Into the Unown (Pokemon Fanfiction OC)

Chapter 264.5: Littlefoot

“Raaaa~” The Amaura stretched her neck out in a little yawn.“Hehe. Are you finally awake, Ra-Ra?”

She looked around blearily while trying to blink her sticky eyelids, to see the blurry visage of a pink-haired girl staring at her.

“Nina’s out of town again today, so she entrusted you to my care.” The girl, Aurora’s second favorite human behind her mama, said.

“Ra! Ura!” Aurora yipped as she gave the human a little lick, eliciting giggles from her. 

Aurora didn’t fully understand what was going on, but she liked pink-girl — she smelled of flowers, milk and goodness — and was fine with the gentle human reaching over and carrying her onto a scale.

“Hmm… Not quite full sized yet.” Pink-girl mused as she put something over her hands and grabbed hold of Aurora’s cradle. Mama said she was supposed to wear the comfy circle, but that she wasn’t big enough for it yet. So Aurora had just been using it as a comfy bed. The only other times she had been comfier was in that magic lake that they’d been going to recently. But mama didn’t like her and Brinny staying there too long for some reason.

Pink-girl then draped the comfy cold circle over Aurora’s neck and fiddled with it. “Quite a loose fit, but it’s… doable. Wanna walk to the Gym with me today, Ra-Ra? See the city a little bit.”

“Am…” The Amaura whimpered. The last time she walked outside, she got too hot and big sis Azzy had to carry her home.”

“Hehe. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine with the Never-Melt Ice collar on your neck. But just in case, Nina left me your Pokeball as well, so we’ll just return you if you’re feeling overwhelmed.”

Then, Aurora felt a gentle caress on her head from a pair of gentle flippers. “Chansey, chance.” Pink-girl’s cuddly-pink-blob chimed in with her own assurance, saying that swirly-blue would make some ice for her to munch on if she got too hot.

“Am, ura.” With a reluctant nod, Aurora agreed to give it a go. Mama said Aurora always had to listen to cuddly-pink-blob and pink-girl so she listened.

“Oh? Are you babysitting Ra-Ra today, Kerry?” said another, more gravelly voice. Aurora looked over and saw a bigger and slightly smellier human. Mama said he was her papa, which meant he was Aurora’s grandpappy.

“Yeah, Nina’s away in Johto for a couple of days and I offered to look after Aurora for her.”

“Hehe. Gosh, you’re just the cutest, Ra-Ra.” Grandpappy’s warm hands tickled at her belly, eliciting tingles in her insides as Aurora rolled over in happiness. The hand was bigger than pink-girl’s and a lot warmer, but a good kind of warm, reminding Aurora strongly of her mama. “C’mon, let’s get you fed. I bought some really high quality cans on my way back from work yesterday.”

“Amaura! Ra!” Aurora cheered. Food was good, food was tasty, especially the food in the little human circles that she couldn’t open on her own. Sometimes she could get big bro Brucey to open it for her and Brinny, but then, big sis Espy found out and scolded him for it.

***

Left, right, left, right. It was really hard for Aurora to walk with the cold circle dangling from her neck, the weight kept shifting and made her want to fall — she had already fallen two times in the beginning trying to get up. (Aurora can count! Big sis Espy taught her!)

Pink-girl’s swirly-blue followed close behind her to catch Aurora if she fell. Which wouldn’t be as hard if they didn’t have to keep stopping because some larger humans, that Aurora couldn’t recognise, kept wanting to talk to pink-girl.

There were even a few times where smaller humans approached Aurora and tried to touch her with their warm and sticky hands. But these weren't the good type of warm, Aurora didn’t like the small humans’ warmth. A fact that swirly-blue caught on eventually when Aurora was whining about it and protected her from ever since. Thank you, swirly-blue!

Eventually, they reached a big roaring box. Aurora could sense a heat in the box and it was rumbly and scary. But pink-girl wanted her to get into the big box’s mouth! “Ra! Ra! Uraaa!!!” Mama! Big bro Nitey! Big sis Espy! Where are you?!

In the end, cuddly-pink-blob had to calm Aurora down and swirly-blue had to carry her into the rumbly box.

“Sorry, Ra-Ra. I know it’s scary, but it’s just the bus we need to take to get to the Gym. It’s not going to eat you, I promise.” The pink-girl let out a breathy noise from her mouth hole. “You were right, Peppy. Good thing we didn’t take the tram today.”

“Chance~ Chansey, chance.” They then took out some slices of Berries in a clear box and began feeding Aurora with it.

“Am!” Aurora was happy again. Berries were tasty. She especially liked the ones that made her face all scrunch up. Big bro Nitey didn’t like those so he always gave his share to Aurora.

“Look, Ra-Ra, that’s the city your mommy grew up in.”

“Ra?” Aurora craned her neck to look at the swooshing world outside; clear blue skies, fluffy white clouds and shiny-curly-buildings sticking from the ground. Why do humans like to stick their buildings on the ground, she wondered? Why not on water? Also, wasn’t it just easier to make stuff out of Rock and Ground? Her big bro Clody could make all sorts of stuff with just a thump of his tail.

“Ra! Ura!” But it was all very pretty. Aurora liked blue because she was blue and Brinny was blue, and white and blue looked really nice together, just like Brinny, and Brinny was the prettiest Pokemon she knew.

Aurora’s eyes continued to sparkle at the swooshy outside — she couldn’t look away for some reason — until eventually, pink-girl called on her to “get off the bus”. A very difficult challenge for Aurora since her legs were too stubby to get down the stairs, so swirly-blue had to carry her. Thank you again, swirly-blue! Or rather, thank you, big sis Polly! (Big sis Espy always told Aurora that she needed to be better with names.)

“Finally, we’re back at the Gym!” Pink-girl cried happily, eliciting excited yips from Aurora as well. She recognised this place, it was where her mama had been bringing her to almost everyday since they left the comfy cold room where Aurora was born.

But more importantly, they also had cold rooms here in the “Gym” and Aurora even made some friends while she was there.

“C’mon, Ra-Ra.” Pink-girl waved. “Nina said I should drop you off at the Ice exhibit. Then, I need to get to morning practice. After that, I’ll come pick you up for lunch and we’ll head to Bill’s place to go pick up Vivi.”

“Am! Am!” Aurora cried in excitement. She missed Vivi, her friend was the only one who would play with her when everyone was asleep at night. And despite being a warm-brown-fluff, Vivi liked cuddling with Aurora in her ice cradle as well. But recently, he hadn’t been around much because pink-girl said he was “participating in a study” or something.

***

“Spheal!”

“Ra!” Aurora greeted her friend who rolled up to her with her soft, bouncy body.

“Spheal!”

“Ra~” At her friend’s request, she lowered her head and allowed the bounce-ball to climb on in between her sails before raising her neck up high and sent the bounce-ball tumbling down her back and launching from her tail into the pool

“Spheaaaal!!!” Her bounce-ball friend cried out in happiness and Aurora giggled as well, she liked how tingly her spine felt when the Spheal rolled down its length.

“Spheal! Spheal!” Her friend quickly jumped out of the water and requested another round, attracting the attention of her nearby siblings who wanted to come and play with the Amaura slide as well.

“Ra~ Ura!” Aurora didn’t mind, because it was fun and because the bounce-balls always brought fish to her as thanks for the trouble.

“Waaal!” However, recognising that Aurora couldn’t possibly play with so many bounce-balls at the same time, her friend’s papa slid by and scolded the little Spheals, telling them to behave and line up.

“““Spheaaaalll…””” The gaggle of bounce-balls all whined in unison, eliciting a wave of annoyance from their papa as he slammed his tail on the ice to summon a small wave before freezing it with his Ice.

“““Spheal!””” So, just as quickly, the little bounce-balls got over their disappointment and moved away from Aurora to play on the new slide their papa made them instead.

“Waaalrein~” The grizzly-unc-face nuzzled affectionately against Aurora as her eyes twinkled in admiration. One was because she couldn’t wait to play on the slide as well and the other reason was because she wanted to learn how to do that too!

But as her fuzzy-pink big sister liked to say; why not both? So Aurora resolved to do just that. She would join her friends in playing with the slide first then, once she got bored, Aurora would go pester the stabby-tooth-uncle to teach her how to make a slide of her own.

She probably could have just waited for her family to get back and have Nitey or Brinny teach her, but Aurora did not know when that was and she wanted to learn how to do it now.

Some time later, midway through her intense training session with stabby-tooth-uncle, which was more difficult than she had thought, pink-girl came to get her.

Aurora could freeze Water just fine, but she didn’t know how to move Water. Which meant she had to rely on her bounce-ball friend to make the wave before she could Ice it. The result was disappointing since her friend couldn’t make as big of a wave as her papa. She wondered if her mama or one of her big strong siblings could teach her how? It would be quite disappointing if they couldn’t.

“Gosh! Look at you, working so hard! Nina would be proud.” Annoying-pink-girl said as she interrupted Aurora’s thinking.

“Ra! Ra!” Aurora protested, her sails flashing red as she sought to stay a bit longer. But it only elicited amusement from the human girl somehow.

“Hehe. You’re adorable, Ra-Ra. C’mon, it’s lunch time. Let’s go eat then head over to Bill’s place to play with some Eevees”

“Am?” Aurora’s sails immediately perked up at the mention of food, their colors shifting to a more moderate yellow-orange.

“Your tummy must be rumbly from all that training right?”

“Ra! Ura!” Indeed, Aurora’s tummy was rumbling. Even though she had eaten her fill of fish from her bounce-friends earlier — moving Ice in and around her body always made Aurora hungry. Her family called it training and said that it was normal.

So, with her frustrations long forgotten, Aurora happily trudged along with pink-girl and her Pokemon to go get some food. She secretly hoped there would be more of that stuff grandpappy fed her this morning — that one was super-duper tasty.

***

“We’re here! Have you been to Bill’s lab before, Ra-Ra?”

After lunch which, disappointingly, was not the good stuff that her grandpappy fed her, pink-girl brought Aurora onto the rumbly-metal-box again. Only, now that she knew the box wouldn’t eat her, Aurora was super brave and wasn’t as afraid anymore.

Then, she watched the world swoosh by again, this time with more green stuff than shiny-human-stuff and found herself in a very nice smelling place. In fact, as the sea breeze brushed past, tickling at her snout, Aurora was reminded of big bro Nitey and her mama’s scent.

“Right, I forgot. Nina said she didn’t want to leave you with Bill because his researchers can be a little too intrusive.” The pink-girl added, continuing to talk to herself. “Oops… Erm… Polly, can I trust you to keep Ra-Ra safe for me? It’s fine to let Bill look at her, but keep his assistants away, lest they traumatize her.”

“Poli! Poliwhirl!” The swirly-blue Polly cried as she gave Aurora an assuring pat on her head with chilly hands. Aurora was really starting to like this swirly-blue big sis. She was even thinking of sharing some of her Berries with her later. Mama and big bro Nitey always said that it was super important to thank the ones who helped her.

“Hi there, I’m here to see the Professor again.” Pink-girl said to a human-behind-wood after they walked down a too-long-road to get to another human building.

“Yes, hello again Miss Joy! Bill’s been expecting you. But he got called away to some last minute meeting with the Cerulean College. Why don’t you go check on your Eevee in the meantime? He should be with the Glaceons, as usual.”

Pink girl made a laugh-y noise. “Heh. Guess Nina was right… It seems I’ll be welcoming a Glaceon into the family soon enough.”

The human-behind-wood returned the laugh. “Indeed. And when the time comes, we would love to test out one of our supercharged Ice Stones on him to see if there’s any marked improvement from the control sample.”

“Hehe. I mean, I won’t say no to a free Ice Stone. Especially if the Type Energy contained within is as dense as the Professor claimed. Though I feel like I have to disclose the fact that Vivi has a habit of sneaking into the bed of Aurora here to leech from her Never-Melt Ice.”

The human-behind-wood made a sharp sucking noise then quickly crawled in front of Aurora with disturbingly warm eyes, only to be stopped in her tracks by an overbearing Polly. Silly human-behind wood. She was supposed to stay behind the wood, not move in front of it. Aurora wondered if the wood was the human’s shell, like those pink-lazies around the magic lake. Or maybe the human was the shell. What is a shell anyway?

“Oh gosh! Is this Miss Jones’s new Amaura?! How fascinating! I’ve never seen one in person before, nevermind a female specimen! You absolutely MUST allow us to run some tests on this little cutie.”

Pink-girl emitted a pulse of annoyance and made a raspy noise from her mouth. “Unfortunately, Nina is Aurora’s trainer and she’s out of the city at the moment. As a responsible caretaker, I simply cannot allow the study of my charge without explicit consent from her guardian.”

Aurora couldn’t decipher the face that pink-girl made at the time but it must be scary because she felt a wave of fear from the other, bigger human as she quickly retreated back behind the wood. “O-Of course, Miss Joy. Forgive my callous zeal.”

Pink-girl then let out another raspy noise and emitted a trace of exasperation. “The only exception being Professor Bill, Nina’s sponsor. But that would have to wait for the man to be present first. In the meantime, I’ll go and check on Vivi now— no need for an escort. I know my own way.”

Aurora didn’t know what was going on, she was just happy to finally be away from the scary-eyed human as they made their way to another comfy Ice place with lots of other Pokemon lounging around that looked like blue Espies — they even smelled similar but less grumpy.

“Veee! Vee!” It was here that they reunited with Vivi, who excitedly ran over, nuzzled affectionately against each of them before jumping onto pink-girl’s arms.

“Hehehe… I’ve missed you, Vivi. Did you make any new friends while you were here?”

“Vee! Eevee!” Aurora’s friend yipped and yapped, then jumped down and eagerly beckoned for them to follow him on a tour as he went about introducing them to every single Pokemon around, some Eevees and some Glaceons.

After which, Vivi’s mama let them loose to go play around and Aurora had a lot of fun exploring the place; squeezing into ice holes, finding hidden slides and even secret treats that the local Pokemon stashed away.

So it really sucked then that another big human showed up at some point to cut their playtime short and started getting all touchy with Aurora and Vivi. Pink-girl said it was fine and that the big human was her mama’s “sponsor” so he was allowed to. At least he was gentle about it and even gave her treats afterwards before letting them go back to play. So it wasn’t all bad.

They continued running around while pink-girl and the big human talked until it was time for them to go home. This time, with Vivi following along. Aurora was really happy about that because that meant she got to have her friend back. She also hoped that grandpappy was home so she could have another taste of his food again.

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Author's note:

Ten chapters written from the previous weekend all the way until now. Ten WHOLE chapters!

Finally!

I finally managed to get past this block and now the words won't stop.

It's like giving birth to a massive log after being constipated for a week. It feels great!

The cost? Insomnia.

I barely slept much at all the past few days.

Big shout out to Ayataka Green Tea though. Works as well as coffee but doesn't give me the jitters. But most importantly, the crash isn't as severe. #notsponsored

This puts me 25 chapters ahead, which is awesome, though a little short of the 30-35 chapters that I prefer.

Unfortunately, my momentum has stalled because Ch 306 is a battle. But this one shouldn't be too difficult.

Fingers crossed, I stack up enough chapters that it gives me a bit of leeway to write a few side stories for the break.