Reality Is an Illusion, Albeit a Persistent One.

It's!... Oh shi-

        It’s a unique experience floating through darkness. You sense you’re moving, but cannot actually feel a thing. Every direction you attempt to turn greets you with the same shade of black nothingness as the last. While I was floating through that I managed to think up some coherent thoughts. Minor things like ‘where am I’ and ‘what the hell is going on’, ya know, little things. Well after what felt like a century of floating, I felt some feeling returning.

Ever had those mornings when your mind is active but your body doesn’t want to move? That was my first feeling when I regained some of my senses and realized that there was a light shining on my face. After establishing that I was indeed still alive, I thought it wise to get up and move around, only to have my eyelids fail me.

‘Great, eyes refuse to open. Might wanna give my face a good slap to wake me up.’ I tried to raise my hand only to reach the same end result as with my eyes. ‘So my entire body is refusing to work.’ Laying there for a good amount of time, I started to ponder how I could get my body to start moving. After a minute of debating, something brushed past my arm.

‘What was that?’ Still unable to move, I began to freak out. ‘Ok, calm down Eric. It was probably a bug or something.’ I felt the same sensation again. ‘Bugs aren't that furry!’ Understandably, since I couldn’t move at the time, freaking out was the next best option. Struggling against my debilitating lethargy, I somehow moved my arm a fraction of an inch. ‘Wait, did I just move?’ Twitching my arm, I continued to force it another inch. ‘So if my arm can move...’ Switching focus, I rolled my shoulder and moved to the other one. ‘Sweet, I can move again. Let's get up and face whatever is brushing against me!’ After finishing up my arms, I worked my way towards the lower parts of my body.

Flexing my stomach, I started to move my thighs and my legs. Upon reaching my feet I felt an odd sensation. ‘Wait,’ I wiggle my toes. ‘One, two, three? Only three, whatever. I’ll worry about that when I’m up and dealt with what’s around me.’ Feeling confident with my neck down, I work my way back up and to my head. ‘Ok lets see if I can wiggle my nose, eyebrows, and ears.’ Sending the order to do so, the first one to comply is my nose. ‘Cool,’ *Sniff sniff* Why do I smell dust... And grass?’  Tossing the idea to the side, I wiggled my eyebrows and ears. ‘Good to know that I seem to be back in full control.’ Now confident in my body, despite the strange changes in motor control, I slowly cracked open my eyes and came face to face with the sky above me. Wiggling my ears a bit more, I pick out the soft sounds of bugs chirping as well as a few birds off in the distance.

“Huh, was expecting to find something deadly in front of me.” Seeing the open sky reminded me of my conversation with Arceus. “I hope you like the realm I send you too... Oh, and enjoy the new body.” “Realm? New body?... Huh, guess he sent me to a Pokemon world. Don’t see why he didn’t call Ash or something.” Jerking myself up, I got a glimpse at my new form, and boy was it a shocker.

My body was now covered with ash gray fur while my torso had maroon furry wing things on it. My arms were thin until they met the fur on my elbows, then they became larger and had three indigo claws at the end of them. My entire waist had grown the same gray fur and formed a ring to separate my stomach from my legs. My legs sported the same colored fur and curved backwards, while my feet had three indigo claws for toes. Staring at my new form for a few seconds, I came to a conclusion.

“Holy shit I’m a shiny Zoroark!” Spending enough time on the internet has paid off. I know what I am, what I can do, and what my weaknesses are (fighting and bug attacks); this didn’t help me with my current situation. “Well, this is definitely new. I assumed when he said new body he meant human, not Pokemon.” ‘Wait a minute, Zoroark are illusionists. So then that means that I can...’ Looking at my claws, I tried and create a fake fire in my new palm. “Ok...Burn!” Nothing happened. “What the hell?” I didn’t have enough time to contemplate this because I felt something brush against my leg. ‘Shit it’s back!’ Having had enough sitting around, I leapt up and slashed at whatever's behind me.

As I felt my claws come into contact with something, a good amount of tall green grass flew into the subtle breeze. Confused for a few moments, the sensation returned and causes me to repeat my previous action. Meeting tall grass once more, I decide to turn around the after feeling the sensation again. Looking over my shoulder, I’m met with dark indigo hair with maroon tips that fell all the way down my back. Pausing for a moment, I started to laugh at my own expense.

“Heh, thought my hair was an enemy. Wow way to go, Eric, not even an hour in this new world and you’ve declared war on grass.” I laugh a bit more before I come to a surprising conclusion. “Wait, I’m actually talking... Not saying ‘Zoroark’ actually talking in sentences.” Listening to my voice, I hear what is a slightly higher pitch as well as a bit of growling in there. “This is definitely something new... Alright enough messing around, I need to find out where I am.” Looking to the sky, I noticed no key features to describe my location. Face clawing for a moment, I realized the flaw in my action. “New world, I have no idea where anything would be even if I had landmarks. Hell, I’m probably in the Unova region for all I know.”

Thinking for a moment, I considered what I could recall of Zoroark’s abilities in the movie. ‘Illusionist, can use dark and ghost type powers, oh jumping. They can jump really well!’ Jumping into the air, I cleared the grass while jumping as high as a tree. During my hang time, I noticed two things. One being a small wooded village off in the distance about the size of a small shopping center, with only one dirt road cutting the village in half. The other thing I noticed is how my hair is complete with a giant yellow bead towards the end. Crashing back down to the harsh earth, I manage to land perfectly on said sphere with my ass. “OW, mother of fuck that hurt!” Rubbing my rear I failed to see the grass rustling around me.

“Zinazunguka kitu!” Suddenly the grass around me revealed brown pointed wooden spears and four sets of yellow angry eyes peering at me. Getting up, I saw that they all still had their spears levelled at me. After a minute of silence, one of them spoke again. “Ni nini?”

“Je, ni jambo, pengine kutuua.”

‘Great, out of all the languages I know, they’re speaking one I’ve never cared for. Guess you won that argument dad.’

“Excuse me, do any of you speak English?”

Instantly one of the spear holders raised it’s spear and tried to knock me on the head. Thinking quickly, I dodged the attack and rushed past the attacker. Now away from the group, I readjusted myself and start running towards the forest. The whole time during this, I heard shouts and hollers from all around me. Still running, I became aware of a whizzing noise, before leaping over a spear that had planted itself in the earth right in front of me. Looking back, I saw shapes moving behind the tall grass. Not wanting to become a shish kebab, I got onto all fours and charged in an all out sprint. I serpentined, ducked, weaved, and even zigged and zagged just so I wouldn’t get hit with one of those deadly sharpened wooden sticks. Finally, after what felt like hours of running, I saw the grass growing thin. Not wanting to spend any more time with my pursuers, I jumped the last bit and landed within a village.

Looking back on it, entering the village probably wasn’t the best idea. Once I landed within everything went deathly silent. Looking around, I saw zebra everywhere, but these zebras weren’t normal. Each had a different looking black and white mark on their rear and had a cartoony appearance to them. That was all I was able to observe before one of them screamed and the village went into a mass panic. Hoping not to cause any more mayhem, I tried to leave, only to have a group of zebra hunters block the path I had come from. Choosing flight rather than fight, I turned around and jumped onto one of the wooden roofs. Now at a higher elevation, I tried to escape while the others ran around in a massive panic on the ground below. Jumping from roof to roof, I was granted a better feel of how my new body acted and a greater chance of escape. Becoming aware of the end of the village and the start of some more tall grass, I envisioned hiding there and waiting for the hunters to pass.

Suddenly I heard a high pitched scream emanate from the chaos below. Turning around, I saw a feminine looking zebra with tears in her eyes. Following her gaze, I saw a small one huddled in fear of the events around it. Looking back to the feminine figure, I saw a scared looking zebra running towards little one in front of it not noticing the down child. ‘Oh shit I know what will happen if I don’t interfere.’ Changing course, I jumped off the roof and towards the little zebra. Time seemed to slow as I leapt through the air as if some higher being was watching this with extreme interest. As I touched down, I gave a little hop and managed to dive for the little zebra.

As I reached the downed zebra, time started to flow regularly again. Looking back at the oncoming zebra, I made a quick decision to protect the little one. Touching down in front of the downed child, I grabbed the rushing one and used his momentum to spin him around, then threw him back to the panicking mob. Moving quickly, I grabbed the little one and jumped off toward the feminine figure. Once landing, I gently put the little one down and turn my gaze to the other. Getting closer I noticed that there are tears now flowing from her eyes as she rushed  toward the smaller zebra seemingly having forgotten me. Turning back around, I saw the four hunters from before had blocked the way I came. Now that the adrenaline had stopped being pumped into my veins, I saw that the mass panic had ended with me throwing the rushing zebra into the crowd.

“Nice kujaribu, lakini huwezi kutoroka.”

Sighing a bit, I lowered myself into a fighting stance. As the others followed suit, we began our stare off, waiting for the other to make a move. One of the hunters attacked first, thrusting the spear towards my chest. Moving my body to the side, I kept my eyes on the attacking zebra while I grabbed the spear and pulled it out of it’s grasp. Leveling the spear at its original owner, I prepared for their next move. Only to have something knock me on the back of my head with a loud *Clang*. Falling to the ground, my vision blurred as a couple sets of hooves gathered around me. Before fading out I caught a glimpse of a unique set that stood out from the others, four pink hooves and one black frying pan.