The weather was perfect for fishing. The sun was warm on his back. A gentle breeze tugged playfully at his straw hat, though not enough to dislodge the accessory. A few fluffy clouds meandered in the sky like mareep wandering a pasture. The tide had just started to come in. The shift would fill in his secret cove with water and draw all sorts of pokemon to the pool. Manaphy was certainly smiling down on him today.

As Alec walked from his small home in Pastoria with his faithful poliwhirl, Jet, hopping beside him, he dreamed about all the pokemon he would catch in these pristine conditions. A plump goldeen would bring in a nice paycheck due to how popular the fish was at fancy restaurants. He didn't understand the trend. Weren't rich people supposed to eat barboach eggs or margarco? Why did they have to get all infatuated with common folk food? It just made things more expensive for his family.

He shook away his frustration and forced himself to continue daydreaming as continued to trod along the path. Finneon and lumineon were always easy to sell to pet stores. Corphish were fun to catch, regardless of how many he caught. He might even get a curious octillery or a marearnie searching for a corsola among the rocks.

Alec heard a light jingle before he felt the rod over his shoulder being pulled sharply. "Oi!" he called out as he turned in protest. He saw a small, sentient keyring, prying at the lure at the end of his line. "Cut it out!" Jet croaked threateningly at the pokemon, raising his gloved fists in warning.

"Locke, stop harassing the man!" A short girl with shoulder length black hair pulled into a ponytail appeared at the crest of the hill behind him. She was clearly younger than him, by ten years at least. She wore a form-fitting black tank top with a pair of tan traveling pants. On her left hand was an odd stylized metal gauntlet, gleaming in the sunlight. The gauntlet, while out of place, seemed to fit the girl perfectly, not looking overly bulky on the slim girl.

She was also a trainer judging by the pokeballs around her waist. And that blasted loop of keys floating at her shoulder. The klefki was small with only four objects on its ring aside from its main body-key which was a shiny silver and shaped like a heart. The other objects were: a shiny gold puzzle piece, a bronze key that looked like it came from a fairy tale, a crystal dialga that sparkled in the sun, and a menacing ebony tooth.

"I don't care if you think the lure would look better on you," the girl interrupted Alec's observations as she scolded the pokemon, "You know the rules, Locke. We don't take things from other people." The keyring shook itself in frustration.

"I'm so sorry about him," the girl said, turning her attention to Alec for the first time, "He really is well-behaved. He might just be smitten with your fishing lure."

"'Salrigh', miss," Alec nodded amicably to the girl, "No 'arm, no foul I always say!" He gave a chuckle at his own joke.

The girl graciously thanked him and fell into step beside him and his poliwhirl. "I'm Emily, Emily David. What's your name?"

"Alec Wilson," he replied. He eyed the klefki warily as it drifted closer to his lure. The girl, Emily, scolded it and it returned to her shoulder. "Are you wantin' ta come fishing?"

"Oh that would be lovely! We were just going to enjoy the beach but Percival would love to go fishing."

Alec grunted. It wasn't the answer he wanted but Manaphy had provided such a lovely day that even this 'Percival' wouldn't ruin it with its supposed help. They finished the short walk to the inlet in a comfortable silence, both enjoying the weather.

He smiled when his new companion gasped once they got to the small cove. The area was his secret spot that only a few people knew about. Hidden behind a small copse of trees was a small saltwater pond. The inlet to the open ocean was about twenty feet wide, keeping the small cove hidden from passing boats.

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Tropical flowers grew just past the sandy shore. A few palm trees leaned over the pond that was just starting to fill with water as the tide came in. About a quarter of the way around the tidepool, the ground rose straight up from the water to create a two foot cliff. The spot served as Alec's favorite fishing spot.

Fish would filter into the small pool at high tide to avoid the larger predators that hunted the open shores. At low tide, one could come to hunt krabby or dwebble on the rocky bottom.

Percival, as it turned out, was a large empoleon who was far more helpful than his lazy poliwhirl, though the penguin ate plenty of fish that Alec wanted to keep. After a short time, Emily released another pokemon, a hulking escavalier she called Lancelot. The jousting pokemon skewered any fish that ventured too close to the stone wall.

"Steel specialists, are ya?" Alec called out to the girl. The cove was quiet apart from the occasional jangle from the klefki whenever it would snoop through his tackle box. Emily was sitting a few feet away with her toes just dipping into the cool water.

"Hm? Me? Oh no, I'm a steel savant," came her distracted reply.

"Savant?"

Emily looked at him in shock as if realizing something bad. "Oh! I was not supposed to say that! Please, please don't tell anyone!"

Alec studied the girl whose eyes were starting to well up. "Alrigh', I'll keep it to meself. What are ya though?"

She hesitated, but seemed to decide that an explanation was warranted, "Savants are trainers that can only trainer a single type of pokemon. I can only train steel type pokemon, but I can train them better than any normal trainer could. Your poliwhirl would never listen to me though, even if you told him to. We're supposed to have the 'blood of legendaries,'" she finger quoted the phrase with a roll of her eyes. "It's really just as much of a curse as it is a blessing."

"Well, I don' know about all that trainin' stuff," Alec started as he cast his line back out into the middle of the inlet, "But I do know that Manaphy blesses those who're happy with what they got. The folk who get greedy are the ones she curses. So be thankful fer what ya got given and things'll all work out."

The girl smiled gratefully at him. "That reminds me of how I got Locke." The little keyring jingled in excitement at his name. Alec shooed the key pokemon away from his tackle box again.

"I was four," she started, her voice drifting as she reminisced, "and my mom gave me this keyring with a small puzzle piece on it. It was one of those gifts that you just fall in love with for no real reason, you know? I carried it around with me everywhere. Then one day it was gone. I couldn't find it anywhere and I cried for days."

The klefki floated over to its trainer's lap where it settled with a comforting jingle. Emily smiled at the pokemon before continuing, "Then my mom found it. I apparently left it at her office on 'Bring Your Daughter to Work' day. I was so happy. I remember wishing that I would never lose it again and that it would be with me forever. The next day, I woke up and my keychain was a klefki. Locke has been with me ever since. He's never left and never let me down. Though he is a little rascal sometimes!" The girl fondly flicked at one of the trinkets on the pokemon who gave an indignant shake in response.

Some pulled ferociously at Alec's line and he jerked the rod back. A majestic seaking jumped from the water with the fishing lure attached to its lip. Distracted by the fish on his line, Alec forgot all about savants and the story he had just been told.

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Manaphy had certainly blessed him that day, Alec considered as he strolled leisurely up his front porch steps. In addition to the seaking, he also caught a couple goldeen, a lumineon, and even a horsea. He whistled merrily as he reached to his belt for the carabiner that held his keys.

Years ago, when he and his wife first built the home, he was so proud that he bought a custom key with the head shaped like a starmie, complete with a fake glittering ruby in the center. He fondly remembered the memory of his wife scolding him for the childish purchase. He flicked through the few keys on the carabiner before freezing in shock. The key to his house was gone!

Several miles away a klefki jingled merrily as he hovered over his trainer's shoulder. He was so pleased with his shiny new key. The head was a ten pointed star painted a vibrant purple and it even had a sparkling red gem in the center! It was so much better than the fishing lure he tried to take before.

"Locke, why do you have a new key?"

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AN: This was written for the contest on r/pokemonfanfiction. The prompt is a story featuring single-stage pokemon, the featured pokemon being Klefki. Additionally, this is a small backstory for a character in my other story The Calling of a Trainer.