Inside the academy’s Pokemon Center there are some private booths setup for long distance calls and pokemon transfers. Up until now, I thought it was normal to have one of these machines at home, apparently not every house has it, in fact, most people have to go to a Pokemon Center or a Pokemon League Office to use them. So, another thing probing my family isn’t normal, that would explain why some people from the village would go to our house and borrow the machine.

Okay, I’m just hesitating here, it’s kind of nerve wracking having to talk to your mom about finding out the family secrets and wondering why they kept so much from you. I sort of understand the reason, but I can’t help but want to hear it from her.

“Stop procrastinating Gabe, 3, 2, 1, GO!”, I pick the phone and dial my home’s number.

“My baby boy! I’ve missed you so much”, my mom looks excited to see me, “Diana, come, look who is calling”.

My little sister appears in front of the screen with Teddy by her side, “Gabe! When are you coming back?”, a small frown on her face, there aren’t many kids her age in the village and she must be feeling lonely.

“Diana, we’ve talked about this”, my mom says, “your brother can’t come back until the end of the year when the school year is over”.

“But mom”, Diana looks at mom teary eyed, “even Teddy is leaving, I’m going to be all alone here”.

Oh, my poor sister, I begin to feel homesick. Luckily, Teddy is there and hugs my sister for me.

“I was going to wait a couple of days before giving you this”, explains my mom as she brings out a pokeball, “you are almost 10 and this here is your own pokemon companion”.

The sadness in Diana’s face disappears instantly and it’s replaced with an innocent demonstration of awe, which soon turns into excitement.

“But first, let me talk to your brother, go and say goodbye to Teddy for now”, I can’t help but think my mom had this all planned somehow.

“Okay!”, says my sister, “Come Teddy”, and they leave the room.

“How is the academy?”, asks my mother, “Have you made new friends? Are you having fun?”.

“I’ve been having a lot of fun, I even made some friends who have opened my eyes”, I say with a little sarcasm in my tone, very subtle Gabe.

My mother notices and a frown appears on her face, “That quick, uh?”, she mutters, “What did you hear?”

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She expected this to happen at some point.

“I heard about your cartoon show, Santos Adventure Time”, I hesitate for a second, “Also, Teacher Jordan gave me a recording with a message from dad”.

“I see”, she doesn’t sound pleased and somehow all my frustrations disappear when I see the look on her face, for a slight fraction of time she showed a pained expression which she quickly tried to hide, “Your father was supposed to be there when you started school”, she sighs, “I guess he couldn’t make it after all”.

“Gabe, we wanted you to have a regular childhood without being influenced by all the politics and dangers associated with our fame, the childhood your father and me didn’t have. I suppose you heard about your dad’s side of the family, well, my own family has some issues too”.

What? Not again…

“Our village has a name who only our clan members use, Ursa Village the home of the Ursa Clan, with my parents as the leaders.”

Grandma too? But she is just a sweet old lady.

“A long time ago, our clan lived in Hisui, the region which nowadays is called Sinnoh, at some point there was a big conflict amongst legendary pokemon and their worshippers, our clan leader at the time saw the danger and had our clan leave Hisui, arriving here in Johto”.

“We, the Ursa Clan, have been very secretive, even today our village is not on maps and we turn away most visitors, why? We hold the secrets to the evolution of the Teddiursa line, meaning that only our clan has Ursaluna, they can’t even be found in the wild. The reason for keeping this knowledge from the world is because we are tasked with the protection of one of the ten Noble Pokemon”.

I remember my mom telling me stories about the ancient hero of legend blessed by Arceus and his ten companions, that was real?

“Ursaluna are the descendant of one of them and our clan is in charge of their protection, that has been our task for countless years, and we keep the knowledge of their evolution for those trainers who prove worthy”.

Wow, so ancient secretive clan with unique knowledge and old military family in Johto now turned criminal.

“My grandfather saw the conflict between Kanto and Johto and refused to participate, so our clan hid from the war and kept away from the world. When I was younger, the Pokemon League reached out to us, but my father turned them away, insisting on keeping us isolated, I didn’t like that, I wanted to travel the world and for our clan to not be left behind, so I escaped and ended up in the academy”.

I have never met my grandfather, is he alive? Seeing the look on my face, my mother asks, “what do you want to know?”

“Is grandfather alive? If so, how come we have never met him?”

“Yes, he is alive”, she seems to hesitate about what to say next, “my father is a very stubborn person, he never forgave me for leaving home and joining the Pokemon League, so we are not on speaking terms, he even refused to meet his grandchildren, ‘I have no daughter’ he said”, I can see the hurt on my mother’s face.

“There is something else, as the only child born of my parents, I’m supposed to take over the clan, but I lost that right when I decided to work with the League, so instead the role is going to be passed over to my cousin’s first child or my firstborn, meaning you are candidate to inherit the clan leader position”.

Wait a minute, what? This is too complicated for me to handle right now, but looking at my mother I realize how important this is for her, so my goal doesn’t change, I become a powerful trainer, but now I also prove myself until my grandfather decides to recognize me as his successor, “so how do I become clan leader?”

With a smile on her face my mother answers, “By the time you turn 18, Teddy must have evolved to Ursaluna and prove himself to be stronger than your competition, it’s going to be hard because Eric, is three years older than you and has been raised for the role. You, on the other hand, are just learning about this”.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this before? About everything else?”

“My baby, I didn’t want you to grow up with that pressure over your shoulders, I decided it was best to wait until you were older and let you decide if you even want to compete for the position, your father and me, we just wanted for you to have a peaceful childhood”, she satisfied with her answer and I can’t blame her, I had a great childhood free of any worries.

“It’s important to you that I become the clan head, right?”

“Yes, I want our clan to join the League and only the clan head can make that decision. The world has changed a lot in the last couple of decades and is going to keep moving forward, meanwhile our clan seems to have stopped in time, the younger generations are leaving, and I fear for the future. If only my cousin and his son Eric were of the same mind as me, but they follow closely after your grandfather and maintaining the old ways”.

“I will do it, I’m going to do my best to become the clan leader”, I say filled with conviction, I’ve never doubted myself and I’m not going to start now.

“Thank you Gabe”, my mom looks genuinely happy.