"Hey Fae," the Umbreon started slowly. His head was lowered as his tail was tucked into his body. Fae's ear twitched. "Huh?" Fae wondered, lifting her head. "Back there...you seemed to be having trouble. You were distressed. Is something wrong?" Eon asked her.

"..."

"Ah, I think I understand. Our mother. You were the last to see her, weren't you? What happened to caused you to freak out so much?" Eon questioned her; His voice was in a whisper.

Isn't it obvious? She's dead you oblivious Umbreon! Fae thought in agitation. She glanced down. And it's all my fault! Fae shook her head. If she said that to Eon he would just try to comfort her in pity. She needed to express how she felt without making him worry.

She sighed. It was now or never. She felt Beautifly flutter around in her stomach. "Well," she began as she fiddled with a little gray rock on the ground—she rolled it around in her paw like she was making a pizza. "I was in fact the last to see mother. She," Fae tried to explain herself. She could feel the surrealness of the dark hole coming back.

"She's never coming back! She's dead! And I just ran away with an ability I didn't even know I had! Now...I don't know what to do. Mother is dead, father and the others are nowhere to be found. I just don't know what to do about it, Eon." She choked out.

The Umbreon just stared at her. Neither shock nor pity in his gaze. He was at a stalemate. He thought things through before talking with her. It was as if he wouldn't allow himself to upset her.

"Well," he began, a paw on his chin. "You can always just wallow in your pity and sorrow for yourself. Seems to be working out just fine. Another option is you can come with me—come with us. We can take care of you. I can help you. You said you ran away with a new ability? Does this happen to be the Run Away ability? I know Eevee can have either one of three abilities: Adaptability, Run Away, and—this is their hidden ability—Anticipation."

Fae nodded. "I believe it was that Run Away ability. I never knew Pokémon could switch between abilities like this. I feel like such a freak." She whispered in disgust. A paw reached out and pet her head. Eon staring at her with affection.

"There's nothing wrong with having many abilities. I myself have two different abilities. They don't make me a freak. In fact, this makes me wanted by humans. That man and his Luxray have been chasing me for years with no end. Being different from others doesn't make you a freak. People and Pokémon have just got to accept who you are. They find that hard already with all the judgments going around about how dark, poison, and ghost-type Pokémon are evil just because of their typing." Eon remarks with a grimace.

"But this is a different scenario. People actually me for who-knows-what, and have been hunting me down! I don't know how to fight, Eon." She wailed as she put her face in her paws. Tears streamed down her face. Why out of everyone did she have to be the one with such powers? Why not Neri or Nike? Nike knows how to kick hard!

"I guess what I'm asking is why does it have to be me with these powers?" She wonders.

Eon sighs, conflict on his face. "I don't understand most of this either, Fae. I do know, however questioning it is pointless. Fighting it is also pointless. You have to accept fate for what it is and Headbutt it like a big shot. Not everything will go to plan, I know that...." Eon trailed off as his conflicting face turned pained. "Sometimes people or Pokémon die, and you must learn to move on without them. It will be hard, but I've learned to move on, and so will you." Eon tried to assure her.

Is he trying...to get me to forget my Jolteon mother who thick and thin helped me, even when she was given the task of doing it without that mean Absol? Fae thought as she gasped lightly. The look on her face said it all.

Eon could read what she was thinking. He grew an annoyed expression. "I'm not asking you to forget mother. She's my mother too for the Stsrter Squad's sake! You know, if you want training I—we can help with that. Once this snow lessens up we can find a proper base to set up our operation of training. We can tell Neri, Fergus, and Mauve about this in the morning. I'm sure they will be willing to assist."

Fae nodded, although she wasn't sure if she was trainable. I've went years on end with nothing but sand attack. I mean, what good does flashing someone with sand do? Nothing! It's about power and drive towards fainting your enemies. That's what Ezekiel says anyways.

Fae was about to say something else, but the Umbreon had fallen asleep. She sighed as she put a paw through her tail fur. It was going to be a long night. She could already hear the loud cackling of a nearby Mr. Rime—at least she thought it was one—as she tried to snuggle deep into her brother's fur. Maybe if she made herself look small then maybe she wouldn't targeted, but she had a feeling that wouldn't help anyways.

Stupid scientists, she thought as she allowed herself to close her eyes. Hopefully nothing scary would attack during the night. Fae prayed that if anything happened it would be loud and obvious.

When she finally did sleep, no dreams or nightmares came. It was bliss. She remembered during the day when she first had to sleep with no one left but she, her mom, and her step-dad—at the time he was just a friend. It was a night full of nightmares and pain.

Fae shivered. She didn't want to remember the pain. She always carried it around with her in the form of her family anyways.

She woke up to an unfamiliar face right in her face. She yelped as she scrambled back. She was able to see it was a Flygon. Her mother told her these species of Pokemon like to whip up sandstorms to trap their prey. She was told they like to eat Eevee. She was shocked when seeing the female bipedal dragon right in her face—she was standing up on her two legs watching Fae.

Nearby, Fae saw another unknown Pokémon. It was a male Dragonite. "Uhm, sorry to bother you while you are sleeping, but this is our cave." The male Dragonite remarked, fiddling nervously with the digits on his paws. "You're not here to, like, claim it or something?" The Dragonite wondered with fear in his gaze. He was shivering. Fae could smell the fear in his scent, though it was obvious in the way he spoke.

The Flygon nudged her companion. "We we're on a trip. Pokémon could confuse this cave of ours with an empty one. Tell me, shiny Eevee, did you come here to shelter from the snowstorm?" The Flygon inquires with a small smile of understanding.

Fae stared at them in distrust and confusion. This was the face Eon and the others stayed at, wasn't it? If it is, it's obvious that whoever lived here—these two have most likely been the ones to stay here—must have been gone very long for Eon and such to stay there and not be noticed.

Fae glared at them. The two Pokémon were both prepared to fight her. That was when Eon lifted his head. "Hey, what's going on? I thought this cave was abandoned." Eon remarked as he got up.

He put himself between Fae and the two dragons. "Are we going to have a problem here? I'd rather not fight if we don't have to." The two dragons exchanged glances with each other. There was a certain 'I told you so,' look to the Flygon as the two exchanged glances.

The two turned back to the two while Mauve woke up, finding the situation they're in. She sprang to her feet, prepared to fight. She heard Eon's words and must've expected the worst. Eon put out a paw to stop her as the two Dragon types answered them.

"Well, uhm, this is our home. W-we would like it back please! We were surprised to find some Eeveelutions and Eevee sleeping in our den." The Dragonite explained as he stared at his paws. It was amazing that anyone could hear the stuttering Dragonite as he was talking softly and to his paws.

"This is your home?" Mauve asked with confusion. The Dragonite and Flygon both nodded before realizing Mauve was blind. "Yes, this is our home."

"Oh! Then this is a misunderstanding. You see we just wanted shelter from the storm. It was snowing pretty hard. We're sorry." Eon apologizes humbly as he dips his head. "We thought this place was empty, so we decided to bunk here for the night. We didn't mean to cause such alarm."

The two dragons relaxed. "Oh, where are you off to then, if we may ask." The Flygon asked them with curiosity. "We don't really know right now. Have you seen a Luxray around here recently? A Luxray with a trainer?" Eon asked. The two dragons gulped as they looked at each other. "A Luxray?" They questioned Eon.
——————-

Author's Note: Thank you so much for reading this far! Were so close to 100 reads, and I've been enjoying writing this.

There will be an update Saturday. Thanks for coming so far. Almost at ten chapters!! 🥰❤️👌