Queen's feather

Chapter 4

-Author notes-

Its been a while since I've uploaded this story to the site. Life was hectic and updates are going to be sporadic at best. Author's note on the story is going to be next, not going to post it within the chapter. It would be rude and unneeded. I might start uploading this story to AO3, see where that can lead me.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Dawn came with Lixue heaving into a trash can. Aerowen took it in stride as she went about getting ready for the day, the sun had just begun to rise and the first crows of the fletchling, or pidove, were already sounding. Shade was already up with the sun, gazing at the door with amusement. She had unlocked the door and waited in the shadows, lying in wait to see who would fall for her little morning surprise. Aerowen was usually the one to get a morning pounce before the day started but since they had a roommate, why not try it with her or the male coming to their room right now? And sure enough, Cheren was opening the door with a yawn as he looked towards the beds, one empty and the other occupied by Bianca. He took notice of the blue fairy type heaving into the trashcan and soon a white fluff with a blade occupied his vision, with a cry of happiness before he let out a very girly shriek as he was pounced on by an Absol, while simultaneously waking Bianca up and Aerowen looking out the bathroom.

"Oh, seems like Shade got to do her morning pounce after all. Sorry that I didn't tell you guys about that. Cheren, I wouldn't try to get up, Shade likes to do a trio of things; cuddle, nuzzle, and lick. It doesn't matter how she does it, but she'll do it anyway, so sit tight and relax." Aerowen said, mouth occupied by a toothbrush and paste yet still making her words sound amazingly clear, before she spit out the paste and rinsed her mouth out. She looked at the blurred outline of Cheren and knew he was probably annoyed by the amount of cuddling Shade was doing, and looked to the outline of Lixue with a smile on her face, rolling her eyes in the process. She looked to Bianca and giggled at the sight of her Pokémon between her breasts before the girl pulled Kanaloa away from her chest and glared Cheren.

"Cheren, its 6:30 in the morning, go back to sleep." She said before Aerowen butted in with a statement, "Actually Bianca, Cheren's here because I invited him to do a morning jog with me before doing some exercises. And you're coming as well. No butts about it, Bianca, you need to learn more about your Pokémon and how to function as a team together. Many a trainer strive to best at what they can do, but fall short on one or more things. I'll give an example. I faced a team and they didn't function at all as a team or cooperate with each other. By infighting with each other and not seeing what makes themselves unique, they couldn't figure out how to cover each other's weaknesses. While they had a singular goal in mind, it was doomed to fail once they were pitted against a trainer willing to lay down her life for her Pokémon."

Bianca looked at Aerowen with wide, blinking eyes, partially understanding what she was saying but not wholly getting the meaning.

"What she means is that if you don't work with your Pokémon and try to understand how they function with other Pokémon you catch, then your team will collapse on itself with how many holes you have in it." Cheren said, pipping up while sitting upright as Shade nuzzled his back with her left side of her face, giving out little purrish growls as she did so. Looking at the trainer of said absol, she seemed happy with his explanation, before a wide grin appeared on her face, making it seem innocent but also creepy as well. A feeling in his stomach seemed to echo his thoughts on what the champion of Kalos could do with them and to get them into shape…A little giggle escaped the mouth of said champion and he didn't like the sound of that giggle at all.

"I'm so glad I wrote down an exercise regimen for my team and had it translated to brail, so all of us can do the exercises on the list." Bianca giggled with happiness at the thought of doing something, but she just couldn't seem to shake the feeling that this was more than she could bargain for. Once they were dressed in appropriate attire, they got to work. It only took a few minutes of looking back and forth of Aerowen and the two psychic Pokémon that they got their answer. Cheren was feeling a bit ill while Bianca was pale with horror. "Alright, I'm glad you joined me for this training exercise. Bianca, I want you to release Kanaloa out of his ball same with Moccus, Cheren. We are going to work on speed training today. And Mimosa will be joining you as well."

Aerowen said, holding up an ultra-ball, "Now, let's get this show started, Shade." She said, throwing the ball up before heading towards Cheren and Bianca. She took out a rag and wrapped it around both their heads. Lady climbed onto Cheren while Bianca had Sir Vert climb. A cry of the absol, they stood stock still. "Aerowen, what's going on? Why are you blind folding us and why is your pokemon…THIS IS WHAT YOU CALL SPEED TRAINING?!"

"I'm joining too silly. This is blind fold tag. My Pokémon will try to 'tag' you while your Pokémon have to guide you away from them. Lady and Sir Vert will help out when they wish or hinder you. You just have to keep running which way your Pokémon says, Sir Vert will communicate with you, Bianca via telepathy, while Lady will tell you which way. Do beware they may have some fun with telling you the wrong way."

Aerowen said as Cheren yelled out his statement, putting the blindfold on and giving a whistle. A cry of three Pokémon echoed after the sound, before rustling came from all directions, but she was ready.

"Mimosa, lead." She said, holding her left hand out so Mimosa could lead her away from her assigned Pokémon tagger. Arthur was Cheren's while Lixue was Bianca's, Shade was hers. This blind tag game was meant to open their minds to different strategies that would render them with a handicap, and could teach them how it was walking around without something to guide them. A lesson on life and battle. She couldn't rely on her sight for things anymore, so she had to use her other senses to determine what move to use or commence a series of dodges. A rush of wind told her to move to the left, so she did, missing a night slash from Shade. She wasn't going to go easy on this training, and neither her absol. The others may complain they had to go easy on their targets, but they couldn't keep up with the pacing or how long it was required to properly dodge such attacks. And said attacks were light and meant to teach instead of maim. Of course she could up the pace by letting Xerneas out and letting it use multi-shot moonblast, but that would be overkill for Bianca and Cheren.

After a few hours, many scratches and shallow cuts later along with many cursing, Aerowen called it finished. She had a few scratches with a couple shallow cuts with a single gash on her right leg. She was lightly panting with a smile on her face, before looking towards the cursing, blindfold still on. Cheren was softly cursing his luck with having been roped into doing this blind tag. That ribboned fox Pokémon really could get Moccus to run, getting him to run all over the place, even running into a tree. He began breathing deeply to get some air in his lungs, blindfold off and looked at Bianca. She wasn't in any better shape than he was; panting harder and ready to collapse.

"Aerowen…You are…o…one fuc…fucking…bitch…with a…insane method of training."

"At least they weren't attacking you. Now, what did you learn?"

"Learn? LEARN?! I learned that you're a sadistic bitch that seems to have no moral reason in your head!" Cheren said, looking at the grinning face of Aerowen.

"And?"

"That's it. You're a sadistic bitch."

"Look past the insanity of the situation and reason with yourself if you were placed in a situation that you had to run without seeing, with a little speaker in your ear giving you wrong directions. You have to rely on that voice to get you out of the unknown situation, but they're leading to a trap that could potentially kill you. Then you hear your Pokémon cry out in a different direction, one that lead away from the trap. Would you pay attention to the voice in the speaker or your Pokémon?"

Cheren's face dropped at hearing that; mouth open a little. It gave him something to think about. Would he rely on the voice in the speaker or his Pokémon? Would he be selfish and be killed or care and get out of the situation?

"Granted, the voice can lead you to a secret place where the trap can't reach that your Pokémon may not know. Or your Pokémon could lead you to towards a trap as well. It all depends on who you can trust." Her voice continued, adding more questions to answers to his mind.

"Aerowen, you said this was speed training correct?" A nod was his answer, and he sighed, pushing his glasses up his nose a bit.

"I see. Getting involved with training Pokémon gets you to understand them more and trust them. By blindfolding us and having our Pokémon lead us, our lives were in their hands to safeguard and lead out of danger. Sometimes, Pokémon can be tricksters and lead us into said danger. Hence why you had Lady and Sir Vert on us. It was trust exercise along with getting our Pokémon to respond to different situations. But…you look worse than us…"

She smiled, waving her hand before her face. "I've been doing this exercise for years now and know the routine, Shade always aimed for making shallow cuts, never life-threatening wounds. The cut on my right leg isn't anywhere near my upper leg, making me try to bleed out. Mimosa's a thinker, as I've thought she would be. She thought outside the box many times when the attacks came my way, using vinewhip to knock them away or make sure they didn't cut deeply. I did catch a Lillipup but I sent him off to Professor Sycamore."

She said, before feeling a licking sensation on her right leg. She took her blindfold off and saw a little Panpour licking her wound. It shot a little water on her cut and before patting it, looking up at her, waving. Once Shade came up, the Panpour twirled around and became protective of her, shouting at Shade to get away. Shade sat down next to her, talking to the Panpour to get it to calm down. It hugged her right leg, hissing at her absol that she caused damage to a gifted one. Aerowen sighed as an argument began over her injury and why said injury was caused. She heard chuckling and looked towards the sound, giving a deadpan look at Cheren, before taking out a pokeball and tapping the panpour on the head with it.

A click told her everything she needed to know. She looked at the ball with a deadpan look as she had done to Cheren. Great, just great. An overly protective Pokémon that didn't want her harmed in anyway. At least it wasn't a Gardevoir named Gladiolus that tried to throw Colin into a black hole for just trying to kiss her, or the numerous of other times where they tried to have sex…Only got to do anal. She'll not go that route of having a Ralts on her team, no sir. Edelweiss, her meowstic, wasn't bad, just threatened Colin with tearing off a limb or two if he tried anything to hurt her. She put the ball in her pocket and looked at Mimosa, the little snake had her vines wrapped around her left wrist and seemed like she didn't want to let go, possibly still hyped up on doing the exercise. She picked the snivy up and hugged her, letting her right hand down so Lixue could guide her back to the pokecenter. She figured it was noon with how her stomach was just now growling and the position of the sun.

Inside the Pokémon center, and getting lectured on being reckless by Nurse Joy, she packed her bag, before sitting on the bed, thinking. She could do the gym challenge here and see where that leads her or just travel with these kids to see what happens. She could also catch some Pokémon that only lived here in Unova or she could travel. Her mind to be torn on either challenging the gyms here, listing what they had to give to Kalos gym leaders, or just traveling. Traveling would lead her to those gyms, and another reason why she came to Unova. She had to have a word with her dad, her real one.

He was a real dumbass, letting the death of his Pokémon override the pleas and cries of his family to wonder around his home region. She was only 6 when he left, and all she had was fuzzy memories of those childhood days. She bowed her head and felt sad that she, her older siblings, and her mother were second to her father's Pokémon. Tears prickled at being released but she wiped them away, refusing to wallow in despair at hows and whys. She sighed, picking her bag up, Lixue wrapping his ribbons on her left wrist, walked out of the pokecenter to challenge the gym, mind made up to get her dad to talk to her or her mother, wherever that dumbass is in Unova.

As she walked out of the pokecenter, she bumped into a green haired person, but his hair was neater and shorter than N's. She tilted her head to the side, wondering why she was comparing someone with another person she recently met, and why she was wanting to compare them anyway. She frowned, and mentally cursing her blindness to not allow her to see before the person began talking.

"Ah, Miss Artemidoros. I've heard from Burgh that you had gone to the Professor and it seems like you have. Come to challenge me and my brothers' gym?"

He said, holding his hand out to possibly escort her to the gym. She smiled and nodded at the man, before realizing that she was called miss. Her expression became deadpan at him, making him back his head away in surprise. Was it something he said?

"Please don't call me miss. I've had enough of that at home and here, so please don't do that. But yes, I will love to challenge your gym." Aerowen said, deadpan expression gone from her face once she finished her statement.

"I see. Well, which starter do you have?" He said, making her pullout Mimosa's ball and release her. "Snivy, or as I call her, Mimosa."

The man hmmed in thought before holding his hand out again, and Aerowen took it. Mimosa leaped onto Lixue as he followed as well. A sound of electronic doors opening made her look around for where the stage was, but heard people in the gym as well. A whiff of something familiar caught her nose. Coffee? A CAFÉ?! Aerowen smiled at the thought of having a gym being a café, that was a fairly good idea, before a clearing of three throats caught her attention. She looked to where the neatly trimmed green haired man stood with two others. One red, and other blue. They bowed, and she rolled her eyes before the red head stepped forward.

"My name is Chili; I am one of the gym leaders of the trio badge. Since you have snivy as a starter, I will be your opponent."

Chili said, smile clear on his face at getting to battle a champion of a different region. He held out one pokeball and his opponent seemed to give a wide smile, the blue-ribbon fox bouncing around like there was no tomorrow. She picked the Snivy up from its back and seemed to scold it with her disappointed expression. But she placed the snivy down to be bounced on by Zoroua, popping out of nowhere.

"Quite sorry, my Pokémon seem to want to come out and see the proceedings, and I'll only use Pokémon I've caught in Unova."

She said, petting the little Zoroua before placing it on the blue-ribbon fox, before the snivy gave a cry of its name, seemingly ready to do battle. That was until another ball opened up on its own and out came a catlike pokemon, seemingly a pink color, and it gave a yawn while looking at her.

"Gifted one, is this to be this young one's battle or her brother's?"

"Your brother's, Lady. Sir Vert does need to be taken down a couple notches, wouldn't you agree?"

A giggling sound came from the Pokémon, holding its little arms to its mouth, before going to her right side and standing, waving at Chili. He gave a small wave back confused but also intrigued, until he saw the other pokeball in her trainer's hand. Letting out a purple version of the catlike Pokémon. He looked to Aerowen and she smiled, nodding.

"Mimosa and Sir Vert will be my Pokémon that I'll use. But before you ask where, how, and why I came to get these two, I'll give you a summary. They came with me willingly since their trainer had abandoned them here from Kalos. They were born here in Unova while their mom was born in Kalos. But let's get this battle underway."

She said, stepping into the challenger's box and Chili got into his place on the gym floor. He threw his pokeball, revealing Lillipup. Mimosa came walking onto the battle stage with little care and stood on the opposite field, looking at its opponent with little interest. She had come to respect her trainer for the nearly 6-hour training session she was put through. She had to dodge, attack, and defend against Shade, and the absol went a bit easy on her. Every time she seemed to want to allow her tagger to tag her trainer to allow the game to be over, her trainer kept encouraging her, telling her, "You can do it, I know you have the strength." And she did, thinking quickly on her feet and pulling her trainer many different ways to dodge the attacks, using her vine whip to defend against the attacks, and trying to vine whip her opponent to make them trip, though she did always grab a few bunches of grass here and there to throw at Shade.

Aerowen looked at her opponent, sizing up the Lillpup. She then looked at Mimosa and sighed. She hadn't had much experience in battling those her size, but she battled those stronger and fully evolved Pokémon at that. So, she may have some difficulty adjusting to the difference in appearance and strength, but her first two battles gave her a sense of those around the same strength as her, it was coming down to seeing. And that was a major disadvantage for her, before feeling Shadow Jr. rub his face against her right cheek and told her that he will see for her in the battle. Lixue was her legal seeing eye Pokémon while walking around anywhere but for Pokémon battles, Shadow Jr. was her eyes though he was a Zorua and can be mischievous.

XoxoxoxoxoX

N looked on as Ghetis delivered his speech while the blind girl was in the gym. He had wanted to go after her on his own, but the sage wouldn't have any of it. He was to stay away from her, but he thought differently. He loathed how trainers treated their Pokémon and seemed to get away with it. He just didn't see his friends in the hands of people anymore. He pulled his hat down and scowled a bit in thought. Team Flair…That idiotic, bigamist group nearly killed all life as they knew. Even Pokémon would've been killed. The details of who stopped the group were obscure at best. Only saying five youths stopped those idiots from destroying everything.

He snapped out of his thoughts as Ghetis walked away with the grunts assigned to protect him and such. Since he was in a town and the girl hadn't shown up to ruin the speech, he could go exploring a bit. If he stayed in the town…Spoke too soon, he thought as he saw the gym doors open and the girl come out with a smile on her face with her foxlike Pokémon and two odd Pokémon. One in her arms and the other on the fox. She saw him and, placed the odd one on the ground, waved to him enthusiastically, making him gain a small blush and pull his hat down a bit. He wasn't embarrassed! He was just unused to how she was acting towards him as he barely knew her. Yet she seemed to be happy to see him for some reason. He decided to screw it and walk towards her and see what she wanted.

"Hello…"

He said, mentally berating himself for sounding so hesitant and bashful. Her grin made her face seem to glow like the sun and he felt his nervousness melt away, a tad.

"Hello to you too, N. Fancy meeting you here. Want to go into the café for a drink? The gym doubles as one."

"Sure, I'll…"

"Let me pay. For this once. When we first met, you seemed to talk a mile a minute and now it's quite the opposite. Oh well, hey. I would like you to meet Lady and Sir Vert."

"Hello, gifted one. This one is named Lady and her brother is named Sir Vert. This one is an Espurr."

"Hi, gifted one. This one is named Sir Vert. Are you able to understand us mons?"

"Espurrs?"

He asked, somewhat ignoring the duo of oddly colored Espurrs to look at the girl. It then came to his knowledge that he didn't know the girl's name.

"Yeah, they come from the region I call home, Kalos. Their mom was left with some eggs and they were hatched here on Unova soil. Lady told the story."

'I see.'

He thought before speaking without thinking.

"What is your name?"

"My name…Oh, right, I'm sorry for not introducing myself when we first battled. I'm Aerowen Artemidoros."

She said, before gently grabbing his hand, making him want to yank it out of her grasp but her other hand was held out and the ribboned fox pokemon wrapped the ribbons around her wrist and lead them to the café. All while she had a smile on her face, and he had a tentative smile as well. Once inside the café, a table had been selected and menus brought out, though for Aerowen her menu was in braille. She ordered water for them both, thankful she took the lead while he was around people, he would soon take their livelihood from. N decided to break the ice a bit.

"How long have you been blind?"

"Three weeks. I can see outlines and such but very blurry the farther it is. If an object was near point blank in my face, I would know what it would look like without much trouble, but details become obscure the father its away from me. Example, the Pokémon center? I can't make anything out that looks like it aside from a very faint outline of the building. You said you can 'talk' to Pokémon but my traveling companion, Cheren, doesn't think anyone can talk to Pokémon. What's your thoughts on that?"

"Its an ability I've had since I was a child. I…"

He began to say, looking down at his hand to find Aerowen's hand on top of his, making the blush come back a bit.

"Not easy to talk about it, huh?"

"Wen…Can I get a pokepuff? I'm fucking starving!"

He looked at Lixue with surprise in his eyes, before looking at Aerowen, looking at him with an embarrassed expression on her face. She must be in tune with the Pokémon to know what he meant. He lightly patted the girlish looking Pokémon and chuckled a bit. She must be truly embarrassed to have such a high maintenance mon.

"What did he say?"

"What do you mean, what did I say, you know what I said, Wen. You can…"

N opened his mouth to repeat what the ribboned fox said before he, the pokemon, began speaking and he seemed to insinuate that Aerowen can understand him and also 'talk' to him as well, making N very suspicious on why she recalled the pokemon as it was saying something important. He lightly narrowed his eyes at her and tilted his head a bit to the left. Could she understand and talk to pokemon like he could? Just why hide it? He opened his mouth to talk before he saw the two Espurrs recalled as well, before the waitress came forward with their drinks, and reminder that all pokemon have to be in their pokeballs at all times in the café. Ah, that's why she did what she did. That seemed to get her peeved.

"I wasn't told this when I came earlier."

"I'm sorry but those are the rules. Only those who are challengers to the gym may have their pokemon out."

The waitress said, uncaringly and snobbishly.

"Well, I've never had such ungrateful service in all my life! Kalos cafes are such better establishments with their care of their clientele than Unova is. The nerve of a person such as yourself is most unwelcome. I'll see myself and my companion out the door. Good day to you, snobbish bitch."

Aerowen said, standing up with purpose and huffing in indignation before holding her hand out, and N played along, taking it and leading them out, all while she complained loudly about cafes in Kalos being better and allowing Pokémon out and about to dine. He had to stifle his laughter when they were a couple blocks away from the gym as she left loose a pearl of laughter. It was infectious and he joined in, chuckling and holding his stomach with how much the waitress' face seemed to take a red tint than paled once one of the gym leaders came over to see what was wrong. She looked at him with a near face splitting grin and gave him a peck on his check before releasing Lixue and walked away, leaving N to pick up the pieces of what just happened….