Dissociate
Jan 4, 2021 6:53:55 GMT
Post by puph17 on Jan 4, 2021 6:53:55 GMT
A/N: Ok, so I’m rebooting an old Pokemon idea that I had. Think of this fic as the prequel to an eventual rewrite of a previous fic. The pertinent information is that this will take place in a Pokespe AU with a different continuity of events.
For this chapter, 4 of 5 OCs will be mentioned but none of my OCs will take center stage till I get to the rewrite of my previous fic. Think of their mentions as a brief introduction to the characters and what they do.
Summary: It’s been years since the Dexholder project started. Some dexholders have just completed their adventures while others haven’t been on an adventure in years. But one thing remains the same: the passage of time is a cruel thing.
For this chapter, 4 of 5 OCs will be mentioned but none of my OCs will take center stage till I get to the rewrite of my previous fic. Think of their mentions as a brief introduction to the characters and what they do.
With all that of the way, let’s get the chapter going!
Summary: It’s been years since the Dexholder project started. Some dexholders have just completed their adventures while others haven’t been on an adventure in years. But one thing remains the same: the passage of time is a cruel thing.
Yellow stared into the night sky from her favorite tree stump in Viridian Forest. It was a cold night, well into October. While no snow had fallen yet, the branches of the trees were bare, standing rigid and spindly in the night sky. They rattled as the wind blew through. Winter was coming to Kanto. Yellow knew that full well. Not that she cared.
Well, she did care somewhat. Most of her friends had gone into hibernation. All of the Beedrill hives had battened down the hatches for winter, as had most of the other Pokemon in the forest that hadn’t migrated south earlier in the fall. There were still a few, like the local Kanghaskhan, and a few Growlithe that lived to the south.
But such was the course of nature. Which just left her, sitting alone in the middle of the forest, save for Ratty perched on her shoulder. The others were back at her house, where they’d be safe from the winter’s coming cold. It was lonely there, after all. Ever since her uncle had gone out to sea and never returned. Apparently, his ship capsized in a storm. Nobody was rescued from the wreck.
Yellow sighed as she fiddled with a familiar red device in her hands, its batteries long dead and its vacant screen glinting in the moonlight. It had been years since her dexholder days and months since she’d talked to any of her old friends. She didn’t even know why she kept her old pokedex. She’d thrown away almost everything else. Perhaps she was too weak to cut off her last tie to her old life. Maybe she’d have the strength someday. But that day wasn’t today.
She’d changed so much since her days as a Dexholder. She’d admittedly been an optimistic and naïve girl back then. Now that Yellow had truly seen what people did to Pokemon….well, it didn’t sit right with her anymore to associate with people very much. This went even for her friends. They were still part of the system. Not that all people in the system were bad. Red in particular seemed to hold out a lot of hope for them. But she didn’t. Not anymore. Not after she’d heard the screams. Not after she’d heard the pleas for help. Not after she’d seen the suffering. From pollution, from truly disgusting trainers, from people who just didn’t care.
Idly, Yellow wondered if this was why Lance had tried to destroy Kanto. Maybe she should have let him. There really wasn’t much worth saving. All of the big factories, churning out pollution. All of the big boats, spewing out unhealthy fumes. All of the progress of “industry”. Kanto in particular was considered to be one of the most heavily industrialized regions in the world. Even Johto had more restrictions to protect the wild areas.
Maybe Lance had been right. Maybe humans and Pokemon couldn’t coexist happily. Maybe she’d just been a naive little girl when she’d fought him on Cerise Isle all those years ago. Honestly it had been a miracle that she’d made it out alive, let alone with a victory.
But no… she was different then Lance. It was a bit of a strange thought, one that hadn’t crossed her mind for some time. But it was something that Yellow knew that at least for sure. She retained at least a little hope. At least she hadn’t become so jaded that she’d lost faith in humanity totally. Whatever that was worth. Her friends weren’t lost causes, as were most people. The bad people were few, but unfortunately, they often had either power or anonymity on their side. And they were impossible to deal with. Yellow had found that out the hard way. She simply didn’t have enough power on her own to move them.
Now, she spent her days in the forest, guiding lost souls back to the beaten paths or driving away the more aggressive passers through who ventured too far into the forest. They weren’t allowed to touch her forest. To steal away her friends. No…even if it were the last piece of wild land in all of Kanto, she wouldn’t let them in. She might not be the most powerful trainer in the world, but she wasn’t weak either. She could guard this beautiful place. She could guard her home. She had enough power to do that at least.
But at the same time, she felt…unfulfilled? Like she was missing something. But what could there be? She was surrounded by her Pokémon friends and her beloved forest. It was all she had left.
It wasn’t like the other Dexholders were around very much anymore, even if she wanted to see them. All of them had gone their own way. She only got to see Red, Green and Crystal on a regular-ish basis. Red was perpetually busy with his Champion duties. He and Misty came to visit Yellow on occasion, when his schedule allowed. It was nice. He usually brought pastries with him too, which was always a bonus. Green was always stuck in his Gym. It could not be said that he didn’t do his best to be the best gym leader possible. What could be said was that he was a workaholic who was always on the job. Usually it was Yellow doing the visiting, mostly for business purposes. Sometimes she was returning a scared lost soul to civilization, sometimes she dragging a wanted fugitive back to the waiting handcuffs of a law enforcement officer. It was a working relationship, and she respected Green greatly. Did she have much of a friendship anymore? Not at all. And then there was Crystal. She now worked for Professor Oak as an assistant in the lab. She often accompanied Crystal when going to release Pokemon back into the wild and sometimes got called into the lab itself to calm an inconsolable Pokemon. She was always nice to talk to. Busy to be sure, but a friend none the less who made time to meet with her on a regular basis. Which was more then she could say for the rest of the dexholders.
Sure, she’d seen most of them at least once in the last few years, but that didn’t constitute a proper friendship at all. Violet had once been her sister in arms against those who would do Pokemon harm. But when Yellow found she couldn’t carry on, Violet had gone on without her, her fire still burning brightly in that endless battle. Perhaps her ability to actually transform into a Pokémon gave her some insight or power that Yellow didn’t have, with only her ability to understand Pokémon. Something that kept her going, when Yellow could not. Not that Yellow had the slightest idea of what that something was.
Blue had outright just disappeared. The last that Yellow had heard was that Blue’s acting career hadn’t been going so well and that she was going to redouble her efforts to get a role. Considering that she hadn’t heard anything in months, Yellow could only assume that it didn’t go well. She wasn’t concerned for Blue’s safety, the woman had proven time and time again that she was more than capable of handling herself against any number of dangers, but Yellow did wonder what she was doing now. Her parents had even stopped by to ask if she had heard anything. They were really nice people and it pained Yellow deeply to have no information for them.
Then there was Orange, ever off on another adventure. While her adventurous spirit had cooled somewhat over time, she was still off on the road for another freelance filming or photography job more often than not and loving every minute of it. Between her freelance business, her brutal travel schedule and her perpetually short budget, Orange was always busy and only ever turned up in Yellow’s neck of the woods by sheer accident and nothing more. Not that Yellow minded when she turned up, but their interactions were always cut short by whatever other errand Orange had to run off and attend to. Yellow had no idea why Orange would do that to herself, but it wasn’t like she was one to talk. By the system’s terminology, she was “unemployed” and “not doing anything with her life”. The simple thought of that made her eyes roll. She was taking care of her forest and her Pokémon friends and doing a far better job of it then those so called “Rangers”. What a lot of city slickers they were. Probably couldn’t tell north from south without a GPS.
Indigo was also not frequently around, though for different reasons. The former Shadow Trainer had taken a more academic path and was now currently doing his PhD in computer sciences. Or so Crystal had told her. The last time she’d seen him was during the World Tourney when he’d been competing for Kanto-Johto after the big steroids scandal had gotten almost all of the professional competitive battlers on the continent suspended, and many of the top collegiate battlers had been called in as replacements. Indigo was hard to watch battle, though. While he’d changed a lot in the years Yellow had known him, he was a Shadow Trainer at heart and the high risk, high reward and high recoil battling style he defaulted to when cornered was hard for her to watch. It also reminded her of what Indigo had told her about the Shadow Pokemon project. Sometimes, Yellow wondered if Shadow Humans existed. And sometimes, she wondered if Indigo walked the line in between.
Silver visited on very rare occasion, often swinging by while on business trips to Viridian City. Between his wife, two kids and his job, he was quite the busy guy. It was almost astonishing to see the transformation of the young man from the shadowy, sneaky trainer bent on destroying the Masked Man to the quiet salary worker who worked an 9-5 job and had a wife and two kids. Silver’s wedding had been the last time Yellow had seen all the dexholders together in one place. It had been a joyous occasion and Yellow couldn’t be happier for him. It still saddened her that she didn’t get to see him very often.
Lyra was the only other dexholder she cared to see after Gold’s…..fall from grace. The former rock star had gotten himself into the party life, shortly before blowing all his money and disgracing himself on live tv. Not that she’d had much in common with the boisterous dexholder to begin with. Lyra was far better conversation. She would visit every time she was in Viridian, though unfortunately, the lack of rich people in need of a move tutor in the area limited her visits. Lyra always had the funniest stories of trainers who hired her to teach their Pokémon new moves, and Yellow very much enjoyed her outrageous tales and cheerful company.
But alas, the result was the same. All of them were off doing their own things. Off living their lives. Off doing what they wanted to do. While she sat here on a stump in the middle of a cold, empty forest.
No. She wanted to be here. She was here for a reason. For the Pokemon. For the forest she called home. She couldn’t forget.
The wind picked up into a strong gust. Yellow instinctively reached for her head, before stopping herself and sighing. She was still trying to stop her hat from blowing away, even though she’d stopped wearing it years ago. Ratty perked his head up as Yellow’s ponytail whipped around and lightly whacked his tail.
“Sorry Ratty. Maybe I need a haircut,” said Yellow apologetically.
Ratty just squeaked and gave her a concerned look.
“Yeah, I guess I was brooding again,” said Yellow. “Sorry about that. I know you don’t like it.”
Ratty perked up and squeaked a few more times before rubbing his head against her arm.
Yellow’s face twisted into a small, sad smile.
“Thank you.”
Ratty chattered again, pawing at her hand.
“I know. It’s just…. I don’t know….” sighed Yellow. “None of the others see it the way I do. I can’t change the course of history. I can’t stop all of the factories. I can’t catch all the bad trainers. I know I beat Lance, but that was with everybody else helping. I would never have stood a chance on my own.”
Ratty squeaked again. Yellow shook her head.
“No, I’m just some sort of crazy woman to them now. I don’t think they’d listen to me just because we fought Lance. I don’t even know if the title of Pokedex holder goes for anything anymore. I mean, it only went for so much back in the day.”
That being said, maybe Ratty was on to something? According to Crystal, Yellow had become a local legend. The “Lady of the Forest” or something like that. Protector of the Trees. Guardian of the Pokemon. She sighed in frustration. They probably wouldn’t listen to her. They probably wouldn’t get it. And at this point, she wasn’t sure if they ever would. They didn’t understand Pokemon the way she did.
Was it fair to be so hard on them if they couldn’t see things the way she did because of her powers? Probably. You didn’t need her gift to know that Pokemon were suffering. It was right in front of everybody. No, it wasn’t all Pokemon and yes, there were a lot of really good and kindhearted trainers out there, but it didn’t change the fact that there were still hurting Pokemon out there who needed help. And she could only do so much on her own.
She had tried. She had gone out into the wilds and city dumps. She’d marched with the protestors and given dozens of speeches. She’d almost worked herself into a serious mental breakdown. It had taken nearly all of the people she knew to convince her to stop. And when she stopped, she came to a realization.
What was she accomplishing by doing all of this?
It was only then that she realized that her efforts weren’t enough. That no matter what she did, there would never be able to make a dent in the overwhelming face of all of the suffering.
At this point, she’d need to have significant political sway. Even Red, the popular champion, had tried to push legislation to help curb some of the pollution and put better policies in place, but was still pushing against stiff political resistance. It disgusted Yellow beyond words. It made her usually dormant rage boil with a frenzy unmatched by any other emotion she’d ever felt. And to be honest, it scared her that she was even capable of such anger. In the end, she decided that she needed to get away from it all. Away from the politicians, away the people and away from the filthy, broken, despicable world that they all lived in. Away to the only forest she’d ever called home.
Yellow felt a small nip at her hand, bringing her straight back to reality. She looked down at Ratty, who peered up at her, concerned. She hadn’t realized that she’d gotten so worked up.
“Don’t worry, Ratty. I’m fine. Just….got worked up thinking about some things. That’s all!”
She gave Ratty a smile. He chattered concernedly and nuzzled against her arm.
“Really, I’m fine! You don’t have to worry about me. You know me. I can handle this!”
Ratty shook his head.
“Ugh, you’re right, Ratty. But who am I going to call?”
Ratty chattered again.
“They’re all busy. I don’t even have a phone to call them anymore.”
Ratty chattered again, more animated this time.
“I don’t think that will work.”
Ratty squeaked animatedly.
“I…have a hunch. It’s not going to happen, all right?”
Yellow sighed as the wind gusted again. She glanced up at the rattling branches above her.
“They…I don’t know that most of them care about me anymore, Ratty. It’s been forever since I’ve seen them. I….ugh….I don’t know.”
Ratty nuzzled against Yellow comfortingly.
“Thanks, Ratty. I know I can always count on you.”
Ratty squeaked happily and settled down on her lap.
Yellow gazed out over the forest, absentmindedly stroking Ratty’s fur. Nothing had changed in the forest. Just as always. That’s what she loved so much about the place. No matter how much things seemed to change, no matter if the leaves were blown away and the plants shriveled, no matter if branches fell and trees toppled, the forest always seemed to stay the same. She would always have friends here. She would always be safe here. She would always be at home here.
She took a deep breath through her nose and exhaled through her mouth. Maybe things weren’t as bad as she had thought. Or maybe they were. It didn’t matter. She had her forest. And her forest had her. And that was all she needed.
Yellow stood up from her tree stump, Ratty still in her arms. He perked up and clambered onto her shoulder, squeaking curiously.
“Come on Ratty. Let’s go home.”
Well, she did care somewhat. Most of her friends had gone into hibernation. All of the Beedrill hives had battened down the hatches for winter, as had most of the other Pokemon in the forest that hadn’t migrated south earlier in the fall. There were still a few, like the local Kanghaskhan, and a few Growlithe that lived to the south.
But such was the course of nature. Which just left her, sitting alone in the middle of the forest, save for Ratty perched on her shoulder. The others were back at her house, where they’d be safe from the winter’s coming cold. It was lonely there, after all. Ever since her uncle had gone out to sea and never returned. Apparently, his ship capsized in a storm. Nobody was rescued from the wreck.
Yellow sighed as she fiddled with a familiar red device in her hands, its batteries long dead and its vacant screen glinting in the moonlight. It had been years since her dexholder days and months since she’d talked to any of her old friends. She didn’t even know why she kept her old pokedex. She’d thrown away almost everything else. Perhaps she was too weak to cut off her last tie to her old life. Maybe she’d have the strength someday. But that day wasn’t today.
She’d changed so much since her days as a Dexholder. She’d admittedly been an optimistic and naïve girl back then. Now that Yellow had truly seen what people did to Pokemon….well, it didn’t sit right with her anymore to associate with people very much. This went even for her friends. They were still part of the system. Not that all people in the system were bad. Red in particular seemed to hold out a lot of hope for them. But she didn’t. Not anymore. Not after she’d heard the screams. Not after she’d heard the pleas for help. Not after she’d seen the suffering. From pollution, from truly disgusting trainers, from people who just didn’t care.
Idly, Yellow wondered if this was why Lance had tried to destroy Kanto. Maybe she should have let him. There really wasn’t much worth saving. All of the big factories, churning out pollution. All of the big boats, spewing out unhealthy fumes. All of the progress of “industry”. Kanto in particular was considered to be one of the most heavily industrialized regions in the world. Even Johto had more restrictions to protect the wild areas.
Maybe Lance had been right. Maybe humans and Pokemon couldn’t coexist happily. Maybe she’d just been a naive little girl when she’d fought him on Cerise Isle all those years ago. Honestly it had been a miracle that she’d made it out alive, let alone with a victory.
But no… she was different then Lance. It was a bit of a strange thought, one that hadn’t crossed her mind for some time. But it was something that Yellow knew that at least for sure. She retained at least a little hope. At least she hadn’t become so jaded that she’d lost faith in humanity totally. Whatever that was worth. Her friends weren’t lost causes, as were most people. The bad people were few, but unfortunately, they often had either power or anonymity on their side. And they were impossible to deal with. Yellow had found that out the hard way. She simply didn’t have enough power on her own to move them.
Now, she spent her days in the forest, guiding lost souls back to the beaten paths or driving away the more aggressive passers through who ventured too far into the forest. They weren’t allowed to touch her forest. To steal away her friends. No…even if it were the last piece of wild land in all of Kanto, she wouldn’t let them in. She might not be the most powerful trainer in the world, but she wasn’t weak either. She could guard this beautiful place. She could guard her home. She had enough power to do that at least.
But at the same time, she felt…unfulfilled? Like she was missing something. But what could there be? She was surrounded by her Pokémon friends and her beloved forest. It was all she had left.
It wasn’t like the other Dexholders were around very much anymore, even if she wanted to see them. All of them had gone their own way. She only got to see Red, Green and Crystal on a regular-ish basis. Red was perpetually busy with his Champion duties. He and Misty came to visit Yellow on occasion, when his schedule allowed. It was nice. He usually brought pastries with him too, which was always a bonus. Green was always stuck in his Gym. It could not be said that he didn’t do his best to be the best gym leader possible. What could be said was that he was a workaholic who was always on the job. Usually it was Yellow doing the visiting, mostly for business purposes. Sometimes she was returning a scared lost soul to civilization, sometimes she dragging a wanted fugitive back to the waiting handcuffs of a law enforcement officer. It was a working relationship, and she respected Green greatly. Did she have much of a friendship anymore? Not at all. And then there was Crystal. She now worked for Professor Oak as an assistant in the lab. She often accompanied Crystal when going to release Pokemon back into the wild and sometimes got called into the lab itself to calm an inconsolable Pokemon. She was always nice to talk to. Busy to be sure, but a friend none the less who made time to meet with her on a regular basis. Which was more then she could say for the rest of the dexholders.
Sure, she’d seen most of them at least once in the last few years, but that didn’t constitute a proper friendship at all. Violet had once been her sister in arms against those who would do Pokemon harm. But when Yellow found she couldn’t carry on, Violet had gone on without her, her fire still burning brightly in that endless battle. Perhaps her ability to actually transform into a Pokémon gave her some insight or power that Yellow didn’t have, with only her ability to understand Pokémon. Something that kept her going, when Yellow could not. Not that Yellow had the slightest idea of what that something was.
Blue had outright just disappeared. The last that Yellow had heard was that Blue’s acting career hadn’t been going so well and that she was going to redouble her efforts to get a role. Considering that she hadn’t heard anything in months, Yellow could only assume that it didn’t go well. She wasn’t concerned for Blue’s safety, the woman had proven time and time again that she was more than capable of handling herself against any number of dangers, but Yellow did wonder what she was doing now. Her parents had even stopped by to ask if she had heard anything. They were really nice people and it pained Yellow deeply to have no information for them.
Then there was Orange, ever off on another adventure. While her adventurous spirit had cooled somewhat over time, she was still off on the road for another freelance filming or photography job more often than not and loving every minute of it. Between her freelance business, her brutal travel schedule and her perpetually short budget, Orange was always busy and only ever turned up in Yellow’s neck of the woods by sheer accident and nothing more. Not that Yellow minded when she turned up, but their interactions were always cut short by whatever other errand Orange had to run off and attend to. Yellow had no idea why Orange would do that to herself, but it wasn’t like she was one to talk. By the system’s terminology, she was “unemployed” and “not doing anything with her life”. The simple thought of that made her eyes roll. She was taking care of her forest and her Pokémon friends and doing a far better job of it then those so called “Rangers”. What a lot of city slickers they were. Probably couldn’t tell north from south without a GPS.
Indigo was also not frequently around, though for different reasons. The former Shadow Trainer had taken a more academic path and was now currently doing his PhD in computer sciences. Or so Crystal had told her. The last time she’d seen him was during the World Tourney when he’d been competing for Kanto-Johto after the big steroids scandal had gotten almost all of the professional competitive battlers on the continent suspended, and many of the top collegiate battlers had been called in as replacements. Indigo was hard to watch battle, though. While he’d changed a lot in the years Yellow had known him, he was a Shadow Trainer at heart and the high risk, high reward and high recoil battling style he defaulted to when cornered was hard for her to watch. It also reminded her of what Indigo had told her about the Shadow Pokemon project. Sometimes, Yellow wondered if Shadow Humans existed. And sometimes, she wondered if Indigo walked the line in between.
Silver visited on very rare occasion, often swinging by while on business trips to Viridian City. Between his wife, two kids and his job, he was quite the busy guy. It was almost astonishing to see the transformation of the young man from the shadowy, sneaky trainer bent on destroying the Masked Man to the quiet salary worker who worked an 9-5 job and had a wife and two kids. Silver’s wedding had been the last time Yellow had seen all the dexholders together in one place. It had been a joyous occasion and Yellow couldn’t be happier for him. It still saddened her that she didn’t get to see him very often.
Lyra was the only other dexholder she cared to see after Gold’s…..fall from grace. The former rock star had gotten himself into the party life, shortly before blowing all his money and disgracing himself on live tv. Not that she’d had much in common with the boisterous dexholder to begin with. Lyra was far better conversation. She would visit every time she was in Viridian, though unfortunately, the lack of rich people in need of a move tutor in the area limited her visits. Lyra always had the funniest stories of trainers who hired her to teach their Pokémon new moves, and Yellow very much enjoyed her outrageous tales and cheerful company.
But alas, the result was the same. All of them were off doing their own things. Off living their lives. Off doing what they wanted to do. While she sat here on a stump in the middle of a cold, empty forest.
No. She wanted to be here. She was here for a reason. For the Pokemon. For the forest she called home. She couldn’t forget.
The wind picked up into a strong gust. Yellow instinctively reached for her head, before stopping herself and sighing. She was still trying to stop her hat from blowing away, even though she’d stopped wearing it years ago. Ratty perked his head up as Yellow’s ponytail whipped around and lightly whacked his tail.
“Sorry Ratty. Maybe I need a haircut,” said Yellow apologetically.
Ratty just squeaked and gave her a concerned look.
“Yeah, I guess I was brooding again,” said Yellow. “Sorry about that. I know you don’t like it.”
Ratty perked up and squeaked a few more times before rubbing his head against her arm.
Yellow’s face twisted into a small, sad smile.
“Thank you.”
Ratty chattered again, pawing at her hand.
“I know. It’s just…. I don’t know….” sighed Yellow. “None of the others see it the way I do. I can’t change the course of history. I can’t stop all of the factories. I can’t catch all the bad trainers. I know I beat Lance, but that was with everybody else helping. I would never have stood a chance on my own.”
Ratty squeaked again. Yellow shook her head.
“No, I’m just some sort of crazy woman to them now. I don’t think they’d listen to me just because we fought Lance. I don’t even know if the title of Pokedex holder goes for anything anymore. I mean, it only went for so much back in the day.”
That being said, maybe Ratty was on to something? According to Crystal, Yellow had become a local legend. The “Lady of the Forest” or something like that. Protector of the Trees. Guardian of the Pokemon. She sighed in frustration. They probably wouldn’t listen to her. They probably wouldn’t get it. And at this point, she wasn’t sure if they ever would. They didn’t understand Pokemon the way she did.
Was it fair to be so hard on them if they couldn’t see things the way she did because of her powers? Probably. You didn’t need her gift to know that Pokemon were suffering. It was right in front of everybody. No, it wasn’t all Pokemon and yes, there were a lot of really good and kindhearted trainers out there, but it didn’t change the fact that there were still hurting Pokemon out there who needed help. And she could only do so much on her own.
She had tried. She had gone out into the wilds and city dumps. She’d marched with the protestors and given dozens of speeches. She’d almost worked herself into a serious mental breakdown. It had taken nearly all of the people she knew to convince her to stop. And when she stopped, she came to a realization.
What was she accomplishing by doing all of this?
It was only then that she realized that her efforts weren’t enough. That no matter what she did, there would never be able to make a dent in the overwhelming face of all of the suffering.
At this point, she’d need to have significant political sway. Even Red, the popular champion, had tried to push legislation to help curb some of the pollution and put better policies in place, but was still pushing against stiff political resistance. It disgusted Yellow beyond words. It made her usually dormant rage boil with a frenzy unmatched by any other emotion she’d ever felt. And to be honest, it scared her that she was even capable of such anger. In the end, she decided that she needed to get away from it all. Away from the politicians, away the people and away from the filthy, broken, despicable world that they all lived in. Away to the only forest she’d ever called home.
Yellow felt a small nip at her hand, bringing her straight back to reality. She looked down at Ratty, who peered up at her, concerned. She hadn’t realized that she’d gotten so worked up.
“Don’t worry, Ratty. I’m fine. Just….got worked up thinking about some things. That’s all!”
She gave Ratty a smile. He chattered concernedly and nuzzled against her arm.
“Really, I’m fine! You don’t have to worry about me. You know me. I can handle this!”
Ratty shook his head.
“Ugh, you’re right, Ratty. But who am I going to call?”
Ratty chattered again.
“They’re all busy. I don’t even have a phone to call them anymore.”
Ratty chattered again, more animated this time.
“I don’t think that will work.”
Ratty squeaked animatedly.
“I…have a hunch. It’s not going to happen, all right?”
Yellow sighed as the wind gusted again. She glanced up at the rattling branches above her.
“They…I don’t know that most of them care about me anymore, Ratty. It’s been forever since I’ve seen them. I….ugh….I don’t know.”
Ratty nuzzled against Yellow comfortingly.
“Thanks, Ratty. I know I can always count on you.”
Ratty squeaked happily and settled down on her lap.
Yellow gazed out over the forest, absentmindedly stroking Ratty’s fur. Nothing had changed in the forest. Just as always. That’s what she loved so much about the place. No matter how much things seemed to change, no matter if the leaves were blown away and the plants shriveled, no matter if branches fell and trees toppled, the forest always seemed to stay the same. She would always have friends here. She would always be safe here. She would always be at home here.
She took a deep breath through her nose and exhaled through her mouth. Maybe things weren’t as bad as she had thought. Or maybe they were. It didn’t matter. She had her forest. And her forest had her. And that was all she needed.
Yellow stood up from her tree stump, Ratty still in her arms. He perked up and clambered onto her shoulder, squeaking curiously.
“Come on Ratty. Let’s go home.”