Author's Notes: Well, first of all, I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year, too! Can you believe it's 2003 already? I know I sure can't. Blah, ignore the bad chapter title… I wasn't feeling overly creative at the time. Nothing much more to say… I'd better go get started on Chapter 8!
~Z~ Darkness Doesn't Cast a Shadow ~Z~
Chapter Seven: Contemplation
I paused as a fervent shiver clasped my body, enwrapping me in a feeling of dread.
But it happened! I screamed internally. It did happen, and I know it! My breathing rate quickly elevated as I glanced about, searching feverishly for some evidence that my experiences this morning were factual. I could feel a cold sweat breaking out on my cheeks.
"What storm?" Ash repeated, motioning for Bayleef to release me at last.
I scrambled appreciatively from her clutches, then plopped down next to Ash and began self consciously grooming the ruffed-up fur on my side. I finished with haste, though, since I felt somewhat out of place acting so…pokémon-ish around Ash. Bayleef trotted over and settled herself on Ash's other side, her head situated in his lap, whereas Noctowl kept his distance and dozed off in an unsullied scrap of sunlight.
"~I'll start from the beginning…~" I opened with a sigh, settling my eyes on the shadow of the forest. "~Last night, I had this weird dream… I don't really remember it all that well, but it was something about a jungle…and a dead Fearow…~"
"Hmmm…" Ash muttered, furrowing his brow in concentration.
"~I woke up at…well, it was really late… And I felt kinda…scared…so I just stared at the stars for a while. Until the sun rose, in fact. And then, there was this weird feeling… I swear to Mew, it felt like something was slowly killing me, just by looking at me. So I was trying to figure out what it was, and the trees all started shaking… Really, really hard, but the wind wasn't blowing, I'm sure of it! And then, this rain cloud came from the horizon, and it swallowed up the whole sky with blackness. It started raining, and there was thunder and lightning, too…! And the voice…~" I couldn't help the gap of silence that resulted from the memory of that voice.
"A…voice? What kind of voice?" Ash asked, and Bayleef began to squirm, rearranging her position so she could watch me tell the story. Noctowl, too, was scrutinizing me from his place in the sun.
Feeling very 'on the spot' suddenly, I gulped and realized that my forehead was beginning to perspire. "~I… It… it was a pokémon voice…I'm pretty sure… But I couldn't understand it at all… Not at all… I started to feel dizzy at its words, and then I blacked out… I think… But I don't remember it, really…and the next thing I knew, I was waking up all tied up in your vines, Bayleef.~"
By the looks of him, Ash was confused beyond reason. "But…how is that possible? Are you sure you weren't dreaming?"
"~I wasn't dreaming! I know I wasn't! It was as real as this moment going on right now,~" I assured my distraught and very baffled trainer.
"Man, something around here is too weird…" Ash said, almost cut off by the muffled sound of Misty stirring. He and I turned around to see the girl just beginning to sit up, scratching her neck fuzzily. She peered at Ash through half-lidded eyes, blinking constantly from the dazzling light of the morning.
"'Morning Misty," Ash greeted her. "Be careful not to wake Brock up, 'cause he's still sleeping."
Misty nodded slightly in some level of comprehension or another, giving a wide yawn and pointing at Bayleef and Noctowl. "What are they doing out?"
Ash shrugged. "Long, strange story that we're still trying to figure out…"
Misty decided then to flop back on to her pillow. "Okay…tell me later then…"
"Mmm-kay," Ash agreed.
For no reason in particular, my emotional energy began to falter right about then. I was becoming completely worn out from the sporadic rushes of welling and receding emotion, from the jerky river ride of fate that had thrown me about at its every whim for the last few days. I was getting sick of caring about what happened to me…because it was costing me my happiness. "~Ash…?~" I choked out. The word just scarcely made it past the lump rising in my throat.
"Yeah?" Ash turned and asked, obviously wondering about the impulsive change in my tone.
"~I…think I'm going to take a little walk… You know, calm down, think about things…~" As the sound of my voice got through to my ears, I felt a pang of disgust at how incredibly pathetic I sounded.
"Okay…if that's what you want… Just be back in about a half hour, otherwise you could miss breakfast."
"If Brock ever wakes up, that is," Misty corrected groggily from her place curled up in her sleeping bag.
"~'Kay…~" I muddled. I had already begun to trek off towards a particularly snarled scrap of brush. I pattered headlong into the bushes, not even grimacing as the branches raked across my face and snatched at my body, thorns tearing like teeth whenever they caught my fur. My tail, comatose and wilted behind my body as it was, was seized several times by the undergrowth, and I tugged to free it, in opposition to the pain that this caused.
I closed my eyes, allowing my instinct and remaining senses to guide me past the brushwood, to the other side. Leaves and twigs crackled and cried out as I stepped on them, and the wind made the faintest whispering sound as it sifted my fur, causing it to waver. I shivered in pleasure at the subtle stroke of the wind's caress.
If I close my eyes, I'm the same as I was… I thought distractedly. I knew I probably wasn't making sense. I didn't care. Was it a dream, this morning? Did it actually happen, or is there just something wrong with me? Why am I so despondent all the sudden…?
It's catching up with me now… I couldn't accept it before, but I can now… That's why I'm so sad…
I finally allowed my eyes to flicker open, recognizing that the hazard of scratching them was over, since I had burst through the other end of the bush about two minutes ago.
What I found was a completely ordinary field. It was, in fact, almost similar to the field we were camping out in, except reasonably smaller, and the grass was lofty, almost as tall as I was and glinting silver as the wind tipped it all one way. A soft arc of a smile yanked at the tips of my lips, and I strode cautiously on all fours to the center of the clearing, relishing in the feathery swishes of the grass-tips as they tickled my belly and legs.
The plain had the barely detectable, dusty perfume of meadow grass, a smell that I had always associated with the two or so years directly preceding the first time I was captured, and, ultimately, being given to Ash. Those had been good years… full of liberty and self-discovery, roaming the lands as the wind does, changing direction frequently and without reason. When the pokéball rushed towards my stock-stiff body, I thought I would detest captive life, but, in truth, I now find it much more rewarding than feral life. As long as pokéballs are kept away from me, that is. I'm claustrophobic.
I still find solace in nature, though… When I want to forget, or when I want to remember, I go and immerse myself in the natural world. The sky…the ground…the trees and shrubs…they hold a familiarity and fullness that cities lack; so detached and empty, filled with humans and sidewalk and cement. No pokémon. Not free-roaming ones, at least. No foliage. And they try to cover the sky with buildings taller than the ancient trees.
Soothed by being alone with the elements, I nestled myself in the downy hospitality of the plume grass, fixing my eyes on the sky, which was embracing me with optimistic blue. And while I was there, soaking up the cheer of nature, I heard a tender squeak sound out behind me.
"Piii!"
"Raii?" I jolted upwards, noticing a little yellow smudge on the outer ring of the clearing. My ears twitched gleefully as I realized what it was. A Pikachu! I thought, excitement mounting in my mind.
The Pikachu had paused whatever she was doing (scrounging for food, it appeared), and her stunted, unkempt ears shuddered in rhythm with her tail as she perceived me. She crouched low in caution, fear luminous in her leaf-colored eyes, and then sprang off back into the bush that she had emerged from.
"~Wait!~" I called after her, and then remembered, too late, that pokémon are often intimidated, or even scared, of their evolved forms. Had I still been a Pikachu, she probably would have been glad to make my acquaintance, but as a Raichu, I was a possible threat in her eyes.
The sting of realization came back again, as bitter and frosty as before. Luckily, it was fleeting, and replaced quickly by more pondering over the events of the morning, my dream, and, most importantly, what Ash had said…
I…tried to attack him…? No, no…I wouldn't do that… He's my best friend… He's my trainer… I don't want to hurt him…! I don't want any harm to befall him at all! I know I didn't try to attack him. Why would I? But he wouldn't lie. Especially not to me; especially not about something like this…
Maybe… Maybe this has something to do with that dream… I dreamed I was killing something… Maybe my unconscious is just plagued with instinct… Because I remember hearing once that the ancestors of the 'Chu' family were carnivorous… Maybe it has to do with that…
I should go back now… They might be worried about me…
And so I left behind the solitude of this serene place, back through the hostile thorn bush, and back to the world of being Ash's Raichu.
The first thing that clued me off to the fact that breakfast was in the making was the hiss and sputter of something boiling over a newly-made fire, followed by the warm, piquant smell of some type of vegetable soup cooking.
"Chu." I announced my presence with that lenient chirrup, and three pairs of human eyes and one pokémon one turned to watch me as I emerged from the bush. Seeing as the pokémon was Bayleef, I figured that Ash had recalled Noctowl.
Ash was sitting a few feet away from where Brock was cooking, and was, in fact, watching the soup bubble and boil. I crawled into his lap and rubbed my cheek against his shirt, and he reached up and began to scratch behind my ear. I leaned into the scratching, bobbing my head and purring with pleasure.
"Feeling better, little guy?" He queried, allowing his eyes to wander back on to the boiling soup.
"Chuu…" I answered affirmatively, thumping a hind paw for emphasis.
"That's good…" Ash said softly, as his eyes began to take on a remote, questing look. He was thinking hard about something…
I shook my head rapidly in an attempt to rid myself of the mist invading my thoughts. Sleep was taking its hazy hold, slowly but surely. "~Ash…?~" I asked, very gently.
Ash jolted out of whatever reverie he had immersed himself in, and gazed down at me with his brown eyes muddy with thought. "Yeah?"
"~…Do…do you think there's something wrong with me…?~"
Ash released a nearly inaudible sigh. "I don't know, Pikachu… I really don't know…"
I lowered my head in a combination of fatigue and woe, hardly able to battle against the exhaustion any longer. "~Oh…~" I replied with a yawn.
Ash piped up suddenly, waking me from near-sleep. "But we'll get through this together…right?"
Déjà vu washed over me like river water. That sounded so familiar… "~Yeah…together. Ash and Pikachu, like always.~"
Finally, sleep stole over me. First, it was nothing but an overwhelming weight on my eyes, followed shortly with an evaporation of consciousness. Then dreams.
::=*POV Switch*=::
I watched Pikachu in my lap as he drowsed off, his fur flickering different fiery colors in a reflection of the campfire. He looked so peaceful like that…unplagued by the worries of the last couple of days… It made me so sad, seeing him like that. It made me realize just how wound up he had gotten…and I didn't blame him. This was all too weird…weird, and stressful, and all sorts of different things, wrapped up in one. It felt like so much longer than four days…
"I'm so sorry, buddy…" I apologized to my sleeping friend, attempting to murmur it softly enough that Misty and Brock couldn't hear me. I then proceeded to lay my hand upon his head, stroking his supple, tangerine-colored fur very lightly, as not to wake him.
Apparently, I didn't speak quietly enough, though. Misty had somehow snuck up behind me without my noticing, and she placed her hand nonchalantly on my shoulder. This took me totally by surprise, though (seeing as I hadn't previously even known she was there), so I gave a slight hop in my seat.
Misty chortled at that, and I turned around and eyed her stormily. "What? I didn't know you were there!" I defended myself, as she got all the giggles out of her system and allowed her face to turn sullen. Her eyes settled on the eastern horizon, where the sun had struggled its way fully above the distant mountain range that barricaded Lavender.
"So…" she whispered, "Have you got this figured out yet? I mean, how any of it makes sense?"
"No…" I murmured remorsefully. "Misty…I'm beginning to think something might be really wrong with him. Besides this whole Evolution Radiation thing, I mean. At first I thought he might be kidding me or something, but he's as confused as I am. He even seems kinda scared… Why would he joke about something like this?"
Misty nodded a 'no' gradually. "He wouldn't." She assured me, gingerly taking a seat next to me.
"I think I'm gonna take him to Nurse Joy once we reach Saffron. See if she can find an explanation," I said, reverting my views to the zealously bubbling soup.
"That sounds like a good idea."
I didn't answer her with anything more than a grunt after that; preferring to throw all my attention to the soup, which wasn't really that interesting but made a good distraction.
"Oh, Ash…I'm sure it's all going to be okay. Pikachu's probably just fine… Maybe the stress is getting to him and causing him to hallucinate or something."
Somewhere in the back of my mind I was listening to her, but I had immersed myself in my own thoughts by then.
In the corner of my view, I saw her smile sadly, get up and walk away, going back to the other side of the campfire, where she had been before coming to comfort me.
"Soup's done," Brock announced, and I was just watching him ladle it into our bowls when I felt Pikachu's legs begin to twitch slightly.
My view dropped down to where the pokémon's feet were jerking spastically, just a little bit, but it was starting to worry me... He was still deeply asleep, or so it seemed judging by his expression, and his ears, too, began to wriggle. He looked like he was trying to run or something… He made a few muttering noises, sleep-talking.
I froze up and pointed to him, telling Brock to look. Brock and Misty's heads both jolted upwards, their eyes hurriedly reaching the electric mouse to scrutinize him as he struggled in his sleep. "Is there something wrong with him?!" I asked, worry creeping its not-so-subtle way into my voice.
Brock chuckled slightly, setting down the soup-spoon to wave his hands palm-down as a gesture to relax. "He's just dreaming Ash. When pokémon dream, their legs, ears, and even eyelids sometimes twitch. That's because they dream about running and battling, and their nerves respond to that."
My tension unwound. "Oh."
Brock resumed his task, and Misty began to dreamily watch the fire, but I continued to survey Pikachu. It still was alarming me somewhat; he looked so…helpless…scared, even. Every now and then, his eyes would squeeze shut in frustration, and his thrashing would intensify, his sleep-talking would turn strained and fast. I smoothed the fur on top of his head with my palm to try to console him, only to realize that his forehead was terribly hot to the touch, even through my gloves. I flipped my hand over, checking with the other side of my hand just to be sure. His head was searing, and some perspiration was making his fur humid.
"You guys, he has a terrible fever!" I cried out, picking him up in my arms and cradling him protectively to my chest.
Brock put the ladle down again, and walked over, immediately pressing his hand on Pikachu's forehead. "Uh-oh, you're right," Brock secured, then added, "Normally, it wouldn't be too much of a big deal, but taking the last few days into consideration, I think we should probably rush him to Saffron's Pokémon Center."
"Yeah, let's," I agreed briefly.
The three of us rushed around, packing messily by cramming all of our stuff into our backpacks. Brock poured the still-hot soup into a Tupperware bowl and stowed it in the top of his backpack for consumption later. Bayleef kicked dirt on to the fire, and fanned air into the flames with her leaf, causing it first to sputter and hiss angrily, but soon it gave in, pacified, and expired. I recalled her after that.
We took off on the road with hasty steps that often turned into jogging. Luckily, we happened to know the exact location of the Pokémon Center in Saffron, so we headed straight for it.
We were around halfway there when my foot caught a root, and I sprawled forward, jerkily dropping Pikachu in the process. I thumped against the ground with an "Ooph!" but despite the hard landing, I didn't take the slightest pause in jumping back up to my feet. My head throbbed.
"Ash! Are you okay?" Misty and Brock queried in unison.
I didn't answer them, due to the fact that I was preoccupied with worrying about Pikachu at the moment. He was lying in a crumpled heap about four feet ahead, and I felt a rush of fear when I saw him begin to struggle to his feet. He was having a hard time of it.
"Pikachu! Lie back down! I'm comin' little buddy!" I called. He looked back at me hazily when he had finally made his way to all fours.
"Chuu?" He said. This really made me feel a twinge of worry deep inside of me, because his voice was much, much deeper than usual, almost deep enough to sound like the rumbling of the ground during an earthquake.
He then turned away from me, bewildered, and pounced off, first at a painful amble, but accelerating into a full-out run and disappearing from view. Sparks were streaking at his cheeks.
"Pikachu!" I yelled with all the vigor in my body. I then took off running after him, my heart thumping with fear, and body weak with worry.
::=*=::
Author's Notes: *Blinks* Is it just me, or does that last sentence seem awfully choppy? Oh well, I suppose… it's just one sentence. People who hate cliffhangers, I apologize, and people who like them, I hope you're pleased. As usual, reviews are appreciated, and, also as usual, it may be a few weeks before the next chapter.