Hello everyone! Gosh I realized how popular PKMN fanfics are these days what with Black and White out now. Looked at the list once my first chapter was put up and within about 5 minutes it was number 60! O.o
Anyway, I give to the next installment of Wuji and the Five Phases. Just a little FYI, I listened to the music on the youtube link below while writing a lot of this chapter. I find that the first part is really enhanced by it, and it's candy to the ears of any fan of piano, Kingdom Hearts, or both!
.com/watch?v=CrWkTiT8JA4&feature=related
Here's to happy reading…and reviewing!
~Keyon
Disclaimer: Pokemon does not belong to me…sadly…But Game Freak has always done a wonderful job with their creations and Nintendo maintains it well…
The twilight of the setting sun shined into the infirmary section of Guiding Light's headquarters through the stone windows, dying the already red rock walls with a hue of amber orange. The ocean breeze that blew in carried a faint tinge of salt, just enough for anyone to recognize where it had come from. The infirmary was, most fortunately, quite empty with only one exception. One cot full of flame retardant fabrics carried the still form of Kaim the Charmander, his forehead wrapped in a bandage and his body covered with a white blanket minus of course his flaming tail. He was breathing steadily and seemed entirely at peace. When the cold breeze blew into the room, he shivered and attempted to curl up for warmth, yet his body reflexively stopped itself from moving too much.
Soft footsteps accompanied by a flowing figure entered the room. A beautiful and elegant Gardevoir approached the cot where Kaim was sleeping. Ever so gently, she kneeled down to the sleeping lizard and laid her hand upon his head, careful not to apply too much pressure to the area covered by the bandage. Kaim cringed at the touch and opened his eyes slowly, looking up into the endearing face of the Gardevoir. "Uggghhh…" Kaim moaned in pain. "L-Lady Anastasia…?"
The Gardevoir beamed brighter. "Oh, Kaim. Thank goodness you're alright; you were a bloody mess when Lumen brought you in here!" Anastasia would have hugged the little Charmander tightly if she didn't know that Kaim's body was still very broken. Still, it was better than it was before. She and her squad had healed most of the damage done.
Kaim showed hints of confusion. "What…what happened?" he asked forgetfully. His eyes suddenly flashed with a look of understanding and he closed them immediately. Gardevoir, among many other species of Pokemon, could sense emotions in living things. Anastasia could sense nothing but fear from Kaim.
"Oh, it's alright. Everything's fine, we healed you right up!" she explained with a forced sense of joy. "A Heal Pulse here, some Recover there, little Aromatherapy and a Healing Wish to tie it all-"
"YOU NEEDED TO USE A HEALING WISH ON ME!" Kaim asked with a loud voice. He coughed suddenly and hugged his chest as it exploded with pain. "Careful Kaim, don't exert yourself so much!" Anastasia warned him. "We did our best to heal you, but you're still a little beaten up. Healing Wish is powerful as you know but it isn't some instant cure all." Kaim cleared his throat and took deep breaths. He calmed down some, but he was still worked up being he knew how much raw energy a technique like that took out of a Pokemon.
"Yeah…ok…" he acknowledged weakly. And then Kaim remembered the weird Totodile he met in the dungeon. "Hey, Master Lumen didn't bring back a Totodile with him too by any chance did he?" he asked the Gardevoir.
She nodded. "Yeah, he was knocked out like you," she answered. "Course he wasn't ripped up like you were, but he was out cold. We checked on him briefly and then put all our efforts into healing you." Kaim sighed with relief knowing the other Pokemon threatened by the Rhydon was alright. Anastasia admired the care the Charmander had for others, even those he hardly knew. Kaim was a little timid and not yet very strong, but bravery and compassion flooded from his heart when the need for it arose. Anastasia simply smiled, happy the little one was ok.
"Charma- I mean Kaim!" came an ecstatic voice. Kaim and Anastasia turned to see an energetic little Totodile running full speed towards them and a much more at ease Lucario following him.
"Guess it wouldn't have done much to knock, hm?" Lumen asked Anastasia, who merely smiled in response. Cade was bouncing up and down with joy. To be honest, it was the most like a Totodile he had acted so far.
"Oh thank God you're alive! You're alive!" Cade exclaimed with much excitement. Kaim smiled happily and began to get out of his bed when the flash of pain came back to him in full. He gritted his teeth and held tight to his chest again as Cade stopped his bouncing and began frantically trying to see what was wrong.
"Alright! Enough racket, please!" Anastasia yelled out. "Kaim can't exactly do so much at the moment because he still needs to recuperate from his wounds." Cade settled down and looked from the Gardevoir to Kaim with a worried look.
"You're gonna be alright, aren'tcha Kaim?" he asked. Kaim breathed deeply before replying, "Yeah, I'll be fine, I think…"
"Sure you'll be fine, Kaim. You'll be in tip-top shape in no time!" Lumen piped up. "I mean after being out for a couple of days before waking up you've gotta have a good chance of living, right?" Kaim and Cade both took a moment before they realized Lumen had mentioned 'a couple of days.'
"Wait," Kaim started, "just how long have I been out for Anastasia?"
Cade nodded in affirmation. "I'd like to ask the same question."
Lumen and Anastasia looked at eachother worriedly before the Lucario replied in her stead. "Well, you've both been out for nearly two days now. It's a good thing you were both breathing, or we would have declared you dead, hahaha!"
'For some reason, I don't find that very funny…' Cade thought to himself as he glared at the Lucario. Anastasia, feeling the tension, spoke out.
"Well, Kaim. I actually need to change your bandages, so why don't you say good-bye to Lumen and…er…what was your name again?" she asked gesturing to the Totodile.
Kaim perked up at this. "Yeah, apparently you know my name now and I don't know yours. What gives? Don't tell me you still don't remember it?"
"Heh, sorry. The setting we met in just didn't really allow for proper introductions did it?" Cade extended his little arm out to the Charmander. "My name is Cadence, or Cade for short…I think…?" Kaim accepted the gesture and shook hands…claws... gingerly, ignoring the uncertainty in the Totodile's response.
Lumen was not so ignorant. "Wait…you think? What's that suppose-"
"Hey er…Anastasia was it! Can I stay here with you two while you're helping Kaim out?" he asked the nurse in a sudden burst of anxiety and with an embarrassed look upon his face. He did his best to avoid looking at the Lucario's lance-like gaze. He didn't really feel like he wanted to reveal the truth that he was human to anyone else besides Kaim quite yet.
Anastasia mulled it over in her head some. "I suppose…I mean you have to remember that this is gruesome work. It isn't pretty." She did her best to stress this. However, Cade nodded.
"I feel…I feel as if I should be around for this. It was kinda my fault that Kaim got attacked to begin with; I distracted him…" Cade explained solemnly. His face grew much more determined after that. "So, I would like to be here for Kaim since I let him down and owe him for protecting me." Kaim perked up just a little. "Cade, no, it wasn't your fault! I-I just wasn't paying enough attention so I…"
"There, there, don't get worked up again." Anastasia said as she smiled. She always appreciated how every once and a while a gem of a youth would appear before her eyes. The guild, let alone the world, needed more Pokemon like them. "Well, if it's alright with Kaim, I see no reason why not. Is it alright with you Kaim?" she asked her patient.
The Charmander was hardly focused on her at all, instead gazing with sincere and grateful eyes towards a smiling Cade. He was on the verge of crying. "Yeah…there's no problem."
"In that case, I would like to stay as well." Lumen proclaimed. "Besides, I can't leave Cadence here until a valid escort can take my place or until he leaves of his own free will for home."Cadence was happy the Lucario stopped there and didn't burrow further into his origins.
"Ok, I'm going to start with the procedure Kaim," Anastasia told the Charmander. "Would you rather me put you to sleep so you do-"
"No, it's fine. I need to see what happened anyway." Kaim said with commendable bravery. Anastasia nodded.
"So be it," she finished. Anastasia closed her eyes before opening them again. They were now glowing bright blue. As this occurred, the wrappings around Kaim's chest glowed the same blue and began to unravel. Cadence watched in amazement before Anastasia queried, "So tell me. Kaim here got beaten by a rampaging Rhydon, so it's no wonder why he was out for more than a day. You, on the other hand, suffered from nothing more than shock probably. Care to explain why you were out for as long as he was?" She seemed to remain completely focused at the task at hand while she asked this; then again it was harder for Cade to read her expression when her eyes were orbs of light.
Cade was about to answer too, or give the closest thing to an answer he could give, except for at the last second he managed to glimpse the damage done to the Charmander once the last of the bandages had been lifted. He inhaled sharply at the spectacle. Kaim's reaction was slightly more disturbed.
"Ah..ahhhh! Wha…Nnng!" he couldn't seem to finish his sentence since the wound on his chest was so morbid. Granted, it was probably ten times worse when it hadn't been tended too, but this was pretty sick.
The wound was shaped oddly as it had a sort of spiral like attribute. The attack had caused several rips as it seemed his skin had not only been punctured but stretched and ripped in several areas. Now, the wound had been cleaned and pink flesh traced along his chest like a spiral star. Stitches crossed the wound every which way.
"As you may have been able to already tell Lumen…that was no ordinary Horn Attack," Anastasia mentioned to the guild master. "Fortunately, the Rhydon wasn't very accurate with his technique. It impaled Kaim at a side angle and thus it didn't puncture deep enough to have a lasting effect on any vital organs after intensive healing." Lumen nodded, his face serious and his attention focused on the Charmander.
"It was a Horn Drill…Kaim, you're lucky to be alive…" Lumen mentioned. Kaim didn't respond, his eyes still bulging with absolute horror at the wound and his mouth agape and yearning to cry out. But his voice was not there. He could not find it while he looked at the wound.
Both Lumen and Anastasia were having a hard time from not freaking out themselves because the Charmander's aura and emotions were so intense it was beginning to affect them if they did not focus intently on something else. Fortunately, Kaim was brought out of his trance by Cade, who tugged on his hand and smiled as best he could. Cade was true to his word. He wanted to support him through the procedure, not sit and gawk. Kaim did his best to return the smile, now attempting to look at Cade and not the wound.
"Cade, you never answered my question," Anastasia reminded the little croc.
"Huh?" he squeaked in response. "Oh, right. Ummm…I can't say I really know…actually…sorry." Any hint of optimism in the Totodile had now left him. "I don't really remember much to tell the truth."
'And ain't it the truth…' he thought to himself.
"Perhaps it had something to do with you using Aqua Ring, Cadence." Lumen suggested.
Anastasia was interested in this. "What? That's odd, a Totodile with Aqua Ring?" she asked Lumen. As she thought about it, it would fit the missing piece of the puzzle as to why the wound seemed like it had been briefly if not perfectly treated previous to her inspection.
At that moment, something clinked inside Cadence's head, like he had just tapped something familiar or important. But other than that reaction to the words, nothing more seemed to come forth. Deciding to delve deeper into this, he spoke up and asked, "What's Aqua Ring?"
"Ummm…it's the water type move that establishes a form of aquatic energy field that, though slowly, periodically heals any inside its radius," Anastasia replied. "And might I say that it is very… odd for a Pokemon to not know what one of their moves did."
"Very odd indeed…" Lumen reinforced. Cadence could feel the flaming spear that was Lumen's stare digging into his back like molten metal. The Totodile was going to make an excuse up on the spot except Kaim caught everyone's attention when he began to speak.
"Oh…he hasn't told you yet?" Kaim asked the nurse and master of the guild with a meek voice. The little Totodile began to make every subtle gesture imaginable implying 'shut up' once he realized what the Charmander was going to say. "Cade isn't really a pokemon, he's a human…Ahgck!"
"Ah! Sorry Kaim, sorry! I didn't mean to!" Gardevoir was so shocked by this that she had applied too much psychic force into tightening the new bandages. Red was beginning to stain them as it appears she had accidentally opened up the wounds. "AAAAGGHHH! It hurts! It hurts a lot!" Kaim screamed in agony.
Anastasia wasted no time. She had been developing this idea as soon as she had heard what Cadence was capable of. "Cade, put up an Aqua Ring now!" Cadence was caught off guard.
"Wha…?" he asked clueless and shocked out of his wits by the blood beginning to flow from the wound again. When he saw that and after Anastasia's continued insistence that he "put up Aqua Ring, now!" he began trying to use the healing technique. Closing his eyes and letting the power well up, he began to glow blue and give off the flowing arcs of water as they circled around him, the Gardevoir, and the cot containing Kaim. Interestingly, he found that he could access the power with much less difficulty than he expected.
Anastasia looked to Lumen. "Sir, if you wou-"
"Already on it," Lumen replied hastily as he stepped inside the radius of water. Closing his eyes, the bulbs that hung from his head rattled and lifted up as Lumen placed his paw over the spike on his chest. With a bright pinkish flash, of all colors, Lumen placed his glowing paw into the ring of water, turning it a similar pinkish hue. Anastasia looked at the wound on Kaim, now glowing and no longer bleeding as it began to heal and an astonishingly rapid pace.
'Unbelievable!' Anastasia thought as she watched the phenomenon. 'I know that with Lumen using Heal Pulse the Aqua Ring would receive a boost, but nothing like this. Then that would mean…' for a moment Anastasia looked down at the little Totodile, his eye's shut tightly in concentration. His emotions contained nothing but faith in the possibility that Kaim would be alright. 'Then that would mean the majority of this power is emanating from that little guy!' Changing her plan only slightly, she activated Psychic and began removing the stitches one by one from Kaim as the wound began to fill with scar tissue. She noted that this might have been slightly painful, but the healing effects seemed to be numbing the little Charmander as well. Still, his eyes were shut tight with panic from what was happening to him.
As the last stitch was removed, Anastasia told Cadence to release the technique. The ring stopped glowing and water fell to the ground, as did the one who summoned it. Cade collapsed on the floor face first as he felt lots his energy leaving him. Still, he had energy enough to proclaim "Ow…" Lumen snapped his fingers and a glimmer of pink light floated down and touched Cade. The Lucario then helped the Totodile to his feet.
"I have to say that for a predominantly aggressive genus of Pokemon you're definitely quite the healer Cadence," Lumen told Cade as he viewed the now healed wound on Kaim. A scar shaped like a jagged spiral star was all that hinted at the wound ever existing in the first place. Kaim was still quaking with fear.
"It doesn't hurt anymore, is it over?" he asked feebly. Taking a glance for himself, he sighed heavily with relief at the sight. "Thank you so much Lady Anastasia! I thought I was done for…again…"
The Gardevoir smiled. "Don't thank me, Lumen and Cade did the healing this time. ESPECIALLY…Cade." She made sure that the emphasis in her voice was clear as she looked towards the now overly unnerved Totodile. Kaim smiled brightly.
"Heh…you really are somethin' Cade!" he complimented.
Cadence giggled. "Ehehe…it was nothing, really…" he scoffed off the compliment. Then Lumen coughed in order to grab the attention of the two young Poke's.
"Now that we've avoided yet another potentially lethal crisis, let's move onto the subject of Cade's origins."
"Dangit…" Cadence muttered.
"The obviously touchy subject," Lumen added in response. "So, Kaim says you told him you're human? I wouldn't think you're lying for attention. You don't seem like the sort, plus your aura is completely confident beyond a hint of desperation from… oh, shall we say losing your 'low profile'? I would have been able to tell otherwise. Tell me then…" he gestured to Cade's form as if it were an anomaly of sorts. "How did this come to be?"
Cade's face grew heavy with a sorrowful look as he glanced downwards. "I…don't remember anything," answered the croc. "I…just woke up in that field of grass. All I knew was that I didn't remember getting there and that I wasn't supposed to be a foot tall and blue. After that, Kaim found me and we got attacked."
"Hmmmm…" Lumen grumbled under his breath. "Nope, definitely not lying. But that really doesn't answer any of our questions and doesn't change the fact that it sounds absolutely crazy. Ah well, just something you'll have to dwell on I s'pose."
Cade didn't feel all too confident with the suggestion. He didn't really know if it was possible to mull over a case of amnesia to begin with.
The Lucario looked out the stone windows. The sun had set completely now, and if it wasn't for the light exuding from Kaim's tail flame, the room would have been almost pitch black.
"Well kids, m'lady," Lumen addressed the group, "methinks it's time to hit the hay and I believe Kaim needs all the rest he can get anyways. Cadence, whether you are truly a Pokemon or not you are more than welcome to stay in my guild home for the time being. If you'll follow me, I can lead you back to the guest room."
Cadence looked over at Kaim, who was inspecting the scar on his chest. He seemed to not know what to think about the permanent mark on his body. "Actually, Mr. Lumen," Cade started, "would it be alright if I slept in the infirmary with Kaim?"
Lumen blinked curiously. "Uhhh…sure, I guess. 'Course Anastasia is the one you should be asking; she runs the infirmary. Not me."
"It's fine with me," she spoke up. "So long as you let Kaim rest, I can prepare one of the cots for you Cade. I also have to put drapes over the windows as well now that I think about it."
"Alright! Thanks Lady Anastasia!" Cade thanked ecstatically. The Gardevoir smiled gently and stood up to get started with the tasks at hand. Lumen knelt down and extended his paw to Cadence.
"It was very nice to meet you, Cade, and thank you for saving my colleague. His life is safe thanks to you," he said with a smile.
Cadence took the paw and shook, but he didn't share the same attitude. "I can't really agree with you. It was my fault that Kaim was injured…"
Kaim heard the little Totodile say this and wished he could do something to make the Totodile feel better. Even if it had been Cade's fault, it was Kaim's decision to rescue him in the first place from any danger.
"When I became a member of a rescue and exploration squad," Kaim said out loud, "I promised myself that I would grow to not be afraid and that I couldn't blame somebody for what happened to me on missions. Of course, it's easy to accept blame for your own actions. My real problem is being afraid all the time."
Cade showed little signs of a change of heart. Lumen, however, had adopted a thinker's pose. "I have an idea," Lumen proposed. "Would anyone like to hear it?"
Cade and Kaim both nodded their heads in approval. "Well," Lumen started, "Kaim, your goal is to grow in body, mind and soul. As such, you joined an exploration guild in order to seek out and acquire this goal." Lumen then turned to Cade. "Cade here has just woken up and claims he was once human and remembers nothing else. I'd say that you're goal right now is to find out who you were and why you're a Totodile, correct?"
"Mmmm…I guess…" Cade agreed half-heartedly. "That's about the only thing I have going for me."
"Well, in that case, you're goals are quite similar," Lumen concluded. "Ergo, maybe you should join my guild Cadence. Guiding Light is always looking for new members, and as an explorer and or rescuer you get to travel and experience plenty of new and exciting things. Plus, you get paid by your clients and receive room and board from the HQ."
Cade and Kaim both looked at Lumen with really happy faces, mostly Cade.
"You mean it Mr. Lumen!" the Totodile asked in excitement.
"Sure…and besides…" Lumen adopted a proud stance and pointed to Kaim dramatically. "My colleague successfully rescued somebody in dire trouble, and as such, deserves pay for his valiant services!"
'But you were the one who saved us both Master Lumen…' Kaim thought to himself. 'And on top of that Cade was never a registered client so we can't legally charge him…'
"I know what you're thinking Kaim. Don't speak." Lumen said in a serious, draconian tone. Kaim shivered in inexplicable fright.
"Ye-Yes Master Lumen, sir…!" Kaim squeaked in response.
"Anyway, I have decided. As of this moment, I am drafting you, Cadence the Totodile…human…thing… into my guild as means of repaying your debt to my colleague and will remain in service until the debt is repaid! As such, tomorrow you will rise with our guild herald's alarm for training and debriefing! Do you understand, Mr. Cadence?"
Cade was kind of awed by how drastic the Lucario's change of personality was. He was quite the character, but Cade admired that. He was a funny and cool kind of guy.
"I gave you an assignment, Cadence. Do you comply?" Lumen asked impatiently.
Cade snapped back to reality. "Yeah! Ok Lumen!" he affirmed with a smile.
"THAT'S MASTER LUMEN! OR LUMEN, SIR! OR MASTER LUMEN, SIR!" the Lucario roared at the Totodile. Cadence freaked out and cringed back some.
"B-But I thought you didn't want me to refer to you formal-"
"You are a member of Guiding Light now!" Lumen exclaimed. "As such, I am your leader and deserve to be treated with respect properly due to me! Understood?"
"Yes Master Lumen…I mean, Yes Lumen, sir…I mean yes Master Lumen, sir!"
"Good!" the Lucario acknowledged, returning to his previous demeanor. "I'll be seeing you at the top of the lighthouse tomorrow morning, so don't be late…"
"UNDERSTAND…?"
Cade nodded his head as rapidly as he could, even though he had no idea what lighthouse Lumen was talking about. But he feared to figure out what would happen if he answered any differently.
"Kaim, if you feel like you can walk tomorrow morning and Lady Anastasia decides you're fit to, you are to escort Cade, ok?"
"You kidding?" Kaim asked with a bold look. "I could run a mile right now, I feel great sir!" Kaim again attempted this time to get out of the cot. He might have actually done so, but this time a yell from another room that sounded like Anastasia stressed "Stay in the bed!" Kaim merely retreated back under the covers.
Eventually, Anastasia returned with a bale of straw, left again, and came back with a pillow, sheet, and blankets and prepared a second cot. She then used Psychic to apply some cloth drapes to the windows, blocking out some of the cool night's sea breeze. "Alright, all set. Time for bed then!" she said, eager to get some sleep of her own.
Kaim yawned loudly before saying, "Thank you for everything, m'lady!"
Anastasia curtsied with her gown. "It is only my job as head doctor. And as I said before, two days we worked on you but the one who helped you the most was Cadence."
Cade, who had climbed into his cot by now, laughed. "Really, I don't even know how I'm doing it," he exclaimed.
"Well, it's obvious you don't know how to use Aqua Ring properly," Lumen told him, "as you exerted practically all the energy you had both times you've used it. Maybe I can find someone to help you with that."
"Later, but right now, I need to lie down and…" Cade paused for a moment, "reflect on all this."
Lumen smiled. "I completely understand, and I hope you both get some well deserved rest." The Lucario stood up and he and the Gardevoir waved goodbye to the two little pokemon, who returned the waves with those of their own.
As the two high ranking officers left the infirmary, they began walking down the dark hall. Lumen had formed an Aura Sphere and it provided a bright glow to light their path. Gardevoir started talking quietly.
"So, you plan on milking that poor Totodile for all he's worth then, huh?" she asked with obvious angst in her voice.
"Oh please," Lumen responded, "Not like anything'll happen. And besides, it's giving the little tyke an opportunity to search for some answers a-OWWW! Nurses are supposed to heal, not hurt!" The Lucario rubbed his now very sore head where the Gardevoir had just hand-chopped him violently.
"I can't believe you'd act so nonchalantly about all that, especially after what happened to Kaim!" she exclaimed in anger. "And on top of that, there's this whole thing about Cadence being human! What's that supposed to mean! Libranum hasn't seen humans in… pssh! Arceus alone knows how long its been."
Lumen merely shrugged his shoulders. "I was kinda getting to that. We can't do much right now and neither of us knows what on earth it means. So let's just let it flow; see what happens. Maybe the kid will find something, maybe not. And all the meanwhile, I make a good ally and employee! Everyone wins, eh?"
Anastasia merely glared at Lumen before replying, "I'm so telling Eureka about this when she gets back…"
Lumen gasped. "HHH! Traitor, you wouldn't!" he accused her, hoping that it was a bluff.
"Already on my to-do list. And what a respectful way to speak about your own mate, you mangy pile of crap!"
"Hey, that is no way to address you're guild master!"
WHACK!
"Owwww! My head! Dangit Anastasia!"
The soft sound of waves crashing against the sand and monoliths of the beach echoed from the distance through the draped windows of the infirmary. It was soothing, but Cadence was hardly paying it any heed. His mind was racing through what little memories he had. Course they could hardly be called memories. There were his experiences of today, two days ago, and then the memory of being human.
And then the piece of the dream he had. He couldn't remember all of it, just the name that came from it.
Cadence…
"Cade, are you awake?" came the hushed voice of Kaim.
"Yes. You ok, something you need?" Cade turned over towards the Charmander's cot to find Kaim sitting up in bed and looking over at him, any visibility due only to the lizard's tail.
"No not really," Kaim replied. "I…just wanted to thank you for helping me so much."
Cade grew very disappointed. "Hmph…" the Totodile grumbled. "Don't mention it. I should be thanking you and apologizing for getting in your way."
Kaim did his best to smile even with the Totodile being so sad. "You really shouldn't beat yourself up. It doesn't really matter whose fault it was that I got hurt, but I'm all better now thanks to you! And that's what matters!"
Cade smiled as tears began to well up in his eyes from the Charmander's sincerity. "Thanks Kaim, you've been really nice to me ever since we met. I hope I can pay you back for it…" Cadence sniffled a little and tried rubbing the potential tears from his eyes.
Kaim did his best to prevent himself from crying. He was sort of an empath like that; he was susceptible to heavy emotions like it was the common cold. "Hey, it's what friends are for, right? And we're exploration partners as of now, so we have to look out for each other anyway," he noted. "It's part of the job!"
Cade breathed in sharply. "F-Friends?" he asked unsuredly. "You wanna be my friend?"
Kaim blinked in surprise. "Well, yeah!" the Charmander exclaimed ecstatically. "You've been nice to me too, ya' know? Truth be told, I don't get a lot of attention. I'm sorta the bottom rung of the guild ladder if you catch my drift."
"But, you've only known me for two days…most of which we've spent asleep!"
Kaim shrugged and continued smiling brightly. "So? From what I know about you, you seem to be a nice and honest Totodile…I mean, person!"
Cade giggled softly at that. "Don't worry about correcting yourself like that. Until I find some hint as to my origins, I might as well be a perfectly normal Totodile. But Kaim," the Totodile breathed in softly.
"I would be happy to be friends with you."
"Really, oh thank you, thank you so much!" the Charmander exclaimed with overflowing joy as if he had just accepted some phenomenal award. You would think he'd never had a friend in the world. It was even more to Cade's surprise when Kaim busted out of his cot and 'glomped' him in a surprise tackle hug.
"Thank you so much!" Kaim yelled again happily while hugging Cade tightly.
"Yeah, sure, no problem!" he squeaked in between gasps of precious oxygen. "But you might wanna get back in your bed and rest. And quit suffocating me before your new friend dies…please…"
Kaim blinked confusedly before realizing his tight grip around the Totodile's throat. "Oh, whoops! Ehehe…sorry about that," he apologized nervously, laughing to try and ease the situation. Cade on the other hand was rubbing his poor neck and breathing deeply.
"Well," Kaim exclaimed brightly as he climbed back into bed, "tomorrow is your first day of training…and my second!"
"You mean to tell me you're only one day my senior in rank!" Cade asked surprised.
Kaim scratched his head nervously, "Yeah, kinda sorta. Technically, you joined three days after me given the two we spent asleep." Cade was staring aghast at the Charmander. "Oh boy, this is gonna be fun… Good night, Cadence!"
"Seeya' in the morning, Kaim."
The two little pokemon drifted off into silence with the exception of their gentle breathing. Just as silent to the world were the phenomenal dreams that they were having, both unique and equally important to both of them individually. However, as the slept, they were unaware of the stout shadowy figure that had climbed in through one window without a drape. It sat on the windowsill, watching them…