack on the head. Anabel scanned the islands for the roof of the Pokemon Center, which somehow managed to be distinctive no matter what city people ended up in.

"No," she said, loud enough for the stalker to hear. "No, I don't." Then she hurried across a smaller bridge. She was relieved not to hear it immediately creak right after her.


In the night, she found her relief was short-lived.

A shadow paced about the door to her Center room. Anabel knew the footsteps, made as softly as possible, like she could avoid spooking the leaves off of the trees. Her stepmother was persistent, she'd give her that.

"Please leave, Mom," she said through the door after she came out of the shower.

"Come home with me." Aha. She knew that soft voice anywhere. "The City needs you, darling."

"It's healing fine without me." It wasn't entirely true, but a young teenager could not do anything better than an adult could, and she couldn't do anything her grandmother already had tried to do. The guilt trip would not work, all right? It just wouldn't.

"Your father is terrified for you, darling. So am I. At least let me in."

"No." Anabel heard her words wobble on her tongue. "I can't. I'm already here."

"If you go, they may not let you back." Her voice turned low and thunderstorm fear-sad and she had the impression that her stepmother was telling the truth. Because why would she lie?

Meema hissed by her hand, curse words that Anabel really shouldn't have known that didn't stop the heartbreak to hear anyway. She couldn't come home if she kept going. They needed her but they would get rid of her and make a new baby if she didn't comply.

'As if,' Meema hissed again, laughing now. 'They got lucky you have any talent, they think they can just breed humans as fast as pokemon and get a savior? Hardly.'

Small comfort. Very small.

"At least think about it child," her stepmother begged. "Please. You don't have to take a journey. Some people simply do not. The City loves you. The earth loves you. Isn't that enough?"


As Anabel silently left the Pokemon Center the next morning, boat ticket from a sleepy Nurse Joy in hand, she mused to herself and knew that love was not enough. The feeling was not enough. She adjusted the straps on her back, felt for the remaining money in one pocket. She would have to be frugal after her first purchases in Kanto. A new bag, with the discs to store items, and her trainer application and what came with it.

Sure, that app came with a starter amount of money but seriously who could survive on that? Even if she had been born in a family that didn't have prestige, it would be difficult.

She hurried to the large drawbridge, to the port. She felt like a coward now, more than she had when sneaking out in the dead of night. But this time, it couldn't be helped. She had no idea what room she had been in.

She looked along the boats, following the direction of a kindly sailor. The ship she found was small, but reminded her of those speedboats she saw for use in Snowpoint. Were the currents that bad from that side? She usually saw people take planes, but those were expensive even if she could go of her own free will. So ship it was.

Reaching the ramp, she hurried on. Meema was right at her heels, making her pause.

"Are you sure," she asked. This boat wouldn't take Meema to Unova, the best place for a Zorua to be.

Meema scoffed. "Leave you to a Pokemon with no idea of its capabilities. Not a chance, little lilac."

Anabel laughed, painful as it was, and waited for the ship to leave. For her old life to come to an end.

There was no turning back, if there ever had been.