Author's Note:

With all due apologies for the slightly monger than average delay. I blame the sudden burst of writing assignments, and I assume that most of you all know how draining that can be on your will to write…

The Reviews are also appreciated, Skikdi-Skies and November Red Angel, and, well… However obvious it may seem, I suppose that you'll both just have to wait and see along with the rest of the readers, hmm?

Do tell me if I'm doing a good job with keeping the canon characters IC, okay, guys? That'd be much-appreciated!

Disclaimer:

Pokémon and any other referential materials found in this story do not belong to me. They belong to their respective owners and subsidiaries, and I claim no ownership of them.

Of Children, Men, and Monsters

Chapter Eighteen: The Winds of Change

Cue music – Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal Version soundtrack – New Bark Town

"… New Bark Town, eh?" Marza remarked, briefly gazing at the humble sign right near the entrance of town. "How fitting considering our situation, eh, Oscura? Especially that description: "'A town where the wind blows and tells of impending change.'"

And, in a borderline prompt manner, the wind once again howled.

"Definitely fitting…"

The lass was interrupted in her musings by a white-on-blue blur crashing into her, sending her as well as whatever had just knocked into her person to the ground. Both were thankfully spared of any significant injury, yet Oscura still sprang into action with even more speed than was usual for her, roughly shoving the circular Pokémon off of the lass and giving it the harshest glare she could manage. Knowing that the red-eyed Pokémon's glare was intimidating to a startling degree, Marza watched as the primarily blue Pokémon was promptly frozen to the spot.

Before Marza could even attempt to again call Oscura off, a young, feminine voice called out, "Marill! Where are you!? I'm getting a bit tired of hid and seek for today…!"

A red-shirted girl with shortened blue overalls and an equally blue hat came into Marza's view. Her brown hair was tied into twin pigtails, which inexplicable appeared to defy gravity. '… How is her hair doing that? The 'tails don't appear to be nearly short enough to do resist gravity, and it doesn't look nearly shiny enough to have some sort of hair gel applied to it…' Her thoughts went abruptly unfinished for the second time in a minute when the girl came over, panting softly, and took in the situation, eyed widening to a near-comical degree. After a few seconds of this, she said, "Uh, hello, whoever you are? Would you mind calling off your Larvitar? I'm not looking for a battle at the moment, and I don't think Marill is, either…"

Indeed, the Pokémon slowly backed away before sprinting towards the other girl, hopping into her awaiting arms when it got close enough. "Well, I suppose that that action isn't really necessary at this point," she corrected with a shrug. "Anyways, I imagine that you're on the ground because Marill here barreled into you by accident. Sorry, she tends to do that a lot, ah…?"

The blue-eyed pre-teen got herself up before responding to the prompt. "Marza, and yes, you are correct in that assumption. And you don't need to apologize; I think that someone else owes me an apology…"

The Marill chirped out in an inexplicably apologetic manner.

A brief time of silence, before: "I don't know what you said, but I suppose that'll have to do." A shrug accompanied those words.

The brown-haired girl grinned in appreciation for the mutual resolution of this conflict. "Well, not that that little conflict's been settled, I suppose that it's my town to tell you my name. I'm Lyra, and as I've already said a few times, this is my friend, Marill!"

"'Rill!" spoke the female Pokémon, appearing rather chipper despite the previous tensions. Marza was a tad relieved that this "Lyra" wasn't holding a petty grudge or some such from this small encounter.

"So! Why is it that you're here in New Bark Town, anyways? You evidently don't need to pick up a starter Pokémon – you clearly have that Larvitar – so are you just here for some sight-seeing, or what?"

Marza was awkwardly silent for a solid two seconds before she hesitantly responded, "… I suppose that you could say that…?"

'Again, not a complete lie. This world does appear to be rather interesting, after all…'

"Neat-o! Though New Bark is obviously quite small," a swing of an arm, as if to show Marza the size of the town, "I do believe that you'll be needing a tour guide! Follow me, if you would please!"

'Enthusiastic, isn't she?' thought Marza, and she again glanced down to meet Oscura's gaze, and the two shared a soft giggle before following after the other human lass.

She firstly escorted the pair to the edge of town, which was only roughly a fifteen minute walk. The blueness of the water stretched on for quite the distance; Marza could barely see a shoreline on the other side. "This is the waterway leading up to the Tohjo Falls! Though, seeing as how the "Trainer Season", so to speak, has only just begun, I imagine that you won't be going down that route for quite some time."

Marza quirked a brow. 'Trainer season…?'

The over-all'd girl than ran over to a nearby building. "This is my friend Ethan's house! If you find him, you should wave and say hello. He's a mute, though, so don't be offended if he doesn't verbally respond back!"

'A mute? That always did sound rough, not being capable of audible speech…'

The two humans and equivalent number of Pokémon then headed to a building that was relatively similar in design and size to the previous. "This is my house! Feel free to pop in at any reasonable time and say hello to my mom or I!"

A few more buildings practically flew by until Lyra once again stopped, this time in front of the laboratory-esque building. "And this is Professor Elm's house! Or laboraty. It's actually both, I think."

Marza's brow subconsciously rose again. 'I've heard of city folk living in their places of work, but this is hardly what I would call a "small town."'

"Anyways! You should head inside when I'm done showing you around; Elm may seem like a forgetful klutz at first, but he's really pretty bright!"

Marza noted this recommendation for use in what would likely be the near-immediate future. As they progresses from Elm's building to the next, and what also appeared to be one of the last, the lass made out a silhouette hiding in the building's shadow with relative ease, taking in his red locks and fiery eyes as he stood on his tip-toes to gaze at the building's interior as well as his… cunning? devious? smirk. The boy didn't appear to notice her as he stared, and Marza only moved on with Lyra's somewhat loud "C'mon! What're you standing around for!?"

'He seems… more than a little suspicious… I'd better keep an eye out for him if he shows up again.'

The previously mentioned last house came and went in Lyra's tour relatively quickly, and with a few steps to distance herself and Marza, she spoke:

"And that concludes this impromptu tour of New Bark Town! Any questions?"

Marza couldn't help the bemused grin that came upon her face. 'She's really trying to go all the way with this whole tour guide shtick, isn't she?'

"I don't believe so, no."

A flippantly cheerful grin graced the other female's features. "Great! Than feel free to explore around! You'll probably find this place to be really friendly if you stick around long enough!" Something that sounded distinctly like a cellular device's tell-tale rind sounded out in the girl's yellow bag, and, after a bit of scrambling through her apparent belongings, she pulled out a pink, multi-sectioned device that indeed reminded Marza of a cell phone.

"Hello?"

…

"Oh, hey, Mom! What do you need?"

…

"What's taking me so long for the weekly shopping? Aw, geez! Sorry! I got caught up in a game of hide and seek with Marill, then I showed a new friend of mine around town! She hasn't been here before, you see…"

…

"Alright! See you in a few hours, Mom! Love you too! Bye-bye!"

Click.

Lyra turned around to face Marza. "Well, you heard me! I've got to go do some shopping! See you later, Marza!"

And then she quite literally ran for the town's entrance/exit, the Marill sparing Marza a brief look before running off after her.

What Lyra and the Marill didn't notice, however, was the fact that Marza's eyes were open just a bit wider than usual.

'… Friend? She considers me a friend even though we've barely known each other for half an hour?'

She barely stifled a chuckle at this revelation. 'Well, is she insists, I suppose that I'll oblige. Friends are almost never a bad thing to have, anyways.'

Scooping Oscura up and into her arms (the Rock Skin Pokémon chirped appreciatively at this; she was getting rather tired of walking so much and so quickly), she said, "Well, I guess that we'll go and follow Lyra's example and check out this "Professor Elm". Shall we, Oscura?"

A nod of agreement.

Upon re-visiting the general vicinity of the professor's house, Marza noted that the red-haired boy was now absent from his previous place. Her eyes narrowed a tad because of this discovery, with Oscura letting out a curious "Lar?" at the lass' expression.

"Oh, it's likely no–!"

She cut herself off.

"Yeah, we both know that by this point when I say that when I say that, it turns out to be the near-complete opposite." She exhaled softly. "Ah, well. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it if it does indeed become the case…"

Another up-and-down motion of the head of mutualism from the Larvitar.

After carefully navigating the maelstrom of gadgets skewed about the front of the building, the girl opened the door to Elm's house and, with only a trace amount of hesitance, walked inside…