AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've no idea why it took me so long to write this chapter, but I guess it's partly due to what happened these last few days. Namely, Happy 2015 to all my readers, present and future, and I hope you enjoy the chapter! Do leave a review if you feel it necessary to, or want to see me on the business end of a rifle.
Fortunately for Mr. Sanders and I, the inclusion of Sheng at the dinner table meant that we only had to eat one cheeseburger each, while Mrs. Sanders and the Pokémon each had one half of the same. After we were done eating, she continued doing her best to fill her role as my guardian by forcing me to tell her everything I was planning to take when I finally left Sandgem Town, and she ominously, to me, at least, dropped a comment that she'll have a lot of food ready for when I decide to go, so I can take a bit of Sandgem with me on the first few days. The worrisome part is that, if Mrs. Sanders calls something 'a lot of food' I'm not sure if my bag can carry all of that.
That night, it doesn't take me very long at all to fall asleep, and I'm sure the same goes for Sheng, but I can't know for certain, since, even though he was in the same room as me, sleeping on top of a mound of clothes, he either tried to sleep with one eye open out of habit, or he's just as quiet a sleeper as he is the rest of the time. Luckily, I don't have any dreams that night, or none that I can remember in the morning.
The following morning, I'm rather surprised to be awoken by a light, continuous tapping on my window. In my groggy state, it takes me a couple seconds to recognize the sound of what must be a weak autumn drizzle. We don't get a lot of rain in Sandgem Town, as you might imagine. In fact, it must be at least two months since it last happened. Those who enjoy the rain, for whatever reason, should look into the marsh areas around Pastoria City.
I nearly fall back asleep listening to the steady dripping noise, so, as silently as I can, I slip out of the room. Along the way, I grab the note I wrote down yesterday for Maria and my phone, thinking that I could give her a call now. And didn't I promise Kyle I would once I got the results of the test? I don't hear myself making any sound, so I think that I'd have made the other occupant of the room proud had he been awake. As I leave, I take a look at Sheng, lying with his head on top of his hands and on his stomach on top of a crumpled up red jacket, his small, yet surprisingly powerful body slowly heaving up and down, and it's impossible for me to fight back a smile. I don't know when exactly I want to leave Sandgem, but I owe him another good night's sleep here at home before we're on the road. It'll only be a day or so to Jubilife if we go real slowly, and we can spend that night at the Pokémon Center, but after that…well, no promises.
Speaking of when I should leave, my initial decision is tomorrow. Give Mrs. Sanders time to cook all that food that she looked so enthusiastic to prepare, train a bit more, despite the rain, and, heck, I've got to get myself in the right mindset for leaving home, as well. Just because I don't have Mom to take care of doesn't mean I don't have anything for me here anymore.
I'm starting to miss Sandgem Town before I even leave it, just great. In my defense, that's probably what you get after living in the same small place for sixteen years. It probably wasn't so bad for Kyle when he left, and Maria's parents moved away shortly after she went on her Journey.
To take my mind off things, I head straight to the kitchen, where I dumped all four bags of Pokémon food last night before going upstairs on top of the table, grab the same bowl from the other day and fill it up with the contents of half a bag, leaving the other half for later. If I'm thinking this through correctly, he can't possibly be too hungry after last night, and besides, it's only breakfast, not a full meal. I leave the half-full bowl on top of the table beside the other three bags and the partly empty one, then go about preparing myself a glass of milk with some cookies to go along with it.
Since I both can and it's more comfortable, I take the glass and the cookies to the living room and set them down on the coffee table, plopping down on the sofa in front of it with a sigh. I leave the paper next to the drink and take out my phone, dialing Maria's number first. On the fourth ring, she picks up. That's not a good sign, and I gulp. I've committed a terrible mistake.
"Oh, good morning, Victor, my friend. Do you know what time it is?" Comes the voice of Maria…or not quite. It's far, far too calm and sweet, not to mention how dripping with irritation it is. Additionally, she's speaking in a whisper, which means she's probably not alone. Subconsciously, I match her tone.
I don't have enough time to brace myself, and, deliberately slow, I look at my Pokétch. Even the Pikachu on it seems to be staring at me in a 'you messed up, bad' kind of way.
"Uh, yeah, it's…" I begin, and am instantly cut off by the voice on the other side, suddenly much more vicious.
"I don't give a crap what time it is, buddy. You woke me up, and what's worse, I think Lennie's stirring now, too…" She sighs heavily into the speaker, but, to be on the safe side, I remain silent until she speaks up again. "Anyway, you're not enough of a jerk to call just to wake me up early, so I assume you have another reason to. Spit it out."
This was definitely a bad time to call, and all of a sudden, I feel silly for disturbing her just to talk about some stupid dream.
"It's just, um, remember that dream…? The one that we both used to have?" Silence for a while, then a derisive snort.
"Man, I haven't had that in a while. What's the matter, had a bad dream and you want Auntie Maria to tell you that everything is alright?" I can almost imagine her sarcastic grin on the other end, if I knew what her surroundings were like.
"If I needed consolation, you can rest assured that you're the last person I'd turn to," I inform her, smiling to myself.
"Good," she replies, matter-of-factly. "Because sometimes I hate life enough that listening to other people's problems only makes me want to yell at them."
Sometimes I wonder how we're friends.
"That doesn't sound like you at all," I mutter sarcastically, and she chuckles once. "So, what I was saying?" I take her silence as a sign to go ahead, and I explain to her, in full awkward detail, or as much as I can using my limited memory and brief notes, the events of my dream the other night.
By the time I'm done, she must've lost her morning grumpiness, and toward the end of the retelling she even grunts and mutters 'Mhm' occasionally. At least, the interest doesn't sound feigned to me.
I pause when I finish, then, expectantly; I ask her "So what do you think?"
For a while, she doesn't reply, probably looking for the gentle way to break it to me that I'm an idiot, as uncharacteristic that would be of her.
"I'm sorry, Victor, but I honestly think it's just a dream, nothing more. It's cool that we have the same one and all, and rad that it ends in death, but I really don't think it means anything. If it were something that'd been bothering me all these years, I'd thank you tearfully for putting my doubts to rest. But as it is, all you've done is spoil the plot for me…" she suddenly pauses, and there's some rustling on the other side. She returns, speaking in a more urgent tone. "I'm sorry, but everyone's starting to get up and I've got to tend to them. Will that be all?"
I haven't even told her that I'm a Trainer yet, but the way I see it, that surprise can wait until I'm a decent one.
"Yeah, it is." More silence. "Thanks for list-"
"No prob. Got to go, cya."
And with that, she hangs up. All in all, that could've turned out a lot worse for me, and there could have been a lot more screaming on her part, so I'm grateful, in a sense. I look over my shoulder at the entrance to the kitchen, through which I can see the table. The bowl's still there; no Sheng. I decide to reward my valor in the conversation with Maria with some breakfast.
Something about having milk and cookies in the morning while it's raining lightly outside and you're just sitting there on the couch with no pressing responsibilities is really soothing, and I suggest you try it sometime. I find myself eating breakfast with a smile and feeling the energy I'll need for the rest of today course through me.
After that, I finally make good on my promise and dial Kyle's number. Unlike my other friend, he picks up almost immediately.
"Shocker seeing you up this early," I say as a manner of greeting him. He must be in a good mood, because he responds with a chuckle.
"You're right; I'm not sure what's become of me. When you have Pokémon of your own, you'll understand." He pauses, yawining widely into the speaker, and then exclaims "Oh! How'd the test-thingy go? Didya get your results yet!?"
The idea of not telling him or lying to toy around with Kyle crosses my mind, but he's done nothing to deserve it these past few months, atypically.
"Yeah, I got them yesterday." I hear him suck in, then hold, his breath. "It looks like I'm a Pokémon Trainer now," I confess.
The breath he'd been holding in comes out in a very loud "WOOOOOO!" from my neighbor, and if I wasn't yet completely awake, I am now, and more than a little befuddled. He sounds almost more content than I did when I found out. Then again I was baffled more than anything else at first.
"That's great! Although I already feel sorry for any Pokémon that gets you as their trainer. Spend an hour talking to you and one begins to see the world in black and grey." He's joking, I know, but the taunt works nonetheless, and so begins another 'argument' like many we had as children.
"Funny to hear you say that, you could talk for an hour and the smartest thing you'd say would be 'okay, I'll shut up now'!"
"Oh, really? I guess you would be a good listener, with those enormous ears of yours; the envy of all Donphan!"
"I'd still be the winner in a beauty contest between you, me, and a Feebass, who'd be in second!" A classic, timeless schoolyard insult.
The exchanges continue back and forth for another minute, rapidly degenerating in maturity, from a playground level all the way to daycare. I finally admit defeat when Kyle calls me a 'stupid jerk', as I can't come up with anything less insulting that quickly. By the end of it, though, I'm smiling, like I had been with Maria, and there's no doubt he is, too.
"Ah…well, Victor, thanks for the call. I should get going now, though, but I'll talk to you soon."
"Yeah. See ya." This time, I hang up.
I lean forward with the intention of picking up the empty glass on the coffee table that I'd had my milk in, but instead throw my hands up in and cry out in surprise when I hear a voice coming from behind me. One second later and I'd have flung the glass aside in panic.
"Wow. Remind me not to get on your bad side." Sheng's crouching on top of the backrest of the couch, looking straight at me with something of a smile.
I grin back to him and this time, manage to pick up the glass without incident.
"Good morning, Sheng. How'd you sleep?" I walk over to the kitchen to leave it there, and along the way notice that the bowl of Pokéblocks is empty, so I leave that in the sink as well.
"Pretty well, thank you. In fact, I…" He stops talking from his position on the couch and squints his eyes at something to his right.
"You what?" I press, and his head turns back to me. He raises a hand and points a finger to his right, where I just remembered there's a window.
"That's…rain, isn't it? The Psyducks always said that the wished it would rain when they looked at the sky, and that they wanted more humidity, but I wasn't sure what they meant."
I walk over to join him by the couch and pat his back once. "Yeah, that's it."
He nods absently, the skips his way over to a table right next to the window so he can see the droplets of water fall from closer up. I'm halfway up the stairs when he speaks.
"What are we going to do today?" He asks.
"I don't know. I'll find something," I assure him. He continues to gaze out the glass.
I sort out my morning routine after that. A relaxing warm shower in contrast to the chilly drizzle outside and a change of clothes later, and I'm back downstairs with my promise to Sheng still unsolved. I actually don't believe I'd mind going outside with the rain, but years of being accustomed to not do so are really not making me feel like it at all.
We spend most of the day indoors, then, until he finally convinces me to go outside an hour or so after lunch to at least take a walk or go someplace. For lack of anything better to do, I agree, and after I pick up my umbrella and keys, we set off. He's out the door the moment it's open enough for him to bound past it and onto the wet ground outside. Sheng sniffs the air and exhales contentedly while I lock the door behind me.
"Smells rather nice, don't you think?" He remarks as we begin walking instinctively toward Route 201. Today, he doesn't bother hopping onto my shoulder and instead sticks to the ground in front of me, unprotected from the rain and seemingly loving it. I'd say that he's got a little spring in his step, but since he's always leaping to get around anyhow, that's a given. Still, it feels like he bounces just a little higher and more enthusiastically.
As we reach the crossroads that lead on one side toward Twinleaf Town and on the other to Lake Verity, he finally pauses to wait for me to catch up, but soon regains his lead once he sees we're heading to Twinleaf today. As per the usual, he doesn't really initiate any conversation himself along the way, so it's up to me to say anything if I want us to get any closer.
"When do you think would be a good time to finally set off?"
He slows his pace, pondering the response, but not for long. "Whenever you feel ready. I'm not leaving anything behind."
"Are you sure?" I press, "It wouldn't bother you just a little to be always on the move and battling more often?"
He shakes his head and turns it momentarily to give me a confident smirk. "I think we'll manage just fine." Even his tone is secure, and it serves to calm down my insecurities for the time.
"Understood…thanks."
We eventually reach the outskirts of Twinleaf. Nearby I can see the quaint little houses and the rolling grass fields of the Town, but we don't need to get that close for the eternal smell of fresh leaves and calming breeze to blow through the air and make us both take a moment to stop and reflect.
When the wind finally calms down and we come back to our senses, I notice that nothing's changed, except for the Clefairy staring at us. I've no idea where it came from, I suppose it must be someone in Twinleaf's or something of the sort. Whatever the case, it's a relatively rare Pokémon, and I'm surprised to see it there.
Slowly, the Pokémon walks closer to us, more to Sheng than to me, and though he doesn't yet step back, he's put on that wary expression I know so well and he seems ready to jump away at any time. However, it proves not to be necessary when the other thing the other Pokémon does is let out a high-pitched exclamation, which makes me believe it's a female. Sheng laughs and say something back to it that I can't understand, so I can imagine they get on well. He then adds something and the Clefairy shyly hangs her head and creeps over to where I am. I raise an eyebrow and look at Sheng for an explanation, who simply points a finger at the sky. Of course, the rain.
It's at that moment, in the middle of the slight discord caused by the interrupted walk that Sheng has an idea. He approaches me then.
"I'd though that you might want to take a break right now, maybe keep an eye on our new friend." He eyes the Clefairy suspiciously, then looks back to me. "And in the meanwhile I imagined that I could go pick some Berries around here, I've seen a few and they might be useful?"
"Couldn't you ask her if she's got a Trainer of anyone waiting on her?" I suggest, and it seems like he hadn't considered that yet.
After doing so quickly, we learn that she was just playing with a few of the local kids, but once it started raining their mothers made them go indoors and now she was just waiting out the rain. It sounds harmless to keep the Pokémon company and whatever Sheng may gather really could be handy, so I accept to have a fifteen minute break, and off he bounds into the forest. It just occurs to me that I don't have his Pokéball with me, so if he wanted to run away, this was the perfect ocassion.
I find a spot by a tree to sit on. Damp, but comfortable, and there's a nice sight of Twinleaf Town at the end of the road which is now quite a ways to our right as we'd veered off the path. The Clefairy doesn't leave my side, clinging onto the leg of my pants, but with a smile.
She doesn't make a noise for the entirety of ten minutes, and by the seventh I've already forgotten that she's even there at all. I'm only reminded of her presence when I hear a curious sound from my right. I turn my head to see what she's doing, and am surprised to see her large ears twitching up and down, in a sort of rhythm, at first. Twice really quickly, then once slowly.
The sounds she makes are scared, at first, and a good minute passes where she just seems to be getting more and more afraid of whatever she's noticing. Ultimately, the sounds turn into more curious 'Cle's, and I'm beginning to be able to ignore it and just keep chilling when I hear a final, affirmative sounding 'Fairy'! I take a look at her, and it looks like her ears aren't going to stop moving anytime soon, but now the pattern's erratic, shaking a lot one second and then going still for a few random ones more.
I can't see very much more than that, or at least in detail, as the Pokémon turns her body completely toward me, smiling widely, and with a wild cry she raises her hand and pounces toward me, in what looks like an attempt to pound me in the face. Instead, I feel a considerable amount of pain shoot up my right arm from the impact with the suddenly-aggressive Pokémon, and I grunt as I stand up as quickly as I can, which is too much, as it leaves my head spinning while I move away from the tree.
"What the hell?" I ask nobody in particular. The rain hitting me suddenly now I've stepped out of the cover of the branches makes me aware of the closed umbrella in my right hand. I don't like having to do it, but the Clefairy continues to twitch its ears and she turns to me again. I can't tell what, if anything came over her, but she does come over to me, lifting both of her hands up while she runs. They absorb some sort of white-glowing energy, and she jumps up in the air, this time, higher than before, much, enough to be above my head and rapidly descending toward me. It lets out a war-cry, which would be funny if I'd heard it anywhere else from a Clefairy, but right now the only thing I can do is counter it with a scream of my own as I instinctively open up the umbrella to block it.
Sadly for me, it doesn't work out quite as I'd expected it. With the first slap from the Pokémon, the handle of the umbrella is wrenched from my grasp and it flies off to the side. The Clefairy had struck it so hard, it bounced back up into the air enough again to let it get a clear slap with its other glowing hand on my face, and it hurts.
I reel backwards as the Pokémon lands gracefully on her feet following the attack. I've got a hand over my cheek helplessly, feeling the part where I was hit flaring, and wait for the next move from the Clefairy. It comes after a few more twitches of its ears as she seems to debate whether she's sad or happy before coming to the conclusion that she's sick of me, and it jumps for me again.
I react quickly enough to sidestep the downwards smack of her hand, but I can feel how I'm slightly out of shape by the fact that I'm panting intensely already. To create some more distance between us, I jog back towards the tree. It's clearly been more than fifteen minutes, what's taking Sheng so long?
All of a sudden, there's a forceful impact on my back, and I stumble forward the last few steps, crashing facefirst into the humid bark and getting the wind knocked out of me. I struggle to keep my eyes open, and though my knees are shaky, I place a hand on the tree to try and keep myself steady. Miraculously, I have enough time to turn around and rest my back against the wood.
Looking down, I see the Clefairy a few feet away from me, for now, just standing there. She has a pained expression as she seems to fight something away by folding down her ears. She's just outside the cover of the branches, and is now once again completely soaked by the rain. Perhaps because of her state, she doesn't notice the myriad of bubbles creeping their way through the air toward her. I hardly do, myself, with my vision still blurry, until they're upon the Pokémon, and I have to stifle a shocked gasp to not give the fact away to her. The bubbles are under the rain freely, but the fact that they don't pop from it lets me know that they're stronger than they look, likely because they contain energy inside them that will be released in a small explosion once they do pop.
The spheres form a circle around the pink Pokémon, and all of a sudden, they all detonate at once, causing Clefairy to emit a shriek that drills into my ears horribly, and she feels pain all over her body, like dozens of Beedrill stings at once. Then, the branch above my head rustles loudly and something glides out of it toward the Clefairy, striking it roughly and knocking it back a few feet.
A few berries fall to the ground from Sheng's descent from the tree, and as he runs back to me from the body of the Clefairy, which seems to be dazed and disoriented, I see he's got a few of the fruits placed between his neck and the bubbles on his back, using them as a sort of sack.
His look tells me enough. I lean down and pick him up, putting him on my shoulder, then sprint to pick my umbrella up from the floor where it fell, and keep running at a steady pace until we're back on the path, and the tree line where that all occurred is far behind us, though I can still single out the tree where I'd been resting. I rest my hands on my knees and lean forwards, panting and trying to catch my breath.
"Hey…Victor, I'm sorry I took so long…you look pretty beat up. Are you going to be alright?" The Pokémon on my shoulder sounds almost as worried as he did when he thought I would abandon him if he lost, but he tries to sound like he remains cool.
I answer with a few more wheezes and exhalations, until I can finally straighten up my back normally again. "Y-yeah, I think so."
I feel some pressure in my shoulder disappear, and I realize Sheng must've been holding on tight to me without even realizing it, which finally gets a weak smirk out of me as I begin to drag my feet on the way back to Sandgem, hardly remembering to open the umbrella up, even if I'm pretty wet anyhow. It's difficult to even keep my hand up at the start, and Sheng has to carry it for me a few seconds until my heart rate finally slows down completely and I can make the trek normally.
After a particularly loud raindrop splatters onto the fabric of the umbrella above our heads, I get reminded of what happened during the fight with the Clefairy.
"Hey, Sheng? Those bubbles from earlier..." I let the unspoken question hang in the air, and I turn my head to see his expression, which turns into a sneaky grin.
"Heh, of course you noticed. Yeah, that was me. Neat trick, eh? Picked it up earlier while watching the rain and going over the battles from yesterday in my mind." He explains, rather offhandedly, and then seems to recall something important. His already large eyes seem to widen and he looks me dead in the eyes. "You couldn't understand what the Clefairy was saying, right?" He asks.
I shake my head. "No, Trainers can only understand Pokémon they've captured or otherwise developed a strong bond with, but all Pokémon can understand each other," I recite from memory. That was one of the first things I learnt about Pokémon, ever.
"Interesting…" He falls silent after that, and it takes him a while to notice that I've been staring expectantly at him to tell me why he asked in the first place to realize he trailed off. "Oh, right. It struck me as curious that she went from desperately crying out for something to 'stop' and for 'help' to saying things, I imagine directed at you, about being 'blind'. I've no clue what she was going on about, but it's fortunate that she was making such a ruckus, it let me find you easier and quicker."
"Really? That's weird…" I have no idea what happened to that Clefairy back there, honestly. It's like nothing I've ever read or heard of before, either, or so I think. She didn't seem sick, and she had friends back in Twinleaf Town…hopefully she'll snap out of it before she meets up with them again.
All in all, the intermission for lunch with the Sanders is more than welcome, though it's also kind of awkward when I have to explain how I tripped into the wall and got the bruise on my cheek. She doesn't seem entirely convinced either, but if she isn't, she doesn't act on it. My back still aches from the hit it took, as well, but my arm's fine. Ready as ever, today Mrs. Sanders had gone down to the Poké Mart to buy a bag of Pokéblocks for Sheng to eat, and we all have an enjoyable meal full of meat. It's hard to explain to Sheng which Mr. Sanders calls me 'Vic' and nobody else does without hurting his feelings.
Just as we step outside after lunch, the rain's stopped, leaving only an overcast sky above our heads, the clouds bright thanks to the sun behind them and not too thick. We should be back to the usual weather by tomorrow, I'd say, and it doesn't look like it'll rain again here soon.
Definitely, the rest of the day plan is just to chill around back home, maybe go for another walk, but nowhere near Twinleaf Town. And tomorrow, tomorrow for certain, I'll be heading for Jubilife City to officially start my Pokémon Journey.