Going forward, Taven found himself spending more time at Burgh's gym, either for training with Brugh or to watch and learn from challengers who came through. It was always exciting, though it was a week or two after his time at the gym began that something more interesting happened after he and Drench left.
As he wandered the city, he passed by one of the pokemon feeders he had come up with with Burgh, smiling to himself at the sight. That smile faded when he saw some people seemingly chase a small pokemon away from the feeder. Without thinking Taven stepped towards the scene, staying a bit away to listen.
"Those damn things give me the creeps," one person, a mid aged man muttered almost to himself as he shuddered, "never even heard of one showing up around Castelia before."
"Well it's here now," said a younger woman with a huff, "and we can't let it prey on the other pokemon."
A predator- pokemon? Taven thought to himself. As much as many people didn't like to admit it, Taven was fully aware that in the wild, some pokemon survived by eating others. If the one these people chased off was something like that, it explained the actions of these. It still didn't put them people in the right, Taven felt, but it explained why they did them. He would just have to talk to Burgh about something less… mean to deal with such pokemon. Relocation, maybe.
"Yeah, but should we chase after it like this?" A third member of the group, a young bearded man, piped in and interrupted Taven's thoughts, "You know what they say about them… what if it winds up preying on us?"
Now Taven was more confused. A small pokemon might be a successful predator to other small pokemon but was hardly a danger to humans, especially if they had pokemon themselves.
"We all know not to follow it or get too close," the younger woman said somewhat confidently, "there's no way that demon can take our souls if we all remember to be careful."
"Even still," The older man cleared his throat, "we'd best figure some way to get rid of it proper, else who knows what I'll get up to."
The group continued to chat as they wandered off, but Taven had stopped listening, looking towards where the small pokemon had gone, baffled.
"Take… their souls…?" he pondered aloud, sharing a look with Drench that told him the Oshawott found the concept equally ridiculous. With a nod shared between them, they went after the pokemon, into a narrow alleyway not far off. They moved slowly, no matter how ridiculous the claims of its abilities were, it was always smart to be cautious around a pokemon that was upset. Especially when said pokemon was in a narrow, dark space.
Well, it should have been dark, but Taven noticed immediately that amidst general trash and detritus was a faint, blue light, flickering ever so slightly, with a quiet jingling cooing noise echoing throughout. Taven and Drench glanced at each other again and this time Drench moved ahead, clambering up onto a trashcan near the light and peering down over the edge at it, before looking back at Taven and making a low noise, followed by slight nose twitch.
Understanding his friend telling him it seemed safe but to still be careful, Taven approached slowly. Rounding the trash can, he saw the source of the light and sound tucked into a small alcove in the junk that formed an almost shelter. It was a small white pokemon that looked rather like a candle, with the flame on its head burning a beautiful blue, but seemingly rather weak at the time. After a brief moment of being amazed at the appearance of this pokemon, Taven noticed something else about it; it was crying.
Admittedly, most pokemon did not cry the way humans did. But pokemon still felt emotion and many expressed in their own ways. And in this small candle pokemon, it seemed that way was its light flickering as it gave a noise many would consider haunting. Taven just found it heartwrenching.
"Hey, you probably didn't get to eat did you?," Taven asked quietly, doing his best to seem non threatening as the pokemon noticed him, "I've got some extra food I could share, if you want?"
As he said this, Taven moved slowly to rummage in his bag. He never needed to feed wild pokemon anymore but it still felt nice to carry extra food to share. The pokemon, for its part, kept its eyes fixed on him, no longer making the noise but its flame still flickering. Taven blinked and glanced at the pokemon, her flame, he corrected himself. He'd found other people, even Burgh, oftentimes had trouble telling if a pokemon was male or female, but he could always tell with a simple look. He shook the distracting thought off as he pulled out some food to offer the small pokemon.
The candle pokemon shrunk away as Taven set the food down between them, but after a brief second, and an encouraging chirrup from Drench, she crept forward cautiously. She didn't eat at first, merely looking at Taven and making a small sound. Taven could tell the small candle-like creature was asking why he was helping.
"It's… sorta what I do," Taven admitted with a slight smile, "I like to help out. And you seem like you need it."
There was a low, quiet noise from the pokemon as she scooted back again suddenly, seemingly afraid to meet Taven's eyes. She was telling him he shouldn't get near her, that she was dangerous. Taven held up a hand gently to quiet the candle- creature.
"No. You're not," he stated plainly, "Those bunch clearly have no idea what they're talking about."
The rebuttal came sharply, the blue flame of the pokemon's head blazing brighter for a second as she let out a sudden noise. Then, all at once she simmered back down to nearly crying. Taven had to take a second to process what he was being told. As much as he could tell, nearly every human the candle pokemon had encountered had said something similar; talking about how dangerous she was or fearing for their lives when she got close. Taven gave a small sigh and shared a look with Drench as the candle- creature turned away, weeping once again.
"Hey," he called gently, not surprised by the lack of response he continued, "Listen, I for one, am willing to be your friend, no matter what anyone else thinks of you."
All at once the candle pokemon stopped crying and looked at him intently. She made a small, quizzical gesture and Taven nodded.
"Yup. I promise," He said with a friendly smile, which grew wider as an idea crossed his mind, "In fact, why don't you come with us?"
This was followed by what was, undeniably, the equivalent of a gasp of surprise and excitement. The small pokemon looked between Taven and Drench, the latter giving an encouraging sound once again. In response, the candle pokemon looked up at Taven and nodded, a small smile spreading over her face.
"Great! Now, let's figure out a name for you, hm?" Taven said, the candle pokemon tilting her head as he thought. His eyes caught on her blue flame and he was reminded of the lights of the city at night. His mind wandered down a path from there until he recalled a word Burgh had often used to describe the sight. Luminous.
"Lumi," He said simply, smiling broadly when the candle pokemon practically spun on the spot in response, then something crossed his mind as he began digging in his bag again, "Oh! One more thing, I'm remembering, to make it official and help keep you safe."
The pokemon, now Lumi, looked at Taven as he fished out a pokeball and held it forward, resting in the palm of his open hand. She seemed to recognize what it was, at least partially and gave a slight nod, moving closer. Lumi touched one of her small, arm-like appendages to the sphere and in a flash she was gone. The ball shook from one side to the other a single time and clicked.
Taven smiled and looked at Drench, who chirruped happily and jumped down from his perch on the trashcan. Taven waited until his companion was next to him before tapping the button and letting their new friend back out, the two being greeted by a smile and a happy noise. Taven for his part, lifted Lumi onto his shoulder as Drench climbed into the boy's bag, and the now trio left the alleyway.
Taven met with Burgh a few days later and made a point to introduce Lumi to the gym leader, who informed him the candle pokemon was known as Litwick. He also admitted that many people did think Litwick stole life energy or something of the sort, but plainly stated he was never sure where such ideas stemmed from, nor was he sure how one would stop their continued spread. He was, however, glad that Taven had seen through such prejudice and encouraged him to train with both his partners.
So, shocking pretty much everyone, this story is still going. I got stuck for a while cause I was writing this chapter and the next two as one and it wasn't working. then I had some life hiccups and couldn't find motivation to continue. Fingers crossed I stick with it this time. this is a story I want to tell.