Moonlight growled in frustration, turning her back on the humans and going back to the windowsill with a running jump. Great. she thought sulkily. More Pokémon who can see the result of the biggest mistake of my life.
"Umbreon? What's wrong?" Sarah asked, confused.
"What's wrong!?" Moonlight snapped, turning back around to glare at the girl. She looked out the window again as she listed. "Where do I start? I evolved without meaning to, which proved my father right, you keep calling me by his name, and, oh, what else," she added mockingly. "Right! I remember! I am trapped in this Arceus-forsaken place against my will with no way to ever do what I want again!!" She ground her teeth, staring out the window with her back to the humans.
After a few seconds of silence, the father human spoke quietly. "Sarah, maybe she needs some time to adjust. This is throwing a lot at her at once."
"But..." Sarah said quietly, watching her new friend. Why was she acting like this?
Her mother stood up. "Come have some dinner. Give Umbreon some time to get used to this."
Moonlight said nothing. She stared defiantly at the night sky. Her name was unnoticed, her feelings were misunderstood, and her freedom was gone. She couldn't even jump dimensions and escape. She would still be bound to the human girl and her Poke Ball. There had to be a way...
Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that the humans had closed the door after they had left. "Great. Now I have to figure out how to get that open." She knew that humans turned the round thing on it to get it open, but Moonlight only had paws to achieve the same goal. She could use Phantom Force to go through it, but it would tire her out. She needed as much energy as possible.
She glanced back outside. Why did she care if she could move around the human den? It was getting home that mattered, and she couldn't do that. Maybe if she acted up, the girl would give up on her and release her? "No..." She had seemed pretty determined to befriend her.
So consumed with her thoughts, she almost didn't see the Vaporeon run past the human den. Almost. She saw a tail disappear behind another building. "It can't be..." How could she have tracked her all the way here? "Splash!? Over here! It's me, Moonlight! I'm in here!!" she shouted, reaching up and clawing the glass. "Wait, you don't know that's my name. It's Two! My name is Moonlight now! I..." she sat back down slowly. Splash didn't know that she evolved. She'd be looking for a gray Eevee, not an Umbreon. Her being shiny would probably do the trick, but that was if Splash saw or heard her. She knew she sounded different than when she was an Eevee.
"Splash... Come back. I wanna go home..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I darted between the buildings, trying to make sure that the humans who had been chasing me were off my tail. I couldn't believe it. Two hadn't been at the Pokémon Center. Where else could she be?
I spotted Snow as she turned a corner and raced towards her. "Hey! Any luck?"
She shook her head. "No. I got the humans off my tail, but I can't find any trace of Two."
Umbreon jumped back into the normal dimension. "She has to be somewhere in this town. I'm not leaving until I find her."
I sighed. "Umbreon, she could be in a Poke Ball. We'd need Espeon."
"This is my fault! I'm not coming back without her!"
Snow stepped towards him. "Then I'll go. I'll run back to camp and tell everyone what happened and where you two are, then I'll come back with more Clan members for a bigger search party."
I nodded. "And we can keep looking for Two in the meantime."
Umbreon nodded, looking at the ground in front of him. "All right... Hurry back."
"I will." With that, Snow turned and trotted away, back towards the forest.
I looked back at Umbreon. "Let's start checking the individual human dens."
He nodded. "I'll use Phantom Force again so that-"
"No, you are already very tired. We'll look in the windows."
"Fine."
We set off between the buildings, occasionally jumping onto a windowsill to peek in if there were no humans in sight. Two would stay as far away from humans as possible, especially if she were trapped in a human den. I knew this was a long shot, but Umbreon still felt responsible. Maybe when Snow came back with Espeon, she'd be able to convince him otherwise.
Moonlight watched the corner of the building where she saw Splash's tail disappear like a Talonflame. "Come on, Splash... Come back..."
After several minutes, she was about to give up hope when the Clan leader walked back into view, peering into a window of another human den. Moonlight jumped back up on the glass again. "SPLASH!! Over here! It's me!"
The Vaporeon turned towards Moonlight's voice, knitted in confusion, then lit up in relief. "Two!" she called, running over and jumping onto the ledge on the other side of the glass. "You're ok!"
Moonlight nodded. "How did you find me? I'm not even sure where I..." she trailed off as Umbreon stepped around the corner. Great. Now she had to answer to him.
His eyes found Splash sitting on the window ledge, then Moonlight on the other side. Instead of anger, his eyes filled with relief as he practically leaped up next to Splash from where he stood. "Two! You're safe! You're not hurt!"
Moonlight felt like she should correct them about her name, but she was still watching her father. "...You're not mad?"
He shook his head. "Of course not. I've been worrying myself sick ever since I found out that no one knew where you were. Splash can tell you that." The Vaporeon nodded in agreement.
Moonlight hung her head. "I... I'm sorry, Dad." That was the first time she had ever said she was sorry and truly meant it. "I was upset and I heard the humans and I evolved and got caught and..." Neither said a word. Moonlight couldn't look at them. "I just wanted to prove that I could take care of myself..."
Umbreon spoke gently. "It's all right. I know. I know you. I shouldn't have been so strict on you."
"But I'm the one who ran away!" Moonlight shot back, looking back up at her father. "And now I'm stuck as an Umbreon. I'm not even sure that's what I wanted. And I belong to a human now, and... I just want to go home, Dad."
Splash looked at Umbreon. "We need to break her Poke Ball. Two, do you know where it is?"
"Moonlight. It's... Moonlight."
Umbreon smiled. "You found a name." When his daughter could only nod, he continued. "Moonlight. It's good for you. And that's your proof that this evolution fits you."
Moonlight looked up, managing a tiny smile. "I think Sarah has it on her. That's the human kit."
"I believe I can get that from her," said a familiar feminine voice from the ground.
Both Eevees outside turned around. Umbreon lit up. "Espeon! Two's safe! Her name is Moonlight now and..." He stopped as she gave him a look that said 'I know.'
Her gaze shifted to Moonlight. The shiny Umbreon thought she would be glad to see her mother, but she actually found it harder to meet her eyes. "Moonlight."
"I'm sorry I ran away, Mom..." she whispered quietly. Espeon's expression told her that there would be a discussion about this later.
Espeon looked at Splash. "Snow is coming back with Surf. He should be able to break Moonlight's Poke Ball with Iron Tail."
"Good thinking," she nodded.
"It was his idea..." Espeon shrugged with a small smile. May I come up so that I can see where I'm teleporting to?"
Splash nodded and jumped down, as did Moonlight, who spoke as her mother bounded gracefully onto the windowsill. "I can distract her. She's not mean, just...." She couldn't find a good word to end that sentence with.
Espeon nodded, turning the knob and opening the door with her mind. Moonlight acted like she wasn't jealous and trotted out. She knew that her mother would teleport in behind her and try to stay out of sight.
"Sarah!" Moonlight called loudly. "Where are you?" She caught the smell of human food (ugh), remembering that they were having dinner. That would make it harder for her mother to sneak the Poke Ball unnoticed...
The humans hadn't noticed her enter the room. The father was talking. "But I'm very proud of you, Sarah. Catching a wild Pokémon like that with only one Great Ball! And she looks feisty, too. You'll become a very good trainer with her."
The mother nodded. "But you need to take care of both her and Starly now. And you'll probably have to train her. She seems a bit stubborn."
Sarah nodded. "But she's so great! You should have seen how she made Matt run away! I'll always take Umbreon with me!"
That was it.
Moonlight broke into a run, then jumped up on the table, knocking something breakable over with a crash. "DON'T call me Umbreon!!" Moonlight snarled. "My name is MOONLIGHT!"
The three humans jumped at her entrance. Sarah was the first to react. "Umbreon, no! Don't jump on the table! No Pokémon on the table!"
"My name is Moonlight, you stupid human! Don't you get it!?" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Espeon focusing on Sarah from behind. She just had to keep the girl distracted.
"Umbreon, get off the table or I'm putting you back in your Poke Ball!" the tiny girl said, trying to look stern by putting her hands on her hips.
Moonlight couldn't have her trying to take the Poke Ball that Espeon was trying to get. She swallowed her pride and acted submissive, walking very slowly to the edge of the table.
"Good girl. Get down."
Moonlight held back the baleful glare and jumped to the floor, hoping her mother had been quick enough.
"Good girl, Umbreon."
Biting her tongue to keep from snapping again, Moonlight subtly glanced back towards where her mother was sitting with a Great Ball hovering next to her. "I'm out of here. Mom, throw me that, please."
Espeon nodded, telekinetically tossing the Poke Ball to Moonlight, who caught it in mid-air. The humans looked at her in surprise, then towards where Espeon had been a second after she teleported away. Sarah just watched Moonlight.
"Sorry, but I'm wild." She turned around and ran, jumping into the shadow dimension as soon as the humans couldn't see her. She was surprised at how easy it was all of a sudden. Probably because she was a Dark Type now. Huh.
"I could get used to that..." she muttered around the Poke Ball as she ran through the wall of the human den, finding Splash, Espeon, Umbreon, and the just-arriving Snow and Surf. She jumped back into the normal world as a few flakes of snow started to fall from the sky. "Got it!"
Everyone turned to face her as she threw the awful thing towards Surf. True to his personality, he didn't say a word as he jumped, charged up Iron Tail, and smashed the Poke Ball into pieces. Moonlight felt an immediate difference. It was like a cord had been cut somewhere. She felt free again.
Splash smiled at him, then looked back at Moonlight. "Thanks, Surf. Let's get Moonlight back to camp before those humans come looking."
Nothing else needed to be said. Moonlight followed the group as they ran home, tiny bits of snow glittering in the light of the blue moon.
No comments:
Post a Comment