A warm, gentle breeze was blowing across the Alola region, rocking the leaves of the palm trees in a soft lullaby. The floating shops and houses of Seafolk Village were swaying on the water under the moonlight. There were no signs of movement across the docks of the village, save for a boat that had just pulled in. Two men were talking with each other, one on the docks holding a giant duffle bag and one sitting in the driver’s seat of the ferry.
“Sure you’re gonna’ be fine staying the night here, cuz?” the man sitting in the boat asked, “I could stay here until you’re done with everything.”
The man on the docks chuckled. “Kukui, I’ve already kept you from your date with Burnet when I asked you to bring me here, I’m not going to let you miss that just for me. I’ll be fine” The man put his right hand on the side of his belt, patting his three Poke Balls, “I’ve got my family with me.”
Kukui let out a laugh. “Ha, guess you’re right, Cypress! Yeah, I know you’ll be fine, I just wanted to make sure.” He finished with a big smile on his face.
“I’ll make it up to you. Maybe I could try my hand at fixing up that old shack of yours, if it’s still standing.” Cypress joked. “I’ll find another ferry to take me back to Melemele tomorrow.”
“Alright cuz, I’m gonna hold ya’ on that one!” Kukui playfully said back. “Well, I should be heading back now. Burnet’ll start to worry if I take too much longer.”
“Alright. Well, have a safe trip back.”
“Yeah, and you too.”
With that, the engine to the boat roared to life and started to slowly propel it forward. Cypress waved at the boat and stood there looking at it until it disappeared over the horizon.
With a sigh, he turned around and slowly started making his way through the village.
Always so quiet here on Poni Island during the night. Cypress thought as he gazed at the many Pokemon shaped boats docked there. All of the lights were turned off, not being to much of a surprise with the fact that it was going on midnight.
As Cypress reached the edge of the village, he looked up at the highest peak that he could see off in the distance.
This was his destination.
The Alter of the Moone.
Cypress was a resident of the Alola region, living on Melemele Island working as a groundskeeper at the Pokemon School. Most people would recognize him from his work attire: brown hiking shoes, blue jeans, blue long-sleeved collared shirt, and a very vibrant red baseball cap.
Tired eyes adorned his face, showing the forty plus years of his life through those two, crimson windows. A brown stubble embellished the bottom part of his face, usually surrounding a small, little smile.
Always around Cypress were his three Pokemon: Hina, a Primarina who would help look after the lakes around the school and would often entertain students with a little song, Pele, a shiny Salazzle with a deep scar running across her chest who would help out by finding and burning any trash lying about, and Layla, a Lycanroc (Midnight Form) who would help clear off any rubble on the Tauros track field. Wherever Cypress would go, these three would be with him, and now was no exception.
All was quiet at the top of the Alter. The air was calm and all the wild Pokemon were fast asleep. Four figures were atop the alter, one human and three Pokemon. All of them were sitting down, huddled together, just looking up at the stars.
“…Fifteen years tonight, huh?” Cypress quietly said under his breath. Three heads turned to look at him, all with concern and worry written on their faces.
Layla was the first to take action by nuzzling into his chest. Pele followed suit. Hina, being behind everyone, wrapped her front fins around them and pulled them into a giant hug.
Cypress chuckled. “Thanks guys” he said, patting the two in front on their heads and returned the hug as best as he could, “I’m not going to let this eat me up, but it is important to not forget it either.”
The four of them stayed like that for a while, staring at the moon in its full glory as it rose into the night sky.
It wasn’t until the moon was above their heads that they all started to get very drowsy.
Standing up, Cypress yawned. “Man, it’s pretty late, isn’t it.” He smiled and turned to the Pokemon. “We should probably set up the tent for tonight.” The three of them all shared a yawn together and started towards the duffel bag.
It was just about then that all four of them were overcome with a wave of sudden drowsiness that added on to their current drowsiness.
Cypress yawned again. “Ya’ know what? I’ll just go without a sleeping bag tonight…” Slowly, he lied down onto the cold stone and shut his eyes, the three Pokemon following suit.
Before any of them fell into their slumber, they each heard a voice; The same exact voice saying the same exact thing to each of them…
“Rest now my children, for when you awake, a whole new world shall be your home.”
The sun, being the ever-so unforgiving fireball that it is, was floating high in the sky. Miles away from any kind of mainland, surrounded by a vast sheet of blue ocean lies a lone island with the current population of one pony.
Said pony had “earned” this citizenship to this island about a month ago, when he had officially became a castaway of the former trade ship he was working on.
Cross Staff wasn’t a very picky pony; He generally rode through his life without too much hassle. When it came to his Cutie Mark and his special talent, Cross was very happy about it. Navigation spells required a lot of subtlety and finesse that most unicorns did not possess, so he felt quite accomplished and, more importantly, useful to others when he found that he could use them with relative ease.
What made Cross the happiest was that he could take his expertise with him to explore one of the few things that made his heart beat with excitement - the high seas of Equus.
Cross always had a fascination with the ocean and the many, many legends and myths that involved it as well. What was the most exhilarating thing to Cross was the fact that the sea was so expansive and vast that nopony knew for sure what existed out there, not even the Princesses themselves. He had been silently cursing that same vast expansion to no end for the past month.
The island that was currently hosting him was not that large, Cross being able to walk the perimeter in about half an hour. Flora covered the island, creating a dense jungle radiating from the center that included many fruits and berries of dubious nature. Located on the edge of the jungle was a very shoddy looking shack, made from the remnants of the trade ship that had gone under.
Inside the shack, Cross Staff was currently chipping his way through the shell of a particularly stubborn coconut with a stone that he had sharpened to a point. His bright aqua colored fur was unkempt, having not seen proper care for quite some time. His navy blue mane, waved and curled, hung down in front of him as he slowly, but surely, cracked the defenses of the brown drupe.
“C’mon, just give it up already. You’re not going to break my patience with this” Cross said to the coconut as he gave it another jab. “I’m not going to go mad over a simple,” *jab* “little,” *jab* “coconut.”
*crack*
With a smile, Cross pried the now split coconut open, revealing the milk inside. He took no time to down it, smacking his lips in satisfaction as he finished.
“Ahh, now that’s better.” He took the two halves and put them in the corner of the shack, along with many other split coconut shells. Getting up, Cross started to stretch his legs and his back, hearing satisfying pops and cracks along the way.
“Okay, no more wasting time. Gotta find some good material today.” Walking outside the shack, Cross raised a hoof to cover his eyes from the sun. “Hmph. Blinding as always I see.” He muttered.
Staring out at the sea, Cross closed his eyes as he slowly breathed in the salty air.
“Hoo” He exhaled. “Today’s the day.” He opened his eyes. “Today’s the day. It’s gotta be.” A smile found its way onto his face. “Gotta good feelin’ about today.” He said quietly to himself.
“Welp,” he said, starting to move down the beach, “Guess I should find a place to start for the day.” As he walked, he passed a bunch of stones that had been meticulously placed along the sand. Stones that would spell out the word “HELP” to anyone flying over the island, Cross hoped. He took the time to check every stone to make sure each one was still in its place. Satisfied that nothing was out of order, he continued on, starting to hum to himself.
It wasn’t a particular song or anything that Cross was humming - just a little improvised set of notes. This was something that he would do absently whenever he started to focus on anything intently. Many of his peers claimed that he did this all the time, but he never really believed them all that much before, thinking they were all just messing with him. His time spent on his unexpected “vacation” had made him aware of quite a few little ticks that he had, including the humming.
It actually didn’t bother him as much as he thought it would.
After walking down the shore for a few minutes, carefully surveying the edge of the jungle along the way, he finally found a spot that looked promising - not because of what he could see, but he just had a gut feeling about it.
“Alright.” Rolling his shoulders, Cross started to make his way into the jungle when something down the shore caught his eye. It was a strange lump sitting in the middle of the sand. At first, he thought it was just a bit of driftwood because of the light brown coloration and was about to continue on when the lump did something that he never expected it to do - start to move all on its own.
The lump slowly stirred in its place, almost like a creature waking up from a nap. Then the lump did something that made his breath hitch.
It turned its head toward the sea.
…Ugh…Everything aches… This was the first thought that crossed Cypress’s mind when he awoke. Slowly, he became aware of the rest of his senses one by one. The sun was relentlessly shining over his closed eyes, the air smelled of salt, the sand under him surprisingly soft…
…Wait…Sand? With this thought, Cypress slowly cracked his eyes open. There’s no sand at the top of the Alter… The light blinding him for a moment.
As his eyes got used to the morning light, sand started to enter his vision.
…What?… He was going to question it more when he started to hear the sounds of the ocean to the left of him. Slowly, he turned his head over to the noise and was confused even further when he saw the vast sea just a few feet away from him.
…Okay…This is weird…How’d I end up on the shore? He pondered, looking at the ocean.
Well I should try and figure out exactly where I am. He started to move to get up, looking down in the process. What he saw, needless to say, really confused him. Instead of his pale arms extending down into the sand were two furry legs, with two paws in place of two hands. He stared at these two legs, dumbfounded by what exactly they were suggesting. Then he noticed something that seemed to be protruding out from the middle of his face. He raised his head, crossing his eyes to get a better look. A white snout was currently extended in front of him, a dark brown nose at the edge. Still lying on the ground, Cypress slowly turned his head to look at the rest of his body. He saw light brown fur with a white leg resting on top of it, three brown claws jutting out at the end. Further down, a white tail lied, curving back and pointing its tip back at him.
…
…
…
…What the hell?…
He slowly turned his head and stared at the sand in front of him, his mind reeling.
Okay… Okay, okay… Calm down. Slow down. This… This is… Well, it’s…
…
…I got nothing. This is as insane as it gets… I mean, suddenly waking up as a Lycanroc? This… This is just…
“Gah!” Cypress exclaimed, putting his paws on top of his head as a headache started to form, shutting his eyes tightly.
Alright, alright, slow down there… Take a few breaths… Breathe in…Breath out…
…
The headache steadily dissipated.
A sigh of relief escaped his maw as he put his paws back down on the sand.
…Okay. Okay, I’ve heard stories about people turning into Pokemon before, so I guess it’s not too out of the ordinary. He took that moment just to listen to the crashing waves in front of him. I’m a Lycanroc. That’s a fact. Gotta get past that. Gotta focus on finding on out what exactly happened. He opened his eyes and raised his head, taking a good look at his surroundings. …And I’m nowhere familiar it seems. Fantastic…
Looking back down at his two front legs, Cypress let out a sigh. Guess the first challenge is going to be getting up and moving around. He righted himself, getting into position to rise. This is going to be very weird.
Slowly, he pushed his body up with all four of his legs. Swaying a little to the left and right, he managed to stand up fully.
Okay, center of balance is very different from before. That’s kind of disorientating. But so far so good! He cracked a small smile at his achievement.
Alright, next step… Carefully, Cypress lifted his front right paw up and forward. Instinctively, his left hind leg moved along to keep things in balance. Step after step, he slowly walked around the beach, wobbling a little here and there.
This actually isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Feeling a bit more confident, he started to go a little faster - walking at a more normal pace.
“Heh, it’s actually kind of fun.” He muttered, a grin appearing on his muzzle. Let’s try some sharp turns.
Going a bit faster, he arched his body to the left, being able to turn his body around with ease. He stopped and took the time to breathe in and out to re-focus himself.
Okay. I can move around without too much trouble. Now I should actually look around this place and see exactly where I am.
With a bit of determination, Cypress started making his way down the shore. Unknowing to him, a pair of aquamarine eyes had been watching that whole scene unfold from the cover of the jungle nearby.
A pair of very confused, surprised eyes.
“That was a wolf.” Cross stated dumbly. “That…Was…A wolf…”
Having been lured over by his curiosity about the moving lump, Cross Staff had moved under the cover of the flora to get closer to it. It didn’t take too long for him to figure out that the strange lump was a living, breathing creature. Ever since he had been on this island, Cross had made it one of his first priorities to scour the entire island for any kind of life. Either he would’ve found some sort of civilization that could’ve helped him get off, or he would find any dangerous creatures and would figure out how to avoid them and becoming their snack. When he did search the island, he found no signs of any kind of fauna on the island. He searched and re-searched many times over the past month to make sure. It was made abundantly clear to him that he was the only living creature on the island.
“Until now, apparently.” He said quietly, still a little in shock.
The wolf-like creature had just gone down the shore only moments ago, and Cross was currently debating on whether or not he should follow it.
It’s a wolf. It’s dangerous. Don’t follow it.
“Yeah, but I checked the entire island multiple times over the past month and haven’t found any evidence of any kind of fauna until now. Then this… Wolf shows up out of the blue? Naw, I gotta follow it.”
Wolves eat ponies. I’m a pony. Not a good combination there.
“Yeah, but I’ve been stranded here for about a month now and this is the first interesting thing to happen so far. Gotta follow it.”
It could just be a hallucination for all I know.
“Well,only one way to find out!”
With that, Cross started to move through the edge of the jungle in the direction of the wolf.
About half an hour later, Cypress had completed an entire lap around the island and had confirmed one very important fact: he was completely lost.
On an island in the middle of the ocean, with nothing else in sight… Perfect. He sat down and put a paw onto his forehead as he felt another headache coming on.
*rustle*
His ears twitched as this sound entered his ears. He turned in the direction of the noise, looking into the dense jungle.
…Huh. I guess there could be someone living on this island.
“Hello?” He called out towards the foliage. No response. “Hello? Anyone there?” He tried again, a little louder this time. It was after this that he started to here that rustling again. He looked over to the left a little to the bush that was making the noise and saw a creature slowly emerging from it.
This creature looked nothing like any Pokemon that Cypress had ever seen before in his life. It looked a little bit like a Ponyta, with light blue fur and a dark blue mane. A strange mark was on its haunches, depicting what looked like an old navigational tool. The state of both its tail and mane were very unkempt, both curling in all directions.
Weird. Never seen anything like that before. He thought, raising one eyebrow.
Clearing his throat, Cypress said, “Uh, hello? Can you, uh, possibly tell me where I am?”
The Ponyta-like creature brought its head back slightly with a slightly puzzled look on its face.
“Why do you keep on saying that?” It spoke, its baritone voice full of confusion.
It was Cypress’s turn to look puzzled. “What do you mean?”
“That! ‘Lycanroc!’ What does that mean?” The strange creature exclaimed, “No wolf I’ve ever read of has ever said anything at all! They just growl and gnash their teeth together!” It said, pointing a hoof at Cypress.
Wait, it doesn’t understand me? I thought all Pokemon could understand one another… Cypress thought, bringing a paw under his chin and looking slightly down in thought. Strange…
“Strange.” Cypress looked up to see the strange creature, presumably a male, walking around him, examining him. “Really strange.”
Bringing up a hoof, the creature poked Cypress in the side.
Whatever he is, he’s certainly brave. He inwardly chuckled. Raising an eyebrow, Cypress looked the creature into his eyes with a slightly amused look.
“Hey, I needed to see if you were a hallucination or not. I’m really doubting it now. I don’t think my brain would be able to do something like this.” The creature said, rubbing his hoof under his chin. “Really strange. I’ve been here for over a month and I’ve scanned this island over and over again seeing no signs of life, and then you seem to appear out of nowhere.” He closed his eyes in thought.”Hmmm. Very, very, very, strange…”
Kind of surprised that he doesn’t seem scared of me at all. Said he’s been here for over a month, and I’m guessing that’s been an involuntary stay judging by his messy looking state. Cypress thought as he observed the creature. I hope he isn’t too far gone, or this might become even more of a hassle for me.
“Ah!” The creature exclaimed, his eyes snapping open, “I guess I should introduce myself.” He said, sheepishly.
Extending out a hoof, the creature happily said, “The name’s Cross Staff! Nice to meet’chya!”
Chuckling outwardly, Cypress lifted his right paw and put it on top of Cross’s hoof.
“My name’s Cypress.” He said, knowing fully that it would come out as a series of “Lycanrocs.”
“Ah, well, I guess I need to call you something. Can’t just be calling ya’ ‘wolfy’ or something like that…” Cross brought his hoof under his chin again. Then, a thought came to him. “Do you have a name?” He asked, looking at Cypress with one eyebrow raised.
Cypress opened his mouth to respond out of reflex, but closed it after a bit of thought, just deciding to nod his head. It’ll be much easier to limit myself to pantomime everything.
Cross closed his eyes again. “So you do have one… It’s not Lycanroc, is it?” He asked, with a slight deadpanned expression. Cypress shook his head. “Think you could spell it out in the sand?”
Cypress nodded. He got up, took a couple steps back, and looked down at the sand in front of him. Don’t think these paws were built to write…Guess I’ll just have to use my head. Sighing, Cypress dove his snout into the sand and started to write out his name. After some careful plowing and sneezing out of the sand, Cypress stood back and nodded towards Cross to signal that he was done.
Cross walked over next to Cypress to view it.
“C-Y-P-R-E-S-S” He spelled out. “Cypress? As in those plants?” He asked, looking towards the Lycanroc. Receiving a nod from him, a big, goofy smile appeared on Cross’s face. “Awesome! Hey, Cypress. Wanna go see where I’m staying here on this island?”
With one eyebrow raised and a small smirk, Cypress nodded.
“Great! Oh man, it feels so great to have someone else here with me!” Cross said, and with a turn, he started to trot down the beach.
Walking in tow, Cypress had to let out another chuckle.
“This is so strange…” He said under his breath.