"Hey."
"Hey, wake up."
He felt something gently poke him below his right eye, and reflexively rolled away from it, semi-coherently mumbling something about being tired.
"Come on, you've got to wake up."
He was poked twice more in short order, first on the side of his neck, then on his temple just below his ear. Hold on, was that where his ears were supposed to be? He wasn't entirely sure. In any case, whoever was poking him obviously didn't want to let him sleep. Taking the path of least resistance, he rolled onto his back again and opened his eyes.
A fuzzy dark blob floated in the air above him. As he blinked to clear his vision, the blob came into focus, revealing a paw. The paw belonged to something brown and quadrupedal that was looking at him with concern. Its ears doubled the height of its head, which seemed to rest on a fluffy cushion of cream-colored fur. Something about it seemed familiar to him, and a word leaped unbidden to the front of his mind: Eevee. Yes, that's right, this Pokémon is an Eevee!
Rather than clearing things up, however, this only raised more questions. Pokémon couldn't talk, so where did that voice come from? There didn't seem to be anyone around, so was it possible that he was somehow able to understand Pokémon? He tried to recall whether that had been the case before now, but found his memory scattered and fragmented. From what little there was, he could glean that understanding a Pokémon wasn't exactly ordinary.
It troubled him that he couldn't remember much of anything. He was human, he knew that, but what was his name? Where was he? What happened to him? Was it something bad?
And why did that Eevee seem so big? He was sure that they were all rather tiny...
The Pokémon breathed a sigh of relief and lowered its paw when it saw his eyes open. "Are you alright?"
He opened his mouth, but realized that he wasn't entirely sure how to answer that question. Physically, he felt fine, but mentally, that wasn't the case at all. His mind was shredded. It was a miracle that he could even think straight at all, since memory loss like that had to be indicative of some sort of brain damage. He was about to give a tentatively positive answer when his vocal cords locked up. A strangled groan found its way out of his mouth, and went on for a few seconds before he could snap his jaw closed.
The Eevee looked at him in confusion.
He sat up and put a hand to his throat. He tried to say something else, but this time, only silence came out. Finally, after a few tries, he was able to choke out a few half-formed words. "I - ntirl - opt." A lump formed in his throat, and he coughed to clear it. Whatever it was disappeared almost instantly, and he was about to try to speak again when he caught sight of a pair of blue- and black-furred legs stretched out in front of him. Wiggling a foot almost imperceptibly, he spotted the same imperceptible movement coming from the paw of the strange leg on the right. That confirmed it - these were his legs. But...they weren't human legs. He stared for a second or two, then suddenly recalled the Eevee that had asked him a question, and shook his head. "Not really..."
"A-are you sure? I mean, you look fine to me. Well, as far as I can tell, at least. I've never met a Riolu before." The Eevee was clearly trying to be confident, but her tone of voice betrayed her fear that her assessment was wrong.
So, somehow he had been transformed from a human into a Riolu. He wasn't entirely sure how to react to that, although he supposed that the normal reaction would be to freak out. While it was certainly tempting, he realized that doing so wouldn't help in the slightest, and instead tried to focus on the conversation. If he kept talking, things would begin to work out, he told himself.
"I don't remember anything, but I think something bad happened to me."
The Eevee's expression softened. "Do you think you can at least remember your name, so I know what to call you? I'm Miri."
He sifted through the bits and pieces floating around in his head, and uncovered a single word, one that struck a chord. "Jayce, I-I think."
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Jayce." Miri smiled at him. "I hope you can get your memory back. If you need a place to stay, I've got an extra bed, and it's only a short walk to Sunset Town."
Jayce nodded. "Thanks." He stood up, and immediately realized that he was having more trouble balancing than he should be. However, he elected not to tell Miri, deciding that it had to be a side effect of his transformation, and one that would vanish with time. Taking his first chance to survey his surroundings since he had first woken up, he found that he was in a grassy clearing in the middle of a deciduous forest. The trees were not gathered very densely, so he could see a fair distance through the gaps between the trunks, but the edge of the forest was still far enough away to be obscured.
He looked back to Miri to find that she had taken a few steps toward the treeline, and was patiently waiting for him to follow. Jayce complied, somehow managing not to trip over his own feet as he settled into a rhythm of walking that simultaneously felt completely natural and utterly alien.
Miri continued to lead the way through the trees, and to his dismay, he found that it only became more difficult for him to keep his footing the further he walked. First he came close to falling over in one direction, then he leaned too far in the other direction to overcome that, then he nearly sidestepped into a tree trunk, and so on. He kept nearly falling and making more mistakes as he fixed his old ones until it took all his concentration to keep from losing his balance and walking in a straight line. Finally, though, after almost two minutes, he had it. He was remaining steady (more or less) and was walking straight (sort of). He looked up from his feet to make sure he was still following Miri, and while his eyes weren't focused on the ground, he tripped over a root and fell flat on his face.
Whether due to bad luck or just her noticing the noise Jayce had made as he hit the forest floor, Miri had looked back to check on him before he was able to get up and start walking again. She quickly moved to his side, and the first words out of her mouth were, "What happened?"
Jayce rubbed his forehead where it had impacted the dirt, and replied, "It's been kind of hard for me to balance."
"Oh? What's wrong? Can you tell me?"
Jayce almost answered, but realized that if he told the truth, there was no way she'd believe that he had been a human before Miri woke him up. After all, he barely believed it, and it was happening to him! No, it'd probably be best to keep it a secret. But if he did, then he'd have to learn how to be a Riolu all by himself, and that almost certainly would be a bad idea. Would it be worth it to tell her, though? Even if she believed him, who knows how she'd react...
He kept up this back-and-forth in his head until the Eevee's voice cut into his thoughts.
"If you don't know, that's okay, but I can't really help if that's true."
Miri's words didn't take long to sink in, and they helped him come to a decision. If Jayce was to have any hope of even living a normal life as a Pokémon, let alone recovering his memory, he would need help. Miri was willing to help, and if he wanted to accept that help, he couldn't keep any secrets as big as his former humanity from her.
He shook his head. "No, I know what the problem is, but...I don't know if you'll believe me." He found himself unable to meet Miri's gaze as he reluctantly continued, "I'm a human that's been turned into a Pokémon. I don't know how it happened, or why, and I can't really think of a reason for you to believe me, especially since I can't remember anything but that and my name. But I'm completely certain that I used to be human."
There was silence for the next minute as Miri attempted to process this new piece of information.
"That's impossible. There's no way a human could get turned into a Pokémon. It...it just can't happen. I shouldn't believe you. I can't believe you. There's no way. But..." Miri looked away, as though she could stop herself from continuing by pretending Jayce didn't exist.
"I do. I believe you." She sighed and looked back at the Riolu. "I don't think we should let anyone else know, though. I mean, even if someone else believed you, I have no idea how anyone else would react. They might try to kill you, or worship you, or...I don't know, but I just feel like something bad would happen!"
"...I get a bad feeling, too, when I think about telling anyone. But I need your help. I don't know how to do anything, and I don't know if I have the time to figure it out on my own. For all I know, something might want to kill me, and I tried to hide from it by getting myself turned into a Pokémon." Jayce paused and bowed his head.
"I mean, it's not like I actually think that's the case, but I don't have a clue. It might be a good idea to assume the worst." He took a deep breath. "At least that way, I'm prepared for anything."
Miri took a hesitant step towards him. "Well, then...we should probably get started preparing right now, shouldn't we?" She smiled, but it seemed forced and tenuous. "Everyone always says that Pokémon learn best when they're in danger, so...going into a Mystery Dungeon might be a good idea, before I take you to Sunset Town. That way, you don't have to get used to being a Riolu while everyone's watching."
There was a second's pause before Miri suddenly continued speaking. "Oh, that's right, you probably wouldn't know about Mystery Dungeons. They're bits of places, like forests, caves, or valleys, that are never the same twice. Every time someone goes into one, it turns into a maze that no one has ever seen before. There are some Pokémon that live in Mystery Dungeons, too, but I've heard they can't speak, or even think like we do. There's something about the Mystery Dungeons that makes those Pokémon attack anyone that comes near, even if they haven't done anythin. And..." She trailed off, but quickly began speaking again in a lower tone, as though she was afraid of what came out of her mouth. "That something affects everyone that stays in a Mystery Dungeon for too long. Everyone says that there's nothing to worry about unless you fall unconscious, but even if that's true, everyone has to sleep sometime, so getting lost in one is..."
Miri fell silent, and the air between her and the Riolu seemed to grow heavy as they considered this possibility.
The Eevee's ears twitched, and she spoke up again, with a cheerful lilt to her voice that was obviously faked. "I was going to a Mystery Dungeon near here when I found you anyway. I even brought an Oran Berry, just in case." She pawed at the ruff of fur around her neck. A small, dark blue berry fell out, bouncing once on the forest floor before rolling to a stop a few inches away. "I-if you're going to come with me, you should have it. I'd never forgive myself if something happened to you..." This time, Miri couldn't stop an apprehensive quaver from entering her voice.
Jayce tried to reply, but simply couldn't find the words. Not an hour after meeting this Pokémon, she was willing to give up her only lifeline for him. They knew next to nothing about each other. They had barely even spoken since he woke up, and yet she was still making a gesture such as this. But, then again, he had trusted her with everything, and he was in that same situation, wasn't he? He couldn't be sure, but he had the feeling that he had never been this open when he was human. Was this a side effect of his transformation into a Pokémon?
He gave the question a few seconds of consideration before shoving it aside. It didn't matter to him if becoming a Pokémon had made him a different person in some way, as long as the different person wasn't someone he didn't want to be, and...well, it had felt good to put his trust in Miri, and he knew that given another chance, he would do exactly the same thing.
Jayce picked up the berry, shook his head, and held it out to Miri. "You need it more. Nobody would miss me if I didn't go back with you, but if you didn't make it out...I'd be lost, and there would probably be a lot of Pokémon who would be sad." The words tasted strange on his tongue, but he relished the new feeling, and his voice grew more firm. "But there's no way that would happen. We can beat this...Mystery Dungeon, I know we can. We'll go in together, and we'll come out together."
Miri took the Oran Berry back, and as she tucked it back into her fur, she grew visibly more confident. Jayce felt a warmth spreading inside his chest - the satisfaction that came from being a good friend. He had said exactly the right thing, and now Miri seemed as confident as he had tried to sound. He'd been faking that confidence, but now, seeing it in Miri, he began to believe his own words. They would get through the Mystery Dungeon together. He would learn to adapt to his new body. And most importantly, he knew that Miri was just the Pokémon to help him do this.
Author's note: If you're going to review this, I would appreciate it if you make your review longer than three sentences. It's very nice to receive reviews that say things like, "This was great, I can't wait for the next chapter!", but those reviews don't really tell me anything. I want to become a better writer, so if you liked this chapter, please tell me what you thought was good, and what you think needs work. If you thought it was terrible, please tell me why you thought it was terrible. That way, I know what I need to work on in the future to make this story better. Thank you all in advance, and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.