Pokémon: Exodus (PG)

[Kentucky Fried Torchic]

Hello, here is a short Pokémon novella which I wrote, broken up into nine parts. The original idea came to me in high school, longer ago than I'd like to remember, and it germinated for a long time before I was finally able to put it into words. I hope that you enjoy this revised edition of a story very dear to my heart, Exodus.

Pokémon: Exodus
Chapter One
“Bye, daddy!” Katarina called over her shoulder brightly as she opened the door. “I’ll be home in a few hours!”

The blonde-haired girl did not get her first foot over the threshold when a heavy hand materialized from behind her and held the door open. Attached to it was her father, his face stern and strewn with a generous dusting of black stubble. “Hold on there, Kat,” he said in a slow, measured voice. “Tell me where you’re going and for how long.” She began to speak, but he soon interrupted Katarina to say, “Slowly, please.”

It took a conscious effort for Katarina to stop the words from flooding out of her mouth, but she managed it. “I’m going to go on a walk and have a picnic by the river, remember?” she said. “Down by the McGintry’s farm.” She had thought that it would be harder, lying to her father like this, but after spending an hour practicing in front of the mirror last night it was so easy that it was almost frightening. To bolster her credibility, Katarina held up her picnic basket for him to look into and said, “See?” Sure enough, there were sandwiches, fruit, and other foodstuffs inside of it.

Katarina’s dad dutifully looked inside the basket and nodded. “Seems like a lot of food, Kat.”

“Well, I’m going to be working up an appetite with the walk, right?”

“I suppose that’s true. And what’s in the backpack? It looks heavy.”

There was another question that Katarina had prepared for. “It’s just a blanket for the picnic, and don’t worry, daddy, I’ll wash it when I get home. Promise!”

Her dad seemed to accept that answer as well, and he scratched his chin idly. “And you’ll be back in time for supper?”

“Of course!” chirped Katarina even as, under the cover of her shoes, she crossed the first two toes on both of her feet.

“I guess it’s all right then,” he said and the smile plastered on Katarina’s face became genuine. Her father bent over to give her a hug and a kiss and she pulled away from his scratchy cheeks.

“Thanks, daddy,” she said and then she hurried off before he could change his mind. Katarina headed towards the road that ran by their farm in a blissful and unconscious combination of running and skipping that only a ten-year-old overflowing with delight could achieve. Her heavy picnic basket swung wildly from her speed and the gentle wind of a perfect early summer morning.

Her euphoria had dimmed, but only slightly, by the time that she reached the dirt road and Katarina took a chance to look back at the single-story farmhouse that had been her home all her life. It was not the most attractive building. Its sagging roof that leaked when it rained and its unfinished paint job left two-thirds of the domicile’s red surface noticeably more faded and dirtied by the elements. She was going to be away from her home for longer than ever before and farther away too, if everything went smoothly. If it didn’t, Katarina knew that she would really catch hell from her mom and dad.

But she had assessed the risks and the rewards, and this was the obvious choice. Even though she had had to lie and even though she was not sure exactly what lay ahead of her, Katarina knew that it would be worth it all for the prize at the end.

Her own pokémon partner… The thought of it made Katarina brim with excitement and wrap her arms around herself. Her memories of home were pushed out of her mind by the bright future that her young brain was dreaming up. Katarina turned her back on the farmhouse and started off down the road with a spring in her step and a half-remembered tune whistling through her lips.

Last night, while she had been washing dishes after dinner, Katarina had been listening in to her father’s radio. Sometimes her parents let her listen to music or programs designed for children, but most of the time when her parents turned it on, especially when her dad did it, it was to listen to the news. If Katarina had had any better alternative to the announcer droning on about current events than staring at soap bubbles, she would have taken it in a heartbeat, but she did not and so Katarina had found herself hearing about what was happening in the Tinko region.

Both abroad and in other parts of the country, Tinko was seen as an insignificant backwater, but it had proven important enough in one way. Professor Samuel Oak, the world-renowned pokémon expert, was visiting the region from the mainland. Even a young farm girl knew his name and knew that he was famous for giving pokémon partners to children whose parents could not afford the licenses and other fees. Poor children like Katarina. So, when the newsman on the radio said that Professor Oak was going to be in Tinko City for a week, her ears perked up. The announcer had also said that there was no way of knowing when he would be coming back.

Before she had put the last dish away, Katarina had made up her mind. She had gone from the kitchen to the bookshelf in the sitting room and pulled out the faded encyclopedia volume that her father had gotten at a swap meet. Then, Katarina had taken the book into her room, sat on her bed, and opened it up to a page showing a map of the Tinko region. With her pointer finger, Katarina had traced a line from about where her family lived to the capital city on the eastern coast. It did not seem very far at all. According to the key on the side of the map, there was about one hundred miles between the two points. That seemed like a lot, but Katarina had run her finger on the surface of the page again and watched it finish its journey in no time at all. To cover that distance in a week, Katarina would have to walk about fifteen miles a day.

Thinking about the distance in that way did not make it seem easy, but it did make it seem easier. That was all the encouragement that Katarina had needed in order to seize upon her idea and try and turn it into reality. With only some hesitation, Katarina had torn out the page of the encyclopedia with the map of Tinko and winced at how loud the sound of tearing seemed to her ears. But neither of her parents came to investigate, so Katarina had continued with her preparations. For the rest of the night, Katarina had packed up clothes and made some sandwiches and other food. When her parents had asked what she was doing, she had spun them a story about going on a picnic and then had gone back to her work.

By the time she had to go to bed, Katarina had convinced herself that she was physically ready for the week ahead. All the preparation that was left was in her head. She would be running away from home for a week, but when she came back with a pokémon without her parents having to go bankrupt in the process they would surely be overjoyed. Although Katarina had told herself that her mind was made up, it had still been difficult for her to fall asleep.

Now that she breathed in the clean country air and saw the land spread out before her, however, the confidence that Katarina had felt when she had first seized upon the idea of meeting Professor Oak was back in full force. The morning sun was high in the sky and Katarina had no doubts that she would complete her trek. Her imagination was already conjuring up images of what awaited her at Tinko City. What would Professor Oak be like, and, more importantly, what kind of pokémon would he give her? Katarina’s head reeled with the possibilities.

The happy thoughts kept Katarina going for the rest of the morning. Even though her eclectic skipping and running had petered out not long after she had set out, Katarina was still walking at a fairly brisk pace. She was making good time, too; Katarina could already make out the river that separated the edge of the McGintry family’s land from the next farm over and the small wooden bridge that crossed the narrow stream.

Without warning, Katarina felt the breath hitch in her chest and her backpack and picnic basket feel suddenly heavy. She had never been this far east before. The McGintry’s were neighbors, to be sure, but she had passed their own single-story farmhouse fifteen minutes ago. It occurred to her that she could spread her blanket across any part of the grass that separated the dirt road from the carefully cultivated fields that were the source of the McGintry family’s livelihood, have a picnic, and simply go home. If she would only do that, then she would not have lied to her dad.

On the other hand, if she went back, she might never get a chance like this ever again.

That settled it for her. Katarina took a deep breath and took a step forward. Then, she heard a sound some distance behind her and turned around to see what it was. To her horror, the McGintry’s pet growlithe had woken up from its nap and was now barking wildly and straining against the simple rope that tied it to the tree in front of their barn.

Katarina could not make out the details with her unaided eyes, but her fearful imagination filled in the gaps. She could picture the round face of Mr. McGintry stepping outside to see what all the commotion was about, squinting and raising his hand to shield his eyes from the sun, spying her and then waving her over. In this area of the countryside and at this time of day, there would only be one ten-year-old girl walking along the road by herself. Katarina had no doubt that she would be invited inside and Mr. McGintry would ask her questions, and for some reason lying to a neighbor struck her as a more harrowing prospect than doing it to her father.

All of that flashed through Katarina’s mind in an instant and she took off at a full sprint from the path and into the field of waving wheat on the opposite side of the road from the farmhouse. Katarina thought that she could barely hear the farmhouse door open over the blood pounding in her ears. Her picnic basket was slamming against her as she ran, but the annoying sensation of wicker smacking against the bare skin of her leg was forgotten when Katarina stumbled and fell just after she cleared the edge of the waving wheat field, skinning her knee as she came to an abrupt halt.

Fueled by anxiety, Katarina hardly noticed the injury and she crawled forward, moving deeper into the shelter of the wheat stalks. She was careful, but her best efforts did not stop Katarina from damaging some of the plants and she winced at each broken stalk. After the third time that this happened, Katarina stopped and listened. She waited to hear more shouting, the barking of the McGintry’s growlithe, or even a gunshot, but then she realized how ridiculous this whole situation was. She was running scared from the nice man who had been her neighbor her whole life!

Still, even though her conscious mind knew how silly it was, Katarina did not stand up. Her head and shoulders would have easily cleared the field’s height, and she could have simply walked over to the McGintry’s home to explain everything. Instead, Katarina moved into a sitting position and caught her breath in the gold-tinted shade of the waving wheat. The color of the field’s rolling surface matched Katarina’s long braided hair almost perfectly, and even though she was sure, absolutely sure, that she was not in any danger, this small degree of camouflage brought her some comfort.

The bright summer sun was almost directly overhead, so Katarina decided that no was as good a time as any to break for lunch. She pulled off her backpack and brought out the blanket that she had packed, spreading its red and black checkered pattern as best she could across a section of the field that was wedged between well-spaced rows of wheat. A few more stalks were broken in the process, but soon Katarina had laid out a small meal for herself. With how much walking she had done this morning, it took no small effort on her part to limit herself, but she had to try and make the food she had packed last for seven days.

It was nice and quiet in the shade offered by the wheat field, and Katarina could appreciate it a lot more now that she was not scared. As she slowly chewed a mouthful of bread, cheese, and meat, she went so far as to congratulate herself for her quick thinking and marked the whole half-imagined incident as the first triumph of many that she would encounter on her journey eastward. Such was the mind of an excitable young girl setting out on the first proper adventure of her life.

After she had finished her meal, Katarina carefully replaced the wax paper that she had wrapped her sandwich in inside of her basket and folded up the picnic blanket and stowed it in her backpack. Although the weight of her meal was negligible, to Katarina her basket felt half as light as it did before and she set off on her quest with a renewed sense of purpose.

Soon, Katarina crossed through the crop of wheat to the side closest to the river. The sun was beating down on her, and she had emptied her flask with her noon meal. It would be a relief to fill it again and to have a drink from the vivid blue stream that bisected her path. There was no sign of Mr. McGintry or his growlithe, so Katarina stepped back onto the dirt road in order to ford the river over the wooden footbridge that she had spied half-an-hour earlier.

It was not an impressive structure, sitting just a foot over the calmly yet persistently flowing water underneath, but it did represent a threshold between the world that Katarina knew and the one she did not. As such, the young girl felt compelled to stop halfway across its wooden surface and look back at all that she was leaving behind. She told herself that the act was motivated solely by sentiment. Katarina wanted to document this moment, that was all. When she had seen whatever it was that she wished to see, she turned back around and marched promptly over the river and the adventure that awaited her there.

On the other side of the bridge, Katarina stepped down to the bank of the river to where a cluster of tall reeds were growing and knelt by the water. First her hands and then her canteen scooped up deliciously cool water as Katarina eagerly slaked her thirst. She allowed herself just a few minutes to relish the summer afternoon, but then forced herself out of her reverie and back to the task at hand. She still had miles to go before she could reach her goal for the day.

Katarina started back on the dirt road and continued heading east. For the next two hours, she did not sing, whistle, or make any other kind of conscious sound. Instead, Katarina was content with simply taking in the new sights of a part of the world yet unseen to her. Much of it was farm fields and rolling hills that were unremarkable save for the fact that all these landmarks were completely new to her. No matter how physically similar they were to the ones that Katarina had known all her life, Katarina found herself taking them in with new eyes.

Even without her voice adding to it, there was a sort of choir in the air around Katarina as she pressed forward. Birdsong and the fading sound of the river melded with the decidedly unnatural sound of the whistles of distant trains going on errands that Katarina was happy to only guess at. Time did not fly by, but neither Katarina did not mourn its passing.

Her pace only slowed as she saw that the path that she was on was growing rougher in the distance. It was becoming overgrown with small weedy plants that were colonizing the dirt road from the nearby forest which loomed over either side of the road and cast lengthening shadows with the assistance of the slowly setting sun. There were woods closer to Katarina’s home to be sure, but those were much smaller and were bright and welcoming places where her dad could find some wild game and she and her mother could go hunting for berries or mushrooms. The forest that glowered at her from beyond the dirt path was a dark collection of trees growing thickly together. Katarina could not see through to the other side of the forest, and this made her anxious.

This uneasiness grew as Katarina drew closer to the forest and her progress began to slow until she was inching along reluctantly. How many bedtime stories and fairytales had she heard, often by fervent request, where monsters living in the woods gobbled up wayward travelers, especially children? In fact, in a few of them, the trees were the monsters! Looking at the eagerly outstretching, grasping arms of the trees with bark so dark that they were nearly black, it was not hard for Katarina to picture the forest snatching her up like something out of a nightmare. She came to a stop a few yards from where the path bent and became undeniably close to the forest.

Somewhere along the way, the birds had ceased singing and the sounds of the river had long since faded away, though when exactly these changes had happened Katarina could not hope to say. There were no train whistles either. Instead, the wind whistling through the branches of the trees was the only sound Katarina could hear except for her own breathing. The quiet sounded painfully loud to her ears now.

Then, Katarina shook her head defiantly. How could she be frightened of a collection of trees? If she had seen one tree, she would not have been afraid, and if she had seen a dozen that would not have scared her either. So why should a hundred, or a thousand of them scare her? Besides, she added to herself, it was still daytime. Anyone who knew anything knew that the worst things in those old fairytales happened when the sun went down.

She was not a baby or some ignorant peasant girl, Katarina decided, but a confident young woman on a mission. Superstitions and fears were just excuses for inaction! Katarina took a deep breath, puffed out her chest, and strode boldly into the shadowed path before her.

Her immediate reward was a violent collision that sent Katarina sprawling halfway off of the road and into the weeds and wildflowers. She caught a flash of something purple- and cream-colored darting past her and vanish into the deep underbrush of the forest on the side of the path she had fallen into.

There was not a lot of time to think about the departed creature, because there was another one standing on the dirt road. This one was a lot bigger, and it was clear that Katarina’s current state was its fault. Still, she counted herself lucky that she had only gotten some bruises and dirtied clothes from the collision since the pokémon standing on the dirt road was covered in sharp spikes that seemed to radiate in every direction. Its bright pink coloration warned Katarina and any would-be predators that those spines were poisonous. It was muttering to itself in a low huffing voice, and Katarina strained forward to try and make out its words.

Apparently, that was the wrong move to make because the pokémon suddenly turned towards her and Katarina nearly went cross-eyed staring at the wicked-looking horn coming out of its forehead and pointing right at her. “Hey, you! Human!” the pokémon barked at her and Katarina could swear her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. She did not say anything, and so the pokémon continued talking at her, “I almost had that rattata! You lost me my dinner! Do you understand what that means?”

“Ah, I’m, uh, sorry, Mr. Pokémon,” said Katarina quietly but politely. She was trying to call upon her feelings of strength and confidence from earlier in the day, but too much of her focus was on the pink-skinned pokémon’s horn as it swayed around with the agitated movements of its owner.

“I don’t care if you’re sorry!” snapped the pokémon harshly. “I need something to eat!”

The pokémon strode towards Katarina and she let out a small scream, “Please don’t eat me!”

“Don’t be stupid! You humans never leave home without something to eat! Give it to me!” The pokémon had stopped its advance to speak, but the reprieve was only temporary. It was sniffing the air eagerly as it drew nearer. “Yes, I can smell it. Nothing as warm and satisfying as freshly caught rattata, but it will do in a pinch!”

Katarina shrunk back in fear and closed her eyes tight as she felt her tormentor’s warm, rank breath waft towards her. But before the pokémon could finish approaching her, a voice rang out from further down the road, near where the dirt path turned a corner and continued out of sight.

“Stop menacing that poor girl,” it said. The voice sounded firm but raspy, as though its owner had not used it in a long time. “What kind of pokémon are you to be acting this way?”

Katarina opened her eyes only to stare agog at this new arrival. It was another pokémon, a smaller one covered in brown scales. It stood upright on small but muscular legs balanced by a tail, and it held a white club in one paw that caught and reflected the rays of the dying afternoon sun. Its most striking feature, however, was that the pokémon’s head was almost completely obscured by a skull that gleamed in the same way as its weapon, and Katarina realized that they must be made of the same material: bone. Her potential savior did not look particularly reassuring clad in such grim armor, but Katarina was not willing to look a gift ponyta in the mouth just yet.

“And what kind of pokémon are you?” sneered the larger creature as it turned around to face this challenge. “A domesticated weakling who will roll over and beg for some morsel from your master?”

Behind its mask made of bone, Katarina could see the other pokémon’s dark eyes narrow. “I have no master,” he growled, and Katarina was surprised to hear how deep and authoritative he sounded.

Even the larger pokémon seemed to take notice, and it swayed a little bit on its feet, unsure exactly what course of action to take. The stare-down between the two pokémon did not last long before the bigger one’s more aggressive instincts took hold and it charged forward, leading with its deadly horn.

“Watch out!” Katarina cried, but her warning was superfluous. The smaller pokémon did not dodge the attack so much as he danced out of its way and slammed the head of his bone club into his attacker’s side with a single fluid motion.

The pink pokémon roared in pain and frustration and it spun around to jab and swipe at its enemy with its horn. Katarina’s champion, as she had already starting thinking of him, parried the blows with glancing strikes of his own weapon. It was an effective defense when it came to avoiding injury, but the larger pokémon was still using its superior size and weight to push its enemy off the road and toward the cloying undergrowth of the forest where it would be much harder for him to move around.

Both Katarina and her champion could see that this was what the larger pokémon was doing. But with the former still on the ground and the latter needing all his strength to ward off an enemy whose every attack could prove fatal, neither of them could think of a way to break the cycle before it would be too late.

The small but valiant pokémon spoke and Katarina could hear the strain in his baritone voice as he continued to deflect the relentless thrusts of his foe’s horn. “Run, human!” he said through gritted teeth. “Run as fast as you can!”

“Yes, little human,” the other pokémon said, only it made the last word into a vile insult, “run on home! Run and leave your food behind! I’m working up quite an appetite dealing with your friend here!”

Katarina stood up and absentmindedly brushed off some of the dirt and leaves that she had landed on when she fell from her clothes and legs. “I can’t go home,” she said, more to herself than to the pokémon locked in combat, “not yet.” The young girl took a shaky step towards the dirt road, but her next one was more confident, and the one after that was stronger still. “I can’t go home without a pokémon. Otherwise, it’ll all be for nothing.” She swung her basket in her hand carefully. It was still mostly full of sandwiches and fruit, and she felt its weight tug at her arm at each end of its arc.

“Eh? What are you blathering on about?” asked the pink pokémon without looking at her. It reared back on its hind legs in order to bring its full weight down for a final attack, but then it caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of its eye. The brutal creature broke its concentration to glance over, only to realize too late that it was Katarina charging straight at it.

The aggressive pokémon tried to face this new threat, but its efforts were complicated by the other pokémon, Katarina’s champion. Tired but still not defeated, the smaller pokémon took every advantage of the distraction which Katarina was providing him to land blow after blow on his foe’s body with his heavy bone-white club.

He was soon joined by none other than Katarina herself, and the girl began whacking the beast from the woods repeatedly with the wicker picnic basket she was carrying. Under this two-pronged attack, the larger pokémon found itself retreating. It backed away from the underbrush and towards the dirt road, not out of any conscious strategy but rather out of a simple instinctual aversion to pain.

The spike-covered pokémon was mean but it knew enough to see that it had underestimated its prey and her unexpected ally. It would have to escape in order to fight another day. But that did not mean that it had to run away without getting something for its troubles. It did its best to ignore the attacks of the other pokémon and instead watched for Katarina’s thoroughly abused basket. On its next approach, the pokémon let out a savage cry of triumph and skewered the basket with its horn. Then savage pokémon charged, barreling past both of its enemies towards the woods and safety with its prize.

This plan was to be cut short by a single lucky strike by the weapon of Katrina’s champion. Spinning through the air over the larger creature’s sizable ears, the bone club struck true at the base of the long, but thin, horn and broke it off with a resounding crack. With that, the basket, with the horn inside of it, fell to the ground and the injured pokémon stared at it in dull surprise before turning on its heels and fleeing as quickly as it could. The woods echoed with its howl of pain and humiliation.

Initially, Katarina and her champion silently basked in their victory. She was the first to break the silence, extending a hand to the diminutive pokémon. “Thank you,” she said, but the words did not sound like enough, so she added, “for your help.”

He looked at Katarina’s hand and, after the barest indecision, took it. “It was my pleasure, young lady.”

“Katarina,” she offered.

“And I am called Exo.”

She did not know what to say next, so Katarina stooped to the ground to examine the basket full of food that she had almost lost. She opened it up and dropped it suddenly. The horn of the pokémon which had attacked her was still inside, and it was leaking some sinister-looking purple substance that was trickling all over the food. The pokémon named Exo walked around to examine the basket and shifted its contents around with his club.

“Nidorino venom,” he said simply. “Very deadly. You would get sick, or worse, if you ate anything in there.”

Katarina nodded dumbly through Exo’s explanation. When he was finished, she said, “That was almost all of the food I had packed. How am I supposed to make it to Tinko City now?”

The pokémon looked up at her and asked, “You are going all the way to Tinko City? By yourself?” When Katarina nodded, Exo continued, “Striking out on your own without pokémon or family to help you is very…” He paused and took measure of Katarina’s countenance. “Brave.”

“You don’t have to be nice,” Katarina said. “You can be honest. It’s stupid, thoughtless, bone-headed…”

“Watch it,” said Exo, and even though there was no humor in his voice, Katarina still laughed a little at his taking offense. She had started walking again and he was following her. “This is not the direction that you came from,” Exo noted. “Does that mean that you are not going home?”

“No, I’m not. Even if I have to go for a couple of days without eating, I told myself that I was not going to return home without a pokémon and that’s what I intend to do.” An idea struck her and she looked at Exo. “Say, you’re a pokémon, aren’t you, Exo?”

He looked back at her gravely. “Sorry, but it is as I said to the nidorino earlier. I know no master, human or pokémon.” She looked downcast and they walked along a little further before Exo spoke again haltingly, “I could escort you to the next village at least. It would not be safe to leave you walking alone with that nidorino still out there.”

“Oh, thank you!” Katarina said with a clap of her hands. “Will it be far?”

“We may have to make camp for the night, but then we will reach the village early in the morning.” She was about to start down the road, but Exo did not follow her. Katarina looked at him and he explained, “We cannot leave that poisoned food out where any unsuspecting pokémon can get to it. We will have to bury it.”

Katarina did her best not to grumble. With the two of them working together, the girl and the pokémon soon had excavated a small hole in the ground just inside of the bounds of the woods. Since it was her food that was contaminated, Katarina had the responsibility of lowering the battered basket into the earth. She set it down and looked at it blankly. “I feel like I should say something,” she said.

“What?”

“Never mind.” The pair then buried the basket without a word passing between them and started walking down the road together.