A Different Kind of Trainer - Chapter 3
#3 of A Different Kind of Trainer
The flames of my camp fire flickered brightly in its ring of wood smoke stained stones. Little tongues of fire licked skywards, crackling like a cascade of pebbles down a cliff side. I sat facing the fire, enjoying its warm glow, while Razz and Lusu slumbered at my sides. Leaning back, I rested against my backpack, halfway asleep myself, as the evening slowly disappeared into night.
We'd come a long ways today, even with the near-constant interruptions. First the late start, then running into Shelly, then finding the wounded growlithe, and even spending a chunk of the afternoon enjoying ourselves in the river. Even with all of that, we'd already passed by the first way house. It was occupied when we arrived, though, so at Razz's urging, we'd come here, to a deserted little camp site choked with bramble and overgrown with moss in disuse.
But ignoring the dilapidated buildings off to my left, and the saplings that'd grown across the trail I'd followed in, the fire circle was still clean and clear, and the ground around it was devoid of undergrowth for five paces in any direction. In other words, perfect for spending the night. It'd taken half an hour to collect some discarded wood. Lusu had dried it, desiccating the wood with a seldom-used trick with steam she'd learned some years back. Razz had lit the fire with a simple arc across his tail. With the fire going, the old camp site felt a lot closer to a pleasant place to sleep.
I picked up my chopsticks and poked disinterestedly at the little orange strips of pickled ginger that were left over from my dinner. My mother would be giving me her sternest gaze, if she'd known that I was considering leaving the pickles uneaten. Then, when she'd turned her back, I would have quickly flipped them down under the table, where Lusu would have been waiting for her after-dinner treats. By the time Mom had turned back around, I would be gazing with distaste down at my empty plate, faking chewing with the over-exaggerated acting that only a child can get away with.
Lusu had been a lot smaller then. That was before I'd given her a waterstone I'd received for my 13th birthday. On that day, she was already 6 (as close as we could tell) and was growing up to be the most talented buisel in Twinleaf. She and I had had run and swam on my school's relay team for three years, and just the year before, we'd taken second just behind a sixteen year old and his milotic from Veilstone. We were the talk of the town, the cream of Twinleaf's (admittedly mildly aenemic) crop. And on my 13th birthday, my uncle Cedar visited from Eterna city, with a rather small gift box in his luggage.
I think Lusu could feel the contents of the box from the moment Uncle Cedar arrived. She kept her nose pressed to his luggage from the first moment he stepped through our front door, and when he'd unzipped the top, I had to restrain her from digging through his clothes. Once he'd picked the box from his belongings and was holding it out to me, Lusu was watching it every second, unable or unwilling to tear her eyes from the diminutive container. At his insistence, I tore into the present, and out had tumbled a small blue, quartz-flecked rock.
Uncle Cedar said that it showed her dedication to me that Lusu didn't immediately devour it; instead she stared at it for a moment, the gazed up at me, her eyes wide with a hunger I'd never seen her display before. I reached down, picked up the waterstone, and held it on my open palm to her. Immediately, with a lightning-quick snap, she snatched it from my hand. Her jaws crunched twice, then the evolution started.
In school, I'd been taught to look away during the evolution. Some of my fellow students felt that it was bad luck, or that if you watched your pokémon transform, it would hate you for it. My teachers said that the final moments of the evolution weren't meant for human eyes, that it would cause physical damage to the retinas if we gazed too long.
But if I'd paid much attention to what my teachers in school had tried to teach me, I would never have been the child pokémon trainer prodigy that I'd grown up to be. Lusu and I had improved by bending or breaking most of the rules. Teachers said that pokémon learned better by training with their own kind. I trained Lusu with my cousin's, whose gible and treecko were far from my little buisel's own kind. Teachers said every pokémon should be kept in their own pokéball at night, where they'd be more comfortable. Lusu had spent one miserable night in hers, then I'd never inflicted it upon her again. Teachers said that you should never let your pokémon think of you as anything but a trainer, or they'd stop obeying you in combat. And, well, let's say that even though we weren't as close then as we are now, Lusu and I were inseparable, even at that young age.
Teachers also said I should look away, but as I saw the light start to shine through Lusu's lush fur, I couldn't help but keep my eyes locked on her swiftly changing form. Her fins lengthened, and her air sack slowly crawled down her back as the transformation took hold, until the collar encircled her entire body around the side. And she grew, by the dragons how she grew! Her entire body took on the same glimmering luminescence as she lengthened and widened. By the end, it was so bright that I was beginning to fear that my teacher was right, but just as the light started to cause the backs of my eyes to itch and I was about to avert my eyes, the evolution finished. With a rather dazzling flash of sparkles that left me with stars in my vision (and the start of a rather spectacular headache) the glow flicked off like a light switch, and Lusu stood in front of me, half again as tall as she'd been before, and shimmering in her splendorous new form, my family all held their breath as she opened her mouth for the first cry of her new form.
"Bui!" I think my parents kept holding their breath, waiting for me to act angry, or upset, or saddened. Again, my teachers had said that a newly evolved pokémon should immediately start making the sounds of their new species, even going so far as to say they weren't even physically capable of making their old, "childhood" sounds. I'm sure my parents thought that there was something wrong with Lusu.
But I thought it was the best sound I'd ever heard her make. Even though she was a full-fledged floatzel now, big and powerful and officially an "adult", she was still the same Lusu I loved. Even if she now came up to my shoulders when she stood up, and I couldn't recognize any of her new features, with just that one phrase, I knew she was the same buisel baby I'd found abandoned on the lake shore those six years ago.
Without much enthusiasm, I tossed the pickled ginger strips one-by-one into my mouth, tolerating the mild bite of the vinegar, then the sour after-taste that, after a few seconds, left my mouth tasting clean. Dinner officially finished, I crumpled the box and jammed it into the rubbish sack in my backpack. Still stuck in the melancholy memories of life before I'd left home, I ran my fingers through Lusu's thick fur. She rolled over in her sleep, laying on her back with all four of her legs kicking in the air. I stroked along her chest and belly firmly, just the way she liked, and lay next to her. I could feel Razz shift behind me, huddling closer to me to stay in physical contact.
Sated and lazy, I lay back on my battered little camping matt. The chill of night had a certain bite to it, but it was nothing that being snuggled between two pokémon couldn't rectify. Up above, stars winked from between swaying treetops. My fire had burned low, but I'd fed it enough that it'd last through most of the rest of the night. Content and happy, my eyes drifted shut as the stars began to waver dizzily above me. Within minutes, I was asleep.
"Bui!"
The room was silent. My parents had the same smiles pasted on their faces as just moments before. But seconds ago, those smiles had been joyful and sincere, but now, they suddenly looked strained. Uncle Cedar, normally so animated and full of life was standing in the corner like a brooding statue, his overgrown beard twitching like a bush full of starlies.
I was aware of all of this, but in my youthful excitement, their worry and disappointment made no sense. I looked to them for approval, and all I saw was fake smiles.
So as I had so many times over the last six years, I ignored them. There was one whose approval I cherished more than any, and she stood in front of me, as tall as my shoulders, with toffee brown fur glimmering in the fading after-effects of the evolution. She opened her mouth again. "Bui!"
It was my Lusu. I'd never seen a pokémon like her, but even though she was bigger and darker, and her fins on her forelegs were twice as long as my hand, I'd recognize her call anywhere.
Relief and joy flooded through me. All those nasty rumors about pokémon's nature changing after an evolution were just that, rumors. I rushed forward and pulled Lusu into a tight hug. She returned it excitedly, nipping at my clavicle, while her twin tails thumped the ground in a strange, off-beat rhythm. "Bui! Bui!" She kept calling, and I kept hugging.
Finally, I heard the room begin to move around us again, my parents patting me on the back. Uncle Cedar was mumbling through his beard "Strange, very strange." I even heard Jun, my father's monferno servant, clapping in the background.
Behind us, the room slowly emptied as my family wandered off to an impromptu dinner. Conspicuously alone, finally let Lusu free from the hug. Her ears were flushed, and she was breathing heavily, from the evolution I supposed.
"Come on Lusu, extra fish cakes tonight, I'm sure you'll need them!" She gazed at me as if she were looking straight through me for a few moments, then with a shake of her head that quickly involved the rest of her newly formed body, she nodded and leaned forward. I caught her as she tripped over her feet awkwardly.
"Heh, bet it'll take a little while to get used to the new shape, eh?" She shot me a challenging look, then pushing away from my shoulders, tottered towards the kitchen uncertainly. She almost fell twice, but when she reached the door frame from the lounge, she leaned on it and looked back at me steadily from over her shoulder.
"No time at all. You're going to have to work to keep up with me." Her body posture and eyes spoke to me, even though she didn't vocalize a single word. I'd always known what Lusu was trying to say, even if no one else in my family could understand.
Accepting the challenge, I walked to the kitchen, while she wobbled uncertainly next to me. I picked at my dinner, the excitement having left me in the mood for anything but food. The family whirled around me, saying their congratulations and marvelling at what a beautiful floatzel Lusu had evolved into. Time spun quickly, as it does in dreams, and the evening came and went. Dinner finished, parents said their good nights, and Uncle Cedar retreated to the guest room.
Lusu and I retreated to my attic room, ducking as we wended up the staircase to avoid thumping our heads on the angled roof. As I had every day of my childhood life, I stripped naked and crawled into bed. I expected Lusu to follow me, but as I started to drift off, the indentation in my mattress where she usually curled up laid empty.
Curious, I opened my eyes again. The excitement of the day had left me lethargic and drained, but I just couldn't get to sleep without Lusu's familiar weight by my knees. Instead, she was still standing by my bed. Low light had drained color from the room, leaving her bathed in greys.
I whispered, afraid of waking up my family. The walls and floor were tragically thin. "Lusu, you can't sleep standing up."
She wavered, caught in an indecision I simply couldn't understand. She stammered a bit, her ears back and tails still behind her. "Buh. Beh..." For the first time in years, I simply couldn't understand her. I realized, in a strange moment of clarity, how strange she now appeared to me. She was still my Lusu, yes, but now there was so much more of her than I remembered. She was just as big as I was, and probably many times as strong. It suddenly dawned on me that she might be just as nervous about her new form as I was.
"Don't worry, Lusu. You'll get used to it. When you wake up tomorrow, I bet it'll feel like you've always been like this."
She paused, then leaned forward, crawling onto the bed on all fours. I reached out with one hand, stroking her throat to calm her. She was hot, hotter than I'd ever felt her, and she was shaking a bit.
"Lusu, what's wrong? You're a gorgeous floatzel now. You don't have anything to worry about." She let out a half-hearted Bui, then finally laid out on the bed. The bed springs creaked under her, and with her nose pressed to my neck, while her tails flitted against the sheets near my feet, I realized I'd need to shift over to make room for her now. She wouldn't just fit near my knees.
I shuffled back until my backside bumped against the wall, the sloped roof mere feet above my head. I tugged at Lusu to make sure she had room to curl up, but instead, she flicked her nose under the covers. "Lusu, girl, what's gotten into you? Are... Hey!" I let out a laugh that was probably just a little too loud for the echoing house, but I couldn't help it. Lusu had wriggled against me, and had pinned me against the wall. She licked at my neck, while her forepaws pushed at my chest. Her entire body squirmed against me; the silky-smooth fur felt like a warm blanket covering my form, twitching every few seconds as she writhed.
"Stoppit, girl! We need to get to sleep! What... Lusu!" She had wriggled her tails between my legs, and pinned my hips between the bed and the wall. The sensation of smooth fur running against my groin felt amazing, but it was giving me ideas that I was sure weren't appropriate for a trainer. My voice raised to an alarmed pitch, loud enough to wake anyone in the house who was already asleep. Lusu stopped dead, and as we both lay there, completely still, I felt wetness across one of my thighs.
For the six years that I'd had Lusu, I'd never thought of her as similar to all of the other pokémon I'd met. They were driven by training and instinct, but Lusu had her own will, her own spirit. I'd been to all the classes, and even at my early age, I'd been introduced to the particulars of pokémon breeding, and I knew objectively that when they became mature, either through age or through evolution, that they'd become receptive. I knew the signs to look for when they were around their intended mate, anxiousness, hot flashes like a fever, and even...
We'd held still for a few minutes, then she pulled my wandering thoughts back to the moment when she pushed her hips against my thigh, and in the middle of the silky fur, I felt smooth skin rub against mine, leaving a trail of quickly cooling dampness in its path.
"Oh, Lusu, I wish I could help you, but I'm not a pokémon like you. Maybe we should find Jun to help?" Her startled growl was answer enough, and she undulated against my leg emphatically. The message was clear, but I couldn't imagine how she thought I could help her.
"But I'm not a pokémon, girl. I can't help!" I kept my voice quiet. Somehow, I felt this wasn't a conversation I wanted my parents listening in on.
Lusu gave another low growl, then as she shifted, her forepaws reached for my head, cupping my ears and pulling my gaze down as she stared up into my eyes. Early in training, one of the first lessons a pokémon will learn is how to know when to follow directions. A trainer, by holding their head and giving them a stern gaze, is effectively telling their pokémon simply "Trust me." And I did trust her. With every bit of the six years we'd grown together, I trusted her with my life.
So I lay quietly, pinned against the wall, and Lusu lay against me. I didn't know quite what to do, and truth be told, it didn't feel like she did either. None the less, she'd asked for my trust, and I gave it to her. She slowly moved, rubbing herself against me, and as I relaxed, the constant sensation of her soft fur quickly brought back the strange, somewhat wrong feeling. She felt smooth, silky, velvety, her fur was thick, and her muzzle was tucked under my chin, tails curled around my calves. Second by second, the wrongness began to fade, leaving me just feeling good; relaxed, and just like her, anxious.
She pulled with her webbed forepaws on my shoulders, and the wet slit that had been rubbing against my thigh slid upwards. A hot breath escaped my lips in a soft moan as I felt heat against my crotch, wetness spreading over my sac. I realized that I was hard when her hips rolled against me, Lusu's heat grinding against me as I throbbed involuntarily against it.
I wrapped my arms around her, and I could feel that she was shivering again. She was trying so hard to stay in control, but as I felt that heat slide up the length of my throbbing shaft, she let out a soft breath. "Boooi... Bui..." She moaned, so quietly that I would have missed it if my ear hadn't been so close to her mouth. Her eyes were closed, and her ears were folded back along her skull, while her tails thumped against my legs as they flicked erratically.
I felt a cool touch of air on my pulsing erection as her hot slit left a wake of liquid on my skin behind it. I held her, letting her lead, but I felt a slow burn in my stomach as her skin travelled over mine. She ground against me again, pushing my rump hard against the wall, and I felt that wet opening that'd been pushing against me moments before finally kiss the tip of my shaft. She paused, and her eyes opened, gazing up at me, as if asking for permission.
"I trust you." I leaned down and whispered next to her ear. She almost glowed with anticipation as she rolled her hips against mine. I felt a bit of resistance, bending my length as the slick groove slid over my tip. Then, after an anxious moment, I felt the hot slit part, and like a finger curled around my cock, her tight tunnel slowly slid down my length. It was my turn to close my eyes, the heat squeezing and clenching as it gripped inch after inch, until...
I woke up.
The fire had burned down to glowing embers. Lusu had stretched herself out and was laying sideways against my front. Razz felt like he'd curled up behind me, because I could feel his muzzle and hind feet pushed against the small of my back.
I shifted, still caught in the quickly fleeing last moments of my dream. Without any surprise, I noticed that I was throbbingly hard, and Lusu's tails were both clenched between my legs. I'd probably been humping against them. Whatever I'd been doing, it'd been enough to wake Lusu up, because her head was lifted, and she was staring back at me with an amused expression on her face.
"Sorry beautiful. Was dreaming of you."
She smiled widely, then lay her head back down. She chirped enthusiastically, tails flicking against my rump from where they were trapped between my thighs. She gave me a happy churr under her breath, and with my free hand, I pulled her tight to my front.
Things might have progressed downhill from there, but at that moment, we both heard the snap of something from across the fire. As we both looked up, a sickly-sweet aroma floated across our makeshift camp site, and I held my arm up to my nose.
"What the..." I hopped to my feet, while Lusu barked sharply. Her buoyancy sac pulsed with air as her hackles rose. The sound or smell must have awoken Razz, because he let out a soft growl from behind me as he came to his senses. In the dark behind the fire, I heard a snap like a whip-crack, then soft creaking like trees in the wind.
"Either of you know what that is?" I glanced down to Lusu and Razz in the dim light of the embers. Neither of them responded, their eyes gazing off into the cloying darkness.
"Okay, I'm going to grab my pack, and let's get out of here qu... LUSU!" I shouted, as the floatzel's feet were dragged out from under her. Without a chance for a chirp or a bark, a tendrilous vine that'd attached itself to her legs lifted her, and unceremoniously hoisted her off into the darkness.
"LUSU!" Razz flicked his tail, and there was a sharp stench of ozone as a bright, actinic light flickered over the campsite. I blinked, the bright flash almost blinding me, but it burned an image into my retinas that left me gasping.
Across the firelight, Lusu hung limply from a vine. Behind her, towering above the dilapidated buildings of the abandoned camp, rose a titanic carnivine. Its tendrils wove in and around the trees, hanging in the middle like a fat spider in a twisted web. Razz's growl grew beside me, but my blood ran cold. With Lusu tightly in the creature's grasp, my luxray and I advanced...