~~~ Chapter 8 - Followed ~~~

We challenge you to reach out to the great Cress and great Rai, to learn from the messages they have to share. Only they guided ancient humans of the old days, and only they are actively guiding humanity during even these strangest of days.

- Porter, member of The United and Everlasting Dreamwalkers of Cresselia and Darkrai

~~~

The sun in the window had long left. The sky was turning dark. The sunlamp above seemed to be either remote controlled or on a timer. I could feel the vibrational murmurs of people talking in the other room. Not that it mattered. Swadloon and I were busting out that night. The pull of freedom was too strong. The smell, the smell of friends and safety called, I could taste it. The plan was simple: there didn’t seem to be much security in this place, and even if they had cameras, the nurse seemed to be the only one running the show. The room we were in was pretty small; the chain links didn’t go up to the ceiling. The only trick was going to be to get the swadloon's cage open.

My little cage was wide enough that two of me could probably lay down lengthwise without touching. The kennel wasn’t deep, though. A bit deeper than I was tall, probably only six feet. I was just short. I’d used a leftover leaf, adding a hook to the tips of my blades. A few more hours and I would be ready to ditch this place.

I didn’t expect the pokecenter to have much means to restrain me or keep me around, so I expected busting out to be as simple as getting to, and then through, the front door. The only real threat I could think of is the chance the nurse had a pokemon other than chansey. If chansey sang again, that would be a problem, but that was the only real impediment I could think of. Without ears to plug, the best I could hope for was that my makeshift helmet might muffle the antennae enough to isolate me from the sounds.

When the sky out the window was pitch black, it was time. I had given the hook attachments and the new arm-blade enough time to seal up and harden. It wouldn’t be the worst thing to wait until the next morning, but…

"Go, Leavanny! Get your ass pounded by Blaziken's flame wheel!"

The chain-link vibrated as I rubbed my arms against it. The idea of getting adopted and forced to grind my life away in battle after battle? About as appealing as being an appetizer. What if it was a pidgeot? A bird that large could probably swallow me whole.

Do pidgeot have gizzards? How big would the rocks be? I shivered, from my abdomen to my head.

I shook myself again, anxious of the dull murmur of humans talking in the other room. Surprise would be on my side. The police-people probably had problems of their own in a city like this, one that was probably turning from an industrial center into a town trying to maintain relevance. I inserted the hook on my right arm into the link, tested the weight with a slight tug. It didn’t give. I clicked in satisfaction. Link by link, I climbed up. I hit the top. What do they do with the pokemon they know could climb over the cage walls? Perhaps this was all they could afford?

The links at the top were slightly barbed. I only had about the length of my forearm between them and the ceiling. With my head above the fence, I inverted my left arm’s hook and pushed down. Then, holding my torso high and my abdomen up so it brushed against the ceiling, I hooked my right arm down on the other side, unhooked my left, pulling my right leg down into the links, only making a slight ching" sound as the chain-links vibrated from my acrobatics. With my legs in place and holding my height, I unhooked my right arm, twisting it into a favorable position, hooking myself to the adjacent kennels.

The voices were getting more frequent, and a bit louder. If I wanted to keep the advantage of surprise, I needed to hurry. Climbing down from the top of their smaller kennels until I was eye-level with the grump, I looked at the mechanism keeping the gate on the little swadloon’s kennel. "Aaaad," it moaned, my face in its. It was about the size of my head, snug in its leaf. Using my mouth, I hooked the spring mechanism, pushed the two prongs together, and the cage door came open. The smell from the swadloon wasn’t familiar. It hopped onto my head without a fuss and didn’t seem to care.

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Dropping us to the floor, sliding the snug bug in a leaf rug into my arm, we were ready. The door handles in this building were all pretty low. If they had locks, they weren’t visible. If they could heal my mangled arm overnight, who’s to say there weren’t widely-available DNA scanner locks? Approaching the door with swadloon in tow, I grabbed the door handle, pulled it down slowly, minimizing the vibrations (and therefore noise) from it as much as possible. With a light click, I pull the door open. Back in the hallway, across from the room where I'd failed my last attempt at escape. Breaking a window would probably mean pursuers, so it was going to have to remain a last resort.

Swadloon pulled itself closer to my leg, sitting under the leaf-shadow of my abdomen. I walked forward, and it marched alongside, its little legs carrying it surprisingly quickly for how much shorter it was than me. How much longer until it evolves? Thoughts for later. We walked forward, toward the voices, towards our friends. No. Wait. I shook my head. Towards freedom, we walked. The rhythmic beats of a napping chansey didn’t seem too concerned about what was going on, which was comforting.

We hit the door. I picked up the swadloon in my left arm, holding it against my thorax as it sat flatly against the blade, which faced out. I opened the door. The voices stopped. Four people turned to look: The tall old friend I’d passed the other day. The nurse-friend who’d healed me. Lanky, the friend I’d just met. And some intruder dressed in a green striped shirt and beige pants. From my vantage point, I was too short to see the counter, but there was an empty bag on the ground near the tall old friend. I clicked my jaws in annoyance. This was supposed to be a quiet escape.

Sorry, friends. But Swadloon and I are leaving~.

As we marched our way out, the guy in beige said something, but not to me. At least, I couldn’t tell, because what was I going to do? All I could hear were tones and smells, not words. Stealing the swadloon, I left the pokecenter. And was greeted with…a vending machine, a bike rack, and a dumpster. Not even a road. Another trail. This city was shit. Clicking my tongue, parking under a tree in the unkempt grass surrounding the building, swadly and I sat down.

What was I supposed to do? I stared up at the sky and clicked my tongue in frustration. What do the pokemon gods want from me? The lethargy of night was quickly setting in. Nor had I a goal bigger than "I need to get out of here". But now that I was out… Why did I leave the forest anyway? A hint of a sweet aroma had begun filtering to my antennae and then to my tongue. This city sucked. "Eeellleeee," I moaned, looking at Swadly as he sat, staring at the night sky, lit with the afterglow of the city. I needed a better vantage point, and the tree wasn’t tall enough. Using my hooks, I approached a rain spout and climbed up. The last little bit of getting onto the roof was awkward, but with a little swing of gymnastics onto the overhang, a pull, I crawled on top. From there, I climbed to the highest spot and looked around. I could feel the murmurs of the people inside talking. One person had a noticeable drawl.

"Aaiieee," I groaned again. Blotched colors and lights. The front door opened and swadly walked back into the light. Everyone smells safe enough, I guess. Though the one new guy, I couldn’t trust him. Couldn’t put my claw on why, though. Not even the smears of smokestacks were visible, though they might have been blinking red lights, like you'd put up to warn pilots when they were flying low. The smell just felt suspicious. Not a friend. The city to the north, and other lights off in the distance to the southeast. Sewaddle and swadloon were Unovan, right? And if I wanted to live in the city? Unova had a couple. I’d need to travel east.

The old man was whistling. I could taste the berries in the air. But now that I was outside, the energy for travel though, the thought of walking cross country? I'd already walked for two days and experienced more trauma than I'd had in the whole month I'd had since waking up as a Leavanny! And the berries from humans were so much better tasting than the ones that came from from foraging. All the pokemon that I’d have to fight along the way? I clicked my jaw in dissatisfaction, saliva filling my mouth. I had to get a berry, so I descended from my perch on top of the roof, clicking in anticipation. At the edge, it was probably a thirty-foot drop. I jumped down, holding my arms out, using them to guide my fall, the air rushing past as I fell buffeting me from gravity. With a thud, I landed on a patch of grass.

The new guy was holding swadly, feeding him a berry. If Swadly liked him, then I guess I could trust him too. Fighting the urge to pick up a pack of leaves off the tree, I approached the man, clicking my jaw to announce my arrival. With a glance up at me, tossed me a berry with good aim. Lanky came out, holding another swadloon. And the nurse. The old guy had come out too, but grabbed a bike and waved at us as we all sat down in a circle.

As he rode away, I basked in our little square, Nurse across from me, lanky to my left, and beige on my right, who took up most of the talking. I recognized the swadloon and their smell. They HAD followed me. I rubbed my arms together. Where were the others? The guy tossed me another berry. The smell was stronger than just these three swadloons, so they had to be nearby. Perhaps they were in pokeballs?

I sat outside in front of the building, each of the humans saying something and holding a swadloon in their arms, feeding them a berry before tossing one to me one every so often.

It felt good to be around friends.