EDIT: A TABLE OF CONTENTS IS NOW AVAILABLE ON MY PROFILE. IT BREAKS THE STORY DOWN INTO EPISODES.

Hello there! This is Clockwork Journeys, and before the story starts, heres a little bit of background for you.

This story started as a comic back in mid 2019, and it got 6 Chapters in. To make a long story short, we realized that it wasn't going to work out, and decided to change the format to a fanfiction to ensure that the story gets told.

Clockwork Journeys will also be available on Archive of Our Own, and I would recommend you read it there, since AO3 supports images in the story while Fanfiction does not. The post over on AO3 will have some images to go along with it.

This story is written by 3 people: XetaJTS, Marx, and myself (Rose). We also have 2 other helpers: Elle6179 as a beta reader, and our friend ofAddict who is helping out by drawing some of the illustrations since Xeta is very busy at the time of this being written.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the first chapter!

EPISODE 1: THE GIRL ON THE BEACH

Chapter 1: Washed Ashore

May 15, 928, EP

A warm night breeze passed over the sleeping Treasure Town. The town was silent and solemn, aside from the rustling of the leaves in the wind. Even the usually bustling marketplace was now completely empty, as the residents had packed things up for the night and went back to their homes. The residential area still had some noise, as some of the night owls of the towns were still awake, and one of the bars was always open at these hours to take in those folks that had nowhere better to be this late at night.

However, despite it usually staying empty, the marketplace had one person walking through it: a young Eevee girl named Vivian. She had a longer mane than average, with a noticeably messy look that was her preferred style. On the back of her head, as well as just above her eyes, Vivian had longer and thinner hair that flickered and swayed like blades of grass. At the top of her head, among flatter tufts, she had a long strand that was shaped like a crescent moon. It tended to flutter around when she moved, or whenever the wind blew over her.

Vivian had left her home for the night, and was heading to one of her favorite spots in all of Treasure Town, somewhere further away from the buildings and businesses. She looked around as she walked through the quiet and sleeping town. Despite her having done this quite a few times at this point, she never quite got used to how quiet the town became at night. It felt very odd for the normally loud streets on the market area to go silent, as though the town she had grown up in was replaced with a quiet replica whenever the sun went down. It was kind of nice in its own way for her to be able to get away from all that noise.

Vivian kept walking through the town, passing by all the vacant shops. Soon, she reached the end of the market district, following a path out of the town. After wandering along the path a couple minutes longer, this path surrounded by trees opened back up and brought her out to a distinct cliff that the town had called Sharpedo Bluff. Vivian never knew what kind of Pokemon lived here long in the past, or why they had carved out the bluff's face in the shape of a Sharpedo. It didn't quite matter, so long as she had it to herself in the wee hours of the night. As the Eevee reached the cliff, she went off the path. She headed over towards a pile of leaves that was behind the nearby town banner.

She walked over and knelt down, gripping some of the leaves in her mouth. It had taken Vivian ages to knit and bend together the leaves to make a covering that would hide her secret entrance, but it was well worth the effort. The Eevee pulled the covering of leaves off to the side, and walked down the staircase. At the bottom of the stairs was the room that she had come to play and hide in at various times in her childhood, within the caved-out interior of the Sharpedo's mouth. Through the stone beast's maw, past its jagged rocky teeth, Vivian could look out across the beach below and the ocean stretching out into the horizon.

I know he doesn't really like it… Vivian started to think to herself as she looked out over the view. ...but I think Dad won't get too mad if I just rest here for a while. Maybe I can try to get back before he even notices that I'm gone. Yeah, that should work. She rationalized to herself, smiling as she settled on that flimsy idea. She laid her head down, yawning, watching the dark waves crash up against the bluff below her. The waves seemed a bit more active tonight, but she wasn't too concerned with it. As she laid there, watching and listening to the waves, she felt her eyes grow heavy, and she slowly drifted off into slumber.

CRACK!

Vivian yelped loudly as she was startled awake. On instinct, her fur puffed up to fend off whatever force had started her panic, as she looked around frantically. The calm night sky had been replaced with a thunderstorm at dawn, the first crack of which had shocked her awake in an instant. Well great, now I'll be all wet when I get home, and there's no good way to explain that to Dad… she thought, annoyed as she watched the rain. She jumped once the second thunderbolt crashed down, unable to calm her nerves just yet. I guess I'll wait a bit and see if it calms down at all. She settled herself back into her spot in the bluff, looking out at the storm raging just outside of her comfy den, flinching slightly at each thunderbolt. Vivian never feared lightning or storms, but the force crashing down on the open sea in front of her was enough to inspire some worry.

As she watched the rain, her eyes wandered over towards the beach on the bluff's left, and something caught her eye. There was some sort of shape in the sand that wasn't there before. Vivian stood up and looked closer, then gasped. Someone washed up on the beach! Do I…? In the brief moment, Vivian thought of who she could go to, with the town still asleep and the things that could happen when going out in a thunderstorm, but she watched the motionless figure on the beach and quelled her fears. She would go out to get them herself.

Vivian backed away from the Sharpedo's maw and quickly left the bluff's interior, still able to follow the path into and out of town by heart in the storm. She found herself sprinting through the marketplace, almost skidding to a stop as she reached the crossroads at the center of town, and made a hard right towards the descending path to the sea below. The rain poured down and the wind howled on the young Eevee's fur as she went, shaking and stirring her body, but not able to break her resolve to retrieve the stranger on the beach. Another bolt of lightning struck in the near distance, and Vivian flinched, still making her dash towards the ocean. Finally, she reached the bottom of the rocky staircase on the cliffside, and her paws hit the sand, not stopping her stride as she approached the stranger.

The figure was a Riolu, seemingly unharmed, but unconscious and dirtied from the storm. She was more apparently a female up close, similar in age to Vivian. Next to the Riolu was a soaked and stained bag, still holding strong with whatever it contained.

Please don't be dead… Vivian thought as she leaned down to put her ear against the Riolu's chest. She waited, having to steady her own breath and not distract herself, until she could hear a heartbeat and the slow but calm breathing of the Riolu. Vivian sighed in relief, happy to know that this stranger wasn't lost. The Riolu suddenly began to stir, and Vivian backed off to give her some space.

The Riolu gradually rose to her feet, groaning. She put a paw on her forehead, seeming to steady herself and gather her bearings, as she looked over to the Eevee next to her. "Hey! Uhm, are you feeling alright?" Vivian asked, as the Riolu gave her a confused stare.

"I think I'm alright… just… feel very tired.." The Riolu responded, putting her paw back down and huffing with exhaustion.

"Can you walk? We should probably get you out of the rain," Vivian said, looking around for somewhere they could go for shelter, and seeing the small cave on the beach. "That cave should do fine until the rain dies down." The Riolu followed her gaze. As she looked back to Vivian, she spotted the bag on the ground next to her, grabbing it with a paw.

"Is this mine?" She asked, looking over at the Eevee.

"Uh, I would assume so? Come on, let's get moving." The Riolu nodded in response, though she was clearly still a bit dazed. She got up and was shaky for a second, but quickly steadied herself. They both took off towards the cave, taking shelter within it.

The cave was fairly large and seemed to go deeper underground, but the two stopped right on the inside of the entrance. Vivian came to a halt as they got safely inside, shaking some of the rain out of her fur now that she was back in relative comfort.

"We could go deeper in, but I think we're clear from the rain right here. Let's rest for the moment," Vivian said, turning around. The Riolu was fiddling with the latch of her bag on the floor, still watching the rain outside as she did so, as Vivian took her first good look at the stranger. Her fur had sand muddied into it from her time on the shoreline, and she was soaked from head to toe, not that her behavior would imply it. This Riolu had extra fur that stood up a bit on the top of her head, and there was one tuft that hung idly over her right eye. On the back of her head was another mess of fur, longer and more wavy than the rest.

"So what happened to you? How'd you end up washed up on the beach like that?" Vivian came and sat beside the girl, watching her paws tug on the bag's latch.

"I… don't know. I don't remember." The Riolu frowned and kept her eyes on the bag, occasionally looking back to the Eevee. Vivian was perplexed by the comment... she didn't remember? How long was she unconscious for?

"Well, what's the last thing you DO remember?" Vivian tilted her head, trying to humor the odd girl.

"I…" The Riolu sighed, hanging her head as she came to a conclusion. "Nothing. It's all blank, except for waking up on the beach just now." She closed her eyes, then looked over at the Eevee with a defeated expression.

"Wait… you mean you have amnesia?" Vivian shot up with bewilderment and concern, moving closer to the Riolu. "Do you at least remember your name?"

"No…" The Riolu said, looking over at the bag. "This should be mine, right?" She asked again, her right paw running along the handle of the bag.

"Should be... maybe we can look inside, and see if anything jogs your memory. Is that alright?" The Riolu nodded, undoing the latch that was keeping it closed and flipping it open. She peered down into the bag, seeing an assortment of items. The bag was moderately filled with things that explorers frequently carried: Blast Seeds, Sleep Seeds, some Iron Thorns, and a gross, mushed pile of what must have once been berries. The ocean had thoroughly drenched and mangled seemingly everything the bag had held onto so well.

"Wow, you have a lot of exploration tools in here," Vivian said as they continued to go through the items. "How in the world does an Iron Thorn manage to snap in two, though?! Those things can pierce Steel-types!" Vivian commented as she looked over the throwing weapon they had just pulled out. The Riolu nodded again quietly, continuing to dig through the bag.

"Huh… this seems different," the Riolu said, pulling a small circular object out of the bag. Vivian grew alert as she saw it, her ears flicking up in surprise.

"That's an explorer's badge!" Vivian exclaimed, getting up and getting closer to take a better look. On its sides, the badge bore pale yellow protrusions that were shaped like wings, their material eroded from the turbulence of the ocean waves. At the top was a knob with the same coloration as the wings, likely for hanging onto a thread to be worn on the body, but misshapen and bent from damage to the point that it was unusable. A horizontal line went through the circle's middle, interrupted on the front by a round red crystal of some kind. The crystal itself was cracked and chipped in various spots, ready to shatter further if it was pressed on.

"Explorer's badge?" The Riolu blinked, looking over the badge in her hand. She then looked over to the Eevee, who had grown cheery from the sight of it.

"Yeah! It's pretty damaged, though… I don't think the core would even function." Vivian motioned to the shattered red object in the center of the badge. "Normally, you can scan a badge to find out who it belongs to, but… sorry. I guess I shouldn't have expected it to endure the ocean."

"I see." The Riolu's ears lowered with some disappointment from the explanation, causing the Eevee to respond quickly as she noticed.

"Do you remember what the explorers are?" The Riolu shook her head, and Vivian continued. "I thought so. Anyways, that badge is the same kind of badge used by explorers. The explorers are a group of Pokemon that, well, explore places and find the secrets and wonders of the world. But they do so much more than that, too! They keep the towns safe… they keep the businesses running with supplies and protection… and they stop criminals wherever they might show up!" The firm tone and confident smile that Vivian now displayed made it clear to the Riolu that this girl had a passion for this world of exploration. She couldn't help but smile back as she indulged in the deluge of information.

"There's a number of explorer guilds all throughout Eudria, and they use those badges to show who's an official explorer. You don't want bandits to go around tricking people, after all!" The Riolu nodded as she took in the information. Vivian soon came down from the high of her delighted explanation, seeming to grow a bit more bashful while she resumed normal conversation with her newfound companion.

"Anyways... if you have a badge and all of these supplies, then you've gotta be an explorer!" Vivian nodded her head proudly with the realization, while the Riolu looked back over at the badge, tilting her head in thought. She was an explorer? She certainly had the supplies and the tools to justify it. But what kind of explorer ends up in a situation like this? On a whim, she decided to flip the badge over, frowning and studying what she saw on the back.

"Hey, look at this," The Riolu said, showing the Eevee what she saw on the back of the badge, as Vivian moved closer to the girl. There, on the back of the badge, was a carving of a single word: FERA. "What do you think it is?"

"Well..." Vivian pondered, trying to recall if she had ever heard a word like that. There was no space left for a missing 'L', so it couldn't be 'feral', but what else would it be? Suddenly, an idea came to her. "It's not any word I recognize… is it a name?"

"A name?" The Riolu asked, looking at the letters carved into the badge. It certainly sounded like it could be a name.

"Yeah. I don't think I've ever heard of any explorers doing that with their badge, but I guess it kind of makes sense to do? That way, if you lost it, someone would know who to return it too. It's missing the last name though, which is a problem," Vivian said, resting beside the Riolu while she mulled it over.

The Riolu thought it over, her eyes staying fixed on the decaying badge, wondering what history was being lost on her. "Does that mean it's my name? Am I… Fera?"

"Maybe. If this is your bag with your badge, it would make sense to have your name on it for safekeeping." Vivian stepped away, no longer feeling the need to lean over and watch the badge. "But… even if it's not your name, maybe we could use it for the time being. If someone recognizes the badge or the name, that'll be our lead on what happened to you." The Riolu nodded once more, letting the name settle on herself.

"Then… I'll be happy to be Fera." The Riolu smiled with some relief- a little scrap of identity was better than none at all, she supposed. Fera deposited the badge in her bag and closed it back up, as her eyes drifted to the landscape outside the cave entrance. The storm outside had died down to a gentle drizzle, and the town up on the cliffs was visible to the duo now. Vivian took the moment to shake the rainwater out of her fur while Fera looked over to her. "Who are you, anyways? We've spent this time trying to figure out who I am, but I don't even know who you are."

"Oh, right, sorry! I'm Vivian! I live right near here, in Treasure Town." The Eevee raised a paw, pointing to the small portions of the marketplace that could be seen from where they sat. "There's a guild right there, so when you're ready, we can go and see if they can help you out at all!" Vivian said with a smile on her face.

"There's a guild right near where I ended up?"

"Yeah! Guilds are all around the world, but we're lucky to be right next to one here in Treasure Town," Vivian said, then thought over her comments further and spoke again. "Oh, you're… probably not from that guild, if that's what you meant. I've never seen you working in it or spotted you around town."

"Well, that's fine. I guess any guild is better than no guild, right?" Fera smiled at the girl, prompting her to smile back.

"Right." Vivian turned and came closer to the entrance to get a good look at the rain. "This is probably as clear as the weather is gonna get for a while, so we should probably just go." She looked back to Fera, who quickly stood up and plucked her bag from the cavern floor.

The two stepped out onto the darkened sand, Vivian still looking up as they left to observe the weather. The storm that had startled her before had been reduced to a calm and gentle rainfall, soon to be nothing more than clouds parting over the morning sky. Fera's tail idly wagged as she strolled out after Vivian's lead.

"It's actually kind of relaxing now." The Riolu enjoyed the sound of the rain and the way it washed over her, making some of the sand drip out of her fur, as her tail wagged slowly.

"We don't want to stick around in it for too long though," Vivian said, picking up her pace a bit and Fera doing so as well. "Wouldn't want to get sick or something." The girl trotted across the shoreline, still working off some of the sluggishness from her interrupted sleep. However, as she looked back to check on Fera, she noticed that her companion was still walking at a more leisurely pace behind her.

"The air is so fresh here. And the wind is pleasant, too. Even just being in the rain feels good." Fera swayed her arms from side to side and smiled at Vivian, who paused to let the Riolu catch up with her. "It's a little slice of paradise."

"You've only seen the beach. Wait until you get to the town and the outskirts, too. Oh, and the cafe!" Vivian giggled with slight amusement as she shared her new friend's delighted demeanor, beginning to walk again. "But, for now, let's get going to the guild. My dad's probably mad I stayed out so late, and I don't wanna keep him waiting much longer."

Fera nodded, snapping herself out of her daze and starting to jog ahead of Vivian, toward the path leading up along the cliffs. "Alright! To the guild!"

"F-Fera! Wait, I need to show you where to go!" The Eevee hurriedly followed after her, the two girls now sprinting up the rocky path and onward to Treasure Town...

I hope you all enjoyed it! Please leave any feedback, but keep it constructive please.

If you want the join the discord for this project, you can PM me and I'll help you out. Its pretty active, since a lot of people from the comic days are there. Its also just a pretty fun place to hang out.

No schedule for the next release as Xeta is still busy and ofAddict is going on a trip soon.