Pokémon kladde (anthology)

[kyeugh]

this is a holding space for my drabbles, flash fics, bite-sized oneshots, and other odds and ends.

this post is reserved for indexing later.

 

[kyeugh]

Drabble Bingo 2024

I tried to make all of these places biomes that would be considered tough to live in, but I quickly realized that human standards of "unusual" and Pokémon standards of "unusual" weren't exactly uniform. Either way, these are all locations that you certainly can find creatures, but will probably be left wondering how they got there.

Arctic Desert	Inside a Volcano	Crystal Caves
Bottom of the Sea	Oasis	SPACE
Large Plateau	Creatures of the City	Iceberg

- - -
Inside a Volcano​

The throat of Mt. Chimney is crawling with them—sniffing the sheer walls dutifully, prying out treasured clutches of ore to crunch. Aron are not careful because they know the magma below can't hurt them. It disperses harmlessly off their gleaming armor, like a nice red bath.

The magma isn't the danger. If an aron is lucky, it might return to the wall before it's hurt. But, oblivious to the lurking threat, they rarely do.

Great bone-white jaws burst from the hot sea, leviathanic, and a skeledirge drags a lagging aron into its depths.

Aron aren't named until they evolve.

---

Oasis​

It could only be God's grace—throat like gravel, limbs like fire, I happened upon an oasis in the deep desert. As I advanced, I imagined the feeling of cool water on my lips a thousand times.

Finally I fell to my knees and scooped water with my hands—but they came back dry.

"It isn't your imagination; you'll die sane. Does that comfort you?"

I whirled on the creature behind me—zoroark, tawny fur like sand. Angel of death.

Abruptly the water was gone. There were only bleached bones.

"Sorry. Even a desert fox has to eat."

---

Creatures of the City​

Four joltik nibble at the wire in sync, chittering with glee. But it won't last. The wall groans as massive fingers pull it back—an eye like the sun squints at them suspiciously.

Terror. Frantic skittering, screeching. The stench of fear pheromones wafts heavy.

"Wait, wait!" booms the titan. "Don't run. Just... Here."

It pushes something through—a capsule the size of three joltik, shining and metal.

"It's a battery. Give it a suck."

The joltik are cautious—but one eventually suckles and the others follow. Sure enough, the juice comes sweet and gentle.

"See? Just leave the wires alone, yeah?"

Fair enough.