A mother and a child sat on a bed, draped in purple and pink. The green haired toddler was nuzzled in close with his brunette mother, his right arm wrapped around a small black fox. The older woman was finishing the last few words of a story, about a boy who met a pokemon for the first time.

“… and then they all lived happily ever after,” she concluded, shutting the well-loved book. Her son sighed, which caused the mom to smile. “Still good after the hundredth time, dear?” The boy nodded, content with his mother’s storytelling skills. The brunette stood up and grabbed the boy in her arms, tucked him in tight underneath purple sheets, and gave the boy a light peck on his left cheek

“Good night, dear.”

“’’ight, mum…” the boy murmured, yawning. The door shut softly behind his mother, the noise jolting him back to reality. Instead of being lovingly tucked underneath warm blankets on a fluffy mattress, he was on an old white couch, covered up by a single, itchy, woven blanket. It was miles better than the night before, however, and he could keep his three friends out of their capsules. Oddly enough, they didn't seem too perturbed when he released them- was it possible it wasn't that bad?

Well, he wasn't sure, but he also figured that he wouldn't have even considered another human, let alone a gym leader like Skyla, would have had the passion and heart to treat these pokemon with such love and care. And he had never thought that other humans could understand his friends, and yet that Snivy from before- Renton, was it?- could speak with his trainer.

He had set out to try and change the world at the start of this ordeal, but maybe, just maybe, the world he was witnessing was changing him instead.

And he was pretty sure this wasn't such a bad thing- well, except the whole “framed for being a serial killer” issue.

Well, it wasn't like hiding out in a dream-like place was a particularly awful situation. He couldn't help but smile a little. All things considered, the state he found himself in was not bad at all.

“Norman, you up?”

Not bad at all…

I was originally have an N and Skyla section in chapter 15, but I cut it out after finishing the little dream sequence with him and his mom, since it kinda screwed with the flow of the chapter and I wasn't sure where I wanted to go after, so I just expanded it a little with his thoughts and made it into an extra. Chapter 15 is probably about… a little over 2/3rds done, and hopefully should be out around midweek or so!

Basically, school and family are kind of a bitch when it comes to time, hence the long time between this and my last stuff. Apologies!