Thank you for picking up this story! Please enjoy~
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon or any of their IP; I just own this story and my OCs, characterization, and worldbuilding
He walked for hours through a dense forest.
The leaves and branches lightly scraped against his skin. While the smell of petrichor permeated the air.
His feet felt the softness of the earth. The soil getting between his toes, still wet from the rainshower that occurred the night before.
Even with the dawn on the horizon, the forest was still very dark. The new moon commenced giving no light.
As he continued to walk, he saw a small light up ahead that he walked towards.
As he entered through the door of light, he saw a small sleeping boy under a Slumbering Willow. Its dark tendrils lined with indigo flowers slowly swept over the sleeping child's face.
Beside the child was a man, pale in face with long ombre hair going from white to black.
The man's black eyes bored into his, causing a shiver to run down his spine.
Their eyes stayed locked on until the inevitable moment where the world turned white.
. . . . . .
Lucian's eyes fluttered open looking at the top of his violet canopy.
Once he gained enough consciousness, he immediately reached out of the canopy towards his bedside table to gain his journal and a pen.
He drew back the heavy black out curtains and left the sheer ones up so that he could gain some light to write but still maintain some privacy.
As he was writing in his journal, two warm bodies moved to his sides to cuddle him. His Umbreon, Obsidian, and his Espeon, Hikaru, helped to ground himself as he was finishing his last istirahat (1) of the day.
When he was done writing, Lucian gave each of his pokémon a quick head scratch before he stretched a bit.
While he was stretching, he looked around his room and could see someone with a red afro on their phone in his sitting area. It was Flint. Lucian's heart warmed at the recognition.
He knew that Flint and him had a pact to be there for each other, especially in times like these, but it was always nice to see the follow through.
In Sinnoh, there is an indigenous group that lives in the Moonbay Prefecture known as the Children of the Moon. They are divided into two groups; the Eclipsites, who are from the New Moon Isles, and the Lunites, who are from the Full Moon Isles.
The Children of the Moon celebrate a religious holiday known as Puasa (2). Puasa is a period of fasting for one month where the people renew their minds and bodies for the upcoming year. For the Eclipsites, this month lasts from new moon to new moon; for the Lunites, it's from full moon to full moon.
During Puasa, there are four istirahats per day; one at 9am, one at 1pm, one at 5pm, and one at 9pm.
During an istirahat, one would sleep for an hour before rising again. However, this time is not just to rest the body but to renew the mind.
In their culture, sleeping is seen as a highly religious experience. It is the only time that they are the closest (physically) they can be to the Penuh Cresselia and the Kosong Darkrai (3). When they sleep, they enter Dunia (4), or the dream world. It is here where the Penuh and Kosong reside when they aren't on Earth. It is in Dunia where they can receive direct communication with the Penuh and the Kosong.
During Puasa, Lucian cuts back on his work and only does half days. While the League is never happy about this, they are okay with it because Lucian is able to complete all of his duties with the help of Flint.
Flint takes on a lot of Lucian's duties during Puasa so that Lucian can focus on himself and his family.
Lucian has always been grateful for this. He faces a lot more scrutiny from the public, the League, and the government during Puasa, and he's glad he has someone who has his back.
Lucian gets out of his bed, straightens up his covers, and walks over to the corner of the room where he has set up his altars.
He set out his offering for the Original One, the Penuh, and the Kosong, prayed, and then lit some incense before heading off to where Flint was sitting.
Hikaru and Obsidian followed him over to the coach as well.
When Lucian got to the couch, he put his hand on Flint's arm to guide him as he was sitting down.
With that touch came a flash of light behind Lucian's eyes. He saw Flint and Bertha making food and laughing together. With another flash of light, the vision was gone.
When Lucian was born, he was anointed by three almegans; Supreme Almegan Mesprit, High Almegan Darkrai, and High Almegan Cresselia. With Supreme Almegan Mesprit's anointing, he was given the psychic gift of psychometry. Psychometry was the ability to gain information about a person or an object through touch.
Lucian always had to be careful about physical contact with people. He tried his best to give everyone the privacy that they deserved, but sometimes it's hard to prevent that. He's in a lot of formal situations where shaking hands is the norm; it's not something he can back out from unless he wanted to hurt his career. And while he is also able to put up boundaries for physical touch in relationships, both platonic and romantic, there's only so much he can limit before people find him to be weird.
He lucked out when he became friends with Flint.
Flint and Lucian were the first two indigenous people to become members of the Elite since Sinnoh's Pokemon League's founding. Because of this, the two hit it off right away, and Luican felt safe enough with Flint to tell him of his gifts. Flint was really receptive and was the first person Lucian felt safe having a high degree of physical intimacy with besides his family.
"You made ayam kecap (5) for me to eat?" asked Lucian; his voice rough from sleep.
He looked at the chicken that was braised in a sweet soy sauce and his mouth watered. He couldn't wait to eat it.
Flint just looked at Lucian and smiled.
"We sure did! Bertha was such a big help too! She was even able to find a place that would ship sah (6) meat here for a good price.
Five years ago, Lucian was the first indigenous person of Sinnoh to be a member of the Elite. At the time, he faced a lot of scrutiny and did as much as he could to not be seen as a bother or a burden. But one thing he couldn't get around was the topic of food.
Because of Lucian's culture, he could only eat sah meat, or meat that was considered "of the law" by the Children of the Moon. There were specific ways the meat had to be taken and cooked in order for it to be considered 'sah.' Normally, Lucian would just prepare his own food in his apartment at the League. When he couldn't find sah meant, he would just make a lot of vegetarian meals, which his culture had plenty of.
However, he could not escape the dread that came whenever he went to League meetings or events where they served food. At the time, there were little to no vegetarian options and vegetarian style food was not as "popular." So Lucian would normally just eat right before heading to those events. But when his first Puasa as an Elite came up, he grew increasingly nervous.
During Puasa, Lucian received many visions from Kosong Darkrai and Penuh Cresselia; he would receive more than he normally would. This would cause him to be drained most of the time.
When he was back home, his parents and grandparents were able to take care of him and cook for him. Now that he was on his own, he feared how his time would go.
However, an unlikely ally came in the form of Bertha.
Bertha was an elderly woman who had been a member of the Elite for over 30 years. She was a kind woman, an excellent trainer, and had a reputation for being polite and poised.
When Lucian's first Puasa with the League was coming up, Bertha reached out to him and asked him how she could be of assistance. She apparently looked up information about Lucian's culture and wanted to know how to make his time with the League comfortable. Bertha ended up making all of Lucian's meals during that time. She had an array of vegetarian meals she knew how to cook since she had a daughter who became a vegetarian while in high school. Since then, Lucian and Bertha have been very close.
Lucian reached across the table to get a plate filled with rice and ayam kecap. He leaned back on the couch with his feet on Flint's lap while Hikaru and Obsidian were in his. Flint pet the two pokemon and smiled at them softly.
"How was your nap? Did you have another vision?" asked Flint.
"It was good," said Lucian in between bites of food, "And I always have a vision when I sleep during Puasa. It's been the same thing for a while though."
"What was it of?" Flint asked sheepishly.
Flint normally doesn't ask Lucian what his visions are, trying to maintain a sense of privacy between the two of them. He only ever brings them up when Lucian does first.
"A child sleeping in the forest. The Kosong was there too, staring deep into my eyes."
"Wow, that doesn't seem creepy at all."
Lucian chuckled, "It wasn't, just a bit unsettling. I'm not sure what it could mean either. Sometimes dreams are symbolic or metaphorical; while other times it's more direct."
"So either you're going to see a child sleeping in the forest or your innocence will be lost?"
"My innocence is already gone,"Lucian snorted.
Flint howled, finding the previous tense situation to be quite laughable.
"You are such a sly dog, Luci."
"No more than you are. And stop calling me that!"
"You wound me Luci," Flint pouted, "By the way, Cynthia's been asking about you."
Lucian frowned, "What does she want? All of my duties and tasks are in order. Have I forgotten to do something?"
Flint chuckled, "No, it's nothing like that. She's been complaining lately on how she feels like she's not as close to you as she is with everyone else."
"She will just have to accept it," Lucian said, rolling his eyes, "Besides, I like the amount of distance that there is between us."
"She's quite nice to get to know."
"I don't understand why you do it. What is the point of being close to her?"
"You know what they say. 'Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.' Since I'm her self proclaimed best friend in the league, she tells me all kinds of stuff."
Cynthia Shirona was the 29 year old champion of Sinnoh's Pokemon League. She has reigned at the top for seven years.
Cynthia was raised by her grandmother and grandfather in Celestic Town. Her grandmother, Professor Carolina, is the director of the Celestic Town Historical Research Center; while her grandfather, Professor Rhodes, is the the director of the Eterna City Historical Research Center. She was raised learning all about the myths and legends of Sinnoh and grew infatuated with them.
She obtained her PhD in history at the age of 25, and has since then written numerous research papers. While those papers have garnered her a lot of critical acclaim in many academic circles, they have also given her a lot of backlash in many indigenous communities.
Lucian was scared that if he got close to her that she would start to become more interested in the myths and legends surrounding his people and would try to study his culture.
"I would rather keep her at an arm's length. It's better that way."
"Just don't say I didn't warn you. She's going to do everything possible to get close to you."
Word Count: 2,028
Published: Wednesday, November 23, 2022
Next 'Tentative' Update: Sat, Nov.26th or Sun, Nov. 27th
Footnotes:
(1) Istirahat is the Indonesian word for 'rest' (Google Translate); in this world it is one of the four 'naps' that the Children of the Moon would take during Puasa
(2) Puasa is the Indonesian word for 'fasting' (Google Translate); I wanted Puasa to be analogous to Ramadan in our world (just a bit different to align with the culture I created)
(3) Penuh is the title used for Cresselia by the Lunites. It means 'full' in Indonesian (Google Translate). Kosong is the title used for Darkrai by the Eclipsites. It means 'empty in Indonesian (Google Translate)
(4) Dunia is the Indonesian word for 'world' (Google Translate); Dunia is the name the Children of the Moon gave to the Dream World, or the place everyone goes when they sleep and/or dream
(5) Ayam kecap is an Indonesian (Javanese) dish that is chicken simmered or braised in a sweet soy sauce (From Wikipedia)
(6) Sah is the Indonesian word for 'lawful' (Google Translate); I wanted sah to be analogous to halal in our world (just a bit different to align with the culture I created)
A/N: I missed writing so much! And this story has been on my mind for a while. It's not my best work, but it felt good to pen down a story again
Please let me know what you think of this so far down below :)