Nuzleaf

Hurts.

Everything hurts.

Why does everything hurt so bad?

Her body aches, her head is absolutely pounding, she feels as though she’s been trampled a thousand times, thrown against a wall at least ten more times, then trampled two thousand times afterwards.

She’s amazed she can even stand in the state she’s in.

Too much pain.

Too thirsty, too…

She needs water.

She can hear water flowing from a waterfall. Source of water, drinkable water. Clean water? Maybe not, but water is water, she’s not going to complain.

She practically dunks her whole face in the water as she slurps up as much as she can. Already, that feels so, so much better. She feels alive again, she’s ready to face the world, she’s ready to take down anything that’s thrown her way! She-

She sees something odd on the surface of the water.

There’s a Fennekin staring up at her, looking her dead in the eye¹ from below the surface.

What would a Fennekin be doing underwater, though? Aren’t they supposed to be a fire type Pokemon? That can’t be very good for them, can it? Maybe she should reach out to them.

“Uhh, hello?” She calls out, and strangely enough, the Fennekin seems to talk at the same time she does… Odd. Perfect clarity too despite being underwater, she’d have expected their speech to sound a little more bubbly. She chuckles softly, smiling sheepishly… Which the Fennekin also does. “That’s kinda funny, you sound almost exactly as I do.”

Once again, speaking at the same time as her. This is getting a little strange. “Okay, could you maybe stop copying me?” They don’t listen of course. She starts to look a little annoyed, as does the Fennekin too. “Seriously, stop that. Why do you keep doing everything I say? And how are you not drowning by now, anyway?”

She tilts her head to the side, she reaches out a hand to try and poke at the surface of the- Hey wait hold on a second, that isn’t her hand. That looks more like, what is that, a paw?

She squints her eyes as she pulls it back closer to her face, little pads on the underside. Sure enough, that right there, is a paw.

Wait.

She looks back down at the Fennekin in the water, slooooowly moving her paw to the side. The Fennekin does the same. She shakes it around, the Fennekin does the same. .. She’s not staring at a Fennekin, she is the Fennekin!

She gaps and recoils back in shock, thumping back against the tree which elicits a grunt from her. “How the-?! Wh- Huh?! Why am I-?! How did this even happen?!” She stammers to herself in a panic, very quickly starting to hyperventilate as she tries to back away from the reflection, but only succeeds in scratching her back against the bark of the tree.

“O-Okay, think rationally! I must have… I-” Her eyes widen and an immense feeling of dread kicks in as she feels her heart drop into her stomach. “I can’t remember anything!” Every time she tries to think back to before she wakes up, there’s just nothing there, a blank space in her mind, a void where memory and thought should be. “H-How much did I forget?! I-I can’t think of anything else! I-I… N-Neesha, my name’s Neesha.” She lets out a sigh of relief as her body slumps down against the tree. “Hoooooookay, my name, I can at least remember my name, that’s good, that’s- That’s something.”

The now-Fennekin pants heavily, trying to slow her breathing down, but she’s panicking far too much to reliably calm herself down. “T-Take it easy, Neesha, just take it easy… Okay no I can’t take it easy, why am I a Pokemon?!” She smacks her cheeks with her paws, only hearing the soft thumping against fur rather than the smacking sounds of hands against human skin, only throwing her off even more and making her more distressed.

Her surroundings, she needs to get her bearings, where even is she?

Her eyes dart around quickly, catching glances of trees, the tall cliff that the waterfall resides on, grass all around, more trees, forest, yeah, forest, obvious conclusion there, Neesha, real nice.

Then she hears something.

“Behee?”

Then she sees something.

A group of three Pokemon. Beige(bronze?) colored, floating above the ground like drones, markings on their tall foreheads, fingers replaced with multicolored lights. They spot Neesha, then glance to each other.

“Beheeeeee…?”

Well, they weren’t attacking her, that’s a start at least, right?

“A-Are you guys here to help?” She stammers as she questions, still panting heavily, her heart racing practically a mile a minute. “I-I just woke up like this! I don’t know who I am, how I turned into a Pokemon or where I even came from, b-but if you could help me I’d really-“

And that’s when one of the Pokemon lunges forward and strikes at her.

Okay, nevermind, they are attacking her now.

She yelps as she rolls out of the way just in time, not even having an opportunity to get accustomed to her new body, she has to work purely on instinctive reaction. “W-What’d I do?!” She shouts as all the Pokemon turn to face her.

“Behee!”

Okay, so, it seems like they really don’t feel like communicating right now. So in that case, Neesha does the one thing she can reasonably think of.

Run.

Neesha runs as fast as her new little legs can carry her. Turns out being a quadruped is much harder than being a biped. Her whole body is already aching, feeling so sore as her muscles burn. Maybe that’s just the fire typing in her burning, but it still hurts!

“Why’re they chasing after me?!” She thinks to herself, head turning back around to look behind her. She doesn’t see them, but she can tell they’re catching up from the beeping in the distance. “I-I didn’t do anything to them, did I?! Uuuughh, it’d be so much easier if I could just remember! Maybe I could try to- Gaahh!” Not looking where she was going, she ends up crashing straight into another Pokemon, taller than her, beige body, shell-like legs, pointy nose, green leaf atop his head.

“Gh-ow! Watch where yer’ goin'” The Pokemon speaks up, clearly annoyed about, well, being ran into and being knocked to the ground as he frowns at her.

But she’s a little too panicked to really think of an apology. “Y-You gotta help me!” She quickly stammers again, her paws against his chest as she looks down at him with fear in her eyes. “I-I’m being chased, I don’t know who I am or how I got here, I can’t-“

“Easy there, feller, eeeeeasy!” The Pokemon tries to sit up, to which Neesha backs up away from him as he grabs at his head. “Slow down, will ya? Yer talkin’ so fast I can’t even understand ya!” He narrows his gaze at her, staring all confused-like at her. “Now, what’s get ya all up in a panic?”

Trying to recollect herself, Neesha explains calmly. “I don’t know what’s going on! I-I just woke up, now I’m a Pokemon, I can’t remember who I am, a-and… I’ve got three possibly angry Pokemon chasing after me, and I don’t know why!”

The Pokemon blinks a few times, still seemingly processing everything she was trying to tell him. All he can really utter, though, is a single, simple, solitary “What?”

BZZZAP!

Neesha and the Pokemon both yelp up, the latter getting back up onto his feet as a beam of fiery light strikes at them from behind. Turning back around, Neesha can see² the Pokemon that were chasing after her earlier, their finger-lights flickering and flashing. They seem like they’re getting ready for another strike.

Neesha and the other Pokemon don’t even have to say anything to each other to agree that they need to get back up and book it, which they promptly do so, both running as fast as they possibly can, Neesha only just slightly lagging behind from her prior exhaustion.

---

No idea how long they were running for. It could’ve been seconds, minutes, even hours. It felt like an eternity.

After a while, though, after a lot of running, too much running for either of them, they finally come to a stop at an open road, things having quieted down, not another Pokemon in sight other than just the two of them.

Finally, rest.

“Reckon we should, hoooooo… Have ourselves a lil’ break, yea?” The Pokemon says, slumping down onto the ground. “I’m gettin’ too old fer this stuff. Ain’t run like that in years.” He glances back over to Neesha, his gaze narrowing. “I ain’t sure what yer doin’ or what ya dragged me into, whatever childish pranks ya done that got us into this mess, ya sure stirred ’em up somethin’ fierce!”

“Childish pranks?!” Neesha stammers, eyes widening. “D-Do I look like some kinda kid- Auugh, w-whatever! I have no idea what’s happening anymore.” She groans as she splays down on the ground, fwumping down onto her stomach.

“Look, girlie.” The Pokemon speaks up again, albeit in a slightly calmer tone, though there’s still a firmness in his voice. “I ain’t no stranger to helpin’ folks out, but ya best do some explainin’ to me before I even consider lettin’ ya off.”

She pants heavily, trying to breathe slowly, to try and actually, finally, properly calm down. “I don’t know, that’s the thing. I have absolutely no idea why they could possibly be chasing after me.” She groans again, placing her hands- No, her paws, she has paws now, on her head. “I can’t remember anything. Nothing but my name…”

“Hold up a sec.” The Pokemon says, squinting at her. “Ya don’t remember anythin’? Nothin’ at all but yer name?”

She shakes her head in response. “N-No. I’m… I’m Neesha. I’m supposed to be a human, but I woke up in this Pokemon body and-“

“Whoa whoa whoa.” He puts his hands up, arching an eyebrow at her. “Didja just say yer a human?”

“Uh…” She freezes up for a moment, taking a moment to respond as she nods her head. “Y-Yeah, why?”

“Hrmm…” The Pokemon rubs at his chin for a moment, eyes glancing over in a different direction. “S’odd, is all. Humans ain’t been seen on Earth fer a very long time.” Aaaaaand that doesn’t exactly do anything to comfort her. “If y’ain’t remebering anythin’, ain’t nothin’ ya can do ’bout it now.”

He gets back up on his feet, stretching a bit. “Mmnrrghh, s’pose I fergot to introduce myself too. Nuzleaf.Wanna make somethin’ clear, kay?” Nuzleaf asks, Neesha staring up at him, to which she nods. “I ain’t got nothin’ to do with this, and I don’t appreciate bein’ dragged into yer’ little mess, no matter how panicked or worried ya might’a been. Although…” He sighs and places a hand on his hip, glancing back at the path they were running down. “Reckon I can’t get too mad, seem to’ve lost ’em, didn’t get hurt, so I can forgive ya this once.”

“T-Thanks, I guess?” Neesha slowly gets back onto all fours as well, still a little on edge, but it seems like all is well now, right?

“B’fore them fellers catch up with us, I’m gettin’ back on th’ move fer now.” Nuzleaf says, starting to head off down the path. “Headin’ home b’fore I get dragged into anythin’ else. Ya best be careful on yer way home too, right, Neesha?”

An awkward silence befalls them as Neesha watches Nuzleaf beginning to just, walk off, leaving her frozen with decision paralysis, unsure of what to do, not sure of where to go, or, well, anything really.

Nuzleaf only walks a few steps before he turns back around, a concerned, yet perplexed look crossing his face as he stares back at Neesha. “…Ya do have a home, right?”

Neesha’s eyes glance back and forth awkwardly as she shrugs. “I-I don’t know! No memory means no memory. If I do have a home, I can’t remember where it is.”

Nuzleaf’s eyes narrow downwards towards the ground. “Mmmnn, that is a mighty problem…” He sighs and shakes his head, glancing back up at Neesha. “Aight, look. While it seems like we might’a lost ’em fer now, leavin’ a child behind all defenseless would make me feel like a dern criminal.” He extends a hand out to Neesha, smiling at her. “If’n ya want, you³ could come to my place.”

Neesha blinks a few times, eyes going wide i surprise. “R-Really? You’d offer that for me?”

“Kinda seems like yer’ all outta options anyway, lil’ missy.” He says with a light shrug and a smile. “Ya don’t gotta if ya don’t wanna, yer choice, Neesha.”

He’s right. She is out of options. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, really, no idea who she is, where she came from. All things considered, it’s a much, much better option that going off alone. She nods her head. “Yes, please.”

---

When they reach the cliff, she realizes she didn’t exactly get a good look at the sky when she woke up.

The sky is a myriad of colors, a gradient of blue, green and orange stretching out as far as the eye can see, the stars visible through the sky, even though it seems nowhere close to nighttime.

On the horizon, there lays a lake, with a little village nestled just on the shore. “Y’see that there, Neesha? There’s where my lil’ home is.” Nuzleaf speaks up. “A lil’ place called Serene Village.”

Sounds nice…

She’s too distracted with herself to really appreciate the view, though. So much to think about, so much having just happened, a whirlwind of thoughts swirling around in her head. She’s a mess. But, at least she’s a safe mess.

For now.

“C’mon, girl. Ain’t that much further. Let’s get a movin’, yeah?”

“Y-Yeah, right. Lead the way, Nuzleaf.”

…

Why her?