Ace

Chapter 11

  "Hi, Zorua!" I bent down to look at my new Pokemon, who stared back at me with its huge blue eyes. "Welcome to my team! I train Dark-type Pokemon, so you'll fit right in!"

  My Umbreon lifted it up onto my arm, but Zorua bit it and jumped back down. "Ouch! Zorua, why did you do that?" It merely turned away with a defiant expression on its face. "Come on, there has to be a reason. Tell me what's wrong. I can help." 

  Trying to be motherly, my Meowstic picked up Zorua and started stroking it, but this only made Zorua annoyed. "I know there's something bothering you, Zorua," I tried again. "As a trainer, I have to make sure you're happy and content. Why are you acting like this? Tell me, please."

  Still it didn't listen. Instead, it transformed into me, made me do a rude hand gesture (or two, or three, or I think it did exactly 17) at myself and promptly ran away. This made me flop down onto the ground in defeat. "Yveltal almighty, why won't Zorua listen to me?" My Absol padded over to my side and headbutted my arm affectionately.

  With no other choice, I went on Kinesis (A/N: Kinesis is the Pokemon equivalent of Google) on my Pokegear and searched up "Why won't my Pokemon listen to me". I found an article on behaviour problems in traded Pokemon on Pokepedia and clicked on it instantly. Turned out that traded Pokemon had their friendship count reset back to 0, so trainers had to further establish their bonds with Traded Pokemon.

  Knowing this, I sent out Murkrow and told it to help look for Zorua, while I followed it on the ground. We soon found Zorua perched on a tree eating a Sitrus Berry. "Zorua, come down!" I called out at it. "Let's go back to the city, I prepared some games for you to play!" Of course, I didn't, but a little white lie wouldn't hurt.

  I expected Zorua to jump down from the tree and follow me back to Anistar City, but instead it just hopped further up the tree and acted like I didn't exist.

  Sighing, I turned to Murkrow. "Murkrow, would you mind flying up the tree and reasoning with Zorua?"

  With a caw, Murkrow flapped its wings and flew up the tall cedar tree. But to my dismay, it returned a few minutes later without Zorua, but scratched, battered and pretty ticked off. "Never mind. Come inside your Pokeball to get some rest, Murkrow."

  I decided to take matters into my own hands. Gripping one branch, I hoisted myself up onto the tree and began climbing it. "Zorua!" I called. "Zorua, come down!"

  No answer.

  I found it at almost the top of the tree, trembling from the height. "Zorua, come down." I said gently. "It's really high up here, and you might fall!" But of course, like I predicted, it paid no attention and backed further into the branches. 

  That was the wrong thing to do.

  I heard a crack: small at first, but the sound grew louder and louder until the branch Zorua was standing on snapped. Zorua, branch and all, plummeted down a good 15 meters to the ground.

  Yelling in horror, I did something crazily brave and crazily stupid: I jumped down to catch it.

  Launching from the tree, I caught Zorua in my arms a couple meters down. "It's OK," I whispered, even though I was sure it couldn't hear me. "Don't  be scared, I'm here, you'll be fine."

 I squeezed my eyes shut and braced myself for the impact, hoping to shield Zorua from most of the damage. But instead, I guess Yveltal had other things to do instead of killing a 11-year-old. I landed in a stream and somehow still survived the impact.

  I surfaced, coughing, gasping and squeezing water out my honey-blond hair. "Phew!" I picked up Zorua, who, for the first time since it was traded to me, smiled at me. "Are you OK, Zorua?" I scanned its fur for injuries, but apart from a few scratches, it was unscathed. 

  It was that day I got the Tricky Fox Pokemon to listen to me. But again, I guess anyone would listen to someone who saved her life. Maybe Zorua was just being cheeky... it seems like I'll never know.