The scent of heated butter and the sound of crackling oil awoke the man who lay in the sleeping bag. Before his eyes even opened, a light and happy smile had taken its way upon his face. With an overlarge yawn, he moved to a sitting position, and opened his eyes.
What he saw about him was beautiful and serene. Some may have found it plain, or simply another hovel by the road. But this was no true land of naught. No, this was a land of mystery and excitement. This, was a forest. Trees reached up to grasp at the heavens, strong and broad. Vines crept about, content to wait to ensnare the unwary. Bushes and grass littered with leaves of days past, grew up and about, little for care of where it landed. This land truly was a lush and beautiful paradise if one only looked.
But of these, none of them could compare to the creatures which inhabited this land. They flew through the air on wings of power. They crept in the underbrush with skill and grace. They tunneled beneath the ground to find what lay hidden. They moved through the trees with supernatural ease. And they fought with the ferocity and degree of skill to tell that they could only be one thing. They were Pokemon.
Many people felt many things about these strange creatures. Some saw them as “Strong, and ferocious.” That we should fear them and try to be rid of them. Others saw them as “Useful, and potent in their abilities.” They often believed that they could be used to meet their own ends. Still others saw them as being only animals. They found that if they could use them, they would. But they held no regard for their state of being.
Yet another group exists, of which this man was one. They believed that they were more than animals, they were strong, and they were useful. But they also believed that they were true and honorable. They believed that they were just as much a person as many. Many fell into this category, feeling that they should get the respect and protection that people received. Many disagreed. Still others considered them to be friends, family even. Some even took them as their partners for life. “They are the radicals, betrayers of their own race!” This and many other such statements were common place when dealing with those of other opinions. This man, held quite a different view.
With a smile that only a friend could give, the man looked towards the source of the sound of oil . Cooking upon a portable gas stove, was one of these mysterious creatures. It was about two feet tall, and a pale cream color, save for some muted red spots spread about on it. Upon its face, two such spots were found, one on its left cheek, acting like an eternal dimple, and one above its right eye, slightly towards the center. It was, slightly stout, and rather round looking in a word, like a small mobile bear. It did have two rather large rabbit like ears atop its head. Most curiously, its eyes were shaped like large spirals, with a similar design in its ears.
“Good Morning Tops.” The man said, smiling at the Spot Panda Pokemon.
“Morning Sveta” the Spinda replied, though all the man could hear was “Spin” The brief nod that Tops gave would have given an idea of what it said, but Sveta had turned around to tie his bandanna and change clothes.
“So, What ‘cha makin there?” Sveta asked, throwing the question over his shoulder.
Tops level gaze against his turned back was unfortunately not very effective at communication, so he sighed before saying, “I can’t say.” He paused for a moment, “No really, I can’t.”
“Ah You know I can’t understand you,” he said. “Why don’t I just come over and see.” he said as he shimmied out of his bed, careful not to step on anyone. Tops only shook his head, and handed the spatula to Sveta before heading off to check the rest of camp.
Their camp had been set up with a single, rather large box shaped backpack layin to the side of a folding low table. Besides this there was a portable cooktop, and a small stack of books that Tops had been standing on. Svetas sleeping bag was laid next to a fallen log, propped by a lean to that provided a little protection from the wind.
Tops went to the lean to, where a small number of Pokemon laid. The first one he approached lay at the feet of the lean to. It looked a light pale white color, a bit lighter than Tops own. Thats where any similarities ended. Upon it head was a strange arrow shaped design, flanked by large deep brown strips that ran from its head to tail, an impressive distance to be honest. Its head ened in a small snout that seemed directional. Its tail looked to be a continuation of its body, and was difficult to place where it began. Its four legs seemed particularly fluidity, in their motion as it kick in its sleep.
With a small smile, Tops moved to the top of the log, and pushed the creature, so it began to roll over. It started out just fine, but at about perpendicular to the ground, the creature took control of its own motion. It flipped forward onto its back to look at what had moved it.
“Good morning Felix.” Tops said with a smile as he sat upon his belly.
The Linoone simply gave a long yawn for a moment “Why do you insist on waking me so?”” he said with a weary look in his eyes.
“Cause you don’t wake up otherwise.” he said giving a cheeky grin.
“I do too wake up!” Felix retorted indignantly. “... I just don’t get up,” he muttered.
“Well, you're up now so…” Tops said, hopping off of Felix “Could you go and find Braum? Please?”
Felix gave a sad little pout. “But he’s so cranky in the morning! Besides, why can’t you go and get him?” he grumbled.
Tops deadpanned “. . . Does it look like I can smell him out with my nose to you?”
“... Well the others could get him ...”
Tops just sighed “Well, Terra COULD go and get him, but you don’t want her to,” Felix grumbled in accident. “AND we all agreed that Cassandra shouldn't go and get Braum any more. Remember?”
Felix remembered. The smell was bad enough they had to get new tweezers after fixing the mess off of Braum. “Oh fine,” he finally relented. “But I’m not happy about it!” He called as he stalked off.
“I know.” Tops muttered. He shook his head to clear away such things, and went off to the side of the sleeping bag. This one could be a bit more difficult.
He slowly slid closer to another of their party. She was decently tall when she stood, about two feet tall. She was covered in light blue fur, with tufts of deep blue placed upon her back half, and as a mane about her face. Her tail was quite supple and ended in a small yellow x-shaped dist. Her feet had stripes and eyes that were the same yellow. She was a Luxio. She was Cassandra. And she was scary when awaken.
Tops had managed to make his way into the concave area when she slept curled up. He had found she panicked less whenever awoken from closer distances. He took a shaky breath, and then slowly went to poke her stomach.
Before his paw had even found its way to her inner fur, her eyes shot open. She didn't look at him as if a threat, or a hated enemy, or even of an ally. She only looked at him with her gaze of power. Something quick and sharp sounded through the air as she took out her claws. They dug into the ground to discharge any unreleased energy. Her fur bristled with crackling lightning, just on the very edge of release. However, she did not move.
“Good morning . . . Cassandra, “ Tops said in a small voice.
Cassandra drew in a shaky breath before sighing, “Morning Tops,” she murmured. After a terse moment, she shook her head, her fur settling to a more form fitting way. “What, what’s up?”
“Oh, you know, “ he began “just checking to see if everyone is awake And to check on you...” He trailed off slightly on the end.
She nodded quickly, “Ah, yes. I’m ah, good. . . I’m just , um, “ she stopped for a moment and shook her head. “Sorry, it was nothing.” She paused a moment before murmuring “Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it!” Tops said with a half grin. “Besides...” he began as his grin grew into a lopsided smile, “It’s your first anniversary of being with us! So don’t worry, and relax, it’ll be fine.”
Cassandra was taken aback for a moment, “Wait, really? I could have sworn it wasn’t that long.”
“Well, technically you've only been with us eleven months and eight days,” he said with a shrug. “BUT, as Sveta doesn't really know when we will next be near a city, he said we would have it today.”
“Huh...” she said after a moment. “That’s, um, nice of him.” She murmured. “He does know he-”
“OWW! What gives dude?” Felix voice sounded from just beyond the glen.
“You do moron,” said a grumbling voice, clearly irritated.
“It would be better if you didn't always sleep so far away,” Felix grumbled back. “Wouldn't be so hard to wake you either.”
“Ha! As if.” the second voice spoke as the two emerged from the thicket.
On the one hand, there was Felix, a small line of a welt on his hind quarters. On the other hand, there was a smaller, duck like creature. It had a similar, but lighter color brown coat for most of its feathers, but some were the same whitish color as Felix. It also appeared to be holding a small stalk in its wing, almost like a rod.
“Morning Braum!” Tops said cheerily. This was met with only a pointed harumph.
“Felix, Braum.” Cassandra spoke quietly, in a terse manner.
“Morning to you too Cassandra,” Felix replied. A little on the plain side, but much better than Braum’s, for he was in a particularly sour mood.
“Oh, Good morning, Cassandra.” the Farfetch'd all but sneered. It was no secret he held animosity towards her, but he was usually more subtle.
“Braum...” Tops began, a warning tone in his voice.
“Oh don’t mind me!” he growled. “I’m just wondering how our ever so endearing companion is doing on this special day,” He practically spat.
Cassandra slowly breathed in and out, practicing somthing Tops had spoken of. Despite this, her fur was still quite ruffled, so to speak. “Good morning to you too Braum,” she managed through clenched teeth.
Sveta whistled a cheery tune as he fried some potato cakes. His Pokemon were conversing out of the way, and a little bit animatedly. They seemed a bit stiff, but only Braum seemed to be really annoid. In his book, this was a win.
Still, they could use a bit of management. “Hey, play nice over there, would you?” He yelled after them.
After having their trainer grump, or as close as he usually came to grumping, at them, a slight murmur of accent was all that was said for a few moments, before the camp lapsed into relative silence. The tense quiet was all but that remained for a minute or two.
“…”
“...”
“...”
“So…” Felix began as it began to be more awkward.
Fortunately, a light russell was heard over by their overlarge bag before anymore could be said. With a quick glance around to the ones present, Felix and Tops eyes met.
“I’ll Get It!” they both yelled as they jumped up and ran off, eager to escape the silent warfare between Cassandra and Braum.
As they left, Braum gave a sigh as he dropped his shoulders. He shook his head for a moment, before asking “Just why?”
“Because I have to”, she said quietly, before wandering over to Sveta. He smiled at her for a moment before scratching behind her ears.
As Felix and Tops rounded the pack, t became abundantly clear who the perpetrator was. The pack looked as if the general contents had been strewn about haphazardly. The tin eating set was over by the treas, the plastic rain coats were by the table, way over by the road sign was a bag of berries, a little bag of marbles seemed to have been spared this fate, but not much else. Out from the top of the bag, something large and fuzzy stuck out.
“Ahem, ah, Terra?” Felix said, clearing his throat as he did so.
“Just one second and then… Ah! There we go!” responded a higher octave feminine voice. As she extracted herself from the bag, one couldn’t help but feel there was a conspiracy against most colors here. She was covered from head to tail in large zigzagging sections of the same light brown and pale cream color that seemed ever so apparent at this camp. Her short muzzle ended in a rounded form, mimicked by her ears and the short, almost stubby nature of her paws. Her tail seemed to be an extension of her body, with no clear defining point of beginning when examined. Within her paws she held a small bag labeled “P.”
“Yes Felix?” the young Furret asked, a grin plaguing her countenance.
“Well-”
“We were wondering,” Tops cut in, “What are you doing with… this?” he asked with a gestured to the abstract items thrown about.
“Oh! Well, as its Cassandra’s anniversary I thought I might convince Sveta to let us treat her a bit!” She said with a smile.
“... Uh huh. And?” Tops said, unconvinced.
“... Alright, I also thought that we could have a bit too so she wouldn’t feel bad about eating it.” She finally said. “Happy now?”
The answer seemed a bit self evident, what with the newfound grin upon Tops face. “Well then! I’ll gather up… this” he said, motioning to everything around. “And you two can go try and convince him about that.”
They both gave him a swift nod, before heading off for a moment. Tops gave an elusive smile as they went off. “Too easy,” he murmured, before gathering the mess up.
The day was off to a glorious start in Sveta’s opinion. Tops had started in on making potato cakes, gotten everyone up, and even cleaned up after Terra threw the camps supplies around. Casandra hadn’t accidentally attacked anyone, and was being more social than normal. Super Plus! Braum was being annoying again, yes, but he seemed to not be in a vicious mood, so point! Felix hadn’t been hurt much at all today, nor had he “accidentally” stolen anything again. Nor had Terra been particularly fussy about anything yet! Add that with it being Cassandra’s date of note with them, and it was shaping up quite nicely.
As he set the low table with everyone’s food, Tops teetered off to gather some water for a moment. Terra had managed to dredge up a few relatively edible pokepuffs, and with it being a good day so far, who was he to deny them that?
Once all had been gathered around the table, he stood to give a short rundown for the day.
“Well, first and foremost, good morning everyone,” he began. This was met with a light murmuring from the assembled Pokemon. “As you all know, it is Cassandra’s first year anniversary with us today,” he said with a smile. “Thanks to some fortuitous circumstances, we will be going into Olivine City today, and as such, Cassandra will be leading the way for what we will do for the day once there, except for dinner. That is already planned,” he said with a wink.
“As for now, you can thank Tops for the potato cakes, and Terra for the Pokepuffs.” The two nodded in turn. Once he moved to a sitting position, he raised his cup in toast. “And without further adieu, cheers!” He said, taking a small sip of water.
As the party went about eating, there was only small talk provided for the most part. Mainly from Terra’s end, but no more than usual. The only slight deviation was that Sveta was only looking down at his food and had only eaten a few bites.
“You okay?” Tops asked, nudging him incase he had just zoned out. “Spin?”
Usually he only shook himself out, and gave a quick smile to whoever shook him. Very rarely he panicked for a moment, but got over it, startled out of his own world. So far, as to date, this was the only time that he had simply fallen over, reacting.
Naturally, this was met with confused reactions. Cassandra panicked a moment, moving back to move away, before succumb to something strange and falling herself. Felix and Terra, whom both sat at her side, watched as they both fell, before trying to flee. They didn't get very far. Braum outright panicked, but was frozen with an emotion he rarely knew before he too descended. Tops, now standing on his own, fainted from shock after a moment.
They were gone, caught up in something much larger than themselves. No longer one of the many to live, but one of the few with a chance to thrive. They could make themselves anew, and might. This was but one of the defining chances.
“Rest now my children, for when you awake a whole new world shall be your home.”