Aries

Prologue: May.

He woke up to sounds. A whistling noise that was accompanied by a bitter, clawing sensation on his skin which was followed by him becoming familiar with the dewy grass that dampened the paper-thin clothes he wore. His palms stretched out in an unfamiliar motion as he flexed each finger individually, grasping the air a few times.

He was on his back, facing up towards green shapes that blinded his vision with beautiful colours. He felt his chest grow heavy as he remembered the steady up and down movements of his body begin while he took long, open mouth breaths, leaving the icy wind to fill his throat.

It was really windy, he noticed.

He blinked, slowly, before pushing himself up on unsteady feet, wobbling as he took a few steps forward in a sideways direction that led him to practically face plant a tree. He caught himself, his hands pressed against the rough bark. He instinctively had a sharp breath before straightening himself up.

He closed his eyes, listening to what he could hear around him. Tree leaves rustling over him, the chirping of distant Pokemon flying above and around him. Rushing water crashed against rocks a little aways, with a resounding crash each time the water hit the rocks. Fear washed over him.

He took in the views of the tall lanky pines surrounding him, the old oaks that shaded the woods and let sunlight through their branches in dappled shapes on the forest floor, where ferns and little collections of flowers dotted the area.

He stepped around the small clearing he had ended up in, trying to get used to placing each foot in front of another in the motions of walking around. He halted after a few more minutes as his brain finally stopped and came to the conclusion it hadn't really wanted to.

He couldn't remember anything. Whether it was the insistent shivers and goosebumps that trailed along his arms addling his brain in a way that made everything too difficult to remember, or the fact that he was just too tired to think in any sense of the direction yet, the how and why he was in this place was lost on him.

He wanted to cry, he thought, as he desperately clung onto something that told him his name. What was his name again?

Ash.

How could he forget that? His name was Ash, it had always been Ash, and that was a fact he knew- and a fact that he was absolutely certain in a way a kid could have never been certain before. He felt the ground and dirt beneath his feet, and looked down to see he was wearing similarly drab pants made from the same paper-thin material his shirt was.

A Dodrio made the shadow. The almost six foot bird squawked thrice over, powering up the glow of energy that would mark a Tri Attack. The yellow orb of energy glittered brighter and brighter. Ash snapped himself out of the stupor he had found himself in and began to use the legs he was just remembering he had. He sprinted away from the enraged bird, who began to pursue him.

The first thing he noticed, while running, was how his thighs burned in pain after only a few scant moments. He frantically glanced about, his teeth chattering in the cold as sweat dripped down the back of his neck. He felt, in quite a contradictory manner, both cold and wet, with a general clamminess all around. He thought he had gotten quite a bit of ground while running, anyway.

Still, the Dodrio easily reached him. His breath caught once again as the bird leapt to take him down with a Drill Peck.

He was going to die, to a Dodrio, on top of some mountain he's never been, in a life he's barely just begun.

Tears brimmed in his eyes and streamed down his face, adding to the coldness that he felt. He threw himself sideways with the little manoeuvrability he had and tumbled across the dirt awkwardly as the Dodrio kept going in the direction it had the most momentum in- down.