Warrior Eevees #2: Pearl's Shadow

1- Swimming Lessons

Silver tried her best to focus on the waves lapping gently over her paws, but the cries of pain from the village were distracting her. Her father, Fish, butted his head against her shoulder.

"Pebble will be fine. Mollies have been giving birth since... Well, forever, I assume. Come on! It's your first time on the lake!"

Silver eyed him doubtfully. Fish was an evolved Vaporeon, with the long, blue, powerful tail and fins and frills and gills that would allow him to glide easily through the water. Silver had not had the honor of evolution yet, and her rumpled grey fur felt thick and hot, like it would drag her underwater, where she would not be able to breathe.

One of her sisters, Leap, however, did not seem to share her reservations, and was already neck-deep in the shallow water that edged the Lake Tribe's village. It was a small island in the middle of a brilliantly blue glittering lake in a marsh that Silver had yet to see, with dens woven out of rushes and reeds for shelter. No other Tribe would dare try to attack it where it sat in the middle of the water, and no Lake Tribe Pokémon had drowned since its founding. It was a safe place to be, although none of that was helping Pebble.

Silver's mother, Mist, was sitting with the other molly. Pebble had never had a litter of kittens before, as Silver had been told. Tragically, her mate, Current, had been killed by some kind of Poison-Type Pokémon that had hidden in the grass- Ekans, it was called. There had been a tense few days while the Lake Tribe had hunted and killed it, although Silver had not been allowed to see the body. Now Pebble was suffering further trying to bring her kittens into the world, so Silver and her two sisters had been brought out for their first-ever swimming lesson.

Even unevolved Eevee in the Tribe were taught to swim. It was a necessity, and Fish assured them that no Lake Tribe member expected them to be as swift or powerful as an evolved Vaporeon.

"You won't be able to dive to the lakebed yet," he warned his kittens firmly as he shepherded them to the shallow beach where all young Lake Tribe Eevees learned to swim. "You will have enough air to reach the bottom, but not to come back up, and it may kill you. You won't be able to hunt large fish yet, either, or fight some of the stronger currents, so never try to swim without a Vaporeon-"

"We know, we know," Agile, Silver's other sister had cut him off, annoyed.

She was now following close after Leap into the water, her mane slicked to her neck. Silver watched them go, her heart flipping in her chest like a fish dragged to shore. She couldn't help but hear Fish's firm warnings playing over and over in her head. Should Eevee really swim, at all?

"Are you doing okay, sweetie?" Fish asked her.

Silver had sunk up to her knees in the water, which clumped her belly fur together, but it barely covered Fish's ankles. His tail sent up great waves every time he waved it back in forth in excitement.

"I'm okay," Silver lied, not wanting to appear cowardly in front of Fish.

Lake Tribe Eevees swam. Even Floe, who was a Glaceon and would never become a Vaporeon, knew how to swim. She'd washed up on the Lake Tribe's shores season-cycles ago and had become as good of a swimmer as any Glaceon could be, her pelt made slick by her diet of fish, and she fed half the Tribe when the lake froze over. If she could learn to swim, surely an Eevee like Silver could... She hoped.

"I'll stay right with you," Fish promised.

"Okay," Silver agreed cautiously, and dared to take another step into the lake.

Cold water soaked her belly fur. The ice on the lake had broken just a moon cycle ago, and it was still frigid. The Vaporeon didn't mind, of course, with their double coats, but Silver bushed up her pelt as if she could fight the chill that way.