Chapter Thirty-Four:
Waters Abound
Disclaimer: I do not own the series Pokémon. Like, at all. It and all its respectable characters are © to Game Freak and Satoshi Tajiri. However, all writing contents and semi-plots here are © to me; unless it is stated otherwise. All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I do not own them.
Notes: I have so much brain rot for this story, it's ridiculous. Legitimately, it swirls about in my head on a constant loop and I have the major story beats I want to hit up. It's just a matter of time and energy and getting there that comprises my blockage.
Current Team: Keno the Marshtomp, Sela the Mightyena, Ambrose the Kirlia, Faye the Taillow, Nux the Magikarp, Gunner the Aron
Badges Won: Stone Badge, Knuckle Badge, Dynamo Badge
Come away, O human child:
To the waters and the wild
With a fair, hand in hand,
For the world's more full
Of weeping than you can understand.
—William Butler Yeats
The pearly-grey shadows that engulfed the land before the dawn truly came offered better light than the sickle-shaped moon had the night before. Shay slogged through her early-morning chores: stoking the embers of the campfire until she could add in some firewood that would actually catch; filling in a small cooking pot with water from the lake to boil for breakfast and coffee; rifling through her pack for everyone's food and getting that set up; caving in and grabbing her lightweight coat to warm her from the chilly morning mist…
Shay busied herself with making coffee when the others began to stir. Faye was the first to do so, fluttering down from her perch in the above tree canopy. She glided in and landed on Shay's shoulder, who merely grunted to the Taillow in greeting. Faye gently nibbled on Shay's earlobe, tugging once or twice on her earrings with light-hearted affection.
"Good morning to you, too," Faye huffed, amusement touching her voice.
"Coffee first. Cheerful banter later," Shay grunted back.
The rest of the team wasn't far behind in rousing from the tent. Once Shay had her traveling coffee thermos in hand and had at least a few gulps of caffeine in her, she wandered over to Nux's little tub. He stirred into action once he caught sight of her, upending waves of water over the rim.
"Hey buddy, what do you say to some breakfast before I let you loose to go train with Keno, huh?"
Nux enthusiastically spat out gobs of water from the surface, caudal fin wriggling delightedly. It was almost reminiscent to a dog's wagging tail. She could imagine him as such; a bright golden-orange Golden Retriever puppy with big floppy ears and poofy fur and a happy, grinning face with warm bright eyes. Just like her old dog, Duncan. She felt the familiar itch-shiver-scratch of Ambrose trailing across her surface thoughts and he chuckled aloud, little fangs poking out from the corners of his muzzle. 'How imaginative.'
She chuckled back and knelt beside Nux's makeshift pot, reaching in and giving him a few rubs along his body. Nux enthusiastically leaned heavily into her wriggling fingers.
"Okay, let me get that breakfast started for everyone."
The motions came easier to her the more coffee she had in her, waking up her sleepy hazed head. The morning mist began to melt away as the sun crested the horizon and rose in the sky. Shay got food moving along in short order and served everyone before filling her own dish to pick at. She spent most of her time sitting beside Nux, once more feeding him his bites until he'd finished off his entire plate.
Keno sidled up beside Shay, tiger-orange eyes bright and dancing with renewed energy. He motioned to Nux whilst still looking at his trainer.
"I can take him out to the lake now if you'd like. I'll keep an eye on him for the day."
Shay gave him a nod and he moved closer, gently scooping the Magikarp up in his broad hands. He turned on his heel and headed off toward the lake's shoreline. Shay turned to the rest of the team and took a prolonged sip of her coffee.
"Okay. The rest of us have our own work to do. Let's get dangerous!"
They spent a good week so far camped out beside the lake. Sela joined Shay on her runs in the mornings, making a few circuits around the lake they had camped beside. Shay often caught sight of Faye flitting through the air, following after them in her own leisurely fashion. It was no different on their seventh day, and counting.
Despite her sore and cramping muscles, she found stretching them out and going slow helped alleviate that. Her left hip acted up every day, after every run.
By the week's end, she no longer felt as though she needed to hobble to get around, restricted by stiff limbs and an even stiffer back. But she had some pain and muscle relaxer medication left over from her kidney stones and head injury from Roxanne's gym. They helped manage the pain to a bearable level to endure each day.
When they returned, Shay took her time to wind down before changing clothes and striking up to make breakfast and coffee, to clean up dishes after, and then return to training with everyone on a rotating schedule.
The days wore on as Shay spent time with each member of her team. It was almost routine by now. The wild pokémon were in abundance and more than happy to oblige in challenges when paths were crossed. When Sela was off on the sidelines, she took to slinking off into the underbrush, looking for more lapin prey to catch or more challenges to take on. Gunner grew stronger with each day, able to take more hits than when he'd started—and able to dish it back out and then some as well.
Shay would shift her attentions to Faye after everyone had finished their midday break meals. A small part of her was disappointed that Keno and Nux alike had missed out over the last few days, but she supposed they might have found something else in the lake.
Not long after they'd entered in a fight with a wild Azumarill, Shay took notice of the faint glow that had engulfed Faye's form. It was a glimmer at first, a light sheen rippling over her glossy feathers. After another battle, this time against a rather scrappy Surskit, did the glow intensify and grow until it was almost too blinding to stare at that Shay's stomach began doing excited little flips.
Yes, yes, yes!
The stout little silhouette of her Taillow lengthened out, growing taller and slimmer until the light dissipated completely, leaving Faye in her evolved form as a Swellow. Faye puffed up her feathers, dark navy-blue catching the midday lighting in a flattering manner. She stretched her wings out, making note of their extended length with a nod of approval. She turned to Shay, an amused glint in her shrewd eyes.
"It's about time," she simply said. Shay offered her a grin in return as Faye hopped over to her. Shay took her up in her hands, bringing the newly evolved Swellow into a light embrace. Faye buried her head against the crook of Shay's neck, shivering with delight.
"I had a gut feeling you were close! Oh, Faye! I'm so proud of you!" Shay said, squealing in delight. Faye squirmed in Shay's grip, and the woman immediately loosened her hold, letting Faye free.
The exhilaration and pride thrummed through Shay for the rest of the afternoon, and before she knew it, the entirety of their day had passed them by. Sela found them, clutching another pair of rabbits in her mouth, waiting patiently as Shay had shifted her training from Faye to Gunner. The Aron had held his own admirably enough, but Shay found shifting him out for Faye or Ambrose proved a better strategy.
Once they polished off their last battle for the day, Sela offered her catch to Shay, a glimmer of pride shining in her bright eyes.
"More dinner," she simply stated with a pleased rumble. She licked her chops, tail wagging. Shay took them in hand and turned to the rest of the team. Over the last week, she became somewhat more proficient with skinning and preparing rabbit meat for dinner. And she was doing quite well with collecting the pelts. They'd hopefully fetch a decent enough penny when they made it to Lavaridge. The meat, Shay also knew, would provide the much-needed calories and protein they all needed for energy to keep battling like they were.
"You guys ready to call it quits for the day?"
Concurrent words of affirmation rose up in answer from the gathered team and Shay nodded tiredly in return to them. They made their way back to camp. Shay set aside the rabbits, and the others settled in themselves to recoup and rest. Shay stumbled her way down to the shoreline of the lake, legs still throbbing from having been on her feet all day. Keno wasn't far off from the sandy shore, his cranial fin slicing through the water as he skimmed across the surface. He popped up and turned to face her when she called his name and he waved at her.
"One second, let me get Nux!"
Before Shay could say anything, he had dipped back below, cranial fin disappearing altogether. Shay popped her mouth closed and waited.
And waited. And waited some more.
After about five minutes passing, Shay called out for the two, watching the surface of the water with knitted brows. Worry squirmed within her guts as she was given no answer. She shielded her eyes from the sun's glare with a hand cupped over her brow.
"C'mon, guys! This isn't funny! Keno, Nux?!"
Something caught Shay's eye. It danced below the surface of the water, and at first, she believed it to be the shimmer of sunlight catching on water. But light didn't move the way this glimmer did. It shifted and contorted, weaving its way closer toward the shore where she stood.
Is that…Nux?
Something deep in the pit of her stomach told her it was. She almost mistook it for dread that was creeping up on her, but she didn't want to sink into the ground to disappear. She was leaning closer, heart drumming away with anticipation. The glimmer grew stronger and moved closer. Shay squinted, frowning and nearly missed Keno coming up, rising up beside the traveling glimmer until he was nearly upon her. He hopped out of the water, tiger-orange eyes bright with excitement and he flashed her that toothless smile of his Shay's way.
"Now, Nux!"
Shay quirked a brow, shooting worried looks between Keno and the lake, expecting the moving glimmer to turn into the sheen of coppery-orange scales skimming the surface.
She saw something flashing in the gleam of sunlight, but it rose too quickly and came bursting into the air with a deluge of foam and spray within seconds. Shay threw up her hands to protect her face, flinching as cold water toppled over her with all the force she would have expected from a performing orca at Sea World in the Splash Zone.
"Oh, come on! How big did he get—this…time…" Shay began with a lungful of panache and vigor, before petering out completely at the sight before her. Keno laughed and waved his broad hands upwards to the towering serpentine form that had risen from the lake. He looked so proud of himself.
"TA-DA! We wanted to surprise you!"
Instead of a squirming Magikarp, a giant Gyarados stood in the shallows. Nux was actually standing, with actual legs. Shay couldn't help but gape at him, and in a brief moment of detachment, she felt like Chihiro, looking up at a clear-headed Haku near the end of Spirited Away.
He looks like a dragon, she thought dumbly. She had been expecting a more viperfish look to his face, gaping jaws and jagged fangs and all. Or perhaps a kind of eel-like creature with a jutting lower mandible and permanently-fixed glowering expression. It struck her then and there that she had never once looked into how a Gyarados was supposed to look like in this world. She hadn't seen anything online, or on television, or even a book.
She only had the references of her world's versions and had remained largely dependent upon that. And yet, every day, she was pleasantly taken by surprise by how different things turned out with every new pokémon she crossed paths with. In that moment, she realized what a complete fucking idiot she was.
Nux leaned in closer to Shay, tilting his massive head to view her with one of his blood-red eyes, a low rumbling sound emanating from him. Shay didn't know when her body had moved of its own accord but it did. Her hands reached out, her legs carried her closer as if drawn in. He was surprising warm to the touch when her fingers clasped along the ridgeline of his jaw.
Nux let out a long breath that was almost a hiss and her hands stilled but there was an encouraging warmth in his gaze, so she continued. He leaned into her touch, and from the corner of her eye, she saw Keno moving in closer to her side.
"You should have seen Nux today, he was so determined! And now look at it him, he wanted to evolve so bad!"
Keno was beaming with pride. She flashed him a smile.
"Well, I hope you show the same enthusiasm for yourself, I can't wait to see you as a Swampert…whenever you're ready, I mean."
Keno waved away her concern and Shay turned back to Nux. He blinked slowly at her and lifted his head away from her, rising up out of reach. He worked his jaw open, white teeth gleaming. He seemed to be figuring out the reconfigured contours of his new jaws. It was like watching a dog trying to work out peanut butter from their mouth. He bobbed his head, working his jaw in a comical open-and-close fashion. Shay beetled her brows together and turned to Keno.
"I don't think I ever asked, but…can—can he talk?"
"Not…really? Not as a Magikarp, but…"
Shay startled when Nux stamped one of his feet so forcefully, it made the ground shudder under her and sprayed her with lake water.
"Of course, I can talk, you two-legged, soft-fleshed disaster of a human being!"
Both she and Keno whipped their heads in Nux's direction, stunned into silence. The Gyarados snorted and whipped his head back, no longer struggling with the mechanics of his own mouth. Shay looked at Keno and he caught her eye, appearing just as bewildered as her. Nux shook his head violently.
"—Tong—t-tongue, I have a tongue now. I have a tongue, one I can use and move of my own accord. Brilliant. I love it. And these big jaws to snap—" Nux continued prattling on, averting his attention from his trainer and teammate. He seemed to take no notice of Shay or Keno as they alternated between staring at the Gyarados and each other.
"Should…should we leave him alone?" Keno whispered to his trainer after a bewildering few minutes. Shay had to take a few moments to gather herself before answering.
"I…I'm not sure. I kind of want to see where this is going, but at the same time, just…wow."
"I know, right?" Keno replied, eyes round and wide. Nux twisted his head to view the lakeside behind him, undulating the length of his body to test its flexibility, its motion. His head followed after the waving motion of his tail for a moment.
"Look how far away my head is to my butt! That's new! I can see my butt now!"
Shay let out a loud laugh but froze with a sharp gasp when Nux whipped his head back around to level her with a hard stare. Even Keno turned to stare at her, mouth slowly popping open in shock. Such a little noise and yet it was like the shot heard around the world. It kickstarted a series of racing thoughts that only struck her in the moment.
Gyarados were, from her recollections, rage-filled beasts that laid waste to whatever was unfortunate to be in their paths. They were known to cause typhoons and storms that could, allegedly, level cities. They were, largely speaking, always angry and violent. They were always on a rampage, razing down everything in their paths.
And she was now in the full focus of that particular pokémon's gaze.
Nux's new red eyes weren't bright like Sela's irises were. These were darker in hue. Like rubies. Like blood. Deep and achingly beautiful.
Strangely enough, in spite of the intensity she was being scrutinized with, Shay didn't believe she was going to be hurt. It had been shocking at first, perhaps even alarming, just how keenly Nux stared at her, unmoving and silent. Yet even with the secondhand thoughts of how fearful a creature a Gyarados should be, she wasn't convinced she'd be in harm's way. There was no prickle at the back of her neck, that squirming-in-the-guts, weak-legged, about-to-piss-her-pants fear she believed there should be.
She advanced a step closer toward the Gyarados—her Gyarados—and lifted a hand, palm open and flat and inviting. Nux's eyes darted to the proffered limb, then fixated his gaze back on her face. His head drifted closer on his long, muscular neck. She heard Keno make a soft noise of a concern behind her.
"I'm sorry that I made any assumptions, Nux. Can we start over?"
He paused about a foot away from her, giving her hand an experimental whiff. The tip of his snout came so close, she could have palmed it. Despite her deep-seated urge to do just that, she held herself back and remained as still as possible, hope slowly blooming along the hollow spaces of her chest. She was suddenly getting How to Train Your Dragon vibes in that moment.
It promptly died when Nux snapped his jaws over her entire hand within the blink of an eye.
It took Shay a few seconds to register what had happened. It took another several seconds longer for the pain to come in, sharp and sudden as it was. She watched as the red suddenly bloomed over her wrist, an abrupt numbness and disconnect registering when she couldn't feel any of her fingers whatsoever.
Shay screamed once it all registered with her, what she was seeing and what she was—and also wasn't—feeling.
