~~~ Chapter 65 - Preparing For The Perfect Purple Party ~~~

"We're here, Buggy," Batty said—look, if he wanted to call me Buggy, I would call him Batty. Not that he ever gave me his name.

My sight flicked on. It was still night. We were in a backyard with a chain-link fence. The street was lit well by a few LED-white lamps. The synthetic tastes in the air of Kael's "neighborhood" weren't present here, even despite the cars.

The pokemon world — except for Anville town — seemed to have moved off of oil. Right. There were cars! Cars! On the street! I felt a puff of air by my face, and turned, hopping back, greeted by the face of a purple bat with giant speaker-like ears giving me a sniff.

"Arn," —the noibat perked up, but didn't turn to its trainer— "don't spook her."

Arn huffed, using its two black and purple wings to prop itself up as it walked onto the medium-sized lawn. It was smaller than Professor Juniper's, who seemingly had a whole acre of land for property, but the lots were still twice as large as the compact housing I met Lanky near.

"So, here's the deal, Buggy," Batty said, scratching the other noivern on the red v-shaped crest that adorned its head. "Macie loves pokes. She might cry, or she might be all over you. But, if you make her cry or hurt her, accidentally or otherwise, Arn and Orn" —the smell of thick berries registered on my antennae, and I turned to the source, a berry bush— "—ch of you left for the pokecenter."

The noivern duo both walked in front of me, standing up. With one solid leap each, they jumped onto the nearby trees, climbing up onto its big extended limbs, before positioning themselves upside down.

They extended their arms down onto the tall berry bushes, plucking a large berry each, eating it, before wrapping up their wings for the night. If Kael's neighborhood had an empty, artificial smell, these berries were on the opposite end of the spectrum.

"You didn't even hear that last bit, did you? Well, whatever. I guess I shouldn't have expected much from a bug. I'm going to bed. Keep her out of trouble, boys." Batty gave a wave before going back inside his house to the two bats giving him short chirps.

Two trees for two noiverns, who had their eyes closed. But as I twitched and moved, I could feel one or the other, adjusting their ears or head. I didn't want to sleep on the ground, in the open air, but I also wasn't going to risk a tussle with the large dragon-bats. Instead, I nestled under the bush.

Waking as the sky was turning from black, to a dark blue, sleep was uneventful. Nice and short compared to the prior nights' poor sleep. Dreamless. Not that I was complaining. I was still physically, mentally tired. The chain link fence around us was a little more than twice my height. I crawled out from under the bushes. I did a bit of a wiggle-dance.

A clunk on a window on the side of the house caught my attention. A small shadow visible, my eyes adjusted. I was greeted with the vague contour of a kid's face, pressing eagerly into the glass. I raised up my leaf-blade and waved good early-morning. The shadow of the girl — Macie? — disappeared from the window, leaving a fading fog from her breath and a smear from the oil of her face and nose.

Did kids really get up that early?

Well, I had— I would wake up before the sun, before my parents— grabbing a spoon of Not-Butter, taking a big gob and licking at it like a popsicle before running off to play. What kind of silly things would kids in the pokemon world get to?

I picked a couple berries off the bush, the noivern duo's eyes closed in the brightening morning sun, sleeping on their separate trees, before finding a place to chill.

Another skim over the patchwork battle-skirt, no real holes. I looked over my blades. There were a few thin patches, so I took the time to use my silk stores and some bush-leaves to patch them up, thickening the blades. It was mostly cosmetic, but it gave me a bit to do. The fence in the yard was chain-link, but most of it was in shadow. Only the roof of the house or the neighbor's yard would have much sun until the midday or afternoon sun. I looked up at the roof. It was at least four times my height, possibly five.

I didn't exactly want to find out if neighbors had pokemon of their own. Taking a step back, I noticed the girl was standing, watching me through the mostly-glass door, a hyper-colored rainbow pony/horse pokemon with an absurd amount of fur or feathers along its head and mane. Like a rainbow Keldeo? Printed all over her pajamas. Macie's hands pressed against the window, staring down at me. Again, I waved at her.

The girl was taller than me, I could already tell. She disappeared again, the curtain knocking against the window. I took a step back, my back brushing into the bush again. Refocusing on the side of the house— trying to get the best sun I could— and ran forward.

I stopped, halfway through the yard, kneeling, and jumped, letting the momentum of the run carry me forward, putting most of my strength to jump up, my arc was good, almost — a thunk — my vision and hearing was noise, I held out my arms but failed to control my descent, hitting the ground, landing on my abdomen, my leaf-dress protecting me from being pinched.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

At least it wasn't a faceplant.

Dazed, I stood up, and looked back behind me, the noivern that had been quiet up to that point were chirping to themselves, one of them opening their wings. The girl was staring at me through the door again, eyes wide open. The noivern flapped behind me, as I returned back to my task. I wasn't quite able to jump to the roof yet, but I was getting close.

If I had more sunlight, I would have had more spee—

"EEeeey!" I cried, a burst of air rushed around me, and I felt a strong pull in the crest of my leaves. The Noivern flapped their wings, and I was lifted up off the ground, flailing, my headdress in the Noivern's claws— I was being up above the roof! A half-second later, the other noivern was chirping even louder, and I was standing on the roof of the house.

Thanks? I waved at the Noivern who'd lifted me up into the sun as their squeaking giggles cooled down. I was in the sun, at least. I pulled out a few leaves I'd stuffed into my cuff-links and got to work, making a little toy I used to make as a human kid.

~~~

"Dad! Dad! Dad!" Macie cried, running to her father's bedroom. "Wake up, dad!"

"Hnaaagrgblbrgl" her father said, as his daughter climbed up onto his bed.

He let out a "Hmmmm?", opening his eyes just as Macie— "Gach!" he cries— piledrives him in the gut with her elbow. "Urrgh," he blurgles, sitting straight up. "I'm up, I'm up!" he glances at the clock, and his eyes shoot open.

"By the gods, Macie, it's Five-Thirty in the morning!"

"You missed it dad! The leavanny! She tried—" Macie exclaimed, her face lighting up "— jumping! Thought! So cool! She tried! The leavanny —" she broke down laughing, giggling to herself "—Then she —" Macie cried, stopping to take a breath between fits of laughter, tears in her eyes "— then! CLUNK! —" she continued in her laughing fits. "Then Arn—" she tried to speak, falling into fits of laughter as her dad laid back in bed, smiling.

Jacob, not understanding at all what Macie was saying, just sat, smiling at his daughter bouncing around, pantomiming flailing and jumping and dancing around on his bed in complete nonsensical fashion.

Eventually, when Macie calmed down, he asked, "Do you want to play with her?"

Macie's eyes went wide. "Yes, I want to play!" she huffed. "What kind of question is that?"

"You've been watching too many television shows when I'm not home," Jacob said.

"That sounds like a personal problem to me," she said.

"Definitely too much television, if you're picking up words like that." He reached over to his nightstand, pulling up his cellphone. "Have you had breakfast? Brushed your teeth?"

She was silent.

"Well, I'm up now, let's get ready for the day."

She was still silent.

"What?"

"No milk, dad."

He held his palm to his forehead. "You can make eggs or oatmeal without milk."

She stuck out her tongue. "I can't eat oatmeal without milk!"

Jacob rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"And we don't have honey or tea! Bugs like Honey and Tea!"

"What? How did you—" she smirked at him "—where's my pokedex?" He looked around his bedroom, not finding it.

His eyes opened wider.

Her grin grew wider.

"You little shit! I told you—" Macie was gone before he could get out of bed. She could hear him groan. She wasn't allowed to play with her dad's pokedex. At least not since the last time she tried cooking Arn and Orn new noivern berry recipes. Putting it in the dishwasher had cleaned all the sticky berry juice right off!

"Macie, fine," he said from his room. "I'll go to the store. What do you want?"

"Yes!" She whispered-but-not-really, grabbing a piece of paper she had already been writing on. Her letters were large and blocky, though she'd ensured every letter ended in "little" curls and hearts.

Her dad stumbled out of his room, barely throwing on a T-shirt. He held out his hand as she shoved her shopping-list at him. "Markers, sticky notes. Tape. Drawing paper. Purple food dye, two gallons of milk, three 'things' of.. eggs?" he looked at the seven year old, incredulous.

She smiled. Innocent.

"Honey, oran tea, orange tea, cherry tea, pudding, cherry birthday cake mix, cherry sprinkles, two things frosting… a bag of fertilizer?"

His eyes rolled down the list. It kept going. "How long have you been awake?"

"I'unno," she said, shrugging.

Jacob sighed. "Fine, but I'm not getting everything on this list. The leavanny's only with us until her trainer's out of the hospital."

Macie frowned.

"Leah," she said, pouting.

"Hmm?" He asked.

"Her name's Leah!" she cried.

"All right, all right! Leah."

"And she's gonna stay with us and we're gonna dance and we're gonna—"

Jacob just lifted his girl up, and gave her a hug. "Leah is a strong pokemon, and she needs to fight or she'll go stir-crazy. We can't keep her."

"But Arn and Orn—"

"Honey, just try to enjoy your time with her, okay? Let her be your friend? You haven't even got out of your pajamas yet, or been outside to play with her."

"... Okay," she said, tears in her eyes.

"I'll go get some of this stuff so you can have your little party with her before I take the bats and go to work."

"Kay," Macie said, wiping her eyes as her dad went to the backyard, calling for Arn. She ran into her bedroom to change and get ready for the day. She was gonna have a party.

And it was gonna be the best.