Patreon reward for Arzurre, taking place in the anthro pokemon world of Primrose Valley.
Primrose Valley
Shrink Soccer Showdown
By CalexTheNeko
“Whoa, whoa don’t touch that!” Arzure moved between Score and the soccer ball that was sitting in the middle of field. The blue and black raboot stood directly in front of the scorbunny to impede his movement. He had come out to the field on the outskirts of town to practice and had not though he’d encounter anyone else
“Why not?” Score asked. Unlike Arzure, he bore the normal fur colors of a scorbunny, and was dressed in just a long scarf while Arzure wore no clothing at all. “I saw a ball and was hoping for a chance to play a game.”
“Not sure you want to face me with this one.” Arzure grinned. “This soccer all is magic. A certain faerie put a spell on it for me.” Arzure was telling the truth, but he expected to be accused of deceit.
“Magic? What does is do?” Instead, Score’s eyes widened as he seemed exceptionally interested.
“Oh well… Basically, let’s you place a bet on the game.” Arzure explained. “That’s then magically enforced… Usually something like the loser is temporarily shrunken down to pocket size or something.”
“You really make bets like that?” Score seemed very curious.
“It’s a relatively new development.” Arzure shrugged. “But I’ve had a lot of new experiences lately.”
“So then do you want to play a game?” Score asked happily.
“Were you not listening?” Arzure held out his arms. “The ball is magic, if you lose something will happen to you.”
“But only if I lose, right?” Score asked. “As long as I win there’s nothing for me to worry about.”
“Aren’t we confident?” Arzure knew Score was younger. But he was being challenged. It didn’t seem fair. Being older and evolved, Arzure was stronger and faster. Score didn’t stand a chance. “You really want to play even after I warned you?”
“It sounds fun!” Score had the biggest smile on his face. “And I’ve never seen a magic soccer ball before.”
“Okay, but you were warned… So let’s discuss the terms of the bet.” Arzure thought for a bit. It was Friday afternoon. No school tomorrow. “Whoever loses shrinks for the duration of the weekend, unshrinking on Monday morning. Until that time, the loser is the winner’s pet.” Arzure figured that as long as Score was back to normal size by Monday it shouldn’t cause too much of a disruption in his life.
“So if I win I get to take you home?” Score giggled at the thought. “I’ve never had a pet before. I bet we can come up with some fun games.”
“Uh huh.” Score’s absolute confidence was making Arzure feel a little less terrible about his advantage. And he’d be a gentle pet owner for the weekend. He’d make sure the little bunny had some fun. “Very well, let’s grab some rocks to use to mark the goals. Then we can get started.”
“Right!” Score happily helped Arzure find big enough rocks to mark the goals. There wasn’t much they could use for an actual net, but that wasn’t a problem. The ball had a second enchantment on it as well. Anytime it flew too far away from the playing field it’d fly back on its own. It’d save them a lot of time not having to chase the ball down after every goal. After a few minutes they were ready.
“Go!” Arzure gave a shouted. He reacted faster than Score, getting to the ball in the center of the field first and kicking it up in the air. He bounced it on his knees a few times, then prepared to take a shot from all the way back here. But he couldn’t resist the urge to show off just one more time as he bounced the ball on his head.
Except the ball never came in contact with his head.
“What?” Azure froze in confusion. It took him a moment to realize what had happened. After he had bounced the ball off his knee up to his head Score had leaped into the air kicked the ball away, then was immediately upon it dribbling closer to the goal. The little kid had some fast reflexes. Arzure didn’t let himself stay in shock for long. This being a one on one match his goal was completely undefended. He broke into a full sprint chasing after the scorbunny, but just before he got close enough to steal the ball back, Score took the shot, kicking the ball and sending it flying straight between the two rocks that marked the goal. He had won the first point. “Alright, maybe I deserved that. No more showing off.” Seeing Score had some level of actual skill the raboot decided there was no more time for showboating. From here on he went all out.
The ball blew back to the center of the field on its own. As Score had just scored, Arzure got to take the ball and began to dribble it towards Score’s goal. He saw the scorbunny coming in an attempt to steal the ball and Arzure figured he was close enough to make the shot. He kicked the ball towards the goal… Only to have it fly in the opposite direction past him as score leaped into air and hit the ball with his head.
“You’ve got to be kidding me…” Arzure could hardly believe he was on the defense again. He was really going to have to give this everything he got.
The game lasted roughly forty-five minutes. With it just being one on one, they had decided to play to ten points rather than use a timer. Especially since neither one had a watch on them. The game was closer now, Arzure was up to seven points, but Score was at nine. The raboot was forced to play as defensively as possible, unable to risk letting Score get a shot the goal at all.
Arzure had the ball, Score dove in front of him trying to steal it, and the raboot quickly kicked the ball up into the air to keep it from the scorbunny. Then he bounced it off his knee back to the ground, resuming dribbling. He had a clear shot. Arzure kicked the ball as hard as he could towards the goal.
But Score was ready! After failing to steal the ball he had already curved to run towards the goal. He leaped through the air, kicking the back while still airborne away from the goal. And then Arzure couldn’t see what happened next. But the reason for that pretty much told him all he needed to know.
The ground suddenly came rushing up to meet the raboot as he shrunk in size. Score’s kick hadn’t just blocked Arzure’s shot, it had sent the ball all the way across the field into the other goal. Arzure had lost, and now he was paying the agreed upon price. He shrunk downward into the field, watching the entire world grow by comparison. He saw a giant Score in the distance, but the scorbunny was soon out of his line of sight when Arzure could no longer see much of anything beyond the grass that he was just slightly shorter than. He was about two inches tall total. And he was currently somewhat lost not remembering which direction was which from before he shrunk.
Luckily, he was not alone now. The giant scorbunny appeared towering above Arzure. Arzure felt more than a little embarrassed. He had lost to a kid. And now he was going to be a pet for the next two days.
“That was a of fun! Thanks for playing!” Score grinned as he bent down in the grass to get a closer look at Arzure. He slowly put down a paw for the raboot to climb into. “Do you want me to take the ball home with me too?”
“Uh… Sure…” Arzure sat back in the scorbunny’s paw. “I’ll take it home with me on Monday.” He had lost fair and square, so he had no right to be mad about his current size. At least this Score seemed like a good kid and so he didn’t think the weekend would be too bad. He was still in disbelief he had lost. He wanted a rematch! Though, that would have to wait until he was bigger again… And based on just how agile Score was on the field might resort in the exact same scenario.
“I guess we should head home then.” Score never seemed to stop smiling. As he held Arzure gently in one paw he used his free arm to grab the soccer ball and hold it to the side. And then he was on his way home. Arzure watched from Score’s paw as what looked like a forest of tree sized grass passed by in a flash. How fast it looked like they were moving from his point of view was dizzying. He decided it was best to sit back in Score’s paw and just rest rather than take in the sights.
After getting home, Score kept Arzure hidden, gently closing his fist around the small raboot so his parents wouldn’t know about the little pet. Once past them he opened up his paw so that Arzure wouldn’t feel confined and quickly ran up to his room.
“I’ve never really played with a tiny person before.” Score mused. “Didn’t even know it was possible. What kind of game to play…”
“Just so you know, I outright refuse to play anything that involves dress-up.” Just because Arzure was the pet didn’t mean he’d go along with anything.
“Nah, wasn’t thinking anything like that…” Score looked thoughtful. “Though… I think I know what we can play…”
Arzure had successfully stolen the ancient gem of power from the temple. But in doing so, the temple’s defenses had been set off. The raboot quickly ran for his life to avoid being crushed by a giant rolling boulder. When it appeared to be catching up, he dove to off the side of the shrine itself. He braced himself for impact as he fell a large distance before hitting the ground in a roll. He had made it safe back into the forest…
Except…
The trees parts as a Auroros broke through, giving a savage roar and snapping its teeth at him intending to make a meal of the raboot.
“Wait, wait, hold on.” Arzure spoke up breaking character. Currently, he was standing on carpeted floor of Score’s bedroom holding a tiny plastic bead. The temple he had jumped out of had been a shoebox with another piece of cardboard placed inside it for a ramp for a Ping-Pong ball to roll down. There was no actual forest, except for what they could view in their minds, but something had brought Arzure out of the game. “An Auroros? Aren’t they herbivores why would one of them attack me?”
“I don’t know.” Score was perched on his knees behind the shoebox observing the smaller Arzure. He looked to the plush toy dinosaur he had just sat down across from Arzure. “But went through what stuffed animals I had, and it was an Auroros or a Clefairy.”
“Auroros it is…” Arzure shook his head. “You really don’t have anything more menacing?”
“Nope sorry.” Score bowed his head. “But it’s make pretend, so just make pretend this is some giant feral Auroros who hungers for pokemon flesh.”
“Alright, alright I’ll work with it.” Arzure took a moment to get back into character. He drew his sword which was definitely not a small twig tied to his waist by a piece of floss, at least not while the game was going. The beast was massive, a brute force approach was impossible. But Arzure reminded himself that he was more clever. He had to outthink the monster. And his sword didn’t need to be dangerous enough to kill it, just to drive it off.
“The Auroros gives another roar and then charges towards you for an attack!” Score quickly grabbed the stuff toy and moved it closer to Arzure.
“Well, into the fray!” Arzure ran beneath the monstrous pokemon body, stabbing upward with his twig to strike its belly. The Auroros roared in pain. It hadn’t like that. But Arzure knew this was far from over and he quickly ran out behind the pokemon and began to climb its tail to get onto the back. He couldn’t take too dealing with the beast. This was but one small challenge on a big adventure. And he only had till Monday to finish it. “En guarde!” The tiny raboot shouted as it made it onto the stuffed toy’s back. Both scorbunny and raboot had a good laugh at the scene before getting back into character and continuing the game.