Chapter 4: Job Hunting

On TV, a commercial displayed a random product before cutting back right to a female spokesperson sitting on a desk, a screen showing a city in the background as usual. The woman looked up from her desk, directly at the camera. “Good evening.” 

The news headline on the screen read “CAR CRASHES ON ROUTE 84, WHOLE FAMILY MISSING” . With that, the woman continued speaking. “At this morning, at 7 in the morning, there was a crash involving two vehicles. In one of the cars, there was a man who was confirmed to be drunk by the authorities, while in the other car, there was supposedly a family of four.”

An image was shown on the screen of an upside-down and broken car at the road’s edge. “While the man, who wanted to keep his identity hidden, came out of the crash with only a couple of bruises, the family consisting of Samantha Greylocke, Richard Greylocke, and their two kids, Nathan Greylocke, and Alexa Greylocke, all mysteriously disappeared.” There was a close-up of the car while the woman continued speaking. “The local police investigated the car thoroughly and found no traces of the whereabouts of the Greylocke family, however, it seemed some of them were gravely injured by the amount of blood found inside the car, but only the inside of the car. More updates regarding their disappearance once the authorities find another clue.”

She looked at another camera as the headline and the picture disappeared. “Now, moving on to our next headline…”

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Peace, tranquility, comfort, and warmth.

I could feel these four words surrounding my entire body, embracing me as awareness slowly returned to my body. My eyes stirred, feeling myself wake up from the slumber that I was in. I opened my eyes, blinking a few times as the perception of my surroundings started making themselves clear. 

From just the touch, I felt something prickly and fuzzy underneath me while something fluffy was around me, embracing me… 

I could hear the noises of a river flowing nearby and birds tweeting in the background, and then, my eyes started to adjust. It slowly became clear that I was not in a familiar environment, being surrounded by rocky walls and ceilings and a dirt floor. I took a look at my own body, slowly taking in what was in front of me before flinching slightly at what I saw. Blue, black, and yellow fur, paws, and a tail were the things I saw that were NOT my human body. Not only that, pale-brown paws were wrapped around my torso. ‘What?’

Memories from yesterday’s events then flashed on the front of my mind, reminding me of the current situation. My heart calmed down a little and I looked aside with a grimace, sighing. ‘Oh yeah… this is our current life for now…’

“Mnph…” I heard a grunt coming from behind me as I felt the paws around me loosen their hold. Even though they were fluffy and comfortable, I reminded myself who they belonged to so I got out of their grip. I rolled to the other side, letting me get a clear view of the hay bed I was on and of my litleo sister who slowly opened her eyes. 

I got a little curious about her reaction to waking up like this. 

“Yo sis, welcome to the waking world.” I said with a slight smirk. It didn’t bother me that much waking up to not being a human, I’m usually the kind of guy that goes with the flow. And I must admit, the old life on Earth was getting boring and repetitive. It’s a good thing the internet prepared me for an event such as this, as unlikely as those events sounded.

Alexa slowly looked at her surroundings before focusing on me, blinking in disbelief and confusion. “Nathan…? It’s…” She then at her own body before her eyes widened a bit more. “It wasn’t just a one-day thing!?”

“Why would you think we would go back home after spending only one day in this world?” I asked while tilting my head.

The litleo stuttered, trying to come up with something but clearly failing to do so. “Like… I-I was thinking it’d be like… like… I dunno, those one-day experiences like in one of those movies! Why aren’t we back!?”

“Did you forget what I told you yesterday?”

“Did you expect I actually took that “saving the world” or “being stuck here forever” bullshit seriously!? I can’t stay forever like this! What about my phone!? I can’t stay in this world for long without at least watching my favorite Tiktoker!”

I shook my head with a sigh. “Maybe this experience might help you get the brain cells you lost from Tiktok back…”

Alexa growled, her red fringe of fur sparking in flames. “You fucking-!” She suddenly pounced at me, catching me by surprise as we rolled a few feet back. She stood on top of me, fangs bared and claws poking at my skin as she hissed. “You know something else right!? There’s a way back that’s not saving the world, isn’t there!?”

I hissed back, small electrical currents running through my fur as I struggled against Alexa’s hold. “Goddammit Alexa, if I knew about something else, I’d say it, not keep it hidden from you guys!” Because I was stronger and bigger than her, I managed to get out of her grip and jerk away, immediately getting up. “Geez, is this all because of your stupid phone?”

“Of course not, you dumbass!” She shouted before the sparks of flame disappeared from her fringe and she looked down. Her voice seemed to falter a little. “My-… my entire life and future is just gone…”

The electricity around my body died down as I dropped my defensive stance. I frowned as I muttered. “Alexa…” I sighed, scooting up to her as she sat on the ground. “You gotta accept the situation you’re in. Look, it isn’t as bad as you think it is.”

“It is.” She quickly replied as she looked away from me.

I looked aside, trying to think of something that might soothe her, at least a little bit. “Listen…” I put a paw on her back. “As I said, there might be a chance to go back. I’m not saying that’s 100% guaranteed, but we have to be hopeful that we’ll get that chance in some way.” I avoided talking about the other possibility.

The litleo grimaced. “But what if we don’t…?”

“We’ll stick together so we can live a happy life in this world.” I took my paw off her. “It might not be exactly the same as before, given no tech at all. But still, it’s at least better than just living full-on wild, right?”

Alexa sighed before saying unamused. “I hate it when you’re the right one sometimes…” 

I smiled a bit. “Don’t worry sis, we are still here to support you in case you need it.” ‘And with that, she’s the last one to have a breakdown… hopefully.’

Alexa looked at me in confusion. “Seriously though, how the hell are you so calm about all of this? Sure like, you’re the nerd now about all of this, but aren’t you at least a little freaked out about all of this?”

“If you’re on some corners of the internet and depressed for a bit of time and acting like you don’t care about anything that happens to you…” I said with a bit of truth in it… or literally my entire situation. “Yeah, you kinda don’t mind it.”

My sister’s tail dropped. “Oh… you’re not like… ya know…”

“Eh, don’t worry about it. I’m not in those levels of depression.” I assured with a wave of my paw. I then started walking to the door while looking at Alexa. “C’mon, let’s see if Mom and Dad are awake yet.” 

Alexa nodded and started following me out of the room. While we were walking to the living room, she suddenly asked. “Do you think Mom and Dad are gonna wake up without issues or not?”

“Well… I expect a minor scare, but since they already took a nap yesterday, I don’t expect a major scare.” I looked away with an uncertain look. “Hopefully…” 

When we arrived at the living room, I was surprised to see Mom and Dad chilling in the middle of the living room, my mom lying on Dad’s side. I tilted my head as Alexa and I walked to them. “Didn’t expect you guys to be awake already.”

“Morning Mom, Morning Dad.” Alexa said with less enthusiasm than she normally does. That is understandable, she is a little bummed about her situation.

Mom smiled at us as best a feline could. “Good morning children. I hope you two slept well.”

Dad responded. “Your mother and I woke up early in the morning as usual because we’re already used to it. We were just waiting for you two to get up, especially you Nathan. Remember our talk yesterday?”

I sat on the ground and sighed. “Now that you said it… I remember now.” Ah yes, before I went to bed, Dad said he wanted to go job hunting with me so I had that to deal with…

A thought occurred to me, making me realize that this might be a bit harder than expected. Dad’s gonna have to do some shit to at least find a job in this world. Either he forms an exploration team with me since I know Mom and Alexa wouldn’t want to be in this sort of thing, or we do something more serene and less adventurous but that’d require heavy lifting. The major example is hunting because of course, the villagers here would want a very fearsome duo of carnivores to gather meat for the village.

Shit, would I actually have to hunt for food as well…?

Alexa tilted her head in confusion but didn’t question it. Instead, she questioned something else. “Mom, if this is our lives for now, does that mean we have to go to the school of this world as well?”

The luxray sighed and replied. “Look, we’re still getting things sorted out here. Once we’re done, your father and I will decide if it’s good or not to make you go to school in this world.”

Dad scratched his head a little. “Honestly, I don’t think it’s a good idea. They might be intelligent, sure, but look at the way their buildings are made of for Christ’s sake…” He then motioned with his paw to the rock walls of the house. “You guys wouldn’t learn anything good from these guys.”

I shrugged while looking away. “Honestly, there are things we could learn with them that’d be useful for us. Like, we could learn more about how this world works, or about the various Pokémon species out in the world.” I leaned into Dad a little. “Didn’t you say to us that knowledge distances yourself from the weight of manual labor?”

“I did say that…” I heard him mutter to the side before raising his voice again. “Whatever, that’s a topic for another time.” He got up slowly, making sure Mom wouldn’t fall on the floor. When he was fully up, he flicked his tail to the side and stood tall with all of his pyroar might. I hate admitting it, but when I looked at him, an instinctual feeling came over me, telling me to straight up act as his servant since he was the “leader of the pack” per se. “Come on, Nathan, let’s go find the job and possibly more food.”

I nodded and started following my dad out of the house, waving goodbye to Mom and Alexa. It’s a bit surprising that Alexa didn’t want to come with us, but maybe she was feeling the same thing as Mom was and still feels the same since yesterday. Can’t blame her, now she has to gain the courage to get out of home.

As we walked to the elevator, seeing the various Pokémon talking and exiting their homes to do their daily tasks, my dad asked as we waited in the small line for the elevator. “So uh… do you remember the layout of this town? I wasn’t… paying attention to the tour.” He whispered to me.

“Figured this would be the case…” I muttered to myself before nodding. “Yeah, I do remember. Although I wasn’t paying attention when Xenia also, I got used to it later when I was searching for her.” 

“Good enough. I just hope I find a place that’s hiring so I don’t have to resort to the hunting…” Dad said, visibly getting chills from thinking about that outcome.

“You know, we could just ask Xenia if there are any other jobs you could take.” I suggested, which seemed to calm Dad down a little. 

“Well, hopefully, she knows of a place or two…”

After waiting a bit, we finally stepped on the elevator and descended to the lower part of the town. When we stepped out of it, we started walking aimlessly around town, or, Dad started walking aimlessly around town because I was just accompanying him. I could tell he was slightly nervous about being close to other Pokémon from the way he was staring at them. It was a bit funny to think that a mighty and noble Pokémon like a pyroar was afraid of other Pokémon.

While walking around, I saw some Pokémon I hadn’t seen before, such as a swalot, a persian, and a… “Huh? What’s a zeraora doing here?” I muttered to myself as I continued staring at the bipedal electric feline. They seemed to have a watchful gaze over the streets of the town and wore the same badge as the other officers of the village. 

Their stare then shifted to us and I felt the weight of a thousand chains wrapping around my soul. Their presence exerted an aura that demonstrated that they were the alpha and that they had the power here. Something I could also feel was that the electricity coursing throughout my body was being attracted to them like they wanted to connect to the stronger current. 

Then they started walking straight to us.

“Hey, you two.” She said in a smooth but powerful voice, forcing me and my dad to stop in place.

Dad looked at her and froze when he looked at the badge. It seemed that he noticed that she had authority around the place, something that he wasn’t prepared to deal with at the moment. He stuttered a little bit. “O-oh, erm, how… how can we help you?”

The zeraora stopped in front of us and crossed her arms. “I’ve never seen you two around here. Are you new villagers?”

“Yeah… we are.” I hate admitting it, but I was a little nervous. Who wouldn’t be? This was a damn mythical Pokémon who was in front of me and was intimidating as hell. Of course, I’d be nervous as shit for just being in front of it… or she.

Wait, mythical Pokémon can have genders? Well… kinda makes sense now that I think about it… but I was definitely not gonna look to confirm my theory.

“I see. Moved in recently?” She asked and both me and Dad responded with a nod. “Alright then…” She looked at Dad. “You seem like the father… have you found something to do that’d help the village yet?”

Dad flinched when all the attention was directed to him, however managed to calm down. “Um… we moved here yesterday so I’m trying to find a job around here.”

“Hm…” The zeraora then circled around Dad, inspecting him from every angle before hovering a paw close to his mane. She nodded while humming again, being in front of us. “You’re a very fit and healthy pyroar…” She put her paw on her side as her tail swished to the side. “Say, how about you join the task force? There are only three acting officers in this village, one more could significantly make our work a lot easier, and you could get the job before getting kicked out of the village. What do you say?”

Damn, what a coincidental opportunity. Honestly, I was expecting this job hunting to take hours, but I had forgotten that this village lost a lot of its population because they didn’t find this place enjoyable to live in, so there were bound to be a lot of job opportunities in this place. However, this opportunity didn’t mean that their job hunt was over. Would Dad even take the deal? 

I looked at my dad expectingly, wondering what would his reaction be. Knowing my dad, he was probably weighing the pros and cons of taking the offer. If he was thinking correctly, it was very obvious what the correct- “S-sure… why not?”

Huh… wasn’t expecting that outcome. Did he even think about it?

The zeraora smiled, her intimidating gaze dropping a little and making us more at ease. “Thank you for taking my offer. How about I take you to the chief right now so we can discuss the details with him?”

The pyroar nervous expression seemed to dissipate as his stuttering stopped. “Well… I’d love to, but I can’t right now. I’m looking for food for my family. Do you know where I could find it?”

The bipedal feline hummed before turning her head to the side. She then pointed in the direction of one of the commercial streets. “You’ll find the meat storage that the hunters gather at that location. Just tell the butcher the number of pieces you want accounting for the same number of family members and he’ll give it to you for free. Just don’t go getting more than-”

My dad interrupted the zeraora. “Wait, wait, wait. For… for free?”

A thoughtful hum escaped the zeraora’s lips before they morphed into a smirk. “I see you came from the big city. Here’s a lesson, old ‘mon.” She crossed her arms. “One thing this village hates the most is greedy and scammy systems that disrupt the flow of a peaceful and balanced style of life.”

Dad was trying to process what he had just heard. I then leaned close to his ear and whispered. “She means that this village doesn’t like capitalism.”

A flash of realization passed through Dad’s face as he made a silent “Oooooooh…” sound. I backed away as Dad focused on the zeraora officer again. “Well… yes, miss, we did come from, er, the big city, so I was a bit thrown off by your methods.”

“It’s understandable. It’s a bit hard to adapt to new environments so quickly. But don’t worry, you’ll get used to it in no time.” She reassured before starting to walk away. “Well, once you’re ready to apply, just go to Ollivine’s office once you’re able to go there. Just close by the river.” 

With that, the zeraora walked away with a single salute of her paws. Dad sighed in relief before commenting. “Huh… she was… nicer than expected.”

“Yeah… she was…” I agreed before pawing Dad on his leg. “So… what now? You found your job so…”

“Well… we do need to get the food so… let’s go there next, alright?” He then paused, his expression shifting to a thoughtful one. “Hm… where do you drink water in here?”

I nonchalantly replied. “The river.”

“Wait, really…? Is it… hygienical enough for that-”

I interrupted him by stating my points. “Firstly, we’re Pokémon felines, like our immune system cares about a couple of bacteria in the water. Secondly, this is not our world. I drank water there yesterday with my sister and it was crystal clear. Thirdly, that’s our only water source around here.”

My dad sighed and rolled his eyes. “Alright, I get it… beggars can’t be choosers, yada yada yada…”

We then started walking to the shoreline of the river, taking our time with this as the sun warmed our bodies. After all, I was starting to get thirsty myself. As we walked, I turned to Dad and asked him. “Dad… I gotta ask… when that officer offered you the job, did you even think about it before accepting it? You just took the offer so quickly…”

He responded with a huff. “Yes, I did.” He turned his head to me. “When thinking about it, I thought: If this job makes the village AND my family safer, then it’s worth taking. And so… I just accepted it.”

I tilted my head. “Did you even think about the other stuff that comes when taking a job like this? Like, you literally gotta fight intruders and criminals which, let me remind you, are super-powered animals. You don’t even know how to use your moves.”

An expression of surprise flashed briefly in his face before he looked away with a bit of regret. “I… I haven’t thought… about that…”

I sighed while shaking my head. ‘Dad… why?’ It was clear that if he goes on the first day on the job and his coworkers know he won’t know how to fight at all… they’ll discover his true identity.

After all, was there even a pyroar who didn’t know how to use fire moves?

“Okay… there’s a way out of this. Remember that Xenia said that she’ll help us by having us stay for two weeks here to settle in without getting evicted? We can use this time for training so you’ll get used to your moves.” I said, putting some hope back into the pyroar. However, it seemed that he was still skeptical.

“Can we even learn how to do our abilities in this short amount of time?” He asked.

I smirk at him with confidence. “Pokémon that are born in the wilds need to learn how to do their moves in less than a day just to survive. Don’t worry, we’ll learn how to do them properly in no time. Remember, the secret to doing them is intent, alright?”

Dad sighed, turning his head away from me. “Hopefully, you are right about this, Nathan…”

With that, we continued walking to the riverbank without any further conversation. I was thinking to myself… what if Dad just wasn’t able to do it in time? No… we needed to do this, lest we want our secret to be exposed…