A/N: This chapter title is from the song "You and Me and Pokémon." ("We live, always together, sharing the same bright sun, you and me and Pokémon.")
Chapter Two
We Live, Always Together
A cheerful river ran at the base of a sheer cliff. On one side of the water, the hilly ground sloped gradually down to the banks; on the other side, the scarp jutted upward without any introduction whatsoever. A pack of Growlithe had their home in the shelter offered by the looming rock wall. Red saw mother Growlithe with tiny puppies; old, gray-tinged Growlithe; young Growlithe like himself; and other Growlithe of every age and size. He and the other newcomer stood awkwardly, uncertain how to proceed. A powerful-looking male ambled up to them. "Who are these sucklings?" he snorted.
"They had no place to lay their heads," the Arcanine told him. "I am allowing them to stay here." More Growlithe trotted over, sniffing the new Growlithe with interest. Their wagging tails beat against Red's flanks. He stood still and kept his eyes averted, trying not to make a rankling first impression.
"They smell funny!" yipped a puppy down below him.
"Where are they from?" the puppy's mother inquired.
"We came from Pallet Town," Red answered, nervous. "I'm Red."
"And I'm Turquoise," the other Growlithe mumbled.
"What sort of names are those?" an aged Growlithe scoffed.
"Are you from another pack?" a young female asked them. The Arcanine put an end to all the questioning.
"They are without a pack of their own. We will be their home for the time being." He showed Turquoise and Red to an unoccupied hollow at the base of the cliff. "It is our time to hunt. We will return with food and greet the moon." He let out a booming bark, and instantly, every Growlithe who didn't have puppies to care for bounded to his side. They galloped off into the trees, leaving Red and Turquoise behind to watch the bitches shepherd their little ones back into cozy nests.
The hunters returned close to nightfall. Red's long fast had finally caught up to him, and he was consumed by a raging hunger. Yet he stopped short in dismay when he saw what the Growlithe had brought for their pack mates to eat. It was a huge Rapidash, who once must have been glorious to look at but was now limp and lifeless. The flames that had graced its head and tail had gone out. Red turned from the sickening sight. Shuddering violently, Turquoise did the same. They lay with their faces crinkled up into twin expressions of disgust, listening to the Growlithe tear into the dead Pokémon's flesh. At length a friendly Growlithe approached them with a chunk of meat in his jowls.
"Have some," he invited them, dropping the hunk at their paws. "You haven't eaten in a while, right?" The two of them beheld the bloody meat with their eyes huge. "It's all right; everyone gets a share," the Growlithe went on. When neither Red nor Turquoise made a move to eat, he looked more closely at the two of them. "Oh…you're not weaned yet? Sorry," he apologized awkwardly. "Wait here—I'll see if any of the girls can spare you some milk." He picked up the meat again and trotted away. Red buried his face in his paws and moaned. The thought of getting his supper the same way infants did was almost too demeaning to bear.
The rest of the Growlithe left Red and Turquoise to themselves as they stripped every bit of meat from their prey's bones. When they were finished feasting, a soft-eyed female came up to them. "I only have one pup," she told them quietly. "There's room for the two of you to suck with him, if you like." Turquoise and Red shared a glum look; Red might have been content to go without supper for the second night in a row if he hadn't felt so light-headed.
"Thank you," Turquoise murmured. They got to their paws as one and followed their surrogate mother to a den by the river. Her son leapt around her as she approached. He had the bluish eyes of a very young puppy, and was obviously far from being a mature Growlithe. The humiliation of curling up with him at the female Growlithe's side almost won out over Red's hunger. But he swallowed his pride along with the creamy milk she offered, and relished the long-awaited feeling of fullness in his belly. Turquoise and the pup fell fast asleep when they were done nursing. Red, his head propped on the female Growlithe's ribs, stared at the moon— the one thing that connected everyone, wherever they were.
"You're too old to be drinking milk," the mother told him sleepily, although there was no chiding in her voice. "And surely too young to be alone." She blinked perceptively at Red. "Where is your mother?"
Red licked his lips without a clue how to answer her. "I…don't know." He whined long and low without really realizing it.
"My name is Embers' Fire," the she-Growlithe said to him in a gentle voice.
"Red," Red introduced himself hoarsely. "Of Pallet Town."
His new life as a Growlithe was markedly different from his old one as a Pokémon Trainer. When he was a human, he'd had status. Sure, everyone was always comparing him to Blue— both boys came from the same town, so they were often equated with one another. But however irritatingly often people said Blue was a better Trainer, Red would never let it dampen his spirit. After all, he was a talented Trainer in his own right, with a whole lot of Pokémon, and two gym badges of his own, besides. Where were those badges now, Red wondered. More importantly, where were his Pokémon? He worried about where they had gone, and how they were getting along without him. Not a day passed when he didn't think of his beloved Pokémon friends, and everything he'd left behind when he gained paws instead of legs.
As a Growlithe, by contrast, he was pretty much at the bottom of the hierarchy. Everything seemed to be united against him to bring him down to the lowest rung. Besides being the new dog in town, he was young and quite inexperienced when it came to pack matters. Add that to the fact that he was nursing when he had long ago outgrown the need for milk…he shouldn't have been surprised when he was patronized, almost babied, by the other members. He suspected they could see right through him in some ways. For instance, he got the feeling they knew that he was well beyond the need for suckling. And it was pretty obvious Red didn't know the first thing about pack etiquette and behavior. He was hoping that the Growlithe simply thought he was from a faraway pack, and didn't know the rules where this new pack was concerned. He didn't know what the Growlithe around him would do if they found out he was really a human boy in a Pokémon's body.
Despite the embarrassment of acting as though he were much younger than he really was, Red truly enjoyed being able to stay with Embers' Fire. Her puppy, Sparking Fire, was just about the only one in the whole pack who looked up to Turquoise and Red. "I've never had a big brother," he would yap happily, "and now I have two!" The three of them wrestled together, practicing attacks that before, Red had only told other Pokémon to do. Now he could perform them, and he got a real thrill out of being able to charge an oak tree and slam his head into the trunk in a Skull Bash. He and Turquoise taught themselves all the standard physical attacks: Head Butt, Tackle, Body Slam, Scratch. But the coolest attacks—Fire-type—they couldn't learn. Red, Turquoise, and Sparking Fire spent much effort trying to make flames come out of their mouths, but all they ended up doing was standing dumbly with their mouths open. Not even smoke would come out. It was the only unintentional thing Red did that placed him into the "puppy" category. Other Growlithe who looked about his age could do it without much trouble. Many Growlithe who couldn't be that much older than he was often made fire attacks look easy.
Embers' Fire was perfectly content to take the new Growlithe from Pallet Town under her wing. She never scolded them for drinking milk when she, above all, must have known that they had been weaned long ago. But Red noticed other Growlithe in the pack urging Turquoise and him to act their age. Several times a day, one or more Growlithe would offer one of them meat to eat. It was a custom that, when a puppy reached the teething age, the rest of the pack members would join the mother in luring the pup to his first taste of meat. From there, it was an easier matter to transition the puppy to an entirely carnivorous diet. Banked Fire, the Growlithe who had offered them part of the Rapidash on their first day, was especially consistent. Every day, when he got back from hunting with the pack, he brought them some morsel to eat. He offered them the pieces that he obviously found the most tasty—but of course, Red and Turquoise couldn't help their revulsion. Still, his kind gestures didn't go unappreciated, and Red very quickly took a liking to the good-natured Growlithe. Banked Fire waved his tail around for Sparking Fire to pounce on. He taught Red and Turquoise how to box with their forepaws and kick with their hind legs. They began to look forward to seeing him each day in spite of the distasteful shanks of meat hanging from his jaws.
If Banked Fire and Embers' Fire made life in the pack worthwhile, Wildfire made it worse. He was the first Growlithe they had seen when they came to live with the Growlithe colony. It was no secret that he scorned the newcomers. As busy as pack life kept him, he always managed to spare an insult or a scathing glare for Red or Turquoise. He spoke to them condescendingly at best. His jibes were often backed up by a snarl, or a mouthful of bared teeth. Turquoise was beaten down by his remarks, and took to making himself scarce whenever Wildfire was around. Red, on the other hand, felt indignant: he strove to keep his angry urges under control.
One day it came down to a dogfight between them. Wildfire kept pushing his limits until finally Red couldn't stand any more of his mockery. He leaped on top of Wildfire and knocked him onto his side. The two of them rolled over and over, pawing and biting at one another. "Do you think you can get the better of me, little whelp?" snarled the bigger Dog Pokémon. He brought his weight down on Red to crush him. One of his large paws slammed against Red's chest and kept him down.
Red growled at his assailant. "Yes," he answered, showing his canine teeth. I do." He took a deep breath and felt a powerful heat build up in his lungs. "Graaaaa!" Fire shot out of his mouth. He had succeeded in performing the Flamethrower attack! It knocked Wildfire off him and seemed to do damage to him, as well. The big male shook his head from side to side.
"You pathetic nursling!" he snarled. He opened his mouth and used a Flamethrower of his own. Red countered with the same attack. Their shots of fire connected with one another in a roar. Before Red knew what had happened, his flame had won. It drove Wildfire's back and engulfed the howling Growlithe in heat. Red was victorious.
Wildfire fled into the woods to lick his wounds. He didn't pick fights with Red anymore after that. Red even heard one of the older females remark, "Amazing. You know, I've never seen a flame-breath hotter than Wildfire's is, not until today."
Once he had triumphed over the Pokémon determined to bully him into submission, Red received more respect from the pack. Strange, though, how it didn't mitigate his feelings of humiliation. There was no pleasure in existing as a puppy. He couldn't do this for much longer.
Time passed, and two weeks later, Red and Turquoise sat taking in the sunset together. The tension and humiliation festering inside Red drove him to ask the question they had been asking themselves all along. "What are we doing here?" he muttered. "We're Pokémon Trainers! We're not supposed to go back to the baby stage!"
"Do Pokémon Trainers eat the flesh of Pokémon?" Turquoise answered rhetorically, his voice soft. "We don't have another choice."
"But we do." Red stared soberly into his friend's eyes. "We could leave."
"Where would we go?" Turquoise wondered aloud.
"We wandered the world as Trainers before. We can do it as Pokémon again." Red gazed upward once more. "I've thought a lot about it. The wind kicked up, and then I got knocked out. After that, I was changed into a Growlithe. I think maybe the same thing happened all over the region. I've got to find out why. My Pokémon need me!" Again he looked at Turquoise, earnestly. "And how many people ended up like us, scared, didn't know what to do? Were they as lucky as us, with a group of Pokémon to take them in?" He sighed. "Sure, food will be hard to find on my own, but it beats drinking milk." Turquoise smiled a little, trying to put a brave face on things.
"Where will you go?"
"I don't know," Red admitted with a shrug. "Wherever I can find some answers." He looked at his friend. "Will you come with me?"
Turquoise shuffled his paws uncomfortably. "I have to stay here," he said softly, but with certainty. "My Pokémon are somewhere around Pallet Town, I just know it. And I can't leave until I find them." Solemnly, he put a paw on Red's shoulder. "I'll miss you. I hope you find what you're looking for."
"Thanks. You, too," Red mumbled. The two of them licked along one another's necks and shoulders: a Growlithe's affectionate farewell.