Eastbound: A prequel to Ash's Eon Journey
I know, I know. It's been a long time since I've updated Ash's Eon Journey. I wrote this little drabble to get some inspiration to write another chapter. It's not much, but I kinda like it.
The reason I called it Eastbound, is because it's partly based on a couple of stories called Northbound by Richard Sullivan (archiveofourown org/works/ 50362054) and Southbound by Pokelego999 (archiveofourown org/works/ 42819588/chapters/107568597). (Remove all spaces from the links)
This story has absolutely nothing to do with going east, but hey, Northbound has nothing to do with going north and Southbound has nothing to do with going south (Or, at least, I don't think they do).
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little story.
Hey, it's me, Michael. If you've ever read my story (which I called 'Ash's Eon Journey' because Ash's name sounded better than mine) you probably know who I am. If you haven't, I would suggest you read it first (or afterward I guess, it doesn't matter that much). Anyway, for those who are curious, this is the story of how I became a Latios. At the time, I considered it to be the unluckiest experience of my life. Now? I'm sure glad I had it…
I was walking through one of the many alleyways in my hometown. Today was, needless to say, boring. I have to admit, I get bored pretty easily, but today I was REALLY bored.
"You good bro?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied. That's my brother David. He's three years older than me (He's 17 and I'm 14) but we still hang out a lot.
"Don't worry, I know, I'm bored too,"
I looked at the sky, directly above us were several geese which I assumed were migrating south for the winter. "You know, sometimes I wish I could just fly away like one of those birds," I said.
"Same," replied David. He chuckled. "It's a pity we don't have wings… Hey, what's that?"
I turned. "What's what?"
"That feather, doesn't it look a bit… weird?"
I looked at where he was pointing. Sure enough, there on the ground was a small teal feather. I stared at it for a second then reached down to pick it up. It felt… oddly sticky.
"Can I see it?" asked David.
I nodded. "Sure," I passed the feather into David's hand. Or, at least, I tried. "Dang, this thing is really sticky,"
David looked at my hand. "It looks like it's turning into green goop or something."
"Yeah," I said, a bit frustrated. "And it won't come off,"
"That's odd, it's… disappearing," said David.
I glanced at my hands, what used to be an at least normal-ish feather was now a sticky green mess. Looking closer, I noticed that it was, in fact, disappearing. The only problem was that it was 'disappearing' straight into my hand. In a few seconds, it was gone.
I frowned. "What was that all about?"
"I don't know," replied David, "Maybe it was just one of those prank things and someone dropped it here."
I thought about it, then shrugged. "Oh well, it's not like it was that important or anything,"
The next day I felt kind of strange. I woke up with a big headache and a huge pain in my chest. I sighed. Today was going to be one of those days. Or so I thought as I walked downstairs for breakfast and plopped in my chair.
"You ok?" asked my dad, "You don't look so good,"
"I'm fine," I replied, "It's nothing," My brother gave me a concerned look but then turned back to his food.
"Are you sure?" asked my mom, "Here, let me take your temperature,"
I grimaced. Even I knew my head was on fire. My mom scanned the thermometer over my head. I could see the alarm on her face.
"Michael, you are burning up!" she practically yelled, "I'm sorry, but you're going to have to stay home today. You can't go to school like this,"
I nodded. It wasn't like I wanted to go to school anyway. Not because I didn't enjoy it, but because I never seemed to make any friends. To be fair though, I wasn't feeling very good.
Later that day, I wasn't feeling much better. It only got worse when I discovered I had feathers growing from my chest. They looked… strangely familiar. Then I remembered the previous day and that strange green feather.
'Shoot,' I thought, 'What is that thing doing to me?'
I almost fainted when I saw my hands. Or at least, what used to be my hands. They had been turned into oval-shaped claw-like things. I looked in the mirror and noticed two strange tufts of hair that looked a lot like horns.
'I must be dreaming,' I thought, 'That, or I'm hallucinating,' After all, shouldn't something like this hurt?
That afternoon when my brother came home from school and came to check on me, he was in for a surprise.
"Michael? Are you feeling ok? Michael?"
"What do you think?" I said, or at least I tried to say. Once the feather had finished doing its 'work' I found myself unable to use human language anymore. Just perfect.
"What's that? I can't understand y-" my brother suddenly froze, staring at me, "What the heck!? Who are you? And where's Michael?"
I sighed and pointed to myself, hoping he would understand the gesture.
"You're Michael?"
I nodded.
"But how did you- oh… that feather, do you think-?"
I nodded again, letting out a sad coo.
"Ok, ok, let's settle down for a second." I rolled my eyes. At this point, I was probably calmer than he was. Not that I was more prepared, but I did have all day to think about it.
"Do Mom and Dad know about this?"
I shook my head, I had been feeling too weak to get out of bed. Besides, I didn't know how I was going to explain this to them anyway.
"Ok, so, you're an oddly shaped bird now… what are we supposed to do?"
I shrugged. I just wished I could be myself again.
"Woah, you're glowing!" exclaimed David suddenly.
I looked at myself. My body was, in fact, glowing. When the green sparks of light faded, I was shocked to see myself in my human form again.
David stared at me. "How did you do that?"
"I dunno," I said before realizing something, "Hey, I can talk now!"
"That solves some of our problems," said David, "can you turn back?"
I thought about it. How did I change in the first place? Oh yeah, I was thinking about myself so-
In a moment, the green shower of light washed over my body again and I was back in my bird-like form.
"That's neat," said David, "but, uh, what are we going to do about this?"
I switched back to my human form. "I don't know, but don't tell Mom or Dad yet. I… have to figure some things out."
"Alright," said David, "Hey, your other form kind of looks like a bird. Didn't you say you wished you could fly yesterday?"
"Not helping." I deadpanned. But then I thought about it for a second. Could I fly? Because if I could, that would be pretty amazing.
"Sorry, couldn't resist," replied David, "but hey, don't worry about it too much, I mean, as long as no one knows you should be fine."
I nodded solemnly. I just had to make sure no one found out…
Well, there you have it. How I became a Latios. I know it sounds unbelievable, but if you ever read my book, you'll know it's not the craziest thing that's happened to me. Anyway, that's a wrap, thank you to anyone who reads this.
That's the story!
If you enjoyed this you'll probably enjoy my story that goes along with it called Ash's Eon Journey (fanfiction net/s/ 14093745/1/Ash-s-Eon-Journey) and the stories Northbound and Southbound (linked at the top).
If you really liked this, please leave a review and consider joining my discord server (discord . gg/eX4k3bV2au) the more members the better!