FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"So all these years, my best human buddy wasn't human?..", asked James Gregory, after I had finished telling him everything my father had told me. James has long been my best friend, ever since we met in school about eleven years previous. Over the past year, though, we had both become trainers and, because of our travels, had seen less and less of each other. "And I suppose the proof is right in front of me, isn't it?"

"But why did you want to be a Lopunny?" This time it was Kyle, James's Grovyle, who addressed me. If it didn't feel weird enough being able to understand him, our difference in height sure made up for that. The last time I had seen him he was a Treecko, a little green and red tree lizard. He was now much taller, and since I was much shorter than I used to be.. It just felt pretty odd to be looking up at him rather than down.

"Well, isn't it obvious? Kyle, just look at Lapin. It doesn't take a genius to notice that something's out of the ordinary." A look of realization came over Kyle's face as he stared towards Lapin, but all of us were glaring at James too intently to notice. Confused not by what I had just heard, but who I had heard it from, I was the first to voice our collective mental dilemma.

"James.. can you understand Kyle?" James smiled and nodded, before he explained.

James suddenly looked as though he'd said something he shouldn't have. "Man, I wanted to hear about you first.. Ah, well. I can understand Kyle, yeah, but I don't think it works the same way as it does for you. It's not limited to him, either; I can understand almost all wild pokemon, and a few tame ones. And now that it's too late.. I suppose you'll want to know how, yes?" All of us nodded. "Well, alright, but it could take a while.."

_ _ _ _ _

Over the past year I've been to every region of the world. I've also seen quite a few places that aren't even on the map. If you have a pokemon that can take you out into the ocean, you can find islands so small and undeveloped that most people would pass them by without a second thought. A few months ago my idea of fun was going out to these islands and seeing what there is to see, and capturing a few pokemon if I get the chance.

One island in particular caught my eye one day. I can't tell you where it was, because honestly, I wasn't paying all too much attention, but I'm sure it was far off the coast of.. well, someplace in Sinnoh.. Anyway, this little spit of land was the most overgrown place I've ever set my eyes upon. It was as if someone had taken an entire forest and tried to cram it into an area the size of our hometown.

I decided to explore it and see if I could find any pokemon to catch. Not a few feet into the trees and I saw just how tightly they were packed together. It was enough to make me think that the close proximity couldn't possibly be healthy for all of them. It wasn't long, however, before I encountered my first pokemon there; a Mightyena. It was a strong looking one, too, and its black and gray fur had the most beautiful sheen. Needless to say, I tried to catch it.

But fighting in such a cramped space was new to both me and my pokemon. The Mightyena, however, knew how to maneuver itself through the trees incredibly quickly. One by one, it beat my pokemon, until it set its sights on me. It ran at me and headbutted me in the stomach, and I collapsed. It took the presented opportunity to maul my back with its claws; I still have the scars.

After that, everything is kind of a blur, and next thing I knew, I woke up in a small bed within a wooden hut. The first thing I noticed was the searing pain of my back. After I had a chance to grit my teeth and bear it, I surveyed my surroundings a bit more thoroughly. The strangest thing about little house was that there was no metal anywhere. In fact, the blanket I had woken up under was made of what appeared to be animal skins, rather than wool or any synthetic cloth.

Not only that, but the most advanced pieces of technology in the entire hut were the hand-crafted bow and arrows placed against a wall. Other than the bed, a wooden table, and a few simple-looking stools, the place was rather bare. But it wasn't hard for me to put one and one together and realize that someone had rescued me from the Mightyena. I soon grew worried about my pokemon, however. I wasn't even wearing my trainer belt anymore.

As soon as I felt that moving wouldn't hurt too much, I got out of the bed and walked to the doorway, which was devoid of a door, just as all the windows were devoid of.. well, windows. What I found outside was a clearing, which I had earlier doubted could be possible in a forest as thick as that one. The clearing wasn't large, mind you, the trees were still close enough to form a rather complete canopy above.

Nearby I saw a roaring fire set down in a pit, with some meat skewered on sticks criss-crossing the pit's opening, cooking slowly. The smell was really something, but disturbing thoughts started creeping into my head; what if that meat turned out to be one of my pokemon? The freshly bloodied stone knife sitting near the fire didn't exactly fill me with hope..

"Is this yours?" The voice, without any accent, had come from behind me. I turned around, and saw something rather unexpected. It was a man dressed in a rather thrown-together-looking assortment of what appeared to be wood-studded leather. The most striking thing was his extreme height, coupled with the fact that he had approached me soundlessly. He was holding up my trainer belt, which had been clawed apart in one place, explaining how it had fallen from my waist.

"Wha.. Who are you?", I responded. He didn't answer. He merely shook my belt, which I took to mean that he expected me to take it back from him. I walked up and did so, after which he spoke again.

"Sorry about the Mightyena. I tell him not to hunt visitors. He doesn't listen. He brought you here. Has a taste for humans. He likes me to cook his kills for him, but I don't cook human." The way he spoke was very odd; only in quick, basic sentences. I was about to ask him again who he was, but he cut me off. "You want my name?" I nodded. "No. No names. No use here. I am a man. You are a boy. Mightyena is Mightyena. Simple."

"If you don't mind my asking, why do you speak so.. bluntly?", I said, for lack of a better word.

"I do not speak much. No use here. Here I speak with body. Simple. But I remember words, for visitors." Before he continued, he pointed to the belt in my hands. "They looked bad. Mightyena talked about them after bringing you. He wanted to eat them. I told him no. I went and found them and healed them. Then I put them in the balls. I have lived here many years. I still remember how to use balls."

"Why do you live on this island? I can't imagine living like you must here.." The thought of all the things one would have to leave behind in order to live like this man did made me cringe. A life without technology wasn't exactly something I fantasized about, but this man and his ways did seem to have a sort of old world beauty to them.

"Life here is simple. A simple life is a good life. Simple. I have a question for you. Why do visitors ask so many questions? Too.. unsimple." Philosophy from the animal-man. I had to admit that he had a point, though. I started to see that asking questions sort of ruins the fun of finding out the answers. "You can leave when you want. I will lead you to the water. But you should stay. You look like you need more.. simpleness in your life."

"Huh? You mean I should live more like you?" He nodded. "But.. but why would I do that? I have a good life back on the mainland. I still don't really understand why you live like this anyway.." He seemed to grow a bit frustrated.

"I told you! Being simple is good!.. Ah! I know. Do you have money?" I said yes, and explained how profitable being a trainer was. "Do you buy food? And clothes? A place to sleep?" I nodded. "There! I make them. I catch animals. I cook them. I turn skins into clothes. I build my house from wood and string from their muscles. I don't need money. No use here. Animals have a use. Trees have a use. Rocks have a use. I have a use. A simple life is a good life. It lets you use what is useful, not words or money."

It was then that the Mightyena decided to show up. He waltzed into the clearing, took one look at me, and began to growl and bark. The man moved between us and extended his arms outwards. He began to make deep, throaty noises, as though he were growling right back at the Mightyena. Suddenly the Mightyena jumped at him, tackling him to the ground.

The man was far from being overpowered, however, throwing the Mightyena off of him easily. What happened next will stick with me the rest of my life; the man ran at the Mightyena, which was on its back, and held his arm against its throat, staring into its eyes... Just staring... And in a few moments, the Mightyena relaxed, and the man got off of him.

He had been telling the truth earlier when he said that he communicated with his body. The way I saw it, those two didn't need speech. They could speak to each other with stares. They could converse with actions. It was a way of communication based not on speech, but on the senses we all are born with, no matter how much we take them for granted. Simple.

_ _ _ _ _

"And I did stay with him," James went on, "For a month or two. I learned more from that man about fending for myself when all I have is my own two hands and the rocks and trees around me than I would have ever thought possible. He taught me how to cook, skin, sow, harden leather, hunt, fight, craft things from wood and stone, and even how to interpret an animal's tone and body language, which works even better with pokemon.

"All it takes is paying close attention and using your instincts to form an educated guess," he explained, "Sadly, like humans, most pokemon who spend a lot of time around them tend to lose bits and pieces of the way they once were. It's much harder for me to understand what a tame pokemon wants to say when it.. let's say.. bites me. Maybe it doesn't like me. Maybe it's hungry. Maybe it's trainer told it to and it had no choice.

"When a wild pokemon or animal bites me, a grown human, it wants me to leave it alone. I have no reason to pester it unless I'm hunting, so I can go on my merry way. When a tame pokemon bites, I can talk to its trainer, or forget about it, or teach it a lesson. Much more complicated. The island man was right; a simple life is a good life. But as long as everyone else has a complicated life, mine can't be as simple as his.

"I'm forced to make do with something in between.. but at least I came away from it all with a few skills most people nowadays don't bother with, and a better understanding of nature." We had all been hanging on James's every word, but now that his story was over, I had nothing to say. Jenna, however, did.

"It kind of makes you question how we live our lives, doesn't it?" And it did. I thought about how, even though I am a pokemon, I have much less experience with living with nature than James does, a full-blown human. Of course, that's not all my fault. I was raised to behave like a human and that probably won't change naturally anytime soon. I looked around, and it appeared that almost everyone else was lost in thought.

"But enough of my life", said James, breaking the silence. "I haven't heard anything from you besides what my father's told me for a good six months! What have you been up to?" As he asked, he sort of nodded his head in Lapin's direction. I blushed beneath my fur, but answered all the same.

"Traveling, mostly. I've been to every region, too, but of course, without a flying pokemon or a water one, all I got to see was the mainland. In fact, I haven't caught any pokemon since we last saw each other, besides Omen." I indicated her to James. "She asked to come with me just the other day. It seems there aren't as many willing pokemon as there used to be."

James looked a bit impatient, and I had an idea of why. "Um, you want to know about me and Lapin, don't you?" A smirk that said 'finally' took shape on his face. "Ok.. where to start? Ah! The last time we were back home in Cerulean, I had a rather interesting experience during a training session. I was helping Lapin to practice a new strategy by being the guinea pig.

"The idea was that if she uses Charm on her opponent, and then hits him with Dizzy Punch, the opponent, instead of attacking themselves, would start loving themselves like they were Lapin. It worked, alright. When I had returned to normal, all three of my pokemon were laughing at me, but Lapin's laugh sounded really.. disturbing. When I said this, Celeste compared it to something her mother had gone through upon evolution into a Lucario.

"She told me to think about Lapin's voice, and when I did so hard enough, I wound up being able to understand her speech as though it were in my own language. Mind you, I had always loved Lapin, but being able to understand her made me realize it much more fully. We confessed our love to each other that night, and from then until now our relationship has done nothing but escalate. I even impregnated her a week ago.. The eggs are due in a bit less than two months", I said, warm thoughts filling my head.

James raised an eyebrow. "Huh? I've spoken to a few pregnant Lopunny, and judging by what they told me and what I've seen, Lopunny pregnancy is almost never as long as two months. On average it should only be about one, and the Buneary would hatch in about a week or two, if they're kept warm." I, too, raised one small, round eyebrow.

"Really? But the machine that Joy used said..", I paused, thinking for a few moments. If the machine used to monitor Lapin's pregnancy had simply worked based on what DNA was involved, then it would have thought that I was mostly human, and there can't really be that much evidence about cross human-pokemon pregnancy, since it doesn't happen much, if at all. There was nothing for that machine to base its information of off, and since I'm not even human, the test would have to be completely void in the first place.

I turned to Lapin, who was looking quite confused. "I'm thinking that the test we got couldn't have been right, Lapin. Even though I look like a Buneary, and any test will say I have human DNA, I'm still a Mew, and that means I'm pure pokemon. Even though Mew may have some special powers, our entire family will still be pure pokemon. Doesn't that mean that your pregnancy should be just like normal?"

Lapin stood there a few moments, her eyes giving her the look that she was soaking the information in. But soon, it hit her. "Yeah.. yeah... But Chris, that means we'll get to see our babies in just a month!", Lapin said excitedly. She then snatched me up and squeezed me too her, kissing the top of my head. When the same knowledge reached me, I had a similar reaction, hugging her with my ears. It almost felt as if every bit more firmly that I pressed up against her, I was that much closer to my children.

_ _ _ _ _

"So has being one of Chris's pokemon always been this odd, or did I just come in at a crazy time?", asked Omen. Nexus chuckled.

"He's always been different. Most trainers just try to use their pokemon to be the best, but Chris just lives his life with his pokemon. But recently... things have been getting pretty strange, yeah. It doesn't seem to faze him, though, and that's what I find the strangest." Nexus stared over at Chris, in Lapin's arms, as always. He was still finding it hard to believe that Chris could have fallen for her, let alone that he isn't human. Everything had been happening very quickly in the past weeks, and Nexus was trying his best not to think about it all at once.

"He just lives his life, huh? And are we expected to do the same? I don't know about the rest of Chris's pokemon, but that sounds pretty boring to me. To be honest, besides you, everyone on this team seems like they've gone soft. Back in the wild, I didn't just fight to live, I fought because I liked it; if we don't get to fight, I'm not sure I made the right choice in coming along." Omen looked blankly ahead, considering her options, when Nexus replied.

"I told you before, didn't I? Chris will let us practice whenever we ask. In fact, I'm up for a fight right now if you are." At this, Omen hopped up, stretching instinctively in anticipation. She wagged her blade-like tail, looking pleadingly at Nexus. "I'll take that as a yes?" She nodded, and Nexus chuckled again, getting up himself.

On the way out of the Pokemon Center, Omen called out to Christopher. "Hey, Chris!" Chris raised one droopy ear before doing the same with one equally droopy eyelid. "Is it alright if me and Nexus go spar for a bit?", she asked. He scratched the back of his neck with his remaining ear, before nodding his OK. Omen grinned, and continued outside with Nexus.

They walked out into what appeared to be the same clearing in which Chris fought Jenna's Bessy earlier. Each took their side and a shared nod passed between them, signaling the start of battle. Neither charged the other, though. They began slowly, circling around the center of the clearing, watching and waiting for the other to make the first move.

Suddenly, Omen's steps became more intricate, making unneeded movements more and more frequently. Nexus correctly identified this as the move Swords Dance, a sort of ritualistic dance to raise one's strength. He had never seen this move before, and hoped that she would be incapacitated while using it. Taking the opportunity, he charged headlong at Omen. She dodged skillfully, and attempted to strike back with a Bite, but Nexus jumped away as best he could.

Again, they circled each other, on equal ground once again. This time, Omen took the initiative, darting towards Nexus with a Quick Attack. He saw it coming, but knew he was too slow to dodge it. Instead, he braced himself, recalling what Chris had told him to do in a situation like this a while back. Omen collided with him, head to head.

"Agh!" It was Omen, not Nexus, that cried out in pain. He had gotten hurt a bit, yes, but one look at Omen showed him that it wasn't regular pain she was feeling. His plan had worked, and Omen had been shocked by the natural static electricity that gathers around a Luxio. Once again seizing his opportunity, Nexus closed the distance between himself and Omen, trying to get in a Bite of his own.

Omen made to dodge out of the way, but an aftereffect of the shock put a stop to that, causing her muscles to spasm and freeze for a second or two. It was more than enough time for Nexus to sink his fangs into her left flank, drawing blood. Omen cringed in pain, and when she regained control of her body, she spun around, forcing Nexus to release his hold on her. She sliced his cheek with her sword-like tail while he was pulling away.

Omen turned back around to face Nexus, but found him charging towards her again, electricity streaming off of his fur in his wake. He hit her hard, sending her flying across the clearing and shocking her once more in the process. She clenched her eyes, trying to fight off the pain, and when she opened them, Omen saw Nexus's claws at her throat, and a stony look on his face. He had won.

They stayed motionless for a time, in complete silence, before Nexus's expression softened up. He knelt down before Omen, offering her his back. She crawled slowly up onto it, stopping almost involuntarily every now and then. When she was on top, Nexus stood up and trotted at an easy pace towards the Pokemon Center, not wanting to risk hurting her.

"Hmm.. Maybe this.. this won't be so boring.. after all.."

_ _ _ _ _

To be continued.

_ _ _ _ _

I'm quite busy nowadays, and haven't had much time to write, but I do whenever the chance reveals itself. Updates for this story will be coming very slowly for a while, but I'm sure you all won't be missing them too badly.

And as I stated in my Journal, this story will probably be a bit less about Chris from here on out. Telling it like this is really holding my interest in writing.