-Last Leaf-
--A NaNoWriMo excerpt from Paupe/Asda
At the center of a small island parting a wide stream two pokemon would meet, one a Jolteon and the other a Leafeon. The Leafeon, the male of the couple, was graceful and patient; charming in his own charismatic way. The Jolteon, female of the couple, was agile and quick witted; despite often expected to be hot-headed and rash. They would meet at first at odds, seeking shelter from the rain in the crevice below this tree while blind from the storm’s torrents and deaf from its roars. Then consistently, finding friendship betwixt one another and parting from their families to revisit each other again. Soon, they would grow to trust one another more, become intimate, long to start a family to add on to their own, and eventually, do so.
Their first litter was also had under this tree; raised here from birth to youth. It was a litter of 4 Eevee, each with a personality of its own mirroring an aspect of their parents. One was brave, the other cunning, the next athletic and the last of the earliest charming. Each grew exponentially it seemed, coming of age to leave the nest within only a single seasonal cycle, and returning from season to season stronger, more mature, more prepared. Eventually, though, their numbers would slowly die off as, one by one, they began to no longer return. Soon the proud parents, now well-seasoned in age, were alone once again and endured the cycles rediscovering their love for one another.
Eventually, though quite unexpectedly, the female gave birth once more. This time to a single kit, one who would be both the last birth and breaths of her life. His name, her last word, was Feuille, and his father swore to protect him in her honor and memory…
Till he no longer could
“Dad!” Feuille shouted. His father lay wounded before him. His breaths were labored, his muscles tired, his once beautiful, vibrant frame battered and beaten into near-submission, but still he attempted to force himself to a staggered stand.
“Run, Feuille.” Was all that he could order to the young Eevee with a full breath. “Run home… far away from here.”
“But Dad!” his son retorted, tears welling up in his youthful eyes. “Y-you’re all I have!” He was scared. VERY scared. This wasn’t exactly a common occurrence in his life and was taking quite the toll on his nerves. His weary father batted an eye his way and slammed a paw onto the ground in front of him. He flinched, but once he opened his eyes again, he saw his father displaying a small spider smashed onto his pad. The Leafeon sported a grin, chuckling softly at his son’s panic. After a moment, Feuille joined him, chiming in with his own boyish laughter.
A twig snapped. Thinking quickly, the evolved eon leapt into the bushes with his son in tow. He held the eevee’s mouth as footsteps quickly passed by, the trainer chasing after them narrowly missing them by seconds. Feuille took the resulting moment to embrace his father closely.
“What am I supposed to do without you?” he asked.
His father cringed at the words he was about to use, but knew it to be the only ones true to the moment.
“I’ll always be with you.” The Leafeon said.
“…Really?” his son replied. Not out of skepticism, but more out of curiosity.
His father soon gave, a short pause following as he thought of a reasoning under the sounds of the voices of their hunters panging back and forth between the solid wood trees surrounding them.
“…The trees.” He thought aloud, catching his son’s ears. He didn’t wish to be one to predestine the young eevee’s second evolution, but “…when you’re older, you’ll be able to speak with them, and through them, you’ll always be able to find me…”
“Always?” the boy chimed in.
“Always… Now go.”
Last order received, Feuille nodded gently and gave his father one last loving squeeze before following through, looking back only for a second before being shooed off by his father’s directing gestures.
He managed to make a short bit of distance before he felt a sudden snag on his tail. Tug as he may, he couldn’t seem to get it free. Though before he could turn to see what it was, he soon heard its voice;
“Well, what do we have here?” it said, “a little runnawa—oof!”
The sound of bodies colliding together. It was his father protecting him, shoving his former captor aside and shouting his command “Go!” once more. Feuille needed no second warning and flew, darting through the brushes of the forest as fast as his tiny legs could muster. He couldn’t stop; he wouldn’t stop, not until he was safe again and far from the range of the trainer’s commanding voice.
“…Arcanine, use…”
---
Feuille arrived at his home in shambles. He was exhausted. The trek was already a bit too much for him, but the added baggage of the events he’d witnessed, the suffering he endured as he watched his father be trounced about, the pain of leaving him, order or not, weighed down upon his heart heavily. He couldn’t hold back his tears, his worries, his loss. At just a few season before his sibling’s departures, still so young, he would have to endure such loneliness. Just then it dawned upon him that there would be none to look after him, none for him to hold during those stormy nights when the sky roared with its unwarranted anger, nor when predators neared seeking their daily supper. It was his first taste of hopelessness…
That’s when something struck the ground outside his family’s little burrow beneath the island tree. At first he recoiled, fearing that his latter thought was already becoming a reality. But, after a while of silence, the little fox’s curiosity piqued. He poked his head out of the entrance cautiously, looking around for something. Anything at all. Perhaps even just a strand of hair from his father, just to show that he was safe. But, to both his relief and dismay, Feuille found nothing. Not a footprint, hair or breath but his own in the leaves surrounding the great tree. Just a small, colorfully wrapped candy sitting on the ground before the den… perhaps that was what fell.
He gave it a sniff and a teensy nudge with his forepaws. It smelled of something sweet and edible, and by golly if he wasn’t hungry from his long run. He looked around a bit, making sure that he was, indeed, alone. No poachers, no predators… it couldn’t hurt to take a little bite, right? So he did.
The little eevee then blacked out.
---
Feuille awoke in a daze. The last thing he could remember was enjoying one of the sweetest morsels that he’d ever had in his life, and then suddenly feeling woozy. He yawned, inhaling some much needed oxygen to his brain, then stretched his seemingly tightened back, lifting his light tail to to give it that extra—wait…
Feuille blinked. His paws were a much lighter brown than he remembered, and his limbs far longer. He sat up on his haunches and gazed down at his new self. A small tuft of leaves protruded from his chest now, and a few from his paws as well. He also couldn’t help but take note that the sun’s rays felt so much more uplifting and fulfilling than usual.
“Good morning, little Feuille.” a voice called out from behind, to which he leapt. His eyes were met with nothing when at first he turned around. Though the tree he originally sought reference under appeared so much more alive than he was accustomed to.
“It’s about time you woke up, dear.” The voice started up again. “For a moment there, I thought that rare candy had knocked your poor self into a coma. My, am I glad that isn’t the case.”
“Erm… Excuse me, miss,” Feuille began. He was guessing at the “miss” part, considering that the voice came in at a near-impossibly neutral tone to his new leafy ears. “W-where are you?”
“Where am I?” she mused, “Why, you’re looking straight at me. Or should I say, at my roots, you naughty little boy.” Feuille’s cheeks burned furiously at the moment, lifting his head almost immediately. There was no doubt now, it was the tree whose voice he was picking up; Quite the eccentric one at that.
“Ack-I… I’m sorry, miss.”
She laughed, “I jest, dear. You and your family have been living down there for ages now, pay me no mind.” Her laughter continued for a short while longer as the new Leafeon exhaled and fell into a more relaxed state. Her laugh, it was the kind of laugh one would expect of someone from another, older culture. He wouldn’t dare ask her age, as irrelevant as it was, but thankfully he wouldn’t exactly have a problem gauging it for himself. He bowed courteously (or as close as one in a new body could), starting to introduce himself formally before he was met with another round of laughter from the tree.
“Ah, pardon me, dear. There’s no need to introduce yourself to me, I’ve known you since before you were born. You’ve always been quite the splitting image of your father, young and handsome; of course now you look a lot more like him than ever.” Feuille blinked. “Go on, take a look” she said. The ever-curious leafeon couldn’t help but do so, making his way toward one of the stream’s sides and gazing over his reflection.
She was right. Though he had his mother’s unusually-colored deep, dark blue eyes and sharp leaves at his chest, his reflection showed that his features truly were shaping out to be just like his father’s. This only served to upset him more so than help. He didn’t want to fill his father’s shoes, he wanted to be with him. To be at his side, just as he had been for his first days, when he was just born and his father tried to walk him through as much as possible for living a successful life. A tear broke the surface of the water. Then another, and another… it wasn’t long before he was weeping again, the memory of his father fresh in mind.
“Aww… What’s the matter, dear?”
“He’s gone.” Feuille whimpered, “I’ll never see him again. My Dad is gone.” There was silence. Being immovable, this was news to the tree of the small isle. She could do none more than give the boy his time as he continued to weep.
“I don’t have… anyone else…” he sobbed, “…No one will ever… ever care about me again…”
“Now, now, don’t say that, dear.” The tree spoke up again. “I have known your mother and father since they were pups. I watched them grow, aided them with my fruit, and in turn, they spoke with me, kept me well nourished and helped me grow into the beautiful being that I am today. While I may not share the exact blood, you and they are the closest things I could ever have to family… They welcomed me as a part of your family, to forever take part in their lives and the lives of their offspring. I would never forsake that bond.”
“… but, what does all that mean…?” Feuille said, turning away from the slowly rushing waters.
“It means, dear, so long as I am here, you will always have someone to care for you.”
Now, given any other day the sentiments of a tree would mean nothing to anyone, but given this new warmth that Feuille could feel from her and his desperate need for it now, he couldn’t help but make his way over to the base of the tree yet again. Taking a seat at the entrance to the home she provided for him, he placed his cheek to the bark and nuzzled there affectionately. What he expected to be rough was, instead, quite soft… and warm. Unlike when he was an Eevee, Feuille could hear her, feel her, and smell her, just like any other living being he encountered.
“Thank you, miss…. Uhm…”
“Heheh, just call me Flora, darling… And you’re always welcome. I’ll do whatever I can within my power to take care of you, just as I do my very leaves. Of course you’ll stay alive a lot longer, but still—haha.”
Feuille chuckled gratefully, still nuzzling the loquacious tree at her roots. He couldn’t explain it, or why it felt the way it did, but, it all seemed so right now. So this was what his father meant…
“Thank you, Flora.”
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