Chapter 2

There was already a crowd gathered by the time Hayden made it to the shore. Many of those were Sunyshore's permanent residents, shopkeepers like his parents, or workers in the various factories and nearby mine. None of those spared him a glance as he slipped off the walkway, then hopped the low wall to get back onto the streets proper.

At least until they noticed the daemon floating along beside him. Someone dropped a large bundle of cloth directly in front of him, which rolled slowly across the street. Some others gasped and pointed—someone even bowed. 

Hayden pretended not to notice, but the pressure of so much attention was more than just visual. He felt all of their thoughts on him, or at least Liz did.

"I know you're proud you figured out how to look like that," he whispered, turning the first bend to a narrow street sloping upward from the shore. His family's own shop and tiny residence were near the top, among the poorest. He didn’t feel poor just then. "Shouldn't you change back now? They're all staring at us."

It took the daemon a second to answer. "Don't you feel it, Hayden? This is amazing!" She zipped through the air around him, doing several little loops just out of his reach.

But he didn't need to reach her, Hayden felt it, the same way he'd felt her pain in the fight. Freedom from gravity, the air rushing through her fur, and the maze of thoughts and emotions Sunyshore had transformed into. 

"I do feel stronger," he admitted. "When you changed, all the pain went away. I think legendaries are stronger than regular people."

"Think," she repeated, giggling. "How do you think the great families got so great, Hayden? Course they're stronger."

No one got in Hayden's path as he hurried home. What few people were on the sidewalk took one look at his daemon and turned right back around the other way, discovering sudden business elsewhere.

Except for the footsteps behind him. He heard hooves on cobblestone, and turned just in time to see the town kids approaching from the hill. 

Might as well take some credit. Hayden waved, holding out one hand for Liz to land on. She did, stretching out on the back of his palm. He scratched her back gently, the same way he would've done if she were any ordinary flavor of daemon. "Hey!" He grinned at them. "What's up?"

The small group of town kids caught up with him a few steps later. Lin was at the head, slipped off the back of her ponyta and stumbled towards him. "Hayden? Brick says you went onto the dock! You tryin' to start another town war?"

Then she saw Liz, and she stopped abruptly. She mouthed a few strictly inappropriate words, the kind Hayden sometimes overheard from dockworkers but would never say himself. 

"How?" asked her daemon, his voice betraying all the same confusion. "What happened on the dock, Liz?"

The kitten floated eagerly off Hayden's hand, circling once around the two of them before lingering at head-level for the ponyta. "Figured out how to win every town war for the rest of forever! All we need are all the other younger kids who haven't settled. Dunno why we never thought of it sooner!"

"She gets the credit," Hayden agreed. "But look, Lin. Didn't have a choice. You know how Ellie's been getting worse. Only way I was getting medicine was at the dock pharmacy—the one for sailors, that never locks the windows. You know the one."

The other kids scampered up around them. There was Loyce, so young he really didn't belong out here getting into urban conflicts with the other kids. But he didn't actually have parents, so scavenging the scraps was really his only chance of sleeping with a full belly. Then there was Ming and her combee, bobbing gently up and down in the air above them. She was the best scout in all of Sunyshore, no question.

There were others—Shin was closest to Hayden's age, but they didn't get along well. Peace existed between them only through common alliance against the dock kids.

"How are you doing that?" Loyce poked at Hayden's stomach, a full head shorter and quite a bit scrawnier. Usually that meant he wanted to bum a piece of bread or something, but just now he had nothing to give. "That pokémon. I never seen it."

"She's a mew," Lin explained. "They're legendary… mythical, even. Commoner's daemons can't settle as 'em. Can't even look like 'em, I thought. They're special, we're not."

"We're no different than all of you—" Hayden began. But no matter how much he wanted to enjoy their praise, he had more important things to do. "Listen. We can figure this out tomorrow. I gotta get my sister her medicine, okay?"

Lin nodded wearily. "Okay, Hayden. But if you started a war, we'll need you fighting for us. With a daemon who can look like a myth…"

She waved him off, and the other kids parted around him. Lin was the oldest, and the closest thing to a leader they had. Hayden waved, then broke into a jog up the hill. He barely felt the slope or the exhaustion, not with Liz's joy overpowering everything else. There were no words exchanged between them, exactly, only that simple feeling.

"I get how nice this is…" he said, slowing to a stop beside the building. An oversized wooden dress hung from an iron hook outside, swinging slowly in the wind. The shop was two stories just like all the others in Sunyshore, with big windows downstairs and living space above. They'd added on over the years as the family got bigger, making the building taller than any of its neighbors. But far from the fine stone of the church.

Hayden knew where to stop so he wouldn't be in view of those big windows. His mom and one of his older brothers would probably be downstairs at that exact moment, either tending to customers or watching for them. Either way, they'd see him if he got too close.

And see his companion. "I don't want to change back either. But we gotta, Liz. Mom's gonna have a heart attack if she sees us like this. We don't have enough medicine for two."

Liz hovered down just in front of him. She hung vertically in the air, her ears folding backward, and her tail going limp. That thing was so long, almost twice the length of her body. "Hayden, I… I… we…"

She didn't have to say it. He realized what that feeling meant. When they grabbed him on the dock, and he thought he would fail—he'd realized a little something about himself in that moment. He knew nothing would stop him from saving his sister.

"We settled," he whispered, barely audible. "When we were fighting back there."

Liz nodded slowly. "I'm not sure exactly when. Maybe the first time I flew like this. It's not like wings, Hayden, it's… so much more. I don't understand it yet, but I want to."

He sighed, turning for the sidewalk. Normally he was invisible in Sunyshore, just another piece of the scenery. But they felt more eyes on them, peering out of windows and up from the street. How much longer before a constable got involved?

Hayden's confidence finally failed him. This wasn't some clever trick they'd figured out to get one over on the dock kids—he couldn't change back into an eevee and hide in the background. I'm not even an eevee. I'm a disappointment.

"Quick, in here." He opened his empty pocket wide for Liz. "We'll have to hide. Ellie needs her medicine, we can figure the rest out later."

She obeyed, flying into the opening. At first she wasn't happy—but somewhere small and warm wasn't the worst place in the world for a kitten to hide. After a few seconds, her indignance faded.

Hayden patted the pocket once, then hurried to the shop door. The little bell rang as he flung it open, hurrying inside.

He was silent at first, scanning the storefront for any clients. His parents were very particular about not interfering with the shop's operations. Every customer was precious. 

There were none he could see, or feel. "Hey, little brother," someone said, from just around the corner. The second-oldest, Hudson, broom in hand. His glaceon daemon was far too elegant to assist with such menial work, and sat behind him, preening in the mirror. "Woah, wait a second. You look like a mightyena got a hold of you out there. Another little street war?"

He nodded glumly, not making eye-contact. "Yeah. But it was for a good cause. Where's Ellie?"

His glaceon daemon, Hyperborea turned sharply around, sniffing the air. Her eyes went straight for Hayden's pocket. But she said nothing, just staring at the spot. Please don't say anything.

"Basement, same as always. I think Dad and Evelynn are still with her. Why?"

Hayden dug one hand into his other pocket, removing the dark glass bottle with pride. "I got the medicine Dad was talking about."

"Impossible," Hudson said. "That stuff costs more than…" He stalked over to Hayden, taking the bottle in his hand and skimming the label. He handed it back a second later, baffled. "How?"

"War," Hayden answered flatly. "I can tell you more about it after I give it to Ellie. It was crazy."

"I'll bet." Hudson went back to sweeping, though his glaceon never took her eyes off him. He went straight for the “Staff Only” door, then around the corner to the stairs. It was mostly storage down there, a dim space filled with shelves and bolts of cloth. A few held finished clothing—items for other reasons, things that hadn't sold well. He was a little too young to know the specifics of it, or to care just now.

There were two bedrooms down here, his and Ellie's. As the youngest, they had last pick. Who wanted to live underground?

Ellie's was open, and the little space was packed with people. His father and one of his sisters both huddled around the bed, where Ellie lay. Her leg and arm on her left side were both exposed, swollen an angry red with faint green lines around the edges.

The smell was awful, even with his human nose. The decay was bad, but knowing it was his sister made it much worse.

A little leafeon lay curled at her feet, shivering just like the person he belonged to. His father's flareon rested beside him, just close enough to keep the other daemon warm, but not take up too much bed space. It made little difference. 

Ellie looked bad. Her whole body was wracked with fever, her skin coated in a thin layer of sweat. She hadn't been awake in days now, instead rocking slowly back and forth in her sleep, occasionally muttering to herself.

His father looked up from beside the bed, his white shirt rolled up to the sleeves. The lines seemed to cut particularly deep into his skin. "I'm working. Can you find somewhere else to be?"

Hayden held the bottle towards him. "Found this. I think it's what you needed—I checked the bottle three times."

Dad sighed, gesturing at him. "Evelynn, deal with this, please."

At his word, she rose from her perch by the bookshelf. Her espeon remained curled beside the place where she was sitting. He opened one eye, staring down at Hayden. Or more accurately, he stared down at Hayden's pocket, fascinated.

"We couldn't afford it," Evelynn said softly, resting one hand on his shoulder. "Hayden, we couldn't buy the medicine. Remember?"

He turned the bottle towards her so she could read the label. His sister glanced at it, then snatched it from his fingers. "Father, this is… Tyrothricin. He found it."

Finally Hayden's dad sat up. He turned, waved for the bottle. Evelynn passed it to him. Seconds later, he started weeping. Tears streaked down his face, and his hand shook so much he nearly dropped the bottle. "Hayden. Arceus only knows… don't tell me. Get your mother down here, now. Tell her what you found. Fly."

He did—or as close as he could manage, sprinting up the steps two at a time. No one had told him where to find his mom—but if she wasn't on the storefront, she would be up in the sewing room. 

She sat at her worktable, surrounded by a dozen half-finished patterns and bolts of cloth, muttering to herself. While she worked, her jolteon daemon paced stubbornly back and forth by the window, always in motion. He turned on Hayden as he came in, while Mom remained at her seat. 

He bounded towards the door, though never got more than ten feet or so from his human. Some daemons could do a little more, some a little less. But the distance was never too great. To force them apart would kill as swiftly as separating a person from their head.

"She doesn't feel like talking right now, Hayden. Maybe you could warm a broth for dinner? Remember what we taught you?" The jolteon was still an adult pokémon, fully grown. He stood past Haden's waist, radiating pent-up electrical energy.

"Dad told me to bring her," he said. "I found the medicine Ellie needs. He needs your help."

She acted like she wasn't looking, but Mom snapped violently out of her seat, with all the incredible energy of her pokémon. She stopped just in front of him, dropping to one knee and meeting his eyes. "You found what, kit?"

His heart sank at that familiar endearment. True for every member of his family, but not for him. He'd never be a kit now. Kitten, maybe, but that just wasn't the same. He glanced down at his hand, where he'd scrawled the name of the drug with a pen.

Unfortunately he'd been in a street fight, and there was nothing but a bloody smear left on his skin.

"Tyrothricin!" his pocket called, helpfully. "We found Tyrothricin!"

Mom glanced down at his pocket, then up at Hayden's face. "You look like you fought for it, too."

He nodded sheepishly. "Didn't want to, but I had to. Corrin made me."

She hugged him tightly, carefully avoiding his pocket. Touching a daemon through fabric wasn't a problem, but squishing one would be just as painful for Hayden. "Just this once, I don't care where you got it, kit." She stood, turning to go. "Wash up, both of you. I want soap in those cuts for at least five minutes. You don't want to end up like Ellie."

"I know," he said, exasperated. "We will."

She left him, with her jolteon bounding after her down the stairs a second later. Hayden went straight for the upstairs bathroom. His other brother, Hunter, was probably in his room, focused on his studies. Even so, Liz remained safely tucked away in his pocket until the bathroom door locked behind them.

Hayden slumped against the door, breathing heavily.

Liz floated out of his open pocket, hovering in front of him. "I can't keep hiding forever." She nudged his nose with a paw. "Don't be embarrassed, Hayden. We're mew. It isn't bad to know that. We just have to tell them right."

Hayden nodded solemnly. He'd never seen his father cry before. "It's worth it," he admitted. "No matter what happens, so long as Ellie gets better."