On the Beach at Dusk

Blackness.

 Exhaustion.

 The sound of waves…

 …What happened?

Pieces of recollection came to Amity’s mind, but none of them explained why she was unconscious in the sand- a beach, based on the waves?

Had there been some terrible fight?

….She was almost ready to go back to sleep, but sounds of something walking in the sand caught her attention. Someone, based on the yelps they made and it sounded like they tripped a few times.

Honestly, she could relate.

“Hey! Hey, are you ok??”

Amity groaned, because forming words felt difficult.The voice sounded oddly familiar, it almost sounded like…

“…Blanch?” She mumbled out as she cracked her eyes open.

After a moment to properly focus her sight, what was staring down at her was not Blanch, but instead some kind of navy blue and tan rodent with a long snout. It had closed eyes, but they were crinkled in worry.

She blinked in surprise.

“Uh…”

“Are you ok???” The animal asked in Blanch’s voice. “I’m sorry if this is weird but you were passed out over here and-“

“No, wait, hang on!” Amity interrupted, her mind spinning as the animal perfectly replicated Blanch’s nervous fidgeting. “Blanch?!”

The creature paused.”Um, how- how do you know my name??”

“What do you mean??” Amity asked, confused. She tried to stand up, only to stare in shock at her feet.

They were small green stubs attached to a round and stout brown body. Her arms were the same. She moved them experimentally, staring in horror.

“What….”

She struggled to stand up properly, but to her horror she couldn’t stand upright- whatever she was had four legs. She tried once and tipped over, then again and tipped over. Her eyes started watering. “No, no, no, no….”

“Uh- just- just breathe!” Blanch advised. “Look at me, I know this is weird, but just- just breathe in, breathe out… listen to the waves, ok?”

Amity nodded and tried to copy what Blanch was doing, tears still running down her face but quickly drying until she felt calmer… and drained.

She sniffled.”Ugh… thank you.” She said, feeling miserable.

The little animal smiled, the closed eyes crinkling adorably. “It’s no problem, miss….?”

Amity blinked. “Oh, sorry… It’s Amity. Are you… your name is Blanch, but- this might sound crazy but did you ever work for a place called Dreamshield???” She asked, feeling like this was some weird fever dream.

Blanch froze. Bursts of flame erupted from his back as he jumped.

“AMITY?! THAT IS YOU?!”

He started flapping his arms “Oh my gosh, I just thought I was hearing things or going nuts, what happened to you?!”

Amity laughed in a mix of relief and disbelief. “I could ask you that, too! I’m so glad you’re here right now! And I don’t know, I was tak-“

A faint pained groan came from behind her and Blanch looked up. “Oh! Lemme go check on them! Hang on, I’ll be back!”

He held a little paw up to indicate he’d be back, as if Amity could go anywhere on her stubs, and then ran off past her, scrabbling in the sand and tripping a couple of times. She could hear the exchange behind her and tried to slowly turn herself around.

“Hello? Are you alright??” Blanch asked.

“Not with you hovering over me.” The voice grumbled lowly. It was surprisingly deep, sounding like an older man.

Amity managed to scoot herself around until she could see Blanch- apparently- by a yellow creature with a lightning bolt tail and long ears. The creature groaned and slowly pushed himself up and Amity noted the unusual lighter colored splotches over the person’s face. His black beady eyes made Amity shiver and she couldn’t explain how.

“Oh, uh, sorry.” Blanch muttered, backing away respectfully.

The yellow animal looked between Blanch and Amity, looking puzzled as he took the pair’s current appearances in.

His jaw clenched and electricity sparked from the red spots on his face.

“Who. Are you?” He demanded.

“Why am I here, and-” he glanced at his stubby arms and growled. 

“What did you do to me?”

Blanch backed away, raising his nubby hands up in defense. “Er, nothing!” He squeaked in protest.

His voice fit his body well as far as Amity could tell.

The growling man, on the other hand, couldn’t look less intimidating but sounded ready to rip something apart.

Blanch continued “Nothing, I swear! I just- we both got here and-!”

“Wait, wait!” Amity called.

The man snarled as electricity shot off of his body.

“What???“

“Have you- have you heard of a place called Dreamshield???”

He squinted as he processed this information. “…I have. Why?”

Amity sighed in relief. “Sir, we’re heroes from there, but we don’t know what’s going on either! All I know is I had this dream with these questions and then I wo-“

“You had it too?!” Blanch asked.

The other man’s expression changed, his eyes subtly widening as he put the pieces together. The electricity died down. “… Were there vivid visions to go with each question?”

Blanch didn’t verbally respond, but he pointed and made some surprised noise that Amity took as yes.

She nodded.

“Yeah! I got one about haunted bathrooms…” she shuddered.

The stranger put a paw to his chin in thought.

“Did it say anything about…. The world of “pokemon’?”

“Yeah yeah!!” Blanch nodded enthusiastically.

A pit filled in Amity’s stomach. She looked down at her stubby legs and shifted them in the sand.

“I- I didn’t want to go… but there was a light and….”

“And we woke up here.” The man finished bitterly, sneering in a way that exposed his canines slightly. “Correct?”

Both of them nodded.

“I see…”

There was a pause as the yellow rodent thought and Amity tried to speak up.

“…Er, sir? Are… are you a hero, too? I don’t recognize your voice…”

The man looked surprised.

Then, he started laughing, restrained snickers but still bitter and dry…

“Oh, I most certainly am not.” He replied, grinning with just his teeth. “But I can more than handle myself.”

His expression made them both shudder and he laughed again.

“…Relax. I mean no harm to you and even if I did I wouldn’t get far with these… these… baby arms.” He said bitterly.

“I can’t stand at all….” Amity whimpered.

“At least you have fingers…” Blanch muttered quietly.

“I might be able to hurt you.” The man corrected flatly. “But I won’t. We’re all in the same scenario and assuming this place has a legal system, I don’t want to discover its jail cells.”

“…The way you’re talking makes me think you’re not just some civilian. If you’re not a hero, are you a criminal then? Or some bounty hunter?” Amity asked slowly, her voice sharp in distrust.

“…Astute.” He said dryly. “I am in fact a criminal, yes.” He admitted, with a casualness that made Amity very uncomfortable.

“But as I said, I have no reason to harm you or anyone else right now. In fact, perhaps this… metamorphosis… is a good time to move on from my crimes. New body, new life…” he mused, smushing his chubby yellow stomach experimentally.

Amity tried to stand again and Blanch braced her as she wobbled. “So what’s your name, Mr. Criminal?”

The corner of the man’s mouth twitched in a smirk for a moment.

“Riaan. Riaan de Fell. You two are?”

Amity and Blanch glanced at each other, and even Blanch’s closed eyes conveyed uncertainty.

Almost every criminal or villain in their world was well documented, especially the more powerful ones. Riaan didn’t act or speak like a petty thief or some low-grade criminal, and his unnerving manners gave the impression he was certainly of a higher standing.

…So why didn’t they know about him?

“I’m Blanch. This is Amity. As we said, we’re… we’re heroes.” He said slowly. “…What exactly did you do, Riaan? Because I dunno about her but I’ve never heard of you…”

Amity nodded, staring warily. “No idea who you are…”

Riaan shrugged. “…Better that way. Besides, what would you do if you knew what I did? Arrest me? With no proof and for something I haven’t done during my time here?”

Amity finally stabilized and Blanch backed up a bit.

“Why should we trust you?” Blanch asked coldly. “You aren’t giving us many reasons to work with you.”

“Do you have a choice?” Riaan retorted. “If locals walked by right now, what’s your story on who you are and how you came here? We don’t know if they’d buy your true story of being alien creatures from some other world. We don’t even know if they’d understand a word we’re saying.”

The two teens looked at each other, silent…

“…Right.” Riaan replied simply. “In mere seconds I can make my way into anyone’s good graces. I have no reason to harm you. And safety in numbers. So at least until we return home… try to tolerate me, hmm?”

“…He’s got a point.” Amity muttered reluctantly.

“I know he’s got a point, but…” Blanch shuffled.

Seeing the two teenagers hesitating, Riaan sighed. “Think of me as an Aerugo hero. I’m as lost as you are. I have no weapons and I’m stuck in a toddler sized body like you two are. Frankly, if you two can’t handle this, I will gladly walk off of this beach to the nearest town for people to talk to.”

“No! No, uh…” Amity hesitated, not expecting to blurt like that. “…You… We should probably stick together.” She admitted bashfully.

Riaan looked like he was going to reply but suddenly looked up, posture tense.

“Can we help you?” He called pointedly.

The teens turned around unsteadily and a flying blue bat with nothing but a mouth and a strange floating purple lump with a rather goofy looking face sort of backed up, seeming surprised.

“Weh heh heh! Relax, pal! We were just taking a stroll on the beach!” The bat said.

“Yeah, nothing wrong with that, whoa ho ho!” The floating balloon of a companion added.

“Which is exactly why you snuck up behind them?” Riaan asked skeptically.

The two seemed a bit at a loss for words.

“…Alright look, do us a favor? Hand your valuables over.” The bat said.

“We didn’t hear everything but it sounds like you guys are at a disadvantage right now, whoa ho ho! It’s a scary world, we’ll protect ya! …For a fee.” The talking lump said with a chuckle.

Everyone exchanged looks and looked at their newfound forms- no one appeared to have any items on them….

“Uhhh…” Amity said warily. “We… don’t have valuables.”

“Fine by me, weh heh heh!” The bat replied without skipping a beat.

Then he bit into Amity with purple glowing fangs, making her shriek as the pain made her collapse. The wound burned and the feeling only spread through her body as both Blanch shrieked in kind and Riaan bristled aggressively.

“Then you’re gonna follow us into this cave here and find something to give us, and we’ll give her back to you! Unless you’re too scared?”

Before either of the boys could respond, the balloon and bat slowly picked up Amity, whimpering and writhing in pain as they shoved past with ease into the nearby alcove, making both Blanch and Riaan fall over.

Riaan slowly used an arm to push himself up…. And spat out some sand. The intensity in his eyes made Blanch shudder.

“…They should have just asked us to kill them. It would have been more direct.” He said coldly.