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Chapter Text

The first thought he has is that this isn't where he was a moment ago. Not that he remembers where that was.

The forested area he finds himself in is dense and dark, so unlike his home. He tries his best to grasp onto those memories, only getting vague impressions of the hot sun and sand.

Unknowing of what else to do, he finds himself walking into the depths of the forest.

…

Something has been following him.

It's getting increasingly difficult to ignore it, the darting purple shadow in the treetops. Keeping its distance, yet never letting him get too far from it.

He speeds up his pace. Nothing more than a light jog, just to see if he can shake it off.

Whatever it is, speeds up along with him, gliding from branch to branch.

He starts running, trying to outpace it.

It keeps up.

Sprinting. He's panting a bit from the effort.

It's still behind him.

He stumbles over a root and falls face first into a puddle.

He hears the… thing chasing him make some sort of chortle, yet it keeps its distance.

Now wet and cold, he props himself up on his elbows, brushes the long blue strands of hair out of his face, and observes his surroundings.

He had been so intent on getting away from the beast in the trees that he hadn't been paying much attention to his surroundings, and now he finds himself at the edge of a clearing. The sun is setting and allows him to truly see more of this… chasm he finds himself in.

He sees mountains on all sides of the forest, with the clearing appearing to be in the middle of it all.

Like a giant crater.

He hears a roar. Echoing. He's never heard anything so loud in his life.

It's easy enough to find its source. A monster with green armor from head to torso and large protruding tusks on its snout is approaching, its eyes solely on him.

It charges towards him.

He panics. Stumbling up onto his feet he tries to find cover. Behind him is the dark and maze-like forest and ahead of him is nothing but the monster.

The monster is so close now, roaring and towering over him.

Something darts out from the woods. A purple creature, the same purple that had been following him, lunges at the monster before him.

It darts to and fro around the beast, small and difficult to keep track of. It slashes with what look to be claws at its armor and face.

For just a moment, its appearance brings a new memory to the surface, a boy older than him, clad in purple, long dark hair flowing with his every movement, sword in hand.

And then he's back in the clearing with nothing but the monster turning back, deeming them too much trouble to deal with, and the odd creature who undoubtedly saved his life.

The purple… bat… thing looks at him with an impish grin, a little worse for wear, and beaming with pride from fending off such a larger opponent.

One cut on its tail seems much deeper than all the rest, a slow stream of blood falls onto the dirt.

He searches himself for something that could be used to stop the flow, considering ripping a bit of cloth from his shirt to make do, but is made aware of a light cloth tied around his waist.

He unties it and finds a light pouch in the middle of the strip. Opening it in such a hurry he nearly rips the material, he finds a handkerchief just barely large enough to wrap around the width of its tail.

He approaches in far more of a hurry than he should, considering this is a wild animal, yet the creature seems rather fine with the attention.

As he ties the handkerchief around the creature's tail, he notices a small bit of embroidery on one corner, a little uneven, done by an inexperienced hand. He considers it for a moment before continuing, much more important things to pay mind to.

…

He finds himself referring to the creature as Shaan. He's not sure why. It simply, feels right.

He finds himself following Shaan to what appears to be a large arch, white on the left, black on the right. It leads to a road of… strange and foreign material, also white and black. Everything about this place he's found himself in seems stranger and stranger.

Shaan walks along the road for a bit and looks back at him, gesturing for him to follow.

Along the edge of the road are large gray, strangely shaped statues, glowing ethereal in blue and yellow.

Finally ahead of him he sees someone, a person, clad in a red jacket and hat. The woman notices him and Shaan.

“Hey kid, you seem a bit young to be taking on Victory road. Are you sure you're ready?”

Victory road?

“Victory road?”

She purses her lips a bit, in thought. “I'm Pokémon Ranger Elle, do you know where you are right now?”

Pokémon… ranger?

“No. I- I don't know where I am.”

The woman starts to walk towards us, studying Shaan and him. He's suddenly very aware of what a mess their encounter with the monster left them in, still wet and a bit muddy, scraped knees and elbows under his clothes. Shaan covered in scrapes and mostly shallow cuts, aside from the one on his tail, still covered.

“Your gligar looks like it could use some medical attention, and you don't look much better yourself. I'll radio in and we can head to a Pokémon Center.”

While he's not sure what a ‘gligar’ or a ‘pokémon center’ are, it's undeniable that she's offering us help. He sighs in relief.

She puts a hand on his shoulder “So, what's your name kid?”

Name. His name. What's his name?

He thinks back to the handkerchief.

“I- my name is… Seliph.”

Chapter Text

It's been three months since Seliph's come to Aspertia City. A truly peaceful place, far, far away from the chasm.

Elle had been nothing but helpful since their first encounter. When they got to the Pokémon Center and discovered that, legally, he didn't exist, she promised him she'd do everything she could to fix that. When the strange technology of the building had freaked him out, she had done her best to explain the ‘how's’ and ‘why's’. When they realized that Shaan was ‘wild’, she had helped him procure a ‘pokéball’ in order to catch him.

He had finally given her pause when he asked what a ‘Pokémon’ was.

How ironic, considering he had his arms wrapped around Shaan at that very moment.

She'd arranged for him to attend the Trainer's School in Aspertia City, because for all she knows about Pokémon, she isn't a teacher, and there's only so much a Ranger could do for him.

How in the world do you explain what a Pokémon is, they've simply always been there, these people have never needed it explained, because they can't imagine life without them.

Not that he really remembers what that life was like either. But he knows that animals don't just have small volcanoes growing on their backs. Her camerupt had given him quite a scare.

Cheren had been equally shocked when he had the situation explained to him. But he'd taken it in stride, and simply done his best to explain.

He's still not really sure he knows what Pokémon are. But he does know this:

Pokémon, for many people, are friends.

He remembers a set of dark hair and purple, of a friendly girl with fluffy hair, of her mature older brother, and of a dirty blond boy so, so worried about his sister.

He looks over at Shaan, munching happily on half a sandwich, and thinks he'd like that.

…

Wait a minute, where did he get that sandwi-

"HEY"

Ah, so it was Nate's.