Chapter 2: Realization

The sun is setting. At a beach, a huge brown kangaroo-like creature is carrying her child in her pouch for a little afternoon walk and to enjoy the view. When she walks down the beachside further, she spots an unconscious blue and white bird-like creature, which looks like an eaglet. She immediately runs to the body and checks its temperature. It appears to be warm. Not only that, after a little more check-up, the bird's heart is still beating. The avian is simply lying face-down unconsciously. Worried about potentially worse conditions if the creature is left alone, the kangaroo picks the bird up in her arms and leaves the beach.

Much later...

"Ugh..."

The bird opens his eyes and slowly looks to his side only to see a bipedal, blue and black jackal-like creature. The jackal immediately greets him.

"Hey, there. You've woken up."

The bird appears to be confused at his surroundings. He's in a room with a wooden interior and vines growing on the walls. There are two small round windows. He also noticed that he has been laying down on a pile of hay, which is the room's bed as there's another pile of hay not far from him, presumably for the jackal.

Suddenly, a realization hit him, the jackal-like creature did talk to him.

"WAAAHH! A TALKING DOG!" the bird shouted.

"HEY?! WHAT'S THE DEAL?! YOU JUST WOKE UP AND THAT'S HOW YOU GREET ME BACK?! ALSO, I'M NOT A DOG!" the jackal shouted back.

"Hey. Wait a minute... Something about you seem familiar..." the bird then looks at his feet. "Also, since when do I have talons?"

Beat.

"SINCE WHEN DO I HAVE TALONS? OH NO! I ALSO HAVE WINGS, FEATHERS AND ALL THAT STUFF!" the bird shouted again after noticing his appearance.

"You're weird... Are you suffering from amnesia or something?" the jackal-like creature said.

"Weird?! Amnesia?! No, I'm not! It's just that previously I looked more like a human!"

"Human? What's that? Some kind of Pokémon?"

It finally hit him. The creature the bird is talking to is a Pokémon, a Riolu to be exact. Not only that, the bird is a Pokémon as well, a Rufflet.

"Pokémon...?"

"What? You don't even know that you're one as well? I mean, come on, only Pokémon live in this place! You seem to be out of your mind." the Riolu said.

"Hey... If you're a Pokémon, how come there are no humans training you or something like that? I remember when Japan showed me his video game, there are humans living alongside Pokémon!" the Rufflet said.

"Humans... training us? Game? Humans living alongside us? ...At this point, you're just blabbering nonsense. I guess whatever accident you got into really hit your head hard. As I already said before, only Pokémon live here."

"Only... Pokémon...? What is this madness...?"

"I believe I should be the one who should ask the latter question to you."

Suddenly, the kangaroo-like creature, Kangaskhan, opens the door to the room where the two Pokémon are in. She's carrying two plates of food.

"What a coincidence! The Rufflet has woken up already. So that means no more waiting. And it also means that this food won't go to waste easily. Now you two eat up. This is the best dinner I can only come up now, so no complaining. Also, Rio, try to build a good relationship with the Rufflet, okay?" the Kangaskhan said.

"Okay, but I have one complaint not related to food. This Rufflet is a freak. He didn't believe that he's a Pokémon and thinks that something called 'humans' live in this place." Rio the Riolu said.

"Hey! What gives?!" the Rufflet exclaimed.

"Rio... that's just rude to someone who might've almost died if I didn't rescue him! He might have a wild imagination going on his head and you're way too serious about it." the Kangaskhan scolded Rio.

"Wait, what? I'm not imagining anything! I was indeed human before!"

Hearing that, the Kangaskhan can only say, "...You know what, maybe this kid is a bit troubled. I'm sorry, Rio. Perhaps you have to take care of him until... he's less 'wild', I guess." The Kangaskhan then leaves the room.

"D-did she just call me... a kid...?" the Rufflet is blue with shock.

"What's going on now? You're gonna complain that you're not?" Rio said.

"Of course I'm going to! Didn't my voice give that away?!"

"Eh. Still too childish-sounding to me. At best, you might as well be an adolescent, which still counts as a kid to many others, anyway."

"WHAT?! Dude, a child usually, usually... has a squeaky voice (I guess?). Or in other words, high-pitched voice like yours. Mine's not, and I have no idea what other Pokémon even considers a child here."

"Heh. Even your speech pattern doesn't sound like an adult. Anyway, I gotta eat my dinner. Not wanna deal with you with an empty stomach."

The Rufflet is left speechless as he can only watch the Riolu eat his plate of food. His stomach suddenly growls.

"Hrm... I don't know how long I was unconscious, but I guess it must be so long that I suddenly need to eat again..." the Rufflet thought. Then, he reaches to his own plate, only to realize that he can't grip with his wings.

"Dammit... I forgot that birds are fingerless..." the poor Rufflet thought.

And so, he tries to pick up one of the foods, an apple, using his beak. Not getting used to how birds normally eat, he ends up accidentally swallowing the entire apple, making him choke.

"ACK! ACK!"

"Oh, no! Let me help you!" Rio immediately performs the Heimlich maneuver to get the apple out from the Rufflet's throat. Fortunately, he succeeds.

"As if you're not weird enough, I just saw you try to handle your plate with wings and then tried to stuff the entire apple down your throat. And you're not even a newborn or something." Rio said.

"(cough) ...I told you I'm not supposed to be a Pokémon. When I was human, I could grab things with my upper limbs just fine, and can even take a bite of and chew apples without trouble."

"I seriously can't come up with anything else to say about that..."

"Sigh... I guess it's worthless mentioning anything related to humans anymore..."

Rio thinks for a while. On one hand, he thinks that the Rufflet might be sincere from the way he ends up giving up trying to convince. On the other hand, his "truth" still sounds too outrageous for Rio to believe. Rio decides to calm down and try to talk things out casually with the Rufflet, in hope that the problem can be resolved easier this way.

"Um... about your dinner... you may want to start with the berries and seeds first if you have trouble eating the bigger stuff..." Rio said.

"...Huh? Oh, right. I have to focus on eating first. Here I go!" the Rufflet immediately devours the berries and seeds on his plate, eating like a pig as he does so. "All the food here tastes bland... but I have no other choice..." he thought.

"(What a gross way of eating...) Anyway... I'm not gonna bother with your 'weirdness' for now and I'd like to know you better first. Sigh... I can't believe we haven't done this, but, what's your name? My name's Rio, in case you didn't hear whatever Mrs. Garuru the Kangaskhan said to me."

"My... (yum) My name...? (gulp) My name's America!"

"America? That sounds like a cool name!"

"Hahaha! You think so? I can't believe you and I think the same when it comes to my name!"

Rio can only give America, who is the Rufflet he's living with for now, a disapproving look, thinking that the latter is really full of himself. But Rio immediately shrugs it off to avoid causing trouble again. Rio thinks for a while, then he says something else to America.

"Listen, if you're wondering where you are right now, I'll explain to you. This is the Pokémon Orphanage, where Pokémon children who have lost their parents or guardians live until someone adopts them. You see, this town is highly protective of the children, and that's why Mrs. Garuru built this place and decided to take care of us parent-less children."

"Orphanage? Dude, now I feel bad for you..." America immediately regrets his behavior towards his new roommate.

"How I lost my parents... Last time I was with them, we were having a camping trip, but something wrong happened and I ended up being separated from them. I then stumbled upon this town where Mrs. Garuru took me to this place."

"Rio, I'm sorry..."

"Heh. It's alright. Sometimes it's just natural to get into a conflict during first meetings, right?"

America can only look down, looking at his plate that now consists of a couple of apples. He's now wondering how he ended up in a normally fictional world inhabited (apparently) exclusively by Pokémon after hearing how Rio ended up in the orphanage. He tries to recall something that caused it, but to no avail. He even suggests himself that he must be dreaming, but everything that has happened to him is too real to be a dream. Rio notices this and tries to comfort him after all that happened.

"I believe you suffered worse. So bad, that you ended up causing a freak out after arriving in this place. Sorry if that offends you, but that's how I see it." Rio said.

"I honestly have no idea how I ended up here anyway... It all happened in a flash."

"Well, you got here because Mrs. Garuru brought the unconscious you here. Even then, she doesn't know how you ended up that way. She said she found you at the town's beach."

"The beach, huh? Maybe I can find some clues if I go back there again..."

"I'm sure you can recall some things when you get there, huh?" Rio said happily.

America suddenly yawns after all that eating and chatting. It's getting late at night anyway.

"You're yawning already, huh? You know, despite the whole trouble, I'm glad that I got a roommate. I'm tired of being lonely in my own room, you see." Rio said as he walks away from America to lie down on his own bed, but not before he turns off the lantern between their beds.

America then lies down on his bed as well. But before he closes his eyes, he begins to think about the other nations. Are they in the Pokémon world as well? If yes, then where are they? Are they nearby his current location? What do they look like in the Pokémon world? Those questions are the only ones he can think of. He even fears a worst-case scenario where he's the only nation trapped in the Pokémon world. But he immediately shrugs off that horrifying thought alone as he doesn't want that to interfere with his sleep. With that, he finally closes his eyes, sleeping for the next day.

Rufflet: "Pokétalia!"