Chapter 1: Time flies, cars don’t.
The Hume highway, a long stretch of road that is full of junk food of course. Every 50 kilometres gives you a McDonalds to shut up children in or accomplish the exact opposite. Either way, it would prevent an argument from happening inside the confines of this Ford Falcon.
“That’s not a real thing for I spy!” They were playing a game and being noisy about it.
“I don’t think god exists!” My little brother complains again.
“Well I think he does!” My little sister screams back.
They were 8 and 9 years old respectively and the arguments were expected, but if a religious debate between an 8 and a 9 year old keeps going on for 10 minutes, someone has got to crack.
“Won’t you two just shut up! Your father is trying to get a good rest up for when he has to drive! Do you really want to crash?” My father yelling back. All he is wanting to do is sleep. He looked back to Mum after his speech, Mum was visibly in agreement. The yelling finally stopped and I could finally play my DS in peace, a game of ‘I spy’ is not my cup of tea.
My mother keeping silent at the wheel, awaiting the next McDonalds, idly driving past a Kangaroo’s for the next 20km’s sign without a glance. The signs get to mean nothing when you keep seeing them, much like give way or stop signs, you look at it once and forget. The silence lingered in the car, being broken only by my DS’s speakers, I concentrating on beating my old time trial records, breaking away at that R button like a woodpecker drilling a hole into the tree in front of it. Too bad this Ford Falcon didn’t have some internet in it. I keep at it, a minute seeming like an hour, getting there, breaking my record. Almost there... it’s hard to put into words, the adrenaline rush of playing a video game. Either way, I beat my old record by a full blown second.
I sat up, grinning ahead of me sillily only to see a Kangaroo to jumping across the road right into the path of the car. Mum, being the genius driver she was took almost immediate notice, complimented by a screeching of the tyres, I was thrown back into my seat and window by the force of the turning. The car hit the divider, and onto the grass, right into the path of a Woolworths truck. Mum mustering enough time to yell “Oh shi-“, her words being cut off by a sudden crash, knocking me out.
“He ap... to... oka...”, “Oh, th... or ma...”, “I’m so... ut he... a co... a”. Various things were heard, it seemed to come all at once yet it took forever to come “Sig... is... he... nd he... ear... tha... ou” The words rang on forever yet happened once “Re... dy... o!” I couldn’t make sense of what was going on “It... ot wo..ng! Ev... ate!”
And with that, the world fell silent, the silence that seemed to last forever. I felt so... lonely. Only one thing seemed to break this, a quiet but sure sound of rain, normally people associate rain with sadness or depression, but I couldn’t be happier. Even the sound of wind seemed to refresh me, I could even feel the wind. It was only when I began to hear thunder and felt the full brunt of the wind that I became worried, suddenly making me aware of a splitting headache. I couldn’t see anything, my eyes just wouldn’t open, I felt so drained. I focused all I could on opening my eyes, eventually succeeding. I found myself staring directly at the sky, the rain and thunder ruling it all. All the figured up ahead were so indistinct that I couldn’t tell trees and clouds apart. The wind and rain was making the climate freezing cold, I couldn’t stand it. The sound of thunder boomed again.
I heard a yelp from a girl nearby after a minute of staring into the clouds, she sounded like she tripped over, but in this weather I wasn’t surprised. I couldn’t scream out for help no matter how much I wanted to, not even my mouth would open. Though she seemed to notice me anyway, rushing towards my aid.
“Oh, the poor thing.” She said looking down at my face, she looked... nice, long brown hair, not that I could make out much else, my eyesight was so blurry. Then I felt a red light envelop me, I blacked out.
I awoke to the sound of rain. I was indoors, the rain had that muffled effect of when you are indoors. A headache was suddenly making its presence known in form of making me feel like my head is on fire, I let out a groan of pain.
“Oh, you are awake! Quite a storm, I’m surprised you are even alive! You were nearly lifeless when I caught you!” I let out another groan in reply, “Also, you appear to have a serious fever however, the fact that you are awake means you are recovering. I hope you don’t mind staying with me for a while, you won’t be getting around much with that broken tail anyway.”
The revelation of having a tail was surprising at the time. I threw myself up nearly throwing the blanket on me off, opening my eyes abruptly only to be stopped by a pain in my lower region, pushing me back down onto my pillow again in a reflex not giving me a chance to see the supposed tail.
“Why so surprised?” She mentioned, I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out, “It must be the shock from suddenly appearing in my home, you wild folk seem to get surprised so easily it isn’t funny.”
I turned my head to her; she was sitting in a chair, at a desk, writing into a book, the windows were still being pelted with rain along with the wooden walls covered with portraits of Pokémon, causing some sudden speculation on my part on to exactly what has happened, I guessed almost immediately what had happened to me. It seemed like a nice little cabin, the bed I was in put off to a side of a wall. Then she stopped writing, closing the book. She took a cup that she took a final sip out of and put it over the candle at the desk, instantly dimming the room, barring a dim light coming from a separate room.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, we both need the rest.” She said, sighing, getting off her chair and walking towards the other room lazily, her back always towards me, when she got into the room, she closed the door. I never got to see her face.
I stayed awake for a while, wondering what the hell was going on. Why am I here, what happened exactly? The answer to my questions won’t be answered lying here doing nothing, I only had one choice. Sleep. So I lay there, trying to fall asleep, funny how you can never sleep when you really want to, though the headache didn’t help sleeping much either. It gave time to think. People often say that having time to think is a good thing, but people are often driven completely insane for the very same reason, having time to think.
That’s my theory anyway; I don’t have an expert available to give me his opinion. The same thoughts ran through, over and over, why am I here and what happened. I decided to focus on the thought that would give more results, what happened.
We were driving to Sydney on the way to Brisbane to visit relatives, and Mum swerved to dodge a Kangaroo, over calculating how much to turn, crashing right into a Woolworths truck. My family would often joke about how Mum was a bad driver, she only got her full licence a few months back, managing to blow the test a few times originally, the main reason she was driving now was so that Dad could get some sleep, funny how a small convenience can often blow up in your face, much like nuclear warfare. Nothing much else to really dwell on the matter, there is still no explanation on exactly how I got here.
Either way I managed to fall asleep, it seems to somehow sneak up on you, very much like a birthday, you only need to wait a while and it sneaks up on you like a bee to a flower, it will happen one day. Unless you are dead.
Chapter 2: Oh, the stories I could tell.
“Wakey wakey! Time to get up!”
I didn’t want to wake up of course, we all like to sleep. I mumbled something along
the lines of ‘I don’t wanna go to school’, of course in the mostly asleep state, it just
came out as more of a moan.
“Look, I’ve made you breakfast and I don’t want my efforts to go to waste, I put a lot
of effort into those Bacon and Eggs.”
I opened my eyes at the mention of Bacon and Eggs, only to see a face completely
unlike my mothers. The face staring right at me had long wavy brown hair and not a
short blonde haircut, the eyes were blue as crystal and not a stone brown, this face
had no lip stick. Mum always wore lipstick. This sure as hell ain’t a dream, have you
ever slept in a dream?
“Expecting someone else? Well unfortunately for you, there is no one else for miles.
Your tail should have healed by now, your kind always heals rather quick, now get up
and sit up at the table.”
She walked off to a different room. I was suspicious of exactly if my tail had healed,
but it didn’t hurt to try. I threw my blanket off, with red claws and not hands, the first
thing I noticed. I pushed my body up and shifted my legs to the side of the bed, she
wasn’t lying, I felt no pain, I looked to my side and was surprised to see a long tail
next to me not expecting it to be that long, I took an estimate of 3 and a half foot, it
did have a noticeably large bruise on it though.
I jumped onto the floor with a almost noiseless thud, the red claws on the feet
drawing some attention. I took one step, and another, it wasn’t so different to walking
as a human. I took some more confident steps towards the room the girl entered,
the unmistakable smell of food drifting towards my nose, and by the time I got to the
doorway, I saw a plate of it too.
“You look so unsure of yourself, I wonder what exactly happened...” She spoke to
herself, oh the stories I could tell. “Feel free to steal a chair, I’m not fussy about
hands or in your case claws, it isn’t like you can use a fork anyway. Dig in.” she said
enthusiastically.
I took to the chair and of course, dug right into the food hungrily, a slight look of
surprise on her face. Later I would figure out that it was because normally Breloom
are herbivores, another thing I would find out later, that I was a Breloom. One geeks
dream is another’s result as a corruption of a certain saying would be. I finished
eating the food in no time, it was cool enough for me to scoff down without problem.
“You sure enjoyed that.” I sure did, “Thank you for eating my cooking, it isn’t the
best but I’m glad even you like it.” She continued.
“Thank you for cooking it.”
“...what did you say?” she asked, “Thank yo-“, “You can talk?!”
It was just than that I realised what I did. “Uh... yes?” I replied, it took a few seconds
for me to realise just exactly what I had done.
“You just keep coming in as a bag full of surprises, you just appear in a winter
climate and suddenly you talk to me like it is nothing after a freak thunderstorm that
completely blows out all communication with the outside world?”
“Yes?” I replied back, bewildered.
She just sat there, with her mouth gaping open, I needed something to break the
silence.
“Well, I enjoyed breakfast, do you have any more?”
The question shut her out of her frozen state, she shook her head wildly sending her
hair everywhere.
“Well, uh, no, this is the last of the food for this cabin! I’m actually leaving this
afternoon... this’ll probably sound silly and the fact that you are probably part of
some sort of pack, but would you want to come with me?”
The answer was obvious for me, she was sexy looking and actually liked me.
“Sure!”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes."
“Well untruly?”
“Yes!”
“Well, its settled than, you are coming along, I hope you are a good talker.”
“Oh, the stories I could tell.”
Chapter 3: Uphill.
We were packing bags, none of them mine of course but I felt it a good thing to do given the situation and hospitality. Plus the fact I was travelling with her anyway was more encouragement. I asked one question during the process.
“How exactly are we going to be transported?”
“Oh, we are walking to a car station ten kilometres away from here.” The answer was fitting considering how many bags that we were going to bring along with us, two. “Basically, they rent out cars suited for this region to people that wish to traverse it as well as having the usual food and communication supplies. I wouldn’t be surprised if their phone lines were cut too though. Anyway, you might want to get a jacket on, it’ll be freezing out there.”
“I gathered that.” I said as I grabbed a jacket from a rack, the house became freezing ever since the fireplace got put out. It must have been 6 degrees Celsius at the time. “I have another question.”
“Shoot.”
“What exactly is the date today?” It was a generic question, one I had often seen on TV when this scenario happened, but it is a useful piece of information to have none-the-less.
“Uh, well, I have no idea. We will find out when we get to the car station.” Useful lot of information that was.
We both took a bag each, they were both around the size of a computer monitor, you know, one of those CRT types. They contained food and a radio each, I asked her earlier why she had two radios, her reply was that “I can never be too careful, I might lose a bag.” We pulled the strap over our shoulders simultaneously, the ease of me doing this was surprising, it was almost as if it were empty.
“Whoa, that’s light.”
“What is?”
“The bag.”
She looked at me for a second, puzzled. “I think you do indeed have stories to tell.” She finally replied. I nodded back. We walked outside to the freezing air, I shivered. Nothing like Australia.
“Oh get over it, be thankful its summer.”
“Hey, just 24 hours ago, I was in a car during a summer heat wave on a long drive to Sydney from Melbourne. Oh course I’m gonna be freezing cold.” I replied back, in an informative yet pressing way. She just looked back at me confused. She muttered to herself, not that I could quite catch what she was saying. Then she cleared her throat.
“Okay, we are going to follow that trial.” She pointed to the forest, specifically, an opening. “It’ll be a two hour walk, the first half is a climb but past there, it is all downhill.” I nodded in response. “Last one there is a rotten egg!” She suddenly exclaimed, laughing in her run. I ran to catch up to her, through the opening and onto a trail.
I followed the trail, the woman seemed to have an excess of energy while I was left clinging onto my fur jacket trying to catch up, after around ten minutes she finally stopped, gasping for air.
“Are you *gasp*, insane?” I said, gasping for air when I finally caught up to her.
“I figured it was a *gasp* good way to shave off a good segment of the trip.” She sat down on a rock, “Besides, we managed to cut off a third of the trip already. I suggest you get some water out of the bag, you’ll want it.” She said, smiling.
I took her advice and drank for a bottle out of my bag, indeed thirsty. She also took her own advice and drank. We had our fill and replaced the bottles back to the bag. She got up off her rock, reminding me I’ve just been standing here like a tree and started walking forwards.
“This trip won’t walk itself.” She said.
We kept up the climb, she was surprisingly unparsed by the running marathon, then again, so was I. We kept up the walk for another ten minutes before the lack of talking got the better of her.
“So, what sort of stories do you have to tell?”
“What do you want to know?”
“How did you get here?”
A worthy question, “Well, I actually have no idea. You see, in the car trip there was an accident, caused partially by my mother’s bad driving but mainly because a Kangaroo jumped across the road, forcing her to try and avoid it.” She looked at me, confused. I sighed and pointed towards myself.
“Oh! Continue.” They don’t have Kangaroo’s here, but I made a good substitute.
“Anyway, we ran directly into the truck, the whole car screaming their heads off like a scene right out of a movie. Upon impact I was knocked out, right up until somehow... I got to this place.”
“Oh come on, you don’t remember anything in between?”
“Well, I remember various voices, but they were mostly... garbage put it one way.”
“What exactly do you mean by garbage?”
I felt kind of annoyed that I had to explain everything to her. “Well, it kind of started as calm and well, smooth. Like everything is being told it is okay, but near the end it sounds like instructions and then utter panic! It all went silent from there.”
“It sounds like you were in a Coma.”
“That makes sense to me.”
“Just another question, what exactly are Sydney and Melbourne?”
I was dumbfounded at the time, though a few seconds later I did remind myself that this was no region that I could have ever been to.
“They are cities from a completely different region, but frankly, even if I told you what country they are in I don’t think you’d get it.”
“What’s the country?”
“Australia.”
“Point taken.”
We continued the hike in silence, she looked like she was processing information, I wasn’t surprised. I probably seemed like a lunatic to her. I myself was thinking as to what exactly happened. We walked for a long time, just going up the hill, but then I felt it even out. I looked up and saw the view. It was incredible! You could see all sorts of trees here, it was like a sea of misty foggy green. It was enough to make me forget how cold it was.
“Let’s take a rest here.” She finally said. I nodded in agreement.
She once again sat on a rock, and I sat on a log next to that rock, showing no care for the fur jacket. I just wanted to rest.
“I have a question for you by the way.” I said.
“Shoot me.”
“What is your name?”
“My name? Well, my name is...”
Chapter 4: The first square rootable chapter.
“Paula, might I ask yours?”
As you may have noticed, you don’t even know my name yet, mentioning it now is probably a good time, “Its Green.”
“I think it suits you pretty well. Get some food out, we could use this rest.”
I took out an Apple and she took out a Ham sandwich, I never actually bothered to ask how people around here got meat, I never bothered to ask. We ate hungrily, the uphill climb exhausted us as it would probably wear any other normal person out, granted I wasn’t normal but that’s beside the point.
“We should walk down now.” Paula mentioned, finishing off her sandwich, “It’ll be an easy walk down hill.” I nodded in agreement, getting off the log.
It was a peaceful walk, the serenity of a forest/mountain environment setting in beautifully, nothing could quite compare. The silence was quickly broken however when Paula tripped over, accompanied by her trademark yelp. However another voice joined in after that, mumbling angrily.
“Oh nuts, run!” Paula stated, getting up and running. I ran after her, not quite understanding what exactly happened.
“Wait, what exactly are we running from?” I asked her, catching up.
“A Geodude, they hate being trodden on and I don’t exactly have any Pokémon with me to defend myself with.” I started at her blankly, than cleared my throat. “Oh, right! Do you even know how to fight?”
That was a question that I was going to quickly answer. I turned around and faced the direction of the supposed Geodude, only to be whacked in the face, almost as if a rock hit me, knocking me over. Another punch hit me, sending another wave of pain at me, I punched back instinctively, quickly being replied with a crash. I got up and looked around, to find a rock-like creature literally implanted into a tree next to me.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” She said, running over to me. “Are you in pain?”
I thought to myself about it, I was punched in the cheek rather heavily but nothing to cry over. “Nah, not really, just a bruise.”
“Well, that’s good. The station is another ten minutes away, we will be there in no time.” She said, cheerfully while helping me onto my feet. “The fur coat was old anyway.”
I looked down onto the coat, it was somewhat torn and ripped.
“Yeah, sorry about that.” I said, blushing. “Do you know how to fix it?”
“Hell no, that’s up to my mother to decide.”
And we continued on walking, Paula notably looking on the ground, inspecting it. Probably wanting to avoid another Geodude. True to her word in the ten minutes time we indeed arrived at a building, it was probably the most non-wooden structure I’ve seen ever since I arrived at this place, bricks and all.
“Finally, the entry is just around the side.”
I followed Paula, going around the left side of the building to find a small wooden door, and a whole load of metal roller doors, probably to let the cars in an out. There was of course, a road too but it was nothing special, just your standard country road. Paula opened the door, to be greeted by a man behind a counter. A face covered with a grey beard and hair, probably in his 50’s.
“Ah, Paula! Glad to see you are here! Freaky storm last night, eh? You are the first person I’ve been able to talk to for a while, the phones have been dead all morning! Oh? And you brought a friend too! Glad to meet you!” He said cheerfully.
“Joe is a jolly guy, don’t be surprised.” Paula whispered to me. “Hey Joe! Yeah, the phone died for me too, I did bring some radios but the batteries are only enough to last for an emergency call, do you have any batteries?”
“Nope, I’ve got even better!” He rummaged under his counter and pulled a heavy machine up, grunting. “This generator ought to last long enough for your needs.”
“It’s just a car battery attached to a power board.”
“Hey, that never stopped me! Anyway, what’s your friends name, and how’d you find him out here anyway?”
“Well, his name is Green and how I found him? A long story.”
“I’m not surprised, we don’t get many Breloom out here so it ought to be a heck of a story.”
Paula looked at me, obviously urging me to talk. So I did.
“Well, if I told you, you probably wouldn’t believe me.”
He probably didn’t, he fell right off his seat and onto the floor with a look of surprise on his face. Paula quickly ran to the counter and peered behind.
“He’s just fainted.” She said, breathing a sigh of relief.
