Five shrugged, speaking around a few flowers that she had in her mouth. "I don't know. But Three's really lucky and Moonlight's really good at hiding..."
"But Three's shiny! It's like trying to look for me! We don't blend very well..."
"Well, you glow," Five said with a tilt of her head. "Three's just sparkly." Four nodded, thinking. After a few seconds, Five added to her thought as she stood back up and began hunting for more flowers. "I mean, Moonlight's sparkly, too, but not really."
Four nodded again quietly. He wondered how his two evolved sisters could act so much older than them... They were the same age, right? How come they could act like all the grownups? Four wanted to be like that. But more than that, he really wanted to stop glowing all the time. He was getting the hang of shifting his buzzy energy around, but it was never gone. He could never hug anyone. Five always liked being hugged. So did Four, but he also didn't want to hurt anyone when he did. Mommy and Daddy were better than most Pokémon at not getting hurt from him, but he still tried not to stay too close for too long. He wondered if there was anything he could evolve into that would help him control his radioactivity better.
He became aware of Five calling him. "Four. Four!" He blinked and looked over towards her. There were now even more flowers in her fur ruffle. "What are you thinking about?"
"What I could evolve into."
"Oh. I don't know what I want to be. Maybe a Leafeon because I like flowers, but I really like playing as an Eevee, too!"
"I like playing, too. I just don't like glowing all the time."
Five looked very serious. "I like you glowing. And you humming. It makes you special. And I can always see when it's dark when you're around."
Four smiled. "Thanks, Five."
She perked up again. "And think about it! Being shiny is cool, but Moonlight and Three are both shiny, so they're not as special. You glow in the dark! And you're not even an Eevee that's supposed to glow! That makes you super special! You're... You're one of a kind! Unique!" she chirped, sharply pronouncing the last word.
"What's unique?" Four asked with a curious tilt of his head.
"It's one of a kind. Like there's nothing else like it anywhere! Sunbeam taught me that word."
"Sunbeam knows a lot of words."
Another Eevee's voice called from across the meadow. "Heeeey! You guys stopped looking for me!" Four stood up and turned around to see Three bounding towards them, his silvery-blue fur glittering in the sunlight. "I got bored! Let's do something else!"
"Like what?" Five asked with an excited wag of her tail.
Three stopped, suddenly looking unsure. "Uh... We could play treasure hunt!"
Five bounced up and down excitedly. "Ooh! I love this game!"
"And we're in a new place! There'll be even more cool stuff to find!" Three said.
Four was unsure. He liked looking around to see what kind of cool things Three's luck could help them find, but going somewhere without their evolved sisters seemed like a bad idea. "I don't know... Sunbeam said not to go more than 20 steps outside the meadow..."
Three crouched down on his front paws, wagging his tail. "Come on, Four! We won't go far! And we can take care of ourselves, right?"
"I... I guess..."
"Come on, don't be a Torchic! We'll come back before they even know we're gone!" Three goaded.
Four was conflicted. They'd be breaking a rule that Sunbeam had set for them... But Three's luck could keep them out of trouble, right? And even if not, Four now knew how to fight better... Finally, he stood up. "Ok. But not too far!"
Five bounced into the air. "Yay! We'll find so much cool stuff and pretty things!" she shouted, leaping and bouncing happily. Four smiled at her. He loved how happy she always was. Maybe they'd find more flowers to add to her current chain. She'd love that...
Sunbeam blinked awake, rays of strong sunlight filtering through the leaves and onto her fur. She sighed contentedly...
Then snapped awake with a jolt as she realized that she was NOT supposed to be asleep.
She sat up on the branch, shaking her head out and searching for her unevolved siblings telepathically. She almost had a heart attack as she couldn't locate or contact them. They must have wandered out of range! With no sign of any of the three Eevees in the meadow, Sunbeam shot down the tree as fast as she could, not yet having the skill to teleport without time to focus.
She dashed across the meadow, just about to where she thought her Dark Type sister might be. "MOONLIGHT!" she yelled, scanning the branches for blue light. She had seen where Three through Five had gone, right? "MOONLIGHT" she called again.
Finally, she heard a familiar annoyed grunt from a nearby tree. "Ok, ok, you found me..." she muttered groggily. Sunbeam tried to stay calm. Had Moonlight fallen asleep, too!?
The shiny Umbreon slowly climbed down, pausing when she saw it was just Sunbeam. "...Where did our siblings go?"
Sunbeam couldn't keep the worry out of her voice. "You don't know? I thought we were watching them together!"
"No," Moonlight began as she jumped to the ground, landing perfectly. "You told me I could take a rest! You said you'd keep an eye on them!"
"I never said that! When did I say you could sleep!?" she shouted back, quickly losing her calm aura.
"It was implied!" Moonlight shot back, getting angry at her sister's attitude. "And what about you!? You blame me for sleeping on the job, but you clearly did the same thing!"
"Yes, but I didn't mean to!"
"Oh, because that's SO much better!"
"I thought you could cover for me if I slipped up!"
"I thought you were giving me a break! I thought you were being nice to me!"
"We were supposed to be watching them together!"
"And look how well THAT turned out!"
"I can't believe this!"
"I can't believe you! Aren't you supposed to be the responsible older sister!?"
Sunbeam stopped. Moonlight may not have meant it to, but that remark had really hurt. She looked away, feeling guilty.
Moonlight apparently picked up on it, because she wound down very quickly. "...I'm sorry, sis... I... didn't mean that..."
Sunbeam didn't move. "...This is stupid. Why are we fighting?"
Her rebellious sister sat down. "I don't know... I guess I was just worried..."
"Me, too..."
For a while, neither said anything. Finally, Moonlight broke the silence. "Well, we have to track them down."
"We do?"
"Do you really want mom or dad finding out about this?"
She had a point. "But how? They're too far away. I can't contact them."
"So we'll track them," she said simply, standing up.
Sunbeam turned back towards her. "Track them? Like by smell?"
"Yeah, like the rest of the Pokémon world does it."
Sunbeam ignored the slight attitude in her tone. That was just how Moonlight worked. "But I'm not very good at it..."
"Lucky for you, I am," she replied confidently, walking at a brisk pace towards the middle of the meadow. Sunbeam trotted after her to catch up, stopping a few steps away as Moonlight began sniffing the grass. "I know they were here, so that's where I'm starting," he said, copying their father's teaching voice. "If I can't track them around the meadow, I'll walk around the edge until I catch their scent again."
Sunbeam tilted her head. "Why wouldn't you just start like that?"
"Because it's quicker this way. And depending on how long ago it was, the scent on the edge might have faded, so I might miss it by accident."
Sunbeam nodded, taking notes. All of the sibling had agreed that Sunbeam was the most book-smart, and it was true, Sunbeam had a rather large repository of random information bouncing around her head, but Moonlight was smart, too. Just in a different way. Where Sunbeam could probably name any species of Pokémon on sight, Moonlight would know how to track or fight each one of them.
One sister book-smart and the other sister street-smart. Between them, there was nothing they couldn't do, right? Sun and moon, light and dark. It was part of what made their parents such a good team. They could do this.
Hang on, Three, Four, and Five! Sunbeam and Moonlight are coming to save you!
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