Moon: Dahlia Chapter (0)

Her sleep-deprived mind could only make out the barest of details, as her blue irises fought against their inevitable closure, desperately clinging to the last sight of her mother's silhouette, before she disappeared behind her closed eyelids. Slumping against her father's chest, she felt as tears slipped out, a voice for her 2 year old, unprocessed grief. She didn't understand why her mother was leaving. She didn't even know that this was meant to be permanent. The only thing she knew was that she wouldn't see her for a long time.

"I'm sorry."

Her father's voice was the last thing her exhausted mind registered, before she finally fell into the abyss. His deep voice soothing her into a restless sleep as he carried her away to their new home.

He was a good man, her father. He was a kind person, fighting to keep them both alive, but also spending every ounce of love on her, he had. Because his heart was too big for his chest. Even in her earliest memories, she only ever remember respect and appreciation for the lonely man that raised her for almost a decade.

They were a particularly poor family, and it was clear that her father was struggling as the main earner for the family, her mother, was now inaccessible. Many times neighbours and social workers suggested that she go stay with she mother until her father got his feet back on the ground. But she didn't want to leave him. She wanted to fight by his side. He was her entire world, and her mother was only a distant dream. Even though it must have been even harder on him, to keep her around, he always tried to hide it so that I wouldn't worry and that I could keep up the façade of being a normal family. Which to her, they were. And she'd never have it any other way.

"I'm sorry."

He was always saying that, her father, and she never understood why, because he hadn't done anything wrong in her mind. He had only ever been amazing to her, and when she saw the other children in their district fighting with their parents, her father always shone so much brighter than the other parents that she saw. But still, he was always apologising to her, for the littlest things. Whenever he did, she would always hug him tighter than the previous time, trying to get it through his stubborn head and too-big heart that she didn't need to hear him saying sorry. He never learnt though.

But the last time he said that to her, it finally felt warranted, as he too left her alone. This time though, she fully understood the gravity of the permanency. She cried and cried and cried for so long after her father passed. She begged every angel to bring him back, as she hugged her Furret-plush throughout his funeral, and well into the aftermath. Nothing would comfort her, and she didn't want anything to, because all the love and warmth had been stripped out of the world, and left her colder than ever. She didn't want her mother. Or Kateri. Or Huyana. Or Cheveyo. Or anyone! Her father, Tse Serigala, he was the only person in the world that she would ever long to see. And nothing could change that.

Not even Pokémon.

Not even a chance at a Pokémon journey.

But, a stubborn heart can only remain alone for so long, before it gives up and seeks for a new source of warmth.

She didn't want it though!

She didn't!

She couldn't imagine living in a world without that man!

But now, she was being forced to.

And she couldn't stop it as so many people wormed their way past her walls and into her bruised heart.



As Jaci left that city, she saw the buds that she and her father had planted last Spring fighting their way through the dirt. She couldn't see the rich red of their petals yet, but the dahlias were fighting. She didn't have the strength to fight for herself yet, but if anything could convince her to start, it was the last memoirs of her beloved father.