The house was quiet when Blitzer took George to his room. Despite the numerous lit candles lining the wall and spreading their waxy scent, Blitzer used his tail like a torch. To make the odd flat out stupid, the Charmander’s strides were far clumsier due to the way he held his tail in front of him, not to mention slower. Normally a tail would keep someone steady on their feet, even those that only had theirs for a few hours.

At a time where he was looking for light however, George could appreciate it.

‘Hey, he looks like an actual explorer now! Must’ve been practising! I wonder, are there actual explorers in this world? Sure seems like there’s plenty left to explore here, at least… though that’s guaranteed to be dangerous. I almost got caught already.’

A few steps later, the two stood by a door wider than both of them put together. “Here it is.” Blitzer threw the door open and ran inside. “My room!”

George treaded lightly as he entered. There was a surprising lack of furniture: In fact, the room was empty aside from a single dresser and a wooden box full of toys. The room was also dimly lit: Aside from Blitzer’s tail flame, there were no light sources aside from one lone candle over the toybox, and it wasn’t lit. A faint smell of dry grass hung in the air. George could smell it coming off a pile of straws in the back, which Blitzer had thrown himself down upon.

“What do you think?” Blitzer said. George idled; for a moment, he thought he heard an echo.

“It’s alright, I guess. It’s pretty roomy, and uh… you have plenty of space for yourself. A lot more than I’m used to.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty boring here,” Blitzer deadpanned, much to George’s bewilderment. “Hey, what’s that face for? Why do you think I was in the woods ? That’s where the fun is! Exploring! My parents keep telling me ‘Noo, Blitzer, you can’t go out there, you know how dangerous it is with all the ferals! And you might get into trouble with some of the Queen’s soldiers if you aren’t careful and rabble rabble rabble’, but I don’t care! I love the outdoors, I love exploring! It’s how I found you! So I’m not going to stop!”

‘At least you have your own room…’ George cleared his nose with a deep breath. “You know, you sound a lot like me before I came here, except your parents actually allow you out. The headmistress from where I’m from wouldn’t let me out in a million years.“

“Headmistress?” Blitzer tilted his head.

George audibly swallowed some saliva which had built up in the back of his mouth. “Uh, well, she’s like a parent. But very rude, and with a lot of kids from different families. It’s complicated.”

“Is that something from the human world?”

“I guess so.” George shrugged. “She was always horrible to me and the others, I don’t know why. We were supposed to trust her, but I wouldn’t trust her to look after my toys. Quite a world’s difference for your parents to let you out at all when they’re worried about wild Pokemon.”

“No, they don’t allow me to go out very far, and I don’t know why! I can take ‘em!” Blitzer held his fists before his face as if he was a boxer. “I’m strong, and I can breathe fire! And you can breathe water!”

George looked off to the side. “Uhm, I’m not sure breathing is the right word there, and I doubt I’m actually able to-”

“Yes you can! You’re a water type! I know you can do it! And I haven’t seen any of the Queen’s soldiers around these parts, so I don’t see why I can’t go outside of the village.”

‘There’s that Queen again… is that the same Pokemon his parents were talking about?’ George took a deep breath, before putting his hands together to twiddle his fingers. “I’d like to know who this ‘Queen’ is, Blitzer. Is that who your parents meant just now?”

Blitzer sighed. “Yeah. No one around the village says her real name, but we all know it. Her name is Queen Patrina, Patrina… Rosemary the Third, or something. She technically is our ruler, but no one here accepts her. She is awful, she really is! All she wants is more for herself regardless of whose feet she has to slither all over. We try to avoid her and her laws as much as we can without getting noticed too much.”

“But let me guess, she won’t let you?”

“No. She sends Soldiers out whenever things get too out of control. They come through the village every now and then. They break things, they steal from us, all so we won’t ever think of doing something back.”

“Blitzer, that’s horrible! You can’t just let that happen to you!” George said, fists clenched.

“And I don’t!” yelled Blitzer back with a flare from his tail. “I’ll explore and no one will stop me from exploring! I’ve never seen soldiers in the woods, anyway. What would they even be looking for there? There’s only wild pokemon.”

George suddenly felt a strange discomfort. An itch inside his head he couldn’t reach, no matter how bad he tried. An image of the stream flashed by. ‘Wait, those voices… those must have been soldiers!’ “Blitzer, now that I think about it, I think I might have overheard some of those soldiers looking for me when I first woke up!”

“R-really?!” Blitzer reeled back. “D-did they follow you?”

“No, they couldn’t have. They would have found us by now if they had. But they were looking for someone who had turned into a Pokemon, I heard it with my own two ears!” George pointed to his ears twitching back and forth.

“That’s a relief, at least.” Blitzer shook his head. “You would have been in trouble if they found you. No one in the village dares stand up to them if they do something.They’re all really big, strong looking Pokemon that look like they pluck the legs off Wurmples for fun. I don’t think ten of us could take even one on. I’m glad I found you in time!”

George looked away, frowning. “You could say that. Things just keep getting stranger, don’t they? First I wake up as a Pokemon, then I get chased down by evil Pokemon…” He walked off towards a wall in a confused stupor, the weak thuds of his feet loud and clear. “Why did I come here? Why is all of this happening?”

“Well, uh…”

“It’s not like I’m some kind of hero, am I? Sure, I’ve dreamt of being one many times, but that was always just a dream. Life’s been kicking me down for so long, I like to dream and hope things get better. They’ve got to get better..”

“But you can be a hero, though!

“Huh?”

“Everything’s possible if you believe it is!”

George felt a hand on his shoulder; Blitzer stood behind him, smiling with a puffed up chest.

“That’s why I want to explore! I want to get stronger and teach them a lesson they won’t ever forget! When I evolve, I’ll make sure they’ll never come back here! You are with me, right? What do you think you would have done if you had woken up all grown up? Just imagine swinging those swords around, George!”

“Huh…” George tried imagining it for himself. In the blink of an eye, a scene unfolded in front of him. A strong, noble warrior in the heat of battle, A Samurott standing proud and tall, a curved sword in each claw, slashing away at his enemies with unmatched ferocity! Slicing through monsters, striking with his horn like lightning, beams of ice and powerful jets of water firing from his mouth; foe after foe crumpled. George felt incredible. It was amazing, like he was actually looking at himself! A large, beaming smile of pure adoration appeared on his face.

“Yes, yes!! I’m with you!”

“Awesome!” Blitzer threw his arms up before wrapping them around George. “You and me, we’re going to do it! We’re going to be the best explorers and heroes, ever!”

* * *

And so, the two Pokemon had intertwined their dreams with one another. Although they largely spent the rest of that day indoors playing with each other and helping Blitzer’s parents around the house, George was stoked. Never before had this much energy been flowing through his veins, energy he couldn’t wait to spend in whatever adventures lay ahead. Blitzer promised they would be exploring the woods tomorrow, and just like who George really was, he promised not to tell anyone about it, least of all his parents. Blitzer said he had a special place in mind, a place he hadn’t dared to delve deep into before. None of it was discouraging, not even the idea of soldiers lurking in the shadows; it was the first step in a long road to the top; there were bound to be challenges.

One thing George couldn’t shake off, however, was a nagging feeling that things weren’t so simple. Would a mysterious voice contact him just to make a kid in another world happy? It seemed odd. The idea that it had to do with some foreign queen didn’t make any sense, either. Why would a strange voice do all of this? And why George in particular?

What George did know, however, is that this wasn’t some out of control dream. As time flowed, the chance of suddenly waking up from all of this had shrunk down to the size of a hair. But was that such a bad thing? It’s not like anyone back home would miss him, least of all the headmistress. For now, he was happy to live as an Oshawott, and dream of wonders he couldn’t have imagined in a thousand years.