Chapter Text
“Shoot, not enough pikmin…” Olimar muttered under his breath as he watched the pikmin struggle to pick up the nugget in front of them.
“Louie, I’m going to head back to the onion for a few more pikmin, okay?” Olimar told Louie as he dismissed a portion of the pikmin. Louie gave a nod and quickly whistled the rest to him.
“This area should be clear now, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.” Olimar then peered up at the sky and gave a sigh. The day was already half over. “I’ll try to be quick,” Olimar stated as Louie gave a wave and Olimar began to walk off in the direction of their ship and the onions.
As Olimar walked back the wind blew lightly. It had been a pretty calm day for once. The only sounds filling the air being the cheerful singing of the pikmin. Not that Olimar minded all that much. He had gotten used to the pikmins musical nature by now and quite enjoyed it. Though even with how calm things had been Olimar was still slightly on edge, as he knew the calm never lasted for long.
Olimar’s ears perked up as he heard the sound of a loud crunch throughout the clearing. He quickly whipped his head around towards the direction of the noise.
“Hmm that's strange… we cleared out the area this morning.” Olimar quietly wondered to himself.
However, it seemed nothing was there. Just more tall leaves and plants as always. Heart still thumping, Olimar breathed a sigh of relief. It was probably just the wind.
But, A streak of blue, and another loud crunch caught his attention. With a gasp, Olimar stumbled backward and tripped on something. Causing him to land flat on his back.
“Ow hey, the heck.” a voice exclaimed. But that didn't make sense, Louie was back with the other Pikmin... and he had never heard that voice before…. So that would mean…
Olimar’s eyes shot open wide as he pushed himself up from the ground to be met face to face with another figure. Bright almost glowing, Olimar squinted as he examined the creature in front of him.
“Ugghhh.” It groaned as it too began to sit up rubbing its head from their nasty fall.
At first glance, It didn’t look all too different from that of a Hocotatian. However, he had never seen a Hocotatian with bright blue hair before. Plus, how was that possible. Louie was the only other person on the planet, right?
However, a quick flick of color from behind it’s back caught Olimar's attention.
Wait a second….what were those? Where those wings?
The urge to scream erupted from Olimar’s lungs as the shock of processing what he just saw finally caught up to him. “Ahhhh” Olimar said as he let out a loud yelp. Yup, that caught the attention of the creature in front of him.
“Shhh you’ve got to keep quiet. Unless you want it to find us” The creature warned urgently.
“What do you mean find us!?” Olimar questioned with worry in his voice.
The ground shook with a loud rumbling filling the air.
“We’ve gotta hide.” the creature said while swiftly grabbing hold of Olimar’s arm. It then pulled Olimar behind some rocks with the few pikmin Olimar had following close behind. The creature peeked from behind staring into the distance as if concentrating on something. The blue glow of its aura began to brighten as a thick fog rolled in from seemingly nowhere. But, where was it coming from? Olimar hardly ever saw fog so dense during his times on the pikmin planet.
Although admittedly the fog was helping them hide.
The rumbling grew closer, as whatever they were hiding from came near. All that could be seen was the shadowing of a large silhouette looming over them. However, the shadow soon passed and everything was once again still.
The creature paused for a beat, its eyes darting around taking in its surroundings as if trying to listen for something. Its shoulders soon relaxed as nothing could be heard as far as Olimar could tell. The fog slowly faded away. A million questions came to Olimar's mind as he finally got his bearings. What was this creature, what just happened, what were they hiding from? But before he could ask any of them it asked him questions first.
“ W-what are you? Who are you? ” the winged creature stammered. Slight fear showed on its face as if the realization began to set in that someone, or something he had never met before, stood before him.
“I’ve never seen anything like you here before.”
Olimar chuckled lightly. The curiosity reminded him of his kids. "I've never seen someone like you before either." He replied back with a slight smile. Whoever, or whatever he was didn't seem dangerous. If anything he seemed more scared.
Olimar decided to try the friendly approach.
"I'm captain Olimar, of the S.S Dolphin. I’m a Hocotatian." Olimar greeted as he held out a hand to shake.
Blue eyes peered down at Olimars hand as his wings gave another nervous twitch.
"Hocotatian? I've never heard of a Hocotatian before." the blue winged creature questioned.
“Well, you see Hocotatians aren’t really from around here.” Olimar replied, gesturing to the surrounding area.
With slight hesitance, he began to raise his hand mirroring Olimar’s gesture.
“I see… well, I’m Alph.” He said.
Finally taking the hand of the creature Olimar gave it a quick shake and then helped Alph up from the ground.
Finally getting a full look at Alph. He seemed to be shorter than the captain by a fair amount. But, what really caught Olimar’s eye where the wings sprouting from Alph’s back. They were unlike anything he had ever seen before on his trips to the Pikmin planet; or any planet for that matter. They were not unlike the wings of a spectralid. However, the most astonishing part had to be the bright fluorescent blue ethereal glow and shimmer they gave off.
Olimar’s first instinct was to jot down notes of what he had, no, who he had just discovered. But, then Olimar soon realized doing that would be harder than he thought. He didn’t even know what Alph was, to begin with.
"So, what are you doing all the way out here?” Alph asked pensively. Not wanting to intrude the captain's thoughts. “I was headed back to my ship to gather some more pikmin from their onion,” Olimar answered back. Wait a second…. The pikmin! He had almost forgotten with all that had happened.
“Ship? pikmin? onion?” Alph questioned with a puzzled look on his face.
“Pikmin.” Olimar stated noticing Alphs confusion while pointing towards the idle pikmin he had brought.
“Ah, pikmin.” Alph responded, giving an understanding nod.
Alph watched as Olimar walked up to the group of idle pikmin and promptly whistled for them to follow.
“Yeah, these little guys sure are something special. They’ve helped me out in so many situations. “ Olimar mused as he smiled toward the pikmin.
“Sure seems like it, they really like you.” Alph said as he patted a yellow pikmin on its head.
“I’ve never seen pikmin act so friendly to another. Well, other than another fairy that is. ” Alph casually stated.
“ fairy? ” Olimar asked questioningly. “fairy! ” Alph answered pointing towards his wings
“Oh, that’s what you are? A fairy. How come I’ve never seen any of you before? This isn’t the first time I’ve been here.” Olimar inquired. During his previous 2 trips to the pikmin planet, he had encountered plenty of strange and unique creatures but, nothing like the fairy in front of him.
“Oh… were pretty elusive. Plus we move around a lot. We don’t stay in one place for long.” Alph began to explain. “To be honest the only reason I was out this far was to find a chrono-keeper.”
“ A chrono-keeper, I’ve never heard of one of those before.” Olimar stated as he pondered. “Oh, you might not have one of where you’re from. But, It’s a large circular object with numbers on the top and 2 ticking hands.” Alph explained as he motioned his index finger in a circular motion. “I needed some parts from the inside of one. You see I’m trying to make……” Alph continued as Olimar thought for a second. Why did that sound so familiar to him? As if it was one of the treasures they had collected recently.
The Temporal Mechanism! That had to be it. “Actually, I may have exactly what you need back at my ship.”
Elsewhere, Louie sat waiting by the golden nugget. How long had it been? He thought to himself. It shouldn’t have taken Olimar this long to get there and back. Worry began to seep in as Louie wondered what could have happened to Olimar. He glanced up at the sky. It wouldn’t be too long until sunset. He thought for another minute and then whistled the pikmin to follow. He might as well head back to the ship to see if Olimar was doing alright. If anything hopefully they would meet halfway.
Alph’s eyes instantly lit up. “Could you really!? If you had one that would be great!” Alph’s wings gave an excited flap as he grinned ear to ear.
He paused for a second as a loud whistle reverberated through the sky… All of them looked in the direction of the sound. “Brittany…” Alph quietly said. He then made a similar sound. The whistle sounded akin to the ones used towards the pikmin. But slightly different pitches.
“It looks like I’ve got to get goin.” Alph sighed with disappointment. “My friends are waiting for me.” Olimar thought for a second until an idea struck him. “ If you really have to go, I could bring it to you tomorrow? We could meet back here.” Olimar suggested.
“Sure, tomorrow I’ll meet you here at half-day!” Alph spoke as another whistle sounded. “I’ve really gotta go, but thank you! It was nice meeting you.” Alph added as he began a light jog. But, before Olimar could blink Alph’s celeste blue wings gave a few flaps and he was airborne. Olimar stared up in awe. They both gave each other a wave goodbye and Alph flew in the direction of the whistle. Getting smaller and smaller until only his blue glow could be seen.
Just then there was a rustle in the leaves as Louie walked out into the clearing. Louie looked to see Olimar staring into the sky smiling lightly. He gave Olimar a tap on his shoulder.
“Oh, Louie! There you are. You wouldn’t believe what just happened.” Olimar said, still gazing at the sky. Louie watched to see what had Olimar so excited. But, All he could see was a faint blue glow. Louie looked at Olimar Puzzled. “Well, it turns out we aren’t the only ones on this planet after all!” Olimar began excitedly, his mouth going a mile a minute. “There’s this whole other species, they call themselves fairies. I’ve met one, he looked somewhat similar to us but, he had these magnificent wings. He’s going to come back here tomorrow so I can give him the temporal mechanism we found. Isn’t this an amazing discovery Louie!?” Olimar was ecstatic. But, Louie was very confused, fairy’s? Wings? He wasn’t sure if Olimar was pulling his leg but then again this planet has always held many surprises. As Louie gave the sky one more glance with a curious expression, a flake of shimmering dust began to fall from his finger. He would have to wait until tomorrow to see what Olimar had discovered, and what all the fuss was about.
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