After that bit of excitement, everything fell into a routine as we hunted Magikarp as normal, we playfighted as normal, we told stories as normal, we slept as normal, repeat and repeat. Although I was satisfied with the answers I got and faced every day as it came, over time, a pit grew in my stomach and I didn't realise what this hunger was until I saw a bird Pokémon perch itself atop the trees as I walked across the shore. It probably knew there was more out there, and that's what I felt was missing, the sense of being connected to the rest of the world.

I sprang towards the forest, climbing to the treetops in no time, where the Pokémon sat a few trees away, preening its feathers. I balanced myself on one of the highest tree branches and jumped from tree to tree in an effort to get close to it. Again, some details are fuzzy, but I believe it was a Wingull. It had the same blue streaks across its body, after all.

Anyway, it eyed me cautiously, and suddenly, I felt giddy. This was my chance to find out my escape route. Another chance to talk with something else other than Riolu and Lucario.

"Hey, can you fly me to the mainland?" I said.

"Whaddo I look like, a Pelipper? I'm not givin' you a ride with that fat behind."

"...Do you know anyone else that can fly me there, then?"

It took flight and fluttered above me. Then, a white runny liquid hit the top of my head and ran down my face. I don't need to mention what it was.

In a panic, I lost my footing and fell off the branch. I got smacked by all sorts of different branches on the day down until a bush broke my fall, not without scratching me with those brambly bits. To say I was sore afterwards was an understatement. Nothing was broken, thank his holy ass, just bruised and battered all over. To add insult to injury, I stank. I had to get the acrid stench off of me as soon as I could, so I limped to the closest stream I could find in the forest running from the lake and dunked my head in it several times to wash it off. Even after I rinsed off the droppings, a whiff of it still lingered.

Just so you know, if you talk to any unknown Pokémon unannounced, especially flying Pokémon, they probably won't stick around for the conversation. At best, you'll get a face full of bird seed.

I ran my paws through my coat to find all sorts of splinters sticking to it. I tried to pick most of it off but I wasn't sure if it had gotten in places I couldn't reach. I had to get them out or they probably would've gotten septic, even though I had no idea what 'septic' meant at the time. It was something Trunks told me after all.

Lo and behold, I picked up his aura not too far off, straight from the path of the stream into the lake. Although my legs were sore, I found my way there without trouble. He had already occupied himself, meditating by the lake at the edge of the bank. The tire swing swayed lightly in the breeze far away. Once I stepped into the clearing, he turned around and scoffed.

"Alright," he said, "What trouble have you gotten into now?"

I scratched my back.

"I got splinters in my butt."

"Seriously? Alright, come here then."

I sat on the bank beside him, dipping my paws into the water, and Trunks started combing through my fur.

"You don't always need to climb so high, you know."

"And what's the problem? I was just takin' a peek up there."

"Yes, but you're going to break your neck if you keep falling."

I winced as he pulled out something brambly behind me.

"And you could use a long bath too."

I sat in silence while he kept checking for splinters.

"Tell me, why do you want to get off the island?"

"How'd you know?"

"Your aura, of course."

"Well, why not?" I said, kicking the water, "I wanna see the world out there."

"There's nothing out there but predators and starvation. That's all."

"Aw c'mon, Mama told me you had experience out there before, can't you tell me more?"

"No. Trust me when I say you don't need to know."

I pulled myself away from his grasp and turned to him, giving him those little Riolu eyes.

"Please? I swear I won't be upset or anythin'. I kinda know the world sucks already, so at least tell me more about that."

He brushed a few more shavings off my coat, then leaned in closer to the point where his muzzle touched mine, gazing at my with those familiar blood red eyes. I saw a little bit of Dad in him at that moment.

"Alright, you want to know how the world out there works? You're completely on your own, with the threat of death lurking all around you. You must always be on alert, never letting your guard down for a moment, or else..."

He clapped, snapping me out of my trance.

"You're gone."

He stared into the lake ahead of us, and up to the hanging tire.

"There was a family, just like us, who we kept company for a little while. Some of them were just about your age. They still had to look out for themselves, as whenever we rested, we had to cover our own families in shifts to make sure nothing else lurked around. One such Lucario, who was supposed to be on shift for that night, forgot about it and rested with his family. We were woken up by their screams, and when we came to check on them, they..."

Trunks' voice trailed off and he rubbed his eyes, taking a deep, ragged breath. I looked on, wanting to get closer to him, but pulled away at the last moment. I didn't really know how to comfort him in times like that. So I waited for him to pull himself together, and in time, he looked at me once more, resting his paw on mine.

"Out here, you don't have to worry about any of that. You have a constant food source. There are no tall creatures with poisonous claws lurking about. There are none of those humans invading our habitats either. Dad worked so hard to get us here, and now here we are, living in peace. You should be grateful towards him."

I paused, catching a whiff of something foul about his aura, and it certainly wasn't the guano. It was like his feelings fought against what he said.

"Yeah, I am. But, er, sorry if it sounds rude, bro, but you don't feel the same way, do you?"

He squeaked in surprise, but he regained his composure and leered at me. "Of course I do. Now please don't make such things up."

"But, your aura..."

"Enough of that, sis, now please, drop it."

I knew I wasn't going to get any further from that, so I changed the subject.

"Besides, isn't every day here kinda the same? Don't you get bored?"

"Well," he hesitated, and I felt a tinge of sadness in his aura if I didn't already, "I would be lying if I said this isn't boring, but I'd rather it be that way instead of in some other creature's stomach."

I opened my mouth to say something but decided against it. I knew he was right. From the stories Mom told and all that, I thought of myself in his shoes. Well, you know we don't wear them, but you know what I mean. I imagined myself on my own, defending myself from creatures much faster, stronger and less caring than me, as I would later find out first hand. Still, there was that itch to find out, like sticking your paw in a Combee's nest.

Mercifully, he let me go and patted my back, letting me know it was okay to move on before he got stuck in another one of his rants. He smiled to me.

"There, it should be fine now. Make sure to clean those wounds or else they'll get infected."

"Okay," I said, and took a dip in that lake. I closed my eyes and let myself float on the surface, water lapping gently at my face, with Trunks meditating in the background. Another peaceful day, another long period of nothing happening. During that time, the weather got hotter as we often had to cool off by the lake, as living on an island in the summertime got humid after a while.

One day, me and Stumpy brought our findings to Mom and Trunks from our daily fish hunt. They thanked us and let us run off to wherever, so we visited the lake again where the tire swing awaited. It was one of the island's curiosities, since you know, tires don't grow on trees, but this day, I kind of question how Dad managed to bring all the stuff there, but young me didn't care as it was for swinging on, not pondering on. I went on top and held onto the rope as Stumpy kicked the tire in the air, pushing me up and letting me swing for a bit.

That brings me back to a simpler time, as it sort of felt like flying. But with the thoughts of escape lingering on, as well as the bird type Pokémon that flew carefree in the air already, it was close to being free, and yet, so far. Wait, I did say it wasn't for pondering on, didn't I? Well then, forget what I said.

Stumpy must've noticed a little bit of my aura, just a little as he wasn't any better than me at reading emotions, so he moved out the way, slowing me down.

"I didn't say stop, did I?" I said, spinning around on the tire.

"Yeah, I know, but why're you feeling so sad lately?"

I caught little glimpses of his worried face as I spun around.

"Aw, it's nothin' to lose sleep over."

"It's not that alien from before, is it?"

"What?" I waited for the right moment to jump, then leapt off to the land where Stumpy stood. "No, not at all. Really, that was the most interestin' thing I've seen in a while."

"They're not interesting, they're dangerous. Papa doesn't want you going near them."

I groaned. Stumpy often repeated something along the lines of 'Dad doesn't want you doing this', which was fair enough. Hearing it repeated several times over got annoying, and seeing how little brothers generally behave over the years to others, they tend to get under your skin.

"So what does Papa want you to do?"

He put his paw on his chin as if he was seriously thinking hard about what I just said. "Um, he wants me to be good, and strong, and stuff."

"Would you eat his dung if he told you it tasted nice?"

"Ew, no!" He laughed.

"Well then," I reached down to him, locking him in a hold and knuckled his head. "Don't do everythin' he tells you to do."

"Stop!" He pulled away, rubbing his head. "You hurt, sis."

"Oh, you baby." I thought back to the conversation we had a while ago. "It's not like he sees you or anythin'. You said he never plays with you, so why'd you listen to him so much?"

"He just scares me, sis. His aura's so, so, so scary." He got misty-eyed again. "He n-n-never has time for m-me, or big bro, or little bro, or you. What's he d-doing all d-day?"

He sniffled, and sensing he was about to throw a wobbler again, I patted his shoulder and pointed to the tire swing that idly spun in place.

"At least you have us." I smiled. "Want me to push you?"

"Yeah." He wiped away his tears and slowly climbed on top of the rubbery object. "Not too hard, though."

And so, it was my turn to do the rounds. I kicked once and watched the tire fly up with Stumpy hanging onto the rope for dear life. He was clearly not meant for big heights as he howled in the air, but he needed a bit more excitement in his life anyway, so I kept going. I stepped back whenever the tire swung towards me, as one wrong move would've knocked me on my ass, and continued kicking, sending it further into the air.

Stumpy must've called me to do something, but since he was so far up, I didn't hear him, so when he came down once more, I kicked again, only for Stumpy to fly off and fall into the lake. Hitting the water with a loud slap. Even I felt that one. I waited for him to swim back, and he did, only to start wailing as he swam to the edge of the bank.

"I told you to slow down! I'm telling Mama about this!"

I reached over to calm him down, but he batted my paw away from him and ran, disappearing into the forest. I shrugged and made my own way to the shore. It was best to leave him be during one of his fits, after all. Brothers, eh?

I wandered through the stony shore again, which must've been the tenth or twentieth time since I met the last human. The summer rays often bored down on the rocks, so it used to burn my paws on the first hundred paces, but it felt nice once I got used to it. Since then, I had been around the island enough times to know where the landmarks were, what little it had, and could've mapped it out if you gave me a pencil and a pad.

Problem was, it was nice and all knowing where everything was in your head, but being able to make it a physical thing would've helped me understand the terrain more. Another problem was marking and remembering each island that looked the closest, which sounded easy. You could put one finger at the end of your paw on the horizon and flex the end of the other to where the height of the island ended, and whichever flexed the farthest was the closest. But with no way to mark where each island was in relation to this one and what point you had to be on the shore to be the closest to a neighbouring island, it was just guesswork. I trusted my intuition though, as I could've swam for hours and not have gotten tired, after all.

I must've walked a few hours on the edge of the shore, and in the midst of it, I got the sense I was being watched. I didn't actually see the perp, but I just felt it, like I felt another aura of something a hundred times bigger than my puny Riolu body. It might've come from the sea, but it was as silent as always, so I ignored it and went on my way until eventually I saw two human-like shapes. I wasn't even sure of what they were from that distance; they could've passed for a couple of tree branches for all I knew, but once I got within a rock throwing distance of them and saw what they truly were, just a young couple sunbathing on the rocks, I retreated back into the forestry.

Despite how much I wanted to stick it to my old Mon, his nagging voice telling me to 'run as far as you can' drilled into my head and followed me around like a swarm of Combees. Still, I wanted to see what they were up to, even though my heart pounded. I crept carefully through the forest, tip-toeing behind a tree while I watched my movements. They weren't really doing anything you'd consider interesting, just lying in the sun and talking to one another. Even for our own kind, that was something we naturally did, except we couldn't get a tan. Poor us, I guess.

So I tried to get close to them, but long story short, the girl screamed when she saw me and ran away, while the guy shouted at me and ran after her. I considered chasing after them to try and calm them down, but I sensed something else that piqued my interest.

My eyes wandered over to their belongings, which all looked new to me. It was some sort of basket on a blanket with two clear, bowl shaped objects. Of course, not knowing what purpose they had, I couldn't resist picking the shiny clear thing up. The moment I gripped it, it shattered in my paw, leaving shards of light to clatter onto the rocks. They were glasses all along. It's a wonder I didn't cut myself there.

Next, I dug inside the basket, and when I opened the lid, something warm-smelling wafted from its contents. It was food. I licked my lips and stuck my paw inside it, feeling around for the morsel, and when I touched it, I pulled out a half eaten sandwich. The bread had a spongy feel to it, filled with a yellowy sort of substance, which I had to try for myself. I remembered the taste was quite strong, but in a different way from the fishy taste of the Magikarp we were used to having, but either way, it was delicious, and I practically inhaled the rest. It was disappointing to see there wasn't more of it, but then I noticed something else unusual.

It was a larger glass bottle, except with actual liquid inside of it. I lifted it off the ground, except it was a bit heavier than I expected, so I held it in both paws and bolted for the forest with the bottle in tow.

After wandering for a little while, I picked up the aura of all three of my brothers and went to meet them, and Trunks was the first to approach me.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked, crossing his arms. "You know you shouldn't have gotten near those aliens."

"Never mind that," I said, "Look what I found!"

The rest huddled around me, observing the loot.

"Whattisit?" Twig asked.

"Well obviously, it's some sort of drink," I said.

"It could be dangerous!" Stumpy said, looking better from his dip in the drink.

"How so? Those hu- I mean aliens were drinking it."

"Still, you shouldn't have taken it! What would dad say?"

"Well." I wrung my paw around the bottle of the neck. "Only one way to find out!"

Of course, not knowing how to open it, I struggled with the cap for a bit before it popped and made the two youngest jump. I didn't even hesitate to drink from it, but when I took a swig from it, I immediately spat it back out.

I might as well tell you it was white wine, and you'll probably find it's not the last time alcohol comes up as a topic of discussion, but we might get to that at some point later.

Anyway, it tasted horrible. Even when I spat it back out, the sting of it lingered on my tongue. Now I genuinely questioned whether or not it was poison.

To my surprise, Trunks snatched the bottle and took a big swig out of it, scrunching up his face as he did.

"Tastes alright to me, don't know what you're spitting it out for." He gave me a big smile, the first time in a while I ever saw him do that.

Stumpy looked expectantly at the bottle.

"Can I try?"

Trunks only clutched the bottle in his paws.

"Naw, it makes ya do weird things." By then, it started to affect his speech, but that didn't bother him as he took another swig. He laughed, hiccuping all the while.

"C'mon, whattare y'all looking scared fer? Just join da fun!"

I can't say I was scared by a lot, but even I backed away when he let go of the bottle and danced in place. It rolled on the ground, spilling some of its contents. Stumpy and Twig joined me, who both held onto my arm.

"What's happening? Is he okay?" Stumpy said. I just looked on at the scene as Trunks span around, cackling to no one in particular.

I never thought I'd say it, but thankfully, Dad intervened and stormed into the area, picking up the loot.

"Who brought this?" he asked in a serious tone. Pipsqueak and runt both pointed at me, even though they still cowered from behind.

"Hey! That's not fair, you two!"

"Enough!" Dad shouted. "You idiot, I told you not to go anywhere near them, and you disobeyed me just like that!"

I just croaked a response, too shocked for words.

"Never mind, now we've got a bit more trouble on our paws, thanks to you." He held up the half empty bottle. "They'll come looking for this, you know, and they're nothing but trouble. All of you, go hide out with your mother. I'll sort this out myself."

"Hol' up!" Trunks said, stumbling into Dad. "Ish' no big deal, I shaw you drink it a few timesh! Help yourshelf if you want!"

"That's enough, pup. Consider this your lesson."

"Wait!" Trunks glared at him. "Don't call me pup no more, I shaw what'sh out there, I'm big now, I can take care of theshe cubs!"

Dad ignored him and walked off with the bottle in tow. I looked back at Trunks who struggled to stand, then back to the other two who whimpered nearby a tree. I held my paw up, drawing their attention to me.

"Mama's close, I can feel it. Follow me!"

We headed to the base we usually camped out for her story session, and Mom had her paws in some kind of box when I came in, where she looked at us all with her maw hanging open.

"What's happening now?" she said. Trunks didn't waste any time before he showed off his drunken self, and attempted to cartwheel over to her but ended up falling on his ass. Mom instantly attended to him, lifting him up.

"Are you alright?"

"Yesh, yesh I'm fine, mama! I drank a bit of that shtuff Dad used to drink!"

Her eyes grew wide. While this happened, not knowing what Trunks was going through, my heart sank. It was rare for me to worry about him as he usually carried himself fine, if a bit overbearing, but seeing him like that, I wasn't sure what to expect. I ran up to her, misty-eyed.

"Oh no, is he gonna die? Please tell me he's alright. Mom? Mom?"

Out of nowhere, Mom laughed and pulled me up close to her.

"I know what's going on. He's drunk, that's all!"

"Drunk?" I asked, wiping the dust from my eyes.

"Well, it's a bit hard to explain if you weren't with me, but it's what happens when you drink too much of what they call alcohol: your mind gets all fuzzy. It's usually quite toxic to a lot of Pokémon, but we can take it finer than most. How much did he drink?"

"I dunno, two mouthfuls?"

Her smile faded, but otherwise, she was still calm about the situation.

"I see. He won't be used to that much right now, but otherwise, he'll be fine. He'll just have to get it out of his system, that's all."

"What's that mean?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

We crowded around the two, staying close to Trunks in particular, who held his paw to his stomach and started to groan, then curled up on the grassy floor.

"I don't feel sho hot."

"Alright, alright," Mom repeated, rubbing his head as he laid down. He looked to me and smiled weakly.

"Shorry 'bout all thish. I know I'm annoying shometimesh, barking at you all the time not to do shtuff, repeatin' what Dad shaysh like a Chatot. You musht think I'm boring."

I never heard him speak as honestly as he did. I knew this wasn't his usual self, but judging by his aura, I knew it was his true self.

"No, bro. You're great. I know you're just looking out for me, like you do everyone else."

"Thanksh." He fumbled around before planting his paws on the ground, sitting up, and looked down at his feet.

"I hate thish. Shtaying here all day, all night, nowhere to go. Shorry Mom, I'm grateful for everything we did to come here, but I can't shtand much longer here."

Mom held onto him, hugging him tighter.

"No need to apologise, you're not the only one that thinks that here. Don't you prefer it to having to survive out there, though?"

"Yesh." He paused, then tugged at the appendages at the back of his head. "No. Shure, it'sh miserable. Shure, we losht a lot of friendsh. But we went into the citiesh ash well. We had sho much fun there. We watched a lot of good filmsh. People liked ush as well. What happened to that? Wheresh that in the wild, or on thish rock?"

Mom only smiled, rubbing him reassuringly. Trunks, in his hazy state, pointed to me.

"Thish island'sh not big enough for you, shish. There'sh sho much out there you're misshing. No Pokémon deshervesh this. I-." He knelt on the floor far away from us, then blew chunks as Mom nursed him from behind. I looked on, thinking about everything Trunks had said. Even he had my back in this, as hard as it was to make out what he said half the time. My other brothers crept up to me, asking me what he was talking about. I said I didn't know and kept my eyes on getting out of the island as soon as this was over. Even though his slurred speech, it's like he was giving me the go ahead to try and leave.

Trunks calmed down long enough to doze off beside Mom, although his breaths were raspy from all the fluid he hacked up. Even if it wasn't severe, there was still a pang of guilt in my gut. She turned to Stumpy.

"Please get your eldest some water from the lake, and fetch a bucket out of the box. Make sure to take your youngest with you, alright?"

Stumpy nodded. I'm sure he was just relieved to get out of this situation. He got the wooden object out, which was a round shaped thing with a hole in the middle, and went off with the bucket in one paw and Twig's own paw in the other. I turned back to Mom who smiled at me.

"So you stole the bottle off those humans, huh?"

"How did you-"

"Your thoughts don't lie, dear."

"Am I in trouble?"

"Oh, dear, it's no big deal. It's only natural for you to be curious, after all."

"But I went close to those humans after you told me not to. Everyone else chewed me out for it, so yeah."

"Well like I said, it's complicated. It's mostly your father who wants nothing to do with them, so I will respect that, but if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have the sort of stuff we do right now. Why do you think we cook our meals instead of eating them raw?"

"Because it's better?"

"Exactly. Plus, that tire swing didn't come from nowhere, we brought it here with us. You see what I mean?"

I shook my head.

"Alright, Pokémon don't usually come up with this stuff, you see. As much as your father hates them, we rely on them for these nice things. If only he didn't act like such a stubborn old Mon sometimes."

She lifted the lid of the box she toyed around with earlier and drew out a tattered block-shaped object, with bits of paper in it surrounded by a hard leather case.

"Besides, where do you think I get my ideas for stories from?"

I looked at it and put two and two together. "From there?"

"Well spotted, my dear. This is a book written by humans from many different ages, called Sinnohan Myths and Fables. Humans have a lot of talents, and making up all sorts of different stories is one of them. These live on for ages, and get passed on from generation to generation. You could say they transcend time itself."

That part lost me, but I was still interested in the rest. She flipped through a few of the pages and while the human writing there was illegible to me, since I couldn't read, I was interested in the pictures, of course. One picture in particular caught me interest, of His White Badness himself, Arceus. Of course, I didn't know much of who he was, although Mom hinted at him in her stories. With that divine glow behind him, however, and that otherworldly look of his, he had a very powerful presence, even on a flat surface. She closed the book and put it to one side.

"But my point is, you shouldn't take what Dad says to heart. He means well, but he could do with eating a slice of humble pie every once in a while."

I cocked my head. "Pie? Is that nice?"

"Oh it is, especially the Cheri ones, but that's not the point." She smiled and patted the top of the box. "Anyway, take a look in there. That thing's full of human possessions you might like."

I pawed through each of the human oddments there. If I remember correctly, it had stuff like bits of paper, various shiny tools and other loose bits of soft and sharp things. I must've pricked my paw on one of those objects since I drew it out of the box only to find out I cut it. I sucked at the wound and continued to look inside, and what drew my attention the most was a notepad. I picked it out of the box out of all the items there and shook it around a little as sheets of paper waved in the air. I closed it and brought it to her as she smiled.

"You can draw on that, dear."

"Draw? Like with the stones on the rocks?"

"Exactly, though you'd tear through the paper if you did it with those. You can use lots of other things to draw on it as well. We actually have crayons if you want to use them; you'll find them in the smaller box, dear."

She held it for me as I got the crayons out, and I looked at them for a bit. They had all sorts of colours there I had never even seen before, like purple, would you believe I never saw purple before? All of them were so bright and kind of appetizing. Without thinking, I placed one in my mouth before spitting it back out.

"They're made of wax dear, that's not edible. We don't need another sick Pokémon tonight."

Again, I never said I was a smart kid, but still, you see something like that and you just want to eat it even though you probably shouldn't. Oh well. Natural selection will weed that out eventually when a dumber Riolu ends up choking on one.

Anyway, I took out more of the other colours I liked and placed them next to the pad. I didn't know what to do next. Mom threw me a bone and showed me what to do by taking one of the crayons and making a squiggly blue line with it on the paper. It wasn't much, but to my young eyes, it was impressive. I snatched the crayon out of her paw and drew whatever came to mind: a scribbly blue sky that filled the entire page. Seemed simple, but to me at the time, it was like magic. Then she put everything back and handed it over to me.

"I was saving this for when you were older, but really, you should have something else to do on this island. It's sad seeing you wandering around all day." She let it go in my paws and I must've looked at her as if I saw Arceus' face on a piece of tree bark.

"Can I keep it?"

"It's all yours."

I jumped over to her, dropping everything I had in my paws to hug her. It was a much needed bright spot in the endless stretch of days that went nowhere. She returned it, squeezing me tight, and I made random scribbles as I stayed with her until my other brothers came with their water. The rest of the night passed with ease as I watched my brother come to his senses, albeit groggily. After dinner, some of his energy restored, but after that, we decided to leave storytelling for another night and settled down.

I slept clutching my new present like a pillow. It was the first thing I had to call my own, really.

The next day, Trunks woke up with a groan, and felt physically exhausted all day, so we had to do most of the work for him. When asked about last night's incident, he distanced himself from the subject. Strangely enough, when I saw Dad next, his breath smelled of the same stuff Trunks drank.