"A human?! Are you out of your mind?!!"

Sam was surprised. Well, more than surprised. He had just found out that his first major friend in who knows how long could be clinically insane. We had finally been able to communicate in a more effective way, and I stupidly decided that the first thing to tell him was probably the most unbelievable thing.

"It's true!" I testified to him. "How else do you think I can understand you so well?!!"

"Well, it's just that... gosh, a HUMAN! I thought those were just myths!"

"Well, that is what Arceus said would be the case..." I muttered to myself.

"Wait, WHAT?!!! Did you say ARCEUS?!!!?!" Sam was stressed out even more now. He was pacing back and forth across the floor. "Maybe you hit your head harder than we thought..."

I could see where this was headed. "Wait, wait! Just hear me out, okay? This is crazier for me as it is for you... let me tell you my side!"

"Okay, okay... that sounds fair." Sam said, sitting down again. "Let's hear it."

I then proceeded to tell Sam everything that had happened so far, from me waking up in a foreign body and world, running off the cliff, waking up in the hospital, dreaming about Arceus, and then how I felt with everything. I skipped over my nightmare because I felt that was more personal.

"I don't think I'm crazy," I said, ending my spill. "But a lot of crazy things have happened to me in the past couple days. I'm sorry that I've only been able to tell you now. Please forgive me."

The charmander sat still for a minute. "Well, considering the whole story you just told me, it makes no sense to make any of it up. I mean, you'd have nothing to gain! Plus, it makes sense with what Tina said and with the Elucide pendant."

"So do you believe me?" I asked.

"I guess so. Yeah."

"Thank you. Honestly, I wasn't sure if I believed myself."

"Well, you know what this means." Sam said with a sigh.

"What?"

"We have to go find the Relick stone."

"I guess we do, yeah."

"But where do we even start?" Sam asked, racking his brain for answers. "I mean, I've read a lot of books, but I've never heard of anything called a 'Relick stone'."

I thought for a minute. "Do they have libraries in this world?" I asked.

"Umm... yeah?"

"Maybe let's start there then."

——————————-

Libraries in the Pokémon world are kinda strange. We went to a library in Tarry town, and upon entering I had noticed some differences to what I knew. First of all, there was no front desk. Normally, I'd imagine there to be a front desk or information area for those who are looking for something in particular or needing help finding something. Instead, Sam said that they had a few librarians who would roam around, putting things away and answering questions as they go. I also noticed that there was far less support for assistance than I expected. There seemed to only be two Pokémon working here!

Although there seemed to be a lot of work for the librarians to do, there weren't many people- err... pokemon around to cause a mess. Sam guided me over to the history section, and we started our search.

"Soo... do you guys have a Dewey decimal system, or...?" I asked Sam, trying to see how the books were organized.

"A Dewey... what?" Sam replied, obviously confused. He was wearing the elucide pendant so that he could understand me, and I was wearing a strip of the agility cloak like a neckerchief.

"Never mind. How are your books organized here?"

"Well," Sam started with a claw in the air again. "Since alphabetizing gets too complicated, we decided to catalogue them first by genre, then subject, then authors."

"So I guess you come here often?" I asked him.

"Oh yes! It's my favorite place to be!" Sam said confidently. "I love to read! I even have reading specs!" He pulled out a pair of black framed, circular glasses from his bag. "They help me to envision what's happening easier by helping me see clearer."

"Well then, where do we start?"

"Well, I guess maybe ask someone if they've ever heard of a Relick stone?"

"Worth a shot." I replied.

We looked around and eventually found a tall bird Pokémon that was green and brown. He had what looked a bit like a hoodie on, but was standing in a very proper posture, and it made me imagine what a British gangster could look like. Sam said it was a Decidueye.

"Hey Recs!" Sam said to the tall Pokémon. It was like, 3 feet taller than him! "Know anything about Relick stones? That's relic with a k?"

Recs looked down at Sam. He gave us a look over, then asked in a plain tone "What for?"

"It mentioned one in a book he read." I said quickly, seeing how difficult it was for Sam to come up with a lie.

The Decidueye just stared at me, head cocked slightly, as if he couldn't understand what I had said. "Who is this?" He asked Sam.

"Uh... she's... a feral! Yeah, a feral who I'm teaching how to speak!"

"Uh-huh." Recs replied, Keeping an eye on the both of us. "Well anyway, I have heard of one. It was in one of our older history books, 'The Forgotten History of our Ancestors' I believe it's called. Follow me."

We followed Recs to an open area where some large books were on stands and I also got the feeling this was where really old books were kept. He led us to a stand where a very old looking book sat. He opened it up to the title page. It read in a strange font 'The Nearly Forgotten Words of The Old Pokémon.

"As you can see," Recs said, pointing to the words, "we have had some trouble reading it. It is written in a language we call 'Unknown-script,' and we don't know much about the time period it was used in."

"Dang it." Sam said, looking disappointed. "I really thought we'd have something there. Have you heard of it anywhere else?"

"Unfortunately, no." Recs said. "I only know partial of unknown-script, and it's only enough to make out a word here or there. This book came in long before I did. I'm afraid I wouldn't be of much help to you."

"That's alright." Sam said. "Thanks anyways!"

"Don't mention it."

As Recs walked away, Sam turned to me. "Well sorry we couldn't find anything useful... I'm all out of ideas at this point!"

"I can read it." I said, staring at the book.

"What?"

"I can read unknown-script." I said again.

"Really?" Sam said, dumbfounded. "And why do you say so now, instead of when Recs was here?"

"Well, I don't know if I can trust Recs yet."

"I... I guess that's fair." Sam then perked up. "So then, let's see what it says!"

I put my paws up on the stand. "It says: The Nearly Forgotten Words of the Old Pokémon.-"

"Wait, wait!" Sam said, digging through his bag. He pulled out a paper and a crude pencil-like writing stick. "Okay, continue."

"-the words of a... a few human-turned-Pokémon and their party." I stopped. I looked over at Sam to find him giving me the same wide-eyed stare I must've been giving him. I kept reading.

"... Hello. If you are reading this, you are either 1) a fellow human like myself, 2) the friend of a human, or 3) a Pokémon who has discovered how to read in Unknown letters. If you are the third, hats off to you.

"As you may or may not know, you have been brought here by Arceus, the God of Pokémon. No, this is not a joke. You have actually been sent to a world of Pokémon. In case you don't know anything about Pokémon, this book will guide you.

"My name is Hector, and I am a squirtle. I used to be a fan of the Pokémon video games in my old life, but I have found a few notable differences between my prior knowledge of this world, and what I've learned here. That is what lead to the creation of this book. Arceus told me to write this book for another purpose too, in case another human was brought here for the purpose of using a stone called 'the Relick stone'. This stone is extremely powerful, and it grants one wish to each pair of hands it touches, so to speak.

"The Relick stone is VERY dangerous however, and so I have spent much of my Pokémon existence in hiding this power from anyone who may happen to stumble upon it. Like Arceus has told me, it must only be used by those who have a pure heart and good intentions. Otherwise, the results could be catastrophic.

"I have made a few copies of this book, in case it gets destroyed. There are 4 copies. One will be left in each of the four regions. My three other friends and I will leave to each of the regions and deposit a book in a library there. This way, the copies will be kept safe and they will be available to anyone who can read them. I have taught my non-human friends how to write in this language so that we can leave clues for any righteous purposes to find the Relick stone. Please, please do not take up the challenge to find the stone just for selfish desires or to get back home, human. You have been brought here to help this world. You have a reason to be here, and it is not an accident. Thank you, and farewell."

I stopped there. Sam and I sat there for a while. Eventually, Sam spoke up and said "What do we do now?"

"We need to check out this book." I told him.

——————————-

After asking Recs to let us take it home with the excuse of deciphering it, we trekked all the way back to Sam's house to read it. I read it aloud, and Sam took notes. It told an account of five Pokémon: three were humans who were brought into the Pokémon world, and they met two good Pokémon who joined their group. The three humans were Hector, Jake, and Rebecca. Hector was changed into a Squirtle, Jake into a Charmander, and Rebecca into a Vulpix. Hector was a fan of the Pokémon games, and Rebecca liked watching the shows, but apparently Jake was obsessed with Pokémon! He actually wanted to stay in the Pokémon world, rather than go back home like Hector and Rebecca! The two other Pokémon were a Tododile named Bart and an Espeon named Pos, who were native to this world.

Eventually, Jake realized that he wasn't going to change anyone's minds, and he rebelled against the rest of the group. They couldn't use the Relick stone to go home, because Jake had used his wish to bind all three of them there until the day he died. This all apparently happened a long time ago. Hector and his friends then made these books and hid the stone, in case Jake ever used another Pokémon to make another wish. They said they would then hide themselves away from the world, hoping to live the rest of their days in peace. Arceus also helped them with guidance here and there, but would not help Jake due to his rebellion, and Jake is now thought to be looking for the stone, using other Pokémon to search for it.

Because Jake is using native Pokémon to search for the stones, Hector and Rebecca decided to use pop-culture references as keys to the clues. This way, only a human could figure out where to find them. Jake apparently spent most of his human life focused on Pokémon, so he wouldn't know many pop-culture references, or at least his followers wouldn't.

The book also said that time works differently between the human world and the Pokémon world. Apparently, it was almost like a Jumanji sort of deal, where you can spend a long time in the Pokémon world, but when you go home barely any time has passed, if at all. Very strange.

"I can't believe this!!!" Sam said, pacing around the room with his hands in the air. "More humans?!!! And to think, if I hadn't found you the other day on that beach..."

"But Sam..." I said, thinking of how this would look to others. "We can't tell anyone about this! We don't know who could be spies for Jake!"

"You're right." He replied, with a clawed hand to his chin. "But where do we go? What do we do?!"

"Maybe this book has a hint..." I said, flipping through the book. "You know, something that will point us in the right direction?"

I flipped through the pages of information on this world. There weren't many, but on one of the last pages there was some strange markings going off the sides of the page, almost as if they matched up with something. "What's this?"

Sam looked over my shoulder. "Hey, that kinda looks like a map! A map of this region! Only really old and some of the markings are different..."

"Which markings?" I asked.

"Well, this part doesn't exist for one thing, and the map is really zoomed in and incomplete." He was pointing a claw to a point that said 'Team Rocket's Tunnel'. "What does it say?" Sam asked me.

"Uhh... Team Rocket's tunnel." I replied.

"Weird. I wonder who team rocket is?"

"I think... it was the bad guys in the Pokémon cartoon... my little brother really liked them when they came on..." I said thoughtfully.

Sam looked at me with a curious expression. "What's a cartoon?"

"Oh, umm... it's like a movie, but shorter and more for kids..."

"What's a movie?"

I realized at this point it would be really hard to explain things. "Uhh, well, you see..." I took a deep breath. "In my world, Pokémon aren't actually real."

"Wait, what?!!" Sam exclamed, shocked at this new information. "Like, at all? Like, you haven't even seen a caterpie before?!!!"

"No, well... in my world, we have them in books and stuff..."

"So there used to be Pokémon?"

"Well, no. We... ack..." I thought for a minute. "Have you ever read a fantasy book before?"

"Yeah, I love them."

"Well, Pokémon were kind of like that. They were pretend and fun to think about, but they weren't actually real. People would make stories about them and share them a lot, but they were all fake. Does that make sense?"

Sam fell back into a chair. "Well, kinda... I mean, I only thought humans were imaginary until you convinced me, and now, I mean, yeah..." Sam looked back up to me. "So this is really happening."

"Yeah."

"I guess we'll be heading out to that tunnel tomorrow."

"Yep. I guess so..."

"Well, it's extremely late... we should probably get to bed so we can get some sleep tonight."

"Yeah." I said back still sitting there.

We sat there for a minute or two longer before we started cleaning things up and getting ready for bed.

"Hey, wait a minute..." Sam said as he put some blankets away. "How did you write your name in the hospital if you just became a Pokémon? Shouldn't you have written it in unknown-script?"

"I didn't? I thought I did?" I replied.

"No, it was definitely not unknown-script..." Sam replied back to me. "Remember, even Tina could read it!"

(That's right!) I thought to myself. Even the Chansey could read what I had written! "Maybe this Pokémon body has more to it that I thought?"

"Maybe."

We finished getting our beds set up and we laid down for the night.

"Well, I'll see ya in the morning Eva!"

"Goodnight Sam!"

"Goodnight!"