For as long as I can remember I could always talk to pokémon. I can remember the days long past when my mother took me to the park and gave me a worried look when I chose to play with the Pichus’ and Furrets’ instead of the other children. Because of this, I was always considered an outcast when it came to things like school and field trips… but I’m getting a head of myself here.

My name is Luke and my story begins when I was just 12 years old. It was a school day; I can’t remember the exact date, but it had to have been around summer time; maybe late April or early May. I had a group of pokémon friends who always waited to play with me at recess time; they were all wild pokémon, so they took to the bushes to hide from the playground aids, knowing full well that wild pokémon weren’t allowed on school property.

As usual I ran towards our hiding spot and found my friends playing tag with each other. As I stepped through a bush I saw a Ku’s ear twitch, and in a flurry of yellow fur the Pikachu was on top of me. “LUKE! LUKE! YOU’RE HERE!” Ku bounced up and down on my stomach knowing that he wasn’t heavy enough to actually hurt me.

I laughed as the ball of fluff settled down enough to look behind himself and see the others gawking at him. Fii, a Vulpix, was the first to say something. “Ku, Luke ALWAYS comes here around this time.” She whined “Could you please let him up now?” Ku groaned as he stepped off my stomach, the weight being lifted from me made it that much easier to breathe.

I put an elbow under myself to support sitting up. “Hi guys!” I chuckled. “What we gonna do today?” Ku of course was the first one to speak up. He was always hyperactive especially whenever I was around.

I stood up from the ground as Ku all but screamed, “Let’s play tag some more!” This led the rest of the group to let out a groan. The rest of the group, which was only 2 other pokémon. Fii and Cel. Cel being an Eevee, and a little vain himself, decided he didn’t want to play tag and instead opted to play one of the other’s favorite games.

“Hey guys, how bout we play battle?” Cel mumbled. “With tag, I always get burrs in my fur and mom said they’re really hard to get out.” We all noticed that he had a few stuck in his silvery mane from the game they were playing before I arrived, and his brown eyes lit up with joy as we all nodded in agreement.

“I call being on Luke’s team!” Fii yipped.

I enjoyed play battling with the pokémon but since I was human, I always seemed to be at a disadvantage. Because of this, Fii always felt like it was her duty to be on my team since she was the strongest out of us… “Thanks Fii,” I said, “but this time I think I wanna be on Ku’s team, and I’ll beat you this time for sure!” Fii gave me a foxy smile as Ku bounced in excitement and ran to my side.

“That means you’re with me, Cel.” Fii commented. The Eevee looked up from his feet with a beaming smile for only a second until he blushed and avoided her gaze. She giggled as he slowly walked to his side and sat down. We all knew Cel liked Fii more than a friend, but we were just a little too young to actually recognize it. Well, I was anyway…

We all took our sides and readied ourselves for the battle. “Hey Luke,” I heard a whisper from the Pikachu beside me. “I’ll take care of Fii if you want, I-I know you’re not very strong a-and that’s okay. We still have fun.” I shook my head and ignored the light insult to my strength.

“No, I wanna beat her fair and square!”

I don’t think Fii had heard our short conversation because she was still strategizing with Cel. Suddenly though, she looked up and with a grunt and yelled out to us. “ARE YOU READY!?” Both of us gave a nod. “ON YOUR MARK! GET SET! BATTLE!”

I started to run forward along with Ku. My target of course was Fii, but Fii’s target wasn’t me… in fact, I wasn’t ANYBODY’s target. Both Cel and Fii went straight for Ku who was skilled enough to quickly dodge the Vulpix’s tackle, while also avoiding the Eevee’s quick attack. The three pokémon were having a 2 on 1 battle without me! Part of me was furious, but the other part knew this wouldn’t have happened if I had been on Fii’s team. No time to wallow about it now, Ku was caught on both sides, and I saw Fii charging up an ember attack. I charged towards Fii with all my speed which, looking back now was not that fast at all. She didn’t seem to notice me coming however, as I grabbed her on both sides and followed up with a pole vault to throw her into the air. With a yelp, Fii was launched a safe distance of 5 feet upward. Her attention turned away from Ku and was now locked onto me. While still airborne she shot the ember at me, the flames escaping her maw and trailing through the arc of her past positions. I managed to avoid being hit by it and the tiny flame was soon extinguished before it hit the ground.

“Oh, sorry Luke, I told Cel to go after you, but I guess he didn’t listen.” Fii growled towards the Eevee still locked in play combat with Ku.

“Don’t worry about it, Fii. I wanna battle with you!” I gave a smile as I saw her ears twitch at the sound of her name. She returned with a playful snarl as she lowered her front half in the universal ‘let’s play’ position.

“OK Luke, if you think you can handle it!” I lowered myself into the human equivalent of that pose as well, stretching my arms from my sides and slightly squatting. She was the one to make the first move. Running towards me, Fii started to glow, an attack I identified as quick attack. I felt confident I could at least hold my own against that, so I held out my palm and took a fighting stance and acted out a mock force palm. However, my efforts were wasted as just before my attack hit, Fii used double team and split her image into 4 more Vulpixes. Now surrounded, I had no time to pay attention to Ku’s battle. I set my attention to the Vulpix on the right and let out a mock low kick, but this was a false Fii. I turned around to see two more Fii’s launching their tackles to me at the same time. Having no choice, I could only use defense curl, which was just crossing my arms over my chest in a usually futile effort to block, but this time it didn’t matter, because both of the Fii’s disappeared in front of me.

Confused, I dropped my guard at the wrong time. At that moment Fii launched herself into my chest with a quick attack. Not wanting to stay there for long and for extra effect, she pulled up her hind legs and kicked me backwards. The pokemon managed to do a pretty sweet back flip and gracefully land on all fours. I on the other hand, was knocked backwards through the bush opposite from where I came. Unfortunately for me, there was a pretty long drop on the other side of that bush. It had to be eight to ten feet at least. Then there was another massive hill for me to roll down. Needless to say, I felt kinda sorry for not blocking that last attack…

As I rolled down the hill, I felt sticks crunch under me, bushes being spread open, and six month old leaves being heaved into the air. If it wasn’t for a conveniently placed tree, I may have rolled into the next town! Struggling to stand up, I winced in pain as my head throbbed. My pokémon friends looked out from behind the bush I had just been flung from. Although I couldn’t see them clearly, I could only guess they all wore worried expressions, and Fii might even be crying. “L-LUKE!” I heard her scream. “LUKE A-ARE YOU OK!?” She sure sounded like she was tearing up…

“I’M FINE GUYS!” I tried to sound like I wasn’t injured at all. I’m not sure they bought it. They continued telling me to wait there, they were coming to get me, but like the macho fool I was, I shrugged it off and told them not to worry about it. Reluctantly, they listened to what I said, and turned back to the clearing to wait for me to get back to them. Looking up the relative mountain I had to climb back up, I gave a deep sigh, which I immediately regretted because my ribs hurt, not from the fall, but from Fii’s impressive kick. I’d never tell her that though. I was too “tough” and she may never battle with me again if she knew I was hurt because of her.

Starting my trek up the steep hill, I paused to look at the tree I just smacked into and held a hand out to touch the object that may very well have saved my life. I was expecting to touch a hard surface, but what actually happened was that my hand passed right through the bark and landed on something fluffy! It seemed that we were both surprised at the same time, just as I yelped, so did it, and the tree disappeared leaving behind only the stump that I had slammed against and a pokémon I didn’t quite recognize. It looked like Fii, only it was a dark grey color with a red fluff on its head red colored paws and eye lids, only one tail compared to Fii’s four. The dark fox looked up at me with its beautiful emerald eyes stunned that I had accidently broken through its ruse.

I beamed a smile at the creature as it backed closer to the edge of the stump away from me. “Hi there! My name is Luke, What’s yours?”

The pokémon only blinked twice, confused at my kindness, but it suddenly looked down and with a whimper had said “What does it matter? You’ll just end up giving me a name, or just calling me Zorua just like every other human…” Hearing this made me a little sad. This pokémon must not have a lot of friends. I crouched down to put my chin on the stump almost coming within eye level to the, what I then identified as a Zorua.

“That’s not true…” I sullenly said, “If you tell me your name I promise I won’t just make one up for you.” The pokémon’s eyes grew wide with happiness as it heard me respond to its comment, almost as if I could understand it.

“Do- do you know what I’m saying? C-can you… understand me?” The Zorua stood on all fours and seemed to float as it slowly tiptoed closer to me, inch by inch.

“Of course I can little guy! ”

The Zorua gave an irritated blush as its ears dropped to the side of its head. “I’m a girl!” she yipped.

Covering my eyes I apologized “I’m so sorry, it’s hard for me to tell sometimes.” Both of us shifted in the awkward silence. Finally she regained her composure and sat on her haunches.

“M--nmnaa.” She mumbled.

“Huh?” I questioned.

“M-my name… I-it’s… Mina” Having heard this I started to lose control of myself and I heard her give out an astonished cry as I picked her up from the stump and held her high in the air. She soon found that she enjoyed the attention and began giggling as I brought her back down to rest in my arms.

“Nice to meet you, Mina!” I managed to get out through my excitement. She nuzzled my chest to get a good scent of her new friend.

I decided to put her back down onto the stump as I asked her, “do you live around here? How come I’ve never seen you before?”

She glanced down at the stump and looked back up to me as she pronounced “I live here .”

Our conversation seemed to take a turn for the sadder when I asked if she had any other friends… alas she was all alone. No parents, no family, no friends, nobody but her. “That’s too bad. I have some friends just up that hill I fell down! Wanna come with me to meet them?” With a spark of excitement in her eyes she nodded. “OK” I laughed “Follow me!”

I started to take the long walk up the hill and smiled when I saw Mina run up beside me. It was a long, looong, loooooooonnnnngggg. Walk up the hill. We shared laughs when she had to jump over logs in her path. Looking back now, I’m really amazed that I wasn’t hurt a lot more falling down. Maybe it was just luck I suppose. The Zorua had to climb onto my back as we approached the sharp edge face that was the first of my earlier tumble. She couldn’t quite jump high enough to clear it and not having opposable thumbs made it hard to grab onto the roots and rocks that acted as support for me to lift myself up.

I gave a beaming grin as I lifted myself up and over the edge, expecting to see my friends there waiting for me, but when I got up there, they had all gone. “Awww” I groaned, “Their moms must’ve made them go home…”

“It’s OK Luke… at least we’re here.” Mina stated as she jumped from my shoulder. I started to smile, Ku, Fii and Cel were gone, but at least I had Mina to keep me company. The happiness only lasted a brief minute as my smile turned to mortification as I heard the school bell ring in the distance. “OH NO!” I cried, “I wasn’t paying attention to the time!” Mina looked up at me, her ears put in that quizzical one up one down position as her face twisted in a worried look.

The fox gave out a cute whine before she asked her obvious question, “What’s wrong?”

“I have to go Mina… I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to drag you all the way up here for nothing but I wanted you to meet my friends and I wasn’t paying attention to the time and the bell rang and I have to go now!” I sputtered out the monster of stammering and making a complete fool of myself I tripped over an exposed root as I tried to hurry away. Mina slowly strolled up beside me as I hurried to wipe the still forming eye waters from my face. I was still lying face down on the ground when she came up beside me and put a paw on my shoulder.

“Don’t worry Luke, I’ll wait for you here until you come back. Y-you can come back, right?” The Zorua gazed at me with her emerald eyes. I got up on my knees and wiped my face from dirt and tears.

“Yea! I’ll be right back here after school!” I sniffled a little bit, but the proclamation still ended up sounding as a happy tone. “I don’t usually come back here after school, b-but I will come back for you I promise!” The Zorua’s ears perked up at the happy tone of my voice and she gave a wide smile as she quickly sat down.

“Okay then… I’ll wait right here.”

I got up from the ground and walked backwards out of the clearing, I didn’t want her image to fade from my vision before I left. Once out of the bushes I ran towards the building with all of my speed and tried to rush through the rest of the school day as fast as I could.

School was always boring to me, I always ended up falling asleep through most of my classes, but this time it was different. I couldn’t wait for the school day to end. After recess there were only two classes and a study hall left of the day and I bided my time by drawing through them. I made it through math fine. PE was a little harder to cope with though, the class was taking place outside that day, and from the kick ball field I could see the bushes where Mina had said she would wait for me.

Finally, it was the thirty minutes of study hall time… The other kids were talking amongst themselves as I jittered in my corner desk in the back of the room. The other children gave me quizzical looks as I shook in anticipation, but they didn’t matter, I had a better day ahead of me… hopefully.

Time seemed to slow its self to a crawl as the last two minutes seemed to last AGES. The second hand felt like it took a full minute to lightly tick to the next dash mark. The teacher stood up in front of the class to address us as we left the room. She opened the door and I nearly lost it when the bell finally rang… the signal for our freedom!! I almost knocked over a few desks as I snatched up my red backpack and ran out the door; the teacher yelled at me to not run through the hallways. I ignored her of course… nothing was going to stop me from meeting up with the little Zorua.

I crossed the playground and came upon the all too familiar bush. My heart was beating out of my chest as I opened the bushes and stepped through. Then it jumped into my throat as I looked around and did not see her. I looked around, investigating the area, turning over rocks peeping through the other side of the rear bushes I fell through, which felt like forever ago. Slumping to the ground I felt a wave of sadness hit me as I realized that my new friend didn’t wait for me like she had said.

I laid on my back and looked up at the still bright blue sky and I gave out a long sigh.

“HI LUKE !!” I heard from somewhere. Suddenly I jumped up from the ground, frantically searching the area from where the sound was coming from. Of course, I didn’t think to look up; Mina was sitting up in one of the branches from the surrounding trees. My blue eyes widened as they met her emerald orbs, but then she did something I didn’t expect. Mina had decided to jump from that tree branch! I didn’t have time to react, the only thing I could manage to do was spread my arms as she all but flew into them. Relieved I had caught her, or rather she caught me, I could only weep as I held her tight in my arms afraid to let go, lest she shatter on the soft leafy ground.

“MINA!” I shouted with joy, “I thought you left!”

The little fox looked up at me and tilted its head to the side, “Why would you think that? I said I would wait for you …”

“I-I just… n-never mind!” I stammered as I let her down to stand. We started talking about our lives, and eventually touched on the sad times. About how we both lost people important to us. My father, her parents. “I never really knew my dad. Mom said he died only a year or so after I was born.” I looked at the ground as I said this. “It’s okay though, she also says that he’s in a better place now, I wish I could’ve met him y-you know, before.”

Mina sat in my lap as we leaned against a tree just enjoying each other’s company. She spoke up to break the silence. “I lost my mom ‘n dad two months ago…” She stifled back a whine as I felt a tear drop hit my pants. “It was cold and raining really hard then. I can remember the last thing they said to me as our den started flooding. ‘Run, Mina. Get out of here, no matter what happens to us, don’t turn back!’ but I didn’t run, I tried to stay with them, but the den started caving in, and my dad was the only thing holding the entrance open…” Mina couldn’t hold back her cry anymore. She whined and snorted as the tears started flowing from her eyes. Between her gasps she continued the story. “We *gasp* w-we were trapped in our own home! *gasp* Daddy was holding the entrance open-nn *gasp* and mom *gasp* mom pushed me o-out of the d-den *gasp* between dad’s legs!” The fox couldn’t take it anymore, and started to break down completely. I could feel the sadness as well, as I soon started sniffing and tears started streaming down my own cheeks. “I-I… I tried to dig them out… b-but I wasn’t strong enough!”

Mina continued to cry her heart out as I lifted her up to my chest with my legs and wrapped my arms around her tiny body. She turned in my arms to lay her head over my shoulder as her tears flowed along the sides of her maw. “Luke…” my name was whimpered through her sobs.

“Yea M-Mina?” I returned with equal sobs.

“I’m so lonely out here. *sniffle* Meeting you, was the best thing that has ever happened to me.” Mina pushed herself away from my shoulder to look me in the eyes. “I should have d-died with my parents, but now, I’m glad they sacrificed so much for me, because if they wouldn’t have. I would never have met you.” I saw a weak smile creep across her teary face, and then I saw her blush under her black fur as she drew closer and licked my cheek. I’ve never been licked before; I didn’t really know how to take it. Mina must’ve sensed my nervousness as she quickly turned away and blushed furiously.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to be weird.” She quickly apologized. I could tell she didn’t know how to handle it either, we were just too young. Besides the initial awkwardness of the moment, I decided to speak up for her. “I-it’s okay Mina, I’ve just never been licked before.”

All in all, we spent a total of two and a half hours together in the clearing. I noticed the sky getting darker and I knew I had to get home before mom got angry with me. “Hey, Mina?” I said in a high pitched tone. “Yea?” I heard her reply.

“You live all alone out here right?” I felt bad about bringing it back up, but I had a more important question to ask after. Mina slowly nodded and my heart started to break again when I started to hear sobs coming from the Zorua on my lap. “N-no, don’t cry again! I wanted to ask i-if, if…” the pokémon looked up at me with her sad eyes compelling me to continue. “If you would like to live with me?”

Mina’s emerald eyes lit up as bright as fireworks. She didn’t want to be alone anymore. We had only spent less than a day together, but our friendship ran deeper than pechaberri tree roots. She quickly stood up and started bouncing around me, clearly unable to contain her joy. “LUKE! YES! YES! PLEASE! YEEEESSSS!” she squealed in delight. It was settled right then and there, Mina was coming to live with me!

The way home was the opposite direction from the bushes so for extra security I peeked out and made sure there was no one on the other side. “OK Mina, all clear” I whispered as I held out my arms to her. Mina nodded and jumped into them and I turned to exit the clearing.

The walk home wasn’t that exciting once we left the school grounds. While wild pokémon are usually shooshed out of town, it’s not like they are hunted down and euthanized, and no one gave a second look to a twelve year old and his Zorua. I lived in a quiet town, maybe you’ve heard of it? It’s in the Unova region, a little town called Anvil . That’s the one! Most tourists are attracted to this town because of the train stations, but not many actually stay to see the town that lies just behind the trains. Now I say that it’s a town, but it really isn’t all that small… I mean, not as small as pallet town is in Kanto. We have a school, a bank, a mall among other shops as well as office buildings. All of this is surrounded by a small residential suburb.

Walking along the streets, some of my neighbors smiled at me as I passed their houses along with greetings like “How ya doin’, Luke?” and even a couple, “Cute pokémon ya got there!”

As I approached my house I could see my mother waiting for me on the front porch swing with her arms crossed. I stopped… and saw her get up and lean over the white painted wooden railing. Slowly but surely I started walking forward again. I was now standing directly in front of the steps that led to the front door, not daring to take another step. My mom looked down at me from her raised position with her all too common fake smile . Sometime during the walk, Mina had curled up on my back held up by my bag so I don’t think mom saw her right away, or at least she didn’t let on that she did.

“And where have you been, Luke? School got out two and a half hours ago.” She said in her pleasant smiling tone. “M-mom, I-I d-didn’t mean to make you w-worry about me I swe-” my sentence was cut short as she quickly changed her tone. I could see it in her face, the usual mom-anger look, when her usual blue eyes turned a deep purple, almost red. “Didn’t mean to make me worry!? You have no idea how worried I was about you mister!” upon hearing the outburst Mina woke up with a yelp and a look of confusion until she realized what was happening. She hid behind my head and gave a whimper at my mom who, upon finally noticing the pup behind my head, had changed her look from anger to curiosity.

“Hey, who’s this?” she asked with concern. Mom pointed to Mina still hiding behind my head. This wasn’t the first time I had brought home a stray/wild pokémon, and usually their mothers had come to pick them up later, so this situation wasn’t very shocking to her.

I pulled Mina to sit in my crossed arms, she didn’t seem to resist, as soon as mom put on a friendlier face she started to calm down. “This is Mina. I found her in the woods behind the school.”

Mom leaned down to look the Zorua in her eyes. Then with a smile she held out her hands. Mina looked at mom’s palms and then back to her face. She blinked a few times and looked at me. “Go on, it’s okay.” I said. “This is my mom. She won’t hurt you.” Mina sniffed at mom’s hands a couple times and put out a shy paw to test if it was safe to walk into. Once she felt confident no one was going to drop her, she crawled over into my mom’s arms.

Mom gasped in endearment as she held Mina. “awww look at how cute she is! You have such pretty eyes.” Mina blushed and gave a small giggle to the compliment. “Well then, let’s go inside, I hope you’re hungry Mina because I have Moo Moo burgers on the stove!” The Zorua looked at mom as she turned to take her inside. I followed close by and saw Mina peek over mom’s shoulder to look at me.

“Does your mom understand me too?” She inquired with sparkling eyes. I had to think about it for a moment. It only made sense that maybe she could talk to pokémon too. She was my mother after all, but she never let on that she could and I didn’t understand why. Mom used to be a pokémon trainer, which basically meant that she could understand what they were feeling and what they wanted and only the gist of what they were saying, but I don’t think she could actually speak with them.

“Mom, are you sure you can’t talk to pokémon?” I just had to ask again as I entered the house… This sort of question was the kind that all but demands to be asked just about every other day. “Luke, how many times do I have to tell you? If I could talk to pokémon, don’t you think I would have responded to whatever this one had said? What you can do is a gift that only a very few people have… and I’m just not one of those people…”

“No Mina, she can’t understand you either, it’s only me” I chuckled.

We entered into the kitchen and upon smelling the Moo Moo burgers, Mina’s stomach began to growl as she was held in my mothers arms. “I wouldn’t say I can’t understand pokémon, I can tell Mina is in fact hungry!” Mom gave a giggle at that and Mina hid her face in her paws blushing profusely. “Don’t worry there Mina, there’s plenty of food for you.”

Dinner went well. As we ate, my mom decided she wanted to talk with Mina, and since she couldn’t do it directly, I had to translate. Questions like,

How old are you? 1 year six months.

When is your birthday? January 5th

What’s your favorite color? Red.

How did you and Luke meet? I told that story.

What is your view on battling? She doesn’t hate it…

What moves do you know? Shadow claw, Night shade, and Faint attack.

These were just a few of the things we talked about. This continued through dinner and a few hours into the night, until it was time for bed. 10:00 on the weekends. All of this talk must’ve worn poor Mina out, because she was out like a light before 10. I set up a basket full of the softest blankets we owned, put it next to my bed and gently set her into it being careful not to wake her. Upon touching the soft makeshift bed, Mina shifted to sink into the blankets seeming to get even comfy-er.

After putting Mina to basket-bed and getting into my P-J’s, I returned to the living room and sat down on the couch next to my mom who looked at me with tired eyes. She had to work tomorrow, and was ready to go to bed, but decided to stay up to ask me one final question.

“Mina, I can tell she’s been through a lot… Where are her parents?”

I could only answer. There really is no use in lying, but I didn’t know how to answer it, so I could only put it bluntly. “Mina’s parents… S-she said, they passed away about two months ago in a flood…”


Mom gasped and put a hand to her mouth. “Oh no… Poor thing. Did you offer her to stay here?” of course I did, I didn’t really have to say I did, I knew she already knew. I just nodded to break the silence. “Well, you make sure she knows she can live here as long as she wants, even if she never leaves, she’s more than welcome.”

“OK mom.” I yawned. I had to admit; I was getting pretty tired myself and was relieved when mom told me it was time for bed. Mostly because I was all, “conversationed” out. “Nite mom. Love you.”

“Love you too, Luke,” she cooed.

I entered my room and saw that Mina was still snoozing away in her basket. Just looking at her sleep made me tired. I turned off the light and after pulling back the covers on my bed, I got out of my P-J’s, leaving me in my underwear, and slipped under the covers, always loving the cool sheets against my semi-nude body. Before falling asleep, I took a last look at the sleeping Zorua next to my bed. I thought about what we were going to do tomorrow. It was a Saturday; mom had work, which meant that I was left home by myself. It wasn’t a bad thing… usually, Saturday morning cartoons kept me busy for at least a couple hours, but this week it was different.



The next morning, I woke up surprised to find that Mina wasn’t where I left her last night. Of course, I was even more surprised to find her in MY bed, with me. Sort of, like… I was on my side and she was in front of me also lying on her side. I didn’t know until I was 16 that this was called spooning. Taking a look at my electrode alarm clock , the time read 8:31 AM. Mom would already be at work by now. I looked back down at Mina, curled up in my chest, it seemed as though she had snuck herself under and on top of my arms as well. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get up without waking her up as well. However, that didn’t stop me from trying…

Slowly, I pulled the covers off of us. Good, I came this far, and she didn’t move. The hardest part was getting my left arm out from underneath of her. Just as I had predicted, the moment I moved that arm, she woke up. Really it couldn’t be helped and now that she was coming too, I was sorry I had ever tried to leave bed without her. As she looked up at me with her large emerald irises, yawned and stretched wide, my heart skipped a beat.

“Good morning, Luke.” The fox whispered. I could only awkwardly smile at her as she soon realized where she was. “D-did I fall asleep here?”

I decided to tell her that I had made a bed for her and had put her in that to sleep. Sometime during the night, she had crawled in bed with me. Upon hearing this, the cute redness in her cheeks had returned. “Did you have a good sleep though?” I had to ask, because I definitely had the most comfortable sleep in months. She gave a giggle as she rolled onto her belly and stretched some more.

“Best sleep in forever!”

The weekend had begun, and we decided to get out of bed as soon as we were all limbered up, which consisted of at least 10 minutes of stretching. Once we were out of bed however, we set about making some breakfast. Being only twelve at the time, I didn’t have very many options, so I opted to make a bowl of Oran, Skitty crunch cereal. I have to admit, I enjoyed the berries a lot more than I did the cereal bits and because of that, I always dug around in the box for a bit more than I would normally get .

But before I had gotten anything to eat, I first set about trying to find something that Mina would enjoy. Little did I know how challenging it would end up being. She was the Canine species of pokémon, and a wild one at that. I didn’t know at the time but not all pokémon like berries. Thinking back, I guess it makes sense; we didn’t have any pokémon at the house despite mom being a former trainer, unless you count the ones that stayed to play with me, but they all ended up leaving with their mothers when they got hungry. Mom told me once that she used to have a Lucario named Kuren as a partner during her days as a trainer, but we never talked about what kind of food pokémon liked. Eventually we stopped searching for breakfast food and I warmed up a couple Moo Moo burgers from last night’s leftovers.

I took the burgers out of the microwave and set them on the table. Just in time too, as Mina’s stomach gave out an agonizing growl. I collected a few spare phone books from around the house and stacked them on a stool. Afterwards I stood next to it, laying a hand on the back. I looked towards Mina, and gave a waiter’s bow, inviting her to sit in the chair. She looked up to me from her foot and a half tall stance. The fox gave out a sweet giggle before she hopped up on the stool. I have to say I was quite impressed; the height was easily twice as tall as Mina was, yet she jumped right on top of the books so easily.

After breakfast, Mina and I took to the streets around town. We even managed to assist an elderly couple spread fertilizer in their garden. I thought that Mina would like to go to the park, and I even offered, but for some reason she wanted to avoid that part of town . Instead, we crept just out north of town to a place that I had never been to until now. Mina had said she came here all the time though, and I kinda felt bad about dragging her around and helping people with their Saturday chores. We crept through the forest and Mina demanded that I close my eyes, which made it really hard to navigate around the trees. It’s amazing how I even managed to make it through this really, but as we continued to walk I started to hear the sound of rushing water.

“I used to come here all the time with my parents.” Mina spoke to not only give me some back story, but she was also having just as hard a time guiding me, as I was being guided. When we finally got to the spot, Mina had told me it was ok to look. Opening my eyes for the first time in what felt like forever, I let my jaw slack open to the sight in front of me.

Mina and I stood on a smooth sand bank looking out towards a huge lake with a waterfall on the other side. With the sun still high in the afternoon sky, a rainbow cast itself off of the rushing water, landing somewhere out in the middle of the clear blue water. A group of Magicarp and Seaking splashed about in random areas. Since this place was far out of town, there were a lot of wild pokémon, some of which may have never even seen a human. Definitely the fish, but perhaps some of the land species wandered to town.

Mina and I stood in amazement at the sight in front of us. Actually she’s seen it before; I was the only one who was amazed. After a few moments of gawking, the little Zorua beamed up at me with her brightest smile yet. “So what do ya think, Luke?”

I thought of a quick ruse and concealed my excitement. “What do I think?” taking a long pause between for added effect, “It’s not so great…” I snuck a peek down at Mina who started to lose her smile, apparently oblivious to my teasing. Before she could say anymore though, I continued my sentence. “It’s amazing, Mina!” Hearing this, the little vixen smiled once again and started to hop around my feet.

“Wanna go for a swim, Luke?” I heard her ask me the question, but before I could answer I felt the cold sting of water splash on my skin from Mina having jumped in. She stayed underwater for a while and I started getting worried that she wouldn’t come back up, but just when I was about to dive in to help her, the little trickster popped her head to surface and sprayed my face with a stream of water jetting out of her muzzle.

I fell back on the ground and wiped my face from her spit water. “I’m gonna get you for that you dirty little fox!” My threat was hardly serious though as I couldn’t contain my laughter. Mina caught on to my false anger as she snickered and dove back under the water.

I stripped my clothes down to my underwear and hung them on a nearby branch. Seeing Mina stare at me from just barely above the water’s surface I couldn’t help but blush with the thought that she was the first person, other than my mother of course, who has now seen me in my underwear. I didn’t have time to be self conscious though, as there was a rotten trickster who needed a little pay back. Without much hesitation, I “cannonballed” into the lake, sending large waves that stretched for at least twenty feet. I could only guess that any of the water had hit Mina, not that it mattered, we were both wet anyway.

I soon resurfaced and mina joined me in a loud laugh as she swam into my chest. The water was freezing for only a moment. Being completely submerged made the cold feeling go away faster, but I still clung to Mina for the little warmth our bodies could produce together. I felt Butterfree flap around in my stomach as I felt her wet fur tickle my bare skin. Mina seemed to notice this and she kicked out of my grip and started swimming towards the waterfall.

“Mina, where you goin?” the question was a waste of breath however, before I could finish the last syllable, Mina had begun to answer. “Follow me! I wanna show you something else!” Obediently, I began to swim in her direction towards the massive pillar of rushing water. I had no idea what was about to take place and admittedly I was a little reserved about following her. Mina had reached the waterfall before me, and she paused to look in my direction with a smile before she jumped into the rushing water. One would think that the falls would carry the little fox away from the area, but I didn’t think about it too much and decided to just follow her. I once watched a TV special about gym leaders and their pokémon meditating under a waterfall, so I didn’t think too much of it, in my mind, what they were doing looked easy enough… I was wrong. I had to fight to my last breath just to get my head under the falls. I was surprised to find large rocks with plenty of groves in them for holding. I couldn’t quite understand why it was so hard for me yet so easy for Mina, but the answer for that probably came down to genetics. She is a pokémon, and I am human.

I appeared on the other side of the falls and surfaced a moment later. Through my exhausted gasps, I could only stare in awe at the cave expanse stretched before me. Luminescent crystals lined the walls and ceiling of the cave. I swam to the cave shore and slowly climbed out of the water. Mina sat directly in front of me atop a rock. The blue lights emanating from the crystals shone on Mina’s dark, damp fur. The little fox gave me a smile as I climbed out of the water feeling rather exposed in my underwear. Staring in amazement, I could hardly hear Mina speak to me. “So… What do you think of this place?”

I couldn’t really describe what I was feeling; the sight alone was swelling up so many emotions deep within me. I started to choke on my own words as they left my mouth. “I- I mean, M- Mina… This is.” I had to gather myself, but I couldn’t quite put the words together. I could only get out one word. Mina was still looking up at me with the blue lights shining off of her eyes. She tilted her head to the side, still smiling. I calmed down and looked towards her for solace. “Beautiful” I whispered. Mina yipped in approval which sent echoes throughout the cave.

We had to have spent at least five minutes “exploring” the cave which just consisted of me poking around at the crystals and playing in their glow. From what I could tell, the cave could have gone on for miles, but Mina didn’t want to go any deeper than where we were . Eventually we sat down in the middle of a crystal cluster and Mina told me that her parents called these blue crystals ‘soul stones’ and that they contained bits of essence from pokémon and people who come into contact with them. She even said that the amount of energy within the crystals is directly proportional to how bright they glow, which would explain why some of the crystals shine bright whilst others seem to have a dull glow. With all this conversation, I had forgotten how cold I was despite the summer air outside. Mina seemed to catch on, though I didn’t say anything, and she decided it would be cool to show me another one of her tricks, which it was… very cool. She chose an open spot on the floor, gave me a wink and let out a jet of flames from her muzzle.

I jumped backwards as I saw the flames escape her maw. Judging from her moveset she said yesterday I had assumed she was a dark type, and she never said she could use flamethrower! Mina had set an area of the cave floor on fire. Noting that the inside of the cave was more or less wet, I figured the fire wouldn’t stay for long. However, it didn’t sizzle out or even fade. The orange flames stayed, and warmth filled the room as it licked the air. I moved my attention over to Mina who was looking intently towards me, and without warning I tackled her.

“Oh Mina, you’re the most amazing little fox I have ever seen !” I shouted sending an echo through the cave. Mina gave out a surprised yip as I grabbed her into my arms and rolled to lift her above me. We both giggled with each other in the moment, how silly we must have looked, me in my underwear, Mina damp and frazzled.

After a while, the Zorua and I sat next to each other leaning against one of the large blue crystals. We both stared into the fire that despite having no fuel; was still shining proudly “You wanna know how I can do that?” she said while still staring into the flames.

“What do you mean?” I asked, “You’re a pokémon, you can do things that I only wish I could do…” Mina laughed at the compliment as she leaned in to nuzzle my side. I put my arm around her to return the ‘hug’.

“Yea, maybe… but that’s not actually fire.” What she said had definitely piqued my curiosity. It sure felt like fire, looked like fire, sounded like fire and, save for fuel, acted like fire. “Then, what is it?” my curiosity got the better of me.

“It’s an illusion.” she answered. “As far as I know, all Zorua and Zoroark can do it, but mine is weird… with everyone else’s, that fire would still feel like it wasn’t there, but you can feel it right?” I held a hand out towards the fire, indeed it did feel warm. “See? I don’t know what it is, some things I make are fake, but other things are real until I get rid of them.” We paused in silence for a few moments. The crackles from the illusion fire and out breathing were the only things breaking the quietness .

“Luke…” Mina looked up at me with semi-saddened eyes. Those beautiful irises reflected the fire over their emerald shade. I glanced back down and gave a kind smile to urge her to continue. “Do you think I’m weird?” That question caught me completely off guard, after all, look who she was talking to. Not talking at, talking to. However, I could understand how she was feeling. I’ve felt the same way ever since I found out that not everyone could talk to pokémon, but I needed to say something to lighten the mood a little bit. I didn’t want to see her cry anymore.

“Of course I do,” with almost a whisper I answered her question. Mina must have not have fully understood what I meant, and she looked to the ground with a sad whine. I thought it would go like this so I had a step two with my statement. I slid my back down the crystal to get more to Mina’s level and hugged her close. “But, that isn’t a bad thing. In fact, I think being weird is a really good thing…”

Mina immediately broke from her sad stare at the ground to look back up into my eyes, but this lock in eyes didn’t last long. Her muzzle came closer to my face as her ears laid back against her head. Letting her eyes fall closed, she came closer still, and before I knew it, we had locked lips. I felt my face turn as red as a Cheri berry, my first kiss, was with a pokémon, but it didn’t feel wrong, in fact it was quite pleasant. Her furry muzzle pressed against my… not, furry mouth. I too closed my eyes and we held each other in a kissing embrace for at least ten seconds. There wasn’t any tongue action, but it was excellent for a first kiss.

Afterwards, we separated and I could see that Mina was just as flushed skinned as I was beneath her fur while she gave out a soft pant. I could see it in her eyes, she was just as shocked at her actions as I was, maybe my statement was a bit too effective? However, she was the first one to say anything. “S-sorry… I d-didn’t mean to-” She was starting to ruin the moment with her nervousness. I put a finger to her mouth and gave her a gentle reassuring shoosh. The fox stopped stammering and actually smiled and gave a giggle before taking a ‘nom’ on my finger.

By the time we were done in the cave, I could guess my mom would be home by now. Mina extinguished the flames and the whole cave went back to being cold almost in an instant. The Zorua leapt out of the waterfall to exit the cave, leaving me to be the last one to take in the sight. I started to turn to leave, but before I had committed to leaving, something had caught my eye, and I turned to find it. Some where a little bit farther from where Mina and I were sitting, was a crystal, all by its self. I picked it up and held it in my palm. It was a little bigger than a pen cap and its light shone at least five times brighter than one of the bigger, me sized crystals. I decided to hold on to the crystal as I started to head out of the cave.

Mina was waiting for me on the shore next to the tree I hung my clothes on. As I surfaced, she looked to my right hand where I held the crystal obviously catching on to the glow that was apparent even in broad daylight. There was obviously no use in hiding it, and I could tell she was curious about it. “I found this in the corner like five feet from where we were sitting.” I outstretched my hand to show the crystal to her. She turned her head to the side before responding, “It wasn’t connected to the ground or walls?” I shook my head.

“We should keep it then!” she barked. I agreed and put it in my pants pocket before I donned my clothes. I was still pretty wet from the recent swim to the shore and my clothes stuck to my skin, but luckily the long walk home managed to dry us off somewhat.

It took us about forty-five minutes to return home and we found that mom was indeed waiting for us. The rest of the night went by much like the previous one. I asked Mina if she would just like to sleep in my bed and forget about the basket thing that night. She said she would like that very much. When it came to bed time however, I flipped the covers on top of me an offered Mina to join me, but she insisted she would be fine on top of the covers at the foot of the bed. She seemed to curl up and fall asleep quite comfortably. I however, had a harder time falling asleep that night. I lay on my back with the crystal in my hands, still glowing quite brightly, almost as if I hadn’t even turned off the light. My mind kept racing back to that kiss in the waterfall. What was it about? Did she really have those kinds of feelings for me? Or was it just an overreaction to what I said?

Eventually tiredness got the better of me and I put those questions aside as I felt myself drift into darkness.

-----------------------------------


Over the next few weeks, school had begun to let into summer vacation. Mina had met my other pokémon friends and begun to get along with them almost as quickly as she did with me. She would come with me to school every day and go home with me every evening. The summer was just as good as it always was, everyone was out doing their summer chores, and even though I didn’t have a real job at the time, I managed to make over 80,000 pokédollars with Mina’s help of course. Her ability to make illusions came in handy with a talent show we entered in the park. Mina was once again a bit reserved about coming here, but soon put it out of her mind when she saw the crowd of people. We managed to win first place with an overwhelming number of votes. Mina and I managed to spend a lot of time together at the waterfall and the “soulstone cave” as I called it. My mother had started saying that I spent more time with Mina that summer than I did with her. We still went to that spot in the bushes at school every so often to have adventures with Ku, Fii, and Cel.

Unfortunately during the last week of summer vacation, I learned that the three pokémon who made my life enjoyable during school hours, were about to move away. Ku had said he and his parents were moving south, while Fii and Cel decided to leave their home to live together somewhere more Southeastward toward Castelia city. Mina and I were stuck in Anville town for at least another year. Well, Mina wasn’t. I was. I had the decision when I was ten to either stay in school or travel abroad, but I decided to stay, for I had no interest in forcing pokémon to fight each other, and I didn’t really care about the league. When the next school year started up again, it was much better than all of my previous years combined despite my friends being gone. Since they had left, Mina would normally have stayed at home, but the Zorua didn’t want to ever leave my side.

Before school had started, Mina and I, with the help of mom, worked on Mina’s ability to produce illusions and we found that she had a particular knack for transformation . It was unstable at first; fox ears popping out of a human head, tail protruding from human buttocks, but eventually she got to the point where she had complete control and had mastered human form. Mom enrolled Mina into my school with me as a foreign exchange student from the Sinnoh region. Even though in the past I would normally be outcast from the rest of my class, with Mina around in her human form, I began to be a little more accepted amongst my human peers. Mina’s ability to make certain illusions real seemed to have an effect on her transformation, because while she was transformed, she could speak perfectly and everyone could understand her. Truth be told, I was a little disappointed that other people could talk to her now, but she seemed happy and that made me happy as well.

Our nights sort of became routine, sometimes I would bathe with Mina with her in her fox form, or she could do it alone in human form. I’m pretty sure she liked being bathed a lot more than she liked doing it herself, as our count was a ratio of 85% fox to 15% human. When it came time for bed, the little fox would dive under the covers before I had a chance to crawl in. She had warmed up to me enough to just start sleeping next to me, instead of us waking up the next morning to find she had curled up in my chest during the night anyway. Sometimes she fell asleep next to me in her human form, just to see if it was any comfier but she would turn back into a pokémon after she was asleep, and she found it was way better to curl up than to lie straight.

Over the course of the school year, Mina really showed potential and even excelled in math and natural science. Jokes had been made at my expense that Mina and I were intellectual opposites. What no one knew however, is that I would help Mina every night with her homework in addition to my homework. For some reason, Mina was very good at being attentive and could do almost any problem in her head, but when it came to putting those thoughts to paper, she just drew a blank. In the end, she managed to have better grades than I did anyway, which doesn’t really help my argument. The school year ended in a blast as the whole class, which was only about twenty-five to thirty kids, took a trip to Pokestar studios where movies are made. We didn’t only visit the studio; we also got to appear on television in a series involving a hardboiled detective and his Mightyena partner “Mighty-PI” as the show was called.

When the school year had ended, we were all given the choice again. Being 13 now I was a little bit older and maybe my decision had been waivered, which it was. When asked to come up to the stage and give my decision, I proudly said,

--“I, Luke Irving, with sound mind and body, do proclaim that I am going to travel the world. I thank the school for giving me all the intelligence I need to survive in this world. I swear, by the order of the League, to uphold the responsibilities of a young pokémon trainer. To protect the innocent, to defend pokémon, to research, to learn, to inspire and to uphold the peace across this beautiful planet .”—

Upon finishing this speech, the board director took the stage next to me. I handed him the microphone as he gestured for a word. “And new trainer, what is your starting pokémon?” the man ended by gesturing at a selection of three pokéballs that sat on the table behind me. Most likely containing Snivey, Tepig, and Oshawot; our region’s starters.

I gave a confident look to the crowd and saw Mina in her human form jumping up and down with her hands crossed near the back of the gym in front of the doors. She had been waiting for this moment ever since we first started discussing it at least six months before graduation. I looked her in the eyes and paused for a second feigning the action of a hard decision. The board director gave me the microphone back and with one fluid motion I used my right hand to point out my beloved fox in human form as I yelled these words across the gym:

“I choose Mina!”

The audience gasped in unison at the thought of a human training another human as a pokémon, but before the board director could object, Mina came running towards the stage. She started to glow as she came closer revealing her true self for everyone to see. Fellow classmates’ jaws went agape as they saw what was being presented before them. Mina’s transformation had come to complete fox form as she reached the stage and hopped on top of the podium to give me a lick on the nose. Her human clothes were spread along the isle as they fell from her new form. From there we both took a bow to the rest of the auditorium which, after a few moments of silence, burst into applause. Mina took this opportunity to jump up on my shoulders and I stood up straight to support her. After this display, the council realized that Mina was not human and that she couldn’t have an actual graduation, but was still given a document proving her intellectual prowess. After the ceremonies had concluded I went back to my, now former, classroom with Mina walking beside me, holding my hand in her human form. Of course I had picked up her clothes from the gym floor before taking her to the bathroom to get dressed again. My other classmates were there as well, and they all congratulated us on a great performance, but not before Mina’s group of girl friends had torn her to shreds for not telling them she was a pokémon sooner. Amazingly, I was the only one in the class who was leaving for travel. I guess anyone who wanted to go, had left already at ten years old. At the end of the class celebration, my mother had come to pick us up in her car, and I had to pry Mina from the girls’ iron clad grip as they just couldn’t let her go now that they knew how adorable she was in her Zorua form.

We both enjoyed the slow ride home with mom as she said she was very proud at the way we decided to display our decision. She also told us many accounts about when she was a trainer on the road with Kuren as a Riolu and later a fully grown Lucario. Mom was very enthusiastic about what our adventure would be like as we discussed where Mina and I would go. Mina, who was now sleeping against my arm in pokémon form, had wanted to test herself in some contests. I only wanted to do whatever made her happy, which my mother had agreed with, “That’s all that really matters, is that you two are happy.”

Over the next two weeks, Mina and I prepared for our journey. We looked at maps, we read magazines, and even packed a large backpack with things we might need. My pokédex had come in the mail right on time, along with six complimentary pokéballs, a badge/ribbon case, and a twelve pack of potions. The last thing I needed to do was craft a necklace out of that crystal from the cave. Truth be told, I should have done this ages ago, but it had slipped my mind until then. With two feet of paracord, a gem clasp, and some jeweler’s glue both of which my mom had in her jewelry box; I fashioned a necklace out of the soulstone. It carries memories of Mina and mine’s first Kiss behind that waterfall. A memory that is too valuable to lose. With that done, the fox and I set out on our adventure; untold mysteries await us in this vast world of Pokémon.