Salty water splashed up Larry's nose, the burn of saltwater shocked him out of unconsciousness, “Gack! Pfft! Ought, Gross!”

  Rising, Larry nursed his wetted nose pitifully, only once he’d fully raised himself did he realize something was amiss.

  His arms, stubby olive-colored protrusions, without hands at their end. Following his arms, his sight fell on his body in all its dumpy olive-green glory. A red diamond-shaped shell was placed at his belly button.

  “What the hell?! I was just… Wait, where was I?” Larry's mind felt muddled, his last actions seemed unclear and he couldn't remember what exactly he was doing before he woke up here.

  One thing was for sure though, this wasn't his body. He’d been a human before whatever had gone down. Looking behind himself he found a large rocky tail, looking most similar to a stone sculpted bouquet of flowers.

  A memory from his childhood stirred to life, video games he'd played back then. One Franchise in specific, Pokémon. He remembered it like it was just yesterday, the most powerful Pokemon of the second generation, a pseudo-legendary existence in the game.

  “WHAT?! I'm a Larvitar?! Why?!” The situation was utterly incomprehensible to Larry. He'd just been doing whatever and then suddenly he was just, here?

  The sun was setting across the beach, it slowly melted into the horizon. Larry watched it disappear longingly, wishing that the day might be just a little longer so he could figure out what had happened to him. Tearing up, Larry thought to himself as he sat on the beach, ‘What am I supposed to do now?’

  “Hey, you!” Swinging his head right in alarm, Larry saw the second unexplainable occurrence in a short while. A Phanpy stood atop a hill, leading away from the beach, “What are you doing out here?”

  He was lost for words, ‘Now there's a Phanpy? What the…’

  It rolled into a wheel and tumbled down the hill precariously, once at speed it unfurled itself and smashed its front legs into the ground harshly. It came to a sliding stop right in front of him, “Being out here in the night can be dangerous,” It touched his shoulder with its trunk carefully, taking notice of his tears, “Are you alright?”

  ‘And…It’s speaking?’

  Larry wiped away the tears, “N-No, I’m fine. It’s just…I don’t know how I got here.”

  “Really? That’s bad!” Phanpy spoke worriedly, “What's the last thing you remember?”

  “I-I think I was…Was I driving? I’m not too sure…” Grabbing at his head, Larry tried his best to remember, “I-I think I was…crossing the street? And then…Uhhh…Some guy hit me?” It hurt just trying to put together the thought in his head, Larry rubbed away at the sides of his head in pain.

  Using its trunk, Phanpy caressed Larry's back, “Hey, it's alright. For now, how about coming with me? We can get you some food and we’ll get you some help?”

  Unsure how much Larry could trust this Pokemon, he weighed his options in his mind, ‘I don’t even know where I am, and it doesn’t seem like the Phanpy has any malicious ideas…’

  He nodded and finally sat up, “Alright, sure. I’ll go with you…”

  “Great! Just follow me!”

  …

  “So, what should I call you?” Phanpy asked as they scaled a staircase. Phanpy had mentioned that the place that would help him would be on top of the hill, so they were making their way up.

  “Just call me Larry, and you are?”

  “Oh, didn’t even introduce myself. You can call me Ellie!” She smiled back at him as she bowed her head.

  Walking up a hill, Larry was fighting his new body. His center of gravity was entirely different and it was quite a challenge just walking around. Yet, he tried his best to follow Phanpy up the mountain. Once they crested the top, Larry saw something he never expected, between a long line of wooden palisades stood a giant tent that looked like the head of a Wigglytuff, on both of its sides stood intricate totem poles with various Pokemon on them.

  Braziers burned on each side behind the totem poles and a distant memory was stirred in Larry's mind. On their way here they had passed smaller things like wells, signs, and smaller stone structures, it had made Larry think that they might’ve time-traveled with how simple and old most of the infrastructure was.

  The scene at the beach finally clicked in his mind as well, ‘Wait…I think I’ve seen this before…’ His head started hurting again as the memory came back to him.

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  Ellie stared back at him curiously, “Hm? Is there something?”

  He put the thought away for now, “No, No. Don’t worry about it. So, is this the place?”

  “Yep!” Ellie smiled, “It's the Wigglytuff Guild, they’ll be happy to help you out!”

  Ellie stepped on a wooden grate in front of the tent and an echoey voice sounded out from underground, “Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!”

  “Whose footprint? Whose footprint?” The voice spoke robotically, “The footprint is Phanpys! The footprint is Phanpys!”

  “You’re right!” Ellie confirmed to the voice below.

  “You may enter! But some is with you!” The voice accused, “Get that stranger to stand up there!”

  Ellie made space for Larry, walking to the side, when Larry carefully stepped on top of the grate the voice repeated the same spiel, “Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!” “Whose footprint? Whose footprint?”

  He tried to get a look down below, but the darkness obscured the Pokemon below.

  “The footprint…is…Uhm… The footprint is… Maybe Larvitars! Maybe Larvitars!”

  “You got it!” Spoke to Larry with a nod. Far below him in the distance he heard an exacerbated, “Maybe?!”

  “That's good enough!” The voice below spoke, “You may enter!”

  With much work, the iron gate of the tent heaved upwards and a small spiraling staircase revealed itself, going down below into the underground.

  Ellie walked in first, with Larry following after.

  Scaling the staircase downwards, Larry found himself transported into an underground room, windows were carved into its walls to let natural light in and the grass was growing in the middle of the room. Boards with various papers on them were hung on the walls of the room.

  On the left was a board that read ‘Job Bulletin Board’, the one to the right read ‘Outlaw Notice Board’ Before Larry could take a closer look a Chatot flew up through the middle of the spiral staircases from below, meeting them in the middle.

  “Ellie! What were you doing out so late!” The Chatot screeches at the poor Phanpy. She flinches backward at the Flying-Types loud voice before answering as she put her trunk behind Larry, pushing him forward, “I found Larry here lying on the beach, he doesn’t seem to have any memories of who he is and I was thinking the guild could him out!”

  “Hrrmph!” Chatot harrumphed, inspecting Larry with a critical eye, “That sure does sound inconvenient!”

  “Yeah, it sucks!” Ellie misses the hidden meaning behind his words as looked at him with pleading eyes, “Please, even if it's just for a day, can I let him sleep with me and Ursula?”

  “Well…” Stewing in his thoughts for a moment, Chatot let the idea run through his head, “I don’t know if we can trust this…Larry here…”

  It felt like Larry needed to plead his case, so he began, “Mister Chatot, I won’t be here for long. I’ll be out of your uh, feathers by tomorrow morning. I won’t cause any trouble!”

  “...I don’t like it, but alright,’ The Flying-Type finally relented, “I’ll make sure you are actually gone by tomorrow's morning chant though!”

  …

  Larry followed after Ellie, going further down the staircase to an even bigger underground room, down there was even more grass, the same windows, and a weird stand of some kind, a Loudred and other Pokemon hung around openly, conversing about whatever.

  A Bidoof walked to the two of them as they walked past, “Hey, Hey! Ellie, how’s it going?”

  “Oh! Hello Bidoof!”

  It walked with them as they chatted, “Whose that good fellow who is walking with you?”

  Nodding in greeting, Larry introduced himself, “Hello, I’m Larry. Ellie is helping me right now. I’m kind of a little lost, so she brought me here so I could catch my bearings.”

  “By golly, that doesn’t sound good!” It swapped sides while walking, going over to him, “I sure do hope you find those bearings of yours and get back on track!”

  “Thanks.” Larry nodded back.

  Bidoof kept walking into another room, they entered with him, a large dining table filled up the entire room and almost all of its seats were filled with Pokemon. Larry took a place next to Ellie and they munched away on some delicious berries. They tasted great!

  …

  They entered a room with three beds of hay, one of which already had a Teddiursa in it. Ellie walked forward, “Ursula! Don’t go to sleep so early or you’ll never be able to fall asleep tonight!”

  “Mmrgh!” She stretched on her hay bed, “But it's been such a boring day! What am I supposed to do?!”

  “Something DID happen though!” Ellie announced, “I found Larry here, sitting on the beach! We need to help him!”

  Ellie and Larry once again quickly explained his predicament to Ursula. She jumped up at their explanation, “Ah! So, you don’t remember anything at all?”

  “I think…” Larry once again tried to gather his memories with a wince, “I think I was a human…I was crossing the street and I got run over by a…a truck, I think?”

  The two looked at him in incomprehension, Ursula quirked her head to the side, “Human, Truck? What?”

  Ellie also chimed in, “Yeah, I didn’t really understand those either…”

  “Ugh, forget it,” Larry waved off their concerns as he nursed his headache by sitting down on one of the beds of hay, “The quick and short of it is, I wasn’t a Larvitar and now I somehow woke up on a beach somewhere I’ve never seen.”

  “Woah,” Ellie and Ursula stared at him, “I think I get it…”

  Ursula slumped back onto her bed, “Ugh, me too probably.”

  After a short pause, Larry spoke up again, “So. What’s the plan?” He addressed Ellie, “You said you were going to help, but there isn’t anything you can help me with, is there?”

  Ellie walked over to her bed and hunkered down as well, “For now, let’s just get some shuteye.”

  …

  “Whuh?!” Larry woke up to a poke in his stomach, as Valerie pulled her finger away quickly.

  “Sorry! You just…Weren’t waking up.” She apologized sheepishly, “Did you have a bad dream or something?”

  ‘Huh? Where?’ Larry felt entirely disorganized, ‘Wasn’t I just…’ His mind felt muddled, but he simply shook it off, ‘Ugh, if I can’t remember, I guess it isn’t worth remembering…’

  He stood with a hop, “You’re awake then?” She urged him onwards, "Let's keep going then, we gotta find your mom!”

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