The house now quiet, Blitzer took George to his room. The Charmander used his tail like a torch, despite all the candles on the wall being lit, the air teeming with their waxy scent. To make odd into flat out stupid, the way he held his tail up made his strides slower and far clumsier. Normally a tail kept someone steady on their feet. Blitzer hadn’t quite understood that, however.

“Oomph! Man, these halls are so wide…” said the Charmander, as he managed to catch himself on the wall just before he’d fall over.

George smirked a little. “Why are they this wide, anyway? Neither of your parents need that much space.”

Blitzer peeked over his shoulder, then let out a chirp. “Oh, they do need that much once they evolve! You just wait.”

“We’ll see, I guess,” replied the Oshawott with a shrug. “Can’t deny, you holding your tail like that… you remind me of an explorer.”

The Charmander blushed. “O-oh… thank you,” he hummed.

A few steps later, the two reached a door wider than both of them together. Blitzer threw it open, and ran inside. “Here it is, my room!”

George treaded lightly as he entered. There was a surprising lack of furniture: In fact, the room was empty aside from one dresser and a box full of toys. The air felt a little cramped, and the room lacked lighting: Aside from Blitzer’s tail flame, a single candle on the dresser was the lone light source, and it wasn’t lit. A faint scent of dry grass hung in the air. George smelled it coming off a pile of straws in the back, which Blitzer had thrown himself down upon.

“What do you think?” Blitzer asked. George idled; for a moment, he thought he heard an echo.

“It’s alright, I guess. It’s pretty roomy, and uh… you have plenty of space for yourself. A lot more than I’m used to.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty boring here,” Blitzer deadpanned, much to George’s bewilderment. “Hey, what’s that face for? Why do you think I was in the woods in the first place? That’s where the fun is! Exploring! My parents keep telling me, ‘Noo, Blitzer, you can’t go out there, you know how dangerous it is with all the ferals! And you might get into trouble with some of the Queen’s Soldiers if you aren’t careful and rabble rabble rabble’, but I don’t care! I love the outdoors, I love exploring! It’s how I found you! So I’m not going to stop.”

George cleared his nose with a deep breath. ‘At least you have your own room…’ “You know, you sound a lot like me before I came here, except your parents actually allow you out. The headmistress from where I’m from wouldn’t let me out in a million years.“

“Headmistress?” Blitzer tilted his head.

George swallowed some saliva that had built up in his mouth. “Uh, well, she’s like a parent. Except not really. Actual parents love you in the end. She was just an angry, hateful woman. Extremely rude, only takes care of kids for the paycheck. It’s complicated.”

“Is that something from the human world?”

“I guess so.” George shrugged. “She was always horrible to me and the others, I don’t know why. We were supposed to trust her, but I wouldn’t trust her to look after a lemonade stand. Quite a world’s difference, isn’t it? Your parents still let you out, even though they’re worried about a wild Pokemon catching you.”

“No, they don’t allow me to go out very far, and I don’t know why! I can take ‘em!” Blitzer held his fists before his face, then pretend boxed the air. “I’m strong, and I can breathe fire! And you can breathe water!”

George looked off to the side. “Uh, ‘breathing water’?” ‘Is that even possible? I’m not a fish.’ ”You know, I got attacked by Shroomish in the forest, and all I could do was run away. So no, I can’t. And besides, is breathing the right-”

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Blitzer put up a grumpy frown. “Yes you can! You’re a water type! I know you can do it! And I haven’t seen any of the Queen’s soldiers around these parts, so I don’t see why I can’t go outside of the village.”

‘There’s that ‘Queen’ again…’ George took a deep breath, before putting his hands together to twiddle his fingers. “I’d like to know who this ‘Queen’ is, Blitzer. Is that who your parents meant just now?”

Blitzer sighed. “Yeah. No one around her says her real name, but we all know it. It’s kind of hard not to. Her name is Queen Patrina, Patrina… Rosemary the Third, or something. She technically is our ruler, but no one here accepts her.”

“Why not?” asked George, ears twitching off to the side.

“Because she is awful!” shouted the Charmander, his little teeth bared. “She really is! All she wants is more, more, more! It doesn’t matter if we do everything she wants exactly the way she wants it. All it gets us is more contempt. More Soldiers harassing us. You heard those two guys dad was speaking with, right?”

George nodded. “I did. They sounded like loudmouthed thugs to me.” ‘Just like a certain someone I know.’

“Exactly!” Blitzer leaned forward with clenched claws. “We try to avoid them as much as we can, but...”

“But let me guess, they won’t let you?”

“No. Soldiers always come out whenever things get out of control. And that happens way too often, over the smallest things, too! Like, like some oldster getting lost in the forest, here come the Soldiers! It’s awful… They come through the village. They break things, they steal from us, all in the queen’s name. And if we don’t accept that, well… We read her addresses when they’re put on the notice board. She makes examples out of anyone who stands against her. All so we won’t think of protesting.”

“Then those fugitives are the excuse this time, aren’t they?” George put his foot down, scraping the dust off the floor. “Blitzer, you can’t just let this keep happening to you!”

“And I don’t!” yelled Blitzer back with a flare from his tail, visibly pouting. “Maybe mom, dad, or the rest of the village does, but I sure don’t. I’ll explore and no one will stop me! I’ve never seen soldiers in the woods, anyway. What would they even be looking for there? There’s only wild Pokemon…”

George suddenly became uncomfortable. An itch in his head he couldn’t reach, similar to what he felt upon waking up. ‘Those voices… were those…’ “Blitzer, now that I think about it, I might have overheard some of those soldiers looking for me earlier!”

“R-really?!” Blitzer reeled back. “D-did they follow you?”

The Oshawott shook his head. “No, they couldn’t have. They would have found us by now if they had. But they were looking for someone who had turned into a Pokemon, I heard it with my own two ears.” He pointed to his ears twitching back and forth.

“That’s a relief, at least.” Blitzer shook his head. “You would have been in trouble if they found you. No one in the village dares stand up to them if they do something. They’re all big, strong looking Pokemon that look like they pluck the legs off Wurmples for fun. I don’t think ten of us could take even one on. I’m glad I found you in time!”

“You could say that.” George looked away, frowning. “Things just keep getting stranger, don’t they? First I wake up as a Pokemon, then I get chased down by evil Pokemon…” He walked to the other side of the room in a confused stupor, the thuds of his feet loud and clear. “Why did this happen? Why is all of this happening?”

“Well, uh…”

“It’s not like I’m some kind of hero, am I? Sure, that’s a fun fantasy, but it’s nothing more than that.” The former human groaned, his tail falling flat against the floor. “Life’s been kicking me down for way too long. If I actually was a hero, well… then I wouldn’t be losing from the day I was born, would I?” George let out a long, drawn out sigh. ’If anything, this is the moment where I’d wake up.’

“But you can be a hero, though!” said Blitzer. George felt a claw on his shoulder; the Charmander stood behind him, smiling with a puffed up chest. “Everything’s possible if you believe it is!”

“Do you really think so?”

“Yes! That’s why I want to explore! I want to get stronger and teach them a lesson they won’t ever forget! When I evolve, I’ll make sure they’ll never come back here! You are with me, right? What do you think you would have done if you had woken up all grown up? Just imagine swinging those swords around, George!”

“Huh…”

George tried imagining it for himself. In the blink of an eye, the headaches gave way to a scene unfolding in his mind. It showed a strong, noble warrior standing proud and tall in the heat of battle. With a curved sword in each claw, he slashed away at his enemies with unmatched ferocity. Slicing through monsters, striking with his horn like lightning, beams of ice and powerful jets of water firing from his mouth; one by one, his foes crumpled to the ground with a gurgle. In the end, the warrior – the Samurott – stood victorious.

And that fantasy, vivid as it was, made George grin in the end.

“You’re darn right I am!”

“Awesome!” Blitzer threw his arms up before wrapping them around George. “You and me, we’re going to do it! We’re going to be the best explorers ever!”

And so, the two Pokemon intertwined their dreams with one another. Even though they spent the rest of the day playing with toys and helping Blitzer’s parents, George was stoked. Never before had this much energy flowed through his veins, energy he couldn’t wait to spend in whatever adventures lay ahead. Blitzer promised they would explore the woods tomorrow, and just like with George’s identity, he promised not to tell anyone, least of all his parents. He had a special place in mind, a place he hadn’t dared to delve deep into before. None of it was discouraging, not even the idea of Soldiers or fugitives lurking in the shadows. It was the first step in a long road to the top; there were bound to be challenges.

One thing George couldn’t shake off, however, was a nagging feeling that things weren’t so simple. Mysterious voices had brought him here… for what? To deal with a Queen? With fugitives? Would they really need someone from a different world to deal with those?

What George did know, however, is that this wasn’t some out of control dream. As time flowed, the chance of waking up from all of this was smaller than a hair. But was that such a bad thing? It’s not like anyone back home would miss him, least of all the headmistress. For now, he was happy to live as an Oshawott, and dream of wonders he couldn’t have imagined for a thousand years.