Lea ran as fast as she could. She heard a few ponies or pokemon call to stop, but they didn’t try to make her. Eventually she found herself near the Everfree Forest. She only took a glance at where she was before heading straight into it. Eventually, she stumbled on some tree roots or some other plant. Lea landed face first into the ground. It happened to be wet, so her face was covered with mud.
She pulled herself out and made her way to a nearby tree to take a break. She had trouble relaxing even a little from all the sounds from animals in the forest. It left the Umbreon tense for a bit, but her exhaustion won out. Just a few seconds after closing her eyes, the former human had fallen asleep.
A growl woke her up again. She looked around but realized how dark it was. Knowing the sun and moon in this world worked almost exactly like clocks, Lea looked up. Unfortunately, the trees covered up too much of the sky. Though she could tell it was night, the moon wasn’t visible, which helped explained why it was so dark and she wasn’t glowing.
Lea finally seemed to react to the next growl she hear. Or, more likely, the smell. The Umbreon whipped her head around, her muzzle scrunched in disgust. She new every kind of pokemon, hard as it was, though she couldn’t always remember how they looked and some she couldn’t name off the top of her head. Still, the former human knew, without a doubt, that this couldn’t possibly be a pokemon, though she guessed if it were, it was ghost and plant.
She shook her head. The creatures were coming closer. She didn’t have time to dwell on what they were. All she needed to know was they looked ready to kill. If she were a normal pokemon, Lea might have beaten them with no trouble. Being a former human, however, she had trouble defending herself sometimes, especially under pressure.
Before she could react, one of the wood creatures had pounced and landed on her. She yelled as it bit her side. She tried using shadow ball, but it was weak and only surprised it. Before long, the whole group was attacking her. Lea’s body felt like it was burning up from all the pain. She felt tired enough from blood loss that she almost closed her eyes and knock out. But while a pokemon would stop, These creatures kept attacking.
Eventually, Lea felt to exhausted to try and get away and focused on staying awake. One of the wood creatures seemed to notice and pulled her across the ground. The rest seemed to follow it, so she guessed it was the leader. Lea started to notice her vision was not the best. ‘Blurry. Guess that’s it then.’ Finally, the Umbreon closed her eyes. She thought she heard something as sleep consumed her, or was it death.
Everything was white and bright. Lea wanted to look around, but she felt to tired to move. Her eyes were squinted from the light. Her hearing seemed to kick in a bit later. Voices were talking and there was a sound next to her that was slowly starting to become annoying.
Lea’s throat was too dry for her to talk normally and ask where she was. Instead, she was just left with a small croaking noise. She found it ironic that she made such a noise.
The voices went silent and she could hear some kind of movement. She could feel herself being moved to a point that she was no longer looking straight at the light. Instead, her vision was directed on a pony. The mare seemed to have a mint colored mane in a bun and a coat the color of periwinkle.
“Oh good, you’re awake. It wasn’t another false alarm. Floral? Can you find the family and tell them she’s woken up?”
Lea heard the pony that was being spoken to call the periwinkle one Tender. Lea tried to ask Tender where she was, or what happened, but she still had trouble speaking. The mare seemed to realize this and quickly got her a little bit of water to drink. Some dribbled out out Lea’s mouth, but with her condition and the mare’s lack of magic, it was to be at least somewhat expected.
Finally, Lea was able to ask her questions, though with some difficulty. The pony answered as best as she could. She was in the hospital in ponyville. She had been attacked by something in the Everfree and a friend of hers had saved her. She’d been out for a while, marking this the second time that she could remember that was near death for her.
One of the pokemon that had started to help out in the hospital had been doing as best as they could to heal her quickly. There had been some complications, as the healing had left in some splinters that had made their way far into Lea’s body. They assumed Timberwolves, to which Lea agreed.
This made Tender panic for a second before she calmed down again. “Sorry, I forgot for a second that your kind of pokemon have some amounts of poison going through you already. Your friend says Umberon can sweat poison. So I’m guessing that if you did come in contact with a poisonous timberwolf, you seem to have no effects.”
Lea corrected the nurse on how to say her pokemon name before asking what she meant about the timberwolves. Tender explained how timberwolves are made of the plants from the Everfree. If those plants happened to be poisonous, they could be very dangerous.
It was then that Lea could hear her family coming in. Kya was the first voice she recognized from the group. The Quilava seemed to want to jump onto her mom the moment she was in the room, but the nurse stopped her. Matrix was the next voice she heard.
“How is she doing? I know she was bad when I found her. Is there anything else wrong that you’ve found?”
The nurse asked Matrix to calm down. “She’s fine. Other than being attacked, she seems to have been hit on the head. Fortunately because you pokemon are so resilient, she didn’t get a concussion, but you may want to try and stay away from and physical trauma. You might not know when enough is enough, and too much trauma can actually cause memory loss.”
It was then Lea could see the time. Her eyes widened at what she saw. “We’re gonna be late!”
The Umbreon ignored how much she ached and started to get up. Tender tried to keep the former human down, but she refused. “I bought tickets for Canterlot the day we got here. I need to pack my bags so we don’t miss the train.”
The nurse kept trying to get Lea to keep resting, but eventually, the pokemon won. The second Lea was let out, she wanted to run to the room they were staying in and pack her stuff, but Linoone wanted her to first see the others. Caddi, Midnight and Citrus hadn’t been let in since they were only friends while family was present.
They left the room and found their friends in the lobby of the hospital. Caddi was the first to notice Lea coming out and zoomed to hug her. The former human liked the tackle-hug at first, but it started to hurt after a bit and she had to push away the changeling.
Looking around, Lea noticed Angela was nowhere to be seen. Lea was half glad, though she was wondering where her adopted sister was. Sparks seemed to notice that and answered with his limited vocabulary. “Angy pack stuff! Train meet!”
Lea sighed, though she wasn’t sure if it was from relief that the Absol wasn’t around right then, or that she wouldn’t have to pack after getting hurt. Either way, Lea followed as everyone went towards the train station. Midnight was the only one who didn’t, as he left to find Angela and help her carry everything to the station. As they all walked. Lea was on of the few who was silent. The others talked about everything that had liked about Ponyville, what they couldn’t wait to see in Canterlot, and also a little bit about thinking about home.
Matrix saw that Lea was trailing behind the group and slowed down a bit to walk next to her. He tried to ask Lea what was wrong, but she refused to talk. The shiny pokemon decided he would get something for his partner to eat, seeing as how she had slept through most of a day and most likely hadn’t had anything since lunch the day before.
Sparks and Ziggs had made one last stop at Sugarcube corner and gotten even more candy apples. Linoone scolded them for using up so much money on the sweets, but was nicer after he had gotten one. The candy made Lea smile for a bit, but she was back to frowning before long. When Angela and Midnight returned, they didn’t have to wait long before the train arrived. Caddi took the tickets and gave them to the conductor as the group got on. Lea went straight to a car with beds in it. Seeing as how she had slept for around a full day already, Matrix followed her in.
When Matrix was sure it was just the two of them, he started to talk. “Lea, stop pretending.”
The former human looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean?”
Matrix shook his head. “I mean, I can tell something’s wrong. You’re keeping something bottled up.”
“Matrix, just leave it alone.”
“No!” Matrix said somewhat forcefully, which surprised Lea. “When something happens, I stand by because it’s usually something small. Ever since we ended up on Equus, you’ve been separating yourself from everyone even more.”
“Matrix, You know I woul-”
“Shut UP!” Matrix yelled, baring his teeth at Lea. “You may try to be with others, but you keep the important things in. I want to know what’s happened. You’re getting worse every day. And I don’t want you to keep anything hidden, you’ve done enough of that already.”
Lea was too shocked to do much. She stared at her brother wondering both if she really had been that obvious and if he really needed to know everything. As she stood there, a few tears went down her face, though she didn’t notice them. Not wanting to wait any longer, Matrix brought Lea over to somewhere to sit so he could hear the full story.
“Ahh! No! Daddy!” Lea shot up in her bed.
Her face was wet and her nose felt clogged. Her nightlight gave her enough light to move around her messy room without tripping. The hallway was darker, but she knew the way to the bathroom.
The little girl closed the door to the bathroom before turning on the light. She took some of the toilet paper and blew her nose. On her tip toes, Lea could see her eyes were red and she still had some snot on her face. She wiped her face before she washed it. The wash cloth made it a little pink, but at least it was cleaner.
Lea went back to her room and grabbed a flashlight. She use it to look at the clock on her nightstand. It said that it was only a bit before two in the morning. Even though Lea had gotten back in bed, she didn’t want to go to sleep.
She was terrified by her nightmares. She didn’t really know what they were like before. Lea barely even had dreams when she slept. Mainly she only saw colors. Her dad had told her it might be something related to hypnagogia, but he hadn’t checked yet.
Finally, Lea decided just to go downstairs and get something to eat. She didn’t bother being quiet, there wasn’t really anyone in the house to wake up. Linoone might, But he sometimes slept outside. Before long. Lea fell asleep at the table, glad not to have another nightmare.
Lea’s grades had been dropping. She didn’t sleep as much and barely ate. Her teachers were worried and wanted to schedule a meeting with her dad. Unfortunately, they could never get ahold of him.
They weren’t as worried though. Lea was a smart student, and she was only getting a C in her worst class. Still, wanting to contact someone, they called a friend of Lea’s dad to see if he he could catch him.
“Hello, is this Pryce?”
“Yeah, who else would it be? What do you need?”
“I’m the principle at the Cherrygrove City. We know you’re friends with one of the student’s parents. A man by the name of Samuel Sumisu.”
“...”
“Hello, are you still there?”
“Yeah, I’m still here. What do you need.”
“Well, his daughter has been doing badly lately.”
“Lea?”
“Yes, her. Her grades have dropped recently and she seems tired all day. We’ve tried to contact her father, but he has never been home when we call.”
“I believe I can find the time to visit them. Thank you for your call.”
“You’re welcome.”
There was a knock at the door. Lea jumped at first, but realized it didn’t sound forceful like the police had. She called Linoone over in case something happened before opening the door. The person at the door made Lea smile. “Pryce! Why are you here?”
“I came looking for your father. He and I need to talk.”
Lea looked at the ground. “He’s not home.” The gym leader asked when he would be back. “I don’t know, he’s been gone a while.”
“Oh? How long? He might be back soon if it’s been a few hours or so.”
Lea shook her head. “No, longer. I haven’t seen him for a month.”
Pryce stared at her for a bit before shaking his head. “Now don’t exaggerate. He can’t have been gone that long.”
But Lea insisted. She told him how one day her dad was gone, and how the police came, and the nightmares, and how she had been living alone for so long. Pryce didn’t want to believe her at first, but he didn’t think Lea would try to make up a story like that.
After that, Pryce tried to make sure Lea was in a good condition, getting some of her father’s other friends to help as well.
Jasmine was both sad and happy. She was sad she would be gone from Olivine city for a few days, but she had made sure any challengers would know she would be back soon and Amphy seemed fine. Even though she had only met Samuel a few times, the other gym leaders seemed to want to help.
It was her first time visiting Cherrygrove City. Jasmine had gotten the address of where she needed to go and found it quickly. It was in an area that had less housing areas and she recognized it from the Oran tree in the front yard she was told about.
Jasmine knocked lightly on the door. When no answer came, she knocked again, though this time it was louder. In a little bit, the door opened to a little girl. She asked who Jasmine was before opening the door for her to come in.
Nothing much happened. Jasmine helped Lea cook a dinner that was healthier than what the girl made herself. The most exciting thing that seemed to happen when a Linoone appeared and started going around like it had been there the whole time. When the gym leader asked Lea, she said how it had been he dad’s. Jasmine didn’t want to pry, but in a few minutes, Lea was crying anyway.
Jasmine continued to work on the dinner. She felt nervous being there, but she blocked it out as much as she could by imagining Lea was just Amphy. When she had finished, She put the food into the refrigerator for Lea to heat up later. She was going to wish Lea goodbye, but instead, the girl was gone and her father’s Linoone seemed to panicking. He kept running up the stairs, banging against something, then running back down.
As Jasmine ran up the stairs with Linoone to see what was wrong, she wished Pryce hadn’t convinced her to do this. Why couldn’t this girl live with someone else, or go to an orphanage. It had been a year, her father wouldn’t come back now.
One of the doors in the hallway upstairs was closed. It had an indent where Linoone kept running into it. When Jasmine tried the handle, it was unlocked. She guessed since usually the pokemon was there, Lea forgot she needed to lock it. Inside, the room was empty. It confused the gym leader before she saw the window was opened. Running to it and looking outside, she saw there was no type of balcony.
Above her was a short yell. Jasmine looked up at the roof to see Lea climbing on it heading towards the chimney. Jasmine called up as loud as she dared. Fortunately, Lea was able to hear it. Unfortunately, it made Lea speed up. Jasmine didn’t realize what was happening until Lea was on top of the chimney, standing up and looking at the ground. As Lea jumped off. Jasmine’s Steelix came out of it’s pokeball. He barely caught the girl before she reached the ground. The force of the stop had made one of her arms come out of it’s socket, But Jasmine helped fix it.
“What were you thinking? You’re glad I brought Rusty with me. Linoone? Can you make sure she doesn’t try to leave again. I need to call Pryce.”
It had been a while since Lea had met Angela. Still, Lea sometimes got nervous around her adopted sister. For the most part, the Absol didn’t show her emotions, and if she did, it was normally anger. Still, Lea knew there wasn’t really anything to be scared about. That was just how Angela acted.
Some of the fear did come from when Angela had mega evolved the first time. Even though the Absol still couldn’t control it, at least everyone knew what to expect. But even before then, there was still something making Lea wary. Before they had met Angela, the only Absol Lea had ever seen belonged to one of the people in the Team Rocket group that almost kidnapped Matrix.
The events of them meeting Kya didn’t help either. Both she and the Cryogonal there seemed to be staying there. Lea couldn’t help wondering why. The Cryogonal that been hostile, like it had been raised by someone evil or was evil itself. Could it have come from someone from Team Rocket?
Still, Lea didn’t want to think that way. There was such a small chance, she didn’t want to assume that was the case. Angela had saved them. She couldn’t have been that Absol. So why did Lea still have just a little bit of doubt?
Lea realized it wouldn’t be too hard to give up. Let them kill her. It wasn’t as if she’d get out soon. Arceus might have told the ponies they were sentient, but these ponies didn’t seem to care. Maybe pokemon liked to battle, but not like this, and Lea didn’t know how to use any moves.
The only thing still keeping Lea from giving up was her family. She didn’t want them to lose her like she had lost her dad. Still, she kept wondering if it was worth it. They wouldn’t be alone if she was the only one gone, they would still have each other. Besides, she didn’t know how much longer ponies would be interested in her. There were so few that came, that Lea wouldn’t be surprised if it came soon.
The Umbreon hoped she had been counting the days correctly. If so, it had been about a week. She gave a tired and weak laugh. How had she managed to stay this long? Maybe it really was time for her to give up. If she hadn’t gotten out in a week, why would she get out now?
When Ire came in, she looked especially angry. The second one of the dogs made a noise, she hit the door of the cage making it rattle loudly. Finally, she stopped at one a few down from Lea and yanked it out. As the unicorn looked around, she came towards where Lea was. The former human guessed this was it, she would give up and let this be her last day. But instead, Ire opened the cage just next to her.
The angry mare looked at Lea for a second. “Be glad that we were asked for normal fights today. But don’t look to happy, You’re still getting at least one match today. You may think you’re special, being able to last so long like this, but if you haven’t guessed, we’ve been going somewhat easy on you compared to what could have been.”
Lea wasn’t exactly sure what to think about that. Ire left without either of them saying anything else. She sat there for a while, dwelling on what had just happened. Maybe it was some kind of sign for her not to give up just yet. There was something there helping her keep going. And that was really all she needed.
In a bit, Quarry had walked in to give the animals food. Lea felt that it was off with coming now. When he arrived at her cage, the Umbreon though she saw a look of pity on his face. He gave Lea her food, and she was about to thank him, though she knew he couldn’t understand her. Before she could, however, the pegasus turned around and bucked the cage door, making Lea flinch. Maybe she was imagining things, but maybe it would get a little better soon.
Lea finished her story. Matrix stood there staring at Lea before he hugged her. “What brought up all of this?” He asked.
Lea sighed. “For me, when I work, things feel normal. It helps me block out anything bad happening. Angela kept trying to get me to stop and it made me get angry again. It made me think about how long I’ve had to wait, and with everything that’s been happening recently, I worry if I’ll ever actually find my dad. With our luck, he’ll be leaving Canterlot when we get there.”
“Don’t worry, We’ll find him.” Matrix reassured as she hugged her a bit tighter for a second. “We’ll find him. We’ll find… our dad.”
To the side, Somepony started crying. “Th-that was beautiful!” Caddi, sobbed. She pulled them in a big hug. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to you guys! I’ll make sure of it.”
Suddenly Caddi dropped them and stopped crying. “Well, as best I can. But I don’t know who will need more help in Canterlot. Can’t wait ‘til we’re there!”