Somewhere in Equestia: day twenty one
A delcatty was bouncing around, chasing a butterfly she had found. She found it fun to chase after one and not have to worry about sleep powder or poison powder. Chasing after her was a linoone.
“Can you slow down? I honestly don’t think that’s helping our little mission.”
The delcatty stopped chasing the butterfly and walked over to the linoone, her ears bent down to show she was sorry.
“It’s okay. I just really want to find my son and my mate. More so my son since he’s just a hatchling.”
The delcatty nodded and sniffed the linoone and then tried to find the similar scent of her mate or son.
“Anything?” The linoone asked?
After a few more seconds, the delcatty sadly shaked her head, before picking it back up and sniffing again.
“What is it? Do you smell one of them? Tell me!” The linoone exclaimed.
The delcatty turned to give her a look as if to say ‘Really? Tell you?’
“Right… can you, uh, mime it out?”
The delcatty tried to, but the linoone couldn’t figure it out. Finally the two gave up.
“Fine, let’s make it simple. Can you follow the scent that you smell?”
The delcatty sniffed a few times before shaking her head.
“It’s too old or too weak, isn’t it.”
Finally the delcatty nodded.
“You know what? We should take a break. We have been walking a while and it might take us a while to make some sort of shelter for tonight.”
The two pokemon gathered supplies from the area around them. The mostly gathered long sticks and rocks. After making a sort of tent like structure, they gathered long grass to cover it, which proved to be harder than it sounded, as it needed to be able to stay there through the night and a chance of storm overnight.
“So, who was it?” The linoone asked her friend as they worked. “The scent I mean. Was it a friend, or just somemon you’ve met before.” The delcatty raised her right paw.
“Friend, okay…” The linoone’s eye’s widened, “Was it your mate?”
The delcatty shook her head vigorously with a look to ask if she was crazy.
“Right, okay. Not a mate. Were you a trainer’s pokemon? And you smelled your trainer?”
The delcatty nodded her head. When she stopped nodding, she stomped her paw on the ground twice. That gave her a confused look from the linoone.
“What do you mean by that?” Again, two stomps. “Two stomps? Is that your way of saying two?” A nod “Two… two… Two what?” It took the linoone a second to figure out what her friend meant. “Wait two trainers? You have two trainers?”
The delcatty gave a small nod. “Well how did that happen, last I checked, pokemon can only have one trainer.”
After another try at miming out what she wanted to say, the delcatty got through to the linoone what she wanted to say.
“So, you belonged to one trainer, but after a while they gave you to someone else?”
The delcatty gave a nod. But her friend still questioned her answer.
“But then they would be your trainer, and not the other person, why would you still count that as two trainers. I mean the only way that would work was if…” the linoone figured it out. “they were family and the first one gave you to the other until they came back. And you were still with the second person when we came here, weren’t you?”
The delcatty gave a slightly sad nod. The linoone decided to stop asking questions as they continued their work. It was a little while before the linoone broke the silence again, this time, not asking about her friend, but about herself.
“I lived in the forest my whole life, as you could guess, but my mate was a trainer’s pokemon himself. His real trainer disappeared a couple years back, but he still lived with their daughter. He was sort of the only family she had after that for a while. He told me her mom died when she was about three and she didn’t have any hatch-mates. He became my mate about a year after his trainer disappeared, and we never really felt sure enough to have any hatchlings until earlier this year because of his trainer’s daughter.”
The delcatty pawed her friend. “What is it?” The linoone tried to figure out what her friend was trying to ask. “What? What do you want to know? More about me?” A shake. “My mate?” Another nod. “His trainer?” This time, the delcatty nodded.
“Well, I think he said his trainer used to be a gym leader, but stopped a little after he had gotten married because he wanted to have a family. It was easy because there was a willing trainer to take over. Even went and used the same type focus: normal. They moved to where they were living when my mate and I met. A little house in Cherrygrove City in the Johto region.”
The delcatty pounced on her friend, even shaking her back and forth with her paws.
“Wwwwwhhhhhhyyyyyy aaaarrrrrrrrreeeeee yyyyyooooooouuuuuuu sssshhhhhhhaaaaaaakkkkkiiiiinnnnnngggggg mmmmmmmmmeeeeeeee?” The linoone asked, hoping it would get her friend to stop. It did, and then the delcatty tried to mime to her friend again.
The delcatty pointed to herself. “You.” The delcatty nodded and then pointed to the linoone and then quickly to her side. “Behind me?” This earned a shake from the delcatty and she tried to act it out again.
“My… my… mate?” The linoone asked, sounding very unsure of herself. Fortunately, the delcatty nodded. “So… you… and my mate. You… you… know him?” This gave a big nod. “How? He never mentioned a mute Delcatty being among the pokemon he lived with unless…” The linoone connected the dots. Her mate’s trainer use to be a gym leader. Not just that, but a normal type gym leader. And what type was delcatty? A normal type.
“You two have the same trainer.” The linoone said; more of a statement than a question.
The delcatty started hopping around while nodding her head.
“But wait…” There was still one last thing the linoone didn’t understand. “if you were the pokemon of the gym leader who went missing, and he gave you to a family member, who-”
The linoone was cut off by the sound of thunder. The pegasi apparently had scheduled a rainstorm in the area for that night. The two pokemon raced into their little shelter, which, while it fit them was only barely big enough.
“Let’s get to sleep.” The linoone said, “I want to see if we can find a town or some forest for better shelter for tomorrow night. Maybe we can even find some ponies to help us find our friend.”
The delcatty nodded as she slowly fell asleep. The linoone stayed awake a little bit longer, and after her friend did fall asleep she spoke her question into the night. “Who’s your second trainer…”