Disclaimer: Pokémon is copyrighted by Nintendo, Game Freak, Warner Bros, and Wizards of the Coast. I in no way claim rights to Pokémon; this fic is a non-money-making venture for free distribution on the Web.
Dedication: This fic is for Lightning-Strike. Lightning-Strike is a talented, cool author here, whose user id is 141533. This is her Christmas fic, especially for her! ^!^ Merry Christmas, L-S!
A/N: All Pokémon speech is translated, unless otherwise indicated. Review thank-yous at the end of the chapter.
Light of a Dark Black Night
4: Outlook
"Can I ask a question?"
Shadowgleam looked warily at him. "Go ahead."
"Where'd you get your name?"
Shadowgleam relaxed. "My trainer." Touchwood gave her a careful look.
"What's it supposed to mean?"
"Well - like a Light from the Shadows. I'm dark coloured, and I'm electric, so that's it. There's a line of poetry - a light from the shadows shall spring."
"Theatrical," said Touchwood, flicking an ear.
"Yes. But quite elegant."
They looked at each other and grinned. These were human words. They were using a lot of them. A wild Pokémon would probably despise them for using human idiom and vocabulary, but once trained, it was difficult to get rid of the language. And Shadowgleam enjoyed using it.
Touchwood was teaching Shadowgleam how to forage. He found a kind of grass with edible roots - "This one's good because you can find it almost anywhere, but it won't last you long. Low-energy food. You can never get enough of it to fill you up, but when you're starving, it'll keep you alive. And you never need to carry it with you."
Shadowgleam nodded, stuffing a few thin white roots into her Pokéchow container, which she still carried. "Can you find any fruit around here?"
Touchwood shook his head. "Unlikely. Berry trees, yes, they'll pop up occasionally, but if there's fruit then the nearest tribe will probably put a territorial claim on it."
"Oh." Shadowgleam had no idea whether it was the right season for them, but she was starting to long for tomatoes.
"What level are you, Touchwood?"
"I can't remember. I think twenty-four."
"So you wouldn't know Slam?"
"No."
"Well, that's all right. I could teach you."
"What? I'm not high enough in levels!"
"That doesn't matter. You just have to learn right."
"Shadowgleam, that's completely wrong!"
"No it isn't. How do you think I learned Light Screen?"
Touchwood gaped at her. Shadowgleam grinned.
v v v
A little while later, Touchwood was very tired. Shadowgleam was running - no, dancing - rings around him, showing him the move over and over again. He thought that maybe he was starting to get the trick of it, but Shadowgleam's idea of 'learning right' was rather… strenuous.
"Let me rest, Shadowgleam. You show me your routine."
Shadowgleam, although she'd been using up a lot more energy than him, looked only too happy to oblige. She immediately started a series of feints, exercises, and controlled electric bursts. After ten minutes of non-stop activity, she stopped in front of him, grinning, and panting just a little.
"That's my general one," she said. "I do that at least every morning."
"You like battling," Touchwood said.
"I love it!" Shadowgleam said. Perhaps she trusted him more, because she added, "I won tournaments for Gavin. My last battle, I won a really big one. You haven't seen what I can do."
"You really are a Shining, aren't you?"
"Yep!"
v v v
Shadowgleam smiled a little, and let herself remember those tournaments.
She would have won at Indigo for Gavin.
She imagined it... Icy Wind and the Dark attacks gave her advantage over her elemental enemies. She had agility to make up for her speed, and with all that flexibility, she was agile...
Why'd he get rid of me? How will he win without me? How can he not know what he missed?
But...
Another image. Gavin... on the other side of the field this time. As another trainer's final champion, she would dazzle on the field, defeating whomever he sent against her - they wouldn't be her teammates any more. She would make great leaps in the air... she would dodge and leap so that the other Pokémon never touched her with anything... she would remind them all that she was the greatest. On the field, showing off, not doing it for him anymore... but to remind him of what he could never, ever have back again.
She could see it...
But it was a useless dream. How easy would it be to find a trainer whose goal was to enter this year's Indigo League Tournament? And how would she tell before she was captured? Once captured, it would be hard to get away again... There were too many ifs in this idea.
Revenge was overrated anyway. She didn't have to show Gavin anything. Gavin could think what he wanted, feel what he wanted. She didn't care.
Oh, Shadowgleam, that was a nice big stupid lie.
v v v
"Are you okay?" Touchwood asked, watching her expression drift and then turn bitter.
"Yeah," said Shadowgleam, "just imagining stuff." She turned back to the path.
Touchwood would have liked to rest for a little while longer, especially since he'd been trying to defy his levels and learn a powerful move for the last hour or so, but he trudged on after her.
The fatigue began to make him short tempered.
"Where are you going, Shadowgleam?"
"Do you think I know?"
"Okay. How about this question - when are you going to stop?"
"I told you you could come with me if you wanted to wander. We're wandering. You can stop."
"Why don't you let us go at my pace? I can't keep this up, and you're pretty dumb if you're going to drop me already. You need me, you know. Thin-rooted grass won't last you for long after your Pokéchow runs out."
"I don't need anyone!" Shadowgleam snarled at him.
Ah, really. He looked sceptically at her.
"Would you save your breath?" Shadowgleam retorted. "I want to wander. You can come along. You seem perfectly happy to do so. So come."
"You're going to stop sometime," he prodded.
"I'll think about that when I want to stop," Shadowgleam said, whipping her tail around, releasing great bolts of electricity. The area around them became a small electric storm.
"It's not fair," Touchwood said obstinately, "you using electricity like that. It's because you know I couldn't fight you, so this gives you an easy way of intimidating me."
"Well, if I thought I could argue you into actually SHUTTING UP, maybe I'd try it," said Shadowgleam, obviously trying to make her voice sound more reasonable.
And then she looked at him and laughed, and he joined in.
v v v
She kept a slower pace for the rest of the day. Occasionally, she got restless, and when that happened she took huge detours to the side, occasionally appearing on the path again after going way out to the side.
They weren't really following a path, though - Shadowgleam would see something, like a small hill or a valley or an interesting tree, and point towards it; once they got there, they'd go somewhere else. Shadowgleam continuously checked her internal compass to make sure that they weren't going in circles. They were zig-zagging, sure, but they were travelling.
She forced herself to think about the future.
Touchwood was right, and although she didn't need to think about how she was eventually going to live, she would soon… so that question nagged at her.
It just… depressed her to think of a wild Pokémon's life. Eating. Sleeping. Mating. Travelling around in a tribe. Raising kids. It sounded boring and hard, mostly.
She'd loved battling so much… it was her talent! She was Shining, she was strong, she knew Ice and Dark-type attacks, she was nimble, she was powerful… the arena had become her home, in some ways. Stupid Gavin took me away from all that.
What was she going to do out in the wilderness? Right now, she was travelling through the most remote areas in Johto, which suited her fine… for now. Later? Did she always want to travel? No… but what?
"Don't nag me," she told Touchwood wearily, when he glanced at her after a long, pre-occupied silence, "I'm thinking about the future."
He actually looked pleased. Annoying tagalong, she thought, almost affectionately.
Lightning-Strike: I know I've posted this chapter without waiting for feedback; if you want ANY CHANGES to be made, I will make them. I hope that's all right.