Paldean Knights - Chapter 2

Full disclosure...

I stopped paying attention to Pokemon during generation four.

Gen IV, for the uninformed, was the Sinnoh Region. As I have learned during my eight years here in this wonderful world of pokemon, that region is far to the east. Which means, as far as my metaknowledge goes, I'm in the part of the map that reads, 'Here There Be Dragons.'

Which turned out to be a very rough analogue of Europe.

Also, unlike the usual applications of that metaphor?

There are actual dragons running around.

Whoopee.

Also, outside of that one movie with the Lucario in it, I can’t remember the franchise having much to do with royalty.

But given that I was apparently in the poke-world version of Europe, which was locally known as Avropa, I guess that made a bit of sense. Even if I didn't recall Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, or Sinnoh having any sort of explicit government. In particular, I had been born into the royal family of the Paldea Region... which somewhat resembled the nation of Spain from my previous life.

It was at least, just as dysfunctional as its analog, so that checked out.

“Presenting, His Royal Highness Prince Enrique of House Braganza! Consort-Princess Lani Lahuna-Braganza! Prince Aznaro Braganza and Princess Lehonor Braganza!”

As the uniformed crier called out our names, my family and I paraded ourselves down the main entrance in a show of poise and grandeur befitting the royal family. Dad had taken Mom's arm to lead her down the main staircase just as I had my little sister's, given that we were both preteens and, as a result, too young to be expected to have actual companions for a fancy dinner party.

My eyes brushed over the faces I'd been heavily incentivized to memorize.

Ortega Ignacia, the young scion of Ignacia Vehicles was entertaining a small coterie of devoted sycophants, as usual. Having just entered the academy and a year-mate of Ximen, the two had quickly come to despise each other. Personally, I suspected that any given room was simply too small to contain both their egos at the same time.

Agostin Dorado, heir to a banking fortune, was holding court around a table, a deck of cards predictably being shuffled. I pitied the family fortune if he gambled as frequently and poorly as I'd heard. Still, given that he was Sabastin's age and one of my cousin's friends, I could no more speak on his habits than I could change the moon for the sun in the sky.

I glimpsed Director Cervantis of the Exceed Corporation making a beeline for my father, his son Amethio following in his footsteps escorting his mother. Tragically, the woman had apparently been in a car crash some years prior and was confined to a wheelchair. The scuttlebutt around the various noble houses implicated a faulty design by Ignacia Vehicles, though nothing was ever confirmed. Still, there was bad blood between the two families to this day, presumably because of that.

I also glimpsed a few foreign faces, too.

A handsome older man who was putting too much effort into being suave with graying stripes in his hair with a matching suit was schmoozing with a series of primarily-Asturian nobility from North Three. Give that the province was the closest major port to Galar, I wasn't all that surprised, though it was curious why they'd chosen to host this party here in Levincia instead of on the northern coast.

Maybe I can ask dad later... I'd put good money on trying to round up support for changing import/export customs, though.

After all, Levincia was another major Paldean port city. While they wouldn't see much traffic out of a trade deal between Macro Cosmos and Exceed, their interests converged in opening up oceanic trade whenever possible. I'd probably find a few Alfornado and Porto Marinada officials here as well, if I cared to look. Granted, due to ill-tempered aquatic pokemon, that was a political stance not without hazards, but with great risks often came great rewards.

“Brother, the snack table,” Lehonor whispered, drawing me out of my musings with a slight tug on my arms.

I hummed and kept directing us towards our parents. “Not yet. We have to go say hello to people first. I told you to eat a few crackers on the way over.”

“I did, but they were just crackers,” Lehonor whined, and I sighed.

“You'll be able to eat as much as you want, just give me a few minutes to make a circuit of the room, okay?” Lehonor blinked sky blue eyes at me and I discreetly rolled my own. “Walk around in a circle.”

Given that I was eight and Lehonor was six, we could get away with a little rudeness here and there, her more than me of course.

Which was why I used her as an excuse in situations like these.

As we walked along in our parents' shadow, I caught my father's eye at the ten minute mark and tilted my chin towards my sister's deteriorating mood. His Mediterranean-style features softened and gave me a single direct nod even while he complimented Marquis he was speaking to.

“My apologies,” I gave a slight inclination of my head towards his twelve year old son I'd been speaking with. “My sister is eyeing up the buffet and may eat my arm instead if I don't finally let her at it.”

A slight dip of the boy's – I think his name was Argento – shoulder and a more natural smile showed he was just as happy to excuse himself from the conversation as I was. “I'll accompany you, if you don't mind, your highness?”

The boy's father flicked him a nearly identical glance to the one I'd gotten before giving a similar nod as well.

“Thanks for getting me out of there, Prince Aznaro. I thought I was never going to get to the food at the rate Father was talking,” Argento gave me a dip of his head.

“You're quite welcome,” I nodded at the boy, then looked to my sister and unlatched my arm. “No running and be careful of spills and crumbs or mom will have both our hides. But go eat.”

“Eee!” Lehonor gave a small squeal and set a brisk pace towards the table.

I sighed in relief, momentarily bemoaning the fact that these stretches of interpersonal activity at parties were only going to get longer and longer as we both got older. It was ten minutes now, but next year it would likely be half-again that. Or even double it. Soon enough, we'd be expected to make a circuit of the room independent of our parents that would last an entire hour before we got to do anything else.

“She's cute,” Argento offered, reaching up to self-consciously adjust a wisp of curly dark hair, then he blushed. “Ah, I'm sorry if that was out of line, your highness.”

I snorted and shrugged. “It's fine. Casseroya, I'm guessing?”

If anything, he colored slightly darker. “That obvious, huh?”

“We have a vacation home on one of the islands,” I replied, not knowing if he needed to be reminded or informed at this point. “I actually like the attitude of the nobility there, for what it's worth. Too much formality can get a little...”

I made a vague motion.

That seemed to relax the boy a bit more. “Thanks. I was surprised my dad ended up attending this, actually, but it turns out the family holds a big share in Exceed even if we probably aren't going to see any development from the deal.”

I hummed thoughtfully. “Are you taking lessons at the academy?”

“The Uva side, yes your highness,” Argento smiled. “I'm still working on badges two years in, though, so I don't think I'm going to be a competitor or anything. And my duties to my family's town take a lot of time.”

“As long as you're happy with the way things are turning out, that's fine. I wouldn't want any of Paldea's most promising students to miss out on potential opportunities,” I stated.

His dark eyebrows rose high above his eyes in surprise. “Man... you've really got the knack for talking like that. I'm still trying to get it down.”

“You have your duties, I have mine,” I stated with a wink.

He chuckled as we finally got to the long table full of food and grabbed a pair of plates. “So you haven't gotten your starter yet, have you? What are you thinking about as your main partner?”

See, this is why I like the Casseroya nobility. They might be country hicks by the accounting of the rest of Paldea's upper class, but they understand pokemon better than anyone else.

'Partner' instead of 'status symbol.'

Ugh.

“I'm not sure. Family tradition is to take one of the regional breeds, though my cousin Ximen bucked things a little so I have a bit of wiggle room,” I explained.

He winced. “Right, you're Ximen's cousin. I... see him around sometimes, when we have inter-school battles and stuff.”

I read his tone easily enough.

“As my mother always says... 'If you can't say something good about someone, don't say anything at all.'” I gave Argento a significant look. “I don't talk much about Ximen.”

He barked a quiet laugh, giving me a grin. “Good one, highness. Good one.”

“So, which pokemon was your starter?” I asked as I continued to pick and choose cuts of meat. A little of it was, admittedly, pokemon meat. In particular the slow-roasted slowbro tails, which still sat a little weird with me, but there were also higher-grade cuts of non-pokemon meat such as fish, beef, and chicken. Those types of foods were more expensive in this world given how vulnerable domesticated herds could be to wild predators that could breathe elemental blasts and tear through most barriers with brute strength, but the whole world's ecology wasn't just pokemon.

“My family actually breeds maschiff, so I've had a partner since... well, probably half my life. It wasn't official or anything, but basically everyone understood that I was going to be taking Watson with me when I started training a team,” Argento explained.

“A Paldean classic,” I praised, and his chest swelled up slightly.

Comparatively speaking, maschiff was nothing to write home about as far as starters went. Still, they were one of the most even-tempered breeds of canine pokemon. Canines themselves being a subsection of pokemon that were generally held up as the idea companion pokemon for non-battlers who needed an escort while traveling. They were also something of a regional point of pride given that they were provably Paldean in origin and one of the best guard dogs in all of Avropa.

“Thanks,” he demurred a bit, his hand going to his trainger's belt where four red and white spheres sat, locked in place. “I know he's not all that impressive, but I hope I can at least get Watson to evolve before I graduate. It's kind of... expected, since I'm the heir.”

One of the oddities of the maschiff line and, especially, their evolved form mabosstiff was that, despite being mono-typed as a dark breed, they focused the type's rather infamous viciousness entirely on those who threatened their 'pack.' Because they tended to pack-bond with humans almost automatically, this made them a preferred pokemon for families with children. They were overall incredibly loyal, very protective, good with young kids, and extremely low-maintenance with a simple diet. As long as you gave them enough exercise and loved them, they were some of the most simple pokemon to care for in the entire region.

Add on to all of that was the fact that their evolution was based purely on strength, didn't necessitate an expensive evolutionary stone or some esoteric and poorly-understood requirement, and their threshold for evolving was fairly low in comparison to more traditionally 'powerful' pokemon...

Well, those doggos were some of the bestest boys.

Arcanine might be more impressive overall, granted, but a dog the size of a grizzly bear required food to match.

“Th-thanks,” Argento repeated, smiling softly as his hand went to his pokeball once again. “I only ever hear people from my House talk about maschiff like that. It really means a lot to know that a prince thinks that highly of our breed. Do you think... I mean, I think you're supposed to be starting at one of the academies, soon...”

I chuckled at the leading question and shook my head. “If I had my way, maybe I'd pick up a maschiff, but I'm supposed to be 'impressive.' So I'll likely be expected to take a standard starter and train them to win a wrestling match against a dragon-type or something.”

Argento pulled a face. “Right, if I've got it bad for expectations, you probably...”

I hummed and nodded as we reached the end of the buffet.

“We'll see what happens when I get to the academy and how much my cousins have managed to accomplish,” I temporized.

“Ah... excuse me? I don't mean to interrupt, but are you talking about the academies?” A young female voice spoke up.

Argento and I turned to regard a girl who only looked a bit older than I was wearing something that even I could tell was badly out of fashion. To her credit, she wore it well, but it was still readily apparent that whoever had dressed her was going for a particularly poor combination of doll and maid given the frills, poofy sleeves, and the headband. As much as I hated the kind of people who would do it, I could entirely see someone mistaking her for 'the help' instead of a guest when the only thing that marked her as the latter was an out of place eevee backpack.

Whatever statement she was going for, her appearance was that of a child playing dressup, and poorly at that.

She fidgeted nervously under our mutual and mildly disbelieving gaze, adjusting her glasses nervously and reaching up to brush her two-tone red-blue hair. “I just... I'm starting there in a few months and wanted to ask... for some advice?”

I stepped forward and smiled. “Of course. My name is Aznaro and this is my associate Argento. If I don't miss my guess, your accent is... Galar?”

The girl blushed a bit more and nodded, one hand clenching on the plate she'd filled. “Y-yes. I just finished learning the language, so my pronunciation might be a bit off. Sorry.”

“You actually speak Paldean quite well,” I complimented her. “I hope you've been acclimating to the region? The climate alone can be a bit of a shock, especially in our more arid regions.”

“It's taking some getting used to,” she sighed, then perked up. “Oh, I didn't... ah, my name is Penny. Penny Cosmos.”

A quick glance at Argento told me that answered the big question of who she was related to since, in all fairness, she didn't seem like she particularly wanted to be here.

Which was something all three of us apparently had in common.

“You're Chairman Rose's daughter, then?” Argento asked, the obvious rebuttal.

Penny smiled and shook her head. “No, Uncle Rose is... well, he's my uncle. My father and sister are on an expedition to the Crown Tundra and were worried I was too young to look after myself. Uncle Rose volunteered to get me situated here in Paldea at the academy since he had a business trip.”

I nodded slowly. “Well, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Penny Cosmos. Tell me, any pressing questions that are making your life harder than it needs to be? You've got the ear of two seasoned Paldeans here to tap for expert knowledge.”

The boyish grin I gave her got me a giggle, so I chalked up the wordy joke as a win. “Let's see... I guess the main thing that's been confusing me is the maps? It seems like... well, Area One is in four different places, isn't it? And none of them are connected? Am I using the wrong map or...”

Argento and I traded another look and chuckled at the mutually-knowing expression on our faces.

I held up a hand to forestall whatever response Penny was going to give as she crossed her arms in front of her and looked a little irritated. “Ah, we're laughing because it's a common complaint, not because of anything specific you said.”

“Oh,” she blushed slightly and adjusted her glasses. “Umm... so what's with that, I guess?”

“Let's get a table and I'll explain,” I offered, waving towards a free one with my free hand. Shortly after that, we were seated and I flagged down a waiter carrying glasses of assorted beverages. Penny took a soda, Argento had plain water, and I availed myself of a small glass of wine while I glimpsed Lehonor chatting with a few children her own age at a table nearby. I also caught sight of one of her security detail nearby, so I allowed myself to relax a bit.

“Alright... the map of the Paldean Region,” I sighed, taking a sip of my wine. I'd have to ration it carefully. My new taste buds really enjoyed the stuff, but I was still an eight-year-old, so this glass was it for the night. The last thing I wanted to do was get tipsy in front of my father. “There isn't much of a story to tell, but what there is starts – as most things here in Paldea do – with the Old Empire.”

“I've read about it,” Penny interjected. “Or, at least, the colonies the empire had in Galar hundreds of years ago.”

“I could digress quite a bit, but to save us all quite a bit of dry historical melodrama... when the Old Empire broke up, regional warlords emerged from the old nobility and laid the groundwork for most of the modern noble families of Paldea that exist today. With political fragmentation came social fragmentation and, eventually, linguistic drift. It wasn't significant, mind you. Even the most distant Paldean dialects in Legnami, Afortunada, or the other distant islands are all closer to each other than, say... Kalosian or Galaran.”

“But there were differences, sometimes significant ones, in how local communities referred to specific landmarks,” Argento picked up from me as I reached for a glass of water and a few bites of food to pace myself on the wine. “Many of those compounded over hundreds of years until it became a point of local pride to refer to a given canyon, river, or other area by one name instead of another.”

“Eventually... about two hundred years ago, we were at the point where agreeing on a single name for virtually anything was an exercise in futility,” I continued, giving Argento the chance he'd given me to eat and drink. “Because it had become the official policy of the warring nobility vying for control of Paldea as a whole not to surrender any name-claims to what they felt were their people's justified territorial claim on whatever it was that was being fought over.”

“Keeping in mind,” Argento cautioned, trading off once again. “That the places we're talking about had changed hands probably dozens of times over the centuries between the noble families of Paldea as their individual fortunes rose and fell. So no one really knew what the 'right' name was or if there even was one before the wars stopped and we really started doing research into the Old Empire.”

Penny stared ay us for a long moment before picking up her fork and beginning to eat as well. “That... that all sounds completely absurd. So the reason you all call these 'Areas' is...”

“Because they're neutral names that forgo all of the old noble grudges. Area One is effectively the parts of Paldea that owe fealty directly to the King himself. Areas Two, Three, and Four are all pledged directly to the three most powerful Paldean Dukes... with a few exceptions for personal fiefs owned by the royal family. Areas Five and Six are pledged to dukedoms that are nominally less powerful.”

“Then what about the places that still have names, like Casseroya Lake, Glaseado Mountain, Asado Desert, and the Tagtree Thicket?” Penny asked, frowning.

“Montenevera City is basically the only settlement worth talking about on the mountain and Cascarrafa is likewise the only substantial population center in the desert,” Argento replied. “Those are effectively 'Free Cities' that are overseen by a council of nobles that own pieces of each. Casseroya and Tagtree are similar, for that matter, both controlled not by a single noble, but a loose alliance of influential local ones.”

“Even Casseroya Lake, with its recent developments for tourism is fairly unpopulated,” I stated, sending an apologetic look towards Argento, who shrugged it off. “These are rural areas with a lot of wild pokemon that have been traditionally very hard to govern in any centralized way. They've also been – historically, at least – full of bandits and thieves.”

Penny stiffened slightly, her eyes widening.

“Historically,” Argento emphasized. “After the founding of the academies and the Act of Unification, everyone worked together to put a stop to that. Outside of the wild pokemon, the vast majority of Paldea is perfectly safe these days.”

“Argento is actually from the Casseroya area, so he knows what he's talking about,” I affirmed. “And my family has a few properties there as well, it's quite a beautiful place these days. I recommend visiting if you get the chance.”

“It sounds-”

Something roared.

Someone screamed.

The room dissolved into chaos for a few moments as a door and part of a wall was knocked free, a huge pokemon lumbering into the party's venue, the dust clearing as it-

“Sweet Arceus! That's a Garchomp!” Argento breathed, rising to his feet and turning white as a sheet.

A Garchomp.

One of the fully-evolved lines of a the 'pseudo-legendary' pokemon and one of the most vicious and territorial dragons of the Paldea region. No one was sure if the Old Empire had imported the beasts before they'd gone wild and turned into an invasive species, or if they were simply so capable of traversing great distances and eating whatever they wanted that they had migrated to Paldea from the east.

This particular pokemon was a full eight feet tall, large for its breed as I distantly recalled from some textbook I'd skimmed. It roared again and smashed against a chandelier as its tail swept through the air and struck a table that went flying into one of the security personnel going for his pokemon belt.

Lehonor!

The thought rang through my mind as the masonry dust cleared and people began overcoming their shock to run away. I was standing and moving before I could think consciously about anything else, my feet carrying me towards the last place I'd seen my sister.

A flash of blond hair caught my eye as I glimpse her pulling her friends towards a wall-

“Glaceon, go! Icy Wind!” Penny's voice momentarily rang out among the chaos.

I cursed as the frost-dog pokemon conjured up a biting wind that drove the Garchomp back-

-back towards my sister!

“Penny!” I barked loudly. “Stop! Call Glaceon off!”

Which served the dual purpose of deescalating the situation and drawing the dragon's attention away from the cowering girls nearby.

It was just a shame that it was looking at me right now.

Dilated yellow eyes filled with anger, confusion, and hunger stared at me and-

I took a deep breath, feeling calm wash over me as I stared right back.

-whereamI?whatisthis?catchers?takers?whereisnest?hungry-hungry-hungry-

“There, there,” I spoke, my voice loud, but calm as I held up a hand towards the wild pokemon and braved a step forward.

It gave an aborted lunge at the motion, only for my focus to intensify and stop it in its tracks.

“None of that now,” I stated, distantly aware that the room had gotten a lot quieter behind me. “You're angry and want to go home. I understand. Someone interrupted a meal and moved you here. That was rude of them.”

I took another step, letting my instincts guide me as I radiated calm-calm-calm.

The Garchomp twitched, but bobbed its head towards me.

I reached out with my free hand, the one not being held palm-out towards the pokemon, and snagged a few thick slices of roast from a vacated table. I instantly had the pokemon's attention as I held up the meat.

Now that it was focused on the food, I dropped the hand I'd been using to calm it and slipped it around my back, hoping that someone would notice I was pointing towards Lehonor and her friends.

“That's right, that's right,” I cooed, coming closer to the dragon. “There's plenty of food here and you can eat your fill. No one needs to get angry or scared. Everyone should just calm down.”

There was movement out of the corner of my eye and the Garchomp's neck twisted-

I threw a cut of meat into the air and it bent back to snap the food out of the air, the three little girls completing their escape as I held its attention.

“Shh... that's a good dragon. You're a big one aren't you? I bet you're the strongest of your area,” I complimented it, throwing another slice of meat for it to catch as it bobbed its head again at my words.

“Gar! Garchomp!” It cried.

“I mean, it's obvious. You're bigger and stronger than average,” I stated, my tension slowly easing as I walked past the last table between us and restocked my treats with a plate full of turkey legs and berries some helpful glutton had left behind in their haste to run.

“Chomp! Gar-gar!” It echoed, eyes locking on the new plate of meat I was holding.

We were close, now.

I held up a turkey leg and it was instantly snatched out of my hand by a hungry maw. I heard gasps behind me.

Garchomp jerked.

“Nuh-uh,” I spoke, my voice soft yet firm. “They're not important. It's just you and me, buddy.”

I set the plate down and Garchomp refocused on the meat as I reached out to stroke it.

Another jerk, but a softer one as it growled.

I sank deeper into the all-consuming calm.

The growling subsided as it chomped down on another piece of meat, my hand finding its neck as I ran it along smooth scales. “That's right. Just you and me. You wanna get out of here, right? This isn't your territory, is it? We should get you home...”

-agreementskiesflyhomemate-

“You're going to have to do me a favor,” I spoke calmly. “I can get you out of here, but you're going to need to take a nap.”

Despite everything, a soft growl.

“I know, I know,” I whispered. “I promise I'll keep them away from you. It'll just be me and you and I'll get you back outside so you can fly straight to your territory, okay?”

A low grumble as I found apparently found an itchy spot.

“Yeah, that's it. You up for a quick nap now that you've eaten?” I asked, stroking its back.

-calmcalmcalmtiredsleepycalmntiredsleepycalmn-

The Garchomp gave a jaw-crackingly wide yawn and grumbled ascent to my request, slowly curling up as I sat down on the floor with it, careful to maintain contact.

I only dared to look away from the dragon when I was sure it was fully asleep. Turning only my head and keeping up the smooth strokes on its neck, I met the eyes of a pair of Rangers and a Knight who were standing a dozen feet away, pokeballs in hand as they stared at the sleeping Garchomp in a blank stupor.

I sent them a look and carefully jerked my head.

One of them startled enough at the motion to snap out of his daze, turning to begin ushering the people out of the room as the other two carefully and quietly approached.

Humming under my breath to help me keep up the calm was projecting, my only concern now was...

...what the hell kind of utter psycho tried to use a Garchomp to assassinate someone?!

~~~

Well, my birthday festivities delayed things a bit, but the good news is that you get a longer chapter out of it.

So here's the second part of a potential Pokemon SI I've been cooking up.

Hope everyone enjoys it, there will be a new Mind Games chapter up over the weekend.

Thank you again for all your support!