“Sawol Town.”
Luna stood in the middle of the strange town she apparently called home, staring at a large sign, attempting to read the unfamiliar text that was carved into it.
Above her, in the sky hung a golden harvest moon; which was strange, considering she had set the in-game clock to 11:00 AM when asked. It hung over the town like a glowing orb of calming light, watching, almost as though it knew something she didn’t. The town itself was hauntingly quiet. Luna had been unable to find a single inhabitant; in fact, the buildings seemed completely empty, as if abandoned. The laboratory of the supposed Professor had been dank, musty, and seemingly unused in decades, judging by the thick layers of undisturbed dust. The only thing she had been able to find was a lone Poke’ball, laying on the dusty, rotted floorboards.
In the beams of the moon above, the ‘S’ in the town’s name seemed to weave and sway almost like a snake. As Luna watched, the letter slowly became more elaborate; scales filling in the form of a sinister serpent. It wasn’t long before she swore the ‘S’ had become a hissing Serperior, its serpentine glare focused on her. A bright red eye had appeared and seemed to study her before shining brightly.
Luna stared at the town name in complete disbelief as, once the glow faded from the eye, the letters on the sign began to stretch and twist; until they formed Ponish and she could read the sign with perfect ease:
Town of the Serpent’s Moon
“She slithers through the Forest of Eternal Night, watching. Waiting. Our Guardian.”
How ominous. Luna thought about the strange town, how the buildings were decrepit, old, and rotting. How, once she had left her supposed home, she had turned to ask her mom something she forgot, only to find the door was hanging off its hinges and the house abandoned and rotting away. Even the air of the town felt slightly frigid, a cold breeze whistling softly in her ears. It was eerie and unsettling, dark and a little grim. And she loved it. This game really has been listening, oh, how exciting. I have to make sure to thank Twilight and Sunset for such a thoughtful surprise.
Luna’s main problem with the original storyline starter town had been that it seemed so unreal to her. Why would some legendary protagonist hail from a well-kept and wealthy town where everything was sunshine and rainbows? Wouldn’t they be more apt to come from nothing in the middle of nowhere, to rise up and seize their status? And why was the starter just given to them? Surely, such a heroic figure would be able to obtain their own?
Luna grinned. The idea of such a grim origin excited her. Turning from the sign towards the lone road leaving the town, Luna noticed it wound like a snake into a thick, darkened forest of pine trees, illuminated just barely by the moon’s light filtering down from above. That seems like a promising place to get my starter. First, however, I should prepare.
Examining the Poke’ball she had found, Luna discovered the core was rusted and the opening mechanism would only open 25% of the time she tried it. One use, I could attempt to use it as is, or I could attempt to repair it. That is if the parts even exist in town. Hm.
One of the features Poke’mon Forever Version had that Luna instantly loved was the ability to brew your own potions, remedies, weave clothing, and craft survival items, through an intensive crafting system. The shops sold only materials and common ingredients, while the rarer ones had to be found in nature or other possible resources.
Luna tried to bring up the standard crafting menu, but there was none. No commands, no button prompts, no recipes; there was absolutely nothing to assist the crafting process. She blinked. That’s odd, this is definitely a craftable item. Perhaps if I try... Luna used her magic to fix the ball, and nothing happened. It didn’t seem affected at all. That’s strange. Luna attempted to use her magic to lift the ball; it worked just fine. Hm. I wonder...
She attempted once more to mend the core with her magic and once again, nothing happened. I can lift with it, but I can’t repair it. Could it be, that because I have hooves, the game allows magic to be an extension of my physical body, but won’t allow for me to use it to fix or mend? If that’s the case-
Luna looked around her and noticed a stick lying nearby. She grinned. Perfect. Her horn glowed and she aimed her magic at the stick, which lay five hoof-lengths away from her hooves. She frowned. Nothing was happening. The realization hit her, and she stepped two hoof-lengths closer to the stick and tried once more. She nodded in understanding as the stick rose effortlessly. I have to be within a normal trainer’s reach to pick up an object. So my magic acts as a trainer’s hands in the most literal sense. I see. I’m sure Mrs. Heartstrings would be delighted.
Luna smiled. The thought amused her. She carried the stick by way of levitation over to where the Poke’ball lay and tapped it against the ball. Again, nothing happened. Luna frowned.
Hm. Now what?
***
Many hours later, Luna sat next to a roaring campfire in the town of Sawol, satisfied. In her bag lay the fully-repaired Poke’ball, a carved wooden screwdriver with both a slot and Phillips head and curiously enough, an oaken club that was laden with nails in the head and embedded with sharp, tempered glass.
In front of her lay an empty Potion bottle, and two Oran Berries. Around her lay a large wooden door, missing its hinges and ripped off a nearby building, a rusted, lead pipe; that had apparently been ripped out of some kind of plumbing fixture, six sharp wooden sticks with various alterations, and a tiny ball of lead.
Nearby, windows had been shattered, and a couple of buildings had broken furniture in front of them; including a chair that apparently had a leg missing. Laying by that furniture, a sharpened, serrated piece of metal lay; seemingly used to disassemble the furniture.
Luna’s ear twitched as the faint rustle of bushes reached it. Not hesitating for a moment, she slowly opened her bag, and using her magic and gripped the handle of the spiked mace. She heard the soft growls and calmly readied her weapon. From within the Forest of the Eternal Night, they emerged; five snarling wolves broke cover and raced towards her, snapping and biting as foaming at the mouth, the Mightyena hungrily charged towards her.
Luna slowly rose to her hooves. She held the spiked mace aloft, the embedded glass shards sparkling in the moonlight, while the spikes created by the nails, twinkled with hints of silver in the firelight. She grinned. Luna had heard them earlier in the day and had made the weapon just for them. They’re bigger than I thought. Mightyena, huh? All right then. Let’s see, which is worse. Your bite, or my mace!
Just as she was about to swing it, however, five vines as thick as the Mightyena themselves, snaked out from within the darkness and wrapped around each Mightyena’s midriff stopping them in mid-charge. Luna’s jaw dropped open, as one moment the Pokemon were charging towards her and the next, they were snapped backward, yelping in pain before vanishing into the dark forest once more. Angry growls and frantic barking were heard.
The angry growls and barks changed to yelping and strangled whimpering, as though they were being constricted by something large until the sounds of five separate sets of bones snapping were heard and the dark forest fell silent once more. Luna felt a shiver run down her spine. Two shining red eyes, each the size of her, hovered right where the Mightyena had vanished. Luna nearly wet herself, as a loud hissing was heard, before the eyes vanished, once more. Luna looked down at her homemade weapon, eyes wide and shaking uncontrollably. She muttered darkly to herself as her legs gave out, and she fell to the ground.
“Needs to be bigger.”
***
A few hours later, Luna lay on her back staring up at the night sky. It was gorgeous, and to say the least, it wasn’t every night she could gaze upon a starry expanse she had not created. The shimmering twinkle of those sparkling, dancing lights wasn’t what she was focused on, though. So I’m stuck here, huh? She lazily levitated a bow she had crafted after disassembling the mace. Looking at it, she analyzed her craftsmanship.
It had been made of hewn pine, hardened over the campfire, coated in liquid resin to form a scratch-proof finish. It was two pieces of wood with a cord wrapped around the middle to connect the two. Each possessed a slot in the ends.
They had been connected by a dowel to form an arc where the cord was wrapped around it, while she attached a resin-coated string, to provide tensile strength. The wood had been inlaid with the same sparkling glass shards.
In the two slots, a pair of carved wooden handles could be seen resting. They were attached to two hunting knives, crafted from the same pine and featuring two separate faces. Each had a skinning edge, for slicing through, while the other side was jagged and serrated; for gutting and lacerating her targets.
Without moving, she turned her head to gaze at the wooden wall of a nearby house; a single sharpened stake lay half-embedded into it, a testament to her bow's effectiveness. Likewise, the nearby furniture lay in pieces, sawed, sliced, and splintered by her knives. She sighed and thought about earlier. About the monstrous vines ensnaring the attacking Mightyena. About how scared senseless she had been. She shivered. Those eyes. Those crimson red eyes, they stared at me, through me. She shook her head trying to stay positive.
She had prepared, after all her bag now held a potion for minor wounds, created by placing the Oran Berries in the empty bottle and dropping the small lead ball inside. Using her magic she had shaken it at hypersonic speeds, practically melting the berries into a purely liquified form of berry juice.
She had also crafted a stack of arrows consisting of 90 arrows; made of sharpened sticks. They were fletched with the feathers of some rather unlucky Wingull that had flown too close to the town earlier that day.
She sat up and watched the waves of the cliffside beach roll in, her nose having smelt the scent of fresh seaweed. She licked her lips and rose to her hooves, her stomach gurgling for the last hour or so. Practically galloping to where it lay, she levitated some and quickly made her way back to the fire. Placing a few pieces on some sharpened stakes, she eagerly roasted the seaweed to decrease the saltiness within.
It wasn’t long before she was nibbling on the toasted fronds, occasionally glancing towards the woods. The town had been built on a beachfront, next to a wide expanse of water, Luna could only presume to be the ocean; judging from the scent of the salty air and the strange finned-wildlife she saw lurking in the semi-transparent saline water. It was clear to her that it was just too large to attempt to cross at that moment. There was no way around it, the only way to leave the town was through the forest.
Swallowing the tasty morsel, Luna heaved a huge sigh, levitating the massive bow onto her back. She rose to her hooves, the woods towering above her, in eerie silence. She took a step and stumbled as she fell into a large imprint in the sand. Looking down, Luna’s blood ran cold; it was the pawprint of the leading Mightyena. Once more, the scene flashed before her eyes.
I don’t want- She shook her head, and gritted her teeth as they chattered at the thought. She didn’t want to go in there. For once in her life, Luna was truly afraid, but that didn’t matter. She knew she had no choice, but to enter the forest. She rose to her hooves once more, and slowly forced herself to move towards the forest. I don’t want to-
Luna refused to stop, her fears ran wild in her mind, telling her to stop, to turn back. She took another step. I don’t want to- She had made all possible preparations to give her the best possibility of survival. I don’t want to d- She took another step, almost there.
I don’t want to d- She would survive, she had to. I don’t want to die! She stepped slowly into the forest and narrowed her eyes. She roared aloud in defiance.
“I will not die!”
The forest was silent in reply. Her chest heaved in and out as she panted, from the mental effort to enter the strange woods, Lua’s ear twitched as a sound reached it. Her own voice echoed back to her in the darkness. Over and over, it sounded, the last word ringing through the silent trees, as though heralding her would-be fate.
“Die!”
She shivered in the darkened woodland. For among the word she heard something else. The sinister sound of hissing off in the distance and a cold-blooded voice barely whispering.
“We shall see.”