The Sun Rises on a New Adventurer

I awake to the gentle blowing of a morning breeze. I open one of my eyes and see one of the columns of my lean-to. As I adjust my head and my neck so that they’re no longer crooked, I open my other eye to the sight of the trunk of a rather large tree. I let out a discontented huff.

“Urf. Sore again. I wish I didn’t have to sleep with my head crooked every night.”

I slowly rise from my rather large cotton bed, letting loose a yawn as I do my best to get the sleep out of my eyes by blinking repeatedly. As I step out from the cover of my lean-to, I spread my wings, stretch out my long neck, and shake my head to shake off the grogginess of the early morning. Beginning to fully wake up, I start walking around the base of the tree, or as it’s better known, the Clover Guild.

It’s been a couple weeks now since I’ve come to this world and joined the Clover Guild. As far as I’ve heard from my guildmates, my situation isn’t exactly unique. Most of us, myself included, just sort of woke up one day transformed into a Pokemon before we eventually found our way to the guild.

Unfortunately for me, my current form presents certain challenges most haven’t had to go through. For one, having my head so far away from my center of mass took some getting used to; I still have to take conscious care in how I carry myself as I walk. Though some of my guildmates have turned into Pokemon capable of flight and do so with grace, I’ve struggled to fly myself. Given that most bird Pokemon are bipedal, flapping your arms has an easier learning curve for a human than flapping giant leaves glued onto your back does, so it’s taking some time for me to learn. I know others in the guild have struggled to learn how to fly, so at least I’m not alone on that one. Oh, and on top of all this, I have fruit growing out my neck that makes sleeping at night awkward since they get in the way of how I’d like to position my head.

Turning into a Tropius definitely was not what I would have picked to turn into. I would have preferred turning into something with hands of some kind, like a Treecko or a Pikachu. Oh well. There are much worse things I could have turned into, I suppose.

I continue strolling around the side of the Clover Guild’s trunk while I take a glance up at the sky. Looks like it’s overcast today, thank goodness. After a minute of walking, I come up to the window of the dining hall. I stick my head through the window and look around the room. It’s still rather early in the day, so not many other Pokemon have filled the tables of the mess hall yet. Changing focus, I look around for a basket of berries that should be nearby. After a few seconds of glancing around, I locate it and drag it closer to the window with my mouth so I can more comfortably eat my breakfast.

That’s another thing about getting turned into a Tropius— I’m too big! Honestly though, I’m not even that large; height wise I’m only a bit taller than I was as a human, even if I am a good deal wider and longer now. The real problem is the guild (and most Pokemon buildings for that matter) are designed for little scrunklies only a couple of feet tall. It’s not even that I can’t fit inside the guild, but given how tight a squeeze some of the doorways and hallways can be for someone of my stature and how unrefined my fine motor skills are in this form, it’s not worth the constant hassle or the risk of stepping on some poor guild member I didn’t notice. Thankfully, the guild set up my lean-to outside for me so at least I have a place to sleep.

This also brings me to where I am now, sticking my head through a window for breakfast. Given that I’m barely able to fit inside in the first place and my clumsiness, it was inevitable that the chef who runs the mess hall would get pissed off at me breaking things when I was inside the dining room. But give me a break! It’s hard enough getting inside, how does anyone expect me to not accidentally break things designed for beings way smaller than I am?

Anyways, after a few days of broken benches and knocked over furniture, the chef and I came to an arrangement that I would not come into the dining hall proper and in exchange he would leave a basket of food specifically for me by the window that I could more easily access. It is more convenient for me, I won’t lie, but I feel humiliated eating like this. I’m like a cow at a factory farm’s feed station and it’s embarrassing.

As I continue to eat my breakfast, I catch a guild member approaching me in my peripheral vision.

“If I take those bananas off your neck, will you die?”

I let out a large sigh, then turn my focus from my food towards the guild member. “I’m just trying to eat here. Can’t you go bother someone else?”

“Aww, can’t you just play along! Just say the line!”

“This is the 6th time this week someone’s tried to get me to do the bit. I’m tired of it. Go away.”

“Hmmph, you’re no fun. Enjoy your goyslop then, big guy.”

The guild member walks away, arms crossed with a pout on his face like I wronged him on a deep, personal level.

That’s the thing about the Clover Guild. They’re not just former humans here. They’re former 4chan users. This led to some funny interactions at first, since as a human I enjoyed browsing 4chan from time to time. But it’s gotten old really quick. Everytime I hear someone call me “big guy”, I swear they’re using Confusion on me. It’s like they can never turn off from their 4chan mode or something. Between that and having to sleep and eat outside, I’ve found it really difficult to relate to any of the other guild members, and that just makes it harder to adjust to my new situation.

There was really only one upside to all the meme speak: overhearing “sneed” in the middle of a town full of Pokemon definitely tipped me off that a place like this existed. If I hadn’t joined the guild, I don’t know what I’d be doing right now to survive.

As I finish up breakfast, I snake my head back through the window and walk further around the base of the trunk. I head towards the main entrance of the guild which, thankfully, is much larger than the rest of the doorways of the guild. I make my way through the hustle and bustle of the busy lobby area, taking care not to trample any of the smaller Pokemon, and head over to the Job Board to pick out a task for today. After all, that’s what you’re supposed to do in PMD, isn’t it?

As I read over the jobs, I thank the Lord that someone’s been translating the jobs from footprint runes to English. If I had to learn a second language on top of all the other shenanigans going on, I think I’d just about lose my mind.

I continue to look over the board, and my eyes eventually land on a job towards the middle. Its description states that a Scraggy got lost in a dungeon called Enshrouded Woods and he needs someone to find and bring him back to Capim Town.

“Perfect,” I think to myself. If there’s one thing this body’s good for, it’s giving a ride to Pokemon who’ve gotten themself into trouble. Even though I haven’t really gotten the hang of using special moves like Razor Leaf or Air Cutter that are typical of a Tropius yet, my large stature means I can easily physically overpower or intimidate most of the small enemies that I encounter in the mystery dungeons near Capim Town.

I take the job off the board using my mouth and carry it back to my lean-to. Rummaging through my things resting against the wall of the guild, I pull out a map and find the location of Enshrouded Woods and mentally plot the best path there. Using my mouth, I gather my supplies as best I can into my bag, then slip my head through the handle and lift it up. The bag slides down a bit, but then gets caught on the bananas on my neck. Huffing and rolling my eyes, I shake my head around a bit to jostle it free until it finally comes free from the fruit and slides down towards the base of my neck. Now that I have everything I might need, I head out of Capim Town east towards the dungeon.

It’s been an uneventful couple of hours on the road towards the dungeon. There’s not much scenery to speak of. There are very few trees out in the open plains this road goes through. There’ve been a few travelers on the road here and there, but no one to write home about. My legs are starting to get tired however, and it dawns on me how much faster and easier this would be if I was able to fly to wherever I needed to go. I’ve been trying to learn how to fly since I came to this world, but I haven’t really been able to get the hang of it yet. It’s hard to get off the ground at all, and my technique for it seems all wrong. I usually just end up kicking up some dust, losing my balance after a short air time, and falling flat on my side or my face. It’s been frustrating, to say the least. But that’s OK! I’ll just have to keep trying my best, every day!

I shake my head a bit like I’m in a daze and my eyes go wide. My attention turns skyward to see that the clouds that were previously covering the sun have long since retreated. The sun hangs directly over, and it seems about noon.

I muse to myself, “Oh, what a beautiful day it is! If only I could stand out here and enjoy this wonderful weather all day long. It sure does feel wonderful basking in the shining sun! But a Pokemon is in trouble and needs my help! I need to get to them as fast as I can, like a good adventurer would!”

I pick up the pace towards the dungeon, strength in my legs renewed. Scraggy, I’m coming, just hold on until I can get there! I know you can do it!

It isn’t long until I spy a dense forest on the horizon. Hooray, I’ve nearly made it! I start a mad dash for the entrance, my legs carrying me forward, inspired by Scraggy’s plight! I enter the forest, and the world around me changes as I cross the invisible line into the dungeon. These mystery dungeons sure are amazing! It sure is a mystery how they work, isn’t it?

As I begin my adventure through the dungeon, I search frantically for poor Scraggy! Oh, how desperate and lonely they must be! I must save him! After some time exploring the dungeon, I encounter two Zigzagoons! I’m sure they can help me find Scraggy!

“Excuse me, friends! Have you seen a Scraggy anywhere? I’m on a mission to rescue him!”

The Zigzagoons turn their attention towards me with a mean look in their face. One of them begins to run and charges right at me! Its Tackle strikes me in my front side!

“Whoa, nice Tackle attack, friend! Are we playing tag?”

The Zigzagoons start to run in circles around me. I rear my head down, big smile on my face, and I get ready for them to try to tag me again! One of them tries to charge me from the side, but I see him. As he approaches, I rear up on my hind legs and, turning towards him, slam down on him with my front legs! Gotcha! The Zigzagoon vanishes into a puff of smoke!

“Aww, where’d you go! I want to keep playing!”

The other Zigzagoon runs off after I tagged his friend. Aww, man! He must be… a… sore…

I blink a few times and shake my head. I inspect my surroundings, then look up to the dense canopy above. There are some holes in the foliage above through which modest sunbeams trickle through, but overall not much sunlight is getting through.

“Aaaaaargh, it happened again!”

Ever since I became a Tropius, I’ve found that if I spend too much time in direct sunlight, my personality changes completely, like I’ve had one too many drinks. I feel so chipper, free-spirited, and agreeable, like nothing in the world could possibly go or be wrong. That doesn’t sound bad, but when I get like this I also become infantile and foolish. It’s like my brain just melts and I become this over-eager man-child who has no real understanding of anything that’s going on. The sun just gives me this… overwhelming joy and energy that I can’t control, and I end up acting differently. I know Tropius as a species greatly benefit from sunlight, as do most Grass types, but do they all end up like this when they’ve sunbathed too long? I met a Chespin at the Clover Guild who felt more energetic and happy in the sun, but this is nothing like that. Changing personalities like this… It’s not something I enjoy.

I thought the overcast skies from this morning would last longer, but it seems I was wrong. I try not to stay out in direct sunlight too long to avoid this, but it seems I overexposed myself to the sun out in those plains since the sky cleared without my noticing. Luckily, my mission is in a heavily wooded forest, so the shade of the canopy shielded me from further exposure and I was able to return to normal. I dread to think what would have happened if I had continued to stay out in the sun in my solar-powered stupor.

Frustrated with what just happened, I let out an exasperated groan before turning my focus back towards the mission. I root through my bag, pulling out the piece of paper that detailed the job at hand. Reviewing it, I find that the Scraggy is most likely in the middle of the dungeon. Returning the paper back to my bag, I start navigating the dungeon, aiming for its center.

The dungeon crawl is mostly uneventful now that I have cover from the sun. Most of the Pokemon here are small, and none seem to have the same aggression that the Zigzagoons from earlier had. I don’t know if that has anything to do with the demeanor that I carry now or they’re just afraid of my size, but I’m thankful for it nonetheless.

Approaching what I believe to be the center of the dungeon, I find a small clearing. Here, I notice that the holes in the canopy seem far fewer than when I had first come in. Barely any sun is getting into the forest this far in. “Thank goodness,” I think to myself, “the less sun the better.”

I begin looking around the clearing hoping to find Scraggy. Fortunately for me, it isn’t long before I find a yellow tail poking out of a nearby bush. I go over and move the bush aside slightly, and find Scraggy cowering in a crouched position.

“Hey, you’re Scraggy, aren’t you?”

Scraggy stops shaking, and then slowly turns around to get a look at me. “Aah! The monster, it f-found me! P-please, don’t hurt me!”

“Monster? I’m not a monster! I’m…… Tropius. I’m from the Clover Guild. I got your rescue request, I’m here to get you out of here.”

Immediately, Scraggy’s grimace changes from that of a cornered, scared animal, to that of disgusted confusion.

“Clover Guild? THAT’S where my rescue request ended up? Isn’t that that guild of rejects?”

My eyebrows furrow. “Do you want to be rescued or not?”

Scraggy looks around the clearing sheepishly, then looks back to me. They muster: “Y-yes…”

“Alright, then don’t give me any lip. Hop on. I’ll get us to Capim Town before nightfall.”

Scraggy climbs up my front left leg, and brings himself over to the center of my back, in between the base of my wings. Once he’s settled in, I start heading back the way I came.

As we head out of the clearing, I ask, “So, Scraggy. How exactly did you end up stuck out here?”

“Well, I came here in search of Apples. Ever since Apple Woods burned down, there aren’t as many places around now to find Apples. I had managed to grab a good few before I was attacked by a giant monster!”

“A giant monster?”

“Yeah! It was this big, four-legged, dinosaur looking thing!” He gestures with his hands to demonstrate how big it was. “It had leaves on its back too, just like you do! When you first came up to me, I thought you were it!”

Cocking my head to the side slightly, I reply “Well, I don’t know if I’d say I’m NOT a giant monster, but I’m definitely not THAT giant monster. Why do you think it attacked you anyway?”

He scratches his head. “I think it wanted the Apples I had picked. I dropped them when I ran, and it didn’t chase after me, so I’m thinking that it just wanted my Apples.”

“I guess that makes sense. Do you still have any Apples on you?”

“No,” he says with a frown on his face. “I dropped them all when it attacked me…”

“Well, without any more fruit around, it shouldn’t bother us at least, yeah?”

“U-um… “, he says, eyes darting around all of a sudden before looking back at me, “What about the fruit on your neck?”

I stop dead in my tracks. Somehow expecting this to play out like a movie, I slowly turn my head around to look behind me when I see it: a huge Venusaur, staring me down. While making eye contact with it, I slowly start to lurch forward, away from it. It, too, starts to slowly lurch forward. I start to pick up the pace, which in turns prompts the Venusaur to start moving faster as well. Eventually, I start running as fast as I can, and the Venusaur begins to give chase!

“Hold on, Scraggy!” I feel Scraggy tighten his grip around the upper portion of my back.
I’m sprinting as fast as I can to try to get away from this thing. I’m not experienced enough to fight anything in my own weight class!

“Are we losing it at all?” I yell back to Scraggy.

“No! Why don’t you just fight it! You’re Flying-type, you can take that thing!”

“I’d really rather not! Can you dig something out of my bag to try to slow it down?”

“I don’t know anything about the junk you people carry around!“

“Just do it!”

Scraggy carefully crawls along my back towards the base of my neck where my bag is situated. He opens the bag, taking great care not to fall off as I run, and starts digging around through the bag. After a couple seconds, he pulls out a pink orb with a mist swirling about in it.

“Oh perfect, use that orb and-”

Before I can finish my sentence, Scraggy throws the orb at Venusaur. It lands squarely in Venusaur’s forehead, and then rolls off the side of its face without breaking, left behind in the dust of the chase. It roars in frustration, and seems to speed up a bit in anger.

“Th-that’s not how you use one of those!” I yell angrily at Scraggy.

“I’m not one of you guild freaks! I don’t know anything about any of the junk in that dumb bag of yours!”

“Well, we need to d-do something! I’m r-running out of steam here, I can’t fight that t-thing even if I wanted to!”

I’m running out of energy. I’m starting to lose feeling in my legs with how hard I’m pushing myself. I can’t keep running forever. This thing is going to catch up to us. It’s only a matter of time. Lord only knows what it’ll do to us if that happens. This is it. This is how it’s going to end, isn’t it? Rescuing some brat in some God-forsaken forest in a fantasy world? I couldn’t have picked a dumber fate than this. This is what I deserve, though. I-

Ploink!

Scraggy tosses a banana back over the Venusaur. It stops dead in its tracks, its head following the traveling arc of the banana. It turns around to chase after it.

As I continue running, gaining distance from the Venusaur, I bark back at Scraggy, “Hey! Was that one of mine?”

“Of course it was, where else would I get a banana?”

“Don’t you think you should have asked before you took one of my fruit!?”

“Don’t you think you should have just fought that Venusaur? I mean, look at you! You’re both the same size! You shouldn’t care about the fruit anyway, it’ll grow back, won’t it?”

…He’s right. I should be able to take something like that. And I should know that my fruit will grow back. Or at least, I would if I was better accustomed to being a Pokemon. What kind of rescuer am I? A fraudulent one, that’s the kind.

I stop running now that the Venusaur is out of sight. I attempt to catch my breath, but I’m finding it more difficult than normal for some reason. Recognizing this area from earlier as close to the entrance of the dungeon, I begin slowly trudging back towards the entrance to finally escape this awful place. But as I inch forward, I’m finding myself weaker, and weaker.

From up on my back I hear, “...Hey buddy. Are you doin’ alright?”

No. I’m not. Did that Venusaur manage to do something to me? Or am I really just this weak and pathetic? Probably the latter. I can’t fight anything fairly, I can barely walk around outside without ending up acting like a mental patient.

I continue walking forward, aimlessly.

What’s the point, anyway. Helping these Pokemon out… they’re barely appreciative. I’m met with ridicule by my peers, too. Perhaps it would have been better if that Venusaur had got us. Not having to deal with… all this. This body, this dungeon, these Pokemon, this world… It’s all such a hassle… And to what end anyway?

I collapse. There’s no reason to continue on. I’m just so tired. Tired of everything. I can take no more. I close my eyes, weary.

Then…

My eyes jut open. I look around, unmoving, head on the ground. We’re outside the dungeon. The sun appears to be setting. When did this happen?

“Hello? Are you finally awake, then?” My eyes look forward to see Scraggy trying to get my attention.

“What happened? How did we end up outside the dungeon?”

“Uh… you walked us out here? You weren’t looking too good back there. Once we got away from that Venusaur, you just kept slowing down more and more until you just… collapsed. Luckily, we made it outside the dungeon by that point, but what happened?”

“I… I don’t know. I remember trying to catch my breath and…” I pause. I choose not to comment on the haunting thoughts I just had. “I just couldn’t.”

“Well, you’re a Grass-type Pokemon, yeah? The canopy was pretty thick back there. Barely any sunlight was getting into the forest. That probably had something to do with it.”

I’m hit with a sudden realization. If overexposure to sunlight causes me to act aloof, then getting no sunlight must have the opposite effect. I hadn’t yet been in a place shielded from the sky for that long before. I shudder at the recollection of the thoughts I just had at the tail end of the dungeon trip.

As I stand to my feet, I collect myself and reply “Err, right. Yeah, that must be it.”

There’s an awkward silence until Scraggy finally speaks up and says “Um. It’s getting late. Don’t you think we should head back towards town?”

“Yes… That’s probably for the best. Do you want to hop on my back?”

Scraggy looks down at the ground. “If it’s the same to you, I’d rather walk.”

I look away. Solemnly, I reply “I understand.” After a brief pause, we both turn towards Capim Town and begin the walk back. Our trip back is silent and a bit awkward, but ultimately (and thankfully) uneventful.

Eventually we reach town, the sun now having set and the moon hanging low in the sky. I breathe an internal sigh of relief that moonlight seems to sustain me as well as moderate levels of sunlight do. I don’t know if my sanity would be able to take these mood swings if they happened every night.

Scraggy reaches down into his pants and pulls out some Poke, the promised reward for the mission. He holds it out to me to show me it, then places it into my bag.

“Thanks for the rescue, I guess.” Scraggy says, shrugging his shoulders.

“Sorry the rescue was so… eventful. I guess you could say I’m a bit new at this stuff.”

Scraggy raises an eyebrow. “Yeah, I’ll say. Anyways, see you later.” He then heads off, presumably in the direction of his home.

I head back to the towards my lean-to at the guild, stopping at the mess hall’s window on the way. Thankfully, the guild’s chef has remembered to leave food in a basket for me for dinner. I quickly eat and then head over to my lean-to.

I lower my head and shift my shoulders to get my bag off of my person. I let out a deep sigh and collapse in my cotton bed. Left alone with my thoughts, I reconsider both my day and my overall situation.

The PMD games never had stuff like what I dealt with today, did they? Sure, there were darker moments but they never felt like real, tangible problems. They were mostly full of fun, happy things. Everyone was painted as so accepting, and positive… This world feels more akin to the human world in terms of the interactions I’ve had with others. It certainly doesn’t help that most of the Pokemon I interact with are total weirdos, thus associating me with those weirdos. Even if I wanted to try to get to know them better and deal with all their memey mannerisms, my size keeps me isolated from the guild itself, making that difficult.

As if that wasn’t enough, I have to struggle with a strange, unfamiliar body AND a mind that doesn’t even feel like my own sometimes. Sure, while fantasizing about this world I had always considered what it’d be like to inhabit a different kind of body… but I never considered the mental changes that could possibly bring. And now that I’m experiencing them, I don’t like it.

…And to top all of this off, I’m down a banana! How long do they take to grow back, anyway? At least I can sleep a little less crooked tonight without a third banana taking up space underneath my chin.

I let out a big yawn, closing my eyes, as the thoughts circle around in my mind. It all sucks, but I guess all I can do is try to take this new life of mine one step at a time. At least today’s mission was a success. I’m sure things can improve as long as I keep trying to do what I can, one day at a time.