Hello everyone, shield here. Everyone knows that I have just posted the last chapter of TB earlier this evening. I will say that though TB was short I don't plan to make this one the same length as Two Brothers. I plan for this one to be about a hundred thousand words as a minimum. That pretty much double the length of TB. I have been writing for quite some time now (though I feel most of my stories before Two Brothers were flops due to lack of enthusiasm in finishing them on my part.) so I feel that this will be a worthy goal for me. Well enough about that let's get on with the story.
No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected.
Julius Caesar
Chapter 3
Lawrence's POV
"I never thought I would see the day when I would have to escape a Pokémon center." I said as we walked through the Viridian forest.
"If I'm stuck like this forever, I am not ever going back to one of those places." Caleb said.
"You will if your mom makes you go to one. You don't think that she won't try and keep you healthy do you." Ember asked.
"Way to make me feel better, guys." Caleb muttered. "Where do you think we should head to first? We can't just wander around in the woods all day." I asked. Ember looked up at Caleb who was still riding on Ember's back.
"We were supposed to meet with my mom and sister in Pewter City. I think we should meet up with them first." He said. Ember nodded and we started down the old forest path.
"Hey guys, I've got a question. If I'm a Vulpix, then why do I only have one tail?" Caleb asked.
"That's because the others haven't grown yet, Hun. It's kind of a way for us to tell how old our kits are. Having six tails is the equivalent to being about fifteen years old and having one tail is the equivalent of being an infant to early toddler years." Aunt Ember answered. Even through Caleb's red fur, you could still see how pale he had become. A few seconds later, he passed out.
"Do you think he overreacted a little bit?" I asked.
"Lawrence, he has been through a lot the past few days, give him a little slack. Besides, I can recall a few times when some big things happened to you that you overreacted also. Like that time where you accidentally swallowed that Everstone, which caused you to panic because you thought you, would not be able to evolve afterwards." She answered.
"Fine, how long do you think it will be to get to Pewter City?" I asked. Aunt Ember looked up into the dimming sky then looked down towards me.
"We won't make before tonight because of how late it was when we escaped the Pokémon Center. I'd have to say probably mid to late morning is my best guess." She replied.
"Does that mean we are going to spend the night out here tonight?" I asked hoping she would say no.
"Unless you know of a place where we can sleep with a roof over our heads, then yes." She answered.
"Wait, we aren't too far from the cave Caleb was…um…transformed in. We can stay there for the night. It might even have some of Caleb's stuff still in it, assuming no one has been in there lately." I pointed out.
"Then lead the way. With any luck we will even be able to get some food." Ember said enthusiastically.
"Here's the cave, I hope everything is still here." I said as we stepped into the cave. "Yep, it's all still here." I said as we walked further into the cave. I began to dig through the bag as Aunt Ember gently placed Caleb on the ground. "Ok, I found a bag of Pecha berries. Two cans of the good Pokéchow, and five bags of the dry Pokéchow." I said as I pulled out the food from the bag.
"Did you find any milk formula? Because now that I have enough time to look, I'm not seeing hardly any teeth in Caleb's mouth." She explained.
"Wait so you are telling me that Caleb has to be bottle fed?" I asked. Aunt Ember nodded as I began to have a laughing fit.
"That's n-not going t-to bode well w-with Caleb. He is a-always going on a-about how he wants t-to be more i-independent." I laughed.
"Lawrence! Do I need to make you more dependent? Because we both know that I can definitely make that happen." She threatened. I instantly shut my mouth, not wanting my aunt to follow through with her threat.
"I didn't see any, let me check again." I said as I returned to the depths of the hiking bag. At the very bottom was a small battery powered cooler. I bit a small foam handle and began to pull it out.
The cooler gave me quite a bit of trouble as I tugged and pulled it out of the bag. After ten minutes of struggling with the cooler, the bag relinquished its treasure, with much of the bags other content strewn throughout the dirt floor. I opened the box and peered inside. Inside was a jar of miracle whip, some cheddar cheese, some roast beef, and a small jug of Miltank milk. "Aunt Ember? Will this work?" I asked as I tried to lift the jug from the box with my teeth. Aunt Ember walked over to the box and easily lifted the jug from the box. She placed the bottle on the ground and began to examine it.
"Aunt Ember, it's a bottle of milk. It's not radioactive." I said as she stared at the bottle.
"I'm trying to find the expiration date, smart-aleck." She snapped.
"Ok, ok, you don't have to get all bent out of shape about it." I said. She took a few more minutes to stare at the bottle before saying it was ok to use.
"Did you get the bottles?" she turned to me and asked.
"No, I don't think Caleb has any. It's not like we have a lot of babies to take care of." I replied. Aunt Ember gave me the look that read 'go find what I need now or you will not survive the night' look. I sighed then returned to searching the bag.
"Hey Aunt Ember, I found a jar and an empty water bottle but I didn't find any baby bottles." I said as I pulled each item from the bag. "The jar won't help at all without a lid. That water bottle on the other hand, might do the trick. What kind is it?" she asked.
"I don't know. Caleb got it when he won third place at some triathlon a few years ago. If I remember right second place was some really fast bike and first place was one of those water bottles, a bike, and a vacation to the Orange Islands." I said. Aunt Ember looked at the bottle with intrigue. Using some of her psychic abilities, she popped off the cap revealing a rubber straw.
"This will work just fine." She said. She unscrewed the lid, and poured some milk into the bottle by using her telekinesis. She then held the bottle close to herself in order to keep warm.
"So, now what? Do we try to wake Caleb up? Or do we wait for him to wake on his own?" I asked.
"We will just have to wait. If he does not wake up within an hour, then you can try to wake him up, but not a second more. Do you understand?" she asked. I nodded and Aunt Ember began to watch over Caleb.
Caleb's POV
"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty," Lawrence said as soon as I began to stir.
"Shut up. It's not like you know how any of this feels." I said grumpily.
"Maybe so, but it is still fun to tease about." He said with a smirk.
"That's enough you two. Now Caleb, come here so you can eat." She demanded as she revealed a blue plastic bottle.
"Let me think…no. Not just no, heck no. I am not being bottle fed." I refused.
"You will if I say you will. You need to keep up your strength, and I will force this bottle down your throat if I have to. I don't care if you find it belittling, so either you can take the bottle quietly or I can force it down your throat like a real baby. Do I make myself clear?" she asked sternly. She literally struck fear into my heart, but I let my stubborn streak get the best of me. I turned around and began to waddle away.
"I had hoped you would see reason, but I guess we will have to do this the hard way." I heard her sigh. A few seconds later, I stopped moving. No matter how hard I struggled, I couldn't move a paw. Then I noticed my sports bottle float toward me as if some invisible hand was guiding it.
"Now open your mouth before I force you to." Ember said sternly. Reluctantly I obeyed. The bottle popped itself into my mouth, and I reluctantly began to drink. Never before had milk tasted so good. I rolled on my back and used my hind-paws to lift the back of bottle. As soon as the liquid touched my tongue, I latched on to the bottle, unwilling to let it go.
"Hey Caleb, are you enjoying your meal? I would ask if I could have a taste but I'm a little too old for milk." Lawrence teased. His comment really got under my fur. I tossed the bottle away when Ember wasn't looking, and stalked towards Lawrence as he laughed. As soon as I got close enough, I bit down hard on his left hind leg.
"Yeowch!" he yelped as he shook his leg free.
"What in the world are you two doing?" Ember yelled. "He bit me!" Lawrence growled.
"I wouldn't have bit you if you hadn't of made that snide remark about me having to drink milk." I retorted.
"I don't care what happened! You two are friends, so start acting like it!" she yelled. I turned to Lawrence, and apologized. He to, apologized then we both turned back towards Ember.
"Good, at least ya'll apologize to each other, but I'm afraid that there will still be consequences. Caleb, you will go to bed immediately. Lawrence, I have told you many times today to be nice to Caleb because of his condition. Therefore, I feel that you need a little lesson of what it feels like in Caleb's shoes." Ember said as her eyes glowed blue.
"Crap." Lawrence said as he was covered in a blue light. When the blue light disappeared, Lawrence just as he did when he was a month old. "Crap, crap, crap, crap!" he yelled.
"I will change you back when we meet Caleb's mom tomorrow." She said as she curled up.
"This isn't fair!" he yelled.
"You should have thought of that when you were picking on Caleb." Ember yawned as she drew Lawrence and me into her warm tails.
What did ya'll think? I tried to add some humor into this chapter because I didn't want this story to be as serious as Two Brothers although it will have its moments of being serious. I hope that it worked and you guys got a few laughs out of it. The idea for this chapter actually came from the movie The Cobbler with Adam Sandler starring. In the movie Adam Sandler is a shoe cobbler who can literally walk in another's shoes and become that person while he wears their shoes. Enough about The Cobbler, I hope ya'll enjoyed the story and be sure to review if you have anything to say. Also if you like, the story so far be sure to favorite/follow. This is shieldliger001 signing off.