Ash fell asleep quicker than he expected to. A part of him still churned with the fear of uncertainty. The meteor could be days away or years away or not exist here at all. It wasn't like he had any way to tell the difference.
Then again, it couldn't be a coincidence that both he and Pepper had shown up in ancient Michina at the same time. If there was any way their modern knowledge could help prevent a disaster, well...maybe they were destined to do just that. And even destiny knew it took more than a day or two to come up with meteor-blocking solutions, right?
It wasn't terribly sound logic, more a coping strategy than anything else. But it did help Ash drift off.
Of course, once he started sleeping, he had a whole different issue to deal with. As he closed his eyes, a vivid dream shaped itself in his mind. The kind that Ash somehow knew wouldn't be forgotten when he eventually woke up.
The first thing he felt was a warm breeze on his face, ripe with the smell of pollen and springtime. He cracked one eye open. The area around him was...weird. He was outside, near the top of a hill. But all the colors were off. The sky was light purple, while the grass...well, okay, the grass was technically green, but more like a blue-ish minty green than a...well, than a grass green.
Ash looked over his shoulder. "Hello?" he said tentatively. No one answered. It didn't even sound like voice carried that far, which it really should have given all the open space behind him. The elevated land stretched out for miles, blocking the view of anything too far ahead.
But after a moment, Ash did catch sight of some movement. Excitement pumped through him as a Pokémon emerged over the hillside, about fifty yards or so away from where he stood now.
It was Charizard! And not just any Charizard, but his Charizard. Or was it...? Ash squinted to discern what exactly he was looking at. Could it be a hologram of some kind? Charizard's movement looked organic enough, but now that Ash got a clearer focus, he could see through the Pokémon's body.
"Hey, buddy!" he called again, trying to be louder than before, though it got little results.
Charizard gave no indication he heard Ash at all.
Ash crossed his arms, debating what to do next. Charizard was walking with a sense of purpose, like it knew where it wanted to go. But in his experience, when the dragon-like Pokémon had a destination, it rarely just walked there. It had wings for a reason.
Ash knelt down to deliberate and almost tumbled over in surprise. The ground was so soft here. Like settling onto a mattress. He stretched his hand out to feel the strange grass, only to see his hand had gone even more translucent than Charizard. Not unlike that time Haunter and his friends decided Ash and Pikachu needed a ghost's-eye-view of Lavender Town. It was unnerving, though Ash was fairly sure he wasn't dead. Having weird visions, maybe, but not dead.
He stood back up and decided to follow Charizard from a distance. If this was a vision of some kind, he should pay attention to whatever happened next, right?
Charizard crested the hill, and Ash hurried to catch up. There was no deep, distant valley stretched out below like he anticipated. The slope barely went more than a few yards down. And centered in this shallow depression was a tall, cackling fire. Very tall, considering how slender it was. It looked more like a human-sized pillar. No natural fire had those kinds of proportions. Charizard walked closer, and Ash followed suit. As they closed in, the fire looked less and less like a pillar and more like an actual human figure.
A person made of fire?
Ash paused, letting the distance between him and Charizard lengthen. Then the figure turned. It resembled a man wearing a kind of glowing unitard with an open lab coat draped haphazardly overtop. There were no colors on his clothes, nothing that looked like actual clothes at all, just the impression of them given by the shape of the flames. His facial features, likewise, were only suggested by a mix of darker or cooler flames burning against brighter, hotter ones. He appeared to have a well-trimmed beard, thick eyebrows, and deep worry lines across his forehead.
When the man spotted Charizard, his slow movements got much more animated. He beckoned Charizard over and began talking rapidly, though his exact words remained unclear. Charizard got closer and Ash tried to keep as much distance between them as possible. The Pokémon's expression was curious but only just enough to come over and see what this strange fire person wanted.
Ash crept forward, trying to be as discrete as possible. Not his area of expertise in normal circumstances, but the man was so involved in whatever he was saying, he took no notice of his surroundings. Charizard glanced to the side now and again. Ash wondered if his Pokémon-or Pokémon projection or whatever he was looking at-knew he was there but chose to keep it quiet until the man was finished.
When Ash finally got within hearing range of them, he knelt down in the feather-soft grass and listened intently.
"Yes," the man was saying. "Thank you. If you don't mind...I think I'm lost. Perhaps you could help?"
"Mmmrr?" Charizard replied.
"I came here looking for someone, you see. I'm quite sure he passed through here..."
Charizard grunted.
"Ah. You're not from around here either, then? My apologies. I'll look for help elsewhere." The man rubbed the back of his head, which set off a scattering of sparks. Charizard huffed again and once more glanced towards Ash. This time, the strange man followed the Pokémon's line of sight, and he gasped when he finally made eye contact."
"Excuse me? You there!"
He began walking closer, much faster than Ash expected. It suddenly occurred to him he had no idea who this person was or what he wanted. The guy had a frantic, agitated air when he walked, and Ash's first instinct was to get as far from him as possible. But dream worlds working the way they did, his voice came out silent, and his attempts to walk back over the hill only felt like he was inching along. The man reached out to him, pleading for his help, and the feel of flames licking the back of his shirt jolted Ash awake.
Ash gasped and bolted upright. His hands flew up to examine his arms and clothes. No, nothing had any burn marks on it. Ash didn't even feel warm. The basement room wasn't unpleasant per se, but first thing in the morning, it was definitely chilly.
Just a dream. Just a dream, he reminded himself through slow and deliberate breaths. And not even a terribly threatening dream. The guy was only asking for help. And wasn't Ash just telling Pepper yesterday how many times he'd been hit directly with Charizard's Flamethrower? A dream where the fire obviously couldn't hurt him shouldn't have been so disconcerting.
His focus was better put on the dangerous stuff, not the merely weird and unsettling stuff. He rubbed his eyes as several shafts of sunlight flickered in his face from the open stairway and the floor above.
Pepper was dressed and moving back and forth around the room. "Morning," he muttered in a distracted voice. Did he even notice Ash's gasp? Then again, maybe he was busy gathering those books he mentioned last night? That would be pretty important and definitely distraction-worthy.
Then Ash looked again. Pepper wasn't gathering anything. Though he was clearly in a hurry to get somewhere. He was even putting his sandals on, which Ash was positive he didn't use inside the kitchen yesterday.
"Uh, going on a trip?" Ash asked, trying his best to open on a light-hearted note rather than a complaint. Pepper could be just...going for a morning jog. Ancient people did stuff like that, right?
Pepper barely heard him. "Hmm? Oh, yeah. But not far. I gotta work out in the fields this morning. See if I can get the crops growing a little faster."
Okay, so Ash could eliminate "exercise routine" from the possibility list. He stood and blocked Pepper's path up the stairs. "Whoa, whoa. What happened to that history book we were supposed to examine today?"
Pepper winced, which told Ash he had one-hundred percent forgotten their conversation from the previous night. Ash really thought the part where he mentioned the imitate arrival of a deadly meteor would have stood out a bit more.
Thankfully, he at least owned up to his mistake and walked over to a small crevice behind the staircase. The stairs were built of solid stone blocks, and at first glance, they lined right up with the basement's back wall. Only a closer inspection showed a small space in between-big enough to notice but far too small to fit a person or extra shelving. Pepper reached into the shadowy nook and pulled out a large bag. Nothing modern; it looked like it was made of leather or something. But inside Ash could see all sorts of modern items-wrapped protein bars, some kind of fancy calculator, and most importantly, a set of binders and bound books.
"Ah ha! Here you go. Knock yourself out." Pepper took what looked like the thinnest book and passed it over. It still felt heavy.
Ash took the book but frowned at the cover: Helpful History of Hoenn and Hisui. "You said you were going to look it up with me."
"Yes. In the middle of the night when I was only half-conscious and trying to keep you from freaking out." Pepper walked back to the steps and grabbed a sash from a hook by the base of the stairs. He tied it quickly around his waist, scrunching up the bulkier fabric into a better fit. He then looked down at his sandals, loosened the straps around his left ankle, then pulled them into a tighter criss-cross pattern before securing them again.
"I was not freaking out," Ash muttered. Not without reason, at least. He watched Pepper's movements and tried to do the same with the pair of sandals Bridge had given him yesterday, but it didn't end well. It seemed Ash had the same natural talent for donning ancient clothing as he did for keeping fires lit. Which was to say, pretty much none.
I really, really miss having Pokémon around, he thought miserably. At least then, I had something I was good at.
"Ugh, you're like a little kid, you know that?" Pepper walked over and knelt down by Ash's feet, doing the same criss-cross motion he'd done with his own sandals until the whole thing felt firm and secure. Ash had flashbacks to his first day of school, watching his mother weave the loops of his shoelaces together in a way that felt mystical...at least until he learned to do it himself a few months later.
So not only did Pepper think of him like a little kid, he felt like one, too. And it was not a pleasant feeling. He couldn't imagine if he ever had a traveling companion who called him that all the time. He debated if he should mention the strange vision to Pepper, but anything that amounted to, "Hey, can I tell you about my bad dream?" sounded even more immature no matter how he mentally phrased it.
Pepper's face softened. "Hey, I get you're genuinely worried, all right? If you want, you can come hang out with me today. If there's any sign that shows some sort of disaster coming, you'd see it way better outside than cooped up in the kitchen all day, right?"
"I...guess you're right." Ash stood and tucked the book under his arm. He still had a gut feeling that Pepper was humoring him. "Do they have books like this in Michina? What happened to all your 'don't mess with history' stuff?"
"Yeah, um..." Pepper rubbed the back of his head in about the same way the fire guy in the dream had. Just minus the burst of sparks. "About that...I kind of accidentally let Bridge see one of the books already. He came in while I was reading before bed, and of course, he showed it to the senator right away." He started up the steps and motioned for Ash to follow. Ash did so, distracting himself with admiration for the stairs' handiwork. How long it must have taken to build them in? People had to work so much harder for things here. Any part of the building could be admired for that.
Pepper continued, "The senator was impressed but decided it wasn't really useful to them because they just don't have the resources to commit to producing something like that. And anyway, most of the population can't read." He guided Ash through the kitchen, where the smoky scent of the oven from last night's meal prep still hung heavy in the hair. The hallway was more of a covered walkway with lots of warm sunlight. A few other staff passed them by, their gazes forward, their hurried pace announcing they had far more important places to be. Pepper cut off speaking when one of them was in hearing range and kept his voice low even when they weren't. Ash took the cue and clutched the book to his chest, hiding it in the tunic's loose fabric as best he could.
"Point is," Pepper whispered. "That it's just us, the senator, and Bridge out in the field today.
"The senator helps with the fields, too?" Ash asked, curious. Sure his history knowledge wasn't great, but he always thought that kind of thing was lower-class stuff. And if this world's version of Marcus was anything like the old one, he wouldn't exactly be jumping at the chance to participate in commoner activities.
"Not all the time, but the rainfall's been low, and he can't spread himself too thin. So he wants to look things over and see where I can be the most help."
"Uh, no offense? But how are you supposed to help crops grow when your main power is fire?" Ash questioned.
Here Pepper gave him a confident smile and brought his voice into more normal levels. "Actually, my Pokémon is a grass and fire type."
"Those exist?" Ash was fascinated. How would that even work, anyway? He kept trying to picture a flaming Bellsprout in a constant state of trying to put itself out. It seemed both uncomfortable and impractical.
"If we ever get back to our universe, stop by Paldea sometime," Pepper told him. "I'll show you all kinds of cool stuff."
"S-sure! Sounds amazing!" Ash said. And he really meant it. Any place with new and exciting Pokémon was a no-brainer destination. For at least a little bit, all of Ash's worries from the night before and even this morning felt a little bit smaller.