"Hey Eevee, what's a seven letter word for… are you asleep again? LISTEN TO ME WHEN I TALK TO YOU!"
A sharp smack across his face sent Eevee tumbling into the water. After floundering about for several minutes, he managed to drag himself back onto the beach. "Give me a break, Vulpix." he sputtered, coughing up water.
"Whatever, you lazy bum." Vulpix muttered, chewing on the end of a pencil. "I asked, what's a seven letter-"
"What a strange dream." Eevee muttered, his eyes glazing. "I wonder if I can get back into it… I bet I can show that dark-jerk a… yawn… thing or two…"
"STOP FALLING ASLEEP!" Vulpix yelled, snatching up a piece of driftwood and smashing him over and over. Eventually she got tired of hitting him and collapsed onto the sands, staring up into the clouds with a troubled expression on her face.
Wiping the blood from his eyes, Eevee did a quick calculation as to whether he could make it to the cover of the trees before she caught up to him. Sighing, he sat down next to her and put on his best listening expression. "So… thinking about your home town?"
Vulpix frowned. "What? Of course not. Why would you even ask that out of nowhere?"
"Oh, you know…" Eevee said, waving his paw vaguely. "Gotta get all the exposition out of the way early, or something."
"Why do I even bother talking to you?" Vulpix petulantly used Sand Attack! Eevee fell down again, clutching his poor eyes! "It's not like I don't have better things to do today."
"Like what?" Eevee asked before he could think better of it.
"Lot's of stuff…" Vulpix said vaguely, idly pulling her crossword book back onto her lap. "Gotta build more bridges, construct a fleet, make an elevator, finish working on that coconut powered death laser…"
"What was that last one?"
"Build an elevator?" Vulpix said quickly. "We have too many ladders around the place. Can't keep living in the past… you could start finding more wood for it."
"I think we've already logged this whole island…" Eevee muttered, lying his head on his arms and attempting to fall back asleep.
Vulpix stuck her tongue out at him. "Why do I even bother asking you anything? I doubt you'd even know a seven letter word for 'a skilled worker'."
"Artisan." A smooth voice said right behind them. Zorua walked onto the beach, carrying a length of wood nonchalantly over his shoulder. He dropped the plank directly on top of Eevee and leaned on it casually, wiping his forehead slowly with the back of his hand and causing his soft mane to toss gently in the breeze. Somewhere, a herd of Miltank squeed.
Vulpix giggled and hopped to her feet. "All ready to get started?"
"As soon as you pick something to do." Zorua returned. "You know, you can be almost as lazy as he is."
"I don't think that's physically possible." Vulpix deadpanned.
"Mrrph!" Eevee grunted, trying to worm out from under the wood.
"Hmm…" Zorua thought aloud. "It's a beautiful day out, and that pier we build last week will just go to waste. How about we build that ship and go sailing!"
"Pthaa!" Eevee spat, having dug his way to freedom through the sand. "Ugh, it's in my mouth… I already told you. There's almost no trees left on the island! Where are we going to get the wood for even one boat?"
The three of them turned and regarded the island. Boards and planks coated every surface of rock they could see…
...
Up on the wooden deck that had once been 'Vulpix's Island Resort Outdoor Café' before zoning laws and a general lack of customers had caused her to finally admit that it wasn't working out, Venonat stopped bouncing his ball on his knees and tilted his head towards the beach. "Sounds like they're really going at it today, eh?"
Burmy sighed. "Whatever. They can do whatever they want, so long as they do it somewhere else. Say, where's Silcoon? She usually hangs with us?"
"Looks like she's hiding in the bushes by the waterfall, watching Zoroa work." Venonat reported, squinting down over the railing. "I think she's taking pictures…"
"Typical…" Burmy spat spitefully, slouching further down against the wall. "I could have been a main character, you know. Just because I'm not a fox pokemon, I can't have more than one appearance? I've had a ton of offers, you know."
"Yeah, yeah…"
"And it's not just that they get all the girls," Burmy continued, "all of, what, two on this whole chain of islands? What's up with that? And of course one of them has to be a crazy, demanding, psychotic-" The sound of rapidly approaching feet broke through his tirade.
"-nicest, hard-working Vulpix I've ever seen and I would love to help in any way I can!" Burmy squeaked in a valiant attempt at back-peddling. Venonat made a rather successful attempt at hiding behind his ball. So it was a little disappointing to all involved when only Eevee appeared around the bend and hunkered down next to them.
"Hey guys, do you think I can hide out with you here? She's on a warpath today." Eevee pleaded, trying to squeeze in behind Venonat.
"Oh suuure." Burmy said, smiling evilly and picking up a long stick. "I was just saying how bored I was. Feel like a little… competition?"
"How are you even holding that?" Eevee asked before taking the stick directly across the face. He ran in circles around the little deck, howling as the bug pokemon hopped gamely after him and bashed him over and over again.
"You get all the attention! You get all the fans! And what about me? Tenth, tenth, in line! Do you know who much pressure I have? Do you know what I have to live up to? But here you are, lazing on a beach in your non-destroyed, unapocolyptic island paradise and collecting money out the ass! Where's my piece of the popularity pie?"
"Found you!" Vulpix roared, leaping onto the deck and drop-kicking both of them in the head. "Who said you could take a break? We still need twenty more logs, ten feet of rope, and as many yards of cloth you can find! Get moving, we don't have all day."
"Um… we'll just get out of your way…" Venonat started, dragging Burmy towards the walkway and freedom.
Vulpix spun around and pinned them with the mad gleam in her eyes. "Aha, more free labor! Don't just stand there, start tearing all these planks out and pile them down on the beach! Chop chop!" She picked up Burmy's stick and wailed on the two of them until they started pulling the deck apart.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Eevee crawled slowly past the construction work and took off along the walkway. He immediately fell though a section that Vulpix had already removed and plummeted to the ground below. Muttering to himself, he slowly climbed unsteadily to his feet just in time to take a coconut to the back of his skull.
"Get down!" Silcoon hissed from beneath a fern. "You're blocking my shot of the hunk!"
"…wasfargle…" Eevee spat into the sand.
"You look like you could use a hand." Zorua said, helping Eevee up and brushing him off carefully. Zorua had taken off his shirt at some point, and his chest glistened in the light. Silcoon sped out from the tree line and leaned onto him, shoving Eevee aside like a wet paper bag.
"Why do you spend so much time with him?" She asked coyly, making her perfectly symmetrical body work for all it was worth. "Wouldn't you rather go out with someone like me?"
"No offense, but Eevee is more my type." Zorua returned, gently setting her aside and turning away.
"What did you just say?" Eevee asked suspiciously, having just pulled his head out from a dune.
"Oh, nothing much." Zorua said as Silcoon pouted behind his back. "Listen, meet me over on the small island in a little bit. There's something I wanted to talk to you about."
"Why can't we talk now?" Eevee asked, just before a large pile of boards crashed down upon him from above.
"Lookout below!" Vulpix shouted happily, landing on top of the pile with a crash. "Is that you under there, Eevee? Good! You can help me carry all this to construction site two on the other side of the island. Hurry up!"
...
The sun was setting by the time Eevee crawled across the bridge to the smaller island. Zorua watched from his perch on a strangely bent tree as Eevee collapsed panting along the edge.
"It's about time you showed up. Vulpix and I had this whole picnic set out, but you never showed up."
"…never… told me…" Eevee panted. "Was logging… on the other… side of… the island… all day…"
"I think there's a bottle of soda left. We can share it if you-"
Eevee snatched the bottle out of his hands faster than either of them though possible and chugged it. "I needed that." Eevee sighed when it was all gone, dropping the empty bottle into the surf and watching it float away. "At least it's finally over. I can finally get some sleep without her shouting in my ears."
"What's over?" Vulpix said happily, bouncing over and taking a seat on the tree between them. "We only collected the materials today. Tomorrow we start the real construction!"
"Wow, I didn't know you could scream that loud." Zorua said several minutes later, helping a gasping Eevee back onto the tree trunk.
"So, uh, Vulpix's home is out there somewhere, right?" Eevee said, trying to shift the conversation anywhere else.
"Well yeah, it's right over there." Vulpix said, pointing. "We row over from the houses ever day. It's only fifty yards away, can't you see it?"
"You know what I meant." Eevee said irritably.
"It could be." Zorua said, getting a faraway look in his eyes. "Along with who knows how many other places. I would love to go and see them!"
"Honestly, why are you guys so fixed on my home town…" Vulpix whined, but for once no one was paying attention to her.
"It's just, I've always wondered why we're here on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one?"
Eevee thought really hard about this. "Because this is the only place we can get to on our crappy rowboat?"
"And that is why we're building my fleet!" Vulpix finished triumphantly. "To sail forth where no pokemon has gone before! We will be remembered in history books for centuries! Crowds will flock to see the historical ship and pay twenty bucks a pop to take the tour! I can smell the money now!"
"You've been thinking about this all lot, haven't you two?" Eevee asked suspiciously.
"Come on, just sitting here won't change a thing." Vulpix said, clapping Eevee smartly across the back. "Aren't you guys glad I came to this little backwater, or you guys might've never thought about any of this… hey, where did Eevee go?"
"I think you shoved him off the island." Zorua said, peering over the sheer edge into the surf below.
"Blah… can't swim!" Eevee spat, fighting against the waves as they crushed him against the rocky outcropping again and again. Several waterlogged minutes later they were walking back to the boats to head home. Or rather Vulpix was walking ahead of Zorua, who was dragging Eevee's half-drowned ass.
"Say," Eevee said, managing to walk on his own again. "You never said what you wanted to talk to me about.
"Right!" Zorua said, surreptitiously glancing to see how far away Vulpix was. "I wanted to give you this. It's a miracle berry. You can't even find these anymore."
Eevee eyed the star-shaped berry in his hand and looked back up cautiously. "You didn't just find this off some random bush somewhere, did you? Because this one time at camp, there was this poison oak that…"
"No no no, this is one of the good bushes that you find in random places." Zorua assured him.
"Oh." Eevee gave it another glance. "So what does it do?"
"Well, in actuality it cures you of all status ailments. But between you and me, if two pokemon share one, their destinies become intertwined. They'll become a part of each other's lives no matter what."
"Together forever…" Eevee mused, tapping the berry thoughtfully. Then he mentally ran through a list of all the people he knew. "Why would I ever want that? I'd never get a break!" he screamed, hurling the berry as far as he could into the ocean.
"Well, I was thinking we could…" Zorua started, but Eevee was already halfway across the beach. He sighed. "Oh well, tomorrow is another day."
...
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away…
It was a beautiful day in the castle. There wasn't a cloud in the flawlessly blue sky and the sun shone merrily down upon the castle's many tall towers. Bibarel guards patrolled the ramparts, but not very thoroughly. No one ever threatened the castle's peace before.
In one of the castle's drafty corridors, a trio on Nuzleaf servants carrying buckets looked up as a loud quacking noise bore down on them from around the corner. Farfetch'd, the royal magician, raced around the corner and bowled the lot of them over. He was on his feet and off again in a flash, the sounds of quacking and shattering furniture echoing along after him.
One of the Nuzleaf lifted a bucket off its head and glared down the hall after him. "What was that all about?"
"I don't know, but I think he dropped this." One of the others said, holding up a soggy piece of paper.
Farfetch'd crashed through a large set of doors and found himself in the gardens. "Finally, he has to be somewhere around here." He said, running in circles through the twisting paths until he found the captain of the guards lying asleep in the shade of the bushes.
"Wake up, Hitmontop, wake up! This is serious!"
No answer.
"OH, WE ARE NOT DOING THIS BIT AGAIN!" Farfetch'd used thundershock! Hitmontop was jolted awake!
"Urg, can't you just shake me or something next time…" Hitmontop said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"We don't have time for that. Listen I got this letter-"
"What letter?" Hitmontop asked.
"This one…" Farfetch'd realized his hand was empty, but ploughed on regardless. "It doesn't matter, but listen, you can't let anyone know about this."
"Oh, the Queen…" Hitmontop started.
"No you can't tell the Queen." Farfetch's snapped. "We don't have to tell her anything, remember? We report straight to the King and no one else. Now, about the King…"
"But, you girlfriend…"
"Not her either. I keep plenty of secrets from her, what's one more?"
"But…"
"Will you stop interrupting? What part of don't tell anyone don't you understand? Not even the girls, and you know how they pry into everything. Now listen, we…"
"Ahem." said a cold voice.
Farfetch'd gripped his leak tightly and locked his eyes forward, his whole body going ridged as he willed the universe to change into a less painful future for him. "They're right behind me, aren't they?"
"Yep." Hitmontop said sympathetically, and turned his eyes away from the ensuing carnage.