All characters and original concepts I've added are mine.
A/N: Speech is, as you may have noted, annotated differently. Common, or humanspeak, as the pokémon call it, is represented by quotations. The dex-translated chirrups, bells, squeaks, whistles and whatnot of the pokémon's language are represented in -text-. Telepathy, though you may not encounter it, or have not yet, is in - italics and dashes -.
Though this is my first fanfic, I am basing this greatly after my experiences roleplaying in Saitro, my little pet site. I hope you enjoy this - there is more coming. Sorry there isn't more at the moment, but it will come. I also apologise that it hasn't picked up; it will, trust me.
R&R, and enjoy!
Pages in MS Word: 8
Words: 2636
Inside jokes: 3
Actually written on August 29, 2005
(Yes, some of the researcher names are from Saitro... J-san put Spiegel in here a while back. I decided to leave it in here, though I thought it was presumptuous of him.)
Chapter 1: For the Birds
Life is so constructed that an event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation.--Charlotte Bronte
Annie sighed, readjusting her pack on her back and continuing on. At her side the nidorina Nasa padded, glancing furtively at the surrounding forest.
Birdsong filtered down through the trees, though none of it was what she was listening for. It occurred to her that she had never even seen a blackbeaked spearow, let alone heard one, though she hoped that she would know one when she saw it, or heard it. She knew what a spearow generally looked like; the stubby wings, the coloration, the social habits that they seemed to all have in common, but then again traits from species to species, such as the white rhyhorn to the common rhyhorn, were known to vary. The harsh, grating cry of a spearow was distinctive, however, and it was what she was looking for.
They had been in Darkvale Forest for over four hours now, running on the hope that the rumors she had heard had fruit. The pair had been so thrilled to get the assignment: to search for a once-thought-extinct pokemon and report their findings. They might become famous someday, joining the ranks of legends such as Professor Oak, Elm, Spiegel, Reins, de Carniru, Snowden…
Now it seemed that they were on a wild abra chase, likely to never find anything. "If there was anything to begin with," Annie muttered, causing the nidorina to glance up at her momentarily before returning her attention on the gametrail before her.
Nasa snorted in a great sigh at the ganths clustering about them, causing a few to drift away for a moment. The cloud of small insects seemed to grow exponentially by the hour, and the buzz in Annie's ears was beginning to grow seriously annoying. She could only imagine how Nasa, with her more sensitive hearing, was taking it.
The forest was a true forest, such as Annie had only dreamed of. After a few hours, however, she had an entirely different view of nature: from giant trees and mist-covered moss underfoot, stantlers and other deer padding along, an ursaring poised at a stream, flipping magikarps and feebas out of the water with flicks of its powerful paw to a wet, crowded jungle of thorns, thistles, saplings and trees so thick that you could barely move. She followed the gametrails, though she constantly had to fend off offending branches and brambles from her face. She was pretty sure that she would have a rash soon to add to her growing collection of scrapes and bruises from the poison ivy and gimblevine that flourished here. She had tried at first slashing at a tangle of growth with her knife with very limited success, and eventually realized that were she to get anywhere she would have to just find her way around. The last thing she wanted to do was make something mad.
Now, however, she couldn't care, and just wanted out of this infernal place. Once more she consulted her 'dex, looking up spearow and then the varying subspecies, listening once more to the cry.
Would she recognize it, though, from a distance? Some things carried over a long ways, while other tones did not, and distance could completely change the sound of a call. It never occurred to her that pokemon would be so spread out and that finding them could be so time-consuming. Sure, there were always things here and there: a ratree spiraling up a tree, a pidgey or common Passer Sylvansis , or forest spearow. On occasion one even saw a Vulpes Igniscauta , the common vulpix, or a Fulgaritus Cuniculus , a pikachu.
But what use did they really provide her? Knowing what Solenopsis Invicta was didn't help her here. She thought she knew so much, but in the end, all her work, all her studies, seemed to come to nothing. When it came to surviving, she was just as clueless as the next technophilic city-girl with visions of grandeur.
She continued on through the one big bramble that was the forest, finally stopping altogether. "You know what? This is insane. I don't know where I am, what I'm looking for, or how to get out of this thrice-damned place." She bodily shoved through another one of the omnipresent clumps of foliage, stumbled over a root, and fell face-down into the half-decomposed plant matter that coated the ground. She cursed, trying to rise to her feet. As she placed her hands on the ground to give herself leverage, she cried out, yanking back her left hand, watching as drops of red welled from her palm.
-Annie?- Nasa asked, ears tilted forward in concern. -Are you alright?-
"A thorned root. Why beneath the stars is there a thorned root?" Annie growled, rising with the use of her uninjured hand. "Oh, man," she moaned, inspecting it closely. "Got me good, too."
She fought her way a little farther, then sighed. "Nass, could you see if there's a clearing or something around here? I wanna see to this…"
-Can do,- the nidorina chirruped, bounding off into the foliage.
Annie watched her with envy. How could she navigate so easily through this stuff? It made her wonder how on earth the larger creatures, such as, say, a venusaur managed. It seemed impossible to her now. Yeesh, she could barely manage and she was small for a human!
Although, she reminded herself, venusaurs and their kin were grass-elemental pokemon. Alright then, how did an ursaring manage? Surely the forest became more navigable sooner or later? Or had she gotten the wrong place?
Whatever it was, she was not enjoying herself.
A rustle brought her back to the present: Nasa had returned bearing news. -The trees get bigger after a while. That cuts down on foliage. Don't worry, after a while longer we can find a place to set up camp.-
So it DID change! "Thank the gods," she replied, setting forward with renewed hope. "And thanks, Nasa."
-Anytime,- the reply came, a click-chir-ret in Annie's ears and bearing meaning (thanks to the dex) in her mind.
They continued on, Annie pressing on through tangles and losing her footing once or twice. The latter was when she stepped into a hole, and she instantly set to pulling her foot back out. There was no telling what lived in holes, and she, for one, did not fancy a bite from a pythea or a young arbok. Nothing happened, of course, save a pulled ankle, which was more a nuisance than anything. It wasn't sprained, broken or in any way really hurt, and she went on again, this time practicing more caution.
Annie was expecting a gradual change, where the forest spread out slowly and quietly. Thus it came to her as quite a surprise when all of a sudden she was standing in a real forest, what she would expect. Trees reached high, branching to create a canopy overhead. She saw a glimpse of something – a fourfooted, blackfurred shape, but then it was gone. The ground was uneven, sloping up and down at seemingly random intervals, then dipping low and reappearing some ways away. The sound of running water grew closer, and Annie had a sneaking suspicion that the stream she heard was where the land dipped away in front of her. There was no mist, but then again, what did she expect?
The birdcalls had been added to, a call she did not readily recognize had joined the mix. It was pretty, in a melodic sequence downscaling in thirds, then rising again in three notes to repeat the sequence. This was not a speech-pattern, then, but a call of some sort, perhaps a warning, or an invitation. Perhaps a mating call. Who knew.
She sat down on the ground, unslung her pack and started rooting through it. Her hand by now had three little red streaks across it, something she rolled her eyes at when she saw. She finally located the medkit and started to take out the alcohol when she suddenly rose and went to inspect the streambank.
Even if it was a clear stream, though, it was probably steep. Stop second-guessing yourself, she berated herself silently, looking at the wound. It ought to get washed. Ick, I don't like deep wounds… well, at least it doesn't hurt. Much, she corrected quickly.
Nasa watched her silently, her crimson-tinged eyes flicking around constantly on the lookout. She did not know this area like she had known her home woods. This was larger, and housed much larger denizens. So far they had been lucky, but there were plenty who would not hesitate to pester or attack them. This she knew from experience – Yart had told her plenty of horror stories. Her human counterpart seemed even more clueless than she, a fact she did not find entirely reassuring.
She shook her head, rising to her hind legs as she glanced around them for what must be hundredth time. Still nothing. She was being paranoid. Better paranoid than dead, she thought, sniffing the air. She preferred this greatly to the stale, stifling scent of the city, the soft, sylvan feel of the air, the feeling of life all around her, not stone or concrete that blocked the sky and the light of the sun. She listened idly to the birdchatter - nothing particularly interesting at the moment, though it was reassuring that they felt safe to gossip and chat and socialize. When danger came the birds grew quiet...
Annie slid down the grassy bank, landing on a rock that stretched out over the water. It was clear, running swiftly across rocks and forming little continual ripples in the stream. Annie fancied it surging forward merrily to wherever it was that it seemed so eager to get to.
"I'm glad one of us knows where we're going," she sighed, placing her hand palm-up on the slick rocks below, letting the water surge over it. She held it there for a while, then pulled it back out, feeling fairly numb from the wist down, and picked her way back up the bank and to her pack. Now she took the alcohol and poured a little on, then capped it and put away. She took some tressa leaves from the supply in her herb-pouch, crushed it on the rock and pressed it to the wound, wrapping it with some bandages. That ought to do it. She didn't want to break into her supply of potions and whatnot just yet - no telling what they might come across. Waste not, want not.
"Alright, think that just about does it," she sighed, rising to her feet after repacking her bag. "So what now?"
- - -
In the end, they decided that continuing on would be pointless at this stage and that this was as good a place as any to set up camp. Annie finished staking in her tent, the fire she had made burning brightly. Nasa watched it, partially hypnotized by the blinding flare of the leaping flames, her mind far away.
Annie came over to join her, taking out some dried meat from her pack and handing over a piece. Nasa reared to her hind legs, taking the offering delicately between her claws and taking a bite. She sat back, chewing thoughtfully. -Annie?-
"Mm?" the girl asked, glancing to the nidorina. "What is it?"
-It occurred to me that we ought to find some way to stash the food, preferably where no one will bother it.-
"Yeah, probably," Annie replied. "I got rope, you know."
-Aipoms.-
"Okay then... maybe we could... bury it?"
-A thought. I was thinking rather to see if it won't go in the spare balls you've got. Like those item balls you were so intent on acquiring.-
"Oh! No, that hadn't occurred to me... that's where I'm keeping the rope and the rest of...the...food..."
-But they don't align like pokeballs do, right? And somehow I get the feeling that there aren't that many People out there who would fancy a nice juicy meal of rope.-
"Yeah... point taken," Annie laughed, joined by Nasa's twittering chuckle.
They continued eating, talking and joking for a while. Annie then took out her 'dex, logging the day's activities. She was highly tempted to add in some unprofessional sentences about the forest in general, but in the end aborted it each time before she even started. She had enough people who thought her immature already - no need to lose more supporters.
She finished, then paused, rereading it and correcting a few parts. Obsess over anything, you will , she thought wryly, finally deciding that it was as done as it was going to get. Before she could submit, however, the pokedex intuitively did it for her, archiving a copy in case she wanted to access it later.
"Okay then," she said, shaking her head. "Oi. Really creeps me out when you do that. What if I hadn't finished?"
The screen did not answer.
"Serves me right, getting one of those 'cool intelligent pokedexes'. Aiyaiyai." She flipped it closed to protect the LCD screen - at least, that was what she thought it was - and put it safely away. Then she got to rearranging what was where, shifting foodstuffs into the storage balls and resorting to muttered threats when it refused to believe it could take it. "Oh come on! Stupid thing!" She tried again. This time it accepted a little more... and regurgitated what she had already given it to hold.
When finally everything that could be called food had been stashed away, she placed the balls in the pack, took off her shoes, and went into the tent. She took off her shirt, changing into a nightshirt and shorts. The tent was small, and she had to do everything in a rather uncomfortable crouch, but there were worse things. This was waterproof, and there was enough room for her and Nasa and their spare equipment, so she really couldn't complain. Besides, she couldn't carry anything much larger in an item ball - already it required three (which now contained their breakfast.)
Nasa remained outside, watching the banked fire glowing faintly. Unseen critchets chirped, insects buzzed, a lone hoothoot hooted softly in the distance. She hesitated when Annie invited her to join her in the confines of the tent, weighing her options carefully before replying. -I'd rather stay out here, if it's all right with you... besides, I can keep anything from bothering you. Really, I don't mind...- she churred gently, her horn form a dark shadow in the twilight.
"You sure."
Nasa jerked her head upwards once, allowing it to come back down slowly in the nida-version of a nod. Annie sighed, retreating into the tent.
Getting comfortable was another story. She had no sleeping bag, a fact she was really beginning to regret as she tossed and turned. Something was digging into her back and it was beginning to really annoy her. She arched her back outward, lying on her side, and managed to curl around it, but her back was uphill. She rearranged everything so she was lying downhill, her back lower then her head or legs, but ended up rolling over into the side of the tent. In the end she chose this as the most endurable, though she sorely missed her bed and down pillows...
She sighed, watching the light fade, though it was darker inside the navy tent than it was outside. Was it only yesterday that they had arrived here? Maybe, if she asked really nicely, would Skyva consider bringing her a sleeping bag?
She knew she'd never ask, though. It was her fault entirely, and she would just have to make do. Besides, it builds character, she could hear her father saying.
She hadn't seen him in years...
