The grass and foliage of the shimmering forest rustled quietly as a cool breeze passed through the woods. The air was crisp, as if eager to start a brief flurry of flakes, but was kept away by the year's summer, too far in advance to be acknowledged as such. The heat and the snow, fighting each other as to create more variety in each other's absence. It was early spring indeed, with the new leaves in the trees and flowers in soil, all wanting to bloom.
A lone orange lizard lay curled up on a large stone. It was coiled around the tip of its tail, as though was a fragile thing, and it was trying to cradle it and protect it with its life. The lizard laid there for quite a while, before a single droplet of water fell from a thawing branch, and landed on the lizard's head.
As the creature awoke, his big turquoise eyes blinked and looked up as he stretched, trying to discover what had woken him up. He looked up at the unfamiliar canopy, the grass, the rocks, and then at himself.
"Whaaaat?!??!!!" He yelled out to no one in particular.
He looked all over at himself. His tail, his arms, his legs, even his head was different. He was indeed, a charmander. He took a few minutes to calm down and think about this new experience.
[So if I'm a charmander...] he thought to himself. [then that means that my wish came true!] he smiled happily. This was what this figure had always wanted, apparently. He got up and inspected his new tail. It had a flaming fire on the end of it.
"Let this flame burn long," he said to himself. "And forget about my old life. This one will surely be a better one."
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5 years later
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A strange fox ran through the jungle, Dashing through bushes and shrubbery, fur all tangled and with noticeable scratches on its sides. It was afraid. Oh very afraid. It had just woken up earlier that day, and upon seeing the surroundings different to what it knew, it ran.
Wondering where it could be, it tried to leap a small stream, only to trip and fall in the mud. It's fur was already brown, but now it was dirty and coated in wet earth. It tried to pick itself up, but upon clenching its hurt knee, it froze. "This can't be real." She said.
After staying in shock for a few moments, she shook her head. "THIS CANT BE REAL!!!" She took off running again. "NO! I REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT! NO!!"
As she tripped over twigs, roots, and rocks, she sprinted with all her might, adrenaline taking over all pain she felt. She saw a cliff dead ahead, and, knowing dreams to end when stressed, she made the impulse decision to go for it. She ran to the edge of the cliff, squeezed her eyes shut, and felt...
Nothing.
She opened her eyes to find herself falling headfirst into an ocean. Big, blue waves gushed all around her. Realizing this wasn't a dream, she tried screaming out- only to have water flow into her open mouth. She tried to stay afloat, although her new body was strange to her. Her head then hit something hard, and everything went dark.
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Ugh... wha?... what's going on?... I open my eyes and look all around. I am in some kind of bed, material stuffed with hay and with a sort of blanket laid over me. The room is lightly colored in blues, reds, and yellows. Let me try to sit up... Ow ow ow!
"Woah there! Slow down!" A sweet voice is saying. I looked over to find a pink, round egg-shaped creature helping to lay me back down. "You need to rest." The pink creature said.
"Aagugga...?" I tried to speak. "Aaauuhggghaaa!?!! Augggahaaaa?!??!!!" Why can't I talk right?!?!!
"Hey there! Hey, hey, hey!" The pink animal covered my mouth with a paw. "You hit your head pretty hard and it doesn't look like you can speak yet." The pink creature placed her paw on my shoulder. "Do you know where your home is?"
I began to think about it. What street do I live on? Wait, what was the town? The state? I know I live in the USA! I can't remember! I shook my head.
"Alright... what about your parents? Do you know where they might be?"
Parents? Who are my parents? I can't remember that either!!! What did dad like? What about mom? This is all a bit too confusing and it hurts my head thinking about it.
The pink creature saw my struggle and stopped asking these questions. "Well, it seems you might have a bad case of amnesia. I'll remind you the basics, just in case. You are a Pokémon called Eevee. You are in a hospital in Tarry town. I am a Chansey, and my name is Tina, but you can call me nurse if that's easier."
Eevee? I'm a fox? At least the amnesia part makes sense! Wait, I can't call you anything! I can't speak! I gave Tina a stern look.
"Oh! That's right! You can't speak! ...speaking of names, do you remember yours?"
Um, my name? Of course I know my name! I nodded my head hastily.
"Here, one moment while I get you something to write on and with." The chansey left and quickly returned with a parchment of paper and a quill with ink. "There you go" she said as she passed the objects to me. "Now go ahead and write your name."
After a moment fiddling with the feather in my new 'paws', I wrote "Eva" on the paper.
"Eva, huh?" Tina said. "Well, can't say it's the strangest name I've heard of. Anyhoo, you were brought in this morning by a charmander named Sam. He's a local around this town. Maybe he can jog your memory some more. I'll bring him in."
As the strange thing left, I noticed a small pouch on the her stomach, holding an egg comfortably inside. She seemed like a good person. But the thing I'm really concerned about is everything else. How did I get here? Why can't I remember things? Why am I even here in the first place? These questions seemed to have no plain answers, but as I thought about them, one thing seemed to stick out in my mind. There was something... familiar about these "Pokémon". Was it one of their species? ...charmander, was it? That's right! Charmander was the name of one of the cartoon animals on my little brother's favorite tv shows! But that couldn't be! That was a cartoon! This was real life!
But sure enough, as sure as day was bright, I felt gobsmacked as a giant orange lizard walked into to the room, accompanied by Tina. The lizard isn't too much taller than me I think, but he stands on two legs rather than four. He seems kind of sheepish, but he's somewhat intimidating still, especially due to the consistently burning flame at the tip of his tail!
I hid under the blankets. (This has to be a dream. This HAS to be a dream!) I thought frantically. (that's the little monster animal thing from my brother's show! This can't be real! Maybe I'm in a reality show! Or the matrix! Or someone gave me drugs and I didn't know! There has to be some sort of explanation! There has-)
The charmander said something to me. What was it saying? I lifted my head out from under the covers.
"... um, anyways, uh.. my name is-" the orange lizard gulped. "S-Sam! My name is is Sam." He does not seem very confident at all. "I-I found you on the beach... y-you had fainted! I brought you here so you can get better."
(For a cartoon, this is very surreal.) I thought to myself.
"S-so, uh, w-what's your name?" The unconfident lizard asked me.
"Aaughabaa..." I tried to say as I pointed over towards the parchment that has my name on it. It was by now placed on the bedside table next to me.
"Eva..." Sam read out loud. "And you can't talk." He glanced over at me. "Huh."
"She also seems to have a case of amnesia." Tina said, noting what he would've missed.
"Okay..." Sam said aloud, although he seemed more in his thoughts than paying attention to our conversation.
"That's why I think it best she stays with you for now, Sam."
"...stay with.. Wait, me?!!" Sam exclaimed suddenly. "Why me? I'm not very bright or smart or anything! What would I even do?!!"
"Well," Tina started. "First off, she needs to get her memory back. You brought her here so you should stay with her. Maybe you can jog her memory?"
"But- I- she wasn't even awake! How could I remind her of something from before I knew her?!!"
"Memory is a funny thing." Tina replied, with a slight grin on her face. "Maybe just getting outside more will help her." Tina then turned to leave.
"Wait, b-b-but what if-" Sam tried.
But by then, Tina had already left to help another patient. Sam looked back at me.
"Well, it looks like you're sticking with me for a little bit..."
After Tina gave me the OK to leave, I soon found myself on a dirt pathway, following Sam. It was hard for me to walk at first (mostly because I never imagined to be walking on four legs), but I think I'm getting the hang of it. It will still take some getting used to, though.
"S-so, uh..." Sam started. "Where- where do you come from?"
I stayed silent. I still can't talk you moron.
"Uh... are you from the north, or the south, or..."
I sighed internally. Out of all the characters in my little brothers tv show, did it have to be the most ignorant? Or were there Pokémon worse off than this guy?
Sam continued. "Well, uh... if you don't want to talk about it, we can j-just head to my place?"
He still didn't have a clue. I tilted and shook my head, meaning to show disappointment and acceptance at the same time. I followed him into the woods.
After trotting along after Sam for a while, I'm actually starting to wonder if this incompetent lizard actually knows where he was going, or if he got lost on the way to his own house. I'm also thinking about the possibility that he is just putting on a show to seem unable, and what if he is actually taking me to my doom? That would be the highlight of this strange day, to be honest. I'm keeping my eyes on you, lizard man. I highly doubt he is much more than he seems, but I want to be careful, just in case.
Eventually, once we had been walking for a long while, Sam finally stopped. "We're here." He said.
I looked around. Where? All around me is trees, rocks, bushes, dirt... no sign of a house or anything! Is this some kind of joke?! I glared back over at Sam, wanting to give him a peace of my mind, but instead I found him moving a decent sized rock from over a hole by a tree. After he moved the leafy covering, I saw that there was an entire room underneath the tree, so well disguised by the roots and greenery that I hadn't even noticed it before. He entered inside, and I followed him.
Once we were inside, Sam moved the leaves back into the doorway. "This," he said, "is my humble abode."
I looked up at the walls made by the roots being tied together with twigs and branches, the straw-filled bed for sleeping, the dirt floor, and the other odds and ends in the room. There were some books on a stand that resembled a bookshelf or nightstand, a kitchen-like area, and then another room that had some sort of treasure chest in it. That far room was separated by a large curtain.
"Oh!" Sam said as he looked over at the partly-open curtain to the far room. "Uh, make yourself at home, while I clean up a bit!" Sam then rushed over to the far room and closed the curtain. He started picking up the scraps of paper and other things on the floor and tossed them into a basket by the root-wall.
I walked around a bit, getting accustomed to my new surroundings. There is definitely more to this guy than I thought. Sam must have some kind of deeper past! I should get into that other room later.
I realized how tired I was, so I looked around for something to lay down on. There was a stack of folded blankets by one wall of the circular room, so I started pulling one out with my teeth. By now, Sam had finished straightening up, and saw me pulling out a blanket.
"Oh, if you were tired, you could've just-" Sam froze. "THATS RIGHT!" He said out loud. "You can't speak!"
Finally! And the grand prize winner is...
"And here I was thinking that I made you mad or something..." Sam said with his clawed hands to his forehead. "Here, let me help you with that."
Sam came over and helped me to set up my new makeshift bed. Sam went on and on about feeling sorry about earlier, and that he would try to not forget it anymore. I was so tired that I just nodded with him until we were done.
"Sorry, sorry, I should stop apologizing." Sam said again, trying to not say it. He looked over at the kitchen-like area. "So are you hungry, I have some-" he looked back to find me fast asleep in my new bed. "I'll just let you sleep..." he said quietly as he snuck away.
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I found myself in a strange place. There were lights and colors all around me, all changing hues in sync. Pink, then baby blue, yellow, then lime green, magenta, then light brown, all changing back and forth again, and all were mixed with a white light. They weren't changing fast, but rather slowly, as if to keep me calm. They seem to do the job right, for I'm not so scared as I am curious. I wonder where these lights are coming from?
"I feel so... okay." I said out loud. "I feel like... kinda warm and fuzzy inside... Where am I?"
"You are in my realm, Evelyn. You are lucky, very few get to be here." A disembodied voice said around me.
I looked around. "Who are you?!! How do you know my name?!!"
"Be not afraid, I am not your enemy. I-"
"Yeah right! I'll be the judge of that. Answer my question!"
"-I was going to say, that I know you because I've watched you for a long time. Have you noticed that you are able to speak here? What do you think about that?" The mysterious voice asked.
I was speechless. "I didn't realize..."
"I know you would like answers, Evelyn, but we are short on time together. I hope to let you know some things that would help you now. Would you like to hear them?"
"Uh... yes please."
"Over the ages, there have been many human to come to this world. The world inhabited solely by Pokémon. I am aware that you are not acquainted with the knowledge of us that is obtainable in your world, so you must feel very confused."
"You got that right."
"Knowledge will come with time, so do not worry." The voice continued. "I am Arceus, the God of the Pokémon worlds. I brought you here for the same reason every human is brought here: to save the world."
"Wait wait wait... you mean to tell me that you uprooted me from my life in another universe, just so I could help you fix some issue that you, a literal god, can't fix?"
"Yes and no." Arceus replied. "I need your help in order to teach my Pokémon. They are, by nature, followers. They take leadership once they are alone, but I can never leave them alone for too long, or else they will try to upset the balance of things. In other words, they need a little help sometimes in order to fix things themselves."
"That seems a little backwards, isn't it?"
"Well, unfortunately things work a tiny bit differently, depending on what universe you're in. Just like how Pokémon are fictional in your world, in some of my Pokémon worlds, you humans are only a myth."
"Wow, this is a lot..."
"I am aware. Now we have little time left, but I need to give you some guidance. Stay with Sam. You are important. Look for a relick stone, that is relic with a k. Stay true to yourself, and do your best."
The colors seemed to start fading away.
"Wait!" I said, realizing this might be the end of the dream. "Will I get back home? What do I do?!"
The dream was now fading faster.
"I'm sorry, but this is where we part ways for now. Stay true, relick stone, and Sam. Do your best! Good bye!"
"No! Wait! Wait!-" I yelled out to him as my dream ended.