Chapter Text
The sound of waves was the first thing she registered, the calm and repetitive noise almost lulling her back to sleep. She could feel sand beneath her head, but it felt odd against her face. Oh well, at least it was solid ground, that was better than being suspended in Arceus’ realm…
Wait. Arceus. Its realm. Its quest for her. The rumbling.
Everything that had happened over the past Arceus knows how long came back to Akari and hit her full force. Her head was pounding and her mind was racing. She tried pushing herself up, but she only succeeded in flailing. Something wasn’t right, she didn't feel right. She had to open her eyes.
She forced her eyes open, blinking rapidly to get rid of the blurry shapes and blinding light. She went to rub her eyes, but only managed to hit herself with something. After a moment of reorienting herself, she was finally able to see.
The first thing she saw was the sand she was lying on. Looking to her left, she could see the waves washing up on the shore of this small beach, as well as a dock with a boat tied to one of the posts. Also present on the beach was a small shack, too small for someone to be living there, it was probably for storage. Then she looked down and caught a glimpse of something golden.
Lying quite close to her seemed to be some part of a pokemon, possibly a leg. It was covered in light golden fur and tipped with a golden hoof. The rest of the pokemon was out of her sight, but it must be very close to her. Oddly enough she couldn’t feel a pokemon or anything next to her. She’d need to get a better look at… whatever it was.
She went to raise her head, and after the initial vertigo, she was able to lift it… and lift it… and lift it? She didn’t remember having a neck this long…
She looked down at the pokemon leg beside her, but she still wasn’t able to see what it was connected to. She tried to shift in order to get a better look at it, but the leg moved too. She froze, and so did the leg. She stared at it but it didn’t move again until she experimentally moved her arm again and the leg responded.
It was her leg.
She opened her mouth to yelp. She did make some kind of sound, but her mouth remained firmly shut. Trying to open it again yielded the same response, or lack thereof. She raised her leg to try and feel her face, nearly kicking herself before slowly feeling around. She couldn’t feel her mouth, or even her nose. It was completely smooth aside from some strange ridges that must have been a pattern of whatever weird pokemon she had turned into
Okay, no mouth, no need to panic. She could still breathe despite the lack of an opening to do so, and she could still smell as well, she could smell the salt from sea. This was fine, everything was fine!
She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to calm the panic heaving in her chest. Panic wouldn’t help right now! She needed to breathe. She needed to focus. She had too many questions and not enough answers.
Why was she a pokemon? Why did Arceus think turning her into a pokemon would help with the ‘quest’ it sent her on? Was it even the one to turn her into a pokemon? She remembered the rumbling and she remembered the cold. That all had happened after Arceus left, but if it wasn’t it, then who - or what - did this?
She wouldn’t get any answers by just sitting here. She needed to figure out where she was and to do that, she’d need to get up.
Akari turned her head around to get a better look at her body, which was surprisingly easy to do. Having a long neck had some benefits she supposed. The rest of her body was covered in the same light gold fur that her leg was. She had a tail that wasn’t too long, but wasn’t too short either, with the light gold fluff on top and a smoother grey underside that went from there to part way up her chest. Around her lower torso, just before her back legs, was an odd golden ring with four spikes coming off of it, each spike holding a green gem. Her other legs, still sprawled out, had the same golden hooves at the end, she looked like a quadruped pokemon. She almost looked like Arceus… but gold-er.
A quadruped body would mean she would need to stand up and move on all fours. That couldn’t be too hard, right?
She pulled her legs in, the sand’s shifting making things both easier and harder. Eventually, she was able to get them in a semi-stable position on the sand and slowly, she stood. It felt all wrong, like her joints were in all of the wrong places, but she was able to stand.
That was one thing done, now onto the next thing. Walking. Great.
She only needed to take one step, then another. One foot in front of the other. She could do this. She raised one of her legs…
Then subsequently lost balance and stumbled forward, almost falling over several times before being able to regain balance. At least she didn’t fall. She glared down at her legs, why did she have to be a quadrupedal pokemon of all things? She didn’t even have hands anymore. It was better than being a pokemon with more than four or no legs at all she supposed.
“Hey! You three, get back here!” Her head snapped up as she heard a male voice from somewhere out of view. She watched as - presumably - the three pokemon the voice was calling to run onto the beach and stop in front of her.
A Rowlet, an Oshawott and a Cyndaquil, three starter pokemon. But something was off, they looked different. Rowlet looked as though it had gone through the seasonal change other grass pokemon sometimes did, with slightly darker feathers, an orange leaves and four-leaf bowtie and darker orange feet. Oshawott’s fur was a deeper blue, and his scalchop was pink instead of yellow. His feet and bent tail were also more purple than blue. Then there was Cyndaquil, who’s flames almost looked like they were dancing out of his back, the fire tinged with red and purple. His fur pattern was different as well, the darker blue fur looping around his neck.
What were they doing alone on the beach? Running away, it seemed.
“I told you there’d be something,” Rowlet cooed at the other two.
“We all knew there’d be something, you just wanted to get here first,” Cyndaquil snuffled, shaking his head.
“What kind of pokemon are you?” Oshawott chirped, tilting his head.
It took a moment of wide eyed staring and getting over the fact that she could understand them to realise that the question had been addressed to her. “I, uh…” Speaking without a mouth was weird and sounded, understandably, not human. “I’m not sure…”
“You mean you don’t know?” Rowlet squawked, splaying his wings wide. “Why, you’re a… a… hm.”
“You don’t know either,” Cyndaquil batted at the wing Rowlet had smacked into his face.
“Well that’s hardly my fault,” Rowlet drew his wings back, his feathers puffing up. “Have you ever seen anything like her before, hm?”
“I never claimed to know what she was.”
“But- But if anyone would know what she is, she would, wouldn’t she?”
“There was a time we didn’t know what we were, maybe she hasn’t figured it out yet.”
Akari tuned out their squabbling as another joined them on the beach, this one being a visibly puffed human. The man was wearing a long white coat that made him look like some kind of scientist or professor, as well as a purple beanie with a pompom nearly the size of his head on it. Beneath the coat, he was wearing a brown vest with a white and purple undershirt and bowtie, and yellow-striped pants. There was some organisation’s symbol on his coat that she didn’t recognise, but it felt oddly familiar.
“What’s gotten into you three…” His words trailed off as he stared wide eyed at Akari. She would have commented about staring being rude, but she would stare too if she saw a weird pokemon like her. Besides, he probably wouldn’t understand her anyway.
Instead, she tilted her head at him, “Um, hello?”
He didn’t respond to her greeting, still staring slack jawed.
She felt a tap on her leg and looked down to see Oshawott at her feet, “You know humans can’t understand us, right?”
Akari hummed, “I thought so, but I’m in a bit of an odd situation. I wasn’t always like this.”
Oshawott paused to ponder this, but he only seemed more confused, “Did you evolve?”
“Well, not exactly,” She was about to go on, but it appeared enough time had passed for the man to break out of his stupor.
“Oh my goodness,” He breathed, excitement clear in his eyes. “I’ve never seen pokemon quite like you before.”
“Then we’re in the same boat buddy,” Akari sighed.
“Oho, this is simply amazing! This must be why you three ran off, isn’t it?” He addressed the starters before turning back to her. “I must say, you have a certain powerful air about you, perhaps you’re a noble of the Diamond or Pearl Clan.”
Diamond Clan? Pearl Clan? Nobles? Perfect, just what she needed, more questions. Despite her inner dilemma, he seemed happy to go on.
“There is the matter of what to call you, perhaps one of the clans would know what kind of pokemon you are…”
She doubted those words, she doubted anyone would know what kind of pokemon she was, since the only pokemon close to whatever she was she had seen was Arceus itself. She did have a name though, If she could tell him then this would be so much easier…
She looked down at the sand and jabbed one of her legs into it. Maybe there was a way to tell him. She carefully lifted one of her legs, managing not to overbalance this time as she started writing letters into the sand. About halfway through, the man seemed to catch onto what she was doing and watched intently as she finished writing ‘AKARI’ and looked at him.
“Akari,” The man repeated to himself. “Fascinating, is this what species you are?”
Akari shook her head. He was so close, but just off, she hoped he would understand what she was trying to tell him as she pointed at her sand-drawn name again.
He considered this, squinting at the name before he realised, “Ah! Akari is your name?”
“Yes!” She cried, nodding. It wasn’t the biggest victory in the world, but at this point she’d take what she could get.
The man smiled at her, nodding back to her, “Well, Akari, I have to say I’m quite impressed with your writing capability. I wasn’t aware there was a pokemon who had the knowledge to do so! Seeing as you’ve introduced yourself, it’s only polite that I do the same. My name is Laventon, I’m something of a pokemon professor.”
A pokemon professor, that explained the lab coat. That might be helpful though, after all, if anyone could help her ‘seek out all pokemon’, it’d be a pokemon professor. Maybe if she could ask for his help…
“That is to say, I’m a scholar seeking to deepen our understanding of pokemon,” He continued. “Yes, Pokemon such as these three here, whi-”
Rowlet let out an offended squawk, the squabble between him and Cyndaquil must have gotten worse as she was interacting with the Laventon. Rowlet flapped his wings at Cyndaquil before flying away with Cyndaquil and Oshawott close on his tail, the latter chirping a cry of “Wait for me!”
“Oh, blast and bother! My darling pokemon! Why must you run from me again?!” Laventon called after them, sighing as they disappeared around a turn and muttering. “And I’m simply dreadful at throwing pokeballs.”
His gaze shifted between Akari and where the fleeing starters had disappeared to with an almost sad look on his face. “I’m so sorry, my new friend, but those pokemon are my responsibility, so I must go. I hope to see you again sometime.”
“Wait!” Akari yelped. He couldn’t just leave her here, he was the first person she’d seen wherever here was, there was no telling if the next human to come along would be as polite as he was.
Unfortunately, he had already turned away and began running after the three starters with shouts of “Wait, you three! Waiiit!”
She watched him disappear around the same turn the starters did with a huff. She still needed help and Laventon seemed like her best bet to get it. But to get it, she’d need to follow him, and to do that, she’d need to try walking again without stumbling like a newborn stantler.
Great.