Hoenn Oneshots
A Compilation of Pokémon Short Stories
Rating: Teen
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon, nor will I ever. I make absolutely no profit off of these stories.
Enjoy!
A/N: Seeing as this is my first story, I would just like to let you know that my writing style may be a little rough and the story may not flow as well as I would like it to. That's what these stories are here for; to help me improve my writing and make writing a more comfortable thing. Consider this practice for my eventual Alpha Sapphire story.
Nearly hidden from view, there lies a small grey cottage on Route 113. This small cottage used to be bright blue, but has since been turned grey much like the rest of the landscape. Mt. Chimney and its constant falling ash had made sure of that. However, the cottage is not important for this story. Who's important is who lives inside of this cottage, a man, an artist, and craftsman. From a first glance he might not seem much. With his short but wide stature, constantly dirty clothes and slightly outdated fashion sense, but he is in fact very popular amongst Pokémon Trainers. He does not battle Pokémon, or breed them; he does not enter contests, or sell trainer supplies. What he does is something nearly as complicated a craft that is slowly becoming forgotten. This man makes glass.
Now this glass is no ordinary glass. Resilient and filled with mystical properties, this glass is made from the falling ash of Mt. Chimney. And this man is one of the few privileged who know how to make powerful flutes, and beautiful furniture out of this ash. This is a story about a glass man.
"Huff Puff."
"Huff Puff."
He was breathing heavily, no doubt caused by his unhealthy stature and ash-filled air of Route 113. He had just finished delivering some glass furniture to the Pokémon center to replace the aging old wooden furniture. It had been a tough challenge convincing the manager of the Pokémon Center to switch to glass furniture, but after showing him the facts and showing him an example of the furniture, he managed to win this metaphorical battle. While glass furniture might not be as resilient as wooden furniture, it was nonetheless incredibly easy to clean up (a challenge considering the ash-fallen town of Fallarbor and Route 113). For the last month, he had been slaving away at finishing the glass furniture, and just yesterday he had done so. He was ready for a nice break, looking forward to a glass of ice cold lemonade, and thinking about visiting Lavaridge town for their famous hot springs. Therefore, you can imagine his surprise and displeasure at the ringing in the front announcing the arrival of a customer. Mentally sighing to himself, he got himself out of his suddenly-comfy chair and headed out of the attached kitchen area towards the lobby. Coming downstairs from the kitchen he was greeted with an image of a very (dusty) Pokémon trainer. From recollection, he recognized the trainer as the one who had visited earlier in the week when he was trying to finish the furniture. The trainer had come in during an inopportune time and in the man's haste to get back to work, he had promised the young man a free flute if he managed to fill up an old burlap sack that he had nearby. When he had made the offer, he had no idea that this man would actually go through all the work to collect all the ash, but judging from the nearly overflowing sack, it would appear he followed through on his part 'Damn.'; Time to keep a promise. The trainer began to approach the counter, leaving behind sooty footsteps on his recently-mopped floor. Quelling his slight frustration at a dirty floor, and having to make a free flute, the man put on his best smile and greeted the young man. "Hello again young Pokemon Trainer! You managed to fill up the Soot Sack all the way then!"
"Hello…. Oh! Yes I did!" At this he began brushing his clothes off and soon enough his clothes were nearly the same color they were before. His floor was dirty yet again. Chuckling to himself, the trainer continued, "Nice weather." Smirking back at the Pokémon trainer, the man replied.
"You get used to it I guess. Some days it's worse than others." He leaned over the counter, "You have no idea how hard it is to keep a floor clean in this part of the Hoenn region."
"Oh man… I bet it really is! I come from Littleroot town, so I've never actually seen Volcanic Ash before." He didn't seem to get the hint. Sighing to himself once again the glass master asked.
"I suppose you probably want me to make you a flute then don't you?"
"Yes I do. I've given it a bit of thought, and I think I would like a White Flute." It was a good choice. The white flute was known for increasing the rate at which wild Pokémon would appear, and it was one of his most popular flutes he made. For a Pokémon trainer like him it would be a very valuable tool indeed.
"Alright I can do that. It'll probably take about an hour to finish though." Lifting his arm off the counter and pointing it towards an array of couches (with plastic covers) he continued, "Unless you want to go back outside, you can relax on the couches over there. The remote for the TV is right on the coffee table there." Please don't dirty anything…
"Alright. Thanks man! I'm looking forward to trying out your flute."
"As I said earlier this week, anything to help an aspiring Pokémon trainer." With the Pokémon trainer seated on the couches and browsing through the available channels, the glass man opened the door to his workshop, and fumbling around for the light switch for a moment, finally managed to turn the lights on. With nary a flicker, his workshop was revealed. It was absolutely beautiful.
To most people the workshop may not look like a whole lot, but to him it was his pride and joy. Despite the fact that he worked with glass, and to an extent, dirty volcanic ash, everything was polished perfectly, all of his tools were in their proper place, and it was neat. Set against the far wall he had one washbasin, a small specially made oven, and a longer ceramic table with a vise attached. The oven may have been cold, but it was time to make a flute. Sitting on the table next to the oven was an old (polished) Pokeball, filled with his earliest companion. He picked it up, aimed it towards the oven and pressed the forward release button. With a slight pop, the lid of the Pokeball opened up and a blinding white light shot out. Almost immediately the light curved and shot towards the earth. As soon as the light struck the earth, it expanded and filled out the shape of his Pokemon. With a small flash, and a release of charged particles, the large Pokemon announced its arrival. "Cargo!"
Standing in front of the glass man was his immediate companion. As if it was forged from the very lava that filled Mount Chimney, with a large stone boulder on his back, the Lava Pokémon Magcargo was ready. The Pokémon looked back up to him, and without even a notion from his master, began what he was trained to do. Taking as deep a breath as a Pokemon his size could do, he began the slow process of heating up the oven with a weak Flamethrower attack. With Magcargo keeping himself busy, it was time for step one; filtering the ash. Contrary to what one might believe, the ash from Mt. Chimney actually contains very small particles of sand, a very special type of sand used in the production of glass. He picked up the heavy soot sack, and dumped its content into a specially designed sink. Filling the sink up with cold water he used a large wooden rod to stir the sooty solution. With the water doing its work, the small sand particles began to fall towards the bottom of the tub where they would be collected in a special filter he had installed. As soon as he had managed to separate as much sand as he needed from the ash, he pulled out the filter from the bottom of the tank. It was filled with small, clear globules of sand. This sand, also known as Silica Sand amongst other glass-makers, was the most important ingredient in making his special brand of glass. Unlike other glass, his came pre-infused with Sodium Carbonate, a byproduct of creating glass from an active volcano.
He walked over to the table opposite the oven, (maneuvering carefully around Magcargo's flamethrower), where there was a big ceramic mixing bowl ready for him. He dumped the sand mixture from the filter, and put the filter away. Grabbing a small glass beaker, he put a cup of Calcium Oxide for strength, and the smallest bit of Lead Oxide for that sparkle and started mixing the materials together. As soon as the mixture exhibited a uniform color all around, he picked up the bowl and started walking towards the oven. By now, the oven was scorching. His Pokemon may not be a battling pokemon, but it could definitely heat an oven fast. Taking a berry from his pocket and setting it on the ground as thanks for the Pokémon, he opened up another slot and set the bowl upon the grill to melt.
Ten minutes later, with the occasional stirring to break up the bubbles that were forming, the mixture was ready to be poured. He put some special oven mitts on, grabbed the bowl and went over to the final table. While waiting for the glass mixture to melt, he had already set up a vise with a special mold for the flute prepared. Tipping the bowl on its side, he let the clear glass flow into the mold. What little was left of the glass in the bowl was dumped into a spare bucket, and the bowl set to the side. Fifteen minutes later the glass was cool enough to be removed from the mold and was ready to be fitted into place. He took it out, and examining it for any stress lines or imperfection was pleased to find none. Grabbing two additional glass pieces that he had many spares of, he began assembling the flute. Long ago, he had devised a simple adjustment to the molds that would allow him to assemble flutes much easier than they had been previously built. By separating a flute into three different pieces, two longer body pieces and the very special mouth piece, he would only need to build the mouthpiece out of the volcanic sand. With a few clicks sound that the flute was locked together he was done. The last piece was a small piece of printed white fabric with the inscription: "White Flute- to Increase Pokémon Encounters- Made at Route 113." With that, he put the flute inside a small gift box, tied it altogether and went to meet the trainer with another flute he was proud of.
There we go! My first ever short story. I have always wanted to get into writing stories, but have never had the courage to start a long fanfiction with multiple chapters. Hopefully these stories that I will be writing will give me the courage to finally start my upcoming Alpha Sapphire Fanfiction, An Ocean's Champion. I thank you very much for reading, and if you would like to see more leave me a favorite, or a review. In addition, pm me or leave a review if you any suggestions for small stories.
This is Sun, signing out for now..