Chapter One: As the Murkrow Flies
"...skirmishes just outside of Fuschia city have forced the bicycle route to close its doors to all civilians..."
The radio strapped to her back buzzed static into Sarah's ears. But she didn't dare to reach back and adjust it, now that less than a step away a cliff dropped far below into a tangle of bushes and foliage. She pressed a Taillow into her chest as she scaled the mountain, glancing down at it from time to time. It's breathing was shallow; the Arbok's poison was setting in.
As the path bent around the mountain the girl was hit full force with the glare of the summer sun. The radio fizzled back to life.
"...tune in at four for more updates on the war in Kanto..."
A stray rock caught her sandal and she stumbled forward, shooting a prickling fear into her limbs. The height made her head swim.
As soon as she stopped to compose herself, her view was suddenly enveloped in shade. But before she could snap her head over to look, something large and black had smashed into her, sucking the breath right out of her lungs.
The impact threw her straight down the side of the cliff, whose edge snagged a sandal clean off her foot. In a flurry of feathers and wings her Taillow broke free of her grip. Sarah was free falling. Down, down, down.
But her life did not flash before her eyes.
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"Ugh..." She awoke first to the coldness of her feet. She propped a hand behind her and sat up as gingerly as she could. An excruciating ache in her head pulsed with every heartbeat. "Ahh... ow..."
Night had fallen around her. The girl squinted her eyes through the pain and the darkness. Undergrowth twined around her legs and pines rose up on every side of her. She knew the scrapes along her arms were from their needles.
She hissed in pain.
"Are you okay?"
She whirled around, vertigo churning in her head, and she had to catch herself from falling over. She saw nothing but forest. "What happened?" She said it more to herself. But her thoughts couldn't connect through the ache in her brain, the stinging of her arms and the soreness of her body. "...someone's there?" she managed to mumble, her confusion shifting into fear.
"Yeah." The voice had a raspy quality to it, like its owner had to scrape out every word from their throat. "Please don't be scared." A figure staggered into sight, between the tree trunks to her left, although in the shadows she could not make out a face. "I need your help." Recognizable through the gravelly voice was utter desperation.
"What - what's wrong?" Her mind still could not collect itself.
"My - " There was a pause. "My arm. I think it's broken."
In an instant it all came back to her like a flash of lightning. "Taillow!" she burst, startling the figure. "Have you seen her?" She stumbled to her feet but swayed. The figure on instinct leapt forward to grab her. She caught a full view of him instantly.
Sarah screamed like she never had before.
She turned to run but a black wing wrapped around her waist and thrust her back. "Please, I'm not gonna' hurt you!" She came face to face with a monster. Red eyes, and a beak that stretched over a human face. Shining black feathers. She could not find the breath to scream again. "I'm really hurt," he, it, said. The monster spread a magnificent wing out to his side. It bent at a sharp angle where a deep red soaked through his feathers. "Please."
"What are you?" she choked out. Her voice shook with terror. He averted his eyes and lowered his wing. Adrenaline was rushing through her, making the ache in her head feel like it was trying to burst her skull open from the inside. She stepped back, her eyes fixed to him, and leaned against the rough bark of a tree. "I can't help you," she said, staring hard into his eyes. She attempted to swallow a lump in her throat which refused to go away. "I need to find my pokémon."
"But it hurts," he said, his voice sounding wet, "I can't take it any more." He squeezed his eyes shut and took in a wavering breath. Sarah felt a pang of sympathy.
"I don't know how to fix that." She pointed to his side, and noticed her finger quivering. She knew he must be in an incredible amount of pain, but there was no way she was going to trust something that looked the way he did. "Please, just let me find my Taillow. She's poisoned, and - "
Abruptly the monster collapsed at her feet in a heap of dark feathers. She stared with wide eyes at it for some time.
"Are y-you all right?" No answer came. Her anxiety swelled in her chest and her temples itched as sweat ran down her face.
She couldn't believe that she was able to run so fast after a fall from so high.
AN: This is my first multi-chapter fic, and the first I've written in the Pokémon fandom. I have written the first chapter to a story very similar to this, although I took it down because I wasn't sure where I was going with it. Please note that I really, really, really appreciate constructive criticism.