The bones stood as high as four Wailords stacked on top of each other in Arkanilacum. The pierced the sky, the remains of a giant Arcanine’s ribs, with the backbones partially buried in the ground. The skull, carefully maintained by the inhabitants of the Pokémon city, was removed from the rest of the skeletal remains in a century-long project and placed onto the nearby high hills up north, looking down at the city.

Stories go from an unknown number of centuries ago, when a mysterious looking group called ‘anthros’ came into the world, they brought with them knowledge on how to increase the size of anything and everything. The Pokémon of the time took the knowledge and became the first of the giants, revered as gods when they increased themselves up to the size of mountains. That knowledge spread and more Pokémon became giants before entire landscapes became battlegrounds between two macro Pokémon that could destroy mountains and forests while creating valleys and deserts.

At the peak of the destructions, the anthros disappeared from the six continents of the world with no one really knowing why. Some said that they were all wiped out from any one of the battles while others said that they simply left the world, struck with guilt at what the firestorm the knowledge of size shifting become. Yet a few said that they went into hiding, in fear of what they brought and caused, and were waiting until the day they could return.

Yet, despite the question on what happened to the anthros, what happened later was clear: when they left, so did what was used in the power of changing sizes except what the Pokémon kept, which then failed one by one. Because the ‘gods’ kept no record on what they were, how they used them, and how they were made, the giant Pokémon’s population decreased, whether to them dying out or whatever they used to become macro were gone. By the modern day, only rumors and stories of giant Pokémon remained along with their bones.

Arkanilacum was founded many centuries ago by 600 feet tall Arcanine only remembered as the Great Protector, her real name forgotten. Yet, despite her intimidating size, she was very gentle to the ones much smaller than her and, when another macro came to cause destruction, she would always stand up and fight for their protection. It was said that, in her final battle, where she earned her title, she fought against a Vaporeon four times her size and won at the cost of her life, protecting the small.

---

A Vulpix walked down the main road in Arkanilacum, her baby blue eyes stared intensely ahead. A pouch was sling around her neck and shoulder, brushing against her mint green bowtie. Her red-brown pelt shined against the midsummer’s sunlight as her white legs stepped onto the yellow ground.

“This is the day. I’m sure of it,” she said to herself, her eyes gleamed at the market ahead.

“If you say so,” a voice behind her said, causing her to jumped and looked back, the speed loosening the button off of the pouch and a gold Poké fell out.

Behind her was a Flareon, his reddish-orange fur gleamed in the light. His green eyes shined brightly, complementing his yellow turf, mane, and tail, which slightly wagged. A silver necklace hung around his neck against his chest, engraved on it a triangle on top of two triangles.

“Adrian!” the Vulpix squeaked out at the taller Flareon by a foot while she picked up the loose Poké. “Don’t scare me like that! I could’ve lost all of my hard-earned Poké because of that.”

“Hehe. Sorry, sorry,” Adrian said as he nuzzled the red-orange locks on the Vulpix’s head, causing her to blush. “Just curious to see what you were doing, Faith.”

“Well,” Faith explained as she walked towards the market with Adrian following, “I heard that there’s a Fire Stone for sale. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to buy it and use it to evolve, just as you did. Then I won’t be the short one anymore.”

“Ah,” Adrian remarked as he skipped over a small hole on the ground. “Then I’ll be the butt of your shorty jokes again.”

“Hey, that was only the first couple of years since we met-”

“-and until our final year at school, where I was the last one of our class to evolve.”

“It’s only because we needed a stone to help us evolve,” Faith remarked as she turned around and winked as she stuck out a tongue. “And I recall you passing over other means to evolve, like a Water Stone. Heck, if you really do care about being short, you should’ve picked Vaporeon to evolve to. Or Umbreon, Leafeon, or even the fabulous Sylveon. All of them bigger than a Flareon like you.”

“W-w-well, I-I just like my tail to be massive and super fluffy!” Adrian declared as he blushed hard at Faith’s unconvinced face.

Faith looked at his face for a few seconds before shrugging. “Besides, I’m not that short compared to other Vulpix, being only an inch shorter than average.”

“Only an inch shorter?” Adrian remarked as he stuck out a tongue back at her. “The way you act at times is like you’re only a half foot tall.”

“OK, so it is no big deal for me,” Faith admitted as she stopped walking and looked back at the Flareon. She then raised one of her white paws and booped Adrian’s nose, causing him to blush. “Then again, it’s not like you acted any better when you were the shortest one.”

“H-hey!” Adrian said, twitching his ears and nose. “OK, perhaps maybe I overreacted to some of your jokes about me being nearly a foot shorter and maybe I overdid it when I teased you back, but.” He paused.

“But what?” Faith asked, winking at him with her baby blue eyes.

“W-well, I don’t think being little is too bad nowadays,” the Flareon answered as his paws shuffled below him and his tail fluffed up even more. “L-like going through tight spots or that you need to relearn your sense of balance and strength. I mean, when I evolved, I broke a lot of stuff by just not knowing my newfound strength.”

“Yet you still hopped around me like a wild Mankey,” Faith teased before she licked Adrian’s cheek. The Flareon flustered with his fur fluffing up while she went back to walking to the market with several vendors filled with colors like red, green, and plenty of more. Adrian shook his head before following the Vulpix.

Her eyes darted from right to left to back to right, looking for the shop that had a Fire Stone. While one might think that being in a city filled with a high Fire-type population would make such a product in high demand, few were ever brought over to them as a way to drive up the price for such treasure. Faith idly wondered if the other cities in the continent would hold Fire Stone in abundance while her ears twitched, hearing Adrian catching up to her. They both looked around and saw several Pokémon of many types there, browsing and bartering with the shop owners. Though she would’ve liked it if one such bartering attempt wasn’t between two Loudred over a berry.

Her hearing slowing recovered as she felt a nudged to her side. She blinked and turned back, her eyes now facing the green-eyed Flareon’s face, the eyes bright as the sunlight. She opened her mouth only for him to nudged his head over to a shop twice. She then observed a shop at Adrian’s direction, ran by a Kecleon.

The green reptilian Pokémon was standing behind the wide desk, his black eyes looking around for customers. Directly in front of the Kecleon was a yellowish stone with a red streak inside of it, giving off a look that it was on fire. Next to it was a sign that read, “Fire Stone! 1000 Poké!”

Faith gave out an excited yip, hugged Adrian with a paw, and ran over to the shop with the Flareon close behind her.

“Excuse me, sir,” Faith said to the Kecleon in between breath and excited heartbeats, “but I would like to buy that Fire Stone from you.”

“Ah! Clever eye you have,” the Kecleon said proudly with a wide smile. “Especially since I just got it yesterday from a Lycanroc and at quite a bargain too! She looked somewhat off, but it might just be my imagination.”

“Very interesting,” Faith remarked in a very uninterested tone as she leaned over to the Fire Stone. “It’s not like a Lycanroc can use it for its true intention.”

“That’s perfectly obvious,” the Kecleon responded with a nod. “I also had it be inspected since there had been some cases of counterfeits Fire Stone in the market lately and I did overhear her saying stuff about ‘tests’ and ‘research’, which nearly made me suspicious enough to just cancel it altogether. Yet all the tests it has been put through confirmed that it’s a functional Fire Stone, perfectly normal.”

Adrian shivered as his sight turned from the Kecleon to the Fire Stone. “Um, Faith? I don’t like the sound of that. I’m sure that there’s another Fire Stone here, so I think that it’s best to hold off on getting this one.”

“Adrian, you don’t fool me for a second,” Faith teased as she handed the gold Poké to the Kecleon. “You just don’t want to be a victim of my revenge plot over getting teased being the short one of us.”

“I-it’s not like that!” the Flareon said in a panicked tone while the Kecleon picked up the Fire Stone. “I just think that you might be too hasty in getting it, especially since he got it from someone who’s suspicious enough to warrant exanimating it. It might be dangerous!”

“He checked over and found it to be perfectly safe, so I’ll find it to be safe as well. I’m evolving and you can’t stop me,” Faith declared before she reached over to the Fire Stone and touched it.

The stone glowed in white light while Faith’s body was engulfed in the light. The Flareon’s green eyes widened as he took a step back, the Vulpix glowing brighter.

Then the Fire Stone exploded.

---

Faith groaned as her baby blue eyes slowly opened, her body felt sore and her right paw having a fair amount of pain, which gave her vibes of a Tauros stepped on it. Her eyes saw a Flareon figure near as her vision cleared. Her head then, in an instinct, looked upwards to the white ceiling with bright, cold lights glowed downwards to the two Pokémon. She twitched as she slowly realized that something soft was covering her and, when she looked over to what was on her, she realized that it was a blanket made out of Mareep’s wool. The Flareon lifted his head and jumped to her, his face written in surprised and relieved.

“Faith! Don’t try to move much,” The Flareon said, his voice sounding familiar to the Vulpix.

“A-Adrian?” Faith softly asked as her eyes opened up more and saw the Flareon’s green eyes and the silver triangular necklace. “What happened? Where am I?”

“You’re in a hospital,” Adrian answered as he sat next to the bed Faith was on. “What happened was,” he hesitated with his words choked in his throat, “when you touched that Fire Stone, it had exploded. It had blasted all of us away and, when I got up, I went to you as fast as I can. You-your right forepaw was bleeding so badly, I almost vomited. The Kecleon and I managed to get you into a hospital as fast as we can and the doctors here managed to packed your leg up. The Kecleon, I must say, was heavily regretful for what happened, and he not only refunded the Poké you used to buy the Fire Stone but also paid your hospital treatment.”

“Huh. Well, that’s nice of him,” Faith said, straining up a smile.

“Hah! I bet he did it because he doesn’t want you to press charges against you!” a sly voice said nearby, causing Faith’s ears to twitched and Adrian to jumped up.

“GAH!” Adrian yelped out, looking for the source of the voice. Yet, there was only two Pokémon here as far as he can see. And yet. “David! I know you’re here! Stop using Illusion to make yourself invisible!”

“Eh, sure,” the voice responded and a figured phased into existence, standing behind the Flareon with his dark arms around Adrian’s neck. The vulpine face grinned widely with his glorious ponytail-like mane flowing down from his head, red asides from thick stacks of tips. Red markings were around the mouth and eyes of this Pokémon as his red claws rubbed against the unimpressed Flareon.

“Now that I know you’re there, David, that trick doesn’t work on me,” Adrian said, his ears flickered in anger. “Please stop acting like you’re going to kill me or worse.”

“I think kids like you should learn to take a joke,” David said, his arms uncurled around the Flareon’s neck and walked back to the white walls.

“Kids?! You’re barely a year older than us!” Adrian said, his eyes white as his teeth barred at the Zoroark.

“Eh, true. But unlike you two, I got married,” David said as he shrugged and walked up to the Vulpix and gently rubbed the curled-up turfs on her head. “I hope that this makes you feel better.”

Faith, who was struggling to resist a snicker, laughed out loud. “Hahaha! Yes! Thank you, David! You made my day after what happened.”

“Yeah, I’m so sorry about what happened to your leg and paw,” David said as he leaned over and licked Faith’s turfs. “Is there anything I can do to help you.”

Adrian answered before Faith can. “Yes. You can get the doctor here and tell her that Faith is awake.”

“Sure,” David said with a grin and picked up Adrian. Adrian gave out a yap and wiggled against the larger Zoroark’s grip while David hugged the Flareon like he was a stuffed toy.

Faith’s ears flattened back as a growing sense of loneliness grown in her chest. Her eyes darted around the room before she looked at herself and gave out a heavy sigh, unhappy that, even after all of that, she didn’t evolve. Her eyes then looked at the tight wool around her right forepaw and, when she moved it, she felt a sharp pain through it. Her head then fell back onto the pillow as her eyes looked up at the window. A flower encased in a pot was on the open window sill as she heard a buzzing noise through it. A Beedrill appeared, hovered around the flower, and shook her head before flying away.

She blinked, confused about why the Beedrill didn’t take any nectar or pollen from the flower before her ears twitched. Feet pad steps echoed into her ears as she lifted up her head and saw Adrian and David entering the room with another Pokémon.

The Pokémon was a pink and cream colored one who stood on her two stubby legs. She was mostly covered in the color of cream with pink around her torso like it was a lab coat that anthros were said to have worn when they were a part of the world. The top half of the Pokémon’s face was pink while the bottom half was cream with two large, floppy ears with long lobs reaching down to her hips. Her bright green eyes looked at the Vulpix and smiled as she stepped to the bedside.

“Hello. My name is Dr. Lulu Erelah and I am your doctor for the duration of your hospital stay,” the Pokémon called Audino said. “I am glad to see that you’re awake, especially since I sensed something was off during your sleep.”

Faith nodded as fear swelled up inside of her stomach. “What do you mean by that?”

Dr. Erelah doesn’t answer and instead, she pressed one of her earlobes against the Vulpix’s chest. David and Adrian looked on behind the Audino as a concerned expression formed on her face. Adrian managed to look at Dr. Erelah’s face and his green eyes widened.

“Is there anything wrong?” Adrian asked, barely hiding the fear in his voice.

“Yes, there is,” Dr. Erelah responded as she removed the earlobe from Faith’s chest. She then gave out a heavy, wearily sigh. “Your front right leg and paw will be alright. Just give it a week of resting on the bed and another on physical therapy and it’ll be just as good as it was before. But.”

“But what?” David asked, his orange eyes shaking in distress.

“To start with, when you touched that Fire Stone, it actually did trigger your evolution into Ninetales. Yet, as can plainly see, you’re still a Vulpix.” She gestured all over Faith’s body. “The reason why is because, due to the Fire Stone exploding, it placed your body in an evolutionary flux, which is to say that your body is both canceling and enabling your evolution at the same time, canceling each other out. Because of this, even if you find another Fire Stone, one that’s actually is perfectly normal, you cannot evolve.”

Faith felt a sharp pang within her heart while her stomach muscles tightened and her throat dried out. Adrian and David, when they saw her expression, leaned over and petted her. Dr. Erelah, when she saw them, closed her eyes as she gave out another sigh.

“Is-is there anything you or anyone here to help her?” David asked, his face down toward the ground.

“To be honest, I’m not sure what I or anyone can do to help her out,” she said as she shook her head. “There have been no reports as far as I can tell about Pokémon being put in an evolutionary flux. However, that wasn’t even the worse part.”

“Wh-what do you mean by that?” Adrian asked, his eyes drooped down.

“Because a Pokémon evolution generates a lot of energy when it happens so you can change. However, due to her body being put in a state where she’s both evolving and not at the same time, it keeps building up energy for something that won’t happen. Again, I have no idea what will happen due to having no previous case where this happened. But, my best guess is that, after some time, her body will explode in pure energy and she’ll die.”

Adrian’s mouth and eyes widened in complete horror as tears formed around David’s eyes. Their gaze then turned towards Faith and, while Adrian’s eyes curled down, David’s tears really flow out of his eyes. The Vulpix’s eyes were closed tight as hot water also flown out of her closed eyelids. The Flareon then leaned over and hugged her gently while he patted her back.

“I’m so, so sorry,” Adrian said, struggling not to cry himself.

Dr. Erelah gave out a sigh before her ears twitched, a buzzing sound echoing in the room. She looked up and saw a flower there with a Combee hovering around it. The Combee gave out an angry buzzing noise before flying away. Dr. Erelah, while still looking at the flower in its pot, tilted her head to the side.

“Did you two or anyone else brought a flower for Faith?” the Audino asked as her left ear twitched.

“Huh?” Adrian responded as he looked up at Dr. Erelah. “I didn’t bring a flower. Did you, David?”

“I didn’t bring one myself. I thought it belonged to the hospital,” David said, his triangular ears twitching.

“We don’t have any flowers here,” Dr. Erelah explained. All of them looked at each other before looking back at the flower and all of their eyes widened. The flower that was there was gone.

---

Despite Dr. Erelah’s estimate on how long Faith needed to stay in the hospital, the Vulpix was out within the week. The Audino examined Faith on the final day and was surprised on her quick recovery before helping Faith checked out. Especially since, as anyone who was helped under Dr. Erelah and worked with her knew, she was rarely wrong on her estimates and especially to such a degree.

Faith, however, didn’t really enjoyed her newfound luck in recovering super quick from her injury since it at least distracted her mind from her failure in evolving with not even a chance of evolving ever again. Yet, there was no one to blame for her incident but herself; she brought the Fire Stone against Adrian’s suggestion and touched it as soon as she could. If she hadn’t been so impatient, she would’ve been alright, still capable of evolving, and perhaps find another Fire Stone to evolve with. How could she ignore the obvious signs of how dangerous it was and how could she ignore her dear friend Adrian’s warning until it was too late? Her ears drooped as she walked out, wondering where had he been for the past week.

Faith passed by several Pokémon as she, at a slow pace, walked to her home. Her baby-blue eyes then saw it, a fairly plain brick house painted dark blue with a wooden grey roof. The dark blue chimney sticking above the house while light green fences surrounded the grassy lawn and the house. Faith gradually walked up the dirt path to her home as she pulled out a key from her pouch. She inserted it into the side of the door, which was a wooden slab, and turned it. The wooden slab lowered onto floor level and she pulled out the key, golden in color. She then entered her home and, with a flick of one of her tails, lifted a small switch, causing the slab to rise up and closed the doorway.

It was a plain single room house with hay as a bed across from the door. The walls were painted light red with a brown wooden cabinet on the right side of the door, the absolute bottom holding a Never-Melt Ice to preserve the foods above. At the left side held a bookcase filled with books about ancient Pokémon Rescuers, Explorers, and Expeditions throughout the six continents of this world. Above it held a framed picture of a sea-blue eyed Ninetales with a green scarf around his neck and a stylized Explorers badge on it with a light green A. At the center of the room was a table with four chair stools around it. Next to the bed was a fireplace filled with a Charcoal, burning a low fire.

Faith walked around the table, pulling out her mint green bow off of her neck and putting it on the table, and flopped onto her bed, the smell of hay entering her nose, as she closed her eyes. She felt a deep desire to sleep for hours, even days, yet she had so much energy that she could not fall asleep. She twisted and turned, so much so that she didn’t notice that there was knocking until a few minutes had passed. She gotten up with a blush on her face and, putting the bow back on, flicked the switch down and opened the doorway. The figure of Adrian sat there, causing her to blink, as he grinned, the pouched he wore holding a book.

“Hello Faith,” Adrian said as he walked inside, the tone he has that sounded like he just recently regained his voice. “I went to the hospital to meet you, but I was told you’ve been discharged. So, I ran all the way here.”

“Adrian!” Faith said as Adrian hopped onto the chair stool. “What’s wrong? You sounded like you ran a hundred miles.”

“I’ve been reading books from the libraries here,” Adrian explained as he pulled out the book from the pouch, “hoping to find the solution to your problem.”

“But-but there shouldn’t be,” Faith blurted out as she hopped onto another chair stool next to Adrian. “You were there. We were told that there hasn’t been a case like mine and they didn’t think there was a solution to the evolutional flux.”

“No medical solution,” Adrain said he gave out a wink. “But I think I founded a solution to it.”

“You did?!” the Vulpix squeaked out in surprise and joy. “What is it? And why wasn’t it suggested to me by the hospital?”

“A couple of reason why I think they didn’t tell you is that they either didn’t know since it’s a very old and rare thing or that it was just too risky to try. As for what it is, we go out to meet Jirachi and ask him for a wish.”

“Jirachi?” Faith remarked as she tilted her head. “Who’s Jirachi?”

“Jirachi is the wish Pokémon,” Adrian explained as he opened the book. “Jirachi has the power to grant wishes to whoever asked for one and it said that he could grant up to three wishes.”

Faith blinked as she looked at the page the Flareon opened up to. It had a colored drawing of a small, white Pokémon. It looked like it was wearing a yellowish cap the size of its head with three tags on the top, right, and left corners, and a pair of bangs hanging down to both sides of its face. A pair of sleeve-like wings was on its arms while a pair of cape-like ribbons hanged down on its back. On its belly, it had a curved seam that reminded Faith of a closed eye.

“Woah,” Faith remarked as she stared at the drawing. “That sounds like it could work!”

“Yeah! Well, aside from a couple of ‘minor’ problems,” Adrian admitted as his left ear flickered and his front leg paws poked at each other.

Faith’s eyes half-closed as she looked at the Flareon. “Should’ve known that it was too good to be true. What are the problems and how ‘minor’ are they?”

“First off, he’s asleep and can only awaken for only seven days in, er, a thousand-year gap.”

“WHAT!?!” Faith screamed out at Adrian, his eyes wide and his ears blown back. “There’s no freaking way this is one of those seven days periods! The chances of that would be-”

“1 in 365,250,” Adrian said as he pressed a paw against Faith’s nose, causing her to blush. “I know. Believe me. There are a couple of alternate ways, though. One is that he can be awakened by a pure voice. Although, I doubt that yours is pure enough.” Faith gave a glare that caused Adrian to shuffled his back-paws. “The other is that we can wake him by fighting him.”

“Oh!” Faith remarked, her ears pointed upwards. “That sounds like that can work.”

“Yes, though there’s another problem connected to this,” Adrian admitted with a sheepish grin. Faith gave an exasperated look while Adrian continued, “Namely, that Jirachi is one of the Mystical Pokémon.”

“Oh,” Faith remarked with a soft voice. Mystical Pokémon were some of the most powerful Pokémon in the world outside of Legendary Pokémon, capable of creating and destroying entire regions on their own. “I admit that I have high doubts about defeating him.”

“I’m very much aware of that,” Adrian said as he placed a paw over the book. “While Jirachi, as said in the book, is part Steel-type, I doubt that we can defeat him. However, it says that you don’t have to defeat him. Just fighting him long enough and hard enough until he wakes up, which I think is more like trying to outlast him. I think we can do just that.”

“Really?” Faith asked with a squeak-like tone. When the Flareon responded with a nod, she glomped him tightly. “Oh, thank you very much!”

“Ack!” Adrian said as he flopped back with the smaller Vulpix on top of him, both falling off of their chair stools.

“Hehe, sorry,” Faith said with a shy smile as her ears flattened to the side of her head. “Anyways, where is Jirachi?”

“That’s the other ‘minor’ problem,” Adrian said as he, with a gentle paw, pushed Faith off of him. “Though one that I have a solution to right away. The book said that he lives in Star Cave, which is thousands of miles away.”

“Well, crud,” Faith said as her tails twitched. “How many thousands of miles to be exact?”

“4,155 miles,” Adrian answered as Faith’s fur stood up straight. Adrian shook his head as he stood up onto his four paws “I’ve also done the math for that. It’ll take 112 days to get there on foot.”

Faith’s ears drooped down. “That sounds like it’ll take forever to get there and back and, given what’s happening in my body, I doubt I’ll make it a quarter of the way there. But you do have a solution to this problem. What is it?”

“We’ll use the Dragonite Travel and Delivery Service!”

“Are you for real?!” Faith yelled out as she stood up straight, her knees shaking. “There’s no way! A one-way trip will cost us around 250,000 Poké! There’s no way you have that much Poké on you!”

“I admit that I don’t. But I’ve been working on a solution for the past week and I managed to succeed,” Adrian explained as he went into a pouch and pulled out two tickets for the service. Faith blinked as she stared at them. “I’ve done a bunch of favors for Mayor Richard and he eventually agreed to send me and one other on a delivery for a fellow mayor at Bojelin-Radeau. Once there, it’s only over 200 miles from Star Cave.”

“Oh wow! That’s amazing!” Faith said as she went over to hug Adrian. The Flareon felt his bones getting crushed as she continued, “Again, thank you!”

“No problem,” Adrian said as he wiggled a paw free and booped Faith’s nose.

The two gave a blush at each other as Faith let go and took a step back.

“Sorry for choking you in joy earlier,” Faith said as her tails fluffed up. “Also, it’s nice of you to start up a fire in my fireplace.”

“Um, no I haven’t. And what fire?” Adrian responded as his ears twitched and he looked at the fireplace.

“You know, the fire in the fi-” Faith tried to answered before pausing. The Charcoal that was on lit on a low flame was gone. She jumped over to it and there wasn’t even ash as remains in the fireplace. Like there never was a Charcoal on fire in the first place.

“Errrrr, I would like to stay at your place, if you don’t mind,” Faith said as she sidestepped towards the bookcase while staring at the fireplace.

“Um, sure. Especially since the flight is scheduled for tomorrow,” the Flareon answered as he looked at the Vulpix with confusion written over his face.

“OK-thank-you!” Faith said as she took the Ninetales picture off from on top of the bookcase and, with a shove, pushed Adrian along with herself out the door. Adrian yelped as he only, after the initial shove, grabbed the book off from the table.

---

The next day, Faith and Adrian went out to the Dragonite Port. A Dragonite, while a rare species of Pokémon, was still far more common than Legendary and Mystical Pokémon. As such, a group of a thousand Dragonite was formed throughout the world for fast delivery and travel, especially for small Pokémon since they averaged at 7’3”. They, for the most part, delivered mail and packaged between towns and cities for large amounts of Poké and, while they tolerated the small Pokémon, they charged more for them.

When Faith entered the Dragonite Port, shaped like a giant Dragonite with two mailbags wrapped on both sides, her jaw lowered as she looked around the massive place within. Several Dragonite at once flew above the two with their small teal wings, tiny compared to their large, pear-shaped bodies. Their antennae twitched on their heads while they hovered from one wall to the next, picking up mail and packaged on the shelves and stuffing them into their pouches before flying out. Several Dragonite came in just as fast as they left and removed the contents from their bags and, with great care, placed them onto a conveyer belt, where they were carried over to the local delivery service and mail them. Faith wondered how could such big, bulky Dragonite with their minuscule wings be able to move in the air so quickly as she followed Adrian to their Dragonite.

The Dragonite was looking over the packages with his thick arms as his thick tail swung from side to side. Faith observed the striated underbelly, cream-colored, that went from the neck to the tail and the small horn in-between the antennae pair. His gray eyes shifted from the packages to the pair of Fire-type Pokémon in front of him and smiled with his round snout.

“Welcome to Dragonite Port,” he said with an unfitting light voice for such a big body. “My name is Captain Galeron and I’ll be your Dragonite for your flight. Do you have your ticket?”

Adrian nodded and pulled out a pair of tickets from his pouch with a paw and handed it to the Dragonite.

“So,” Captain Galeron said as he looked over the two tickets, “you are Adrian and this is your plus one?”

Adrian nodded and the Dragonite bit a hole into the tickets. He then, with a gentle hand, picked up Adrian and Faith and placed them into an extra-large pouch designed for small Pokémon flight.

“Very good,” Captain Galeron said as he spread out his large wings. “And, with the packages in order, we can start very soon. Though I admit that I could’ve sworn that I was scheduled one less package for today. Might be a last-minute package, though I hope the one had the extra Poké to afford it. Anyways, hold on tight. We’re off to Bojelin-Radeau!”

With a flap of his wings, Captain Galeron hovered over the floor before he flew out of the Dragonite Port. Faith clung onto the wall of the pouch as she felt the Dragonite flew higher and faster. Faith felt pressure in her ears as she gritted her teeth and a sharp whistling sound echoed around the pouch. After what felt like a year of traveling (though it was only an hour), Faith’s limbs felt too tired to clung onto the wall and she breathed in and out, controlling her breathing.

“Try to relax,” Adrian said as he rubbed Faith’s back. “I know it’s rough, especially since we’re traveling beyond the speed of sound.”

“I’m just glad that this pouch is tougher than it looks,” Faith remarked through gritted teeth as she went through her pouch and pulled out a picture of a Ninetales with a green scarf.

“Huh. I didn’t think you’ll take that,” Adrian said with a hint of coldness. “Who is that Ninetales?”

“He’s my idol, the famous Pokémon Explorer,” Faith explained as she stared at the sea blue-eyed Pokémon. “He calls himself A-Ninetales.”

“E-excuse me?” Adrian said as she tried to stifled a snicker. “A-Ninetales? That’s like the dumbest name to call yourself. I-I mean, is there a B-Ninetales or a C-Ninetales? Or how about an edgy X-Ninetales?”

“Hey!” Faith yelled out, feeling her head heating up. “There is, in fact, a good reason why he calls himself A-Ninetales and it’s not because of his custom Explorer’s badge. Look at his back and see.”

Adrian laughed as he scooted up closer to the picture. His eyes skimmed over the Ninetales’ back and saw what looked like a half of an A in light green. He then laughed out even louder.

“S-so he’s ‘A-Ninetales; because of some mark on his back?!” the Flareon asked as he flopped onto his back in a giggle fit. “Heck, I bet that he had it drawn in because he wanted to be cool when it really just looks stupid!”

“He is cool! Cooler than you!” Faith protested as her eyes narrowed at Adrian and her head felt even hotter. “In fact, last I heard of his exploits, he fought the Legendary Pokémon Groudon and won.”

“Hahaha! Wow!” Adrian said as he laughed some more, clutching onto his belly. “T-that meant that either Groudon is weak and dumb for a Legendary or that the story is a complete lie. In fact, I bet that it was a lie because there’s no possible way a Ninetales can go one on one against a Legendary, especially with a type weakness against him, and win!”

Faith glared at the still laughing Flareon as smoke poured out of her mouth. Her sense of sight turned red as she leaped up and slammed her head down against Adrian’s head. The Flareon stopped laughing and instead groan as the Vulpix rolled forward. She looked over Adrian and saw him fell into unconscious as she walked over to the poster and gazed into it more, hearts appearing before her eyes and not noticing how quickly her head pain faded away.

---

The rest of the flight went on without any more such incident with the fainted Flareon sleeping away as Faith at times looking at the poster and other times read the book Adrian got with the Jirachi info. She felt the pouch shook as the Dragonite slowed down and landed in the Dragonite Port of Bojelin-Radeau. By that time, Adrian woke up with a sore head and a sorer mood.

“You really need to control that temper of yours,” Adrian said through gritted teeth as the Dragonite picked up both Faith and Adrian from out of the pouch. “That could kill someone someday.”

“Maybe if you’ll learn not to make fun of my idols and thus make fun of me, I’ll do so,” Faith replied, her tone cold as Captain Galeron lowered them onto the floor.

“I suggest that, for your return trip, that you’ll behave better,” Captain Galeron said as he loomed over the two. “Just be glad that it was only a headbutt since you’re both Fire-types here and can burn this pouch into ashes. If you did, you’ll die crashing into the ground going over a thousand miles an hour until you two are nothing but dust if our lungs didn’t burst first.”

“Sorry Captain,” both Faith and Adrian said in a union and lowered their heads.

“It’s no worries. Just keep that in mind for your return trip,” the Dragonite said before he gave a hearty laugh and patted both of their heads. “Assuming that you’ll be flying back with us and not with the Pidgeot Aerial Express, our blossoming rivals.”

“Don’t worry. We will,” Faith responded with a smile as her eyes shifted to Adrian. The Flareon’s fur ruffled as he gave a stiff nod.

“Anyways, have a safe trip!” Captain Galeron said before he spread out his wings and he hovered away.

The two Pokémon stepped through the Dragonite Port towards the exit without a word as she continued to look at Adrian. She noted that he was looking at the ground as if he was carrying heavy weight over his back. Soon they walked out of the Dragonite Port and Faith’s eyes widened as she looked out and saw the amount of water Pokémon around and the giant Floatzel statue at the center of the city with a ring of eight Floatzel statues surrounding the city.

There were stories when the word was full of giant Pokémon that a refugee of water Pokémon was defended by a group of nine giant Floatzel. This group, all brothers and sisters, defended the small with their lives while they were alive. While they were not known for their size (the largest was at 75 feet, only barely getting into the top 50 largest Pokémon relative to their normal size), they were known and remembered for loyalty to each other and their teamwork which had defeated far larger Pokémon.

The Vulpix and the Flareon soon reached the center of the town, with Faith feeling nervous around the many water Pokémon. The two looked around and, with a poke from Adrian, she followed him to a stone building, delicately carved with water in the shapes of lines and Pokémon figures that shown the nine Floatzel with the largest at the center. Adrian gestured Faith to wait outside as she looked up at the carving in awe, each figure holding what looked like a light.

After an hour had passed, Adrian stepped out of the building, looking both happy and nervous. Faith smiled at him as she leaped towards him and licked his cheek.

“Did it go well?” Faith asked as she then noses his cheek.

“It went as well as I expected,” Adrian answered as he gave an anxious smile. “Most of the time was spent on her giving a detailed history of Bojelin-Radeau and what it means.”

“Aww. Lucky,” Faith responded as she stood beside the Flareon. “So, we rest, get ready, go to Star Cave, get a wish, and come back here for the return trip.”

“Yeah, about that,” Adrian said as his ears flattened to the sides.

Faith blinked and remembered the Flareon’s body language an hour and a half ago as her mind clicked and her stomach tightened. “You didn’t have a ticket for a return trip.”

“No, I did not,” Adrian said before he blinked and looked at Faith’s face.

Faith’s eyes narrowed as she said in a controlled fury voice, “So tell me, how can we get home other than walking all the way there, losing a third of a year in the progress?”

“D-don’t worry,” Adrian said as he took a step back and seemed to shrink in size. “I thought of that as well. Namely that, since we’re going to face Jirachi anyways and he grants up to three wishes-”

“Except that we can’t guarantee can outlast Jirachi, let alone defeat him!” the Vulpix cut in, her voice becoming colder. “After all, I’m unevolved and you’re a Flareon, who is more well known for their good looks, not for their ability to fight.”

“Hey!” Adrian said, his right ear flopped to the side. “I’m capable of fighting Jirachi.”

“So, we are left without a backup plan in case it’s too much for us,” Faith muttered under her breath, not noticing the Flareon’s comments.

“Besides, it’s not like I didn’t try to have a backup plan,” the Flareon explained as his tail twitched. “I did try to get Mayor Richard to give me a return ticket, but he was unwilling to pay out the funds for that since this year’s touring season to see the bones of our great protector has been so low. He did offer to let it wait a month or so to get the needed funds, but I declined.”

“So, basically we’re trapped because you didn’t have the patient to wait a month,” Faith observed as she rolled her eyes.

“It-it’s not like that,” Adrain said as he took another step back. “It’s that, when I heard that you were recovering much faster than you such, I feared that it was the build-up energy caused by your evolutionary flux that causes it and that, I thought, the timeline of your body reaching your limit is much sooner than we expected. As such, I fear that, if we wait, then you wouldn’t-you wouldn’t-”

Faith blinked as she saw the Flareon exploded into tears. He crouched down, tears swelling out of his eyes as his ears flattened back. Faith’s ears also flattened back as she walked up to Adrian’s side and rubbed his back. She felt thorns in her heart as she recalled her recent actions and words to the crying, scared Flareon.

“Oh, Adrian. I’m so, so sorry,” Faith said as she rubbed her cheek against his, tears swelling out of her eyes as well.