Communication (PG-13)

[metal_chimaera]

Well, well, well. Guess who's back. Although it might not do any difference *sigh* Don't worry I'll explain Sike.

Anyway, about the fic... What to say. Well, in two words, It's as superb as your first one although in a different style (somehow). As you might have guessed, IMO (too), Zyrzir's really funny. Sanaika's kinda neat too (in a different way). Reminds me both of some other people I know... Anyway, I have to say that right in the beginning (read: the first two paragraphs) It didn't really hook me up, but you took care of that in the following paragraph.

Oh well, as I suspected your fics have once again converted people into Glalie loving fans

P.S.: It don't think I stick to the "two words" there...

[Typhlogirl]

Hey Sike, do you ever feel a weird feeling when you read a really well written fic?

I just got that feeling.

This was fantastic. It just...flowed. Perfectly. I loved well written fics. They are simply pleasures to read. I loved this one. I especially loved the names of all the Snorunt and Glalie. Did you think of them yourself? Because I love names like those. They are fun to say!! XD

I presume years mean levels, right? That seems to make sense, (in my mind XD).

Words can't really describe how much I thought of this fic. I just read it and went, WOW. THATS GOOD. Plus, I've never read a fic with a Snorunt or Glalie, which gives it extra points. You described them very well.

God, I hates Kashisha and Sanaika, (though I love that name). *kicks teh stupid bullies*. Geez, I hope I'm not that mean to my little brother and his friends...XD. I seriously hope that Azvida beats the living crap outta those two. They deserve it.

Anyway, add me to your pm list. It's rare that you find fics of this quality.

Happy writing!!

-

[Chaos Absol]

Ya, Sike can you add me to your PM list too?Becuase this fic is awsome.In fact, I'm just about to rate it five stars.

[Cs32]

Hello Sike, I'm sorry for not coming sooner. When I read your email..it was last night when I was going to get off and I noticed it was there for like two weeks. So I came as soon as possible and wanted you to know that I am not avoiding this whatsoever. I actually really like this fic, I think it's pretty good really. I like how you didn't just start out with a basic trainer fic then have the girl capture Solonn. Weird he is captured at 19...so he should have been more mature I thought but of course this is pokemon. Will Solonn stay with this new girl and her Manectric + Aaron? Or will he try and escape? I think it would be fun for him to stay with the girl, and I think thats what you are doing but I could be wrong. Either way, I can't wait for your next chapter.
Later,
~~CS~~

P.S. Could I please be on your PM list to? I get on this like once or twice a day and catch up with all my fics then, thanks.

[Pinecone Tortoise]

Whoo, this has to be one of the greatest fics I've read in a long time. Very original names, not to mention subject matter. ^^ Keep it up. It's both funny and exciting.

Pinecone Tortoise.

[Kiyohime]

Aaaaheeeeee....x_x I'm quite sorry for dawdling with my review, so here goes. *cough*
So far, I like this a fair bit better than your first story, just because Solonn was such a great character an now this fanfiction focuses on him. ^.^ Your description is quite simply, beautiful as always.

*cue brain failure at this point*

Fear not, I'll be reading this regularly. *scuttles away*

[Sike Saner]

SnoringFrog: ^_^ Glad you like it so far.

metal_chimaera: Yikes, you know someone like Sanaika? That’s kind of a scary thought—I hope this person doesn’t give you too much trouble!

Typhlogirl: Yes, all the names are original. They all have their origins in Alvayan, a fictional language.

Years refer to… years. There are no numerical levels, per se, in my pokémon stories; the concept’s a bit looser, a bit more context-sensitive. The pokémon gain techniques and evolve when they have achieved the raw elemental power necessary to facilitate these advances. The power requirements differ between species and also usually among individuals, as well. There are a number of factors which build this power, and which of these facilitate evolution differ between species. Some of these are already established: power gained through experience, power gained from an elemental stone, et cetera. However, in the case of several species, the power necessary to gain command over new techniques and evolve may also be built by age—in that way, you were right on the money. Solonn, though nineteen, is not the equivalent of a level nineteen snorunt in the games (he would be higher, actually). However, in his species, at least, age can pay a role in advancent just as levels would. Perhaps, then, it could be said that in the context of my stories, aging can do the equivalent of raising levels in the instance of some species, at least.

Chaos Absol: Oh, yes, you shall go on the PM list. ^^

Cs32: Snorunt and glalie age at a somewhat slower rate than humans in the context of my stories. I would place Solonn as roughly the equivalent of a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old human; biologically speaking, at least. Psychologically, however… well, it’s a bit harder to reckon that by age in comparing his kind to ours, especially considering that psychological development rates also differ within each species.

Pinecone Tortoise: Funny? That’s good to hear. ^^

Alseides: Yeah, snorunt and glalie are not exactly served up as “mascot” material, are they? X3 I’ve always seemed to gravitate more towards things that rarely see the limelight, though; they hold more mystique for me. So, generally speaking, those are the things I will write about. The big, popular characters are almost never my favorites. Things that get constant exposure and have so many aspects of who and/or what they are revealed and explained have never interested me as much because they give me little or nothing to wonder about regarding those things. I like wondering. ^^

Scrap: The fact that you say that this story thus far exceeds The Origin of Storms means a great deal to me, as I had been concerned about being able to follow that story with something at least as good. Fear of the old sophomore slump, you know. I hope that this story can continue to live up to and/or even go beyond its predecessor. ^^


Once again, thank you to everyone who has read and/or reviewed so far. ^^

_________________________

Chapter 3 – The Deal

There were a number of things that Solonn felt upon his release from the capture ball. First came sheer relief, both at no longer being drained and paralyzed (he distantly wondered how he had recovered so completely and suddenly), and, to a greater degree, at just being out of that ball—its particular style of confinement had just been too surreal by his reckoning. He had been conscious all the while that he’d been contained within that sphere, but had seemed not to actually exist. It was as though the great ball had reduced him to nothing more than a mind without a body, impossible though it seemed to him that such a thing should be. Trying to make sense of it seemed to achieve nothing more than a sore head, and so Solonn pushed that particular matter aside for the time being.

With the mysteries of the capture ball no longer first and foremost on his mind, Solonn’s focus shifted to the human who stood just a short distance in front of him. Since his captor was no longer wearing the heavy clothing that had protected her from the cold of Shoal Cave, she looked somewhat smaller now, less bulky, and with her head no longer covered by a hood, he could now see her brown, shoulder-length hair.

The next thing that Solonn noticed about his present situation was that the environment into which he had been brought was too warm for his liking. “Er… excuse me,” he said as he looked up at the human. “It’s a little too warm in here… could you do anything about that?”

The human merely stared at him in response.

Solonn repeated his request. This time, his captor cocked her head a bit and smiled at him, but she still did not answer, nor did she make any move to change the temperature.

It was then that Solonn realized that the human was not understanding a single word that he was saying. This didn’t make sense to him; every time before that Solonn had encountered a member of another species, they had been as able to understand him as were those of his own kind. Why, he wondered, was the human any different?

Solonn wondered then if she might understand him if he were to speak to her using a human voice. As he considered it, his mind brought forth the memories of her voice as he had heard it back in Shoal Cave, and he felt quite sure that he could pull off an imitation of that voice.

With that confidence, he was about to give the voice a try—but then he stopped himself. He had just been struck by the realization that doing these “impressions” was what had gotten him swept up into this situation to begin with. It was because he had revealed that talent that he had gotten mixed up with Sanaika’s gang and that now—it hit him all at once—he would likely never see home again.

In sudden panic, Solonn began to tremble, and the human responded to this right away. “Oh, poor little guy,” she said, looking upon him with a pitying expression as she knelt down upon the floor in front of him. “It’s okay; you have nothing to be scared of.”

She opened her arms to Solonn, which only confused him. She then wrapped her arms around him and tried to lift him up, but he was quite heavier than she had expected. Solonn, meanwhile, did not like what she was doing. For a moment, his instincts took over, and he tried to wriggle free of her grasp. He just barely managed to stop himself short of biting her.

Finally, sensing both the futility of her efforts and the snorunt’s aversion to what she was trying to do, the human gave up and let go of Solonn. Shaking the coldness of her contact with the ice-type from her hands, she stood and went to fetch a pillow from the bed. She placed it on the floor as something on which Solonn could sit and perhaps be more comfortable. The snorunt ignored it completely, giving her a penetrating stare.

The human sighed. “Okay. I’ll tell you what: I’ll go and get you something nice, something that I promise you’ll like. In the meantime, I’ll give you a chance to get acquainted with a couple of your new friends. You’ve already met Aaron and Brett, but I have three other pokémon friends. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait to meet Sei until she gets out of the pokémon center; she’s been pretty sick. But you can go ahead and introduce yourself to these two.”

She removed two capture balls from her belt and released their occupants in twin surges of white light. A skarmory materialized at her right, while a claydol appeared at her left. There was something strangely disconcerting on a very primal level about the former, but Solonn couldn’t quite place what that something was.

“This is Raze,” the human introduced as she pointed at the skarmory, “and this is Ominous,” she said, pointing at the claydol. “Oh… I forgot to introduce myself, didn’t I?” she realized aloud with a small giggle. “My name is Morgan Yorke. Anyway, these pokémon are some of my best friends, and I just know that ultimately you and I are going to get to be really good friends, too. See you in a few minutes!” she said, then left the room.

For a moment, the other two pokémon just stared at Solonn, and he seemed unable to do anything but stare back. He quickly began to wish they would stop it, particularly with regards to Ominous—it was just more than a little unnerving to him to have that many eyes staring at him from the same face.

All those eyes left no room on Ominous’s face for a mouth; therefore, it was quite a surprise for Solonn to hear the claydol speak to him then—although it didn’t sound as though Ominous was actually saying anything. Its “voice”, if it could truly be called that, consisted of a rapid-fire series of low-pitched, hollow-sounding noises. Solonn got an immediate sense that he could never replicate that voice, no matter how he tried.

“With your brain, nitwit!” Raze suddenly squawked, interrupting the claydol.

Ominous winced, closing all of its eyes in unison. <I apologize,> it said. <I should not still be forgetting about that…>

A second after Ominous had spoken, Solonn realized, astounded, that he’d not actually heard its words. Rather, even while its actual voice had rattled on incomprehensibly in Solonn’s ears, the words the claydol was conveying had sounded within his mind, just as one of his own thoughts would do. Solonn wasn’t quite sure what to make of this phenomenon.

<As I was attempting to say,> Ominous proceeded then, <the name by which Morgan called me is not my actual name. My true name is Oth.>

“My name really is Raze, though,” the skarmory said slightly dismally. “I was born in this house, and that’s when Morgan gave me that name. I don’t think it’s such a great name, but…” She ruffled her magenta-feathered wings in the skarmory equivalent of a shrug. “So, what name did she give you?” Raze asked then.

“Er… I don’t know,” Solonn admitted. “My real name is Solonn, though.”

<She must not have given him his new name yet, then,> Oth supposed.

“Maybe she isn’t going to give me another name,” Solonn said.

“Oh, she’ll give you one,” Raze said. “Maybe you’ll like it, and maybe you won’t. But you’ll be grateful for it, and also grateful that you got landed with Morgan and not some other coordinator, because with some coordinators, you would just get called ‘Snorunt’.”

“…Coordinators?” Solonn had never heard of such a thing.

Raze cocked her head at Solonn. “You have a lot to learn,” she said.

“Then you have a lot to explain,” Solonn countered. “What’s a coordinator?”

“Well, a coordinator is your human coach and partner for the contests,” Raze explained. “And before you ask: in a contest, you just basically have to show off your powers. You use them in ways that impress humans. In your case, that means you can’t just blow a couple of snowflakes at them and expect to win.”

Somehow, the idea of “showing off” for the humans was less than appealing to Solonn—in fact, it rather reminded him of being ushered off by Kashisha to show off for her friends. “Wait, why would I want to do this, anyway?” he asked. “What’s in it for me?”

Raze’s yellow eyes suddenly glittered with zeal. “I’ll show you!” she said eagerly, then speedily crossed the room. “Come here!” she beckoned gleefully, standing before a bookcase that was just a bit shorter than she was. After a moment of skeptical hesitation, Solonn complied. “Have a look at these!” Raze said cheerfully once the snorunt had joined her, inclining her head toward something sitting on the bookcase’s top shelf.

“I can’t see up there, Raze,” Solonn said.

“Oh… oops,” Raze said with a small, embarrassed laugh. Somewhat awkwardly, she used her beak to pick up the thing that she was trying to show to Solonn and set it down on the floor between herself and the snorunt.

Solonn peered at the object that had just been placed before him. It was a large, flat, plastic case. Through its transparent lid, he could see a collection of twelve small trinkets: colored ribbons, each adorned with a little metal medallion. The case also contained slots for eight more of these ribbons.

“The red ones are mine,” Raze said, positively radiating pride, “the yellow ones are Oth’s, and the green ones are Sei’s. Now, yours, if I’m not mistaken, are gonna be blue.”

“Hm.” You sure are assuming a lot, Raze… Solonn thought. It was going to take more than just a bunch of ribbons to convince Solonn that these “contests” were anything of which he should like to have any part. “So,” he spoke up after a long moment’s silence, looking up from the ribbon case and right into Raze’s eyes, “this is what Morgan keeps us for?”

“Well, yeah, pretty much,” Raze answered. She then put the ribbon case back up on top of the bookcase, taking one last moment to admire her ribbons before turning her attention fully to the snorunt.

“So… suppose I didn’t want to be a part of these contests… would she take me back home, then?” Solonn asked.

There was a prolonged silence. Raze and Oth exchanged awkward glances.

“Well?” Solonn pressed.

<Solonn…> Oth began hesitantly. <Morgan had been seeking a snorunt to train for entry into contests for quite some time. She has spent many an hour composing routines and strategies for you… I do not imagine that she would want for her plans to go to waste, Solonn.>

“Well, maybe she can just go find some other snorunt for the job,” Solonn suggested. “Someone who actually wants it.”

<I do not believe you would really want that,> Oth said. <You do not truly wish for another snorunt, possibly one of your friends, to be taken from his or her home just so that you can return to your own.>

Solonn stared agape at Oth for a moment. The claydol was completely right; Solonn did not even try in the slightest to contradict it.

“This… this is your home now, Solonn,” Raze said, knowing the consolation to be futile even as she offered it. “You’ll get used to it eventually; I know you will.”

“Yeah, of course you can say that,” Solonn muttered, not really bothering to make himself inaudible. “You were born here.”

“I—” Raze began to counter, but she couldn’t quite find the right words with which to respond and thus abandoned her comeback with a sigh.

It was then that the door opened as Morgan returned, and she was not alone. Accompanying her was another human female, slightly taller and with shorter, darker hair.

“There he is,” Morgan said as the two entered, indicating Solonn with her hand. “What do you think of him?”

“Oh, he’s adorable,” the other human remarked. She stooped slightly to come a bit closer to the snorunt’s eye level. “Hi,” she said in a friendly tone. “Let me introduce myself. I’m Eliza, Morgan’s mother.” She extended her arms to Solonn with an expecting gaze.

“He doesn’t do hugs,” Morgan informed her.

“Oh… Well, that’s all right,” Eliza said, withdrawing her arms and straightening her posture. “What’s his name?” she then asked.

“I’ve decided to call him Azrael,” Morgan replied.

Solonn gave her a funny look. That’s really the best you could come up with?

“Oh, that’s lovely,” Eliza commented.

Morgan smiled in response to her mother’s remark. She then brought a small, polystyrene bowl forward, holding it out in front of Solonn.

Distracted by the arrival of the new human, Solonn hadn’t even noticed that Morgan had been holding the bowl. He now stared at it with uncertainty, edging somewhat closer to it in order to get a look inside. He saw that the bowl contained something that looked more or less like snow but was bright blue in color.

“This is for you,” Morgan told him. “Try it, it’s really good.”

Solonn gazed into the bowl for another second or two, then turned a skeptical gaze toward Morgan.

“Go on, it’s tasty. I promise you’ll like it,” Morgan tried to assure him.

Still wearing an expression of doubt, Solonn nonetheless took the bowl from Morgan’s hands. He continued to hesitate for another long moment before unenthusiastically dipping his hand into the blue snow, scooping some of it up, and putting it in his mouth. The blue snow had a flavor that he could never have imagined—he conceded to himself at once that it was good as Morgan had said it would be, if not moreso.

However… the knowledge that his life had become one whose sole purpose was to perform tricks for people’s amusement like some kind of jester and that there seemed to be no way to return to the life that he’d previously known was now attending heavily upon him and leaving a rather unpleasant feeling in the pit of his stomach. He did not feel like eating. With a despondent sigh, he set the bowl down and turned away from Morgan.

“Hey… are you feeling okay?” Morgan asked worriedly.

Solonn did not respond to her, neither then nor following her several subsequent attempts to get through to him. More than once, she tried to tempt him with that blue snow, but he continued to refuse it. He could not change this new life, but for a while, at least, he could try to ignore it and pretend that it wasn’t happening.

* * *

The remainder of that evening, as well as the night that followed, consisted of an awkward pattern of failed interactions between Solonn and his would-be coordinator. Morgan attempted time and time again to converse and be friendly with him, but each time, she was met with resolute silence from the snorunt. After each unsuccessful attempt to socialize with him, she would leave him alone for an hour or so before giving it another go, only to fail to get through to him yet again.

The human did, at least, leave Solonn out of the great ball through the night, for which he was grateful. Perhaps, Solonn considered, she had thought that this would offer her new pokémon some time to grow more accustomed to his surroundings. However, the snorunt instead viewed it as a potential opportunity to flee from the human’s custody while she slept.

Unfortunately, he found out very quickly that escape was not an option. The door was rendered an impassible barrier by a sliding lock, one that was installed in the door at a height that was beyond Solonn’s reach. If not for the fact that Morgan’s bookcase contained small, pewter pokémon statues rather than books, he might have been able to stack up a few volumes as a means by which to reach that lock.

The room’s sole window was positioned within Solonn’s reach, but it didn’t offer an avenue of escape, either; Morgan’s room was upstairs in a two-story house. Though by no means enjoying his present situation, Solonn wasn’t inclined to escape it by falling to likely injury and possible death.

Having given up on finding a way to slip out, he just sat there on the windowsill, staring out through the window at its view of an alien environment. This was not his world, not his place—though he could not deny that he found it fascinating, even rather lovely to behold as he watched the light show put on by the cars that moved past the house.

Though tired in many ways, most of which were not physical, Solonn found that he could not sleep. His eyes remained open and fixed on the city outside, watching as the rising sun brought a new day over the border of the horizon.

A couple of hours later, Morgan stirred nearby in her bed, awakening. Sighing, Solonn turned away from the window at last, wondering in which ways the human would try to reach him today.

He received his answer quite shortly. Morgan left the room for a few minutes, then returned with more of that blue snow and set it down in front of him. He accepted it this time and ate nearly all of it, but only because he was earnestly very hungry. The human smiled at him as she took away the empty bowl, then departed to take her own breakfast.

It was when Morgan next returned that she attempted to step up the level of interaction between herself and her new pokémon a little more.

“I’ll bet you’re wondering why you’re here, aren’t you?” she said, her tone clearly intended to sound as kindly and non-threatening as possible. “Well, you don’t have to worry. It’s not going to be anywhere near as scary as you might think. In fact, I bet you’ll have more fun than you’ve ever had before.”

Morgan then proceeded to illustrate her intention to enter Solonn in contests, not really telling him anything that he hadn’t already heard from Raze and Oth the evening before. He pretended not to pay any attention to her, though in reality he was absorbing her every word. It seemed that he was simply unable to tune out a foreign voice.

The day progressed, and Morgan continued to tell Solonn of the ideas she had conceived with regards to the routines that he could employ in contests. As she spoke to him, he had to admit to himself that she didn’t sound as though she truly had any malevolent intentions for him. She wasn’t really coming across to him as a human version of Kashisha; she seemed only to possess a friendly desire to invite him into her strange little hobby, not a desire to prey on him in any sense.

Whether Morgan’s intentions were benign or not, Solonn nonetheless was still not too keen on the idea of making a spectacle of himself, having learned all too well how doing such sometimes earned the wrong kind of attention. There was also still the matter of his captor’s purported unwillingness to let Solonn leave if he so wished, which made it rather difficult for him to very readily accept any sort of friendship or partnership with the human. Hence, as the evening found Morgan offering to initiate the first steps in Solonn’s training, he refused her efforts to bring him into the role that she had chosen for him in silent protest of his detainment.

That night, Solonn sat once again in the moonlight, contemplating his situation as he perched upon the windowsill and gazed outside. Lilycove bore no resemblance to the world that Solonn had known. This left him quite certain that he was very far from home, too far for him to feasibly make it back there by himself.

His eyes fell upon the bed where the human was peacefully sleeping. Solonn wanted to leave, to return home, but this creature would not allow him to do so.

Wait, though… how do I really know she wouldn’t? the thought occurred to him then. Raze and Oth had implied that Morgan had no intention of letting him go, but the human herself had never said anything along the lines of, “You’re never leaving. You’re mine forever.” Morgan had never specifically mentioned anything at all regarding whether or not Solonn could ever depart her custody. Moreover, she didn’t even know that her new snorunt desired to be returned to his home.

What if she actually knew that I want to go back home? Solonn wondered. He could really only speculate as to what her response would be, though, for the problem remained that she was, for whatever reason, unable to understand his speech. He could not communicate with her.

…Although, maybe he could. He had, after all, still not tried to see if Morgan could understand him if he were to speak like a human. However, he was still hesitant to attempt it, for the memory of what the last use of his mimicry had earned for him was still fresh on his mind.

The fact remained, though, that Solonn would likely never know how Morgan would really respond to his desire to be returned home unless he shared it with her. As he thought about it, it began to seem to him that he was doing himself more of a disservice by not giving it a try than by taking the risk.

Furthermore, Solonn questioned if there really was that much of a risk involved with exposing his talents in order to speak with this creature. True, he had gotten into trouble the last time he had presented this skill of his. However, as he considered once again, Morgan was no Kashisha, at least not as far as he could tell, so perhaps it wouldn’t be like last time. Perhaps Morgan would simply hear him out without making him sorry that he’d reached out to her and give him what he wanted…

But then, Solonn found himself considering what Oth had told him: <I do not imagine that she would want for her plans to go to waste, Solonn.> Morgan truly seemed to him to have her heart set on entering contests with him, and he suspected that she would not so readily abandon those aspirations. Solonn could tell her that he wanted to leave, but as long as she held these intentions for him, what chance was there, really, that she would let him go?

That’s when the idea hit him: maybe, just maybe, a deal could be struck.

Solonn carefully gauged the distance between the windowsill and the bed, then sprang from his perch. The mattress yielded with a bounce to Solonn’s weight as he landed, yet Morgan slept on, snoring slightly. Solonn gazed at her from the foot of the bed. Her sleeping form glowed softly through the darkness with the heat of her body, giving her an almost spectrelike appearance.

Moving toward the concentrated glow that surrounded the human’s head almost as if it were a beacon, Solonn made his way to the head of the bed. Morgan’s face was half concealed by a few errant strands of her hair. Solonn moved them aside, revealing the serene face of his captor. It was interesting, he thought, how a creature whose practice was to abduct people from their homes could look so incredibly benign. The snorunt then reached down toward the human’s face again, this time drawing his hand slowly across her cheek.

Morgan stirred, but only very slightly. Solonn had assumed that the contrasting coldness of his hand against her warm skin would be sufficient to awaken her but now realized that he should have recognized her as a heavy sleeper when his jumping on the bed had failed to make her wake up. He began prodding her in the temple, hoping that that would end her slumber. If it didn’t, he was prepared to do whatever was necessary to awaken her. He was not averse to giving her a small bite if that was what it took.

Luckily for Morgan (at least compared to the biting that she would have received otherwise), Solonn’s current efforts succeeded in waking her up, albeit only because one of his prods missed its mark somewhat and found its way into her left eye.

“Hey!” she responded at once, awakening instantly but not quite fully. She lifted her head slightly from the pillow, grumbling incoherently and rubbing her sore eye for a moment, then shook her head a bit in an effort to more fully awaken, yawning loudly as she did so. She then shifted and turned, sitting up slightly more and craning her neck awkwardly in order to try and get a look at what could have possibly just poked her in the eye. Her eyes, still blurry and adjusting to their resumed usage, just managed to make out the pointed silhouette of the snorunt standing beside her. The light from Solonn’s eyes partially illuminated his face and reflected brightly off of his teeth, giving him a rather eerie appearance.

“Hello, Morgan,” he said quietly, nearly whispering, in a voice that wavered slightly but sounded like Morgan’s voice nonetheless.

Morgan blinked sleepily at the snorunt for a second. “…Hi,” she said finally, the word almost lost in its emergence in the near-simultaneous release of another great yawn.

Then she realized to whom and what she had just replied.

In an instant, she was wide awake, sitting upright and staring at the pokémon beside her with greatly widened eyes. For several seconds, response of any sort to the situation failed her. Finally, she managed a half-gasped, “What?”

“I said hello,” Solonn repeated, his voice deceptively calm.

Morgan remained silently agape for a brief while before she seemed able to get her next words out. “…But… no, you can’t…”

“Yes, I can.”

“But… how?” Morgan asked, her voice sounding rather strained.

“…I don’t know how I can,” Solonn admitted uneasily.

Morgan took a moment to digest that silently. “This is a dream,” she then decided aloud, and began to turn away from Solonn and back toward her pillow.

“No, it’s not,” Solonn said. “And you know it’s not.” He leaned over her slightly so that the light from his eyes washed over her face. “But if you want to be sure, I can bite you. It’d hurt, and I’m sorry it would, but you’d be sure you were really feeling it, I promise you.”

Morgan sat up once again. For a second, she was leveling a look at Solonn that suggested that she wanted to accuse him of lying, but that gaze faltered almost as soon as it had formed. She turned slightly, seeming less than willing now to look him right in the eyes. “It’s okay, Azrael. You don’t have to bite me. I… I believe you.”

Solonn nodded slightly. “Good. That’s good,” he said, his words followed by a small sigh of slight relief. There went the first obstacle—Morgan seemed to have accepted that she could now understand his speech. Hopefully, she could now be counted on to hear him out. “…But Morgan? My name isn’t Azrael. It’s Solonn,” he then said.

Morgan’s expression momentarily turned to one of surprise, but quickly relaxed once more. “It shouldn’t surprise me that you have your own name,” she said, sounding a bit apologetic. “I bet a lot of pokémon do. Like Sei; she told me hers the first time she evolved, and I’ve been calling her that ever since. Before that, I’d been calling her Enchantress…”

Morgan gave a faint chuckle. “I liked that name, but she told me not to call her that anymore, so I don’t. Now, Ominous… Sei told me what its real name was, and so I asked it if it wanted me to start calling it Oth from now on—that’s its name—but according to Sei, it said not to. I think it might have been worried about hurting my feelings by turning down the name I gave it; it’s such a softie, really…”

“So… you mean you can understand Sei, too?” Solonn asked, a bit surprised.

“Yeah. But that’s only because she’s a very powerful psychic-type. She has really advanced telepathic skills, and that’s how she can make me understand her.”

“Oth has telepathy, too. Why can’t you understand it?” Solonn asked.

“…I actually didn’t know that it had telepathy,” Morgan said, sounding surprised.

Oth must be hiding it from her… Solonn realized. He found himself beginning to wonder why it would do so, and also began to worry slightly that he perhaps shouldn’t have told Morgan of its telepathy since Oth apparently desired to keep that matter a secret.

Morgan, meanwhile, had found herself able to make eye contact with Solonn again. Her expression now was one that spoke of burgeoning amazement. “…I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be goggling at you like this,” she said as she seemed to realize the way that she was looking at Solonn. “It’s just… God, this is so incredible. I thought pokémon had to use telepathy to make themselves understood.”

“Guess you were wrong,” Solonn said simply.

“Guess so.” Morgan gave a soft laugh and smiled, her features exuding something that looked rather like pride (although why Morgan should feel proud, Solonn couldn’t figure out; it wasn’t as though she were to credit for his ability to speak to humans, after all).

The human’s features shifted suddenly, becoming strangely unreadable. “Hey. Could you do me a favor, though?” she asked.

“What?”

“Do you… do you have to sound like a girl when you talk?” Morgan asked. A very odd look came over her face as she realized something. “Do you have to sound like me? How can you sound like me?!” she demanded, sounding rather alarmed.

“Shh! Try to keep quiet; I don’t want your mother to wake up,” Solonn urged. “And I already told you, I don’t know how I do it.”

“…Sorry,” Morgan said, lowering her voice significantly. “But anyway, could you just… um, not sound like me? No offense, but it’s… kind of weirding me out. Why don’t you just use your normal voice from now on, okay?”

Solonn was about to respond, to tell Morgan that she would no longer understand him if he stopped using that human voice. But then, something caught in his mind: Why should what voice I use make a difference in whether or not anyone understands me? He could understand how the abilities of a psychic could make the understanding of speech possible by entering the mind and tricking it into hearing words it recognized. He, however, was no psychic, and he knew it.

A different voice should still only produce the same words, he reckoned; it shouldn’t have the power to transform those words into others. If a creature, like this human, could not understand his words, he should have to use different words to be understood. Their words. Their language.

The gears of his mind momentarily stopped turning as epiphany struck him like a falling stone. The only way Morgan could be understanding him was if he was, in fact, speaking her language instead of his own. And that was precisely what he was doing.

Solonn was stupefied. For the life of him, he could not fathom how this could be at all possible. That he could be spontaneously able to fluently speak a language that he did not, could not know, a language of which he had only heard a couple of handfuls of words, was a staggering, almost paralyzing notion to him.

He swallowed hard, and his mouth went immediately dry afterward. He was fond of wondering and loath to resist the urge to do so, but the desire to understand this matter was so savagely desperate that he could barely tolerate it. It was almost physically painful, knowing that there was something so strange within him and wanting dearly to know quite what it was and how it could be possible but seeming unable to do so.

If he had belonged to some other species, he might have begun crying in his astonishment. As it happened, though, his tears were not in service to his emotions, as was the case for all of his kind. His internal struggle to fathom himself could only convey itself through the trembling of his body and the wavering of the light in his eyes.

“Is… is something wrong?” Morgan asked, sounding more than a little concerned.

Solonn met her gaze, the earnest care behind the human’s eyes managing to register within his mind despite everything else going on behind his own eyes at the time. He tried to respond but couldn’t quite decide what to say, especially since he wasn’t quite sure of how he should say it. He should be able to use his own voice, he tried to reason silently—it had to be the language and not the voice—but he still just couldn’t quite believe it.

“It’s okay,” Morgan said. “If you’re not comfortable talking to me in your own voice, you don’t really have to.”

Solonn closed his eyes. “No,” he croaked softly, continuing to use Morgan’s voice, his throat feeling as though it were trying to seal itself shut. “No, it’s… it’s not that.”

To prove that that wasn’t the issue, he determined that he would have to try and speak to Morgan with his own voice while still speaking her language. He would just have to try and force himself not to let his mind be ensnared by the mental block that was created by the notion that he was doing something that should not be possible.

Solonn took a deep breath and forced himself to return Morgan’s gaze once more. “It’s nothing…” he finally managed. Conscious as he presently was of the seemingly impossible thing that he was doing, the release of his every word felt as though he were pushing a boulder out of his mouth. Get a grip, he tried to command himself, you’re supposed to be talking to her for a reason, remember? “Listen…” he began slowly, all too self-consciously. “I’m sorry I woke you… but we need to talk.”

Morgan nodded. “Okay. What about?”

“Well… it’s about those contests…”

“You don’t want to do them, do you?” Morgan said. “I’ve kind of gotten that impression.”

“…What?” Solonn was taken aback—he had not expected that the human would have recognized his desires. “No… I mean, I’d rather not, but… I’ll do them.”

“Azr—Solonn… you don’t have to. Seriously, if you don’t want to…”

“No, it’s okay,” Solonn insisted. By the initial impression that he’d gotten from Raze’s and Oth’s words, he had imagined that Morgan would take great offense to his wishes to have nothing to do with the contests if she were to learn about them and would vehemently refuse to relinquish her plans for him. Yet here she was, ready to give up her intentions for him without any sign of a conflict. Solonn now found himself feeling quite guilty about his unfavorable preconceptions of her.

He sighed. “I know… I know you’ve been planning hard for a long time for this… and I know it means a lot to you. It’s… it’s not a big deal. Really. I’ll do it—but only on one condition.”

“What?” Morgan asked, sending a troubled, doubtful look into Solonn’s eyes.

Solonn took another deep breath. “Okay. Raze and Oth… they showed me their ribbons. Four each. That’s… that’s how many I have to get myself, isn’t it? Four?” he asked. Morgan nodded. “Okay. After I get the fourth one—you have to promise me, Morgan—after I get that fourth ribbon… you have to let me go. You have to take me back home. Promise me, Morgan. Or I won’t do it.”

“Oh, Solonn…” Morgan’s gaze turned from merely troubled to earnestly sad, earnestly sorry. “If you want to go so bad, I’ll take you home right now. I’ll get Ominous out of its ball and wake it up, and we’ll teleport there right—”

“No!” Solonn interrupted her. His guilt had increased greatly—not only was Morgan fully accepting of his wishes regarding the contests, she was even completely ready and willing to take him straight back home, and he had imagined her as immovably, irreconcilably possessive of him, as a creature who would never release his life from the grip of her own…

“No… I said it’s okay, and I meant it,” he insisted, trying his best to convey a firm conviction in spite of the way his voice was shaking. “I’ll do this. I don’t mind, I really don’t, just as long as I know I’ll be going home when this is done. That way… that way, we can both get what we want.” He swallowed. “It’s only fair, don’t you think?”

There was a long silence, one that seemed to tremble along with the two who shared it. Morgan gazed with anguish at Solonn, silent until a strangled sound, the prelude to a sob, escaped from her throat. In the next moment, her eyes filled with tears, which then fell forth in streams that shone in the moonlight as they ran down Morgan’s face. Solonn had never seen such a thing in his life; he couldn’t help but stare in wonder, amazed by the beauty that he saw in it.

Morgan nodded then, but that action was overshadowed by a sudden, forward motion that was halfway between lunging and collapsing. Her arms encircled Solonn, and she pressed her forehead against his. The snorunt stiffened, initially surprised by and resistant to the unexpected contact, but he managed to get himself to relax quickly enough.

“Okay,” Morgan said, half-whispering, half-sobbing. “If you’re really okay with this, then we’ll go ahead with it. And then afterward, I’ll take you home. I promise.”

Solonn nodded, acknowledging Morgan’s seeming acceptance of his terms. He had imagined that he would be greatly surprised should the deal go through. Now, however, he couldn’t believe that he’d honestly expected that it wouldn’t. Morgan cared as much about his wishes as her own; that much was now certain to him. She was perfectly willing to give him what he wanted. In return and in appreciation of that—and in apology for harboring such harsh preconceptions, too, although he did quite a good job of convincing himself that his sense of guilt had very little to do with it—he would give her what she wanted. In his mind, it seemed only fair, after all.

The definite impression Solonn got from the human was that her word could be trusted. One day, she would take him home. But, until then… It was now, with the initial panic at the prospect of never again seeing home having gone and passed, that the opportunities of Solonn’s situation dared at last to come forward and present themselves to him. Until the day arrived when he would return to Virc-Dho, perhaps he would get to encounter and experience more strange things, more wonders of which he could never have conceived. This, he reckoned, could be interesting…

_________________________

Next time: In entering into the lifestyle of a contest pokémon, a new era of Solonn’s life begins… See you then!

- Sike Saner

[Wes]

Hmm now we get a snorunt that can talk to humans, wants four ribbons, and then wishes to go home? ..I like your way of thinking! Very nice chapter indeed.

[Pinecone Tortoise]

I like it! You really got a handle of the pokemon and human personalities you've got there. Solonn, for a Snorunt with an unusual power, is very realistic, very interesting and very cute. And congrats for having an original plotline that uses contests instead of battling. It works. Here's hoping you update this soon!

Pinecone Tortoise.

[GoldenHouou]

Wow! It was great, as always! It was long and very descreptive. I really like Raze, by the way. The name and all. Heh. ^_^

So she was a coordinator... I thought her as a trainer. Four ribbons. I wonder will the story end after those?

Anyway, great chapter, I think it was the best so far. And thanks for the notification. Remember to PM me when teh next chapter is up as well!
Until then, see ya!

[Kaizer]

I didn't find any mistakes...

But, holy crap! A pokemon that doesn't get all happy and giddy about being captured! I'm loving how real you seem to be keeping this despite the fact that almost none of the elements you're using actually exist. And you writing... It's superb. Everything has been well described flows perfectly. I'm trying to think of better ways to praise you since I don't get to put a mistake here and I like to fill up that space, but great job. I look forward to reading the next chapter and you can keep me on the pm list; I might have not checked today if you hadn't told me. Anyways, great chapter(as always).

[PDL]

nice chapter... Solonn's first experience with the human world was well described, and somewhat realistic. Keep it up.

[Infinite Master Sceptile]

Hi! I read the Origin of the Storms, and loved it. And this, this is even better. It seems that the more you write, the better you get. But what are Morgan's pokemon, and what are each's contest specialty?

[Kiyohime]

I don't trust Morgan, somehow...

Maybe I'm just paranoid, or maybe it's my own fault after several months of writing Zeffy's character. XD

I was really interesed in the part where Solonn realizes his oddity in speaking languages...you pulled that off brilliantly, I thought.

And OMGWTFBBQ A SKARMORY! *attaches herself to Raze and drools all over her* I love those, as if you already couldn't tell. <<;;

*sets up her hobo cardboard box and a blanket* Wake me up when the next chapter is here. :P

[Typhlogirl]

*applauds*

Well done. Another very well written chapter. One point I absolutely LOVED was the fact that Solonn didn't go all happy-to-be-captured. That would have been frustrating. I'm incredibly glad you did the other option. ^_^

Yes, this chapter was very, very good, and Morgan seems nice, but I agree about Scrap's point, I don't totally trust her, no-ones perfect!

Anyway, I will be very excited to read about the way you will describe contests...looking forward to it!! Don't keep me in suspense!!

Remember to PM me when the next chapter is up...I don't want to miss it!!

-

P.S. Azrael. God I LOVE that name. ^_^

[Saffire Persian]

*whistles*

I've read both chapters, and I have to say: very nice.

What kind of Pokemon is Sei, anyway? I'm rather curious.

Anyway, I too am wondering how the heck Solonn's managing to communicate in English with Morgan, though I'm sure, that will be revealed in time. Communication now seems like a very apt title - I liked it before, but it makes more sense now. I do have my guessed though, and I'm probably wrong. My thoughts are that Solonn perhaps used the move Mimic (Inherited or something from his parents) to "Mimic" the English language... plus you stated that Solonn's "English" voice sounded exactly like Morgan's, which would make Mimic a more viable option.

Just an odd thought.. Ahmm.

All the Pokemon characters seem to be developing nicely, Morgan, too, for that matter. I like her, and she does seem to be a very kind person worthy of Solonn's trust. The deal - I wonder how that would go through. Will she let him go, or not. Or for that matter, will he want to leave.

I've read a few chapters in Origin of Storms, so will this story lead up to the times that Origin of Storm's takes place in? Or is it going to stop before that. .. Just thinking about all the human's suddenly dieing... ... Yeesh.. that still freaks me out, when I think about it. (I did like that in Origin of Storm's by the way. Very creative ... and... "Disturbing" in the cool kind of way).

I couldn't find any typos, or anything to complain about in this chapter, though I did manage to find a typo in Chapter 1, that I had missed before.. How I missed it, I'll never know:

Here, in this frigid underworld which other races of Pokémon almost never dared to enter, and which Humans did even know existed

How about "and which humans didn't even know existed?"

Great job, and keep Pming me with the updates... I'm enjoying this story immensly. And thanks for answering my questions from before.

[Brian Powell]

I enjoyed it... a lot, Ms. Saner.

I can reflect on how Solonn's feeling during the whole chapter and that made me feel sorry for the little guy. Despite Morgan's personality, she has got me in suspense because I don't trust her.

I can picture Solonn being out there, mimicing everybody... I think that would be funny. *Pictures Solonn doing an impression of a parody version of Kelly Osbourne* Hahaha!

What kind of Pokemon is Sei, anyway? I'm rather curious.

I think that she might be a Gardevoir.

Despite a couple of spelling and grammar mistakes, you've backed that up with great descriptions and length.

Overall score so far: 5/5
Advice: Are you using MS Word for spell checking? I think you should.

[Elemental Charizam]

I don't trust that Claydol... Why doesn't it reveal it's telepathy? I bet it uses it to cheat in contests...

Either that or Scrap is right and Morgan is evil, or I'm overly suspicious. In any case, it was a brilliant chapter; I think you portrayed Solonn's emotions and feeling realisticly and well. I love that little Snorunt... only... can't they float? I suppose, you can't really float down from a window that high anyway.

As for Sai, I think she's a Grumpig or Chimechgo, because they're the more cute psychic types, IMO at least.

Speculation:     Spoiler:

Show Spoiler

 
Was Solonn's father a Steelix or Aggron? It'd explain his sub-type from TOoS, and it was pretty hulking, so...
 

[Sike Saner]

Wes: Well, I didn’t want to go the battles ‘n’ badges route, plus I thought that contest performances could offer nice opportunities for creativity, so, yeah, the choice was pretty easy for me. Although I will say that the idea of the looming, head-biting guy from The Origin of Storms performing for pretty ribbons initially amused me to almost no end… X3

Pinecone Tortoise: Yeah, when I gave Solonn an unusual ability, I was very conscious of not giving him an inflated head about it. No “OMG I CAN TALK I IZ TEH SUPER POKE!!!!” I also didn’t want for his ability to be perfect; he can’t do claydol language, and there are others he couldn’t pull off, either. So, why certain languages and not others? Hmm…

GoldenHouou: Glad you like the name Raze. I had a bit of a hard time naming her; that name just popped up almost at the last minute. I figured that Morgan would likely give her either a standard human name or else a name that would apply to the way that Morgan would see the skarmory, considering the kinds of names her other pokémon had. For a long time, I couldn’t seem come up with anything that really seemed to fit—and then, out of nowhere, I thought of Raze, as in “razor”. It was nice, and it didn’t seem too out of the ordinary, so I went with it.

kaizer63: Yes. I was adamant about Solonn giving a crap about being abducted from home with no explanation. X3 After all, it’s not like he didn’t have a life before being captured. He was certainly not just sitting around in the cave, waiting to be captured for his life to begin. Heck, he didn’t even know that humans actually existed before encountering Morgan.

EvilKeckleon: There were a number of routes I could have taken in describing Solonn’s introduction to the domain of humans. Glad you liked the one I ended up choosing. ^^

Infinite Master Sceptile: Okay:

Morgan’s Pokémon

Aaron
Species: Sceptile (male)
Non-contest pokémon (capture specialist)
Contest specialty: None

Ardan (Brett)
Species: Manectric (male)
Non-contest pokémon (capture specialist)
Contest specialty: None

Raze
Species: Skarmory (female)
Contest pokémon, flying transport pokémon
Specialty: Cool contests

Oth (Ominous)
Species: Claydol (genderless)
Contest pokémon, teleporting transport pokémon (usually only used for teleportation if Sei is unavailable)
Specialty: Tough contests

Sei Salma (Enchantress)
Species: Sorry, not telling yet! X3 *dodges bricks*
Contest pokémon, teleporting transport pokémon
Specialty: Smart contests

Solonn Zgil-Al (Azrael)
Species: Snorunt (male)
Contest pokémon
Projected specialty: Beauty contests

At present, Morgan has not yet acquired a cute contest specialist.

Scrap: Solonn’s epiphany regarding his abilities was one of those scenes which I was extremely insistent on doing justice. I’m emphatically glad to hear that it carried itself well. ^^

And yes. Skarmory = love. ^^ *hands Scrap a giant skarmory plushie*

Typhlogirl: I’m glad that you like the name Azrael; I rather like it, too. ^^ Solonn, however, isn’t too fond of it… XP

Saffire Persian: What is Sei? …You’ll see! *dodges more bricks*

Regarding the mimic technique: Curiously, I actually had never thought of that possibility before. As for where his ability did come from… well, I’ll not say yet, but I will say that they did indeed come from somewhere; he didn’t just spontaneously become “magical” or anything like that.

Yes, this story does precede The Origin of Storms. As to how close to the actual time of that story it extends, I will not yet say. Suffice it to say that Solonn doesn’t die prior to that story, though.

*notices typo* Yes, the effect is kind of different when you use the DIRECT ANTONYM of a word… X3; *dies laughing and resurrects self to fix typo*

Brian Powell: Oh, my God… Solonn as Kelly Osbourne! XD *dies laughing* Speaking of voices, I haven’t really quite decided whose voice Solonn’s own, natural voice would actually sound the most like.

Elemental Charizam: Aw, Oth is untrusted… It’s going to cry.


So far, no one has pegged Sei’s species. Don’t worry, though—you’ll meet her soon enough…

[Kiyohime]

    Spoiler:

Show Spoiler

 
Eh, I'm guessing Sei is either an Abra, Kadabra, or Alakazam, since it's the only thing I can think of right now that knows Teleport. Pretty lame attempt from me. <<;;
 

Still, I'll happily await the next chapter to find out.