Chapter 9: Families and Trees
A few days passed after Laura's birthday, but nothing amazing happened. Team Rainbow spent the time doing exploration work and trying to piece together Laura's past. Unfortunately, they weren't making much headway. What seemed to work the best was to have Laura paint out the little pieces of memory as they came to her. It wasn't difficult; ever since they had found out that Laura adored painting, they had stocked their base with art supplies… and ever since her birthday, with the influx of belated birthday presents (which Laura did not ask for, but ended up enjoying nonetheless), the art supplies had threatened to completely take over the base.
On this particular day, very early in the morning, Paula was still sleeping, but Laura found herself unable to. The vague snippets of memory taunted her and plagued her mind. She decided to get up and paint, hoping that putting them on paper would help her deal with them.
As she finished each painting, she hung it up on a line to dry. She continued like this for a while, and the sun slowly started its ascent into the sky. A breeze pulled one of the paintings loose, and it came off the line, fluttering down and landing on Paula's cheek. It woke her up.
"Wha… huh?" she muttered groggily. She took the picture off her face and looked at it with a puzzled expression. It appeared to be of a forest, lush with greenery. It was still a bit damp, so Paula decided to put it back on the drying line. As she did so, she noticed that many of the pictures on the line were of a forest, presumably the same one as in the picture that had caused her to awaken. None of them had been there last night, and since many of them were completely dry, it indicated to Paula that their artist had been up for a long time...
Paula turned to Laura, who was still absorbed in painting. "Laura?" she asked. "How long have you been up?"
Laura blinked. "…Huh?" she asked, slowly lifting her head and looking around, as if she were waking from a trance. Her eyes rested on Paula, and she smiled. "Oh, good morning, Paula!" she greeted. Then she frowned as her mind registered Paula's question. "How long have I been up? Uh…" she glanced at her long line of drying paintings and blushed, sheepishly saying, "I'm not… entirely sure… but I'm going to guess, um… a few hours?"
Paula frowned at this, and Laura instantly assured her, "I'm all right… I just… I couldn't sleep. I keep thinking about this forest… I almost feel like I did at the lakes of the Spirit Trio… like I've been there before… wherever 'there' is."
"Really?" Paula asked eagerly. "What about the picture you're painting now? Does that feel like it too?"
Laura frowned in confusion. Her little "trance" had made her lose track of what she was painting. She looked down at it… and began to blush.
Paula was surprised. "What is it?" she asked, trying to get a closer look.
Laura began blushing even more furiously and quickly folded up the picture and shoved it into the treasure bag in an attempt to hide it. "It, uh… it isn't about a forest! It… uh…" she stammered, unwilling to tell Paula what she had depicted.
Paula was bemused by Laura's reluctance, but decided to take mercy on her and change the subject. "So… if you think this forest has something to do with your memories, then maybe we should try to find out which forest it is. Let's head over to the guild to see if there are any forest jobs on the bulletin boards!"
After stocking up on supplies in Treasure Town, Team Rainbow headed for the guild. On their way they discussed (well, Paula discussed while Laura just listened, occasionally nodding or shaking her head) all the different forests that they'd been to, and whether any of them where the mystery forest in Laura's painting.
When they reached the second level of the guild, they were surprised to see that it was empty. Chimecho wasn't at her usual post, and no exploration teams or apprentices were crowding the boards.
"That's strange," Paula said as they perused the boards. "I wonder where everyone is… they would have finished the cheers by now, right?"
Laura frowned and nodded. She was just as confused as Paula.
Paula sighed. "Well, in any case, let's hope that Croagunk, at least, is in his normal spot. We got a lot of exclusive items during yesterday's explorations, and I want to see if we can swap them for anything cool."
The two headed down the ladder… and came upon the sight of the apprentices clustered around something in the middle of the room. It was vaguely reminiscent of the time when Team Charm visited the guild… Paula spotted Loudred at the back of the crowd and gestured to Laura that they should head over.
"Hey, Loudred. What's going on?" Paula asked once the two had reached him.
"OH! You two!" he exclaimed in greeting, turning around to face them. "You'll never BELIEVE who's here! It's Team Spark-Seed!"
Paula's jaw dropped in shock. "Wha-?! T-Team Spark-Seed?!" she stammered. "What are they doing here?"
Loudred was surprised. "WOW! You actually KNOW about them?" he asked. Then he muttered, or rather, attempted to mutter, as his ridiculously loud voice made actual muttering impossible, "There's a FIRST time for everything, I guess…"
"Of course I know about them! After all, the leader is—" Paula began, before her brain registered the jibe. "Hey!" she exclaimed, feeling insulted. "Why is it such a surprise that I know about them?"
"Well," Loudred began, "going by your TRACK record… you DIDN'T know about Team Charm… you DIDN'T know about Dusknoir…"
Paula rolled her eyes and huffed, "Yeah, like not knowing about the 'great' Dusknoir was such a big loss. I would have preferred not knowing about him at all!"
Loudred gulped, recognizing that he'd hit a sore spot, before back-tracking, "Ugh… OKAY! BAD example! But STILL!"
"Um…" a quiet voice interrupted. Loudred and Paula looked over to see a very confused Laura. "Who's Team Spark-Seed?" she asked.
"Team Spark-Seed is a three-pokémon exploration team," Paula answered. "They're Master Rank." She turned and began to point out the individual team members. "On the right is Adam," she said as she pointed to a jolteon wearing a mischievous smirk. "He's got an attitude. That's Eve," she pointed out a lefeon on the left who kept shaking her head in exasperation in Adam's direction. "She's very calm, cool, and collected… usually. She's really nice. She and Adam are siblings. Adam is actually older than her, but he sure doesn't act like it!" Then Paula crossed her arms and sighed. "Then, in the middle, you have the leader. Ricky."
Laura glanced at the raichu in the middle. He was nudging Adam with his arm and grinning. She turned back to Paula and was confused at the strange expression she saw on her face. Paula continued her explanations. "He's a total flirt, so watch out. He also, unfortunately, happens to be—"
"SH!" Loudred said, cutting her off. "I think Guildmaster Wigglytuff is coming out!"
Sure enough, at that moment Wigglytuff could be seen coming out of his room and greeting Team Spark-Seed.
"Friendly friends! Welcome!" he greeted happily. "What brings you to my guild?"
Ricky gave a slight bow. "Hello, Sir!" he responded. "We came here to deliver a message to someone, and I was hoping that you could tell me where she is. She said that she was going to become an apprentice here, but knowing her…" he trailed off and smirked
"Heh heh… she probably got scared off and is sulking somewhere," Adam snickered.
Laura watched in curiosity and confusion as that statement caused Paula to get mad and start growling…
Eve rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, Adam," she sighed. "Paula may be timid, but she isn't stupid. If she failed to join, then she would have returned home by now."
"Oh!" Wigglytuff exclaimed once he registered the name Eve had said. "Did you say 'Paula'? Is she who you need to deliver the letter to?"
To the guild's shock, Ricky replied, "Yes. Do you know where she is?"
"Yes! She lives on Sharpedo Bluff!"
"Sharpedo Bluff, huh?" Ricky repeated. "Guess we'll head over there."
"There's no need, Ricky. I'm already here," Paula piped, stepping forward. Everyone turned to her in surprise.
"Paula!" Ricky exclaimed with a smile, bounding over to her. To the guild's further surprise, he gave her a big hug. "I haven't seen you in forever! How are you doing, Little Sister?"
"HUH? L-LITTLE SISTER?" the members of the guild repeated, jaws dropping.
Paula sighed, "I've been fine, Big Brother."
"HUH? B-BIG BROTHER?" the guild asked, still dumbfounded.
"So you joined the guild after all? Ha! I didn't think you had it in you!" Adam snickered.
Paula glared at him. "For your information, Adam, Laura and I not only joined the guild, but we graduated a long time ago!"
"Good for you!" Eve applauded. "Who's this Laura? I'd like to meet her."
"Sure!" Paula agreed, turning to the back and beckoning Laura forward. "Laura! Come over here!"
Laura hesitantly stepped forward, and Paula put a paw on her shoulder. "This is Laura, my best friend!" she said as an introduction.
"A treecko, huh? Are you trying to be a copy-cat and make your own 'Team Spark-Seed' with grass and electric types? Hm?" Adam teased.
"Our team is Team Rainbow, thank you very much," she stated.
"Oh!" Eve exclaimed in surprise. "So it was you two who stopped the planet's paralysis and the distortion of space?"
Paula was beaming as she said, "That's right!"
"Oh… see, now the name makes sense!" Adam said. "I wondered why the team that saved the world twice would have a dorky name like Team Rainbow… but if it came from the mind of Ricky's baby sister, then—"
Laura could sense that Adam's comments had finally driven Paula to the edge (seeing as her cheeks were sparking ominously and she was growling with barely restrained rage), so to prevent bloodshed she quickly interjected, "Actually, I was the one who came up with the name."
"Of course!" Ricky suddenly cut in, grabbing her hand. "Such a cute, artistic name obviously had to have come from the mind of a cute, artistic girl such as you. You're probably the brain and brawn behind the team, right?" he bent down to place a kiss on her hand.
Laura blushed.
Paula pushed her brother away from her friend and glared. "Back off, Ricky! She's way too young for you. She's younger than I am!"
"Ah," Ricky said, not fazed in the least. "That would explain her super-adorableness!"
Paula sighed and decided to change the subject. "You said that you had a message for me? What is it?"
"Oh, right," Ricky said, getting into his "business" mode. "Mom and Dad are hosting a family reunion in a few days, and they wanted to know if you could come."
"A family reunion?" Paula asked in surprise. "Sure, I'll be there."
"Awesome. See you then. And I'll see you three gorgeous girls later too, I hope!" he called out, winking at Sunflora, Chimecho, and Laura. Chimecho and Sunflora giggled, Laura blushed, and Paula slapped a paw to her forehead.
Team Spark-Seed left, and Eve smacked the flirtatious Ricky and laughing Adam on the way out. The second they were out of the room, the apprentices converged on Paula.
"NO WAY!" Loudred exclaimed. "I can't BELIEVE you're THE famous Ricky's sister!"
Paula rolled her eyes. "I've been trying to tell you all day, remember? All those times you cut me off?"
"Oh… RIGHT…" Loudred said sheepishly, blushing with embarrassment.
"Oh my gosh!" Sunflora squealed. "Family reunions are so fun! You get to see so many relatives that you haven't heard from in a long time!"
"Yup, yup!" Bidoof whole-heartedly agreed. "Oof… you're lucky. I'd love to see my little siblings again…" he sighed wistfully.
"Oh! You have little siblings, too?" Chimecho asked.
"SO DO I!" Loudred exclaimed. "I have a BIG sister, too!"
"I have a little sister myself… meh heh heh…" Croagunk added quietly.
They all continue to chat animatedly about their families. Croagunk seemed to be upset about something, so he soon withdrew and headed back to his Swap Shop. Laura, who had felt rather left out of the conversation, followed him to do the swaps that she and Paula came to the lower level for in the first place. Corphish noticed them leave and remembered that he also had some swaps to do, so he headed over as well.
Paula wasn't kidding about the amount of exclusive items that Team Rainbow had obtained, and Corphish quickly grew bored with waiting. He looked around for something to occupy his interest… and noticed a piece of paper sticking out of Laura's treasure bag.
"Hey, hey?" he thought to himself. "Is that a new painting?"
He pulled it out of her bag and scuttled back to where the rest of the guild and Paula were still chatting, calling out, "Hey, hey! Everyone! Laura did a new painting!"
Upon hearing that, Laura, who had been examining a list of items being requested to swap for a Drain Bangle, immediately snapped her head up. "Oh no…!" she internally panicked as she frantically searched through the treasure bag, looking for the picture she had hidden in there earlier. To her dismay, it was nowhere to be found. She whipped around just in time to see Corphish begin to unfold it while the other members of the guild watched curiously.
"No!" she called out. But it was too late; everyone had already seen the image.
It was obviously a portrait… but no one knew what it was a portrait of. To them, it just looked like some weird, pale-faced creature with sand-colored fur on its head and wearing a headband of the same golden color as its eyes…
"What kind of creature is THIS?" Loudred asked, taking a hold of the portrait to get a better look.
Laura stomped over and grabbed the painting out of his hands.
"HEY! What was THAT for?" he demanded.
Laura just glared at him. Everyone stared at her in surprise; they had never seen her act this way before.
As the staring continued, Laura's glare gradually disappeared and she began to blush in horror and embarrassment. She clutched the picture to her chest and bolted towards the exit.
The members of the guild were stunned and glanced at each other in confusion, but Paula was worried and followed her partner out.
Paula's search for her friend eventually led her back to Sharpedo Bluff, where she found Laura lying face-down on her bed, with the picture folded in her hand.
"…Laura? Are you okay?" she asked.
Laura didn't respond.
"Um… Is this about the picture of that creature?" Paula asked, hoping to figure out why her friend had acted so strangely. "I mean… yeah, I guess we should have asked permission before looking at it, but—"
Laura cut her off by mumbling unintelligibly into her pillow.
"…Pardon?"
Laura rolled over. She took a shaky breath and turned her eyes toward Paula, who was startled to see that they were puffy, as if she had been crying. Laura took another breath and quietly repeated her statement. "I said… the boy in that picture isn't a 'creature.' He's a human."
Paula was surprised. "Wha-?! So that's what humans look like? Did you look like that?"
Laura shook her head. "… Other than my eyes, I don't remember what I looked like. Grovyle told me that I was pale and had brown hair, but…" she trailed off and glanced away.
"Did… did you know him?" Paula asked, glancing at the folded paper in Laura's hand. "I mean… was he, like, a brother or something?"
"I don't know," Laura whispered. "I still can't remember my family… a-and even if I could, what difference would it make?" Her eyes began to well up with tears and she curled onto her side. "It's not like they exist anymore…"
Paula knelt to the ground. "Laura…" she began sympathetically, pulling her into a hug. "I'm sorry…"