Defenders of Evodusai Part 15B
"Hey Winta. do you really think that it's a good idea to leave
Ritch with those two?" Mishren asked as we walked away from the
seething chikorita. "No need to worry," I chuckled. "Liru and
Nyami both have strong personalities so I'm pretty sure that they'll
be able to get Ritch to come out of his shell. I'm guessing that what
ever happened to him happened to you too?" The flaaffy nodded.
"Yep, but I promised Ritch that I wouldn't talk about it anymore.
Could we change the subject?" "But we're already here," Jorge chimed in. A bell rang as we
opened the door to the shop. "Welcome to our shop!" a pair of
voices cried out enthusiastically. Standing in front of us was a
minun while a plusle waved at us from the counter. Mishren scratched
his head. "Your shop?" he wondered, "Did something happen the
previous owner?" "Are you referring to Mr. Kecleon?" the minun
asked. "Because something did happen," the plusle piped in. "It
wasn't anything bad though. You see, Mr. Kecleon received a letter
from his brother and immediately packed everything up. As his
apprentices, he gave us the keys to the shop and told us to do our
best before leaving." "Any idea on where he went off to?" I
asked out of concern. Both of them shook their heads. "He didn't
say but I'm pretty sure he went to go see his brother," the minun
said. "They used to be famous traveling merchants," Jorge sighed.
"But they broke apart when one of their dealings went sour.
Hopefully they put all that nasty business behind them and reconcile
with one another. Anyways lets do what we came here to do and shop." "Oh, let us introduce ourselves before we get down to
business," the plusle grinned. With a graceful leap off the counter
she made a perfect landing next to the minun. "My name's Posie,"
she beamed. "And I'm Negi," bowed the minun. "Welcome to our
shop!" they cried out in unison. The three of us clapped at their
performance before browsing their wares. Most of the perishable items
were located near the counter and the deals on some of them were
quite tempting. Wandering around, I soon spotted an area that had me
curious. "What is this stuff?" I asked Negi who was organizing a
shelf close by. Walking over, he saw me pointing at an assortment of
objects that seemed to be gathering dust. "Ah, these are valuable
treasures that hold within them hidden powers," he explained. "But
getting them to work can be a bit tricky. Some items activate when in
the possession of a pokemon with a specific type. This defend globe,
which protects the owner from flying type moves, only works when in
the possession of a bug type pokemon. Other objects are more species
related..." "Like this safe scarf," Jorge interrupted. Sensing a hint of
anger hidden within the tone of his voice, we turned to find the
spheal gripping a golden piece of cloth. "...Yes, exactly like that
safe scarf," Negi continued cautiously. "That object will only
affect spheals, sealeos, and walreins by making them faster whenever
it hails. But since it looks like you already that, I'd like to know
if you're interested in buying it?" Jorge puffed up in offense.
"I'm more interested in how the store got a hold of it in the first
place," he said gritting his teeth. "Because this used to belong
to my mother and I know that she would never willingly pawn off such
a memorable treasure." Hearing the commotion,
Mishren and Posie walked over to find out what all the ruckus was
about. Negi walked over to the plusle and whispered something into
her ears. Staring at Jorge and the item in his hand, Posie shrugged
and shook her head. "Um, sorry. I have no idea when Mr. Kecleon got
a hold of that safe scarf," she said to Jorge. "I'd like to give
it back but that's just bad business for us. A 50% discount is the
best thing that I can... are you alright?" Large tears had started
to roll down Jorge's face while his body began to tremble. Seeing him
like this made my body move on its own as I ran up and hugged him
tenderly. Realizing what I was doing, I quickly snapped back to
normal and withdrew from his personal space. "No need to cry," I
coughed in embarrassment. "We can just buy it from them. I'm sure
that we could afford it." Jorge wiped his eyes and shook his
body. "It's not that," he sniffled. "I just... thought that I
found a lead as to where my family went." Mishren rubbed the side
of his head, unsure of his thoughts for a moment before he opened his
mouth to speak. "Um... I hate to ask this but did they abandon
you?" "What!? No of course not," Jorge glared through watery
eyes. "They were taken away... by humans..." Hearing that last
word made my heart beat faster. "Humans?" I said in confusion. "I
was told that they all disappeared a couple of years ago. When did
this incident happen?" Rubbing his eyes, Jorge sniffled for a bit.
"It was about nine years ago..." The earliest memories of my
existence were of heavy snowfall blanketing the ground in a thick
layer of powdered flakes. Bleak and gloomy at first, it wasn't until
I saw those rare rays of sunlight breaking through the wall of clouds
and illuminating the falling flakes, turning them into glittering
gems of color the likes I've never seen before. I watched them fall
gracefully onto my mother who had noticed the flakes as well. The
golden scarf around her neck began to glow brightly, turning the snow
on ground into an illuminated stage. She smiled and called me over,
the light reflecting off of her gentle blue eyes like a mirror made
of ice. I rolled over as quickly as I could but accidentally bumped
into and startled her. Instead of scolding me she simply rubbed the
top of my head with her flipper and kissed it. "Jorge," she
whispered while we were enveloped in the light, "Do you like these
colors?" I looked up towards the falling flakes and nodded. Seeing
this, she leaned in close and nuzzled me. "Even though we live in a
land of whites and grays, just know that there's a larger world of
color out there to explore, my little one." After saying that the
lights began to fade away. A couple of months had passed after
that day had occurred. The harsh season of freezing weather had
lightened up and the air felt much warmer. It was that time of the
year where healthy males would challenge my father for his spot as
chief. Now my dad was a tough pokemon who was incredibly strong for
his age. Working constantly throughout the day to protect the herd
meant that our interactions with one another were severely limited.
Whenever we did talk, he would always scare me with his commanding
tone and strict personally. Despite that, I don't hate him or
anything. Everything he did was for his family and I respect him
greatly for that. A large crowd of sealeo and
walreins had gathered around the makeshift arena my dad had chosen
ahead of time. He faced the crowd with his chest puffed up with pride
to symbolize his power. Behind him was the wall of a cliff, to ensure
everybody that he would not run away from any fights. Since she was
worried about my safety, I watched with my mother from atop of a
hill. We were far away from everybody else but I could still see my
father as he faced his first opponent. My mother gasped just as we
realized who he was fighting against. It was my older brother. Remember when I said that my father
scared me? Well, my brother is ten times worse. Being the eldest son,
he had to endure living in my father's shadow and the expectations
that was forced upon him over the years had turned him into an
apathetic monster. As the youngest, he found me to be an easy target
for all of his aggressions. The way I see it, my dad fought to
protect his homeland while my brother sought to destroy it. Charging
forward with a body slam, he made the first move against our dad and
struck a direct blow against his chest. Dad's pride deflated a
little, but he stood unflinching and immediately countered with an
ice fang onto my bro's back. Face scrunching out in pain, he
responded by sinking his own tusks into dad's back. The clashing of
opposites intensified as they wrestled with one another. The match
was too even to tell and the crowd was split on who to cheer for. But
none of us would ever know the outcome. It was at the battle's climax
that nets rained down on the crown. A large portion of the herd was
trapped instantly while those who were free began to run away. That's
when I saw the humans descending down the cliff side, My mother placed her flipper atop
of my head. She was staring at the chaos unfolding at the arena with
a calm yet fierce glint in her eyes. "Jorge," she quietly said.
"Be a good boy and roll on home. Mommy has to go help protect the
herd with your father from the humans." I was about to complain to
her until I saw a huge bolt of electricity shoot up into the sky. "GO
NOW!" she screamed before taking off towards the enemy. With tears
in my eyes, I bit my lip and rolled with all I got until I reached
our cave. Alone and frightened, I hid myself in the deepest and
darkest section of the cave. The waiting nearly drove me insane as
minutes turned into hours. Sleep eventually took over and a day
passed with no word from the outside. With nothing but the sound of
the wind echoing off the walls to keep me company, I eventually left
my hiding spot to go check the situation. Gone. Everybody was just gone and I
was left alone in this sea of disturbed snow. I began calling out
names, just hoping to get an answer from anybody. Howling wind and
thicker snowfall was the only response I got and it just buried the
remains of the ambush. I went back home and sheltered there for a
whole week, constantly going out to forage for some berries and
calling out for my family to keep myself occupied. It was on the
ninth day that a miracle happened. It was blizzard conditions when I
stupidly went out to do my usual routines. Visibility was severely
limited that day, but as I called out I could faintly see a splotch
of red approaching me. Freaking out inside, I began to
rush back home and hoped that it didn't follow. Munching on an aspear
berry I had stored the day before, I was surprised to see another
pokemon staring at me from the entrance of the cave. "Nice place
you have here kid," he said with a toothy grin. "W-what do you
want from me?" I managed to spit our fearfully. With those long
sharp claws of his glinting dangerously in the dark I was sure that
this pokemon was going to kill me. But he just sat down and took
something out from a pouch hanging from his side. "What's a brat
like you doing all alone in a place like this?" He asked while
twirling the object around in his claws. "Shouldn't you be at home
with your family?" Hearing this I broke apart emotionally and the
zangoose stood up with a concerned look on his face. I explained everything to him and
he just listened in silence. When I finished, we both just sat in the
darkness and listened to the weather outside calm itself down. "Hey
kid," he asked a couple of minutes later. "You said your name was
Jorge, right?" I nodded. The zangoose stuck a claw towards me and
smiled. "My name's Truce. Say, would you want to come with me? I
work for an organization that helps pokemon in need of our services
and you've got potential to be one of the best..." "After using his badge to
teleport us to Sofeda," Jorge sniffled, "he introduced me to the
chief of special defence, which was a probopass named Pakojo. Pakojo
took me and raised me like his own son. I've learned a lot from him,
but I can't help but think back to all that I've lost that one
fateful day. Truce told me that he took a job request that told him
where to find me and I have always wondered who could have posted it.
Seeing my mom's scarf in your shop made me realize that she must have
gone through this area at some point." Almost everybody was in tears after
Jorge finished recounting his past. All of us except Mishren bunched
together around the poor spheal and gave him a group hug. At the end
of our visit to the little shop, Posie dropped the price of the safe
scarf down to 1000 poke. After purchasing it, the three of us waved
goodbye to our new friends and began to head to the farm to regroup
with the rest of the team.