The aftermath of winter always left its mark upon the region for a while. Depending on the severity of the weather, the entire region could look faded and diminished, but springtime was always a special time for many Pokemon and humans. It was the beginning of the cycle of renewal, when plant life began to flourish again and create the beautiful natural atmosphere that Johto was known for.
A light rain shower pattered against the leaves of the trees, leaving a fresh scent in the air that allowed even those seeking shelter from the water to savor the smells and sights of an early April rain.
Sorin was no admirer of rainy weather, for obvious reasons. Rainwater liked to soak into his wing feathers and restrict his flight. Even if he had no intention of flying or gliding, it could take forever for his wings to dry out sufficiently, and it just left his body with a cold, heavy feeling. It was like being waterlogged in parts of your body, with the rest of your body unaffected. Such a strange, discomforting experience.
As such, the Altaria had sought shelter atop a tree branch belonging to a massive tree whose branches and leaves more than adequately shielded his body from the pattering rain. He was mostly just grateful that it wasn't a full blown thunderstorm, because that would just make the wild Pokemon in the area skittish and difficult to observe. With nothing more interesting to take note of, Sorin was content simply to watch the local Pokemon going about their lives in the midst of the shower.
It had been several days since Sorin had visited the Ruins of Alph. Kaito and Iris had emerged from the hidden chamber looking disappointed and annoyed, and although they came on the heels of Adrian and his Pokemon, no one else had given the Altaria any insight into what might have transpired. Using his own combination of guesswork, Sorin assumed that someone or something had provoked Ember enough for her to be withdrawn, based on the sounds of conflict that had echoed down the passageway, and the Charmander's notable absence when Adrian had returned.
Iris had seemed fairly baffled by the events, so it was little use asking her for a synopsis, and Kaito was enigmatic to a fault. That was to be expected by now, though. Sorin had known Kaito for many years, and despite being in close contact on a regular basis, the Togetic was extremely difficult to truly understand. He had an obvious disdain towards clutter and filth, but he was even more deeply intrigued by ancient cultures and civilizations, to the point of ignoring how dusty and dingy such research sites were, to say nothing of the possibility of finding the remains of Pokemon or humans within the sites.
Kaito also had the flaw of rarely taking the time to fully explain his thought process, which could make conversations with him difficult unless one sat down and insisted on addressing every question or concern they had before allowing the topic to move on. Kaito often acted as though everyone was on the same page as him, and if someone did have a question that he felt was inconsequential to the current subject, he would dismiss it for the moment, often saying he'd cover it later, but then never doing so because the subject would have shifted so far away from the concern that it rarely got brought up again.
Sorin cocked his head slightly, watching a Furret peering out from a veil of tall grass. After a few cautious moments of glancing around, and even lifting her head above the grass for a better viewpoint, she ducked down out of sight. Seconds later, a trio of tiny Sentret emerged from the grass, with the Furret right behind them. All the while, her eyes continued to scan the path, and she frequently chirped to the young Sentret, directing their movements in a language Sorin couldn't understand.
The Altaria chuckled to himself, watching as the small family disappeared into the grass on the opposite side of the path. While many Pokemon species were perfectly capable of communicating in a common tongue, some of them still had their unique forms of communication that were nigh impossible for others to interpret beyond the gist of the exchange. From his observations, this was most common among Pokemon whose species were often considered to be prey animals, so warnings and directions given in a manner that a predator could not understand was simple survival.
Sorin peered out from beneath the shelter of the tree branches, but quickly withdrew his head upon inspecting the skies. The gray clouds spanning over the sky were fortunately light in color, but they extended too far to be able to reasonably estimate how long until the rain would subside.
Sorin sighed, the act itself producing a melodious hum from his throat, and without even thinking about it, he soon found himself humming along to some random tune he had somehow gotten stuck in his head that past week. It was probably some song that had exploded in popularity recently so that every trainer carrying a Pokegear or its kin were listening to it, and the tune had eventually wormed its way into Sorin's subconscious.
"Excuse me."
Sorin flinched badly. He had been so lost in his thoughts and absent-minded humming that he had simply ceased paying attention to his surroundings. His gaze flicked around the area blankly for a moment, then he looked down at the blind spot that existed directly beneath his perch, at the base of the tree.
A quadruped Pokemon stood there, its fur a vibrant red-orange with a collar of bright yellow, fluffy fur that rivaled his wings in terms of softness. The same kind of fur also formed a tuft on its head, between two long ears, and an even fluffier-looking tail. Sorin just stared at the Pokemon in stunned confusion. With fur that bright and colorful, how could he have possibly overlooked it until it was standing right below him. Heck, he didn't notice its presence until it had spoken.
The confusion was hastily replaced with wariness. The voice that spoke had been distinctly feminine, and while she hadn't said anything other than 'excuse me' to get his attention, he had a lot of experience observing the behaviors and mannerisms of different people and Pokemon.
The Flareon's dark brown eyes were utterly devoid of humor. There was no playfulness in her stance, and even the steady drizzle of rain seemed to have absolutely no effect on her, for her fluffy fur seemed completely dry, as if water simply evaporated on contact with the fur.
"Er...yes?" Sorin asked, unable to keep the nervousness out of his voice. He seemed to have the most atrociously bad luck when it came to female Fire-type Pokemon invading his personal space, but since he was perched on a tree branch above her head, he had no idea whether there was an ulterior motive for coming into his personal bubble. Was it even fair to consider the ground below him to be part of that bubble?
"Are you local to this area?" the Flareon asked. There was an edge to her voice that immediately rubbed Sorin the wrong way. It wasn't threatening, but it was...prickly. It bristled with impatience and barely concealed frustration.
"Uh...kind of, I guess?" Sorin answered uncertainly. "It depends on what you're trying to find out. I'm good with landmarks and directions, and-"
"Do you notice the Pokemon coming through?" the Flareon interrupted. Sorin frowned internally. Okay, the lack of manners was really grating now, and his tolerance for rudeness directed at him was wearing thin.
"Sometimes," he replied, deliberately adding a layer of curtness to his tone. Maybe if she knew how she sounded like to him, she'd catch on to the fact that conversations shouldn't be so clipped. Not every Pokemon he observed was rude by default, but some did occasionally create a bad impression due to outside factors. Sometimes it was the weather, or maybe the aftermath of an argument he hadn't witnessed. Right now, he was guessing a lack of self-awareness.
Something flashed across the Flareon's expression following Sorin's reply, but he had difficulty making it out due to the admittedly poor vantage point he had.
"Am I going to have to keep craning my neck like this to hold a conversation?" the Flareon complained, sitting down and massaging her neck with one paw.
"You could back away from the tree a little bit," Sorin suggested. This earned him an annoyed look, just in time for him to realize how sarcastic his answer sounded. "I...guess I could come down there, but just keep your distance a bit, okay?"
The Flareon was definitely giving him a dirty look now. "Do you think I'm diseased or something?"
Sorin winced, carefully spreading his cotton wings and using the light breeze to glide slowly to the grass below. "Er...no, nothing like that. Uh...I have a thing with personal space. It's nothing against you specifically, sorry."
The Flareon considered him coolly. "Yeah, I know the feeling. Fluffy body and warmth just invites the cuddles, right?"
"Yeah..." Sorin admitted. He settled down a comfortable distance from the fire Eon. "Look, let's just try this again, okay? I'm Sorin."
The fire Pokemon sighed slightly and adjusted her sitting position. Sorin immediately noticed that she draped her tail around herself, in what some might consider a display of shyness. However, Sorin read something else in the mannerism - she had an unusually well-developed sense of modesty. This was actually a strange trait for wild Pokemon to have, and fairly unusual even for trained Pokemon. It left Sorin completely unsure how to label her upbringing.
"Celes."
Sorin blinked. It had definitely taken a moment for the Flareon to identify herself, and the name itself was spoken as a declaration, rather than an introduction. The way the Flareon was carrying herself right now was already contrasting with the initial impression he had gotten earlier. Now he couldn't tell if she was confident bordering on arrogant, or terribly shy and overcompensating with harshness. Or if either description was accurate.
"Well, nice to meet you, Celes. Nice name," Sorin said awkwardly, if only to break the silence. Celes gave a curt nod in return. "Uh...what can I help you with?"
"I'm looking for my brother," Celes stated crisply. Sorin gave her an encouraging smile, but Celes didn't say anything further. For that matter, she wasn't even making eye contact, so she probably missed his smile entirely.
"Okay, um...I'm not sure if I've seen him in the area. Could you...elaborate a litle bit? What species is he?"
The Flareon's gaze flicked back towards Sorin's face, and although she kept her expression stoic, her eyes were not so gifted at concealing her frustration and growing despair.
"Last I saw him, he was still an Eevee."
The Altaria hummed thoughtfully, almost slipping into the rhythm of the tune stuck in his head before he hastily refocused. "If he came through here, he'd probably have run across the local Eevee clan. Do you want to ask over there? Aqua keeps pretty good tabs of passerby. In fact, they'd definitely welcome him, so he could even still be there," he suggested.
Celes snorted. "Blaze hated our clan. No way he'd accept another one. He'd freeze to death without a second thought if it came down to that or living in a clan."
Sorin just gaped at her. The Flareon spoke without a hint of exaggeration or joking in her voice. Either her brother legitimately found clan life hellish to the point of preferring death, or she at least believed he did.
"Oh. Um...any idea where he would go, then?" Sorin asked, knowing full well this was a stupid question to ask someone who was actively looking for the person they were talking about.
"As far away from our clan as possible," Celes replied dully, getting to her feet. "I don't have anything more useful than that. I just hoped...hoped...that maybe a local Pokemon might have seen him. So I'd know that I'm on the right track."
Sorin cringed. Celes' voice had cracked on the second use of 'hoped'. In that one word, he could feel the weight of her desperation and fear, even though she hadn't given him anything concrete to confirm this impression. But then she had recovered her composure an instant later, leaving him only that fleeting sense that the Flareon's burden was taking its toll on her more than she was letting on.
"How long has he been missing?" Sorin asked quietly.
"Months," Celes whispered. One of her paws was shaking as she glared down at it.
"...did he say why?" Sorin asked nervously. Despite his efforts to keep a soothing tone in his voice, he could almost sense the emotions raging against the floodgate of Celes' demeanor.
"I know why. The 'why' doesn't matter," Celes retorted bluntly. Then she heaved a long sigh. "I'm sorry for wasting your time," she said, already turning to leave the shelter of the tree.
"Wait," Sorin urged. The Flareon paused midstep, but didn't turn towards him or say anything. "Maybe I can help somehow. I know a bunch of other Pokemon that might know something, or at least be able to let me know if they hear something."
"I don't want to be a burden on you. I've served that role enough," Celes said quietly, but she did not walk away. Her ear twitched, as if straining to hear something that he was saying too softly.
"It's no trouble on me, really," Sorin said hastily, immediately recognizing the cue. It was the sign of someone who wanted to accept an invitation, but needed to be offered it again after the initial rejection. It was an odd game for people to play, but one that he was willing to play along with.
"I see...thank you," Celes said, turning back to face him, but her eyes scanned his face critically. "But what do you expect in return?"
"What?" Sorin blinked, confused. "Nothing, I just-"
Celes furrowed her brow suspiciously. "Then I cannot accept your offer."
"Wha-? Why?" Sorin asked, becoming increasingly bewildered.
"Because I can't trust selfless intentions," the Flareon replied bluntly. "Either you want something from me, or you're reaping a benefit I'm unaware of. Until the price is named, your offer cannot be trusted."
Sorin gawked at Celes, his beak moving, but no words coming out. She was completely serious about this, too. There was no humor in her eyes, not even the twitch of a smile forming.
"I...don't want..." Sorin began, but he quickly saw the futility of his argument. He quickly reassessed the situation, and then brightened. "Um...information. I want to know more of your background. How your clan functioned, and what happened with your brother."
Celes studied him for a moment, then gave a slow nod. "Fine," she said curtly, but Sorin saw that her tail flicked, the single indication of contentment she had displayed since he met her. "Then I accept your help."
