Heat.
The first thing Felix felt was the burning of the sun upon his coat. Soon, the coarse grass biting at his fur made itself known too. Then, the smell of the dry heat, the thick waxy hides of the roots, the scattered dust motes and much more invaded his nose. The sound of drying stone, the beating of wings, and the light winds as they ripped across the land fell upon him. Finally, sight returned to him.
Around him was grass. Short, tough and hardy grass reminiscent of almost dried out leaves, and around the same color. Spread about sporadically were thin, winding trees that seemed to suck all the strength and water out from the environment about them. Near these, were often small outcroppings of rocks, generally large, low and flat. The shimmering of the heat from them was only too noticeable. Small scraggly bushes littered the landscape, occasionally moving to and fro from the whims of the wind. The parched, red brown earth sent up small clouds of dust and sand whenever the air caught it.
This land was a desolate place.
It should be known that most Linoone are found within land similar to this, as was Felix. However, at their grasslands, there was signs of life. There was water and streams. The trees were strong and powerful, not cruel and winding. The earth was rich and peat was dominant, not this dry and dusty land. There was next to no Pokemon seen here. The few that were seemed, off in some way. This was not a place of life, but of ends.
It was terrifying.
Once he was at his feet, the immediate problem gave he was in have him pause. After all, it was pertinent.
“Where am I?” he asked himself. The land here was like only one other place he had seen, and even then, this was different. The Desert Resort was similar, what with the barren landscape and sand being the prevalent piece of earth, but it had practically no plants. Here, even though the plants looked cruel, there were more than there. This was not at all like he remembered recently, which forced another question upon him.
How did I get here? he thought. He remembered they were traveling through a forest, and it was Cassandra’s anniversary. They had gotten up, and then… he couldn’t remember. There was some vague impression of words from a weird voice, and then… nothing. “Ugh! ” he whined, this was not good. Normally, this only happened when they needed to get somewhere really quickly, and then Sveta… took…
And then he began to worry. Where are they? he wondered. They had only left him once before, and he had only been with them for less than a month. That was more than five years ago! They couldn’t have forgotten him. He scanned around, searching for them. Unfortunately, there was no sign of them. No softly flying Braum, his shadow seemingly from nowhere. There was no strange scent of potatoes and lavender that always seemed to follow Sveta. Terra’s laugh was absent from even on the faintest breeze, nor was the light sound of crackling that accompanied Cassandra. He was, truly alone it seemed.
He ran and checked regardless. He checked and called, hoping, wishing that they would hear and find him. He panicked, not caring where he was anymore. “Sveta! Tops! Terra! Where are you!?” he shouted at the top of his lungs, running about, trying to find them. The slight curve of the earth and the sparse trees were his only audience.
After nearly an hour, he slowly came to a stop, no longer fooling himself. They had left him. Why would they leave me? Did they forget me? How could they forget me? He asked himself. What happened? As he sat and began to think of what could have happened, trying to calm down, a doubt crossed his mind. A horrible, cruel, and terribly destructive thought.
What if … what if it was on purpose?
He stopped dead, mid breath for an overlong moment. When he breathed again, it was a shallow shuddery breath. There’s … there’s no way… They couldn’t leave me… they couldn’t… He was stunned, the mere possibility was so… alien, he couldn’t fathom it for a moment. How… how could they leave me? I mean… they know… they know what that… what that can do… but…
He shook his head vigorously for a moment, backing up subconsciously. “No… they couldn’t. They can’t! They wouldn’t,” he spoke, as if saying it would make it be more real. “They, they wouldn’t. They… wouldn’t do… that. They couldn’t...” he murmured.
He had had enough of that. He began to run. He ran, and ran, and ran. He ran to escape the idea of it. THe land around him was but a blur, only too much like his minds whirring then. The desolate savanna was his company alone. He fled, trying to escape the his own mind.
As he ran he made a plan. I will find them. I will. And I will understand once I find them. I will find out. I will he told himself. He ran, repeating the mantra to himself.
No matter what he said, or told himself, he heard those three simple words above all else.
They abandoned you
The tears never hit the sand.
It was a sound that many are conditioned to recognise that rose her from her stupor.
Terra had awoken earlier, but was too stunned to begin questioning what was occurring around her. The fallen tree that she had slept by had vanished, as had the road and the team, but everything else around her looked next to exactly the same. The tall trees looked the same, there sounded a brook from nearby, and there was little to no chatter from the trees above her. The land smelled too new, too untraveled. That was a smell that she had never encountered before. This was one of the two main problems she had at the moment. It took her a moment to realize she was not where she had once been. The forest seemed in shock itself, quiet and eerie.
The sound of crying had made her begin to move before she even realized it.
There was behind a tree, she found, a small creature that was making the pitiful sound. It looked to be a small, caramel colored bear with a strange mark upon its brow. It curled in on itself, trying to hold onto itself. It was not the first Teddiursa she had seen, but it was the first one she had seen alone.
When she had seen it, she had let out a small sound. It was this that alerted the Teddiursa that it was not alone. It bolted its head up fast enough to make Terra worry. When it had seen it as not being one it recognized, it curled up into itself further.
She gulped down her fear for a moment, their parents were often considered to be rather over protective of their cubs, but it needed someone to speak to at least. “What is wrong child?” she asked, almost as fearful of the answer.
It hesitated, seeming to bunch in on itself. It seemed unwilling to speak.
“Do not worry child, I do not mean to harm you.” She gave a reassuring smile.
It paused for a moment, before its shoulders fell, releasing the tension and fear it held. “”I can’t find my family. Their gone.” He responded in a much smaller voice than she expected. It seemed he was very young. Despite this, his voice still resounded with much sorrow. Her mild panic was gone, now replaced with something more. Worry, but not for herself, but for the child.
She slowly moved towards him, despite the fact he that he appeared to try and shrink in upon himself again. She only gave a small smile to him as she approached. Once a mere foot or so from him, she extended one of her paws towards him. “Well, shall we go find them together?”
The Teddiursa paused for a moment, before a very definitive sniffing sound came from him. It found that the Furret didn’t seem to be lying, but seemed worried. He paused for a moment, before nodding, and reaching out for her hand. “... Okay, if you say so.”
She smiled as she hoisted him onto her back. “Careful now, wouldn’t want to fall off.” she said over her shoulder. “So, any idea where they might be?” she asked hopefully.
“Um, I really don’t remember… sorry” he mumbled back, sniffling a bit.
“That’s okay, we’ll just have to keep searching around then,” she said with a grin.
As they went off, her smile faded a little bit. How can I help this one find its family, when I don’t even know where My own are…
When she shook her head, he asked “What’s wrong?” clearly worried.
“Oh, nothing, just me being silly,” she spoke back with a grin, “Now what say you we start” eh?”
Cassandra was not having a good day. She had been woken up by Tops, and not accidentally hurt him. That much was good. Then Braum came around was an idiot. Granted, he was usually an idiot, but this time she was planning on a good day! Breakfast was nice, even got a pokepuff thanks to it being her anniversary!
Then everything went to crap.
Sveta fell over and wasn’t moving, and then when she moved about a second later, she blacked out. Still didn’t know why she did that, but she had bigger fish to fry. Namely, what happened, and where she was.
Cassandra appeared to be in a garden. Not just a nice garden with some berries and flowers, but something more like she saw once in Floraroma Town. There were flowers everywhere. Up the walls were small creeping vines with brilliant red and white flowers. The vines had small thorns that seemed to help anchor them to the brick wall. There was five rows of bushes, each with a differing shape and color of flower. At the back were two thin trees with soft pink petals in small bushels on its wire thin branches.
It was, in short, beautiful.
As such, Cassandra felt very much out of place.
She had always considered herself to be not the best looking when it came to her appearance. Several of her original tribe had been rather confused about that aspect of her. They had always found her coat to be a brilliant blue, with the deeper almost grey blue color creating masterful, if mildly muted, shade. Her light yellow stripes, ear check, and four pointed tail star. Even Tops and Terra had spoken of how nice she looked, but it was just flattery, she told herself.
Regardless, she felt very uncomfortable in this place. As such, she would usually look for a way to leave. Normally, she could jump up and out from the wall, but the thorns made that less than optimal. Most Luxio could shift and move the vines out of the way, but that wasn’t an option for Cassandra. There was also the chance of the door by the wall next to the home looking building, but she was not looking to escape right then.
She was furious. Not her average irritation that usually occurred with an overlong interaction with Braum, but one of quiet rage. She moved about the garden with the countenance of a goddess. She seemed on a rant as she moved about the garden.
“With what right do they think they have to ditch me. Me!” she fumed. “They said they were nice, and they didn’t care, so what do they do? They leave me. Of course they do. No one really cared about little old me. No. They only wanted me for what I could offer. What was it he said… We work together for our own sakes? Pah, clearly I am not part of them.”
As she ranted, she stalked towards one particular bush of roses. They were midnight blue, with Deeper soft black towards the insides. It looked to have bloomed a mere few days before, and still held its soft petals high.
“My very family rejected me. Why did I expect different from a fake one?” She stared at the flower, questioning it. Hoping somehow it could give her the answers for why one so loved would be rejected for something so trivial.
The flower did not answer.
Her gaze lowered as she looked on at the flower. “Why do people care so much for this?!” She began to yell, motioning towards the garden at large. “Why would they care so much for something so trivial, so worthless?! Why, when they care for something so intrinsically pointless, would they not care for me?! Why? Tell me world! WHY!”
The garden did not answer.
Her gaze grew weary. “Just tell me. Please, I just want to be seen. I want to be known. I want to be normal. Is it too much to ask? Can I not be as one who is happy? Can I not be loved? Please, tell me why...” she tapered off, slowly moving towards a sitting position.
The world did not answer.
Her tears finally fell.
Roseluck was having a rather nice day.
Her home on the south side of Ponyville hadn't been attacked by parasprites, Ursa’s, Rampaging Evils from an era long gone, Griffons, Rainbow Dash or Pinkie, or even rabbits in about a week. She was quite proud of the new record. Lily and Daisy were both just beside themselves with joy at the prospect of getting to see some of her rarer blooms without teeth marks or burns. She might even have enough to sell to some of the higher end restaurants! They always paid well enough she usually didn’t have to worry about insurance for a while!
As of now though, that wasn’t on her mind. She was more worried about her meeting with Carrot Top, err Golden Harvest. Her name was Golden Harvest, and she preferred to be called as such to most ponies. However, she let slip once when they had been over at Berry’s place that she liked it when some ponies called her Carrot Top. Rose had always wondered about it before then, and asked whether or not she could. Golden Harvest said she really didn’t care.
Then again, she thought as she moved towards the restaurant, she then asked why I was hanging on the wall, and then threw up. She shrugged and smiled at the garçon, Ah well, I bet she knew what she was saying.
Once seated, she ordered a simple daisy sandwich, Daisy had gotten her hooked on the things after trying one of hers. She gave a sad smile, If only She weren’t so panicky, and Lily really doesn’t help with it either, she thought, rolling her eyes. I swear, its like I’m the only one of the three that doesn’t go ballistic when problems arise. She paused a moment before grumbling to herself, “Well, there was THAT time, but that so doesn’t count. I mean come on! It was rabbits.”
She continued to grumble to herself of how the rabbit stamped was CLEARLY something to be very worried about when one was a florist, and a gardener, when she noticed something. Normally, they would have delivered her food, and Carrot Top would have arrived by now, but something was holding them up. She would know, they usually got some of her lower roses for half off if she got a nice enough discount here, and was delivered to fast enough.
“Well, there goes another ten percent of profit back to me,” she said, turning back to get out her records from her saddle bag. Then, with a sudden “Eep!” she saw it. There, behind her, with teeth as long as her hoof was a monstrous rat. Not one of the terrible almost a foot long black kind her mother had found in the barn once. No, this was a giant, nearly three feet tall, and almost as long, brown rat with massive teeth and a vicious expression.
“Rat?” it almost seemed to ask.
“RAT!” Roseluck screamed, almost in confirmation to the Raticate. It abject horror to those who knew her. She then bolted from the restaurant, fast enough to make Rainbow Dash almost amused. With a continued scream, she fled to go to her happy place back at her home. The one place where the whole world made perfect sense.
Her Garden of Roses.
Carrot Top was having a horrible day.
She awoke to find a bird that looked like it was about to go take out some minotaurs in their wrestling rings in her kitchen. Not to mention that it was about the size of her, and was very confused. After managing to shove the darn thing out of her home, she checked on her garden out back.
There, she found terror on the front lines. Monsters from the very breath of Taurtarus were there to make her life horror. Things that looked like monstrous rabbits, giant bees with stingers for arms, massive butterflies that seemed to eat her carrots, and things that looked like a brick wall meshed with a vole that scurried about beneath her crops. It was there she remained for most of the day. It was there, she fought away monsters from unimaginable lands.
Well, more of tried to fight them off. It didn’t seem to make much sense, but the more she yelled at them, the more quickly they went away when she approached them. Of course, this would have made perfect sense if they were ponies. Carrot Top knew some words that would make a gryphon cry, and that was the truth.
It also helped when most of the giant bees and butterflies went off towards Sweet Apple Acres. She may be their neighbors, and good friends when occasion called for it, but there were bigger rock voles to smack.
Finally, near sundown, most of the cursed creatures had finally left the now ruined garden. She laid down for a moment, felt like crying, and then got up. There was work to be done, and they had already tilled the dirt! Not on purpose, but still. She shook her head in weary resignation as she began to plant. Again.
Hey, she thought with a smile. At least I don’t have to visit Roseluck. Girl needs some new topics.
It began with the change of nothing.
There was nothing, nor had there ever been, nothing at all. But within this vast nothingness, there was held inside it, everything. A veritable multiverse of possibilities. Choices and cosmoses intertwined. The mater of the Cosmos was laid bare before the darkness. The darkness permeated. Within the space between all else, there was darkness. It filled the infinite void between that which was and that which could only hope to be. It was, truly, majestic in its lake of form and its expanse.
Within this vast land of forgotten possibilities, something seemed to change. The empirical nothingness move about, seemingly at random. It shifted and moved, laying upon itself, expanding and contrasting as universes were tossed about on this sea of stars. It soon became apparent for what had caused this upset to the natural forces.
The darkness was brightening.
It was shifting and trying to escape this strange and brilliant movement that invaded it upon all sides. No matter where the darkness flew to hide from this light, it was found and grew with this light. When it shifted upon itself, it only seemed darker more a moment. When it flew to the far flung reaches of this land of possibilities, the light reached further, holding it in more deeply that it could ever hope to escape.
Soon, it was clear that the battle was but forfeit. Relenting, the darkness gave over all that it was to this invasive light. However, it was not but for a moment when a sound was given birth to this new creation.
This sound was one that expressed sadness. It was that which longed for what no longer was. It was that which was a dream that could never be expressed. The darkness’s very being was emptied into this one final act, this sigh, for that is what it was. It was from this sound of lost hope that something changed.
In this land of brilliant light, something began to change. It was different, and it was new. It opened up the very space of this unreal world, offering many changes and chances that could no longer be.
Sveta’s eyes opened, and was met with one of those possibilities.
The world was not that of the darkness that was his eyelids, nor was it the place where he slept. The place he slept was in a bed, when he could. He was usually at a on the road by the time when he turned in. If he might take his sleeping bag, but he slept at in a clearing by a leanto yesterday. This, he was quite certain of. However, that which loomed above him made him consider otherwise.
Above him, hung a tree. This was not one of the common trees on the farm, with their tall frame and supple branches. No, what hung above him was a slender and delicate tree. It was a beautiful thing indeed, with its arched branches and its draping leaves. The canopy it provided a soft light light to be evident inside its pseudo structure.
His sleep addled brain moved to understand this. There is a tree… Why is there a tree? he thought. He squinted at the branches that hung above him, far away and deep in color, splayed upon with bright flecks as the light of the sun hit its bark. His mind went to process this new information. I’m under a tree… Why am I sleeping under a tree? There were only trees on the edges… He gave this a moments thought, before grasping at the likely solution, Ah, from the looks of it, I overslept. Huh… I bet Tops put me here so I would wake up from the rain soon. He thought with a chuckle.
“Alright, alright… I’m up! No need for leaving me out.” He declared to the world at large. With a slight grumble, he rolled over to escape his sleeping bag. It seemed a bit fuzzier and closer than normal, but he attributed this to the fact it was newer than the last one he had. “Always pays to have flannel when you can get it,” his brother had told him. He often wondered if that, and most of his advice, was true. The flannel sleeping bag at least, seemed dead on. That was quite nice, and comfy.
Giving a large yawn, he moved to stand. Unfortunately for him, his legs seemed unwilling to cooperate. With a beautiful swan dive, he proceeded to attempt to inhale the ground before him.
“GAH!” he tried to yell, but the dirt was an excellent preventative at speech. With a disgruntled coughing fit, and several times spitting he pushed himself off the ground, now rather awake. With a nasty taste in his mouth, but awake.
Grumbling, he moved to stand again, but his legs still seemed to be obstinately refusing to work. When he fell this time though, he braced himself with his arms.
Or at least what he was very sure was his arms until he saw them.
He was like this for several minutes, standing as if braced for an impact that had already occurred, as his brain tried to understand what he saw. Before him, there wasn’t any sign of arms like he understood them to be. There was no true fingers to speak of, the skin was not a tannish pink like he was used to, nor was there an obvious crux in its form for him to bend it, but it bent all the same. No, the “arm” went on until it simply ended, and it looked very much like this, until he examined closer. Then, he realized it ended in a small paw. A paw with three small “toes.” Even thinking of the small, squashed digits, as his fingers raised his hair. Not just as in an expression, but his hackles were raised. It was then that he realized, he had hair Quite a lot really. Well, to be entirely honest, he was covered in the stuff. Thick, short, and very much brown. He was about to panic, when he felt something. With marked slowness and trepidation turned his head to see what anomaly was upon him. He saw there, now with every hair upon it raised in worry and a tinge of fear, a small bushy tail of two tones, the same deep brown, and a warm cream.
Normally, it could have been said that Sveta was quite a calm and rational individual. Clear exceptions were easy to find, generally being his family or friends being messed with. Well, and when he got new eggs, but that is entirely different. Yes, in most situations he was a pleasant and quite ally. This was not one of those times.
“Oh… my...” he muttered, slowly shaking. It could even be forgiven to those who might have been watching that he simply had the shakes, were it not for the look in his eyes of one who was just chased by a rampaging Tauros stampede. Nay, on the outside, the tell tales signs of freaking out were mainly hidden. On the other hand, or paw as it may be, the signs of panic might as well be lit up in giant neons signs, like in Jubilife City. His hair was on end, his posture rigid and inflexible, his eyes widened and twitchy, and nervous jitters raked him.
He slowly began to move his right ha-er, paw up, and examined it as if seeing it for the first time. The small pads he could now make out, appeared quite flexible, but rather rough in texture. The two main pads seemed quite a bit more mobile in a horizontal aspect, allowing him to curl them inward. Despite the natural feel of it, Sveta shivered.
This, of course makes perfect sense to him, as he had never had paws before, or remotely wanted them! However this made virtually no sense to the confused Caterpie that clung to a tree it had never seen before, separated from its friends and family. The Caterpie was most rather afraid itself. Hoping to help its situation, or at least make sure it wouldn’t attack him, it made a tactical error of grievous magnitude
“He-hello?” It hesitantly asked the stiff legged creature below.
Now, normally this would follow a general, “Oh hi, didn’t see you there, Are you okay, No I am lost and hungry and lonely, I’m sorry what can I do to help” route. But as was previously stated, this was not a normal situation. Despite even this, the Caterpie most assuredly did not expect what followed.
The Eevee beneath him ever so slowly tilted his head to see the Caterpie on the trunk. It then, proceeded to open its mouth in a way that would make Seviper proud, and screamed. Moments before the hellish sound had escaped Sveta’s gaping maw, the Caterpie had figured it had made a mistake, but the choice had been made, and the sound had been released.
The Caterpie very quickly, well quote on quote quickly, hurried away from this evil lunged daemon before it, crying and wondering where everything went wrong. Fortunately, this is not the story of a long lost Caterpie and its existential questioning, but of that aforementioned lunged daemon.
After a solid half minute of screaming at the Caterpie as it inched its way out of the canopy of the tree, the unholy noise issued forth from Sveta’s mouth began to wind down to more comprehensible speech. Mainly consisting of a plethora of noises of exclamation, from the humble eep, to the mighty wuahalaha, but after a while even these faded. Mainly due to needing to breath in as well, not lessoned panic, but pickers and choosers and what not.
Once he had managed to finally breath a full breath and not compulsively scream. He tried to remain mute for a moment to collect his thoughts, but his thoughts thought they would better be collected by emerging his mouth in rapid procession.
“Oh my gosh! Oh My Goodness! Oh! Oh! Oh! WHAT IS GOING ON!?” He yelled, panic more than tinting his words. “I was sleeping. And.. and I was sleeping… And, and NOW! I’m… I’m, I’m, I’m NOT! And, and then I’m outSIDE! And, and, and then... ” here he began to sound a little bit angry. “Ogh! AND THEN! I was not ME! And I’m SHORT! ...ER! AND MY ARMS ARE GONE! Well, not gone, but NOT VERY HELPFUL! And THEN there was a Caterpie, and it SPOKE! TO ME! What’s up with that! And, and THEN! I mean! IT WAS JUST... AND THEN…“ He appeared flustered for a moment, words and expositions falling from his mouth like a Glooms drool, before shouting, ”And the Flannel was MOST DEFINITELY NOT WORTH IT!!”
After shouting down his no longer present sleeping bag, he began to appear to be shouted out.
“And, and, I don’t know where I am,” he started, a rim of moisture beginning on his eyes. “And I don’t know what to do… I don’t know where my family is...” He let a small, weak sniffle escape him, before falling onto his haunches. “And I’m scared...”
Once realizing this, the tears did flow forth from him. They were not tears of joy. They were not tears of peace. They were tears of sorrow.