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Spring: Year of the Shaken Earth

The storm was passing, only the faint rumble of thunder in the distance gave any indication of the tempest that had passed by. The rain too had stopped for now, though the dark clouds overhead promised there was likely more to come.

For a moment, a flare of bright white light illuminated the countryside, followed by an ear-splitting explosion as swathes of forest were levelled. It was in the wrong place and time to be a bolt of lightning, too destructive to be natural. A bright flare of blue light followed rising up above the trees before it went out as suddenly as it had appeared. The clouds, disturbed by the backlash of arcane energy started to drop their contents over the devastated countryside.

Down below in the centre of the devastated woodland something stirred, a creature lifted its head and roared, a jet of flame illuminating the bottom of the rain clouds; as quickly as it came it vanished, purple after images dancing in the air as the creature lumbered off to seek shelter from the deluge.

Far from the site of devastation, on the opposite slopes of a mountain, a flash of blue once again broke through the gloom of the stormy night. A figure floated forwards, dropping and bobbing with difficulty as they clung to the bundled form in their arms. Heading up the mountainside the small creature landed before a cave. It was an inelegant landing and they collapsed under the weight of the other figure held in their arms.

"Mother! Please mother wake up..." he placed his hands on her head and a soft glow enveloped the pair of them, before fading away, the short blue furred creature tried again, whispering gently in a strangely musical language, the light flaring and fading before the figure lying on the ground before him stirred awake.

"Ephraim..." her voice was faint, light, musical, and barely audible above the hiss of the rainfall outside. Groping in the darkness, she seized his head between her hands and stared into his luminous eyes. A blaze of light played out of her own, images, ideas, knowledge, instructions and facts driving themselves in a whirl of light and colour into her sons mind. Much of it would be forgotten; put to sleep until he could understand it, but some things she woke up. knowledge he would need immediately, but in the end it was too much, her power flicked and fled from her again.

"My son, I am...sorry there is still so much you still need to learn. So much to teach you but... you must be strong."

Trembling, the young mew held her arms and tried to shake his head, "No, mother it will be ok, I can heal you... I can do it I am sure of it."

Shaking her head she stared into his eyes again, "No, my son no listen to me... you must remember what I have taught you so far. I... I am too weak, I will not make it. You must hide, disguise yourself and seek a place of safety, somewhere you can learn and grow in peace. Promise me!"

Sobbing gently Ephraim nodded his head, clinging to her, "I promise, mother I promise but... I cannot do this alone mother, there is so much to understand, so much to decipher and learn, please... please don't leave me."

She reached up and smoothed back his blue head fur, her own blue paw trembling lightly as she drew another laboured breath, "My son, my darling Ephraim, remember who you are and what we stand for and grow strong." Smiling she let her hand fall back, head sinking to the ground and closed her eyes, once more she drew breath and then with a long sigh her chest stilled. Her blue form grew hazy, motes of white light shimmering in the air and then it was gone, an amber circlet was all that remained, symbol of their family.

The rest of the night passed in a blur, Ephraim didn't move, he just stayed crouched low on his hind legs, the amber circlet held in his paws, turning it slowly back and forth. Unseeing eyes clouded by tears, this was not how it was meant to go. He was meant to have decades to learn before it would have been his mother's time, centuries even. As dawn broke outside he scrubbed at his eyes, slowly let his feet leave the floor and drifted out into the gloom, watching the green and browns of the forest return.

Carefully he raised the circle and slipped it over his head, sharp ears poking to either side twitching gently. He was a strange creature, quite unlike anything else in the world. Just shy of two feet long, with blue body fur and a blunt feline muzzle with wide, pale amber eyes. A tail, slender and whip like, longer than he was with a gentle, rounded blade like tip.

He was a pokémon, so he was unused to wearing anything at all and the amber circlet felt heavy atop his brow but it was his now. With a last lingering glance back at the cave, he higher into the air and started to drift down the mountainside. The beast that had attacked him and his mother would be seeking them now the rain had stopped. He had to get out of sight and quickly but he did not want to use his power here, near his mother's grave. He paused and looked back at the cave, shivering in the cool mountain air. There was something about the cave, an echo, a feeling, something was strange about them. Shaking his head the young mew turned away and picked up speed, there would be time for mysteries later, right now he had to get to safety.

Ephraim still could not quite comprehend everything that had happened to him. It had always just been him and his mother, living together, occasionally traveling. He had mastered flying and keeping hidden at a young age, mainly out of necessity. Then about a week ago, his mother had become worried about something and uprooted them from their old home. The temple was no longer safe and without the stronger pink mew to protect them they had to flee. She had taken them from place to place, searching for any sign of their missing guardians then last night the attacker had struck! It had come on them at nightfall, huge, hulking, and seen right through their cloak of invisibility. Mother had held it at bay but it had hit her several times before she had unleashed a devastating ball of energy. It floored their assailant but gave Ephraim time to concentrate and teleport to safety. Whatever it had done to mother had been horrific breaking things inside her body, things he was not skilled enough to repair. Trying to be brave Ephraim pushed the memories away from himself and tried to concentrate on flying, avoiding the trees as they moved past on either side.

An hour or two later he drifted to a halt in a forest clearing, leaves crackling beneath his feet as he settled to the ground. He was far enough from the cave to stop and use his own power to change his looks. It was not a perfect disguise but it would fool anyone who was not psychic, which was something.

Placing his paws on his chest, eyes closed he turned his mind inward, delving through the depths of his genetic code. Letting his mind drift, touching on forms, shapes and ideas until he settled on one that would be perfect. Slowly the blue fur across his body darkened, becoming a deep brown, and his head fur rippled, growing in length, fluffing up and spreading out as a full mane. It settled into a scruffy, short head of white hair with a ruff of thick slightly curled white fur around his neck and over his shoulders.

With a shuddering gasp, Ephraim fell out of the air, all four paws sinking into the loam as the change started to affect more then just the colour of his fur. Bones snapped, muscles rippled, twisting as tendons and flesh realigned to match the new skeletal structure. With a shriek of pain, Ephraim collapsed, twitching as he felt his tail shrink, the vertebrae clicking back into his body. The mass being converted by his power, used to stretch his skin and muscles, to adjust his paws and joints from those of a feral creature to a morph. Back arching, spine popping, Ephraim shrieked digging at the ground as his jaw shattered and shrunk, nose changing as his cheek bones flattened. He emitted a whimpering squeak as his skull tightened then popped as it rearranged itself.

Next his ears moved, becoming long, thin and pointed with a dark black furry interior and a light brown exterior. It was at that point that his blood began to boil and his nerve endings sparked and stretched, knitting him into a new shape. Shrieking Ephraim's heels drummed on the loam covered forest floor until with a shuddering breath he collapsed.

By the time the change was complete he was nearly unconscious from the pain. This was no exterior illusion, no fake. It was a complete shift of mass and form to that of a brown furred anthropomorphic eevee, an eevee morph as it was known. The young mew hiding himself from the rest of the world as best he could. As his body started to settle down, the pain brought about by the transformation fading, Ephraim slowly started to sit up but halted part way, whimpering as his new muscles flexed. He was still thin, appearing to be somewhere just shy of adulthood, he probably needed some clothes but right now those concerns were beyond him. Lying down on his side, panting, eyes closing as he rested.

He wasn't sure how long he was out, it could not have been long, maybe twenty minutes when a pair of feet came to rest in front of his muzzle and voices drifted down, groggily he tried to raise his head, work out what they were saying.

"He's awake... shhh little one, stay still, what happened? We heard you screaming." The figure in front of him knelt down, helped him to sit up. Ephraim blinked, staring into the bright visage of a Jolteon, for a moment he just stared, blue eyes looking into amber. The chances of being discovered by an evolved member of the eevee line where astronomical. He could only hope his luck held out; turning his head, he found the other figure was a leafeon, their soft beige fur and great leaf like mane flowing slowly in the wind.

"What happened child?" she asked gently, reaching out to drape her jacket around his shoulders, "The screams we heard where of someone in anguish. We feared an attack."

Ephraim squeaked as the male jolteon picked him up, cradling his still limp form in his arms. "Yes, what happened? You are not from the village are you? Were you traveling toward us?"

Finally finding his voice Ephraim croaked out a word or two then stopped, coughing and clinging to the larger male. "Pain..." he whispered once he had some moisture back in his mouth. "Mother... attacked... Pain, trying... to reach safety...when..." he groaned and closed his eyes, he was still too weak for this and with a gentle squeak he lapsed into unconsciousness.

The female leafeon glanced around the forest, her hair streaming as she communed silently with the forest. "There is nothing here; the forest says he has been alone. Karnet what do you think? He is uninjured and yet those screams, they broke the heart for the agony inside."

Karnet just groaned, it sounded like more leafeon mumbo jumbo, always communing with the plants with her head in the clouds. Nevertheless, Rachael made a good patrol partner and her instincts helped protect the village. Looking at the kid in his arms, he shook his head,

"I'd say mental attack, you heard him, something attacked him and his mother and you heard what Jarven said? There was a huge psychic disturbance last night on the other side of the mountain. Sounds like this kid's family were caught up in it, he's exhausted, thin as anything. I'd say he's been on the run for a while."

The leafeon women nodded in agreement and looked around, "Well then, we take him back to the village and let Jarven have a look at him. Maybe he can answer the questions surrounding him. The forest...it says ...well it is confusing. Trees do not see as we see but they claim his feet did not touch the floor until he got here, to this clearing."

Karnet blinked, looked down at the kid and snorted, "Right... a flying eevee, well let's get him back and let Jarven deal with him." With a nod, the two started into the forest, walking back toward their home.