Chapter 1 – Valiant Beginning

We met 8 years ago. I was only 10 at the time, on vacation with my Father in the northern plains. It was rather unsettling as I was never really used to the cold. I grew up in a rural village called Pallet, a place where my great-grandfather, Red Hawkins, made his name known worldwide as he was the first person to ever defeat the best trainers of the land, The Elite. This was a feat not taken lightly as The Elite are famous for utilizing their Pokémon in such a way that they stopped the cataclysm of the invading Deoxys. I look up to him every day as a constant reminder of what it truly means to be the very best. This was especially so back when I was more impressionable, at a time where I thought there was no evil in the world. Of course now I know better, but I wish I still had that mindset, being blissfully unaware of the evil plaguing the world.

Our family is the Hawkins, a name that holds a lot of pressure. My great-grandfather is world famous as you know. My grandfather helped the government defeat a dark syndicate that had planned to convert the population into slaves of their leader, Rocket Jones. My father is a famous traveller, known for being the first person to ever tame a wild Dragonite. And then there's me, the kid known for being a huge disappointment to his family. I haven't contributed to the Hawkins family legacy, and even though I was only 10 I still had expectations from my father. He would always expect so much of me and when I crack from the pressure the feeling is horrible. I always figured my father would give up on me if it wasn't for a certain myth.

There was always a dark tale that would linger around our family, generation after generation. Before my great-grandfather died, he told my grandfather about a time when he was travelling in the Arctic Ice caps and how he somehow got lost in a glacier as tall as a mountain for days. He believed that with the dark night approaching and the temperature decreasing that he had lost all hope in ever returning home alive. He said that the only reason he survived was because of a "blue saviour" that found him in an ice cavern, shivering from the frigid air. He said that this saviour was protecting him from the cold, and before he could even speak, the blue saviour flew him across a wide open canyon, back to safety. Nowadays we assume it was an Articuno, but to him it was more than that. It was a deity that preserved his life for just a little bit longer than fate intended.

My grandfather considered his story nothing but just that: a story. He passed it off as a tale of woe from a dying old man. My father, however, refused to call it rubbish and spent his entire life to finding this legendary deity. When you consider an Articuno normally, their personalities reflect their type, cold and emotionless. They are impossible to train as their hearts are frozen to the core, so much so that even Love couldn't thaw it. My father was determined, however, to train this rare beast and take on The Elites in order to surpass the shadow of his Grandfather and be the greatest Hawkin to ever exist.

His saving grace turned sour, however, as he was unsuccessful in all of his journeys. With shame smothering his heart, he settled in Pallet Town where he met my mother. I never had the chance to meet her since she died giving birth to me, but my father always talked about how beautiful she was and how much she cared about him. He believed that with a family in his life, the past that was relentlessly haunting him would finally leave him alone.

When I turned 10, however, the spark in his life flickered furiously, giving him the passion that was absent in his previous attempts. He knew that if he ever wanted a chance of catching this wonderful beast, he would need the strength of his son to aid him. It is common knowledge that when a kid turns 10, he is allowed to go on adventures with his parents to give him experience on how to adventure with Pokémon.

On this fateful day, my father heard a story from one of his old travelling partners, Trent Fisher. He spoke of a record-shattering glacier found in the northern mountains, too violent of a place to traverse alone. The place was crawling with Cryogonals, disguised as simple snowflakes, preying on unsuspecting adventurers.

Cryogonals are known as evil Pokémon that prey on wary travellers that underestimate their power in numbers. When tamed, they are a force to recognize if placed in the hands of an experienced trainer. The problem is that Cryogonal aren't native to this region, so the fact that they just showed up on a random glacier really piqued my father's interest. Of course the fact that Cryogonal are even present there made the whole place barren of any life, making it the perfect opportunity to search for the blue saviour without any distractions or competition. My father asked Trent if he wanted to help, but his face turned whiter than Ice, frozen from the fear of being devoured by a Cryogonal. He wasn't a trainer himself so he knew he wouldn't have been any help anyways. The only reason my father ever took him along with him on journeys was because I wasn't old enough to go with him and he needed someone who could keep him company since Pokémon can't talk.

After we said our goodbyes we packed our supplies and headed for this lustrous glacier, high hopes in hand. Since I was so young I never really understood the severity of the situation as I had only been on a couple adventures with my Father beforehand, and they were nothing too dangerous for us to handle. They could barely even be considered adventures as we only went outside in our backyard, trying to get rid of the plaguing oddish that was eating all of our vegetables. As we climbed the glacier we were constantly bombarded by wild Cryogonals, making our lives just a little bit more troublesome. If it wasn't for the fact that my father was a notable trainer back in the day, we would have most definitely been killed by them.

He befriended a young Growlithe when he was younger, and their duo is what I consider unbreakable. He has a powerful Dragonite but the bond he shared with his Growlithe was what gave him all of his success. At the time of the adventure he was an Arcanine, battle scarred by the journeys he had faced with my dad. Arcanine was so powerful that his flames were defeating the Cryogonals like they were actual snowflakes, leaving us with a clear path to the top. I assume we were around forty stories high when fate intervened with our adventure.

It turns out that even the mighty Arcanine of the world famous traveller Blue Hawkins is susceptible to fatigue, and just when a pack of Cryogonals appeared, he ran out of energy. All I remember from that moment was my father telling me to "close my eyes" and before I knew what was happening, I blacked out. When I awoke, I was in a dark and icy cave, alone. With nothing but the sound of an unforgiving wind on my back, I assumed the legacy of the Hawkins family would end that night.

As I was beginning to pass out, I heard a noise so terrifying I could feel my body paralyze itself in fear. Looking at the caves entrance I could see a young Cryogonal approach me with eyes of frozen rage. I tried to scream but my mouth wouldn't open. I closed my eyes in hope that I would wake up and call this a nightmare to forget, but it kept on creeping closer and closer until I could feel the cold radiating from its body. I wanted to scream as loud as I possibly could but there was nobody here to listen. I was alone. My eyes began to freeze, my sight began to fade, my hearing started to get fuzzy, and all I wanted at that moment was for the beast to hurry up and end my misery. Just as it was about to ready its attack, I saw a brief flash of blue, followed by the faint sound of the Cryogonal disintegrating into darkness. I looked outside into the cold glacial mountain and what I saw was simply breathtaking. There was an Articuno the size of a god protecting me from what appeared to be millions of Cryogonal. I took this as a sign to keep going and climbed my way to the top of the glacier.

If it wasn't for the fact that a snowstorm ensnared me from the outside world, I assume the view would have been amazing. At first there was nothing but Ice, but as I drew closer and closer to the very top, I could see what appeared to be a nest made of icicles. It saddened me to see that many of the eggs had been eaten, crushed, or frozen, but there was one still fighting for its life. Afraid of cracking the egg, I left it in the nest and kept a close eye on it.

I turned around to see the mother Articuno, but there was nothing there. It was then that I knew I was completely alone on the top of a barren glacier. I don't know what happened to my father or the colossus Articuno, but what I do know is that when I looked at the nest again, I saw not an egg, but a baby. It shone with pride and fearlessness as it rose from the nest and stared into my eyes.

I was always told to be cautious of wild Articuno as they are known to attack without any warning. When it walked towards me with safe intentions, I knew then that it was my destiny to raise it and continue the legacy of the blue saviour. All I needed was a name and a Pokeball Luckily for me I always carry one around my neck as it was a gift that was passed down from generation to generation. I looked at the engraving that was on the ball and knew that I had found the name of what was later going to be the saviour of the world, and myself.

"I think I'll call you…Valiant".

~End of Chapter~