I was more worried than excited.
It wasn't a rational worry, I'd taken two practice tests and passed them by a reasonable margin. The exam itself hadn't been any harder, there was no reason to suspect I had failed. Even if I had failed, there was nothing to stop me from resitting in three months time, perhaps sooner if I was willing to look further afield. Knowing this did absolutely nothing to appease the feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Perhaps I knew that failure wasn't really what I was worried about.
The day of waiting hadn't helped either. Considering how many helpers were about, it would seem likely that they could mark thirty or so tests within a couple of hours at worst. Twenty two hours seemed more than an excessive amount to make us wait.
I rolled out of bed. A mixture of worry and adrenaline had conspired to prevent me from sleeping, and I was really feeling it. I tried to concentrate on the small quantity of adrenaline still moving through me. I moved my body about slowly, waking it gently, and to my surprise, it did eventually start responding to me.
I stepped out of my boxers and dropped them in the wash basket. The clothes lying on the floor soon followed; I'd been sweating more than usual yesterday. I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around my waist, and gingerly stepped out, and into the bathroom. Zena, my grandfather's mousewife would probably be awake by now, but my mother and the old man were less predictable.
I got into the shower, and let the hot water roll down my body. It was shortly after eight, and I was supposed to be at the pokécenter by ten. This meant I had plenty of time to relax, or at least try to. I still felt kind of sick, so I resolved to skip breakfast, and see how I felt at lunch. This meant I could leave quickly, and meet up with Chris, and possibly Piers and Lance. At the very least this would give me something to occupy the time. I've never been good at doing nothing, and considering that I already felt sick, I really wanted to find some way to pass the time.
I washed slowly and carefully, and tried unsuccessfully to enjoy the shower, I felt sicker coming out than I had going in. From downstairs I could hear the slight clattering of someone, presumably Zena, in the kitchen. I darted back into my room and toweled off. I pulled on a pair of jeans, and picked out a reasonable shirt. Thinking that a good first impression could hardly go wrong, I pulled out my blazer and put that on as well.
The fresh smell of coffee dragged me downstairs. Zena, as expected, was bustling around the kitchen, juggling toast, coffee and eggs around the kitchen. My grandfather was sitting at the table, reading the paper. The front page had some article on the Sultana's daughter, presumably it was a slow news day. Zena smiled as she noticed me come in.
“Good morning Raphael,” she said cheerily, “you look smart this morning dear.”
My grandfather looked over his newspaper, and burst into laughter.
“You got the job at the palace then? Why are we all dressed up?”
“I figured that making a good first impression would be a good idea.” I said. I didn't really mind his ribbing, Zena usually managed to make him stop before it got to the stage of harassment.
“As long as she's not disappointed in the morning, when you're not all dressed up.”
“I'm sure I'll have given her plenty to be disappointed about by then.”
“I'm sure you'll do fine hon'.” Zena said, “Do you want some breakfast?”
“I'll just have a coffee, thanks.” I said.
“Are you sure? You might have other priorities later.” she said, pouring me a coffee.
“Really, I'll be fine.”
“If you're sure...” she said, passing me the coffee.
“When are you heading out?” My grandfather asked.
“I'll be leaving soon, the results are up at ten, so I should be back shortly after.”
I savored the coffee, my grandfather wasn't usually a man of distinguished tastes, but he did know his coffee. He regularly imported a wonderful rich blend from the White Lotus League, expensive, but ever so good. That was one thing I would definitely miss.
At some point when I was drinking, my mother had entered the room. She sat drinking a coffee of her own. Espeas are often the calm sort, but she usually took it significantly further, being almost impossible to read. The only hint was usually in her whiskers, which today were twitching frequently. This was usually a sign of bad weather to come, or more rarely, that she was worried. Considering the view outside, the former didn't seem too likely.
In truth, she had probably put a lot more effort into preparing for this day than I had, and having had less control on the ultimate outcome, probably had far more reason to be worried in that regard than I did. Still, considering that I could easily retake the test if I had failed, she did seem to be quite wound up about it. I wondered if maybe she was worried about me, but dismissed the thought as quickly as it had appeared.
I realized she had been looking at me for some time. More worryingly, I'd been staring at her for a bit longer. I didn't think she'd said anything, but she was looking at me expectantly. Awkward.
“So...” I tried. It was a pretty poor try, I felt pretty stupid immediately after it left my lips. My mother's expression didn't help, but it rarely did.
“Would you like me to take you to the pokécenter at the appointed time?” She may or may not have repeated. Her expression, as usual, gave nothing away.
“No, I'll be leaving soon, and I'll make my own way down.” I said. Her whiskers twitched again, making me think she was going to object.
“Fine.” she said curtly, and returned to drinking her coffee.
I left her to it. I returned upstairs and booted up my computer. The internet confirmed that weather was as normal, and more notably, that my mother was worried about something. It also confirmed that it was indeed a slow news day. The Sultana's daughter had been sleeping around again, big news.
I decided to pester my chums, to see when they'd be available. Piers was online, but nobody else. Due to his father's business, Piers had got a Pet Owner's license two years ago, with a view towards getting a tradesman's license, and eventually taking over his father's Milktit business. As such, he hadn't bothered taking the tamer's test. I decided that I might as well message him anyway, he'd probably have time to come out for the morning.
Piers told me that he and Chris were meeting at the coffee shop at nine, and that neither of them had heard from Lance. I wouldn't be able to get down the coffee shop for nine without requesting transportation from my mother, so I told him I'd arrive asap.
I left quickly, and made my way across the city. I lived on the west side of Manat, while the city proper was on the eastern side, primarily due to the airship port there. It made sense to place those arriving on the airship into the middle of town. It did make it something of a pain for me to get around though. The city's only pokécenter was right in the middle of the town center, so I'd have to make my way over there at some point anyway.
I took the most direct route into the center possible, which meant following the cart roads. It was a quiet day, so I moved pretty quickly along the side of the road, without being bothered much by passing Ponytaurs and Chocoboobs. The cart roads are raised above the main city streets, allowing for a more direct route around the island. They had few entrance and exit points, but were still the fastest way for pedestrians to get around the city, although some of the cart-pulling 'girls were occasionally aggressive. At ten past nine, I arrived above the pedestrian zone of the city. I hopped over the side wall of the road, onto the roof of the pokécenter. I went down the access ladder, and crossed the road over to the Black Bean coffee shop.
I was still somewhat buzzed from the coffee earlier, so I skipped the coffee, and headed straight for the table where Chris and Piers were engaged in some form of debate. It must have been pretty riveting, because they didn't notice me until I pulled up a chair.
“Morning gentlemen.” I said, sitting down, “What are we discussing?” Chris looked somewhat embarrassed, Piers gave me a goofy grin.
“Oh noth...” Chris began
“We were discussing which pokégirls would best suit Chris.” Piers said, speaking over him. “There aren't likely to be any Snorlasses available, so he's looking for suggestions.”
“Well,” I said, ignoring Chris' protests, “Assuming he wants to be able to beat the crap out of you, something with a type advantage against Anna would be obvious. A Geogal or Digtit perhaps.”
Anna was Piers' Peekabu. She, along with her sister Lucy, had used to hang out with us, prior to her threshold. She decided to stay with Piers after she thresholded, but Lucy moved away with her father. I felt pretty guilty about that, despite probably being blameless.
“Don't be ridiculous,” Chris managed to get in, “I'm certain Anna would love a chance to get some vengeance. I won't need to resort to violence to get her to stand aside at the very least. She's already so sick of him that she's not even protecting him now.”
“That's true I guess. I suppose that the main consideration should be what you want to do to Piers then.”
Unfortunately, the waitress, a cute Bunnygirl wearing a cute french maid outfit, with the not so cute name “Ears”, came up to the table, preventing Chris from spilling all the gruesome details.
I was pretty sure he had a thing for her.
“Hi guys,” she said giggling, “You want your usual Raphael?”
“Sure hon.” I said, I didn't need a coffee, but she was very hard to say no to. I suppose that made her good at her job.
“Okay, which one's that?” she asked, without any trace of irony.
“A double shot espresso.” I said. I supposed that I had expected rather a lot of her.
“Do you need a refill Chris?” she asked, leaning over the table, presumably giving him a nice view.
It was beyond doubt that she had a thing for him.
Chris blushed and aborted a few words, before stuttering out a yes. Ears giggled again, and bounced up from across the table.
“I'll be right back boys.” She said with a wink, before bouncing back to the counter.
“I suppose I should be thankful if your plans for vengeance culminate in my being served coffee in an obscenely jovial manner.” Piers said as she left earshot. Chris turned a deeper shade of crimson.
“To be fair, Louis would probably sell her if you asked.” I said. “He'd almost certainly trade her for any reasonable starter.”
“I think survival ought to be my primary objective, at first anyway.” Chris said, attempting to recover some dignity. He failed, as the site of Ears returning with our drinks turned him a color that was moving towards purple. I thought this might be worth experimenting with at a later date.
Ears dropped our drinks off, and bounced off to help the other patrons. Chris used the momentary distraction to move the conversation in another direction.
“So,” he questioned “what sort of girl would take your fancy Raphael?”
“You know me.” I said dismissively. “I could go in with a list of every possible choice listed from StarlightXpress to Feeblass, and someone a long way below the top would give me puppy dog eyes, and my well laid plans would be history. So your best bet is probably a canine type.”
“Funny.” Piers said dryly. I thought it was, but that's just the way things go I guess. “I don't suppose you heard from Lance since talking to me?”
“I did not, I left pretty much instantly.” I informed him.
“It's not a huge deal. I'd just prefer to have something to do this afternoon while you two are otherwise engaged.” He didn't seem too concerned.
“Aren't you supposed to have a job?” Chris asked him.
“I'm supposed to inherit a job, that's completely different.” Piers said.
“Even if you don't need to work, I'm sure that you could find yourself 'otherwise engaged' if you wanted.” I said. It was true enough, Anna had never been one to play hard to get.
Piers smiled. “I'm sure I can entertain myself if need be, I'm a big boy now. I haven't seen Lance since you went in to take the test yesterday. I know he was bummed out by not being able to take it too, but it's not like him to vanish without trace, and I don't need to tell you that I don't want to go and knock on his door. Give it another day or two, and I'll have to drag you up there to do so anyway.”
“Always good to have a backup plan.” I said. “You've got three days if you're not willing to go up there alone.”
“Indeed, I'm not going alone, and I don't plan on spending two weeks on my own when you two piss off, so we'll have to go before then.” Piers said. I'm usually pretty good at reading people's motives, but he spoke with such a straight face that it was impossible for me to say he was joking. I didn't want to say that he wasn't.
We drank our coffee and returned to less serious banter. It was depressing to think that this was one of the last times we would be going to do this. I was told I was supposed to be depressed when I left school, but at the time I hadn't really cared. I'd been able to keep in contact with, and regularly see everyone I did actually care about. In a few days, I'd be moving away from everyone I knew, and only coming back occasionally. Sure, I'd be able to keep in contact with pretty much everyone, but I'd rarely be able to see them. A teleporting girl might make such difficulties less problematic, but whether or not I'd obtain one of them in the near future was anybody's guess.
At quarter to we paid our tab, waved goodbye to Ears, and crossed the road, heading towards the pokécenter. About forty prospective tamers had taken the test, and as we entered about half of them were in the pokécenter. The Nurse Joy on duty was frantically trying to answer the questions from the multitude, the majority of which would be answered by waiting 10 minutes.
“It looks like it's going to be crowded enough in here.” Piers told us, “I'll get out the way and catch up with you later.”
Chris and I wished him farewell, and he departed. More hopefuls trickled in, many of them had been in our class, prior to yesterday, I had not seen the large majority of them since June. I didn't regret it.
After a few minutes the balding old man who had watched over our tests came through the door behind the nurse's desk. He was inexplicably wearing a long lab coat today, it was as if he was trying to convince us he was a licensed researcher, rather than an administrator drafted in. It was a good thing he was behind the desk, because it was swiftly swarmed by those too impatient to wait for him to speak, which happened to be the majority of those in the room.
He attempted to get the crowd to hush with absolutely no success. He tried to shout over the crowd, which quieted a few, but the activity in the room did not stop. Eventually the Nurse Joy hit a button under her desk, setting off an unnecessarily high pitched alarm. That did silence the masses, and she quickly turned it off again.
He looked at her with some surprise, but soon recovered and addressed the crowd.
“Thank you for your patience.” He started, I thought that was a little harsh to those of us not crowding around him. He held up an A4 sized sheet of paper. “On this sheet is a list of all candidates, split into those who passed, and those who did not. For those of you who have passed, there will be a number next to your name. These have been placed randomly. You will be called out in that order for the psychic evaluation, should you pass that, you will be given your pokédex, and will be allowed to choose a starter pokégirl. Those of you who did not pass the test will be able to discuss it with me at a later date, but I am afraid that I have to ask you to leave while we sort out those who have passed.”
Apparently he'd never had to deal with failure.
He stuck the list to the desk and the crowd surged around it. Sounds of joy and disappointment rung out, along with the occasional sound of protest. The group did not move, so I told Chris that I'd worm my way through the crowd, and check for both of us.
I slipped past the group, and slowly worked my way up to the list. Despite his best efforts, the administrator was having to fight off complaints. I managed to push my way to the front. Seventeen candidates had passed the test, I scanned the list, and sure enough Christopher Frost and Raphael Marchand were present. I had the number seven, and Chris had twelve.
Getting out was harder than getting in, the list was still being swarmed. I gave Chris a thumbs up from within the crowd, which he returned with a grin. I ducked under as the administrator called out again.
“Number One: Alain Perrow.”
A tall boy with short black hair moved around the desk, and the crowd started to dissipate as the administrator walked him out. I made my way back to Chris, and told him our position in line.
The examination must have been fairly quick, because a minute later, the balding administrator appeared again calling out for number two. Mr. Perrow did not reappear, so it seemed likely that he was selecting his starter now.
A third person was called in before Alain reappeared, it seemed that they were being more efficient with their resources at this stage. I was worried I'd be stuck here for the better part of an hour, but they'd probably manage the entire group in half an hour if they kept the rate up. As the list moved on, I started to feel sick again.
It was probably fortunate that I was called in quickly. Every second that I was waiting started to feel elongated and I could feel my stomach turning. Chris wished me luck, and I slowly walked around to the desk, trying to dismiss the feeling of doubt. It seemed a bad thing to take into such a test. I attempted to put on a confident smile, and followed the administrator through the door and into a short corridor, with a pair of doors to the left and right. He opened the first door to the left, and I followed him into a small office.
The office was very bright. The sun was too high in the sky to shine directly into the room, but the effect was similar. The light was something of a shock, and I had to squint to allow my eyes to adjust. In the center of the room were two chairs. On the one further from the door sat a beautiful woman. Her skin was so pale it appeared to be white, as if made of porcelain, but there was no sign of veins under her skin. She had long blonde hair, which flowed down to her shoulders naturally, before coming into a pair of braids. Her black dress contrasted sharply with her light skin. She smiled at me as I walked towards the chair.
“Take a seat Raphael, this will only take a minute.” she said. Her voice was almost musical. I sat down, and she looked directly into my eyes. Her eyes were a deep blue and I found myself unable to stop myself from staring back in. My eyes started to lose focus, and I tried to look away, but found myself unable. My vision slowly went black and I could see nothing.
“And we're done.” Her voice came suddenly. I opened my eyes, finding myself still in the room. It seemed less bright now. She smiled at me and took my hand in both of hers. “I think you'll make a wonderful tamer. You needn't worry so much.”
“Thanks.” I managed to mutter. It seemed pretty inadequate, but I doubt anyone else did much better.
“Go directly across the corridor and you'll be given your starting equipment.” She said. The administrator opened the door for me and hurried off to fetch the next candidate. I opened the opposite door and stepped in. This room was equally small, and somewhat crowded. Fourteen pokégirls were standing against the wall, all naked. Some were unabashedly showing off their bodies, while others were timidly covering their assets as much as possible. Gawking at them were two others who passed the test. One was pointing his pokédex at the various girls, while another was being shown how to work his pokédex by an assistant. He didn't seem to care much, although, as far as I could tell, it wasn't very advanced. Another assistant stood behind the boy selecting his starter.
I glanced over the starters myself, many of them were fairly easily identifiable without a pokédex. A boobisaur was distinctly showing off, as were a charamanda, a couple of dog types, and a kitsune. Standing more reservedly were a naga, a harpy and two girls who looked vaguely human, both holding swords. The shorter and leaner of the pair had bright orange hair, and a short sword. The taller and more muscular one had no clearly non-human traits, and carried a longer thinner blade. Attempting to cover themselves to some degree were a squirtitty, a pair of girls that may have been catgirls or kittens, and two more girls who looked very human. On second glance one seemed a bit pinker than usual, a Jigglyslut perhaps, the other was cute, but had little to identify her. She was of about average height for a human, and had black hair straight down to her shoulders, which did not look in any way unusual. She looked like she'd rather have been anywhere else in the world.
“Hey Witchy!” The selecting tamer said obnoxiously loudly. “Move your arms already!”
The girl, presumably a witch glared at him in such a way that I thought it a miracle that he didn't burst into flames. She did not move her arms.
The tamer looked at her in contempt, before declaring that he'd take the boobisaur.
She didn't look too thrilled either.
He was given her pokéball, and left quickly, the assistant called the boy in front of me to select a girl, and the one who had been talking to him passed me a pokédex.
“Do you have any experience using these?” he asked me disinterestedly.
“I do not.” I told him.
“Point this bit at a pokégirl,” he said, twanging the antenna “press this button, and the data will come up on the screen. Everything else you'll find in various menus.”
This seemed to me a fairly worthless introduction, but I didn't say so. I couldn't help but wonder what the previous tamer had needed to know that I hadn't. I pointed the dex at the taller girl with a sword, and it declared that she was an amazonwu. The other was a slicer, and both cats were catgirls, the dogs were a doggirl and a growlie, and I confirmed that the other very near humans were indeed a witch and a jigglyslut.
The one in front of me declared that he would take the charamanda. She looked quite pleased about this, and he took her pokéball, and walked out with her. I walked over to the assistant and said I'd take the witch. She looked at me with a mixture of surprise and worry. I tried to give her a calming smile, and presumably failed as she looked immediately more agitated. I wondered briefly if taking the most awkward looking girl had been a mistake. I sighed and accepted her pokéball from the assistant.
The witch followed me out of the room, and I peered into the window of the room next door. It was another identical office type room, and fortunately it was empty. I opened the door, and she followed me inside, the worry on her face now turning to doubt. The door swung shut behind us.
“Are you going to tame me here?” she asked, clearly somewhat distressed.
I smiled at her before remembering how well that had gone at the last attempt. “Of course not.” I said, “I just wanted to talk to you.” I pulled out a couple of seats, and offered one to her.
“Can I put some clothes on?” she asked.
“Yes of course, do you want to go get some first?” I hadn't quite thought that through.
Her expression calmed a bit, and she gave what might have been a smile. “No need.” She muttered something under her breath, and an unusual set of clothes faded into existence. She wore a black button up shirt, left unbuttoned at the top, a knee-length black skirt, and a long red trimmed cloak. Despite the blazer, I felt underdressed. She took her seat, and I sat down opposite to her.
“I'm Raphael.” I told her, “Do you have a name?”
“Not anymore.” she said.
“What did it used to be?” I asked.
“Marie.”
“Do you want to be called Marie again?” I asked. She nodded warily. “Great, that's settled.”
Marie didn't look too impressed.
“In four days we'll be going on a two week long wilderness survival course in Nut. Whether or not it will be worthwhile I do not know. After that, we're off on our own.” I told her.
“What do you plan to do in the four days?”
“We need to buy supplies. My friend Chris is going to accompany me to the shops tomorrow, we ought to be able to get everything then. Otherwise I have nothing planned.”
“Is Chris also coming on the course?” she asked.
“Yes, but he's the only person I'll know. I'd guess everyone else from around here will wait another couple of weeks for the course on this island.”
“Why are we going to Nut rather than waiting?” The question and answer session seemed to be relaxing her, so I saw no reason to bring it to a close.
“My mother is going to teleport us there, so it's no trouble, for us anyway, and it means we get to start faster, rather than having two weeks of doing nothing.”
She was quiet for a minute, and I was about to ask if she wanted to go when she asked her next question.
“Why did you choose me?”
It was my turn to be quiet. It was a difficult question to answer, I hadn't thought about my choice at all. Not consciously anyway. She was cute, but none of the girls were bad looking. I was fairly sure that wasn't the reason anyway. At least I wanted to think it wasn't. Perhaps it was because she appeared distressed and unhappy, vulnerable even. I wasn't sure if picking her up because she looked vulnerable would sound good if I said it out loud. Probably not.
“I don't know” I said. It wasn't completely untrue, and I couldn't think of a better answer. “I don't think it matters, it's done now.” She looked doubtful, but didn't complain. “Are you ready to go?” I asked.
She nodded, and we got up. We passed quickly into the main body of the pokécenter. Chris was no longer there, although I wasn't sure if he'd be collecting his starter, or would have already left. I'd lost track of time at some point. As time wasn't a factor, I decided to take her home the scenic route, through the suburban streets. It's quite a long journey compared to the cart road, but I decided that her knowing it could be useful, and we'd definitely have to walk further at the camp. I could always ball her for some of the journey if she wanted. It didn't seem likely that she'd say anything either way.
This was probably my biggest problem. She was almost painfully shy, every time I looked at her she was staring at the ground or a wall, as though it were the most interesting thing she had ever seen. She had avoided looking at me even when we were talking, and while I was perhaps on the scrawny side, I was hardly bad looking. I had no idea how long she had before she'd go feral, but I really wanted to make her comfortable before attempting to tame her.
Not much hope of that, I thought as we started our journey home.