After the bath, Jessie slipped out first, immediately being enveloped by a Flamethrower. Not only did it have the benefit of instantly drying her, but it also meant that I wouldn’t be able to see anything. While I much prefer ice and water, fire could be quite useful at times, it seems.
By the time I finished tossing flames in Jessie’s general direction, she had already turned around, waiting for me as I pulled the plug in the drain. I pulled the curtain shut, closing my eyes before I shook myself vigorously. I really disliked needing to dry myself in such a fashion, but seeing as how Flareon is a dog-like Pokemon, especially with such poofy fur, trying to dry by towel would use up several towels at the absolute least.
Opening the curtain, I accept the towel that Jessie held out for me, using it to start vigorously rubbing myself as dry as I could. Jessie left once I took the towel, as she recognized that I did need to dry everywhere so… Yeah.
I just wonder if she was serious about sleeping on the bed tonight. I mean, it isn’t like the couch was that uncomfortable, and I don’t want to give her the wrong impression after we finally patched things up, but… Well, she was the one who offered, so even if she had changed her mind, I shouldn’t get yelled at for poking my head in the door, right?
Who am I kidding, I don’t have a death wish. I knock on the bedroom door lightly. “Jessie? It alright to come in?”
“Yeah, go ahead,” she replies, already sounding like she was dozing off.
I nudge the door open with my nose, padding in quietly. The room hadn’t changed much at all since the last time I saw it. There were still lavender curtains for the window, a small vanity in the corner, and small nightstands on both sides of the bed. And, let me tell you… This bed was impressive.
It took up, like… two thirds or so of the entire room? I mean, this bed was emperor-sized. Not queen, not king, but emperor. Sorry to repeat myself, but I just want to make sure you understand how massive this bed is.
Anyway, I carefully hop up, noticing that Jessie had chosen to curl up near the center, so I decided to sleep at the foot of the bed. On the rare chance that she changed her mind later, or something unexpected happened, I would be right next to the door.
I yawn widely, already half asleep as I start to curl up on top of the sheets, knowing I would be far too hot if I tried to cover myself with anything. “Goodnight, Jessie. Thank you…”
I don’t know if she replied or not, as I was already asleep the second my head touched my paws.
I woke some time later, and I could immediately tell I had slept far better than I did on the couch. I felt relaxed, and I wasn’t hot like I had been the past week because it felt like… Well, it felt like someone had wrapped a cold blanket around my back. I squirmed into it, a small smile forming as I felt how soft it was against my fur. It felt oddly similar to fur, but that just made it that much more comfortable. There was even a tiny fan blowing small puffs of cold air into my mane, but it was only the occasional small puff, not at all like the steady whir I was used to back on Earth.
I frown a little bit as I kick Brian from his bed. Hey, what’s up with the fan?
Flamingos and foxes.
Nnnngh… Brian, wake up. What’s with the fan? And… actually, since when is there such a thing as a cold blanket?
Nnn… Crystal?
Oh, yeah, that makes sense, I agree tiredly, starting to fall back asleep.
... Oh shit.
Immediately I tense, my eyes snapping open as we’re both suddenly very much awake. The cold blanket was Jessie. Evidently, at some point in the night, I can only guess that she got cold, and found my back and mane as an acceptable source of heat. I was, in essence, the small spoon, even though I was bigger than her. I would have laughed at the irony if I wasn’t frozen in terror.
She’s going to wake up. She’s going to wake up, and freak out, and kill me. This is exactly what happened before we even met, and she’s going to think I’m taking advantage of her, and she’s going to go back to thinking I’m a pervert…
Just stay asleep, bruh. Just play dead. She won’t kill you if you’re already dead, right?!
I… I’m going to wake her up.
Are you insane?! Just because you’re feeling suicidal doesn’t mean you should take me down with you!
I know, but it’s the only way! If she’s going to hate me, then I at least want to face it head-on. If I just lay here and wait for her to wake up, it would be pure torture! I may as well wake her up and get it over with, right?
... I was an honor to work with you, I suppose. May God have mercy on your soul.
Yeah… No kidding.
Swallowing hard, I take a shuddering breath before I carefully roll onto my stomach, wanting to carefully extract myself from her grip. My eyes nearly bug out when I feel her weight on top of me, her grip on my coat so strong that she had moved with me, while sleeping.
I am beyond doomed… I lament to myself. I carefully lay back down, shuffling over enough to let her lay where I had been, which was a bit warmer than where her cold body had been laying, and apparently she liked that, as she purred quietly as she nuzzled the back of my neck in her sleep.
I… I can’t believe you’re not dead yet, Brian gasps in awe.
You and me both, man.I’m just… I’m going to go back to sleep. At least this way, odds are I’ll die in my sleep. It’ll just be like dying of old age.
Yeah, may as well.
I close my eyes, resigning myself to whatever my fate might be.
I am woken up by Jessie shaking me. “Hey, come on, wake up already!” she hisses. “You’re laying on my arm!”
“Sorry,” I mumble, yawning as I shift to let her extract her limb from- Oh. So that’s how I’m going to die… I release the very weapon she’ll use as the instrument of my destruction.
“S’not your fault,” she replies, grumbling as she shifts behind me. “I just figured you’d be warmer than a blanket, so it’s my own damn fault for getting my arm trapped. I’d ask if you slept alright, but considering how hard it was to wake you, I’m going to take it as you slept well.”
“If you mean aside from the terror in the middle of the night to find out that you had decided to use me as a teddy bear and be scared witless that you were going to wake up and freak out on me like you did when we first met, then yes, I slept well,” I rambled, not having yet installed my filter for the day.
Jessie blinks. “... You are stupidly honest when you wake up, aren’t you.”
“To the point of suicide,” I agree, still not shutting up.
The female Glaceon grins widely. “Ohhhh, I am going to abuse this maliciously. But for now, we need to get going. It’s going to be dawn in a couple hours, and we need to be gone before then. You ready?”
I yawn, covering my mouth with a paw. “Hmm? Yeah, sure. S’not like I need to care what I look like, if we’re going to be traveling all day. The sooner we start, the sooner I get to earn my first break, after all. We can eat on the road.”
Jessie gave me a strange look. “Right… Let’s get going then. Daring said she’d meet us at the edge of the woods to the west.”
“Alright… You left the note for Kaye already?” I ask, stretching both to help pop some bones, as well as to make sure my muscles would be ready for the long hike.
“Yeah… I had actually slipped it into her room last night, but I know it’s fine, since she always goes to bed by eight, and I slipped it in at eight-thirty. I… Do you think we’re making the right choice?”
I pause, frowning in thought. “... Well, regardless of whether or not it’s right, it’s the choice we’ve made, so we should stick with it. We’ll just have to hope and pray that she’ll understand, and if not, that she’ll at least be able to forgive us. She deserves to live in a world that’s safe. Might be dangerous for us, but better us than her. Now come on, there’s no time to hesitate,” I say, moving past her to pick up the saddlebags to put on my back. “As the saying goes, “he who hesitates is lost.” We have chosen our direction. All we can do is move forward with confidence.”
“... Since when did you get so confident?”
“... Probably because I’m scared shitless,” I admit quietly, chuckling nervously. “It’s a lot easier to bluster your way through things and hope it all works out. If I actually stop to think about it, I’ll be too scared to keep moving.”
“Better get moving then,” Jessie says with an evil smirk. “I’m going to have fun watching you sweat yourself to death.”
“I can hardly wait,” I sigh, walking for the door.
As we snuck along the outskirts of Ponyville, the night sky still amazed me. Not only were the constellations different, but since Princess Luna controlled the night sky, there was nearly always something happening, whether it was a small meteor storm or an aurora.
I realise I have never really gone in-depth as to what Ponyville is like, and for that I apologize. I think it might be because it is still rather amazing how naturesque it is. Yes, the buildings all have electricity and whatnot, but every single house had room for at least a small garden unless you lived near the market-place, but even there the air just… It smells so fresh and invigorating, as if encouraging the small town to do their best to grow crops and sell their wares. No wonder the ‘crusaders’ ran around trying everything to get their marks; it was a good excuse to just run around and play outside with friends.
Regardless, Jessie and I made our way towards the meet-up point, and not for the first time was I grateful that having pawpads meant we moved with near silence. So long as we were able to control our breathing, we should be alright.
My fears turned out to be unwarrented, thankfully, as we slipped into Whitetail Woods. My mind wandered briefly, pondering if there were any deer, and if so, if they were sapient, but I did not wonder long as our dusty-yellow guide fluttered in front of us silently. She looked at me, her head barely moving to the side as the corners of her eyes seemed to tighten. I arched my eyebrow in response, wondering why she seemed confused, but it was ignored.
Seeming to shrug with her wings, she turned and began to lead the way through the woods. Jessie’s ears remained alert, and I tried to focus myself to remain vigilant. This was our first Pokemon adventure, after all, and I would hate to be the first to roll a Nat 1 on my Perception Che-
Snap!
… Dammit Brian...