(A/N)– Pokémon belong to GameFreak. However Rowan, Kepa and all the other characters are mine, as well as my ideas on how Kaijuu were used in the past.
(kaijuu monster in Japanese. That's what I'm going to call pokémon for the duration of this fic. Pokémon pocket-monster. Since pokeballs haven't been invented yet, the name is a bit ridiculous. You tell me how you plan to put snorlax in your pocket!)
For those of you unfamiliar with kaijuu/pokémon, I will put a list at the end of each chapter describing the kaijuu.
This story is set in a alternate world than the one in the anime/mangas. There is no technology yet, and civilisation depends on kaijuu for making roads, building houses, travelling, etc.
So I'll shut up now and let you read. Please have a nice journey!
The Adamant Key
By Trivnar Silversword
Chapter one: The End of a Journey...
In a world not unlike our own, humans live alongside animals, called kaijuu. These creatures have control over the elements (fire, earth, water, wind, light, etc.) and can use them to do their bidding. The humans saw the worth of such beasts and tamed them for their own use. Hundreds of years before they were kept for the sole purpose of battle, the kaijuu were workers and companions. It was thanks to them that the humans prospered.
Rowan fingered the bright blue articuno feathers tied to a leather thong around her neck. It had cost the girl a month's worth of wages, but the feathers were rumoured to bring about good luck and she hoped the investment would pay off. After all, a Trader could never have too much luck.
Rowan was a seventeen year old girl, neither short nor tall, with long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her face was boldly shaped in a few quick lines, with a strong nose and high cheekbones. She was dressed in traditional Trader clothes; bright green baggy breeches and a dark blue long sleeved shirt embroidered with gold. A dark green travel cloak with a hood swirled around her booted feet, inches above the dusty ground. A dark blue marking swirled out from the corner of her right eye, proclaiming her as a Kaijuu healer.
Rowan turned her attention to the small cart pulled by a sturdy looking ponyta at her side. It held the goods which she was taking to Indigo Plateau to sell, a trader's lifeblood. Many miles had passed under its wheels and it needed repairs. A vaporeon was curled up on top of the cart, dozing peacefully. Rowan smiled at her, then started to hum a lively tune.
A resounding CRACK! echoed through the early morning spring air, causing Rowan to start with surprise. The ponyta stopped and looked back at the cart, which was now leaning to the left and threatening to topple over.
Rowan swore. "Damn axil broke! I did hope it would hold out until I reached the Plateau." A life of constant travelling had ingrained in her the habit of speaking her thoughts aloud. Bending over to peer under the cart, she quickly ascertained the damage. "We won't be going any further with this," she sighed.
With a lot of heaving and grunting, Rowan and the ponyta managed to wrestle the cart off the road and into a thick patch of shrubbery.
"Mist, I want you to stay and guard the cart," she instructed the vaporeon, "but if things get tough, no heroics."
"Vapo-vapo!" agreed Mist, jumping down from the top and settling herself under the cart, in the shade. Satisfied that they would be alright for a while, Rowan mounted the ponyta and urged him down the road.
The remainder of the journey to Indigo Plateau was uneventful, arriving in the small town halfway through the afternoon. The houses of the Plateau were all made from stone, there being a healthy supply all around. A lot of them were quite old, and covered in green moss, which the inhabitants made no attempt to discourage. It gave the whole village a rather odd green and grey colour scheme but helped it blend in quite nicely with the surrounding area. Rowan made her way directly to the blacksmith, hoping that he would have some means to retrieve the cart.
The forge was blazing hot, a roaring fire in the furnace, making Rowan wonder how anyone could stand over it and work all summer. A large bald man approached her, wiping sooty hands on his leather apron.
"Yeah? Can I help you?"
"Um... yes" Rowan fidgeted, "my cart's axil broke on my way here and–"
The smith interrupted, "broken axil? Yeah, we can fix that. On the way here, you said? Suppose you'll want us to fetch it." He brought his none-too-clean fingers to his mouth and whistled, calling a younger man over. "Draft, go see if Jem will loan us his kedabra for a quick job. He owes us a favour anyway."
Draft rushed off, leaving Rowan alone with the smith. They stared at each other and the silence lengthened, broken only when Draft and the kedabra returned. Scowling, the smith moved back into the forge.
"Don't mind Anvil, he's only a puff of hot air," advised Draft leading her through the forge and out the back, into a yard filled with odds and ends, "just let Kedabra see where you left the cart and he'll take care of it. This'll be on your bill, mind."
Rowan sighed and let her knowledge of the cart drift into her uppermost thoughts. The kedabra blinked out, returning a few seconds later with the cart and vaporeon. Mist jumped into Rowan's arms, clearly upset with the sudden movements.
The trader soothed the kaijuu, whispering to her until she settled down, then inquired about the estimated time period.
"It will take us awhile to fix it; we're backed up on work."
"There's no hurry." she said, walking away from the forge, towards an inn that she had passed on the way. "I'll check in tomorrow."
Rowan paid for a week's stay at the inn, stabled Coal, then remembered her clothes and food were still in the cart. Annoyed with herself, she strode off purposely in that direction.
"Hey, Trader, what's your business here?" a cold voice sneered. Rowan turned around and cast a silent appraisal over a slender man dressed in trader clothes and his raichu.
"My business is no business of yours." she said coldly.
He walked up to her, grinning as she had to tilt her head to look up into his face. "I think it is, darling. This here is my territory. I'm in charge of buying all of Indigo Plateau's produce. Buy anything and you'll regret it."
Rowan shrugged and walked away, knowing he was fuming behind her. She puzzled over the incident all the way to the forge. Traders usually shared whatever place they settled in, content with gentle competition and jokingly lowering their prices to see how low the other would go. Indigo Plateau didn't have any goods that were so valuable that a Trader would want to chase another away. The odd evolutionary stone would get dug up, but other than that...
Putting the incident out of her mind as she reached the forge, she began digging into the cart, searching for her personal effects. She came across a bundle of quality iron that she had picked up in Sapphire City and wondered if she could trade it for the work on her cart.
Finding Anvil, she showed him the metal and proposed the trade, but he jerked his head towards the back of the forge and stomped off. Rowan wandered over, seeing no one but a muscled blaziken, hammering a strip of red hot metal flat. As she drew close he stopped working and turned his attention to her.
"I-I'm selling iron...do you... look it over?" He held out a hand for the metal so she obligingly gave him a piece. The blaziken inspected each piece, one by one, marking all but two with a cross. Rowan took the marked pieces back to Anvil and they bickered over the price for awhile.
"You let the blaziken chose the metal?" she asked curiously after both were satisfied. "I know that craftsmen depended on Kaijuu, but I didn't know they used them that much."
Anvil grunted, "Kepa can detect faults in the metal that humans can't."
Rowan nodded slowly. "Yes, that would make sense. Where–" She was cut off by a loud explosion, shouts and screams of pain.
"Damn!" cursed Anvil, rushing into the forge. "Kepa! They're at it again!"
The blaziken, Kepa, left his hearth, heading towards the entrance. "Get everyone out of here, Anvil, I'm gone. You have enough gold to rebuild; help yourself to what I've left behind."
Rowan blinked. She would have sworn that the blaziken had just talked. But no, kaijuu didn't talk human, everyone knew that.
"You'd better leave," the apprentice Draft advised her, "the town is under attack." Rowan turned towards the back entrance, worried about her cart, but it was filled with the bulk of an immense blastoise.
"I'd love to leave, but, umm, how?" Draft grabbed her arm, propelling her back into the forge.
"Kepa! We're going to scatter, give you a chance to run. Watch over the trader." She was pushed forward, into the arms of the blaziken.
"Excuse me, but we'll make better time if I carry you." Rowan was scooped up into the strong arms, too shocked to protest of this treatment.
Kepa bolted out of the forge by a side door a split second before the blastoise shot a blast of water from the cannons on its back and completely destroyed the building. The streets of Indigo Plateau were in chaos. Citizens were scurrying to and fro while huge kaijuu and their masters roamed through the streets, destroying things at will. Rowan finally shook herself free of the shock of a kaijuu speaking the human tongue and started to struggle against Kepa's iron grasp.
"Let me down at once! I have to get my kaijuu and my cart!" Try as she might, the trader couldn't break free of the blacksmith's arms. "Come on, put me down, I'm nothing to you!"
Kepa didn't even look down. "Your kaijuu will be fine and you can live without a cart and a few goods. If I let you down now, you'll only do something rash and end up killed." Rowan frowned; this kaijuu was way too human for her liking. That didn't sound a bit like animal reasoning! Nevertheless, she kept quiet, wisely acknowledging arguing wouldn't get her anywhere.
Kepa dashed through the ruined streets, searching for an escape, changing direction every time they came across another kaijuu. They were running through a dark alley when he skidded to a halt. A rhydon was blocking the exit. Kepa spun around, but a blastoise covered the other end. Rowan was dropped, none too gently, to the filthy ground.
"We're going to have to fight our way out." The trader rolled her eyes at the obviousness of the remark. Two fireballs formed in the blaziken's paws.
"I'm warning you kaijuu; you're not going to like this one bit."
Kepa started to run towards the rhydon, who lowered its horn and snorted angrily, then started to charge towards the blaziken. Kepa laughed in its face, darting out of the way of the behemoth and grabbing its tail. Rhydon grumbled deep in her throat, dragging Kepa halfway across the alley before being ground to a halt.
Kepa let go of the tail and spun around once, picking up momentum, delivering a punishing kick to the rhydon. She shrugged off the blow, swinging her huge head which connected with Kepa and sent him flying into the blastoise, still standing at the other end of the alley.
Blastoise reared up on its hind legs then dropped its massive weight down onto the blaziken. Rowen winced, almost feeling the other's pain as the blastoise reared up again. Kepa wobbled to his feet before being hit full blast by two powerful jets of water from the blastoise's cannons. Kepa hit the alley wall with a sickening crunch. Shakily, he managed to stand up but was not fast enough to dodge Rhydon's charge which sent him sliding to Rowan's feet.
The girl helped him up, glaring at his two opponents. "I don't know how you're planing to beat them," she said doubtfully, "since they're ten times your size."
"Size...isn't...everything." Kepa gasped out, pulling himself from Rowan's grasp and dashing towards Blastoise. "Run while you still can!" he shouted over his shoulder.
First he wants me to stay, then he wants me to run, Rowan grumbled, exasperated. But somehow, I want to help him. At the very least, he'll need a healer at the end of this battle!
Kepa jumped high into the air, planning to land on the blastoise's back when a slender man with black hair and dressed in trader clothes stepped in between them and crossed his arms. Distracted, the blaziken didn't see the blastoise shift his weight until a large paw batted him to the ground in front of the newcomer.
Rowan took an involuntary step forwards, recognising the obnoxious trader that had warned her away from the Plateau earlier that day.
"Well, well, well, having fun yet, Kepa Nur?"
From the ground where he sat, breathing heavily, Kepa glared at the man. "Damian," he spat in cold fury.
The black-haired man chuckled. "So you remembered. Good. I'm going to assume you considered my proposal and found it reasonable."
"Reasonable? I'm not sure I share your opinion of what defines reason. In any case, judging by the destruction around us, you've already anticipated my reply."
Rowan looked from Kepa to Damian, then from Damian to Kepa, totally confused. Deciding she probably didn't want to know and that her health would profit from walking away, she made to turn when a flash of yellow caught her eye. Damian's raichu sat on the blastoise's head and was preparing to blast the blaziken.
She flared up at once. Good guys or bad, hitting someone from behind was a cowardly act. Bending, Rowan found a pebble on the ground and took careful aim. THWACK! The raichu plummeted from its perch, falling sideways off the blastoise.
Damian growled, moving back to check on his kaijuu. Rowan dashed forward and grabbed Kepa's wrist, pulling him to his feet then propelling out of the alley while Damian was distracted with his stunned raichu.
Kepa glanced back behind them, to the rhydon charging after them. "We're going to have Damian's whole army after us."
"Doesn't matter! Just run!"
She nearly tripped over a piece of rubble, but Kepa shifted his hand, holding her wrist firmly and she stayed on her feet. Now he lead her through the town, which seemed both larger and smaller at the same time, due to the fact that most of the houses were destroyed, the stones that built them scattered every which way. The pair stumbled through the ruined streets while kaijuu massed behind them.
(A/N)
Kaijuu:
- Articuno: a large blue bird, rarely seen by humans. Element ice
- Ponyta: a white horse, with flames for a mane and tail. Ponyta only burn those they don't trust. Friends who touch their flames only feel a tickling warmth. Element fire.
- Vaporeon: Vaporeon stand on four legs, and have dolphin-like tails. Their hide is blue and a fin runs down the length of their back. Another fin circles around their necks like a collar; both these fins are floppy and almost transparent. Three other fins, two next to the ears and one at the top of the head, are more rigid. Element water
- Kadabra: stands on two legs, hide a tan colour. A triangular head with a star on the forehead and two long whiskers. Also has a large and thick tail with a darker brown stripe around it. Has a darker coloured exoskeleton around the chest and shoulders. Three vertical stripes decorate their bellies. Element psychic
- Raichu: an orangishmouse with a very long tail, ending in a lightning bolt shape. They have big ears and yellow cheeks. Element electricity
- Blaziken: stand on two legs, a bit taller than the average human. Covered in red fur except for the legs; fur goes yellow at the knees; the chest; patch of white fur, not unlike a vest. The white fur forms a upside down 'v' with yellow fur where the white is not. The hands are bird-like,covered in grey scales up to the elbow and with only three fingers. The head is triangular with two big horns over the eyes and two smaller ones off to the side. Two long tails of white fur sprout from the top of the head and reach the waist. Finally, they have a short tail, shaped like a bird's. (narrow at the base, wide at the end, and flat)Element fire (but can also kick and punch)
- Blastoise: a very large kaijuu which can stand on four or two legs. Like a turtle, with blue hide and a brown shell. Two cannons stick out of the shell. Element water
- Rydon: built like a tank, this kaijuu is grey and can move on four legs or two. They have a large horn on the tip of their nose, spines along their back, and a thick heavy tail. Element rock
Evolutionary stone: a stone which releases energy which certain kaijuu react to, causing them to mutate and grow stronger.
Note: Most kaijuu can mutate when they reach a certain age, changing their bodies to make them stronger. This process is called evolution. Some can only evolve with the help of these stones.