FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

It was a bright and sunny day in the town of Elweth. It was a modest town in a wooded area, somewhat isolated, but not completely so from other known Pokemon towns. A small Eevee was sitting in front of a stone home, and it was the best-looking home in town, for most of the other buildings (save for the city hall) were of inferior wood material. He was the son of the town leader, Tyon, another Eevee. His parents were busy somewhere at the time, and he was pawing at a small squeaky chew toy ball in front of him, occasionally smashing it to make it squeak, and biting it. Things like this were mostly what he did. Rai didn't have a lot of friends, most of the other Pokekids were jealous of his status, since he'd one day inherit running the town like his father. So, he played by himself and allowed his imagination to be his friend.

"Quick, before he gets away!" he cheered to himself after kicking the ball a good ten feet away, and it rolled another ten. He leaped up and pounced at it, biting and squeezing it again.

It didn't take long for a few others to notice. A Poochyena, Zorua, and Pichu came to taunt and tease him. The Poochyena grabbed the ball from Rai, biting it hard enough to pierce and break it.

"The big bad town boy is playing by himself, as usual," the Zorua laughed to himself. It was an obvious fake mocking laugh.

The Pichu zapped a small shock of electricity at Rai. It stung, but didn't seriously harm him.

"Hey, that's going too far!" he barked, standing up on all fours and growling.

The Zorua spat the toy out. "Oooh! He's angry, guys. Maybe he'll do something!"

Rai's growling grew louder, he clenched his eyes, and cursed at himself mentally before leaping forward. It was a mistake, because they instantly all teamed up on him before he even hit the ground. He wasn't sure what hit him, but it was fast and it hurt a lot. By the time he did land on the ground, he was nearly crippled.

The others taunted him some more and walked away laughing shortly after. This was a fairly common day for him. He laid there for a long time, long after even the other Pokemon left. Eventually, he got up slowly, and walked off into the woods where he could be alone. He laid his head down, and cried.

"Bastards, all of them!" he cursed to himself, burying his face into his arms and matting down his leg fur with tears. "One day, I'll run the town, and they'll respect me. Or if they don't, I'll...!" Rai couldn't actually think of anything, and he knew it was bad to feel this hateful, but he couldn't help it.

Time passed, and the others in the town grew less outwardly hostile to him. The Pokemon that used to beat him up and openly mock him got older, matured slightly, and simply chose to ignore him, although they still sometimes laughed at him when his back was turned. Regardless of the improvements, he still felt scarred from it. He wanted them to look up to him, to acknowledge him as a good potential leader, and to admire him. It was all a mental dream, and he played it out in his head just like he used to play with himself as a younger cub with fake save-the-world situations, chasing robbers, and imaginary friends.

Rai sat in his house, listening to his father give one of his usual routine talks about dealing with the city council, working with them to propose new rules, install better infrastructure, all those sorts of things one could imagine on the spot. He nodded, half-listening as his mother was making some food in the kitchen area, who chimed in with her own comments.

"Do you understand? If they would just put in a little extra effort into it, we could..." he went on, and Rai faded his listening out. He was imagining himself on top of a giant shiny king's chair, laughing at the small Pichu, Zoroua, and Poochyena as they kissed his paws and apologized to him. He was smiling to himself broadly and nodding, as if he was responding to his father, but he was actually only appreciating his fantasy world that didn't exist.

Trya mostly hummed some sweet melodic tunes to herself. "I agree with you, dear," she would reply any time she was addressed. Rai was still able to reply competently at times, either by winging it or from the parts he heard that stuck.

Such was life for Rai, little had changed. Still fairly sheltered, and taught about leadership from his father in preparation for his future purpose. He went out the back door of his home, and sat in his usual spot, it was sort of a hidden hangout place for him now. Ever since the day he ran back here to hide, he usually came here every day to contemplate to himself, think, imagine. He'd never admit it out of embarrassment to anyone else, but he still had big mental fantasy adventures just like when he was younger, and even had his old chew toy hidden under some leaves, grass and twigs, a big piece of tape over the re-inflated toy. After he pulled it out from its hiding spot, he sat down, and simply rolled it back and forth slowly between his two front paws.

Suddenly, he heard a rustle behind him, and he quickly stuffed his childhood toy back in its hiding place and turned around. "Who's there?!"

Tyon stood there with a Pidgey he didn't fully recognize. He saw her before somewhere, at the house and town hall meetings with his father. Rai guessed she was some sort of close assistant.

"Son, what're you doing back here? I wanted to see you, and Sies told me you'd be here," he gestured to her, and the bird nodded in greeting.

"How do you do, young master?" Sies asked kindly, bowing as she did.

Tyon laughed. "Oh, Sies, that's not necessary!"

But the Pidgey protested, "He is still our prince. I bow."

This made the teenage Eevee grin and clap his paws in approval. "Well, I certainly don't mind, father!"

Tyon didn't seem to understand the true mental state of his son, and just laughed at it, thinking he was being cute and silly, 'Just like how he always is,' he thought. "Well, anyways, the news is that I want to ask a favor of you, son."

"Yes?" Rai asked, raising an eyebrow. He could detect a bit of actual seriousness in his dad's voice.

He cleared his throat and scratched his head. "Well, I figured if you're going to be leading this town one day, then while you're still young and able, I want you to do what I never got the chance to. You can learn more than I was able to. These are calmer days, you could... go."

It almost hurt to hear that. The young mammal gulped. "What do you mean, 'go'?"

"You know!" Tyon made a weird waving motion with his arms. After it was clear no one understood what that mean, he went on, "Go... on an adventure. See the world, learn new things. If you got experience that I never did, why, I have no doubt you couldn't be a better manager of this place than even myself."

The answer was obvious. "Of course I'll do it!"

"Great!" His father smiled. "Sies will accompany you, and she can serve as a method of contact for us. She is very fast with her wings."

"We will leave in a couple days. Is that not too burdensome for you, young Rai?" Sies asked in the same formal monotone-ish voice she's kept the entire time. This must be normal for her.

The prince shook his head. "No, that's fine by me."

Sies bowed again, and the two walked away, almost leaving the young Eevee to think to himself more. But he blinked, and turned around quickly. "U-uh, Sies, how did you know I was here? I've never told anyone about this spot."

"I can fly," was her only explanation, before continuing on with Tyon without even waiting for a response.

Rai pouted, and then took his ball back out, pawing at it again. But isn't it somewhat pointless?, he asked, sighing to himself.

He stayed there until it was starting to get very late, the moon and stars shining down. He was snowing and it was cold, but he was still out. Rai stood up, about to turn to go home, shivering a little, and then the greatest thing in his life happened. Something... cracked, a sound. It forced him to look up to see what it was, and it was something yellow in the air, but the snow was blocking part of his vision and made it too hard to see. Still, he ran forward, deeper into the woods to chase whatever it was. So intent on chasing the UFO, he tipped a couple times, smacked his face into a tree, but he kept up until the thing suddenly zoomed down to the ground, on a distant hill in an open plain, not too easy to spot out of the wooded area. Despite being out of breath, Rai ran onwards as fast as his sore legs could carry him.

By now, the snow was falling so heavily that it was hard to see more than a couple feet in front of himself. He looked back behind his shoulder, a bit afraid. It might actually be difficult to get back home, but just a bit farther, and...

As he came into the clearing, he could dimly see the hill, and the bright yellow object there. It was large, emitting electricity, and it was something alive. Rai knew what it was - not who it was, but the sheer power that radiated from it through the air itself told him. He froze more than the very snow around him, mouth agape. After a long moment, he stepped forward, and and yelled. "HELLO?!"

There was no response. He yelled again, and was still ignored. Finally, he simply fell to the ground, crying loudly, tears streaming down his face, the tears almost freezing as soon as they left his eyes. "Damn it! All... all my life, everyone's hated me, for no reason. All I ever wanted was for people to stop hurting me, stop ignoring me, I wanted a little respect, acknowledgment," he screamed out, a little hard to hear with the icy cold wind blowing harder and with his crying. The weather was getting so foul that he couldn't feel anything anymore, his body had gone numb. "How can I take over the town after my father retires? I'm supposed to go out on an adventure soon, and it'd be fun and I'd enjoy it, but there's no point. I'll come back, and no one will accept me. I'll, I'll just lie here and die." The last bit was said in a normal speaking voice, but the emotions of them were loud. He let his body go limp, and closed his eyes.

"I..." The voice was deep and strong, almost as if it was booming even in the quiet whisper tone it was obviously trying. Rai opened his eyes, and looked up to the creature, who now had its head turned slightly to focus a single eye on the small thing. A small echo of thunder could be heard in the background. "...can tell, you are not bad."

Then, a bolt of lightning struck down right in front of the Eevee. He screamed, and for a few solid minutes he was even blind. When his eyes adjusted again, the creature was gone. Anger filled Rai, and he climbed on top of the hill and slammed his paws against the ground where the creature had just been. "What the hell was that! 'You are not bad,' and then you leave me here!" Again and again, he pounded the cold snowy ground, until after enough smacking, the snow had been displaced enough to reveal something shiny. 'That thing... Did it leave this here for me?' When he reached down to touch it, it stung his hands enough for him to feel it, even if his had body gone mostly numb.

Growling, he became even more determined to grab it, and he reached down with both paws, taking hold of the stone. Painfully hot stinging sensations erupted through his body. 'This is it. I'm dying... finally...' And then, strength filled him. The pain became comforting warmth, destroying the cold that had taken over his body. A flash of light exploded from him, and small yellow strings of visible static covered his body, the energy of it melting some of the snow around him. The fur on his body had turned yellow, and he stared at his paws in amazement for the longest moment, before finally clenching them.

A loud scream filled the night sky as Rai yelled, flexing himself and pushing this new power, erupting in a craze of electricity, the stuff zapping all around and from his body as if he was a Tesla coil. Finally, he fell to his knees, breathing heavily to catch his breath, and grinned. The newly evolved Jolteon stood up on all fours, with the most genuine happy grin he ever had.

"Finally, something to call my own. I won't waste this. I'm going to become like you," he whispered to himself, staring at the snow-covered black sky. "I'm going to become a Legendary."