Chapter One: The Island
If there was one thing that Katherine loved about pokémon training, it was flying. She loved how the wind rushed through her hair and howled in her ears. She loved how all of the cares and worries of the world fell away as she rose above it. Not only that, but there were so many places that became open to you once you became certified to fly with your pokémon. For Katherine, flight was always an adventure, always something new and undiscovered.
It was a wonderful morning for it, too. The sun had burned away any trace of a cloud in the sky and its light soared unhindered to the ocean far below, glimmering off of its gently undulating surface. Pidgeot was feeling refreshed and adventurous this morning, as was his trainer. The pair had been looking forward to a chance to explore after the relative doldrums of trekking familiar ground for several weeks.
Katherine sat calmly astride Pidgeot, her long black hair streaming out behind her and her intense brown eyes fixed eagerly on the trackless ocean, searching for some sign of land. She ignored the icy tendrils of wind that somehow managed to wrap themselves about her despite the thick black sweatshirt that she wore. The Rayquaza that coiled across its front seemed as exhilarated as she was, its gaping maw open in what appeared to be a challenging shriek directed at gravity. It was always cold, flying, but Katherine was used to it. As the battered silver pokédex strapped to her trainer's belt attested, she had been training for some time now, long enough to be willing to endure a bit of discomfort in hopes of a great reward. Long enough to know, too, that if she wanted to travel far, she would have to travel light; Katherine had left her pack back at camp, taking all that she really needed with her in the pockets of her beige cargo pants.
It looked like they wouldn't have to go as far as she had thought to find adventure today, however. It was now coming up beneath her, a dark splotch on the shining ocean's surface. Katherine had certainly never heard of an island out here, off of the western coast of Johto, but then, there was a lot that she hadn't heard of. Trainers were always off in search of adventure, off to discover places that no one had ever been to before. Of course, there were a great, great many of them who enjoyed whatever it was that they found out there so much that they never came back. It was a sobering thought, but Katherine ignored it. What would life be without a little risk now and then?
Katherine leaned forward, yelling above the roar of the wind, "Let's take a look, Pidgeot!" The great raptor obliged, going into a steep dive as Katherine reflexively clung tighter to his feathery back. The deep, instinctual part of her brain screamed in terror as her mount rocketed towards the ground, but her conscious mind was quick to override it, turning her terror into pure elation. She thoroughly enjoyed the swooping feeling in the pit of her stomach as Pidgeot banked, correcting his course.
Pidgeot leveled off some hundred feet above the island, his keen eyes scanning it intently, spotting far more than Katherine could ever hope to. She squinted down at the island anyway, hoping to see something of interest. It looked to be a wooded island, with a large cliff at one end, sloping down to a forested valley below and continuing to slope down to a rocky beach where waves broke in frothy explosions. Something clearly unnatural perched atop the cliff, however, rigidly rectangular against the soft curves of the island's contours. "Let's get a little closer," Katherine suggested.
Pidgeot dived again, dropping another fifty feet and drifting over to the top of the cliff, guessing that the strange building atop it was what his trainer wanted to inspect. This close, Katherine could see that it was a mansion. It appeared abandoned, and almost half of it had been badly damaged by fire. Who would have gone to the trouble to build a mansion out on a little uncharted island like this and then abandon it?
"Take us down there, Pidgeot," she said eagerly.
But Pidgeot seemed uneasy about something. Rather than confidently swooping in as usual, he circled downward slowly, nervously sweeping the open plateau that surrounded the mansion with his eyes. He suddenly gave a small "Geot!" and pulled up so sharply that Katherine was forced to grab onto one of his long red crest feathers or risk falling off.
Katherine was annoyed. She knew that Pidgeot was very distrustful of the unknown and that he didn't like to take risks of any sort. For some reason the sight of the deserted mansion had unsettled him. "Oh, come on, you big baby," she chided him gently. "It's just a big old house. It won't hurt you."
Pidgeot maintained a dignified silence and veered off over the island's forest. Katherine sighed. She had hoped that she would be able to goad him into carrying her down to the intriguing building, but it looked like she would have to do a little walking if she wanted to reach the place. Pidgeot was stubborn and unlikely to change his mind and carry Katherine there himself.
"All right, all right, you win. We won't fly over to the big, creepy house, okay? Just put me down at the edge of the forest." Once again Pidgeot seemed reluctant, but he dipped smoothly and carried his trainer swiftly towards the ground all the same. He expertly pulled up just shy of plowing into the earth, executing a perfect landing on the small strip of grass that separated the island's rocky beach from the forest that covered most of it.
Katherine slid off of Pidgeot's back eagerly, already scanning the trees for some sign of pokémon life. Who knew what kind of rare, powerful creatures could be hiding in this unexplored forest? As she peered eagerly into the trees, however, she thought she felt a hint of what had made Pidgeot nervous. Something felt wrong about this forest, for all that it looked innocent enough and was teeming with the usual woodland noises. Suddenly her eye caught a flash of movement and Pidgeot let out an exclamation. Katherine was sure that she had seen something cream-colored dart away from her, deeper into the trees. She stepped forward and raised a hand to motion to Pidgeot, fully intending to pursue the mysterious creature, when she was stopped by a rustling in the underbrush.
Something else was coming their way, and though it wasn't very large by the sound of it, you could never be sure about how rare it was. After all, eevee might be small, but they were still some of the most sought-after creatures in the pokémon world. Katherine took a step back, scanning the underbrush to try do determine where the whatever-it-was would emerge. She didn't have to search long before she saw that a patch of shrubbery not six feet away was shuddering ominously. Pidgeot had already noticed this and sidled closer to the spot.
"Pidgeot, get ready for a battle," Katherine whispered to him. He nodded eagerly, his dark eyes alight with anticipation. Katherine smiled to herself in satisfaction; if there was one thing that would banish Pidgeot's fears about this place, it would be a nice, rousing pokémon battle. Katherine reached into one of her pockets and withdrew an ultra ball. No larger than a marble in its minimized form, she was easily able to conceal it in her palm. Nothing would make a pokémon turn around and head for shelter faster than the sight of an ultra ball, and she didn't want to scare the mystery creature headed her way off. It was possible that a pokémon out here, where human contact was incredibly minimal, wouldn't recognize an ultra ball, the mark of a highly experienced trainer who had won enough battles to be able to afford such advanced equipment, but she wasn't willing to risk it.
Suddenly, the pokémon emerged from the bushes. Small and purple, with wide ears and long, white whiskers, it stared up at Katherine suspiciously. Katherine nearly laughed aloud as she scornfully returned the ultra ball to her pocket. How silly of her, getting all worked up like that over a rattata! Well, if they managed to infest nearly every part of the mainland it was really no surprise that a few should have set up camp out here, too. "Come on, Pidgeot, it's just a rattata. Let's go see if we can pick up the trail of that pokémon that we saw earlier," she said, starting towards the forest.
The rattata didn't seem at all pleased by this idea. It began to chatter angrily, bristling and showing its enormous incisors threateningly. Again, Katherine nearly laughed at the comical sight. A tiny rodent pokémon challenging a well-trained terminal evolution over four times its size? It was absurd. But the laughter died when she didn't hear an answering cry from Pidgeot. "Uh, Pidgeot?" she asked, turning around to stare at her companion.
The bird pokémon was staring at the rattata in shock, his eyes bulging. Pidgeot shrieked and opened his wings suddenly, startling the rattata somewhat. Katherine was mystified. Pidgeot was treating this little rattata like a dangerous foe, trying to intimidate it with his impressive size and wingspan. The purple rat seemed a little daunted at first, but quickly regained its nerve and began chattering all the louder, now making quick dashes toward Pidgeot.
Now Katherine really did laugh. "I don't believe this, Pidgeot! Show this little shrimp why you don't mess with one of my pokémon! Use wing attack!" On any normal day, Pidgeot would have obligingly given the rattata a hefty clout with his powerful wings that would surely have put the diminutive creature down for the count.
Today was not a normal day, however. Pidgeot didn't even seem to hear Katherine. He was now screaming loudly at the Rattata. "Geooottt! Ge! Ge! Ge!" His feathers were bristling, his magnificent crest was raised, and he was occasionally beating the air with his wings, the resulting gust of wind blasting the rattata back repeatedly. The normal-type determinedly picked itself up each time, however, and kept coming.
Though Pidgeot was certainly doing his best intimidation routine, he was actually horribly scared, or so Katherine observed. He was loud and proud and apparently ready and raring to battle, but whenever the rattata advanced he fell back, and whenever it made a sudden lunge for him he would scramble away so quickly that he nearly tripped over his own tail feathers several times. Puzzled, Katherine again scanned the nearby trees for anything that might be making Pidgeot nervous.
It was then that she realized something utterly terrifying. The forest behind the rattata had inexplicably gone silent. Gone were the calls of the pidgey nesting in the trees, the drone of beedrill as they went about their work in the distance. The hairs on Katherine's neck began to rise. A trainer for nearly a year now, she had learned to listen to the land for the subtle signs that it gave. Right now, they were all screaming, Danger! Danger! Run while you still can! Something was coming through the trees that scared the whole forest silly, and Katherine had a feeling that she wanted to be out of its way as well. She turned her attention back to the strange display going on between her pidgeot and the rattata. "Forget it, Pidgeot! We're getting out of here!"
Pidgeot gave a cry of appreciation as Katherine ran over to climb onto his back. She had barely had time to clamber aboard before he took off, pumping his wings furiously to gain altitude. He flew as Katherine had seen him fly only once before, and that was the time that the duo was being tailed by a full flock of skarmory. That had been after she had stumbled upon a large cluster of their nests and had unwisely decided to take a closer look at the eggs within one of them. An adult had spotted her as she did so, and the flock had given chase in rage. She had been sure to avoid the area ever since.
Pidgeot's rapid ascent soon caused the island to dwindle away to a mere speck beneath them once more. He soared back out over the open ocean in the direction that they had come. Katherine felt herself grow calmer as the island faded away into the distance, and even had the capacity to be slightly annoyed. She couldn't expect any further exploring today, as Pidgeot would certainly be exhausted after his wild escape and the terror that he had experienced on the island. This was what puzzled Katherine most. Why had he been so afraid of that little rattata? She had never seen Pidgeot act like that in the face of a wild pokémon before.
She couldn't ask him about that now, of course. He was too busy navigating, retracing their flight path over the constantly shifting waves. Katherine certainly didn't want to distract him and potentially cause them to end up far away from their camp, or even worse, end up missing the continent altogether. She gave a small shrug, deciding to ask him about it later, after he had calmed down a bit.
Unnoticed by trainer and pokémon, the hood on the back of Katherine's sweatshirt stirred. Two cunning red eyes peered out from the fold in the fabric, small white whiskers testing the frigid air.