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Eevee’s paws ached from running, but he couldn’t stop. Not when he knew those kadabra were still after him.
Trespassing on their territory and eating their berries had been a mistake, but that didn’t mean they had to try to make a meal out of him. There wasn’t even enough of him to be worth it; it hadn’t been that long since he left his mother’s nest.
A psybeam struck his hindleg and he yipped in pain, but didn’t break his stride. He put on a burst of speed and swerved to hide beneath a bush, trying to quiet his breathing in hopes they wouldn’t sense him, that they’d give up the chase.
And then his muscles seized and a force lifted him out of the shelter of the bush. He shut his eyes, bracing himself for when they finished him off—
“Blastoise, hydro pump!” a human’s voice rang out, punctuated by a pokémon’s roar.
The psychic force released Eevee and he landed with a soft thump. He lay still, stunned.
He opened his eyes. His attackers had been stunned by the other pokémon’s attack—this was his chance to flee. He tried to stagger to his paws, but he was too exhausted to stand.
“Pick on someone your own size! Or you’ll have Blastoise and I to answer to.”
The group of kadabra retreated.
The human who had shouted earlier now approached Eevee, kneeling in front of him. He fluffed out his fur and growled a warning, as if he had the strength to fight.
“Hey, you don’t have to do that.” The human’s voice was soft as he held out a trembling hand. “I’m not gonna hurt you.”
Eevee sniffed the hand warily and looked up. Eevee hadn’t seen many humans, but this one’s small frame—still much larger than Eevee, but small for a human—and soft face meant he was probably a young one. He looked as tense as Eevee felt, but his dark green eyes held no hostility. Was he scared of Eevee? Eevee doubted it.
What’d a human have to be scared of?
“You’re hurt, and those kadabra might be back later.” He looked worriedly over his shoulder. Was he scared of them too? “Will you bite me if I try to take you somewhere safe, where we can get you some help?”
Eevee wasn’t about to make any promises.
The boy held out one of the round objects humans kept pokémon in. Eevee batted it away with a paw.
“No poké ball, huh?” He put it away. “What, should I just carry you?”
That sounded better to Eevee. That way he could be aware of his surroundings, and maybe get away if things got bad.
The boy scooped Eevee up in his arms. Eevee had never been touched by a human before, let alone held, and it… wasn’t bad. The boy was warm.
Eevee couldn’t fight his exhaustion any longer, and his consciousness faded.
Gary was so focused on getting away from those kadabra and to the nearest pokémon center that it took him a minute to notice that the eevee in his arms was asleep—that, or it had fainted. Either way, it was hurt and exhausted and needed help fast. He picked up the pace.
The sound of a twig snapping made him jump and hold onto Eevee a little tighter. He looked around for any sign of attack, only for Blastoise to give him an apologetic look.
Gary kept quiet, not wanting to risk those kadabra hearing him and trying another attack. Frustration burned to his core at how paranoid he was being, but seeing Eevee so helpless, and those glowing eyes… it brought back memories that made him shudder. Had he looked so small and defenseless under that thing’s glowing gaze?
He shook his head to dismiss the thought, feeling sick. That didn’t matter now. He’d protected Eevee, and now all that mattered was getting it help.
Eevee woke in an unfamiliar place, something soft beneath him. He was still too dazed to fully take in his surroundings, but the human who had protected him was close by, seemingly asleep. Eevee nosed him curiously—Eevee hadn’t seen many humans up close before, preferring to stay a safe distance from them, but this one seemed pretty harmless and he was asleep.
Humans were oddly shaped creatures, so much longer and lankier than Eevee’s kind, and with so little fur. This one had plenty atop his head, spiky like a jolteon’s, but seemed mostly bare—that must’ve been why he had those soft things covering his body, so he wouldn’t be too cold.
The human stirred, eyes fluttering open. “Morning, little guy. You feel okay?”
Eevee stretched, testing out his limbs. He yipped an affirmative. Even the leg that had taken that psybeam didn’t hurt anymore.
“That’s good.” The human stretched languidly, yawning into his hand. “Now, how does breakfast sound?”
Eevee’s ears pricked and his tail wagged. Breakfast sounded very good.
Gary was barely doing more than rearranging his own food as he watched Eevee eat. After all it had been through, it was good to see it enthusiastically digging into a bowl of pokémon food—clearly feeling better and less afraid than it had been yesterday.
Something in him softened. He and this eevee… they had something in common. It felt good to be able to help it.
“Hey, Eevee.” Eevee looked up at him, and he continued, “You can go back into the wild, or if you want, you can come along with me. Battle as a team with someone to patch you up after, see lots of new sights, and never have to worry about where your next meal is coming from. How’s that sound?”
Eevee looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, then seemed to decide. “Vee!” Eevee jumped into his arms, covering his face with licks.
“I take that as a yes,” he said, laughing. “Now stop that, it tickles!”
This was different. He’d never asked a pokémon if it wanted to join him before, it had always been catch ‘em first and ask questions later.
Maybe he was changing. Maybe that was for the better.
Eevee had been traveling with Gary for a couple weeks and had gotten used to it. He slept curled up at the foot of his trainer’s bed, and it was usually very comfortable.
Tonight, Eevee was woken by something striking him—Gary’s foot. He yipped in annoyance and thought about biting in retaliation, but then realized something was wrong. Gary was thrashing in his sleep as if trying to fight off an unseen enemy—or escape one’s grasp.
He bolted awake with a sharp cry. He struggled for breath, a hand on his chest and eyes wild with fear.
Eevee still wondered what humans had to be afraid of, but clearly something had scared Gary badly enough that it haunted him in his sleep. Eevee would ask the other pokémon about it another time, but that wasn’t important now. What was important was calming his trainer down.
Eevee carefully moved to his side, close enough to hear the frantic pounding of his heart, and nosed him gently. He recoiled at the contact. But then he looked at Eevee and seemed to finally realize where he was, shoulders slumping as if suddenly exhausted.
The fear in his eyes gave way to something else. He reached a trembling hand toward Eevee, like he had when they first met, but he wasn’t offering comfort this time. He was asking Eevee for it.
Eevee gave the hand a gentle lick before brushing past it. Gary’s legs were drawn up, but there was space between them and his upper body that Eevee could fit into. He put his front paws on his trainer’s chest and met tear-filled eyes with his own.
And then Gary’s arms were holding him, a little too tight in desperation, and tears fell onto his fur, but he found he didn’t mind either of those things. He licked Gary’s face, purring soothingly in response to his trainer’s choked sobs, like his mother had comforted him as a kit.
After a while, it worked. The tears stopped falling, the sobs quieted, Gary stopped trembling and relaxed. He let go of Eevee to wipe his eyes with a sniffle. He hiccuped, a funny little sound Eevee hadn’t heard much and hadn’t yet figured out the meaning of, before lying back down.
Eevee snuggled up against his chest, eyes closing, and purred. He felt Gary’s breaths gradually become deep and even, drifting back into what would hopefully be a more peaceful sleep.
This was even better than the foot of the bed.
Eevee was worried about Gary—it had taken a longer time than usual for him to get out of bed that morning, and he hadn’t eaten before they set out. He didn’t smell sick or feel any warmer than usual, but something wasn’t right.
Eevee had hoped the fresh air would do him some good once they got moving, but it didn’t seem to. They didn’t get very far before he decided to stop, resting against a tree.
Not many other pokémon were with them right now. It was Blastoise and Arcanine, and Eevee himself. Gary let the other two out, answering all three of their questioning looks with, “Another migraine. I think the heat’s getting to me, we’re gonna take a rest here.”
He slumped against the tree to lie on the grass, eyes tightly shut. Loyal and steadfast Blastoise stuck close to his side, while Arcanine watched worriedly. That struck Eevee as odd—Arcanine was usually so playful and energetic, something had to be wrong for her to be so still and somber.
“Is he going to be okay?” Eevee asked her.
“I think so,” Arcanine answered. “He usually pulls through before too long.”
“Usually?” Eevee didn’t like the sound of that. “This happens that much?”
Arcanine nodded. “Something happened before you joined us. Something bad,” she said. “There was this… I’m not sure it was even a pokémon. It didn’t look like one and it didn’t act like one, and it was strong. Its psychic powers picked me up and threw me against a wall like nothing.”
Eevee suppressed a shudder. He still didn’t like psychic-types.
Arcanine lay close to him, and her warmth was comforting, but maybe she was seeking comfort from him. She still gazed ahead, a faraway look in her eyes. “But the worst part was what it did after I was returned to my poké ball. You know most of us pokémon don’t attack humans unprovoked, especially defenseless ones, but… I sensed it.” Her voice lowered to a growl, ears flattening. “That monster attacked my trainer.”
The force of warm, friendly Arcanine’s fury was a shock, but Eevee’s fur bristled with the same protective anger at whoever, whatever had hurt their trainer.
Arcanine wasn’t done. She dropped her head and whimpered, trying to hide her face under her front paws. “It hurt him. It hurt him bad, so bad he still hurts sometimes. I couldn’t protect my pup, and still he apologized to me when it was all over. Said it was his fault me and Nidoking got hurt. But we were ready to fight and maybe get hurt, and he wasn’t. He’s just a pup.”
Eevee didn’t know what to say. He was stricken by a realization—Gary had rescued him from those kadabra because the two of them were the same. And as scary as the idea was, Eevee knew he would return the favor if he had to. “He won’t get hurt again. I’ll protect him too, I promise.”
Arcanine raised her head to look at Eevee and barked a soft laugh. “Sure you will, pup.”
Gary found he preferred the night. His migraines didn’t get as bad when there was less light, and… sometimes he wanted to put off sleeping. And the world was different at night—even with the sounds of nocturnal pokémon, it was quieter, and breathing in the cool night air made him feel alive again.
Eevee liked exploring at night too. He got more energetic, bounding excitedly ahead and then turning back to rejoin Gary. He had become increasingly confident—that battle against Ash’s pikachu had been a boost for them both.
Tonight the moon was full and bright, the sky clear and countless stars shining. Gary lay on the grass, hands behind his head. Eevee was warm on his chest, purrs reverberating through his heart.
He was trying to pick out the familiar constellations he’d been taught as a little kid when he saw Eevee’s ears twitch. Eevee leaped to his paws and onto the grass, knocking the breath out of Gary, and growled.
Gary couldn’t hear anything unusual—at least not unusual for Johto. The sound of hoothoot had taken him by surprise at first, but they were pretty harmless as long as you weren’t a berry or a rattata. (And Gary wasn’t a piece of fruit, no matter what his elementary school classmates had said.)
But Eevee could hear better than Gary could, which meant Gary would always take a warning like that seriously. He sat up. “What is it, Eevee?”
He saw eyes glowing in the dark and his blood ran cold. He was ready to scoop Eevee up and run, refusing to freeze up in fear this time. But Eevee was apparently done being scared altogether, instead choosing to dash toward the attacker, stopping it in its tracks with quick attack.
Emboldened by Eevee’s courage, Gary leaped to his feet to face their opponent—a hypno. A psychic-type. That wouldn’t scare them off this time. “Alright, let’s do this! Take down, Eevee!”
Eevee leaped at the wild hypno without a hint of fear, bringing the larger pokémon down and leaping back while it recovered.
It rose to its feet, eyes glowing, and Gary suppressed a shudder. Its psychic attack lifted Eevee up and threw him.
“Eevee!” Gary reached for Eevee’s poké ball, ready to recall him to safety, but Eevee rose to his paws with a defiant yip.
Hypno looked ready to attack again and Gary tensed, fear still trying to take hold, but refused to falter. Eevee refused too, and his innocent brown eyes started to glow with their own power. Waves of black energy radiated out from his tiny body and sent his foe reeling.
“Hell yeah, Eevee!” Gary’s fear melted at last. “I don’t know what that was, but let’s give it another go! Let’s aim higher this time, get it in the face!”
Eevee nodded, leaping high into the air. As he attacked, the moonlight seemed to illuminate his fur, before his whole body started to glow white.
By the time his paws touched the ground again, he wasn’t Eevee anymore—taller and gracefully slender, with sleek black fur and glowing yellow rings. Wide crimson eyes were brimming with excitement; he liked his new form.
Gary took out his pokédex.
“Umbreon, the moonlight pokémon. When an eevee has had sufficient training and is exposed to moonlight, it evolves into an umbreon.”
It didn’t sound like they knew much about it, then. But that was fine by Gary—what better time to learn?
Hypno wasn’t done with them yet, and its eyes glowed as it prepared another attack… but nothing happened.
Seemingly realizing the tables had turned against it, it turned tail and fled.
Umbreon bounded toward Gary, tail wagging. “Way to go, Umbre—oof!” Gary had been bowled over by Umbreon’s attempt at jumping into his arms, but Umbreon didn’t seem to mind, excitedly covering his face in licks. Gary couldn’t bring himself to mind either.
Umbreon lay on the bed beside his trainer, content to doze as Gary fiddled with the pokédex.
His ears pricked when he heard Gary gasp softly. “Hey, Umbreon. Guess what.”
Umbreon looked at him curiously, wondering what he was going to say next.
“You’re a dark-type now. They’re a recent discovery, but we do know a few things.” His voice was soft, still a little disbelieving, but he smiled. “You can’t be hurt by psychic attacks. Ever again.”
So that was why that hypno he’d fought suddenly hadn’t been able to do anything to him! Umbreon felt a surge of joy and pride in his new form. He would be safe from his old enemy, and he could keep Gary safe too. If whoever or whatever had hurt Gary before they met ever tried again, it’d have Umbreon to answer to.
He noticed the tears forming in his trainer’s eyes. Was something wrong? He whimpered in concern, licking Gary’s face, and Gary let out a soft laugh. “I’m okay, Umbreon. I think we’re both gonna be a lot more okay from now on.”
Gary took a great deal of pride in being right about things, but he’d never been nearly this happy to be right.
The nightmares hadn’t stopped completely. But when he bolted awake in the middle of the night, he could look over and see the gentle glow of Umbreon’s rings, and he could fall back asleep knowing they were safe.
He still hesitated to send out Umbreon against psychic-types, and Umbreon still briefly hesitated at the sight of them sometimes, before remembering they couldn’t hurt him anymore and leaping into battle without a trace of fear.
Gary’s grandpa had told him once, after he’d been reduced to tears over the frustration and guilt of being unable to face his own abra, that healing took time and wasn’t linear. But Gary and Umbreon were still making steps in the right direction and the two of them were healing, getting braver.
As Gary gazed up at the moonlit sky, the night air cool on his skin and Umbreon warm at his side, he felt like he was finally beginning to understand what it was to be at peace.