Growing Up in a New World

Day one

Every night, I have the same dream...

I was a Sceptile, and I was running through an endless forest. The trees’ branches blocked out most of the sunlight, while their trunks were covered in vines. I could run on the ground and leap between the branches with ease. But despite this… something about being a Sceptile didn’t feel right. And it’s not the fact that I’ve never dreamed of being a Grovyle. I can’t explain what feels wrong… you don’t have time to think when you’re dreaming.

But this night, the dream was different. I was usually alone, but this time I saw my new trainer, Jasper, in front of me. As I got closer to him, he disappeared… and the whole world went white as I became a Treecko, like I am in the real world.
It felt as if I was falling down a vertical tunnel, full of silhouettes of life forms I’d never seen before. Some were bipeds, some were quadrupeds, and some were neither… and then, I heard a voice that sounded vaguely familiar.

“Rest now, my children, for when you awake a whole new world shall be your home.”

I awoke on a thin, but still sturdy, tree branch in a forest I’d never seen before. The trees had white bark, and I could hear a stream running nearby. It felt peaceful, almost… until I noticed that on the other end of the branch, there was a group of very hungry Wurmple, and some… green guys I’d never seen before. They were coming towards me, as if they thought my tail was a leaf. Something about their stares was very unnerving. I tried to quickly climb back down the tree, but I slipped off the thin branch and landed in the stream below.

SPLASH!

A spherical-ish blue and white Pokémon – a Marill – who was asleep in the stream woke up.

“What was – Bandit?” he said, confused.

“Hey, who’re you?” I asked. “Bandit was the name my trainer gave me, and he hasn’t seen a Marill yet!”

“But I’m – Wait, you can – what?” the Marill replied. He looked around, as if trying to look for the source of some problem. He noticed his zig-zagging tail with a sphere on the end, and looked confused, like he’d never seen himself before. I was no expert on Marill behaviour, but that definitely wasn’t normal.

“I’m Jasper,” he said.

“No you’re not,” I replied, bluntly. “Jasper is a human. Unless you’re a different Jasper…”

“Look, Bandit,” the Marill, whose name was apparently Jasper, said. “I don’t know what happened here. I just woke up in this place as a Marill… wait, is this real?”

I hit him.

“What was that for?” he whined.

“You can’t be hurt in a dream,” I replied. “Anyway, prove to me that you’re Jasper.”

“A few hours ago – or yesterday, I don’t know what time it is now – I chose you as my first Pokémon. You looked lonely,” the Marill said. “I have this little brother called Jasper, and he said that if I chose a Treecko, we’d both protect each other.”

“So you really are Jasper, then…”

Jasper looked concerned. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh, it’s…. nothing.” Truth is, I really was lonely. I was in that professor’s lab for what felt like an eternity, and a new starter Pokémon can’t be brought in until one of the same species had already been chosen. I always wondered why nobody wanted to choose me – Treecko are cool, right? “Anyway, I don’t know where we are either. Know where we should go?”

“Let’s see…” said Jasper. “When you become a trainer, you have to learn survival skills… um… oh! If you ever get lost, follow a body of water. Settlements are usually nearby. But… which way do we go?”

“Excuse me, but are you two lost?” someone said. That someone was an Azumarill, who was in the stream nearby.
Jasper and I debated as to who should talk to her. We decided that I should.

“Excuse me, madam,” I said, putting on my best formal voice, “but yes, we are lost. Would you, perhaps, know where any human civilization may be?”

“Please, drop the formality,” the Azumarill replied. “To answer your question, I honestly don’t know.” I felt slightly disappointed. “But that part of the forest…” she pointed to one end of the stream “looks very dark and dangerous. I’m not sure, but I think you should go the other way.”

“Well, we better get going,” I said, gesturing to Jasper to follow me.

As we journeyed through the forest, we noticed all sorts of equally confused Pokémon. I saw a startled Fletchinder who had recently awoke, trying to calm down. A clan of Sneasel stood in some high tree branches, looking down upon us suspiciously. Or maybe they were just trying to figure out where this forest was. I wasn’t sure.

This forest was very different from the one in my dreams; it was claustrophobic, uninviting, confusing, distant… and no sign of humans anywhere. Technically. Sorry, Jasper.

“Wow!” Jasper exclaimed, as he noticed something. It was a green stone, which glaringly reflected the little sunlight from above it.

“What is it?” I asked.

“That’s a thunder stone,” replied Jasper. “It can evolve certain Pokémon, though I can’t remember which ones right now. Looks cool, though. Should we keep it?”

“Go ahead. It could come in useful, and even if it doesn’t, it can be a keepsake of sorts. The only good part of this forest.”
Jasper couldn’t pick anything up with his Marill nub hands, so I had to carry it. We could do with a bag.

“I can’t wait until I evolve! I could be an awesome Sceptile!” I exclaimed.

“And I get to be an... uncool Azumarill.” Jasper sounded disappointed.

“Don’t worry, that Azumarill from earlier seemed pretty nice.”

Oh, past me… if only you knew.

Eventually, as the sun set, we ended up in a forest of oak trees, with the tallest tree in the centre. I overheard two… somethings… talking. The two of us hid in the long evening shadows.

“Have you seen any of those monsters around today?” one of them, who sounded female, asked.

“Yes. Giant insects, birds of prey, weasels… this could seriously unbalance the ecosystem,” said the other one, who sounded male. “And it’s not just here. It seems to be all over the world. I’ve heard that in Equestria, dragons have been terrorising ponies… and they’re not like any dragons we know of. It’s like they came from the Everfree Forest, and somehow ended up here.”

“I wonder how they’re dealing with the monsters. A lot of trees have lost a lot of branches today, and who knows how much more damage can be done. But where did they come from…?”

Equestria. Ponies. Everfree. These unfamiliar words made me confused. Just where was this place?

I stepped out of the shadows, and into the sight of the couple.

“Monsters? You mean like… us?” I said, with a hint of anger in my voice.

“It talks?” the female one said.

“Yeah, of course I can talk. All of us monsters can talk.” I started sounding more intimidating. “How do you not know what Pok-”

I was interrupted by Jasper tugging on my arm.

“Okay, maybe they were a bit rude,” he shout-whispered, “but do you really need to start a fight?”

“I wasn’t trying to start a fight! And besides, fighting is what Pokémon do!” I complained.

“But not with random strangers! And besides, judging from what they said, I don’t think those guys were Pokémon at all…”

When night finally came, we fell asleep in the outskirts of the aspen forest, close enough so that the oak part of the forest was in sight, but far enough that none of the not-Pokémon would notice us.

I was running through an endless forest again… I wasn’t alone this time, though. There were a few vague shapes, like vague ideas of life forms.

Pony sounded like Ponyta, and they don’t do well with dragons. The guys I saw earlier looked a bit like Stantler, but with bigger eyes, and darker fur. There were a few aspen trees in this dream forest, but otherwise it looked the same as usual.

This “Everfree Forest” was apparently full of monsters. Must be a lot more dangerous than this forest, then… but what about the dark part of the forest the Azumarill told us about?