Blackwoods Forest. The largest forest in the entire Kalos region, and the entire continent for that matter. It got its ominous name from the dark brown tree trunks that acted as the base of the trees. A dark brown colour, bordering black. The lush, tall treetops created a sea of green from the air, and on the ground, a maze of wood, forest and brush. The forest spanned so large, that even if people followed the path exactly, it could take them weeks to get out. It spanned nearly 100 miles, and that was from the shortest ends, going in a straight line, from point A to point B. It was a nature preserve, so logging was illegal. It was established very rigorously, with people watching to make certain that loggers couldn't enter the forest miles around it, not even letting them get within eyesight of the place. However, travellers often found themselves here without ever seeing an anti-logger person, as if only the loggers could see these defenders of the forest.
The forest was surrounded in myths and legends. Some said they saw glowing lights from atop the trees, some claimed they saw monsters, and others claimed they saw legendary and rare Pokemon, like Shaymin and Darkrai, make their homes here. It wasn't actually that hard to believe. The forest was so thick, so dense, and, at night, so dark, it would camouflage anything and anyone in it, surrounding them in a sea of blackness, blind those who hadn't evolved to pierce such darkness. Once night fell, you were in the dark, quite literally. You would see absolutely nothing without an external source of light, until the Sun rose again. It would have made the perfect hidden secret base. And it made the ideal home for Pokémon that didn't want to be found.
Other rumours were quite... Eerie. People often went missing in the woods, and showed up later, traumatised, some suffering from as serious conditions as, to give only one example, Post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Many claimed the forest was a living, breathing, sentient being, that lead people away from the paths they walked, and if they followed it, only the true horrors of the forest would be made known to them.
When asked what these horrors where, their answers were even more disturbing.
"We can't tell you." They would say. Monotoned, and whispered. "They're watching us. They've always been watching us."
What was disturbing was that every individual that every single individual who ended up like this always said that when asked. As if it was a script, and they had all rehearsed this script, religiously.
Many people dismissed it as craziness, that due to the darkness of the forests, it had affected their minds. Indeed, many made recoveries, convinced themselves that it had all been in their minds. But the stories and legends that these events created always haunted the region. Fantasies or not, they hung over the forest, daring those who were brave enough, fearless enough, or stupid enough to enter the belly of the beast, ready to devour anyone who did step foot into this empire of nature.
Many said the forest should be left alone, that human presence was only a negative point, to the sanctity of the Pokémon living their peacefully, and the risks to human life. However, the forest was still open to the public to travel through, but it was at their own risk. The vast majority of trainers avoided it like the plague. Only 1 trainer in every 100,000 would dare enter.
Ash stood at the entrance to this mighty forest. He had to admit, it was certainly impressive. It spanned through several regions, including Kalos's neighbours. Defending it, and preserving the rich ecosystem it sustained had become a matter of inter-regional co-operation. And they had been, so far, successful. Ash had suggested they trek through this monster. It was a shortcut to his next gym battle. Should they get through without incident, it would save them weeks, perhaps months of travel time. And it would certainly throw the ever present, ever annoying, ever infuriating and ever frustratingly stupid Team Rocket off their trail for a while, and with any luck, they'd be chased off by a swarm of Combee or something.
"Ash, I don't know about this..." Serena, his blonde, short haired and blue eye companion stated meekly. She had her hands held together, fingers inter-winded into one big fist, like she was praying. It was a nervous habit she had when either nervous or scared. The hat she wore seemed to sink further down her head, to her eyebrows, and her red over-vest was swaying in the light wind.
Serena had feelings for Ash, feelings of the romantic nature, and it wasn't much of a secret anymore. People had caught on. Except, of course, for the dense Ash Ketchum himself, the one person Serena wanted to know. What she didn't reveal to anyone, however, was how uncomfortable forests made her. In a group, she could manage it, provided the forest was small. Heck, She enjoyed it, but the rumours surrounding this forest, that said it was alive, that it would lead people down the wrong path with malicious intent, preying on the weak and meek minded re-awakened the sheer terror she felt in the middle of the woods.
Serena's general discomfort around forests came from her traumatic experience in the woods during summer camp in the Kanto region. But it was there she met Ash, so she didn't completely despise the memories. Still, they were traumatic enough to have left a mark on her psychological mindset, that resulted in her hylophobia ; her fear of the forests.
"Relax, Serena." Ash said, grinning at the tall trees, placing his hand on the dark tree bark. "We'll be fine if we stick to the paths."
Clemont, the resident scientist / gym leader, spoke in agreement. "This forest had been surveyed and checked hundreds of times. Thanks to rigorous aerial reconnaissance, and multitudes of surveys scourging the pathways, the path to the next gym is marked very clearly. It should be impossible to miss." Clemont was a person of science. Though that could be to compensate for the fact he had a more crippling fear of the supernatural more than anyone in the group. He threw himself into the worlds of technology and scientific progression, and acted as the voice of logical reason for the group, though often times, he spoke in a panicked voice, and his sweat starting to soak his blue overalls, especially when dealing with the supernatural. He adjusted his circular spectacles when investigating the dark bark on the trees. "These trees are fascinating. What causes them to turn this dark? Why are they this colour? Scientists from Kalos and all its neighbours have been trying to come up with the answer to that question in one big, organised and co-operated investigation, and none of them can figure out the answer..."
Serena shifted her posture. She still felt unsafe, heading into the Blackwood forest. She had no issue with admitting she had hylophobia... To herself. She shuddered and gulped, looking at this behemoth. Scared of a forest? Scared of some trees? How pathetic would she look in front of Ash if he knew?...
"You aren't scaaaaaaared, are you Serena?" Bonnie, Clemonts younger sibling, and Serena's little sister figure asked, in a loud, half mocking tone. Bonnie was younger than everyone else by over 10 years, but she certainly acted older than her age. She looked like Clemont, but that was to be expected. Blond hair, and blue eyes, only she didn't require glasses, and didn't wear a disturbingly warm overall. She claimed she tried it once, however, and then proceeded to claim she felt like she was on fire. She told everyone she was certain Clemont had a condition in which he was nearly always cold, but Clemont had shut that down. That was the kind of person Bonnie was. The innocent, excitable and gossipy type. Serena considered Bonnie to be the little sister she never had, but the bad part of that was that now she really was acting like the little sister she never had. She had recently learnt of her feeling for Ash, and Bonnie hadn't even let Serena have a second of peace afterwards, teasing her continuously, and causing general awkwardness for her. It frustrated Serena to no end, and she had to always watch her words when around Bonnie. It had become like dealing with Miette on a regular basis. At this point, Serena wasn't completely sure if she preferred dealing with Bonnie like this, or really having to deal with Miette on a regular basis.
"Huh?!" Serena shot up at her accusations, turning to Bonnie, and now standing tall, her hands in fists, and her fists on her hips. "Scared of a forest?! Are you kidding me? Of all the things to be scared of, Bonnie!" Serena managed to turn the teasing back onto Bonnie, now speaking in a sisterly, condescending tone. "If you're scared Bonnie, it's okay, but don't try and get other people to say they're scared to make you feel better, we'll protect you, don't worry."
"I'm not scared of anything!" Bonnie yelled back with a laugh. She made sure her laugh was loud and exaggerated it a bit, trying to but in a fearless front.
"Is that right, Bonnie?" Ash asked, turning back. His brown eyes, the only person in the group without blue eyes, glancing at Bonnie and Serena as they teased each other. His messy hair was barely being contained by his hat, and he had his pockets in his blue jacket. Pikachu, his Pokémon partner and best friend, perched atop his right shoulder, and his bag straps were on his left shoulder. He was also the only person in the group who had no qualms whatsoever about entering the forest. He grinned at the two females, having their little friendly spat. "If I recall, you're scared of Clemont making veggies for meal."
"That because I don't like veggies!" Bonnie yelled at Ash. "That's completely different!"
Ash shook his head, amused, and turned back to the forest. He had to admit, the forest looked incredibly thick. He was amazed a natural phenomenon like this had remained untouched by humans hands for thousands of years, and that to this day, was still protected. He thought of all the rare Pokémon inside. There were no laws against capturing Pokémon in the forest. He grinned, hoping to capture something good, something strong. Preferably something to help in his next gym match. He was just a few badges away from the Kalos League.
"Still..." Serena said, quietly. "Are we sure it's safe? I mean, it might be smarter to just go around the forest. You can't put a price on safety, can you?"
"It's perfectly safe, Serena." Clemont said, trying to reassure the anxious blonde to his right. "I told you, the pathway is marked."
"But... But what about the rumours that the forest leads you he wrong way to do horrible things to you?" Serena asked, in an almost panicked state. "What if the forest leads us into a clearing where all the monsters in the forest come to eat us?!" She then promptly clapped her hands onto her mouth. She had a bad habit of saying ridiculous things in the face of the supernatural.
Clemont laughed. "You don't believe those rumours, do you?"
"Well... You never know, right?" Serena defended her words.
Clemont shook his head, closing his eyes, and put on a voice that walk half condescending, half serious. "There's no such thing as a living forest. Trees are only plants. They don't have any intelligence or any way to 'lead' someone astray. And even if they did, why would they? No, the rumours surrounding the Blackwood forest are the result of careless people straying off the trail, and getting lost in the darkness, which has a negative effect on the human mind, causing them to hallucinate. Their hallucinations made them perceive reality differently, and thus, the rumours surrounding this forest began to surface."
"Even if the rumours are true, they only ever happened to people who came here on their own, right?" Ash asked Clemont. Clemont nodded at him. Ash turned back to Serena. "We'll look after each other. You don't need to worry, Serena."
Serena smiled meekly and sighed. She was going into this forest, regardless of if she wanted to or not, wasn't she?
The group had checked they had enough food, water, and other essentials for an estimated week and a half travel through the wilderness. Light was an essential. If they got lost in the dark, they were finished. A few spare compasses. The exit was to the North West of where they were right now. They could follow the compass find their way out if they had to. Serena took one reluctantly, praying she wouldn't need it.
Once all their preparations were complete, the group stood at the entrance to the forest. A large bulletin sign, made of wood, was there. It had been carved into, with a knife.
ALL WHO ENTER HERE DO SO AT THEIR OWN RISK. LOGGING, LITTERING, DAMAGE TO THE FOREST, DAMAGING AND DESTROYING THE HOMES OF THE POKÉMON HERE ARE ALL STRICTLY PROHIBITED. ANYONE FOUND GUILTY OF THESE CRIMES WILL BE PUNISHED TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW. IT IS VERY STRONGLY RECOMMENDED THAT YOU FOLLOW THE PATHWAYS MARKED. FAILURE TO DO SO MAY RESULT IN TERRIBLE INJURY, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY.
- The Inter-regional defence force.
It served as an eerie reminded that they were going into a place considered haunted, and to some, even sacred. Serena gulped. She really didn't want to do this. At all. She felt her skin crawl, and blood run cold. But above all, she didn't want to be separated from Ash. That was the only reason she was doing this.
"Oooooh..." She whimpered silently to herself. She pulled out a Pokèball, and released her Pokémon inside. "Pancham, come on out." He showing off Pancham appeared in front of her in a dazzling light that lit up the surrounding area temporarily. Serena picked up Pancham and held it like a teddy bear for comfort. Pancham expressed some distaste for this, but didn't try and escape it.
"You ready?" Ash asked his female traveling companion. He placed a hand on her shoulder. He had come up from behind, so the sudden feeling in her shoulder caused her to jump, but she quickly relaxed when she realised it was her crush. Now her heart was just beating harder.
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine." Serena said, lying through her teeth. She was anything but fine.
"We're gonna be in there for a while, but it'll be worth it." Ash smiled. "I'll be closer to my next gym battle, and you'll be closer to your next showcase, with time to spare."
Serena nodded. "I suppose..."
Ash put his hand on her shoulder again. This time, Serena was able to experience the warmth of his hands. It gave her a comfort. A real sense of comfort. "We'll be fine, Serena. I promise you, nothing's gonna go wrong while we're in there."
Serena longed for more comfort like this. It would make this entire trip worth it. But she simply nodded, agreeing with Ash. "We'll look out for each other, won't we?"
"Yep." Ash grinned, happy that Serena seemed more comfortable with the idea of this trip. Pikachu hopped onto Serena's shoulder, comforting Serena in his own way, nuzzling her check, and then hopping back to Ash. Serena managed to smile at the adorable little yellow mouse Pokémon.
"Okay, we're fine on food and water. We've got spare flashlights and batteries, and if that fails, we have enough electric types between us to recharge the batteries manually, and fire types to light up the area surrounding us. We should be okay." Clemont said, passing Ash his bag. He had filled it up with his own set of essentials. Just as a precaution, in the unlikely event of separation. He had already done the same for Bonnie and Serena. He looked into the forest, fighting back his inner voice, telling him to back out now too. "Are we all ready to go?"
Bonnie was completely careless. She was skipping around, waiting for the call to go, chased by her Dedenne. "Ready!"
Her Dedenne also chipped in. "Nene, nene!"
"I'm ready." Ash said with a smile, throwing his backpack back onto his back.
Pikachu nodded. "Pika!"
Serena sighed. "Ready as I'm ever going to be I guess."
Her Pancham was much more enthusiastic than her. Punching it's two paws into the sky. "Cham, Pancham!"
"Well, let's get to it!"
In the forest, Serena couldn't shake the feeling she was being watched. The ominous feeling that a pair or two of eyes were watching you from the shadows, calculating your every move, waiting to strike, followed her like a Venomoth to the light. She felt paranoid and uncomfortable.
What she had to admit, though, was the forest was quite beautiful on the inside. The wildlife was varied and vivid, wild Spinarak, Ariados, Caterpie, Weedle, Kakuna, Scatterbug, Tangela, Bellsprout, Parasect, Tangrowth, Beedrill, Yanmega, Ninjask and more, all inhabited the nooks and crannies of the Blackwood forest, and they all seemed very tame Pokémon, not fearing humans in the slightest, but watching them in curiosity. It wasn't every day that they saw humans, so some of them felt like they were watching aliens like Deoxys walk through their homes.
Serena had to concede the fact, she could easily understand why so many different regions co-operated to protect this natural treasure chest. A few Rattata scurried past her feet. She felt at ease next to Ash. Somehow, he made her feel safe, just by being close to her. Scooting closer to him every few seconds, so no one would notice until she was right next to him, she increased the length of her strides a few centimetres every few seconds, until she found herself happily alongside Ash.
Still, this forest creeped her out. Her hylophobia didn't disappear, just subsided a bit while she was near Ash. It never disappeared completely. She couldn't wait to finally escape this place. Though it had just begun. They hadn't even been in here for three hours. A depressing thought. It felt like days to Serena.
The forest path winded further still, taking them further and further away from civilisation. The deeper they went, the thicker the trees and their density became.
Darkness fell very quickly in the forest, much to Ash's chagrin. "How is it already night time?" He fumbled around until he found a flashlight, which he then turned on, making the pathway clearer. It wasn't so dark that they couldn't see, but a flashlight helped.
"We should set up camp for the night." Clemont suggested. "We really don't want to get caught out here in the dark." He glanced around the area, and moving Bonnie closer to him. So she didn't get lost, of course.
Serena agreed. She'd feel safer in a sleeping bag. She hoped.
Well everyone, this is my next project. Alone is gonna be a mystery, supernatural and horror type deal mixed into one if I can. I'm trying to make this one stand out amongst to my stories, so here's hoping you like this.
I have a general idea of how this story will play out, but I'm still in the flexible stages of writing. This one is going to be fundamentally different to what I've written In The past, and that's the fact I'm going complete fan fiction in this. You'll notice in my other stories I aim to go for stories that I deem are potentially possible. In this one, I seriously doubt this would ever happen, but even so, I'm going to write how the characters would be written if it were an actual episode. One .day Off, I wrote how I would introduce Amourshipping if it became cannon, and in Looks Don't Matter, I went for the inner turmoil Serena feels for Ash regularly. In this, it's a much more... Dramatic story, shall we say. Expect up to Seven chapters of this story at the minimum, though I'll likely end it on Ten, due to my OCD. I like things to end on good numbers. Like 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 25or 30, ect. (That's why I made One Day Off 30 Chapters long.) Anything else just bugs me.
The plot may be predictable. It might not be. Who knows. Depends on how your mind works. To me, If I were reading what I'm going to put on to paper from an outside perspective, I'd expect something a bit more... Relevant, should we say. I'm looking forward to getting this one up for you all, guys.
Requests are still open for you all who want one. If I like your idea, I'll write it into a story, so go nuts. Amourshipping ones please, though I will accept Pearlshipping in a pinch. (I really should change my name.) Just know I'll only write Pearlshipping when I'm completely burned out of Amourshipping for a bit, so you might be waiting a while. I MAY also accept other Shippings I like. Usually include NaLi (Natsu X Lisanna), Kirito X Asuna, Edwin (Edward Elric X Winry), and a few others. Heck, in an absolute pinch, I can go yuri, Sapphirepealshipping and Botiqueshipping. Lemons on these... I don't know. Turns out I have an affinity for writing lemons. How I learned that, don't ask, and do I want that on the Internet? I have no idea. This is pretty subject to survey to be honest. So, go ahead and ask, and I'll see what I can do with your idea. Just remember that Amourshipping takes complete priority to me.
As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you did, leave a review down for me, and follow the story to find out what happens next. Follow and fave me if you like, it helps out a real lot guys, I do appreciate it. Makes me feel like I'm not wasting my time writing these, and let's me know you appreciate and enjoy what I do, which is always awesome motivation. As always, I will see you in the next chapter of whatever I do indeed decide to do next. See ya!
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