Clearing Things Up

Admittedly, it was all a bit much to take in. I could handle being taken to a city or town- but a psychic eevee? Is that even possible? Well, yeah, seeing as one was just talking to me…

I suppose I was still in a bit of shock. My home had just been taken away, there was a good chance I'd never hear from any of my family again…and to top it off, the pain I felt in my right eye made me keep it closed. I feared, even then, that this would be permanent.

And this eevee…this pitch black, psychic eevee, had brought me to the city. I supposed I should have been grateful to her, but I really didn't feel anything except for a foreboding feeling that I was now in a worse mess than I had already been. I was now surrounded by humans, in a place that was dingy, dirty, and ruthless.

And so, when I awoke, it was to the poking and prodding of my "savior".

"Get up!" she commanded, "I can't look after the whole day!" which was actually incorrect- night had settled.

"Wha?" I mumbled, confused and tired. The eevee rolled her eyes at me.

"This is pathetic," I heard her murmur.

My head started to clear, and I dazedly got to my feet. Last time I had been awake, I did not pay much attention to my new surroundings. This time, however, I examined my environment a little more carefully.

There was trash. A lot of it. Boxes, cans, little pieces of string and cloth were scattered in disarray. Indeed, we were both sitting in front of an old cardboard box that had been flipped on its side. There were also walls, two towering walls, on which there were large amounts of old posters and used gum. Graffiti, too. Most of it conveying profane messages in bright colors.

Of course, I did not know what any of those things were at the time, so it was a bit more difficult for me to register the setting.

I looked at my companion, with a confused expression on my face. All these sudden changes were wreaking havoc on my mind.

She sighed. She seemed to do that a lot. "Okay. First, let's analyze the situation. According to what you told me, yer family was attacked by Rockets." I nodded. "Then you say that yer family was able to get away, and so did you, 'cept that you collapsed after a while."

"That's what happened."

"And so here I was, tryin' to find some dinner, but instead I found you. So I took ya here outta the goodness of my heart, you woke up, talked, then fainted again. Then I kept poking ya until you woke up again, and here we are." She concluded. "The question is, now what?"

"Well…we could have someone look at my eye?" I suggested, more a question than a statement.

"I'm lookin' at it."

"You know what I mean…I want someone to check if it's permanent or not."

"A doctor?" She gave a bitter laugh. "We don't have doctors out here, pal. Oh, no. They're too high class fer the like of us." She then adopted an expression of false brightness. "We do, however, have a rattata who's a great help with broken limbs."

"Why?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"He'll chomp 'em off fer ya. That way it's a lot less hassle for you."

"Chomp them off?" I asked, half horrified and half curious.

"Oh, yeah. It's a great business. He charges people food and shelter and stuff. Makes a great living off it." She dropped her voice to a whisper here. "Personally, I think he's just trying to earn street credit to make up fer his name." I looked at her questioningly at this. "Randolph."

"Oh. Well. That's…unfortunate."

"It's not that it's a bad name, understand. It's just that it doesn't strike fear in the hearts of innocents." She rolled her eyes. Yet another habit she seemed fond of. "I think he's being overly dramatic. I don't even have a name!"

Solution

"Really?" he asked me, cocking his head to one side. "I'd have thought…"

I shifted uncomfortably. "I may live in a cardboard box, but I'm still an eevee. I won't have a name 'till I evolve."

He looked startled for a second, as though he had just remembered something. "I was in the middle of an evolution ceremony. Shouldn't I evolve, regardless of interruption?"

I shrugged. Like I knew the answer to that. "Search me. Maybe you weren't meant to evolve just yet."

"But my brother and sister-"

"-were meant to evolve." He looked distinctly put out about this.

"Don't mope about. It'll happen eventually." I said, trying to reassure him. (Which I really didn't understand-I had only just met the kid.)

I then recalled that still had not gotten the food I had been searching for at the time I found him. "Uhg," I groaned, "Dinner. I can't believe you made me forget about dinner."

"Eh…maybe you could live without it for one night?" He asked, nervously. "I don't think I can survive here by myself."

This surprised me. "What? You're not going back to your forest?"

He shook his head. "No. The Rockets might still be there, and even then, tonight we were all supposed to leave home anyway Evolution and all that. Besides," he dropped his head shamefully here, "I don't think I can remember the way back."

"How is that possible? You certainly got away from there okay…"

"I wasn't in my right mind when I was running away. Didn't take one look at my surroundings. I don't think I even noticed them."

"Then what're you gonna do?"

"Um, you live here, right? And you're the same age as me…so maybe I could survive here too?"

"It's not that easy-"

"I know," he cut me off. "But, I never learned to hunt correctly or anything. And if you can to live here, why can't I?"

"I've had practice."

"I can learn."

And so I agreed to teach this half blind eevee.