The break of dawn proved to be a little too long for Riolu to wait. As soon as the light of the new day crept into the park, he was wide awake.
He promptly threw the borrowed blanket up into the air and jumped off the bench, which proved to be a little too much action as he immediately got racked by aches and soreness. His sleeping arrangements over the last couple days were nothing like Riolu's old bed at not-quite-home-anymore.
However, he only let it hold him back for a moment, stretching his arms over his head in a partially-successful attempt to dispel the soreness. He had a trail to hit today, so he couldn't waste too much time shaking out the aches.
At this hour, only real early birds and occasional nocturnal Pokémon were awake. Bakers prepared for the day, a few Kecleon scampered around before the inevitable tide of explorers broke down their doors, and a couple shady looking Pokémon who decided Riolu wasn't worth whatever effort it would take to hustle went by.
Riolu pushed right past all of them. His pace picked up the further he went, until he was practically sprinting past the final building of Tenea. The sun had finally finished rising over the horizon, lighting up a dirt path before him that stretched on for miles. He was now in actual wilderness.
Riolu had no clue what the path had in store for him, but he also did not particularly care.
Eventually, his running slowed down to a walk as the rush gave way to quiet enjoyment. Listening to the squawks of feral Braviary flying over him and the rustling of grass around him in the breeze seemed more pressing than getting to Nova Town as soon as possible.
Half an hour later, he noticed that there seemed to be a few Mandibuzz mixed into their ranks, heading in a slightly different direction. As he was pondering it, he heard a very loud groan coming from off the road.
Riolu started dashing in that direction— it could've just been a feral, but the ones he fought the other day didn't make sounds like that. And Mandibuzz circling over something that might not be dead yet was a good sign to get there ASAP.
The source of the moaning became obvious pretty quickly— an Absol, who seemed to be thrashing against a set of vines. While the vines were wholly inanimate, they still seemed to spite the Absol as the thrashing only entangled himself further.
"Get off- get off- What is this!"
Riolu blinked a few times at the sight. It couldn't have been that difficult for an Absol to just… slash out of it, right?
He shook his head, not a good time to judge.
"Do you need some help there?"
Immediately the Absol's struggling came to a stop as he looked up to Riolu. "You can speak?"
"Y-yes? Not a feral."
The Absol let out a sigh. "Thank God, would you mind helping me then?"
Riolu nodded, taking a few steps closer. Absol's struggling definitely made things messy, but it also meant it looked worse than it really was. With some careful tugging, he got… most of it. But there was one bit that was knotted and didn't seem inclined to budge.
"Can you hold your head still for a moment?"
"What do you… Err, certainly."
Riolu grabbed the knotted segment in both hands, and pulled it against Absol's horn. The horn was much sharper than Riolu was expecting, managing to slice through the vines with no resistance, causing him to stumble back a few steps.
After cutting through the worst of it, freeing Absol from the rest was easy. Yet interestingly, even after Riolu took off the final vine, Absol still seemed to be laying there on the ground.
"Are uh… you alright down there?" Riolu asked, giving the dark type a concerned glance.
"Y-Yes! Quite alright. Just… I need to rest for a moment before I resume my journey. Thank you very much for your help."
"Right-"
"Err, before you go however, would you mind pointing me in the direction of the nearest city? I… think I may need to rest."
That statement earned a confused glance from Riolu. "We're only 30 minutes out from Tenea City, where did you come from?"
"That's… well you see it's a great question, I… don't suppose Manchester rings a bell?"
Riolu quickly shook his head. "No…? What are you-"
He cut himself off mid-sentence, eyes beginning to widen. A Pokémon who got hopelessly tangled up in a simple set of vines, they weren't comfortable enough to even try standing up, had no idea where they were and was making up weird gibberish in an attempt to answer— it could only be one thing.
"…You're an ex-feral," Riolu whispered, starstruck.
"I… pardon?"
"You used to be a feral and only just snapped out of it, right?"
"N-No- what are you talking about?" Absol's train of thought was completely derailed by whatever it was Riolu was suggesting, so much so that he forgot about his attempts to rise back to his feet. As a result, he managed to stand up for all of five seconds, until he realized that he was standing and immediately fell over once again.
"You only just gained sapience, which is-"
"I'm not- okay, sorry, just…" Absol rolled onto his stomach so he could at least look at Riolu until he could figure out how to stand again. "I do not believe that is correct. Do you… know what a human is?"
"A human?" Riolu blinked a few times. He'd heard of them before— his mom was really interested in them, but she never really told him much about what they are or why. "Like… from the stories?"
"I… wouldn't know? Sorry, I'm just… very confused here."
"O-okay." So it wasn't a former feral, instead it was some weird creature he barely knew. "Well, you look like an Absol right now, if that helps."
"It- I appreciate the gesture, but I have been like this for all of 30 minutes after falling from the sky, and immediately got tangled in that set of vines. I have not yet had the opportunity to examine myself."
"Oh, well uh… What Pokémon do you know? Because Absols sorta look like Furfrou."
"I… am not aware of any Pokémon? Would you mind explaining that?"
Dear Xerneas this guy doesn't know what a Pokémon is.
Riolu took a deep breath. "Okay, so… you're alive, right? You know what it means to be sapient?"
"Yes, I am very familiar with the concept of being able to think. Humans are… also able to think." Absol struggled over his word choice, not having any clue where the line was between explaining and being condescending.
"Okay that's… a good start. So Pokémon can think too! Or, most of them."
"The birds that flew overhead couldn't, correct?"
"Yeah, I think. They were probably ferals- those are also Pokémon, but they don't think. Or… well it's sorta complicated."
Absol seemed to only grow more confused at this explanation, but shook his head. Out of everything that's happened to him so far, the sapience of half the creatures he's interacted with was the least of his concerns. "Okay then, judging from your earlier explanations, you Pokémon have settlements, right?"
"Yeah, lots. I just came from Tenea City, and I'm on my way to Nova Town now."
That confirmation seemed to be a major relief for Absol, as he made another attempt at rising to his feet. "Thank God, there'll at least be something."
"So do… humans also have cities?"
"Plenty." Absol surprised himself by not immediately falling over this time. "I… would you mind if I were to accompany you to this Nova Town? I fear that without help I would lose my way."
They both knew the real reason was because Absol just looked absolutely pathetic— a newborn Pidgey thinking really hard in his general direction would be enough to knock him over, but for Absol's sake neither of them commented on this.
"Yeah, I'm sure there's someone over there who also knows more about humans too." For how much his mom seemed to think about them, there had to be something important with them.
Despite still not fully understanding how to use his new body, Absol still managed to bow his head. "Thank you very mu-"
He was cut off as the sharp head motion caused him to lose balance and fall to the floor yet again.
It took another 5 minutes for Absol to get to a point where he could comfortably stand up, and another 20 before he started to get the hang of walking as a quadruped.
It was a slow and exhausting process for both parties, but at least they were making progress again.
"Apologies, I never asked for your name," Absol said, partly to fill the silence and partly to distract himself so his brand-new muscle memory could take over.
"Just… errr, call me Riolu."
"Well, thank you again for the help Riolu. I am Alex."
"Oh, you meant proper name…?"
Alex looked over in confusion, a movement that was already becoming eerily natural for him. "Is… there a difference?"
"Okay… so there's your species name, which is what everyone calls you. I'm Riolu, you're Absol. But then there's proper name, which is your personal name, and you only use it if you're really close to the other Pokémon. Or if there's a lot of the same species around."
"I see. So it would be a faux pas to ask your proper name?"
Riolu was struck with the realization that trying to explain your culture to someone with no frame of reference for it was actually kinda hard.
"It depends, I think. It's more just, weird?"
"Understood," Alex said, not understanding. Suddenly aware of the way his paws were taking one step after another, he stumbled for a moment before catching himself.
Riolu watched the stumble, waiting until he was back to walking normally before posing his question. "…Can I ask what humans are like?"
"Oh, well… We are bipedal, somewhat like yourself?" While a simple look to his right would confirm that Riolu was indeed walking on two legs, after what had to be the most confusing three hours of his life, he decided making assumptions like that would be a bad idea.
"Right, that explains the… yeah. But what type are humans?"
"Pardon me, type?"
"You know, like, Normal, Fighting, Fire, Ice?"
"I… would have to guess normal? There is nothing particularly elemental about humans- or, I suppose there might be some who would be considered fighting."
A world of exclusively fighting or normal types sounded fascinating to Riolu. It did seem somewhat unfair though, the normal type humans would've been at a complete disadvantage if the only other type was super-effective against them. Maybe the normal types were inherently stronger to balance it out though?
"Then how do battles work? What types of moves can humans use?"
Alex looked uncertain, before shaking his head. "I must apologize again, I'm not quite familiar with what you mean by move."
"Like, the attacks you can use. If you're all Normal or Fighting, then I'm guessing it's mostly phys- Oh, can humans use Force Palm?"
"I… suppose?" Alex knew perfectly well that as a human he could ram an open palm into another human as a form of self-defense, but that seemed like an oddly specific ask. Perhaps Pokémon physiology meant such an attack would be more damaging? That brought his train of thought to the fact that he now longer had palms whatsoever, which was an idea he did not want to linger on. "I don't believe it would be as effective as simple punches for humans though."
"Dang…" Riolu could only imagine the type of slugfests human battles must have been like if they mostly relied on punch attacks. A world like that would've had to be even more peaceful than his own world then…
After asking several more questions about the intricacies of human typing and what moves they have access to, Riolu's curiosity began to wane. The way Alex described it, it was like it was an entirely different system than the moves he was familiar with.
As the hours passed, the topics shifted, from how humans battled to the human world, and Riolu listened as Alex described cities that were nearly incomprehensible. While there had to be some exaggeration there— if he was being literal, this "London" would've been several times larger than even Ingen— it was still fascinating that there could be an entire world so completely different from his own.
There was some give and take though. Riolu found himself having to explain basic concepts like mystery dungeons or how guilds worked— Alex didn't even know what a footprint rune was.
Still, Riolu was more than happy to not have to make the trek in silence, and if having to explain things that even ferals would have had some concept of was the price he had to pay, then he was willing to take it.
"So then, as I understand it, your guild and the Explorer's Federation hierarchy is roughly equivalent to a multi-continent feudal empire?" Alex stopped for a minute, pondering what type of completely bizarre world he's found himself in.
"I… think? Sure." Riolu understood half of those words, but Alex seemed to be confident in his comparison, so it was probably right.
As they chatted, they rose up over the last hill on the route, and Riolu came to a dead stop. Alex followed suit, trying and failing to follow whatever it was his companion seemed to be staring at.
"Oh that's… Nova Town." Riolu's voice was softer now, as he looked out at the vast plain stretching out beneath the hill. It went on for miles and miles before being abruptly cut off by a canyon. But branching off from the canyon ridge was…
Well, calling it a city would be a stretch. A town would be getting closer but still not quite there. Around the level of village would be reasonable.
No more than 20 or 30 permanent buildings were joined by several times as many tents, which really just drove home how new the entire settlement was. The paths between everything seemed to twist and curve about at random, making an interesting collection of shapes that had to be completely unintentional.
In some way, it was kinda impressive how badly the urban planners screwed up. A massive clearing that went on for miles and no pre-made trails or roads would seemingly be a perfect canvas for a well designed settlement. Instead, they got roadways that resembled a Tangela after tanking 10 Psychics in a row.
Despite the piss-poor planning not reflecting the best on the city, it did fill Riolu with a sense of excitement. If whatever federation nepo-baby they sent here was able to do this poor of a job, there was definitely going to be a place for him.
"…Is quaint the right term?" Alex asked, pulling Riolu from his thoughts. "I apologize, while I've heard your descriptions, I have no physical frame of reference for what constitutes a large or small settlement of Pokémon.
"No, this is definitely… really small. But that's why I came here."
"I see… Actually, no, apologies, I don't; why is it you wished to come here?"
"I think there's a lot I can do here… Err, I guess you as well, if you want to stay."
"Well, with the sun where it is, I hardly have a choice for tonight." Alex thought about his words, before turning to Riolu with uncertainty. "There is a normal day night cycle here, correct?"
"I… guess that depends on what your normal is?"
"…It will be dark within a few hours, correct?"
Riolu looked upwards, verifying that the sun was indeed going to set approximately soon-ish. "Yeeeah."
"Then would you have any idea where we could sleep for tonight?"
And that was another point Riolu should've probably thought about. Maybe if he didn't stop to help Alex and ran the entire distance, he could've made it here in time to join the guild, but now it was way too late for that.
"Well, we could go for an inn, but I don't have any Poké, and I…" Riolu's words trailed off as he looked past Alex, noticing a stretch in the forest that seemed to almost flicker. "…Nevermind, I have an idea. Do you think you could take on a mystery dungeon?"
A/N: Hey all, apologies for being exactly 1 day late on this. Unfortunately I think I'm gonna continue to be late, kinda hit a slump and my motivation for working on this has been down. I'm not abandoning this, but I will be taking a short break for a while until I regain my motivation. Because of that, time between chapters is gonna go up for a while until I get back into the swing of things.
Ch 5 - Lonely is the Night - 12/16/23