Welcome to Gaia! ::

Brenny had been wandering the forest, checking on every wild Pokemon he could find to see if they were warm enough. Or comfortable. Or if they had enough food. The celebi still considered himself the guardian of the forest. He often visited, attempting to assess whether the Pokemon who lived therein were happy. This was the first time he had actively sought them out.

He nearly stepped on a meowstic as he walked, and taking a double take stopped and stared. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't see you there. My name's Brenny. If you tell me your name, we can be friends. Are you happy here? Warm enough? Do you have enough food?"

"I'm a Brenny!" Brenny beamed, gesturing to himself. "A celebi. I take care of the forest here, because I'm this forest's celebi. That means I'm the guardian!" He studied Fei, before smiling brightly. "And you're a Fei. The only one there is in the world, I bet. You must be very special. I've never seen anything or anyone like you before!"

"So you must be a very special Pokemon." Brenny beamed. All of his friends were special. "Well. I changed," he began, "I used to live here with my--" he had been about to say sister. But Cecily wasn't his sister anymore. She had made that perfectly clear at the each. "With another celebi. But she left me. And it was winter like it is now. I was really cold and hungry. But a tauros came and found me! He warmed me up and fed me. And I found a star. That's what chanced me so I look like this. Daddy says I'm still me, though. I just look different." The celebi boy beamed.

"Maybe you'll find a star, too!"

"I didn't at first. Changing scared me. But Daddy said I'm still me, and those who love me recognize me. My sister--the other celebi I mean... she didn't. She hadn't looked for me like I did for her. She didn't know who I was. She was afraid of me." The celebi boy found that his eyes were wet, and stubbornly blinked away the tears. "It hurt a lot. I knew she didn't love me then. We're twins. She should've known me. But she didn't even want to come live with me. I suppose it was selfish to expect her to. But I loved her." Loved, he knew, was a lie. He knew it should have been present tense.

"But no one else shuns me. Everyone else loves me. I haven't met anyone else who makes me cry. So you don't have to worry about being different. The people who really care will never stop loving you."

"If nobody cares, then they probably never did. But I care! We're friends now, and just because we're different doesn't mean we can't be friends!" He smiled at Fei. "See? No matter what you look like or how different we are, we'll always be friends now."

Never had a friend before? Though it was a vague memory, Brenny thought he knew what that was like. To be alone with no one to talk to or love. He knew what that was like. That situation had been forced upon him--but surely being born into it was worse? "I promise!" He said. "We're friends now, and friends never forget about each other."

Brenny took Fei's hand, uncertain as to what to do with it. He gave it a squeeze. "I can teach you about being a friend. Its really easy to do. Anyone can be a friend! All you need is someone else to play with or talk to. Or even just being there! Just being there for someone can make them feel lots better. Want to play, Fei?"