Pokémon: Out of the Woods | A Galar, Unova & Sinnoh Fanfiction

Chapter 43: A New World

'I'm curious now. So yeah. OK.'

Wild Pokémon scattered during the battle. Heather saw nothing but whirling sand. Whatever Pluto held his hand up to call, it knew. Heather's convictions in regards to Pokémon and Poké Balls were perfectly clear to her, but there was still something mesmerising about Pluto's connection with Pokémon; something she quickly buried, even though it was the plain truth, that clouded her judgment like Smokescreen blurred her Pokémon's vision.

Hooves thundered. Heather gradually discerned the shape of an unfamiliar Pokémon.

Stantler?

She had never seen a real Stantler. The only reason she had heard of it was because a Stantler-mad woman dominated Orre's headlines for days when she was jailed for attempting to breed with one of the 61 she kept in stables.

That's... not a Stantler.

Heather and Pluto were covered in sand from head to toe, but the regal Pokémon's white fur seemed somehow untouched. It almost had the presence of a legendary Pokémon. Its dark eyes gleamed in the moonlight that broke through the sandstorm.

The antlers are like Stantler, but... I'm, like, 99.9% sure that's not one...

'Come.'

Pluto held out his hand to help her onto its back. He was surprisingly strong.

'Hold on tight. She gallops fast.'

Heather expected him to smell of sand, because she certainly did, but there was a faint woodsy smell that reminded her of someone else. She couldn't remember who... and she didn't really care. There was a small possibility that she was in mortal danger, but she felt inexplicably comfortable, even if that was the case. She could handle danger. It was only feeling out of her depth that terrified her.

'What is this Pokémon?'

She leaned forward to yell. The sand was whipped from their hair by the night air rushing by.

'Wyrdeer! Haven't you seen one before?'

'No! Never even heard of it! Is she related to Stantler?'

'Yes! She evolved from Stantler!'

'But... Stantler doesn't evolve! Does it?'

'Of course it does! Don't be silly!'

Wyrdeer slowed down. Their blurred surroundings were discernible again. Heather saw the two viaducts and the distant Pokémon Nursery. She also saw Arlene glancing up before they were hidden by tall grass. Pluto jumped off Wyrdeer's back and reached to help Heather down.

You know who I am. You know I can look after myself. Why are you going out of your way to help me with that stupid smile on your face?

She knew the answer, really. She also knew it was the truth, not an imagined ideal, when he clung to her hand instead of letting go right away. It simply seemed bizarre. What was he going to show her? There was only an inactive den, a boring cliff, a pile of dung and the same wild Pokémon she had already seen. Pluto kicked the dung out of the way. There was a hole in the cliff that seemed barely big enough for a small Pokémon to fit in to, let alone a person, but he managed to shove himself in.

'Follow me.'

Heather glanced back at Wyrdeer. If only she could talk to Pokémon herself, they could tell her exactly what was going on... but she couldn't. That was the truth. She had to find out in whatever way she could, even if it put her in danger. When she knelt to crawl through the hole, her biggest fear was that she would get stuck and find herself an easy target for an attacker, but as soon as she squeezed in, the passage widened. It was a short crawl to a clearing circled by tall grass.