A Dragon's Valor

You skid back along the ground, feeling a wintery chill in the air brush against your hide. You paw at a fresh scratch on the scales on your right flank, your breaths coming out shallow and tense as a bellowing roar rings out. Your tail fire is burning fierce right now, not from determination, but from fright, as your quivering wings remind you. You try to steel your nerves, but before you get the chance, the roar's owner—a Garchomp baring her fangs—dives at you.

Your claws abruptly erupt with green dragonfire, as you rake the Garchomp and drive her back, buying precious seconds of respite as you wonder to yourself how on earth you got into this situation. Was it when you grew nervous about being a stranger in a distant land and tried to puff yourself up and make yourself seem imposing? Was it you letting how you finally became a Charizard about a month ago get to your head? You are fully evolved and grown now; those days of cowering from a big and scary-feeling world were supposed to be over.

"Have at you!"

Supposed to be, anyways. You look up just in time to see the Garchomp dive at you, her body wreathed in a shroud of dragonfire. She slams into you with her Dragon Rush and you feel your feet leave the ground and burning pain shoot through your body—C-Charizard aren't supposed to feel burning pain like this! Your body sails through the air in an uncontrolled tumble, and the world spins around in your vision briefly before you flop into the dirt with a dull, painful thud. You lay there stunned for a moment, when a clawed foot stomps down on your side and you see a flash of claws and razor-like teeth above you.

It is just enough to burn up those last few threads of your bravery as your mind goes into a blind panic.

"AAAAAAAH!"

You're pretty sure that Charizard aren't supposed to scream at this octave. Nor are they supposed to yield in battle or curl up on themselves and beg for mercy like you are doing right now. The Garchomp looks down at you with narrowed eyes and hesitates a moment when she heeds a human voice and lets go of you.

You don't bother to wait to find out what will happen next. You scrabble to your feet and run over to a young human man waiting for you at your end of the battlefield. Your trainer. Right, you are in a sporting match. You were never supposed to genuinely be in danger the whole time, even if the Garchomp seemed to be doing her best to make it feel like life and death hung in the balance.

You duck behind your trainer with a low whine, much as you did in the past as a Charmeleon when you wound up getting in over your head in battle… and as you did more times than you can remember when the same happened to you as a Charmander. Except this time you have wings which you crane around to try and shield your head, shuddering from your encounter.

You're pretty sure Charizard aren't supposed to do that either. You feel a hand patting at your snout and look up to see your trainer. He looks obviously disappointed, but doesn't say much other than to make sure that you're alright before going off to meet a human woman with green hair dressed in some sort of orange tracksuit. The Garchomp's trainer, and the human that you're pretty sure you just lost your trainer a decent chunk of pocket money to.

The two trainers meet in the center of the battlefield and exchange money and a few items. You follow after yours, and the Garchomp after hers. You try to avoid eye contact with your Dragon-type opponent, but you couldn't miss her unamused scowl if you tried.

"Hrmph, next time, don't run your mouth off looking for a challenge if you can't back it up," " she scoffs. "'Might of a dragon', what a crock! Even if Charizard were dragons, what sort of dragon would act like you?"

You hang your head at her words. You don't have an answer to that question.

About an hour later, you're out of your Pokéball and in the backroom of a Pokécenter, getting a few lingering scrapes that the machines couldn't treat touched up. Sinnoh is a distant land for you and your trainer, but in some respects, it's an awful lot like your home region of Kanto. The Pokémon here by and large speak the same language you do. And the humans do likewise with the humans of Kanto. They even have human nurses and the Chansey in the Pokécenters here that look about the same and tend to Pokémon about the same as the ones in Kanto.

"All patched up and back to normal," the Chansey presently at your side tells you. "You should be good to go and ready to battle again after a day's rest."

"Th-Thanks, I guess."

Back in Kanto, you might have puffed yourself out to make yourself look stronger and tougher in front of such humans and Pokémon. Except… even with the familiar trappings, you're not in the mood for it right now. Not after the way you humiliated yourself in front of your trainer today. You're sure that you bitterly disappointed him, but you don't want to think about that too much right now. At this point, you're of half a mind to retreat back into your Pokéball and its simulated environments until your trainer is done traveling around Sinnoh and you can just go home.

After the Chansey beckons you to come along with her human, you shuffle off alongside them for the front desk, your head held low as the events of the battle keep playing over and over in your head. It was the first one since evolving where you'd been worried about how it'd go at the outset, but you were supposed to have left that sort of skittishness behind as a Charizard.

Sure, it'd be forgivable for a Pokémon of your lower forms, especially when younger. You supposed that it wasn't that uncommon for a Charmander to cry after being startled and to try to hide away when he was afraid… like you had done on more occasions than you could remember. You supposed that costing one's human a Gym Challenge after throwing up from fright and fleeing the battlefield like you did the first time you faced down Brock's Onix wasn't a common experience for Charmeleon, but it was at least understandable. O-Onix were gigantic compared to Charmeleon! Even if they often weren't as tough as they seemed, they looked downright terrifying, especially for Pokémon the size of a young human child whose fire struggled against them.

B-But those were Charmander and Charmeleon, you're a Charizard now. Charizard are supposed to be big and strong! Noble creatures brave enough to face any challenge to the bitter end! So why, when you found yourself outmatched, did you still react like you so often had as a Charmander or Charmeleon when you felt overwhelmed?

Before you know it, the Chansey and the human nurse take you past the front desk where you spot your trainer in the waiting room. You stiffen up and grimace a moment, before turning your head away with a low whine. There weren't a whole lot of other ways that you could've embarrassed yourself and your trainer worse than you had today. How could he not be disappointed that all this time later, even when you were supposed to be big and strong, that you were still the same cowardly lizard at heart?

You brace yourself for the scolding and frustrated chewout that you're rightfully due, except… it doesn't come. You feel a pat at your neck and hear your trainer's words, turning up to see him looking down at you with a regretful expression. You don't follow everything he says to you, but he sounds… apologetic? For forcing you to deal with more than you were ready for?

You don't know what to make of that. Other than that your trainer clearly doesn't know enough about Charizard. Why else would he just be so unbothered by a pathetic failure like the one you had earlier today?

Your trainer tugs at your shoulder and motions off at the hallway where the rooms for travelers to lodge in this Pokécenter are. He must be in the mood to get some rest, and you can't say you don't agree with him. Tomorrow will be a brand-new day, one where you can put today's failures behind you.

Hopefully.

You follow your human and pass the front entrance, when it suddenly comes alive with a soft chime. You turn your head towards it after feeling a blast of cold air and immediately stiffen up at the sight:

It's the Garchomp and her trainer from earlier walking in.

You let out a quiet squeak and hurriedly shuffle your trainer along, but not before you overhear the Dragon-type growling under her breath about how frigid things feel outside. … The air from outside did feel a bit cold today, colder than you would've expected for a region that was supposed to be in its spring season.

… Maybe you won't go into your Pokéball just yet. After a day like today, the least you can do to try and make things up to your trainer is to help keep the cold at bay for him.

The next morning, you and your trainer wake up, pack up your things, and step out of your cramped room in the Pokécenter into the hallway. Your trainer didn't say anything about feeling cold when he woke up, so that's a relief. You don't know how you'd feel right now if you'd managed to fail at simply keeping him warm overnight.

The two of you make your way down the hallway and retrace your steps back to the Pokécenter's lobby. You take a moment to stretch your wings and your limbs with a yawn to get your blood flowing and groggily paw at your eyes. It's then that you notice that something is very wrong. All along the windows outside, you can see frost caked against the glass and icy flurries swirling over white drifts as far as your eyes can see. You blink to make sure you're not dreaming, and quickly realize that you're seeing…

"S-Snow?! B-But it's supposed to be the first month of spring!"

You stand there with your mouth hanging agape, as one of the Chansey who works here happens to pass by with her human nurse and turns to you with a click of her tongue.

"Not from around here, are you?" she asks. "Cold snaps in early spring are as Sinnohan as a Mild Poffin!"

… You will have to take her word for it, since you haven't had any Poffins in this region yet. But the Normal-type seems to be onto something. Most of the trainers with Pokémon that aren't common to this region seem to have gotten caught unawares by the sudden cold. … Though the weather surely has to be abnormal to some extent, since even a handful of trainers with Pokémon from this region seem to have been blindsided by the overnight snow.

"You're kidding me. One night and this is what I wake up to?"

Including the Garchomp from yesterday and her trainer. The Dragon-type stares out the window and grimaces with visible dread, as does her human. You glance over briefly at the pair and stiffen up after the Garchomp notices you from the corner of her eye, and she turns to you with a toothy frown.

"Oh, it's you again. I see your trainer didn't pack for this weather either."

You cast a glance over at your trainer and see that he too is wincing at the sight of the frost and the flurries outside. A quick look over his clothes reveals you that his shirt today is short-sleeved and visibly thin. Right. He had been planning his trip around there being spring weather in Sinnoh, and he had already remarked on it being a little chilly on a few prior days. You could handle a little cold with your tail flame and the fire in your belly to keep you warm, but humans didn't have either of those and needed their 'clothing' to help them deal with such weather.

You go up to the window and peer through it as your breath fogs up the glass. You rub the condensation away, when amidst the snow and the flurries, you spot a small shop with icons in the shape of human clothing down the street. You go over and tug at your trainer and point it out, who in turn does the same to the Garchomp's trainer. You let the pair talk things over with each other in their tongue as you make your way to the door, and the Garchomp does a double-take at you.

"Wait, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to help my trainer get proper clothes, what else?" you explain. "He'll freeze if he tries to go around in snowy weather like this!"

The Garchomp cocks a brow, before turning her snout up with an unimpressed snort.

"Whatever, it's your burial out there."

For a moment, you waver at the Garchomp's retort. She is the native to this region. Does she know something about these snows that you don't? You bite your tongue and hesitate when you hear your trainer calling out for you and see that he's already made his way to the door.

You falter briefly. Are you in danger now? There's not something wrong with the snow outside, is there? A few worries circle around in your mind and you find yourself pulling your wings and tail tight against yourself, when you see your trainer waiting for you at the door.

No. Even if you're worried about what's out there, you can't back down here. Not while your friend needs you.

You shake your head and make your way forward. No matter what those snows hold outside, you aren't going to let your trainer face them alone. And you wouldn't have needed to be a Charizard to come to that decision.

You make your way to the doors and feel the icy air blow in your face. You see your trainer visibly shiver and pull him to your side and under your wing as he grows a bit more comfortable and suck in a sharp breath.

"It's just down the street. It's just down the street."

And so, with wary, faltering footsteps, you set off into the winter cold together. Your partner clasped firmly at your side.

Fifteen minutes later, you return to the Pokécenter lobby along with your trainer freshly garbed in winter wear, with a second set extra, to boot. Your trainer passes it along to the Garchomp's and then the pair exchange money.

…That was what the Garchomp was so worried about? Why, from the way she talked about the snows, you thought there were going to be ghosts or monsters hiding in the drifts to ambush you!

Your moment of satisfaction is cut short when you notice your scales feel damp, and look to see water on them from melted snow that you weren't able to get off before coming inside. You take a moment to try and brush it off with your claws when you see a hand join in to help you. You blink and follow the arm over to see your trainer looking at you as his hand moves to your shoulder and he gives you an affectionate pat and opens his mouth to speak.

…He's thanking you. For looking out for him back there.

You stare at him for a moment as he goes off to the counter to check out. You… didn't think that you really did anything special back there, but at the same time, you can't help but feel a hint of pride.

That's when it dawns on you.

All this time, you and your human have gotten as far as you have by looking out for each other when one or the other stumbled or was weak. It was your trainer that calmed you down when you were scared, the one who helped you work up the bravery to eventually best opponents you were afraid of in battle—like Brock's Onix. And you were there to look out for him at times like these when he just needed a bit of extra strength… or a warm body to help him stand up to the cold.

"... How on earth can you just be okay with that awful weather out there?"

You turn to your right and see the Garchomp staring at you slack jawed. She… honestly still scares you, but you don't flinch from her this time. Seeing the way she shrinks away from a little bit of snow and treats it like it's death incarnate helps put things in perspective.

You suppose that in a way, the Garchomp was right yesterday. You aren't a dragon, or at least not in the same way she is. But… for the things that really count in life, does it matter?

And so with a shaky, flustered grin, you speak up and answer her.

"It's because I'm not a dragon like you, and I don't know if I ever will be. But I'm sure like a dragon for my friends."