Chapter Text
Just before sundown, a creature stumbled into the Pearl clan’s settlement.
It was unlike any pokemon anyone had ever seen before, but it was clear it was in trouble and seeking help from the resident humans. There was a look in its eyes, just before it fell unconscious, that Irida could only interpret as a plea for help.
It took several clansmen to drag the deceptively heavy creature into a yurt to warm up, and it was only then that Irida noticed it seemed to be wearing clothing, oddly enough.
She’d never seen a wild pokemon dress itself before, so it must have been tame. That did explain why it would go to humans for help, but it didn’t explain why it was all alone at the edge of the Alabaster Icelands, no companion in sight.
(She worried that something terrible must have happened to whatever human companion it may have had.)
Once they’d settled it close to a fire, it immediately seemed more comfortable — the tightness in its face relaxed, stiff limbs loosening — though it remained unconscious. This led many to conclude that it must have been weak to ice, and based on its appearance, it was clearly at least a dragon type.
Which in and of itself made the fact it was in the icelands even stranger. The only dragons that made a permanent residence there were the alpha garchomp and its foundlings, its unusual strength ensuring its survival despite its weakness to the environment and many of the other pokemon that naturally lived there.
With all of that taken into account, it was clear that this poor beast must have been hopelessly lost. Separated from its human, or humans, at best, and them being dead at worst.
Irida couldn’t help but imagine the idea of her own dear Glaceon, all alone and lost in the wilderness with no one to help it. From there, it wasn’t hard for her to decide to take care of the strange pokemon that had wandered into their settlement.
Once everything had settled down, her decision made to keep it as long as it would wish to stay, she sat in the yurt with the pokemon and began to study it closer.
(While the whole yurt smelled of Aspear berries, which she wasn’t particularly fond of, she figured it must have been part of the treatment to help the pokemon recover from the cold, so she tolerated it.)
The clothes it was dressed in were of a foreign make, which only further solidified the fact it was clearly lost, and it seemed to have rather humanoid features, much like a machoke. Perhaps it was a fighting type as well?
That didn’t seem quite right, but she would just have to wait for it to wake up to tell for sure.
Its scales were dark, with only slightly lighter skin underneath, but they were smooth to the touch rather than being hard or rough. She’d heard that garchomp usually had hard or rough scales, but Lian’s goomy had no scales at all, so it wasn’t out of the ordinary for a dragon type. What was curious though was the fur on its head and jaw only, similar to how a human’s hair formed. It only further emphasized its humanoid body type.
It had claws at the tips of its webbed paws, but judging by the positions of its fingers, it seemed to have opposable thumbs. She wondered how holding things would work with the webbing.
The pokemon had been placed on its front, due to the position of its wings and tail. She would later use that as the justification for why she hadn’t immediately noticed that it had awoken and was watching her, but in reality, she knew it was simply because she had been so engrossed in studying its features.
When her eyes finally glanced back up at its face, she let out a startled shriek before slapping her hands over her mouth.
Its eyes were looking directly at her, bright red sclera that almost seemed to glow in the firelight and shining silver irises.
After a moment of letting her heart settle, she lowered her hands into her lap and bowed towards the pokemon. She didn’t know if it was capable of understanding human speech, but body language was typically much easier to grasp.
“Hello, lost one. I am glad you came to us in your time of need. We in the Pearl clan welcome you to stay with us for as long as you are willing,” she said, then sat back up to address the creature.
It stared at her for a long moment before it simply let out a deep sigh and slowly closed its eyes once more. It slightly adjusted the position of its body for a moment, and its breaths began to slow again as it fell back to sleep.
Ah. It must not have recovered enough to stay awake for very long.
The sun had set long ago, and Irida herself was growing tired, so she elected to return to her own yurt for the night.
She made sure to slip through the door as quietly as possible, so as to not disturb the pokemon, then made her way through the settlement.
As she settled in for the night, she decided she would return to the lost pokemon’s yurt as soon as possible the next morning. Perhaps she could bring her Glaceon’s two kits with her as well — often, the presence of young ones could help bring a sense of safety.
( That, and they were incredibly cuddly, she thought to herself as she began to fall asleep. One of them had found its way to curling up in the crook of her neck, and her treacherous Glaceon did nothing to help. She was confident it was laughing at her in its own way, even as it settled in at her feet with the other kit.)
The next morning, Irida got up and left right away, bringing Glaceon’s kits along with her.
She’d expected the creature to still be asleep when she arrived, so she didn’t bother looking around the yurt until she’d slipped her shoes off.
That being said, she was pleasantly surprised to see it sitting up, its eyes closed as it leaned close to the fire. New logs had been added, enough so that she was worried it’d spill out of the stove and light something on fire. She was positive that no one else had come in yet, so it must have been the pokemon itself that had done it. It must have been a particularly smart one.
As a consequence of that, however, the yurt was absolutely sweltering. Irida was already overheating, and she’d only been in there for a moment.
At least the smell of Aspear berries had faded.
One of the kits in her arms suddenly squeaked and began to squirm, startling both Irida and the lost pokemon. It flinched back, eyes flashing open as it frantically glanced around the room.
Even as she tried to settle the kit down, she wondered how it had not noticed her entrance. The cold must have affected it even worse than she’d thought, if it was so entranced by the warm fire.
After what felt like ages, but was really only a brief moment, the kit scrambled up onto her shoulder. It had used its sibling’s face as a launchpad to get there, but had finally settled. Irida was immediately starting to regret bringing the kits with her.
The other pokemon had shuffled backwards in response, away from the central furnace and back into the bedding it had initially been laid on. It watched her and the kits, but made no other moves.
(She’d almost say its expression was one of confusion, but expressions were hard to judge on pokemon. It was far easier to tell what they were feeling by examining their body language.)
“My apologies,” she began, gently bowing at the pokemon once again, “I did not mean to startle you.”
It continued to stare at her, but its startled posture relaxed. Irida felt it was safe to set the kits down, but she made sure to emphasize the fact that they must behave here as she did so.
Of course, the kits immediately ignored her and began to scamper as quickly as they could to the strange new creature.
Irida wasn’t fast enough to grab them in time, and she ended up tripping on the threshold.
She braced herself for the fallout, uncertain how the new pokemon would react to the sudden kits.
Much to her relief, it did not react aggressively, instead only leaning back in surprise as the small bundles of fluff ran towards it.
(Admittedly, eevee kits were probably among the least threatening things out there.)
The kits slowed down once they got within arm’s reach of the pokemon, and Irida held her breath as she watched the interaction.
One of them began to puff up in a mock-aggressive play pose, but the other cautiously walked towards the much larger creature, eyes wide and curious.
At their kittenish behaviors, the pokemon relaxed, leaning down as they approached. It then let out a small croon, its eyes squinting as if trying to appear less threatening.
The curious kit took this as an invitation to sniff its face, taking only a moment to decide that it liked the new pokemon and licking its nose. The other kit decided that the large pokemon was not going to play, and tackled its sibling instead.
The two devolved into a small play-fight, and the new pokemon sat back up with what sounded like an amused huff.
Irida couldn’t help but giggle at that, which caused the new pokemon’s attention to shift back towards her. It straightened up as she righted herself, before surprising her with a bow of its own.
Was it mirroring her own behaviors? It was strange, but not unheard of—
“My apologies, ma’am, for ignoring you,” it said, “I am afraid that these kits were quite distracting.”
Its tone of voice was somehow amused and apologetic at the same time, but Irida was still caught up on the fact that it was speaking to her at all.
This was no ordinary pokemon.