Author's notes: Welp, I was bored and poking around on AO3 for some dumb stuff to read, when I found Fabhar's incredible story 'Shaded Silk', which inspired me enough to remember I still had this old piece lying around in the storage. I decided to polish it up a bit and... well, maybe it's time for me to throw my hat into the ring, too.

Chapter 1 - A rude awakening

When I woke up, I couldn't really feel… anything. Like, nothing at all. It was as if my entire body had been stuck in some sort of crappy virtual simulation of some sort. I also felt horrendously motion sick, almost like I was plucked from my bed and flung through space and then straight into Earth itself.

To summarise, I felt like shit.

But, considering that was how I felt every single day in the last month, I dismissed it as nothing but my new reality.

My skin felt… icky, I wasn't sure how to really describe it, but there was probably a lot of moisture in the air, hot and humid, my least favourite combination, it was as if I was placed right in a jungle. However, I was quite used to waking up clammy and sweaty from my terrible nightmares. Once again, I carelessly threw the notion into the back of my mind.

Unfortunately, when I opened my eyes, a blinding verdant struck me right in the retinas. I don't remember having my damn eyes being so sensitive to green! Groaning in aggravation, I attempted to hoist myself up from the floor when I noticed I had been in a lying down position.

Keyword: attempted.

I couldn't feel my arms anymore. In fact, I had no arms! No nubs, or amputated limbs - nothing at all. Panicking, I twisted my neck to try and get a better view of my possibly mangled body, only to find out that I couldn't do that either.

What the hell was going on?! What's happened to me?!

I certainly knew that I wasn't human, but what exactly? A Pokemon? A rock? I really needed a mirror.

Also, where in Arceus am I? Rolling my body from the ground with considerable effort, I noted two things: Firstly, my body was incredibly rotund, so I was most likely a spherical creature, secondly, the amount of green that flashed into my eyes came from the vegetation that grew all around me. I really was in some sort of jungle, the air felt incredibly stuffy - I could feel my sweat dripping down from my face as I got to my feet.

I took one step, and tripped, rolling on the ground unflatteringly.

"Damn it!" I hissed in pain. How was I supposed to get around? My feet were so short that I could barely even walk!

Where am I? What am I? How am I?

There were no answers to any of the three questions.

Ok, ok, maybe I could still try and make do with what I'm given, I might not have arms and also am coming very close to not having legs either, but I can still make the best out of this, right?

With my wobbling legs, I finally took another step. It was just enough to prevent me from tumbling, but with how incredibly short and stubby my legs were, I really, really didn't get far at all.

Oh, Arceus, I'm so screwed.

Hobbling a few more tiny steps, I cursed Arceus under my breath for creating such a monstrous entity I had been turned into.

Whatever horrific monster I am, I wouldn't at all be surprised if it went extinct.

Taking a few more shaky steps forward, I wasn't as lucky, I tripped easily and tumbled down a small hill, before slamming into a small log at the bottom.

Damn you, stupid luck!

I couldn't even nurse my aching head as I forced myself up with more than a little trouble and more than a little effort. Once my spinning head got its bearings, I looked around, I saw the small hill, if you could even call it one, that I had rolled down from. And then the log which I crashed into, and the vast amounts of vegetation that sprouted nearby.

As if it wasn't obvious enough, yeah, I'm definitely in some kind of jungle.

Darting my eyes further, I saw a glimmer of light reflecting off a still surface of water - a small pond.

A pond! Water was a reflective substance, surely that will show me who, or what, I had been turned into!

As I neared the waterhole, my reflection became clearer and clearer - a short green stem, adorned by 4 large floppy leaves, a rotund red body, along with bright yellow, beady eyes with no sign of possessing any pupils. Multiple pieces of pinkish-purple… flesh? I had no idea how to describe it, but I suppose I ought to try. Well, it was some form of hardened half-flesh, half-plant substance that wrapped itself snugly along the lower parts of my body, covering my tiny legs.

I was a Pokémon.

No, not just a Pokémon, I was a Bounsweet.

I screamed, extremely loudly. My pitchy voice raising the volume so much the whole jungle probably could've heard me.

No!

This couldn't be happening to me!

I yelped again, the shrill echo came much higher pitched than what I wanted. What happened to my voice?! Ugh… I'll add that to my long and ever-growing list of concerns.

I wanted to pinch myself, or even slap myself, this was a bad dream, wasn't it? Before coming to the realisation that I could not. No arms, remember?

I'm full-on shaking now, though it's not as if I wasn't on the verge of a panic attack earlier. Despite knowing what species I was, it didn't help me in the slightest - I still had no idea where I was or how to return to normal, nor had I any way of getting back home.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm myself. Don't lose focus just yet. Slow down buddy, think about your surroundings. With enough information, you'll be sure to find the answer to at least one of your questions.

Exhaling calmly, I looked around, I was a Pokémon, this meant that I still had to be in the Pokémon world. I was in the Pokémon world before as a human, and it appears I still am now, even as a Bounsweet.

That's good, at least I know what universe I'm still in. God, this is becoming like that one story I heard where people were getting transformed as Pokémon into alternate dimensions without any humans at all.

A-Actually, no, wait. I could be in an alternate universe. I don't see any humans nearby. Maybe that's a good thing, considering I probably wouldn't be able to talk to them and it would only take a single PokéBall to make me their unwilling slave for eternity!

Ugh, I really should have done my homework on Pokémon regions!

Well, the only thing I suppose I could do now was to try and find someone, preferably a human. So I could contact my parents, and possibly even change myself back to normal. Or at the very least, get some useful information out of them as to where I was.

As I mentally prepared myself to stumble as I walked, I held back. Wait a second, I was a Pokémon! That means… I could communicate and learn moves like a normal Pokémon can, right? Maybe this sounds a tad odd, but I've always wanted to try using Pokémon moves, and honestly, this would be good practice. Who knew what lurked beneath the undergrowth of vegetation? Might be smart to try and defend myself just in case…

Alright, what's an easy and relatively weak move Bounsweet can learn early on?

I knew Tackle was always a pretty basic attack, but I wasn't too sure if Bounsweet could even learn it. It's not like sitting here having an internal debate's gonna fix nothing, I'll still have a go regardless, hyah!

I launched myself towards the same log that I had rolled into, only to realise mid-leap how bad of an idea this was.

"Ow ow ow!" I screamed as my head hit the log for the second time today. "Damn it!"

I don't know if my… pathetic headbutt counted as a Tackle attack or not, but one thing's for certain: There's no way I'm going to try that again. Shaking my head/entire body, my swimming vision cleared up just enough for me to look around. It was dusk, the sun was setting in a horizon for which I was far too short to see.

My first line of action was to find some sort of human settlement. As much I'd hate to admit it, there was little to no chance of survival for my current state - lacking arms, unknowing to my current location, and completely unable to even move or fight.

What did I do to deserve this?

I squinted, was it me, or did my vision regarding light become more capable? I swear, even in the hellishly dense jungle God had deposited me in, I could clearly see a stream of yellow light leading somewhere to the outside of this damned place.

Exhaling softly, I take a few steps forward, only to trip and slam face-first onto the floor.

Aggravated, I rolled on the spot several times, each time applying more force until I awkwardly stood up through the usage of the accumulated energy.

There must be a much easier way to travel that didn't include embarrassing and potentially harming myself every time I wanted to go somewhere, right?

Well, walking and running were already out of the picture, so what else could I do?

Skipping? I tried to skip; I barely managed a little distance before my feet became tangled into the grass and my face met the floor for what must've been the hundredth time that day.

I held back several horrible curses that probably would've gotten me, at the very minimum, suspended in school if I even so much as whispered them aloud.

Well, another failed attempt.

But skipping has gotten me just a bit more leverage than walking ever did, so maybe I'm on the right path to re-learning how to 'walk' once more.

For the next dozen or so minutes, I pondered a variety of actions, rolling seemed efficient at first, given my spherical body, until I realised that flat land generated absolutely no momentum for me to roll with at all.

I attempted to run as well, but the results of that were, hilariously and predictably, even worse than that of walking.

In the end, I settled for bouncing around. My legs, despite their short stature, were deceptively strong. They were more than enough to support my full weight every time I came down on them from another leap. If they were longer I could definitely deliver a nasty kick to anyone in the crotch if they annoyed me too much. Their muscular prowess also allowed me to cover great distances, scale heights and travel efficiently with every bound.

It was right then and there that I decided that bouncing would have to be my method of travelling on foot until I was reverted back to normal.

However long that's going to take…

I had worked up quite a sweat during my several attempts to learn how to walk, and I could feel the particularly sticky moisture clinging to the sides of my body as I hopped along the trail of grass that was ever-present in this jungle. So gross… I spun the sepals on my head, the added ventilation hardly offset the smouldering steam the tropical jungle generated.

With how humid the air was, I knew that my sweat was not going to dry off easily, and would likely just get stuck to me as I went. And for a wild Pokémon, this probably would've been fine, perhaps even their norm of living their primitive lives out here in the woods. But not for me, I wanted some clean water, and fast.

I had travelled a little while trying to experience how to bounce; and I walked quite far from the original pond where I started off. So I knew that my first plan of action was to give myself a good scrub when I retraced my steps, or rather bounces, back.

I sprinted (as much as I could with these tiny ass legs, anyway) up the side of the same small hill that encompassed the water source until I could see the shiny, reflective glimmers sparkling off of the surface of the pond.

There were little to no Pokémon abound, not even a single one washing or drinking from the water, despite the jungle's scorching, unbearable heat. Personally, I felt like I was getting turned into jerky, but the lake still remained empty, which had definitely been surprising.

More for me, then!

Excited, I went for the pond. Unfortunately, one mistake plunged my entirety profusely down the side of the grassy hill. Tumbling all the way to the bottom before a tiny mound stopped me.

Well, I thought it would, at least. My speed was so quick that I flew from the grass mound, now acting more like a ramp, and flung me into a pile of roots and dirt.

Now coated in not only sweat, but gravel, dust and soil, a miserable curse was wrung from my dirt-encrusted mouth.

"Ffpphmmck!"

"Watch your language."

Using my rotund body, I rolled myself back onto my tiny legs. "Who said that? Show yourself!"

Within seconds, a massive toucan lighted before me. Its black body was glossed and shiny, with a massive beak coloured yellow to red. The bird folded its wings and glared down at me. The bird stood between me and the pond, its massive legs like a blockade against me and my hygiene. Agitated, I growled, "What do you want?" I glared back equally as hard. "Don't bother me!"

The bird said nothing, continuing to gaze at me with a patronising smirk. Before clicking his beak. "Aren't you a feisty little one?"

"'Little one'?" I grit my teeth, "Just because you're what, a metre tall? That doesn't give you the opportunity to look down on me like this! Now leave me alone, I've had a terrible day and I've got places to be!"

The bird raised an eyebrow.

"You're quite smart for a snack, aren't you? Especially compared to the Bounsweet from last night, who couldn't even tell her predator from prey."

I froze mid-step, something I hadn't thought possible due to the fact that I had to bounce to walk. "W-wait, what did you say?"

"Most of your species aren't really intelligent enough to understand the concept of being attacked by predators, which secures their spot as the lowest on the food chain in this jungle. I've seen a few that can't even speak properly. But you're different, you're much smarter than any Bounsweet or Steenee I've ever seen. I hope the Lush Jungle won't miss you when you're gone."

A flash or realisation stormed my face. This bird was a Toucannon, from what I could remember about my teacher's class on Toucannon, it was that they ATE Bounsweet. Apparently it was something about their alluring scent that drove Toucannon to specifically capture and consume them en masse.

I couldn't move an inch, stubby legs suddenly paralyzed with fear. I guess the Toucannon could see my reaction, because a sickening grin crept onto its face. "Not so tough now, are you?"

"I- uh…" I whimpered, suddenly sweating profusely with fear. The bird seemed so much larger than before. Its talons sharpened and deadly, ready to puncture holes in my fragile skin, its beak gleaming with an unsavoury hunger under the setting sun. The Toucannon loomed over me, mouth open wide; and ready to snap me into a fruit smoothie.

I took a shaky breath, the bird took a few steps forward. "Now wait a second, s-surely there's gotta be another way fo-for us to resolve th-this, right?" I pleaded with the Toucannon.

It made an unamused expression, "What can you give me that I don't already have?"

I looked around, then on myself, I had nothing to offer, I had no belongings, nor anything to distract the Toucannon with. I was seriously going to die at the hands… no, talons of this morbid freak.

"I-I can act as a living air f-freshener?"

A squelching noise filled me with terror as the Toucannon's tongue touched me in all the places I didn't want to get touched, leaving my entire body coated with drool. Unable to control my body, due to a lack of arms, I felt myself jostled down a wet canal, pure darkness - no light to see with. Filled to the brim with convulsions and tight, pressurised squeezes all around, I quickly realised what said canal was - The Toucannon's throat. Any more than this and I would end up in its filthy stomach, and become melted by digestive juices…

My shouts of surprise were immediately cut off the moment the toucan Pokémon's mouth muffled my voice.

Oh, God. Arceus, Palkia, Dialga… Whatever God or Goddess was watching me at the moment, I didn't want to die! Not like this, anyway!

There had to be a way for me to defend myself!

Panicking, I began spinning the leaves on top of my head desperately. I jolted my body around in the Toucannon's beak, attempting to choke the toucan into coughing me back up.

I shrieked once, then harder twice when I felt its throat convulse, muscular tissues pulsating all around me much harder than before, before my sepals sent it into a coughing fit; and light filled my vision once more. Laying in a puddle from getting spat back out its mouth.

I… I was still in one piece, no missing body parts still squirming in digestive enzymes… Th-Thank Arceus!

I had no time to acknowledge the fact that I was covered in spit, or the fact that I had nearly been eaten alive by a Pokémon. The only thing active in my head was a big, bright warning that flashed everywhere in my head: RUN.

Fear, as it turned out, was an excellent motivator. My nerves were on overdrive, utilising my newfound ability for jumping, I bounded across the forest floor. Hopping as quick as 'humanly' possible, sending bits of dirt and dust flying comically behind me. To an outsider, maybe I looked a little goofy, hopping around madly with an air of cartoonish airheadedness, but internally my heart was beating so damned quickly I felt as if it was about to fly straight out my chest.

I could hear the Toucannon continuing to cough behind me, but I knew it wouldn't be much longer before it recovered.

Oh, God, I don't want to die in the stomach of a Pokémon!

I wailed like mad. I was nearly on the verge of crying now. But I managed to hold back the excess water in my eyeballs from leaking out. They'd only serve to blind my vision, they wouldn't help, not now, anyway.

I could see it before my eyes. A bright light that represented the exit out of this horrible place. Several branches from the surrounding foliage arched themselves sideways into a dome-like structure, leaving one hallway to enter into, and to escape from. It was literally the light at the end of the tunnel.

Leaping as fast as I could possibly go, the little Bounsweet made an escape towards freedom!

A silent, calming night sky painted orange by the fading sun greeted my eyes as I escaped the jungle. Which did little to nothing to help my panicking brain. Surveying my surroundings, I appeared to be on a quaint dirt path, which led to a small roadsign nearby, reading: Pokémon Centre, 100 metres ahead. In the distance, the somewhat dim light I had once seen in the jungle was much, much brighter. It originated from a white and red building, though the specifics I didn't bother with - all I knew was that it was alerting me to escape.

Just when I was about to let out a sigh of relief, I heard something behind me. If the near brush with death I had only experienced a few moments ago wasn't enough to get my adrenaline pumping, the sound of flapping wings behind me certainly did.

I tried my best not to scream and cower as the Toucannon closed the distance between the two of us. Actually, that's a lie, I shrieked so hard my throat went raw, my voice turning hoarse in the process.

I was sprinting as if I was possessed. More adrenaline pumping in my veins than I had ever felt before, even more than that time that I forgot to study for the Pokémon biology test next week. At least my teacher wasn't gonna swallow me whole if I failed!

I jumped from the black gravel and hopped past several cars, not even acknowledging the flashing headlights that were blinding my vision - The brain can only handle so much stimulation. So the instincts of escaping from a predator with as much alarm as a figurative (or was it literally - whatever, it doesn't matter!) piece of food could muster was already sending my head into overtime, it naturally didn't bother to recognise itself with human technologies. Fortunately, I was short enough to fit under the incoming cars so long as I ducked; the Toucannon couldn't attack me either, however, it was a catch-22. Due to the fact I could only move through bouncing, I would be trapped under the cars until they moved.

Several cars drove by, seeing a gap and an opportunity, I dove headfirst into the other lane. Briefly hearing a squawk as the Toucannon, like me, also dive bombed onto the track. Several cars honked their horns at the toucan, disorienting it for just enough time to allow me to squeeze by.

Waddling out of the road, I was at the Pokémon Centre now, just in front of the mechanical set of double sliding doors. Which, to my extreme displeasure, were sealed tightly shut.

"Open, you stupid doors, please!" I begged, before the Toucannon's silhouette enveloped my entire body, closing in behind me again.

"I'll give you one point for surviving, maybe even two for triggering my gagging reflex and causing me to spit you back up. But that's all. Now surrender yourself to the natural order and let me eat you!"

"Screw the natural order!" I wailed, leaping up and frantically spinning my sepals on my head, conjuring a small flurry of sharp leaves which I drove deep into the Toucannon's flesh, who let out a yell of pain, beads of red appeared along his otherwise pristine feathers. It was my final stand - my desperate, last ditch attempt to hopefully make it out of this horrid, waking nightmare alive and in one piece (physically, at least. I knew my psyche would certainly be fractured after this).

At that exact moment, the doors to the Pokémon Centre beeped robotically, with a short chime, they finally opened; and I hopped in with extreme urgency. The doors, likely unused to such a short size that was my hulking height of thirty-something centimetres, slammed shut the moment I passed through them, barricading me inside and leaving the Toucannon, who was just a few moments too late, stuck outside.

I guess the nurses working at the Pokémon Centre really weren't prepared for a bruised and battered Bounsweet to waltz right in, bawl in both immense joy and horrendous agony, and then collapse while on its way to the main reception.

People and Pokémon alike have swarmed me - doctors and nurses trying to help me, I think. There was shouting - lots of it. Someone big, pink and round picked me up. I'd have cried my eyes out if I had any semblance of energy remaining.

Was I safe? Please don't eat me…! Thoughts raced through my mind until the stress conglomerated into a maddening sensation which blasted my mind into oblivion. They were here to help… right? I couldn't be too sure, because that was exactly when my vision swam, faded. And so, I blacked out. Head swimming with visions of snapping beaks and panicked flailing.

"Because of its sweet, delicious aroma, bird Pokémon are always after it, but it's not intelligent enough to care." (Bounsweet's Ultra Sun entry)

Author's notes: Admittedly, I haven't written in 1st person POV in a hot second, so this might be pretty crappy. I haven't thought all that much about the plot either, so hopefully I don't immediately abandon this story. But don't get your hopes up.

Partially inspired by Fabhar's Shaded Silk (A human-turned-Ariados stuck as the only 'normal' person in a world of unhinged lunatics, all while trying to balance her sanity between chaotic events that seem specifically targeted towards ensuring her demise)