A tiny vessel, its course guided by unseen Pokémon swimming under the hull, floated gently across the surface of the tremendous Phion Ocean.
Though manned entirely by Pokémon, the wooden ship was a human contraption- borrowed, donated, or possibly pirated from the continents they occupied at least a hundred horizons away. It was a sailboat, though it traveled with no hoisted sail, or even a crew to actively row it; instead, a Gyrados and its team of fish Pokémon towed it along the way from underneath, gradually hefting it towards its faraway destination. Upon the surface of the boat, a crew mainly of Machoke walked this way and that, performing maintenance and serving the passengers…
Standing at the front dock of the little boat, nearly leaning over the edge in contained excitement, was an adolescent Chikorita.
A smile spread across her face as her eyes remained locked upon the upcoming eastern horizon. As a sigh escaped her lips, so did an uplifting little song she muttered just under her voice…
"All my life, I've dreamed of a world brimming with mystery and an adventure…
All my life, I've heard a voice singing a canticle of the unknown…
Somewhere, there's a kingdom…
With lights filling the sky, dreams never to die,
Legends 'cross the land, roaming free! Living fantasy!
All my life, I've dreamed of a world brimming with mystery and an adventure…
All my life, I've heard a voice over the sea… calling out to me!"
This was it, the final day of the voyage. She closed her eyes, letting the salty sea breeze whip across her face and wave her leaf around. Though the smell of the sea had long since gotten on her nerves, stinging her sinuses whenever she'd inhale, it smelled so much more beautiful today as she imagined the drafts blowing in from her destination…
The Ambera region. She'd heard enough about it to picture it in her mind: a gorgeous, sprawling paradise, untouched by humans, crawling with every sort of Pokémon imaginable… and rife with treasures, secrets, unexplored little caves and valleys, things she could spend her whole life scouring and never get bored… her heart fluttered at the thought of it all being so close to her now, close enough just to taste…
"That's a nice little song."
The Chikorita blinked. This was the first time somebody had addressed her for the entire duration of the trip. Aside from the Machoke making their rounds, the whole ride was rather depressingly lonely; the other passengers, all ten or so of them, seemed bored and content enough to keep to themselves, so much so that she'd given up on meeting somebody new until landfall. She leaped down from the rail, curious as to who had been eavesdropping on her. To her surprise, though not necessarily her amusement, it was a Bayleef—someone she somehow hadn't noticed on the boat before.
"Oh! I didn't mean to startle you," the female Bayleef added, shirking back a step. "I just liked your song. Where did you hear it?"
"I made it up," the Chikorita replied tersely, a little embarrassed about having been overheard and not feeling like explaining herself.
"Well, it's very heartfelt," the Bayleef complemented her. "Do you like to make songs? … Or… if you don't feel like talking, that's fine…"
"Oh, no, it's okay, really," the Chikorita said quickly. "I was just… didn't expect to see a Bayleef here! I came from a big family and all… thought, you know, I'd see some different Pokémon on this trip, rather than the same old…"
The Bayleef bit her lip for a moment, not sure how to take the comment. She didn't want to intrude upon the girl, but at the same time, didn't want to pass the opportunity to befriend her…
"Oh! I mean… no, it's nice to see a Pokémon I recognize, to tell you the truth" the Chikorita inserted quickly, realizing her mistake. "Makes me feel a little more comfortable, actually. I'm Lily. Nice to meet you!"
"I'm Marita, or that's what the humans call me, anyway," the Bayleef said, now wearing a beaming smile. "You can call me Mary if it's easier on your tongue. So, what brings you to Ambera? I take it you're an explorer?"
"Well… not yet," Lily confessed. "This is a really big step for me, to be honest. I grew up in the human country. I know there are lots of Pokémon who like living with humans, but I've always wanted to explore the world, go somewhere new that nobody's ever been before, and see what I can find. It just… kinda called to me all my life, you know? One day my aunt told me about this far-away place called Ambera, and now here I am, four years later, on a one-way trip to a place I've never been before, no friends, no supplies, no plans… just me…"
"Well, if that's what you want, I think you picked the right place to come," Mary assured her. "Me, I've lived in Ambera all my life. My father belongs to a human, so I have to go visit him every now and then… but I do love my true home. Here, you can do whatever you want without worrying about upsetting the humans! No Poké Balls, no trainers, no battle tournaments… Zilch. No humans. Just Pokémon."
"Yeah, that's what they told me," Lily said. "But… How do you keep the humans out, though? You don't chase them away, do you? Wouldn't that be kinda… impolite?"
"Oh, trust me, we don't have to," Mary laughed, lowering her voice to a cheesy dramatic tone. "They stay far away from here all on their own. Legend has it that a long time ago, one human came to Ambera and started causing trouble. Before the human got very far, they say that the legendary dragons came down and put a stop to it… Violently! Ever since then, word spread, and… well, humans don't come to Ambera just like they wouldn't tug on Arceus' tail. Even the corrupted humans wouldn't dream of fleeing here."
"Ouch," Lily commented, wincing as she imagined the described scene. "I guess that's it, then. The gods want this to be a haven for Pokémon only… Fine by me. I mean, I don't have anything against the humans, really. They're good creatures, from what I met of them… Like I said, I just felt something calling me, couldn't refuse it…"
"Ahh… humans," Mary sighed, her eyes glazing over as she contemplated her memories. "They're nothing like any of the Pokémon. They're like miniature gods. Even the younger ones. They can turn the world into whatever they want. When they set their sights on something, watch out, because nothing's going to stop them… they'll even find a way to carry on with their will after their death."
"Yeah," Lily said, nodding absently.
"But that's not what makes them so wonderful," Mary continued. "They aren't like the deities of myth. Through all of their strengths, they're too weak to stand alone. They still need each other. They still need Pokémon. And that's why they really understand what love is."
Lily nodded again in agreement of most of the thoughts, but not too sure what she could add to them.
"But, yeah. Humans are just fine," Mary spoke, jumping out of her trance. "Given the chance, I'd go with one. But there just aren't enough humans to take all the Pokémon in the world, you know? The rest of us have to go somewhere else, like Ambera. We just have to find some other role to play. And that legend I told you about? Nobody knows if it's true, we all just say that whenever someone asks, just for fun! The humans could have an arrangement never to come here, or it could be that the whole place is invisible to them. Nobody really knows."
Lily lurched, realizing that she had been absentmindedly staring straight down at the deck for a good while, and remembering why she had been watching the horizon in the first place: seasickness was not easy to ward away. She'd already been through two unpleasant instances of failing to keep her food down, and she didn't want to end her voyage with a third. She shook her head and climbed back onto the railing…
And then she saw it. A long, fuzzy silhouette finally separated the sea from the sky. There was no mistaking it: after a mind-numbing five-week ride across the ocean, they had arrived!
For Lily, it was love at first sight. She could just tell, gaping out over the railing at the gargantuan landmass, watching as the ocean's waves turned white and honed in on the faraway shore, that it was everything she wanted. A wave of sudden thoughts hit her: would she survive without any supplies of her own? Would she make do? Would she find a place to stay? Somehow, none of that mattered. Her eyes glimmered in the midafternoon light, fixated upon the hazy vision in the distance, imagining herself leaping for joy onto the sandy beaches of her new home…
"About time," Mary muttered, reminding Lily that she was still there. "These boat rides are never too fun. Someday, maybe we could harness that human technology and travel around the world through the computers… oh, well. At least there's some daylight left…"
---
"WOW!!" Lily cried, gawking at her new surroundings. "This is incredible!"
The sandy beach she had been expecting was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the boat had weighed anchor at a harbor town just inside the lip of a sizable lagoon. That was the first thing which jumped out at her: the harbor.
"You mean Pokémon made this?!" Lily gasped, her eyes darting from the ports, to the wooden docks underfoot, to all the cemented stone buildings. "This is almost… just like a human place! How… just, how?!"
"We've taken a lot of lessons from humans," Mary explained. "Ambera's our home, so we made it the best it can be in whatever ways we could! A lot of the places you'll find here were built in the image of human design, though there are a lot of things here that humans would laugh at if they ever saw."
Already overwhelmed, Lily watched with widened eyes as a whole community of Pokémon seemed to traverse the same dock, some hurrying on their way toward the boats, others shouting their various cries and socializing, others hauling mounds of berries and boxes toward the mainland…
That was the second thing that jumped out at her: the sheer diversity of all the Pokémon. They were all species she had never seen before in her life, never knew even existed. There were small rodents with surprisingly heavy-looking helmets attached to their faces, turtles with trees growing on their backs, white cats with odd red markings across their forms, sea serpents with such striking beauty that it made her breath catch… for an entire minute, her legs froze and refused to so much as twitch, as Pokémon after unidentifiable Pokémon passed before her…
"You alright?" Mary said oddly, noticing her hesitance.
Lily was almost unable to answer until the form of a Vaporeon leapt up the side of the dock- seeing it elicited a tremble of relief as she dwelled for a moment upon the only Pokémon in the crowd she recognized.
"Lots of Pokémon here," she commented, blinking her eyes and trying to take control of herself. "I'll have to learn all their names…"
"Oh, yes, Ambera is home to Pokémon from all over the world!" Mary hummed with pride. "We're like a mixture of all the other regions! You'll never know what kind of Pokémon you'll see here! And we have landscapes to accommodate them all, too! You want to live in a scorching desert? We've got 'em! Or how about a freezing cold mountain cave? Or a volcano crater? We've got those, too! There isn't a habitat we lack! There's room for everybody!"
"Well, for starters, how about a cozy little grassy plain I could settle down in?" Lily tried. "You have one of those, right?"
"Hah! Just you wait and see," Mary cheered. "Not far from here, there's a place called Regigas Mounds. It's like looking over the sea, except it's all green instead of blue! And forty miles to the east, Carver's Domain is the biggest jungle in the world! Ah, hah, you're going to love this place! This is Ambera we're talking about now, honey, never to be outdone! Just ask, anything your heart desires is yours! Oh, it's so good to be home…"
Taking just a moment to compose herself, Lily just had to smile. Admittedly, she was impressed. Very impressed. In just minutes of standing upon the much-anticipated foreign land, she was met with the very thing she had come looking for: something new. Something awesome. Something filled with endless potential and mystery.
Certainly, she told herself, things were only looking up from here.
"Hey, Lily, if you need a place to stay, you're welcome to tag along with me for the time being," Mary said with a friendly wink. "I'll show you to my home in the Mounds. From there… well, it'd be up to you, really!"
Lily accepted the Bayleef's generous offer without hesitation, and hung close to her amidst the sea of strange monsters and creatures she couldn't begin to fathom naming. A walking, breathing sea barnacle. A miniature Snorlax. A purple ghastly-appearing figure with what looked like gemstones for eyes. Deep inside, she was filled with horror at seeing so many strange things, but it was that joyous kind of horror that all explorers seek… and she loved every minute of it.
As Lily excitedly galloped along behind her, Mary traversed the active harbor town and explained that her home was over twelve miles away, but they could make it before nightfall if they kept a good pace. Lily barely listened, her mind instead absorbed in the countless possibilities that lay before her. Those deserts, mountains, and volcanoes that Mary had mentioned? She determined she would see them, someday, as well as all the other features the continent had to offer. Was there a habitat for Ghost Pokémon? Or the rare Dragon-kin? What about-
"I'm sorry, but Route Nine Twenty-Two is closed."
Lily blinked. She found herself standing at the edge of town, a Dugtrio protruding from the ground directly before Mary and blocking her progress forward.
"You're joking," Mary said in protest. "Horrible timing!! We need to get home!"
"Well, might as well find lodging now," the front member of the Dugtrio suggested. "Route Nine Twenty-Two is closed, just as it says on the central bulletin board in town. To avoid future inconvenience, please check the board every day before traveling."
"For how long?" Mary insisted.
"Long enough," the Dugtrio answered. "Maybe another week."
"A week!!" Mary screamed. "That's horrible!!"
"Wait… why's the road closed?" Lily wondered. "Maintenance?"
"Maintenance…what?" the Dugtrio repeated. "What are you talking about?"
"Yeah, Maintenance…" Lily said. "I'm from the human countries. And sometimes they close down the roads for… maintenance… you know, to fix potholes and stuff… Is that what they're doing? If so, we could just…"
"Oh, heh, heh, pardon the little child, she's new to this place," Mary forced a laugh, cutting Lily off. "Yet to learn the laws of the land, as it were! Heh! Well, I guess we'll just have to take a detour! Bye, now!"
"Sorry for the inconvenience, and have a good day," the Dugtrio recited as Mary dragged away the little Leaf Pokémon with her vines.
When they were a ways off, Lily adamantly tugged at the vines until they released her.
"Okay, I'm confused. What just happened?" Lily demanded. "What was… all that about? I just asked a question!"
"Lily," the Bayleef said sternly, "There are some things about Ambera you've still got to learn. For one… if a social worker tells you a place is closed, never ask any questions, especially 'why'. It's impolite. Do you understand?"
"Um… I… yeah, okay," Lily stammered. "W… I mean…"
"I'll say this," Mary explained. "In the human countries, they close roads for maintenance. Here, they close roads for some other reasons, too. And we usually don't like to talk about them."
"Oooo-kay," Lily answered. "I guess I'll remember that…"
"Oh, but it's not a problem, I don't think!" Mary said optimistically, switching back to her cheery tone. "Let's take Route Nine Thirteen. Bit of a roundabout, but it's the next best way!"
---
For the rest of the evening, Lily and Mary hiked down the concrete trail labeled as "Route 913", allowing Lily to get her first clear view of Ambera's wilderness. As she glanced at the dispersed forest which the road cut through, she liked what she saw; it looked similar to the rough countryside back at her old home, but more "wild", somehow… more unkempt, more overgrown. More uninhibited. This little detail pleased her, always reminding her that soon, her own heart would be wild, uninhibited, free to roam the land…
But whenever she tried to climb the tall tree with the colorful fruit, or inspect the strange rock formation, or even so much as show interest in something off the path, Mary quickly hurried her along for some reason. She was in a definite hurry, one that Lily could never seem to talk her out of.
Probably eager to get home, Lily reasoned. Home does have that effect on you sometimes…
Eventually, after growing a bit weary and annoyed, Lily happily obliged when her guide offered to let her ride on her back the rest of the way. Though it was a little awkward, as Mary wasn't even twice Lily's size, Lily managed to hold on as the Bayleef galloped down the road at her desired pace. Along the way, Lily could only cast passing glances at the surrounding scenery as it reeled by, trying at least to take in the way that the tropical sunset turned the forest a slew of exotic colors…
Finally, just when the last of the sun had almost hidden itself, the forest parted to reveal a vast, rolling stretch of grassland.
"Here we are! Regigas Mound!" Mary announced. "Told you it was a nice place!"
Lily would have agreed, except for the fact that she could barely see any of it in the sparse rays of sunlight which remained. The sight became fuzzy and grey to her, with only the striped shadows to give it empty shades of color. She sighed, telling herself that it would be the first thing she would get to see in the morning, her first real exploration of Ambera's landscape…
"Home!" Mary cried, letting the little Chikorita to the ground. "Phew! Thought we wouldn't make it in time for evening! "
"Yeah, we certainly covered ground, heh," Lily gasped, gazing around at the dark wilderness, listening to a symphony of strange Pokémon beginning a nighttime song. "But I can't wait to-"
"Enough blather! In! In!!" Mary suddenly yelled. "Quickly!"
Lily blinked, turning to her guide in confusion. The Bayleef stood at the dark entrance to some hole, indicating it to her with some urgency.
"What's that?' Lily wondered. "A den?"
"My den! The place I sleep at night!" Mary explained. "Now, come on! You're welcome inside for the night!"
"Um… no, thanks," Lily said. "I'd rather sleep under the stars…"
"You can't do that! The Bayleef said with more urgency in her voice, which honestly started to scare the little Chikorita a bit. "I insist! In!"
"You know… actually… this is my first night in Ambera," Lily said, grinning to herself and making up her mind. "You know what I think I'll do? I'm going to wander off into the night, get lost, and fall asleep wherever I find myself… Thanks for all your help, Mary, thanks for bringing me here, and…"
"You can't," Mary pleaded adamantly. "Literally. You can't. The ghosts will hurt you!"
"Don't worry!" Lily responded awkwardly. "I know how to defend myself! And the ghosts that come out at night are always weaklings…"
"Not here! Not here!" Mary cried.
Now, Lily was seriously getting freaked out. She gaped at the Bayleef, noting the horrible look of concern and desperation in her eyes… Were the creatures of the night really that bad? She'd slept under the stars countless times back at home, and enjoyed it greatly; and with her mastery of attacks, she never had any trouble scaring away the night-prowling predators that got in her way… were the creatures of Ambera really so different?
"Look… okay, something else you have to learn," the Bayleef rambled, "at night… a bunch of ghosts come out. Hundreds! And they're stronger than most Pokémon we know. And they… they'll kill you! They search for intelligent Pokémon just like me and you…"
"How do you know?" Lily asked. "How do you know they're coming out tonight?"
"Because they come out every night!" Mary explained. "We just… we hide at night. That's what we do here in Ambera. We let the ghosts have the world while we sleep. It's… it's nature's way of setting a schedule for us."
"Wait," Lily responded, stamping her foot in the grass. "Are you trying to tell me… I can never go out at night?"
"No," Mary said simply, shaking her head. "Except… on some nights, when Cressalia is on the move, the moon shines like a giant golden ball… and none of the ghosts come out. But… it's so beautiful, Lily. You'd have to see it to understand. And you know what? For me, it really makes up for all the nights I have to hide inside…"
I'd bet, Lily thought to herself, reluctantly letting herself get ushered into Mary's den, eyeing the partially-cloudy sky one more time, wondering why the sky seemed to become so much more beautiful the farther away from human civilization she got. A golden moon… That really sounds like something… I look forward to seeing it someday… Yeah…
---
Late that night, Lily sat at the entrance to the Bayleef's den, still staring at the sky. There was no way she could sleep for the next several hours: she'd slept enough days away on the ship ride. Her mind reeled from the disturbed equilibrium, and her dashed hopes of frolicking under the stars pounded at her chest.
She watched as the described ghosts filled the sky, one by one, most rising up from the ground, others seeming to pop into existence hundreds of miles above. Many were ghost Pokémon she recognized, some were not—they all glowed with a foreign aura, bobbing and drifting through the sky like flakes on a pond's surface… Fixating upon them, she resisted the urge to cower back farther into the den. Just looking at them, she could tell they were all as dangerous as Mary told her…
Every time one of the ghosts glanced at her, a little part of her wanted to let out a long, sighing wail…
Nights are off-limits, she told herself, trying her best to accept the fact. That's fine… I guess… Well, yeah, I knew that moving here wasn't going to be all easy… some parts will be hard… That's what makes the rest of it so rewarding…
As she sat there, reflecting upon her new homeland, watching the grey swarm of ghost Pokémon float by… for the first time in the whole month since setting sail, Lily felt the tiniest, most miniscule little twinge of homesickness.
She crushed it.
---
Lily the Chikorita was created by fallingautumnleaves.