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
That's it for this chapter—I'll try to have the next up at soon as possible, but it might not be for a week or so!


___ Level 25 [continued] ___

Runa said, “He … If he wants to be.”

Well, he thought, Dyna perhaps would say something warm to the effect later. Forsyth threw a ball and said, “All right … Scizor, it’s up to you! Quick Attack!”

“Don’t forget your strengths!” Runa said.

If only he had a grip on fire! he thought. The Scizor was taller than Runa; she held back her red pincers and began to charge. There would be no time to think or dodge as she dashed suddenly—he would fail in moments, they all knew—but so long as Runa saw he cared, that he did not only brush her leg because he wanted attention, some sweet or ball of rice, was it so terrible they lost the battle? Hardly anyone became the champion. (It was healthy to assume one didn’t, and grow accustomed.)

Now the Scizor dashed forward, faster than he could see, and—ah! he was out at once; or just about, he felt, knocked back on the ground. There were spots in his vision—behind him Runa cried out something he did not hear.

But Runa said his strength was his speed; and now, with practice, certain kinds of motion (he stretched and bounded) were able to excite the energies. Even on land, then, he may match Tanwen or Dyna for a time (he circled the red bug Pokémon), or Gaia, quick enough, he thought, that Runa did not see him as some wormish thing. It was her dream to see them grow: it was that he could aid now: it was the thing he loved most in her, this thought of others.

(Forsyth said, “Aerial Ace!”)

And was it not love, what he felt, even if it came from sickness? In human songs love was the most irrational of things, surely more than Pokémon felt. (He prepared to leap, to try and slam.) They talked about it as a thing that drove one mad; tied up hidden meanings he didn’t follow, probably couldn’t without being one himself; projected it everywhere—the most powerful thing, they called it. Love conquered all and ruined the strong, they said. (He went too wide and missed the Scizor.) Of course he was helpless against love! (The Scizor surrounded in white streaks.) Perhaps he felt it like a human did; perhaps, by some accident of birth, he touched on a thing meant for them, some stray psychic thread, and suffused with a quality no Pokémon ought to have. That, at least, would explain why he loved Runa.

(The Scizor released, and a blinding pain seemed to rip right through his back, as if his unshed skin cut open by a whip of pure compressed air, so well landed it was impossible to avoid.)

It wouldn’t mean he was any less broken, any less sick. He lay, like so, strung out by his nature. (The energies returned to him; he moved again in a circle.) So love twisted; so it levelled, they said.

But if he had a part of human in him, he thought, did that mean he had their quality as well? Might he have a part of Runa? might she have a part of him?

Forsyth said, “Aerial Ace, again!”

That would certainly finish him: he was already nearly out. All the energies seemed to flood out of him; and in a moment, surely, once they were spent—

But something was swelling in his throat, some energy he did not recall. But if he was—oh! a blue ball of water shot out! It struck the Scizor right in the face, caught her by surprise: a Water Pulse. But that wasn’t possible … he hadn’t touched a technical machine in his life.

The Scizor staggered back; and as she tried to summon the air, the attack, which would certainly finish him, her eyes seemed full of confusion, and she stumbled, tried to strike and, not seeing clearly, only struck the ground—blew up the rock in front of her and fell back.

But a Scizor was very powerful, he thought. Any second she may snap out of it and strike at once: one quick attack and that was it … but that was not the point, his losing. It was to praise Runa, to try whatever the case. So Forsyth said, “Quick Attack!”—so he had a greater priority, didn’t need to wait for Runa, and (for he could hardly trust it, he thought, some strange grip on water) threw himself at her, struck her thorax just below the neck and knocked her onto her wings.

There was some sort of snap: the joints of the wings were not meant to take pressure in such a direction, folded in the most horrible way. And the Scizor screeched just like the Magnemite, thrashed and kicked her legs to throw him off: clear enough her attack failed again. But was she all right? It was horrible, hearing pain like that, a thing he caused! She didn’t rise—wouldn’t she recover?

But Runa said, “She’s fine! Keep going!”

For Forsyth called again, said to slash and finish him. And the Scizor turned over, with such a look he knew, oh, she wouldn’t mind hurting him at all, wanted to slice him in half! The confusion in her eyes was all gone. And Runa behind would have to see him cut into strange pieces; and now all that came to him was that same feeling, this pitch of last effort, for if he didn’t act now——And there the swell again was forming. He threw the pulse: it struck her in the middle and she fell back again, cried—went still.

Was that it, he thought, his first beaten Pokémon in a battle of trainers? Forsyth withdrew her. But it wasn’t fair; she was better than him by far; it was only chance and circumstance. Behind him Dyna bleated some sort of cheer, and Runa called to say he did wonderfully—they ought not! In a minute Gaia would be out after him.

Across the field Forsyth threw a ball; he seemed like the other trainers, when a surprise move by Tanwen or Gaia turned the battle suddenly and they didn’t know what to do. But why did he worry? Now the Steelix returned; seemed ten times larger up close, settling with a multitude of clanks. And how he glowered, looking at him! He would turn at once into a crêpe.

Forsyth said, “Quickly, Dragon Breath!”

Behind him Gaia cried something, but he could not hear what it was. All his spirits seemed a vapour, all the quickened energies for nothing—what was the use throwing himself against that? What did he have? what, indeed, but a sudden grip on water (so it seemed all sensible now, felt it down below the rock) that would only slide off the metal now? Now even in honouring Runa he was a failure. He felt his heart boiling up; something extraordinary, couldn’t be contained; he was going to go to pieces in front of everyone, a faltering, flabby wreck.

The Steelix opened his mouth, produced the yellow glow.

But with Runa, who lifted him and, by her attention, engendered in him such a warmth that it burst out into entirely new forms of energy (for where else did the water come from?), so it felt perfectly natural he should gain a power from her, a necessary consequence of their shared affinity. For Runa had dragon fire in her—that was it—some myth of Pokémon crossing with humans bore truly, and today the blood of one of the dragon legendaries appeared in just a few humans, one in a million or more: Runa, who by her connection filled his heart so full of pressure that in a moment—

Now the pressure burst: a blue and purple energy shot out in a line and passed straight through the Steelix as if he weren’t there. And the Steelix froze; let out a shuddering groan and, with a release of pent air, seemed to crumple; broke the rock around to pieces.

And that was ridiculous, he thought. The Steelix was having him on; he would rear up in a second and smash him flat. But in a flash of red he was gone. Forsyth withdrew him. The floodlights faded.

Across the field Runa shouted something; and with that, he felt, as the battle ended, as it was over, all the energies seem to drain and fade, and even to hold his head felt quite impossible. (They were running behind him.) Oh, he thought … but suppose they knew he cheated? Did he cheat? for it seemed he did, somehow—he didn’t have such a power, unless, he thought, it was what Runa said.

—I don’t know about Dragon Rage. (Gaia hadn’t yet produced it.) If it comes from using your emotions, I don’t know if it’s safe to rely on. But still, it is a part of your nature.

Dragonfire was fuelled by heartfelt feeling, usually anger—flying off in outrage as they said—but that wasn’t it necessarily: there were stronger feelings. Then perhaps that was it, feeling for the first time his own type’s affinity, accessing the energies, just by thinking of Runa. Somehow, in his heart that generated it, part of and partaking in the fire was a human girl. (She put down Gaia, had applied the spray to her while running.) She was like a dragon, somehow—not in some wild myth as he imagined, but she was like a Pokémon in nature, in mind. And his nature felt the joint affinity; so it naturally loved her.

Runa fell over him; held him near; said nothing but, he could see, was very close to tears and kissing him. And whatever pain there was, he felt, she needn’t treat, as now a blinding warmth across his skin seemed to wash all sensation away. Forsyth was saying something he couldn’t hear—what did it matter? On his middle he felt such a warmth spreading that it couldn’t be safe at all. Was he perhaps evolving, his whole body about to burst into light? But it was only Runa applying the spray.

Now the others demanded to hoist him: Dyna pulled Runa’s arm until he was near and then she kissed him on the cheek. “[Don’t take that closely!]” she said. “[It’s just thanks, you know.]”

Rita said, “[You are an odd one.]”

Gaia (she was still coated in the mud of the surf) was silent, only looked at him oddly, as if he grew a new flare on his head.

“[Gaia?]” he said.

“[Oh,]” she said. “[You did well, Shadow.]”

“[N— No.]” he said, “[It was all you and Tan.]”

Tanwen said nothing, only folded her arms. She would make a passing remark later, something to the effect of luck (and it was, too, all outrageous fortune), but she was glad they won the battle.

Gaia looked away and said, “[I couldn’t have beaten that Scizor.]” And he hadn’t really, he should say—all fluke and flinching. But she flicked his flare and said, “[Imagine if the other Dratini could see you now.]”

But now Forsyth gave Runa the Mineral Badge, he saw—her first badge! It looked like a grey octagon, or was it blue? with a silver edge, shining as she held it. And she would get seven more just like it, he thought; she would arrive at the Silver Conference and become champion directly. She held it close and said to look: the colours of a cave Dratini, she meant.

But she looked past and said, “Gaia?”

And Gaia—oh! but what was Gaia, what was all he knew, over a year together, the instant he looked burst into a white light. Was this it? He never saw it in person—evolution! But then the Dratini Gaia was gone forever, and he did not even touch her one last time, and now … but she was growing so much bigger, more than double her length, taller than Runa! All the dirt and wet puffed off in smoke, and now the shape of the ball on her neck, the feathers and horn, and the tail——Now the light faded.

“[Oh,]” Gaia said. Her voice was deeper now.

And was a Pokémon, he was perhaps objective enough to ask, ever more beautiful? She had pink and pearl skin, and white feather wings where her flares had been, and a golden ball on her neck and two on her tail. Her skin still caught the light in transparent layers, the marvellous scale. And people said Milotic were lovely! She looked at him; Runa embraced her round the middle. And wasn’t it fitting, he thought, the greatest Pokémon had the greatest trainer? Now Runa had a battler anyone would think exceptional; they could fly or swim anywhere all together, Goldenrod City and back in a day if they liked. And in close quarters on her back, they would all stick together, a full family, all holding onto each other; and Runa would hold him, the only one without a grip, closely the whole time.

Forsyth said, “Oh—may I take a photograph? I mean … for my mother, if you don’t mind.”

But he did mind: he should not be in it. For hadn’t he just thought, when he ought to feel nothing but warmth for Gaia, his closest friend, how she got him advantage with Runa?