Eight Steps to Bravery

Chapter One: Introduction

    I woke to the sound of screaming.
    Bloodcurdling screaming followed by a tremendous roar, splitting my eardrums and causing an awful ringing within my head. I just wanted to curl up and hide. Maybe if I tried, the screaming and blaring roars and crashes would disappear.
    However, I knew otherwise.
    "Run, Veerium! Get out of here!" My father's voice arose from somewhere outside.
    "Dad! What's going on?"
    "Get out of here, Vee! It's an attack!"
    I could feel the dread creeping into my chest, anxiety making me feel sick. We had known it wouldn't be long until our little village was attacked.
    But this was too soon! We weren't prepared yet!
    A whimper caught my attention, and my eyes flashed across my small, cobweb covered room. Among the great flashes and streaks of light and fire outside my broken window, I met a pair of glowing crimson eyes. They were wide with terror.
    "Shh, it's okay," I murmured, rushing over to the creature's side and wrapping my arms around his pale colored neck, trying to hide my own fear. "We're gonna get out of here."
    I felt the creature tremble, and brushed a gentle hand down his back. I could feel his rectangular spikes that protruded out in the area, which were now fluttering up and down anxiously. His long, white feathered wings were wrapped tightly around his small, angular body.
    He was a pokémon: a magical, powerful creature that, like all other species of pokémon, roamed this world alongside humans. And out of the hundreds of species of pokémon, the one that I held within my arms was Lugia.
    He was a legendary pokémon, with a long, narrow, and dragon-like body. I received him into my care two years ago after my father and his warrior patrol found him nearly dead as a newborn in one of the enemy's traps, ready to be picked up by an enemy patrol. It was a pure miracle to find such a creature not yet in the hands of another human. Legendary pokémon were more rare than finding peace in this world through the war. If you even had a legendary pokémon, you might as well be god-like, or one of the gods yourself.
    However, I was no god. I was just a human who loved my pokémon partner just as he loved me. We were not god-like, we did not have extraordinary power that made our enemies fall to the ground and tremble with fear. We were both just children, and we were terrified.
    "Veerium!" my mother screamed from outside. "Get Lugia and get out of here!"
    Lugia squeaked as a deafening boom sounded outside, shaking our small, broken home. I buried my face in his shoulder, wincing as screams followed the terrible noise.
    "We have to go now," I whispered, half to myself. I reluctantly stood up, rushing to grab whatever I could. However, all I could take was Lugia's pokéball and a hunting knife to protect myself.
    However, as I turned to grab Lugia and urge him forward, I was flung backward by a great burst of energy.
    Nothing. I wasn't able to hear anything. I could sense vibrations along the ground to tell me the attack was still occurring outside, but my hearing had vanished and my ears were ringing. My vision was black, and my mind hazy, not to mention I could feel a trickle of blood running down my forehead.
    Judging by the aching pain and hard object poking into my back, I guessed that I had been flung against my wooden bed. It felt broken now, as there were splinters digging into my arms.
    My vision gave way out of the darkness as debris was yanked off of me. Lugia's wide eyes stared down at me with worry, and his jaws parted open, though I heard no sound.
    A pair of hands grasped me and pulled me to my feet, and I found myself staring into my mother's brown eyes. Her short pale hair was matted down with dirt and blood, and her fair skin and clothes were torn and filthy.
    She urged me forward, making motions with her hands, while her pokémon, Espeon, gave Lugia a shove towards the now open and broken wall.
    "Get out. We'll be fine," I faintly heard my mother say, and I gave no protest as I ran out the entrance.
    Chaos. That might have been a sufficient word to describe our village now. Nearly every building was destroyed or on fire, not to mention parts of the surrounding forest were lit up in flames.
    Yet somehow I was able to keep running, trying to ignore the screams of both human and Pokémon, the explosions that tore apart our village, the enemies that lurked around us. I sprinted forward, my only thought being to escape and keep Lugia safe, even though we had already been spotted by the enemies, and may not even make it out of the village alive. Yet we pursued our path forward, trying to overcome the hard truth that our lives were being torn apart before our very eyes, and we could do nothing but run. Run through the chaos, fire, and blood that spilled beneath our feet.
    All I could process were the faint, bloodcurdling screams of my mother being torn apart by some monstrosity behind us, the distraught screams of Espeon following, and my vision fading as we entered the forest before us.