I woke up to see sunlight shining outside. Puddle stood by the beach, looking happy for the first time since Bayleef had disappeared three days ago. I hoped he would finally agree to doing a job.

"Hey, Puddle!" I called out, walking up to him. "Are you up for a job today?"

Puddle smiled, but I thought I could see him hiding a wince. "Y-yeah, Skye!"

Suddenly curious, I asked him, "By the way, why does everyone call you Puddle?"

This time, Puddle couldn't manage to hide his wince. "Well, you see, most totodiles are two feet tall, right? Well, I'm only one foot seven. And… I have a big brother. Big in the sense that he's five inches taller than the average feraligatr. His name is Feraligatr, and he operates some stupid rescue team: Team Ace. Of course, everyone thinks he's soooo amazing. Ugh." With a jolt, I realized that the pokemon Puddle was talking about was the same feraligatr I had seen several days ago. Puddle took a deep breath before continuing. "Puddle was just something Noctowl took to calling me a few years back, and it caught on. If stupid Feraligatr was the ocean, I would just be a little puddle."

I gasped, thinking about how hard it would've been to be nicknamed after the things I lacked. "That's awful! Why does everyone agree to calling you that?"

Puddle shrugged. "Nobody ever asked for my opinion. They just went along with it, thinking I didn't mind. I don't mind, really."

I could tell that he was lying. "But you do mind."

Puddle looked down, and for several moments I wasn't sure if he would respond. "Yes, I do mind," he whispered.

"Totodile, I swear I will never call you Puddle again," I promised. Totodile looked into my eyes and smiled.

"Awww, so cute! You and your girlfriend have a wittle wescue team?"

Totodile and I spun around to see Noctowl and his two cronies sitting on a ledge above our cave.

"Skye isn't my girlfriend, and I don't see YOU walking around with a rescue team!" Totodile squeaked.

"Mhm. Sure, she definitely isn't your girlfriend. Nice job sending your brother's team to get your money back, by the way." Noctowl sneered.

"Oh, and by the way, we just became a rescue team," Steelix grunted. "We're Team Typhoon!"

Totodile stepped back, his eyes widening. "But...when we were young-"

"When we were young, you were still as pathetic as you are now. If anything, you've gotten worse," Noctowl hooted. Steelix and Ariados exchanged a confused look. Ignoring Totodile's glare, Noctowl spoke again. "But I'm not here about you. I'm here about your girlfriend." Shoving Totodile aside, Noctowl, Steelix, and Ariados circled around the rock that I had pressed against, petrified, when Noctowl had first shown up. I stared daggers at them, hoping they would go away, but they did not.

"W-well? What do you want?" I hissed, trying and failing to sound brave.

"Where do you come from? Why are you really here?" Noctowl shoved his head so close to my face that I could smell his breath.

"I don't really remember anything, except that I was a human…" I trailed off, seeing the scorn in Noctowl's eyes.

"That's what they all say. Find a more convincing lie! Don't you realize that the time for humans in this world is over? The last time one was here, they literally defeated the darkness in our hearts. How can anything bad happen now?" Noctowl snapped. I shrank back against the rock. Was I going to have to fight something scary, too? How would I survive?

Noctowl's eyes narrowed. "You know what I think? I think you're a spy for Ho-oh! I think you're going to betray us all, fire-type!"

"She's not a spy, you IDIOT! Now GO AWAY!" Totodile screamed.

Noctowl rolled his eyes. "Fine." Shooting a glare at me, he added, "But you bet I'm going to uncover your treachery, spy!"

All of a sudden, I heard footsteps, and I saw a smug looking clamperl, a torchic, and a pichu that was holding a stack of cookies.

"Yoo hoo! Noctowl! Don't tell me you're bothering with a loser team! We are your true rivals, right?" the torchic exclaimed.

Noctowl sighed. "Of course you are, Torchic. These are just some stupid heads who think they're better than us."

"Wait, what's going on? Why haven't I seen you three before? Who are you? I'm confused," Totodile wondered.

"Of course you are," Ariados huffed.

Torchic narrowed her eyes at Totodile. "We're Clamperl, Torchic, and Pichu: Team Light from Pokemon Village. We are rivals with Team Typhoon over there."

"Want a cookie?" Pichu offered, holding out a chocolate chip cookie to me. I saw no harm in a little cookie, so I took it and popped it into my mouth. It was bland and chewy, but I managed to swallow it down.

For a minute Team Typhoon and Team Team Light just stared at each other, then Noctowl slowly flew off into the distance, Ariados and Steelix following him. Torchic gave me one final glare, then walked away with Clamperl. Pichu handed Totodile three cookies before running after the rest of his team.

I watched them go for a few moments before turning to Totodile. There had been something weird that Totodile said...something about when he and Noctowl were young. Then, something horrible occurred to me: I hadn't ever heard about Totodile's parents!

"Totodile, do your parents live somewhere around here?" I asked tentatively.

"No." Totodile whispered. Seeing my pitying expression, he added, "They're still alive!"

I gave him a look. "What happened?"

"My brother and I lived with our parents on Dusk Island, an island about a mile from here. It's a mystery dungeon now, but it wasn't back then. Noctowl and his parents lived there too, when Noctowl was just Hoothoot. He was nice back then. I played with him and Feraligatr - he was Croconaw back then. We pretended we were a rescue team called Team Typhoon. We were all so happy, and then everything went wrong," Totodile stifled a sob. "There was this huge storm, and the whole island became a mystery dungeon. My parents, and Hoothoot's parents...they went hostile. They attacked me, and I ran into a cave. I was so scared!" Totodile trembled, a tear slipping down his cheek. "I would've died or gone hostile if it hadn't been for Croconaw and Hoothoot. They ran with me to the edge of the island, and we tried to swim away. I was too little to swim very far, so Hoothoot carried me while he flew. It all went smoothly until Croconaw got here before us. Hoothoot tried to catch up, but he hit a rock and broke a wing. The two of us plummeted into the water, but Lugia found us and saved us. I owe my life to him. But...after I came here, Hoothoot changed. He's never been the same." Puddle broke into tears. I imagined what it would have been like to lose my parents. Then I realized that I'd already lost them.

"I still don't remember my parents," I whispered, holding Totodile tight. A single tear welled in my eye, then another. Before long, the two of us were weeping for the parents we had lost.

We never did take a job that day.