A New Life Through The Eyes Of Kanto: An Autobiography

Fear & Anger Part 2 Of 2

Charmander stared at me quietly amongst the grass of the nighttime forest.

Mankey growled louder and more ferociously by the second.

I couldn't hear Weedle eating its food and I didn't dare turn to see what it was doing. My eyes were on Charmander. It wasn't long before my eyebrows furrowed and my teeth began to tighten so hard my jaw hurt soon after. "YOU!" I bellowed in the dark forest. I almost didn't care that I may awaken a swarm of Beedrill. My fists clenched tighter as Charmander took a step back.

It almost looked like it had fear in its eyes.

Mankey screeched loudly and jumped up and down. He then charged forward and took a swing at Charmander, who took the hit and fell back into the grass.

I wanted Mankey to kick that Charmander's butt and leave it for dead like it did to us. I wanted to stomp its tail flame out myself and turn my back on it like it did to us. I was beyond furious. And so hurt. I took a step towards Charmander as Mankey ran forward. He grabbed Charmander and lifted it to its feet, then clawed at it with a Fury Swipes attack.

Charmander didn't fight back. It hit the ground hard again, landing on its shoulder, and with a pained groan, it stood back up. Its head lowered and it uttered a feeble, "Charmander."

Mankey growled again and kicked at Charmander's feet.

Charmander was swept down, where it stayed still with its face in the dirt.

Mankey leapt high in the air and started to come down with his foot aimed at Charmander.

I moved fast to reach out and wrapped my arms around his body tightly. "Wait," I growled, my eyes on the motionless lizard. "That's enough. Just stop for a moment."

Mankey looked at me in shock.

I stared back at him before setting him down in front of me, and I stepped over and knelt down to Charmander. My hands extended to roughly grip the Fire type by the shoulders to pick it up and set it firmly on its feet. I felt sick to my stomach looking, let alone touching, this terrible Pokemon.

This coward. This traitor.

My hands tightened around its shoulders harder until Charmander started to whine from the pain. I stopped squeezing and instead, shoved it right back down.

Charmander collapsed.

Standing up and resisting the urge to pull back my foot and deliver what it deserved, I angrily yelled at it, "Why are you back? You're not my Pokemon anymore! Go away!"
Mankey screeched and I could hear him jumping angrily behind me.

Charmander looked up, and to my surprise, its eyes were filled with tears. It couldn't speak English of course, so I had no idea what it was saying, but as it repeated its name to me, I listened anyway.

Mankey also grew silent as Charmander spoke.

There was no noise in the forest. Only the name of Charmander being cried out. This went on for what seemed could have been twenty or so minutes, but I listened to it. I stood right there and heard it out. Finally, Charmander got quiet and didn't say anything more. It just looked right into my eyes, then down to the ground, and back up to me. It sighed and shakily stood up, put a claw to its chest that fell right away, and said something once more. Charmander then turned around and walked off into the woods.

"Hey!" I ran forward and grabbed it by the skin of the back of its neck. "You're not gonna just walk off after the crap you put us through! I don't even know what you just said to us!" My hand was starting to tighten again in anger and Charmander cried as my fingers dug harder and tugged.