Horsea and Kingdra

It was a lazy kind of day at the beach. There were a few humans running around on the beach, but they didn't seem to be running for any particular reason. The tides were calm and the sky was void of clouds. Over the warm water, a green dragonfly flew here and there, looking for something to eat. While the day was pleasant, it still had to concern itself with matters of survival. The green dragonfly wasn't in any danger of running out of food, but there was also…

A blast of black ink hit it, momentarily blinding the green dragonfly and mucking up its thin wings enough that it crashed into the water. A second later, it was snatched up and eaten by the Horsea that had shot it down. The Pokemon also had to concern itself with matters of survival.

Including predators. Although the tides were sluggish and she was in no danger of being whisked away, the Horsea still wrapped her tail around a rock. She let her blue body be swayed back and forth, as if she were another piece of seaweed or other debris. The water was shallow at this point, so she could shoot down little bugs to eat without moving that much.

One of the humans splashed into the water with no concern for stealth. The Horsea chose to remain motionless. Most of the time, that tactic worked. Not this time. The human grabbed her with two grimy hands and lifted her out of the water. "I've got a Pokemon!" it called out triumphantly.

Squirming, the Horsea tried to wiggle out of the human's grasp. When she didn't make much progress, she spat a bullet of ink at his eyes. It made him yelp and crash about in the water. It did not make him drop her, though.

Instead, he squeezed her tighter. "Hey, what was that for? I didn't do nothing to you. I'm going to make you pay for that."

She continued to fight against him, spitting at his nose this time. He squeezed her tighter, pressing hard against her gills. Being forced to use air instead of water, it was hard enough for her to breathe. She was genuinely afraid of being killed.

Then, another one of the humans came up and shoved the one tormenting her. This finally got him to drop her. She gasped in the water, forcing the air out of her gills. While her first instinct was to flee, she saw that the second human boy was fighting with the other. "You shouldn't be mean to Pokemon like that!"

"I wasn't being mean," the first one retorted with a punch. "I was just playing. Besides, it's just some other animal."

"No it isn't. Pokemon are the children of nature; we should respect them."

The bully then shoved the second boy into the water. "You've been listening to that loony old witch, haven't you? She's dumb and so are you." He turned to leave.

The Horsea swam a little closer to the one who had helped her. Although he was pretty much like any other human, there was an odd mark on his wrist. It was a black pattern of circles and lines all the way around his wrist, a tattoo even though she didn't have a word for it. That particular pattern showed up on undersea caves around the area where Lugia swam. What was this human doing with a mark like that?

Sitting up so that he was chest-deep in the water instead of almost under, the boy muttered, "If you don't show respect, they show you none in return."

The Horsea poked her head above the surface near him. She whinnied softly, not wanting to call the attention of the other boy. Maybe that attitude was why he had the mark of Lugia.

He looked over at her and smiled. He raised his hand up closer to her, but she shied away. "You're welcome, little Horsea."

"What was that?" the bully said, turning back around.

Not wanting to risk another capture, the Horsea swam off deeper into the water.

Years later…

She had proven her worth to the oceans. The grand waters accepted her as one of the bravest and kindest Pokemon within. Because of that, the oceans had changed her into a Kingdra. A dragon of grace and power, there were hardly any predator in the sea that would pursue her.

Yet she preferred to be still at the bottom of the ocean, linked to a rock and pretending to be a piece of seaweed. Granted, it was a much bigger piece of seaweed now. Her form as a Kingdra helped even more than her Horsea or even her Seadra forms, as many frills off the back of her neck floated out and swayed with the tides. Some things never changed.

And some things did change. She was rarely in the shallows any more. Her home was now deep in the ocean, where sunlight could not reach. Due to the darkness, she had to rely on more than accuracy through sight. The Kingdra could now accurately hit small prey from fifty yards away just by smell. If it were a noisy creature, it was even easier.

One day while resting after a fierce battle with a Huntail, the Kingdra was surprised to hear a bird's call. She closed her eyes and listened, stilled her frills to feel. There was a slight disturbance in the tides, rhythmic but not a rhythm of the ocean. Was it the master of storms, Lugia? Sometimes she heard him in passing. She stayed respectfully silent as he passed by.

There is an old debt that you should repay. Go now to the surface.

An old debt? She could only think of one person she had never repaid. But that had been a human boy, who was probably grown into a man by now. There was no way for her to know which human he was from the many above the surface. But if Lugia said it was, then it must be so. The Kingdra let go of the rock she'd been anchored to and swam up to the surface.

It took several minutes to reach the surface. On the way up, she accustomed her eyes to the sunlight and her body to the lessened pressure. There was a large shadow on the surface. It was probably a human sailing ship. If it was there, the man she had briefly encountered long ago might be on board. But would he be?

When she came above the tides, the Kingdra heard a commotion on the ship. She swam around to the other side. From the angle she had, it was hard to tell exactly what was going on. But there was a man on the railing of the ship being threatened with a sword by another man. The sword-bearer had much fancier clothes; the one on the rails looked like he'd been through a rough fight. Other humans seemed to be near them.

"Give back the amulet," the sword-bearer ordered firmly. "We might spare your life if you do."

"You wouldn't know what to do with it," the one on the rails said. He glanced down at the ocean.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Try me." Then he jumped off the ship into the ocean.

The Kingdra was worried about this. The shore was too far away for a human to swim there. Without hesitation, she swam over to him and bumped her head into his chest. He wrapped his arm around her; she was much larger now, so he couldn't easily choke her as the bully had years ago. She then brought him above the surface where he could breathe.

"Thank you, child of nature," he said. He patted her snout.

And on that wrist, there was a pattern that was like one on Lugia's caves. Then it was probably the boy who rescued her years ago. She whinnied softly; now she could truly say that she repaid all of her debts.

"Curse you, Sinbad!" the one on the ship shouted. "Men, kill him and that Pokemon!"

That could not go unpunished. The Kingdra swam towards the back of the ship as its crew gathered guns to fire at them. Choosing her target as the ship's rudder, she summoned a Whirlpool into being. If she could damage the ship's rudder, they would be in trouble. She had heard that from a Starmie once and, since they were one of the smartest creatures of the oceans, she committed it to memory,

The tides began to change, swirling into a vortex. But something unexpected happened. The vortex grew impossibly fast. While her attacks were powerful, she knew they weren't that powerful. The Kingdra swam with the man Sinbad away from the ship and the growing whirlpool.

As it continued to grow, panicked shouts came from the sailing ship. The waters grew immensely strong, far too strong for being a calm weather day. When the Kingdra peered back, the ship was being spun around. It tried to escape the vortex, but the whirlpool dragged it back to the center, down below the tides. As she reached a safe distance away, the ocean swallowed the humans' ship whole.

She wasn't that powerful. She knew what her powers could do, and that whirlpool was much too big. However, she heard another bird cry from below her, reassuring her. The gods had some plan for the man she had rescued. They would make sure that he was able to do whatever task they had assigned him.

Sinbad gave an awed gasp when he saw what had happened to his enemies. "I rescued a little Horsea once," he told her. "You seem to have grown. But I never thought that a Pokemon like that could grow into something powerful enough to destroy an entire ship."

Unable to correct him, she simply turned and swam on. Despite it being a long time ago, she remembered the way back to the beach where they had met. She would take him there and leave him to his quest.

...

Horsea Leaf Green entry: Known to shoot down flying bugs with precision blasts of ink from the surface of the water.

Kingdra Emerald entry: It sleeps quietly, deep on the ocean floor. When it comes up to the surface, it creates a huge whirlpool that can swallow even ships.

And just in case, Sinbad is a hero and sailor from 1,001 Arabian Nights.