Exploring
Dugtrio,” it said in a nasally voice, one Jared understood. Look, a Vaporeon, the larger diglett told his two comrades.
A surprised Jared physically leaned back. He heard nothing but the Pokémon’s name and yet it rang in his mind as clearly as someone speaking English. He tried talking back to it. “Em, Vapor. Vaporeon?” Um, hello. Can you understand me?”
The dugtrio gave each other a confused look. “Dug, dugtrio.” Yeah, we can.
Jared’s blackened eyes widened with wonder. “Vaporeon!” Holy shit!
That seemed to offend the three little creatures. One of the smaller two advised that they should get out of there, this Vaporeon was a weird one. The other two agreed, and then they shrank back into the Earth with a perfectly cut hole in the ground left behind.
Jared’s heart was racing in his chest. Holy shit. Holy shit. I just talked to a Pokémon. I just lived every kid’s dream. It could’ve gone better, for sure, but it was a start. Jared continued his meandering through the densely populated forest, greeting every resident he passed along the way. It was like going through the center of a small town where every face was familiar and friendly. He did not know a single Pokémon personally, and yet he recalled their names from the well of his childhood memory. Paras, butterfree, bidoof, poochyena, and so many others. A forest like this would not have been so rife with fauna in any other world, but this was no regular place. This was the universe of a human’s imagination, a place where every tree and upturned rock yielded the fruits of life, creatures of intelligent design yearning to be discovered by an adventurer’s hand. Such was the premise of Pokémon, finding and catching all these fantastic animals. Gotta catch ‘em all.
Written by TheGreatJaceyGee on 05 September 2024