The first day with them started out interesting enough. Five minutes after departure, that boy turned to Leah and told her that they were probably a safe enough distance away and that she could “go back to being yourself.” Normally the words “go back to being yourself” would be reserved for patients in straight jackets that have a severe cases of multiple personality disorder, but not in Leah’s case (though the whole “crazy” part is still up for debate).

Instead of talking to herself, she smiled an impish smile and grabbed the eight pointed star at her chest, the one that held the cloak together, and tugged at it, throwing the cloak into the air and releasing her red hair to the slight breeze. Her form shone white and shrunk slightly, making her only a few inches shorter than the boy. I was blinded for a moment, but when the light receded I saw a very strange sight. Yes, even stranger than a normal girl changing shape before your very eyes.

What I saw was a girl that shared the original Leah’s brilliant sapphires that she called eyes set in a white face that had a large red triangle starting at her nose and rounded on her forehead beneath her original long, crimson red hair. She now had large white ears on the top of her head that poked up out of that red, red hair. She no longer wore clothes, and Trinity scanned her body with curiosity. Her arms were red on top and white on the bottom, the red ending at her elbow. Red skin went up to a point that ended at her collarbone that painted her modest breasts crimson with a small, blue diamond in between her nipples. Her thin stomach had a white oval on it, the wide stretch going up and down. Her legs were gracefully shaped and a stripe of whit skin went around each thigh.

Oh, did I also mention that she could fly? As soon as she was finished changing she stretched her arms, let out a groan, the first sound I’d heard from her, and her feet left the ground, hovering around a foot in the air. I cried out and tripped over my own feet. New Leah turned to me and smiled that same toothy grin at me and offered me her hand. I scrambled away in fear, feeling my heart beat hard and fast in my furry breast as I forced myself on my feet, trying to fight my panic.

“Geez, what’s got her all riled up?” Leah spoke to the boy, her pungent scent wafted into my nostrils and nearly made me choke. I liked it better when she wore clothes. I looked up at her back and was shocked to see thin red wings of a Latias poking out of her back. I had never seen a Latias before, but there was a Latios that lived in the forest that I used to share with it. We had met only on a few occasions and he was actually an anthro as well. 

“Leave her alone Leah, you’re scaring her.” The boy said, pushing her away from me. Leah harrumphed and turned away midair. “Go see if anyone is following us.”

Leah looked back, nodded, and then began flying away. She turned abruptly. “What should I do if there are any?”

“Confuse them or something.” The boy said impatiently. Leah nodded then turned and was off like a rocket. I soon lost sight of her before the clouds.

“Eevee?” I asked. It was basically my equivalent of WTF.

“Sorry,” He said, turning to me, “Sometimes Leah can forget that not everyone knows what she can do.” He reached out to me but I scrambled away, suddenly aware of the fact that Leah had dropped my leash along with her cloak. I leaped to my feet and kicked off, but I hadn’t gotten anywhere when I my collar suddenly tugged at my neck, nearly choking my. How, I thought to myself, He was too far away to grab my leash. 

“Eevee, stop!” He exclaimed, more of a plea than an order.

I spun around quickly and saw that the leash was tangled around the eight pointed star that was on the cloak Leah had worn. The boy was already there and he grabbed the leash before I could get any farther away. I sunk to my knees as the world came crashing down around me. I had been free for a few seconds. If that cloak hadn’t choked me, I’d be in the forest now.

“Take it easy, girl.” He said calmly, his voice sweet like honey. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Ee-“ I tugged on the line suddenly and gained a few inches of leash off of him.

“Stop it!” He yelled at me. “If you run off so close to FATA, they’re just going to catch you again!”

I growled at him, showing my fangs, but that glare stayed there and he didn’t back down. It was like staring at a brick wall; no matter how long you stood there, it wasn’t going to fall over. Realizing this, I stopped growling and tugging. Never before had I wanted to cry more than then, not even while being raped. I had a chance at escape and failed.

The boy sighed and relaxed a little, still holding my leash in a death grip. I was stronger than him, I knew I had to be, but his reasoning was sound. I should at least get away from that hellhole FATA before escaping. “Good,” he said, “We’re on even ground. Let’s walk and talk at the same time.” He gestured to the beaten path before him. “I won’t feel safe until FATA is buried in dust.”

He began walking and I followed him uneasily, wondering if I could win if I attacked him. He had a strange bag on his shoulders that rattled occasionally as he stepped and I wondered if he had been wearing it in the building or if he just put it on. “My name is Nick.” He said to me, looking back at me. He had a pleasant enough face, but I felt my blood run cold as he smiled at me. “Do you have a name?”

I looked down awkwardly. I was only called Eevee. “Eevee.” I said softly, feeling as if I couldn’t let his question go unanswered.

“I suppose that would be a no.” He sighed. “And that also means that you can’t talk either.”

“Eevee.” I said dispiritedly. His depression was sudden and in my mind, I had caused it. It was better than making him angry. I didn’t want to do that as my days with the weirdly named FATA taught me, but I also didn’t like making people sad either. “Eevee.” I repeated, trying to sound a bit more cheerful.

After a couple of minutes, Nick spoke once more. “I suppose that I should name you. Everyone needs a name, and if I can get you talking by the time we get home...” He spaced out for a few moments then continued. “Anyway, what should your name be?” He gave me a look that made me feel like I had fleas. “You look like a Jessica to me.”

“Eevee!” I exclaimed, taken aback. Jessica is a name for pompous girly girls. (There is the rare exception of course. I don’t want to hear about it in the comments.)

“Okay.” Nick said, holding up his hands in defense, one of them clutched my leash tightly. He thought deeply before saying. “I used to have a friend named Salvia.”

I shook my head. That sounded too much like saliva for my tastes.

“We should keep walking. I can tell that this naming thing will take a while.” I hadn’t even noticed we had stopped. Before I could even think about when we had done so I felt a lurch at my neck and was forced follow as Nick rattled off more names.

“Let’s see… my mother’s name was Katrina but she was a bit unstable…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My paw pads ached by the time we stopped that day. I rubbed them pitifully as I sat with my back to the tree my leash was tied to. Nick and Leah sat comfortably around a warm fire a few feet away. Nick was staring into an extremely flammable block of paper that I didn’t quite understand at this point and time in my life while Leah munched absentmindedly on beef jerky while staring into the fire as if it could tell the future. She had returned thirty minutes after departing with news that no one was following us. She then disappeared into the sky once again and only reappeared at a short, rushed lunch.

Nick had tried most of the day to give me a name that I liked, and Leah even helped a bit though not very much admittedly with astounding lack of being there, but each name just seemed wrong. They didn’t roll off the tongue quite right, not that they could roll off my tongue at all, or they just didn’t seem to fit me. I knew how important a name was. It was the first thing that people would ask about and the first thing that people would judge you for.

I looked at the grey sky. The sun had set a few minutes ago, but there would still be thirty or forty minutes of light left. Nick and Leah had pitched a multicolored tent already. My stomach growled as remembered what a prime hunting time this would have been for me had I still been my own woman. All the animals and Pokémon would be wary from their long day of scavenging and hunting as they headed back to their dens. All I would have to do would be wait patiently by a large hole in the ground or a nest in a tree for its occupant to show up, if it showed up at all that is, then pounce and feast if victorious or whine and drag my feet back to my den if I had been too slow.

I looked hungrily at Leah, munching along on her beef jerky, smelling its salty and meaty scent hidden among her own scent of berries. I looked at her longingly and Nick took notice through his frequent checks that he did on me.

“Leah, I think that Eevee wants some of your jerky.” Nick said, clapping the kindling closed.

“But it’s mine.” Leah said with big doe eyes. I almost felt guilty about wanting her food. “I paid for it.”

“With my money.” Nick pointed out to her. “She’s our responsibility. That means we have to feed her.”

“She’s yours. You paid for her, you feed her. She might not even be with us for very long anyway.” Leah shrugged and continued munching happily on a strip of jerky.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nick said, suddenly hostile. Well put, Nick. What did she mean?

“Your grandfather scarcely wanted you going to that auction anyway. What’s he gonna say when you bring home your very own slut?” Leah said in that sultry tone she always used.

“Just give her some food. You should wait until supper anyway.” Nick replied, obviously not liking the way Leah steered the conversation. I didn’t like it either. What was going to happen to me when I met Nick’s grandfather?

Leah got up and began walking toward me. I jumped up and put my back firmly against the tree. Leah smiled.

“Hey it’s okay little girl. I only want to give you some of my food.” She held out a piece of jerky to me. She was only a few feet away. I could grab it easily out of her hands. Half of me and most of my stomach wanted to eat it right out of her hand (heck, why stop there? Her hand looks quite appetizing as well…), but the other half of me was screaming to run away. These people were not my friends.

“See,” She said, turning to Nick, “She’s not hungry.”

“She’s just afraid of you. Put it on the ground and she’ll eat it gladly.”

Leah looked back at me and I saw a brief glimmer of sadness in those deep blue eyes of hers before she dutifully put the single strip of beef jerky on the ground stepped away. I eyed the beef jerky a moment, making sure it wouldn’t run away. Where I came from, food had a nasty habit of doing that or getting eaten by things that do that.

Leah retreated a few steps, her smile returning to her bright face. She laughed. “It’s okay, you can have it. I have more anyway.”

“Eevee.” I muttered my thanks and then pounced on the meat. I took it with my mouth and then scurried back behind the before eating it ravenously, barely even tasting it at all.

When I looked back, still hungry, Leah had returned to the fire though was now sitting closely to Nick, a smile splayed across her face as he read something aloud from the parchment. She giggled as he finished. The smiles splayed across there faces made my insides feel like they were in a blender.

Leah’s stomach suddenly growled loud enough for me to hear. “Now can we start dinner?” Leah asked, whining badly.

“And what do you suggest we make then?” Nick asked, grabbing his backpack from where it lay.

“Do we still have some ramen noodles left?” Leah asked hopefully. “I don’t think we finished them off.”

“We don’t have any water to boil.” Nick told her as he rummaged through his backpack, taking out an object roughly the size of a ping pong ball. He pressed the button in the center and it expanded to the size of a volleyball. I blinked in surprise. The tent’s container had done the same thing so I wasn’t too shocked but… still.

“I could find some water.” Leah rationed. “There’s still some light.”

Nick opened the volleyball and took out a half dozen of crinkling packages. “If you can find water I’ll make you your ramen noodles.”

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou.” Leah babbled out while digging through his backpack. She produced a pot and was off like she was shot out of a sling.

“Leah can get a little over excited sometimes.” Nick said, noticing that I was staring at the sky. I looked away hurriedly like a teen with a chip on her shoulder. “Whatever food Leah happens to be eating at the time will be her favorite.” He continued awkwardly. I harrumphed and sat in the shade that the tree cast from the fire.

“Eevee.” Nick called out. “I promise that I won’t hurt you. Leah won’t hurt you. Whatever happened in that building will not happen to you ever again. I promise.”

My fur itched all over. I wanted so desperately to believe him. But people just like him had taken advantage of me before. I peaked around the tree at his eyes that sparkled with the reflection of the fire in them. Trust is earned, I reminded myself, Trust is earned.

Leah zoomed overhead in her search for water. She obviously wasn’t looking too hard as I could clearly smell and hear a pond some distance to the east. She was now going west.

“Should we continue with trying to name you?” Nick asked sullenly. He had turned back to the fire and was currently moving the burning logs around with a stick.

“Eevee.” I replied, opting to reveal myself while he was distracted with the fire.

“You kind of seem like a Taylor.” Nick suggested, though I shook my head. I had a bad experience with a Wurmple named Taylor once. It’s not really that relevant right now so I’ll skip out on the telling you about him.

He rattled off two more names before Leah got back with a pot filled to the brim with water. By the way she flew in I couldn’t believe that it had stayed in at all. She seemed like she didn’t care about holding it straight yet not a drop fell out until she handed it to Nick who actually had to dump some of it because it was too full. He then set it on the bed of coals he had made on the edge of the fire and put a cover on it.

I looked at it curiously. Before I had been captured, I had seen humans transform raw ingredients into amazing tasting things in pots just like that one before. It was like alchemy or something.

When the water began to boil, Nick tossed in the six packages and put on the cover back on. He looked at me again and sat back on the ground. The light was beginning to wane and the sky was beginning to turn a shade of deep purple. A few clouds flew lazily across the sky, bathed in pink.

“Leah?” Nick called out softly.

“Hmm?” Leah replied, staring at the pot as if it would jump off the fire and run away.

“What do you think my grandfather will do when we get home?”

“He’ll probably be mad. You told him that you wouldn’t buy anyone.”

“That’s what I-“

“But then he’ll go back to being your Grandfather and he’ll make jokes about you and your slut until the day he dies.” Leah looked at the pot skeptically. “Are you gonna stir that or are you going to let the noodles overcook?”

Nick laughed at her and began to stir. A few minutes later, the noodles were ready and Nick removed them from the fire. He stirred in the spice packets then walked over into the grass and quickly pulled the bottom off of the pot. Steaming water cascaded into the brush going through a filter that left the noodles inside, and Nick leaped back before it could reach his shoes. Walking back he found Leah had already prepared three metal bowls.

After dividing the noodles into three portions Leah plopped her red butt down on the ground next to the fire and stabbed at the ramen with her fork. “I hope you don’t expect me to feed her.” Leah said, raising the fork from the bowl. It came out laden with a tangle of noodles that steamed against the dark of the night. I looked enviously at the delicious smelling tendrils that swayed back and forth slightly as they hung down from the device that Leah had brutally stabbed into them. She raised them high over her head and tried to devour them by lowering them into her mouth. She had limited success.

Nick laughed at her and set a bowl down on his backpack and carried the last bowl over to me. I shied away as he came near, but he smiled reassuringly at me. “It’s okay.” He said. “I only want to give you food. You must be hungry after all that walking.”

He was right, and both of us knew it. That bowl he was holding out to me smelled so good and my mouth wouldn’t stop watering. Even when with FATA I had rarely received anything more than a few berries and the occasional can of some sort of meat. I’m not sure what it actually was in those cans, and I don’t want to find out either.

“C’mon, girl.” Nick reached out with his free hand and grabbed mine. I yelped as if he was on fire. “Don’t be like that.” He said and put the hot, metal bowl into my hand. “Now eat before you starve to death.” I sniffed at the substance warily, a mix of spices reaching my nose. My stomach rumbled. It wasn’t food that I was familiar with, but it was food.

Nick got up and left me to figure out how this whole ‘fork’ thing worked. I looked once more at Leah, but she had done little as of now to warrant being a role model. I scrutinized her suspiciously. What was with her anyway? She was the weirdest girl I had ever seen, yet Nick didn’t even bat an eye at her. He acted as if her bubbly personality didn’t bother him at all, and he never looked at her with lust like those men had looked at me with. They acted as if they were the same species. I wondered if they were actually mates. That might be the reason that Nick didn’t mate with me right away. But then why didn’t they act like mates?

It didn’t take Nick long for him to notice me staring deeply into my noodles with a puzzled expression on my face. “Eevee, do you need help?”

I glared at him then turned away, thoughts of Nick and Leah’s relationship momentarily forgotten. I poked the four-pronged fork into the noodles and withdrew it. It came out with a couple of noodles tangled on it before they all slid off. I poked them again with the same result. 

There must be a trick to it. I thought, stabbing it into the noodles a third time. This time I twisted it around so that the noodles wouldn’t be able to use gravity as an excuse to not get eaten. I felt a moment of pride with I lifted it out of the bowl with half the contents of said bowl came out hanging from the fork. Unfortunately that pride died when all of the noodles fell off half way to my mouth right onto my breast and lap.

“Vee.” I muttered, throwing the bowl down into the grass in anger. A satisfying metal clang rang out when the bowl bounced and landed upside down. I got up and began beating off the noodles that clung to my fur.

“I’m sorry, girl.” I heard Nick’s voice. I didn’t look up. Thinking of him just made me angrier. 

This was what he wanted. I thought angrily. He wanted me to embarrass myself like this. He wanted to make me a fool. A shameful slut that is to be used and not loved.

I became aware that Nick and Leah were both watching me. I was glad that it was too dark for them to see the tears running down my cheeks, darkening my fur. I turned away from them satisfied that I was noodle-free, and sat in the shadow of the tree, my hunger soon returning, unforgotten.