Hey everyone! I know it's really annoying to have A/Ns at the beginning of a chapter but this is the only chapter where I'll be doing so. This is my first, long time project that I've had in years. I've just come back into writing after having huge writer's block, so this project may not be my best work. I also want to mention that this fic is based off of the Unova region, but I also want to stress that's not really the focus of the fic. IE: pokemon from other regions will be in this fic, there will be "uncharted" locations and settings that aren't on the map. This also takes place after the "game story", so no, say, hypothetical humans in this fic will be the main character of the game, nor any antagonist or minor character. This is all made up from my head. With that in mind, enjoy the story! I'm really enthusiastic about it!
Tonight, the sky was clear. The large, beaming full moon hung high above the horizon. The lake below it hummed quietly with insects, and its soft ripples reflected the moon's light. The lake was surrounded by a clearing of soft, meadow-like grass that swayed gently in the breeze. Tall, looming trees circled around the area, occasionally flickering with light from fireflies who lived in them. There was nothing to disturb this night. Despite the beautiful scenery, no pokemon visited the lake with a full moon. Old legends and wild superstitions told all sorts of rumors about the spirits and shadows that liked to come to life when the moon reached its full cycle. To those creatures, a full moon was like the sun to others, and filled them with life and celebration. It was regarded as an omen of evil to the pokemon around the forest, so they kept away for the whole night, hoping to not run into them.
A few blades of grass quivered, barely touched by small, petite feet. A creature leapt gracefully out into the opening, not making a sound. The moonlight illuminated it; the distinct pink of a Clefable shone like a spotlight on an empty stage. The Clefable had its back turned to the lake, poising with its feet, perfectly still. It beckoned quietly with a digit, its face full of anticipation and excitement. Soon, more Clefable began to leap out from the trees, followed by younger pokemon, such as Clefairy and Cleffa, until a large mass of them gathered around the lake and admired the stars above them. They arranged like a ring around the lake, holding each others hands, and patterned their evolution so no one of the same stage was next to each other.
They all seemed to take it in the glow of the night for a moment, their bodies filling with energy unlike like any other night of the month. As if on cue, the pokemon started to slowly waltz with one another, circling the lake in a dreamy and sleepy pace. They hummed softly, like whispers, into the night sky. They hopped, danced, and glided under the moon. Gradually, the pace began to quicken, their cheers became louder-soon, the pokemon were practically bursting with vitality from the moon. The Clefable danced on the water, gentle enough not to break the surface. Clefairy and Cleffa hopped high into the air, singing and dancing with each other in a melodious tumult. They would dance and sing all night until the moon disappeared over the lake, before bounding back into their homes in the woods and waiting patiently for the next full moon.
However, while the mass of pokemon were celebrating under the moon, there was one pokemon who had been led astray. She was trapped deep in the woods, losing her way under the thick branches of the trees that covered up the moonlight. She could no longer hear the songs from her family. She continued to search frantically through the dark, calling out into the night. With each cry, the small Cleffa realized a little more that she was hopelessly lost.
Cleffa reached a low branch after running and hopping for what seemed like hours. Without the moon in sight, she had no idea where she was, or how to navigate. Her body, which should have been filled with energy, felt depleted as she slowly climbed to rest on the low branch, panting. Misty eyed, she cried out a few more times, getting quieter and quieter when no one responded. Today was supposed to be her first moon gathering. She had only hatched a few weeks ago, and she had never been out in the forest for this long-or had been away from anybody this long. Certain that she would never find her group again, she began to hiccup fearfully, wiping away tears.
Gastly narrowly dodged the Haunters' shadow balls, the wind from the attacks knocking him off balance a little bit as the spheres hit hard against the trees in front of him. He flew around the perimeter of the haunted house where he was born in, trying to shake off his attackers. However, the closer he was to the house, the angrier the Haunters became. A shadow ball slammed into the wood of the house, shattering the planks into splinters. Gastly was forced to make a beeline for the trees to get better distance from the Haunters. He was beginning to lose sight of the house as he switched between fleeing and fighting. Every once in a while he would approach them and use his poisonous tongue to paralyze them. So far, however, this proved to be minimal and ineffective. He knew he was out-matched to them, but he refused to back down, thinking he could eventually defeat them.
Despite being panicked, Gastly snickered at his enemies, lolling out his tongue and glaring at them. That almost cost him to be hit with another shadow ball, but he dodged just in the nick of time. He continued to fly into the forest, expertly swirling around each tree, trying to lose their trail.
"We'll kill you!" One of the Haunters shouted, firing shadow ball after shadow ball. Gastly could feel the trees shake around him. The farther he went, the more blood thirsty the Haunters became.
He didn't know how long the Haunters would chase him. Hopefully just out of the general area of the house so he could find his way back. But his stamina from running and dodging was being exhausted. Gastly thought he could hide in the trees, but all ghost pokemon could see perfectly well in pitch darkness. Gastly slipped into the thicket of the woods, his gassy composure letting him slip between the trunks as the haunters simply phased through them. However, the confusing pattern of the trees disoriented them just long enough for Gastly to hide inside an abandoned bird hole in a tree, trying to make sure his gas didn't leak out and give away his hiding spot.
"Where are you?" one of the Haunters spat, clearly furious and frustrated.
"Should we split up?" the other Haunter asked.
"No," the first one huffed, "the brat is probably hiding in some crevice around here. Look his gas slipping out somewhere."
The two pokemon searched around the trees, eyeing every corner and branch. Gastly had no real control over his body, and all he could do was wish his composure didn't slip out from the bird hole. The pressure from such a small space could spill out his gas. Every once in a while, he could feel the dreadful presence of one of the ghost pokemon, his form shivering from instinct. He hadn't been alive for very long, and he was still getting used to not reacting to the eerie and nightmarish nature of ghost pokemon.
"He probably ran away for good, the coward," one of the Haunters hissed.
"It's common for young pokemon like him," the other added, "to think he can trot around all he likes and start fights without consequences-but he's especially spineless."
Gastly could hardly stop himself from shooting out of the tree hole and showing them both was he was made of. He couldn't stand be berated like that.
"Watch him come crawling back to us the next day," one of the Haunters almost chortled, "begging for forgiveness so he can roam around and act like the house is his."
The Haunters began to float away, muttering to themselves. Gastly, hot tempered and impatient, couldn't hide away from his enemies knowing that they thought he was cowardly. The more he reasoned with himself, the less sure he wanted to stay in his hiding spot. He peered out of the bird hole, and saw the Haunters in the distance. He flew full speed, colliding into one of the Haunters and licked his underbelly with his poisonous tongue, causing the Haunter to jerk in pain. Almost immediately, the second haunter blasted Gastly full force with a shadow ball, knocking him to the forest floor.
"Stupid kid!" The wounded Haunter recovered, ready to fire another shadow ball at him. "Learn your place!"
"Don't waste the energy," the other Haunter began to move out of Gastly's sight. "We went farther than we thought. He won't be finding his way back any time soon."
With one last glare, the other Haunter followed suit, leaving Gastly to writhe in pain. The shadow ball, surprisingly, didn't instantly knock him out or kill him. However, he could hardly focus his eyes on anything. He tried to get his body to levitate, but after several attempts he was unsuccessful. He waited on the ground for minutes, trying to re-orientate himself, before he finally felt his form rise up slowly into the sky. He carefully looked around, trying to get a sense of direction. He had no idea which direction he came from; his surroundings all looked the same. The Haunters were right-he wouldn't be able to make his way back to house.
Cleffa could feel chills crawling up her back as the night went on. She tried to rest on the branch she was sitting on, but every little sound, every little figure beyond the trees jolted her in alarm. She had cried until there were no tears left, and that all remained was fear and uncertainty. She thought that she could wait for dawn and find her way back home in the woods, but dawn was no where near breaking. Weak and unprepared as she was, she feared something would find her, and it would be all over.
Not being able to sit still any longer, Cleffa hopped off the branch and landed quietly on the soft forest floor. Her surroundings looked especially eerie. She couldn't shake the feeling that something else, someone else, was here with her, watching her. To shake off her paranoia, Cleffa chose a random direction and decided to clumsily step through the woods. She tried to cry out again, her voice hoarse from calling for hours. She sincerely wished for anything, any voice, to fill the silence of the forest.
Suddenly, as if a breeze had brought on a chill, Cleffa shivered involuntarily. She hadn't planned on it getting colder. If it continued like this, she'd have to make a fire, exposing herself to dangers even further. The sense of dread grew along with the dropping temperature, and she found herself looking wildly in each direction, almost expecting something to be there. She always felt something was behind her, waiting for her to turn around.
"Who's there?" she squeaked. She kept turning around over and over again, almost going in circles. Her fear spiked as her heart raced. She didn't know any strong physical moves, and could only defend herself with what little strengh she had. Which, to say the least, wasn't much.
"Your worst nightmare," replied a low, gargled voice, directly behind her. She felt a large, slobbery tongue lick up her backside, the saliva stinging her skin and tensing her muscles so they were paralyzed in place.
This time, Cleffa was able to whip around and face her stalker. She was filled with terror, about to scream, when her eyes focused on a small, impish Gastly, sticking its tongue out at her. Her fear was replaced with annoyance. "Owwwww!" she whined, puffing out her cheeks. "That hurt!"
The Gastly snickered obnoxiously, his tongue still lolling out as he bore his two fangs. Cleffa glared at him, rubbing her back to ease the muscles. After a few seconds, the Gastly slowly began to stop laughing. "Wait...You're not scared?"
"Not really," Cleffa replied grumpily, "why did you do that?"
"Wh-" Gastly looked taken aback, almost offended. "Because I was trying to scare you!" He slid his tongue back in his mouth, an annoyed expression forming on his face as well. "You're in the thickest part of the woods! At night!" Gastly rose slightly in the air so he could look down on Cleffa. "You're lucky I'm the only thing you ran into!" he then looked away quickly, looking embarrassed at his last statement.
"I know that," Cleffa whined. "It's not like I wanted to come here all by myself." Cleffa could feel the fear coming back to her, as well as flashbacks to before this all happened. Being safe with her group, ready to dance under the moon and stars... Cleffa felt tears in her eyes as she rubbed her sore back, upset and afraid. Gastly gave her a kind of shocked and concerned look, like he didn't expect her to react this way.
"H...Hey. I mean, I'm sorry I gu-"
"And now I'm lost and away from my family," Cleffa sniffled, her voice cracking, "and I'll never find them by myself, and nothing looks familiar, and I'm small and weak and I don't know how to defend myself, and," she couldn't continue before bursting into tears. They stung her eyes, almost as bad as Gastly's lick stung her back. She tried to wipe them away, but they kept coming. She felt the cold mist of Gastly's form approach her.
"Are you okay...? Are you gonna keep crying or-"
"Buzz off, jerk." Cleffa began to stomp away in a random direction, not like it mattered, before Gastly flew in front of her, his eyes wide and uncharacteristically serious.
"Wait! I-I'm lost too," Gastly blurted out. "I was chased by some pokemon out of my home. I have no idea where I am either," he looked away, sheepish. "I thought I could cheer myself up by scaring someone...But I couldn't even scare a little kid like you."
"Hey-" Cleffa started, ready to start crying again.
"I can't fight for myself, and I can't own up to the mistakes I make. I'm in the same boat you are, I promise." Gastly got closer to her, as if he thought she'd try to walk away. "I-I've got no where to buzz off to."
Cleffa stared at Gastly for a moment, as if analyzing his truthfulness.
"I'm sorry for licking you," Gastly said, "It's not very strong. Your back should be okay in a few minutes." He couldn't look at her, but Cleffa could tell he was being honest.
"You're...lost too?"
"At least until the sun rises and I can go back home without being murdered," Gastly answered sheepishly with a weak smile.
Cleffa tensed at those words. "W-What? Why would you want to go back to a place like that?"
"It's my home!" Gastly insisted, rising up into the air again. "It's where I was born. I can't just turn my back on it just because I got kicked out of it!" Gastly stared intently at Cleffa, who still had tears in her eyes. "And you can't abandon your family just because you're lost! Quit sniveling!"
Cleffa wiped at her eyes as Gastly sunk back down to her level. "But...I don't know how to get home. I can't see in the dark, not without the moon." Gastly looked at her with a puzzled look, like that was the most bizzare thing he had ever heard.
"Well," Gastly looked around for an answer, "we'll just...have to camp out here until the morning."
Cleffa heard his words, but her mind was elsewhere. "Do you think...any of them are looking for me. Or noticed that I'm even gone?" She tried to remember everyone's excitement as the sun set. Everyone told her how glad they would be to have to come along with them for the first time, how much fun she would have.
"You can't think like that," Gastly's tone was softer. "You can worry about that in the morning when you look for them."
Cleffa finally seemed to agree with his words, calming down and putting a small hand to her mouth. "Okay." After a moment of silence, "I guess I should start the fire, huh? You don't...look like you have any hands."
Gastly giggled at that.
The fire crackled softly and Cleffa watched the embers rise up into the sky.
It didn't occur to Cleffa that Gastly was almost entirely made up of non-alive substances, and that he didn't need a fire. He seemed to suck the warmth around him anyway, like he preferred to be cold rather than hot. It was interesting to watch the smoke swirl in with his purple, misty form. It didn't seem to bother him, or that he even noticed it. She wondered how much of his body he was conscious of.
"Fire is so...bright." Gastly squinted his eyes at the flames. He would approach it slowly, fluttering in front of it before jumping back whenever it crackled.
"You've never seen fire before?" Cleffa asked curiously. There were always little camp fires back at her home, or she had seen things catch fire due to storms and lightning. She knew that fire was extremely hot and dangerous, but from a distance, it was very comforting and nice to watch. She wondered if Gastly could even feel the heat from the fire.
"No. I've heard the ghosts at my house talk about it, though. How fire burned out part of the house. I wasn't born yet." Gastly kept staring at the fire. "It must've been so cool," he mused wistfully.
Cleffa still couldn't help but feel uncomfortable when Gastly talked about his home. It didn't seem like anyone wanted him there, and she couldn't let him go back knowing he would be putting his life in danger. "Why did those pokemon even chase you out anyway?"
Gastly looked a little flustered, but rose up in the air to appear more confident. "They over reacted when I...found a part of their territory."
"Oh."
"And like, they started throwing insults and stuff. I couldn't just let them say those things about me, you know?!" Gastly seemed to be working himself up, floating up higher and higher...
"Wait," Cleffa stopped him, "does that mean you threw the first punch? Metaphorically?"
"Only because I was forced to!" Gastly pleaded his innocence with a helpless look, "They were insulting me, Cleffa! What would you have done?"
"To be honest, I probably would have just left them alone," Cleffa had to look up high to see Gastly now. "I'm not very strong."
"Well, I am," Gastly said. "Believe me, I gave 'em what for before I-"
"Ran away," Cleffa giggled.
Gastly floated back down, looking like he was ready to retort sharply. When he couldn't think of anything, he touched the ground and sulked for a few moments.
After a few seconds of silence, Cleffa asked "If those pokemon chased you out of the house, does that mean you...kind of live alone? Isn't that...lonley?"
Gastly just grunted. "That's how it's always been, I guess."
"Well," Cleffa was staring at the fire, watching the wood and leaves burn at the base, before she looked back at Gastly "what if...You came along with me tomorrow? I'm sure you'd get along with everyone. They're very nice."
Gastly scoffed, looking at Cleffa like she had said something completely unrealistic. "I'm a ghost and poison type. I'm like, your opposite. You're some kind of...psychic type right?"
"Fairy."
"I'd stick out like a sore thumb."
"That doesn't matter! I'm sure with time everyone would accept you!"
"That's not what I meant," Gastly sighed. "We're completely different by nature. I wouldn't be able to adjust. I could never...learn to be more like you," he laughed at the thought. It was a different laugh, like he was adding a verbal period to a solid fact. "It's like asking you if you could live in my house with all of those hostile ghosts."
Cleffa took in his words carefully, disheartened. "But...it sounds so dangerous for you to go back."
"I can handle it," Gastly said nonchalantly, not looking at Cleffa. "As long as I stay away from those Haunters."
Cleffa fidgeted with her hands, pausing for a moment. "A single house seems kind of a small space between you two..."
That actually seemed to get into Gastly's head. He glanced at Cleffa before staring at the fire. "Yeah...I guess so."
Cleffa noticed that Gastly looked...bothered by something. She knew he didn't want to make a big deal out of the whole situation, but he didn't look like he was sure he could go back. He kept staring intensely at the fire, like he could drown out his worries by watching it slowly burn the wood to ashes.
"I know we don't know each other very well," Cleffa said, turning fully to Gastly, who seemed to be startled, as if he forgot she was there, "but can you make a promise to me?"
"What kind of promise?" Gastly inched a way a little bit, giving Cleffa a weird look.
"Can you promise me that you'll at least consider coming along with me in the morning? I think we could be really good friends." She smiled, feeling sure of herself for the first time that night. "Without you, I'd still be lost and scared."
"You're...still lost and scared, though," Gastly said.
"Yeah, but...I guess it's not as bad now," Cleffa blushed. "With you here I don't feel so alone."
It was difficult to tell, but Cleffa thought she could see the color of Gastly's smoke change in hue-into something more pinkish. "Oh." Gastly further floated away from Cleffa, his form fading into the darkness. "Sure. Okay."
"Thanks, Gastly," Cleffa smiled.
Leaving a review, fav, or follow would really help motivate me to finish this project! Constructive and helpful criticism is also welcome, as I'm slowly trying to relearn everything lol. Here's to chapter 2!