“Muuunch! Munch.”

  “MunchMunchMunch.”

  “Muuuunch! Munch.”

  “MunchMunchMunch.”

  “MUUUUNCH!”

  “MunchMunch, you’ve been singing for four hours. Straight,” Shadow deadpanned.

  MunchMunch giggled, sticking out his arms and spinning in a circle.

  “Isn’t it great! The sky is so pretty, and I’m getting to travel with my Shaaaadoow! And we are going to find the Raaaaangers~”

  MunchMunch gasped and stopped. Except the world kept spinning. He teetered, then fell on his back.

  “Mama!” he giggled, “the sky is spinning!”

  “That’s because you spun in too many circles,” Shadow exhaled, trying to keep from smiling.

  “Oh!”

  MunchMunch sat up. The world was still spinning a little, so he ate some of his Leftovers to settle his stomach.

  His tummy rumbled happily.

  “You said our Teddy and Happy are ok, and we just need to help find them, right?” he chirped, standing up and adjusting his backpack.

  Shadow nodded.

  “We are gonna help our Teddy!” MunchMunch shouted, resuming his march.

  “MunchMunch,” Shadow called, but he didn’t hear her over his singing. She tried again, louder.

  “Yes, Mama?” he asked, turning and looking at her.

  She sighed, but still smiled.

  “Just Shadow, and you are going the wrong way.”

  “Thanks!” he shouted, marching the other way.

  “MunchMunch… it’s this way,” Shadow cackled, finally unable to keep a straight face.

  “I got Mama Shadow to laugh!” MunchMunch enthused, adjusting his backpack and skipping down the path.

  Shadow paused in thought, then drifted after him. The little gremlin had tricked her into smiling.

  Hmph.

  MunchMunch straightened his backpack.

  “Hey Shadow, remember what you promised me when I first hatched?” He tried kicking a rock like he had seen his Teddy do, but he just ended up smooshing it into the ground instead. He laughed and stepped on a few more rocks.

  “Mmhmm, you were so tiny,” Shadow smiled fondly.

  MunchMunch smiled too, enjoying the sun filtering through the trees. “You promised I would get to eat lots of new things and have a great adventure! You were the first one to keep me safe — I’m super glad you are with me now. We can see new things together, on our way to help Teddy!”

  Shadow squinted her eyes. “When did you start growing up?”

  “My tummy is always growing,” MunchMunch giggled. “One day, I’ll be so big, I can protect everyone!”

  ”And Mama?” he said, turning to look at her. “Thanks for letting me come with you and our Teddy.”

  Gastly huffed and blew a leaf that was falling, not as shocked as she would have once been when she was able to affect it.

  “I want to get stronger! That way, we can eat everything we want,” MunchMunch enthused, clenching his hand-paws.

  Gastly cackled softly. “MunchMunch, I’m glad I get to be with you, too. And you are growing strong — we both are. I don’t know how, considering we haven’t fought much. But we are.”

  MunchMunch nodded. “I hope we get to battle a whole bunch soon. I miss battling.”

  Gastly blinked pensively, taking a moment to rest in MunchMunch’s shadow.

  “I think our Trainer knows what he is doing. I also think we are going to have a lot of battles ahead of us,” she said pensively, her thoughts turning to Lord Celebi and further back to Team Rocket.

  “Lots.”

  “And we will fight them together, and make our Teddy super proud!” MunchMunch shouted, chasing a butterfly.

  He giggled when it landed on his nose.

  “This isn’t a Pokémon, right Mama?” he whispered.

  “Nope, just a butterfly,” she assured him, drifting out of his shadow to study the little creature as well.

  It fluttered up and landed on his forehead, before flying away.

  “Shadow! It kissed me!”

  “That’s because you are pretty special, MunchMunch,” she smiled.

  “I am?”

  “Yep.”

  “And the best part is, you don’t even know it,” she finished under her breath, watching him jump in a puddle that had yet to dry from the storm.

  ____

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  The day continued much the same, with Gastly flitting silently between shadows and Munchlax singing while plowing straight through everything.

  “Shadow, do you think one day I will be able to walk through the trees as well?” he asked, rolling through a small bush. He rolled because he discovered if he walked, the branches might scratch his face.

  “First, you could go around the bushes, MunchMunch,” Shadow exhaled in exasperation. “Second, I don’t think trees are supposed to be walked through.”

  MunchMunch paused as if confused. “But… it’s more fun to roll through the bushes?” he replied, scratching his tummy. Then he looked up at a big tree, almost as wide around as he was.

  “And… don’t you go through trees, Mama?”

  “Shadow, MunchMunch, just Shadow — and I don’t go through them, I travel through their shadows.”

  “Oh, like when you ride in my shadow?”

  “Very good,” she replied. “Yes, like that — except trees have shadows that are… cooler? Plus they give me more room to stretch.”

  MunchMunch nodded, stepping on a shadow. Maybe if he tried hard enough, he could do it, too? It didn’t work, probably because shadows didn’t love him like food! When he thought hard about food, it always came to him!

  “That sounds fun, but I like food!” he exclaimed, skipping forward and through more bushes.

  Shadow paused and blinked, but MunchMunch trundled along, singing a new song about how he was named after food and Shadow was named after her favorite thing. Bemused, she shrugged and dove into a shadow to follow.

  She couldn’t help but think how much better her shrug would look once she was a Haunter.

  A crash echoed ahead, breaking the calm of the fledgling forest.

  “MunchMunch, wait here,” Shadow whispered, phasing from the warmth of his shadow to the coolness of the forest.

  It wouldn’t do if they ran into a wild Pokémon battle. They had yet to find the actual trail, which caused her concern. Away from the trail, territories were claimed and not all Pokémon were forgiving.

  Or worse, they could run into other trainers. Neither she nor MunchMunch had their Poké Balls. To a trainer, that meant fair game. Sure, MunchMunch had a backpack (although he had sadly lost his hat, which she had liked) and her gases were obviously smoother and fuller than a wild Gastly, but… not all trainers were honest like their Teddy.

  The trees opened up to reveal a clearing in which two trainers were battling.

  Battling felt like an understatement.

  It was more like a war zone.

  Trees were uprooted, replanted top down in the ground. Boulders were cracked, and in some places ground to dust entirely.

  The field looked more like a Sandshrew playground than anything fit to be walked on.

  Shadow narrowed her eyes. She recognized the uniform on one of them, his hat bearing the same symbol as Proton’s vest.

  In front of the Rocket stood battle-hardened Hypno, its right eye forever closed by one of the many scars that crossed its body. On the other side of the field stood an old lady, whom Shadow thought looked almost as old as she was.

  Ok, not really, but she was obviously ancient by mortal standards, her back bent as she leaned heavily on her cane.

  Before her floated a Mismagius.

  Shadow’s eyes widened. She had never seen a Mismagius before. She was… she was breathtaking, floating in a ghostly elegance Shadow had never imagined possible.

  The Hypno waved its pendulum and the air suddenly felt like it was crushing her.

  She flinched —if she could barely move now, what would happen if that were directed at her?

  Ancients, the Hypno didn’t even know she was there.

  MunchMunch and I need to go, she shivered, inching towards the nearest shadow. The thought of MunchMunch innocently stumbling into this made her gasses freeze over.

  Then the Mismagius raised an arm and covered her mouth, tittering softly, the quiet laugh more ominous than her own cackle.

  Shadow would have to make note.

  The Mismagius’ eyes glowed, and a Shadow Ball materialized, drinking in the light above her head. With a flick of her arm, she sent it careening toward the Hypno.

  “Hyp. Nooooo~” it intoned, vanishing and re-appearing a few feet away.

  Not drifting through shadows.

  Not moving quickly.

  No, this was true Teleportation.

  Good Heavens! I need to get back to MunchMunch, now!

  The Shadow Ball smashed into the ground sending debris whistling across the field, leaving a crater behind. The Hypno responded by ripping a tree out of the ground with its mind and hurtling it.

  Not at the Mismagius.

  At her trainer.

  Gastly’s eyes dilated. That… that was forbidden — yet neither the Rocket nor the Old Lady flinched.

  Mismagius slapped the tree out of the air with a Sucker Punch, sending it spiraling until it planted itself, top-down.

  Gastly paled. The many uprooted trees taking on an entirely new meaning.

  How did they have the energy for this much power? The moves came faster than she had ever thought possible.

  Gastly swallowed.

  No, it wouldn’t be bad if she and MunchMunch were found.

  It would be catastrophic.

  Worse still, their Trainer was out here with these two on the loose. What if there were more Rockets?

  He didn’t have anyone to protect him, and the fairy hardly counted.

  Gastly gasped and plunged into a shadow, the pressure finally releasing her.

  Let them battle. Let them destroy each other.

  Shadow cared not as she fled through the darkness.

  She had her Team to worry about.

  ____

  Mismagius snorted as she hurtled another Shadow Ball at the irritatingly resilient Hypno.

  Resilient, because it wouldn’t sit still for her to pulverize.

  Irritating because she wanted to follow that little Gastly that was peeping on their battle.

  With an annoyed screech, she belted out a Perish Song, the Hypno’s eyes widening in terror.

  She was a ghost, she would be fine.

  He was not a ghost.

  He would not be so fine.

  She laughed deliciously, drinking in his terror. The Hypno Teleported to its trainer, grabbed her and then disappeared.

  This time he didn’t re-appear.

  Hmph. An anchor then. How dull.

  She turned to smile at her Mistress, knowing the Hypno and her trainer were long gone.

  “This is no time for games,” the Leader whispered from their Mistress’ shadow.

  “There is always time for games,” she retorted, feeling the perish song pull her towards the Hallow-winds.

  “Speaking of — “

  “No. Leave the Gastly alone. We have work to do,” the Leader ordered.

  “Oh Foo. Just for a moment —?”

  “Petunia. No.”

  “My name isn’t Petunia,” she retorted, immediately schooling her face into a more placid expression.

  Their ever hilarious Leader, calling her Petunia whenever she looked, as he called it, Petulant.

  Bah.

  Their Mistress tapped her cane once and all banter stopped.

  “We have work,” she stated, each word its own sentence.

  The Graveward snapped to attention. As one, they melted into the shadows, their Mistress included.

  The Perish Song tugged more insistently.

  Mismagius sighed. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to use such a move.

  She faded into the Hallow-winds, following her team from a world of black and grey.

  ____

  Shadow found MunchMunch happily giggling where she had left him, his backpack open and discarded.

  Every berry was laid out carefully, sorted by color, and then by what looked like — his fondness of them? The Aspear berry sat last, after all.

  He was counting each one and giggling all the while.

  Shadow paused for a moment in the shade of an elm. Every time she saw the child her chest tightened.

  How. How could a ghost have a chest that felt tight. She didn’t even have a chest.

  She took a deep breath and exhaled. No need to scare the child.

  “MunchMunch,” she called, popping out of a Shadow to scare him.

  Of course, he wasn’t scared. He never was.

  “Shadow!” he enthused, looking straight at her. Why did she even bother trying to hide from him? It never worked.

  “I have 4 hand-paws of tummy-yummy berries, and I have a hand-paw and a foot-paw of face-scrunch berries,” he began, excitedly pointing to each.

  Shadow smiled. “Very good, MunchMunch. Let’s pack those up and get moving, ok?”

  MunchMunch paused. “Is everything ok? I still have more berries to show you!”

  “Oh yes, everything is fine — I.. uh, I think I found the path though! We should hurry, so we can help Teddy sooner,” she explained.

  “Munch!” he cried, jumping up and stuffing the berries unceremoniously into his backpack. When he couldn’t get them in fast enough, he shrugged and shoved the rest into his mouth.

  She snorted as the familiar cross-eyed look of a food-coma crossed his face.

  “Mama! Let’s hurry,” he shouted, coming to and trundling off into the brush.

  “This way, Sweetie,” she called softly.

  He turned and immediately followed her, nothing but trust in his eyes.

  She led him. She didn’t know where.

  She just knew it was away.

  Away from the clearing and everything in it.