Chapter 2:

Nova limped away from the castle, her ears burning with embarrassment and her leg throbbing and bleeding. She looked behind her, scowling at the crimson trail she left. Nova wanted to go back to the shop, to go and tell Karen what'd happened, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.

"Karen's gonna be so mad at me." She sighed as she reached the multitude of tree stumps.

The Eevee sat down beside one of the stumps closer to the wall, eyeing her leg with some concern. She'd never bled like this before. The funny thing was, although it scared her a little, it excited her all the same; the rush of the fight, even though she had been losing, was something that sewing a table cloth would never give her. She looked wistfully at the castle. Nova wanted to do what they did. Or at least give it a try, it looked a lot more exciting than what would await her back at the sewing shop.

"I can hear it now: 'What were you thinking?! You're a lady, Nova, and a lady cannot do battle!" She muttered, envisioning the Glaceon's horrified expression.

Although Nova didn't want this path, she couldn't do anything about it. After her parents' passing, Karen was made her legal guardian because of her parents' desire for her take after every other female in the family and sew at the shop. Nova scowled. She was not one to sit inside all day. She started putting words in Karen's mouth once more.

"Your family wanted you to help me run the shop, not go around disgracing your family," Nova muttered in her best fake Karen voice she could do, "now you will stay inside forever so you can't get your paws dirty."

"Or… I can heal you and she'll never find out." A voice offered.

Nova gasped and leapt to her paws, looking frantically for the speaker.

"Over here, by the wall." The voice called out again.

Her heart pounding, Nova slowly inched towards the huge cinderblock wall, eyeing it warily.

"Who's there?" She asked.

"Hang on and you'll see." The voice grunted.

Nova froze when she heard a scraping sound. "What are you doing?"

"Getting inside the wall."

"No! Keep out of here! You're out there for a reason!"

"A dumb one." The voice retorted.

"N-no, you're locked out for a good reason!" Nova shouted.

"Says who? Do you even know why the wall's here?"

"Um…"

"Is it because that stupid king of yours says so? Because he doesn't know everything you know."

"He knows what's bes-" Nova trailed off when a Poocheyena approached her, a smug look on his face.

He looked back at the wall. "Some wall you've got here." The dark type laughed.

Trying her best not to shake, Nova responded. "Get out."

"Come with me."

"No!"

"Why not? You're obviously unhappy here."

"Yeah but- No, I'm plenty happy working at the dumb sewing shop with stupid Karen!" She shouted stiffly, glaring at the Poocheyena.

"Can't fix you if you don't leave your silly little kingdom." He said.

"No thanks."

The Poocheyena sighed, "if I tell you my name will you reconsider or something? Because no one's going to take the 'I fell in the brambles' excuse when they see that bloody mess of a leg."

Nova didn't reply.

"I'll take that as a yes. I'm Derek, and you are?" Derek asked.

"Nova." Nova muttered, not meeting Derek's gaze.

"You know, with a name like that you'd fit right in with my group," he said, staring at her crimson leg, "we can train you. It's obvious you like to fight."

Nova narrowed her eyes, "just because I'm bleeding doesn't mean that I'm pugnacious. I just made a dumb move."

"Fine, stay in your sexist little kingdom."

"What do you mean? We're not sexist-"

"All your soldiers are males, and the hardest job they give to Pokémon like you is work in the berry fields. Admit it, it's a sexist kingdom."

Nova gritted her teeth. She'd been humiliated enough for one day and she didn't want to let this outsider win too. She forced a glare and stepped back.

"I think I'll just go to the shop and take it."

"But you don't have to." Derek said. "Just outside the walls is freedom. Why are you afraid of doing something more with your life?"

"I'm not afraid!" Nova bristled, shaking as she struggled to hold her ground.

"Hey, how old are you?" He asked suddenly.

"Ten." Nova muttered.

"You're only ten and you know words like 'pugnacious'? In here you grow up too fast. Where I'm from, you take your time. Yeah, sure you have to do battle training and help around the community-"

"Well that makes me smarter than you-"

"Not true. One of my other friends, Sterling, she's plenty smart."

"Just what do you want?" Derek sighed and sat down. "Look, I don't want anything from you. So come with me, don't come with me. I don't care."

Nova stared at the Poocheyena for a few more moments before exhaling loudly. "Fine."

Derek quickly brightened up, jumping to his paws and wagging his tail.

"Really? That's awesome! Come on!" He yapped, prancing back to the wall like an excited puppy.

The Eevee limped after Derek, looking over her shoulder at the rising moon.

Karen's going to kill me when I come back… She thought miserably as she slid under the wall through the tight hole that Derek had dug.

Nova shrunk back when she saw what was on the other side. It was a thick oak forest, or at least she thought it looked thick.

"C'mon! We don't have all night!" Derek barked, trotting happily into the forest.

"Are you sure about this?" Nova asked uncertainly.

"Of course. I live here." He replied simply.

She gave a small nod and followed him deeper into the forest.

XXX

"Derek… I-"

"Am scared? Yeah I can tell." Derek smirked.

Nova frowned at the Poocheyena in the faint light.

"Not funny! How can you stand it in here? It's so… dark, and desolate." She asked.

"Maybe for a normal type like you," Derek shrugged, "but as a dark type, you see clear as day down here."

"Well I'm not an Umbreon." She retorted, suppressing a yelp of surprise as she tripped on a rather thick tree root.

"But you could be."

Nova sighed, "no. Karen says-"

"Who cares what Karen thinks? You're your own Pokémon, so you should be able to choose what you want." Derek argued. "Who even is Karen anyway? Is she like your mom or something?"

"No, she's not my mom. She just runs the sewing shop." Nova responded.

"Then why are you listening to her?" He asked again.

"Because when my parents passed away, they wanted me to work in the shop, so they 'gave' me to Karen." She said, keeping her voice as steady as possible.

Derek stayed silent for a moment. "Well… if you stay out here with me and everyone else, then you can be free."

Nova shook her head. "I'm only here to get my leg fixed, I don't want to leave. I have friends in the Lumin Kingdom."

"Well, you can have friends out here in Fusc too if you'd like." Derek offered.

Nova smiled, "maybe."

"Great! You can meet-"

A rustling sound in the bushes silenced him. His hackles rose and he started scenting the air, laughing and relaxing his body language when he recognized the scent.

"Sterling! That was a dirty trick!" He laughed.

"Sterling?" Nova repeated, staring at the bushes.

"That was too easy!" A voice giggled.

A silver Eevee stepped out from behind the thickets, a grin plastered onto its face. Her grin broadened when she saw Nova.

"Sweet! You brought another Eevee? About time! It was getting lonely around here with just me," she said as she approached Nova, "I'm Sterling, what's your name?"

"Nova." She responded, staring at Sterling.

Never before had she seen a shiny Pokémon before.

"Hi, Nova!" Sterling responded cheerfully.

The silver Pokémon turned to Derek. "So is she here to stay?" She asked hopefully.

Nova answered for him. "No. I'm only here to get my leg fixed."

"Oh." Sterling mumbled, her tail dropping.

Derek nodded awkwardly. "Okay, so… I guess we should take her to Luna."

Sterling nodded. "Yeah…"

Nova stayed silent and followed the two, feeling slightly guilty. "Um… maybe I could stay the night," she said, "I mean, it's getting really dark out and all…"

Sterling and Derek shot each other excited glances.

"Really?" Sterling asked, her tail picking itself out of the muck.

Nova nodded, "if you'll have me."

"Of course, Luna loves visitors." Derek grinned.

XXX

The hollow that Derek and Sterling led her into was more inviting than Nova thought it would be. Apart from the few suspicious glances that a small amount of Pokémon gave her, most were excited to have a non-hostile visitor from the Lumin Kingdom.

"So which one's Luna?" Nova asked as she smiled at a group of young Poocheyena.

"Luna's an Absol." Derek replied.

"And she's our leader." Sterling added, her eyes gleaming as she fell into step with Nova.

"Oh! There she is!" Derek barked, running ahead.

"Normally I would run, but this time I'm going to walk." Sterling said, eyeing Nova's stiffening leg.

Nova blinked her thanks and tried to go a little faster. When they caught up to Derek, he was already talking to the Absol. Something seemed off about the white dark type to Nova. She turned to Sterling.

"Do all Absol have wings?" She whispered.

"Nope. She's just wearing her pendant," Sterling explained, "it gives her mysterious power. It's pretty cool."

"Is that how she heals?" Nova wondered aloud.

"Nope. It's actually Roy who does that."

"And Roy is?"

"A Meganium." Sterling replied.

She nodded. "And he will heal me how?"

"I don't know," Sterling said, "I'm not the healer."

Nova opened her jaws to respond when a new voice filled her ears.

"A Lumin? This is strange." An Absol murmured, a calm look on its face.

"Hi, Luna!" Sterling greeted.

Luna nodded at the shiny Eevee and turned her attention to Nova. "So you've got a leg issue? And you want to stay the night?" She conformed.

"Yeah, if that's alright with you." Nova replied sheepishly.

"Oh it's no problem. Welcome to Fusc." She smiled.

"Wow… I wonder what Farah, Hilary, and Steph are going to say when I tell them what's on the other side of the wall." Nova giggled, surprised at the dark type's hospitality.

"And you're Nova, right?"

"Yep." Nova chirped.

"So-"

"Someone called for me?" A Meganium asked as he approached the small group.

Luna nodded and gestured to Nova.

He took one look at the leg and smiled. "This'll be an easy fix."

"Thanks, Roy." Luna said.

"Not a problem." Roy grinned as he left and came back seconds later with a bundle of herbs and berries.

Nova looked skeptically at the bundle. "That's going to make my leg look good how?"

"Just wait." Roy said patiently, extending two vines from behind the large flower around his neck and pulling the bundle apart.

Nova extended her leg and watched the grass type apply the herbs to her leg. She looked to her side when something prodded her.

"Hey, um, Nova?" Luna began.

"Yeah?" Nova responded, motioning for her to go on.

"Well, we sort of… 'spy' on Lumin to make sure they're not going to attack us or anything, and Sterling usually has to go alone since she and Roy are the only Pokémon allowed in Lumin. I personally think that Sterling's performance would drastically improve if she had a partner. Basically I'm asking if you'll join us."