Pokemon Topaz
Chapter Two: Alone
He bent down and picked up the Pokeball off the ground. Smiling at it, he took a few steps toward me. Blinding light emerged from the Pokeball as the Pokemon from within was released. The creature stepped towards me, opened its mouth, and released a Hyper Beam directly at me...
--
I woke up in a cold sweat. It took my heart a few minutes to return to normal. When I had calmed down enough to realize that I was safe from the attack, I noticed that I was surrounded by darkness. Frightened, I started to thrash about, but couldn't. There was something heavy on top of me. The more I struggled, the more something dug into my back. I yelled out, but my cry was muffled by the heavy things on top of me.
Eventually, I managed to get one arm free, and create a hole for myself to climb out of. Struggling, I slowly pulled myself out of whatever I had been trapped in, grimacing in pain.
My whole body felt like a Rhydon sat on me. I could barely keep my eyes open without my vision starting to blur and my head starting to spin. Eventually, I forced my way out of the rubble, and lay on the ground, exhausted.
What…Where am I? Ugh, my head. What kind of crazy party did I go to last night?
Even thinking in my mind hurt. I don't even know how that's possible, but that's how I felt. Suddenly, I noticed the ground below me felt charred, and burnt. I gradually got to my feet, to take a look at what exactly I had been lying in.
Then, I saw it. The remains of a small village hut. My heart started to pound in my chest as I struggled to remember what had happened, to make me end up in a pile of debris.
Then the memories hit me. I remembered Yogrin's words, and the mysterious Shadow men that had attacked us. I started to feel weak again, just thinking about the whole thing. I started to fall over, but managed to keep my balance by stumbling backwards. Turning around, I looked out at the village.
And was horrified.
Smoke billowed into the sky. Flames still burned in small areas. There was nothing left. Nothing. All of the shacks, cottages, huts, and buildings had been burned down, once again. My mouth fell open as I stared at the remains of my village, seeing nothing but piles and piles of death. I felt a tear roll down my cheek, and then another, and another. I didn't care if I was crying.
As I took a step forward, I stepped on a loose nail from one of the boards. The nail pierced through my shoe, and into my foot.
"Arggh!" I yelled, crying out in pain. I fell to the ground, cursing, and started trying my best to take off my shoe without feeling any pain. I gingerly slipped off the shoe, and grimaced.
There was a small hole in my foot, with some blood and other crazy stuff coming out of it. That nail really did some damage to my foot.
I was having a hard time seeing anything through my own tears, but I noticed that the nail wasn't stuck in my foot. That would've been really painful. All I could do was rip off some of my tattered shirt and make a little cast to wrap around my foot. I then stuffed it back in my shoe. That would have to do for now.
Gingerly, I stepped down on my foot. It hurt. But at least I could walk. I would have to put up with the pain for now.
I turned back around, taking a long look at Yogrin's destroyed shack. I started to pull away some boards, doing my best to spread out the junk lying around. I was searching for something, anything that could help me. But there was nothing. I found a piece of the chair I had been sitting in, still hot, and some other crap, but nothing that could really help me out.
I sighed, and starting to walk, or limp, around my destroyed village. Everywhere I went, it was the same. I saw my best friend's home, destroyed and burnt to a crisp. It was weird though, and a little bit creepy, because I couldn't find anyone else. You'd think if a bunch of houses burned down, there'd be some bodies around. But there was no one. And no signs of life.
Just me.
And I couldn't stand it.
I started to freak out. Everything, everything, was gone. Nothing remained, nothing except smoke, flames, and debris. Why had they done this? Why? We didn't deserve this! We didn't deserve this!
"Why!" I started to scream to the sky.
"Why! Why! Why!"
I started to shake uncontrollably. My entire body collapsed, and I lay like that for what seemed like an eternity. I was scared. Scared, because I was all alone. No one was with me, to tell me where to go, to tell me what to do. I was scared.
"Houndour!" I heard a growl. I got up, wiping the tears from my eyes. I turned around, and saw Houndour bounding towards me. I ran towards my Pokemon, and embraced it in a hug. I wasn't alone. I had my friend with me.
"Houndour! You're alive!" I cried happily as I received a lick.
My friend was with me. I wasn't going to have to go through hell alone.
"Houndour, how did you survive the fire? And where have you been?" I asked my buddy.
Houndour started to bark, in the direction of the setting sun. I wished I could communicate with him.
"Uh…heat? No, light! OK, light. What about light?" I wondered aloud.
Suddenly, the thought hit me. The light I had seen as I lay in Yogrin's burning home. It saved me from the flames. Somehow, that mysterious light must've saved Houndour too.
"So maybe Yogrin was saved to. And my Mom, and Dad, and everyone else!" I said, false hope filling my mind. I wanted to believe it was true. But there was no one else here.
"Hound…Houn" Houndour started to sniff the air. Growling, he ran around me, and started to bark at a patch of grass on the outskirts of the village.
"Houndour, what is it? A-" I started, but was interrupted by a loud screeching coming from the bush.
Houndour ran to the bush, and jumped at whatever was in there. The little guy was pretty brave today.
Houndour and the creature rolled out of the bush, each trying to get in a hit on each other.
"Dour!"
"Snea!"
The two Pokemon called out their different growls and screeches as each tried desperately to get the upper hand. Despite the wild Pokemon's resistance, Houndour managed to knock it over, and then hit it with an Ember. The Pokemon was knocked back a little, but used its claws to shoot what I guessed to be an Icy Wind at Houndour. Houndour rolled out of the way, but the Pokemon was charging in hard at my friend.
"Sneeeee!" It screeched, its claw glowing.
"Houndour, get outta there!" I called desperately. It was too late. Houndour was hit, and stumbled backwards.
"Hound!" Houndour yelped as it crashed to the ground.
"Houndour…No, this thing is tough." I said with gritted teeth. To my amazement, Houndour rose to his feet, exhausted but ready for more.
"Alright buddy, let's use an Ember." I suggested.
Houndour opened his mouth, and then unleashed a stream of flames at the attacking Pokemon. The attack hit it square in the chest, sending the Pokemon flying backwards, where it hit a tree and fell to the ground.
"Sel!" It cried as it hit the ground. It crawled to its feet, its long nose sniffing the air around us cautiously. The next thing I knew it was gone, leaving only a small hole in the bush where it had scampered into.
"Good work Houndour. Whatever that Pokemon was, I don't think it'll be bothering us anymore." I congratulated my Pokemon, who tiredly walked over to me. I cradled my friend in my arms.
"C'mon, let's find some food. I'm starving."
The two of us walked through the remains of the village, looking for what resembled the bakery. We spotted the half burned sign, and I limped over to it. Setting Houndour on the ground, I dug through the debris, trying to find some food. I soon realized how foolish I was. The bread would have burned away faster than anything else in the bakery. Dejected, I turned to face Houndour, when another idea came to me.
"Well, let's try this. Sniff the air, for any other humans. Maybe you can find a scent or something!"
I was getting excited. Maybe someone was hiding out in the forest, or in a nearby cave. With Houndour's acute sense of smell, we would be able to find them easily.
However, it wasn't that easy. Houndour started to smell around, but couldn't find any other scents from humans.
So that proved it. We were truly alone. Me and Houndour. Alone in this ghost town.
It was almost completely dark. It was getting pretty cold, too. I sat on the ground, and Houndour lay at my feet.
I knew that we couldn't survive long in the village. Houndour was too young and weak to hunt, and I wasn't some crazy guy who could go hunting in the woods and bring back a Tauros to eat or anything. I sighed, and asked my friend to light some of the sticks we had gathered, making a fire.
"Well Houndour…" I started, the warmth from the fire illuminating the area around us.
After awhile, I continued. "It looks like we're gonna have to leave the village." Houndour looked up at me and whimpered softly. I patted his head and looked up at the sky.
I didn't want to leave the village, but I knew that we had no other choice. I decided that we would embark tomorrow morning. But for where?
After a good fifteen minutes, I had sorted out a few more thoughts. We were still very hungry, but we didn't dare look for berries or the like in the forest, not in the dark. So we would get some food tomorrow, and then head off. We'd have to find another town or something. A place with people. A new home.
I looked over at Houndour, who had fallen asleep, and remembered the day I first got him. It hadn't been that long ago, on my thirteenth birthday that my parents gave me my first Pokemon. It had taken my Dad a long time to find a Houndour, as they were extremely rare around where we lived. But he had managed to find one, alone and abandoned. Houndour's mother had been killed by a hunter, we guessed, for its horns. We gave Houndour a new home, and I loved the little guy.
"Good night, my friend."
--
I wasn't alone. I could feel another presence near me. I looked about, not knowing where I was. After what seemed like an eternity, I saw a bright light, and I could feel it coming towards me. The same light that had pushed back the flames in Yogrin's hut. The same light that had saved me.
I felt safe, with this light here. I smiled, and an image filled my mind. Houndour running around in circles, barking madly. I realized that this was inside of Yogrin's home, as the flames were closing in on Houndour. I could see my limp body lying off to the side, and a glowing light in between me and Houndour. The flames started to disappear, as a bright light filled my eyes.
Now I could see a cave, north of my village. I was going through the cave, to see a village, and then the bright light blinded me, giving way to darkness…
--
I awoke, seeing nothing but blackness. Our fire had gone out, but I wasn't cold. I knew that I wasn't just dreaming. I felt it. I knew that my…my…my vision was true. I knew where we were headed.
