Inching Away One Length at a Time

[EMMY]

Inching Away One Length at a Time

My father and siblings have always loved me very much. They say I would play an important role someday. Where I come from, there are other wurmples who dream to spend their lives in my silcoon family line. That’s right, I’m a wurmple, and as such, many other pokémon regard me as better. The world of pokémon¹ has a social structure that everyone is born into and no one can change their birth status.

I’m important and highly respected because not a lot of wurmple achieve the silcoon line. Beautifly is the most graceful bug that represents my type’s image. There is the goddess, Celebi², that everyone knows, but there is only one every decade. So, the beautifly are here to help preserve everything in our culture and help to prevent other pokémon types from causing any trouble. Ground types were such bullies, the fire types wanted to merely cause havoc, and the flying types treated us bugs like prey.

“Nella,” father said and a beautifly entered the room. His wings had curved stripes that matched the physique of his wing-shape quite well. The top began in yellows that turned into red and then finished in blue. He had a clear, serene body color and his eyes bulged out a bit to add a more sophisticated demeanor. “Sweetie, the big day is just around the corner,” he said and rested his wings around the wurmple’s body.

What my father meant is that I’m going to unite³ with a male wurmple tomorrow. There are a seldom few wurmple in the silcoon family line to choose and I might end up bearing my brother an egg. “I don’t know if I can do this father, mother isn’t here, and I’m scared,” I poured out. “You know what they say, no one has ever seen a pokémon produce an egg before, what if it hurts or what if I do something wrong?” I caved into my father’s comfort and I waited to hear his soothing words.

“Listen, my wurmpy Nella,” Papina said softly in a low, brushy tone. “Many before you have done this and the child turned out fine, even the child’s child turned out fine.” His wings gradually slid off my young, light pink body. My yellow tidbits of feet tingled with a bad feeling. What if I chose the wrong half-brother? Would the whole group feel disappointed? Papina said his good nights and left me to ponder alone in my thoughts.

-

“Fire, everyone inch away for your lives!”

A group of caterpie and weedle had gotten into lines. Their small mouths scooped up patches of the ground in their mouths to give to the other bug in front of them. Anyone in the silcoon line was ushered to a safer part of the land. Dustox had to observe the fire, and they had to send reports to the higher ups. Then, the beedrills were ready to fire their pin missiles at enemy targets.

“Dang-nabbit,” a wurmple said under a tree. He rubbed the gray patches of hair, around his head, against the bark. From a bit of ways, he could spot a good portion of the burning fire. “Betsy, are you sure you took your pills this morning?”

“What?!” a stern, raspy voice cried out.

“Pills, Betsy!” the elderly wurmple shouted over his spine.

“What about your pills?” Betsy shouted back, “Did you forget them again this morning, Frank?!”

“No, your pills, did you take your pills?!” Frank explained.

When the caterpie and weedle had put out most of the fire, it was only the beginning. I had no recollection on what happened except the burmey kept yelling at me to run. Not just me, but the other members of my family too. Some of the wurmple in the silcoon-line had died because of all the smoke they inhaled. The smoke had damaged many of the workers who had helped to remove the fire.

I returned with the rest of the family. They didn’t want me to see the damage, but I had to see everything for myself. When I encountered the grounds that were destitute with rough, black patches and naked, smoking trees, I was left without a word to say. How could I bring another wurmple into this world? A world where a new-born would have to struggle to survive is the very idea that turned me off.

“The end of the world is coming,” a voice moaned out through his pain.

“The end,” I repeated and walked over to the burnt, crispy caterpie, “Of the world?” He didn’t meet my stare and only lied on the cold ground. The caterpie’s body trembled and was turning cold.

“The attacks…are more frequent...and the population…diminishes by numbers every year,” the caterpie moaned out of his mouth, “None of us have a chance for survival.”

“We’re going to die?!” I exclaimed and felt the corner of my eyes burn so much. I swore the tears singed my eyelids. “All I ever wanted was to have a world with no pain, no heartaches, I wanted to create an egg with my brother Schal, and plan our son’s wedding with his first cousin Nille.”

“I’m sorry…” the caterpie groaned until his voice faded away and his body could tremble no more.

I remained in the same spot for a while until I collected myself. When I returned back to my home in one of the great trees, I could not fathom tomorrow’s ceremony. How could I unite with my half-brother? He had not said a word to me that night and he never left his room. I had to think of something before time ran out.
The following morning, I could not fathom the day’s event. I inched quickly to my brother’s room. If what the caterpie said was true, then I had to let my brother know. I perked my head through the hole, inside one of the trees, and spotted a redder wurmple coiled up on the bed. Normally it was rude to interrupt another wurmple when he is in a cleansing process, but I had no time for perverted nonsense.

“I have something of great value to speak to you, my brother,” I said and continued to inch into the room. “I don’t mean to impose, but hear me out!”

“Nella,” Schal said with a bit of shock in his voice. He immediately unrolled and swerved his body into the leaves. His head popped out at the end of one of the leaves.

“I’m afraid to say that I have to cancel our ceremony today. I can’t unite with you, not especially when the world is going to end!” I hastily spilled out of my mouth.

“What?” Schal said and raised his body a bit. He exposed a couple of his upper layers that made out that part of his anatomy. There was a creamy, tan color on his belly with muscle built into the area.

“A caterpie died before me yesterday, and said that the world was going to end,” I explained.

“The end of the world?” he repeated and then replied, “Don’t worry, Nella, those caterpie and weedle are paranoid because of your issue.”

“What do you mean my issue?” I asked and narrowed my stare at my brother.

Schal’s fuzzy body straightened out as one wave of shock spread through his layers and he said, “Oh, you don’t know.”

“What don’t I know?” I asked, and then said, “Tell me what I don’t know.”

Schal took a deep breath and said, “You’re not a pureblood.”

My eyes widen and I said, “I never saw that coming.”

“Frankly, you’re not one of us,” Schal said and turned his head to the side.

“Then…what am I?” I asked with her tone practically in a whisper.

“If you must know,” Schal said and dropped his gaze, “You are not purely bug.”

I focused my stare on my brother and tilted my head to the side then asked, “Am I also Poison?”

“No,” Schal stated and made the attempt to advert his gaze, “Your father is a fire type.”

I placed my hands over my mouth. How could I react to this? Well, I was reacting, but I didn’t know how to assess the situation. How was that remotely possible? My father is one of those seldom few Beautifly who is waiting for me at the ceremony. Why had he never spoken of our relations?

“To make matters worse, your father wants you to live under his custody with the other fire pokémon,” Schal continued to explain.

How did a fire pokémon meet and mate with a bug pokémon? My gut was screaming all the obvious answers to me. Except, I didn’t want to believe them, and I didn’t want to believe that quite possibly my mother was a rape victim. This hurt me on the inside. When Beautifly and Dustox produce eggs, they die. When the eggs hatch, the larva eats the remains of their mother. This is a normal custom, but a custom with much meaning.

My mother gave her life for mine. I could not comprehend the emotions she went through. If this was simply a case of a fire pokémon who took advantage of my mother, then I feel even more doubtful about going through with the ceremony. What if she didn’t get raped? Why would she breed with a fire pokémon though? “How did you guys find out?” I asked.

Schal inched out from the leaves to stare out the door. “Are you familiar with the treaty between the fire pokémon and the bug pokémon?”

“Yes,” I nodded, “Fire pokémon and bug pokémon should not intervene without probable cause.”

“Since your mother bred with a fire pokémon,” Schal said, “That gave away our treaty and the fire pokémon have every right to intervene with us.”

“Wait a second,” I said, raising my voice, “That’s not right, my mother’s actions should not allow those fire types to take advantage over us like that!”

“Your mother bred with a volcarona, and that was enough to put aside the treaty,” Schal stated.

I was left without words. In the past, volcarona used to live with fellow bug types in the forests. Unfortunately, the way most of the bug types think and how the volcarona think were entirely different. Too different that the volcarona were considered going against their bug-type pokémon. A volcarona was considered the devil in these parts. So, they left and joined the fire types.

“That’s impossible,” I denied, “This was an act of a volcarona taking advantage of my mother.”

“No one knows the truth,” Schal said and turned to wiggle his way to another part of the room. “As far as everyone knows, that volcarona said it was out of willingness, and he wants complete ownership of his child.”

“Does that mean…” I didn’t want to complete my question. Really, I should know the truth now. All of these attacks were because of me. Then and there I knew what I had to do. “Never mind, but Schal, I still can’t unite with you.”

Schal sighed then said, “Go, if you must.”

“Really…I am sorry,” I said softly and could feel the cracks in voice, “Thank you for understanding.”

“Are you going to tell father or should I inform him?” Schal asked.

“If you don’t mind, I must head out as soon as possible, I have to fix this,” I said, “You don’t really have to, after all, we’re not technically siblings.”

Schal shook his head and said, “You got it all wrong, to me, you will always be my sister and I hope one day you can be my wife and the mother of my child.”

My eyes widen a bit and I could feel my cheeks warming up as I said, “Schal.”

I inched over to him to wrap my neck around his neck. His eyes closed and he moved his head down to complete the body wrap. Then he let go and I pulled myself back. I whipped around to exit his room and continued to slide away from the tree. Never did I look back. How could I with all the trouble I have caused? I had to straighten this entire situation out. That meant I had to go see my father, and fix everything that has happened.

1: Pokémon represents the similar saying when we address ourselves as human/homo aspen.
2: Celebi is a spiritual being and is the name of the creature it is.
3: Unite is similar to marriage/picking a mate in this world.