FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Waxing Moon

_ DISCLAIMER: All characters and properties are copyright their respective owners. All writing and original characters are copyright 2010 Zephyr Paws. The author is in no way associated or affiliated with any third-party. This original fiction was created with no intention of any copyright infringement against any third-party, and is purely for fan enjoyment. _

IMPORTANT NOTE: Waxing Moon is considered to be the second half of the story Waning Heart. However, unlike a lot of "sequels" in a series, Waxing Moon is (hopefully) able to be read even without reading all of Waning Heart, so don't worry if you haven't read Waning Heart yet. It's also a much, MUCH happier story than Waning Heart was. There may be a few references here and there that don't make as much sense, but I will try do a nice job at explaining them throughout the story. Just know that in going into it!

-~ Chapter 1: New Moon ~-

I wanted to collapse so many times throughout my lonely walk. I didn't once look back towards Mt. Coronet... Nothing sounded better than falling to the ground and just letting it all out, but I felt too powerless to do even that... the only thing I could do was just walk and walk and walk... walk as far away from the one who ripped all emotion straight from my heart.

It felt like just yesterday that he saved me... saved me from being a weak, powerless female... saved me from being raped by yet another male - a powerful male Machoke. But in the end, he didn't care. He didn't care about what I went through. He didn't care about any of that... It was all just a lie...

Why did I ever believe that he loved me? Was I really that blind? I believed it so hard... I believed that he would love me and only me... I believed that he loved me... Gin... why? Why, Gin? Why? Why did I have to believe you? You stupid Gabite... why did I have to fall in love with you? Why did I have to feel those feelings for you? Why? Why? Why?

"W- Why...?" I muttered just barely under my breath, stopping in my tracks. "W- why...?" I fell down onto my knees, still staring blankly in front of me. "W-..."

I started crying again, but despite my crying, there were no sobs. Instead, the tears just ran off my face. I was still far too devastated over losing the only thing I held precious in this world... The pain and emptiness was overwhelming to me.

Right then was when I finally hit my breaking point, when everything felt like a broken mirror shattering into a million pieces. "W-..." I still found myself stuttering, fighting so hard to will myself to let it all out. I finally managed...

"WHYYY!?" I yelled at the top of my lungs. My trailing cry turned into horrible sobbing near the end as I fell forward. From there, I cried as uncontrollably as any Pokemon could ever cry, sobbing and completely wailing out with everything I had into the ground beneath me.

It was the loudest I'd ever been in my quiet life.

***

I wasn't exactly sure when I passed out. All I knew was that I did, and the next thing I knew it was the middle of the night. I woke up to find myself in a familiar location: alone, out in the stars, in the middle of nowhere.

I had no clue where I was or even where I was headed. I wanted nothing to do with Mt. Coronet anymore... all I wanted was to go back home to Mt. Moon... the home that I'd practically forgotten about. That was the only place where everything felt right to me. That was the only place I could truly call home...

But there was no way that I could ever get there. Not on my own, that was for sure, and I certainly couldn't see myself asking random Pokemon how to get to a mountain that could be on the other side of the world for all I knew.

What was the point anymore? It didn't matter if I went back home... it wasn't like there was really anything waiting for me anymore. Daddy abandoned me, just like Gin did... I didn't have anything there to hold on to.

I had absolutely nothing. No purpose, no motivation, no aspirations, no hope, no future... I could fall off the face of the planet and it wouldn't make a difference at all.

There was no hope of me ever being a strong female. There was no hope of me being anything other than the weak, worthless female I was... In fact, the only question running through my mind was how long it would be until the next time I was raped by a stronger male? After all, with me, it was only a matter of time...

I was so happy with Gin... Why couldn't I just stay happy with him for the rest of my life? Why did he have to hurt me like he did? He abandoned me... he completely ripped that small thread of confidence I had, all for... all for what? A stronger female?

I really was a weak, pathetic Pokemon... not just a female, but any Pokemon... I was weak in general... Why did I even deserve to live? Why would such a horrible failure of a Pokemon waste its time on this earth? How could anyone ever love someone as weak and timid as me?

The worst part was I was too weak to do anything to change it... Even though I knew that stronger females were the ones that wound up with stronger mates in the end and weaker females were there only for the pleasure of the strong males, there wasn't anything I could ever do to change the fact that I was weak.

I didn't even know what to live for after that. When I ran away from the Pokemon Therapy Center - which I grew to see as a pretty poorly planned mistake - I thought that everything would get better. I thought that I'd be able to find my way home...

Instead of finding home, I was attacked and raped by another Pokemon, then saved by a Pokemon that only ended up turning against me and breaking my heart.

Whatever dreams I had of going home were shattered. Whatever hope I had of having a loving mate, of having someone in my life that actually cared about me for me... all of it... all of it was just blown away like dust into the wind.

All I was was an empty soul. A wandering vessel. He meant so much to me... Gin was my everything... he was the one thing I believed mattered. But even Gin... even the one Pokemon I tried so hard to please... the one Pokemon I would truly do anything for... even Gin just wound up abusing me and leaving me for dead.

Nothing in life really mattered to me anymore... so I figured I'd do the only thing I could do to ease the pain and that was walk. It was the only sliver of a hope I had left... that I could walk until I eventually found home, Mt. Moon. The chances of it were so slim, but I didn't care how delusional I was anymore. It didn't even matter...

As the night sky faded to a glowing purple, then to a rosy red, and finally a golden yellow, morning had come and I had a better perspective of where I was headed. The mountain was far behind me. I'd been walking for several miles away from it over the course of the night, though unsure if I was headed back towards the Pokemon Therapy Center I first came from or in a new direction entirely.

I never looked back when I ran from the Therapy Center... so I had no clue... though when I turned around towards Mt. Coronet, it looked like it was at a different angle than when I first headed that way, so maybe I was headed somewhere new after all.

The only place I could ever hope for a future was somewhere new, because all my past did was ruin my life.

***

I spent the next few nights walking, eventually finding myself walking along a river. I felt more comfortable walking at night, because I enjoyed the waxing moon's company as it turned from a black void in the sky to a sliver of a moon, then all the way to more than half of a moon.

In a way, perhaps life is like the moon's cycles. You go from nothingness, the pitch black empty sky, to a sliver of hope peering through the blackness, all the way to a full moon, where the night is brighter than ever. But then that moon wanes... and starts fading away again, becoming only a sliver of what it once was before reverting back to nothing.

Despite what I felt, the moon was waxing, growing brighter and fuller each night.

Maybe it was possible that I could be like the moon I had always admired? Maybe it was possible that, just like when my moon waned away to the nothingness of Tom, a terrible, terrible human, it gradually waxed back to getting saved, not just by the human officer that rescued me, but by Gin later on.

Maybe my moon was full when I felt that feeling of love for the very first time, when Gin was my absolute everything and the Pokemon I wanted to spend the rest of my life with? And then that moon began waning once again, finding him to be uncaring, unloving, and after cheating on me once, only lying further and further until there was nothing left lighting the sky of my heart.

What was the point in life if it was only to have happiness followed by even greater sadness? Why couldn't there just be happiness? Maybe sorrow was necessary, but if there were any justice, why was it that I had to continue subjecting myself to such unbearable torture.

Rape, heartbreak, violence, abuse, lies, fear... What have I ever done to deserve any of that? What have I ever gotten from it? The one time I felt like it was all worth it, like every single ounce of pain I'd ever had to endure was worth it, it turned out to be just a lie... just a fabrication. It was never real, never. All of it was just a dream... something that I'd only started waking up from...

It didn't seem to matter anymore. All I could do was just hold onto the hope of going home... No matter how irrational it was, there was no other point to my life.

Could I ever trust another Pokemon again, though? Could I ever... could I ever love another Pokemon again? Or would I be too afraid that I'd be too weak or too cursed to ever have anything good happen to me ever again?

The nights continued passing and I eventually found myself entering a forest. It was rather dark inside, but staying next to the river at least made sure that there weren't trees blocking all of the moonlight, allowing me to see just fine as I continued following the river.

I hadn't really eaten much of anything during my travels and it was really starting to wear me down. The only food I had was some assorted berries and mushrooms I saw along the river's edge. Sure, I was far from starving, but I certainly didn't feel full or satiated. It didn't really seem to matter to me if I ate or not, though...

Eventually the sun started rising, which was a particularly pretty sight inside of the beautiful forest I'd found myself in. I found a tree to hide behind, pulled some leaves over me, and fell asleep in the warm summer morning, waiting until it was closer to dark again, as that was when I felt more comfortable exploring.

***

I found myself waking up in the middle of the afternoon. It was still quite a bit light out, but seeing as I didn't sleep like an Abra, I made due and made a habit of marching on anyway.

After brushing the leaves off of me, I stood up and looked around, making sure that there wasn't anything in my immediate area. After all, I didn't want to get attacked or anything by a less than friendly Pokemon, and since I had grown to assume that all Pokemon were like that, I didn't want to take too many chances.

I decided to keep following the river that I'd seen from the other day, figuring that it'd take me somewhere or, at the very least, would ensure that I had water to drink and most likely food to eat. It was about as safe a bet as any, but I just had to make sure that I didn't get confused and wind up walking back towards Mt. Coronet.

As I walked down the side of the river, I saw something approach me straight ahead. I wasn't quite sure what it was at first, as it just seemed to be something peeking out over the horizon, but seeing as it was bobbing slightly and growing in size, I knew it had to be something approaching me.

Whatever it was wasn't making too many sounds. I heard footsteps thanks to my sensitive hearing, but that was about it.

After it had walked up a bit closer, perhaps fifty or sixty feet away from me, I finally identified it as a human! A Trainer, from the looks of it. But the weird thing was that it just stopped right there. It must have spotted me!

It stood still for a few seconds as I did the same. We were both aware of each other's presence and were probably just waiting for the other to make the first move. Well, I was actually just a bit too afraid to take any action right away, so I guess that just left the human's thoughts the only mystery.

The Trainer's intentions became rather clear that they were indeed hostile as the human pointed his finger towards me. "Go Scotch!" shouted the Trainer, sounding a bit masculine, though he had a much higher-pitched voice than Tom did.

Studying his appearance and comparing him to Tom would have to wait - a Charmeleon appeared from behind him and was charging towards me at a pretty high speed.

I reactively turned to my side and took a mighty jump across the entire river, using my wings to help carry me across. That would hopefully buy me enough time to escape and get away from the Trainer and his Charmeleon.

"Oh, so you want to play, huh, Clefable? We'll see about that!" The Trainer ran towards his Charmeleon while fixating his eyes towards me, then pointed right at me. "Scotch, use Fire Spin to keep it from running!"

"Alright!" exclaimed the Charmeleon - also sounding male - as he reached his head back a bit and then lunged it forward, spraying a stream of fire right at me! To my surprise, it narrowly missed hitting me directly, but it instead swirled around me, keeping me from running away unless I wanted to get burned.

The fire was so hot and I could feel myself getting injured by the burning heat. Not only that, but the flickering flames in front of me were very frightening, so I grew increasingly anxious and worried. All I wanted to do was get out of there and get away, but I also didn't want to get roasted!

"Scotch, remember that move we were working on? Try use it to get across the river!" ordered the Trainer, now right at his Charmeleon. "Turn around, jump in the air, and use the strongest Fire Blast you can to propel yourself across!"

Even though I was trapped in the fire and felt very frightened, I saw the Charmeleon, Scotch, look down a bit and appear rather unsure. "I don't like this... but alright..."

With that, he turned around, jumped up in the air, and fired a strong burst of fire out from his mouth, launching him backwards due to recoil and over to my side of the river!

However, he missed it by quite a bit. I saw Scotch fall into the water in front of me, where he fell out of my sight.

"Scotch!!" shouted the human as he quickly jumped in the river and swam over towards, though again fell out of my sight as he approached.

The fire was starting to let up. That coupled with the fact that the human and his Pokemon were now just a few feet away from me told me that it was time to make a break for it. I hopped up in the air and carefully flapped my wings to give me a little bit of height, then jumped forward, finding myself getting hit by some of the flame as I crashed into the ground, but no serious injuries.

As I got up, I saw that Charmeleon climbing up from the river's edge right in front of me, appearing to be rather soaked. "A-ah! N-n-never make me do that a-again! I c-could have d-d-died, Jack!"

Right after the Charmeleon made it up from the river, his Trainer followed right behind him, pulling himself up from the edge of the river and looking even more soaked due to his clothes. "We'll have to work on that some more," he said sarcastically as he got up on his knees and shook his head and body to brush some of the water off. "Oh, right, let's try get that Clefable!"

The Charmeleon ran towards me, forcing me to instinctively run as quickly as I could from him. Not more than a few seconds later, I was knocked down to the ground with a burning back as I felt a blast of fire hit me from behind.

I cried out in pain as I felt a terrible burn dance across my back and wings. It felt like I was still on fire from his flame! I rolled onto my back and tried rolling on the ground to put out the flame, but that was when I saw a particularly frightening sight - the Charmeleon standing right in front of me.

I'd seen that scene too many times before with strong, male Pokemon, right before they were about to take advantage of me. The burn I had no longer worried me as much as the Charmeleon did and it didn't sting as much as the memories and anxieties of being raped over and over again did...

"P-please... please d-don't..." I said timidly, trying my best to get out of it, but finding myself overwhelmed with fears of being abused again. I should have been used to it, but it didn't make it any less frightening. In fact, I even found myself crying as those painful fears and memories rushed back into my mind.

"Oh, ah," said Scotch, looking surprisingly freaked out and rubbing the back of his head with one of his claws. "I'm sorry, I didn't really mean to, ah, you see, I'm just doing what Jack wants me to do." He looked a little... embarrassed... or maybe just apologetic somehow. I couldn't quite tell.

It didn't matter. I still felt very afraid of the situation, though, of course, I found myself powerless to do anything about it, such as getting up or fighting back...

The next thing I knew, a Poke Ball hit me in the stomach and then swallowed me inside of it with a brilliant flash of red light!

It wasn't the first time I'd been captured, though the last time I had... it was Tom who captured me, and that only led to so much pain and fear. I was worried it was going to happen again...

Inside of the Poke Ball, I could see that familiar panoramic view of the river to my side, the Charmeleon right near me, and his Trainer running from behind. It would shake and wobble every few seconds.

"N-nooo!" I cried, not wanting to get caught again. I stood up and started running away, finding myself slamming against an invisible barrier in the direction of the woods I was running towards. Oddly enough, I didn't feel any pain from that, but rather it just stopped me altogether.

Maybe if I tried another direction... After one more shake, I steadied myself and then ran towards the river instead, finding myself slamming into another invisible wall. Rather than stopping me entirely, the wall began shattering like it was glass and then fell down around me.

With that, I heard a loud 'poof' sound and found myself standing in front of the Trainer and his Charmeleon, no longer trapped inside of the Poke Ball. I must have successfully broken out of it!

"Aww shoot!" said the Trainer, presumably named Jack, as he swung his arm down to his side. "Scotch, just try weaken it some more! And Fire Spin it if it starts getting away!"

"Alright, Jack!" Scotch reared his head and sprayed some more fire at me, scorching my front side now with some burning embers. "Ah, I'm sorry, uh, I really didn't want to do that!"

That Charmeleon was certainly rather weird. I couldn't quite tell what was behind his apologies, especially because he seemed rather sincere in them despite the fact he was attacking me directly. Maybe he really did feel sorry for attacking me.

It didn't matter, though, because I still had to escape or face getting captured again. There was no way I was going to deal with another pair of male human and Pokemon potentially double-teaming me. No... I could never let that happen to me again...

Rather than fighting the Charmeleon, I did the only thing I really knew how to do in a battle, which was run. I hopped away into the forest and used my wings to give me extra distance, although I eventually gave that up for just running, which seemed to be faster.

Right as I thought I was getting away, a swirl of fire wrapped around in front of me, then swirled around behind me, trapping me like I'd been trapped before, except there was now a swirl of flame above me as well, so I couldn't even jump away.

"Awesome, Scotch, you're really getting that Fire Spin down!" It was Jack, and from the sounds of it, he was running up from behind me. "Now, Poke Ball, go!"

Before I could turn around to see the Trainer again, I found myself trapped inside of another Poke Ball. That panoramic view showed nothing but fire spinning all around me, with Jack and Scotch off to one side and nothing but forest anywhere else.

I still felt quite burned from all of the fire attacks I'd been enduring, but I knew I had to still try to escape. Now that I knew how, I immediately started running forward, towards the flames, and slamming against the invisible wall. The invisible wall was now right up against the flames, though, and had me trapped in a much smaller confines.

I slammed against another side, but found that it didn't break or shatter or anything. I slammed against it again, still to no avail as my entire surroundings continued shaking every few seconds.

Time was running out. I tried hopping up to possibly fly away from the fire and the invisible walls, but found myself hitting my head on some invisible ceiling, sending me falling onto my belly.

The ground shook one more time and then I heard a clicking noise. The entire panoramic scene started glowing a bit white as bolts of electricity from all directions struck my body and suspended me in the air.

That electricity, just like last time, had no pain to it. All it did was completely numb me and send strange thoughts and shivers throughout my mind and body. I knew at that point that, once again, I was a Trainer's Pokemon.

"Alright!" exclaimed Jack with a tinny sound and an eerie echo as he jumped in the air and then reached over to grab the Poke Ball I was trapped inside.

He looked right at me from the outside of the Poke Ball. That gave me a really good chance to look at the human's face... he looked somewhat young, no facial hair or anything like that, his light red hair was smooth and well brushed, glasses adorned his nose and green eyes, and he had a really happy smile on his face.

Although he looked significantly less threatening than Tom did, I had no way of knowing for sure what to expect out of him. The only thing I knew about him was that he was my new Trainer and I'd probably be stuck in his possession for a very long time...

***

The electricity froze most of my body and most of my thoughts while contained in the Poke Ball. I had only a faint perception of what was going on in the outside world, basically only knowing that I was on Jack's belt as he was walking through a forest.

Several hours passed, though it seemed like just a blink of an eye due to the electricity that the Poke Ball generated. Something about it made time and physical requirements completely warped, like they didn't matter. I wasn't sure how to explain it, really...

All I knew was that, after awhile, Jack lifted my Poke Ball from his belt and handed it to a nurse - one that looked very similar to the one in the Pokemon Therapy Center, who ironically also had a Chansey beside her.

She placed my Poke Ball into a machine with another one beside it and, all of a sudden, a warm blue light started pulsing around inside of the Poke Ball. The electricity turned a bright pink color and it felt incredibly pleasurable and satisfying. On top of that, it felt like it was healing my burns and wounds. It was such a nice, warm feeling, one that I'd never felt before...

***

Time seemed to skip a bit more after that as I lost my perception on the outside world. After who-knows-how-long, I found myself released from my Poke Ball inside of some sort of lounge area.

I looked around to see there were several couches inside of that very large room, little inlets with tables and round booths all around, Trainers and Pokemon loosely scattered about, and Jack and Scotch right behind me. Seeing them shocked me and made me feel uneasy.

"Hey, it's okay, no need to worry," said Jack as he stood right where he was and slowly reached his hand towards me.

I cowered in response and started backing up a little bit. I didn't know where I was or what I was doing there, only that I was caught and he was my new 'master.'

"It's fine if you're scared. But I'm not really that scary, trust me..." He withdrew his arm and instead just looked at me.

"He's right, he's really not scary at all," said Scotch, the Charmeleon standing right beside him, who was also looking right at me. "I've known him since I was just a little Charmander and he's a really great guy."

"My name's Jack. Jack Rose." Once again, the human reached his arm towards me. And, once again, I found myself flinching. "You're Brandy, right? At least that's the name that was registered to you."

I blinked. How did he know my name? I didn't even tell him that, much less want to tell him...

"You can shake my hand if you'd like to, but I'm not going to force you to or anything." The human just left his hand extended, instructing me what he wanted out of me at least. But, strangely enough, he actually didn't sound very forceful.

Could it be that he was really telling the truth? That he wasn't a scary person? Could I really believe him after everyone else had only lied and deceived me? I still had a real hard time buying that...

"Well, okay, I'm sure we'll work on that." He brought his hand back and gave me a rather curious stare. It then looked like he thought of something as he glanced over at the Charmeleon to his side. "Oh! This here is Scotch. He was my first Pokemon."

"Hiya, nice to meet you, Brandy." Scotch mimicked Jack by extending his arm towards me, though rather than reaching it downward, his shorter size meant he actually had to reach it up just a bit. The Charmeleon was actually a little shorter than I was - about six or seven inches worth.

I didn't really want to shake either of their hands to be honest, so I didn't. I didn't know either of those two and didn't want to take the opportunity just yet to really get to know them. They kept me from going to the one place I wanted to go: home.

I mean, really I didn't care as much as I did the last time I was captured. After all, I basically had nothing now anyway, whereas I had what felt like everything when I was captured by Tom several months ago. I was taken from my home back then... taken from everything I knew. Now I was just taken from somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

All I saw the situation I was in as was just some sort of hurdle to get through. Sure, it seemed like I wouldn't be going home, but I didn't really care anyway... all that was was just some unrealistic hope to cling onto.

"He's my best friend, actually," said Jack, snapping me out of my wandering thoughts. "I tell him everything." He pulled the Charmeleon beside him in for a sideways hug, squeezing him tightly and causing them both to laugh a bit. "Yep, he's a great Pokemon! I really hope that we can be great friends, too, Brandy."

That was real sweet of him to say, actually. Just hearing those words and seeing how happy he and Scotch looked together had an enormous impact on my perception of him. Despite the fact that he was a Trainer, he started reminding me of Tom less and less as he showed a real genuine happiness about him, and he really cared about his Pokemon.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all being Jack's Pokemon. I didn't really know how to fight, though, and one thing I did know about Trainers was that they were always looking for a fight... But Scotch looked pretty strong anyway, so maybe I wouldn't have to be.

"Hey, I've got an idea! How would you like a Poffin, Brandy?" Jack reached into his backpack at his feet until he pulled out a pinkish round object and waved it towards me. "This one's particularly sweet, so I bet you'll probably like it."

"Hey, I want a Poffin, too," said Scotch as he reached over towards the Poffin that Jack was holding, bearing a rather disappointed expression on his face.

"Yeah, I'll give you one, too, Scotch." He pet Scotch on the head with his free hand. I found it interesting that Jack seemed to know what Scotch was saying. I didn't think that humans could do that... "Scotch here likes spicy Poffins, but somehow I don't think they'd suit you. Now come on, take it, it tastes good!"

Nervously, I grabbed the Poffin from Jack's hand and took it into mine, then stared at it as I examined it up close. It was a round food object with little sprinkles on top, colored entirely pink. It smelled pretty good, so I decided to take a bite of it.

The sweet Poffin he gave me was particularly flavorful, tasting like a blend of very sweet berries while having the sort of texture of bread or something like it. It was absolutely delicious and sure beat eating nothing but berries, mushrooms, and herbs!

I quickly consumed the Poffin and noticed he already had a second one out for me, handing it to me as he did the first.

"Jack, can't I please have mine now?" asked Scotch, tugging on Jack's pants and looking increasingly impatient.

"Just a moment, I want Brandy to have another first since she liked it a lot."

I took the second Poffin and ate it even quicker than I did the first, but it felt incredibly satisfying and I felt myself fill up on the two Poffins. They were really good and I hadn't had really good food like that... well, either since the berries Gin and I would eat, or possibly that Chansey egg of Sherry's from the Pokemon Therapy Center.

"Alright, here you go, Scotch," said Jack, handing his Charmeleon a red-and-orange-colored Poffin and petting him on the head.

Scotch gladly took the Poffin and started nibbling on it before taking larger bites, really seeming to enjoy eating it. "Mmmm, mm, ah, yum!" he exclaimed through bites. "Thank you, Jack!"

"Now, Brandy, it's getting pretty late so I was thinking we should all get some sleep. It's not crowded here tonight, so the three of us can all share a room." Jack lifted his backpack up and started looking towards a hallway. "You can sleep in your Poke Ball if you want, but I like to leave my Pokemon out and let them sleep on real beds, you know? At least if I can."

I did feel rather tired. Although I was all healed from earlier - not to mention the wounds from Gin - I still felt like I could use a good night's sleep. I knew that there was the chance that Jack would try something with me... but I also knew that I didn't really have a choice if he did anyway, so all I could do was hope.

After a little bit more idle chatting, Jack led us down the hall and into the room marked '3.' Inside were two bunk beds, a few drawers, a clock, and a desk. There was also another room right near the entrance, but the lights were off in it so I couldn't see inside. Nothing much, but it looked so much comfier than sleeping on the grass like I'd been doing.

"You get the top, Scotch," said Jack, pointing him to the ladder to climb up to the 'second floor.' "Brandy, you can have that bed over there all to yourself." He pointed to the other bunk bed.

I followed his instructions and walked over to the bunk bed, taking the lower bed for myself. I hopped in and snuggled up under the blankets. It actually felt extremely comfortable. I knew I'd have no trouble sleeping...

"Alright, good night, guys," said Jack as he turned off the light and left on a little night-light that lit up the room just a little bit. It was much nicer than pure darkness, that was for sure.

About ten or so minutes passed. I hadn't quite fallen asleep yet because I still had a lot on my mind. So far, my experience with Jack had been rather pleasant - except for that first bit, where he had Scotch attack me. But even then, Scotch didn't really seem like he enjoyed attacking me like, say, Whiskey - Tom's Nidoking - did way back when I was with Tom...

Maybe things were looking up for me, but I knew that I should never lower my guard. If there was one thing that I learned throughout all of my experiences it was that trusting people and Pokemon was a mistake. I never had any trust in either Tom or Whiskey, trusting Sherry would have resulted in her and her organization or whatever controlling me, and then Gin was just downright a complete liar and manipulator...

No way could I ever let that happen to me again...

"Hey, is Brandy asleep?" A quiet whisper called out. It was definitely Jack.

"Yeah, yeah, I think so." Another voice whispered back. "She's not moving and her eyes are closed." That time the whisper was from Scotch.

I was a little worried then, because I wasn't sure exactly what it was they were planning on doing after I was asleep. I didn't want to open my eyes to see what they were doing, because it would give away the fact that I hadn't actually fallen asleep yet, and I didn't want them to know that I wasn't actually asleep because it seemed like they wanted me to be asleep.

So instead, I figured I'd just sit and listen, but be ready to bolt if it sounded like they were approaching me or going to tie me up or something.

"Sounds like she is," whispered Jack. "So what do you think of her, Scotch?"

There was a brief pause. I wasn't sure exactly why, though, but that's what happens when you're listening without watching.

"Ah, well, she's pretty frightened, but hopefully she'll warm up to me... I mean us... ah, you don't even know what I'm saying, anyway."

"Well, I think she could really work very well as a contest Pokemon. She's got that cuteness that helps win those contests, but I'm sure she'll need a lot of training for it."

It sounded like Scotch was right; Jack didn't seem like he really could understand what he was saying after all. I guess it just seemed like he could, but maybe he was just guessing or assuming. But if that was the case, why was he talking to Scotch and waiting for responses?

"I know you really want to win a contest, Jack... I'm sorry I keep letting you down." Scotch sounded rather disappointed in his tone, not to mention apologetic.

"Will you help train her, Scotch? Particularly for the battling part?"

Battling part? I didn't want to do anything that involved battling... I hated fighting and all I wanted to do was just run away. That was all I ever knew how to do.

"Yeah, yeah, of course. Of course I will. Even though I don't think I'll be any good at it..."

"Alright, great," whispered Jack. "Maybe if you can talk with her in the morning and explain things... but let's get some sleep for now, sound good?"

"Yeah, yeah, tomorrow... I'll do it."

"Good night, Scotch."

"Good night, Jack."

Aside from rustling and turning around, that was the last I heard of those two for the night. Not too long after that, I wound up falling asleep myself, wondering exactly what it was that they were talking about...

-~ End of Chapter 1 ~-