It’s a beautiful, sunny evening on the mountain, with many wild Pokemon making their way to their homes. A pair of wild Roggenrola slowly makes their way up the mountain, waddling with every step their stubby legs take. One has a smoother body than the other and is listening intently their other, more faceted friend who seems to be having a heated rant about something.
Their intense conversation comes to a halt when the smooth one notices something odd off the side of their path.
Both waddling off their path, the two find a human collapsed on the ground, their clothes covered in rips and tears.
Curiously, they poke at them with their feet but get no response. Shrugging (at least, as close to a shrug you can get without shoulders) the smooth one pulls off the humans backpack and starts to rummage through it.
The human suddenly shoots up with a cry of surprise, giving the both of them a fright. The faceted one launches a Sand Attack at the human, giving both of them time to run
away while the human coughs and cleans the sand from their eyes.
Charlie
----------------------------------------
Chocking on dust, I continuously cough and splutter the sand out of my mouth and wipe my eyes. Where the hell am I? Last I remember, I was heading to my first lecture for the day. And what were those creatures? They looked like literal walking rocks! I must be seeing things, and I only got a glance before this sand got in my eyes.
Finally wiping the last of the sand from my eyes, I look around only to see that I’m up high, possibly on a mountain, and that while the grass is rather tall around me, the other plants are rather short.
Pulling myself to my feet, I grab my backpack and start to put the strewn contents back inside it. Some notebooks, snacks, a water bottle, and a jumper. Pity about the now smashed and broken laptop laying with it all, as it had all my work and notes on it. May as well toss it in, since I could try and recover the hard drive at a repair store.
Belongings gathered, I begin to think about what to do.
Currently, I’m in the middle of nowhere, feeling very sore, and have limited water and food. Also, its nearly night. Since I am so high up there might be reception.
Patting my pockets, I grab my phone, or rather whats left of it. Mysteriously, it looks like the phone has almost melted into a mess of glass, metal and plastic, yet it didn't burn my leg.
Okay, don't panic.
“Oh God, I am going to die out here” I moan.
Then I see it. The sun must have set far enough for it to be considered night, because off in the distance I see what looks like the glow of a city. I am immediately flooded with relief, as I have a goal to work towards.
Tomorrow though, as getting down a mountain like this at night is practically a death sentence.
Guess I’m going to have to rough it here in the big patch of tall grass, since everywhere else that I can see near me is either rock or bumpy ground.
“At least I remembered to pack a jumper today” I mutter as I settle down to sleep, using my backpack and jumper as a pillow and blanket.
----------------------------------------
I wake to the sounds of rustling in the grass, a bit after sunrise.
First, a few seconds of dull half-awake awareness. Then, completely awake as I sit bolt upright, ready to fight off whatever animal woke me.
What greets me is a small bird, its head a mess of white fluffy feathers with a single red and white one extending from its forehead.
That’s a Rufflet. That’s a Pokemon.
Okay.
Why the hell is there a Pokemon, a video game monster, in the real world!?
Wait, were those things that looked like rocks yesterday also Pokemon?!
Unknowing of my internal freak out, the Rufflet hops around the flattened area of grass I made yesterday to sleep in, pretending to peck and scratch for bugs while constantly keeping me in its field of vision.
Slowly, I crawl backwards, not breaking eye contact with the potential murder bird in front of me, half remembering some game lore that mentions the birds having a violent tendency to challenge everything to a fight.
Looking bored from my timidness, the Rufflet fluffs its feathers a few times before taking off and flying away, maybe to seek more powerful opponents than a random human without a weapon or partner Pokemon.
When it is out of sight I let out the breath I had been holding and start taking deep breaths. I need to reach that city as soon as possible.
After a few minutes of calming down from my rude wakeup, I grab my jumper and backpack and have a small breakfast of a muesli bar and a mouthful of water to wash it down. Then, I begin my descent down the mountain.
Roughly guessing my position on the mountain, I was about half a kilometer above the base of the mountain, but the slope is pretty steep from where I’m starting, o it is possibly a 6km journey down the mountain.
Groaning at the long hike, I comfort myself by knowing that it will at least be downhill. At least my body had lost most of the ache it had yesterday.
The first 2 hours are rather uneventful, as most of the wild Pokemon seem to be wary of me and either keep their distance or run away entirely. That's fine for me because I’m still adjusting to the fact that Pokemon are now a real thing. Still, I managed to catch sight of some Geodude(s?), 4 Patrat in a group, some Taillow, a few Diglett and even a lonely Aron, which I took a wide detour around.
Then, sometime in the last hour of the hike down a pair of familiar looking Pokemon stop and watch me. I quickly realise that they are the two rocks who went through my bag when I first woke up here.
I slow down and stop about 7 meters away from them.
They look familiar but I cant quite remember their name from the games. Was it Rockenrolla? Rogarocka? Or maybe-
“Roggenrola!” shouts the rougher looking one before shooting a small ball of sand at my face.
Blinded again, I spit and cough while wiping my eyes until I can see again, at which point both of the Roggenrola had disappeared. After drinking another mouthful of my precious water to wash the dust out of my mouth, I continue my trek down.
After another 20 minutes of walking, I finally reach the bottom of the mountain. Before I passed below the treeline, I had made sure to note which direction the city glow had been, so once I got half an hours rest, with an apple for lunch and half a mouthful of water, I was off.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
Going by the sun’s position, it was close but not yet midday, so I had plenty of time to walk and could possibly even find a road or path I could follow.
The forest that I was in had a mix of pine trees and other types I couldn’t recognise. Figures, since this place looked nothing like northern Australia and its hot scrub and bushlands that I was more familiar with. It was probably a mix of coniferous and deciduous trees though, judging by the assorted colours of leaves on the different trees. Maybe it was Autumn here?
Anyway, it was weird that I hadn’t seen any Pokemon in the forest. They are probably able to hear me stumbling on every root and stepping on every dry twig though and are just better at hiding than I am at finding.
After an hour of travelling through the forest I finally saw signs of Pokemon living in the forest. At the base of a small tree there were the remains of what looked like berries. Their hard, red outer shell had been punctured through with something round and sharp, and their insides scooped out. Based on how my eyes had started to water, they were probably very spicy berries. Still, food is food, so I spent a few minutes checking the tree for any berries that the mystery Pokemon could have missed. I only found a few small ones that looked a bit green but put them in my backpack anyway and continued on my way.
The ground had slowly been getting rougher, with more roots starting to stick out to try and trip me. Eventually, I had to keep my eyes on the ground to avoid tripping on a root and would only look up every now and then to check my surroundings.
Without me noticing, the forest had started to get thicker, with less and less sunlight getting through the thicker canopy and the trees were all getting taller. Only after I had walked deep into this deep forest did I notice that some trees had deep gashes in their bark, at all heights on the trunks. I decide to take a closer look at the gashes, and when I bend down to look at one I notice that there is a broken piece of what looks like a tusk caught in it.
Gently, I pluck it out of the wood. It is a pale green and is shaped like a flat rounded triangle. It is also covered in scratches and rough patches, showing that whatever Pokemon it belonged to made good use of it.
As I wrack my brain to try and figure out what Pokemon this could belong to, I hear thudding footsteps behind me. Springing up, I turn around and look around in a panic trying to see whatever is coming. More and more loud thumps begin to enter my ears and I then realised that I was surrounded by potentially hostile Pokemon in their home territory.
I desperately looked around for an escape route, sweat starting to coat my brow. The only way I saw out was to climb the tree I was under, but that would probably only be an inconvenience to whatever was approaching me.
With no way out, I could only stand my ground and hope that I could reason with them. I mean, Pokemon understand people right? Maybe I could convince them that this is a mistake and I didn't mean to trespass here. I just hope that they aren’t hyper territorial Dragon types.
The bushes around me rustled, and the first Pokemon carved through it. It was a tall, green bipedal lizard with two giant, razor sharp black and red curved tusks on either side of its mouth. Behind it and around me, a group of 12 shorter, greyer, bipedal lizards with smaller tusks walk out.
Great. I had just invaded the territory of a large group of Fraxure and a Haxorus. Wish I had enough time to write a will.
Contrary to my expectations, the group didn’t attack me immediately. They did look rather disgruntled though, so I fought down my urge to run and said
“I-I’m sorry for intruding upon your home. I hope that you can forgive me and let me leave.”
Yikes not my best apology
The group of angry Fraxure talked amongst themselves while the Haxorus, who I assume was the leader, kept silent and stared at me. Then, when the discussions of the Fraxure seemed to reach a peak, it grunted and they all fell silent and turned to face it. Walking forwards, it came to a stop only a few paces from me. Then, it looked up at the tree I was under and let out a soft, crooning sound.
Several branches shook as a small green Pokemon climbed down from the tree and landed on the ground between me and Haxorus, making me flinch. It was an Axew, a small Dragon type that didn’t even come past my knees. It’s red eyes gazed up at me with curiosity, glancing between me and Haxorus. Leaning down, Haxorus rubbed its head on Axew’s, before nudging it towards me.
Axew hesitantly crept towards me on all fours, smelling my jeans hems before standing up and hugging my right leg.
Confused and still rather frightened, I was unsure of what to do next. Looking up at Haxorus, it was staring at me again and gesturing down towards Axew with its head.
“You want me to bring them with me?” I slowly said.
Haxorus quickly nodded.
I slowly lowered my right hand to Axew’s head and gave it a soft rub. It felt rough, like a finer sandpaper. In response, Axew let out a happy sounding grunt and released my leg from its hug, choosing to stand on its back legs next to me.
Seeing my acceptance of Axew, Haxorus let out a grunt. Hearing it, all the Fraxure left the area, some with a slight smile while others with a frown. Then, Haxorus gestured for me and Axew to follow it with its claws, before walking off.
I didn’t really have a choice, so I began walking behind it, with Axew following behind on all fours. Soon, we had left the territory behind, as all the trees around us seemed to have no gashes in them. After 20 minutes of walking, Haxorus stopped and pointed with their claw to a clear part of the forest floor.
Looking at where it pointed, I saw that there were boot prints in the soil along with various other Pokemon footprints. Haxorus had lead us to a trail that humans used.
Haxorus then pointed in one direction down the track before began to walk back the way we came, its yellow-green scales blending beautifully with the autumn leaves around it.
“Haxorus. Thank you for showing a fool like me mercy. I will do my best to raise and care for Axew, and when I am able to, I will return to properly thank you and your tribe”.
Stopping for a moment, Haxorus turned back to stare at me with its piercing gaze before snorting and walking off.
I watched until I had lost sight of it. Turning towards the trail, I saw that Axew was chewing on a stick it had picked up. I reached into my bag and grabbed one of the red berries I had found earlier.
“Hey Axew, I got something much tastier than that old stick. Here, have this.”
Pulling the stick out of its mouth, it smelt the berry in my hand before grabbing it with both hands and puncturing its outer shell with one of its tusks. Then, it tore the hole open a bit more and scooped some of the soft insides out, giving it a taste. Happy with the flavour, it began to scarf it down.
Once Axew had finished its short meal, we both began to walk down the track, following the direction that Haxorus had shown us. At one point, it passed by a clean stream where I refilled my water bottles and took a nice long drink with Axew. We saw many different Pokemon species as well, although they were mainly bug, normal and grass types. The only oddity I saw in the entire trip was a single Vanillite that ran away giggling after blowing some snow in my face. Soon, it was evening, and we had been walking along the trail for several hours.
Seeing the sky starting to darken I began to look around for a safe place for us to sleep. After a few minutes, Axew found a tree large enough to hold both of us comfortably in an empty hollow it had high above the ground.
It was only when we were both getting ready to sleep when I heard something running down the track from the direction we came. Peeking both our heads outside the tree hollow, we waited until it came into sight.
Moments later, a large Stoutland being ridden by a man in a red uniform and cowboy hat came into view.
The Stoutland stopped and began sniffing at the ground where we had been minutes earlier before looking towards our tree and barking. The man on its back dismounted and gave it a quick pet before walking to the tree.
“Hey, anyone there?”
Cautious, I gestured for Axew to stay out of sight before I climbed out of the tree hollow and looked down at the man.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“I’m this area’s designated Ranger, and I was sent to investigate this part of my jurisdiction due to the possibility of someone lost being here.”
Could he be talking about me? How would he even know that I was lost?
“And I don't think I caught your name either.” he added.
“Charlie”
“Well Charlie, can I ask you to come down from that tree for a moment? There are some questions I need to ask you, like why you aren't on the main route.”
Deciding it would be best to listen to this Ranger, I climbed down from the tree.
“Ok, so what’s your first question?” I asked.
“That you can hold still a moment”
With that, he pulled a small device out of his belt that looked like a bar-code scanner and held it facing towards me.
After a few moments, it gave a small ding and he put it away.
“Well, you are definitely the person I was sent to find. Why else would you be covered in Ultra energy?”
What the hell is he talking about?
“Still, its a wonder you survived out here with no Pokemon.”
He gestured me to follow him to the trail.
“I’m going to have to ask you to come with me to see someone better equipped to deal with your situation. Please get onto Stoutlands back.”
Realising we were about to leave I quickly turned back to tree.
“Axew, its safe, you can come out now.”
Hearing my voice, Axew quickly climbed down the tree on all fours before running over to me. The Ranger, meanwhile, watched us dumbfounded.
“How the hell did you manage to get a Dragon Type without its tribe members tearing you to shreds?!”
“Well, they kinda just gave me Axew after I stumbled into their territory” I awkwardly responded.
Sighing, the Ranger covered helped us get onto Stoutland before getting into the front seat of the saddle.
“Well, at least this mess will be cleaned up by someone else. But you are definitely going to cause some headaches.”
And without waiting for me to respond, we took off down the trail.