Shadow
The story of a timid Dratini, caught as a Game Corner prize, who finds the perfect human trainer and, to his great distress, falls in love with her.

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Thumbnail art by kenket, used with permission
Thanks for reading!

—

Level 35 [continued]

For an instant he thought he would choke, cough up his tart—he didn’t think she’d just say it! But she held her head a little high—she was bluffing, he knew, trying to play it off as a thing they knew all about, and he spoiled it!

Apollo looked at Diana for a long moment, and said:

“[Www-where’d you get that idea?]”

Diana kicked him on the foot. But she couldn’t blame him, the Charizard seemed to say, looking at her.

“[She didn’t leave for Johto until she was almost fourteen,]” Gaia said. “[Manda started training when she was seven, and you said Runa couldn’t wait to follow. She was hardly doing nothing for seven years. She had other Pokémon, didn’t she?]”

To think Gaia called him clever, simply because he watched a lot of shows! Was this a thing Gaia wondered for a while? Even centred entirely on Runa he missed such details. Oh, but it was a mistake to tell her, he thought. Other Pokémon, another team taking her affections, getting close to Runa when he was still an egg, possibly, planting roots no effort could replace … this he didn’t need to hear at all.

Apollo looked uncomfortable. He twisted in his seat, looked at Diana who glared at him, said at last, “[Now look … You won’t get any more from me. This fellow won’t cross Runa for anything.]”

But then it was true: Runa had a team before them, other Pokémon she loved and then left somehow. Other Pokémon she carried, travelled the routes for years perhaps, longer than them, until somehow they were separated, and it was too painful, too hard a memory, that she never said a word. That or something else went wrong and now they were all recovered, all waiting for her; actually present in Celadon, being given back. Your future champions, her parents said, now that you can handle them.

“[But she’d never abandon them,]” Gaia said. “[Did her family take them away? Why’s she in Celadon with all you watching us?]”

He felt sick; Gaia looked at him. It had to be the family. Runa argued with them even presently, fought to keep her new Pokémon, tricked to come by those convinced she couldn’t handle them. Tanwen was the test, and as she turned out vain and wanting, wasn’t happy at all—; and as she had been excited to meet them, had a chance, she thought, to get approval and lift the threat of losing them, but only found, while she was apart in Celadon—

He was about to faint, he knew: the white was swimming in front of him. Gaia looked and dropped a pile of sour tarts on his dish, which he bit whole: anything to keep awake, she meant, to calm.

Apollo looked shocked. This a Pokémon of Runa’s, he must think—fainting on the spot! The Charizard clasped the balls of his tail and said, “[D— Don’t be like that! It’s nothing whatever like that! It’s nothing to fret about at all.]”

Diana leapt to her feet and said, “[It was her Pokémon that did it, all right? The family’s proud of her. They’re happy you’re doing well! It’s was her Pokémon couldn’t cut it.]”

And that was hardly better! he thought; for now a line of brutes passed before him, each more rash and violent than the last, who were meant to be Runa’s first but, owing to their completely rotten natures, not even she could endear them. What little Pokémon had she raised that evolved into a monster? who, after all her tender care, grew up not to love but abused her, even struck her—Runa, attacked by a Pokémon so all the rest had to save her! But the faintness passed; he believed Apollo really meant it, stroking his tail; all a terrible misunderstanding, the Charizard seemed to say.

“[Now listen,]” Apollo said, straightening up, for he seemed committed now, even if it breached with Runa, to calm them entirely. “[You know Runa’s not like other trainers—she’s gifted, I say, how she understands us. But, you know, it also depends on the Pokémon, doesn’t it? Turns out some fellows would rather just do as they’re told. Then if Runa only wants her Pokémon to be themselves, they don’t know what to do: they can’t accept it. So the training fails, and Runa—it’s not fair, I know—Runa gets the blame, because after all she wasn’t following her family’s method. Then after a while they let her try again and travel the routes traditionally, and here you are! So you see it was all a … suspended persuasion, wouldn’t you say? Because given how you’ve grown up under her, I guarantee they’re all persuaded.]”

But Gaia was not persuaded, he saw. “[Is that it?]” she said. “[They took her Pokémon away because they weren’t performing?]”

“[No,]” Apollo said. “[I mean,]”—and the Charizard glanced at the Raichu, who was looking very hard at him—“[I mean, silly as you’ll find it, I’m sure, maybe Runa could have handled it better, too. Now I’ve known Runa all my life. She’s always been a very, very sweet girl. But when her family said, Oh, you’re too liberal with Pokémon … they have a point. Back then, Runa would let her Pokémon go practically wild before an exercise or a drill … so it’s not such a great surprise if they started thinking they didn’t need a trainer. Well, that’s what happened—don’s honour. She was so much against the family’s old style that she went overboard, and her Pokémon didn’t trust her—and don’t you think that was daft of them, dismissing Runa? She was only still young and growing up! Now she’s far wiser, and her family’s proud, so don’t you even slightly worry. It’s like you say: you’re lucky it happened, and now you’ve got a wonderful trainer for life! Isn’t that enough you’ll let it go forgotten?]”

“[Yes, let’s,]” Diana said, kicking the Charizard’s foot and slumping back. “[You’re such a gossip, Polo. Imagine Manda was here!]”

“[Yes, well,]” Apollo said, settling back with his bowl—all full of cake, he saw. “[What Manda doesn’t know won’t hurt her.]”

These champions, he thought, weren’t simply on vacation; they relaxed between bouts of disciplined training, yes, but they had another task to fulfil: to report whether Runa had slipped into her previous failure, her family thought it, and gave her Pokémon too much liberty so that they spoiled. And the report was good, Apollo said; but still he nearly fainted at a few words like the most pathetic wretch, and made Runa look like she oughtn’t to have them.

“[Anyway,]” Apollo said, “[what’s all this worry spoiling inside you? As far as they’re concerned it’s all in the past, now. So don’t worry!]” He laughed; for they were absurd, he seemed to say, if they thought once more about it. “[And do you know, I envy you? I can’t think of a finer thing than routing with Runa, no title hanging round your neck. It’s been—how long?—five months since the championship and thanks to you this is the first real break we’ve had. Our victory lap was the press circuit, heh!]”

Diana frowned; Gaia frowned, but turned away. Now the moment passed, he thought: they would get nothing else about Runa.

The conversation moved on. Diana asked how it came to be there were two Dragonair in Runa’s team, and Gaia described the Game Corner, the journey over the routes to Cianwood and back and then, following the coast, to Goldenrod and Saffron. Was that all it took to summarise? he thought—eight months with Runa like that? Apollo tried to involve him, but what was there to say Gaia couldn’t? If Runa had a team still in Hoenn … But did Runa mean to become a Dragon Master? they asked. They had no idea, nor what it was. (That was something he missed on the screens.) Runa said she didn’t think of Pokémon as different types, but the team, it had to be said, was forty percent dragon. Was there such a thing as a human who, by closeness to dragon natures, developed such a connection to them they understood the other quite fluently? Perhaps they would meet Clair in Blackthorn City, Apollo said; there was a lady Dragonite there who may advise them. But Gaia said it was perfectly fit, having two Dragonair, as they complemented each other: she was the heavy hitter, the sweeper with special attacks, and he the reliable backup, neither having ever fallen in battle. And how could she talk like that? he thought, making them out like a big thing, a rising force, and in front of the champions!

Apollo said, “[Of course when you evolve it really starts. Two Dragonite in a team—well, well! That’s not a weak thing.]”

And Gaia looked aside, as if to say she would keep speaking for her other Dragonair, if he wouldn’t, but he really ought to speak. “[Shadow’s convinced he’ll never make it.]” she said.

“[Is that true?]” Apollo said, looking at him. “[Don’t you think you’ll be a grand battler, a great big Dragonite as you’ll be?]” The Charizard laughed as he looked away. “[Well, battling’s not for everyone. Maybe you’d like the big estate. Two friendly dragons, one shiny … plenty of space, you know.]” And Diana told him to give it up, and Gaia, he thought, turned red—as if they would wander about in the wilds again, after Runa! she meant. She looked at him; and by a sort of solidarity, he felt, as the Charizard grinned and brushed his chin and asked the Raichu what was the matter, he felt he would somehow defend her by leaving.

He said, “[When is— Oh.]”

But he lost track entirely: the dish was nearly empty, just a few bits of fruit and mess after what Apollo took. That was the tightness in his wrap: gorging on sweets and distending when Runa was gone just a day. Didn’t Gaia say not to be an embarrassment around the champions?

Gaia said, “[We’ll skip lunch, all right?]” Apollo took his dish and said he’d clean it for him, if he didn’t tell Maria.

[scene continues in next part]