Chapter 10

Liz emerged from Hayden's jacket, putting herself between the newcomer's daemon and Hayden himself. She was smaller and weaker than he was, but she also flew differently. She could move in any direction, instead of flying in gentle curves and arcs. 

Tension between Hayden and the newcomer built in the air to a powerful crescendo. His stubbornness, her indignance. "I wasn't trying to worry anyone," he said flatly. "I told a maid I was leaving." Christel was her name, but he didn't want to get the nice lady in trouble. If she was somehow connected to this, they wouldn't learn from him.

"Yeah? You think it's okay to run off on your own? This wilderness is dangerous. Just look at you…" She turned up her nose. "Smells like you went crawling through a muddy zoo."

She was partially right about that. Not that Hayden would call the friendly pokémon who had saved him a “zoo.” He might've drowned without their help, or maybe froze after he got out of the water. Did the Great Family have some way of finding him out in the woods?

"You're Eleanor, right?" he asked. "I heard about you. I think we have the same tutors now? Your mom told me about it."

Finally their daemons collided in the air, wrestling with each other. Neither human got close, nor did anything to interfere. This wasn't the bullies of Sunyshore trying to inflict pain through Liz—this was perfectly normal. Even adults' daemons resolved conflicts this way sometimes. There was no better way to know who in a group would take charge.

The fight only lasted a few seconds, and never involved any actual moves. In an instant, the fox pinned Liz to the ground, spreading his jaws around her neck. She went limp, mewing submissively. 

"Yes, I am," Eleanor said. "Heir of this house, and the girl who actually knows what she's doing out on the grounds. You picked our toughest trail on the first day. Now I have to drag you all the way back."

She reached for his arm, and Hayden didn't pull away. He lowered his head submissively. That little contest between their daemons established his position. She dragged him from the lake's edge. A few seconds later, her daemon carried Liz over to him, and dropped her near Hayden. 

She wasn't hurt, and didn't need him to catch her. He caught her anyway, tucking her back into his jacket. "Don't you people ever get cold?"

Eleanor grunted. She didn't tire, look back, or even slow down. This was the same strength and endurance he'd seen from her mom, in miniature. A real legendary, not some accident like him.

"Mew House's holdings are in a jungle. My mom says it's miserable even to visit—the humidity and the heat make it unbearable. Maybe you'd be happier there, instead of wasting space in my mansion."

She dragged him along the trail for five minutes or so. Eventually she let go, eyes narrowing. "Don't try to run off, kid. If you give Xrilloch an excuse, we won't be as gentle the next time."

Hayden held both hands flat towards her, defeated. "I won't try to run. I didn't run this time, I was just… out to look. I've never been outside the city before."

"After tonight, you'll be lucky if they let you go out unescorted," Eleanor muttered. "Made me drag you back in. Of course mother can't be bothered—doesn't matter that you're her project."

But not a servant, Hayden thought. He had seen dozens of staff, and just as many soldiers protecting the grounds. "You thought you needed a legendary to bring me back?" he guessed. "Did they really think I ran away?"

Eleanor whistled, and caught her daemon on her arm like a falconer. She ran one hand down his back, far less gentle than Hayden was with Liz. But this was a mature-looking fox, not a kitten. He was several times Liz's size. 

"No. Most of the house hasn't met you yet. They think you're far more than you are—like you're an untamed storm, ripping up reality around you, rewriting memories and snapping necks everywhere you go. They didn't hear the story from your pathetic little town. You didn't even kill anyone, because you don't have any power. You're just a little kid in way over your head."

Hayden sniffed. He felt hot tears on his face, streaking through the dirt. He tried to speak, but his voice cracked, and he fought the tears back. "Maybe I am. But I already got what I wanted—my sister got her medicine. It doesn't matter what happens to me now."

He stopped walking there on the trail, glaring back at Eleanor. It didn't matter how silly the Shaymin thought he was, so long as they didn't try to hurt his family.

This one clearly thought he was very silly. She broke into laughter so hysterical that she melted right in front of him. Well—her daemon did, anyway. He slid right off her arm, landing on the ground beneath it as a gelatinous splash of purple slime. About the same size, but without any defined features, just a goofy grin and some spots for his eyes.

Her hair changed too, turning the same purple as her pokémon. It looked slightly damp, sticking to her skin, and reflecting the moonlight with a faint glimmer.

Eleanor's laughter died after a few more seconds. She reached up, and touched her hair with one hand. "Oh. Well, crap. Guess you get to see this on your first day." She sighed, scooping up the blob in both arms. The effort cost her, obviously more than the nye-invincible legendary she'd been seconds before. "Couldn't keep it up for one more hour?" she whispered to the daemon.

Because ditto aren't psychic, Hayden realized, creeping closer. He wasn't the only one to be fascinated by it. Liz slipped out of his jacket, hovering nearer.

"That was almost two hours," the daemon answered. Its voice was no longer so clearly male or female, with a slight reverberation to the sound. Like someone speaking underwater. "Longer than last time! We're improving!"

"You're… impersonating the Shaymin's daughter?" Hayden guessed. "Pretending to be her when you're in the house. Because you're a ditto! You can transform!"

She rolled her eyes. "I only tricked you because you're dumb. A real legendary can see right through me. You have no idea how powerful they are, kid. Swimming with the sharpedo, and you don't have a clue how deep the water really is. Rising every second."

She sighed and started up the trail again. After a few seconds she fished something out of her pocket—a flashlight. She switched it on, and illuminated the path ahead. Hayden didn't have to hurry to keep up anymore. She was no longer moving with superhuman speed and endurance. She looked as exhausted as he felt.

"She's telling the truth," Liz thought in his direction. "She's Eleanor."

Hayden followed in silence for a few minutes. The trail was challenging enough even by daylight. But his mind was still turning. There was a familiarity to this girl. Not the inexpressible way he had recognized Cody and felt comfortable around her. This was something else. She was a bully before, too. "You were the maid! That's why Lady Gracidea let you ride with us. You really are her daughter."

She stopped suddenly, spinning on Hayden to shove one finger into his chest. She was still taller, though not so much as the powerful fox-shaymin. "And don't you forget it, kid. Maybe I didn't want to be stuck in one boring shape my whole life, but that doesn't mean I'm not the heir of Shaymin House. This mansion is mine, the grounds are mine. One day, the rule will be mine. You won't ever inherit. You can't."

Hayden shrugged, expression perfectly neutral. "I don't want to inherit anything. I wanted to stay with my family in Sunyshore. I got dragged here, but I have to stay because Lady Gracidea says so. Everyone knows you have to do what the Great Families tell you." 

He trailed off, eyes settling on her daemon. But he wasn't the one to speak. Liz's excitement bubbled between them, overpowering exhaustion. "Can you change for me again? I know it's only been a few days—but I'm already feeling trapped. Three days ago I was every pokémon there was, now I'm just one?" She circled in a slow summersault, tongue out. "Mew is the best we've ever felt. But we still want to be different sometimes. Would'a been nice to be a fish earlier. Or a bird before that. Something warm… but I can't."

The girl lowered her flashlight. Some of the acid was gone from her voice when she spoke. "You don't want to inherit? That's not why you came?"

"No," he repeated, confident. "No, we don't. I'm not from a great house. It's like you said—I'm a little kid in over his head. Every single thing that happens to me just makes life more confusing."

"Oh. Well." She spun back around and set off up the trail again. "That doesn't change anything. You still don't belong here."

Hayden followed. He didn't sag or drag his feet any longer, not after seeing a real pokémon transformation for the first time. Liz wouldn't have let him forget about it, even if he wanted to.

"Can you change for us again?" Liz prompted. She floated ahead of them both this time, speaking to the ditto directly and not the one holding him. "It was really impressive, what you did. We've never met a ditto before."

When he answered, it wasn't loud enough for Hayden to hear. Thankfully he could share Liz's hearing as easily as her sense of touch.

"Being legendary is… very hard," he admitted. "Too tired to change so soon. Maybe later, if you let us practice copying you."

"Deal!" Liz exclaimed, without waiting for his approval. Because, of course, she didn't have to. She already knew how he would feel. "You can copy us! Flying this way is so much better than any other way I tried before. Better than birds, better than ghosts, way better than those pokémon who just float all the time for no reason. I had no idea how trapped I was by the down, down, always down…"

Eleanor shooed her away with a flick of her wrist, without actually getting close to the pokémon. Even a bully would get nowhere close to accidentally touching his daemon.

But then there was Cody, living in the forest and breaking every rule. Liz flew to her first.

"I have no idea how you're so energetic, kid. But cool it. We're going home. Tomorrow you're going to do as you're told and not run off. You're going to ruin my lessons and there's nothing I can do about it."

He nodded along. Liz returned to his shoulder, though clearly unwilling to hide in his jacket anymore. She couldn't risk not getting to watch Transform in action. Who else in the whole world would be able to teach her? No one got to see a mew in person. But a ditto… they were far more common.

"But when our lessons are over," Hayden prompted, a few minutes later. "Will you show us how to transform then?"

Eleanor groaned. "Did your parents not teach you any manners, kid? What do commoner parents do with someone like you?"

He shrugged. "I wasn't inside a whole lot. Sunyshore has so much going on! I knew when I got older they'd make me work more, like my brothers and sisters. But they had so much help they barely even needed me."

"Oh thank Arceus, we're back." Eleanor gestured with her flashlight. "Now we're going to go inside, and you are going to leave me alone." She stalked past Hayden, with a sudden burst of strength. As they approached, a group of waiting servants and guards broke away from the property and came running, sending a dozen different spotlights across the grass. 

"Besides…" Eleanor muttered, when she was already too far for Hayden to reach. "Everyone says what Loch and I do is gross. You don't want us to rub off on you."

Hayden wanted to reach her then, but there was no chance. The servants and soldiers basically ignored Eleanor. A quick once-over to see that she was okay, and she was up the lawn to one of the mansion's side-doors. Hayden was soon surrounded. Someone noticed his injuries, and a doctor joined the soldiers.

Before he could protest, they had him on a stretcher, and carried him to the house.