Dream's Offer (Shinx Tf)

Today had been a good day, Miguel reflected. It was the holidays; his parents had been out for most of the day, thus not bothering him, allowing Miguel to do whatever he wanted. This, for the most part, was listening to every song on his ipod, playing some video games (ORAS was in right now!), daydream without being told to pay attention, commenting, writing and RP with various people and...

He glanced towards his bedroom window, duvet nestled gently beneath his chin, his head resting softly against his pillow. Yeah, there was one of them, curling themselves up for the night. Another he could see looked to be gazing at the moonlight. At any stage, the majority of people will have imaginary friends. Yet Miguel’s were so much more than that! They were his company, his spirits, his own friendly ‘shadows’ as he called them. First appearing as balls of light years ago, they now took the form of various Pokémon, as if sharing his own personal interest. Right now, he couldn’t talk to any of them, but soon...

Gently his eyes closed and soon Miguel was lost in the realm of dreams. This one was set in a grassy meadow. A smooth and calming breeze whispered behind him slowly, slightly stirring the thin grass stems and myriad of flowers with exotic fragrances. There were no clouds in the sky, and the sky almost took a yellow colour, so bright was the sun. There was a river, shallow and softly trickling, that flowed through the land, passing a single tree, a giant oak. Below its spreading branches, one of Miguel’s shadows watched him. That would be Snips. Miguel ran over and hugged him, the coils of the serpent tenderly wrapping themselves around the lad in an embrace, the creature’s snout nestling amidst the boy’s hair. After a few more moments, their bodies truly relaxed: Miguel sitting cross legged against the long tail of the Serperior.

For quite some time, they sat wordlessly, watching the land. Miguel looked up from time to time, intrigued. There was a thoughtful gleam in Snips’ eye today, his mouth steady. He didn’t look unhappy though, but still it was...curious.

He had to ask. “What are you thinking Snips?”

The Serperior twisted his neck done towards him and came straight to the point. “How would you like to be a Pokémon?”

That completely took Miguel by surprise. “What? But...why?
”
“Well, I will admit that was the reaction I expected,” Snips replied, bunching his leafy collar up in a sort of shrug, “And you get on alright, in the real world I mean. It’s just...I have had an interesting offer. Someone says they can transform you into a Pokémon and, you know, as we are your friends but we can only really talk and be in full colour here as this is, well, our world, and...I thought you might be interested?”

Miguel knew what Snips meant. His shadows meant so much to him, being his true friends. Plus, he wrote Tf stories and this sounded very similar. Yet now that he was confronted with it...this needed thought. On the one hand, being a Pokémon would be awesome. On the other...what about his life in the real world? Music, games, the Deviantart community, his parents...what of them?

As if knowing what he was thinking, Snips tail began waving in agitation. “NO NO NO! I’m not asking you to leave home or anything! It’s just, well, while you’re here, in dreams! At least, for now. You can decide later if you want to join us permanently but...not yet. Not until you’re used to being a Pokémon!”

This made up Miguel’s mind. “Ok, I’m in. Where’s the someone who will do it?”

“Over here. Seriously, dreams make you totally unobservant. No wonder the average person can’t remember their dreams.”

Miguel turned around to see a man. Red haired, purple hoodie, black trousers, he had a mischievous grin that Miguel liked. Yet his eyes...they held some sort of worry. The man looked at him closely.

“Yeah, I’m the guy who’s going to give you a new life. Which is good because there’s someone else that could have done this but fortunately they are on another job right now so...here I am!”

Miguel had no idea what he was talking about. Still, the man sounded like he really wanted to do this. Just like himself.

“So, how are you going to do it?”

“Simples! Well, as those meerkats from those adverts say, seen them?” he replied, talking quite fast and merrily, “Anyway, I’m going to use my imagination! It should be starting any time...now!”

“Wait, don’t I get a say in what I change into?”

“Nope, it doesn’t work like that! Oh, and I suggest you begin looking at yourself.”

Miguel did so; finally noticing that where once had been clothes was now fur. How his clothes had disappeared must be something to do with the dream, but that wasn’t important right now. What was important was that he really was changing into a Pokémon. A small part of Miguel felt a little disappointed, he really hoped to get Snivy, but the rest of him was amazed that he had sky blue fur across his chest. This was replaced by black fur from his waist downwards. The area around his neck was also edged with black, with two triangular marks pointing down at his chest. His body became flatter but his insides felt normal. Well, normal apart from what felt like sparks that rippled along his body. Not painful, not uncomfortable. In fact, Miguel didn’t feel a thing, it was just part of the dream.

What Miguel was noticing however was how much closer to the ground he was becoming. He looked to the man, smiling but body tensed as if in concentration, and found that whereas before they had been almost the same height, he was now at his hips. He looked to Snips, now a giant before his eyes. Then back again before he stopped at the man’s kneecaps. Suddenly, the whole world looked bigger: the tree was a giant, the river the longest serpent he had ever, even the grass was coming to rest more against his body. Miguel had to admit that was a bit unnerving.

Shocks of sparks jolted down his arms. His arms began shortening, drawing themselves closer to him. Just like his body, Miguel saw the same pale blue fur burst across his skin before they were completely covered, bar his wrists which turned to yellow, creating bands where arms met hands. As for the hands themselves, his thumb and pinkie retracted, while the three remaining fingers swelled and sort of merged at the joints. The nails that remained grew sharp, but hidden under the fur. Miguel had paws. He tried to look at them but then his elbows and shoulders clicked and he could only move them in certain ways. Miguel’s back clicked a second after and Miguel to the ground, now on knees and paws.

His knees began lifting themselves away from the ground as, like the arms before, they became shorter and stockier. All the bones and muscles became just that little bit smaller while the same pulse of electricity coursed through his blood. Unlike the arms, they became swathed in black and no yellow band grew. His toes though suffered the same fate as his hands: three remained which helped form his feet into paws. Miguel twisted his head; only noticing now that his neck had disappeared while he had focused on his other changes, and noted that he was becoming a feline Pokémon. There was only one this small who was an electric type, and Miguel pieced together what he was becoming.

His head began feeling weird, and Miguel stared cross-eyed as his nose became smaller and smaller before appearing as a mere red oval on his face. His head grew rounder and rounder, his eyes enlarging, his cheeks gaining little tufts of blue fur as it spread across his features. His hair stuck upwards as it became a long tuft on his forehead. Miguel’s mouth lost all molars and incisors, rows of canines growing along his upper jaw. His ears too became larger, pointing upwards and to the sides, the innards appearing as four pointed yellow stars with the top point longer than the others. A most unusual change happened next, one that Miguel would learn only later and as requested by Snips: instead of his eyes turning yellow they changed to a wine red. All the easier to pick Miguel out in a large crowd.

Miguel believed his changes were done, only for an insurmountable itch that he couldn’t reach to form at the bottom of his spine. Then, a quick swish and spurt, and out grew a tail. It was a tail of black, neither long nor short, that bent with ease. It ended in another bright yellow star: this one with points of equal length. It was over now, Miguel was a Shinx.

Miguel loved it! He loved the power he felt in his forelegs, the feeling of lightning blasting its way across him, his soft fur, that he could see the small parts of the world in much better detail and...well, it was time to make use of it. Quickly thanking the mysterious red head, Miguel shot off to Snips. His eyes brimmed with a little concern, but he was smiling.

“Are you ok, Miguel?”

“Never better!” Miguel cried, only noticing now how high his voice had become, and with a slight reverberation, “Let’s see what I can do.”

“Ok, how about a race. Last one across the river is a baked Bidoof!”

“Yeah!”

The two sped off over the dream world, while the red head began disappearing, legs then body, hair then face, waving hands and glistening eyes until at last his mouth which spoke in a decreasing voice on the whispers of the wind.

“You can make your choice later, for you’ll wake up back at home but every night until you decide to make it permanent, you’ll be a Shinx here. Hopefully I won’t get in trouble for bending the rules again...”