A/N: It's been two years since I last touched this story and I sincerely apologize for that. I've struggled with major depressed and anxiety for 10+ years among other things and as you can see, it has affected my upload schedule and writing. I do hope though now to get back into regular uploads for a few of my fics, including and especially this one as well as We've Come This Far, my second Rangershipping fic. I thank you all so much for your patience and understanding. I appreciate each and everyone of you and am grateful for your support.
Wes and Eevee walked closely together as they walked deeper into the forest. As they traversed the forest, Wes made mental notes of all he saw, taking in the forest's beauty and the amazement of the forest Pokémon. They were such fickle and wondrous creatures to observe. The way they navigated the forest using their varied skills and abilities. The crawlers from the creepers, the hoppers from trotters, the swingers from the fliers – each had there own very unique style, swagger, and grace. There was so much to make note of the tell his mother when he reached back to her.
As they spent a couple days traveling through the forest, Wes also had a lot more to learn about Pokémon moves and unique abilities. Each Pokémon appeared to have special skills and power limited to themselves and other creatures within the same family or evolution line. On one occasion when Wes was refilling the water in the canteen bottles, a small blue pokémon with what appeared to be a lilypad on its back popped out of the water. It allowed a few bug-type pokémon to crawl onto its back as it ferried them to the other side. Another time he and his Eevee were practicing its moveset, and during practice, a little sandy aura formed around its paws, slowly enveloping Eevee in a pale sandy hue, and when it tacked the boulder that was its target, it shattered cleared through. Wes surmised that it must have had something to do with Eevee's ability why it was able to smash the boulder so forcefully when it hadn't done so before.
Sometimes during training, a pokémon would get in the crossfire or be disturbed by the noise and he'd end up having to battle them again. But with every battle, Wes made sure to nurse the injured pokémon promptly. This in turn, earned him the respect of the forest pokémon, who going forward began to battle him less and seldom fight him. Word quickly spread among the forest pokémon and now they approached Wes if they needed assistance or were just rowdy for an opportunity to test their skills without going all out.
Whenever Wes and Eevee stopped to rest their feet, he made sure to carefully watch and clean the Pokémon Egg he and Eevee discovered a while back. He had never seen one before, and he was anxious to get the little one back to its parents who he was sure were worried sick. But while it was in his care, he was going to make sure it was well-taken care of. His Eevee seemed very interested in the Egg too and appeared to know what pokémon was inside. Wes could only understand his Eevee a little bit based on its body language and pantomime, but he did notice he understood it more than when he first encountered the Eevee. Wes wasn't sure what that meant exactly but he was glad his relationship with his pokémon was getting better and that they were growing closer. The cautious and wary pokémon he met at the beginning of his journey was now a very relaxed, calm and occasionally a little impish creature. Wes was definitely content and happy traveling with the mammalian creature.
"What da ya think, bud? We nearin' a city yet?" Wes asked his pokémon.
"Eevee?" his partner pokémon shrugged from below.
"Gosh it sure is taking a long time to git to the Outskirt Stand. I was certain if'n we followed the river we would meet a town. Where dere's water dere's life right? I hope we're nearin' dere soon. I wanna call Mama and tell 'er all I've seen and learned!"
"Eevee?" his Eevee looked up to him in confusion.
Wes looked back down, "Oh you'd love 'er, bud. She's real sweet and loving. And she makes da best milk cookies! Yummy yum!"
Eevee looked back in front of him as he walked.
Wes pondered, "Hey, you've seen other people before havencha? Folks who look like me? Big fleshy beings."
Eevee was still silent as he walked ahead.
Wes paused and stopped walking.
"Hey Eevee? What's wrong? Did I say something to upset you, buddy? Sometimes I speak without thinking and done have my foot all da way in my mouth fore I even finish talkin'. I'm awful sorry if I did. I would never want to do anything to hurt you."
Eevee stopped walking and turned back to look at his Trainer. He looked real sorrowful with his slumped shoulders and bowed head. Eevee walked back over to Wes and hopped in his arms. He nuzzled his face before perching himself up on his left shoulder.
"Eevee Vee."
Wes smiled.
"I'm glad you're well, buddy. I only 'sumed you'd met another human since you were tangled up in that barbed wire when we met. How did ya end up stuck like that in the first place?"
Eevee's ears lowered and he cried softly and sadly.
Wes shook his head and held out his arms.
"Now, now. Don't be upset. Whatever da reason was it brought us together, and I couldn't be happier without you by my side."
Eevee smiled softly. Then his ears perked up all the way as he cried out to something in the distance.
Wes looked ahead and saw a boy who appeared to be a few years older than him rummaging through one of the fern bushes.
"Another human? Maybe he knows the way outta here. Hey! 'Scuse me there!"
Shaken, the boy fell backwards onto his bottom. When he saw the younger boy calling out, he grimaced, grabbed his bag, and quickly sped away.
"Hey, wait! Please don't leave me here," Wes cried.
Growling, Eevee jumped off of Wes' shoulder and use his Quick Attack to trail him.
"Eevee what're doing? Hey wait up!" Wes called as he tried to follow behind, mindful and careful of the Egg in the potato sack/palm tree sling he was using to carry it.
Eevee quickly caught up to the boy.
"Eevee!" he cried out angrily.
"Get away you stupid pokémon!" The other boy hissed.
He tried to kick Eevee with his right leg but missed and Eevee promptly bit down on his ankle.
"Yowch! He screamed as he tumbled to the floor, his desires spilling out onto the forest floor from his sack.
Wes caught up to them and saw the many glittery items before him.
Wes' eyes shimmered in wonder. "Oooo. 'Dose look like the items in some of them fancy stores up north from where we live. Your stuff is a lot more shiny than any of the stores round town like Mistah Douglass' shop.
The boy grunted as he grabbed his belongings and stuffed them in his bag.
"These ain't some ordinary items from a trinket shop you little, turd. They're valuable items. Gold nuggets, rare bones, max revives, pearls made right from the Clamperl herself. This is all gonna make me rich and get me what's mine."
Eevee growled.
Wes was confused. "Make ya rich? You mean these aren't your things?"
"'Course they're mine! They're in my possession now."
"Now?"
"Yes now, pipsqueak. Now run along now." He said as he searched for some of the missing items in the foilage.
"That's why Eevee was-a chasing you! You stole them!"
"Eevee!"
"Let's just say I'm aggressively borrowing them from their previous owner."
Wes stomped his foot. "That's wrong! How could you go and take what's not yours?"
"What's it to ya, kid? Not like any of those folks will miss anything. They have plenty to spare me a measly couple thou, you know? Those greedy sons a bitches."
Wes shook his head. "You don't know how much dey got. Sometimes that stuff means more than the monetary value. They got feelings attached to them."
The other boy snorted.
"Lookie at you using big words. How old are you 5?"
"Six." Wes said as he picked up a small pearl from the ground.
The boy quickly snatched it out of Wes' hand. "Gimme that! Lay off my loot, punk!"
Eevee once again tried to boy on his ankle but he saw it coming and lifted his leg away.
"Nice try. You need to tame that thing, runt."
Wes crossed his arms. "I gotta name, you know? It's Wes."
"Don't care," he said as he slung his sack over his shoulder.
"What's your name?"
"It doesn't matter. Stay out of people's business kid. You're bound to get hurt playing vigilante hero out here. I need to get on out of this forest and get myself an upgrade. Some folks got it made but those like me, we got to scratch and scrape to survive."
"My Mama nickel-and-dimed it all her life and she was able to take care a herself and me. You may not have chosen to struggle but you chose to steal."
"Damn straight! And I'm gone keep doing it until I get what's mine. If you want to live out here in the storm, you're gonna get filthy."
Wes shook his head again. "That's a terrible way a thinking. The more you do stuff like that, the easier it becomes to do it."
"And if you wanna survive sometimes you gotta get down in the dirt until it passes. Maybe you outta sell that pretty pink scarf you got there so you'll have something."
Wes gasped and touched the periwinkle scarf around his neck.
"Never! My Mama gave dis to me. Made it herself. I will never sell it."
"I don't exactly care, squirt. Now leave me be."
"Can you at least tell me if I'm close to the Outskirt Stand?"
"Now why would you wanna go to place like that? Not like you can afford nothing."
"Please?"
He turned around and started walking away.
"No, I don't know. You've made it this far. You choose your own path and figure out a way there."
Wes continued to watch him until he was out of sight. He opened his hand to see a few small pearls the older boy didn't see he had picked. He had intended to give it back to him but after hearing what he had done, there was no way he could bring himself to do it. Stealing was wrong. But the pang in Wes' stomach reminded him that he was desperate for food. Stealing for survival…That couldn't be okay. It just couldn't be.
A/N: Short chapter, I know. I hope to have a better quality in the next chapter. Just a quick sidenote: you'll notice Wes switching from broken English to proper English every so often, mostly because he is trying to abide by what his mother told him in a previous chapter. So they'll be frequent uses of him using words interchangeably like 'da' and 'the', 'dat' and 'that', 'if'n' and 'if', etc. until he comes into his own speech. Another side is the older boy in this chapter – I didn't specify who he was in the chapter because it wasn't relevant, but he was Cail. He's the kind of character who wouldn't feely give away information and I couldn't think of a satisfactory way of him saying who he was to some annoying kid trying to impress his morals upon him.
That's all for now. As I said before, I will be working on this chapter more regularly as We've Come This Far, my second book Rangershipping fic.
Thank you all so much for your continued support!
Always Do Everything with Love,
XyKPfan
