Warrior Eevees #2: Pearl's Shadow

20- The Conversation

"...and Floe, you and Mist will stay in the village for now," Pearl instructed.

"What about me?" Geyser wanted to know.

"I thought you and I could go hunt."

"Ah. Okay, it's a nice day for it."

Pearl shook out her hind paws. It had been several days since she had been hunting. The days following Aqua's Initiation had been busy. There had been strange scents on the border with the Wildlands to track- thankfully, whatever it was had not stuck around- and part of the dens had been blown over in a night storm, which Pearl had to organize the rebuilding of, and a scuffle with the Forest Tribe, which Pearl had needed to smooth over.

But if that was eventful as things were, she was grateful. Nothing more dangerous than another average day of Tribe life. The worst of it was a scratch on Ripple's flank, and that Pearl hadn't had a chance to leave the village and stretch her legs since the trouble began.

Now, she stepped into the water beside Geyser, pushed off from the shore with her paws, and glided across the surface of the lake. It had been a great time of the season cycle for new evolution. Every day grew warmer and warmer, leaving the Lake Tribe Pokémon panting or huddling in the shade, and the soothing water was the greatest cure. The fishing was good, too. The kind of summer the Lake Tribe could spend leaping cheerfully through the water or lounging on the shore at their leisure, assured of good fishing.

A flash of scales distracted Pearl, and she dove beneath the lake to chase after the Seaking she had spotted. In a few tail strokes, she had caught up to it and snapped its spine with her jaws. Quickly, she and Geyser found a small spur of stone that poked above the lake's surface where they could store their catch.

"Remember when one of these tried to eat you?" Geyser asked her.

"It's hard to forget," Pearl answered. "Although- That one was a lot larger than this one."

"Maybe you were just tiny."

"I remember it was huge, because everyone was so impressed with you," Pearl said. "I was grey as a kitten, not totally useless. Remember that Mightyena who was about to eat you? I took his eye out!"

"Eh. You win, I guess," Geyser sighed.

He twisted in the water to float on his back, waving his paws at the clouds like they were fish to catch.

"Been a while since you were out hunting?"

"Yeah. With the Forest Tribe and the dens blowing over and everything."

"Bleh. I can't believe I ever used to want to lead this Tribe."

Pearl looked up sharply from where she had been nosing through the water in the shadow of the rock, looking for fish that might shelter there. She couldn't tell if he was joking. There was a smile on his muzzle, but that might have been because it was a beautiful day out.

"Are you kidding?" she decided to simply cut to the chase and ask.

"No, not at all," Geyser turned his head to face her, now very serious. "I was an idiot when I was younger, Pearl, I... I thought leading was all, you know, ordering around your Tribemates and fighting with the Forest Tribe. I used to think that was what, you know, a good Tribe member did."

"We do have to fight the Forest Tribe still, sometimes," Pearl pointed out. Geyser had never struck her as a pacifist, and frankly, she wasn't quite sure how a Pokémon that refused to fight would fit into any Tribe.

"No, I know," he hastily amended himself. "I just... I think I would have picked fights if I was the leader, you know? Like, if I was leader, and we caught anyone on our territory, I might have marched right to the Forest Tribe village and tried to teach them a lesson."

"That would kill maybe all of us."

"Yeah, exactly," Geyser's face was surprisingly contemplative as he turned his nose back to the sky. "I think somehow, I always kind of knew that, even if I never let myself think about it. I voted for you, you know."

"No, I didn't know. You could have voted for yourself. You told me yourself, it was the only thing you ever wanted," Pearl pointed out.

He seemed far too casual about this admission, with his paws still dangling in the air and his body relaxed. Pearl had never seen him so angry as he was when he was not picked for Tribe leader. Here he was, admitting that he had never even taken the easiest step down that path.

"Yeah," he sighed. "I voted for you. I was going to vote for me, I was planning on it... But when I got to the village, all by myself, I just had this moment, when I was standing in the entrance to the dens, and I just thought- I need to do what's best for the entire Lake Tribe, not what's best for me. And for some reason, I didn't think that I was the best thing for the Lake Tribe."

"Maybe Diver told you," Pearl said, recalling the uncanny feeling that his ghost had been hovering over the Lake Tribe's territory that day.

If he had been, then it had been very silly of her to have been nervous. Diver had been a good and fair leader. How could she have ever believed that he would want to harm the Lake Tribe, even in death?

"But I think it really hit me when we were fighting those Mightyena," Geyser continued. "I was doing what I thought good Tribe members do, I was fighting my hardest, and it just felt awful. Everyone was getting hurt, and my claws were all clogged up with fur, and... I just couldn't believe that I used to think that was what good leaders did. I mean we were winning, winning by a long shot, and still, we were getting hurt. And if I picked a fight with the Forest Tribe, it could have been a lot worse, and, you know, I wouldn't have been able to back down..."

"I'm not sure I was the right leader for the Lake Tribe, either," Pearl confessed, made uncomfortable by his praise. "Reed said the flower in Diver's mouth was a sign, but the more I think about it..."

Geyser was looking at her, peaceful and calm. It was a fear she had never confessed to anyone. If she was ever going to mention it to any of her friends, she had not imagined telling ambitious, headstrong Geyser. But if he could be open with her, she figured she could do the same for him.

"It was probably way more likely that it was a threat from those Mightyena, right? They wanted me to know they knew who I was."

She had kind of expected Geyser to gasp in shock or suggest swimming right back to the village to talk to Reed. Instead, he only stretched in the water.

"Does it even matter?" he asked her. "You've been a good leader for the Tribe."

"I do my best," Pearl stuttered, unsettled by the positive feedback. "But right now, we're being pretty poor hunters. Come on, the fish are jumping."

She plunged beneath the water, attempting to evade his compliments. Still, there was a warmth in her chest, a glow of happiness from his words. If Geyser could forgive her for taking leadership- and even compliment her on it- then that was one of her biggest worries at ease. She spiraled down, down, down into the depths of the lake, her home.

Yes, she remembered very well the time a fish had almost eaten her. It had been the first time she had been this deep underwater, where the water pressed around her and began to feel more solid and less liquid. Then, she had been afraid of the lake and what lurked within it. Now, it meant safety, food, shelter. Home.

Does it even matter?

Geyser had said that about the potentially misinterpreted threat. Pearl wondered if he even realized what those words meant to her.

Your fur is odd- Does it even matter?

When Pearl was younger, it had mattered to her a lot. She had felt so awkward and singled out and alone, even among Tribemates. Every noise from the Wildlands had terrified her, feeling so conspicuous in her pelt.

Now, though, she was starting to see things differently. What in the Wildlands could challenge her, with such reliable Tribemates at her back? What was one missed catch, when there were so many ready claws in hunting?

So, does it even matter? she asked herself.

The honest answer, Pearl thought, was no.