Soft pawsteps padded up behind me, halting next to me. My visitor laid down beside me, letting his fluked tail rest on top of mine. Both of us were silent for a few long moments before I broke the ambient night noises with a whisper. “Surf… I missed you.”
“I saw you all day today!” he said quietly. I could hear the smile in his words.
I couldn’t help but smile back as I continued to look at the stars. “I know. One moment away from you is too long.”
Both of us fell silent again. I never wanted the moment to end. Surf shifted closer to me and pointed his nose at the sky. “You see that cluster of stars, the one that looks like a rectangle with a tail?” I followed his eyes and nodded. “That’s one of my favorite constellations. Ursaring. She protects her little Teddiursa, over there.”
I broke my eyes away from the stars and looked over at my mate, whose skin was speckled by the starlight that she was looking at. “How do you know that?”
He answered without turning away from the sky. “Oh, I overheard Umbreon telling Espeon that. It seemed romantic, so I thought I’d give it a try.”
I smiled and laughed. “Well, mission successful!”
We sat in silence for a long time, with me watching the stars again. Now that Surf had pointed it out, it did look like an Ursaring. I almost dozed off, thinking about the mother Ursaring in the sky, protecting her baby all throughout the night. I thought about the baby Teddiursa and how it looked it its mother for protection against all the dangers the sky had to offer. I wondered if there were any Eevee constellations.
I looked drowsily over at Surf, with his skin gleaming with pinpricks of starlight. He was my constellation, I thought as I drifted off. He was bright and strong, and even though I couldn’t always see him, I knew he would always be there for me. No matter what life threw at us. Just as the constellations always stayed in the sky, like the stars of Ursaring would always watch over her baby, so too would Surf always be at my side.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was gently roused from my sleep by a tiny paw nudging my shoulder. “Splash?” the small voice asked.
I shifted in my nest. “Ugh… Five more minutes, Surf…”
The small voice and paw were insistent. “It’s not Surf. It’s Two.”
Swallowing a groan of annoyance at being woken up, I sat up and shook out my fins groggily. Two hopped out of my nest as I stretched out with a yawn. Wait, how was I in my nest?
I blinked a few times to get the sleep out of my eyes, then looked down at the shiny Eevee watching me patiently. “…I thought I fell asleep next to the pond…” I muttered.
“You did,” Two responded. “Surf brought you into your den. He didn’t want to wake you up.”
I yawned again. “Well, I’m up now. Did you need something? Is everyone else up?”
Two shook her head, drops still on her ears from the swim to my den. “No, it’s still pretty early in the night.”
I stopped. I wanted to yell “Then why did you wake me up!?” Instead, I said it more calmly.
“I wanted to watch the moon,” Two responded simply. When I said nothing, she continued. “Dad said that tonight the moon would be blue. I wanted to watch it, but he said he had to stay with the other kits. You told us that we shouldn’t go outside on our own unless we’re with an evolved clan member, so I came to ask you to come with me.”
I sighed quietly. At least she was responsible about it. From what I had seen, she would have either asked someone to take her, or she would have run off and gone herself. I was glad she chose the former. “All right, Two, I’ll come watch the moon with you.”
A rare smile crossed her face. “Thanks, Splash.” She turned and walked slowly towards the water, unlike her brothers and sisters, who would have run. Instead, she even paused at the hole, waiting for me to join her.
I slid into the water first, gently grabbing Two by the scruff as she followed. We swam slowly to the surface, exiting the pond in the same fashion. The only noise or sudden movements we made was when Two shook the water out of her fur.
We exited the camp in silence, just listening to the night noises as Surf and I were doing earlier. I watched Two as she led the way, apparently knowing where she was going. She was always so calm and quiet. And independent. On more than one occasion, I had heard someone else try to tell her what to do, but she would have none of it. The quiet shell broke, and she got furious. She yelled and refused to do as she was told, occasionally ending up in her running off and someone else having to track her down.
Eventually, Two stopped near a tree. I paused next to her, unsure of what she was doing. “Do you need a rest?”
“No,” she said simply. She then crouched low and sprang up as high as she could go, catching one of the lower branched in her paws and hauling herself up onto it. She never made a single sound, except for that of her claws and fur scraping the bark. I watched from the ground as she continued to hop from branch to branch, working her way up until she was near the top. She situated herself and called down. “Can you see me from down there?”
“I can,” I answered, sitting down. The shiny Eevee only looked away at the horizon in response, the pale blue light of the moon illuminating the blue tones in her fur, matching it almost exactly. I smiled. Forget a blue moon, that’s a Two Moon!
I glanced around the camp as everyone started to wake up. I had been busy night hunting, so no one needed to do that today. I figured that my clan could probably use a break.
Bolt, as expected, was the first one outside. He spotted me and bounded over. “Woah, Splash! I never thought this day would come!”
I tilted my head. “What day?”
“The day when you’re awake before I am!” he laughed. I bumped his shoulder, which ended up backfiring and shocking me. That just made him laugh more. I settled for just looking at him disapprovingly until he calmed down, which ended up being when most of the clan was up and about.
Umbreon walked over as Bolt stopped laughing. “Good morning, Splash. Thanks for bringing Two back in.”
Bolt suddenly became Uncle Bolt, comedic attitude gone. “Bringing Two back? What happened?”
“Nothing serious,” I assured him. “She wanted to watch the moon, but Umbreon had to stay with the rest of his kits, so she asked me if I could go with her. We went out and she climbed a small tree, then she watched the moon until she fell asleep. It was a bit of a pain having to climb up to her, but she woke up when I got there and climbed back down with me. I ended up carrying her back to Umbreon half asleep."
Umbreon nodded. “She really appreciated that, Splash. Sorry that you lost a night of sleep because of it, though.”
I shook my head. “It’s fine. It was actually kind of worth it to…” I was cut off as my body betrayed me with a yawn. I saw Bolt watching me. “Shut up,” I said before he could comment.
Instead, he turned to Umbreon. “Going out in the middle of the night to watch the moon? I think someone’s taking after her daddy,” he said confidently.
Umbreon looked thoughtful. “Well, Espy and I have been teaching the kits about the different evolution paths. They’re about old enough to start choosing.”
Bolt lit up. “Which means that Inferno and I will have to start grabbing stones soon!”
“Not necessarily,” said Snow’s voice as she walked silently up behind us with Clover in tow. “They may not want to take a stone. And for the record, I could see Two becoming a Glaceon just as easily as an Umbreon.”
“No way!” Bolt shouted. “It’s close, but she loves the night. Moonlight Pokémon all the way, 100%, I called it.”
I looked at the Jolteon. “You called it?”
“Yep! I said that Two is going to evolve into an Umbreon before any of you did.” He looked very proud of himself.
Clover, however, looked confused. “But... you weren’t. Umbreon said that first.”
Umbreon just looked at Bolt quizzically. “Besides, what would you get if you’re right?”
The Jolteon just shrugged. “Satisfaction? Bragging rights?”
I was about to comment that those would only work with Inferno, but One interrupted, bounding over to us with joy and excitement in her eyes. “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” she called loudly.
Umbreon sat down and bent over a bit to look at her. “What is it, One?”
The excited Eevee bounced up and down, reminding me greatly of Bolt when he was excited. “I know what I’m going to evolve into!”
Shocked glances were passed around the assembled Eevees, and everyone leaned closer to her. Umbreon played it cautious. “Are you sure? Once you make up your mind, you can’t unevolve. There’s no going back. You have to be completely sure.”
“I am completely sure!” One chirped, none of her excitement or glee lost and no trepidation obtained. “I want to be an Espeon! Like Mommy!”
Smiles and congratulations were heard all around. The rest of the clan had gathered to listen, commending her for the choice and commenting on how well it suited her. I heard Umbreon still questioning her, but he seemed to sense that she wouldn’t budge from her choice. “Why an Espeon?” he asked with a curious smile.
One sat down in front of her father. “Well, I really like all the things that Mommy can do with her mind. And I love the Psychic abilities that I already have. I don’t want to lose those. And I love how Mommy looks. I want to look that pretty and elegant,” she said, fixing her posture to mimic her mother’s, who was smiling happily next to her daughter.
I walked closer to the family. “One, if you want to be an Espeon, now you have to pick out a name for yourself. Do you know what you want it to be?”
She was quiet for a while before speaking again softly. “Well… I knew I wanted to be an Espeon when I had a dream last night. I dreamt that I was walking in the forest, but the trees were farther apart. It was so sunny and warm. I jumped up on a rock and let the sun warm my fur…” she said, remembering the feeling with her eyes closed. “Then a beam of sun touched my forehead, and I got a jewel there, and I became an Espeon.”
I was intrigued. Judging from her expression, so was Espeon. I had never heard of dreams like that. I made a mental note to ask Espeon about that later. “But, One, do you have a name in mind?”
Umbreon subtly gestured for everyone else to be quiet, which they did. One had her eyes closed again, trying to feel the sunbeam on her forehead again. “Um…” she said with her eyes still closed. “Well, the ray of sunlight was what told me that I wanted to be an Espeon, so… Call me…”
The rest of the clan listened closely. “Sunbeam. Call me Sunbeam!”
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