Being a Guardian was difficult, annoying, boring, and sometimes downright terrifying. It was also rewarding. All the experience helped me to grow. Though it slowed my growth in certain areas, it was beneficial overall.

This was my fifth year as a Guardian.

It was also the year I decided to train my replacement. I had a mostly enjoyable life in the valley, but this place was meant for the young to peacefully grow in strength until they set out into the world. Very few stayed for more than a few years. While those who left were still sometimes weaker in strength than those who’d grown up outside, they were generally more mature.

Generally…

“WHEEEEE!!!!” SPLASH!

A wave of water rose up as something came hurling down into the pond at high speeds. The source? A young human child with bright pink hair enjoying her life.

I may have turned the area below the waterfall into a bit of a water park… There were a bunch of slides coming down from the cliff where I’d carved and molded steps to allow many to enjoy the thrill of high speeds in safety.

While I could always train, life was very simple in the valley, and thus boring. So I’d attempted to liven it up some. Most of the locals loved the place. Only a few grumps didn’t.

I’d made a bunch of stuff through the years, jungle gyms, swing sets, play equipment of all sorts. They were scattered around the valley to allow the inhabitants things to do and have fun with.

So that brings us to the seeming incongruity of the situation, why was there a human in a valley of nothing but pokémon? Because I’d figured out the skills to do what I’d wanted. I could turn myself into nearly whatever I wanted. It wasn’t perfect, but it was still amazing. It had taken me three years to be able to take human form, and another to get it to the level of perfection needed to protect me from being captured by pokéballs.

As a human, I looked close to my age, which is to say around five years old. I was a petite little girl maybe forty inches tall. It was on the low side for the age, but it was what seemed right. My hair was a bright pink, the same hue as my fur in my natural form. Had this been Earth, people would think I’d dyed my hair, but it wasn’t a problem in this world. All sorts of colors were normal here that weren’t on Earth… or so the Pokémon games and anime told me.

I wouldn’t stand out… right?

ANYWAYS!

Yes, I was acting my physical age today. I was relaxing, since it was my day off and tomorrow was the Spring Selection Tournament. As I intended this to be my final year, I was planning on choosing a successor and training them to take my place among the Guardians. If nothing goes wrong, I was going to leave the valley come fall.

Yeah, I know I might have raised a flag there, but if so, I was going to destroy the flag with all my power! And I had gotten pretty powerful. While I wasn’t the oldest Guardian, I was definitely the strongest! I had reached the point of being able to take on anyone solo, and could win against two or three more often than not.

I swam to the shore and raced back to the staircase heading up to the slides. Other pokémon doing so as well. I was really glad that they had gotten used to me using this form. The first time I showed it I’d scared away a lot of pokémon. They’d thought a human had somehow gotten into the heart of the valley without notice. Now most were used to it, though it sometimes scared a newborn or those who were just naturally jumpy.

When I reached the top I had to stop and wait my turn before going down the slide again. I might be the creator, but I’m not gonna cut in front of a bunch of younglings.

Sadly my fun was cut short as one of last year’s batch of Guardians came to pass on a request for my presence by the Elder Guardian. The title didn’t mean they were necessarily the oldest, just that they were the wisest of our group so they were generally the one in charge.

Right now our leader was a machoke. From his looks you’d think he was a musclehead, but while he really liked working out and fighting, he was actually quite cunning. He was the one I’d defeated during the tournament had become a Guardian the year after me.

He wouldn’t have called unless it was important, so with a sigh, I dried myself off before turning back into a mew. I could fly as a human, but it cost more PP than I felt like wasting right now. I was down to half my current max, and I wanted some in case of an emergency.

Throwing my swim suit in the item box I’d succeeded in creating almost by accident a couple years ago, then headed off to where the Elder was hanging out. He liked to keep watch over the elite training field.

I found him giving some instruction to a couple of the stronger members of the elites, fighters that I thought would likely be inducted into our group officially tomorrow.

Waiting for him to finish, I took a seat on a bench off to the side of the field. The place was quite busy with those getting some last minute training in, though they were being careful not to overexert themselves. I’d given some extra training, aka punishment, to those who’d done so and given a poor showing after I’d become a Guardian. They learned to be more careful.

A sinister smile came to my face at the thought, causing those who saw it to have chills.

“Rynn, quit scaring them. We need to talk about tomorrow.”

I was pulled out of my thoughts as the machoke took a seat next to me.

“Sorry, just wondering how many would need to go through my ‘special training program’ for hurting themselves right before the tournament. You know they do better now that they’re actually in the best condition come selection day.”

“That’s true. The threat of having to do your course has quite the impact. Now, I want to confirm one last time. Are you sure you want to leave the valley this year?”

“Yeah. I’ve been putting it off until I met some goals and I did so last year. Most of us leave the valley about this age, so its not like I’m rushing things.”

“Well, if you’re sure… We’ll miss you. You’ve made quite some changes to this place. Nobody can replace you. Or do the things you can.”

“Hey, I tried to teach some of you how to do it. Not my fault you couldn’t learn it.”

The god-orb had hinted that it should be possible for the beings of this world to play with power outside of the moves and basic psychic powers they had. Unfortunately none of the pokémon I’d tried to teach could learn to do so. Maybe I’d have better luck with humans, though since I looked like a young child, I don’t know if they’d listen to me until I grew up.

He sighed, rubbing his brow. He did that when he was frustrated. It happened a lot when I was around. I might be serious when I was working on something, but he thought of me as a mischievous imp more often than not.

We sat in silence for a while watching the fighters before I spoke again.

“Anyone I should keep my eye on during the tournament? I’ve been playing guide to the newborns most of the past few weeks.”

“Yeah, there’s a few.”

He pointed out a few and gave me some info about them. I observed them for a while, seeing that they were good fighters. I wanted more than just that. Anyone could fight and get strong. What I wanted were the smart fighters. Those who flexed their grey matter, not just their muscles.

Looking for pokémon like that was what had improved the Guardians since I offered up the suggestion of not focusing only on pure strength. It was why I’d pushed for the guy next to me to be inducted although he got eliminated halfway through the tournament that year. He’d had some bad match ups, but he’d fought smart and planned and came really close to winning against those with far greater strength.

None of them were quite what I was looking for, but I had a fallback plan in case no one met the criteria I had in mind.

I observed the fighters, nodding when they made wise moves, and shaking my head when they did something foolish. Most left the field after getting in a good workout and no more. Some however had unknowingly volunteered themselves into my care by continuing till they were near collapse before shuffling out of the area.

As the sun neared the horizon, I flitted back through the trees to my home. It had grown over the years, taking up quite a lot of room, with different parts designed with the comfort of different species in mind. The storage area had been moved and expanded and was now watched over and managed by a different Guardian and their uninitiated followers. I passed on the responsibility since I had enough of dealing with it. Waaay too many complainers and beggars.

My personal area had expanded to three rooms. My bedroom hadn’t changed, though it was now furnished and had an actual bed instead of a stump or web hammock. The room that used to be for storage was now my workshop. I used it to make anything I might need, like clothes and tools.

I’d gotten good at producing thread and had been able to weave it into cloth that I could use to make whatever I needed. I could also change it so it had a few different properties. Such as cloth that didn’t become transparent when wet. I’d used that for my swim suit. That had been a HUGE pain to make.

At least I wouldn’t have to go into human society naked. Though the clothes I intended to wear for contact looked to be in horrible condition. If I was going to play Mowgli, so I couldn’t go in my nice looking stuff or they might get suspicious.

I was worried though. I’d be going to a society where I couldn’t understand the language. Maybe I could learn it that way? Though it felt kind of dirty to consider doing so, I might have to…

My third room was one I’d added to the front of my house. It was the width of the other two rooms, but about the same depth. It was a living room/kitchen area. I could eat most of the available food raw, but it tasted better when cooked, so I did so when I wasn’t feeling lazy. Occasionally I’d invite guests over and offer them some food. A few of the other humanoid pokémon had taken up cooking after trying mine, machoke among them.

The rest of the room had various types of seating. Chairs, stools, couches, benches and stands littered the area or were pushed up against the wall. We’d had plenty of Guardian meetings here since it was nice and comfortable, especially during the winter.

In a few more months, I’d be leaving this place, likely for good. I had some dinner, then went off to bed.

----

The next morning I awoke bright and early. After a simple breakfast of some nice fresh berries, I headed off to the main field to prepare for the event that was to come.

Fortunately, I had a few years of doing so, and it wasn’t really that complicated.

The prospective fighters lined up and came before us. If we thought they were ready to fight, they went to the waiting area, otherwise they were shooed away and told to prepare more. Some of the ones we turned away argued, but they were blown away by us. We didn’t want them to end up dead for not being able to handle someone’s attacks. Today was a day for excitement, not tragedy.

Once it seemed like everyone who was ready to fight had gathered, or been collected in the case of a few who were ready but didn’t want to fight, the tournament began.

I hovered over the sidelines, keeping an eye on the ones I thought had promise. Some of them did well, others got crossed off of my mental list.

One in particular caught my eye. They weren’t one of the elites, so I didn’t know much about them beyond their species and what I could see of their fighting style. It wasn’t very strong, but it was winning most of its fights through reading its opponent’s moves, dodging, and counterattacking.

The ones that it wasn’t able to read very well were those species that were mostly reclusive. It was knocked out of the running by these in both brackets. It had gotten better quickly, but it wasn’t enough to take the victory.

Very interesting… I’d have to keep my eye on that one. I don’t think they were ready right now, but I’d pull it into the elite training.

As the day wore on the number of remaining contestants shrank until the final match was between a pikachu and a teddiursa. Both were more powerful than their appearances indicated, but the bear was outmatched in speed and ended up coming in second place.

With the tournament over, the victor and those whose showing caught the attention of one or more Guardian were gathered. I was not the only one with my eyes on the little riolu, as the Elder summoned him before I could. I glared at him, which he ignored.

Sighing I looked over the gathered pokémon. None of them were quite what I wanted, but I needed to choose one to personally guide before I left. Well, technically I didn’t, but it was tradition. Plus we all pitched in when there was a new member even if they had a specific teacher.

“Pikachu, I choose you!”

I couldn’t resist saying the iconic words. She had a good showing, using her agility to avoid attacks while dealing her own.

The winner of the tournament joined me while the others participants were talked to by various members of our group. Most of them were just being chosen to be join the elite training grounds, but it looks like a couple of the others were taking them as students, even if not inducting them.

Machoke was doing so with the riolu. Hmm, that might make my decision easier.

After congratulating everyone, we headed home or to our posts. I bade the pikachu follow me. It was time to get to know the little gal who’d be my direct student for the next few months.