Story Notes:
*A message from TehZombieWaster- Hi, all. It's been awhile since I posted any new stories and such on the site, so here's my latest contest entry. Watch out- this one's heavy on the metaphorical stuff, so please try not to complain if things don't seem to make sense. It's by no means my best story, but I just thought it would be fun to write something that was a little less dark than all of my other works.Rated PG-13 for strong language and some violence
The Garden
The Garden
Dust and sand: that's all you'll ever see on Serano. Mountains and dunes stretch for hundreds after hundreds of miles without end, save for a sparse number of settlements. One would think that this planet would accommodate everlasting clear skies and bright hot sunlight shining down upon us, but the truth couldn't be more different; cold winds agitate the planet's gravel, whipping it up into the atmosphere. Sandstorms here can last up to several weeks. Satellites orbiting the planet capture the orb's musty yellow color with specialized cameras, snapping photos that I have seen numerous times in museums as a child.
After all these many years, it is hard to believe how I got to where I am now in life; how my meager existence might be given a chance to turn into something great. When I think about her, that faceless angel that I've seen reaching out to me so many times, I just want to stop running.
As I think, I can feel the cold grains of sand against my back as I lie face up, eyes shifting with little control in their sockets. The intense burning from an injury to my stomach makes my eyelids squeeze shut from the excruciating pain... Wait, I think to myself.
My ears detect something moving towards me through the raging winds of the sandstorm. I open my mouth to scream for help, but the sound is cut off by an eruption of salty, metallic-tasting liquid: blood.
"Akio!"
Trying to pinpoint the direction in which the voice came, I roll my head to the side and open my eyes, however all I see is blackness.
"Akio!"
---
Earlier...
Smoke hung like fog in the air within the dimly lit bar, the colorful glow of neon lights illuminating the scene. Several Pokemon silently observed a violent scuffle as a Grovyle hauled a squealing Shiftry onto a table and slammed the defenseless form down hard on its back. The aggressor was heavily muscled; tendons and blood vessels pulsing in his colorfully decorated arms that were imprinted with swirling blue patterns.
His golden eyes shining as brightly as the lit cigarette that hung in his mouth, the Grovyle roughly grabbed his opponent by the throat and pulled upwards so that they were face to face. He scowled.
"Listen you little shit," he seethed, blowing a puff of smoke into the Shiftry's face, "Next time you want to poke fun at someone, you'd better make damn sure that it's not Akio Fields."
Removing the smoking rod from his mouth, Akio shoved the cigarette into the center of the Shiftry's forehead, earning a muffled scream from the Pokemon. Promptly afterward, the Grovyle shoved him off the table, sending him sprawling into a chair.
Turning his back to his badly bruised victim, he coolly approached his seating area and hefted a beaten fabric bag over his shoulder, the contents emitting a sloshing noise when the bag moved. Then, violently throwing open the dented metal doors of the entrance, the Pokemon left. Back within the building, no individuals moved, instead staying seated at their booths.
As Akio walked outside, he sniffed the air; the same dusty and unclean scent that he had known all his life hovered through the air. He now stood in the center of a large black top where numerous hover cars and air cycles lay parked in-between worn out yellow paint that marked individual parking areas. Beyond the black pavement, there was no road, but rather a vast expanse of desert where projected holograms displayed the general directions of branching desert communities.
The Grovyle snorted. He spent the seventeen years of his life living in a ramshackle orphanage in the town of Boulder Point after he was found amidst the destruction of a pirate raid. Though no bodies were recovered, Akio had assumed he wouldn't have been in the situation he was now if his parents weren't dead.
During his tenth year in the orphanage, supplies and food had begun to run short just prior to the town's water lines shutting down. Though he was small, survival instinct overtook the young Treeko and that night, he slipped away from the institution in an attempt to fend for himself. After stealing an air cycle, Akio had been traveling from town to town ever since, making money off of fights along the way; unfortunately, many were lost, and the Grovyle had the scars to prove it.
In his most recent times, Akio could be found plundering small pioneer towns with small pirate bands, stealing valuable commodities such as dehydrated rations and Hydro Paks, which were transparent plastic pouches containing purified water and essential minerals that were manufactured off-planet. Muddy tap water would also be taken from the theft victims' faucets to refill a seemingly endless amount of canteens from the pirate groups; nobody discriminated about the purity of the liquid: water was water.
Akio sighed as he ceased to reminisce about the past, the ache from the shoulder bag he carried bringing his consciousness to the present. He rubbed his arms together. It was fucking freezing.
Easing the drab fabric bag from his shoulder, he carried in his hand by the sling as he approached a small metal vehicle. The machine was covered in the brown dust that the wind carried from the mountainous sand dunes that made up the landscape. These towering dunes could stretch for hundreds of miles, seeming to never stop.
The air cycle was approximately five feet long, and resembled obsolete gas-powered motorcycles that were used on the Earth in ancient times, with the exception of being wider and wheel-less, sitting flat on the pavement. There were also no open gaps on the vehicle either- the entire cycle was covered in a smooth steel shell, protecting the twin fan blades that were stationed on the bottom of the vehicle.
Opening the bag as he mounted the air cycle, Akio thrust his arm into the sack and pushed past numerous Hydro Paks and canteens until his outstretched hand found a set of keys. Before he had the chance to start the engine he heard a familiar voice shout his name.
"Hey, Akio!"
From behind the bar emerged a Cacturne running towards him. He was dressed in badly scuffed up blue jeans and a brown khaki shirt, also damaged from the needles that protruded from the creature's body.
The Grovyle's brows met in annoyance. "Garmen," he half-heartedly called in reply. A few years back, Akio had joined a roving pirate band that was headed by the shady Pokemon; the two had gotten off on relatively good terms, but when Akio slipped away from the gang, he imagined that he hadn't very pleased.
Catching up to him, the Cacturne bent over wheezing. The years didn't seem to be doing the Pokemon any favors.
"I'll be damned," Garmen panted. "You're the last person I expected to run into."
"What do you want?" Akio asked, rolling his eyes. "...And where the hell are your cronies?"
He spat. "Arceus damn those ungrateful dirt-eating bastards! What does it look like, you numbskull? They stole my shit and hauled me to the nearest Arceus-damned town!" The aging Cacturne's breathing began to slow. "I hate to ask you, but..."
"You need my help." Akio muttered, finishing Garmen's sentence.
"All I need is for you to give me a lift to the next town, that's all I'm asking."
A thin smile of amusement spread across the Grovyle's lips as he dismounted the air cycle and threw Garmen the keys. In the instant that he caught them, Akio swiftly drew a small pistol from his belt and aimed it at him. "You drive, and if you try anything funny the hole that'll be in your head will be big enough to fit a fist through."
"Fair enough," the Cacturne replied as he seated himself on the air cycle with Akio cautiously sitting down behind him, gun still drawn and his bag placed within a mesh basket behind the passenger's seat. The fan blades at the bottom of the air cycle came to life with a whirr as Garmen turned the key in the vehicle's ignition. Small clouds of sand were kicked up as the cycle slowly hovered into the air, levitating eight feet off of the ground with grains of sand assaulting the pair from the oncoming sandstorm.
"You might want to wear these," Akio commented, handing him a pair of goggles before putting on his own. He accepted them without saying a word.
The two fans that kept the vehicle aloft began to whirr even more loudly as the two Pokemon began to slowly gain altitude while the cycle moved forward at a respectable speed. Through the dust of the outer edges of the storm, Akio could spot the hologram that pointed to the town of Anchorhead illuminated faintly in the distance.
Placing a hand over his mouth to avoid getting sand in it, he said, "Over there."
Nodding, Garmen turned the cycle towards the hologram and continued on a straight path. When the sign was within a hundred feet, the Cacturne gunned the engines of the small cycle, sending it hurtling through the air at nightmarish speed.
"What the hell are you pulling?!" Akio screamed over the howling wind. He watched as they passed through the hologram and out into the middle of nowhere in a matter of seconds. As he raised the butt of the gun to strike the Cacturne in the head, Garmen elbowed him in the stomach, piercing through his soiled white shirt and into his flesh.
Akio muffled a scream as Garmen suddenly swerved to the side, and losing balance, the Sceptile careened off the side of his cycle. He heard the cycle engines whine and the bastard Cacturne cackle a silly-sounding laugh above him as he tumbled through empty space.
Abruptly, he felt himself stop falling at the signal of a loud thud; staring at the dreary sky above him, Akio saw blackness eating at the fringes of his vision. Seconds later, consciousness left him.
---
When he awoke, Akio felt himself lying against a cool mattress. Trying to gain a sense of where he was, he looked around the dimly lit room; to his left was a small table with a prosperous orb that lit the room. There was nothing else to be seen except for the crudely chiseled walls that looked as if they had been carved out of ancient stone.
He looked down. He found that his abdomen had been freshly bandaged, with little freckles of blood dotting the gauze. Akio's cheeks flushed when he realized that he was completely naked, save for a folded white cloth that covered his nether regions. When he began to sit up, fiery pain erupted from beneath the bandage, but Akio caught the scream in his throat.
Suddenly, the events of what had recently happened flooded through his brain. His hover cycle. His bag of possessions. The bastard that had stolen the two. His two-fingered hands clutched in a murderous rage, he screamed, "Garmen, you son of a bitch!!!"
A minute of near silence passed before a wooden door slowly opened letting long shafts of light pierce the shadowy confines of the room. Through the entrance entered a Meganium, who approached him with a slightly odd gait. "Are you alright?" The female voice sounded soothing and calm, but not enough to quell the Grovyle's rage.
"Where is that son of a shit?" he seethed. "When I find him, I'll rip his Arceus-damned throat out!"
"There's nobody named Garmen living here," the Meganium said with a hint of amusement in her voice. "You can settle down, it's safe now. And to tell you the truth, I'd really love it if you would be so kind as to keep your voice down."
"No bitch tells me what to do!" The Grovyle hissed through clenched teeth.
"Shh," she cooed. "You're upset, I understand perfectly. Here- I've got something that will help calm you down." From behind her neck, two green vines extended and began to hover above the Pokemon's neck as he spat and cursed.
Green powder fell from the ends of the vines and onto Akio's face. Suddenly feeling very drowsy, the last thing he recalled was the soft melody of the female singing a lullaby before he fell asleep.
---
Feeling as though he had just gone through a long and satisfying slumber, Akio opened his eyes to find himself lying in a different, fully lit room. Placed on a sofa covered in a fabric with brightly colored unidentifiable objects, he then noticed the sweet aroma that filled the room. He was fully clothed, now dressed in a white bathrobe.
"It smells nice, doesn't it?"
Instantly defensive, Akio shot into a sitting position, ignoring the burning pain that erupted in his abdomen. Whirling his head from side to side, he frantically searched the room for anything that moved, only seeing some odd green-colored items placed in glass jars. "Where the hell are you?" Akio snarled. "If you're going to kill me, you might as well do it now!"
"Please try not to start screaming; I've never killed anybody," the female voice he recognized from earlier said softly. Silently, the Meganium walked into sight from an adjoining room; she was dressed in a bright blue tunic with patterns on it similar to the couch fabric and the mysterious green objects in the jars placed around the room. A long black cloth was wrapped completely around her face, only exposing a single dazzling golden eye.
"Where am I?" Akio asked, unconvinced.
The female chuckled. "I've been living here all my life and I don't even know where 'here' is. All I know is that I found you on the ground in a bloody heap a couple hundred feet from my doorstep. Earlier, you were shouting about someone named Garmen. Is that who left you out here?"
Not responding, Akio frowned, unsure of what to think of the eccentric Pokemon. On one hand, she had potentially saved his life, but on the other hand, she might be one of the desert-dwelling psychotics that were often talked about in different towns. The Grovyle decided to play along with her for the moment. Eyeing the straw-like objects in the jars once again, he asked, "What are those? They almost look like those straws that they used to hand out at my orphanage so we could drink from Hydro Paks."
The Meganium suddenly exploded into light-hearted laughter; much different than the cruel, mocking laughs that he had heard so many times before. "Oh, I'm so sorry," she began, "it's just that I've never heard of a grass-type Pokemon who's never seen a plant before!"
"What the heck is a grass-type Pokemon? What's a plant?" Akio asked, wrinkling his nose in frustration. "You're really making me ask too many questions... and help me up, will you?"
A single green vine extended outwards from behind her neck to meet the Grovyle's outstretched hand. "Here- if you can walk, I can show you a whole bunch of plants," she said cheerfully.
Without waiting for an answer from him, she whirled around and began to make her way through an archway at the opposite side of the room before once again turning to face him. "I almost forgot to ask- what's you're name?"
Making his way over to her across the cold stone floor, he mumbled, "Akio... Akio Fields."
She once again extended a vine so that she could shake his hand. "It's nice to meet you, Akio. My name is Arden. Now that I think about it... I don't think I ever had a last name. Living alone makes you forget important things sometimes."
Extending his hand to shake the vine, he said, "Sure. Listen, I'm not too big on formalities here; what we should be talking about is how to get me out of here."
Arden didn't answer him, instead turning away and strolling at a brisk pace through another carved-out rock room. Akio followed her into a much smaller room where the nooks and crannies where the rocks were carved out were much more prominent. At the back of the room was a metal door with an old-fashioned lock mechanism that was opened through a wheel at the front.
"Hey, did you hear me?" Akio growled, butting into the Meganium's side.
Her visible golden eye shrunk and dulled, losing it's brightness; if he could see the rest of her face, it may have been twisted in a snarl. A hint of anger bled through her normally calm speaking demeanor. "Don't do that again."
Letting out an exasperated sigh, he muttered, "Fine, I'm sorry. Now can you please get me out of here? I mean, you have to have some type of transport module around here, right?"
"No can do," Arden replied. "Even if I did have something you could use, you can't leave now- there's a sandstorm outside."
Remembering the scuffle with Garmen in the biting storm, Akio's shoulders sagged in surrender. "...Fine. Since I'm stuck here, what was this oh-so-wonderful thing that you wanted to show me?"
The lively twinkle returned to her eye as she spoke excitedly, "Alright, then! Let's go to the garden!" Twisting the metallic wheel mounted on the door with her two vine-like appendages until it stopped, she hopped up in the air in excitement and ripped the door open.
A wave of warm, moist air tickled the leaf-like extensions on Akio's arms and body as he looked ahead, him mouth hanging agape. Through the door lay a long corridor, encased in a flawless glass arch that spanned for several hundred feet; raging gravel from the sandstorm outside pounded on the surface, trying unsuccessfully to breach the tunnel.
What was located at the end of the corridor completely exhilarated Akio, who felt like he had set foot on an unexplored planet. Beyond the dazzling glass corridor was something he had never seen before: a giant glass dome, brightly illuminated by white light, spanned for what seemed to be at least two hundred feet. From within, he could see large green structures that looked as if they had hair sprouting from their stalks.
"Arceus," Akio muttered, completely overwhelmed.
Arden guffawed, the disturbance unraveling part of the long strip of cloth that covered her face. She was immediately silenced, and before Akio had noticed her abrupt stop in laughter, the black fabric was once again tightly fixed in its original position. "Are you ready?"
For the first time in a long time, a silly grin pasted itself upon the Grovyle's face and with childish enthusiasm, he cried, "I thought you would never ask!" Arden's personality seemed to be infectious, because with little regard of having just met her, Akio grabbed one of her vines and the two ran down the marble-floored corridor.
When the two arrived at the opposite end of the tunnel, both were panting heavily. Turning to Akio, Arden smiled. Meeting her gaze for a second, his grin disappeared and he looked the other way. "So, uh, are we going in?" he asked, his voice gruff.
"You don't have to hide who you are, you know."
Almost incredulous at her remark, the Grovyle laughed loudly; it wasn't a nice laugh that resembled Arden's. "What the hell do you think you're talking about?"
"There you go again- give it time. You'll eventually understand what I mean." She said. "Now let's go in, shall we?" Akio nodded his head.
With seemingly diminished enthusiasm, the Meganium pushed open a plain-looking aluminum door when another blast of humid air rushed out. With the air brought a very pleasant sweet smell, similar to the scent that Akio had smelled in his temporary companion's dwelling. Nearly frozen in wonder, he slowly shuffled in behind Arden.
The scene inside was nearly indescribable- a countless variation of the strange green and brown plants that he had seen through the dome's glass were scattered across a landscape of soft green bristles beneath his feet. Small frilly discs with yellow domes in the middle also dominated the small environment; they almost resembled the larger structure.
In a state of shock and awe, Akio asked, "Who built these things?"
"Nobody," she replied, obviously amused. "Do you see those tall green things?" Arden asked, pointing to the formations that towered over their heads. He nodded. Continuing, she explained, "Those are called trees and they grow out of the ground; believe it or not, they're just as alive as you and I."
Confused, he queried, "Can they talk?"
The Meganium smiled beneath the veil of the fabric. "No. They don't think and they don't have brains- they just do what they have to do to survive."
Akio nodded in understanding, still staring wide-eyed at the trees, admiring the dark green leaves that hung from the branches. For the next several hours, Arden walked with him and explained the many different species of plant life contained within the dome, ranging from flowers to the grass that grew from the soil, as well as how they produced food. This, as she explained, was the reason for the lights and the noisy humidifiers that were placed around the outer edges of the dome that ran for twenty-nine hours, twelve days a week.
As the skies of Serano began to darken to a pitch-black, Arden yawned. "It's been a long day."
Sitting on in the soft grass with a bright yellow flower in his hand, Akio nodded. "I guess that's secret code for 'we have to go back now'."
"Come on, we can always come back tomorrow- and plus, you can help me plant some new tomato berry bushes if you wake up early enough."
Akio smiled broadly. "You sure know how to strike a hard bargain, don't you?"
---
When Akio woke up in the guest room that Arden had settled him in, his first thought was of the garden that she had taken him to the previous day. Climbing out of his cot, he quietly navigated through the carved-out rock dwelling until he reached the room he remembered to be Arden's. Since there was no door, he poked his head through the arch and was shocked to find the Meganium asleep, without the black fabric covering her face.
The right side of her head was lying face up, and the state of her face oddly captivated him, seemingly almost beautiful in a strange sense. Badly scarred pinkish tissue that had probably been caused by a past burn ran along the side of Arden's head, from her jaw to her temple. Something had also burned clear through one of her nostrils, also managing to weld her right eye permanently shut.
Not wanting to be there when she woke up to avoid embarrassing her, Akio stealthily stalked away towards the garden. Opening the entrance to the glass tunnel, he admired the sand blowing over it from the still active sandstorm; the sound was very soothing, almost like the sound of rain, but it hadn't rained in nearly a decade. Sighing, he continued on his way and pushed through the entrance to the dome.
Upon entry, he breathed in deeply, taking in the warm, damp air and the sweet smell of the flowers. Before they had settled for the night the previous evening, Arden had marked a small plot of land where they were to plant the berries; Akio was eager to start, so he set about to search for the grass patch when he heard the entrance to the garden softly shut.
Looking over to the entrance, he saw the Meganium enter the dome- the black cloth that covered her face was gone. Spotting him, Arden managed a crooked smile with a single berry wrapped in one of her vines. Running over to meet her, Akio smiled broadly back.
"I know that I said that we would be planting berries in here," she began, "but I had an idea that I think you might like." Handing over the berry to Akio, she said, "Come on."
Following her out of the garden, a strange silence had fallen upon the complex. Looking up through the glass of the corridor, he saw that the sandstorm had stopped, and a few of the sun's rays had pierced the clouds of the planet. He continued to trail behind her through the house and out of the front door, when Arden stopped a few paces from the door.
From within her bright blue tunic, she withdrew another berry that was identical to the one that she had given Akio. She fixed him with a sunny look, and coaxed him over to her side. When he stood in place parallel to her, Arden bent down and dug a small hole by displacing the desert sand with her vines. Gingerly, she placed the berry into the crevice and covered it with sand.
Her eye twinkling, Arden nodded at Akio, motioning for him to do the same. Bending over, he scooped up a handful of sand and placed the berry in the empty space that he had created- smiling as he did so.
---
Two days later, the pair returned to the front of the earthen house to find two wonderfully green sprouts growing out of the ground. Though a small dust storm had blown through the area the previous night, the two plants seemed to be remarkably unscathed.
"So, in the time period that you were here, two sandstorms have been preventing you from leaving," Arden murmured, a hint of sadness in her voice. "You're free to go now, if you want."
Her words seemed to bring a small smile to Akio's face, and when Arden was about to ask him if she had said anything funny, he said, "Now that I really think about it, I think I just might stay a while longer."Chapter End Notes:
I say once again, I had a blast writing this. And once again I will ask that you not hold any gripes against me because some of the stuff doesn't seem to make sense. It does- you just really have to think about it.
Anyways, thank you so much for reading and I sincerely hope you enjoyed the story! And happy belated Earth Day! =
Dust and sand: that's all you'll ever see on Serano. Mountains and dunes stretch for hundreds after hundreds of miles without end, save for a sparse number of settlements. One would think that this planet would accommodate everlasting clear skies and bright hot sunlight shining down upon us, but the truth couldn't be more different; cold winds agitate the planet's gravel, whipping it up into the atmosphere. Sandstorms here can last up to several weeks. Satellites orbiting the planet capture the orb's musty yellow color with specialized cameras, snapping photos that I have seen numerous times in museums as a child.
After all these many years, it is hard to believe how I got to where I am now in life; how my meager existence might be given a chance to turn into something great. When I think about her, that faceless angel that I've seen reaching out to me so many times, I just want to stop running.
As I think, I can feel the cold grains of sand against my back as I lie face up, eyes shifting with little control in their sockets. The intense burning from an injury to my stomach makes my eyelids squeeze shut from the excruciating pain... Wait, I think to myself.
My ears detect something moving towards me through the raging winds of the sandstorm. I open my mouth to scream for help, but the sound is cut off by an eruption of salty, metallic-tasting liquid: blood.
"Akio!"
Trying to pinpoint the direction in which the voice came, I roll my head to the side and open my eyes, however all I see is blackness.
"Akio!"
---
Earlier...
Smoke hung like fog in the air within the dimly lit bar, the colorful glow of neon lights illuminating the scene. Several Pokemon silently observed a violent scuffle as a Grovyle hauled a squealing Shiftry onto a table and slammed the defenseless form down hard on its back. The aggressor was heavily muscled; tendons and blood vessels pulsing in his colorfully decorated arms that were imprinted with swirling blue patterns.
His golden eyes shining as brightly as the lit cigarette that hung in his mouth, the Grovyle roughly grabbed his opponent by the throat and pulled upwards so that they were face to face. He scowled.
"Listen you little shit," he seethed, blowing a puff of smoke into the Shiftry's face, "Next time you want to poke fun at someone, you'd better make damn sure that it's not Akio Fields."
Removing the smoking rod from his mouth, Akio shoved the cigarette into the center of the Shiftry's forehead, earning a muffled scream from the Pokemon. Promptly afterward, the Grovyle shoved him off the table, sending him sprawling into a chair.
Turning his back to his badly bruised victim, he coolly approached his seating area and hefted a beaten fabric bag over his shoulder, the contents emitting a sloshing noise when the bag moved. Then, violently throwing open the dented metal doors of the entrance, the Pokemon left. Back within the building, no individuals moved, instead staying seated at their booths.
As Akio walked outside, he sniffed the air; the same dusty and unclean scent that he had known all his life hovered through the air. He now stood in the center of a large black top where numerous hover cars and air cycles lay parked in-between worn out yellow paint that marked individual parking areas. Beyond the black pavement, there was no road, but rather a vast expanse of desert where projected holograms displayed the general directions of branching desert communities.
The Grovyle snorted. He spent the seventeen years of his life living in a ramshackle orphanage in the town of Boulder Point after he was found amidst the destruction of a pirate raid. Though no bodies were recovered, Akio had assumed he wouldn't have been in the situation he was now if his parents weren't dead.
During his tenth year in the orphanage, supplies and food had begun to run short just prior to the town's water lines shutting down. Though he was small, survival instinct overtook the young Treeko and that night, he slipped away from the institution in an attempt to fend for himself. After stealing an air cycle, Akio had been traveling from town to town ever since, making money off of fights along the way; unfortunately, many were lost, and the Grovyle had the scars to prove it.
In his most recent times, Akio could be found plundering small pioneer towns with small pirate bands, stealing valuable commodities such as dehydrated rations and Hydro Paks, which were transparent plastic pouches containing purified water and essential minerals that were manufactured off-planet. Muddy tap water would also be taken from the theft victims' faucets to refill a seemingly endless amount of canteens from the pirate groups; nobody discriminated about the purity of the liquid: water was water.
Akio sighed as he ceased to reminisce about the past, the ache from the shoulder bag he carried bringing his consciousness to the present. He rubbed his arms together. It was fucking freezing.
Easing the drab fabric bag from his shoulder, he carried in his hand by the sling as he approached a small metal vehicle. The machine was covered in the brown dust that the wind carried from the mountainous sand dunes that made up the landscape. These towering dunes could stretch for hundreds of miles, seeming to never stop.
The air cycle was approximately five feet long, and resembled obsolete gas-powered motorcycles that were used on the Earth in ancient times, with the exception of being wider and wheel-less, sitting flat on the pavement. There were also no open gaps on the vehicle either- the entire cycle was covered in a smooth steel shell, protecting the twin fan blades that were stationed on the bottom of the vehicle.
Opening the bag as he mounted the air cycle, Akio thrust his arm into the sack and pushed past numerous Hydro Paks and canteens until his outstretched hand found a set of keys. Before he had the chance to start the engine he heard a familiar voice shout his name.
"Hey, Akio!"
From behind the bar emerged a Cacturne running towards him. He was dressed in badly scuffed up blue jeans and a brown khaki shirt, also damaged from the needles that protruded from the creature's body.
The Grovyle's brows met in annoyance. "Garmen," he half-heartedly called in reply. A few years back, Akio had joined a roving pirate band that was headed by the shady Pokemon; the two had gotten off on relatively good terms, but when Akio slipped away from the gang, he imagined that he hadn't very pleased.
Catching up to him, the Cacturne bent over wheezing. The years didn't seem to be doing the Pokemon any favors.
"I'll be damned," Garmen panted. "You're the last person I expected to run into."
"What do you want?" Akio asked, rolling his eyes. "...And where the hell are your cronies?"
He spat. "Arceus damn those ungrateful dirt-eating bastards! What does it look like, you numbskull? They stole my shit and hauled me to the nearest Arceus-damned town!" The aging Cacturne's breathing began to slow. "I hate to ask you, but..."
"You need my help." Akio muttered, finishing Garmen's sentence.
"All I need is for you to give me a lift to the next town, that's all I'm asking."
A thin smile of amusement spread across the Grovyle's lips as he dismounted the air cycle and threw Garmen the keys. In the instant that he caught them, Akio swiftly drew a small pistol from his belt and aimed it at him. "You drive, and if you try anything funny the hole that'll be in your head will be big enough to fit a fist through."
"Fair enough," the Cacturne replied as he seated himself on the air cycle with Akio cautiously sitting down behind him, gun still drawn and his bag placed within a mesh basket behind the passenger's seat. The fan blades at the bottom of the air cycle came to life with a whirr as Garmen turned the key in the vehicle's ignition. Small clouds of sand were kicked up as the cycle slowly hovered into the air, levitating eight feet off of the ground with grains of sand assaulting the pair from the oncoming sandstorm.
"You might want to wear these," Akio commented, handing him a pair of goggles before putting on his own. He accepted them without saying a word.
The two fans that kept the vehicle aloft began to whirr even more loudly as the two Pokemon began to slowly gain altitude while the cycle moved forward at a respectable speed. Through the dust of the outer edges of the storm, Akio could spot the hologram that pointed to the town of Anchorhead illuminated faintly in the distance.
Placing a hand over his mouth to avoid getting sand in it, he said, "Over there."
Nodding, Garmen turned the cycle towards the hologram and continued on a straight path. When the sign was within a hundred feet, the Cacturne gunned the engines of the small cycle, sending it hurtling through the air at nightmarish speed.
"What the hell are you pulling?!" Akio screamed over the howling wind. He watched as they passed through the hologram and out into the middle of nowhere in a matter of seconds. As he raised the butt of the gun to strike the Cacturne in the head, Garmen elbowed him in the stomach, piercing through his soiled white shirt and into his flesh.
Akio muffled a scream as Garmen suddenly swerved to the side, and losing balance, the Sceptile careened off the side of his cycle. He heard the cycle engines whine and the bastard Cacturne cackle a silly-sounding laugh above him as he tumbled through empty space.
Abruptly, he felt himself stop falling at the signal of a loud thud; staring at the dreary sky above him, Akio saw blackness eating at the fringes of his vision. Seconds later, consciousness left him.
---
When he awoke, Akio felt himself lying against a cool mattress. Trying to gain a sense of where he was, he looked around the dimly lit room; to his left was a small table with a prosperous orb that lit the room. There was nothing else to be seen except for the crudely chiseled walls that looked as if they had been carved out of ancient stone.
He looked down. He found that his abdomen had been freshly bandaged, with little freckles of blood dotting the gauze. Akio's cheeks flushed when he realized that he was completely naked, save for a folded white cloth that covered his nether regions. When he began to sit up, fiery pain erupted from beneath the bandage, but Akio caught the scream in his throat.
Suddenly, the events of what had recently happened flooded through his brain. His hover cycle. His bag of possessions. The bastard that had stolen the two. His two-fingered hands clutched in a murderous rage, he screamed, "Garmen, you son of a bitch!!!"
A minute of near silence passed before a wooden door slowly opened letting long shafts of light pierce the shadowy confines of the room. Through the entrance entered a Meganium, who approached him with a slightly odd gait. "Are you alright?" The female voice sounded soothing and calm, but not enough to quell the Grovyle's rage.
"Where is that son of a shit?" he seethed. "When I find him, I'll rip his Arceus-damned throat out!"
"There's nobody named Garmen living here," the Meganium said with a hint of amusement in her voice. "You can settle down, it's safe now. And to tell you the truth, I'd really love it if you would be so kind as to keep your voice down."
"No bitch tells me what to do!" The Grovyle hissed through clenched teeth.
"Shh," she cooed. "You're upset, I understand perfectly. Here- I've got something that will help calm you down." From behind her neck, two green vines extended and began to hover above the Pokemon's neck as he spat and cursed.
Green powder fell from the ends of the vines and onto Akio's face. Suddenly feeling very drowsy, the last thing he recalled was the soft melody of the female singing a lullaby before he fell asleep.
---
Feeling as though he had just gone through a long and satisfying slumber, Akio opened his eyes to find himself lying in a different, fully lit room. Placed on a sofa covered in a fabric with brightly colored unidentifiable objects, he then noticed the sweet aroma that filled the room. He was fully clothed, now dressed in a white bathrobe.
"It smells nice, doesn't it?"
Instantly defensive, Akio shot into a sitting position, ignoring the burning pain that erupted in his abdomen. Whirling his head from side to side, he frantically searched the room for anything that moved, only seeing some odd green-colored items placed in glass jars. "Where the hell are you?" Akio snarled. "If you're going to kill me, you might as well do it now!"
"Please try not to start screaming; I've never killed anybody," the female voice he recognized from earlier said softly. Silently, the Meganium walked into sight from an adjoining room; she was dressed in a bright blue tunic with patterns on it similar to the couch fabric and the mysterious green objects in the jars placed around the room. A long black cloth was wrapped completely around her face, only exposing a single dazzling golden eye.
"Where am I?" Akio asked, unconvinced.
The female chuckled. "I've been living here all my life and I don't even know where 'here' is. All I know is that I found you on the ground in a bloody heap a couple hundred feet from my doorstep. Earlier, you were shouting about someone named Garmen. Is that who left you out here?"
Not responding, Akio frowned, unsure of what to think of the eccentric Pokemon. On one hand, she had potentially saved his life, but on the other hand, she might be one of the desert-dwelling psychotics that were often talked about in different towns. The Grovyle decided to play along with her for the moment. Eyeing the straw-like objects in the jars once again, he asked, "What are those? They almost look like those straws that they used to hand out at my orphanage so we could drink from Hydro Paks."
The Meganium suddenly exploded into light-hearted laughter; much different than the cruel, mocking laughs that he had heard so many times before. "Oh, I'm so sorry," she began, "it's just that I've never heard of a grass-type Pokemon who's never seen a plant before!"
"What the heck is a grass-type Pokemon? What's a plant?" Akio asked, wrinkling his nose in frustration. "You're really making me ask too many questions... and help me up, will you?"
A single green vine extended outwards from behind her neck to meet the Grovyle's outstretched hand. "Here- if you can walk, I can show you a whole bunch of plants," she said cheerfully.
Without waiting for an answer from him, she whirled around and began to make her way through an archway at the opposite side of the room before once again turning to face him. "I almost forgot to ask- what's you're name?"
Making his way over to her across the cold stone floor, he mumbled, "Akio... Akio Fields."
She once again extended a vine so that she could shake his hand. "It's nice to meet you, Akio. My name is Arden. Now that I think about it... I don't think I ever had a last name. Living alone makes you forget important things sometimes."
Extending his hand to shake the vine, he said, "Sure. Listen, I'm not too big on formalities here; what we should be talking about is how to get me out of here."
Arden didn't answer him, instead turning away and strolling at a brisk pace through another carved-out rock room. Akio followed her into a much smaller room where the nooks and crannies where the rocks were carved out were much more prominent. At the back of the room was a metal door with an old-fashioned lock mechanism that was opened through a wheel at the front.
"Hey, did you hear me?" Akio growled, butting into the Meganium's side.
Her visible golden eye shrunk and dulled, losing it's brightness; if he could see the rest of her face, it may have been twisted in a snarl. A hint of anger bled through her normally calm speaking demeanor. "Don't do that again."
Letting out an exasperated sigh, he muttered, "Fine, I'm sorry. Now can you please get me out of here? I mean, you have to have some type of transport module around here, right?"
"No can do," Arden replied. "Even if I did have something you could use, you can't leave now- there's a sandstorm outside."
Remembering the scuffle with Garmen in the biting storm, Akio's shoulders sagged in surrender. "...Fine. Since I'm stuck here, what was this oh-so-wonderful thing that you wanted to show me?"
The lively twinkle returned to her eye as she spoke excitedly, "Alright, then! Let's go to the garden!" Twisting the metallic wheel mounted on the door with her two vine-like appendages until it stopped, she hopped up in the air in excitement and ripped the door open.
A wave of warm, moist air tickled the leaf-like extensions on Akio's arms and body as he looked ahead, him mouth hanging agape. Through the door lay a long corridor, encased in a flawless glass arch that spanned for several hundred feet; raging gravel from the sandstorm outside pounded on the surface, trying unsuccessfully to breach the tunnel.
What was located at the end of the corridor completely exhilarated Akio, who felt like he had set foot on an unexplored planet. Beyond the dazzling glass corridor was something he had never seen before: a giant glass dome, brightly illuminated by white light, spanned for what seemed to be at least two hundred feet. From within, he could see large green structures that looked as if they had hair sprouting from their stalks.
"Arceus," Akio muttered, completely overwhelmed.
Arden guffawed, the disturbance unraveling part of the long strip of cloth that covered her face. She was immediately silenced, and before Akio had noticed her abrupt stop in laughter, the black fabric was once again tightly fixed in its original position. "Are you ready?"
For the first time in a long time, a silly grin pasted itself upon the Grovyle's face and with childish enthusiasm, he cried, "I thought you would never ask!" Arden's personality seemed to be infectious, because with little regard of having just met her, Akio grabbed one of her vines and the two ran down the marble-floored corridor.
When the two arrived at the opposite end of the tunnel, both were panting heavily. Turning to Akio, Arden smiled. Meeting her gaze for a second, his grin disappeared and he looked the other way. "So, uh, are we going in?" he asked, his voice gruff.
"You don't have to hide who you are, you know."
Almost incredulous at her remark, the Grovyle laughed loudly; it wasn't a nice laugh that resembled Arden's. "What the hell do you think you're talking about?"
"There you go again- give it time. You'll eventually understand what I mean." She said. "Now let's go in, shall we?" Akio nodded his head.
With seemingly diminished enthusiasm, the Meganium pushed open a plain-looking aluminum door when another blast of humid air rushed out. With the air brought a very pleasant sweet smell, similar to the scent that Akio had smelled in his temporary companion's dwelling. Nearly frozen in wonder, he slowly shuffled in behind Arden.
The scene inside was nearly indescribable- a countless variation of the strange green and brown plants that he had seen through the dome's glass were scattered across a landscape of soft green bristles beneath his feet. Small frilly discs with yellow domes in the middle also dominated the small environment; they almost resembled the larger structure.
In a state of shock and awe, Akio asked, "Who built these things?"
"Nobody," she replied, obviously amused. "Do you see those tall green things?" Arden asked, pointing to the formations that towered over their heads. He nodded. Continuing, she explained, "Those are called trees and they grow out of the ground; believe it or not, they're just as alive as you and I."
Confused, he queried, "Can they talk?"
The Meganium smiled beneath the veil of the fabric. "No. They don't think and they don't have brains- they just do what they have to do to survive."
Akio nodded in understanding, still staring wide-eyed at the trees, admiring the dark green leaves that hung from the branches. For the next several hours, Arden walked with him and explained the many different species of plant life contained within the dome, ranging from flowers to the grass that grew from the soil, as well as how they produced food. This, as she explained, was the reason for the lights and the noisy humidifiers that were placed around the outer edges of the dome that ran for twenty-nine hours, twelve days a week.
As the skies of Serano began to darken to a pitch-black, Arden yawned. "It's been a long day."
Sitting on in the soft grass with a bright yellow flower in his hand, Akio nodded. "I guess that's secret code for 'we have to go back now'."
"Come on, we can always come back tomorrow- and plus, you can help me plant some new tomato berry bushes if you wake up early enough."
Akio smiled broadly. "You sure know how to strike a hard bargain, don't you?"
---
When Akio woke up in the guest room that Arden had settled him in, his first thought was of the garden that she had taken him to the previous day. Climbing out of his cot, he quietly navigated through the carved-out rock dwelling until he reached the room he remembered to be Arden's. Since there was no door, he poked his head through the arch and was shocked to find the Meganium asleep, without the black fabric covering her face.
The right side of her head was lying face up, and the state of her face oddly captivated him, seemingly almost beautiful in a strange sense. Badly scarred pinkish tissue that had probably been caused by a past burn ran along the side of Arden's head, from her jaw to her temple. Something had also burned clear through one of her nostrils, also managing to weld her right eye permanently shut.
Not wanting to be there when she woke up to avoid embarrassing her, Akio stealthily stalked away towards the garden. Opening the entrance to the glass tunnel, he admired the sand blowing over it from the still active sandstorm; the sound was very soothing, almost like the sound of rain, but it hadn't rained in nearly a decade. Sighing, he continued on his way and pushed through the entrance to the dome.
Upon entry, he breathed in deeply, taking in the warm, damp air and the sweet smell of the flowers. Before they had settled for the night the previous evening, Arden had marked a small plot of land where they were to plant the berries; Akio was eager to start, so he set about to search for the grass patch when he heard the entrance to the garden softly shut.
Looking over to the entrance, he saw the Meganium enter the dome- the black cloth that covered her face was gone. Spotting him, Arden managed a crooked smile with a single berry wrapped in one of her vines. Running over to meet her, Akio smiled broadly back.
"I know that I said that we would be planting berries in here," she began, "but I had an idea that I think you might like." Handing over the berry to Akio, she said, "Come on."
Following her out of the garden, a strange silence had fallen upon the complex. Looking up through the glass of the corridor, he saw that the sandstorm had stopped, and a few of the sun's rays had pierced the clouds of the planet. He continued to trail behind her through the house and out of the front door, when Arden stopped a few paces from the door.
From within her bright blue tunic, she withdrew another berry that was identical to the one that she had given Akio. She fixed him with a sunny look, and coaxed him over to her side. When he stood in place parallel to her, Arden bent down and dug a small hole by displacing the desert sand with her vines. Gingerly, she placed the berry into the crevice and covered it with sand.
Her eye twinkling, Arden nodded at Akio, motioning for him to do the same. Bending over, he scooped up a handful of sand and placed the berry in the empty space that he had created- smiling as he did so.
---
Two days later, the pair returned to the front of the earthen house to find two wonderfully green sprouts growing out of the ground. Though a small dust storm had blown through the area the previous night, the two plants seemed to be remarkably unscathed.
"So, in the time period that you were here, two sandstorms have been preventing you from leaving," Arden murmured, a hint of sadness in her voice. "You're free to go now, if you want."
Her words seemed to bring a small smile to Akio's face, and when Arden was about to ask him if she had said anything funny, he said, "Now that I really think about it, I think I just might stay a while longer."Chapter End Notes:
I say once again, I had a blast writing this. And once again I will ask that you not hold any gripes against me because some of the stuff doesn't seem to make sense. It does- you just really have to think about it.
Anyways, thank you so much for reading and I sincerely hope you enjoyed the story! And happy belated Earth Day! =