Ross Goes Shopping Part 2

I could feel my heart leaping into my throat as I instinctively felt where my pants would be. On an average day, I'd reach into my pocket, get my wallet out, swipe my card and be on my way. Unfortunately, anything resembling an "average day" for me was well behind me.

The Kecleon looked at me expectantly, holding out its hand. I glanced down, then back up at the Kecleon as our eyes met. I froze. This was mortifying! I get the whole "turned into a weird paint dog from a game I never played" thing is a lot for a guy to take on, but how could I have been so STUPID as to forget society's most basic rule: Money can be exchanged for goods and services.

Whatever, I'll just tell the truth, I'm sure it's no big deal. I can head back to the guildhall and see if there's funds I can use there or something.

"I, uhh... I don't have any money." I admitted sheepishly, looking away from the Kecleon and clutching my arm nervously.

As I glanced back over to Kecleon, I could see the cheery customer service grin it held slowly shift to a confused look, and then a grimace of complete distain. Before long, the Kecleon's face had lost any semblance of benevolence, completely contorted into a furious frown.

"You... you don't have any MONEY? YOU COME TO MY STORE, PERUSE MY FINE, FRESH WARES, AND THINK YOU CAN JUST HELP YOURSELF TO ANYTHING YOU LIKE FOR FREE?" The Kecleon screamed, triggering a primal dread from deep within me.

"I-I can explain!" I tried to yell out, but all I could muster was a pathetic whimper as the Kecleon continued its verbal barrage, leaving me no means to try defend myself. I could feel my chest getting tighter and tighter as my mind spun into overdrive, my breaths becoming shallow and catching themselves in my throat.

"THIEF! THIEF! SOMEONE STOP HIM! THIEF" The Kecleon bellowed, causing everyone nearby to turn and look, wondering what all the commotion was.

I began to hyperventilate. This was going to be the end of me, wasn't it? My vision was starting to go hazy, and all I could make out was the furious lizard in front of me, who continued to scream and posture in front of me. I could tell the Kecleon was still shouting, but nothing would register in my brain. I was too distracted by my impending doom. I'd be branded a thief, sent to jail where I'd rot for the rest of my life. Does this world even have a jail? Would I be executed?

As I continued to spiral, a voice called out, snapping me back to reality. I looked over to where the voice had come from, only to see what looked like a cat running toward me. I'd say it was a normal cat, but its fur was a blue-gray tone, and it had what looked like a piece of gold embedded in its forehead.

This was it, wasn't it? I was a dirty, no good criminal now, and this cat was here to enact justice and save the day.

The cat leaped toward me, and instinctively I flinched and closed my eyes, tensing up and bracing for the worst. I felt the weight of the cat shift onto me, and felt it grab onto me, wrapping its arms around my back.

I'd expected the sweet embrace of the void to claim me in that moment, but fate deigned to deal me a different outcome.

"You'll be fine, just play along." The cat whispered into my ear, before leaping back off of me. Extremely confused, I opened my eyes to find the cat standing in front of me, looking me over as if to check if I was unharmed.

"There you are, Smeargle, I've been looking all over for you! I know you were excited to go out shopping, but you really should wait until I'm ready to go with you!" The cat scolded me, its voice sounding completely different to when it had whispered to me a moment ago. I stared at the cat blankly, completely dumbfounded by the scenario that was playing out in front of me.

"You know this THIEF?" The Kecleon snapped at the cat, who turned around to face the Kecleon, and without missing a beat started to talk the Kecleon down. I got the impression that the cat was used to dealing with this sort of thing, and then it dawned on me. It wanted me to play along.

"I can only apologize for my friend's behavior here, Kecleon, I should've been paying more attention when I told him we could go shopping earlier .I was getting ready to go with him, but before I knew it he'd already run off!" The cat begun to explain, before leaning in close to the Kecleon and whispering softly, but just loud enough for me to hear. "We found him in the forests outside the town yesterday, doesn't remember a thing, poor fella."

The cat shot me a glance as he whispered, as if urging me to say something. I was never good at acting, but at this point what else did I have to lose?

I looked at the cat, then the Kecleon again, before steeling myself and trying to make myself look as friendly and unassuming as possible. I'm not sure exactly what I did, but whatever it was, it worked. Both the cat's and Kecleon's eyes went wide, their faces absolutely brimming with an expression I could only describe as sympathetic. Like the sort of look you'd have if you just watched a kid drop their ice cream on the floor, start crying, get another one and then dropped the second one.

The tense atmosphere that had filled the shop previously had completely dissipated, leaving only an eerie stillness. The cat and Kecleon looked back at each other, almost commiserating with each other over how bad they felt for me.

"...huh, he's got it that bad?", asked the Kecleon, to which the cat responded, "Yeah, it's a miracle he even remembers how to talk. You know how it is, right?"

"Yeah, a few of my cousins've told me some stories like this. Hearin' them always made my scales turn yellow." The Kecleon muttered, a shiver running down its back as it recalled the experiences its' cousins had warned them of.

"Anyway," the cat continued, retrieving a small brown sack from somewhere. "My friend here, in his excitement to go shopping, forgot to take his pocket money with him. I've got it right here though. I assume all this talk of thieves and whatnot is because he couldn't pay, right? This should be enough to cover everything right here." the cat continued, placing the sack right in Kecleon's hands.

"We'll be on our way now. Thanks again. Let's go, Smeargle!" the cat said, grabbing the groceries in one hand and my hand in the other and leading me back away from the store. As we left, I could hear the Kecleon saying, "Thank you! And uh, sorry!"

After a short while of leading me by the hand, the cat looked around, before dropping my hand and sighing in relief. "Alright, coast's clear. This is where you say "Thank you Kaiji!"".

I was still processing everything that had just happened, so it took me a second to respond. "Huh? Oh, uhh, thanks." I muttered. There was one thing still bugging me though. Why'd this stranger help me? "...why'd you help me back there, anyway?" I asked hesitantly. I wasn't aiming on trying to bite the hand that fed me, but I needed to know.

Kaiji seemed unfazed by the question I asked, continuing to saunter ahead of me as we walked back toward the guild. "That's more like it. You're welcome. And as for the why? Let's just say our types need to stick together." he said, jaunting ahead of me with his arms behind his head.

Kaiji's answer shocked me, and I stopped still. "Huh? You're a human too?" I asked. I knew that there were other humans in the Clover Guild, but it still caught me off guard hearing a Pokemon call itself a human.

"Yes, but keep it down with the H-word will ya? Never know who's listening around here." Kaiji exclaimed, running over and putting a finger over my mouth. "Geez, how new are you?" he joked. The smile creeping on his face put me at ease.

"S-sorry, I'm still getting used to everything here." It'd only been a few days, but everything was still so foreign to me. I didn't even know WHAT Kaiji was supposed to be.

"I uh, don't mean to be rude exactly, but what are you supposed to be anyway? I'm not too familiar with pokemon." I asked, feeling slightly stupid for having to ask.

"Meowth, that's right!" Kaiji quipped, without skipping a beat. I think he made a joke there, but I didn't get it.

Something dawned on me. "Wait, hold on. How'd you even know where I'd be?". I didn't feel any ill will from Kaiji at this point, but he'd just saved me from complete disaster, and it felt a bit too good to be true.

"Oh, Beast told me. Well, mostly told me. He leaves the money out for groceries, and when he said he sent one of the new guys out and the money was still there, I just put two and two together." Kaiji smirked. He was more cunning than I'd given him credit for.

"Okay, but that still doesn't explain HOW you found me so quickly." I retorted.

"I just followed the trail!" Kaiji quipped back, a smug grin completely filling his face as he glanced down and winked.

"What?" I asked, before looking down and realising what he was getting at. The god-damned tail. I'd left a neon green path trailing behind me the entire way there and back.

I buried my head in my hands and screamed, which elicited a chuckle from Kaiji.

"Smeargle, huh? What's that like then? Sketch anything fun?" Kaiji asked. If that question had come from anyone else, I'd probably have shrugged it off. But hearing that from Kaiji, there was a hint of genuine interest in there. If that interest was well placed or not I couldn't say, but it was there. And it helped me open up, if only a little.

"Nah, I can't draw for shit." I replied bluntly.

The curtness of my response sent Kaiji into a laughing fit, and after a few seconds he recovered, wiping a tear from his eye. "Oh, that's rich. A Smeargle that can't draw!"

"I'm serious!" I huffed in indignation.

Kaiji laughed again, before composing himself. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. I'm only messing with ya. But really though, you can't draw? Have you tried?" he asked, that same hint of genuine interest creeping in.

"Not since I was a kid. I'm telling you though, I can't draw." I stated matter of factly. It's a... sore subject for me.

"Yeah, but have you tried drawing recently? Something might've changed..." Kaiji teased. His goading was getting to me, and I could tell that he knew it was working. That same smug grin crept back up onto his face.

I took a second to exhale, then said, "I can tell what you're trying to do here. If I draw you something right now will you drop it?"

"Sure thing! Draw me like one of your Kalosian girls!" Kaiji quipped, pulling a goofy pose.

"Kalosi... huh? Whatever." I said, rolling my eyes and grabbing my tail. I looked around for something to draw on, the only thing nearby being the side of a building.

"I'm not gonna get in trouble for this, am I?" I asked. I had no idea if Capim Town had laws against graffiti.

"Eh, probably not?" Kaiji replied, the confidence in his voice despite his unclear answer doing little to put me at ease.

I sighed, and then approached the wall. I tried to picture Kaiji, and how I could translate that to art. It took me a while to get a usable grip on my tail, but after a while I got into a rhythm, and the strokes kept coming and coming.

I'm not sure how long passed, maybe ten or twenty minutes, but after some time I'd created... something.

"That's certainly... unique. I'll tell you something for free though, I bet you feel really good after painting that." Kaiji announced confidently.

"I..." I started to say, but paused. He was right. I'd zoned out while I was painting, and now that I was finished, a sense of pride and contentment had washed over me, completely blotting out the feelings of anxiety and confusion that had plagued my time as a Smeargle.

"Like I said before, something's changed. You might not consider yourself an artist, but your body is. Give it a chance to do its thing now and again and you'll feel a lot better." Kaiji explained, before extending a hand out to me. "What's your name, anyway?" he asked.

I took his hand and shook it. "I'm Ross."

"Well then Ross, we gotta hurry and get back to the guild building. It's almost dinner time!" Kaiji yelled, before quickly dropping my hand again and sprinting off toward the guild.

Before I knew what I was doing, I'd started sprinting along after him, enjoying the feeling of the wind rushing past me. I was feeling something I'd not felt in a long time, a feeling I'd missed so dearly.

I was having fun.