Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon, or Nintendo, or anything of the sorts.
Rated T for language and violence. This story *might* become (very) M rated in the future, depending on feedback and whether I think I can execute it properly. You have been warned.
Cover image by TheModerator (check out his stories too!).
Sooo...hi.
I'm not usually the kind of person who creates content for other people to see, I'm more of the viewer. Still, boredom and inspiration can have some interesting results when put together, and here I am. After sifting through some stories on the site, I've figured out what I like and don't like and I'm gonna try my best to put the good things together in a hopefully entertaining way. This is the first story I've written, and I honestly don't have much of a clue as to what I'm doing. This is a bit of a crazed experiment for me, just to see how things go. That, and it passes the time well.
The story was heavily inspired by two things, the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series of games, and some of the stories on the site. The Mystery dungeon games had awesome story and plot twists that I hope to match, and I also like the fact that it takes place away from the normal regions (Kanto, Hoenn, etc.) and in it's own area where there are only Pokémon, no humans. It's led me to think of an entirely new region, by the name of Epyhlei (Epi-ley), that features Pokémon from all regions except Unova (I can't even name the starters from that region :\ ). There's a huge abundance of Latios/Latias stories, but most of them focus on the two from Altomare. I wanted to step out of the boundary, and try something unique. The Lati in this story are completely separate. Also, in some specific fanfics, I like the way the Lati are portrayed and detailed writing styles are something to highlight. I'd like to do the same but with a few personal touches.
Well, that's all for now, hope you enjoy!
-Mist on the Water-
Somewhere above the Epyhlei Region...
This is getting embarrassing. Where is that damned lake?
Latios wasn't usually one to get lost. Epyhlei was a big place, almost three times the size of Hoenn, but despite this Latios had called the region home for over the past twenty years and had always thought to himself that he would be able to find his way around with a blindfold on, any time, any day.
Apparently not.
Nature did its best to make sure it was impossible for this bird-of-prey to ever lose his bearings in the sky, equipping him with a pinpoint accurate internal compass and eyes several times as powerful as a Staraptor's. Still, Latios had been flying an irregular circuit for the past fifteen minutes. He was understandably frustrated.
To be fair, Latios was soaring over a storm like he hadn't seen in years. There was an overcast of almost purple clouds, with constant flashes of blue-white occasionally appearing within the seemingly never-ending veil of water droplets suspended before him. Trying to find Lake Dewpoint through the clouds was like trying to see the water at the bottom of a well at night. Not that Latios really needed his eyes, he easily remembered the location of the body of water. He had been going there almost every night for a drink and occasionally a rinse before heading off to sleep. The problem was that the constantly shifting winds pushing him around were just enough to disorient him and cause him confusion as to where he was, and where he was heading.
Latios considered just flying under the clouds, giving him an unobstructed view of the landscape, but concluded that it probably wasn't worth the risk. It's not that he was afraid of lightning, in fact, he rather enjoyed the spectacle. It was the thunder that he didn't like. The booming was uncomfortably loud where he was, a few hundred feet above the clouds. Below, he worried it would become unbearable. Not only that, but there was also the risk of getting hit by lightning while passing through the clouds. He would probably survive the hit, as unpleasant as that would be, but he feared his sensitive eardrums might get blown out by the noise that followed. Without his hearing, he might as well be dead.
Another ten minutes passed, with Latios accomplishing nothing short of flying another half dozen circles. Both physically and mentally exhausted, he figured the best option would likely be to skip this part of his schedule and go straight to sleep.
After a quick midair u-turn Latios' preferred place of residence came into view, Kivlo Mountain, usually abbreviated to just "Kivlo". The top was just barely visible as it was practically within the clouds, but Latios could still make out the shape and flew towards it at a brisk pace.
Old folk tales tell that Kivlo was once a volcano, which would explain the fairly large and slightly concave surface that replaced the peak most mountains had. As long as it didn't suddenly erupt, Latios didn't really care. Kivlo wasn't very tall when it came to mountains, it only just reached Epyhlei's usually low cloud level but nevertheless it was still the tallest point in Epyhlei. This height was low enough for vegetation to flourish on the surface of the mountain's crater. This resulted in a garden of sorts growing on the top which was relatively free of wildlife except for the odd few flying Pokémon that roosted there every once in a while. Being close to the clouds, the top of Kivlo was often shrouded with light fog and didn't provide much of a view.
It was the perfect home, and Latios loved every bit of it. The altitude, the isolation, the plant life and even the fog which he found calming for reasons even he himself didn't understand. It was a great place to take a rest and relax at the end of the day. Unfortunately it didn't look like he'd get much sleep tonight with the constant sound of thunder that was repeatedly assaulting his ears.
Latios reached the mountain in about two minutes of it coming into his view. Most of the lightning was happening near the bottom of the clouds, so Latios deemed it safe to descend. He straightened out his wings and neck in an attempt to make himself as aerodynamic as possible before dipping into the clouds at astonishing speed, circling around the mountain top.
Seeing as the lake was inaccessible at the moment, Latios hoped that this high speed maneuver would give his feathery down a satisfactory cleaning by taking advantage of the moisture in the clouds. It wouldn't be as effective or nearly as fun as swimming through the lake but it would have to do. A few loops later he figured he was plenty soaked and dived towards the centre of the garden on the topmost part of the mountain. Just before reaching the surface, Latios angled his wings slightly upward and shifted his body so that within barely a second he halted his descent and was floating a few feet above the ground all in one swift motion, strongly rustling the leaves of any plant life nearby. Maybe it was a bit much, but he loved feeling the forces that came with these sorts of extreme changes in acceleration. It was also good for blowing away some of the fog around him so he could see a bit better.
He took a moment to survey his surroundings, taking advantage of the fog he had cleared. For the most part everything was as it was earlier that day, in the morning when he woke up. Though in the morning the air was much more clear, there had been few clouds and whatever clouds were present took to an altitude that was higher than the mountain. Unlike now, where the whole mountain top was engulfed in a dense fog that reduced visibility to a less-than-preferable level, minus the small area he had cleared.
Latios briefly pondered how this whole storm came to be. It sort of just happened out of nowhere. The skies were almost clear at the beginning of the day, then a few clouds began collecting late in the afternoon, and by evening it was raining so hard you would think Lugia himself had sneezed. This was pretty unusual for Epyhlei, where the weather was normally rather unvaried. The skies were usually partly cloudy and maybe clear on some odd days.
Latios wasn't worried about the fact that there was a storm going on. Storms did happen, but they were few and far between. What worried him was that this was the fourth one within the span of two weeks. Very abnormal for the region.
Latios' train of thought was ended when his instinct reminded him that he was thirsty. Having not been to the lake, he was still in need of a drink. He recalled that there was a small ditch near the edge of the garden that often filled with rainwater during times of inclement weather, creating a small pond. Latios scanned the area around him but even with his potent eyesight wasn't able to spot the body of water through the fog. This wasn't much of a problem for him though, as his visual sweep of his surroundings quickly oriented and told him where he was. He knew the garden well enough to deduct that the pond should be just off to his left.
Latios used his psychic to propel himself in said direction with a controlled speed, being careful to avoid trees and thick shrubbery. If he were to fly any faster these objects could come into his view more rapidly than he could maneuver away from them, and he didn't want to flatten his snout. That's not to say Latios was going slowly, he still flew faster than the top speed of most flying Pokémon and reached his destination within a matter of seconds.
Sure enough, the indentation had collected plenty of water during the storm. In fact, it was overflowing, and the excess ran out of the pond and elsewhere into the garden.
Content that he would finally satisfy his thirst, Latios gradually slowed down as he came to the edge of the water instead of abruptly stopping like he usually did. The last thing he wanted to do was to blow all of the water out of the pond with the gust of wind that he would inevitably create if he stopped too suddenly.
Latios stopped at the water's edge, sending several small ripples through the water. The pond wasn't very large, maybe two metres in diameter at most and barely half a metre deep, but it was enough.
Latios unfolded his arms from his body before tilting his head down towards the water's surface to take a drink. Latios usually kept his arms unfolded whenever he didn't plan on doing any high speed flying. Somehow it made him feel more civilized and he thought the look suited him better whenever speed wasn't necessary.
The water wasn't great, a bit too salty for Latios' tastes. But when thirsty any water is good water, and as such he took a generously large sip. His thirst quenched, he took a moment to observe his slightly distorted reflection.
Latios would never mention it, but he was secretly very proud of his appearance. Dignified and majestic, yet fearsome and powerful at the same time. He was covered in a pattern of fine blue feathers of just the right hue, matching his favourite colour. Latios was unsure whether his favourite colour was blue because that was his body's colour, or if it was just a coincidence. Either way he wasn't about to complain. The feathers that weren't blue were white, and in his opinion white went well with everything.
The only other colour on him was red, the colour of his eyes and the symbol on his chest.
For whatever reason, the blue feathers that covered most of Latios' lower body shifted to red and formed a triangular symbol in the middle of his chest. The symbol looked almost like an upward pointing arrow, appearing as a slightly isosceles triangle with it's base wedged upward to about the triangle's midpoint.
What it's purpose was or what it meant was beyond him, but Latios thought having a simple sign to associate himself with was nice. It was something like a personal signature to him, he had even carved it into a flat skyward facing stone that lay somewhere near the middle of the garden to signal that this was his area. Not that he declared ownership, or that this garden belonged to him. He really only slept here and other Pokémon could come and go as they pleased. In fact, he usually welcomed whatever company came by. It was more of a sort of "Latios was here" kind of gesture. Though the symbol was usually plainly visible to him from the sky, he hadn't seen it during his previous flight with all of the clouds obscuring the area.
Latios let out an involuntary yawn. Normally he would be asleep by now, and thought that he should probably get to it sometime soon.
Just as he turned his head to leave the pond, he spied a couple pecha berries growing on a bush near the runoff water flowing out of the pond. Latios figured one berry couldn't hurt, and levitated over to the bush and plucked one, using both his arms to grasp it. Another nice aspect of the garden was that there was plenty of assorted fruit should he ever feel the need for a snack.
Latios flew over to a nearby tree and lay down beside it, placing the pecha berry in front of his snout so that he could tuck in his arms in order to lie more comfortably and still be able to eat. He moved his head forward and took a bite out of the berry, savouring the sweetness as he chewed. Another bite and the fruit was gone. The only downside of pecha berries was that they were hollow, so there wasn't much to eat. Still, the taste made it well worth it.
Another yawn, and Latios was convinced that now would most likely be the best time to doze off.
The storm had subsided, but only just. Latios could still very clearly hear the thunderous booming of lightning every minute or so, and highly doubted that he would get much sleep any time soon. Still, he lay his head down on the grass and closed his eyes, willing to give it his best effort.
Despite these thoughts, it only took a mere fifteen minutes for Latios to fade into his subconscious and detach his mind from his surroundings. He was fast asleep.
Well, was it worth the time it took to read? Feel free to leave a review, any feedback is welcome and really appreciated. And don't be afraid to say anything negative, as long as it's constructive. Let me know if you want this to continue or not! Keep in mind these first three chapters serve as an introduction with the purpose of setting up the rest of the story. Chapter 4 is where things really pick up.