In the files of my late uncle, Ignatius Rockfeld, an unusual manuscript was found among his belongings in his residence at 816 Spinarak Lane, in Blackthorn City, of the Johto region, when he was reported missing on April 12th, 1879 and his house searched.
I, being the closest relative of my uncle Ignatius, as he left behind no spouse or children, have received these documents and am publishing them as a warning to the general public. I believe every word written in these pages and feel it is my duty to warn Pokemon kind. The following is a reprinting of the strange manuscript. I have not changed a single word of the contents. Everything is exactly as I received it.
The most damning piece of evidence, however, is not the manuscript itself, but a photograph enclosed with it. The police say they had never seen the image before and most assuredly did not add it to the parcel sent to me of my uncle's belongings. This photograph, in addition to the manuscript, is what makes me believe my uncle's words to be true and motivated me to publish this article.
C. H. Rockfeld
June 30th, 1879
Olivine City, Johto
Manuscript enclosed.
I'm writing this account under an immense mental and emotional strain; and I am at the end of my supply of the drug that alone sustains my life. Please do not think that my dependency on potions has made me weak, or some sort of degenerate! There is ...something... following me, and I am compelled to write down all that I know about my present situation before I am ... no more. If these pages are found after my demise, I want it to be known that the following statement is, and should be accepted as the absolute truth no matter what the circumstances are surrounding my death: I did not take my own life, and I did not go down on that ship!
While I know not what good it will do after I am gone, I say again, I am compelled to write down all that I have experienced. The enclosed manuscript describes my story in as complete detail as I can recall in my present state and condition.
Ignatius Rockfeld
April 3rd, 1879
Blackthorn City, Johto
Manuscript enclosed.
It was in a remote and unfrequented part of the Johto ocean where the naval fleet I was serving in fell victim to a massive storm that split my party up. We lost a lot of good pokemon in that storm. Our vessel was overturned in the black, merciless, gargantuan waves. I have no knowledge of what happened to my comrades in the water, myself being of the Charizard species, I was forced to take flight when it was certain we were going to sink. Going in the water is certain death for my kind.
My immediate priorities were in self-preservation, flying in a storm over a large open body of water with an exposed tail flame is treacherous work. Any mistake could result in sudden death, and the chances for exiting this situation alive were slim to none as they stood already. In my mad dash away from the sinking vessel, dodging waves and flying as fast as my wings could carry me, I became completely, hopelessly, and utterly lost.
With no visible landmarks and thick, menacing black storm clouds covering the sky, I could gain no sense of direction. My only option was to fly in a straight line, as best as I could manage in the circumstances, for as long as I could muster even an ounce of strength from my muscles and draw breath from my lungs.
I must have flown over one hundred miles without even the faintest sighting of land. My strength was greatly waning, my muscles burned and ached, and my tail flame was dangerously low. These were my last thoughts before I saw a brilliant flash and everything went black. Recollecting my thoughts as I write this, I realize now that I must have been struck by lightning. When I returned to the world of consciousness I experienced the most profound shock upon discovering that I was still alive, only to be followed by another, even more shocking revelation: I had awoken on land.
While I should have been greatly relieved to be alive, seemingly unharmed, and all in one piece, in reality I was terrified. I had been half-sucked into an expanse of hellish, black myre and the air was thick with the stench of rotting sea creatures. Their corpses littered the ground, with bones jutting up from the black muck like pikes. The whole scene held a dark and sinister quality that chilled me to the very bone.
Examining my immediate surroundings, I could not see any water nor hear the sounds of the ocean no matter how hard I strained my eyes and ears. There were no critters to prey upon the dead things, I say "things" because most of the forms strewn about the landscape were unknown to the modern world. I was completely alone, and all was deadly silent, and I firmly believe that silence contributed in no small part to my growing fears and anxiety.
I sat thinking and brooding for hours until my thirst and hunger motivated me to explore my surroundings further while I still had some daylight left to aid my search. Luckily my tail flame had returned to it's normal state of brilliance, so a night time journey would not be out of the question. By this time the ground had dried sufficiently enough to traverse without a quicksand effect, so I decided to conserve my energy and travel by foot.
There was no vegetation to speak of, so I decided to take my chances and made a meal out of any half-identifiable fish I could find. The carcuses were plentiful enough that finding a meal was not very difficult, but my search for water left me wanting. A full belly of fish fueled my search for water over a vast swathe of strange land. I walked for miles and flew over the more periless landscapes. The gibbous moon was high in the sky when the unmistakable glint of water finally caught my eye while I was flying over a monstrously large canyon, that, at first glance, was naught but a pit of black for unknown fathoms down.
Thirst and instinct drove me to dive down without caution, and before I could reach the desperately needed, life-preserving water, something bright and stark against the darkness of the canyon walls caught my attention and stopped me dead in-flight. Each new revelation on this island filled me with dread, unlike any I had ever known in my life and 8 years of military service. Unprecedented in this wasteland, standing hundreds of feet tall and glinting whitely in the moonlight was a colossal stone monolith that was positively ancient in appearance, yet exquisite in detail and workmanship. I could plainly see depictions of common water pokemon; there were Tentacool, Magikarp, Remoraid, and Chinchou, and the well-known ancients, Kabuto, Omanyte, and all of their respective evolutions, to name a few. Also, amongst the known figures were whole hosts of unknown figures, not seen before by any living person or pokemon, but whom laid about, dead, all over the island.
The hieroglyphs seemed to be telling a story that continued across all of its three sides. On the side that I happened to be on, one carving stood out against the rest: it was massive in proportion to the other drawings and looked very similar to a Wailord, but much larger and thinner, with great, long, powerful side fins and the entire length of its body was covered in weird tribal markings that were mimicked in several of the other pictures. I decided to land near the vicinity of the monolith and have a drink first, as I was very parched still, before I would continue on with my examination.
I landed on a side of the monolith that I could not see from the air. On this side, there was another great carven figure near the top, in the same place as the strange Wailord-like creature, yet vastly different in appearance. The figure depicted here was some sort of cross between a snake and a dragon pokemon; it's body was segmented and finned, it had two small arms in what might be called the torso of the creature, and finally it was covered in the same strange tribal markings seen on the first creature on the other side. And when I landed on the ground, I could tell that there was land extending to the third, unseen side.
For a moment, I need to pause my account and interject a few of my thoughts. By the time of this writing, I have come to the conclusion that this island must have popped into existence out of no where, an abrupt land upheaval that was most probably brought on by the storm that sank my vessel. I assertain that these ruins must not have seen the light of day for hundreds of thousands of years, or possibly even longer. It would be the archeological find of the century if only my story could end here.
To continue, I said before that I decided to have a drink before inspecting my discovery any further. Quickly, I clambered over to the still water and drank my fill. Then, all of a sudden, the water started to stir. Next, I heard a loud thudding against the solid ground. "Thud, thud, thud, thud," the sound fell in pairs and became louder and louder. I was no longer alone, and the unseen thing was coming toward me.
It came by the land side of the monolith, a cyclopean monstrosity words could never justly describe. Of what I can tell you, it was saurion in appearance, mostly red in color, with black tribal markings not found in nature, but very similar to those on the monolith. It stood upright and had two thick, powerful arms, at the end of which were long, razor-sharp claws that appeared as if they were made of shining steel.
I scrambled into a rocky outcropping and hid myself from view of the beast. Ever so slightly, I poked my head out from the rocks and peered at the intruder. I don't think that the thing saw me, as it was walking straight toward the stone monolith with unrelenting pace. I sat and watched with bated breath as the monster strolled right up to the unseen side of the stone monolith and when it was upon it, the massive reptilian thing flung it's giant clawed arms around it, bowed its head, and gave vent to certain, measured sounds. It... It looked like it was praying! While this creature of nightmare prayed to it's ancient esoteric monolith, the black markings on its scaley body... glowed, and not just on the monster, but the markings on the monolith lit up as well! I think, I went mad, then.
In my insanity, I must have disturbed the creature in it's sacred ritual. I might have screamed, and I distinctly remember singing and laughing uncontrollably while I was fleeing from that hellish fiend. But what exactly I did first to disturb the thing so badly I do not know; I do, however, unfortunately, remember what happened next: I was attacked. It seemed to happen so fast I didn't have time to react. My entire body was frozen and betrayed all of my commands to turn tail and fly away as fast as I could. But before I could move a single muscle, it was upon me! A giant steel claw was crashing down on me, permanently injuring my eye. The searing pain brought my body back under my control and I flew as fast as I could away from the giant. The thing chased after me with claws and teeth ever slicing the air just behind me.
My plan of action was to get back to the ocean, to out run it. Maybe it couldn't follow me off land, or perhaps, the transition from a chase on land to one at sea would afford me just enough time to distance myself from the creature. While I was planning my escape, I must have let my concentration slip from the matter at hand: flying away from the monster, and that's when it got me.
A whirlwind rush of blinding pain shot through my whole body as I fell from the sky. Desperately beating my wings, I tried to regain altitude but something was severely wrong. I craned my neck behind me and was devastated by what I saw: the monster hot on my heels, and one of my wings had been completely ripped off with nothing but tatters and empty space left where it once was attached to my body. I thought that I was moments from death; and in every scenario that played out in my head I knew that I was going to die, but, shear primal instinct determined that I would only part with my life at the highest price that I could command. With all my might and my one good wing, I flew a paltry ten or so meters above the ground and looked around frantically for a spot to hide and lose the monster. I dove like a rock at the first opportunity and scrambled into a small cave where the titan thing could not follow.
Running for my life, I went as deep as I could into the cave, soon discovering a massive hub of underground caverns that were capable of taking one all over the island without the need to surface. I have survived down here for days, perhaps weeks, badly injured and unable to leave this nightmare island. I've passed the time by writing this manuscript, using writing supplies that I had in my military pack from before my vessel went down, and knowing full well it may never be read by anyone. Nevertheless, writing down my story has aided and steadied my mind, and so I keep writing for my own good more than any other reason.
The monster has been hunting me. I hear it roar and feel the ground shake when it's near. At times, I swear on all that I hold sacred, there is more than one terrible voice roaring out there.
Wait. I hear it now. The roaring! There IS more than one! They are close! Have they found me?!
The manuscript ends here. The handwriting of the last paragraph is quickly and shakily scrawled with droplets of blood near the bottom of the page. The following is the mysterious photograph found with the manuscript, both of which, obviously, could not have been delivered by my uncle's hand, and the photo only appeared after I had received the original parcel from the police.
Make what you will of these accounts, but at least I can rest easily at night feeling that I have done my duty to the public and my, presumably, late, uncle, Ignatious.
C. H. Rockfeld
June 30th, 1879
Olivine City, Johto
Photograph enclosed.