Chapter 1: And So It Begins...
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The day came and went as days usually do. Summer was drawing to an end and fall was gradually approaching, and so a pleasant chill was in the air. The random PokeMon, skittering to and fro in the forest that Fortree was built in were carrying on with their lives. Most of them avoided the human settlement - but the birds were, as usual, everywhere.

Sunset is a time of transformation in Fortree. The rays of the dying sun paint the forest in a brilliant myriad of golden tones, and the sounds of day are replaced with the sounds of night. The constant birdsong was softly fading into silence, while in the distance, in Route 120, Poochyenas began to howl - as the creatures of a nocturnal life cycle were awakening to emerge from their hiding places. And of course, there was the inexplicable, but omnipresent feeling of magic in the air.

Riley loved sunsets. She'd often sit on the bench in front of her house and gaze at the sky at sunset, basking in its last drops of warmth. However, this particular sunset, Riley was inside, with a half-empty glass of ice-cold mint tea, and was frantically flipping through the pages of an old book. The creature she has seen while she was out picking berries could not have been anything else than what she was particularly looking for. It didn't take a PokeDex to recognize.

Sure enough, after a few minutes she finally found the page. There she stared at the art that adorned it. The creature wasn't caught in exact accuracy at the artistic interpretation, but the general lines were there. Red eyes, lined with gold. Dark grey fur - so dark it seemed black, covering its face, standing out in particular against the background of somewhat longer, snowy white fur covering the rest of its form. Its body and face were a strange mixture of feline and lupine features - like a cross of a wolf and a mountain lion, so to speak - with strange, draconic legs, each adorned with three wicked-looking claws. Out of one side of its head protruded a long, obsidian scythe-like horn, and at the tip of a short stub of a tail there was a similar scythe-like obsidian blade.

It was an Absol, a PokeMon which in mythology has always played the role of a harbinger of disaster. Absols were extremely rare to come by - on occasion a report would be heard of a traveler stumbling upon one of the creatures on Route 120, but these dark-types generally preferred to remain on the nearby mountain ranges. Spotting an Absol has been traditionally a warning that something was coming, because the stories rooted Absols coming down from their mountain homes when natural disasters were about to strike. Their fascinating attunement to nature has been under heavy research, but no conclusive results have ever been reached.

Riley closed the book, replaced it in whatever bookcase she picked it from with a sigh, and drank the rest of her tea. She was never the superstitious type - but the memory of the morning, with the movement that caught her eyes, left her edgy.

She would sleep lightly that night.

A sound of clattering woke Riley up. She didn't need to check the clock to know it was the middle of the night, and that there was something - or someone - in her house that shouldn't have been there.

She silently climbed out of bed, quickly draping her robe around herself - and reached under her bed, fumbling a bit until she found it - It was a somewhat heavy stick of wood that she kept hidden there for just such an occasion. It wasn't much for a deterrent, but if she had the element of surprise, she could stun the intruder faster than you could say 'Breaking and Entering'.

Riley sneaked nervously through the shadows. It was dark, but some light from the small lamps that adorned the platforms still filtered through the windows from outside. She did not want to risk being caught by the invader. She looked around, noticing much to her dismay that some things have been knocked over. So far nothing seemed to have been taken, but Riley was determined to find the intruder before it managed to take anything.

She caught another movement in the corner of her eye. She peered around a corner to one of the barely illuminated walls. There was a shadow on that wall - tall and human-shaped. Something seemed a bit off about it, but she couldn't tell what. Its hair, maybe, didn't seem quite right on the silhouette. The shadow vanished as whatever being that cast it started moving again.

She started hearing footsteps. Whatever it was was on its way there. Rapidly.

She slipped into the nearest room, hiding by the doorframe, and swung the stick, ready to land it on whatever would have entered. Adrenaline rushed through her body. She closed her eyes, focusing, and took a deep breath...

And before she could even open her eyes, she felt something rush by. Without thinking - or aiming - she swung the stick and hit something. The attack met its mark as whatever it was made a small sound - more of surprise than of pain, and landed on the floor with a rolling THUMP. So, whoever it was jumped through the door.

Jumped. Something was wrong here, as Riley knew when she opened her eyes. Surely enough, there was an unconscious humanoid figure lying face-down on the floor - but it was not human. Something about the proportions wasn't right, and the figure was small, roughly the size of a child. And in the faint light, its skin had a light glisten to it that skin did not have...

But scales had.

Riley's eyes widened in shock when she realized what she just hit. She rushed to the figure's side and picked it up, carrying it into the living room and setting it gently on one of the sofa. Turning on the light, she opened one of the cabinets and pulled out a Potion spray bottle and a book. Then, she returned to the sofa to have a better look.

The creature's body was thin but muscled, and covered head-to-toe with smooth, greenish-gray scaly skin. Its hands and feet seemed to be tipped with small claws, and its face had a strange, reptillian quality to it. A row of three small crests - obviously a youngster - adorned the top of its head, and it had a short, lizardlike tail. On closer inspection, she could see the small fangs of a young predator - or omnivore - and slight hints of plumes growing around the creature's elbows and the back of its head. She also couldn't help but notice the fact that the creature's ribs seemed to somewhat stick out of its sides. "It must have been foraging for food..." she thought "Poor thing..."

She then turned the creature's still body over, looking for the bruise on the back of its head - sure enough, it was there. There was a slight lump in a rather fetching shade of purple on its head. With a sigh, Riley pointed the spray bottle's nuzzle towards the bruise and sprayed its contents on the bruise. The sophisticated combination of pain-killers and tissue-regeneration boosters began doing its work almost immediately. The creature's limp body tensed - it was a natural response - before sinking into oblivion of the senses again, as the bruise started fading away and the swelling in the back of its head seemed to cool down and begin a gradual fadeout. Riley smiled. It was going to be all right.

"Alright, my friend, let's just see what you are..."

First light.
A single pair of red eyes opened, blurrily winking as their owner was busy getting his bearings. The first thought he had was that he was lying on something soft. There was a soft pounding in the back of his head, but oddly enough, he felt as if he should have had an even greater headache. He surveyed his form, checking his body for injuries. And then the smell of food registered in his mind.
And another scent which he didn't know.
He turned his head to observe the strange surroundings. How did he come to be here? All thoughts suddenly perished when he saw the platter left behind on the table. It was full of berries of various sorts - they looked really appetizing, and he was hungry. Part of his mind screamed to him that it might be a trap - too many unfamiliar scents in the air. But hunger eventually overtook common sense, and he began eating at a frivolous pace. Then, suddenly, he froze and turned his head to the door. Standing at it was a human female - whose eyes seemed to sparkle when she saw him, and began a gradual approach towards him.

"Good morning, Machop... Are you feeling any better? I see you already found the food I left for you."

Curses! He knew that he was in trouble now. Looking around, everything clicked into place. This was a human's lair - and that particular human's territory. Memories of last night began creeping quietly into its mind - a few days after leaving the colony, driven half-crazed by hunger, the Machop made its way into a human settlement. Seeking food it entered the only place that seemed abandoned at that hour. It found nothing, and then was the pain and it fell unconscious. He recalled the faint smell of the human before the pain came - The human, he realized, must have defended its territory from an intruder - and the intruder was him. The human was probably going to finish him off now for not leaving immediately. However, the human's approach seemed more friendly than intimidating.

"It's okay... I'm not going to hurt you..." He heard the human say. The Machop did not understand a word she said, of course, but something in her tone of voice made it let its guard down, just a bit. She meant him no harm - and he let her come near him. In her hands, he suddenly realized, were a few more berries.

"I've got you some more, if you'd like..." She said, putting them on the platter. The Machop sniffed one out suspiciously, then ate. The human gave the Machop its space as it at, seeming to realize it was stressed. Humans - what strange creatures they were, welcoming one into their territory right before defending it against one. Or at least, so was this human. The Machop didn't know much about humans, and did his best not to generalize.

She seemed to be aware of his hurts, and was tending for them - much like a more grown member of the colony would have done for one of the youngsters or the elderly when they were in need. The Machop allowed itself to relax a bit. He felt that he could trust this human. He smiled experimentally at the human, and she returned a wide smile. "You should rest a bit, then, you're welcome to stay - or go - as you wish. Just be careful not to break and enter any more houses." she added with a gentle laugh, to make the Machop know she had no hard feelings.

The Machop felt safe. It edged closer to the human and tentatively reached out its hand and looked into the human's eyes. The human's eyes seemed to widen, then her smile became brighter as she took his hand in hers and gently shook it.

And the Fortree sun shone over a new, if unlikely, friendship.

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