On the upside, I woke up to the song of birds. On the downside, given out location in Green Glen, nestled right in the southern edges of the Gloomwood and with the spire of Mount Despair looming over us? Said bird song was the local Moltres signing of our deaths, endless suffering and pain with relish in its voice. Right from its perch right at the top of the mountain, where it formed an eye of blazing dark fire to taunt and mock as it looked down at us all. Basically, the usual if you grew up in Green Glen.
At least the repel fence was holding strong and no pokemon came into town to drag off and eat anyone for the last three years. Apperantly, to listen to my dad talk, that was not really normal, even in other parts of Grimnir. The pokemon attacking and dragging people off to devour bit. As it is, things were... well, it seemed normal to me? But then I grew up playing in the shadows of the wood and knew where to avoid. I knew the feeling of The Eye on me and how to divert their attention, as well ash how to avoid a barrow den or Lycanfiend pack.
Which did bring me to something very important, as I struggled in the Dratini's coils, because she had slipped into his bed again. I was, after fourteen years, good at sensing hostile intent, not so good at less than hostile. That and i had grown up with said dragon type, even if I lacked the same sort of easy connection to them that my mother had. Which is another reason, beyond not being a daughter, that she was disappointed in me. And told me that to my face whenever she dropped by the homestead.
Instead of you know, doing the whole celebrity lifestyle thing as one of Grimnir's Elite Four. And apperantly she also did fashion. You know, only keeping a small village family for when she wanted to take a break from the high life for a few days. Such as when she wanted an itch scratched. Occasionally bringing along her latest secretary, protege or just some girl that caught her eye. Because she never had sex with another man according to Lou (my dad's Lucario) or Gary (dad's Gallade). No, she just dragged people off to a love nest in one of the darkest and most cursed places in the region.
Yet, as I escaped the coils of the pouting Dratini that was like a sister to me, it was not likely that she would be here to show me off on the start of my journey. It wasn't like I really mattered to her after all. But no. "Okay Abigail. Into the ball." She looked at me, before slapping at my second piercing, vanishing in a red digitized flash. No, what mattered was just heading to the professors lab and hoping he was lucid enough to give me a Pokedex.
Professor Dogwood is an interesting man who spends most of his time in a haze of narcotics. A friendly man, a happy man who was noted to actually give pokemon and humans a contact high just by touching him. Granted, that could just be a rumor, as were the tales of him holding off the wrath of the local Moltres by presenting it with monthly tributes of ganja. But, he gave some advice that was sound. Mostly to make the Illumination Dojo my first stop instead of Bytown.
Still, Pokedex in hand, I walked to the gates, my dad there with his team. Lou, Garry, Bastion (Blastoise), Punk (Pangoro), Mary (Medicham) and Bruce (Annihilape). He reached out, hand on my shoulder. "Go get em champ."
Because I was fifteen and so needed to venture across the land, to grow and experience it, to become who I was. "And of course, we have a gravestone ready for you, let's make sure we can break it when you return."
Was it morbid? Sure, but it was also life, as the song of Moltres took on a distinctly mocking tone. Nothing for it. "We can but hope dad."
Neither of us mentioned my missing mother even as I walked into a realm shrouded in perpetual night. Into the Gloomwood and onto glory and adventure, to make new friends and rivals along the way. To see just how far I could go, how close to the top I could reach.
On the one hand, I was making good time to the Dojo, even if the brightly lit path was as much trap as it was sanctuary. Because not only was it the fastest way through the forest, it also served as a game trail for many of the local predators, hunting those clinging to the light.
In similar fashion, many things in the Gloomwood considered bright lights to be an invitation and were much more at home in the dark than a human. Navigating it took time, effort and patience. Or you know, bonded dark types as the Ziggy Boys and Ratta Gals clashed in yet another little brawl, both sides claiming resources and battling against native pokemon as much as each other. When the big catchers, who moved like ghosts in the canopy, didn't weigh in one way or another for their own aims and goals.
Including battling a Deaths Head Parasect. Those were nasty in some respects. A paras who managed to gather enough ghost type energy to possess the mushroom that took them over when the mushroom finally killed them and started using the corpse as a puppet. A ghost possessing the fungi controlling their corpse and more than little irritated about that.
Checking my watch and the burn in my legs, it was near midnight as I entered a grove, brighter than those around it, a full moon looking down from above (despite it being a new one last night), the tower rising from a compound ahead of me.
The safest place in the Gloomwood, as the moonlight spun and gathered, a Lunala appearing and looking down inquisitively.