No One Should be Alone on Christmas
No One Should Be Alone on Christmas
A Story By: G'lek
Winter in Alto Mare was mild. The sea kept the temperature warm and the humidity high. Still, the citizens of the city always managed to have a white Christmas. Several years, the snow fell on Christmas Eve, leaving the streets white and shimmering for Christmas Day.
Christmas in Alto Mare, and in the entire world of Pokemon, is not the same as the Christmas we know. Many of our traditions don't exist in their world. The legend of Santa Claus, Black Peter, timeless classics like The Grinch, and many other things. However, the people of the Pokemon world had their own legends and traditions. Delibird was featured in many of them. One thing we do share with the people of the world of Pokemon is the tradition of gathering friends and family around a warm fire on Christmas Eve and enjoying the company of those close to us.
Even among the Pokemon, the act of gathering friends and relatives for an enjoyable evening of companionship was a common activity on Christmas Eve. The Pokemon partnered to humans picked up the tradition from their people and spread it among the wild Pokemon. Even some of the Legendaries enjoyed the tradition. Though it was rarely seen, the Legendary Beast Pokemon would all gather, as would the Legendary Bird Pokemon with their mediator, Lugia. Christmas was a time when old grudges and wrongs were forgotten, at least temporarily.
However, Christmas was not a joyful time for everyone. Some had no other to share the time with. Others rejected the companionship of others. Some, like Latias, had lost those who had shared the magical evening with them in times past.
It is here that we join Latias as she spends her first Christmas Eve alone. Wandering the city, looking in windows and seeing humans and Pokemon curled around their fires, and reflecting on what her life had become. Eventually, her path took her to Lorenzo's home. Latias, cloaked, looked in their front window. Bianca and Lorenzo were sitting in two arm chairs around a steady fire, talking companionably.
Latias watched them for a short time before sinking below the level of the window to lay herself on the snow covered ground. With Latios gone, she had no one to spend the evening with. She was alone. The word rung in her mind, and she could feel the emotions welling up inside her. Tiny beads of moisture appeared in the corners of her eyes as she lay there, separated from her childhood friend and adopted father by a thin sheet of glass. In her mind, they might as well have been on the other side of the world.
The tears, once flowing, would not stop. Tears for the loss of Latios and the overwhelming sense of loneliness that his absence left. It was in that position that Latias drifted into an uneasy slumber, the warm lift of the fire shining above her head and the snow gently falling.
The seconds became minutes, which became hours as the fire inside slowly consumed its supply of wood. Eventually, late in the night, Lorenzo finally fed the last log to the fire. As he stood up, he looked to Bianca.
"You should probably get some sleep," he said. "I'm just going to get some more wood for the fire, then I'll be right behind you."
"Okay grandpa," Bianca assented. "See you in the morning. And merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas, Bianca."
Lorenzo watched Bianca go upstairs before putting his jacket on and stepping out into the cold. He stamped his feet to warm them and went to the wood shed. As he returned with the wood in his arms, he spied a strange lump in the snow under one of his windows. Curious, Lorenzo placed the wood by the door and went to investigate. The snow was a large lump with a smaller lump coming out of it. Cautiously, he brushed the snow away from the smaller lump. When the red and white patterning of a familiar head emerged, Lorenzo was shocked.
He reached out and lay his hand on Latias' neck. It was cold, but not alarmingly so. The contact was enough to wake her, and her eyes opened, cheeks still wet from the tears that, even in sleep, still flowed.
"Latias, what are you doing out here?"
Alone, came the word in his head, along with a flood of emotions that followed it into his mind. Latias rarely spoke telepathically, mostly because humans had very closed minds. However, Lorenzo's empathy and her own emotional state gave her the strength to overcome that fact.
"Latias, you're never alone. You've got me and Bianca, and even Ash and his friends though they're not here."
"Now," he said, scooping her up in his arms, "lets get you inside out of the cold."
Lorenzo carried Latias inside and lay her on the couch. She half-slept in the pleasant warmth of the room. Lorenzo retrieved the rest of the firewood and stoked the fire. When the fire was good and warm, he walked over to the couch and sat down, taking Latias' head onto his lap so he could stroke her neck.
"You can stay here all night," he said to her as she let out a content sigh and began to fall back asleep.
"After all, no one should be alone on Christmas Eve."
Happy holidays to all my readers, new and old. You guys are amazing and without you, I wouldn't be writing stories today. Thanks.
"He puzzled and puzzled till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.
Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.
Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means just a little bit more."
Dr. Seuss, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, 1957
Merry Christmas!