I thought Hippowdon would struggle to garner much speed among all that mud.
But I couldn’t have underestimated it more. With a bellowing cry that rivalled Pokémon twice its size, Hippowdon parted the sludge like it was nothing as it barrelled towards Dewott and I in a headlong charge. The thing barely changed pace as it tore out of the mud pool and onto the hard, sand covered ground and I could see bits of earth tear itself sky high as Hippowdon’s tree-trunk width hooves ripped up clumps upon clumps like they were nothing. I had already sprinted out of the way, thankful that Hippowdon couldn’t change direction very well during its manic charge.
Screeching to a halt, Hippowdon’s form exploded in clumped mud and sand. Now only a few dozen metres from it, I could feel the wind push and shove at my small frame. Sand flew coarsely into my hair. Into my face. Into my eyes. It stung. It really, really hurt. I could barely see. I could barely see. Powerless.
Dewott kept up his Water Pulses, but the only thing that did was clue in Hippowdon on where we were. Through the intense sand and my protective forearm, I could see its vague shadow turn. Red eyes latching onto me.
“Eugh-EUGHHHHH!” barrelling footsteps. And the sight of a gaping maw met my eyes as it rapidly halved the distance between itself and I. I could see the sheen on its teeth. With a scream, I dived straight into the mud pool and felt myself plunge into lukewarm sludge just as its mouth snapped shut at the space where I’d just stood. It felt so syrupy. Like the stuff those farmers can make at Jubilife. But it burned through my nostrils and worked its way through my pressed lips and into my mouth.
I threw myself upright and hurriedly wiped all of the mud from my face. The sand was everywhere. It was a full-blown sandstorm. It WOULDN’T STOP. There were a million million pinpricks racing all across my skin and it hurt to even blink open my eyes. I couldn’t see Dewott. But I could hear the bark-shattering sound of clashing teeth somewhere within the sand veil. With a pained groan, I stomped out of the mud pool with my arm held over my face. It hurt. It hurt so badly. I saw gleaming flesh on the underside of my forearm. The sand was peeling away at my own skin.
The sight sent me into a panic. I heard Dewott’s cries and they further frayed my torn nerves. I couldn’t breathe. I was retching out all the mud and sand in my mouth and was bawling my eyes out to rid all the sand. My muscles ached and my skin was on FIRE. But, in the abrasive sandstorm, I saw a giant looming shadow parallel to where I was stood. Hippowdon.
I unlatched a Poké Ball from my belt. With a wince, I recalled Dewott to spare him from anymore pain and then relatched his ball. Palming an empty Poké Ball, I reared back my trembling hand at the confused shadow and… threw!
The Poké Ball disappeared into the sand.
Then, a snapping sound as the latch broke and the telling sucking noise. Hippowdon’s shadow disappeared entirely. The sand instantly dropped to the ground. All wind stopped. For a moment, everything was silent.
I could see the Poké Ball on the ground. It shook. Violently. Throwing itself HIGH into the air in an attempt to keep Hippowdon sealed. It hissed in protest and, then… SNAP!
Hippowdon reemerged in a flash of red, confused and angry. “EUGHHHHHHHH!”
I made the mistake of screaming at the sight, and its laughably small ears twitched. It fixed its red eyes onto me. The wind picked up again. Sand started to fly off of the ground and was flung into the air. An awesome explosion of sand blasted out of Hippowdon’s spiracles.
Mouth wide opened. Teeth inviting me inside. Earth flying among sand as it charged. My doom growing closer and closer. Larger and larger.
I almost froze. I was so scared I couldn’t breathe. I had one last saviour.
With a scream of sheer pain. Sheer terror. Sheer anguish. Sheer emotion. I threw one of my scatterbangs directly into Hippowdon’s mouth.
BOOM.
My world went white and my vision seared. A thousand miniature explosions assaulted my ear so loud that my covering palms made barely a difference. I felt dizzy. I felt pain. I couldn’t hear.
But slowly, my vision returned. My ears were ringing, but sound started to eclipse the buzz. Hippowdon was literally two feet from me, loose-jawed and slumped on the ground. Its eyes were unfocused and heavy. Its legs splayed out underneath it while sand dribbled pathetically from its spiracles. I let loose a screech at the sight. It was so, so, so close to me…
My shaking hand grabbed my second empty Poké Ball from my belt and it blurred slightly as it trembled badly within my grasp. I dropped it. “Eugh!” I dropped to my knees to pick it back up, but my fingers kept slipping on it.
Hippowdon groaned lowly. It was starting to recover.
“Arghhh!” I slammed the sand-covered ground in frustration and fear. Using both hands, I finally managed to pick up the Poké Ball and stood straight. Hippowdon’s eyes slid to mine.
A small dinking sound, then the loud sucking noise. Hippowdon disappeared before my very eyes.
Shake. It only lurched a foot or two into the air.
And then…
…
All went quiet, save for the hiss of the Poké Ball.
I’d done it. I’d actually… done it.
“Oh, thank goodn-bleurghhh!” my words were cut off as I was violently sick all over the sand. The sheer intensity of the heaves sent me collapsing onto my knees and all rational thought fled my mind. But I didn’t care.
I was in pain. I was suffering. But I was safe. I was safe.
And now? I was strong.
I don’t know how long it took for Arezu to get to me. But once she was there, she silently checked over me while I lay uselessly on her good leg.
The skin under my forearm had been flayed off by the sand, but the wound was shallow. Same with the left side of my cheek. My eyes were bloodshot. I had bruises all over my body. Sand in my eyes, mixed with mud and tears. I’d twisted my ankle. My ears were still ringing. My clothes had holes in them. I was covered in dried mud. My hair billowed out sand like a dusty pillow whenever it moved. Arezu kept glancing at Hippowdon’s docile Poké Ball off to the side. “Are you sure it’ll stay in there?”
“Yeah,” I croaked out. “Don’t touch it, though.”
The sun was in my eyes. But I could see a nasty looking set of scratches running down Arezu’s cheek. “What happened?”
“Oh, this?” Arezu chuckled lightly and her hand flew to her wound. “I fell on my way down to you. Nothing to worry about.”
“Oh…”
“Let’s get you back to camp, okay?”
“…”
The Diamond Clan guards back at Bogbound had the gall to look concerned for me when I returned with Arezu. A couple had even asked if I was okay, but I brushed them off. Any of them could’ve helped me. ANY of them. But they all stood by and waited. What a bunch of sick people.
I sat alone for the rest of the day with only Dewott to keep me company. I refused to let anyone but Arezu near me, so she was the one who bandaged my arm and ankle. She gave me a Diamond Clan hoodie to wear off of one of the guards who was of a similar build to me. Even then, it was slightly big, but it at least kept me warm better than my torn-up clothes. Dewott was in bad shape. Hippowdon had caught him with Bite at one point and his entire right arm was shattered. He was bruised and scraped, but at least nothing permanent had been done to him. As bad as his arm was, it’d heal given a week or so. Even shorter if I kept him on a consistent diet of potions.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Dewott was subdued as he washed me down with his water after I found a private section to undress. I reclothed myself while still wet, but I didn’t care. It was absolutely freezing given Dewott could only produce ice-cold water. After mourning the loss of my white headcloth for a while more, I eventually settled on letting my hair fall behind my head. Whatever. I’d find another style later. Or another headcloth.
Arezu gave me dinner at dusk and I silently ate with Dewott. I didn’t even bother to taste whatever I was having. Some sort of salty meat in a thick stew. I was thankful when Arezu wordlessly combed my hair into something that didn’t look like I’d just crawled out of a bog, but I didn’t say a word.
Alone again. Dewott and I. The water type looked uncertain of himself. Had I ever seen that look before? I… wasn’t sure. He’d only been a Dewott for a day or two and even then, I never really paid attention to him. But after seeing how Rei interacted with his Pokémon… why were his so lifelike when Dewott had no personality?
Was it because he nurtured them like a parent would a child?
“Hey, Dewott.”
My partner looked up from whatever biscuit thing Arezu had given him for his meal. His pure black eyes, tinged with a sparkling white, stared… hopefully? In dismay? Sympathetically?
“I, uh…” I took in a deep breath. “Thank you. For today.”
Dewott stepped closer and, before I could react, lurched himself into my shoulder. I gasped and froze as if I’d been turned into a statue, but then cautiously wrapped my arm around his small body- careful to avoid his bad arm.
He felt… warm. I didn’t know Dewott felt warm. Was this… my first time touching him? I could feel his heartbeat within his narrow chest. He was alive. I don’t know why that struck me so. He was alive, like me. Pokémon were tools for destruction, but could they be nurtured into something else? Something better?
Could creatures bound only for destruction find a purpose that transcends it?
Hmm…
Before I knew it, I’d fallen asleep.
The next morning, I ventured under Arezu’s watchful eye a good distance from the camp to release Hippowdon for the first time. Dewott was by my side. I’d kept him out the whole night and the entirety of this morning- the longest I’d ever done that. I thought his presence would grate at me. But I actually found him a really agreeable companion. He was quiet and had an alert intensity about him. How did I not notice that before?
I told Dewott to stand back, but he didn’t listen to me. My lips quirked at his loyalty. “Here goes.”
Hippowdon’s release was like a long-caged demon breaking from its shackles. A deep roar shook the air around it and sand shot out of its spiracles with the force of a Jellicent’s Water Spout. The thing turned its eyes onto me and I was quick to recall it when its mouth wrenched itself open. “Stupid… thing!”
I could capture it, but I couldn’t enslave it to my will.
“Those devices are amazing,” Arezu said as she trudged her way towards me from behind. “To tame a beast like Hippowdon.”
“How do I get it to do as I say if it just attacks me when I let it out…?” I mumbled to myself. This was an experience more akin to what I expect from Pokémon. A weapon. To learn to point at and fire- like a bow and arrow. But let that weapon turn on you, and it’d kill you all the same.
Familiarity.
I tried three more times. The first, it emerged roaring and snapped up a poor Croagunk in its mouth. I couldn’t save it in time. The second, it chased down a Geodude and I managed to recall it before it could harm the thing. And the third, it chased away a Hippopotas before turning into a headlong charge towards me. I hissed in frustration and stamped my foot. “It attacks the first thing it sees,” Arezu observed from besides me. She turned her red eyes to me. “If you maybe release it and then hide away, you can get it to attack whatever you need for you.”
I thought about it. What other choice did I have, I guess. “Whatever. I need to get some oran berries and those medicinal leeks, now.”
“Why?” Arezu frowned at me. “We have plenty in the camp’s stores.”
“Yeah well none of your friends offered me any even after seeing Dewott’s arm. So it’s not like they care.”
“Well, when you throw yourself into a corner as far from them as possible and refuse any help, they sort of assumed you had your own,” Arezu huffed exasperatedly.
“Hmph.”
“Look, let’s go back and have some breakfast. I’ll get your Dewott some potions.”
I wanted to refuse out of principle, but eventually relented. “Fine.”
After our meal, Arezu was surprised to find out that I actually wanted to pursue Sliggoo after the debacle with Hippowdon. I wasn’t ready for another fight like that. But I had a plan that could make things drastically easier. A plan so simple that it could fail in many differing and explosive ways, but would allow me to kick my feet back if it worked. I wanted to go alone, but Arezu annoyingly insisted on ‘looking after me’ again, so I begrudgingly let her follow. It wasn’t like I knew where the Holm of Trials was, anyways.
I was annoyed when Arezu simply led me directly south of the camp. I could’ve walked that in my blasted sleep, but she knew I didn’t know where Sliggoo lived and used that to get me to let her come. Dewott was able to fight at long range with Water Pulse, but against Psyduck, Golduck, and the water absorbing Croagunk, we decided to stray far from them if possible. Not even I was callous enough to have Dewott fight with a useless arm in melee.
We had to cross a river along the way, but that was easily circumvented by traversing over the three logs someone had string-tied together. Arezu struggled, unfortunately. The sight of her negotiating her dead leg around while trying to stay balanced over the makeshift bridge was sad. I had to give her credit for sticking with it, though. She never once displayed frustration or yelled at me for not helping her across. Instead, she always looked down with these mournful eyes like she was grieving something she’d lost. “You do realise if my plan goes wrong, you won’t be able to get across that bridge fast enough?”
Arezu found that amusing, much to my displeasure. “If it’s Sliggoo we’re running away from, I’ll be fine.”
“Why?”
“You really don’t even know what you’re trying to catch?” Arezu shook her head in disbelief. “Jeez, Akari.”
“Shut up!” I snapped. “Don’t give me that.”
Arezu held up her free hand in surrender. “Fine, fine, I’m sorry. But you need to understand- while Sliggoo is powerful, it can’t exactly… move very well. There’s a reason we just let it be over here.”
That was good news for my plan, but I stayed quiet. I wasn’t about to take the bait and give the redhead girl the satisfaction of answering my questions. I’d soon find out myself. True to her word, Arezu led me straight to it. Sliggoo. “What the living heck is this?” I turned to Arezu with a disbelieving scowl. “Are you joking?”
Arezu pulled a confused look across her face and I scrutinised it for signs of ingenuity while she answered. “What? What do you mean?”
“THIS is the powerful Pokémon you’re talking about?!” I gestured to Sliggoo’s distant form. “You’re pulling my leg,” my tone darkened outside of my control, “stop treating me like I’m a TOY!”
“Akari, I swear!” Arezu actually ambled back a step or two, but I followed to let her know I was mad. “I swear to you this is it!”
“Really?!” I yelled and turned back to Sliggoo. The thing was sat atop a mound surrounded by a moat of muddied water and was the only Pokémon in a fairly large circle- like how Hippowdon had its own territory. What made me mad, however, was just how STUPID it looked. It was this weird plate-shaped thing with what looked like some sort of slimy snail thing jutting from it. It had two tiny hands which anchored themselves onto its flattened shell and had eyes that looked half-asleep. Two proboscis things stuck out behind its head and it had a lazy farmer’s expression plastered across its dull face. The thing looked stupid. It looked dumb. It looked those stupid Patrat we got in Unova. This COULDN’T be one of the most powerful Pokémon in the Mirelands. No. Way!
“Catch it, then!” Arezu spoke up, her mood suddenly lifting without warning. Her fists clenched and she leaned toward me. “If you don’t believe me, catch it!”
Whatever. “Very well!”
Time to enact my plan. I made Arezu retreat with me until we were a pretty solid distance away from Sliggoo. Afterwards, I nudged Dewott and put him into position. “Remember what we planned,” I told him sternly as I placed Hippowdon’s Poké Ball onto his mouth. With his good arm, Dewott held it in place. “Nice and slow, we don’t want the latch to break early.”
Arezu looked confused, but shouted a word of encouragement to Dewott. “You got this!”
Dewott’s big eyes furrowed in concentration. Then, with a push of water, he launched the Poké Ball with a steady Water Pulse and sent it arcing through the air. I was satisfied at his accuracy. Not perfect, but good enough. Hippowdon emerged just below Sliggoo’s mound with a deep roar and the latter lazily turned to see what was going on.
The second Hippowdon caught sight of Sliggoo, the fight was on. My newest partner was so aggressive that it attacked literally ANYTHING. Therefore, my plan was to simply have it beat up Sliggoo and then recall it once it hopefully won the fight.
With an enraged bellow, Hippowdon took out its anger on its latest victim. A violent head swing sent a blast of muddied water sailing directly for Sliggoo, who let out a surprised squawk and slid into its shell. “That’s Shelter,” Arezu commentated the opener from behind me, though something was making her sound unsure of herself. “Sliggoo becomes near impenetrable inside its shell.”
Hippowdon wasn’t deterred. The thing was bloodthirsty and would fight anything to quench its aggression. With sand flying out of its spiracles and whipping up the beginnings of a sandstorm into the air, it began to climb Sliggoo’s mound with the determination of a demented Croagunk. Sliggoo remained passive within its shell, but Hippowdon didn’t lose interest. If anything, Sliggoo stupidly gave up its position on the high ground by letting Hippowdon clamber up. My fingers twitched when my newest Pokémon snapped up Sliggoo in its maw and started to chomp down with a vicious Crunch. The shell held, but Sliggoo was threatened enough to finally act. I felt surprise bolt through my chest when its gooey head emerged from its shell and blasted something straight down Hippowdon’s throat. “Oh my gos-!”
But my words were cut off by the following explosion. My vision exploded into blues and whites and everything turned searingly hot as a blast of heat blazed past us in the wind. “Dragon Pulse!” Arezu yelled, fighting off the heat with a cringe.
Hippowdon’s mouth was actually BURNING. A billowing draft of smoke raged between its teeth as it almost completely toppled over onto its back against the immense force behind Sliggoo’s attack. But with an angry snap of its jaw, Hippowdon rebalanced itself on all fours and retaliated with a brutal headlong charge that threw Sliggoo clean off of the mound- though the thing simply slid back into its tough shell with Shelter to take the hit.
Sand was still erupting from Hippowdon. It was getting hard to see the two. But it was still clear enough to see the primal anger fill Sliggoo’s eyes when it emerged.
Hippowdon had dethroned it off of its precious mound, and now it was going to truly fight back.