Dark Mind

Author's Note: After giving it some thought, I did some heavy editing on the story. I would really appreciate any feedback you can offer on its present incarnation.

Darkness: the absence of light, the lack of sight, obscurity. Darkness is also, for mankind, the lack of knowledge, the absence of enlightenment.

Mind: understanding, recollection. To some, the mind refers to the realm of non-physical existence.

Darkness was all the boy could see and feel, his mind engulfed by it. He had his back pressing down on a layer of grass. His head, with its dark red hair, was resting against the roots of a large tree. He couldn’t make out what kind of tree it was in the dark of night. All he knew was that he’d been lying down like this for a long time. That, and the words Elasel Nevar. Perhaps that was his name? He’d pondered it for a long time while lying on the ground. His eyes had been open the whole time, and still he saw nothing but darkness.

It was apparently a new moon and the stars had conveniently decided not to show themselves, either. To the boy, there was not even the tiniest glimmer of light. Neither was there any sound that could be heard. It was unusual, this silence, considering he was in a forest, which he assumed to be full of Pokemon, no matter the time of day.

He lay on the grassy floor for what felt like an eternity, listening, looking for... something. He wondered if he was dead, and this was some far plane of existence. If so, then religion is full of bull crap, in his mind.

Time continued to pass. Elasel was surprised he felt no hunger, no thirst... No urge to urinate on the nearest tree he could find... other than the one he was using as his pillow, of course. He thought about getting up, but walking around in blindness was never a good idea. That’s why criminals preferred to operate in the night, after all- people feared the dark, and rightfully so.

Darkness was a dangerous thing. It freezes you in place, turns your own mind against you. After all, when people are afraid of the dark, it’s not actually the blackness they fear, but not knowing what lurks within it. That was what kept the boy frozen in place for the longest time. Some subconscious part of his mind told him to not even attempt to move in this pitch black, for fear of attracting the attention of whatever lurked within it.

An undetermined length of time passed, and the boy lay there, eyes wide open, his thoughts racing, struggling to recall life before this blackness. He vaguely remembered that he could stand on two legs, and that he could walk around, going where he pleased. He remembered... something. He remembered bitter defeat, and the drive to seek redemption.

It was that memory that compelled him to place both hands on either side of him, and push himself up, away from the earth’s embrace...

The light blinded him at first, his eyes no longer used to seeing any form of it. He’d woken up to a rising sun, the rays of light hitting him square in the face. He found himself still on the ground, the feel of grass against his back and the root of the tree still behind his head.

It no longer being dark, he pushed off from the ground once more, without hesitation, this time managing to stand. He stretched his arms, stiff from what felt like eternity of stasis. The sound was back now, too. He could hear wild Pokemon all around him. However, he still couldn’t remember anything, including where the bloody hell he was.

He wandered the forest for hours, encountering lots of wild, but thankfully friendly, Buneary and Wurmple. He was rather surprised that he knew the names of the creatures he encountered, including what Type they were and what moves they could learn.

"I can barely remember my name, but I know all of theirs?" he muttered to himself.

When night fell, a thick fog enveloped the forest, and although the mist was white, the boy found himself flinching at the thought of his sight being obscured once more. It was in that thick haze that the boy heard sinister laughter which seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.

The boy was anxious. He kept scanning the surrounding area as he pressed his back against the trunk of a tall tree. Whatever threat came to him, he was defenseless right now, save for his fists. He was still stiff from his pseudo paralysis earlier, however, and he worried he wouldn’t be able to hit hard enough.

Then, he felt two hands grasp his shoulders from behind. He looked to find two disembodied, purple hands clutching each shoulder. He knew what it was. A Haunter, come to make mischief on unsuspecting travelers. In this case, he was the unsuspecting traveler. He felt the Ghost Pokemon lick his left cheek. He turned and found himself face-to-face with his assailant.

However, seconds later, a wave of black energy sliced the Haunter in half. The boy closed his eyes, bracing for impact.

After a while, the boy hesitantly opened his left eye to see if he was dead. He found himself alone in the middle of the mist. He looked left and right before finally feeling something grasping at his leg. He looked down to find the Haunter, three quarters of its face split horizontally, held together by the last quarter.
Impulsively, the boy kicked it, expecting it to pass right through. He was surprised when the Haunter was knocked away by his kick, landing on a large rock before dissipating a few seconds later. The boy stared as the last wisps of ghostly gas evaporated.

He’d killed a Ghost Pokemon with a kick. However, he couldn’t ponder the matter for long as a voice called out to him from above.

“Are you well, my master? I see you’re awake.”

He looked up to see a black bird peering down at him. Its beak was closed as it spoke.

“Master?” he asked, “Did you just call me your master?”

“It’s about time you woke up,” it answered. “You were sleeping like a log before I left to gather food.”
To emphasize his point, the Murkrow dropped a few Oran Berries to the boy, who picked them up easily. The boy stared at the Darkness Pokemon for close to a minute, saying nothing. The bird felt familiar to him, somehow. Perhaps this Pokemon truly was his?

As the boy took a bite out of an Oran Berry, he said, “My name’s Elasel Nevar. I don’t believe there’s any need for you to call me your master, seeing how you saved my life... Nyx.”

The bird’s expression brightened when his master seemed to remember him, name included, and replied, “As you wish, Elasel.”