Abandon the thought, whoever you think is waiting for you has forgotten about you long ago.
You've made a promise - a foolish promise - of returning one day. But you will never see this light. They have already forgotten you, and it's only right for you to do the same.
"...hey there."
Sunlight scorches his back. His face is deep in black sand and in the distance was the sound of waves crashing against a shoreline. Cool ocean winds creep along his quills, and with it thousands of theories of how he's ended up here. Maybe he has gotten too drunk, maybe he got thrown overboard. Could this voice be a rescue team?
Whoever it is they speak quickly - as though the voice never took a single moment to breathe.. Not once does this stranger change his perturbed inflection.
"Is he...?" The voice ponders. "His clothes aren't wet, so he couldn't have fallen off a ship. Are there even ships around here? Oh goodness. Maybe he's just tired."
"No, there aren't any wounds. I just happened to stumble onto a stranger who's lying head-first on a beach, I should just turn around and-"
"But I can't leave him there, I gotta do something!" The voice trots off, and drags something along the black sand. "I'll just check and, if he doesn't respond I'll just run back!"
A long piece of driftwood pokes his cheek. Then again, and again. This voice is successful in awakening him as his eyes flutter to see a red sun cresting over the endless sea, and standing this vivid horizon and him is a blue pokemon struggling to hold a chunk of driftwood in their flippers.
Even for a species the man on the beach has not seen before can tell he was scrawny. His wings, or fins looked a bit too longer than they ought to be. The pokemon's feathers were of a deep, navy color, lacking in any sort of pattering save for his pelt becoming a bit lighter around his aqua eyes. He has a strange tuft tied around his neck in a color similar to yellowing paper and a belt around his hip.
"Alright!" The Prinplup drops the driftwood and takes a deep breath "I thought you were a goner! I never thought I'd see a flying-type stranding like fish. You're okay, right?"
His lungs weren't filled to the brim with water, he wasn't cold like all dead things are supposed to be, and he wasn't suddenly in paradise – all were surefire signs pointing at the fact he has one foot in reality. He feels miserable, but he is fine.
"For starters, I can't say I know what being dead feels like." Braviary grumbles. "I ruled out you being a figment of my imagination after you poked me with that stick over yonder."
"Are you well at least?"
"Financially? I don't think I've had a coin to my name in years. Physically? I doubt it." It takes everything he can muster to stand up. When he finally settles upright he swears he can hear something in his back crack. "So I reckon I feel the usual, how's about you?"
No answer, all he gets from the Prinplup is a thousand-yard stare. Prinplup's feathers bristle to a point where he nearly becomes the Braviary's height in width before they suddenly flatten out. With all this talk about seeming dead for the last minutes or so, this Prinplup looks like he is seeing ghosts.
"You're uh, you're okay, right?" The Prinplup raises an eyebrow. "Is waking up on the beach normal to you?"
"Probably." Braviary shrugs.
Prinplup keeps looking at him. Before he can get out of there, the water-type pipes up.
"C-Can I get a better look at you?"
"Sure, whatever it takes for us to go on with our days."
The boy looks nervous. He sees a Braviary whose vivid blue, yellow and red quills have grayed with age. Were it not for the fact he looks overall miserable it would be impossible to ignore the torn-up wing hidden under his poncho, rendering this ancient warrior nothing less than a one headed Dodrio who cannot run nearly as fast on his massive talons. This Prinplup hardly pays any attention to his scars or his ridiculous hat, he focuses right on the solid brass badge holding his raggedy clothing together.
After what felt like hours of weird looks and stares, a wide smile spreads over the pokemon's small beak.
"Hey! I haven't seen one of those forever!" The Prinplups points at the brass thing on his chest. "Nobody just stumbles on one of those things, what's your guild's name?"
"Does it matter?" Braviary sighs. "You sound like you want something. Could you save both our time and spit it out?"
"Is it for sale?"
Braviary's tired look runs into a disgruntled scowl so intense it could disintegrate the Prinplup where he stands. The conversation is over. He is never gonna sell this thing, but Prinplup does not give up so easily. As Braviary shuffles away the boy sticks to him like a shadow
"You just said you're broke!" Prinplup keeps up. "I may not have much in the way of money, but with your badge I could get entry into the guild. I'll give you everything I've saved, please!"
"What sorta guild makes you pay for admission?"
The two pokemon stop in place as cold waves roll onto the sand. Driftwood litter their surroundings, and clumps of dark seaweed lie like veins. Looking forwards, the black earth goes as far as their eyes could see, broken only by the irregularities in the surrounding cliffs and weather-worn spires.
"All guilds pay for entry!" Prinplup chirps incessently. "All guilds around here do so, the one I wanna join just asks more than usual!"
"Good to know." Braviary grumbles. "Why would you give up so much anyways?"
"It's uh - a recruitment process! If someone's really serious about this guild thing, they shouldn't have a problem throwing down some money first to show they're committed to guild life." Prinplup points a wing at the old badge, "Were you to come wearing one of those then there's really no point in giving them money, they'd know you were brave and let you right in."
"Then what's the guild for: adventurers, rescue pokemon?" Braviary motions at his monochrome surroundings. "I don't think there's much treasure 'round here."
"They're Scholars!"
Braviary scurries off.
"Hey!"
He is too tired to deal with the talk of guilds this early into the morning. Exploration, and Rescue guilds were easy enough for him to already understand but scholars are something else entirely. By leaving this boy, he is saving him thousands of poke.
The blue stranger's questions become lost in the roar of waves crashing along the black shores. There is no way he's gonna sell himself out, he barely knows where he is, signing up for a guild whilst inebriated - or worse is only going to spell disaster for him. And no matter how much this Prinplup begs him, he cannot budge.
"Look," Pinplup keeps on going, hopping behind him. "You're pretty much the most interesting thing that's happened this morning, scratch that, this entire month."
"I wish I could say the same."
The Prinplup gulps.
"I get it. You're trying to get friendly with me so you can just ask me for the badge again, right?" Judging by the Prinplup's silence, Braviary is right on the pulse. "I don't want to patronize you or something, so pardon my rudeness when I say you're not gonna get anywhere sucking up to someone like that. I hardly know you, and you sure don't know me either. At the very least should at least tell a man your name before you go begging for favors."
"Prinplup." he stutters.
"I now know what you are, kid. I still don't know who you are."
"Prinn"
The Braviary waits for him to add a "plup" at the end of it but sure enough Prinn is the fellow's name.
"I suppose there's a reason why folks call you Prinplup, right?"
"Other than being the only one who's really around, yeah." Prinn held a wing up to head, "I um, well my parents were never known for being a creative type. I don't know what kinda folks they were, actually."
"Noted. Unless you want to inform me that a whole flock of Braviary has swept through here, you can just call me Braviary."
"Yeah, noted too."
"Well Prinn, since I certainly don't know how I ended up on a beach smack in the middle of nowhere, how did you find yourself wandering down miles of coast to this spot? We'd have to be pretty far off if all it seems like it's just the both of us."
"I was just here mapping the coast, uh, I only went six or so hours before I found you?"
"Six hours? Did you leave at the crack of dawn or something?"
"Yeah! This whole part of the shore's uncharted so I wanted to chart it."
As Prinn walks Braviary can hear the sounds of a small, clunking sound jostling around. Braviary looks at the boy's waist, seeing a bamboo tube painted the same yellow as his cravat.
"This place's pretty scary." Prinn laughs to himself. "I…er…just wanted to map this coast so I can present it to the guild. Then I found you."
"Personally, if I found a fellow sleeping I would've left him alone." Braviary shrugs. "You've got this whole leg of the beach recognized, don't you?"
"Yeah." Prinn smiles gleefuly. "I guess it makes me the king of however-many miles of totally uninhibited coastline is on this end. I can show you the way I took here, it should lead us straight to town. There's just, erm..."
"I know I haven't encountered them - I'm thinking it's just an excuse some of the big guys made up so nobody's ever know they got roughed up by some feral wingull, but there's lots of rumors about bandits recently." Despite being in the presence of a pokemon known for their bravery, Prinn still asks, "If it ever comes to it, I know you can fight, right?"
"I can tussle about as well as any pokemon my age. How else do you think I got these scars?"
"If you'd let me take a look I could maybe diagnose you.."
"I'll pass." Braviary dismissed him, "Come on, let's get a move on boy. The smell of saltwater's creeping up my nose."
Part One: Beached.
/ Gonna be reediting older chapters now that the fic is gone. These will be the final changes to the ffn version. Be sure to look up the ao3 ver if you wanna see cool art.
