Chapter 3

The Rest of the days at sea past rather quickly. Little happened on the ship since Irving's first day on it, but most of the time he spent was a blur anyway. The dull routine had just started to ingrain itself in Irving when the captain made an announcement for disembarking.

"All passengers, we will be arriving in Canalave city shortly. Please pack up your things and prepare to disembark."

Not that Irving or Sophia had much to pack. In fact, they had nothing to pack, as they carried everything they owned on their person. Instead, they decided to lounge on the deck one last time. It was practically empty, as most people were either gathering their things or already lining up at the exit. No sensing in getting in line. It's not like getting there earlier would do them any good; they didn't have much to do outside of wait for things, so what was the point? Best to enjoy the cruise while it lasted.

The first thing Irving noticed about the city in the distance was the large bridge connecting the two halves. The city actually looked kinda similar to Vermillion, at least at a distance. Much of what you could see at this far out was the usual stuff you see in port cities: boats, docks, crates, etc. Upon closer inspection however, Canalave was quite different from Vermillion. While Vermillion's docks stopped a few hundred meters from the water. Canalave's docks just seemed to extend forever, the port defining the city's existence.

The Giant Bridge raised up, letting the Maria into port. There was a strong vibration as the ship pulled in.

"All passengers, we have arrived at Canalave city. Please disembark in an orderly fashion. There will be people outside who will guide you on land."

Sophia turned away from the railing to Irving. It'd be easier if she didn't think about it- oh, there came the waterworks. Irving held one of Sophia's hands and lead her to the ramp out of the ship. Or at least to its entrance; an endless cavalcade of people filled the routes out. Irving jammed himself into the crowd, leading Sophia to dry land. After a few minutes of pushing, shoving, and waiting, they reached the workers that the captain mentioned.

Blue helmets and semi-formal attire, some corralling the refugees, others unpacking and setting up equipment. Yep, they were peace corps workers.

"Everyone, go this way!" One of them shouted into the crowd with a megaphone. "Everything will be explained when you reach the camp!"

Oh, lovely. Irving got to be a camper. Camp Refugee.

Irving and Sophia followed the procession of people down the streets. There wasn't any motor transport allocated to this project. They would be walking to camp, through the Canalave streets, to the other side of the city. Such a large group of people attracted a lot of attention. There were rubberneckers everywhere and people coming out of their home to watch what the hell are you staring at jackoff like this was some sort of parade.

Said humiliation lasted for an half an hour or so, before they finally arrived at their destination. The camp was a hastily erected pen to hold a few thousand people. The ground was one continuous brown shade of dirt, covered by a tent city stretching out for hundreds of meters. Encircling it all was a barbed wire fence with guard posts and gates, ostensibly to keep the intruders out, but really just as much there to keep the refugees in.

The blue helmeted workers herded the horde through the camp's gates. Inside, Irving saw one continuous line moving from stall to stall, registering and collecting things. With no options, Irving and Sophia got in yet another Arceus-forsaken line and waited.

"Irving, I'm tired." Sophia moaned.

"Just a bit longer, Sophia." Irving responded, trying to hide the irritation in his voice "I'm tired, too, but there isn't much I can do about that either."

Come on, come on, line. Hurry up! Irving didn't exactly enjoy lines to begin with, but after miles of walking and a nagging sister, he just wanted this endless cycle of waiting in and moving to lines would be over. Irving went into the happy place in his head. Sunshine and warm grass and not waiting in a fucking line.

Inevitably, Irving reached his destination, a stand with an apathetic-looking worker processing all of the camper entrants.

"How many in your party?" the worker asked, jaded by the mind-numbing amount of data he had to enter that day.

"Two." Irving replied. The worker typed a little into his laptop.

"Names."

"Irving and Sophia Eisenherz."

"And who is the head of household."

Irving paused for a second.

"err, uhh..."

"Who is the eldest among you?" the worker asked, a little exasperated.

"I am." Irving finally responded.

"Any Pokémon?"

"Three small ones."

"Move to the next station." the worker directed Irving, as he readied himself to address the next hundreds of refugees.

Irving's brain tried to comprehend what had just happened. There was a certain way things were supposed to be, and they clearly weren't. Irving's Dad would talk to the man, since he was the head of the household. And if dad wasn't there, Mom would answer. They were adults and were qualified to take care of themselves and the family.

But they weren't here, and Irving said that he was the oldest. But that didn't make sense. Because if Irving were the oldest, he'd be the head of the household. But he was only fourteen, which was too young to be taking care of himself, let alone a family. Irving couldn't be the one in charge, and yet, there he was, looking after his sister and getting food and housing for the two of them. Oh, Arceus...

"Irving!"

Wait what. Oh, hey, the two of them were at the front of the line.

"Excuse, me, sir. Here are your things." A worker said handing Irving a plethora of household objects, and a smaller set to Sophia. "Next!"

Irving and Sophia were absorbed into the last segment of the line.

"Irving, pay attention next time. You're holding up the line!" Sophia scolded Irving.

"Sorry." Irving replied without any resistance.

Irving checked what he had in his hands. The bed roll and blanket combined with a couple bowls and medium-sized plates made up most of the weight in his arms. In addition, a couple of cups and some cooking and eating utensils rattled around on the plates, bumping into the toiletries bag laying in the middle of everything. Nothing to special, but Irving figured that he should be grateful that he got anything at all, especially something that was at least usable by most standards.

Irving looked ahead to see what was being handed out. Nothing. Well, not nothing, but not something, either. Another aid worker was taking the registration data and assigning tents to families. Wouldn't it be a lot easier just to have the registration guy assign housing? Whatever.

Irving honestly just hoped for a nice tent. A fair number of them were giant tents meant to hold an entire family. If they got assigned to one of those tents, chances were that Irving and Sophia would get stuck with some strangers, which Irving definitely didn't want to deal with. Instead, Irving crossed his fingers and hoped for a smaller two-person tent. Hell, he'd even take a regular camping tent if it meant not having to live within stabbing range of some mysterious and desperate stranger.

And soon enough, Irving was assigned a house.

"Tent 507c. It's on your left."

Irving wasn't one for prayer, but Arceus, if you're up there in whatever majestic landscape you live in, please, please, let this tent be only for two people. Hoping for the best, Irving sped down the camp roads, with Sophia in tow. 105... nope farther down... 304...A little bit more... oh here are the fives...501, 2, 3, 4... 7!

Hell, yes! A small two-person tent! Irving was too relieved to care how sad his excitement seemed.

"Here we are, Sophia." Irving introduced.

"Really? This?" Sophia did not look the least bit impressed. Irving would not have any of that.

"Come on, Sophia. It's not so bad. Here, have a look inside." Irving said as he opened the tent's entrance.

"See? It's more spacious than it looks. There's even a fabric floor, so the bed spreads won't get dirty."

"Yeah, but it's still too small." Sophia lamented "Do you really think we can live in this? I can even stand up in this, let alone live in it."

Irving really didn't want to have to deal with his sister's complaints at the moment.

"Either way, we were assigned this tent and we'll have to stick with it. It'll be fine. Don't worry, it's just like camping." Irving tried to reassure his sister.

"Fine." she relented, starting to unpack her stuff. Irving followed suit, and soon enough, the tent resembled something like a room. The quality of living for now was tolerable for the two Eisenherz siblings.

"Hey, Sophia, you wanna go check out the rest of the place?"

"Sure, might as well."

Irving and Sophia made their way out of the tent and fuck that is a lot of people. Since the time that the two of them got set up, many more people had been let into the camp proper. Given the dimensions of the camp and the density of refugees, the closest thing Irving could compare it to was the most depressing shopping mall imaginable. Irving comprehended the mass of people he would have to deal with it'll be fine it'll be fine it'll be fine.

Irving and Sophia walked the now busy paths of the camp to find... more people. Okay, there were other things, but the density of people was starting to cramp Irving's style. He consoled himself by saying that it was only like this because everyone was trying to do everything at once. Sure. It would get better.

Anyway, there was other stuff besides people. Irving already located the nearest latrines. Yeah, they're rudimentary outhouses, but it's better than nothing. Or Portipotties.

And not nearly far away enough from the latrines was the camp's mess hall or whatever they called it. It had a bunch of wooden table bench things like the kind that are at parks and a few booths for the aid workers to distribute food. It looked passable, but seriously, who places the place where people eat next to the place where people shit? It was a cholera outbreak waiting to happen.

Continuing their walk, Irving and Sophia came across a giant field. Just like much of the rest of the camp, it was a flat, brown, and devoid of significant plant life. Unlike the rest of the camp, it also lacked much in the way of human life as well, as people were too busy for recreation. Still, Irving figured it could be good for soccer or the occasional Pokémon battle.

And that was it really. Oh, they passed plenty of tents, and the occasional water pump, but nothing terribly of note. Go in one direction to far and there was a nice big fence with razor wire on top to greet you. The camp was squared off by the fence, with the only exit being the one Irving came through. Of course, the guards weren't letting anyone out now. Something about needing a pass or something.

"Hey, Irving, let's head back." Sophia said. A dark red hue illuminated the camp as Irving and Sophia walked back to their tent. Things started to settle down in the camp. The noise still bothered Irving, but it had reached a manageable level. More importantly, people weren't moving around as much, trying to find their places. Instead, most people were eating food with their families or whatever remained of them. Probably should grrrrrrrrrrr grumble.

Irving rubbed his stomach as he realized how hungry he was. He hadn't really had a chance to eat all day, as they had been busy walking, standing in line, and otherwise being busy. Shit, that probably meant that Sophia was hungry, too. He turned to her.

"Hey, Sophia. You wanna grab something to eat? I'm starving." Irving ask.

"Yeah, I'm really hungry, too." she replied.

Irving and Sophia exited their tent, kitchenware in hand, and trekked to the food dispensary. Luckily by the time the two of them arrived, the lines started dying down, so it was only a short wait until they got food.

And as a bonus, the food actually resembled something edible this time. Unlike the ship's food, all of the parts of the meal were at least identifiable; there was medium-well cooked ham, overcooked greens, and overcooked potatoes. Normally, Irving would have complained about this, much like how Sophia's face showed disgust at first, but given the latrines' proximity, having all of the bacteria put through hellfire was a blessing in disguise.

The workers on food duty dished out adequate portions of each of these foods, although with grace and carefulness of, well, someone who was working a thankless, low paying job in some shithole. It was better than crappy food and crappy service, though. Besides, who was Irving to turn down free food for him and his sister. Oh, and the Pokémon, too. Although, their food was normal bought-in-bulk cheap stuff and not of note.

Sophia decided to locate a table for the two of them while Irving filled up three bowls full of Pokémon food. After fidgeting with the four dishes until he could carry them all with some comfort, Irving meandered through the numerous benches until he could find oh great Sophia found a table with other people at it.

Irving approached the table Sophia had chosen, where she conversed with a small family of three. As he entered Sophia's line of sight, she waved at him and patted an empty spot, beckoning him to come over.

"Hey, Irving, these are some people I just met!" Sophia cheerfully said Irving sat down as far away as possible from these strangers. Not that he could distance himself anyway, considering the bench's small size. The eldest, a man not too much older than Irving's dad, extended his hand in a welcoming manner. Irving shook it firmly, despite his discomfort.

"Hey there, kiddo! I'm Matt Breckenridge." He said warmly "Nice to meetcha!"

"I'm Irving."

"I'm Kate Breckenridge." the woman next to him said as she shook Irving's hand. "And this is our daughter, Anna."

The girl facing Sophia to turned to Irving for a moment, curtly acknowledged his existence, and immediately resumed talking to Sophia. Fine, Irving never wanted to talk to her anyway. Irving turned away from the crowd at his table and sat down the bowls of Pokémon food.

"Togepi, Mudkip!" he called as he released them from their Pokéballs. They called out their names, happy to see their master and even happier to receive food, which they dug into. Sophia, too, released her Psyduck, who dug into his food with gusto as per usual. His mood improved by his Pokémon's presence, Irving began eating his own food, until he was unfortunately reminded that other people were eating at his table also, and worse they wanted to converse.

"Wow, those sure are some neat Pokémon there! I don't think I've ever seen ones like that back in Vermillion. What kind are they?" Mr. Breckenridge asked, with a sort of child-like enthusiasm.

"That's Togepi and that's Mudkip." Irving responded, pointing out each of them and trying to restrain his irritation. Irving then focused his attention back on his meal as he began to eat limp, color-drained greens.

"Man, they look pretty cool, Irving." Apparently, this man didn't place the same value on silence that Irving did. Irving didn't responded, hoping the man would go away.

"So what types are they?" Nope. Irving was picking the spot they sat at next time.

"Water. And normal." Irving explained in the briefest way possible.

"Real cool! We've got some normal and water types, ourselves!" The man continued blathering. "I got this awesome Pidgeotto, and my wife and I have a few Goldeen that swam in the back pond. Not anymore though, given the, you know, circumstances. Oh, and we just got a Rattata for Anna for her birthday! Ratty, is what I think she named it."

Oh, Arceus, please shut this man up. Irving desperately looked for an escape; maybe the Pokémon need more food. No, they've got plenty. How about Sophia? Nope, she was fully engaged with Anna. Oh, wait!

"Excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom." Irving told Mr. Breckenwhatever as he rose from his seat. Freedom at last! Irving took off towards the latrines. Not that he really had to go to the bathroom at the moment, but being at the shitter beat being with a chatterbox.

Irving sat down on one of the toilets, which thankfully weren't disgusting yet, as it was only the first day. Still, the smell was pretty rank. Irving really hoped that they had janitors here.

Irving fled the stench of the latrines after doing his business there. Much to his dismay, the Breckenridge family still existed. Oh, look. Mr. Breckenridge was waving him over.

Irving continued eating his food, and rather than engage the man in any way, just nodded whenever he spoke and gave the minimum interaction necessary. He said some stuff about grooming or Pokémon or whatever. Irving didn't care, instead focusing on his food. He didn't mind the overcooked stuff to be honest. He always preferred his meat medium-well, anyway, so this was only a step up. Potatoes were pretty dry, but they weren't any worse than the ones at school, or home for that matter; Irving wasn't blessed chef parents. And the formerly-green greens weren't bad if you pretended they weren't. Okay, they were pretty nasty anyway, but Irving needed the nutrients and the distraction.

As Irving finished up his meal, the Breckenridge family announced their departure, much to Irving's delight. Sophia and Anna took a while to end their conversation, as Sophia seemed to have invested herself in this family way more than Irving. Irving was going to be seeing these people again, wasn't he? Irving made his good-byes to the family as quick as possible and herded Sophia away from them.

"Sophia, you wanna head back to the tent?" Irving asked.

"Un-uh. I wanna go and play out in the field."

"Alright then. The Pokémon would probably like relaxing on solid ground again anyway. Oh, and I've got to take care of these dishes."

The field wasn't a terribly far walk from where they were. Unlike before though, there were a number of families washing dishes, playing with a soccer ball or with their Pokémon, or otherwise killing time. Reaching the field both of the Eisenherz siblings released their Pokémon. Irving sat down cross-legged and held Togepi in his lap as usual while Mudkip jumped out and started running around, eventually centering around Sophia and Psyduck. Sophia lead the two Pokémon towards a crowd of other children around her age and their Pokémon, mostly local varieties caught in the surrounding Vermillion City wild. Irving watched as Sophia introduced herself and seamlessly integrated into their group. They were far enough away that Irving couldn't understand what they were talking about, but they laughed and giggled and Sophia chatted up a storm. How very much like Sophia.

Sophia inherited Mom's extrovert tendencies. She surrounded herself with friends at school, trying to include everyone she met into her gigantic circle of friends. She saw every new kid at school or stranger on the street as a potential new friend. She'd strike up a conversation with anyone and her cuteness and generally cheerful personality won over most people, even if only resulting in a short chat. Irving watched as the group decided on something to do and started running of towards another end of the field; Irving picked up Togepi and followed at a distance.

All of the kids ran around with their Pokémon tagging each other (Irving couldn't tell at a distance what variety of tag exactly). The Tumult attracted the attention of more than a few nearby families, some moving as to avoid direct contact with the screechy, unruly mob. Irving knew to keep some space between himself and whatever group Sophia was with. Her enthusiasm rubbed off on other people, and it showed. This scene reminded him of countless times that Sophia had brought home friends from school. Oh sure, the gatherings started out innocuous enough. The girls would talk for a while about whatever girls their age talked about. Probably lame shit like clothing. Anyway, they'd reach some sort of topic that really got them really worked up, some sort of conversational event horizon, and then they get progressively rowdier. Irving's mom usually asked them to go into the backyard at that point, which should have been to Irving's liking. However, the window in his room faced the backyard and was usually open, the spring breeze chilling Irving just enough. He'd lose himself in a good book and their cacophony would pull him out of it. He tried to continue each time, but he learned soon enough just to give up. He'd put down the book and stare outside, watching Sophia horsing around with her friends. It irritated him then, but looking back, Irving preferred that scenario a thousand times to the one they were in now. He watched over his sister with a small, genuine smile.

The Kids continued to play for a while, Irving relaxing with Togepi, until, one by one, each of the children were called back by their parents until only Sophia remained. Having bid all of them goodbye, Sophia ran back over to Irving, Psyduck and Mudkip in tow.

"You ready to go back to the tent, Sophia?"

"Uh-huuuuuuuuuuuuh." Sophia affirmed as she broke into a yawn. Understandable, as it was pretty dark. Irving returned his Pokemon to their containers, as did Sophia, and they returned to their accommodations. Of course, Sophia had to tell Irving about each and every one of her friends that she met at the camp. There was Robbie and Suzie and Angela and Anna and bunch of other fuckin' kids that Irving couldn't conceivably care about, but arceusdamnit, he was going to try as hard as he could to. Even as they retrieved their toiletries and used them at a nearby faucet sticking out of the ground that acted as a sink, Sophia chatted up a storm. And like a repeat of dinner, Irving made his most convincing "I'm totally invested in this conversation" face and just let her talk. Unlike with Mr. Breckenshits, Irving invested in a conceiving facade because he actually cared about the person talking to him and knew how much this sort of stuff meant to her.

Fortunately for Irving, Sophia continued to quiet down as the returned to the tent. Irving was thankful that he had the foresight to set up their bedrolls in advance because he felt like collapsing at the moment. And he did fuck right on something hard. He adjusted the bed and then jumped in, ready for rest after a long day. He almost drifted to dreamland when he heard a quiet voice calling his name.

"Huh?" he responded

"Irving." Sophia repeated.

"Yeah, what is it?" Irving said, turning to Sophia and propping his upper body up with his palms.

"I... I had a lot of fun today, playing with everyone. But it also made me a bit sad." Sophia said. Irving remained quiet, but attentive.

"Anna had some super nice parents, who were really friendly. And when everyone was doing playing they all went off to be with their parents. I was the last one left. I didn't have any parents to go to."

Sophia turned to Irving, clearly distraught.

"I miss mom and dad, Irving! It's not fair! It's not! Why do I not have to have anyone, Irving?" Sophia cried out. Irving pulled Sophia into a gentle hug, patting her back.

"I miss mom and dad, too, Sophia." Irving said. "But you're not alone; you've got me. And I'm not going anywhere."

"Promise?" Sophia asked.

"Promise." Irving affirmed. "I miss them, too, you know. But we've got each other for now. And you've got your friends. You're not alone."

Sophia seemed to be assuaged by these words, enough so that both Irving and Sophia laid down to sleep down again. Yes, Irving knew Sophia was not alone. He would make sure of it. He was the adult of the family. Mom and Dad were gone and now it was Irving's time to run the family. He would step up to this challenge because no one else could but him.

000Line Break000

Spah here, again!

Woot, already over 10,000 words. Here's hoping that I can get a review or two sometime.

Anyway, hoped you enjoyed the chapter.

Seeya!