At night, we had all decided to sleep. You humans have your comfy, fluffy beds to sleep on, yes. However, we had something comfy on a different level, me and Kimmy. The grass. It was so soft in this forest. Feather soft. Usually, in places me, mom and sis have lived before, the grass would poke and pinch. That's why we like this forest, in contrary to sleeping out in open fields. Flower places were good too, but that was something only I knew.

I haven't told anyone but late one night, when I was 3, I snuck away from home and went to a human's house just outside of a forest I used to live in. Not my forest, of course. I stayed there for a long time. While there, this nice boy gave me these odd knots of food. They were delicious, but I had tasted what they were supposed to be before. Blukberry. They had this filling and when I bit into one, it would make a mess of my hands, because I tried to eat too fast. You could say it "backfired." I laughed at myself until I had tears in my eyes. I even fell over.

Me and the boy stayed up to outrageous times in the night, just playing around. Neither of us could understand a WORD of what the other was saying, but eventually, we found a way around it with weird gestures. Those became a game very quick. We'd go on, trying to guess what the other was saying. It worked... most of the time. Before too long, we fell asleep, resting in the flower bed behind his house. It was the best sleep I'd ever gotten in my life, though it was also the shortest, because about an hour or two after, his mom came and took him away, back into the house, but not before giggling at me and smiling. I didn't understand at the time, but she wasn't laughing at me. It still made me go full pout mode and hightail it to the forest again.

That day was one of the best days of my life. Though, I never did see that boy again after that. I did try to go back during lunch one day, but we had to move on. I didn't want to get separated from mom, so of course I gave in. We would look for our new home for a month, which led us over streams, through a small cleared-out pass... it's hard to list out every last place went by as we kept on moving. It's easier to say the things we DIDN'T pass by. Human homes.

By the time we had found this place, though, I had never felt so relieved to be liking in one place again. I was just so tired and emotionally drained. It took about a month to even get there. That long, long month that spanned for what felt like half a year. Some tell you that a journey goes by fast if you never stop. That it's over in the blink of an eye. Don't believe them. It's not always so uncomplicated and it wasn't smooth sailing. But, that is ancient history. And it's not the story I want to tell.

Getting back to the point in my story we were focused on, I woke up first, opening my eyes to my hair being in them. Moving it with a hand, I swept the right side away from one, blinking sleepily. "Stupid hair. Wish there was a pokemon with razor leaf around. It's get-" Suddenly... -tack!- a stray nut or rock or something smacked the back of my head, which made me shriek let my hair fall back in my eyes as I spun into a quick sat-up position. I started looking around, right in time to get hit by another one of those... things. I growled, annoyed, looking at who it came from. It was an Aipom that had been doing it. "Butt-face! Stop throwing nuts at my head!"

The Aipom snickered at me and with it's tail hand, it threw another nut at me, harder, which hit me on the shin. I shrieked again and fell over, rubbing my shin as it stung like needles. The guy hit me in the funny bone if things weren't bad enough! I hissed and squirmed while he laughed his head off at me.

That's when he woke up Kimmy, who sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Ralina, shud-aaap~. I'm still- eh?" She spots the Aipom the second one of her hands moved. She looks around at the scene that was playing out, then looks back at the Aipom, who throws another nut at me, missing me this time, though. Sis narrows her eyes at the Aipom and looks at the nuts around me that had been used to hit me all over. She uses Psychic to levitate them from the grass, over to her.

"Hurt MY little sister? Sorry, but she's not your enterTAINMENT!" She let the nuts shoot out at the Aipom as most found their way to the chimp idiot, who jumps at that and tries to shield himself, but falls from the tree, screeching only to be grabbed by another Psychic that draws him in, right to Kimmy. She glares at him, as he seemed to turn pale.

He stutters out. "C-can't you take a j-joke?! Oh oh!" And then that monkey "became a wingull", flying into the sky as it shrieked loudly. We wouldn't ever have to worry about that guy again.

Getting up and dusting myself off, I felt absolutely terrible. First I got picked on by a monkey pokemon, being hit by nuts multiple times without even being able to defend against THAT. Then, my sister had to bail me out, all because I couldn't do it myself. I just stood there, defeated and floored at how terrible my battle skills were... "You and mom..."

My sister blinks, remember I was there as she looked my way. "Ralina, are you okay?!" She ran over and crouched down in front of me, probably so I wouldn't feel small, placing her hands on my arms. "That doofus didn't hurt you did he?!"

All I did for about a minute was think my next words out carefully and back away, shaking her hands off me. "Don't even...! ... The both of you are strong with your mind powers and cool abilities... All I can do so far is teleport and get beat on if something actually knows how to fight..."

Kimmy was left wordless, eyes wide with surprise and shock, mouth hanging open. She didn't find words until seconds later when I was about to go on. "That's not true! You just haven't-"

"Gotten old enough yet? You learned Confusion quick, didn't you?" I took a step away, hiding what was dribbling down my face.. tears... "...Learned to use Confuse Ray on your first birthday. You told me... And mom said she learned to use that Misty Terrain thing way before either of us were born... I didn't ever learn anything special... Just teleport... That can't be used to fight back!"

Kimmy, feeling sorta ashamed, couldn't bring herself to look me in the eye anymore... {So why am I still here?}, I decided to ask myself. I was seconds away from turning and running... but... my legs wouldn't move... I was conflicted. I loved my family,... but at the time I thought surely that they were expecting someone better than me for a daughter or sister. I was so very naive back then. I never knew what I had. All I knew was that I was the weakest of all and it infuriated me to no end. "I'm weak, no matter how smart I am. You two can fight and I just-"

"Enough!", came mom's voice as she stood up, away from the tree, eyes opening up. She had been faking being asleep through most of that to listen to us, I guess... She looked at me and walked over, hands grasping each other. Sitting down on her feet, she sat in front of me and I knew she didn't approve of how I was acting. I could feel it in her eyes... She stares softly down at my tear-ridden face and sighs. "Is this how you have truly been feeling Ralina? Like your weak...?"

I frowned, refusing to look up at my mom, too much shame wracking me, if my shivering and sniveling wasn't enough to tell you how I felt. "Yes..."

Mom frowned, taking a hand and stretching it out to my head to rub a cheek while she spoke. "Darling... do you think fighting is the only strength in this world...? There is so much more power to have than with physical strength alone. You haven't noticed, but you've already shown it many times before."

I used a hand to dry away my tears. "And whats that? That I can run away? I already know I'm the second quickest of us."

"No, Ralina. I told you. It's not physical." She smiled and took her hand away, pointing a finger to her forehead.

Kimmy oh-ed and grinned. "Yeah! We're all really smart. Smarter than the average pokemon!" She hopped over to me, a bit crowding now that she wasn't kneeling, then she bent over toward me as she got right in my face. She then pointed at her head with both hands. "Use your head enough and you can come up with something better than any attack or move someone might try! Get it?!"

My sister... was so hard to read. I could never figure out if she was bratty or crazy... or smart. However, she was right. Smiling with a hidden-by-hair thankfulness in my eyes, I nodded. "...Yeah. Okay... Thanks, Mom, Sis. You two are the best."

I ended up eating a bunch of Pecha Berries off the tree that morning. I remember my sister asking me where I was packing all of it away, cause the portion size was outrageous since I was so little. I didn't know either, so I didn't answer. I just felt so much better after that teary moment that any amount of stuffing myself was probably invisible to me.

After me and sis got done with our berries, she would chew her last bite with me, looking at me through one eye while she smiled. I could tell we were about to be in for something interesting, then. I giggled a bit, then swallowed and going up to mom, who admittedly looked a little distracted by her meal, but I'm sure she just bit into a bad berry. "Hey, mommy?" Mom looked up from her berry in hand and hummed, turning her head to me. "Yes, Dear? What is it?"

Smiling at my own mother's polite and usual tone, I spoke up. "Can me and Sis go playing for a while? We're done eating~." My sister opened her mouth behind me to even show that she wasn't hiding any bits of berry in her mouth corners.

Mom just smiled and nodded to us both regardless of whether she saw empty mouths. "Sure~. Mommy needs to attend to certain things, anyway. It'll give her time to focus, so you two go right o-"

"Thanks mom!" Shouted Kimmy over mom's last few words, then we eagerly sprinted away, leaving mom with wide eyes and a crooked and nervous smile.

Let me try to guess this part, since I don't actually know if she did this or not. She sighs and smirks to herself, closing her eyes and sitting on a flat rock next to the pond. "Those two. What cards~. But truly, do they think I don't know what goes on in their heads?"