Chapter Text
I wouldn’t normally prefer sleeping in a tree, but it was far better than sharing a bed with a dead girl.
My mistake was deciding that the old chateau in Eterna Forest would make a fine home. The manor had languished deep within the forest, abandoned long before I arrived with only the dress on my body and the gall to tour its haunted halls. It was perfect for my needs: a roof over my head, a not-too-moldy bed, and an abundance of urban legends to keep people far away.
The spooky stories didn’t bother me. After all, I could easily negotiate with the resident ghost Pokémon to leave me alone. So, when a deal was struck at sundown, I cheerfully went to sleep in my first bed in weeks. Bliss, however, was short-lived when I woke up not long after, chilled to the bones. I sat up looking for a draft but found the ghost of a little girl curled up next to me, grinning.
I screamed loud enough to wake the entire forest, then jumped out the window. Enough sense was mercifully left in me to morph into a Pidgey instead of meeting the ground with a splat. And so, I spent the rest of the night on a tree branch, shivering but safe from threats and spirits.
Yet here I was, sitting naked on the forest floor with a purple ankle and plucking leaves out of my strawberry-blond hair.
The downside of sleeping on top of a tree was the chance you’d wake up on the bottom of it. Sometime after dawn, I must have accidentally changed back into human form. One turn of body later, gravity gave me more bruises than fighting off a Trainer’s Hitmonchan last week for a hamburger.
I bit back a second scream in under eight hours. It wasn’t my day. In fact, it wasn’t my week. The journey to Eterna Forest was exhausting, and since that hamburger, I ate nothing but what I could find on trees. No real food, so no energy to maintain a Pokemon form.
I just wanted to eat something that wasn’t a berry.
Sooner or later, I should get my dress from the manor, not that modesty was a necessity considering I hadn’t seen another (living) human at all yesterday. Perhaps the ghost stories surrounding the chateau were working too well. I was counting on Trainers passing through to and from Eterna City as my main food source.
No Trainers, no food to filch.
Despite my sore body, I became a Swellow and stretched my wings wide. The caress of soft breeze on my feathers felt like a massage, but the insistent growling of my stomach shortened my delight. Food first, then dress, before I plummeted from air and became someone else’s breakfast.
Overhead, the sky was auspiciously cloudless. Maybe my luck was turning for the better.
As I glided over treetops, the language of Pokémon flowed easily into my ears. To my right, a group of Bidoof mourned the loss of their newly completed dam. To my left, a Murkrow screeched in frustration as his prey escaped from his gaping beak.
My sympathies to the Murkrow. Hunger was a terrible beast that sent my pulse racing and head swimming. I crested and dipped in the air like a wave and saw sandwiches lying on the forest floor. Ghastly of a chance they were real, so I shook my head to refocus. The sandwiches were still there.
Real food! Giddy with anticipation, I dropped almost gracefully into a nearby tree. Before talons touched branch, my form changed into a Tallow—smaller, fleet-winged, and perfect for diving in and scramming before anyone noticed. Lined up on a stomp below me were three beautiful sandwiches with golden filling oozing between slices of absurdly fluffy milk bread. Their guard was an Umbreon, head tucked on his front paws and out like a light.
Easy meal. Wings folded, body coiled, I was about to shoot out like a bullet when a sharp voice from behind nearly jolted me from the perch.
“Arios! Get up! You’re supposed to be guarding the food!”
A head of tousled brown hair appeared beneath the tree. The Umbreon stretched unhurriedly and grumbled something like ‘I got it under control.’ His Trainer—a lanky boy of roughly seventeen like me—mussed his black fur.
“If someone swipe those sandwiches, I’m eating your share of the food,” the Trainer ribbed, one arm extending towards my future breakfast. Heedlessly, I lashed down from my perch towards his hand. He jerked back with a yelp, sandwiches unmarred, and I was in perfect position to snatch them all.
One in my beak, two in my talons, then three flaps of wings to get away. That was how I imagined it’d go. Unfortunately, I overestimated the carrying capacity of a Tallow on an empty stomach. The miscalculation cost me a few tail feathers when the once-sleepy Umbreon leapt into action, teeth snapping up again and again. Never mind escaping, it took all my strength just to reach an altitude he couldn't reach. After a while, he stopped to watch me fly in place.
“Something wrong, little bird? Three sandwiches too heavy?” he taunted. I wished I could give a degrading comeback, but my beak was occupied. No energy left. I needed to swallow my pride if I were to swallow any food at all, thus I unclenched my talons and the sandwiches landed squarely on the Umbreon’s head.
You want them? Now you have them! I mentally rebutted, escaping with one measly sandwich and half a shred of dignity.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
It didn’t take long for my stomach to return to complaining. After I ate, I rounded the forest as a Swellow once more for Trainers. None were found, not even the male Trainer and his snarky Umbreon.
This won’t do. I sulked with my head on drawn-in knees, fingers picking at the hem of my dress. I probably could survive in the forest if I persisted, but I didn’t want to live like this. Stealing just to eat? Sleeping in a cave or on a tree? All the risks to escape, and this was what freedom looked like?
Two human settlements were nearby. Should I ask for help? The thought dredged in a heap of anxiety. I had neither identification nor money, which were, according to novels and movies, two necessities to participate in human society. Without them, I would be turned over to the authorities, and then?
They were looking for me. I couldn’t risk it. So what else could I do?
I chewed my lip until I tasted blood. Needing a distraction, I took on my favorite form: Ninetales. She was proud, powerful, and beautiful—everything I wanted to feel but didn’t.
So, I ran, faster and farther, until I left my bad mood in the dust. It felt good, as if nothing could catch up with me. Not my problems. Not them.
Except for the pain in my ankle, screaming at me to stop.
The pain won out. I collapsed onto a patch of grass in a clearing, my ankle looking worse than it had this morning. So much for having a good day. Tears pricked my eyes, and it took everything I had to hold them back. Just one lucky break, was that too much to ask?
If I couldn’t run from my problems, then I would rather sleep through them. Right now, before I cracked. I squeezed my eyes shut and dropped my head onto my front paws. Mercifully, sleep came not long after, and I dreamt of a feast.
Dream-me was enjoying a hearty bowl of stew when a rustling bush snapped me back into reality. A shadow loomed near the tree line, its shape too much like the Umbreon from this morning. When a brown-haired Trainer stepped out, it was unmistakably the same pair.
“A Ninetales? Here?” the Trainer scrunched his brows, likely bewildered to find a Ninetales a few hundred miles from her closest natural habitat. His Umbreon nodded at me, and I felt obliged to greet him back despite the bitter feelings from our previous encounter. Of course, he had no way of knowing I was the Tallow who swooped in for breakfast.
“She has one gold-colored eye,” the Trainer murmured, eyes fixated on mine. I flipped my head to the side so he could no longer see it. This eye was at best an annoyance, a flaw in my otherwise perfect transfigurations. At worst, it was a dead giveaway, a mark of ownership I could never escape from. I hated it.
The Trainer’s gaze was still on me. It wasn’t malicious or objectifying, just quietly considering. Then, he tipped his mouth upward and reached into his bag. I rose before he found the empty Poke Ball, muscles already tensed for a fight I couldn’t afford to lose. His Umbreon stepped forward, claws digging into earth.
I moved first. Quick Attack closed the distance between us, and I slid into the Umbreon’s blind spot and knocked him off-balanced. Anxious for a quick victory, I followed up at once with Flamethrower. Parts of the Umbreon’s fur were burnt, but he shook it off easily and rebutted with Assurance.
“Arios, Dark Pulse!” his Trainer commanded, and tendrils of dark energy stretched towards me. I didn’t have the patience to dodge them all, so I dispelled them with a Fire Spin that covered half the clearing. The vortex left a charred circle in the grass. The Umbreon stood on the perimeter, unharmed.
Stupid, stupid! The move wasted energy I didn’t have and the Umbreon was no worse for wear. I lunged at him again, exchanging blows with claws and teeth. As I pounced towards him for a Quick Attack, my bad ankle gave out, and I landed in a heap in front of my opponent.
The Umbreon stopped his attacks and eyed me with mild concern. His Trainer approached and knelt by my side with a frown, one hand hovering close to my swollen ankle. I snapped at his fingers; he yanked them away just in time to keep them.
“You better not try anything,” Umbreon growled, “or I will personally rip out that shiny coat of yours.”
I glared at him. His master leaned back to give me space.
“It wasn’t a fair fight,” the Trainer said plainly. “You’re injured, and it looks like you’re not in the best condition either.”
With eyes narrowed, I tried to make sense of his intention. Who wouldn’t take an easy win?
“I’d like to try again,” he went on, “after you’re fixed up, of course. Could I take care of you for a while?”
This time, I gaped at him as if he were a shiny Pokémon. Since I wasn’t relenting, he changed approach.
“Three square meals a day and some salve for your ankle. No funny business,” he pledged. The Umbreon chimed in to vouch for his Trainer’s character. Still, I stayed silent. However, having seen my ears perk up traitorously at the words ‘three square meals,’ the Trainer smiled guilelessly.
“We’re having stew tonight, if you are interested.”
Say no more. With a lick of my lips and a sparkle in my eye, I limped obediently behind him to his camp, shamelessly salivating the entire way.