literature

From Predator to Legend (Xerneas Tf)

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Literature Text

Unusually, that day wasn’t a god day for finding Pokémon. The forest was quiet, more so than normal, and there didn’t seem to be anything around. Well, there was something. I spotted a couple of Pokémon, but each time I got close something startled their attention, a shadow or a twig snapping, and they either ran or flew away. At the time it was rather annoying.

I say rather annoying than infuriating because…it’s not easy for me to say this now. There are some things that are illegal in this world, some things that society scorns, and rightfully so. I was doing one of those things. It would have become rather obvious if someone had walked into the forest and found me holding a long rifle, a short knife in my belt and wearing camouflaged clothing: green hat, dark green shirt with dark splodges on it and a beige pair of shorts. Probably not even the best gear I could wear, but it would do. I also had sturdy walking boots and a rather large sack on my back, to carry any finds. You’ve probably worked it out by now: I was a hunter.

Now usually, hunters do what they do because they love it. Either they love killing creatures weaker than themselves, they do it so they can put their kills up as trophies, like the Sawsbuck heads you sometimes see in Unova before hunting there was outlawed, they do it for the money (fairy type powder is in right now as a kind of alternative medicine, I’m sure it doesn’t work) or, at the very least, they do it because they had to, because they were in the middle of nowhere and had to eat something. I didn’t fall into any of those categories. I came to this career by mistake: I thought I was joining up to become a ranger. Ignorance and naivety have always been my downfall. I remember mother used to say:

“Andrew, dear, your head is full of cotton wool. When will you see the world for what it really is?”

I never did see the cruelty in it, I thought everyone was nice, wanted the best in life. Then, when I got to the ‘ranger’ site, I was handed a gun and told to kill something. Now, I know what you’re thinking, why didn’t I just turn away, leave the job etc. Life really isn’t that easy. I was desperate for money. I was about to be made homeless, I couldn’t go back home as it was miles away and I didn’t even have enough cash for transport there…either rightly or wrongly, I shot something. It was a bad shot as well, didn’t kill the thing outright. I was told I would do and could never leave now: if word got out of what they, we, were doing then it was prison for the lot of us. I couldn’t afford that either, but I promised myself that I would give my kills a merciful death: as quick and as painless as possible.

Still, I was rather worried. Things were never this quiet. Had everything been scared away?

*Crunch*

I swivelled my head to the right, feeling my short brown hair turn with it. Peering through the forest with my green eyes, I was sure there was something over there. Silently, I crept closer, peeled back some greenery and…

It was the most beautiful stag Pokémon I had ever seen in Kalos. Royal blue fur ending in black, a gentle but wise face and so many antlers on its head, a dazzling light blue. If I could take this back to the others, maybe I would be free of my bosses once and for all (huh, who was I kidding? Then again, that’s what I thought back then, being really hopeful and stupid). I looked down briefly to get my gun ready, but when I looked up it wasn’t there. Had I just imagined it…

“YOU!”

Turning round so quickly that I ended up tripping and the gun fell from my hands, I looked up to see the stag towering over me. Its gaze, it was…how can I say it…fearful to look at. I dropped to the ground and nervously grabbed my knife, afraid of attack. The Pokémon just batted it from my hand with its antlers as if it was nothing more than a leaf that got in the way. I whimpered.

The stag leaned down and stared at me, sniffing me as well, before standing proudly once more. “Human, you hunt life. I understand your fear, your pain in doing so but I cannot allow that to happen. I need someone to take my place, I order you to do so.”

I didn’t understand. It talked? Life? Taking its place? Was this…

“I am sorry for the curse I must put on you, but I believe you will find it…beneficial in a way.”

I was still confused, but wasn’t for too long. Despite being in a sitting position, I felt a sudden crunch to my back. Crying out, I fell to the ground, putting my hands out in front of me to stop me falling, kneeling on the floor.

How is it best to describe this? In all honesty, I don’t think words can ever truly convey what happened. I suppose what I noticed first as a change in colour to my hands. My pink skin swiftly turned to a deep black. At first, I thought I had been cursed with some kind of poison, and this only seemed to be confirmed when the skin around my hands began hardening. Yet what kind of poison only affects hands? Why hadn’t it gone up my body and started killing me? Then my fingers collapsed in upon themselves and…joined as one. Soon my hands were single points driven into the ground, rimmed by a kind of glowing yellow. My elbows and wrist began lurching away from them, pulling me further away from the ground. Knobbly bits where my elbows were, which was now just about a few inches from my shoulders, suddenly stuck out and shredded my sleeves. I could now see, bending my neck down, that I had really long legs with strange golden patterns and my hands were hooves.

I’d been too numb to freak out before but I did now. I want to run, run far away but how on earth were you suppose to run like this? It didn’t matter anyway, as I found out, because my legs began pushing away from the ground as well. The lengthening of my bones and muscles was incredibly painful and I cried out, just about noticing that my voice hadn’t changed. My thighs were thick and ready to spring, my knees were higher, with longer limbs running down to my feet, now on tiptoes and the toes merging as one, the boots splitting apart. Unlike my front limbs, these had no golden lines on them bar around the hooves. I looked at the Pokémon in front of me, then to my legs and back…everything clicked into place.

“But I don’t want to be you!”

“You and I have no choice. This is the curse set on you and the end of my existence.”

The end? Did he mean he was going to die? He sounded male but in all honesty I couldn’t be sure. Then my body throbbed. I was already in a position where my front was pointed to the ground rather than standing straight up which seemed to make the changes less painful but harder for me to try and fight. Yes, I was fighting it, just not very well. My waistline became leaner while my chest…gosh my chest! I could feel everything heaving, beating. I could even feel some sort of weird energy flow through me, causing a brief moment of giddy lightheaded giggling. I’m not proud of that, but I stopped pretty quickly when I felt my stomach churning. Apparently the burger I had earlier wasn’t good and then I realised I was going to have to go vegetarian. That paled in comparison when my skin fluffed up. A roughness went around my waist and butt, similar to that of my upper arms and legs, until it was just thick enough to break my shorts away. My chest underwent a more drastic changed as it really did fluff up. A royal blue stretched out from my chest, causing the ripping of my shirt and rucksack, both falling to the ground, the centre of which was a golden yellow arrow. I was partly suffocated by it, but more interested in something else. Where I had gold marks, the stag before me had blue. What was the difference between us, apart from being human, or at least semi-human?

“The transformation is causing you to be in Active mode. You will need it soon.”

“How come?”

Wow…my voice sounded deeper, wiser. I quite liked that actually. Abruptly I found myself gasping for air. My throat, my spine, my neck, they were…pushing against my head. I think that was actually the most painful part because I hadn’t fully expected it. I found my head being pushed away from it, away from my chest and straight up. I swivelled it down, panting hard, finding it easier like that. I closed my eyes and waited until I felt the same fluffy fur. Sure enough, when I opened my eyes, I was able to raise my head and see things much higher. My neck was blue, based on what I could see and I was about double my height. It wasn’t me, but I couldn’t help but be amazed by it.

I yelped weirdly when my behind wiggled and something broke free. At first all I felt was fur, rather silky fur that just went out and nowhere. It quickly sprang up as I gained sensation in it, my bone and muscle there being concealed in blue, the rest being black. Having a tail was actually novel. Somehow, despite the changes, I found some joy in this curse. I think that’s partly because of what was flowing through me. All Pokémon had some sort of type and this was causing me to experience strong emotions and a certain fondness of the earth that I hadn’t had before. Was I a grass type, or maybe normal?

No, my brain said, as a fresh assortment of knowledge came to my mind. It was almost overwhelming, but I just let it gloss over me because my head was now changing. I prepared myself, half focusing on what was becoming instinctual and half focusing on my skull changing, my nose and mouth pushing out, my eyes going slightly to the sides and slanting downwards. My ears went sideways and became longer, pointy. This change forced my hat to flop down. My eyes were a lot smaller now and I felt rather than saw my irises change. I still don’t know how I knew that, but they went from green to blue. My canines broke down completely, being replaced by molars, making me wince at the thought of eating plants for the rest of my life. My hair became covered by the blue fur of my chest and neck and then…

WHOOSH!

Long bones, covered in velvet, grew up and up in different directions, pointing to the sides and to the sky. Some of the tines began shimmering in different colours: red, blue, orange, purple, yellow and more against a pale background. I had antlers, I was using power and I was a fairy type now. Not just any Pokémon either, but the one who controlled life, who could give life and create forests. I was Xerneas.

Now I truly appreciated the curse. Whereas before I was a hunter, now I had to give back to the place I had preyed upon. It sort of made me happy, that I didn’t have to do that again, but I was overwhelmed by the responsibility. Legendries lived for a long time and…that meant I would have to be life’s guardian for a long time. I wasn’t sure I was up to the mental strain, knowing how ignorant I was as a man.

Suddenly I looked up, deep into the other Xerneas’ eyes, and saw him looking like me. Active and glowing. I saw the energy run out of him, across the forest’s vastness and into every single Pokémon and plant that lived here (it probably would have been invisible to my human eyes, but I could see it now). It was…beautiful. He smiled at me.

“Now live the curse, just as I have done.”

“Wait, I don’t understand!”

“You will be fine…this was meant to cure you…”

I couldn’t quite see, but as he glowed brighter, I’m sure I saw two people in robes standing behind him. Then it got too bright and I closed my eyes.

I don’t know whether that was a bad decision or not. One moment, I was a stag, the next I couldn’t see a thing. I felt constricted, immobile but safe. I let my fairy senses awaken and realised that I had started my 1000 year sleep…as a tree. The previous Xerneas had given its life energy to others, now I had to gain mine.

So now I sleep, dreaming and yet feeling awake at the same time, talking to myself, reminding myself of the past. I’m certain I saw the robed ones and I am now certain of what they do. I might be cursed, and I am still not sure if I can do this but…somehow, being like this, I think my life has suddenly got better. Life has grown, literally.
Request for :iconpooltoy-cheetah:.

We're back to the first person story! Been a long time since I've done one of these. Anyway, I was requested that hunter Andrew got cursed by Xerneas in a forest, leading to the transformation. I don't think I handle curses well, because I like happy endings too much, but thinking about he reasons why people hunt, what lead Andrew to that career was interesting. Also trying to input some fairy emotion and differentiate between Xerneas' two modes was interesting too.

Requests are CLOSED, but with only 2 left it shouldn't be for long. Start thinking about what you want people!
© 2015 - 2024 confusedkangaroo
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MJMSTUDIOS2020's avatar
This is an awesome story but didn't realize it came from the same author that I've read other stories.