Hello everyone! In my short leave, I managed to come up with a story that I'm quite excited about. The pairing in this story is somewhat unconventional, hence the title. Please, please no flames. I think more people should do pairings like this (pokemon aren't real in the first place, so why the controversy?!)
Rated T due to language and slight gore. No lemons, but rating miiight go up later due to romance.
This chapter is short compared to the others. More is to come, I promise.
I hope you will enjoy.
~SpiritOfMetal
I awoke one morning to a sneezing fit that left my nose dripping like the roof of a cave.
I looked outside and noticed the warm, friendly sun shining through neon green tree buds. The air had a faint humid and crisp smell to it. I staggered out of bed and grabbed my tissue box off of my TV.
"Damn pollen." I mumbled through congestion. It was official – spring was here, and summer wasn't far away.
Acacia Filmond wriggled into a moss green tank top and shoved on a pair of worn denim capris. It was a beautiful day – the pokemon had already awoken, Chatot loudly announcing the morning. A sweet, caressing breeze whispered throughout her house, threatening doors to slam shut.
Acacia padded out of her room and arrived in the bathroom to look at the night's damage. Her hair was, of course, a mess, and her small cluster of pimples on her forehead were healing nicely. She blinked her burgundy eyes, tucked a stray lock of her strawberry brunette hair behind her ear and headed down stairs to fill her empty stomach.
She greeted Smokey, her best friend and pokemon Glameow. The cat pokemon mewed cheerfully, watching Acacia prepare a bowl of cereal and following her to an old, large oak table. Acacia sat and began to mow down her breakfast. Smokey hopped up on the chair across from her. Acacia looked up and saw a pair of light green eyes staring curiously at her.
"Hey, Smokey? What do you think of the weather today? Beautiful, huh?" Acacia mumbled through a full mouth. Smokey's eyes flitted beyond the girl, staring out at the woods beyond the open slider screen door. Acacia looked back at the Glameow, who was staring intently past her. Feeling the skin crawl on her back, Acacia wiped around in her seat and glared out at the woods. Bird pokemon jumped from branch to branch, feeding on special poke blocks her father had made for them on a wire feeder. A distant Pidgeot glided about higher up in the sky, slowly circling the area and hunting for prey. Acacia noticed nothing peculiar, spooky, or different about the yard. She turned back to find Smokey gone.
"Wha- Smokey? What were you looking at?" Acacia peered under the table to see the cat preening itself. The Glameow glanced at Acacia, then continued washing her face.
Geuss it was those birds, Acacia thought to herself while she cleared her dishes from the table. She glanced at the thermometer outside the slider door – it read 61 degrees fahrenheit.
Perfect weather for hiking…I haven' t explored the land around here since I was 17, thought Acacia eagerly as she traveled back up the stairs to her bedroom. She had just hit the age of legal adulthood in December. Although she was an adult, she certainly didn't feel like one, and for that she was grateful. She was never going to get too old for exploring.
She hurriedly packed a small back pack with supplies for her hike. She tossed in a handkerchief, sunglasses, a small notebook, pencils, trail mix, ipod, and camera. After she was satisfied with her load, she headed back down stairs. She walked into the guest room to find her mother, Marie, typing away on a desktop computer. Marie was a freelance website/graphic designer, and she was currently working on an add for a new brand of pokeblock. Marie looked at Acacia with a glazed look on her face. Her expression brightened when she noticed Acacia's attire.
"Are you going off on another walkabout? This time it looks major, like you'll be camping under a rock ledge." said Marie with a playful smile. Walkabouts were what the Filmond family called Acacia's short walks around the property. They had no idea what she did, other then wander off with her headphones on. They worried about her, of course, but Acacia tried to explain to them that these walkabouts, as they called them, were very meditative and her way to relieve stress, or any other kind of overwhelming emotion. They would roll their eyes, and Acacia always knew that they would never understand.
"Yep, going to walk around for a while, gonna try to explore a bit further then I usually do." Acacia said with a sigh.
Marie turned back towards her computer and began typing with a frown.
"Well, don't wander too far. If you see George, tell him he needs to come home ASAP. He has to try to explain the flat tire on my bike."
George was Acacia's kid brother, whom was her opposite in almost every way. She was the quiet one, while he was constantly making noise. She loved to create while he loved to destroy things. She wasn't much of a people person, but he was constantly with his friends or talking to somebody on the phone. The siblings could live in the same place with no violence as long as they had their space far, far away from each other. Acacia liked him best when he wasn't in the house.
"Ugh. Well, I can't promise I'll see the pea brain out in the woods though."
Marie snorted, but continued typing.
Acacia mumbled a goodbye, then headed towards the front door. Smokey was sitting next to it expectantly. Acacia bent and gently rubbed her ears.
"Sorry girl, but I'm going to take this hike solo. I don't really feel like going out and looking for a battle, so just relax while I'm gone."
The Glameow only looked half disappointed, but purred contently while Acacia petted her head. Acacia waved to her pokemon, then shut the door behind her.
Smokey stared at the door, listening to her human walk down the wooden steps. She trotted over to the slider door and watched Acacia disappear down the steep gravel driveway.
Acacia rummaged through her back pack and pulled out her headphones. She placed them on her head, then turned on her ipod and switched it on shuffle mode. As soon as the first song came on, Acacia's mind, body and soul breathed a great sigh of relief. Her music transported her far away from her life to different worlds, and even made her appreciate the things around her. She smiled as she looked out across the small pond next to the driveway, watching the wind create shimmering ripples in its water. She closed her eyes and let the sun kiss her face with its warmth. It was when she listened to music that they could truly feel the life flowing around her.
Acacia came to a deserted asphalt road and took a right. She kept walking until she came to another heavily shaded gravel driveway on the left of the road. She walked up it, and her legs began to ache as the land gradually began to slope. She finally made it to the top of the hill. The forest had been somewhat cleared because someone had bought the property and intended to build. She was glad the people hadn't started to build…this was her favorite spot to relax. She hunkered down and sat against a tall tree and admired the view. She couldn't believe how high up she was. The hill was more like a small mountain.
Acacia turned off her ipod and put her headphones back in her back pack, then retrieved her water and took a swig of it.
The new foliage, the pleasant weather, the pokemon full of revived energy…the euphoric aura of spring was hard to resist. Acacia smiled to herself, closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting the scent of damp ground and grass fill her lungs.
Oh, how she loved living out in the country. The closest city was Pastoria City, about 20 minutes away. She had lived there once, and she certainly didn't miss it. There was always so much crime, pollution, noises…she preferred the peaceful life of living out in the country.
One thing she did miss, however, was the pokemon battles. She had always had a passion for pokemon, and had always felt she could understand them better then her own species.
When she was still in high school, she had become very good at battling pokemon. Smokey and her had faced off many opponents and had won most of the battles. All of this gradually came to an end when she moved out to the country and her parents confronted her about furthering her education. Acacia honestly didn't know what to do the rest of her life, but her parents reassured her that there was no rush in such a decision and could take all of the time she needed to consider a career. Acacia had always dreamed of going on adventures with her pokemon and traveling to faraway lands, but she knew she really couldn't make a living off of that. So far, her ideas for future careers were a Ranger, Scientist, or maybe even a Nurse.
Acacia sighed and opened her eyes. She was content to just sit in the same spot for hours, watching the world go by, but that wasn't what she had came to do.
She got to her feet, wiping grass off of her legs and hoisted her back pack over her shoulder. This clearing was where she usually walked around and listened to her music, but this time she intended to go farther. Off to the corner of the clearing was an overgrown trail. She had always eyed the trail nervously, expecting to see something large looming within its shadows. The trail didn't look so dark and foreboding anymore, and she could actually see down it a bit before the land sloped down at a sharp angle. She knew the trail was a long one, but she had no idea were it went. Today, she was going to find out.
Taking in a sharp breath, Acacia started down the hill to the shadowy trail. Once she got to it, she saw that the grass was a bit taller and she was thankful for her hiking shoes. She walked into the grass, watching her step and continued down the trail.
The trail wasn't nearly as scary as she thought it was. It was shadowy, yet the vegetation was greener and thicker then the woods around her house. She hummed to herself, watching the woods for signs of movement. She could hear the distant twitter of bird pokemon, which was comforting.
As Acacia made her way down the trail, she noticed a change in the geography. Large rocks began to poke out of the ground, and soon human sized boulders were a common sight. The forest was still thick, but it was strangely quiet. The air seemed wet, as if an invisible fog clung to the tree branches. Acacia gripped her backpack, wiping her sweaty hands off on her capris. The trail just seemed to keep going and going, and it was getting harder and harder for her to navigate it. Rocks got in her way, and bushes began to disguise the trail so that it was nearly indistinguishable from the surrounding woods. Acacia started to stack rocks and stick branches onto the ground were she could so she could follow the way back. She picked up a branch that had been weathered and stripped of its bark and used it as a walking staff. The strange silence made her heart pound and her ears ring, so she occasionally hummed TV commercial slogans under her breath.
She kept making markers and had to stop a few times to rest and munch on her trail mix, but trekked on. The woods were beautiful, but strange. The rocks that littered the area were stark white, like limestone, and dotted the landscape like oversized Mareep. Sometimes, a small movement would catch her eye, but she would look to see nothing. This made her increasingly paranoid, and soon she was jogging down the trail.
After a good ten minutes of jogging, Acacia stopped on top of a car sized boulder and wiped the sweat from her brow.
"Whew. Well, I don't even think I'm following a trail anymore. I better keep setting markers." she mumbled to herself. She hopped off the rock and set off at a brisk walk. A few minutes passed, and she heard wind rustling the branches of the trees. Bird pokemon could be heard faintly, and Acacia sensed that she wasn't far from a clearing. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, and Acacia barged through the forest, excited at what she might find. Luckily, she stopped just in time. She gasped, finding her footing on a rock and stopped herself. A ravine snaked its way through the forest, a small stream running down its middle. Acacia followed it and noticed the ravine grow wider and deeper until rocky outcroppings stopped her from going any further. The stream joined a murky river that rushed with white water. It was a large, wide river that looked as if it was trying to cut a deep line out of the land around it. Rocky cliffs rose above it on both sides, some of them towering.
Acacia was stunned.
"Woooow…" she murmured, taking in the beauty of the sheer rock cliffs and rushing water.
Itching with excitement, she slung her backpack onto a rock and scrambled for her camera. She shoved it in her pocket, grabbed her walking stick and jumped from rock to rock along the river. She gradually began to gain altitude, coming closer to a rock cliff that jutted out of the forest. She noticed how high up she was getting and stayed well away from the edge of the rocks. She snapped pictures of the river, the trees, the cliffs, bird pokemon and fish pokemon. After a few more shots, she turned off her camera and set it down next to her as she relaxed on a flat rock outcropping, resting her achy legs. She smiled and chuckled to herself, lying flat out on the rock.
Gosh, this place is so, so wonderful. I'm so lucky to have found it. I'm so lucky that nobody else has found it.
At that thought, Acacia sat up and looked around her. The place hadn't been touched by a human for quite some time. People might have been here, but they did a good job cleaning up after themselves.
Acacia gazed at the river for a while, watching a few Pelipper hunt the water for a meal. Acacia's eyes grew heavy, the rushing water and soft breeze lulling her into sleep. She folded her arms behind her head and closed her eyes, letting the sounds of nature carry her mind away. Just as a dream began to form itself, a loud clatter jolted her awake. She shot up, hands scrabbling for her walking stick when something hard made contact with her elbow.
"Ow!" she shouted, turning her head just in time to watch her camera plummet from her rock outcropping.
"Fuck!" she shouted, jumping to the edge of her rock. She watched the camera clatter on a few other shelfs, then land softly on a small rock ledge.
"Agh! Damn it!" she shouted through clenched teeth, whipping her head around and searching for the source of the noise that woke her. She grabbed her walking stick and stood, her heart pounding. The noise had sounded like it had come from the cliff next to her.
"Hello? Anybody there?" she called, listening to her echo bounce back to her. She stood still, watching for movement. Nothing but the peaceful swaying of the trees.
"Must have been a bird pokemon knocking over some stones…" she murmured to herself nervously. She eyed the woods surrounding her, but all was calm.
An unnerving feeling crept over Acacia, like she was being watched. Suddenly, the river side didn't seem so welcoming anymore. She should be heading back home soon anyway, her stomach was beginning to growl.
Lying on her stomach, Acacia peered down the crevice that her camera had fallen through. She saw it clearly, and thankfully it hadn't broken during its fall. She crawled to the edge of her rock slab and hung her head over the side. There were many small shelfs, each one not far from the other.
If I'm careful, I might be able to get the thing and go back home.
Acacia tentatively peered down at the river, which seemed to drop before her eyes. Her head spun, and she pulled herself away from the ledge.
"I just have to be careful. I can do this…" she gulped, then slowly began to dangle her body over the edge of the rock. Relief flooded her senses as her feet found a flat surface. She put her weight on it and it didn't budge. Looking down, she could see the camera on a rock six feet away. She slowly sidestepped towards her camera, clinging to the cliff for dear life. Now, she was only four feet away from the camera. A large gap separated her from the rock that her camera rested on, a gap that she would not be able to jump. She leaned towards the camera, her limbs straining to keep a hold on the cliff. She reached a shaky hand out.
"Almost…got it…" she gasped, wiggling her fingers towards the camera that was now only a foot away. She took one final lunge –
The rock under her feet gave way, unable to support her weight any longer. Time seemed to slow, and the world abruptly became muted. She dug her finger nails into the slippery rock as she fell. Her elbow bashed into a rock, but she could feel no pain. All she could feel was the raw panic that numbed her thought process. She watched as the cliff face grew farther and farther away. Her vision began to blur and become dark, like she was falling into a well. Just before her sight failed, she saw a faint blur of something brilliant red.
Like a rose, she thought distantly.
It was completely dark, and Acacia seemed to be floating.
Something slammed into her side. The velocity of it made her mentally crumble, and she was no longer aware of her body. A dizzying force could be felt, followed by an almost electronic thrum. She weakly reached towards the thrum and felt it connect to her being. Gradually, the pain that she had felt earlier was replaced by a soft warmth that numbed her panic and soothed her tension.
She soon felt herself being lulled into a deep, velvety somnolence.