Saline & Goomy

Sure picked a creepy place to situate themselves in, huh? This place isn’t like the forest Neesha had woken up in, no. The flora are all of a strange, darkly pastel palette. Teal greens and dark purples littering the trees and the grass. The leaves and the branches up above blotted out the sky, covering the forest in a dark shade. Not dark enough to where she can’t see, but she has to watch her step.

There they are.

In the distance, right back an open pathway, stands the Deerling and the Shelmet she saw back at the village, along with a new Pokemon, a really bratty looking Pancham. All of them seem to be arguing.

“He still hasn’t come back out yet?!” Saline, the Deerling, exclaims in horror, though there’s definitely a touch of anger present in her voice.

“Nope.” The Pancham shakes his head, seeming rather smug about the whole thing, as if he and his friend haven’t endangered somebody’s life. “He’s been in there fooooooooorrr…” He checks his wrist as if he’s checking a watch, but there’s no watch, only fur. “Eehhh I dunno, a couple hours if I had to guess. Wimp probably got too scared to find his way out, heheh.~”

Saline’s expression grows grim as her ears droop back behind her, flattening against her head. “A few hours…?” And then, just like that, she raises her voice again, stepping forward, causing Shelmet and the Pancham to flinch. “What if he isn’t just ‘stuck?!’ What if something horrible happened to him?! You really think this is-?!”

“Well if he wanted to stay safe, he shouldn’t have talked like a big shot!” Shelmet interrupts, sneering at Saline. “He coulda just walked away and it woulda been no biggie, but nope! Insisted he could do it.” He too muffles a laugh. “Poor show-off is probably huddled in a corner somewhere holding back tears!”

Oookay, Neesha has stomached just about as much of this as she can stand. She huffs, walks up to the group, all of their eyes turn to her, and she says…

Nothing.

Goes to open her mouth to speak but nothing comes out. Maybe she should’ve exactly thought about what she was going to do once she got here.

The Pancham eyes her suspiciously, his eyes squinting at her. “Who the heck’re you? And where’d you even come from? You don’t look like you’re from the village.”

“I am- I mean, well, not really but, uhh…”

Being social; how does one do it again? “I’m new. Anyway- That isn’t important. I couldn’t help but overhear you guys. You sent someone named Goomy into the forest, presumably with nothing to fend himself with, and he hasn’t come out in a few hours, is that right?”

“He’s not even the same age as us yet.” Saline speaks up, ears still drooped back. “I’m really worried for him…” Jeez, they’re already pretty young, yet Goomy must be even younger than them? That’s low, even for a group of bullies.

“Like we said, he shouldn’t have been talking smack if he couldn’t handle it in the first place!” The Pancham speaks up again. “Not our fault he’s such a-“

“Shut UP, Shiloh!” Saline snaps at the Pancham, causing him and the Shelmet to flinch again, expressions turning to that of surprise, startled, nearly falling back. “None of you ever take responsibility for your actions, do you?! I’m so sick of it! I’m going in there myself and-“

“No no nooooo! You can’t do that!” Shelmet interrupts, his metal armor clanking as he hops around. “We can’t let anything happen to our idol! How could we live with ourselves?!”

Saline’s eyes narrow in annoyance, looking like she’s actively restraining herself from doing anything rash.

“Well… You were the ones that sent him in there, right?” Neesha speaks up, taking another step forwards towards Shelmet and Shiloh. “Why don’t you two go in and check on him, huh? You’re the ones who sent him in, it only makes sense you pull him out of there.”

Shiloh and Shelmet suddenly go blank as they hear Neesha’s suggestion, slowly turning their heads to look at each other, staring at each other for several long, silent moments, before slowly turning their head back to Neesha.

“Nah.”

“We wouldn’t even go in there if you gave us all the bags of GOLD in the world!” Shelmet shakes his head fervently.

Neesha’s eyes narrow as she scoffs. “You call him a wimp, yet he’s braver than you are. At least he actually decided to go in.” She sighs, this isn’t going to be done the easy way, is it? Welp. “If you’re not going in there, I am.” Neesha starts walking her way inside, but not before being quickly stopped by Shiloh.

“W-Wait WHAT?! Do you have any idea what you’re doing?!” The Pancham shouts after her, Neesha turning around to see him, as well as Shelmet and Saline, equally shocked. “That’s the Foreboding Forest! Are you seriously going to just waltz in there like it’s nothing?!”

Neesha half shrugs. “Since you two Torchics are too scared to go in there and you refuse to let Saline go in, someone’s gotta do it, right? _{Don’t exactly have much to lose, anyway.} Do you know where Goomy was trying to go? Anywhere you sent him off to in there?”

“Uuuhhhhhh.. Oh yeah, yeah! We do!” Shelmet nods repeatedly. “We sent him in to find a piece of paper!”

The look of angered distress on Saline’s face turns to confusion as she turns her head to Shelmet. “A piece of paper?”

“Yuh-huh. Shiloh and I were using it as a tarp before! So see?! We aren’t Torchics, we went in there earlier!” Well, he seems proud of that. “It wasn’t till a buncha scary Pokemon started attacking us that we booked it outta there! The look on Shiloh’s face was priceless! You should’ve seen it!”

Aaaand if Shiloh were a fire type, he likely would’ve erupted into flames if the rage in his face was anything to go by. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure I told you NOT TO BRING THAT UP!”

_“Meep!”

Neesha rolls her eyes. Goobers are doing too much goobering, she needs to go find Goomy. “Alright, piece of paper, Goomy, got it.”

“Hey- Wait, before you go.” Saline speaks up, waiting for a few seconds before smiling sheepishly at Neesha. “Thanks.”

Neesha smiles and nods back, turning back ’round and heading into the forest.

---

Quiet.

Uncomfortably quiet.

She should’ve run into other Pokemon by now, right? Surely. But it’s as if this whole forest was just up and abandoned. No Pokemon wandering around, no noises, nothing.

Still no signs of Goomy yet.

Neesha keeps looking over her shoulder, getting the sneaking feeling that something might be following her, watching her. Which is silly, considering that nobody else seems to be here. But you never know, someone might be lurking just around the corner.

Neesha continues walking, peeking back behind her every so often, the grass crunching against her feet, claws tapping against the pool tiles littered about, the leaves- Wait the what?

She whips her head back in front of her, dozens upon dozens of pool tiles embedded into the ground, the surrounding trees growing sparse, any rustling of the branches and leaves above now completely gone, the sound of rushing water and drippy drops in the distance.

What’s… What’s happening?

She shouldn’t keep walking forward.

There’s plenty of other routes she can take, right? Whatever’s going on here, if it’s even real, probably isn’t the best place to go, this isn’t right.

And yet…

She pushes onward.

She walks at a slower pace, more on edge than ever as the pool tiles slowly become more abundant, the trees all but gone at this point. Walls in the distance, made out of those same tiles, floating in the middle of the air, and then a ceiling.

Not quite a building, could she even call it an interior?

A ledge, a dropoff, a body of water that stretches out into the surrounding corridor ahead of her. She just decides to walk along the edge for now. Probably not good for a fire type.

What is going on?

First, she was in a forest, now she’s in some kind of neverending water corridor constructed entirely out of pool tiles? In the middle of a forest?

If she’s not dreaming, somebody pinch her.

Wait- Is that how it goes, or-

Splash.

That… Wasn’t a natural ripple. That was deliberate, like someone smacking against the water.

Neesha freezes in place, body stiffening up as her heart stops for the briefest of moments.

Fight or flight mode activated, she needs to stand still. Maybe, if she’s completely still, nothing will see her, she thinks. Not the most sensible logic, but given her situation, all logic has gone out the window.

Splash. Splash.

There’s a figure.

A figure of a Piplup.

Swimming on its back towards her.

Something’s wrong.

She tries to keep her breathing as quiet as possible as it swims by. And as it swims by her, she gets as clear of a look she could possibly need, and she has to do all she can to not gasp, scream and run right at that very moment.

The Piplup has no face.

No eyes, not even a beak. It’s a completely flat surface.

Splash. Splash. Splash.

Its body mechanically wades its way through the water, flippers swimming backwards in stiff motions as it drifts further and further away from Neesha.

As it finally leaves her line of sight, Neesha lets out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, her whole body shaking and shivering as her eyes dart around, the sound of splashing water echoing and bouncing off the tiled walls.

This was supposed to be a simple rescue.

Why is this happening?

Neesha can hear rushing water in the opposite direction the Piplup was swimming from. Should follow it, maybe. The sound- Not the Piplup, no way she wants to go anywhere near that Piplup.

Just gotta keep moving. Maybe she can find a way out of here.

She’s supposed to be the one doing the rescuing, not the one that ends up needing to be rescued.

The walk to find the source of the sound is uncomfortably long, no signs of any Pokemon ever since that Piplup.

An opening, a clearing. A large body of water, and in the wall, SEVEN large water slides, all different colors of the rainbow. There’s a banner plastered above them, one that simply says “Choose!” with a happy little smiley face next to the message.

Decision paralysis strikes, her ears droop. Goomy couldn’t have come through here, right? She needs to head back. She needs to get out of here right now and-

Tap. Tap. Tap tap tap TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP.

Footsteps. Rapidly approaching footsteps. A sound nobody ever wants to hear.

Her head whips around, and encroaching out of the shadows, she can see the faceless Piplup running straight after her at impossible speeds, its featureless face coming straight towards her.

Nope nope NOPE NOPE NOPE-

She’s out, she’s out of there she’s gone.

Without wasting any more time on trying to make a decision, Neesha dives straight down into the seventh slide, As far as she knows, the Piplup isn’t following her down.

She scrunches her eyes tightly shut and tries to brace herself as much as she can, the water and the unpredictable curvy nature of the slide tossing her all around

A drop.

She falls.

SPLASH!

She tumbles and rolls into something underwater, completely and utterly drenched. She scrambles, gasping loudly as she resurfaces, paws grabbing hard at the edge of something.

Marble.

Tub?

Yeah, it’s a tub.

Bathtub, bathroom, she’s in a bathroom. A very dimly lit bathroom at that. The lighting in here is bad, she can even hear the low powered humming of the lightbulbs.

The tub is overflowing, water spilling out onto the floor and draining into a pipe. She looks up and sees the exit of the giant water slide she had just went down. Still no sign of the Piplup, that’s good, very good…

If she had a Poke for every time she’s been chased by strange Pokemon in the last twenty four hours, she’d have two Poke. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s strange that it’s happened twice.

I feel so funny these days

I’d rather sleep than stay awake

Is that music?

That is music, coming from outside.

She climbs out of the tub and minds herself to not slip, shaking herself clean. She doesn’t trust the towels.

Trees used to talk to me

Now I know what’s real and what is fake

The door is cracked open, which is good. That doorknob is too high up for her to reach.

She’s in some sort of apartment building, modern looking.

Maybe her old home looked like this, before she got turned into a Pokemon.

It’s still dimly lit, though the humming of bad lighting thankfully seems to be confined to the bathroom. It’s just candles lit on tables spread throughout the halls

Now I know what’s real, what’s fake

Rather sleep than stay awake

It’s coming from the living room.

Very spacious, surprisingly cozy, given the circumstances.

Instead of just having windows, the whole wall is just a giant window, a vast landscape spread out before her. Out in the distance, she can see the glowing lights of what must be dozens upon dozens of CITIES as far as the eye can see.

This can’t be in any realistic physical plane, but that much was already obvious from the getgo.

The music is coming from a radio sitting on a coffee table. Very plain radio, silver clean finish, knobs on its sides and a large antenna sticking up.

Are we from outer space?

This doesn’t feel like the right place

And we’ll try anything

Just to be a kid once again

…Okay, this radio has a very annoying sense of humor. She huffs, turning the radio off. Much better. Stupid radio.

Buuuuuuut… How is she gonna get out of here now?

She supposes she could always try the front door.

Like that’ll even work. She pulls a chair over so she can reach the doorknob, twisting and pushing the door open and-

Oh.

It actually does seem to lead back to the Foreboding Forest.

She slowly peers her head out, taking a look around, and sure enough, it’s the same forest, all those trees back where they should be.

Thunk.

THUNK.

Oh come on, what now?

Oh.

Oh, that’s a faceless Pidgeot ramming itself against the window.

The window’s cracking every time the Pidgeot rams itself against the window.

She should probably move.

“Hup!”

She jumps over the chair, nearly knocking herself down as she hears the glass of the window shattering behind her, the door behind her slamming shut. She looks behind her to see-

Nothing.

No building, no pool tile corridors, nothing, just normal, regular forest.

…

Why does her head hurt?

It’s really hurting now.

She’s trying to think about everything that just happened, but her head is pounding, aching, burning, why is everything hurting so much? It’s excruciating make it stop please make it STOP-

---

Blank.

Everything blank, only a moment.

Visions.

A temple, ancient temple looking.

Blurry, fuzzy.

Can barely make anything out.

Dark.

Head is pounding nonstop as all these images flash before her eyes.

Pedestal.

Two artifacts.

Their names come to her mind.

The Aqua-Monica and the Sky-Melodica.

Everything is dark again.

Silence.

---

She gasps as her vision returns to her, panting heavily, her whole body shaking and trembling, a cold sweat drenched over her.

Why?

What’s happening?

Why is everything like this?

She just wants to be a human again.

She wants to go home.

She-

She sees someone.

A little sluggy-like thing cowering in the middle OF the forest, a small piece of paper by his side.

That- Him, it must be him!

Trying to shake herself off and pull herself back together, Neesha shakily starts walking towards the Pokemon. He notices her and quickly wiggles his way back. “Wuh-wuh- What’re you doing here?! Who are you?!”

The handwriting on the paper is sloppy, but she can still make it out.

ｇｏｏｍｙ

Yup, without a shadow of a doubt, it’s him.

She turns her head too look at him, trying to look as reassuring as possible.

…Even if she does sorta look like she just came straight out of a washing mashine.

“Take it easy. My name’s Neesha. I’m going to bring you back home, safe and sound. Okay?”