An Absol's Life

History of a Different Family

I silently followed Snow through the dense undergrowth, trying not to trip over anything, still feeling disorientated from the transformation. Besides, my weight was no longer distributed the same way, which meant that I would have to alter my stride to better support it. Besides, how many people would have grown accustomed any quicker than I have, after having undergone such the sort of transformation that I had? I mean, does that even happen to people? Is it even meant to happen? 

Granted, in pokémonology, I had heard that pokémon undergo both micro-evolutions - which in the terms of my country meant the commonplace metamorphosis of a Metapod into a Butterfree, or a Charmander into a Charmeleon - and maco-evolutions that happened over multiple generations, developing new micro-evolutionary lines, new forms and new species - in the way that Vivillions living in different environments possess different wing colours to help them blend in better, or how Vivillion originally developed from the same branch of ancestor species that Butterfree and Beautifly had - but humans...? I had never heard of us evolving from Pokemon and had no idea if humans had evolved from Pokemon.

I sighed and started concentrating on the dull present once again. I would have loved to turn back to my human myself, but that, it appeared, was not an option.

Not being able to withstand the silence any longer I start off another conversation. "So where do these 'friends' of yours live?" I inquired, hoping that he would reply. It was strange to consider the idea that he might actually have had friends living here. Generally speaking, I received many of my pokémon from breeders - I only very rarely put faith in the half-wild ones, being perfectly aware of their less predictable natures and aggressive tendencies - therefore I surrounded myself with pokémon who'd spent their whole lives in captivity. Which didn't exactly give them a chance to interact with wild animals. 

Then again, most of those pokémon would never act as disobediently as Snow. Besides, from how easily he'd parted from the day before my transformation-

A chuckle forced me to face the present again and lead my gaze back towards the aforementioned absol. 

"Two of them aren't really my friends," he explained. "More like my family. The third one isn't related though. He's a Charmander. Anyway, we don't live very far from here. We're almost there, in fact." 

That was when he slowed down, eventually stopping as we reached a clearing within the forest, where except for a few shrubs and rocks, there wasn't much that rose above the height of our heads. Lush green grass, mottled and disrupted by occasional patches of moss spread beneath our feet in a soft layer. 

"Why are we stopping?" I asked, unable to see where there could possibly be shelter here - some place a family of feline creatures could make a home out of. Instead of responding, he looked scanned our surroundings, squinting. His tail seemed to twitch, and even the horn in his head seemed move the slightest bit at the base, which struck me as odd. Sniffing the air, he crouched, as if prepared to jump on something. 

Before he could, something else pounced on him. A flash of orange appeared out of nowhere, pinning Snow to the ground. 

Having had never fought anyone in my life - except for that one time in school when I punched a girl for laughing at me and earned myself a detention for it too - I couldn't but stand frozen, shocked and unnerved. Granted, I've fought using pokemon. But I never fought pokemon. I never really fought alongside my pokemon either.

I found myself blinked when their short-lived quarrel stopped and the Charmander backed away from Snow.

"Snow?" The Charmander frowned. "Is that you?" Excitement lined his face.

His 'friend' sighed in relief as he got up to his feet. If this hadn't been someone he'd known, we'd probably  been dead - and quite possibly cooked - meat by now. I couldn't say the thought. felt me feeling comfortable about the great outdoors, no.