Ok. Rise and Shine, Kip.

After sitting on my side for a few minutes, I finally decided to get back onto my feet and get ready to start my day.

...whatever that would encompass...

Getting onto all fours again was certainly strange still, but I was at least starting to get used to it. I quickly leaned forward and gave myself a big stretch as well as a large yawn from my maw. Looking back around me, Anthony was out like a light. He didn't seem to be snoring, which was a good sign if I was going to continue sleeping with him, but MAN was he ever drooling!

His mouth was wide open, leaking his saliva all over the slightly yellowing pillow. His body was completely sprawled out across the mattress, and his legs were all twisted in the bed sheets. I couldn't suppress myself and I let out a giggle. Somebody certainly was having a good night's sleep, and it was a great sign considering what I saw in Anthony yesterday. Deciding to leave him to his rest, I readied myself to head around the house and explore.

That's where I encountered my first problem.

Heights.

I knew that I was simply just standing on the side of a bed, but it looked like I was staring down from the top of the fricken Burj Khalifa! The height was staggering to look at from my perspective

...and it was only 2 feet up...

God damnit! Why did this have to happen to ME!

Closing my eyes, I calmed myself down in a huff. There was straight up no reason why I should have been acting this way. I knew that this situation was a bit annoying *snort*, but I had to just carry on.

It's ok. Cats always land on their feet.

Taking a deep breath, I hopped down to the floor.

...and fell flat on my face, AGAIN.

I sat there face down on the floor for a moment, rethinking my entire existence. All my pain was immediately washed away from a feeling of acceptance. I think I just simply didn't care anymore. At least at that moment, I taught myself on how to move forward.

Standing back up on my feet. I quickly scanned my surroundings. Anthony was still asleep, never being woken up by my mishap, and the house was dimly lit through the windows around the household. Looking up towards the headrest of Anthony's bed, I saw a small digital alarm clock, and the time read as 5:33. Was I really up that early in the morning? Not knowing what my sleep habits were like before, I just ended up shrugging it off.

Just another one of my mysteries to solve, I sighed internally to myself.

Considering that there were no doors around, it was safe to assume that moving around the house would at least not be much of an issue for me. I assumed that Anthony would have made such a decision because of Frank. Even though he had psychic powers, maybe it was just easier to get rid of the doors entirely instead of having him waste his energy just trying to open a door with his mind. The frame of the wall clearly showed me that there was at least room for a door. The hinges were still there.

I didn't really care too much about the rest of the house at the moment. I had already seen the most important bits most likely. All I really wanted to do at this point was to go the greenhouse and meet Frank again. I just couldn't believe still that I had been talking to a real Pokémon.

It was good to get at least a little bit of a grasp on how to walk as I went there first. I could easily imagine the term "crab-walking", as that was something people did as an exercise, but this felt far more different.

With the way my body was now, my arms and legs were now placed forward in front of my body, as opposed to horizontally. Standing on all fours was rather comfortable, and a mix of my new paw pads and strong muscles in my limbs made it easy to understand why. With small movements, I was able to get a feel on how to properly walk in my new body. Front left forward, back left forward, front right forward, back right forward. I slowly built up my pace and eventually, I was essentially running on all fours to the other side of the house. I could hardly even think about explaining how I was succeeding at doing this, but it just felt so... natural.

Happy with my small success, I headed right into the wide open room. The plants had not lost their interest in me, and were still just as impressive as they looked to me yesterday. The sunrise outside of the windows looked beautiful. It looked rather hazy in the far reaches of the foreground, and the orange tint started to slowly reach it's way up over the horizon. The sun was a bright orange and peaked its head just over the grass. It was absolutely stunning!

I could tell that the greenhouse was kept in really good shape by Anthony, although, it gave me only more of a reason to wonder why the rest of the house wasn't so pretty. Frank could have possibly had an influence on that, which at least gave me something I could talk to him about. Walking towards the stairs, I suddenly felt a bit nauseous. I wasn't very prepared about what I was going to say to Frank. I knew that this place that I was in was the real deal, and I wasn't going crazy, and that made me feel slightly self conscious about myself. I don't know what kind of person I was before this "incident", but I felt like I was a bit nervous when it came to first impressions, and that I worried a tad too much about what others thought about me. Shaking those feelings aside however, I strutted up the stairs to the second floor of the greenhouse.

Once I got to the top of the stairs, I saw Frank right away. He was casually picking up some firewood from the pile next to the fire and tossing it in lightly. Something about that just seemed so jarring to me, but of course, I would have to just get used to seeing things like that. Looking back towards me, Frank was the first one to say something

"Oh hi there! Good to see you again."

"H-hey," I struggled to say back.

"What's wrong?" The Meowstic asked.

I gave out a small sigh in response. What was I even doing? Why was I nervous? This wasn't a speech I was giving out to a crowd of people. I was just talking to another person. Nobody was around us, and there was nothing to fear in terms of a reaction. I already knew that Frank was a nice guy, I just had to start feeling comfortable again.

"Sorry. I just wanted to apologize about yesterday again. I never gave you the best of impressions," I answered.

Frank seemed genuinely shocked about this.

"Oh, *pffft*, don't worry about that!" Frank laughed. "I put you on the spot and you got nervous. That's all."

Feeling a bit more comfortable with Frank's presence, the conversation began to feel better.

"So what's your name mister? You never told me before."

"Oh, sorry about that," I apologized. "Well, Anthony called me Bud when he picked me up, but my real name is Kip."

I knew that Anthony giving me a name was just because I was viewed as a pet towards him, but I didn't want that to happen between Frank and I. I wasn't a pet, I was a human! I wanted to at least feel like I was treated that way by Frank.

"Oh, well it's very nice to meet you!" Frank exclaimed. He then offered a handshake.

Frank immediately blushed in embarrassment. "O-oh sorry sorry! I uh... forgot."

I chuckled at the action, but found it immediately impressive. Frank, who I thought would just be like any wild animal from the start, had just offered me a handshake as a form of etiquette.

"Ha, don't worry about it," I laughed back as I clumsily brought up my forepaw to complete the handshake haphazardly.

"Do you... mind maybe following me downstairs and showing me around?"

The Meowstic's eyes brightened up at my question.

"Of course!" he announced, though looking downwards for a moment. "I-I haven't had anybody over in a while... a-and it'd be nice to show a friend around."

Frank looked back up towards me and gave me a small smile. A friend hmm? Now that's something I could get behind right now.

Before I knew it, Frank was giving me a tour of the home. As we walked together, his attitude got more and more chipper, and I could tell that he had been waiting for a long time for something like this to happen to him. My first impression of Frank was somewhat of a shy type, but it was obvious now that he just needed a little motivation after being so quiet for so long. It made me happy to see him like this. I knew he wasn't a human like me, but he had just as much emotion as any human would have, and it made me feel better that I was still able to enjoy the aspects of being a human being.

Frank calmed down a bit as we walked outside of the greenhouse. The greenhouse made him feel comfortable by the looks of things, and his information about all of the different types plants that he told me about was absolutely astounding. He didn't look unhappy when we left the confines of the room, but he seemed to instead take on a more serious tone in his body langue, although not by much.

"So, this is called a Kitchen. Humans use it as a place to prepare their food," the Meowstic explained.

I had to hide a giggle, which I did successfully. It was so cute seeing him explain things like this to me. I decided to let him continue.

Frank quickly walked me over towards the laundry room and showed me around. He blushed a little bit explaining that he sometimes liked to jump into a pile of clothing in the laundry basket whenever Anthony had finished a load in the dryer without him noticing. He explained to me that he loved warm places, and that's why he moved upstairs to the room with the fireplace. He even told me that sometimes, he jumped out of the pile to scare Anthony!

It sounded like Frank had a good relationship with Anthony, but it bothered me knowing how bleak his place looked outside of the greenhouse. I thought that I might have been overthinking the situation, but walking with Frank back towards the living room where Anthony slept only made me think I was wrong for overthinking it.

Looking over the room again, it was hard to call the place livable. It looked too barren. Sure, I knew people didn't need to go crazy with their houses and make them look like a penthouse, but there seriously was nothing to look at.

Curiously though, my vision picked up one thing that I had missed; a photograph sitting on the opposite side of the headboard. It was hard to get a good grasp on the image, but it looked like a young woman with a child next to her. That child though, it looked a lot like Anth-

My fur stood on end as I was spooked from behind me. Frank seemingly reacting the same. While looking at the room, I had failed to notice that Anthony was no longer inside of his bed. I was too damn tiny! I couldn't see above the bedsheets!

"Good Morning!" Anthony said as he looked towards us both.

Well, after calming down, it was good to see Anthony in good spirits once again. He gave Frank a big hug, but then looked towards me with a sparkle in his eyes.

"Come on. Let's get you some breakfast, Bud!"

Oh no...

My stomach was growling at the thought. I was really hungry, and I had no idea when I last had eaten something. I might have been getting nutrients from an IV or something back in the hospital, but I was pretty sure I hadn't actually eaten anything with my mouth at least since... well... before this mess happened.

What worried me though, was the food itself. My subconscious started to eat away at itself, pun intended. What was Anthony going to feed me? I couldn't deny what he gave me right? He literally saved me from potentially dying in the wild! I at least owed him that!

But... I didn't want to eat cat food. If my knowledge of Pokémon was still accurate, Pokémon still ate dry food and kibble like an animal would back on Earth, and that did not sound satisfying to me.

Curling my ears down a little bit from the thought, I walked alongside Anthony's foot as we made our way over to the kitchen.

My suspicions were proven moments later as Anthony opened up the top cupboard and pulled a half-empty bag out. The bag said "Poke Pellets," and it didn't take a genius to figure out the connection.

"I-I haven't picked up a bowl for you just yet," Anthony said, looking a little flustered. "I guess if it's ok, you could share with Frank?"

Spacing out in thought, I simply waited for him to start draining the bag into the metal bowl on the floor. The "food" looked just like what I expected; dry looking pellets. Giving the air a big sniff I smelled... nothing. Not even a hint of an aroma could be picked up by my nostrils.

Frank looked excited and dug right in.

Watching him scarf it down was making me feel a little nauseous. It didn't look nearly as appetizing as Frank seemed to think.

Looking over his shoulder, Frank looked at me confused.

"Aren't you gonna eat some?" he said with his mouth partially full.

Breaking out of my trance, I slowly walked forward and gave the bowl a proper, long sniff.

Still nothing...

Closing my eyes, I went down to take a bite. I chomped down onto one of the pellets, but held off on crunching down to break it apart in my mouth. I couldn't really pull myself to do it, and I couldn't open my eyes back up. I sat there for a second, figuring out what I should do.

"Uh, are you okay Kip?"

Nope

I took the bite, fearing the worst.

...and it tasted... good. Really good.

My eyes shot open from the shock, and I continued to take in the taste. Unlike the dry appearance on the outside, the inside was chewy and moist. Not only that though, but it actually had flavor. It tasted almost like blueberries, ripe ones taken straight from the source.

The most shocking thing however, was the smell. Away went the scent of nothing and in came the scent of a freshly made blueberry pie sitting on a windowsill. It was heaven! I dove my face into the bowl and rummaged through the bowl like an absolute maniac. I had almost forgotten how hungry I really was.

I perked my ears up at laughter and poked my head back up after having my fill. Turns out Frank found my appetite for the food to be quite funny, and he was practically howling, rolling around on the floor.

"Well," Anthony started. "I guess you liked it?"

Nodding in approval, I went to go ahead for another bite.

...only to freeze in fear

What did I just do?! I-I-I j-just acted like a damn animal!

No, no no no NO! I couldn't do this. Was this body starting to break into my brain. I remembered the night before, that this wasn't even the first indication of something wrong with me. I snuggled up to Anthony! I was acting like...

...like a cat

Saying nothing, I sprinted away. I didn't want to be here anymore. What was I thinking? I'm not a pet!

I eventually managed to get to the front of the household. There I found the front door. A shelf for footwear stood off to the side with a small broom leaning over on the side. Without thinking, I jolted up the broom as quickly as possible to get to the top, even in my shock that I thought I was losing my mind to the animal, I failed to realize that my agility was unlike anything a human could do, but I was worried about nothing else at the moment then getting outside.

With myself now at the top of the shelf, I quickly leaped over to the door knob. Thankfully, the knob was in the shape of a handle, and by leaping on top of it, my weight brought the handle down, opening the door to the fresh air.

I ran, ran for god knows how long. The sun was still rising, and visibility was rather limited with the haze I had seen earlier as well. No matter what though, I kept running. It took a while, and I don't know where I really went. Eventually though, my energy levels caught up with me, and my legs became numb. At one moment I was continuing my sprint, and the next thing I knew, I was down flat on my belly.

I ended up right by a bush full of flowers, and it gave a bit of a nice scent. Unfortunately though, it did fairly little to help me. Taking deep breaths, I tried to calm myself down as my energy levels came back to me, however I ended up breaking down there instead.

My mind was playing so many tricks on me. I remembered how I thought of Frank as the mercurial one when I met him the first time, but now I was starting to think that that was more of an accurate description of myself!

I didn't know what to do. My mind kept on jolting in random directions. One time I'm fine, and the next I'm overthinking about my entire existence and my purpose of life. My crying began to pick up. As interesting of a situation as this was, I couldn't get myself together. Nothing seemed to be going my way, and my lack of memories made my situation so much worse.

I just wished I had an answer. Anything at all would have been nice, but life isn't fair like that is it? My crying slowed does just as fast as it picked up. I knew I was jumping to conclusions about my situation, but I was too flustered to really combat them.

I was just... scared. Nothing made sense to me. Looking back down towards my neck, I found myself looking at my amulet again. I knew at this point that it had some sort of importance to me, but digging around in my head proved to find me nothing as an answer. Groaning in frustration, I started clawing at the string around my neck, but nothing seemed to work. Just like before, the string seemed to be way stronger than it looked, and I couldn't even get a fray.

Sighing, I fell down again to the ground. The grass below me was rather cold, and it acted as a nice amount of comfort for the time being.

... I had to calm down.

This wasn't a dream. I knew that all so well, however, before I did anything else, I needed to get control of my emotions. I was overthinking things, and I needed to tell myself that it was going to be alright.

And, that was true. The fact is, both Frank and Anthony were real individuals, not some figment of my imagination. Even as I felt as scared as ever in those moments at the food bowl, I knew that this wasn't a punishment. I was brought to Frank and Anthony for a reason, and I needed to suck it up and figure out what that was.

Snorting at my thoughts, I was amused at how quickly my feelings changed again. I couldn't change the past, but, I knew that I needed to try again with those two. Looking back at myself, I knew I was still me. No matter how I looked, I knew that deep down, I was still Kip. Now, would it help if I could remember my own past, absolutely, but dwelling on it at this point wasn't going to help me at all.

If anything, sticking around those two was my best chance at getting my answer...

"Kip?"

Startled, I looked towards the sound, only to see Frank standing there with a worried expression on his face.

I didn't say anything. I was stunned that he had even found me in the first place. I didn't even know where I went. I wanted to say something, anything, but I was simply paralyzed. My sense of fear came back to me, and I stood frozen in place.

"Are you ok, Kip?" the Meowstic asked.

The Meowstic stood there, waiting for my response. I must have been standing there for a solid 30 seconds without saying a word, but eventually, I managed to break free of the mold.

"I-I need help," I stuttered. I'm sorry for scaring you like that Frank, but I need you.

"W-what?" Frank sputtered. "Of course I'd help you, but, what are you afraid of?"

Without thinking, I sprinted into Frank, hugging him down to the ground.

I don't know what came over me, but I needed a feeling of companionship. Frank was the only one I was able to communicate words with, and I wanted him to understand what I was dealing with. My breathing was heavy, and I tried to calm myself with the feeling of Frank's fur on my face. Frank didn't move. Either he was too stunned by my actions, or he was worried that moving my body off of himself would upset me. Eventually, my breathing calmed down, and I lifted myself off of him.

My ears drooped, as I was ashamed of losing myself to my emotions. I hadn't even known who Frank was more than a day, and now I felt like I was treating him as my best friend. However, I knew that he was a friend, one that was willing to help me with my problems. I just needed him to understand me before we went further.

Ok. Here goes...

"I-I'm human, Frank. I'm a human being."

Keinname: I'm very glad you like the story's beginning, and yes, everyone would probably have a different type of reaction to this situation. I have an idea as to how I might react, but who knows unless it actually happens.

Plague Doctor 2035: That's a pretty big honor to have been given from you, and I appreciate your thoughts very much. I know that this story will not be perfect, but I'm happy that people like you are enjoying it so far.

Summerotter: That's great to hear! The start to this story was very worrying, as I was afraid it wouldn't hook anybody in, but I'm glad to see that I accomplished it well for my first time. Thank you very much. Also, thank you for pointing that out. I'll fix that as soon as I can.

Shimx: shimx