CHAPTER ONE: Cross that Bridge and Start Anew

In a very shallow part of the ocean, the fish swam. It was almost at the shore, not that it knew what that meant. What it did understand was that the water was growing quite shallow, and it needed to get back to deeper waters. Although its light, pale emerald scales almost let it blend in with the seawater itself, it was still alone, separated from its school. So it started to turn around to make its way back out to sea. As the fish attempted this, it was intercepted by something it had failed to see.

The water around it surged as a sudden rush of movement occurred, and sharp teeth closed around its body as the fish was caught. It barely had time to process what had happened before it was dragged back to shore, the teeth still sunk into its scales.

Pulling herself onto the beach, Daphne briefly dropped the wild Remoraid onto the sand, before picking it up again near the tail and flinging it into a nearby mesh bag, filled with similarly-caught fish. The fish was a bit smaller than she would’ve liked, but, then she supposed she was lucky to have found a lone Remoraid this close to shore. She didn’t have the time nor the desire to fight off a whole school of fish. And even if she did, there was no way she could carry that many back into town on her own. It would just be a waste of effort, unless she wanted to give the wild predators an easy snack. Besides, she needed one smaller catch today, anyway.

The Brionne turned back to the water, going far enough in that she could wash around her mouth. She had mostly gotten used to the sight of blood over the past few years, but she still grimaced as she saw the traces of the red liquid around her muzzle. It was a good thing her hair wasn’t anywhere near thick enough to make it hard to get out. Most Pokémon also didn’t like the sight of it, anyway, and she got enough strange looks as it was.

Once she was sufficiently clean enough to present herself to regular society, she went back to the shore and grabbed the bag full of fish. It wasn’t a particularly large bag, only able to hold about five fish Pokémon at most. But then, she wasn’t very large herself and it wouldn’t be much good if she couldn’t carry it. She slung the bag over her shoulder, taking care not to disturb the smooth grey stone attached to a cord tied around her neck, before heading to the path through the forest and back to town

She turned to look behind her. The sun was getting low in the sky, the land below starting to be bathed in twilight. Daphne cursed under her breath. She definitely didn’t have enough time to get back before it grew completely dark. At least, not unless she skipped her detour, but that wasn’t happening. Besides, maybe she’d get some leniency on the curfew? Winter had now officially begun and the days were shortening so it wasn’t like she had as much time to get back as she would have in summer. All the same, she quickened her pace as much as she could while lugging a bag of fish behind her.

When she had almost reached the edge of the forest, she turned off the main path, heading into an uneven area of brush. There wasn’t anything that could even generously be called a path. She moved around the thick plants on the ground in a practised route, until she reached a small cave.

Daphne could see fairly well in the dark, though by this point she couldn’t make out more than vague shapes inside the cave. She stopped outside the entrance, setting down her bag.

“Lily?” Daphne called out, softly. “You there?”

“Oh, um, just a second!” came a voice in return, before a somewhat disheveled-looking Lillipup slowly emerged from the entrance.

She looked up at Daphne. “You’ve got food for me?”

“Of course,” Daphne said, reaching into the bag with her mouth to grab the small Remoraid she had just caught and throwing it at the Lillipup’s feet. “Just the one this time, though. Since winter’s started it’s going to be harder for me to get them. But I’ll do what I can.”

“Thanks,” Lily replied, looking down at the fish, sniffing it cautiously. “I know you’ve said it’s fine for you to give up fish like this, but…”

Daphne snorted. “Hey, better this than you stealing from me again. Least like this I can plan for it.”

Lily’s ears flattened against her head, her tail drooping. “I said I was sorry. I just… I needed food.”

“I know, I know,” Daphne said, sighing. “Besides, this one’s small enough that I don’t know if we’d even be able to sell it. You may as well take it.”

“Right,” Lily said, then looked up at the sky. “You’d better get back though, right? It’s almost dark.”

Daphne nodded. “Yeah, I should get going.”

“Okay. Thanks again,” the Lillipup replied, grabbing the Remoraid and starting to drag it into the cave.

“It’s nothing,” said Daphne, picking up her bag again. “If nothing comes up, I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

Lily nodded, her tail wagging slightly. “Okay!”

When she got back on the main path, Daphne moved forward, keeping her head down. It wouldn’t be that bad if she missed dinner for one night, right? It wasn’t like this was the first time it had happened, anyway. Maybe she should just have one of these fish now, since there was no way she was getting back to the guild before dinner ended.

She was almost out of the forest when her eyes happened to glance over at a flash of colour on the side of the path. She blinked, then slowly approached it.

It looked like some kind of reptile. It didn’t look like they were wearing anything, so she might’ve just passed them off as a wild Pokémon. But she had a fairly good idea of the Pokémon that lived around here and this wasn’t a species she recognised at all. As she got closer she realised that they weren’t moving.

“Hey!” she called.

The Pokémon didn’t move.

A wave of dread washed over her, and she opened her mouth, letting loose a stream of water. The Pokémon began to move slightly and Daphne felt a weight come off her shoulders. What would she even have done with a dead body in the woods? Probably report it to someone, right? But there was no guarantee they’d get there before any wild predators would. Not that that mattered, anyway, because this Pokémon wasn’t dead.

Still, they hadn’t opened their eyes yet. Daphne set down her bag and touched the lizard’s back with a flipper. The Pokémon recoiled from her touch, letting out a strange noise as the frills on either side of their head flared out. Daphne hastily withdrew her flipper.

“Hey, you okay?” Daphne asked.

The lizard’s frills began to retract as they shakily started to slowly open and close their eyes. The Pokémon left them half-open, and Daphne saw dazed blue irises looking back at her.

“You alright?” Daphne tried again. “What happened?”

The lizard just stared at Daphne, before opening their mouth. A shaky, croaky voice was what emerged. “Daphne?”

Daphne pushed herself back, eyes wide. “What?”

But the Pokémon didn’t reply, their eyes having shut again. They were once again slumped on the side of the path. She couldn’t see any obvious wounds so that was a good sign. It was probably a good idea to take them to a healer, though, just in case. But she couldn’t just wait and hope they woke up. And it wasn’t like she could carry both the Pokémon and her bag into town.

Daphne hesitated, then cursed under her breath.

“Don’t go anywhere,” she told the unconscious Pokémon.

They didn’t respond.

Daphne picked up her bag and sniffed the unconscious Pokémon, before heading back into the forest. Moving as quickly as she could, she soon made it back to Lily’s cave.

“Lily!” she called out.

There must have been more panic in her tone than she’d intended, because the Lillipup came running out of the dark cave fairly quickly, looking around wildly.

“What’s wrong?” Lily asked, looking around frantically.

Daphne dropped the bag of fish outside the cave. “I need you to look after this until tomorrow. I found an injured Pokémon and I can’t carry them and this bag.”

Lily paused, then nodded. “Right. I can do that.”

“Thanks,” Daphne said, turning back towards the path. “Just don’t eat it all.”

Daphne was gone before she could hear the Lillipup’s response.

The sun had almost completely set before she reached the unconscious lizard again. She could still see fairly well, but since she was much more confident in her sense of smell, she tracked down their scent, quickly finding them again.

Carefully, she grabbed the Pokémon, lifting them up before hesitating. They were almost as tall as she was and she wasn’t entirely sure how to safely carry them. After a pause, she decided upon sprawling them over her shoulder, keeping the lizard there with one flipper while pulling herself forward with the other. They weren’t heavy, far lighter than the fish she’d been carrying, but it was still awkward for Daphne to carry them.

She was on the path already, so the sun having set didn’t matter too much as long as she kept moving forward. And, though it took her much longer than it would have if she was moving by herself, she made it to the intersection of the forest path and the main road.

Since she’d already missed her curfew, she decided to take a short break before she crossed the bridge into town. Idly fiddling with the stone around her neck with one hand, her mind lingered on what the lizard had said. Or at least, what she thought they’d said. She wondered if she’d just misheard the Pokémon. Even if she didn’t remember meeting this Pokémon, she should have at least some vague sense of familiarity when seeing them, shouldn’t she? At this point, though, she didn’t exactly trust herself to be able to remember anything like that. Hopefully, when they woke up, this Pokémon could give her some answers.

The sound of approaching hoofsteps made her look up as a silhouette came into view in the distance, coming from the main road and heading towards the bridge. As they drew closer, Daphne realised that it was a Mudsdale, pulling a cart behind it.

She looked up at the thick woolen rug on the horse’s back, with a logo on it that she thought she recognised as a delivery company’s. Her eyes scanned down to the piece of fabric tied around one of the Mudsdale’s front legs. She focused on the colour, which was definitely either red or green. She could count on one flipper the amount of times she’d seen a green tag, so it was probably red. Male, then.

“Hey!” Daphne called out as the large Pokémon approached.

The Mudsdale’s head tilted down towards them, and his eyes quickly glanced down to Daphne’s own tag, a solid blue band on her right flipper. “Well, hello there. Are you alright?”

“I am, but this Pokémon’s hurt.” Daphne gestured to the unconscious lizard still slung over her shoulder.

“I see…” the Mudsdale replied. “I’m assuming you’re wanting a ride into town, then?”

“If that’s alright,” Daphne said, looking down. “Just to the Fishing Guild near the entrance to town.”

“No trouble, no trouble at all,” he responded. “I’m returning from a delivery anyway, so the cart’s empty. Hop on in.”

Daphne nodded, pulling herself up into the cart and setting the lizard down beside her.

“I’m Uma, by the way,” the Mudsdale said, as he started to pull them forward onto the bridge.

“Brionne Daphne,” she responded, trying to move herself into a more comfortable position.

“Pleasure to meet you. So, what happened to ’em?” Uma asked.

Daphne looked down at the unconscious Pokémon. “Don’t know. I just found them passed out in the forest.”

“Wonder what brings ’em here. Don’t see many Helioptile in Feronia. Especially not in winter.”

“Helioptile?” Daphne asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Yep,” Uma said. “Basic and lightning type, from back home in Erimos, usually.”

He paused. “Come to think of it, don’t think I’ve seen many like you, either. Brionne, you said? You don’t look like you’re much suited for land. What brings you here?”

Daphne closed her eyes. “I live here.”

Uma must have sensed the tinge of annoyance in her voice, because he went silent after that. Daphne spent the rest of the journey staring down at the river below.

Eventually they reached the town, and Uma stopped in front of a large limestone building on the main road.

“Well, here we are,” Uma said, turning his head back to look at the Pokémon in his cart.

“You gonna be right carrying them?” he asked, seeing Daphne climbing down cautiously.

Daphne nodded, picking up the Helioptile again. “I’ll be fine. Thanks for the ride.”

“Alright, then. See you ’round,” the Mudsdale said, starting to pull away.

Daphne nodded again, going up to the large wooden doors. She hesitated, glancing up at the night sky, before shaking her head. After a few attempts, she managed to grab the large brass door knocker with her one free flipper and knocked on the door.

A few minutes later, the doors were opened from the inside and Daphne entered, finding a Feraligatr waiting on the other side, his eyes boring directly down at her.

She froze, glancing up at him, before quickly looking to the side after he made direct eye contact with her. “Guildmaster Sobek! I didn’t realise you were back today. Did you have a good Legend Day?”

Daphne could feel him staring down at her.

A deep, rumbling voice finally broke the silence. “Good evening, Daphne. I assume you have a very good reason for why you’re back so long after curfew, seemingly without any work to show for today.”

Daphne began fidgeting with her necklace again. “There is. I do have a reason.”

“Do you now?” The Feraligatr narrowed his eyes. “Daphne, unless you’ve deluded yourself into thinking that Helioptile are fish, I don’t see why you would possibly have brought one into my guild.”

“They were injured. I found them passed out in the forest. I had to do something,” she said, looking at the Pokémon on her shoulder.

“And yet,” he said, his tone still neutral, “Instead of bringing this Pokémon to the hospital, you brought them here.”

“The hospital’s on the other side of town!” Daphne said, gritting her teeth. “Besides, Cetus can heal them, right?”

The guildmaster let out a long sigh. “Yes. You are fortunate enough that Cetus is still awake.”

“Great!” Daphne said, starting to walk away. “I’ll go take them to her, then.”

“We’re not finished here,” he said sternly, and Daphne stopped in place, though she didn’t turn to face him. “But it’s past curfew. We’ll discuss this tomorrow.”

“Great,” Daphne said again. “Tomorrow it is.”

“Tomorrow morning,” the Feraligatr stressed. “I want you in my office first thing after breakfast.”

Daphne sighed. “Yep.”

She moved to walk away again and took the lack of any further interruption to mean she was free to go. She made her way to the infirmary as quickly as she could while carrying the Helioptile. Fortunately, Cetus, or whichever healer before her had decided on the infirmary’s location, had made sure it wasn’t too far from the guild’s entrance. Daphne soon reached it, making her way through the doorway.

Inside, she found a Corsola standing at a short desk, carefully reading through papers. As Daphne came into the room, the Corsola looked up, before hurriedly moving over to her.

“What happened?” she asked Daphne, as the Brionne lay the Helioptile down on one of the straw beds.

“No idea,” Daphne responded. “Just found them passed out in the forest.”

The Corsola took a deep breath. “Alright. Leave them with me for tonight. I’ll do what I can.”

“Thanks, Cetus,” the Brionne responded, looking down. “I’ll come check on them tomorrow morning.”

“Yes. You look like you need to get some sleep,” Cetus said, looking at Daphne with concern.

Daphne nodded. “I will. Thanks again.”

“It’s my job, Daphne,” she replied with a sigh.

Daphne nodded, then turned around and headed to her room. She lay down on her bed and eventually managed to force herself to sleep.

When Chloe came to, she had a pounding headache, and her body was wrong.

The headache dulled a lot of the sensations of her body, but even still, she could tell that it was wrong. Still too exhausted to even consider opening her eyes, she tried to move an arm. And it didn’t move the way she expected it to.

She tried the other arm. Same thing. She tried a leg. It moved wrong, too. So did her other leg. It didn’t hurt to move them, they just… weren’t moving the way she knew they should be. They were bending in the wrong spots, and at weird angles.

She tried just moving her fingers. But even that was wrong. They didn’t spread the way she knew they did, and she couldn’t even seem to get them to spread apart into five distinct fingers at all.

Her skin felt dry, too, and she was cold, as well. Her body was resting on top of some strange uneven texture, too. A texture that was almost familiar, but she couldn’t immediately place it. And parts of her felt heavy in a way that she knew wasn’t natural.

There was something very wrong with her body. And, though the headache made her not want to open her eyes, she knew she had to. Fears ran through her mind, racing, making her scared that something terrible had happened to her. The creeping feeling of dread inside her knew something wasn’t right, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to relax until she knew what.

So she opened her eyes.

They opened wrong.

Everything was bright. She blinked her eyes a few times, trying to adjust to the brightness. She became aware that there was a bright light directly above her, casting everything around her in a warm glow. And she was facing up, directly at it.

She looked down, immediately needing to see her body. The way her head tilted wasn’t quite right and her vision felt weird, off in a way she couldn’t place. She cast those thoughts aside and focused, as she looked down at her body.

She didn’t recognise it. In fact, for a moment, she wasn’t sure it even was her body. It sure didn’t look like she thought her body should look. It didn’t even look like a human body.

She saw a mess of limbs and claws and scales, a horrifying, inhuman abomination of a body.

Yellow scales coated her torso, which continued from her neck with no separation. It extended out into two thin limbs that ended in black-scaled digits that were most definitely not fingers. As her gaze continued down, she saw what must have been legs, though they barely looked any different from her “arms”, ending in the same black-scaled digits. She became distinctly aware of a dull ache below her, and realised she must be lying on a tail. And there were two bulky weights on either side of her head that were far too large and heavy to be ears.

She wanted to scream, but her mouth didn’t move the way she needed it to. She wanted to cry, but tears didn’t seem to be coming to whatever eyes she had now. She wanted to run, but she couldn’t even move her mess of a form into a standing position, let alone try to walk.

She struggled uselessly, recklessly flailing her wrong limbs in whatever direction she could, as though it would do something. A strange, inhuman cry, left her mouth, an alien, animalistic screech. Not that it seemed to do any good. She was completely stuck, alone, in a terrifying foreign body.

After a few minutes, she heard a strange sound. Could it have been footsteps? Someone coming to help her, to free her! Or was that just her hope talking? She couldn’t trust her own body, how was she supposed to trust her senses?

Her eyes slightly focused on the door to the room as a shape came in. She was in a room. She hadn’t even processed that.

The shape seemed to be familiar too. It was pink and looked like coral. But it was moving?

Wait.

She knew what this was.

A word came to her. Sunnygo.

Was that what this was? It seemed right, but… No, wait. She should be using a different name. She should be using…

Corsola! That was it. This was a Corsola. Water-type Pokémon, from Johto.

So relieved in figuring this out, Chloe didn’t even notice she’d stopped flailing her body, or that the Corsola had come over to her.

It gave a small smile. “I see you’re awake. How are you feeling?”

Chloe froze. It had just… spoken to her. Pokémon couldn’t speak. Or, they weren’t supposed to be able to! She knew that this, too, was wrong.

But, when it spoke, had it even been speech? She’d heard a faint sound like scraping rocks, a sound that couldn’t have been any kind of language she recognised. But, somehow, she understood it. That didn’t make any sense. Noises didn’t carry understandable meaning like that, not in the way words did. And the Corsola had not used words. But, she still understood.

A little shaken, she tried to reply, knowing her mouth wouldn’t be able to make the right shapes to form words. “What’s going on…?”

Now she had done it. She knew that what had come out of her mouth, what she had heard, was just a hissing noise. And yet… that hiss seemed to have communicated a sentence, words, tone, and all.

And an understandable sentence too, if the Corsola’s next sentence, spoken in that same, scraping manner, was anything to go by. “You are in the medical center of the Ceres Fishing Guild. My name is Corsola Cetus, and I am the healer here. One of our apprentices found you unconscious on the side of the road last night, and brought you here to receive care.”

Still a little dazed, Chloe was barely able to focus on the Corsola’s words, and let out a questioning hiss. “How can I understand you?”

“What do you mean?” the Corsola asked, with speech communicating confusion and concern.

“I…” Chloe hesitated. “What’s wrong with my body?”

The Corsola blinked. “My examination didn’t suggest anything was wrong with your body. But, I’m never had to treat a Helioptile before, and I don’t have any resources on hand that cover your species. Why, what feels wrong?”

“Helioptile?” Chloe asked. The word sounded familiar, but not overly so.

“Yes,” the Corsola cautiously returned. “Your species.”

“I’m not…” she replied, trying to put her frustration into words. “I’m not a Helioptile. I’m a human. This isn’t my body!”

The Corsola moved back. “A… human?”

Even past her headache, Chloe was able to pick up on the sense of confusion tied to how the Corsola said the word “human”, like it was unfamiliar to her. She didn’t know what that meant, exactly, but it didn’t seem like a good sign.

“Never mind,” she said, with a small sigh. “Can you tell me about Helioptile? What sort of Pokémon are they?”

“You don’t know?” the Corsola asked, surprised.

Out of habit, Chloe shook her head. The weights on either side bounced around uncomfortably, distracting her for a moment.

Fortunately, the gesture seemed to convey a negative, however, and the Corsola began. “Helioptile are very rare around here, so I don’t know much. As far as I know they mostly live in the desert. But… they’re lizards, so they’re ectotherms, of course. Oh, sorry, if the heat lamp’s set too cool or too warm, by the way. I wasn’t sure what your preferred temperature range was, so I did slightly higher than our Guildmaster’s preferred. I… believe Helioptile are lightning types, at least? I don’t know much beyond that, sorry.”

She was a lightning lizard… She assumed “lightning” meant electric type, unless she was wrong about what the types were, too. It almost seemed cool, like something out of a fantasy. She felt like she probably would’ve dreamed about becoming a Pokémon when she was a kid. It felt like the type of thing kids would dream about. Though… she couldn’t actually remember what she did dream about as a kid.

And, as she thought more about it, she wasn’t sure she could remember being a kid. Or… anything about herself at all. She couldn’t remember what she looked like. Her friends, her family, her home: nothing. Just her name, and that she was a human.

She still knew what things were. Which she supposed meant she remembered them, but she couldn’t remember how she knew them. She could list out the eighteen Pokémon types, and their strengths and weaknesses, but she didn’t have a clue how she’d learned this.

And as she began to realise this, that growing sense of dread returned. And she began to shake.

The Corsola—Cetus, she remembered—noticed this, instantly alert. “What’s wrong?”

“I… I don’t remember. I can’t remember anything,” she blurted out, through wide eyes.

“Uh, shh… It’s okay,” the Corsola said, in a somewhat soothing tone. “Look, do you at least remember your name.”

She nodded. “It’s Chloe.”

“Okay, Chloe,” Cetus said. “Look, I’m going to get you sent over to the hospital in a few hours. They’ll be able to take better care of you there, and they’ll have psychics who can take a look at your mind. How’s that sound?”

“Good…” Chloe said, a little calmer.

“Great,” Cetus replied, face much calmer, smiling again. “I don’t suppose you remember where you lost your tag, then?”

“Tag?” she asked.

The Corsola nodded, motioning to a faded blue band around one of her branches. “Something like this. Something you wear somewhere on your body to show you’re not wild. The colour shows how you’d prefer to be addressed. Is ‘she/her’ fine with you?”

“Oh, uh… Yeah, that’s fine,” Chloe said.

“Good; I know where the spare blue tags are kept,” Cetus responded with a small smile. “Let me go and get you one now. Would you like some breakfast?”

Chloe blinked. She wasn’t sure she could even stomach the thought of breakfast now. Everything was still so disorienting and she just needed a minute to think. “I… I’m fine.”

“Okay. I’ll be back soon if you need anything,” the Corsola responded. “Rest up, in the meantime.”

Chloe nodded, and Cetus turned to go. As she was making her way out the door, Chloe gave a somewhat louder hiss. “Thank you.”

The Corsola turned back, with the same small smile. “Of course.”

She left the room, and Chloe closed her eyes, trying to let herself process everything. It was so much. She was a Pokémon, in a body she couldn’t move, probably in an unfamiliar world with how Cetus didn’t seem to know what a human was, and with no memories.

She didn’t think she could ever get used to this strange way her body moved, how it felt. Sure, it might’ve been cool to be a Pokémon in theory, but it felt awful. Did she have to walk on four legs? How did that even work? If she was an electric type, did she have to worry about charge? How did she use attacks? What if she accidentally shocked someone? She wanted to run away, and not have to think about any of this.

And this strange new world. She was pretty sure that, wherever she was from, she hadn’t heard of the places Cetus had mentioned. And she’d definitely never heard of this tag system. The term “healer” felt new, as well. There were nurses and doctors and stuff, but she was pretty sure there weren’t just Pokémon working these types of jobs. Was this world only inhabited by Pokémon? That seemed strange.

Her memories were gone, too. She couldn’t remember anything that had happened to her before this point. And for some reason, this gave her a deep sense of loss and sadness. Could you be sad for losing your memories, memories you don’t even remember having, of things you don’t remember doing, people you don’t remember meeting? Who had she been? What had she done? Who did she care about? Had she lost someone important? The possibilities seemed almost scarier than the idea of knowing.

What had happened to her, though? Why was she a Pokémon? Why didn’t she have any of her memories? Had she died, and this was her reincarnation? That didn’t seem right, unless something had gone wrong. Did someone do this to her on purpose? Maybe she was a chosen hero sent here by a powerful deity to save this world of Pokémon. But that didn’t seem likely. More likely, she was sent here to torment her with this awful, uncompromising body and her empty, useless mind.

Her head was still pounding. Cetus had distracted her from it, but it was back in full force. Forcing her eyes shut, Chloe tried to get to sleep. Maybe then she wouldn’t have to think about any of this.