"Look at that. Isn't it beautiful? Such a great looking place. If only we can go visit. Too bad we're stuck here. This island may be big, but it still feels small.""So, still having difficulties with your father? Well, don't be upset. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have met. He's only doing what he thinks is best."
"Anyways, I think it's time to head back. It's starting to get dark. ...You want to look one last time? Ok, but make it quick, I don't want to get in trouble for being out here when it's dark."
"...You're getting pretty close to the edge, don't you think you should be a little more careful? I feel worried with you-"
"LANCE!"
A Riolu bolted awake. He had been lying next to a small pond in a clearing in what seemed to be a forest. Trees surrounded him, gently rustling in the wind, and rays of sunlight shined through the leaves. He sat up. He was aching all over. The Riolu groaned.
"Oww…What happened? I remember a voice…it called me Lance...and it said stuff about my father, and a place...but, I can't remember anything else. I'm not even sure I have a father...well, I guess I do know my name is Lance." He looked around.
"Well, as much as I ache, I can't just lay here. I need to find someplace safe." Slowly rising to his feet, he slowly walked into the surrounding forest.
The forest seemed normal on the outside, but on the inside, it seemed to form into a maze. He wondered if he should turn back.
"But that won't get me anywhere. So, guess I'm going in." He said to himself. He then walked further into the forest. For awhile, everything was peaceful. The trees were rustling, and the sun was lighting patches of the forest ground, giving it a calming atmosphere. However, he soon saw something in the distance: A small acorn, with legs and eyes. It didn't seem to see him. Lance slowly walked up towards it.
"Umm...Hello there." The acorn turned to face him. Lance felt uneasy as it looked at him. It stared at him with unmoving eyes. "Do you know the way to a town, or anything similar?"
It continued staring at him. It then started walking towards him. Lance slowly backed away, having a bad feeling about this. The acorn continued making its way towards him, rather slowly. Lance turned around and ran in the opposite direction of the seed, into another part of the forest. He eventually stopped, hardly standing the aching in his legs now. Leaning against a tree, he knew he couldn't linger long before the acorn came back, or any other thing in the forest. He slowly started walking again further into the maze.
"How long does this go for?" He thought to himself. "I can't tell if I'm making progress or I'm walking around in a big circle." He turned a corner, and saw another walking acorn.
"Not again!" He turned around to run the opposite direction, and saw a small purple rat with big teeth behind him.
"Darn! Wait, they're short. I can jump over either one of them without having to confront them in any way if I'm fast enough." He started running towards the acorn, and when he was fairly close to the thing, jumped over it. He soared over it, but his aching legs couldn't stick the landing, and he tumbled to the ground. The two creatures were slowly approaching him. He tried to get back up, but his legs were too sore and tired and he collapsed back onto the ground.
Suddenly, a green energy ball flew past him, and hit one of the two creatures, the rat, sending it out and knocking it out. Looking up, Lance saw a four legged yellow creature, with red eyes, an odd leaf necklace-like thing, and a leaf that looks like it had been gnawed off of.
Another green energy ball formed in front of the newcomer, and fired at the remaining creature, sending it flying and knocking it out as well. It then slowly walked up to him. The Riolu covered his head, unable to do anything else against it.
"Oh, are you alright?" The thing asked. It sounded like a female. Lance looked up at her.
"Well, I ache all over my body, and my legs are too weak for me to stand up..." The plant creature closed her eyes, and pink waves of energy pulsed out of her, which washed over him. His aches slowly faded away, a warm, relaxing feeling washing over him. The plant creature then extended a vine towards him.
"Here, let me help you up." Lance grabs it, and she pulls him up to his feet. "Thanks!" The Riolu says to her.
"No problem!" She paused. "Say, may I ask why you're silver? And have blue eyes? I've seen a Riolu before, but they don't look like that." Lance tilted his head.
"I'm a Riolu? What's that?" The plant gave him a surprised look.
"You don't know what your own species is? Where do you live?"
"Well, I don't remember." The Riolu said. "All I remember is talking to someone, and then they shouted out my name, and then I woke up, aching all over."
"Ah." She seemed to be thinking. "Well, if you can't remember where you live, then why not come live in the nearby village with me and my parents for a bit, until you remember where you live? Maybe we can get you enrolled in the village school as well. Summer vacation is almost over, it would be the perfect time. If you can't remember anything by the time school starts, it might be a good idea." Lance, not really having anywhere else to go at the moment, nodded.
"Yeah, that would be nice."
The plant creature smiled. "Aright, follow me then." She started walking through the forest, and Lance followed close behind.
"Oh, by the way, my name is Malen. I'm what is known as a Bayleef. What's your name?"
"My name is Lance, I believe." He replied, as they made their way through the forest.
"That's a pretty nice name. Anyways, good thing I found you. This place is quite dangerous if you aren't prepared for it." Another rat creature appeared, which Malen easily defeated with another energy ball.
"Hey, Malen, how are you able to do that?" Lance asks.
"Oh, well, I was able to learn the move by using a Technical Machine, or TM for short. I got the TM as a gift. How exactly the process works is kinda hard to explain. Anyways, it seems like we're almost there." She pointed towards a clearing ahead. "That's where Lush Town is. Now, don't worry about the Pokémon there. They are all friendly, and will not attack you. I know you're probably a little on edge since you woke up here in this mystery dungeon, but I can assure you, it's perfectly safe."
They soon arrived in the village. There was several Pokémon, as Malen called them, walking around. Most of them were adults, but there were a few children, mostly with their parents as they talked to each other. Small, round buildings were scattered around the village, with one big building located near the top of the village.
"So, let's find my parents. They should be somewhere out here..." She walked up to a black and purple bat-looking Pokémon. She was talking to a smaller bat, one mostly purple, but also had some black parts on it. She also had big yellow eyes.
"Hey, miss Quai?" She said to the bigger bat. "Have you seen either of my parents around?" The bigger bat, Quai, turned around to face the two.
"Oh, your parents? Well, I believe I saw your father heading towards the school. Your mother was talking with other villagers."
Malen nodded. "Ah, thank you." Quai looked at Lance.
"So, who's this? He certainly is a odd color." Malen glanced at the Riolu.
"His name is Lance. And we don't know why he's colored like that. I found him in the forest, and he can't remember much but his name and a few other things. So he'll be staying with me in the meantime, if my parents are ok with it." Malen then bid her farewell, and headed towards the large building, Lance following close behind.
"You'll like my dad. He's very kind and wise." Malen said, looking back at him. They walked through the entrance, which was shaped like a big half-oval, with no door. Inside, there was a big, empty room, with a window in the back. Two smaller rooms were on either side of the big room, both with the same opening as the main entrance. Malen looked around a bit.
"It feels like it has been forever since I have been here. So, my dad should be in here..." She walked into the room to the left, Lance following. A Pokémon was in the room, looking at some papers at a desk. He was pink, with a red and white frill around his neck, and a odd shell like-hat on his head. He looked up and saw the two.
"Oh, hello there Malen. How are you today?" He had a kind warm smile on his face. Malen returned the smile.
"I'm good. How are you dad?"
"I'm pretty good." He replied. "I'm just going through some old drawings from previous students." He chuckled. "Anyways, who's that?" He looked at Lance.
"He's Lance." Malen said. "Someone who I found in the forest. He has hardly any memories of himself, and doesn't know where he lives. I was hoping that he could stay with us, maybe enroll here, if his memories don't come back by then." The pink Pokémon walked over to him.
"Well, he seems like he won't cause much trouble. Would you like to stay with us?" Lance nodded. "Arighty. Let me just notify your mother Malen, make sure she's ok with having him over." Malen's dad then closed his eyes. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes back up. "She's also ok with having him stay. So, what is your name?"
"Lance." The Riolu responded.
"Ah. Well, it's nice to have you stay with us. Anyways, Malen, why don't you show him around Lush Town? Maybe get to know his soon to be classmates?" Malen nodded.
"Sure! Come on Lance, there's quite a bit of people to meet." She ran outside, and Lance followed her.
"You know, you've been awfully quiet. Is everything alright?" Malen said to him.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He responded.
"Ok. Now, where to go first..." Before they could go anywhere, the little bat from earlier walked up to them.
"Hi!" She squeaked. "I'm Tia! Who are you? Oh, wait, you're called Lance, right? You look so cool!" As she was talking, she walked closer to him. "Are you going to live with Mr. Noviet? He's such a cool person! I heard he teaches at the school. I can't wait to go to school!" She was right in front of him, looking up at his face. Malen giggled.
"Lance, if you feel fine with it, maybe you could hang out a bit with Tia. I want to tidy up my room a bit and talk with my mother before you come stay with us." Lance thought about it a bit. Tia looked at the two.
"Sure, I'm ok with it." Tia looked back up at him happily.
"Alright, see you later Lance." Malen walks off. The tiny bat started talking again.
"So, you're new here, right? Let me show you around! Or, did Malen already show you around?"
"No, she didn't." Lance replied.
"Oh, great! Follow me!" She started to walk towards a house. Lance followed.
"Hey, why don't you fly? Isn't it easier for you?" He said, noting her slow speed.
"Well, thing is, I can't really fly yet. Even though I'm twelve." She looked a bit sad. "It's kinda hard. Maybe it's because I'm a bit chubby. But, I'll fly someday!" She stops at one of the houses near the edge of the village. "This is my house! Not much special about it. In fact, all of the houses here are kinda… dull. They all look the same. This whole place is dull really. I wish I could go outside of this forest and see the rest of the world. But, parents say I have to at least graduate school before then." She sighed, then perked up again. "Anyways, next house!" She walks over to another nearby house.
"This house belongs to Kayu and her parents. Kayu is a Ralts, and a nerd. She probably already knows a lot of what we're gonna learn in school." She starts to move over to the next house, but suddenly, the two heard shouting coming from the nearby forest. "Shouting? Should we go check it out?"
"We should, it could be someone in trouble." Lance said. They headed towards the forest.
Inside the section of the forest the shouting was coming from, there were three Pokémon. One had a big yellow scale on its head that looked like a heart, another looked like a blue ball with legs, with five green leaves on top, and the last one, which was standing across from the two, was green, with red eyes, black markings under its eyes, and had a red stomach, and looked rock hard. None of them seemed to notice Lance.
"I don't understand why you protect her. She's just a puny and ugly weed." The green Pokémon said. The blue Pokémon was shaking a bit.
"Would you quit bullying people?!" The heart scaled Pokémon shouted at the green Pokémon.
"Why don't you make me then?"
Tia finally caught up to Lance. "Oh, they're fighting again..." She said quietly to him. "That Pokémon, the green one, I dunno what his name is, he moved in not too long ago. He bullies everyone he can, but no one seems to do anything about it. At least, not the adults." Suddenly, there was more shouting, as the heart scaled Pokémon and the green Pokémon started fighting each other. They kicked, bit, and scratched at each other. The blue Pokémon started crying, and Tia looked at Lance. "What should we do? Someone is gonna get hurt!"
Lance thought quickly, and ran up to the two. He tried to push the two apart. "Stop fighting!" However, they continued fighting. Before he could make another attempt, something hard hit him in the head, and the world around him quickly grew dark, and then completely black.
(I would like to thank you, the reader, for reading this far into this story. Being my first work of fanfiction, or my first work of anything really, I am quite nervous to see how people like it. I do not know if everyone goes through that stage of thinking that their work is going to be garbage at the beginning, but I will hopefully get over it, and write more and more, and get better at it. Anyways, I love any advice that could help me make my story neater, so if you see something messy or sloppy, like the manner of how paragraphs are spaced, or I repeat something too much, or anything of the sort, please let me know how I could improve it. I really appreciate it.)