This is the story of one little Eevee that suffered through many hardships to brighten the world's future relations of humans and Pokémon. I will tell this story to you as this has been told by the Eevee himself for many years.
Chapter Four: Traction
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Flary was still watching the human attentively. He was a bit afraid to get closer. However, when Flary stepped out for a moment to get a slightly closer look, he spotted a Growlithe sleeping in the grass next to the human. He was quite surprised that he was so distracted by the human he didn't search for any other scents. Flary wasn't sure what to think about this...but he made sure to keep a close eye on both of them.
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It was a bright and sunny morning. One leapt out of his bed and was instantly awake with anxiety for what's going to happen today. He jumped onto the beauty desk, turned on the bright lights around the mirror, and began to apply several different makeup products to his face and body. He was quite a pretty Espeon, who anyone would be sure to fall for. He could never seem to cover up that mark of his, though...
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One shuffled around in his sleep. Flary looked back and guessed that One was having a nightmare again, and sadly sighed... Flary looked back at the human and his apparent, non-slave companion. He watched them as much as possible, without falling asleep, although he was exhausted from all of the fighting he had done recently.
Flary thought, 'They don't seem to be doing anything...maybe if I just close my eyes for a moment...'
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It was a bright and sunny morning. The human suddenly made a big yawn which startled Flary from his sleep. He immediately looked back into his cave, and was relieved to see that everyone was alright. Flary looked back at the human, who seemed to be waking up. His Growlithe companion was gone, possibly to fetch the food for dawn.
This human had strange, blue...head-fur drooping over the sides of his head, and although Flary didn't know humans very well, he guessed that he was quite young. The human looked around the forest, scanning the area, as Flary was sure he couldn't get a good glimpse in the darkness. He hid behind the cave wall as the human looked around, although still keeping an eye on the human.
Flary heard the Growlithe bark "I have food!" and run up to the human, carrying a fresh assortment of fruits. The human looked down on him and scritched his head as he took a few and began to eat one at a time slowly.
The human, uttering the strange language unknown to Flary, said, "Thanks, Growly!" Growly said, "You're welcome!" and Flary deducted that the human was thanking him.
Flary had no idea what to think of this human. He was a companion to this Pokémon, and this Pokémon seemed to be a companion to this human. This seems completely different as to how his leaders explained humans to him a while ago.
As Flary was peeking out of the cave to spy on the two, Growly received a scent and began to look in Flary's general direction. Growly took a defensive pose and began to slowly walk towards Flary's cave. Flary retreated into the cave and stood guard over his family, although he wasn't too worried. The Growlithe seemed to be fairly young as well as the human was, so he was probably inexperienced.
"What is it, Growly?" the human said. He responded, "There's someone over there..." and pointed to Flary's cave. The human took a step back, and said, "Growly, let's not start any fights...I just want to find the next town, okay?" Growly didn't respond, and slowly walked to Flary's cave. Flary heard the Growlithe's clumsy footsteps and confirmed his inexperience.
When Growly peeked into the cave, Flary was sitting only a foot in front of Growly. Growly yelped and jumped backward, but assumed a fighting stance and began to growl. Flary only looked blankly. "You, young one...you may have the spirit of a fighter, but do you have the body of one?" Growly began to get frightened, and hesitated at the way Flary was looking at him. The human watched on, but decided to run in front of Growly and block him from Flary.
"Don't touch Growly!" Growly was surprised, and Flary stared up in disbelief. He supposed that there were more to humans than meets the eye. Perhaps he should give this human a chance...although staying on guard, of course. Flary stepped over to the human slowly, not seeing either of them as a real threat, but keeping a proud expression to let them know how confident he was against them.
Flary said rather smugly, "You two are strangers in this forest...if you're friendly, I suggest you exercise caution. Our pack doesn't deal with outsiders so easily, especially after something that's happened recently..." He turned around and started to walk back into the cave, but saw that One had woken up and was peering outside. The human saw One and made a surprised look on his face.
"Hey...that Eevee has a weird mark on its forehead..." Although Flary couldn't understand the human, he knew what he was talking about. He was hoping that the human wouldn't get too curious about the matter. "One, go back inside..." One stayed at the entrance to their cave. "Father, I wanna meet them...I know we shouldn't welcome strangers into our part of the forest, but why is that? Shouldn't we take any chances we can to make friends?" Growly sadly stated, "Me and my human friend have been alone for a long time...we don't really have anyone else but each other...We just travel from place to place and hope that we can find somewhere to stay..."
One came out of the cave and walked towards the human and Growly. "Hi, my name's One! It's nice to meet you..." Growly walked up to One and greeted him back cheerfully. "I'm Growly! My human friend is James. I hope we can be friends...!" Flary watched on as One took his risk, and James calmed down and smiled as the two apparently had a friendly greeting. He only wished that he could understand them. At least Growly knew his language.
James knelt down and put a paw on Growly's head. "Growly, could you ask that Flareon if we can stay here?" Growly nodded and looked over to Flary. He bravely stepped up to him and asked, "Can we stay here for a little while? We're just travellers and we don't know where we're going... We'd like to find another place with humans." Flary looked down at the young Growly, and thought for a moment.
"I'm not sure about that... Like I said before, our pack isn't so accepting of outsiders...especially to a human, who only our leaders and myself have encountered before..." He thought of the human he had killed days earlier. "My leaders say that humans are self-obsessed, controlling, and destructive." Flary looked up at James, still talking. "However, seeing you get along so well with your own human companion, makes me think that their encounters with humans have only been bad ones. I suppose I can let you two stay here, on the condition that you keep to yourself and stay hidden."
James was confused. There was a lot of talking and he wasn't sure what to think. Growly turned around and looked at him, smiled and gave an assuring bark. James smiled back at him. "So we can stay? Great!" James ran over to his satchel sitting next to the burned wood that was a campfire. He grabbed a scrumptious Pinap berry and walked back over to the group. "Here...you can have my favourite berry, as a sign of our friendship!" With his outstretched palms, he offered the berry to Flary, albeit nervously. Flary never saw this kind of berry before. He sniffed it and took a big lick. Suddenly his tongue tensed up and felt like it was shrinking, and he made a cringing face as his tongue quickly sank back into his mouth. Flary had never tasted a sour berry before, but he immediately liked it. He made a short bow to James with his reassurance that the gift was acceptable, and James smiled. Growly said, "That's James's favourite kind. I'm glad you like it, too!"
Flary took the berry with his mouth, and had set the berry in front of One. "Try this...it's got a really interesting taste!" One was skeptical, but he decided to take a lick, anyway. He made the same gestures as Flary did, although with his more sensitive taste buds, One shook his head side to side. "Whew...that's..." One decided to lick the berry some more, with the others smiling at him.
"Flary..." His Vaporeon mate was at the entrance to their cave. "What's going on?" She had a definite look of worry on her face. Flary said reassuringly, "Come on out...we have some new friends!" He gestured her to come out. "You should wake up the others, too, I think they'll like them." She agreed after a moment. About a minute later, Freya, Starra, and Kroa came out with tired looks on their faces, but Freya and Starra's eyes lit up when they saw James and Growly, and immediately became curious. Kroa looked indifferent, unsurprisingly. They all walked toward the two and began to exchange their greetings.
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"Damn!" A Mightyena made a fierce slash at the ground, knocking dirt and grass every which way. "That leader of ours...he was a fool! How could we have been so blind? They're much stronger than we are..." He was pacing around, now. Several other Mightyenas and Poochyenas were laying on the grass in a dark area of the forest. Tired, hungry, and hopeless. their pack was reduced to shambles and they didn't have much spirit left in them. "Makes me wonder if he even did it on purpose, that bastard..."
Another Mightyena spoke with a calm voice. "Calm down. We're still alive, and we can change. All we need is time to heal our wounds." He stood up and looked around at his pack mates. "We just have to be careful...any other neighboring packs may soon get word of all of this and decide to strike while we're vulnerable. We can't let our guard down, but-" "Torvus!" A different Mightyena jumped up and growled at him. "You're always seeking that easy way out...are you just a coward!?" Torvus walked over to him, and glared his bright blue eyes straight at the other. "We will all die if we do not work together. The moment we separate ourselves, we're just becoming easier targets for the other packs to get to us. Pick us off, one by one, they will...the pack will become no more. Do you want that?" In a few moments, the Mightyena he was talking to scoffed and looked away in pride, but accepted his situation nevertheless.
Torvus looked back around at the pack and stood proudly. "I will accept the responsibility of the leader of this pack from now on. Right now, we need to salvage any food supplies that we can. Gather a day or two worth of food at the usual place for emergency. Clear out all caves and secret areas owned by killed pack members. As for myself, I will be performing the ritual...you know what to do." Everyone stood up attentively. "I will meet you all when the sky begins to redden. Good luck." Torvus yelled, "Let's go!" and the pack broke off in all directions with a bark. As he was sprinting through the forest, his thoughts came back to the Eevee that he met a few days ago. 'Freya was her name... I may have to speak to her again...'
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James found out that Freya's weak point was a very soft scritching behind the ears. She relaxed to the point where she seemed almost asleep in the grass while he did so. "Heh, I wish I could know your names, if any..." He looked over at One again. "Say...could you tell me why that Eevee has that weird thing on its forehead?" Growly translated the message to them. Everyone just made a confused look at One, who was just as confused. No one knew, really, and James got the message. "Hmm...never seen something like that before...I wonder..."
James pulled out a red-coloured, rectangular device out of his pocket. Flary's family looked at it curiously. James opened up the device with a click, pointed at One's general direction, pressed a few buttons with accompanied beeping sounds, and a voice from the device spoke in a straightforward tone. "Eevee. Evolution Pokémon. Feline. Type not known or within parameters. PokéDex upgrade recommended." James scratched his chin in thought. "A new type of Eevee, maybe..." He folded the device closed with a click and was put back into his pocket.
Growly looked over at One. "James says that you might be a new type of Eevee, different from any other!" One made a confused look on his face. "Hmm...I wonder if that has anything to do with this thing on my forehead...I always wondered if I was different from the others." He prodded the mark.
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Torvus sat calmly on a tree stump with his eyes closed, deeply breathing in and out in a slow pace. He was in a small cave enclosed by solid rock, with a hole in the ceiling to where the sunlight shines perfectly onto the stump. Sitting on leaves of equal spacing, several of his Mightyena pack members watched as he began to clear his mind and become calm. He looked into the sky, the rays of the sun beating down on him. At a moment's notice, his pack members began a deep, but audible, continuous howl. Torvus scans the sky in all serenity as dark rainy clouds suddenly block the sun. Cold rain began to fall into the cave, but none faltered in the slightest, not even Torvus who was becoming drenched. His packmates gave one more howl.
Suddenly, a blue bolt of lightning came from the dark cloud and strikes Torvus in an unending blinding light, making everyone stop howling to cover their eyes. He cringed from the pain but stood his ground, knowing this is what he must do for the good of the pack. He stands up proudly and faces the cloud, and the lightning retreats back into it. As hastily as they had appeared, the clouds dissipate and the sky is bright again.
Torvus watches the clouds dissipate as his packmates recuperate from the flashing. His fur was much different from what it was before. Now, on the black section of his fur, is a large navy blue single diamond pattern that runs all the way down his back to the tip of his tail. His black paw markings have also turned a navy blue. His packmates stare at him in awe as he steps down from the tree stump, weakened from the ordeal. One of them brings him some fresh fruit, but he declines. "We need to get to work..." Torvus begins to limp to the entrance with his packmates watching, but he regains his strength in a few minutes. Torvus's newly-claimed guard resumes their duties with him.
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James had just finished telling his story of how he got here as Growly translated it. Running away from home, fighting for survival, almost dying during the cold season... Most of Flary's family couldn't believe that James would leave such a life of luxury among the human world, but they assumed he strived for more than getting everything he wanted. The Eevees all loved to hear the story about him, and the parents were pleased. Perhaps they had misjudged the human species as a whole.
"Ah...I know! To celebrate meeting new friends, I think this would be a good time to eat this..." James digged into his pack and pulled out a large sealed plastic bag containing four pre-cooked steaks. All of the Pokémon, even Flary, looked attentively at the bag. He waved it around teasingly as they kept their eyes on it. He opened the bag and a very drool-causing smell filled the area almost immediately. Flary stepped up to James and bowed, and James got the idea that Flary wanted to heat the steaks for everyone. While that was being taken care of, James went through his pack and pulled out several paper plates. Flary's family looked curiously at them. He set one plate in front of the little ones, one for the mother, one for Flary, and one for him and Growly. They soon realized these objects were similar to their broad leaves at home that they eat on, to prevent dirt and dust from getting in the food.
He placed a steak on each plate. James said with a smile, "Well...let's dig in!" Growly barked, and everyone began tearing into their share like fierce Mightyenas, except for Kroa and One, of course. Kroa only chewed slowly, enjoying his meal contently, but One doesn't like meat at all.
James and Growly looked over at him while chewing their pieces. James said, "Don't you like steak?" Growly translated, and One only looked down. "Oh! I know..." James digged in his pack again and brought out several assortments of berries, and gave them to One. He happily ate them as their parents looked on at James's kindness.
To Be Continued