I leaned against the side of the building, watching my best friend Lucas and his newly evolved arcanine battle a snotty nosed kid with a rattata. Lucas was obviously going easy on his opponent. The kid had been bugging him all morning for a battle, and he had finally given in after the twenty-third time of hearing "C'mon, don't ya wanna battle?" I didn't blame the kid. Lucas was this city's hero. My friend was made for Pokémon battles. He was a strategist, able to predict the moves of his opponent accurately while using his broad knowledge of type advantages and disadvantages to perform the perfect counterattack. Of course, his good looks helped him as well. He had light brown hair with deep blue eyes that made the ladies swoon whenever he walked into the room. When we were in high school, several fights had broken out between girls trying to ask him to prom. He was so disturbed that he ended up asking me to go as his date (as friends) to try to stop the fights. Two girls had tried to jump me, but luckily I could handle myself. No one bothered me again after that, and prom came and went peacefully.
"Ember!" The voice broke me out of my reminiscence, and I looked up to see Lucas running towards me. The kid had obviously lost, but instead of put out, he looked ecstatic.
"Thank you Lucas!" he called, grinning from ear to ear. "Just wait until I tell my friends!" He took off, running down the street toward a group of preteen boys. Lucas groaned and took me by the hand, muttering "Run!" as the group of boys turned toward us in unison, like a flock of wingull that had just found a particularly juicy treat. I laughed as he pulled me onto his motorcycle with a panicked expression on his face, the children now racing down the street. I felt a bit bad for them as Lucas drove away.
"That was mean!" I called to him over the wind, still laughing. He only grunted and sped up the bike. I shook my head and laid it against his back, admiring the beautiful Kanto seaside as we sped by. We lived in Cerulean City, a mid-sized city in Kanto. It was big enough that it had all the services a proper city should have but small enough that everyone at least vaguely knew each other. Both Lucas and I had lived here our entire lives, although we hadn't become best friends until we were six years old. Then we became inseparable. Everywhere we went, we went with each other. Lucas and Ember until the end. However, unlike Lucas, I was not well liked by the townsfolk.
I was 5'4, just shy of 5'5. Lucas towered over me at a whopping 6 feet tall. I had amethyst eyes and a heart-shaped face, with blonde curls that my mother once said she'd kill for. I had been told by many men that I was drop dead gorgeous. No, my looks were not why the townsfolk hated me, although that may have contributed to it. No, the townsfolk hated me because I couldn't battle with Pokémon. Or, rather, I refused to battle with other people's Pokémon. In this society, strength was everything, even if it was never said out loud. Refusing to participate in the thing that people judged others worth on made me the outcast of Cerulean. Lucas was the only person who treated me like I was worth something besides my family. Then again, he knew my reason for refusing to battle.
Lucas slowed to a stop near the forested area we used so I could secretly practice. I frowned as I realized his heartbeat had been erratic the entire drive, even though we had stopped running from the mob of children.
"You okay?" I asked, concern lacing my voice. "Your heart is beating out of your chest. Are you about to have an attack?" The poor guy had had bad asthma since a child. For some reason, Lucas blushed scarlet.
"Go practice," he muttered, attempting to, and failing miserably, push me off the bike. I gave him a confused look but did what he asked, stepping off the bike and heading toward the familiar woods.
For the past 15 years, these woods had been my home away from home. I loved the earthy scent, the green trees, and the Pokémon cries as they leapt from branch to branch or scurried along the ground, hidden by the tall grass. The forest was far away enough from town that the locals wouldn't think to look for me here, but close enough to my house that I could walk here in minutes.
The two pokeballs sitting on the belt around my waist began to shake with impatience. "Wait a second," I told them sternly, and they both stopped after one final rebellious shake. I shook my head with amusement, took the first ball off its loop, and tossed it into the air. A beautiful, cream-colored creature emerged from the ball, landing gracefully on all fours and looking up at me with a petulant stare.
"Hello, Kiri." I cooed at her. "How is my beautiful girl today?" She looked slightly mollified by the compliment, but she was still a bit grumpy. My ninetails hated her Pokeball with a passion, and it took many treats and promises of a good scratching later to go inside it. I made good on my promise and started scratching the crest between her ears, her favorite spot. She snuggled up next to my leg and happily let out the eerily beautiful cry that all her kind had. I smiled at her affectionate behavior and continued to scratch as Lucas approached us.
"Where's Rin?" he asked, sitting down beside me.
"Still in his Pokeball. I think he's sulking too." I said, giving Kiri a look that she promptly ignored. I shook my head and grabbed the second Pokeball off my belt. I threw it like I had Kiri's but the ball only landed unopened on the ground.
"Rin, if you don't stop sulking and get out now, I'll give Kiri your share of treats tonight." I threatened. Kiri looked thrilled by this prospect, but let out a disappointed hum as Rin emerged from his ball.
Rin was the real reason I never battled. He was obviously a ninetails, but at the same time, he wasn't. Whereas Kiri's typing was fire, I had figured out (after much experimentation), that Rin was an odd mix of ice and fairy. Where Kiri was cream colored everywhere except for the orange tips of her tails, Rin was a pale blue color with white tail-tips. I honestly had no idea what he was beside a ninetails, even after all the extensive research Lucas and I had done over the years. There was no way I could let anyone else see him. He was a deviant from the norm, and there was no way in hell was I going to let some asshole take him away from me and cart him off to some lab to be studied. He was my friend, not a lab rat.
Rin grumpily sat several feet away from me, avoiding eye contact. He hated his pokeball even more than Kiri, but since I had to hide him so much, he was in it way more than he should be.
"Come here," I said soothingly, outstretching my arm to indicate I had a free scratching for him. He looked interested, but his stubbornness outweighed his interest. He continued ignoring me, his head turned as he deliberately studied the dead tree trunk next to him.
"Your loss buddy," I said, returning my free hand to scratching Kiri. She looked doubly delighted and did the Pokémon equivalent of smirking at Rin. When he thought I wasn't looking, he scooted closer to me. He stopped and looked away again when I looked back up at him, and I tried really hard not to laugh as I looked back down at Kiri. A few moments later, I felt his soft, strangely chilly fur brush up against my leg as he settled on my other side. I took pity on him and pulled one hand from Kiri to give him equal attention.
Lucas, who had been watching the entire spectacle, burst out laughing when Rin practically purred at my touch.
"Those two certainly are spirited," he said, wiping away a stray tear as he struggled to calm his laughter. "Rylen sure gave you some amazing Pokémon." I quieted at the reminder of my brother, and Lucas began to panic.
"I'm sorry Em! That was extremely thoughtless of me." He ducked his head, ashamed. I touched Lucas's leg, silently letting him know that I was okay. Well, kind of okay.
Rylen had been my older brother by about ten years. I had adored him as a child, and he'd seemed to love me as well, constantly giving me attention, sweets when my mother's back was turned, and all the love a six-year-old could ask for. However, the night before I had turned seven, Rylen had disappeared into thin air, leaving me only with two Pokémon eggs, a charm bracelet, and a note to my mother and I. I had read the note so much that I had it memorized by heart.
Mother and Ember,
I am so sorry that I have to leave you, but I need to live a life on my own. Please don't
look for me, It's safer this way for all of us.
Love,
Rylen
Mom had been devastated for a long time, but after several years she seemed to return to normal. I, on the other hand, was never quite the same. Rylen had been my role model. My protector. My brother. There was a Rylen-sized hole in my heart that could never quite be filled. Lucas, Kiri, and Rin helped a lot, but I was determined to find my brother. Somewhere, deep down inside me, I knew that he had not left willingly. I looked at Rin, who was frolicking around on the forest floor with Kiri and Leo, Lucas' arcanine. He had to be the key to finding Rylen. I was so sure of it. Rylen was trying to tell me something with him.
A gasp sounded in the clearing and I froze. There, standing right in front of us, was a young woman. And she had her eyes fixed on Rin.
