"What if something does happen?" The voice was weary, deep and sand worn. Male unmistakably and tinged with youth behind the gravelly timbre. A boy, maybe fifteen, perhaps slightly older, stands before a heavy cloak embroidered with murals of the Sun, sand, and scale. His own tanned body is painted with yet more murals of the Sun, each complex and different, as if portraying the Sun through a thousand different lenses. Upon his cheekbones was detailed a strange, almost horn-like design that snaked around his sharp features and almost seemed to protrude out.
“Ni hanályiih Atsílí. Nothing will happen. There is nothing to be worried about." The voice was higher yet even more coarse. A woman, only a few years older than the boy, stood off to the side. The resemblance between the two was unmistakable.
"Gowteel." The boy sighs, and a small smile plays across the woman's face, her green eyes glittering with amusement.
"Aidinza." She calls back mockingly, in the same tone. The boy, Aidinza, grabs something hanging from the top of the tent the two of them were standing in, throwing it at the older woman.
She sidesteps it, her feet crunching against the sand pressing up against the bottom of the tent. "It's been longer than your life and mine combined, Atsílí, since something has happened. Just satisfy the Naisho'h elders and go off on your journey. Explore Unova or some other region."
Gowteel's tone turns wistful, and her eyes dance with a long put-away dream. Before she shakes her head, sending fiery red hair flying through the air. Aidinza watches her silently; wanting to say something, but unsure what.
"If something does happen, Aidinza, then it will be fine. A blessing is a blessing. If something more than that happens, then." Gowteel steps up next to her brother, throwing an arm around his shoulder and pulling him close. "You'll do us all proud."
Aidinza breathes out and leans into the half-embrace. Trying to use it to calm his nerves.
"Kʼad das-teh-do." An old woman's voice calls from outside the tent, and a moment later, there's a ruffle of leather.
"Come in, Elder Tsesei; Aidinza just has the nerves," Gowteel calls, as Aidinza's eyes widen and he fumbles with the cloak in front of him. The figure that enters a moment later is large, in a way that's difficult to encapsulate. Tsesei, despite encroaching on seventy years of age, had a heft about her that seemed fit to shoulder mountains. Before her, the other two's lean bodies almost seemed tiny, like shinx before a persian.
"Bah, why have nerves? You'll make the Ya'an-ah proud boy; my old bones know it." Tsesei's tongue touched upon the common word with a strange lilting awkwardness, familiar but foreign.
"He should focus on making the Naisho'h proud, Elder Tsesei. We are his people." Gowteel and Tsesei shared a glance filled with old words and stillborn conclusions.
"The Ya'an-ah are all of our people." Aidinza avoids looking at the two, still awkwardly fumbling with the heavy cloak in front of him. Before he straightens up and looks them both in the eyes. Tsesei beams, craggy face exposing mostly gum.
"Well put, Aidinza, we are of the Naisho'h, and we are the Ya'an-ah." The second seemed pointed towards Gowteel, who simply let it go, stepping forward and helping her brother with the cloak.
With her help, it slides onto him easy enough, resting heavily on his shoulders. It would be hellish in the desert sun, and dancing in it would be as draining as anything Aidinza had ever tried. All for something that by all and every account should do nothing.
When Aidinza put it like that in his own head, it almost sounded masochistic.
But the quiet pride in Gowteel's eyes as she stepped back, and the happy grin of Tsesei, made the thick cloth bearable as he smiled back.
"Come, noon approaches." Tsesei's arm comes to rest on Aidinza's back, firmly leading him out of the tent into the blazing sun.
It began.
-
The Ya'an-ah desert was a harsh land. Sandstorms ripped at her dunes daily, turning well-worn paths into featureless stretches of sand unnavigable by all but the most keenly knowledgeable pathfinders. The Sun's endless heat bore down on her sands with little respite, and when it disappeared over the horizon, it was only replaced by a terrible, consuming chill.
Any attempt to lay true dominion over the desert was an attempt doomed to fail. The sands would swallow whole any structure worth building in days.
Only one people called this desert truly home, the Ya'an-ah natives. A people of hardy constitution and a deep, stubborn pride. Nomadic desert dwellers who bore their mother desert's wrath with determination, uncaring for any attempt to make it easier on themself. They were a people of a tradition so old that they made mountains look young.
Simply put, the Ya'an-ah had little time for anything but their desert. Wider Unova held little interest to them.
Oh, they had their treaties; the route winding through their dunes was proof enough of that. But if the entirety of Unova suddenly disappeared one day, there would only be a select few that the Ya'an-ah would shed tears over.
And so it was a strange and rare sight for the sparse dwellers of the so-called 'desert resort' that an entire tribe of Ya'an-ah would be seen dancing down their streets. Twenty men and women clad in light brown cloaks marked with a single pink line moved with a grace that belied their shared age. Upon their neck was long roped cords, most interwoven with shining quartz-like jewels.
Between them were younger members of the tribe, from infants to teens. But rather than the elaborate, high-stepped dance of the elders around them, they were singing. A chant led by a figure standing in the centre, in a cloak decorated in murals of Sun, sand, and scale.
And it was not just humans who walked down the winding roads of the Desert Resort. All around, watching with keen eyes, were the pokémon of the Ya'an-ah desert. From tiny dwebbles, little more than specks crawling through the sand. To large, heavy-set Hippowdon, watching with wide eyes.
Behind the precession, far more intimately involved, was another kind of pokémon, though they were mostly hidden from view. Little more than flashes of red and black in the sun as they swam through the sand like water.
The tribe continued its dance through the 'streets' of the Desert Resort until they came to a starkly marked boundary as the road ended and nothing but sand began.
Then were the drums; as the dancing natives crossed from road to sand, a heavy, rhythmic drum hammered through their bones. The noise danced perfectly with the motions of the Ya'an-ah people and drove them onwards, deeper and deeper into the sand.
It was an irresistible noise as it melded and blended with the chant, its heavy beat demanding every heart to contemporise and every foot begin moving to the tempo of the ritual. To follow its lead.
The chant reached an apex before slowing, the drum cooling alongside them.
Another sound, a flute, rose to fill the air. With lingering notes that called to a time long since past, the Pokémon following the Ya'an-ah began to move on their own. Tiny dwebble skittered at the feet of the Ya'an-ah. Hippowdon, so heavy as to shake the sands with their steps, began to follow in their wake.
In the distant dunes, several maractus, previously indistinguishable from cacti, began their own dance, following along the precession with an unrestrained glee.
The drum thundered back into the air, driving those newly caught in the ritual's tempo onwards and deeper into the sand.
Then the Ya'an-ah crossed a final threshold and stood before a massive ruined castle. The music stops, almost as if in awe.
There was much to be in awe of, of course. The castle was more akin to a mountain than anything a man could make, even half buried in the sands as it was. What parts of its magnificent structure were still visible were worn but yet served their purpose. All along their edges was carved the tale of a story beyond living memory. A story of a great hero and a people with their fates entwined with that hero.
This was the Relic Castle, the sacred shrine of the Ya'an-ah, the great construction of Bi At Ini, the conduit of the Sun. A peerless construction, unattainable by human hands.
Still dancing, the Ya'an-ah people began to split into two groups, spreading two ways along the front of the castle, their dancing kicking sand high in the air, a sandstorm formed of human feet. Yet if the sand that started grinding into their skin and sliding down their clothes bothered the dancers, they made an admirable attempt at ignoring it. It is here that the Pokémon following grew more frenzied with their involvement; the red and black figures rose up, six krookodile, as massive as any had hope to be, added their own presence to the proceedings.
The Ya'an-ah began folding in on themselves, both wings of dancers dancing past each other, forming two concentric circles centred on the young robed figure.
Slowly the boy begins chanting once more, slowly building and building. First, the drum began anew, each beat a primal call to action. Then the flute, each note an unplaceable memory.
Then it was almost as if the brewing sandstorm seemed to join the crescendo, the rasp of sand and whip of wind dancing in time with the boys' musical chant.
The circling Ya'an-ah responded with their own voices, a thunderous chant that seemed to shake the ground itself. Only growing in noise and intensity as the watching pokémon began their own braying.
The boy drags the robes from his shoulders, sending the embroidered cloth crashing to the ground and leaving the murals of suns painted across his body exposed to open air.
His voice grows louder and louder until it reaches an apex, and he falls to his knees. The sun reached its pinnacle in the sky, noon in truth. All noise cuts out with a single commanding beat of the drum.
Tranquillity for a moment.
This was the ritual of the sun. To honour the magnificence of Bi At Ini, the conduit of the sun. Here before the Relic Castle, these most sacred grounds, a tribe of the Ya'an-ah would come every time one of their own would reach their age of maturity. It was here that the Ya'an-ah beseeched the conduit of the sun to bless their youngest with greatness.
This was Aidinza's Ritual of the Sun. It was here that he would be judged by the Highest, and it would be here that he would either be blessed or be told to prove himself yet further.
But in his heart, he already knew that would not happen. It had been decades since the Sun had shown favour to the Ya'an-ah. Since a Volcarona had flown from the Relic Castle's depths and proven once more that their worship was known.
There was not even a sense of disappointment anymore; this was something that the Ya'an-ah had come to expect. Were it not for the oldest among them remembering the glory of the Sun's conduit blessing the children of the desert, perhaps the Ya'an-ah would believe that there was nothing to happen at the end of this ritual.
Then, a strange sound cuts through the expectation of nothing happening. The sound of claw clacking against the sandstone. Forty eyes snap to the entrance of the relic castle, and forty eyes see a baffling sight. Sat at the apex of the stairs into the holiest sites of the Ya'an-ah was a small quadruped figure. With light brown skin, black bar markings, and a healthy pink underbelly. There was no mistaking a Sandile for any other Pokémon.
Perhaps to any other group of Ya'an-ah, that would be little more than a curious Pokémon intruding on a curious ritual. While none but the high priests of the Volcarona were allowed within the relic castle - not that there were any of those left, in the decades since the last appearance - that was a human rule, for human minds. No Ya'an-ah would find themselves roused to force out a Pokémon who was not removed by the Castle's own protectors.
But to the Naisho'h, to this tribe of the Ya'an-ah, the Sandile represented something wildly different. Because the Naisho'h roamed the dunes where the Sandile and their evolutions were the kings of the sands, where Krokorok hunted, and Krookodile ruled. And in that shared proximity, to a people as spiritual and ancient as the Ya'an-ah, there came a connection. It was not uncommon for the camping grounds of the Naisho'h to find themselves home to Sandiles, left by their parents to the caring arms of the Naisho'h as they went hunting. More than once, their primacy over an Oasis was enforced by a Krookodile whose egg had been protected by the Niasho'h against the cruel hands of Salazzle years ago. Even now, half a dozen Krookodile watched this all with bated breath, having followed the Naisho'h to this sacred place.
While the Naisho'h were Ya'an-ah and honoured the sun with as deep a love any human could muster, their connection and love for the desert croc line could not be understated.
And now, to see a sandile, on the sacred steps of the Relic Castle, in the apex of the ritual for the Aidinza's coming of age… That was a sign to the Naisho'h.
Then the Sandile sneezed, startled itself and fell off the front steps of the relic tower, bouncing against hard sandstone with a squeak, building up momentum as it hit the sand, rolling tail over snout until it lightly collided with the young Ya'an-ah's kneeling form. "Bwah." It moaned as it relaxed into a slump against the young man.
With shaking hands, the young man reached out towards the Sandile, hands coming to stroke along smooth scales to a happy mewl.
This was not meant to happen.
This was not being blessed by the Sun, nor was this a Larvesta appearing to mark him as indeed something great this was…
This was…
Aidinza's eyes flick through the crowds of assembled elders, desperately searching out Gowteel.
He found his sister and met eyes as lost as he felt.
Then he seeks out Tsesei, the mountainous woman unmistakable among the tribe. Her dark eyes were distant and calculating as they watched Aidinza. Her attention shifts to the Sandile before him as the reptile pulls itself to its feet and examines the young nomad.
She steps forward, the other elders parting as she approaches the two. Anticipation built, but for what Aidinza did not know.
Her bony hand pressed down on Aidinza's head.
"The sun has spoken!" Her voice washes over the dunes, and the anticipation of the assembled Ya'an-ah mounted. A maddening expectation pressing down on Aidinza that he had no idea how to parse. "We expect great things from you, Aidinza."
Blankly he nods at his elders' words, eyes falling to the Sandile that had begun burrowing itself into his cloak, snuggling into it, and poking his head out with bright, black-rimmed eyes.
"I-I won't let you down, Tsesei." He stutters out, unsure of what that could even mean. Tsesei does not respond.
Aidinza had expected there to be no sign today.
He expected the ritual to end and for his journey to begin with nothing different from the last decades of silence.
Aidinza wondered, briefly as expectant eyes stared down at him, if there was irony in that.
-
"It doesn't change anything." Gowteel paced back and forth through the rough sands, separated from the mainstay of the tribe by only distance and respect,
"It changes many things." Tsesei's voice was solemn, but her eyes held that same calculating gleam from before.
"A sandile is a sandile is a sandile, Tsesei; more nights than not, our children sleep warm in their basks." As if to support Gowteel's point, Sandile stretched in Aidinza's lap, claws catching lightly on his trousers.
"Their cribs are not as sacred as the Relic Castle, Gowteel." Aidinza gives Gowteel a quick smirk, a thin mask over the confusion ghosting over his posture. She scoffs and shakes her head.
"The point is the same. It changes nothing. And if it would, what do they expect? Aidinza to get us even closer to the krookodile? For us to sleep comfortably with our necks between their jaws?" Gowteel laughs at her own joke, but Tsesei only looks uncomfortable, her dark eyes sliding off to watch the distant eastern dunes.
Gowteel follows the elder's gaze, staring into the distance alongside her for a long moment. "No…" she breathes out as realisation sparks in her green eyes.
"The Naisho’h squeeze blood from a stone. Gowteel. It needs to change." Aidinza looks up from his sandile, following the two women's gaze to the distant east. "How many do you think have walked this path this year?"
It only took a moment to realise the implications. The Naisho'h were what was known to many of the Ya'an-ah as a shallow desert tribe, avoiding the depths and dangers of the Far East. Sticking close to the Relic Castle, and consequently, the little civilisation that snaked through their desert.
They were also one of the few tribes that still honoured the Ritual of the Sun, their young still walking the path and beseeching the Sun for its blessing. Other tribes had allowed the ritual to slowly drift away, despondent from the lack of response.
"That's redic-"
"How?" Aidinza interrupts his sister, meeting Tsesei's heavy stare evenly. After a moment, the elder looks away.
The silence in itself was telling; she did not know. He glanced over his shoulder, where the tribe, made of old men and women too feeble to leave and children too young to risk the deep desert.
He lets his head fall backwards, the warm touch of the Sun euphoric on his face. His fingers scraped along the sandile's ribs, and he slowly breathed in.
"Aidinza…" Gowteel's voice was soothing, and he knew that if he said no, then that would be the end of this whole thing in his sister's eyes.
It would be the end of it in everyone's eyes. It was not the Ya'an-ah way to lash a man to expectations they do not choose.
"Then I'll have to learn how on my own." Aidinza was not a man to slink away from expectations. He straightens to his full height, his head held high. "Where are the pokèballs? I have a journey to begin."
-
The Naisho'h did not linger too long in the sands of the Desert Resort. They had their own days-long journey ahead of them and had little care for spending time near the denizens of the Desert Resort, no matter how close it was to the Relic Castle.
Aidinza did not blame them. There was something… off-putting about the Unovans that nestled in the shelter of the Ya'an-ah's sacred site. A feeling that only intensified as Aidinza wandered through the streets in a half-listless stupor.
The desert resort felt wrong. Like a half-finished painting, a restoration marring a masterpiece.
He pauses as his eyes catch on the glare of the sun. He glances over and sees the strange sight of a massive mirror, nearly half his height, leaning against the back of a squat building. For a moment, he just stares at the mirror across the road. It was a truly opulent piece framed by immaculately embossed wood, a scene of galloping Zebstrika, powerful Gigaliths, and massive Scolipedes.
He knew peripherally of the Desert Resorts near sole export. When all around you was sand and dunes, and you lacked the means to truly thrive off the land like the Ya'an-ah, you would start to get ideas. But he would not have thought that a work of something seemingly so valuable would be left to open air.
Though, he supposed that it would take more than a curious thief to move something of this size. Aidinza steps closer to the mirror, his eyes flicking to a sign hanging above the mirror for a moment.
TELEPORT PICKUP ZONE!
And underneath.
Thieves beware, psychic on site.
Or maybe they had more subtle security. He looks away from the sign above the mirror to the mirror itself. His reflection was an unfamiliar sight, there were few mirrors among the Naisho'h, and it was a rare day he was given enough of a break near an oasis to stare into tranquil waters.
But more than that, it was strange. Like looking at his sister, but everything was purely wrong. His jawline is too sharp, and his cheeks were just slightly too low.
Sometimes he liked to think the differences were his father's influence.
He shakes his head and winces as the motion pulls on his chest. He glances back at the mirror and shrugs off the poncho around his shoulders. The Naisho'h, his tribe, had not wished to linger, but they stayed long enough to give him his respects.
He rubs a hand across the irritated skin of his upper chest, where the sigil tattooed into his flesh sits proudly. It was not a complex thing, little more than six lines, forming two sigils whose meaning had long since lost their meaning to time. Yet every child raised by the Naisho'h had it tattooed upon them when they reached adulthood. When they performed their own ritual of the Sun.
Other tribes had their own symbols, Aidinza knew, but if they still knew the hidden meanings to them, he had no idea. In all honesty, he had no idea even if they still honoured the sigil. Few kept the Ritual of the Sun, to begin with.
He shakes his head; that would be something to linger on later. All he needed to know for now was that this marked him as an adult. Marked him free to travel beyond to the desert sands he was raised in.
Free to travel to find… something.
He stares at the lost boy in the mirror for a moment, the crushing weight of expectations he took upon himself driving his skin pale. What wou-
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The noise of displaced sand caught his attention, pulling him out of his half-panicked thoughts. Sandile was swimming through the loose top layer of sand, revelling in the warm ground. Though, something in the distance seems to have caught his attention. A tall figure cheerfully whistling as he returns a brownish pokémon that Aidinza only caught a glance of.
He was heavily dressed, and his vest would leave him sweaty and unclean. His not properly tied-off boots would see him picking sand out from between toes for hours. And perhaps fittingly, he was a heavy-set man. Not fat, but a man who loved exercise and food in equal measure.
His study of the man did not go unnoticed, the man pausing his whistling to wave merrily at the young man, a wide grin framed by his voluminous beard.
"Ahoy there, me matey." The bearded man seemed to be infinitely amused by his own greeting, chuckling to himself as he moved towards Aidinza.
"Cool sands and wet winds, traveller." The young Ya'an-ah man was cautious, not quite stepping away from the rotund man but certainly keeping a free back. However, Sandile had a vastly different outlook on the situation, cheerfully snaking towards the large man through the sand.
"A wee Sandile?" The man kneels down in the sand, greeting the curious sand crocodile with a cheerful scratch. A rather bold choice, Aidinza could not help but think. He had seen more than once the power of a sandile's jaw. "Aren't ye the curious one?" The man scratched at the sandile's scales, to the ground-types evident joy, writhing underneath powerful fingers. "Ah, I'm soorry. Looks like I've stolen ye pokémon from ye."
Aidinza's eyes widened in a panic, hand shooting to his belt by his side where Sandile's pokéball sat.
"Ohoho, I didn't mean like that!" The big man gives a loud belly laugh, and the noise startles Sandile, sending him skittering through the sand to curl around Aidinza's ankle, surprisingly soulful black eyes staring betrayed at the big man. "Ah, I've gone, and dun startled him, I'm sorry."
"He'll live." Aidinza's answer was short, unsure really what to say to someone who had such a boisterous bearing, much less one who was an outsider to his people and still coming down from the shock of panic at thinking someone might have stolen his Pokémon.
"Ah no, no, I have to make it up to ye. How about a battle? I've always found it the best way to shake out any nerves with someone!" The heavy-dressed man gives a cheerful thumbs up at that, looking to all the world like he genuinely believed that sentence. Aidinza, on the other hand, boggled slightly at the man, having a fight to make up? It seemed like somewhat backwards logic to the desert nomad.
However, Sandile seemed all for it, cheerfully bounding forward to set himself up in front of his trainer before his face dropped into a severe mien, powerful jaws clenching together.
"I guess so. I haven't… I haven't battled before." Aidinza felt slightly awkward confessing that, even though, according to his tribe's law, he was not allowed to have owned a Pokémon until just half a day ago.
"Dun ye worry lad, I've got just the wee Pokémon that needs a nice calm battle. Just make sure to keep ye head in the fight, and ye'll do fine." The large man pulls a Pokéball off his belt, and with a start, Aidinza notices that the man has six balls. Was he an experienced trainer with an entire team? "Go ye mad lad!"
The ball split apart, unleashing a red beam of energy, the same red energy that Aidinza had become familiar with only a few hours prior when he caught Sandile. As the red energy hit the ground, a small form - even smaller than Sandile - appeared. It was some sort of mostly gingerish furry quadruped, whose face was a shock of splotchy black. It immediately spun on its paws and bounded over to the large man, tripping over the sand as it went. The man cheerfully picked up the Pokémon, cuddling him close to his face as the Pokémon lapped at his face.
"Ohoho, I've missed ye too, Lillipup, but we've got a wee fight with another wee like Pokémon to get to!" The man scratched at the Lillipups' side for a moment before letting him drop back down to the sand, where it sniffed at the air and turned towards Sandile. "Now." The man pauses before hitting his forehead with one massive hand. "Ah, I've gone and dun challenge ye without even introducing meself. I'm Mark. It's nice to meet ye?"
"Aidinza. May the sun watch over you." The young nomad gestures towards the sun and touches his forehead, not really expecting Mark to know how to respond.
"And I'm sure it's already watching over ye." He booms out with a grin, one that Aidinza returns, that was not exactly what he was supposed to say, but it was closer than he would expect. "Now, if it's ye first battle, I've got to insist that ye fight without a bet. I've got cash to spare, but ye new trainers can be pretty tight."
"Okay. Any other rules?" While the tribe did part with a fair bit of cash for Aidinza to support himself, he was not overly eager to part with it, so no bet was fine in his books.
"Just one on one first to yield, ye wee sandile doesn't look like we need to start setting rules for property damage just yet." Sandile seemed to take exception to that, letting out a tiny little growl that no matter how adorable Sandile looked, still set off a primal part of Aidinza's monkey brain that said a predator was nearby. Mark, on the other hand, seems unbothered. "Ohoho, maybe we should set some just to be safe!"
"Now, let's get started!" Mark gave Aidinza an expectant look as his Lillipup wagged its orange tail. Aidinza returned the look with a slightly confused one of his own. "Er, laddie, ye should probably tell ye wee sandile there what to do."
"Oh! Uh. Sandile bite it?" Aidinza had witnessed the fearsome bite of a sandile before and was willing to bet that it would have serious applications in a real fight. Or not bet, as the case may be.
"Lillipup, dodge, and get the wee thing's scent with Odour Sleuth!" The Lilipup yipped excitedly, lowering into a stance ready to throw himself in any direction, as Sandile surged forward, sharp white teeth flashing in the sun. However, instead of closing his powerful jaws around the puppy pokémon, Sandile caught nothing but air as the smaller Pokémon slipped away.
"Good job, Lillipup! Now that we have his scent get in close and knock him over with tackle!" It was an almost comical sight to Aidinza to see the Lilipup half stumble in the sand and scramble to cross the distance. Especially since the Lilipup only came up to Sandile's shoulders and looked far, far lighter.
"He's coming right to us this time; bite can't miss." Sandile nods firmly, despite the note of uncertainty in his trainers' voice, tracking the Lillipup carefully as it makes its approach. Soon enough, the puppy Pokémon had crossed the distance, throwing its body weight at Sandile. Considering the difference in size between the two Pokémon, it came as quite a shock for the two to see Sandile sent sprawling from the impact.
"Ye shouldn't look so shocked, laddie, no matter their size Pokémon pack quite the punch. Ye gotta start thinking if ye don't want to lose this!" Aidinza's green eyes narrowed at that, straightening up to his full height as he forced himself to really look at the fight. "Now those are the kind of eyes I like! Lillipup, get in close for another tackle!"
"Sandile! Into the sand! Dodge around the tackle!" Sandile were incredibly fast inside their natural habitat, and while the loose top sand was a hindrance to Lillipup, it was far from one for Sandile.
Sandile wasted no time in obeying, sliding straight under the Lillipups' next tackle as he delved into the sand. But the Lillipup was quick to whirl around on the Sandile, its keen nose impossible to escape now that it had a scent, and it tried to chase the lump of moving sand through the dunes.
"Get ready, Sandile! He's right on your tail!" Aidinza warns his Pokémon, knowing that the Pokémon lacked the sand sense that its older evolutions had.
"They're trying something, Lillipup. Keep on your guard." Aidinza's brow furrows at that, and he finds himself wondering if he actually was up to anything. Regardless, Mark's words proved to be his own Pokémon's downfall, as the Lillipup hesitated, breaking his momentum.
"Now, Sandile! Turn around and bite!" Sandile turns on an absolute dime, sand more like water to the desert croc, jaws opening wide to snap down onto the Lillipup, teeth glittering in the sunlight. It was truly a fearsome sight, a sight that would incite primal fright. And Lillipup certainly thought so, scrambling in the sand to turn and get away from the gaping maw.
However, the Pup was too slow, and though he managed to put his back to the croc, he lost his footing in the sand. Sandile's jaw snapped closed, catching the tiny canine's tail in a potent grip.
A beat passes, then two, and then a heart-wrenching squeal hits the air as the pain of having his tail bitten hits the young Pokémon. The Lillipup, heedless of the fifteen kilograms of sand reptile behind it - or perhaps all too aware - shoots off as best it can, desperately trying to shake Sandile off his tail. However, no matter the surprising strength in the Lillipups form, it was still yet subject to physics, and with a weight three times it's own sliding around behind it, it was inevitable that he would lose balance at some point.
And it just so happened that when it did happen, they were sent spinning out of control, skidding over the sand in a strange Pokémon rendition of a spinning top, until they came to a halt in front of Aidinza. The trainer watched with some curiosity as Lillipup stood up and stumbled around, dazed for a few seconds, before collapsing in the sand, out cold. Aidinza glances down at his own Pokémon. Sandile himself looked dizzy but quickly shook it off.
"Well, I didn't reckon that would be the way it went down, but ye did great, Lillipup!" The tall man returns his Pokémon, patting the shell of the white, red device with a fond grin before he turns to Aidinza. "Ye did great too, laddie; I didn't even expect ye Sandile would be old enough to know Bite!"
The tanned young man blinks slowly at that and slowly looks down at where Sandile was glancing around, confused from his dizzying journey, and confused about why its opponent had suddenly disappeared. Sandile was a little on the smaller side, but he was far from a literal hatchling; the idea of him not knowing how to bite was mind-boggling to the young Ya'an-ah. As Sandile continued to look for his erstwhile opponent, he turned his attention to his trainer, who gave an encouraging smile. "You did great, Sandile. We won!"
That seemed to be all Sandile needed to know, a cheerful smile spreading over his snout as he swam back over to his trainer and butted against his shin. Aidinza kneels down to properly pat the victorious Mon.
"Heh, ye know laddie, it always gladdens this old heart to see a new young trainer with some bite to him." Mark straightens up, stretching his back for a moment before he breaks and chuckles. "That'll serve ye nice and pretty on the gym circuit."
Aidinza pauses, eyes flicking up to meet Mark's eyes.
"First time ye thought about the circuit, eh?" The question itself was casual, but there was a keen note in it that was unmistakable. "Good place for a kid to prove himself. Ye learn a lot of good lessons, answer a lot of questions."
Aidinza knew what the gym circuit was, of course. The Ya'an-ah were isolated; they were not savages. Eight of the strongest trainers in Unova honoured protectors and leaders that upheld law across the land and tested trainers for their worthiness.
For a moment silence stretched through the air as Aidinza's attention slid back to the mirror a few paces away.
"What kind of questions?" He asks lightly, staring at what little of the reflection he could make out.
"What kind ye got?' Aidinza licks his suddenly dry lips before a loud ringing. Mark's eyes widen, and he fumbles with his pocket. He pulls out a device. "Darlin! I was just thinking about ye! Yes, I'm right in front of the mirror! I was just about to release Beheeyem Darlin. Just had to take a moment to appreciate how lucky I am to be with ye." Aidinza watched Mark awkwardly, the sudden shift in the conversation off-putting.
The older man pulls something out from his pocket, looking at it confused for a moment, before throwing it towards Aidinza with a sly grin. He shoves his hand back into his pocket and pulls out a shrunken pokéball.
A strange brown pokémon appeared in a flash of red, it was almost human-like, with three colourful gems capping off both its arms, but its head was an odd squashed slab painted with black stripes.
Aidinza meets the pokémon's eyes, the strange alien green glow almost terrifyingly cold and piercing. The pokémon glanced away as Mark snapped his fingers and pointed at the mirror.
"Yep, Beheeyem is seizing up the mirror right now. Is the room ready for him?" Mark presses a hand to the side of the mirror, and a moment later, he and the mirror are engulfed in an alien glow. Mark catches Aidinza's eyes again, giving him a hurried wave before he nods to the strange floating Golem. "Right, I'll see yo-."
The older man disappears, along with the mirror and the alien Pokémon.
Aidinza blinks again as he scratches at the back of his head. That… happened, he supposes, before he examined the disk, still kneeling in the sand. It was an odd yellow-brown colour, held in a black casing with the word DIG marked across it. The young man glances over at Sandile, where the Crocodile had lost interest in whatever was happening and had taken to chasing his own tail around in the sand.
"Do you know what this does?" Aidinza felt it was a pretty redundant question, considering that Sadile could not actually respond to him. Regardless it made him feel better, especially when Sandile stopped his tail pursuit to shuffle over to him, once again dizzy, and nuzzled its way into his lap.
Aidinza's hand begins massaging over the reptile's scales as he looks away from the teleport bay, across to the very end of the town, where the sand-covered road gave way to just sandy dunes, beyond which was the Ya'an-ah desert proper. What was known as route four to wider Unova.
Towards where Nimbasa City was over many horizons.
He glances back to where the mirror had sat, its outline still marked in the sand.
"Come on, Sandile. Time to start our journey."
-
Aidinza's wandering along the road cutting across route four was in equal measures exhilarating and utterly routine. This close to Unova's constructed works, the desert had few secrets kept from the young Ya'an-ah. But the roads did have along them young Pokémon not yet old enough to brave the desert itself but old enough to have left their parents' care.
They made excellent training partners for Sandile and Aidinza to start exploring just how trainers and Pokémon fought together. Lacking the honed edge to go straight for the win when the inexperience of the two confused Sandile mid-fight, yet still a credible threat to the croc.
It was during these fights that Aidinza learned that while Sandile had a set of powerful jaws on him, it was far from his only avenue of attack. Nor was it really his best avenue. Strangely enough, Sandile's best move seemed to be boasting at his foes. The desert-born reptile would flex his powerful muscles at his opponent, something that seemed to infuse him with potent energy. When his foe inevitably grew angered by the Sandile's posturing and attacked, Sandile would easily bat them aside, sometimes with a headbutt, sometimes with a slash of his claws. One time Sandile even used his powerful tail to send a scrafty rolling down, and then back up, a sand dune.
The only real common point of the attack seemed to be Sandile's boasting and the energy that came from it.
This perhaps tied into the second thing that Aidinza learned about his Sandile. When Sandile beat another Pokémon, he did not slow down or become tired. If anything, it seemed to be the opposite; he would become stronger, muscles bulging tight against his smooth scales. Aidinza was pretty sure that it was not a confidence thing, nor did he think it was just adrenaline. No, it seemed to be a deeper matter than that, a similar potent energy as Sandile's boasting that suffused through his body when he triumphed over a foe.
And it was something that the two of them were only beginning to scratch the surface of. Aidinza could tell that the glimpses at the power in Sandile's body after he beat one or even two Pokémon in quick succession was the tip of a Trapinch nest.
It was something that Aidinza knew that he would need to explore or perhaps research. There had to be an explanation that others had already found? Maybe when he reached Nimbasa city, there would be an Elder willing to share their wisdom? He was cautious about exploring it on his own whenever the power started building Sandile grew a bit wilder. Not to the point where he would disobey Aidinza. But certainly to the point where he was harsher on his opponents, just a bit more brutal, and just a bit slower to listen to his trainer's orders.
Even with Aidinza taking plenty of time to fight the wild Pokémon along the wide bitumen road, travel out of Route four was quick, and in only a few days he had come upon a bizarre sight, to both him and Sandile.
It was an odd thing, tiny and stretching as far as the eye could see. Some of it was tall, nearly as tall as Aidinza's waist, while others were barely taller than a single finger. The strange little things prevented Sandile from smoothly swimming through the brown sand - soil Aidinza reminded himself, soil and dirt - seemingly holding it all together.
And most peculiar of all was the fact it was green of all colours. Indeed, the little green plants were, to their knowledge, grass.
It made things very green.
Aidinza was unsure how he really felt about the little plants. They felt strange and did not fall away from his steps like he was used to. But ever since he hit the dirt and grass outside the Ya'an-ah desert, he had not felt the annoying grate of sand caught in his clothes.
Sandile, on the other hand, seemed to have very much made his mind up about the grass, and that mind was that it was the worst thing in the world. More than once, Aidinza would find Sandile tearing into the grass around him, acting as if he pulled up enough grass that it would transform the dirt underneath into sand. Once, when the two of them had set up for the night, Sandile forced Aidinza into joining him in tearing up the grass, turning soulful black eyes on him whenever he stopped to go and lie back down.
It even affected Sandile's fighting. The Sand Crocodile's speed in the sand was far greater than his speed overland, and it was something that the two of them had to seriously account for.
Going from being both the physically strongest and fastest in any fight Aidinza had thus far to only being the physically strongest against the Pansear that the other trainer sent out was a real shock to Sandile.
Luckily, with some careful timing and Sandiles' uncanny ability to flex his enemies into striking at him, the pair proved triumphant, getting a disappointed tut from the opposing trainer and a hundred Poké, the absolute minimum bet that the Unovan league requires. Before parting ways to do some "Super intense training, booyah!" His words, not Aidinza's.
But no matter how discombobulating the grasslands and forest were to the two desert dwellers, it had nothing on just how bizarre Nimbasa City was. Though he had seen in the darkest and clearest nights the lights of both the south coast and the north, it did not prepare him for the first real sight of the city. A sight that neither of them really understood what they were looking at. On the horizon had been a strange, massive wheel that rivalled even the walls of the relic castle, slowly rotating in place, the function of which completely escaped Aidinza. He supposed they could be one of those windmills he had heard about that would somehow turn wind into lightning. But if it was indeed a windmill, then windmills looked even more bizarre than he had imagined.
The strange sights only grew stranger as he continued walking closer; in half a day, other buildings became obvious in the distance, and these were nothing like the wrought stone buildings that peppered the Desert Resort, hiding in the sanctuary offered by the Sacred Relic Castle. No, these were massive and almost sleek things of steel and a mind-boggling amount of glass. The painted buildings were a riot of colours to rival even the most colourful of Ya'an-ah clan meets and were often framed by artistic decorations that defied explanation.
It was something that was only accentuated when Aidinza found his way into the city itself. At a distance, he could almost pretend that the structures were reasonably sized; they seemed tall, but perhaps only as tall as some of the valleys and cliffs that Aidinza had waited out fierce sandstorms in.
That was not true in the slightest. Some of the bigger buildings absolutely dwarf anything that Aidinza had seen in his life, barring perhaps the Relic Castle. Painted concrete and glass jutting into the sky.
And it almost did not seem to be enough to contain the sheer amount of people that Aidinza saw around him. Thousands of people bustling through the wide streets of Nimbasa, ducking into buildings, crossing streets, or just seemingly walking.
There were more people on one side of the street than Aidinza had seen in his life. Even the vague memories he had of the Half-centennial Sun Festival, where every Ya'an-ah tribe would come together to honour Volcarona and the sun for a month straight, did not have anywhere near as many people as Nimbasa.
Everywhere the nomad looked, there was some new crowd, a new cacophony of noise, another set of Pokémon and humans, more colour, more steel, more concrete. It was overwhelming.
He had to get away from it all, and judging by the complete lack of protest from Sandile when he was returned, the young man's starter agreed.
Maybe it was providence that he ended up stumbling into the Pokémon centre; perhaps it just seemed to be the most welcoming building in the steel prisons that seemed to be closing in on the desert-dweller. Or maybe its sign was just that universal, that even someone who had no experience with the outside world could realise it was a place of sanctuary.
The inside was calmer than the bedlam, not quite a tranquillity, and still, far more people than Aidinza was comfortable with, but more manageable as long as he ignored the solid walls around him.
"Hello there!" Aidinza startles as a cheery voice comes from off to his side. An older woman sat behind a desk not far from the entrance, with an elaborately made up pink-hairdo and a soft matronly smile. But most importantly to Aidinza, balanced slightly precariously by her hair, was a white hat with a pale pink plus embroidered into it.
A symbol that he had been taught to recognise in his youth, of the honoured healers throughout Unova and the world that he was to seek out if he ever found himself lost from his tribe.
"Honoured healer!" Aidinza immediately bowed toward the older woman; the Ya'an-ah relied on wise men and women who would wander the desert between tribes to ensure that the Sun Worshippers would remain healthy. It was a difficult life, solitary and dangerous, and no Ya'an-ah would ever consider giving them anything else than the utter respect they and anyone else who dedicated themselves to healing deserved. "The sun shines ever bright for you."
The healing woman looked flummoxed for a moment, crystal clear blue eyes blinking before a flash of realisation crossed them.
"And may you find a place in its light." This time it was Aidinza's opportunity to be caught on the back foot as the traditional greeting was returned. The words felt like an anchor for Aidinza, a flash of normalcy in the overwhelming alien nature of the city he found himself in, and the remnants of stressful tension pulling at his shoulders fell away. "It's been a while since I've met one of the Yaanah."
Aidinza smiles at the woman, tinged with something difficult. "Yeah." He agrees quietly, and the woman seems put off by the sudden change.
"Ah, did you need me to give your Pokémon a check-up, or are you looking for accommodation?" She gestured at a rack of keys behind her, but Aidinza was focused on what she had first said.
"I-if you are not too busy, I would, of course, welcome you to look over my Sandile. Who knows when the winds will lead you to me again!" Aidinza knew not to waste the opportunity to have a healer look you over; it could be months before another wise woman would crest the dune and request to stay with the tribe. In fact, once, when he was young, he had kept close to his chest the heavy feeling in his stomach while a healer was staying with the Naisho'h, too shy to bother them with what seemed to be a petty bug. Unfortunately, only a week after they left, it had blossomed into a terrible sickness, and it had taken nearly a month for another healer to come to the tribe. It was not a mistake that the young Ya'an-ah would repeat twice, and certainly not one that he would risk with his Pokémons health.
"I can even pay for your time!" The Naisho'h knew the value of ensuring that the healers' time was well compensated; not only would their generosity mean the Healer would always keep them in mind, but it would mean that the Healer could purchase and barter for more medicine, propagating and bolstering the health of the Ya'an-ah as a whole. However, his words seemingly caused the woman to grow concerned, her pink eyebrows furrowing slightly, and Aidinza felt a shock of worry that he had done something wrong.
"You are really new to training, aren't you?" Aidinza was, but he was not entirely sure how that was relevant. Maybe there was some sort of taboo about looking after your Pokémon's health? Or having someone else look after it for you that you had somehow stumbled into?
It sounded insane to the young nomad, but then the terrifyingly tall buildings of steel and concrete and the strange windmill in the middle of the city that made no more sense the closer he was to it also were insane to him.
"Oh no, it's nothing bad, it's just new trainers don't need to pay for the Pokécenters healing services, and I'm certainly not going to be carried away by a wind." The woman gave another full-cheeked smile, her face dimpling as her teeth shined in the sterile light.
Did she mean that she did not travel? "But what about the people that need your help outside of this city?" He blurts out before feeling a hot sting of shame on his cheeks. Despite him becoming an adult in the eyes of the Ya'an-ah, he was still far from having the right to question someone with as great stature as a healer.
"Well, most cities and towns have their own nursing staff. In fact, much of my family is spread out around Unova to help out the Pokémon centres." Have their own nursing staff? She meant healers. But that would mean that there were hundreds of healers, right? Aidinza was never the best when he was being taught geography, but he knew Unova was teeming with permanent settlements that were presumably - hopefully - not as big as Nimbasa but still were sizable.
"Your family?" The young man absently asks, mouth on autopilot as he tries to come to terms with the idea of there being potentially so many healers. He knew that Unova was much larger than the Ya'an-ah, with a great deal more people, but he never considered that it would also extend to people of such august stature as healers.
"Yep, the Joy family has been a backbone of Pokémon healing for centuries, ever since Champion Joy became the twenty-third champion of Kanto, and began spreading the Chancey line all throughout the world." Aidinza blinks as he focuses back in; second names were rare in the Ya'an-ah. Most went by their tribes' name if ever called upon it. For there to be an entire family with the same second name… Was Aidinza in front of some sort of royalty? "Though, us Unovan Joys found a partnership with the Audino suited us better."
"You are Healer Joy then?" She said that one of her family was a champion of Kanto? Kanto was a region like Unova, he knew, though one far away, past the sands of Orre, the region so famously lawless that even the Naisho'h had stories about it.
"Doctorate first-class Joy, technically, but most of us prefer to be called Nurse Joy." Nurse Joy's clear blue eyes study the young man for a moment before she taps away at some strange box in front of her. "If you haven't heard about Pokécenters yet, does that mean you haven't been registered with the league?"
That was a question that Aidinza for sure knew how to answer. "By the agreement for the Relic Castle Sanctuary, and in trade for the secrets of the Desert, the Unova League recognises the Ya'an-ah right to determine the feasibility of their people as trainers and agrees that they will require no further testing to be assigned a trainers licence." It was one of the cornerstones of the agreement between the Ya'an-ah and the Unova League, at least for the Ya'an-ah. Back before the agreement was made, the Unova's had been encroaching on the Ya'an-ah with accusations of not properly looking after their Pokémon and sending out underprepared trainers into the wider world. It was something the Ya'an-ah easily dispelled. Even though they had not had a sun-blessed trainer in decades, the Nomads knew how to prepare their children for training, teaching them the valuable skills of existing alongside pokémon and how to scavenge for food in even the harshest environments.
But now that they had their agreement, not just Unova acknowledged that fact, but the entire world beside.
"Yes, you are right, but we still need to get you into the system; otherwise, how can we keep track of your gym challenge? I am assuming you want to challenge the gym circuit right?" The nurse gave Aidinza a knowing look as she continued to tap away at the odd box behind her desk.
Aidinza paused again, and slowly nodded.
"Excellent! Now, I just need you to fill this out." The Nurse stands up and hands over a small tablet sort of thing, with a sleek metal frame, and a glassy front that was lit up with lights, showing what seemed to be several very neatly written lines. Aidinza takes the strange device as Nurse Joy sits back down and turns her attention back to her big box, completely missing the lost look on the young nomad's face.
Carefully the man prodded at a button on the side, unsure what else to do, and found himself staring backwards as the crisp white on the tablet suddenly flicked black. The Ya'an-ah stared at the thing in his hands for a long moment, wondering if the fact the light had retreated at his touch was a sign of a bad thing.
He pokes the button again, and the light returns to his relief. Still unsure of just what this thing did and trying to remember back to stories in his childhood about ancient tablets in tombs, the young man pressed his full palm to the front of the tablet.
Unfortunately, that seemed to be exactly the wrong thing to do. The screen flickers black again, but this time it was not an absence of light, but a corruption, like the light had been eclipsed - a cursed, woeful event for the Ya'an-ah - and the thing began flickering and shaking, the words rapidly growing smaller and larger seemingly at random.
The young man, panicking and sure that this time it really was a bad sign that he had corrupted a pure white light into something dark, let go of the tablet. The metal thing slammed into the ground with a heavy clatter, so noisy that he was sure that his people days away would have heard it.
Aiden's wide green eyes met Nurse Joy's bemused blues, panic writ clear across his face. "Honoured healer, I don't know what I did but I'm sorry."
The young man seemed so earnestly lost and apologetic that the older woman could not help but give an amused smile, one that she hid behind a delicate hand.
"I'm sure you didn't do anything too bad. Pick up the tablet, and come behind my desk. I'll show you how to use it." And so Aidinza picked up the tablet between two fingers, carefully making his way behind the desk.
Soon enough, he was introduced to the wonders of a touchscreen tablet and was well on his way to completing the first of many forms to come.