The sky was a brilliant blue as I stared up at it, with picturesque white, fluffy clouds slowly drifting overhead. A cool, refreshing autumn breeze blew across me carrying a promise of rain in its soft touch, but unfortunately I was not in the proper mood to enjoy it.

“Ow.”

It wasn’t exactly the wittiest thing I could have said, but it was definitely the most applicable right now. My entire body hurt like I had run a marathon before getting into a fight with Mike Tyson, and even that pain was light next to my headache that was pounding behind my eyes.

I wasn’t exactly sure where I was or how I had gotten here, things were a little hazy and trying to remember what had happened only made my headache worse. I had been coming home after work, excited that the week was finally over and I could relax and then… a bright light, a thunderous noise, then nothing. I had been falling for ages in an inky void, before another light had appeared, and the next thing I knew I was laying on the ground.

“Am I… dead?” I asked the sky, receiving only a faint whisper of the wind across my face as an answer. “I really hope I’m not dead.”

Something about my voice sounded off, but a twig snapped nearby, and I focused on trying to see what was nearby instead of focusing on whatever was going on with my voice.

An angel perhaps, come to welcome me to the pearly gates?

It was not an angel. It was, in fact, a small animal, a grey cat of all things, with white furred paws and white ear tips. It also had an incredibly long tail that coiled like a spring with a fluffy tip, and an expression that was somehow extremely smug. Half-lidded blue irises and pupils set in a yellow sclera stared at me, and it’s whiskers twitched as it sniffed at me. I recognized it immediately, despite the fact that it should have been impossible for it to exist.

“If you’re here, that means I am dead, but this must be heaven.”

The Glameow, for that’s what the animal – no, the Pokémon – was, somehow seemed even more smug at my words as if it actually understood them. Which was impossible for my world, but completely normal for the Pokémon world.

“Hi little one!” I said, smiling at the cat-like Pokémon.

My head still hurt, but seeing an actual Pokémon standing before me made my day. Hell, it made my whole life, and I was already dead!

The Pokémon yawned, revealing rows of sharp little teeth in a mouth that seemed to open a little bit too big for my liking.

“You, uh, you’re a nice Glameow, right?”

It stared disdainfully at me, licking it’s paw and using it to rub at its nose. One of the Pokedex entries from the games started to come back to me as the Glameow kept staring at me. Glameow wasn’t one of my favorite Pokémon, but I remembered that they were typically very fickle Pokémon – especially when they were hungry.

Reaching slowly into one of my pockets, I tried to find anything that resembled food. I came up with nothing, and the Glameow’s eyes flashed as if it understood that it wouldn’t get a meal out of me.

If Pokémon were as smart as the games and anime made them out to be, it probably did understand everything that was going on.

“Nice Glameow?”

The Pokémon hissed in annoyance, and faster than I could blink a paw lashed out, claws digging into my nose.

“Ow!”

It jumped away from me as I sat up quickly, feeling at my nose. Blood started to trickle through my fingers, thankfully it was only a small cut. The Glameow hissed again, then turned and stalked away, head held high as it disappeared into the underbrush around me.

“Stupid cat.” I grumbled.

The blood was already starting to stop, but the cut still stung.

Of course, I quickly forgot the pain in my nose as I got my first real look at the area around me, my jaw dropping open in wonder.

Beautiful, massive trees stretched into the air around the small clearing I was in, the wind softly stirring their branches. Thick grass covered the ground, and in the distance a massive mountain towered. Clouds covered most of the upper half of the mountain so I couldn’t tell how big it properly was, but no matter how I craned my head I couldn’t see the top of it.

Of course, I recognized the mountain instantly, despite how impossible everything was seeming, and I knew where I was.

“I’m in Sinnoh.” My words seemed to echo around the empty clearing as I kept looking around, amazed. “That’s Mount Coronet, and I’m in the Sinnoh Region.”

It really should have been impossible. There was just no way I could actually be here, in the world of Pokémon. For one, it was a game. That should have been the end of it, full stop, but everything I was experiencing was telling me the opposite. The autumn wind on my skin, the crisp air in my lungs, the small stinging pain where the Glameow had cut my nose, it was all… real. But most importantly, it was certainly not Massachusetts, where I had just been before I had woken up here.

"Okay." I breathed, trying to wrap my head around what was going on. “Okay, don’t panic. This is what you’ve dreamed of. This is what you wished for years could happen, so don’t lose your mind now.”

It was true after all. Pokémon had been my escape since I was a little kid, and I’d replayed the scenarios countless times in my head on what I’d do if I ever found myself in the world of the games. Of course those had just been dreams and I’d never really imagined I’d be here, but it was the principle of the thing.

Then something else caught my attention. My clothes, initially meant for a cold Massachusetts winter day, were all far too big. The shirt and coat were hanging off of my slim frame like a tent, and my pants weren’t much better, even with a belt they were slipping off of my hips. And my boots were practically enormous on my feet.

“What?” I said, and realized my voice was an octave or two higher than normal, and with my shock I had forgotten to pitch it up like I usually did.

A shadow passing over head distracted me, and I looked up to see a small flock of birds. Or at least I thought they were birds at first, but as they flew overhead I could see the tell-tale round body and pointed beak, as well as the extremely long and narrow wings.

Wingull!

They called out to each other again but to my intense displeasure they seemed just like the seagulls they were based on as one of them looked down at me, then released a white stream of… droppings.

It splattered on my pants, and the Wingull’s caws almost seemed to be laughter as they winged away from me, disappearing over the treetops. I sighed, and reached down to grab a handful of grass to try and wipe the droppings away.

The hands that appeared in my vision were thin and delicate, nothing at all like how my hands had used to be.

“Okay.” I said to myself, taking a deep breath. “Something’s weird here.”

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. There was no signal and it was at half-battery, but it still worked, and I swapped to the front facing camera to see what was going on with me.

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There was a woman in the frame. Short, so much shorter than I had been before. Long black hair, naturally black not dyed, hung down half-way to her waist. Piercing blue eyes stared back at me, wide with shock.

Hesitantly I looked around, made sure I was alone, then took off my clothes, almost afraid to see what lay underneath, but I couldn’t resist.

There were no surgery scars. The lithe body was solely a result of nature, having obviously been made this way from birth instead of the result of hormones and scalpels. I hadn’t hated the way I had been before, but even with all of modern medicine I hadn’t quite felt like I should have.

But this body… this body was mine. This was the way my body was supposed to be, how I had imagined my body should look after all of these years being trapped in the wrong one.

Medicine and surgery had helped me feel more like how I should have, but this was if a wish had been granted, making my body a woman’s like it should have been since I was born.

I broke down. Tears poured down my face and I sobbed openly, hugging myself.

Time passed. I don’t know how long exactly, but eventually the wind proved to be too cold, and I shrugged back into my too-large clothes. I had previously been about six feet tall, which I had hated, but now I must have been a foot shorter. It made for an awkward time as I had to roll up my pant legs several times, but honestly I didn’t mind at all right then.

I hoped this wasn’t a dream. The pain in my nose from the Glameow, and the faint stench from where the Wingull had hit my pants seemed to prove that it wasn’t. But if it was a dream, then I never wanted to wake up.

“Okay.” I said to myself, delighting in how my voice sounded. “So let’s go with the idea for now that I actually am in another world. I can worry about the metaphysics and the philosophical ramifications of this later. Right now I got to find other some food, some water, and hopefully some other people.”

As I tried to get a better image of where I was, I quickly discovered I only had two real directions I could go, “away from Mount Coronet,” and “towards Mount Coronet.” Of the two, I decided that “away from Mount Coronet” would probably be the better option, considering that even though most of the mountain was hidden by the clouds, I could still see a lot of snow on the slopes. There was no way I would try to get anywhere close to that mountain without winter clothing that actually fit me and a lot of supplies.

The only other things in my pockets besides my phone were my wallet, keys, and a pair of earbuds. Not a whole lot to work with, but I’d watched the Science Channel when I was younger, I could do something with this.

I hoped.

Setting my shoulders, I turned my back to the massive mountain behind me, and started walking. A large part of me was terrified to do this. The games had made it very clear – if you didn’t have a Pokémon of your own, you shouldn’t be wandering around in the wilds of the world. At the same time, a greater part of me was shaking off the fear and the confusion, realizing that this was it. This was the Pokémon world, and I was finally going to be able to live out my dreams here.

In a very strange but real way, it felt like I had just come home.

/^\

In retrospect, choosing a direction and just starting out walking that way was perhaps not the smartest idea I’d ever had. Mount Coronet, being one of the largest mountains in the Pokémon world, was a perfect landmark that I kept right at my back. Despite that, before I knew it I was completely lost in the forest, having spent a couple of hours walking around in what I was becoming increasingly convinced was a big circle.

“That’s the third time I’ve passed by that tree.” I muttered to myself while glaring at the offending plant, which I wasn’t entirely sure wasn’t a Sudowoodo that decided to play tricks on me.

There was a river around here somewhere judging by the sound of burbling water, but I hadn’t managed to find it yet. At some point in my wanderings I had decided that finding the river was going to be my number one priority, considering that I needed water more than I needed food. After all, I had just had some food on a late lunch break at work, so I still had some energy to keep me going, but water was a much more important resource.

I hadn’t spent much time as a Boy Scout when my parents had forced me to join because it was “something that boys should do”, really I had tried it out for a month or two then got sick of it, but I did remember that people could only go three days without water, whereas they could go for more than a week without food.

I wasn’t planning on going that long without eating, but it was something to keep in my back pocket if I needed to. If nothing else, I could try and find a Berry to eat, since they were edible by both humans and Pokémon if I remembered correctly.

By the time I finally managed to find the small river I was almost delirious with thirst after walking around for half the day, and I didn’t even bother to check to see what was around me as I dunked my head in the river. The cold water was a refreshing shock, and I eagerly pulled my head out of the water and began scooping handfuls to my mouth to drink. It was the most pure water I’ve ever had the pleasure of drinking, and almost immediately I began to feel refreshed.

A flash of orange caught my eye, and I looked over in astonishment to see a large fish swimming gently down the stream. The blank expression on its face and long yellow whiskers weren’t even necessary for me to identify it, considering it was a series staple since the very first games. Magikarp were normally depicted as awkward or stupid Pokémon, but that was when they were out of the water. When they were actually swimming in the water they were as graceful as any fish I had ever seen, and certainly more fantastic than any of the fish I had ever seen back home.

More movement distracted me and my mouth fell open at the most magical sight I had ever seen. The Glameow hadn’t really given me the time to really appreciate it, and the Magikarp was amazing, but the variety of Pokémon in front of me took my breath away. Azurills and Marills splashed along the edge of the river while a Barboach slid its way through the rocks at the bottom of the crystal clear water. A couple of Buizels gently floated down the stream, half-asleep, while a Starly flock sang in a tree and three Combee buzzed on the other side of the river, stopping every now and again to collect nectar from flowers.

I had been so focused on getting to the water that I hadn’t even noticed the wildlife around me. Tears stung my eyes as I stared out at the amazing scene before me.

“If I’m dead,” I whispered to myself. “Then I think I’ll be happier dead than I ever was alive.”

Time passed me by as I just sat there and stared, looking in awe at the Pokémon around me. They seemed to be a little skeptical at first, but as long as I didn’t make any sudden movements most of the Pokémon were content to let me be.

It was the closest I had ever come to a truly perfect moment.

Even perfect moments had to end however, and I very reluctantly got up from where I had been sitting. I’d been camping a few times before now, I wasn’t an expert by any means but I knew that I should try and find shelter before it got dark, not afterwards.

Eventually by poking around the area by the river I found a small divot in the ground, and the grass was soft enough to be comfortable to lie down in. Once I had found a place to stay for the night I went hunting for some food. Hunting wasn’t probably the right word for it, considering I had never actually gone hunting in my life and didn’t have the first idea on what to do.

Plus, I wasn’t exactly sure if I would be comfortable with hunting and killing a Pokémon. I wasn’t vegetarian, I liked meat as much as the next person, but from everything that I had seen about Pokémon they were really rather quite smart. Some were even smarter than humans were, so where exactly was the line between the smart ones and the dumb ones? They could all battle and be companions, couldn’t they?

So instead of returning to the hunting traditions of my caveman ancestors, I instead decided to pick up gathering instead. It took another hour or so and by that time it was starting to get dark, but luckily enough I didn’t run into any trouble and I found myself standing under a tree, trying to figure out what kind of Berry I was looking at. It looked vaguely like a pink strawberry, with light pink dots speckling the surface of the Berry.

The tree itself had already mostly been stripped of Berries, with only a few of the strange fruits left, and staring at the plant I honestly had a hard time distinguishing the difference between a Berry and a normal fruit. Was there a difference at all, or was that an industry term, for lack of a better word? For instance, these pink Berries were almost the size of my palm, so much bigger than any other berry I had ever seen back home.

“Pecha!” I said after a minute of staring. “Of course, it’s a Pecha Berry! Almost a shame I’m not poisoned, cause this would take care of that in a heartbeat.”

Happy that my first Berry found in the world was something actually useful, I grabbed all of the Berries I could, eagerly stuffing them in my pockets. Hurrying back to my little divot in the ground, I spread my haul out on the ground, checking to make sure there weren’t any worms or anything in the Berries. There wasn’t, so I happily grabbed one, taking a big bite out of it.

“Mm! Sweet!”

The tree had yielded four berries, and I reluctantly set one aside for tomorrow before gorging myself on the others. The river made a convenient place to wash the sticky juices off of my hands and face, and I got another couple of handfuls of the delicious water before I settled down into my little divot. My jacket made a blanket, and I quickly fell asleep listening to the soft burbling of the river and the faint cries of Pokémon.

/^\

A thousand miles away, in a small dark cave, Jirachi fell asleep, happy at being able to have granted a few last wishes before it’s week was up. It had certainly been a difficult week, and it was sad that its new friend Max wouldn’t be around for the next time it woke up.

Still, it had managed to sneak in a couple of wishes there at the end. Normally it wouldn’t answer wishes from another reality, but this one was so full of pain and desire that Jirachi couldn’t help itself. Besides Jirachi was the wish granter here, it could do whatever it wanted.

Jirachi finally settled in for the long sleep, wondering what the world would look like a thousand years from now.