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. My first assumption was that I'd fallen asleep, although how or why were unanswerable questions.

Strikingly enough, it was the memory loss that hit me well before anything else. I couldn't remember a single detail about the last time I was awake, and that reality was an ever-present concern from the first moment I'd been awake—or as far as my memory was concerned, the first moment I'd been alive.

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 shake off. My body felt unnatural, like it had no shape. Unfamiliar, even without memories to compare to. Everything felt out of place.

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 uncanny feeling in my limbs 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.

…

…Where even am I?

My head on a swivel, I evaluated my surroundings. The pond sat under a cliff 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.

I… don't know this place.

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.

First the first time, I spoke in a voice that somehow wasn't mine. "What the hell is this?"

I tried to reach down and 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'd been gifted 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…!"

More urgently now, I tried to recall what could've caused such a thing to happen. It was no use.

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, never actually experienced them. All I could reach was my previous status as a human and another word that refused to leave my head.

Sage.

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

My thoughts were interrupted by a 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 with a pensive frown. "Do you know where I am—?"

I hardly had the mind to dodge the blow that was thrown my way. 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, with a sound somewhere between a grunt and a yelp of fear, I sprinted away from the clearing as fast as I could, cutting through bushes until I reached what seemed to be a forest trail. 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 use—after only a few seconds of running. I was living in an agile body, but I didn't know how to use it.

Relief washed over me when I caught sight of another Pokemon in my path, evidently another 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, already breathing 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.

The three strange Pokemon revealed themselves before I could elaborate any further. 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. "Let's get outta here kid, holy smokes!"

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, many minutes, we ran straight down the path without pause. Even when the sight of the rouge attackers had disappeared beyond the treeline, we did not slow down.

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 feels real.

More minutes of this mental spiral would commence before I finally got a chance to relax. 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."

"Th-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 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 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 stomping his foot. He wore a condescending look on his face.

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

I shook my head at him, and took a moment to clear my throat. "No, I'm… no," I said. "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 before like ten minutes ago. I—" I scanned the treeline. Still 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 little ways south of where I live." The Pokemon tilted his head. "You uh… said you can't remember a thing?"

I stared at him. It sounded about as ridiculous as I could've imagined.

"All I remember is what I'm pretty sure is my name, Sage, and that I used to be a human," I said. "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 oughta try usin' those vines of yours instead of your hand," he said, rubbing his chin. "Grass Pokemon who have vines typically prefer 'em."

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 brought it down a little too quickly, sending a wave of energy through the flexible appendage and whipping the air a half-inch above Nuzleaf's leaf-hair.

Crack!

"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 supports what you been trying to say to me, so I do suppose I'll go out on a limb and ah… believe your story."

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, was 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 yet.

Can this day get any weirder?

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 was enough to send a shiver down my spine.

Nuzleaf heard it too. "Crapfire!" he hissed under his breath. "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 heard him; I was absolutely spent. The rest of my trip through the forest had been a tumble. I'd wretched a few times to the point where if I had any food in my stomach I undoubtedly would've left it behind. 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. This was about survival, and 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.