Here's the second chapter. I have two announcements to make.
First of all, this story now has a cover. It was drawn by my friend Redpenn on Discord, so give them a round of applause. I find that it fits this chapter well.
Secondly, thank you to both of the people who have followed this story thus far, and the person who reviewed. Those actions are greatly appreciated as we continue the story.
Strong sunlight was seeping in through the window. A heavy sleeper likely wouldn't have had much trouble continuing to snooze, but Caleb the Psyduck was not a heavy sleeper.
When he opened his eyes, Caleb saw that he was in the same bedroom he'd grown used to over time. He had not been kidnapped, not that he would have expected to be.
That's because this place was home.
It wasn't just his home - a couple dozen other Pokémon lived here. But Caleb only shared his bedroom with two other creatures, both already awake.
"Caleb! You're awake!" announced a rather excitable voice.
The Psyduck didn't need to wonder who had just spoken. Caleb had lived with him for fifteen years, give or take, and they were intimately familiar with one another.
"Of course I am," Caleb replied, barely managing to suppress a yawn. "It's morning, isn't it?"
"Hell yeah!" Rogan the Meowth exclaimed, pumping his fists in the air. "I'm so hungry that I could eat a Ponyta!"
Finn the Ivysaur, sitting atop his cot, rolled his eyes. "You might think that now, but a Ponyta is enormous, and you couldn't fit it in your stomach."
Rogan snorted with laughter. "I didn't say I'd eat the Ponyta all in one sitting."
Caleb couldn't help but join in the good-natured fun. He found himself laughing too.
Caleb suspected she wouldn't have been so pleased if the other Pokémon who'd been admitted to Lapas Island alongside them had been present. The Vulpix girl would probably have rolled her eyes just like Finn and muttered, "Boys."
"It's almost time for breakfast, isn't it?" Caleb remarked.
"It is! And that's awesome, because I'm starving!" Rogan all but yelled.
"Precision of language, Rogan. The precision of language," Finn told the Meowth. "You'll never be starving as long as you live here. None of us will."
"It's a figure of speech," the Meowth insisted. "I know I won't be starving."
"Good," the Ivysaur responded with a shudder. "Apparently, that was happening to me before I ended up here."
Neither of the other boys responded to that. Finn's comment had brought down the mood to no small extent, though neither Rogan nor Caleb wanted to point that out.
"Okay!" Rogan exclaimed eventually, basically out of nowhere. "Do you think they'll have breakfast ready for us yet?"
Caleb chuckled as he glanced at the digital clock on the wall. "It's almost seven; we might have to wait a little longer."
"But I hate waiting," the Meowth responded, pouting like a child who isn't allowed to play with their favorite toy.
"Tom Pidgeotto tells us that waiting is hard," Finn said simply. "But that doesn't mean you can ignore it. We've all got to wait for something."
"I know, I know," Rogan admitted. "But why does that something have to be food?"
Caleb and Finn glanced at each other with wry smiles. Neither of them wanted to point out that the Meowth, as much as they cared about him, could act like a petulant child when it came to anything requiring patience.
"Go ahead and laugh," Rogan said. "I'm just very hungry today."
"Ravenous might be a more eloquent word to use," Finn responded. "Haven't you ever considered a thesaurus?"
"Whatever," the Meowth replied.
"That's not an answer."
A few minutes later, a knock at their door caused Rogan to spring off his bed like he was at a trampoline park.
"I'll get it!" he exclaimed, sounding like a kid on Christmas morning. "It's probably Kerala!"
Rogan swung the door open, and sure enough, an auburn-colored Pokémon with bushy fur entered the room. She looked thrilled at first but quickly turned her face inside out once she saw who was on the other side.
"Oh, great," the Vulpix sighed as she looked Rogan over. "Another breakfast with you."
"Good morning, Kerala," Caleb said, extending his paw for her to shake. "How did you sleep?"
Kerala chuckled. "You don't need to shake my paw, Caleb. We've known each other for fifteen years."
"Fifteen wonderful years!" Rogan exclaimed, hopping up and down like someone had injected him with pure caffeine. "Let's go down to breakfast!"
"It might not be ready yet, Rogan," Kerala told the Meowth evenly. "And it's rude to wait before the table for them to bring the food out. Just wait a bit longer."
"No, no, I'm hungry now!" the Meowth all but cried, racing out the door and into the nearby hallway.
Caleb turned to face the Vulpix. "I guess we'll have to follow him, won't we?"
Kerala shrugged. "Unless you have any better ideas, I suppose that's what we must do."
They left the room and walked down the metallic corridor, past the other dormitories in the complex, and into the morning sun.
The grass was trimmed to perfection, just like it always was. The sun illuminated the dew on each blade, leading to an overall glorious sight. Of course, to Rogan, the most glorious view was the structure in the middle of the field.
It was a dining pavilion with a roof made of palm fronds, wood, and coconut husk. A dozen picnic tables had been set up some time ago; so far as Caleb was concerned, the tables had been there since the beginning of time.
"Where is he?" Finn asked frantically as he made his way into view of the others. "Rogan must have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD as they call it. He might have run away."
"Why would he run away?" Caleb replied. "This place has everything we might need and then some."
"Who knows? It's just that-".
"I'm here!" Rogan announced in a singsong tone. Somehow, he'd managed to hide behind the others despite running faster than them.
Finn grumbled something inaudible, and Rogan didn't seem to care what it was. The Meowth continued.
"I'm hungry. Where the hell is the food?"
Kerala stuck her nose in the air. She did this not like she was complaining about peasants, but rather making fun of people who complained about peasants.
"You must remember that there are a lot of Pokémon on Lapas Island," she reminded Rogan softly. "It takes some time to prepare food for all of us."
Seconds later, however, the door leading to the kitchens swung open. Through it walked the chefs, humans who carried the platters of food to the dining pavilion. They set the dishes on each of the twelve tables as Rogan drooled.
"Look at that…they've got papaya…oh my Arceus, I am going to town!"
Before anyone could say anything, the Meowth zipped over to the nearest picnic table, sat down, and began piling fruit onto his plate. Caleb followed suit eventually as he saw Rogan scarf down a slice of cantaloupe.
There were a lot of benefits experienced by the residents of Lapas Island, and one of them was the food. The chefs worked night and day to keep the inhabitants well-fed, quite a task with four dozen Pokémon, all of whom possessed lightning-fast metabolisms.
The first platter included a variety of tropical fruit, including papaya, pineapple, mango, and guava. The second tray contained pastries made from only the freshest ingredients. The third and final tray held cheese made from milk from the livestock.
At this very moment, Rogan was stuffing his face with food from all three platters. Kerala wrinkled her nose as she watched this scene of gluttony unfold.
Caleb tapped the Vulpix on the shoulder. "He does this all the time, you know," the Psyduck said. "You shouldn't get worked up over it."
"I know," Kerala admitted with a sigh. "I just wish he had better manners."
"I heard that you know!" Rogan exclaimed in between bites of a muffin.
"Hey, you shouldn't talk with your mouth full!" the Vulpix complained.
Caleb knew staying out of this conversation would be better, so remaining neutral was precisely what he did. The Psyduck sat at one of the picnic tables and began eating mango slices.
"Where are the others?" Finn asked eventually. "Statistically speaking, at least a few of them should be here by now."
Caleb shrugged. "I dunno. I guess they just slept in later than we did."
"Oh well, more food for me!" Rogan announced gleefully, shoving another bite of papaya into his mouth.
Caleb, Finn, Kerala, and Rogan continued eating until they'd all consumed their fill. The latter Pokémon had eaten more than the other three put together; even by Pokémon standards, he burned calories like nobody's business.
Once all four of them had finished breakfast, they returned to their rooms, with simple dormitory-like chambers containing a video screen for announcements. Whenever the residents needed to know something important, Mr. Bentley would give them that information.
Caleb and Finn read books to pass the time, whereas Rogan started playing table tennis against the wall. The Psyduck didn't even care to wonder how the Meowth had acquired the paddle and ball; the latter Pokémon worked in mysterious ways.
After about the five hundredth impact of the ball against the wall, Caleb had had enough. He was able to yell at Rogan to knock it off when the video screen's ringtone (Ghost Ship of Cannibal Rattatas by Billy Talonflame) sounded.
"It seems that there's an announcement to transmit," Finn said.
Indeed, that's precisely what was happening. The image of a tall, broad-shouldered man, perhaps in his early thirties and with a thin black beard, appeared on the screen. This man was Mr. Bentley, the de facto "mayor" of Lapas Island.
Caleb and Finn were immediately glued to the screen, whereas Rogan continued whacking the ping-pong ball against the wall. He didn't seem to care about whatever Mr. Bentley needed to tell them.
"Good morning, everyone," Mr. Bentley said. "Here I am live from my office, and I've got an announcement for you all."
It had better be good, Caleb thought to himself. Of course, it WILL be good, because this is Lapas Island, our home.
"It's good news," the man continued, confirming the Psyduck's intuition. "In about half an hour, a van will arrive and take you all to the island's East Beach. That's right; it's beach day!"
Previously engrossed in his game of ping-pong, Rogan was suddenly rapt to attention. "Did he say beach day?"
Finn rolled his eyes, but Mr. Bentley didn't see their reaction to his words. "I advise you to prepare for a morning at the beach. So prepare your towels, sunscreen, and the like, and bring any toys or books you wish to have there."
Caleb didn't need anyone to tell him twice. "Hey, uh, guys…I think we should pack," he mumbled.
"Hell yes!" Rogan exclaimed again. "We're going to pack all right! Should we bring a medicine ball to play volleyball with?"
Finn shook his head. "No way, those are far too heavy for that purpose. If you want to break your fingers, be my guest."
The next half hour felt like a much more extended time. Two of the three boys sat on their beds, whereas the third began pacing the room excitedly. You can probably guess which Pokémon the latter was.
"It's been almost half an hour," Finn said eventually, looking at the clock upon the wall. "We should get going."
"Do we even need towels?" Caleb asked. "It looks like it'll be a pretty hot day, so I think we can dry off in the sun."
"Unless you want sand everywhere, it's probably wise to bring one."
Three minutes later, the trio had packed a beach bag with colorful towels (special ones that one could use to wick the water out of a Pokémon's fur), a shovel, a novel Finn was reading, and of course, plenty of sunscreen.
"Kerala, where are you?" Rogan called out playfully.
Caleb clamped a paw over the Meowth's mouth. "That's no way to act, Rogan. She doesn't have to hang out with us all the time, and there are other Pokémon here."
"I know," Rogan mumbled. "Now get your paw off my maw."
Caleb did as his friend instructed. And yes, they were friends; sometimes, though, the Meowth could be a little too much to handle.
In the middle of the corridor was a tiny yellow fox-like Pokémon, shivering despite the heat outside. (Of course, the building was quite a bit cooler, thanks to the air conditioning.) The girl squealed as she heard the three guys step into the hallway.
"Eeek! Oh wait, it's you." Those were her exact words.
"We're not going to hurt you, Sarah," Caleb told the Fennekin. "You know us."
"I know," Sarah replied softly. "I just startle easily. I don't know why I get scared sometimes; I just do."
The trio looked around at one another, then at Sarah. "You can come to the beach with us," Finn suggested. "I think that would alleviate your social anxiety."
Sarah's pupils dilated considerably at that suggestion. "I would love to. But you're all so much older than me. I shouldn't even be considering it."
"Nonsense!" Rogan chimed in. "There's only a couple of years' difference."
Caleb glared at the Meowth. "We're still teenagers, dude, and three years is a big gap."
"It's purely platonic," Rogan said, raising a finger in the air. (No, not his middle finger.)
"Okay then," Finn interrupted, steering the conversation away from this uncharted territory. "I hate to ruin the moment, but the van will leave in a few minutes. I would hate for all this packing to be for nothing."
The four of them, led by Rogan, raced towards the parking lot, a large plot of dirt on which a handful of cars sat. One of them was a simple white van with three rows of seats plus the front.
"Yay! Beach day!" the Meowth shouted, raising his hands in the air.
"I appreciate your enthusiasm, kid, but there's still a code of conduct you must follow," the van's driver, a buff middle-aged man, grunted.
"That's right," Finn told Rogan. "Containing yourself is a necessary skill to have in life. Now, get in the van so we can go."
The Pokémon piled into the van, which thankfully had air conditioning. While it was always warm, if not hot, on Lapas Island, indoor heat was much more brutal to bear as a Pokémon.
Not for the first time, Caleb found himself staring out the window. The island's landscape never ceased to amaze him.
The man drove them through a forest of coconut palms. Despite having just eaten breakfast, Caleb had to admit that climbing one of those trees and retrieving the heavenly fruit would be incredibly satisfying. Then again, his arms weren't strong enough, and if he fell, it would be catastrophic.
He remembered something someone had told him about his owner. Caleb didn't know the man's name or even if he was still alive. Mr. Bentley said to focus on the future, not worrying about the past.
According to Mr. Bentley, the man who'd previously been Caleb's trainer had suffered a severe injury to his neck. The Psyduck didn't know all the details, nor did he care to, but it sounded horribly tragic to start as a young, energetic, bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed man, then lose the ability to live your life the way you wanted to.
Maybe I'll meet him someday. If I do, I'll have to express my…condolences? No, Finn would tell me that's not the right word.
After about a ten-minute drive along a winding road, they arrived at East Beach. The beach was next to a grassy coconut plantation, with rock formations rising out of the sand on either side.
The landform was an arc of white sand about a hundred meters long. On a sunny day like today, the ocean was crystal-clear, and one could see minnows darting all over its depths.
"I'll be here if you need anything," the driver told them. "But have fun at the beach!"
The group made their way through the dune grass, past the numerous stalks of palm trees. The leaves high above in the gentle morning breeze swayed from side to side.
"Okay…" Finn began once they'd all laid out their towels. "So what are we going to do, exactly?"
Rogan raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"
The Ivysaur turned to face the Meowth, a slightly confused look in his eyes. "Well, if we're at the beach, we might as well find something to do here. East Beach isn't a boring place - the island's pretty big!"
"We're not supposed to leave the beach, though," Sarah piped up. "There could be any number of dangerous creatures in the forest."
"I never said we would leave," Finn replied. "I'm just saying…shall we build a sand castle? Go swimming? Play tag?"
"Maybe we shouldn't swim," Caleb said. "Aren't the rip currents pretty strong here?"
"Says the Water-type Pokémon," Rogan blurted out. "You've got less to fear from them than we do."
"Let's build a sand castle," Kerala suggested, which reminded Caleb that the Vulpix had been on the van with them. Somehow she'd managed to "hide" her presence until they arrived at East Beach.
There was a silence. Then Finn asked, "Are there any objections?"
When nobody voiced any opposition, the Ivysaur hopped upward, causing the flower on his back to sway. "Okay! Let's do it!"
Caleb didn't want to go against Kerala's wishes, but it must be noted that he didn't find sand castles very exciting. After all, when you'd lived more or less your whole life on a tropical island, you built many of them.
But the Vulpix had other ideas. She proposed that the group construct the most magnificent sand castle possible, the type that, according to her, could be seen at some of Alola's fancier beach resorts.
"I've seen Melemele Beach on TV," she said. "Their sand castle is quite something. It's right on the boulevard and is very popular with influencers."
Before long, they filled buckets with wet sand and sculpted it into a wall. Caleb may have been skeptical before, but now he was flat-out enjoying himself.
Kerala barked out orders from the dune grass. "Okay, Finn…you go and use the bucket to build the tower. Rogan, you can sculpt it. Sarah can help carve the letters into the castle wall."
"What about me?" Caleb jumped in. He'd been sitting on the sidelines for the last few minutes, but he couldn't help but notice that Kerala had not called his name.
"Well, every castle needs some fresh fruit," Kerala responded matter-of-factly like this was an axiomatic truth about the universe.
"Fresh fruit?" the Psyduck replied incredulously.
"Did someone say fruit?" Rogan exclaimed.
Kerala laughed. "No, Rogan. Or rather, I did say that, but it's not for you to eat. It's going to be for decoration. Caleb, I think you should be the one to get it."
Caleb narrowed his eyes. "Uh…okay."
"I want you to climb the nearest palm tree and bring a coconut down with you, preferably unbroken. Can you do that?"
The Psyduck laughed nervously, desperately hoping that Kerala was joking. "I think Rogan would be a better fit for that job."
"Nuh-uh," the Meowth chimed in. "My arms are even scrawnier than yours. You can do it, Caleb!"
Caleb looked up at the closest tree. It stood a good fifty or sixty feet tall, with several giant green coconuts lodged in its nest. Thanks to a recent downpour, the trunk looked rather slippery.
"So many things could go wrong," the Psyduck said, feeling his chest turn inward with dread. "I don't think I should do it."
"If you feel your arms begin to lose strength, you may slide down the trunk, though that will likely result in chafing of your thighs." That was Finn, stating the obvious as usual.
"I'll do it…I guess," Caleb replied sheepishly. As he spoke, though, he wasn't looking at his friends; he was looking at his target.
"So, what are you waiting for?" Rogan all but bellowed. "Hop onto that trunk and start riding it up!"
Kerala snorted. "That sounded so wrong, Rogan."
Caleb didn't even care how the Meowth responded to the Vulpix. As far as he was concerned, when it came to doing something daunting like this, he just had to go for it.
From the instant he'd latched onto the palm tree with his arms, Caleb began shimmying up the trunk, a few inches at a time.
He knew that his upper body strength left much to be desired. When the time came to measure his Vitality Score, it would be one item on the list that dragged his overall ranking down. But he couldn't worry about that right now, for the most important thing was to make the next move, the next, and the next.
After two minutes, Caleb had become soaked in a languid cold sweat. Despite the heat of the day, he shivered as he reached just a little higher. Perhaps the Psyduck would have gone faster had he draped his legs around the tree like a Chimchar, but then Caleb would have run the risk of falling. And he did not want to fall.
Whatever fate his previous trainer had suffered, Caleb knew he didn't harbor any desire to experience it. He had to keep climbing.
And yet, his arms soon felt like jelly. He could hear Kerala and Rogan cheering him on, though he didn't bother to pay attention to their precise words. Nothing else mattered; besides, he knew it wouldn't be wise to look down.
The rest of the climb felt interminable. Caleb could practically feel each minute tick by, knowing that his friends would grow increasingly impatient with time. He'd wondered if this tree was infinitely tall when his head brushed up against something hard.
"Yikes, that hurts," the Psyduck muttered, feeling a headache come on. But then he realized what that meant.
I did it! I reached the top!
"Look out below, guys!" Caleb announced, reaching for the nearest coconut. To do so, he had to drape his legs around the trunk, just the action he'd been dreading the thought of performing. But it was a necessary evil.
The Psyduck dropped two coconuts towards the ground. Hopefully, his friends had the common sense to stay far away from the tree.
But Caleb wasn't listening to his legs enough and didn't know when to quit. And that's what cost him dearly.
Upon swinging the third coconut off its perch, the Psyduck's legs lost their grip on the trunk. With a jolt of panic, Caleb tried to seize the branch above him, but it was too late. He keeled over backward and began to fall.
Fear coursing through his veins, he didn't have time to fully process what had just occurred. There was no way he could reach for the trunk, for he was now far away from it, and he kept falling until…he wasn't falling anymore.
"Huh?"
Caleb turned over and saw that something had abruptly caught his fall five feet above the ground. Looking over at the Fennekin, he saw that Sarah appeared deep in concentration.
She saved my life.
"Let him down gently, Sarah," Kerala instructed the Fennekin. Then, glancing at Caleb, the Vulpix said, "Sorry about that. We thought you could handle it."
"I did handle it," Caleb replied once he was on the ground. "I got you a few coconuts. And I'm okay, thanks to Sarah here."
Rogan snorted. "Why don't you wear a parachute next time?"
Finn frowned. "From that low a height, a parachute would not have enough time to create sufficient drag to slow one's descent. Sarah's quick thinking is what saved Caleb from serious bodily harm."
The Psyduck's heart was still hammering in his chest, and it would never take another beat for granted.
"Well then," Caleb said awkwardly. "Want to finish building the sand castle?"
"It's almost complete," Sarah told him. "I carved in the name of this place. Have a look."
Caleb walked around and saw that the castle, built out of East Beach's sugar-white sand, was like something you'd read about in a fairy tale. Sarah had sculpted out letters to form the words LAPAS ISLAND.
"We should have a group photo!" Rogan suggested. "Is our driver still here?"
"He told us he wouldn't leave until we did," Kerala replied. "I'm sure he's got a camera with him. Let's get the picture taken in front of this castle."
As Sarah went off to retrieve their driver, Caleb reflected on this highly eventful morning. He may have been living here for a decade and a half, all but one year of his life, but something about today felt different.
That's the thing about living on an island. Sometimes the days blend into each other, but occasionally there are days when you remember everything.
When the group stood in front of their creation so the driver could photograph them saying, "Fuzzy pickles!" Caleb felt confident that he'd remember this for a long time.
If you wish to speak with the author himself, he can be found on Discord at SnowLabrador#2967.