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Salt and Blood
'Nothing is ever simple with you, Steven Stone'. Or so says Wallace. Steven's always brushed him off, but after an expedition to Paldea goes awry, perhaps he's more willing to give those words some consideration.
Oneshot // 2k
(whump, h/c)
'Nothing is ever simple with you, Steven Stone'. Or so says Wallace. Steven's always brushed him off, but after an expedition to Paldea goes awry, perhaps he's more willing to give those words some consideration.
Oneshot // 2k
(whump, h/c)
I had this baby sitting in my folder and I figured, eh, might as well post it. Written in a feverish binge for fun and heavily inspired by Panoramics 'The Long Road' and ambiguously can be interpreted as a similar canon.
Not looking for much heavy crit but I figured i should post for the folks who enjoy a bit of whump and h/c and pokemon friends. Feel free to point out small spelling or grammar quirks though and give general impressions of prose and story! Generally any crit is kind of welcome but I'm not gonna change or add anything probably.
Cw: minor blood and injury
Not looking for much heavy crit but I figured i should post for the folks who enjoy a bit of whump and h/c and pokemon friends. Feel free to point out small spelling or grammar quirks though and give general impressions of prose and story! Generally any crit is kind of welcome but I'm not gonna change or add anything probably.
Cw: minor blood and injury
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Another icy splash against Steven's face finally drew him out of muggy darkness and into something resembling consciousness. He opened his eyes, blinked, then blinked again. It was several seconds before he could finally make out dim shapes in the almost non-existent lighting.
Hard stone bit into his back and he realized finally, he was lying in a puddle of water. Grimacing, he instinctively sat up, then sucked in a sharp breath through gritted teeth as a wave of pain rushed over him from head to toe. Still, he managed to sit without too much trouble.
Slowly, gingerly, he took better stock of himself. Nothing broken, but sore all over. His head kept thumping and aching and he had a nasty headache.
Nothing is ever simple with you, Steven Stone.
How many times had Wallace said that to him? Steven shook his head as dust tickled his throat and he coughed lightly. Usually he brushed off Wallace's worries, but just this once he was beginning to wonder if the water-type trainer had a point.
"You've really outdone yourself," he mused out loud, his voice echoing through the empty cavern before being swallowed by the sprawl of tunnels.
A simple research trip to Paldea, to see the sights, especially Paldea's rock formations and canyons, which were quite unlike any other region. A simple morning hike. Without his pokeballs, because he hadn't wanted to wake his friends and because they'd stayed up late with him the night before. A simple lapse in judgment. He'd gotten so focused on something else he'd missed the dip in the ground and the too wet earth, and he'd forgotten he was above the ocean, above a sprawling network of sea caves.
Until the ground vanished underneath his feet, sending him plummeting into the abyss.
It was an absolute miracle he hadn't broken every bone in his body. His gaze drifted upwards. The tiniest trickle of light could be seen somewhere above, highlighting the slope that broke the worst of his fall, and the puddle he'd landed in. It was too steep to safely climb, and even if he could somehow get back up, digging himself out was a fool's move, and he'd done enough of those today.
The distant crashing sound drew his attention. He'd seen similar caves to this shape of the walls and floors, the type of rock... Sea caves. Which meant one of these tunnels would hopefully exit out to a beach and he could escape.
With some difficulty, he dragged himself into an upright position. Immediately, Steven squeezed his eyes shut and gripped the wall as the room swayed. His head throbbed endlessly, but he tried his best to stifle it. To ignore the sensation of the warmth trickling down the side of his head. Or the way the salted air and damp clothes stung his scraped skin.
A shudder traveled through his body as a stiff breeze rolled through the caves. There. That was his way out. It took him a moment to properly fix in his mind where the breeze came from, then he started towards the tunnel.
Another hiss escaped him as he started to walk. He might have avoided broken bones, but every step made his body scream in protest. His fall into the caves had torn up his skin and bruised him worse than he realized. Even in the poor lightning, he could see the shredded remains of his favorite pants were stained dark in patches.
One step at a time. Setting his jaw, Steven pressed onward and into the tunnel. As he walked, he kept his breaths as shallow as he dared. Every time he drew in too deeply, his chest ached. The lingering dust in the air tickled his dry throat, making him want to cough. He couldn't decide if stifling the coughs hurt worse than coughing.
His thoughts drifted into a daze as he plodded along, step after step. One after the other. Aggron would give him an earful when he got back, and he was sure Metagross would want to chain him to the bed. Could you blame them? The thought made him laugh bitterly, then immediately regret it.
Thinking about his family was a good distraction though, and at some point, without him realizing, the tunnel had grown lighter, and the breeze stronger. The crashing sound from earlier was louder now, echoing through the tunnel like a beautiful beacon. A weary grin spread across his face and he picked up his pace slightly, ignoring his body's protest. He could rest when he got back to the hotel.
The tunnel began to slope slightly downward and the light in the distance grew brighter and brighter until finally he rounded a curve and saw shining sand and beyond that, the ocean. He almost could have broken into a sprint from sheer joy at the sight, but he curbed himself.
Still, he found himself grinning like a madman as he stepped out of the cave and onto the beach, and into freedom.
His smile vanished a few minutes later.
To his utter dismay, the section of the beach he'd emerged onto was a cove, hemmed in by sheer cliffs on all sides. No way out. High above he could just make out the green hills of the palace he'd been walking. A little ways below he could see what appeared to be a narrow path winding up the cliff face, but no way to reach it.
His gaze drifted back to the ocean. On either side of the cove, waves crashed endlessly against sharp rocks. Even Wallace wouldn't swim through that. Once more, he set his sights upon the cove walls, examining them closer. There had to be something...
There. Barely noticeable to an untrained eye, but obvious enough to him. A place where the walls had been worn away ever so slightly, and where the wall didn't slope so sharply. Perhaps once used by rock or other pokemon as a way up the cliff? Regardless, it was something. And that was better than nothing.
Risky, but if he could get high enough, he could reach the narrow path. Simple. Ignoring the irony of the thought, he staggered over to the cliff face. Standing beneath it, it somehow looked much steeper than he first thought. But the path he was trying to reach also looked closer than he thought. It would be fine.
"Aggron forgive me," he muttered.
Swallowing, he placed one leg on an outcropping, testing his weight, then reached up and dug his fingers into a crevice. Slowly, he eased himself up. The movement tore at his cuts, but he reached up with his other arm anyways, and drew himself a foot up the wall. His heart hammered in his chest and his hands ached.
Tilting his head back, he peered up the slope. He could do this. One hand in front of the other. This wasn't any worse than the other times he'd gotten himself into a rocky situation. Just a few feet, and he could get back to his hotel, and his team, and rest. Fixing the thought of Aggron's angry chiding in his mind, he pulled himself up, bit by bit, leaning against the prickly wall to rest as much as he dared.
So close.
He dared not look down, locking his eyes on the green above, and the blue sky. Quite suddenly, he became oddly aware of the growing warmth on his forehead, and the way his right eye twitched from a trickle of liquid slipping down his brow.
Just as he reached for another ledge, something slid into his eye. He winced and grabbed blindly. His hand closed around a sharp rock and he slipped. The movement sliced into his fingers and he recoiled instinctively. A strangled cry escaped his lips as he felt himself falling away from the cliff, his body slipping—
The endless crashing of the waves against the shore swallowed his shout as he lost his last foothold and plummeted downwards.
xxx
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
The world rocked and swayed ever so gently around Steven as something cradled his battered body. The first thing he felt was the strangest, mildest stinging sensation that felt oddly... pleasant. Like a buzz, a far cry from the constant flares of pain from earlier. Then he felt the movement. Swaying, and footsteps. Something large, carrying him.
Aggron? His addled thoughts struggled to make sense of everything. He remembered trying to climb the cliffs and then falling... The memory sent a jolt through him and his eyes shot open. Instead of familiar steel plates and blue eyes, he saw brown and white and green and blue and a dizzying array of sights that made his stomach churn.
He blinked and carefully turned and looked around, surprised to find his body mostly pain free. Something large was holding him, and rocky. A strange brown pokemon he'd never seen before, with arms and two legs, plodding along the grassy hills. "Wh-?"
A rumbling grunt came from the pokemon carrying him and it stopped, then slowly lowered him to the ground. Steven got his first good look at it. By all appearances, it reminded him of a small mountain. Or a pile of salt cubes? Its body and arms were colored like layers of sediment, and its hands and feet were like white rock.
Two golden eyes peered down at him, twinkling with concern and curiosity. It almost looked like it was giving him a once over. Its gaze locked onto something and Steven realized it was staring at his bloodied hand. With one huge arm, it reached out and ground two of its fingers together.
Steven could only watch, baffled, as white salt-like substance came off its fingers and fell onto his hand. For a split second, it stung, before settling into a soothing buzz. As he watched, the cut slowly began to fade, bit by bit, until only a red gash remained among the blood.
Still stunned, Steven stared up at the rocky titan, his brain finally catching up. He glanced around, and realized that while he could still hear the ocean, he wasn't on the beach any longer. Familiar green hills surrounded him, and a lighthouse in the distance. Back where he'd started, or not far from it.
"You saved me?" The words came out hoarsely from his still parched throat, and he licked his lips.
The pokemon dipped its body in a nod. It rumbled a noise that started low and ended in a high sound, almost like a question. It seemed to be asking about him.
"Am I okay?" Steven looked down at his body. His clothes were shredded, but his numerous cuts and bruises had faded to angry red markings. His head still throbbed, and his chest hurt, but even that pain had subsided substantially. He looked back at the pokemon and smiled wearily. "Yes, actually. Better. A lot better. Thank you."
Instinctively he started to try and get up. His team was waiting for him and probably worried sick—
A firm pressure held him back, his savior using one finger to stop him from sitting up. It gave a disapproving noise, then ever so gently, scooped him back up.
Steven blinked in surprise. "I appreciate what you did, but my team is waiting for me. My family. I need to get home." How could he make this pokemon understand?
It gave another noise like before, a question. Steven frowned. What was it trying to... It made the noise again and pointed off into the distance. What... "Oh. You want to know where I came from?"
Another rumble, like an acknowledgement.
Steven shifted and looked around, until he spotted the distant shape of town he'd been staying at. Alfornada. "That way but—" before he could protest further, the pokemon silenced him with another grunt, and began plodding steadily in the direction of the town.
It dawned on Steven what it planned to do. Walk with him all the way back to town, no doubt. "You really don't have to, I can make it from her—"
Once again, it silenced him, and kept walking. A sigh escaped Steven's lips and he lay back. What else could he do? He was hardly in a position to argue with the pokemon who'd apparently saved him from that beach, healed him somehow and carried him out of the cove.
Abruptly, he barked out a laugh, causing the pokemon to look down at him curiously. "Nothing," Steven said, trying not to chuckle and hurt his battered ribs. "It's just, it's not the first time a pokemon saved me from a situation like this."
Aggron was going to be pissed.
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