I wasn't supposed to be that deep in the forest.
That wasn't a dramatic rule. No one had ever sat me down and said never go past this point. It was more something everyone understood without saying out loud. Paths were fine. Clearings were fine. Anywhere you could still hear the city if you stopped and listened.
This wasn't one of those places.
I realized it a little too late, standing between thicker trees where the light didn't quite reach the ground anymore. The air felt different here cooler, heavier, carrying a sharp scent I didn't recognize at first.
I slowed, frowning.
That smell didn't belong.
I'd been following a sound. Not footsteps, not voices something rougher. Branches snapping too low to the ground. Leaves crushed instead of brushed aside. Whatever had passed through here hadn't been careful.
"Okay," I muttered. "That's not great." I told myself to turn back.I didn't. The smell grew stronger the farther I went, and my unease sharpened into recognition. Bitter. Wrong. Too clean to be natural Poison.
Not the faint kind you found near certain plants, but the kind left behind by a move. Recent. Strong.
My pace quickened.
That was when I heard it.
A sound caught halfway between a hiss and a whine, thin and strained, coming from just beyond a fallen log. It wasn't loud. It wasn't calling for help.
It sounded like something trying very hard not to make noise.
I climbed over the log and stopped short.
The Pokémon lay half-hidden in a shallow dip in the ground, small and curled in on itself. Blue scales dulled with dirt. A jagged mark burned dark along its side, the edges discolored in a way I recognized instantly.
Axew.
My chest tightened not from fear, but from disbelief.
"You don't belong here," I said quietly.
Axew didn't live in Sinnoh. They came from Unova. Deep forests. Protected areas. Dragons didn't just wander this far, this young.
Which meant it hadn't wandered at all.
It was breathing but barely.
The Axew's eye flickered open when I moved, glassy but alert. Its claws scraped weakly against the dirt as it tried to pull itself back, and it hissed a broken, tired sound that never turned into a real threat.
It didn't try to bite me.
That told me everything I needed to know.
"You're poisoned," I said, already thinking ahead. "And it's bad."
I didn't touch it yet. I crouched, scanning the wound the way my father had taught me to. The poison had spread too far. Too fast.
This wasn't something I could fix out here.
The Pokémon Center was too far.
I exhaled once, steadying myself.
"I'm taking you to my father," I said. "He can help."
The Axew didn't understand the words, but its eyes stayed locked on my hands, following every movement. I moved slowly, deliberately.
I took off my jacket and slid it beneath its body, inch by inch. It trembled, but it didn't snap. When I lifted it, it let out a thin, exhausted sound and went slack against the fabric.
It was lighter than it should have been.
That made my jaw clench.
"Stay with me," I said, already turning back the way I'd come. "You're not dying out here."
And then I ran.
Not blindly. Not panicked. Fast, but controlled every step chosen, every branch pushed aside instead of fought against. The forest fought back anyway, but I didn't slow down.
The Axew didn't move.That scared me more than anything else.
"Stay with me," I muttered again, breath burning in my chest. "We're almost there."The moment the house came into view, I shouted.
"Dad!"
My voice ripped through the quiet, raw and desperate. I didn't stop running.
"Dad!"
The door flew open before I reached it.
My father stepped out, already moving, eyes snapping to what I was carrying the instant he saw me. One look was enough."Inside. Now."
He cleared the table in one sharp motion as I stumbled in, hands steady as he took the Axew from me. His movements were fast but controlled, fingers already probing carefully along its side.
"Poison," he said after a second."Strong."
"I know," I replied. "Recent. Not natural."He nodded once, already reaching for a kit. "What did it hit it?"
"I didn't see the Pokémon," I said. "But the wound pattern", eyes narrowing. "This isn't local."
He paused then, really looking at the Pokémon for the first time. The shape. The tusks. The scale pattern."…That's not a Sinnoh species," he said slowly."It's Axew," I said.
He froze for half a second.Then his jaw tightened."Axew," he repeated, quieter now. "Unova.""Which means""Poachers," he finished.He worked faster after that.
The antidote dulled the worst of it, just enough to slow the spread, but my father didn't relax for a second. He cleaned the wound with quick, practiced movements, jaw set tight as the Axew let out a weak, broken sound and twitched against the table.
"Easy," he murmured. "Easy. You're not dying here."
The breathing evened out slightly. Not steady. Not safe. But no longer slipping away.
My father leaned back, exhaling once through his nose.
"This won't hold," he said. "Not for long."
I already knew what he was going to say.
"Pokémon Center," I said.
He nodded immediately.
There was no hesitation after that. No questions about why I'd gone that deep into the forest, or how I'd found a Dragon-type that didn't belong in Sinnoh. Those questions existed I could feel them but they were pushed aside with everything else that didn't matter right now.
He wrapped the Axew properly this time, reinforcing what I'd done with my jacket, then lifted it with a care that told me he understood exactly what this Pokémon was and how rare it was.
"We're going together," he said.
I nodded and grabbed my jacket as we moved.
The trip was short, but it felt longer than it should have. The Axew shifted once in his arms, letting out a faint, strained sound, and my father adjusted his grip without slowing.
The lights of the Pokémon Center cut through the dusk like a promise. Nurse Joy looked up the moment we entered and her expression changed instantly.
"Poisoned," my father said. "Dragon-type. Severe."
That was all it took.
They moved fast. Doors slid open. Equipment was already being wheeled out as the Axew was taken from us, careful hands transferring it onto a gurney.I stood there, chest tight, watching as they disappeared down the hall.
Alive Still alive.For now, that was enough.
The doors slid shut, and the hum of machines filled the space they left behind. And standing there, in the harsh white light of the Pokémon Center, I knew one thing for certain. Whatever happened next, everything had already changed.