Chapter 7 - Constellations
Aria was rolling around, laughing. She didn't even care her fur was getting dirty with sand. Her trainer was staring in disbelief at the water, soaking wet and at a complete loss for words. It was priceless.
Delia wanted to laugh at Cee too, unfortunately, she was too polite. Also, she was pissed off.
"Why did you let it run away like that?" Delia complained.
"Why did… I let it run…?" Cee repeated, still dumbfounded
Would the seel come back? Now that was wishful thinking, the girl realised. The laughing eevee only made her more bitter.
"Not like I had a choice, did I?" the trainer muttered, still staring at the water. It was a moonless night, she was not able to see much beyond the shore. Not that it would make any difference if she was. Chu—the seel, it was not coming back.
Powder stroked her head on Celeste's leg, trying to cheer up her mama somehow. She didn't like when Celeste was sad. Aria, still barely recovered from her laughing fit, let out a snarky cry to let the vulpix know it was a lost cause.
Delia was confused about the whole situation. Cee was a trainer, right? She had introduced herself as such.
"You could have battled it, maybe?" the Pallet girl said, putting her hands on her hips. "Were you seriously trying to sweet talk a pokémon into joining you?"
"That wasn't sweet… Never mind," Celeste hissed. "Why do you care, anyway?"
"Because Shelly, even though she is the dearest, cannot tow our lifeboat by herself."
"Well… That seems like a problem."
"Yeah, maybe something to have considered before spooking off the seel."
"I didn't think I was…" Celeste said, looking at her feet in embarrassment. "I thought we were having a moment… You know, with the clapping and jumping, I figured it would be happy to be my pokémon."
"Cee, it was a seel," Delia said, controlling her voice the best she could. "All it does is jump and clap."
"Whatever. We can figure it out tomorrow, ok?" the trainer said in defeat.
Celeste sat down in the sand, somehow trying to fluff it. This would not work, she realised, glancing at Delia. The Pallet girl had made a bed with some leaves, not the most comfortable setup, but she and Shelly wouldn't be dusting off the sand for days to come.
The trainer sighed and decided she didn't care. She already rolled in the sand enough to be worried about cleanness. She hoped the night wouldn't be too cold and uncomfortable.
As soon as Celeste closed her eyes, her two very fluffy pokémon came to cuddle with her. Powder immediately curled on the girl's stomach. It always surprised her how warm her ice type actually was.
"Ve?" Aria asked, nuzzling her trainer's cheek. Was that an apology for mocking Celeste earlier? No. That wouldn't be like Aria.
The pokémon turned around for a while and finally found a comfortable position, resting her head on Celeste's shoulder. Before closing her eyes, the eevee gave her trainer a teasing look, and the girl chuckled in response. She was sure Aria would find something else to tease Celeste about tomorrow, but for tonight, she was glad she had her pokémon around.
—*—*—
Hours passed, or maybe it was minutes, Celeste wouldn't know. Aside from the waves and the occasional howl of the wind, there was no sound. She would normally be worried about some wild pokémon attacking, but she didn't think there were any still around. Nonetheless, she was scared.
"Are you awake?" the trainer asked in a low voice, not to wake up the pokémon cuddling to her.
"Yes," Delia answered, barely audibly.
"Sorry about the seel thing," Celeste made the peace offering. She usually found talking helped when she was afraid.
"It's ok…" Delia took it, "I guess all trainers get carried away like that from time to time. I sure used to…"
"Wait, you were a trainer? I thought you said it wasn't in the cards for you."
"I was… but only for a little while…" Delia answered, not wanting to elaborate.
For a moment, the Pallet town girl closed her eyes and remembered her team. They didn't get to travel much or win any badges, but she loved them, all things considered.
"I still don't get why you didn't battle the seel. I'm sure you would have caught it," Delia said, attempting to change the subject. She couldn't sleep as well, and talking would be nice, but she refused to talk about things that hurt.
"I guess I didn't remember this was an option," Celeste admitted, thankful that Delia could not see her face getting redder.
"What sort of trainer doesn't remember they can battle pokémon before catching?" Delia snorted.
"Hey, I'm new to this trainer thing, okay? Seel would have been my third pokémon, you know?"
"You can't possibly be THAT new," Delia said, looking over at the other girl. "Aria has to be your starter, right? It seems like you have been together for a while."
"She is," Celeste said proudly. She knew eevees weren't too rare, but she thought none was as great as her Aria. Celeste gave away a smile that was lost in the night's darkness and continued, "Beats getting a rabbit, huh?"
The trainer recalled her school days, back in Galar and the many classmates she used to spend time with. That felt like ages ago, yet she could see their faces: her once best friends, Kara and Carlos; Rairai, who she still kept in touch with; and of course, Lyra.
"A rabbit?" Delia asked.
Celeste hated the obnoxious Lyra and that fire pokémon of hers.
"Yeah, I knew someone who had a scorbunny. When I was in school, this girl got it as her starter before anyone else. But instead of leaving for a journey or something, she stayed around acting like she was the queen of the world," Celeste said, rolling her eyes at the memory.
"She wasn't very nice?"
"She was the worst. And last I heard, she was doing good in the gym circuit. Champion Peony himself said she was a prodigy," Celeste said through her teeth. "It's just unbelievable."
Delia giggled at Celeste's. The assistant had 'friends' like that, too. Was that supposed to be some sort of constant in the universe? Do we all get to be slapped in the face with our rival's successes? Or maybe the girls were just the resentful type…?
"So, what were your choices when you became a trainer?" Delia asked, deciding it was best to change the subject yet again.
"My choices for what?"
"For starters in your region. These are the three pokémon that are usually recommended for new trainers," Delia elaborated.
"Oh that. Right. I think they were scorbunny, that is the fire one," Celeste started counting her fingers, "then there is sobble, the water one and grookey, the grass one."
"No eevee?"
"Is that weird? To have a starter outside the overly exposed trio?"
"I'm not judging," Delia giggled, "Mine was a shellder I got on a fishing trip with my mom."
"A shellder for a starter," Celeste said. "That must have been interesting."
"Let's just say that ten-year-old Delia Ketchum would not put Shelly down for a minute," the girl finished, looking at the stars. The sky was very clear.
"You start at ten here?" Celeste asked, also paying attention to the star-filled sky. "In Galar, you are not allowed to train before twelve."
"Was that when you got your eevee?" the Pallet girl asked. "Birthday present?"
"I was almost thirteen at the time. So no." Celeste was trying to identify the constellations. She could see the stars forming decidueye rising above the horizon. "What is your star sign, by the way?"
"Tandemaus, why? Wanna chart my future?"
"I wish," Celeste scoffed. "The sky here is so clear, it's easy to make out constellations. Look, there is the decidueye," she explained, pointing to a group of stars. "And over there is tauros and if you look down east, you can see my star sign, the magikarp."
"Did I seriously make friends with a magikarp?" Delia teased.
"HEY!" Celeste complained while Delia covered her mouth to muffle the sound of her laughing.
It was nice. To find a friend you could talk to and laugh for hours on end.
"You seem to be good at this science and technology thing," Delia said, with a somewhat curious tone.
"Yeah, my parents think so too," Celeste said gloomily. "They would love it if I made a career out of that."
"But you wouldn't?"
"I…" Celeste started talking but realised she didn't have an answer to the question. "I wouldn't mind being a scientist…"
"But?" Delia prompted.
"But I want to be the one who decides," Cee said in a serious tone. "Mom and dad… they mean well, but they want to… to chart my life, I guess. They keep deciding what I should do instead of letting me take charge. Maybe they are right, you know? My life has been pretty good and all… but I can't help but think that maybe I could have dreams of my own. Dreams that are as big as the stars themselves…"
"Dreams that are as big as the stars, huh?" Delia repeated thoughtfully, looking at the sky. "They don't seem that big from down here."
"I suppose they don't," Celeste said, not taking her eyes off the constellations above. "But that is because we are millions of light-years away. If we were to get closer, we would see those stars burning brighter than our sun."
"So… do you have a dream like that, Cee?"
"I don't know yet… All I know is that I'm going to be a strong trainer so that once I find my dream, I'll make sure I'm strong enough to protect it!" Celeste said, smiling. She wasn't sure that this made sense, but she was set on keeping going towards this path. "What about you? Do you have a dream, Delia?"
"I suppose I don't," the Pallet brunette said shyly. "It would be nice, though…"
The girls stayed silent for a few moments, looking at the stars.
"So, how does your eevee fit into this story?" Delia finally broke the silence. "Did your parents gift her to you?"
"Not really. I sort of bumped into Aria one day and we became friends."
"Is that actually something that happens to you?" Delia asked, giving out a silent laugh. "Were you walking down the street one day when you saw a cute little eevee and decided to invite her to come along? "
"Well, more like an underwater temple."
"A what now?"
"Nothing…" Celeste quickly looked for an outing, "Hey, I can see the krabby constellation!"
"You bumped into your starter and invited her along," Delia pressed on, not wanting to change the subject this time. "But you must have caught Powder, right?"
"I did…" Celeste answered. "Sort of."
"Sort of?"
"Well… I sort of threw a ball at her about a minute after she hatched. That is sort of catching, right?"
"That is the definition of hatching. But wow! You took care of a vulpix egg. That must have been amazing."
"I didn't take care of the egg though…" Celeste said. "It's a long story."
"We do have all night."
"I suppose we do," Celeste snorted. "But you don't want to tell me about your trainer-not-trainer thing. So are we even?"
"I…" Delia started saying, closing her eyes. "It's not like I have a secret or anything… It's just sad and pointless. Like you said, life is an electrode."
Celeste decided not to push it and closed her eyes, too. Maybe she could fall asleep or maybe she could spend the night sharing stories with her new friend.
"So… you never actually battled and caught a pokémon," Delia acknowledged with a yawn.
Celeste said nothing else though, having long since fallen asleep.
A/N: So I kind of wanted to make a chapter with mostly the girls talking (maybe I'm experimenting :D). Anyway, I know it's talky, but I tried to add some world building and some more about Delia and Celeste. Hope you guys liked it, next time we will have more action in anyway!
On an unrelated note, Aria's nature is 100% sassy and I just love it (I kept going from sassy to naughty though). Powder is gentle.
Next time: Dive and Catch (I'm doing this tease now)