It seems that the lack of reviews has affected my chapter writing speed… Let's see if we can get those numbers up!

Darkhammer: I'll do my best.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 41

The burning sunlight stung Alcea's eyes as she awoke. She raised her hand to shield her face, and pain shot through her arm, causing her to cry out in pain. The first waves of pain triggered the rest, and she was violently shaken out of her drowsiness within a couple of seconds. Every part of her was sore and tired, and she couldn't move her right arm without sending fire up to her shoulder. She tried to stand up, but realized she couldn't. Something was stopping her. Gathering what bits of strength she could, Alcea forced herself up so she was braced up on her good arm, looking down at her feet. She was trapped underneath the debris of the shipwreck. One of her legs she could move, a little, but the other one was stuck, caught on something rough that wrapped around her. She tried pulling her leg free, but it wouldn't give. She reached up with her arm, gritting her teeth at the pain, and tried to push the large chunk of the ships' hull off of her. But it wouldn't budge. She continued pushing but within a few minutes the pain was simply too much; her arm fell down and she slumped back into the sand, defeated.

"Waaaaah!" Alcea burst into tears, hitting the sand in frustration. "Mama… papa… I *sniff* I wanna go home! Where are you? Mama… papa…"

Her first night on the island, she cried. And cried. There wasn't much of anything else she could do, so she cried until her lungs gave out and she fell asleep; then, when she woke up in the morning, she cried again, and kept crying for however many days until she couldn't cry anymore.

The next day, Alcea woke up and decided that she was done crying. Crying wasn't going to get her free. She swallowed back her tears, and looked around as much as she could. Her arm still hurt, even worse. Was it broken? She didn't know, she'd never broken a bone before. It didn't seem broken… It just hurt so much. She turned her head, looking to the left, and the right, and even behind her. At her sides were more debris and beach as far as could be seen. Behind her was even more sand, stretching back to a large upswell of sand in the distance. Beyond the large hill, Alcea couldn't see anything. There was just sand.

As she scanned the beach, she saw something shiny a few feet away from her. Was it… could it be? It was! A pokeball! Bulbasaur! Alcea reached out toward it, but it was too far away. She stretched her hand as far as it would go, but she still couldn't reach it. Leaning as close to the ball as she could, it was still out of reach.

She looked around again, trying to find something she could use to reach the pokeball. There wasn't anything she could see around her, so her eyes turned to the wreckage that trapped her. She reached up and scratched at the wood, trying to break off a piece large enough for her purposes. She grabbed onto a jagged edge and pulled, the edges grinding roughly against her hand. She winced in pain and pulled harder, ripping a long piece of wood free but cutting her hand open in the process. Gingerly picking up the fragment of wood, she reached out toward the pokeball, gently poking at it until she pushed the button, releasing the pokemon inside. Her eyes opened wide and a relieved smile spread across her face.

"Bulbasaur!" She exclaimed, smiling. Her Bulbasaur bound over to her, smiling. She reached out a hand to it and Bulbasaur stuck her tongue out, licking away the blood that had smeared across her palm. "Oh, thanks!"

Alcea reached down and ripped some of the fabric off of her dress and wrapped it around the wound, tying it tightly with her teeth. "Bulbasaur," she said, turning to the grass type, "can you pull this wreckage off of me?"

"Bulba," Bulbasaur said, nodding. Vines came out from the sides of her bulb, wrapping around the heavy wreckage, and she began pulling. But the debris didn't budge. Bulbasaur sighed in defeat, shaking her head, looking at Alcea apologetically.

"It's okay…" Alcea said, fighting back the urge to cry. She fell back into the sand, Bulbasaur crawling up next to her, laying her head on Alcea's chest comfortingly. Wrapping her arms around Bulbasaur's head, Alcea fell into a restless sleep brought on from exhaustion.

The hunger had grown unbearable the next day. There was nothing for her to eat, nothing for her to drink… the sunlight was far too intense now, her skin had grown badly sunburned in the past days, and moving on the sand was like agony. There was an aching in her gut, and she could barely stay awake that day. Bulbasaur loyally sat by her side trying to keep her spirits up, but she was growing weaker and weaker. She swallowed; her mouth was bone dry. If she had any tears left, she would be crying. The sole refreshment she'd gotten was the tide that would rise up to greet her each night. It only reached up to her waist, so she wasn't in danger of drowning, while at the same time refreshing her and soaking her clothes enough to soothe her during the day. But even that wasn't enough to calm her fears; she couldn't drink sea water.

Is this how I'm going to die? Alcea asked herself. She was obviously terrified. "I don't want to die…" Alcea cried. "I want to go home… I'm only ten years old, I don't want to die here on some island, Bulbasaur… please!" She fell asleep crying tearless sobs, Bulbasaur looking over her worriedly.

The next morning, the pain in her gut was even worse. It managed to wake her up before the pain of the sunlight did. She weakly opened her eyes… she was alone.

"Bulbasaur?" Alcea asked, looking around worriedly. "Bulbasaur?! Bulbasaur, where did you go?"

No one answered.

"Bulbasaur…" She tried to call out, but her throat was raw from the lack of liquids. Faced with her first pokemon abandoning her, Alcea finally gave up, laying back and closing her eyes, accepting her death.

She didn't know how long she was lying in the sand. The hunger had abated into a dull ache after it realized that pain would not coax food out of her, but she was still dying of thirst. She thought about her mama and papa, about Bulbasaur, her first pokemon. She wanted to be angry at her, but she couldn't blame the poor thing. She'd tried her best to save her, but she couldn't. Alcea couldn't ask Bulbasaur to die beside her.

Die… This was really it, wasn't it? Alcea wondered if this was what death would feel like, trapped behind the darkness of her eyelids, her body sore and lacking the energy to even move. When was the last time she'd had something to drink? The ship, certainly… How many days ago was that? She cursed herself for having failed to keep track of the time. It could have been a week ago, or two weeks, or maybe even more… She didn't even know how long she'd spent just waiting to die. She…

Something cool and wet touched her face, much to Alcea's surprise.

Wh-what? It splashed against her again, soothing her burned skin. Is that water…? She could feel it dripping across her face and she opened her mouth, the water slipping into her lips. It was the most delicious thing she'd ever tasted. The water was like a spark of life, her body feeling reinvigorated with only a few drops. But how…

Alcea forced her eyes open; it wasn't rain, the skies were clear. How…

"Bulbasaur!" Alcea tilted her head to the side to see the grass pokemon-her grass pokemon sitting in the sand next to her. In her vines she was holding a large leaf curved into a cup, filled to the brim with water.

"Bulbasaur…" Alcea croaked, desperately wishing she could cry at the sight of her Bulbasaur. Her mouth opened wider and Bulbasaur tilted the water into her mouth, reinvigorating her.

"Boun!" Another pokemon's voice could be heard. Alcea's eyes slipped to see a blurry figure, a bright magenta. Lacking arms, the small pokemon was pulling a large leaf in her mouth, her leafy head shaking. Stacked upon that leaf was a large pile of various fruits and berries. The pokemon stopped next to Alcea's head, sitting down in the sand, panting. "Bounsweet!"

"Wh-what?" Alcea muttered, confused. Bulbasaur reached a vine out and lifted an oran barry to Alcea's lips, Alcea biting eagerly into the blue fruit. The juice slithered down her throat as she swallowed the food in relief, a smile blossoming across her face.

"Thank… you…" Alcea whispered, smiling weakly. She reached a trembling hand out to stroke Bulbasaur's head, and then the small Bounsweet's head.

Alcea was fed her full from the berries and by nightfall, Bulbasaur and Bounsweet had left, walking off toward the large hill behind her. Every morning Bulbasaur and the Bounsweet would return to her side with water and berries, and every evening they would head off again. This continued day after day as Alcea slowly regained strength. Alcea had recovered from the brink of death, and in spite of the heat of the sun and the intensity with which it beat down on her, she felt far healthier and more energetic.

But the sun remained an issue. Her burns had gotten worse, and with no way to protect herself from them her skin felt like it was on fire. The days were tolerable; she had Bulbasaur and Bounsweet to keep her company, she could talk to them, and they seemed to love being around her. The nights were the worst. Sleeping in the sand of the beach, the tide would sting her body each night as it crawled up her body, making it hard to fall asleep. With every passing night, it would burn more, and more, until one night, it didn't. Rather than sting or burn, it… tingled. She felt something move up her body with the coming tide, wrapping tightly around her in a soothing embrace. When she awoke the next morning, it looked like a cocoon of seaweed had been wrapped around her.

What the heck…? Alcea asked herself, sitting up, trying to peel a piece of the seaweed off of her arm. As she did, she felt it shaking in her hand. Suddenly, one wriggling piece turned into thousands, spinning around her body and forming a clump in the sand beside her. Alcea looked around; Bulbasaur and Bounsweet hadn't come yet, so it was just her and the seaweed.

"Hello?" Alcea asked cautiously. "Can… can you hear me?" The seaweed rumbled, its body trembling in what looked like a nod; that was what Alcea chose to take it as, anyway.

"Well, hello there," Alcea said, smiling. "Mon nom est Alcea. Alcea Vermeil."

The seaweed remained silent, as though waiting for something.

"Can… can you speak?" Alcea asked. "What… what do you call yourself?"

More silence. Then, the seaweed began rippling again, spreading out in the sand and forming into a new shape.

"D-H-E-L-M-I-S-E…" Alcea read out. "So you're called Dhelmise?" The seaweed reformed itself into a ball and nodded again. "Wow, that's so cool! What else can you turn into?"

Dhelmise began shifting into various shapes to Alcea's amusement. Distracted, it took Alcea some time before she noticed that her burns didn't hurt nearly as much. She looked down at her arms, her skin was much less red, and it felt healthier, rejuvenated.

"My burns…!" Alcea said, shocked, turning to the Dhelmise. "Is this… did you…?" Dhelmise nodded again.

"Thank you, but why…?" Alcea asked, confused. Dhelmise crawled up to her, rubbing against her side, making a rumbling, purring noise. Alcea reached down, petting the small seaweed pokemon.

"Bulba!" Alcea turned to see Bulbasaur and Bounsweet come up to her with their usual deliveries of food and water.

"Thank you," she said, smiling. "Now, if only I could find some way to get out of this damn piece of wreckage… but even if I can't, as long as I have you guys, I'll be fine, right?"

"Bulb!" Bulbasaur said, nodding. Bounsweet nodded in agreement.

"Rrrrumrrr…" Alcea turned to look down at the Dhelmise, which had begun shaking and giving off a rumbling noise. It retreated from her and slithered into the wreckage, the entire mound beginning to shake as well. Alcea's eyes widened as she felt the massive tugging weight that she'd been putting up with for so long begin to ease off as the chunks of broken ship slowly pulled away from her and shift, moved with the aid of the seaweed pokemon. Much of the wood was scuttled, leaving behind the rusty ships' anchor hovering in front of her, a large ship's wheel tightly affixed to it with seaweed.

Alcea looked down at her legs. Her left leg was fine, but her right was badly bruised, with what looked like a long, thick rope marking winding up to her knee. She looked up at Dhelmise with tears in her eyes, and smiled.

"Thank you," she whispered. Bulbasaur and Bounsweet exclaimed in joy and crowded around her, Alcea's heart going out to all of them in gratitude. Finally… she was free. She couldn't stop the tears of joy from falling. Her legs trembled as she tried to sit up. Dhelmise lowered theirself down to her, Alcea reaching up and grabbing onto the anchor to use as leverage. She pulled herself upright, her legs trembling, and her right leg in particular was hurting painfully; she could barely stand. Between her arm and leg, the right side of her body was agonizing to move. Thankfully, she wasn't alone. Bracing herself against Dhelmise, the pokemon lent their anchor to her as a crutch so she could move.

"Boun!" Bounsweet ran down the sand towards the hill in the distance, jumping in the air eagerly.

Alcea looked down at Bulbasaur, who looked back up at her, nodding encouragingly. Alcea wrapped her left arm over Dhelmise' anchor and took a step forward with her left foot, moving in tandem with the hovering pokemon as she slowly hobbled toward the horizon. It was quite far away.

The walk to the hill was nothing compared to walking up the hill itself. Dhelmise tried to raise up as though offering to carry Alcea up the hill, but she shook her head. Something inside told her that she needed to walk up this hill; she needed to do this for herself, make the walk herself. She just didn't know why. But she knew she had to. The rise on the hill was closer. Closer… closer. It was only a few steps away, and her heart was beating. She didn't know what to expect on the other side, all she'd seen so far was sand and traces of sandy grass the closer she got to the peak. There were no traces of life on the beach. But further inland…

Alcea reached the top of the hill, and the sight that lay before her took her breath away.

It was beautiful. A paradise like none she'd ever seen before. Long, lush fields of thick grass nurtured in the shade of tall berry trees, stretching out as far as she could see. Playing among the springs and grassy hills were countless grass pokemon, more than Alcea knew the names of, more than she could even count, playing together in peaceful harmony. It… it was heaven. She fell to her knees, clasping her hand over her mouth as tears welled up in her eyes. So many days spent on that lifeless beach, and now… now she was overjoyed to finally find something new.

"…And that's about it," Alcea said, frowning. "I made my way into paradise, and I lived on that island for three years before I was found by a rescue ship. The friends I made on that island, they came with me. And now here I am. The grass pokemon saved me, and they're my precious partners. "…That's… all."

"…" Kanone nodded, playing with the pokeball in his hand.

"Milady…" Kate said, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Such a beautiful story… I can't believe you went through something so tragic…"

"That story was really touching," Kanone said, looking up at Alcea. "I guess you and I met not long after that, huh?"

"You were the first one to defeat me since I returned to the mainland, and began my career as a trainer," Alcea said, nodding. "That someone could be as strong as you… I was awed. You inspired me… to try the best I could, for the sake of my pokemon, and for myself. Kanone, let me show you how far I've come. I need to see how I've grown since our first match together."

Kanone broke out into another smile, holding out a pokeball.

"Well okay then. Let's see if you can manage to hold your own against me," Kanone called out.

Aw, poor Alcea. Now let's see if she can stand up against Kanone!