Disclaimer: The Pokémon themselves are copyrighted by Nintendo. Everything else is mine.
(A/N: Doesn't look too much like a Pokémon fic yet, but it will be. Also, a good 75% of my efforts are towards my fictionpress.net contents at the moment, and from now on I'll be uploading two chapters at a time (which will make sense later) so this won't likely be updated for a while. It will, however, be eventually. Enjoy!)
It loomed before me, huge, seemingly impassible. A metallic monument of all that held me back from the world. The wall.
Hesitantly, I curled my fingers around a link and hoisted myself up. It was one step. One step out of an infinite number of others. I could not even see the top; the wall disappeared into the clouds. But I continued working my way up. Step, pull, step, pull. I went along in that way for hours, maybe days, and yet the whole thing could have been over in minutes, it felt so fast. It was both an eternity and a second.
I had reached the top of the wall -- or the top of the world, so it seemed from my height. Taking a deep and shaking breath, I precariously lifted myself up, placing both my feet along the very top edge. Gripping a post white-knuckled - oh, how cold it was - I dared to lift my head, seeing beyond my world into the other for the first time.
But all I saw was darkness. Darkness that enveloped everything beyond...and, turning my head, everything behind. I wrestled with myself over the idea of climbing down the other side to see if there was anything at all, when all at once, I toppled over the edge. And down I went.
This time, there was no doubt about it; my fall took forever. I plunged down, downwards into eternity until--
WHAM.
Gemmei hit her bedroom floor headfirst. What? Am I--
"Gemmei! Come down, time for breakfast!" Oh. A dream. Gemmei hurriedly stripped out of her nightgown and opened up her dresser, trying to decide what to wear. Jeans? I'd love to, but mother hates to see me in them unless I am doing chores. I guess I should wear a dress. The women of the small village of Albus always wore dresses, much to Gemmei's annoyance. She slipped on something plain and blue and ran downstairs, making sure to stop short of the bottom. She almost forgot that "ladies never run".
Her younger sister, Gensho (called Gen by most), was already seated at the table. "Morning, mother. Morning, Gen." Gensho was, truly, her mother's daughter. She loved to cook and sew and wear dresses. She also never seemed to mind the fact that Albus was walled in to all but the men of the village, not even sparing any thought to it. Sure, they only ever left to get occasional supplies from other cities - Albus was not entirely self-supporting - but still, staying in a village behind a fence one's whole life could drive certain people to insanity.
It was these thoughts that invaded Gemmei's mind as she sat down at the table. The dream of climbing that fence was not entirely unfamiliar to her -- she'd had the same dream at least once or twice over the past couple of weeks, always waking up at the same time. She supposed for that reason that it was significant, but didn't really know what to do about it, aside from actually climbing the fence.
Dreams are often metaphors, and the fence in Gemmei's dream could easily have represented any number of factors holding her back from the real world, the strict lifestyle she had under her mother for one. However, in this case, it represented an actual fence. A chain-link fence running the entire border of Albus, with only one gate, used for one purpose: the supply runs.
However, she had not considered her village to be strange. For all she knew, they could all have been in the middle of forests and surrounded by fences. It was only her dreams...and some of the conversations she'd overheard from her parents...that made her believe any different.
As the day started, however, Gemmei all but forgot her strange dreams, lost to the mundaneness of breakfast. Nothing worth mentioning happened over the next ten or so minutes...eat, chat, eat some more. She kept her mind mostly on her father, who had left just yesterday on a supply run and would not be expected to return for the next day or two. I want to go with him someday. Just once. After fourteen years, a change of scenery would be nice. These thoughts were whimsical...she knew it would never happen. Could never happen. No women left the village, much less young girls.
When everyone was finished, Gemmei and Gen headed for the door, intent on going outside for some fresh air. It was what they did every day, as there was not much to do inside a small house. Today, however, their mother interrupted. "Not today, girls."
"Why not?" the two chorused in unison.
"Never you mind. It is none of your business. I'm going out to talk to Miss Fletcher next door, but I want you two to stay inside today. I'll be back in a while." And with that, she was gone.
Gen, perfectly accepting of the situation, brightly suggested they go to the attic instead.
"And why would we want to do that? We never go up there."
"That's only b'cause we're always outside! Do you have a better idea?"
"Not really. But don't you find it strange that mom won't let us out of the house today?"
"Nope!"
"Why not, might I ask?"
"Cause I know that there's something out there she doesn't want us to see!" Gensho concluded in a sing-songy voice. With that, she pranced up the stairs and headed towards the attic.
Smart aleck little nine-year-old, Gemmei thought as she followed. Catching up with Gen in the attic itself, she inquired further. "What doesn't she want us to see, pray tell?"
"There's a weird man in the village, and he has a big dog!" This was a fairly reasonable explanation; their mother was not fond of dogs. But travelers had never come to Albus before, and Gemmei was not entirely sure whether her sister was telling the truth or not. "The dog looks really weird, too! I didn't see it that much, though...I just glanced at it through my window b'fore mom came into my room."
"Right."
"S'a truth!"
"Sure." Gemmei wasn't quite disbelieving...the thought of someone new was intriguing enough so that she wanted to believe the story. On the other hand, she didn't want her sister making a fool of her, something she was apt to do. To distract from the conversation, Gemmei grabbed one of several boxes lying around and opened it up.
"Y'sure we should be doing that?"
"What were you thinking we were going to get up to in an attic?" with that, Gemmei dived into the contents of the box. "Let's see here. Vintage dresses..."
"Pretty hats!" Gen grabbed a hat that had fallen out of the box and wore it with pride.
"Yes, hats. It would seem that there's nothing but clothing in here." Gemmei took out everything in the box, one by one. A white dress seemed to be the last thing inside...but as she was removing it, she noticed one more thing at the bottom.
Two things, in fact. An old black-and-white photograph in a dusty frame lay on top of a small leather-bound book. Gemmei removed these items, too, and Gen immediately took interest, grabbing for the photo. "This lady has the same dog!"
"What?" Gemmei took the photo back and looked at it. A young woman stood in a field, smiling, posing...beside her stood a creature strange to the two sisters. "That's not even a dog! That looks like...some kind of tiger or something."
"Tigers don't have manes and bushy white tails!"
"Well, it is certainly not a dog!"
The two girls stared at the picture for a few more seconds, trying to figure out what exactly the woman was posing with so casually. Soon, however, Gensho lost her interest and picked up the book instead. "Read this!" she demanded. "I want to know what it says!"
"You can read just fine."
"But you're better at it!"
"Fine." Gemmei took the book from her sister and opened it up. The pages were slightly yellow, and the first one simply had a name on it.
Suiko Newbury
"Go on, next page!"
"I'm going!" Gemmei turned to the next page. "March 5, 1948--"
Her reading had been interrupted by the sound of a door slamming. "Girls! I'm home! Where are you?"
(A/N: Doesn't look too much like a Pokémon fic yet, but it will be. Also, a good 75% of my efforts are towards my fictionpress.net contents at the moment, and from now on I'll be uploading two chapters at a time (which will make sense later) so this won't likely be updated for a while. It will, however, be eventually. Enjoy!)
It loomed before me, huge, seemingly impassible. A metallic monument of all that held me back from the world. The wall.
Hesitantly, I curled my fingers around a link and hoisted myself up. It was one step. One step out of an infinite number of others. I could not even see the top; the wall disappeared into the clouds. But I continued working my way up. Step, pull, step, pull. I went along in that way for hours, maybe days, and yet the whole thing could have been over in minutes, it felt so fast. It was both an eternity and a second.
I had reached the top of the wall -- or the top of the world, so it seemed from my height. Taking a deep and shaking breath, I precariously lifted myself up, placing both my feet along the very top edge. Gripping a post white-knuckled - oh, how cold it was - I dared to lift my head, seeing beyond my world into the other for the first time.
But all I saw was darkness. Darkness that enveloped everything beyond...and, turning my head, everything behind. I wrestled with myself over the idea of climbing down the other side to see if there was anything at all, when all at once, I toppled over the edge. And down I went.
This time, there was no doubt about it; my fall took forever. I plunged down, downwards into eternity until--
WHAM.
Gemmei hit her bedroom floor headfirst. What? Am I--
"Gemmei! Come down, time for breakfast!" Oh. A dream. Gemmei hurriedly stripped out of her nightgown and opened up her dresser, trying to decide what to wear. Jeans? I'd love to, but mother hates to see me in them unless I am doing chores. I guess I should wear a dress. The women of the small village of Albus always wore dresses, much to Gemmei's annoyance. She slipped on something plain and blue and ran downstairs, making sure to stop short of the bottom. She almost forgot that "ladies never run".
Her younger sister, Gensho (called Gen by most), was already seated at the table. "Morning, mother. Morning, Gen." Gensho was, truly, her mother's daughter. She loved to cook and sew and wear dresses. She also never seemed to mind the fact that Albus was walled in to all but the men of the village, not even sparing any thought to it. Sure, they only ever left to get occasional supplies from other cities - Albus was not entirely self-supporting - but still, staying in a village behind a fence one's whole life could drive certain people to insanity.
It was these thoughts that invaded Gemmei's mind as she sat down at the table. The dream of climbing that fence was not entirely unfamiliar to her -- she'd had the same dream at least once or twice over the past couple of weeks, always waking up at the same time. She supposed for that reason that it was significant, but didn't really know what to do about it, aside from actually climbing the fence.
Dreams are often metaphors, and the fence in Gemmei's dream could easily have represented any number of factors holding her back from the real world, the strict lifestyle she had under her mother for one. However, in this case, it represented an actual fence. A chain-link fence running the entire border of Albus, with only one gate, used for one purpose: the supply runs.
However, she had not considered her village to be strange. For all she knew, they could all have been in the middle of forests and surrounded by fences. It was only her dreams...and some of the conversations she'd overheard from her parents...that made her believe any different.
As the day started, however, Gemmei all but forgot her strange dreams, lost to the mundaneness of breakfast. Nothing worth mentioning happened over the next ten or so minutes...eat, chat, eat some more. She kept her mind mostly on her father, who had left just yesterday on a supply run and would not be expected to return for the next day or two. I want to go with him someday. Just once. After fourteen years, a change of scenery would be nice. These thoughts were whimsical...she knew it would never happen. Could never happen. No women left the village, much less young girls.
When everyone was finished, Gemmei and Gen headed for the door, intent on going outside for some fresh air. It was what they did every day, as there was not much to do inside a small house. Today, however, their mother interrupted. "Not today, girls."
"Why not?" the two chorused in unison.
"Never you mind. It is none of your business. I'm going out to talk to Miss Fletcher next door, but I want you two to stay inside today. I'll be back in a while." And with that, she was gone.
Gen, perfectly accepting of the situation, brightly suggested they go to the attic instead.
"And why would we want to do that? We never go up there."
"That's only b'cause we're always outside! Do you have a better idea?"
"Not really. But don't you find it strange that mom won't let us out of the house today?"
"Nope!"
"Why not, might I ask?"
"Cause I know that there's something out there she doesn't want us to see!" Gensho concluded in a sing-songy voice. With that, she pranced up the stairs and headed towards the attic.
Smart aleck little nine-year-old, Gemmei thought as she followed. Catching up with Gen in the attic itself, she inquired further. "What doesn't she want us to see, pray tell?"
"There's a weird man in the village, and he has a big dog!" This was a fairly reasonable explanation; their mother was not fond of dogs. But travelers had never come to Albus before, and Gemmei was not entirely sure whether her sister was telling the truth or not. "The dog looks really weird, too! I didn't see it that much, though...I just glanced at it through my window b'fore mom came into my room."
"Right."
"S'a truth!"
"Sure." Gemmei wasn't quite disbelieving...the thought of someone new was intriguing enough so that she wanted to believe the story. On the other hand, she didn't want her sister making a fool of her, something she was apt to do. To distract from the conversation, Gemmei grabbed one of several boxes lying around and opened it up.
"Y'sure we should be doing that?"
"What were you thinking we were going to get up to in an attic?" with that, Gemmei dived into the contents of the box. "Let's see here. Vintage dresses..."
"Pretty hats!" Gen grabbed a hat that had fallen out of the box and wore it with pride.
"Yes, hats. It would seem that there's nothing but clothing in here." Gemmei took out everything in the box, one by one. A white dress seemed to be the last thing inside...but as she was removing it, she noticed one more thing at the bottom.
Two things, in fact. An old black-and-white photograph in a dusty frame lay on top of a small leather-bound book. Gemmei removed these items, too, and Gen immediately took interest, grabbing for the photo. "This lady has the same dog!"
"What?" Gemmei took the photo back and looked at it. A young woman stood in a field, smiling, posing...beside her stood a creature strange to the two sisters. "That's not even a dog! That looks like...some kind of tiger or something."
"Tigers don't have manes and bushy white tails!"
"Well, it is certainly not a dog!"
The two girls stared at the picture for a few more seconds, trying to figure out what exactly the woman was posing with so casually. Soon, however, Gensho lost her interest and picked up the book instead. "Read this!" she demanded. "I want to know what it says!"
"You can read just fine."
"But you're better at it!"
"Fine." Gemmei took the book from her sister and opened it up. The pages were slightly yellow, and the first one simply had a name on it.
"Go on, next page!"
"I'm going!" Gemmei turned to the next page. "March 5, 1948--"
Her reading had been interrupted by the sound of a door slamming. "Girls! I'm home! Where are you?"