Chapter 3: Confrontations
Nate woke up groggy. Naps tend to do that, after all. After a few minutes staring at the sky, he finally felt alert enough to get up. Nate brushed off any stray leaves that were clinging to him, and looked around the clearing. No Mankey were in sight, and he couldn't hear the young ones playing either. "Guess I'm not the only one who likes a good nap." A glance to the sky gave Nate a rough estimate of the time, around 4 PM. "Better try and get a fire started before it gets dark." Yesterday Nate had learned that it gets dark very quickly in the woods. The enormous trees thoroughly blocked out the sun as soon as it set behind them, meaning Nate had deceptively little daylight left.
Nate wracked his brain trying to remember all the fire starting tips from his scouting days. "A bow drill is my best bet." He wandered into the woods in search of materials, "For the bow I'll need a flexible cane, and a sturdy vine, preferably several of each in case I need backups. To start the fire I'll need..." Memories of survival tips trickled into Nate's mind as he scoured the woods in search of materials.
Nate wandered back into the clearing, his arms full of everything he thought he might need to start a fire. He ungracefully dumped everything on the ground, and first set out to make a fire pit. "Don't want to start a forest fire, after all." As he was gathering stones, several young Mankey poked their heads out to see what the strange human was up to. Once his impromptu fire pit was finished, he moved on to making the drill. In his focus, Nate didn't notice that some of the braver Mankey pups had actually descended to ground level to get a closer look at him.
After much trial and error, Nate had finally a reasonably sturdy looking bow. When he stood up to grab his fire starting materials, he suddenly realized that he was no longer alone in the clearing.
"Whoa! How long have you been watching?" He said to the three young Mankey inspecting his fire bow. The Mankey seemed amused at his inattentiveness. "Are you curious about what I'm doing? Let me show you." Nate assembled everything he needed, a flat piece of wood at the bottom to act as a base, a spindle wrapped up in the string, and another piece of wood at the top to act as the handle. Nate made sure he had a bundle of tinder and kindling nearby, and then started working the drill, slowly at first, then faster and faster. When wisps of smoke started wafting from the base, he quickly dumped the small ember onto the tinder, but it seemed he was too slow, and the ember cooled off before igniting anything.
"Damn, this might take a few tries." Despite his failure, the audience of Mankey seemed entertained, applauding his effort. "Maybe I could enlist some help."
"So, what do you think?" Nate asked the Mankey. "Want to give it a try?" The Mankey seemed happy to be included, unaware that their playtime was merely Nate taking advantage of the supernatural strength carried by the young fighting types.
"Okay, I'll hold the spindle steady, when I say go, start working the drill, but make sure to stop when I say stop, understand?" Frankly, Nate wasn't sure how effective a baby pokemon would be, but he was enjoying spending time with them regardless. Once he had the drill set up, the first Mankey stepped up. "Ready... GO!" Mankey immediately began drilling at a pace that put Nate to shame. Soon, a huge amount of smoke began billowing from the baseboard, far more than the thin wisps Nate managed to make.
"Oh Crap! Stop!" The pokemon seemed confused at why it was ordered to stop so quickly, but Nate paid it no heed. He urgently dumped the smoldering embers onto the bundle of tinder and gently blew on it. Soon, the tinder had ignited, and he placed it into the fire pit before stacking kindling on top of it. Once he was sure the fire was lit, he allowed himself a moment of celebration.
"Woooo! Great job Mankey!" He offered a high five to the pokemon, who stared at the hand confusedly. Evidently, high fives were not traditional among pokemon. He awkwardly retracted his hand, and then stared back at the fire, contentedly. "Man, pokemon make surviving in the woods so much easier. No wonder Ash and co. were always camping." Now with water, food, and fire, Nate could finally relax a little. As he stared into the growing fire, a Mankey dropped from the trees and sat next to him. "With so many Mankey around, it's getting confusing keeping track of who's who. Maybe I should come up with some nicknames to distinguish them. How about Manfred for the leader? Nah, that sounds stupid. I'll workshop some more ideas later." For the rest of the evening, Nate simply watched the fire and kept the young Mankey company.
Just before sunset, the rest of the Mankey had returned to the clearing. Manfred seemed surprised to see a fire burning. "Stupid brain, come up with a better nickname so I can stop calling my friend Manfred."
"How was your day? Anything exciting happen without me?" Manfred shook his head. "Well, I suppose that's fine, you don't want too much excitement," said Nate. "Speaking of excitement, that Noctowl last night sure startled me, does that kind of thing happen often?"
"ManMankey." Manfred nodded his head grimly.
"Sounds rough." Nate replied, not having much to say about the topic.
"It makes sense, I suppose. Noctowl is a flying type with access to psychic moves. As an unevolved mono fighting type, Mankey seems to be the ideal prey. The only saving grace seems to be that Noctowl is a solitary hunter, while Mankey stay in groups for safety."
"Have you considered taking stones up into the trees?" asked Nate. Manfred looked at Nate confusedly, as if waiting for Nate to elaborate on his strange suggestion.
"Well, I was just thinking, remember when you threw that stone at me? You could try it against the Noctowl if it comes back. Flying pokemon are weak against rock type attacks, you know?"
Manfred pondered Nate's words for a minute, before nodding to itself. He started gathering fist-sized stones from around the clearing, moving them up into the nests in the treetops. "That Noctowl's in for a nasty surprise when it comes back," thought Nate, grinning to himself.
The rest of the evening passed uneventfully. Once the last vestiges of sunlight were gone from the sky, Nate extinguished the fire by smothering it with loose soil. "With how easily the Mankey can light a new fire for me, I don't have to worry about keeping the fire going all night." Nate tucked into his leafy sleeping bag, and just before he fell asleep, he was shocked awake by the screech of a bird pokemon. "Looks like Manfred's new security system will get its inaugural run sooner than I thought." Nate's musings were interrupted by the sound of stone hitting flesh, accompanied by a pained yelp from Noctowl. He heard the bird pokemon crash to the forest floor, followed by the sounds of it clumsily taking off and flying away, screeching furiously the whole time. As Noctowl flew off, it's angry cries grew quieter and quieter.
"Nice shot!" Nate said to the dark treetops.
"Mankey!" Came the happy reply. With the knowledge his friends were safe, Nate drifted off to sleep.
Nate woke up shivering, and his breath was visible as puffs of water vapor every time he exhaled. "I knew my luck with the weather couldn't last. Honestly I'm surprised it lasted this long in the first place." While the temptation was strong to stay huddled up in his leaf cocoon, Nate knew that getting his blood flowing would be the best way to warm up. As Nate tried to get up, however, he found himself weighed down unexpectedly. Nate looked down at his chest and was surprised to see that he wasn't alone in his improvised bed. During the cold night, a Paras managed to sneak next to him to try and stave off the cold.
Nate was split between excitement at having a pokemon practically sitting on his lap, and unnerved that an enormous crab/bug/fungus managed to crawl into his lap without waking him up. "Seriously, this thing's gotta weigh like fifteen pounds, how the hell did I not wake up? Was I really that tired last night?" As Nate continued inspecting the pokemon sleeping in his lap, the answer hit him like a truck. "The spores! The crafty bastard knocked me out then cuddled up with me to steal my body heat!" Nate was simultaneously impressed at Paras's ingenuity, and terrified that Paras managed to so thoroughly incapacitate him.
"Luckily he was only after my body heat. Imagine what would happen if Paras was a carnivore." At the thought of food, Nate suddenly remembered the gluttonous Paras he met yesterday. "Wait, this isn't the same one, is it? It's not like I can tell one Paras apart from any other. Let's assume it is the same Paras for the time being. If that's the case, what reason would it have to follow me? All I did was feed it... Oh crap! It knew I was loaded with berries!" Nate lifted Paras off his lap and placed it beside him, before rushing to his berry basket to inspect the damage.
"Dammit, robbed me blind. This doesn't even make sense! Two berries were enough to fill me up completely, yet a bug one tenth my weight goes through half my stockpile in a single night." Nate stared dejectedly at the still-sleeping bug. "Guess I won't have to worry about it waking up any time soon, the food coma should be in full effect for a good while."
Now that he was out of bed, Nate walked to the spring to refill his water bottle. On the way back, Nate noticed how much quieter the forest was today than it was yesterday. "I guess the sudden cold front has everybody huddled up."
As Nate arrived at Mankey's clearing, Paras was still asleep, and there was no sign of any Mankey either. Nate sat down for a few seconds to gather his thoughts. "This cold morning is a serious wake up call. I don't know if it's spring, fall, or even summer. Frankly, I want to be back in civilization before I'm forced to find out." When it came to directions out of the forest, there was really only one answer. "Guess I'll have to ask Manfred again. Even if he doesn't know where to go, he might be able to introduce me to someone who does. I'm seriously racking up a debt with the little dude. Good thing granola bars are such an effective bribe." Speaking of Mankey, some of the pokemon had finally begun to emerge from their hollows in the tree tops. "Finally getting up, sleepyheads?" Nate taunted. The Mankey were unusually subdued. "Are they that weak to a little cold?" Nate continued observing, watching one of the baby Mankey climb out onto a branch, sniffing the air for a few seconds, before retreating back into its hollow.
"That's not a good sign. Whatever that baby smelled must be what's got them on-edge." Nate gave the air a few good sniffs, before realizing the futility of the action. "Humans have a garbage sense of smell compared to most animals, and I don't even know what I'm sniffing for."
Nate didn't have to wait long for his answer. A terrifying roar tore through the forest. Bird pokemon were startled into flight, and even the slothful Paras woke in a panic. Nate felt bad for the little bug, and squatted down to pet it in an effort to calm it down. "Can you even feel this through your shell?" Another roar tore Nate's attention away from the Paras, this one sounded closer than the last.
"Think, Nate, what options do you have? Flee, hide, or negotiate. So far negotiation has a good track record..." A third roar, this one loud enough that Nate reflexively covered his ears. "... But I'm afraid this situation might not have a diplomatic solution. Considering the general athleticism of pokemon, I doubt I'd be able to outrun anything faster than a Slowpoke." Nate decided the spring Manfred showed him yesterday was as good a hiding spot as any. It was fairly well-hidden, and it wasn't like he knew any other nearby hiding spots. Nate was about to start running, when he noticed Paras was still frozen in fear. The poor thing was so scared it was shaking. Or possibly it was just cold. Either way, it was pitiful enough for Nate to temporarily forget his one-step survival plan. Nate scooped up the pokemon in his arms, but before he could move two steps, another roar froze him in place, so loud it made his teeth rattle.
As the ringing in his ears died down, Nate heard the sound of something huge crashing through the underbrush, accompanied by thudding footsteps that shook the forest. "Crap, that's a lot closer than I would've hoped."
It emerged into the clearing before Nate could act. A veritable wall of beige muscles, criss-crossed with red veins. In each arm it held a massive pillar of concrete the same way a human might wield a walking stick.
A Conkeldurr, and it looked pissed. Worse still, was the fact that it wasn't alone. About twenty paces behind Conkeldurr stood a Medicham. "Great, even if I could get away, Medicham could probably track my psychic signature or something. Since hiding is no longer a viable option, diplomacy it is."
"Ummm, hello Conkeldurr? Can I help you?" Nate used his best customer service voice to try and soothe the raging behemoth. It didn't work. As soon as it caught its first glimpse of Nate, Conkeldurr's eyes practically glowed red with fury.
"COOOOOOONK!" It bellowed out in fury, the force of the scream nearly pushed Nate off his feet. Suddenly, the pokemon reared back it's right arm. Medicham yelled something at Conkeldurr, and then the massive pokemon threw the concrete pillar directly at Nate. Before he was turned into a smooth paste, something shoved Nate out of the way at the last second.
"MANKEY! MANKMANKEY!" Manfred, having saved Nate's life, stood defiantly between the two. Conkeldurr seemed annoyed at being interrupted, but was at least willing to talk to the pokemon rather than going for the immediate kill.
As the two fighting types had a heated discussion, mostly consisting of yelling their names at each other and occasionally pointing at the offending human, Nate watched the Medicham accompanying Conkeldurr. Medicham's eyes were closed in concentration. Suddenly, its eyes opened, glowing blue with power, and Nate felt a wave of... something pass over him. "Was that psychic energy? Aura? Qi?"
Manfred and Conkeldurr's discussion seemed to reach its conclusion, as Conkeldurr swatted Manfred aside with its remaining pillar. The Mankey sailed through the air before colliding with a tree, and collapsing in a heap.
"Mankey!" Nate yelled, which had the unfortunate effect of drawing Conkeldurr's attention back to him. The muscular pokemon prepared to throw its second pillar, but before it could Medicham teleported right in front of the behemoth, and slapped a glowing blue hand down onto Conkeldurr's forehead. The huge fighting type swayed for a few seconds, before toppling to the ground, unconscious.
Nate was understandably confused by this turn of events, but he didn't have time to think about them. He dashed towards his Paras-depleted berry stockpile. Luckily, the offending bug seemed to avoid oran and sitrus berries, preferring sweeter affairs like pecha and bluk. Nate grabbed a sitrus berry and started running towards where Mankey had been launched, when a gentle, feminine voice entered his mind.
"There is no need for alarm," the voice said. "Despite his intimidating looks, my husband is quite capable at holding back against weaker pokemon. Humans... not so much."
Nate looked around in confusion for the source of the voice in his head, before locking eyes with the Medicham, its eyes still glowing blue.
While the psychic type's words were reassuring, Nate still wanted to check on Manfred's condition for himself. Sure enough, Manfred was bruised and shaken up, but without any serious harm. Nate offered the sitrus berry to the small pokemon, who accepted it gratefully.
"Sooo..." Nate turned to the Medicham, "You mind explaining?" Medicham seemed to gather her thoughts for a moment, before the voice entered Nate's head again.
"Several days ago, I detected the traces of something teleporting into the depths of the forest. Because such techniques are often employed by poachers. Husband and I went out to investigate. Once it was clear you were no poacher, I tried to tell him to stop, but he was too worked up. I ended up needing to employ a more... forceful method." Nate spared a glance at the collapsed pokemon, who was still out cold. "Incidentally, would you happen to have an aspear berry in that basket? Husband is quite a deep sleeper after all."
Nate checked in his basket. Sure enough, he did have a few. Nate held one up to Medicham, who nodded satisfactorily. "Thank you." Medicham squeezed the fruit, allowing juice to pour into Conkeldurr's snoring mouth. The enormous pokemon's eyes shot open as its mouth puckered reflexively on tasting the fiercely sour juice. While all this was happening, Manfred stumbled back into the clearing, still clearly hurt, but already looking significantly better than it did just a few minutes ago. "Sitrus berries are no joke," thought Nate.
While Conkeldurr received a very thorough scolding from Medicham, Nate idly scratched the Paras that had climbed into his lap. "Friendly little thing, or maybe it's just getting close so it can rob me again." Regardless of the true intentions of the bug pokemon, he didn't stop petting it. "It's like an unspoken rule of the universe, if an animal is in your lap, you pet it. Wait, are pokemon animals?"
Once its apparent lecture ended, Conkeldurr walked up to Nate with a sorrowful look in its eyes and bowed respectfully.
"Uhh, it's all cool, dude. You were just trying to hunt down a poacher. I can respect that. Really, it's not me you should be apologizing to." Nate pointed to the bruised Mankey. Conkeldurr accepted this, and bowed even more respectfully towards the small fighting type. Mankey looked bashful. "Seems I'm not the only one who feels awkward accepting an apology."
"So, what now?" Nate said to the Medicham.
"I was going to ask the same of you? May I ask the circumstances that led to your arrival in these woods?"
"Hell if I know. Two days ago I went to bed in my home, then woke up without any clue how I got here." Nate left out the part about coming from a world without pokemon, obviously. No need to make his already complicated situation even worse.
"That is bizarre. If you wish, I could teleport you to a settlement at the edge of the forest. It would save you several weeks of walking."
"Really? That'd be amaze... wait, WEEKS!" Nate was so excited to hear Medicham's offer, his brain took a few seconds to comprehend the second part of what she said. "How big is this forest! Where the hell am I?"
"You truly don't recognize your surroundings? I was under the belief that the titanwoods were quite famous among the humans of this area."
"Medicham, with all due respect, I don't even know what region I'm in."
"Well, in that case, let me be the first to welcome you to the Titanwood Grove, the deepest part of White Forest, the largest unbroken forest on the continent." Medicham curtsied while delivering her welcome.
"White Forest, that means Unova. Hmmmm... Presumably that means I'm in the version of Unova that exists in White version. Probably. Best not to make assumptions without the prerequisite information."
"So, about that teleport, can you really move me such a distance?" Asked Nate.
"It would be tiring, but Husband and I feel you are owed some recompense."
"Well, I'll gladly take you up on that offer, then. But first..." Nate turned towards Mankey, who seemed to be having an animated discussion with Conkeldurr.
"Hey Mankey!" The pokemon in question paused its conversation and scampered over. "Medicham says she can teleport me back to civilization, so I just wanted to say goodbye. And to say, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Without your help, I almost certainly would have died. Multiple times in fact." Mankey's eyes widened in shock upon hearing the news, and it launched itself towards Nate's chest for a hug.
"Oof!" Nate grunted at the impact of the surprisingly forceful hug, before reciprocating it with one arm and patting Mankey's head with another. "I know buddy, I'll miss you too." Nate was surprised at how sad he was feeling. "I've only known Mankey for a couple of days, is it really possible to get this attached so quickly."
"You know, you could come with me if you want." Mankey looked at Nate sadly, before pointing up at the trees. Nate followed his finger and saw the rest of the Mankey troop looking down at the ongoing proceedings. "Ah, you've still got a family to take care of, don't you?" Mankey nodded sadly.
"Well in that case, how about I leave you with a parting gift?" Nate found his backpack lying on the ground, opened it up, and removed his last granola bars, unwrapped them, and handed them to Mankey. Mankey's eyes sparkled upon receiving the treasure. "Don't worry, I'll come visit someday, when I'm strong enough to make it on my own," Nate said while patting Mankey on the head, "You'd better be a Primeape by the time I get back, understand?" Mankey looked up at Nate and nodded resolutely. "Good."
Nate stuffed the last granola bar wrappers in his backpack before zipping it up and hefting it over his shoulders. "Oof, those textbooks sure are heavy. Maybe I should have burned one or two. Not like a book on European history has much use here."
"Are you ready?" Nate nodded. "Very well. Close your eyes, the visual sensation can be disorienting."
Nate did as instructed. He felt Medicham place her hands on his shoulders, and suddenly experienced a severe sensation of weightlessness, like cresting a hill on a roller coaster, before everything settled back down.
"We are here," said Medicham, telepathically. Nate opened his eyes to see he was... still in a forest, but a forest much different to the one he was in just seconds ago. For one, the trees were normal sized, which allowed significantly more light to reach the forest floor. The second difference he noticed was the noise. The Titanwood Grove, as Medicham had called it, was eerily quiet, and while the treefall gap Mankey lived in was much more lively, this place was on another level. The level of noise reminded Nate of documentaries about the Amazon jungle back on earth.
"This is as far as I can take you. Simply follow the river downstream. You should find the settlement I mentioned after a few hours of walking."
"Thank you, Medicham," said Nate earnestly.
"Think nothing of it. I wish you good fortune in your travels. Goodbye, young vagrant." Medicham began to glow with power, and then blinked away. For a while, Nate simply stood with his eyes closed, listening to the sounds of the forest, feeling the wind on his face. Eventually, Nate opened his eyes and began walking.
Nate's somber, determined mood was almost immediately spoiled when he felt his backpack wriggling. "Oh no..." Nate opened his backpack to find he had accidentally dragged along a guest. The same Paras from earlier had stowed away in his backpack, and was greedily eating crumbs off of the granola bar wrappers Nate had squirreled away.
"Uhhh, Medicham! You still Here?" Nate yelled into the woods, loud enough to momentarily startle the surrounding pokemon into silence. No response came, and after a few seconds the previous noise of the forest resumed. "Great, I accidentally kidnapped a pokemon because it was hungry." Nate pulled Paras out of his bag and zipped it closed. "I suppose it'd be irresponsible to just leave it. I don't know if Paras is native to this part of the forest. Maybe once I get to town I can see if someone can help me. Maybe the Rangers could relocate it? Do the Rangers even exist in this world?" Nate started walking along the river, beckoning Paras to follow. While the pokemon did follow obediently, it was quite slow, so Nate ended up carrying it, which Paras seemed to appreciate, because it quickly fell asleep in his arms. As he continued walking, Nate felt anxiety rise in his gut. "If Medicham was right, I should come across the settlement she mentioned soon, but what do I do once I get there? Head to the pokemon center? Or maybe a police station. Should I come clean? 'Hey, I came from a different world where this world only exists as fiction.' Sounds like a good way to end up committed to an asylum." As Nate continued to fret over his future, a break in the trees up ahead revealed a sight that Nate sorely missed.
"Buildings... and people."
Author's note: Finally out of the forest. This arc ended up longer than I intended, but I just kept coming up with new ideas. Sorry to any Mankey fans, but as the cover suggested, Paras was always going to be the starter.
