Mirror Image

Where Am I?

“-ey! Hello? C’mon, wake up already!” I heard a feminine voice call.

    “Wha?” I groaned. I opened my eyes for a half-second, the harshness of the light forcing me to shut them quickly.

    “Oh, good, you’re not dead. That would’ve been really bad, wouldn’t it? And I mean, I don’t know why you’re here, so that would be very annoying, especially since you don’t typically find Skittys around here. Speaking of which, why are you here? No offence or anything, but with all the criminals, well, it never hurts to ask,” the voice continued.

    “Could… could you be quiet for a second?” I mumbled, then, as my sluggish brain started working, I exclaimed, “Wait, Skitty?!”

    “Well, yeah. What else would you be?” the voice said in a tone that suggested that it’s owner thought I was stupid.

    “Human?” I suggested. I didn’t remember much, but I certainly could recall being human.

    “How could you be a human? You look like a Skitty to me. Y’know, pink and cream fur, tail, long ears, paws. All pretty Skitty-like,” the voice said.

    I forced my eyes open again and looked at myself. Sadly, the voice was right. Speaking of the voice, it seemed to belong to a (relatively) small Vulpix. Said Vulpix was nervously leaning over me, and when I finally started to try to stand up, she quickly backed off and began talking at Mach 2 speed again.

    “So, like I said, why are you here?” She asked. “By the way, I’m Belle. Who’re you?”

    “Rachel. My name’s Rachel. I don’t know anything else though. It’s all sort of… gone,” I trailed off. “Just... blank.”

    “Oh. How’d that happen? Not to be rude, but with all those bad Pokémon, and the time thing going on, well,” Belle wondered.

    “I think there was a cliff, and another person, but, well, it’s faded,” I mumbled. “Why’re you here, anyway?”

    “The sunsets. They’re a huge pick-me-up,” Belle sighed.

    I actually looked at where we were. Tall, stony, mountains surrounded us on two sides, and a somewhat steep, grassy, hill was to my right. In front of us, however, was a gigantic blue-green ocean, stretching until it seemed to touch the sky. The sky itself was a myriad of colors, ranging from a rosey red, to a glimmering pink, then an extravagant yellow, and finally fading into a deep purple and then royal blue. The ocean seemed to reflect part of the rainbow of hues, creating a beautiful scene.

    “They’re pretty spectacular,” I grinned.

    Belle nodded. I sat down on the surprisingly soft sand and watched the sun slink beneath the horizon, trailing the amazing blend of colors after it.

    Just as the sky had begun to turn a murky indigo, Belle suddenly sat up straight in surprise, then pulled out a small hunk of rock from the faded green bag she had around her neck. She had to finagle the rock out with a combination of her paws and teeth, but once she had figured it out, I took a closer look.

    A strange design had been etched into the gray surface. Some of the ragged edges suggested it was part of something bigger, and the intricacy of the swirling carvings belied some amazing craftsmanship.

    “Where’d you get this?” I marveled.

    “I found it. It’s my Relic Fragment. It inspired me to try and form an exploration team, but, well, I’m too scared,” Belle said sadly.

    “Hey, it’s okay,” I said. “Maybe I could join with you!”

    “Yeah!” Belle grinned.

    We had started making plans excitedly when two Pokémon came up to us. Specifically, a Zubat and a Koffing.

    “Whoa-ho-ho! The chicken found a friend!” chortled the Koffing.

    “Heh-heh-heh. Probably as wimpy as scaredy-cat here!” the Zubat snickered.

    “H-hey! Leave us alone!” Belle stuttered.

    “Give us that rock!” demanded Koffing.

    “N-no way!” Belle replied.

    We had both stood up and, even though Belle looked very nervous, I thought we looked quite intimidating.

    Obviously, Koffing and Zubat disagreed, since they both laughed. Zubat flew up to Belle and snatched her treasure. Despite the sudden weight increase, he determinedly flew back to Koffing.

    “What, not gonna get it back?” Koffing taunted.

    Belle sniffled.

    The Pokemon laughed and then burst past us and dashed into one of the caves in the mountain to the left of us.

    “We’ll never find them!” Belle whimpered.

    She sank to the ground and started to cry.

    “Well, why not?” I asked.

    “It’s a M-mystery D-dungeon, and they change e-everytime you go in!” Belle said.

    “Well, we’d better get it the first time,” I said, trying to sound somewhat optimistic.

    “‘Kay,” Belle sniffed.

    “C’mon! Let’s go deal with those bullies!” I exclaimed with a false cheerfulness.

    Belle pulled herself to her paws, still sniffling a bit, and we plodded into the Mystery Dungeon.