"That Pokemon looks strong!" Nemona's voice echoed from above as she pointed at the hovering Pokemon whose claws were poised for battle.

It floated forward, towards a nearby cave mouth. It glanced back at me, pausing at the entrance.

Nemona called out again, "I think it wants you to follow it. Buena idea! You can't climb back up this way unless you are a professional rock climber or something." I shook my head in response, and Nemona gave me an understanding nod. "Okay! I'll make my way to the other side and try to guide you with my voice. Just watch out, okay? I heard some howling in there earlier."

I couldn't shake Nemona's warning as I trailed behind the lizard Pokemon, exploring deeper into the dark cave. The air grew colder and damper as we emerged into a large cavern with a shimmering pool of water just a short distance below us.

"Oye! Up here!" My gaze traveled up and met Nemona. She waved from an opening near the top. "Keep walking the way you are. There's natural steps up... Pero, you will need to climb eventually. It'll just be easier."

"Right." I nodded, my eyes locked on hers. The large, intimidating Pokemon ahead of me seemed to understand her words and hovered forward, its eyes scanned the environment like it was on high alert.

Old, familiar Pokemon peeked out from their hiding spots in the ground or around corners, but none dared to challenge the mechanical lizard. I followed it, but explored around the cavern as we went. Shinies weren't going to catch themselves, after all. I hadn't caught very many Pokemon yet since I had only a finite number of pokeballs at hand.

Curiously, the Pokemon watched me with puzzled expressions anytime I checked behind stone pillars or corners. It waited patiently as I stumbled and failed at every turn. Its expression never showed frustration, just a calm resolve to wait for me, a dumbass.

For our sake, I gave up on my hunt and followed the pseudo-Legendary after about 5 minutes. I didn't want Nemona to worry either.

I released my sprigatito from her ball, watching as she scurried around, triumphantly pouncing on unsuspecting digletts as I walked. It wasn't long, however, before she noticed the large lizard Pokemon and scurried behind me with a hiss. The robotic creature turned at the sound of the hiss, its LED-styled eyes focusing on sprigatito. It tilted its head in curiosity, but that only freaked sprigatito out more. She arched her back and let out a mighty "Mrow!"

Laughing, I said, "Kitty, I don't think that Pokemon poses any danger to us. If anything, it might protect us."

As if on cue, a distant howling breaks through the air, pausing panic in me. A pack of houndour come charging towards us with their jet black fur and bleached white bones acting almost like an exoskeleton despite not offering their bodies any real protection. They are so cute in game, especially to a dog Pokemon fan like me, but seeing them in real life with bared teeth and ready to attack, almost sent chills down my spine.

Without warning, the violet colored Pokemon unleashed a roar causing the air around us to crackle with electricity. My hair and sprigatito's fur stood on end as we watched the giant lizard ready an attack. Just as quickly as they came, the houndour scampered off.

"Thanks for scaring them off, big Pokemon guy," I said as we walked, my sprigatito perched on my shoulder. It observed the robotic lizard with curious eyes, unsure if it was friend or foe. "I haven't talked to many Pokemon before, so sorry if this is awkward, but... are you a legendary?"

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

It glanced back at me through the corner of its eye, but I could see it had no idea what I was talking about.

"I guess even if you were a legendary, it's not like you'd know... This must be scripted, right? Unless Arceus is messing with me..."

"Hey, it's you guys again!" Nemona called out from above. Her voice was much closer this time. I gazed up and noticed that she was right - there was a way to reach the exit where she stood, but it would require a considerable amount of climbing. "Not that much further now!"

I let out a soft sigh, discouraged about the whole climbing aspect. True, I wasn't tired yet despite walking more in the past hour than I would in a week in my old life. But that didn't mean I wanted to exert myself more than necessary.

Smiling, I waved at Nemona trying to appear more enthusiastic than I felt.

"Alright, I'll be right there!" I called back to her. I turned back to sprigatito, who was still eyeing the large Pokemon warily. "Looks like we'll have to climb up soon. Want to get back in the ball?"

"Meow-" The kitten started to nod, it seemed, but a nearby howl caused her to jump nearly out of her skin.

A horde of houndour emerged from a nearby tunnel, parting to make way for the approaching figure. My stomach churned as I caught sight of the silhouette - a massive canine Pokemon adorned with sharp horns.

Houndoom.

Objectively speaking, and I don't care who says otherwise, houndoom is undeniably awesome. Its appearance hits many of the marks on the coolness meter. Many people are drawn to it, and some even tried to make its Mega Evolution work despite how much the others were stronger. Even people who might not care for houndoom could understand its appeal. I'd count houndoom among my favorites, all things considered.

When the houndoom appeared, my gut wrenching feeling subsided into something else... excitement. I gasped.

It's usually black fur was instead blue. I couldn't believe my eyes.

"My... My first shiny!" I screamed as I fumbled to pull a pokeball out of my bag. "S-Shiny! It's shiny, oh my god!"

"Eh? Oyeee! Luciana, you can't catch that!" Nemona's voice attempted to pierce through my brain, but I could only think of one thing: how badly I wanted to catch this shiny houndoom!

Sprigatito looked back at me with a worried look in her eye just in time to see me throw one of my many pokeballs at the houndoom. Instead of entering the ball, the dog Pokemon slapped it away with its tail and growled at me. The houndour, encouraged by their leader, started to close in around us.

"Luciana, just run!" Nemona shouted, but I just couldn't listen to her.

I threw another ball.

Again, houndoom knocked it away.

The houndoom came closer as the houndour surrounded sprigatito and I. Without thinking, I recalled my only Pokemon on hand. It didn't deserve whatever was going to come next.

Fear overtook me as the houndoom let out a deafening roar, causing me to close my eyes and cower in terror. The cacophony of barks from the surrounding houndour made me realize I really should have listened to Nemona. But then, I felt myself being lifted up.

As I opened my eyes, I found myself being cradled by the violet Pokemon. Its gaze was fixed on the houndoom, which it let out a fierce roar towards. As it roared, the ground began to crackle with electrifying energy, creating an electric terrain I think. With a swift movement of its tail, the lizard knocked the houndoom back, causing the surrounding houndour to retreat. Seeing an opening to escape, the violet Pokemon bounded up onto a nearby ledge, taking us closer to Nemona.

"Ven!" Nemona cried as the lizard leapt from ledge to ledge.

We made our escape as the lizard leapt past Nemona and into the blinding light of the outside world. I shielded my eyes with my hand as the Pokemon gently set me down on the ground. It attempted to continue moving, but suddenly collapsed and whimpered on the ground.

I rushed to its side and looked it over. Had the houndoom or houndour gotten to it?

"Luciana, are you okay!?" Nemona shouted as she ran to catch up to where I was with the lizard Pokemon. I nodded my head, unable to speak for a moment. "That was seriously dangerous, Luciana, but we got to see this Pokemon look powerful. But hey, why is it in this form now? It looks all... slumpy."

My mouth hung open as I struggled to find the right words. The adrenaline that had been coursing through my body was now slowly fading, leaving me in a state of shock. I couldn't believe what had just happened - I almost died, and now this Pokemon was injured because of my mistake.

"What're you doing with that Pokemon?!" A voice belonging to neither Nemona and I cut through the tension. Nemona and I turned to see a guy with a silly haircut staring us both down with a glare. "You guys have a lot of explaining to do!"