Chris's PoV
"Ugh... Finally done with this project that Ms. Mayem is so worried about." I muttered to myself as I saved the project onto my Google Drive and emailed it to the teacher in question. 'Hmm, what else do I need to do.' I thought to myself as I rooted around the fridge looking for something to eat. I gave up eventually and decided to just lay down and think about all the events that had led to this point in my life. My parents had gone missing five years ago, leaving me to live with my aunt who was barely ever around. A few months later and I found out my girlfriend had been cheating on me with my 'best friend'. There were plenty more, but those two were what made me more cautious and untrusting in general. That caused me to become somewhat more distant from my other friends, though I do still keep in touch with some of them. Its not the same as back then though. Sometimes I wish that I'd never made any friends at all. I know that they're important, but it hasn't exactly been easy for me to trust people since then. After I finished feeling sorry for myself, I decided to turn on some music and relax for a bit, so I put my headset in and just laid back and let my mind wander as the music entered my ears. After a while i took a brief stretch and took off my headset as I yawned. Slowly i felt the abyss of darkness surround me as I let my consciousness fade away.
Dreamscape:
I opened my eyes to see that I was in an ocean of colors ranging from the lightest to the darkest of shades. I thought that I was floating for a moment, that is until I felt my feet touch what seemed to be an invisible floor. Then after a moment i heard a voice emerge from somewhere.
"Hello young one. I see that my efforts have payed off and I managed to enter your dreams." The voice said, seeming to come from everywhere yet nowhere at the same time. I tried to locate the source of the voice, but failed as I came up with nothing. "You can't see me Chris. You would be surprised if you could though." the voice said teasingly as I slowly gave up searching for where the person was hiding and let out a sigh of defeat.
"Alright then." I questioned after I had completely given up on finding the owner of the voice."So why exactly are you in my dreams and how do you know my name?"
After a moment the voice responded as if it had finished pondering something. "I'm here to ask you something importat. If you agree to it that is." The voice seemed to have a desperate edge to its usual calmness that I had already grown accustomed to. The voice seemed to take a moment to regain its composure before speaking again. "As for knowing your name, I'm afraid I can't disclose that information. Not now at least." the voice finished, leaving me wondering what it thought was so important.
I let out a sigh of frustration at not being able to put a name to the voice as I looked around for some sign of what I should do. 'What is so important that it would cause whoever this is to panic so easily.' was the main topic of my thoughts for a few moments before I noticed that the voice was talking once again.
"So Chris, will you help?" the voice asked with the desperate tinge reappearing slightly.
"Hold on a second." I said quickly before continuing more slowly. "How do you expect me to agree to help when I don't even know what your 'problem' is?" I waited for a moment for a response but since the voice didn't seem to want to respond now I continued a bit further. "Its not exactly my place to know probably but I don't even know you and you expect me to help you. I don't exactly trust voices that come to me in my dreams asking for help." I finished.
The level of panic that came out of the voice's well... voice surprised me. "Please! So many lives are depending on you helping!"
"Actual lives? As in living breathing beings?" I questioned curiously. A voice inside of me was urging me to go ahead and accept the offer. The more predominant voice inside me was brushing it off as a weird dream and to ignore the pleas of the voice.
The voice quickly responded with, "Yes! Now you are starting to understand!" still sounding desperate as the voice inside me urging me to help gets louder.
The voice just kept repeating its ideas at me. Phrases such as 'These are living people. Please help them!' and 'It won't hurt to at least try!' seemed to be the most common. It was slowly winning me over and eventually, it did.
I mentally sighed. "Sure, I'll help. Is there anything that I need to do? Certainly you can't just expect me to go out and be a hero immediately?"e
The voice, after a moment of contemplation, answered my question. "Yes actually. I need to ask you a few questions." It sounded more confident and somewhat more dignified than earlier. "Don't worry, there aren't very many."
"Shoot" I said with my curiosity getting the better of me.
The voice took a minute to ask as if it were trying to figure what to ask but did eventually start talking. "Okay first question... If your loved one was in danger, would you put yourself in harms way to save him or her?"
It wasn't that hard of a question for me to answer. In fact, for me the answer was obvious. "I would put myself in danger. I would do anything for a loved one." I replied, feeling very confident about the answer I had given.
"Interesting choice. On to the second question. What would you look for in an ideal relationship?" It asked, sounding curious as to the answer I would give.
I honestly had never thought of that before for obvious reasons so I tried to think of what sounded ideal to me and eventually spoke. "I would look for someone that is honest, loving, and would accept me for who I am."
The voice didn't speak for a while but when it did respond it sounded sure of itself "Ah, those are some good traits. You didn't list things like looks so it seems you don't care who that person is." I nodded in response and it continued sounding more calm than a moment before, "I only have a couple more questions left. If you found some treasure with a group of colleagues or friends, what would you do?"
'Another easy question.' I thought. "I would only take what is needed and leave the rest for them to split amongst themselves."
"Ah... This isn't an official question but it is something I need. I'm going to put a scenario in your head and you tell me how you feel after it." The voice said sounding like it was putting a large amount of effort into something.
I felt like I was getting sucked into a void and suddenly my vision was filled with a scene. It showed a young girl getting attacked by a man and I felt a strong anger filling me as I was forced to watch the scene play out. By the time my vision was normal again I was panting with anger at what I had seen. I took a moment to regain enough composure to speak again. "Anger. Pure anger. No child should be getting hit like that, but there was something else I felt that I couldn't identify." I said breathing deeply trying to recall that second feeling that had appeared during the 'movie' but was interrupted by the voice speaking once more.
"I've gotten all I needed, thanks Chris. To me you seem to be the selfless type of person. You don't want more than you need and you would do anything for your loved ones. You hate seeing people getting hurt, but be careful. The anger that comes with that can corrupt you. You do seem to have some trust issues but that doesn't get in the way when it matters most." The voice concluded, sounding sure of itself and after a moment it spoke again. "Also one more thing. For the purpose of being impartial, once there would you mind your memories being stored in a safe place? They will return when you come back to your normal form and world."
"Umm... Sure?" I asked, sounding confused but the idea of being unaffected by my previous... experiences there sounded like it would help me to keep my mind straight on helping everyone.
The voice sounded pleased as it took a deep breath and spoke once more. "The last thing is... You will be a Shinx. I appreciate what you are doing. Good luck young warrior." the voice finished, sounding like it was at the end of a tunnel as my vision faded to black.
"A Shinx?" was the last words I uttered before i passed out completely.
In the Pokemon World:
I woke up slowly with an odd pain in my head. The pain was minimal, and it went away quickly as I opened my eyes and awkwardly sat up wondering where I. I couldn't remember anything. Nothing. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't seem to recall anything but my name, which was Chris. After taking a few minutes to look around I stood up, or at least tried to. I immediately fell straight down and huffed in frustration. After a few attempts I stood up, albeit I was extremely unbalanced and would probably fall if someone even breathed on me. 'Well, I can't stand here all day. I might as well try to walk a few steps.' I thought to myself with a sigh. I very slowly moved my four... feet. I jumped back in surprise and landed on my butt as I heard a laugh nearby. I looked around and slowly my eyes landed on a red-orange creature that was sitting a decent bit away. The laughter stopped almost immediately when i looked at the furry looking fox. It had three curled tufts of fur on its head, and interestingly enough, six curled tails. It looked nervous as it stood up and walked towards me slowly, stopping probably five feet or so away from me. It opened its mouth as if it were going to speak and then closed it again. I decided to be the first one to speak since it seemed like it wasn't going to speak first. "Hello" I uttered quietly.
After a moment it opened its mouth again. "Hi." It said, equally as quiet. From its voice, I could tell it was female. I was surprised to see the fox-like creature, much less to hear it speak. A few thoughts entered my mind. Simple things like how it was possible for an animal to talk, or whether I was dreaming or not. Maybe i am, who knows? On to the situation at hand... I'm in a place i don't know. I can't remember anything at all besides my name. Could anything else possibly go wrong? Probably, but in my current state I couldn't go through every scenario. I was dragged from my thoughts as the girl spoke again. "Are you alright?" she asked sounding nervous as if I would try to do something to hurt her. The thought of hurting someone who didn't deserve it drove an anger forward that I shoved back as quickly as it had appeared. After I had fully calmed down, I decided to stand up again. After two attempts I got up and the fox backed up slightly.
"Its fine, I'm not going to try anything." I said as reassuringly as possible. The girl relaxed slightly, but not completely as she appeared to be comtemplating whether she should leave now or enjoy watching me fall repeatedly. She looked as if she chose the second choice as she sat down. I attempted to walk again like I was going to before she had appeared. Its safe to say i didn't even make it a step before I fell again, getting a face full of dirt and earning yet another laugh from the girl. I decided to ignore her laughing as I tried once more, but ended up falling down once again as she continued to laugh. I tried one last time before I gave up for the moment, grunting in pain when I landed on the ground again as my... paw landed at an awkward angle. Her laughter immediately stopped as she rushed over and checked me. I let out a chuckle as she backed off after checking me, looking nervous once more. Her eyes held a tinge of worry as she watched me. "I'm fine, just landed at a weird angle." I told her to help ease her worry. She calmed down slightly, but still looked ready to bound over again if i needed more help.
She had a determined look in her eyes as she padded over and spoke. "I've had my fun watching you fall. You look like you need some help walking." she finished as she pushed me to my paws with her head. "That or you somehow don't know how to walk." she added.
I was surprised at how fast she had figured out that I couldn't walk. "Alright you figured it out, I can't walk." I admited. She had a look of trimuph on her face at guessing it correctly. "So I guess your going to teach me how to walk?" I guessed. She nodded as she made sure i could stand well enough before attempting to walk.
"Alright," She began, "Walking should be simple for you. You just keep your balance as you put one paw in front of the other." She sighed as she continued. "If you can't balance you can lean on me for balance I guess." I nodded as she came over and supported me. "Now just put one paw in front of the other. Your front-right paw first then your left-back. Then your front-left and back-right." she told me. I slowly put one paw in front of the other as we slowly moved forward. "Good, now just keep doing that." She said as she suddenly moved away and i almost fell again but I caught myself and stood. "Now you just need to do it on your own." She said. happy that she managed to get me walking, albeit with her supporting me. At her urging I did it. I took my first step, then my second and so on. She grined as she watched me walking all around the area. "Looks like I taught you how to walk." She said laughing at my happiness at not falling repeatedly. She had a nervous look on her face as she spoke again, "Anyways, my name is Jade. What's yours?
"My name is Chris." I said happily, still excited that I could walk now. "Also this may be stupid, but what are you?" I asked, wondering exactly what she was.
The girl now named Jade laughed before she spoke again. "I'm a Vulpix of course. What else would I be?" she finished, still giggling.
All I could say at what i was apparently supposed to know was 'Oh'. After a moment I spoke again, "Do you happen to know what I am?" I asked uncertainly wondering what I was. I noted earlier that my front two legs were blue with a yellow looking stripe of fur going around a part of my leg.
She studied me for a moment before speaking. "You look like a Shinx." She said finally.
I was happy to know what I was now as I walked around some more. After a moment though my stomach rumbled loudly and I spoke after a few embarrassing seconds. "Umm.. Looks like I'm hungry?"
Jade laughed at my reaction before she spoke. "We better go find some food for you then." As she began to walk into the surrounding forest, she called back to me. "You coming or not?" I immediately started to catch up. Well, as fast as I could walking. I didn't exactly want to try to run yet due to only just learning to walk. "Wait up!" I called and she slowed down enough to where I could catch up. I gave a simple 'thanks' as I finally got to where she was. She nodded before she continued walking at a pace where I could keep up.
"No problem, now lets get some berries!" Jade said excitedly as she looked around for some bushes that had some and ran over to a bush that had some moderately sized blue berries on it. They had little indentions on them as she grabbed a few and put some into the bag she was carrying that I somehow didn't notice until then.
"Oran Berries." She said as she finished putting the berries in her bag and continued looking around. It went on for a while like this where Jade found some berries and told me what they were called. After a while I tripped on something hard. I nearly dismissed it as a rock, but then noticed it was a worn out bag. "Hey Jade!" I called out as I got up, picking the bag up in my mouth.
Jade ran back and saw me holding the bag. "An old bag? Eh, lets see what's in it." She said as I dropped the bag from my mouth. Jade quickly started to remove some items from the bag and quickly finished emptying it. "You don't know what these items are either, do you?" She asked, watching me stare curiously at the items as I responded with a simple nod.
I picked up one of the orbs that were now in a pile and accidentally crushed it as my vision automatically turned black and I couldn't see anything. I stood up in my panic and after a moment my vision returned as I tripped over the pile of orbs in the process and crushed another one as my vision started spinning and I could barely balance as I ran straight into a tree with a groan. I faintly heard the laughter of Jade as I sat there for a moment waiting for the dizziness to leave me. I was grateful when it left as I slowly stood up and walked back to Jade who looked as if she could barely contain her laughter. In the midst of it she didn't realize she was slowly slipping until she did and landed straight onto another orb as I was sent flying away into a tree with another groan. Her laughter continued to get louder as she saw my face after I landed. I slowly got up again as I released a growl and walked over to her and slapped the back of her head and got a satisfactory 'Ow' from her.
"What was that for?" She asked after a moment, tears welling up in her eyes. Jade looked sad as she looked down at the ground as I had no idea what to do. I walked closer and checked on her as she spoke again. "W-why did you hit me Chris?" She asked as she continued to look down. Her reaction completely shocked me as some tears fell on the ground.
"I-I didn't mean it Jade! Honest!" I said quickly trying to calm her down. Her tears just increased in their rate of falling as I walked close and tried to hear what she was saying. I suddenly felt a pain on the back of my head as I heard her beginning to laugh once more.
Her laughter increased as I sighed, realising I got pranked. She spoke in between her fits of laughter. "I-I really got you good! Haha!" She said just before she fell into another fit of laughing.
After a while she calmed down and I spoke again. "So what were those orbs?" I asked confused on how some orbs could've done all that to me as I eyed the pile of orbs warily.
Afer a moment, Jade sighed. "The first one was a Blinker Orb. It blinds a pokemon temporarily. The second one was a Totter Orb. It confuses a pokemon. The third orb is called a Blowback Orb. As you saw, it sends someone flying." She explained with a chuckle. "Anything else?"
I nodded a no as I plucked an Oran Berry from the pile of items with my mouth and ate it. "It's pretty good!" I exclaimed happily as I finished another Oran Berry, earning a chuckle from the Vulpix.
Jade waited on me to completely finish eating before she spoke again. "Chris, I need to head to my house. You want to come over while I do what I need to?" She asked, surprising me a bit. She was basically inviting me to her house when we had met nearly a half hour ago.
After a moment I regained my composure. "Sure,I guess." I responded, a hint of nervousness gripping at my voice. She didn't seem to notice though as she smiled and started pushing me in the direction of what I assumed was her house. "Slow down!" I protested as she continued pushing me. She slowed down, but only slightly. At one point her pushing actually made me fall down again, something that I was already getting used to due to how much I had already fallen today. She took the hint as I let out a frustrated grunt as I got up. After that she let me just follow her. "Thank you!" I responded gratefully, happy that I could move around without getting pushed by an excited vulpix.
"You're welcome, I guess." Jade responded as she walked at a slow enough pace to where I could keep up without tripping over myself and getting yet another face full of dirt. After a while we arrived at the gates of what appeared to be a town. The vulpix walked through with no hesitation and I followed behind once more, still a bit nervous. Eventually we arrived at what appeared to be her house. It was just a simple wooden house. She walked to the entrance, which appeared to be just a block of wood attached to the house, and pushed it open as she walked in. I followed, only to find that she was already in a seperate room, while I just stood in the room I had arrived in after entering.
'I can't just stand here forever'. I thought to myself as my curiousity overcame me and I started exploring the house. The first room I came upon appeared to be an area where pokemon would relax at. I noticed nothing interesting and moved on to the next room, which did have something that peaked my interest. It appeared to be a framed picture, but I left it for the moment. I noted that room and continued my quest to destroy my boredom. I then passed what looked to be a bathing room, quickly dismissing it becuase let's face it. What's interesting in a bathroom? I passed the bathroom and found the room Jade was in. She was digging in a box for something, so I continued on, not wanting to interupt her search for whatever she wanted to find. The next room I found was her bedroom, or maybe a guest room. Either way I moved on to what looked to be another bedroom and passed by it quickly. The next room appeared to be the second to last room and was a simple kitchen, stocked with berries and bowls and other things. I noted everything, still bored as I looked into the final room which was a dining room. Needless to say, my quest to destroy my boredom failed. I started walking back to where I started before remembering that there was something I saw that seemed interesting. The framed picture in that one room. I quickly walked back to the room where the photo was and entered it, walking over to the framed picture. I saw a small fox which appeared to be a small vulpix and a yellow looking fox which was a lot bigger than the vulpix, but had some similarities. The faces seemed similar and they both had multiple tails. My examination of the picture was cut short when I heard a cough ment to catch someone's attention from the entrance of the room. I slowly looked toward where the sound came from and saw an agitated vulpix which I recognized as Jade. I let out a gulp as she walked over and I quickly put the picture back. She sighed before looking at the picture and then looking at me.
"I guess you got bored." Jade assumed as she kept her eyes locked on me, earning a nervous nod. The vulpix sighed again. "I should've known you would snoop around a bit. You found the most interesting thing you could find at the time." She spoke, making a good assumption as I nodded again. "You probably want to know the details about the picture too?" She asked, earning another nod to add onto the series of nods I had given in the past few minutes. I assumed she was trying to gather the courage to say what she wanted to, as she stayed silent for a few moments before speaking again. "The small Vulpix was me, which was obvious. The ninetails was my mom, which is also pretty obvious. Anyway, that was a picture of the last time I saw her. She dissapeared less than an hour later, leaving me to take care of myself because I don't have any other family. That I know of at least. I was only nine at the time, so I could forage for myself and I survived, albeit the winters weren't easy." She shuddered at the memory of the winters before she continued. "I've lived on my own since then, so basically half of my life... All alone." Jade concluded with tears in her eyes, which saddened me because I made someone go to the brink of tears. Something I didn't enjoy in the slightest.
I walked over to her and gave her a hug to try and comfort her. Albeit it was hard being a quadruped but I managed. "You don't have to talk about it anymore." I said quietly, trying to calm her. "Just calm down." I repeated every few moments. After a while she calmed down and I backed away, feeling better that I at least helped her feel better for the moment. Jade gave a quick 'Thanks' before she started walking out of the room. I followed her out curiously as she walked outside and stopped next to a tree that I considered small compared to the other trees I'd seen so far. I looked to Jade questioningly.
Jade looked up at the tree as she spoke. "As thanks I'm going to help you some more. So now you're going to practice your ability to move around by trying to get into the tree." She said looking happy at her idea as she looked at me expectantly. I looked up to the tree slightly afraid.
"You want me to try and climb a tree... as a quadruped?" I asked, questioning her sanity slightly.
She gave a simple response, that response was 'Yep'. I looked back to the tree again and then looked back to her questioningly before she realized what I was getting at. "Oh yeah, you don't know how to get into a tree." Jade said before she walked over to the tree and sprung into it quite easily. "Just tense your hind legs and use them to spring up. Its pretty easy." She said from the branch she was perched on. I did as she told and failed horribly. I barely touched the branch she was perched on. Jade decided that teasing me about my struggles would help and surprisingly, it did. After getting aggravated enough, I landed on the same branch as Jade.
"Happy now?" I asked still slightly frustrated. She nodded happily at her success when suddenly we heard a 'thump' as the ground shook slightly and then another 'thump' as it got louder and suddenly the tree shook as we fell off and landed on top of eachother. The force of the fall forced our lips to meet for a split second before I jumped back quickly, surprised by what just happened.
A big rocky looking animal looked a bit embarrassed by what it saw. "S-sorry!" he uttered and ran off and by the voice i could tell it was a male.
"Uhh..." She uttered before getting up as well, averting her eyes from me as she did so, obviously very embarrassed "Ok... That's enough of that for now..." She spoke up nervously.
"Yeah... Agreed..." I agreed, extremely embarrassed by what just happened. "Its getting dark. I better go find a place to stay for the night." I said, avoiding what just happened. Thankfully Jade didn't bring the topic up.
"Oh yeah, by the way." She trailed off and suddenly i felt something hard hit the back of my head knocking me face first into the ground. "Don't try anything funny." I heard whispered into my ear and I stood up, albeit very wobbly due to getting hit in the head with whatever she used and I nodded slowly and responded, "I plan on it…" and began padding away to the forest once more. Falling over once or twice as I stumbled along.