Bastien dropped onto his bed and sighed hard. He ran one hand through his wavy sandy blonde hair, briefly teasing at a small scar that was hidden inside his hair from an accident earlier in his childhood. His discarded pack lay open against the foot of the bed, a couple notebooks and pads spilling out into the floor.
He was rather tall for his age, certainly, with the lean yet muscular physique that often came with competition swimming and regular gym use. Lightly tanned skin, faint freckles, ice blue eyes and a hint of a stubble rounded out what was a fairly handsome face.
“Wow, you must have had a really rough day. Why, you didn’t even notice me!”
Bastien’s mouth curled upwards at the jesting, lightly accented female voice.
“Laurie, what are you doing in my room? No, scratch that, what are you even doing here? I thought you were staying home to prevent stray Tamers from seeing you. You know, in case one of the bums decides to try and capture you”
“It was boring, and I wanted to see you. Plus, you’ll be one of the bums by next sunrise”
From behind the door appeared a brunette Lambchop dressed in an oversized shirt and shorts. She was almost at the human end of the bell curve, with C-cup breasts and an athletic build with generous hips. She had one hand resting at her waist and her eyes were sparkling with mischief.
“Provided the test went well, of course. Now scooch over already, I want to lay down too”
Bastien stood up instead and grabbed Laurie’s hand before pulling her onto the bed amidst peals of laughter and tickling her mercilessly.
“Stoppit, stop! I should hurt you, you brute!” she cried.
“Laure, darling? You’re a Lambchop. I think with my strength enhancement I may actually be stronger than you”
That earned Bastien a pout.
“You don’t have to rub it in, though” the brunette said pitifully
Bastien laughed and leaned in to kiss and tickle her a little more. Laurie eventually got Bastien to stop and snuggled into his arms.
“So… tomorrow we leave, then?” she asked.
Bastien nodded into her hair.
“We do. I’ve been itching to get on the road for a while now, and want to get a head start on the competition. I should have scored over the 95th percentile on the tamer’s test, so I’m probably getting that Starter waiver for a Stage II pokegirl at any ranch in the Loire region. I’ll have you to keep me safe during the trip to Angers, so I’d rather try my hand at the four ranches around the city. Should be about three days on foot, and we can use the ferals to train since the road is not very travelled”
Laurie looked at Bastien with a bit of surprise.
“Wow, you’ve actually thought about this” she said, making Bastien scoff in annoyance.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing~”
The two lay still, embraced and content with each other’s company for close to an hour. Bastien’s breathing was slowing down and he was slowly falling asleep when he felt Laurie’s arms tighten around his waist.
“Laure, is everything okay?”
The Lambchop just buried her face into his chest and nodded.
“It’s just… thank you for still treating me alright and taking me with you. I know Lambchops aren’t too strong and that I’ll probably just end up being a liability after a while. And I’m sure your father could have arranged for a stronger Fighting-type for you to start with”
Bastien held Laurie tight and sighed into her hair, rubbing small reassuring circles over her upper back.
“We already talked about this” he said. “You’ve been my best friend since forever, and Threshold did not change that. As far as I’m concerned it just made you even cuddlier and gave me one more reason to want to tame you. You’re not a burden, okay? We’re going to be fine”
Laurie just nodded and kissed him, then shot him a coquettish look and rubbed her legs against his.
“Laure, you’re aware I’m exhausted, right?”
“This one down here seems to think you have enough energy. I’m pretty certain you have the Endurance blood gift, so you’ll be fine”
“You’re insufferable, you know that”
“And you love me for it. Now off with that shirt, mister!”
“Awful pushy today, aren’t we?”
Bastien rolled over and pinned Laurie to the bed before kissing down her neck, as the room filled with laughter that soon turned to moans.
~0~
“Bastien Latouchant, please move to room three for your assessment”
Bastien gave the attending Ingenue a nod and walked down the Pokecenter hallway. Finding room three, he knocked on the door just in case.
“Bastien Latouchant, for the assessment?”
“Come in”
He opened the door and walked into the relatively spacious office where a Dire Wolf was waiting for him, her spectacled eyes inspecting a tablet. Her coat had a name tag reading Angelique.
“Take a seat, darling. These can be a little lengthy” the Pokegirl said. “We need to cover your genetic assessment and I need to give you a psychic reading and a celestial reading”
Bastien nodded, a little hesitant.
“Certainly… Um, If I may ask?”
The fox-type lolled her tongue out in a canine smile.
“I happen to be bonded to one of the head examiners and am both celestial and psychic. Loire region has a shortage of qualified Megami at the moment, so they asked me to cover some of the assessments. And no, I did not read that from your mind. I just get that question a lot”
Bastien shook his head, then sat down across Angelique at the desk.
“Well, then consider me in your care”
The pokegirl slid a tablet over.
“What you see here, Bastien, is a 3d map of your DNA showing the mutated sectors created by your pokegirl ancestry. Your results confirm the presence of the Strength and Endurance enhancements you mentioned you suspected would show up. They also pointed out the presence of a Youthful Vigor blood gift, inherited from your Milotit mother”
Angelique then pulled a bottle of water from one of her desk’s drawers and lobbed it at Bastien. The young man floundered a bit as he attempted to catch the bottle, then shot the Dire Wolf a confused look.
“Negatives, now. You better get used to carrying water with you at all times, because you present a mild form of the Water Dependency blood curse. According to your results, you need around double the normal amount of hydration when compared to the baseline, and could rapidly dehydrate in warmer regions. I suspect the reason this was never really noticed before is that you’ve grown up around water”
Angelique stopped her dissertation to gauge Bastien’s reaction. The youth seemed fairly shocked, but seemed to be processing the news rather well.
“Well, I suppose there’ll be no desert treks for me” he finally said, causing the Dire Wolf to grin.
“Yes, I do believe that would be ill-advised” she said. “Besides that, we also confirmed a Pokeboy Grade 1 blood trait which is the source of the slight webbing between your fingers. That’s all for your genetic tests, and don’t give us any reason to veto you from becoming a Tamer”
Bastien sighed in relief. That was the part of the assessment he was the most worried about.
“On to the readings, then?” he asked. Angelique laughed again and waved her hand.
“Oh, no. I’ve been scanning you this entire time, and don’t find anything that would cause you to be disqualified. For someone without an Empathy blood gift, you’re surprisingly aware of others’ feelings… which I personally think should be encouraged. Your aura reads good enough as well”
Bastien felt a shiver run down his back at the thought that this Pokegirl had been able to essentially rife through his mind and memories without him noticing. He resolved to try and better his mental defenses or get a psychic-type of his own ASAP.
“Now, onto the actual test! Your score was 98.5%, highest in the Loire region for this examination period and over the threshold for the Dupont grant. Therefore, you’re getting a set of state-of-the-art trainer equipment including the most recent model of pokepack and get to pick a 2nd-stage pokegirl as your starter from one of the ranches in the Loire region. Here’s your pokedex, your pokepack with the aforementioned supplies already inside, and six pokeballs as is traditional for starting tamers”
The teen just nodded numbly, caught a bit off-guard by the sheer amount of stuff he was getting. Sure, the Dupont and Loire grants had been the reason he’d worked so hard for this test, but it was something completely different to actually look at the results instead of just imagining them.
“I… Thank you, ma’am” he stuttered out, making the Dire Wolf smile.
“You can go show off to your parents now, then. Oh, and don’t bother calling the next applicant on the list. I’ve got a bit of a break up next, so I’ll do it later”
Bastien nodded and walked out of the room. He gave some of his schoolmates a thumbs-up to show he had passed and cracked a couple high-fives before walking through the glass doors that separated the examinee area from the general population.
As soon as he was gone the Dire Wolf pulled out a phone and dialed up a number.
“Yes, it’s me. I found a potential asset, but he’s got some special circumstances. We may need some additional surveillance…”
~0~
“I take it everything went well, son?” Asked Bastien’s dad when his son rushed to the door with a smug smile.
The Latouchent home was spacious, and the morning sun that filtered through the windows illuminated the whole sitting room. Jean-Pierre stood up to hug his son, giving him a couple hard slaps on the back.
“So? How did it go?”
Bastien tossed the envelope containing the results onto the table.
“Turns out I have Water Dependency, which may make the journey a tad more troublesome than what I hoped it’d be. I got the highest score in Loire, so the plan is to head out immediately and try to make it to Angers as fast as possible. They have better ranches there, so I hope I manage to nab something good for my starter”
Jean-Pierre scratched at his greying beard and took a sip from a wine glass that was resting on the table. He gave a passing look at the envelope, then shrugged and sat back down.
“Don’t worry about those, I’ll look at them when your mothers get back home. They wanted to be here to send you off, but they had to go deal with news of Sharptits and Titacruel being sighted near the coast. Marise says to not trust anyone, Lillian wanted me to tell you to not do anything she wouldn’t and of course Gracia has worried herself sick, but then again, you’re her first child since she became a pokéwomon and she’s always going to be like that”
He served Bastien a glass of wine and motioned for him to sit down. Bastien did so, resting one foot on his opposite knee, and took a sip.
“Laurie’s in your room, and all of my old supplies were there packed but if you got the starter pack then I think you won’t need them. Do me a favor and say goodbye to your brothers and sister before you leave? They’re young and we all know you’re their hero. They’d be crushed if you leave without saying goodbye”
Bastien just nodded, allowing Jean-Pierre to say his due. The older man scratched at his upper knee, where Bastien knew he had a scar from his own times as a wandering tamer.
“Son-“ he said. “-please, try to stay safe out there. I know how easy it is to chase glory and fame and to think you’re invincible. Hell, I got that fame and came out alright, but that can be laid at the feet of my girls and not me. In the end, chasing stars just makes you miss what’s in front of you. And remember, you can talk to us. Don’t be a stranger, OK?”
Jean-Pierre finished the last of his wine, then shook his head and smiled at his son.
“Now, off with you! Didn’t you have to get to Angers or something? That’s at least a day and a half of travel at a fast pace!”
Bastien downed his glass of wine, slammed it onto the table and stood up before heading upstairs towards his room.
“Well, you said it. Thank you for everything, dad. I’ll be fine, I promise”
Yet as Bastien headed upstairs to grab Laurie and say goodbye to his brothers, Jean-Pierre couldn’t help but feel it wouldn’t be that simple.
~0~
Laurie materialized and looked around, noting they were already at the edge of the city.
“Saying goodbye to everyone was hard, I take it?” she said, causing Bastien to nod.
“Yeah, I didn’t really think it would feel that strange, but this is the path I want to take. And it’s not like it was everyone. I still have you, remember?” he joked.
The Lambchop said nothing in response, and the two began their journey towards Angers. The old A11 had never really been repaired since it weaved by the ruins of Nantes, but it did make for a rather convenient grav car route. It was remarkably low on feral pokegirls, thanks to the joint efforts of the northern duchy, the reclaimers that were based off the ruins of Rennes, and the local Angers defense force. For that same reason, trainers often preferred taking the northern road, since it was richer in rare ferals.
The duo set a hefty pace, with Bastien keeping a bottle of water on hand and doing his best to keep hydrated.
Laurie snatched the water bottle from Bastien’s hand and waved it at him.
“Shouldn’t you go a little slower? What with your whole hydration thing and all” she said. “Sun’s getting pretty harsh”
“Normally, I’d agree with you. But I really want to get out of St. Nazare jurisdiction as fast as possible” explained Bastien. “As much as you may not be the most uncommon or powerful pokegirl, Laure… you’re still cute, and I’d much rather not lose my best friend and starter to some shmuck who just happens to have a Psychic-type and fancies a Lambchop for a couple weeks”
He pulled another water bottle from his pokepack and took a sip from it.
“Keep that one. You still need hydration, and I want to push until lunchtime. If we push, we might make it pretty close to the ruins before nightfall”
~0~
They did make good time before midday, only stumbling with a group of Bunnygirls that Bastien had no intention of getting even remotely close to. Even with the pressing need to add to his harem, he most definitely did not need a member of the clumsy breed and definitely didn’t need a feralborn one. It would create too many obedience issues.
That same reasoning was what kept him from taming the feralborn Rack that had led Laurie on a merry chase later that afternoon. As useful as the flying-type could be, the type advantage that she had over his Lambchop was certain to make her even harder to deal with than any other feral. Laurie had already struggled a lot against it thanks to the flying type’s speed and better maneuverability.
He was staring into the fire when Laurie wrapped her arms around his neck.
“You look troubled” she said, snapping him out of his trance.
“A bit” he admitted. “The Rack delayed us a fair bit… I was hoping we’d make it to one of the reclaimer settlements. I heard Orvault is just big enough for a pokecenter. Also… thinking about the ferals”
Laurie lightly caressed his chest through his shirt.
“You don’t need to worry about them tonight. I’ll stand guard, you just try to get some rest. Once we get to the ranches, you can make a decision about whether to sell them or not”
Bastien just nodded and gave her a quick kiss.
“I suppose so. Help me cover up the fire, then. No use in leaving a beacon for whatever predator may be left after the reclaimer hunts”
Once they had stamped down and buried the fire, Bastien made his way into the tent. At the corner of his vision he saw Laurie blend into the darkness and disappear. He was still not entirely confident with their camp, but he accepted his Lambchop had a point and did his best to fall asleep.
~0~
A hard-crack shook Bastien awake, his arms flailing as he looked around. He quickly worked his way out of the tent and saw Laurie crouching on one knee, bleeding from a deep cut on her left shoulder.
“Bastien, run! I… I’ll do my best to stop her, you run!” the Lambchop screamed, but Bastien was too paralyzed by Laurie’s injury. His wide eyes drifted to the other figure that occupied the clearing.
The pokegirl had a dirty, knotted blonde mane and her clothes looked horribly unkempt. Her hazel eyes seemed filled with both relief and desperation as the ground, which was split into a wicked stream of spikes. A sharpened rock dropped from her hand, which seemed to be trembling heavily.
“You have a tamer! Oh, thank the gods, you have a tamer” he heard the pokegirl say, shocking him even more.
“You… you’re not feral?” He said, bewildered. The pokegirl took a couple steps towards him, making Laurie hiss and attempt to stand back up.
“Not yet, but so close to it” she answered, practically in tears. “Can’t… think clear anymore. Please… please, please, please, drive it away, please”
The pokegirl had been getting progressively closer, giving Bastien no time to answer. The young tamer barely had enough time to glance at Laurie who mouthed ‘only option’ before he triggered her pokeball. Then the blonde was on top of him, her mouth on his forcing him into a desperate kiss, almost as if she was gasping for air.
She was stronger than him, but he managed to position her arms away from his body after she shrugged his clothes off and submitted himself to the pokegirl’s desires until she collapsed from the exertions. He carried her inside his tent and, exhausted, crawled to her side and closed his eyes.
~0~
Bastien woke up to his whole body aching and hurting. He felt like he’d been used as a Machamp’s practice bag. Slowly, the memories from the night before became clearer and he jolted up, eyes wide.
Rushing outside the tent, he got some bandages and released Laure. The Lambchop looked tired and panicky, practically flinging herself at him when she saw him.
“You’re alright! Oh, thank the thousand” she said, her shoulder still injured. Bastien quickly began cleaning and bandaging said injury, which was difficult with how Laurie insisted in clutching him.
“Laure, if you don’t let go I won’t be able to clean that injury” he told the Lambchop, spraying the wound with a potion and beginning to wrap bandages around it. He was so engrossed by it that he didn’t notice Laurie begin frowning and growling lightly.
“Um, I can help with that, I think. Breakfast is also done”
The crisp, ducal accent cut through the air like a hot knife. Bastien went pale and turned around to see the pokegirl from the night before holding three plates from his mess kit. She was standing a little awkwardly, her face a mix of worry and deep embarrassment.
Although she was still wearing the same dirty clothes and her hair was the same knotted mess, Bastien couldn’t help but appreciate just how stunning the pokegirl really was. Golden-blonde hair, blue eyes and an elegant nose matched with a toned hourglass figure where everything looked just right. She was also probably around 1.8m in height, not too much shorter than him.
“Um, yeah please do” he choked out, not sure if that was the right choice. On one hand, she seemed sane and friendly enough but on the other hand he’d just seen her hysteric, trying to kill his best friend and then essentially jumping him hard enough to turn him into a full body bruise.
The blonde approached slowly and laid two hands over Laurie’s injury. The injury in question slowly closed, making the Lambchop sigh in relief. The blonde seemed to relax.
“My magical ability is incredibly lackluster, but I can at least muster some basic healing. My old alpha insisted everyone with even the least amount of magical talent learn basic healing” she explained, placing a plate with what looked like eggs and wild onions in them.
Although Laurie was still glaring at the newcomer, she looked significantly less tense now that the blonde had proven she wasn’t after her head anymore.
“Why were you alone and in that state last night? You're pretty far from the Renoir Duchy” she asked, and Bastien couldn’t help but think he’d been wondering the same as he dug onto his breakfast. He didn’t remember packing eggs… had the blonde found a Chickenlittle nest or something?
The blonde’s eyes dropped, and her mouth thinned into a line at the query.
“My trainer had decided to double through this area since there aren’t many ferals around these parts. I was in my pokeball alongside his other harem members, since he always insisted he didn’t need a guard. As far as I can tell, something happened to Romario and my pokeball was dropped somewhere for around a month until the recent rain washed it away and it triggered by hitting a rock. I was on the absolute verge of being feral, with no idea of where my trainer was and was running desperate”
She lifted her eyes to rest on Bastien for just a second before turning them back to the ground.
“I am sorry for hurting your Pokegirl and ah… assaulting you, sir” she said.
Bastien waved her off. “It’s fine, though you were rather rough.” He quickly produced a bottle of water from his pack and started drinking greedily. “Ah… would you want me to look for any record of your old trainer on the net?”
The blonde nodded, and not five minutes later they were reading a report on how Romario Durant had been one of the many victims of an unexpected landslide. All the members of his harem were listed as dead or missing, including a blonde Dao name Candice.
Bastien gave the blonde a look.
“That’s you, isn’t it?” he asked, receiving only a small nod in response. “What will you do now then, Candice?”
The blonde looked at Laurie for a moment, almost as if asking for permission. When the lambchop gave a tiny nod, she turned to Bastien.
“Ah, I’d like to stay with you. Even though I was… not in my right mind, you still treated me as well as possible. Romario was a good tamer, but he was harsh. And I have nowhere to go”
Bastien nodded. He wouldn’t complain, since Dao were rather powerful and rare, and he wouldn’t even have to deal with the trouble of incorporating a feralborn into his harem.
“So be it. I’m Bastien, and this is Laurie. Would you like to keep the name Candice?” he said, earning another negative head shake from the blonde.
“I’d rather get another one. I never liked Candice, and it now carries too many memories” she explained, her eyes glazing over for a second. “It’d be nice to have a fresh start, master”
Bastien winced a bit at the last term. His mothers didn’t use it, each having a personal pet name for his father, and he found it rather forced and demeaning both to the pokegirl and himself.
“Is Justine alright?” he offered, earning a nod. “Then I welcome you, Justine. I’d rather you find another name for me when in private, if possible. We don’t really do the ‘master’ thing too well here in Loire”
The comment managed to get a smile from both his pokegirls, and he thought he heard Laurie mutter ‘damn right’. A successful joke, as far as he was concerned.
“Do you have a Pokeball? We need to register you to me if so”
The blonde handed over a pokeball, which Bastien wasn’t entirely sure where she was keeping. He quickly scanned it and uploaded the registration request before placing it on his belt.
“Then I welcome you to our small family, Justine. It’s just starting out, but I get the feeling we’re set for something big”
As he said this, Bastien gathered Laurie into his lap then pat his left. And as Justine nuzzled into his shoulder there, he couldn’t help but think that the whole thing hadn’t turned out too bad in the end.
Name: Bastien Latouchent
Age: 17
Residence: Saint-Nazaire, Noir League
Region: Loire
Status: Active
Licenses
Tamer Y
Master Tamer N
Researcher N
Watcher N
Breeder N
Active Harem
Laurie – Lvl 17 Lambchop
Justine – Lvl 44 Dao