Vaniville's Secret


An 8-year-old Calem and 7-year-old Serena find a way outside of Vaniville's brick walls for the first time.


Timeline: ~4 years before the beginning of Black (though this isn't really important to that story at all…)

Setting: Kalos

Notes: Mild violence

Characters: Calem, Serena

Prerequisite Reading: N/A :) (is just something I wrote for the characters that will appear in Pokémon Retold: Y)


Okay, so, he knew he shouldn't have ventured beyond Vaniville's borders. He wasn't entirely sure why, but his parents had always sternly insisted he stay away from them. In fact, surrounding most of the town was a hulking brick wall! But Calem had found a patch that had fallen through. Tucked just outside of their townhouse, to the far right of the building, where shrubbery had grown unnoticed along its side, hid a crumbling hole in the wall, just big enough for an eight-year-old boy to fit through, no questions asked. Natural curiosity from never having seen outside of that towering perimeter completely negated any misgivings he might have had about what lay beyond, so he eagerly wriggled through the opening, wincing as some of the jagged brick cut his left leg. Rolling out onto the leafy forest floor, he puffed his cheeks in annoyance at the brick wall that had injured him. As if in retribution, a little more of the bricks over the hole crumbled away beneath his stare.

Apparently satisfied with that response, Calem quickly turned his attention to the new world he found himself lost in. Even though he was just beyond Vaniville's walls, the canopy overhead was already so thick, making it much darker and cooler than in the town. Bushes easily as tall as he was or more so overshadowed him and that wasn't to say anything of the trees! Gnarled, ancient things that stretched on like towers far into the air. There were the sounds of chirping, and cawing, and chattering… It sounded so alive, and smelled so different there, too!

Craning his neck curiously as he went, he started to pick his way a little deeper, given pause only when a bush to his right rustled unexpectedly. Even then, he only jerked his head to look at it, followed by dauntlessly creeping closer. He reached a hand to move away thick, ferny leaves, and for his bravery, he was rewarded the frozen stare of a Delcatty with a Pidgey in its jaws. Not that Calem recognized that; all he saw was that it had something brown and feathery in its hold, then a purple blur as it hissed at him, dropped its prey, and leapt over his head, vanishing further into the forestry. Confused, he went to inspect what it had left behind, but a branch crackling overhead made him forget about it almost immediately.

Yet, as he stared upward… He couldn't see anything that could have made such a noise. The branches were dark, but from what he could see, they were empty… Annoyed that he couldn't seem to piece it together, he stumbled away from the fern and squinted into the shadowy canopy. As he stepped a little further into a small clearing, free of the bushes and ferns, the branches and leaves rattled overhead, and a scarlet blur rocketed at him. He hardly had time to recognize that was happening before pressure struck his back and he heard a high-pitched squeal, as he and someone—or something, for all he knew in that moment—rolled out of the clearing and into a patch of prickly bushes. As they stopped, Calem heard the shriek of a Talonflame, followed by the sound of scuffing in the dirt. Gritting his teeth as he peeked out from the safety of the uncomfortable bushes, he saw that where he had been standing seconds earlier, a Talonflame now had its claws lodged in the ground. It flared its wings and picked at the ground with its beak to free itself.

"What are you doing?" he heard someone hiss at him. Startled, he jolted, only to yelp at the sharp leaves that dug into him as he spotted the honey-haired girl crouched to his right, huddled even deeper into the painful foliage. Her icy, blue-gray eyes were full of contempt as she spat, "Get back! Before that Talonflame eats us!"

"Serena!" Calem beamed, momentarily forgetting all about the Talonflame or the bush. Blissfully unaware of her anger, or the severity of their situation, he blithely asked, "What're you doing out here? Did you find a spot in the wall, too?"

"I asked you first!" she puffed. "I saw you go out the wall, and you know we're not—"

Another shriek from the Talonflame cut her off as it finally freed itself, disappearing into the depths of the canopy. Calem started like he was going to crawl back out of the bush after it, and Serena gripped him firmly on his ankle with both hands. Frustrated, he turned over and scowled at her. "What?" he whined. "I want to see the Talonflame up close!"

"It tried to eat you!" she exasperatedly scoffed. "You do know what eating is, right?"

"'Course I do," he mutinously shot back at her. Of course, what she was trying to tell him still was lost on him. "I'm not stupid, and I'm not food, so why would it try to eat me?" Attempting to cross his arms, he was gouged with another sharp leaf, and so, he irritably raised his shoulders. "Ugh, why do these leaves hurt?!"

Serena rolled her eyes. "Follow me, okay?" She finally let go of his ankle and turned around, grimacing at the leaves and thorns scratching at her clothes, but making no other noise.

Encouraged, Calem just uttered a rapid, "Okay," and crawled after her. He was noticeably much louder and clunkier than her, fighting the sticky leaves every inch of the way, and once he was free of the bush, much to Serena's horror, he jumped back to his full height to shake and brush himself off. She waved a hand at him dramatically, and he cocked his head at her. "What?"

"Get back down, Calem!" Her eyes were wide and fearful… What was she so afraid of?

His question seemed to be answered with the sound of more furious, flapping wings, and another ear-piercing shriek. Hot, flashing pain burst in his left shoulder, and he saw Serena leap to her feet and run as the Talonflame swooped uncomfortably close to her, circling back into the treetops when it missed. Mind blanking, Calem momentarily froze in fear, then dared to touch his searing shoulder with his opposite hand. He felt the fabric of his shirt and jacket was torn and wet, and when he withdrew the hand to look, red fluid coated the fingers. Blood. He swallowed hard; even he knew what that was… Even if he didn't quite understand what was going on, he didn't entirely need to, arbitrarily deciding chasing after where Serena had vanished farther into the forest was his best option.

He followed the glimpses of her golden hair until he saw her halt in another clearing, one with a single, ancient tree, devoid of any leaves at all, in its center. This time, rather than rushing out, he nervously surveyed the sky and found the canopy partially gave way over this clearing. Shafts of sunlight washed over the gray, silvery bark of the centered tree, making its wrought branches practically glitter in the daylight. Feeling a little more at ease that there was no canopy hindering his view overhead, Calem forgot all about his worries, even briefly forgetting the throbbing in his shoulder, as he skipped closer to Serena and fell into place beside her. From the angle she was gawking at it, the tree seemed almost X-shaped, with its upper branches curling in a V-shape toward the sky, its lower half forming an upside-down V into the earth with its twisting roots.

"It's so pretty!" Calem breathlessly exclaimed after a second or two.

"I've never seen a tree like that…" Serena commented, tilting her head.

Approaching it without another thought, Calem used his right hand to pluck at some of its rougher bark, teasing away a particularly loose plate. He thought he heard Serena snap something at him again, but he didn't understand what it was. When the patch of bark gave way, he found the wood beneath was blue… Bright blue. In fact, it glowed! "Serena!" he cried, practically jumping up and down. "Look at that! It's so cool!"

Shrill, piercing caws, followed by the sound of water splashing, made him whip around. Serena scrambled to join his side and they watched in a mix of fright and awe as Calem's father ordered his Greninja to attack the same Talonflame that had been harassing them earlier. Calem wasn't sure how Dad had gotten there, and even though he knew he would be in trouble for going outside Vaniville's walls, he was ecstatic that he had found them. Not only would he be able to drive away the scary Talonflame, but he could show Dad the blue tree, too!

Of course, even after driving off the Talonflame, Dad wasn't in the mood for Calem's story. Once the Talonflame fled, Calem had darted down to him, grabbing at his shirt. "Daaad! You won't believe this tree—!"

"Calem," his father cut him off curtly, in that quiet, commanding tone and with the same tension to his lips that he knew always preceded a lecture (though he rarely understood what they were for), "what on Earth are you doing out here?" His father flicked his dark, navy eyes to Serena. "What about you? I thought you would have known better…"

"I do!" Serena hotly defended herself. With a fleeting, apologetic look to Calem that he missed, she supplied, "I was just following Calem out! I thought he might get hurt… S-so, yeah! I had to go out!"

Looking Calem up and down, Dad sighed wearily, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Well, his shoulder's bleeding, so you're not wrong… but you shouldn't have 'had' to go out after him, Serena."

"Forget that! Look at this!" Calem whirled around to point at the tree, especially in the patch of missing bark where it glowed, but he cringed as Dad snarled his name loudly. Slowly rotating back to face him, Calem smiled nervously. Honestly, he didn't always know what would make his parents angry or not… He certainly couldn't draw connections between them. Sure, the Talonflame had hurt him, but it wasn't like it had meant to. He wasn't food! Maybe it had just been confused? Was that why nobody was allowed outside of Vaniville's walls? Then again, Mom and Dad could come and go as they pleased, anywhere… Ugh, it just didn't make sense! What was so dangerous about it? Still, he at least knew better than to express his frustration right then. Instead, he just swallowed anxiously and asked a plaintive, "Heh… yeah?"

"We've told you again and again you've got no business being out here," Dad hissed, recalling his Greninja. Calem liked Dad's Greninja. He called it Grinny, and Grinny was so fun to play with. He almost lost himself in that tangent of thought, nearly missing the rest of what Dad had to say. "It is dangerous for you. You're lucky Serena was there for you, but she won't always be, and she should not have to risk herself for you. Do you understand me?"

Bluntly put, no, he didn't; he still had no idea what was so dangerous. The cut on his shoulder hurt, but if that was the worst he had to expect, then what was the big deal? I can handle a little cut! he thought indignantly. Even so, he didn't think it wise to say any of that, and just wanted Dad to get over his anger so he could show him the tree. He felt like he would just explode if he didn't! Rocking his head up and down like a bobblehead, Calem agreed insincerely, "Yeah, yeah, I do! Sorry! Um, but look—!"

"I'm serious, Calem," Dad cut him off, marching closer to him and picking him up. Calem hated it when he was picked up. Huffily fighting against Dad's hold for a moment, he found it was no use, and soon tired out. Dad was just so much stronger than he was… The hold didn't hurt, no. He just didn't want to be there! And the tree! Ugh, why was getting them to cooperate so difficult? He just sulked as Dad explained further. "Don't ever do this again… You could've gotten a lot worse than just that cut on your shoulder. How did you even get out here?"

"There's a hole in the wall… I can show it to you when we get back!" Serena piped up as she skipped ahead of them.

"Ser-e-na!" Calem whined. Great, she had just ruined the secret! There had to be so much more beyond Vaniville, like the tree, like the Talonflame, like the Delcatty, like the forest—there just seemed to be so much more! So much more nobody else was going to tell him about or explain to him! He just wanted to know… "Why'd you go and do that?" he frustratedly asked, blind to the way his father rolled his eyes at him.

"Well, I'm not going to lie!" Serena retorted. "Was bad, sneaking off in here, Calem!"

"You did it, too!" How else would you have found me?!

"For you!"

Feeling combative in his frustration, Calem sulkily muttered, "Did you?"

"Enough," Dad interrupted them harshly, shooting a glare between both of them. "I'm going to let out my Talonflame, and then I'm going to Fly us back into Vaniville. Serena, you're going to go home. Calem, you and I are going to have another talk. Is that clear to everyone?"

No. It's never clear, Calem thought bitterly. Instead, he just defeatedly mumbled, "Yeah…"

"You got it, sir," Serena answered dutifully, almost cheerfully.

"Good," Dad sighed tiredly.

Calem just stared over Dad's shoulder at the tree as he fished in his pockets for his Talonflame's Poké Ball, desperately hoping that, maybe one day, he'd be able to find it again and discover what else lay beneath its shimmering, silver bark… Surely, there had to be more…

There was always so, so much more, wasn't there…?


I have an announcement, but I have honestly typed it out so many times, I'd rather just link directly to the announcement post on Tumblr. Even if you don't have Tumblr, you should still be able to view this post. If you're on FFN Mobile, you can just copy and delete the spaces, but if you're on the desktop website you'll have to manually retype the link.

Anyway, here: tinyurlDOTcomSLASHpkmnretoldancmt

TL;DR: Real life is really, really bad and I may be getting saddled with a surprise 10,000+ dollar charge from my college which has apparently taken advantage of me during the coronavirus pandemic. I'm fighting to get the charges dropped but I can't guarantee it thanks to their rigged appeal system (college is George Mason University btw, all colleges suck and are designed to bleed you dry, but this one has been literal hell on Earth imo). That link talks about a , which I want to use as a sort of "tip jar" for fanfiction as well as fanart, with pledges starting at 5 dollars. Higher tiers offer commissions. There's also a link to a if you want to just tip or can't afford 5 dollars (I'm not making fun of anyone, I've been in a position where even 5 dollars was too much). I also do not expect everyone to rush to pay me or anything. I just am desperate and that is why I'm at this point. As soon as I get some pledges, or after August 24th, all my works will be posted to my 2 weeks prior to being posted to FFN, AO3, or Tumblr. So, while I might go inactive for 2 weeks once I start that, after that two weeks is up, you'll see me start to post regularly again.

I'm really sorry. I am just kind of at my wits end, but I am hoping that between this, me getting a job, and getting my health back on track, things might finally start looking up. And again, I understand everyone has it bad right now, I'm just... a little desperate at this point. I'll be posting a similar addendum to this to my next Ultra Sun chapter, since I know not that many people read these in comparison to that one.