Dawn of Discovery

I wasn't. Then, all of a sudden, I was – that is, I existed. I didn't know how to explain it, but that was all there was to me.

It was dark. Not that I knew what darkness was. I didn't know what there was besides darkness, if there was anything beyond it.

For a while, I just existed. I knew that I existed, but I didn't know where, why, or how.

At one point, I became aware of… something. There was someThing… Out There. Whatever "Out There" was. That someThing drew my attention. I tried to focus on it.

I was hearing sounds. I had never heard sounds before. It was the first time I had ever heard anything, the first time I had even noticed anything besides my own existence and the fact that there was darkness around me.

Because it was still dark, I couldn't see what it was that had made the noise. I was curious. I wondered if I could make a noise too.

I moved a little bit, and heard some scraping. This scraping was louder than the other sounds. I realized that this was because it came from somewhere much closer to me than the someThing that was Out There. The scraping was coming from something solid that surrounded me, which I had brushed up against upon moving.

I opened my mouth and said, "O?" It was a squeaky sound, quiet in a different way than the quietness of the distant sound that came from Out There. I could hear the squeak clearer than the sound produced Out There, but it was not as big a sound than even the scraping sound that I had made just before. It was a higher pitch, but a lower volume. That was it.

Wait! More sounds! More sounds from Out There, louder than any of the other three sounds I had ever heard before.

"The egg!"

"Huh?"

The egg? What did that mean? I decided to make a different squeaking sound. "Ge… ge…"

"That!"

"What?"

"Didn't you hear it?"

"No."

"Well then, listen! Maybe it'll do it again."

There were two someThings Out There, I realized. Two different someThings, making many different sounds – talking, maybe? – but some of it was muffled or something so I couldn't make sense of it all. One of the someThings, the first someThing that had made a sound after me, made sounds of a higher pitch (and a higher volume) than the sounds of the other someThing.

I decided something at that moment. I had never decided anything before. I had wondered about things, I had tried things, but never decided things after thinking about them for a while. I decided I wanted to be Out There. I decided that I didn't like the darkness, that I didn't like not knowing what the someThings were, and that I didn't like just existing; I wanted to really be.

So I moved. As I moved, I head more scraping.

"Shh!"

"Yeah, I heard it that time."

Both of the someThings' sounds were the same pitches as before, though at a lower volume than last time. It seemed to me like the scraping sounds were drawing the attention of the someThings, just like their sounds had drawn my attention at first.

I moved a little more. To my surprise, my whole body – my entire self – rocked. The motion of whatever was surrounding me was causing me to move without even trying to. I could no longer stand not seeing what it was that surrounded me, keeping me away from Out There, where I wanted to be.

I opened my eyes. What a stark contrast to how it had been! While before there had been nothing but total darkness, all of a sudden it was blindingly bright! Despite having only just opened my eyes for the first time ever, I had to shut them again.

Out There, I heard more sounds… Both of the someThings had gasped. Then, they spoke again.

"That glow… Doesn't that mean…?"

"It's hatching!"

This time the high-pitched voice seemed hushed, while the lower-pitched voice was a higher volume than it had been previously.

I began stretching, and as I did I felt the object that surrounded me beginning to crumble. While I stretched, my eyes still tightly closed, I tried to take notice of just what it was I was stretching.

Arms! Two of them! They were kind of short; I doubted whether they could reach even as far as the top of my head.

My head? Yes! I had a head! And… on my head… There were points at the top of my head; five of them, if I wasn't mistaken, forming a circle around it. These points stretched too, bending more outward until they were mostly upright but slanting away from each other. They had been folded down over the top of my head, the edges all touching, but that was only because whatever it was that was surrounding me had been pressing down on them.

Ever since that brightness had appeared, the thing surrounding me had been breaking away at the slightest touch. I felt the main part of my body stretch, but it was not so large that it would break out.

My head was free, as were my arms. My body was still enclosed (though not uncomfortably). Finally, my two feet forced their way out beneath me, where they found a firm surface beyond the crumbly substance through which they were emerging, that formerly impenetrable shell that had held me captive in a world of perpetual darkness when what I really wanted was to be Out There.

Another sound: a sharp intake of breath from both of the someThings. I opened my eyes slowly, afraid that the bright light would blind me again, but to my surprise the intense glow had vanished. I was able to see… I was finally Out There! And… in front of me… they must be the someThings that I had been hearing. They were staring at me, so I stared back at them, blinked, and tilted my head to one side.

"Wow!" said the taller someThing. This one had the lower-pitched voice.

"Aww… What a cutie…" said the other someThing. I don't know why, but for some reason I thought that this was the one that I liked better of the two.

The taller someThing turned to look at the other and said harshly, "No, you can't have it! This one is mine and you know it!"

The shorter someThing's face changed color, to a slightly redder shade, as it looked down. "I didn't say I wanted him…"

"Yeah, well, I know you were thinking it! You have to wait another year, and then maybe you'll get one of your own."

"What do you mean maybe?‼ I'm turning ten next year, of course I'll get one!"

"You never know." The tall one smirked snidely. I was beginning to dislike this one more and more.

It was hard for me to tell because it was still facing downward, but it looked like the shorter one's eyes were suddenly very wet. "Pppppi?" I asked it what was wrong.

It looked up at me and wiped its face with its hand, then said, "Hello, little fella."

I blinked confusedly. That didn't answer my question.

"See? It likes me better!" The taller someThing said brusquely. "It doesn't wanna talk to you!"

Now I was even more confused; what this someThing just said made absolutely no sense to me. It leaned toward me, placed its hands on the raised platform I was on, and said, "I'm your trainer. People call me Don C."

I blinked. The shorter someThing had spoken, but this one only made sounds. Strange sounds, like some different language. I tried to repeat the last part of what it had just said in an attempt to convey to it that I didn't understand. "To ge?"

For some reason this made the someThing smile broadly. "Hah! Did you hear that? My Togepi practically said my name!"

"I guess 'To Ge' is his name for you then, huh bro?" the shorter one commented, looking at the taller someThing now but talking quietly, sort of sadly even. Turning to me, it said, "I'm Liza B."

"Toei-te Pi," I repeated the name. It was somewhat difficult for me to say, but at least I understood it better than what the taller one said; if the shorter someThing hadn't said that my name for the taller one was 'To Ge' I wouldn't have known that what the taller one had been saying to me was its name.


A/N: I apologize if this was a bit confusing, but to be perfectly honest I didn't expect anyone to really get it… You see, this is an offshoot of my Pokémon-based novel/series which will NEVER be posted here unless Satoshi Tajiri himself tells me I can't publish it for real! I fully intend to ask him directly, in person if possible, for permission to make it an official Pokémon story. The only reason I'm putting this up is that it doesn't fit into the main storyline; I can't think of anywhere that it could go. All I'll say is that one of the characters here is a throwaway character with minimal influence on the plot.

*to self* Then again, *mutters a different character's name indistinctly* was originally intended to be a throwaway and yet ended up being a major character…

*notices you still reading* Don't ask for anything else, because I won't tell you! *pouts, turning away, arms crossed*

2/5/2013 – Minor edit, most likely none of you will notice it; I just had to come back and change it so Togepi's names for the humans are capitalized. ;)