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Ambiguously romantic Espeon(M)+Umbreon(F)
No content disclaimers.
*
For the stevedores who worked at the Tinton Town port, it was just another work day.
For the creature that was currently hidden in a dark corner in the back of the cargo bay, it was a very important day.
The Umbreon remained very still, her black fur providing excellent camouflage in the dark as long as she kept her lights of her yellow highlights off. The humans who lived back home these days were friendly enough, but she had no interest in being captured by any human.
So she waited, and watched, until everyone was outside the ship and facing away from the bay entrance.
Taking half a second to steady her nerves, she stood up and began running, then used a series of Quick Attacks to exit onto the dock, dodge around some startled workers, then dash between two buildings and run down through the alley before anyone could try to stop her. The dark-type smiled; that was a flawless maneuver.
And now it was time to explore her new home.
*
For somewhere in the ballpark of the third month in a row, Luke the Espeon was bored.
Luke’s partner Laura and her husband Ricky were working so hard these days that even when they had free time they seemed too tired to even go out for a picnic.
Luke pawed at his blue-colored collar, then stood up and glanced over to Rufus the red-furred Lycanroc, who was curled up sleeping in his bed off in the corner of the family living room. Of all Ricky’s old Pokémon he was the only one living with them instead of at the reserve.
The wolf had plenty of amazing stories from Ricky’s days as a traveling trainer—even if small details changed each time he told them—but the two weren’t quite so friendly that Luke would dare wake him up to ask for one right now, when even Rufus’ own trainer wasn’t free from glares and occasionally near-missed snaps when he was in a bad mood. The psychic type decided being bored out in the sun was better than being bored inside and exited through the pet flap on the front door. At least there was plenty of space in the fields of the Tinton outskirts.
*
Umbreon was starting to worry she had made a mistake.
She was overcome by the sheer scale of a human settlement. She understood the place humans lived would have all sorts of those buildings like they’d put up back home, but she hadn’t expected so many of them; there must have been thousands of humans here, or more! It was exciting, really.
But there was no easy food here that she could find; she saw humans with food barter it to other humans for round bits of metal, or sheets of paper, or for the thrill of seeing them tap a piece of plastic against a machine, but any food-bearing vegetation was fenced or blocked off, and when she’d tried to sneak near one she’d been repelled by an overwhelming smell of some sort near it.
But now she could smell something much more appealing—fresh fruit, coming from a set of tables just up ahead, and her stomach was starting to growl…
*
Luke was out on the front porch of the family house, lying on the swinging bench and watching the passersby. It was a nice enough view; Tinton town to the right, the road to Mt. Hardy to the left, and up front fields stretching far head up to the borders of the northern forest.
Luke leapt up as he heard sudden shouting from the direction of town, jumping down and making his way down to the dirt path that ran by the house. Sounded like trouble!
Before long he saw a figure coming quickly from the direction of town.
It was an Umbreon—he’d had not seen another member of his own line since he’d been adopted from the ranch.
“Hello, there! Is something wrong?” Luke called out. The Dark-type stopped, glance once or twice over her shoulder uncertainly, than turned to face him.
“I tried to get some food back in the human territory. Sky and earth, the human who had it acted like I’d snatched her child!” the Umbreon grumbled. “I just ate an apple off the table!”
“Ah, for humans that’s almost as bad as intruding on claimed territory.”
Umbreon looked quite aghast. “These humans are crazy!” she said, then shook her head and added in a grumble. “But not as crazy as me for coming here without a plan.”
“So you didn’t come with a human?”
“Oh, I came with some humans—they just didn’t know I was coming with them,” she smiled. “I snuck on a human vehicle that comes by once in a while to drop off supplies for a human outpost on the island I’m from.”
Luke’s tails twitched—considering she’d just come barreling down the road after robbing a street market he was concerned. “Are you going to be okay here on your own?”
The Umbreon walked closer to Luke. “Honestly, I’d be very grateful if you told me if I could get some food that won’t have the humans after me.”
Luke’s tails flicked. “Well, I’m afraid I don’t travel far, really…there are wild berries along the path though, and some of the farmers put out food for the Pokémon at night…wait, hold on a moment!” and he vanished back into the house, returning a moment later with a partially full bag of Pokémon food in his mouth, which he dropped at Umbreon’s paws.
“Here; I can spare half of my snacks for today. My name’s Luke, by the way.”
“Thank you so much! My name is Talik, and I swear I’ll find some way to repay you.”
Luke gestured with his head towards a tree in the front yard. “We can sit down under that while you eat, and I’ll tell you what I know about the area around here.”
To be honest, Luke never explored far from home, but what he did know he shared in good detail, and by the time Talik was finished eating she had a solid idea of where to go to find something to eat, and that while the forest Pokémon were friendly the mountain dwellers were dangerous.
“Sun’s going to be down soon,” Talik said. “I better dig a small hiding hole somewhere to sleep in for the night.”
“You don’t need to do that,” Luke said, standing up. “Follow me.”
He led her around the house to the backyard, where a small pet house was built. “I sleep in there sometimes, but you can use it tonight.”
“Again, thank you,” she said as she made her way into the small shelter. “Tomorrow I’ll go make a little den somewhere in those woods—wouldn’t want to impose on you any longer.”
“Please come by again!” Luke said. “I’d love to have some company, and if you tell me about your home island I’d consider that plenty of repayment for telling you about here.”
She grinned at him. “Oh, I might just be tempted.”
With a satisfied sigh—finally, someone new!—Luke left the backyard and re-entered the home, where he found a now-awake Rufus sitting up on the couch, and motioning for the Espeon to come over.
“Saw you with an Umbreon out there. You two had quite the lengthy little talk, and you’re even letting her stay in your outside bed. Made a new friend, hmmm?” the wolf asked, disapproval soaking into every word.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“There’s nothing wrong with that, to a moderate degree. But trained Pokémon shouldn’t get too friendly with wild Pokémon.”
Luke stared at him. “Why not?”
“Life is unpredictable. I, for one, never thought I’d end up having my battling career replaced with being a glorified home security system while aging out of the prime of my life…and with a wild Pokémon—well, a wandering trainer could catch her…or she could have a far worse fate at the claws or teeth of a predator, or just someone aggressively territorial. Either way, you never see her again and never know why. Keep that in mind.”
Luke rolled his eyes as he walked past the canine—there were no wild Pokémon in the fields or woods that would be a danger to an adult Umbreon, and why was Rufus so cynical all the time?—but even as he went out to the kitchen to see if Laura was done writing her report and wanted to snuggle a bit (yes, and yes), he couldn’t quite shake the warning from his head.
*
It was halfway between noon and evening when the Umbreon appeared again. Luke had been outside while Laura was doing some gardening when he spotted the Dark-type concealed by the corner of the building, watching them.
“Talik!” Luke said, tails wagging.
“Luke,” she replied warmly, stepping into the open somewhat cautiously and eyeing the human warily. Luke did his best to introduce his new friend to Laura, who greeted Talik politely and told Luke to “have fun with his new friend” before going continuing to trim her flowers.
“I got a little burrow dug in the forest; there’s a nice Rattata family nearby,” Talik told him. “So I thought I’d come by and repay you for last night.”
“Repay?”
“By telling you about my home. Remember? But let’s go for a walk while I do. If you’re allowed, I mean.”
Luke grumbled in mild annoyance at the implication. “I’m not a child! I just have to stay out of the mountain and not stay out too late.”
Talik smiled at that—sounded rather restrained to her ears. “Well, come on then! I want to learn about every inch of my new home, and I want you to be with me.”
And so Luke barked at Laura to signal he was going off (and was told to return before nightfall) and the two Eevee evolutions set off south towards the coastline, all the while Talik discussing her home island.
“It was part of a chain, though since my kind can’t fly I only ever saw much of the one I was born on,” she told him as they passed by the fence of a farmer’s field. “I was the third of a litter of five. Mostly safe, if you stayed on the right part of the island, but one day humans started coming by to capture some of us; not normal trainers, I don’t think. Other humans came later, chased the first set off, and set up some sort of outpost there. Those humans were nice, but the damage was done; almost half of us had been taken away already.”
“So, that’s why you left?”
“Pretty much. I stayed for a few years after, but all my friends and family had been taken, so when I felt that small place had only gotten smaller I decided there was nothing keeping me there.”
Luke paused a moment. “I’m sorry. I’m sure…”
But something made Talik gasp and then tackle Luke, bringing them both low to the ground and hidden under nearby foliage as she whispered for him to stay still and silent, and a second later a massive metallic bird flew by overhead.
“What was that?” she whispered, breathing hard but trying to restrain it.
“Oh, that’s just a Skarmory who lives with his trainer around here. He’s a real sweetheart, actually.”
Talik chuckled weakly as the two stood up. “Guess I’ll have to get used to seeing weird Pokémon like that around.”
They saw many more things that did, and did much more, but it would be a repetition of point to go into it all in detail; hours later they returned to Luke’s house, still talking about when a surprisingly large Goldeen had leapt out of the ocean right in front of them, before Talik left, reminding him that the two had only scratched the surface of the field around the house, let alone other nearby areas. Luke saw Rufus nod at him in quiet acknowledgement when he came in.
She didn’t come every day—but she visited him for trips very often. They avoided the mountains, but over the following few months they became well acquainted with every part of the field, most of the near side of the forest—she took him to see her little home and finally pay him back for that first night dinner with some fresh fruit—and even Tinton town itself. Every day Luke found himself wondering hopefully where they’d go next time, and hoping it wouldn’t be too far off.
It seemed to him a wonderful new status quo, but change always comes, fast or slow, expected or not.
*
“Come on, Luke. You’re an adult, aren’t you?”
Luke pawed uneasily at the ground. He’d never really hesitated to follow Talik’s lead before, but now she was asking him to come out with her to see something she refused to name—a surprise, she says. It was perhaps not quite violating the rule against being out too late to go now, but would certainly be brushing up against it.
Still…he didn’t want to turn it down. Talik told him the sunset looked wonderful there, and he was starting to brush up against his old life of spending almost all his time in the house or the yard.
“Okay, let’s do it. When should we go?”
“Why wait? It’ll take a while to get there.”
Now Luke was a little worried, but more than that he was curious, and so he followed Talik as she took him north towards the forest, then as they neared the line of trees she made them turn left. Luke’s anticipation grew, though as the sun began to make its daily decline he had to swallow and shake off the feeling he would be in trouble when he got home.
Before long Talik slowed down and began to watch the forest very carefully, stopping once or twice and even running over for a closer look before returning and continuing the walk west. Indeed, after a while they were getting strangely close to Mt. Hardy, and Luke briefly wondered if she was taking them there—that would just be too much for him, as much as he enjoyed her company!
But his fears were allayed as something caught her eye, and with an excited yip Talik led Luke over to a large, fallen tree that’s trunk looked like a human face, staring up at the sky.
“I was looking for this; it’s a landmark to find the way,” she explained. “From here we go straight south.”
And they did, walking farther and farther—even accompanied by Laura or Ricky Luke doubted he’d been this far from home since they’d moved here, and it was so…compact, and the air was so tight all of a sudden…
“Are you okay?” Talik asked as she turned back and moved to him, noticing that Luke’s breathing was growing faster and harder.
“I…I can’t even see the sky, and the trees are so close together…”
With a smile, Talik gave him a reassuring nuzzle, and changed pace to walk side by side with him instead of leading. Whether that helped or if he was simply getting used to the woods he couldn’t say for sure, but Luke soon found himself calming down, and it wasn’t long before they reached one more landmark; an old human cabin, broken down and long abandoned. To Luke’s growing horror, from here they turned somewhat westward again, and drew more and more worryingly near Mt. Hardy, but the final destination was something else entirely.
*
Around the same time they reached the fallen tree, Rufus was having a meeting with his trainer.
“Isn’t this great news?” Ricky said.
It was. Rufus was thrilled, in fact—at the very least he’d be able to see the rest of the gang every day again.
“I know you were sore when I gave up on the Pokémon league, but we’ll be able to get back on the saddle soon,” Ricky said, patting his starter on the head. “We’ll have a lot of training ahead of us to get back into form, but I think we can do it.”
Rufus, quite unwillingly, realized his tail was wagging. For the first time in a long, long while, thing were looking up!
“I think Luke’s with his Umbreon friend. Could you track his scent and go tell him the good news?”
Oh, right. That.
Not such perfect news, after all.
*
It was a meadow.
A beautiful, hidden meadow. Flowers of all sorts were growing, and there were other Pokémon present, chatting, eating, drinking from a small lake that reflected the moonlight. With a laugh Luke lowered himself to get a good look at some strange purple flower he’d never seen before. Night had fallen, but the moon was full tonight, and the Pokémon had set up a few small, controlled fires around.
“Just found it last night. A wild Deerling led me here,” Talik explained.
“It’s beautiful,” Luke said.
Then, just as Talik began to excitedly discuss where the two should go next time, a familiar voice interrupted from behind, making them both jump up in a start.
“Luke. Mrs. Umbreon. I finally caught up to you,” Rufus said, in a clearly low mood.
Luke turned and glared at him.
“I’m an adult, Rufus! I don’t need an escort! I know it’s a bit late…”
“Luke, it’s not that,” the wolf sighed. “I have some mixed news. Laura got a big job offer she’s been aiming for, and a few weeks from now we’re moving to the Alola region to take up her new position.”
Luke froze. Not long ago that would have been wonderful news, but now…
Talik seemed to have realized the same thing as she looked down to the ground, ears flattening, but said nothing.
Luke growled, and slammed a paw against the ground, as though it were some enemy he was trying to crush.
“Luke…” Rufus began, but as cut off.
“Let me guess; you warned me, right? That life was unpredictable with wild Pokémon?!”
“No. This would have happened even if she wasn’t wild,” Rufus said. Luke growled, began pacing, muttering and growling.
“I won’t go,” he declared suddenly. “I won’t leave Talik!”
“Luke…” Talik said, smiling weakly as she approached him. “I don’t want you to fight with your human for me…”
“But…”
“I’ll come with you.”
Luke blinked slowly, almost unsure he believed his ears. “But your home is here!”
“I left my first home. No reason I can’t leave this one. I’ll grab one of those capturing spheres right out of your humans hand and go into it,” she said.
Rufus laughed at that. “I think I like you, Mrs. Umbreon! But I don’t think it’ll be a hard sell; we’ll have a dozen Pokémon in Alola. I’m sure they’ll be fine with one more. The two of you just try to look cute when you ask, and I’ll back you up with a nod or two.”
Luke laughed, and cried, and he and Talik nuzzled for a moment before setting off with Rufus back towards home.
“This Alola place fun to explore?” Talik asked, as they left the little meadow.
“I was never there,” Luke admitted.
Talik smiled, and gently stroked his paw with hers. “Well…we’ll find out together, won’t we?”
No content disclaimers.
*
For the stevedores who worked at the Tinton Town port, it was just another work day.
For the creature that was currently hidden in a dark corner in the back of the cargo bay, it was a very important day.
The Umbreon remained very still, her black fur providing excellent camouflage in the dark as long as she kept her lights of her yellow highlights off. The humans who lived back home these days were friendly enough, but she had no interest in being captured by any human.
So she waited, and watched, until everyone was outside the ship and facing away from the bay entrance.
Taking half a second to steady her nerves, she stood up and began running, then used a series of Quick Attacks to exit onto the dock, dodge around some startled workers, then dash between two buildings and run down through the alley before anyone could try to stop her. The dark-type smiled; that was a flawless maneuver.
And now it was time to explore her new home.
*
For somewhere in the ballpark of the third month in a row, Luke the Espeon was bored.
Luke’s partner Laura and her husband Ricky were working so hard these days that even when they had free time they seemed too tired to even go out for a picnic.
Luke pawed at his blue-colored collar, then stood up and glanced over to Rufus the red-furred Lycanroc, who was curled up sleeping in his bed off in the corner of the family living room. Of all Ricky’s old Pokémon he was the only one living with them instead of at the reserve.
The wolf had plenty of amazing stories from Ricky’s days as a traveling trainer—even if small details changed each time he told them—but the two weren’t quite so friendly that Luke would dare wake him up to ask for one right now, when even Rufus’ own trainer wasn’t free from glares and occasionally near-missed snaps when he was in a bad mood. The psychic type decided being bored out in the sun was better than being bored inside and exited through the pet flap on the front door. At least there was plenty of space in the fields of the Tinton outskirts.
*
Umbreon was starting to worry she had made a mistake.
She was overcome by the sheer scale of a human settlement. She understood the place humans lived would have all sorts of those buildings like they’d put up back home, but she hadn’t expected so many of them; there must have been thousands of humans here, or more! It was exciting, really.
But there was no easy food here that she could find; she saw humans with food barter it to other humans for round bits of metal, or sheets of paper, or for the thrill of seeing them tap a piece of plastic against a machine, but any food-bearing vegetation was fenced or blocked off, and when she’d tried to sneak near one she’d been repelled by an overwhelming smell of some sort near it.
But now she could smell something much more appealing—fresh fruit, coming from a set of tables just up ahead, and her stomach was starting to growl…
*
Luke was out on the front porch of the family house, lying on the swinging bench and watching the passersby. It was a nice enough view; Tinton town to the right, the road to Mt. Hardy to the left, and up front fields stretching far head up to the borders of the northern forest.
Luke leapt up as he heard sudden shouting from the direction of town, jumping down and making his way down to the dirt path that ran by the house. Sounded like trouble!
Before long he saw a figure coming quickly from the direction of town.
It was an Umbreon—he’d had not seen another member of his own line since he’d been adopted from the ranch.
“Hello, there! Is something wrong?” Luke called out. The Dark-type stopped, glance once or twice over her shoulder uncertainly, than turned to face him.
“I tried to get some food back in the human territory. Sky and earth, the human who had it acted like I’d snatched her child!” the Umbreon grumbled. “I just ate an apple off the table!”
“Ah, for humans that’s almost as bad as intruding on claimed territory.”
Umbreon looked quite aghast. “These humans are crazy!” she said, then shook her head and added in a grumble. “But not as crazy as me for coming here without a plan.”
“So you didn’t come with a human?”
“Oh, I came with some humans—they just didn’t know I was coming with them,” she smiled. “I snuck on a human vehicle that comes by once in a while to drop off supplies for a human outpost on the island I’m from.”
Luke’s tails twitched—considering she’d just come barreling down the road after robbing a street market he was concerned. “Are you going to be okay here on your own?”
The Umbreon walked closer to Luke. “Honestly, I’d be very grateful if you told me if I could get some food that won’t have the humans after me.”
Luke’s tails flicked. “Well, I’m afraid I don’t travel far, really…there are wild berries along the path though, and some of the farmers put out food for the Pokémon at night…wait, hold on a moment!” and he vanished back into the house, returning a moment later with a partially full bag of Pokémon food in his mouth, which he dropped at Umbreon’s paws.
“Here; I can spare half of my snacks for today. My name’s Luke, by the way.”
“Thank you so much! My name is Talik, and I swear I’ll find some way to repay you.”
Luke gestured with his head towards a tree in the front yard. “We can sit down under that while you eat, and I’ll tell you what I know about the area around here.”
To be honest, Luke never explored far from home, but what he did know he shared in good detail, and by the time Talik was finished eating she had a solid idea of where to go to find something to eat, and that while the forest Pokémon were friendly the mountain dwellers were dangerous.
“Sun’s going to be down soon,” Talik said. “I better dig a small hiding hole somewhere to sleep in for the night.”
“You don’t need to do that,” Luke said, standing up. “Follow me.”
He led her around the house to the backyard, where a small pet house was built. “I sleep in there sometimes, but you can use it tonight.”
“Again, thank you,” she said as she made her way into the small shelter. “Tomorrow I’ll go make a little den somewhere in those woods—wouldn’t want to impose on you any longer.”
“Please come by again!” Luke said. “I’d love to have some company, and if you tell me about your home island I’d consider that plenty of repayment for telling you about here.”
She grinned at him. “Oh, I might just be tempted.”
With a satisfied sigh—finally, someone new!—Luke left the backyard and re-entered the home, where he found a now-awake Rufus sitting up on the couch, and motioning for the Espeon to come over.
“Saw you with an Umbreon out there. You two had quite the lengthy little talk, and you’re even letting her stay in your outside bed. Made a new friend, hmmm?” the wolf asked, disapproval soaking into every word.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“There’s nothing wrong with that, to a moderate degree. But trained Pokémon shouldn’t get too friendly with wild Pokémon.”
Luke stared at him. “Why not?”
“Life is unpredictable. I, for one, never thought I’d end up having my battling career replaced with being a glorified home security system while aging out of the prime of my life…and with a wild Pokémon—well, a wandering trainer could catch her…or she could have a far worse fate at the claws or teeth of a predator, or just someone aggressively territorial. Either way, you never see her again and never know why. Keep that in mind.”
Luke rolled his eyes as he walked past the canine—there were no wild Pokémon in the fields or woods that would be a danger to an adult Umbreon, and why was Rufus so cynical all the time?—but even as he went out to the kitchen to see if Laura was done writing her report and wanted to snuggle a bit (yes, and yes), he couldn’t quite shake the warning from his head.
*
It was halfway between noon and evening when the Umbreon appeared again. Luke had been outside while Laura was doing some gardening when he spotted the Dark-type concealed by the corner of the building, watching them.
“Talik!” Luke said, tails wagging.
“Luke,” she replied warmly, stepping into the open somewhat cautiously and eyeing the human warily. Luke did his best to introduce his new friend to Laura, who greeted Talik politely and told Luke to “have fun with his new friend” before going continuing to trim her flowers.
“I got a little burrow dug in the forest; there’s a nice Rattata family nearby,” Talik told him. “So I thought I’d come by and repay you for last night.”
“Repay?”
“By telling you about my home. Remember? But let’s go for a walk while I do. If you’re allowed, I mean.”
Luke grumbled in mild annoyance at the implication. “I’m not a child! I just have to stay out of the mountain and not stay out too late.”
Talik smiled at that—sounded rather restrained to her ears. “Well, come on then! I want to learn about every inch of my new home, and I want you to be with me.”
And so Luke barked at Laura to signal he was going off (and was told to return before nightfall) and the two Eevee evolutions set off south towards the coastline, all the while Talik discussing her home island.
“It was part of a chain, though since my kind can’t fly I only ever saw much of the one I was born on,” she told him as they passed by the fence of a farmer’s field. “I was the third of a litter of five. Mostly safe, if you stayed on the right part of the island, but one day humans started coming by to capture some of us; not normal trainers, I don’t think. Other humans came later, chased the first set off, and set up some sort of outpost there. Those humans were nice, but the damage was done; almost half of us had been taken away already.”
“So, that’s why you left?”
“Pretty much. I stayed for a few years after, but all my friends and family had been taken, so when I felt that small place had only gotten smaller I decided there was nothing keeping me there.”
Luke paused a moment. “I’m sorry. I’m sure…”
But something made Talik gasp and then tackle Luke, bringing them both low to the ground and hidden under nearby foliage as she whispered for him to stay still and silent, and a second later a massive metallic bird flew by overhead.
“What was that?” she whispered, breathing hard but trying to restrain it.
“Oh, that’s just a Skarmory who lives with his trainer around here. He’s a real sweetheart, actually.”
Talik chuckled weakly as the two stood up. “Guess I’ll have to get used to seeing weird Pokémon like that around.”
They saw many more things that did, and did much more, but it would be a repetition of point to go into it all in detail; hours later they returned to Luke’s house, still talking about when a surprisingly large Goldeen had leapt out of the ocean right in front of them, before Talik left, reminding him that the two had only scratched the surface of the field around the house, let alone other nearby areas. Luke saw Rufus nod at him in quiet acknowledgement when he came in.
She didn’t come every day—but she visited him for trips very often. They avoided the mountains, but over the following few months they became well acquainted with every part of the field, most of the near side of the forest—she took him to see her little home and finally pay him back for that first night dinner with some fresh fruit—and even Tinton town itself. Every day Luke found himself wondering hopefully where they’d go next time, and hoping it wouldn’t be too far off.
It seemed to him a wonderful new status quo, but change always comes, fast or slow, expected or not.
*
“Come on, Luke. You’re an adult, aren’t you?”
Luke pawed uneasily at the ground. He’d never really hesitated to follow Talik’s lead before, but now she was asking him to come out with her to see something she refused to name—a surprise, she says. It was perhaps not quite violating the rule against being out too late to go now, but would certainly be brushing up against it.
Still…he didn’t want to turn it down. Talik told him the sunset looked wonderful there, and he was starting to brush up against his old life of spending almost all his time in the house or the yard.
“Okay, let’s do it. When should we go?”
“Why wait? It’ll take a while to get there.”
Now Luke was a little worried, but more than that he was curious, and so he followed Talik as she took him north towards the forest, then as they neared the line of trees she made them turn left. Luke’s anticipation grew, though as the sun began to make its daily decline he had to swallow and shake off the feeling he would be in trouble when he got home.
Before long Talik slowed down and began to watch the forest very carefully, stopping once or twice and even running over for a closer look before returning and continuing the walk west. Indeed, after a while they were getting strangely close to Mt. Hardy, and Luke briefly wondered if she was taking them there—that would just be too much for him, as much as he enjoyed her company!
But his fears were allayed as something caught her eye, and with an excited yip Talik led Luke over to a large, fallen tree that’s trunk looked like a human face, staring up at the sky.
“I was looking for this; it’s a landmark to find the way,” she explained. “From here we go straight south.”
And they did, walking farther and farther—even accompanied by Laura or Ricky Luke doubted he’d been this far from home since they’d moved here, and it was so…compact, and the air was so tight all of a sudden…
“Are you okay?” Talik asked as she turned back and moved to him, noticing that Luke’s breathing was growing faster and harder.
“I…I can’t even see the sky, and the trees are so close together…”
With a smile, Talik gave him a reassuring nuzzle, and changed pace to walk side by side with him instead of leading. Whether that helped or if he was simply getting used to the woods he couldn’t say for sure, but Luke soon found himself calming down, and it wasn’t long before they reached one more landmark; an old human cabin, broken down and long abandoned. To Luke’s growing horror, from here they turned somewhat westward again, and drew more and more worryingly near Mt. Hardy, but the final destination was something else entirely.
*
Around the same time they reached the fallen tree, Rufus was having a meeting with his trainer.
“Isn’t this great news?” Ricky said.
It was. Rufus was thrilled, in fact—at the very least he’d be able to see the rest of the gang every day again.
“I know you were sore when I gave up on the Pokémon league, but we’ll be able to get back on the saddle soon,” Ricky said, patting his starter on the head. “We’ll have a lot of training ahead of us to get back into form, but I think we can do it.”
Rufus, quite unwillingly, realized his tail was wagging. For the first time in a long, long while, thing were looking up!
“I think Luke’s with his Umbreon friend. Could you track his scent and go tell him the good news?”
Oh, right. That.
Not such perfect news, after all.
*
It was a meadow.
A beautiful, hidden meadow. Flowers of all sorts were growing, and there were other Pokémon present, chatting, eating, drinking from a small lake that reflected the moonlight. With a laugh Luke lowered himself to get a good look at some strange purple flower he’d never seen before. Night had fallen, but the moon was full tonight, and the Pokémon had set up a few small, controlled fires around.
“Just found it last night. A wild Deerling led me here,” Talik explained.
“It’s beautiful,” Luke said.
Then, just as Talik began to excitedly discuss where the two should go next time, a familiar voice interrupted from behind, making them both jump up in a start.
“Luke. Mrs. Umbreon. I finally caught up to you,” Rufus said, in a clearly low mood.
Luke turned and glared at him.
“I’m an adult, Rufus! I don’t need an escort! I know it’s a bit late…”
“Luke, it’s not that,” the wolf sighed. “I have some mixed news. Laura got a big job offer she’s been aiming for, and a few weeks from now we’re moving to the Alola region to take up her new position.”
Luke froze. Not long ago that would have been wonderful news, but now…
Talik seemed to have realized the same thing as she looked down to the ground, ears flattening, but said nothing.
Luke growled, and slammed a paw against the ground, as though it were some enemy he was trying to crush.
“Luke…” Rufus began, but as cut off.
“Let me guess; you warned me, right? That life was unpredictable with wild Pokémon?!”
“No. This would have happened even if she wasn’t wild,” Rufus said. Luke growled, began pacing, muttering and growling.
“I won’t go,” he declared suddenly. “I won’t leave Talik!”
“Luke…” Talik said, smiling weakly as she approached him. “I don’t want you to fight with your human for me…”
“But…”
“I’ll come with you.”
Luke blinked slowly, almost unsure he believed his ears. “But your home is here!”
“I left my first home. No reason I can’t leave this one. I’ll grab one of those capturing spheres right out of your humans hand and go into it,” she said.
Rufus laughed at that. “I think I like you, Mrs. Umbreon! But I don’t think it’ll be a hard sell; we’ll have a dozen Pokémon in Alola. I’m sure they’ll be fine with one more. The two of you just try to look cute when you ask, and I’ll back you up with a nod or two.”
Luke laughed, and cried, and he and Talik nuzzled for a moment before setting off with Rufus back towards home.
“This Alola place fun to explore?” Talik asked, as they left the little meadow.
“I was never there,” Luke admitted.
Talik smiled, and gently stroked his paw with hers. “Well…we’ll find out together, won’t we?”