Team Petal-Purr
Part 1a-"The Apple Woods Fire"
Prologue
Two Pokémon sit side by side on the roof of a small wooden cottage. Beyond the prairie that it stands on, a line of bright glowing red illuminates the night sky.
The fire in Apple Woods had been burning all afternoon and even now, late into the night, the blaze rages just as fiercely. Flakes of cold soot had just begun to reach them, landing softly on their faces as the two stare solemnly.
“This is terrible…” The Skitty says to herself, as if thinking out loud.
“I know..” The Bulbasaur sat next to her replied, her voice filled with worry.
“What do we do?”
“I don’t think we can do anything. The fire won’t reach us here.”
At this, the Skitty leapt to her feet, her fur bristling.
“But what about all the others? The Old Bayleef farm is right by Apple Woods! What will he and Rita do?”
She wailed in anguish, thinking of their childhood friend and her father, who had lived and worked on the farm as long as either of them could remember.
The Bulbasaur lent over and pressed her large, flat head into the skitty’s side and let out a calm sigh.
“I’m sure they’re fine. Dad said he’ll check on them tomorrow if the fire’s died down by morning.”
She spoke quietly, hoping the small cat would do the same. The Skitty throws herself dramatically and grasps the Bulbasaur’s head to hug her tightly.
“But their crops! And their beautiful home! What if it’s all gone? Oh Blossom, I couldn’t bear it!!”
The Skitty’s wailing was cut off by the thumping of a heavy creature stepping out of the small home. It was a Venusaur, their mother, looking up at them intensely, as if she were about to leap up on the roof and flog them.
“Shelby I won’t have all this screaming so late at night! You girls get inside now, the neighbours will think we’re mad!” She snaps, leaving no room for argument.
Though they were both almost fully-grown adults, the two girls obey their mother and leap down to face her sheepishly as though they were children just out of the nest. She looks them up and down, before gently wiping the ash from their small faces with a massive clawed foot.
“You are a sight! Go inside and clean up.”
“But Mother, the fire!!” Shelby the Skitty lets out a pleading cry from under her mother’s paw.
“I can see it. There’s nothing we can do but make sure the house survives the night.”
“Will it?” Blossom, the young Bulbasaur asks, suddenly not so sure of her family’s safety.
“Of course it will, don’t be foolish. Inside. Now.”
The two run inside at the order, Blossom heading to settle into her bed and Shelby flying into the arms of her father. The larger Skitty holds his daughter in his stubby paws and grooms her head with his tongue.
She weeps as she cuddles into his patchy, grizzled fur. The old man looks up at his other daughter, who isn’t nearly as hysterical.
“Do you need a hug too, my love?” He asks her, a hint of mischief in his squinted eyes. She smiles warmly back and him but doesn’t get up from her quilted bed.
“I’m fine. I might need one when I see what’s left of the woods. We want to come with you tomorrow.”
Ch 1.
The carnage left from the fire in Apple Woods had been beyond description. Acres of land, once lush and brimming with plants, had been scorched down to practically nothing. Beyond the wild areas of uncontrolled growth, several small farms and encampments that housed a dozen or so families had been destroyed.
Luckily, the fire had spread from the mysterious explosion deep within the woods, giving those settled around the perimeter time to flee with whatever they could carry on their backs. There had been no reported fatalities, though many livelihoods had been wiped out. Pokémon that relied on the cultivation of rare berries had lost an entire year’s harvest and most of their stores.
With nowhere to go, many families were invited to settle further inland, within the small cluster of farms that Blossom and Shelby have always called home. This quaint little hamlet used to house only around a dozen Pokémon. A few family run farms, with a merchant who made a living moving produce back and forth from Grainfield, a much larger farming settlement.
A few months on from the fire, and the area was beginning to look more like a true village, with heavy canvas tents and small wooden shelters increasing in numbers as the Pokémon displaced from the fire began to rebuild further from the remains of Apple Woods.
Though most of the fire had died out, leaving the woods time to recover slowly, a large portion to the east had never truly stopped burning. This smouldering corner of the forest cause many to fear resettling in the area, for fear that the fire could spread again at any moment. It was decided that planting crops so close was no longer worth the risk.
Though the lost was astronomical (With Mrs. Anne Leavanny still mourning the loss of her grandmother’s hand spun family tapestry, passed down through 6 generations.), the residents from both areas were already well known to each other, so those now homeless were not left without a community behind them.
The settlements had often intermingled during both planting and harvest seasons, so combining was a relatively smooth transition for all involved. Within a month, new land was tilled and new crops were planted late in the season, hoping to recover even a little of what was lost.
With this renewal came a new set of struggles. Though Apple Woods was all but gone, the adjacent Oran Forest and the wild areas around it had suffered relatively little damage, meaning more and more traffic to the area. Pokémon well versed in the challenges of Apple Woods were often unprepared when entering the neighbouring forest, which grew denser and darker and housed more danger.
Registered Exploration Teams would come by to assist, but some felt that the requests were taking too long to reach the Guilds, having to be sent with travelling mail carriers to the more populated towns. Some of the more determined locals had taken to forming unofficial teams and taking on rescue and retrieval missions to help lighten the load, as there were now many more hands to help with the farm work.
With Blossom’s level-headed compassion and Shelby’s fierce sense of justice, the two had begun to make a name for themselves as a reliable rescue team among the community. Today, they are taking time off to discuss some big decisions..
Ch 2.
“Now you’re all really sure about this?”
The old Skitty leapt up onto a stool, a simple log laid horizontally, carved flat on the top and bottom. He joins the rest of his family at the small wooden table in the centre of the home, all looking over a map laid flat across the top.
“Absolutely sure!” The two sisters replied in unison without looking up from their individual tasks.
Blossom grasped a stick of charcoal in her chubby claw, marking points on the map and drawing a line connecting them. Shelby sits across from her, counting the coins shaken out of a homemade clay pot in the shape of a Swinub. She pushed them all into a drawstring bag, and then put that bag into a bigger canvas pack.
The Venusaur’s towering frame sat between them, wrapping berries in paper parcels with a delicate precision not often seen in creatures of her size. Every portion is packed with a mother’s love, a mix of nutrition and flavours she knows they like best.
“I think it’ll be good for them.” She looks up from her work and smiles at him reassuringly. “It’s a blessing to raise children so ready to go out into the world.”
The skitty looked up and sternly meets her gaze. “Only if they’re strong enough to make it home safe.” He says, his wife looking back at him knowingly. They both nod, and the old skitty jumped down from his stool while his daughters bristle at his words.
“How dare you!” Shelby gasped, slamming her foot down on the table. Her soft paw made barely a sound against the wood.
“Who says we’re not strong enough?” Blossom looked at her mother suspiciously.
“Come back over here and say that!” Shelby yowls at her father as he opened a large wooden chest on the other side of the room, where the family stores most of their valuables. He leaps up onto the rim and his head disappears as he leans in to dig around. The girls are now watching him curiously, while the Venusaur continues to pack their bag with food.
At last, their father pulled himself out of the chest, holding two small boxes wrapped together in delicate scarves. He grabs them with his teeth and with the sprightly jaunt of a young man, carries them back to the table. In one swift leap he clears the height of the table, placing the package right in the centre.
“We’ve been planning this for a while.” With his tiny claws, the old skitty began to unwrap the scarves and fully reveal the ornate metal boxes within.
Both were a striking silver colour, one embossed with lightning patterns, the other with leaves. He slid the leafy box over to Blossom, who waited until Shelby had been given hers before they both opened them together. Inside each was a shining silver disc, with a perfect hole right through the middle.
“Now I know it’s not as good as a Moon Stone...” He couldn’t help but smile as he watched their faces light up at the sight of their gifts. A TM (“Technical Machine”) for each of them, granting them the power to learn a new battle move.
“No way! Is that Thunderbolt!?” Shelby squealed.
“Are they really for us?” Blossom inspected the TM closely, the number stamped on it revealing it to be “Bullet Seed”.
“How do we use it!?” Shelby interrupts, tapping her paws excitedly on the table.
"It's easier than you'd think. You just hold it tightly and focus as hard as you can.” Their mother replied. “I can teach you in the morning before you head off. It doesn't take long.”
At that, Shelby leapt into her mother’s arms, while Blossom and her father pushed their heads together affectionately.
“Thank you so much! You didn’t have to do this!” Blossom cried, with a huge smile across her face.
“Now I’m gonna get that Moon Stone and evolve even faster!” Shelby declared.
And with that, it was time to pack up their gear and get some rest. They were as prepared as they were even going to be. Tomorrow morning, the two sisters begin the journey to Capim Town, committed to their quest to grow and evolve together as a rescue team.
