Whisper in the Water

It is another battle. She can tell the moment she appears. The other pokemon's breathing is labored, meaning it has probably fought at least one before her.

It sounds big. She focuses, pasting together the sounds until she manages to come up with rhydon. She remembers them. They looked like a kangaskan or a tyranitar. She had never seen a rhyhorn, so she had no idea of how close it was to its earlier form.

She hears the other trainer order horn drill. The attack is very inaccurate, but the other trainer probably thinks it won't matter.

She can dodge very well, but she is still grateful the trainer chose such a noisy attack. It makes it easier for her. She was never one to try to challenge herself in battle, to see how much better then the other pokemon she was.

She was never one to battle at all for a human, but now that choice is not hers to make.

She did try to escape, but she never bothers anymore. Before, there was a slim, a very very slim chance, but still a chance, she might make it before her owner recalled her. That chance is even less now, but that is not why she does not try. Escaping doesn't matter. She would never make it back, after all.

She had evolved at a very young age. She had always known what she wanted to be. She searched constantly for a stone, being too impatient to wait and let it happen naturally. After evolving, she had said a quick goodbye to her family, then ran to the nearest river. From there she swam to the sea. She had not left the water again until she was captured.

It has been years now since she has swum in water. The last time was in a stupid little pool, so shallow she couldn't even go under fully and the water was that flat, stinging stuff the humans poisoned. Sometimes when her trainer is watering plants or something, she is let out and splashed a little. Her skin, which was at first sensitive to the air currents, is now hard and it hurts a little to move.

In the cool waters, she might go for hours at a time without opening her eyes. The feel of the water currents against her skin told her everything she needed to know. Nothing could sneak up on her. She would feel them coming a mile away, know what they were and how strong, if they were dangerous or friendly.

Then humans came and caught her. Because she was rare and because they could.

The weak air current is completely insufficient to the total knowledge the water gave her. Even on day one, with her skin still healthy, not cracked and slightly bleeding on occasion, it was very hard to feel opponents coming.

Still, she was strong and fast and had experience dodging. She did well.

She never obeyed her owner then. She doesn't obey her owner now, although she should be glad her owner keeps her. Her owner reminds her of this at least daily. But it isn't charity or guilt that makes her owner keep her. It is because she can dodge attacks almost flawlessly.

If she thought it would make her owner get rid of her, release her back into the water, she would let them hit her all they wanted. But if, if her owner releases her and doesn't just sell her to a collector, she will not be released in her home. She will just be dropped on a dusty road and left. Once that would have satisfied her, but now she wouldn't be able to find her way. She would probably die there, or perhaps be captured by another.

She couldn't dodge them all. In the water she was untouchable, attacking perfectly in darkness, warned of every attack, but not here. Once of the few hits that managed to land left a permanent reminder of this. The claw mark of a feraligator runs right across her face and through her eyes.

All she ever desired to be was a whisper in the water. Now she is here, fighting others without reason, blind when she now needs sight, and trapped.