Disclaimer – I don't own Pokemon. This is an AU where Ash has a twin sister.
Ashley Ketchem – Chapter 1: Prolog
"Have you ever wanted to go on an adventure simply to get away from the stifling everything that made up your life?" asked the Pokemon from the shadows. If Ashley were to answer, the answer would be yes. She really did want to get away from the shrine, but she would never, ever let her grandmother catch her saying such a thing.
"Have you ever thought that there was a world outside that you wished to go and explore and find out more about, but people were keeping you from discovering it?" Ashley wasn't sure of this answer, as she'd never stepped across the archway of the shrine, and yet she knew the curiosity was there, deep down, to see if there was anything. Her grandmother though didn't wish for her to leave.
"Have you ever been so sheltered that you wondered what the truth about your own life was about but the one relative that you happened to know simply wouldn't give you the answers you wanted because they were simply to protective and not understanding the fact you were growing up?" Ashley knew this answer would be no, and yet her mind did not know what the future held for her, and that her answer would eventually change.
There comes a time in ones life when one has to make their own decisions and get out and see the world. There has to be a trigger though when one is confined to a place that you rarely saw anyone or anything apart from the occasional Pokémon that happened to travel through the secluded place. The truth was Ashley was in such a situation and didn't know that she was in fact missing anything in life and would watch as these purple rats that she didn't know the name of would wander onto the grounds for Pallet Town's shrine.
The place honestly seemed forgotten and rarely did Ashley see a patron appear in front of her grandmother looking for their prayers to be answered. Nobody believed in shrine gods anymore and that was likely because so much knowledge had been gleaned about how the Pokémon once worshiped as Gods simply were these really powerful creatures that were rare. Her grandmother told Ashley though that there would be repercussions if the people didn't come back and worship the shrine god, but from the distance the girl had over heard the conversation that there was no god.
As the future shrine maiden for the place Ashley lived by her grandmother's rules. She was to speak to no stranger and she was to seek only to please the Pokémon who took care of Pallet Town despite the fact she knew full well none of the people in the town came to worship. She also wasn't to pass the shrine boundaries as nothing good would come of her leaving the place. The place was sacred as was she as the shrine maiden and thus she remained sweeping the steps in her miko outfit while she waited for something to happen. The only companions she had were purple rats and small birds that flew and perched on the roof.
None of them spoke to her, but she had come to know a particular creature that in fact acted as a friend to her and spoke to her through the mind. From the description her grandmother had given her of the shrine god she had the feeling that this was it, except this creature was in fact female and should instead be called a Goddess. The creature was a soft pink with pointed ears and a long tail. About every month or so it would come along and give very vague descriptions of the outside world. The conversations weren't enough to wet her appetite. She didn't mention the creature to her grandmother as she feared her grandmother would abuse its appearance as a reason to bring up the shrine to the old standards her grandmother remembered from when she was a girl.
Her grandmother had not been lucky enough to ever see the creature, something her grandmother said was a blessing to young females before they were married. Sometimes she heard her grandmother mutter about how Ashley's mother had been lucky enough to see it but blew the luck she had by having her child out of wedlock, whatever that meant. She just knew that her mother and grandmother rarely if ever spoke and that her grandmother had fought to have custody of her because her mother was a single mother and had problems. It was a subject that didn't get talked about.
Yet for some reason she knew that there was an outside world waiting for her just as much as she was sure there was something waiting for her other then being the next shrine maiden. If her mother had been the shrine maiden before her and had left and chosen to do something else, then why couldn't she in fact choose to do something else with her life other then being stuck in one spot, becoming bored with the fact nothing ever really happened. Not to mention nobody came to visit the shrine and that meant they really didn't have any reason to practice being mikos anymore.
Of course, her grandmother said that the time when the god would seek its revenge on Pallet Town would eventually come and that she would in fact be needed was the one thing that was keeping her there. But the more she spoke with the pink thing the more she came to think it didn't care about being worshiped. It simply wanted a playmate as much as she did. And then there was the fact it pitied her for being locked up withing the boundaries of the shrine not knowing what an amazing world the outside was, nor how many other kinds there were other then itself and the purple rats and small birds.
If Ashley took one step across the borders though, her grandmother somehow happened to know. It was almost as if the woman had something watching her. The creature that befriended her said it was another one of those creatures that was trained to watch her and keep her protected. Thus she didn't even try to leave despite the fact she wanted to. That, and the outside world was rather in a way scary. What Ashley didn't expect though was for her world to be turned upside down suddenly. Not to mention the fact that her world would change and she would get to go on that adventure she so dreamed of. Among other things.