The Dratini looks back at me and nods happily saying “Dra dra” and then it looks at the pack and starts to stretch itself upwards towards it. Still a bit short of being able to reach it from the ground it turns to me and looks back and forth between the pack and me before saying in a voice that sounds almost pleading “Draaa.”
“Do you want some food from there as a reward?” I venture, starting to understand the Dratini more and more.
“Dra Draa” it nods at me, and I let out a small chuckle.
“Alright then, give me a sec” I assure it while I walk over towards the pack and untie it from the tree. I pull out some of the jerky I had packed away within and hold it out for the Dratini who happily slithers over and very gently grabs it out of my hand with its mouth before tossing its head back and chewing loudly on the jerky. ‘So next steps, since this clearly is not going to be my normal trip maybe I should try to see if I’m even still on earth, go towards civilization might be a good idea. If I am still on earth where I was supposed to be camping, then headed southwest would get me to Portland.’ I look around at the horizon and realize that the hills become more mountainous in the west and east, while I seem to be in a valley running north to south. Southeast of me is still the tallest mountain around, and the more I look at it the less it looks like Mt. Hood, the rounded top from its eruption is missing and instead there is a more traditional spiky mountaintop. ‘If that isn’t Mt. Hood, then there’s no way I’m still in Oregon, so I guess headed towards Portland won’t help, maybe just follow the valley, find a river and follow that to see if it leads to a city?’
A loud cry of “Draaatiiini” interrupts my thoughts and planning and I turn around to see the Dratini looking at the bag of food I was holding and starting to edge forward with its snout getting closer to the bag.
“Hungry one aren’t ya? Though I guess without your help I wouldn’t have this anyways, so here’s another piece of jerky.” I toss this piece up towards the Dratini and it manages to deftly snap it out of the air an begin chewing again. “Hey Dratini, would you happen to know where I can find some more people?” I ask on a whim, knowing that the Dratini has been able to understand me well enough so far and thinking it must have met people before to be able to, or maybe its not wild and it has a trainer.
“Dra Dra” It responds with a confident nod and then lifts it’s tail up a bit off the ground and points with that tail off to the East. Once I open my mouth to say thanks it interrupts me again by tapping it’s tail in a strange way twice, almost like its doing a light slap of the ground.
“Are there two people that you know about over there?” I venture as an explanation of the slaps.
“Draa” it shakes it’s head no and then repeats the two slaps but adds a half circle motion between each slap where it moves its tail from the ground in a full arc to the other side and then to the ground again.
“Are you describing where the people are?” I try to narrow down the meaning of this gesture and it gives me a quick nod followed by a quick shake of its head. “Yes and no? Do you mean sort of?”
“Dra” and a sharp nod. It makes the same motion again, including the half circle part, but first it moves a bit, however it keeps the tip of the tail where it traces the half circle in the same orientation. I look at the direction it is describing with it’s tail and notice that it goes from east to west as it moves in the half circle and feel the light bulb click in my head.
“Do you mean that it’s two days away from here? Are you using that half circle motion with your tail to describe a day?”
“Dra Dra Dra” it nods faster than I had seen it ever do before and almost seems to bounce a little.
‘This is way more intelligent than any animal back on Earth, is this normal for all Pokemon or are Dratini particularly smart? Questions for later, for now I should find those people, though how do I know the Dratini is trying to help me and isn’t just messing around with me, maybe this is some big trap that it is leading me to?’ I shudder as that thought crosses my mind, but realize that the Dratini had many chances to hurt me if it wanted to, so at this point there is little I can do but trust it to show me the way. “Hey Dratini, can you show me to the other people, I’m not sure if…”
“Dra Dra” I’m interrupted halfway through my question by it happily nodding and then slithering up to me and before I can even react it curls it’s top half around my body and gives a light squeeze before letting me go again and heading off to the east. It stops after a few seconds and looks back to see if I’m following it.
“Give me a couple minutes to pack up my stuff.” I yell after it and it patiently curls up on the ground in the sun and watches as I pack up my tent and other stuff into my backpack. After a few minutes I have gathered everything up and start to head towards the Dratini, who waits for me to get close before headed off towards the tree line and stopping again to make sure I am following.
After almost an hour the Dratini figured out the pace that I walk at and managed to keep itself to the same pace and sticks about ten feet in front of my leading the way through the forest. As we walk I notice that the bird sounds are very different from back in the forests of the Northwestern US and can even pick out a few that sound like the bird from the morning with their cries of “Swaabbbluuu” throughout the forest. I also several times hear rustling in the trees and catch a glimpse of something brown and racoon sized that seem to be common in this area and that seem to be skittering out of our path.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Another couple of hours past without too much changing as the Dratini leads the way confidently, before we walk into a small clearing in the woods, and I notice that what I can only assume is one of the brown Pokemon I saw earlier is on the other end growling at us. It reminds me even more of a racoon seeing it clearly, about 20cm tall at its shoulders, and nearly half a meter long for its body, its fur seems very bristly and shifts in clear bands between a dark and a light brown coloration. It has a long tail as well continuing that pattern for the full nearly half a meter tail, and even sports a very similar black marking on its eyes to raccoons from Earth. It is backup up against a tree on the south side of the clearing but is growling aggressively at us as we enter on the west, letting out a low “Zzzzzziiiiiiigggg” and puffing up it’s body attempting to make itself look even larger.
Without any hesitation the Dratini slithers into the center of the clearing and growls right back at the raccoon Pokemon, seemingly accepting the challenge. At this the raccoon Pokemon seems to be out for a fight and jumps forward at the Dratini with a coating of white light covering its sharp claws as it tries to get a solid hit on the Dratini. Dratini meanwhile holds until it gets very close and then wraps its upper body around the raccoon Pokemon several times before squeezing hard trying to immobilize the other Pokemon. The raccoon Pokemon after a few seconds being squeezed realizes that its claws aren’t working well and opens it mouth wide, its teeth getting a black sheen on them before chomping down on the Dratini. Surprised the Dratini lets go of the Racoon Pokemon and without being held up any longer it drops to the ground before springing back up and circling back a few feet from the Dratini and giving an even meaner growl. The Dratini seems to stagger a bit between the aggressive growl and the bite it just took, and for a split second I think that the Dratini is seriously hurt and go to pull out my gun to help defend the Dratini, but it seems to shake itself out of the state it was in and coils itself up before it’s entire body glows white and it seemingly disappears only to reappear smacking the racoon pokemon with it’s tail causing the raccoon Pokemon to get slammed into the tree behind it. It lets out a piteous growl of “Zzzziiiiiiiig” before crawling away back towards the tree it had started at. Dratini meanwhile growls out “Draaa” and then turns back to continue its path eastward. As we leave, I catch a glimpse of the tree that the raccoon Pokemon was guarding when we entered the clearing and notice a small hollow within the tree with a few much smaller raccoon Pokemon poking their heads out and then hiding back inside once they spot me.
‘It was just defending it’s babies’ I realize as we leave the clearing, understanding why this one seemed so much more aggressive than some of the other Pokemon I had spotted on the edge of my vision throughout the morning walk. Hours later as the sky is beginning to get dark, I call out to Dratini “Hey, can we stop for the night, I’d rather not trip as we walk through the dark.”
The Dratini looks at me almost confused seeming for a second before looking at the sky and then almost seems to start back in surprise. “Draaa”
“Did you not realize how late it was getting?”
“Dra Dra” it turns to face me and nods.
“No worries, let me setup my tent and get a fire and I’ll cook up a bit of food, even a bit for you.” I reassure the Dratini, who seems quite happy with the plan. The rest of the night passes without anything of note happening and we continue our journey the next day, travelling for most of the day and not encountering anything else that tries to fight the Dratini. With only a couple of hours left before dusk, the Dratini suddenly stops and holds it’s tail up to stop me from walking past it.
“Draaa Draatiini” it says and seems to try to hold itself up differently. It straightens it’s back so that it stands higher up, it holds it’s head very steady and level, not letting it bob up and down as it moves slowly forward, and overall it seems much more a thing of awe and grace than it ever did previously. It takes a much slower, more graceful pace going through some more trees, before they clear up and reveal a large lake against a cliffside suddenly appearing out of the forest. The top of the cliff seems to be the mountainside of the valley and has a waterfall coming down forming the lake and flowing into a river headed south. All along the cliffside from south to north and at all sorts of elevations are a huge number of cave entrances, pockmarking the cliff and making it look almost like there is more open air then rock there. On the western shore, opposite the cliff, there is a single small wooden cabin, built in a very strange style that I can’t quite place. It seems to be very well maintained, but also seems old, with vines crawling up the corners in a well-manicured way.
Most incredibly of all though are the Pokemon occupying this lake, with hundreds of Dratini swimming throughout the lake and lounging on the shore and a few dozen even larger serpentine Pokemon I recognize as Dragonair seemingly swimming through the air above the lake, going in and out of the caves and down to interact with the Dratini. If the Dratini that I had traveled with is average size, then these Dragonair must be about 4 meters long. After standing there breathless, taking in the sights and marveling at the Dratini and Dragonair in front of me, I hear a crack in the air above the lake, sounding almost like thunder and barely seconds later there is a rush of wind that pushes me to the ground as a nearly 3-meter tall Dragonite lands only a few meters away in front of me. The scaly bipedal dragon lands nimbly on wings that look much too small to support it moving nearly as fast as it did and slams the ground with it’s massive tail causing the ground around us to shake a little. It folds it’s arms in front of it's massive chest and glares right at me and then in the deepest growl I have ever heard, simply says “Drrrraaagonnnniiite.” I am still working my way to crawl back onto my feet when I hear the Dratini that led me here respond sharply “Draatiini” and I feel an almost intangible weight lift off my chest as the Dragonite stops staring at me and turns to face the Dratini. After a quick back and forth between the full-grown dragon and its younger counterpart the Dragonite finally seems to relent and raises its arm up to point at the cabin and nod at me. Then with a final growl at me it flaps its wings and takes off straight upwards with another crack of thunder that I now place as a sonic boom reaching my ears only a second later.
I follow the Dratini who starts heading towards the cabin, noticing that the Dratini that had been lounging on the shore nearby all have moved out of our path and keep a distance from us. Upon reaching the cabin I knock on the door, but on hearing nothing I check the handle and see that it is unlocked. Walking inside I find a very cozy single room with a bed in one corner, a fireplace on one wall and the wooden floor having a sizable mat covering the center portion of the room. I also notice a tea set in a small cupboard near the fireplace and a set of shelves next to the door looking like a shoe rack. Following my instinct, I take off my shoes and go to sit on the mat, remembering when I visited a traditional Japanese shrine and seeing that the layout was very similar, and the mat also seemed to serve the same purpose. I notice that the Dratini follows me inside and as soon as it is inside, and I shut the door I notice the straight posture and head held high droop down and it almost seems to sigh.
“I guess I should say thanks for helping me out back there, the big guy didn’t seem too happy to see me”
“Draaaaa” it says slowly and lies down to curl up on a smaller mat near the fireplace, before closing its eyes and seeming to take a nap.
Thinking that I should wait here for the owner of the cabin to return I decide that I might as well relax and lay down on the bed, falling asleep almost instantly.
I wake up to another crack of thunder announcing the approach of a Dragonite outside and get up to go outside to investigate. Before I can get my shoes on, I hear a soft knock at the door and an elderly lady opens it open and walks inside.
“Greetings, I am elder Sofia of the Blackthorn clan, please let me make you a cup of tea.” She says in a dignified voice. “We have lots to talk about, including how you came to find my clan’s most secret hideaway.”