Chapter Text
Candela had always wanted her Eevee to become a Flareon, but now that the orange fluffy beast sat in front of her, she didn’t know what to do with it. She was the same Eevee on the inside, following Candela around the house and laying on her feet at dinnertime, hoping for scraps. She seemed to remember everything Candela had told her—the same tackle and quick attack she’d always used, all Candela’s friends (well, the one, anyway), and the way to Candela’s school.
That was why she didn’t know what to do with Flareon. Worse than Mary and her little Mareep. Candela had rescued Eevee during a hurricane, and she was forever—maybe just a little too much so—grateful.
Her classmates laughed when the front desk secretary showed up to Candela’s third period classroom with her Flareon. They’d seen this happen several times a year since fourth grade, and apparently, it never got old.
Candela had started sitting closest to the door whenever possible to make her getaway quick.
Flareon, despite her fantastic ability to open the gate, was extremely well behaved. She had one goal only—be next to Candela. She figured this was why her teachers put up with the Pokemon interrupting class anyway. Flareon and Candela had always been an exemplary trainer/Pokemon team, except for the occasional escape.
Flareon could not be satisfied until she saw Candela, so she had to leave class to take her home.
Candela got up, grabbed her backpack and raincoat, and left her laughing classmates when the door latched behind her.
“I’m really sorry about this,” she said as she pat Flareon’s head to keep her from jumping on her uniform. “I thought we had the gate issue solved—then she evolved. I think she can jump it now.”
“You should consider a Pokeball,” the secretary said.
Candela pouted. Pokeballs weren’t exactly in her family’s budget. She’d spent all her savings on a fire stone in the first place.
Flareon didn’t even need a leash. She trotted alongside Candela, nudging her hand as they walked home.
“You need to stay at home,” she said. “You’re getting too old for this—you remember everything else but not that I come home every day at the same time?”
Flareon licked her hand.
“I wouldn’t go if I didn’t have to,” she said. “I’d rather stay home with you—I’d rather go train at the gyms with you, actually.” She scratched Flareon’s ears as they walked.
Flareon bolted from her side, and Candela groaned as she chased a Rattata into the woods.
“You’re kidding me,” Candela hollered after the Pokemon. “Get back here, you little punk.”
She ran after Flareon into the woods, ignoring the brush poking at her skirt and legs. She barely kept sight of Flareon’s bright yellow tail. The Rattata hid under a bush Flareon couldn’t get into and stopped, hopping around it and growling.
“What the hell,” Candela said. “Seriously, punk. I don’t have time for this.” She took the belt out of her raincoat and looped it around Flareon’s neck, gently tugging her in the right direction—or what she thought was right direction.
Flareon quickly forgot about the Rattata and trotted beside her trainer again. Candela didn’t remove the makeshift leash.
Candela followed the direction the trees seemed to thin. She glanced down once to see the rips in her uniform and scrapes and scratches on her legs. She couldn’t afford a new one.
They wandered out of the trees into a hiking path next to an old lava bed. Candela and Flareon walked on the path along the edge of the dried flow. She focused on the ground, partly to keep an eye on Flareon and partly to watch for dropped Pokeballs. She knew traveling trainers dropped them, but she had never spent much time looking—but since she was on the trail anyway she figured it wouldn’t hurt.
“Well, I guess I’m not going back to school,” she said. “Thanks, you little punk.”
Candela only missed a handful days out of the year because of Flareon escapes, but it didn’t help her already low grades. She was really only good at gym—which she credited to burning Flareon’s energy off so she’d sleep at night.
She managed to stay at least passably on track in everything else thanks to her one and only human friend, Phoebe. Phoebe helped Candela with her math homework, and Candela protected the small and nerdy Phoebe in dodgeball.
Sweat beaded and slipped down Candela’s face as they walked along the unshaded path overtop the active shield volcano that was Alola. She wiped her forehead on her sleeve, and something metallic shined in her eye down the path.
Candela broke into a sprint and Flareon followed. Sitting on the edge of the path in a crevice of dried lava—an actual Pokeball. She scooped it up, held it in both hands.
Flareon jumped up, sniffing and inspecting the ball in her hands.
“Just for school,” she said, slipping the Pokeball into her backpack. “That way you can come with me.”
A sudden burst of shade made Candela and Flareon look up. A huge golden bird with flaming wings flew over them, soaring for the high point of the island.
“Moltres, no way,” Candela said. She looked to Flareon. “Let’s go see if we can get close.”
She and Flareon jogged up the gentle slope of the hardened lava.
As they got closer to the top, everything felt hotter. The sun, the ground—lava flowed beneath them and trickled down the slope. They spotted a group of people near one of the lava rivers, and Moltres diving for them.
“Hey,” Candela called out. “Get out of here!”
The people, four adults bogged down with backpacks and cameras and equipment, looked to her.
“There’s a Moltres,” she snapped, pointing up at the sky.
The people looked up as Moltres swooped down. They were infringing on its lava—it wanted them gone.
Candela bit her lip as the people started to scatter. “Flareon,” she yelled. “Flamethrower!”
The Pokemon sprung forward and spit a stream of fire from her mouth as Moltres swooped down.
The Moltres became interested in Flareon and her, then, and Candela’s hands started to shake. “Pick on someone your own size,” she hollered at it.
The people, who she thought might be scientists as they were always wandering the lava beds, ran behind her.
Moltres spit fire at Flareon, who could outrun it but barely.
“Flareon,” she yelled. “We gotta get out of here, come on!”
Flareon started to sprint back to Candela, but Moltres came after her. Candela wrapped Flareon in her arms as Moltres swooped in. Tears sat in her eyes, but she wouldn’t let Moltres take just one of them.
Moltres stopped short of them. It cawed, making Candela’s ears ring. She dared look up from Flareon’s furry collar.
Moltres stared at her straight on. It flapped it’s wings but it didn’t move. She could feel the heat roll off the six-foot bird.
“What?” she said, holding Flareon tighter. “What’s your deal?”
The bird chirped at her.
Candela let go of Flareon, letting her take shelter behind her legs. She stood up straight. “What do you want?” she screamed. “You don’t have to hurt anyone.”
Moltres tilted its head.
“Whatever,” Candela said. “Leave these people alone. They’re just geologists anyway.”
She turned and stalked away, Flareon bolting after her. The scientists stood still in complete shock at the sweaty, scraped up teenager.
Moltres took off into the sky again, hopefully in search of a different lava flow down the mountain.
“You know,” she said, hands on her hips. “Legend has it that taking lava from the islands upsets the goddess of fire and brings people bad luck. Maybe you should leave it be.”
“Kid, you just told a legendary bird to piss off,” one of the scientists said. “And it listened .”
“Good,” she said. “Or you’d be lava yourself.”
Candela found the path again and followed it to the park ranger station. The rangers were more interested in bandaging the scrapes on her arms and legs and giving her and Flareon water than trying to get them home.
When she passed as okay enough, a ranger took her to the park entrance and let her walk home with a bottle of water in her hand. She and Flareon wandered back to the house, sometime after dark. Her parents weren’t even home to worry about her yet—still at work.
The next morning, Candela woke to a loud, familiar caw. She bolted up and looked out her window. Sitting in her backyard was Moltres.
She ran out in her pajamas, followed by Flareon, and stood in front of it. “What do you want?” she snapped.
It chirped at her and bent down to have it’s face close to her's again.
“I don’t have time for this,” she huffed. “Go away—aren’t you supposed to be on Cinnabar island anyway?”
Moltres bumped her forehead gently with the top of its beak and continued chirping like a Pidgey.
She pouted. She couldn’t have Moltres following her around, too.
Flareon ran in circles around the bird, wanting to play.
Candela walked inside and picked up the phone. “Phoebe,” she said. “I have a problem.”
“Candela, you always has a problem,” Phoebe answered. “I love you, but you’re kind of dramatic.”
Candela pouted. “This is sort of a— legendary problem. Do you have a minute?”
Phoebe was at Candela’s gate within ten minutes, parking her bike against the peeling paint that was the side of the house. Candela grabbed Phoebe’s hand and dragged her into the backyard. Flareon trotted along beside them.
“Unless there’s Eevee puppies back here you have no reason to be this dramatic,” Phoebe said as she tripped trying to keep up with her friend.
“Worse than Eevee puppies,” Candela said. “Look.”
Moltres stood in the middle of the yard, its wings folded in but it’s lava crown feathers waving in the breeze. It chirped at the girls. Flareon ran circles around the bird.
“What. The actual. Fuck,” Phoebe said.
“I don’t know what to do with it,” Candela said. “It followed me home.”
“A legendary bird that’s millennia old and no one knows anything about just followed you home ?” Phoebe said. “What are you—the Pokemon whisperer?”
“Okay, there’s more to it than that,” Candela said. “But essentially, yeah, it followed me home. I think it wants me to catch it but—I only have one Pokeball that I found on the trail yesterday and I need it for Flareon. Plus it’s definitely not a good enough one to keep Moltres in.”
“Dude, you are so getting called out of class to take Moltres home,” Phoebe said.
Candela melted to her knees at the thought. “This is not happening.”
“Yeah,” Phoebe said. “It is.”
Candela buried her face in her hands and groaned. Maybe she was a touch dramatic.
“Maybe the Pokemart people would just give you one? Because Moltres,” Phoebe said.
“I doubt it,” Candela said.
“I mean, what’s worse?” Phoebe offered. “Flareon or Moltres showing up at school.”
“Moltres,” she said.
Flareon growled as she ran to Candela. She hopped with her front paws in front of her trainer, demanding attention. Candela looked up to see Moltres spit a little fireball into the grass, and Flareon bolted after it. Moltres spit another one on the other side of the yard for Flareon to chase.
“Maybe they’d be fine together during the day,” Candela said.
“You can’t just leave a legendary bird in your yard,” Phoebe said. “Someone would notice. And then who knows—Team Rocket shows up at your door.”
Candela groaned. “I’ll try the ball I found but it’s just a regular Pokeball.”
“This thing is really cool, by the way,” Phoebe said.
Candela returned to the house to grab the Pokeball she’d found. She walked out into the yard.
Moltres stopped shooting fireballs in the grass for Flareon to chase and stomp out. Candela tossed the ball underhand at the bird, showering it in white light and zapping it in.
The ball rocked left and right for a moment before it locked and sat still.
“Dude,” Phoebe said. “What are you going to do with Moltres?”
Candela pouted. “I don’t know—take it back to Cinnabar island eventually. Isn’t that where it belongs?”
“Hey, you remembered that from mythology,” Phoebe said. She gave her friend an awkward side hug. “You’re getting better at studying.”
Candela sighed. “Can I drop out and go on a journey to beat an Elite Four or something now?”
“Anyone can do that,” Phoebe said. “I could become an Elite Four member. You’re going to do something much greater.”