~~~ Chapter 14 - Leah~~~

For the simplest example of the current popular pokemon type charts being insufficient, one need only look at Hyper Beam and its various forms. Almost all Pokemon can learn Hyper Beam. They can’t all learn it and perform it with the same efficacy. Drayden’s Salamence can perform Thunder Fang and Fire Blast. Is his pokemon fire, electric, dragon, and flying? Setting aside the debate around the relatively meaningless “flying” categorization—yes, we believe so.

- Erizal Pell, PhD, in: Pokemon: The New Models for Categorizing and Classifying Abilities, a Guide for Aspiring Trainers and Enthusiasts

~~~

Artie stood outside, leaning against the side of the house, watching his new leavanny play. Despite the weight on his shoulders, the rain had a pleasant, sweet smell to it, his mind drifting. In his head, he stood, outside Castelia City, out of the prying eyes of the paparazzi and onlookers. In the forest of his own thoughts, he'd stood in front of Alder, Leavanny in front, the aging gym leader's famed volcarona on the other side. In these daydreams, they’d wiped each other’s full teams except one. Just Leavanny and Volcarona remained. It was long odds, but they had both saved their best for last. He relished the thought, the anxiety of the dreams of hypothetical futures weighed on his mind. He'd earn and pick a new title for himself then for sure, the teen had already decided.

Art, would be. Everyone got his name wrong. They pronounced it, “Artemis.” It was pronounced “Artemus.” Even the professor got it wrong last night. He shivered at the old man's disregard for him. Art was going to be how the world would know him. The leavanny on the dark green grass backed up, then ran at the tree, running up the side, kicking off, reaching out its leaf-arm, hooking onto its target branch, swinging itself up and over, straddling the limb. It was as if the bug had grown up with an instinct for navigating them.

He was less sure about names for her. Too early to decide, though he was leaning towards Leah. Leah the Lady Leavanny. Yeah. He liked the sound of that. Through the falling rain, Leah disappeared into the thick tree. Had she known the box was valuable? Some psychics could passively intuit their trainer’s minds and intentions. Non-psychics of all types, from everywhere on the intelligence spectrum, would learn their trainers’ habits. It was common that either would even help to complete chores, given enough exposure. Art smiled at the thought, brushing a tuft of hair back behind his shoulders.

But leavannies like Leah were buggy and grassy. Not a combination known for their anthropomorphic behaviors, even if they seemed outwardly to be empathetic by way of their gifts and crafting. Even so, Art knew what he experienced. He’d just gotten the leavanny in his name last night at the Anville pokecenter. Surely it hadn't already "figured him out" as the professor said! He grinned. Anville pokecenter. A pokecenter in the burghs. I’ll never have to go to Anville again, he thought to himself.

The world, the air and rain, it all flashed, rippling. It had only been in the tree for seconds. The leavanny fell from the tree, steam rising up. The swadloon ran to its relative, small wisps of fire flickering in the rain.

Were those burns?

~~~

I hit the ground, rolling into the dirt below the tree, hitting a root, bouncing into the grass, little droplets of water sizzling, steam floating up off my carapace and leaves. My insides boiled, my abdomen twitched. My legs and arms were numb. I opened my mouth to catch the falling rain. A few sweet drops dripped in. I was so numb that I couldn't even feel it on my carapace—no, the rain had stopped entering my mouth. I rolled over, front of my thorax facing down, biting into the grass, licking what moisture I could off the ground. My abdomen screamed in pain, the world was dark, and I was blind, the numbness spreading, I had to fight to stay awake.

Had I been put into a pokeball? Would I even know if I had? Blobs formed, my vision returning. In my face was a large, light-green creature, big blue eyes surrounded by black, their anthropomorphic head reminiscent of humanoid fae. It held its mouth shut, its hands long, elongated hands glowing as it fluttered about and around me. The world around us had turned gray and unmoving, but its wings were flapping silently, puffs of air perhaps lost in the pain.

“E,” I croaked out, before scrunching up like a slinky from the stabbing ache it caused in my internals. The little fairy raised a hand to its mouth, as if to say, “shh,” and continued its work. I slept on the ground, letting it fly around me and heal. Did it chase off the creature that put me into the dream? Why was the world gray? The last time it had gone gray, I’d died.

Did I die?

Again? I didn’t even get to grow a garden!

Dang.

“You’re funny,” I heard in my head. The fae's mouth had curved up.

Oh no! I’m hearing voices now, too!

~~~

Yes! Yes you are! Cebi responded, continuing her work in their little private room of time.

“Do you know why?” The leavanny asked.

Do I know why, what? Cebi returned.

“Attacked” images fluttered up in the leavanny's surface of the fight with Alder and his volcarona.

Uh, well, uh, you uh. She sputtered. Did the leavanny not know?

“You don’t know.”

Only Arceus actually knows how our powers work, the celebi thought to herself, smirking inside. The leavanny really didn't know.

The leaves around the head were patched up, she floated towards the abdomen. Cebi was glad leavanny had an affinity for the forest. She could heal others, of course. But the process would take a lot longer. Hotter than magma, she could sense the damage the metallic rocks had done. Her psychic powers told Cebi where the leavanny was hurt the most. So she prioritized. The traveler couldn’t remove the rocks from the girl’s body, so she did what she could, accelerating the healing and growth faster than the damage the heat was doing. Unfortunately, it was still rapidly burning through what was remaining of the bug’s energy stores.

“Now you’re the one that's being funny,” her patient said to her over their link.

What?!?

“Who—” the bug scrunched up in pain again— ”attacked me?” the bug deflected.

That was a simple answer. She didn’t want to hash it all out in detail, even if there wasn’t a great explanation. Better question would have been “What was that?” But Leavanny knew what she wanted to ask, not what she wanted to know. Even being one of the smartest of the bunch, this one wasn't that much different from any other of the bugs Cebi had met through her travels.

That was Alder and his Volcarona.

“Before that! In the tree!” the girl-bug demanded.

Oh. Uh. Well. Uh. The accelerated regrowth in Leavanny's body was cannibalizing its muscles. It wouldn’t be able to move its arms or legs. For a while, anyway. It needed food.

The leavanny accused Ceby: “It WAS you, wasn’t it!”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Listen! I’m saving your life right now!

“I’m not dead?”

Cebi facepalmed at the question. No! You’re not! Now, where do you have food? she responded over their connection, not a little happy to distract towards a thought more concrete.

The location popped up to the fore of leavanny’s mind before the bug actually replied. A wink, and Cebi was gone. Another, and she was back, the bag of dried berries on the ground below her. Two more winks, and she was back with a bucket of water and a small cup. She poured small cups of water into the leavanny’s mouth, then used telekinetics to drop berry after berry in the bug’s mouth as what little saliva had replenished began to work the un-mashed food into a slurry, sliding down the bug's mouth and into the abdomen, making its way into the bug's digestive system, some of the nutrients being picked up by the roots which hadn't all been scorched from the flames. Cebi's own healing powers helped the bug's circulation and stomach patch itself, then begin to properly pick up and replenish the lost muscle.

“Can you tell me why you hypnotized me and put me into a nightmare?”

I didn’t, Cebi said, pushing the bag over, dumping dried berries onto the moist ground, using telekinesis to pick a bunch up and put them in Leavanny’s mouth.

“What?” she asked.

You just, you just surprised me when you woke me up, okay? I had just fallen asleep on the branch.

“And so you sent me into a nightmare by accident?”

Kinda? I got you out as soon as I could! And it wasn’t a nightmare! Leavanny, through their psychic connection, flashed with confusion, her mind unable to pick a proper theory.

“Huh? What?”

Don’t worry about it. You’re back here now, and you’ll be fine in a moment. Figuratively, anyway. Perceptually, it would still be a couple hours.

“What’s your name?” She fed leavanny more berries. The bug's muscles were growing back in.

My name’s Cebi, she responded.

“Hello, Cebi.” Leavanny’s air sacs had healed, little diaphragms growing back in, good as new, opening their little slots in the bug's abdomen as they began to breathe again.

You’re not mad?

“Why would I be mad? You’re healing me, aren’t you?”

Cebi shrugged before responding, Yeah, but… You almost died just now! she sputtered.

“I’ve already died once, Cebi. This makes twice.” The bug was going to be difficult.

Cebi puffed, Whatever! You should be able to move your arms now. I need to tend to the rest of you. Eat some berries.

The leavanny, laying prone across the ground, reached out an arm. “I can’t reach my mouth.”

Hmm? Oh, phooey. Leavanny was missing the ends of her arms. The left one was just a stub. Her right arm was missing the front half, piercing a small berry but not long enough to reach the mouth.

One moment! Growing limbs is hard!

Once Leavanny was eating again, Cebi returned to patching up the rest of the internal burns in the abdomen and intestines. Nothing burned a hole all the way through the stomach, at least. That was good.

Why did you eat rocks?

“I didn’t mean to.”

Your insides are hurt pretty bad.

“Am I gonna be a lot stronger now?”

Um. Yes. Kind of. Maybe. It depends. Most likely!

“Darn.”

Cebi paused. There weren’t a lot of pokemon she’d met who could have a conversation like this. She’d never met one who wasn’t excited about getting stronger. You’re not excited at the chance to get stronger?

“I dunno. Humans do stuff to live.”

Kinda. I think? I mean, don’t we all?

“Humans are forced to do stuff to live. W—They don’t want to do those things. But they do it to live anyway, right?” Images of a human, locked in a room for hours and hours, day after day until a clock said they could go home, passed through Leavanny's mind. Another, being stuck in a pokeball, day after day after day, nothing but waking, eating, and fighting, then back in the pokeball and back to the pokecenter, another stuck in a lab, day after—He—hey! Listen to me, can I call you Leah? That’s what the kid outside was calling you. Cebi asked, trying to distract from the cascading thoughts.

“Huh, wai—what? You can read human minds too?” Leavanny’s mind had paused, the cycle disrupted as she mulled over her name, distracted from her increasing escalating internal anxiety. The abdomen was fully healed, internally and externally, fully covered with new hardened, leaf-armor carapace on all sides, slats of vents punched through to let heat and air and waste pass.

Yup! And listen, Leah. I CAN call you Leah, right?

“Yes. I like that name.”

Good. Listen, Leah, everything’s going to be okay, all right? There’s nothing wrong with getting stronger—A pang of emotional doubt swung through Leah’s feelings. I don’t know everything about you or where you come from, but you’re going to be O.K.!

“...”

You’re almost fixed up! What do you want to do? Cebi asked, trying to keep the leavanny from panicking.

~~~

Damn, Cebi was asking the hard questions, I’d decided. Not really.

I want to live in the big city, with a bunch of people and pokemon. I want to have a garden. I want to run a flower store and sell flowers to people! We’ll have elephant bushes, hydrangeas, sunflora, roses, budew, little trees, petilil and lilligant, and a servine will keep the birds out! Oh and I’ll make Lanky a leaf apron. Leah the Leavanny running a little garden. I really, really liked that name. It was probably generic as hell for humans to name a leavanny “Leah,” but whatever.

Cebi, in our little isolated chamber, was floating around my head, just barely out of vision as I laid on the ground. I had finished off the bag of berries, and she’d scooped me up a couple of berries. “That looks really nice!” Cebi said. “But who’s Lanky?” she asked.

He’s the kid trainer that you said named me Leah.

It was a fight I’d won, but unlike the rockruff, it felt… It felt awful. Pyrrhic, to win like that. Not even pyrrhic. I could have killed the moth. Could I have tanked the hyper beams? Probably not? But that damn moth had no chill. And all-out offensive and just tanking every hit?

“Oh, you mean Art!”

Art?

“Yeah, that’s his name. I think. Oh, and you should be able to move your legs!”

Do you know how I can make that happen? I asked, vibrations in our little box, the fluttering of her wings in the air beating with a soft thrum.

“I mean, just move your leg—" She was toying with me. She knew Art’s real name but— “sorry, sorry, just teasing a little.” The little sprite zipped around. “I don’t,” she responded. “But don’t get too down about it! It can definitely happen!” she said.

“And, I think we’re done now! Stand up and tell me how you feel, Leah!” I got up. I stood up, and… Well, I felt good. Better than ever.

Thank you! I exclaimed. She just smiled.

Before this is over, I have a couple questions. I looked at swadly down on the ground, frozen amidst a wobbly stride.

Why don’t other pokemon pokespeak to me?

“Silly! They are talking to you! Just because you can’t understand them doesn’t mean they don’t understand you! It’s just. Not with words! And I already know your other question! Yes, of course I’ll be your friend! W—If you get your garden, I’ll even introduce you to some of my siblings!”

The grey world began to regain color as I shifted about a few last times, I tasted the air, I didn’t smell any charring. I examined my blades. They were in as good shape as ever.

Everything seems good, Cebi.

“Come say ‘hi’ when you pass through the forest to the north!” A wink, and she was gone. Swadly ran to me, hugging into my leg as I was left looking standing in the once-again pounding rain, the bucket, small cup of water, and now-empty bag of berries strewn on the ground. The empty bag could fit me inside. Light scorch marks from when I fell out of the tree all but on fire. Art stood, halfway across the lawn, shaking his head. We stood in the rain, soaking in the water as it poured down. I opened my mouth allowing the rain to fall in. That sweet taste in the water had gone. I picked swadly up off the ground, holding the huggy little creature, putting him on my head again.

Together, we climbed the trees, and I got him some leaves. He needed a new blanket, my body armor having been retroactively finished from the not-dream.

My name’s Leah. Leah the Leavanny.

Thank you, Cebi.