Chapter 1: A New Beginning
"Is he breathing?"
"I don't know. Let's move closer."
Zach slowly opened up his eyes. Where am I? He was looking up at a perfect blue sky above him. He could see the tops of leafy green trees towering high above him. He could hear the sound of running water, which he guessed, was from a nearby creek. It was warm, yet a cool breeze swept across his body, making him shiver a little.
He sat up and started to rub his head, which had a dull ache. He thought he heard voices, but believed they were in his head. "What's going on here?"
A Pokemon walked up next to him. It looked very much like a dog and had very thick brown and white fur. Its black eyes looked at Zach with curiosity. "You mean you don't know how you ended up here?" a female voice asked. But it didn't come from a person; it came from the Pokemon.
Zach did a double-take, "Did…you…did you just talk?"
"Yeah," she answered, as though it seemed quite obvious, "My name's Eevee, what's yours?"
Zach crawled away from Eevee as quickly as possible. "But…but…you're not supposed to talk."
"Well, her mouth is moving isn't it?" a new voice responded from behind him. This was a strong male voice. Zach turned around and found himself staring at what looked like a blue-green dinosaur with large green bulb on its back. "My name's Bulbasaur by the way."
Zach tried to convince himself that he hadn't heard him. "Okay, this is a joke, right? Someone's idea of a sick joke by making me believe that Pokemon can talk?"
Eevee started to walk over towards Zach. "You're a Pokemon too. You know that right? Maybe you need some more rest. You might have…"
"I'm not a Pokemon! I'm a human!" Zach yelled at her angrily, cutting her off. She stopped where she was standing.
"Uh, let's see…" Bulbasaur started, looking over Zach, "Red hair all over your body. Flaming butt. Giant ears. Eyes disproportional with the rest of your head. Either you are some midget human dressed in a Chimchar costume, or you're a Chimchar."
"But I'm not…"
"Look," Bulbasaur cut Zach off, "Look at your reflection over in the creek. Maybe that will convince you." He pointed in the direction of the sound of the running water.
"Fine," Zach conceded, bringing himself to his feet. For some odd reason, he felt very short. He walked over towards the creek and got on his knees. What if they're telling the truth, he thought to himself. No, they can't be telling the truth, it can't be true. Slowly, he looked into the water.
A Chimchar's face reflected back at him.
They hadn't been lying. I am really am a Chimchar. He fell backward and sat on the ground. "But I'm a human. This has got to be a dream," he cried, burying his head into his hands, "It can't be anything else. It's gotta be a dream…"
Eevee walked over to Zach and sat down next to him on his left. "This isn't a dream," she said, putting a paw onto his shoulder, "I don't know what's going on with you. Are you okay?"
Zach shook his head, "I just woke up here. I can't remember anything. The only things I know are my name and that I am human."
"Nothing else?"
"No," Zach said sadly, "nothing. I really want to know what's going on."
Bulbasaur walked over to Zach and Eevee. "From the looks of things, we know just about as much as you do."
Zach looked at Eevee and Bulbasaur. There were genuine looks of concern on their faces. Obviously, they were worried about him. He had a question to ask, something that had really been bugging him the whole time. "Do you believe me?"
They looked confused. "About what?" Eevee asked.
"About me being human. Do you believe me?"
Bulbasaur nodded, "Yes, we believe you. Something about the way you acted seemed…"
"…odd," Eevee finished. "You seem quite intent on believing you are human. Plus, its kinda strange you just appeared here with no memory."
"Thanks," Zach sighed, relieved, "I thought I was going insane."
"Well there is still that possibility…"
"Hey…"
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding," Eevee chuckled.
"That's not funny," Zach responded sternly, but he wasn't angry. In actuality he felt much more relaxed now. They believe me. Maybe this isn't as bad as I thought…
Bulbasaur tapped Eevee's shoulder. "We've got to get back to the village. We still need to find our last member for our Rescue Squad."
Eevee looked back at Bulbasaur and nodded, "Right." She looked over to Zach. "You should come with us. We can find somewhere for you to stay in the village until you can find somewhere to live permanently. Unless of course, you want to stay in the woods…"
Zach was confused. "Pokemon have villages?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot you're new around here," Eevee started, "Yes, there are villages. Humans just have no way to get to them."
Zach thought about it for a moment. The village sounded very interesting. Plus there would be many other Pokemon there. Maybe someone there could help him.
"Alright," Zach replied, "I'll come with you guys. I've got nowhere else to go."
"Awesome," Bulbasaur said, running past Zach, "Last one to the village is a rotten Exeggcute!"
"Wait up," Eevee yelled after Bulbasaur, running after him.
Zach stood there for a moment and shrugged. This is gonna be interesting, he thought to himself, as he ran off after the others.
End Chapter 1
