The light of the sun shined through the leaves of the forest, providing light to the verdure. Many pokémon inhabited the forest, but due to its vastness, the echo of the vegetation resonated the sound of silence and serenity. In that peaceful scenery, only one thing seemed out of place; a shroomish hunkered down, hiding in the shadows of the trees. Tensed up, he scanned his surroundings for potential predators or threats. Seeing none, he was relieved, but remained vigilant as he walked to his meal: a single dead leaf on the ground, too heavy to be carried by the breeze.
He smiled as he ate it, taking his time to chew the delicious food in his mouth. When he finished, his smile faded as he came back to the brutal reality he was in. He had no more leaves down his tree. He was still alone in the middle of a forest which was unknown by him, the little prey. This feeling of helplessness made him shiver.
A week ago, he had just woken up when he saw his parents, dead from the inside. He had first thought they were asleep. Pushing them, he realized they wouldn't wake up from their slumber. He couldn't consider that Giratina, the almighty ruler of the dead, might have taken them. His fright was so great that he ran away, leaving his loved ones to the forest. For the first time in his life, he felt pain, coming from his very heart. It was his loneliness, which only brought him misery, a poison that would slowly cripple him down.
Looking around for a second time, he noticed a shadowy figure walking slowly towards him. His body trembled at the sight of a possible threat to his existence.
It may have noticed me already, he thought. I should have been more careful, like my parents told me to.
The memory of his parents invaded the shroomish's mind. It had been one week, yet he always thought they would have came back for him. But they haven't.
The stranger walked off the shadows and the shroomish now knew who he would be facing: a human. His parents always told him that they were monsters, capable of the worst atrocities. With a knife in one of his hands and a poké ball in the other, the human stared at him blankly, like a predator ready to strike down his prey. He stood in front of the shroomish like a giant, impenetrable wall.
I cannot stay here, he thought. I have to run away. But if I run away, I'll be lonely.
The shroomish backed off slowly, his heart started pumping blood faster and faster. He felt the walls around him growing stronger as the man approached him. The sound of the rustling grass grew stronger and stronger. He didn't want to fight; so he had no choice but to run away. And he did without looking back.
After a moment, he stopped, believing he had escaped him. He breathed deeply, tried to calm himself up. He decided to look behind him, the human was there, right behind him. His eyes widened in apprehension. He was wearing a gray sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. Looking over his own head, the shroomish saw the man's hand hand holding a poké ball which was right above him. As he dropped it, the poké ball fell on the shroomish, hitting him. A light emerged from it, absorbing the shroomish inside. He couldn't fight back; he was too exhausted to do so. In the poké ball, the shroomish entered in a comfortable, dream-like state. However, he was soon awaken from his stasis. Something forced him outside of his cozy poké ball, to his own disappointment.
Looking around him, the shroomish noticed that they hadn't moved since his capture. The trees had the same smell, and their buds still weren't ready to bloom. However, he had lost track of time since he was first captured. The shroomish saw the human put away his poké ball in one of the pockets of his backpack. Putting back his backpack, he looked at the shroomish with insistence. To the pokémon, it seemed like he was looking at him as a prey, or a prize. They stared at each other in silence. After a while, the shroomish got uncomfortable at the awkwardness of it all. He decided to break the ice.
“He-Hello,” the shroomish mumbled.
“Hi.”
This was how their first conversation ended, and the silence came back. The human took a notepad and a pen out of his pocket and started scribbling something on it. He glanced back at the shroomish.
He may be weird, he thought. I have a bad feeling about him. But at least, he didn't do anything wrong to me. Yet.
He spoke again. “Your name?” he asked the shroomish.
“I-I'm Chen,” he said, smiling at his new trainer. “What's yours?”
He looked at the shroomish while writing something on the notepad. “My name's Matthew. But you can call me Matt,” he said with indifference.
Suddenly, a thought crossed Chen's mind. He stood there in shock. “Wait. You understand me?”
“Yeah. What's the matter?”
The shroomish couldn't believe what he had heard. How could this human understand what he was saying? He had always been told that the humans couldn't understand them.
“How can you do that?” he asked, confused.
“This,” he said, keeping his emotionless tone of voice. Matt pointed one of his ear. There was an earpiece on it.
“Let's go,” Matt decided. He turned back and started walking.
“Wait a second,” Chen insisted.
He stopped and turned back to him.”What is it?”
“My parents told me that trainers hold their pokémon in their poké balls. Is that true?” the shroomish questioned with curiosity.
“Yeah.”
“Then, why am I not in one?”
“I'm not a trainer,” he said.
He seems annoyed by my questions, Chen guessed. He wants to be left alone. Why would he want it to be that way? I mean, I'm kinda shy, but I'm still talkative.
“Let's get going,” he declared.
One hour later, the human stopped and put his backpack under a tree. He sat against the tree and took a device out of his pocket. Looking at the stars, the shroomish ate some dead leaves. They both heard the soothing sound of the hooting hoothoot. The night was marvelous and the moon bathed the two companions with its light. They stayed there for a little while. Chen thought they would be camping here, as their travels had been tiring. Matt put away his device and stood up, taking his bag.
“We're going.”
I can't believe he wants to continue. We've already done a good distance today and we would be too tired to defend ourselves.
“Let's sleep here,” the shroomish proposed.
“There's a pokémon center one hour from here,” he explained.
“But I can't walk anymore,” Chen whined.
“You won't have to.”
Matt walked towards the shroomish and grabbed him, putting him on his head. After a first moment of surprise, he decided to rest peacefully on his head. Chen felt the human's red hair touching his porous, bare skin.
“I want you to look for other pokémon,” he asked the shroomish. “I want to make sure we don't run into one of them.”
Matt started walking between the trees. To Chen, every tree of the forest was the same. As time went by, he felt like a stranger in his own forest. After a while, Matt's gait started to become sluggish, and he panted heavily as they continued on their way.
He too is exhausted, the shroomish thought. He is just really good at hiding it. I wonder why he tries to hide his emotions so much.
With his back hunching forward, the human and his new companion arrived at the pokémon center, which was still open, despite how late it was. When they entered, Matt saw a nurse watching something on her computer, her head resting on her hand. The hall was pretty empty; everyone was probably in their own bedrooms. On their right, there were red crimson armchairs disposed and a television that was turned off. On their left there was closed counter which sold goods for pokémon trainers. Matt walked towards the nurse nonchalantly, motioning for Chen to follow him. Chen felt the sturdiness of the floor on his feet, which surprised him. He had grown accustomed to the irregularity of the floor of his own home.
“Could you give my pokémon a rest for the night?” he asked her.
She noticed him and looked at him with a tired expression.”Yeah,” she replied.
He put his backpack on the front desk and started looking for his poké ball.
“Is there a place where I could sleep?”
“You can sleep upstairs. But it'll cost you fifteen dollars for the night.”
Matt found his poké ball and handed her the money. ”Thank you,” she said with her tired voice.
He turned to the shroomish with his poké ball. ”Good night,” he said before absorbing the drowsy shroomish inside the poké ball.
After what seemed like a few minutes for Chen, something forced him abruptly outside of his poké ball. Opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was Matt who was looking back at him with a tired expression. He pulled his device out of his pocket and started reading something. Deciding to take a glance at their surroundings, Chen realized that they were still inside the pokémon center. For the first time since he met him, the shroomish saw an emotion on Matt's face; something he just saw made him grin.
“Do they really think they'll stop me with a threat like that? How foolish.”
He looked at the shroomish. ”Let's go,” he told him.
As they were going to leave the pokémon center, the nurse from yesterday hurried to them.”Wait!”
“What is it?” Matt asked her.
“Haven't you heard the news? There are pokémon bandits out there. You shouldn't go. It's dangerous.”
“I don't care.”
Despite the nurse's warning, he turned back and left the building. Startled by Matt's attitude, Chen was first reluctant to the idea of going back into danger. But as the trainer walked through the automatic door, the shroomish hurried to his side.
“Wouldn't it be safer if we stayed at the pokémon center?” the shroomish proposed.
“Look, kiddo. If I could take a break, I would. But I can't. You can still leave me if you want to. I won't take offense.”
It seems pretty dangerous, Chen thought. But I should stay with him. I mean, it doesn't seem like he's gonna be my friend, but it would still be better than being alone in the woods. And loneliness is horrible. I wonder why he is ready to make that much effort.
“Why do you have to make such a journey?” Chen inquired.
Matt looked at the shroomish with a blank stare. “I need money.”
I wonder what 'money' is, he thought. My parents never told me about that. It must have something to do with their civilization. Sometimes, living in the wild has its drawbacks. If my parents had lived in a pokémon village, maybe I would have known about that.
“Let's not waste any more time,” Matt told the shroomish before continuing on his way.
As they went deeper into the forest, Chen started to feel something at his core, something he had never felt until then. He felt like he wasn't at home anymore. Even if the trees were of the same kind, they weren't those he had lived with. The trees he left acted as his friends, comforting him and nurturing him when his parents weren't there for him. When he was alone, he could count on them, and he always saw them smile back at him. Sometimes, the barrier between the conception of his mind and the reality of his world blurred and left him in a place where someone would always be there for him.
He looked at Matt. Since he now had someone to be with, he didn't need to be with the trees anymore.
Maybe I irritated him earlier, he thought. Matt, I don't want to be a bad friend. I simply want to know you. Maybe we could still be friends.
“Sorry for asking all of these questions earlier,” the shroomish apologized with a smile.
“'Kay,” Matt said, glancing at the pokémon.
Maybe he'll never forgive me, Chen considered. Maybe he'll always be my master. In that case, I'll befriend with the others. My father told me that humans carry multiple pokémon with them. But since he lets me be outside of my poké ball, maybe he does things differently.
They walked for two hours in the woods tirelessly. At a certain moment, the shroomish looked above him and could see the sun shining way above them through the canopy. Looking at his partner, Matt made the decision to take a pause. He sat down a tree and looked at something on his device. After a while, he pulled a berry out of his backpack. The shroomish smelled the delicious berry. He hurried to his side, wanting his own part of it.
“Could I have some?” Chen asked Matt politely.
Hearing his partner, the man snapped out of his thoughts. He slowly moved his head to meet Chen's insistent eyes. He maintained his stare for a few seconds before looking down at the ground, going back into his own thoughts.
Oh no, the shroomish thought. Maybe I said too much. Did I say too much? If so, I'm sorry.
“I can't eat leaves,” he pointed out bluntly. “You should stick with that.”
The shroomish stayed by his side nonetheless. He hoped that Matthew would show some kindness and share the berry with him. He didn't, much to Chen's dismay. After he finished eating the berry, he took his backpack, and looked at his saddened pokémon. He seemed rather concerned by the shroomish's mental state.
“Is there a problem, Chen?” Matt asked.
“I wouldn't want to bother you,” he said humbly.
“You won't. Just tell me if something's wrong.”
“Well, I...” he started.
“Yes?”
“...I would like to see my uncle.”
Matt lowered himself to be at Chen's height. “Where is he right now?”
“I-I dunno,” he confessed.
“We'll find him, I promise,” Matt said solemnly.
Chen had gained his smile back.
“Now, let's get going.”
While on their way, Matt took his canteen out of his backpack and drank with some restraint, making sure to leave some for later. Looking at his master, Chen saw the fatigue in both his eyes and his face. He probably wasn't used to walk on long distances like this, and the experience was certainly not pleasant for him.
After a while, they noticed a metapod from afar, leaning on a tree. As they walked towards him, they saw that his corpse had been slashed brutally at several places. When they were close to it, Matt stopped suddenly, realizing what he was laying his eyes on.
“He's dead,” he whispered in an absent tone.
Chen began trembling. He had already seen dead pokémon. But when he did, his parents were always there to comfort him. This time, he only had a human with him.
“Let's stay low from now on,” Matt instructed the shroomish. He lowered himself and he continued walking on all fours.
I hope he knows what he's doing, Chen thought. Or else, we might both die.
When this idea crossed the shroomish mind, the shroomish repressed it.
We're going to be alright, he told himself. Everything is going to be alright. My master is there to protect me. Nothing will go wrong.