For Ocean
by peppygrowlithe
They weren't going to make it.
Through the dark and the driving rain, the man could no longer see the shore. The waves were rising around him, opressive, smothering, crushing. They fell upon him with fury and rage, roaring, splashing, and he could barely hang on to his dear Mantine as she fought her way through the torrent.
"Hang on!" he screamed, the tears in his eyes mingling with the freezing rain and the ocean water crashing against him. "Hang on, Tina, please, we're almost there- just a little longer-"
She creeled back at him, despairing, and though she knew it was hopeless, she twisted and sped, crashing through a wall of water and bursting through the other side.
The man held on. He shook his head, blinking, squinting, seeking the light, seeking sanctuary, seeking freedom, and at last he saw the great lighthouse shining its beacon over the water...
So many miles away.
His heart sank, and a moment later, so too did his body, when a great spire of water raised to the skies and came smashing down upon him. His grip loosened and he fell from his mount, slipping beneath the raging waves and into the inky blackness...
Down...
Down...
And violently up.
He was moving, faster than he ever thought possible. Something hard was beneath him, something sharp and cold and coarse and spined. His arms and legs scrambled for purchase as the water flooded against him, then air, as they breached the surface. He reached out and felt something smooth and slimy pressed against the rocklike surface.
"Tina!" he cried out, lunging for her.
She was unconscious, but he held to her as they rushed through the water, pinning her to the great rock that was barreling through waves and toward that swiftly approaching lighthouse.
Mnutes later, puffing and panting and soaking but alive, curled up on the shore with his darling Mantine, the man looked into the eyes of his savior.
The soft brown eyes of the Lapras stared back at him from the water's edge. They were calm and compassionate.
"You saved me," the man gasped, tears streaming from his eyes. "Us, her, you saved her, you saved..."
She spoke to him in his mind.
I lift you up when hope is gone, for Ocean is my life.
She bowed to him, and he reached out to touch her blunted blue horn, not bothering to hide the spilling tears.
Her mouth did not move, but it seemed to him even so that she was smiling. Then she turned, and he watched her form disappear into the stormy night.
"Catch it! Catch it!"
"No! It's going too fast, it's going to hit th-"
"Gangway! Move! MOVE!"
The metal crate slid across the slickened deck and crashed against the railing with enough force to shatter it to splinters. It sailed off over the edge of the ship and collided with the surface of the water, sending up a great geyser as it disappeared into the murky depths.
The S.S. Marie was rocking in the storm, and it was hard for any of the sailors to get their purchase. One deckhand gripped what remained of the rail, pulling herself up to her feet. Through the night rain, she looked on in despair as the supplies went plummeting into the depths.
"Oh, no," she sobbed, then she wailed. "It's the medicine! Captain, the medicine for Cinnabar, it's-"
"It's gone," the grizzled old man growled. "We need to /go/. We spend another minute here, and this boat shan't be making it. It pains me, but we may already be too-"
"We can't come back for it, captain!" she cried into the rain. The ship rocked, and she went to a knee, before pushing herself back up to point over the edge. "If we leave, we'll never find it again!"
"Avast, Priscilla, we haven't a choice!" he snapped back at her, pushing the water from his eyes and beard. "Pull the mast!" he commanded. "Helmsmen, hard to starboard - full speed for Cinnabar 'fore this cursed storm claims us all!"
"My brother is sick!" the deckhand screamed back at him, still clutching the rail for balance against the rocking ship. "He'll die, captain, he's not the only one - all his friends, those little lives, the plague'll take them all if-"
"Belay that!" he snapped at her. "We'll all die too if we don't-"
"Captain?"
One of the younger crewmen was staring over the edge, gripping the wooden banister as he stared out into the water. His eyes were wide. "There's something-"
"Something's down there!" another sailor called.
"What is it? What's happening?" a woman's voice rose above the clamor.
Several pairs of eyes peered over the edge of the rocking ship, squinting through the rain and the dark. Their bodies moved with the boat, unable to keep still. It was difficult to see, but something seemed to be emerging from the ocean depths.
A sailor snapped a pokeball off of his belt and depressed the button, generating a great burst of red light. Before the creature had manifested, he was already calling out, "Starmie, Illuminate!"
"HYA!" The purple-pronged creature obeyed at once. Its owner held it in place against the railing, keeping it secured as the red crystal at its core shone, filling the night with pale crimson light and illuminating for the gawking soldiers the form of the metal crate emerging from the water.
The captain had come to see the commotion, and he was the first to react with more than gasps and whispers. "Ya lily-livers, don't just stand there! Hooks, get the hooks! Fishing nets! Anything - just get that crate out!"
It took about five minutes amidst with the rocking of the waves and the splintered railing and the ever-pressing torrent of rain, but with the help of a pair of Machoke wielding nets and a brave Wingull to attach a hook to the crate, the crew was able to pull the valuable crate out of the water and get it back onto the deck.
When the box was safely on-board, they looked down to see the soft brown eyes of a Lapras, looking up at them with gentle reprieve.
"Lassie! Ye did this for us?" The captain was leaning over the edge of an intact part of the rail. He scuffed at his beard, then removed his hat, pressing it to his chest. "Ye don't know the good you've done. Ye've saved more young lives'n we can begin to tell ye."
With the torrential storm raging around them, each sailor slowly removed their cap and brought it to their breast in a show of respect.
She spoke to each of them in their minds, clear as crystal even against the rage of the storm.
I lend you aid when all is grim, for Ocean is my love.
Then she was gone, hidden in the night and the pounding rain against the surface of the water. All the captain of the S.S. Marie could do was call out to plot a course for Cinnabar post-haste.
The little Goldeen was lost in darkness.
Where had her family gone?
She had tried so hard to keep up. Her mommy and daddy had been right there, and there were her brothers and sisters all around, and they were all looking for safety. The ocean was angry today, they needed some rocks or some corals, but then they moved left and she had to move right. She didn't want to move right, she really tried to go left, she really did, but the water made her move right, and now she was lost and she couldn't see anything.
"Goldeen..?" she peeped, barely able to see the little bubble that shivered its way to the surface. The water was so dark, and so loud, and so scary. Maybe mom and dad were looking for her, but they couldn't find her because it was so dark and loud.
But the water was so big. What if she never found them again?
"Goldeen!" she cried again, darting to and fro, seeking anything - a sound, a sight, a touch -
But there was only darkness, and the darkness made her crash into a rock.
It hurt her face, but her tummy and her chest were hurting more, because she was so scared and so alone and it hurt. Everything hurt so much and it would probably never stop hurting.
"Goldeen," she cried, because she didn't know what else to do, because if she moved she would hit another rock, but if she stayed still she would never find mommy and daddy, and-
And then there was movement beside her, some great and vast and oppressive and mean, and she knew she was going to get gobbled up, and she never got to say bye to mommy or-
The creature's fin scooped her up and carried her along through the water. She tried to struggle free, she really did, she tried to twist and churn and move and tug and get away from the fin, but she was moving too fast! Moving too fast through the darkness, and she just knew that soon there would be a great big mouth and sharp teeth and then and then and then and then and then-
And then she was home!
Her brothers and sisters bubbled around her in a little tornado of white and orange! They were bubbling at her, they were so happy, and mommy and daddy were happy too, because she was okay! She was okay, it was just a little bump on the head, it didn't really hurt that bad, because she was home again! Her family was bumping affectionately against her and telling her how happy they were, and suddenly it wasn't so dark, and it wasn't so loud.
With her siblings around her, she couldn't hear much. Her daddy was speaking to somebody big - really big, yes, but not scarily big. She had been scared at first, when the great monster had first touched her. But now she could sense the creature's gentle spirit, and she knew that she hadn't been in any real danger, because this big creature would never have wanted to hurt her.
Mommy and daddy would have wanted her to say thank you, so she cut through her swimming sisters and floated up next to her parents.
"Goldeen!" she chirped happily, the bubbles rising as she cut a few figure-eights around her parents. "Goldeen goldeen goldeen!"
The great Lapras - for the Goldeen could see now as she looked up into the creature's beautiful eyes that she was a Lapras - lowered her head until her nose was nearly level with the little fish. Clear as anything she had ever heard, the words resonated within her, and she knew that her mommy and daddy and all of her siblings could hear it too.
I come to you in time of need, for Ocean is my heart.
The little Goldeen was so happy, she rushed forward and bumped nose to nose with the Lapras. She could tell that they were friends now, and that wouldn't change even if they never ever saw each other again.
"Goldeen!" she cried out, and then her whole family joined in.
"Goldeen! Goldeen! Goldeen!"
The Lapras closed her beautiful eyes, and she gave a soft and comforting hum that rippled through the water. She turned and, with a grace the little Goldeen had never dreamed imaginable, drifted off into the night.
The sun shone bright over the Seafoam Islands, and nothing cast a shadow. A flock of Pelippers fluttered overhead, cawing out their boisterous cries ringing out over the tiny island.
The island was smaller than a Wailord. There was little more than two palm trees, a patch of string brush, and a single mound of sand and dirt at its epicenter.
The Lapras had washed up most of her body on the shore. The gentle waves lapped at her fins and lower body, comforting, like a blanket from below. She could not move any further onto the shore without risk of never returning to the water, but she did not need to. When she stretched out her neck, she could rest her head upon the mound of sand she had built months ago.
The mound of sand was her pillow, and she closed her eyes.
She stayed there for a long time, without speaking, without moving, only feeling the water push at her body, feeling the oppressive heat of the Kanto sun pressing down upon her. She felt dry, weary, drained, yet she did not move. She only waited, with her cheek pressed to that mound.
After a long time, when the sun's aggression became too great a burden to bear, she sighed, rubbing her cheek against and pulling up a small patch of sand from the small hill. It stuck to her cheek in a little clump, and she made no effort to remove it.
She looked down at the mound, this little clump of dirt she could remember building all too well, and at the little indentation her head had made upon it.
There were no people or pokemon around to listen, yet still she spoke. She knew that even though she was alone, she was heard.
With every day that passes by, I miss you more and more.
My life, my love, my heart.
My Ocean.
Her fins moved, pushing against the sand, as she eased herself back into the water. Once she was gliding again across the surface, she turned from the island, the sand still sticking to her cheek, and pressed on for Seafoam.
