Inconspicuosaurus
Bone-ified dinosaur
Rated for minor blood-shed and violence in later chapters.
Right, so first of all let me shamelessly plug the project that this fic is a part of. The Havoc and Serenity Project is a fan-game and fakedex project started by myself and co-creator (aliased here) Team_Magma93. Equilibria is the story of a beginning Pokemon trainer on his journey through Cuaro - the region in which the games Pokemon Havoc Version and Pokemon Serenity Version are set. This fic's main purpose is to reveal the storyline of these games in as evilly suspenseful a manner as possible.
Chapters will be jointly posted here and on the HaSe Project's forums along with the concise version of the storyline as it would appear in the games.
As Equilibria is part of a fakedex project, a fair amount of original Pokemon feature both heavily and briefly as the story progresses. The project site is constantly being updated with new pages on the people and Pokemon of Cuaro so if you want to know more than is revealed in the fic itself then feel free to head on over there and join our fledgling project. ^^
As a developing writer, I know I still have a lot to learn and I would love to receive as much constructive criticism of Equilibria here or via PM. Hopefully there won't be many straight-forward spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes but just in case as you read you think there are, please bear in mind that I am English and as such use British spelling, so colour instead of 'color', etc.
Anywho, on with the show!
Actually, one small note: if you recognise parts of this fic that's because I posted the first draft of this fic here a while ago before stopping to concentrate more on the project itself. Only the first few chapters were done at that point and have been re-written anyway but just in case anyone didn't realise it was me again. ^^
The Cuaro Region. A dramatic place where towering mountains meet peaceful plains, boiling volcanoes meet sapphire lagoons and scorching deserts meet verdant forests. A place left untouched for millennia and unknown to all but the indigenous peoples of the mountain villages and the roaming tribes of the vast plains.
But as the years of technical advancement in the regions across the sea have continued and the need for energy has swelled, the black gold of the Ouwahlu Desert and the towering trees of the Serpent Forest have drawn in many outsiders: scientists from the dismantled oil-works of Almia, miners from the long-spent quarries of Orre, and money-hungry tycoons from the grand cities of Kanto and Sinnoh.
These people have profited enormously from the land and its bounty, building sprawling cities on the great, flat, plains and pumping the resources for all they’re worth. They spread their poisons like a plague across the once magnificent region.
And as if this ongoing evil wasn’t bad enough, there is a new threat in Cuaro, one that could lead not just to the destruction of the region’s countryside, but to the end of the very universe it is part of.
Ethar stared thoughtfully out to sea from the prow of the ship. The ragged coast of the Cuaro Region was just emerging over the horizon. Besides that, the view was grey and gloomy; rain clouds were moving in. The steely-coloured sea bucked and thrashed under the gale of the oncoming storm. The young man wrapped his cloak around himself to protect against the wind and the early-morning chill and redirected his gaze inwards.
The dreams were back, haunting him during the day as well as in the solitude of his cabin. Whenever he was alone, the awful memories crept back into his thoughts.
RrRRRRRrrrrRRR! The whole house was shaking, the young boy clinging to the oak-panelled walls had never felt such power. Every mahogany door rattled on its hinges, every expensive, china ornament vibrated closer to the edge of whichever lofty precipice it was perched on. The boy was panicking. Where were his parents? The staff? Where had everyone gone? It was dark outside the polished, glass window of his bedroom. His nanny had just left to get him a glass of water and then the noises had started; men shouting, the roars and grunts of Pokemon, even a gunshot at one point. The boy had jumped out of his sumptuous four-poster and run out into the hall. The lights were flickering, his eyes couldn’t adjust to the intermittent darkness, and then- CRASH!
A chilly wave of cool sea air swept over the deck, complete with a bucketful of salty spray. Ethar gasped for breath, the panic from all those years ago slowly subsiding.
He glanced downwards at the Decipoise and Blophin playing in the wake of the ship. It was one of the larger of the Pokemon that had caused the splash. Ethar smiled distractedly.
Their sleek, pale blue bodies bucked and dived in the streaming v-shape that spread from the ship’s prow. Some of the male Decipoise playfully jousted each other with their single, spiralled tusk and a female shielded her tiny, young Blophin with her fin as the boat sped past a flock of Wingull dive bombing a school of Remoraid.
Decipoise were well-known for their joyous attitude, but not even their antics could lighten Ethar’s spirits. He sighed and returned to his vigil. His scruffy, black hair whipped around his pale face and his dark clothes were soaked with spray. He couldn’t relax; too much rested on this new start.
A wave of compressed air and a faint pressure on the boys eardrums indicated the arrival of one of his partners. Suddenly and quite impossibly, a humanoid creature with styled, green hair was occupying the section of deck behind the boy. The creature had very large, pinkish eyes and dark green skin. The white, papery garment that grew from its waist was trimmed into the shape of trench-coat tails and it had let its shoulder fringes grow into sleeves. It was a Gardevoir, a powerful Psychic-type Pokemon.
<It’ll be fine, Ethar.> The words resolved themselves into a deep, male-sounding voice in Ethar’s mind. The Pokemon’s mouth hadn’t moved, but his psychic powers presented his intended meaning directly to the boys brain. While Ethar could not directly hear his voice, he would always know what his partner was trying to tell him.
To the average person, this would have felt extremely disconcerting, but Ethar had known the Gardevoir for quite a while now and he was accustomed to the psychic Pokemon’s strange ways.
“I don’t want to just drift anymore. I want answers,” said the young man.
<I thought we agreed we were going to put that behind us,> replied the Gardevoir with a hint of pity in his telepathic voice.
“I can’t do it, Psymon!” he said without turning away from the seascape, “If this ‘Cuaro Region’ doesn’t offer me the new start I want then I’m going to have to go in search of what happened.”
The tall Pokemon laid a slender, green hand on his friends shoulder, <Like I said before, it will be fine. Nobody knows you here. Even if you do let your curse-of-a-name slip again, it will mean nothing to these people.>
“I hope you’re right, Psymon, I really do,” Ethar closed his eyes and took a deep breath. After a few seconds he turned around to face the Gardevoir, a strained smile on his wind-beaten face, “So where are Orvel and Lance?” he asked, “Not causing havoc with our fellow passengers again I hope.”
<Ha-ha, I certainly hope not, they’ve only just finished clearing up the mess in the dining hall,> said the Pokemon, his wide eyes creasing in a smile.
The dark-haired boy smiled properly for the first time that day, “I know! No matter how much trouble that man was having cutting his steak, Orvel was never going to make a better job of it with a Leaf Blade.”
Psymon chuckled, <Let’s get back inside, we’ll be arriving soon and I think I felt a raindrop.>
Far away, in a part of the Cuaro Region not being ravaged by storm for once, the dawn light was just reaching the precarious round-houses and terraced gardens of Tempest Village. In the second brightly-painted house down from the top of the west peak, another boy was dreaming, but not of the horrors of the past. His subconscious imaginings were of the future.
RrrRRRrrRR! The thunderous round of applause reverberated around the stadium, filling the boy with triumphant joy. The battle field stretched out before him, on the other side stood his opponent. Their strongest and final Pokemon was just taking the field. The boys own Pokemon stood in front of him. Having ploughed through the Champion’s first five Pokemon, his faithful partner would annihilate this last obstacle and then the title of Champion of the Cuaro Region would be theirs! The opponent called their move, the boy called his, the two Pokemon rushed across the stage on a collision course that would decide the fate of the battle. Closer, closer, the ground shook under their pounding footsteps, any second now- RrRRrrshk!
With the rattling sound of a blind clattering itself open, a stream of bright sunlight burst through the glassless window of the Pachama family’s round house. The beam found the face of the young boy, though it was largely obscured by a brightly-coloured woven duvet and a tasselled hat of the same material. In fact, if it wasn’t for the tufts of black hair and the nut-brown skin of the boy’s face, he would have passed without difficulty as a bundle of spare rugs.
“RAIMUNDO THEODORE PACHAMA OF THE GREAT TEMPEST MOUNTAINS!” shouted a female voice, “GET UP THIS INSTANT! YOU’RE ALREADY TWO MINUTES LATE FOR WORK!”
The boy grunted and rolled over, but the words gradually sunk into his mind and after much consideration his brain decided that they were due some sort of dramatic recognition.
The boy sat bolt upright, he eyes shot wide open and his duvet flew into a heap on the floor. Now would probably be a good time to highlight the fact that Raimundo, the boy in question, had been sleeping in a hammock. Anybody who has ever slept in a hammock will tell you that sifting your weight as dramatically as Raimundo had just done is not advisable unless you wish to take a short, but highly comical, trip to the floor.
“Rai, did you know that not a single member of the Pachama family had ever fallen out of a hammock for over a century before you were born?” said a young, male voice from above the boy’s head.
“No, Thomas, I didn’t know that. I would thank you for that fascinating tit-bit of information, but my mouth is currently moulding itself into the shape of the carpet weave,” grumbled Raimundo into the rug, “Now, would you please help me up!”
“Rai! That is no way to speak to your brother, and you are perfectly capable of getting yourself up,” said the female voice again, “Although you do need a bit of practice with the timing.”
Rai groaned and pulled himself to his feet. He shuffled laboriously to the table in the centre of the one-roomed hut and began to ladle himself some of the porridge-like cereal that almost all Tempest Village people ate every morning.
“Rai?” asked Morana Pachama, Rai’s mother, “do you have the memory of a Goldeen? I said, YOU ARE LATE FOR WORK!”
Rai dropped the ladle, showering Tommy, his brother, with globules of gelatinous oatmeal. He sprinted across the room in three steps, retrieved a home-woven jacket, an old T-shirt and some faded jeans from their usual pile on the floor and leapt behind one of the various hanging mats to change.
His mind was always doing that - switching back into mindless routine when it should be focusing on something important. He saw it as a sign that he really needed to get out of this place before his brain turned to mush.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like Tempest Village - it was a beautiful place, with its colourful people in even more colourful clothes, its rope bridges and stone staircases. And then there was the looming shadow of Riven Peak, its permanent halo of broiling, purple thunderclouds always pulsing and throwing out the occasional lightning bolt to the Gym’s conducting mast.
Ah, the Gym, thought Rai as he pulled on the second of his thick, Mareep-wool socks. The only relief from the mind-numbing monotony of farming and routine was his job helping out Leader Zach at the eccentric elder’s Pokemon Gym. Sure, it was only mucking-out the Granico and maybe brushing down the Leader’s team if their was a challenge coming up, but it was always the highlight of Rai’s day; and it wouldn’t be for much longer if he didn’t hurry up! Finally dressed, Rai shot out from behind the screen and ran towards the curtained door.
“Remember to open the door before you charge through the curtain this time!” shouted Tommy after him as he hurled his satchel onto his shoulder.
Out in the morning sunshine, he skidded to a stop on the gravely ground of the precipice that his family home was built on. He glanced around, then put his first and second fingers in his mouth and whistled as loud as possible. With a sound of scattering pebbles and galloping hooves, a Pokemon came running round from behind the house. The Pokemon was the size of a large dog and had pale brown fur coating most of its body. There was a tuft of darker brown fur on the top of its head and it had rock-like lumps on its knees and back. It had dark brown, cloven hooves and a short tail that wagged from side to side as it stopped in front of the boy. The Pokemon looked up at him with a quizzical look that seemed to say “and where have you been?”
“Yes, yes, I know I’m late, Cree. Now let’s go, we’ll have to run, but try not to fall over too much, okay?”
The Montama, llama-like Pokemon native to the Tempest Mountains were traditionally reared by the Tempest villagers as beasts of burden. However, they were only useful once evolved into Granico as the young were prone to extreme clumsiness. As a result, from a young age stony protrusions formed on their knees and saddle-area to protect them from injury.
Rai continued at his brutal pace down the staircase hewn out of the side of the mountain down to the next layer. His hat-tassels whipped around his face in the ever-present mountain wind and Cree stumbled wildly, but just managed to stay on her feet, as she cantered along behind him.
Many a head turned as the pair ran past the terrace gardens where most of the food that sustained the community was grown. The farmers shook their heads and turned back to their work. Rai was well-known for his wistful ways and most just saw him as lazy. One farmer even shook his fist at them when a small boulder scattered by Cree’s flailing hooves squashed one of his carefully tended cabbages. Rai waved to his father when he saw him in the distance tending the family’s flock of Mareep which were grazing on the sparse vegetation that sprouted between the rocks on the sides of the mountains. But after the quick greeting they continued hurriedly on their way.
Eventually, Rai’s frantic dashing brought him to the start of the bridge which spanned the ravine between the East and West peaks of Tempest Village. He shielded his eyes from the sun and searched the distant other side for people coming in the opposite direction. He really was late - the bridge, though only just big enough to allow two people to pass each other, was normally bustling with people on their way to work or visiting friends and family when Rai reached it in the morning. Now though, a solitary shepherd was the only person coming across the bridge.
“Oh, lord Zephound of the thunderclouds, how can my day get any worse,” swore Rai to himself. He had just noticed that the shepherd was not so solitary after all. There was a flock of Mareep, with the occasional pink Flaafy sticking out from the crowd, moving slowly onto the bridge after him.
The yellow, woolly sheep Pokemon, though very useful for making clothes (and delicious with potatoes on special occasions) were not famed for their intelligence, and they were still - even after hundreds of years of successful crossings - terrified of traversing the bridge.
Rai slumped down onto a near-by boulder and put his head in his hands. Cree nuzzled him affectionately with her wet snout but the boy pushed her away.
“It’s hopeless, Cree,” he muttered into his gloves, “they’ll take at least an hour getting over the bridge and we couldn’t push past them even if we tried. I’m going to be so late that they’ll be eating noon meal by the time I get to the Gym. And then I’ll be fired for sure.”
Cree hung her head, she hated to see her friend and trainer like this. If only she could help him… but wait! She had crossed to the other mountain plenty of times without using the bridge. The Granico and Montama owned by the villagers were allowed to roam free most of the time and there was a cliff that jutted out further down the mountain that narrowed the void just enough that you could jump from it and land on another cliff on the other side. It was a long way down and back up again, and she had never managed to make the jump without falling over, but it would still be faster than waiting for the Mareep.
“Tama!” cried Cree and tugged at Rai’s jacket. The boy looked up, confused by his Pokemons sudden change of mood.
“What, you want me to follow you?”
“Tama-tama!” said the llama Pokemon excitedly.
“I suppose I’ve got nothing better to do,” he reasoned glumly, “Come on then.”
The faithful Pokemon led her trainer to the top of the path that led to the leaping cliff. Rai looked down the worn trail and spotted where it ended.
“No way! I can’t jump that Cree! You may be able to slide on your knee pads for a while if you crash, but I could kill myself trying to make that. A Granico would jump it easily but - hang on a second…”
With a mischievous look in his eye, Rai glanced around the precipice, searching for - yes! There was a small group of Granico grazing beside one of the houses. He approached the large animal with caution. They were much larger and stronger than their prevolutions, with fully developed rock-hard armour on their legs and backs. But the armour wasn’t used for protection anymore, one kick from one of those stone hooves could send you flying off the side of the mountain if you made the wrong move.
The closest beast was a beauty. One and a half metres tall at the shoulder, with a black sheen to its rocky hide and an earthy brown shade of glossy fur. It was wearing a cloth saddle on top of its natural stone one with a bronze name-plaque that read ‘Obsidian.’ Rai crouched down and plucked a handful of grass from the ground.
“Here Siddy, Siddy, Siddy,” He called to the Granico, “I’ve got a nice bit of foody-woody here for the Pokemon that lets me ride him for a while.”
Cree rolled her eyes but obviously ‘Sid’ wasn’t the smartest Granico in the world because he eagerly abandoned the perfectly edible patch of identical grass he’d been standing on and trotted over to the stems in Rai’s hand. As he munched the grass, the boy swung himself up onto the saddle without the slightest resistance from Sid.
He rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a small, green, spherical object. It was Cree’s Pokeball, hewn from a green Apricorn to promote friendship by Rai’s father and given to him - complete with his first Pokemon - on the day of his tenth birthday. He twisted the top off and the strange, red light poured out and enveloped Cree, drawing her into the ball.
Rai pocketed the ball and spurred his new mount on with his heel. Grabbing the reins he directed Sid towards the path that Cree had pointed out. The way down was boulder -strewn and treacherous, but the Granico had obviously been this way before as he made his way down it as sure-footedly as if he were pulling his owners plough across a cabbage field. That was a thing, what would happen when Sid’s owner realised he was missing? In the heat of the moment Rai had skimmed over the consequences of his actions. He’d have to point him in the right direction once they were on the other side and hope that the slow-witted creature would find his way back.
Eventually, they reached the precipice. The mirror cliff on the other side was about three metres away from the edge, but the yawning chasm in between made it seem like thirty. If Rai had ever watched TV then the view of the valley below would have reminded him of a Manic Manectric fall scene from PokeToons, with the thin, blue river winding between the jagged boulders at the bottom. But Rai would need more than a sign saying ‘Ouch!’ if he missed this target. Shaking with the prospect of what lay seconds away, Rai encouraged his borrowed steed as close to the edge as he dared.
“C’mon, Siddy,” he urged, “you know you can do it boy. Look, there’s a nice tasty patch of grass over on that side for you if you make it.”
That seemed to do the trick because, with a lick of his dextrous lips, the beast launched himself into the air. Unfortunately, in his haste to reach his next meal, Sid had forgotten to account for the extra wait on his back and when he made his jump only the front part of his body cleared the gap. The huge llama scrabbled with its stony hooves on the gravely surface of the edge but he was slipping fast. He couldn’t get any purchase on the side of the cliff with his back legs either - the overhang was far too shear.
“Graaa!” bleated the huge creature, his barrel chest sliding over the pebbles.
Meanwhile, Rai was frantically trying to free his feet from the stirrups so that he could climb over the llama’s head and help pull him up. But the time was up, Sid, the magnificent Granico and pride of his owner, lost his tenuous grip on the cliff and slid off into the pristine mountain air.
Right, so first of all let me shamelessly plug the project that this fic is a part of. The Havoc and Serenity Project is a fan-game and fakedex project started by myself and co-creator (aliased here) Team_Magma93. Equilibria is the story of a beginning Pokemon trainer on his journey through Cuaro - the region in which the games Pokemon Havoc Version and Pokemon Serenity Version are set. This fic's main purpose is to reveal the storyline of these games in as evilly suspenseful a manner as possible.
Chapters will be jointly posted here and on the HaSe Project's forums along with the concise version of the storyline as it would appear in the games.
As Equilibria is part of a fakedex project, a fair amount of original Pokemon feature both heavily and briefly as the story progresses. The project site is constantly being updated with new pages on the people and Pokemon of Cuaro so if you want to know more than is revealed in the fic itself then feel free to head on over there and join our fledgling project. ^^
As a developing writer, I know I still have a lot to learn and I would love to receive as much constructive criticism of Equilibria here or via PM. Hopefully there won't be many straight-forward spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes but just in case as you read you think there are, please bear in mind that I am English and as such use British spelling, so colour instead of 'color', etc.
Anywho, on with the show!
Actually, one small note: if you recognise parts of this fic that's because I posted the first draft of this fic here a while ago before stopping to concentrate more on the project itself. Only the first few chapters were done at that point and have been re-written anyway but just in case anyone didn't realise it was me again. ^^
Prologue.
The Cuaro Region. A dramatic place where towering mountains meet peaceful plains, boiling volcanoes meet sapphire lagoons and scorching deserts meet verdant forests. A place left untouched for millennia and unknown to all but the indigenous peoples of the mountain villages and the roaming tribes of the vast plains.
But as the years of technical advancement in the regions across the sea have continued and the need for energy has swelled, the black gold of the Ouwahlu Desert and the towering trees of the Serpent Forest have drawn in many outsiders: scientists from the dismantled oil-works of Almia, miners from the long-spent quarries of Orre, and money-hungry tycoons from the grand cities of Kanto and Sinnoh.
These people have profited enormously from the land and its bounty, building sprawling cities on the great, flat, plains and pumping the resources for all they’re worth. They spread their poisons like a plague across the once magnificent region.
And as if this ongoing evil wasn’t bad enough, there is a new threat in Cuaro, one that could lead not just to the destruction of the region’s countryside, but to the end of the very universe it is part of.
*** ***
Chapter 1: Sleepy heads and Sailing ships.
Chapter 1: Sleepy heads and Sailing ships.
Ethar stared thoughtfully out to sea from the prow of the ship. The ragged coast of the Cuaro Region was just emerging over the horizon. Besides that, the view was grey and gloomy; rain clouds were moving in. The steely-coloured sea bucked and thrashed under the gale of the oncoming storm. The young man wrapped his cloak around himself to protect against the wind and the early-morning chill and redirected his gaze inwards.
The dreams were back, haunting him during the day as well as in the solitude of his cabin. Whenever he was alone, the awful memories crept back into his thoughts.
RrRRRRRrrrrRRR! The whole house was shaking, the young boy clinging to the oak-panelled walls had never felt such power. Every mahogany door rattled on its hinges, every expensive, china ornament vibrated closer to the edge of whichever lofty precipice it was perched on. The boy was panicking. Where were his parents? The staff? Where had everyone gone? It was dark outside the polished, glass window of his bedroom. His nanny had just left to get him a glass of water and then the noises had started; men shouting, the roars and grunts of Pokemon, even a gunshot at one point. The boy had jumped out of his sumptuous four-poster and run out into the hall. The lights were flickering, his eyes couldn’t adjust to the intermittent darkness, and then- CRASH!
A chilly wave of cool sea air swept over the deck, complete with a bucketful of salty spray. Ethar gasped for breath, the panic from all those years ago slowly subsiding.
He glanced downwards at the Decipoise and Blophin playing in the wake of the ship. It was one of the larger of the Pokemon that had caused the splash. Ethar smiled distractedly.
Their sleek, pale blue bodies bucked and dived in the streaming v-shape that spread from the ship’s prow. Some of the male Decipoise playfully jousted each other with their single, spiralled tusk and a female shielded her tiny, young Blophin with her fin as the boat sped past a flock of Wingull dive bombing a school of Remoraid.
Decipoise were well-known for their joyous attitude, but not even their antics could lighten Ethar’s spirits. He sighed and returned to his vigil. His scruffy, black hair whipped around his pale face and his dark clothes were soaked with spray. He couldn’t relax; too much rested on this new start.
A wave of compressed air and a faint pressure on the boys eardrums indicated the arrival of one of his partners. Suddenly and quite impossibly, a humanoid creature with styled, green hair was occupying the section of deck behind the boy. The creature had very large, pinkish eyes and dark green skin. The white, papery garment that grew from its waist was trimmed into the shape of trench-coat tails and it had let its shoulder fringes grow into sleeves. It was a Gardevoir, a powerful Psychic-type Pokemon.
<It’ll be fine, Ethar.> The words resolved themselves into a deep, male-sounding voice in Ethar’s mind. The Pokemon’s mouth hadn’t moved, but his psychic powers presented his intended meaning directly to the boys brain. While Ethar could not directly hear his voice, he would always know what his partner was trying to tell him.
To the average person, this would have felt extremely disconcerting, but Ethar had known the Gardevoir for quite a while now and he was accustomed to the psychic Pokemon’s strange ways.
“I don’t want to just drift anymore. I want answers,” said the young man.
<I thought we agreed we were going to put that behind us,> replied the Gardevoir with a hint of pity in his telepathic voice.
“I can’t do it, Psymon!” he said without turning away from the seascape, “If this ‘Cuaro Region’ doesn’t offer me the new start I want then I’m going to have to go in search of what happened.”
The tall Pokemon laid a slender, green hand on his friends shoulder, <Like I said before, it will be fine. Nobody knows you here. Even if you do let your curse-of-a-name slip again, it will mean nothing to these people.>
“I hope you’re right, Psymon, I really do,” Ethar closed his eyes and took a deep breath. After a few seconds he turned around to face the Gardevoir, a strained smile on his wind-beaten face, “So where are Orvel and Lance?” he asked, “Not causing havoc with our fellow passengers again I hope.”
<Ha-ha, I certainly hope not, they’ve only just finished clearing up the mess in the dining hall,> said the Pokemon, his wide eyes creasing in a smile.
The dark-haired boy smiled properly for the first time that day, “I know! No matter how much trouble that man was having cutting his steak, Orvel was never going to make a better job of it with a Leaf Blade.”
Psymon chuckled, <Let’s get back inside, we’ll be arriving soon and I think I felt a raindrop.>
*** ***
Far away, in a part of the Cuaro Region not being ravaged by storm for once, the dawn light was just reaching the precarious round-houses and terraced gardens of Tempest Village. In the second brightly-painted house down from the top of the west peak, another boy was dreaming, but not of the horrors of the past. His subconscious imaginings were of the future.
RrrRRRrrRR! The thunderous round of applause reverberated around the stadium, filling the boy with triumphant joy. The battle field stretched out before him, on the other side stood his opponent. Their strongest and final Pokemon was just taking the field. The boys own Pokemon stood in front of him. Having ploughed through the Champion’s first five Pokemon, his faithful partner would annihilate this last obstacle and then the title of Champion of the Cuaro Region would be theirs! The opponent called their move, the boy called his, the two Pokemon rushed across the stage on a collision course that would decide the fate of the battle. Closer, closer, the ground shook under their pounding footsteps, any second now- RrRRrrshk!
With the rattling sound of a blind clattering itself open, a stream of bright sunlight burst through the glassless window of the Pachama family’s round house. The beam found the face of the young boy, though it was largely obscured by a brightly-coloured woven duvet and a tasselled hat of the same material. In fact, if it wasn’t for the tufts of black hair and the nut-brown skin of the boy’s face, he would have passed without difficulty as a bundle of spare rugs.
“RAIMUNDO THEODORE PACHAMA OF THE GREAT TEMPEST MOUNTAINS!” shouted a female voice, “GET UP THIS INSTANT! YOU’RE ALREADY TWO MINUTES LATE FOR WORK!”
The boy grunted and rolled over, but the words gradually sunk into his mind and after much consideration his brain decided that they were due some sort of dramatic recognition.
The boy sat bolt upright, he eyes shot wide open and his duvet flew into a heap on the floor. Now would probably be a good time to highlight the fact that Raimundo, the boy in question, had been sleeping in a hammock. Anybody who has ever slept in a hammock will tell you that sifting your weight as dramatically as Raimundo had just done is not advisable unless you wish to take a short, but highly comical, trip to the floor.
“Rai, did you know that not a single member of the Pachama family had ever fallen out of a hammock for over a century before you were born?” said a young, male voice from above the boy’s head.
“No, Thomas, I didn’t know that. I would thank you for that fascinating tit-bit of information, but my mouth is currently moulding itself into the shape of the carpet weave,” grumbled Raimundo into the rug, “Now, would you please help me up!”
“Rai! That is no way to speak to your brother, and you are perfectly capable of getting yourself up,” said the female voice again, “Although you do need a bit of practice with the timing.”
Rai groaned and pulled himself to his feet. He shuffled laboriously to the table in the centre of the one-roomed hut and began to ladle himself some of the porridge-like cereal that almost all Tempest Village people ate every morning.
“Rai?” asked Morana Pachama, Rai’s mother, “do you have the memory of a Goldeen? I said, YOU ARE LATE FOR WORK!”
Rai dropped the ladle, showering Tommy, his brother, with globules of gelatinous oatmeal. He sprinted across the room in three steps, retrieved a home-woven jacket, an old T-shirt and some faded jeans from their usual pile on the floor and leapt behind one of the various hanging mats to change.
His mind was always doing that - switching back into mindless routine when it should be focusing on something important. He saw it as a sign that he really needed to get out of this place before his brain turned to mush.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like Tempest Village - it was a beautiful place, with its colourful people in even more colourful clothes, its rope bridges and stone staircases. And then there was the looming shadow of Riven Peak, its permanent halo of broiling, purple thunderclouds always pulsing and throwing out the occasional lightning bolt to the Gym’s conducting mast.
Ah, the Gym, thought Rai as he pulled on the second of his thick, Mareep-wool socks. The only relief from the mind-numbing monotony of farming and routine was his job helping out Leader Zach at the eccentric elder’s Pokemon Gym. Sure, it was only mucking-out the Granico and maybe brushing down the Leader’s team if their was a challenge coming up, but it was always the highlight of Rai’s day; and it wouldn’t be for much longer if he didn’t hurry up! Finally dressed, Rai shot out from behind the screen and ran towards the curtained door.
“Remember to open the door before you charge through the curtain this time!” shouted Tommy after him as he hurled his satchel onto his shoulder.
Out in the morning sunshine, he skidded to a stop on the gravely ground of the precipice that his family home was built on. He glanced around, then put his first and second fingers in his mouth and whistled as loud as possible. With a sound of scattering pebbles and galloping hooves, a Pokemon came running round from behind the house. The Pokemon was the size of a large dog and had pale brown fur coating most of its body. There was a tuft of darker brown fur on the top of its head and it had rock-like lumps on its knees and back. It had dark brown, cloven hooves and a short tail that wagged from side to side as it stopped in front of the boy. The Pokemon looked up at him with a quizzical look that seemed to say “and where have you been?”
“Yes, yes, I know I’m late, Cree. Now let’s go, we’ll have to run, but try not to fall over too much, okay?”
The Montama, llama-like Pokemon native to the Tempest Mountains were traditionally reared by the Tempest villagers as beasts of burden. However, they were only useful once evolved into Granico as the young were prone to extreme clumsiness. As a result, from a young age stony protrusions formed on their knees and saddle-area to protect them from injury.
Rai continued at his brutal pace down the staircase hewn out of the side of the mountain down to the next layer. His hat-tassels whipped around his face in the ever-present mountain wind and Cree stumbled wildly, but just managed to stay on her feet, as she cantered along behind him.
Many a head turned as the pair ran past the terrace gardens where most of the food that sustained the community was grown. The farmers shook their heads and turned back to their work. Rai was well-known for his wistful ways and most just saw him as lazy. One farmer even shook his fist at them when a small boulder scattered by Cree’s flailing hooves squashed one of his carefully tended cabbages. Rai waved to his father when he saw him in the distance tending the family’s flock of Mareep which were grazing on the sparse vegetation that sprouted between the rocks on the sides of the mountains. But after the quick greeting they continued hurriedly on their way.
Eventually, Rai’s frantic dashing brought him to the start of the bridge which spanned the ravine between the East and West peaks of Tempest Village. He shielded his eyes from the sun and searched the distant other side for people coming in the opposite direction. He really was late - the bridge, though only just big enough to allow two people to pass each other, was normally bustling with people on their way to work or visiting friends and family when Rai reached it in the morning. Now though, a solitary shepherd was the only person coming across the bridge.
“Oh, lord Zephound of the thunderclouds, how can my day get any worse,” swore Rai to himself. He had just noticed that the shepherd was not so solitary after all. There was a flock of Mareep, with the occasional pink Flaafy sticking out from the crowd, moving slowly onto the bridge after him.
The yellow, woolly sheep Pokemon, though very useful for making clothes (and delicious with potatoes on special occasions) were not famed for their intelligence, and they were still - even after hundreds of years of successful crossings - terrified of traversing the bridge.
Rai slumped down onto a near-by boulder and put his head in his hands. Cree nuzzled him affectionately with her wet snout but the boy pushed her away.
“It’s hopeless, Cree,” he muttered into his gloves, “they’ll take at least an hour getting over the bridge and we couldn’t push past them even if we tried. I’m going to be so late that they’ll be eating noon meal by the time I get to the Gym. And then I’ll be fired for sure.”
Cree hung her head, she hated to see her friend and trainer like this. If only she could help him… but wait! She had crossed to the other mountain plenty of times without using the bridge. The Granico and Montama owned by the villagers were allowed to roam free most of the time and there was a cliff that jutted out further down the mountain that narrowed the void just enough that you could jump from it and land on another cliff on the other side. It was a long way down and back up again, and she had never managed to make the jump without falling over, but it would still be faster than waiting for the Mareep.
“Tama!” cried Cree and tugged at Rai’s jacket. The boy looked up, confused by his Pokemons sudden change of mood.
“What, you want me to follow you?”
“Tama-tama!” said the llama Pokemon excitedly.
“I suppose I’ve got nothing better to do,” he reasoned glumly, “Come on then.”
The faithful Pokemon led her trainer to the top of the path that led to the leaping cliff. Rai looked down the worn trail and spotted where it ended.
“No way! I can’t jump that Cree! You may be able to slide on your knee pads for a while if you crash, but I could kill myself trying to make that. A Granico would jump it easily but - hang on a second…”
With a mischievous look in his eye, Rai glanced around the precipice, searching for - yes! There was a small group of Granico grazing beside one of the houses. He approached the large animal with caution. They were much larger and stronger than their prevolutions, with fully developed rock-hard armour on their legs and backs. But the armour wasn’t used for protection anymore, one kick from one of those stone hooves could send you flying off the side of the mountain if you made the wrong move.
The closest beast was a beauty. One and a half metres tall at the shoulder, with a black sheen to its rocky hide and an earthy brown shade of glossy fur. It was wearing a cloth saddle on top of its natural stone one with a bronze name-plaque that read ‘Obsidian.’ Rai crouched down and plucked a handful of grass from the ground.
“Here Siddy, Siddy, Siddy,” He called to the Granico, “I’ve got a nice bit of foody-woody here for the Pokemon that lets me ride him for a while.”
Cree rolled her eyes but obviously ‘Sid’ wasn’t the smartest Granico in the world because he eagerly abandoned the perfectly edible patch of identical grass he’d been standing on and trotted over to the stems in Rai’s hand. As he munched the grass, the boy swung himself up onto the saddle without the slightest resistance from Sid.
He rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a small, green, spherical object. It was Cree’s Pokeball, hewn from a green Apricorn to promote friendship by Rai’s father and given to him - complete with his first Pokemon - on the day of his tenth birthday. He twisted the top off and the strange, red light poured out and enveloped Cree, drawing her into the ball.
Rai pocketed the ball and spurred his new mount on with his heel. Grabbing the reins he directed Sid towards the path that Cree had pointed out. The way down was boulder -strewn and treacherous, but the Granico had obviously been this way before as he made his way down it as sure-footedly as if he were pulling his owners plough across a cabbage field. That was a thing, what would happen when Sid’s owner realised he was missing? In the heat of the moment Rai had skimmed over the consequences of his actions. He’d have to point him in the right direction once they were on the other side and hope that the slow-witted creature would find his way back.
Eventually, they reached the precipice. The mirror cliff on the other side was about three metres away from the edge, but the yawning chasm in between made it seem like thirty. If Rai had ever watched TV then the view of the valley below would have reminded him of a Manic Manectric fall scene from PokeToons, with the thin, blue river winding between the jagged boulders at the bottom. But Rai would need more than a sign saying ‘Ouch!’ if he missed this target. Shaking with the prospect of what lay seconds away, Rai encouraged his borrowed steed as close to the edge as he dared.
“C’mon, Siddy,” he urged, “you know you can do it boy. Look, there’s a nice tasty patch of grass over on that side for you if you make it.”
That seemed to do the trick because, with a lick of his dextrous lips, the beast launched himself into the air. Unfortunately, in his haste to reach his next meal, Sid had forgotten to account for the extra wait on his back and when he made his jump only the front part of his body cleared the gap. The huge llama scrabbled with its stony hooves on the gravely surface of the edge but he was slipping fast. He couldn’t get any purchase on the side of the cliff with his back legs either - the overhang was far too shear.
“Graaa!” bleated the huge creature, his barrel chest sliding over the pebbles.
Meanwhile, Rai was frantically trying to free his feet from the stirrups so that he could climb over the llama’s head and help pull him up. But the time was up, Sid, the magnificent Granico and pride of his owner, lost his tenuous grip on the cliff and slid off into the pristine mountain air.
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