{"sf1_id":790189,"sf2_id":null,"title":"First Flight - Chapter #1","author":"FBtH","words":2331,"posted_at":"2014-12-01T15:34:00.000Z","tags":["Bagon","Brendan","Human","Trainer","pokemon"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/790189-first-flight-chapter-1","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/790189","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=790189\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"The second of my multi-chapter fics.","content":"First Flight:Chapter #1 - Falling Meteor~\nDisclaimers: I do NOT own Pokemon, its characters, its locations or\nanything associated with it. It all belongs to Nintendo.Brendan never had a chance to get out of the way in time. He only had a few seconds notice when a rumbling crash like\ndistant thunder above made him tilt his head skywards to catch sight of what\nappeared to be a small, azure boulder tumbling down the side of the mountain on\na trajectory headed straight towards him. The boulder dropped over a cliff ledge overlooking the road\nand rolled down the face, spinning right into the back of Brendan's legs and\nbowling him over. Unhampered even in the slightest, the boulder continued on\nits wild and uncontrollable course until it bounced and flung into the burly\ntrunk of a nearby tree, and was finally brought to a stop.  \"Owwwww...\" Brendan whined, scowling up into the sky as he lay\nsupine in the middle of the rocky path. \"Of course I'd be hit by the single rock that happened to roll down\nthe mountain at the exact moment I\nwas passing by and the exact place\nwhere I was standing out of the entire mountainside.\" After a minute or two, when he had finished grumbling,\nBrendan painfully got up again, his legs feeling as good as splintered\nmatchsticks. He hobbled slowly over to where the boulder had crashed and\nwas shocked to see it wriggling at the foot of the tree. What Brendan had taken\nto be a blue boulder unwound from the ball it had curled into to exonerate\nitself as a tiny, round-snouted creature.   Brendan pulled out his Pokédexto scan\nthe new discovery. \"Bagon, the Rock Head\nPokémon. To realize its dreams to one day soar in the sky. It will hurl itself\noff cliffs and as a result, its head has grown tough and as hard as tempered\nsteel.\"\"Huh...so it's a Bagon,\" Brendan said, returning the Pokédex\nto his pocket. \"I bet the reason that you rolled down half the mountain and\ninto me was that you jumped off from somewhere pretty high up trying to fly.\" The Bagon chittered agitatedly to itself with its eyes\nclosed. \"Hey...are you okay?\" Brendan asked, gently. Drawing even\nnearer to it, his eyes widened as he saw that the Bagon was cradling its left\narm at an awkward angle. \"Oh no, you're injured...\"   Brendan surveyed the Pokémon with attentive concern for a\nmoment while it whimpered quietly. Then he stood up to gauge the circumstances.It was coming upon dusk and he was several hours away from\nthe nearest town with a Pokémon Centre. Once night truly fell, the duvet of\ndarkness would render him much more vulnerable to wild Pokémon attacks. \"I guess we'll just set up camp for the night and bring you\nwith us for now,\" Brendan surmised. He leaned down to carefully lift Bagon off\nthe ground and carry it but failed. It may have only looked like a boulder, but\nit sure weighed like one.  \"Halo of Arceus, just how heavy are you?!\" Brendan hissed\nthrough his teeth as he persisted, succeeding only in budging the creature a\nfew inches.At his words, Bagon broke out the waterworks and began to\nbawl its eyes out. \"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!\" Brendan hastily excused himself. \"I\ndidn't mean it like that!\"In the end, he simply gave up and called out his Grovyle\ninstead, who lifted Bagon up easily without any trouble at all. They began searching for a shelter for the night and after\nabout half an hour, Brendan found them a modest but cosy cave tucked away into\nthe side of the mountain that was suitable.Brendan set about collecting usable pieces of firewood\nlittered around the cave mouth. Once he had a good strong fire crackling inside\ntheir new home, he released his Kirlia from its Poké Ballas well and fed his\nPokémon. While they ate, he improvised a splint for Bagon, using a\nstraight tree branch he had picked up while hunting for firewood and binding it\nsecurely to Bagon's arm with a Silk Scarf from his own backpack that had been\ngifted to him by a kind lady in Dewford Town. While he worked, Brendan caught Bagon eyeing his green and\nwhite unusual knit cap curiously.  \"What, the hat? I never take it off, even when I'm indoors. I've\ngotten used to wearing it all the time. Bad habit, I guess.\"After he was done and the splint had been applied, Bagon ran\naround in dizzying circles like a windup toy, jubilantly flapping its strapped\nup arm in tandem with its good one. After several laps, it turned to make a\nbreak for the cave entrance and, waddling as fast as its tiny legs could carry\nit, made a dashing leap right off the edge outside.   Brendan's jaw dropped in disbelief. \"Oh, you are kidding\nme.\" A few moments later, Bagon was sitting back beside the fire,\nnow with both its arms in splints and looking thoroughly crestfallen and\nslightly sheepish. \"Un-believable,\"\nBrendan huffed, stared down at the thing with his arms folded. Bagon's lips trembled as if it were about to burst into\ntears again.\"Well, since it doesn't look like you're going anywhere\nsoon, you might as well stay with us a bit longer,\" Brendan sighed, reaching\nfor his Grovyle's food dish and jerking it away from the quietly munching\nPokémon. \"Here...you're probably hungry,\" Brendan said, kneeling down\nto place the dish in front of Bagon whose miserable face transformed at once\ninto one of delight. Behind Brendan's back, his Grovyle sulked. Unable to pull the bowl any closer to itself with both its\narms immobilized, Bagon simply smashed its head down into the tray sending\npellets flying everywhere as it scoffed greedily while Brendan watched in\namusement.  When it came for Brendan to put out the fire for the night\nall of his Pokémon were already fast asleep by then, and Bagon had gone\noutside. Brendan went outside to check on it and found the big-headed\nPokémon sitting on the edge of the cliff. \"You're not thinking about jumping off again, are you?\"\nBrendan asked incredulously but Bagon shook its head adamantly. \"What are you doing out here all by yourself, then?\" Bagon jabbed a stubby arm upward. Following the movement,\nBrendan craned his neck to see the stars overbrimming the night sky in a vivid\ndisplay like grains of sand along some celestial shoreline, glimmering as they\ntread the endless expanse of deep velvet blue above them. \"The stars?\" Brendan then remembered what it had said on\nBagon's entry on the Pokedex. \"Oh, the sky! That's right, you wanna fly some\nday, don't you?\"Bagon nodded happily. \"Bit hard to do without wings,\" Brendan observed dryly. \"But\nI guess that doesn't stop you from trying.\" Together, the two gazed into the\nbright night, admiring it in companionable silence.After a long while, Brendan felt a light weight against his\nside and glanced down to see that Bagon had drifted off to sleep sitting next\nto him. Unable to carry it, he cumbersomely dragged the snoring creature along\nthe ground back into the cave and carefully covered it with a spare blanket\nfrom his backpack before returning outside to enjoy the view for a little while\nlonger. He pulled out his Pokedex and flipped it open, navigating to\nBagon's file.  \"Bagon, the Rock Head\nPokémon. To realize its dreams to one day soar in the sky. It will hurl itself\noff cliffs and as a result, its head has grown tough and as hard as tempered\nsteel. It's final, evolved form is the Dragon Pokémon, Salamence.\"Brendan sat there for a long time with an unfathomable\nexpression, gazing at the last line contemplatively. * * *The next morning, as soon as day broke, Brendan and his\nPokémon descended from Meteor Falls to travel to Rustboro City. There, the\nresident nurse removed Bagon's splints and examined it arms for fractures or\nbreaks. \"Just a few bumps and bruises, nothing major!\" the nurse\ncheerfully assured a vastly relieved Brendan when she eventually returned to\nthe waiting lobby wheeling Bagon out in a steel trolley. \"You don't need to\nworry - Bagons are remarkably tough and cliff-jumping is a pretty common recreational\nbehaviour for their species so they're quite used to it, believe it or not!\"\"Thank you! I'm sorry for the trouble,\" Brendan said\ngratefully. \"Not at all! He's a cutie, isn't he?\" she added dotingly, as\nBagon squabbled furiously while helplessly rolling back and forth on his back in\nthe trolley like an upturned beetle, his short tail thumping frantically as it\ntried to right itself.\"Yeah,\" Brendan couldn't help but let slip a goofy grin. \"He\nis.\"After Bagon was discharged from the Pokémon Centre, Brendan\ndecided that he might as well restock on supplies while he was in the\ncity.   Bagon followed the teen around as he made his rounds,\nwaddling after him wherever he went. Brendan stopped at the Poké\nMart to restock on Super Potions, visited the Pokemon Training\nSchool where he chatted with a few students and received a Quick Claw from the\nteacher to whom he thanked profusely while bowing low, ran into Mr. Stone who\ninsisted on dragging him over to the Devon Corporation headquarters for a visit\nto show him the company's latest experiments on Pokémon fossils, which were\ndeemed to be \"promising\".  By the time that he was finally done, the sun was waning\namidst a fiery orange sky that was streaked with comets of pink clouds as\nbright and fleecy as cotton candy. Ornate iron-wrought street lamps began\nflickering awake to embrace the early evening.  He glanced down at his new companion.\"What say we go for some ice cream?\"Brendan purchased two of what the vendor had named Vanillish\nCones - vanilla soft serves decorated with a goofy smiley face sketched out of\nblue icing and edible blue sugar crystals all set in a waffle cone dyed with\nblue food colouring. Brendan stared at his cone, trying to process how\nludicrous of an idea an ice cream Pokémon was. Afterwards, they wandered down to the large pond in Route\n104 and found an old and shoddy wooden bench fronting the water to settle down\nonto.  As Bagon plopped himself down, the entire bench splintered\ninto two with a loud crack. The small Rock Head Pokémon was dumped onto the\nground and promptly burst into a storm of noisy tears.\"Sheesh, I didn't know you were that sensitive about your\nweight,\" Brendan said.They moved to the next bench over which thankfully retained\nits integrity, albeit with a ponderous groan of wood. Brendan handed Bagon his unfinished cone as the Pokémon had\nupset its own after it had toppled over.As Brendan watched Bagon eat, he recalled what he had read\non the Pokédexthe night before.  \"Bagon, listen,\" Brendan said, quietly. His eyes were\ndowncast and he was absently fidgeting with his hands. \"Look...I - I can't keep you any longer.\"Bagon gazed up at him uncomprehendingly with its head cocked.\"I...I just can't.\" Brendan's voice cracked, as his coherence\ncollapsing into a rambling heap. \"It's...when I was a kid...you don't get it...don't\nunderstand why...\"\"Why I wear this\nstupid hat!\" he burst out, and without warning, he tore off the offending\nheadpiece in anger to reveal three parallel scars, stark white and unsightly,\ninflicted on the right side of his skull, viciously tearing through a scalp of\notherwise kempt dark flat hair.\"When I went cave exploring with my dad when I was eight, I\ngot separated from him and got so scared. And then...and then I ran into a\nSalamence - and it did this to me, and ever since then...\" He trailed off, unable to bring himself to articulate the\ntrauma that had followed - the frequent nightmares that had extinguished any\nhope for peaceful sleep or the fact that he couldn't so much as look at a photo\nof Salamence in an encyclopedia without being seized by an all-consuming terror\nthat left him unbalanced and short for breath.    \"Every time I see these scars in the mirror or in my\nreflection I get reminded of how ugly and repulsive they make me look,\" Brendan\nsaid in self despisal. He replaced the hat on his head, carefully adjusting so\nthat it was sure to cover up the ghost of his childhood wound. \"That's why I wear\nthis all the time now. I got sick of people staring and pointing at me.\"His eyelashes bristling with hot tears, Brendan wiped them\naway with his forearm and gazed down at Bagon, who was bouncing up and down,\ncompletely oblivious to the trainer's anecdote. \"I - I don't even know if you can understand what I'm\nsaying,\" Brendan gave a shaky laugh that was half a sob of amused hopelessness.\n\"I mean, I know that you Bagons are pretty thick-headed and because of that,\nyou're not as good as other Pokémon with picking up on complex human\nlanguage...\"   Bagon continued to bounce, chattering joyfully as it enjoyed\nits ice cream.\"If I keep you, I know that you'll become strong. So strong.\nAnd that one day, you'll become a Salamence. And when that happens, I just...I\njust can't. I won't be strong enough to be the trainer you need, anymore. I'm just\ntoo scared and too weak to do it - I'm sorry.  You deserve someone stronger and braver than\nme. You deserve a normal, fully functioning trainer who can form a healthy\nrelationship with you. I can't give you that. I'm sorry.\"Bagon had probably not understood a word of everything he\nhad just said. \"Bye, Bagon.\" After a few moments, Bagon glanced around to see that Brendan\nwas no longer sitting with him anymore and was gone. Believing that the trainer\nhad simply gone to get more ice cream for them, he wiggled  to settle himself comfortably into the bench\nwith his stumpy legs outstretched over the edge, ecstatic at the idea of more Vanillish Cones to come. "}