4.11: The Prodigal Brother
Kanoa
March 23rd, 2020
There's an early morning mist in the air. The forecast predicts it'll become a proper drizzle in a half hour or so. Just in time for Kekoa's trial.
You glance at Mallow beside you. The older girl is leaning back on a tree and lost in her smartphone. It's weird that you, Grace, and Mallow can all be captains. Grace looks and acts like a child and Mallow's practically an adult. You're just out of the most awkward parts of your teenage years. Your acne finally started to clear up and the people at school chilled out after the shittiness of late middle school. You'd trade ten years of your life not to have to go through eighth grade and its petty politics ever again.
Mallow locks her phone and slides it into her pocket. "How's the jungle?" she asks. It was her trial site for five years. Every time you meet up she asks about it like an anxious mother interrogating her child's babysitter. You feel bad about it because she didn't want to move and the current situation is kind of your fault. You got promoted when Ilima went off to college. Oranguru are only native to the jungles up north, so when you picked your totem Olivia shuffled Mallow and her lurantis down to Akala Meadow.
"The plants are fine. Definitely not as bad as it could've been if volcarona stayed in her cave." A few of the most fragile flowers wilted. The comfey and lurantis are already restoring those. "Most of the surviving raticate moved south when the light came back."
There have been raticate in the jungle since the rodents arrived in Alola. The forest adapted. The Blackout sent half of Alola's raticate scurrying north. Even with the gumshoos following and a captain working overtime to kill them off, they still ate through a good chunk of the forest's wildlife. The damage could take a generation or two to recover.
Mallow sighs. "At least the meadow has fences." The raticate almost ate their way through Akala's oricorio once. Much of Akala's central meadow was fenced off with electrified reinforced barriers. The meadow and its birds have been slowly recovering since then. You know that they didn't get as many castform as Mallow wanted during The Blackout. You're curious to see how it looks today.
Someone walks towards you through the mist. They look about Kekoa's size. Not that anyone else is walking up to a gated-off trial site at the same time he has scheduled. You get a good look at him as soon as he's fully visible. He's slouched over with his hands shoved deep into his pockets. His acne's definitely gotten worse since the last time you saw him. And his face seems to have lost some softness. You're happy for him.
There are five pokéballs on his belt. Good. He still has room for a gift once he gets to the ranch.
You walk forward and wrap your arms around him. Aw. He even smells kind of bad.
Mallow walks closer and politely waits until your hug is finished. "Welcome. You ready for your sixth trial?"
"Yeah." His voice is deeper, too.
"Alright. Just letting you know that the last three trials are going to be harder than what you've faced before. Still up to it?"
"Yes." He sounds annoyed that he's even being asked.
"Let's do it, then."
Mallow walks over to the gates and you follow with Kekoa. You shoot him a sly smile meant to say that it'll be okay. He smiles back more timidly.
The gate swings open. When you walk through you can hear and even feel the electricity from the fence buzzing around you. The gate automatically closes once you walk through. The meadow itself is… well, this part seems dead. Just a few woody shrubs left, the skeletons of past flower bushes. The castform must not have reached out this far.
"There's more life deeper in the meadow," Mellow says. Then she pulls out four pokéballs from a pouch hanging from her belt. She releases the pokémon inside one by one to reveal a sudowoodo, a red floette, a yellow petilil, and a blue fomantis. "I'm going to give these four time to hide in the meadows. Then you'll have a half hour to find them all. Any you don't find you'll have to battle. Questions?"
Kekoa shakes his head no and Mallow motions to the pokémon. They all run off. Well, sudowoodo runs off. Petilil and fomantis shuffle off. Floette floats off, flower propelled by an invisible breeze.
Then you wait. They're slow pokémon, and even if the trial site is only a fairly small portion of the meadow it'll still take them time to reach their positions. You wonder how their spots have changed with the dying. All of them have at least a half dozen because of people sharing info online. It's unsporting and Mallow complains a lot. Olivia still won't investigate anyone who does it.
After five minutes Mallow glances at her watch and speaks up. "You can go. Half hour on the clock."
Kekoa powerwalks to the boardwalk and takes off. You and Mallow follow behind him at a somewhat slower pace. He walks past stretches of meadow and then gazes at particular places. Definitely read up on the trial beforehand. After maybe six minutes Kekoa begins to very intently look at one bush. It's in an area that the castform must've been at because the bush is still alive with deep red petals. It's a nice contrast in an otherwise pastel pink garden. Kekoa leans a little closer and keeps staring. "There's some blue in there. Fomantis."
Mallow snaps. "Yup. Good job." The bug slowly makes her way out of the bush. She uses little vines to rappel her way onto the boardwalk and towards her trainer. Kekoa's already moved on. Mallow bends down and runs a finger down her pokémon's back. "You did great, sweetie. No idea how he saw you."
The fomantis makes a series of strange whistles and clicks before Mallow lifts her up and holds her close to her chest.
"Let's keep going. Make sure he doesn't—" Mallow sighs. You can't see him at all.
"I can use my raticate," you propose. "He's well trained. Won't eat any birds."
"Just for a few seconds," Mallow agrees.
You send 'Umi'Umi out and ask him to follow a human who just came by. He gets you close enough to Kekoa to make out his form in the mist and you immediately withdraw him. He'll get his thanks later. Grocery shopping trip tonight while you're near the fancy stores in Meadowton.
Kekoa's paused by a field of flowers. It's obscured by the mist but he seems convinced there's something there. Once you're close enough to see his face he turns to you and Mallow. "Can I use pokémon for this?"
"What for?"
"Defog."
Mallow shakes her head. "Good idea, but no. It would upset the floette and cottonee. They don't like sudden winds."
He sighs dramatically but doesn't fight it. "Fine, just thought I saw some red in there. Wasn't sure."
The captain smiles and turns to the field. "Game's up. Good hiding, Geoff."
The floette chimes back and jumps up from within a clump of flowers. He spreads his flower like a parachute and gently floats to the boardwalk. Mallow moves the fomantis to one arm and gently strokes the floette's tiny chin before withdrawing him. Kekoa stays put. Probably doesn't want to get lost in the mist.
The rain starts to fall. It's barely noticeable at first. As you walk down the pathway the drops hitting your shoulders and face get larger and heavier and more frequent until there's a full drizzle coming down. Kekoa's light jacket seems waterproof. Mallow uses her spare arm to hold up an umbrella over you and her. You shoot her a quick smile of thanks and she nods back.
Kekoa reaches a fork in the path and goes right after a moment's hesitation. You follow after him. Something tall and vaguely humanoid appears through the thinning mist. Mallow curses under her breath. Weird. Rare to hear her openly swear. Good to know that you've reached the stage of friendship where she feels comfortable with that. As the form gets closer it gets less humanoid. More of a rectangle. The sudowoodo emerges from the mist, blows right past Kekoa, and huddles next to you under the umbrella.
"I think I found one," Kekoa says drily.
"Sure did," Mallow mutters. The sudowoodo dissolves in a flash of red. "One more to find with ten minutes on the clock."
He doesn't find it. After going back to the fork and walking a little bit both ways, intently gazing into every bush and field, he still can't find a yellow petilil. When the time runs out Mallow blows a whistle and escorts him to the trial site.
The battlefield is a twenty-foot circle of dirt surrounded by meadows on three sides. A shallow, clear pond lies on the fourth side.
The three of you wait patiently until the petilil shuffles his way out of the meadow and into the arena.
"Your second test is going to be defeating the petilil. Send out your first pokémon."
"Can I switch out before the proper trial?" Kekoa asks.
Mallow shrugs. "If you want."
Kekoa promptly pulls a dusk ball off his belt and unleashes a drifloon. A little larger than you'd expect. Probably getting close to evolution.
"Gust," Kekoa commands. The petilil shoots out a cloud of powder but it all gets blown back onto her. Good tactic. The petilil's main goal is to leave one grass counter paralyzed and drowsy before the proper battle start. This way drifloon can avoid the worst of it.
Petilil's energy balls are so ineffectual Kekoa doesn't bother ordering his pokémon to dodge them. A few leech seeds hit and burrow into the drifloon's rubbery skin, but not much can be drained before the petilil finally collapses with a dramatic gasp and twirl. Drama queen. Kekoa immediately withdraws his pokémon and the seeds fall to the ground.
Mallow withdraws the petilil a second later. "Well. Hope you're ready. The totems won't be holding back anymore."
A massive shadow appears in the fog. The lurantis walks off the boardwalk and slowly becomes more visible. She's eight feet tall with gorgeous pink flowers and long, wicked scythes. People think of lurantis as a soft pokémon best left to breeders and coordinators.
People forget they're related to scyther.
A loud hissing roar echoes through the meadow. It's met by a warbling war cry as an oricorio jumps from the flowers and a splash of water as a lileep rises up from the edge of the pond.
Three on one. Trial's on.
Kekoa takes a few steps back to the corner away from the three pokémon. You and Mallow walk past the totem to stand on the boardwalk.
Kekoa reaches to his belt and a cloud of red light falls to the ground. "Iron head lileep." Something races through the dirt while the trial pokémon get their bearings. Oricorio moves first, forming orbs of white light around her. Something smacks lileep's head back just as the water and earth around him begins to churn. Earth power. Lurantis begins advancing to the water's edge just as you get your first good view of Kekoa's pokémon. A dugtrio. An odd choice. Not a bad one, most trainers just don't want to pay the insurance premiums.
"Iron head again." The dugtrio spins around and its metallic hair lashes out at the lileep's stem. Oricorio's orbs fly free and take on a red tinge before hitting the dugtrio in a burst of flames. Lurantis is almost ready, brown energy surging up around her scythes.
Superpower. It'll keep making the lurantis stronger the longer the fight goes on. Attacking the lileep first was a mistake.
Oricorio spins again and more white lights form. The earth around dugtrio is still churning even as the lileep takes hit after hit.
Kekoa snaps. Just as the lurantis lunges forward and the hidden power flies, the dugtrio ducks beneath the surface and leaves. Balls of fire burst on lurantis's back and the bug hisses in pain. A moment later the dugtrio pops back up behind the totem, a steely aura surrounding it. The first slash cuts deep into the lurantis's hide. By the time the second begins the totem is moving. Her scythe blocks the attack and hair wraps uselessly around it as the earth continues to churn. The dugtrio dips back into the earth but the lurantis just keeps pulling up on its hair. With another brutal slash of her other scythe the dugtrio goes limp.
Dugtrio are frail, true, and it was facing super effective attacks from three pókemon at once. That's the problem with later trials: it's really easy to get overwhelmed by multiple pókemon with coverage moves. The lileep is bleeding green sap from dozens of cuts but can still fight on. Some of the cuts are even thinning before your eyes as it recovers.
Kekoa's next pókemon forms and immediately launches into the air. Trumbeak. His starter. Frail, but at least fast.
"RS, lileep." The trumbeak dives down as the oricorio twirls around, a skirt of wind blades forming around her. Lurantis moves forward. They're all too slow. Trumbeak's hit lands on the lileep's flower with a mighty crack. Then another. Oricorio's air slash flies in and the trumbeak launches up. Some of the blades still hit her tail and she falters in midair. A barrage of rocks rise up from the ground around lileep and hit the trumbeak's wing, sending her into a tailspin. The totem lunges in and snatches the bird up with the most dexterous part of her scythes. She brings the trumbeak high and bites down with her fangs. The bird screams and thrashes ineffectually. Leech life. It'll buy the lileep time to recover while dealing some damage.
Out of the corner of your eye you see Kekoa go through the steps of a ritual dance. It seems like the normalium dance. Why? He told you he got the flying crystal.
When the dance reaches its zenith light flares up around trumbeak.
"Supersonic!" Kekoa shouts.
The trumbeak answers in a horrible, warbling shriek. Lurantis drops her and the oricorio staggers back. Lileep stands still and the rocks swirling around him drop back to the ground.
Z-Supersonic. Not the play you'd make. Now to see what he does with it. "RS lileep," Kekoa calls again. The trumbeak gets airborne on shaking wings before diving back down to the pond. The lileep notices a bit too late as the trumbeak strikes a solid blow with her beak. The oricorio tries to send out another air slash but it flies far wide. The lurantis is still stumbling around in confusion.
So that was the point. Letting him take out the lileep without getting triple teamed.
The lileep's rapidly coming to his senses and forming another cloud of swirling dust and stone. Another hit rings out but the trumbeak's neck is dropping after it. Maybe not enough strength left for another hit.
It doesn't matter. The lurantis staggers forward and lands a lucky strike wreathed in black energy and trumbeak goes flying a little too far. Knock off. Kekoa's starter collapses in a heap as the oricorio begins to return to her senses.
Kekoa pulls the trumbeak's ball back out and moves to withdraw him. Bright light illuminates the clearing.
White light. Not red.
Evolution.
The new Toucannon rises out of the flowers with an angry squawk. She charges towards the lileep with wings held out to the side flapping uselessly. To make her seem bigger? To fly? It'll take a lot more than that with her new weight. A fiery glow appears around her beak as she rushes to the lileep and stabs it hard in the flower. She hits the stem uselessly with a wing before going for another hard peck.
"Lileep's down," Mallow calls out before withdrawing the fossil. "Carry on."
"Up!" Kekoa orders. The toucannon flaps her wings and gets a foot or so off the ground. It's far too slow and awkward. An air slash shoots out from the oricorio and strikes her, sending her tumbling right back to earth.
The lurantis greets her on the ground with a superpower attack, launching her away again. The toucannon gets up just in time for the air to distort around her as a field of psychic energy crashes down on the bird. Toucannon are ungainly on the ground and awkward fliers at best. Their real strength is in their ranged seed attacks. Those have to start being prepared well before the battle starts. The evolution bought the bird a second wind but she won't really be able to use it.
"Supersonic!" Kekoa sounds desperate. He must have realized the same thing.
This supersonic isn't nearly as loud. Unpleasant and grating more than debilitating. It'll buy one or two strikes, tops.
"Pluck." The toucannon stumbles forward and nails the lurantis's thorax with a powerful peck. On a follow up she opens her beak wide and partially closes it around the bug. She continues to squeeze until there's a soft crack of the exoskeleton chipping. It's enough to knock the totem back to her senses. With one final hit with the flat of her scythe she launches the toucannon back into the flowers.
She doesn't get back up.
The crack's pretty small, but it's still something to work with. He has two pokemon left to end things. The lurantis has set up with a few superpowers and is much stronger than at the start of the battle. Even if lileep is down he's still going to be facing two pokémon at once.
It's a good first try. Maybe he can go all the way. You hope he does. You'd bet he won't.
Kekoa picks out his dusk ball and unleashes his drifloon again. It immediately floats into the air above the lurantis's reach. Both of the trial pokémon crane their necks back look up at the ghost.
Kekoa smiles. "Hypnosis."
You'll find out something strange later: lurantis don't have eyelids. The totem can't just close her eyes and avoid the attack. The leaves and grass around the totem rise up and twist into sharpened arrowheads before blasting off towards the ghost. The attack lands true and at least three of the darts puncture the balloon. The air around the pokémon distorts from the oricorio's revelation dance, but the drifloon is already blasting away at a far greater speed than you'd expect from the round ghost. Punctured drifloon go faster but last less time. Let's see what Kekoa does with it.
"Gust."
Huh. You'd figured he'd have a stronger flying attack than that by now. Drifloon learn air slash, right? Or at least air cutter? You'd figured he'd been using gust against the petilil just to save energy and blow back the spores.
Still, the vortex is at least decently big. Shadowy spirals are mixed in from the drifloon's leaks. The lurantis's next attempt at a leaf storm ends in half the leaves blowing away before they can be sharpened. The rest fall to the ground as the totem's head dips.
Drifloon is using the gust and leaking cuts to keep moving ahead of the distortions from revelation dance. Oricorio probably won't use air slash or hidden power. Not yet, at least. Too much risk of making the drifloon faster or, worse, stronger.
The next leaf storm lands true. It opens more shallow cuts and the drifloon zooms off. More and more purple is mixed into the gusts. The problem with spirit attacks is its hard to tell just how hurt the victim is. Lurantis could easily outlast the drifloon or topple any moment.
An air slash from oricorio slashes through the air right behind drifloon. Looks like she's just going for anything that might hit now.
The battle stays in a holding pattern for another two minutes as the drifloon slowly depletes, dodges or takes trivial damage from leaf storms and air slashes, and keeps on hitting the lurantis with gusts. That must've been the point of throwing everything at the lileep: stealth rocks or a lucky ancient power hit could've ended this. As it is the trial pokémon can't really touch Kekoa's. The superpower boosts also don't really matter if the lurantis can't use her physical strength.
The totem collapses before the drifloon deflates. She slowly bends over and falls, catching herself with a scythe before lowering all the way to the ground. Seems like she wants a nap. Fair. Totems don't always go to their limits every fight, even when the captain says they should.
You would know: your totem is probably the laziest of the current set.
Red light snatches the drifloon out of midair. The oricorio turns to Kekoa. She's not holding herself with the same confidence as before when she could attack with two allies.
Kekoa spends out his final pokémon: a carbink.
This is going to be a spectacular stallfest.
The oricorio's revelation dances don't do much to a pokémon with as weird a nervous system as carbink's. The rock type's ancient power attacks also do very little. But with every hit more and more dust and energy swirls around carbink while the oricorio gets slower and more frustrated.
Mallow starts checking her phone. You do as well. Two texts. One from your mother, one from Emily. Mom wants to know how long you'll be out, Emily is asking about the group project in Biology you've both been procrastinating.
You check your socials. The President's being racist and dumb as usual. This time he's threatening to veto the aid package to Alola just because he got heckled when he showed up and threw glowsticks into the crowd. After The Blackout was already over.
Oooooh. Akane and Ibuki were seen back together in public for the first time since their last breakup. And Ibuki almost murdered the paparazzi for interrupting her date. Heh. Serves them right.
You look back at the field. Seems the oricorio isn't using roost this match. Good. Battle might finish this century.
You know you can't complain about stall when you have a blissey on your team, but it's so tedious to watch someone else do it. Even if you really want to care about his win.
At long last the oricorio gracefully twirls down to the ground in defeat. Mallow withdraws her.
"Congratulations on completing your sixth trial. For the efforts of you and your pokémon, you have earned the Grassium-Z…"
Mallow drones on and shows the basic steps of the ritual dance. She's not even pretending to be enthusiastic. Is that the length of the match? Some personal dislike? Or is she just always like that. You at least pretend to be excited.
Kekoa grins smugly nonetheless. If he minds it doesn't show.
March 29th, 2020
You wake up to Palupalu nudging you with her arm. Odd. You hadn't noticed that you were falling asleep. Wigglytuff fur is just so, so soft. Unexpected naps can't be helped.
When you look at your friend he gestures towards the forest across the clearing. "How big?" you whisper.
He holds his arms out as wide as they go.
Very big. Probably a stoutland. Maybe even the very same one you're looking for.
Route 4 is usually one the safest in Alola. The largest predators are stoutland and ariados. Both are quite friendly around humans. Gumshoos and raticate might raid a campsite that forgot to hoist their food, but that's about all they'll do.
There's not much a trial captain needs to do there outside finding the odd lost child. You and Kiawe spend more of your time running errands around your trial sites than in your backyard.
Five days ago a pair of island challengers failed to make it to Paniola on time. They didn't answer their phones. You went out to look for them.
You found something, alright. A broken tent and trails where two somethings were dragged off into the woods. Those trails led you to a gnawed pile of different-sized bones.
The Blackout killed most of the plants. The herbivores began to starve. They either died or lost most of their excess weight. That meant the predators were starting to starve.
It was enough to turn one feral stoutland into a mankiller. Two days ago the DNR gave authorization to cull the remaining stoutland and herdier on Routes 4 and 6. Mallow took 6 since it was by her trial site. You've been stuck in a hunting blind on Route 4 with a pile of lab meat laid out in a clearing. Only rodents, ariados, and an eevee have taken the bait so far. You let them eat a little for their troubles before you scared them off.
From the sound of breaking branches in the forest your luck might be changing. For better or for worse.
The stoutland finally breaks through the tree line. It's far too thin: its ribs are visible even from a distance and loose flaps of skin hang from its sides. Poor thing. You can't know if it's a maneater or not and no shelter will want to nurse a potentially dangerous large carnivore back to health. Unless you want to rehabilitate it yourself you'll have to put it down. And you don't want a carnivore with a taste for flesh near your sister…
The stoutland sniffs the air and looks straight at you. It growls low and menacingly but doesn't come closer. Its eyes seem to be normal and it isn't frothing at the mouth. No symptoms of rabies aside from the unhealthy thinness. It should be safe to use a melee attacker. But you'd rather not take the risk.
"Palupalu, moonblast." The wigglytuff's fur puffs out and he takes a very deep breath. When he exhales a pulse of light streams out and nails the stoutland's front right femur. It howls in pain before turning around and limping back into the forest.
Shit. Now you have to follow the thing.
You maneuver yourself to the rope ladder and climb down. Palupalu floats down to the ground beside you. "Thanks for keeping watch," you tell him. After he warbles his thanks you withdraw him and send out 'Umi'umi and Pilikia. 'Umi'Umi sniffs the air while Pilikia looks around and kicks the ground with his front right hoof.
"Looking for a stoutland," you tell 'Umi'Umi. "Do you have a scent?"
The raticate glances at you and starts walking towards the tree line. He might feel insulted that you even asked. You can deal with hurt feelings later. You give Pilikia the signal to keep your pace and the tauros slowly walks by your side. He warily flicks his head from side to side and sniffs the air. Most tauros are headstrong attackers that lash out at anything. Pilikia was one of the least aggressive on the ranch. It means he doesn't get over his head in battle. And he doesn't gore any new friend you bring over. Double win.
The stoutland's path through the forest would've been clear even without 'Umi'Umi. There's a trail of blood and crushed grass and brush leading away. Still best to be slow and cautious about things. There's more potential for danger here than in any standard battle. The price of caution is low and the dangers of rashness are high.
There's more blood and even sloppier damage to the foliage as you keep going. Palupalu must've done more damage than you thought. Or maybe the stoutland was greatly weakened by starvation. When you finally catch sight of the dog it slowly turns around and snarls. You quickly withdraw your raticate and replace it with your toucannon.
"Lutanela," you command, "beak blast."
The toucannon glares at the stoutland but doesn't make a sound. The stoutland just continues to growl. Good. It doesn't know that you're attacking. After a few seconds of preparation Lutanela opens her mouth and rains down hell. Superheated blast out of her mouth like bullets, each accompanied by its own little sonic boom. The first volley breaks the dog's other front leg and leaves a nasty trail of blood down the side. It roars in pain and collapses to the ground. Then it just glares at you in silence, waiting for you to finish it off.
You oblige.
"Another round to the head."
The warm water runs through your hair and down your back. The grime and blood from the day's hunt is washed away with the water. Showers are always most satisfying after a day of hard work. Staying in a tree for six hours and killing a stoutland and three herdier isn't the most physically demanding task, but you still found a way to get coated in sweat and dirt.
The tropical heat is welcome after the region's brush with winter. That doesn't mean you have to like every part of it.
After your body is clean you turn off the water and grab a towel. Now that the unpleasant business of the morning is over you have something big to look forward to in the afternoon: Kekoa's coming over. It will be the first time he's been to the ranch in years. He's different now. Obviously, you're different, too, from what you were back then. You grew up. But you feel like you grew up in a way that made sense for the girl you were. Kekoa just feels angry and empty. Given what happened it's easy enough to imagine why.
When you'd gotten back home after seeing him for the first time you had a long talk with your parents about why they couldn't, or wouldn't, take him in. Money, they'd started. We didn't have the ability to help him through everything, they'd continued. And, when pressed far enough, they'd never really liked him.
They thought he was a lesbian and a bad influence. And it took you months to get reassurances that they wouldn't misgender or deadname him to his face if he came to visit. You hadn't even thought your family would've had a problem with it. Perhaps it's better that he didn't end up living with you. Your parents have been great to you and your sister, but it turns out that love was always conditional.
You've been spending a lot more time by your trial site lately.
You rush to the door when the doorbell rings. Kekoa's in front with his traveling partners beside him. He seems nervous and only gives a half-hearted smile when you hug him. Probably not sure how to feel about being back here after all this time. You can understand. Well, not understand, but at least imagine what he's going through.
You've met Cuicatl and Lyra before during their trials. Kekoa's talked about them a little. Cuicatl's dressed in something woven and colorful. Probably traditional for her culture. Your parents will probably ask her about it. Lyra's wearing a glossy light jacket and stylish jeans. Chic hiker aesthetic. Cuicatl seems uncertain and is fidgeting with her cane. Lyra gives you a confident and friendly smile. From what you've been able to figure out her parents are socialites down in Heahea. Figures that she can at least pretend like she's in her element.
"Come on in."
Kekoa moves Cuicatl's hand onto his elbow and helps escort her in. Lyra steps ahead and walks beside you. "Nice place," she says.
"Thank you." It is a nice place. Your great-grandfather and his pokémon built it themselves out of wood and brick. It was meant for an extended family. These days its home to you, your sister, your parents, and your paternal grandmother. (Oddly enough, your grandmother is completely fine with Kekoa being who he is even when your parents aren't.)
"Smells nice," Cuicatl adds. "Is it real meat?"
"No. We only kill tauros that are too unruly for trainers. Haven't had one in a while." You almost never eat those yourselves. Best to make sure the kill happens off-site. That way the other tauros can believe it just went to a trainer. Eating the flesh of something you helped raise also feels deeply wrong to you.
And real tauros meat is way out of your family's price range, anyway. Even if you could have it for free it would mean you wouldn't get the profits from selling.
You end up walking to the kitchen first. At least your grandma is there. Your mom shouldn't make a scene in front of her. You walk in with Kekoa and Cuicatl. Lyra lingers back by the door. Grandma perks up and smiles at Kekoa. She starts walking over, arms outstretched for a hug. Kekoa steps forward and gives it to her. "Good to see you again, dear." Your mother watches on and doesn't say anything. Kekoa nods at her and she nods back.
"Anything I can do to help around here?" Cuicatl asks. "I'm a good cook, despite…" She trails off. Her cataracts and cane do a good enough job of explaining.
"You're a guest, darling," Mother says. "We couldn't possibly—"
Grandma waves her hand and turns around. "If she wants to help, she can help. There are some vegetables that need cut." She glances back. "Can you do that?"
Cuicatl nods. "Yes, ma'am."
"Good. Follow my voice and I'll show you what needs doing."
You take that as your excuse to leave the room. You'll talk more to them at dinner, for better or worse.
Your Father is waiting in the living room. He looks up at Kekoa and curtly nods, muttering out something that might've been 'welcome,' before going back to reading his magazine. 'Modern Farming Monthly.' There's a photograph of cracked earth on the cover with a signpost saying something in Spanish.
"Reading up on Argentina, huh?" Lyra asks.
"Yeah." He sets the magazine down. "Shame what's happening over there. We get out of our disaster and they plunge right into there's."
"It should keep tauros prices high, won't it?" Lyra says. "More if it turns to riots and the socialists take over. I've heard some interesting rumors about that."
She waves you away with a hand clasped behind her back. Was there a strategy here? Cuicatl and Lyra deal with unsupportive parents to keep Kekoa away? Or were they just planning to let you have Kekoa to yourself. You and Kekoa walk away without a word from your dad.
"How does she know anything about Argentina?" you ask. "She doesn't look like she's from there."
"Her family's rich. Probably heard it from them."
Odd. Wouldn't have expected him to end up traveling with a socialite given what you know about the boy he's become. There's probably a story there. Maybe you'll get it before the night's over. You walk towards the back porch and hold the door open for him. He rolls his eyes but steps through without complaint. You follow.
It's shaping up to be a good night. Sunset on the horizon and cool air. There's and moisture to it that feels like incoming rain. Even a slight breeze that runs through your hair. Down in the valley behind the electrified fences the tauros herd is moving towards their shelter while Pikilia keeps an eye on them from the other side of the walls. In the less fortified kennel by the porch Umi'Umi is digging in the dirt while Lutanela and Palupalu are napping beneath their shelter. Palekeiki is tending to some of your sister's newborn mareep, gently guiding the sheep back into a shelter while trading soft hits with the most rambunctious one. Once he's had his fun playing with the blissey he'll go in with all the rest.
It's a good night. The kind of night you'd really miss if you had to leave this place forever. You wonder how Kekoa's feeling right now. You look back to him and see his lips spread thin as he looks at the tauros. "Your parents don't like me much, do they?"
"They… 'don't approve of your choices.'" You make big air quotes to show that the words aren't yours.
He scoffs. "I'll walk out of dinner if they start shit."
"And I'll walk out with you."
"Good."
You settle into comfortable silence, watching the ranch wind down for the evening. The wind gusts again and you wish you'd worn a jacket out. It's not cold, not in the way The Blackout was, but it's not pleasant anymore.
"Kekoa?" you ask.
"Hmm?"
"Do you want another pokémon?"
He looks over at you. "I will need six, yeah."
"We have a miltank. Freemartin. Not quite male, not quite female. Uh. I'm not saying that's what you are, you're a boy. Didn't mean to offend you."
"You didn't."
"Good. Good." You collect your thoughts before going on. "I, um, she did make me think of you a little. And she's getting a little stir crazy. Keeps attacking other miltank and even the tauros when she gets a chance. I think she'd do well with a trainer. Might like all the fights and the chance to explore."
Kekoa gets to his feet and tucks his hands into his pockets. "She strong?"
"As strong as any miltank on the ranch."
He nods. "Alright, you have me sold. Where is she at?"
You get up as well and start walking to the main tauros barn. "There's not really ancient wisdom on miltank," you tell him. "Not from here, at least. But I've learned a few tricks. I think you'll only need a proving battle for now. Let her see just how strong your pokémon are. That'll get her curious. I can fill you in on all of the other thinks you should know if that works."
"She have a name?" Kekoa asks.
"Anuenue." Rainbow. "Sis named him when she was ten. It doesn't make a lot of sense, I know."
"Pride," he says. "I think it still works."
It does in its own way. You unlatch the door to the barn and walk in. You brought Anuenue in from her pasture earlier. She probably hasn't been thrilled about that. You walk through the barn to a smaller side paddock. The miltank and tauros have their own main areas and stalls. Anueneu isn't either, exactly. She'd try to mate with the miltank and fight the tauros. Most of the year she has to be kept on her own. Even if you try to be social with her she still isn't getting the attention she'd get from a proper trainer.
When you reach her stall Anueneu looks up at you and Kekoa. She snorts in greeting before going back to eating hay from her trough. She's big for a miltank, over six hundred pounds, but not quite as big as the average tauros. Her fur is deep black typical of the females of her breed. Tiny nubs grow from her head. Not horns, but at least the start of them. Once you have her ball in hand you open up the stall. She takes a step forward. Not aggressive, just curious. You weren't expecting her to lash out but it's worth planning for the risk. "Meet me outside," you tell Kekoa. As soon as he's out of the barn you slowly walk backwards away from the miltank. She matches your pace and follows you. When the cool evening air hits her fur she huffs and stamps the ground before looking around. It's rare for her to be outside her paddock entirely. Probably trying to figure out what's going on.
"Kekoa, send out your strongest pokémon." That's almost certainly his starter, but maybe one of his others has some trick they didn't use in the trial. He reaches to his belt and sends toucannon out. Miltank's eyes narrow and she stamps a foot in challenge. The toucannon flares her wings out in her own display of dominance. Then Anueneu moves. It's not a full charge, that takes time, but it will be. The bird just sneers before opening her beak. Seeds spray across the battlefield, each with its own sonicboom like bullets. At least three hit Anueneu and she bellows in pain and confusion.
"Now supersonic," Kekoa orders. The screech isn't nearly as bad as the one in the grass trial but it still stuns the miltank. She stomps the ground and moos while swinging her head from side to side as she looks for the toucannon right in front of her. Probably not the best idea to get a miltank angry and confused during a proving battle. Palekeiki is leaving the mareep and waddling over towards the battle to take care of any pokémon that get hurt. What a good blissey. Hopefully Kekoa ends this before too much damage is done. Or before Anuenue can break any of the toucannon's bones.
The toucannon's eyes narrow and she opens her bill once again. More little gunshots blast out grazing the miltank's sides and carving deep burrows in the earth where they hit. It's a good thing you're standing by Kekoa or you could have ended up in the blast radius. He really needs to work on accuracy before he gets a citation.
Anuenue moos in a very strange harmony. The breeze stills and the grass seems to stand a little taller. Her eyes narrow and she stares down the toucannon. Heal bell. Huh. Didn't expect her to remember to use that. Miltank aren't exactly the brightest of pokémon.
"Good trick," Kekoa says. "I can teach you more."
Anuenue almost certainly doesn't understand the words. But he knows the intent. He's known that from the start. After a moment of consideration she slowly bows her head. Palekeiki rushes in to tend to the miltank's wounds while you hand her pokéball over to Kekoa.
"Good job."
"Yeah." He's smiling. It's one of the first real smiles you've seen from him since your reunion. Maybe the very first. "I think I'm getting a hang of the whole trainer thing."
"There's always more to learn, but I'm sure you'll do great."