Author's Notes

Hello, Everyone. This is Hyperjade.

This is not the initial message at the beginning of book one of my story. The Absolite chronicles has grown so much since I began this. Book two is nearing the word count that book one ended with, and it is nowhere near completion yet. So, I am going to be reintroducing this series in this A/N.

So welcome, everyone. The Absolite Chronicles: Book One: Change. This story started all of my writing that I do today. And looking back on it, it had quite a few errors and other issues. The story itself cannot be edited too much, so occasionally, between work on my more prevalent chapters of the present, I will be working on the critical errors of this story.

Welcome, one and all, to book one. I hope you enjoy this story. If you catch it in the middle of the editing progress, absolutely nothing will be different aside from grammar fixing and punctuation fixing. So if it seems alright for a while while you read and then you find that said grammar and punctuation drops in quality, I have not fixed that chapter yet, and intend to.

Thank you for being here, reading my work. I encourage you to read on, read this story, and the other stories that I own. My pride and joy in my work is the fact that I have created something that you can enjoy if you wish. And the fact that all of my stories are interconnected with one another is only a fraction of why I love writing.

So enjoy the story. Please, review when you finish, and tell me what you have thought of it. It means a lot to me to know how other people like it. Have a nice day, one and all. Welcome... To The Absolute Chronicles.

some clarification: italic = thoughts, and bold = emphasis. ...Aside from the bold of the A/Ns. The bold here is for the purposes of easily differentiating the story and the A/Ns.

The Absolite Chronicles

Book 1: Change

Chapter 1: Pokemon

⽯ Caleb's POV ⽯

I was asleep, I think. I am not exactly sure. I could have woken due to the sudden chill that struck right down to my bones, but it also could have been a dream. I had lain down in my bed; an unkempt item that I have not bothered to wash too well in recent times. My mother helped me with that, prompting me to give her the dirty laundry, including the bed sheets. My mother is kind and generous, as is my father. I love them both very much. Personally, I think they go too easy on me. I do chores, schoolwork, and work for boy scouts in an attempt to get my eagle rank, which I am very close to. But the place I had just woken in was not home. My bed was gone, and the floor was solid, unwelcoming. Many sharp materials seemed to be jutting out of the ground underneath me at different angles. It was curious that I awoke, I thought, as there does not seem to be an alarm clock anywhere near me at the moment. Usually, only a noise like that could get me up in the morning. Yet, five seconds later, I found the source of my line pulling me to the surface of consciousness.

"That", said a voice, "is a terrible place to nap"

I did not react to the new potential source of information. I pretended, in fact, as though I was still asleep. I waited for the new, distinctly female voice to speak again. Perhaps she was responsible? or perhaps she just found me here. The latter, I decided, was more likely considering her comment on how I had found a bad place to "nap". I don't take naps. I may now, actually… I feel terrible.

This observation struck a chord with me. I searched my physical anatomy for feeling, and got something I had not expected. I was tired, but I was not registering any pain. This did not explain the fact that my shape felt… broken somehow. for one thing, my arms and legs seemed to be the same length. and facing the same direction. Also, they seemed to feel similar in form. I also noted the fact that my legs felt no strain from the position they were facing: straight out.

"Will you wake up anytime soon, or should I force you up?", the voice said pleasantly.

Force me? Hang on a minute

I began to feel other things. My head, which I should have paid attention to first really, felt VERY different. There was a weight between my head and the ground, and I took the liberty of shuddering to find out if there was an issue with it. There definitely was. My head was held in place on the ground by something, I just could not figure out what it was. I could not feel my ears, and I felt a weight on my forehead and chest.

"Finally waking up, sleepyhead? You must regret sleeping on your right side now, silly. That horn of yours must be completely buried. What, you fell asleep on the spot or something? You get hit with a hypnosis?"

Hypnosis? I thought. Then I registered "sleepyhead", and "silly", and frowned. It took five whole seconds to register what make me shudder again.

HORN?!

I tried to fight down a previously rare wave of absolute panic, I searched my physical self again. With barely controlled panic I registered what I should have noticed five minutes ago.

I am not human anymore.

I tried to stop freaking out. Panicking would get me absolutely nowhere, but I dismally failed to calm myself. It was past time to stop collecting information. I had to fix whatever issue caused this change in location and species. I tried to scramble up, but I was stuck fast in the ground by my head, specifically a "horn", if that's what it was. I opened my eyes slowly. there, peering down at me, was a very odd dog-like animal with a slightly feline face. It had what looked like a stone in its head, and a very obvious sickle-like growth on the right side of its head. Its claws looked menacing, and it appeared very nimble. I saw a dark shape directly behind it, that, from my angle, was barely visible. A tail of sorts, except it looked like a scythe. A very menacing creature in appearance, and then I noticed its color.

I am not normally affected by color in the act of assessing danger, but the fact that the creature I was looking at had bright red skin, and its fur, though clearly white, had some pink as well affected my normal caution. Its eyes were bright blue and rather cute, really. Those eyes looked very innocent, like some puppy you just HAD to pick up because it was so dang cute. Those eyes calmed me, made me think that it was safer.

the animal seemed to be laughing at me. "Do you need help? Or should I keep watching you struggle. Your choice."

Not so innocent. I struggled to get up again and looked rather pitiful in the process. "Some assistance would be nice", I replied, noticing how deep my voice sounded. I was too busy panicking about my recent relocation to notice that this creature had just talked to me. I might have said something more, but the female creature walked over to me, grabbed what was likely my own fur, and yanked me out of the ground. Too hard, actually, as I was sent right over to my left side, smashing into the ground.

ow.

I now tried to struggle to my feet, only to realize that getting to my feet in this form was not going to happen easily, as I had been human previously, and did not have the instincts to use my now dog-like form properly. The only reason I could get up at all is remembering how my dog at home got up: I rolled onto my belly and pushed myself up. I was now at exactly this creature's eye level and figured I must be the same species as her now. Having been lost in these thoughts, I had failed to recognize the fact that she was still talking.

"-Really, you don't want to just sleep on a bed of sharp crystals like that. You get cut up that way, even with that strange armor on your chest. Oh, look, you are. I think I have something for that. By the way, why are you just sleeping right next to the entrance of the Crystal Crossing mystery dungeon? Here."

At that, she seemed to produce an odd blue fruit out of nowhere. On closer inspection, I saw a bag on her side, not unlike a horse saddlebag. She likely carried things around like that all the time. The fruit looked interesting. I might have called it a massive tomato, but it was blue, and the stem piece it was broken from was much thicker, like a small pumpkin's. At the sight of it, my stomach growled very loudly. The female creature heard it loud and clear. Laughing, she pushed the fruit over to me. "Have this Oran berry", she said, "you will want to heal up those cuts before you go anywhere."

"Thank you", I muttered in my new deep voice, unsure of how this could possibly qualify as a berry. realizing my new paws were useless here, I went ahead and ate it dog style. It felt very awkward, and I was eating it slowly. I had not realized how hungry I was, and I found that in my haste I had eaten the stem as well. The female said nothing, which must have meant I was not doing anything out of the ordinary. I guess the stems are perfectly edible. The "Oran berry" had a sweet taste, similar to an apple really. My stomach growled again.

"When did you last eat?" the female asked.

"last night, 6:30 pm," I said. "it doesn't make much sense. I am not usually this hungry this soon." suddenly, I noticed how incredibly rude I was being to this kind (uh... person? animal?) who had just got me unstuck from the ground, and simultaneously fed me and healed the small scratches on my right side. "I apologize, I have not asked your name."

"Well, my name is Absol," she said, "but if you want it to be easier, you should try to come up with a nickname for me"

Now, this confused me. "A nickname? why can't I just call you Absol?"

Absol laughed at me. "Don't be silly, all Absol have the same name. That's why you should create a nickname for me"

I blinked. "what?". this earned me a laugh from Absol. "Hang on, let me work this out. You are trying to tell me that your name is your species name? And that is why I need to make a nickname for you.

"Yep," Absol said.

"wouldn't you already have a nickname from your other friends?" I wondered.

She looked down at her feet. "not so easy without friends" she murmured.

No friends? She seems too nice for that.

"Fine. here we go…". I then realized that I was very bad at making names. Instead, I just pulled a female name from somewhere in my memory. "I will call you Sarah," I said. "Does that work for you?"

"That's a great nickname!" Sarah said "so what should I call you then, Absol? or should I just call you by your name?" she was teasing me, and it felt odd the way she did it. The way her eyes never left my face. The manner of which she was speaking.

"Caleb" was all I said.

"As your nickname?"

"As my name," I stated firmly.

Sarah studied me, and again it appeared as though it was more than simple calculation. She wants something from me, I thought. I could not figure out what. Sarah laughed again. "Alright, Caleb. Fine. What is it with you? You grow up out of the system or something? What's up with the armor?".

"Something like that" I replied, again only hearing half of what was said until seconds after. I looked down at the 'armor' on my chest, like a large metal plate wrapped around my chest and back. A part of it had a circle carved into it; the very front. In the center of that circle was a small green stone with an image I could not see clearly at my angle. That puzzled me, but I let it go for the moment. Looking over and taking in the large entrance in the wall of crystals. I needed to change the topic. "Where would that go?"

"That entrance goes to crystal crossing," Sarah said. "You don't want anything to do with that place. I already told you what it is." I had not been paying attention at the time, but it sounded important. I would ask for details later. "Come along, Caleb, we should get to a safer place. My home is there, and so are the homes of many other Pokemon in the area."

I followed her across the room, starting to pay attention to the fact that the entire cave seemed to be made of beautiful crystals of all sorts of colors. I had a new question in mind:

What does "Pokemon" mean?

After some overview, I tweaked this first chapter based on fixing errors and in response to some good advice I received for how to fix the first chapter (Thanks, Vryheid!). For all newcomers, welcome to my story, The Absolite Chronicles: Book one: Change. Chapters in the future are longer, and in my opinion, better. Enjoy the story to come, readers! And Thank you all for reading.