Chapter 36

Hayden walked slowly through the library, searching for any sign of the other mew. The space was big for the home of one person, with two floors and many study tables and comfortable chairs to read from. There were signs of occupation everywhere—piles of books were arranged near many of them, with many titles propped open.

He's not a ghost. There's a mew in here somewhere. She stopped by the door Ilene had used, levitating it open a crack. But there was no one there, mew or otherwise.

"I could just tell you where he is," Liz said, landing on her shoulder. "We don't have to hunt." She floated out the opening, just ahead of her.

"Then he can sense us too," Hayden said. "Maybe we should let him find us? He's the prince, and the… boy."

Liz circled around her in a slow, nervous loop. "I don't think so. His daemon is weaker than I am. She's barely bending gravity. They're both…"

"Afraid," Hayden finished. This kid had met so few other people in his life that the prospect of another one terrified him. He was outside somewhere, high enough off the ground that he thought she wouldn't find him.

“Nothing says we have to spend the time together, right? We could just let him keep hiding.”

“You think Lady Gracidea would let us get away with that?”

The answer went without saying. So Hayden set out to find the exit. She couldn't sense architecture the way she felt minds, so that was a prospect of trial and error, wandering from one expensive-looking room to the next.

They were all overflowing with wealth—beautiful paintings covered the walls, and sometimes even the ceilings. Hayden floated up to inspect them. There were landscapes, lush forests and deep ocean vistas. But for occupants, she saw only humans and mew. Not one other pokémon appeared anywhere. Instead of looking beautiful, the forests seemed lonely. What could make all the residents flee like that?

Then she found a balcony door hanging open. She stepped out, and found a ladder leading up into the trees. There was a little building up there, a treehouse—albeit a treehouse bigger and nicer than her first home.

“He still doesn't know we're here yet,” Liz thought. “We could walk away.” 

She did, at first. Hayden floated down a floor to the kitchen, which was fully stocked—but without servants. She picked a few berries, tucked them into her apron, then went back upstairs. She didn't climb the ladder so much as float past it, so there was no squeaking from the old rope or the branches where it hung.

The treehouse door was open, though the lights inside were off. The space within was as well-furnished as a real home, though it had recently been destroyed. Blankets and cushions had all been rearranged into a fortress, with large pillow walls and quilts as a roof.

She floated through the open door, and landed on the wood there. It creaked under her, barely audible. But enough. Liz felt the change, as the hiding kid instantly realized he wasn't alone.

"Ilene?" asked a voice, tiny and nervous. "I thought you said you wouldn't see me today."

A tiny eye peered out from an opening in the blankets, then withdrew just as quickly. Another voice whispered, even quieter. "It's not Ilene."

"I'm not Ilene," Hayden said. "I think you might be expecting me?"

There was a brief, nervous silence. Something shifted inside the fortress of pillows and blankets. Finally, the timid voice spoke. "There's no room! Sorry!"

Hayden stayed where she was for a minute, thinking. She could easily float the whole fort apart in a few seconds, but that wasn't going to help. This kid was already scared of her. How old is he, ten?

Liz nodded. “You would probably settle as fast as you could if you were locked somewhere and not allowed to leave.”

She might not have known what to do, if Hayden hadn't spent so long out on the streets of Sunyshore. Plenty of those kids were little, and from far worse circumstances than the prince of all Johto.

She changed, into one of her youngest forms. She caught an eevee-shaped Liz before she could fall all the way, then held her dress by the sleeve to stop it from falling off her chest. She yanked it tight, knotting a makeshift strap over her chest. The dress part was too long now, but she would just have to deal with it.

She tossed the apron aside completely, then pulled the stockings up so they wouldn't fall off. Good enough.

"It's okay, I can fit," she said, dropping down beside the entrance. "Liz and I will be careful!" She found an opening, then wiggled through a gap in the cushions. 

Despite his complaints, the interior was plenty big for more than one kid. He had knocked over a few couches and a table to make its three walls, and used small cushions for places to sit.

Hiding right in front of her was the heir to the most important house in all the world. He was about ten, wearing some simple trousers and a worn-out tee shirt that was too big for him. He clutched a flashlight to his chest, shining it straight at her. She could still make out his features even with the light—those eyes were hazel, not blue, and his hair was brown.

No unity, she realized, at the same second as the little fox in her arms. 

"You look different!" his daemon protested. She floated in the air beside him, bobbing unevenly up and down. She was so small, smaller than Liz had first looked on the day they settled. It was hard to tell color through the darkness, not with a light in her face. But she didn't look the way she expected. "You shouldn't fit!"

"I didn't," she said, settling Liz down on the floor between them, so she was free to move. "But I changed."

"It is her!" the kitten exclaimed, landing on his shoulder. "I knew I saw another one!"

Julian tilted his head to one side, big eyes watching her. He clutched the flashlight closer to his chest, as tight as he could hold it. There were stuffed toys in here—every one of them was a cat. They were all pink, except for a little blue one sitting next to him. And the one on his shoulder. His daemon was blue!

"Not a servant?" he asked. "Do you have to do what I say, if I tell you?"

She shrugged. "I… dunno. But I'm not a servant. I'm Hadie. This is Liz. She's a fox now, but we can be other stuff."

He relaxed from his cowering position against the edge of his makeshift fortress, crawling closer to her. "They told me someone like that was coming. Lady Hayden of Shaymin House, the only other mew in the world who wasn't already in my family."

She nodded. "They call me that, I guess. I always thought it was kinda boring though. I just told Ilene—Hayden is my name, and my friends call me Haydie. It's easier."

"I don't know you," he said. But he was staring as he said it—at her, and the daemon. She didn't need psychic powers to tell what captured his attention when he kept pointing the flashlight at Liz, then back again.

"You could," she countered. "There's not much. Liz and I like to… explore, meet new pokémon, copy them, learn what they can do. Maybe that's why we came here—we've never seen another kitten before."

He stuck out his tongue. "They call you that too?"

"All the time. Especially the wild ones. I dunno who told them that name, but they use it whether you want them to or not."

The kid scratched his chin, considering. "Prove it! I wanna see!"

She pulled Liz into her lap, resting against the cushions. "Prove that I… visit wild pokémon? I dunno how to prove that. Prove that they call me silly names?"

"Prove that you can change," he said, exasperated. "Mom and Dad do it all the time, that's what Ilene says. But they never show me. It's one thing all the time every second. Ilene tried to explain, but she can't do it herself, and all the books in the world don't help."

She reached over her head with one hand, touching the blanket there. "If I get bigger, I won't fit. I might break your hideout."

Julian stuck his tongue out, defiant. "I think you're just saying that! Just like Mom and Dad. They say they change a lot, but look at them? The same thing every day, again and again."

"Okay, okay. We can change."

They'd never gone directly from one pokémon to another without a mew in the middle, but there shouldn’t be anything stopping them, right? What was small enough that it wouldn't intimidate the kid? 

She only had one other idea—a pichu. She had only managed the form once, and not tried again on account of how young she got. Being small was not helpful when you were trying not to let the dangerous legendaries kill you.

She changed anyway, losing another year or two in the process. Her hair got short and bright yellow, with black highlights on the tip. Her arms slipped through the top of her dress, but she no longer remembered why that mattered, and so didn't bother to tie it up. "Didn't lie!" She exclaimed, holding out her little daemon proudly for him to inspect. 

"See! And I didn't even break your fort neither. Shoulda tried this one first. It's bigger in here now."

Julian's mouth hung open. Whatever fear he had before was entirely gone, replaced with fascination. He moved right up to her, poking at her hair with one hand. "You just… shrank! And you look all different now."

"Duh." She stuck her tongue out again. "Eevee are different than pikachu. Or before they evolve too, I guess. Pikachu are… timid, nervous. They like to stay with their families, and they get scared easily." 

As she said it, she wrapped one arm around his, pulling a little closer to him. She no longer remembered why she might want to, it just seemed safer than being on her own. "I told you my name. Now you gotta tell us yours."

"Julian," he said. "And this is Aerie. We settled… last year. Everyone is very proud."

"About the same time as me," she said, letting Liz out of her grip. The mouse didn't wander far, sheltering between her legs. But her attention was fixed on the kitten, now a similar size. Even trapped in a tiny disguise, some part of her still longed to be around another of their own kind.

"You don't look old enough," he said, poking her in the chest. "You're too little to settle. Nobody does when they're that little."

"It's not real!" she said, exasperated. "I was bigger before I crawled in. I'll prove it when we get bored. Shouldn't take long… being a little helpless mouse that shocks herself is boring."

"Scary," Liz agreed. Her cheeks sparked, and she moved in closer. "Why would anyone choose this? Everything is huge."

Aerie floated close to them, close enough to sniff Liz, and for the mouse to sniff her back. She was a girl—that meant something to old Hayden. Right now it was just interesting, like the whole world.

"You don't smell like mew," Aerie said, very small. "How do you change so good?"

"Practice," Liz answered, before she could. Maybe this was what wild pokémon felt like being around a mew. She wasn't afraid of Julian, even if he was bigger, and also important or whatever. A mew would keep her safe, that was what they were there for. 

"You're stuck?" Hayden asked, finally relaxing enough to let go of him. She touched him with a leg instead, so she would never be completely alone. So long as someone was with her, she would feel safe. "We were stuck for weeks and weeks. It was soooo boring."

Julian nodded slowly. "My father says that one day I will… rule the whole world. I'll have to keep everyone safe. But I don't know how I'm supposed to do that, when I don't know what it's like to be them. Just one face in the mirror."

He leaned in closer, only inches away now. Hayden no longer noticed or cared. "Do something else! What else can you be, Hadie?"

"Lotsa stuff," she answered. "Almost anything! Except…" She blushed, her first time feeling genuine embarrassment since changing. "We aren't as good since we settled. Need to practice now. We haven't practiced everything. It's way easier when we have a pokémon to copy. You could try copying us!"

"Pichu?" He tilted his head to one side. "No thanks. We're already small enough. We wanna be big! Brave! Smart!"

She wasn't sure exactly what happened next. Time was very strange when she was so young. The sun was higher, and they were eating lunch somewhere with lots of grass. She showed Julian how to peel the berry the way wild pokémon had taught her, and licked her fingers clean afterwards.

He refused to try, not wanting to get his hands dirty. But he would take pieces of fruit for himself if she did the hard part. No fair, because she couldn't float things anymore.

"One day I'll be able to fly up and pick it all myself. That's how my mom does it—she just goes straight up into the trees."

"I can do that!" Hayden exclaimed. It wasn't true as she said it, but it could be if she wanted.

"Nuh uh!" He stood up in front of her, posing with Aerie on his shoulder. She'd seen that pose in portraits all over the palace. "You said you settled at the same time. It takes longer, that's what everybody tells us."

Hayden no longer had the foresight to remember why she had chosen to be small. But she knew what mattered, that she was right and he was wrong. So she changed back, growing six or seven inches in a second or two, along with a few years older. She winced, feeling a tight knot holding up the gown that had already fit well when she first put it on. 

She untied it with her powers, letting the dress relax over her chest. "There we go." She stretched, feeling Julian's eyes on her every second. Out in the open, he was several inches shorter than she was, about an equal with their eevee disguise. 

His daemon's tail wrapped around his neck. One hand balled into a nervous fist, tugging on his shirt. But he didn't run. "You're… her? Real, not a ditto?"

"Real," she agreed, settling back down into a sitting position across from him. At least that way the height difference didn't seem so extreme. "Same girl as before, just a little older. You can still call me Haydie if you want to."

"Hayden," he said. "Can you fly, like you said? Up there?"

"I don't lie!" she said. But she had to stop—even if he couldn't read her emotions, the guilt of it burned at her. She couldn't lie to him. "Okay, maybe sometimes I lie. Where I come from is very dangerous, and telling the truth isn't always safe. But I won't lie to you."

She lifted up off the grass. She did it herself, despite the effort it cost. After being stuck as a little mousy kid who was scared of everything, she was eager to get out of the dark. "Want to come?" She held out her hand, reaching towards him. "Liz can fly us both."

He eyed the cat circling her, then took the offered hand. "Mom and Dad never fly with me. They want an… insensitive… for me to learn."

"I'm sure you will." She took his hand, then let Liz take over the hard part. She wasn't brave enough to try flying, let alone with someone so important. They floated up along the trees, until they were high in the canopy, where yellow berries unreachable to humans grew. "You wanted one?"

To his credit, the kid didn't cower. His grip tightened around her fingers, holding on. It was a very long way down. "Not really. I just wanted to see what it was like."

"Then let's go up." She floated higher, so their heads could poke above the trees. It was another world. Thick tropical foliage like she had only ever seen in books and paintings, so close together that she could barely see the ground. A distant waterfall rumbled down a mountain, leaving a perpetual rainbow in the air ahead of them.

Julian reached out with his free hand, running it through the leaves. "It's not fair. They can come up here whenever they want, and I can't."

"Aerie can," she said. "When she gets bigger and stronger, you'll be able to do more. No one can keep you on the ground then."

He nodded. "You didn't let them tell you what to do. You change however you want."

"Yeah."

He didn't say anything for a while, long enough that she wondered if she had done something wrong. But then he spoke again, nervous. But he couldn't retreat now, not without a terrifying fall. "Ilene says we're… betrothed. Is that true?"

She nodded.

"Does that mean we'll get married some day? Like my mom and dad?"

"Guess so." She blushed again, brighter than before. But there was no way to escape him.

"Are you scared?"

"Yeah."

"Good. That means it's okay if I am." He settled his other hand on her wrist. "Let's go down. We're running out of time for your first day."