Chapter Text
He wakes in pain. His head, his back — something wet cakes his hair, plastering it against his head.
It’s hard to see. He thinks he can see something moving, but he can’t make out the true shape of it.
He can’t think beyond the pain. Can’t move.
All he can manage is a coughing wheeze before his mind caves under the strain, sending him back to the void.
- - - - -
He wakes, again in pain, but…less. How much is difficult to say.
He forces his eyes open. Immediately, his left responds with pain, forcing him to shut it again. Something seems…wrong, still, with that one.
The area is mostly dark. Something bright seems to be coming down from above.
Shouts, faint and indistinct. He can’t make out what they’re saying.
Something huffs, closer to him, on his right. He turns his head and blinks.
A four-legged, black and green creature, with glowing green eyes and a red, sharp shape at the base of its neck, is sitting nearby, staring at him.
“Zeh,” the creature barks. it turns and moves a few steps away, then turned and looked back at him. “Zeh.”
He blinks.
“Zeh.” The creature sounds impatient.
…the creature wants him to…follow?
He starts pulling his limbs underneath him, to get himself to his feet. It’s slow going; every movement brings spikes of pain. Many things are broken.
A strained groan is all he can manage as he collapses again. His vision swims from the pain, and he closes his working eye to avoid having to see.
“Zeh!”
Something explodes from his waist. A presence manifests next to him, warm and large.
“Phhyrrr?”
“Zeh. Zyr.”
“Pyr.”
“Grar!”
The warm presence growls. He feels something press against his side. He doesn’t stop the wheezing gasp it brings out of him.
“Pyr?”
“Zeh.”
“…pyr.”
Two presences move to either side of him — did the other creature return? — and he’s moved by something other, with wet nose and clawed paws and teeth. Eventually, he’s rolled up and onto something soft and warm, face-first. Every part of him screams at the movement, but he’s too wrapped up in the pain to resist being moved.
The…the fur under him feels familiar, but he can’t think of why.
“Pyr.”
“Zeh.”
The fur under him moves — no, the creature under him moves. Slow, steady. Careful.
He loses consciousness again before the creature takes five steps.
- - - - -
He’s flat on his back when he surfaces from the darkness again. His body feels…less in pain, but…sore.
Something’s wrapped around his head tightly, but he doesn’t have the strength to inspect it with his hands.
He feels…warm. Too warm. He needs to be cooler, release the excess heat.
Furred paws slam down on him as he starts kicking away the layers on top of him. “Mien!”
“Pyrr!”
“Sha!”
Something gets on top of him suddenly, knocking the wind out of him. Large, with a weight he can’t fight.
Paws find his arms and legs, pushing them down against a worn-down mattress.
“Mien!”
“Pyr!”
He struggles against the weight, but he’s too weak to throw off the creatures.
He’s left gasping for breath as his strength fails him.
Something rumbles next to his head “Prrrrrrrr.”
Despite himself, he feels himself drift in response to the sound, and lets the darkness take him again.
- - - - -
He wakes again, and his mind feels clearer.
He blinks his working eye open slowly and finds himself staring up at a wooden ceiling.
The eye wanders down and around. He can’t see the whole room, with one eye closed, but he can see enough.
The space is sparse. The bed he lays on, an open window.
And four creatures crammed into the space with him.
There’s a purple creature curled up against one side of the bed. He came make out a red and yellow mane of fur on his other side, but is reluctant to turn his head to see what exactly the being is. There’s a bird of dark feathers nestled down in a corner.
And something large, blue, and scaly is curled around the space in a way that suggests it was not meant to be confined here.
It feels familiar, safe.
But he’s never seen creatures like these before.
…hasn’t he?
The thought makes him pause.
Where was he when he was found? What was he doing? He’s no child, clearly….
He tries to think back, to remember.
The last clear memory he has before awakening crushed under rock and rubble is…an explosion. Light and sound and fury slamming into him and the space around him.
Something green, saving him from the worst of the blast, even as the roof collapses in in itself.
Everything beyond that point is hazy and faint at best, or simply gone.
His head echoed with pain he’d felt when he’d first awoken. He wasn’t sure if it was in response to his searching.
Still, it stopped him.
If he wasn’t meant to remember…so be it.
Whatever these creatures around him were, they clearly knew the person he was.
Would they be disappointed to know he couldn’t recall them?
His eye watered. He forced it closed, to avoid looking at the creatures again.
The Pokemon.
His Pokemon.
…why did his heart cry at the thought of them remaining by him?