I take suggestions, comments, or critiques.

Arc I, The Plate of Space

Chapter Five:

The Whimsies of Fate

"WHAT THE FFFFFF-UCK, THEO?!"

In a brief yet blinding explosion of light, my human body had dissipated, melting from my bones as I changed and became something new. I said over and over again in my head, "ODDISH" because that was the least conspicuous Pokémon that came to mind. So thus I arose, a panicked, little Oddish, an unusual spurt of green in the middle of an argent desertland.

Aurelio had stumbled backwards onto the ground, his eyes globally large. "What the — WHAT THE —"

I immediately flipped the Alterstone again. "Do not panic, human!" I whisper-hissed once I had changed back.

"You — AN ODDISH — WHY —"

"Aurelio, cease your hysteria!" I ordered although my own voice was shaking. My right arm reached over to my left, the one with the Alterstone, to steady its shudders. Words were coming out, but I could not stop them. "First of all, you pathetic mortal, what were you thinking, touching my bracelet—"

"Pathetic mortal?!" Then Aurelio was mad. He stood up with a crazed face, but his voice was feeble, as if he had never yelled in his brief hour of a life before. "I just thought it looked like the one in my book! I didn't think that turning the jewel was going to — I don't know, turn you into a Pokémon!"

My neck felt strained. "I am not a Pokémon." These words were spilling. "Or a human."

"Well, you must not be 'mortal' either, or whatever you said — "

"Aurelio, be quiet!"

He was not silenced. "Then tell me what the hell just —"

"Aurelio!" I said through my teeth, my eyes sliding past him. "Silence. We need to leave right now."

At last, Aurelio pursed his lips and said nothing. He saw where my eyes had gone and slowly turned around. Behind him, the crowd at the edge of the bazaar had slowed to watch us. Whoever had seen was already on the move to alerting those who hadn't. Aurelio and I could only stare back, arms limp at our sides, not entirely sure where to go from there.

I had only arrived in the mortal realm less than an Earth hour ago!

Aurelio was the first to move. He sprung into action. "Let's go," he said under his breath, grabbing my hand and pulling me the opposite way. My human legs seemed to operate on their own. They moved back and forth, mechanically swinging, until I was running alongside him.

"Where are we going?" I asked hoarsely, not sure if I was out of breath or frightened.

"Just keep running," he said. He somehow picked up speed, even though the sand engulfed our feet and seemed to inhale our movement with each passing step. "I know where we can go."

Hands locked to one another for balance, we raced along the borders of the bazaar and into a crowded town. Humans jumped aside to let us pass, bellowing their powerful, protesting voices into my ears. I thought I felt someone try to snatch the Alterstone away from my wrist at one point, but my entire head felt so flushed that perhaps I had imagined the whole thing.

Around corners and over carts we jumped. What was that box that the humans watched — the television? How Aurelio and I sped through the town, it reminded me of a film that I had seen in my visions once. The hero which the story followed performed these same stunts: the leaps, the spins, the whirling into the streets as if Suicune's wind had swept beneath our feet and lifted us up.

We at last reached a shack that was less deteriorated than the hundreds around it. Aurelio dragged me to the back and hurried me through a door. When nobody was close, he came into the shack and shut the door, leaving us in musty darkness. A sliver of light coming from a crack in a boarded window shined a small streak of color on Aurelio's face, over his hazel irises like a mask. Particles of dust floated in between us as we planted out feet in the silence, our torsos pulled up and strong, both refusing to be the first to talk.

We ended up opening our mouths at the same time.

I said, "You have put me into a difficult situation—"

"You better explain what just happened right now," he said.

We fell into quietness again.

"That's the Alterstone," Aurelio said. My stomach tightened, and I knew that he could tell. "I realized that the second we shut the door. That is the damn Alterstone that...it...look, do you realize how long I have studied that thing? Since I was a kid. My father passed me his knowledge, and his father before that did too. Everything I know is a compilation of legends and studies and research that's been literally going on for nine generations."

"How do you know the name of my stone?" I whispered, suddenly fearing the human race.

Aurelio hadn't heard or he wasn't listening. "How did you get it?" he said. "Everyone knows it's not real. People have searched for it since it was drawn into the sand after the first sighting of Arceus. It can't be an imitation, or the stone wouldn't have worked."

His face went pale. I did not respond.

"The Alterstone — it worked," he said. He licked his parched lips. "You...you're..." Before I came upon the moment to speak, he steadied himself and said, "You're Arceus. The sire of all creation. The mother of humans and Pokémon. The Original One."

The hair on the back of my neck rose. "You know my name too."

Aurelio's body was motionless and his eyes were beating like hearts. His skin resembled the pale shell of the moon at dusk. It reminded me how incredibly beautiful the human species could be. "So you are," he said softly. He made to come closer but stopped. Instead, he stared at me for what felt longer than an era. "Why did you come to Earth?"

I laughed without humor. "That is your question."

"You are the greatest of all legends," explained Aurelio, looking troubled. "Nobody has ever recorded your presence here before. Usually, there are traces of evidence. The legendaries have been spotted throughout the years. But you — nothing of you. You have never been here. I don't believe so, at least. Why now?"

I wondered if I could trust him. He had recognized the Alterstone and spoken my name — and he regarded me with fascination, not uneasiness. Perhaps he already knew about the Plates, as well. I contemplated my choices and decided that it wouldn't be harmful to my quest to bring along someone who knew the layout of the earth, the cities and its customs.

So I told him. "You seem to know much about me," I said, and he nodded. The atmosphere was charged. "Then you must also know about my seventeen Plates."

"Of course."

"There are not only seventeen" I said. "There are three more. The Plates of Space, Time, and Cosmos. They were there long before the others and helped me establish order in the universe. If anyone besides me was to use them, it would surely lead to disaster. I have come to the mortal realm to retrieve them. The Plate of Space is calling for me. I can sense that mortals are near."

Aurelio swallowed. "My grandfathers never said anything about those."

"Come with me," I said. I tried to exercise pleasantness but it sounded more like an order.

"I can't do that."

My collarbone strained. "I need a human to guide me. I don't understand this world. You saw me in the bazaar."

"There's just…" Aurelio sighed, shaking his head and looking past me at nothing in particular. He lapsed into silence as he searched for words. "There's no way that this is real. You — Arceus — you're everything that my family has cared about for nine generations. I grew up on your historical documentations, not your fairytales...and now you're here...and I...I just…"

He half-smiled, chuckling to himself.

"You're really here," he finally said, eyes shining. "Asking me to help you."

"Yes."

"To retrieve those Plates. Space. Time. Cosmos." He exhaled with a whistle.

I remained motionless. "Yes."

"To avoid disaster."

"...Yes."

Aurelio started walking around the shack with his hands clasped behind his head. He whistled again.

"Maybe I'm dreaming," he said. He took out his beaten notebook. "But the Alterstone doesn't lie. It is the most secret yet signature indicator of the presence of Arceus — of you, sorry. My grandfather from eight-hundred years ago saw it himself. He saw you. And he remembered everything. As soon as he came back, he sketched it all and preserved it. All of it."

I furrowed my brows. "I don't know this grandfather."

"It was eight-hundred years ago," said Aurelio sheepishly. "But he saw you. He went to the immortal dimension by mistake. He said you were beautiful."

Turning around, I faced the narrow beam of light coming through the window. Through the space between the boards, I saw the blue skies of the earth, where I saw a formidable adventure ahead of me. The clouds swept through the heavens in the most whimsical fashion, but never once as random as the threads of fate, which cared little about the differences between gods and mortals.

End of Chapter Five