Prologue
"Why can I never follow advice?" I mumbled.
A flock of Spearow glared at me, and I took an instinctual step back.
"50 years from now, people are going to use me as an example for bad behavior and its consequences. Heck, they do that even now!"
Just as I finished speaking, one particularly evil looking Spearow shreed, and lunged; the rest of its flock following its example.
I did the same thing as any kid my age would have done if they had a flock of angry birds charging them: I screamed like a girl and ran.
Okay, so maybe it wasn't the noblest thing to do. But I was 5 and I was terrified of Flying-types and my instinct was to run the other way and that's exactly what I did. Can you blame me?
Suddenly, the first Spearow slammed into me, and I shrieked in pain. Aerial Ace! That stupid bird had hit me with Aerial Ace! Letting out a wail that I knew would never reach the ears of my villagers I shook off the avian on my shoulder and ran on.
Unbeknownst to me, however, my senseless plea for help had reached friendly ears. Nearby, a Pidgey watched from its position in the trees. After a moment of hesitation, the tiny Normal-and-Flying pigeon opened its wings and took to the air. It circled the air above me twice, and then did a slow flip, drifting in a midair loop in an almost lazy manner. That done, it swooped down and clubbed the bigger and stronger Spearow, which was attempting to hit me with Quick Attack, with a well-placed Wing Attack.
Having successfully gained the attention of the enraged flock, it took its stance in front of them, while shooing me on. I, however, stood stock still, some rabbit-like part of me whispering that if I stood still and quiet enough, the birds would leave. Of course that didn't happen. That never happens to me. I'm slow, I'm clumsy, I can't listen to anyone for more than 5 seconds without getting bored, and my parents are convinced that I'm ADHD. So is, for that matter, everyone else I know.
"Spearow!" The Evil Spearow screamed, then dove, flock following its every command.
The Pidgey stiffened, looking intimidated. Then it too turned around and flew at me.
I screamed again, now wholly convinced that I was about to die. Spinning around, I began to run again, wailing for my parents the whole time.
Behind me a screech echoed, and a second later, something small and…feathery? impacted on my back. I screamed again, though more from shock than from fear or anything else. I stumbled, and then fearfully peered behind me. Much to my alarm, the swarm of enraged, deranged birdies was only a few feet behind me.
A soft cooing call echoed from the ground and an instant later, the tiny Pidgey from before rose, wings wobbling, to my defense once more. Only then did it occur to my 5 year old brain that if this tiny little mass of feathers had wanted to hurt me, it would have left me to the Spearow flock or attacked me already. In short, it wanted to help me. And I was being ungrateful.
Well, my teacher had always said that I didn't appreciate all of the help and protection people offered me and one day it was going to bite me in the arse, and since I was sure that I was going to get a lot worse than a bite in the arse if I didn't help this tiny fledgling defeat this big scary flock, I made the only sensible call I could make: I grabbed a stick from the mountain path I was stumbling along and screamed like a Banette. Or my gym teacher when I tripped while running the mile. She was scary. She was almost as scary as a flock of angry birds. The birds were still scarier. But only by a little bit. She was really scary.
The Pidgey looked at me as if I were crazy then slowly shook its head, having apparently come to some conclusion about my mental state. It was then that I realized I had spoken aloud. And that the only-scarier-than-my-gym-teacher-by-a-little-bit-birds hadn't stopped to listen.
So I shouted "I don't know how to use this!" and swung the branch with all my might, scaring my only ally so bad it it nearly fainted from shock, at the oncoming swarm. The Pidgey dropped in the air, partly from alarm and partly from exhaustion, and just barely missed being one of the victims of my random swing. Luckily the Pidgey wasn't the only one to not expect me to do that, because the Spearow flock stopped in surprise, which gave me just enough time to grab my new feathered friend by the leg, (it gave a squawk of indignation) and run for our lives.
The Spearow flock soon got over their surprise and went after us. By the time they had gotten close again, I was running for all I was worth, silently swearing to myself that I would never break another rule again, while simultaneously attempting to scare the flock off with my stick without disrupting the pigeon who had taken roost on my shoulder with a great deal of reluctance.
Eventually I got a lucky break—one of the tiny tunnels that pocketed the mountain I called home had an entrance not far from the path I was running along. In fact, if I wasn't mistaken, it was the same one I had taken to get this far up the accursed mountain and into what apparently was Spearow territory.
Wild Pokemon lived inside the little cave system I had discovered and, being my usual idiotic self, I just had to go exploring inside. Being chased by them was what had led me into the view of the swarm that lived on this particular part of the mountain. Still, I had been exploring these set of caves for quite some time and provided that the native inhabitants didn't chase me out again, I could probably make it to another one of my 'safe areas'.
Unfortunately, the Pidgey didn't know that, and upon seeing the cave I intended to run into squawked and probably would have flown away if the leader of the crazed flock of demon birds hadn't slammed into its wing with an Aerial Ace. The smaller bird crashed into the ground with the force of the blow and lay still. I froze for all of a second, then darted over, grabbed my only ally, and in a sudden moment of bravery, kicked the demonic entity known as Spearow before running into the cave.
Whipping around, I flung my branch at the few birds brave enough to fly after me and backed farther inside before taking off into the shadows shrouding the dark cave. Stumbling, I passed several sleeping Lairon and Aron, a couple Graveler wrestling, a flock of Zubat drinking at a small pool of water, an opening to the outside world that lit the inky darkness surrounding me, an Onix staring at me… wait, an opening?!
I skidded to a halt and turned to stare for a few moments before a roar from the rock snake behind me sent me running out of the cave, praying to Ho-Oh and Lugia and the three Servant Beasts and all the other deity Pokemon out there that I was running to the forest clearing and not into danger… or that I hadn't run in a large circle and was about to re-introduce myself and my passenger to the Spearow flock of Doom.
I was in luck. The opening I chose to run through led to the clearing with the really nice Miltank who uses her Milk Drink attack on me to heal me whenever I do something stupid and injure myself. After stumbling to a stop just inside the tree line, I doubled over, gasping for air.
The Pidgey flitted off my left shoulder, yelped in pain, and did an awkward U-turn to my right shoulder, whimpering and staring at one of its wings. I remembered that just before I ran into the cave, the Pidgey had been hit in the wing with that stupid Spearow's Aerial Ace. Frowning, I turned around and apologized to my passenger.
"Hey… I'm sorry you got hit. I, um… know a Miltank that lives here. She usually heals me when I get hurt, which is … pretty often actually. Ha ha … that's kinda sad, isn't it?" I smiled tentatively at the pigeon, which blinked back at me, before glancing at its wing. Face falling a little, I started walking. "I'm sure she'll be happy to heal us. And um…" I couldn't think of anything else to say and figured I hadn't thanked …him? yet so now was the perfect time to do so.
"Thanks for saving me back there. My family-village really- all say that you Flying types are evil and stuff, but I think you're pretty nice. Not the Spearow I mean, those are definitely evil, but bad guys don't save people and you saved me so you've got to be a good guy, right? Hey, maybe you're secretly a Pokemon super hero! Or superheroine. Uh… by the way are you a boy or a girl?"
At my side, the Pidgey puffed itself up and gave me an offended look that said, quite clearly, 'Do I look like a girl to you?' I laughed.
"Okay, so you're a boy. You're a guy, I'm a guy, and Ms. Miltank over there is a girl …. Wait, Ms. Miltank? Ms. Miltank! There you are! Can you help us?!" I ended my question with a rather loud screech that had my passenger wincing and swatting at me with his uninjured wing.
"Miltank?!" The Pokemon in question gasped, before running over to help, looking anxious.
After healing us, and giving us what I assumed to be a lecture for being so reckless, the Miltank left. I blinked down at the tiny bird and promptly declared "Well, I have no idea what she just said bu~t… I am never doing that again! I'm guessing that's what she was telling us?" When the Pidgey nodded, I grinned. "That was scary! But it was a good way to make a new friend, not that I'll be doing that ever again."
When the Pidgey stared at me in surprise, I stopped and backtracked verbally. "I-I mean, if you want to be friends! You don't have to be my friend if you don't want to! Um… I guess I could understand why not; I did just get you attacked by a flock of Spearow and hurt and I won't shut up and a lot of people tell me that it's really annoying and that's why all the other kids don't like me and that's probably why you don't like me too, and-" I shut up abruptly as the Pidgey suddenly flew up, did one lazy, mid-air loop-de-loop and promptly landed in my hair and made himself cozy there. I beamed.
That was five years ago, and a lot has changed. A lot has stayed the same, and one of those things is, unfortunately, my village's hatred of Flying types, which is why Ace, my first friend and partner, and I are leaving this prejudiced dump! If you'd like to sign up for Jack's Mail Service, then rest assured, world! We'll be up and flying soon!