Chapter Ten
It was a little after midnight and Seth found he was unable to sleep. The night was pretty warm and he wondered what summer would be like, if it wasn’t summer already. He was covered in very thick and very warm fur… hot weather was going be a nightmare.
“And I think the strangest things at night,” he muttered into his teacup. He’d written out the letter he wanted to send to Aurea but highly doubted that the post office would be open this late at night. He’d prepared a pot of Fritter’s apple tea and now sat alone on the couch, sipping at it every now and then.
“Equestria… I can still hardly believe that we’re in a whole other world, I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it.”
He sipped at his tea again. “But now that we’re here, what am I supposed to do? No Leagues, no more prejudice against Pokémon/Trainer love… well, no law against it anymore anyway. My goal before I started my ‘crusade’ was to win the League with Ignis and Selene… and now that plan’s pretty much impossible now.”
He sighed as he laid his head on the table. His thoughts wandered to his past, before he left on his journey… how long had it been since he thought about those days?
*~*
A young Seth Crescent sat on his bed, stacks of books piled up around him as he studied one after the other. From math, foreign languages (Kalosian and Kantonese were his favourites), as well as economics and even survival guides.
The sound of someone clearing their throat next to him finally garnered his attention and he looked up to see an older woman standing next to his bed.
“How did I ever guess I’d find you here?” she giggled, earning a deadpan stare from Seth.
“Because I’m always here?” he replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Yes, well…” She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “There’s someone here to meet you… if you want to?”
“Someone wants to adopt me, again?” Seth groaned and closed his book. He stood up and followed the woman into a meeting room. It was a very warm-feeling room, lots of landscape paintings, a comfortable couch and even a mini-fridge!
A young couple sat on the couch, the woman was nervously fiddling with her fingers while the man just placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“We’re back,” The woman with Seth announced. “Sorry to keep the both of you waiting.”
“I-It’s okay, thank you for seeing us Mrs. Haleth,” the nervous-looking woman replied. “And… you must be Seth?”
Seth nodded, he already knew how this conversation was going to go, he’d had gone through it dozens of times by now.
“Look,” he said, taking a breath. “I’m sure you’re wonderful people… but I’m not interested in being adopted. There are a ton of kids here who’d like to be, I’m just not one of them.” He gave the couple a polite bow and left the room before they could reply. The reactions he’d gotten from potential parents in the past had been quite varied, from disappointment to actual anger at being disrespected. He’d seen it all.
About twenty minutes later, Mrs. Haleth, the woman who ran the orphanage came back into Seth’s room, sitting on the end of his bed and sighing.
“Well, they decided to adopt little Alice… so I guess that’s a plus.” Seth just nodded in response, his eyes never leaving his book. A slight smile crossed his face though, happy that someone got a chance at a family life. He liked Alice too, she made him smile.
“So you’re really set on this aren’t you?” Kimberley Haleth said. “You want to find out about your real parents?”
Seth nodded, closing his book. He had been left at the orphanage at only two years old, the whereabouts of his biological parents unknown. His last name, Crescent, came from the blanket that he’d been wrapped in, one covered in stars and a large crescent moon.
“I have my school exams tomorrow, followed by my Pokémon Trainer licence test next week… Once I have that, then maybe I can…?”
Kim nodded, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I know how much you want to find your parents, but you needn’t sacrifice your own happiness.”
“M’not sacrificing anything,” Seth mumbled as Kim hugged him. “I’m happy enough here and soon I’ll get to be a Pokémon Trainer, so I’ll have that too.”
“Well, it’s getting late so pack up your books and I’ll go and get dinner ready,” Kim put him down and walked towards the door. “We’ll have your favourite tonight hmm?” Seth just grunted a response and nodded. Kim closed his door and soon the young boy was left alone… again.
His solitude didn’t last as his door opened and three other boys walked in, the lead one had a wide sneer on his face.
“Well, so the ‘golden boy’ turned down another lot of parents huh?” He kicked a stack of books over, spilling them onto the floor. “What, they weren’t good enough for you?” This had become something of a regular occurrence, some of the kids at the orphanage didn’t like that Seth was a popular adoption candidate, despite the fact that he would always turn them down.
“I didn’t ask to be adopted and at least someone did, so leave me alone.” Seth cringed as the kid booted another stack of books across the room.
“Look at little Mr. Perfect, all the adults wanna adopt him, but he just keeps crying for his Mommy! He’s even Mrs. Haleth’s favourite!” A third stack of books received punishment. “Why don’t you do us all a favour and just LEAVE!”
The three left, leaving Seth to pick up the scattered books. “I plan on it,” he muttered softly.
***
The exams had gone as well as expected, Seth had aced them with flying colours and now at age ten, had a higher school education. He could now take as long as he wanted on his Trainer journey without having to worry about school work.
His good mood suddenly fell when he saw Mrs. Haleth standing outside the orphanage, a concerned expression on her face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, and the woman looked like she was about to cry. She led him to his room to find it completely trashed, most of his books had been torn or utterly destroyed, and lying amongst it all, was his blanket, the one link he had to his parents. It was cut into tiny pieces, beyond any hope of repair.
He tried to be strong, without his parents and with Kim’s attention divided up amongst all the orphan kids, he would often have to rely only on himself… but this, for some reason he just couldn’t stop the tears.
“Why?” he said, his voice hitching. “It’s only a stupid blanket, so why can’t I stop crying?”
Kimberley hugged the child, the one responsible had already been punished… but it would undo what had already been done. “I’m sorry, I should have locked your door, or kept a better eye on them…”
“S’not your fault,” Seth said, sniffing. “I should have told you what they were like…” That answer got a gasp of surprise and a little bit of shock from the woman.
“This-this isn’t the first time?”
“It’s the worst they’ve done,” Seth began to pick up pieces of the blanket, holding the shredded strips of cloth. “But it’s the last time they’ll do something like this because I’m leaving tomorrow. I have no doubt that I’ll pass my Trainer exam and I’ll leave immediately.”
“Seth, please…” Kim looked down at the floor. “You should give it a little thought, put a little more planning into it.”
“I’m only causing you trouble, I’m making the other kids angry as well as potential parents. It’s better for everyone if I just go as soon as possible.”
Seth was as stubborn as a Rhyhorn when he set his mind to something. It was an admirable trait most of the time and Kimberley Haleth knew that changing his mind was impossible. But there was something that she could still do, but she didn’t have much time.
“Just, make sure that you come and see me before you go, okay?”
Seth was silent for a moment, before nodding and made a quiet promise to do so. The two soon began to clean the room together, not a single word was uttered.
***
True to his word, the young boy passed the exam and received his licence to officially train Pokémon and compete in League sanctioned events, such as the Gym challenge and Contests.
The nearby laboratory in Nuvema Town was fair walk from where the orphanage in Striaton City, at least three days. Seth figured that if he travelled during the day, and stuck to main roads then he should be able to avoid wild Pokémon and get there safely.
Despite how he was feeling, he wanted to keep his promise to Mrs. Haleth and after he packed a few trinkets, he headed for her office. When he got there though, not only was she waiting for him, but an elderly gentleman was there as well.
Kim hugged the boy when he entered and spied the Trainer card sticking out of his pocket. “So you passed? Not that I had any doubt.”
“Yup,” Seth nodded, a wide smile on his face. “Though I wouldn’t have without all the tutoring you gave me.”
“You’ll accomplish something great one day… I can feel it.” She motioned towards the man standing next to her desk. “I’d also like to introduce you to someone, he’s an old friend of mine. Seth, say hello to Cedric Juniper.”
“Well, so this is the bright young man you told me about.” Cedric crouched down, looking him in the eye. “You’d be a little younger than my daughter I think, perhaps you might become friends?” Was this man here to adopt him? A last ditch attempt to find a home for him?
“Look, Mr. Juniper, I know you mean well but I’m not looking for a family, I’m looking for my family-” Seth was cut off as Cedric laughed heartily.
“Oh, no. I don’t think I could handle another child, little Junie is a handful as is.” He reached into his pocket and produced some items that Seth had only seen in books and on television, a Pokédex and Pokéballs, three of them to be precise.
“I run the Pokémon Lab in Nuvema Town and Mrs. Haleth here told me that a promising young man would become a Pokémon Trainer today. So I thought that I’d save you a walk and bring your Pokédex and starting Pokémon to you.”
Seth had no idea what to say. This was Professor Juniper!? Why didn’t he make that connection? “Y-you came to give me a Pokémon?”
“Yup!” Kim smiled at Seth’s surprised face. Such an attentive boy was difficult to get the drop on, in fact, the recent birthday parties she’d tried to throw for him had been a total failure.
“Now, I’m a little low on what I had available at the lab, but I’m still able to give you the choice of a Fire, Water or Grass type Pokémon.” He pressed the buttons and released three Pokémon, a Charmander, A Snivy and a Totodile. “So tell me young Seth, which one would you like?”
It was an easy decision as Seth knelt down in front of Charmander, “This one for sure.”
“Hah, a fiery Pokémon for a fiery kid! I should’ve guessed.” He recalled the Pokémon and handed Seth the Pokéball. “He’s a wild one, but has a good sense of honour. Did you want to give him a nickname?”
A nickname? Yeah, he had one in mind. “I think I’ll call him… Ignis!”
“A fine name if ever I heard one,” Cedric said, patting Seth on the head. “And I think Kimmy’s right too, I bet you’ll do something great.”
Kim stepped forward and handed Seth a parcel, he opened it to reveal a backpack and a jacket… as well as a neckerchief with the same pattern as his blanket. When he looked closer he saw it had a patchwork stitch to it. He realised that it was made from the scraps of his blanket.
And once more, he found that he couldn’t stop the tears that flowed down his cheeks. He almost leapt at the woman embracing her in a tight hug.
“Thanks so much… Mom,” That simple little sentence soon had Kim crying along with him. For him to call her that, she knew it was truly something special.
“I mean it,” he added. “You’ve looked after me this whole time, and even when I was acting like a spoiled brat and turning down all those potential homes, you still stuck by my side. Even if I find my real parents, you’ll still be Mom to me.”
“I’d be proud… to call you my son,” she replied happily. “So very, very proud.”
*~*
Seth suddenly awoke with a start, he didn’t even realise that he’d fallen asleep. Groaning as a mild headache from sleeping on the table began to form, he realised that a blanket had been draped over him. He looked towards the couch, where Apple Fritter was nodding in and out of sleep. He smiled and walked over to the mare, prodding her gently with his paw.
“Hey, time for bed don’t you think?”
She looked at him sleepily and nodded, “Sounds like y’all had a nice Mom.” Those words threw him for a loop.
“W-what? How do you know that?”
Fritter smiled, “Y’all talk in yer sleep. Ah didn’t hear the whole story, but it sounds like you loved her a lot.”
Seth closed his eyes and smiled. “Yeah, I reckon I did.” A hopeful thought that she was also brought to Equestria crossed his mind, did Arceus even bring humans that weren’t trainers? “I want to meet her again, to tell her that I’m doing alright.” His gaze wandered back to Apple Fritter as she rummaged around in a washbasket, filled with all sorts of things like towels and aprons. “Uh, Fritter… what are you doing?”
“Ah’m looking, umph, fer sumthin’,” She tossed a few things here and there until she let out a triumphant whistle. In her mouth was a blue piece of cloth, one was a starry pattern and a patchwork stitch.
“Y’all had this around yer neck when I found you. It looked dirty so ah thought ah’d wash it for you…” Seth sat down very suddenly, his legs refusing to work. “But with all that’s happened in the last few days, ah plum forgot to return it to you.”
“That… that’s my…” Apple Fritter walked back over to him, placing the small garment in his paws.
“Is it somethin’ special to you?”
“More special than anything else I ever owned.” He held the neckerchief close to his chest and then pulled a surprised Apple Fritter into a hug. She yelped in surprise, but suddenly looked up when she felt something wet drip onto her coat. Seth had tears streaming down his face as he smiled, “Thank you for returning it.”
She wrapped her forelegs around the big Luxray and nodded, smiling back up at him. “Anytime.”
*~*