This sight. These clouds. Sprawling around my frame on all sides as far as I can see. I'm falling, towards ground so far from sight that details have yet to come into focus. It only takes a moment, a single pull of magic to gather the clouds around me to soften and slow my descent. As their pillowy mass dances around under my toes from this height, I can get a better eyeful of the lands.
A sight of beauty. This land is so untouched in most places, so pure. Virginal forests and landscapes that are unmarred by the endless wars. The only marring of grey and brown markings to dot it are its cities and even from this vantage I can tell they are so unlike anything I've seen. Beyond the single shielding hand failing to prevent the winds from whipping my pelt into a frenzy, I can see their structures are almost uniformly crisp and each city looks similar enough to one another from this distance. No overly vibrant uniform colors, no uniquely distinguishing marks to show who owned what lands, no defenses erected to protect from invaders.
This reverie was promptly interrupted by the whipping whistle of some unknown large beast soaring past at speed unfathomable. Its jarring roar hitches my thoughts to reform the clouds and slow my plunge to the now much closer green fields overlooking a beach. Such a simple spell and yet I'm already winded. Mana feels so thin in this environment delaying my innate recovery and forcing me to rely on that internal well of it more. Closing my eyes, I reach out and find that at least the Light is still a present force. I can already tell I will need its strength.
The crisp crumple of grass it fights to stay erect with several blades slipping between my toes makes me look down and immediately realize my condition. Whatever brought me here, must've done so in the dead of night. I am only decent by fur alone. Though my ebon pelt obscures details sparingly but enough, and will have to do. This must be correct though, I don't want any stranger that might find me thinking I'd gone back to our kin's feral roots. I may not have time for that for the voices nearby alert me to their presence. I should not be seen like this. At least the tall grass will provide some cover.
Following the trio of voices as best I can from the camouflage of grass, I find its source with confusion in abundance. These are not people, but beasts. A snake and a mongoose standing on its hind legs are screaming at one another, while the third attempts to mediate. I cannot immediately tell if that is a cat or dog but its single horn would be an oddity on either species. This rumination makes me forget my intent to stay hidden, as when the snake looks in my direction and sees a haunting shadow obscured in grass with glowing green eyes, it slithers quick to flee. A derisive taunt is bellowed out by the mongoose in a masculine tone before it looks in my direction and does much the same, leaving the four-legged one behind in its dust. The remaining one whines, flailing about a fore paw to clear the bits of dirt from its vision before it also looks in my direction. It doesn't flee but is rather frozen in place. Pleading words spill out freely from a mewled out tone.
"I intend no harm." It flinches and further backpedals from my presence. Maybe the direct coarseness of my cadence is frightful. The blacken face twitches and white fur rustles from the trembles passing through the small beast. Consoling is a pointless endeavor it seems, it is already fleeing from me. I will work my way to the nearby town I spotted from the air. As valid an option as anything else given I have no clue where I am. It is thankfully not far away as barely an hour passes before the city's visage overtakes the sight of the mountainside it is erected against.
This is not Azeroth. A lingering suspicion made a concrete fact in my mind once I am close to the outskirts of this town. The inhabitants are human at least, save for similar beasts to the wild ones I spotted before following alongside the humans, but this presents its own problems. These humans are jovial, calm and lax. They are not on alert or drilling themselves for the constant looming threat of some great evil. Nobody is even practicing a valuable craft as far as I can see, unless there is one I do not know that involves those two-wheel contraptions I see speeding by on a path of dirt and smoothed stone. Still, it is humans.
I am left with a predicament. I could revert my form to hide my nature, but I will be left questionably indecent, or I could approach as I am and face the problems as they present themselves. Given how freely these humans embrace these talking beasts, would I even be poorly received? Then again, most of these beasts don't seem as large as me, and how they stay so close to their respective humans raises its own questions to the nature of their relationship. So, being perceived as a fellow human would possibly be more beneficial in the long run. If I had more mage training I could craft an illusion of some sort, possibly conjure some clothing. Bah!
Retracting the thick black fur back beneath olive skin under a plume of smoke that passes over my frame, I wait in the tall grass. Minutes feel like hours but thankfully I do not have to wait too long. A human pedaling one of those thin vehicles is coming so close to my hiding spot. He nearly falls off it at hearing the pitch of my voice commanding its attention. Are all the creatures of this world so skittish? Now stopped and looking toward my emerging bare top half from the tall grass though, it seems even less at ease. This human is young so perhaps I should not judge too harshly.
"Child. I need your assistance. I do not know where I am, and I seem to have lost my clothing." He shrinks from the deep bluntness of my voice almost as much as the small beast did earlier. At least this one doesn't immediately flee even though the purple rodent in the basket asks him to do exactly that as it loudly proclaims it doesn't trust my smell in its squeaky feminine tone. Oddly enough the human doesn't listen to his purple rodent companion, declares it will go get help and rides off into the city. He looks to be heading toward a building with a red roof that I saw getting a lot of foot traffic from the humans. It must be an important place for them. I suppose I should be glad that he didn't heed the small rodent's pleas.
Nearly another hour passes and a different small contraption is heading along the path on sand in a beeline from the red roof building toward me. When it stops, an actual adult dressed in some elaborate uniform steps out. She is followed almost immediately by the child and a small canine. At her behest for my location, an almost condescending request made toward the child, I stand up partially from the grass, "Ma'am, I am here." Her surprise was palpable. Her accompanying critter was as unnerved and perturbed by my existence as the rest of the talking creatures have been. It takes her several moments to process this, as if she did not believe the youth about my very existence, enough time to register that I do not even see the rodent companion of the boy now.
This lingering awkwardness nearly unbearable, she finally produces a loose cloth sheet for me from the rear storage compartment of the small vehicle. The little canine growls its displeasure the entire time I am near this strangely garbed woman who declared herself an officer. I am sure this mistrust from creatures more beast than me will never be annoying to tolerate. Draped in such a drab brown cloth in the back, she takes me into the city. This day will end. I can put this abashedness behind me. Even now, it is merely a thought boiling on the back burner while still trying to learn where I am, its relation to Azeroth, and if return home is possible.
The Church of Light loses its people all the time. Our aid is always in demand and death is an ever-present possibility for those healing on the front lines. I was out on such a duty. They will reason I have been slain or kidnapped, as they should. I would draw the same conclusion were I to hear the same about another member, if they had disappeared as suddenly as I had. I will not delude myself into thinking my higher ranking with the church will grant me special treatment. This means the efforts of returning home will fall squarely on me, and I have no means to pursue such. The Light does not provide teleportation spells. I cannot open portals connected to the Nether. With mana so thin here, are any of those native to these lands able to practice magic? Possibilities and likelihoods are dwindling, cast aside with all the fanfare of the buildings that slide from view. All I am left with is the realization that I am marooned on a strange world with no hope of return.
The travel through the city in this strange motorized vehicle. Transportation that is far quieter than any mechanization crafted by the gnomes. The canine's constant watching glare is unwelcome but thankfully the trip is short. We did not go to the red roof building but rather a white shop they called a boutique, a clothing store, and I could not be happier with that being the first stop. I was also corrected that the originally suspected destination was not actually the officer's guard station. That palpable confusion that rolled off her expression so freely with emotions unrestrained returns. The boy shared in it this time. They were both baffled I had no knowledge regarding the center of treatment for the beasts. Their culture must have a great deal of reverence for the place as they cannot even fathom my ignorance of such a place. Their probing questions regarding my unawareness are not something I will address so instead I step out and into the building for clothing. The officer tersely dismisses the child before following me inside.
This smell. This void of natural odors made by harsh chemicals, and instead artificially recreating the scent of citrus fruit. It gives me more pause than any of her demanding shouts for answers or the bafflement of the workers gazing at the both of us. Their forced attempts of being cordial and civil to masquerade their bitter awkwardness is painfully transparent. I will be thankful for the end of this day. The fresh hells of tomorrow will wait. Or maybe it won't, these colors. How garish and bright. No, I do not want a branding cap atop my head. Something akin to a tabard, a partial depiction of some orb of importance is etched onto this green shirt. They wear this mockery of individuality upon the sleeve it seems. They have no long pants either, just shorts, and their meager footwear selection is just as atrocious. I know beggars can't be choosers, and the clerk was at least kind enough to let me have the garments without reimbursement after hearing my plight from the officer that has informed me yet again her name is Jenny.
Finally realizing I did not have the answers she seeks, or at least will not provide them, I am informed that the center of treatment has room and board meant for trainers, as she put it, and that it would be free as opposed to the hotel. This will have to do. I have gotten at least some answers to my questions by some coercion without answering hers. Learning their dialect and terms will make adapting less painful, even if her tone seems more and more to shift as if she were addressing someone painfully dull of thought. These sentient, speaking beasts are referred to as pokemon, and the center of healing is called a pokecenter. Apparently most cities will have one. I am informed travel of these lands all but requires a beast companion. This back and forth is borderline interminable as only my name is the only thing I will provide the officer so her deference to going to the center now is welcome. Her motions have grown stiff and rigid from distrust. My tongue is not as agile as I thought.
The nurse working the front desk of this crisp building has pastel colored hair nearly as jarring as Jenny's. After she welcomes me to the Cyllage City Center and I request a room, the awkwardness returns like a bad dream when I do not have a trainer's identification card on me. Joy finally issues me a card that is treated akin to a key after relenting to the officer. Afterwards I am informed I will need a trainer's license as soon as possible or else the courtesy of a free room from these centers will no longer be granted. For now though, at long last this dreadfulness will finally be put past me, rest is moments away as I walk to a numbered room. As a final cruelty, a final revelation to plague my thoughts and keep me awake tonight, comes to light from a source of innocence. Uttered with such sincerity from the mouth of a young girl playing with a floating pile of light pink fluff off to the side that itself was voicing some cooed out words of delight.
"I wish I knew what you were saying."