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Well, here it is. Chapter 2. Chapter 1 and 2 should be out on the same day, with hopefully a week between uploads. Nothing is set in stone, so it's likely going to change down the line. Lastly, i would HIGHLY appreciate reviews, positive or negative, short or long, any of them are VERY welcome.
Beta read by; Digital_Acid
Anyways, here's chapter 2 of Loss of Identity
Chapter 2: Wake up Call
North Mist Continent
It was a fairly warm day for the northern Mist Continent. It was high noon, and the sun, in a fairly high point in the sky was beating down on the land, allowing the sparse northern foliage to grow. The melting snow combined with the sheer amount of sunlight made for a great day for the plants. It was even warm out in general, being around 15 degree Celsius.
A trail, not more than maybe 15 feet wide, cut through the field, and went from north to south. It wasn't very well worn, and was hardly more than matted down grass. Despite this, it was still a path, and one of the only routes this far north on the continent.
As the day progressed, however, a lone Eevee trotted along slowly, enjoying the nice weather and sights of the snow peaked mountains in the distance. It was a cathartic experience, and one she wouldn't have traded for the world.
As she walked along, the Eevee stopped to take a drink out of a small canteen she had packed for the trip, before filling it up at a small stream on the side of the path.
After the canteen was full, she stopped and dug through her treasure bag for a map. It was a standard map. One you could easily purchase for around 300 Poké just about anywhere on the continent. It was well worn, however, and had small notes scrawled on it about the region. In the corner was a signature, reading; 'Brandon Servine.'
The Eevee had purchased the map from a pair of retired explorers, a Raichu and a Servine, as they had long since upgraded to the standard issue connection orbs. The Eevee, however, never had one. They were still quite expensive, at almost 10000 poké, and you needed to be a registered team to buy them anyways.
She scanned the map, and eventually found her location. She was close to the "Gooey Bog" dungeon, maybe a day's travel, and about 3 days from her destination, Frosted Village, a small town near the Meteorite Crater dungeon built around an Icy Rock.
Frosted Village was a small village in the mountains, run by some old Eeveelution siblings, an Espeon and an Umbreon. The village was quite small, and had a population made up entirely of Eevee and Eeveelutions.
The young Eevee packed up her bag, and continued to walk along the winding route as the day progressed, occasionally stopping for a drink, or to check her map again.
Eventually, however, something of note did happen.
She had been walking alongside a taller patch of grass when she noticed something in it.
Just laying there was another Eevee, that had no supplies, nothing around it… it was alone, and by the looks of the grass, it almost looked like it fell out of the sky.
'That's odd… wild Eevee don't live around here…' She thought, as she approached the sleeping Eevee cautiously.
The sleeping Eevee was male, and had a distinct lack of injuries or matted down fur, or anything of the sort. He looked unusually clean for someone who had just been sleeping there.
Against her better judgement, she shook the sleeping Eevee a bit. "Hey, wake up!" She said, a bit louder than she may have wanted.
The sleeping Eevee stirred for a minute, before he mumbled "Yeah yeah, my alarm isn't off yet… go away Mom…"
'Well at least he can talk' the female Eevee thought, as she tried again to shake him awake.
"WAKE UP!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, as she tackled herself into him.
As she crashed into the sleeping Eevee, he let out a yelp. "Agh! Ok ok I'm up! Jesus! Give me a minute to… sleep…" he said, loudly at first, before transitioning to a tone of surprise.
"What the…" He mumbled under his breath as he got a good look around.
A sunny sky greeted him, as well as grass, distant mountains… and an Eevee, staring at him confusedly.
"Are you ok?" The Eevee staring at him asked, as she looked at him
"I...yeah… I'm good, just… wow. Nice dream." He stopped for a moment. "Wow, good job brain. Photorealistic world, AND its lucid? Shit, how good can it get? I'm gonna savour this." The Eevee said, as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"Umm… you're really weird. Can I ask your name?" She said, looking at him even more confused.
"Oh, sorry about that. I'm Ian! Nice to meet you!" He said, a large smile on his face. "Now, what species am I… an Eevee? Sick." He said quietly, while looking over himself.
"What's your name?" Ian asked, looking at her happily.
"Oh, um… it's Ava." She said, looking at the odd Eevee as he looked at himself closely
"Nice to meet you Ava!" 'Wow, new original names too? Good job brain. You get a bucket of blueberries next weekend.'
"Umm… what are you doing?" Ava asked curiously.
"Looking myself over. See, I'm not actually an Eevee, I'm a human. Or, at least, was a human. No clue what happened. I went to sleep last night like usual, and just woke up here. I'm honestly probably dreaming still." Ian said,
"You… you're just a normal Eevee, though." She said, as she looked at him.
"Yeah… I do fit the bill pretty good, eh? Anyways, can you please help me get up? I, uh, don't exactly know how to stand on 4 legs. Or walk. Or, actually, you don't have to if you don't want to. I don't wanna be rude to you, Ava."
"No, no, it's fine." She said, sort of breaking out of her confusion and walking over to Ian.
Ava helped him stand up by nudging her snout under his belly, and letting him stand there for a moment, before he fell back down again.
"Oof. That's ok, I can get it." He said, before trying to stand up again. After a couple of tries, he got it, and tried taking a step, before falling over again.
"Do you… want anymore help?" She said, stepping forward again.
"No no, it's fine. I just gotta…" he stood up again, and tried taking a step, not falling over this time. "Jesus, this is really trippy. My centre of balance is all wrong, and my fucking bone structure is WAY off. I'm having a hard time doing anything here."
Ava sighed. "Well, once you're done here, you can leave your little grass nest, come with me, I guess. I'm just travelling, and since you're another Eevee, you can come with me. Just don't try anything.
"Yup! I will!" Ian said gleefully, as he slowly hobbled out behind her, and onto the trail.
As Ian slowly trudged out of the grass and onto the road, he was able to get a better look at where he was. It was almost like a large valley between mountain ranges, with a road that stretched in either direction for what seemed like forever.
"Jesus, this place is beautiful. Where is this?" He said, completely ignoring the fact that he fell over yet again.
"The northwestern Mist Continent. Its honestly pretty nice out here." Ava responded, as she packed her stuff back up. "So what's your story really? No way you're an actual human. There hasn't been one in 6 years, and even then that one was planned by some legendary during the Dark Matter Crisis." She said, as she slung the treasure bag around her back.
He thought for a moment. 'Mist Continent and post Dark Matter Crisis. I must be in the games world. That should be nice. But 6 years ago was super, so that means I don't have foresight or anything.' He thought, as he picked himself up yet again.
"Uh, you gonna respond or…?"
"Oh sorry, I was just thinking. But no, seriously. I am a human. Why would I be out here without supplies, acting like this is a dream, which might I add, this is probably a dream, and without any knowledge or ability to use a quadruped body correctly?" Ian said, as he turned his head to face her.
"Well, uh, I don't know, to trick someone? Then again, there aren't bandits on this road, so… yeah. But… you don't seem that bad." She let out a small laugh. "You just seem kinda… odd… but not in a bad way… I guess?" She said, looking at him and smiling.
"Thanks, that's legitimately one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me." His voice lowered a bit. "Thank you." He went back to normal. "Well what about you, Ava? What brings you all the way out here?"
"I was travelling somewhere."
"Where's that?"
"Frosted village. It's a small village in this mountain range made up entirely of Eevee and their evolutions. Seeing as you clearly don't have a home or anything here, you wanna come with me?" She said, looking him in the eyes when she asked the question.
He managed to stand up properly again without teetering. "Yeah! Sounds nice! I love mountain ranges! The beautiful sights and scenery, the wildlife, everything is so nice! And since I'm an Eevee now, I would fit right in!" He said jovially.
"I mean, with you being a human and all, combined with that weird step you have," she paused for a moment as Ian tried to take another step, barely landing it properly, "You might have a hard time. But I mean, you'll adjust just fine!"
"Thanks." He said, taking another step, this time with his back legs, before the buckled out again sending him to the ground.
"Here, I got you." She said, picking Ian up the same way as earlier with her snout, and setting him on his legs again.
"Again, thanks. You don't know how hard this is." He said, as a small blush crept its way onto his face, hidden by the new coat of fur. The moment he noticed it, he seemed to freeze as a slight onset of panic set in. 'What the hell? That… wasn't me… was it? Is it this new body? I… this is just a dream. Just a dream. I'm not actually an Eevee, right?'
"You ok? You kinda zoned out for a second." Ava asked, a hint of concern entering her voice.
"Huh? Oh, I'm… fine." His demeanor changed right after this back to cheerful. "Anyways, you want to get going?"
"Yeah, lets go!" She said, a sense of bravado entering her voice as she started walking down the trail.
"Wait up!" Ian called, as the 2 of them continued walking north.
They had been travelling for a few hours through the land, at a consistent, but slow pace due to Ian constantly falling over. At first, Ava ignored it, but eventually couldn't help but chuckle at it every time it happened.
"You know, it's not really that hard once you get into rhythm" she said, holding back another smile at his shenanigans.
"Yeah yeah yeah, I know I know. It's just kinda hard. You try going from something with 2 legs to something only a foot tall and 4 legs. It's hard." Ian said, as he brought himself back up again.
"Yeah, ok, Mr Human." Ava laughed, as she helped him up again.
The two of them continued to travel for a few more hours, until eventually the sun began to set on the horizon between the snow capped mountains.
"You wanna stop here? We can stay near that tree over there." Ava asked, pointing with her snout to a nearby tree, as Ian caught up to her.
"Yeah sure, sounds good to me." He said, tripping again. His fur around his stomach was all dirty and knotted from the constant tripping, and Ava had long since stopped helping him up because of it.
"Here, you wanna go find something to eat?" She asked innocently
"You mean like apples or something?"
"No, like, a wild Rattata or Patrat or something."
"I… can't do that. Sorry. Humans don't exactly, uh, eat raw meat. Can you please do it? I can just… set up here.. please?" Ian said, avoiding her stare.
Ava sighed. "Yeah, I guess. You humans are weird."
"Well, we, you know, cook the food first. It's sanitary, and tastes better."
"Suit yourself. I'm gonna be back in a few minutes. If I get back and you've stolen my stuff, I will find you." She said, before walking off into the tall grass
Ian walked around under the tree a bit, before settling on a smoother part between roots. 'You know, this situation is one of 3 things. A dream, real, or some shitty fanfiction, and I don't know what's worse. I assume it's a dream, but… something about it… whatever. I can find out when I wake up tomorrow. If I'm at home, It was a dream. If I'm still here, well, I can cross the bridge when I come to it. I just dont need to be caught up in some world saving mess.'
He continued to sit there and contemplate his situation for about 15 minutes before suddenly…
"Hey, I'm back!"
"Oh jee-" Ian looked over to the sound. It was Ava. "Oh sorry, you surprised me."
She put the dead Rattata on the ground. "Here, I brought some food. Do you want any?"
'I am hungry… and it does look pretty good… Wait, where did that thought come from? It's a DEAD RATTATA. It's raw! Why does it look so good then? AAAAGGGGHHHH'
"N-no thanks. Do you have anything else? Like fruit or something?" Ian said, looking suddenly quite stressed out.
She sighed. "There's a pouch of trail mix in my bag. DON'T eat it all."
"Thank you." He walked over to the treasure bag, and tried to dig through it with his front paws, to no avail. 'Jeez, I really miss opposable thumbs. Wait… could I use my mouth?'
He dug through the bag with his snout, and eventually found a small leather pouch with oats and raisins in it. He pulled it out, and opened it up, finding it second nature to just delve into the granola.
After about 5 minutes, they were both done eating, and Ava quickly put away everything into her bag, before heading back under the tree, and laying on her side, looking out at the sky, since the sun had long since set.
Ian, after eating, went out to the path they had walked on, and tried to stargaze.
'Let's see… Can I find anything? Orion? Ursa Major? The Dippers?'
After a few minutes of searching, he came up with none of the familiar constellations, but he was still able to recognize Mars and Venus.
"Whatcha lookin at?" Ava said, having snuck up on him.
"Huh? Oh, sorry, I was stargazing. I… don't recognize any of these constellations. But strangely, some of the planets are still there, like Mars." Ian said, his gaze affixed on Mars.
"Yeah, they say that some of the stars up there are actually much smaller planets like our own in some way. Which one is Mars again? I've never heard that name."
Ian gestured with his right paw to the small reddish dot in the southern sky. "There. It's a small planet, smaller than our own. What do you call it?"
"We call that one, "Entei." After one of the legendary dogs. Mostly due to the colour." She sighed, a small smile on her face. "No one knows what's up there, though. Only theories and speculation. Some say it's just more Pokémon. Some say undiscovered species of Pokémon. Some say it's where the humans live." She said, keeping her gaze affixed on the planet.
"I know, at least, partially."
"What?" Ava said, looking at Ian with a look of surprise.
"I know what that planet has, at least, kind of. See, humans sent machines and robots and stuff that we control remotely from earth, and they take pictures and move around on wheels, and send us information like what the ground is made out of, and how warm it is, et cetera. It's really interesting in my opinion. Hell, yesterday, at least for me, we landed the fifth ever to that planet's surface, it was called "Perseverance.""
"That's…" she turned to look at the planet again. "Wow." Turning to face him yet again, she asked; "But how? How did you send those things there if it's so far away?"
"We used these giant rockets that burned fuel and stuff, basically blasting our way there. Hell, it took 7 MONTHS for something to get there." Ian said. She had unleashed the floodgates on his extensive knowledge on astronomy.
"There's so many questions I have. But my biggest, what did you guys find there?"
"Not very much. It was like a barren red wasteland all the way around. No living things, nothing but rocks, sand, mountains, and craters."
"...Oh. that's too bad." She said, a hint of disappointment in her voice.
"Not really. It's still super cool to see. It's got such a massive juxtaposition compared to here, so it's still cool in a way." He said, before turning his gaze back to the tree. "Should we turn in for the night? It's pretty late."
"Yeah, that sounds good to me." Ava said, before turning around and walking to the tree. Earlier she had patted down a large tuft of grass for the 2 of them.
Ian trotted slowly over to the patted down spot, and laid on his side, finding laying like this second nature already. He tried to turn around and face the tree to sleep.
Ian closed his eyes, and after a moment or 2, felt something rub against his back. It was Ava. "You, uh, don't have to sleep against me if you don't want to, you know?" He said, slightly panicked that it didn't feel at all unusual.
Ava, giggled a bit. "Yeah, but it helps conserve body heat, I don't mind. Plus, it's normal for Pokémon to do this, silly. You can stop being so coy about this. You're a POKÉMON now. It's normal." She said, before yawning and lying down. "Goodnight." Ava whispered.
"...Goodnight." Ian said, before turning around again to face the tree while still laying down. As he tried to fall asleep, his mind raced.
'Is this real, or is this a dream? If this is a dream… good job brain. You blew it out of the water. Super nice "partner" character, beautiful world, realistic feeling quadruped-ness, the whole 9 yards. But if this is real, well… what happened? Why am I here? I don't want to have to deal with some world ending demon, or angry legendary, or anything like that. And what about mom or dad? Or my brother? Or my friends? What about William? My school? My life? My friends online? What… what happened to it all? What if it was just some Eevee fever dream? …Who am I?'
These thoughts continued to plague him for hours, before he eventually fell into a dreamless sleep… unsure of the things to come.
And there we have it. The first day's main releases. I plan to have chapter 3 out next saturday/sunday, so stick around for that.
Beta read by; Digital_Acid.
Again, this is my first fanfiction, so any and all feedback is greatly appreciated. As for the next chapter, well, things start to set in for Ian, as well as a dungeon run, world "rule" explanation, and arrival at frosted village! I'm looking forward to writing it, and I hope you're looking forward to reading it.
See you next week.
updated march 1st 2021 to fix grammar and formatting.
updated march 5th 2021 to fix more errors