He lay in the soft mud environment of the Pokeball, eyes drooping as he drifted off to sleep.
His Trainer, Titus, had been so happy when he evolved.
And yet.
The fire had reawakened that deep rumbling fear in his chest. He ran and fled and dug for his life. He fought far harder and when his world became consumed by flames, when his new family was threatened with fire, that fear nearly killed him. He couldn't bear to feel that pain again.
"Keep up, Little One, your brothers and sisters will leave you nothing to eat if you do not!"
That was Mother, tall and broad of shoulder and strong. She was warmth and safety and the protector of them all. When predators drew close, she would deal with them. When they were hungry, she found food. And when they cried, she comforted them.
He was a Mudkip again, diving through the waters of the lake to follow his nine brothers and sisters, all bigger and stronger through evolution. He was small, but he had heart and he loved them all, Mother most of all. They would tease him, ask him when he would grow big and strong like them. And they played, and though it was hard to keep up with his siblings he never gave up and they never discouraged him.
Those happy memories faded to black, and the depths of the lake vanished before his eyes. Brother and sister alike were consumed by darkness.
He was being pulled from the ground where he slept, dragged out of the mud by his eldest brother.
As his eyes focused, he noticed the light around them.
The world was bathed in the orange wavering light of fire, the forest ablaze and the lake was glowing with the light of the flames.
"Get up, Little One, we must leave, now!"
He did not understand. Where was Mother? His other siblings? The fire, what had happened-
"She is fighting. Fighting for all of us and we must go!"
The lake was thrashing in the throes of aquatic combat. A serpentine creature loomed over the blazing forest and the tumultuous waters. The great serpent opened its maw, revealing fangs that could crush stone and an orange light gathered in its mouth. The serpent turned its maw skyward, and the beam split the very clouds and drowned any noise nearby. Brother and sister alike screamed at him to move, but he could not hear them.
And from the waters, she emerged.
A titanic wave wrapped about her form that rose up to carry her forward, she flung herself at the almighty serpent. And the serpent met her challenge with a blast of flame from its maw.
His vision faded to white as the flames overtook everything.
When next he awoke, he was lying not in the ground, but near Mother, tucked against her sleeping form and calmed by the gentle rise and fall of her breathing.
He smiled as he stood up and looked around, saw brother and sister all there and gathered and waiting for him to awaken. It had just been a terrible, terrible nightmare. Mother was fine, there was no great serpent burning down their home.
"Brother, we cannot stay here."
This was his eldest brother, the first to evolve in their family.
He did not understand. Mother was here. They were all here, they were fine, they could stay and splash in the waters-
"No. She is not fine. We cannot stay here."
He was lying, Mother was fine! That is a cruel joke, brother!
He turned to prove eldest brother wrong, and saw the state of her.
Burned and cut, chewed and spit up. Bleeding and broken was Mother, their protector. She drew ragged, soft breaths, labored and in pain. Their guardian was beaten and in agony.
No, no no no no-
"There is nothing to be done. Those humans will come again. They will come and take us all away. Mother cannot protect us. That Great Serpent Gyarados was felled and captured by those humans but they will find Mother soon, too."
She could protect us all though once she's better, she'll be fine-
"No! She is dying. She gave her life so that we might keep ours. The waters are warmer in the south, that is where she has told us to go."
No! I won't leave her, not now, not when she needs us-
"You cannot stay here! You will shame the sacrifice she has made for us, staying here to become prey or the fighting pet of those humans!"
And his brother was on top of him, slamming him into the ground and beating him with hardened fists before his siblings intervened. They tore them apart, and he dove for Mother's side. And he cried. He wept when his siblings had gone. He wept harder when Mother drew her last ragged breath. He wept every moment of returning her to the earth.
And he wept again every night he dreamt of flames.