Darkness.

The entity that envelops all things at some point in their existence.

For him, he would begin there. His eyes yet to unveil the world around him and leave him to take in all that he could. His senses nearly as smothered as his sight. He knows he exists, but cannot do a thing. He is left with the darkness.

Then, a new sensation.

He could feel himself being touched by something rather than nothing. He was moved out of that darkness by two arms that gently served as an ambassador to another being's warmth. There was still only darkness to his sight, yet all other facets of his being were illuminated by the warmth. Soon he'd find himself with another warm being at the other side of himself, them both gifting him with welcoming waves of warmth to raise awareness in his being that he was not alone. He smiled for the first time, for the sole reason that, even though he knew not where he was, he knew he was somewhere he belonged, in the hopes that whomever had led him into this unfamiliar, yet comforting place would see how content he was to be there.

Soft noises hit his ears; they had no meaning to him in the moment. He would press into the warm caress he was brought into regardless, his instincts wanting nothing more than to cherish what he was gifted with. The Buizel who had stepped into the world was already enjoying every last piece of it. He knew he was being introduced to life by the beings who had given him life. The sensations seemed to go on endlessly; he would linger here for all of time if he was able to.

The darkness eventually made its inevitable return.

The soft noises from before became harrowing howls. The sound of the wind crept into his being and pried the contentment from before out of his mind as a wedge would lift up a stone from its resting place on the riverbed. Cold spots appeared all over his body all at once, relentlessly being spattered with freezing wetness cast down from the sky in blankets of torrential rain. Sharp, cracking bolts of lightning would come all at once to fill his ears with more noise and his mind with more terror, directly causing the tension in his body with each time the sky slammed a burst of tremendous energy down from the clouds and onto the earth.

He reflexively whimpered out amid his shivering, in the hopes that the beings from before would bring him out of this place that was so terrible by comparison to what he had for what seemed to be only a few moments prior.

The warmth would not be presented to him again for all of that night.

He was alone with the darkness once more.

...

His body had shut itself down until the beams of light that would coax him to make his return to the world hit his lidded eyes. He would impulsively pull the lids upwards before he began to recall even the faintest glimpses of the sensations he had experienced the first day of his existence. After his sight got acclimated, he registered that he was lying on the ground, and another spark in him incited his body into action.

Despite the physical weakness in his new, untouched being, and the loss of everything pleasurable he had felt during a moment he had, a moment that now seemed to be from the distant past, he stood.

He stood and took in all he could for the first moment in his life that he could think on his own. He blinked and did the first thing he could fathom to do, utilizing his voice as he did with his whimpers to try and find his way to where he once was before. A brief uttering in the only tongue he could speak by his nature alone.

"Bui..?"

There was no response. He stood still and looked down at himself. His arms lifted and guided his paws to move across his face and get a feel for who he was. His young mind could not recall it fully, but the touch of his fur seemed to be familiar from some point in his life, though, his mind simply could not focus on drawing up the memory. Where was he now? Where could he seek that feeling a second time? Did he have anything before the location he was presently at?

"Hey... hey! Come here, there's a Buizel!"

The noise was audible, unfamiliar, and the only one to permeate the silence of the morning since he had awoken. It caused all questions he had or could have to crumble and his mind to put his legs to work in turning around and seeing another individual clearly for the first time.

They stood on two legs, just as he was, and pushed their way through nearby vegetation and over the sprawling roots of trees until they stood towering over him, his head tilted upwards as his gaze was unable to avert from their face. In the background, beings of a similar shape came one by one from the same place this one came from. The first to approach him lowered down to the level he was standing at, his head moving downwards to still keep his eyes on the first face he would ever see.

"Hello, hello, cutie... Wow, look at how tall you are..! You ever seen a Buizel this big, guys? I know I haven't..."

The words held no place in his mind. He simply looked, listened, and blinked without a reaction being garnered from him. Initially, the face in front of him was casting down a smile. However, as the Buizel didn't acknowledge anything, the smile would be toned down until it eventually faded into a sorrowful expression. Silence returned once again for a moment.

"...I think this one's still young... we're gonna take him back with us, hopefully get his life back on track."

The being extended its own arm and offered its hand to him. His eyes shifted to the palm; it was a vastly different shape from the pads present on his own paws, and yet... he lifted an arm, touched it, and did not respond when the human's hand clasped around his paw in a gentle grasp. He placed his gaze back on their face as they stood themselves up, and saw that they were looking back at him.

"You're in safe hands now. I know that after last night you may not believe that fully... you may not know what safe hands really are or truly feel like... but a fact of life is that sometimes we need to walk into a portion of our lives where we aren't the most comfortable, in order to get true comfort for ourselves."

These words that this unfamiliar person had spoken mattered more to him. Though, at the moment he had no choice but to go with them, being guided along with that same grip as before, questions about who they were and where he would be going rising and falling in his mind like the ocean tide. In a way, he felt content again. He was no longer alone, he had something rather than nothing. The warmth came back with the heat of the human's hand enveloping his, travelling up his arm and providing him energy as he walked into his new life.

...

"Yeah, I'm going to be fine... don't you worry one bit about me. You've already brought me away from so much and so little at the same time... the parting from one life of mine and into the next may take a long while to get used to, but I know with all my heart I'm ready to move on and carve my own destiny."

His caretaker sighed, and then moved downwards into a crouching position, exactly as they had done when they met the Buizel who was now on track to becoming his true self, both mentally and physically. Their hand came up to his muzzle, stroking along it, eyes fixated on those bright eyes he flashed back to them. A slightly sorrowful smile was shared between their faces, between species, between individuals who had always cared for each other.

"Alright... I can trust that you're going to uphold those words. I've known you much too long to distrust that you will. We're going to be dropping you off by a clean, slow-flowing river in the woods out west... it's far from when we first found you, but from what you've told me, you don't want to head back there anyways..."

"What would even be there left for me?" The Floatzel took a step back and moved the hand that was on his muzzle off of it, grasping onto his caretaker's hand, just as they had grasped his paw those long years ago. "You all already searched for my parents at least ten times at this point... all that I'd do by going there is try and remember what I could have had and feel remorse that fate didn't give me it instead, even if right now I can say I'm alright with how things turned out..."

They opened their mouth as if to speak, then promptly closed it and nodded. It was his place to decide what he wanted now, and even though they had been together for the majority of his life, they were ready to let him go and exist how he wanted to, desiring only to have fond memories of the Pokémon they had guided through life entirely up until this point.

"One final thing. Are you going to choose a name for yourself..?"

"Well... yeah. I want to be known as an individual, not just a Floatzel. I do know how to use English, after all, so why wouldn't I? Though, for a while, I was a little caught up on what my name could be... but then you ended up giving me an idea a few weeks ago... what was your son's name, again..?"

The caretaker was speechless, mouth hanging open and not closing until their eyes did as well, tears of mixed sorrow and joy streaming down their face. He stepped forwards and pulled an arm around them, holding them close and gripping their hand tighter, knowing just how much the gesture meant to them. After a few minutes of sharing the last significant moment they would have with each other, they stood and began to lead him out of the facility he had once called home for the final time, offering one last well-wish for him before they would part company for the rest for time, acknowledging that they would be in each other's hearts and memories forevermore.

"Have... have a wonderful life... Franz."