I am very inexperienced with 1st person so this story is a struggle for me.
Arc I, The Plate of Space
Chapter Four
The God Named Theo
In the mortal realm, I had figured that I would appear in a hidden place, forgotten from time immemorial. A dark cavern beneath the ocean or from in between two glaciers in the arctic north. My powers at the ready, I was prepared to morph into any Pokémon I needed to be in order to find my way into civilization. Instead, I came out stumbling over my two feet into a moving crowd of people.
Stifling a yelp, I fell onto my hands and knees, feeling the coarse bite of stone on my fragile human skin. Immediately, there was faint rush of murmurs all around me. I jerked my head up, staring into the faces of dozens of humans. My neck felt warm. I had only seen them in visions and dreams past, having never smelled them, never heard their whispers so clearly, never felt the sensation of their legs or clothes brushing against me.
The air was hot. Stifling hot.
"Mama, mama!" shrieked a child, pointing her finger in my direction. "Look at that pretty bracelet!"
The Alterstone was glowing brilliantly, casting a dim light on those nearest me. It was then that I noticed that how unkempt and dirty these humans were. They walked with mud-stained feet and had sand-dusted rags hanging from their limbs. They were not looking at me. They were fixed on the Alterstone and its blue luminosity, their tired eyes suddenly alight with interest.
I scrambled up, feeling incredibly tall and clumsy amongst them, and covered the Alterstone with my hand. The humans were packed tight and there was nowhere to walk without shoving them aside. I heard cow bells and saw fish hanging from booths. In a further distance, people were yelling and children were crying.
Someone grabbed my shoulder. "Hey, where did you get that?"
For the first time in my infinite life, I felt everything beneath the surface of my skin leap up into my throat. Forcing calmness, I faced the stranger, in my heart wanting to curse him for grabbing the immortal skin of an entity far above the gods but in my head knowing I needed to adhere to his customs now. This is his world...even though I created it.
The man was in between the ages of foolishness and maturity. His hair was a bronze mess that went every direction and his face was also dirty and unshaven. On the sweating bridge of his nose, he wore black-rimmed glasses, behind which blinked huge hazel eyes. And he was not dressed like the others. He belonged in a library or on urban streets, not a dusty bazaar.
"That was a pretty stone!" he exclaimed. "Did you buy it at the bazaar?"
"It is a…" I trailed off, disconcerted by his friendliness. I remembered Latios' words to me: a veil of lies. "A family heirloom."
He glanced at the crowd which had formed around us. "Nothing to see here, folks," he said, his voice a little harder.
The crowd reluctantly scattered. Afterwards, their gazes lingered on me.
"You appeared literally out of nowhere," he stated. His mouth had formed a stern line, but his eyes were still large and inquisitive. "Who are you?"
"A traveller," I said.
"No, I'm a traveller." He readjusted the bag on his shoulders. The steel water bottles hanging from his belt clattered against each other. "And you're not from here. I've been to this town a few times. It's really small, so I recognize almost every face. Plus, you don't look like…"
I scowled. "Like what?"
His eyes hung on my hair. "Nevermind," he said. Following a moment of tentative silence, he added, "So who are you?"
"A traveller," I repeated more firmly.
"Okay, okay, I get it…"
We stood in the chaos of the human bazaar, surrounded by noises clashing in discord with only silence between our spaces. Underneath the suppressing heat, I silently confounded myself for having bothered to create the desert. Then I wondered why the portal had deposited me here of all the places. Had there been some arbitrary mistake? Should I have pictured in my consciousness where I had wanted to go? Perhaps I had been lead here; for what reason, I could not comprehend.
"Do you have a name?" the young finally asked.
"You ask many questions for a human," I said, furrowing my brows.
"For a...a human...yeah, yeah I guess I do," he responded, and I realized the mistake in my vernacular. "I'm Aurelio. I'm from Mauville City. Are you...uh…"
My jaw locked. "What?"
I started thinking about ways I could disengage from the conversation. How did humans usually do that? There must have been customs that were appropriate for communication. The legendaries usually just yelled at one another until they grew tired of each other's company and stalked off.
"Well," the human named Aurelio said, scratching his head sheepishly, "are you...uh...male or female?"
"I am the Or — " I halted myself. I had no real names, only titles.
"Theo?"
"Y— yes. Theo." What a foolish name!
"So you're a guy."
I bristled. Only Latias and Latios had been assigned genders! "I am no male."
"A female, then…" Aurelio's eyes were drained of energy.
"I am not a—"
"Alright, it doesn't matter either way!" sighed Aurelio, turning his hands up in surrender. He ran his hand through his hair again, avoiding my intense glare. "Sorry, you are just...very androgynous. I didn't want to be rude. But it doesn't matter. Whomever you are, you're Theo."
I stared at him even longer. Despite the endless hours I had spent in the pool observing the humans, my mind was nothing but barren space, and I could not recall exactly how the humans terminated their discussions. So I turned on my heel and walked away.
"Hey, wait!"
Aurelio staggered after me. "Theo!"
"I am not Theo," I muttered, weaving in between humans through the bazaar. I kept my hand over the Alterstone, making sure that its unusual brightness was not spotted. I had no idea why it was shining so energetically — it had never shined like this before. I could feel its heat beneath my fingers.
When I had finally broken free from the bazaar, stepping out into the unforgiving sunlight, I exited onto a road that overlooked an immense expanse of dunes and rock. With the commotion of civilization behind me, I experienced a thrilling resonance in my soul. In my visions, the sights of the earth had been vast and awe-inspiring. But nothing could compare to the actual sensation of the golden sand beneath my feet or the dry breeze that had been carried from the west. Which city was this? On which continent?
I stood there, breathing in what I saw.
"Theo!" panted Aurelio from behind me. He staggered to my side, but I paid no attention. "Look, I'm really sorry, I know I can be pushy. I just — that stone. It's reminded me of something I've heard about before."
My heart stilled. "It is only a sapphire," I said.
"Yeah, I'm sure it is," said Aurelio earnestly, still exhaling hard with his hands on his knees. He swallowed what remained of his exhaustion and straightened. Reaching out, he grabbed my wrist. And for some uncanny reason, I let him. "But the designs on the gold band — do you see them here? Hold on, let me pull out my notebook…"
Aurelio dropped his bag to the ground and sifted through it. He turned the pages of a water-stained notebook, not bothering to pick up the loose pages that had fallen out onto the sand, and held it close to his face.
"Look at this," he said breathlessly. "The drawings that I've copied here. They look just like the ones on your bracelet. See how the cuff loops around like this, right into this tiny design of...yes, there it is! The design of Dialga, the Temporal Pokémon. There's Palkia! And Giratina, too! The Plates, the original egg, and the swirls of chaos, depicting the creation of the universe — all leading up to..."
My pupils had shrunk considerably. My wrist was beginning to tremble. How had I ever considered myself the Original One when I was unable to pull my arm away from a mere human? Perhaps I had been delusional this whole time. My mouth dry, I opened it to speak, "Let go of my—"
Aurelio was still mumbling. "...Leading up to this stone."
And then he turned the Alterstone over in its cradle.
End of Chapter Four