The Bonds of a Flame-Dipped Litwick Romance

Chapter Two

There was a furnace next to the dungeon in the castle, where Merida thought the lizard could live since its body was made of fire and presumably was accustomed to high temperatures. At any rate, it was a place where Elinor wouldn't go and see the lizard.

The truth was that Elinor might have been understanding about the lizard. It was Maudie, the serving lady, who wouldn't have. Ironically, putting the lizard in the furnace room was bringing it in closer quarters to Maudie, but the lizard could always hide behind a pot or something.

Once in the furnace room, Merida said, "You stay here."

The lizard nodded as though it understood

Merida was certain that her horse, Angus, could understand her too. The lizard and Merida had saved each others lives, so they probably had a bond that was different from that of hers and Angus'.

"If you see a woman wearing an apron, hide behind the pot. Can you do that?"

The lizard scratched its head, which had a horn sticking out of the back of it.

Merida pulled a cloth down from a hook. "This is an apron." She put it on. "If you see someone wearing this, you must hide." She waved her arms in the direction of a pot.

The lizard nodded again.

She took the apron off. "Let's see if you can follow instructions. I don't have the apron on, and I'm going to be the only one who comes in here besides Maudie. She will have an apron on. So let's see if you have this down."

Merida strolled around the furnace room. "See me, no apron." She put on the apron and started humming and dancing around with an imaginary feather duster.

The lizard dashed to hide behind the biggest pot.

"No!" Merida shouted. "That's not the place. She often uses that pot to cook."

She pulled the lizard out from behind the biggest pot and brought him over to another. "This is an appropriate pot to hide behind. Maudie never uses it except during festival days. She won't look here."

"One more try." Merida took the apron off. "I don't have it on, so you don't have to hide."

The lizard came toward her.

Then Merida donned the apron and started humming again. The lizard ducked behing the pot she had indicated.

"Very good! Only make sure you do that before Maudie notices you. It will be useless to hide if she notices you first."

The lizard nodded vigorously as if it understood.

"Great," Merida said. "Now I've got to go recite my rites. You hide if you see a woman with an apron come. And I'll bring you food in a little while.l Okay?"

"Char!" the lizard said, blowing out a few embers, which it promptly danced on.

"That's a good boy," Merida said, tickling it under the chin. Then she pranced up the stairs, glad to have a new friend.

As she passed a place where her triplet brothers were hiding behind suits of armor, she saw they were playing with some green creature about as big as them. At first Merida thought it might be a cat, but whoever heard of a green cat?

Then she got a closer look. It was more like a caterpillar, except that its body wasn't very long. On its head was a pink hornlike structure. It had yellow around its enormous pupils. And it curled into a ball while the boys poked it with a stick.

"Where did you find this thing?" Merida asked her brothers.

"In the barrel of gooseberry juice. We lifted the lid and it leapt out at us."

"And chased you fifty feet, hmmm?"

"No, we carried it over here. It's a nice little bug, isn't it?"

"It certainly looks like a bug, but I wouldn't call it little," Merida said.

"We're little and it's about our size."

"Yes, but you three will grow into boys and later, men. With any luck this insect won't grow into anything at all."

With that Merida lifted her foot to stomp on it. But then she stepped back. She wasn't a killer. Why hurt something that had never done her any harm? Besides, it was kind of cute. And what if it was like the lizard? It didn't seem like it could breathe fire, but who knew?

Of course, if it could breath fire her brothers playing with it would be dangerous. "I'd better go tell Mom about this!"

"No! She'll take it away from us."

"That's the idea."

"If you do that, we'll tell her that you're hiding a lizard in the dungeon."

"You saw him?" Merida asked.

"Yeah. We started to follow you but then heard the gooseberry juice barrel rattling, so we had to check it out."

"But the lizard is my friend. Mom will want to get rid of him if she finds out."

"Same for Caterpie."

"Caterpie? You've already given that thing a name?"

"Yes. Caterpie seems most right."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, that device said that's what it is called," said one of the triplets.

Suddenly Merida noticed the strange contraption lying on the floor. It was red with a blue screen, and on it was depicted the caterpillar before them.

She picked it up and pressed a button. A green creatures that looked like a mushmelon slice with eyes and darker green in hue looked back at her. Next was a blue butterfly with enormous red eyes and white wings with black markings across them.

She then hit another button which showed her a tall, three-headed bird. Hitting the same button again yielded a blue bat with a huge, gaping mouth. A third punch of this button caused a giant crab to appear, then a purple blob with little beady black eyes. She was really taken aback at this one. How quaint.

And then…the image she had been hoping to find. The lizard. Except this one had a longer neck, was more a yellow orange in color than red orange, and had wings srpouting out of its back with an underlay of blue.

"That's not the same creature as my lizard," Merida said to herself, having forgotten her brothers were there.

"Hey, it's glowing white!" one of the triplets exclaimed.

Merida turned to gaze upon the spot where the caterpillar had been. It was indeed a bright white color. One of the triplets was leaning in for it.

"No!" Merida shouted, scooping him up. Then there was a flash, and in place of the green caterpillar creature was the verdant mushmelon slice beast with jutting sides resembling ankle bumps on a human body.

"It..changed," Merida said astonished.

"Hey, is this your lizard? It looks like it," said one of her brothers.

"That one has wings. Go back one."

Merida watched as they moved the screen back an image. And there was the lizard she knew and love.

"Charmeleon. The Flame Pokemon. After evolving from Charmander, this Pokemon often gets aggressive and unwieldy, unless it trusts its trainer very much. Treat with caution. Handling this Pokemon without care could result in second or third degree burns."

"Charmeleon," Merida said. "That's the perfect name."

She closed her eyes for a moment, thinking how fitting Charmeleon was of an appellation for the creature.

"Princess Merida!" Maudie's voice thundered in the hallway. "Good, I found you. Your mother's getting worried at you not showing up for your recitation. Run along to her while I mind the boys."

"Will do," Merida said, pocketing the device with all the information about these creatures in it. And for once, she wasn't upset about having to do her duties, for she had a secret, and a really cool new friend. Or really hot, as the case may be.