FLOOD [Pokémon]

Chapter 5: Stranger in a Strange Land

NERO

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Noon had come and gone, and I was still swimming.

I was trying to go at top speed, but my tailfin was killing me, and I was leaving a red wake behind me in the water; if I pushed any faster I feared my fluke would separate from my body altogether. I would have changed the bandage back in Jude's cave, but that would have wasted time, and my own personal pain was currently of secondary concern. Right now, all I cared about was finding Magdalene.

The topography was also slowing me down — I was having trouble recalling which direction I'd gone after she hadn't shown up at the rendezvous point, but remembering was a struggle. I hadn't been focusing on the characteristics of the seafloor at the time, and I certainly hadn't thought I would have to remember my way back after being chased away by a Gyarados.

If you'd just drowned that human when you had the chance, you wouldn't even be here. Jude wouldn't be alone, and Magdalene wouldn't be inside a Pokéball!

My teeth rubbed together as I passed over a sea meadow, the floor a fluffy carpet of tape grass and waving anemones. Jude. It had been hard to drive myself away from him, to focus all my energies on swimming back west — instinct raged inside me at every mile put between us, telling me that leaving him back there, alone and in the dark, was a grave mistake. I'd barely strayed from his side for the past two years, and not knowing what he was doing or whether or not he was all right was killing me on the inside. He was just so frail now, easy prey for a hungry Gyarados or a group of Carvanhas the second he stuck his nose out of the cave. And if I didn't get back in two days, he would — such was Jude's way. He didn't like sitting around, being boring.

Arceus, if only I had someone to watch him...

Someone like Magdalene, who sent most predators scuttling for the shadows the moment she turned their way. But that just brought us back to the problem at hand: her currently being a battle slave for a human. Imagining her being forced to hurt other Pokémon, or even being hurt herself, curdled my stomach.

Arceus, I hated choosing between them! Until today, I never thought I would have to.

Ahead of me, a high slope of white sand appeared. On the other side was a barren plain, uninhabited save for a few dozing Shellders and one giant Crawdaunt, whose head and long antennae were protruding from the silt. He was obviously on the lookout for his midday snack, and I gave a hasty kick, rising another three or four yards above the sea floor. The last thing I needed was another Pokémon interested in making a meal out of my tail.

But once I was well away from the Crawdaunt, I looked back. The Pokémon was hiding in the shadow of something circular and half-buried in the sand: an old tire, torn halfway down the middle and lacking any semblance of tread. Hadn't I seen it earlier today? I swore I had — I recalled spotting it and experiencing a flash of annoyance at the thought of humans randomly throwing old tires out into the churning waves, as if there wasn't already enough garbage buried down here on the seafloor.

Yes, I came this way, and then I went over the next hill and saw... Staryus, three of them — they'd been basking in the early-morning sunlight, and when I crested the rise, they were still there, stretched out along a sunny patch on the seafloor. They jumped up, alarmed, when I shot past.

And then I...passed some rocks, I think. They appeared shortly after, large, crusty columns furry with reef and sea scrub. I swam through them, recognizing a small gap in a stony ridge up ahead. This morning, I had gone through it to the other side, where lay a... Kelp forest, I thought as I wriggled through. And I was right — it was dark on the other side, the great stands of algae blocking out the sunlight. I kicked upward and sailed above the underwater forest — it was faster, and predators often hid in the shadows of the waving green stands.