I've taken the liberty of finally giving the story a proper title. I have the story mapped out in my head now, something I didn't exactly do before I started writing. :silent:
My first attempt at a fan fiction. It's all-pokemon, and it's meant to be a comedy. Chances are it'll get at least a little serious later on, 'cause that's how I roll. :pirat: Anyway, hope you enjoy it.
And now, a Chapter Jump feature!
-
Chapter 0: Below-
Chapter 1: City in the Swamp-
Chapter 2: The Thieves----
// Chapter 0
----
So there I was, trapped like a Rattata. I couldn't trust anyone around me. All my closest friends were suddenly my most hated enemies. A bead of sweat ran down my forehead, and I pretended not to notice. I could not show weakness or fear here. I tightened a fist and braced myself.
"Fours?"
"Go fish!"
That was the end of it. I slammed my paw on the ground and tossed my cards everywhere. "This is ridiculous!" I yelled. "You guys are the worst cheaters I've ever seen!"
"As if you can tell," said Yuki. Nobody could ever tell whether she was cheating or not. Her expression was as blank as ever, and she could beat a snake in a staring contest with ease. Nobody ever figured out how. Her cold stare could shatter the toughest of facades and invoke sheer terror in any person, place, or thing. Cold stare, that's what it was. The coldest Glaceon the world had ever seen.
"Lighten up," said Kogasu. "You're just being sore because you're losing. Me, I'm up for another game! How about you two?"
Nobody liked to see Kogasu win either. He was always so full of himself, pride in a package. He had collected nearly the entire deck in front of him, and sat laughing as if he had taken over the world. Yuki and I were not amused. Most peole expected a Flareon to be respectable and honorable, but five minutes with Kogasu definitively proves that one can't judge a book by its cover.
"Ugh, enough." I said. It wasn't long before I couldn't take his laughing any more. "When the others get ba--"
"What when we get back?"
Kokoro's voice always snatched my attention. Especially when I had had no one to listen to all morning besides Kogasu. I would rather hear Wynaut and Wobbuffet talk back and forth than Kogasu's flaunting, and Kokoro than almost anything else.
Shuurai had taken Shinrin, Kokoro, and Unabara off to collect food, and they came back with their favorite foods and extras to share. Kokoro knew my favorite berries, and had brought a large bag full. Unabara brought a healthy catch of fish from the river by Mount Coronet, and a chicken bone for Kogasu. We all knew he deserved it. Shuurai snuck food from town to share with Yuki, and Shinrin brought a giant ham for herself. She was never really one to share.
"Where the heck did you get that!?" I almost choked on my Leppa berry.
"That's what took us so long," Unabara said. "We had to track her down. She went all the way to the swamp!"
Unabara hated having to chase Shinrin around all the time. He hated swamps too, the water was "yucky", he said. As a Vaporeon, he only liked clean water. The same way, Shinrin claimed to like the plants because of how big they get.
"I hate swamps too." I said. "A bunch of drowned plants is even more depressing than none at all."
Shinrin scoffed. It seemed plants were all the same to her.
"It's not a swamp, it's a marsh." Shuurai corrected. Only he would know the difference, if there even was one.
Shuurai was not the oldest one of us--that was Kogasu--but he was certainly the most mature. His pride was a respectable one, and we all valued his leadership and judgment. I questioned his judgment right now, though, as he should have known better than to let Shinrin run off on her own.
"Whatever," she said, taking a mammoth-sized bite out of her catch. Shinrin probably ate more meat than all of us combined. She never ate berries or plants, it was cannibalism to her. All she ever ate was meat, and her appetite even put Kogasu's to shame.
Kogasu was expecting as big a meal as everyone else, so it took him a moment to notice the chicken bone Unabara tossed in front of him.
"What's this!?" Kogasu exclaimed, staring at the bone. "You call this LUNCH!?"
"I found that in the back of the Kentucky Fried Combusken in Hearthome." Unabara said. "Do you know how deep I had to dig in the dumpster to get that?"
Kogasu's eye twitched.
"I didn't, it was on the ground."
All of us burst out laughing, even Yuki. We knew he had that coming. He threw the bone at Unabara.
"Alright, everyone," Shuurai began. Whenever Shuurai spoke, everyone listened. "We're going someplace new starting tomorrow. A place I heard of in town."
"Where is it?" Kokoro asked, munching on a Petaya berry. She always seemed to enjoy the weirdest berries.
"I don't know the exact name, but I heard it's somewhere past Oria."
"Pasht Owia?" Shinrin mumbled with her face half-buried in her food.
Shuurai gave her a scorning look for a moment, then continued. "I didn't really get it either. I just heard a trainer say there was something going on 'in past Oria.' But I found out it's somewhere in the marsh."
"The swamp again?" Unabara dropped his shoulders. "Isn't there a... less muddy way?"
"I don't think so, from this side." I said. I knew a little geography myself. Almost the entire area southeast of Mount Coronet was swampland. We were just south of Hearthome City.
"I bet it's treasure!" Kokoro exclaimed. "A treasure hunt!"
"Last I checked, 'Pastoria' was a city." Yuki sighed, munching on a poffin. "Don't know whose bright idea it was, building a city in a swamp."
"It's a
marsh," Shuurai said.
"A city!?" Kokoro exclaimed. Her eyes grew brighter this time. "I bet there's treasure there! How about you, Kage?" She looked at me as if she were serious. "What do you think is there?"
I hadn't seen much of the world outside of the jail. But I wasn't going to say that, not in front of Kokoro. "I guess... um... treasure?"
"Yippee!" she cheered. She grabbed me by the collar and I almost choked on my Hondew berry. "We'll find the most!"
Once Kokoro had her mind made up on something, there was no way to tell her if she was wrong. She would get what she wanted, one way or another. There was something I envied about that spirit of hers.
"You two make such a mismatched couple," Shuurai said. I felt it was true.
We wandered south until sunset, the seven of us. Kogasu the Flareon, Unabara the Vaporeon, Shuurai the Jolteon, Shinrin the Leafeon, Yuki the Glaceon, Kokoro the Espeon, and me, Kage the Umbreon. We were an odd bunch, and we liked it that way.