bloogum

I lay back in my mountain retreat with Shelly and watched our babies play. Neither of the young ice Pokémon could talk yet, but they would get there. Glacier was dangling the tip of his tail just out of their reach, making the little Smoochum and Articuno jump as high as their little legs would let them.

My own tail was growing well. It had reached half a meter long; better than the stub I had before, but nothing like the usual five or six meters an Articuno tail should be.

We giggled when Sapphire flapped his little wings and grabbed the tip of Glacier's tail with his stubby little beak. He was dancing around with the tail tip in his beak, but Glacier tugged it away. Sapphire ran up and jumped on his dad's chest grabbing at the tail with all his might. Shelly's Smoochum joined in.

"Aarrgh!" cried Glacier, "Get 'em off me! I surrender! I surrender! Here, have the tail!" He flicked it out onto the ground and watched the babies bound on top of it.

Shelly's Smoochum had just turned one year old a month ago. She had named it Ruby, because she liked the idea of naming her baby after a precious gemstone. In a few months, we would begin teaching Sapphire to fly, then the five of us would take off and visit Sunset Town again. I couldn't wait. When we get there, it will have been just under two years since we would have seen her.

Even though these mountains were a protected area, we kept one of the three of us in the cave at all times, just in case.

That day, it was my turn to go hunting, so I bid them farewell, dipped over the cliff and dive bombed to the snaking ribbon like river below, my tail rippling out behind me.

Twenty-Six | Old Fiction