It's a Whole New World
Part 4
Never has tea taken so long to arrive. The only thing that helped Anna stay in this tense atmosphere was Eevee's soft fur. She was hugging her friend who was on her knees with such force that it was starting to hurt by dint of pulling on his hair. The cut-ear pokemon wanted to moan but he didn't dare to make his voice heard either. If the room was spacious, the people who stared at him and his trainer were imposing their presence with an unbearable weight. Anna didn't dare look up and face her parents. After her victory against Growlithe, the king and queen had run to bury her under an avalanche of questions. She only avoided drowning in the spilled words thanks to her promise to explain everything if they calmed down. They agreed, but the princess was now wondering if she preferred the whirlwind of confused words to the excruciating heaviness imposed by their gazes and the two armed guards behind her.
Anna jumped, squeezing a little too hard for her friend, when the door to the room opened on Gerda and her tray. The maid placed a hot teapot on the table and filled three cups of a steaming brew with a warm scent. She placed one in front of King Agnarr, one in front of Queen Iduna and hesitated as she was about to place the last one in front of Princess Anna. Right in front of the princess, on the table, was the strange sphere she had thrown at the flame-breathing creature to lock it in. There was also a red rectangular object adorned with a blue ball. Gerda put down the drink and walked away with a rapid step whose control hardly concealed her anguish.
"Are you saying that all of this suddenly appeared in your room?" asked the queen. "Like that? Without notice?"
"In a flash of light, yes." her daughter confirmed. "I promise you I don't understand how or why."
"Are you sure Anna?" the king insisted with a look that sent shivers down her spine. "You just confessed to us that you hid a supernatural event and this thing…"
"Pokémon." interrupted the princess awkwardly, in a reflex she regretted. "The exact term is Pokémon."
"This creature," insisted the sovereign, "from everyone for days."
The girl with the white strand was crushed with grief at the sight of her father doubting her with a heavy gaze, even more when she found her mother's saddened one. However, she understood their disappointment and mistrust. Shame gripped her heart.
"I'm sorry," she said as eevee wagged his nose in the direction of the tea cup. "I was afraid you would lock him up and hurt him."
"Anna, we don't know anything about these beasts," the queen recalled. "They are unlike anything we know of and could be very dangerous."
"I understand. I shouldn't have kept all of this from you, but eevee isn't mean. He's a little overexcited, but that's because he's been locked up for... Eevee! Be careful. It's very hot."
The pokemon ran a quick paw over its tongue as Anna placed him back on her lap. The little one wouldn't touch the tea for a while, she understood.
"And what about the one you, say, captured earlier?" the king continued, his eyes fixed on the white and red sphere. "Can he get out of this?"
"I do not think so. A pokeball does not open on its own. Either way, a pokemon obeys its master when it captures it. In theory, at least. Growlithe should be calmer now."
"Growlithe?" the king wondered. "You already gave it a name?"
"No," Anna corrected, "It is his species. It's like with... any animal. A cat is not named Cat. The difference is that a lot of Pokémon say the name of their species when they speak. "
"And you know all this thanks to this magical artefact?" her mother asked.
"That's right," the princess confirmed, grabbing the said object. "It's called a pokédex. It's like an encyclopedia of pokemon, except it talks. "
This last information surprised everyone. When Anna realized their skepticism, she put her friend with the severed ear on the table and announced that she was going to show them what she was talking about. When she opened the pokédex and passed it in front of her partner, the electronic voice that erupted from it paralyzed the assembly.
"Eevee, the Evolution Pokémon. Eevee is rarely seen, and can adapt to severe habitats by evolving, changing its capabilities and form."
When she closed the pokédex, no one dared to speak. The guards and the maid had all taken a step back. the soldiers hold their weapons with strength. The rulers tried to remain as disciplined and unmoved as possible, but their saucer-sized eyes frustrated their attempt.
"This thing… can talk?" the queen stammered.
"At least, It pronounces sentences written in the pokédex," clarified the young girl. "I've tried chatting with it before, but never got any answers. I don't understand why either. It's just how it is."
The king and queen exchanged looks in the hope that one would have an explanation. Both had faced magical events before, but nothing like this talking red rectangle. The king began to think and his meditative silence intrigued his daughter.
"Does this object know everything there is to know about these creatures?" he asked eagerly.
"I'm not sure," replied Anna, "but it taught me a lot about them. Like for example the types of pokémon, their weaknesses, the names of techniques… There are even their footprints and their screams. "
"Can it tell us how many of them are outside right now?" continued the king.
What the question implied startled the princess.
"You mean there are really other pokemons out there?" she exclaimed with an enthusiasm that she hastened to suppress.
"Several locals have indeed reported strange beasts these past days." confirmed the king, without breaking his concentration. "If I remember correctly, they were talking about blue turtles or giant bees, for example. It was you, Gerda, who told me about it. Isn't it?"
The housekeeper confirmed with embarrassment.
"Indeed, your highness. I saw one with huge spikes during my walk in the forest. I ran away as soon as it laid eyes on me. "
"Giant bee? Huge spikes? " wondered the princess who quickly reopened her pokédex. "It reminds me of something… There! Is that what you saw, Gerda? "
The maid forced herself to approach the object and observe the image on the glass square. She leaps up with wide eyes before answering.
"That's it! This is exactly what I saw! "
Anna pressed a button and once again the pokédex fueled the curiosity of those present.
"Beedrill, the Poison Bee Pokémon. Beedrill fly quickly and attack using poison stingers on their forelegs and tail. "
These revelations filled Gerda with concern at what could have happened. The young girl saw her fear and tried to reassure her.
"I'm sure he wouldn't have hurt you."
"You don't know that Anna," the king declared icily.
The princess looked down and tried to disappear into her chair, her furry friend in her arms.
"So, can this object tell us how many of these creatures are in the kingdom right now or not?" he continued.
"I don't think so," the princess replied in embarrassment. "It is more like a list of registered species."
"How many species are there, then?" asked the queen, raising her tea.
"Well, assuming they're all listed…" Anna scanned the portable encyclopedia and announced the answer. "Eight hundred and ninety-eight."
The queen spat out her tea and coughed loudly. Her husband patted her back with wide eyes. Stretched like a bow, the princess wished she was somewhere else even more when her mother looked up at her in panic.
"You mean there are potentially a thousand of these things out there?!"
"Assuming there is at least one of each species," Anna supposed with embarrassment covering unassumed euphoria, "it is possible."
This supposition left the two sovereigns and their servants in a fright which imposed an unbearable silence. Only a guard had the strength to break it.
"Your Highness, what are your orders?"
The king came out of his amazement and landed in reality with strength and determination.
"Make all of our men on alert. Make them tell every inhabitant that none of them should leave the city. Establish patrols to capture or dismiss each of the suspicious creatures they spot. If they resist, you have the right to use lethal force. "
"Dad!" Anna exclaimed, leaping from her chair. "You can't do this! They are not monsters... "
"Anna," the sovereign interrupted like a wall, "I can, must and will. Our subjects are in danger because of these things. Until we know more, the whole kingdom will be on high alert and we will prioritize the protection of our subjects over that of these creatures ... "
"Pokémon!"
"Enough!" The king took a deep breath before continuing. "Now, and until the situation is cleared up, I want you to give us these weird objects and go back to your room."
"What?!" Anna gripped with the force of despair the pokédex, eevee and her pokeball. "You can not do that! This is… This is unfair! "
"Anna," the queen explained sadly, "your father is just trying to protect you."
It was too much. Anna refused to have the one thing that had ended the monotony of her existence taken away. She refused to let fearful people risk hurting her friend. She refused to let these people who said they love her start reducing her life again and screamed at them.
"Is that why you've been locking us in this castle all this time? To protect us? And now you want to imprison me in my room for who knows how long? "
"You are overreacting…" her mother tried.
"No! I refuse! Eevee is my only friend and I refuse that you hurt him! "
The pokemon twitched its ears upon hearing his words. Their sense struck him to the depths of his being. He had very good times with Anna the past few days. She had taken good care of him. However, these words, with that powerful and dreadful intonation, had illuminated this time in her company with a new light. The king's sigh worried him.
"I'm sorry, Anna." he said solemnly.
The sovereign nodded and, without unnecessary violence, the two guards grabbed the arms of the princess who let go eevee and her belongings. When he landed, the pokemon realized how angry and desperate his friend was. He heard the queen say with concern.
"Agnarr, I don't think it's necessary…"
However, the pokemon had understood well that the sovereign would not change his mind. Seeing the person who had taken such good care of him struggling hurt his heart. More than that, the situation caused a bestial rage to rise in him which made a throaty growl rise from his throat.
"Eevee!" he screamed, jumping with all his might.
The guards barely had time to look in his direction when one of them took a blow from a tail that was strong enough to throw him at his colleague and make them let go of Anna. At first frozen in amazement, everyone's mind swirling, Anna began to act instinctively. She grabbed her pokédex and pokeball and started running, eevee behind her.
"Anna!" her parents yelled.
The young woman was not listening to anything. She didn't know what she was doing. She was running through the endless corridors of the palace. She passed through rows of armor and successive closed doors until she came to the one place her mind could hold onto. The princess entered her room and slammed the door with both hands. She didn't have a key to lock it. However, she had a wardrobe next to it. The young girl threw her treasures on the bed and tried to overturn the furniture. Her muscles tire on it, but couldn't move it enough. A powerful shock hit the furniture and balanced it precariously on two legs. Eevee rubbed her head. The door opened. The feet burst under the unbearable mass of the wardrobe, which toppled over and blocked the opening.
When she finally felt safe, the young woman realized what she had fled. Her mother banged on her door and her father knocked hard to try to clear his way. She couldn't take it anymore. She collapsed to the floor, curled up in a corner. Eevee, looking pained and confused, approached her with uncertain steps. Anna looked at him with misty eyes and hugged him in a hurry as hiccups made her voice tremble.
"Anna, open that door!" his father yelled.
The sovereign of Arendelle continued to bang hard under the queen's worried gaze. Between two hits against the wooden door, she heard an excruciating sound. Another shock and she heard it again. And as the king was about to throw himself against the door, he was interrupted by the hand of his wife who was gripping his arm. The time to perceive her pleading gaze and he heard the terrible sound. Choked by the wooden border, Anna's sobs tore his heart. Troubled, the king only managed to come out of his amazement when the guards joined the two sovereigns. The king hesitated in front of the door from which the tears escaped. He finally sighed and clenched his fists.
"You have your orders," he said as he walked away with his men down the hall.
Queen Iduna didn't know what to do. Her heart continued to be crushed by the tears of her daughter. She put a hand on the door.
"Please, Anna..."
"Go away!" the princess yelled in tears.
The pain made her mother recoil. She didn't want to leave her child alone, but she no longer felt the right to stay with her. Her feet of lead pulled her slowly away from the princess's bedroom, whose tears echoed in the empty hallway.
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