Chapter 2: Birthday Vee!

Author's Note:

Hey guys! I'm back for another update to this wonderful series of mine. Today, it's going to be another small update. Only around 5000 words. I know it's not much considering how long it usually takes for me to get off my lazy butt and write, but this is the precise reason why it's short. I've decided that all future updates from now on will be around this length, possibly shorter. The reason is simple. I've grown accustomed to writing shorter works, especially flash fiction, and as it turns out, that translates well to how fanfiction is handled. So if you see a chapter in the future that's only 500-1000 words long, don't be alarmed. It may only be one scene long, but rest assured I'll be putting my all into that scene. You can bet on it! That being said, this means I have the possibility of delivering material to you guys faster without sacrificing quality, so it all works out! Anyway, I won't keep you from the chapter any longer. Hope you enjoy!

"It must be great to be a kid. Those times when nothing in the world can touch you. When ignorance is your friend, until that too inevitably betrays you."

Grace Family Castle - Eve:

To the person who invented castles, why'd you have to make them so confusing? Instead of a building, I felt like I was exploring a mystery dungeon in my feeble attempt to find the throne room, or as my grandparents called it, the "room with big chairs". I'd been sent to Castello Town early that morning by my parents who, despite my questions, never told me why I was needed. They'd mentioned something about family tradition before getting distracted by Sylvan. Which ok, I get it. The little guy was certainly adorable, but they could've at least told me why I was here before volunteering to watch him.

Lisa; however, practically begged to come. The near teenage eevee had apparently made friends with a local of the capital and continued to follow me until I agreed to take her with me. Not that I could say no to the cutie in the first place. She looked up to me just like I remember idolizing Team Raider as a young kit. Besides, it'd been three years since Alex and I met her, and we still hadn't formally adopted her. Letting her play with her friend was the least I could do.

With a sigh, I found the throne room. Anna and Synth, my grandparents, had unceremoniously fallen asleep on the floor. The flareon and leafeon must've been waiting longer than I thought, though I wasn't one to waste an opportunity. I crouched low to the ground, approaching the two like the prank prey they were, and pounced.

"For Trello's sake!" Synth shouted, along with some unintelligible grunts as I giggled. Anna; however, continued to sleep like a rock. "Oh, it's you, Eve." He smiled, sitting up and giving me a pat on the head. "Arceus knows you take after Anna." He shook his head, watching his mate sleep. "Give her a moment. She'll wake up once she notices the smell of sitrus berries." He chuckled, noting I always carry an extra supply.

I chuckled. "Not doubting that. By the way, who's Trello? You shouted that name when you woke up."

Synth frowned. "Oh, did I? Well…didn't your mother ever tell you that Mew gave himself a name? He's quite open with it. Says it helps him fit in."

"If she did, I don't remember. But I guess that explains Trello Town's name." I shrugged. Mew hadn't given us his name three years ago when we visited Trello Town, so I'd have to ask him about it later. "So! What am I here for today? Mom and Dad didn't tell me much. They were too busy making weird faces for Sylvan."

"Were they now? Seems they're having fun with the little guy. You should bring him over more often. I'd love to tell my great grandson a story or two from the past." He smiled. "In any case, we called you here to discuss reviving our family's traditional formal attire. Anna and I were hesitant to do so for a while with the family being separated and the threat Shade seemed to present, but for now it seems as though everything has calmed down. We can finally begin to recover as a family. That being said, I thought we could bring back an old tradition."

"Formal attire? Well, I don't really like clothes all that much, besides bows and hats. I'm not sure how big a help I can be but go ahead. What does it look like?" I sat down, retrieving a sitrus berry from the pocket dimension in my hat (as Cyrus called it) and laid it on Anna's belly.

Synth moved to the back of the room, nearing what looked like a set of velvet curtains and a rope. Pulling the rope revealed what was quite possibly the most intimidatingly fancy outfit I'd ever seen, complete with a cream-colored cape, a dark brown suit, and a cream-colored tie. Instead of a crown of some kind, the outfit included a hat that seemed to cover the entirety of an eevee's ears if worn, and two pairs of dark brown boots. The discomfort my ancestors must've felt wearing those made me flinch. "What do you think?"

"Well…" I paused, unable to believe my family had at one point worn that at all. "Maybe you could do something with the cape."

"Just the cape? What abo— "

"—Just the cape." I cut him off, startling him quite a bit. "Sorry, it's just that the rest of it seems a bit intimidating. Not to mention uncomfortable. I can't stand wearing anything over my ears, and I can't imagine how hard it was to walk in those things."

Synth seemed to get the point. "I suppose our old outfit is a bit outdated…"

"You bet it is!" Anna had woken up and was already curled up in her chair snacking on the sitrus berry I'd left for her. "I told you Synth. That outfit is old news. We need something more appropriate for pokémon today. Besides, there's no way I'm wearing that. Us fire types need a way to vent our heat."

He nodded. "Well then, Eve? You had a suggestion about the cape?"

"Yep!" I gestured to the crest painted on the floor near the center of the room. It was a crystal shaped emblem, at the center of which were the outlines of an eevee and buizel's heads, facing away from each other. Each had outlines of their respective tails painted below them, interwoven with each other. Below that, the title of our family, and the name of our country, Veralos. "You could shorten the cape a bit and add that emblem to it. Maybe you could even add the name of the person wearing it. I think that would be a lot less intimidating, plus kids love superheroes!"

"Hah. Superheroes huh?" Anna laid back on her chair, smiling in an almost nostalgic manner. "Well you're right. Kids do like those. Then again, other countries might find it strange…" She shrugged. "Eh, go for it."

Synth made a face that suggested he was reluctant, yet he tried to smile regardless. "Well if that's how you see it, I guess I can't argue. We'll have the cape ready for you soon."

I nearly choked on my sitrus berry. "Me? You want me to wear it? But I already said I wasn't into the whole royalty thing."

"It's not about that dear." Anna reassured. "It's about comforting the public. We've been on the downlow for so long. Sure the folks around Castello haven't noticed a thing, but towns further out have surely noticed our family's sudden drop in public appearances. We should let them know that the kingdom isn't falling apart, especially with the uncertain outcome circulating about the restoration of time. Things are stable now, but we have no idea what stabilized time in the first place. There's sure to be some unrest with the public, which is where you come in. Surely an explorer such as yourself can handle a little advertising."

I sighed. "Fine, I'll wear it. But it better look cool. No fancy, royal fashion stuff or whatever you guys do."

Anna seemed amused. "What has your mother been telling you about royalty? I'll have you know your great grandmother, Valerie hated fancy clothing. Still does. If she weren't out on some adventure, she'd probably scold you. Or rather, smother you. She doesn't know you exist."

My ears went on alert. "Great grandmother? She's still alive? Wait, how long do pokémon live again?" I frowned, attempting the math in my head. "Valerie huh? I think I've heard that name somewhere. She's an adventurer?"

The flareon nodded. "Not the sort you know though. She's a bit old-school. No certification from a guild. If she shows up anytime soon, I'll let her know where to find you."

"Old-school…" I nodded. "Alright, well I should probably head out before Lisa gets impatient. I promised her she could visit with a friend of hers who lives here. And while she's here, I might as well take her somewhere special." I smiled.

Anna mimicked my expression. "Somewhere special? Anything in mind?"

I adjusted my hat. "Let's just say I have an idea for a little tradition of my own."

Road to Treasure Town – Drew:

"I'm telling you, Flare. That's the third language this week!"

She had her back turned, but I could tell she wasn't taking me seriously. "You seriously expect me to believe that you can just learn a language from reading it? I mean, I know you've been able to read every language we've discovered in books, but that seems like a stretch."

I sighed. "Yes, and books written about the legend of berries that taste like miltank milk isn't enough of a stretch? It's not that strange."

She faced me, unamused. "Drew, you flunked out of every class when we were in school. It's kind of hard to believe that you're fluent in four languages. Show me some proof, then we'll talk. Besides, we're supposed to be focusing on getting home, not arguing."

"Yeah, yeah." I shook my head. "What do you think Eve's up to?"

The vulpix shrugged. "That girl rarely sends letters. Who knows? I know she and Alex have two kids now thanks to Ella. She misspelled snivy in the letter though. Spelled it with two e's."

"Huh… Well either way, it'll be fun seeing them after so long. There's no way they didn't miss this quilava."

"If I didn't love you so much, I'd be groaning." She shook her head. A frown led to a chuckle, the red fox attempting to defend herself. "Kidding, kidding. You know I like that confidence of yours."

"Yeah, I know." I ruffled the fur atop her head. "You keep reminding me."

"Only because I have to."

"You mean you feel like you have to."

"It's a valid communication method!"

"A method? We need a method to communicate?"

"I don't know, maybe. If we're going to do research together, I'd say we do."

Flare usually knew what she was talking about, so I just went with what she said. Over the past three years, she'd managed to keep me interested in research, which was no small feat. I'll be the first one to admit that I don't like studying, or any sort of busywork that involves books or writing. Ironically, the stone that triggered my evolution had given me the ability to read any language I came across. To Flare, it was simply the ability to read languages I didn't know, but my memory was better than that. Or at least, it was now. I couldn't explain it, but I could remember every detail of every book we'd read together on our vacation.

Nevertheless, I had no idea how to prove it to her. Every time I tried to recite passages from books, she'd claim I'd somehow cheated. To be fair, she did know me to do just that for quite a while, and she'd always been one of those "seeing is believing" types. Hopefully I could convince Eve to help me out.

"Fair enough. By the way, how do you think the others will react to your, umm, condition?"

She frowned. "It's not a condition, Drew. It's a side effect of learning to control my powers. My parents said so." See, on our break, Flare had been working on controlling her weird psychic powers. I believe her parents called it the "shimu" or something. The name was completely different than Uxie's name for it, the "Eye of Uxie", but he was likely embellishing for the sake of his own pride. Either way, some time into her practice, we began to notice a side effect. If she used her abilities for too long, her fur would begin to turn white. It was cool, like an ice type's, and fluffier. If I were the artistic type, I'd be tempted to compare it to a snow cloud. As you might've guessed, she was currently stuck with that exact condition. Aside from the white fur, her paws were a light shade of blue, and the inside of her ears, along with her nose, was a darker shade of blue. Aside from her fur color, she'd lost the ability to produce flames. In their place, she was able to use ice type moves. It seemed like a fair exchange to me, but she didn't take to it the same way. I guess I could see why though, being a fire type myself. She wasn't used to being cold.

"Yeah, yeah. Speaking of that, gotten used to the cold yet?"

"Not on your life. My body may be fine with it, but it still feels wrong. And I can't use my fire." She whined.

"You'll be fine. Your parents said it wouldn't be permanent, so just chill."

"Oh, shush!"

I was about to retort, but without warning, a pink ribbon shot out from behind us and pulled us back. Pink-furred forelegs followed suit, embracing the both of us in a tight hug. "Flare, Drew! You're back early!" A familiar voice exclaimed. "And not a single letter. You two had me worried sick!" The ribbons spun us around, and soon we were met face to face with a frustrated sylveon.

"Oh! H-hi Ella! How've you been?" I choked out.

"How have I been?" Her eyes, full of motherly rage, sent a chill down my spine that words couldn't describe. No wonder Eve behaved as a kit. "Normally, I'd have you two reorganizing the library." She sighed, her expression softening and her grip loosening. "But I've missed you too much. Next time update me on how you're doing from time to time. Ok?" She let us go. "It seems you have a lot to explain." She frowned, finally noticing Flare's current predicament.

Flare nodded. "It's a long story, and the lack of letters is my fault. Don't blame Drew. Being surrounded by books has a way of pulling me away from reality."

Ella smiled. "Not to worry. I know that feeling well. I once locked myself in a library for a full week." She chuckled. "Oh! Speaking of reading. Drew, I took the liberty of fixing your poor eyesight while you were gone. It took a while, but I was finally able to get a pair custom made for you." With a ribbon, she reached into a small pouch at her side, retrieving a pair of goggles and presenting them to me. They weren't the usual geeky, science type goggles either. These were actually kind of cool.

"What are those? Some sort of sports goggles?"

She chuckled. "They're aviator goggles. Flying types wear them all the time for flight competitions, and they're especially popular in Trello Town for mail delivery in bad weather. I had these fitted with custom lenses to correct your sight. As a bonus, they won't fly off when you get into fights, and they're fire proof."

The flames on my back flared with excitement. "Wait, really?! Lemme try!" I smiled, nearly giggling like a small child. I'll be honest, I'm not very mature. If I'm excited, there's a chance my inner kit will show itself. Then again, I knew worse offenders.

Yet again, I was met with something I hadn't experienced since I was a child. Upon wearing the goggles, the world went from a mess of blurry objects and colors to actual distinct shapes. I found myself counting the individual leaves on trees, but that wasn't nearly the best of it. I could see Flare. Or rather, what she actually looked like. "Flare, you're…much prettier than you were when we met."

Flare just stared at me. "I'm going to assume that's a complement." She shot me a glare. "That was a complement, right?

I held up my paws in protest. "Of course, it is! Why wouldn't it be?!"

She smiled. "Just making sure."

I sighed. "Alright! No more squinting at books. Now, what else can I look at?"

Castello Town – Eve:

Sure enough, Lisa was impatiently waiting for me outside the castle gates, or so I thought. Once I reached the gates, Lisa was talking with a buizel I didn't recognize. Normally this would've set off red flags for a mother, but I smiled, approaching the two. "Hey Lisa! Is this your friend?"

Lisa turned, already exhibiting that wide smile of hers. "Oh! Hey Eve! Yeah, this is Torrent. Torrent, this is—"

"—Eve!" Torrent cut in." Lisa told me her mother was an explorer, but I didn't know she meant a famous one! Ooh! Do you ever explore around ancient ruins?! I'm really into that kind of stuff!"

Lisa practically dragged him down from me. "Come on, Torrent. That's kind of embarrassing."

"Heh, sorry." He chuckled. "I just really like ancient relics. And she's got something pretty interesting right there." He pointed to my neck.

I'd recently begun to wear my relic fragment on a necklace, so he was likely referring to that. "Oh this? This is just something I picked up one day. I'm not really sure what it is or where it came from."

"Awesome!" He exclaimed.

Lisa stepped in front of him, letting him fantasize to himself. "Anyway, Torrent and I were talking about hanging out together back home. Is that ok?"

"Back home? Are you sure?" Being a new parent, I still wasn't used to handling this sort of thing. I didn't want to disappoint Lisa. At the same time, I trusted her. She likely had permission from Torrent's parents for something like this, but I didn't know them…

"'Course I'm sure! We checked with Torrent's parents and all."

"Mmm… Well alright then. But first, I've got somewhere I want to take you."

"Somewhere you want to take me. Is it cool?"

I nodded. "Something like that. Come on. Torrent, you can come as well since you'll be coming home with us."

Castello Market:

Thanks to the momentary peace, the market in Castello Town had grown considerably in the past three years. There were more shops now more than ever, and it was a lot easier to get ahold of bows…not that I would know anything about that.

In any case, there was one shop that I had grown fond of recently. A friend of my mom's had set up shop selling hats and other similar types of accessories, all made by her own paws. She took specialized orders, and she had a talent for what she did. "This is the place!"

"A clothing store?" Lisa asked, tilting her head at the small building off to the side of the market that obviously doubled as a house. The only indication that it was a shop was the sign out front, neatly fashioned out of various types of fabric, but it was charming all the same. "Don't take this the wrong way, but that doesn't seem like you."

I chuckled. "I guess so, but this isn't some random girly clothing store. This place is special. "

"Ooh! Did you get your hat from here?!"

"Uhm, well no. I actually don't know where this hat was made or if the person who gave it to me is the original owner, but this place is still special. You'll love it, trust me!"

She didn't get it, that much was clear, but she smiled anyway. "Well if you like it, then I guess it must be special. Let's go!"

The door was accompanied by the quaint chime of a bell, attracting the attention of a cinccino behind a counter. "I'll be with you in a moment." A feminine voice chimed in, the normal type struggling with a couple of boxes.

"Let me help you with that." I smiled, the boxes lifting themselves of their own accord. Recently I'd learned how to use my powers to control gravity just enough to lift small objects. I couldn't do much else, but it was still useful.

"Oh, thank you!" She took a moment to catch her breath as the boxes put themselves away. "Oh, it's you Eve. How's your mom?"

"Scary, as usual. I don't think that's going to stop anytime soon."

"Same old Ella." She smiled. "I do hope she'll visit sometime. Haven't seen her in a while. If you have the time, could you say hello for me?"

"No problem. Heck, I'll even send her your way. She could really use a break from those dusty books anyway."

The cinccino sent me a disapproving look. "Now, now. Show your mother some respect. Wouldn't kill you to read a book or two you know." She smirked.

"Yeah, yeah. I swear, you and Ally both…" I chuckled. "Anyway, I don't believe you've met Lisa before. Or at least I think so. You haven't, right?"

Lisa shook her head. "How can such an awesome explorer be so forgetful?"

"I don't believe I have." The cinccino entered. "Though it's nice to see you both have the same sass." She giggled. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lisa. My name is Cotton. It's not my real name, but everyone around town calls me Cotton Heart on account of my job here."

"Nice to meet you Cotton." She looked around, noting the variety of colorful accessories dressing the walls and furniture of the shop, which more than confirmed that it was indeed a house. Each article was notably unique, with remarkably intricate patterns, symbols or images stitched into them. Not one of them was the least bit dirty. "So, you make all of these yourself?"

"Certainly! While it would definitely be easier to let someone else do the work, I rather enjoy making my own art." She gazed around at her work; a sense of pride prevalent in her voice. "I don't think I could bear to hand over that responsibility to someone else. Anyway, are you guys looking for something in particular?"

I nodded. "Actually, it's Lisa's thirteenth birthday today, so I thought I'd let her pick something out."

Lisa's ears perked up as if she had completely forgotten about her own birthday. "Wait, it is?"

I ruffled her fur. "Of course, it is, sweetie. Did you seriously forget?"

"Well… no! It was just a test."

"Heh, sure it was." I nuzzled the small eevee. "Now go ahead. Pick something cool!" I nudged her forward, letting her have free range of the place. Sure enough, it wasn't long before I'd lost her attention amongst the accessories.

"She's adorable." Cotton cooed. "And you haven't heard a word about her parents?"

I shook my head. "She refuses to talk about them. Says she only remembers her mom, and even then, that's all I could get out of her."

She nodded. "Well, I know you and Alex were planning on adopting her. How's that going?"

"It's… going, I guess. We still haven't told her about it. We've had all of the papers filled out for months, but we don't know how she'll react, and we want to tell her before we make it official. It doesn't help that we're new to this either. Sylvan's quite the handful."

"Mmm. Well the two of you seem like you can handle it. I'm sure you'll be fine."

"I hope so."

"Ooh. This looks awesome!" Lisa exclaimed. She was nearly head deep in hats and bows and was holding up what looked to be a beanie in the shape of mew's head. I passed Cotton an apologetic look, helping her clean up the mess Lisa had made, before addressing the teenager.

"Find something interesting?"

She nodded excitedly. "Yep!" She showed off the beanie. "Cool huh?!"

True to form, it looked exactly like Mew's head. Two rounded off triangles for ears, sky blue eyes near the front, and the iconic pink that crazy cat was known for. Directly below the ears, two long, mew tail shaped ribbons hung from the hat. They were likely meant to cover the sides of the wearer's head, that is unless they were an eevee, huge ears and all. Seeing this took me back to my first experience with the legendary, and how helpful he'd been when we were completing Aunt Evelyn's test. Still, I had to admit it looked cute as the young eevee put it on.

"Sure, about this one?"

She nodded. "Yep!"

"Well if you're sure, that's good enough for me." I faced Cotton. "We'll take this Mew hat please."

The cinccino nodded. "Oh, certainly." She smiled. "That's one of my favorites too. Made it one day after I spotted Mew floating through town. He seemed so energetic! I think he pulled a few harmless pranks on some of the residents too." She giggled. "How could I not be inspired?"

"Pranks huh? I wonder if he has any tips… I should ask him next time." I grinned.

"Not now, Eve." Lisa sighed.

"Oh, err. Right." I chuckled. "In any case, how much for the hat, Cotton?" I asked, reaching for my hat to produce my coin pouch."

"Oh no! That won't be necessary. This one's on the house."

"Really? Are you sure? If it's not that much…"

"No, no. It's fine, really. Besides, it's Lisa's birthday anyway. Consider it my gift to her." She smiled.

I smiled. "That's fair I suppose. In that case, thanks Cotton!"

"Thanks Miss Cotton." Lisa thanked the cinccino.

"No worries, dear. You two take care. As for myself, I should really get back to work if I want to have these boxes organized before closing." She waved, before returning her attention to the counter. We waved back, before exiting the shop together.

Treasure Town:

As it turned out, Torrent had waited outside the shop on his own. I hadn't noticed he wasn't with us until he rejoined us at the exit. He'd just been sitting by the side of the building, reading a pocket-sized guide on ancient relics. When I questioned him, he simply stated that he thought it would be rude to intrude on a mother-daughter moment, so he waited outside. Needless to say, I wasn't worried about Lisa spending time around him.

The walk back to treasure town was far from silent, Lisa showing off her hat to Torrent and all, but we were able to make it fast, and in no time, we were standing at the porch-step of my parents' house.

"Don't forget to tell Ella about Miss Cotton." Lisa chimed in once we reached the door. Had it not been for the slight tinge of sarcasm in her voice, I might've rolled my eyes.

"Just get in the house ya little floof ball." I chuckled, ruffling her fur and pushing her through the open door.

Inside, I found Mom curled up with a book, which wasn't all that unusual. Today was her book day after all. Accompanying her was a white vulpix, and…

"Drew!" I pounced the quilava, nuzzling his face as he attempted to push me away, ignoring his many pleas of protest until he eventually gave in and hugged me.

"Hey Eve. It's been a while." He smiled, rubbing my head affectionately. "But uhh, can you get off me now? I was in the middle of something with Flare."

"Oh yeah, sorry!" I chuckled, letting him stand up. "Where is Flare anyway? Is she behind the new girl?" I asked, looking around the white vulpix to check for her.

The white vulpix giggled. "Eve. It's me. I am Flare."

I frowned, looking at the vulpix incredulously. "Really? Are you sure, cause I'm pretty sure Flare had yellow ey—"

Before I had a chance to finish, a peculiar pattern appeared in the vulpix's eyes. The same pattern Flare had that always gave me chills. For some reason, every time I saw it, my heartrate sped up, and I got this deep, chilling sensation. "—Believe me now?" She smirked.

"Well I'll admit, I'm surprised." I had to blink a bit to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. "What happened to you?"

"It's a long story. I'll explain later." She assured, waving to Lisa. "For now, why don't we catch up some?"

I nodded. "Oh!" I gasped. "By the way, I have something I need you two to look at for me!" I began frantically searching my hat.

By now, I had my mom's attention. She'd put her book down and was now watching me pull an assortment of random items out of a fedora. She sighed. "I hope Cyrus at least told you not to do that in public."

I waved it off, receiving a death glare in response. Even so, I found what I was looking for, and showed it off. Luckily, the journal Cyrus had entrusted to me hadn't been lost or damaged. "Drew can read foreign languages and stuff, right? Can you guys translate this journal for me?"

Flare examined it, flipping through a few pages. "Interesting… We haven't come across this language before." She nodded. "Should be fun! We'll have it done in no time! Drew, time to test out those new goggles of yours."

He groaned. "Man, haven't even gotten to rest yet."

"No whining!" Flare snapped.

"Y-Yes ma'am!"