TEEN: Tale of Legends (Chapter 1 Vol I)

[DawningWinds]

Chaptered • Ongoing • Teen
Rating is subject to change as writing happens.
Rated teen for blood, death, and possible infrequent language.

Cover to be added later; already drawn. Will be directly above here

If you've kept up with this on a different site, know that there will be not a single chapter identical to one of the original, and I personally prefer this version. Human characters will remain largely the same, as will the Pokémon they end up with, barring a few exceptions. However, the nicknames and traits of these Pokémon, as well as how they were obtained, may wildly vary. Other notes on this include that the characters can generally no longer understand what their Pokémon are saying for essentially no reason at all. The (somewhat) exception to this is that some psychic-types create links with their trainers, and some Pokémon are capable of human speech.

Volume I: Tale of Legends
Table of Contents​

Prologue: Memories Best Forgotten
Chapter 1: A First Pokémon and the Middle of the Night (Iona)
Chapter 2: A Master of Disguise and Not Very Much Sleep (Kenya)
Chapter 3

 

[DawningWinds]

Prologue: Memories Best Forgotten​

Twin girls sit in their room, listening down the stairs. One has a Ralts, the other has a Gothorita. Both of their Pokémon sense their fear. It's only logical that they'd be afraid; their parents are downstairs yelling at each other. Something shatters, and someone stomps up the stairs. One of the girls whispers to her Ralts to turn off the lights, and the green-and-white Pokémon uses her psychic power to do just that. Both girls crawl under their blankets, and appear to be asleep by the time the door opens. It happened every night for weeks, maybe months. Then, one day, one of their parents broke. Their parents fight one last time to decide who gets the girls, and they each end up with one. Their mom takes one of them far away. She uses the phone to call home every night. She just wants to talk to her sister. But her mom finds out, and she rarely gets the chance to again.

A girl receives her report card. She already knows what she got. It's no secret that she's never had anything but an A; besides through extra credit, where she's gotten it higher. Some people only pass some of their classes because they sit next to her, copying off her papers, thinking she doesn't know. Of course she knows, but why would she bother telling anyone? If asked, she'd admit it, but since nobody asks, then clearly they don't care to know. She opens the envelope and reads the same letter multiple times. Often people call her a nerd or a know-it-all. She ignores them and they make fun of her for that, too. Does she care? A little bit, but she pretends not to. What she pretends to be is what she is, right?

A boy sits next to his sister's bed. She's going to die. The doctor hasn't told him, his parents haven't told him, but he's heard them talking about it. He should've gone with her, maybe this wouldn't have happened. He's old enough; he has his training license. Even if he'd just been there to travel, he should've gone. He never wanted to collect gym badges, but if it could've saved his sister, he would've anyway. He wishes he could change the past; he could've done something. Should've done something. The Minccino in his lap wails, and he scratches her a bit. She's not stupid; he knows that she's aware of what's happening. His Tepig might not know, but the Minccino definitely does. She was her Minccino. The Pidove in the windowsill cries out, as does the Patrat under the bed. They all know; the three of them know. They were there.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Ok, so. Getting back into reviewing, so might as well start with a new story. Not a huge amount to get into at the moment, but what there is I might as well talk about. This prologue seems to be short and sweet for what it is. The tense is a little unusual, but given that it's for the prologue I can see why you might go for that stylistic choice. I'm not sure it'd work for a whole story, but we'll see.

It happens every night for weeks, maybe months.

I think that bit probably ought to be past tense.

With my mod had on, one thing I do have to bring up. A TEEN rating is fine (So is changing your rating at a later date), but you will need to add content warnings. You can find the whole explanation here but the short version is - a content warning tells people why it's rated TEEN

 

[DawningWinds]

@Beth Pavell Thanks for the review! The tense is specifically for the prologue; I don't think I could manage to write the whole fic in present tense.

With that said, here's the first main chapter:

Chapter 1: A First Pokémon and the Middle of the Night
(Iona)​

Iona stood in front of the door and pressed the doorbell. Her Purrloin, Midnight, sat at her feet. Midnight wasn't coming; battles weren't really her thing. Once Professor Finnar was ready, Iona would select one of the Kalos starters to come with her. She was also bringing a Zorua from home. She'd passed the training exam a few months ago, but only today had she decided that she actually wanted to go out of Vaniville. For real. Maybe she'd earn gym badges or something. Perhaps battle the Elite Four? She knew she'd never stand a chance battling Calem, the Champion, but it might be fun to try, if she got that far.

Finally, the glass doors slid open in front of her, and Finnar was standing inside. "Good morning," the professor said as Iona walked in.

“If eleven at night is morning, then yes. But it's not. Perhaps try answering the door within the first ten times the doorbell rings?"

"Maybe next time," Finnar shrugged.

"Anyway, would it be possible for me to get my Pokémon now or do I have to wait until morning? I'd really rather get this done, and sooner is better. Wasting time isn't exactly in my skill set. Regardless of how great you are at it."

"Of course. I haven't closed up the lab for the night, so it's technically still open. The computer's over there, go ahead and take your pick. The boxes are pretty clearly labeled so you can tell which starter is which. Feel free to check through any information it'll tell you."

"I knew most of that anyway, but thanks for telling me, I guess," Iona said, walking over to the computer and scanning her trainer ID card when she got there. The boxes opened up.

The box labeled 'grass' was mostly full. Unsurprising, Iona thought. No well-known trainers selected Chespin, unless one were to count Finnar; which Iona didn't. She was pretty much only known for her research. Otherwise, Calem, the Champion, had a Greninja, and all the other most well-respected trainers usually had Delphox, Greninja, or had opted not to register a starter.

Iona clicked on the first Chespin. The moves didn't interest her so much as the graphs did; the biggest green patch would belong to the strongest Pokémon.

After the Chespin, Iona exited the summaries and counted up the Fennekin. She didn't really care too much for fire-types, but she'd take a look anyway. There were thirteen left. She clicked on the first one and scrolled through.

Finally, she looked at the last box. There was only one Froakie, but something else next to it. Hovering over it with her mouse, she realized that she was looking at a Piplup. Which probably wasn't supposed to be there. But it- she- was, so the water-type was fair game. She opened up the information. Pound, Growl, Bubble, Icy Wind. Stronger than the Froakie next to her. And Piplup were rare in Kalos, which meant she would stand out. She clicked the 'Select' button.

The Pokéball materialized in front of her. Iona placed it in her bag.

Midnight trailed behind Iona as she walked towards her home. She let the dark-type inside, got her bike, which had one of the child carrier things trailing behind(she'd removed the seats and the like to pile extra stuff in), and rode toward Vaniville path. She could've stayed home for the night and left in the morning, but there really was no reason to- She was going to spend most of her nights outdoors for some time, anyway, so why wait? She had packed what she needed and had expected to be camping tonight, to begin with.

Iona found a spot along the edge of the path and put down her kickstand. She pulled set her bag on the ground, remembering the Pokéball she'd put it earlier. She moved it to her pocket, and set up her tent, before unrolling her sleeping bag. Then, she turned on a lantern. Once she was confident that she was good for the night, she pressed the button on her Piplup's Pokéball, and the water-type Pokémon appeared in a flash of light.

Piplup looked around. "Awq?" the penguin Pokémon cocked her head.

"Hi," Iona said, gently.

"Aw aw?" she looked at her new trainer, confused.

"I'm your new trainer."

"Awqaw?"

"Trainer. Me. You, Pokémon," Iona tried to explain.

"Aw?" the Piplup looked at her, still confused. About what?

"Are you hungry?"

"Aw?" Piplup seemed a bit excited. Hungry, Iona decided.

Iona reached into her bag and pulled out the berries she'd brought. She held out a Pecha berry to her Pokémon, who sniffed it.

"Awaw," Piplup pushed Iona's hand away.

"Don't like Pecha berries?" Pokemon such as Piplup usually ate species like Wishiwashi or Magikarp.

"Aq."

"What about Chesto?" Iona held out the berry.

"Aw?" Piplup pecked at the berry a bit, but turned it away after that.

"Who's camp is this?" a familiar voice said outside. Iona couldn't place where she'd heard that person before, or who was asking, but she knew she'd heard whoever was asking.

"Mine," Iona called through her tent. "Who's asking?"

"Kenya."

"Got a last name?"

Pause. "No. But it doesn't seem like you've got a name at all, so I'd have no reason to tell you it even if I did."

"Iona Ulva."

"Never mind, then. I'll leave you be."

"I say my name and you suddenly don't want to talk to me?" Iona unzipped the tent and stepped outside. "I suppose your friends would make fun of you for interacting with someone like me?"

"Uh…"

"Don't bother. But don't you live in Aquacorde? I'd think you'd go to Santalune for your starter."

"Vaniville is closer."

"Your mom has a car?"

"And I can't drive."

"But can't your mom?"

"Do I have to spell it out for you? My mom is completely against me going on a journey. And I thought you were supposed to be smart… Though maybe I'm thinking of a different Iona Ulva. You don't quite-"

"Look like the girl from school who's never had anything less than an A? That's on purpose; I have contacts instead of glasses now and am wearing my hair down. Your point?"

"Uh…"

"Don't bother."

"Okay, then. Ches, Lilac, help me set up the tent."

 

[System Error]

Okay!!

P
- This is a very Gainax intro. The two girls from 2 and 3 the same as 1, or do we have five total here including the boy? Questions! Let's see where it goes!

C1
- How to tell how it's been forever since you've played a game: you look at location names and briefly go "OG region?" and then it's made clearer later.
- That said, using "Kalos starters" here is probably what confused me. Made it seem like they were being used as a substitute between that and the OG professor.
- No well-known trainers selected Chespin <- Man, I haven't used a Grass starter since they all except Torterra and Gen1 Venusaur disappointed me, not counting Gen6 where I used did pick Bulbasaur as my second and UM where I only did so because I had Fire and Water starters. I think Grass is Trash, but this is rude even for me! :<
- Huh, you'd think someone else would notice that mistake and go for the Piplup. Then again this is a region where the people have very specific tastes in this fic, so.
- Using animaly sounds instead of a name that only makes sense in one language, good stuff. Generally like that.
- "Kenya." <- Spearow just got humanized.
- Wait wait wait, so if I'm following the flow of this right, Iona talks to Kenya, who leaves. She's like "what you gonna be made fun of?" and then talks as if she knows him. Get that she actually does, but that could be made a bit more clearer.

Short small chapters so far. But, not uninteresting at least. Hoping to see more of this soon!