Another Day at Unity (20) (Patreon)

Hayden hadn't ever been the kid with lots of extra to share. Those children always had lots of friends, and a different position in the Sunyshore hierarchy. But the same thing that might've elevated her to that position also stole her away from her home, before she could ever have experience with it.

Mew Hayden would probably find some clever way to do it, searching the surface thoughts of the other children to find some that looked the most willing to trust and beginning there.

Pachirisu Hayden couldn't do that, so she could only follow her instincts. Not to the wildling, even if he was right in front of her. She had to make sure he wouldn't run away first.

Near the back of the group were the youngest kids, too filthy and poorly dressed to guess at their exact ages. Many of them looked too weak and frightened to try and swim, with furtive daemons watching every child around them with fear.

Can't start there either, or the big kids will just take it.

Instead, Hayden chose the oldest kids, the ones on the same side as their target. Someone had gotten a hold of a glass bottle of something foul, and the kids passed it back and forth between each other, each taking a sip and pretending to enjoy it.

Some were better actors than others.

Hayden's disguise worked well enough to get her past the little kids, and all the way over to the dock. But then someone finally looked at her long enough to realize she was a stranger, and one of the kids stood up, sauntering over to her.

He was probably one of the oldest, older than the kid by himself out on the water, older than Corrin.

His daemon was a large black bird, big enough to flutter over and land on a pylon nearby. But if she wanted to attack Liz, her resting place on Hayden's shoulder prevented that confrontation.

"Who are you then? I ain't seen your face before."

"You wouldn't," she said. "I'm Hayden. Tryin' to figure whose spot this is. Maybe be allowed to visit."

Ilene would probably chide her for that admission, too. It was not very stealthy to tell the people she was hiding from exactly who she was. But the firstborn had trained her for honesty, and the moment to lie was past before she even realized it was happening.

"Maybe," he repeated, rolling his eyes. "Our spot, obviously. Not sure how we never seen you before. Look like you grew up down in San Drago. Why should we?"

She dug into her pocket, then held out the fistful of change towards him. She dropped all of them into his outstretched hands, what would've been several weeks of spending money to her old self. No gold this time, and only a single silver coin amid all the zinc ones. "'Cause my hands are faster than yours, but I know how to give what ain't mine. Anyway, what's your name?"

He held the coins up to the light, prodding at them. He stuck one into his mouth and bit it, attracting attention from the other big kids. "Flint. Why come here, Hayden? Coins, and other things. You don't need no help."

One other emerged from the water—a girl, soaking wet. She wore damp cloth around her chest, though the rest of her clothes were folded nearby. Her floatzel slid up the ladder beside her, glaring down at Hayden from close enough to drip all over her.

"Look what scurried over. And she's got food, too. Hope that's to share, short stuff."

She nodded again, removing the backpack from her shoulders and setting it down on the dock in front of her. "I've been saving for a long time. I can share, but I want... somewhere warm to sleep. I hear there's somewhere close."

The two older kids shared a look. Several more had started crowding around her by then, attention focused on the backpack in front of her. Even the one out by himself on the dock was looking now.

Don't run off, don't run off, please don't run off...

"She wants to join!" someone else said, with a shuckle daemon peering out from its hard shell. "Some food, and she gets to come in whenever she wants?"

"Maybe you nicked that stuff from our pier anyway," Flint said. "Could be that's ours already. There's enough of us we could take it."

She shrugged, letting Liz hop down off her shoulder onto the ground beside her. The gesture was obvious—an invitation to fight.

"Maybe." She shrugged, pretending like she wasn't afraid. There were at least six kids around her right then, and even the smaller ones were making their way closer.

But the docks themselves worked to her advantage, as much as her choice of daemon. There were overwhelming numbers against her if they fought, but not enough space for them all to reach her.

"No point tryin' that when I came to share. You want a girl like me. Faster at climbing than anyone. Better swimmer too, probably. Except her." She nodded at the floatzel, moving a single step away. It wasn't the water that was the problem, it was quite a bit warmer than anything in Sunyshore. But that moisture wouldn't streak the dirt on her face and clothes, since she was perfectly clean underneath.

"Least she's smart enough not to swim against me," the girl scoffed, then took a dirty skirt from the dock at her feet and tugged it on. "Got more brains in her head than you, Flint."

He grunted, reaching for the backpack. "Enough brains not to fight over food we need more than her? Else she wouldn't bring it."

Liz hopped up next to it, cheeks sparking dangerously. Little bolts of energy struck into the dock around them, discharging harmlessly into the water.

That still had the desired reaction. Flint withdrew in shock, and his daemon actually took off, flapping energetically through the air overhead. With a flying-type daemon, he had obviously had plenty of painful experiences with electricity.

"It's all I got," she said, a little louder. "If I give it up without a promise, then I got no food and I'm still waking up soaked from the rain. I wanna trade."

Flint looked like he might swing at her, except that someone stopped him then.

Hayden hadn't seen the kid move, let alone the running start it would probably take to cross from that separate dock all the way here. His clothes were still dry, so he hadn't swum back.

"Don't touch her."

The boy was shorter than several other kids, and younger too. Closer to Hayden's mew age, just old enough for him to settle. Except that, just like the photograph, this kid had no obvious daemon. That might be why the other kids all gave him such deference, even those boys who were obviously larger and stronger than he was.

Hayden grinned up at him, without showing any of the fear or obedience that these other kids did. He wasn't her leader yet! "Hi. I'm Hayden. Who are you?"

"In charge," he said, marching right up to her. As he did, the other kids withdrew, whispering to each other in voices not quiet enough for Liz not to hear.

"Bet he throws her into the water." "

Maybe he drops her off the tower." 

"I hope she tries to fight." 

"Drake might kill her."

Without invitation, he reached for the backpack. Unlike with Flint, Hayden let go, letting Liz scamper back to her shoulder.

He poked and prodded around inside, so he could see each paper-wrapped bundle and see their contents.

Hayden waited patiently, eyes on the dock in front of her. But was this Drake closer to Corrin, or Lin?

"This is all brand new," he finally said, setting the bag down and staring at her. "Not a smudge. Did you steal it?"

As he asked, Hayden felt the familiar pressure against her mind, powerful enough that it momentarily stunned her. Yet that attention wasn't coming from the kid, but someone else, several rows back.

Hayden was barely tall enough to see her, but fortunately she was standing up on another pylon to get a better view—a wiry girl with the same red-brown hair as Drake, and bright gold eyes.

She wasn't very good at this—it took the daemon so much attention that she didn't notice Hayden look in her direction. Her human did, though.

"At me," Drake said. He touched her with one hand, turning her head towards his. He was quite strong, as she expected—but he didn't move too quickly or too hard. He wasn't trying to hurt her.

No, she thought, as loudly as though she were going to project it telepathically. Pachirisu lacked those powers of course, but the message got through anyway. The touch against her mind released.

"Why then?" he asked. "Story's bullshit, obviously. The hair's a nice touch, but..." He shook his head once. "If you really snatched that coin, you wouldn't put it all at risk by spending before you got permission. You'd know we could take it if we wanted."

"I did know," she muttered, squeezing one hand into a tiny fist. "I wasn't gonna keep it either way. Look at them." She gestured past the big kids, where the smallest, scrawniest children lingered in back. None got too close, where someone bigger than they were might send them tumbling over the dock. "They need this more than I do."

"She's here to help," said another voice—a young woman. She alone cut through the other kids, without apparent fear of Drake. Rather, she rested briefly against his shoulder.

Now that they were up close, Hayden saw their similarities far clearer than she could from across the bay. Twins, as identical as any could look while one was a girl and the other a boy. But they both had eyes in the same unified shade of amber, and the same red accents in their brown hair.

"Charity squirrel, talks like us but not. Looks like us, but smells like gracidea shampoo. Where'd she come from?"

The pressure was gone from Hayden's mind, but not the attention. This pokémon was still psychic, defiant of her apparently human guise. That was fine, though. Hayden didn't like lying much anyway.

"Sunyshore. Little fishing village in Sinnoh. Grew up stealing and fighting for my bread same as you."

"And you're here," Drake finished. "Long ride from Sinnoh. Lot of gold for the ticket, I bet."

"If you buy it, yeah. I didn't pay for no ticket." She stuck out her tongue, grinning proudly. "Now I'm here, and I don't wanna be here alone. Not always safe for a girl, if you didn't know."

The two shared a long look. Neither spoke, though the communication that passed between them was obvious. Maybe Liz could've slipped in to overhear their telepathy, but not as a squirrel on her shoulder.

A few seconds later, and the kid seemed to make up his mind. He gripped Hayden by both shoulders, squeezing hard. "What do you think, everyone? The trial?"

"The trial!" several yelled. Excitement passed over the crowd, even more energetic than the prospect of food. "Drop her! Drop her! Drop her!"

Drake's twin clipped the backpack closed, then tossed it in front of the floatzel girl. "Watch this, Rush. We'll be back." Then she vanished, right in the center of the crowd.

There were no screams, no terror—only more shouts of delight. The calls of "drop her!" had transformed almost into a song by then.

Hayden held still, fighting her racing heartbeat to keep the electricity in her cheeks. It wouldn't work well against a dragon anyway. Besides, she wasn't trying to escape.

He dragged her past the swimmers, until they reached a stretch of empty dock. The water rippled there, shimmering strangely in reflected sunshine. "Not gonna try and run, are you?" he asked. "Won't work if you do."

She shook her head once. "I only ran away twice in my whole life. Both times, they caught me, so I don't do that anymore."

He released her arm, then removed something from behind him—a cloth, flat and wide enough to picnic on if he wanted. He draped it out over the air, onto… nothing? Then he moved over the dock. His legs settled around the same shape as the cloth. Finally, he held out his arm. "Ditch the shoes too. Can't see 'em, but I hear when you walk. They musta got wet, and they're squeaking now. Aurora doesn't like getting kicked."

Hayden nodded nervously, then lifted one foot into the air. She could not see the shoes of course, but if she pressed her hand down against where they should be, then squeezed, the simple flats would come off.

She set them down beside each other on the dock, then reached for him. Drake settled her onto the pokémon in front of him, careful to keep her on the little cloth the entire time.

"Are you gonna drop me?" she asked, fearless.

He wrapped both arms around her from the back, careful to avoid the squirrel poking out of her dress as he did so. Before she could ask why, a wave of wind struck into her, and she jerked sharply upward, ascending through the air, and leaving Alto Mare behind.