AGNPH Stories
 

Kyra: The Midnight Shore by firstofeternity

 

Sandra's Gift

Kyra: The Midnight Shore
(Sequel to "Kyra: The Order of the Full Moon")
A Pokemon Fanfiction By, David Horn

All original characters © David Horn
All characters from Pokemon © Gamefreak


If we could see into the future, what would we see? A family? A journey? A new home? Forbidden romance? A new fight for survival? Something's coming; I can feel it in the wind, and every beating heart around me.
- Meerkat Manor, Season 2

Chapter 1: Sandra's Gift
Sandra practically toppled down the stairs in her pajamas, in her haste to enter the kitchen. Toshi, her Ampharos, tripped clumsily on his way down, and bumped all the rest of the way down on his bottom. "Come on, Toshi!", she shouted back at him, as he picked himself up dizzily.

Sandra entered the kitchen to her mother, who dropped her spatula into the pan of scrambled eggs as she wrapped her arms around Sandra. "Oh, happy birthday, dear! You're 13 today!", she cooed. Sandra allowed her mother to smother her before she looked up into her mothers kind face, and asked,

"When is dad getting home?" Her mother's smile faltered slightly. "I'm sure he'll be here soon. Why don't you have a nice birthday breakfast?" Sandra nodded, looking somewhat disappointed. A few minutes through sharing her breakfast with Toshi, she heard the front door squeak open. She almost fell out of her chair as she ran towards her father, who she knew would be there.

Her father, scarred, his ponytail pulled out slightly, so that strands of hair fell in his face, a bit of his left earlobe missing, supporting his bandaged leg on a pair of crutches. "Dad!", she cried, as she tackled him, being careful to avoid his leg.

"Nathan!", Sandra's mother said, as she also put her arms around her husband, who had been gone for what felt like ages to Sandra. "Happy birthday...", her dad said, a warm smile managing to break through his exhausted expression.

"I figured it would be nice to be back on Mossdeep for a while anyway.", he sighed, as he limped into the kitchen.

As Nathan looked at his daughter, and for some reason, he thought about Meil. He had told Meil the lie that one of the order's safe houses was his actual house.

He felt somewhat guilty not telling Meil, but he had to lie to him. He knew that if the New Moon Order ever heard of his family's location, they would undoubtedly hold them hostage; interrogate them for information. He had to remain as anonymous as possible in this time of imminently growing danger.

Toshi listened from a corner of the kitchen as Sandra began talking about "presents". It seemed she wanted these "presents" very badly. Toshi had very little idea what "presents" were, until Sandra's mother pulled out a large, brightly colored box.

He heard the word again. Was that colorful box, a "present"?

He thought he understood when Sandra threw piles of tissue over her head, pulling out a small, square box that she called a, "Gameboy Advance". Toshi's best guess, was that a "present", must be a gift. According to everyone in Sandra's house, it was Sandra's "birthday". He thought it must be a sort of human ritual to give gifts to those celebrating "birthdays".

And Toshi began to wonder. Should he give Sandra a gift too? He wasn't a human, he knew that. But still, it would show some sort of affection towards Sandra. Would he even be able to find something she would like?

As Toshi watched Sandra dance more enthusiastically in the shallow water than usual on the beach that day, Toshi's mind was racing. A good present? He looked left and right, squinting as the glare of the late-autumn sun shone through the wisps of clouds that melded with the sky.

Then he saw something, a shining object, that glowed in the sunlight with pearly sort of luster. He waddled over to it. Sitting on the sand, was a large, ivory colored conch.

It wasn't even broken like most of them were, and it had a suspicious lack of sand on it's surface. It was very pretty to Toshi, but would it be the same to Sandra? He picked it up in one of his flippers, inspecting it closely.

Throwing a glance back at Sandra, who was still twirling in her bathing suit in the sand, Toshi waddled as quickly as he could back up to the island. He wanted to wrap her shell in the same colorful paper the box had been in.

Entering through the screen door, being careful not to drop the shell, he stood clueless in the hallway. Where was that colorful paper put away? He heard Sandra's mother washing dishes in the kitchen, and he trotted in, holding out a yellow flipper with the shell in her face.

"Toshi? Oh, what is it? Why, that's a very pretty shell. Do you want to give it to Sandra?" Toshi was glad she'd caught on so quickly. He nodded, and she bustled out of the kitchen saying, "I'll get the wrapping paper."

A minute later, she returned holding a roll of wrapping paper. It was not the same colorful paper with the multicolor dots, but was a plain white wrapping paper. He felt disappointed, but could not communicate it to her, so he simply grabbed the roll of tape, tore a piece of paper from the roll, and began sloppily trying to wrap his bulky package. He found this task nothing less than frustrating.

The spikes of the conch were poking holes in the delicate paper. He placed strips of wrinkled tape all over it, trying to seal every crack. When he was done, he grabbed a black marker from a can of pens on the counter, and attempted to write, "FOR SANDRA".

But his fingerless paw was unable to make nothing but scribbles on the mass of wrapping paper and tape that was his gift. He picked the marker up in his mouth, and carefully wrote each letter, the marker set tightly between his teeth. Toshi thought the mess of lines he'd made looked enough like, "FOR SANDRA", for her to read.

He'd only learned to do this by watching Sandra write her own name. He clutched the crinkling present in his paws as he walk carefully down the beach to where Sandra was sitting, watching a flock of Wingulls glide past. She heard his approaching footsteps, and turned to see Toshi, who found himself feeling hot in the face for an unknown reason as he held out his gift for her.

Her face, tanned lightly by the sun, lit up when she saw Toshi's gift. "Toshi, you didn't have to get me a gift.", she said in pleasant surprise, taking the present from Toshi's paws. Toshi wondered if he'd done something wrong. She had said he didn't have to, yet she'd taken it anyway.

Maybe it was a human thing. "Oh, what is it?", she muttered eagerly, tearing apart the ball of tape and paper with difficulty. Toshi wished he hadn't used so much tape. "Wow, this is beautiful, Toshi.", she gasped in amazement, as she pulled the last scraps of tape off the shell.

Toshi was baffled to see that she looked tearful. What human reaction was this? Sandra suddenly stood up, holding Toshi's face in one hand, the other cradling the conch. "That was very sweet. Thank you, Toshi."

She kissed him on the cheek, and Toshi felt the orb on the end of his tail flare with light. She smiled up at him, still caressing his face. Toshi looked bewildered.

Humans were very strange creatures.

Sandra found herself awake in her bed. She had just been awakened by a small noise. And as she lay in silence, through Toshi's slow breathing from his bed in the corner of her room, she heard the noise again; it was whispering.

The disembodied, faint voice was muttering from a spot on her dresser. She padded over to her dresser, looking somewhat bemused. The voice was issuing from the conch; the shell Toshi had given her that same day.

She picked up the conch, and put it to her ear. The voice of a young male suddenly whispered, "Hello, Sandra." Sandra almost dropped the conch in surprise. "Who's there?", she said quietly into the conch. "My name is Darius.", said the voice echoing from inside the shell.

Sandra did not understand. She stared at the shell as if she expected it to blow up at any moment. "How are you talking to me?", she asked the voice. There was a pause, then she heard, "I'm talking to you through the shell."

Sandra found this information unhelpful. "I know, but what do want?"

"I want to help you.", the shell replied.

"Help me?"

"Yes, I will be someone you can trust. You can tell me anything." The calm, smooth voice was so inviting, she felt like she wanted to trust it. "I can...?", she asked timidly. "Of course; just pour any of your emotions you have out. I won't tell a soul. I promise."

Sandra turned the conch over in her hands. On the back of it was a very peculiar marking; a symbol like an empty sort of circle,

like a new moon.
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