Oh, Brother.

I crept through the grass, silent as anything. My target was right ahead, oblivious to the tragedy that was about to befall them. My pace quickened. I was only a few inches away. I pounced. Unluckily for me, I'm not the most accurate creature in the world. I hit the ground, coughing because of the dust the pidgey left when I scared it away.

I hastily scrambled to my feet. If anyone had seen that, I would never-

"I don't believe I've ever seen someone land in the dirt so beautifully."

…Hear the end of it.

My brother stood a few feet away, smirking at my mistake.

"I-I was just practicing my hunting skills." I stammered. I never really had much
courage around my brother. My sister was nice, enough, though. She was very logical most of the time, and she occasionally defended me from my brother.

He sneered at me, "Hunting skills? Ha! Save that for the comedy act, little brother."

I did nothing to respond to this comment. I just stared down at the ground, ashamed.

"Anyway, Mom and Dad told me to bring you back to the den. Or did you forget, tonight's the evolution ceremony?" I mentally chided myself. Of all the things to forget! "Don't tell me really did forget!" My brother smirked, "Your memory is worse than your pouncing!" He laughed, and, mission accomplished, started to walk back home.

As I started to walk behind him, I mused on the events to come. The evolution ceremony…you're no longer a pup after that. You usually leave your home, and go off to do something with your life. Sometimes you'll get captured by a trainer. Not usually, though. It's a rare occurrence that an eevee evolution will get captured; after all, they're pretty strong. And soon, I thought, I'll be one of them.

I knew, of course, what my siblings would evolve into. My brother's fiery temper and his obvious strength almost guaranteed that he would become a flareon, while my sister's calm and peaceful exterior would probably make her a vaporeon, like my mother.

I wondered what I would evolve into-my personality traits certainly didn't match that of a jolteon or Flareon, and, while I was rather reasonable, I didn't think a vaporeon would fit me either. That left two options: An Espeon or Umbreon.

They were both a mystery to me...I didn't know their personality traits. I heard good things about both, but I had also heard bad things. I decided to let the matter escape from my mind. Whatever I became, I didn't have any choice in the matter. 1

It was nearly sundown when I arrived at the den my family lived in. I crawled through the tunnel, and entered a cave-like room. This was where the evolution ceremony took place. My family was already there, even my brother, who had gotten here only a few moments before me. I stumbled over to my position next to my brother, while my mother brought over the evolution stones to my sister, who was first.

The water stone glowed, and suddenly a white light enveloped my sister. Just as I had thought, she had become a vaporeon. "My name is Coast." 2 She announced, and watched my father, a jolteon; bring the leftover evolution stones and a new water stone over to my brother.

No surprise. "I'm Coal." The newly evolved flareon said, and proceeded to watch my father come over to me. I gulped. I needn't be so worried. After all, I never got the chance to evolve.

Scram

"You could be a bit more sympathetic." The delcatty said to me, licking her injured paw.

"Scram, we eat outta garbage cans. We steal. We are covered from ear to tail in...stuff that won't come off. We've lost all faith in humanity. Do ya really think that sympathy exists to us?" I replied, scratching my ear.

Scram was a good friend of mine, that is, if you could have any friends out here. It was thought odd that she was delcatty; normally rare pokemon like her weren't seen on the streets. She never told us her life before she came here, and we never asked. Not even her name. In fact, the closest we came to a name for her was 'scram', because that's what people always called after her.

She found it amusing, anyway, so she kept the name. Recently, her foot had been stepped on by a rather large human who didn't know where he was going (and she couldn't very well know where she was going, either. She had just stolen a piece of meat from the butcher and was looking over her shoulder to see if he was coming after her.) And, well, her foot now caused an up surging of pain.

Scram cocked her head. "You make it sound like sympathy's a bad thing."

I stopped scratching. "Most of the time it is. Besides, it'll be a blue moon when a human has sympathy for us. Even now, we rarely show it for each other. So, we get outta habit, and we don't use it."

"How very logical of you." I couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not, so I decided to leave that comment alone, and change the subject.

"So, any luck with food lately?"

She shook her head and said, "Nah. I guess we've been pestering the humans too much. They've all taken vacations and locked their doors. Even with your..." she paused here,"advantages, it would be easier to go scavenge."

"Ah. Well, I'll be seein' ya." I said, as I headed off to the forest to the south.

Scram's ears perked up and she called to me, "Hey, where are you going?"

"To scavenge," was my short answer.

"Well, that was rude..." I heard her mumble.

As I neared the forest, the pavement died away, and grass started to line the now dirt path. Trees now entered my vision and I saw the familiar sights of pidgey and rattata out for their dinner. Soon, the sky above me was blocked out by the foliage, and there was hardly any distinct path.

I sniffed the air, hoping to catch the smell of blood. Mind you, not all dead things bleed…but most do. Ah, there it was! I hurried toward the scent, and, as usual, found a mixed flock of spearow and murkrow pecking at something on the ground. I ran up to them and chased them around until I was the only one there.

As my gaze fixed upon what they were pecking at (which was usually my food) my eyes widened and I let out a tiny gasp. Lying on the ground was bruised and slightly bloodied eevee pup, most likely the same age as myself. As I crept slowly forward, I saw that it was breathing.

1 In my other umbreon story, Hoshi and Tsuki: the Star and the Moon, Hoshi explains that when a wild eevee evolves, its parent brings up a thunder stone, a water stone, and a firestone. If one of them glows, the eevee will turn into the stone's respective pokemon. If not, well, the ceremonies take place at dusk, so it has a fair chance of becoming an umbreon or an espeon. It depends on their personality.

2 Also in the same story, Hoshi again explains that when an eevee evolves, the first word to pop into its head is its new name. It's based on their type or personality. Also, it can be in any language. Common English, Japanese, Celtic, it doesn't matter. Most of the time, the language that the name is runs in the family. For example, Hoshi's parents have Japanese names, so Hoshi and his siblings have Japanese names. In this story, Shade's family has English names, so he has an English name. Sometimes the tradition breaks, but not often.

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