What Comes Naturally

“Can’t you open any wider?”

Von’s jaw strained as he tried to stretch his mouth open for the curious Rockruff. She peered as best she could down his throat. Much like during a visit to the dentist, Von was never certain what he should be doing with his tongue, and so it lolled from the side of his mouth. His neck tilted upwards at such an angle to let as much of the morning sunlight in as they could allow. Do Pokemon have dental plans? He asked himself, Wait, do I even have teeth anymore? The lips of his lizardlike form were rigid and inflexible, though he still possessed sharp ridges that jutted from them in the semblance of sharp teeth. It was a relief, he admitted to himself, to no longer worry about his lack of health insurance.

 “Unless it’s- there!” Rockruff happily pranced from forepaw to forepaw. “I think I can see a vent on the roof of your mouth when you breathe out!”

Von happily let his jaws snap shut. The oral exam was his idea to begin with, but he only grew more and more self-conscious the longer it went. “A vent?” he asked, before he let his tongue probe over his palate. With the newfound dexterity of his tongue, he was eventually able to find what she was talking about: an exit point, he assumed, for spraying poison from his mouth. “So how does it work?”

“That’s something you’ll have to figure out on your own. That, or ask one of your own kind.”

Von opened and shut his muzzle as he scanned the trees of the cape outside of the burrow. He selected the trunk of a pine tree, took aim, and opened wide. Nothing happened.

“You and Ren both have abilities, right? How did you learn?”

“Our families, of course. Well, my pack taught me, at least.” She glanced at the burrow beneath the magnolia tree, pensive. “He left home early, so I’m not actually sure.”

Maybe my poison typing is hereditary. Von closed his eyes and concentrated inwards as he tried his best to gain awareness of the subconscious actions his new body took. As disorienting as it was to even think about being inhuman, he wanted to be able to defend himself. There were new muscles to grow accustomed to, just as he was forced to relearn how to walk the day before. His tail still felt like an unnatural extension of his spine.

His body felt small, far too small. He felt claustrophobic within his own skin, as if he had been compressed into a space no human should ever belong inside. His arms and legs still bent wrong. He felt so small and vulnerable. He missed having fingers and opposable thumbs. He wanted his old face and his old identity back, not the bestial and alien features that had been somehow forced upon him by the fate that dragged him here. Anger simmered in his core. Pangs of guilt he couldn’t stifle lanced through his chest. The existential fear that loomed at the forefront of his thoughts ever since he had become an animal more and more threatened to engulf him the more he tried to focus and attune to his new shape.

Von opened his eyes and found his breathing had become erratic, and his claws sunk into the soil. He was shaking.

“Are you okay?” Rockruff’s voice pulled his attention from his mounting panic attack, and he was grateful for it.

“I’m fine,” he croaked, and he was made aware of how dry his throat had become. “Just trying to focus.”

Rockruff didn’t appear convinced, but she sat down in the beach grass of the cape.

Von gulped down a lungful of air. It tasted too strongly of the sea, but it was an external nausea- preferable to the internal, he supposed. A vent in the roof of my mouth. Is it really as simple as flexing a muscle?

Deep breaths. Deep concentration. No more letting his thoughts stray- no matter how easy it is, no matter how eagerly his worries nibble away at him. This body isn’t his, and its differences immeasurable. His human mind somehow fit within the skull of a lizard a mere sliver of the size of his former self. Subconscious processes continued to send signals to make his heart beat, to make his stomach process food, to make his lungs filter oxygen into his blood.

Natural weapons should come just as easily, right?

He wanted to breathe fire. He knew he could, he just didn’t know how. He was human, he should be smart enough to figure it out. He had all the tools he needed already, he just didn’t know how to work them. 

What he needed was an objective analysis. With enough detachment, he thought, he should be able to feel the differences between old and new, and not experience the mental whiplash from attuning to a body that felt like a constricting prison. I’m a queer homeless American, I should be good at disassociating . These are a lizard’s claws, not mine. This is a Salandit’s tail; humans don’t have those.

With a mental barrier erected, Von was able to examine himself through the lens of a biologist, only teetering on the edge of a breakdown rather than plummeting into existentialist dread. In his focused state, between measuring breaths and mentally estimating the air capacity of a Salandit’s lungs, he found a muscle tethered to a function he wasn’t certain of. He flexed it only a little at first, cautious, and found a heat rising in his core, a concentrated furnace he could stoke.

He opened his eyes once more. He faced away from Kaia and pulled, and suddenly found himself swept up in a sickness as a burst of caustic fluid fired from his mouth. The fever overtook him as his entire body boiled over, and with his floodgates opened, there was little he could do but expunge the vibrant purple substance that spattered onto the dirt and grass of the cape. A puddle formed before him as he heaved until the pressure relieved itself, and he stood trembling over the toxic ooze that bubbled and sizzled as it seeped into the earth below.

“Haha, gross,” came Ren’s voice from behind. Naturally, he would wake up just in time to witness his new friend embarrass himself.

“I’m s-so sorry,” stuttered a confused Von who could only stare ahead at the mess that just jetted from his jaws. The poison still trickled from his muzzle. He expected the taste to be disgusting, but it barely registered to him. It tingled on his tongue, and he spat what remained into the grass.

“You did it, Salandit! How does it feel?” Rockruff barked excitedly.

“Vile,” hissed Von. “This body feels more and more disgusting the more I learn about it.”

Ren approached the puddle cautiously and wrinkled his nose. “At least you’re learning to defend yourself.”

The three of them ducked back into the burrow. Von was thankful to get away from the mess he had made. With Ren awake, they shared a simple meal of raw fruits in preparation for the journey ahead. The sole bag they had with them could only carry so much, and the remainder of food stores might as well be taken along in their bellies. The taste of fruit helped Von cleanse his palate and alleviate the feeling of disgust he quietly harbored to himself.

“When do Pokemon tell each other their given names?” Von asked idly as he licked plum juice from his muzzle.

The question saw Kaia and Ren share a confused look. “When they grow close enough,” Rockruff answered for the both of them as she side-eyed Ren. “That’s usually how it goes, anyway.”

“It’s a demonstration of friendship,” Ren retorted with a wide grin. “Von is new to our world, and we’re the only friends he has. Would you deprive him of having anyone to call by name?”

“I question you giving yours out so readily,” Rockruff huffed. “And you were quick to believe he’s a human.”

“Do you not trust him?”

“I met him yesterday , Ren.”

“And since then we’ve shared food, and you taught him how to puke.”

“I didn’t puke!” Von interjected too readily.

“Regardless, I think we’re all in agreement that we’re the only friends he has. I just thought it best he have at least one friend whose name he knew.” Ren resumed gnawing on dried apricot.

The three fell quiet once again, though Von looked sheepishly to Rockruff. She stopped eating, her thoughts lingering on the lizard. She looked sorry for him.

“I think I understand- friendship is earned, not given, right?” he asked.

Von’s words softened the pitying look Rockruff was giving him, and her tail began to wag. “That’s right!”

Makes sense in a world where Pokemon eat each other. Von glanced back to Ren, the fox grinning at him. “Should I go back to calling you Zorua, then?”

“Nope! I trust you, Von- you’re just so… so harmless and naive, you couldn’t hurt us if you tried.”

“Um. Thanks?”

“I even got you something as a show of appreciation.” Ren wiped his muzzle off on the back of his paw before he ducked down to tug a piece of cloth free from the satchel. “You humans like to dress up, don’t you?” he asked, an orange bandana between his teeth.

“I- yes, we all wear clothes.” He lashed his tail behind him, uncomfortable at the reminder of his nakedness. “This is a very kind gesture. Where did you get it?”

Ren’s smile faltered for a moment, and he let go of the cloth, letting it fall to the floor to reply. “Leavanny weave most of our clothing. You might meet one when we reach Halfhenge who works enchantments into each garment.” He nudged it towards Von. “How good are you at knots? Kaia and I can try and help, but paws aren’t exactly known for being dextrous.”

Von managed to secure it around his neck after some fumbling. He no longer had thumbs, but his claws were flexible enough to make precise movements. He sat up straight once the knot was tied. “How do I look?”

“You look like you’re ready to me,” Rockruff said as she tugged the strap of the satchel over her head. “Ready to leave?”

 

---

 

The inhabitants of Candle Cay disbanded during the day, or so Von assumed. It was much like when he first arrived; silent houses with animalistic facades were the only sign of life, save for the birds that flocked upon the rooftops and lanterns of the town, no longer needing to take shelter from the rain. Wingull and Murkrow made up most of their numbers, though the gulls were the ones to make noise. Von, not having grown up on the coastline, found the soundscape of gull cries over the tide quite soothing, albeit their calls felt alien when compared to the seagulls of Earth. Wingull were less shrill, their pitch lower. He could make out snippets of words when he concentrated, but hearing their overlapping cries blurred his understanding. Much like standing alone in a chattering crowd, he could hear threads of countless conversations, but latch onto none.

The mechanisms of the language of this world would have enraptured his attention were it not for the eyes of the murder of Murkrow. Unlike the crows of Earth, these avians’ red irises were visible from a distance, and he felt like he was being studied. As he followed his friends, Von felt acutely aware of the number of eyes that followed the trio. Ren and Kaia didn’t seem to mind, however, which lent him a semblance of ease.

The three of them stuck to the perimeter of the town just as they had the night before, though instead of looping around to the church in the hills, they clung to the coast. The dirt beneath the beachgrass yielded to sand still wet from yesterday’s rain. They continued in the direction of the river that fed into the bay, and at the mouth of the river waited a bell suspended from a pole of driftwood. 

Besides the bell stood the figure of a badger-like creature, a silhouette Von vaguely recognized from a distance as a Typhlosion- a large badger-like beast that sat back on its hind legs. He distantly remembered its angles being sharp and its expression fierce from the spritework, baring fangs as its cloak of fire billowed upwards. This typhlosion, however, slept standing up, dissolving any perception of ferocity it may have held while it was awake. Its muzzle and ears were rounded in such a way to give its features a feeling of softness. It wore a belt around its midsection off of which hung several small bags, and beside it sat a wooden box, its lid secured by loops of red string.

The closer they drew to the bell and the sleeping Pokemon, the smaller Von felt. Typhlosion stood almost a foot shorter than his old human body, though it towered over his new one. To combat his claustrophobia, he focused on the most curious aspect of Typhlosion, being the square, stained iron teapot it carried, the handle clutched tightly in its paws as it snoozed.

A giggle from Ren pulled his attention to him. Von turned in time to witness the black fox cloak himself in darkness as his silhouette warped and swelled. He twisted his image into a balloon-like jellyfish, and Von rapidly backpedaled from the ghostly mass.

“You’ve devoured the souls of too many of my kin, Auntie! The sea shall have its wrath!” boomed Ren’s voice, distorted and distant.

The Typhlosion sleepily opened its eyes and a yawn escaped its muzzle. It took a moment for its gaze to focus on the jellyfish floating before it. It’s expression seemed unperturbed. One paw left the handle of the teapot it held and waved at Ren’s disguise dismissively. A ripple of energy shimmered in the air, and the conjured appearance Ren adopted faded away as easily as it had appeared, revealing the fox standing in the sand, his tongue stuck out, mocking. The Typhlosion grunted with displeasure as the feathered audience of Murkrow broke their silence and their cackles echoed around the bay.

“Still alive, Zorua?” It looked over Ren’s companions. Von shrunk back from the scene as he tried not to be noticed. Rockruff seemed oblivious to the prank as she busied herself digging a worn rock from beneath the sand. “Color me surprised. I thought for sure the Cay would have claimed you by now, given your… nature. I suppose I have you to thank for that, Rockruff.”

“Hmm?” Rockruff lifted her attention from the pebble she had found. “Oh! Yes, I’m the responsible one, as we all know.”

“And who is this?” The Typhlosion stared at Von, and Rockruff and Ren followed suit as they all waited for him to answer.

“I’m… Salandit.” It wasn’t his name. The introduction felt off.

“I can’t say I’ve met your kind before, Salandit. I am Typhlosion,” She yawned before she readdressed Rockruff. “Just what are you two doing out of your hiding place?”

“We’re going home!” she yapped excitedly and punctuated her bark by slamming a paw into the sand. The rock she had unburied from the beach obeyed her will and launched itself into the air towards the bell they gathered beneath, and the resounding gong echoed far seaward.

Typhlosion winced and flattened her ears against her skull as the bell rang loud and clear above her head. “I’m sure they’ll welcome you home with open arms!” she yelled over the noise.

“Of course they will, Auntie!” Ren shouted back, “And don’t act like you didn’t miss crossing paths with us!”Typhlosion snorted as the noise of the gong slowly faded, and Von picked up another source of noise, a cry from the sea. He spun, half expecting to see a whale breaching the waves, and instead recognized the pod of Lapras he spotted the day prior. One broke off from the trio to head shoreward. The waterways, he remembered. We’re going to ride on a Lapras.