Chapter 2 - Slate of Mind

A dull ache resounded in my head as consciousness beckoned me. My senses were too foggy to remember whatever I had been doing before now, so I contented myself with lying in place for a few minutes before finally attempting to gather my bearings. I supposed I'd fallen asleep, although the context provided was nonexistent. I couldn't remember a single detail about the last time I was awake.

I flexed my stiff muscles and rolled over onto my stomach before pushing myself off the ground. A very strange sensation overcame me at that moment that I couldn't quite shake off. My entire body felt numb and unfamiliar, and it left me with an uneasy feeling in my gut. It made my limbs feel tingly and out of place. They almost seemed not human.

Water... Thirsty.

The sound of running water to my right caught my attention, and I rejoiced at the convenience. Not really bothering to check my surroundings just yet, I stumbled over to it. The weird feeling in my legs refused to subside as I fell onto my knees at the edge of the pond.

The delicious liquid satisfied my thirst immediately, and helped clear the mist out of my soggy brain that was still trying to remember whatever it was I had done to end up wherever I am.

Where even am I?

My head on a swivel, I evaluated my surroundings. The pond sat under a cliff I judged to be roughly twenty feet tall, next to a forest trail that I had woken up laying on. Trees surrounded me from every angle besides that of the little pond, and did not seem to end. Had it not been for the forest trail, I would have been thoroughly lost in these woods with no sense of direction besides the sun. But the place didn't particularly look familiar, so how could I have gotten here?

I stared back down at the water, planning to get a few more gulps, when my heart skipped a beat. A reflection in the pond returned my stunned gaze as a face that was not mine mimicked my every emotion. Foreign eyes burrowed into my pupils as I carefully attempted to understand what I was staring at, and what was staring back at me.

"What the hell is this?" I said my first words out loud. My voice sounded odd, as if it wasn't mine. I surely commanded it, but it felt like thievery with each syllable.

I tried to bring my arm down to touch the water, but my arm—my new arm—was barely too short to reach without having to dip my new long nose into the water as well. I realized I had access to some sort of muscle connection near my rear end, and promptly discovered I was bestowed with a tail that stuck into the air as high as my head. It thinned out near the top before ending into a large three-winged leaf that was as wide as my 'new' head was long. The anatomy of my new form rushed to the front of my mind immediately: that of a Snivy.

The thought made everything else freeze.

I've turned into a Snivy.

It looped in my head over and over.

I've turned into a Snivy.

I am now, in this moment, a Snivy. Not a human, but a Snivy.

Is this real?

Again I spoke to no one.

"Why am I a—wait, what? This isn't right...!"

I tried to recall what could've caused such a thing to happen, but I could recover nothing. My panicked state began to reveal itself visually as I paced around the small clearing unable to recall anything from the days before.

I couldn't remember anything at all. Anything about... anything.

I knew what family was but I could think of no faces. I knew what food was and what tastes were but I couldn't call upon the events that lead to this knowledge. The sunset, the ocean, grass, trees, the world itself. I knew what they were, but I had never seen them before. Events that should have shaped me into who I was now were lost in a place I couldn't hope to reach. All I could recall was my previous status as a human (which is what lead to my initial panic over becoming a Pokemon) and another word that would not leave my head that I assumed had to be my name.

Sage.

Is that my name? Is that a name at all, or a title of some sort? Who even—

My thoughts were rudely interrupted by an beeping sound at my back, the first sign of life I had heard. I stopped my nervous pacing, wobbling a bit on my unnaturally short legs, and turned around to find three levitating Pokemon in a triangular formation staring me down. Their heads were shaped like an upside-down bell, and their brown bodies resembled a thinner shape of their head that resembled wearing a cloak. Their arms extended to stubs, where three bulbs flashed colors of lights at me. It seemed like some form of communication that I couldn't hope to translate. Regardless, I decided I'd give talking to them a shot anyway.

"Hey, uh..." I began. "Do you know wh-"

I hardly had the mind to dodge the blow that the strange Pokemon in front attempted to deal me. Stumbling on my excuses for legs, I tripped and fell flat on my snout without the support of long arms to catch myself, sending a jolt through my head that warranted a surprised grunt. Out of the corner of my eye I caught another of the strange Pokemon striking down on me, barely giving me enough room to roll backwards and narrowly out of range.

I managed to take advantage of my momentum and spring to my feet before my aggressors could attempt another swing. I didn't bother turning around to question their actions; they had made their motives crystal clear by this point.

Instead, I elected to run down the trail as fast as I could away from the clearing. I instantly realized that the body I was in was not in ideal shape fitness-wise, and I felt fatigue nip at my muscles - muscles I still wasn't sure how to efficiently use - after only a few seconds of running. My tiny thought legs presented themselves as an obstacle at first, but after a couple of minutes I became accustomed to moving with them to my relief.

This relief doubled when I caught sight of another Pokemon in my path—evidently a fellow grass type. It regarded me with wide eyes as I scrambled around a curve in the trail and entered its line of sight. It showed no intention of attacking me, so I jogged up to it, panting hard.

"Woah there young fella!" his gruffy voice mirrored the surprise in his eyes from my sudden appearance. "Now, what're you all wound up about?"

"I'm being... chased," I panted, returning the gaze.

The three strange Pokemon revealed themselves before I could elaborate any further. All that running and I hadn't gained any ground at all! The passive Pokemon in front of me took a moment to comprehend the scene before him, but was able to put the pieces together and pull me backwards the moment before my pursuers were able to land a strike.

"Yikes!" the leaf-headed Pokemon exclaimed. "I'm scared! Let's get outta here!"

I nodded my head and hastily followed him down the path, the three strange Pokemon right on our tail. An invisible beam of energy sliced through the air to the left, narrowly skimming my head and leaving my ear ringing. Somehow, I maintained my balance and continued on right behind the leaf-headed Pokemon.

For many minutes—at least fifteen or twenty—we ran straight down the path without pause. Even when the sight of the rouge attackers had disappeared into the short horizon of the bending woods, we did not stop. My strange new ally seemed to garner the stamina to run the whole time, whereas I almost immediately began to feel nauseated.

Adrenaline had worn off a few minutes into the dash, and my legs began disagreeing with my brain about how much longer I could run. Not that my brain was given any breaks either; the thoughts from before still looped in my head, over and over. Was this real? Was any of the past few minutes actually real? A lot of things certainly felt real, like the grass under my feet and the wind at my neck and that psychic attack that was an inch from putting me back to sleep.

I kept running.

The pain, I thought. The pain from all this running certainly felt real.

More minutes of this mental spiral would commence before I finally got a chance to rest. The leaf-headed Pokemon abruptly stopped at another clearing even tinier than the last but still sufficient for a quick moment of rest.

"We'll stop right here," he called back to me as I lagged behind. "Take a quick break and all that, and then we'll be up and outta here."

"Thank you," I tried to reply as I caught up to him. My speech was, for the most part, little more than an incoherent cough.

I wasn't in the mood to question how a Pokemon could talk with language. I assumed my understanding of his language was connected to myself being turned into one. This conjecture might have been satisfying if I actually knew why I had become a Pokemon in the first place.

That though gave me pause. Not because I hadn't realized it already, no; simply, rather, because it was so outlandish in nature. I am a Pokemon... every syllable still didn't make sense. I couldn't register as a fact about myself.

I brought my arm up to where that ranged attack had skimmed the side of my head. It didn't hurt very much now in light of the fatigue making my muscles almost feel like liquid, but it still hurt enough for me to know it was real! I felt my hand—my foreign hand—around the area, and then felt the other side of my head for good measure. Were... were there scales covering my body?

Before I could ponder the dreamlike cluster of events further, the leaf-headed Pokemon snapped me back to reality by developing a condescending look on his face.

"Alrighty now! What did you do to get them Beeheyem so riled up at you, huh?" he fiercely chided. "You some kinda delinquent child pullin' pranks?"

I shook my head at him, and took a moment to clear my throat. "No sir," I replied calmly. "I—I don't know why they did that, I swear! I don't even know who I am... t-to be honest with you."

The Pokemon raised his eyebrows at this, and frowned. "You don't know who you are? What in tarnation?"

"I can't remember anything. I—" I scanned the treeline. Nothing but trees and underbrush as far as the eye could see. "—Where even are we?"

"We're in Lush Forest, I reckon. Just a few kilometers south of where I live." The Pokemon tilted his head. "You uh... said you can't remember a thing?"

I stared at him. It must've sounded about as ridiculous as I could've imagined, but the strange Pokemon was actually quite immersed with what I was telling him.

"All I remember is what I'm pretty sure is my name, Sage, and that I used to be a human," I said with a nod. "Believe me, I'm more confused right now than you are."

The Pokemon's expression suddenly shifted into one of utter disbelief. "Hold it kiddo!" he exclaimed. "A human? Like, one of them..." He paused and placed his hand on his chin as though searching for the right words. "One of them mythological creatures?"

Mythological?

"That's... a hard pill to swallow, I reckon. Ain't nobody alive seen a human before."

I wasn't sure how to respond. I hadn't really considered how a fellow Pokemon might react to such a revelation. Quite a bit to my displeasure, it was clear that a humans becoming a Pokemon was not an everyday occurrence.

"Well, I reckon I can't really say whether you're telling the truth or not, but it would be mighty unfair to claim you're lyin' right away." He extended his hand to me. "It's awfully nice to meet you Sage. I'm Nuzleaf."

I tried to extend my little arm to reach his hand, and fortunately, it barely made the cut from where I was standing. He noticed my struggle and raised an eyebrow.

"You uh... oughta try usin' those vines of yours instead of your hand," he informed me. "Grass Pokemon who have 'em typically prefer using their vines rather than their paws."

My vines? That's true, I guess a Snivy would naturally have vines. But how do I—

As if triggered by my thoughts, two green tendrils extended themselves from their hiding places beneath each of my shoulder blades. I spent a few seconds admiring them as I tried to get the hang of their controls, mostly just extending and retracting them. Actually maneuvering them through the air was a much more taxing skill that I was clearly no expert at. By the looks of it, this body did not come with muscle memory either.

In the process of learning how to use them, I accidentally lifted my right vine up and then brought it down a little too quickly, sending a wave of energy through the flexible appendage and whipping the air with a loud crack a half-inch from Nuzleaf's leaf-hair.

"Dagnabbit, be careful with that!" Nuzleaf exclaimed in surprise. He glared at me, but could not hide what genuinely looked like concern. "...You really aren't very familiar with your body, huh? Guess that strongly supports what you been trying to say to me, so I do suppose I'll go out on a limb and believe your story."

Wow. That could've gone a whole lot worse.

I sighed inwardly with relief. The prospect of being stuck in this world with nobody else to even acknowledge my situation was utterly terrifying. The reason, of course, being that I had no idea how to fix it, and I could only hope that someone else did.

"It's nice to meet you too, Nuzleaf," I said. "Thank you for believing me."

Nuzleaf shrugged and rubbed the back of his head. "Think nothing of it kiddo. With that in mind, I don't suppose you've got anywhere to eat or sleep tonight?"

The stress of my situation revealed itself again as I seriously pondered his question. I had absolutely nowhere to go, and nothing to eat. I didn't even know what kind of food I could and couldn't eat. I didn't know anything at this point.

Can this day get any worse?

Right then I felt the urge to slap myself with one of my vines; not that I could've since I was pretty sure I didn't even know how. As soon as this thought popped into my head, I heard the beeping sounds of the Beeheyem a fair way down the trail. They didn't sound right on top of us, but the fact that we could hear it at all entailed our immediate departure.

Nuzleaf heard it too. "Crapfire!" he hissed. "I reckon we gotta get to runnin' again! Can't let 'em see us!"

He whirled around and took off running down the trail, and I followed suit as best I could.


By the time we reached a shift in the scenery, the sun had crawled behind the mountains on the horizon, and the sky was showing signs of early dusk.

"Finally," Nuzleaf said, breaking the silence. "Just up here is my village. I suppose that, since you ain't got nowhere to go, you can stay here with me for a little while. Ah, look, there it is right there."

I barely even heard him. I was absolutely spent. The rest of my trip through the forest had been a tumble; I'd even wretched a few times to the point where if I had any food in my stomach I undoubtedly would've left it behind in the forest. Still, I followed Nuzleaf with heavy feet up to the edge of a tiny little hill, all while fighting the desire to collapse on the spot.

He was looking down at something, and I stood beside him and gazed out at the scenery myself. We were standing at the top of a slight downward slope leading all the way to tiny little wooden houses constructed in the distance. A massive lake stood out next to the village, that realistically I assumed was the primary resource that lead to the village's chosen location. Before the lake was another hill jutting out from the ground with a single tree extending further into the sky than the generic trees they had passed by for hours traveling the forest trail. The landscape was nothing short of incredible.

"Like it, don't ya?" Nuzleaf chuckled. "That there's Serene Village. Place is great for retirin' folk, but plenty fun for kiddos like yourself as well."

Fun? I wasn't concerned with fun, but that hardly mattered if I was getting a place to stay. I was vulnerable and lost in more ways than one; this was really about survival more than anything. I would have to roll with the punches for the time being.

He beckoned for me to follow him down the path on the gradual slope. With nowhere else to go, I obeyed without a word.