This marks the beginning of my humble fanfiction. I have been reading on this website for some years now, and wanted to bring my contribution. I hope that at least some people will enjoy my work, just like I've been, myself, enjoying reading here. A few disclaimers before starting this aventure : I am by no means a Pokemon specialist, all that I know about the franchise is based on my readings here and some internet research. Consequently, do not expect total fidelity to the games/anime, though I will try remain in line with some of the canon. English is also not my mother tongue, and I fear this will show in my work, so please be patient with my mistakes. This fanfiction has actually been written in order to force myself to improve both my vocabulary and style, so bear with me. I will try to publish a minimum of one chapter per month, but keep in mind this is only a side hobby for me.

Now that everything has been said, let's begin, shall we?

1. A rough awakening

Blackness. A complete void, empty of sensations. I couldn't see, hear, feel anything. It was like my brain wasn't given any external influx of information to process. My mind was also quite numb, and I was in a semi-conscious state, just like one could feel moments before falling asleep. It was really hard to focus on anything. This continued for what seemed an awful amount of time, at least from my perspective. Looking back at it now, it may have just been one or two minutes. But given the state I was in at that moment, it felt like hours.

My train of thoughts was quick to begin assaulting me with questions: why wasn't I feeling anything currently? The situation was frightening! I was essentially blocked in my own mind with no way out. I had learned somewhere that sensation-depriving was a very effective way to torture somebody. Well, I was now experiencing that firsthand, and I wasn't even at it for more than a few minutes.

Then it ended, pretty much as quickly as it began. I regained all my feelings at the same time. And rapidly, it became clear to me that something was wrong. I could feel a soft and chilly breeze on me, but it was somewhat damped, as if I were wearing some sort of thick clothes. More importantly, I seemed to be lying on something quite wet, as if I were on the ground and on some grass early in the morning. That prompted me to try and open my eyes. Instantly, I was blinded by the brightness of my surroundings. I was forced to close my eyelids again, and chose to focus on my hearing instead. Since I had regained consciousness, all I had been hearing was a sort buzzing, much like one could experience after being near a loud explosion. However, after focusing a bit on that, this white noise began to disappear and I was finally able to listen. There wasn't that much of a debate - what I could hear was the sound of a forest: birds chirping and singing from all directions, and the discrete sound of the wind on the top of the trees.

Two things immediately got me concerned. First, I wasn't recognizing any of the birds I was hearing. I could tell they were birds alright, but they didn't sound quite like the one I've been used to hear during numerous trips I had made in the wild before. Second, I was hearing these chirping clearly and distinctively. I mean, very distinctively. It was like I was able to hear each of these birds individually, and tell where they were with precision. It was a level of hearing I had never thought would be possible before. I was now very confused. Was I high? They say that some drugs increase your senses perception. But I am not one to take such substances, so why was my hearing so great at the moment?

Wait, how in hell did I end up in a forest? My latest memory was going to bed yesterday night! How could I be in the wild? This prompted me to finally try to assess my situation properly. I forced my eyes open again. I had to blink a bit before my vision adapted to the ambient brightness. Well, apparently, I was truly in a forest, and quite a beautiful one at that. Big trees that I couldn't name were blocking most of the sky around me with their leaves, leaving just the part directly above my head clear of any obstruction. I was at the middle of a clearing, sat on some of the greenest grass I had ever seen. And judging by the color of the sky, which was tainted with pink around some scarce clouds, it was certainly a summer evening. I then took a look at myself. And realized, horrified, I wasn't human anymore.

The first thing I saw, looking down at my hands, is that they in fact weren't hands anymore, but covered with black fur and with a shape more akin to that of paws. My whole body was likewise concealed under quite thick black hair. Just like my hands, my legs had also taken the form of paws. The only parts of me that weren't black were some sort of rings formed by fur that wasn't black but had a blueish tone, and which adorned both my new front and hind paws. But wait, that was not all! A limb also entirely covered in black – apart from another of these strange blue rings – was protruding from my back end! A tail! As I slowly got sight of all of this, a process that took a few seconds but actually felt like hours, my brain wasn't functioning properly. It was like it refused to acknowledge what my eyes were seeing. It was impossible! How?! My heartrate, which for now had remained low, increased a lot. So much that I was beginning to feel overwhelmed by the feeling of my heart beating in my chest.

I had somehow been given the body of a dog sized creature! For me, who had received a scientific education, and had graduated from a technical university, things like what apparently had happened to me were just unconceivable. It just couldn't be. Final point. I refused to believe to what felt like an experience you would find in a fantasy novel. And besides, I didn't know of any species on Earth with this kind of fur color patterns. I never had been an animal know-it-all kind of person, far from that actually, but I was pretty sure that if a species with such glowing, almost perfect, blue rings existed, I would have heard of it. This all felt like an intricate creation of my mind, a really vivid dream.

And yet, here I was, in a body that wasn't mine. I could literally just look down at my own hands – paws - to convince myself that all of that was real and that I wasn't imagining things. It was all too vivid. And I was starting to feel dwarfed by the trees around me: they all seemed bigger than usual. No, actually, scrap that: it's not that they were larger and taller, it's just that I was myself smaller. Maybe around 50 centimeters high? I wasn't sure. Everything was so big!

Ok. Let's try to remain calm and think clearly. What was my situation exactly? Well, I now had a different body; one I couldn't identify yet. I was in an unknown location; in a forest I had never seen before. I had no idea where I was or even why I was here. So, what should I do? I couldn't afford to stay here wondering about what had happened to me for hours on end. I needed to do something, maybe find someone who could help? Yes, that's right. I needed to act, and not lose hope. There is always a way out of any situation, no matter how desperate it is.

I stood up. Standing and walking on all four, like an animal, felt really weird. Not having all my weight on my back limbs, but rather shared between my front and back paws, was a bit unnerving at first, to say the least. But after a few minutes and some failed attempts – me falling head first onto the ground had surely greatly entertained the birds that were still chirping around – I managed to get the hang of it. I had quickly found out that my tail was a huge help in balancing the rest of my body. Moving it felt weird, yet somewhat natural. I decided to try to forget it, and let it do its things. My walking technique was far from optimal, that much I could tell, but it would have to do for now. And considering I had just woken up in this body half an hour before, I thought it actually wasn't that bad.

The area was a bit inclined, and I decided to go down rather than up. It seemed I was in a sort of recluse valley between two mountains, whose tops were covered in snow, though I couldn't see much through the trees. My plan was to find a river or something. Some say your best chance of finding civilization when lost in the wild is to follow a river. That made sense: towns are often built along bodies of water. Well, I was about to find out if that was true. As I began to make my way in the dense foliage that obscured my view of the forest ahead, I wasn't able to catch sight of any animal around. I was still hearing the birds, as well as sounds I supposed were created by the other wild inhabitants of the forest, but I didn't get even a glimpse of them. Maybe my new body was one of a predatory species, and the other animals were hiding from me? I had claws, and canine teeth, so surely, I was higher up in the food chain, right?

I walked like that for a few hours. I was surprised by my newfound endurance, but certainly wouldn't complain about it. I continued walking for quite some time without finding anything of interest. At one point, I finally caught sight of an animal. There was some sort of rodent in front of me. I was ten meters or so from it, and because it was doing something on the ground, it didn't see me immediately. I stopped and could observe it a little before it finally noticed me. As soon as it did, it ran to the opposite direction and I lost line of sight. The purple taint of its fur I had been able to discern before it fled was strange. I had never heard of a rodent this color before, but I had the feeling that somehow, I had already seen something like it somewhere. This place definitely seemed foreign to me, though. And now, I wasn't even sure the civilized world I was searching was a thing here. Perhaps this entire area was just wild and my walk was no use? Or I would have to continue for hundreds of miles before finding what I was searching?

After a while, I finally stumbled across what could be described as a little body of water from where a river was flowing. Much to my disappointment, however, there was an absence of any structures that could hint civilization. I had hoped to find some litter at least. From my experience, litter and waste was the single most important hint of human presence. That was a bit sad, but true. I was usually saddened to find litter in the wild, but right now it would have been a good sign. Yet, nothing of the sort here. Maybe the locals were more concerned with their impact on nature. Somehow, I doubted it. It seemed like I would be on my own for some time.

That could be an issue. While I was pretty confident I could manage to survive some days alone in such a forest, doing just that but with my new body would prove much more difficult. Not having hands with opposable thumbs, in particular, would be a real hindrance. Hell, I didn't even know what sort of food I was supposed to eat. I would need an answer to that soon: my growing hunger was now evidenced by a low growl emanating from what I assumed was my stomach.

Still thinking about my possibilities here, I stopped at the edge of the lake to drink up a bit. I initially thought I would have issues drinking with my new form, but using my tongue to do it in a very dog-like manner proved to be easy. As I was doing that, I came to a decision. I would continue to walk until a bit before sunset, then try to find a shelter to pass the night. I also needed to find some food on the way. I hadn't eaten anything since I had woken up, and I without a doubt would be hungry before nightfall. And I hated sleeping with an empty belly. I ruled out the hunting option, since I suspected I wouldn't be able to catch anything. And it wasn't like this forest was filled with prey. This left the possibility of collecting fruits, berries or other edible plants, and hope my new body was omnivorous. I had seen quite a number of some strange berry bushes earlier, but since I could not recognize them, I had then decided to leave them be. However, it seemed now that I would have to take the risk of whether or not those were edible to my species.

As for the direction I would take, I decided to circumvolute the lake and then follow the river. I figured that I had better chance to stumble across something interesting if I stayed in the valley. I was pretty sure leaving the forest was my best bet, and walking down along the river would certainly lead me out of it.

Looking up at the position of the sun, I estimated I had around 1 hours left before the sunset. Not wanting to waste any more time, I started walking again. I was now pretty comfortable with walking on all four, my pace noticeably faster than it had been earlier.

Fortunately, I came across those berry bushes again. They carried some very big and red berries, so big in fact that I wondered for a moment how the bushes could support their weight. But I was now really hungry, and wasted no time to ponder about that. I took one berry with my maw, and bit cautiously into it. It was very juicy and had some sweet flavor to it. That reassured me, because I had heard that most plants taste horribly to the species for which they are toxic. I stopped there for a moment, and filled my belly with these berries. It felt great to finally have something in the stomach. I saw that as a little victory.

I caught glimpse of other animals on my way. It had always been for a very short time – they all instantly scampered off as soon as they noticed me – but I was still able to take a look at their features. Same story. They all were pretty close in body form to animal species I knew. But all had something different: Wrong color, weird appendages, wrong size, … It was like I was in a regular forest, only there was one difference - all species here had taken different evolutionary paths. It was weird to be in such a similar yet different environment. But well, being in a body that definitely wasn't mine and all, I would worry about that later.

Finally, after a bit more walking, I found something interesting. Sunset wasn't far now, and the luminosity was declining. This helped me in spotting a light source, on the other side of the valley. I didn't know anything which could explain such a light in the middle of a forest other than human presence. At long last, I had found some civilization! I immediately decided to go in that direction. I had still some time left before it would be dark. I needed to go there, and then I would decide something based on what it was.

Despite my growing tiredness, I crossed the river at the bottom of the valley and began my ascension towards the light source. I had been forced to find a spot at which I could jump over the water. It had made me lose some time, but I hadn't had to wet my fur to get to the other side of the river, something I didn't want since wet fur in a cold weather wasn't something I was eager to test out. Now that I was closer, I could see that it was indeed a small fire, as evidenced by the column of smoke that could be seen above the trees.

I soon reached a small clearing. There was green tent in the center, of the sort that can be installed and packed back in a matter of seconds, without taking much place. A large backpack was laying close to the tent. What caught my attention though, was the young man sitting close to the fire. I guessed, from the features of his face, that he was in his early twenties. Around my own age in fact. His skin was tanned by the sun, hinting some experience in trekking. He was wearing some sort of shorts, as well as a pullover. He visibly was cooking something in a pot over the fire, and I caught a very pleasant smell emanating from it. It was certainly more appealing than the berries I had eaten earlier.

I kept myself hidden in one of the bushes at the edge of the clearing. With my new black coat of fur, and given the darkness of the forest, I was pretty confident my chances at being spotted by the man were very thin. My blue rings were not glowing at the moment. I supposed they were unconsciously controlled by me, and didn't emit light when I needed to remain stealthy. Pretty convenient. I contemplated my options here. I could either show myself, try to make contact, and hopefully be able to make myself understood. Maybe he could help me? Or I could remain hidden and get back in the forest. I feared that if I was not careful, I would frighten him. I was now some sort of wild animal now, and I didn't know how he would react to seeing me. I knew, however, that I myself would have been pretty frightened in his place, if, say, a wolf had surprised me at camp.

At the end, I decided that whatever his reaction, I needed to show myself. In my current situation, trapped in a strange forest, in a foreign body, I needed all the help I could take. And this encounter was perhaps my only chance. And well, the persistent smell from his cooking was also a big argument in the balance. Maybe he would give me some of it? I was craving for some.

I carefully stepped out of my bush, and walked calmly towards the man. Focused on stirring his pot, he didn't notice me at first. He had very dark brown hair, combed in a way that gave him a pretty relaxed look. I also noted the fact he was wearing some sort of heavy hiking shoes. That confirmed my theory of him being some sort of hiker. And judging from the wear on his tent and other hiking gear, he already had quite some experience at it.

A bird called far in the forest, and he looked up from the fire. Instantly, he noticed me. I wasn't at more than 2 or 3 meters from him.

Time seemed to stop. We were both not moving an inch, looking at each other in the eyes, as if to try to discover the other's intentions. It felt like I could hear my own heart beating; as well as his. After what seemed a minute, there was some noise coming from the left. I barely had enough time to see the arrival of a newcomer. Out of nowhere, a huge orange and black dog had come to the clearing and had positioned itself between us. It was far larger than any breed of dogs I knew, so large in fact that it literally dwarfed me. I was forced to bend my head back to get a full view of it. And it was looking straight at me. It did a threatening low growl. I don't know why, but this primal growl frightened me deep inside. This is what broke me from my stupor.

I ran. I was now super scared, so I ran. I ran as if hell was behind me. This dog sure was hellish. I didn't even give a look back. I heard the man yell something somewhere behind me, but it was lost on me. Gone were the thoughts of asking for help. My brain had gone fully into "survival mode", and I couldn't think anything besides the need to escape. I didn't mind being scratched by the numerous bushes I was passing through at full speed, if that meant I could put some distance between me and that monster of a dog that had wanted to eviscerate me.

I only stopped after a dozen of minutes, once I had made sure they weren't after me. I had never been so frightened in my life, nor been running so fast. Still, I wasn't very far from the clearing, but given how dense the forest foliage was, that wouldn't make any difference. I was now feeling very tired. This encounter had drained me of all the energy I had left. But there was one thing I had realized.

It wasn't just an exceptionally big dog that had been about to attack me, it was an Arcanine! It all made sense now! The purple rat I had seen earlier was a Rattata, and I could only be an Umbreon! A freaking Umbreon! The black fur, and blue rings, it was clearly distinctive of that species. How could I have not realized that earlier? Of all things that could have happened to me, I had been somehow transported in the Pokemon universe!? This didn't make any sense at all!

The implications of such a revelation were just too many. Were the Pokemon here able to use moves? If so, could I? Was the young man a Pokemon trainer, and the huge Arcanine his Pokemon? Would I be able to communicate with either the humans or the Pokemons? More importantly, was it in my best interest to go and try to get some help from the humans? My first encounter with one had not been a very pleasant experience. Maybe there were legendaries in this world who would be more willing to help me?

Frankly, I didn't know the answer to any of these questions. Thinking about all of that had started to give me a headache, so I chose to rather focus on my present situation. Besides, my knowledge of Pokemons was limited. While I had always been interested in the franchise, it had never been to the point of knowing every characteristics and lore facts by heart. That certainly would have been handy right now, but I would have to manage without that. I would have time to think about my long-term plans later; for now, I needed to survive until tomorrow.

I found myself searching for a place to spend the night. I suspected it would get pretty cold soon enough, and while my newly acquired fur may have protected me, I wasn't very keen at verifying that. Thing is, there wasn't any obvious places I could have used for the night here. It was just mostly trees and bushes, old trunks and ferns. What I needed was something that would protect me from the wind and the possible raindrops if the weather was to change during the night. At this moment, the sun was already behind the horizon, and the numerous trees around me were creating big dark shadows. At some time during my escape, the permanent chirping of the birds had stopped. The area, in complete silence, had now an eerie feeling to it. I was also fascinated by the soft glow of the blue rings on my fur. I had not noticed it during the day, but now that it was darker, it was hard to miss it. The glow seemed to be synchronized with my mood, and its current flickering had to be reflecting my preoccupied mind. I only hoped that it would not prevent me from remaining undetected if I were to hunt later.

The chilly wind that was now blowing over me convinced me to hurry up, find a place and call it a day. Fortunately, I was helped by my sight, that had not seemed to have deteriorated too much despite the night. Well, being a dark type had some perks, I guessed. At least it was useful to me right now.

Finally, after a bit of searching, I spotted a suitable place. It was a small space under a big rock on the ground. It was only barely big enough to accommodate me, but it would do. It would at least protect me from the weather if it were to change during the night. And furthermore, I would be very difficult to notice in here.

I snuck myself in with some difficulty. Even with my short height, it felt really cramped and I couldn't stand up. I did my best to find a comfortable position, laying my head between my front paws in the direction of the exit of my little cave. Fortunately, it did provide some heat insulation, and I was no longer feeling the cold breeze of the outside. The sides of the cave around me were illuminated by the faint pulsating glow of my rings, creating a very strange atmosphere. Despite my tiredness, it was hard to be calm enough to be able to sleep. It was like all the revelations of the day were coming back in my mind at the same time. Waking in a strange place. Discovering my new and foreign body. Being completely lost in the wild. And finally, the encounter with the Arcanine. I was overwhelmed. What now? I couldn't just continue to roam aimlessly in the hope I encounter someone or something that would help me. I needed a goal, an objective to motivate me to go forward, one step at a time. How was I to find some sleep in such a state of mind? The night promised to be long…