January 28th, First Year
Jakucho tried her best to hide her disdain, trying but failing to shield herself from the blistering cold. The faintest of memories from her blank slate of a mind told her that this trial was all wrong. And not just because catching her own listed pokémon would be substantially harder than the pokémon that Akari had been tasked with capturing, no.
Professor Laventon tried to catch her eyes, words stuck in his mouth as he looked between her and Akari, his lips strained in a tight smile of sorts. He pulled the guardsman away with a low mutter, his dark eyes flitting between the man across from him and the two strangers.
Before they had left the settlement, they had been told the evening before (with far too much description) that pokémon were dangerous man-eating creatures. Beasts. Creatures that were utterly untameable and supernatural at best. And last but not least, that should they fail their test, they would be thrown out from the village and left to fend for themselves in this bone-chilling winter.
Jakucho did not fear this. She did not fear being ripped apart by a wild pokémon. She did not fear freezing to death. When she had awoken, her sole remaining memory was of herself walking along a sheer canyon cliff with a tough-looking pokémon at her side. If that was the truth, that she had once befriended a pokémon, then she had nothing to fear. She would persevere, even if it meant putting herself in mortal danger.
There was no other option. No other choice. After all, neither she nor Akari could argue with the commander of the village without immediately being prosecuted for "endangering the people" as Professor Laventon had put it.
Ironically enough, though they were deemed as outsiders, the captain, a steely-eyed woman named Cyllene, had deemed it necessary enough to give them names. The other girl was given the name 'Akari' and she was given the name 'Jakucho'. Neither were told what they meant. Jakucho didn't know how to feel about the insinuation.
And how exactly were they to fend for themselves if they had not a clue who they were or how they had come to be here? Neither Akari nor her could remember anything pertinent before they ended up on the beach, shaking out sand from their garments. They were hardly given a chance to orient themselves before they were being led out of the village towards where they were now: the Obsidian Fieldlands.
She had tried valiantly to protest to the commander how the trial wasn't fair; especially in Akari's case. That Akari was, in fact, a literal child (younger than her by at least five years) and that neither had experience fending off wild animals with supernatural powers on their own. That and the fact that it was winter. They would sooner freeze to death than be mauled by a pokémon.
The commander- Kamado, she remembered- had simply nodded, hands on his hips as he waved off her concerns and called for the guards to escort the two of them out of his office. Professor Laventon had seemingly answered their plight by lending them his prized research pokémon. "A means of protection."
Now they stood, hunched against the severe cold atop the hill as the guardsman handed them each a canvas pack. A fur-lined poncho, snow boots, a flint and steel, a waterproof tarp, a leather belt, and a clip of painted wooden balls with adjoining belt clips. The pokéballs felt odd in her hands. Too large. Too clunky. The only familiarity was the smooth red cover to the contraption. She quickly pulled on the poncho, grimacing as the cutting wind on her arms and chest finally weaned.
"Listen carefully now!" instructed the guardsman. "You have until dusk to catch your assigned three pokémon and bring them back here to the camp. You will present them to Professor Laventon who will verify the pokémon. You may not cooperate with one another. If you fail to complete this trail, you will be banished from Jubilife Village. If that is the case-" he spared Jakucho a passing glance- "may Almighty Sinnoh have mercy on your soul. Be quick, be precise, and come back alive. That is all. You have until dusk. Get moving."
Jakucho didn't need a second explanation. She struggled forward, Akari right behind her as the younger girl took up place behind her.
"We c-can't work t-t-together," Jakucho grumbled.
"I k-know th-that," Akari chattered in response. "I'll g-go to the right. You g-go to the l-left." She went silent for a moment before pausing, holding out her hand with a wobbly smile. "L-let's both m-m-meet here before sund-down. Deal?"
Jakucho felt sick. Akari was far younger than her. Far too young to be banished by grown men and a village and far too young to be sent into a snowstorm. Jakucho knew that the guardsmen were watching Akari more closely than her- so was Professor Laventon- and she knew why. They were expecting her to pull off some kind of miracle.
She felt a wave of bitterness wash over her after remembering the thing Akari had fallen with: a tablet of sorts that shone like stars and worked all by itself. She couldn't lose the thing (she'd thrown it as a test), and it would only answer to her. The commander had blamed this strange contraption and Akari for the sudden plights that befell their village and since the two had fallen together, Jakucho had been lumped in with that superstition.
As a matter of fact, Professor Laventon had said with his own words that without that tablet, they would've stood a good chance of being allowed to stay in the village without the trial. "You'd have to be stupid to send somebody out in the cold this time of year."
She grimaced and finally gave in, shaking Akari's hand. "Deal," and after a moment, she said, "Be c-careful, Akari. Stay as warm as you c-can. I'll see you soon."
Jakucho's legs urged her forward, carrying her away from Akari and the rest of the group who had fallen silent watching at the crest of the hill. She could feel the wetness of the snow seep into her torn pants and soak into her shoes. The clip of pokéballs on her belt felt almost unbearable as she picked her way down the hill toward the frozen river.
Neither the guardsman nor the professor had given them directions to finding their assigned pokémon; that, they would have to figure out themselves. A part of the trial, she supposed.
Almost immediately after leaving the sight of the group, the scratched pokéball she'd stuffed in her jacket pocket that morning burst open. Jakucho barely had time to react as a bright blue light flashed in the clearing revealing a small blue and cream pokémon with flames pouring out of its back. It looked around, clearly confused, before its beady eyes focused right on her.
"You… you're the pokémon that professor lent me, huh?" Jakucho crouched down and offered a finger to the creature.
It skipped over and clutched onto her hand, slowly climbing her arm to sit atop her shoulder, snuggling into the fur as if it too was afraid of the storm. Its flames gently licked at the side of her face, a greatly appreciated warmth in the midst of the cold.
She gave the creature a good scratch under its chin. "I guess you're stuck out here with m-me then. If you're c-cold, I can carry you inside my jacket. It's much warmer there than out here, I suppose."
The sun was higher up in the sky when they reached the river. The current was slow and serene under the thick ice with little fish bobbing and swerving just beneath the frozen surface. Snow blanketed the bank, obscuring pebbles and petrified branches. On her shoulder, Cyndaquil busied itself getting comfortable at the crook of her neck. It seemed to like it there. She gently picked the creature up and tucked it against her chest, giving it more pats as she came to a stop.
"Okay. I'm going to need your h-help to pass this test so we can both get back to civilization. I'm s-sure you'd like a nice warm b-b-bed and some f-food right now but if we can get this done before s-sundown, we can go back to that nice big building you c-came from. How about it? Will you help me?"
The creature immediately perked up with a small affirmation nod, gentle golden flames licking up around her neck and chin.
"Great! Now- " she glanced over towards where the tree line turned into a deep blanket of snow, sprouts of gray grass poking up- "our first designated p-pokémon is a Shinx. All I need you to do is uh-" she glanced at the bright flames pouring from its back- "you're a f-fire type, right?"
Cyndaquil cocked its head to the side, shivering. It sneezed, shooting a jet of flames and smoke from its nostrils. Jakucho smirked. She had never been more glad to have partnered with a fire-type before.
"Of c-course you are. R-right. So here's the plan…"
By sunhigh, the two of them were hidden under the dense branches of a fir tree. Jakucho's eyes had found and followed the small body of what looked to be a Shinx. It picked its way around in the snow, sniffing at the wind as it followed after a long pink pokémon. The wind was blowing towards her. She turned to her Cyndaquil.
"When I say 'go', we jump this creature. I need you to use your flames to burn the Shinx. You run towards its far side and keep its attention. While you're doing that, I'll sneak up behind it and throw one of these at it-" she rolled an empty pokéball into her waiting hand. "With any luck, this thing will do its job and we'll get out of here just fine."
Cyndaquil gave an excited huff, taking up position on a boulder. It turned back to look at her once more before focusing on the Shinx. Jakucho waited. The Shinx turned away for just a moment, dropping into a crouch as it stalked its prey.
"Go!"
Jakucho surged out of the shadows to tower over the Shinx, startling it into stumbling backwards deeper into the snow. Cyndaquil leaped past her to tackle the poor creature into the exposed roots of a tree. They rolled through the snow, a mix of muffled mewls and squeaks until the two creatures explosively leapt apart, hissing and spitting at one another.
"Cyndaquil! Ember!"
Her pokémon squeaked and spat a red hot flame at the Shinx, making it recoil and shake to try to dislodge the fiery debris. As soon as it moved, the melted snow pooled around its legs and dragged it deeper. Again, she called for the move and again, Cyndaquil forced the Shinx away and further into the snow. After the third hit, the Shinx fixed its beady eyes on her and leapt, sparks flying from its jaws.
She dodged as it flew over Cyndaquil's head and right toward her, rolling right into a tree on accident. Pain blossomed from her knees and nose as she made to kneel, Cyndaquil rushing over to stand in front of her. The Shinx charged again.
"Cyndaquil! Use Tackle! Pin it down!"
The Shinx screeched as it was thrown back, claws flashing as it discharged a wave of electricity into Cyndaquil. Her pokémon was thrown off into the woods... But the Shinx's back was turned.
Jakucho held her breath and threw the pokéball with all her might at the small creature. To her surprise, it bounced harmlessly off the creature's hide and enveloped the Shinx in a bright blue light, sucking it back into the ball. She waited.
It ticked once. Then twice. And then with a final shiver, a spray of sparks flew up from a hole in the top. After another second, the ball moved no more.
Little footsteps echoed from her side as the Cyndaquil re-emerged from the trees looking dazed but unharmed. It glanced at the pokéball, turning this way and that at the surrounding hills of snow.
"It's r-right here, buddy- the Shinx." She carefully stooped to pick up the wooden ball and felt something strange surge against the bottom of the ball. Something warm that sent jitters up her arm. She clipped the ball to the top of her belt and picked up her companion. "One down, two to go."
She'd begun to figure out some things as she went along. One: pokéballs captured the essence of pokémon and essentially bound them to her. The Shinx that she'd caught before made no attempts to break out like her Cyndaquil did, but it did occasionally bump against her hip or give her a little jolt of electricity when a Starly passed by.
She had let the pokémon out once during a quick break and to her surprise, it had stayed close, trying to wiggle its way under her fur tunic. Seems like the captain had been exaggerating about all pokémon being maneaters. That or it was just a little baby. She would feel bad releasing it back into this frozen wasteland.
Two: she could pick berries from the surrounding trees that, for some reason, healed the various cuts and scratches that they had both sustained traversing the steppes. They worked wonders for Cyndaquil as they kept stumbling into wild Shinx and what she knew to be Bidoofs. They did little to nothing for her except serve as a sweet snack.
Three: Cyndaquil was, in fact, a fire type. Something about that seemed so familiar to her. She'd wondered why she knew what Ember was or why it was a move she could call. Why it was a move that Cyndaquil followed without so much as twitching its nose at her. Perhaps she'd had another fire type before in that past that she just couldn't remember. That would explain why she instinctively knew when to heal her Cyndaquil when its flames grew too red or dull for her liking.
She'd come to like the little creature, growing comfortable with its weight atop her shoulder as it got comfortable around her neck. It never missed a chance to try to crawl atop her head. Maybe it just liked being tall? She'd miss it when she would have to return it back to the professor.
Four: that she wasn't all that helpless without Cyndaquil. If pokémon were wild creatures, then they should be able to be fended off with certain tools. Jakucho had managed to find a large flat rock near the river and with Cyndaquil's help, she'd fashioned it into a club of sorts; just in case a pokémon managed to get past Cyndaquil to get at her. She had already had to use it to fend off another Shinx that had come too close.
Catching a Buizel had been an issue. She'd had to sick Cyndaquil on a lot of Bidoofs to get comfortable in knowing what the little pokémon was capable of. Buizels were tenacious and incredibly annoying, following her away from the river and up into the flower fields and continuously dousing her with water. That had been a huge issue up until the Shinx had stepped up and began electrocuting the little devil-weasels. Cyndaquil had been stuck on clothes-warming duty after that.
It'd been a long struggle knocking a Buizel down to the point where it'd been forced to flee in order for Jakucho to seize an opportunity to catch one. She felt bad capturing the poor injured creatures but if it meant securing her safety in this strange place, then it would be worth it. She would release the poor things as soon as she was finished.
With a quick berry and a drink of water from her borrowed waterskin, she set off farther into the frozen fields to find her last remaining pokémon: a Ponyta. Apparently, they didn't hibernate like most other pokémon during winter.
She heard the creature before she saw it. The earth seemed to shake and sway underneath her as she came to a large frozen pond. A pair of Bidoofs peered out from their den beneath the twisted roots of an oak tree, noses twitching as they eyed her warily. They ducked away as she passed by.
She spotted one from a distance. Its fiery mane glittered with all the beauty of the sun as it trotted alongside a small stream. All of the snow within a few paces of the creature had been melted and the Ponyta huffed as it went along nibbling at the exposed grass. Its creamy coat shone like silk, snowflakes turning to steam as they rained down on the pokémon. Not too far way, another Ponyta kept watch.
What was even more surprising was that this pokémon didn't even seem all that fazed by her being there. She hardly had time to move out of the way as it trotted close, glancing at her for just a moment before it went back to eating the grass. A wave of heat settled around her, making her feel hot underneath her fur poncho.
She stole a quick glance at Cyndaquil. It twitched, flames pooling from its back. This would be an easy catch. A wonderful way to end her stay out here on the steppe and maybe, she might be able to persuade the Ponyta to accompany her all the way to Aspiration Hill so that she wouldn't have to endure the stinging cold again.
Jakucho drew a few berries out of her jacket pocket and began to speak softly to the Ponyta. "Hey there. You want some berries? They're probably tastier than the grass. Come a little closer. I have plenty."
The Ponyta looked at her again and when it saw the berries, it walked calmly up to her. It cocked its head, its glossy eyes watching her as it nosed at her hand without so much as a care in the world. Jakucho added more berries to her hand and set them ever so gently on the grass. As the Ponyta snacked on the berries, she crawled around its side toward its back and readied a pokéball.
The earth trembled again. The Ponyta jumped and took off, leaving its berries on the ground as it cantered away. The rest of the Ponytas followed suit. The cold returned with a vengeance. Jakucho swore loudly and turned, annoyed, towards where the sound had come from only to see a goliath of a creature just beyond the trees. And it was heading right towards her.
Cyndaquil had disappeared from her shoulder, cowering behind her ankles as it tugged at the hem of her wet socks.
The creature snorted, ears fanning backwards as it dragged a hoof through the dirt. Fire blazed from its back and tail, a curtain of steam washing around its legs as earth sizzled underfoot. Its long horn stared her down like a lance.
Jakucho froze. Never in her life had she seen something so large. So terrifying. No distant memory of such a creature came forth and she tasted something acrid in her mouth. There was no tall grass to hide in. The trees were too far away. The stone axe that she'd crafted felt small and pathetic in her hands. She'd stranded herself on the open stretch and this creature, whatever it was, was coming straight for her… The river!
Jakucho turned and sprinted towards the river, the thundering hooves of the creature getting closer and louder as a new wave of heat began nipping at her heels. The Bidoofs by the pond sprang to attention and fled into the woods with whooping chirps, the noise even scaring off the Buizels. The creature was drawing closer and closer, its hot breath blasting at her back until finally, she picked up speed and dove headfirst into the river, crashing through the ice.
It was unspeakably cold. Just the sheer feeling alone squeezed the air from out of her lungs as she collided with the pebbly river floor. Small bodies slammed into her from the current. A shockwave blasted through the river, sending Jakucho tumbling in the currents as she struggled to hold onto something, her eyes shut tight. River water surged up her nose and down her throat, filling her lungs with water. She kicked as hard as she could until she broke the surface, gasping and struggling for air.