Chapter 3: Alienation

I took a deep breath, feeling my lungs a bit more refreshed as I walked. Sometimes I forgot that the air of this world was way cleaner than the air on Earth.

Alexa and I were walking around aimlessly in the residential area of Mani town. Since our tour got cut short because of a certain fire-breathing lion, we couldn’t see the rest of what this part of the town had to offer. Well, not like we missed much since, from what I’ve noticed walking so far, there’s a lack of Pokémon around here. Well, Xenia did say that a lot of the Pokémon moved out to live in the bigger towns so that may be the reason.

It was practically Alexa who forced me to come with her to explore around because if it was just for me, I would’ve just gone straight to the guild to look for that dragonite. I could find better ways to manage my time in this world, but nope, I’m stuck with my sister doing nothing productive. I could’ve gone around gathering more information about the world itself, about the Pokémon, or anything useful, but nope, I’m stuck with her because Mom is gonna give me an earful if I don’t.

I wonder how she would’ve grounded me now… probably the same way in my world if I think about it.

“Ugh, this sucks! Where are the cool Pokémon neighbors!?” Alexa whined, brushing her fringe away from her eye. “Like, geez, I knew there wouldn’t be that many Pokémon living here, but we almost found none!”

I rolled my eyes. “Did you forget to account for the possibility that these Pokémon are either working or doing something else important? Even the kids might be somewhere else, like in class or something similar.”

The litleo grunted in annoyance as she turned to me with an annoyed look. “How can they still have class at this hour!? Look at the sun, it’s obviously past noon!”

I looked at her with a deadpan look as I sat down on my rear. “Did you forget that this an entirely different world? Not everything is the same, dummy.”

Her red fringe started sparking some flames. “Who do you think you’re calling dummy-”

“Yo, are you kids new?” 

I looked to the side along with my sis, her red fringe fizzling out. It seemed that the source of the squeaky voice was a male pawmi, however, he was not alone. Accompanying him was a quilava and a purrloin, which looking at certain parts, were obviously male. I tilted my head to the side as I felt my cheeks heat up a little. ‘I need to get used to the nudity, it’s starting to get uncomfortable…’

However, my sister didn’t seem to care as her eyes glistened. “O. M. G! They look so cute!!!”

The pawmi flushed a little as he looked to the side a bit embarrassed. “Y-you think so…?”

I flinched at that. ’Shit! With the ingenuity of my sister, Pokémon might start to get the wrong idea!’ I panicked a little bit as a thought crossed over my mind. What would happen if words get out of a family of humans living in this town? We had the info that humans are really famous in this world, so if rumors spread about humans being here, the town would flood in a way that would ruin the peaceful lifestyle I was planning on having. 

Not only that, it might bring bad eggs as well…

I put a paw over my sister’s mouth, feeling it heat up a little from the way she looked a bit annoyed. I smiled sheepishly. “W-what she means by that is that she finds all three of you cute in a… pettable way. She never saw Pokémon like you before since we uh… came from far away.”

The quilava chuckled a bit, putting a paw over his mouth. “Heh, really thought she fell for you?”

“Come on, a ‘mon can dream!” The pawmi said annoyedly at the fire quill Pokémon as he crossed his arms.

Alexa swatted my paw away from her mouth before spitting a bit as her tail swayed quickly. “Ugh, your paw was on the ground!” She groaned a bit before her expression shifted into a more friendly one, approaching the trio. “So… you’re kids too?”

The purrloin grinned a bit as he crossed his arms. “Eh, I’m a bit older than these two, but depending on what you call a 13-year-old, guess you could say I’m a kid too.”

‘So same kind of growing as humans…’ I thought. ‘Wonder if it’s the same for all species, even bug types.’ 

Alexa grinned. “Great! Say what-” 

I interrupted her before she could say anything further. I needed to clear some stuff before she put my entire game plan for this life at risk. “Hey, Alexa, can I talk to you real quick? It’s uh… important?”

She looked at me with an annoyed expression. “Ugh, what is it? Better be really important if you think you can ruin my fun before it begins.” 

I glared at her for a moment before looking at the trio. “Okay, we’re gonna go there real quick, we’ll be back shortly, so uh… don’t worry.” The three Pokémon looked at themselves before I started leading Alexa behind a random home. After looking around for a moment to confirm that we were alone, I sighed and turned to her. “Okay, first of all, don’t do what you just did right now.”

“Did what?” The litleo asked while tilting her head.

“Call them cute. You gotta remember that they are sentient creatures and not pets, despite their appearance. We might look different, but we’re basically the same as them now, so they will take your compliments into something else.” I explained.

She seemed to think about it for a while before her face scrunched up a bit in disgust. “Wait, so that means when I grow up I have to date one of them?” She cringed as chills passed through her body. “Ugh, that’s so weird!”

I mutter to the side. “Might be less weird once we see Mom and Dad “kissing” in their new bodies…” Suddenly, an image flashed in my head of a pyroar and a luxray licking each other and rubbing their bodies together, just like felines do. Since their mouths weren’t made for kissing, that was their best alternative. I cringed a bit as I shook my head to get rid of the strange mental image. “A-anyways, that’s not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to warn you about something.”

“What…? Something about my body I should know about?” Alexa asked after recovering herself from her displeasing thought. “Should’ve told me earlier if that’s the case.”

“No, it’s not that.” I said as I shook my head again in denial. “So… I think it’s best to keep it a secret that we’re humans from other Pokémon… Xenia hopefully is keeping our secret as well.”

My sister tilted her head. “Why though? I know humans are a bit famous here so…” She interrupted herself before smirking at me. “What, are you scared of being the center of attention?”

I groaned as my tail lashed out behind me. “Of course not!” I sighed as I calmed down a little, looking aside. “You see… in the games I’ve played, there were humans in the same situation as us, you know typical isekai faction, right? But in these Pokémon worlds, the humans sometimes got exploited for, well, being a human.” I looked back at the litleo. “So if we attract a large crowd, we’ll definitely attract some bad Pokémon as well. You get what I’m saying here, right?”

Alexa rolled her eyes, seeming almost uncaring about the topic we discussed. “Guess so…” She then started walking back. “Well, if that’s everything, I’m gonna actually know the neighbors, if you excuse me.”

I sighed before following behind her. We saw the trio of kids still there, talking to themselves about something I couldn’t grasp. The quilava noticed us first and turned to us, the others turning along with him. “Oh, you done with your talk?”

“Yep! Although nothing too important!” My sister responded with a wave of a paw. “Anyway, as I was trying to say before. What are your names? Curious to meet you all!”

Even in a new world, her style of starting friendships remained the same. I remember when we were in the same school together, two years ago, I remember Alexa trying that same approach when meeting some school colleagues. It worked from what I saw… until I discovered that a friend of hers was actually exploiting her and I exposed her. Alexa was left a bit sad, but since she’s quite forgiving (except for me, she is out for my blood most of the time), she forgave that girl quite quickly. However… they stopped talking to each other and Alexa became a bit more closeted, only talking to online friends.

Maybe this new world might change her a bit… maybe to something better, or the more likely outcome, she won’t learn her lesson.

The pawmi cheerfully answered with a smile. “My name is Tami, nice to meet you.”

The quilava rubbed his snout with a smirk. “The name’s Mikama.”

“I’m Yugu.” The purrloin answered with a lazy wave. “And what are yours?”

“Name’s Alexa! Nice meeting you all!” My sister responded with the same amount of enthusiasm as a cringy youtuber making an intro. She then turned to me and extended a limb. “And this is my bro, Nathan!”

Forced into the situation I didn’t want to be in, I just replied normally. “Hi, I guess…”

“Oh, the angsty teen type, I see.” Mikama replied with a chuckle. “Nice to meet you both.”

Tami tilted his head. “You guys are new here, right? When did you move in?”

“Oh, just a few minutes ago, we’re still getting used to the place. Nice town from what we saw so far!” Alexa said with a smile.

Yugu put his paws on the side and smirked. “It’s a quiet little town. Almost nothing exciting happens and there aren’t any close mystery dungeons around the area for us to have fun.” 

I looked aside for a second as I thought about something the purrloin said. ‘No close mystery dungeons? That’s good, meaning there won’t be any chance of anyone in my family accidentally stumbling into one. And a calm town in general? Oh, this place is perfect for my family to adapt.’

The pawmi raised a paw into the air. “Although, we have some fun with the few games we play around here to kill boredom. You could join them if you want to in the future!”

I could already see how my sister was gonna react. Without even looking, I knew she had stars in her eyes as she smiled excitedly. “Of course I wanna join later! Might be a good replacement for the loss of my phone!”

I flinched hard once she let out that last word. I saw the three Pokémon look at my sister in confusion before Mikama asked. “Phone…? The heck is that?”

I hastily responded to change the topic. “O-oh wow, I forgot! We gotta go to the guild to find Xenia, right Alexa?” I looked at her with a fake smile as I got in front of her.

My sister looked at me with a look of confusion before sighing. “Ugh, you do hate fun…” She looked over me and said to the trio. “Sorry guys! It’s important stuff! We’ll see again later right?”

The quilava put a paw on his side. “Well if you live here then ‘course we will. Let us know once you’re free so you can come play with us some other time, alright?”

Alexa nodded. “Mhm! Will do!”

“Alright, done? Great, come on Alexa.” I said hastily as I started walking away from the group towards the elevator, feeling Alexa trail beside me. I sighed before saying. “You almost blew it for us… again.”

My sister growled in annoyance before looking away. “Do I literally gotta watch everything I say? Can’t I even say alien words to them?”

“No, nothing that points us to being human, even the most meaningless out-of-context word.” I said as Alexa looked at me with an unamused look. “Don’t give me that look. It’s the best way for us to be safe.”

“What’s even your definition of “safe” ? Getting the least attention possible? Because, for me, you seem like you just want to be left alone.” Alexa inquired with a curious expression.

“Look, I…” Words failed to come out of my mind as I questioned myself after hearing about my sister. Was she… right? I was trying to avoid most of the attention recently, even in the human world… although, it wasn’t the time to think about that. “Ugh, let’s just go to the guild, alright?” 

I saw Alexa smirking silently before I turned to the machoke handling the lift. He looked at me, still holding the rope. “Going down, little cubs?”

I twitched slightly at that, but it served as a hard reminder of what we were now. “Yes…”

My sister and I stepped onto the wooden platform, and slowly but surely it started descending. I took another deep breath, my head starting to ache a little with all these new thoughts and feelings, and the sun’s heat wasn’t really helping. ‘I hope that at least Mom and Dad are handling it well…’

---

“You’re shitting me… these are our beds?” I asked while looking incredibly in disbelief at two patches of hay on the floor.

Samantha added with a frown. “Well… at least we ain’t sleeping on the floor… kinda.”

While our son and daughter went outside, Samantha and I decided to explore the rest of our home together. Honestly, this entire situation was taking a toll on my brain. I suddenly appeared in this world with my wife and kids, apparently being transformed into these… Pokémon creatures in the shape of lions, and now here we are in a town full of them. 

Why couldn’t this be one crazy dream?

Everything sucked now! I was forced on four legs, I felt exposed from every angle, the world we were in had no kind of modern technology, and everything felt so tribal and ancient! Ugh, I know that I sounded like a kid who’s addicted to tech going to a rural town with no internet whatsoever… because that was exactly how I felt!

It wouldn’t be that bad if we remained in our human forms, but nope, we had to turn into these feral-looking creatures, hadn’t we!? I’m pretty sure lion balls are visible to anyone who looks behind them! 

Oh God, did my kids see them!?

“Ugh…” I groaned (which sounded more like a growl) and slumped on the floor. “This sucks, all of this fucking sucks… why? Why us!?” I looked at my paw, seeing something alien instead of the human hand I got so used to seeing. “Is this some sort of punishment from God… or something else?”

I felt something furry slump on my side, seeing my wife as I looked to the side. “Honestly, I dunno, Richard. I rather not think about things like that. Let’s just do what Nate said and focus on the positives. We still at least have each other and the kids.”

I sighed, looking a bit thoughtful. Yes, she was right. There’s just no point reminiscing about the things we lost. As my father would say, “Something unexpected came your way? Toughen up and think of it as an opportunity or a challenge. Doesn’t matter which, use it to your advantage.”  

From a man who came from a war, of course, he would have sayings like that. And of course, he was absolutely right. 

“You have a point…” I looked aside for a moment. “I’m… I’m sorry for shouting at you like that earlier. I was not in the right mind…”

The black lioness smiled. “I know you didn’t intend it, you were having a breakdown. I guess I did need to open my eyes to see that this was reality…”

I smiled back. Suddenly, an urge came over me as I leaned my head to Samantha. Instead of kissing her like I thought I would, I gave her forehead a lick subconsciously, feeling the taste of her dry fur on my tongue. She looked at me a bit confused and in disbelief before I realized what I had done. “Wh- did… did I just…”

My wife looked at me a bit surprised by my action before she snickered a little bit. “Oh my God, Richard.” She giggled. “You actually licked me!”

I panicked a little. “D-don’t laugh at it! T-this is serious! Oh God, am I losing my sentience or-”

The luxray shook her head before licking me on the snout. I looked at her speechless as she caressed a paw on my mane. “I don’t think that’s it, or else we would’ve been mewling and growling at each other, wouldn’t we?”

I looked aside for a moment. My head was still the same, my memories were still there and I still had total control over my body… mostly. I guess I was just overreacting… “Yes… we would.” I sighed. “This is gonna take a long time to get used to. Are we sure we’re gonna be the same after we get used to it?”

Samantha smiled. “Pretty sure we will. After all, only our bodies had changed with probably our instincts, so… we would need to adapt to those and we will be good to go while remaining the same as usual.” She then looked aside with an uncertain look. “Hopefully…”

“That’s not very reassuring…” 

“Honestly, I have no way to tell. But I just want to believe that we’re still gonna remain ourselves, alright? After all, positivity and the rest of my family is the only thing making me not have another breakdown right now.” Samantha admitted.

I sighed. “That’s fair…” I then started to get up, being careful to not let my wife fall on the floor. “You know, I’m gonna check the other rooms. Hopefully, this place has a decent bathroom… if it has any.”

Samantha got up as well. “I’m coming with you. Beats standing around and doing nothing.”

I nodded before we left the bedroom which we decided that it’d be ours. We went to the other door of the house which led to a small room with one door on the left and one door on the front. While walking to the door on the front, Samantha asked something that I was afraid someone was going to ask eventually…

“So, um… about your balls-”

I immediately interrupted her while flushing. “It’s a lion thing which I can’t help it! Pretty sure Nathan is gonna have the same issue in the future!”

Samantha sighed as she grimaced in thought. “Guess you have a point… ugh, we gotta get used to the nudity around here… but it’s so damn weird…” 

I opened the door by sliding it as a memory came to me. “Wait a minute. Wasn’t that buff Pokémon holding the lift wearing like… boxers with a belt or something?” 

“Well, he looked vaguely humanoid… maybe those feel like they need to hide their intimate parts.” My wife deduced with a tilt of the head.

I frown as I think about it, muttering to myself. “Maybe…” We entered the door which led to what seemed like a bathroom. There was a hole in the floor which seemed a bit deep, a large plastic bowl that seemed to fit someone of an average size. And besides the hole, there was, surprisingly, a mirror. “Huh, at least there’s a toilet… kinda.”

Samantha sniffed before clenching her snout and putting a paw over it. “Ugh, this place stinks! When was the last time this place was cleaned?”

A scowl appeared on my face as the foul smell assaulted my nostrils. Was there even a way to… you know, clear that hole? “I don’t know, if the previous owners moved a long time ago, this smell should have disappeared, but like I know how Pokémon shit works…”

After some seconds, the smell kinda fizzled out on my nose becoming another common smell somehow. I walked to the mirror and sat in front of it, finally seeing my reflection of how I looked now. 

I had actually become a lion and my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me, no matter how much I blinked. I could see a feline face looking straight back at me, surrounded by a red mane that if looked from afar, would look like a miniature red sun. I lifted my lips a little, seeing large fangs that could potentially tear meat apart easily. I grimaced. “So… I look like this now…” I looked at Samantha, who walked over to me and stared at herself in the mirror. “Love, I don’t look that intimidating, do I?”

The luxray looked at me before glancing aside. “Eh… compared to me, I think I look worse.” She looked at the mirror once again. “Have you seen my eyes? They don’t look normal, in fact, they look like a monster cat’s.” Her red and yellow eyes locked onto me again. “I get that Nate might be used to this, but like, how wasn’t Alexa that scared of me? I’m a black lion with creepy eyes and who could shoot out thunderbolts for crying out loud!”

“Well, I can shoot fire and my mane lights up like the sun, so who’s scarier?” 

There was a moment of silence from Samantha as she seemed to mull over my question. Now that I think about it, would the smaller Pokémon be afraid of us? That dragon said that I would put fear in some Pokémon when I would go out to hunt- … oh god, I forgot that I could help a group hunt for food… 

“Dear? You okay? You look… distressed.” 

My wife snapped me from my thoughts. “A-ah, nothing, just thinking about stuff…” I sighed and started walking out of the bathroom. “I’m starting to get exhausted. My head is feeling really heavy…”

“Well, it’s expected.” I heard Samantha snort to the side. “Let’s just take a nap. I hope that Nate and Alexa are already here once we wake up.”

After hearing the word nap, I yawn a little, feeling my mouth open all the way. “Yeah, a nap sounds good.” As we walked back to our own bedroom, a small hopeful thought appeared in my mind. ‘Maybe once we wake up, everything is going back to normal… I just hope so…’

---

Walking around the commercial part of the town without being on a rushed tour of the place felt livelier than I originally expected. While walking around, we saw way more Pokémon than ever. A ledian, a maractus, an umbreon, an electivire, a haxorous, and so many others.

It almost felt like one of those anime isekai scenes where the protagonist saw a lot of different species walking around in harmony, except, in this scenario, every townsfolk was replaced with Pokémon. It was hard not to smile once everything you thought was fiction turned out to be a real thing all along. Like, how lucky would someone be to have a revelation like that?

I looked at my sister, seeing her jaw hung open like a toddler’s discovering something amazing and out-of-this-world. I couldn’t blame her, this was amazing and out-of-this-world. She looked at me and commented. “This place seems more awesome than before! So many different Pokémon!”

I nodded. “Yep, it’s more magical when you take it slow.” I looked over to a charmander and a pikachu running around the streets, seemingly having fun playing something. “Gotta admit, even if this place is nothing without the technologies of our world, this town does have its charms.” 

I saw Alexa looking at a lopunny and a bunneary, seemingly of the same family. “Gosh, I can’t handle the cuteness of some of these Pokémon.” I could hear her squeal a little bit, her tail raising a little bit. She then looked over at me once her excitement died down. “So… we’re going to find the dragon, Xenia, right?”

“Yeah, I need to ask her a question that might decide our fate in the future.” I explained before the litleo tilted her head in concern. “Oh, don’t worry, it’s not that kind of fate you’re thinking of. I just need to ask her something about this world…”

“Is it that serious for you to interrupt me getting to know the neighbors?” She asked with a deadpan look.

I narrowed my eyes. “It is.”

Alexa sighed and rolled her eyes before continuing to look forward. “If you say so…”

We continued walking through the streets, trying to remember where the guild stayed. To be perfectly honest, I kinda zoned out a bit while on the tour since a bajillion thoughts were occurring in my head, thinking about me and my family’s possible futures that will probably put us in danger later on in our lives. Maybe I was overthinking, maybe I wasn’t, who knows? But because of those thoughts, we were a bit lost, only guided by my memory of seeing the bottom half of the town while riding through the lift. 

We didn’t need to ask for directions, after all, the town wasn’t that big so it didn’t take long to find a building more unique-looking than the rest. The guild was a building made of metal, being complimented with a bit of wood making the corners of the building. The front of the building was composed of two large doors, two round windows on the sides of the doors, and a giant emblem that resembled a pink and white egg with white feathery wings on the side. I couldn’t see more of the building from there.

“Ooh, looks exotic!” Alexa commented before tilting her head. “Although uh… why an egg in the front?” 

I shrugged by just raising my shoulders. “Dunno, could be related to the Pokémon who runs the place or something else about their culture we’re not familiar with.”

She looked at me with an eyebrow raised. “Do you even know if Xenia’s here?”

“If she’s not here, then someone here might know where she is.” I said before walking inside. “Come on, let’s get this over with, maybe you could have some time later to play with some of the neighbors.”

Alexa grinned before following me. “Hell yes!”

Inside the building, it was more of the same. Metal covered the walls and ceiling while some parts had wood like the floor. On the walls, there were some paintings of beautiful scenery and some Pokémon as well while on the back wall, there was a smaller version of the same emblem in the front of the guild. 

The building wasn’t empty, of course. Pokémon of all shapes and sizes were walking around the main room from what I could see. Some were looking at a bulletin board, explorers talked to each other about certain missions, and some more bruised Pokémon were being escorted to a room that was probably the infirmary.

However, no sign of Xenia.

I looked around before finding a Pokémon that wasn’t occupied, however, one that my sister wouldn’t like to talk with. They were an alolan (actually, how would regional variants be called here?) muk who was just idling around, looking like they were waiting for someone. There was a scarf with a badge that was just swirling around their body since they had no neck or solid part besides their teeth. It wouldn’t be an issue sitting close to them since this one didn’t have the awful smell that kantonian muk has. 

They look a bit more terrifying in real life than what the media portrayed them…

I pointed at the colorful sludge Pokémon. “Hey, maybe that guy knows where Xenia is.”

Alexa’s face clenched a little. “Are you sure? They… uh…”

I sighed as I looked at the litleo. “Just admit that you’re scared of talking to them. They look a bit scary, don’t they?”

My sister’s tail lowered as she looked away. “I… yeah, I guess.”

I put a paw on her head. “Don’t worry, you’ll be okay, I’ll be there with you.” ‘Would’ve been anyways because of Mom…’

Alexa smiled at me. “Thanks.” 

I nodded with my own smile before walking towards the muk, Alexa walking beside me. The blob of sludge took notice of us and spoke with a deep female voice. “Want something, kids?”

I nodded. “Yes, you know about Xenia, the dragonite?”

“Yes, I know of her, the most popular explorer around the guild. Why do you ask?” She asked with a tilt of her… head?

My sister spoke for me. “We’re looking for her. Do you know where she is right now?”

The muk hummed in thought, crossing her dripping arms together. “Well… normally she’s out and about patrolling around the town, if not, she’s on a rescue or exploration mission.” I looked away disappointedly before she added. “Or the more likely case… she’s pretending to work while filling her belly with booze. Ya know, the usual stuff for dragons.”

I tilted my head. “Would you know where she usually goes for drinks like that? We would normally wait for her, but our mom wants us back before the sun goes down.”

“Ah, well…” The blob’s arms disappeared inside their body. “There’s only one tavern in this town and that’s Keith’s. He’s a meowscarada and you’ll know it’s his tavern once you see green paint and lots of plants covering the place.”

I smiled. “Thanks for the info miss, we appreciate it.” I then looked at my sis who had a sheepish look on her face.

“Y-yep! Thanks for helping us!” She looked around desperately before stammering. “Uh… you’re… beautiful by the way!” The litleo said nervously.

The muk put a hand below her mouth, seemingly smirking. “Oh, really? That’s a first. Are you sure you really mean it?” She leaned in playfully.

I sighed hopelessly before motioning to my sister to follow me. “Come on sis, stop trying to please her.”

As I walked away, my sister hastily turned and walked towards me. “C-coming!” 

While leaving the scene, I barely hear the muk chuckling to herself. ‘Well, at least she didn’t take it personally.’

As we left the guild, I realized a problem. We didn’t know where this tavern stayed. However, I had vague memories of seeing that place during the tour, or maybe my mind was gaslighting me just so I could be a bit hopeful. It did that sometimes and I honestly thought it was annoying.

Alexa sighed and groaned simultaneously before saying. “‘Kay, we got the place, now where the hell is it?”

I glanced at her while walking. “My thoughts exactly. Maybe we need to actually get directions this time, even if the place sounds like it’d stand out from other buildings in the town.”

The litleo’s tail lowered. “Please, don’t try to ask scary-looking Pokémon again. Sounds a bit racist but they… uh…”

“Yeah, I know. But honestly, can’t promise that. Beggars can’t be choosers, after all, and we’re on limited time.” I explained, which made Alexa groan and slump a little. Sorry Sis, but it’s the truth, you just gotta get used to it.

With that, we started our search for Keith’s tavern. It seemed like an easy task to do since the place seemed to have a very unique exterior than most buildings in the town. However, I later realized that it wouldn’t be that easy. Firstly, we decided to search around for the place without any help, but that quickly proved useless since we didn’t find it anywhere close to the guild. So we decided to ask for the first Pokémon we found, and fortunately for Alexa, the Pokémon was a floatzel. 

Luckily, the floatzel knew where it was and he pointed us in its direction. But we had another issue… we got lost. Yeah, even in a small town like Mani, we pretty much got lost because we literally were in this town for only a few hours and had a rushed tour of the place. It was at this point that we slowed down because of one thing.

“I’m thirsty…” Alexa said before she licked her lips. 

Yep, even in this heat, a fire type can get thirsty quickly. I swear that it was December before we got sent to this world. Was there a switcheroo on the seasons?

I stopped and looked at my sister. “Can’t continue?” She shook her head and looked away ashamed. I sighed. “Well, let’s go get some water. Pretty sure the river on the edge of the town is drinkable and mostly the source of water in this place. At least I remember where that is.”

So yes, we took a small detour, but one that probably wouldn’t take too much of our time because at least I knew where the river stayed. After all, I could just look at the cliff where the residential area stayed and know where the river is since it’s basically a straight line from the lift and the entrance of the town. 

We got there pretty quickly, and from there, I took an analytical glance at the river. Unlike most riverbanks from back home, this one was pure . The water was crystalline blue, with no sort of trash or litter plaguing it. While I did know that this river had some fish on it, thanks to that one magikarp who bumped into Dad, it didn’t stop us from drinking there.

On the edges of the river, we also saw some other Pokémon drinking there, although, mostly four-legged ones. Alexa and I approached the edge, me looking at the water. It was the first time I saw my face, seeing what I currently looked like. I had red irises which made me a bit confused. I was pretty sure luxio normally has yellow irises and not red ones. 

Eh, but whatever, it was probably just a slight difference in genetics. Not every Pokémon needs to be exactly the media on Earth, the purple kecleon is the perfect example of that. 

I looked at my sis who was already taking gulps of the clean water just like how an animal would. It seemed that she was so thirsty that she’d let her instincts control her for a bit. Well, makes sense, after all, how would we be able to drink water in this body?

I crouched down and started drinking a bit of water myself. After a few gulps, I noticed something about the water. It felt… more refreshing than the water in our world. Sure, I may have never drunk water from a clean riverbank before but I’m pretty sure they weren’t this refreshing to the point of me gaining more energy than before. It was like I was completely revitalized. ‘Interesting… I feel like all my energy has been replenished.’

I looked away from the water and towards the sun. It was a bit close to touching a few of the mountains, meaning we needed to hurry up. I looked at Alexa. “Hey, are you done?”

She looked at me after licking her lips. “Yep. I feel more energized than before. Pretty sure the water back in our world didn’t do that though…”

“Yeah, here must be different.” I said before turning to the town. “Anyways, we need to go, hopefully, this time we have more luck in finding the place.”

Alexa nodded before we started walking away from the river. 

After some minutes, a miracle happened. We finally found the place, even if I had faintly forgotten the floatzel’s directions. I sighed in relief as I took a look at the building. The sign above the place read “Masked Wonders” with plants shaped into a specific shape on the side, resembling a meowscarada’s mask. It was a wooden building with green paint and lots of potted plants and vines surrounding the building. One would think that this is a gardening house, but if what the muk said was true, then this place does a wonderful job of subverting expectations.

“Thank God, we finally found it…” I said groaning in tiredness.

“You know… wouldn’t be really it funny if we came all the way here just for Xenia not to be here?” Alexa commented.

I looked at her with a deadpan face. “Don’t jynx it.” 

She snickered before starting to walk inside, me following right beside her. Upon entering the tavern the smell of beer and musk immediately assaulted our snouts, making us clench our faces a little. I looked around and saw a lot of Pokémon sitting at tables, mostly fully evolved ones like inteleon, weavile, golem, orbeetle, and others. The floor was an absolute mess, but thankfully a female indeedee was cleaning up the place, holding the broom with telekinesis. The tables were on the side of the place so it was a straight line to the counter, the bartender being a Meowscarada, supposedly named Keith.

From all sides was loud chatter and laughs, ranging from a variety of different topics. Ranging from telling about dungeon adventures, funny moments that happened recently, and… some mon’s sex life.

Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to bring my sister to this place…

Alexa suddenly stated, snapping out of my thoughts. “I see her!”

I looked over in the direction where she was looking, seeing the orange dragon sitting on a stool while drinking some heavy-looking beer from a wooden mug. She sat across a goodra who was speaking something with her that was too covered by other loud talks for me to hear. We slowly approached Xenia, the smell of drunk breaths from Pokémon getting stronger as we headed deeper into the tavern. 

I called her out while tapping on her tail, feeling tense scales on my paw pads. “Miss Xenia?”

The dragonite perked up and turned to me, looking surprised when she saw us. “N-Nathan? Alexa? What are you doing here?” She looked to the sides before glancing back at us. “This place isn’t for cubs like you.”

“For Alexa, you might be right.” I ignored the “Hey!” coming from the litleo beside me. “But that’s beside the point. I need to ask you something really important.” I took a glance at the other tables in the place, seeing some Pokémon already starting to look at us. “In private…”

The goodra tilted his head and asked in a soothing male voice. “Xenia, who are these kids?”

The orange dragon looked at the slimy one sheepishly. “Oh, I’ve met them today, along with their parents. They’re uh… new in town, and I showed them around.” From the way that Xenia paused and didn’t mention our true origins, she knows that mentioning our humanity is a bad idea, which confirms that I was right in keeping it a secret from other Pokémon. “Anyway, could you excuse us for a moment?”

The goodra smiled and waved a slimy limb in dismissal. “Oh, you can go. I can wait.”

The dragonite smiled. “Thanks, Fenil.” Xenia grabbed a paper bag that I couldn’t see before as she got up from her stool. “Come on guys, let’s talk outside.”

My sister and I nodded and we began to walk out of the establishment. During our walk, my nostrils got assaulted with another smell, one that stood out from the sweaty and alcoholic smells. It came from Xenia’s paper bag. Something inside it smelled so good, so damn good , that it made me subconsciously drool a bit. It was almost intoxicating like it was almost hypnotizing me whenever I smelled only a sliver of its scent. Just what was in that bag?

Without me noticing, we were already outside the tavern, seemingly on the back of it. I really wasn’t paying attention to where we were walking, only paying attention to that smell… “What…?” I mutter to myself before looking at my sister, who also seemed a bit dazed before snapping back to reality. 

She looked around before tilting her head. “Since when…?”

Xenia turned to us and asked. “Okay, so… what did you want to speak about?”

I focus on the bag for a little before facing the dragonite. “So… I don’t know if this has to do with us or not but…” I sighed. “Is the world in any danger? Like… at all?”

The dragon tilted her head a bit confused along with Alexa. “What do you mean by that…?”

“Yeah, what are you implying?”

I looked away a bit in nervousness. “Tell me, Xenia. What are the humans in this world even famous for?”

The dragon put a claw on her chin as she hummed. “Well… they’re famous for a lot of stuff. Helping out Pokémon in need, saving a certain city or continent, and heck, even saving the world from a calamity.”

I gritted my teeth a little bit. ‘I knew it…’  

My sister tilted her head. “Bro, do you know something?”

I mouthed it silently to her. “I’ll talk to you and our parents later about this.” I then turned back to Xenia. “So… I’ve heard from some Pokémon that every time the world is in danger… a human is summoned to help it. So that’s why I ask… is the world in danger now?”

The dragonite frowned. “So you found out, huh?” She sighed. “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to tell you about humans saving the world so you guys wouldn’t freak out.” I tilted my head in confusion. “Look, the reason why I told you guys nothing about that is because… well… the world really isn’t in any danger.”

My eyes widened a little bit in surprise. Questions started assaulting my mind as I lowered my head a little. There’s nothing to save? Everything is fine? Were we summoned here without reason or by mistake? Are we stuck here? 

Alexa looked at me worriedly before asking. “Nathan… are you okay?” 

After taking a deep breath and recomposing myself, I looked at my sister, blinking a little bit before answering. “I’m… fine. Just something I thought about for a moment.” I sighed before looking at Xenia. “That’s everything I needed to know. Thanks for answering.”

“Well, if you say so…” The dragonite perked up a little. “Oh, it’s good that you’re here. I was about to give your family this after I was done with my… off hours.” She said before extending the claw holding the paper bag to us. “Since I know that humans don’t have the same diet as Pokémon in their original bodies, I bought this so that it’d make it easier for you to figure out your new diet.”

Wait a minute… if that’s food… and the way it made me drool from just smelling the scent of it… ‘Oh God… they’re not gonna like this…’

She handed me the bag and I grabbed it from the top with my mouth since I couldn’t hold stuff with my limbs anymore. The smell was stronger than ever before and I had to fight my instincts to tear the bag open and eat the food inside it like a wild animal- or Pokémon for that matter. “T-twanks…” I said a bit muffled before turning to Alexa. “Wet’s go.”

I noticed my sister looking at me with that same dazed look from before, I even noticed she was salivating a little bit. With a bit of intent, I focused and sent a little spark of electricity at her, snapping her back to the real world. “W-wah!?”

“Wet’s go, Awexa.” I repeated.

She nodded a bit startled and confused. “U-um… alright.” We said our goodbyes to Xenia, the dragonite waving back as we walked away. While we walked, my ears twitched as I heard Alexa muttering to herself. “Is… something happening to me…?”

It pained me a little bit to see her doubting herself if she was in complete control or not. But I just couldn’t say anything, fearing that I would scare her if I said we had some feral instincts, even with our brains intact. 

As we walked to the elevator, the sun was beginning to set, making the sky have an orange color rather than the normal blue. I forgot how pretty the sunsets were since we couldn’t see many back in our city. After all, too many buildings blocked the sun.

“Hey.” My sister called to me after we got onto the lift and I rang the bell. “What are you hiding? Like, that was super sussy the way you acted there with Xenia. And how the hell did you know about all of that world-ending nonsense without speaking to any Pokémon about it?”

I dropped the bag on the floor, hearing a small and wet PLOFT sound coming from it. I then looked at her. “Don’t worry, I’m gonna explain everything soon once we’re back in the house. I just needed to confirm with Xenia if this world follows the games’ rules.” She tilted her head in confusion. “Like I said, I’m gonna explain everything, just chill for now, alright?”

She rolled her eyes. “Sure, I guess.”

Once we got to the top of the cliff, I grabbed the bag with my mouth again and silently thanked the machoke as we got out of the lift. Thankfully, our new house was easy to find since it’s on the first row of unevenly placed houses and stood out because it was one of the few buildings in the residential part of the town with a chimney. 

We entered our home and I dropped the bag on the floor of the living room. Looking around, we saw no sign of our parents, so I called. “We’re home!”

There was a moment of silence and I thought that our parents were probably asleep. They were big cats after all.

I took the opportunity and opened the bag, revealing the contents inside of it. Just as I expected, there were pieces of raw meat inside, the smell immediately invading my nostrils again as my stomach rumbled a little. I tore the rest of the bag open as the pile of meat was spread out on what was left of the bag and on the floor. 

“Is… is that…?” I could hear my sister say. “Why… why does it smell so… so good?”

I gave her a side-eye. “We’re carnivores now, this is what we will usually eat from now on.” I looked back at the pieces of meat, noticing there were only four. The smell of iron infiltrated my lungs, although, instead of being repulsed by it, it felt like the source was calling to me, luring me in with promises of my stomach being filled. During that state, I managed to say. “Only eat one piece, okay?”

“Wh-what!? No! I’m not…” I heard footsteps getting closer. “I’m not… eating that…”

I started to ignore her as I began devouring my food, only being driven by the instinctual impulses of my hunger. So far, I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until I first smelled the meat. The texture was a bit hard, but that didn’t matter to me as my fangs tore through the flesh easily. I didn’t know why, but the taste was divine, probably because of my new tastebuds. I could feel my lips getting dirty with a bit of blood, painting my blue fur with a tinge of red.

Once I was finished with my piece, I licked my lips in satisfaction, clearing the blood away from my face. I felt like a wild predator, my hunger only being satisfied with the meat of a dead being. Not like that wasn’t what humans already did normally back in my world, but eating the meat raw… felt like a different experience altogether.

I could hear the sounds of loud munching coming from beside me. I looked at my sister who was devouring her own piece of meat, munching it quickly with her mouth open. It felt ironic, that someone who hated hearing other people munch close to them was a hypocrite and doing it herself.

After she finished, she licked her lips to clean it. However, it seemed that she had snapped from whatever hypnotizing spell she was in since her eyes widened as she took some steps back. “What did I just…” Her voice trembled a little. “Did I actually…”

“Sis…” I turned to her and sat on the ground. “It’s okay, don’t worry. This food is normal, and you were just hungry.”

She looked at me with an angry face, her red fringe sparking a little. “The fuck you mean this is normal!? I just ate raw fucking meat and you think that’s normal!?” 

Suddenly, one of the doors opened, making our attention turn to it. From the door, came Mom and Dad, seemingly a bit startled. “Hey, what’s all this shouting about?!” Mom asked a bit concerned. “And why is there meat on the floor?”

“Yeah what’s-” I saw my dad sniff the air a bit, and just like that, another one was hypnotized, the pyroar slowly approaching the meat.

I calmly stated. “Our dinner. We already ate ours so these two are for you.”

Alexa shook her head as she denied it. “Nuh-uh! That shit is gross, we’re gonna get sick if we eat it-” She interrupted herself when she saw Dad take a massive bite of his piece of meat while Mom slowly approached to get hers. “What the hell are you guys doing!? D-don’t-” 

As Mom began devouring her share, Alexa groaned and turned away in disgust. Honestly, I don’t blame her, even if I think she’s bitching a bit more than she should, I understand why she’s acting this way. Alexa was always a picky eater, not enjoying many foods that Mom sometimes put on our table, so her plate was always the same thing most of the time, not having a fleshed-out diet. So this would probably be too much for her.

Dad finished first before realizing what he had just done. His eyes widened in disbelief as he asked himself. “Did I just…”

I looked at him with an unamused face. “Dad, you’re a lion now, you should’ve expected this.”

He grimaced a little as he turned his head away. “This… this doesn’t feel right… but why does it taste so good…?”

Mom snapped out of her trance after finishing hers and before realizing what she had done. “Oh God, I-I just… I actually just ate raw meat like it was nothing. Am… am I-”

I sighed and interrupted Mom. “No Mom, the same thing happened to me and Alexa once we both ate it. As I said before, we will answer to instinctual urges while still retaining our conscience. We’re not becoming feral animals, this is just our new way of eating and… our new kind of food.”

My Mom took a deep breath as she looked down. “I… I guess you’re right… we’re carnivores now.” Her face scrunched up as she gulped dry. “This is gonna take a long time to get used to…”

After taking a deep breath, Alexa turned to our parents and asked. “You guys done?”

My dad nodded. “Yeah, we’re done, Alexa.” He then turned to me. “By the way… where did you get all of this meat? I don’t think you have money from this world to buy this sort of stuff-” He paused, a thought seemingly striking him. “You didn’t, like…”

I immediately denied it, already knowing what he was gonna ask. “No, of course not! Alexa and I just went to see Xenia so I could ask something and she gave me that food saying that it’d help us get used to our new diet.” I sighed, noticing that everyone was there. 

It was time to tell them.

“Okay guys, so you noticed from some of my actions that I looked like I knew more stuff than I was letting on, right?” I asked, getting confused glances from my family.

“Well… from the way you trusted a literal dragon to lead us…” Mom said while looking aside.

“And the fact that you lied to said dragon that you got some info from another Pokémon, info you already KNEW beforehand…” Alexa added.

My dad tilted his head. “Hold on, what? What do you mean by that?”

Alexa blew her fringe away. “Yeah, he asked Xenia if the world was ending or some weird stuff like that. And then he lied that he got the info of humans getting sent into this world to save it. Speaking of which…” She turned to me. “Where did you even get the idea of the world ending anyway?”

I groaned. “I’m getting to that.” I sat on the floor and took a deep breath. “Alright, so first things first. Just like the rest of the Pokémon, I know these things because this world resembles a certain series of Pokémon games called Pokémon Mystery Dungeon.” My eyes darted to my parents. “In the stories of these games, a human is summoned to a world with only Pokémon with almost no technology.”

“Just like our situation…” Mom mused.

“And here was the catch.” I continued. “The human wasn’t summoned to have a peaceful life in another world, no. He was summoned there to stop worldwide calamities from happening.” My family’s eyes widened in surprise. I expected they’d react like that…

“Excuse me, WHAT!?” Alexa blurted out. 

Mom gasped a bit. “D-does that mean-”

“Don’t worry, I’m not sure we’re in the same situation. After all, I asked Xenia and she said that the world wasn’t completely in danger.” My family relaxed a little. “Although, we have to stay on our guard. Who knows if things might change while we are here.”

Dad groaned as his tail wagged. “Just what I needed… what’s next? A big meteor comes to this planet and kills all the Pokémon?”

“That happened in one of the games but they stopped the meteor with the help of a strong Pokémon in this world. So no, it’s not gonna be that easy to kill all the Pokémon.” I replied with a bit of a knowing tone.

My sister groaned. “Ugh, I’m tired, all of this is happening too fast.” She looked at Mom. “Mom, do we have a room for ourselves?”

The luxray looked aside. “Uh… you do, but you’ll have to share a bed with your brother.”

Dad rolled his eyes. “If you can even call that pile of hay a bed…”

Mom smirked as she looked at the pyroar. “I mean, when you lied on it, you fell asleep pretty easy.” He avoided the black and blue-furred feline’s gaze as she turned to us. “That bed we found is too small for me and your father, but it might be big enough for you two.”

Alexa groaned. “Of course…” She began walking to one of the doors before speaking. “Goodnight Mom, goodnight Dad.”

The pyroar frowned as he spoke. “Goodnight Alexa…” He sighed after the litleo went through the door. He then looked at me. “As for you… since your mom and I confirmed that we won’t get back to our world while sleeping, we need to figure out something to do for tomorrow. After all, we need to get some money for the food…”

I wanted to make a slight joke, but I held it off for now. “You’re not planning for me to go get a job, right?”

Dad shook his head. “No, Nathan.” He muttered to the side. “Even though it’d be appreciated…” He looked back at me. “I want to go out with you tomorrow as I go hunt for a job. And with you by my side, I won’t have trouble speaking with some Pokémon.”

“Sure Dad, I could do that.” I said before I yawn with my mouth opening wide. “Anyways, I’m gonna go sleep as well. This day was super tiring for me…”

Mom nodded. “It’s understandable Nate. You’ve been helping us deal with all of this the entire day.” She walked towards me and put a paw on my head. “You don’t understand how proud you’re making us be.”

I looked away in embarrassment. “T-thanks Mom…” I started walking away. “Night guys.”

“Goodnight Nate.” I heard my mom say before I walked into the same door that Alexa walked. I entered my room and looked at how empty it looked beside the single stack of hay in the middle of the room, the open window, and the cabinet in the walls of the room. On the stack of hay, I saw Alexa with her eyes closed, seemingly trying to find the perfect position for her to sleep in.

I walked to her and lay beside her, curling my body just like a normal cat would. As I closed my eyes, I felt something furry and soft hug me from my back. I open my eyes again and try to look at the source. “Alexa?”

“You’re my pillow now. You’re too fluffy…” She said, burying her head on my back.

I sighed before saying. “Suit yourself, I guess.” 

With that, I closed my eyes and sleep came swiftly onto me.

---

While the Greylocke siblings slept, a figure obscured by the shadows of the evening watched the two. The figure smiled before floating away. “I did the right thing.” They said before disappearing in the blink of an eye.