Pokémaniacal~!

Chapter 2

The dinner table was set with plates of large portions of Goldeen meat and rice. The smell of a sweet-scented pie lingered throughout the house, keeping warm in the oven and just waiting to be eaten. Ran was delighted to experience his first taste of food from another world and began immediately after he and the family had thanked the Legendary Pokémon for bestowing upon them the ability to make such wonderful food.

"This is delicious!" Ran exclaimed. "I've never eaten anything like this before!"

Jorge let out a deep, jolly laugh.

"Of course not, boy! No pleasures of this world where you come from, eh? Haha!"

Ran swallowed and chuckled.

"Well, we do have rice and fish in my world. I've just never experienced fish this delicious before!"

"That's because the school of Goldeen we are eating had lived fulfilling lives," Kliss commented.

Ran looked at her. "They what?" he said in a flat tone.

She giggled and explained, "Well, those Goldeen were bred in captivity, here on our property, ever since I was a young newly-wed."

"What a beautiful lass she was, too," Jorge smiled.

"Jorge, please." Kliss blushed and continued with her story for Ran.

"After Jorge and I got married, we travelled as far as we could, just to find the perfect place to raise a family and make something of our lives. Before we were wed, I was a Pokémon Coordinator: someone who shows off the beauty, intelligence, coolness, toughness, or cuteness of their pokémon to try to win ribbons-- which is harder than it sounds, by the way."

Ran smiled. He knew of Pokémon Coordinators; he'd tried to be one in his video games before.

"Anyway," Kliss continued, "We found this clearing soon after we'd left the city and fell in love with it. It seems perfect, doesn't it? Especially after it's just been mowed; I have my Rotom to thank for that. I'd entirely forgot about the lawn until now!"

She drew out a pokéball from a pocket in her dress and tossed it into the air beside her. The ball opened in mid-air and a white beam of light exited and took form as a small orange pokémon with cyan-coloured electricity sparking around it.

"Rotom, thank you for the job you did mowing the clearing," Kliss said, patting her pokémon on the side of its face. Ran gazed as she touched the sparks but remained completely unharmed.

"How do you do that?" Ran asked.

Kliss looked at him, then back at her pokémon. "It has trust for me, seeing as I've been it's trainer for many years now. It knows it doesn't need to hurt me."

Ran felt bewildered. He couldn't believe what he was witnessing-- and in another world, too!

Kliss's eyes shot open with realization and she smiled with embarrassment as she returned Rotom to its pokéball as a beam of red light. She tucked it away and apologized for going off topic, and Ran laughed, forgiving her.

"Where was I?" she wondered out loud, and Sen reminded her.

"You were at the part where you found this place and loved it when the grass was cut!"

Everyone but Sen burst out laughing. He looked around in confusion.

Kliss, once again, continued with her story.

"Right! Back when we'd found this place, we were fascinated by the scenery. Not long after we'd arrived, our home was built with the help of our pokémon. Now, I've always loved plants. That's the reason most of my pokémon are of the Grass-type. So, Jorge and I decided that, for a living, we would harvest berries of all kinds here in our portion of the woods."

Ran looked confused.

"But... I didn't see any berry plants when I woke up."

"That's because they're hidden by the forestry. We don't like pesky trainers taking our crops for fun, only to have their pokémon use Fling at our home. Too many times that's happened for me to let it happen again!" Jorge added passionately.

"Okay..." Ran said, "But having a berry orchard doesn't really explain why the Goldeen we've been eating had a good life."
"Oh, yes!" Kliss sounded very forgetful. "So! After a few months of being settled into our new home with our pokémon, Jorge's Seaking became very ill just after she'd laid an egg in the pond. Not wanting to watch her suffer, we soon had to have her killed, the poor thing."

Jorge, not wanting to talk about it much anymore, decided to finish the story quickly.

"Since then I've raised that Goldeen egg into a fresh, new Seaking that's been laying eggs for the purpose of our consumption, but only after we feel they've had a wonderful year of life. Those Goldeen are the reason I warned you to stay out of the water earlier. Their horns are very dangerous."

Ran smiled, then asked, "Why only a year?"

Kliss explained, "After a year, the pokémon start to really gain an appreciation for life. Our pokémon all have learned to love life as they live it, and to fulfill the purpose for which we've brought them into this world. You see?"

Ran nodded.

"That makes sense, I guess. In my world, there's great controversy over that sorta thing. Kinda like that, but with human babies, and instead of food it's for stem-cell research to find cures for diseases. Lots of arguments over that general thing. I'm all for it, though, if it's to further better society. People are so blind where I'm from!"

It quieted down after that conversation for about five minutes, then Sen cleared the table with Kliss to make room for the Chilan pie. Jorge pulled Ran aside to his lounge where they discussed the Giratina-Palkia situation.

"You see," Jorge began, "Giratina is the ruler of the Torn World. It has the power to cross through dimensions. Palkia, on the other hand, is the Legendary pokémon of space. It, too, has the power to cross dimensions. It is my suspicion that you have been brought here by one of them with a purpose. A destiny. But that's just one old man's blubbering!" he laughed.

Ran was expressionless for a moment, then asked, "Has this ever happened before? And what was so important with the mulch in the clearing? It was the only one I saw."

Jorge rubbed his chin.

"This has happened once before. Long, long ago, certainly before I was born. In fact, there is one famous person in this region who is a descendant of the last person to have arrived like this. Her name is Professor Catalpa, the pokémon authority of this region."

He paused.

"As for the mulch in the clearing... That is where the first dimension-crosser came through, too. We've never touched that mulch because we are afraid it might change something vital in existence. But who knows, really."

Kliss and Sen called for the two of them from the dining room, exclaiming that the pie was ready. Ran and Jorge headed in and sat in their places, a big, fresh piece of sweet pie waiting on their plates.

"Miltank gave us some delicious ice cream this time, Jorge," Kliss said, scooping the frozen dessert onto her pastry from a small tub. She passed it to Ran and asked if he'd like to try-- and he most certainly did-- so he scooped some onto his piece as well. The others did the same, and he sunk his fork into his food. It was the absolute best pie he'd ever had in his entire life! Then again, he never really liked pie. But this pie was scrumptious. The ice cream tasted even better than the vanilla-flavoured stuff from his world!

"Compliments to the chef!" Ran shouted gleefully as he dug into his pie some more. Everyone raised a hand and cried 'Cheers!'