First Faith

Chapter 22: Revealed

Chapter 22: Revealed

Electivire

Eventually, I grew tired and climbed the largest tree I could find, planting myself much higher than I had earlier. I decided not to use any Electric attacks, hoping that would conceal my trace from Electivire if he tried to follow me, which I doubted since I'd traveled up the mountain pretty far, farther than an old Pokemon like him could really go.

I nestled on my branch in the tree, dropping the satchel into my lap. I stared at the leather, running a hand over it gingerly, wondering what could possibly be so important inside. I opened it cautiously, letting a few sketchbooks fall in my lap. The sun had just started to set, so I used Brick Break to supply the little amount of light needed to see.

I curiously opened the sketchbook on top, being careful with the human-sized pages as I went slowly through. There were drawings of all sorts of Pokemon on each page, the most frequent among them being an Elekid. It seemed to be the same one and I guessed it was gramps. The drawings weren't all that great and seemed sloppy, or at least that's what it seemed to me from what Paul had showed me of his own drawings. He always focused on the negatives so much that I was only good at finding what was wrong, not what looked nice.

I got to the next sketchbook. The drawings seemed more realistic and were still of Pokemon. Most of them were moving, or at least would be if the picture was more than a picture. They seemed more challenging to draw than the last sketchbook. An Electabuzz appeared more frequently in the pictures. I even ended up smiling, wondering what kind of Trainer would be special enough to draw their Pokemon so frequently, as if they were taking photographs to remember.

I flipped through all of the pages, making sure to study each one for all it was worth, especially the ones of Electabuzz. Soon, I finished that book and moved onto the next, which featured mostly drawings of an Electivire. Of gramps, but he was a bit leaner. They weren't colored, but I could tell he used to be a much different Pokemon when he had been in his golden days.

You always looked like a gentle sap that wouldn't hurt anyone, I thought as I found a lot of pictures of him with a little boy. They always seemed to be together, even if there were other Pokemon. But they were always next to each other, or Electivire would be chasing the boy.

The child was too young to be a Trainer, I knew that much, but I was bad at knowing human age to know how old he was. He was small and reminded me of how frail and weak I used to feel as an Elekid, somewhat uncertain of his actions. Except when he was laughing or smiling, which he seemed to do a lot in the drawings.

Three-quarters of this book was dedicated to Electivire and the boy. But something bothered me about it. Like I'd seen these pictures before, which made absolutely no sense. Paul was not sentimental to keep pictures and I hardly ever touched human-made items or was in an area populated by humans to study any of their faces or so called art. So why would I feel somehow connected?

I went through the book again, my hands fumbling with the sheets. Suddenly, I realized I'd skipped a page near the back. My eyes widened as I saw the little boy holding a Poke Ball out straight, his eyes narrowed in concentration, in seriousness. But the boy wasn't smiling for once. Not in this picture.

My hands fell away from the sketchbook as I stared, disbelieving.

Paul?

I woke up with a start, almost falling out of the tree, noticing that it was still warm from the day and not much time must have passed since falling asleep. The sketchbooks began toppling out of my lap and I reached out to grab them, missing one as it began falling. I caught it at the last second with my tail, letting out a sigh of relief. I placed the first two back in the satchel and grabbed the last one from my tail, holding it heavily in my hand. This was the one with pictures of Paul.