Chapter 3 - Blending In

All things considered, the rest of the night was exactly what I needed: a peaceful time to decompress.

Nuzleaf had led me to his humble abode, a two-room wooden thatch house located at the back of the village. It was a very simple living space, but it had a roof and water and a place to sit and sleep. It was enough, if not everything. He set up a bed for me in the second room after moving some storage crates out of it, which I wasted no time getting comfortable in. It had gotten too late to do anything else, so we both just went to bed once it got dark.

Part of me wanted to stay awake. It was the same part of me that kept running through the same questions in my head about who I was, why I was here, how I was here, how I was a Snivy… and again and again, keeping me awake until I decided I was too tired to care.

When Nuzleaf woke me the next morning, it took longer than it should've to realize I hadn't dreamt it all.

"Wh—hm?" I mumbled, rubbing my eyes. I was still groggy, and hadn't quite heard him.

"That's quite right," Nuzleaf continued. "If you're gonna be stayin' with me from here on out until you find out what happened to your memories, you're gonna need to live as a member of Serene Village, kiddo. And that includes goin' to school when you're of age, just as I did."

I wasn't totally sure I was comfortable barging into a school for Pokemon as though I were just another normal student…

But it made sense. I needed to blend in. I needed to meet people. And I also needed to learn.

"Alright, youngin'," he told me as he prepared to walk out the door. "I'm goin' to the school to sign you up real quick, and I reckon you'll be certified to join the classroom by tomorrow."

I nodded my head as I swallowed the last oran berry that Nuzleaf had produced for our breakfast.

"Now listen here kiddo," he said in a stern tone and with slightly-narrowed eyes. "Try not to get into some kinda trouble while I'm gone. For your own safety, I reckon you'd best stay here."

"Yes sir," I said. "I can do that."

Nuzleaf nodded at this and walked out the door without another word.

And just like that, I was all alone for the very first time I could remember.

With nothing else to do, I decided I'd make use of my time to analyze my own body. I was, undoubtedly, a Snivy; no trace of my past human self was left behind barring the very knowledge that I was once a human. Of all things, what an odd thing to remember!

Regardless, I believed it. I knew it was true. It wasn't even a debate my mind would allow me to have. How I wished anything, any memory at all of who I was, could have been retained with the same potency as this one.

It was starting to become clear that my amnesia would not be overcome with patience alone.

Looking around the room, I sighed. I suppose I'd better get used to this body then...

I felt an itching sensation at my collar and obliged a muscle that yearned to be flexed.

Now let's see about these "vines"…

Trying to move both at once was an unruly task, but after a few minutes of experimentation, I managed to balance them enough to start performing basic tasks. Picking up objects was simple enough; setting them back down was even simpler.

I was even able to recreate the whipping motion that had nearly whacked Nuzleaf's "leaf" off the day before, this time on my own terms. A crack echoed through the house. Then another, and another.

"Maybe I can make this work..."

When one particular vine whip sounded different, I froze—and yet, the new sound persisted. Outside my window, a bush rustled and scraped against the house, jostled by the wind.

Except, there was no wind. I swallowed, still frozen in the middle of the room. Those—what were they called? Beeheyem? They were still at large, and, as far as I knew, could have followed me here easily. Nuzleaf had told me not to leave, but this was no small matter. I had to take a look.

I poked my head outside cautiously, looking left first toward the noise, and then right. Nothing.

Tentative steps outside followed. The window in the room was on the opposite side of the house, so that wasn't good enough. Clinging to the wall and inching towards the back, I got far enough to where I could barely crane my neck around to see the window.

I was a stranger to this world, but I'd already seen enough shrubbery to know that bushes were not meant to be orange and yellow. A flash of bright colors leaped out of the bush the moment it saw me, confirming the worst: I had been found already.

I stumbled back off the wall. I had one attempt to line myself up for a decisive vine whip, and blew it when my leg got caught on something. Next thing I knew, I was staring at the sky, laying on my back, still scrambling to find a target and attack. I wasn't about to—

"Yes! I knew it!"

A voice, I hadn't been expecting. Excitement even less so. I finally collected myself enough to determine the source of the voice. There stood a Fennekin with the most gleeful look on her face. She bounced up and down as though a fire was lit under her feet. She approached with little hesitation; normally something I'd consider threatening, if not for her friendly smile. She was just an adolescent like me, it seemed.

"I knew I saw a new kid come to town!" she continued. Breathing between sentences seemed to be a foreign concept for her. "What's your name?"

I picked myself up, dusted myself off, and tried to act like I hadn't just tripped over myself in an attempt to run away.

"Uhh, hi. Hello. I'm—"

"I'm Leah!" She pointed to the house next to Nuzleaf's. "That's my house! I live there with my old pops. He's a little grouchy sometimes, but everyone warms up to him eventually."

Then she turned to me, balanced on her hind legs, and grabbed me by both shoulders. "What about you? I saw you come home with Nuzleaf yesterday. There's no way you're his, like, child-child right? Or do you not want to tell me?"

In a way, this was almost worse. The Beeheyem were no joke, but I outran them. I wasn't sure I was getting away from this. Still, I resolved to gather my wits and make a good first impression. That meant leaving out as many details as I could.

"N-no," I said. "Nuzleaf has… adopted me. I'm staying with him for the time being."

I held out a vine in greeting—the same vine I'd nearly whipped her with earlier.

"I'm Sage. It's nice to meet you, Leah," I said, flashing her a smile.

She returned it and shook the vine in an awkward motion—only, she never let go. "Come on! This is your first time here, so I'm gonna show you around!"

I knew it was risky. But, oh... whatever. I was planning on looking around at some point anyway, albeit I had planned to wait until Nuzleaf got back. But—hey! Does she really have to pull so hard?

We reached the plaza, and I got a close-up view of what I'd seen from a distance the day before. The village center was really nothing impressive—just an open circular area with a few small businesses established on its edges. I got a better look at the lake, though, which looked like a great swimming spot… for Pokemon that enjoy swimming, which I entirely wasn't sure applied to me anyway.

"That's Kecleon's shop there!" Leah hollered. "And that's Hawlucha's shop! That's the gate leading to the wild! And that's the café! And..."

She stopped, and looked at me.

"You think I'm annoying don't you?" she said with a straight face.

The question was so sudden that it came off as interconnected with the rest of her rambling, and I didn't quite register it until a few awkward seconds of silence had passed. Unfortunately, I should've known better than to show this girl any hesitation to respond to her, as she again spoke up before I could utter a word.

"You're totally thinking about how annoying I am right now, aren't you?" she continued. Then she brushed it off with a laugh. "Well sheesh! Give me a break you big Miltank!"

She smiled a big smile at me, expecting some sort of reaction. I stared awkwardly back at her, uncertain of what I could possibly say to put the conversation back on track.

Didn't this girl have friends she'd rather be doing this kind of thing with?

"There you are you little punk!"

"Eep! Is that—ah, it's Lombre!" Leah squealed and tried to hide behind me. Naturally, no angle would suffice; I was far too thin to actually hide her.

"I finally found you, you little troublemaker!" Lombre bellowed. "About my lotuses! You were playing in my lotus pond, weren't you?"

"...Oh. My fault," Leah replied. "I was just trying to see how many I could light on fire without getting w—"

"Leah! Stop! Right! Zere! You pest!" another voice called with a tone similar to Lombre's. The voice quickly revealed itself from a different angle as a Hippopotas. "Did you steal ze treasures I stored in ze back of my cave? Ah, what kind of question is that? Of course it had to have been you!"

The poor Fennekin, now unable to continue to poorly hide herself behind me, walked out to explain herself.

"Well... You gotta have a reward for clearing a dungeon, right?" she squeaked, putting up a halfhearted grin hoping to get on the raging hippo's good side.

The Hippopotas scowled at her excuse, but before he could go any further, yet another voice that was louder than the rest roared Leah's name. I glanced back and forth between the parties.

How many Pokemon has she pissed off? Is all of this normal?

A large turtle Pokemon stomped over to where we were standing.

"P-Pops... heh," Leah stuttered. "I was just showing my new friend around the village."

The large Carracosta didn't buy it. "Loitering around the village instead of doing your chores, it seems? Yesterday's chores, might I add! You're in big trouble if those don't get done by this evening!" His shadow loomed over us, but he wasn't finished. "As for the meantime, I suggest you explain why you were eating the Oran berries out of my field again!"

Leah shot back at him: "I was not!"

"You were!"

"Was not!"

"Do I look like a fool to you, child?"

"…You look like a Miltank."

"Watch that tongue of yours, or you'll be using it to clean the dishes," her pops threatened. "Now I want the truth from you!"

The Fennekin clicked her tongue. "Fiiiine, I ate a few of them… They were delicious though!"

Hippopotas, Lombre, and her pops were all burning holes through her skull with their collective fiery gaze, while I stood next to her with a dumbstruck expression painted on my face.

She seemed to realize we were all staring at her, and the transformation on her face revealed how she slowly pieced together that she was in big trouble. Then, "Gotta go!"

The Carracosta didn't even get a chance to take a step forward before Leah had spun around and fled back away from the plaza.

"You can't hide forever troublemaker!" Lombre called after her as the three of them gave chase.

Wow. I'm glad that's over.

A few Pokemon still stared, but most had already lost interest. The village fell back into its usual flow as I stood silently in the center.

I'm just gonna pretend the last five minutes never happened.

I was planning on exploring the rest of the village some more. I was out here already, and there was seemingly no danger afoot; getting acclimated quickly was my next move.

Within seconds of glancing around, I spotted something worthy of attention: two Pokemon around my age arguing about something next to the large gate. The Shelmet and Deerling did not seem to even notice the commotion in the plaza at all.

"I wonder what that was about," a feminine voice softly spoke behind me.

I jolted in surprise—another voice out of nowhere. I turned around and was met with a gray feline Pokemon. She seemed totally normal besides the gaze that somehow casually appeared like it could pierce the soul.

"Pardon me," she giggled. "My name is Espurr. I overheard that Nuzleaf brought in someone new to the village. I'm assuming that would be you?"

I nodded my head. Finally, someone normal.

"H-hi. My name is Sage. It's nice to meet you Espurr," I said, tentatively shaking her paw with my vine.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance as well." She gestured toward the entrance to the village. "If you're new, I can show you around the area a bit. I'd like to see what those two are up to first, so you're welcome to tag along."

I glanced between her and the opened gate. It took a few seconds, but I relented. "…Why not. I have nothing better to do."

"You're such an asshole Pancham!" Deerling cried. "How could you trick Goomy into entering the Foreboding Forest like that?"

The panda Pokemon tsked at her, waving his finger. Shelmet, now beside Pancham, laughed in the face of the same force of rage that had just been chewing him out when he was without his big-talk partner.

"Your pal Goomy went in there by his own free will," Pancham said. "He tried to tell us about how big and tough he was, and now look what happened."

"I doubt that!" Deerling yelled at them. "You two are always bullying him because he's the only other guy in our class! He's not even as old as us, and you still tease him all the time!"

"Reee-lax," Pancham sneered. "If he's as big and strong as he says, he'll be fine, right?"

Deerling looked about ready to burst with rage. I was halfway primed to jump in and break up a fight.

She spoke slowly. "Go in there and get him. Or I will do it myself." Neither of them moved. Upon seeing this, she stepped forward. "Fine then. I'll go."

"No!" Pancham and Shelmet both exclaimed at the same time. They blocked her path into the forest and forced her back. "No, it's too dangerous for you!"

"Are you idiots patronizing me?"

Pancham and Shelmet shared a glance.

"Ugh!" Deerling stomped her foot. "You two are despicable! If none of us are going, then who do you think is?"

Espurr and I had watched for at least five minutes at that point. Finally, she'd heard enough.

"Let me guess," an indifferent Espurr said. "Goomy's lost in the forest and you need someone to get him back."

Deerling nodded while Pancham and Shelmet held in laughter.

"We'll get him," I suddenly spoke up and stared at Pancham. "—since you aren't willing to."

"Pfft. So, who is this dude anyway?" Pancham sneered, taking a step closer. Deerling met him halfway, and shoved him back next to Shelmet with her front hoof. Then she turned to us.

"Are you sure?" Deerling asked. "You know we're not allowed in the Foreboding Forest Espurr, and then there's you. Uh…"

"I'm Sage."

"…'Sage'." She tried the name out with a slight frown. "You're new. You should know that it can get dangerous in there—"

"Actually," Pancham cut in. "It shouldn't be so bad for a grass-type. Nature harmonizes with nature and all that jazz." He stared at me and smiled. "You'll probably be just fine in there."

Deerling shot a heated glare back in his direction, then turned to me. "Ignore him. It gets pretty dark in there, and there are territorial Pokemon to look out for as well. Be careful."

"Shall we then?" Espurr said.

I gave Pancham the same cold stare that Deerling had given him. "Yeah."