It was a cloudy and cold day. The leaves of the trees were falling as the wind passed through the trees as the winter was coming. Even so, that didn’t stop the citizens of Epdor to continue their business. However one of them, a small Eevee, was trying to get rid of the memories of that painful incident.
‘Why? Why you had to do this?’ she thought as she was walking without course through the streets.
A few months ago she lost her brother, her only family in the entire world. And it wasn’t an assassination; it was a sacrifice that changed a lot of things. But that doesn’t ease her troubled mind. There had to be another way, it always had; only that in those circumstances and after, it was the only one they had.
When she looked around, she arrived at the city’s main park, one of the few green areas available. Epdor was mostly buildings everywhere with two floors at minimum and six at maximum. It was not a very colorful place and the people was somewhat cold; making it a bit depressing for anyone who enjoyed open spaces and wanted to start a conversation with anybody.
But the Eevee didn’t mind. She didn’t want to talk or to express her feelings to strangers, not even to shake her past. She only wanted the end of the day, as usual. After spending a few minutes in the park, she headed to one of the stores to buy a piece of bread to eat on the way back to her new home.
Her home was actually an apartment in the third floor of a five floor building. After going upstairs and reached the door, she knocked it. When it opened, a Hypno was standing in front of her.
“Hello, Karla” The Hypno greeted.
“Hi” Karla said in a plain tone and entered.
“How was your day?”
“Same as usual”
“*Sigh* that’s what it worries me”
The Hypno was nothing to her, but to her brother… He had a small food shop in the city they’ve come from, a coastal city. Business wasn’t good, but enough to live. He saw when his brother was desperate finding something to eat, not just for him, but for her as well. Due to the tiredness and hunger, he fainted. Since the situation of the city made it dangerous to stay outside, he pulled his brother inside and helped him to recover.
A few things his brother held up most were his sense of honor, gratitude and idealism; something strange to see in a poor Pokémon with no access to a basic education. Whatever the case; once he was stable, the Hypno let him take some of the food to give it to her sister, with the promise to return the favor. And so he did, building a good relationship with him.
But those days were now over. The Hypno took her with him after an uprising that took down its leader and followers, with the cost of his brother’s life and others. At first, Karla didn’t want to eat, get out from her room or live any longer. He was conscious that she cared for her brother, but not how deeply their relation was. After a while, she opened up, but only to her basic necessities. Her interior was still damaged and even after months, it didn’t show any signs of recovery.
He also was affected by his loss, but he tried to move on. His businesses in Epdor were better than he thought, to the point to send Karla to a school; but her lonely behavior was giving her problems. The days when the families had to come to see their children were the worst of Karla. Seeing that all of them had their families alive and she didn’t have anyone, it was a sight she didn’t tolerate.
After the dinner, she headed back to her room, closed the door and looked through the window; although there was nothing new to see, just the exact same scene. No change at all. She turned around her head and spotted the Shadow foxes badge; the characteristic symbol of that team.
She grabbed it and looked it closer. ‘My brother really was one of you’ she remembered. ‘And you also didn’t want that to happen, but… *sigh*’ She didn’t blame that team of that incident; they were caught by it and suffered. Her brother kept them together in their darkest moment and inspired them, but what he did was too extreme. After that, one of them, the Murkrow, gave her their badge, with the promise of whatever she needed or wanted to help, they would be there for her. In a way, that’s what his brother’s last wish and also a way to thank his actions.
But she didn’t want that. She was also involved in that mess, helped in her way and suffered for that. ‘In the union is the force’ those were his brothers words when he was dreaming on joining the guild to free their people. The idea rarely crossed her mind and gave it a thought for a few moments. When she acted in that incident, she felt how freedom really was and how her actions could cause a big impact.
“But what I can do? I’m a non-Pokémon, I cannot fight nor do things like the rest” she thought out loud about her condition.
“Maybe not, but proved you have other skills” The Hypno said from the door, deducing what she was thinking.
She turned her head a little. “Like what?”
“You know how to read the body language naturally; you can interpret the intentions of the people without being a psychic”
She rolled eyes. “That doesn’t help me when they began to attack me”
“That’s why you have good reflexes”
“I call that luck”
He moved a book with Psychic and placed it in front of her. It was the history of the most famous teams in all the life of the guild. “You should read the part of the ‘special cases’; then give it a thought” He turned around and closed the door.
Reluctantly, she picked the book and laid of her bed. She opened in the part of the index to find the special cases and headed to those pages. She was passing a few of them, with Pokémon of other places or stories earned their place. Then she found something that caught her interest: a non-Pokémon member. Reading slowly, this team member turned out his incapacity to an advantage. A few pages ahead there was another who was actually a team leader, and another one. There were few of them, but their contribution was recognized by the guild itself.
She closed the book, but kept looking at it. The group of people considered as non-Pokémon was too small, only a few hundred scattered through the entire continent. Even so, a few portion of them found a place within the guild and their deeds were told, even to her days if she assumed correctly. She put the book aside and fell asleep, still thinking about it.
The next day, the Hypno had the breakfast ready when she woke up. He was reading a newspaper with a coffee cup while he was waiting for her.
“Good morning Karla” He greeted.
“Morning” She replied.
When she began to eat, she noticed that the Hypno was looking to her.
“So… what did you find in that book?”
“Em… I, uh…”
“Let me guess; people that even with that incapacity, they pushed forward and their names are remembered in the history of the guild, right?”
“Well…”
“Karla; you have two problems now: you’re stuck in the past and letting your own incapacity to stop you”
“They’re both different”
“But they have a common cause: your mind”
“My mind?”
“Yes; you put yourself barriers that closed other possibilities for you; both understandable, both are giving you problems”
“You’re saying…?”
“I’m not saying that you forget your past, but to use it to lead you to a better future; we both believe that your brother didn’t want to be like this the rest of your life, right?”
“Maybe not, but even so…”
“You also wanted to join the Savitaran guild, right?”
She nodded.
“Then you’re doing what you two wanted; you’re honoring his memory”
“But how? You know that I need a team for that and I don’t have any friends”
“Use your skills then and you will find them; if there’s something you’re really good is finding things by following your instincts”
“I’ll try”
“Good; now finish your breakfast; you’re going to get late at this rate”
On the way to school, she kept thinking about what they’ve talked. Finding the teammates she needed to conform a team was a monumental task from her point of view. She wasn’t very good at socialization and she thought that most of her classmates, if not everyone wasn’t fit to join the guild. She had to travel through the city, paying attention of her surroundings and the people in general. In a few days she had identified the majority of the citizens. Whoever that she wasn’t seen before and it was a potential candidate, she followed them in the distance.
So far, she was unsuccessful. In any case, in her school, she was more focused in her class duties and spent more time in physical exercises given that she didn’t interact with anybody. If there were two things she wanted to be prepared before joining the guild were her body and her mind. In time, she was the first of her class, something that surprised her teachers. She also spent more time in the library, learning about the general guild information and other stuff that could be useful and put it in practice.
In the days to follow, she started to wear a pendant with the team badge and his brother’s Sapphire. With that, she would remember for who and why she was going in that path. She was taking a difficult one, but it was push forward and live; or settle down and die.
For anybody it could be seen that she was starting to be optimist, something that didn’t approached to describe her. Instead, she was being realistic, with a strong base to withstand whatever the future wanted to throw at her.
