Author's Note:

And now, the story really begins to pick up…

My gratitude to TheSuperMario for the Fav'!

Disclaimer:

Pokémon and any other referential materials found in this story do not belong to me. They belong to their respective owners and subsidiaries, and I claim no ownership of them.


Of Children, Men, and Monsters

Chapter Sixteen: Welcome…


Marza slowly opened her eyes, feeling drowsy, as if she had just woken up from the deepest slumber of her life. Gazing up at the bright sun, which, at the moment, was partly concealed by the canopies of the nearby trees, she quickly realized that it was common sense to not gaze directly at the sun for more than a few seconds.

"Ow…" she murmured, propping herself up-right against the tree she just so happened to be right next to, rubbing her eyes as she did so. The lass looked around briefly, noticing Oscura just a few inches away from her person, and delicately took her in her arms, placing the Rock Skin Pokémon on her lap as she continued to scan the immediate vicinity.

'I definitely haven't been to a place such as this beforeI don't really think that such a forested, natural area is anywhere near my town, either…' she observed, oddly calm considering that she had no idea as to where she was supposed to be.

Then she remembered what had recently occurred.

"Oh, yeah, I hopped through that portal, didn't I…? Well, looks like he was being sincere about not putting me in danger. For the time being, at least," the girl mumbled, as to not draw attention from whatever may be watching her at the moment. However serene the scene may look at the moment, she was wise enough to acknowledge that beauty easily conceals danger.

She simply spent the next few minutes loafing around, patiently awaiting the time to come when Oscura woke from her own slumber.

Approximately half a minute passed before she realized that she was indeed being watched. She noticed the occasional rustle of the bushes, as well as heard the shaking of the leaves as things moved through and around them.

What these things were, Marza already knew: they were most likely Pokémon.

The cute appearance and mannerisms of Oscrua, who was a Pokémon herself, hardly stopped her from fretting about how vicious the local wildlife of wherever she was may potentially be.

She was immensely tempted to panic, but managed a refrain. 'Pokémon are apparently intelligent. With any luck, I'll be able to reason with whatever comes out if I must, if something indeed does…' she assured herself.

A particularly noisy rustle sounded out as a Pokémon emerged from a brush to Marza's left. It appeared to be a bird, with a brown-on-tan plumage and almost comically large eyes. It hopped towards her with caution, head tilted to its right in curiosity, and Marza eyed it with what was likely an even larger amount of trepidation.

When it came within arm's reach, the Pokémon gave the grassy ground underneath it a few flattening pats before it sat itself down, head still tilted as it gazed it Marza. The lass just gazed at it in return, not really willing to act upon its drawing close.

A minute passed before a few more Pokémon grew courageous enough to come out of hiding and come towards Marza's position. Marza's eyes slowly widened as she took in the features of the highly varied cast of Pokémon that she was looking at at the moment. They ranged anywhere from a slightly larger version of the bird-esque Pokémon that came to her first to what were seemingly cocoons with dull-looking eyes. The latter descended from the branches of the nearby trees on barely visible threads of string.

Marza once again felt tempted to feel weary of the approaching Pokémon, but thought better of it. 'If they wanted to do away with me, they would've already done so by this point,' Marza reasoned.

The Pokémon didn't dare to approach any closer than the first bird-like Pokémon, seating themselves and making a sort of perimeter around the human girl. Whether this was intentional or not was purely speculation.

Marza slowly relaxed, herself, eventually acknowledging the fact that they meant her no harm, at least for the moment.


Several minutes passed of quaint, peaceful silence. Some of the Pokémon began nodding off, closing their eyes and resting, while others made themselves busy by staring at the lass. This entire circumstance brought a spark of recognition to Marza's eyes.

'I guess Mom wasn't kidding when she said that I was an animal person. They seem far more curious about me than hostile. And if both are true…'

She slowly leaned over, and, with a bit of trepidation, tentatively stretched a hand out to touch the pigeon-like Pokémon that first approached her, doing so with the utmost sluggishness as to not startle the thing away and cause a potential riot.

Marza was pleasantly surprised when it willingly approached her hand and began nudging it, as if seeking a petting session. Marza obliged, scratching it under the chin and upside the head to give it maximum pleasure. After some relatively long moments of this, with a fluttering of its wings, it flew over to the sapphire-eyed girl, sitting down not two inches away from her person, chirping softly every now and again as Marza resumed petting it.

The other Pokémon, now certain of their mutual friendliness with the human, also drew nearer still to Marza. The raven-haired girl took turns petting each of them, carefully measuring how long she did so to make sure that none of them began to grow jealous of each other's smaller/larger amounts of attention.

Yet another several minutes passed, this time filled with the sounds of bird Pokémon chirping and others purring, or doing the equivalent thereof.

After said several minutes, Oscura finally began to rouse from her own sleep, just as slowly and relaxed as Marza had. She glanced around at the other Pokémon, eyes swiftly widening as she swiftly hopped off of Marza's lap, glaring and growling at the gathered Pokémon in the most intimidating manner she could muster.

Which is to say, with her startlingly frightening glare, very intimidating.

Before the other monsters could react, Marza called Oscura off, borderline yelling, "Oscura! There's no need to be aggressive! Everything's fine!"

But the damage had already been done: all but one or two of the Pokémon fled immediately, and the remaining ones fled a second or two later, following what may've been their own sense of preservation. Marza exhaled despondently at this rubbing a hand against her temple. Oscura, upon both hearing her words and seeing her reaction, appeared downcast in turn. Marza pat the Rock Skin Pokémon a few times on the head, uttering a few comforting words:

"Don't you fret, Oscura. It's not like they'll be after us because of this little incident or some such, right?"

A brief silence.

"I would hope not, at least. I don't know what any Pokémon are like besides you and Arceus, in retrospect." She grinned none too nervously; Oscura was hardly assured by her words.

"Well, this hopefully small debacle aside, I think we should get going. Assuming that the mystery man's showings of this world were true, there are humans and cities in this world, as well. With any luck, we should be within a reasonable distance of one. Which direction to head towards, though…?"

That last part was a self-inquisitive mumble. Oscura rubbed at her chin with the front of a forelimb, also pondering on how to solve this dilemma of theirs.

A decent number of moments passed in pensive quiet before Marza decided, "You know what? I don't think that us sitting here, wondering on where to go, is going to do anything of productiveness. I hardly believe that my stomach or my patience could really handle waiting until nightfall to wait for the lights of a town or city to make themselves evident, either, especially since it looks and feels like it's… what, noon? Something like that? So I say that we just pick a direction and go. Does this plan sound good to you, Oscura?"

The tyke nodded in agreement. A few turnabouts and glances later, Marza selected the way they would go, and the two were off on the true beginning of their adventure…

Unaware of the sharp, human eyes watching them as they went. A boyish scoff left said human's mouth before he started after the pair, intent of following them until he reached his destination…