"Ghost"

"Vee!" Elise complained, rubbing her head with a paw. "Eevee vee, Eevee?!"

I stared on with apathy, twirling the baton in my hand absently. She must not have agreed with the real consequences of her training. "What, do you think survival is a game? That fighting is fun?" I pointed to my shoulder that Pride had bitten; it was a mess of dried blood that hurt like nothing else. "I can assure you in a real fight, another pokémon will do a lot worse to you than I would."

She didn't have anything to say to that, silently conceding.

"Again."

Elise nodded and cautiously approached. We merely stared each other down for some time, but then she wandered a bit too close.

My baton wooshed as I took a swing at her, but she was ready this time, hopping to the side and trying to circle around back.

A careless error it would be allowing that; I quickly turned to face her.

I saw her, but only after seeing a barrage of stars coming my way. 'Swift,' she called it. The shield didn't falter, but I could see the beginning of some real damage on its surface; she was getting stronger as we sparred.

"I know your tricks. It's time for some new ones," I said.

We found ourselves in a different section of the woodland than we'd passed through a couple days ago. During that time, we traveled through mostly more grassy plains, but we also encountered a prairie as we avoided more civilization. It was a welcome change of scenery with all the various blooming flowers and plants, but I couldn't be more glad to be out of it, as it was teeming with insects that couldn't resist getting in your ears.

Now, we found ourselves amongst the trees again, stopping for an afternoon meal. I continued to push Elise to train as we went. Yes, she couldn't go without knowing how to fight to survive out here, but I also found training to be an easy way to shut her up and give her mind something else to do when she became too much to bear.

We shuffled as we eyed each other. This continued for a while until her face lit up, and she hopped in close again, prompting another swing from me.

She pranced to the side, avoiding the attack, but remained aggressive instead of backing off; this was new.

The Eevee was now to my right, which was problematic and deliberately done by her. I wielded the baton with my right and the shield with my left; I couldn't recover from my whiffed swing quick enough to stop her if she chose to attack.

Sure enough, I felt pain as something crashed into my abdomen and took me off my feet. Luckily, the ground was covered in moss here, so it made for a soft fall.

I stared up at the canopy. Damn, that shouldn't have happened. Working with a shield was unorthodox and clearly required being more conscientious.

Elise stood with her front paws on my chest, making no attempt to hide her pride.

"Ee-vee! Ee-vee! Eevee!" I didn't have the translator on me, having taken it off to preserve it from damage, but I didn't need it to know she was gloating.

"Hm," I grunted, pushing her off, grabbing the translator, and hooking the earpiece over my ear. "Well, you're learning something."

"You're just mad that I beat you; beat you at your own game," she taunted, flicking her tail at me.

I stood and brushed myself off. "I hope your hubris can shine in the wild, princess, because you ain't got nothing if you lose, and you've lost a lot more than you've won."

She looked away, the wind effectively being taken out of her sails. Her being so timid didn't make it easy teaching her to fight, and she wasn't at all a fast learner, but with some time—and likely a lot of pain—she began to pull it all together as she went along.

That, or she just had enough of getting clubbed over the head.

I dropped my tools and grabbed a bottle of water. Today was a hot day, and I felt it, having already gone through three bottles of water.

Elise was nearby, drinking from a stream. "Why do you drink from those things? There's water right here," she asked.

I capped the empty bottle and let it fall, reaching for another. "I could drink from there if I wanted to risk getting sick."

She gave me one of those stupid looks. "I drink from these all the time, and I don't get sick," she said.

I sighed and put my hands on my chest. "Human," I said slowly and with annoyance. My arms then gestured to her. "Pokémon."

She stared on. "And?"

"We're different. Your body is adapted to living in the wild; mine is wimpy and fucked from centuries of civilized living."

"Oh," she simply said, returning to the stream.

I picked up the empty bottle again and inspected it.

"Useful," I muttered and collected the rest, throwing them in my bag.

The sun seeped in through the leaves of the tall trees. I estimated it was about three in the afternoon; we had plenty of daylight to foot it for many more miles. As for plans, I didn't have any. I never would consider the possibility of making it this far after pissing off the biggest threat this nation has ever seen, fully expecting to be caught and killed for what I'd done.

My shoulder throbbed. With training over, I couldn't ignore the pain as easily. I was so close to death, I should've died, but if someone had told me that a puny Eevee who was scared of her own shadow had saved me, I would've asked if they had any vapor left to share with me.

Now and again, I would check on the wound, but it was bad enough that I didn't know what I was looking for. It just looked festered and angry, not to mention that it hurt like a motherfucker. Maybe it still would end up killing me; I had very few means of preventing infection.

Whatever the case, I wasn't dead yet, so until I didn't have the strength to go on, that meant we kept going.

At least, not until she was ready.

I looked at Elise; apparently, the intensity of training caught up to her; she continued to lap up the water from the stream.

I hooked the bungee cables around the shield, pulled it against my back, and heaved the backpack over my chest.

We could've been out of Idian by now at my pace, but I had to babysit a pokémon that couldn't function in the wild and couldn't keep pace with me.

She turned to me as if she heard my thoughts, probably making sure I was still there.

"Oh, no, take your time. It's not like we're being hunted or anything."

Her ears folded, but she stepped forward. "I'm ready."

"Excellent."

Arceus, I hate gravel. Pebbles seemed only to exist to get in my boots, which were a pain to take off, especially with how much I carried.

But it didn't slow me down, mostly because there was no other alternative. The spacious woodland grew increasingly dense as we went along, eventually becoming impassable. The low-hanging branches slapped you in the face, and the thicket pulled at your legs and body. I was thankful to see a road leading through it until I found what it was made of.

"These rocks hurt my paws. Isn't there another way?" Elise complained.

I gestured to the literal wall of green on both sides of the path. "There are our other options; they're even worse," I said.

"Could you carry me like you did in the human colony?" she asked.

"Oh sure, climb aboard; I'm sure there's room in the back somewhere," I said sarcastically, tauting my heavy load for her to see.

She didn't ask again.

I kicked a rock into the woods. If there was anything to be glad about, it was that there weren't any cars running down this shitty road.

Where even were we? I opened a side compartment and found a small handheld device. I powered it on, and it gave me what I sought.

"Fuck, we're in the sticks." I pressed a few buttons to give me a better look through the tiny display.

"What's that?" I heard beside me.

I sighed. "It's called a GPS."

"Gee pee ess?" she enunciated.

"Very good, you know letters," I said, not withholding any sarcasm.

She tilted her head. "What are letters?"

I pinched the bridge of my nose and groaned. "One question at a time, at the very least."

At the corner of my eye, I caught her shuffling uncomfortably. "Sorry, there's just a lot I want to know," she mumbled.

I held out the device for her to see. "GPS, stands for 'Global Positioning System'. The intricacies will be lost on your little pokémon brain, so basically, it tells you where you are on the planet and can guide you to where you want to go."

She stared at it like it was something worth looking at. "Wow. So that's how you know how to get to the mountains?" she asked.

"Yes," I replied simply.

"What if you lose it?"

"I don't lose things."

"In the case that you did," she insisted.

I sighed. "I have my phone, which can do the same thing."

"What if you lose that?"

"Then I have a map and a compass."

"And if you lose those?"

"Then I have the stars and my brain, and if it's cloudy and I find myself without all the things I will not lose, it might get difficult."

Elise giggled and opened her mouth.

"And don't ask what if I lose my brain, smartass, because I already have in this conversation," I barked.

She laughed.

It was the first time I'd ever heard her laugh over the past three days we'd been traveling. It was rich and sweet… a pleasure to hear.

It reminded me of someone; reminded me of…

"Um, are you okay?"

Elise was now looking at me with concern.

I nodded and stared down the road ahead, having lost my train of thought.

"Maybe you did lose your brain," she teased.

"Fuck me, you're annoying."

The questions continued as we walked. Eventually, she brought up the alphabet again, so I had to explain how we used written language to communicate, and ultimately show her examples with some newspaper I kept for starting fires.

She gazed long and hard at the stale news articles but failed to make anything of them.

After a minute, she gave up. "Okay, could you tell me what it says?" she asked, pawing at a story covering a battle tournament someplace in Idian.

"Can't you see I'm busy?" I asked, gesturing to the path ahead.

She rejected my attempts to disengage and kept insisting until I broke.

Sighing, I took a seat in the middle of the road and read, making sure she could see.

I pointed to the beginning of the front-page article. "Veteran trainer Chris Johanson returned from his circuit challenge in Kanto to dominate the Ignus Tournament in his hometown of New Indigo. He showed fierce determination and superior battle knowledge, leading his team to a hard-fought victory over last year's champion Victor Nowel."

She seemed satisfied with that excerpt. "Can you teach me how to understand human written language?"

"Fuck no, that is outside our terms. I've already put up with you breaking them by bugging me nonstop," I stated.

"Please?" she begged.

I shook my head firmly. "I don't have the time or the patience for something like that."

"Come on, how hard can it be?"

"Humans learn this as children in a place called school to suffer for twelve years, seven hours a day, learning a whole bunch of useless crap. Biggest waste of time if I say so."

"Twelve years?" she asked incredulously. "It takes twelve years to learn how to do this?"

I backpedaled at her misunderstanding. "Well, no. Humans learn how to read when they're young, so it's one of the first things they learn during that time."

"Oh," she said, looking up at the sky. "That's still a long time to be doing something."

I nodded. "Uh-huh, that's a lot of time that could be spent doing things that matter. Still, many people even go in for more after their sentence is done; more years spent learning extremely complicated stuff that I couldn't care to even know about."

"Why?"

"Human society is like that. It encourages people to work harder in the promise of a 'better life' than they would get if they didn't. A lot of times, it's a promise that goes unfulfilled, and the people are just fucking screwed."

She put on a face I learned meant I said something she didn't understand.

"Which one is it?" I asked.

"Screwed," she said.

"Ugh," I grunted. Talking to someone unfamiliar with even basic slang was painful. "What am I doing with my life? Alright, what's another way to put it… the best way to describe it is probably 'put into a situation that's hard or impossible to get out of.'"

She nodded in understanding. "I see; why do humans do that to each other?"

"It's not people doing it to each other; it's human society and its values. The more someone knows and or contributes, the more valuable they are to the collective. That's what we are, after all. We work together as a whole to solve problems and grow as a species; it's the price we pay."

"I think I'm beginning to understand, but it's very different from how my family lived," she said.

"Well, yeah, you're a pokémon; you have nothing that compares to what we have. How do you think we survived in a world where everything could just kill us at any time? We had to learn a lot and work hard."

Elise's face lit up. "Oh, I see now! But why were you talking so bad about it, then?"

I sighed. "To give a true answer that you'd understand, you'd need to understand pretty complex shit, so to put it simply, people always want more. They're greedy; some will do whatever it takes to get more. That's the entire reason why your mother was taken; she was worth a lot in the eyes of a horrible person."

Hearing the prolonged silence, I realized that the subject was best left undisturbed. A terrible feeling arose in my gut, and Elise stopped talking; I could feel her staring at me.

The air was suddenly thick and condemning; I'd opened the door and left the rats in. I couldn't fix it, so I defaulted to the next best thing in my mind.

"Let's go, we're burning daylight," I muttered, and we trudged on.

For once, the silence was worse.

Matthew

The apartment was silent as Sabi slept off her hour at the park. I was going to use the food my father gave me and make an actual meal, but I opted to wait until she woke up.

Having no television to watch, I passed time surfing the internet looking up whatever things.

Feeling my fingertips travel through Sabi's coarse fur; it occurred to me that I still hadn't learned much about caring for a pokémon like her. Turning back to the laptop, I figured the international pokémon database wouldn't be a bad place to start.

I was met with a flamboyant, but practical front page. It detailed all the uses and functions of the site, as well as indicated all the regions that contributed to its upkeep and expansion. To my understanding, all major regions had a hand in it and updated it dutifully as a public service to provide information for humankind's knowledge and safety. At the end of the day, pokémon were dangerous creatures; knowledge was power.

Heir hasn't made it into being a contributor yet. Still, more often than not, each species tended to appear and behave identically regardless of setting, so the data from other regions was likely still good.

I typed into the search bar, which took me directly to the page I sought. Immediately, I was assaulted with a slew of information.

Species: Litleo

Species Classification: Lion Cub Pokémon

Nat. Dex Number: #0667

Type Classification(s): Fire, Normal

Native Region(s): Kalos (#057), Paldea (#224)

The list of more or less basic information went on, which then delved into things I wouldn't expect a layman to understand. I wasn't after any of this stuff; those were all classifications made rigid by agreed-upon standards. What I wanted were the pokédex entries; they tended to be well-crafted and made for good summaries.

Litleo lives for the hunt; it is taught at a young age by the female members of the pride and hones its skills through playing with its littermates.

As they grow and gain experience, the small mane adorning their head increases in temperature. In a real fight, it can attain temperatures high enough to cause burns on contact. Though it has claws and fangs, this species highly prefers using 'special attacks' to throw fire or other techniques when attacking.

The cubs are cast off from the pride when they mature and create their own. This species hunts in packs, and as such, the inability to create a pride or find its way into one is typically of fatal consequence.

I read every sentence word-for-word; it wasn't difficult, the entries were only a few paragraphs long. I supposed there wasn't much to a cub; there was only so much to learn. There was likely much more to study when they evolved.

I scrolled down, finding nothing more of use. At the bottom of the relatively small page, two insignias were present: Kalos and Paldea… the only regions where they natively inhabited.

Perusing the page a little more, I stumbled across things regarding their diet. They were—of course—carnivores, so once they were weened, they ate the meat of various pokémon that shared their habitat.

Many of the things I'd read had flagged some problems. First, it had no information about when they weened, but I figured Brittney might have an idea. Second, the page fully supported my father's claims about being ill-suited for house life. They were hunters and fighters; being confined by four walls could bring about all kinds of problems, especially now as she's growing.

Finally, what really caught my attention was the last paragraph. Sabi didn't have a pride anymore; they were exterminated by the hands of humans. Even if I could consider trying to release her into the wild, she had no one to teach her how to survive there; I couldn't foresee a scenario where she wouldn't perish if I released her.

I didn't want her to die; she deserved so much, but now I knew just how deep those resolves got me.

"Oh fuck… this isn't good."

My hands cupped over my face. What was I going to do? All options I had now seemed equally as bad. All I wanted to do was give her a good life; why couldn't I have listened to my father?

My laptop made a dinging noise, meaning I got an email. Seeing it was from the University, I opened it immediately.

Matthew,

Grades for all enrolled classes have been posted by the instructors. Remember that summer classes remain available for enrollment until the 1st of June, so don't miss this chance to accelerate your education.

The University of Ekhol wishes you a fantastic summer; keep your Ekhol spirit high!

-Scholar Success Council

Already? They got done in what had to have been record time. I was worried about what I would find, but didn't allow myself to hesitate. Logging in through the student portal, I opened my report; my GPA was at the top, in big font.

3.79

I was floored. My GPA had never been that bad before. I achieved high honors, but it still felt rotten, like failure. Even though I wanted to make everything work so badly, I simply couldn't.

Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the note the professor gave me and dialed the number. Admitting defeat was never an easy thing to do, but my problems extended far beyond a damaged ego.

I got connected and explained to the woman on the other end that I had an orphaned pokémon that needed sheltering. She seemed very cheery and understanding, not asking many questions, almost like she was expecting my call.

I thanked her and hung up. It was about midday; I just wanted to get it over with. It wasn't going to get any easier.

Sabi awoke about five minutes later. She knew something was up and demanded my attention.

Of course, I gave it to her, all the love and affection the little cub deserved. Afterward, I fed her and petted her some more. I abandoned the idea of eating; I wasn't hungry anymore.

What happened next was a blur; we left the apartment, got in the car, and started the long drive. My mind was in such a fugue that I hardly remember gassing up.

I allowed Sabi to remain out of the ball, but she didn't make it easy. She scratched at me and constantly jumped onto the dash.

"Please, Sabi, that's dangerous," I scolded her to little effect. Luckily, the map took me away from the city and main highway; the tolls were borderline predatory heading into Ferta, since Idian was much better at bringing in money as the nation's tourist destination. I was content to avoid them; I wasn't in any kind of hurry anyway.

An hour passed, which then became two, but it seemed like minutes as I drove down the unpaved side roads. I'm glad the road so transfixed my brain; I don't think I could handle this drive of shame otherwise. As the distance from Ekhol kept growing, the easier it was to resist doing something stupid, like turning back.

The forest flanking us became an impassable barrier, while the dirt road eventually transitioned to gravel approaching the province boundary. Pebbles occasionally could be heard hitting the underside of the car, and we kicked up a trail of dust behind us, but it wouldn't last too long—less than ten miles if the navigation app told the truth.

My mind suddenly jump-started when two figures could be seen walking down the rough road: a human and a pokémon. That in itself was strange, considering the only buildings around were sporadic ramshackle houses. The two were silent, and the way they carried themselves, they seemed uneasy.

Then I saw the state of the human. They were traveling heavily, with a large backpack slung around their front and—bizarrely—what looked like police riot gear somehow attached to their back. Despite the temperature being well into the eighties today, they wore a sweatshirt; as we pulled in closer, I could see it was ready to become rags with how much material it was missing.

Everything I knew told me to be wary of this person. As I approached, they ignored me and continued walking, wanting nothing to do with me. Maybe they were homeless? Whatever the case, everything their person was foreboding, but the Eevee by their side gave a different impression.

Then I noticed the human's injury. With their sweatshirt being black, I almost missed the deep red in the left shoulder area, where there was unmistakable damage from a bite. It seemed too big to have come from the little Eevee; were they attacked by a wild pokémon?

Whatever the case, they needed some medical care, and there was none for probably thirty miles. I pulled the car over on the other side of the road and rolled down the passenger-side window.

"Hello," I called out.

No response; they only kept moving. Looking past their hood, they wore a gaiter that covered the bottom half of their face, but from the facial features, it looked like a man.

I decided to try again. "Are you lost?"

Nothing for a moment, but they surprised me after a while.

"No, I know where I'm going," they said; definitely a man.

They walked past my car; I took my foot off the brakes and allowed the car to inch forward alongside them. "I hope it's to a hospital; that's one nasty wound on your shoulder."

"Eevee!" his travel companion cried, trying to get his attention. "Eevee, Eevee!"

"No," he said firmly; I couldn't tell if that was for me or the pokémon.

Sabi peered out the window, likely hearing a potential playmate in the Eevee. "Leo?"

"Not now, Sabi," I said, pulling her away and looking back at the man. "I can get you there if you want; it'll be a pretty long walk."

He shook his head. "That's okay, we'll get there; thanks anyway."

"How long have you had that? It looks at least a couple days old with the blood there, and it must be pretty painful with lugging all that stuff," I said.

"Spot on," he said simply.

I unlocked the doors. "Hop in the back; you've got to see a doctor."

He shook his head. "No, I can't go," he stated.

"Why not? Your Eevee is probably worried sick."

"Vee! Eevee!" it practically wailed as it climbed his leg.

He pushed the small pokémon away with his leg. "Because… they won't take me."

I frowned. "That's ridiculous; of course they'd treat you. Why wouldn't they?"

The man continued not to look at me. "Let's just say my job has terrible benefits."

The sound of the car's engine dominated for a few moments. He all but said he dealt in shady business. I should have stopped asking questions and driven away, but the state of his shoulder all but demanded attention.

I put the car in park and reached into the back, finding the first aid kit I always kept inside. You never knew when you'd need it.

"Alright, if you don't want to go, will you let me treat you here?" I asked, presenting the red bag.

Here, I finally got a head-on stare. His hazel eyes were tired yet steely, overbearing. "What, are you some sort of doctor?" he asked with a challenging undertone.

I shook my head. "No, but I've had training." He didn't seem convinced. "I wouldn't ask if I didn't think I could help."

Everything I could see said he would reject this offer, too, but I was wrong. With his Eevee's insistence and what had to be searing pain in the shoulder, he stopped walking and sat down at the roadside.

"Sure, have at it, I guess," he said and began taking off his things.

I turned off the car and took the keys. We were in the middle of nowhere, but better safe than sorry.

Sabi was ready to jump out the window after me, but I caught her before she could. "No, you're going to hurt yourself jumping onto these rocks," I chided, placing her down gently.

She wasted no time running up to the Eevee and trying to make friends, but the other pokémon seemed quite skittish and withdrawn, taken aback by the lion cub's forwardness.

I let them do their thing and turned to the man. He had his sweatshirt and undershirt pulled up to reveal bandages that were absolutely coated in dry blood.

"Man, were these ever changed? I'll be surprised if this isn't infected," I said to no reply.

I put on some gloves and began literally tearing the soiled bandages off his shoulder. It took a while, but he never complained, no matter how hard I had to tug.

When all the scraps were in a pile on the ground, I got a look at a gruesome wound and the sad patch-up job that was attempted.

"Who did these stitches? And why did they use thread?" I asked.

"Some asshole, I guess," he said calmly.

I gave him a suspicious look. "I'll say, the ones on your back are hardly holding you closed; it's like they couldn't reach."

He looked away without a word. I opened the medical kit and pulled out a tool to remove stitches. "I need to take these out; bear with me."

He nodded and remained silent as I worked. The thread was easier than expected to remove, but he immediately began bleeding as the wounds reopened. I grabbed a sponge to clean it up and applied some hemostatic granules to help slow the continuous flow.

Quickly, I grabbed some actual sutures and got to work. Apart from the occasional twitch from his body or wince on his face, he still made no noise. I was impressed at the pain tolerance he possessed.

I caught a glimpse at the Eevee inspecting the pile of bandages. For the most part, it was ignoring Sabi's attempts to connect, more intent on watching what I was doing with its trainer. Its body language indicated worry for the human but also gratitude for the attention he was receiving.

Sabi approached the bandages and went in for a sniff.

"Hey, knock it off, you two; that's unsanitary," I scolded, shooing them away.

I hooked the needle through his skin repeatedly and pulled the wound closed tightly. A few minutes later, it was looking pretty good. One more quick washing and an application of an anti-inflammatory cream later, he was ready for new bandaging.

Absently, I wrapped him up as I observed the two pokémon. Sabi seemed to have backed off a bit, and the Eevee, seeing I was almost done, opened up to conversation. What they were talking about was lost on me, but judging by the sight of its ears pulling back, it was something that weighed on it.

I thought about if he might've needed anything else. Miraculously, it didn't look infected, but it would probably be better to be on the safe side. Rummaging through the bag, I found a small bottle of tablets. They didn't come as part of the kit but were a helpful addition.

"Take one of these every eight hours until they're gone," I told him, passing the container.

He eyed it warily. "What is it?"

"Antibiotics, just in case."

He nodded and took one as directed, washing it down with water.

"Instructions: do not do anything strenuous for some time; you're already pushing it with that big backpack. Two weeks is probably when the sutures will need to be taken out."

"Probably?" he asked.

"Hey, you didn't want to go to the hospital and see a real doctor, so you get my judgment, but you will need a real doctor to have them removed."

He nodded and pulled his shirt and sweatshirt back down.

Seeing the work here was done, I zipped up the kit and threw it into the back of the car.

"Alright, Sabi, let's go," I called.

Now that the distraction was over, reality returned in full force; I was on my way to have Sabi surrendered.

The Litleo was sitting next to the Eevee, still talking about something. Whatever it was, I took it as a reason to dawdle a little longer; the man didn't seem to be going anywhere yet.

"What's your deal?" I heard to my right. The other human was standing in the middle of the road, looking at me.

"Oh, nothing, just waiting on my pokémon," I replied.

His face told me he didn't buy it. "In case you didn't know you're a bad liar, let me tell you now. You're a bad liar; might as well come out with it."

I was about to object further, but what was the point? This man probably dealt with liars and cheaters as a living. The thought made me feel guilty, but its credibility couldn't be denied.

I shook my head and gazed at the pebbles. "Well, I'm on my way to drop this little one off at an orphanage in Ferta. She isn't even a week out of her egg, and she's got one tragedy of a life. I tried to take care of her, but her needs and my scholarship don't mesh well, so she needs someone who can take care of her."

"Why not give up school instead?" he asked.

I did a double take; the suggestion was absurd. "Because I'm going to be a top researcher one day and help create the pharmaceuticals that save lives. They aren't going to hire some schmuck off the streets," I said matter-of-factly.

"You delivered that like you rehearsed it many times; is that your goal, or was it baked into you?"

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. This goal was mine: work hard through the years in university, then start working up the ladder in my career; who else's dream would that be?

"What I'm hearing is fucking stupid; give up your friend so you can waste more years of your life in school?" he asked with contempt. "You seem to care about your pokémon too much; you're making a mistake."

He let his opinions all hang out, but I still didn't have a response. I do care about Sabi, and I do care about my education… right?

I stopped briefly, thinking about the University of Ekhol: prestigious, best-in-nation education. Attending wasn't easy, but if I wanted to succeed in life, there was where I needed to be. It was a crucial step in acquiring the career of my dreams, so I couldn't just stop; I was duty-bound to finish what I started.

Then I looked at Sabi, who looks to have found success at befriending the Eevee. They were rolling around in the small strip of grass before the forest. Watching her play and have fun, I didn't have any words, but there wasn't really a need for any. Seeing her happy was a simple pleasure; I watched her have fun with a smile on my face.

A smile; I'd felt that smile. It was significant because thinking about college didn't instill the same richness.

The more I thought about it, the more my plans seemed so… linear, like walking down a path that was already paved.

I looked up at the man, who was staring at me, waiting patiently for an answer. I wasn't sure what to say, so I gave him a slow nod, which he returned.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Matthew," I replied. "What's yours?"

He shook his head. "I'm not comfortable with that yet."

"O-kay…?"

He reached into his pocket and produced a cell phone. "Could I get your number? I might have some questions for you later… regarding the stitches."

Give my phone number to a complete stranger? It didn't just sound sketchy; it was sketchy; he hadn't taken off his covering and revealed his whole face this entire time. I felt like I should be glad not to have been mugged.

But looking at the two pokémon playing, Those fears felt like they could be dismissed. They say pokémon act like their owners, and this one didn't appear to have a bad bone in its body.

Eh, what was the harm? Worst case, I had to change my number. I pulled my phone from my pocket, pulled up my number, and showed it to him, which he promptly recorded. As I expected, he put his phone away without offering his number in return and gathered his things. "On your feet, princess, we're walking."

Its ears perked and quickly fell into stride with the human, leaving behind a very disappointed Sabi.

'Princess?' A female Eevee? She doesn't look too old; he must've got her from a breeder or something. That species was rare even before the wild pokémon began disappearing. I wanted to ask but decided it wasn't my business; she didn't seem troubled in his presence, so there had to be some mutual connection going on.

I looked at my own pokémon and beckoned to her. "Come here, Sabi, we're leaving, too."

We walked to the car, and I opened the door for her; she jumped in gracefully.

I threw the crusty bandages in the back to be dealt with later. I started the car, and we were off again to Ferta and everything it had for us.

Ten minutes out, the invisible line dividing the two provinces was made clear by the sudden change from gravel to blacktop road. Ferta evidently took better care of their side roads.

Since we just crossed the boundary, we had only twenty minutes to go; twenty minutes was all we had left.

But something still wasn't right. I took my eyes off the road to look at her, and she looked back at me with what could only be a smile on her little muzzle.

Then I realized that I might not have had the right answer, but she did.

I quickly pulled over and stopped. Sabi made a questioning noise at the rough ride before I petted her, which she accepted lovingly.

She loved me; she trusted me.

This couldn't be the end.

With new resolve, I threw the car in reverse and turned back around. There was something that just didn't seem right about this.